Chicken and Rice Soup

Found this recipe HERE. I think I posted another chicken and rice soup on here before, but this one's a lot different.

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4" pieces

• 1 Tbs Emeril's Essence or Creole Seasoning

• 1 Tbs olive oil

• 2 cups diced onions

• 1 1/2 cups diced carrots

• 1 1/2 cups diced celery

• 1 Tbs minced garlic

• 1 tsp dried basil

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

• 2 quarts chicken stock/broth, plus more if needed

• 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice

• 1 5-oz bag prewashed spinach

Place the chicken in a medium bowl, season with the Essence or Creole seasoning, and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a 6-quart or larger soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, basil, salt, and crushed red pepper, and continue to cook for 1 minute.

Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the broth and rice, cover the pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove the cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the rice is just tender, about 12 minutes.

Stir in the spinach, and serve immediately.

NOTE: If you have cooked white rice on hand, omit the uncooked rice and simply stir in a bout 1 1/2 cups cooked rice just before you add the spinach.

YIELD: 3 1/2 quarts, 6-8 servings

The only changes I made to this was to probably season the chicken a bit more and use kale instead to spinach. Because kale seems to be a bit tougher than the packaged spinach, I decided to add it in earlier. I put it in right before I put the rice in. It was really good, and went over well. It made a lot even though it says 6-8 servings. I think we only ate about half of it.

Green Apple and Craisin Salad

These are the approximate amounts that I do for our family....

• mixed greens or green leaf
  
• 3-4 green apples, chopped
• 1/2 cup craisins (dried cherries or dried cranberries work well also)
• 1/2 c. goat cheese
• 3 T. onion, chopped
• 1 c. praline pecans
• 3/4 c. Maple Dressing

French Dressing

We like this dressing with green leaf, an assortment of vegetables, cheddar cheese, and either seeds or sprouts.

• 1 cup olive oil
• 6 T. vinegar
  
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 3 T. sugar
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 2 dashes tobacco
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 t. lemon zest
• 1 lemon, juiced

Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!

Triple-Berry Salad

We originally made this salad with blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries thus the name Triple Berry salad. However, we often don't have these three berries and so we have substituted oranges, tangerines, raspberries or pomegranate seeds. Whatever fruit you use, the general recipe stays the same.

Salad:

• Mixed Greens
• Strawberries, Blackberries, and Blueberries
  
• Onion, chopped
  
• Praline Pecans
  
• Blue cheese
• Maple Dressing

Maple Dressing:

• 1/3 c.apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 c. maple syrup
• 1/2 t. spicy mustard
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 1/4 t. salt

Mix all together and slowly add 2/3 c. olive oil. Whisk until emulsified.

Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad

Salad:

• Mixed Greens
• 4-5 tomatoes, diced
• Onion, chopped
• Toasted Pine nuts (Be very careful not to burn the pine nuts while toasting!:) )
• 1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
  
• Greek Dressing
  

Greek Dressing:

• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 13 cloves garlic, peeled (don't worry about mincing these-they're going in the blender...)
• 3 T. salt
• 1 t. dried marjoram
• 1 T. spicy mustard
  
• 3/4 t. pepper

Mix all ingredients in blender and blend until mixed. With blender on, add 2 1/2 cup olive oil and blend until emulsified.

Sparkling Cranberries

I made this recipe over Christmas, and it turned out quite well! The cranberries were very pretty, but the berries we had were getting a little old when I finally got around to doing it, so they went bad on us pretty quickly. Anyway, they were a lovely addition to the holiday selection of goodies. They even tasted good, especially if you like slightly sweet sour things. I'm just going to copy and paste the recipe; the original is HERE.

For the simple syrup, raw cane sugar or real brown sugar lends a nice molasses flavor to the cranberries, but regular granulated sugar (or a blend of brown/white) will work.

• 2 cups cranberries, picked over

• 2 cups water

• 2 cups sugar (see head notes)

• More sugar for coating: I do a mix of medium-grained organic sugar for the first coating, and then a second toss with regular granulated white sugar. You don't want a huge grain for that first toss, just something larger than standard sugar, smaller than most turbinado sugars. You can sort of see the different grain sizes in the third photo in the main write-up.

Place the cranberries in a medium glass bowl and set aside.

Make a simple syrup by bringing the water and sugar just to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Let the syrup cool for a couple minutes and then pour it over the cranberries. If the syrup is too hot the cranberries will burst, so be careful. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, drain the cranberries and toss them with larger grained sugar until they are well coated. I only use a scoop of sugar at a time, and small batches of cranberries, so the sugar doesn't get too damp. Place the coated cranberries on a baking sheet to dry for a few hours.

Do a second toss with the regular granulated sugar, this typically takes care of any sticky spots on the cranberries. Let dry another hour.

Makes 2 cups of sparkling cranberries.

Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

I found this recipe HERE. We actually have the real Macaroni Grill recipe somewhere, but we can't find it right now. If we ever run across it again, I'll try to remember to post whatever differences there are. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. yeast
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbs. rosemary
• 2 Tbs. butter
  

Directions:

Place yeast, sugar and water in large bowl or food processor and allow mixture to become bubbly.

Mix in 1 T butter, salt, and 2 cups of flour.

Add one tablespoon of the fresh chopped rosemary.

Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in food processor about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Add more flour if necessary.

Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel.

Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled.

Punch down dough and divide in half.

Let dough rest about 5 minutes.

Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves.

Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon of rosemary over the loaves and press lightly into the surface.

Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining butter (and salt if desired).

I've made this twice now. Once I used soft white wheat, and once hard white. The hard white definitely did better; it was not nearly so crumbly! I'd like to try it again with store-bought all-purpose or bread flour, but we've never had that on hand when I've made it. Also, I just used the ingredients as a guideline. I generally double the amount of yeast that a bread recipe calls for merely because Daddy taught me how to make bread, and he does that. I don't know if it's necessary or not, but I've never had a problem with it rising. :D And, of course, it used a bit more that 2 1/2 cups of flour, but not too much. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy this! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pumpkin Cheese Pie...requested by Mrs. Bradshaw

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
  
• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust (we make a graham cracker crust...just graham cracker crumbs, butter, and a tiny bit of sugar.)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix cream cheese and condensed milk together until smooth. Stir in the pureed pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and eggs. Mix until well combined. Pour batter into the pie shell.
   
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Serve warm. (I personally really like it cold, though.)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Coffee Sauce

• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups strongly brewed coffee*
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine cocoa, sugar and coffee. Bring to a boil and let boil 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.


* The ratio of coffee grounds to water that I used was 2T of grounds per one cup of water, and it was a perfect strength.

Ginger Ale

I've made this recipe a couple of times now and it's turned out great both times! Our whole family loves ginger, so this spicy drink is quickly becoming a favorite.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar - I've been using organic cane sugar
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon baker's yeast
• cold water

Directions:

• Pour sugar into a 2 liter PLASTIC bottle. Yes, I would use plastic. If the ginger ale "ripens" too long, it can explode.
• Add the yeast and shake to disperse.
• In a separate dish, combine ginger and lemon juice. Stir to make a "slurry." Add this to the sugar& yeast mixture and shake (with the top on, of course).
• Now, rinse the dish used for the ginger & lemon juice and add the rinsings to the mixture.
• All you lack now is to fill up your bottle with water, leaving about an inch of head space, and cap it.
  
• Set it in a warm place for, normally, 24-48 hours. As our house has been quite warm lately, it's only taken around 8-12 hours. In any case, once the bottle is hard, so you can't squeeze it (or, not much), it is ready to be put in the refrigerator. Once it is in the refrigerator, you are in no danger of explosion. In the freezer, on the other hand...
  

Fresh Mint Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 2 cups cream

• pinch of salt

• 2 cups lightly packed fresh mint leaves

• 5 large eggs

Put eggs and sugar in medium sauce pan. Beat well. Add milk, cream, salt, and mint. Heat until thickened (almost boiling). Remove from heat. Strain out the mint leaves while transferring to a heat proof container. Cool thoroughly. Freeze, and enjoy!

This is a modified version of a recipe I found online HERE. I would eventually like to try steeping the mint longer, but as it is, it's got an incredible minty flavor!

Clark Bars ( a.k.a. peanut butter & chocolate bars)

Here it is, Mrs. Bradshaw!

• 1 (16 ounce) package graham crackers, crumbled
• 1 cup melted butter
• 2 1/2 cups peanut butter
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

2. Mix graham cracker crumbs, butter, peanut butter and powdered sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Press the mixture into the prepared pan.

3. In a small pot melt chocolate chips and condensed milk together over low heat. Stir until well mixed. Spread the chocolate mixture over the peanut butter mixture. Chill the cookie-bars for 4 hours. Cut and serve.

I actually came across this recipe because Mom wanted me to make something (anything!) with condensed milk in it. These things are AWESOME.
Texture? Perfect. Taste? Fantastic. Easy? Extremely!

Blueberry Crunch

2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup melted butter
1 quart blueberries, fresh or frozen

Mix all but blueberries together. Press half into a 9x13 pan. Pour blueberries on top. Sprinkle with rest of crumble. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly.

Enjoy!

Cold Peach Soup

Surprise! A new post at last! This is from our Tennessee Magazine this month, and sounded too good (and easy!) not to try. It is delicious, and we think, though we haven't tried it yet, it would make delicious popsicles too!

Serve in teacups with shortbread cookies or alone as a light meal starter.

• 2 lbs of fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, and halved

• 1/2 cup of orange juice

• 1/2 cup of plain yogurt

• 1 tablespoon of honey

• 2 teaspoons of fresh lime juice

Puree all ingredients in blender.

Adjust thickness with more orange juice or water if necessary. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour before serving or up to eight hours.

Yield: 6 servings

---

Okay, now for the small changes I made.

First of all, I didn't serve it in teacups, with cookies, or as a meal starter. I served it as a main dish with salad and fresh rolls, and it was delicious! :)

I made two recipes of this; the first I made exactly (well, without exactly measuring everything...) like it says. The second, which we all thought was a bit better, I used a quart of our frozen peaches from last year, and I used homemade honey vanilla yogurt instead of plain.

Also, I, of course, didn't leave myself enough time to let it refrigerate for even one hour, so I put it into the freezer while the rolls were baking... 15 minutes or so. They came out pleasantly cool.

Olive Cheese Balls

48 olive
1/2 pound cheddar cheese sharp
1/2 cup butter soft
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika


Four or five hours ahead, blend cheese with butter. Stir in flour, salt, paprika, and mix well. Mold one teaspoon of dough around each olive. Arrange on greased baking sheet. Refrigerate 30 minutes before serving, or freeze. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake 10-15 min. or until golden brown. Serve warm. Makes 24 hors d'oeuvres servings.

Chocolate-Coffee Ice Cream Pie

This is so easy, and it's so good! For added garnish, I whipped up some heavy cream and topped the pie before I sprinkled on the pecans and cookie crumbs and drizzled on the syrup.


1 chocolate pie crust
1/2 cup nuts chopped
cooking spray
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pint coffee ice cream
1 pint chocolate ice cream
1 package chocolate sandwich cookies
1/4 cup butter
chocolate syrup

Place pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with sugar.

Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Cool.

Stir together ice cream, 3/4 cup cookie chunks, and 1/3 cup pecans; spoon into pie crust. Freeze 10 minutes. Press remaining cookie chunks and pecans evenly on top. Cover with plastic wrap, and freeze 8 hours. Drizzle individual slices evenly with chocolate syrup.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This has got to be an all-time favorite! I have also made it in a 9in. x 13in. pan instead of the two pie crusts, making my own crust with graham crackers; it works just as well.


16 ounces cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups chunky peanut butter
1 cup milk
1 pint whipped topping
1/2 cup peanuts chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
2 graham cracker pie crust
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chopped Lindt or Ghirardelli

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, peanut butter and milk in a large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed until blended. Fold in whipped topping, peanuts and chocolate chips. Spoon mixture into the two pie crusts and freeze for approximately 2 hours. Remove from freezer and top with ganache. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Use a hot knife to cut, and clean knife between slices. You can sprinkle a few of the chopped peanuts on top of the ganache for garnish.

To make ganache, boil the heavy cream, milk and sugar. Place chopped chocolate in double boiler. Add hot cream mixture to melted chocolate and stir until smooth. (Ganache can be prepared ahead of time and reheated in a double boiler.) Cool about 5-10 min. before topping pie.

King Aurthur Classic Sourdough Bread

Laura requested this recipe. It is my variation on a sourdough recipe from my King Aurthur cookbook. If you've never made sourdough before, it's a good place to start. I've been experimenting with it for a few weeks and plan to experiment some more. The original recipe doesn't call for any whole wheat flour, but it is healthier, and I think it tastes better to use some in the sponge. The starter will rise the bread very slowly, so if you want to speed up the process, add the optional yeast. Also, I usually double the recipe, but still use 1/2 cup of starter. 

Have fun bread-making, and experiment with it yourself. Let me know what you try, and if it works.

-Tricia Ann

Yield: 2 small loaves or 1 big loaf

Prepare the following sponge 8-24 hours before you plan to bake.

Sponge:

• 1/2 cup sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 -2 cups stone ground whole wheat flour (or unbleached white flour)

Pour starter into a large bowl and add water. Stir to loosen. Add flour and mix well. Let this mixture sit in a warm place for 8-24 hours. The longer it has to work, the more sour the finished bread will be.

Bread:

• 3-4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 TBS salt
• 1 TBS sugar
• 2 tsp. yeast (optional)

Mix the flour, salt, and sugar. Set aside. Add yeast to the sponge, if you are using it. Add the flour mixture to the sponge, stirring well. Add remaining flour, a half-cup at a time, until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead by machine or by hand for about 8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Let the dough rise for 1-2 hours (1 if you used yeast, 2 if you did not). Shape into loaves or baguettes or whatever shape you like, and proof (rise) for 1-2 hours again, depending on whether or not you used yeast. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. It is delicious eaten straight out of the oven!

Southern Butternut Squash

I finally found a butternut squash casserole (and I bet you could substitute sweet potatoes for the squash with equally delicious results) recipe that uses sweetened condensed milk. I just KNEW there had to be some recipe with that in it! Anyway, this recipe is absolutely delicious! Daddy made a pie with some of the left overs after dinner the other night. Although, I thought (of course) it wasn't quite sweet enough for a pie. :)

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups mashed, cooked butternut squash
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup white sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter one 2 quart casserole dish.
2. Blend together the butternut squash, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, butter, vanilla, cream and sugar.
3. Pour into prepared casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 45 minutes or until set and edges begin to bubble.
4. Prepare a topping if desired by combining 1 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Mix together and sprinkle over squash before baking.

I did the brown sugar, flour, and butter for the top, but we didn't have any nuts. The topping melted into the rest of the casserole, but that only made those spots that much more delicious!

LINK

Mocha Sauce

1. 4 ounces of chopped bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate
2. 2/3 cup of whipping cream
3. 1/4 cup of sugar
   
4. 1 teaspoon of instant espresso coffee powder or regular instant coffee crystals

In a small saucepan heat and stir chocolate over low heat until melted. Stir in cream, sugar, and instant coffee. Cook and stir over medium-low heat about 3 minutes. or until mixture just boils around edges. Remove from heat. Cool for 15 minutes before serving. Cover and store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.