Chicken in Mushroom Wine sauce

I picked up a package of cut up chicken at the store and had lofty goals. I was gonna make cattiatore. Sometimes you think you are gonna make a dish and when it comes time to get down to business, you find that maybe you want something different. That's how it was today. I didn't want any tomato taste.
So, after looking at recipes for awhile and not finding anything that was exactly what I wanted to do, this it what I came up with. Pretty darn tasty!

Chicken in Red Wine Mushroom Sauce
1 Chicken cut into pieces, skin removed
(I used only Breasts, Thighs and Legs- freeze the rest for another time)
1 lg onion - sliced
1/2 to 3/4 lb fresh mixed variety mushrooms
1 cup dry red wine
1-2 cloves of garlic -minced
Seasoned salt to taste

In a large fry pan (or large heavy bottomed pot) I put about 1 T of bacon grease (or you could use the oil of choice). When the oil is hot, place the chicken in the pan to brown on both sides.

Meanwhile in a saucepan, place the wine and boil 15 or so min until reduced by at least 1/2.

While the wine is cooking, go back to the chicken and continue to cook on low/medium heat until chicken is golden and lightly browned. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pot, pushing to fill the spaces between the chicken and to cover the chicken. Add the garlic.
When the wine is reduced to your liking, pour it over the chicken and mushrooms. Continue to cook about 25 min more until chicken is cooked through and mushrooms and onion are soft.
I cooked until the sauce was very reduced.
Place chicken on a platter, top with the mushrooms and onion and serve.

Spaghetti Sauce w/Olives

A few weeks ago we went to one of out favorite Italian restaurants, Stino DaNapoli. I had Lasagna Alla Meridionale and Mark had Linguine Alla Posillipo. Mark especially liked his meal, the sauce in particular, so I thought I would try to see how close a version I could make myself. We both thought the sauce had the flavor of olives. I came pretty close, with maybe the only change would be pureeing the olives instead of a fine chop.

Spaghetti Sauce with Olives

2 Tbl. olive oil
1 1/4 cups mixed olives, pitted and finely minced (or pureed)
1 c. chopped onion
1 celery rib, chopped
2 T chopped garlic
1/4 t basil
1/8 t oregano
1/4 t garlic salt
1 lg can crushed tomatoes
1/4 tablespoon red pepper flakes, plus more if desired

Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan. Add onion and celery, cook a few minutes then add garlic and olives (if minced-if you puree them add them later with the tomatoes). Cook a few minutes more then add the spices, then tomatoes and pepper flakes, then the salt. Bring to a low boil and turn heat down to simmer for a bout 15 minutes.

Impossible Bacon Pie

This recipe has been one of my family's standards ever since the kids were little. Impossible pies were quite popular back in the 80's and with good reason. They are really quick and easy to make and it takes little effort to put a comforting meal on the table. The basis of the pies is Bisquick, but feel free to use your favorite baking mix. There are many "Impossible" recipes to choose from, some are main dish, some are dessert.
This is a good recipe for any meal of the day; we serve it mostly at dinner.

Impossible Bacon Pie
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 10 inch quiche pan or pie plate with cooking spray.

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
12 strips crisped bacon, crumbled
1/4 cup onion or green onion
Layer these 3 items in the pie plate.

1 cup Baking mix
2 cups milk
4 eggs
1/8 t salt
1/8 t pepper
Whisk these 5 items together in a bowl till well blended and pour over the ingredients in the pie plate. Place in oven and bake for 35-43 minutes. Remove from oven and let set for 5 minutes, then serve.

Weekend Cookbook Challenge- Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

My first challenge of any kind!!! Although it's not the weekend, I knew this challenge, Weekend Cookbook Challenge, was one to participate in. The theme, hosted by Lis of LaMiaCucina, is Crockpots, Dutch Ovens, and Pressure Cookers. I decided a long time ago, back when the kids were little, that the Crockpot is my friend. I love the idea of making good meals with seemingly little effort. I had planned on cooking up some pork today, but Mark made corned beef yesterday and I didn't want meat again tonight.
For Christmas, I got Lindsay and Lacey both The Taste of Home Baking Book. There is a postcard inside for a free subscription to the Taste of Home Magazine. The first mag came this week and Lacey and I decided that the Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers looked good. I used to make stuffed peppers often, but haven't in a long time.
As usual, I played with the recipe a bit. I used a 14 oz. can of fire roasted tomatoes instead of the fresh. Instead of both the beans, I used 1 can of Garbanzo Beans as we just had black beans recently. I eliminated the salt and added extra Parmesan and some mozzerella.
This is definitely something to keep in my repetoire. This seemed even easier than my usual recipe because you are only precooking the rice instead of rice and ground meat.

Crockpot Day

The weather was so bad yesterday, over 14 inches of snow, that we decided to watch movies and basketball. Yeah Tarheels!!!
Anyway, it would have been a great day to bake, but my butt told me I'd better not. By the time I figured out I wanted something easy, I had not a whole lot of time to crockpot all day. So I pulled out 3 of my many crockpot cookbooks and started searching. I settled on one I hadn't used in awhile, Crock-It by Barbara Murray. It is really a very small, homey sort of cookbook. There are a few mexican recipes in it that have become staples, one for chicken enchiladas and one for a great red chili sauce. But what I ended up making wasn't so much a recipe from the book as inspired by several recipes and what I had in my kitchen. Here is what I ended up with - let's call it ...

Mexicali Crockpot

multigrain (or flour) tortillas
1 can refried beans
1 can black beans
1 can chopped green chilis
1 - 14 oz can fire roasted tomatoes (drained with juice set aside)
1 pkg Perdue roasted chicken already cooked (2 cups)
8 oz bag shredded cheese (I use 2% cheese)
1 pkg taco seasoning
sour cream for topping

I layered 1 tortilla spread with some of the refried beans on the bottom. Layer some of all the ingredients on top of that, then repeat layers a few times. I poured the juice from the tomatoes (there wasn't much) on the top and topped with some more cheese.
I cooked on HIGH for about 4 hours. I'm sure it can be cooked instead all day on LOW if you so desire. Slice into all the layers and serve. We had 4 servings, but my crockpot was only a little more that half full. You can add more ingredients and layer more to serve more people.
Garnish with the sour cream.
I served this with a tossed salad of
avocado
cucumber
tomato
green onions
lemon pepper to taste.

Lake Erie Perch

As I've said before, I love fresh Lake Erie Perch. When I was growing up, on Friday evenings during Lent I would walk to the Polish Club down the street from my dad's grocery and pick up a few fried perch dinners for my family. They included perch- fried to perfection, creamy in taste, some fries and cold cole slaw.

The fish fries crop up every year during Lent, but I hesitate, because as much as we love fried foods, it's to our benefit not to eat it. I have found that I get the same enjoyment from pan frying perch in just a little butter/olive oil mix. It really is the taste and texture of the fish itself that I love.

Basa with Herb Citrus Vinagrette

Yesterday and today again I made fish for dinner. Yesterday I wanted fresh lake perch which is so plentiful on Fridays around here during Lent, but everywhere has it deep fried. No denying, everything is better deep fried, but we know we should stay away from fats and oil. So I bought some lake perch myself and lightly floured and seasoned it and bake in the oven with a little olive oil at 450 degrees. Not bad, and it served as a good perch fix!

Today I made Basa, aka Vietnamese Catfish (so inexpensive) and used a light Herb Citrus Vinaigrette -pictured above-from Marie Simmons Fast and Fresh Cookbook. It really is easy and adds good flavor to the fish.

Basa w/Herb Citrus Vinaigrette

Olive oil to coat fish

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp orange zest

1 tsp. garlic finely chopped

1 Tbl fresh dill

1 Tbl fresh basil

1 Tbl italian parsley chopped

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbl fresh lemon juice

2 Tbl cold water

1 Tbl sun dried tomatoes minced

salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix vinaigrette ingredients together. (You can do this while the fish is cooking.)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Very lightly coat fish with olive oil so it stays moist. Bake fish 6-10 mnutes until almost done. Remove from oven and pour vinaigrette evenly overeach piece of fish. Place back in hot oven for a few minutes. Remove from oven and serve. Do not overcook fish.

Note- Marie Simmons recipe uses halibut.

Pepperoni Roll and Rocky Ledge Bars

Today appears to be "sweets- n- bread- use up supply" day. This morning we decided to skip the usual Sunday pancake routine that Mark is fond of lately, and I made Monkey Bread. I had cans of biscuits left since I was gonna make this again over the holidays, but never did.

Since the oven was hot, I picked Martha Stewart's recipe Rocky Ledge Bars to serve at a gathering this evening. Like the biscuits, I had leftover chocolate chips from Christmas to use up. The bars are okay, but I don't think I would make them again- no one was crazy about them. If I do make them I would put on the top marshmallows AFTER they bake, instead of before as the recipe states.

For dinner tonite I am making one of Mark's favorites, Pepperoni Roll. I have had the recipe since early in our marriage. The recipe was originally printed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
I made one with regular pepperoni and one with turkey pepperoni. I use 2% cheese in both. The turkey pepperoni in not a bad substitute, but I think next time I will add chopped banana peppers, blotted in a paper towel, to give it the extra kick you lose from using the turkey.


Pepperoni Roll

1- 1 lb. loaf frozen bread dough
1 egg - beaten
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2- 3 ½ oz pkgs sliced pepperoni
2 cups shredded mozzarella
½ teas. Dried whole oregano

Thaw dough and let rise according to pkg directions. Divide dough in half. Set one portion aside.
Turn out remaining dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 10 inch circle (or rectangle). Combine egg and parmesan, stir well; spread half of egg mixture over circle leaving a ½ inch margin at edges. Layer half of pepperoni and mozzarella over egg mixture and sprinkle with half the oregano.
Roll up dough in jellyroll fashion. Seal edges and fold ends under. Transfer loaf, seam side down, to an ungreased baking sheet. (line with parchment and foil for easy cleanup.)
Repeat procedure with remaining ingredients.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Cut into slices to serve.
Yield 6-8 servings.

Brussel Sprouts with Carmelized Tofu

Oh what a time! I just decide to blog as a way to keep track of what I am cooking and my father-in-law Bill has a big health scare. He never had any problems major problems and has been pretty healthy so this was a surprise.
He went in for a CAT scan the Monday before last. At the scan they found he had a 10cm (4inch!) aortic aneurysm and immediately admitted him to the hospital. The next morning before the surgery they did a cardiac cath (they do this because a lot of aneurysm patients have heart problems- which he or his family have not had a history of) and found arteries 95% and 100% blocked. So they did a triple bypass 2 Tuesdays ago, he recovered for 2 days then did the 5 hour surgery for the aneurysm that Friday. Today my husband Mark and his mom took Bill to a nursing home just for rehab till he gets his strength back- then he gets to start cardiac rehab.
Bill is in for a big wake up- he loves to cook and eat. His specialty is potato pancakes. He loves pork. Whenever he goes out to eat he would ask the waitress for hard butter fresh from the fridge. We joked that his arteries were clogged with potatoes and butter.
Luckily it appears that he is on the road to recovery.
So of course now Mark has decided to try eating healthy. I have been gradually changing the way I cook over the last few years and our 2 daughters (Lindsay, 25, lives in DC, and Lacey, 22, lives at home and goes to grad school) have changed their habits as well. Today I made this recipe for Carmelized Tofu and Brussel Sprouts from the 101 Cookbooks blog. It was Mark's initiation to tofu. I added some cayenne pepper to the tofu for extra zing and used dried cilantro in a much smaller amount cuz we really don't care for it.
All in all a good meal -well received!

Caramelized Tofu Recipe adapted

7 ounces extra-firm tofu cut into thin 1-inch segments
a couple pinches of fine-grain sea salt
a couple splashes of olive or peanut oil2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 t dried cilantro
16 brussels sprouts, washed and cut into 1/8-inch wide ribbons
1/4 t cayenne

Cook the tofu strips in large hot skillet (or pot) with a bit of salt and a splash of oil. Saute until slightly golden, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and pecans, and cook for another minute. Stir in sugar. Cook for another couple of minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Scrape the tofu out onto a plate and set aside while you cook the brussels sprouts.
In the same pan (no need to wash), add a touch more oil, another pinch of salt, and dial the heat up to medium-high. When the pan is nice and hot stir in the shredded brussels sprouts. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring a couple times (but not too often) until you get some golden bits, and the rest of the sprouts are bright and delicious.