Easy Peasy Pasta

I like to have "pantry dinners" in my bag of tricks for when I need something easy for dinner.

My friend "pinned" this chicken recipe and I thought I would give it a try.

A quick note on Pinterest ~ I don't get it.  I mean I understand the concept, but whenever I try and find something I just get 500 "pins" of the same thing.  When I click on a "pin" to get more info I'm inevitably sent to another board with nothing more than the same pic and link to another board.  Ugh

Anyhoo... my friend's pin showed up facebook, I clicked and found this easy and surprisingly tasty recipe. If you need an easy meal that is made with stuff you probably you hand give this bad boy a try

Chicken Ala Tiffani (aka Italian Chicken)

4 Chicken Breasts

8 oz lite Cream Cheese

1 can Fat Free Cream of Chicken Soup

1 packet of Italian Dressing Mix

12 oz Whole Grain Pasta

Now the original "pin" had this as a crockpot recipe and while it worked okay, I think if you sauteed the chicken in some garlic and EVOO it would add some nice additional flavor (if veggies are your thing, throw in a couple of those as well)

For the crockpot ~ combine the first 4 ingreds in the crockpot and cook on low for 4 hours and then serve over cooked pasta.

Now while this isn't going to win you Top Chef, it was tasty enough to get the thumbs up from the kiddos so that is "winner" in my book.

T-day countdown

So Thanksgiving is just around the corner. 

Even though we will have all ten of the usual suspects for dinner, I'm not feeling too stressed

(at least right now) 

Last night we bought our turkey, all 26 pounds and now I'm waiting for it to thaw. 

Now turkey is pretty simple to prepare, but I truly believe brining make all the difference. 

Such a simple step, but if you are looking for a really juicy bird it is an absolute must.

Basic Turkey Brine

• 3 gallons cold water
• 1 1/2 cup salt

Soak for 24 hours

This one also looks pretty good.  I may just have to try it. You gotta love Alton Brown.

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

My only additional advice for turkey brining is be careful where you leave your turkey.  A couple years ago my turkey wouldn't fit in the fridge so I left the bucket containing the turkey on the back steps.  I thought I had secured the lid, but apparently that was not the case. When I went out to get the turkey at  O' dark hundred I noticed some critters had started their Thanksgiving early. Yeah, not good.  Lesson learned, the garage is a much safer place.

:0)

Chicken and Dumplings

Today was a GORGEOUS Autumn day here in the Pacific Northwest. It was also the perfect day for a little comfort food.
I made Chicken and Dumplings.
This was something that we never ate growing up, but when I saw Rachel Ray whip it on 30 meals I thought "how hard can it be?" Super easy is the answer and now it makes it way into the rotation every now and then.
If you watch Rachel Ray you know most of her start off with onion, celery and carrots. This is no exception.

Chop and drop your veggies in a little EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)and saute' until soft. Add a little salt, pepper and maybe some poultry seasoning if you have it on hand.

Deglaze the pot with some chicken stock (I used a box and half which I think is about a quart) and add chicken breasts. Simmer for about 20 minutes, shred meat and return to pot.

In another small bowl mix together flour, baking powder, salt and milk. When I have it, I chop up parsley and throw that in too. It adds a nice flavor and some much needed color. Once it is all mixed, dip your spoon in the broth before scooping the batter. This will help it slide right off. When all the batter is in the broth close the lid, set the timer for 10 and don't peek. I mean it, DO NOT peek!! You need the steam to cook the dumplings. If I can resist the urge to peek so can you.

After the timer goes off, remove lid and admire fluffy goodness. Scoop into your favorite bow and voila dinner is served.
Enjoy
:0)

Chicken and Dumplings
2T EVOO
2 Carrots, 2 ribs celery, 1 med onion all diced
Season to taste ~ salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, whatever you like
1 Qt or so of Chicken Stock
2-4 Chicken breasts depending on how big they are or how much you like chicken
Dumplings
1 C four
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 milk
small handful of parsley fresh or dried

Fondue, who knew?

Every year after our Christmas party, my sister-in-law sit down and do a "what worked, what didn't" list. I have them for almost all the parties we have done and it is so helpful when planning for the following year. One of the items that we go back and forth on is the cheese plate. Part of us feels we should have it, part of us feel it is a time consuming item that no one really eats. I have to admit I like a little cheese when I'm at a party, so on the fence I sit.

As we discussed the cheese yet again, we had a stroke of genius. Fondue. Who does not love a good gooey fondue and since we have already eliminated the baked brie that congeals 5 minutes after you put it on the table we felt this was a winning option.

The next hurdle was 'what do we put it in'? Hmmm, due to the furniture in my dining room the table has to stay in the middle of the room. In years past we had pushed it up against the wall so that made items requiring plugs (like crock pots) a piece of cake. Table in the middle of the room and long cords (especially when folks have been getting their festive on) is just tragedy waiting to happen. The solution, an old fashion Sterno fondue pot. I had been looking on line and decided I wanted to get the Wilton fondue set. It seemed to be just the right size and as a bonus it was tea light powered, so no Sterno. I would have purchased it but it was $20 buck shipping and frankly I'm just too cheap. I'm glad I resisted because the other day while at Goodwill, I found the exact same set unopened for $5. Score!! So tonight we decided to test it out.

I used a the fondue recipe below and learned a few things:

• Don't use preshredded cheese. They treat is with some kind of coating to keep it from sticking and it totally throws off the "meltiness" of the cheese


• Use a beer you would actually drink. Joj brought home some Redhook, yuck, and since the flavor intensifies when it cooks it make the fondue really "beery". For us, a nice blonde beer would probably be a better choice.


• 3 cloves of garlic is a lot.

Also, as far as the items to dip, you don't need a lot. I cut up a large apple, 4 thick slices of crusty bread, 1 small head of broccoli, 2 chicken tenders, and a few slices if summer sausage for the 4 of us. Half way through we were stuffed. It didn't seem like that much food, but apparently if you eat slowly enough you fill up on a lot less. Now I know the whole cheese and beer thing was isn't exactly "diet friendly" but we really didn't make much of a dent in the cheese either. So what is the point??? Fondue can be a relatively light meal. Who knew?

Cheesy Beer Fondue

2 cups beer (I used a pale ale Henry's)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons ground dry mustard
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed (3 cloves was pretty garlicly)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese
Combine first 4 ingreds and half of the flour
Toss rest of the flour with the cheese
Once beer mixture is boiling, add cheese and melt (add a couple of drops of lemon juice if cheese is too clumpy)
Then dip all kinds of yummy stuff like bread, apples, veggies, etc.
Enjoy

Soup's On

Last night I had the DND boys over (well, at least two of them) and I decided to try Italian Stracciatella with Mini Meatballs, Tortellini and Baby Spinach. I've recently discovered the Bitchen Kitchen and this was from Nadia's last episode. I wish I would of had the time to make the stock myself, but I used the "fancy boxed stuff" from costco and it seemed to work just fine (although I think the homemade stuff would have a deeper flavor, but that is just me) I would also bump up the amount of stock to 8 cups (with only 6 C, the "stuff" to liquid ratio was a bit off)

Anyhoo, this soup could not be any more simple and with a little prep (make the meatballs ahead of time and throw them in the freezer) could totally become a "go to" from the pantry meal. With the fall weather now upon us (in W. WA that mean, rain, rain and more rain) a nice bowl of soup can really hit the spot. I served it up with some good old roasted garlic bread for costco (aka crack) and it made a nice filling but not to heavy meal.

Enjoy

Winner, winner ~ Chicken Dinner

I like to cook.
I also believe that there are some things you should know how to make. One of those things is fried chicken. Its seems like this is just one of those "basics" that no one makes any more.
I'm always a little intimidated by fried foods. I'm not a fan of the huge mess it makes and let's face it, there are healthier methods of cooking. However, I like to cook homey food and this seems to fit the bill. My dad and I did a google search for those "11 herbs and spices" and while we found them, I was out of a few of them. Oh well. I'm super happy with how it turned out. I just need to get a good thermometer to keep an eye on my oil temp, but I'm looking forward to trying this again.
:0)

Little Chicken in the Woods

I hope everyone had a nice and enjoyable weekend. We spend the second to last weekend of the summer at our cabin. We have been up a few times this summer and every time has been fun. The best part about our cabin is that our property is large for folks to camp and bring trailers, but there is a cabin which means a real bathroom and kitchen.
The past couple trips we have had folks bring some food and have done some community meals. The kitchen is small and we always seemed to be tripping over the collections of coolers that tend to make their way in. This time, we did all community food. I did the shopping and kept the meals pretty simple. To save money I did some shopping from my freezer and brought up a couple of chickens. I thought it would be fun to try "Beer Butt Chicken" and I'm glad I did. It was soooooo easy (you know me I'm all about the easy) and it was soooo good as well.


Seriously all you do is season the bird (I think our birds were around 4 lb) with your favorite seasoning (I used Old Bay because that is all we had up there, but anything would work. I wanted Johnny Salt, but we didn't have)
Place the chicken upright on a can of open beer (all we had was Keystone so a quality beer isn't necessary) and roast for an hour at 400. We had two birds and one was a little bigger than the other. The larger one could have gone longer, but we just chopped it up and threw it back on the grill. Anyhoo, the chicken was crispy on the outside and the meat was super moist. I will totally make this again and if you need a cheap and easy dinner I recommend you give it a try.

Two Trick Pony

I feel like a two trick pony. I have two dishes that I can pull out and "wow" folks with. I need more. Now I can make good, basic, classic dishes, but meatloaf, although good, is far from "impressive".
When I want to "wow" I either bust out the General Tso's Chicken or my Beef and Chicken Satay. Both dishes look impressive and all fancy, and they could not be easier (I'm all about easy)
I need more dishes that can feed a crowd and look good doing it. Do you have a "wow" dish standby?? If you do, can you share it with me? Pretty please??
Extra bonus points if it a dish that won't break the bank.
Moving out of the kitchen...(at least for a while)

Today is SUNNY!!!! It is a spring tease kind of day. The kids are at BaChan's house so it is just Joj and I and I'm so temped to fight the crowds at Home Depot. I'm thinking the "dead" theme I have on my front porch isn't workin' for me anymore. I have some spring bulbs that I'm forcing (aka didn't get into the ground in time) in the garage that I would like to get into some pots and of course the obligatory pansies. I love the sun. When I was in college at CWU it was always sunny. Even in the winter. Blue skies everyday. If Boeing ever opens an office in Eburg, I'm so there. Blue skies and supermother burgers at the TAV, pure heaven.

One last note, before I'm off to be productive (in theory) The key lime pie I posted yesterday had some drawbacks. While the taste was good, the crust was not. I would suggest using a different crust recipe. This one was dry and not sweet enough. This surprised me since I doubled the sugar and butter it called for. Hmmmmm.
Anyway, I hope it is sunny where you are.
:0) Laurie

Easy Peasy Penne Carbonara

So I made this a couple of weeks ago for Joj and his friends. It was really good and the best part it was SUPER easy. Now for those who have been reading the blog for a while (hello to all 5 of you) you know I'm all about easy. This dish easily fits into that category and as an extra bonus, it can most likely be pulled out of the pantry. Combined with about 20 minutes of work, this is a perfect midweek dindin. Another plus, and maybe it is just me, but I love leftover pasta for breakfast and this seems to make a ton so there should be leftovers.

Easy Peasy Penne Carbonara
4 slices of bacon cut up
a couple cloves of garlic minced
some chopped onion (I would say 1/2 to a whole small yellow)
1 box (1 lb) of penne pasta (I used the whole grain stuff and it tastes fine, but it is definitely more filling)
1/4 cream (you could probably use milk, but I haven't tried it)
2 egg yolks
1/2 C Parmesan
While the pasta cooks, cook bacon and don't drain the fat (if you want, you can drain off a little, but not all)
Saute the garlic and onions. If you want to add a couple hand full of chopped mushrooms and olives now would be the time to add them.
Remove sauteed stuff and set aside.
In a bowl whisk the egg yolks and cream together really well.
Once the pasta is drained return to cooking pot and pour remaining bacon fat in and toss.
While the pasta is still hot, pour the egg mixture in and mix well. The heat of the pasta will cook the egg.
Add the bacon and other sauteed stuff and toss again.
Lastly, pour in the cheese and give it one last stir.
Plate the pasta and sprinkle a little more parm on top and some black pepper.
Yummy
This makes enough for 8 decent "sides" or 4 decent "mains".
Now this isn't a super rich and gooey sauce, so you feel free to add some additional cheese if needed.
Enjoy!!