Pot Roast Soup

 Have you ever noticed that pot roast and roast chicken are exactly perfect bases for soup? Think about a pot roast: meat, potatoes, carrots, onion and celery.

I make my pot roast in the crock-pot and it turns out perfect every time. If I cook pot roast in the oven well, I get boot leather. So what do you with boot leather? Make soup!

As I stated above, I make my pot roast in the crock-pot. It is simple, quick and the meat can go in frozen. I usually get a roast big enough to make a few meals out of. The kids and I don’t really care to eat roast as leftovers. So why get a big piece of meat? I will slice it for fajitas, enchiladas, smother it in barbeque sauce or make soup.

Pot Roast Soup:
If you know you are going to make soup with your leftovers, return everything to your crock-pot and place in the refrigerator. The next day, I will lift out the solid fat crust and discard. Remove the vegetables and roast, leaving a gelatin broth with onions and celery in your pot.

Chop your vegetables into bite size pieces, adding more carrots and potatoes as necessary. Slice the roast into bite size pieces, remove all fat. Return meat and vegetables to pot, add a bay leave, two cups of beef broth or 2 cups of water and two bouillon cubes. Cook on low heat for 6 hours.

Chicken Soup:

Fifteen years ago, I watched Emeril Lagasse make his chicken noodle soup. After he striped a roast chicken carcass of meat, Emeril took the entire carcass and placed in a soup pot. Emeril made soup with the bones and skin, stating it gave the broth wonderful flavor. It did! 

I made chicken soup that way a few times, but this is not exactly smart. Since Emeril did not remove the skin and bones when he served the soup, it is not exactly child friendly. The young ones do not understand the concept of don’t swallow the bones. I had to come up with a new way to make chicken noodle soup where you get flavor, but not the bones.

I usually find the largest roasting chicken I can find (between 7 to 9 pounds), so we only eat half the bird. I follow the same rules for the pot roast soup with a few exceptions. Do not remove the fat; pull the meat from the bone and chop into bite size pieces. If you do this right between the breast, leg and thigh there should be plenty for soup. (Pickoff the back and remaining rib meat from the bones and save for Chicken Potpie.) Chop carrots, onion, celery, and place in pot with chicken. I also will add frozen peas and corn… about ¼ to ½ cup of each. Add pepper and garlic to taste. If need be, add fat free, low sodium chicken broth and cook on low four to five hours. Add in approximately 2 cups of dry yoke free, egg noodles an hour before consuming.

Time saving and last minute meal fixes to eat within an hour or two:
Crock-pot:
 Turn the crock-pot on high, place raw vegetables in an 8-cup Pyrex measuring bowl with four cups of water and bouillon cube. Cook on high in your microwave for ten to fifteen minutes. Pour into crock-pot add noodles.

Stove top method:
Place two boneless skinless chicken breast cubed, chopped vegetables, chicken broth, and seasonings in stew pot and bring to a boil for five minutes then reduce to a simmer. 15 minutes before serving add in noodles.

Cleaning tip for the day: To clean you grill and oven racks and grates. On a warm day, place racks and grates in a black trash bag, pour in a bottle of ammonia, tie shut and set outside flat in the sun for three hours. Flip after three hours for another two hours.(You might have to move the bag to keep it in the sun.) Remove grates from bag and wash them off with soap and water. Most of all the stuck and burnt chard should just wipe off.

If you enjoy this page sign up to become a follower, and as always, please pass this page on to your friends!

Kit’s Margarita Recipe

Have you ever had margarita from scratch? I am talking real lemon and lime juice not a mix out of a bottle? If you have never had one from scratch, you are in for a treat! We have found it is best to make “the mix” a few days ahead of time, if you can hold for a week it is even better.

“The Mix”:

½ cup of fresh squeezed lime juice

½ cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup of white sugar

Place "the mix" ingredients in a glass container, I use a clean jar. Shake until sugar is dissolved and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

When ready to drink Margaritas combine:

1 cup of Tequila

1 cup of Triple Sec

Mix

Serve over two cups of crushed ice

**If you like your Margaritas frozen pour all ingredients into a blender and blend until frozen.

Serve in a glass with either sugar or salt on the rim.

There are 4,001,892 ways to cook a potato

I am not sure about everyone else, but I feel like I have gained ten pounds just writing all the recipes this week. How about we lighten up with Scalloped Potatoes? I know you hear Scalloped Potatoes, the last thing you have in mind is light and healthy. 
Like most recipes this calls for salt, I do not add salt to my recipes. Most of the time you do not notice the difference, we get enough salt in our diets from processed foods. When my husband and I got married. I noticed that every time we ate, he loaded his food with salt and pepper even before tasting it. I figured he was going to salt his food before tasting it, there was no reason to add the salt. Over the years, he has given up this mind-set and now tastes before salting. That being said if you would like to add salt to this recipe please add ¼ teaspoon.

This recipe was passed out at a Weight Watchers meeting: 

Scalloped Potatoes

Makes 4 servings

2 large baking potatoes, thinly sliced

2 onions, thinly sliced

¼ cup of minced parsley, fresh

3 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon of black pepper

¼ teaspoon salt (try using garlic powder instead of salt!)

2 cups of hot skim milk

1/3 cup of shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese ( I always used more)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 10” X 6” baking pan with nonstick cooking spray

Layer one-third of potatoes and onions in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle evenly with half of the parsley and flour. Repeat the layering once more, ending with the potatoes and onions. Sprinkle evenly with pepper and salt (garlic)

Pour the milk over the top and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until the potatoes are tender and the top is browned, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

If you make this recipe with salt, here are the nutritional values per serving:

Calories 215, total fat 2g, Saturated fat 1g

Cholesterol 9mg, Sodium 284 mg,

Total Carbohydrate 38g, Dietary Fiber 4g,

Protein 11g, Calcium 267mg

So you have roasted a whole chicken for dinner, what do you with the leftovers?

We all have a million and one recipes for chicken, it is so adaptable. When I roast a whole chicken, I pick every tinny tiny bit of meat off the bone I can. I might seem time consuming but between the wings, back, and those bits of the breastbones, you can gather almost a cup of meat. Why throw away enough food for another meal? Why throw away money?

You have played vulture and stripped the meat from the bones, now what? You can always use it in a salad, but have you thought about making a warm, fork licking, savory potpie? Now do not cringe and say "no, too much work" or "I don’t have time to make a potpie!" Ah but you do, and I promise it is easy to make. You can make it when you get home from work today if you have the ingredients.

I never made a potpie before because:

A.      I thought it was difficult and it intimidated me.

B.      I cannot make a beautiful piecrust to save my life. I keep trying, but it just is not blue ribbon, fair pretty.

C.      Always went to the store and bought frozen ones, not any more!

One day last winter, I sat and looked at recipes for Chicken Potpie. I then printed out my four favorite recipes, combined what I liked best about each to make one recipe.

Next came the piecrust. I can make a crust scratch, and do not even mind doing it. But what about when I am short on time or do not want to tackle making a piecrust? No problem, I cheat and go buy the dough already made. Mine still is not pretty, but I will only improve with practice.

My family loves this recipe and usually gorge themselves to the point there are no leftovers... pitty

Chicken potpie

Ingredients:

1 double piecrust dough for 9 inch pie (I used a Food Lion Brand)

1 cup boneless skinless chicken (you can use a breast, cut into small bite size pieces)

1 cup sliced carrots

1 small potato, peeled and cubed into bite size pieces

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup of butter (yes-real butter, unsalted would be best)

1/3 cup of all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon of salt*

2 teaspoon of pepper*

1 teaspoon of garlic* or one fresh minced clove

* I usually just eyeball and go by shakes of container, but those should be good estimates

2/3 cup of milk (1%)

2  chicken bouillon cubes (I use Knorr)

1 3/4 water drained from vegetables

1 can of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In saucepan, combine carrots, peas, potato, celery, salt, garlic and 1 teaspoon of pepper. (If using uncooked chicken add to pot) Add enough water to cover vegetables, add bouillon boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In skillet over medium heat, melt butter and cook onions until soft and translucent.

 Drain off 1 ¾ cup of broth from the vegetables and reserve. Drain any remaining liquid from vegetables and set aside.

To your skillet, stir in flour and pepper then slowly stir in milk, cream of chicken soup then the reserved broth until well-blended making thick gravy.

Place bottom piecrust in pie plate; add chicken and vegetables making sure bottom is well covered. Pour hot liquid over mixture. (Depending on your pie plate you might have extra vegetables and gravy mixture. Reserve them, and pour over a baked potato the next day for a hearty lunch!)

 Place top crust over mixture, seal edges, and trim any excess. Make several slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Wrap edges of pie with foil to prevent burning.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Comfort Food - Red Beans and Rice

Webster Dictionary defines comfort food as food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal.

Red Beans and Rice is a comfort food in our house.

My husband was stationed in Virginia for nearly a decade and we loved every minute of it. During our tenure, we became with close friends with a two families. Cheryl and Victor adopted us into their family. They become adopted grandparents to our children, since all the grandparents lived across the country. With Cheryl and Victor, we had the loud, extended family gatherings. Holidays were not just a meal with them. These were events, with good company, great food and always served with Cheryl's yeast rolls made from scratch.

Our other extended family is Ron and Cindy. Here are two people from radically different parts of the country. Cindy is from Vermont; Ron is a crazy Cajun from Louisiana. Ron and I trade Roux and Andouille sausage for BBQ sauce. Since certain ingredients are only available once a year, I usually have a debt to make up when it comes time to make BBQ sauce.

I will not attempt to make Ron’s Gumbo it is just too perfect. Red Beans and Rice I have been tinkering with for several years now. Whenever I ask my family what they want to eat, my youngest and fussiest eater asks for Red Beans and Rice.

I usually make Red Beans and Rice in a crock-pot, so this requires a few days advance planning.  I know there are times when you want it now, not two or three days later. I am going to provide the recipe for both versions.

Two things to look out for when buying a ham hock:

•         Try to find one with as much meat as possible. I have found the best ones at the local farmers market.

•         Have a potato on hand. Once I bought a ham hock from a different grocer, the ham hock was incredibly salty. If the red beans are too salty, cut raw the potato into chunks and place in your pot, remove before serving.

Red Beans and Rice

Cook time 3-4 hours on stove top

1 pound of dried red beans

1/2 to 3/4 pound smoked ham hock
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1/4 cup bacon drippings
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
4 to 5 cups long grain rice, cooked

*I use Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning instead of spices above. I would say use at least 1 Tablespoon*

Wash and sort red beans before placing in deep pot with 8-9 cups water. Bring to boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let set for 2 hours.
Drain off water and refill pot with fresh water before placing back on heat at moderate to slow boil. Add ham hock and seasonings to pot. When meat is falling off the hock, remove from heat until cooled enough to remove meat from the bone. Before placing meat back in pot, use a potato masher and mash half of the beans, this should cause a creamy texture. (Alternative is to remove two cups of beans and place in food processor for 4-6 seconds) cook slowly on low heat stirring often. Add cooked rice and gently stir well before serving.

Red Beans and Rice in a Crock-pot

1 pound of dried red beans

1 pound smoked ham hock

 Water
1 to 2 Tablespoons of Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
4 to 5 cups cooked long grain rice

Wash and sort red beans before placing in deep pot with 8-9 cups water, soak twelve to twenty-four hours. Drain and rinse beans before placing in 6-quart crock. Add ham hock and enough water to cover both beans and hock before adding Creole seasoning. I put a light coating of seasoning over the entire pot. Replace lid and cook on low for six hours

Remove ham hock, place on a plate to cool while you tamp the red beans with a potato masher for one minute. This will cause thickening giving the beans a creamy sauce like texture. Shred meat from the ham hock and stir back into the bean mixture. Replace lid.

I actually turn off the crock-pot at this point and let the pot stand for one hour. If you cook often with a crock-pot, you know they stay hot for a long time. This will give the beans to thicken up more without cooking them further and making red bean paste. If you end up with paste, just stir in ¼ cup of water.

Serve over cooked rice and cornbread with honey, Yum!

 

 



The Panic of The Lost Pumpkin Bread Recipe

I have a stack of recipes that are loose and unbound. They are either hand written, or printed from the internet and emails. When I want a recipe, I pull out the stack and start shifting through it. I am the only person in the house who can touch the stack. I know exactly where  a recipe should be and they should never get out of “my” order.

Huge panic erupts when I cannot find a recipe. The thought or idea that I have lost or miss placed a recipe is devastating. Yes, yes, yes, I know, I should have a better system for keeping recipes, but I am a procrastinator and a creature of disorganized chaos.

Two weeks ago, I made pumpkin bread. This weekend I went looking for the recipe and it was nowhere to found. I went through the stack of recipes twice and could not find it. My over active imagination started churning with the “what if’s.” What if it got thrown away when my husband cleaned the kitchen? Did Lily, our paper-shredding cat, get her paws on it? Was it mistaken as scratch paper and used by the kids for math homework? Gasp!

Lily, A.K.A. The Paper Shredder

  So panic with setting in, I start pulling cookbooks out of my cabinet and riffling through them. This is one of those recipes, I do not need to read what is on the paper; it is burned in my memory. Though without the paper in my hand, I cannot remember any of it besides canned pumpkin.

 After emptying the cabinet, the recipe is nowhere to found. My kitchen is a disaster, and Lily was stalking recipes that have fallen on the floor. Dejected I sit down at my computer, only to look over at the printer. Yep, sitting on top of the printer is my recipe for pumpkin bread. I placed it there to scan into the computer, in case I ever lost the paper copy.



Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 16 oz can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie)

3 cups of all purpose flour
3 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cloves

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

2 teaspoons of ground nutmeg (if you have the time, grind it fresh)

1 teaspoon of baking soda

½ teaspoon of baking powder

** Optional you can add either add 1 cup chopped walnuts or pumpkin seeds**

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare two 9X5X3 inch loaf pans by buttering and flouring.

In large bowl beat sugar and oil until blended. Mix in eggs and pumpkin.

In separate bowl sift remaining dry ingredients, and then slowly stir into pumpkin mixture.

Divide batter between the prepared pans, sprinkle with nuts and bake for 70 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on wire racks.

This recipe can be used to make one dozen pumpkin muffins, prepare tins as above or use cupcake papers. Bake for 20 minutes, insert toothpick to check doneness  

Death by Chocolate Brownies with Kahlua Whipped Cream

Like many families, mine is spread across the country. Several times over the years, there have been emails and phone calls asking if someone had a copy of a recipe. As a result, I decided that I needed to place all of them in a cookbook. After sending a request out to my family asking for their favorite recipes, I did get a few back without having to beg.

 The question I next faced was who should get a copy of the cookbook? Should only the ones who sent me a recipe get the book or should everyone benefit from the few who sent me recipes? I do not want hurt my sisters’ feelings if she was not able to send a recipe. I also had to consider friends who had given me recipes over the years. Do I leave them out because they are not family by law or blood but by absorption? My extended family is just as large as my family, since my husband served our country proudly for twenty years.

The debating back and forth, gave me an excuse for not starting the book. Recently my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Bill came for a weekend visit and I had forgotten to get a cake recipe my aunt, so I posted a note on her Facebook page asking for the recipe. One of my dearest friends, Cheryl, asked for the recipe without even knowing about what was in the cake!  A week later after a trying week of working on the family tree, my adopted Uncle Doug, stated I needed a hobby. I need another hobby as much as I need another hole in my head! However, I let the ideas start to fester and grow, and then decided why I should just limit myself to family or friends. So like many others, I have decided to take the plunge into the world of blogging. I thought I would start with my Death by Chocolate Brownies with Kahula Whipped Cream.

Death by Chocolate Brownies with Kahlua Whipped Cream

Brownie Ingredients:

1 box if Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate brownie mix

1 box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix

1 large box (6 oz) of Jello Brand Chocolate pudding

2 large eggs

1 cup of whole unsalted butter, melted

½ cup heavy whipping cream

¼ cup of Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare a glass 9” X 13” baking dish by spraying  with non-stick cooking spray like Pam or grease with butter.

In mix bowl, stir brownie mixes and pudding together. Add eggs, melted butter, chocolate syrup and whipping cream until thoroughly blended.  Mixture will be thick like chocolate frosting.

Spread evenly in to pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before serving.

I serve brownies topped with Kahlua whipped cream, chocolate syrup and dusted with Hershey’s Coco powder.

Whipped Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

½ cup whipping cream

3 Tablespoons Kahlua Liqueur

2 Tablespoons white sugar.

Place all ingredients in a cold or chilled bowl; I prefer a metal mixing bowl for this. Beat with a hand mixer on high for one minute or until the mixture is stiff and fluffy.

Serve immediately, can be stored for one week in refrigerator.