The countdown to Thanksgiving is now on and I'm making meals that in no way resemble the turkey feast. I came across a package of beef for stew in the freezer as I was rearranging items to make room for the bird. Perfect. Only the potatoes will be served again and in a different form.
Whiskey Beef Stew
1# beef for stew
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
salt & freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cups beef broth
1 cup water
1/4 cup onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups carrots, peeled and sliced
1 cup peas
3 tbsp whiskey
Mix flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Dredge beef in the flour mixture and place in a hot frying pan with olive oil. Brown and then place in a crock pot with 1 cup beef broth. Place other tablespoon of olive oil into pan and add in onions and garlic. Add in second cup of beef broth and whisk in flour left over from dredging. Pour over meat. Add in 1 cup of water, stir and cover and cook on medium heat for 1 hour. After 1 hour, add in diced potatoes and carrots. A half hour before serving, add in peas and whiskey.
A beautiful day here but I have been fending off a cold for the past week so it meant the great indoors, Hallmark Christmas movies and gift wrapping for me today. I had already done the homemade chicken soup routine one day this week (thank goodness for a well stocked freezer with goodies) and wanted to make a new comfort food for the sniffles.
Baked Chicken Capellini
2 chicken breasts, braised and shredded
8 oz Capellini, cooked al dente and drained
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp parsley
1 1/2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
Parmesan cheese
Place capellini at the bottom of a greased 6 x 10 baking dish or a round casserole. Microwave cream cheese and milk for 30 seconds, stir and add parsley and then spread over capellini. Top with chicken mixed with pasta sauce. Bake at 325° for 30 minutes. Top with Parmesan cheese.
I enjoyed it so much that I went back for seconds. It is feed a cold and starve a fever right?
Sometimes with the temperatures dip down into the teens, it is necessary to bake a chocolate dessert. I was looking through the gourmet area of amazon.com and came across something called raspberry bits. They were out but would notify me when they came in. I had never run across these in a local grocery store so I was excited to try them. They did not disappoint. I would recommend not putting too many in a dessert but a few just add a surprise burst of raspberry flavor.
Raspberry Brownies with Chambord Icing
1 stick of butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup raspberry bits
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Allow to cool and then add in sugar and beat well. Add in eggs and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients, raspberry bits and then pour into a greased 9 x 9 sqare or round cake pan.
Bake for 25 minutes at 350°. Do not overbake.
Chambord Icing
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 ounces mascarpone cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp ChambordBeat whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add in Mascarpone and
powdered sugar. Add in Chambord and ice the brownies.
I was in the mood for an easy supper dinner after shoveling this morning. I had 4 chicken breasts and a crock pot as my starting point. I went down to the pantry and found a bottle of Cherry Coke and I was off and running (ok, it's a figure of speech...the shoveling took out all ambition to run). I shredded it to use in flour tortillas with a little shredded cheese.
Cherry Coke BBQ Chicken
4 chicken breasts, boneless
1 cup Cherry Coke
1 cup BBQ sauce
1 tbsp Chili Garlic Sauce
Place chicken breasts and pour Cherry Coke over them. Cook for 4 hours on low in your crock pot. Fork shred chicken breasts and add in your favorite bbq sauce and chili garlic sauce.
It's a rainy day in the valley, which is better than what is happening to the west of me, so I made a bread recipe that I saw on Pinterest from King Arthur Flour. I tweaked it ever so slightly but was happy with the results.
Hearth Bread
1 tbsp bread machine yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 cups warm water
5 - 5 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp cornmeal
Mix yeast, sugar, salt and warm water together in a large bowl. Gradually stir in 5 cups of flour, one cup at a time, with a wooden spoon. Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Clean out bowl and coat inside with olive oil and put dough back in, cover and let rise until doubled.
When doubled, punch down, cut dough in half and shape into an long oblong shape. Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil and sprinkle with the cornmeal. Place each dough side by side on the sheet. Let rise 10 minutes and then make 3 slices 1/4" deep on each loaf and baste with cold water.
Bake at 400° for approximately 30 minutes.
Here's the original recipe ~ http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/hearth-bread-recipe
Update ~ day two of this bread...it's fine for toast or as I did - cut it up for croutons and freeze it for my Thanksgiving turkey stuffing.
As I written before, I have fired my Chinese delivery restaurant. It was well deserved - a mild case of food poisoning, finding a washer in my food and keeping an uninsured driver employed after they hit a friends car. So I found myself craving Chinese food yesterday and considering my options from my refrigerator/freezer/pantry, I was easily able to put together Chicken fried rice. I was so happy with this recipe that I'll have to try cream cheese wontons next.
Chicken Fried Rice
3 chicken breasts, cut in strips
3 cups rice, preferably cooked the day before but 4 hours before works too
1 large egg, beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup onions, diced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Chili garlic sauce
Cook chicken strips in 3 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan or wok. When cooked, remove from pan and put in carrots and cook until tender. Add in peas, onions and garlic and cook for a couple minutes. Pour beaten egg on top and stir until cooked. Add chicken back in, rice and sauces and mix together. Serve when the chicken and rice are heated.
I'm back with another recipe that are still baking in the oven. This cookie is a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy. Ignore the fact that it's potentially more calories but the pumpkin dish will be empty so you can put it away until next year. I used my favorite toll house cookie recipe and substituted Butterfinger candy that I put through the food processor instead of chocolate chips.
Butterfinger Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 cups flour
10 mini Butterfinger candy bars (approximately 1 cup), ground up
Cream together butter and sugars. Add in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add in flour, baking soda and salt. Gently fold in ground Butterfinger candy.
Bake at 325° for approximately 12 minutes.
Well I found a live Alice Cooper concert stream so I'm done in the kitchen for a little while. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend ~
