Chicken and Dumplings

I realized I have been completely converted over to the "from scratch" and "no preservatives" cooking.  A bit of a food snob if you will.  I didn't realize how bad it had gotten till I was perusing recipes for dinners and stumbled on an easy, fairly healthy chicken and dumpling recipe (from pinterest) but I debated for way too long over whether I should make it because it called for a can of cream of mushroom soup and Bisquick.  I decided to make it anyways.  Then I went to the store and struggled again.  I stood there and looked at the mushroom soup can and considered making it from scratch.  Did the same thing in front of the Bisquick.  I gave in and bought the ingredients.  Recipe turned out quite well after a little tinkering...even if everything wasn't homemade :P

If you can get the fresh dill, use it! It gives such a lovely background flavour that the dried stuff just doesn't do.  But I've used both.

Yields 4 servings.


Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
3-4 cloves garlic, grated/minced
1/4 c apple juice (or sherry or white wine if you have that in your house)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
good pinch of dill and thyme
1-2 cans of chicken broth (I used one condensed can of broth and then 1 1/2 cups of stock in a box- worked fine)
1 can condensed mushroom soup (gulp)
4 chicken thighs (or some version of this)
1  cup peas
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 c bisquick (oh dear)
1/3 c milk
1/4-1/2 c parsley

Directions:

-saute chopped onion and carrots for 5-7 minutes in a big soup pot or a dutch oven
-grate garlic over pot and saute for another minute or so
-deglaze with 1/4 cup of apple juice or sherry
-add salt, pepper, thyme and dill
-add chicken broth + 1 cup of water
-add 1 can of mushroom soup
-bring to boil and then add your chicken thighs and simmer for 30 minutes
-take chicken out and shred or chop up into bite sized pieces, return to pot
-add 1/4 cup of water with 3 tbsp of cornstarch dissolved in it
-stir well
-bring to gentle boil again
-mix bisquick and milk and add 1/4 cup parsley (finely chopped)...some extra fresh dill or chives or even scallions is a nice addition as well
-drop biscuit mixtures into liquid (makes 12 smallish dumplings or they won't cook through properly)
-simmer for 20 minutes then put lid on and simmer for another 10 (to let steam cook the dumplings all the way through)
-make sure to stir every so often throughout so bottom doesn't burn
-taste and decide if it's too concentrated or if it needs to reduce more to get a richer flavour or if you need more seasoning
-if you add more water, let it reduce a bit so you still get a nice thick consistency (sort of like gravy)

It doesn't photograph well but trust me....
it's what you want to be eating on a cold, rainy day!

Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake

My daughter had her second birthday last week so obviously cake was in order.  I chose to make this raspberry chocolate layer cake.  I got my inspiration from this RECIPE but changed it to work for me.  I was a tad lame and used a box cake mix.  I just didn't think I'd have the time with a 3 month old and a 2 year old in the house.  I decided to try out a Pinterest pin I had seen about making box cake taste like it came from a bakery.  So I used a box cake called something like Fudgey Chocolate.  I added 5 eggs when it called for 3; I switched out whole milk for the water; I used melted butter instead of oil and I meant to add vanilla but I forgot.  When I tasted it I thought it could have used the vanilla, too.  So add 2 tsp.  It was much more impressive than regular box mix and I'd do it again....but only if I'm lacking time for making it from scratch. 

Below find my version of the recipe above.  It turned out delicious and everyone loved it, kids and adults.  I consider myself more of a cook than a baker so it's fun to tackle these bigger baking projects.  I'm still completely a novice when it comes to decoration and presentation BUT I have a decent handle on taste. So you can trust if you follow the recipe your cake will be delicious.  I just can't help with decoration tips....

I forgot to take a picture of the inside.  It had 3 filled layers (I cut the 2 round cakes in half so I had 4 pieces of cake).  2 creamy raspberry layers that looked like the ones from the recipe above and 1 layer that was kind of like raspberry jam that sat in the middle.

Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

box of fudgey chocolate cake mix or a recipe for your favourite chocolate cake
1 bag of frozen raspberries
1 lemon
cornstarch
1/3 c white sugar
3 tbsp flour
6 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp salt
9 tbsp butter
5 c icing sugar, divided into 2 cups and 3 cups
1 pkg cream cheese
1/3 c butter
1/2 c cocoa

1/4 tsp salt
Optional: fresh raspberries and a bar of chocolate to shave for garnish


1. Bake and cool your cake completely.  I used 2 9" round pans.  Remember to grease and flour your pans so the cake comes out easily.

2. Cook down entire bag of raspberries stirring constantly over medium heat.  Pour and push raspberries through a fine mesh siv to remove seeds.  This is slightly labour intensive.  Just keep running your spoon over the raspberries pushing through the seedless pulp into a bowl.

3. Pour seedless remains back into pot and put back on heat.  Add 1/3 c of sugar and stir till dissolved. In a small bowl, add the juice of half a lemon with a spoonful of cornstarch.  Mix till smooth.  Add to raspberries and stir constantly till thickened.  If it's not as thick as you'd like, add more cornstarch to some water in a bowl and then add to your raspberries.  Never add dry cornstarch to a wet substance, it will clump.  Always add it to a small amount of liquid first.  Once you've achieved the thickness you'd like (thick enough you can spread it on a cake- remember it will thicken a tiny bit more once it cools), put in a container with plastic wrap right on top of the raspberry filling to avoid that chewy skin that can develop (like with pudding).  Into the fridge it goes.  This is your middle raspberry filling.

4.  In another pot, combine 3 tbsp milk with 6 tbsp milk and cook over medium heat stirring constantly till thick.  Remove and let cool.

5.  Cream together the 9 tbsp butter with 2 c icing sugar.  Mix in cooled thick milk and 1/4 tsp salt and then start adding in your cooled raspberry filling from the fridge until you achieve a nice raspberry taste.  Put both raspberry fillings in fridge till ready to assemble your cake.

6.  To make the chocolate frosting, cream together the cream cheese, 1/3 c butter, cocoa, 3 c of icing sugar and salt. 

6.  When ready to assemble the cake, cut the two cakes into four very carefully by making a horizontal cut through the middle of each cake. When you have different coloured filling from your icing in a filled cake, you want to avoid the fillings spilling out to the icing so spread or pipe some of your icing on the very outside of the inside of all your layers to create a barrier for your filling.  On the bottom layer spread half your creamy filling inside your icing barrier.

See the pictures in this recipe if you are confused about the icing barrier.  Look at the pictures of the filling: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2010/04/lemon-raspberry-layer-cake.html.  (This is the inspiration for my next cake baking endeavour).

Top the filling with cake and then on that piece will be the non creamy raspberry filling- all of it.  Top that with cake and then fill that layer with the rest of your creamy raspberry mixture.  Top that with cake and then ice the whole thing with your cream cheese frosting.  You can youtube demos on successfully icing cakes if you don't do this often and need some tips.  Garnish however you please.  Keep cake in fridge until an hour or 2 before you want to eat it.

To clarify since I don't have a picture of the inside: cake, creamy filling, cake, non creamy/jammy kind of filling, cake, creamy filling, cake.

ENJOY

French Onion Pasta

I found a recipe for French Onion Pasta on Pinterest but upon looking at the recipe, I realized the main ingredient was onion soup mix and no real onions.  Blech.  So I searched out a similar recipe and found one made from scratch WITH onions who had the same reaction to the same Pinterest recipe as me.  Find her recipe here.  I mostly followed it.

Ingredients:

1 T butter

1 T EVOO
5 medium yellow onions
a couple tsp of italian spices (whatever you have on hand, thyme, rosemary, oregano, etc)
a couple tbsp of brown sugar
salt and pepper
1-2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 lb dry pasta (I used penne)

4 c beef broth (I followed her recipe but didn't find it enough liquid to adequately cook the pasta so add some more water and throw in a bouillon cube or 2 to bump up the beef taste without buying more cartons of beef broth)

2 c water (bump up to at least 4 cups but be sure to add some bouillon because this will become your sauce- you could add bouillon after the pasta cooks if you want)
salt

tsp or 2 of italian spices

dash garlic powder
a couple of bay leaves

2 T butter

2 T flour

1 ½ c shredded gruyere (this would have been lovely but I just used mozzarella)

1 ½ c shredded cheddar (also mozzarella because that's what was in my fridge)

Directions:

1. In a large frying pan, heat your butter and olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onions and herbs and salt and pepper and cook down until deep brown and caramelized. Around 45 minutes. Around the 25-30 minute mark add in some brown sugar to bump up the sweetness in the carmelized onions and the worcestershire sauce for nice depth of flavour.

2. In a stock pot, combine the beef broth and water and bouillon; bring to a boil. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 450^◦ F. 

3. Cook the pasta according to the package directions in the broth mixture. Add the herbs/seasoning to the boiling water so the pasta absorbs all the flavors. 

4. While the pasta cooks, melt the 2 T butter in a small bowl. Add the flour and stir to make a paste and reserve. 

5. When the pasta is al dente, use a spider or slotted spoon to take the pasta out of the water and dump it into an 8x11 casserole dish, saving the cooking liquid. Set aside pasta and bring the remaining broth back to a boil. Add the butter/flour paste and whisk and until combined and thickened and the flour taste has cooked out. 

6. Add most or all of the thickened broth (depending on how saucy you want your pasta) to the pasta and stir. Add about half the cheese and the caramelized onions and mix gently. Top with remaining cheese.

7. Place the casserole in the oven for about 10 minutes to heat through and melt the cheese.

Bits and Bites

Homemade bits and bites mix my mom always makes at Christmas time.  It will give you bad breath though.

3 cups shreddies
2 cups cheerios
1 1/2 cups pretzel sticks
1 1/2 cups cheese nibs/bits or fishies or something similar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp onion salt
3/4 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp hot sauce
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne (if you don't like spicy then omit or reduce)

Combine cereal, pretzels and cheese nibs.  Melt butter, add rest of spices and seasonings and mix well.  Pour over dry ingredients and mix to coat.  Lay out on a cookie sheet and bake at 275 degrees for 25 minutes, stirring once half way through.  Let cool completely and enjoy.

Sliced Italian Sausage Hoagies

I saw this on the Rachael Ray Show last week and it looked really yummy so I made it tonight.  I haven't been doing a lot of cooking because I really haven't felt up to it while pregnant so Cole was pretty excited when he walked in and saw a fully home cooked meal even though it was just Sausage Hoagies.  I subbed out turkey sausage for the pork sausage in the recipe.

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/sliced-italian-sausage-hoagies/

For 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 bulb fennel, trimmed and thinly sliced (I omitted this since Cole isn't super in love with it)
• 4 frying peppers, such as cubanelle, and red frying peppers, thinly sliced (I used 1 red bell pepper and 1 anaheim-I was only making this recipe for 2 people)
• 1 hot chili pepper, thinly sliced, optional
• 1 onion, yellow or red, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I used 2)
• Salt and pepper
• 2 pounds Italian sausage links, hot, sweet or mixed (I used 4 hot turkey sausages)
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste (1 1/2tbsp)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I just used stock)
• 1 cup chicken stock (I only used 1/2 to 1/3c)
• A few leaves torn basil (I didn't have any fresh on hand so I used dried italian seasoning and red chili flakes to get the desired spice we like)
• 4 Italian-style hoagie rolls, split and buttered
• 1/2 pound deli-sliced provolone cheese, halved (her recipes always call for so much cheese- I just grated up a little of what we had in the fridge and sprinkled it on the buttered rolls)

Directions:

Place the sausage in a skillet with about 1/4 inch of water and a drizzle of oil. Bring sausages to boil and allow liquids to cook away then crisp skins in the oil.

Remove sausages and add fennel, peppers, chili, onions, garlic, salt and pepper, and cook to soften 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add tomato paste to fennel and peppers, and stir 1 minute or so. Add wine and stir another minute; add stock and basil. Reduce heat to simmer.

Slice the sausages on an angle and add back to pan and simmer until liquid reduces and you are left with veggies and sausage in a bit of thick sauce.

Place your buttered and cheesed rolls under the broiler for a few minutes till cheese melts and buns are slightly toasted.  Add sausage/pepper mixture and enjoy!  I served along side roasted potatoes.  In the original recipe, Rachael Ray serves this with Ritz Fried Delicata Squash Rings.



My modifications to the recipe yielded enough sausage pepper mix for 4 rolls.

Healthier Slow Cooker Spinach Dip

A few healthier modifications plus the convenience of the slow cooker makes this recipe a winner.

Ingredients:

• 14-28oz artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
• 1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup low-fat/fat-free Greek yogurt
• 2 (8 oz) blocks low fat/fat free cream cheese
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 

Directions:

Coat the slow cooker with cooking spray. Add all ingredients. Stir to combine, cover and cook until heated through. 1-1/2 to 2 hours on high, 3 to 4 hours on low. Recipe may be doubled.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Adapted from this site.

Ingredients:

Crust (I used gingersnap [2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies+ 6 tbsp butter pressed into 9.5inch springfoam pan, baked at 325 for 12 mins])

3 8oz pakages of cream cheese (I used 2 low fat and 1 regular)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
a good pinch of cloves
1/3 tsp nutmeg

Garnish (I used whipped cream (plus icing sugar and cinnamon), caramel sauce and crushed, roasted pecans)

Directions:

Cream together cream cheese and sugar
Add vanilla and eggs, mix
Fold in sour cream
Reserve 1 cup of mixture and pour rest onto prebaked crust
Add pumpkin and spices to reserved cream cheese mixture- gently mix in
Pour on top of cream cheese layer
Bake in a water bath at 350 for 40-60 minutes (keep checking after 40 minutes to avoid cracking- it's done when it jiggles in the middle like jello)
Turn oven off and prop door open for a few minutes
Let cool
Refridgerate till next day
Add garnishes and Enjoy!