White Chicken Chili

Its been so long since I posted a recipe, I guess the summer months are not my creative cooking months.lol...Well, here in Texas today it reached down into the 70's so it was cool and it called for some warm you up kind of dinner. I threw this together rather quickly but these are my guesses on about how much to use. I hope you enjoy....cook up some yummy cornbread to go with it or some homemade tortilla's. Enjoy!!


White Chicken Chili

5 Tbs of Olive Oil
1/2 of yellow onion, finely chopped
1 can 7oz green chilies
3 Tbs of flour
3 tsp cumin
1 tsp white pepper
2 cans of Navy Beans
12 ounces of Chicken stock
2 1/2 cups of shredded chicken

Optional toppings:
crushed tortilla chips
shredded cheese
sour cream
salsa

In large pot, cook onions with olive oil for about 2-3 minutes till tender. Add chilies, flour and cumin, cook and stir. Add beans, white pepper,chicken broth, and chicken. Simmer for at least 20 minutes. Or if you are like me for several hours. I sometimes will cook the day before and let it sit in refrigerator because it just taste better the next. Garnish with your favorite toppings.

Cheesey Cheddar Hash brown Casserole

2 lb bag of frozen hash browns (thawed)
1/2 c. butter (melted)
1/2 c. chopped onions
1 can cream of chicken soup
8-10 ounce bag of cheddar cheese
16 oz sour cream

Combine hash browns and butter in large bowl, mix until coated.
In small mixing bowl add, chopped onions, chicken soup, cheese, and sour cream. Mix, then add to hash browns. Place in 9X13 pan (spray cooking spray in pan) Bake at 400 for 1 hour.

ENJOY!!

Yummy Orange Chicken

If you like Chinese food you gotta try this recipe of Orange Chicken. It is so good. It takes a little bit to prepare it but let me tell you its worth it. Serve with steamed rice and you have a great meal. I found this yummy recipe on this site.




Ingredients:

Chicken
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1-1/2” cubes)
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 eggs (beaten)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Peanut Oil (for frying)


Orange Sauce
1 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons orange juice
¼ cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest (grated)
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon ginger root (minced)
½ teaspoon garlic (minced)
2 tablespoons green onion (chopped)
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken in egg mixture and shake in flour mixture to coat. In large iron skillet pour peanut oil in skillet. Get it real hot and add chicken. Fry until crisp. You could use a deep fryer if you wanted to.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan combine 1 ½ cups water, lemon juice, orange juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Blend well over medium heat for a few minutes. Stir in brown sugar, orange zest, ginger garlic, and onion. Bring to a boil.

Combine 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and mix thoroughly. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into sauce until it thickens. Pour sauce over breaded chicken, and if desired add red pepper flakes and garnish with green onions. Enjoy.

Happy Valentines Day

I hope you have a sweet day

A great site on Spices and Herbs

I just found this great site called Jane Spice. Its all about spices and herbs. It tells you what you can replace with what spice or herb if you are out of one. Like today I didn't have any Rosemary so I just went to her site and found out that I can use Thyme for it. It has a lot of information on spices/herbs what to do, how to do and how long you can keep them. I hope you enjoy this site as much as I do.

Homemade Pizza And Sauce

Luke asked if we could order pizza today and I thought why order when we can make it. So, I said to him lets make our own pizza tonight.

So, that's what we did and I have to say it turned out pretty tasty. When it was all done Luke said look we made our own pizza and we saved money.lol.....I wonder where he has heard that?




Pizza Sauce Ingredients

1 can of tomato paste
2 cloves of garlic
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp fresh oregano
2 tsp fresh basil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp pure maple syrup
1/4 cup water

Add all of the ingredients together in small sauce pan-bring to a small boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes. I usually try to make the sauce up ahead of time so it can sit in the fridge over night but if you don't have the chance to do that its good either way.


Pizza Dough Ingredients

1 tsp dry yeast
4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup olive oil

Pour 1 1/2 cups warm water into a bowl. Add yeast to water. In another bowl, combine flour and salt. With mixer on low speed drizzle olive oil into flour mixture.

Stir water/yeast mixture gently and then slowly add to flour/oil mixture until dough forms a ball. Mixing with hands is recommended at this point. Once you have mixed and formed your ball of dough place it in a clean bowl. Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil over top just to coat it. Cover bowl with warm moist towel for about 1 to 2 hours. Set it in a warm area.

When dough is ready, preheat oven to 500. Divide the dough in half. Lightly grease pizza pan with olive oil. Using your hands, stretch one half of the dough out on your pizza pan. Stretch the dough to the desired shape, pressing the dough into the pan with your fingers. This is a thin crust dough pizza.

Now place whatever toppings on top of your pizza. Bake for about 10 minutes. Keep a close on it.

The other half of dough can be used to make another pizza today or tomorrow. You can wrap dough up tightly and place in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Ready to bake. At our house we have to do half with just cheese.






Cooked and ready to eat. Yummy!!

Best Chocolate Cake Around

I got this recipe from PW she uses it as a chocolate sheet cake but i decided to make it this time into a round two layer cake for Joe's moms birthday. You have to try it is the best chocolate cake I've ever made.





Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks buter
4 heaping Tbs. cocoa powder

Icing
1 3/4 sticks butter
4 heaping Tbs cocoa powder
6 Tbs. milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir together and set aside.

In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Mix with a fork and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the cocoa. Whisk together to combine. Meanwhile,In a small measuring cup measure out 1 cup of water-microwave until boiling.When butter is melted. pour the boiling water in the pan. allow to boil for a moment, then turn off heat. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture. Stir together for a moment to cool the chocolate, then pour in the egg mixture. Stir together until smooth. Then pour equal amounts into greased 2- 9" round cake pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.


While cake is baking, make the icing. Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Add the milk and vanilla, then add the powdered sugar. Stir together.

When cake is done. Turn cakes over onto cake platter. Stack on on top of each other. Pour Chocolate icing over cake. I had extra icing left over. You can also, make cake in a large sheet pan instead of the round cake pans. Either way its delicious.