Chicken Artichoke Pasta Toss

Chicken Artichoke Pasta Toss

Ingredients:

Pasta of your choice

Olive oil

3-4 pads butter

1 can chicken chunks or any chicken leftovers shredded

fresh tomatoes diced

1/2 sweet yellow onion diced

artichoke hearts (canned or frozen is fine -which ever is on sale)

Thyme

S&P

While water is boiling for the pasta...shred chicken, dice up tomatoes, onion and artichokes (if pieces are large).

 Add butter and olive oil to the pan. Then add onion and saute until soft and fragrant. Add spices, tomatoes, artichokes and chicken to the pan and toss. Cook for just a few minutes to warm ingredients through.
When pasta is ready add pasta directly into pan with the rest of the ingredients and toss.  Add any additional butter, olive oil or spices here to taste.

Plate warm with Parmesan cheese over the top.

You can also add Alfredo sauce to this for a delicious left over makeover that is sure to please the whole family.

Baklava

Tyler Florence's Baklava

(I make this for Easter - my family loves baklava and over the years I have found this is one of the best recipes out there. -Lexi)

Ingredients

• 1 pound shelled walnuts, toasted
• 1/2 pound blanched almonds, toasted
• 1/2 pound shelled pistachios, toasted
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 pound unsalted butter, melted
• 1 pound phyllo pastry sheets

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Finely chop the nuts in a food processor or coffee grinder. Transfer nuts to a bowl and mix in brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and cloves.

Brush a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with melted butter and set aside. Cut a piece of cardboard into a 13 by 9-inch rectangle. Unroll the phyllo dough and lay the sheets flat on a work surface. Set the cardboard template on the stack of phyllo and trim the excess so they fit the pan. Keep the pastry covered with a damp, not wet, towel as you work to prevent drying out.

To build the baklava, you will alternate 3 layers of dough with 2 layers of nuts. Start with a stable base of 8 sheets on the bottom, brushing each with melted butter. Spread 1/2 the nut mixture evenly over the stacked sheets. Cover with 4 sheets of phyllo, painting each with melted butter, then sprinkle again with remaining nut mixture. Top the last layer of nuts with 8 layers of phyllo as you did for the bottom. Drizzleany remaining butter over top.

If you have time, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes so the butter will set and make the baklava easier to cut. Using a sharp knife, make 5 cuts across lengthwise, then cut diagonally to form diamonds. Baklava is more difficult to cut after it is cooked because the pastry becomes so flaky. Bake for about 40 minutes until golden and flaky. If the top browns too quickly during baking, tent with foil.

Orange Scented Simple Syrup:

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup orange blossom honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 large strips orange peel
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves

To make the syrup: combine the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and letsimmer for 10 minutes until thickened. Remove the orange peel, cinnamon stick, and whole clove; set aside to cool.

Remove an end piece of the baklava and tilt the pan to allow the butter to collect in the corner. Spoon out the excess and discard. With the pan flat, pour the syrup evenly over the hot baklava. Allow to stand for several hours before serving.

Desert Parfait

Desert Parfait

Ingredients: 

Pinot Noir

Sugar

Fresh seasonal fruit

Granola (your favorite kind)

Yogurt (I used greek goddess, honey flavor) 

 I used almond and raisin granola I bought at Sunflower Market, & strawberries and grapes because they were in season and on sale.

 Add 1cup pinot noir wine and 1/2 cup sugar to a sauce pan and boil down rapidly to create a rich and flavorful simple syrup. (optional -you can also add cinnamon sticks, 3 whole cloves and 1 whole star anise here and simply take them out after simmering and before adding the fruit.)

 Dice up fruit and add to simple syrup. Toss in liquid to coat. (At this point you can either boil the fruit down to make a compote or you can leave the fruit al dente)

 Remove fruit and liquid from heat and cool rapidly (you can also through it in the freezer for a minute)

Once fruit is cooled you are ready to assemble your lovely desert parfait alternating between the yogurt, granola and fruit.

These are a sure crowd pleaser at family meals or parties. Caution if you are making these in advance don't layer the granola into the parfait...hold it to the side and add right before serving to prevent a soggy oatmeal like texture in your parfait.

Jazzed up Deviled Eggs

I personally love deviled eggs year round, I think they are great to bring to BBQ's, family get together's, church socials etc. With these you can almost always guaranty you'll head home from the event with an empty plate. 

I like to make a statement when I bring these delicious little morsels with me...for Easter or any function really...adding a splash of color to your deviled eggs makes a fun statement.

Start by filling a few cups with plain vinegar. Add regular food coloring to each cup and insert peeled hard boiled eggs one at a time. Leave in the vinegar until you have reached your desired color (this won't take long so don't worry...you're not pickling the eggs)

Next...slice eggs in two, remove yokes and create standard deviled eggs filling (use your favorite recipe). Fill each half with the creamy mixture and a dash of paprika for color. Enjoy!

I've also colored the eggs after they were sliced in half to color the whole visible surface area. It's entirely up to you :-)

Chinese Fried Rice via the Mayo Clinic

This is directly from the Mayo Clinic website.  you can see this recipe and the nutrition facts HERE

1 1/3 cups water
3/4 cup rice
3 tablespoons peanut oil
4 green onions with tops, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 carrots, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 egg
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped parsley

In a saucepan, bring the water and rice to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the rice is tender and has absorbed all the liquid, about 20 minutes.
In a large heavy skillet or wok, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add the cooked rice and saute until lightly golden. Add the green onions, salt, carrots, peppers and peas. Stir-fry until the vegetables are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes.
Hollow out a circle in the center of the skillet by pushing the vegetables and rice to the sides. Break the egg into the hollow and cook, lightly scrambling the egg as it cooks. Stir the scrambled egg into the rice mixture. Sprinkle with soy sauce, sesame oil and chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Carrot Cake Pops and a Lollipop Garden

 With a 3 year old b-day, I decided to go the Cake-pop route.  It seemed (and was) SO much less messy!  That "frosting" isn't gooey, it is firm chocolate.  YUM!  The recipe looked so easy, I couldn't pass it up.

I decided on Carrot cake, since we were going with an Easter/Spring theme. 

1 box cake made per directions on the box and cooled.

Take 1/2 of the cake and 1/2 container of Cream Cheese Frosting and mix together making a dough.

Roll into balls (or carrot shapes) and stick in the fridge 2 hours or the freezer 30 min. (Make them small... like donut hole small, or to your horror, your beautiful creation will slowly make its way down the stick and die a sad death.  With the carrot shapes, you can get a way with more weight because it it distributed differently... still, there was much bellowing and perhaps a few off color words dierected at the demise of some of my best cake pops.)

Melt white chocolate pieces and add desired food coloring.

While chocolate is melting, prepare candy sticks or dowels.  Candy sticks are a lot more pricy. (I used dowels 3/4 covered with floral tape and on the one pictured, I used floral wire covered with floral  tape to make the stem of the carrot.)

Dip the tip of the stick into the chocolate and place the firm, cold dough onto the stick. Hopefully you will have more luck dipping your dough in the chocolate.  Not only did I have to thin my chocolate out with milk a bit, but I spread it with a spatula, as the chocolate kept pulling the dough off of the stick for me.

Place in styrofoam or a candy stick holder, like the one I got at Walmart and I would suggest keeping them cool until use.  As you can see, some turned out MUCH better than others.  But the kids loved them and their faces were CLEAN!

I had seen the idea for a lollipop garden on Pinterest using Tootsie pops.

It looked so cute and all it was, was the candy stuck in a patch of grass.  Cute and easy, right?

Well, not for me.  i couldn't find Tootsie pops anywhere.  So I used dum-dums.  Well, dum-dums are significantly shorter and got lost in the grass.  So I added a mini muffin liner and tied the bottom with emroidery floss, then placed them in the actual flower garden.  Even the boys att he party liked picking these flowers.  :)

Complete with egg hunt, gift bags, coloring printable crowns and

rounds of duck-duck goose, simon says, and a bubble machine, I only spent

$30 on the entire party.

Grilled Potatoes and Carrots

This is by no means an "original" recipe. I have seen variations of it at bar-b-ques and picnics, so I don't really know where the credit for it's tastiness should fall. It is however incredibly quick- incredibly tasty- and incredibly easy to make.

Potatoes
Baby Carrots
(any other veggies you may like)
Ranch Seasoning Packet (or 2!)

Wash and cut raw potatoes. I used approximately 8 medium-smallish Yukon golds, but any type/size will work. Just clean enough for your family. Boil potatoes for a few minutes to soften them. You don't want them mushy, just slightly cooked through so they will cook quicker on the grill. You can even do this ahead of time and have them in the fridge, ready to go whenever you are. (You don't have to pre-boil them, but they will definitely take longer to grill if you don't.)

Combine carrots and potatoes. Mix in 1 Ranch Dips packet (I used Hidden Valley). Sometimes I even throw in some salt and pepper.

Make a foil pouch and dump veggies on it. Roll up tight and take it to the grill.
Flip it a couple times to make sure it cooks evenly.

End result:

 yum

Canned vs. Martha Stewart

There was a comment left on my post about apple pie that amused me no end.  The Anonymous commenter had very obviously not read the recipe post, and furthermore, made the point of this blog more apparent to me.  The comment was: "pie filling from a can. way to go martha stewart. "  While I get that there are always people on the Internet that troll for the opportunity to be contrary and really should be ignored, I thought this was a great opportunity to explain why I began this blog.   

There is always room for easy cooking AND a little "Martha Stewart" or Emeril.

From every angle of our lives as women, homemakers, working women and moms, aunts, grandmothers, etc.  There are high expectations that either push us to frustration or make us just give up.  This is even more true when it comes to the kitchen.  This is so sad.  We are hard enough on our selves with out having to endure more fuel to our kitchen woes fire.  Food is what brings families together. In some families, it is all they do together.  If your choice for feeding your family is a bowl of cereal for dinner or eating out, every single night.... well, you're either trying so hard you can't live up to your expectations so you quit, or just not trying at all.  Yet you also don't need to spend hours cooking and creating, make a gorgeous center piece out of what once was belly button lint to add to an $80 meal your kids won't eat.



When I became a wife and mom, I knew how to make very few things.  Sure, I had enough basics to follow a recipe and I knew a few basic recipes by heart.  It wasn't until I began gaining the collective kitchen knowledge of the family my hubby and I had and our more artsy-foodie friends, that I began to realize how much variety and availability each household and situation has.  Not to mention the camaraderie in cooking with other women.  Some of my best friends have shared a kitchen and their table with me and I have been honored to have them at mine.  We can all learn from each other is we put aside those crazy expectations of perfection and just be one of the girls who knows her way around a kitchen.

Some nights you are on the run; some mornings you just don't feel like making a big fuss.  There are those days when you are so sick of coming up with lunch ideas that you want to scream and call the pizza guy.  Then you look at how much you've already called the pizza guy and how much you could have spent eating real food.  Here is a place you can grab an idea and whip something up that enriches your family, your health and your confidence as a homemaker.  Now, if you have time to make it look amazing, then more power to you.

A woman who loves to feed her family is a woman who thinks about other people and what is best for them.  The secret is she doesn't have to break her neck or the bank to do it.

So YEP!  Canned is great if that's what you've got.  Because, be it pie filling or veggies or cream of something casserole, it sure beats Del Taco for the umpteenth time this month, is more nutritious and your family will think you care about them... particularly if you make it look nice.  Think about it.  If you take your kids to a fancy restaurant, tell them to order cheap or split a meal so you can eat nice, it isn't the same as making that same meal in the all you can eat form for 8 people at the cost of one plate at the restaurant.  That makes your kids and hubby happy and you have more money left to do an activity with your family.

I have a load of recipes that make my family feel loved and special and it only takes a little elbow grease, 30 minutes and 10-15 dollars to do it.  And they all agree a place setting is so much more personal than the gift bag full of greasy, who knows what's really in it, here just eat, "food."

Happy Cooking, Ladies!  Oh, and to Anonymous:  Eating good food makes you less grumpy.  You should try one of our recipes.  ;)

Apple Pie

Richard's Grandma said she loved apple pie as dessert for her traditional Irish dinners.  She's no longer with us, but the tradition continues.
I have some odd inability to make a decent pie crust, so I buy mine.

You can be lazy and buy canned pie filling, (this way often lacks flavor) but the best way to make the pie filling is finding tart apples, and following on of the many recipes such as this one by Paula Dean.  I find apple pie filling to be like a bread recipe.  Everyone has a recipe they love, but few of them are truly bad.

The bottom layer needs to be poked with a fork to keep its shape and keep from bubbling.  Trim the outside of the bottom crust so it doesn't go over the sides.

dump pie filling into bottom crust and even out as best as possible.

Place the top layer, centered, on top of the fruit.  Use your fingers to "close the lid" and pinch the crust all the way around.  Sprinkle with sugar.

Use a small, sharp knife, like a paring knife to make air holes.  you can be creative or just make large slits.

Cover crust edges with foil. You do this because the crust will brown well before the middle of the pie is done with out it.  By the time the pie is done, with out foil, the crust will burn on the edges.

Bake at 400 for 20-30 min and remove foil.  Continue to bake until crust is browned.

Voila!

Corned Beef and Cabbage with Potatoes

We have to make this every once in a while for my hubby and kids and their Irish heritage.

This traditional dish is surprisingly one of the easiest to make.

Ready?

You need:

A large pot or crock pot

packaged corned beef with season packet

head of cabbage broken up or chopped

peeled and diced potatoes

water

Dump everything into the pot.  Incluing the juices in the meat package and seasonings from the packet.

This is meant to be boiled, so fill with water to the top of the contents of your pot.

Boil for 4-6 hours in a pot or on high in a crock pot

or on Low in the crock pot over night or for at least 12 hours.

When it is done, the beef will fall apart and be stringy.

the cooked cabbage will blend in with the potatoes.

Corned beef is a great source of Iron.  Corned beef and Cabbage has a ton of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, 1/8 your daily value of calcium,  and Potatoes have potassium.This is a high in sodium meal, but they do have lower sodium Corned beef if you look hard enough.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Farls



Place a large flat skillet, lightly floured on the stove over medium low heat.

2 C Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda (Sifted)

fluff together in a large bowl and make a large hole in the center

1 Cup Buttermilk

fill the hole with the buttermilk and quickly mix into a dough.

Place dough on a floured surface and gently knead into a ball, then press into a disk about 1/2 in thick.

cut disk into 1/4 pieces (Farls)



Place your fourths/Farls on the floured, heated skillet and cook until golden brown (about 5 min) flipping once to brown the other side (another 5-ish minutes)

Think really dense KFC biscuit with butter and jam....but better.  Also, the dough can be fried like a scone or baked into a bread.

Wandering Gypsy Girl Roasted Chicken

What you'll need.

Preheat the oven to 400

In a small bowl combine spice mixture, lemon rind and butter. Spices: cumin, paprika, marjoram, thyme (there should be mostly thyme), S&P. Make a thick paste - this will go between the skin and meat as well as over the top of the skin for flavor and moisture.

Gently lift skin away from meat with fingers. Rub butter mixture in as you go.

Place thinly sliced apples and lemons between the skin and meat (over the herb butter). Layer the apples closest to the skin - the acid from the lemons will help bring out the sugars in the apples to flavor the meat. Stuff the cavity with onion, oranges, lemon, apples, and garlic that have been seasoned with S&P.

In your roaster create a bed for your chicken to cook on (this prevents it from sticking to the bottom - you may also use a rack or insert...but using vegetables and fruit adds far more flavor for the meat and the gravy after).

Saute roughly chopped onion, celery, carrot, lemon, orange, and apples briefly.

Nestle the chicken into the warm vegetables and fruit and cover the chicken with bacon (the fat from the bacon will keep the bird moist without braising. By increasing the initial fat content and cutting out the step for braising you allow the oven door to stay closed through cooking thus allowing for a more even cooking temperature throughout the process.

Cook at 400 for 20min then reduce heat and continue to cook for 20min per pound or until the juices run clear. Remove bacon about 10-20min before you are ready to remove the chicken to allow the outer skin to brown.

Once the juices run clear remove the chicken from the oven. The skin over the fruit will be thin d/t the high acidity.

Remove the chicken from the pan into a bowl breast side down. Allow to rest.

By allowing the chicken to rest breast side down you are allowing the juices to redistribute into the breast meat keeping the bird very moist.

Break down the chicken by removing the breast meat in whole pieces.

Separate the legs, thighs, wings and accessory meat. Serve on a formal platter for parties or separate and store if you are using the meat for other meals/recipes such as some of the leftover makeovers listed previously on the blog.

If serving immediately serve along side a nice bright vegetable such as green beans and a flavorful starch.

Homemade chicken stock

Waste not ... Want not! In my childhood home my mother almost always had something on the stove simmering away. From tomatoes to chicken bones my mother could transform leftovers and extras into delectable freezable's that could be used again and again.

To make Chicken Stock

Remove the giblets, and neck bone (leave the skin on the neck bone/meat). Roughly chop celery, onion, carrots and garlic. (If you are deboning the chicken instead of cooking it whole you can add ALL of the bones to the stock pot. The bones add a great deal of flavor.)

Add all ingredients to a stock pot with 1-2 pads butter, thyme, a bay leaf, and S&P. Saute for 5-10 minutes over medium heat until onions are soft but not burnt. Cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and then cover with a lid. Simmer over very low heat for a few hours.

Once the stock is rich in color and flavor remove from heat and allow to cool.

Strain stock through a fine mesh screen or cheese cloth.

Discard the vegetables, giblets and bones. You now have a rich flavorful stock that can be used for cooking right away, can be stored in the fridge temporarily, or frozen or canned for longer storage periods.

Wandering Gypsy Girl Fried Red Potatoes

Red potatoes are small, tender and easily cooked in a variety of ways. One of the great things about them is that you can leave the skins on as they cook up beautifully.

Fried Red Potatoes:

Diced red potatoes

1-2 cloves garlic grated or mashed

olive oil (I like extra virgin)

1-2 pads butter

1/4 cup water

S&P to taste

Add olive oil and butter to a medium sized saute pan over medium heat. Add potatoes, S&P and saute for 3-4 min or until potatoes begin to crisp. Add water and cover with a lid. Steam potatoes until just tender. Remove lid and allow remaining of water to cook off. Add garlic paste to pan and toss thoroughly. Saute potatoes with garlic until fragrant and remove from heat before garlic burns.

Serve warm as a side.

Wandering Gypsy Girl Potato Leek Soup

I got the base for this soup from an Irish Pub cookbook (please see earlier post) and felt it could use a little Gypsy Girl flare. Below is how I made it tonight and I thought it turned out delicious. Alter and enhance as you see fit. Happy Cooking!

1 Leek

2 Potatoes

1/2 sweet onion

1can Chicken stock

3 slices bacon

1pkg cream cheese

1/4 cup heavy cream + extra for garnish

1/4 small block cheddar cheese

chives (garnish)

S&P to taste

3 pieces of bacon diced and fried until crisp.

While the bacon is cooking chop up 1 leek (including the majority of the green stock), 1/2 sweet onion, and two potatoes.

Remove bacon from pan when crisp and reserve for garnish at end. Add 2 pads butter to the bacon drippings in the pan and then add the onion, leeks, potatoes and S&P to taste. Saute until onions are soft but not brown.

Add 1 can chicken stock and 1/2 can of water. Cover with lid and simmer 20min or until potatoes are cooked through.

Poor potatoes/leek stock mixture into a food processor or blender. Pulse/blend until smooth.

Melt 1 package cream cheese, 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 of a small block of cheddar cheese (if you have white cheddar that would be great...I went with yellow because it was what I had).

Pour the blended potato leek mixture back into the pan with the cheese and stir until smooth and heated through. If you desire a slightly thinner consistency simply add more cream, milk or stock until the soup is to your liking.

Garnish with cream, chives and crisp bacon bits.