Recipe: Baked Leek and Parmesan Dip

I got a couple of leeks in my Bountiful Basket a couple of weeks ago and still had not used them.  I've never cooked with leeks before but I knew it was related to onions and garlic so I decide to make a hot dip with it.  I make a hot Parmesan dip at Christmas time with my mom so I thought I'd try it with the leeks.  Turned out very delicious!

Baked Leek and Parmesan Dip

2 Leeks - white and light green parts only
1 Medium Onion, chopped
3 packages Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup Mayonnaise
3-4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 1/2 - 2 cups Parmesan, shredded
Salt and Pepper to taste

Split leeks and rinse well.  Chop leeks and onions and in saute in small pan with some butter for 8-10 minutes until soft.  (If you don't like them sauteed, you can also put them in a saucepan with some water, bring to a boil and lower to a simmer for about 15 minutes).  

In baking dish combine leeks and onions with remaining ingredients saving a 1/2 cup of Parmesan to top)  .  Cover with remaining Parmesan.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown at 400 degrees.

Note:  This would be really good with artichokes added to it too.

I put the leek tops and some other vegetables (and garlic and herbs) I had left from my recent Bountiful Baskets into about 8 cups of water and brought it to a boil.  Turned it down to simmer for about an hour and I now have vegetable broth.  Once it cools, I will put some in ice trays and freeze so that I can have small amounts when needed and the rest I will put into approx 2 cup containers and freeze.

Recipe: Chuckwagon Cheddar Chicken

This recipe is from the Steamboat Entertains cookbook.  It is hard to find but there are a few used copies on Amazon here.  My family loves this recipe and I don't know why I don't make it more often as it really is pretty simple!  It reminds me a lot of the Kraft Fresh Takes Italian Parmesan but the cheddar cheese just adds another layer to the flavors.

Looks very similar to this once baked.  I'll try to remember to take a picture tonight.

Chuckwagon Cheddar Chicken
(I cut this recipe in half except for the cheese - I use more :-) )

8 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1/2 cup Butter
4 cloves Garlic, minced
3/4 cup Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/8 tsp Pepper
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar Cheese

Melt butter, add garlic,  Mix breadcrumbs, Parmesan, pepper and cheddar cheese in a bowl.  Dip chicken in garlic butter, then dip in breadcrumb mixture, coating well.  Put into a baking dish. Pour any extra butter or breadcrumb mixture over the checken.  Bake, uncovered in a 9" x 13" baking dish at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Serves 8.

I am serving this with garlic mashed potatoes tonight.

Recipe: Meatballs

My boys and I made meatballs today with hamburger I picked up at my local King Soopers a couple of weeks ago for .98/lb.  I froze the meat and then thawed it out yesterday.  Our recipe is pretty loose, throw in some spices/herbs (whatever you like), eggs and bread crumbs.  There really isn't much measuring going on, I just throw in whatever looks good.  6lbs is a lot of meat so make sure you season it enough :

Meatballs:

6 lbs Ground Beef
6 Eggs
1 cup Homemade Bread Crumbs or Crackers
1 cup Parmesan Cheese
Onions (Chopped)
Garlic
Garlic Salt
Onion Powder
Liquid Smoke
Parsley
Italian Seasoning


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl until well mixed.  Form into even sized balls (so they bake evenly) and put on large cookie sheet (if you put cooling racks on the cookie sheets the grease will run down into the cookie sheet making these a bit more healthy for you). Bake for 20-30 minutes until no longer pink in the center.  You can also fry these on the stove until all sides are browned and no longer pink in the center.

We made fairly large meatballs so we only got about 60 from our 6 lbs.  They were delicious in our spaghetti for lunch.

Menu Plan Sunday

I finally finished my menu planning board.  I think it took more time to figure out the papers to use than to actually make it.  I'm still thinking about more I might want to add to it, but it is functional.  Now I am finally ready to do my first menu plan with it!  I will do a separate post with a few photos and details of how I made my board.

Today was a Bountiful Basket pick up so I got lots of fresh fruits and vegetables so while planning my menu for this week, I tried to think of a few meals I could make using what I got.  Later today, my boys and I will be making meatballs with 80/20 hamburger I got for .98 cents per pound. We will also fry up some of it for taco meat.


Menu Plan for week of February 17-23:
Sunday - Spaghetti with meatballs
Monday - 40 Cloves Garlic Chicken (in the crockpot)
Tuesday - Taco Salad
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Meatballs
Friday - Homemade Pizza
Saturday - Leftovers

I am only menu planning dinners as I usually just eat left overs for lunch.  I anticipate that Tuesday may end up being a left overs night too and that is ok with me.  I would rather eat up the leftovers than throw away the food.

Recipe: Crockpot Mashed Potatoes

A couple weeks ago I found a recipe on FirstADream blog for making mashed potatoes in the crockpot.  I had a bunch of potatoes from Bountiful Baskets that I needed to use up and this recipe sounded delicious but in reality it was OUT OF THIS WORLD.  I have some more potatoes that I need to use so I'm thinking this will be part of our dinner tomorrow night!.

I pretty much followed the recipe but I saw other recipes that added cream cheese in place of some of the milk.  I did not want the extra calories and the original recipe was outstanding as it was.

Picture from TasteOfHome.com

Crockpot/Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

• 5 lbs potatoes, diced with peel

• 1 cup water

• 1 cup butter, cut into chunks

• 1 tablespoon salt, plus

• ¾  teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 1/3  cups milk, warmed

1. Place the potatoes, water, and butter into a slow cooker.

2. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Cover, and cook on High for 4 hours.

4. Do not remove the excess water from slow cooker. This adds to the creamy texture.

5. Mash potatoes with a masher or electric beater, adding the desired amount of warm milk to achieve a creamy consistency.

6. Keep warm on low until serving.

7. Potatoes keep consistency for a couple of hours after mashing. Just keep the lid on the slow cooker and serve directly from there.

Recipe: Double Crunch Orange Chicken

I found a recipe for Double Crunch Orange Chicken and knew I had to try it.  Here is the link to the original recipe.  I followed it pretty closely except that I only had 2 (large) chicken breasts (that is really all the 4 of us will eat in a single meal) so I had to cut it down so I would not have waste.  I'm going to try it baked next time to lower the calories.  Mine was not quite as dark as the picture below, I was afraid of it being too dry.  They also have a recipe for Honey Garlic Double Crunch Chicken that I plan to try soon!



I served it with rice and a spinach salad with strawberries and feta cheese.  My boys declared this recipe a keeper.

Double Crunch Orange Chicken

6  large boneless chicken breasts
 

Place the chicken breasts between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and using a meat mallet, pound the meat to an even 1/2 inch thickness. Alternatively, you can slice the breasts by placing them flat on a cutting board and using a very sharp knife to slice them into halves horizontally.

Sift together:

2 cup flour
4 tsp salt
4 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp ground ginger
2 tbsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground thyme
2 tsp ground sage
2 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper 

Make an egg wash by whisking together:

4 eggs
8 tbsp water

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, then dip the meat in the flour and spice mixture. Dip the breast into the eggwash and then a final time into the flour and spice mix, pressing the mix into the meat to get good contact.   Here is where I changed the recipe - instead of dipping into flour mixture again, I put them in Panko to which I added a bit of garlic salt and onion powder.  Made the chicken very crunchy.

Heat a skillet on the stove with about a half inch of canola oil covering the bottom. You will want to carefully regulate the temperature here so that the chicken does not brown too quickly. The thinness of the breast meat practically guarantees that it will be fully cooked by the time the outside is browned. I find just below medium heat works well. I use a burner setting of about 4 1/2 out of 10 on the dial and fry them gently for about 4 or 5 minutes per side until golden brown and crispy.

Several comments on the website suggest that for baking, that you should spray a baking pan lightly with oil and then spriz some on top and then turn the chicken over about half way through. Bake at 350 degrees for approx 25-35 minutes.  Internal temperature should be 165 degrees.

Orange Sauce 

Begin by adding to a medium saucepan over medium low heat:

3 cloves minced garlic

3 tbsp peanut oil

Sauté for a couple of minutes until the garlic is softened but not browned, then add:

3 cups orange juice

finely grated zest of one small orange

3/4 cup honey

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp chili flakes or 2 tsp crushed chili paste ( more or less to taste, use 1/4 of this amount if you don't like spicy sauces) - I left this out completely as my sons don't like spicy.

Simmer together slowly for about 20 minutes or until the volume has reduced by about half. Skim off any film that may come to the surface.

Mix together:

1 1/2 tbsp corn starch

1/4 cup water

Pour slowly into the saucepan stirring constantly to thicken the sauce to a glaze-like consistency. You can use a little more or less cornstarch mixture to bring it to the consistency you want. Boil for only another minute and remove from the heat.

Coat the chicken breasts with the sauce before serving. Serve with rice or noodles.

Be sure to check out Rock Recipes for more recipe ideas!

Recipe - The Most Wonderful French Bread

The first recipe of my new blog!  One of my favorite things to make is French Bread.  I found a great recipe on a blog called Chocolate on My Cranium (and she has several other great recipes I've also used).  She calls this her Not-So-French French bread but if it is "Not-So" then I don't know what is.  I get lots of compliments on this bread and requests to make more.  Because it is so dry here in Colorado, I store these in Armor plastic bread bags (make sure completely cooled) that I get from Ace Hardware.  The bags are fairly expensive ($3.99 for 4 bags), so I give my friends a loaf a bread in the bag and tell them to save it and return to me for refills. You can find the bags on Amazon here but they are more expensive.  If you live in a climate with humidity a paper bag would probably work for you.  This bread usually does not last for more than a couple of hours around my house so storage really isn't an issue.

Here is the recipe with my modifications.

French Bread (modified from Chocolate on My Cranium)
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsp Yeast
2 Tbsp Sugar or Honey
1 Tbsp Salt
2 Tbsp Oil
6 cups All Purpose Flour
1 Egg

I Add (optional):
Garlic
Onion Powder
Parmesan Cheese
Italian Seasoning
Dried Onion Flakes

In a large mixing bowl combine water, yeast, and sugar/honey.  I use a small whisk to make sure it is well mixed.  Let sit for 5 minutes to allow yeast to soften and bloom.  If your yeast does not foam/bubble, then it is dead and you will want to get some fresh yeast before proceeding.  I buy yeast in big vacuum packages from Costco and keep it in my refrigerator in a sealed container (like Rubbermaid) once I've opened it.  I bake often enough that I don't have to worry about it going bad but if you don't cook with yeast often you can get individual packages of yeast from your grocery store, Walmart, etc.

My bloomed yeast looks most like this picture but other people don't get quite the same result.  As long as there appears to be some bubbling you should be ok.

Add salt, oil and 3 cups flour; beat well. Add remaining flour (here is where I add my herbs/spices and other items I want IN the bread - jalapenos anyone??), stirring well with a heavy spoon (or in the mixer with the dough hook). If too dry, add a small amount of water (1 Tbsp at a time).  

Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes; stir down with spoon; allow dough to rest for 10 minutes; stir down with spoon again. Repeat this process until dough has been stirred down a total of five times (I don't always remember to do it every 10 minutes and it still turns out fine). 

Turn dough out onto floured surface; knead two or three times to coat entire surface with flour. Divide into three equal portions. Roll each portion into a rough 9x12 inch rectangle. Roll rectangle up starting with a 12 inch side, pinch edge of loaf to seal. Arrange seam side down on a large baking sheet that's been sprinkled with cornmeal. I usually bake two loaves on one sheet and the last loaf on a sheet of its own. Allow to rise for 30 minutes. 

With a very sharp knife, cut three gashes at an angle in top of each loaf; brush entire surface with egg wash (1 egg beaten slightly with 1 Tablespoon water - I also add some minced garlic or garlic salt).  Sometimes instead of an egg wash, I use melted butter with minced garlic and some garlic salt sprinkled on time.  The crust is not as crusty when I do this but it is DELICIOUS.  Other toppings might include poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried onion flakes, caraway seeds, the list is endless.  You just need something like the egg or butter to hold them on the bread.

Bake at 400 in the center rack of the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until a nice golden brown. Cool. Makes three loaves.

NOTE: For a crustier loaf, a pan of water may be set on the bottom rack of the oven while bread is baking.