Foodie Friday--Lemon Chicken with Broccoli

This is a second lemon chicken recipe that you will find on my blog page. It’s just as good and as healthy as the other one. This lemon sauce is wonderful on broccoli . . . in fact, you could use shrimp instead of chicken if desired.

I have no idea who to give credit to as I seem to have cut the page down to fit into my notebooks and cut off the contributor. My bad. Sorry.  

Lemon Chicken with Broccoli

2 Tbls. flour

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

12 oz. chicken, thinly sliced

2 tsp. olive oil

 

1 ½ cups fat-free, reduced sodium chicken broth

 

2 tsp. minced garlic

 

2 ½ cups broccoli florets

 

2 tsp. lemon zest

 

2 Tbls. fresh parsley, chopped

 

1 Tbls. lemon juice 

Toss sliced chicken in flour, salt and pepper mixture.

Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium-high heat (I have a wok). Add chicken and cook until lightly browned and cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove to a plate.

Pour one cup broth and garlic into wok. Bring to boil, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add broccoli; cover and cook 1 minute.

Stir 1/2 Tbls flour, ¼ tsp salt into remaining ½ cup broth; add to skillet and bring to simmer over low heat.

Cover and cook until broccoli is crisp-tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 ½ minutes.

Stir in chicken and lemon zest; heat through.

Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice and parsley. Toss to coat.

 

Tips & Tricks:

·         This recipe cooks quickly, in about 10-15 minutes, so have EVERYTHING ready to go. I use tiny bowls, the kind you see on cooking shows, which keeps me from having to keep measuring stuff.

·         I used two large chicken breasts, which was almost 21 ounces, double the recipe. Adjust everything accordingly.

·         Gallon-sized Ziploc bags are wonderful to use when coating anything in a flour mixture.

·         I cooked the chicken in two batches since all the chicken would overcrowd the pan if I had done it at one time.

·         When pouring the one cup of broth into the very hot pan, be careful of the steam.

·         Two cloves of minced garlic worked well for the recipe. The cloves were of an average size.

·         Two heads of broccoli was enough to make a pile of florets.

·         One lemon provided enough zest and juice for this recipe.

·         I cooked wild rice, which was a nice side dish with this recipe. Time the rice to finish a little early. Set it aside, covered, until chicken is ready. This allows the water/broth to absorb into the thick hulls of the rice grains.

 

Enjoy!

 

Foodie Friday -- MAG's Silky Pecan Pralines

A few years ago I made a couple of different pecan praline recipes--YUCK!

The problem that I had with these candies was that every single recipe resulted in a grainy candy that felt like you were eating sand.  Not good.

This year, my hubby was given a gift box of pecan pralines from one of his vendors . . . It was incredible. Smooth, almost dough-like, the praline melted in my mouth. THIS was exactly what my version of pecan pralines would be.

Now all I had to do was recreate it.

This recipe is the result of my first experimental foray. It's good, in fact, it's really good, but it wasn't exactly the result that I was personally aiming for. I will say that this version is very, very sweet, with the texture similar to the texture of MAG's Decadent Fudge--super smooth and creamy.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea

 

Here's my first recipe version of Pecan Pralines and in the tips and tricks part of my recipe I'll let you know what I plan to do for my second version of this candy {or notes in red}.

MAG’s Silky Pecan Pralines

2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup sugar
1 cup cream
2 tsp. honey {molasses}
½ tsp. kosher salt {1 tsp.?}
2 Tbls. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups pecans, chopped {3 cups toasted, chopped pecans}

Combine sugars, cream, salt and honey in medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugars are dissolved. Increase heat to medium-high, insert candy thermometer and cook until mixture reaches the soft ball stage at 236 degrees.

Pour mixture into buttered glass bowl. Dot with butter and splash vanilla on top. Place clean candy thermometer in mixture. Let cool to 110-118 degrees, about 45-60 minutes.

Once candy has cooled, using an electric mixer, beat the mixture until it lightens in color and creamy, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in chopped nuts.

Place a large sheet of parchment paper on counter. Using a cupcake batter/cookie scoop, quickly scoop onto paper. Press down slightly and allow to cool. Store in air tight container.

 Tips & Tricks:

 

·         The one thing that most people forget to bring to the table when making candy is PATIENCE. That is the number one ingredient.

·         And let me mention that ‘time’ laughs at you when making candy—it seems to take FOREVER to reach the appropriate temperature, but when you look away for two seconds, it has already zipped past the appropriate temp into another stage, or boiled over. No, this didn’t happen to me this time, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.

·         If you do have a candy catastrophe, remember the hardened sugar mess dissolves in water. Don’t freak out and start scrubbing away, just place hot water on the mess and let it do its job, repeat as often as needed to remove the mess or clean the pan.

·         Invest in more than one good candy thermometer—I love my new digital one. Periodically check them for accuracy. Many thermometers are simply attached to a piece of cardboard inside a glass tube. It can shift.

·         How do you check the accuracy??  Boiling water. We all know that boiling water is 100 degrees centigrade, right? Simply fill a large pan full of water, place your thermometers along the edge, and bring to a rolling boil. Check your numbers. Make sure the thermometers are NOT touching the bottom of the pan as it will skew the results.

 Enjoy!

Foodie Friday -- Three Layer Cheesecake

I don't know about y'all, but I'm pretty darn excited to have this blog written and ready the DAY BEFORE it's scheduled to go up!

Yay, ME!

So I finally revised and rewrote this recipe that I've been promising you since before Thanksgiving--late November, for those of you who aren't American. I've made it twice, and both times it turned out awesome! And when you cut into it, it's very pretty with three distinct layers.

So without further ado . . .

Three-layer Cheesecake

Crust:

1 pkg (9 oz.) chocolate wafer cookies

¼ cup sugar
½ cup butter, melted

Layer One:

1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened

¼ cup sugar
1 egg
¼ tsp. vanilla
2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels, melted
1/3 cup sour cream

Layer Two:

1 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 Tbls. flour
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla
¼ cup chopped pecans

Layer Three:

1 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup sour cream
¼ tsp. vanilla
¼ tsp. almond extract

Glaze:

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

2 Tbls. butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tbls. water
½ tsp. vanilla

Chopped pecans, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place and ungreased 9-in springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18-in square). Wrap foil around pan.

Crust:

Place cookies in food processer, process until fine crumbs. Add sugar and melted butter, process until combined. Press onto the bottom and 2-in. up the sides of prepared pan. Set aside.

Layer One:

In large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, blend well. Stir in chocolate and sour cream. Spoon over crust.

Layer Two:

In same bowl (wiped out), beat cream cheese, brown sugar and flour until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, blend well. Stir in pecans. Spoon carefully over chocolate layer.

Layer Three:

In same bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. Stir in sour cream and almond extract. Spoon carefully over pecan layer.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until center is almost set. Turn off oven and leave cheesecake inside for 30 minutes. Crack open oven door and leave cheesecake inside for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate at least 8 hours.

Glaze:

Melt chocolate and butter. Stir in the powdered sugar, water and vanilla until smooth. Remove cheesecake from pan and spread warm glaze over top.

Garnish with pecans, if desired.

Tips & Tricks:

·         I set this recipe up differently than the original one because the original one clumped all the ingredients into one list. I found it confusing to have to keep referring back and forth between the instructions and the list.

·         I also totally changed layer three from the original version. I made this recipe twice with the changes and it works quite well.

·         For some reason, it’s difficult to find chocolate wafer cookies in your basic Target or Walmart. I had to go to a local fancy-schmancy grocery store to find them. I was almost to the point of taking Oreos, eating the insides and weighing the cookie parts until I got 9 oz. …come to think of it, it might have been cheaper than buying the wafers at the richy-rich store.

·         When I press the cookie crust into the pan, I use a tall glass to evenly pack and smooth it. It helps that I have straight-sided glassware.

·         The double layer of foil takes the place of the traditional water bath. This helps prevent the cheesecake from overcooking around the edges while the middle remains uncooked.

·         I hate having to wash numerous bowls. The first time I made this recipe, I did use three separate bowls according to the original recipe—what a complete waste of time and utensils! And that doesn’t even count the time spent WASHING three bowls. Use the same darn bowl! Just use a rubber scraper to clean it out before going to the next layer. It’s not like you’re sitting around for hours in-between making the layers.

·         When placing each layer of the cheesecake in the pan, I dolloped small amounts of batter over the surface before I spread them together and leveled it out. Be careful around the crust edge since it is crumbly.

·         Do follow the cooling instructions. It will keep your cheesecake from cracking. But if it does crack, don’t worry about it since you have a nice chocolate ganache to cover it up!

·         I pulled the cheesecake out of the refrigerator when we started serving dinner. This allowed it to warm up for about an hour. If it is too ‘sticky’ on your knife, warm the knife under hot water before cutting . . . er, wipe off the water first, right?

Foodie Friday -- Not Your Mother's Spinach Salad

My nephew was married on the Saturday before Christmas. As family, we were invited to the rehearsal dinner, so we drove two hours to OKC for the rehearsal dinner. And, boy, am I glad we did!

The food was wonderful, but the caterer's spinach salad was what really caught my attention. It wasn't your regular spinach, eggs and bacon salad.

No-Sirree-Bob! It was chocked full of all sorts of goodies. And let me tell you, I could have eaten this stuff with every meal!

In fact, I made this salad for Christmas--much of the prep work could be done the day before. This was the first time we hosted Christmas dinner, and this salad was definitely on the menu!

Chopped Spinach Salad

Chopped spinach
Pearl Couscous
Dried cranberries
pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
sunflower seeds
Bacon

I made this recipe for roughly seven adults, and two small batches were sent home with the families.

Chop two 8-oz packages of spinach into bite-sized pieces. Toss with the other ingredients, as desired, though I will tell you that the heavier ingredients do fall to the bottom. Toss periodically with tongs as the spinach breaks down.

Serve within two hours.

Tips & Tricks:

• Bacon: Chop 1 lb of bacon into small pieces. Cook until crisp, drain the bacon. I used 1/2 the bacon for the spinach salad, the other half for the green beans. I saved the bacon grease to season the green beans, but you can also use to make a vinaigrette. 
• Pearl Couscous: This is also called Israeli couscous. They cook into puffy round pieces of yumminess. I just followed the directions on the package, but only used 1/2 the amount it made. If you are saving this for the next day, add a touch of olive oil to the cooled couscous as the starchiness of the couscous makes it stick together in a clump.
• If you want more seeds, add more seeds. The seeds added a nice crunch, while the cranberries added a sweet/tart that was needed.
• I had a variety of dressings on the side, but thought the Green Goddess dressing was the best on it. If you want to make a bacon vinaigrette, then make it with red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, and the remaining bacon grease.
• I've been making a version of this salad over the last few days--large containers of pepitas and sunflower seeds, yanno. I take about two cups of spinach leaves, chop them, and place into a small Ziploc storage bag, add the other doodads and one Tbls of dressing--shake well.

Enjoy this quick and easy recipe!

Later, Peeps!

Hopefully, I'll be on a regular blogging schedule in the future!

Foodie Friday -- Molasses Bourbon Pecan Pie

Here is a pecan pie with a little bit of a twist.

Molasses Bourbon Pecan Pie

Crust:

1 ½ cups flour

¾ tsp. salt

6 Tbls. shortening

5 to 6 Tbls ice water

Filling:

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

¾ cup corn syrup

½ cup molasses

3 Tbls. butter

½ tsp salt

3 eggs, beaten

2 Tbls. Bourbon whisky

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups pecan halves

In large bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in shortening until crumbly. Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 to 1 ½ hours or until easy to handle.

Roll out pastry to fit a 9-in. pie plate. Transfer pastry to pie plate. Trim pastry to ½-inch beyond edge of plate; flute edges. Refrigerate.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine brown sugar, corn syrup, molasses, butter and salt; bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes, constantly stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. (Mixture will thicken when cooled.)

When filling is cooled, stir in eggs, bourbon and vanilla. Stir in pecans. Pour into pastry shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes. Cover edges with foil during the last 30 minutes to prevent overbrowning.

Cool on wire rack.

Tips & tricks:

·         The crust that came with this recipe was easy and quite good.

·         The molasses (Brer Rabbit—full flavor) that I used was pretty strong, overpowering in this recipe. If I made this recipe again, I would use ¼ cup of molasses and ¼ cup more corn syrup.

·         This recipe calls for pecan halves. The problem with pecan halves is that they are difficult to cut when you are ready to serve the pie. I would suggest chopping the pecans, but retaining a few halves to use as decoration on top.

·         If you have any pie leftover after cutting, then refrigerate the remaining pie.

 

Foodie Friday-- Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Pie

 

 I've been really busy making the various fillings for my Christmas candy. Fillings are finally made. Christmas decorations are up. And now, I can finally catch up on my blog posts before I start the candy molding process on Monday.

Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Pie

Pastry for single-crust pie (9-in.)

Pumpkin filling: 

 

1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

½ cup sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 Tbls. flour

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ginger

Cream cheese filling:

1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg, slightly beaten 

Topping:

¼ cup old-fashioned oats

¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 Tbls. flour

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 Tbls. cold butter, cubed

¼ cup chopped walnuts 

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate with pastry: trim and flute edge. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

In a large bowl, beat pumpkin, milk, sugars, eggs, flour, salt and spices until blended; transfer to crust.

In another bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add egg; beat on low speed just until combined. Spoon evenly over pumpkin layer.

In a small bowl, combine the first five topping ingredients; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in walnuts; sprinkle over filling.

Cover edge of crust with foil to prevent overbrowning.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake 50-60 minutes longer, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Remove foil. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate covered, until cold.

Tips & tricks:

·         I got none. Sorry.

·        Okay, you can buy pie crust in the freezer section or you can make your own. I made a Pâte Brisée from a Martha Stewart recipe that I happened to have. Just google ‘pie crusts’ and you will get a plethora of selections.

·         If you do make your own crust don’t be afraid to add enough ice water. Yes, too much is a problem, but too little makes for a dry, crumbly crust.

·         The key is to have the fat in miniscule amounts that it causes a ‘mini-pocket’ to form from the melted fat when the crust is cooking. This helps the flakiness of the crust. Overwork the crust, or allow your hot hands to melt the fat pre-baking will result in a tough crust from the overworked flour.

·         I wasn’t much of a fan of this pumpkin pie, but then again, I’m not much of a fan of ANY pumpkin pies, which is why I usually try to make a pumpkin cheesecake!

 Enjoy!

Foodie Friday -- Cranberry-Orange Tart

For Thanksgiving 2014, I made four desserts that I never made before. I posted the pics on FB and here are the tweaked recipes, as I tend to not follow the original exactly. This tart was the favorite by most of the crowd. It does have a lot of sugar in it, but the tart cranberries keep it from being overly sweet.

 

Cranberry-Orange Tart

 

Crust and Crumb topping:

2 cups crushed cinnamon graham crackers (about 14 whole crackers), divided

½ cup sugar, divided

6 Tbls. butter, melted

¼ cup flour

¼ cup brown sugar, packed

¼ cup cold butter, cubed

 Filling:

 1 large naval orange

1 cup sugar

3 Tbls. quick-cooking tapioca

¼ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. allspice

4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, thawed

2 Tbls. Grand Marnier 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Crust: In small bowl, mix 1 ¾ cups crushed graham crackers and ¼ cup sugar; stir in melted butter. Press onto bottom and up sides of an ungreased 11-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Turn oven temperature up to 400 degrees.

Topping: Mix flour, brown sugar, remaining ¼ cup crushed graham crackers and ¼ cup sugar. Cut cold butter into the mixture until crumbly. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

Filling: In large saucepan, mix sugar, tapioca, baking soda, cinnamon and allspice. Add rinsed cranberries and toss. Zest and juice orange, add to cranberry mixture along with Grand Marnier. Cook on medium-high until mixture boils and cranberries pop, stir constantly to help dissolve sugar, about 3-5 minutes.

Pour filling into cooled crust. Sprinkle with topping. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until topping is golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

 Tips & Tricks:

 

·        Fold a piece of aluminum foil in half and place under tart pan. Press the edges to the sides of the pan, but don’t fold over the top edge. This helps in two ways, 1) it keeps you from popping the tart crust out of the pan while taking it in and out of the oven, 2) it catches the excess butter that will inevitably leak through the tart pan’s rim, preventing grease from burning in the bottom of the oven. . . don’t even ask me how I know this . . .

·         Even if you have some excess crust mixture, restrain your urge to add it to the topping. See note on above tip. Don’t ask questions and I won’t have to explain my stupid mistakes . . .

·         If you don’t have Grand Marnier, you can use brandy, cranberry juice, or any other orange flavored liquor.

·         The original recipe called for the oven to be turned up to 425 degrees, but that was when I managed to set the smoke alarms off, okay, not really, but I did smoke out the kitchen and had a grease mess to clean up in the oven. Try the lower temperature, since you aren’t ‘cooking’ the tart as much as browning the topping.

 

Enjoy!

Foodie Friday--St. Michael's Alley Chili

A few centuries ago when I was but a youngling, my friends and I would hang out at this place called St. Michael's Alley. It was a restaurant/pub type of place that was housed in a corner BEHIND a strip mall near 31st and Harvard.

If my kid wanted to go to a place like that in this current day and age, I would have a tough time letting her go. Times were different then and now St. Michael's is closed.

And I have a couple of their recipes . . .

This chili recipe has been ever so slightly tweaked by me: one can of tomato sauce and one diced poblano pepper. The rest is all St. Michaels. The reason I added the can of sauce was to prolong the cooking time to allow hubs to finish what he was doing without burning the chili.

Yes, it is very spicy.

St Michael's Alley Chili

 



2 pounds ground beef
1-2 large yellow onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
1 Tbls chili powder
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce
2 (16-ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice
1 (16-ounce) can tomato sauce
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Brown ground beef in large pot or kettle. Drain grease. Add onions, peppers and garlic to beef, stir. Mix in spices. Simmer 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook 20 minutes more. Add sauce if the mixture seems to be overcooking.

Top with cheese and diced red onions, if desired.

Tips & Tricks:

• If it is too spicy for you, take out the jalapenos and use green peppers.
• Poblano peppers aren't as spicy hot as jalapenos, so dice two of them instead of jalapenos
• No there are no beans in this--it wouldn't be chili, right??
• 1/3 cup chopped jalapenos is about 2 medium peppers
• Next day chili is really good, the veg is softer and everything has mellowed out.

Enjoy!

Do NOT eat this if you are going to wander far from home. Sometimes the spice might have an adverse effect on your intestinal system . . . jus' sayin'.

Sorry, if it's TMI.

Foodie Friday--Pesto Bechamel Pasta

When the weather starts cooling down, I tend to cook more in the kitchen. And most of the items I cook could be termed 'comfort food', which usually translates into creamy, carb-loaded concoctions.
The other day, I looked in the fridge and saw store-bought pesto and some leftover chicken (seasoned with fajita seasoning and grilled few days ago).

Now, pesto can be an overpowering thing since basil is the number one ingredient, along with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and some brands add parmesan cheese and/or pine nuts or almonds. The brand I picked up this time was in the refrigerated section and was far less garlic-y than the brand in the hard goods aisle. I personally don't like the pesto that's this strong, so I will find ways to dilute the intensity.

So my idea was to make a chicken, pesto, pasta thing. And then I remembered my Chicken Lasagna recipe. I had to make a few changes, because the sauce was just a hair too thin for the pound of noodles that I cooked--I added about three large spoonfuls of grated parmesan cheese, which was about 3/4 cup.

Here's the recipe:

Pesto Béchamel Pasta

4 Tbls. butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup basil pesto
leftover chicken--sliced
salt
pepper

Place pot of water with salt for the pasta on stove, on high, as you begin to make the béchamel sauce. Cook pasta al dente according to pasta directions.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add flour and stir, cooking for about 2 minutes. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Simmer about 2-4 minutes. Add pesto, salt and pepper. Adjust seasoning. Add chicken.

If the sauce is finished before pasta, place a lid on it to keep warm.

Drain pasta. Add to sauce mixture. Fold pasta into mixture. If sauce is too thin, add grated parmesan cheese until desired thickness.

Serve with side of green salad.

Tips & Tricks:

• taste your pesto before you add it. Some brands are loaded with garlic or salt, and you don't want to over season your meal
• the roux will seem chunky after the flour is added, just keep stirring so it doesn't burn. Turn down heat just a little to help keep it from burning
• I use skim milk, but if you want a richer sauce use whole milk. If you don't have whole milk (I don't), add a little cream in place of some of the milk. Instead of 3 cups of milk, use 2 cups of skim milk and one cup of cream
• season intelligently. If you don't like nutmeg, don't add nutmeg. If your pesto is salty, then don't add salt until after you mix in the pesto to see if you need to add any salt.  
• I use a whisk instead of a spoon to stir, since whisks break up lumps.
• I didn't have fettuccine noodles, so I used some trumpets. The shapes are fun, but they took a little longer to cook than thinner noodles.
• The sauce was too thin for these noodles, so I added a couple large spoonfuls of grated parmesan cheese to help thicken it slightly.

And this is another recipe that my family demolished in less than 24 hours.

Enjoy!

Foodie Friday -- Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream

This is my "Go To" ice cream recipe. It actually came with the ice cream freezer, though I have made a few changes to the recipe that is documented under the Tips & Tricks.

This is how to make the custard, which is the base of the ice cream. It is NOT an instruction on how to MAKE ice cream, mainly due to the fact that ice cream freezers are all different.
That's your problem, not mine. :-)

Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream

 

5 Quarts  

 
3 cups sugar

½ cup flour

½ tsp. salt

6 ¼ cups milk

5 eggs, beaten 

5 cups whipping cream

2 ½ Tbls. vanilla extract

Combine sugar, flour and salt in saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat approximately 15 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Gradually stir about 1 cup of hot mixture into beaten eggs. Add egg mixture back into remaining hot mixture, stirring constantly. Cook 1 minute: remove from heat. Refrigerate 2 hours. Combine whipping cream and vanilla in large bowl; add chilled mixture, stirring with wire whisk to combine Freeze as directed according to your ice cream freezer.

 Tips & Tricks:

·         I use vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract. Vanilla paste has a stronger vanilla flavor without the alcohol of an extract, plus the paste has vanilla bean seeds throughout.

·         BEFORE refrigerating the mixture, strain the custard into a plastic container and seal with a lid.

·         The custard can be made the day before and refrigerate overnight. Be sure the container is sealed tightly as the custard will absorb other flavors in the refrigerator.

·         The step that says combine the whipping cream and vanilla in a large bowl is redundant in the sense that you can simply mix it in the container that comes in the ice cream freezer.

·         My ice cream freezer holds 5 quarts. Be sure to adjust the recipe according to the size of your ice cream freezer.

 

Foodie Friday -- Easy Coleslaw Dressing

Here's another quick and easy side dish recipe that I made at a recent pool party shindig.

I threw it together the night before. Just be sure to stir it in the morning and right before you put it on the table.

Enjoy!

Easy Coleslaw Dressing

1 cup mayo

2 Tbls. sugar
2 Tbls. cider vinegar
2 tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. dry mustard

1 or 2 bags of shredded coleslaw mix (green and red cabbage, carrots)

Whisk all dressing ingredients together in plastic container with lid, large enough for 8-10 cups. Add cabbage mixture.

Refrigerate 4-6 hours, or overnight.

Toss well before serving.

Tips & Tricks:

·         You can add 1/8 tsp. celery seed . . . but don’t bother if it isn’t already in your pantry.

·         It seems like a lot of pepper, but it gives it a nice kick.

·         When I added the first bag of cabbage, it filled the container to the top. Simply snap on the lid and shake, and then wait about 10-15 minutes for the dressing mixture to break down the cabbage before adding the rest of the vegetables. Repeat as often as necessary.

 

Foodie Friday -- Tomato Salad

A few weeks ago when we had my husband's employees over for a pool party, I prepared quite a dishes. One of them was this Tomato Salad recipe that I got from my mother-in-law.

Easy to make ahead of time.

Marilyn’s Tomato Salad

 

6 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 cup olives, halved and drained

1 cup purple onion, chopped fine

¼ cup fresh parsley, minced

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. turmeric

¾ tsp. cumin

¼ tsp. black pepper

6 Tbls. Olive oil

4 Tbls. Lemon juice 

Toss all ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate until chilled (4-6 hours or overnight).

Tips & Tricks

• only one suggestion here--take the ingredients from salt down and place them in a container that has a lid, shake well, and then poor over the tomato mixture.

Foodie Friday --

Sorry, no recipe today. Instead there are a couple of freebies available.

This book has tips and tricks to lose weight, while providing a few candy recipes. This book is a short version of my weight loss efforts.

Yes, it's in my typical no-nonsense words about the journey, but the candy recipes are worth the read!

Click on the book cover to download the book.

To Gnome Me Is To Love Me is still available for free. Today is the last day!

Click on the book coves and the link will take you to Amazon US.

I don't think the American link will click to the various incarnations of Amazon across the world. If you are in a country other than US, then click the title or my name, M. A. Golla, and put it in your Amazon account, as the freebie is matched in all available Amazon locations.

As always, I hope you enjoy reading my stories. If you feel compelled, please give the book a rating and your honest feedback about the story.


And if you really, really need a recipe, then feel free to pull down the Foodie Friday tab as I have linked all  the recipes that I've posted under that tab.

Yes, even last wee's Ardsheal House Shortbread (under cookies) and Creamy Pesto Lasagna (under entrees, chicken).

As always, take your time and nose around on my blog, feel free to drop me a line, or just enjoy what I have to offer.

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- Creamy Pesto Lasagna

I found this recipe in Food TV magazine. It looked good so I decided to try this recipe. It’s a winner! The family polished off the leftovers in two days, so it’s a keeper.

This makes 12 servings. 

Creamy Pesto Lasagna

Béchamel sauce:

4 Tbls. Butter

¼ cup flour

3 cups whole milk

¼ tsp. nutmeg

½ cup purchased basil pesto

Salt and Black pepper to taste

Lasagna:

1 15-ounce package ricotta cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan

½ purchased basil pesto

12 dry, flat, no-boil lasagna noodles

3 cups diced rotisserie chicken

4 cups shredded, part-skim mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the béchamel, melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk and nutmeg, bring to a simmer, and cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat, stir in ½ cup pesto; season with salt and pepper.

For the ricotta mixture, stir together ricotta, Parmesan, and ½ cup pesto; season with salt and pepper.

Assembling the lasagna:

Spread 2/3 cup béchamel in bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Lay 3 lasagna sheets side-by-side. Top with ½ cup ricotta mixture, ¾ cup chicken, 2/3 cup béchamel, and ¾ cup mozzarella. Repeat layering three more times, topping the final layer with 1 ½ cups mozzarella. Cover lasagna with foil.

Bake lasagna until bubbly, about 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake lasagna 15 minutes more, then broil on high until golden, 2-3 minutes. Let lasagna rest 15 minutes before serving.

Tips & Tricks:

·         I didn't have whole milk, so I used skim milk along with a little bit of heavy cream to make up the 3 cups.

·         The recipe called for refrigerated basil pesto, but I couldn't find it, so I found jarred basil pesto in the pasta aisle. I bought two 8.1 ounce jars because I couldn’t remember how much was needed. I did need the second jar when I actually measured it out.

·         I didn’t use rotisserie chicken, though it would have made this recipe really easy. Instead I grilled two very large chicken breasts that I seasoned with Cavender’s Greek seasoning.

·         Yeah, I don’t follow the “4 cups of Mozzarella cheese” number. I bought an 8 cup package and almost used the entire package.

·         The béchamel sauce is pretty easy to make, so freak out about it. Be sure to taste the sauce AFTER you add the pesto but BEFORE you salt it. The pesto I bought was pretty salty, so I didn’t really have to salt the sauce.

·         Depending on the store bought pesto, it might be very, very garlicy. . . the brand I bought was (Classico), but the family didn’t care.

·         Have everything prepared to make quick work of layering the lasagna

Enjoy!

Later, Peeps!