Parsley Chicken with Lime Rice

This summer I have had almost every type of fast food because of baseball games every single night. Don't get me wrong, I am not proud of this.

When I finally had a night at home it was with great joy that I made a homemade meal.  We almost licked our plates the food was so good.  I marinated chicken in a parsley concoction then grilled it.  Along with this was lime rice and a cucumber/tomato salad.  If you are looking for a delicious meal, give this recipe a try.

Parsley Chicken

3 pounds trimmed boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, minced

1 large lemon, washed thoroughly

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves minced and pressed

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

Halve lemons and juice well.  Combine all ingredients, except chicken, in a bowl.  Add chicken and coat evenly.  Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.  Honestly, I mix mine together before going to work so it marinates at least six to eight hours.  

Preheat grill.  I grill my chicken off direct heat (on the shelf) 10 minutes on each side or until done.  Remove from the grill and let set about 10 minutes before serving.

Lime Rice

1 tsp. vegetable oil or butter

2 tsp. fresh cilantro

2/3 cup white basmati rice

1 cup water

1/2 tsp. salt

1 lime

In a 2-quart heavy saucepan, heat oil or butter over low heat, stirring until melted.  Add rice and lime juice, stir 1 minute.

Add water and salt, bring to a full rolling boil.  At boiling, cover, turn down to simmer over low heat until rice is tender and the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes.  Add in cilantro and fluff with a fork.

I wish you could have been here to enjoy this amazing meal with us!  Let me know if you make this and how you like it.

Turkey In A Crock Pot

Isn't there a song that goes "Turkey in the straw...turkey in the straw...." 

I digress even at the start of today's post.

Today's topic is turkey in the crock pot.  Let me get back on track...

Recently I purchased a frozen turkey breast.  Usually I buy the whole bird but my mom made a turkey breast the last time we went to visit and it was so tasty.  And not so messy!  Last week I pulled the frozen mass from the freezer and placed it in a pan in the refrigerator.  It took a good four days to thaw in the fridge.  I decided to try cooking it in the crock pot, like my mom does. 

Brine the turkey.  Brining means to soak the meat in a water/sugar/salt/spice bath overnight, in the refrigerator.  You'll see in this picture I filled a stockpot about half full.  To the water I added fresh rosemary, about 3/4 cup salt and 3/4 cup brown sugar.  Stir that until everything is dissolved.  Then slide the turkey breast into the water, making sure it is under water.  (Yes, I agree, it looks gross)

 Make space in the refrigerator for this pan.

Aren't I daring to let you see into my fridge...

Cover the stockpot and let it set overnight.

 The next morning, I pulled out the crock pot and

added two washed carrots (I didn't even peel them),

two stalks of celery and about half an onion.

Pull the turkey breast out of the brine water

and rinse the meat off under running water.

 Stuff it into the crock pot.

This was a tight fit and I have a big crock pot!

I poured 2 cups of chicken broth over the meat.

Place the cover on and cook, on high, for

about 4 hours. 

 Clean up is important when touching chicken or turkey.

I used paper towels to wipe out the sink, the faucets

and the counters.  Then I pulled out the

disinfecting wipes to really clean up any residue.

 The delicious smells of cooking turkey started

about two hours into the cooking time.  Yum!

It is important to have a meat thermometer to test

for doneness.  I got interrupted in my day and

our turkey cooked for about 5 hours but it

didn't get dried out. 

I used two big spoons to pull the meat from the

crock pot and placed it on a cookie sheet

to rest about 15 minutes before starting to cut.

 The juices and veggies left in the bottom of the

crock pot look like a good soup!

I used a strainer to capture the good juices and

made gravy on the stove.

 We will be enjoying many meals from this

easy-to-make turkey breast. 

It was amazingly simple.

Give it a try!

Sweet Potato and Pork Tenderloin

A recent supper:  baked sweet potatoes, crusted pork tenderloin and broccoli.  Links to the recipes are below.  It was an amazing meal!

 

Sweet potatoes:  baked-sweet-potatoes

Pork tenderloin:  easy-and-elegant-pork-tenderloin



 

 

 

 

Hope

My answer to the election results?  God is our only Hope.  I believe He longs for those of us that have invited Him into our hearts to be our Lord and Savior, to partner with Him to share the Good News to the lost.

Need some re-focus and....hope?  This video says is all:

There is an amazing God, full of Hope, waiting to fill those disappointments, fears, and hurts.  His love is like no other...

Raspberry Jam

Family and friends, you will get your raspberry jam if Santa thinks you've been good this year!!!  I started working on my Christmas list today by making raspberry jam.  It was my day off work and I accomplished a lot today, starting with the jam.

If you've never made jam, let me give you a quick lesson.

Get all equipment set out before cooking the raspberries.  This includes the jars.  I wash them in the dishwasher and set them on a towel in preparation of the hot jam.

Confirm you have lids and rings for each jar. 

The lids are to sit in a pan of hot water and drained just before placing on the jar.

This ring fits inside the jar to keep jars clean as

the hot jam is poured in.



This is an over-sized stock pot called a canner.

This should be filled with water and the

wire contraption that sits inside to hold the jars.

Get the water boiling as a first step. 

The recipe calls for 5 cups raspberries.

Over the summer I picked the berries, washed them

up and froze them for this jam-making day.

 

After taking the picture, I used a potato masher

to smoosh the berries.  Then I

measured the 5 cups and poured

the fruit into a stock pot.

 Carefully measure 7 cups sugar.

You read that correctly.

7 cups of sugar.

Set this aside.

 Add the pectin, Sure Jell, to the berries

and stir well.  Over high heat, stirring constantly,

bring the fruit to a rolling boil.

 Pour in all the sugar and stir well.

Continue stirring until a rolling boil occurs.

Boil, stirring constantly, for one minute.

Remove the pan from the heat.

Pour the hot jam into jars that have been

kept warm sitting in hot water.

 

Add a lid and ring to each jar.

Tighten the ring.

Place the jars in the canner with 1 to 2 inches

of water above the jars.

Cover and boil for 10 minutes.

 

 I let the jars sit for the day and will

store in a cool place until Christmas.

Oh I cannot wait for toast and raspberry jam!

Amazing!

Chicken Supreme

When you make this meal, you'll hear these words:

Delicious

Yummy

Can I have seconds?

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a large, shallow baking dish.
Spread 3/4 cup long-grain rice on the bottom.

Place 6 to 8 chicken breasts on the rice.
Salt and pepper generously.

Mix together 1 can cream of celery soup and 1 can cream of onion soup.  (I used cream of chicken because I had it on hand).
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup dry sherry (I used 1/2 cup red wine, which made my mixture look purple!!!)

Pour half of the liquid over the chicken.
Sprinkle another 3/4 cup rice on the liquid.

Pour remainder of liquid on the rice.
Sprinkle top with 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds.  (The Husband can't eat almonds so I sprinkled half of the dish).

Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil.  Bake 1 hour 15 minutes.  Uncover the dish and bake another 15 minutes.

My guess is that you will hear the same responses that I did tonight.

Chicken Supreme.  Enjoy this amazing dish!

Granola

My laptop died!  Seriously died.  It has taken us a couple of days to re-install the operating system and all the applications.  Thankfully it is now up and running and I can post again!

During my non-computer time, I did some cooking.  I was hungry for granola to stir into my yogurt.  Somewhere along the way I'd picked up a new recipe to try. This recipe is not too sweet.  The next time I make it I will definitely add a little bit of cinnamon.

3 cups old fashioned oats

1/4 cup slivered almonds (I'm still learning how to zoom in on my new camera)

1 cup raisins

1/4 cup flax seed (I bought the already ground flax seed)

2 T. brown sugar

1/4 cup applesauce.   That is half of this container.  I ate the other half!

2 T. maple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl/

Stir until everything is combined.

Spread evenly over a cookie sheet.

Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, 15 minutes.  Stir occasionally.

This is an amazing granola over low-fat vanilla yogurt.

Creamy Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

Confession time.  We have eaten out almost every supper (supper is the Frozen Tundra word for evening meal) for over a week.  My excuse is hockey games that fall during the evening meal, a father-in-law that likes to eat out and is lonely and we can't say no to him, and then our small group had a meal together.  So it has been awhile since I've had to the opportunity to make a meal.  And oh does a home-cooked meal taste good!

For our Super Bowl meal, the boys (The Husband and Kidlet Three) voted on Creamy Scalloped Potatoes and Ham.  An old Betty Crocker cookbook of mine has the best recipe for this casserole.  In fact, in the margin of the cookbook I'd written "Very Good" with at least three exclamation points several years ago. 

For some reason I was intimidated by "Scalloped Potatoes" for years.  Probably because my mom's recipe was so good and I didn't want to disappoint myself with some failure.  Thankfully I found the following recipe, which may in fact be the same one my mom follows!  Don't be intimidated, give this recipe a try!

2 pounds potatoes
3 T. butter
3 T. flour
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 T. butter

Heat 3 T. butter in saucepan over low heat until melted.  Blend in flour, salt, and pepper.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat.  Stir in milk.  Return to heat until boiling, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir 1 minute.

I used turkey ham and cut into cubes, about 2 cups worth.

Slice potatoes.

Pour about 1/2 cup white sauce into the bottom of a greased 2-quart casserole.

Layer on potatoes and ham.
Cover that layer with more white sauce.

Continue layering ending with sauce.
Dot the top with 1 T. butter.  (Second confession of this post:  I used a whole lot more butter to "dot" the top.  Paula Dean would love me).

Cover and bake 30 minutes in a 350-degree preheated oven.
Uncover and cook 60 minutes more (or until potatoes are tender).

Since I was in a slicing mood, I thinly sliced carrots and steamed them in water and another 1 T. of butter until they were crisp-tender.

Our meal consisted of carrots, apple slices and lots and lots of Creamy Scalloped Potatoes and Ham.

It must have been an amazing meal.  There were NO leftovers!  Or maybe it was because everyone was so happy to have a home-cooked meal.