Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

I received this recipe from one of the ladies that I serve with in our church's Relief Society women's activity committee.  We made it for one of our activities and it was so good!  I accidentally boiled the rice too long and all of the broth disappeared; thankfully I had a 32 ox box of broth in my pantry so I just poured that in and added some water to it to make up the difference and lessen the saltiness.  Even with this mishap (or, who knows, maybe because of) this soup was so delicious.  I have another chicken and rice soup recipe on here that I made in the fall, and it was good too, but this one might be the close winner.  Though, that could be because I'm a sucker for a creamy soup.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

1 (49.5oz) can of chicken broth (6 cups)

1 lb chicken breast, diced

½ cup uncooked wild rice

½ cup uncooked brown rice

½ lrg onion, finely diced

2 carrots, grated

2 ribs celery, finely diced

¼ cup sliced almonds (can substitute with diced water chestnuts)

¼ cup butter

½ cup flour   

1 cup half & half

-Cook chicken and dice it.

-Boil broth & rices in a large pot.  Watch for the rice to split and curl, about 45 minutes.  In the meantime prepare the vegetables- grating, dicing, etc…

-In a large skillet sauté in butter, onion, carrots, celery and almonds until onions are translucent.  Then stir in and evenly coat veggies with flour.  Do not let the flour brown.

-Slowly blend the diced chicken and veggies into the pot of broth & rice, stirring constantly.  Let simmer for about10 minutes.

-Add salt & pepper to taste.

-Slowly add the half & half stirring constantly so it doesn’t curdle.

-Reheat the entire mixture, but do not boil again.

-Optional: Garnish with grated cheddar cheese and sliced almonds.

Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I saw these in  a grocery store  and wanted to try to make them myself at home for our Easter dinner.  They turned out sooo good.  Jon was complementing every bite.  Once you figure out the chicken pocket method ( I use this when making Chicken Cordon Bleu as well) this is actually a really easy dish, but comes out so impressive and delicious.  Sine i was only feeding our small family I made three breasts, but this could probably be stretched to four, just cut up more asparagus.  SInce I just kind of made this up as I went, feel free to make any adjustments to your own taste.  I think it would be good to add fresh diced tomato or sun dried tomatoes to the stuffing as well.

Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Leah Matthews

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

6 stalks asparagus, cut in half (washed and ends cut off)
3  boneless chicken breasts, thawed
4oz cream cheese, room temp
1/2 tsp minced garlic
2-3 Tbs fresh grated Parmesan cheese
seasoned bread crumbs
margarine
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and garlic. Set aside.

Take a chicken breast and a  large, sharp knife; I use my chef's knife.  Starting in the thickest part of the breast, cut through making a pocket carefully edging the knife deeper through and widening the sides without cutting through the sides or bottom.  I am terrible at explaining this!  Essentially you are making a pocket i the chicken to stuff the yummy things into.  The bigger the pocket (w/out cutting through) the better so that you will have the stuffing in each bite when it is baked.  I don't seal the end, but you can use tooth picks to do this if you want.

Now, take a third of the cream cheese mix and stuff it into the chicken pocket with your hand trying to spread it out as evenly as possible.  Then stuff in four of the raw asparagus halves.  Repeat with each chicken breast.

Place them in a greased baking dish.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then bread crumbs.  Place a dollop of margarine on top of each.

Bake, uncovered for 20-25 minutes.  Some of the sauce will have spilled out, just spoon this over the top of the chicken when serving.

Roasted Asparagus

Simple, amazingly delicious.

Roasted Asparagus

Place trimmed asparagus into baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and chili powder.  Bake in 450 oven for 20-25 minutes.

Baked Cinnamon French Toast

I made this for our Christmas morning breakfast.  It was dense and yummy all on its own or smothered in  cream cheese icing!  You make it ahead the night before, refrigerate and then put it in the oven the next morning.  It baked while we opened gifts and was ready when we were done!

Baked Cinnamon French Toast

The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• FRENCH TOAST
• 1 loaf Crusty Sourdough Or French Bread
• 8 whole Eggs
• 2 cups Whole Milk
• ½ cups Whipping (heavy) Cream
• ¾ cups Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract
• Topping
• ½ cups All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1 stick Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces
• Fresh Fruit (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Grease 9 x 13-inch baking pan with butter. Tear bread into chunks (or cut into cubes) and evenly distribute in the pan.

Mix together eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla. Pour evenly over bread. Cover tightly and store in the fridge several hours or overnight.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add nutmeg if desired. Add butter pieces and but into the dry mixture until mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a Ziploc in the fridge.

When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove casserole from oven and sprinkle crumb mixture over the top. (If you’re using fruit, sprinkle on before the crumb mixture.) Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture. Bake 1 hour or more for a firmer, less liquid texture.

Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with maple syrup.

Molasses Sugar Cookies

These are maybe my favorite holiday cookies, at least tied with the chocolate crinkles.  They are such a warm, cozy kind of cookie and they make me happy.  As it is an older recipe, from my grandma's era at least, they use shortening.  Not really a big deal to me since I already had some on hand, but if you want an equivalent recipe that uses butter instead my sister-in-law has one on her blog called Ginger Molasses Cookies.

Molasses Sugar Cookies Wendy Chernan   Ingredients   3/4 c shortening 1 c sugar 1/4 c molasses 1 egg 2 tsp  baking soda 2 c flour 1/2 tsp cloves 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp salt   Directions   Melt shortening over low heat.  Cool. Add, sugar, molasses, and egg. Beat well. Add, flour, soda, salt and spices. Mix well. Form in 1" balls, roll in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 min at 375

Thanksgiving Feast

This was the first Thanksgiving where I've actually made the entire meal from scratch without the instruction of my mother or mother-in-law and it turned out wonderfully.  Our family friends, the Shafer's, hosted the holiday for us at their home and Ashley and I teamed up to try lots of new recipes.  So for future reference next year or even to repeat a few for Christmas dinner here they are.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but I've included the links to the source of the recipes so you can see them in all their photographic glory there. Mmmm, looking forward to eating all of our leftovers for dinner tonight!

I found some great Thanksgiving crafts at MarthaStewart.com.  We ended up making these cute pilgrim ships as name place cards.  They were actually kind of difficult, even for us adults, but they turned out really cute.

The Turkey

I started seeing this recipe quit a few times in the food blogging world.  Originally aired on an Alton brown Food Network show, I took the recipe from Annie's Eats.  It was perfect.  The turkey was the moistest I think I've had and there was the subtlest hint of apple and onion in each bite.  So good, we'll probably just use this method and recipe from here on out.  Unless, of course, Jon opts to fry a turkey again like we did last year.  That turned out yummy as well.  So here are both versions.

Roast Turkey

Ingredients:

1 (14-16 lb.) fresh turkey*  (we used a frozen one and it wasn't overly salty at all)

For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt

½ cup light brown sugar

1 gallon vegetable stock

1 tbsp. black peppercorns

1½ tsp. allspice berries (we omitted and used a teaspoon ground allspice instead)

1½ tsp. choppe candied ginger (also omitted)

1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced

½ onion, sliced

1 cinnamon stick 9we just used ground cinnamon this time)

1 cup water

4 sprigs rosemary

6 leaves sage

Canola oil

Directions:

To prepare the brine, combine the salt, brown sugar, vegetable stock, peppercorns, allspice and ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the solids.  Remove from the heat, cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate until ready to use.

The night before you plan to serve the turkey, combine the brine and ice water in a 5 gallon bucket (or larger for a bigger bird).  Place the thawed turkey (innards removed) breast side down in the brine.  If necessary, weigh down the bird so it is fully immersed.  Cover and refrigerate or set in a cool area for 8-16 hours, turning once halfway through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500˚ F.  Remove the bird from the brine and rinse inside and out with cold water.  Discard the brine.  (Be sure to clean out your sink well after this step!)

Place the bird on the wire rack inside a roasting pan.  Pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick and  1 cup water in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave on high for 5 minutes.  Add the steeped aromatics to the cavity of the turkey along with the rosemary and sage.  Tuck the wings underneath the bird and brush the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on the lowest rack of the oven at 500˚ F for 30 minutes.  Insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and lower the oven temperature to 350˚ F.  Set the thermometer alarm, if available, for 161˚ F.  (A 14-16 lb. bird will take about 2-2½ hours.)  Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil for 15 minutes before carving and serving.

*You can certainly make a larger turkey with this recipe.  It will obviously take longer to cook through, and an instant-read thermometer is absolutely essential for knowing when the bird is properly cooked.  You also could use a frozen turkey, but I wouldn’t recommend it.  For one thing, many frozen turkeys are injected with a salt-laden preservative that will cause your bird to be overly salted after brining.  And plus, it’s Thanksgiving!  Go for the best quality ingredients available – fresh tastes better.  If using frozen, thaw in the refrigerator 2-3 days before roasting.

Fried Turkey

How to deep fry a turkey instructions here.

Deep Fried Turkey Marinade

allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) bottle Italian dressing
• 1/2 cup cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup black pepper
• 1 cup Creole seasoning (Tony Chachere's is popular)
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 Italian dressing, cayenne pepper, black pepper, Creole seasoning, and garlic powder. Rub and inject over turkey, using remaining Italian dressing to fill cavity. Allow turkey to marinate 8 hours, or overnight, before deep-frying as desired.