Carrie's Kitchen

Honey Sesame Chicken With Fried Rice

2012-02-16T11:14:00.000-06:00

Wow, it has been forever since I've blogged. I can't even tell you why. It could be that Jordan is now 9 and in cub scouts. Chris and I are the leaders of his Webelo's Den and that is keeping us busy. Or it could be that Isaac is now 2 and to say he's active would be the understatement of the century. Just this morning he has destroyed three things and spilled water all over the floor, and it's only 11 a.m.

I have been in my kitchen cooking but not doing anything real new and exciting. I cooked both Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner for Cotterville and a few friends. Everything turned out great. I do have one recipe, Chocolate Cream Pie. It was a huge hit at Thanksgiving that I was asked to make it again for Christmas. I will share that soon.

Today, I have a a delicious crock pot Honey Sesame Chicken Recipe to share. I served it with fried rice and will also share the how to on that. I did not however take any pictures.

I originally found this recipe on my Pinterest, and it sent me to the original blog. I made mine a bit different

WHAT YOU NEED:

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

Salt and pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (could also use olive oil or canola oil)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional - doesn't really add heat, just adds more flavor)
4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Now I don't always have fresh ingredients around so I used onion flakes and garlic powder. Of Course I would recommend using fresh.

TO MAKE:
Salt and Pepper your chicken and place in the crock pot.

In a separate bowl combine everything but the cornstarch and sesame seeds. Stir until combined and pour over the top of your chicken.

Cook on low for about 3 hours or high for 1 1/2 hours. Remove chicken and cut into bite size pieces.

Dissolve the cornstarch in water and stir in to the sauce remaining in your crock pot.

Return bite size chicken pieces to crock pot and keep warm until ready to serve.

BASIC FRIED RICE:

WHAT YOU NEED:

Precooked white rice.
Olive Oil
Green Onion
Garlic
Soy Sauce
3 eggs

TO MAKE:

A few days before you plan to serve this dish make your white rice according to the package instructions. I did three cups of rice to 5 1/2 cups water and that was a ton of rice. Great for leftovers. When your rice is cook put in an air tight container and store in the refridgerator. The rice is actually better if it sits for 1 to 2 days. Not sure why but it is!

Heat a few tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add in your eggs and scramble. Don't cook them too long, you want them to still be moist. Remove from pan and set aside.

Clean out your skillet or Wok and heat a few more tablespoons oil over medium. Saute your onions and garlic until the onions are transparent and the garlic has a nice aroma.

Slowly add in your cold white rice and stir until browned and heated through. At this point you can add in your soy sauce. This is completely optional but gives it a very authentic flavor. If you make as much rice as I did you will more than likely have to fry your rice in several batches. When the rice is done at your eggs back in and stir to combine.

TO PLATE:

Lay a good portion of Fried Rice in the center of a plate. Spoon your honey sesame chicken on top and sprinkle with sesame seeds!

Pretty simple right? It is a very easy meal to prepare and was a huge hit. I served this with some store bought egg rolls and fortune cookies. The total cost of the meal is under $20.00. You should have most of the ingredients on hand so your largest expense will be the chicken . You can of course by chicken with bone and skin, it will just be a bit more work for you.

ENJOY!!

Read The Directions Carefully

2011-01-30T12:21:00.001-06:00

Here comes another "bad" from Carrie's Kitchen

Yesterday we were having some friends over for dinner. They have a sweet little four year old girl who loves the color pink almost as much as me. I had told her that when she came over to eat with us I would make her pink cupcakes. I am always looking for a reason to use my mixer!

I had decided that I was going to use a recipe from my America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. I have never made anything out of that book that we haven't loved.

I made the yellow cake with no issues at all. The cupcakes baked and came out perfect!

Then came the icing....The recipe had many steps. I was making essentially a French Buttercream. It is meant to be more of a whipped icing or even a meringue. There were a few things this recipe called for that I had never done.

The first step was to whip your eggs until nice and fluffy. While that is doing its thing you were to bring corn syrup and sugar to a boil. I had never done this and didn't realize how fast that stuff would cool and how hard it got upon cooling. Luckily I was able to add it to my egg mixture before that took place.

Adding this VERY hot liquid to your egg mixture is what cooks the eggs to the point of killing off all the bad bacteria.

Everything was still going great. I continued on adding in the vanilla and other incredients. It still looked like it was working fine.. The final step is adding in your room temprature butter a little at a time and letting it fluff. It being room temperature is very important. If it's to hard it won't incorporate.

This is where it started to look funny. It never really got to that silky smooth point that I was waiting for. I gave it a test taste and it tasted great...so why wouldn't it thicken up....I went ahead and finished the instructions and began to ice my cupcakes. The icing was very runny but did stay on the cake. I thought okay well maybe it will harden as it sits....

Our company cam and we finished diner. It was time for the cupcakes and I was very nervous. Why would I make a brand new recipe and then serve it to people other than Chris and the boys? Everyone had a cupcake and complimented me but I still feel something is wrong with the icing....

This continued to bug me. After our company left I got the cookbook back out and read the recipe over and over again. I had done everything like it said. What went wrong?

And then I saw it.....one little word in the ingredients that I missed. I had used 6 large eggs. The recipe said to use 6 large egg YOLKS! Who knew that those eggs whites could cause me so many issues.

The moral of this story is to read your directions VERY carefully. Read them again...and again and make sure your doing everything right.

The other lesson learned is to practice new recipes before you invite friends over to eat it! I'm just thankful it tasted okay! Thank you to M, K, and A for being so nice about my cupcake FAIL! I will have you over again soon and make the icing the right way.

Here is a picture of the finished cupcakes.

My New Toy

2011-01-15T17:11:00.002-06:00

I hate that it has been so long sine I've posted. I have not had the time to cook anything cool or do any kind of blogging in the past few months! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that your new year is starting off perfect! I wanted to share a gift I got for Christmas. I have been talking for years about getting a stand mixer and I finally got one. I love it! I ended up getting the KithenAid Pro 500. I went with the metal color so that when I eventually get my perfect kitchen it will match my stainless appliances.

This mixer is awesome! I baked a cake and made buttercream icing from a recipe book that came in the box. I was not impressed with either recipe so I'm still looking for that perfect cake and icing recipe. If you have one I would love for you to share it with me! I am going to have so much fun baking. This week I am going to try a different recipe for a yellow cake with simple buttercream icing. I am going to be using the recipe from America's Test Kitchen and I will blog about how it turns out!!

So for your enjoyment (or maybe just mine) here are some pictures of my new favorite kitchen appliance.

The next picture is the cake that I made....Everything turned out but the cake was a little dry for my liking and all I could taste was the shortening. The buttercream was pretty good but I know there are better recipes out there!

If your ever in the area, stop by and let's bake together!

Texas Size Burgers

2010-11-17T19:17:00.000-06:00

One thing we love to do here in Cotterville is cook out on the grill! We do this year round. We have been known to fire up the grill when it's 105 outside and when its 30 outside. The only time we put our plans off is if there is rain, which does not happen that often in Texas. My husband Chris is a great grill master!!

Over the years I have tried many different things when making burgers. We have played with the seasonings and how we pattie them. We've adjusted the amount of meat we use and how big or thick we make the patties. We have also gone from charcoal to gas and then back to charcoal. We have gone through at least four grills. Finally after 8 years , I think I'm happy with how I make them.

Let's start with the basics. After using many different grills Chris has found his love. We purchased a Weber and will NEVER own another brand of grill. (Disclaimer: Weber has no idea I'm writing this. I am not being paid to advertise for them.)

Another must have if using charcoal (which why would you ever use gas...) is a charcoal starter. This is very important because you can use the charcoal without having to use lighter fluid. Lighter fluid greatly alters the taste of your food!

How it works is you fill the container with charcoal and place either newspaper or wax underneath to light. Make sure you have the starter sitting on a flat surface and when you go to empty the coals into the grill you use extreme care. The starter is metal and gets VERY hot! When you go to pour the coals out there will be some sparks that fly up so make sure the kiddos aren't around.

So now that we have the grill getting ready, it's time to patty the burgers.

I have never gone out and bought a hamburger press. I don't really see the point when i have two very capable hands. Some people mix in the seasonings with the meat and then patty the burgers. I don't do this.

I purchase one of the prepackaged meat rolls. The three or five pound. You can get very lean meat even in the tubes. I cut the paper off and leave the meat in it's nice tight roll. I then use a very sharp knife and slice the roll into equal portions. Then using the palm of my hand I gently flatten out each portion. Because the roll was round to begin with, this makes for nice big round burgers. You can make them as thick or thin as you want. One important note is that meat shrinks while cooking, so be sure to make your patties a little bit larger than the bun.

I then use a little seasoned salt and some Worcestershire sauce. (some do not have the sauce of them, I ran out!) That is all there is to it. They are very easy to make and VERY yummy to eat!

This picture is the done patties all ready for the grill. I would tell you the cooking process but grilling out is not my area. Chris does that and I ask no questions about how it is done!

Giant Cupcake

2010-09-29T12:16:00.000-05:00

Recently I purchases a giant cupcake pan that I had seen online and was very excited to give it a shot!! Let's just say it was a learning experience. I promised you when I started this blog that I would show you the good, the bad and the ugly of my kitchen adventures. This would have to be one of the UGLY! I can't call it bad because it tasted great.....So what happened?

To this make cupcake you only need one regular boxed cake. The family voted that they wanted a strawberry coke so that is what we had. This pan was SUPER easy to use. I got it out of the box, rinsed it in hot soapy water, dried it off, and sprayed it with some cooking spray. I prepared the cake as directed and followed the cooking time.

The cakes turned out great and I set out to decorate them. My goal was to make a cupcake for us to eat while we watched the Texas Longhorns football game. I purchases some whipped icing and decided I would dye some of it orange. All that went well, it wasn't until I tried to put the icing in the pasty bag and decorate that it all went wrong. The whipped icing was WAY to thin. Every design I tired to make just dripped right off the cake. Here are a few pictures.....

Another thing I did was opt to not ice the bottom. Next time, I might attempt to ice that as well.

This one shows you the size comparison. It's a pretty good sized cupcake!!

OHH! It was so messy.....

Once I cut into it all was well because it tasted great and didn't last long.

So what did I learn? To make this you need a thick icing. I am going to try to make my own next time. The options are endless for what you can do with this!! I plan on making many more giant cupcakes!!

Easy Chicken Spaghetti

2010-06-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

This recipe is another one that came to me from Tasty Kitchen. Chris and I have been looking for healthier recipes that don't involve grease and red meat. Don't get me wrong, I still love grease and red meat, but my body doesn't react to it like it did years ago. It all goes to my hips!

I have heard many of my friends talk about having chicken spaghetti and it is something I have never tried. I wasn't really sure what was even in it, other than chicken and spaghetti, so I started looking around at different ways to make it.

This recipe is very simple! Here is what you will need.

3-4 Boneless skinless chicken breast
4 Tbs olive oil
4 Tbs butter (ok...I said it was a little healthier, baby steps...)
3 cloves garlic, minced (or as much as you like)
2 Tbs Italian Seasoning
16 oz Pasta of your choice. We like the thicker pasta, so I used Linguine

Here is what you do.

Start off by heating up the olive oil in a skillet. Add the chicken and cook until done.

To your chicken, stir in the butter, garlic, and Italian Seasoning. Then add your chicken broth and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. This just give the chicken time to grab up all those yummy flavors!

The next step I debated on what to do. The recipe I used simply says to toss the chicken with the pasta. It doesn't say whether to drain the chicken or pour the chicken and the juice in with the pasta. So I did the second one. The sauce was in no way thick, but I thought it was necessary for flavoring of the pasta. I think I did the right thing!

To serve, I used a slotted spoon and put a generous amount of the chicken spaghetti on a plate and put just a very small amount of the "sauce" on top. I served it with a salad and garlic bread. This was a huge hit with everyone in the family!

Chris made the comment that the pasta would be great without the chicken and as a side to a nice juicy steak. (Yet again, baby steps) We may have to give that a try. I think to accomplish this, you would just make the sauce mixture and allow it to simmer until warm, then toss it in with your pasta.

I know that many of you make chicken spaghetti in a very different way. Most everyone I talked to asked if I was using Ro'tel in mine...I would love to try a recipe like that.

Please share your chicken spaghetti recipe with me.

The original recipe I used can be found here.

Chicken Enchiladas

2010-06-04T00:44:00.001-05:00

Recently I found the website Tasty Kitchen and I must say, my life has changed! This site is full of recipes that are submitted by people like you and I. Most of them are not professionals and are just cooking for the pure joy of it. Living in Texas, my family has grown to love Mexican food. It is everywhere here! I use to be so picky (and honestly, I still am). When I see a recipe...if it has more than about ten ingredients, I usually toss it to the side. Maybe, I need to change that, but for now, its working.

One thing I like about the Tasty Kitchen site is that you can subscribe to the RSS feed. I love this because I get 32 different blogs all sent to my google reader and I can read everything in one spot. Anytime anyone submits a recipe on the site it comes to my reader! I then can star (or save) that item and go back and view it anytime I want. Last time I looked I had about 120 recipes sitting there waiting to be tried. If you would like to see some of the blogs I follow, look to the right side of my web page, they are all listed there. If you know of a good blog, let me know!

This chicken enchilada recipe is so easy and very yummy. Their are no weird ingredients and its a very budget friendly meal. WARNING! It is not figure friendly, but is anything I have posted so far?

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

I cup onion, diced

2 cups chicken, cooked and diced

1-10oz can Ro'tel tomatoes

2 Tbs butter

1 can (10.75oz) cream of mushroom soup

1 can (10.75oz) cream of chicken soup

1 tsp chili powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

1 cup sour cream (this is the small container of the Daisy sour cream)

2-1/2 shredded cheese, I used a blend of Colby and Monterey Jack

8 flour tortillas

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat some oil in a skillet and cook your chicken until done.

In a mixing bowl, combine the chicken and Ro'tel and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, mix together butter, soups, chili powder, salt and about 1/2 cup of water. Cook until well heated and the sauce is smooth. Remove from heat and add the sour cream and 1/2 cup of cheese (add more if you are like me and LOVE cheese).

Stir about 1/2 cup of the sauce into your chicken and Ro'tel mixture.

On each tortilla put about a 1/2 cup of chicken and 1-2 Tbs of the sauce in the center and roll. Place in a greased baking dish, seam side down. Continue until all tortillas are used. My package of tortillas was actually a 10 pack, so I made my chicken and sauce spread a little farther.

Pour remaining over the enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is nice and bubbly.

*feel free to add more or less of any of the ingredients. Taste your sauce and add more chili powder or other peppers for more of a kick. You might also get the spicy Ro'tel if you like things hot! (I don't, but my husband does)

To see the original recipe, click here.

Orange Chicken

2010-05-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

While at Wal-Mart the other day I cam across an item I had never seen before and decided to give it a try.

There were no directions on the container so I was not really sure what I was going to do.

I decided to just sauté up some chicken using a little olive oil and cook until the chicken was done. Then I added the orange sauce. Just enough to coat all of the chicken well. I turned the heat down to low and let is simmer covered for about ten minutes. While the that was going on, I fixed some instant white rice and some frozen broccoli. The end product turned out great. Chris loves orange chicken and said that it tasted great, not to mention it was quick and cheap! I am looking forward to trying some of the other flavors in Panda Express line.

The whole cost of the meal was under $10!! You can't beat that!

Anniversary Cookie Cake....FAIL!

2010-05-18T21:37:00.000-05:00

First of all I want to start off by saying Happy Anniversary to my best friend Chris. We were married eight years ago today! We have been through a lot in eight years but I wouldn't change any of it! Here is a short recap.

2 amazing little boys

4 Different Colleges (3 of which were mine, and I still have no degree)

8 different houses/apartments (7 total moves....)

2 states! We love living in Texas!

THOUSANDS OF LAUGHS!

Thank you Chris for marrying me and putting up with me for 8 years! I know I haven't always made it easy.

Ok, now on to the cookie cake. Since it was out anniversary I wanted to do something.....but I wasn't really sure what. Chris does not like cake, so I thought about cookies. I knew that I had everything in the cabinet to make them and I love baking cookies. Then I thought, why not make a cookie cake? I have icing and everything I would need to decorate it real nice! So I got online and searched for a recipe. I wasn't sure if I could just make regular chocolate chip cookie dough. I found a recipe that was similar to my usual recipe so I decided to give it a shot. I made the dough, ate about half of it, then spread it onto a greased pizza pan. I noticed that it seemed rather thick and I was concerned that it wouldn't get done in the center. The directions said to bake for 10 minutes at 375. After about 20 I decided I would just take it out and hope for the best. I let it cool for what I thought was a reasonable time and then used a spatula to release it from the pan. All was going well.....

Then, I tried to move it onto a board for easier storage....that is when it went wrong. As I figured, the center was not completely done and while transferring it, once side folded over. Sigh....My perfect circle was no more. I decided to leave it where it was and just ate the part that broke! I had been fixing our dinner while the cookie baked so I decided i would put it back in the oven, which I had turned off, and let is sit in there while we ate. After dinner it was a little better but still not what I was hoping for. I think that it will still taste great but I didn't get to do the Happy Anniversary decorations I was hoping for.

Next time, I think I am going to try making my rolled sugar cookie recipe and then adding chocolate chips to that. The problem with this recipe was that you couldn't roll it out and get it the thickness you wanted throughout the entire cookie. Since I had no problems with it sticking to the pan, I am not concerned about that aspect. I plan on trying this again very soon!

When I started this blog I promised that I would show you the good, the bad, and the ugly and I am keeping that end of the deal tonight. If you have every made a cookie cake and have a great recipe, please share it with me! Here is a photo of the huge white chocolate chip cookie! (I can't call it a cookie cake)

Banana Baby Food

2010-05-12T22:09:00.000-05:00

I have a five month old son who is very curious about solid food. After doing some research I decided to try and make his food myself. It looks relatively easy. The only thing I needed to begin was a food processor! I got that last week and chose bananas as the first food I would make him. He has tried the Gerber organic version of peas, bananas, and apple sauce and liked all of them so I figured my bananas would be great for him.

I chose to start with bananas because they are so easy to do. You don't even really need a food processor. You could smash them up just fine with a fork, but I wanted to use my new kitchen toy. I used two ripe bananas and sliced up. Threw them in the processor and pulsed them until they were the consistency I wanted.

Since Isaac started baby food about a month ago, I had saved the handy little plastic containers I had paid for, cleaned them out, and decided to use them for storage. Two bananas made four containers of food. Or for a month month old baby, easily five meals. Isaac usually eats half to three quarters of one at a time.

I had not planned for how quickly it would turn brown, but as far as I know that is ok.....I put one in the fridge for dinner tonight and the other three I placed the lids on and put in a zip-lock bag in the freezer. So how did Isaac like it?? Here are some pictures, you be the judge.

For some reason, he hated it...I don't know if it was because it was cold, or he just wasn't hungry, maybe to sweet, I just don't know....I figure we will give it another shot in a day or two.....I tasted it to make sure it was ok (so did my 8-year-old son Jordan) and it tasted great. All Isaac was concerned with was the spoon.

And showing off his two new teeth!

See them? He has his two bottom front teeth!

I am looking forward to making him many more things. I think tomorrow we will do Avocado. I actually tried it last week...thats for another blog! I will try it again and hopefully have a better outcome. Look for that blog post in a few days.

I also have been cooking "big people" food and will have a few new recipes for you. Life has just been crazy, once summer gets here I might have more time. Might being the key word!

Quick and Easy Chicken Chimichanga

2010-04-17T23:37:00.001-05:00

It has been so long since I posted a recipe. I have several that I want to write, I just haven't made myself sit down and write them. Tonight is a good night, Chris and Jordan are sleeping and Isaac is playing and allowing Mommy some time to do other things.

One of my favorite things to get at a Mexican restraunt is a chicken chimichanga. I am not sure what is is about them that makes me love them so much. Maybe it is all the cheese or the fact that they are fried, but they are just so yummy! I have been thinking about trying to make them for a long time and finally decided to just do it. If I had know how quick, easy, and inexpensive it was going to be, I would have made them long ago.

Here is what I used. You can add anything else you like. As with all my recipes, I start with a basic recipe from somewhere else and fix it to what sounds good to me. As you will see, I am a very picky person and don't like a lot of extras added in. Chris would say I leave all the healthy out and for the most part he is right. If you are on diet, this recipe is probably not for you!

To start off, gather up all the spices you would like to add. I used oregano, garlic, cumin, cayenne, salt, black pepper, and onion.

Begin by boiling 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breast. (Or whatever kind of chicken you would like) Once the chicken is done, remove it from the pan and allow to cool for a few minutes. When it is cool enough to handle, shred it by hand.

If you are using real onions and garlic, heat some oil in a skillet and cook the onions until transparent. Add in your garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes or until nice and fragrant.

Put your shredded chicken in a large bowl and add in your onions, garlic, and seasonings. Here is what I used. As more or less depending on your taste.

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 Oregano
1/2 teaspoon Cumin (This is the key flavor!)

With the onion, cayenne, salt, and black pepper I did not measure. I just added what looked right. Be real careful with cayenne, a little goes a long way.

Mix until all the chicken is coated.

Preheat your oil to 350 and warm your tortillas just a bit.

Place a tortilla flat on your working surface. When picking out your tortillas, you want the big ones that are for burritos. They will be much easer to work with! Put a generous amount of chicken in the center of the tortilla and top with cheese of your choice. I used a Colby, Monterey Jack blend. Now we are going to roll them up. We are going to fold it as if we are wrapping a present.

ok, so I wrap my presents weird! This is one way to fold them, I am sure there is a better way though. Once folded, put a couple tooth picks in to hold it together. This is important, you do not want all the good stuff falling out while its frying!

Drop them in your hot oil and fry on each side for 3-4 minutes or until nice and golden brown. They will still feel soft, they will harden up and get crispy as they cool.

Remove the toothpicks and serve them immediately. I served mine with some cheese dip on top and with tortilla chips. This would also be great with Spanish rice or refried beans.

NOTE: Another way to close the tortillas would be to brush them with egg whites. This will bind it together. If you don't have toothpicks this is a great alternative.

Also, you could add black beans or peppers to your filling to make it more authentic Mexican. I did not do this because I knew I wouldn't like it and Jordan would NEVER eat it.

ENJOY!!!!

Please let me know if you make these and how they turn out!

Fun Pancakes

2010-03-23T22:18:00.001-05:00

A few weeks back we saw a show on The Food Network that talked about pancake batter in a can. I thought this idea was neat and decided to look for some of it while at Wal-Mart. The idea that I could make pancakes in any shape I wanted sounded fun. Not to mention there is no measuring, mixing, or bowls to clean. I was told to look by the butter at the store. I found it very easily. It was by the eggs at our store.

Since Chris is off work on Tuesdays, I decided to make us all some breakfast. I warmed up my griddle to the recommended 400 degrees, shook the can up, and sprayed a large circle. It was SOO easy! After making several large circles I got creative.

The shapes were easy to do. This was probably the quickest and easiest way to make fun pancakes!

The only negative I have is that it was almost four dollars a can and it only made about 12 pancakes. (They were pretty large though).

This will be fun to do on special days like birthdays or holidays to make smiley faces or other shapes but I will stick with the cheaper stuff for most of my pancake making.

You should give it a try!

Pot Roast with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2010-03-12T19:32:00.000-06:00

I do not have a step by step picture blog for you today. Do no worry, you will not need it. This recipe is simple.

WARNING! If you are on a diet you might not enjoy reading this...I love butter and cream!

Ingredients:

For the Roast

Roast (I am not sure the exact cut I used but it was about three pounds)

Beef Stock
2 medium onions (Or more depending on if you like them)
Carrots or other vegetables.
Olive Oil
Fresh Herbs (I used Thyme because it was all I had at the time)
Salt
Black Pepper

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Gold Potatoes (I used about two and a half pounds)
Garlic (I used about 6 cloves, you can use more or less depending on how much you like garlic)
Butter (I used one stick)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/2 Heavy Whipping Cream

First off you need to wash your vegetables and peel the onions. Cut the onions into quarters. I found this to be a good time to get the roast ready as well. Put the Roast on a flat surface and pat it dry with paper towels. Salt and Pepper all sides rubbing the seasoning in. Use as much or as little as you like. You want all of you food ready for cooking before you move on.

Preheat Oven to 275

Heat up some olive oil a large oven safe skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. You will probably need about a tablespoon. When the oil is hot put your onions in flat side down and leave just long enough to brown the surface. Turn it over and repeat. This will only take a minute or two on each side. Remove from pan and set aside. Do the same with your carrots. You do not need the vegetables cooked all the way because they will cook completely in the oven.

Now it is time to brown the roast. If you need more oil add it now and allow it to reheat. Lay your Roast in the pan and allow it to brown for a few minutes. Turn it over and repeat until all sides are nicely browned. The bottom of you pan will have lots of stuff stuck to it. Thats ok! This is some good stuff that will make the Roast taste great! When the Roast is nice and brown on all sides remove it from the pan and set aside.

We are now going to get all the yummy stuff off the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat down to low and add one cup beef stock. CAUTION: It will smoke, steam, and sizzle a lot! I didn't expect this and thought I had done something terribly wrong. Chris thought I was burning the house down! Turns out, my pan was just way to hot! All turned out well. Using a whisk stir the broth around making sure to scrape and clean the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat. Put your Roast and Vegetable back in. Add another cup or two of stock. You want it to come up about halfway on the meat. If you are using fresh herbs add those to the liquid. I used two sprigs of thyme and it added a great flavor to the meat.

Once you have everything in the pot you want put the lid on and pop it in the oven. A three pound roast should take about four hours to cook. Try to avoid checking in on it as it cooks. You want the temperature to stay as constant as possible.

About 45 minutes before you Roast is done, Start your Potatoes. Wash, Peal, and Cut each potato. I cut mine in half and then half again, sometimes cut them once more depending on the size of the potato. Add to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Continue to boil until the potatoes are fork tender. Remove from heat and drain. Do not add them back to the pan yet. pan add the butter and allow to melt over low heat. Once melted, remove from heat.

Mince your garlic (I put them through a garlic press). In a small saucepan combine your cream, garlic, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. When it starts bubbling remove from the heat. You don't want your cream to burn!

Add the potatoes back to the pan with the butter. Now for mashing, I use to use an electric mixer but that can severely alter the taste and texture of your potatoes. I recommend mashing them the old fashioned way, with a potato masher. Once mashed, add in your cream and garlic mixture and stir until the potatoes are nice and creamy. Taste them, you may want to add more salt, pepper, or garlic.

By now your Roast and Vegetables should be done. Remove from the oven and check the temperature of the meat. You want it to be 170 degrees in thickest part. Remove the Roast to a cutting board. If its done right, it will fall apart! You might not even need to cut it, it should just pull apart with a fork. Serve a generous helping of Roast, veggies, and potatoes to each hungry member of the family and enjoy!

Notes:

I did not use any other veggies because I forgot to get them at the store. Next time I will use at carrots!

Rosemary would also make this taste great. Just remember to put the herbs in the juice so they can spread the flavor all over.

If you try any other variations please let me know. I am always looking for a way to change things up!

Where Have I Been

2010-03-11T23:00:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! I have not already forgotten about my blog. I would love to be sitting down and adding a recipe every day but I know that is not going to happen. My kitchen has been very uneventful lately. I am cooking in it every day but I am cooking lovely things like frozen pizzas, fish sticks, and chicken nuggets. Life in the Cotter house hasn't been any busier than normal, I just haven't felt like being creative in the kitchen. I have several post in my head that I want to write and I will get those out soon.

Please share with me your favorite recipes!! I am always looking for something to try. When I sit down every week to make our menu and grocery list, I feel like I write the same things every week. We get in such a rut, having the same 5 or 6 things over and over until we are completely burned out on them. I need ideas!!

Have a great week and I will blog more soon. I promise

Deep Fried....

2010-02-20T22:32:00.000-06:00

For several years now, I have been frying all my food in a skillet. This works fine, but it is hard to get the oil to the right temperature and to maintain that temperature, not to mention it's MESSY. While at Wal-Mart the other day we decided that we might as well spend $25 and get a fryer. Its not big, but its better than nothing! To try it out, we made some french fries to go with our grilled hamburgers. Its works great!

A New Kitchen Gadget!

2010-02-17T23:05:00.001-06:00

I am slowly getting things that my kitchen is lacking. The other day when I made the Chicken Fried Steak, I realized that I needed a better way to prepare garlic. I had used garlic in the gravy and had minced it by hand with a knife. This left some pretty large peaces in the gravy. NOT COOL!

So the next time we went to Wal-Mart, I got this

I know its not much but I believe a garlic press is a must for any kitchen. I think this one cost me $6.99. It was one of the cheaper ones and I hope to get a better one later.

I would recommend you get a press that will do more than one clove at a time, it might cost you more but it would save a lot of time in the kitchen.

Check back to see how I use my new tool!

Apples'n'Onion Chicken

2010-02-16T00:04:00.004-06:00

This is a great recipe posted by my friend Angela.

I look forward to giving it a shot!

To see more recipes and other great information visit www.momvault.com

Mac and Cheese Casserole

2010-02-15T23:04:00.000-06:00

This Recipe is a family favorite. As far as I know, I am the fourth generation to make it. I did not follow the recipe exactly as it was given to me. I will list those variations at the bottom. This makes a lot of casserole. I would say it serves at 5-6 depending on their appetites.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
Onion (I used 1/4 of a medium onion, this may vary depending on your taste)
1/8 tsp Oregano
1 1/2 lb Ground Beef
1 lb. Elbow Macaroni (or any large pasta)
1 Can stewed Tomatoes
1/2 a can tomato paste (This is the very small can, I believe its 10oz)
2 Packages Mild Cheddar Cheese (Sliced Thin)

This is the Macaroni and Cheese that I used

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

Add a small amount of Olive Oil to a skillet and heat over medium heat. You should see the oil start to smoke slightly when it is heated. Add in your onion and Oregano and cook until the onions soften.

Break apart the ground beef and add to the skillet cooking until browned. Drain and set meet aside.

Meanwhile, Prepare the Macaroni according to package directions. Drain and return to pot. Add in the meat, Tomato Paste, and stewed tomatoes. Stir to combine.

Grease a casserole dish. Pour in half of the meet and Macaroni mixture. Cover that layer with half of your cheese.

Add the remainder of the meet and cover with the remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cover loosely with either a lid or foil. Continue to cook for 30 more minutes.

Remove the casserole from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Serve and ENJOY!!

VARIATIONS

Instead of cooking your onions in Olive Oil, fry a couple peaces of bacon and fry your onions in the bacon grease. Then add your meat and continue.

The original recipe calls for an 1/8 tsp of Marjoram, you would add this to your onions and oregano.

Add a Bay Leaf to the center of the casserole before baking. (I did not do this because my family does not prefer the flavor of bay leaves)

Instead of Mild Cheddar you can use any cheese you like, the original recipe calls for Longhorn Cheese.

What I would do different:

The only thing I would really change about how I made this would be, using larger peaces of cheese to cover the layers completely. This recipe if very simple and hard to mess up. Everyone in my family enjoyed it, and that says a lot because Jordan and I are very picky eaters!

Try it and let me know what you think!

Chicken Fried Steak

2010-02-11T22:26:00.001-06:00

For supper this evening I decided to try the new recipe for chicken fried steak. I have never made this before but I was excited to give it a shot. I am going to give you a short photo blog of how it went.

To start off, I mixed up the flour mixture in one bowl and the egg mixture in another. This was fairly routine until I got to the egg mixture. It wanted me to use egg, buttermilk, baking soda, and baking powder. I have never used baking soda and powder in my egg mixture before. It made the egg mixture a lot thicker and it stuck to the steaks way better than just an egg and milk mix would.

The next step was to dip each steak in the flour, then egg, then flour again. The easiest way to do this was with my hands. I think the messier the prep work is, the better the food is!

Once the steaks were coated I heated up my oil. The recipe called for peanut oil, but do to a tight budget I decided to go with canola oil. Due to the size of my pan I had to cook the steaks in 3 batches, 2 at a time. To keep them warm I put them on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven. The steaks cooked for 10 minutes total, 5 minutes on each side.

While they steaks were cooking I worked on making my mashed potatoes and starting prepping for the gravy. I needed to dice some garlic and onion. This was probably the hardest part of the whole thing because I don't have good knives or a good tool for dicing but I managed.

The first batch of steaks came out of the oil a little mushy but a nice golden brown. I didn't realize how much the coating would harden as it sat. Glad I followed the directions and didn't keep cooking it!

Once all the steaks were done I set out to make my first ever pan of gravy. The first step was to heat up a small amount of oil and cook the onions and garlic. Again, I had never done this before. I do not have pictures of this step due to the fact that I was stirring the gravy for the 5 minutes it was cooking. The whole process took me about 2 hours to complete. Why 2 hours? Shortly after I started prepping everything, everyone needed something from Mom. Isaac decided that he had to eat, and he had to eat RIGHT NOW! Jordan was trying to do his homework and had lost his spelling list. Mom was the only one who could find it (Which I didn't). Chris would have helped me out but he had been up and at work since Midnight and was getting a much deserved nap. It was a hectic couple of hours and the meal was a lot of work, but in the end, it was well worth it! I think we found a family favorite! With the help of America's Test Kitchen I learned a few tricks and cooked a great meal. I look forward to trying more recipes. Below is a picture of the finished product all plated up.

If you would like to purchase this cookbook, you may do so here.