Baked, Not Fried

As promised, I made Oven-Fried Ranch Chicken last night. On the plus side, it was tasty; on the negative side, I took no pictures. I know, I know! I'm horrible! In my defence I forgot because it had been so long since I blogged and I wasn't thinking I needed pictures of my dinner.

Anyways, I love fried chicken. But alas, it is not healthy. Anything that is deep fried is not healthy. Whats that you say? You already knew that? Yes, I like to point out the obvious. So that is why I love this recipe, its baked, not fried. Just like my title. Mwahaha!

Not only is this recipe healthier, it is easy. You start with a whole chicken cut up but I'm sure it would work with any kind of chicken. I just wanted the authentic fried chicken type pieces. So my husband hacked the chicken up the night before (this is one thing I do not do in the kitchen) and then I rinsed and patted dry the pieces. They all went in a ziploc with 2 packages of ranch dressing mix (or 6 tablespoons for me as I have a container of it from Sams) with 2 cups of buttermilk. I actually bought the buttermilk but like it says on the Betty Crocker site you can "pour 2 tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice into a 2-cup measuring cup and add enough regular milk to measure 2 cups, stir, then let stand for 5 minutes". Finally you turn the chicken in the ziploc several times to coat and stick it in the fridge overnight. Definitely leave it overnight, even with it staying in the mix overnight it still did not have a strong ranch flavor. So I can't imagine not leaving it for many hours.

The next day you mix a package of Betty Crocker cornbread mix, 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper in a shallow dish. Take the chicken pieces and dip them in the mix to completely coat. Then place the pieces on a 15x10x1 inch pan (I used my baking/jelly roll sheet) sprayed with cooking spray. Spray all the pieces lightly with cooking spray and stick in a 425 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. Mine were in for 35 minutes and they were temping. The recipe says 170°F for breasts; 180°F for thighs and drumsticks but we did 165, I think anything more and it would have been dry.

The chicken was very moist and because of the cornbread mix, it had a sweet (yet spicy!) hint to it. Like I said before, you can't really notice much of a ranch flavor but that was fine, I just made ranch mashed potatoes on the side! It was delicious!

A couple of things to note, that I plan to incorporate if I make this recipe again:

• The chicken was pretty spicy. I kind of figured that going in since there was 1 teaspoon of pepper and pepper always makes things spicy but I added it anyways. I'm still on the fly on whether or not I'll decrease this amount next time but I wanted to mention it to those of you who do not like spicy food. I'm sure you could just leave it out and it would still be tasty. The cornbread mix really makes the flavor.
  
• We left the skin on the chicken and next time I will remove all skin. All it did was aggravate me when trying to dip the chicken and it was mushy and disgusting to eat once it was cooked. The thing about fried chicken is that the skin gets crispy but when you bake a breaded chicken with skin, the skin just gets mushy and blech. My husband was worried the breading wouldn't stick without the skin but it definitely will.
  
• It was more expensive to try and get a chicken the size they want for the recipe, you end up getting a 4-5 pounder instead of 3. I figured I would be ok with one package of cornbread mix to make just one breading mix but no, I was not ok. I had to run to the store to get another mix. So if you are using a lot of chicken definitely double the breading mix.

Tonight is Sweet Onion Mac & Cheese from my Rachel Ray magazine. I'm very excited about this, I love mac & cheese! This time, I promise to take a picture!!!

Finally a Post or...A List of Blogs that Post More Often then I Do

I'm ashamed that its been since September that I've posted on this blog. I really enjoy reading food blogs and wanted to keep up on my own. But nevertheless, life took over and my blog was pushed aside. No excuse, but still, it happened. Hopefully I can get back into it because as I mention in my profile, cooking has become something I am very passionate about and I'd love to share my "adventures" with others. If there are any "others" which at this point, I am sure there are not!

Since I was not expecting to start posting again today I am unprepared to share any cooking experiences I've had lately. Last night we had a new Taste of Home recipe, Tacoritos, which my husband really enjoyed. I liked them too but the sauce did not thicken quite as much as I would have liked. I don't know if it should have been that way or if I did not wait long enough or even if I used the right pan. I'm sure it had to do with my patience not being long enough for rues. They are the bain of my cooking existence. But anyways, like I said, runny sauce but tasty dish. Maybe that is just the way it was supposed to be.

Wow, I totally went off topic there. So like I said, not prepared. So I thought I'd share the three food blogs that I discovered over my long blogging hiatus:

Virgina Cooks
Our Best Bites
The Pioneer Woman Cooks

All three really great food blogs! Hopefully mine will become as great as one of these three someday! I advise anyone who is reading this to Check. Them. Out!!

On tap for tomorrow...Oven-Fried Ranch Chicken! I have it soaking in its buttermilk/ranch mix as we speak..um...as you read this...as I write this? I don't know but its in the fridge! I just wish I would have taken a video of my husband cutting up the whole chicken. It was quite funny.

A little longer then planned...

Yes, the hiatus was longer then I had originally planned but I've been extremely busy lately. I know that isn't an excuse but its the one I'm using. There has been so much going on that I haven't felt like posting even when I'm sure I had the time. Sadly, no pictures today either. Anyways, today is another edition of "Ways in Which I Use Stuff Up Before it Spoils".

Yesterday I spent a portion of my day finally cleaning out our pantry. I had been meaning to do it for some time as I was sick of cramming and having random packages fall out when I opened the doors. As it is, the pantry is extremely small, a shelving unit we got from Walmart. And I, being the crazy cook that I am, love to buy groceries.

I was shocked at the amount of canned goods I pulled from the shelves. 5 cans of cream of chicken soup, who needs 5 cans? Along with all the canned goods there were tons of noodles, something else that is cheap that I buy and never use. I am such a food pack rat. If there is such a thing. Even after cleaning out the pantry and throwing away various stale items, it still was a tight fit. I made my husband swear not to let me buy another can of cream of chicken soup, well, until I use up what I have!

Amongst all these cans and bags there was lots and lots of old candy. Husband and I get candy from my mom for various holidays and we never seem to finish! I know some of you are shocked but I'm really not a candy person. I'll eat it from time to time but I can only take so much. I separated the candy and put it in new ziplocs. I had husband help me decide what wasn't worth saving and threw out the rest. Which was surprisingly not a lot, candy has a scary shelve life I tell you. All the candy that was saved I will use for baking which I happened to start yesterday as well.

I had found an old package of sugar cookie mix which I made up and threw in the various M&M's I had in one ziploc. There were kissables, peanut M&M's, peanut butter M&M's, and regular M&M's. All got dumped in to the cookie dough. Then I just plopped them on the cookie sheet and baked. I ended up having to extend the cooking time by a couple of minutes but otherwise they came out perfect. They are really tasty and I used up two things! Old cookie mix and old M&M's.

Later it was time to make dinner. I had a couple of things I needed to use up, some tasty chicken leftover from the chicken barbecue we went to on Saturday and some stale tortilla chips. I knew I could make some kind of mexican casserole from these two items so I went to trusty google. Here is the recipe I found. This recipe was great because it not only used up the chips and chicken, it used up some canned goods as well (one being the dreaded cream of chicken soup).

This was so easy. I cut up the chicken, completely cleaning it off the bones. (Dog got the skin and pieces I didn't want to use, she was pleased) I put all the canned ingredients in a pot to mix and heat up. They ask for tomatoes with green chilies which I did not have so I used diced tomatoes and a small can of green chilies I had. I just drained the juice from the chilies to cut back on the spice. I was so pleased this recipe also called for taco sauce because I had exactly 1/2 cup in my fridge that had been there forever and surprisingly was not expired!

The end result was very tasty, with lots of flavor. Husband loved it and mixed it with the mock rice and beans I made (I used the rest of the chicken broth with the water, rice, pinto beans rinsed and drained, some garlic salt and I stuck in the chicken bones for more flavor. This produced a really good rice and beans without the fuss!).

Two things that kind of bothered me about the recipe. One, it came out very runny. I don't know if I would mess with that if I make it again. It didn't seem to matter, especially if mixing it with the rice. Two, the recipe says to place the crushed chips in the bottom of the pan. This produced a mushy mess of chips at the bottom of the casserole. It tasted fine but you wouldn't even have known I used chips! I don't think husband even realized it! If I make this again I will just sprinkle the chips on top of the cheese. This will allow them to get crunchy which is what I prefer.

Too Busy to Cook

I really truly hate when this happens but yes, I have been too busy to cook lately. And it won't get any better over the next couple of weeks. For months now I've known that the end of August was going to be a busy time for me and now its finally here.

Saturday I will be making Hot Pepper Jelly for the first time with a friend of mine. She offered to teach me how to make it. My sister loves it and is in Vegas right now with her fiance who is stationed there for training. Her birthday is September 2nd so I thought I'd make a batch and send her some. Therefore, there will be an entry on that.

I did also get my new Rachel Ray magazine and there were some scrumptious looking recipes I'll be trying. A cookie recipe I plan to make to use up some Hershey bars my mom gave me (which I guess can also count as another addition of "Ways in Which I Use Stuff Up"). And as always, another addition of "Cooking for your Pet".

Another note, my entry got posted at Champaign Taste as promised on Julia's birthday, Saturday, August 15th. Not only is my recipe listed but a bunch of other delicious looking recipes that I need to try myself soon.

So a small hiatus but lots to come!

Fondue de Poulet a la Creme

Since Julia Child's birthday is Saturday, August 15th, Champaign Taste is holding an event for all to make a Julia Child recipe by midnight today and she'll post the entries on Julia's birthday. Of course I wanted to participate, having just seen "Julie & Julia" and then buying Julia's cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". Which is what I turned to yesterday to find the perfect recipe to make for the event. Let me tell you, this was not an easy task. I knew I was going to do something with chicken but each chapter has so many recipes! I finally settled on Fondue de Poulet a la Creme (Chicken with Cream and Onions).

This recipe is on the easier side, as far as Julia's recipes are concerned, which was kind of what I was looking for since it was a work night after all. I had a whole chicken defrosting in the fridge which would need to be cut up. I let the husband take care of that one as I'm not one to hack up chickens. He seems to know better what he is doing as far as that goes.

After the chicken (2-3 1/2 lbs.) is cut up, I rinsed the four sections and dried them. 3 tablespoons of butter are placed in a pot and once heated, the chicken is placed in. Julia says the chicken should be stiff but not browned and this little task is very hard to accomplish. Chicken likes to brown when its in a hot pan so constant turning was a must. This should be done for about 5 minutes and then the chicken should be removed from the pot to another platter. 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced onions should then be added to the pot, cover and cook for about 5 more minutes.

Once the 5 minutes is up, the chicken should be placed back in the pot and sprinkled with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp curry powder and 1/8 tsp white pepper (I used black because that is what I had on hand). Then you add 3/4 cup of dry white wine (there were other wine suggestions but I can't remember them and this is what I used) and cook till the liquid has almost evaporated.

While this was cooking, I heated 3 cups of heavy cream to a boil in a saucepan. Once the liquid had almost evaporated, the cream was added and the pot was covered again. The chicken should then be cooked, covered, for 30-35 minutes or until the chicken is done.

When the chicken is cooked through, you remove it from the pot to a platter and keep warm while making the sauce. To make the sauce you first skim the fat off the top of the liquid left in the pot. Stir, boiling, until the liquid lightly coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, add drops of lemon juice, salt and white pepper to taste. Then add 3-4 tablespoons of heavy cream to thin out.

Now my sauce never got very thick so I only added 3 tablespoons of heavy cream. I don't know if this sauce was supposed to be thick but mine was pretty runny. But oh so delicious! The sauce was definitely the best part.



We had the dish with mashed potatoes (which I drizzled with more sauce) and salad. Very tasty meal, rich and creamy. Husband liked it and so did the friend I had over for dinner. I'll definitely be making it again. It took a while to cook, but it wasn't necessarily hard to do. Besides the whole chicken and heavy cream (which I purchased for Julia's recipes), I normally have all the ingredients on hand. I would think boneless skinless chicken breast would work as well, just with less cooking time. I might try that next time!

Cooking for Your Pet - Sensational Salmon Cakes

So this is my first installment of "Cooking for Your Pet". Rachel Ray has lots of pet-friendly recipes that are also for humans too! Periodically I'm going to start making these recipes. Last nights recipe was from my recent Rachel Ray magazine, Sensational Salmon Cakes. As you can see to the left my puppy, Miley, gives four paws up for this recipe.

The recipe is simple, canned salmon mixed with bread crumbs (I used seasoned which is not in the recipe), red pepper, egg and fresh dill (I used dried because horror! I don't really use fresh spices). Form into small patties and cook in a pan with a little vegetable oil till brown on both sides. I doubled the recipe and I'm glad I did, I only got 8 cakes as it is. I'm sure I would have only gotten about 4 if I hadn't doubled it.

Finished product (a spoiled dog's dinner)

Miley enjoying her salmon cakes

For the people's portion Rachel has a yummy sauce you can make to go on top. Mayo, lemon juice and fresh chives (yes, I used dried). It is so tangy and wonderfully complements the cakes. I doubled this recipe as well and had quite a bit leftover so we plan to grill up some fish fillets we have in the freezer and top them with the leftover sauce.

Since salmon cakes are obviously not enough for us humans, I also made a Mushroom Risotto. Let me just say that Risottos are a pain. The constant stirring for about 40 minutes is enough for me to never want to make a Risotto again. But I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who shares in the stirring duties.

While time consuming, this recipe is definitely worth it because this risotto is delicious! Here's how it works, you heat about 6 cups of chicken broth in a pot on low heat. You also cook the mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil till soft with juices. They ask for 2 lbs. of mushrooms and I did not feel like spending $8 on mushrooms so I bought a pound. Come to find out that other commenters on this recipe did the same thing. I really do feel that 2 lbs. would have been too many.

So you put aside the mushrooms with their juices for later. I used the same pan for cooking the mushrooms as I did the risotto and just put the mushrooms in a bowl and washed the pan. Then you cook some shallots in olive oil. This was my first time using shallots, I know Julia uses them a lot in her cooking. They remind me a lot of garlic in the way that they peel and such. Weird little onions but easy to prepare. If I prepared them right that is, I'm assuming I did.

Anyways, you cook the shallots for about a minute then add in the arborio rice. Here is where I made a stupid mistake which I did not realize till later. I measured out the rice (1 cup and a half) and left it sitting on the counter so it was ready when the time came to use it. Well, when I added the rice to the pan, I only added a cup, completely missing the half a cup. So stupid! After the rice cooks for about 3 minutes, you add 1/2 cup of dry white wine (I used cooking wine). Stir constantly till wine is absorbed. Then you add the chicken broth about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring till absorbed. Over and over again till you don't want to do it anymore, why can't this darn risotto be done! Once all the broth is added (or about 4 cups of it if you screw up and realize you never added the 1/2 cup, yes, I am still bitter thank you for asking) and has absorbed, you take the pan off the heat. Add the mushrooms and juice, parmesan cheese, butter, chives (once again I used dried), salt and pepper to taste and the result is a creamy, mushroomy (definitely not a word but I think it should be) risotto.

And for those who care, yes, the risotto came out fine even though I screwed up the measurements! The proof is shown below:

Salmon cakes with sauce, Mushroom Risotto, and once again, the infamous salad
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A side note, tonight I plan to make something from Mastering the Art of French cooking for an event going on by Champaign Taste. I found this blog while searching through cooking blogs to read. Julia Child's birthday is August 15th so Champaign Taste is holding an event for bloggers (and even non-bloggers can participate) to make one of Julia's recipes and post about it by midnight on August 13th. Then Champaign Taste will post a link to the entry on Julia's birthday, August 15th.

You can read more about the event here. I was really excited about this event as I just saw the movie and got the cookbook and have really been in to the whole Julia thing. Heck, its the reason I started this blog! Anyways, look for my entry tomorrow.

Cheeseburger Pasta and Ways in Which I Use Stuff Up Before it Spoils

Last night I made Family-Favorite Cheeseburger Pasta from Healthy Cooking Taste of Home magazine. I do not get the magazine, I get the general Taste of Home one but my mom gets the Healthy Cooking and this delicious recipe was pictured on the cover of last month's issue. So I looked it up on tasteofhome.com and printed it out to try a while ago. I finally got around to trying it last night. It was rainy, muggy and generally disgusting here yesterday by the time I got off from work so we decided it was best if we cooked inside.

This recipe is easy. Make the pasta, cook the beef with some onion, add the pasta plus the rest of the ingredients. Boil then simmer for 5 minutes, sprinkle with cheddar cheese and voila! Easy dinner. And it was delicious, it did taste just like a cheeseburger.

Couple of notes on this recipe...the dill pickle relish. I was going to use the sweet pickle but thought better of it. Since we were going to the store anyways, I picked up some dill relish. They only had dill in one brand, in a squirt bottle. This could be due to the fact I was buying ingredients from Wal*Mart, I don't know. Another thing was the steak seasoning. I was planning to use steak sauce but once again, at the store anyways, and I picked up steak seasoning from the spice aisle. I'm not even going to begin to go into how long it took me to decide on which one to buy but I ended up with Mrs. Dash's.

Another thing to point out is that I did not use wheat pasta or no-salt tomatoes. Obviously this makes the recipe less healthy but that is what I got and so that is what I used. As always, unhealthy stuff is always cheaper!

Dinner [Salad, homemade biscuits (from Saturday) and cheeseburger pasta]

This leads me in to the next part of this post, "Ways in Which I Use Stuff Up Before it Spoils". Maybe this will be a new thing for my blog, I don't know. We will see. Anyways, the salad above consists of all the vegetables I had in my veggie drawer that were about to go bad. Some already had and ew. That amount of mold is just not healthy. But this blog is not about my bad refrigerator cleaning skills, it is about cooking! So the salad consisted of bagged salad, (not from my veggie drawer but purchased at the store with the aforementioned Mrs. Dash), broccoli crowns, onion, cherry tomatoes, carrots and cheese cubes (the cheese was not going to spoil but cheese in salad, mmm).

*I also want to add that we used Krafts Mandarin Orange with Sesame Seed dressing. I would link to this but I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet. I will add that I found it at Wal*Mart Supercenter. It is so good, if you like oranges you'll love this dressing!*

On to dessert. Remember those cookies I spoke about the other day? Well we heated those up and topped with vanilla ice cream. Then to use up the cherries (I only had about a cup) left from making the Clafoutis, I made an easy cherry sauce from my Better Homes and Garden cookbook. The recipe is simple (please note I halved this recipe): Mix together 1/4 cup sugar with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Add 1/4 cup of water, stir. Add the cup of cherries and heat till thickened and bubbly. Then heat for 2 minutes more, stirring throughout the heating process. Remove from heat. Then you are supposed to add 1/2 tablespoon of cherry/orange liqueur, cherry brandy or orange juice. Of course I didn't have any of those and I was planning on just leaving that step out altogether but I worried it wouldn't thin out enough otherwise. So I used lemon juice and that seemed to work fine because it was delicious:

Mmm, I wish there was more left for tonight. Its a lot like cherry pie filling. So there you have it, I used up vegetables and the cherries!