My husband is working late, so I won't have him to ride herd on the children while I cook; so I decided to make a slow cooker meal tonight. My Mema used to make this great apricot chicken in a crock pot recipe that I loved. I seem to have lost my recipe card for it, and of course today is the day Mema is leaving for Ireland, (bon voyage!) so I tried to find it on the internet.
Lots of APRICOT CHICKEN recipes out there! Some sounded better than others, but I read several and combined them to the best of my memory of how Mema's chicken is made.
Sorta-kinda Mema Chicken
Ingredients:
6-8 chicken thighs, drumsticks or both, skinless and bone-in
1 C of Russian Dressing
1/2 C of Apricot Preserves
1-2 TB of red wine or apple cider vinegar
1 package French onion soup mix
1 tsp. dried Italian herbs
Pinch of pepper
Place frozen chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker (use thawed chicken and it will cook faster). Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and pour over chicken. Cook 6-8 hours on low. I use the Automatic setting which cooks on high for 2 hours and then switches to low. Serve chicken over cooked rice or pasta and with vegetable of your choice.
The only snag I hit was that I did not have any Russian dressing. I did learn one thing in Brownie Scouts though, besides how to look AMAZING in a beanie cap, and that was how to make my own dressing. Over the years I have tweaked it a little, to have a more grown up taste. Here are the recipes.
Brownie Scout Russian Dressing:
Ingredients
1 C of mayo
1/4 C of ketchup
3 TB pickle relish
Squirt of mustard
Mix together and serve.
My Grown Up Version
1 C of mayo <---_ sometimes I use homemade!
1/4 cocktail sauce <--- Horseradish adds a kick.
1 squirt of Dijon mustard <--- Glamorous, no?
2-3 TB of pickle relish
1 TB minced onion
Mix together and use immediately or can be stored for 2-3 days in the fridge.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
K's Famous Ground Beef Stir-Fry
March is National Frozen Foods month and frozen foods are on sale and retailers are offering coupons every day on fantastic items. This is a great recipe to use some frozen green beans, frozen onions, or even frozen ginger. My friend K taught me to make this dish many moons ago and it is a perennial favorite in our house!
Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger meat
1 14-16 oz. package of frozen green beans
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
1 TB stir-fry sauce OR hoisin sauce OR apricot jelly
1/2 inch of peeled and minced fresh ginger OR equivalent ginger from a tube
1/2 of a chopped onion (optional)
Brown rice made according to package directions
Olive or sesame oil
Soy sauce
Start your rice on the stove top. We make brown rice which takes about 45 minutes so I wait until the the rice is about half cooked before I start cooking the rest of the meal. You can use the intervening time to chop up your garlic, ginger or onions as needed.
Take a pound of hamburger meat, season it with salt, pepper and a few red pepper flakes (optional.) Cook in a nicely seasoned iron skillet or other non-stick pan. If you are using a low fat kind of ground beef you may need to add a tablespoon of oil or fat to the pan. Once the meat has been fairly well browned but not cooked through yet add several dashes of soy sauce, a half inch of minced fresh ginger and two minced garlic cloves. When the meat is cooked through, set it aside in a bowl. In the same pan add a bit more oil and sauteed your onions if you are using them, then add the frozen green beans, season with a heavy pinch of salt and place a lid over the pan and let it steam/cook on medium high heat for 3-5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir the vegetables, hit them with a bit of soy sauce, a tablespoon of hoisin or stir-fry sauce or even a dab of apricot jelly (tonight I used a sample I received in the mail of Sweet Chili Sauce). Add meat mixture back to pan, stir again and replace the lid and turn off the heat but leave it on the burner as the rice finishes. When all items are cooked serve rice topped with stir-fry mixture and enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger meat
1 14-16 oz. package of frozen green beans
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
1 TB stir-fry sauce OR hoisin sauce OR apricot jelly
1/2 inch of peeled and minced fresh ginger OR equivalent ginger from a tube
1/2 of a chopped onion (optional)
Brown rice made according to package directions
Olive or sesame oil
Soy sauce
Start your rice on the stove top. We make brown rice which takes about 45 minutes so I wait until the the rice is about half cooked before I start cooking the rest of the meal. You can use the intervening time to chop up your garlic, ginger or onions as needed.
Take a pound of hamburger meat, season it with salt, pepper and a few red pepper flakes (optional.) Cook in a nicely seasoned iron skillet or other non-stick pan. If you are using a low fat kind of ground beef you may need to add a tablespoon of oil or fat to the pan. Once the meat has been fairly well browned but not cooked through yet add several dashes of soy sauce, a half inch of minced fresh ginger and two minced garlic cloves. When the meat is cooked through, set it aside in a bowl. In the same pan add a bit more oil and sauteed your onions if you are using them, then add the frozen green beans, season with a heavy pinch of salt and place a lid over the pan and let it steam/cook on medium high heat for 3-5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir the vegetables, hit them with a bit of soy sauce, a tablespoon of hoisin or stir-fry sauce or even a dab of apricot jelly (tonight I used a sample I received in the mail of Sweet Chili Sauce). Add meat mixture back to pan, stir again and replace the lid and turn off the heat but leave it on the burner as the rice finishes. When all items are cooked serve rice topped with stir-fry mixture and enjoy!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Costco Shopping and Impulse Purchases 3/3/11
My husband got his hearing aid through Costco, they offer free tune ups of the device as long as you own it, so about once a year we go up to the big city 3 hours away and do our Mainland errands, a big shop at Costco, getting kids haircuts at affordable prices, eye appointments, tire rotation, whatever. On this last trip, in addition to the Costco shop and hearing aid fix we also picked up some new tap shoes for the big kid and some all white sneakers for her baton twirling debut.
We usually pick up something quick to make for dinner while we are at Costco because when you factor in the drive time and the time spent actually running the errands we get home sort of late. My husband's impulse buy for our fast dinner was a ready to go, heat and eat chateaubriand. I know, right? I would have gotten a delicious Kirkland's brand frozen pizza, but I let him pick some times. A chateaubriand is a very 60's dinner to me. I can imagine Don Draper splitting one with his pretty wife in a swanky restaurant. In fact a chateaubriand is almost always prepared for two, so that means you both better like it cooked to the same temperature because you can't make it medium on one side and well done on the other. The cut of meat is actually a beef tenderloin, but the fancy French name comes from the method of preparation, where the meat is seasoned very simply, seared on all sides in a pan, then roasted in the oven until desired temperature is reached. You make a nice sauce from the pan drippings and additionally you can have it with a béarnaise sauce on top. DECADENT. This heat and eat version basically was pre-roasted and you did the stove top part to bring it back up to temperature and get a nice sear on it. It was ready in about 10 minutes. We also decided to try some frozen roasted mixed vegetables, potatoes, peppers, carrots and green beans. They were prepared on the stove top in about 6 minutes, those were okay, but we won't be buying it again. The sauce the vegetables were in was sort of bland and off-putting.
I do think next month we may spring for a nice beef tenderloin and try to make the chateaubriand ourselves as the cut itself was buttery and tender beyond belief. I really think it might be a fun project. Maybe I will make jello parfaits or some other mid-century classic for dessert when I do.
We rounded out dinner with a lovely lettuce and carrot salad. There were some incredibly nice butter lettuces for sale. Just eating them made me feel more like Springtime, like Peter Rabbit might just steal some from the refrigerator.
We usually pick up something quick to make for dinner while we are at Costco because when you factor in the drive time and the time spent actually running the errands we get home sort of late. My husband's impulse buy for our fast dinner was a ready to go, heat and eat chateaubriand. I know, right? I would have gotten a delicious Kirkland's brand frozen pizza, but I let him pick some times. A chateaubriand is a very 60's dinner to me. I can imagine Don Draper splitting one with his pretty wife in a swanky restaurant. In fact a chateaubriand is almost always prepared for two, so that means you both better like it cooked to the same temperature because you can't make it medium on one side and well done on the other. The cut of meat is actually a beef tenderloin, but the fancy French name comes from the method of preparation, where the meat is seasoned very simply, seared on all sides in a pan, then roasted in the oven until desired temperature is reached. You make a nice sauce from the pan drippings and additionally you can have it with a béarnaise sauce on top. DECADENT. This heat and eat version basically was pre-roasted and you did the stove top part to bring it back up to temperature and get a nice sear on it. It was ready in about 10 minutes. We also decided to try some frozen roasted mixed vegetables, potatoes, peppers, carrots and green beans. They were prepared on the stove top in about 6 minutes, those were okay, but we won't be buying it again. The sauce the vegetables were in was sort of bland and off-putting.
I do think next month we may spring for a nice beef tenderloin and try to make the chateaubriand ourselves as the cut itself was buttery and tender beyond belief. I really think it might be a fun project. Maybe I will make jello parfaits or some other mid-century classic for dessert when I do.
We rounded out dinner with a lovely lettuce and carrot salad. There were some incredibly nice butter lettuces for sale. Just eating them made me feel more like Springtime, like Peter Rabbit might just steal some from the refrigerator.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Cheese-filled Tortellini and Garlic Bread
Last night was a Friday in Lent (so no meat) and the night before I headed out to the grocery store for some awesome stocking up. I was making the most out of a trip to the big city Costco so I was low on just about everything. I pulled a package of pre-made tortellini from the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge. This is a super fast dinner and this is how I made it.
Ingredients:
For Tortellini
1 package refrigerated tortellini
Can of tomato sauce (I used a garlic and onion flavored one)
Chopped seasoning veggies, like garlic, onion and celery
1 tsp of dried Italian Seasoning
For Super-Fast Garlic Bread
Sliced crusty bread (Mine was homemade*)
Very soft butter
Garlic powder
Sprinkle of Italian herbs
Step One: put the pasta water on to boil, make sure to salt it.
Step Two: Heat skillet, add teaspoon of olive oil and chopped seasoning veggies, possibly adding chopped sun dried tomatoes if you like. When veggies are soft and fragrant add sauce and herbs and heat through.
Step Three: When water boils, cook tortellini according to package directions.
Step Four; While tortellini is cooking mix butter with garlic powder and herbs and perhaps a sprinkle of salt. Spread sliced bread with butter mixture and place on cookie sheet.
Step Five: Put bread under broiler on high, cook until brown and fragrant.
Step Six: Drain pasta and serve immediately. Top with red sauce and if you like a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan. Pull bread from oven and place a slice on each plate.
I know this is a very basic dinner idea but the reason I am using it is because EVERYONE cooks this way once in awhile and busy parents cook this way a lot. Some of my friends have expressed to me their discomfort with even basic recipes and the fact that too many "FAST EASY" dishes depend on a level of knowledge that they do not yet have. So here it is a fast and fool-proof dinner that hopefully spells out step by step a way to get dinner on the table.
*Homemade bread, I have said it before and I will say it again, the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day changed my life. I can now have fresh bread and pizza dough basically on demand. Buy it now!
Ingredients:
For Tortellini
1 package refrigerated tortellini
Can of tomato sauce (I used a garlic and onion flavored one)
Chopped seasoning veggies, like garlic, onion and celery
1 tsp of dried Italian Seasoning
For Super-Fast Garlic Bread
Sliced crusty bread (Mine was homemade*)
Very soft butter
Garlic powder
Sprinkle of Italian herbs
Step One: put the pasta water on to boil, make sure to salt it.
Step Two: Heat skillet, add teaspoon of olive oil and chopped seasoning veggies, possibly adding chopped sun dried tomatoes if you like. When veggies are soft and fragrant add sauce and herbs and heat through.
Step Three: When water boils, cook tortellini according to package directions.
Step Four; While tortellini is cooking mix butter with garlic powder and herbs and perhaps a sprinkle of salt. Spread sliced bread with butter mixture and place on cookie sheet.
Step Five: Put bread under broiler on high, cook until brown and fragrant.
Step Six: Drain pasta and serve immediately. Top with red sauce and if you like a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan. Pull bread from oven and place a slice on each plate.
I know this is a very basic dinner idea but the reason I am using it is because EVERYONE cooks this way once in awhile and busy parents cook this way a lot. Some of my friends have expressed to me their discomfort with even basic recipes and the fact that too many "FAST EASY" dishes depend on a level of knowledge that they do not yet have. So here it is a fast and fool-proof dinner that hopefully spells out step by step a way to get dinner on the table.
*Homemade bread, I have said it before and I will say it again, the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day changed my life. I can now have fresh bread and pizza dough basically on demand. Buy it now!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Tonight's Menu: Sauteed Chicken breasts, Whole Wheat Penne, Tomatoes and Green Peppers
Happy First Day of March!
Here was tonight's quick simple dinner with step by step instructions.
For the pasta you will need:
* 1/2 of a box (13.25 oz) of whole wheat penne pasta (I used Barilla)
* 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
* 1 green pepper sliced into strips, strips cut in half
* 1 clove of garlic, chopped
* 1 TB of olive oil or canola oil
* 2-3 TB of fresh grated parmesan
*2 tsp of dried Italian Seasoning
* Salt
For the chicken you will need:
* 6-8 thinly sliced chicken breast pieces
* 1/4 cup of flour
* TB of butter
* TB of oil
* Salt and Pepper to taste
Start large pot of water to boil, adding salt to the water, when water boils add the half box of pasta and stir. Place oil in a skillet over medium high heat. To this add the chopped garlic and cook until fragrant, but not burnt. Add chopped green peppers and cook for 4-5 minutes. Then add chopped tomatoes and a generous pinch of kosher salt. When tomatoes begin to break down you can add the Italian seasoning. Cook the vegetables until the pasta is done about 9 minutes. Drain pasta and toss back into cooking pot with sauteed veggies and the grated parmesan. Taste and season if desired. Cover with lid and place on the back of the stove, off the heat.
While veggies are cooking, quickly salt and pepper some thinly sliced chicken breasts and dredge in a handful of flour. The chicken breasts I used tonight had been sliced in half horizontally so they cook incredibly quickly. One could also use chicken tenderloins or regular chicken breasts that had been pounded very, very flat. Cook the breasts in a mixture of oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. The sliced breasts will cook in less than 5 minutes per side.
To serve place a chicken piece on a plate with a generous amount of pasta and a small green salad or sliced pears.
Here was tonight's quick simple dinner with step by step instructions.
For the pasta you will need:
* 1/2 of a box (13.25 oz) of whole wheat penne pasta (I used Barilla)
* 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
* 1 green pepper sliced into strips, strips cut in half
* 1 clove of garlic, chopped
* 1 TB of olive oil or canola oil
* 2-3 TB of fresh grated parmesan
*2 tsp of dried Italian Seasoning
* Salt
For the chicken you will need:
* 6-8 thinly sliced chicken breast pieces
* 1/4 cup of flour
* TB of butter
* TB of oil
* Salt and Pepper to taste
Start large pot of water to boil, adding salt to the water, when water boils add the half box of pasta and stir. Place oil in a skillet over medium high heat. To this add the chopped garlic and cook until fragrant, but not burnt. Add chopped green peppers and cook for 4-5 minutes. Then add chopped tomatoes and a generous pinch of kosher salt. When tomatoes begin to break down you can add the Italian seasoning. Cook the vegetables until the pasta is done about 9 minutes. Drain pasta and toss back into cooking pot with sauteed veggies and the grated parmesan. Taste and season if desired. Cover with lid and place on the back of the stove, off the heat.
While veggies are cooking, quickly salt and pepper some thinly sliced chicken breasts and dredge in a handful of flour. The chicken breasts I used tonight had been sliced in half horizontally so they cook incredibly quickly. One could also use chicken tenderloins or regular chicken breasts that had been pounded very, very flat. Cook the breasts in a mixture of oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. The sliced breasts will cook in less than 5 minutes per side.
To serve place a chicken piece on a plate with a generous amount of pasta and a small green salad or sliced pears.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Happy Birthday Mom!
My Mom's birthday is Valentine's Day and so of course we always made a BIG deal out of February 14th! My Mom always had little cards and small heart shaped boxes of candy for us, we'd troop off to school with our tiny Scooby Doo and Care Bears cards for our friends and then when we got home Mom would make a big pretty dinner for us all. There was usually some sort of spectacular main dish and a gorgeous dessert involved. I learned how butter is made from cream the time I tried to "help" her whip the cream for our chocolate mousse. I learned to strike matches to light the candles in our dining room. I fact I got so good at helping her with this ritual dinner that I threw her 30th birthday party myself when I was 11. I never did get her knack at twisting crepe paper so that it hangs "just so" but I can make a pretty table if I do say so myself.
Tonight in Mom's honor, since we can't be together, I am making the type of special occasion dinner she loves!
Menu:
Standing rib roast, salted, peppered and rosemaried (thanks Ellen!)
Mashed potatoes
Sauteed green beans almondine
Seasoned corn niblets
Salad with cranberries and pecans
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Good-bye Pop.
My grandfather, affectionately known to me and pretty much everyone else as Pop, passed away last week at the age of 78. He had fought very hard against pancreatic cancer and in fact his cancer was in remission when he died. He had been terribly weakened by the cancer treatments and I think he was just tired and needed to rest. He went about death as he had lived life, determined to see things through to the end and make a quiet, dignified and undramatic exit.
My Pop had a wicked, dry sense of humor, an iron-clad sense of honor, integrity and justice and a great love of family. He loved being in the middle of our crazy, loud-mouthed parties, taking in the various scenes and spitting out witty observations and sarcastic remarks under his breath. I think we kept him pretty livened up actually with all of our messes. He seemed to enjoy watching us continually jump from the frying pan and into the fire, anyway. He was always there with some calm perspective when things got too chaotic and that is a rare and valuable quality, I've found.
My Pop also loved food, fried catfish, BBQ ribs, a glass of perfectly cold iced tea, but his description of the last meal he actually enjoyed here on Earth stays with me. "Your grandmother took me out to Dustin's and I got a sliced pork sandwich. I bit into it and your grandmother started to say something to me, but I held my hand up like this {Like a traffic cop telling someone to stop. -- Suzanne} and said, 'Wait. I just need a moment here.'" His eyes closed as he remembered the sandwich, his face was perfectly at peace, eyebrows slightly raised, small smile on his lips and I saw my funny, awesome grampa again, not the tired, aching version I had grown used to in the last year. It was the last time I saw him and it was a gift.
***************************************************
Dear Pop,
I know I will see you again someday and until then I promise to live a more adventurous and go-for-broke life so that when my time comes I can lay back as you did and say, "I look back on my life; try and see if there is something I missed, you know some sort of bucket list or whatever and really, there's nothing. I've lived a pretty great life." You really did have a great life, it had its share of sorrows and heartbreaks and tragedy, but you soldiered on, in fact you MARINE'D onward, (Semper Fi). I like to think you are with Uncle Michael right now, or visiting with your Mom and Dad or seeing old friends. I know that when we pass on we are at peace and want for nothing, so I know you aren't missing us, but oh, we miss you. It will be hard to get along without you, but you raised us all to be strong and we will get through. Cowboy movies will be hard to watch, and catfish frys may put a lump in my throat after this, but we will get through. Save us a place at the table and tell Gramma T hi from me and the girls. They still talk about her cookies and I miss talking on the phone with her and getting her e-mails. I miss your hugs. I promise to look after my Mom and Mema. I promise to be more patient helping Sarah with her math. I promise to tell Bella stories about her "Poppy".
Love you,
Suzanne
My Pop had a wicked, dry sense of humor, an iron-clad sense of honor, integrity and justice and a great love of family. He loved being in the middle of our crazy, loud-mouthed parties, taking in the various scenes and spitting out witty observations and sarcastic remarks under his breath. I think we kept him pretty livened up actually with all of our messes. He seemed to enjoy watching us continually jump from the frying pan and into the fire, anyway. He was always there with some calm perspective when things got too chaotic and that is a rare and valuable quality, I've found.
My Pop also loved food, fried catfish, BBQ ribs, a glass of perfectly cold iced tea, but his description of the last meal he actually enjoyed here on Earth stays with me. "Your grandmother took me out to Dustin's and I got a sliced pork sandwich. I bit into it and your grandmother started to say something to me, but I held my hand up like this {Like a traffic cop telling someone to stop. -- Suzanne} and said, 'Wait. I just need a moment here.'" His eyes closed as he remembered the sandwich, his face was perfectly at peace, eyebrows slightly raised, small smile on his lips and I saw my funny, awesome grampa again, not the tired, aching version I had grown used to in the last year. It was the last time I saw him and it was a gift.
***************************************************
Dear Pop,
I know I will see you again someday and until then I promise to live a more adventurous and go-for-broke life so that when my time comes I can lay back as you did and say, "I look back on my life; try and see if there is something I missed, you know some sort of bucket list or whatever and really, there's nothing. I've lived a pretty great life." You really did have a great life, it had its share of sorrows and heartbreaks and tragedy, but you soldiered on, in fact you MARINE'D onward, (Semper Fi). I like to think you are with Uncle Michael right now, or visiting with your Mom and Dad or seeing old friends. I know that when we pass on we are at peace and want for nothing, so I know you aren't missing us, but oh, we miss you. It will be hard to get along without you, but you raised us all to be strong and we will get through. Cowboy movies will be hard to watch, and catfish frys may put a lump in my throat after this, but we will get through. Save us a place at the table and tell Gramma T hi from me and the girls. They still talk about her cookies and I miss talking on the phone with her and getting her e-mails. I miss your hugs. I promise to look after my Mom and Mema. I promise to be more patient helping Sarah with her math. I promise to tell Bella stories about her "Poppy".
Love you,
Suzanne
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