Category: Recipes
Posted by Tricia at 2:55 pm
Last night a few members of our church Home Group weren’t able to make it for our gathering - and at first everyone was a little disappointed. But there were certainly plenty of people here, and everyone quickly settled in to visiting and eating, and the soup was dished up to rave reviews. By the time supper had ended (and several guests had enjoyed hearty second bowls of the aforementioned, beloved soup), we realized that had each and every person actually come to supper, as we’d originally expected, we certainly would have RUN OUT OF FOOD!! Guess that new, bigger crockpot of mine didn’t make quite as much soup as I thought it should have.
My extended family who frequent my blog will gasp at this admission on my part, because while I have many faults, not preparing enough food for a crowd is not one of them. I usually overdo! But, it is good for my pride to realize I don’t always have it all together!
As it was, we were grateful for Providence and I made a mental note to make at least 50% more soup next time this crowd comes for dinner! Here is the recipe I stole, and modified to my own taste. It was really quite delicious, and very simple to make - no roux or anything to mess with. I tripled the amounts for our group, substituted in pork loin for half the sausage meat, took out the celery (husband can’t stand the stuff) and lowered the ratio of kidney beans significantly. Since our group included a very large amount of children, I did put out that bowl of pasta as was suggested, but it was hardly touched, because, did I forget to mention?? EVERYONE JUST LOVED THIS SOUP (even and especially the children!)! So, today I used the leftover pasta to make a couple meals of Macaroni and Cheese with Ham.
And the very little bit of that soup that was leftover will go to school with Abigail tomorrow, happily ensconced in her silver thermos, to be eaten at lunchtime. For those of you who don’t realize the significance of this, I am happy to report that as of tomorrow, Covenant starts school on their own property for the very first time. For the last five years the school has leased space from a very kind, but very Kosher Synagogue. So meat of any kind on campus was an absolute no-no. But not anymore! My little girl will scoop up her meaty soup tomorrow with great rejoicing!
Posted by Tricia at 9:01 pm
Jay and I love to eat homemade soup, and I enjoy making it very much (in fact I can hardly stomach the stuff in a can anymore, soup snob that I have become!). But our children usually eat it only because they know they are supposed so, not because they like it. Nevertheless, I press on, trying out new recipes on them. For years I have made soup after soup for them, insisted they eat at least one meal of each recipe, and hoped perhaps they’d develop a taste for it.
Tonight, at long last, I felt greatly rewarded for my efforts by the fact that all of them (well, all except Josiah, who let’s face it, won’t eat much of anything) really, really liked it!!! Hooray!
And so, I must write down the recipe, since all I did was make it up as I went along. I was inspired by Rachel, who posted a recipe for a chowder last week. Here’s my version (I just used what I had on hand, and amounts are somewhat approximate!):
1 onion, chopped
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 lb carrots, sliced
4 Tbs flour
2 cups homemade turkey broth
3/4 cup white wine
2 cans cream style corn, DO NOT DRAIN
1 lb frozen package corn, steamed in the microwave
1 can original Rotel, DO NOT DRAIN
chopped meat and cooking juices from oven-baking three chicken breasts with skin/bones
thyme, sage, salt, pepper, garlic, basil, all to taste
2 cups skim milk
3/4 sour cream
Dump onion, bacon, and carrot into a large Dutch oven and stir till onion and carrot are soft, and bacon is cooked. Add flour, stirring to make a roux of sorts. Add the rest of the ingredients up to and including spices. Bring to a soft boil, cooking till soup is thickened, just a few minutes. Add milk and sour cream, stir till heated, and serve.
Posted by Tricia at 6:04 pm
I have used the same pizza dough recipe for years, discovered in the recipe book which accompanied my breadmaker, a sweet gift from Jay during one of our earliest Christmases together. While I have made this recipe many times, last night was the first time I included fresh minced garlic as a topping, and IMHO this simple addition put this humble, home-made pizza over the top. So, so yummy. I am sitting here gobbling a leftover piece that tastes delicious after just a short zap in the microwave.
If you have a breadmaker, and five minutes to spare, you too can throw this dough recipe together, turn on the machine, and go get the kids from afternoon carpool. Or spend a little over an hour folding laundry or whatever. At any rate, once this dough is mixed and has risen, get ready to make yourself a couple of delicious pizzas. Here’s the recipe:
1 cup plus 2 Tbs water (I often use some skim milk for part of the liquid)
2 Tbs olive or vegetable oil
3 cups flour
3 Tbs grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
Select Dough/Manual cycle.
Move oven rack to lowest position. Grease 2 cookie sheets. Divide dough in half, patting each half into a 12 inch circle on cookie sheet with floured fingers. Add pizza toppings…
I drizzle virgin olive oil around the edge of the crust and rub it in a little. Then I spoon a bit of tomato sauce all over. Add toppings - don’t forget the fresh minced garlic!! - and finish it off with your favorite combination of pizza cheeses: mozzarella, parmesan, romano, feta??
Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes till crust is light brown and cheese is melty and golden.
ENJOY!!
Posted by Tricia at 9:47 pm
Given how much I love to cook, you might think I would post more recipes than I do. But I haven’t made the time. In an effort to begin to remedy this, I wanted to share a recipe I used to make a wonderful, EASY peach cobbler for our dessert this evening. It is a Southern Living recipe, from the June, 1997 issue.
(Oh, by way of wandering aside - if you’re wondering whether you ought to keep those old magazine issues, let me help you remove some of the clutter from your house. You can access virtually every article, recipe, etc they’ve published in their magazine for the last several years on their website.)
This particular recipe calls for fresh peaches. I used some frozen peaches that I had sliced and frozen last summer (gulp!) after our peach-picking fieldtrip. Before freezing, I sprinkled them with Fruit Fresh, and it did prevent browning, etc. They worked perfectly in the recipe. One other change I made was to add the cinnamon, as well as some nutmeg to the boiling peach mixture before pouring it over the batter in the pan.
Enjoy!!
Easy Peach Cobbler
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
4 cups fresh peach slices
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)
Melt butter in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish.Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over butter (do not stir).
Bring remaining 1 cup sugar, peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly; pour over batter (do not stir). Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.
Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve cobbler warm or cool.
Yield: 10 servings
Note: we ate ours warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! Yum!
Posted by Tricia at 7:24 pm
Since I have caught Baby Josiah’s cold, I felt the need for some soothing homemade soup today. I generally love making and eating soup. Jay enjoys the eating part. The children love to join in the making part, but not the eating part so much. I continue in my motherly efforts to introduce them to many different types of homemades soups, in hopes that someday they may gain an appreciation for soup as a wholesome and comforting meall!!
The following recipe is a combination of an online recipe I found, along with some modifications I made to suit my purposes. The ingredients needed for this dish are pretty inexpensive, especially if you can buy your whole chicken on a good sale. Preparation was easy, if a little time-consuming, and the results were delicious, and (miraculously!) enjoyed by all five members of our family who eat at table.
Garlic Chicken Soup
1 whole chicken
1 1/2 cups baby carrots
2 stalks celery
1 large onion
2 heads (not cloves, but the entire heads) of garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
3 Tbs dried parsely
salt/pepper to taste
4-6 small potatoes, washed and diced (not peeled) - I used Gold Petites
4 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
3/4 cup white wine
Rinse chicken and discard or keep giblets, depending on if you like them for flavor. In food processor, mince: carrots, celery and onion. (I did them separately but I’m guessing you could combine them if you have room in your chopper.) Separate the cloves of garlic, but do not peel them. Put all this into a large stockpot and fill with water to cover all. Add seasonings.
Boil/simmer for about 2 hours, loosely covered, until broth is thick and rich, and chicken is cooked through and very tender (leg should loosen from body when you attempt to grab at it with tongs). Remove chicken for deboning.
Pour broth through a colander or sieve, reserving garlic cloves for use in soup. I used a colander with holes large enough that some of the minced vegetable pieces ended up in the final broth. I think it added something. After broth has sat for awhile, skim fat from top. Reserve broth till needed.
Into same pot (don’t wash it yet, folks!) put potatoes with water to cover. Boil till tender.
While potatoes are boiling, prep your chicken and your garlic: Carefully debone entire chicken, shredding and reserving meat. Extract pulp from garlic cloves (I just squeezed each clove, and the garlic inside popped out!).
Drain finished potatoes. Using SAME stockpot still, add butter and when it’s melted add your mushy garlic cloves. Add flour to this, whisking all to smooth the mixure. Add the white wine, keep whisking. Add broth back to pot, with chicken, and vegetables. Note: I didn’t end up using ALL the chicken meat, but kept back about 1 1/2 cups to make chicken salad. It was moist, flavorful chicken!
Bring soup to a low boil and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve and enjoy!!
Posted by Tricia at 7:07 pm
Someone recently tried to convince me that washing an orange or clementine before peeling it to eat was akin to washing a banana peel before eating the banana. I personally do not wash my banana peel. But everyone is different.
So I ask you:
1. How many of you readers (and Lurkers, I mean you too!!) wash the orange or clementine or grapefruit (or whatever your choice citrus fruit happens to be) prior to eating that fruit, and how many of you do not?
2. And, are there any banana peel-washers out there?
Posted by Tricia at 2:45 pm
I made this recipe (courtesy of Steph - thank you!) Friday night for a get-together with friends. Figured they might come in handy to someone who reads this if you have any people in your life who cannot eat some of the ingredients listed above. I made the bar variation as it is so much less time consuming. They were delicious, and did not at all taste like they were “missing” something!! Enjoy!
1 cup margarine (use Fleichmann’s Unsalted for a nondairy margarine)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs water
2 Tbs oil
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12oz chocolate chips (use Bakers Chocolate Chunks - they’re made without milk)
Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, cream margarine and sugars together. Add next 4 ingredients and beat well, until creamy. In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt and add gradually to the large bowl. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for approximately 8 minutes.
Bar Cookie Variation: In a greased 9X13 pan, spread dough and bake at 375 for approximately 15 minutes, till golden brown, and till a toothpick/tester poked into the middle of the pan comes out clean.
Posted by Jay at 5:39 pm
Over the past 2.5 years, I’ve been perfecting a salsa recipe. My first attempts ended up with the name Jay’s Chop Chop Salsa due to my efforts to create a tasty salsa that didn’t involve actual cooking. A second iteration of that salsa is described in Salsa, Round II. A later evolution was called Jay’s Green Salsa due to the stunning amount of cilantro which turned the tomato base a distinct green color.
My latest modifications have resulted in what I consider an excellent salsa that is somewhat lacking in its, ah, visual aesthetic appeal. Of the various names that came to mind, Jay’s Blender Salsa seemed the best alternative given the way it looks. But oh does it taste delightful! I’m using smaller bunches of cilantro and cutting off more of the stems, thus the color is a rather ambiguous red-green mishmash. Here’s the recipe.
Jay’s Blender Salsa
1 28 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 tablespoon of granulated garlic
1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
2 medium-sized jalapenos
1.5 tablespoons of olive oil
2 small bunches of cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
Cook jalapeno(s) in boiling water until tender, then drain. Remove seeds for more mild heat. Add all the ingredients but the cilantro in a blender and puree to a smooth consistency. Cut stems off the cilantro below the leaves. Add cilantro and blend to desired consistency.
Note: If you use “no salt added” tomatoes, you may need to add more salt.
Posted by Tricia at 10:48 pm
We had some family over to eat this past Tuesday evening. Though we were still in a rather unsettled state due to unpacking and laundry from our vacation, I felt compelled to try out a new recipe for our company, and so I hunted through my various cookbooks for something enticing. I hit upon what I was looking for in Our Best Five-Star Recipes From Southern Living that my sis-in-law gave me a few years ago (thanks, Jennifer!). Everyone (including me!) loved the end result so much and it was so different from anything I’ve prepared in the past, that I wanted to share it with you. Maybe someone else will be able to enjoy it too before this wonderful grilling weather is gone. Ok, here’s the recipe:
Chicken Bundles
6 whole chicken breasts, skinned and boned
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
10 green onions, sliced
12 slices bacon
Vegetable Cooking Spray
Hot Cooked Rice
(I’m going to slightly paraphrase the directions for my own purposes!)
Pound chicken to 1/4″ thickness and place in a large shallow baking dish. Combine molasses and next 6 ingredients; stir well. Pour over chicken; cover and marinate in fridge 8 hours, turning chicken occasionally.
Melt butter in large skillet; add mushrooms and next 3 ingredients. Cook over med-high heat until liquid evaporates and veggies are tender, stirring often.
Remove chicken from baking dish, reserving marinade. Pour marinade into a small saucepan, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside. For each chicken bundle, place 2 slices bacon in a crisscross pattern on a flat surface. Place 1 chicken breast in center of bacon. Top with 3 tablespoons mushroom mixture. Fold sides and ends of chicken over mushroom mixture to make a square-shaped pouch. Pull bacon around chicken, and tie ends of bacon together; secure with wooden picks.
Coat grill with cooking spray. Place chicken bundles on grill, tied side up; grill, covered with grill lid, over low coals 30 to 45 minutes or until done, turning and basting with reserved marinade every 15 minutes. Remove wooden picks. Serve over hot cooked rice, if desired. Yield: 6 servings.
Tricia’s Notes:
IMHO, this recipe is too salty, and I say this having used low sodium soy sauce. Next time I make it, I would plan to still use the liter soy sauce, and also cut the amount of soy in the marinade, maybe as much as half. It’s just not needed given the great amount of flavor, and the additional saltiness the bacon adds. If you need to make up some of the liquid from leaving out the soy, throw in some wine for good measure!
Instead of green onions, I used garlic chives from my garden which worked well too. However, they might not be quite as strong tasting as the onions the recipe called for.
I added some white wine into my mushroom mixture while sauteeing. Just for fun!
Regarding the assembling of the bundles: I found that using a toothpick or two to secure the chicken BEFORE I tied the bacon around the sides was actually helpful. There were a couple more toothpicks in my bundles, but they stayed together beautifully.
Posted by Jay at 5:28 pm
Some time ago, I posted an entry regarding my attempts at creating a salsa recipe (emphasis on “attempts”). Since then, I’ve had some real success, based largely on a contribution via a comment to one of those previous entries. Here’s where I’m at…
Ingredients
1 28 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 tablespoon of granulated garlic
1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1-2 jalapenos
1 1/2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
1 1/2 bunches of cilantro
1 lime (use the juice only)
Cook jalapeno(s) in boiling water until tender (perhaps 2 minutes with a steady boil), then drain. Use 1 small jalapeno with the seeds removed for mild heat, 2 whole jalapenos for intense heat. Add all the ingredients but the cilantro in a food processor and process to smooth consistency. Add cilantro and process to desired consistency.
Note: If you use “no salt added” tomatoes, you may need to add more salt.
Posted by Jay at 10:14 pm
After speaking with a cook from Mexico, I made a couple changes to my recipe. Maria Teresa claimed that cumin, for all its popularity in the U.S. when preparing Mexican dishes, was rarely used in Mexico. So I dropped the cumin. She also recommended fresh tomatillos. Now, at that point, we are talking about a completely different salsa, but I decided to see what it was like.
The batch I just made with this recipe is cooling, but the initial taste was mediocre at best. I may just be a bit partial to red tomatoes, but we’ll have to wait until it cools to give it a fair judgment. I like the green salsa at Luna de Noche, but I’m not convinced its green on account of tomatillos. Anyway, here’s the recipe. The next batch will use fresh red tomatoes.
Jay’s Chop Chop Salsa
Heat index
Whole jalapeno including seeds and hot chili pepper = very hot
Half of jalapeno without the seeds and mild chili pepper = mildly warm
Ingredients
Important: use fresh ingredients!
2 lbs of small green tomatillos
1 diced large jalapeno pepper
1 diced large green chili pepper
1/3 cup diced yellow onion
1 lime
1 crushed garlic clove
2/3 cup diced cilantro
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
Directions
Husk and wash the tomatillos. Put and put them in boiling water for 2 or 3 minutes. Put the tomatillo, garlic, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Cut the lime in half and squeeze both halves into the processor. Process thoroughly. Add the jalapeno, chili pepper, onion, and cilantro. Process until the consistency looks appetizing. Place in covered container and chill. A couple of hours of chilling will help the flavors to develop. Serve with El Milagro thin corn tortilla chips.
Posted by Jay at 7:03 pm
After nearly 10 years of being in Texas post-college (I’m not factoring in the college years since I mainly ate at Blimpie and Taco Bell), I still hadn’t found a store bought salsa that I liked. Numerous restaurants serve up a tasty offering (I particularly like Luna de Noche’s… anyone have their recipe?), but the countless brands sold in grocery stores just haven’t worked for me.
So… I’ve been working on my own recipe. The third generation version is tasty, so I thought I would go ahead and post it. The “chop chop” in the recipe name refers to the manual dicing with a knife and processing in a food processor. Those are the two main activities involved in the preparation, which was one of my main concerns in creating the recipe. That’s also why I’m not using fresh tomatoes… you’d have to boil them or something and remove the skins. Too much work!
Jay’s Chop Chop Salsa
24 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 diced fresh jalapeno (remove the seeds for more mild taste)
1 diced fresh green chili pepper (hot or mild to taste)
1/3 cup diced fresh onion
1 lime
2 crushed fresh garlic cloves
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. sugar
Put the tomato, garlic, salt, cumin, and sugar in a food processor. Cut the lime in half and squeeze both halves into the processor. Process thoroughly. Add the jalapeno, chili pepper, onion, and cilantro. Process until the consistency looks appetizing. Place in covered container and chill. A couple of hours of chilling will help the flavors to develop. Serve with your favorite thin corn tortilla chips… or, if you want to use the best chip in the world, go with El Milagro.
