Please Pass the Salt...

Yes, yes, I know - if you made any (or all) of the stock recipes I listed - they do need salt to be ultimately delicious.  My husband tasted each one and said they need salt.  They most definitely will when you are cooking with them, but keep in mind that for me salting should be in the process of cooking the final product.  That way you can control exactly how much of the stuff to add to your recipe. 


I LOVE salt! Don't get me wrong.  I most especially love Kosher Salt.  I really think it's the only way to go, unless you also want to have some smoked salt or some other fabulous kind. 


Salt brings out the sweetness in things like chocolate and caramel.  And who doesn't love salted butter and garlic bread with a sprinkling of salt?  There's nothing like soaking a grilling plank to lay out a large salmon filet doused in real maple syrup, some pressed garlic & a good amount of kosher salt. Salt & pepper crusted steaks?  Absolutely!  Salt crusted roast chicken? Out of this world!  If I were going to eat the stock, just on it's own, I would definitely salt it.  But I know not of the plans I have for it, so I don't get ahead of myself.  


Anyway, I just wanted to warn you, they will need salt.  Now, I'm off to get busy with my son's schooling for the day & I'll be back with my first soup installment later.


Love the ones you salt, uh I mean feed!


Happy Halloween!!!

Soup Broth 103: Where's the Beef?

Here it is, friends, my first beef broth.  I've never made one before, but there's no time like the present! 


While I was wandering the grocery store the other day, trying to guess what might go into a beef broth, I bought some things for it.  Turns out I was "wrong" by everyone else's standards. However, that has never stopped me before.  I'm certainly not going to let it stop me today.  I've always marched to the beat of a slightly different drum.  No need to go all mainstream now!

I figured I needed a big hunk of beef with bone in it. I know that the bone has yumminess in the marrow that will break down and make a flavorful broth. But who knew I didn't actually need the meat?  Huh...that caught me a little off guard.  Who'da thunk it?  I mean, really?  Where's the beef?


If you've read anything of mine before, you'll know I'm entirely too thrifty to go throwing things out because I don't have an ingredient the rest of the world calls for.  I always do things my way.  "Heidicized", my husband calls it.  Today will be no exception to that rule.


Every time I've ever made a roast of any kind - chicken, pork, or beef - I always strain off the liquid and throw it into a freezer bag for later use.  It's always fabulous and always good to have on hand.  While this may not be a "traditional" beef broth, it will be tasty and useful.  So there!


I did cut out the bone & bake it like the other broth recipes suggest.  I preheated the oven to 450, put the bone in a small baking dish & baked it for about 20 minutes.  Holy aroma, Batman!  It smelled so good!  


While the bone was in the oven, I took my pile of veggies along with a cup & 1/2 of red wine and put 'em in my trusty stock pot.  I used 2 yellow onions, 2 bulbs garlic, handful of baby carrots, 4 stalks celery, 4 portabella mushrooms, 1 bunch parsley, 2 bay leaves & the rest of my roasted peppers from the other night (just shy of a cup).

Put them in the pot just the way you see them.  I quartered the onions, sliced the mushrooms & chopped the celery.  Other than that, it went in without any work.  Put the meat on top, plop the bone in there with the rest & fill it with water. Bring it to a boil before turning it down to a slow simmer and set the timer for 3 hours.  My goodness, does it smell  rich!

Get ready, because the soup ideas have been brewin' in my brain for 3 days.  Halloween is typically a chili night for me, so I may have a mutiny on my hands if I try anything else, but I've been dreaming of curries of all kinds though I may have to make a batch of chili just to keep the troops happy.  Breaking tradition is rarely without risk! 

Remember to cool your soup, bag it, label it & freeze it!  

Tell me your favorite soups!  I'd love to hear about them!

Love to you & the ones you feed!

George Carlin & Croutons

"Why do croutons come in airtight packaging? They're just stale bread to begin with."  George Carlin had a little something to say about everything. For those of you too young to know who he was, know that he was on the cutting edge of cool comedians back in the day.  He was right about croutons and I love that it's true!  Do you ever get a loaf of crusty bread from the store & for one reason or another don't get to eat it before it turns into a baseball bat?  Well, this is one of my favorite things to do with it.

First I cut the loaf in half so I can season it a couple of different ways.  I like to make one batch with a bit of an Italian flavor, the other I make with a bit of a southwestern spice.  I really don't do anything fancy with it.  They can be chopped up, seasoned, and baked to crispy deliciousness in about 30 minutes. 

For the Italian flavor, I put a couple tbsps of butter, some olive oil, garlic powder, salt, & thyme in a pan to melt.  (If you happen to have shredded Parmesan cheese, it's a wonderful addition.) Pour it over the bread cubes & dig in with your hands, mixing it thoroughly to cover all the cubes.  Spread them on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden.

For the southwest flavor, I totally cheat and mix the butter & olive oil in a pan with southwest seasoning. Simple.  Pour it on, mix it up with your hands, put it on a second sheet and put it in the oven too.  

You can flavor them any way you like.  After they've cooled completely, put them in storage bags and keep them for a few weeks.  They're cheaper and they are lifetimes better than those rock-like little things in the "airtight bags."

 Enjoy!

Soup Broth 102: Veggies Rock!

I love veggies.  I grew up with my dad & grandpa gardening, which gave me a love of fresh food that I can never deny.  I especially love root vegetables.  Turnips, parsnips, beets, potatoes, carrots & rutabaga are some of the most flavorful and wonderful veggies on the planet.  The men in my house are not terribly fond of such things so I rarely have them around.  Potatoes of course, they love, but I have yet to convince them of the wonders of the rest of that group.

  

Today is a different story though.  Today I'm making my vegetable stock so I get to use all my favorite things and they'll never know it when they eat it. The pile in the picture above is all I put in there, plus the roasted tomatoes & peppers from last night.  (I did keep a small portion of the peppers aside for tomorrow's beef stock.)

The oil in the bottom of the pan is the garlic infused oil I roasted them with as well as all the juices that came from that job.  all I did next was chop everything in huge chunks, put them in the pot and filled it with water.  I didn't add salt, as I said in the chicken stock post. You don't want to be worried about whether or not something will be too salty.  You can always add salt, but you can't take it away.  The only herb I added was the parsley.  The flavor of the veggies really stand on their own and don't need any kind of a boost.

I turned the fire up to bring them to a boil, then turn it down to a real low simmer and let it cook for  about 2 hours.  It might have been done in an hour, but what the heck?  I may as well let it simmer as long as I can.  It smells and looks gorgeous!  I hate the idea of tossing the veggies when I strain them, so I've done a double strain.  In other words, I strained off all the liquid then I sifted through the veggies to remove the stems, garlic skins, onion skins, etc., and left the veggies to cool.  Not totally sure what I'm going to do with them yet.  If nothing else, I can make a delicious meal for my dogs.  They would totally love that!

This is some beautiful, ruby red vegetable stock.  It yielded about 14 cups of stock.

Enjoy stocking up your freezer! Winter's going to yield some fabulous soups!

Prepping the Veggies for Their Broth Bath

While the easiest way to make vegetable broth is to just throw everything into the pot, I'm a HUGE fan of roasted vegetables.  So tonight, I'm prepping my veggies for tomorrow's broth fest.  This way, they're done and ready to work with when everything else gets tossed into the pot. 
Off we go with roasting peppers. mmmmmmm....

As usual, I have in the fridge a bag of these little sweet peppers.  They are tasty, they last in the fridge for weeks, they cost next to nothing, and they are a quick easy fix when you need peppers for any dish.  Wash 'em and put 'em on a roasting pan.  In this case, I'm only roasting a few and because I have tomatoes roasting in my large oven, these are going to be broiled in my toaster oven.  This is also a great thing to do if you're afraid your peppers will go bad before you get to use them.  There's nothing worse than throwing out food.

As soon as you start to smell them, keep an eye on them.  You don't want to burn them into oblivion. Once they start to blacken, flip them over for the other side to do the same thing.

When they are beautifully roasted on both sides, take them out, put them in a bowl and wrap it tight with plastic wrap. Put it in the freezer, setting a timer for 10 minutes.  DO NOT rinse them with water or all your hard work, including the flavor will go right down the drain.  When the timer goes off, remove them from the freezer.  At this point, peeling them will be a cinch.   Put them in an airtight bowl and refrigerate until you want to use them.  Trust me on this, you're going to love them.

While all of this is happening I've also quartered 7-8 tomatoes, arranging them on a large roasting pan with another bunch of peppers.  Get your garlic infused oil & drizzle it over the whole batch.  (See my previous post on roasted tomatoes, if you don't know what I'm talking about.)  Put them in the oven with the peppers and bake for 3 hours at 275.  Sit down, watch a movie or two and enjoy the aroma of tastiness.  

These would be much more flavorful if they were organically grown, or better, home grown.  But I'll make due with what I've got.  They'll start to shrivel and be browned slightly when they're done.  Dump all of the contents of the pan into a bowl, cover it and refrigerate until you're ready to use them.  There will be lots of juices that will be wonderful in your soup stock, so be sure to save every last drop.

See you tomorrow!

Soup Broth 101: Welcome to Fall!

Leaves on a cliff at the Grand Canyon this past weekend. It was as if God sent me a little love & hope for cooler weather.

I know most of the country entered "fall" maybe a month or so ago, but for those us here in the Valley of the Sun, late October begins our fall season.  Let me tell you, one sweaty person to another, we are ready!!!  Summer clothes have been gone from the stores for 3 months, as though the start of school suddenly means it's time to  wear jeans and long sleeves.  Just a few days ago we were still topping out at 100 degrees. While the stores all have Christmas  decorations up, we're still sweating like it's the 4th of July.  Finally though, the temperatures seem to truly have dropped to a reasonable number for the season and the sizzle is gone from my rock yard. No longer are the pillows on my bed warm from resting against (the inside) of the west wall of my house. At last my dreams of warm, golden delicious soups and oven baked breads are about to become a reality.  But first, let's get to the basics of it all.  The stock.

Soup stock is real simple, whether you do it with chicken, beef, or vegetable.  There's no canned or boxed stock that will ever be as good as the one you make yourself.  You know what's in it and you know it's made with love. Start with water, a pile of aromatics, veggies, a little patience, & plenty of zip lock storage bags to save all that goodness for your fall soup fantasies.  


For starters, I'm working on my chicken stock.  Gather all your ingredients and put them in the largest pot you've got, throw it all in together and let it cook really slow for hours on end.  You'll have a hard time not eating it right away, but trust me when I say don't do it!  If you do, you'll have to go through the process all over again - not that that's a bad thing because like I said, it's easy and your house will smell luscious.


In general, I never salt a stock.  Your salt needs will vary from one dish to another and the last thing you want is to feel like a herd of elk at that giant salt lick, Mammoth Hot Spring Terrace in Yellowstone National Park - another breathtaking place to be. Not, however, in your soup. 


First off, I get my roasting chicken ready for the pot. Anything from a 4-5lb bird will do the trick.  Rinse it good and put it in the pot. In this instance, if you've got an 8 quart pot, that's the way to go. 


I can't imagine a life without onions & garlic.  To me, that would be a sad existence.  So let's use two onions.  I use yellow onions in soup stock because I find they are the most pungent.  You can dice them up however you like, but leave half of one of them in tact so it can be stuffed into the cavity of your chicken. For the garlic, I use 2 full bulbs and I don't peel them at all. I love the flavor of buttery delicious roasted garlic. If you leave the skins on them, this is the flavoring they'll have. You won't have to worry because you're going to strain the whole batch when it's done anyway.  Just break apart the bulbs and drop all of the cloves into the mix.

 Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Next, chop up 4-5 stalks of celery - preferably leafy celery.  I hate that grocery stores trim the leaves off of celery. The flavor in celery leaves is fantastic and a wonderful addition to the pot.  Get them at a produce market if you can.  They're much less likely to be trimmed.  Add to that 3-4 chopped carrots.


As for the rest of the aromatics, bundle up a handful of fresh thyme, rosemary & oregano.  Put them in a pile, tie them up with some kitchen twine & toss them in the pot. Put in 2 bay leaves for good measure and you're ready to add the water. In my old house, I had herbs growing all over the yard, so they were always easy to gather. Nowadays, I have to buy them at the store and I can't get over the price!  Good grief - grow your own if you've got a place for it! Now that the weather is cooling off, I'll be planting some in pots. I can't keep any potted plants alive in the summer heat.  Their little roots just fry in the heat.  Anyway, once again I'm rambling.


Fill the pot with as much water as it will hold without boiling over. In my case, I get about 10-12 cups of water total. Bring the whole thing to a boil before turning down to a low simmer.  Let it cook for a couple of hours, until the chicken just falls apart when you stir it. Then turn of the heat and let it cool.


Once it cools off, strain it. Some people throw out what they strain off.  I don't.  The thought of wasting all that food kills me. My favorite thing to do is to carefully remove the bones then shred the chicken for enchiladas. You could also shred the chicken, wrap it carefully in plastic wrap & foil before labeling it and put it in the freezer for use at a later date.


The strained stuff is where we're headed.  Using quart-size freezer bags, measure your liquid into 1 or 2 cup increments (whichever is most useful for you) and pour it into the pre-labeled bag.  Lay it flat on the counter and remove as much of the air as possible.  If you ever owned a water bed (now I'm dating myself for sure) then you'll know what I'm talking about.  Get rid of the air bubble.  Zip it and lay it flat on a baking tray.  For best results, layer parchment paper between each of the storage bags so they don't freeze together.  Once they are frozen, you've got  thin sheets of broth that are easy to store.  Then when you've got a recipe calling for chicken broth, you've got the best one on the market!


Until tomorrow...be blessed & feed the ones you love!

Road Food

Good Morning, All!!!


My family and I just returned from a trip to the Grand Canyon.  I've been there several times and I can honestly say, I never get tired of the place.  Its absolute beauty is ever changing with the movement of the sun and the change of seasons & I never grow weary of its majesty.

This trip was a little different for us because this time my hubby and I got to do something we haven't done in 11 years - take a road trip sans kiddo.  It was like we were newly weds again. We could stop (or not stop) whenever we wanted and we got to eat at our favorite little restaurant in Flagstaff.  When we were first married, we made the trek from St. Pete, FL to the Grand Canyon and happened upon a little place in Flagstaff called La Bellavia.  It is my very favorite "local" place to eat.  As a matter of fact, it's pretty much my favorite restaurant of all time.  So if you're ever in the area, please make a point of stopping for breakfast or lunch. We've been going there for 14 years and have never had anything but a fantastic experience every time.   It's where hubby discovered his favorite, albeit different breakfast - Trout & Eggs.

The trout is pan fried to flaky perfection. The coffee is delicious. The pancakes are fat & fluffy (even without smiley faces) and the service is sweet.  I had a California Benedict, which is an English muffin topped by delicious roasted turkey breast, poached eggs, avocado & buttery delicious hollandaise sauce.  SO YUMMY!

Because of our distaste for fast food, we always make it a point to stop in a little local eateries whenever we get the chance.  This one never lets us down.


Once at the canyon, there's no such thing as major corporations and the food on site is tastilicious. We love the Bright Angel Lodge & it's homey comfort food.  I had a ham/turkey sandwich with root vegetable chips, while Matt had a chili boule. Both were quite good. Bright Angel is another place we really enjoy for any meal of the day.

Our dinner experiences were not so good, but that's because we ate at (or tried to eat at) the hotel we were staying in and the hoity toity restaurant ($25/plate) across the street.  The food at our hotel was absolutely horrible, yet it gave me ideas for things to make at home and blog about at a later time. The hotel across the street came with high marks and the menu looked delicious, but the server was so miserable, the 9 of us got up and walked out before we even got to order dinner. That exodus led us to a place called We Cook Pizza & Pasta which turned out to be pretty good and much more friendly to a rowdy group like ourselves.  As we were walking up, I recalled I had been there some 20 years ago where I'd had the best beer of my life.  It was only a bottle of Budweiser, but I had just spent 5 hours hiking in the Grand Canyon so it was the best beer I'd ever had.  Anyway, the food was good, prices reasonable and atmosphere noisy and family friendly.  My kind of place for hanging with some of my favorite people.


That's it for now.  Now that I'm home, I'll get back in the kitchen. I've got lots of ideas, but I think I'm going to dedicate the next few weeks to soups & sandwiches.  The weather is finally cool!  YAY!  So keep an eye out for some body warming yummies.


Until then, love the ones you feed!

Go Easy on Yourself

I don't know about you, but I'm particularly hard on myself with my expectations.  I think my house should be immaculate, my animals perfectly behaved, my life always to have an appearance of normalcy (HA!) and my food to always look as fabulous as it tastes.
But reality is a whole other world, isn't it?  Sometimes there are dishes in my sink & the bed's not made. Sometimes my dogs bark. Lord knows they shed like crazy. 

Sometimes I don't get along with the people closest to me. And sometimes my food is lacking the pizzazz and creativity I so long for.

The latter seems to bring me a special sort of gravity.  I suppose because my love language is very much based on acts of service, my ability to feed my family something beautiful, healthful and delicious is especially important.


I was pondering this last night as I was making pancakes for dinner - brinner, as my boys call it. I don't know about you, but the night before the new budget kicks in (aka, payday) my groceries start to run pretty sparse. We're trying to live on the Dave Ramsey school of thought where everything is done on a cash basis and when the cash is gone, we wait.


Personally, pancakes are not my thing. But I'm the only one in the house that feels that way. I don't do anything fancy with them.  I'm a cheater and only use Bisquick to make them. I generally make a fruit compote to go on top, but last night that only consisted of canned pears steeped in butter & maple syrup. (We were out of all things fresh.)  Still, I made smiley face pancakes.


First I was irritated that they weren't coming out perfect and almost had more of a "scary clown" face than a smiley face.  Then I remembered back to my childhood, when I first learned to make them.  I remember standing by the stove with my mom, making them for my dad.  I don't remember them not being perfect. She probably doesn't either.  I remember it as a fun way to eat pancakes & spend time with my mom.  So I lightened up, smiled back at my clown face pancakes and remembered that's what it's all about.


So take it easy on yourself. Life is messy. Things won't always measure up to your expectations & you have to be good with that. It's how you find joy in the little things.  Sometimes the greatest joy comes from the littlest things.


Enjoy your day!

Chicken Again?

Good day, food friends!  I hope your day is going flawlessly & that the sun is shining down on you. 

This may not be a new idea for some of you, but it's something I'd never tried until last night. I'm always looking for a different, yet healthful way to cook up some bird that won't bore my family to tears.  Yesterday, my son & I were standing in line at Costco.  Well, ok. We were standing in line to order a Very Berry Sundae at Costco, when my boy said, "Mom, doesn't that chicken wrap look delicious? It's chicken, cheese & bacon wrapped in bread dough. Mmmmm...bacon..."  There's no denying he's my son.  Bacon was his food of choice when I was pregnant with him and his love for the stuff has never gone away.  We saw a t-shirt at a shop in San Francisco that had a little pig on it with the caption "Praise the Lard". HAHAHAHAHAAA!  Amen to that!

But that got me thinkin' yesterday that I should try to whip up something a little better than that because if you looked at the link in my Flyer's Tips, you know the food in the picture is never like the real thing. I knew I could make the food at home look & taste WAY better.

It all began in the mortar & pestle.  Remember to do this when using dried herbs to help give them a little extra umph & help bring them back from their dry, dusty existence.  I put my garlic in there too.  The oil from the garlic is wonderful at helping wake up the herbs.  Hmm...now what's in that pile?  Basil, thyme, onion flakes, peppercorn & kosher salt.  Don't pin me down on amounts!  I'd venture to guess about a Tbsp each of basil, thyme & dehydrated onion. Maybe a 1/2 tsp of salt and a 1/2 tsp peppercorn along with 4 cloves garlic.

I smash them up really good before drizzling in some olive oil. Yes. Right into the mortar. 

Then smash them up a little bit more to get the olive oil soaking into those herbs and flavoring everything really nice.  Next, put your chicken breast into a zip lock bag & dump the smashed herb/garlic/oil mixture also. 

Once it's in the bag, smoosh out the excess air and seal it up tight because  you're gonna pound the chicken really thin and flat. This will help speed up the cooking time and smash those flavors right into the meat.  The zip lock bag will keep your hands & your kitchen from having chicken goo on them. Plus you can easily rub the herb mixture all over it. I also take the time to make sure the garlic chunks get embedded into the meat. mmmm...

Make sure you rub it around both sides of the breasts so the flavor is undeniable.  Then put it into a hot grill pan to be sure it sizzles good, but not too hot so as to burn the garlic.

While that does it's thing, I cut up some little sweet peppers.  I keep these on hand because they are deliciously sweet, easy to cut up for any kind of use & add beautiful color to everything.  Wash 'em and slice up.

After you flip the chicken over, add the peppers to the pan. You don't want to over cook them, but keep their color nice and leave them with a little crisp rather than slippery, slimy. 

At this point, my husband & son both said, "too bad your readers can't smell this!"

After you've done that, turn your oven on to 350F to preheat. Now, here's where I totally cheated. If I'd had time during the day, I would have made my own dough to make this particularly yummy, but that ain't the way it went.  While I was out, I picked up a refrigerated roll of French bread dough. So while my oven was heating and my chickie chickie peppers were finishing off, I opened the can of dough, unrolled it, & spread it out on my 9x13 stone bar pan to get it ready for baking.

Once the chicken was cooked fully through (about 12 minutes total) I took it out and chopped it into small pieces to prepare for rolling.

The rest is a snap - layer the chicken, peppers & a sprinkling of shredded mozzarella over the dough and get it ready to wrap.

Now fold up both sides, tuck under each end, sprinkle a little more cheese on the top & pop it in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

While it's in the oven you can tear up a salad to go along with it.  Take it out of the oven, slice & serve it to your lovies. Believe me it will be a hit!  It is as yummy as it looks. No food stylists altered this picture to entice you.  It's the real deal.

Love the ones you feed!

Breakfast on the Fly

Good Morning!


The birds are chirping somewhere off in the distance (not at my house because I have no plants in my yard for them to sing about.)  The air is still nice & cool and will hopefully stay that way this morning.  We're getting near record highs for mid-October still. By 9am yesterday, we were already at 80, heading to a high of 95 for the day. But for now, the door is open for some cooler air & I'm enjoying it.


Mmmmmm....breakfast....

Oh wait - this was yesterday! (cinnamon/raisin French toast with carmelized maple syrup)  Not totally healthy, but still better for you than the McGriddle and a thousand times more delicious.  I added bananas when it was all said and done.

This is Sunday morning though & we are super busy this week, so my favorite breakfast foods will have to wait another week. But that doesn't mean we can't have a tasty, healthful breakfast that we can take along with us. One of the easiest foods to make is a fruit smoothie and it's a delicious way to jump start your day.


Frozen fruit, yogurt, juice & a blender and you've got the basics for deliciousness.  My fruit of the freezer this day happens to be a combination of strawberries, mangos, pineapple & peaches.  You can also keep separate bags on hand if you want to specialize the flavors.  I generally have a large tub of plain yogurt on hand for these so it doesn't change the taste, but this morning I went for a blueberry yogurt.

It works best if you put your juice in first, then the yogurt, then the fruit.  Quantities may vary depending on how many you are making.  This batch made 2 & had about 16oz of juice, 2 yogurts & maybe a cup of fruit.

Put it all in, blend it first on low for about 30 seconds, then speed it up for about 2 minutes - yes, it's a long time, but you'll thank yourself for it.  When it's all done, it should be thick and creamy and oh so delicious!  Pour it and hit the road!  It's gonna be a fabulous day!  

Have a blessed day!!!  Thanks for taking time to read.  Let me know your favorite flavor smoothie.  Keep in mind the ones at the smoothie "places" also add sometimes a 1/2 cup of sugar! Seriously? Do we need that?  OK.  Gotta go.  Peace out!

Fast Food can be Delicious!

Wait!  Don't run away!  I realize "fast food" conjures up something you had to drive to, wasting gas, sitting in line, spending a fortune in cash, letting someone else slap some pre-made (from who knows what), artery clogging, salt laden, greasy, sit-like-a-rock in your gut for days kind of "food".  I mean the "Oh crap, it's 5:00 & I forgot to take anything out of the freezer & don't know what I'm going to feed my family that isn't something I have to..." (See previous sentence.)

This has been happening quite a bit for me lately as I've spent much too much time at the table sewing & much less time concentrating on feeding my family.

I know, but I'm loving my sewing adventures and I'm getting my aprons ready for sale because I see them everywhere, but very few are really well made. Sorry - once again I'm off track.

Where was I?  Oh yeah!  Last night was no exception to this recent tendency.  I had been out running errands all day and by the time I got home, I really had no idea what to make my guys for dinner.  A quick scan of the freezer and I found one of my favorite, easy ideas.  Chicken tenders!  Now again, not the salty, pre-breaded, pre-cooked kind, but the cut of chicken.  The "tender" is actually the tenderloin.  The tenderloin refers to the psoas major, a muscle that runs along the central spine portion of all quadrupeds. It's the tenderest part of the animal because these muscles are used for posture rather than motion, so they aren't getting a huge workout.  The tenderloin on the chicken is cut from the meatiest part of the breast.  

Anywho, I try to stock up on this cut & keep it in the freezer for just these kind of situations.  They thaw really fast, cook really fast & are nice, juicy pieces of the breast.  I didn't take pictures last night, so you're just going to have to hang with me for a minute on this.  

I took the tenders out of the freezer, put a bowl in the sink large enough to hold them, filled it with water and let it sit for a half hour while I cleaned up my sewing mess.  

Once thawed, I put my grill pan on the stove, looped around a couple laps of olive oil, sprinkled in some dehydrated onion (yes, I'm STILL out of onion - UGH!) along with a mixture of kosher salt, pepper corns, & basil which I smashed together in my mortar & pestle. I let that sit so the onion could rehydrate just a bit on the lowest possible flame on my stove.  After a couple minutes, I cranked the heat up to a medium high flame so that the tenderloins sizzled when I added them to the pan. Ideally, I would have had these thawed overnight so I could put them in a storage bag with fresh lime, salt, pepper, cilantro, crushed garlic & a splash of tequila.  mmmm...SNAP OUT OF IT!  Remember, I wasn't remotely prepared for dinner. 

My next step was to give it a good smothering of lemon juice.  I know, another faux pau because it wasn't an actual lemon.  Fast food on the fly!  No time to shop for the missing items. I always have bottled juice I.C.E. Flip the chicken when it's browned on one side, being sure to scrape up the flavors that have started to carmelize on the bottom of the pan & rub the uncooked side around in it since we didn't take time to season the meat.

The chicken will be done to perfection in about 15 minutes. While it's cooking, rinse & spin dry your lettuce of choice, grab any veggies you have on hand, cheese, & nuts. This is what I had on hand...

When it's done, take some high quality olive oil & vinegar & drizzle it on top.  Boy, do I wish I had some Oliver's on hand!  That would be a magnificent way to top it all off.

Enjoy feeding the ones you love!  Thanks for reading!

Like Water for Chocolate or Smash it Like You Mean It?

Hello my friendly readers!  Thank you for sticking around while I turned into a slacker with the postings.  If you've been waiting patiently, thanks so much.  If you forgot all about me since I haven't posted in a few weeks - please come back!  I'm sorry to have left you hanging in the breeze.


Things have been rather hectic around here as I've taken up a new hobby - sewing.  I started making aprons, and I've gotten rather addicted to the process.  This has caused me to slap together many a meal for my family in a fairly haphazard way.  My husband keeps asking me if I took pictures or wrote them down for my blog, but to me they've been uninspired so I didn't pass them along.  He & my son seem to be most smitten with the Smiley Face Pancakes.  I'll work on them over the weekend and post it then.  I'm trying to get down Jack-O-Lantern pancakes. Once I do that, I'll post them all.

This morning, however I'm working on a pot of beans.  I'm dying for cool "soup & stew" weather.  Here in Arizona, we're still nearing 100 degrees so soups have still been out of the question. I did make that one with left over roast beast a few weeks ago (my last post, as a matter of fact.) But I'm dreaming of pumpkin soup & other wonderful winter squashes.  For now though, a pot of beans will have to do.

Beans are so simple. I can throw it altogether in a slow cooker & then sew to my heart's content - and not have the troops rifling around in the kitchen like they hadn't eaten in 4 days.  So, that's my decision for the day.  Beans it is.


A while back I bought one of those packages of "15 Bean Soup" things.  All it is is a bag of different dried beans.  It looks like it's got pintos, kidney, black, cannelini, split peas, lentils & I don't know what else.  Anyway, I thought it would be yummy.  I'm sure the recipe on the bag calls for ham hocks or something of that sort, but I don't have that on hand and this is definitely an "on hand" meal. I did have a package of mild Italian sausage so I cut them up and tossed them in. 


Before I tossed in the sausage, I turned the pot on to low - 8 hours.  Then I looped around the inside of the pot a couple times with some olive oil.  Since I don't have a single onion in the house (a crime punishable by a slow, agonizing death by bland meals, in my opinion)  I dumped in some dehydrated onion. I'm guessing probably 2 Tbsp of that. For good measure I put some cumin in the pot. I'm a Texas girl, so beans must include cumin.  Then I took an entire bulb of garlic and smashed it, one clove at a time.  


Now, there's rarely a time that I smash garlic that I don't hear my girl, Anne Burrell in my head saying, "Smash it like you mean it!"  But as I'm smashing away, back in the dark recesses of my brain I conjure thoughts of my little hippie-chick-best-friend's banana bread recipe written in her swirly writing, saying "Smash the bananas with love." Quite the dichotomy of thoughts.  It got me thinking, if my life could be summed up in food it would be feed the ones you love & love the ones you feed.  (Still smashing garlic, by the way.)  Both thoughts bring me to the story, Like Water for Chocolate.  If you've never read it or seen the movie, please do!  It's a wonderful story of love & passion both for food & the people in your life. 


Since my seeing the movie some 15 years ago, I have made it a point to always incorporate love into my food. If I don't, it's almost a guarantee for me that it won't be good.  If my heart's not in it, there's no chance of it being a delight to my family.  Not that my love will guarantee it's the best thing they've ever eaten, but it will guarantee their knowledge that I cook for them because I love them.  

So when I've finished smashing my garlic like I mean/love it, I slice my sausages and toss them in the pot along with the beans.  Now I'm praying I have some broth of some sort in the freezer because water won't make it a party.  I'm in luck!  I have a gallon size bag of it! 

This is the key to all your soups/stews. Whenever you roast a slab of meat of any kind - beef or chicken, be sure you save the broth!  After it's cooled, pour it into a storage bag, label it, & lay it flat on a shelf in the freezer. You'll thank yourself for doing so. Freezing it flat will make it easy to store.  Also be sure if you made something with special seasoning to note that. If you've done a coq a vin or a spicy beef or curried chicken or anything with a dominant flavor - label it as such so you don't get any surprises in the end.  I also keep the leftover juice from when I make mussels so I have a delicious fish stock when I need it. Mmmmm....mussels....another day.

This frozen bag of stock will yield about 3 cups when thawed. When I'm really good, I'll measure it before freezing and label it that way.  To thaw it, I just get a large bowl, put the bag in it, run hot water over it and let it sit for 5 minutes or so.

Lastly, I added a can of petite diced tomatoes. It's my go-to item in nearly everything. I realize I should make my own, but opening a can of them is pretty quick and always on hand.  


Now, we wait.  By the time my hubby gets home, the house will smell delicious & he won't be feeling neglected by the food fairy.  I do need to learn how to master the corn muffin.  That would be a delicious treat to go along with the beans. I know. It's a shame a Texas girl like me doesn't know how to make corn muffins!  Perhaps I'll give them a try today.  Right now though, I've got 2 more aprons to put together. They're so cute!  I'll post 'em this evening when I follow up with the beans.


Have a beautiful day and love the ones you feed!!!


Peace