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

An Old-Fashioned Dessert

Here's a yummy old-fashioned dessert that was published in a newspaper back in 1934. Sounds like good summer treat.

 

Source:  The Evening Review (East Liverpool, Ohio), Monday, October 22, 1934; page 15.

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

Free E-Book Cook Book

Just wanted to post this link so you can get your free cookbook for some copycat recipes for a few chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Paneras. Their version of Olive Garden's Black Tie Mousse Cake sounds delicious!

Famous Restaurant Recipes: Copycat Versions Of America's Favorite Restaurant Dishes

Entry for August 31, 2007

Entry for August 31, 2007

On this day in history 1919 (or maybe 1918--I'm seen both years used in various articles), the fortune cookie is invented in Los Angeles. Are you surprised it's not a Chinese invention? I was! Go here to read a newspaper article about it. Added: If you go to this page you will find a recipe to make your own fortune cookies! (Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)