Chicken Piccata Pasta Toss

This is a Rachael Ray recipe, from her "30 Minute Meals 2" book. When 30 Minute Meals first aired on Food Network, I was all over it. Loved the concept! However, actually making the meals in 30 minutes was impossible. Even before the kids were born I'd spend up to an hour making a supposed 30 minute meal. Boo. I'm not really a fan anymore, but this recipe seems to be a crowd-pleaser. Don't worry, you won't be slaving away in the kitchen for an hour making this!

Serves 4

1 lb. penne rigate pasta, cooked al dente
2 tbls. olive oil
1 1/4 lbs. chicken tenders cut into 1-inch pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tbls butter
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium shallots, chopped
2 tbls. flour
1/2 c white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
1 c chicken broth or stock
3 tbls. capers, drained
1/2 c chopped flat-leaf parsely
chopped/snipped chives, for garnish

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tbls olive oil and the chicken to the pan. Season with salt and pepper, and brown until lightly golden all over, 5-6 minutes. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside. Reduce skillet heat to medium, add another tbls olive oil and 1 tbls butter. Add the garlic and shallots; saute 3 minutes. Whisk in flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in wine and reduce liquid, about 1 minute. Whisk lemon juice and broth into sauce. Stir in capers and parsley . When sauce comes to a bubble, add remaining butter to give sauce a little shine. Put chicken back in the pan and heat through a minute or two. Toss hot pasta with chicken and sauce. Adjust seasonings as needed, sprinkle with chives to serve.

I am horrible about buying herbs, so the dish is parsley-less...and chive-less for that matter.

I have also baked up the chicken in the oven before making the sauce. Meh. You don't get the yummy chicken flavor in the sauce when you do this, since there's nothing to deglaze in the pan.

I used chicken breast halves as opposed to tenders. You could also cook the breast halves (or tenders) whole. I do recommend using a pasta with lines, however, as the sauce clings to the pasta better.

Rather have the wine in your glass than in your dish? You can use 1/2 c chicken stock instead. However, every time I've used stock instead the sauce didn't thicken up like it did when I use wine.

The capers really add a wonderful flavor to the sauce...you know how sometimes you can fudge your way through a recipe if you don't have 1 of the ingredients? Capers really aren't one of those ingredients you can omit, I think.

All-American Chili Chowder

The calendar says chili and soup weather is here!!! While the last couple days have been soup and chili weather, we're expected to have warmer weather again by this weekend. Sigh. This is from All You Magazine from a while back. All this time I didn't realize it's supposed to be a chowder.

Serves 12 (yep! It freezes well so I like to make a full batch and freeze the rest for another day.)

2 Tblsp olive oil
3 medium-size onions, diced
2 lbs. lean ground turkey
2 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes
2 15 1/2 oz, cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 28 oz. can baked beans
8 oz. tomato sauce
4 c frozen corn, thawed
1/4 c chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
tortilla chips, optional

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook onions for 10 mins., stirring occasionally, until nicely browned. Crumble in turkey, cook 8-10 mins till turkey cooks through.

Place turkey mixture in a 6 qt. slow coooker. Stir in diced tomatoes, kidney beans, baked beans, tomato sauce, corn, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook 4 hours on high or 7 hours on low. Serve with tortilla chips, if desired.

All this food doesn't fit in my slow cooker. I never paid attention to how big mine is until I made this for the first time. I now know I have a 4 quart slow cooker. If I were to halve the recipe I can throw it in my slow cooker, but for a full batch I cook it on the stovetop for a few hours over low heat, stirring occasionally.

This time I used 2 pretty good size onions instead of the 3 called for. I used 3 pounds of meat, an extra 15 oz. can of kidney beans, and a lot more than 4 cups of corn (I admit I didn't measure them), but kept the amount of the remaining ingedients the same. Also, I threw the salt, pepper, and chile powder in when the meat was browning up instead of later. I also added about a tablespoon of ancho chile powder at the very end, which is a very mild chile.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

I've always loved soups. Oddly enough, chicken noodle soup was never at the top of my "fave soups" list until I tasted this one. It was originally my sister's recipe. I've tinkered with it a bit to get this version. Soups can get away with being pretty loosey-goosey with amounts, so these are approximate.

1/2 onion, chopped (or 1 small)
1 clove garlic, finely minced
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced

Saute the above in some olive oil. Use enough to cover the bottom of the pan and then a bit more...you'll be making a roux in a bit. You can also add in any other fresh veggies you'd like, adjusting the amount of oil needed. My sister usually adds in fresh zucchini, and she also uses more garlic. You can also season the veggies with some black pepper. When all the veggies are soft, sprinkle in some flour. I usually use a heaping tablespoon...you really don't need a bunch of flour, you want the roux base to just come together...the remaining ingredients will help thicken things up. Then pour in 1 quart of chicken stock and about a pound of cooked and shredded/cubed chicken. I generally use poached chicken breast. I did not save the poaching water but if I had I would have used it. If you want to add any frozen veggies this is the time to add that as well...I added peas this time around. Stir up and let the soup come up to a boil. When it does, turn off the stove. Add about 8 oz. of noodles...egg noodles are probably best, but anything that's not a long noodle like spaghetti will work. Stir in about 1/2 c of heavy cream. Once the cream has distributed throughout the soup take the soup pot completely off the heat and cover. The noodles will cook up just fine. In fact, I usually find that the noodles absorb too much water, and I end up adding more chicken stock after the soup has cooled. Or you can saute the noodles up separately in a bit of oil before adding them to the soup to help curb the water absorption...but sometimes the soup gets too greasy if too much oil clings to the noodles when you add them to the soup.

My sister uses more flour in the beginning to make the roux and less heavy cream. Her soup comes out a bit more stew-y.

All soups freeze well, but this one seems to freeze exceptionally well. It doesn't get overly watery like some thawed soups do, so I always cook up at least a double batch and freeze half of it for later.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

This is my MIL's recipe, and it really is awesome! This makes a side dish, sized-dish,(say that 10 times fast) but I almost always double it to fill a 9 x 13 pan as a main dish. You can add anything you like to it like ham, cut up broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

Baked macaroni and cheese

1 - 8 oz. package of elbow macaroni (or you favorite shape, shells or wheels work nicely too)
4 T butter or margarine
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 small onion, minced
1 T all-purpose flour
1 teas. salt
1/4 teas. dry mustard
dash pepper
1 1/2 cups milk (I use skim, but any kind is fine)
1 - 4 oz packages of shredded cheddar cheese (2 cups)

1) Cook macaroni as on the label, drain. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 2-quart casserole. In a small saucepan over medium heat melt 2 T butter, add bread crumbs, toss to coat, set aside.

2) Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt remaining 2 T butter, add onion, and cook until tender about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, salt, mustard and pepper until blended. Slowly stir in milk, cook until smooth and slightly thickened. Remove from heat , stir in cheese until melted.

3) Place drained macaroni in casserole. Pour cheese mixture over macaroni. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over top.

4) Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and bread crumbs are golden.

Some notes: The crumbs on top are totally optional. I usually don't bother with them, although I have had fantastic results substituting French's fried onions (the ones you put on top of green bean casserole). When I double the recipe, I don't double the onion, because I'm not a huge onion fan, but don't leave it out, it truly is the secret ingredient. Also, about the onion, you could replace some of the butter with oil if you wanted, but don't replace it all, it is what helps the onion get really sweet. Also, cook the onion slowly so it doesn't brown, but a long time, so it gets really soft and sweet. I find that the roux (butter & flour mixture) sometimes seems not quite thick enough as written, so I frequently add an additional tablespoon or two of flour. Also, really let the milk mixture thicken over a low heat and be sure to turn off the heat when you add the cheese. If the sauce gets too hot after the cheese goes in, it will separate and you'll wind up with a stringy, greasy mess. (I've learned this from experience, and it still took several "lessons" to really learn it!) One last thing, sometimes when my husband makes it, he substitutes chili powder for the dry mustard and it gives it a nice, but subtle kick.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

This is from Kraft Food and Family magazine...I'm sure it's also available on their website as well.

Serves 6
Oven 400

1 14 1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 pckg. (6 oz) chicken stuffing mix
1/2 c water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Place tomatoes with liquid in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix, water, and garlic; stir just until stuffing is moistened, set aside. Place chicken in 13 x 9 baking dish. Sprinkle with basil and cheese. Top with stuffing mixture. Bake 30 mins. or until chicken is cooked through.

Normally I make this dish in the winter, when stuffing mix is uber cheap and I've got a stockpile on hand. This time I decided to make my own stuffing mix. I used 3 slices of wheat bread for each dish. I also added some chicken bullion, Italian seasoning, and a citrus-basil rub I had on hand. I discovered too late that the bread didn't dry out as much as I had hoped, so I used about half as much water as the recipe indicated. I omitted the dried basil leaves as well. I also used closer to 1 1/3 cups of shredded cheese.

To go with the dish, since I already had my oven going, I made garlic-roasted broccoli. It's similar to the roasted zucchini I made for our first dinner swap...mix the broccoli with some garlic, olive oil, and salt, spread it on a baking dish and pop it in the oven with the chicken. It takes about 5 minutes to prep and about 20-25 minutes to cook, so I did the broccoli after I put the chicken in the oven and it was all ready at the same time.

Bacon Cornmeal Waffles

We love breakfast for dinner, especially since I'm way too lazy in the mornings to actually cook breakfast for breakfast! Again, this is another favorite from The Joy of Cooking.

Cook up 2 - 3 thin slices of bacon, let cool, crumble, and set aside.

Preheat your waffle iron. Whisk together in a large bowl:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Whisk together in another bowl:

• 2 cups buttermilk (you can substitute yogurt)
• 5 tablespoons melted butter (don't skimp! this is what makes your waffles crispy!)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 egg yolks

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Combine with a few swift strokes of the whisk. Mix in the crumbled bacon. Do not over mix.
Beat until stiff but not dry 2 egg whites. Then fold them into the batter. To cook, cover the surface of your preheated iron about 2/3 full, and close. When the the steam subsides and the waffle smells like it has browned a bit, open the iron, scoop it out and either let cool on a wire rack, or keep warm directly on the rack of a low oven. Do not stack them on a plate or they will get soggy instead of maintaining their crispiness. They can be easily reheated in a toaster oven or directly on the rack of a 350 degree oven.

Also, as an alternative, instead of crumbling the bacon into the batter, you can cut the bacon into quarters and lay a piece on each waffle iron section after pouring in the batter.

Chicken and Cornmeal Dumplings

This is a classic recipe for chicken fricasee, (sounds fancy, really just chicken stew), straight out of my go-to cooking bible, The Joy of Cooking. You can make this recipe with or without the dumplings. Be aware, you will need a large skillet with a lid, also I do a couple of thing differently than the book, and I'll indicate those spots in parentheses.

Have ready

• 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 pounds chicken or turkey parts, (I use breasts, 'cause that's what I like)

Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Heat in a heavy large skillet over medium heat:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter (I use olive oil here, or a mixture of butter and olive oil)

Brown the chicken pieces for 3 - 5 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken to a plate. When it is cool enough to handle, shred it, or cut it into bite sized pieces. ( like to shred it because then it really holds onto the gravy) Don't worry if it isn't completely cooked through, it's going to continue cooking when you put it back in the stew.
Add to the fat in the pan (add more olive oil if needed)

• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions

Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but not browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, then reduce heat to medium-low and whisk in:

• 1 3/4 cups chicken stock or broth or water

Whisking constantly, bring to boil over high heat. Add:

• 8 oz. sliced mushrooms
• 3 medium carrots, diced
• 2 large or medium ribs celery, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white or black pepper

(This is the big spot where I differ with the recipe, I usually saute the mushrooms before the onions to get them really brown. You can put them in after the stock, but they aren't quite as tasty, and they get a little limp and rubbery).
Return the chicken, along with any accumulated juices, to the pan and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat so that the liquid gently bubbles. At this point add the dumpling batter, (see recipe below), by the spoonful. If you are adding dumplings be sure that you have enough liquid to to create enough steam to cook the dumplings without burning the gravy on the bottom of the pan. If the gravy has gotten too thick just whisk in a little water or a little more broth to loosen it up. Cover tightly and cook until the chicken and the dumplings are done.

Cornmeal dumplings
Sift together:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Cut in with a fork or pastry blender

• 1 tablespoon cold butter

Whisk together:

• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup milk

Stir into the dry ingredients until just blended. Gently drop teaspoonfuls of the batter into the simmering stew, tightly cover the pan, and simmer the dumplings for about 10 minutes.

"Refried" beans and salsa

Canned beans have come a long way since I was a kid; they now have a much better flavor. I keep a few cans on hand in the pantry for meal emergencies, but for the most part I make my own beans.

Ask 10 people how they make their beans and you'll get 10 different answers. Here's what I do.

Put the cleaned, rinsed, and drained beans in a large pot; cover with water at least 1/2 inch past the beans. Cover the pot, put it over high heat on the stove and let it come to a boil. Then lower the heat and let the beans simmer, stirring every hour or so, till tender and done. I usually do a taste test about 3 hours into it and keep tasting every half hour or so till they're done. The more beans you make, the longer it takes. Add more water as needed to keep the level consistent (I learned that lesson the hard way...burned beans are not fun to clean off the pot!).

Refried beans usually means to fry up the cooked beans in a pan with a bit of oil on the bottom. It's time consuming and messy. Instead just use your blender or food processor and give the beans a whirl. You can do this right after the beans are cooked or let them cool to room temperature or even overnight in the fridge first. Whatever you have time for. Anyhow, add some of the bean liquid to loosen up the beans so they'll process to the desired thickness. If you let the beans cool overnight in the fridge you'll need even less of the bean juice. Season up with salt and voila!

You could cook up your beans in the crockpot, but I prefer stovetop beans. The water never really comes up to a boil in the slowcooker, and then the beans don't seem to "move around" as much as they do on the stove. They also seem to absorb more water in the slowcooker than they do on the stove, but they don't cook up as quickly. It's handy for days when you can't be at home to babysit the beans, though.

Beans freeze really well, whether they're boiled whole or whirled in the blender. You can also prolong mashed beans' fridge life if you cook them up in a pan every few days. It's an old trick my mom's aunt used to swear by. It works. Let them come up to a boil and stir them well. The beans are as fresh as they were when they were first cooked and supposedly any ill after-effects of beans are, uh, eliminated after this (having grown up eating beans all my life...I can't say for certain if it works or not).

I prefer a more soupy salsa over the pico de gallo styles. I never seem to have all the ingredients on hand to make this at home as much as I'd like to.

1 bunch cilantro, tough stems removed
1 bunch green onions, white and light green parts, roughly cut
1 peeled clove garlic
1 large can diced tomatoes, undrained
chile pepper...how much and what variety is entirely up to you. I've used the very mild small yellow chile peppers, serrano chiles, and jalapenos at some point or another. Depending on who I'm making the salsa for I sometimes take the seeds and membranes out. I generally use 1 whole chile pepper per batch
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything in the blender and give a whirl till everything's comined and it's the consistency you'd like. You could probably use a food processor too, but my blender is much faster.

The only way I know how to tone down the heat factor is to make more salsa without the chile and then combine the 2. But it keeps in the fridge for a while.

Chicken Enchiladas with Rice and 'Calabacitas'

For my first dinner swap, I made Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chili Sauce (recipe from my "Cover and Bake" cookbook from the editors of Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen, my cooking religion). I'm not going to type out the whole recipe, but it really is simple so if you want a copy, I'd be happy to pass it on. Rolling the enchiladas was a breeze; by lightly coating the tortillas with cooking spray and warming them in a 300 degree oven for 4 minutes, they were super easy to work with.

As for the rice, I sauteed some chopped onion (half an onion for the 3 cups of rice) in oil, and when soft, I added the rice, minced garlic (2-3 cloves per cup of rice), salt, and cumin and cooked that a bit together. When the rice starts to get a tiny bit darker, I added chicken broth (2 cups per cup of rice), and tomato sauce (a little more than a cup for the 3 cups of rice I made... it was what I had left after the enchiladas). And simmered for 20-25 minutes. I think I used too much salt, I'm going to blame that on tripling an ingredient that didn't need to be tripled.

And the zucchini was a brand new recipe, which I'm definitely making again! I wasn't sure what kind of veggie to make that went with Mexican food, so I did a little googling for southwestern/Mexican side dishes. That, and a trip to the farmer's market yielded "Calabacitas". I roasted barillo (?) chili peppers under the broiler (the recipe called for poblano or Anaheim peppers, but didn't find them at the market... the guy at one stand told me these peppers were similar). I set the roasted peppers aside to cool, peel, and chop. Meanwhile, I sauteed onion until soft, then added zucchini and yellow squash and a little salt, and covered and cooked until tender, stirring occasionally. In the future, I'll be more uniform with chopping the zucchini and squash... the thinner slices just fell apart. After it's done, I stirred in the chopped roasted peppers. Super easy! Roasting the peppers is optional... the original recipe sauteed the peppers along with the onions, which might be worth trying to save myself a step. I was just feeling adventurous. :) I forgot how much liquid squash lets go when cooked, so I used a slotted spoon when putting it in the containers... and I'm sure it was still pretty soupy for you.

Final note: Thank you so much for including me in the dinner swap! It gave me a reason to be a little more thoughtful about what I'm cooking, and we get two awesome dinners out of it that I don't have to think about at all! I'm looking forward to next time.

Pork loin with mashed potatoes and zucchini

This is really a method rather than a recipe. If you are lucky enough to have time to give cooking your undivided attention for about 45 minutes, this dish will come together easily. I've made this dinner for 3 families in about the same amount of time (the potatoes took a bit longer to boil) so it's ideal for swapping. Here's what I did:

I preheated the oven to 450. I prepped the veggies, started boiling the potatoes, and set aside the zucchini. I put the pork in a foil-lined roasting pan (cleanup was so much easier!), seasoned it with some pepper, threw it in the oven, and set the timer to bake for 25 minutes. I went back to the zucchini, seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a basil seasoning I had in the cabinet, and tossed them with a bit of olive oil...I didn't measure but drizzled it in till the veggies were lightly coated. I arranged them in a single layer on a baking sheet and into the oven they went. These only took about 15 minutes to cook. I cut the zucchini into half-moons; next time I won't cut them into such small pieces...they char easily. While all that was cooking up in the oven I made the sauce for the pork. I actually have a recipe for it, and it's supposed to be a chicken glaze. I have no idea where I got the recipe from.

1/3 c apricot preserves
1 Tbls. dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (I think I used even less)
2 Tbls. ketchup
2 tsp. chopped ginger (I didn't use this...I don't like ginger).

Heat and stir over medium heat till the preserves have "melted" and the sauce all comes together. If you want to use it as a glaze you don't need to heat it.

When the veggies and pork are done usually the potatoes are about done. Drain and make your mashed potatoes. I use sour cream, garlic powder, pepper and chicken granules to season my potatoes. I eyeball everything and have absolutely no clue how much of anything I add in. Sometimes I add too much, other times too little. It never tastes exactly the same each time I make them. I've also been using gold-fleshed potatoes...I just think there's something about the color, texture, and flavor of them. By then the pork will have rested and voila! Dinner.

Not crazy about zucchini? Want to mix it up? I've also done roasted broccoli with minced garlic, and roasted asparagus too. They take closer to 20 minutes to cook up. If I'm going to turn on my oven I'm going to get full use out of it!

The first post!

I took a cue from my "other" dinner swapping group and decided our group needed a blog too. Here we can post dinner recipes (whether or not they are used for swapping), leave feedback, recommend recipe websites, or whatever. It's very much a work in progress!