Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

My goal for the past several months has been to try to get out of this cooking rut that involves making the same things over and over again. I have noticed that with age comes the ability to accept new foods and to try things that in prior years I wouldn't have enjoyed. I also feel that it is my wifely duty to provide my Husband with meals that he can take into work and be proud of and make the other boys jealous that he is married to me and they aren't. I achieved that last one last week with the Sausage and Peppers and with the Eggplant Parmesan. I believe one of the comments from the other guys was," I wish my wife cooked like this". I was giddy with excitement after my Husband informed me of this, mainly because when it comes to cooking, the thing I enjoy most is watching everyone else enjoy it. It gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing that all of the chopping, dicing, baking, and frying, were worth the time and effort that I put forth.

I stumbled upon this recipe a few weeks ago on allrecipes.com. It has received rave reviews and it seems like everyone was suggesting it. I decided to stumble into the unknown and give it a shot as this would have been one of those foods I wouldn't have looked twice at a few years ago. To say I enjoyed this dish would be an understatement. They weren't joking when they named it Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup, because let me tell you, it is definitely creamy and it does a body good on a cold miserable day like today. It calls for simple ingredients and while it does call for some added work such as making the roux, it is actually a fairly simple dish to make. Unfortunately for Daniel this wasn't a favorite of his, but I couldn't care less because it saves that much more for me and besides, his buddies are already jealous of him, why make them suffer any worse. Now please don't let the fact that Daniel wasn't crazy about this stop you from trying it. He did eat it, he just didn't rave about it. This dish was not like the failed attempt at Chinese where after one bite he told me to pitch it. I am still having nightmares about that dish people!

Here is the soup, now I added a few things to my soup after reading several of the reviews that were posted on allrecipes.com. Before I even get started I saute a cup of chopped onions and about 1/2 cup of chopped carrots.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup carrots, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 cooked, boneless chicken breast halves, shredded
1 (4.5 ounce) package quick cooking long grain and wild rice with seasoning packet
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
2 cups heavy cream

finely shredded mild cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1.) In a large pot over medium heat, saute your chopped onion and carrots in about 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
2.)Combine broth, water and chicken to your vegetable saute. Bring just to boiling, then stir in rice, reserving seasoning packet. Cover and remove from heat.
3.)In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper and flour.

4.)In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in contents of seasoning packet until mixture is bubbly. Reduce heat to low, then stir in flour mixture by tablespoons, to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened, 5 minutes.
5.)Stir cream mixture into broth and rice. Cook over medium heat until heated through, 10 to 15 minutes.

Now as I stated above the original recipe does not call for the carrots or onions, but they add so much flavor to the dish that I wouldn't make this soup without them. Others have also added celery to the mix and some mushrooms would also be a nice touch. I top each bowl of the soup with a little bit of the shredded cheese and ta da, you have a wonderul hearty bowl of soup. I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I do.

Garbage Pizza & Atomic Buffalo Turds

I will be honest with everyone, ever since the failed attempt at Chinese I am fearful of creating another recipe and posting it. I have been having problems coming up with a good one for the Spinach and Chicken Pasta Toss. Daniel and I even went to the mall today to get his replacement wedding band and when we stopped in the food court for a snack we discussed the different options of possible sauces for it. The sauce has me stumped. Does it even need a sauce, who knows. Either way we didn't have it for dinner tonight and trust me when I say that doesn't hurt my feelings. Our fridge is stuffed to the max with leftovers from last night so I didn't want to add to the chaos. Instead for dinner we made our garbage pizza since we had all of the leftover ingredients from last nights dinner and previous nights dinner. We have made this pizza once before using a store bought crust but tonight we made our own since neither of us were in the mood to go to the grocery. Plus after learning that my tire on the Equinox is not repairable and will need a new $140 tire, money is going to be tight and every cent counts around this house. Good news though, the jeweler is replacing Daniel's so called indestructible wedding band for free. They also informed us that even though the ring is indestructible, it is a brittle medal so dropping it on ceramic tile like Daniel did, can shatter it. Doesn't quite make sense and that information would have been useful before we purchased it three years ago, but whatever. Indestructible my tushy. Sorry, got a little sidetracked there, back to the pizza.

Here is what you will need to make our garbage pizza;

1 Pizza Crust, you can either make your own like we did tonight, or you can use a store bought.

Leftover pulled pork

BBQ Sauce

Onion, chopped

Cheeses of your choice, we had leftover mozzarella, mild cheddar, and parmesan.

BBQ Rub

1.) Take your pizza crust and pour on your BBQ sauce.

2.) Layer your pulled pork, top with your chopped onion, sprinkle with your cheeses. 3.) Top with your BBQ Rub. A thin layer is all that is needed.
Now you will notice I didn't measure anything. It is hard to do when everyone has their own preferences. You as little or as much of the ingredients as you would prefer. You will cook your pizza according to the instructions provided with your crust. For the last minute of baking we turn the broiler on and let the top get a really nice brown color to it.

Now as promised, here are the atomic buffalo turds. Daniel did these on the smoker, however you could get away with doing them in the oven.

Here is what you will need;

10 Jalapeno Peppers

1 Block of cream cheese, you will only use about half

1/3 C. Shredded Mild Cheddar

5 Pieces of bacon, cut into two pieces

Toothpicks

1.) Begin by cutting the tops off of your peppers and with the handle of a small spoon scrape out the inside of the pepper. Most people take the easy way out and cut the pepper in half and scrape and stuff that way. Daniel found using the spoon allows you to get down into the pepper without the need to split it.

2.) In a separate bowl mix half of the block of your cream cheese along with your shredded cheddar.

3.) Stuff your cream cheese mixture into each pepper, filling to the top of the pepper.

4.) Wrap the top half of your pepper with your slice of bacon, use your toothpick to keep the bacon in place.

5.) Cook or smoke until the bacon is cooked and the pepper has softened.

I hope you enjoy these recipes, they are both really good although I wasn't brave enough to try the buffalo turds. Daniel and my Dad really enjoyed them so that was a good sign. I will try to post a few new recipes next week but I will be taking a break starting Thursday because I have to do my prep for the dreaded colonoscopy on Friday. Everyone please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that they finally figure out what is wrong with me. I have been sick since July having attacks that started every few weeks and that now without my steroids would be a daily occurance. The Doctor feels my Crohns disease is finally in remission so they are all stumped as to what is causing my problems.

Daniel's Pulled Pork

Another Saturday night dinner has come and gone and even though Daniel was in charge of the pulled pork I still had to come up with a couple of side dishes. Fortunately for me my lovely MIL once again brought some of the family favorites. One of which is her fruit salad that is just awesome. Someday I will get the recipe from her and share it with everyone if she permits. Until then you will have to get by with Daniel's pulled pork recipe. Let us begin!

Ingredients:
Pork Shoulder Butt
Yellow Mustard
Rub of your choice (Daniel uses Mudflap Jones Seasoning)
Apple Juice
BBQ Sauce of your choice
Plastic Wrap
Aluminum Foil
Bath Towels (You'll see why :))
Digital Thermometer
Insulated Cooler
Finishing Sauce- Recipe Listed at the bottom

Directions:
1.) About 12 hours before you begin smoking your meat trim any extra fat from your meat. Next you will slather your meat with the yellow mustard. Be generous! You will end this step by generously sprinkling your dry rub on all sides of the meat.2.) Wrap your meat in the plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until you are ready for the smoking process.
3.) Start your smoker and get the temperature up to 225-240 degrees F. Daniel uses hickory chips in his smoker. Unwrap your meat and place into your smoker, fat side down. Once your meat has hit 100 degrees F, begin spraying it with your apple juice every hour. The sugars in the apple juice will caramelize and form the bark.
4.) Once your meat has reached 165 degrees F, you will need to double wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil. Spray the foil with some of your apple juice to help braise the meat while it is wrapped. Place your wrapped meat back into the smoker and continue cooking until the temperature has reached between 195-205 degrees F.
5.) Once your meat has reached the appropriate temperature take your meat off of the smoker, wrap it in several old bath towels and place it in an insulated cooler to allow it to rest and finish cooking for at least one hour. Daniel put our meat on at 11 o'clock last night and it came off at 12:30 this afternoon. Some meats cook quicker than others depending on the weather conditions outside. Just keep an eye on it and rely on your thermometer. 6.)With two forks begin pulling your meat. Daniel has rubber gloves that he uses when he is rubbing down the meat and he also uses them to pull the meat with his hands. Please be careful if you plan on pulling it apart with your hands because the meat is very hot. Daniel took our pork off of the smoker several hours before he pulled it and it was still steaming when he unwrapped it.7.) After you have finished pulling it you will use a finishing sauce. The recipe is listed below.

1 C. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1 Tsp. Cajun Seasoning
1 Tsp. Course Black Pepper
1 Tsp. Red Pepper Flakes

1.) On the stove warm up your apple cider vinegar, you want it warm enough to melt the sugar.
2.) Add the remaining ingredients to the warmed vinegar. Daniel stores his in a cheap clear bottle that you can find at Wal-Mart.
3.) Drizzle your finishing sauce on your pulled pork and mix well.

We usually have a selection of BBQ sauces for our guests. Some people like theirs hot like Daniel, others like it nice and mild like myself. We use regular white hamburger buns and tonight I splurged and we also had whole wheat buns, tried to be a little healthy.
For the sides I relied on one of my favorite sites, allrecipes.com. I chose to make coleslaw and cheesy potatoes. The potatoes were supposed to go in the crock pot but they just weren't cooking quick enough so I transferred them to a baking dish and stuck them in the oven for an hour at 375 degrees F. They probably could have stayed in a little longer, but someones Husband (Daniel) was starving so I had to go ahead and serve them up. I also did not use the butter in the dish because I felt it didn't need it. I did add a couple of cubes of Velveeta cheese to make it cheesier and creamier, this is part of why I did not use the butter. As far as the coleslaw goes it was really good, I omitted the poppy seeds because I didn't have any, and I have never had coleslaw with them in it. I sprinkled the top of the coleslaw with paprika for a bit of color and also because that's how my Grandma Murphy always did it. I didn't take pictures of any of these dishes because about the second they were pulled out of the refrigerator/oven the plates started flying and people began lining up. Didn't leave me much time to take pretty pictures. It helps to know that I am sure everyone reading this knows what coleslaw looks like and can pretty much imagine what the potatoes look like.

This pulled pork is by far the best I have ever eaten. It is so good, that my Dad who got back from a week long trip to Florida couldn't resist getting back into his truck after a long days worth of driving to get his pulled pork. Daniel swears by the finishing sauce as do all of his BBQ forum buddies. Do not be scared of the red pepper flakes in it as they do not add any heat to it. If you do not have a smoker, this pork is all the reason you need to buy one. Daniel bought his last Christmas for less than $100 and he uses it for everything. After he was finished with the meat today he made Atomic Buffalo Turds, the recipe will come tomorrow, but I will leave everyone guessing tonight what they could possibly be. Until then I bid you farewell!!

Friday Night Dinner

So tonight's menu consisted of garlic encrusted steak, asparagus, and mashed cauliflower. It was a busy menu and I am glad that it is over.
Steak:
4 Steaks (I used)
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp. chopped cilantro
Onion Powder
Butter
Vegetable Oil (I prefer Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but my Husband used the last of it)

1.) Begin by chopping up your cilantro and garlic, mix together.
2.) Tenderize your steak by using a meat mallet and go to town.3.) Sprinkle your steaks with onion powder. Use as little or as much as you prefer4.)Rub the steaks with cilantro/garlic mix.5.) Allow the steak and cilantro/garlic mix to marry for one hour in the fridge.
6.) After one hour of marination, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
7.) In a skilled on the stove place a good drizzle of vegetable oil and 3 tablespoons of butter.8.) Allow each side of the steak to brown evenly, and then transfer in an oven safe pan to the oven. I left mine in for about 20 minutes.9.) After the 20 minutes take out and transfer to a plate to rest, cover the steak with aluminum foil.

Asparagus:1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed
6 slices of bacon
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 stick of butter

1.) Begin by trimming your asparagus by snapping the bottom off of each piece.
2.) Chop your garlic up, you do not want this to be a fine chop3.) Cut bacon into small slivers, and add to a preheated pan on the stove.4.) Once the bacon has begun to brown on the edges add in your chopped garlic.5.) To the same pan add a few tabs of butter, 2-3 should be adequate.
6.) Add asparagus to the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Tossing the asparagus every few minutes.7.) Transfer the asparagus/bacon/garlic mixture to oven safe dish, leaving behind as much of the bacon grease as possible. Top with a few more tabs of butter and add to the preheated oven that your steaks are currently going to town in. Allow to cook until asparagus is tender but still has a bite to it.

Mashed Cauliflower:1 md. head of cauliflower
1/3 C. Heavy Whipping Cream
1 C. Shredded Cheese (Mild Cheddar)
Dash of pepper
Salt
1 tbsp. of garlic powder

1.) Begin by cutting cauliflower into small florets and wash thoroughly.
2.) Bring to boil a 5 qt. pan of water, about 1 inch deep and add about a 2 tsp. of salt.3.) Add cauliflower to boiling water and cook until soft.
4.) With a potato masher, mash cauliflower, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
5.) Transfer mixture to an oven safe dish and sprinkle with more cheese.
6.) Place in oven until the cheese sprinkled on top is melted.

This meal was good, wasn't knock my socks off good, but I think it was because I really wasn't in the mood for it. If you are not a cilantro fan then you will not enjoy this steak, I would suggest using another herb, or deleting that ingredient all together. The asparagus was good as usual. I have had asparagus in many different restaurants and I just do not enjoy it. For some reason I love how this one always turns out and Daniel loves it when I serve this dish. As for the cauliflower, it was good especially with all of the melted cheese. I am going to work on approving this one because I felt that it was missing something. Over all a good meal.

Spinach and Chicken Pasta Toss Update

Silly me forgot that today is New Years day and unfortunately for everyone that has been waiting patiently for tonight's recipe, because I am sure there are so many of you, you will have to wait until Sunday. See, part of our Christmas gift to my in-laws was a night out on the town on New Years day, we're talking dinner and a movie here, and it may be their present but I am just as excited as I hope they are. Not realizing that I wouldn't be home for tonight's dinner until yesterday I questioned whether I should just make the dish for lunch and post it anyway, but I slept in today until 11 and had to do a quick pick up of the house, needless to say there just wasn't time. It also doesn't help that I am still working on that recipe. After last nights disaster I need this one to be awesome so I think a few extra days will do me some good. Since you can't look at yummy food pictures please accept my sincere apologies and instead look at my three boys playing with one of their new Christmas toys.

Katie's Veggie Lo Mein

Happy hump day everyone. Can you believe tomorrow is January 1st already? I cannot believe how quick 2008 has gone by for me. In just a few short months I will be stumbling upon my second wedding anniversary with my wonderful Husband Daniel and after ending 2008 on a sour note, 2009 looks more promising for us. I am not sure how you and your significant other ring in the New Year but this year my goal is to actually still be up for it. Both Daniel and I had to work today and he promises that he is leaving work right at 10:30 so that he will definitely be home for the ball drop, we will see if that actually happens. My first thought for tonight was to get comfortable and order us a nice big pizza from La Rosa's, compliments of my wonderful Grandparents who gifted us with a gift card from the place for Christmas. Instead I am, for the first time ever, going to attempt to make Chinese food. My relationship with Chinese food is a rocky one. I will only eat a few things and usually I will take a few bites and regret having ordered anything at all. I do the same thing with Chipotle. I crave the stuff until I have to have it and then when I get it, my craving goes right out the window. Daniel on the other hand LOVES his Chinese. I think it depresses him that I don't love it more and I appreciate the fact his best buddy in the entire world loves it almost as much as he. So whenever Daniel gets the craving it's Mike to the rescue. I decided that maybe, just maybe, if I made Chinese myself at home, where I know what all is being put into it, that maybe my feelings for the stuff would change. So we picked up some nice looking vegetables and some Chinese hot sauce from Jungle Jim's on Saturday and I figured I would go for it tonight. The original plan called for the rice noodles that we also picked up but I am going to be honest with you, they scare me. The bag gives directions on how to cook them but it involves water and oil on the stove and it doesn't say how many to use and I am definitely not going to cook the entire bag because if I did I fear that we would be eating rice noodles from tonight until the end of January. So...I am cheating and not being authentic by any means and will be using angel hair pasta straight from the box. I promise though, once I gather the courage to make those rice noodles, or Daniel does it for me, I will post another recipe using them. So here we go hoping to change my feelings for Chinese food and hopefully making Daniel never want to order take out again.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. Soy Sauce

1 C. Chicken Stock

1 tbsp. Cornstarch

1/2 head of Napa Cabbage

1 15 oz. can of Baby Corn

1 bunch of Green Onions (Which did not make it into the ingredients picture...oops)

2 Carrots( 3 are pictured but after doing 2 I felt 3 would have been too much)

1 sm. bag of Sugar Snap Peas

3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

Ground Ginger

Angel Hair Pasta

1.) Begin by prepping all of your vegetables. I shred the napa cabbage, julienne my carrots, and cut my green onions on the diagonal into about 1 inch pieces. Keep everything in separate piles.

2.) Bring water for pasta to a boil, add salt to your water, and then dump the box in.

3.)In a separate bowl add your soy sauce to chicken stock with cornstarch and about a dash of ground ginger. Mix until cornstarch and ginger has dissolved.

4.) Begin by sauteing your vegetables. I started with the carrots along with the garlic then the baby corn, sugar snap peas, green onions and lastly the cabbage. You do not want these vegetables to be soft, everything needs to have a nice crunch to it but still be cooked. I pretty much tossed them in the pan a couple of times and then added everything else. 5.) Once the vegetables are done being tossed around I added my cooked and drained pasta.

6.) To this mixture I add my chicken stock mixture that you created in step #3.

7.) Allow to heat through for about 5 minutes, on low heat.

Now you can easily swap out any of these vegetables for others. My original plans called for some fresh mushrooms and then I got to thinking about some fresh peppers and maybe even some broccoli. I asked Daniel what veggies he preferred and he nixed the mushrooms and was hesitant about the broccoli so I omitted them. I suggested the baby corn to him the other day and when I questioned him again what he wanted in this dish this morning while making up the grocery list, he reminded me of the baby corn with concern about them in his voice, when I forgot to mention to them. I am glad he remembered, because not mentioning them was no accident, I had completely forgotten about them. The man forgets to lay out chicken for dinner, but don't you dare forget about his baby corn. Speaking of chicken, this dish would be really great with a meat involved as well. Brown up some chicken chunks or even some shrimp. Can you imagine how pretty the dish would be with some pink shrimp mixed in :)?

Now for my verdict. As you can see in the ingredients picture, I include sesame seed oil and made the mistake of drizzling it over the dish. I tried it before I did this and after. I like how it tasted much better without the sesame seed oil and won't be doing that again, this is why it isn't listed on the ingredients list. This dish was good, but unfortunately I still wasn't thrilled with it. I am just not a big Chinese person and I can't even fully enjoy it when I make it myself. The true verdict will have to come from Daniel, but I just don't know about this one. Maybe you will be able to take my initial recipe work on it some and make it a really, really good. I warned everyone that these recipes could be good or bad, and my feelings are that this one is bad. I even bought a new wok for the occasion. It sure does look good though, I guess that's something.

Looks like I will be calling La Rosa's after all, thank God for generous Grandparents!!

Katie's Eggplant Parmesan

Growing up my Mom was never one to experiment in the kitchen, we didn't have vegetables other than the typical corn or potatoes, we were never served fish unless it was frozen and shaped like a stick, and the only thing italian served in our house was spaghetti made from Ragu out of the jar. I don't blame her, my Grandma is the same way. I remember a story of my Grandma serving frozen peas for dinner that she thought had cooked long enough. If it weren't for my other Grandma and my Dad, I know that I would probably be the same way, let us all have a moment of silence for what could have been my life. Anyway, when it comes to the sort of dish I am making for you tonight it's pretty much safe to say that I am self taught. I have also begun making and eating things that years ago I would not have touched with a ten foot pole. Take for instance the fried oyster that I tried at Jungle Jim's on Saturday, and actually enjoyed, who would have thought?? Tonight was another night of firsts for me. I have never had eggplant before and have always heard great things about eggplant parmesan. I decided that it was time to try it out so I did and this is what I came up with.
Ingredients:
2 Eggplants
1 Jar of Marinara Sauce (No Ragu please!!)
1 C. Bread Crumbs
2 Eggs (which I forgot to add to the ingredients picture)
Mozzarella Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Paprika

1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2.) Slice eggplant into about 1/2 in. slices
3.) In separate bowls add the eggs with about a tablespoon of water and mix, and then in another bowl, add about 1 cup of bread crumbs. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. I used about a tablespoon of each, but use however much you would prefer. I like my bread crumbs heavily seasoned.4.) Dip each slice of eggplant into egg mixture and then into bread crumbs. Add to heated skillet that you have added two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and two tablespoons of butter to.5.) Repeat step 4 until you have browned each slice of eggplant.
6.) Take a 9x13 baking dish and spread about a 1/2 cup of marinara sauce to the bottom.
7.) Layer eggplant on the bottom. Mine created about two layers of eggplant.8.) Top eggplant with the rest of your marinara sauce.
9.) Top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Use as little or as much as you prefer. Bake until the cheese is melted and has a nice golden brown color.
Now for the verdict, this was pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I think next time instead of browning the eggplant in a skillet on the stove, I am going to attempt to do it in the oven. This will save some time as well as prevent the extra fat that browning them in butter and olive oil adds. Now this is the first time I have ever tried this dish so I have absolutely nothing to compare this to but this is definitely a keeper and if you are looking for something quick and easy that really impresses, then this is the dish for you. If you want to make it extra special try using your own marinara sauce. I was being really lazy and used the kind that comes out of the jar, which is allowed every now and then. Serve this alongside a nice salad and a big hunk of garlic bread straight from the oven and you have yourself one heck of a dinner.



**Update on the sausage and peppers rustica-Daniel enjoyed it...yay for me. He had some last night when he got home from work. His only complaint was that it needed more of the sausage, said you can never have to much of the stuff. I guess this means next time I will be using more than just the three links of sausage.