Chicken Fricassee

I love this dish, it reminds me of a chicken version of a braised stew :) I will break this down to make it a serving for 4, if you want a serving for 8 simply double this.

Ok you will need:
1 whole chicken cut up
2 eggs
salt and pepper (white pepper preferred)
3 oz Clarified butter (melted butter with the fat solids scooped off the top)
White Mirepoix: 1 whole white onion diced, 2 stalks of celery sliced, and 1 cup of mushrooms diced
3 oz flour
8 oz white wine
1 qt chicken stock
8 oz heavy cream
Pinch of nutmeg
2 garlic cloves
Seasoning sachet: basically a bundle of fresh seasoning
     1 Bay leaf
     1/2 tsp Dried thyme
     8 parsley stems


Salt and pepper the chicken, in a large pot pour in the butter and turn on to medium heat, add in the mirepoix (celery, onion, and mushrooms), then add the chicken fat side down and cook but do not brown, flip chicken and cook other side.  Throw in garlic cloves whole smashed not cut.

Sprinkle the flour over everything to make a kind of roux ..cook for about 2 minutes, do not brown.  Deglaze the pan by adding the wine (it will sizzle, thats good) then pour all the chicken stock in, you want enough to cover the chicken halfway up, and that sachet of seasonings bundled by cooking twine.  Season with a pinch of salt and then cover and simmer for about 30-45 minutes.

When done, remove chicken from the pan and set aside on a plate.  Next you will "temper the liason" what this means is in a separate bowl...add 2 egg yolks, and the heavy cream.  Scoop out some of the liquid from the hot pot and add slowly to the yolk mixture and stir, keep doing this until the egg mixture is warm, add the pinch of nutmeg and then pour mixture back into the main big pot.

Next add your chicken back into the pot, take out the seasoning bundle, and stir, and then you can serve! I served this with mashed potatoes and rolls :) I also threw in some carrots, I just love stewed carrots!

Bisquick Baked Crispy Chicken Fingers

I love this because its so easy, and Bisquick is so cheap and yummy, and its quick!

You need:
1 cup of Bisquick
1 lb Chicken Breast
1 egg
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp garlic salt
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
optional: pinch of cayenne
Butter

Preheat oven to 425F
In a 1 gallon bag, throw in all your spices and Bisquick mix, and mix up a bit.  In a small bowl crack the egg.  Cut up the chicken into long 1 inch slices.  Take half the chicken piece by piece and dip into the egg and throw into the bag.  Shake the bag until chicken well coated.  Place chicken on a cookie sheet covered in foil, make sure you spray cooking spray on foil.  Now dip the 2nd half of chicken breast into egg and place in bag and repeat, when all covered put on foil.  Drizzle melted butter over chicken.  Place in oven and cook for 13-15 minutes, make sure to flip halfway through.

Take out and serve with whatever side you like! I like mashed potatoes and steamed veggies :)

Spaghetti Squash Pasta with meat sauce

Honestly, I almost prefer squash pasta rather than regular pasta! 

1 spaghetti squash

salt

pepper

1 lb beef (80/20) 

1/2 an onion

1 clove of garlic 

Pasta sauce (whatever brand you prefer) 

Italian seasonings 

Olive Oil 

Squash Pasta: 

Get a large pot and fill about half way with water.  Cut your squash in half down longways, and scoop out the seeds and strings.  Bring water to a boil and place the two halves in the pot, making sure squash side down, and shell side up.  Add about a tablespoon of salt to the water.  You will boil for about 25-30 minutes or until soft.

Sauce: 

Depending on the brand you get and the flavor, I like to get the vegetable Prego, or mushroom.  First dice your onion and add to hot large pan with olive oil, cook until translucent.   Add your meat in the pan, and after some browning add 1 garlic clove minced (you want to add this a bit later because it burns easily) Add some of your Italian seasoning and pepper and cook through.  When done, turn the heat down to simmer and add your sauce to the meat in the pan, stir.

Take your squash out of the hot water, and let it cool off a bit, then with a fork youll just string the squash out into a bowl.  Work the fork down longways.  Strain or pat dry with a paper towel.  Place on your plate and top with the meat sauce, top with parmesan cheese, and your good to go! 

I like to serve with a Caesar Salad and garlic toast.  I usually just toast up some bread, spread butter on and then sprinkle with garlic powder .. easy peasy! :)  

Fajitas, Guacamole, Sausage Queso, and Pico de Gallo

I love fajitas because you can make them as simple and cheap, or as expensive and bountiful as you want!

Chicken and Steak Fajitas:
1 lb chicken
1 lb skirt steak
Fajita Seasoning
Lime
Onion
Green, Yellow, Red, Orange Bell peppers (whatever you want, the yellow and orange are sweeter)
Garlic
Butter
Foil if you grill 'em
Olive Oil
Tortillas
Cheese (whatever kind you want)
Sour cream
Refried Beans
Salsa or Pico (recipe to follow)

Some of these are obviously how you like them, you can add more or take away, up to you! Season the chicken and steak with fajita seasoning and a little lime juice, and throw on the grill! If you wanna do it stove top, you can put them in a pan separated because steak will be ready before chicken, season with fajita seasoning, throw in a little bit of oil and butter and lime juice and cook in the pan over medium ..first cover, then cook a bit uncovered to brown it up.

In another pan saute peppers and onion and a clove of garlic minced all together in butter and a bit of oil, add some salt to taste and sweat them until soft.

In a tortilla you can add your sour cream, some refried beans (heated), top with your meat, and peppers, throw on some cheese if you want, maybe even squeeze a lil more lime juice if you like the citrus flavor, top with salsa or pico, wrap it up and EAT! :)

Missy's Guacamole:
5 large avocados
salt
pepper
3 limes
garlic powder
onion
cilantro
cayenne
tomato
serrano

Cut avocados in half, take out the seed, scoop out the avocado in a bowl.  Squeeze the 3 limes and mash it all up really good, add diced onion to taste-I do about 1/2 cup, diced tomato 1/2 cup, small diced serrano unseeded, a lot of salt, I would say 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of pepper, sprinkle with cayenne, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or just use fresh garlic minced, about a tablespoon.  I like to add a little bit of medium salsa or pico, about 1/4 cup, then add 1/4 cup cilantro cut up, mix this all together until smooth or as thick as you want, and enjoy! You may feel the urge to add more salt, but don't, your chips have salt on them!

Tanner's Pico De Gallo:
Roma Tomatos
Jalapenos
Cilantro
Limes
Onion
Garlic cloves
Salt
Cumin

Dice up about 4-5 roma tomatoes, 2 jalapenos, 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 onion, mince 2 garlic cloves and put in a bowl together, mix, squeeze about 2 limes, and season with about 1 teaspoon of salt, a pinch of cumin, and mix! You can make it hotter by adding a serrano, or adjust each seasoning based upon if you like it salty or citrusy, or more onion ect.  This you can play with a little as well :)

Sausage Queso:

Large Velveeta 

Can of Rotell (whatever spice level) 

Hot Sausage (Like Jimmy Dean) 

Cayenne

Milk

Pepper

Melt the Velveeta with 1/4 cup milk, add in the Rotel and stir.  In a pan cook the sausage, when done add to the velveeta bowl and stir.  Sprinkle about a pinch of cayenne and your good to go! 

Our dips lineup ;) YUMMAY

Good Vegetarian Links!

Searching all day online can be annoying, so I have found some of the top sites for easy, quick, simple, recipes that are not so far OUT there! 


Going vegetarian is difficult for some because there just seems to not be much variety, but you really should branch out and not search your basic "vegetarian recipes" 


One thing my vegetarian friend told me was to search by city, they have different flavors and styles that go into vegetarian cooking, San Francisco has a TON of good recipes online! 


BUT .. here are a few links to help ya out! 


Here is a good simple one: http://webecoist.com/2008/10/28/14-quick-vegetarian-recipes-for-the-hopeless-cook/


Allrecipes.com always has good stuff: http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/everyday-cooking/quick-and-easy/quick-and-easy-vegetarian/main.aspx


This one is great at simply cheap and easy! Just like the site says :) http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/7-cheap-and-easy-vegetarian-meals.html


If you are looking for a recipe with a certain favorite food you want more variety with, but can't find anything, let me know as I have a few vegetarian friends in the cooking industry, and a few vegan ones as well! I can ask them for a particular type or recipe! 

Meatloaf

Meatloaf recipe my teacher gave us:

It was yummy but you can vary your seasonings! There are 4 main important things to a meatloaf or other foods like it, meat, fat, binder, and seasonings!

-Get 1 lb of Beef (80/20 fat percentage)
-now the binder you can vary, but we did 1 egg, and 2 pieces of white bread soaked in heavy cream (not at lot, about 2 tablespoons per piece of bread in a bowl, just soak them all in there) and like 1/3 cup of oatmeal flakes
-1 cup ketchup
-1 tablespoon brown sugar
-Bacon (we used 3 pieces)
-1 shallot
-1/4 onion
-2 cloves of garlic
-worcestershire sauce
-soy sauce
-salt
-pepper
-tarragon (dried)
-sage (powder)
-cayenne pepper (powder)

Preheat oven to 375

Ok you know the basics im sure, so you take the meat, put in a bowl, throw in the egg, then crumble that wet bread in there, the oatmeal, about 1/4 cup of the worcestershire (sp?), 1/4 cup of that soy sauce, 1/2 of the cup of ketchup, about 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 tablespoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon of the terragon leaves, 1 teaspoon of the sage, and cayenne really to taste and mix alllllll that up

In a sautee pan youll add diced garlic, shallot and onion, cook in some oil, once sauteed, add that to the meat mix .. mix it all up really good!

Put in a meatloaf pan, or if dont have one just put on a baking sheet covered in foil, form it in the shape of a rectangle essentially, put the strips of bacon over it where its covered, then put in oven.

Cook 20 minutes, then take out ... in a little bowl, mix 1/2 cup (rest) of ketchup, and brown sugar, then pour that over the meatloaf, and put back in the oven for about 15 minutes (or until it looks done to you) Ours took 40 minutes in all but all ovens are different!

Bam .. yummy meatloaf! :)

Scrounged the fridge, came up with Patty Melt's!

Ok so I had some leftover beef and turkey breasts in the fridge that I knew would go bad by tomorrow, so came up with Patty Melt's with homemade french fries! 


You need (for 2 servings) 4 pieces of bread ..whatever you want, rye is best, we used just White, you need 2 slices of swiss cheese (or american), onion, bell pepper, some butter, potatoes, and vegetable oil.


Make your burger patties how you want, I added soy sauce and a little bit of A1 and pepper and garlic salt, made my burgers, and then for the turkey breast, I just seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic salt, and covered both the turkey and beef with some creole seasoning.


I cooked all meats in 1 pan, sauteed onions and peppers in butter and a little bit of oil in a pan separately until nicely sauteed, then set them aside since they were done.  For the fries I cut potatoes into slices..however thick you want! I soaked them in cold water to get some of the starches off ..makes it easier to fry! Then once oil was hot but not too hot, put all the fries in and let them cook a bit, until the bubbles calm down, took them out on a plate with a papertowl, let them cool a bit and turned up the heat on the oil, and placed them back in to get nice and crispy! 

Once your meats are cooked, place cheese over them to melt them and get your toast ready on your plates.  You can make a quick secret sauce ... its like Thousand Island, 2 tablespoons mayo, 1 tablespoon ketchup, pinch of sugar, some sweet relish, and salt and pepper to taste, spread that over the toast, place the meat with cheese on the bread, cover with sauteed onions and peppers, and cover with other piece of bread ... and BAM you got yourself a yummy patty melt! Serve with fries salted :) 

Eggs Benedict! It's not as hard as you think

If you can learn to make this, I promise your friends and family will not stop asking for it, and you will become their hero ;) 


It is best to start with the hardest part, the Hollandaise sauce. For this you will need: 2 eggs (yolks only), cup of water, 1/4 cup of vinegar, shallot, black peppercorns (a few), and 3 sticks of unsalted butter (12 ounces) that you should clarify, but do not have to.  You clarify butter by putting it into a pot and heating it up on about medium to melt it, scoop off the foam off the top and throw away, and pour what is left into a measuring cup, do not pour the fats that settled into the bottom of the pot.  You will need a glass or stainless steel large bowl (not aluminum) and a pot of hot water that you can set that bowl on top of, kinda like a make shift baine marie (or double boiler) 


So what you will do is cut up the shallot, you can just dice it up, and add to a small pan, with the vinegar and couple peppercorns, heat on medium until it reduces by half.


Add the two egg yolks into that large bowl, add about 1/4 cup of water and whisk really well, then take that vinegar off the stove, and strain into the yolk bowl, and whisk well, then place over that hot pot of water, and slowly add a couple of drops of the clarified butter, you must do this slowly as if you do it too quickly the butter and yolk will separate. 


Keep adding drops of butter little by little as you whisk, if you notice the egg mixture starting to cook, take the bowl off the heat and keep whisking, allowing it to cool a bit, it is important to keep the mixture warm, but not too hot.  As it thickens you can start adding the butter more and more until it is all mixed into the bowl.  If it gets too thick add a couple drops of water as you whisk to thin it out.  When done cover with saran wrap and keep on the stove somewhere where it can stay warm.  It must stay warm...check on it periodically mixing it as you move onto the eggs. 


Now that the sauce is done, you will now move onto the poaching of the eggs and preparing your plate.  What you will need is English muffins (1 per plate) that you will cut in half, canadian bacon (2 pieces per plate), 2 eggs per plate you are making (this recipe can make enough for 4 plates), tablespoon of vinegar, big pot of water, and a pan to cook the muffin and canadian bacon on, and some butter.


First you will Poach the eggs, to do this you will bring that pot of water up to below boiling, add the vinegar (it will help bind the proteins of the egg so the whites dont spread too far) some people like to put mason jar lid rings on the bottom of the pot so that they can put the egg right into it, it worked for me!  What you can do if you do not use the rings is crack an egg into a ramekin, or little cup, stir the water around in a circle creating a whirlpool effect, and slowly SLOWLY dump the egg into the center of the whirlpool, it will cause the egg whites to swirl around back onto itself, then after its settled a bit, add another egg, and just let them cook.  Some egg whites will float to the top that is ok, that you do not want on your plate, so you can scoop that out so you can see better if you want, or just push them aside to see your eggs, it should probably take about 5-7 minutes depending on how runny you want them, but get a slotted spoon, and bring an egg to the surface, press it lightly to see how ready it feels, it should give a bit, you want this kinda runny! Now at this same time you want to put some butter in the other pan, and place the canadian bacon in there along with your muffins, to cook them up (or you can just toast the muffins) and cook the canadian bacon in the pan .. place each half of muffin on your plate inside up, one slice of canadian bacon on each slice, and then put your poached egg on top of that .. then get your hollandaise sauce, make sure its not too thick, if it is add some warm water and whisk again, and pour over your poached eggs! 


Bam ... you got yourself Eggs Benedict! Tanner loves it :) and so do I! 

Welcome and thank you!

This is my first post, and so I just wanted to say hello, and thank you for looking at my blog! Hope you follow me, and if you have a blog, feel free to send me your link, I will be glad to follow as well :)


Tanner and I are big time foodies, but one thing about me you should know is that I like to cook simple.  I don't like to feel like a dish is not possible for me to make.  So I aim to explain things in PLAIN English (lol) and use pictures to show you how you can also make a dish.  When I find a recipe I like, I like to see how I can make it easier, and more cost effective.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some Giada, and some Ina Garten, but sometimes their words are too fancy, and they blow through the show so fast and use words I do not understand, and they seem to assume we know what the heck they are talking about! SO ..I will not do that, I will talk about things in terms you can understand, and if you have ANY questions, please feel free to ask!

Hope you enjoy what I have to say! :)