~My Vintage Kitchen~

Menu Plan Monday ~ Week of August 8th

2011-08-08T10:10:00.001-04:00

I've decided to bring My Vintage Kitchen out of retirement! .

Since today is Monday, I thought I'd start off with a Menu Plan Monday post. You'll find this post linked up over at I'm an Organizing Junkie and also on my other blog, Under the Big Oak Tree.

While Under the Big Oak Tree focuses on many topics (family, food, dieting, frugal tips, etc), My Vintage Kitchen will focus on menu planning, kitchen tips, recipes and also my vintage kitchen related items. In other words, this will be about all things kitchen related.

I hope you will enjoy visiting me here, in my vintage kitchen. Pull up a chair and enjoy a nice glass of Sweet Tea or Watermelon Punch.

This is what we'll be eating this week:

Spaghetti with Simply Tomato Sauce, Fried Eggplant, garlic bread, salad.

Barbecue Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Fried Zucchini, corn on the cob. I'm a little sad that we didn't get around to planting our little vegetable garden this year. Especially, now that I see all of the wonderful zucchini recipes posted all over the internet! This isn't the healthiest way to eat zucchini, but it is one of our favorites! (The recipes for the meatloaf and mashed potatoes will be posted soon!)

Tuna Noodle Casserole. MMmmm. Comfort food! After breaking down and ordering take-out over the weekend, I am in serious need of some comfort food. I'll check out the weather to see if there is going to be a cooler day to prepare this.

Baked Veggie Fritters. I plan on making up a batch of these tasty veggie patties and eating them with meals through out the week. They are great as a snack or quick lunch too!

Waffles, Turkey Bacon, fruit salad. Last week, we had breakfast for dinner twice (three times if you count the leftovers!) We had blueberry pancakes and Scrapple in the beginning of the week. Then it was french toast and turkey bacon later in the week. After finding my never-used waffle iron while sorting through all of the many boxes in my basement, I decided that this week will be my first attempt at ever making waffles!

What are you serving for dinner this week? Share in the comments or follow me over to I'm an Organizing Junkie and join in the Menu Plan Monday fun!

Also, check out this post to find out how to get a coupon for FREE Activia Selects Yogurt!

My Vintage Kitchen is moving.

2010-09-12T23:48:00.000-04:00

Yes, you read that correctly! My Vintage Kitchen is going to move!

I've been having a heck of a time trying to keep up with two blogs and a toddler. It was a lot easier to find time to post when Grace was an infant and slept most of the day, but now that she's running all over the house, I get less opportunities to post and My Vintage Kitchen is suffering. Since I also post recipes on my other blog, Under the Big Oak Tree, it makes more sense to combine the two blogs.

I know that some of you follow both of my blogs. But I hope the My Vintage Kitchen readers that don't already follow my other blog will decide to follow us Under the Big Oak Tree where you can find menu plans, deals, product, reviews and other recipes that haven't been shared here!

This week, I'll be announcing some great product reviews and giveaways so I really hope to see you all Under the Big Oak Tree!

Check Out My Other Blog: CSN Stores Giveaway

2010-07-02T01:44:00.000-04:00

I know that I've been neglecting this blog. I'll be posting some new recipes soon. But for now, I want to share some giveaway news with the readers of My Vintage Kitchen.

Some of you may know that I have another blog: Under the Big Oak Tree. I use that blog to post about daily stuff: deals, household tips, my family, some recipes, product reviews, etc.

Just in case there are some of you that don't know about that other blog, I wanted to be sure that I told you about a great GIVEAWAY that I'm hosting over there:

Caitlin from CSN Stores contacted me and offered me the chance to give one of my lucky readers a $40 gift certificate to be used at any of their 200 + online stores!

Since this is a cooking/food/kitchen blog, I thought it would be fun to show you some of the kitchen items that they carry:

Can you tell I love Le Creuset? Maybe just a little? :)

Like I said, you can use the gift certificate at any of the 200 + plus CSN Stores websites, but in the spirit of this being a food blog, kitchen stuff seemed appropriate!

What are you waiting for? Get over there and enter!!!

Good luck!

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T09:24:00.000-04:00

While my little family is all still asleep on this beautiful Sunday morning, I wanted to wish everyone a very happy Father's Day!

This is my favorite picture of my little family.

It was taken on the night we brought Grace home from the hospital.

We were so worried that our spoiled puppy wouldn't like the baby. We worried for nothing. Remmy is wonderful with Grace. They are buddies!

Crunchy Tuna Salad with Egg

2010-06-17T16:03:00.003-04:00

When I was a kid, I hated Tuna Salad. I really, really hated it. It wasn't the tuna itself that I didn't like, it was the chunks of onions that my mom added to it! I remember asking my mom to just take the tuna out of the can and put it on some bread for me. She did that occasionally. But most of the time I was stuck with the chunks!

Now, as an adult, I love to add not only onions, but also celery and carrots. Mmmm! I love all the crunchy veggies mixed with my tuna! I also add hard boiled eggs to my tuna. All those added items really makes a hearty sandwich and helps to stretch a can of tuna!

I make it pretty much the same way each time except I don't measure. Here's a rough idea of how I made it tonight (you can adjust the add-ins according to your tastes):

Crunchy Tuna Salad

Ingredients:

3 cans Albacor Tuna packed in water (drained)
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/4 cup carrot, diced
1/4 Hellmann's Mayonnaise
pepper, to taste (optional)

Directions:

Place eggs and tuna in a mixing bowl and mash with a fork to separate the tuna chunks a bit.
Add vegetables, stir until well mixed.
Stir in the mayo.
Add pepper (optional)

Notes:

Crisp-cooked bacon or the bacon sold in the salad dressing aisle is also a good addition to this salad.
I like to serve this on toast, crackers, or in a wrap with some lettuce.

I used to get tuna salad similar to this from a deli in Philly on my lunch break. The deli changed owners and the new owners had a different type of tuna salad. While this is a similar salad, I was never able to duplicate the deli's salad. That's okay, I like this one too!

It's so much cheaper to make this tuna salad than it was to buy a single serving at the deli every day. And it's a great way to use up some fresh vegetables. I try to plan tuna salad whenever I buy celery for a recipe since we never seem to be able to use up the celery before it turns to mush in the veggie bin.

I'll be linking this recipe to the following blog carnivals:

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

2010-05-24T09:26:00.008-04:00

Last week, I made some barbecue chicken breasts in the oven. Grace loves chicken so I like to keep it made and in the fridge for her. It makes it easy for me on nights when she can't eat what we're eating.

We usually use store bought barbecue sauce but we ran out a couple weeks ago. The store was sold out of our favorite brand (Famous Dave's Sweet & Zesty) and I didn't care for the brand that Joe bought instead. It had way too much smoke flavor for my taste.

I checked out my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (it's seen better days) and found a basic recipe. I was happy that I had all of the ingredients needed. As always, I adapted this recipe to suit our tastes and added or switched some of the ingredients.

Easy Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:

1 C. ketchup
1/4 C. apple cider vinegar
1/2 C. water
1 1/2 T. brown sugar
1 T. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
1 T. brown mustard
3 T. finely diced onion
1 T. finely diced celery
1/4 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 oz. liquid smoke
several dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce
ground black pepper to taste

Method:

In a small sauce pot, stir together all ingredients. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring often. After sauce comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) until sauce is thick, stirring often.

A couple of years ago, I never would have made my own barbecue sauce. I wouldn't have even thought to do it. I'm so happy that I made this sauce, it was so easy and so much cheaper than the store bought sauces. I think we'll be sticking with this sauce for more daily use and save our favorites store bought brand as a treat.
I'll be linking to the following blogs this week:

Easier Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

2010-05-16T13:28:00.004-04:00

I've been wanting to post more kitchen tips and other kitchen related topics to this blog but I've been focusing on recipes. Since I haven't tried any new recipes lately, I thought I'd post this tip for easy grilled cheese sandwiches.

I hate spreading butter onto bread. Mainly because I always forget to take the butter out to soften and trying to spread the cold and hard butter on the bread tears the bread. Sure I could soften it in the microwave, but I usually end up with an entire stick of MELTED butter.

For grilled cheese, I make it the way my Mom always made it for us. With mayonnaise instead of butter. It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I realized that most people used butter for their grilled cheese sandwiches.

You've got to try it! Instead of spreading butter onto the slices of bread, try some mayo! I guess the oils in the mayo keeps the bread from sticking to the pan. It still gets nice and golden brown too, just like a "regular" grilled cheese sandwich. Joe even thinks that the mayo makes it taste creamier than the traditional way.

Here's another tip: For best results, use regular mayonnaise. Don't use lite mayo or miracle whip. The grilled cheese tends to stick when using those types.

********Be sure to check out my other blog for a giveaway to celebrate it's 100th post!********

I'll be linking to:

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-08T23:44:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day!

This photo is from my FIRST Mother's Day.

Grace is so tiny in this picture.

Just 8 days old.

Sigh.

I cannot believe that it's been a year already!

I'm looking forward to a quiet day with my 2 favorite people (and my favorite puppy). We may possibly run an errand or two, but for the most part, a nice quiet day....we need it!

~~~~~~~

My other blog: Under the Big Oak Tree is getting very close to it's

100th post!

Soon, I'll be announcing a giveaway to celebrate!

Check back this week for more details!

Ham and Cabbage Skillet

2010-03-18T22:57:00.001-04:00

I'm not a huge fan of the traditional boiled ham and cabbage St. Patrick's Day dinner. I also don't like Corned Beef and Cabbage. Honestly, I am Irish! :)

When I eat ham, I tend to only enjoy it if it's a spiral cut ham from either Heavenly Ham or Honey Baked Ham. Or if it's in the form of deli meat. Even then, I'm picky about it.

I will, however, eat ham steak. And I do enjoy that! MMmmm!

In the past, Joe and I never really did anything to "celebrate" St. Patrick's Day. Well, besides wearing a green shirt to avoid pinching!

Now that we have Grace, I want to celebrate all the special occasions in little ways. You know, heart-shaped pancakes on Valentine's Day and stuff like that.

Grace is still too young to even realize that it's a special occasion and she's just starting on table food, so this year was "practice". We were out yesterday during dinner, so I put off making our St. Patty's Day dinner until tonight. I really enjoyed it and think it will be a keeper. Not only for St. Patty's Day but as another way to serve ham steak throughout the year.

Ham and Cabbage Skillet

Ingredients:

3 Tbs. butter
3 potatoes, scrubbed and diced
2 cups onion, chopped
2 cups carrot, chopped
4 cups cabbage, chopped
1/2 cup water
Mrs. Dash, paprika, black pepper, to taste
1 lb. ham steak, diced

Method:

Boil potatoes in a pot until tender, drain.
In a skillet, melt butter and cook onions and carrots until onions just begin to become translucent.
Add cabbage and cook for about 2 minutes.
Stir in water. This will help the cabbage cook and also deglaze the pan.
Cook until vegetables are tender.
Season to your liking and combine well.
Add diced ham, heat through.
Mix in the drained potatoes. You may want to add another Tbs. of butter.
Cook a few minutes more.

If you happen to make the traditional boiled ham dinner. This would be a great way to serve the leftovers. Just drain the juices, add to a hot skillet with melted butter and saute until slightly browned.

Twice Baked Potatoes

2010-03-18T21:44:00.000-04:00

Usually when I cook, I find a recipe I think we will like and then switch some of the ingredients around. Sometimes I make changes to exclude an ingredient that I don't like (i.e. mushrooms) or I make a change because I think the recipe could be improved if something was added (like peppers and onions) or I make a change simply because I don't have a specific ingredient and I don't feel like waiting until I go shopping to make the recipe.

When I make twice baked potatoes, I follow the recipe as it is written. Every time. (except I leave out the green onion.)

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

8 baking potatoes*, scrubbed
2 sticks butter, sliced
1 cup bacon bits**
1 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 cup cheddar jack cheese, shredded
black pepper
additional cheddar jack for garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bake potatoes on cookie sheet for 1 hour, 15 minutes
Place sliced butter, bacon bits, sour cream and Lawry's Seasoned Salt in a large mixing bowl.
When potatoes are done baking, remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Turn oven down to 350 degrees.
Hold potato with a clean dish towel or pot holder and cut in half (lengthwise).
Scrape out the potato pulp into the bowl with the other ingredients, being careful to leave a little still attached to the skin. Also, being careful to not tear the skin.
Place the skins on a cookie sheet.
Mash the potatoes and other ingredients with a hand masher (not the electric mixer) to the texture you like. I like them a bit lumpy.
Add the shredded cheese and mix together until ingredients are well blended.
Stuff the potatoes.
Top with additional cheese.
Bake on cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes.

*I prefer to use the huge potatoes from Costco, but the more normal sized baking potatoes from the grocery store work great, too.

**Don't use the hard, crunchy kind of bacon bits. Use the soft kind by Oscar Meyer or similar. This can usually be found in the salad dressing/crouton aisle or in the canned tuna/chicken/Spam aisle.

This recipe can be found on The Pioneer Woman Cooks! blog along with a great, step-by-step picture tutorial!

Check out my other blog

2010-03-18T17:55:00.001-04:00

I know it's been a while since I posted anything new. I do have a few new recipes to post, it's just been a challenge trying to find the time to sit down and type them out.

In the meantime, hop on over to Under the Big Oak Tree (my other blog) to read my review of the 12" x 9.5" Le Creuset Rectangular Dish that CSN Stores sent me!

Here's a couple of pictures of the dish in action:

Green Bean Casserole

Stuffed Peppers

The recipe for Stuffed Peppers will be posted sometime soon!

Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

2010-02-24T09:38:00.000-05:00

For years, I only bought baby carrots from the grocery store. I like them better for snacking than whole carrots. Recently, I started buying whole carrots for cooking. I still buy baby carrots for snacks, but if I know I'm planning to make soup or stew, I'll buy the whole carrots.

Now that I'm hooked on making my own veggie broth from scraps and peels, the whole carrots really come in handy! For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a 5lb bag of carrots!

When I wasn't using them as quick as I thought I would, I started to get worried that they would go bad and I'd have to throw them away, so I searched for recipes for carrots. I found a few recipes for carrot soup and decided to attempt to create my own recipe in my Crock-Pot.

Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

2 lbs. carrots, peeled & sliced into coins
2 sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks
2 onions, sliced thin
2 cans (14.5 oz. each) chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. ground thyme
dash of cloves
Sour cream (optional)

Add all ingredients to Crock-Pot, cover and cook on low until vegetables are tender.

Blend with stick blender to desired texture. Top with sour cream and serve.

I served the soup along with grilled cheese sandwiches for a Lenten Friday (meatless) meal. Both of us agreed that the soup would have been better with some meat (maybe ham) added. Or if left as a meatless soup, it would make a delicious first course to a nice steak dinner.

I'll be sharing this recipe with the following carnivals:

Lovin' My Crock-Pot

2010-02-21T21:25:00.000-05:00

It's been a bit slow in the kitchen this past week as far as recipes go.

I've gotten some use out of my Crock-Pot. Have I mentioned how much I love that thing?!

I cooked up my first batch of dried beans! I am so proud of myself! Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love beans! The fact that I am such a bean lover and only ever prepared them by using canned beans is amazing to me.

Wanting to attempt cooking dried beans, I bought a 2 lb. bag of pinto beans from Aldi. Two years ago. I bought them, then felt intimidated by them. So, I ignored them and let them just sit there in my pantry. Doing nothing.

Then, I found out that beans shouldn't sit for more than a year. After that, they don't soften. Great. Just great.

Since Joe does a lot of the food shopping, there's no way I can convince him to buy more dried beans if I throw this 2 year old bag of beans away. So, I attempted to cook them anyway. Fully prepared for failure.

They turned out great! After they were done cooking (in my Crock-Pot) I seasoned them a bit and let them cook a little bit longer. I served the beans over rice with corn muffins on the side. A perfectly filling, meatless meal for Ash Wednesday.

We made refried beans out of the leftovers and have several containers full in the freezer for taco dinners.

I will post in more detail about cooking the beans and also the refried beans. This time I really just threw stuff in and didn't measure a thing. Next time, I need to measure and write it all down, so I know what the heck I'm talking about! And of course, I'll have to remember to take pictures.

I also used my Crock-Pot to cook some split chicken breast. I cooked it and diced it to use in future meals. With the cooking juices and bones, I made more chicken broth! Two quarts of homemade chicken broth!  MMmmmm! I see chicken rice soup and croquettes in my future.

I made more vegetable broth. Again, in the Crock-Pot. I think I made about 10 cups of veggie broth. That will be perfect to add to some minestrone soup I forgot was in the freezer. I remember that I made it a bit thick and that it would need to have some broth added when served again.  Perfect. I think this will be on the menu for this week's Lenten Friday meal.

I did try a new recipe. I bought a 5 lb. bag of carrots a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what I thought I needed 5 lbs. of carrots, but the price was low and I wanted carrots. Impulse buy, I guess.

Anway, I made a carrot and sweet potato soup on Friday. I need to gather my notes, so that I can post the recipe soon.

Now that I think about it, maybe the kitchen wasn't so slow after all!

Tutorial: Make Your Own Veggie Broth in the Crock-Pot

2010-02-12T11:10:00.002-05:00

I've said before that my Crock-Pot is one of my most-used appliances in my kitchen. Only to be beat by my constantly running dishwasher!

After making my own chicken broth (I'll post about that soon...I promise) last month, I decided to find out if vegetable broth can be made in the Crock-Pot. Sure enough, it can! Yay!

Searching the Internet, I found a lot of information for making homemade vegetable broth. Rachael wrote this post for Buffalo Frugal Living Examiner and it seemed to have the best information for me. After reading her post and seeing how simple it was to make veggie broth, I wanted to jump right in and make it that very second. But, it wouldn't have been a very good vegetable broth, since I didn't have any veggie scraps saved.

I decided to share my vegetable broth making experience with you and was even prepared with the camera close by and took step by step photos of the entire process!

I started by saving all of my veggie scraps while preparing recent meals. I saved everything: carrot ends and peels, potato peels, celery (tops, bottoms and leaves) onion peels and tops, bell pepper tops, garlic peels, broccoli stems, cabbage cores, etc.

I stored the scraps in gallon size Ziplock Freezer Bags in my basement freezer.

I poured the frozen** scraps into my Crock-Pot. My oval Crock-Pot only needed one of the gallon-sized bags to fill it. This particular bag was full of scraps from carrots, peppers, celery, cabbage and onions.

**Remember: if you are using cold or frozen vegetable scraps, to start off with a room temperature Crock-Pot. If it's pre-heated, it may crack when the cold items are added.

I added COLD water to about 1/2 inch from the top. Then I covered it and cooked on LOW for about 13 hours.

After letting it simmer through the night, this is what it looked like in the morning. I took the lid off and let it cool for about half an hour.

I placed a large bowl in my sink and then placed my colander inside of the bowl to strain the veggies from the broth.

I used a large ladle to scoop out most of the veggies and broth and let it strain through the colander and into the bowl until there was enough removed so that I could pour it through the strainer without making much of a mess!

After that, I just had to pour it into my large measuring cup to see just how much broth was made! It's past the 8 cup line! So, that's about 4 cans of broth. Four less cans I have to buy not only means that I saved money, but four less cans to ~~throw away~~ recycle.

My next step will be to pour it into Ziplock Freezer Bags when it's finished cooling. I'll store them in 2 cup portions and freeze flat on the shelf of my kitchen freezer. Once they are solid, they will stack nicely in my basement freezer!

I will be sharing this blog post with the following blog carnivals this week:

Chicken Rice Soup ~ Easy, Fast and Frugal

2010-02-04T11:20:00.001-05:00

Last week, I made some homemade chicken broth. I had a quart left in the fridge that needed to get used, so I threw together a quick soup.

I'm posting this, at the request of my friend Lisa. Although, it's a pretty easy recipe, I thought I'd share!

Chicken Rice Soup

Ingredients:

1 quart homemade chicken broth
1-2 cups water (or additional broth) *
1 cup carrots, carrots
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup celery, diced
2 cups cooked chicken, diced
1-2 cups cooked rice

Directions:

bring homemade broth to a boil in soup pot on stove, medium-high heat.
add water (or additional broth) if needed
add vegetables, cover and reduce heat to low
simmer until vegetables are tender
stir in chicken and rice
heat through

Notes:

* I made the homemade broth (more about that in a future post) using the cooking juices and bones/carcass from a whole chicken cooked in the crock pot (recipe on my other blog). The spices on the chicken made this a very dark, spicy broth. I needed about 1 1/2 cups of water to dilute it enough to be a light flavored broth for a light soup.

This soup turned out great! It was a really quick, easy and frugal meal! I really just cleaned out the fridge of some veggies that needed to get used and the homemade broth I had made the week before! Joe picked up a loaf of crusty bread on his way home from work!

There is just one small bowl left and I'm eating that for lunch today!

Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup ~ Crock-Pot

2010-02-03T23:29:00.003-05:00

If you read my recipe post for Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, then you know I added some potatoes and onions under the chicken to cook at the same time.

When the Chicken with 40 Garlic Cloves was finished cooking, I removed the chicken to one bowl and the potatoes, onions and some of the garlic to another bowl. I reserved those potatoes for this recipe:

Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

Ingredients:

Roasted Potatoes, Onions, Garlic*
1 quart homemade chicken broth**
2 additional cups potatoes, peeled & diced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions:

Place previously roasted potatoes, onions and garlic in crock-pot with chicken broth, cover and cook on high for one hour.
Using a stick blender,*** puree the potatoes and onions to your desired consistency and texture.
Stir in the additional potatoes along with the carrots, celery, water, salt and pepper.
Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or until vegetables are tender.

Potatoes and onions in chicken broth.

Pureed potatoes and onions in chicken broth.

Finished product!

Mmmmm!

*I really love how easy it was to make this soup using the previously roasted vegetables. I added extra veggies since I planned on pureeing the roasted veggies, but still wanted a chunkier soup.

**I made homemade broth using the bones and the cooking juices from the Chicken with 40 Garlic Cloves. Store bought broth or stock can also be used.

***If you don't have a stick blender, a food processor or standard kitchen blender will work.

I really enjoyed this soup. It was very hearty and had lots of flavor. We each had two bowls along with sliced French Bread for dipping!

Even after our hearty portions, there was still about a quart of soup leftover. I put that in the fridge for leftover night (probably Saturday)!

I'll be sharing this recipe with the following blog carnivals:

Crock-Pot Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

2010-02-03T00:24:00.000-05:00

Do you know there are several recipes for Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic posted all over the Internet?

Seriously, I didn't realize it until I decided over the weekend that I wanted to prepare this dish for dinner on Monday night. You can find some version of this recipe pretty much anywhere: Food Network, Bloggers, Allrecipes, etc.!

With the help of my friend (in real life) Lisa, I was able to decide on a combination of flavors that would work for me.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic with Roasted Potatoes & Onions

Ingredients:

3lbs. potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 cups onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 Tbsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
4 bone-in split chicken breast (approx. 4 lbs.)
33 cloves of garlic*, peeled
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. pepper

This is a photo of the raw chicken layered in the crock pot on top of the potatoes and onions.

Directions:

In a large bowl, toss the potatoes and onions with the sliced garlic, olive oil, rosemary and thyme.
Spread the potato and onion mixture evenly on the bottom of a large crockpot.**
Use the same large bowl; toss chicken pieces with the olive oil and the remaining ingredients. Fit a garlic clove or two into open spaces in the chicken breast (optional).
Fit the chicken parts in the crock pot on top of the potatoes and onions.
Place lid on top and cook on low 6-8 hours.***

This photo is the chicken after it cooked in the crock pot for 5 hours.

See the nice roasted garlic?

Mmmmmm!

Notes:
     * I was tired of peeling garlic at this point, we never missed the other cloves!
   ** I reserved the potatoes and onions to use for another meal later this week.
*** I cooked this on high for one hour, then turned it to low for 4 hours.

I really enjoyed this recipe. The flavors were wonderful! The chicken was a teeny bit dry, I'm thinking that I layered too many potatoes and they didn't allow for the chicken to baste in the cooking juices. But I like that we were able to eat it like a nice piece of roasted chicken. Sometimes meat is too tender when cooked in the crock pot. At least to my liking.  I think I will try this combination of spices with a whole chicken the next time. With less potatoes on the bottom.

When I began deciding how I wanted to season the chicken and prepare everything, I knew the chicken wouldn't fill the entire crock pot. I remember someone telling me that they cook their chicken and potatoes at the same time in the oven. I thought that was a great idea, but decided that the garlic potatoes along with the garlic chicken would be a bit much for one meal. So, I came up with a plan for those roasted potatoes.

Be sure to check back to find out how I used those potatoes and onions in another meal!

I will be sharing this blog post on the following carnivals this week:

Crock-Pot Wednesday
Food on Friday

Asian-Style Pepper Steak: Take Out Fake Out

2010-01-30T09:12:00.003-05:00

Joe picked up some London Broil the other day after seeing a really good price in the Acme sale ad. I was trying to decide what to make using one of the packs of meat and I decided on Pepper Steak. Instead of using my recipe, I decided to try my friend Lisa's recipe.

But true to my usual form, I didn't follow her recipe completely! Mainly, due to the fact that I didn't have all of the ingredients. Plus, she makes her recipe in the crock pot. I didn't have much luck using the crock pot for Pepper Steak in the past, so I used my dutch oven on the stove. Other than that, I didn't stray from the original recipe TOO MUCH!

You'll want to check out Lisa's recipe if you plan on using the crock pot to prepare this meal.

Here's my version of Lisa's Asian-Style Pepper Steak:

Asian-Style Pepper Steak

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs. London Broil, diced
A-1 Steak Sauce
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt & pepper
1 tsp. beef bouillon granules
1 cup boiling water
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
4 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce*
2 small onions, chopped
1-2 red bell peppers, chopped

Directions:

Marinate diced meat in A-1 Steak Sauce, overnight.
Remove meat from marinade with a slotted spoon and add to hot olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven with the cayenne pepper and salt and pepper, over medium high heat to brown the meat.
Mix the bouillon granules with the boiling water and add to the pot along with the the remaining ingredients.
Bring to boil.
Cover and reduce heat.
Allow to simmer for about 20 minutes to a half hour.
Add peppers and oinons, continue to simmer until veggies are tender.
Serve over your favorite white or brown rice.

*I didn't realize we were out of soy sauce. After searching for substitutions, I found an easy solution to my problem on allrecipes.com. I found out that for a 1/2 cup of soy sauce, you can mix 4 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce with 1 Tbsp. of water. Since I only needed 1/4 cup, I cut that in half. I didn't miss the soy sauce at all!

This dish was excellent! I may never switch back to my recipe again!

As it was cooking, I tasted the sauce to see if it was tasting like I thought it should taste. I was so tempted to call Joe and ask him to pick up egg rolls on his way home from work. I resisted! But I'll be buying some frozen egg rolls from Costco or Trader Joe's to keep in the freezer just for this meal!

I served this over white minute rice with a some steamed broccoli on the side. I really enjoyed this Asian-inspired meal. I think I will make this often when I crave take-out but can't fit it in the budget. It's a very frugal meal if you manage to get a decent sale on the meat.

This post is linked to Taste the World hosted by Alison at Hospitality Haven.

Click the button below to find more Chinese inspired meals.

Rice-A-Roni Fake Out

2010-01-29T09:39:00.001-05:00

While taking stock of my pantry, I found 3 bags of fine egg noodles. I didn't even realize they there! I don't use them and I didn't buy them! Sometimes Joe does the food shopping and odd things like this end up in our pantry!

I made chicken noodle soup the other night and included some of the fine noodles instead of the heartier noodles that I prefer. I was shocked at the small amount that was needed from the bag! Still had more than half a bag left and 2 more full bags in the pantry! I'll never use them up!

I saw a recipe on the package for Pasta Rice Pilaf. After checking to see if I had all the ingredients, I planned this for dinner the next night!

I am known to be product loyal with some things. For instance, Acme's knock off of Bush's beans are awful! Other things, I love buying the store brand in order to save some money. Giant brand of Raisin Brand is just like Kellogg's Raisin Bran. (Before that discovery, I could only eat Kellogg's Raisin Bran...see, I'm product loyal.)

I was super-surpised and thrilled with this recipe! Not only did it taste better than beef-flavored Rice-A-Roni, it was easy, made larger serving sizes and I am sure WAY cheaper!!!! (I don't have a price break down at the moment.)

So, here's the recipe:

Pasta Rice Pilaf

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1/2 cup fine egg noodles
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine
2 3/4 cups water
2 Tbsp. dried minced onion
4 tsp. beef flavor bouillon granules
chopped fresh parsley, optional

Directions:

In large skillet, cook rice and noodles in melted butter or margarine, stirring frequently until rice and noodles are lightly browned.
Add water, onion and bouillon granules.
Bring to boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes until rice and noodles are tender.
Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

I served this with grilled London Broil and steamed broccoli.

This recipe makes 4 hearty portions. Hubby and I have big appetites and usually when a recipe serves 4, we don't have any leftover. I had plenty of rice to put away!

I left off the fresh parsley, since we didn't have it, and I'm not much for garnishes when it's just the two of us for dinner.

The recipe calls for beef bouillon, but I cannot wait to try it with chicken bouillon next time!

Also, the recipe calls for the fine egg noodles, but I'm sure this would work great using the broken spaghetti, angel hair or vermicelli bits left at the bottom of the boxes. Save them up and use them for this recipe! I also think that orzo pasta would be a great match too! We always have a 1/2 a box or so left in the pantry!

This post is linked to Food On Fridays.

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake Cookies

2010-01-15T10:12:00.001-05:00

We do a lot of visiting over Christmas and New Years. I planned making some Cranberry Walnut Fudge and baking a few Gooey Butter Cakes to take to the homes we were visiting.

My friend Lisa posted a recipe for Gooey Butter Cookies that I just had to try! I had all of the ingredients so I made a double batch and took a half a batch to each house for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.

When I first saw her recipe, I immediately wondered how great a chocolate version would be! I found out on New Year's Eve, when I made a batch of each! YUM!!!!!

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

chocolate cake mix
1 egg
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 stick of butter, softened
powdered sugar

Directions:

Add cake mix, egg, cream cheese and butter in a bowl. Mix until well combined.
Chill over night (or at least 4 hours)
Roll into balls to desired size.
Roll in powdered sugar.
Bake at 350* for 9-12 minutes.

I plan on making these, using Lemon cake mix for Easter.

Taco / Enchilada Filling

2009-11-16T18:34:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, we were in the mood for tacos for dinner. I usually use a taco seasoning packet but we didn't have any left in our pantry. Instead of sending Joe out to pick up a seasoning packet or just planning something else for dinner, I decided to check out my cookbooks and see if I could find a basic recipe that I could match up with items in my pantry.

I found a recipe for Tacos in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and I had just about all of the ingredients, but as usual, I tweaked it a bit to fit our tastes.

Taco/Enchilada Filling

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup diced chili peppers, drained
2 tsp. chili powder
salt
hot pepper sauce to taste
1 can chili beans

Directions:

In skillet or dutch oven, cook ground beef, pepper and garlic until meat is browned and onions and peppers are tender.
Drain fat.
Stir in the chili peppers, chili powder, and salt.
Add several dashes of hot pepper sauce to your liking.
Add canned chili beans and cook until heated through.

We made soft tacos that night for dinner and I froze the leftover filling.

Tonight, I thawed the frozen filling and made enchiladas with it. We LOVE enchiladas and LOVE that we now have another type of filling for them.

There is still a bit of the filling left, so later this week, I plan on making a taco pizza using Pillsbury Pizza Crust, some salsa, Mexican blend cheese and the last bit of the taco/enchilada filling for the pizza toppings.

I'll be linking this recipe to the following blogs this week:

Tasty Tuesday
Tuesdays at the Table
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Ultimate Recipe Swap: Breakfast: Potato-Asparagus Omelet

2009-10-29T02:00:00.000-04:00

It's Thursday! It's time for another Ultimate Recipe Swap hosted by Life As Mom. This week's theme is Breakfast!

I'm terrible at making breakfast. I think the reason I am terrible, is because growing up, I never saw it being prepared. Now, I don't mean that my parents never cooked breakfast. Oh, they did. But I HATED breakfast food (even cereal) as a kid/teen and I usually hid in my room until everything was cooked, eaten and cleaned up before making my way downstairs on the weekends! If I was lucky, Dad forgot to save me a plate of eggs! (Sometimes, I wasn't so lucky...blech!)

So, while I watched other meals being prepared, I never watched to learn how to fry an egg or cook bacon or make a pancake.

My tastes have changed a lot since then. I like most breakfast foods now and can even cook some. To this day, I've never made a single pancake! French toast or scrambled eggs are more my speed!

A couple of years ago, I wanted to make my husband a nice Easter Sunday breakfast before traveling to visit my parents. I wanted something a little fancier than just scrambled eggs. I don't have exact measurements, because really, anything goes with this one!

Potato-Asparagus Omelet

Ingredients:

O'brien potatoes (frozen)
oil
eggs
milk
leftover asparagus (chopped)
Canadian Bacon (diced)

Directions:

Cook Canadian Bacon until slightly browned, remove from pan, set aside.
Cook O'brien potatoes in hot oil according to directions on package.
Add Canadian bacon and asparagus to potatoes and heat until asparagus is warmed.
Scramble eggs and milk and pour over potato mixture.
Cook until eggs are done.

Notes:

Cheese would be a good addition to the recipe.
This can be "chopped up" as the eggs are cooking or left solid more like and omelet.
Leftover asparagus works best, since it's already cooked. If you don't have leftover asparagus, be sure to steam the asparagus before adding to the potato mixture. Otherwise, they'll take too long to cook with the other ingredients.

I've made this a few times since that first time and have switched it up according to the ingredients on hand. Sometimes with the meat, sometimes without. Sometimes without the potatoes. Whatever. Just throw in what you have, throw in what you like!

Angel's Pound Cake

2009-10-26T20:42:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite cakes is pound cake. Growing up, I have some fond memories of birthday cakes from the local bakery that were pound cakes. There's a bakery in Philly that makes the absolute best pound cake. You can buy it as a birthday cake, wedding cake, even in loaves. All with their signature sugary icing. Mmmmm!

As an alternative to the pound cake from the bakery, Mom would often buy Sara Lee pound cakes from the freezer section of the grocery store. A favorite treat was sliced strawberries with vanilla pudding on top of a slice of Sara Lee pound cake. Mmmmm!

As an adult, I was introduced to homemade pound cakes. One of the ladies I worked with would often bring in a cake to share with us. What a great treat for a Monday morning! Seriously, I remember being on the bus on my way to work on a Monday morning, thinking to myself: "I really hope Angel brings in a pound cake today!" Angel enjoyed to cook and brought in all sorts of treats for us, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most is her pound cake.

Even after she left to move to another state, we still had her pound cake. She gave us all the recipe and occasionally someone would make it and bring it into work. No matter who made it, we still always called it Angel's Pound Cake.

Angel's Pound Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks margarine, softened
1 stick butter, softened
8 oz. Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. almond extract
6 large eggs
3 cups flour

Directions:

Cream margarine, butter, cream cheese and sugar together, well.
Add flavoring. Blend well.
Add eggs one at a time with 1/2 cup flour with each egg, beating well with each addition.
Pour batter into prepared (greased and floured) tube or loaf pans.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Notes:

Do not preheat oven.
To make a marble cake, reserve one cup of batter. Add 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa. Mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto the batter in the pan and swirl with knife.
Angel also baked these pound cakes in coffee cans. Perfect size cake for a small group!

This cake is great when topped with this frosting:

Fantastic Frosting

Ingredients:

1 small box instant pudding (any flavor)
1/2 cup milk
8 oz. cool whip

Directions:

mix ingredients well and frost cake

I'll be sharing this recipe with the following carnivals:

Be sure to check them out for great recipes!

Also, in addition to hosting Tuesdays at the Table, Cole is having another giveaway this month in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Click here to read more about it and don't forget to enter!

An Award....or two!!!

2009-10-26T01:19:00.000-04:00

I am very lucky to have been given this award by two of my new blog friends. Thanks so much Geri from Heart N Soul Cooking and Mandy from Home is My Paradise. They were both very kind in sharing their awards with me. (Sorry ladies for taking so long to follow up on this, it's been a tough couple of weeks!)

I am super excited to get this award, since I am so new at this whole thing! I've wanted to start a blog for a while, but it took a little fire under my butt to get me motivated to actually do it! My friend Lisa, started her blog Extraordinary Life, and I immediately felt left out! I had to have one too! Except, now, I have two blogs - this one and Under the Big Oak Tree!

I'm having loads of fun sharing recipes and ideas with other ladies all over the internet and of course "meeting" new friends!

Neno's Award—Rules and Regulations

1. As a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging.

2. To seek the reasons why we all love blogging.

3. Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it.

4. Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award.

5. Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging.

6. Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.

7. Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.

I'd like to share my awards with a few of my blog friends:

Lisa @ Extraordinary Life

Joy in My Kitchen

Cole @ All the Small Stuff

It's a Very Cherry World

I could go on and on listing great blogs to pass the award on to, but then we'd all be here for a while!

Thanks again to Geri and Mandy for thinking of me (and my blog)!!!

Swine Flu....we got it....Oink! Oink!

2009-10-22T09:24:00.000-04:00

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on my recent posts here and on my other blog. I have not gotten a chance to read or answer all of them yet. I am currently dealing with swine flu.

On Monday, I wasn't feeling well and on Tuesday I felt worse. My husband came home from work early and took me to the doctor. We just figured I had a cold and let's take care of it quickly since we have the baby now. He waited in the car with the baby while I saw the doctor. Boy was he surprised when I announced it was swine flu!

At the suggestion of my doctor, we called Grace's pediatrician on our way home to see if they wanted to start some sort of precautionary treatment. Pediatrician said no.

This morning, Grace woke up around 6:00; much earlier than her normal 10:30 am. Her face was very red and her hands were warm. (Her hands are usually very cool.) I took her temp. and she had a 101.4 degree fever. I had to wait until 8:00 to get a doctor on the phone. The doctor didn't seem too concerned that I have swine flu and that the baby had a fever but I scheduled an appointment anyway for my own peace of mind.

Joe (my husband) came home from work and is now on the way to the pediatrician's office to get her checked out. I'm going to take a quick shower and make up the beds before he gets home that way Grace and I can get some rest when they get home.

I'll be back to blogging as soon as things are back to normal. I'll try to update about our recovery if I get the chance.