Comfort Food

The children are home from camp, and they are worn out! They tried to sleep most of Saturday away. I made pancakes again this morning using the recipe that can be found here. We had some blueberries that I needed to do something with before they became food for the chickens. So, I made blueberry pancakes. I put the batter on the griddle and dropped the blueberries in each pancake as it was cooking. My hubby loved them. I actually prefer mine plain, but my kiddos love chocolate chip pancakes. The batter is versatile; I just drop in whatever I or they would like as I'm cooking.

It's Saturday; no one wants to over exert himself. It seems like a great day for some comfort food. There are many types of comfort food. At my house, one type of comfort food is my chicken casserole. To make this dish you need: chicken, mashed potatoes, cream of something soup, cheese, sour cream, and dressing or stuffing. Whether you call it dressing or stuffing depends on how you make it and where you're from. 

So, let's say I come in on a really busy day and I need to throw together a quick meal. I could go to my pantry and pull out a box of instant mashed potatoes, a can of cream of something such as mushroom, chicken, or celery, a box of Stove Top stuffing, and canned chicken breast. From my refrigerator, I need some cheese and a little sour cream.

Or, I could have some leftover chicken, mashed potatoes (from scratch), and stuffing. Or any combination of instant and leftover. I could get a rotisserie chicken and use the meat from that. Whatever I have on hand is what I will use. 

I had some chicken tenders in the freezer. They've been there a while and I need to use them. I thawed them, mostly, and cooked them in some water, about a half of a cup. I added some celery salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. I had mashed potatoes and a box of Stove Top. I also scraped up a can of cream of celery soup. I needed about a half of a cup of sour cream and cheese to cover the potatoes.

Cooking the chicken tenders

I took the mashed potatoes and put them in a casserole dish. They were warm. I had added some chives to them. I covered these with thinly sliced and shredded cheeses. I used what we had. I made the stuffing according to the directions on the box. I then added the chicken that I had pulled apart with my fingers, the can of cream of celery soup, and the sour cream. I spread this mixture on top of the cheese. I put this in the oven at 375° F for about 30 minutes. 

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Shredded chicken

Assembled and ready to go into the oven

I also made a loaf of bread. I am fortunate enough to have a bread maker. It's a bit old, but someone gave it to me a few years ago when she couldn't sell it at a yard sale. I use it to mix and knead the dough. Then I punch the dough down and put it in a loaf pan. After it has risen, I bake it in the oven. I tried a new bread recipe, and I approve! So did everyone else. They ate the whole thing. Okay, I helped. It was warm fresh bread straight from the oven slathered with butter. Hello!! Who wouldn't want to devour that?

Beginning stage of the dough

Dough in the pan

Finished Product

Yes, the meal was on the starchy side, but most of us associate starches with our comfort food. We had some of the casserole left. It reheats well in the microwave or on a low temperature in the oven. 

The finished casserole

The link for the bread recipe is here. You should try it. Not all bread recipes are created equal. This one was worth my time. Watch the bread at 30 minutes and see what you think. 35 minutes may turn it too brown. 

The recipe for the casserole:

Chicken Casserole by The Investibaker

In case you aren't familiar with Stove Top, here it is.

Try this recipe and let me know what you think!

Chicken Piccata and Chocolate Covered Strawberries

The children have been away at camp this week. My husband and I rarely find ourselves alone for any extended length of time. When you have four children, even with two of them away at college, time without children is not the norm. I'm not complaining. I can't imagine life any other way. But, with the children away, I thought I'd try a recipe I've not cooked before. Something nice, something that suggested an adult meal, romantic even. 

When I was in Jacksonville recently, we went to an Italian restaurant. There were some really nice dishes and the atmosphere was pleasant. I ordered chicken piccata. I've enjoyed this dish many times and couldn't wait to eat it there. Uhm, no. Just no. It lacked flavor. How can a dish with lemon juice and capers lack flavor? I honestly don't know, but I didn't like their version of the dish. It was bland. I had the thought, I can do better than this. But could I?

Fast forward to Thursday, and I decided to find out. While I was shopping, I noticed strawberries were on sale. I love all kinds of berries. My whole family does. So, I loaded up on strawberries and decided for dessert, we would have chocolate covered strawberries. I picked up the rest of the ingredients I needed, including wine. I am of the opinion that I should always pick a wine I like to drink. Then, I can use it for cooking and drinking, and it won't go to waste. Also, if I like the taste of it for drinking, I should like the taste in the dishes I prepare as well. 

I chose this recipe from Simply Recipes because it looked like the same ingredients from the dish in the restaurant. I must say, I love it. I will use this recipe again. It was definitely worth the small amount of time it took to create the dish. 

I purchased chicken tenders or chicken breast cutlets. They were on sale and make prep time faster. I was concerned about the chicken tasting bland and the possibility of it drying out during the cooking time, so I decided to marinade it. I had a few hours before my husband would be home from work. I felt it would be enough time for the chicken to absorb some flavor and the oil would prevent the chicken from becoming too dry. 

Before I touched the chicken however, I decided to start with the strawberries. When making chocolate covered strawberries, I always wash the strawberries well, then set them aside to dry. The chocolate won't stick to the strawberries properly if they are wet. They can be set aside on paper towels or a hand towel. 

Strawberries drying on paper towels

While the strawberries were drying, I went to work on the chicken. When making chicken piccata, you have to pan fry the chicken. I find it easier to cook the chicken if it is pounded thin. It cooks more evenly and takes less time. I took the chicken breast cutlets and put them in a large, gallon sized zip loc bag. You could put the chicken between saran wrap, plastic wrap, cling wrap, or whatever you call it as well. I pounded the chicken fairly flat. It was about as twice as wide as it had been and about half as thick. Once I flattened the chicken pieces, I put them all in the zip loc bag and added olive oil, about a tablespoon of lemon juice, and some homemade Italian seasoning. I put the bag of chicken in the refrigerator for about three hours. 

Chicken tender before

Chicken tender after

After the strawberries were dry, I melted the chocolate. This can be done in the microwave or on the stove with a double boiler. I dipped the strawberries in the chocolate and placed them on parchment paper until the chocolate was solid. 

I removed the chicken from the refrigerator when I was ready to start cooking. The recipe is fairly simple. I mixed the flour and Parmesan cheese together and coated the chicken pieces. I fried them in the olive oil. I kept the chicken warm in the oven while I made the sauce. 

While I was shopping, I decided some pasta would work well with this dish. I chose orzo. I made a sauce similar to the piccata sauce. I used about a half of a cup of chicken broth, a half of cup of wine, a tablespoon of minced garlic, about a teaspoon of Italian seasoning, a little salt and reduced it by half.  I added butter to it and made any adjustments for taste. After I cooked and drained the orzo, I added about a half of a cup of shredded Parmesan cheese and stirred it to melt the cheese. Then I added the sauce. It was delicious. I also served garlic bread.

My husband was surprised and pleased. He joked that we were eating a sophisticated, grown up meal. He asked me to make it again before he even finished what was on his plate. This recipe really would serve four people. When the children returned from camp, they were hungry. Imagine that! I gave them the leftover chicken piccata. They really enjoyed it too. They were more excited about the chocolate covered strawberries though. :) 

So, you can see the final product:

Chicken Piccata

And the strawberries:

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Anniversary Cake

A few years ago, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. That's a pretty big deal to me. Obviously, I'm thrilled about my parents making it to 40 years. They still like each other. Of course, they love one another, but they actually still like each other. After spending 40 years with someone day in and day out, grudges can be held, feelings can get seriously hurt, and the little things that used to be adorable can drive a person up the blooming wall. Am I right?

So, to celebrate their love and commitment (and restraint from strangling each other 😁😁😁😁😁) over the years, I decided to throw them an anniversary party. Not just a party, a surprise party. I discussed it with my husband because as their only child, I would be responsible for the whole thing. He thought it would be a great way to honor my parents. We didn't fully explain it to my children until just before the party so they wouldn't ruin the surprise. My parents had a very small wedding, so I felt that my folks, mostly Mom because that's not something Dad would think about, deserved a big party.

My best friend's mom graciously offered her house for the celebration. A former student of mine had just gotten into catering and was a fabulous cook. She knew my youngest and about his allergies. She was able to tweak all the recipes so he wouldn't have any problems. My mom is pretty environmentally conscious and as such, I knew paper plates wouldn't be the way to go. I invited all of our immediate and extended family plus friends of my parents. We started planning a year in advance, so we had plenty of time to look for plates, glasses, punch cups, etc. We spent that year perusing second hand stores and buying what we needed. We chose white plates and plain clear wine glasses. Fast forward a year and I looked like I was opening a catering business.

As time passed and we got closer to the party, my dad had not been feeling well; we were awaiting test results, and I was a little worried, to tell the truth. I really was more determined than ever to throw the party because we weren't sure what we would learn from the tests, and you never know what tomorrow holds. My friend's parents had invited my parents over to play cards. At the last minute, my dad tried to back out because he honestly wasn't feeling well. My best friend's dad called me at work in a panic. Finally, I called my dad and said, "You have to go." He asked a lot of questions, and I finally said, "If you can, please do it for mom."

At that point, he had some idea, I think, that we were doing something for their anniversary, but he didn't realize just how grand a party we had planned. Later he told me he thought it would be my friend's parents and my family. Their smiling faces made all the agonizing over decisions and hard work beyond worth it. We had about 50 people there. The house isn't very big, so we had to have tables and seating outside as well. We all had a blast. My mom didn't stop smiling all night. 

I've been baking since I was a child. I'm kind of picky when it comes to baked goods. I don't really like store bought cookies, cakes, pies, or treats. I prefer the taste of something homemade. The year before the party, I really spent more time baking cakes. I decided to make their anniversary cake because when I called bakers, I nearly choked at the prices. Don't get me wrong. The bakers and cake decorators of the world who do a good job deserve to receive compensation for their time and talents. I was a little limited on the budget after the spread I had planned with the caterer. Now, I've not had training in decorating, but I decided to go with a simple design.

I spent time researching cakes and considering my mom's favorite flavors. My dad doesn't eat sweets that much, so I didn't really think he would care about the cake. I wanted it to resemble or have the feel of a wedding cake. I decided to go with a lemon cake and a raspberry filling. It was so delicious. Lemon and raspberry pair well. The cake recipe is here. For the filling, I used raspberry jam. I boiled it to thicken it. I also put a ring of buttercream around each layer to hold in the jam. The recipe for the lemon buttercream frosting can be found at this site. I used a 12 inch round pan and an 8 inch round pan for the layers. You have to look up the size of your pan to determine how much cake batter you need. The cake recipe yields about 7 cups. 

And, last but not least, here is the cake before we placed it on the cake table. Mom loved it too.

Lemon Cake with Raspberry Filling

And, we received good news. Dad had a few things they wanted to monitor, but he is okay. Now, I have to work on the celebration for their 50th anniversary. I still have a little time. 

Eating out vs Cooking

Do you eat at restaurants/pick up take out or cook at home more often? Really, I'd love to know. Please comment below and tell me which of those you do more often. 

We go through phases of cooking at home more; then, eating out more; then, a blend of the two and around again. As our children have gotten older (and eat more), we have tried to cook more often than not because of the rising cost of food. However, we sometimes find that eating out is about the same cost as going to the grocery store. Of course, it's not usually the healthiest food selection that is cheaper. 

One of my children suffered from food allergies when he was young. We had to cook practically everything to avoid allergens. We also had to purchase mostly organic foods due to the nature of the requirements for package labeling to ensure that he wouldn't eat something he was allergic to that was labelled under another name. That made our purchases quite expensive. It finally came down to time vs money. Was it more important to save the $5-$7 for a box of cheese crackers and make them from scratch while trying to raise four children 7 and younger, or was it worth it to save my sanity and buy the box of crackers? To me, it depended on my schedule. However, I always felt that the homemade product tasted better. So did my children. 

I really prefer to eat what I cook because I know what's going into the recipe, but sometimes things happen that prevent that or sometimes, I just prefer a particular dish from a restaurant. As the name of the blog implies, I'm really more into baking, but I like all cooking except frying. Thankfully, my husband takes over that task; although, we don't eat a tremendous amount of fried food. 

According to http://nymag.com, Americans spend more money eating out than they do on groceries. It's close to a two billion dollar difference. In researching this trend, many countries with affluent citizens seem to do the same. Go figure! 

I'm trying to get back to a consistency in my cooking. I do think it is overall cheaper and healthier to buy and prepare our food. It's easier during this time of year to find fresh fruits and vegetables, which always taste better to me. There are very few recipes that intimidate me, thankfully. Time is usually my biggest obstacle to cooking as our schedules are quite busy. Preparing foods ahead of time or partial preparation (precooking certain ingredients, chopping things in advance), making a menu, well-planned grocery shopping, and determination seem to make the biggest difference. 

What are some of the challenges you face in the kitchen? Again, I want to hear from you. Share in the comments.

I found this and thought I'd share. I am a fan of Julia's.

Tacos in a Bag

Tacos in a Bag- That sounds a little funny. Why would you have tacos in a bag? Do you shake them? Why a bag? No, tacos in a bag aren't exactly tacos. They are chips in a bag to which you add taco meat, cheese, and whatever else you like on your taco.

This recipe can be found all over the internet. Put it in a search engine. You will get a little over 6.6 million hits. I think it's safe to say this recipe is pretty popular. There are variations to the toppings. Again, it just depends on what you prefer on your tacos. My crew loves tacos, but they don't always agree about the toppings. 

We also like to go camping. Tacos in a bag is a perfect recipe for camping. It also serves as a quick meal on a busy night.

Get the smallest bag available. They usually come in packs.

What do you need? 

We use:

• snack bags of Doritos or Corn Chips (pick your flavor)

• meat seasoned with taco seasoning (I make my own seasoning.)

• shredded cheese of your choice (We like cheddar and colby jack.)

• diced tomatoes

• sliced black olives

• salsa

• sour cream

• chopped or shredded lettuce

• chopped onion

Once the meat is cooked and seasoned, you're ready to go! We lightly crush the chips in the bag. Then, we add the meat, cheese, and whatever else our little hearts desire. It is so simple. I actually find it easier to eat this with a spoon. 

When we go camping, I cook and season the meat ahead of time and freeze it or refrigerate it. The meat goes into a cooler and is reheated at the campsite. I use about a pound of meat for four people. You can expect each person to eat at least two bags of chips. 

Taco seasoning recipe:

• 1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
• 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Onion Powder
• 1/4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/2 tsp. Dried Oregano
• 1 tsp. Paprika
• 1 tsp. Ground Cumin
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Black Pepper 

Mix the seasonings together. Add it to the meat after it is browned. Add about 1/2 cup of water, incorporate the seasonings into the meat, and cook until the meat is not watery. You may need to add 1/4 cup more water depending on the weather or where you live. 

Pinterest Recipes Cheeseburger in Paradise

Cheeseburger in Paradise - Just the name sounds like a slice of heaven. Recently on one Sunday evening, I needed a quick recipe that used ingredients I had at home. I was tired, didn't want to go to the grocery store, and I refused to buy fast food or take out. I searched around a bit on the internet and wound up on Pinterest. I found the recipe for Jimmy Buffett's Cheeseburger in Paradise.

I didn't have any Bisquick, so I did what you do when you don't have the exact ingredient for a recipe - I searched for a substitution or homemade version of what I needed. That yielded a quick recipe for a homemade bisquick mix and Voila! the recipe for Cheeseburger Paradise was a go. The recipe for the homemade Bisquick can be found on my Pinterest page under DIY/Substitutions.

I literally threw this together in minutes. Browning the meat was the most difficult task besides waiting to eat the dish while it baked in the oven. I added a little minced garlic to the ground meat. I used ground venison instead of ground beef. I think this would work with leftover meat as well. To satisfy my cheese lovers, I used a little extra cheese added after I had finished cooking the dish. I popped it back in the oven to melt the cheese. 

This was a huge success! There weren't any leftovers. Due to the casserole nature of the dish, I think it would reheat well if you do have leftovers.

This recipe is pinned on my Pinterest page under Main Dishes I've Tried and Approved. I highly recommend it. If you try it, please let me know how it turned out for you.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Pancakes

We love pancakes at my house! Some of us prefer plain pancakes, blueberry pancakes, or chocolate chip pancakes. The nice thing about pancakes is that you can make a basic recipe, then add fruit or chocolate chips as you go. 

I really like to make things from scratch. It is the best way to control what I am feeding my family. I've tried many pancake recipes over the years. One of my favorites comes from Rhonda Hetzel at Down to Earth. Her apple and cinnamon pikelet recipe is spot on. You can find the recipe here http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2013/11/apple-and-cinnamon-pikelets-in-20.html. A pikelet is a type of pancake found in Australia or New Zealand. I like this recipe for plain pikelets http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/easy-pikelets-L1305.html. I recommend buttermilk for an even better pikelet.

Today, I tried a new recipe for pancakes. I found the recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it this morning. I served bacon and venison sausage with the pancakes. 
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/381820874631202788/

       IHOP Pancake Recipe

                                           


I doubled the recipe and it worked just fine. I didn't have buttermilk. I used whole milk instead and added apple cider vinegar. The vinegar reacted with the baking soda just as I expected. As a result, the pancakes were light, fluffy, and tasty. To make buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon vinegar to one cup milk.
For the chocolate chip pancakes, I just added the chips directly into the pancakes after I put the batter on the griddle. 

Pancake Batter

                                               
Speaking of griddles, I an enamored with this cast iron pan from Ozark Trail. It was inexpensive, around $10 at Walmart. It was easy to season. In fact, we cooked pancakes using the cast iron pan on a Coleman propane stove when we were camping.

Pancakes on cast iron griddle pan

                       

Doubling the recipe yielded 17 good size pancakes which would easily feed 8 people.