Titles are Overrated.

Hi! Well here I am again. I don't have much commentary to add, except that I hate my camera. Thank goodness these are small pictures! Its not really my camera. My husband bought it before we were married, like 6 years ago. I have never liked it. No matter what all the pictures are fuzzy and out of focus. Oh well. What can I do? On with the recipe!
Beef Broccoli Supper

Ingredients:
3/4 cup uncooked long grain rice, 1 lb lean ground beef, 1 1/2 cups fresh broccoli florets, 1 can condensed broccoli cheese soup undiluted, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp salt free seasoning blend, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs, 2 Tbsp melted butter

For the salt free seasoning blend I just used Italian seasoning. The bread crumbs were roasted garlic seasoned. I was gonna get just regular, but my husband is all about flavors. He insisted on it. And I like to make him happy. :)

Directions:
Cook rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.

So I didn't really know how to cook 3/4 cup rice. The package only gives directions for a cup. And I know, from watching Chopped, that rice is super hard to cook. I just guessed. I put enough water in to cover it a little and just hoped for the best.

I had a few broccoli heads(is that what they are called?)and just plucked off enough florets until I had my desired amount.

Cute, huh? I thought so.

Add the rice, broccoli, soup, milk, seasoning blend, salt, and pepper. Stir until combined. Transfer to a greased 2 qt baking dish.

Blech. It smelt as bad as it looked too.

So my rice. Yeah, it got a bit crispy on the bottom. But the top was nice. And since it was going into a casserole and not just by itself I used it. Stirred it up a bit and you could hardly tell. And my husband didn't say anything about crunchy rice so I think it was fine.

Toss bread crumbs with butter; sprinkle over beef mix. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through.

There ya go! The finished product. I thought uncovering and cooking it for another 5 minutes wasn't really necassary. It did keep it warm though. But I think I could skip that next time. My husband liked it a lot. He ate a plate of it even though he said he wasn't really that hungry. I make him eat it right away so I can ask him how it was. Its not that same if he has it reheated a day later. I would not eat this(surprised?). I like raw broccoli but cooked is gross. And so was the soup! Until next time!

What's in a Name?

Hiya! Yes, I do realize it has been awhile. Well I must admit I have had a super lack of interest in doing things in general. Had a slump, and it usually comes every month. Like clockwork, like some sort of cycle.
Well since that slump only lasts 4 - 7 days, what accounts for the rest of the time? Who knows! Just accept the fact that I don't post at regular intervals.
So whats the recipe? A bit different one for me. I actually ate this!
Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
I got this recipe from my taste of home cook book. Not the casserole one. My husband wanted to have a side for his lunches, and he suggested I make some rolls. I have never made bread of any type before this so I was a bit wary. I think it turned out rather well though.
I was going to name this blog post, Wesley Crusher, after Will Wheaton's character on Star Trek The Next Generation. But I figured that was a bit far off. On with the recipe!

Ingredients:
2 packages(1/4 oz each) active dry yeast, 2 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees), 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar, 1/4 cup shortening, 2 tsps salt, 2 eggs, 3 cups whole wheat flour, 3 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:
In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water.

At first I was worried that the hot water from the tap wouldn't be hot enough, but it worked fine! Just needed to make sure that the faucet was all the way to the left.

Add sugar, shortening, salt, eggs, and whole wheat flour. Beat until smooth.

"Who love ya, baby?"...Get it, Kojak? He is bald. Smooth head. Smooth dough? Yeah, it was a stretch.

Stir in enough of the all purpose flour to form a soft dough.

Ok, so talk about super vague instruction. Add enough until its done, was basically what it said. Since I had never made rolls, I had no idea what consistency it was supposed to have. So I ended up usuing all of the flour, plus a whee bit more. I think the altitude messed with me a bit too.

Turn onto floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.

I have no idea how to knead dough, really. What I know I learned from movies and stuff. So I just winged it, but I think I got it.

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled. About an hour.

I was super dubious of whether or not this dough would rise. Who knows what I did wrong, ya know? But it worked! I lifted the bowl and squeled in delight. It worked!

Punch dough down(really fun). Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into 4 pieces. Shaped each into 12 balls. Place 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Cover; let rise about 25 minutes.

Aren't they cute?

Bake at 375 degrees for 11 - 15 minutes or until browned. Remove from pans to wire racks. Brush with melted butter. Serve warm.

How do those look? Super good right? I tried one, and it was fine. Not a huge fan of whole wheat. A friend came over when they were done and she tried one for me and said they were really good! And my husband said they were very moist and tasted great. Mission accomplished. Well I've got a super bad head ache, and I think its stress related. I am freaking out hopeing the Penguins beat the stupid Flyers in game 1 of the playoffs. Gotta go listen. Have a good day!

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Happy Spring!
Once again I am listening to some great 80's hits, and writing a blog for the few that read it! Thank you for your support! I know I am pretty bad at updating in general, but the muse has got to hit me. Or there is nothing good on TV.
Chicken Pie in a Pan
I got this recipe from my Taste of Home Casseroles cookbook. I had a few issues with the recipe, which I will address. But other than that it was a good one. I am taking my husbands word for it. I would not eat this stuff unless paid a good bit of money.

Ingredients:
2 diced celery ribs, 2 diced medium carrots, 1 small chopped onion, 3 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 cup chicken broth, 1 can(10 3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup undiluted, 4 cups cooked cubed chicken.
This recipe has pinwheels on top, the crust ingredients and directions will follow after the main part, but keep in mind you will need more ingredients!

So, I didn't picture the veggies because I was running late to make dinner and my husband had somewhere to go that night so I just didn't picture them. See that little gold cube? That's my chicken broth.

This is not in the directions, but I will show you how I cooked my chicken. I cooked them whole on the stove top in some extra virgin(teehee)olive oil with a little salt and pepper. It probably woulda been faster and easier to cut the chicken raw, then cook it. But if you have read my past chicken casserole you would know I can't stand raw chicken. I can't touch it, its so slimy and gross! So I cooked it then cut it. It took longer then I thought, which is why I was running so late.

I sampled a piece or too and found it quite yummy! Cooked chicken is much easier to deal with then raw! When I was taking this picture I looked behind me because I felt a presence. Rufus was on the back of our couch staring at the chicken.

"Can I have a smackeral of chicken?"
He was very good and didn't try to get on the counter, so yes I gave him just a tiny piece.

Directions:

In a large skillet, saute celery, carrots and onions in butter until tender.

I have been watching a ton of Food Network and I like when the cooks go to the fridge to get stuff and the camera zooms on the fridge. I like seeing what else is in there. I have no idea why, I just do! So I took a pic of just a spot of my fridge, since it is no where near as orderly as the ones on TV. At this point I called my husband to let him know 2 ribs of celery where called for in this recipe, I had already chopped them but I thought I should check with him. He is not a fan of celery, but said to use just 1 rib since its not so bad cooked. I didn't mind. I made my self a snack with the celery I didn't put in the recipe.

Snacking, doing it right!

While the verggies sauted, I made the broth. It took like a minute for the water to boil, and another minute for the cube to dissolve. So easy.



Stir in flour and salt until blended; gradually add milk and broth. Bring to boil; stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Stir in soup and chicken. Spoon into greased 13x9 in baking dish. Set aside.

To quote Milhouse from the Simpsons episode 'Boy Scoutsz N the Hood', where he and Bart purchase a Super Squishee made entirely of syrup, "Its so thick!"

For the Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 tsps baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 3 Tbsp cold butter, 1/2 cup 2% milk, 2 cups shredded cheese

Oh, btw I used fat free milk, cuz thats all I had. I wasn't gonna buy specail milk for one recipe. Use whatever you want!

For crust, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut butter until crumbly. Add milk, tossing with a fork until mix forms a soft dough. Shape into ball.

On a lightly floured surface roll dough int oa 12x10 in rectangle.

I have NO idea if that was 12x10 inches. I just eyed it up.

Sprinkle with cheese. Roll up jelly roll style. Cut into 12 slices. Place on top of of chicken mix. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

So, I totally did the jelly roll things wrong! I cut them while they weren't rolled up, so I just had a big mess trying to cut them, then roll them up. I only got like 8 doing that way. Cheese was every where, it was a mess. So I will def try to do better next time.

Here it is, all done. My husband liked it, but he said that is was so thin on the bottom. Next time I think I will use a slightly smaller baking dish to fix that. Since the chicken mix is basically already cooked I don't think it will affect anything too much. Well I hoped you all liked it. I didn't. Cream of mushroom soup? No thanks! Onions? No thanks. Oh! Yes, I once again just used half an onion. A whole onion would be very oniony. See yinz next time!

Easy as Pie

Good day! Well here I am again, with another All Recipes.com recipe. That is the best site ever. Well, best site without kittens.
I am currently listening to great 80's hits, the sun is shining, its not windy, all in all a perfect day to go outside. Which is why I will stay inside and write my blog, and watch tv. I might open a window. Maybe. For those that don't know, I am what you would call an "Indoor Girl". On with the recipe!
"Burrito Pie"
Once again, I refrained from partaking of this casserole.

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef, 1 chopped onion, 2 tsps minced garlic, 1 (2 oz) can sliced black olives, 1 (4 oz) can diced green chili peppers, 1 (10 oz) can diced tomatoes w/ green chili peppers, 1 (16 oz) jar taco sauce, 2 (16 oz) cans refried beans, 12 (8 in) flour tortillas, 9 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Just a couple of notes, I usually never by name brand canned veggies. There is such a huge difference in price, and not in taste(mostly) that its not worth getting name brand. But the reason I got Del Monte was because I could not find Kroger diced tomatoes with the green chili peppers. It was late, I was hungry and tired and was sick of being in the store. So I just bought the more expensive tomatoes. Convenience has its price. And the tortillas, I have no idea if they are 8 inches or not, but I bought them for the same reasons as the tomatoes. I wanted to leave the store. And once again, I just used half of an onion. A whole onion seems super over powering. I used my handy dandy manual food processor from Pampered Chef to chop the onions.

Before


After! I am never using a knife to finely chop onions again!

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees(This could probably wait until after the meat simmers). In a large skillet brown meat with onions and minced garlic. Drain excess fat(the recipe says to drain "if desired" I totally drained it because otherwise its super gross!).

This is my hand me down measuring spoon that my mother in law gave me. She never used it and let me have it. From the Pampered Chef, of course. This is the older version, they have brought a new and improved spoon, but this still works for me just fine!


Before I used my Mix-n-Chop from Pampered Chef!

After! I am such a good spokes-person for Pampered Chef! I could never sell the stuff though, I hate public speaking, so I shall endorse it this way.

Mix in olives, green chili peppers, tomatoes, taco sauce, and refried beans. Stir thoroughly, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes(I turn the oven on after this, other wise your oven would just be on with nothing in it for like a half an hour!).

Yes, I realize the chili peppers are supposed to be diced, but I grabbed whole. It was a surprise when I opened it up to see these gross snake like green things when I expected diced. Oh well, I just had to dice them myself.


Good as new!

I had to switch to a big pot, because all those ingredients were not going to fit in that skillet. This is a 5 qt pot and it worked perfectly.

15 minutes of simmering and viola!

Spread a thin layer of the meat mix in the bottom of a 4 qt baking dish. Cover with a layer of tortillas followed by more meat, then cheese. Repeat tortilla, meat, cheese until tortillas are used, topping with meat and cheese.

Ok, so it didn't work out exactly as the recipe said, but there are 2 reasons for that. First is that I used a 3 qt dish(9x13), because I don't have a 4 qt dish. Second I only used about 6 or 8 tortillas because I am not sure if they were 8 inches. But it still worked. It fit fine in the 9x13, and I had like 3 layers of tortillas. I went easy with the cheese on the inside, and layered the most cheese on top. And here it is all cooked!

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese is slightly brown and bubbly.

Doesn't that look good? My husband loved it, of course. He loves spicy stuff. I suggest using a bowl to eat it from, it was pretty runny. That makes it sound less appetizing, huh? Don't know how else to explain it though. Hope you liked this recipe. The next one I blog will be an epic fail recipe. Well maybe not epic, but still a fail. But my mom encouraged me to to share my harrowing experience with Scotch Eggs, and I will. Until then, keep calm and love cats.