Chicken Pot Pies

I also got this recipe from a Bon Apetite magazine. Everyone LOVED them, and I'm sure I'll be making them again soon! It is one of the more difficult recipes I have tried, mainly because it takes a LOT of time. You'll want to be sure to start this meal the day before and read the entire set of instructions to make sure you get everything done in a timely manner. I forgot to do that and ended up having to find something else for dinner the night I was planning on cooking these. I wasn't too eager to try making the crust myself as well, so I bought frozen puff pastry for it, but I will include the recipe to make your own if you want.

Chicken (must be done the day before)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1.5 cups chopped carrots
1.5 cups chopped celery
1.5 cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 large fresh thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
16 cups water, divided
1/2 cup coarse kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups ice cubes
Chicken

Any desired amount of the chicken will work. The recipe called for one whole chicken, but I wanted to make it easy on myself so I bought a 1 lb package of boneless skinless thighs. It could have used more, so I would go for at least 2-2.5 lbs total.

• Make sure celery, carrots, and onion are all chopped and heat oil in large deep pot.
• Add carrots, celery, and onion and saute until golden and tender (about ten minutes). Add garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and pepper corns. Stir two minutes.
• Add 8 cups water, coarse salt, and sugar. Bring to a simmer and stir until salt and sugar dissolve.
• Remove from heat, add remaining 8 cups water, 4 cups ice cubes. Let stand until completely cool.
• Submerge chicken, cover, and chill for at least 12 hours, up to 24.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove chicken from brine, rinse, and pat dry. Place in roasting pan and sprinkle with pepper.
• Roast until cooked through. For whole chicken, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. For large pieces (breast) about 40 minutes, and for small pieces (thighs) about 25 minutes.
• Spoon fat from pan, cover, and freeze (only necessary if you're making the pastry yourself). If you don't have at least 1/4 cup, you'll want to supplement with store bought fat.
• Tear or cut pieces of chicken in to bite size pieces and reserve for filling.

Filling (can be done up to six hours ahead)

1/2 cup milk
4 garlic cloves
1/3 cup water
3 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp olive oil
1.25 lbs chanterelles or other wild mushrooms, coarsely chopped
3 cups cubed, peeled carrots
3 cups 1/2 inch pieces leeks (white and pale green parts only)
3 cups cubed, peeled white potatoes
2 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme
3.5 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
10 oz package frozen peas, thawed
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
3/4 tsp hot pepper sauce
1/2 tsp white truffle oil (optional)

• Combine milk and garlic in small saucepan, simmer 2 minutes. Remove garlic from milk and chop finely (discard milk).
• Heat 1 Tbsp oil in heavy large pot over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and saute until tender and brown (about six minutes). Transfer to bowl.
• Heat remaining 2 Tbsp oil in same pot, add carrots, leeks, and potatoes. Saute until beginning to soften (about ten minutes). Add chopped garlic and thyme, stir for about two minutes.
• Add 3.5 cups broth, bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer until vegetables are tender (about 15 minutes). In the mean time, whisk together water and cornstarch.
• Re-whisk cornstarch (if settled) and add to broth mixture. Stir until it thickens (about two minutes). Stir in mushrooms, chicken, peas, and cream. Simmer uncovered until heated through and mixture has consistency of stew. Add more broth but 1/4 cups if too thick.
• Stir in lemon juice, hot pepper sauce and truffle oil (if desired). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Add filling to six, two cup ramekin or souffle dishes and top with pastry rounds (prepared in next section).

Since you can't see it in the finished picture, here is what the filling looked like. Michael doesn't like mushrooms, so there aren't any in here.

Puff Pastry (can be made one day ahead)

3.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1.5 cups chilled unsalted butter, cut in to 3/4 inch cubes
1/4 cup frozen chicken fat (reserved from roasted chicken)
1/2 cup (or more) ice water
1 egg yolk, beaten together with 1 tsp water

• Blend 3.5 cups water flour and salt in processor. Add butter and chicken fat.
• Using on/off turns, cut in butter and fat just until pea sized pieces form
• Add 1/2 up ice water, using on/off turns, blend juts until moist clumps begin to form (do not overwork).
• Gather dough together quickly; shape into 8 x 5 inch rectangle (dough may have streaks), wrap in plastic, and chill until firm (about 45 minutes).
• Working quickly, on a floured surface and rolling pin, roll dough out to 12 x 7 inch rectangle. Starting at 1 short end of dough, fold in to thirds (like a business letter). Roll out again to 12 x 7 rectangle, fold again in to thirds, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
• Repeat previous step three more times. Wrap in plastic, and chill for at least one hour and up to one day.
• Roll out on floured surface to 1/2 to 1/3 inch thickness. Place ramekin upside down atop dough; cut with sharp knife around ramekin to form dough round. Repeat for each ramekin. Place on baking sheets and child until firm (about 30 minutes).
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees, brush with egg glaze and bake until puffed and golden brown (about 15 minutes).

I also took the puff pastry and lined the bottom of each ramekin so there would be more breading to the dish and just put the ramekins in the oven with the tops.

The finished pies, there are lines through some of them because that is where the fold in the frozen puff pastry was.

Fish with Lemon-Shallot Brussels Sprouts

I got this recipe from one of my Bon Apetite magazines. The picture I have at the end doesn't really look anywhere near as good as the one in the magazine, but it sure tasted wonderful. I was actually really surprised at how good it tasted! The original recipe calls for petrale sole, but I don't like white fish, and they happened to have halibut (my husband's favorite) while I was at the store, so those are the two fishes we used. I also forgot to put the parsley on top, and I wasn't brave enough to try the brussels sprouts (which I've never had before) so I'll include those in the recipe, but they're not in the picture.

There's really just one helpful hint for this recipe... and that is to make sure you cook the fish over a low enough heat that it doesn't blacken the outside before cooking the inside, and high enough to actually get the fish cooked. I haven't quite mastered the not blackening part, but oh well, it still tasted good :)

1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp finely grated lemon peel
1 tsp coarse kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper (plus extra for seasoning)
3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
Fish fillets of your choice
3/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
6 oz brussels sprouts, trimmed and thinly sliced length wise
1 cup vegetable broth
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

• Combine flour, lemon peel, coarse salt, and 1/2 tsp white pepper in shallow bowl. Coat fish in flour mixture and shake of excess.
• Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a large skillet. Add fish and cook until golden brown and cooked through. A couple minutes each side for thinner fillets (such as sole), or about 5-7 minutes for thicker fillets (such as halibut or salmon). Season to taste with salt, cover, and set aside.
• Wipe out skillet and add remaining 1 Tbsp oil. Heat over medium high heat then add shallots and saute until almost translucent. Add brussels sprouts and broth. Cook until brussels sprouts are tender and liquid is almost completely absorbed (about 8 minutes). Remove from heat, stir in butter, season to taste with salt and white pepper.
• Serve fish over brussels sprouts

Philly French Dip

I wasn't quite sure what to call this, because it's kind of a mix between a Philly Cheese Steak and a French Dip. I'm not even sure where the idea came from! My mom just threw it together one evening and we all loved it, it's been a favorite ever since.

Hoagie Rolls
1.5 - 2 lbs roast beef
Au Jus Mix
One onion
One package sliced mushrooms
Olive oil
Shredded mozzarella
Miracle Whip or Mayonnaise

• Prepare Au Jus mix as described on the package. Because the meat is going to be boiled in the mix, you'll want to double or triple the water. Heat mix to a boiling and add roast beef.
• Cut onion in to slices and the slices in to quarters, put in skillet (either electric or stove top work with this recipe) with mushrooms and a coating of olive oil (about 2 tbsp). Sautee until both mushrooms and olives are soft.
• Put Miracle Whip or mayonnaise on hoagie roll, add roast beef, top with mushroom/onion mix and mozzarella.

This recipe is good for those that don't like onions and/or mushrooms, because you can simply not add them and just eat a regular french dip!

Spaghetti (with a twist!)

Last night was a simple, fast meal night. We did spaghetti... but with a little twist. Everything is pretty much bought prepared, you just need to cook it or heat it. I'm not a fan of red sauce (or pasta for that matter), so while we were growing up my mom came up with this meal. It's especially great for little kids, it's the first real meal that we fed Isaiah... and it's been one of his favorites ever since!

4 servings whole wheat pasta
1 lb ground beef
1 can mushroom alfredo spaghetti sauce (Bertolli)
1 can chopped mushrooms

• Prepare spaghetti as described on package. Or if there's no description, this is how I do it. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, pull out 2 servings of pasta, break in half, and drop in water. Repeat for remaining 2 servings.
• Brown ground beef. Once beef is thoroughly cooked, pour alfredo sauce over meat. Drain mushrooms and add to sauce. Mix together completely.
• Serve beef/sauce mixture over pasta.

We like to pair this dish with a bread and salad. Since this is a fast meal, I'll keep with the theme... we like to use the Texas Toast that's frozen and comes in a box (5 minutes to cook) and bagged Caesar supreme salad.

Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs

This is a recipe I found in one of my magazines. Again, I changed a few things, but this time because I was too lazy to go out in the cold and rain to use the grill, haha. I will include both sets of instructions so you can cook it no matter what kind of cooking devices you may have!

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sesamie oil
Boneless skinless chicken

• In small sauce pan, bring brown sugar and soy sauce to a simmer and cook for two minutes. In large bowl, combine soy sauce mixture, vinegar, ginger, garlic, and oil.
• Cut chicken in to strips of desired size. If you plan to cook on the grill, reserve 1/3 cup sauce. Add to the mixture and marinate in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
• Heat grill to medium and thread 1-2 pieces of chicken on each skewer. Oil grill grates and cook kabobs, turning once, until meat is cooked through (about 8-10 minutes). Brush with reserved sauce.
• If you choose to not cook the chicken on the grill, don't use any skewers. Pour chicken and sauce in to skillet. Turn after about 5 minutes and cover until meat is cooked through (about 10 minutes).

Tips!

• Make sure you use a low sodium soy sauce. I didn't, and it was a little salty. I assume the soy sauce was the reason.
• The sesame oil smells BAD, so I suggest taking care of the soy sauce and brown sugar before you pour it out of the bottle!!!
• As with almost every single chicken recipe I'll put up here, you can use thighs or breast. I suggest thighs (as I always will) because I find them to be juicier, more flavorful, and when you're cooking them whole they cook through much more evenly.
• Because I was cooking the chicken in the sauce I went ahead and doubled that part of the recipe. It never hurts to have too much, but it doesn't do you any good to have not enough :)

Herbed Pork Chops with Rice

This is the second of the pork chop recipes I was talking about in the previous post. I got it off of my Favorite Recipes app on my Android phone ;) I'm a pretty picky eater, so if you notice I tend to change a lot of things in the recipes that I get from someone else. Hopefully including these tips with help appeal to a wider range of people. It definitely makes it easier to cook for people with different tastes in my household.

1/4 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, minced
Oil
1 c sliced mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
3/4 cup converted rice
4 pork chops

• Saute mushrooms in lightly oiled skillet.
• Combine garlic, salt, and rosemary. Rub in to pork chops and then brown with mushrooms.
• Stir in soup, 1 can water, and rice. Simmer covered for about 25 minutes (or until no pink remains).

A couple tips for this dish:

• A lot of the tips from above apply to this dish as well. So take a look at those!
• I don't like rice, so instead of mixing in one can of water I prepared the soup as the above recipe calls and then dumped it in with the pork chops. I also prefer to use two cans because I really like cream of mushroom.
• I found that there wasn't enough rub for all of the chops so doubled it (and then some).

Creamy Mushroom Pork Chops

This last summer we went to the fair to buy a pig that a friend of ours had raised for 4H. We (my dad) ended up walking out with 3 pigs and 3 cows! So one of my goals is to try to use a lot of that meat. It tastes a lot better than meat you can get in a grocery store, so if you ever have the opportunity to buy meat like this it is a great idea!

Because we had gotten too much meat out for a meal last week, I decided to make another dish to use it before it went bad. It's actually similar to the previous dish, but they both have some individual qualities. I've posted both posts today, so try them both and see which you like best!

This one is the original recipe I had. I got it off of a cream of mushroom can quite some time ago but it has since gone missing. Because we liked the dish so much, I continue to make it but kind of guessed what was in it, haha.

4 pork chops
Oil
minced garlic
1/4 cup milk
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can sliced mushrooms (drained)

• Pour enough oil in to a skillet to lightly coat the bottom. Add desired amount of garlic (usually about 1 tsp - 1 tbsp is enough).
• Brown pork chops in oil, remove from heat.
• In the mean time, mix together cream of mushroom soup, can of mushrooms, and milk. Pour in to skillet and heat until simmering.
• Add pork chops back to skillet, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes (or until no pink remains).

Now, for a couple tips for this dish:

• If you don't like mushrooms, don't fret! Just don't put in the canned mushrooms. Michael doesn't like mushrooms either, but the soup doesn't bother him. Or, if you put the mushrooms in, it's really easy to just pick them off.
• I like to use one of those free standing skillets that you plug in. The high sides are really good for this type of dish. If you don't have one, they are a great investment... they're wonderful for pancakes, bacon, hash browns, stroganoff (which is another recipe I'll be putting up here eventually), etc.
• If you use garlic that is already minced rather than fresh garlic, make sure you drain out the juices before hand or it makes it too strong! Yes, I've made this mistake before, haha. Another option, if you want to fore go putting in garlic yourself is to buy cans of garlic cream of mushroom soup.
• If you feel 4 chops aren't enough for the amount of people you're serving, you can add a couple more without needing to increase the rest of the ingredients.

Taco Bake

We originally got this recipe from a casserole book, but I made a few changes and it's become one of our favorites! It can be used to fill taco shells, as a taco salad type dish, or as a dip.

For a larger meal, double the ground beef and taco seasoning. You also might want to use a bigger pan. Continue with the rest of the ingredients as is, making changes as you see fit to make it more proportionate. I tend to eye most of these ingredients, but it's really pretty easy :)

1 lb ground beef
About 1 cup medium-hot salsa
1 can hot chili
Corn chips
Sour cream
Grated cheese (we like the four cheese mexican mix)
1 Medium tomato
1 can olives
Green onions
Flour tortillas (taco or burrito)

• Pre heat oven to 350.
• Brown ground beef, drain, and prepare with taco seasoning according to seasoning package.
• Mix in chili and salsa until heated.
• Meanwhile, slightly crush corn chips and put in bottom of 9 x 13 pan. The layer sould be 2-3 chips thick.
• Pour beef mix over chips.
• Spread sour cream over top of beef mixture, use as much as you need to create a nice layer.
• Sprinkle grated cheese over top of sour cream.
• Chop tomato, olives, and green onions and spread of top of dish as desired.
• Place dish in oven long enough for the cheese to begin to bubble.
• Serve with tortillas or more corn chips.

Welcome

Since we've moved out on our own, we've done A LOT of eating out. It's just so much more convenient to have Michael pick food up on the way home rather than actually cook something (and mmmm I love McDonald's!!!). So I've tried to go through my magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, both of the Parenting, Better Homes and Gardens, Bon Apetite, etc. to find new meals my family might like.

I tear out the recipe, type it up, and include the picture. I then put it in a handy little three ring binder where it waits to be prepared. After we try the new meals if everyone likes it, it stays in the binder. If we don't particularly care for it, it gets torn out and thrown away.

Almost everything I make is fairly easy and can be made on any weeknight. I will warn you though, I'm not a thrifty shopper. Many times the items I'll talk about are name brand and sometimes only found at specific stores.

Hopefully we can find some good stuff along the way, as well as lose a little weight from lack of eating out. As we find favorites, I'll share them with anyone who may be reading and hopefully you try them yourselves.

I hope everyone enjoys these meals as much as we do!!