Easy Fried Chicken

So yesterday was one of our last days of finals, and my roommate was leaving to go home. We were a bit sad, so we decided to make a celebratory/going away lunch for the both of us. Fried chicken was on the menu.

Fried Chicken

1 cup Bisquix

Garlic Powder, Cumin, Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Pepper

2T Canola Oil

6 thawed chicken tenderloins

1 egg, scrambled

So, add the spices to the Bisquix, as much as you want. I think we added about 1 teaspoon of each, and it smelled wonderful.

Heat the oil over medium flame. (Test heat by adding a little piece of bread. If it starts to fry, it's ready).

Coat the chicken thoroughly in the egg then in the Bisquix mixture. Place gently in the oil and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, until browned and cooked evenly.

Peppermint Bark

It's Christmas time! And with Christmas comes Christmas baking! The first thing on my list year was to make this delicious peppermint bark. It was actually inspired by the peppermint Guiredelli Chocolate square.

Peppermint Bark

2lbs. white chocolate chips
about 1 1/2 c. crushed peppermint candy
1/2t. peppermint extract (optional)

Crush the peppermint candy. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on high for about 2 minutes. If not done, heat for additional 15 seconds until the chips are just slightly melted. Add the peppermint extract and candy thouroughly. Pour over wax paper (or aluminum foil), and spread thinly and evenly. Allow bark to cool for about 30 minutes. When cooled, break into uneven pieces.

la paella

So about a year ago, I spent 3 months on study abroad in Madrid. While I was there, I learned to love the Spanish food and even learned how to cook a little bit of it. This paella recipe is my host mom Pilar's, so it's pretty authentic :) As soon as I got home, I made this for my family, and they loved it. It's delicious and pretty simple.

Spanish Paella

3 T olive oil
1 onion
1 head of garlic
2 chicken breasts (Pilar always used a whole chicken, I find it easier to use cut up chicken breasts)
1 roma tomato
2 cups rice (short, Pearl Valencian rice--found in the specialty/Mexican foods aisle)
6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 red pepper, cut in slices
Parsley, Garlic Powder, Paprika,
1 pinch Saffron
Salt and Pepper to marinade

Lemon for garnish

Start by marinating the chicken with salt and pepper for about 2 hours. Then cut the chicken into cubes.

Prepare warm chicken stock. (Bouillion cubes, fresh broth, or canned). Once warm, add saffron. The heat of the broth allows the saffron to release its color, aroma, and taste much better than just adding it to the paella later. Keep the stock warm while preparing the chicken/rice.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. (I use a cast iron skillet). Add chopped onions and garlic and sautee until the onions are clear and tender. Then, add the chicken and cook until it's a little more than half way done.

Add the chopped tomato. Add parsley, garlic powder, and paprika, about 1t. each. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes.

Then add the rice, mixing it in to coat it with the oil and spices. Let it sit for about 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and stir.

Turn the heat down just below medium heat, cover it,  and let it cook for about 20 minutes. When the rice is about half cooked, give it another stir, and add more stock if needed. Mix in frozen peas.

Chop the red pepper into strips and arrange in a pattern on top of the paella. Cook for another 20 minutes or until the rice is completely cooked. Cut the lemons in fourths and use them for garnish around the edges. Serve warm and with bread.

YUM!

Whitney's Spinach & Artichoke Dip

So, this Thanksgiving I went to my friend Whitney's grandparents' house. Amidst the Black Friday shopping and the Thanksgiving dinner, Whitney made this delicious dip.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip
1 1/2 c. frozen cut spinach
1 can drained artichoke hearts
6 oz cream cheese
1/4 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. sour cream
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. salt
parmesan cheese

Boil the spinach and artichoke hearts until tender. 

Drain and add the rest of the ingredients. 

Spread into a casserole dish and top with parmesan cheese.

 Bake at 375 for about 25-30 minutes or until warm. 

Serve with bread, chips, or crackers.


This dip turned out fabulous and was a complete hit!

Bisquick Pumpkin Bars

So...It's a Tuesday night. THE Tuesday night after classes have ended for Thanksgiving Break. And where am I? I'm alone at home in the apartment, just enjoying movies and goodies. But, I told myself I  wasn't going to make anything tonight. At all. And I had a few reasons:

1. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to my friend Whitney's house for Thanksgiving, and I didn't want food to go to waste. (Well, then I realized I would just take them with me.)
2. It's a Tuesday night. Usually I try to wait until the weekend to bake. But, it feels like Friday anyways, and school's done for the week, so why not?
3. I didn't have enough flour. This was a no brainer, though. I have Bisquick. Problem solved.


I'm relatively new to the Bisquick idea, I was introduced to it this semester by my roommate Christine. However, I've quickly come to see that it is fantastic, and I don't want to live without it anymore...because you can use it to make so many things. Like pumpkin bars.




So here's the recipe I found on Betty Crocker:

Bars

2 cups Original Bisquick® mix

2cups granulated sugar1/2

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 eggs, beaten

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

½ cup raisins

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of 15x10x1-inch pan with shortening or cooking spray.

                         In large bowl, beat all bar ingredients except raisins with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in raisins. Pour into pan.

                        Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 2 hours.

                         In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar on low speed until smooth. Spread over bars. For bars, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

Makes 48 bars

Ok. So I made a few modifications to this recipe. First, I have a ton of applesauce that was given to me by a friend. And by a ton, I really mean a lot. And I haven't used much. So I substituted applesauce for oil. Also, I used 1/2 white sugar 1/2 brown sugar, just for kicks. And the fact that I find brown sugar delicious. Also, I decided that I just needed more cinnamon (about 1 teaspoon). I also found that the batter was still a little too bland, so I added about 1 teaspoon of ginger. And lastly, I don't have any raisins, and I simply love chocolate chips so much better, so I used those as well. 

Now, I was a little skeptical about this for a few reasons. First, Bisquick? Really? It's pancake mix. Also, the batter didn't taste the same as normal pumpkin bar batter. But it made the apartment smell delicious, so we will have to see in about 15 minutes when it comes out of the oven. Take that back, it actually needed about 50 minutes total in the oven.

The verdict?


Success! They are delicious and taste exactly the same as if I didn't make them with Bisquick.

Not My Mother's Chicken n' Dumplins (sorry mom!)

Whew. I have had a pretty busy weekend when it comes to cooking, if I do say so myself. But I think this is the last one that I will post this week.

So,  the story:

Saturday afternoon (after eating pie leftover from the night before), I was looking through my pantry when I realized that I had next to nothing to eat. But I didn't want to go to the store. Thanksgiving is this week, and I will also be leaving and don't want to go shopping when it would probably all go to waste sitting in the fridge.

But then I realized this. Soup can be made from practically NOTHING, and it makes a lot. Thus, Chicken and Dumplings soup.

This basically is my mother's recipe (because thanks to her, I learned to cook), but with a few minor modifications. (Again, sorry mom!)

Not My Mother’s Chicken and Dumplings

Melanie Vandenbark

5 cups chicken broth (or 5 cups water + 5 bouillon cubes)

2 cooked chicken breasts, cut in bite sizes (more or less if desired)

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped celery

1 minced onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 T. cornstarch for thickening (more if desired)

Bisquik dumplings dough (on back of box), or other biscuit recipe

Olive Oil

In a large pot, heat some olive oil on medium heat and add the onion and garlic. Saute until the onions are tender, then add the chicken broth and chicken (also a bay leaf and basil. I didn’t have any, so I didn’t add it, but it was still divine).  Bring to a boil. Add the carrots and celery, and reduce heat to a simmer.

When the carrots and celery are almost done, bring the soup to a boil again, and add the cornstarch to thicken the soup.  Drop in bite sized pieces of biscuit dough into the boiling soup. (I prefer smaller pieces of biscuits, but of course, any size that suits your fancy will work.) Cook until the biscuit dough is cooked all the way through (the last thing you want is undercooked dough in your soup). This should take about 5 minutes or so. Season to taste with parsley, salt, and pepper.

Serves about 5. Unless you are very hungry, in which case it may only serve 2. 

I do realize I should improve my photography skills, but oh, this was delicious!

My perfect pie crust

In my last post,  I mentioned my excessive love of pie, but don't get me started on my soapbox about store-bought pie crust. Seriously. I think I could go on for awhile. But let me say that it is vile and a disgrace to pie crust. You can make it so so much better at home, and it isn't very hard.

So, here's my first ever original recipe. (But then again, how original can pie crust get? They all use the same ingredients....)

Pie Crust

Melanie Vandenbark

2 c. flour

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 c. shortening, 1/3 c butter (room temp.)

½ c  cold water

Combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening and butter until it resembles coarse crumbles. The less you work it, the better. Stir in water a little at a time until a ball forms (you may not use all the water). Divide the dough in half and form into balls. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until hard.

Roll out dough onto floured surface. Don’t over work it. 

Unfortunately, I realized that this is the only picture I took of making the pie crust. This is the "coarse crumbles" part.

So there you have it. This pie crust is so easy to make, but also let me just praise one part of it real quick. The shortening/butter combo. This was a last minute change on our part, but we turned out LOVING it. The shortening gives the crust a bit of a flaky texture: not too much, just enough that you can see the different layers of the crust. On the other hand, the butter gives it that so delicious melt-in-your-mouth aspect. There couldn't be a better combo. It's the best of both worlds, if you want to use that overrated phrase. 

Seriously though. Try this now. You and your stomach won't regret it.

Pie: It's so good I want to die.

I love pie. In fact it may be one of my most favorite foods ever. I will eat any kind: strawberry, apple, peach, raspberry, cherry, chocolate, pumpkin...you get the idea. I have made pie a fair few times in my short life, and it really isn't as scary as it sounds.

The issue was though, that JeanMarie and I have never made a real pie together (that is with pie crust other than crushed graham crackers), and we decided that not only were we daring enough to make one delicious mouth watering dessert, but two! And the fact that I have two pie pans doesn't have much to do with this decision at all. maybe.

What were our chosen guinea pig recipes for this adventure? Pecan pie and pear pie. But I think I will only share one pie right now, just to add to the anticipation, or maybe because I don't want to type a long blog about pies.

Before you start though, let me just say right now- please, please, please make your own pie crust. It is soo much better than the storebought kind and really it is very easy. I will post my recipe soon

Also, I cannot claim this recipe. We found it on our best bites. I can claim, however, my excellent skills of following directions. 

Creamy Pear PieRecipe by Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

1 double pie crust
About 1 1/2 lb. firm (not too ripe, not too green) pears, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
3 oz. cream cheese (from a block, not from a tub)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450.

Roll the bottom of the pie crust into the pie plate.

Toss the sliced pears in the flour. Arrange them evenly over the pie crust in the pie plate. Set aside.

In the jar of a blender, combine the sweetened condensed milk, milk, cinnamon, ginger, and cream cheese. Blend until smooth. Pour evenly over the pear mixture. Use the remaining pie crust to form the top of the pie (we like to make a lattice top crust). Brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and bake until the crust is golden brown and the creamy mixture has thickened but not solidified. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. This pie can be served warm or cold, preferably with ice cream orsweetened whipped cream.

 This was our first time making a lattice top...not too shabby I'd say.

Don't forget to put it in the fridge after it is cooled; it will help it set up better. We didn't do this and after cutting it open to taste the deliciousness, the insides turned to soup. So save your selves some distress and refrigerate it!

I have a cooking blog?!?

Welcome to my cooking blog, as cheesy as that sounds. But there you have it. It kind of came up rather suddenly last night when I had too much crystal light to drink, and I woke up this morning wondering if I really had created this. But I did. Here's the extended story of how it all began...

Ever since I was really little (or so it feels like to me), I have loved to bake. When I came to college, however, I met a couple of my favorite friends JeanMarie and Catharine who also share a love of baking. Pretty soon, we were getting together to make all sorts of delicious recipes that we found on other people's websites.

The other night after making two delicious pies, I got this idea: I love to bake and cook, and I do it all the time, so why not let other people (namely friends and family) see what it is I do to procrastinate doing my homework...

So I hope you will enjoy these recipes as much as I do, or at least find a little humor in these posts!

And thank you ladies for inspiring this blog!