Chicken, Mushroom, and Wild Rice Soup

This is THE BEST home-cooked chicken and rice soup.  I was amazed at how awesome it is! It makes a lot (14 cups) so plan to share.  😉  You will use a lot of pans in making this, but it is sooooo worth it. 

2 (6-oz) packages long grain and wild rice mix
10 cups chicken broth, divided
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (I use organic baby bella)
1 cup chopped fresh onion
1 cup chopped celery
¼ cup butter
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup half-and-half
2 T dry white wine
2 cups cooked shredded chicken breasts (I used one of the grocery store rotisserie chickens to save time in a pinch)

Bring rice, 4 cups chicken broth, and 1 seasoning packet from rice mix to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.  Cover, reduce to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. 

Meanwhile, melt 3 T butter in large skillet over meium heat; add mushrooms, onion and celery and cook, stirring often, 10-12 minutes or until tender.

Melt ¼ cup butter in dutch oven over medium heat; whisk in flour, stirring constantly, 1 minute or until thickened and bubbly.  Gradually whisk in remaining 6 cups broth and cook, stirring often, 8-10 minutes or until slightly thinckened.  Whisk in wine and half and half.  Stir in mushroom mixture, chicken and rice.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 5-10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.  (Do not boil.)

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Overnight French Toast

This recipe originally came from the first Stoneware Sensations cookbook by The Pampered Chef. It’s one of the recipes I fell in love with a decade ago.  Recently, I added the strawberry sauce and made it even more spectacular.  The ease of making it the night before means it’s a great weekday breakfast too! (This recipe can be easily halved to make just four servings.)

1 loaf french bread
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
4 T granulated sugar, divided
1 t vanilla
1/8 t salt
¼-½  t ground cinnamon (optional, to taste)
1 cup sliced strawberries
2 T granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 T heavy whipping cream, divided
1 banana, sliced 

Arrange the French bread slices (cut side down) in a 9×13 baking dish. Combine the eggs and next five ingredients; blend well and pour over the bread slices.  Cover with foil and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Slice fresh strawberries and sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Cover and chill overnight.

The next morning, preheat oven to 400.  Bake the bread uncovered for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove to cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Put strawberries (with the juice made by the sugar) in a small saucepan and simmer about 3 minutes.  Remove strawberries from the juice and set them aside.  Add ½ cup whipping cream to strawberry juice and whisk until boiling.  Pour into a glass container, add 2T more whipping cream and beat on high about 2 minutes.  It will thicken only slightly, but this is fine.

Arrange a serving of French toast slices on plate and drizzle with strawberry sauce.  Spoon sliced strawberries and sliced bananas on top and enjoy!!

Completely Incredible Fruit-of-Your-Choice Muffins

These are from the March issue of Southern Living magazine.  I tried some variations and have determined that you can use just about any fruit that suits you, and these muffins will still rock!  We like the original peach best, but I made them with blueberries the second time and was just as happy.

Streusel:
½ c chopped pecans or walnuts
1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar
¼ c all-purpose flour
2 T melted butter
1 t ground cinnamon

 Muffins:
1 ½ c allpurpose flour
½ c granulated sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
¼ t salt
½ c butter, melted (1 stick)
¼ milk
1 large egg
1 cup frozen sliced peaches, thawed and diced OR blueberries/strawberries/pear/whatever you want!
12 paper baking cups
Vegetable cooking spray

Prepare Streusel by stirring pecans and next 4 ingredients until crumbly; set aside.

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (all dry) in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Stir together the butter, milk and egg; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  Gently stir in fruit.

Place paper baking cups in a muffin tin and lightly spray them with the cooking spray.  Spoon batter into the cups, filling about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle the streusel over the tops.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.  Cool (or not) and enjoy!!

Fancy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Their Endless Variations

I first got the notion of fancy grilled cheese sandwiches from Joy the Baker when she introduced her readers to sandwiches made of goat cheese, spinach, ham and mustard.  I substituted blue cheese because it’s what I had on hand, slathered on some organic dijon and I was instantly hooked!  Have one of those with some HonestTea Peach Oo-La-Long, and you’ve got a mighty fine lunch!

Then last month Southern Living ran an article on upgrading the standard grilled cheese sandwich. I tweaked it a little because, come on…it’s a sandwich.  You can do that.   I actually had to just nut up and make this sandwich, put it on a plate and shove it in front of Dom before he would concede to eat it.  But halfway through dinner he looked up at me, grinned that sly little grin while chewing, and gave the thumbs up sign.  Yesssssssss!!

Grilled Strawberry and Goat Cheese Sandwich

Crumbled goat cheese
Red pepper jelly
Spinach leaves
Fresh basil leaves
sliced fresh strawberries

Butter one side of two pieces of bread. Spread red pepper jelly on alternate side of one slice of bread; layer that slice with goat cheese, then sliced strawberries, followed by basil and spinach leaves over the strawberries. Then sprinkle on some more cheese for good measure if ya want. (I did!)  Carefully close the sandwich and either pan fry or place in a Panini maker.

Balsamic Feta Portobello Burgers

Makes 2 burgers:

2 large Portobello mushroom caps, stemmed
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T olive oil
1 t minced fresh garlic
½ t pepper
¼ t salt
¼ c crumbled feta, gorgonzola or blue cheese
2 T light mayo
1 t balsamic vinegar
Baby spinach leaves
Sliced tomato
2 burger buns
Plenty of napkins!

Scrape gills from mushroom caps.  Combine 3T vinegar, oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a zip-top freezer bag.  Add mushrooms, turning to coat. Chill 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning occasionally.  Remove mushrooms from marinade and discard marinade.  

Grill mushrooms over med-high heat until tender (3-4 minutes each side)

Remove from grill and immediately sprinkle feta cheese to underside of each cap. 

Stir together the 2T mayo and 1t vinegar; spread on burger buns.  Build burger with the spinach leaves, tomato and mushroom and serve immediately.

Absolutely Ah. Maze. Ing. Peanut Butter Cookies

I made peanut butter cookies last week to satisfy Dom’s sweet tooth.  They were okay, but quite honestly, they weren’t what we were looking for in a peanut butter cookie.  So I went googling and I found what was titled The Last Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe You’ll Ever Try.  So I tried it. 

Ohhh.  Emmm.  Geeeee.

Now, I’ll go ahead and tell you that despite how dreamy these cookies taste, I have not eaten another one since figuring the nutritional content of them.  Yeah.  It’s a tad shocking.  BUT, there is a fix, so if you will bear with me on the numbers I can offer a solution.   And yes, I am here to tell you – despite the calories and even using the full-blown original recipe, these cookies are that darn good. 

I’m going to introduce the recipe now, in the event that you are a person who does not want the gooey goodness spoiled by numbers.  Enjoy!

1 ½ cups butter (that’s 3 sticks!)
1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter (or crunchy, if you prefer)
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups brown sugar
3 eggs
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 ¼  teaspoons baking soda
3 ¾ cups flour
12 ounces peanut butter chips (These are Reese’s brand, found next to the chocolate chips at the store.)

Cream peanut butter and margarine, add sugars and mix well.

Add eggs and mix until creamy.

Add remaining ingredients.

You might find that the dough is easier to work with if you chill it for about 20-30 minutes or so. I use a melon baller to scoop my dough into correct proportions, so I preferred it soft.

Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheets – do not flatten.  They look like meringue puffs when they’re done.  Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside – a claim I didn’t believe possible until I tasted it myself. 

Bake at 325°F for 15 minutes.

Cool on cookie rack, then transfer to airtight container for storage.

It’s also important to note that this makes a TON of cookie dough.  I mean, I got 78 cookies out of this batch!  Of course, I didn’t bake them up all at once.  I balled up 78 cookie dough scoops and put them in a freezer container.  So, whenever we want cookies, we can just pop out a few and toss them in the oven.  Genius, I know, and it wasn’t even my own idea! 

Now, here’s the skinny on the numbers.  (Skinny!  HA!!)  With the recipe as described above yielding 78 cookies (and my use of JIF Natural creamy peanut butter) the nutritional content per cookie is:
Calories: 129
Fat: 15 grams (Unfortunately, that is not a typo.  FIFTEEN.  This was the part that later kept me away from them, and the part that can be drastically altered!)
Sodium: 21.7 g
Protein: 1.7 g (All that peanut butter and less than 2 grams of protein?  Incredible!)
Fiber: 0.3 g (Hey, it was part of the calculation.  Might as well report it!)

If the fat content of the cookies scares you like it did me, take heart.  By omitting the peanut butter chips from the recipe (and believe me, they are a fantastic-tasting addition!)  we can drop the fat content down to 4 grams per cookie.  That is certainly more manageable in my opinion, and I will be trying this edit with the next round of cookies. Other stats per cookie, minus the PB chips:
Calories: 110
Sodium:14.4 g
Protein: 1 g (And we didn’t think it could get any smaller…)
Fiber: 0.3 g (there is apparently no fiber in the partially-hydrogenated-various-oils chips! Go figure.)

Salisbury Steak

1 can cream of mushroom (semi-condensed)*
1 Tbs mustard
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp horseradish
1 egg
1/4 cup dry oats or bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb ground beef
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 tsp pepper

Combine the soup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and horseradish; blend well.

In another bowl, lightly beat the egg. Add oats (or bread crumbs), onion, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup of the soup mixture.

Add beef and mix well.

Shape into about 5-6 patties. Brown the patties in oil on both sides in a large skillet; drain.

Combine remaining soup mixture with water; pour over patties.

Cover and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes or until meat is done.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve over mashed potatoes.

*I use Amy’s Organics Cream Of Mushroom semi-condensed soup, which is thinner than Campbell’s condensed soup. If you use a condensed soup, you will want to adjust the amount of water you add to 1/2 cup.

Boots’ Banana Pudding

My mother-in-law’s cousin makes this banana pudding for our family gatherings every single holiday, whether she herself will be there or not.  Dom and our sister-in-law, Melissa, have a Banana Pudding Race every holiday to see who can get to it first and leave the biggest hole.  I honestly forget who’s ahead…

1 large box vanilla pudding*
1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 8-oz container Cool Whip
Box of vanilla wafers
3 medium bananas

Mix first three ingredients; Fold in Cool Whip.  Layer w/ bananas and vanilla wafers; Chill 30 min.  

*I have begun to lay off of banana pudding due to the artificial colors in the vanilla pudding, and my new-found allergy to the “cream” in cool whip.

Italian Herb Bread (1½ pound)

Tags

bread, bread machine, herb, italian

1c + 2T   Milk
2T           Butter
3c            Bread Flour
3T           Grated Parmesan Cheese
1T           Sugar
2t            Italian Seasoning
1½t         Salt
2t            Active Dry Yeast (OR 1½ t Fast Rise/Bread Machine Yeast)

This is from my bread machine cookbook.  It says to use the French Bread setting. While I don’t have oven settings for this recipe, I will eventually figure it out and re-post.  😉  I use milk in my breads because I never use the delay bake setting on the bread machine.  (It takes long enough, right?)  If you want to use a delay setting, you will want to subsitute the same amount of water for the milk, and add 1T powdered milk.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

1980's Peanut Butter Crisps

Tags

desserts, peanut butter

I have to refer to the 80s when I post this recipe, because that’s where they originated for me.  This is the crunchy-soft peanut butter dessert we would find in the elementary school cafeteria – the stuff that always made me want more.  A friend of mine posted the recipe on Facebook one day, and I snagged it.  This is literally the only good thing I remember about school cafeteria food.  LOL!

Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup light Karo Syrup. 

Cook in microwave, stirring after 30 sec. intervals until the sugar is dissolved. (It takes 2-3 min. in my microwave.) 

Remove from microwave and add 1 T. butter and 1 cup creamy peanut butter. 

Stir well and cook an additional 30-60 sec. if it has begun to harden. 

Pour over 6 cups Corn Flakes and stir well.  Then you may roll into balls, drop onto waxed paper, or smash into a parchment-lined 9X13 pan.