Harvest Chicken & Rice

 Today was relatively cool at. We barely broke 70 degrees out. I had harvested quite a few of my Walla Walla Sweet onions a few days ago and we had a pretty decent picking of green beans. I also harvested my garlic so that I could get ready for the new seed garlic that I have coming in.

I came up with a new recipe for dinner tonight.

Bob had taken out a package of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs to thaw a few days ago and I needed to get them used up. We also picked a pretty decent sized mess of beans.

These are a mixture of my Tongues of Fire, Dragon Tongue, Tanya's Pink Pod, Cherokee Wax, Blue Lake and Contender beans.

The Harvest Chicken & Rice recipe starts out with a chopped sweet onion. You could use a Vidalia if you don't have Walla Walla Sweets available. I also chopped up one of my small heads of garlic. It doesn't get much more fresh than this.

I melted butter with olive oil. This is what I used to saute the onions and garlic.

Once the onion gets translucent, add in the rice and orzo mixture.

Saute this until the orzo starts to smell toasty and gets lightly golden brown. I cooked this in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven, so I did this low and slow.

I removed the skin from 4 chicken thighs. Then I sprinkled them, both sides, with a blend of spices.

Those get set upon the rice mixture once it has been browned.

Then I poured in chicken broth and water. I put the cover on the Dutch oven and let it cook in a moderate oven for 45 minutes.

This is a simple and delicious recipe. It hit all the right spots for us.

I served this with simple boiled beans. I cooked these in part chicken broth and part water. I didn't get a photo of the end result because we all know what boiled beans look like.

Harvest Chicken & Rice

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 small chopped sweet onion (like a Walla Walla Sweet or Vidalia)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil (or avocado)
1-1/2 cups long grain white rice
1/3 cup orzo
1-3/4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water

Spice Rub for Chicken:

1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pull skin off of chicken thighs and rub with spice rub on both sides. Set aside.

Saute onion and garlic in butter and olive oil over medium heat until onion is soft and translucent. Add in rice and orzo. Stir to coat with oil/butter. Cook until the orzo begins to smell nutty and gets lightly golden brown.
Place seasoned chicken thighs on top of the rice, add broth and water. Remove from heat. Cover tightly. Place in preheated oven and cook for 45 minutes or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Fluff rice and serve.

Enjoy!

Marionberry Cobbler Baked On The Grill

 It's marionberry season here in the Pacific Northwest. Marionberries were created at Oregon State University and they are a cross between two blackberry varieties. They have notes of raspberry in the taste and I look forward to getting them every summer. I make jam, BBQ sauce and, one of our favorites, cobbler.

I do not use my propane oven in the summer. Even with 2 air conditioners going, it would just get too hot. Years ago, I figured out how to bake using the upper rack of a gas BBQ grill.

The batter is sweet. The berries are tart. This just hits the spot when you want something sweet.

I start out by spraying my glass 8x8-inch with non-stick spray.

Then I mix up the batter. The batter is super simple. It only has 6 ingredients.

Then I sprinkle the marionberries over the top of the batter and I sprinkle sugar on the top of those. Not too much sugar over the top, just 1/4-1/3 cup is all you need. The majority of the sugar goes into the batter.

Then we put the baking dish on top of a baking sheet and we put that on the top rack of the gas grill. I can't give you a definite baking time because it's all subjective. I start checking mine around 45 minutes in.

Delicious!

Marionberry Cobbler

4 cups fresh marionberries (or blackberries)
1 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1 cup milk (or half & half)

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt with 1 cup of the sugar. Reserve the rest of the sugar.
Mix in the milk and the melted butter and whisk until no lumps remain in the batter and the butter is incorporated into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle marionberries evenly over the top of the batter. Top the berries with the reserved sugar.
**NOTE! Before you put the berries on the batter, taste one. If you think they will need more than 1/4 cup of sugar, add it in. This is purely to taste.

You can either slide this onto the top rack of your gas grill and bake it until it's gold and bubbly (that reminds me of that movie Steel Magnolias where Truvy is giving Clairie that fruit cocktail recipe) or you could put it into a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Instant Gravy Mixes From Scratch

  I bought a lot of ingredients the other day. There's a reason why I did this. Bob and I tend to use a lot of instant gravy packages. Instant gravy packages tend to have a large amount of salt in them. I'm trying to cut down on salt per my doctor.
I ran across a YouTube video the other day and I thought that what this lady did was such a great idea that I wanted to make my own. Click here to view the video. She did a lot of other instant sauce mixes and I will make some, but I wanted to make these 3 instant gravies first.
On a side note, the cost of powdered milk is ridiculous! That bag, that doesn't even weigh 2 pounds, was almost $8.50! That's frigging expensive! The good thing is that I only used 1 cup of it on these recipes.

Some of these items were a stock up. I can't believe I didn't have poultry seasoning, but I haven't bought it in many, many years. I grow everything that's in poultry seasoning and I'm able to grow it and harvest it year round. So, now I have a small bottle of poultry seasoning. I'll have to think of things to use it in. If you have an idea, let me know in the comments below.

I am not stressing on the fact that 2 of these recipes have 1/2 cup of bouillon in each one. I only use 2 or 3 tablespoons per batch of gravy anyhow.

Everything gets whisked up in a big bowl and put into quart canning jars.

Whisk! Whisk! Whisk!

This is an amount that will take us well through next fall and into next winter before I will need to make more. I'm very happy with that. The bonus is that I don't have to corral and contain a gazillion little packets in my cabinet. I'm trying to get away from doing that. Less garbage to haul off. I like that.

On the lid, I wrote the directions. I didn't mind doing this because these 3 jars are now dedicated to holding gravy mixes.

Into the jars. This is my production line.

These 3 mixes will handle any situation where a gravy is called for.

Can I make gravy from scratch? Yes, I certainly can and I do on different occasions. I make really good gravy! An ordinary dinner is just not one of those occasions for us...especially since we're both tired from diving into spring cleaning and Operation Organize the RV Kitchen.

We are just too worn out for anything other than a homemade instant gravy.

Country Gravy
*makes approximately one quart of instant dry gravy mix

2 cups flour
1 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper (yes, 1/2 of a tablespoon! You read that right!)
2-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

Mix everything together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. I don't know why they said 6 months because this stuff will totally last for a year or better if it's in a sealed jar.

Chicken Gravy
*makes approximately one quart of instant dry gravy mix

2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken bouillon powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Mix everything together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Brown/Beef Gravy
*makes approximately one quart of instant dry gravy mix

2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup beef bouillon powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1-1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley

The following recipe directions are for all 3 gravy mixes.

To use: melt 2 tablespoons of fat in a saucepan. I used butter but you can use oil, lard, chicken fat, bacon grease...whatever you'd like. Add 2 tablespoons of instant gravy mix and cook, stirring for 2 minutes to take the raw taste out of the flour. You're making a roux. Pour in 1 cup of milk, water or broth. Make sure your liquid is cold. Whisk and cook until mixture boils and the gravy gets thick.

NOTE: Do you notice how these 3 recipes all start off with 2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of cornstarch? That's handy.

NOTE: With the brown/beef gravy, when you make it, it will not be very brown. You can add 1/2 teaspoon of a browning sauce, like Kitchen Bouquet when cooking.

NOTE: With the chicken gravy, once gravy comes to a boil and is thickened, you can add 1/4 cup heavy cream to make a delicious sauce for a Chicken Pot Pie.


So, I hope you find these recipes useful because you never know when you might be in a situation where you need to get a meal put together quickly. This fits that ticket quite nicely.

Spring Frittata

 We decided to have a veggan meal today. Not vegan. It's veggan. Veggans eat eggs. It's spring. I have some fresh veggies in my fridge. I felt like making a quick meal and that would be a Spring Frittata. This is fantastic served with toast or with a green salad. We made a couple of pieces of toast from that loaf of bread I baked off yesterday.

This recipe starts out with a bit of milk and a cast iron skillet. It doesn't matter what type of milk. You can use whole milk (like I did), you can use 2%, you can use skim, you can use half and half...you can even use oat milk, if that's what you like! It doesn't matter. Just use what you have or what you want.

Next, you crack 6 eggs into the milk. I added in some herbs and freshly cracked black pepper before I mixed it all up.

I used a Penzey's Spice blend called Parisien Bonnes Herbes.This blend contains chives, dill, basil, tarragon, chervil and white pepper. It's absolutely delicious and it's right up there in my top 3 favorites from Penzey's.

Next up, I opted for some nice spring type flavored veggies. I used some spring onions, frozen peas and asparagus.

Just measure out your veggies so that they total one cup. 

These get cooked in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 7 or 8 minutes. You don't have to cook them that long. You could just sprinkle them over the eggs, but for Bob, they have to be cooked. I'm okay with that. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add your beaten eggs in. Sprinkle the top with 1/3 cup of cheese (again, whatever cheese you like will work). I used pepper jack. This goes in to the oven for 20 minutes and it comes out like...

This was our veggan dinner tonight. 

So, this dinner was completely from scratch and that includes the strawberry jam, as well.


Spring Frittata


6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup grated cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup total chopped spring onions, asparagus and frozen peas
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Penzey's Parisiene Bonnes Herbes herb mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk eggs with milk, pepper and herb mix.
In cast iron skillet, saute vegetables in olive oil for 5-8 minutes, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add egg mixture, shake to distribute evenly.
Put in preheated oven. Bake 20 minutes. 

Bread Making Day

 Today was my day to bake bread and cinnamon rolls. Bob has a medical procedure in a few days and he has to eat a low fiber diet for next few days. Anyhow, I didn't feel like going to the store for white bread, so I decided to just make him some. Since I had enough time leftover and I found the optimal place to let dough rise, I decided that I would make cinnamon rolls for the first time ever. He can eat those, too. They are basically white bread and he's allowed to have sugar and spices.
Anyhow, I started with the white bread recipe. 

The bread starts out with proofing the yeast. I always do this. If you use instant yeast, I think you can skip this step. I don't use instant yeast, however.

Whenever I work with yeast dough, I let my KitchenAid stand mixer do the work for me. 

I don't even have to knead it! I'm all about work smarter, not harder. 

There was a lot of humidity in the air today, so this took quite a bit more flour than the recipe called for. 

The dough gets covered with a clean towel and I set it up on top of my Keurig coffee maker. It's pretty warm and it did the trick nicely.

I put it into a loaf pan. I wanted a more square shaped loaf, so I flattened it out a bit. 

It may not be a thing of beauty, but it turned out exactly as I wanted it to. This will slice up nicely.

After a quick round of washing dishes, and having Bob dry them, I decided that I had time to make cinnamon rolls, too. 

These were a bit messy to make, but I was able to contain it all on my cutting board for the most part. 

I fit 10 into a 9-inch pie plate. There were another 4 that went into another pan. 

They baked up really nicely. I impressed myself!

Of course, I had to gloop them up with cream cheese icing! That's a given!

So, on a day when the skies looked like this...

and Ravioli was playing with Lily-Pill, like this...

It was a good day to just bake bread.

Click here for the bread recipe.
Click here for the cinnamon roll recipe.

Bread recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction.
Cinnamon roll recipe is from Ambitious Kitchen.
Both recipes are keepers in my book.

Arroz Chaufa (Peruvian Fried Rice)

 I prepared an Asian chicken recipe last night and cooked extra chicken to make dinner tonight. I've created a week's menu and I'm determined to stick to it. I'm trying to cut down on grocery costs and I'm also trying to make less work for myself. I'm getting older. I'm getting lazier. I am not even ashamed to admit it.
Anyhow, I read several recipes for a Peruvian version of fried rice. This is right up my alley. I can make a pretty mean fried rice, if I do say so myself.

This is what I came up with and it also uses up some of the random things rattling around in the produce crisper drawer.

As usual, with any recipe that has an Asian inspiration, make sure to prep all of the ingredients and have them ready to go. I cooked the rice this morning and chilled it down in the fridge. Rice cookers, I now feel, are a necessity. The funny thing is that I refused to use one until we bought this fifth wheel. Now, I can't imagine not having one. I just add everything in, set a timer and forget about it.

When I chopped the green onions, I separated the white parts from the green parts. This recipe starts out frying a bit of bell pepper (color doesn't matter, just use what you have) and onion. 

As long as carrots are not boiled into a mush, I don't mind them. I added in a small grated one so that I could get more veggies into Bob.He did get his new dentures, but, after going through those radiation treatments, he's left with an overactive gag reflex. So, they are making him gag. He's going to make an appointment and go in and have them fixed. 

After everything (yes, this fried rice has hot dogs in it) gets added in, hit it with a tablespoon or two of soy sauce. Don't judge for the hot dogs. Once in a while, I just crave one.

Top with a sunny-side up egg. Make sure it is crispy on the bottom. 

See? Perfectly crispy. Perfectly cooked. Perfectly delicious. The perfect thing after getting stung by a yellow jacket today...hence, the hot dogs comfort food addition. It's fried rice. It is a dish that you can put anything in and it will taste delicious.

Arroz Chaufa

2 tablespoons avocado oil
4 green onions, sliced, separate the white parts from the green tops
1/2 bell pepper, diced (use whatever color you like, it doesn't matter)
2 hot dogs, sliced
1 cup cooked chicken, cubed or shredded (whatever you like to do)
2 beaten eggs
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
3 cups cold cooked rice
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce (or to taste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 sunny-side up fried eggs with crispy edges

Prep all the ingredients and have them ready to go.
In a large wok, or skillet, over high heat, stir fry the white part of the onions with the bell pepper for 2 minutes. Add the carrot. Continue to stir fry for another 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and hot dogs. Cook for another minute or so. Add the rice. cook until everything has a slight coating of oil and is hot completely through. Add soy sauce. Toss to coat. Drizzle with sesame oil and garnish with the green part of the green onions. Set aside until you've cooked the sunny-side up eggs. Place a sunny-side up egg on top of each serving. There will be leftovers if you're making this for 2 people. Just reheat the leftovers in the microwave and top with a freshly cooked egg.

Enjoy!