Chicken A La Theresa

Mushrooms, sliced and ready to go

Mushrooms, butter, garlic, cream, and a touch of marinade

Chicken A La Theresa with baked potatoes on the side

Tonight I tried a friend's recipe for Chicken A La Theresa, and I might have a new favorite meal. I love, love, LOVE the mushroom cream sauce that goes with this baked chicken. I did modify the original recipe quite a bit to fit what we had on hand and in our budget, but it was fantastic. I would probably choose to serve the chicken with angel hair pasta next time, and pour the extra sauce over it. The potatoes weren't bad, but they just didn't fit. You'll find the original recipe here. Here's what I did:

Chicken:
3-4 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 Cups chicken broth
1/4-1/2 Cup White wine
1/2 tsp Pepper
1-2 tsp each rosemary and basil
1/8 tsp dill

Place the chicken in a zip top bag, add the marinade ingredients, and let marinade for 2 hours.

1lb Mushrooms, sliced
2 Cloves Garlic
6 Tbsp Butter (1/2 Cup works, too)
1/3-1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
1/4 Cup Chicken marinade

After chicken has marinaded (preheat oven to 350F now):
Melt butter in large skillet over medium-medium high heat. Add garlic and mushrooms, cook until mushrooms are slightly browned (20-30 minutes for me). Add cream and marinade, reduce until mushrooms have absorbed a bit of the liquid.

Place chicken in buttered baking dish (for 3 small breasts I used an 8x8). Pour mushroom sauce over chicken. Cover pan with tin foil. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Pan Grilled Chicken with Scalloped Potatoes

Pan Grilled Chicken with Scalloped Potatoes

We eat a lot of chicken in this house. It's by far the most cost effective and versatile meat I can buy, and I'm constantly trying to find new ways to serve it. So far I haven't tired of it, and I do cook other kinds of meat, so you will eventually see variety! In the picture, the potatoes don't look quite like they should because we were hungry, and a little too impatient to wait until the cheese had browned. It still tastes fantastic, though. I prepare the potatoes, and cook the chicken while the potatoes are in the oven so they're done at roughly the same time.
To make this meal:

Chicken:
2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 Tbsp Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder

Put your pan over medium heat (I use a big pot because our kitchen is cold and the pan loses less heat). Drizzle a little olive oil in the pan and coat the chicken breasts with it. Add seasonings to taste. Cook chicken until browned on both sides and cooked through- 15-20 minutes for me, and I adjust the temperature throughout the cooking to make sure the chicken doesn't get too dark.

Scalloped Potatoes:
5-6 Medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds (enough to go in a 9x13 pan)
1/4 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup Flour
1/2-1 tsp Salt
1/4-1/2 tsp Pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4-1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/4-1/2 tsp Dill
1/4-1/2 tsp Oregano
2 Cups milk
2-3 Cups grated cheese

Boil sliced potatoes until slightly soft, but not falling apart. Drain and pour into 9x13" pan.
While potatoes are boiling, melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add flour and spices (I don't measure the spices, just do it to taste), increase heat, and stir until smooth and bubbly. Add milk and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil one minute; sauce will be thicker. Turn off heat. Add half of the cheese to the sauce, stir until melted. Pour sauce over potatoes and stir a little to make sure they're all coated. Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese over the top. Bake in a 350F oven 30-45 minutes or until the top of the cheese is slightly browned. Let sit a few minutes before serving to let it set.

Apple Bread Pudding

Apple Bread Pudding

We have a lot of apples at our house, and bread that I need to get rid of. I'm trying to find some more creative ways to use them, and last week I found a recipe for apple bread pudding, that turned out all right for us. I'm not a huge fan of bread pudding, so I can't give a very good opinion, but my husband really enjoyed it (and ate most of it). You can find the recipe here. I of course add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves instead of just the cinnamon. I also added a little more apple than the recipe called for, and it turned out fine. The sauce that goes with it separated for me, but the taste was good. I would probably opt for some vanilla ice cream as a topping if I make it again.

Baked Oatmeal

Baked oatmeal topped with a little cream

My dear friend Crystal over at Serving God and Family has been making this baked oatmeal for a while, and I've been drooling every time she talked about it. She finally posted the link to the recipe, and I was all too happy to try it. I'd never had baked oatmeal before, but it's really quite something. It's not mushy oatmeal, but crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I think it's meant to be served with milk, more like a cereal. You can find the recipe here at All Recipes.

I modified the recipe a bit because I wanted to make honey almond baked oatmeal. I didn't have any eggs, so I used about 1/4 Cup homemade applesauce mixed with about 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. I substituted about 1/8 Cup honey for some of the brown sugar (though I would increase it for more of a honey flavor next time). In addition to the cinnamon, I also added ginger, nutmeg and a pinch of cloves (I put these four spices in any sweet thing I can). To give it a nice crunch I added about 1/3 Cup chopped almonds (I think I would also increase this next time). I omitted the dried cranberries as well.

Pan Grilled Chicken with Apple-Onion Sautee

Pan Grilled Chicken with Apple-Onion Sautee

Served with herb & butter rice

Tonight's recipe is the result of a last minute meal fix. Ken tried a "roasted chicken breast with marmalade recipe" and needless to say, the recipe was a disaster. After nearly losing lunch from tasting some of it, to the smoke alarms going off, I feel pretty accomplished for pulling a success out of the hat tonight.

2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/5 Onion, diced small
2 Apples, diced
1/2-1C Apple juice

Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder to taste. Cook in a lightly oiled skilled until golden on both sides and cooked through. In a bigger pot, cook onions in a little olive oil until translucent, add a little salt, pepper, and garlic (I used powder, but would entertain the real thing next time). Add chopped apples and sautee for a few minutes, then add apple juice. Increase heat to high and let the liquid reduce by half. Add chicken breasts on top and reduce heat to medium/medium high. I started stirring the apples around the chicken so the chicken would absorb a good amount of the flavor. Cook down until the liquid is gone, apples are soft and starting to caramelize.
We served ours with herb & butter boxed rice, and it was fantastic. I'll definitely be making it again, intentionally next time. :)

Ken's Pancakes

Ken's Pancakes

Ken makes the most interesting pancakes I've ever had. He doesn't put any leavening agent in them like other pancakes, so they are thinner (like a crepe) and more dense than your average pancake. My favorite thing is that they are slightly sweet and buttery- I like to eat them plain, as well as with toppings.

11.5oz Flour (A little more than 2C)
2.5oz Granulated Sugar (Between 1/3C and 2/3C
2C Milk
2 Large Eggs

Sift flour, add sugar. Add wet ingredients and stir until well incorporated. Batter will be slightly lumpy. Preheat skillet on medium heat (level 5 on our stove). Melt a little butter to cover the pan. Add 2/3C batter for large pancakes and 1/3C for smaller pancakes. Before flipping, add a little butter around the edges of the pancake. You'll know it's ready to turn when the edges turn slightly tan. It takes about a minute for the first side and less than a minute for the second. Pancakes should be slightly golden- pay attention, they burn quickly.
Serve warm plain or with desired toppings- we add butter and syrup or butter with cinnamon and sugar. They also work well with fillings. Enjoy!

Bagel Chips and Dip

Onion Bagel Chips with Garlic Dill Sour Cream Dip

Ken and I decided to try making bagel chips last night with some leftover onion bagels we had. These chips are great for snacking on or taking to parties. After they're baked, they keep really well in a resealable plastic bag. To make them:

Bagel of your choice (we used onion, and found that one bagel, sliced, fit on one sheet pan)
Butter

Slice bagel in 1/4" rounds, butter and place on sheet pan. Bake at 325F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from sheet pan. Makes 20-24 chips, depending on the size of your bagel.

Dip:
Sour Cream
1-2tsp Garlic Powder
1-2tsp Dill

Stir a few tablespoons of sour cream in a small dish with garlic and dill. You can add the spices to taste, this amount makes enough for one or two bagel's worth of chips.