Recipes Discovered

All In One Holiday Cake Recipe

The holidays are all about sharing and giving, and a lot of people have been asking me for my Thanksgiving recipes. On the menu this year, besides the normal roasted turkey with stuffing, and the not so normal deep fried turkey, was macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, candied yams, green bean casserole, creamed corn, and cranberry jello salad. To keep everyone happy (and quiet) until dinner was served, I made a bacon ranch cheese ball and a pumpkin cream cheese dip, which was really great with pretzels. For dessert, there was pumpkin pie, all in one holiday cake (pumpkin, cranberry, apple, and pecans), and brownies. Of course, with all the food we had, Seth and I have a refrigerator full of leftovers. I’ve come up with some interesting uses for them though, including potato pancakes, turkey cranberry sandwiches, sweet potato and black bean chili, shepherds pie, and a macaroni and cheese concoction that I don’t even know what to name. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and hopefully there are a lot more recipes to come during the holidays.

BBQ Turkey Meatloaf Recipe

Sometimes, Seth tells me, it’s nice to have old fashion comfort foods, like meatloaf and mashed potatoes. While I’m not the biggest fan of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, I do agree with his basic statement, so I made him an updated version of the old fashion meal. The meatloaf is made with turkey instead of beef, and before you dismiss the recipe, let me tell you that I’ve never had a moister meatloaf. Seth, who usually shuns ground turkey, loved this meatloaf. Instead of ketchup or tomato sauce, the meatloaf is made with a tangy BBQ sauce that is amazing. It gives the meatloaf a ton of flavor while keeping it moist. I really liked the individual portions of meatloaf because then everyone got more of the crispy outside crust. As for the mashed potatoes, I went with roasted sweet potatoes, smashed with some butter, sugar, and orange juice. I was unimpressed with the potatoes, but will definitely be enjoying the meatloaf again.

Orange Smashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe

Chicken Provencal Stoup Recipe

Spices are generally fairly expensive, especially unique herbs like herbes de Provence. Herbes de Provence is a mixture of rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf, thyme, and lavender. It was invented in Provence, a region of southeast France, in the 1970′s, and is used primarily to flavor grilled meats and vegetable stews. It’s not very common in th spice aisle, but I found a bag of it at the Bloomsburg Fair for only a dollar. After finding the spice, I found a Rachael Ray recipe that used it in a stoup, which is defined by Rachael Ray as “thicker than a soup but thinner than a stew”.
This is a pot soup, which makes it really simple. I began by heating olive oil over medium heat and then adding chopped carrots, garlic, zucchini, red pepper, and onions. After sauteing the vegetables for 5 minutes, I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence, and then added sliced potatoes. I didn’t have wine to add, so I added 6 cups of chicken broth instead of 5 along with a can of diced tomatoes. After bringing the broth to a boil, I added the diced chicken, and then covered the pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes. I served the soup as it was, without adding the tapenade.
I really enjoyed the taste of this soup. The herbes de Provence had a very unique flavor, and the lavender really stood out. Pouching the chicken in the broth also added a lot of flavor to the soup, and the fresh vegetables were perfectly cooked without being over cooked. The soup is obviously very different from traditional vegetable soup, but it’s fresh and delicious, and makes a great summer vegetable soup.

Pepper Steak Stir Fry Recipe

Seth’s sister gave me this recipe for pepper steak stir fry that I really wanted to try. I only had chicken, but I figured that would work in place of the steak.

In a ziplock bag, I mixed together vegetable oil, corn starch, soy sauce, and pepper. I left the salt out because I thought the soy sauce would make it salty enough. Once everything was mixed, I added sliced chicken breast and put it in the refrigerator to marinate while I chopped all the vegetables. As with all stir fries, it’s importable to have all the ingredients ready to go. I cut fresh tomatoes into wedges, sliced both a green and a red pepper, diced an onion, and minced a little garlic. I didn’t have any ginger, but would have definitely added it to the mix. Since I was using chicken instead of beef, I made the sauce my combining chicken broth, corn starch, soy sauce, and sugar. >> Read more

Peachy Chicken Recipe

I had seen this recipe for peachy chicken in a magazine a few weeks ago and thought it sounded really good. The recipe called for canned peaches, but since we have a lot of fresh peaches, I decided to try it with those.

First, I peeled and sliced 2 fresh peaches and put them in a bowl with about a teaspoon of sugar. I let them sit for about an hour to sweeten them up a bit. In a large skillet, I browned the chicken breast in a little oil and then removed them while I made the sauce. I added orange juice, peaches and onion soup mix to the pan. To replace the peach juice, I added 1/2 cup of chicken broth. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but I think I needed to add something with a sweeter taste. I also omitted the brown sugar, which probably wasn’t a good idea either. Anyway, I boiled the mixture for a couple minutes before returning the chicken to the pan and reducing the heat to low. I cooked it another 20 minutes and then served it over brown rice.

After tasting the chicken, I think the peach juice and brown sugar are probably a big part of the dish. The chicken was good, but a little over powered by the onion flavor. The peaches also tasted very salty. It wasn’t a bad dish, but it wasn’t as good as I expected either. I would like to try to dish again, and maybe follow the recipe next time.