White Chili

White Chili, you ask?  HUH?  Chili ain’t white!  Well, THIS one is!  The first time I ever heard of White Chili, I was a skeptic too!  But after the first bowl all those years ago, I was cured of my skepticism!  So I thought “White” Chili was appropriate for today when we were *supposed to* get some of that “white” stuff from the sky.  Turns out, it just teased us!  We got hit hard and fast this morning, but then it just quit and now there’s little evidence left behind that we got any at all, much to the chagrin of my ankle biters.

White Chili……..what in the cat hair is White Chili?  I was introduced to it by my Aunt Ann, my mom’s baby sister.  She’s a phenomenal cook and is always coming up with something new and nifty!  I get my love for casseroles from her!  She’s like the casserole QUEEN, or something!  Anyway, she was telling me about White Chili on the phone one day and I just couldn’t wrap my head around it cuz chili is NOT supposed to be white.  As she was explaining it, I snarled up my nose more and more.  It’s made with white beans instead of pinto/kidney/black beans like one would expect to find in regular chili.  And I am no white bean fan.  Just don’t love ‘em.  I know!  I know!  Not exactly what you expect to hear from a good little Southern girl.  But I don’t.  Never have.  Except my SIL’s and man, she can cook a pot of white beans.  But I digress.

So like the good little niece that I am, I wrote down the recipe thinking to myself, “I’m going to waste good chicken in this!”  That’s what I honestly thought!  I never dreamed that I and my family would all fall in love with it and like it as well as, or maybe better than, regular chili!  That’s how amazing it is!  And even better is the fact that it’s a really healthy dish!  White beans are full of fiber and are super-filling!  And the chicken is boneless, skinless, so it’s heart-healthy!  In figuring Weight Watchers points for this, I think their little recipe builder spit out a point-value of 5 for a serving of this.  This pot makes about 10 servings, give or take…..depending on how big a bowl you serve it in!

I really can’t extol the virtues of this chili any better, so let’s make some!  Did I mention it’s EASY?!  Gotta love easy! 

Here’s what you’ll need:

Navy beans…..now the original calls for Great Northern beans.  But I happen to prefer Navy beans to the larger Great Northern beans.  Navy beans seem a little sweeter to me and I like them because they’re smaller.  But if you prefer Great Northern to Navy, God will forgive you and I will too!  Knock yourself out!  Chicken….boneless and skinless.  I happened to have some tenders in my freezer and they cook up in no time flat.  So that’s what I ended up using today.  But boneless and skinless is preferred to anything with skin, bones and dark meat.  God might still forgive you for using dark meat chicken, but I’d probably have a hard time.  ;o)  Just speaking the truth in love.  I don’t care for dark meat chicken.  Don’t be hatin’!  The rest is easy!  Seasoning Blend, Garlic, Oregano, Cumin, Cayenne Pepper, Ground Cloves and Chopped Green Chiles.  You’re practically done, man!

Wash and sort the dried beans before you soak them.  That’s literally the most labor-intensive part of this recipe.  And you know what?  If you want to skip this step altogether and use canned white beans in your White Chili, I won’t tell a soul!  And at the end of the day, nobody will ever know the difference.  But if you DO use the dried variety, they have to be washed and sorted, then soaked.  If you don’t do all that, you’ll end up with some skanky beans or even rocks mixed in with your good stuff.  And that’s just no dang fun!  Once you’ve got them sorted, cover the beans with lots of water and let them soak a couple hours or overnight before making this. 

While your beans are soaking, go ahead and boil your chicken.

Now drain your plumped up beans.  And you might want to give them one more little once-over for any wayward strays that you missed before you soaked them.  Do you see the one little skanky bean I missed the first time?  He had to go!

Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the broth.  Just set it aside on a plate to chop up later.

Add the beans into the chicken stock you made from cooking the chicken and begin adding the rest of the ingredients.  There’s no particular order they have to go in.  This is the oregano going in.

Seasoning Blend going in…….you’re certainly welcome to chop up your own fresh onions, peppers and celery.  But I was lazy and let someone else do the chopping for me!

Now add the chopped green chiles.  I find green chiles to be fairly mild.  But then, I grew up eating jalapeno peppers with my scrambled eggs at breakfast.  So you really can’t judge by me.  The recipe calls for 1 can.  I added 3.  )  I love their flavor and really can’t detect any heat from them.  But some folks say they think these are hot.  You be the judge!

Add the cumin.  I LOVE cumin!  Until I started making this chili, I’d never heard of or bought cumin before!  That was probably 15 years ago or so.  Since then, I’ve fallen head over heels in love with cumin!

Next add the cayenne pepper.  If you can handle it!  Again, if you’re afraid of the heat, leave it out.  Or on the other hand, if you’re like my family and like some kick to your grub, put it in and add some extra!    I add double what the recipe calls for.

Now add the cloves.  CLOVES?  In CHILI?!!?  I know!  You’re sitting there saying to yourself, “That poor Amy’s smokin’ crack again!”  Trust me on this!  The cloves absolutely MAKE this!  It’s such a subtle little hint of flavor in the background that leaves everybody at the table saying, “WHAT is that flavor I’m tasting?!” 

You’ll notice I didn’t add any salt and pepper.  I NEVER EVER EVER E.V.E.R. add salt to dried beans until they’re completely cooked.  Why?  Cuz my Moma told me not to.  Why?  Heck if I know.  But she always said never to add salt to dried beans until they’re completely cooked through.  She said it would make the beans harder to cook.  Now I have NO idea if that’s so or not.  But Moma said it, so I don’t add salt until the beans are completely cooked. 

Finally, add the garlic.  And just let this simmer until the beans are tender.  It will probably take a couple of hours or maybe longer depending on how long you soaked your beans.

Your chicken should be cool enough to handle by now.  So you can start chopping it up while the beans are cooking away.

Chop it into bite-sized pieces before adding it to the beans.

Now dump it all in and give it a stir.  You’re almost there!  Let it simmer about 30 minutes before serving.  If you need to add a little water, go right ahead.  It all depends on how thick or soupy you like your chili to be!

Ahhhhh!  And there you go!  Plop a dollop of sour cream in the center and sprinkle with your choice of cheese.  Absolutely divine, I tell you!

White Chili

*  1 pound dry white beans, washed, sorted and soaked

*  1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast

*  1 bag frozen seasoning blend

*  1-7 oz. can chopped green chiles

*  1 Tbsp. minced garlic

*  2 tsp. cumin

*  1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

*  1/4 tsp. ground cloves

*  1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

*  2 quarts chicken stock

*  salt and pepper to taste

Wash and sort dried beans.  Pick out any beans that are discolored or broken and discard them.  Put them in a large bowl and add enough water to cover 2″ above the beans.  Soak at least 2 hours or up to overnight.  Drain and rinse the beans before cooking.  Boil chicken and set aside when tender.  Strain chicken stock and return to stockpot.  Add dried beans, seasoning blend and spices.  Simmer at least 2 hours or until beans are tender.  Cooking time will vary depending on how long beans were soaked.  Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces.  Add to beans.  Add water or additional chicken stock if desired.  Simmer an additional 30 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste before serving.  Serve hot.

And that, friends and neighbors, is White Chili!  It’s absolutely insane!  Just add a chunk of cornbread or Mexican cornbread and dinner is DONE!  We like to add sour cream and a mix of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses to ours.  But it would also be good with a dollop of fresh guacamole or some fresh chopped cilantro sprinkled on top.  It makes such a hearty, bone-warming meal!  I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do!

And I hope you and yours are safe and warm!  As for me, I’m really enjoying this “snow” we got today!  )

Aunt Jane’s Pea Salad

Today, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before.  I’m going to repeat a recipe.  Here’s why……when I originally shared this recipe with you, I did it just to have a recipe to share that day.  It didn’t have any pictures to go with the recipe then.  I shared this recipe with you last spring when I was in Chattanooga for work. 

I shared this particular recipe with you while I was in Chattanooga because that’s where my Aunt Jane lived.  So naturally, I thought of sharing one of her recipes with you.  My Aunt Jane was amazing!  She was a fabulous aunt and a magnificent cook.  And one of the funniest human beings that ever drew a breath!  She could tell a joke like nobody else I’ve ever heard!  Her specialty was cake.  No doubt, that’s where I get my love for baking!  But while her cakes were awesome, she also had a few other things she made that always rocked my world!  Her pot roast and this Pea Salad that I’m going to share with you today were among my favorites she made. 

I spent so much time at her house when I was a kid.  I LOVED that time!  Those memories are among the best memories I have!   I lived to get to go to Chattanooga and spend time at Aunt Jane’s house!

Now if you’re an English pea-hater, this probably ain’t the recipe for you.  But I am an English pea LOVER!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!  I could eat them every day!  I like them fresh, canned, frozen, raw, you name it!  LURVE me some English peas.  So let’s honor Aunt Jane today and make some Pea Salad!

Here’s what you’ll need:  frozen English peas, iceberg lettuce, red onion, cheddar cheese, Miracle Whip (NOT mayonnaise!!!!) and bacon (which was already in the skillet when I took this picture!)

See???  Bacon!  In the skillet!  Sizzling away.  It couldn’t be bothered to march over to the other ingredients and have its picture taken!  It’s way too elitist for that!  Or something like that anyway.  Let’s blame the bacon for not being in the picture.  I like that a whole lot better than blaming ME!!!  )  Yeah, so anyway, cook up the bacon until it’s crispy and then drain it on paper towels before chopping it into small pieces.

Next, pour the peas into a large mixing bowl.

Add in the diced red onion.  I like it fairly small for this recipe, but if you like bigger chunks, by all means, chop your onion bigger.

Now sprinkle in some black pepper and sugar.  I don’t add salt to this recipe personally because I find the saltiness of the cheese and bacon is plenty of salt for me.  But if you don’t have high blood pressure, knock yourself out and add some!

Add the Miracle Whip…….now listen to me friends and neighbors……..if you want to completely destroy this amazing salad and defile the good memory of my beloved Aunt Jane, just use that nastiness called mayonnaise in it.  It just doesn’t work!  If you want to change this up and add turkey bacon, that’s cool.  If you want to use Romaine lettuce instead of iceberg, sure, that’ll work.  If you want to use a different cheese, super!  But using mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip in this will alter the integrity of the dish.  I do NOT recommend using mayonnaise for this.  Once in a blue moon, I will actually use mayonnaise in a dish, but this is NOT one of them!  So please, please, PLEASE…..I implore you……don’t wreck this by using mayonnaise.  </end of rant about mayonnaise>

Now add your chopped bacon IF your company has arrived and you’re about ready to set this on the table.  If you’re NOT ready to serve, wait until you are.  You don’t want the bacon to get soggy on you!  That’s just gross!

Add the cheese next.

And finally, stir in the chopped lettuce.  And my apologies for not taking a picture of it once I had it all stirred together.    I meant to do that, but I had company walking in the back door and it slipped my mind after that!

Aunt Jane’s Pea Salad

*  1 bag frozen English peas, thawed

*  1/2 head lettuce, chopped or torn into small pieces

*  1 pkg. shredded cheddar cheese

*  8 slices bacon, cooked

*  2 Tbsp. sugar

*  1/2 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper

*  1 red onion, diced small

*  3 Tbsp. Miracle Whip

Cook bacon until crispy.  Drain well on paper towels.  Chop bacon into small pieces.  In a mixing bowl, combine peas, onion, pepper, sugar and Miracle Whip.  Cover and refrigerate if you aren’t planning to serve immediately.  Right before serving, add chopped bacon, cheese and lettuce.  Stir until well-combined.  Serve immediately.

Easy PEASY, right?   ***snort, I crack myself up!***  Seriously, it is VERY simple!  And OH, SO delicious!  I made this for our Christmas dinner to serve alongside a spiral-cut ham.  But it’s also good with so many other things!  Aunt Jane always made it for me to go with her fabulous pot roast.  It’s good in the summer with anything off the grill!  It would make a nice accompaniment to meatloaf , fried pork chops, Swiss steak or roasted chicken. 

This would even make a nice “main dish” if you had some leftover turkey breast or ham.  Just chop those up into small pieces and toss them in!  This one is hard to mess up or go wrong……unless of course, you don’t listen to me and add MAYO to it!  )  Just speakin’ the truth in love here! 

In all seriousness, it’s a wonderful side dish to add to your line-up!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!  Have a great day!  And if you have an amazing Aunt Jane or Aunt Bertha or Aunt Susie or Aunt Whoever, call her and tell her that you love her with all your heart!  Or someday you’ll wish you still could!

Beef Tips & Gravy

First of all, let me just say that I’m a popsicle this morning.  It’s a wonder that my poor little fingers can even type in this evil, wicked, mean and nasty cold!  It’s a whopping 6 whole degrees in my neck of the woods this morning!  6!  DEGREES!  That’s just insane!  This ain’t Minnesota!   OK, enough whining!  Let’s cook cuz we need to do that just to warm up the house, huh?

So I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I’d recently had a craving for Beef Tips but I ended up making something else entirely.  I invented something else entirely actually.  So I never got my Beef Tips that I was craving.  So what some of you skinny people out there who simply eat to live instead of living to eat may not know is this…….once a fat woman gets a craving, it’s ON!  She ain’t gonna be happy until that craving has been satisfied.  So I HAD to make Beef Tips! 

And I thought today would be a good day to share these with you since it’s so wicked cold here.  This is a bone-warming meal.  And today is a mighty fine day for that!  So let’s cook, shall we?

Here’s most of what you’ll need:  Beef (sirloin steak or beef tips, but we’ll talk about that in a minute) Beef Gravy, Flour, Worcestershire Sauce, Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix, Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Pepper Blend, and Garlic.  You’ll also need a really large bell pepper and a really large or two small-t0-medium onions.  Now let me just say that you’re welcome to cut up your own beef.  And I recommend doing that if you can find good sirloin because that’s truly what works best for this recipe due to sirloin being so tender.   But you see, I am lazy!  And I just flat out didn’t want to cut up all that meat.  So I bought “stew beef” and called it a day.  Worked like a charm!

Next, slice up those peppers and onions that I forgot to take a picture of when they were still whole.  But I’m fairly sure y’all have seen a whole onion and a whole bell pepper before so you know what they look like.  So I think we’re safe! 

Open the package(s) of meat into a mixing bowl.  Add flour and seasonings to the meat.  For this, I chose Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Pepper blend.  But it’s not rocket science.  If you have a favorite spice blend, by all means, use that instead!  And share with ME what you did because I always like new ideas for new flavors!

Next you’ll want to heat some oil in a Dutch oven.  Use whatever oil you like:  canola, vegetable, olive, whatever.  Get it screaming hot and then add the floured meat to the pot.  Continue stirring it around until it’s browned completely.

Once the meat is browned, add Worcestershire sauce to the meat.  I have a sick, twisted love affair with Worcestershire sauce!  I LOVE the stuff!  So naturally, I was pretty heavy-handed with it!

Now add the garlic and those peppers and onions.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much I adore smelling peppers and onions cooking.  Smells like LOVE, man!  YUM!!!!!

Now sprinkle in the packet of Beefy Onion Soup Mix.

Then pour the gravy over it all. 

Stir it all up.  Let it simmer.  While it’s simmering, make your favorite rice blend.  Personally, I really like a long-grain and wild rice blend to go with this.  But white rice, brown rice, basmati rice or whatever you like would be fine.  It would also be good served over mashed potatoes or a big pile of egg noodles.

I also failed to include fresh parsley in the “what you need” photo at the beginning.  But right before you plan to serve it, add a healthy handful of chopped fresh parsley.  I can’t tell you how much bright flavor fresh parsley adds to a dish!  You’ve got to try it for yourself!

Please excuse the lack of flash in this photo.  Not sure what happened, but I didn’t load the pictures on the computer until after this meal was LONG gone, so I couldn’t go back and take another picture to better capture how delicious this really looked.  SORRY! 

As you can see, I served it with some broccoli and cheese because Ankle Biter #2 could eat broccoli and cheese EVERY single meal of his life.  And I also served some roasted carrots, which is one of my all-time EVER favorite side dishes.  But this would be good with so many things!  Mashed Potatoes and English Peas.  Green Beans with Corn-on-the-Cob.  A Mixed Vegetable Casserole and a big salad………the possibilities are endless!!!! 

Beef Tips & Gravy

*  2 pounds stew beef or sirloin steak (cut into bite-sized pieces)

*  1 cup flour

*  1 Tbsp. Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Pepper

*  1 large onion, sliced

*  1 large bell pepper, sliced

*  2 cans beef gravy

*  3 Tsbp. Worcestershire sauce

*  3 cloves fresh garlic, minced or 1 Tbsp.  minced garlic

*  1 packet Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix

*  fresh parsley

Slice pepper and onion into small slivers.  If using sirloin steak, cut into bite-sized pieces.  Once meat is in bite-sized pieces, place in a mixing bowl and add flour and Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Pepper.  Make sure all pieces of meat are well-coated with flour.  Heat oil in a Dutch oven or deep skillet.  Saute meat in oil until browned on all sides.  Add Worcestershire sauce, garlic, peppers and onions, and packet of soup mix.  Stir into meat.  Add gravy and simmer on low 1 hour.  Immediately before serving, add fresh parsley.  Serve over rice of choice.

And if that doesn’t warm your bones, they can’t be warmed!  A perfect meal for a cold winter day when you need something warm and comforting!  Enjoy!

Bourbon Chicken

Alright, now, all you good Christian teetotalers don’t come unglued on me!  I’m not going to corrupt you with that evil  “sauce!”  Bourbon Chicken is so named for Bourbon Street in New Orleans, not for the liquor.  You’ll probably find some recipes out there that DO use actual liquor in the sauce.  But mine doesn’t.  So y’all don’t be condemning and hatin’ on me now!

Those of you who have been around here with me for a while know about a little place I used to hang out online called “Moms Online.”  Unfortunately, Moms Online has been defunct for several years now.  ***a moment of silence please***  It was a wonderful place for moms (and some dads and some non-moms/parents altogether) to gather and chat about a little bit of everything from baby names to crockpot cooking to spilling their true confessions.  It was a lot like a family, really. 

Out of that family was born lots of magnificent recipes that got passed around between us all.  I truly credit Moms Online and the fabulous family of friends I made there for making me a “try me” cook.  Before I found Moms Online, I was a decent cook.  But I was just a plain ole Southern cook until then.  I cooked what I’d grown up eating.  And that’s pretty much it.  But at Moms Online, folks gathered from across the WORLD!  We had ladies from Australia, England, New Zealand…….and some REALLY exotic foreign lands like New York City and Seattle and Salt Lake City and Washington, DC  and Denver and well, you get the picture!  I was a little ole Southern girl without much culinary experience outside the South.

But Moms Online changed all that for me!  It brought me recipes I’d never heard of, seen or thought of!  One of those was this Bourbon Chicken.  Unfortunately, I can’t recall who orginally shared this recipe, so if you’re out there, step up and take credit!  I’d LOVE to give you credit for such a marvelous dish!

Let’s make some!  Here’s what you’ll need:

I had already cut up the chicken before it dawned on me to make the “Here’s what you’ll need picture!”  So obviously, if you’re going to be making Bourbon CHICKEN, it would probably be helpful to have some chicken!  However, I HAVE made this with cubed pork loin and it’s every bit as good!  Just make sure you have some meat or this recipe won’t be anything but a mighty tasty sauce. 

Cube the chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Cook the chicken in a little oil before adding the sauce ingredients. 

Now add all other ingredients except the cornstarch and water.  Simmer 20 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch and water together and stir until smooth.  Add to the sauce to thicken.  And here’s what you end up with.  I guarantee you the delightful aroma will just about knock you down! 

Bourbon Chicken

*  2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in bite-sized pieces

*  3 Tbsp. olive or canola oil

*  3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced

*  1-2 tsp. fresh ginger, grated on a fine microplane

*  1/2-1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

*  1/2 cup apple juice

*  1/2 cup brown sugar

*  1/4 cup ketchup

*  2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

*  1/2 cup soy sauce

*  1 Tbsp. cornstarch

*  1/2 cup water

Cube chicken into bite-sized pieces.  Heat oil in a Dutch oven or skillet deep enough to cook chicken and then make sauce.  Once chicken is cooked through, add all ingredients except water and cornstarch.  Simmer 20 minutes.  Mix cornstarch with cold water.  Bring sauce to a boil and then add cornstarch and water.  Cook until sauce is thickened.

I like to serve this over plain white rice.  But it would also be good with fried rice or most any rice blend.  The Tall Skinny Man is quite averse to rice, so I usually make him noodles of some kind.  Add some stir-fried vegetables and you’ve got a complete meal! 

I can’t truly tell you just how flavorful and delicious this is!  You simply have to try it!  The sauce is amazing!  I hope you’ll give it a try!  If you’re like I was back then…….in a cooking rut because you always fix the same old things over and over again, this would make a nice addition to your meal plans! 

Enjoy!  Have a fabulous day!

Caprese Salad

Insalata Caprese………doesn’t that just sound pretty?  That’s the “real” name for this salad.  It means “salad in the style of Capri.”  It’s a very simple salad from the southern Italian region of Campania.  Traditionally it is made with sliced fresh mozzarella cheese, plum tomatoes, basil and just a little salt, pepper and olive oil.

I first had this salad at Buca di Beppo.  Their salad also included some amazing roasted peppers.  Not long after I tasted it for the first time, my brother tasted it while on vacation in France.  He came home just raving about this fabulous salad. 

So I set out to make it.  Now let me just say that this dish would be SOOOOOOOOOO much better made in the summer with super fresh tomatoes straight off the vine and my own home-grown basil.  But it just happens I tried to turn this into a nice little appetizer for our Christmas Eve festivities.  So this dish wasn’t made with fresh summer ingredients.  It was made with items I got at Whole Foods.  Sometimes you just have to punt.

And, as per my usual, I can never leave “well enough” alone.  I tinkered with the recipe a bit.  So instead of being a southern Italian dish, it turned into Amy’s Southwestern Tennessee Salad.  ha!

Here’s how I made it for an appetizer:

Instead of using sliced fresh mozzarella and sliced plum tomatoes, I used miniature fresh mozzarella balls and grape tomatoes.  I also use balsamic vinegar in my Caprese Salad.  I just LOVE the flavor of balsamic vinegar!  Now y’all excuse the fact that I made this photo on top of a Christmas present! 

I lined the mozzarella balls and grape tomatoes up in the dish in a checkerboard pattern.  I thought this would make a really pretty presentation since I was making it for Christmas eve.  But this would also make a pretty presentation for Valentine’s Day!  Or because it’s Tuesday…….

Next I sprinkled it all with fresh-cracked pepper.  If you NEVER, EVER listen to me about using fresh-cracked pepper, PLEASE listen to me this time!  I promise you that it makes all the difference in the world! 

Then I sprinkled the fresh basil over it all.  I apologize for not demonstrating how to make a basil chiffonade.  Simply put, you stack each basil leaf on top of the next, then roll them up jellyroll-style.  Once they’re rolled up, make thin slices off the end until you’ve got beautiful little ribbons of basil.  Be generous with the basil!  Fresh basil is unbelievably aromatic!

I mixed equal amounts of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil together.  This was approximately 1/4 cup of each.  You don’t want to drown the salad, just give it a nice coating of the dressing.

Pour the dressing over the salad.

And this is what you end up with. 

It is so simple!  And according to the Tall Skinny Man and Unk, it’s delicious! 

This would make a maginificent accompaniment to grilled chicken or steak.  It’s good alongside fettucini alfredo.  Or it’s good as a little appetizer before the big meal. 

My family really enjoys this!  I hope you do too!  And for all the real Italians out there, please don’t hate me for tinkering with your recipe by adding the balsamic vinegar!  We just all happen to really LOVE balsamic vinegar!  And for all you non-Italians out there who don’t love balsamic vinegar like we do, feel free to omit that part.  But just make sure you use a really high-quality olive oil because this salad will only be as good as the quality of your ingredients!

Have a great day!  It’s yucky, rainy and cold here in my part of the world today!  Hopefully a new recipe will bring a little sunshine!

Ford Hill Chicken And Rice

I was recently craving some beef tips and rice……..um, and as you can see from the title of this entry, BEEF is not what I ended up with.  While I was in the friendly neighborhood Kroger, I noticed they had chicken on sale and being the cheapskate I am, I decided chicken and rice would work nicely thankyouverymuch.  So no beef tips this time.  I’ll save that one for another day!

While I was standing there at the meat case, I began pondering what I was going to do with this chicken once I had it home to make it satisfy my craving.  And I began to formulate a recipe in my head.

I came up with what I’m calling Ford Hill Chicken and Rice………so named for this little hill I call home.  It mostly just kind of morphed from various other recipes I had floating around in my head.  I always have various recipes floating around and formulating in my head. 

And it turned into a pretty doggone good meal, if I do say so myself!  Now let me give a little disclaimer here.  I have photos of the process.  The problem is, they were taken with my new camera before I had a good operational understanding of it.  Flash not functioning and such……….yeah, I’m not much for reading instructions manuals.  I’m more a trial and error kind of gal.  And unfortunately for you all, these photos are more error than anything.  But they ARE photos!  So just bear with me!

Y’all forgive me for not making a “This is what you’ll need” photo!  I was in such a tizzy over having a new camera that I just didn’t think to do it before I started using everything up.  I remembered part of the way through and made some partial “this is what you’ll need” photos.

So let’s just dive right in, shall we?

Start by cutting up 1 1/2-2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts:

Cut it into bite-sized pieces. 

Once you get the chicken cut up, you’ll need a bowl, some flour, Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt and the “chicken seasoning” of your choice.  I really like this grinder blend I found at Sam’s.  It’s fairly inexpensive and packed with HUGE flavor!

Put the cubed chicken into the bowl with the flour and seasonings.  Toss the chicken around in the flour to evenly coat it.

Heat oil in a deep skillet or Dutch oven.

Stir-fry the chicken in the oil.

While the chicken is cooking, assemble these other ingredients you’ll need.

Then slice up some bell peppers and onions too.  Make sure to use a different cutting board and knife than you used to cut up the chicken!   You don’t want to make anybody sick!

Add the onions, bell peppers and some minced garlic to the chicken.  Stir into the chicken until well-combined.

Add the jar of pimientos and the packet of  Golden Onion soup mix.

Now add the gravy. 

Stir in sour cream.

Add some fresh cracked pepper.

Just before serving, add chopped fresh parsley.

Please excuse my poor photography…….But I served this with some of Aunt Dee’s fabulous Napa Cabbage Salad on the side.  Unfortunately, due to my not-so-great photography, this doesn’t look all that appealing!  But I promise, this meal got some of the biggest raves I’ve had in a long time!  Unk went absolutely WILD over this chicken! 

Ford Hill Chicken & Rice

*  1 1/1-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed into bite-sized pieces

*  1 large onion, sliced into slivers

*  1 large green bell pepper, sliced into slivers

*  2 cans chicken gravy

*  1 packet Golden Onion soup mix

*  1 small jar pimientos

*  1 cup sour cream

*  1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

*  1 1/2 tsp. fresh cracked pepper

*  1 cup flour

*  1 Tbsp. Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt

*  1 Tbsp. chicken seasoning

*  1 Tbsp. minced garlic

*  1 cup canola oil

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.  Place in bowl with flour, mixed up salt and chicken seasoning.  Toss well to coat chicken.  Heat oil over medium-high heat in a deep skillet or Dutch oven.  Add chicken to pan and stir-fry until done.  While chicken is cooking, cut up pepper and onion.  Once chicken is cooked through (approximately 15 minutes, depending on the size of the chunks) add pepper and onion along with garlic to the pan.  Stir well.  Add pimientos and onion soup mix.  Stir in gravy.  Add sour cream and stir until well-combined.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Add fresh parsley just before serving.  Serve over rice of your choice.

This is truly one of the best meals we’ve had in a while because it wasn’t the “same old-same old!”  It was a little different than our “normal” fare around here.  Even Ankle Biter #2 who is my “picky” eater enjoyed it!  Mind you, he’s picky compared to his older brother and the rest of us, but not picky compared to your typical kid.  At any rate, this ended up being a wonderful meal!

Some suggestions for good side dishes to this would be oven-roasted carrots, good old Southern-style green beans or sauteed green beans, or most any kind of salad.  However you decide to serve it, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

A new year has arrived!  It’s hard to believe that 2008 could really already be GONE!  It seems like it was just yesterday that we were ringing it in.  But here we are with a whole new year to start all over again.

To me, the new year is like starting with a clean slate.  A “do-over,” if you will! 

One of the things happening here for New Year’s is some home improvement.  You see, Tall Skinny Man, the Ankle Biters and I live in the home that was my Daddy’s.  He built this house in the early 80’s.  And he built it little by little with my brother. 

We’ve lived her for 9 years now since Daddy passed away.  Shortly after we moved here, we were tossing laundry downstairs on a Sunday morning to get a load started before heading off to church.  Ankle Biter #1 was about 4 and was heading down the stairs in front of me.  With the laundry at the bottom of the stairs, I couldn’t see the last 3 or so steps and missed them entirely.  When I realized I was going to fall, I gave AB#1 a shove because I thought a shove would hurt him a lot less than Two-Ton Tessie falling on him and smushing him.  Long story short, I ended up with a trip to the ER instead of a trip to church that morning.  And I spent the better part of the next 6 weeks in one of those fancy strappy boot thingies.  Joy!

At that point, TSM determined it might not be wise for me to do the trotting up and down the stairs to do the laundry since I’m so incredibly graceful.  So he’s done the vast majority of the laundry since then for fear I’d take another tumble down the stairs trying to do it myself. 

The problem with all that is that TSM works.  And I work.  And we both work very long hours.  And laundry piles up with 2 Ankle Biters who have absolutely NO concept of putting away clean laundry and not letting it mingle back in with the dirty laundry.  And who also have absolutely NO concept of wearing just one suit of clothes in a 24-hour span of time.  And they say GIRLS are bad about changing clothes!  As IF!   So we generate a hideous amount of laundry in this house!  And it usually takes an entire weekend to get it all completed.

For some time now, I’ve wanted to move the laundry room to the upper floor of the house.  And it’s just not happened.  I’ve also been jonesing for some of those groovy front-loading washer/dryer machines.  So at long last, I finally ordered my front-loading machines!  But who wants to banish such nice, new machines to the basement?!

So we have begun the destruction of what was the stairwell leading to our basement.  That area will now become my new laundry room.  My brother is going to build a solid floor in there and just close off the stairs to the basement.  Since it’s used primarily for storage at this point, we can just go outside to get down there instead of having the stairs.  I’d rather go outside to get something out of storage than trot up and down a flight of stairs for every load of laundy.

Here’s what we did at our house yesterday:

Lovely, no?  Deconstruction at its best!  This used to be just a nice little stairwell that housed my portable dishwasher, a china closet and the vast majority of items one would normally find in a pantry.  But since I don’t have a pantry, this room pretty much served in that capacity.

That yucky, funky carpet?  That’s what was in the stairwell!  EWWWWWWWWW!  After 28 years or so, it was getting MIGHTY gross!

I can’t wait to see it with a floor in it!  As it is right now, I’m absolutely TERRIFIED to even walk out there due to there being no rail to keep me from falling down the stairs.  So hopefully soon, it will begin to take shape!  I’ll keep you posted as the construction progresses.

What does all this have to do with food and cooking?  Well, not a darn thing!  But this room is just off my kitchen so now I’ll be able to do a load of laundry when I’m cooking dinner at night instead of it all piling up and having to wait until the weekend when we have time to do all that stair-trotting. 

But with a new year starting today, I thought I would share what will be new at my house for the new year.  I hope this big improvement at my house is just one of MANY to come this new year!  For all of us!  Have a happy, blessed 2009!  May we all wake up this time next year and be better people for the year we’ve just finished!

Baked Ziti

I LOVE Christmas!  I do!  I really do!  But I’m SOOOOOOOOOO tired of eating “Christmas food!”  It’s wonderful when it’s Christmas.  It’s even wonderful the day or two afterwards.  But I’m ready for some everyday food!

While fiddling around on Facebook a day or so after Christmas, someone mentioned spaghetti.  And I LOVE me some spaghetti.  But it hadn’t been that long since we’d had it.  So I wasn’t in the mood to fix that.  So I started thinking along those lines.  Spaghetti, Baked Spaghetti, Lasagna, Baked Ziti……… AHA!  That’s it!  Baked Ziti!  I hadn’t made it in ages!  So I decided that’s what we needed to have!

If you enjoy spaghetti and lasagna and such, you’ll love Baked Ziti!  It’s kind of a mix between the two really.  Very similar to both!  And a dish full of ooey, gooey goodness!!!!!!!

Let’s start out with what you’ll need:

Ground chuck, fresh flat-leaf parsley, cottage cheese (I used fat-free), shredded mozzarella and fresh parmesan cheeses, a bag of seasoning blend (or chop your own if you’re not lazy like me!), ziti pasta, and canned tomatoes, both diced and crushed.

You’ll also need minced garlic, some Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning from Sam’s and some fresh-cracked pepper.

Start out by putting your ground chuck into a pan with the seasoning blend and browning it up.  When you start this, also put a large pot of water on to boil for your pasta.  Make sure to add some salt and a little oil to the water to keep your pasta from sticking together.

Once the water begins to boil, add the ziti to the water.  Boil the pasta about 7-8 minutes.  You don’t want to overcook the pasta because this is going into the oven to bake once it’s finished on the stove.  And overcooked pasta is mushy and gross!

While the meat is browning and the pasta is boiling, start mixing up the cottage cheese mixture.  Pour the cottage cheese into a mixing bowl.  Add the garlic, fresh-cracked pepper and chopped parsley to the cottage cheese.

Next add the freshly grated parmesan cheese to the cottage cheese.

Mix it all up and set it aside until you’re ready to start assembling the casserole.

By now, your pasta should be ready.  Drain it and put it back into the pot you used to cook it……unless you REALLY love to wash dishes and want to dirty up another bowl to mix the pasta and cottage cheese together.  And if you DO happen to LOVE to wash dishes, would you please come live at my house?  I’ll feed you REALLY well!

Mix the cottage cheese into the pasta.

YUM!  It would be good just like this!  But wait!  We’re going to make it better!  WAY mo’ better!

Now that you’ve got the pasta and cottage cheese mixed up, drain the cooked beef and rinse it before returning it to the pan you used to cook it in.

Add the garlic and spicy spaghetti seasoning to the meat.

Now add the tomatoes and stir it all up.

Oh my gravy!  Would you look at that!?!??!?!  Just let the meat simmer a few minutes and it will make your house smell something akin to Heaven!

While the meat sauce is simmering, pour the pasta into a baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Now top the pasta with the meat sauce.

Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese on top before baking.

And when the oven finishes with your glorious little dish, this is what you get!

So let’s eat!  YUMMMMMMMMMM! 

This is just good, honest food!  Nothing fancy.  Nothing pretentious!  Just good.  It feeds the tummy and it feeds the heart and soul! 

Baked Ziti

*  1 1/2 -2 pounds ground chuck

*  1 bag seasoning blend

*  1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

*  1-15 0z. can petite diced tomatoes

*  1 lg. tub cottage cheese

*  1-8 oz. bag shredded mozzarella cheese

*  1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

*  1 handful fresh parsley, chopped

*  2 Tbsp. garlic, minced (divided)

* 3 Tbsp. Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning

*  1 Tbsp. pepper, fresh-cracked

Brown ground chuck with seasoning blend.  Drain and rinse meat once it is browned.  Once the meat is drained, add it back to the pan you cooked it in.  Add 1 Tbsp. garlic and spicy spaghetti seasoning to it.  Now add the tomatoes and stir.  Simmer the meat sauce 20 minutes.

Boil pasta and drain.  Mix cottage cheese with remaining garlic, parsley and black pepper to taste.  If you like more parsley, use more.  If you like just a little, by all means, use some dried instead of buying a whole big bunch of fresh.  Once you have all the spices mixed into the cottage cheese, mix it with the drained pasta.

Before you start assembling the casserole, make sure to spray your baking dish with non-stick spray.  Start by adding the pasta to the bottom of the dish.  Top with the meat sauce and finish by sprinkling with mozzarella cheese.

Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven approximately 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the casserole is bubbly.  Serve hot.

I kept it very simple with this meal.  We’ve eaten so many huge meals over the last few days due to the holidays that I served it with just garlic bread.  But you could certainly add a salad and have a very nice “company” meal. 

However you dish it up, serve it with love!  Enjoy!

Monte Cristo Strata

Christmas is literally just hours away now!  It’s wicked cold here in TN.  We woke up to a nippy 11° this morning with a wind chill of -2°.  That’s just insane for us here in the South!  But as the old saying goes, if you don’t like the weather here, wait a minute…….we’re supposed to be back up to nearly 60° for Christmas day!  Again……INSANE!  Not that the weather has ANYTHING to do with today’s recipe!  I just wanted to complain about the cold a minute!  Thanks for indulging me.

So I thought I’d share another good breakfast/brunch idea with you this morning.  I really enjoy breakfast casseroles.  This casserole is a “strata.”  It’s similar to a quiche in that it has lots of eggs and is baked.  And for those who aren’t that big a fan of eggs ***raising hand*** this is a good alternative to plain old scrambled eggs.  There’s so much other action that the eggs are mostly camouflaged.  Which to me, is a good thing!  I’m not a huge fan of eggs for the most part.

Let’s build this thing, shall we?  It’s not going to build and cook itself! 

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

Bread of choice, sliced ham, eggs, milk, Dijon mustard, minced garlic and sliced Swiss cheese.  Other ingredients could include:  onions, red and/or green bell peppers, roasted red peppers, smoked turkey and pepper jack cheese.  You could really turn this into anything you wanted it to be by changing up the ingredients.

Break 4-6 eggs in a bowl.  If you’re making a large pan (9″x13″, I would  recommend you use 6 eggs.  If you’re using a small baking dish, 4 will be fine.)

Add a Tablespoon of minced garlic to the eggs.  If you really like garlic, add more.  If you’re a vampire and garlic offends you, just leave it out.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I never add salt because the ham and cheese make it plenty salty for me.  But if you don’t suffer from hypertension like me, by all means, add some salt.  And as y’all know, I prefer fresh cracked pepper, so that’s what I’ll add.  You could also add some minced dried onion, crushed red pepper, smoky paprika, or any other spice or herb that cranks your tractor. 

Now add a healthy squirt of Dijon mustard.  Y’all forgive me for not turning the bottle of mustard around in the photo so it could be read.  I’m still trying to get the hang of this food photography thing!  What’s a healthy squirt, you ask?  Um, well, I don’t know.  I like it where I can actually TASTE the mustard.  So if I had to venture a guess, I’d say at least 1/4 cup.  But that is strictly a guesstimate on my part.

There’s my “healthy” squirt of mustard and my very healthy dose of freshly cracked pepper.  Now here’s a little secret…..when y’all weren’t looking (translation:  when I decided to dump it in and forgot to take pictures) I added some crushed red pepper flakes and dried minced onion.  I just thought the pepper looked awfully lonely and needed some of its friends from the spice cabinet. 

Add a cup of milk……or heavy whipping cream if you’re not fat like me or half and half or evaporated milk.  Any of those will work nicely. 

Before you lay the bread in the bottom of the dish, don’t foget to spray it with non-stick cooking spray.  If you don’t, you’ll still be scrubbing your baking dish at Valentine’s day.  Once you’ve given it a good spray, lay the bread in a single layer in the bottom of the dish.

Add a layer of sliced ham on top of the bread.  Really layer it on!  It’s Christmas!  No need to be stingy!  You can do Weight Watchers with me in a couple weeks!  For now, put the pig in the pan!  It’s all good!

Top the ham layer with Swiss cheese.  Again, be generous.  If you prefer another cheese to Swiss, it won’t hurt my feelings or the ham’s if you add it instead of Swiss!  A nice sharp cheddar would be equally good. 

Keep repeating layers until you get to the top of your dish.  End with a layer of bread.

Whisk the egg/milk/spice mixture well and then pour over the bread.  Make sure the top layer gets completely saturated.  You don’t want any dry places.  It makes it hard and crunchy.

It’s ready for the oven now!  Cover the dish with foil.  Put in a pre-heated 350° oven.  Bake for 25-30 minutes covered.  Take the foil off and bake an additional 25-30 minutes uncovered to brown up the top.  The key is making sure it’s “set.”  If you see any loose egg, bake it another few minutes.  You don’t want to serve the family raw eggs for Christmas breakfast. 

Top with remaining cheese and put it back in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.

And in about 2 minutes, this is what you’ll have!  Ooey gooey cheesey goodness in a dish!  ***eyes rolling back in the head*** 

Just look at all that melty cheese. 

Monte Cristo Strata

*  Sliced bread

*  4-6 eggs, beaten

*  1 cup milk

*  1 Tbsp. minced garlic

*  salt and pepper to taste

*  Dijon mustard, to taste

*  16 0z. pkg. sliced deli ham

*  2 pkg. sliced Swiss cheese

Mix eggs, milk, mustard and spices together.  Layer bread, ham and cheese in baking dish.  Pour eggs over the top.  Cover dish with foil.  Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven for 25-30 minutes.  Take foil off and bake an additional 25-30 minutes or until eggs are completely set.  Top with remaining cheese and return to oven about 2 minutes or until cheese melts.  Serve hot.

I’d like thank my friend Jenny in Colorado for the original recipe for this.  I’ve tweaked and tinkered with it over the years.  But the original recipe belongs to Jenny. 

This dish would be a fabulous one-hit wonder for Christmas morning.  Or it would be great with a pile of fruit beside it or even some of yesterday’s Sausage Hashbrown Casserole.  However you serve it, I hope you and your family enjoy it!

Merry Christmas!

Sausage Hashbrown Casserole

So Christmas is nearly here!  Just a few days to go now!  Today, I’d like to share a Christmas tradition with you…….my family and I get up before the crack of dawn on Christmas morning to open gifts.  When I say before the crack of dawn, I mean before the very butt-crack of dawn!  It’s EARLY!  Like, um, 3:00AM……… IF I can keep the Tall Skinny Man in the bed and NOT waking up the Ankle Biters before that!  So we get up and we unwrap gifts and enjoy a little time looking at what we all got.  Then we get up and start breakfast.  A HUGE  breakfast has been our Christmas tradition for my entire life.  It’s just changed a bit over the years.

Christmas doesn’t “look” like it used to for us.  We used to get up that early, then go to my Moma’s house by 5 AM to do Christmas there.  Then we were at my Granny’s by 7 AM to eat breakfast at her house.  You can’t even wrap your head around all the food she would have for breakfast!  She made all the biscuits homemade……probably 10 dozen of them!  No joke!  Then it was to my Daddy’s house by 9 AM for Christmas there.  On to my Pa John’s (my Daddy’s Daddy) for Christmas there with him and my Daddy’s brother and sisters and their families.  We ate a big lunch there before proceeding BACK to my Granny’s to have Christmas supper there with all of my Moma’s brothers and sisters and their families.  It was a joy! 

Most of those folks have gone home to be with the Lord now.  So it’s just my brother and me for Christmas.  And we get up and cook this insanely huge breakfast for just the 7 of us!  Hopefully this year, we’ll have 8 with my nephew’s sweet little girlfriend.  But it’s just 8 people and we have this ginormous spread of food!  But our ginormous doesn’t hold a candle to the size of the breakfast at our Granny’s from years gone by.  But Unk sure can come awfully close to Granny’s homemade biscuits! 

My nephew is a picky, picky, PICKY eater.  But he LOVES the casserole I’m going to share with you today.  It’s a recipe my Aunt Ann, my mom’s baby sister shared with me several years ago.  I’ve tweaked it and made it my own over the years.  And it’s something that our “new” Christmas breakfast wouldn’t be complete without.

So let’s get started.  Here’s what you’ll need:

Frozen Hashbrowns (shredded or cubed worked equally well), Frozen Seasoning Blend (a mixture of chopped onions, bell peppers and celery), sage, black pepper, cream of mushroom soup, garlic, milk, sharp cheddar cheese and sausage (I prefer to use the one with sage or the hot, but it’s up to you which one you and your family prefer.)

Start with the hashbrowns in a large bowl.  You’ll need one big enough to be able to stir it all up! 

 

Next, brown the sausage in a skillet.

Break it up as you brown it so the pieces will be fairly small and not in large chunks.

Back to the hashbrowns, add the bag of seasoning blend to the potatoes.

Add the sage to the potato mixture.  If you have fresh sage, it’s preferred, but right now, all my fresh herbs are freshly DEAD.  So I had to use dried sage.

Next add fresh cracked pepper.  If you don’t have a pepper grinder, you can use plain old pepper from your pepper shaker.  I just happen to prefer freshly cracked peppercorns.

 

Now add minced garlic.  I really prefer the fresh for this too, but this time of year, my garlic seems to go bad as quickly as I bring it home from the friendly neighborhood Kroger.  So it’s just easier to buy a big bucket of already minced from Sam’s.  Whatever works, huh?

Add a can of cream of mushroom soup.  Now if you’re opposed to mushrooms or allergic or whatever, cream of “whatever” soup will work just fine here.  Personally, I LOATHE fungal units.  But they’re so tiny in this, I can tolerate it.  But cream of celery or potato would be just as good!   Once you dump the soup in, fill the can with milk and swish around in the can to loosen the remainder of the soup.  Now pour it into the bowl.

Add the shredded cheese.

 

 Now add the drained sausage to the bowl.  You’re ready to mix it all up.

All mixed up and ready to go into the baking dish.

Be sure to spray your baking dish with non-stick spray!  You’ll be glad you did later!  Now add the casserole into your pan of choice.  Bake it for 45 minutes in a pre-heated 350° oven.

And when it’s finished in the oven, this is what you’ll have.

And now you’re ready to eat!  YUMMMMMMM!  This goes great alongside a quiche or waffles or biscuits and gravy or just by itself! 

Sausage Hashbrown Casserole

*  1 large bag frozen hashbrowns

*  1 bag frozen seasoning blend

*  1 can cream of celery soup

*  1 can milk

*  1-8 oz. bag shredded sharp cheddar cheese

*  Garlic, sage and black pepper to taste

*  salt, to taste

*  1 pound sausage, browned and drained

Open hashbrowns and seasoning blend and pour into a large mixing bowl.  Add spices, soup, milk and cheese.  Brown sausage and break up into small pieces.  Drain well.  Add to potato mixture.  Stir until well combined.  Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven for 45 minutes.  Serve hot.

And that’s a part of our Christmas morning breakfast tradition!  I wanted to share a little of our tradition with you and yours!  I hope the next few days of Christmas preparation are full of fun and joy and the magic we all love at this time of year!  Merry Christmas!