Slow Cooker Cheddar Beer Chicken with Biscuits

This Christmas my mom got me my very own crock-pot and I've had fun throwing random food in there to slow cook for hours. My newest thing is finding new ways to cook with beer. Yes beer! I know it sounds odd since I don't even like to drink beer but somehow the flavor is just wonderful in food.  So seeing this recipe in Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade recipe book I just had to try it, I mean bacon and beer and chicken and cheese?  It had me at bacon.
I recommend using a beer with lots of flavor, none of that light no calorie stuff (I used Bass's Pale Ale which has a nice flavor).
While I had a bottle of beer open I also made some quick Cheddar Beer Biscuits to go with the meal and WOW!!! .... that is all I can say about that. 
Enjoy and Cheers!!

Slow Cooker Cheddar Beer Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• 1 lb red potatoes (about 6-8 small potatoes)
• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Garlic powder, salt, & ground black pepper (or you just have garlic salt then just use that & ground pepper)
• 1 can (10 oz) Campbell's cheddar cheese condensed soup
• 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup beer
• 3/4 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled 

1. In a slow cooker pour in the 1/4 cup beer. Peel and dice the onion and throw in the cooker. Wash and slice in half the red potatoes and dump on top of the onions.

2. Season both sides of the chicken breasts with garlic powder, salt, & pepper. Place in slow cooker on top of the veggies.

3. In a small bowl whisk together the can of soup with the remaining 3/4 cup beer. Blend in the bacon crumbles and pour over the top of the chicken breasts (dont mix it in with the veggies just pour on top, it will cook down by itself)

4. Cover and cook on Low for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours (be sure to not overcook as chicken will dry out).  Spoon lots of the juice over the chicken when you serve it and sop it up with the Cheddar Beer Biscuits (recipe below).

Cheddar Beer Biscuits

(makes 8 large biscuits)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 2/3 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup shortening
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cup beer
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese (not packed)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the shortening in with a pastry blender or a butter knife until the mixture is well blended and crumbly.

3. With a spoon mix in the sugar, beer, and cheese until just blended.  Drop large spoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet and bake 14-16 minutes, till the bottom is light brown.

Daring Cooks July Challenge: Nut Butters!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

This month's challenge was something else I had never tried to cook with or make from scratch.  I was really surprised at how simple and easy it was to make your own nut butter and how much flavor it adds to food.
I went with the Chicken with Pecan Cream & Mushrooms adapted from Cooking Light to try it out and was not disappointed.  Even Jeff scarfed it down, though it had lots of the dreaded mushrooms in it, and almost licked the pan clean of the pecan cream.  The only thing that I would change is to get a better food processor to chop the nuts up, we ended up with an almost smooth nut butter but it didn't really drizzle on the pasta like a creamy Alfredo sauce.  Very tasty flavor and something I will definitely experiment with in the future, maybe a walnut cream sauce?

Grandma's Chicken Spinach Soup

This recipe comes straight from the grandma herself!  Raising 5 kids on a dime made her come up with a simple, fast, healthy dinner that is still requested to this day.  Now she used frozen spinach and sometimes canned chicken but in all respect I just can't bring myself to use frozen spinach in this soup, fresh gives it such a nice texture and flavor and just pops with color.  If you want to go with the can-o-chicken fine, I'll look away, but I take my spinach seriously!

If a picture is worth a 1000 words then this recipe would be a whole encyclopedia set. I just couldn't put the camera down (step away from the soup...). One of the reasons for all the pictures is that this recipe was passed on to me with the measurements "handful of this, a dash of parm, and some of this...".  I thought it would be fun to keep the whimsy of making this soup intact but for those who want a visual of what a "handful" is to me just check out the storyboard below :)

Grandma's Chicken Spinach Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 (32oz) box of Chicken broth, low sodium preferred (try to use a box-o-broth as the canned broth tends to leave a metallic taste in this soup)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1-2 large chicken breasts
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 handfuls of fresh Spinach
• 2 eggs
• several good size dashes of Parmesan cheese 
• 1 fist-full of whole wheat Spaghetti (reg. ok)

1.  Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook in a skillet with a little bit of oil over medium heat till done (about 3-4 min each side). Set aside.  Meanwhile place a pot of plain water on the stove on high heat to cook the spaghetti separately.

2. Pour the chicken broth and 1/2 cup of water into a separate saucepan on medium high heat.

3. Chop the spinach (removing any large woody stems) and dump in pot with the chicken broth.

4. When the plain pot of water comes to a boil take the handful of spaghetti, break it into fourths, and add to the boiling water. Cook according to the package directions to "al dente".

5. While pasta is cooking cut the cooked chicken into chunks. Add to the simmering chicken broth pan.

6. When pasta is done drain and add to the saucepan with the chicken broth.

7. Whisk eggs in a bowl and add Parmesan cheese.  Season with fresh ground pepper to taste.

8. Bring the broth pot back to a boil with the added spaghetti and chicken.  Turn off heat and carefully drop spoonfuls of the beaten eggs into the soup. 

9. Remove from heat and (this is my favorite part) stir with a large serving spoon.  So much fun to see the eggs take over!  :)

 

Chicken Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons

Its been a while since I've made this...dont know why, I must be crazy! Seriously you can not go wrong with homemade croutons, they really make this such a good salad. We like to pile them on to where you almost can't see anymore lettuce, kinda takes the "salad" out of this meal but you can't help it.  I like the big chunky pieces of croutons so I buy either a french loaf or store bread uncut.
We went through a testing period of Caesar dressings to find one that was really good.  We prefer Cardini's Light Caesar Dressing, nice and creamy with a good flavor.  And the word "light" makes us not feel guilty about dumping it on in massive amounts  :)

This recipe makes two adult meals or several side salads (and really this makes a filling meal all by itself).  Cook it all up fresh, the warm croutons and chicken make a nice contrast to the cold lettuce and dressing.  drooool....

Chicken Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp butter or margarine 
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp parsley, slightly crush in the palm of your hand with your thumb
• 1/2 tsp basil, slightly crushed also
• Loaf of uncut bread
• 6 chicken tenderloin pieces (or 2 chicken breasts)
• 2 heads of Romaine Lettuce
• grated Parmesan cheese
• your favorite Caesar salad dressing

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Heat a large skillet over medium/ med high heat with a little bit of oil.  Lightly season chicken with salt and ground pepper and place in skillet. Cook till done, about 3-4 minutes each side.

2. Cut bread into large chunks.

3. Melt butter. Add olive oil, garlic powder, parsley, and basil and mix thoroughly.

4. Slowly pour half the butter mixture over half the bread, tossing with your fingers to get evenly coated. Add remaining bread and butter mixture and toss it all around till lightly coated.

5. Pour coated bread out in one layer on cookie sheet and bake in oven 10 minutes or until browned, shaking pan midway through cooking.

6. Wash and chop lettuce into pieces. Chop chicken into pieces. Place lettuce, chicken, and croutons in a large in bowl. Grate Parmesan cheese all over. Pour your favorite dressing and dig in!

Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches and Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

My sister had her baby shower today and everything was so cute!  Peggy's daughter made the little boxes herself and inside were little mini spice cakes as party favors.

I wanted to make little tea party sandwiches so I found two recipes to try (using baby shower guests as guinea pigs for new recipes probably not a good idea but thankfully they went over very well).

The chicken salad recipe was made by Robin Fuhrman on Allrecipes.com.  Its a bit different than the normal chicken salad recipe because of the curry but I liked the difference.  I also liked the suggestion of chopping in some grapes but since they are so expensive at the store right now I didn't try it.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of cooked chicken, cubed
• 1 medium red apple, cubed
• 3/4 dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 2 Tbsp green onions, thinly sliced (green part only)
• 3/4 cup Mayonnaise
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp curry powder

1. In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Combine mayonnaise, lime juice and curry powder; add to chicken mixture and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut each slice of bread with a 3-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter. Top with lettuce and chicken salad.

While looking up tea sandwich recipes I read that no tea party is complete without a cucumber one.  This one seemed like an odd combo when making it but it tasted pretty good.  I got it from a Great Party Recipes website.

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 1 large cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup soft butter spread (not melted)
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste

1.  Lightly salt sliced cucumber and place in colander to drain for about 1 hour.  

2. In bowl combine butter and garlic.

3. In a separate bowl stir together lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper.  Add cucumber to lemon mixture.

3. Spread butter mixture on bread, place sliced cucumbers on top and cover with other slice of bread.

Chicken in Herb Sauce

Look out calories I'm going to knock you out!!!!  muhhahahahaha ...
This meal is what we ate today for lunch; chicken in herb sauce with brown rice and steamed veggies.  Such a filling lunch with very few calories.  This chicken recipe is very quick, juicy and delicious....makes really good leftover chicken sandwiches that don't even need sauce.  And it seems like there is a lot of oil but most of the oil is left in the pan.  I like to put this together in the morning and marinate in the fridge till evening, makes me feel like I put no effort into dinner.

Chicken in Herb Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed (I throw mine in the blender)
• 1/2 tsp ground sage
• 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
• 2 tsp dried parsley*
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 5 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp minced onion
• 3 cloves crushed or grated garlic
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (i.e. Tabasco sauce)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 3-4 chicken breasts cut in half

1. In a bowl combine all ingredients except chicken, mixing well.

2. Add chicken to mixture making sure all pieces are coated well.  Marinate in fridge for 1 hour or more (optional).

3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

4. Place chicken breasts in 9x13 inch pan and pour remaining herb mixture all over.  Cover with aluminum foil.

5. Bake for 20 minutes covered.  Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes, occasionally spooning juices over chicken until chicken is done.

*a fun trick I do with large leaf spices such as parsley - pour out in palm of your hand and crush with your thumb to release any pent-up flavor :)

New Moon Feast!

Wow what a feast last night!  We both felt like stuffed puppies who couldn't stop eating.  I had a lot of fun making this meal & Jeff had a lot of fun eating it so it was a success all around!  Below are the pictures and recipes.  I think we both liked the Jacob meal slightly better but as you can see from the pic there was no problem finishing either.  And yes, Jeff ate blue cheese, unknowingly loving it....sneaky me :)  I had to explain the concept of the meals to him a little.  Jacob's meal is a giant beefsteak for...well...obvious reasons & Bella's blues is the melted blue cheese.  Edwards meal is of course named after his intention of doing the right thing & leaving but really not so smart.  And the pickled cucumbers was just a funny thing to me as vampires are preserved.  
As Jeff would say our food must have layers of stories or it would be just boring :)

If you notice about these recipes they are very short on cook time & preparation....gotta love it!   Thanks to my favorite website for giving me a base to play around with for a couple of these recipes, allrecipes.com.


We finally went to see the film today & I wasn't disappointed though we must of sat right between the Edward vs Jacob lovers.  There was hardly a moment where someone wasn't squealing at the screen.  My favorite part was before the movie started listening to young girls explaining to their mom's & dads why they liked one or the other.  So funny. 

My cute man

No problem finishing it.

Jacob's Entree:

Tender Beefsteak Soothing Bella's Blues

Ingredients:

• 2 beef tenderloin steaks, 1 1/2 in thick ( store was sold out so I substituted a London Broil)
• 3 oz blue cheese, crumbled
• 2 Tbsp butter, softened
• 2 slices bread, cubed & crusts removed
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1. Turn oven to broil.  Place cut steaks on baking sheet & cook in oven for 6-8 minutes on each side until meat is browned about 6 inches from heat.

2. While meat is cooking saute the bread cubes in oil in a skillet till lightly browned.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Combine blue cheese & softened butter in a bowl.

3. Pull steaks out of oven & top with blue cheese mixture & croutons, broil 1 minute longer until cheese is melted.

Roasted Red Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 6-8 small Red potatoes, washed and cut in halves or fourths
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Rosemary
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or minced
• sea salt & black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Combine all ingredients together in a bowl.  Arrange in a 9x9 inch baking pan, cover with foil, and place in center rack in heated oven.  

3. Bake for 20 minutes with foil on.  Remove foil & bake for an additional 15 minutes stirring occasionally until potatoes are tender.

Edward's Entree:

Sweet Crimson Intentions Gone Fowl

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 3-4 chicken breasts cut in half
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup dry red wine
• dash of salt & pepper to taste

1. Cook garlic in oil on med/med high heat in a large skillet about 1 minute.  Place chicken in skillet and cook for about 5 minutes each side until no longer pink inside.  Lightly sprinkle chicken with paprika & salt while cooking.
2. Mix red wine & brown sugar in separate bowl & add to the skillet.  Add rest of paprika and simmer covered for about 10 minutes turning & lightly basting chicken during.  Uncover & cook for an additional 5-10 minutes.  Add little pepper to taste.

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp dried dill
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 Medium cucumbers
• 1/4 cup sour cream

1. Peel & thinly slice cucumbers. Set inside bowl
2. Combine sugar, vinegar, water, dill, and salt in saucepan & bring to boil.  While still hot pour over cucumbers, cover, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
3. Before serving drain liquid from cucumbers and mix in sour cream.

Volturi's Velvet Red as Blood, Smooth as Marble cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened but not melted
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• few drops red food coloring
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  In a large bowl beat butter and sugar with mixer until light & fluffy.  Add eggs, buttermilk, food coloring, and vanilla and beat well (it will look lumpy). Stir in the baking soda & vinegar
3. In separate bowl sift together the cocoa powder and salt.  Stir into the batter until just blended.
4. Sppon batter in muffin tins lined with paper baking cups or lightly greased.  Make sure you  fill only halfway with batter as it will rise.
5. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.  Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. In medium bowl cream together the cream cheese & butter until creamy.  All vanilla and gradually beat in powdered sugar.  Refrigerate after use.