Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken Cacciatore

2 Tb. olive oil
1 whole chicken cut up (breasts, thighs, drumsticks, wings)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, thickly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 cans diced tomatoes
1. In a deep skillet heat olive oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to pan, skin side down. Cook over medium heat, turning once, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
2. Add the onion, peppers, and garlic and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Pour in the wine and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
3. Add chicken stock and tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Return chicken to pan, skin side up, and bring to a simmer. Cover partially and cook over moderate heat for 45-60 minutes, until chicken is cooked and sauce is noticeably reduced. Serve over pasta or rice.

Chicken sausage sliders

I had Chicken Sausage Sliders at the Morning Glory restaurant in Ashland several months ago. They were so good that I emailed the restaurant to see if they were going to have them on special again.The chef replied back that she would put them on the menu anytime as long as I gave her a days warning. She also told me that they had water chestnuts, garlic, ginger, onion, oyster sauce and topped it with an Asian Slaw Sauce. Armed with that information here is my own version...after a few tries!.

Chicken Sausage Sliders

1 lb. Jimmy Dean Sausage
2lb. boneless chicken
can of water chestnuts or 1/4 of a jicama
2 tablespoons? of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
Grind the chicken or buy it ground, add the jicama, ginger and garlic when you grind. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Asian Slaw

2 parts peanut butter

1 part oil

1 part sweet chili sauce

Mix and stir in thinly sliced and chopped cabbage, grated carrot and green onion. The cabbage mixture should be thickly coated with the peanut sauce. If not, add more sauce. 

Fry up the chicken sausage into patties and top with the Asian slaw. I like it either with or without a bun.

Change is good but I hate it!

Gordon is gone during the week now, Charlie will be leaving for college in Sept. I think I'm going to change this blog too. It's getting boring posting typical meals. When I create something interesting and new-- then I'll post it. 

On Saturday, Gordon and I found ourselves alone for dinner, so we cooked up some seafood. Gordon sauteed some scallops in lots of butter. I couldn't stand to throw out all the good scallop juice so I insisted in making a quick cream sauce. I think I put some kind of seasoning in it but I have to update that after I talk to Gordon.
Later I pan fried some very fresh snapper, dipped it in egg (with water) then in flour spiked with Tony Chachere's creole seasoning and smokey paprika.
I decided-- it doesn't matter what you do with seafood as long as it is fresh. Sorry I didn't take any photos. I was too busy enjoying the moment!

Veggie Chili

I made a regular chili (hamburger, sausage, some left over peperoni, left over pepper jack cubes, onions, a can of beans, tomato sauce) and added frozen corn and peas when it was done. It made it colorful.

Chef Salad

Waiting for dinner

oven fried chicken breast

Marielle's cone (from Tuesday)

Oven fried: one piece was sprinkled with Tony Chachere's Original Creole seasoning (while cooking). The other piece I drizzled honey mustard sauce on top (after cooked). I just made the honey mustard sauce for the first time and it tasted great.

Honey Mustard Sauce

about 1/3 cup honey

about 3 tablespoon stone ground mustard (think dijon)

2 squirts of french's mustard

left-overs

We need to clean out the frig!

BBQ chicken breasts

4th of July BBQ

Grandma's steak, she had to have another plate for the salads!

Charlie's creation

"I'm pretty old and have never had a homemade cone before"

Grandma and Gordon had T-bone steaks, Charlie and I had hamburgers and Marielle had chicken. Side dishes were bean salad and potato salad. Marielle made homemade cones so we finished it off with homemade ice cream in cones.

Marinated Bean Salad

1 can green beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can red kidney beans
Assorted red or orange sweet peppers and red onion to taste

Marinade:
1/4 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of oil
2/3 cup of vinegar (for this recipe I used 1/3 cup red wine vinegar and 1/3 cup white vinegar that had
tarragon added to it)
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon celery seed

Mix together drained beans, onion and peppers. Pour over mixed marinade. Let stand 1/2 day or overnight, stirring occasionally.

Vanilla Ice Cream

4 cups of 1/2 and 1/2

2 cups of whipping cream

2 Tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar
Makes 1/2 gallon

Pizza night

at Zola's Pizzeria in Brookings Harbor.

Smokey Salmon

Marielle missed the BBQ salmon we had last week. She saw it on the blog and thought it looked good. So we had a repeat... and it was good the second time around. We had cherries Gordon picked up at a roadside stand in California.

 During dinner this buck tried to get a drink out of the pond filter puddle- even after I yelled at him. Gordon says he'll be on the menu this fall. I took this photo of him the day before. He has no fear at all.

Ham and cheese sandwiches

Timmy the Cat got to lick the turkey carcass clean. He thought he had died and gone to heaven.

Dinner at Grandma's

Marielle took these photos of dinner at Grandma B's. Marielle had the shrimp omelet and Mom and I had ham and beans with a shrimp salad on the side.

Turkey Soup

Roast Turkey

While our turkey was roasting in the oven a live turkey wandered through the yard eating bugs.
A little while later a doe showed up to take a nap in the shade of our tree. When I opened the window to take her picture she seemed to be saying- You woke me up!

munchies

I went grocery shopping and afterward we munched on fresh raspberries, lemon- ginger cookies, and bowls of Cheerios. Nobody was hungry for a real dinner.

Mexican salisbury steak?

Smokey Salmon Omelet

BBQ Salmon

I've barbecued salmon over real coals with tinfoil but never over propane gas with a BBQ grate or wok.  It was definitely tasty and EASY. I drizzled the salmon with a little butter and Sweet Mesquite and put it on the grill for about 15 minutes (without turning).  Delicious!

Shrimp Salad

Really strange... Gordon actually asked for it. He usually tries to avoid vegetables!

cereal

The kids are gone for a week, so I'm on vacation.

Salad

Eating by myself... so easy!

Figaro's Pizza

They had a really good coupon for a Papa's Special... too bad papa wasn't here. No big deal, we ate it anyway.

Creamy Garden, Garlic Chicken

I was inspired to make this dinner by Gordon's sister Julie. She was talking about Figaro's garlic chicken pizza. I didn't know how I was going to put it together but I had garlic and chicken.
We made up a name for our dinner while we were eating it. Charlie said garden, I said-- it has 3 cloves of garlic, Marielle said creamy and Gordon said chicken. 

Creamy Garden Garlic Chicken

2 large chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces

3 cloves of garlic

Oil

Poultry seasoning

salt

2 tablespoons of flour

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups of frozen corn, carrots and peas

Saute crushed garlic in oil in a frying pan for 1 minute. Add chicken and cook until done (but not overly). Mix flour and milk and pour over the chicken. Cook until it thickens. Microwave veggies and stir in to the chicken. Add seasoning and simmer with a covered lid until your pasta is done. 

Leftovers

Roast Beef

and salad with feta and walnuts. Also we had red grapes and sliced avocados (sorry I forgot to take a photo).

Chicken Stir-fry

Made at lunch for my Mother in law. It's a long story but the short of it is-- I figured it was good food to serve her.

Granola

Gordon's away so we ate some homemade granola...something he would have complained about!

Sugarless Granola

Mix in bowl:

5 cups of oatmeal

2 cups of chopped almonds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/3 cups pumpkin seeds

1/2 raw wheat germ

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon salt

Add:

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 fruit juice

Cook at 300 for 45 minutes (stir occasionally). While that cooks microwave and soak 1/3 cup craisins in 1/2 cup fruit juice. Add craisins to oatmeal mixture and cook until it looks done--30 minutes more?

koi club potluck

Same people and I think the same food too!

Youth Group Graduation Party

There's 9 seniors graduating from our church's youth group. One of the parents hosted a party for everyone. I missed the photo shoot of all of the kids but got someone to take a photo of Mom, Lorene and I. I'll get photos from someone at church!

Del Rio buffet

I won tickets to a wine tasting event at Del Rio. They had a buffet that included some very good sushi. I love free food!

Left overs... I think?

Roast Chicken

Charlie was looking online for employment at pizza "parlors". Shortly before the chicken was done he said--I've got to have some pizza. So we had roast chicken, veggies and pizza.

Dinner at Mom's

I was in town for dinner so I ate at Mom's. She heated up something Lorene cooked and froze back in February. I'm not sure what it was but it tasted good.

Beef with sauce

It was kind of like beef stroganoff but I didn't add a lot of sour cream.

Left-overs!

Chicken Stir-fry

I made this the usual way. Cook the meat first, remove it and then cook the veggies, add the meat back with some sauce. It just didn't turn out like it should--it needed a kick. The garlic I used was tiny cloves and I think maybe they didn't have any flavor. It was fresh and healthy anyway and the pea-pods were ones that were volunteers (reseeded from last year).

No dinner tonight

Charlie made tortillas today and we filled up on that.

Potluck retirement party

This was fun. I co-hosted a retirement party for a well deserving teacher at Crater High (where I work).
Mr. Bud Le Fever was one of the teachers that went with Charlie to Washington DC/New York.
We had the party at Del Rio Vineyards that my friend Jolee owns. Jolee rescued some bottles of wine that would have been tossed because the they were at the end of the "line" and only 3/4 full. So we had free wine, finely "roasted" teacher and I think I got some brownie points from my boss.

Charlie and his teacher Mr. Le Fever

Hamburgers Again...

I'm trying to use up all the hamburgers we didn't have at the grad. party. This time I did not overcook them!

Graduation Dinner

Sorry... I've been busy. I need to ketchup-- oh I know that's bad!

We had a mexi bar night in honor of Charlie's graduation. Chicken tamales and taco salad for me.

Jonathan made a lively guacamole...

Jonathan's Famous Guacamole

2 avocados-finely chopped
Lime juice and pulp from 1 lime

1/4 cup of onions

3 Tablespoons of chopped cilantro
Dash of salt

BBQ hamburgers

I over cooked these! They tasted a little like beef flavored cardboard. Oh well...

Homemade chicken soup

Lots of chicken soup around here... soon we will be healthy!

Canned Chicken/ Rice soup

I added spicy hot dogs and it tasted good.

BBQ beef sandwiches

Beef and Bean soup

It was going to be chili but I was stressed over the fact that my Mother-in-law was in the ER. I total forgot it and didn't even notice until Marielle pointed out it was the best chili I had made. She doesn't like chili so that makes sense!

Beef Stir-fry

Charlie's presentation

I'm home sick today so I thought I would put up a photo of Charlie at a school presentation. He had to come up with a mock business (bakery) and I helped out by making 4 batches of cupcakes and 2 batches of cookies over the weekend. The students judged each other and Charlie thought a sweet bribe, I mean sample, would help. I think maybe he has learned something at school after all. Sorry it's such a bad photo- his teacher took it.

Figaro's Pizza

They have only been in town for about 3 months. What did we do before then?

Hamburgers

Chicken Curry

See- food

The kids were gone to a mission fundraiser at the church. They will be serving the urban poor in LA this summer. I pulled weeds ALL DAY LONG so I wasn't cooking dinner. It was a meal of eat what you see.

Breakfast for dinner

Scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. When the kids were little, breakfast used to be a big meal. Gordon often cooked and it was anything from waffles, crepes to french toast.
Things have changed but that's OK. It's nice to occasionally sit down as a family and have breakfast for dinner just to remember the "good old days".

Leftovers

Spaghetti, chicken soup and boxed pizza. It's good to clean out the frig!

Chicken Soup

Gordon is sick so I made chicken soup. To make the best broth, cook a whole chicken for at least an hour. Skim off the fat, remove the chicken from the bones and reserve it. Cook up the veggies in the broth, add crushed garlic and seasonings. I like poultry seasonings. After the vegetables are tender add some of the chicken and pasta if you want.

Spaghetti

My photo didn't turn out so good!

True Cod

And I put the camera battery in the charger.

Tri Tip Steak

I couldn't take a photo because Charlie ran the battery down on my camera. He was taking a video of a bird building a nest in our bird house. It actually kind of funny because the bird kept trying to fit in sticks that were too big. If she tried to put them in sideways they would fall out of her beak. Over and over she tried, I guess that's survival of the fittest.

Leftovers

BBQ Chicken and cheese cake

I still had some raw chicken left over so I barbecued it--American style. After 20 minutes on the grill, I convection roasted it in the oven to make sure it was cooked.

Low-Carb Cheese Cake

* 1 1/2 lbs cream cheese (room temperature)
* 4 eggs (preferably room temperature)
* 1 and 1/2 teaspoon (1/2 Tablespoon) vanilla
* 1 and 1/2 teaspoon (1/2 Tablespoon) lemon juice
* artificial sweetener to your taste
* 1/4 cup sour cream
* Crust:
* 1 cup almond meal
* 2 Tablespoon melted butter
* 2 Tablespoon sugar equivalent in artificial sweetener

Heat oven to 375 F.

Tip: If you have bricks or a pizza stone or unglazed ceramic tile*, put them on the lower rack of the oven. This will hold the heat in the oven. Combine ingredients for crust, and press into the bottom of a springform pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until fragrant and beginning to brown.

Raise oven heat to 400 F.

Put cream cheese in mixing bowl, and beat until fluffy. Add other ingredients, scraping the bowl and beaters each time. When all ingredients are combined, scrape one more time, beat one more minute, and pour mixture into pan over crust.

After putting the cheesecake in the oven at 400 F, turn the oven down to 200 F. Bake for 60 to 90 minutes, checking often after an hour. When the cake is firm to touch but slightly soft in the center, or the center reaches 155 F, remove from oven. Serve chilled with strawberries.

BBQ Hawaiian Chicken

My mother used to make a recipe like this. I basically took the ingredients and modernized it. 

BBQ Hawaiian Chicken

several lbs of chicken
1 green pepper
1 bottle of BBQ sauce (I use Stubb's original)
canned pineapple 
oil as needed
1-2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in cold water
Coat the chicken with a thin layer of oil and barbecue for about 10 minutes on each side. Don't worry about cooking the meat through. At the same time, saute the green pepper in oil on the stove in a 12 inch frying pan. Once the pepper is done, stir in a bottle of BBQ sauce and add a can of pineapple with juice. Remove any bones from the chicken and chop into large cubes, add to the BBQ pan and simmer on low, while covered for 45 minutes or so. Stir in cornstarch mixed in cold water to thicken. Serve with rice.
 This recipe is very good because of the BBQing before cooking. If you are going to skip that step then you might as well get pizza.

Hen Soup

It just us hens for dinner. So I made up some homemade tomato soup with crackers. I used 3/4 can (why is it always 3/4 and not the whole can?), water, sweetener, spices and cream. A little pad of butter on top makes it just right.

Egg Scramble

We went to Honors Night at Crater for Marielle. Of course, she deserved her award but some of those kids? Come on, this is not kindergarten where everybody wins!

Gordon whipped up an egg / sausage scramble. Any meal I don't have to make is delicious.

Koi Club Potluck

I had a hamburger, salad, deviled egg and cookies. The rest of the family had to fend for themselves.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

 

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

3 pounds of boneless beef chuck shoulder roast
2 cups ketchup
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tbls. Worcestershire Sauce
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper

Cook all ingredients in a crock pot for at least 6 hours. Remove the roast and take off the excess fat. Skim any fat off of the cooking liquid. Return meat to crock pot until reheated. Use a potato masher to crush the meat chunks. The fat can also be removed before cooking.

Ham and White Bean Soup

I pulled frozen ham from Easter out of the freezer.
Hmm... 5:54, what to make, what to make-- I started by sauteing some onions and celery in a little oil. I then added the chopped ham, water, 2 cans of white beans and garlic. I simmered that while I mixed up some cheesy drop biscuits.

Creamy Meatballs

Make meatballs out of meat (2lbs), egg and oatmeal (3/4 cup). Fry them in a large skillet, turning frequently. When they are done, drain oil and add water/broth and steak seasoning. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of sour cream and you're done. I thought these were just OK but everyone else seemed to really like them.

Pasta Salad

True Cod and asparagus

Omelet Bar

Chicken pepper soup

 

I made up this recipe so the amounts are just approximations.

Creamy Chicken Pepper soup

1 1/2 cups of chicken
1/2 lb. Beef Polska Kielbasa (or sausage)
2 slices of onion
1/2 small red pepper
2 Tablespoons of oil
3 Tablespoons of flour
1/4 cup of cream (or milk)
1/3 cup salsa
1/3 cup corn
1 teaspoon sweet mesquite seasoning

In a large pot, boil a left over roasted chicken for at least 1/2 hour in several inches of water. This will create a broth and soften the chicken so it is easy to remove the bones. You can also use boneless chicken and broth but it won't taste as good. After the broth is made, remove the chicken from the bones and skim the fat off of the broth. Add the chicken.

In a frying pan saute the sausage, onion and red pepper in oil. Scoop out the sausage mixture into the broth. Skim off any fat in the broth created by the sausage. Add the salsa, corn and sweet mesquite seasoning.

Put some of the broth in a cup and mix in the flour. Add the cream to the flour/broth mixture and pour it all back into the soup.

Serve with shredded pepper jack cheese.

Roast Chicken...

and homemade bread.

BBQ hamburgers

Not charcoal... but flame broiled anyway.

GNO

Girls Night Out!

Taco Salad

Also known as Mexi-bar... without the margaritas!

Koi Recipe

I just recieved my Koi club newsletter, and as promised (on 4/11/11), here is the Koi recipe:

1.25oz canned sardines, salmon or tuna
1oz canned or fresh veggies (peas, spinach, squash, carrots) finely ground
1oz cooked oatmeal
1 tsp. cod liver oil, food grade, unflavored
1 tsp. brewers yeast
250mg vitamin C
50 units vitamin E
1 tsp. gelatin as a binder

Add warm water to ingredients to make a slurry which is just pourable. Dissolve gelatin in 1 or 2 cups of boiling water and add to the food slurry after allowing it to cool but before it sets up. Mix and pour into Ziploc bags or container. Let cool in refrigerator and then freeze. It will keep in the freezer for a season.

When feeding, shave off a portion needed with a grater.

Split Pea and homemade bread

There is nothing special about making split pea soup. Just follow the directions on the bag of peas, plus boil the bone (if you have one) and skim off the fat. I added Italian Seasoning which has garlic and Tony's Chachere's creole seasoning to spice it up plus onion, carrots and ham.

Whole Wheat Honey Bread

3 cups stone-ground whole wheat flour
        (some oatmeal may be included)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup shortening
1 tablespoon salt
2 packages of yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons)
2 1/4 cups very warm water (120°F to 130°F)
3-4 cups white and wheat flour

Mix whole wheat flour, honey, shortening, salt and yeast in large bowl. Add warm water. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough all-purpose flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

Place in greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place 40 to 60 minutes or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.Grease bottoms and sides of 2 loaf pans.

Punch down dough and divide in half. Roll dough up tightly, beginning at 9-inch side, to form a loaf. Press with thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal. Press each end with side of hand to seal. Fold ends under loaf. Place seam side down in pan. Brush loaves lightly with butter. Cover and let rise in warm place 35 to 50 minutes or until double.

Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to wire rack. Brush loaves with butter; cool.

Left-overs

Of course! Plus deviled eggs.

Easter Dinner

If you are going to make a face like that, I'm still going publish it!

Charlie made this strawberry shortcake!

Boxed Pizza

It's happened before and will happen again. Boxed pizza with our own toppings.

But I also made Chocolate Easter Nests by melting chocolate chips on a double burner (bowl over pot) and stirring in broken pretzels and peanuts. Shape into little nests on parchment paper sprayed with pam and add "eggs".