Here is a new recipe for you.
Chicken potpie. Turned out good and we ate every last leftover (which is saying a lot for my family).
Part I: Creamed Chicken
1. Buy a roasted chicken at Jewel (I like the large chicken breast that you can buy). Pull all meat from the bone and place in a bowl.
2. Melt in a large saucepan 4 TBSP butter.
3. Add and whisk until smooth 1/2 cup flour.
4. Cook, whisking constantly for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.
5. Add 2 cups of chicken broth and whisk until smooth.
6. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups milk.
7. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a simmer, whisking constantly. Scrape the inside of the saucepan and whisk vigorously to break up any lumps.
8. Stir in the cooked poultry and cook for 1 minute more.
9. Remove from heat and season to taste with:
>fresh lemon juice
>salt and black pepper
>a pinch of nutmeg
(Congratulations, you just made your first white sauce!)
Part II: The Veggies
1. Heat a large skillet over med-high heat; melt 2 TBSP butter.
2. Add and cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes:
>1 medium onion, chopped
>3 medium carrots, sliced
>2 small celery ribs, sliced
3. Stir the vegetables into the creamed chicken, along with:
>3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
>3 TBSP minced fresh parsley
4. Pour the mixture into a prepared baking dish.
Part III: The Biscuits.
1. Combine in a bowl and whisk together:
>2 cups flour
>2 tsp baking powder
>1/2 tsp baking soda
>1 tsp salt
2. Add all at once:
>2/3 cup buttermilk
>1/3 cup vegetable oil
3. Stir with a fork just until the dough readily leaves the sides of the bowl.
4. Drop walnut-sized dabs of dough from a spoon onto the top of the chicken/vegetable mixture. You could also roll out the dough and make it more like a pie, but I am too lazy and likely to drop the f-bomb.
Bake at 400F on the top 1/3 shelf in the oven for 30-40minutes. Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the topping is golden.
Enjoy!
In the process of cleaning out my freezer, I found a huge container of pesto that I had made last summer. I put it to grand use in this new recipe.
Ingredients:
olive oil
8 ounces (1/2 package) lasagna noodles (I used a whole box without any difficulty)
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup pesto
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced (recommend doubling this amount, make it 6 cloves)
1 large bunch of asparagus
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3 cups Mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste
[I took the liberty here and added a few extras which is the joy of lasagna--I added shredded chicken breast, mushrooms and spinach which ended up being a perfect combination.]
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cook 2-3 chicken breasts, season them while cooking and then tear them apart once cooled.
Cook noodles and set aside.
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. (I sauteed the mushrooms here.)
Steam asparagus until it just turns bright green.
In a large bowl, mix ricotta, 1/2 cup of Parmesan, pesto, salt and pepper.
Place a layer of noodles in the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread a layer of the ricotta mixture over the noodles, then a layer of vegetable (including generous amounts of spinach), then the chicken (if you decide to use that), then sprinkle with 1/3 of mozzarella cheese. Repeat layering two more times. Top with a layer of noodles, a thin layer of whatever pesto/ricotta mixture is left and the rest of the Parmesan.
Bake for 45 minutes. Cover with foil the first 30 minutes and uncover to brown the last 15 minutes.
WARNING: This is NOT a Weight Watchers recipe.
Speaking of dear Kati again—she gave me a truly wonderful new cookbook written as a collection of recipes from the community of people living in the north woods of Wisconsin. There is lots of mention of wild rice, maple syrup and venison, as these are main staples. I have discovered a few recipes that are delicious that I must share with you.
The first truly surprised me (for I am not generally a seafood lover).
Lemony Trout
Ingredients:
Whitefish or lake trout fillets (about 1/2 pound per person)
Fillet rub
garlic (one clove per filet—now, if you were Shanel, you would triple this recommendation)
lemon juice
freshly ground pepper
salt (go easy)
Lemon Herb Garlic Butter
butter (1/2 TBSP per fillet)
garlic (minced, 1 clove per fillet)
lemon juice (1 TBSP per fillet)
fresh parley or cilantro (highly recommended that you don’t skip this ingredient)
Rub fillets with fresh minced garlic and sprinkle a little lemon juice, pepper, and salt. Let stand at room temperature for 15-30min.
Broil fish until opaque. For large fillets this is usually about 10 minutes.
While fish is broiling, saute fresh minced garlic in butter, then add lemon juice. Stir in finely chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, or both. Remove from heat and let herbs just wilt in butter/lemon juice.
When the fish is done, transfer to serving dish and drizzle each fillet with herbed garlic lemon butter.
Easy as ever and really tasty. I recommend serving it on a bed of brown rice or wild rice with something green on the side. Enjoy.
As my dear friend Kati calls them…Toms. Tomatoes. I have had a better harvest this year and recently gathered all my tomatoes (which were many) and decided to make some sauce. I have been enjoying this cooking blog called The Pioneer Woman Cooks! She does an amazing job capturing the experience of cooking through her photography. Not to mention her recipes are to die for! And I am quite envious of her spacious kitchen. She is really funny. If you are into cooking blogs, check it out. Anywho, she inspired me to do this blog entry. I am not quite as talented as her, but I will put it out there for you to experience.
Back to toms.
Here is a series of photos documenting the canning process of my red toms and fresh herbs from my overgrown garden buzzing with mosquitos. [Due to some blog malfunctioning of some plugin, I can't upload directly onto my blog. So you are going to have go there by clicking on the link. Oh well. My blog manager, Mr. Brendan, is working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience.]
Sterilizing the jars.
Air drying on a hot pink towel.
Sauteing the onions and lots and lots of garlic.
Fresh herbs—everything from basil, oregano, thyme, and flat leaf parsley.
I love garlic, lots and lots of garlic! And you gotta love food processors that do all the work for you.
The toms.
The sauce in process. Looking awfully lovely.
The end. Canned tomato sauce with all fresh ingredients that will be especially delicious come January when I am missing my garden real bad! {Notice the amazing pesto lasagna in the background. I was a domestic queen that Friday afternoon.}
Very gratifying experience. Will probably do one more batch before the summer is over…or maybe can salsa. Is that possible? Anyone know?
