Yummy White Chicken Chili

Only was so excited.  She had watched Rachael Ray Show Monday morning and saw a recipe they fixed and said it looked so yummy that she wanted to make it for dinner.  Since I was in town, I stopped at our local Aldi store for most of the simple ingredients and then a quick stop at the grocery store for the chicken breast. Almost as soon as we got in the house, she was in the kitchen working on dinner, making the homemade salsa, chopping cilantro, adding ingredients, and finally mixing up cornbread from scratch... I must say that it was a HUGE hit with our family!  We had plenty for our family of five, with a little less than a gallon to put away in the freezer for another day.  Of course we had to have our Fritos and some extra Montery Jack Cheese on the top.  We got so excited about trying it that I forgot to put out the sour cream!  Here it is - give it a try and let me know what your reaction was.

Mandi Forester’s White Chicken Chili

Ingredients

• 1 32-ounce box chicken stock
• 3 cans white beans, left undrained
• 5 cups cooked chicken (rotisserie or boiled)
• 1 16-ounce jar salsa
• 1 8-ounce block pepper jack cheese, grated
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Black or white pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup finely crushed corn chips (optional, if you like your chili thicker)
• Sour cream, for garnish
  
  We added a tbsp of fresh lime juice for a bit more Southwest flavor (because we have a hard time following a recipe "by-the-book")
  

Yields: 6 servings

Preparation

1. Place all ingredients except the corn chips in a crockpot. Cook on high until the cheese is melted.
2. Chili may also be cooked on the stovetop over medium-high heat until cheese is melted.
3. When the chili is ready, add the crushed corn chips, if using, and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken. Garnish with more chips, cheese and/or sour cream and serve. 

 The salsa recipe is from a friend of ours and I posted it the first of this month here, but here it is again.  So good with all fresh ingredients!  

Pam's Salsa
1 29 oz. can stewed tomatoes
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
Season with salt
Add 1 tsp - 1 Tbsp cilantro (fresh is best) to taste.
Dice up 1 jalapeno, de-seed if you don't want it as hot
Garlic - only take a few cloves (or you can add minced garlic if you don't have fresh)
Sugar - a handful or about 2 tbsp. This is to taste as well.

Put into food processor and pulse a few times.

Braised Beef Short Ribs and Root Veggies over Egg Noodles

"I had these recipes that say do this, do that. Who MAKES these rules?"
Emeril Lagasse

First off, I must confess that I LOVE to try new recipes or search for something "better than" the recipe I have. This tends to drive Honey absolutely CRAZY!!! "Why can't you fix it like last time" or "What's wrong with following the recipe" or "I like this one, did you write it down?" About the only thing I do follow the recipe on is when I make bread.

The recipe for today, Braised Beef Short Ribs and Root Veggies over Egg Noodles by Emeril Lagasse, was given to me by a friend, Les, who loves to cook and he's really an awesome griller. He's fun to cook with, always makes life interesting, and has a great heart for others. He prepared the following recipe and brought some for me to try. Of course, since I didn't want to "poison" my family, I ate the bowl of delicious stew at lunch that day. I just had to try it on my family. Youngest and I had fun shopping for the ingredients for this at our local Walmart until it came time to find the wine. He told everyone that looked at him that we were "only getting it for cooking!" I'm hoping that, by Youngest helping me shop for the ingredients, he will not be so hesitant about eating something he's not eaten before. The smell of stew is drifting through the house and soon I'll stir up the cornbread as well. Don't be afraid to put a little "BAM!" in your cooking!

Braised Beef Short Ribs and Root Vegetables over Egg Noodles

Ingredients

• 2 racks beef short ribs (4 to 5 pounds), cut into individual ribs
• 2 tablespoons Essence, recipe follows
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
• 1 stalk celery, trimmed and chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 cup ruby port (I used Christian Brothers Ruby Port)
  
• 2 cups dry red wine (I used Post Red Table Wine, from a local winery)
  
• 4 cups veal or beef stock *
  
• 1 pound butternut or acorn squash, peeled, fibers removed, and cubed
• 2 parsnips, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 2 carrots, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 12 ounces egg noodles, cooked al dente, accompaniment
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions, garnish
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley, garnish

Directions

Season the ribs with the Essence on both sides. In a Dutch oven or large, heavy covered pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.

Add the ribs in batches to prevent crowding and sear on all sides. Remove with tongs to a plate. Add the onions, celery and carrots to the fat remaining in the pan, and cook, stirring, until soft and starting to caramelize, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, red pepper, and black pepper, and cook for 30 seconds. Add the tomato paste, bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the Port and red wine, bring to a boil, stirring to deglaze the pan and cook until reduced by 1/2.

Add the ribs and stock and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and simmer until the meat is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (During cooking, make sure that there is at least 1-inch of liquid in the pot; add more stock or water as necessary to cover.) **

Add the root vegetables and cook until they are tender and the meat easily falls from the bones, another 40 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from the heat.

Transfer the ribs and meat to a large bowl and cover to keep warm. Skim any fat from the surface. Bring the sauce to

a boil and cook until thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaves.

To serve, arrange the egg noodles in the middle of a large platter. Place the ribs on top and spoon the sauce over the meat. Garnish with green onions and parsley and serve immediately.

* Instead of purchasing beef stock, I have used L.B. Jamison's Soup Base or Superior Touch Better Than Bouillon Beef Base at my local grocery store. 1 tsp of base to one cup of water makes an excellent beef stock.

** What I did (okay here is the I didn't follow the recipe part): The meat was not as tender as I wanted, so I ended up putting all of this in a extra large crock-pot that I have. I cooked the veggies in a separate pot with beef broth so I could just add it without draining the seasoned broth. Normally I would handmake the egg noodles, but time has not been my friend this week, so I purchased some at the store. I also added the noodles to the stew - to make it more acceptable to my family.

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup

Ginger Bread Lanterns

Wednesday evening, a good friend and I hosted a children's gathering at our home while the parents were at a Graduation Party. I know, it's winter, but Ester worked hard for her degree and they were celebrating. Eva thought it would be great to have a Christmas celebration with the kids and we made plans for food and activities.

One thing we did was make Gingerbread Lanterns. Now I'd love to say I come up with this idea, but I have to credit FamilyFun.com for this one. To prepare for this, I made the gingerbread up the night before and put it in the fridge until I needed it. The next afternoon, I took it out, rolled the dough out, and cut the four sides of the lantern.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
	5 to 5 1/2 cups flour
	1 teaspoon baking soda
	1/2 teaspoon salt
	2 teaspoons ginger
	1 teaspoon cinnamon
	1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
	1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
	1 cup butter, softened
	1 cup packed light brown sugar
	1 egg, at room temperature
	1 cup molasses
	1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Sift 3 cups of flour into a large bowl. Combine 2 more cups of flour with the baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, then sift the mixture into the bowl. Stir the ingredients, then set the bowl aside.

2. In another large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and egg until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the molasses and beat until evenly blended, about 1 1/2 minutes. Blend in the vanilla extract.

3. Using a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture 1 cup at a time. The dough should be firm; if it's not, gradually stir in up to 1/2 cup more flour.

4. Divide the dough in half. Place each piec e in a gallon-size ziplock bag and flatten the dough into a thick rectangle with your hands. Seal the bags and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 with a second batch of dough.

6. Heat the oven to 350°. Working with one piece at a time, remove the dough from the refrigerator and set it on a generously floured cutting board or work surface. With a lightly dusted rolling pin, prepare the by rolling out the chilled dough to a 1/4-inch thickness on a large piece of parchment paper, sprinkling on some flour if the dough sticks. Then, using a 4- by 7-inch piece of cardboard as a template, cut 4 rectangles from the dough, removing any scraps. Transfer the gingerbread pieces to a cookie sheet by topping them first with a piece of parchment paper the size of the cookie sheet, then with the inverted cookie sheet itself. Quickly flip everything over, then remove the top piece of parchment paper.

7. To install the windows, use cookie cutters dipped in flour to cut and remove a few shapes from each gingerbread piece. Unwrap candies in similar colors (you'll need about 2 to 3 for each 21/2-inch cutout) and place them in doubled freezer bags. Hit them gently with a hammer (I used my meat tenderizer tool) to crush them, then generously fill each cutout with crushed candy.

Bake the gingerbread for 12 minutes, then let it cool for at least 1 hour. (The candy windows will be extremely hot! Do not touch them until they have cooled completely.) Only and I found that if we baked the gingerbread first, took them from the oven, then put the pulverized hard candy . Use a spoon to transfer the candy from the bag to the windows. It can get a little sticky on your fingers,

Royal Icing

This was so easy. Only was able to make this up while I was working on some other projects. We added a bit more powdered sugar to make it thicker, but it set up wonderfully and all the lanterns survived and made it home safely! I used Alton Brown's recipe for the Royal Icing.

Ingredients

• 3 ounces pasteurized egg whites (we used 3 egg whites, though 2 probably would have done the trick)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

In large bowl of stand mixer combine the egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add food coloring, if desired. For immediate use, transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired. If using storage bag, clip corner. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Using a pastry bag or a plastic bag with 1 corner cut off, pipe icing al ong the long edges of 2 of the walls. Assemble all 4 walls vertically on a platter or a piece of foil-covered cardboard, filling in any gaps and decorating the edges with more icing. Allow the icing to dry overnight. Set the lantern in a safe spot, then place a small candle inside and light the wick (parents o nly).

From Pizza to cinnamon rolls

Okay I completely forgot to add how I turned the pizza dough into cinnamon rolls or to add pictures. I think I was so tired that I completely lost it! The cinnamon rolls were a success and there are just a few left.

Here is what I did:

1. I took the left over pizza dough that had already risen once, punched it down and plopped it down on a floured surface. Mind you this was triple the given recipe below. Using my french rolling pin (you can use what ever type of rolling pin or your hands if you like!) to roll it out - about 1/2" thick.
   
2. I softened a stick of unsalted butter, smeared that liberally over the top of the rolled out dough.
   
3. I then sprinkled a mixture of cinnamon sugar(1/2 C. sugar and 1/4 C. cinnamon) over the top of the softened butter. If you want you can sprinkle raisins or pecans on this at this time.
4. Started with the long side of the rolled out dough, started rolling the dough toward the other side of the dough - like a jelly-roll.pinch the edges to seal it.
   
5. Slice the dough into 1 1/2" to 2 inch pieces. Arrange dough pieces, cut side up, in a greased 12-inch deep dish or round cake pans.
6. Cover dough with a clear plastic wrap or clean flour sack dishtowel (this is what I use). Let raise until doubled in size - anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour.
   
7. Bake in a 375º oven for 20-30 minutes or till light brown. If necessary, to prevent over browning, cover the rolls loosely with foil the last 5-10 minutes of baking.
8. As the rolls are cooling slightly, mix up the following for the glaze: I like to drizzle this on my rolls, letting the glaze flow into the crevices and then lick the bowl if you want!
   

• 4 C. powdered sugar
• 1 C. + 2 Tbsp soft butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• add milk to make creamy and spreadable.
  

The accidental Cinnamon roll

Last night we had a wonderful time when two families came over to share in pizza night.  With the 11 people here, I had planned on 12 personal pan pizzas, but ended up with so much more.  It's always a bustle of activity when we have pizza night and last night was no exception.  I love it when we have people over - the laughter and warm, stories shared, kids playing... 

Well the long of the short of it, we had so much dough left over that I was able to make a huge batch of cinnamon rolls for this morning's breakfast!  The kids were thrilled and the house smells just yummy!  

The Sauce: 

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 8 oz. can tomato paste

1/2 C. water

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. basil

1/4 tsp. salt

Mix the above  in a sauce pan and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  I usually make a double or triple batch of this and cold pack can the rest or stick it back for the next week's pizza. 

The Dough/Crust

Mix 3/4 c. warm water and 1 1/4 tsp of yeast (I used fast rising yeast) and let set for 5 minutes.  It should foam up a bit.  Add 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. sugar and mix well.  Mix in 1 C. flour and mix well, continue adding flour a cup a at a time, mixing well.  Making sure the dough is smooth and elastic. Knead well on a well-floured surface until smooth in texture, about 10 minutes.  Cover and let rise until the dough has doubled in size - 1-2 hours.  Each batch of dough will make one large or two personal pan pizzas.  

Making the dough really doesn't take much time, but it seems that everyone loves to have a different kind of pizza. To solve the problem, I use round cake pans to make personal pan pizzas! The dough recipe I use will make 2 personal pan pizzas or 1 large pizza per batch, so it is easy to figure out how many batches to make. I spray the cake pans with Pam Olive oil, roll out a small (a little bit larger than my fist) portion of the dough, and place it in the pan. I use my pizza cutter to cut off the excess dough by rolling the blade around the edge, just above the dough. You can make a thin or thick crust depending on how thick you roll out the dough. Put on your layer of sauce and create away. We lay all the ingredients out in containers and everyone can either construct their own pizza or I can make them up for them.

Bake at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted and pizza looks done.  

Hard-boiled Egg Chocolate Chip Cookie

This weekend I tried a new cookie made with a hard-boiled egg. I was a little skeptical, but intrigued. The girls said they looked delicious, the boys were itching to eat a few, but they were so HUGE that they could only eat one. I didn't make my near as big as theirs and got 16 cookies instead of 8, but they were still big. Great with a glass of milk. I did freeze them like they suggested and the taste is just as good. This was very different from the regular chocolate chip cookie that I've made before, but it was well worth trying and will make it again! I'm going to post it just as they did with the pictures that I took. These three are wonderfully daring and innovative bakers and I encourage you to visit their baking blogs and try some of their recipes! Standing Ovation on this one!

Today’s cookie is an extra special collaboration between three baking bloggers. Anna (Cookie Madness), Katrina (Baking and Boys), and Clumbsy cookie shared the same idea of how they wanted a certain cookie to be, so they started with a base formula then made adjustments to the ingredients and technique until they agreed that the cookie had achieved their vision. Several stomachaches (and many emails) later, they ended up with a delicious cookie.

And so with an ocean and some US states in the middle, this is their cookie:

We hate wasting ingredients so to start, we made a very small batch yielding 2 cookies. Once we fine-tuned that, we scaled it up to 8 cookies. For those of you who don’t need 8 cookies, we’ve included the small batch version as well. The first recipe makes 8 large cookies, and by large, we mean 1/4 pound each. These are big, fat, sturdy cookies that are perfect for wrapping decoratively and presenting to friends. What’s great about these cookies is they hold up well. The cooked egg keeps them fresher longer and gives the middle an interesting moist yet crumbly texture. The technique we used to build the cookie also plays into that. We made the whole cookie in a food processor and started by cutting cold butter into flour. The cookies take about 20 minutes to bake. You can bake them in a regular oven or if you own one, a convection oven.

RECIPE:

Amazing Hard Boiled Egg Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 12. 4 oz all purpose bleached flour (2 ¾ cups spooned and swept)
• 8 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks (16 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 hard boiled egg*, cut into big chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Amazing Hard Boiled Egg Chocolate Chip Cookies (Small Batch)

• 3.1 oz all purpose bleached flour (2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour)
• 2 ounces cold unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 of a hard boiled egg*
• 1 tablespoon lightly beaten egg
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Small handful of chocolate chips

Combine flour and butter in food processor. Pulse until mixture is mealy and coarse. Add the salt and baking soda and pulse to mix. Add both sugars and hard boiled egg. Pulse again until mixture is mealy looking. Add in the raw egg and vanilla and pulse until mixture just begins to come together. Dump mixture into a bowl, add chocolate chips and shape into balls. You will see egg whites in dough – they’ll disappear as the cookies bake. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes or until cookies appear lightly browned around edges. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to rack to finish cooling.

The first batch makes 8 big cookies, the small batch makes just 2.

Important: Let cool completely before serving. The texture gets better as the cookies cool. It’s even better if you cool the cookies, freeze them, then thaw them.

Note: If you have a convection oven, try convection baking for 18-20 minutes. Anna tested in both types of oven and liked the convection oven texture a lot.

* About the hard boiled egg: I don't know where this idea came from first, but it's used in some ancient European recipes. It's not uncommon to use this technic in some bakeries to achieve a certain cookie texture, it's more usual to use just the hard boiled egg yolk, but the whole egg is also used.

You can do it like this and just mix the egg in the food processor or if you want you can also pass it thru a sieve or grind it before adding it to the dough. Other alternative is instead of hard boiling it, you can microwave beated egg for a few seconds (about 20-30 for a whole egg) until it gets the consistency of a omelette. You can then grate it, or cut it in small chunks and proceed as we say in the recipe.

King Arthur's Pie Crust

This is a wonderfully tasty and flaky pie crust that I've used for years. It rarely falls apart on me, transfers easily, and holds up great. You can use this for a Pot-Pie crust as well, just make it a bit thicker and double the recipe. I found this in a King Arthur Flour Company catalog years ago, saw it in a demonstration during one of their cooking schools, and loved it.

Medium- or Short-Flake

A medium-flake crust can be used for main-course dishes or, by adding the optional sugar, for sweet fillings or even tart shells. Our recipe makes enough for a double-crust 9-inch pie. You can easily substitute whole wheat pastry flour for an equal amount of your unbleached white.

Start with about 1/2 cup until you find a ratio you like. Whole wheat pastry flour produces a crust with a "bite" and a hearty flavor, which is great with savory fillings and is a wholesome alternative for sweet fillings, too. I love this recipe. It is simple, doesn’t fall apart, and can be made ahead of time. This is the one I use all the time.

2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar (optional)
1/2 to 3/4 cup shortening, lard or butter (I use unsalted real butter)
4 to 7 tablespoons ice water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar if you're using it. With a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingertips, cut or rub half of the fat into the flour mixture until it resembles cornmeal. Then take the remainder of the fat and cut or rub it in until the largest pieces are the size of a dime, or flattened peas.

Sprinkle the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, over the flour/fat mixture. With a fork, toss the mixture that you've just moistened and push it to one side. Continue until the dough is just moist enough to hold together.

Then gather it into a ball (a bit like gently packing a snowball), cut it in half and flatten the halves into two disks. If you're making a double-crust pie, make the piece for the bottom crust slightly larger, since it has to fit down into the pie plate.

Wrap the two pieces of dough and put them in the refrigerator to give them a rest for 30 minutes or more before rolling them out.