I love the idea of cooking a whole chicken in a crock pot. Whenever I see whole Foster Farms chickens on sale for a dollar a pound or lower I buy one and cook it up. We usually enjoy some cold chicken with butter and Best Foods Mayo on white bread sandwiches. I often freeze some of the meat for future tacos, soup or other dishes. This time we had a couple sandwiches, I made a great soup and have a little chicken left to freeze for later.
If like chicken and you've never cooked a whole chicken in a crock pot, DO IT, do it soon.
Remove the giblets, wash the chicken and season as desired. (I
used Johnny’s Seasoning Salt) Place in the pot breast up with no liquid. Cook on low for
6 hours. It even browns. (Poultry is done at 165 degrees) It will be plenty done.
Remove the meat and bones
Degrease the broth (I use a tray of ice cubes, the grease
solidifies against the cubes which can be lifted out)
This time I left all the chicken broth in the pot and made a delicious soup with the help of ideas from my husband. Crock pot Ham and Chicken Soup Ingredients: Chicken broth from Crockpot Chicken or 1-14.5oz can chicken broth 1 cup of Bloody Mary Mix 1 14.5 oz. can of beef broth 1 14.5 oz. can of Great Northern Beans with liquid 1 meaty ham hock Chicken meat
Instructions: Turn Crock pot on high and let this simmer until the ham hock starts to break down. Add some chicken meat (I added a large handful.) Add a second can of Great Northern beans, drained. Add salt and pepper as desired (I added none)
When my neighbor moved to Hawaii, I became the owner of some sundries remaining in her pantry. I've been waiting for a time to celebrate a partial box of La Piana Ravioli with squash filling. They were 1/2-inch square dried raviolis which I figured at $10 for a 1 lb. box (the tag was still on) had to be special.
Husband arrived home last night with two very large meatballs from a deli and some crusty French rolls. Ah ha, we had some fresh mushrooms in the fridge. I work to stay stocked with sweet onions, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste. I often have fresh garlic but always have a jar of chopped on hand in the fridge. Due to a meeting I attended that ended with 1/2 bottle of red wine unfinished, I was ready to go.
I know this post may only be exciting for me and pretty mundane for any accomplished cooks but the dish I concocted turned out delicious. My discriminating husband is even eating more for breakfast. Except for boiling the pasta, I threw it together in my handy dandy Faberware stainless steel electric frying pan. Any pasta would have been fine but the ravioli created a gourmet treat. And, if you use fresh ready-made pasta now commonly available, the dish is really fast and easy.
Ravioli and Meatballs
Ingredients:
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 large teaspoon chopped garlic
5 mushrooms sliced
1+ tablespoon for frying onion,
garlic and mushrooms
Big pinch basil
Big pinch oregano
Several shakes Johnny's Seasoning
Salt
Several shakes of black pepper
1 - 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 - 8oz can tomato sauce
About 1/2+ cup red wine
3/4 cup dried ravioli (I used La
Piana brand squash-filled dried ravioli). You could use fresh ravioli. And,
Northwest dwellers, if you haven't tried Puget Sound Consumer Coop's fresh
mushroom ravioli, it's delicious.
2 large deli meatballs cut into
quarters (or meatballs of choice)
Instructions:
Boil the ravioli in salted water if
using dry pasta.
Sautee onion, garlic and mushrooms.
Stir in basil, oregano, seasoning salt and pepper. Add wine and cook down a
bit.
Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce,
ravioli and meatballs. Let it simmer on lower heat. Server with green salad and
French bread slathered with butter.
My husband cooked dinner tonight. He pulled off another of his brilliant meals, so many of which I've enjoyed over the years.
He began with a beautiful T Bone steak which would have been delicious with no addition. He took it to another level, though, lightly marinating it in a mixture of Sesame Ginger Dressing and Siracha hot sauce for a little tang. He broiled it to a perfect medium rare, cut it into chunks, then, as an interesting garnish, sprinkled it with small chunks of fresh mango. The side of Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing served with it for dipping was amazing.
His side dish - Baby Yukon Gold potatoes, Brussels sprouts, white mushrooms all cut in half and mixed with Mango Ginger Chutney then broiled to perfection.
My husband had the food channel on. The show on was one I don't particularly favor, the one with Giada, (it's something about how she speaks perfect English then pronounces Parmigiana, with a heavy Italian accent, lol, how picky am I?) Anyway, she was making individual pot pies and raving about how simple they are to make. We love pot pies but, to admit, I've never had one other than frozen. I've stopped buying them too often, given all the sodium, et al.
So, as Giada went on, I took note. They did seem fairly easy and could cut down on the meat used or help use up leftover meat in a tasty way. My husband is not a fan of casseroles but he likes pot pies (I don't ask). One reason I tuned in was that I happened to have quite a bit of left over T-bone steak in the refrigerator (having something to do with my husband's brain's meat receptors going crazy while he stands in a meat department, any meat department.) And, I had bacon on hand.
I'm comfortable enough cooking now to get her basic idea and create it. I've made the T-bone steak pot pie and a chicken pot pie and both were soooo tasty. And, I'm now smart enough to know that having the right cooking utensils makes cooking adventures more successful and pleasant. Before making the first pies I stopped by Value Village (hey why not?) There sat two perfect little white ceramic baking tureens molded with ceramic handles. They were the perfect size for using one round of prepared pie crust and they were from Sur la table!
Simple and Tasty Pot Pies
What makes this a successful and regularly used recipe for me is having
purchased the perfect sized individual baking dishes. One box of two prepared pie
dough rounds makes 4 pies.
Ingredients
4 slices bacon, fried (ideal for flavor but can be omitted)
3 Tablespoon Bacon grease (If you omit the bacon use butter here)
¼ small onion or part of a large
leek, or a shallot, chopped
¼ large carrot sliced into very thin rounds
2 big pinches dried thyme
Seasoning salt, (I use Johnny’s Seasoning Salt) to taste
4 tablespoons flour
1 can broth, chicken, beef depending on meat used
½ cup or more cream (I use unwhipped whip cream)
½ cup frozen peas, thawed
½ cup frozen corn, thawed
3 Chicken tenders fried up with some seasoning salt or left over chicken,
beef or pork chopped up.
Instruction
Fry bacon, remove from pan retaining the bacon grease needed
Add chopped onion,and carrots
(sometimes I add a bit of thinly sliced celery) to pan and brown.
Sprinkle the thyme and stir in.
Add flour mixing to make a roux,
Add can of broth and simmer until thickened.
Add cream, chopped meat including a couple pieces of bacon (you’ve
probably eaten the other two while you’ve cooked), and thawed peas and corn,
stir together.
Add seasoning salt to taste.
Line two small baking dishes with pie dough. (I bought two perfect
sized pot pie baking dishes. One round of store bought prepared pie dough lines
and tops the two dishes.)Add the
filling to the dish and top with dough.
Bake at 400 degrees for about ½ hour until crust is done (I use the
toaster oven).
I love potatoes. I can’t think of a way potatoes could be
cooked that I wouldn’t like. Fried potatoes, especially in the morning are a
favorite. I thought I’d had fried potatoes just about every way possible until
I was browsing a favorite Indian market and discovered a small packet of Potato
Sagu. It was a spice mixture for a fried potato dish. My love of potatoes and
my enjoyment making Indian dishes came together on this one.
The next morning, a gray Sunday, I peeled and set three
medium Russet potatoes on to boil. It called for 250g (which a Google search
revealed was about 8 ½ oz. or two small potatoes. I decided that three medium
would, for me, take the spices and ingredients quite nicely and I was right,
besides, I wanted more potatoes.While
they simmered, I chopped 1 med. onion and 1/3 of a jalapeno (without seeds). In
a small dish I placed a teaspoon of crushed garlic (I keep a jar in the fridge).
The unusual element in this recipe was 1 tsp. Bengalgram Dahl.
A discussion with a young fellow shopping the store informed me that it was
dried chickpea. For the recipe it would be ground to a powder. Not having dried
chickpeas, but having some Masoor Dahl (split orange lentils) on hand, I put
some in my Krups coffee grinder dedicated to spices. (Don’t put aside this delicious
dish for the lack of a teaspoon of something. If you have lentils or dried peas
of any kind (dahl) grind enough for the recipe.
Even though purists might cringe, I believe that for this element, because so
little is used, flour, esp. whole wheat flour, could be substituted. Also, as
Indian dishes often include such a variety of spices and textures, if you leave this out, it
wouldn’t be missed.)
I put the 3 teaspoons of the Sagu Masala called for into a
small dish (3 to 4 are called for and for a first time with Indian dishes I
tend to go with less.) The ingredients in the Saga Masala (spice mixture) are:
Sugar, Coriander powder, Red chili powder, Turmeric powder and Asafoetida (a white
powder offering flavor reminiscent of leeks that available in Indian markets
made from a perennial herb grown in Afghanistan and processed in India).
I set out mustard, lemon juice and put a few tablespoons of water in a dish.
This is how I’ve learned to enjoy making Indian dishes. I
set out the ingredients ready to be added then things go together very easily
and at the right time.
Draining the potatoes, I mashed them with a hand mixer right
in the kettle, adding some butter (not called for).
With my large electric frying pan on med high, I added about
a Tablespoon of cooking oil. When hot I added a teaspoon of mustard and the
ground dahl stirring it together as it began to fry. Very quickly, I added the
onion, garlic and jalapeno stirring the mustard, dahl throughout. I fried the
mixture until golden brown and the onions were soft. To this I added the Sagu
spice mixture fully stirring it in. It called for lemon juice and salt to
taste. With no experience, I added about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and about 6
shakes of the salt shaker. Finally, the potatoes. I folded the mashed potatoes
into the onion, ginger, garlic, spice mixture and began to fry it. Ah, the
aroma. It called for water "to bring it to the right consistency". Not knowing
the “right consistency”, I began adding a little and watching the texture of
the mixture. I ended up adding a couple tablespoons water. (Next time I'll save some of the potato water for this).
If you eat this right away, it will have more, spicy heat.
As it sits awhile, the “heat” mellows but there is a nice tang. If you like
heat, add more of the pepper than I did.
I put some in a dish, topped it with a bit of butter for
richness and it was one of the best potato dishes I have ever tasted. It had
personality; it had dimension. Wow is all I could say. What a treat. My
husband suggested that it would be a great basis for a hash. I happened to have
a piece of left over roast in the refrigerator so chopped it up and
incorporated it into the potatoes. I'll have a hard time making a hash the old salt and pepper way again.
These potatoes would make a perfect side dish for an Indian
or any other meal where potatoes would be a good addition. I could see making
them ahead and serving them for breakfast.
If you are used to American fried potatoes made with salt
and pepper, maybe some chopped onion, and are concerned about the “taste” of
all those spices and the ginger, you will be amazed. They blend; none of them
are overt or intrusive. They create an overall pleasant complexity of taste. If
you don’t like hot spice tang, leave out the pepper.
If you love potatoes like I do, though, I challenge you to
extend your potato repertoire into an Indian Potato Sagu.
(No, you don't have to locate an Indian market (though you might love the adventure). Amazon.com has the Potato Sagu I used: Potato Sagu on Amazon)
Hey Mom, the holidays are coming and I wish you were here. You loved holiday festivities, holiday decorating, holiday gift giving, holiday cooking...really, holiday anything. And, you didn't limit your enthusiasm for the "big" holidays. You'd be pleased to learn that Americans have embraced Halloween. It's second only to Christmas in the money spent these days. Remember the black cat costume Donna made for me.She stuffed the tail with Kapoc that wafted all over the house. I'm amazed and impressed you felt comfortable letting me take off in the dark of night to wander the neighborhood with my friends for Trick or Treating. I'm glad it was a less frightening world back then, and I"m glad you had confidence in me.
Not having children, you'd be sad to find that I've been hardly aware of the holidays. I think you'd have been sad I didn't have children, too, though you would have never told me. I have intentions of doing some decorating but have rarely gotten around to it. This weekend, though, I'm going to buy a large pumpkin and set it on the steps. No, I won't carve it. I know, that confounds you. If I remember there were no pumpkins adorning our house that hadn't been carved with triangle eyes and noses and a smile with missing teeth. Just like you felt that pictures needed to have people in them to be worth taking, you couldn't see a pumpkin without needing to give it a face.
I want you to know, Mom, that I have a friend who embraces and enjoys holidays in ways that remind me of you. She has boxes of holiday decorations like you did. She enjoys adorning her home with special holiday reminders of the past, like tree ornaments celebrating earlier years in her children's lives. She just began decorating for fall, the Halloween/Thanksgiving part of the year. The picture of her unusual wire and beaded pumpkin shape with votives surrounded by turkey's was creative, beautiful and something that would have lit up your eyes and convinced you that here was a person 'after your own heart'. You would have enjoyed her, Mom, and she would have appreciated you and understood your love of holidays.
I remember the year that the BIG Christmas gift to the whole family, plus Grandma and LD, was tickets and hotel accommodations to see the Ice Capades in Spokane. Wow, I remember staying in a hotel room for the first time in my life, how exciting and exotic it felt. I think I remember that treat more than the actual Ice Capades.
I loved the lights that always adorned our house at Christmas. I remember the year you bought a stuffable life sized plastic Santa from that little catalogue filled with odd and sundry things. Stuffed with newspaper, you sat him out on the bench in our yard. Then, as the story goes, Daddy came up with the idea of putting Santa's feet in a bucket with some dry ice. The Christmas-inspired humor made the neighbors laugh and won you third place in the town's home decorating contest. That began a tradition that, every year had the whole town driving past our house on the tour of decorated homes as you vied for top prize and won it a couple of times. I can still see the picture from the newspaper of you and Daddy holding up your first place trophy. You took holiday decorating more serious than most.
Be it Valentines Day, Fourth of July, or Halloween, our house did not go unadorned. Easter Baskets, well planned pranks on April Fool's Day, you loved it all. In honor of, and as an inspiration from you, when Donna's boys graduated college, as a present, I sent them each a large box filled with some beautiful holiday decorations and dishes to help them start their own holiday traditions as they began their adult lives.
As the holiday season approaches I think of you often, Mom, and that is good. How our lives have an impact on those left behind is through memory. Though I wish we could have built more memories together as adults, I treasure my memories of you, your kind heart and your festive spirit.
Estate saling with friends, is an experience of many pleasures. On a sunny day in Seattle the first pleasure was driving through neighborhoods different than the familiar trails of my life. Trees and flowers abound reflecting the creativity and love of nature amidst the people who inhabit this city. It reminds me that life goes on in different ways all around me. When you walk into the "estate" of the sale that awareness occurs on a more minuscule level. It's like seeing someones life unfold with clues to their loves and hobbies and pleasures everywhere.
The homeowner of the last of three sales today was a writer. She even published a book of her own. She and her husband traveled extensively (I found a map of London for a friend who goes there often and a map of Seattle for our car). I was pleased to find a tea towel emblazoned with the Lancaster Squadron of WWII. One of the members of my writing class was a part of it and has written extensively about his wartime exploits, he'll be surprised and pleased with this towel that wouldn't mean much to many. The couple in this home loved movies and classical music. Their pleasures, though, were eclectic as there were Cd's of blue grass music and other genre's, as well. Funny, at the home of these cultured and obviously wealthy folks I found an unused Dirt Devil, perfect for my small space. I also found a book explaining the new IPhone I bought, a book of words authored by Wm. F. Buckley and a classy, black leather unused lined book. I love empty books and have a small collection. And this home provided something I've been looking for, a plain small kitchen timer. I left behind some beautiful place mats in a 40's esque flower design, alas, I love the design but wasn't sure what I'd do with the placemats. I just realized I left in the car the Liz Claiborne black crocheted purse I snagged and an oversized mug with a reddish brown lined design.
There were fewer clues in the second "estate", a single level, 1970's era home in a wealthy neighborhood. It had a unique, 'mother-in-law-apartment built in. We heard there'd been a bidding war for the place. They were actively Christian with a line of books on the subject followed, ironically, by a book, Understanding Tax Loopholes. Ah well, my father-in-law always said, "You'll never meet an honest rich man". My friend was thrilled to find a kit for splicing line, a skill she's been wanting to learn, plus a book of knots. Dweller in a small space that I am, I loved the collapsible plastic tub I found. That 'estate' also had dishes, not what I'm after. I am, though, on the lookout for unique vessels for flowers. Besides the plastic tub I found an oven-safe fish shaped dish in an attractive blue. I might keep it or it would be a cool container for a flower arrangement to take as a gift to someone. The 'Gig Harbor' tea towel I found in this home would be a fun item for an acquaintance who just bought a home there. And, turning a corner into the kitchen of this house sat a huge, attractive roasting pan, just the one my friend had been looking for to do a 25 lb. turkey comfortably.
At the first estate, the least refined of the three, I was thrilled to find a favorite book in hardbound, Gavin de Becker's, The Gift of Fear, also a book I haven't read of his, Fear Less. It's kitchen was abounding and gave up a new garlic press enabling me to store garlic in the refrigerator and press at will. We'll see how it goes. I love garlic accouterments and have many I've found over time at estate sales. I found a medium sized metal mixing bowl that will hold up on the boat, It's my third metal bowl, I love them but they're expensive at the store. The kitchen also had a new box of plastic storage bags and a new serrated knife. It wasn't a high quality knife but I need one in my kitchen drawer for bread. I got two oversized mugs in a periwinkle blue, a color that I love. They were left in the car, thus out of the picture.
We enjoyed a yummy lunch of breakfast at The Breakfast Club on Lake City Way. It, like each 'find' at the sales, was a treat. Breakfast only, home-made corned beef hash, platter sized pancakes, perfect Eggs Benedict and home-made rustic hash browns that will bring me back, for sure.
What fun to share these experiences with like-minded friends who enjoy each other and share a love of the treasure hunt.
