January 18, 2013

Happy Friday!  I am heading out of town and won't be in a position to cook any new recipes next week, so I won't be publishing - but don't worry, hopefully I'll have recipes to share the following week.

But let's not worry about next week...this week two recipes qualified as keepers!  A vegetable rice medley and citrus crunch chicken.  Every now and then I do serve a pre-packaged side dish, but when I found this rice recipe I had to try it!  It was extremely quick and easy, and everyone at the table loved it!  My family is split over peas - some love them, some do not.  I did add the peas because those who don't completely enjoy them could easily pick them out.  The recipe didn't call for salt or pepper, but this could easily be added while cooking or each individual can season their dish as desired. 

We served the rice with the citrus chicken which was also enjoyed by everyone!  It had a light and bright flavor, and tasted summery here in the dead of winter.  This is another very quick and easy dinner to put together and serve on a busy weeknight.

This week I also made some dinner rolls - but oh my, were they a disaster!  I thought I had the temperature right on my liquids, but I think I must have had it too hot and killed the yeast! The rolls didn't rise during the resting time, and even when I baked them in the oven they barely rose.  I definitely still have a lot of work to do on my bread baking skills!

Happy cooking!

Easy Vegetable Rice Medley

Ingredients
* 1 tbsp canola oil
* 1 each small onion, carrot and stalk of celery, diced
* 1/2 to 1 pepper (red, yellow, green or a mix)
* 14.5 oz chicken broth
* 1 1/2 cups instant rice, uncooked
* 1 cup frozen peas, optional

Directions
1. Heat oil in a skillet. Add all the vegetables except the peas, cook for 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.
3. Stir in the rice and peas if desired. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. 
4. Remove from the heat but keep covered for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Notes
Wow! Do you see those rice medley packages that you can buy in the frozen food section and microwave for a few minutes?  This dish is exactly that but so much better!  It even uses instant rice so it is almost as fast!  We loved this, and cooked it twice this week.  The first time I used up the Uncle Ben's instant rice I had on hand, and we finished every vegetable and grain of rice in the serving bowl.  The second time we made it I had to buy new instant rice and I picked up Minute Rice.  We definitely didn't enjoy it as much the second time, so we will be sticking with Uncle Ben's in the future.  I am sure this recipe could be altered to use regular rice, but I haven't tried that yet.

Citrus Crunch Chicken

Ingredients
* 1 each - lemon, lime, orange
* 1 to 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 lb chicken breasts

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. 
2. Grate the peel from about half of each of the fruits. Mix the zest into the panko bread crumbs.
3. Cut the fruit into thin slices and overlap them into a greased or parchment lined 9 x 13 pan.
4. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Dip each into the bread crumbs and then lay on the fruit slices.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Notes
This was a nice change to the usual Italian inspired coated chicken!  Easy and tasty!

January 11, 2013

This week I did prep for the weeks ahead. I cooked a couple of chickens, retrieved an amazing amount of meat off the bones, then made a few quarts of chicken stock!  It was extremely satisfying, and great to have dinner ready chicken on hand.  We made chicken soup on Wednesday with the stock and some of the chicken meat, and although I've made it before, this week the kids slurped down a few bowls each.  I was even light on the noodles and heavy on the veggies and they still were asking for seconds and thirds.  I admit it...I do love scratch cooking!

And if I am going to admit that...I will also tell you that I am in the midst of a sandwich bread experiment.  I made rolls earlier in the week to go with our pulled pork sandwiches, and they were a hit.  The really nice thing about the rolls was that I was able to customize the sizes - some large for Ryan, some much smaller for Liam, and any size I desired in between.  The kids loved them, and ate them for breakfast the next day.  I am posting them here, but I have a few other "hamburger roll" recipes to try.  Stay tuned...this one might be replaced (or have its keeper status confirmed!).

But, back to the sandwich bread experiment.  Ryan loves Wonder Bread, traditional white Wonder Bread.  The kids prefer wheat, I prefer rye, so we keep a few kinds of bread in the house.  You probably know, but Hostess closed up shop, so Wonder Bread is no longer available.  I've been picking up sliced Italian bread, but then this week decided to try my hand at making sandwich bread.  I picked up yeast at Costco (enough of the little packets...I am all in), pulled out a few recipes and gave it a try.  With my trusty thermometer I was able to ensure the correct temperature of the water and the yeast worked like magic.  They both smelled wonderful as the baked, and there is nothing really as delicious as warm bread out of the oven.   Picture this - Ryan, the older kids and I standing at the island eating the bread as quickly as I was able to slice it.  We were just going to share one piece, but I think we ended up eating about half the loaf.  The second loaf was also delicious, but I did favor the first.  Both recipes were very similar, but the ingredients differed slightly.  The first called for a touch of honey and nonfat milk powder, which was in my pantry this week, but isn't always.  The other called for ingredients likely always on hand, so although it wasn't the hands down winner, it was still very good and easy to pull together.

Yes...I dabble a bit with paleo and primal eating...clearly this week's recipes don't fit with those lifestyles!  But, we loved them, and if you ever thought about making bread, maybe give one of these recipes a try!  Happy Cooking!

New Recipes
Quick and Easy Rolls
Sandwich Bread - version A
Sandwich Bread - version B

Quick and Easy Rolls

Ingredients
* 1 packet active dry yeast
* 1 cup plus 2 tbsp lukewarm water (110 F)
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp salt
* 3 to 3 1/2 cups AP flour (375 - 437.5g AP flour)

Directions
1. Dissolve yeast in water, then add the sugar and oil.  Let this stand for 5 minutes.
2. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.
3. Turn onto a floured surface.  Knead until smooth and elastic, approximately 5 minutes.  If desired, let the dough rise for approximately 30 minutes.  If not time to rise, divide the dough into 8-12 pieces. Shape each into a ball and place on a greased cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart.
4.  Cover and let the rolls rise for 30 minutes.
5. Bake at 325 for 8-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool and a wire rack.

Notes
These rolls were a bit dense.  I wanted to try the version without the first rise, and so that contributed to the "dense-ness" I believe.  When I make them again, I will use the optional first rise and see how that changes things.  They were very good for the pork sandwiches that we used them for, as the bbq sauce really soaked into the bread.  I think they would be lovely for hamburgers, or even could be shaped into hot dog rolls!

Sandwich Bread - Version A

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (110 F)
* 1 tbsp honey
* 1 packet active dry yeast
* 1 3/4 tsp salt
* 2 tbsp soft butter
* 482 g bread flour
* 35 g nonfat dry milk powder

Directions
1. Mix all the ingredients in the order listed and knead to make a smooth dough.  You can need by hand, hand mixer, or stand mixer.  The dough should feel smooth and elastic when it is ready.
2. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl.  Cover it and let rise for 60-90 minutes until it is quite puffy and near double in size.
3. Gently deflate the dough, and shape it into a loaf.  Place the dough in a lightly greased 9 x 5 loaf pan.
4.  Cover the loaf and let it rise again for another 60-90 minutes, or until it has crowned 1- 1 1/2 inches over the rim of the pan.
5. Bake the bread in a 350 F oven for 35 minutes.  If it is browning too quickly, tent some foil over the top of it for the last 10 minutes.
6. Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.  When it is completely cool, wrap it and store it at room temperature.

Notes
My bread never quite got that high over the pan on the second rise, even after 90 minutes.  When I cooked it I didn't need to cover it with any foil.  It was a little hard to get out of the pan, but it was very good.  I definitely will make this again, and see if  I can get it just right! 

Sandwich Bread - Version B

Ingredients
* 1 package active dry yeast
* 1 tbsp plus 1 1/2 tsp white sugar (20 g)
* 1 1/4 cup lukewarm water (110 F)
* 1 tbsp plus 1 1/2 tsp softened butter or crisco
* 1 1/2 tsp salt
* 445 g bread flour

Directions
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water.  Stir in the butter and salt and 1/3 of the flour.  Using a mixer begin the mix the dough with the bread hook.  Add the remaining flour and let it knead for approximately 8 minutes. THe dough should form and pull away from the work bowl.
2. Turn the bread onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand briefly to ensure it is smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn it to cover the entire ball with oil.  Cover the bowl and let it rise until doubled in volume, 60-90 minutes.
3. Deflate the dough and turn it onto a lightly floured surface.  Form it into a loaf, and place it into a lightly greased 9 x 5 loaf pan.  Cover the bread and let it rise until close to double in volume, 40-60 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
5. When you put the bread in the oven, immediately turn the oven down to  375 F.  Bake the bread for 30 minutes or until the top is lightly golden brown.
6. Cool the loaf out of the pan on a wire rack.  When fully cool, wrap and store at room temperature.

Notes
We did enjoy this bread, but it was the runner up.  However, one of the major advantages of this bread is that you likely have all the ingredients on hand.