Archive for the ‘From the Kitchen’ Category
What’s in Your Chicken?
Salt is a preservative and a seasoning. I also use chicken broth in many recipes as well. That doesn’t mean I want my chicken pumped full of salt or broth, especially without me knowing it. There was an enlightening article in Cooking Light January/February 2011 about chicken being injected with salt water or chicken broth increasing the sodium to 330+ mg per 4 oz chicken breast. I made a bee line to my package of chicken breast that I bought from SAMS and it said each one had 370 mg/breast. The other mouth drop to this article was the packaging can still say “Natural or All Natural”. Again, very MISLEADING if you ask me. Be an informed consumer and know what you are buying! If I want that much salt, let me put it in!
Parmesan Chicken with (Optional) Creamy Sage Sauce
- 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup panko crumbs
- 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon season salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/4 cup liquid butter (recipe: mix together 2 tablespoons room temp butter & 2 tablespoons canola oil)
(mix together the first 6 ingredients – cheese through pepper. Toss with garlic then add half of liquid butter and toss well until mixed well. Bread mixture should be moist but crumbly. Add remaining liquid butter if desire.)
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Spray baking pan with cooking spray then place thawed chicken breast in sprayed pan. Place parmesan bread mixture piled on 4 chicken breast. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until chicken reaches 165F.
Creamy Sage Sauce
- 1/2 cup white sauce (such as bechemel)
- 2 tablespoons no salt chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons white wine
- 2 tablespoons liquid butter (optional & see recipe above)
- 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage or 1 teaspoon fresh chopped sage
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Mix all ingredients together in a small sauce pan. Bring to a slow simmer at medium heat. Stir occasionally and heat until bubbly. Serve warm on the side with parmesan chicken.
Apple-a-Day
Is it true what they say about an apple-a-day? Well I don’t know but when it comes to cooking, eating and baking, there is a difference. I came across this handy quick reference for apples on the Cooking Light site. It actually was in one of their magazine issues. So whether you want to make a pie, some apple butter (which I did and it was very good), dip in caramel, make sauce, bake in the oven with cinnamon, butter and brown sugar OR picking out an apple tree to plant….know your apples.
http://www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/apple-types-recipes-00412000068665/page13.html
Try this really good apple butter recipe. I only made half the recipe and used granny smith apples so it would be a little tart and not real sweet.
A mixture of apple varieties, rather than just one type, will produce apple butter with rich, complex flavor in this slow cooker recipe. Good choices include Esopus Spitzenburg, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Northern Spy, Rome, Stayman, Winesap, and York. Enjoy the apple butter over toast or English muffins, or serve it with pork chops or chicken.
Yield: 4 cups (serving size: 1/4 cup)
Overnight Apple Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup apple cider
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground mace
- 10 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into large chunks (about 2 1/2 pounds)
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 10 hours or until apples are very tender.
Place a large fine-mesh sieve over a bowl; spoon one-third of apple mixture into sieve. Press mixture through sieve using the back of a spoon or ladle. Discard pulp. Repeat procedure with remaining apple mixture. Return apple mixture to slow cooker. Cook, uncovered, on high 1 1/2 hours or until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill up to a week.
Stovetop variation: Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 1 hour or until apples are very tender, stirring occasionally. Strain through a sieve as recipe instructs in Step 2. Return mixture to pan. Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat 15 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently.
Nutritional Information
- Calories: 132 (0.0% from fat)
- Fat: 0.0g (sat 0.0g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.0g)
- Protein: 0.1g
- Carbohydrate: 35.3g
- Fiber: 3.1g
- Cholesterol: 0.0mg
- Iron: 0.7mg
- Sodium: 6mg
- Calcium: 18mg
Pumpkin Pie
I love pumpkin pie. I would never eat someone’s homemade pumpkin pie because Mrs. Smith’s Custard Pumpkin pie was my absolute favorite. It was sad to me that a frozen store bought pie tasted much better, yet the calories (GUILT with every bite).
Then in a Cooking Light issues I read how I could get fresh pumpkin from a pie pumpkin. Then I saw a pumpkin pie recipe from Cooking Light. Reading the reviews several of the comments said use fresh pumpkin and not canned. Let me just tell you that I did not get the perfect pie (for me) on the first try. I had to tweak the recipe until I got it to MY TASTE. That is the key to recipes. You can start with a great basic recipe and change it to your families taste from there. Don’t be afraid to try something new.
The other Ah Ha moment I had getting to my favorite pumpkin pie was in the spice. I originally started with McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice. I looked at the ingredients and saw that it did not include cloves so I added cloves to my recipe. However, when I bought Island Spice pumpkin pie spice I noticed it had cloves already added, so I left it out when I used that brand.
The other great thing about using fresh pumpkin, instead of canned pure pumpkin is that you can control the calories, sugar and other ingredients. So just remember that here is a great start but tweak it to your taste.
Pumpkin Pie Ingredients
- Fresh Pumpkin from half of a pie pumpkin or 2 cups
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (only if not included in spice)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 oz can lowfat evaporated milk
- 1-2 Tablespoons fat free condensed milk (optional for texture)
- 2 eggs
- Pie crust
- pie pan
- cooking spray
Place bottom rack of oven on lowest setting.
Preheat oven to 425F
Cover a cookie sheet or tray with foil for the pie plate to sit on and catch spills.
Spray Pie plate with cooking spray.
Lay pie crust in the middle of pie plate and gently push down to shape the bottom of the pie plate.
Form the edges of the pie as seen in the picture. It should not look perfect, it should look homemade.
Place the pie plate on the foil lined cookie sheet. Pie will be full to the edge so it should be ready to place straight in the oven.
Place Brown sugar and spice in mixing bowl. Mix with electric mixer to evenly mix together.
Add salt, evaporated milk, eggs, and condensed milk to sugar and spice.
Mix well for a minute.
Add pumpkin and mix another minute to make sure all ingredients are mixed well.
Pour pumpkin mixture in pie crust, making sure to get all the pumpkin off beaters and bottom of bowl.
Carefully place baking sheet in oven with rack on lowest setting trying not to spill pie mixture.
Bake 10 minutes at 425F, then lower heat to 350F and bake an additional 45 minutes.
If knife does not come out clean in the middle, keep adding 5 -10 minutes at a time until pie is done in the middle.
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Keep leftovers refrigerated and enjoy!