Recipe Catch Up

I got so behind this summer. We had good times with the family and there were good recipes cooked in this kitchen. The grownups and the almost grownups are all good cooks. And everyone had a turn in the kitchen. I did not get a photo of all the deliciousness we enjoyed. Nor do I have recipes for all of them. But I do have a couple to share from July. If I don't get these recipes tucked away here, I'll likely lose the printed copies.

Both of these were made by Jessica when she and the children were here. Daughters and sons-in-law are good about taking over meal prep when they visit. The only complaint I have is that sometimes we eat too well!

Caprese Chicken

STOVETOP CAPRESE CHICKEN

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/3 cup basil pesto (she used store bought)

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Cherry Tomato Topping:

2 cups halved cherry or grape tomatoes

1 large shallot, halved and thinly sliced

1/2 cup sliced basil leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Pinch of slat and pepper

Place chicken on a cutting board; cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap and with a meat mallet (or heavy skillet), pound the chicken until it’s a uniform 1/2-inch thickness. Pat dry with paper towels.

Place chicken in a large bowl and add the olive oil, balsamic, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, slat and pepper Toss until well combined. Set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.

While chicken is marinating, make the tomato topping. In a medium bowl, combine all the topping ingredients. Toss to combine. Set aside while you cook the the chicken. 

Heat skillet on stove. All enough oil to cook. Cook chicken, turning halfway through, until done. Reduce heat and spoon about a tablespoon of pesto on each chicken piece. Spread it across into an even layer. Sprinkle the tops with the mozzarella. Cover and cook on low heat until cheese is just melted.

Let chicken rest about 4 minutes before serving. Then plate the chicken and spoon the tomato topping over each piece.

(This recipe came from The Defined Dish. Check out her original instructions for cooking on a grill. I guessed at exactly how Jessica did it. But I'm sure you can adapt.)

We served this with rice. Thank goodness for those quick microwave packs for days when there aren't enough hands.

Creamy Chicken & Tortellini Bake

Now THIS is a company kind of dish. It's rich and creamy and full of flavor. It's more effort than the caprese chicken. But it's not hard. Just has a long list of ingredients. Don't be put off. 

CREAMY CHICKEN and TORTELLINI BAKE

4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 large shallot, halved and thinly sliced

2 cups thinly sliced baby Bella mushrooms

2 cloves garlic minced

1/2 cup roughly chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

5-oz baby spinach

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup heavy cream

18-oz refrigerated cheese or spinach tortellini (she used Rana)

1 cup packed basil leaves (more for garnish)

2 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 375º. Place chicken breasts on a cutting board and cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap. Use a meat mallet or heavy skillet and pound until it’s a uniform 1/2-inch thick. (I have used an empty wine bottle to pound.)

Season chicken with salt, pepper and paprika. Sprinkle with flour and use hands to rub flour into chicken so it’s well coated.

Heat oil in large, oven safe skillet over medium-heat. Add chicken and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Move chicken to a clean plate. (It will finish cooking in oven.)

Reduce heat to medium. If skillet seems dry, add 1 more tablespoon oil to the pan. Add shallot, mushrooms, garlic and cook, stirring, until tender about 2-3 minutes.

Add sun-dried tomatoes, dijon, broth and whisk to combine. Cook until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add spinach, salt, pepper and cook stirring, until wilted.

Add cream and bring to simmer. Once simmering, add tortellini and basil. Gently toss until well combined and basil has just wilted.

Remove from heat and nestle chicken breast into the skillet. Top with parmesan. Transfer to the oven and bake, uncovered, until chicken is just cooked through and tortellini is tender, about 12-15 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving. Garnish with more basil is desired.

Yep. Definitely a special dish for your favorite guests. My normal cooking now is so simple. This is far beyond what I usually prepare. But I would make this for a special meal.

NOTE:  To anyone like who grew up in the last century (like me) when stores stocked two kinds of salt—plain and iodized—be sure you are aware that there are about a dozen kinds of salt that you might find on the store shelf now. 

If you only have table salt like Morton's in your kitchen, know that it measures differently. Use less if you don't want your dish too salty.  Here's why:

Kosher salt is no saltier than table salt by weight —they are chemically identical. However, by volume (measuring with a teaspoon), table salt is much saltier because its tiny crystals pack tightly together, meaning a teaspoon of table salt contains nearly twice as much sodium as a teaspoon of kosher salt. 

Substitution: As discussed in r/Cooking on Reddit, users on the forum reach a consensus that you should never substitute table salt 1:1 by volume for kosher salt, or your dish will end up way too salty (use about half the amount of table salt if a recipe calls for kosher salt).

  

Hot! Hot! Hot! — Hot Soup?

Things are settling back into a routine after a busy summer. Grandchildren are back in school so we won't see them as much. We've enjoyed spending time with them the last several weeks. It's good to watch them change and grow. See that sweet baby under the bright green blanket on the blog header? She provided the impetus to start this blog. 

I was keeping that tiny baby after her mommy went back to work. And tiny babies aren't good conversationalists. The two of us were home all day for months. During her long naps I got bored. A friend suggested starting a blog might be fun. She showed me the basics of setting it up. And I was off and writing.

That baby was six months old when the photo with the green blanket was made. She's driving now. We celebrated her 16th birthday last weekend. And there are four more grandkids behind her. I am never bored now.  

 

Lentil Soup

Now, "back to our regular broadcast." It's HOT here. The heat index has been over 100 for most of the past two weeks. It's too hot to think about outside things. It's too hot to think about much of anything. I was concerned about the roofers I drove past early this morning. Surely they stopped as the temperature rose to the danger zone at midday.

I have mostly stayed indoors. I've had more time in the kitchen this week. So what new recipe did I make? Lentil soup. SOUP! In this heat I made soup. It was delicious. I would not want to eat it outside, but it made a tasty lunch for a couple of days.

Why this soup? I saw a picture of Paul McCartney a few weeks ago. He's still looking good. (Dare I say he's still cute?) I remember seeing the Beatles when they did their first TV appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Doesn't seem like over a half century ago. The article was about how Paul stayed so fit and still had energy to do a 3-hour concert on stage at age 83. Part of the article talked about his vegetarian diet and what he liked to eat. Lentil soup was one of his favorite foods. He and his late wife, Linda, developed the recipe and tweaked it until they thought it was perfect. 

Who would not want to try a perfect soup that might also have rejuvenation powers? I found a cookbook, Home Cooking, written by Linda McCartney and ordered it, hoping it would have the recipe. I have owned a few vegetarian cookbooks but found most too exotic to actually cook from. This one is so useable. Real basic foods that most people would eat.

Be forewarned that this recipe does not make much soup. The recipe says it serves 4 to 6. Translates to about 6 cups. If you are a household of one or two, it's perfect amount. You'll have enough for another day or two, but you won't be eating soup for a week.

LENTIL SOUP

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 cup carrots, chopped

2 sticks celery, chopped

1/2 cup lentils

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2-1/4 cups vegetable stock (or water)

Heat the oil in  a 2-1/2 qt saucepan and gently sauté the onion and garlic. Add the carrots and celery and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. 

Wash the lentils twice in cold water. Drain them and add to the pan. Add bay leaf, parsley, salt and pepper, and stir well.

Pour in the vegetable stock, cover the pan and simmer the soup for 1-1/2 hours, until the lentils are very soft. Add a little extra stock as it cooks, if necessary.

If you know DaddyO, you know he is not generally a soup lover. But he liked this one. After lunch I asked if he would eat this again. He answered instantly, "Absolutely!" 

I must confess that I burned the first pot of soup. I made it and left it to simmer while I did an online piano class. Bad mistake. But I wanted to try this recipe so badly that I made it again the next day—and watched the lesson replay in the kitchen. No way was I leaving this alone again. 

So glad I tried again. It's really simple to put together. I'll be making this again...but probably on a cool day.

It's August!

 What have I been doing since June 24 when I last posted?

WHEW!

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye

Easy Beef & Broccoli

There has been so much going on around here. One item top on our list has been deep cleaning. We've lived in this house (the one where Daddy-O grew up) for over 20 years. Pretty sure there are items that haven't been moved since we carefully placed them on a shelf when we moved in. 

Well, no more. Things are getting shuffled around. We've moved paintings from one wall to another. I've "shopped" the house for decorative pieces to restyle some spaces. And goodness, what we've thrown away! The "why did we even save this" kind of stuff. And some things are just no longer useable. Mini DVDs anyone? Still, we have to work at telling these things goodbye.

We are not done but already the house feels fresher. It feels like it can breathe again. This will be a forever project. Because as soon as we feel like we've finished, we need to circle around again. This kind of work is so dusty as we've dragged things out of closets and cleared shelves. So we've been dusty—too dusty to go out to eat, but we've also been too tired to dirty up the kitchen.

Which brings me to a new recipe I made this week. Incredibly simple. Delicious. And the leftovers were good, too. It was the perfect quick lunch while we were working. See the recipe at the end of the blog post.

It's so hard to part with old cookbooks. 

The copyrights are from 1970 - 1976.

Did we really cook like this?

Successfully making a molded jello was a desirable skill in the 1970s.

Spam casserole...look at the ingredients. 😂

I also own a few really old cookbooks.

It would be fun to do a little recipe archeology. 

Might be a Mimi Camp project.

 The reward at the end of busy days—time to sit here.

This is a recipe I'll make again.

EASY BEEF and BROCCOLI

1- lb lean ground beef

1/2 yellow onion, diced

8-oz fresh broccoli florets, cut into bite-size pieces

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon minced garlic 

1 teaspoon minced ginger

2 to 4 tablespoons brown sugar (optional)

Brown the ground beef and onion until cooked through. Add the sesame oil and chopped broccoli and cook for about 2 minutes.

Add soy sauce, hoisin, garlic, ginger and brown sugar. Stir until everything is well coated. Let simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes until broccoli is tender. 

Serve over rice, in lettuce wraps or in a bowl.

To make this even quicker, I used minced garlic from a jar and minced ginger from a squeez bottle. You'll find both in the produce section at the grocery store. 

Red Beans and Rice, Peach Cobbler—Life Is Good

Easy Red Bean and Rice

Another month has disappeared! Where do the days go? Your guess is as good as mine. But we're still here. Still kicking. And still eating.

We have a peach orchard local to us. Nothing like fresh-off-the-tree peaches. The weather was brutal to this year's crop. But there were enough of a harvest for us to have our two favorite summer recipes. I'll link them below instead of rewriting the recipes. 

 

Homemade Peach Ice Cream

I asked Daddy-O to stop and get peaches on. his way home from the lake this week. I really wanted homemade peach ice cream. I have a countertop 1-1/2 qt electric churn. It's so quick and easy. Stir the ingredients together, pour the mixture into the churn and push the button that says ice cream. (Gelato and sorbet are the two other buttons.) And 25 minutes later, you have soft serve ice cream. Of course, we eat it soft the minute the churn turns off. The rest goes into the freezer and I'll need an ice cream scoop next time.  

      Click "homemade peach ice cream" to find the recipe.

Peach Cobbler

Daddy-O gets credit for baking the cobbler while I was in a piano class this afternoon (on zoom.) I could smell this baking while I was trying to pay attention to the class. It had just come out of the oven when I finished. It tasted as good as it smelled. We've used this recipe for ages and ages.

Click "peach cobbler" to find the recipe.

  

And glory be, here's a new recipe. Needed to find something for supper a few days ago. Of course, I had not been to the grocery store yet. But I had a turkey smoked sausage in the refrigerator. There was the first green pepper ready to be picked in the garden. Thankfully I had two cans of kidney beans in the pantry. If you are a true red beans and rice connoisseur, this is not authentic by any means. But it was quick and it was easy and it was delicious. 

RED BEANS AND RICE

2 cups water

1 cup uncooked rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 (16-oz) package of smoked sausage (I used turkey) cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon minced jarred garlic

2 (15-oz) cans light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (16-oz) can whole tomato, chopped (use the juice, too)

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice according to package directions. While rice is cooking, heat oil in a large skillet. Add sausage slices and cook about 5 minutes. Stir in onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook until tender. Add tomatoes with juice, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered about 20 minutes. Serve over rice.

If you don't find a 16-oz can of whole tomatoes, you can do like I did and use a can of diced tomatoes. The recipe says to chop the tomatoes anyway. So what's the difference? I can tell you. There is not nearly as much juice in a can of diced tomatoes as there is in a can of whole tomatoes. So I added some water as it started to look dry while it was simmering. If I'd had tomato juice I would have used that. But we work with what we have. 

I put 2 pint containers of the bean sausage mixture in the freezer for another time. I'd be happy eating it without the rice even. But the name is so classic—red beans and RICE. 

I'm posting this supper photo from earlier in the week just for fun. About once a year I fry chicken and make gravy so I don't completely forget how to do it. Roasted green beans and mashed potatoes finished the plate. Daddy-O usually has clean up duty when I cook. As much as he loved this meal, I think he might be glad he only cleans up after this meal once a year! Frying anything is messy. But, oh, it was so good.

I'll leave you with a couple of summer photos. We have been so lucky to have had days to enjoy being outside. The screened porch is my favorite spot. And this week it hasn't been too hot and the humidity hasn't been too high.  A cup of coffee in the morning. A book in the afternoon. Every now and then a glass of wine in the evening. There's no place like home.