Monday's Good Stuff (29 July 2019)

Have you ever had chicken breasts that cooked up dry? It is drool worthy to smell the delicious aroma of chicken cooking on the grill but what a disappointment to bite into a chicken breast that is dry as sandpaper! We have the discovered the benefits of soaking the chicken in a brine before cooking.  The brined chicken breasts cook up very juicy and tasty.

Here's how we do it:

Whole Chicken (3- to 8-pound): Mix 2 quarts cold water with 1/2 cup table salt; brine 1 hour.

Bone-in Chicken Pieces (4 pounds): Mix 2 quarts cold water with ½ cup table salt; brine ½ to 1 hour.

Boneless, Skinless Chicken breasts (up to 6 breasts): Mix 1½ quarts cold water with 3 tablespoons table salt; brine ½ to 1 hour.

• After brining is finished, do a quick rinse of the chicken pieces and bake or grill.

This makes delicious and juicy grilled or baked chicken. 

Notes: 

• Do not brine longer than recommended or foods will become overly salty.
• May add seasonings to the brine solution.
• Brined chicken does not brown or get as crispy as unbrined chicked so not great for fried chicken if you like it crispy.
• I have also used coarse Mediterranean salt and coarse kosher salt instead of table salt. You may have to stir a little longer to dissolve in water.

Turkey Pot Pies

The other day the husband and I had a very large turkey breast for dinner and we had quite a bit of leftovers. So, I got my kitchen creativity hat on and came up with this easy idea for making pot pies. I ended up with enough leftover turkey to have 2 big pies. A picture of 1 of the pies:

The crust isn't pretty because my kitchen talent is limited. So here's the guide on how I made my 2 pies.

• cube up left over turkey
• 1 can of potatoes cut in cubes or slices (drained)
• 1 can of mixed vegetables (drained)
• country gravy mix 2 cup size. Cook this a little bit but don't let it get too thick.
• store bought pie crusts (4 crusts, 2 bottoms and 2 tops)

Preheat oven to 425

1. mix all ingredients together
2. put bottom pie crusts in pie pans.
3. put filling in pie crusts
4. put top crusts on 
5. cut 4 "vents" in top of each pie

Cook at 425 for 30 - 40 minutes until golden brown. If your crust edges are getting too brown, then put foil around edges.

Husband, a very picky eater, said several times that it is almost like a Marie Callender pot pie. If you only need 1 pie, then you can either cook the 2nd one and freeze it or freeze it uncooked. I would just wrap it good in plastic wrap, pan and all and toss in the freezer. Let defrost in fridge and from uncooked state, follow the above cooking directions. From cooked state, let defrost in fridge and then heat in microwave as long as you used a glass pie pan. If you used a metal pie pan then I'd heat individual servings in the microwave. We're eating our second pie tonight.

I'm out of steam for now. Y'all take care.

Sharon

Many styles of pie pans available at Amazon

Tomato Sauce Canning Time

Been picking, pureeing and cooking tomatoes for canning homemade tomato sauce. It's a lot of work but it is so delicious when compared to store-bought. I leave the skin on and then strain the seeds out after pureeing in the food processor so it is more nutritious.

Another New (to me) Recipe

Here's a recipe that I found on Facebook. Recently, I mentioned that I seem to be in a rut with the meals I fix. So, I'm going to try something new every now and then and let you know what I think about it. Here's the recipe for tonight's concoction.

Million Dollar Spaghetti Casserole
Ingredients

1 lb. of Lean Ground Beef
28 oz spaghetti sauce 
8 oz of Cream Cheese
1/4 cup of Sour Cream
1/2 lb. of Cottage Cheese
Whole Stick of Butter
1lb pasta such as elbow noodles or rotini
Bag of shredded cheese (I used mozzarella)
optional: sliced mushrooms, diced bell pepper, diced onion

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Boil the noodles. Mix together the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in a mixer to thoroughly mixed together. Set aside. If you have chosen to use the bell pepper or onion saute them for 3 minuted then toss in the hamburger meat. Brown hamburger meat in a skillet and drain. Add spaghetti sauce and mix together. Put a few slices of butter in bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish. Then layer half of the noodles in the bottom of the dish. Spread the cheese mixture over this layer. Then add the rest of the noodles on top of this with a few pats of butter.
Now pour the red sauce and meat on top and spread.
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and spread cheese on top and return to oven for another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

This was delicious although it is very rich tasting. This recipe is going to be made again. Ummm ummmm GOOD!

What's for Supper???

.

I'm trying a new recipe for supper tonight. I had bought a large package of skinless-boneless chicken breast at Sam's Club and spaced out breaking down the package for more than one meal. So, for Sunday dinner,  I defrosted them and set aside 2 pieces to go on the grill the next day. The rest I found a new recipe to try in my crock pot. Seems like I've been stuck in a rut with my cooking so I decided to try something different. There will be enough for a few meals out of this for dh and me. Here's the recipe:

Slow Cooker Pineapple Glazed Chicken 
Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (20 oz) can pineapple slices, juice reserved
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup cornstarch (could add less if you want sauce to be thinner)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional, more or less depending on heat level you like)

Directions:
Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place chicken breasts inside slow cooker and place pineapple rings on top of chicken. In a separate bowl, mix together remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 5-7 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
Serve over rice and garnish with green onions (optional).

I doubled the sauce recipe so that we would have plenty to spoon over the rice. I did put in the optional red pepper but I used ground and did not double it. 
I found the recipe on this site and there are plenty more delicious looking things there for us to try.

Ray wasn't too impressed with this. I like it but this probably won't be a regular feature on our dinner table because I have to please the hubby too.

Have a great week everyone.

PS--I'm working at uploading my photos from flickr instead of picasa because I'm over my limit for free storage there; so please forgive any "goofs" related to formatting and picture postings. I'll work on getting better.

  Paula Deen Cookbooks

I Did Some Pot and Pan Rattling Yesterday

When I go in the kitchen to cook, dh says I "rattle the pots and pans." Yesterday, I wanted to figure out what do do with a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8 or 9). I pondered this for a bit and decided on a big chicken pot pie. So, not being a Julia Child clone, I hied myself to the store and bought 2 pie crusts.

Note:  I didn't use any "measurements" so I can only give you an idea of what I did.

I simmered the thighs in a bit of water (water to the top of chicken but not covering) to which I added a couple chicken bullion cubes. I turned the meat over a few times as it cooked. When the meat was cooked through, I cubed it and put it back in the water/bullion.

Then I mixed the following items in with the chicken

• handful of green beans from the garden
• handful of frozen peas
• a bit of frozen corn
• bits of green onion
• can of mushroom stems and pieces
• can of potatoes cubed

It didn't look right so I whipped up a batch of "convenience" country gravy (2 cups) and mixed it with everything else in the pan. I still needed to simmer the concoction down a bit because it was a little thin.

Because of the salt in the bullion cubes, onions and the seasoning in the gravy mix, I didn't add any additional seasonings.

After the filling was thickened up a bit, I poured it in a store-bought pie crust. Oops! I made too much filling so I filled the other pie crust. Now I needed tops to my pot pies so I made the homemade pie crust from my old Betty Crocket Cook Book. I put the tops on the pot pies and baked at 425 for about 30 minutes. My picky husband loved it and he's not much of a chicken-eater!

Lesson learned--it really isn't hard to make pie crust so no need to spend the extra to buy it.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend and staying cool. 

Hugs...

Added: Hubby just asked if we could have the leftovers tonight for supper. That's okay with me!

A Great Family Day

Yesterday, my younger son and his family came over to have a cookout with us. I am so thankful when they come to visit because they are always so busy working with their "not the same" working hours. So, I made cupcakes that the girls went crazy over (just from a cake mix I got at Aldi's). We had some crab salad and potato salad, baked beans, chips, Nathan's Hotdogs and thick hamburgers with all the toppings. It was pretty  much traditional picnic food and not too complicated so that made the day even more enjoyable.

Son burning cooking the burgers

***

My baby boy son

***

The oldest kid Ray "Keeping Things Cool"

***

 Hey, dil Karen was already cool in the pool!

***

dil and granddaughter of my heart

***

Great-granddaughter of my heart.

***

Of course the babies were there too.

Today I'm remembering those who sacrificed so much for us.

 Have a great week everyone.

It's One of Those Blah Kind of Days...

Last night I finished one slipper (not pair, just one). I tried to fancy it up a bit by using some fun fur yarn but this extra yarn made the ankle snug so I'll finish the other slipper and set this pair aside to give to my adopted ggranddaughter because she is on the petite side. It looks pretty though.

DH hasn't been feeling well since Thursday and he stayed home from work Friday and came home in the middle of the day today. He's been "headachy" and that is strange for him because he NEVER gets headaches. It's off to the doc tomorrow for him. I've been moping today, although I did cook a relatively inexpensive, delicious dinner hoping to tempt DH to eat. It's round steak. I cut it in pieces, browned it and simmered it in tomato sauce with oregano, basil, garlic, small can of mushroom pieces and some dehydrated onions for about 2 hours. Every now and then I had to add a tad bit of water so it didn't cook down too far. I served it on noodles and topped it with Parmesan cheese. It's one of those things I came up with years ago when I had little money for good cuts of beef. I call it "Round Steak Italiano." I don't have exact measurements because most of the time I throw a little of this and a little of that in the pot. The downside of making this dish is that it has to simmer for a long time so that the meat gets tender; the upside is that it is delicious. I was going to take a picture for you but with son #1 over  it got devoured pdq! Hope everyone is having a great week.

Forgot My Oven is O.O.C.

I had taken a big turkey breast out of the freezer and defrosted it. I was looking forward to having a big meal tonight. I forgot my oven is out of commission until Monday when the repairman comes AGAIN, this time with the parts. So I had to use some good ol' Yankee ingenuity down here in Kentucky and figure out how I was going to fix it. So

I plopped it in the electric skillet...

to brown it. Then...

I put it in the crock pot with a little water and seasonings. I got a late start with it so we'll have it tomorrow with some stuffing, veggies and biscuits with honey butter. Yum!

So that's today's damage control. Hope y'all are having a nice weekend. Hugs...