Chicken Salad

Today was the kickoff at my library for our summer reading program and I decided that to celebrate that by throwing together a pot-luck at work.  One of my contributions was chicken salad.  It's a super short and easy recipe, but very tasty.  To make it, you'll need: ~3 C cooked chicken; 1/4 C dried cranberries; 1/2 C diced celery; 3 Tbsp diced red onion; 1 diced apple; 1/4 C chopped toasted pecans; 6 Tbsp (or so) mayonnaise; 2 tsp lemon juice; 1/4 tsp salt; 1/8 tsp black pepper.

Just get yourself a rotisserie chicken; it's so much simpler that way

Either chop up or shred your chicken into little bits and combine it with the cranberries, celery, red onion, apple, and toasted pecans.

Like so

In a little bowl, combine the mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.  Stir it into the chicken until it's all nicely mixed (add more mayo if you need it).  And you're done!

Ta-da!

The only "difficult" part is all the prep work, especially chopping up the onion.  That always makes my eyes water something fierce.  Anyway, you can serve this alone, on rolls or crackers, or, my favorite, on banana bread!

Heaven on a plate

I've got a pretty good recipe and Panera has a great recipe for peanut butter banana bread.  I know it might sound a little weird, but trust me: chicken salad and banana bread go great together.

Paella

This holiday season, Dad was able to get Mom to make his favoritest-ever dish: paella.  It's not a very traditional paella recipe, but it is incredibly tasty.  And also kind of expensive, so you might want to save this one for special occasions.
To make it, you'll need: 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless, chicken thighs; 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil; 2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes; 1 1/2 C Arborio rice; 3 C chicken broth; 2 Tbsp salt; 8 oz sea scallops; 1 lb fish cut up into chunks (Mom used grouper); 4 oz pimento; 1 15 oz can artichoke hearts; 14 oz raw shrimp; 9 tsp paprika; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 1/4 tsp red pepper; 1/8 tsp saffron; 4 oz sliced onions; 10 oz frozen peas; 6 rock lobster tails (if desired).

All this, minus the fruit, plus the peas and onion, which I forgot to get out.

In a heavy large pot or dutch oven, heat up the olive oil and brown the chicken.  Remove the chicken once it's browned and pour off any excess fat.
Add the onion and tomatoes to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is tender.  Stir in the rice, chicken broth, salt, paprika, black and red pepper, and saffron and then add the chicken back into the pot.

Let this come to a boil, then cover tightly, lower the heat, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
When that's done, gently stir in the shrimp, fish, scallops, and peas.

Cover it back up and let it simmer for another 15 minutes.
Now gently stir in the artichoke hearts and pimento, and continue to cook until it's all heated through.

If you're also having lobster tails, go ahead and throw them in a pot of boiling water while your artichoke and pimento is cooking, for about 5 minutes, or until the lobster meat is opaque.

And you're really done!  You can serve this right from the pot, or you can dish it up on a big paella dish and put your lobster tails on top, all fancy-like.

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo (done the easy way)

I've been kind of remiss in posting things this summer, due to a killer combination of the awful southern summer heat and the fact that my apartment isn't climate controlled.  I've got a couple of window units, but the kitchen has been around 90 degrees for the last month or so, which makes it awfully difficult to motivate myself to cook anything.  This weekend was a little bit cooler (it was only 87 degrees in my kitchen!) so I decided I'd try something pretty easy: chicken and broccoli alfredo.  There's not much actual cooking involved and it makes enough leftovers to give me lunch for most of the rest of the week.  All you need for this is a rotisserie chicken, broccoli, a couple of jars of alfredo sauce, and a box of pasta.

Cut up your broccoli into bite-sized pieces and boil it for about 5 minutes.  Shred up your chicken and add that, the cooked broccoli, and the alfredo sauce to a large pan.

Warm all this up over low to medium heat until it all heated through.  While you're doing that, go ahead and cook the pasta as directed on the box.  Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and return it to the pot.  As soon as your sauce is hot, pour it over the pasta in the pot and stir it all up so it's nicely mixed.

And that's it!  The sauce might seem like you've got too much, but if you plan on having a lot of leftovers and you don't have the extra sauce, your pasta will be kind of dry when you reheat it.  And having made this many many times before, I can tell you it does make for good leftovers.

That's it for this quick recipe.  Stay tuned for next time when I make homemade brownies!

Goulash

Normally on Easter, I like to have a delicious boiled ham dinner made by my mom.  Sadly, that hasn't happened for the last several years, what with my folks living several hundred miles away and all.  Rather than make that myself, which would result in about a ton of leftover ham (you need a good sized ham for it to turn out really well), I decided to try something new: goulash (which also resulted in a ton of leftovers).  This is another slow cooker recipe, which means the only very busy parts happen at the beginning, assembling the ingredients, and at the end to finish it off.  The middle part involves mostly just hanging around playing through the fantastic Bioshock Infinite.

What you'll need for this recipe includes: 1 1/2-2 lbs stew meat, but into 3/4-inch cubes; 1/2 C beef broth; 3 Tbs paprika; 1 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp caraway seeds; 1/4 tsp pepper; 3 onions, chopped; 2 cloves of garlic, chopped; 1 14.5-oz can whole tomatoes (undrained); 1/4 C cold water; 2 Tbsp flour; 6 C cooked noodles.

Goulash fixin's!

In a large skillet, cook the meat over medium heat until it's browned (about 5 minutes or so).  Drain and transfer to the slow cooker.  Now mix in everything else except for the water, flour, and noodles.  Break up the tomatoes a bit with a fork, too (and watch out, because they will squirt you!).

Put the cover on and set to low heat for 8-9 hours.  At the end of that time, shake up the flour and water in a tightly covered container, and stir the mixture in to the rest of the stuff.  Re-cover and turn the heat up to high for 10-20 minutes, until the whole thing thickens up.  While that's going on, cook the noodles.  Serve the goulash over the noodles, and you're done!

Meatloaf

This week, we're doing meatloaf!  No, no, wait!  Come back!  Contrary to what sitcoms tell us, meatloaf, if done right, can actually be very good.  For this one, you'll need: 1/2 C plain bread crumbs; 1/2 C milk; 1 lb ground beef; 1 lb ground pork; 1 egg, beaten; 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese; 1/4 C chopped parsley; 1 tsp minced garlic; 1/2 an onion, chopped; 1 pinch dried sage; salt and pepper; 4 slices bacon.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and greased a rimmed cookie sheet.  In a large bowl, combine the milk and bread crumbs, letting the crumbs soak up the milk for about 5 minutes or so.  Now add in the beef, pork, egg, cheese, parsley, garlic, onion, sage, and some salt and pepper.  Mix it all together with your hands just until it's all pretty evenly distributed.  Don't overmix or you'll end up with a meat rock instead of meatloaf.

Turn your meat pile out onto the greased cookie sheet and mold it so it's kind of loaf-shaped.

Drape the bacon over the top, tucking the ends underneath the meatloaf.

Bake this in the oven for 45-60 minutes.  It'll be done when it's browned and no longer squishy and a meat thermometer will read 160 degrees. 

Let it rest for about 5 minutes, slice it up, and you've got yourself dinner!

Seafood Casserole

It's Lent, and for many people, that means no meat on Fridays.  Normally I just have a peanut butter sandwich (or a grilled cheese and peanut butter sandwich if I'm feeling ambitious!), but this week I figured I'd go a little fancier and decided to try out a seafood casserole recipe one of my coworkers found a few weeks ago.  To make this dish, you'll need: 2 Tbsp butter; 2 Tbsp flour; 1 C milk; 1/4 tsp salt; 1/2 C sharp cheddar cheese; 1/2 C sour cream; 1 lb fish fillets cut into chunks (I used tilapia); 1 C crab meat; 1 C scallops; cooked wide egg noodles; 1/4 C toasted pecans.

Preheat your oven to 325.  In a medium sized skillet melt the butter over medium heat and mix in the flour and stir in the milk.  Cook this, stirring constantly, until it's thickened up a bit.  Add in the salt and cheese and stir until the cheese melts. 

Set it aside and when it's cooled a bit, stir in the sour cream.  Spread the cut up bits of fish on the bottom of a greased 9 x 13" pan.  Mix the crab meat and the scallops into the cheese sauce, then pour into the pan over the fish.  Stick in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the fish is cooked (it won't be translucent anymore).

Serve it over some wide egg noodles (or regular noodles, or rice, or whatever you want) and sprinkle some toasted pecans over it.

And you've got dinner!  This was pretty tasty, but I'll be honest: it was kind of bland.  What I did with the leftovers (and it warms up pretty well, by the way) and what I'll do the next time I make this, is I added some Old Bay seasoning.  It's also a kind of pricey dinner, what with the crab meat (though you can substitute shrimp instead).  I'd definitely make this again, probably for the folks, but it's really a once-in-a-while kind of thing.

Chuck Roast with Cranberry Gravy

It was rather chilly today, which made it a perfect day for another slow cooker recipe!  This is incredibly easy and doesn't really require that many ingredients.  What you'll need are: a 2 1/2 lb chuck roast (or beef brisket); 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp pepper; 1 (14 oz) can whole cranberry sauce; 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce; 1 medium onion, chopped; and 1 tsp dry mustard.

All you need for a really tasty dinner!

Trim any extra fat off of the roast, rub it with the salt and pepper, and put it in your slow cooker.  Now mix together the rest of the ingredients.

Not really the tastiest looking concoction in the world

Pour it into the slow cooker over the beef.

The "before" picture

Cover and set the cooker to the low setting and leave it alone for 8-10 hours, or until the beef is tender.

The "after" picture

Now just slice up the beef (or just pull it apart--it's super tender), cook up some potatoes and vegetables, serve with the sauce left in the cooker, and you have dinner!

Dinner!

Roast Pork Loin

Today is Superbowl Sunday and I just could not make myself care about it at all.  Not even a tiny bit.  I think it at least partly had to do with working all day Saturday, but I decided to spend today being a hermit and make something tasty for dinner.  This is a recipe I got out of the giant cookbook How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (I also got the recipe for the pork chops and apples from one of his books).  You'll need a 2-3 lb boneless pork loin roast (or a 3-4 lb one with the bone in it); 1 tsp dried rosemary (or 2 Tbsp minced fresh rosemary); 1 Tbsp sugar; 1 tsp minced garlic; salt and pepper; 1 1/2 C chicken stock (or dry white wine); and 1 Tbsp butter.

All this stuff

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Mix together your rosemary, sugar, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Rub it all over the pork and stick in a roasting pan.  The cookbook says to use a rack in the pan if you're using a boneless roast, but I don't have one and it came out just fine anyway.

All ready for roasting!

Put it in the oven for 15 minutes.  When the time is up, add to your pan 1/2 C of the stock or wine and turn the oven down to 325 degrees.  Every 15 minutes add another 1/4 C stock or wine and baste the roast with the juices that collect in the bottom of the pan.  Your total cooking time will probably be between 1 hour and 15 minutes and 1 1/2 hours; just use a meat thermometer to make sure the pork is cooked all the way through.

And that's really it for the pork!  You've still got all those nice juices in the pan, though, so go ahead and put your roaster on the stove and turn the heat on to medium-high.  The cookbook says to cook this until it reduces to about 3/4 C and the add the butter, but I also added in a bit of flour mixed with water to thicken it up a bit for a nice gravy.  I also boiled a potato and sauteed some mushrooms and onion to go on it and roasted a bit of asparagus (for really good roasted asparagus, just coat your asparagus spears in olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes).

Dinner!

And I have to tell you, this was really really good.  Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't toot my own horn, but I was actually impressed with how well it turned out.  That Bittman fellow really seems to know what he's talking about!  This'll be something I make for my folks the next time they come visit/I go visit them.

Chicken Stroganoff Pot Pie

One of the best things I ever bought for my kitchen is my slow cooker.  Unfortunately, I don't use it nearly as often as I'd like since it requires me to plan out what I want for dinner more than an hour ahead and most of my decisions great and small tend to be made randomly and on very short notice.  Today seemed like a good slow cooker day, though, since I flipped through my Betty Crocker cookbook early enough to decide what I wanted and get the ingredients from the store and actually have it cooked at a normal dinner time.

For the chicken stroganoff pot pie, you'll need 1 envelope of chicken gravy mix; 1 10.5 oz can of chicken broth; 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts; 1 16 oz bag frozen stew vegetables (carrots, onions, potatoes, and celery), thawed; 1 4.5 oz jar sliced mushrooms; 1/2 C sour cream; 1 Tbsp flour; 1 1/2 C Bisquick; 4 green onions, chopped; 1/2 C milk.  The cookbook recipe also calls for 1 C frozen peas, thawed, but I left them out.  Who likes peas?  Not me!

I like that Farm Fresh very clearly labels them "stew vegetables" so there's no confusion.

Cut up the chicken so it's in nice little bite-sized pieces, about an inch long or thereabouts.

Mmmmm....salmonella....

In your slow cooker, whisk together the gravy mix and the chicken broth.  Then add in the chicken, stew vegetables, and mushrooms. 

Put on the cover, set your cooker to "low" and sit there watching it for the next 4-5 hours.  Or go do something else, like your taxes, cleaning your apartment, catching up on Downton Abbey, and/or saving the Capitol Wasteland from super mutants and the Enclave.  Whatever floats your boat.  When the time's up, mix the sour cream and flour together and then stir into the chicken mix.

Put the cover back on and turn up the cooker to "high".  This time it's only going to cook for 20 minutes.  In the meantime, chop up your green onions and, in a medium bowl, combine them with your Bisquick (and the, ugh, peas if you're so inclined).  Stir in the milk.  Once the 20 minutes is up, drop spoonfuls of the dough on top of the chicken.

No peas here!

Put the cover back on and continue to cook on "high" for another 45-50 minutes, or until you can put a toothpick in your dumplings and it comes out clean.  And that's it!  You've got yourself a nice hearty dinner full of (non-pea) vegetables, so it counts as "healthy" in my book.  It also warms up pretty well, so if you're a lonely shell of a human being like myself who only has themselves to cook for, you've got plenty of leftovers!  Awesome!

I've been smelling this cook all day and let me tell you, it was worth the wait!

Crab-Stuffed Flounder

I am currently on vacation in southwestern Florida, so I'm not cooking dinner for myself this week.  However, since I'm visiting my parents, Mom is cooking dinner for me!  (Actually, I'm going to be making porkchops for us for dinner later this week, but you've already seen that recipe).  She was kind enough to cook some delicious crab-stuffed flounder fillets for me and Dad. 

For this recipe, you'll need: 2-2 1/2 lbs flounder fillets (the recipe calls for fresh, but the frozen ones seem to work just fine), 1/4 C chopped shallot (I now know that that is!), 1/4 C melted butter, 7 oz can crab meat (drained), 1/2 C crushed saltine crackers, 2 tsp Old Bay seasoning, 1/2 tsp salt, dash of pepper, cheddar cheese sauce (3 Tbsp butter, 3 tsp flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 C milk, 1 C grated cheddar cheese).

The thing on top of the crab meat is a shallot!

 Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease a 2 quart casserole dish.  In a bowl, combine the shallot, butter, Old Bay, salt, pepper, crab meat, and crackers.

Take your flounder fillets, put a little bit of the crab mixture in the middle, and roll them up, securing with a toothpick if you need to.

 Do this with all of your fillets and put them in your dish.

Bake them, uncovered, for 25 minutes.  While they're in the oven, make your cheddar sauce.  In a saucepan, melt 3 Tbsp of butter and stir in 3 tsp of flour and 1/4 tsp salt.  Stir that until it's smooth and add in 1 1/2 C milk, stirring until it's thickened.  Add in 1 C grated cheddar cheese and stir it until it's all melted.  After the 25 minutes are up on the fish, take them out of the oven, pour the cheese sauce over them, and put them back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

And they're done!  And if you're trying to figure out what to serve with the fish, I recommend rice and roasted asparagus.

Yum!

Quick Chili

Sometimes you just don't feel like doing anything all that fancy for dinner.  You'd be perfectly happy just making a peanut butter sandwich, but you decided that this year you'd try and make something at least once a week and the second weekend in January seems a little early to drop that idea.  So this week, we're going with an old standby: quick chili.  This won't appeal to chili purists, but for people who don't feel like putting more than fifteen minutes into dinner, this is pretty great.

You'll need a pound of ground beef, a can of dark red kidney beans, a jar of pasta sauce, some chili powder, and some red pepper flakes.  You can put whatever else you want in, too, but these are all the ingredients I usually bother with.

All you need for a lazy person's dinner!

First off, brown the ground beef in a large skillet.  You can still have some red left, just get it mostly done.

This'll do.

Now, dump in the beans (don't bother draining them, just dump in the can) and the pasta sauce.  I use an entire 14-oz. jar, but put in more or less to your taste (I remember one time my Grammie complaining to Mom that she always put too much tomato in her chili.  Of course, it was the exact same way Mom always made it and she never seemed to have a problem with it before.  Oh Grammie, I miss your crazy ways.)  Mix them in really well and have the heat around medium.

Finally, mix in some chili powder and red pepper flakes.  I'd start with around 2 Tbsp of chili powder and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes and go from there.  Once everything is nice and hot and mixed well, you're done!  This is something that also works really well for leftovers and, I think, actually tastes better the next day.

Dinner!  And lunch!  And dinner again!