Salsa Chicken

So I totally forgot about this SWEET blog! I was just reading through some of the recipes on here and they seem pretty fantastic and I can't wait to try it. I'll give a little intro of me too. Kamille and I were sorority sisters in Upsilon for several years and we also spent spring break together in Disneyland (still one of my favorite trips to this day). I am married and have a son who just turned one. We are currently living in Colorado.

Anyway, here is one of our family's FAVORITE meals. And the best part is that you don't need a recipe because it's so easy!

SALSA CHICKEN

• Put chicken in crock pot (as much or little as you want...I usually do about 12 or so chicken strips)
• Cover with salsa (chunky salsa usually works better)

• Let it cook for 4-6 hours until chicken is done and then shred chicken. 
• I then put some more salsa in and let it cook for another hour
• Serve over chips (Costco chips are the best)
• You can also put cheese and sour cream on top

This is a great meal or appetizer. And you will definitely be hooked by the first taste!!

Bon Appetit!

Ham and Pea Risotto

I found this recipe on the Taste and Tell blog (which I love) and I was really excited for (1) a way to use up the ham my mom gave me and (2) trying something new. This was perfect for both of them, and although it was not a quick recipe, it was fairly simple, and oh so delicious. I'm talking, like the best thing I've eaten for a while.

Also. i had to read the recipe a few times to figure out how many pans i needed, etc. hopefully the way i wrote it will make it easier to decipher.

Ham and Pea Risotto

ingredients:

1 T olive oil

1 celery stick, chopped

2 T fresh flat-leaf parsley (or 2 tsp. dried parsley)

black pepper

3/4 c. ham, cubed

1 2/3 cup frozen green peas

3 1/2 cup chicken stock

4 T butter

1 onion, chopped

1 cup arborio rice

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

pan 1: saute pan.

heat the oil in a saute pan. add the celery, parsley, and some pepper. cook for 2-3 minutes.

add the ham and stir. add the peas and 1/4 cup chicken stock.

bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered until most of the liquid is gone. set aside.

pan 2: medium sized sauce pan.

put the remaining 3 1/4 cups chicken stock in the pan. simmer.

pan 3: large sauce pan or stock pot.

melt the butter, and add the onion. stir until softened.

add the rice and stir well, coating it with the butter.

gradually stir in the hot chicken stock, about 1/2 cup at a time. stir until liquid has been completely absorbed before adding more.

(NOTE: if you're impatient like I am, this only lasts about 10 minutes. after that, I just added it, covered it, and let it sit on med-low for several minutes, stirring occasionally until the liquid was absorbed)

the rice should be creamy and tender.

mix in the pea/ham/celery mixture and the parmesan cheese and serve!

this was seriously delicious. savory. and comforting.

Happy German Heritage Month!

Please excuse the lousy picture. I forgot to take a picture again, so this is a picture I covertly took in the break room at work. (Yes, that shadow is because my head was blocking the light.)

I'm just kidding, it really isn't German heritage month. Really bratwurst was on sale at two of the local grocery stores and so I decided to follow in my Nana's (grandma) footsteps and make it with rohtkohl. My Papa's (grandpa) parents were both from Germany. I found out after I made this that the recipe my Nana uses is actually Papa's recipe, and it was borrowed from "Gabby Gourmet". The only time I ever saw my Nana make rohtkohl she "cheated" and used a jar of pickled red cabbage from a German store in SLC it is called Sigfried's, and it is delicious. They serve lunch, but not dinner. Since that's how I thought she usually made it, and I didn't want to drive out to Sigfried's I decided to try this recipe from AllRecipes.com (Ardis Stauffer). It is not very different from the Gabby Gourmet version.

Warning: Apparently I don't know what a "medium sized" cabbage looks like. I ended up having to double the recipe, and that was a LOT of rohtkohl. Pick a smallish cabbage.

Ingredients:

1 medium head red cabbage, cored and sliced
2 large tart apples, peeled and sliced
1 medium sweet onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 1/2 cups of water
1 cup of cider vinegar
1/2 cup of sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon salt
6 whole peppercorns
2 whole allspice
2 whole cloves
1 bay leaf

Directions:

1. In a saucepan toss cabbage, apples and onion. Add water, vinegar, sugar, butter, and salt. Place the peppercorns, allspice, cloves and bay leaf on a double thickness of cheesecloth; bring up corners of cloth and tie with a kitchen string to form a bag. Add to saucepan, bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for about an hour (until cabbage is done).

2. Discard spice bag, and onions.

I didn't have a cheesecloth, and I was just making it for the two of us, so I just tossed the spices in. I did accidentally bite into a clove though, YUCK! I was talking to Papa later, and he told me to leave the onion whole and push the spices into it. His recipe only calls for cloves and they have the long ends that will work well for that. I think I will probably just do that next time. When I read the reviews for the recipe one woman reported that she ruined the recipe by using ground spices so I would not recommend using ground spices.

Praise for the Blog!

Would a quick intro be appropriate? I'm Melanie McClanahan, sister-in-law to Kamille. My hubby, Chris, and I live in Phoenix with our four daughters: Haley-8, Rachel-6, Caitlin-4, and Marley-2. I love to cook, and more importantly, I love to eat!

Okay, I'm not posting any new recipes right now, I just wanted to share pics of the recipes I tried this week. I've been in a menu slump lately, and Monday morning I was dreading trying to figure out what to cook this week. Then I remembered this blog, and it was like a little ray of sunshine :) I pulled off four recipes to try and really enjoyed them all. Here's what I made: (and don't mind my sloppy presentation pictures, it was always an afterthought while I had five hungry people waiting on me).

The first recipe I made was the Winger's Chicken Fingers. I couldn't find any actual chicken fingers at the store, I ended up using some battered chicken something-or-others. They were so good! My husband loved them. I'm thinking of trying this recipe using grilled chicken strips, to shave off a few calories. I paired it with cornbread, celery sticks, and bleu cheese dressing.
Next up was the Pork Chops & Rice. This was great because it was so simple! My six-year-old had seconds on the pork, yay! I made candied carrots to go with it (also a hit).

Wednesday night I made the Chicken Parmigiana. It was simple to make and was delicious. I was surprised how tender the chicken turned out, 'cause I used the last few pieces from a bag of frozen chicken that's been in the freezer for a while. I served it with boiled potatoes with garlic and dill. You'll notice the empty spot on my plate - I thought I had another can of green beans in the cupboard, apparently not.

Thursday night was Cafe Rio Pork night. Oh. My. Gosh! My husband said, "This is probably the best meal you've ever made" - and we've been married over ten years. He was literally speechless. He would open his mouth to say something about it, and just kind of look around. The rice was incredible. I love black beans, but have never really cooked with them - I was excited to finally have a recipe that I could use for them. And the pork, well, let's just say that these are some leftovers that will not be found at the back of the fridge in a month.

My ward has had a cooking group off and on for the last several years. In it's hay day, there was some pretty darn good stuff. So I got out my stacks of recipes and went through them yesterday. I pulled out 20 or so that I want to try. So hopefully I'll be able to post some new recipes here shortly! Thanks to everyone for sharing!

Beef Stew

I was really going to take a picture this time! I promise. I came home to three men eating stew at my kitchen table, and I decided that I was just going to join them.

This recipe is adapted from the little recipe packet that came with my crockpot. The original recipe calls for fewer potatoes, no carrots, more onions, and celery.

Ingredients:
2-4 pounds stew meat (we cut up a roast I don't remember what kind it was I just know that it was a LOT cheaper than stew meat)
1/2 cup flour
Kosher salt and pepper
3 cups beef broth
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
10 small potatoes, quartered (I'm estimating here, but it was a lot)
1 small onion, chopped into bite-sized pieces
4 medium sized carrots, chopped

Procedure:
1. Place meat in crockpot and sprinkle flour, salt, and pepper over meat.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well. (When I had all of the ingredients in the crockpot the broth did not quite cover, and the resulting amount of broth in the stew was just about perfect for me.)
3. Cook on LOW for 8-10 hours or HIGH for 6 hours, or until meat is tender.

Chicken Parmigiana

Sounds fancy doesn't it. :) I made this dish yesterday for Sunday dinner for Steve and my mom (the rest of the family was at the Christmas concert in Salt Lake). Yesterday we ate it with baked potatoes and green beans. I reheated it tonight over spaghetti, and it was delicious. I was going to take a picture tonight, but reheated food never looks great so I decided not to. I promise it looks like chicken parm.

This recipe is adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. The original recipe does not include basil in the breading and includes lengthy instructions on how to make homemade sauce.

Ingredients:
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup fine bread crumbs (seasoned breadcrumbs would certainly work. I just use Western Family Breadcrumbs. They were $0.99 for a canister of them.)
4 T grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried basil
1 egg, beaten
2 T milk
3 T olive oil (or enough to cook the chicken in)
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or enough to cover the tomato sauce)
tomato sauce (enough to put some on each breast)

Procedure:
1. Place each chicken breast half between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound until about 1/4 inch thick.
2. Stir together bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, oregano and basil on a plate.
3. Stir together egg and milk on another plate.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet.
5. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture and then in the bread crumb mixture and place in hot skillet.
6. Brown both sides.
7. Place the chicken in a baking pan and top with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Cook until the cheese is melted (and the chicken is done, it is practically cooked when you put it in the pan)

The recipe says to just cook it in the skillet and then top with sauce and cheese. I guess that would work too, I just don't think it is hot enough to melt the cheese especially in a cool house. Let me know how it works if you choose to believe the original recipe. I'm sure it would be fine.

Pizza

I discovered pizza stones this week... they are amazing! I was looking on a friend's blog (By the way Nathalie has her own food blog http://smellthedaisiez.blogspot.com/) and she had recently made barbecue chicken pizza. When I looked at the crust recipe she used I realized it would be really easy to make my own. I have never thought of bread as being an easy thing to just whip up, but if you don't even have to let it rise, why not give it a try.

I was telling my upstairs neighbor that I wanted to make pizza, and she told me she had a pizza stone, and she made pizza all the time. So we borrowed their pizza stone and tried it. It was so easy and so good that we bought our own pizza stone today, and did it again.

If you are in the market for a pizza stone they have round 14 3/4" pizza stones with the metal rack to help lift it out of the oven at Bed Bath and Beyond for $14.99 and Bed Bath and Beyond just sent out $5 coupons in their curricular. Most of the other places I looked at were between 20 and 30 dollars for a basic pizza stone, I saw prices up to $115.

I'm not sure if this is the same recipe Nathalie uses, Erin sent her recipe with the pizza stone.

1 Tbsp Yeast
1 Cup Warm Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Tsp Salt
2 1/2 to 3 Cups Flour


Place yeast, warm water, and sugar in a bowl until dissolved. Add vegetable oil, salt and flour. Knead for 15 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes. Roll flat. Add sauce and favorite toppings. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes. 


We topped with onions, green peppers (on Steve's half), mushrooms, and pepperoni.