Jonah's Chicken Loaf

For today’s post, the credit goes to Jonah!  I hadn’t planned to cook anything else this week, unfortunately for me; my boys had gone into my chicken dishes I had made for the week and eaten all of the chicken out of them, leaving the sauce, potatoes, dumplings…  Yeah, so something had to be done.  You would think after all this time with the boys that I would have known better.

We started with white meat chicken.  I prefer white meat chicken for this dish, as it is lighter and prettier.  We put our chicken breasts in the food processor and let it rip until they were finely ground.  You could also use a meat grinder for this; make sure the meat gets very fine. 

While the meat was working, Jonah cracked three eggs.  We used one defrosted bag of frozen spinach.  We squeezed the excess water out.  It will water down your loaf, and turn the chicken green.  Not what we are going for.  If you prefer, you can sauté your own fresh spinach.  The same rule applies about removing any excess liquid from the cooked spinach.  This is not the time for raw spinach.

I helped Jonah at this step, by moving the chicken from the food processor to a big bowl for him.  I cut myself half the time with my food processor blades (they are insanely sharp!!) so I didn’t want to risk him getting hurt.  He added his eggs, spinach and a container of low-fat crumbled feta cheese.  You can use regular feta here, you can also save a little money and buy a block and crumble it yourself.  I added some salt, pepper, and a few seasonings I enjoy with chicken.

The next step was Jonah’s favorite, with a pair of clean hands, mix everything up.  His first response was “EWWWW”, then “COOL”.  He had a blast mixing everything together.  He did a great job too!  I went behind him to check, and it had been mixed perfectly!  So proud of him!  This has not always been the case.
Jonah put the chicken in our loaf dish.  We bake this on a cookie sheet because every time juices boil over.  It is so much easier to clean up the cookie sheet than our oven.  We baked it at 350F until our meat thermometer said it was done, 165F.  This is one of those meat dishes that you do want to let rest.  Give it a good five minutes before cutting into this, or your juices will run out of the meat and your loaf will be left dry.  Not good!

If you notice the little piece missing, you will enjoy this.  As I am pulling out the loaf from the oven, I tell him “Don’t touch it!”  As I say the word “it”, his hand reaches over me and grabs a piece of the prettiest corner.  When I say that there are times keeping the guys out is imperative for finishing a step, I am not kidding!  I am thanking my husband for the chunk missing out of the chicken loaf. 

Bonus Recipe!
 
So if you are like me, I love a good recipe that I can use leftovers, without it being obvious that I'm using leftovers.  There are some dishes that I love the leftovers, but this one has such a yummy second dish, I thought it was worth revisiting.

I start by making a simple béchamel sauce; a roux of butter and flour, with milk.  I combine my sauce with broth for my soup base.  While my sauce was coming together I cubed a slice of the chicken loaf.  I combined the soup base with the chicken loaf and some rice (we had some leftover from a side).  That’s it! 

If you have potatoes or pasta and onions, they are awesome in this as well.  Just cook them through in the broth before adding the remaining ingredients.  You can also play around with some fresh parsley and green onions if you would like.

Chicken and Dumplings

I came up with this recipe because we had some hotdog buns about to expire, and I wanted to see if I could come up with a use for them, other than my Mom’s bread pudding.  I was really nervous about how it would turn out, but now my family won’t eat chicken and dumplings any other way. 

For the main part of the stew I used chicken, onions, carrots, celery, and stock.  I started browning the chicken in my pot.  Again, I was looking for brown skin, but not worrying about fully cooking the chicken.  After the chicken browned, I added my veggies and cooked until softened. 

I put the chicken back in my pot of veggies and covered with my veggie stock.  Chicken stock is perfect here too!  I let this simmer until my chicken was fully cooked.  To simmer, first bring the broth to a boil at a high temperature, then cover and drop the temp to med/med-low.  There will be small bubbles, but less than a boil. 

Once my chicken was cooked, I pulled it out and removed the skin and bones.  I cut it to bite size pieces, about the same size as my veggies, and added it back to my soup.  You can leave this part out if you prefer to have actual pieces of chicken to dish up.  This would be beneficial if some of your family prefers white or dark, or for kids that love getting a drumstick.

Here is where my recipe gets a little strange, for the dumplings I use stale hotdog or hamburger buns.  For this recipe, I didn’t have stale buns, but they were on sale at the grocery store, so I left them out to dry out all day.  You can leave them out overnight or the oven on the lowest setting will also help speed this process up.  Just make sure you don’t toast them, which will mess up the texture.  Once they have had time to get nice and stale, throw them in the food processor.  Basically at this point you have made fresh bread crumbs.  I still like a little moisture in the breadcrumbs; they should not be as dried out as the store bought.

I added some flour, baking powder, butter and shortening to my breadcrumbs.  I didn’t measure my ingredients.  If you prefer to follow a recipe when cooking, use your favorite biscuit recipe and sub most of the flour with the bread crumbs.  I would leave at least ¼ cup of flour.  I added just enough milk so it came together as dough; it was a little moist, more the consistency of drop biscuits.

I used a little scoop to make some smaller dumplings in the broth, but I reserved enough to cover the top, so we would have some brown crunchy dumplings as well.  The later was at the request of my husband.  I loved the dumplings in the broth so much I was skeptical, but we all agreed it was an awesome change!

I baked the chicken and dumplings in the oven until the top dumplings were pretty and brown.  If you are in a hurry or want to skip this step, your dumplings will cook up quickly and just as well in your pot on the stove and you can skip the oven.  This is a crowd pleaser, and is just as good leftover!

Mel's Coq au Vin

I can remember, as a child, watching Julia Child on TV at my grandparent's house. This was my first exposure to cooking shows and to watching someone outside of my family cook. I was mesmerized. Her flamboyance and yet approachable ease to cooking had me hooked. I did not personally see the episode, but my Mom told me she once saw her drop something and pick it up and keep going. I don't know if this actually happened, but I loved the story nonetheless.

For some reason, Coq Au Vin had stuck in my head as one of "the" recipes that makes me think of Julia Child. I must have seen her make it before I was old enough to really remember what I was watching. For some reason this recipe has also really intimidated me. When I look at Julia Child's recipe, there are so many steps, and even sub-recipes. Well, this weekend, I decided to get over myself and come up with an approachable way of making Coq Au Vin, without the stress or mess.

I made a few rules for myself before I got started.
·         I was allowed use one pot, one bowl, one cutting board and one knife
·         One recipe, no sub recipes here
·         No special trips to the store, I was only allowed to use ingredients that I ordinarily keep on hand

With my research and rules in hand, I got started.  I had some leftover precooked bacon that I was able to use.  After I cut the bacon into one inch strips I put a little oil in my pot and crisped the bacon.  I pulled it out so it wouldn’t burn, then I browned up my chicken.  This step takes a great deal of patience on my part, but is so worth it!  Make sure your pot is on a high temp and let your chicken skin get nice and brown.  The darker the skin gets, the more flavor you are developing.  Just make sure it doesn’t go black, which is not the flavor we are going for here.  Also, don’t worry about fully cooking the chicken here, it will get cooked later in the broth. 

While my chicken worked on browning up, I cut my onions.  When we went to the store the white onions were on sale, so that is what I went with.  I took the time to cut the onions into eighths and leave part of the roots in tact so they would stay together.  I was so proud of how pretty they were.  However, this is an effort that I will not be repeating.  By the time this dish has finished cooking the onions had melted into the broth and looked as if I had just sliced them.  The only proof of my effort was the picture.  Disappointing, but lesson learned.

After the chicken had browned, I put the onions in the pot to pick up the yummy brown bits left by the chicken.  I also threw in a couple cloves of garlic, chopped.  After a few minutes, when the onions had softened a bit I poured in a little brandy, the recipe called for cognac, but I had brandy.  I used a match to flambé to burn off the alcohol.  It burned so quickly I didn’t have time to snap a picture.  I added the chicken, half a bottle of red wine, then topped it all off with veggie stock.  I added a bay leave and some thyme from my garden, put the lid on it in the oven at 350, and pretty much forgot about it for a couple hours.

 Flash forward about three hours and I pulled out my concoction.  I added a butter/flour mixture I had made by combining equal parts butter and flour and combining with a fork.  I also added a package of my rainbow potatoes and a container of prewashed and sliced mushrooms.  After a quick stir, I put the lid back on and threw it back in the oven for another hour. 

When I took the pot out of the oven for the last time I was pretty nervous.  I had cut out a lot of steps from Julia’s recipe, and I really hoped that it wouldn’t fall too short.  I was not let down!  The mushrooms were amazing, and I typically don’t like cooked mushrooms!  The onions were incredible!  And the chicken was fall of the bone tender.  To top it off, the purple potatoes were melt in your mouth!  Julia Child was definitely my inspiration here, but taking out the steps and stress were definitely worth it!  This recipe is definitely going down as a new family favorite!

Hummus with my sweetie!

Solly has always been special, when it comes to his eating preferences.  This little guy has always had a more mature palate than you would expect from a child his age.  I was told that his preferences would change when he started school and was exposed to the taste preferences of his peers.  It has yet to happen.  This is the kid that will skip over deserts for extra veggies.  He is also that kid that will order a vegetarian meal, because just like his Mom, he doesn't have to eat meat at every meal.

One of his favorite snacks is hummus with veggies for dipping.  He can go through an entire container in one sitting.  Considering how expensive the store bought hummus can be, given the volume this cute little guy will go through, I had to do something.  As it turns out, hummus is one of the easiest things in the world to make, and depending on how much time you are willing to put into it, it can be really reasonable to make.

The main ingredients you will need are garbanzo beans, fresh lemon juice, sesame oil, and olive oil.  I only use a little of the sesame oil for flavor.  If you have tahini it is great here as a substitute.  I didn't have any on hand, so I opted for sesame oil.  For the garbanzo beans (aka Chickpeas), there are two options here, canned or dried.  If you go for the dried option, soak them in water overnight then cook them in a slow cooker for a couple hours until they are fully cooked (a slow cooker on low overnight is perfect!).  If you are willing to take this step, you save a few dollars on your hummus.  We opted for canned to save time.  It also made it easier for him to help. If you use the canned, just make sure to drain and rinse off the excess starch from the beans.

Once you have your ingredients ready to go, throw them in the food processor, less the olive oil, and let it go.  I used the olive oil to help the hummus get a nice creamy texture.  It takes a bit of time to achieve the texture I love, so have patience and it will get there.  I added the olive oil a tablespoon at a time until I was happy with the result.

Now, if this post was for me, I would have ended here.  But we are talking about Solly here.  This little monster LOVES olives.  He won't eat pizza without olives, preferably black and green.  He will also chow down on them for a snack.  One of his favorite store hummus has an olive tapenade on top.  So naturally, we had to go there.  We went about half and half with kalamata olives and sliced green olives.  I had to work on the olives while Solly was working on opening the garbanzo bean cans.  Otherwise we would have had the thought of our olive topping and Solly's tummy would have been full of olives.  We blended the olives in a processor to get them chopped up to a fine tapenade. 

My plan worked!  Solomon is now hooked on making his own hummus.  This recipe is so easy that a seven year old can make it, with minimal supervision.  The best part is that because we made it at home, there are no preservatives it in, and he now knows exactly what goes into his favorite snack!

Don't be a Jerky!

 I discovered some of the most amazing turkey jerky, the only problem is it is really expensive.  I had resigned myself to the fact that it was just going to be a special treat occasion for me.  All that changed when I watched an episode on TV where they were making jerky with a modern twist.  The modern twist being the meat choices and the marinades.  I did my research and decided on two different meats and marinades.  I was going to try a mole inspired beef jerky and an Asian inspired turkey jerky.

I am calling this a mole inspired marinade.  I have never made a mole sauce before, so I researched and came up with this less time consuming option.  I chose the pictured spices.  In addition, I added some salt and pepper, cocoa powder, juice from one lemon and one lime (and zest), a quarter of an onion (grated, not chopped), a clove of garlic (also grated), canola oil, and agave nectar.  The last ingredient was a last minute addition.  I am a stickler for tasting my marinades before any raw meat is added.  If I don't like how it tastes, there is no way I'm going to waste my meat by hoping it helps it.  I enlisted my husband, as he is a huge fan of mole sauce.  It had a little bitter finish, so I added the agave nectar and a little more orange juice. 

Before touching the meat, I made my second marinade.  I grated the rest of the onion from my previous marinade, a couple cloves of garlic, a few tablespoons of ginger, and salt and pepper.  To this I added sesame oil, rice vinegar and a little canola oil.  Be careful with the sesame oil, it can become overbearing, really quickly. 

I sliced the beef a little thinner than I did the turkey.  My favorite turkey jerky is a thicker cut of jerky.  I like to use Ziploc bags for marinating.  It makes it really easy to make sure the marinade gets all over the meat.  I always put it in a bowl when I put it in the fridge to get happy.  leaving out the bowl is a mistake I only had to make one time.  It was not pretty.

I left my meats marinading overnight.  Next time, I will probably only leave the turkey marinading for a couple hours; overnight for the beef was perfect!  As I said, I don't currently have a smoker.  I know, I'm working on it!  This had been a big deterrent for me giving jerky making a try.  I did a lot of research and decided to give the oven a go. 

There are many different times and temps I found.  I decided to give 175F a go.  The times were just a varying as the temperatures.  So I had to just keep an eye on it.  The recipes I found had times all the way from two hours to 12.  The most important thing was I didn't want to walk away all day and come back to hard plastic like jerky. 

Now comes the racks to use.  I had my little cooling racks that I use to cool cookies.  I didn't have enough to make both recipes, so I decided to take a trip to the store.  I found these amazing racks that stack really well.  They enabled me to use my shorter, smaller racks and then have a higher rack.  I was able to get both of my batches done at the same time!  They also have a nonstick coating on them!  I don't think I would have trusted them had I been cooking much higher than 175, but they worked perfect!  When I pulled the meat out of the marinade, I tried to remove excess marinade from the meat, not to the point of using a paper towel, just my fingers.  I left a little on the meat.

I put the meats in the oven and after two hours I started watching it a little more carefully.  I can't even tell you how amazing my house was smelling!  The beef was done first.  It took about two and a half hours.  I left the turkey in for almost four hours.  My best discovery of the day was how amazing jerky is when it is nice and hot out of the oven.  After the jerkys had cooled, I definitely prefer the mole beef.  I was disappointed that the texture of the turkey wasn't close to the jerky I had my hopes set on, but my family loves it.  Overall, even though I didn't achieve the desired turkey jerky texture, I am really excited with the results.  One thing is for sure, I no longer have reservations when it comes to making jerky.

On the Road

Between work and the holiday weekend, I have spent most of the past two weeks traveling. Instead of my usual cooking posts, I decided to share some fun stories and pictures of my travels.

New Orleans, LA


For the past few years my family has reunited in New Orleans to celebrate and catch up. We are spread out over the country, so it really is a special time for us. This year our family made a fun road trip out of getting there, as I had enough time off work that we could.

We stopped for lunch at the Louisiana guest rest stop when we first crossed into Louisiana. We had picked up some fresh veggies, hummus, cheese, deli meats, and crackers. YUMMY! This rest stop is so pretty. My boys enjoyed stuffing their tummies and walking around to stretch their legs. We will definitely be stopping again. Later on the road, we also enjoyed some boudin from a local gas station. We made the mistake of only ordering one, and when we went back for more they had already sold out. As Jonah was the lucky one, he graciously shared a taste with each of us.

I shocked myself by not taking as many food pictures as I had meant to when we were actually in New Orleans. But I have to mention a new restaurant we tried (new to us, not to New Orleans). The Palace Cafe on Canal Street. If you have not tried it, I highly suggest it. You cannot go wrong with your order. We made sure of this by each ordering different items for each course and playing musical plates. My favorite dishes of the night were: crab cheesecake (it is savory, not at all sweet, and out of this world!), turtle soup, duck gumbo, and the pecan pie. We ordered quite a bit more, but these are the dishes that are going to keep me coming back.



Luling, TX

I am very blessed to still have all four of my grandparents. Even better is when I get to see all of them in the same week. We decided for the holiday weekend we were going to see my grandparents we didn't get to see in New Orleans. On our way, my grandfather asked us to pick up some BBQ in Luling. My grandparents live in a very small town where there is a post office and a just recently added convenience store, the closest restaurants are 15-20 minute drive away.

He told us, when we got into Luling there would be a BBQ place on the left and the right, and boy was he right. We chose the one on the left because it looked pretty busy. We ended up going to both, as the first didn't have chicken or coleslaw. The line was incredible, it wove throughout the building and into their second building when we arrived. By the time we left with our food, it was outside, almost to the corner. Needless to say, it was well worth the wait, and we will definitely be going back!



Bartlesville, OK


I ended up in Bartlesville for work. If you know anything about Bartlesville, you can guess who I work for pretty quick! I didn't really have any expectations, not because I had heard anything negative, just because I'm used to not eating as well when I travel and I was traveling for work. I was so pleasantly surprised!

My first meal was at Two Sisters, located downtown. Their roasted veggie sandwich was amazing! I don't know what the veggies were marinated in, but they were delicious. However, I do not suggest the fruit cup. As an alternative, their asparagus looked amazing!  Also, their Mac and Cheese comes highly recommended.

The second meal I shared with my coworker at our hotel. We enjoyed it so much we had the same thing for lunch the next day! We shared a veggie burger and for our sides a half blue lu salad and hummus and veggies. Everything was really fresh and we felt really good after eating.

I returned to Bartlesville by myself for another week.  This is one of the coolest little towns I've seen.  Their downtown is very well maintained and beautiful!  They are home to Frank Lloyd Wright's realized sky scraper!  They also have a pecan grove in the middle of the town.  I was also surprised to find such a high concentration of museums and art galaries.  There is also a community theatre and a recording studio that I discovered during my run.

This has been such a fun couple weeks of travel and exploring, but I'm finally starting to feel homesick.  I am looking forward to getting back into my routines.  I've also been inspired for some fun new posts, so stay tuned!  I will definately have a couple good ones coming up!

Floor Salmon and Mom's Ratatouille

Having a great story behind a recipe makes a difference for me. When I cook it reminds me of my family and great times we've shared. These recipes remind me of my grandparents, which always makes me smile.

Floor Salmon

This recipe comes from my amazing grandparents! My grandparents are the real reason that my family loves food as much as we do. They are two of the most amazing Cajun chefs around today. Their passion in the kitchen is what inspired my mother and her sisters. Who in turned shared their passion with my generation.

To set the scene for this story, my grandparents have a beautiful home on the bayou in Southern Louisiana. Much like my husband and myself, my grandfather mans the grill and my grandmother rules the kitchen. The first time my grandparents made this recipe, my grandfather accidently dropped the salmon on the floor on his way to the grill, rather than call it a day it was rinsed off, re-seasoned and cooked. It turned out to be one of the best salmon recipes he ever made! It is so yummy that it has been made many times since, excluding the trip to the floor of course, but the name has stuck with it!

To make floor salmon, start with a nice raw salmon filet, whatever size you need for the number you are cooking for. Mine was just over three quarters of a pound and I planned it to be lunch for two days. For a dinner portion, you might want a half pound serving per person. The first step is to soak the salmon in milk for at least a couple hours. On a scientific level, I have no idea what this does to the salmon, but it is worth trying! I rinsed the salmon off and seasoned with salt and pepper. That's it!

Now, my grandfather put this on the grill, skin side down. I chose to roast this in the oven at 375F. Keep an eye on it not to overcook it, you don't want it dry. It felt a little undercooked to the touch when I pulled it out, but as it cooled it was perfect, so don't be afraid.

This is the yummiest salmon I've ever made. It tastes so buttery and rich and not at all fishy. I don't know how soaking it in the milk makes it so decadent, but it works!  This salmon is also really yummy leftover on a salad!

Mom’s Ratatouille

Solomon named this recipe for me.  I love Disney movies, and have raised my boys with them.  When Ratatouille came out, it became an instant hit in our house.  My boys began experimenting with different flavors and really got excited about the kitchen.  The best part about ratatouille, the dish, is that it is all veggies, it is fresh, and tastes AMAZING.  Until this movie, my boys were very hesitant to give this dish a try, thanks to Disney it has become a favorite of theirs.

For this recipe, I decided to shake things up a bit.  Traditionally Ratatouille is a veggie stew.  I was in an oven roasting mood yesterday, so I decided to give it a go.  I love the flavor that roasting veggies in the oven have.  They become more intense and a little caramelized.  I used an eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, peppers, tomatoes and red onions.  Using my mandolin (cooking utensil, not the musical instrument), I evenly sliced my veggies.  If you don’t’ have one, a knife works as well, just be careful about the evenness of your slices.  The more uniform the cut, the more evenly they cook.  If you use a mandolin, be very careful with your fingers.  At this point mine is off limits to the kids.

I seasoned the veggies with salt and pepper and lightly drizzled them with grape seed oil.  Then I roasted them at 375, until they looked good.  If you like them crunchy, leave them in for less time, if you want them softer leave them in longer.  I tried them a few times, until they were the consistency I was going for.  When I pulled them out I sprinkled a little red wine vinegar on them.  I highly advise not skipping the vinegar, maybe a tablespoon for the entire dish!

The first time I made Ratatouille for the boys, we watched the movie as we ate it, and they had no idea what veggies they were eating because they were caught up in the excitement of eating the food the movie was named after.  Now they love these veggies regardless!  Best part of all is a cup of Ratatouille is only 40 calories!  I serve it with pasta or rice to help my boys with hallow legs fill up, but I find I don’t need it!  A bowl of this and I am good to go!