Chicken

For All you Snowed In Texans-Chicken Mushroom Wild Rice Stew

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

If you can get to the store or have these items in your stocked pantry, this stew is deliious for another cold night in Texas!
1/4 cup butter
2 tables olive oil
1 cup chopped celery
1 tables minced garlic
2 (8 oz) containers sliced mushrooms
6 tables flour
2 teas garlic powder
1 teas salt
1 1/2 teas pepper
2 qts chicken broth
3 cups cooked wild rice
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tables chopped fresh thyme (or used dried, but only 1 tables if so)
4 cups chopped cooked chicken

In large dutch oven, heat butter and olive oil over medium heat until butter is melted. Add onion and celery and cook for 5 mins. Add garlic and cook for 2 mins. Add mushrooms and cook for 10 mins, stirring frequently. Add flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper and cook for another 2 mins, stirring constantly.
Gradually add chicken broth, stirring until smooth. Bring to a simmer; add chicken and rice and cook for 20 min, stirring occasionally. Add cream and thyme and return to a simmer, and cook for 10 min. Garnish with thyme if desired. Serve with hot french bread.

Cakes

Miniature Spice Cakes

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

As many of our family and friends are “iced in” back in Texas, I thought this sounded like a warm cozy recipe that would smell so good coming from the kitchen, if your power stays on long enough to bake them.
1 stick butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups applesauce
1/2 teas baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teas salt
1 teas baking powder
1 teas cinnamon
1/2 teas cloves
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease and flour miniature bundt pans. In a large bowl, cream margarine and sugar. Add egg and mix well.
In a small bowl, combine applesauce and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate small bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves. Add applesauce to butter mixture. Blend in sifted flour. Pour batter into prepared bundt pans, filling 2/3 full. If you don’t have miniature bundt pans, use cupcake pans, and fill to 1/2 full. Decrease your baking time to 15 to 18 min, or until center tests done.
Bake 25 to 35 min or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 min. Remove from pan and cool in wire rack. Cakes can be wrapped and frozen for 4 to 6 weeks. Right before serving, sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops. Serve with cinnamon ice cream or butter pecan and drizzle caramel sauce over cake and ice cream.

Breads · Daily Thoughts

Broccoli-Cauliflower Fritters

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

1/2 lb fresh broccoli clorets
1/2 lb fresh cauliflower florets
2 cups boiling water
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/2 teas salt
Vegetable oil
Cook florets in 2 cups boiling water in a medium saucepan until tender, about 10 to 12 min. (you can also cook these in microwave until tender)
Drain; then mash florets with a fork or potato masher in a large bowl. Stir in eggs and next 3 ingredients. Pour oil to a depth of 1/4 in into a large skillet; when oil is hot, drop broccoli mixture by spoonfuls into hot oil for 1 to 2 min on each side. Remove from oil to a wife rack on with a paper towel under the rack. Keep warm until ready to serve. These are delicious to serve with dips or soups and a great way to get the kids to eat more veggies without them knowing it. You could even use zucchini and carrots or any combination of vegetables. Just be sure they are not vegetables that have lots of water in them, such as spinach as you would need to adjust the amount of flour/egg in them.

appetizers

Chile Con Queso

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Oh boy, just what I need to do; find another dip that I cannot live without. I had remembered this dip from the 70’s when one of our distant relatives made it for us one night. I didn’t have his recipes, so thought I would try to recreate it as best I could remember. I served it Fri night to our kids who were visiting us from Austin and we all decided it was wonderful. Takes a little more time and effort than the traditional one you make with just velveeta and a can of diced tomato with green chiles, but it is so worth it.

6 oz of velvet cheese
5 oz of casero (quasi fresco-whole milk cheese, I used El Mexicano brand
1/2 large green bell pepper
1/2 large red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped green chiles
1/2 cup milk
1 teas cumin
1 teas garlic powder
1/4 teas red pepper (ground)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tables oil
Heat oil in skillet and saute green and red pepper with onion until veggies are tender.
If needed, you can add about 2 tables water to this and continue cooking until the peppers and onion are tender. Add the cheese which you have cut up into cubes and the green chiles, seasonings and milk. Cook on top of stove until mixture is bubbling and completely mixed and cheese is melted. Fry your own flour tortilla and corn tortillas instead of buying them. When each batch is friend and crisp, sprinkle a little salt and garlic salt (not powder) over them while hot. Serve with dip.
(If you live neat a Kroger, they make their own tortillas and we buy the salsa flavored ones and fry them up as chips. Just cut the round tortillas up into 8ths and fry in oil until crisp).

Beef

Country Fried Steak with Creamy Salsa Gravy

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

1 cup milk
1 large egg
1 (1.25 oz) packet chile seasoning mix
1 to 1 1/2 pounds cubed sirloin steaks
1/3 cup veggie oil
2 (10 oz) cans diced tomatoes and green chiles, 1 can drained and 1 can undrained
2/3 cup whipping cream
Whisk together milk and egg in a medium bowl. Stir together flour and chili seasoning packet in a shallow bowl. Dip steaks in egg mixture; dredge in flour mixture, shaking off any excess.
Fry steaks in hot oil over medium high heat in a large skillet (if you have a cast iron skillet, get it out of the closet for this, it is worth it) 4 to 6 min on each side or until golden brown. Drain on a wire rack in a jelly-roll pan. Keep steaks warm in a 220 degree oven.
Stir indrained and undrained tomatoes and green chiles, and cook 1 to 2 min; stirring to loosen particles from bottom of skillet. Whisk in cream. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. reduce heat and simmer 5 min. Serve with steaks.

Chocolate

Brownie Tiramisu

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Tiramisu is probably one of my favorite desserts in the whole wide world. This one is one of those that makes you wonder why in the world would you need anything else, when you have this sitting in front of you. It is a dessert experience!
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup coffee liqueur (I just use strong brewed coffee)
1 1/2 (4 oz) semisweet chocolae bars, divided
3/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sdugar, divided
3 large eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 (8 oz) cream cheese or mascarpone cheese
1 teas vanilla
1 cup whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350. Arrange pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake 5 to 7 min or until lightly toasted and fragrant. *I have to tell you, I skip this step. I don’t like pecans in the tiramisu, but for all you pecan lovers out there, eat your heart out.
Coarsely chop 1 chocolate bar. Microwave chopped chocolate and butter in a large microwave bowl for about 1 to 1 and 1/2 mins or until chocolate is melted, stirring at 30 sec intervals. Whisk in 2 cups sugar and eggs, whisking until blended; stir in flour, stirring just until blended. Spoon batter into a lightly greased 11×7 inch pan.
Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 min or until center is set. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10 min. Pierce browne multiple times using a fork.
*See Below
Pour coffee mixture over brownie. Let cool on wire rack 1 hour until completely cool.
Whisk together remaining 1/4 cup sugar, mascarpone or chream cheese and vanilla in a bowl. Beat whipping cream at medium speed with mixer untill stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
Crumble half of brownies and divide evenly among 6 (8 oz) glasses. Spoon half of cheese mixture over brownies. Repeat procedure with remaining brownies and cheese mixture. Chop remaining half of chocolate and sprinkle over top of glasses.
*If you are in a hurry, buy brownies or make Duncan Hines Fudge brownies and preceed with pouring the coffee over warm brownies. Then proceed as directed.

Daily Thoughts

Cookbook Clean-Out

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

Since we have moved and am having to “scale down” (two of my most unfavorite words in the whole world), Randy has “suggested” that maybe I might want to go through the Southern Living magazines, my Tea Time magazines, plus the Taste of Home magazines and just tear out my favorites so he could possibly sit down to watch TV at night instead of trying to sit atop of my stacks of magazines, that I just always said I would never throw out. Since I keep my magizines by seasons, I tend to pull out old ones to match the seasons, that way, it makes me continue to go through the old ones while standing and watching tv. But as we have gotten older (him, not me) we are missing having a place to sit, so hence, scaling down on the magazines. While going through a few of them each night, I have seen different recipes that I have made that became a sweet memory to us. It brought back the memory of all our adult kids and granchildren sitting around the table, after calling to request having chicken fried steak, all the while watching the grandkids sit and eat their McDonalds, while we, the adults, chomped away on chicken fried steak. Hopefully as the grandkids mature, they will realize that the CFS is so much better for you, (who are we kidding here) than the hamburger and fries from Micky D’s.
So after finding a few favorites last night, I couldn’t decide which of my two favorites to post, so am posting both of the ones I found last night. Hope they become a favorite at your house, like they have ours. First one will be Brownie Tiramisu and Country-Fried Steak with Creamy Salsa Gravy

Daily Thoughts

Tuesday Troubles

Chocolate Castles4 Comments

I know….most of you think that we are just out here, laying around on the beach, learning to eat sushi and making appointments to go to the tanning booths for that California spray on tan, but let me just give you a quick little update on my day. It began just like all the rest, got Randy off to work, got my first call of the day from Jodi, got some things to take back to the store (which is about 18 miles away. Thought, well it is beautiful out today, maybe I will just take a book to read and stop somewhere to have a quick lunch before heading back home. As I was headed out the door, I thought to myself, “self, maybe you should just eat a quick Lean Cuisine so you won’t spend any more money, or use up my calorie count on fast food. So I got out the meal of choice and popped it in the microwave only to discover that it wouldn’t turn on, in fact, as I looked around, all the little cute lights that I leave on, weren’t on, so I quickly discovered that the electricity was off. I thought to myself, “oh, I bet it is just off because someone is working on something in the neighborhood,” so I decided to just go ahead and leave and run errands, thinking that by the time I got home in a few hours, it would surely be on. Well, I get home and still no electricity. Checking with the neighbors only
to find out that they had electricity, I started to panic. Was I suppose to be paying for the electricity? Since we have never rented before,I didn’t know if I was suppose to have it switched over into our name, or what, so I called Randy and he told me to check the fuse box in the hall. Checked it and it was fine. Then I called the man who is like the “repairman” for these condo’s and he told me to go out and look at the main fuse to see if maybe it had blown a fuse for our place. I had to go find a neighbor who knew where it was, and we discovered that indeed, there was a tag on it from the City of Pasadena saying that they had turned it off because they were owed $138.08. It is now 3:00 and I begin to think that we might not have lights tonight and get excited about the possibility of getting to go out for dinner, since we have all electric kitchen. After a few phone calls to the landlord, it seems that they thought that the HOA fees included the electric and gas and water and that in our contract, it states that they will pay for everything. So they make a call and assure us that it will be turned on by 6:00 tonight. In the meantime, because I have been on the phone trying to call so many people, my phone has no charge so I go to the garage, plug in my phone and sit in my car to read to let my phone charge for about 30 mins. One of the neighbors see me sitting in the car and ask me if everything is ok? I tell him what is going on and he tells me to let him bring my phone into his house and they will charge it for me so I don’t have to sit in my car. We get our electricity around 5:00 so I didn’t get dinner out, we had sandwiches. It was just so nice to know that people are still in the habit of helping and the neighbors who we have here are so sweet. The landlord even sent us over a gift certificate to
apologize for our inconvenience. The sweet neighbors who live under us invited us to come over tonight to watch TV if we still didn’t have the lights on. These California people are very hospitable, almost made me feel like I was back in the South again, except they didn’t offer us a glass of sweet tea or pie. Maybe they were in a hurry to hit the tanning parlor or go out for sushi.

Casseroles · Chicken

Chicken Wild Rice Dish

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

Just finished going back for seconds on this one. It really was good. Was so easy to make and has a great flavor.
1 box (6.2 oz) package of wild-rice long grain and wild rice mix
2 tables butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 can (8 oz can) chopped water chestnuts
2 1/2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup milk (I used whipping cream because I just wanted a little extra richness)

1/2 teas each, parsley, pepper, salt and also garlic powder
1/2 cup ritz crackers, ground up

Stir in rice, chicken, cheese, soup, sour cream and mix together. Pour into a greased baking dish (about 2 qt). Sprinkle breadcrumbs over chicken mixture. Melt about 2 tables butter and pour over crumb mixture and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Serve with hot rolls, fresh green beans which you have added baby carrots and cooked in a saucepan with a piece of bacon, salt and pepper and 1 teas garlic powder. Makes a very pretty plate. You can also freeze this and then when you thawed it out, add your bread crumbs and butter to top and bake as usual…
Prepare rice mix according to package; set aside. Melt butter in a skillet and add onion and celery and water chestnuts to butter; cook them until soft and tender, about 10 minutes.

Daily Thoughts

Future Cook Book

Chocolate Castles6 Comments

Many of you have expressed to me that it would be so nice to have these recipes from the blog in book form to where you wouldn’t have to scroll through page after page to find what you are looking for. Several years ago, I felt that God was asking me to do just that, and began to work on one. It has become so heavy on my heart to complete the cookbook, so am going to be working on it until it is finished. The name of the book has already been on my heart for a couple of years, so please pray for me that I will have the dedication and determination to complete that which I truly feel God calling me to do. As most of you know, it is so hard for me to sit over 20 minutes, so this will take so much discipline. It will be filled with not only recipes, but stories of family and friends, hopefully bringing a smile to your face. There will be “God Stories” of how and when He has truly shown Himself to us in our different seasons of life. Thank you in advance for your prayers as I complete this. It is exciting to think about having so much of my experiences with learning how to cook, teaching children different recipes and mistakes that have been made, both in cooking and serving. Will keep you posted on the progress!