Pantry Revisited

This month in our Ina Garten group is main dishes.  I chose a chicken dish. Normally, I would not even think to buy chicken that has the skin on it.  And if I did I would promptly pull it right off.  But this recipe called for chicken breasts skin on so that you could stuff underneath the skin with the goat cheese and sundried tomatoes.   Ready to go in the oven!!  The chicken breasts I bought were really large so it took a lot longer to cook than Ina's recipe called for.  She said to cook for 40 minutes.  Mine took a little over an hour.  This recipe is delicious.  I highly recommend it.  The breasts are so tender and juicy. I served this with green beans and some ranch baked potatoes.  We really enjoyed it. You can get the recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-with-goat-cheese-and-sun-dried-tomato-recipe.html Our hearts go out this week to our group friend, Chaya, whose da...

In our My Kitchen My World group we visit different countries each month and choose a recipe from that country.  This month is Poland.  There are so many wonderful Polish recipes out there that it was hard for me to choose.  I wanted to do something with kielbasa so I chose this cabbage and kielbasa dish.  We really enjoyed it.  We first had a cup of my chicken corn chowder (see post below) and then followed that with the cabbage dish.  It was sweet and yet a pop of heat from the red pepper flakes.  My DH really enjoyed it.  He went back for seconds. . .. and maybe thirds!  As you can see, it is all made in a skillet making it a one dish meal for easy cleanup! A topping of bacon really brings out the flavor of the cabbage and kielbasa.  You could also add diced potatoes to the mix.  I left out the caraway seed because we do not care for it. Check out what all is going on in our group by clicking on this link.  We ...

I think because the weather here has been unbelievably cold, I have been in soup mode.  Last week I made Ina Garten's Leek and Potato soup.  Yesterday I made a chowder that I have not made in probably 25 years.  We really enjoyed it for dinner last night so I thought I would share with you.  It's really creamy and tasty. Here is the recipe.  I used rotisserie chicken for easy and I only added two russet potatoes to mine. Original recipe makes  8 servings      1/2 cup   butter 1 small   carrot, finely diced 1 stalk   celery, diced 1 small   onion, finely diced 1 clove   garlic, minced 1/2 cup   all-purpose flour 1 bag of frozen yellow corn 4   russet potatoes, diced 2   cooked rotisserie chicken breast halves, shredded 4 cups   chicken stock, divided 2 1/2 cups   half-and-half 1 pinch   nutmeg salt and ground black pepper to taste ...

It's the day after New Year's and after a wonderful meal last night with some of our close friends, I am ready to begin 2014!  Yes, I ate the collards and the peas, but not the hog jowl. Will bacon in the collards suffice for my good luck this year?  I hope so! I figure the year will be pretty much what I make of it and I anticipate a good one.  It is 9:30 this morning and I am sitting here enjoying a most delicious bowl of potato soup.  It's our Fridays with Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa) and we are checking out some of her delicious dishes.  I chose her potato soup.  It is very cold here this week and it just sounded warm and comforting.  I made a few adjustments however making the recipe a bit simpler and using ingredients I had on hand.  I left out the leeks, but definitely will put them in next time! HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS.  May you always have "enough."  Put the past behind you, love, laugh, forgive, enjoy and...

Christmas at our house this year was a quiet one.  We did the family thing earlier in the month so good friends had us over for dinner both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so they are a blessing to us.  I made Rachel Ray's five minute fudge wreath to give to a few of my neighbors this year, and then I made this yeast free stollen for another neighbor.  I kept a tiny piece for Chandler and me to try and he loved it so much I made another one just for us on Christmas Day.  It is delicious and so easy!  Looks a little rugged because it is more like a biscuit than a yeast roll, but delicious nonetheless.  Chandler loved the name of it and kept telling me the police were coming soon to take me away since I had "stolen" bread in our house. Stollen is a German Christmas tradition dating back to the 14th century.  My research found that Germans baked these loaves at Christmas to honor princes and church dignitaries.  They also sold them at fairs and ...

This is the second time I have made this wonderful cake and it will not be my last.  If you love choocolate like I do, you will love this.  Ina never fails on richness and elegance.  I would not hesitate to serve this cake to my most honored guests.   I plan to make it again at Christmas.  It is easy, moist, and just delicious.  The icing is addictive.  I love that it includes buttermilk. Beatty's Chocolate Cake Ingredients Butter, for greasing the pans 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans 2 cups sugar 3/4 cups good cocoa powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup buttermilk, shaken 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee  DirectionsPreheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, ba...

In our group My Kitchen My World, we virtually travel each month to a different location and choose a recipe from that country.  This month we chose Tonga.  I do not personally know a lot about Tonga so I had to do a bit of research.  Just think polynesian. If you do not know much about Tonga, it is located in the South Paciifc and is a group of 176 islands. The capital of the Kingdom of Tona is Nukualofa and it is also the largest city in Tonga. One of the most popular recipes I found was the Tonga Toast.  It looks fabulous. . .all covered in cinnamon and sugar.  However, I went for the Banana Cake.  This makes a two layer cake, but since there are only two of us and we are trying to cut back on sweets, I halved this recipe and made in a loaf pan.  Looks a little more like tonga toast than cake, but cake it is.  The banana pudding in between the layers makes it so moist and rich. Check us out at m kmw.wordpress.com  and see what...