Pizza and Chicken fried Chicken

So 2 posts in one because I didn't have time to blog about my latest attempt at something different.

A few posts back I posted about making pizza from scratch. I was going to make that recipe again and since I had read some helpful tips on another site I thought I would apply them to the recipe.
One of the things the other site suggested was making sure you knead the pizza dough 6min to give it lots of gluten. I had also noticed by their pictures they posted that they used their stand mixer with the dough hook to do all the hard work. Genius! I hadn't thought of that! That was the only down side to making homemade pizza was the work that went into kneading the dough! The only thing I noticed was that due to not having the oil in my hands combine with the dough I had to add more flour to get the dough to not be sticky. Eventually I gave up adding more and more flour and just set the dough in a bowl and let it rise. That is of course after kneading it for 6min.

It rose to nearly double the size it had the first time I made it. The other site also suggested using a pizza stone but said if you don't have one you can get the same effect by turning a cookie sheet upside down and cooking the dough on that. We have a large round pizza pan that has sides like a cookie sheet so I just used that. I rolled the dough out on the inside of the pan (place it on wax paper to help transfer the dough to the back of the pan) then I took the formed pizza crust out of the pan and flipped the pan over and put the pizza on the bottom. Then you crank the oven to 500 and put the pizza in the cool oven. I noticed the crust was VERY thick but it was VERY good too. This time the crust actually tasted lighter and you could see little air bubbles in it. Since it was very thick my next thought is next time I'm going to try taking some of all that dough (as it makes a LOT) and making bread sticks to go with the pizza.... I might even attempt to makes stuffed bread sticks! So I guess be looking for a blog about that in the future. :)

So this week my new recipe to try (and I have a few this week) was a "Chicken Fried Chicken" recipe from allrecipes.com
It sounded good and the reviews on it were good. Although I have to admit as I was making it I started to wonder about using the 30 saltine crackers. Those reservations were valid and lets just say I will be looking for another recipe. Now don't get me wrong, it was decent but it wasn't good and I felt like if I was going through all that work that it should taste better. My husband actually scraped the breading off the chicken cause he didn't care for it. Well I know I got that recipe off of allrecipes.com but I think thats one I found while using my tablet computer and I didn't actually SAVE it to my recipe box online and just transferred the recipe to my tablet. That being said I don't have the recipe but you won't want to use it anyway. Just avoid one if it says to use 30 saltine crackers.



The recipe was pretty simple in itself. It called for the crackers, seasoning salt, flour, oil, pepper and of course egg. Of course you used the egg to dip the chicken in before coating it in the cracker/flour mixture and then cooked it in a skillet  in the oil. I had read on some of the reviews that people had trouble getting the breading to stay on the chicken and they had actually solved that problem by first sprinkling flour on the wet chicken before dipping it in the egg. So I did that, then I coated and cooked. I noticed right off the bat that still the breading was coming off in chunks on some of the pieces. Also I noticed that in order to make sure the chicken was well cooked you had to pretty much burn the breading. Needless to say this recipe wasn't that great. Have I mentioned that? I was very disappointed. My thought on the chicken was it just tasted like fried saltine crackers that were burnt. Yuck. So on to try a different and hopefully better tasting Chicken fried Chicken. :)

Again, no pictures of this dinner as I felt like it was to ugly and to burnt to mess with taking a picture and posting it. Also I will note here that I kept a close eye on the chicken the whole time, turning it a lot to try and keep it from burning and it still did. So it wasn't just a case of my getting distracted and forgetting I was cooking.... Which I'll admit happens often! Haha

Most awesome Pot Roast

What a perfect dinner to cap off my "Slow Cooker Week" Ok so I know its only Thurs but we go to my mother in laws every Fri for dinner so that means its only a 4 night cook week for me. Now You may notice I also haven't blogged any other recipe's this week except 1. Well that being because the first one was nothing really to blog about. Simply throw some chicken in the crock pot and pour BBQ sauce over it and let it sit and cook for a few hours. I prefer to use KC Masterpiece but that's probably just the Kansas City girl in me. :) Tues' dinner I blogged about and last night well I wasn't feeling good so I skipped "cooking" and just did chicken nuggets and fries...... A Good back up plan for when you don't feel well. Haha

So tonight's dinner I wasn't real sure about, I'm not normally much of a roast person and after the somewhat flop of the Stew I was worried that it might not turn out as good as I originally had thought. However I kinda feel like we'll try it once and if we don't like it we won't do that recipe again. I have to say it was SO easy too! I started it in the crockpot around 10am. I mixed the simple ingredients together, then threw in the roast. I left it in till about 2pm on low then I kicked it up to high. Then around 4pm I added some potatoes and carrots. Around 5:30 we were ready to eat and it was DELISH! So far my husband hasn't been really commenting much on the new recipes I've tried. He tells me "Its good babe" but that just means its not nasty! LOL Tonight he was like "This is REALLY good!" So I asked him "So is this recipe a keeper to you?" he was like "YES!" Then I asked him if he would feel like having the left overs on Sat for dinner or should I store it in the freezer for another night next week? He was like "Yes! Sat sounds great!" Hahaha So its a keeper. Now the veggies were add on's to the recipe. My husband also enjoyed having 2 slices of bread open and the meat on top with sauce all over it. I had 1 slice of bread on the side and used it to sop up the extra very thick yummy gravy. Our plates were clean in record time! Eli however took a bite, spite it out and proclaimed "YUCK!" But we have had trouble getting him to eat meat so far at this age. I'm sure as he gets older he'll like it. :)

Hubby's roast on bread and covered in sauce! 

Ok so here's the recipe.... Again taken from allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/awesome-slow-cooker-pot-roast/detail.aspx

• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 5 1/2 pounds pot roast

Directions

1. In a slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.
2. Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.
   
   I forgot to mention above that the only changes I made to this recipe was that I added some seasoning salt to the roast on both sides before putting it in the crock pot. But again thats optional. Well I guess the whole recipe is optional. Haha Enjoy!

Pork Tenderloin

So as I've said this week is slow cooker week in our house, Monday started with an easy to make BBQ Chicken in the slow cooker. Easy because you just add chicken and pour BBQ sauce over it and let it sit for several hours. However last night was Pork Tenderloin, again I've never cooked this but the recipe sounded so good!

This weekend has been a rough one for our family, Fri Casey didn't have work so stayed home. We decided to get him in to see the Dr because he's been sick. Turns out he has bronchitis and I have a sinus infection. Casey has been home ever since till today when he finally went in. Having a sick man in the house is like having another child in the house. Its been exhausting, so yesterday as I prepared the pork tenderloin in the crock pot I wasn't feeling well. As I added ingredients I felt worse because the last 3 added smelled HORRIBLE! They were, Red Wine (a cooking red wine), Soy Sauce and minced garlic. YUCK, as I covered the pot I looked at that expensive dinner and thought "You'd better taste good!" I was worried that it would taste horrible. As it cooked the smell changed and wasn't as horrible, although you could still smell the cooking wine. I think its cause it seems to be mostly vinegar which I hate the smell of.

So finally the 4hrs passed and dinner was ready, now being in a haze the last few days I totally didn't think about what side to go with it till it was done! As I was dishing up dinner I thought at how potatoes and carrots would probably compliment this VERY well. Note to self, instead I steamed up some broccoli. The recipe called for a 2lbs pork tenderloin which is a lot for 2 people to eat. So I put it in a vacuum bag and sealed it up and stuck it in the freezer.... I also put the rest of the sauce in a bowl and stuck it in the freezer for future use. So now if I don't feel good one night I can take those out, stick them in the crock pot for like an hour with potatoes and carrots and viola! I'll have dinner!

Sadly I'm just now realizing I forgot to take pictures of dinner last night! Ha oh well. Again this one came from allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amazing-pork-tenderloin-in-the-slow-cooker/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
• 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place pork tenderloin in a slow cooker with the contents of the soup packet. Pour water, wine, and soy sauce over the top, turning the pork to coat. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low setting for 4 hours. Serve with cooking liquid on the side as au jus.

The recipe says it takes about 15min to prepare and I found it was pretty close. This was very good! I also added some seasoning salt to the mix just to make sure it had lots of flavor. I think maybe if it cooked a little longer it would be falling apart on its own. As it was though it wasn't hard to cut at all. I will be keeping this recipe! :)

Store Adventures

So I have blogged about how I am trying to expand my cooking abilities. I have also blogged that this week is slow cooker week. Where I"m going to cook everything in the slow cooker. Should be easy right? Well that is until its time to shop for some of the ingredients for this weeks meals. So on the menu this week was pork tenderloin and pot roast.... So I found the tenderloin pretty easily, but the recipe also calls for red wine (to cook with). Now I have never bought wine before, so I look in the "beer" section at price chopper and I don't find any "WINE". So I figure I'll skip that and let Casey stop somewhere and get some anyway. Well in another section I find a "Cooking" wine. Which I guess you don't even have to be a certain age to get cause I didn't get carded! LOL Anyway next I had to find a "Pot roast". Harder then I thought.

With the pork tenderloin it said right on it "Pork tenderloin" so it was easy, with the pot roast I was looking for it to actually SAY pot roast. Also their selection was poor, so I finally settle on something that says "ROAST" on it but dang it was $16! Just as I was walking away one of the workers come out with a rack full of meat. He asks if I"m finding everything ok and I finally summon up the courage to tell someone I don't know what the heck I'm doing and what is it I need? He tells me that as long as its a "ROAST" its ok, just some people prefer certain kinds (arm or rump). He also tells me that I have an EXPENSIVE one because its all natural (no growth hormones etc). So finally I get some meat that is much less expensive... There was also a lady there looking at the meat and she overheard and was telling me the best way to cook a roast etc. Was all pretty funny if you ask me. Just another adventure in my learning to cook. :)

2-step inside out chicken pot pie= 2 delicious

Today was try a new recipe day again. Normally I'm not much of a veggie eater but what was in today's recipe I actually enjoyed.... All but the red peppers and I didn't mind the taste to much but with a 4mo old that is nursing and has been a very colicky baby I didn't want to risk it with the peppers. I didn't follow the recipe to the letter this time but pretty much.

I started out with 4 chicken breasts.... What I figured to be about a pound of chicken, I cooked the chicken till "brown" which is actually more of a grey like the directions says, the recipe doesn't call for it but I added a little poultry seasoning to the chicken to make sure it had lots of flavour it turned out really well!

After the chicken was cooked I also did another step that the recipe doesn't call for (so I guess I ended up with 4 step inside out chicken pot pie) and that was to cut the chicken up into little chunks. I figured that most chicken pot pie its not full chicken breasts and it would help the chicken cook faster.

Next I added the veggies and soup, for the veggies I got a "Red Roasted potatoes" mix, it has Red potatoes, red peppers, onions (although I never saw any) and broccoli. While it was all simmering I put the biscuits in the oven. It was simple, pretty fast and yet yummy! We even had enough to have some left over, for those of you who don't know my husband very well let me just say he can eat... and eat.... and eat some more. So unless we fixed a HUGE amount of food there isn't normally any left over. Either way this recipe is a keeper!

Everything simmering in the pot... Look at those yummy veggies!

Served up on the hot biscuits! Yummy!

Most of you might be surprised to hear that I said I enjoyed this, broccoli and all but I actually did! I like cooked broccoli I have found out I like it as long as its cooked and in something like this. :)

Next week we will be doing everything in the slow cooker! So stay tuned!

Oh and here is this recipe again taken from allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/2-step-inside-out-chicken-pot-pie/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut-up
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup (Regular or 98% Fat Free)
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen vegetable combination (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)
• 8 hot biscuits, split

Directions

1. Cook chicken in nonstick skillet until browned, stirring often.
2. Add soup and vegetables. Cover and simmer until done. Serve on biscuits.

Beef Stew = so so

My first attempt at home made from scratch stew and it was ok but not great. My adventure begins when I was looking for a potato peeler and thought we didn't have one (I later found one). So I decided I would have to use a knife to peel them. Thats what they used to do in the old days right? I chose a knife that wasn't to terribly sharp so as to avoid cutting off an appendage. It was pretty tough having to peel 6 potatoes with a knife but I managed eventually. As I was cutting the fresh peeled potatoes I couldn't help but think about all those TV shows and movies I've seen where the wife/mother/woman of the house is in the kitchen cutting up lots of vegetables for dinner. I've never been THAT kind of wife/mother before. I do fix dinner but well not the big fancy dinners that requires cutting of fresh produce. Or at least not that often, I even hummed a little personal theme song in my head and pictured myself wearing an apron with my hair pulled back in a bun and perfect make up on.... Ok scratch the makeup I can't stand the stuff. In stead I was dressed VERY casual and had my hair thrown into a very messy ponytail. Ah well can't be perfect!

Next up was the celery and carrots. Casey had recently just bought a bag of baby carrots because he had the munchies so me trying to be frugal I decided to just use those instead. I just cut them up a little smaller and there you have the carrots. I added all the produce to bowls to add in the stew when I was ready for them.

The recipe calls for browning the meat on all sides and then browning the boiling onions on both sides before combining everything in the pot. Which is what I did, at this point the house smelled WONDERFUL and I really was feeling VERY domestic! I will say all this "prep" for the simmering takes about an hour so allow plenty of time!

Finally it was time to add everything in the pot for a good long simmer. I learned something, the recipe calls for adding all the veggies and meat BEFORE the broth for a good reason..... It WILL SPLASH! Ok, it wasn't a huge deal really. As I was dumping the veggies from their prospective bowls (green bowl for celery.... orange bowl for carrots) I couldn't help but feel a little like Martha Stewart. "Take this marvelous cut celery and add it to the broth, followed by your marvelous carrots, onions and last but certainly not least your stew meat. Stir it all together and wow doesn't it just smell wonderful?" Haha Yes I was having a grand time. I put it all in and then after it came to a boil I put the lid on, turned down the heat and let it simmer for the 2hrs it called for.

Everything ready for simmering.

Finally it was time to taste the stew, it was ok. It was good enough but nothing special. I think next time I will ad a little more seasoning then the recipe calls for. I think also since my husband wasn't fond of the texture from the potatoes turning to mush I will probably ad those about an hour into the simmering instead of letting them simmer for 2hrs with the whole stew. I have to say other then the meat it was all pretty mushy. The meat however was VERY tender and flavorful just not the rest of the stew.

Finished product with biscuits.

So finally here is the link to the recipe... Again I found it on allrecipes.com You might want to check out the reviews for suggestions. I was just reading them and realized I should have waited to put the potatoes in till around a half hour before the stew is done. Dully noted, on with the recipe...

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/angels-old-fashioned-beef-stew/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 pounds beef chuck, cubed
• 12 small boiling onions
• 6 large potatoes, peeled and diced
• 6 carrots, sliced
• 3 stalks celery, sliced
• 3 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cold water

Directions

1. In a large pot heat oil over medium high heat. In a resealable plastic bag mix together the flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add a small handful of meat at a time and shake until well coated; brown in hot oil, about 1 minute per side. Remove the browned meat and continue until all the meat is browned.
2. Lower heat to medium and add onions. Brown onions on both sides, about 3 minutes per side, then remove from pot and set aside. Drain excess fat from pot.
3. To pot add potatoes, carrots, celery, reserved onions, browned meat and broth. Stir all together and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. For a thicker broth: 1/2 hour before stew is done, combine 3 tablespoons flour and water in a small bowl and mix well, then slowly stir mixture into stew.

Made from scratch pizza = YUM!

Recently I have been trying to plan our meals about 2 weeks in advanced. Like I said in an earlier blog I have been searching for new recipes to try. This was one I found on allrecipes.com and I do say I think its a keeper.

The adventure began after the kids were down for a nap, this recipe is pretty basic and easy to follow. I did everything as it said but when I got to the part about turning the dough out and kneading in more flower is where I started to get a little concerned. My concern was this, it seemed to be a very THIN dough and I was worried I hadn't done something right as it was VERY VERY sticky. No fear though, I started kneading in the extra flour like the recipe calls for and it began to thicken up. I think I used more flour then the recipe called for though.

At the end I did change up some things, I put it into a metal pizza pan and brushed the dough with melted butter with a brush. Then I cooked the dough for about 5min before adding toppings. It was a VERY thick crust and I wanted to make sure it was baked well enough. After that I took it out of the oven and put on my toppings. Hamburger and lots and lots of cheese! YUMMMM!!! Oh yeah and of course the sauce. I found I only used about half a can of sauce so it might be better to purchase the sauce in a jar instead so you can store it easier.

After adding the toppings I again brushed on extra butter around the crust and then sprinkled garlic salt on the crust. I baked the pizza till it was nice and golden and it tasted wonderful! I think next time I'll use a tad more butter and garlic salt though. It probably would have done 2 smaller pizza's better but this large pizza was still nice and thick. You could probably split it up for a nice thin crispy crust though.

 

The ready to bake pizza... I also used a shredded Cheddar cheese.

Here is the recipe from allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jays-signature-pizza-crust/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.
   
   
   We ate our the pizza so fast we burned our mouths it was that yummy! I didn't even get a chance to snap a picture before we dove in. Oh well it was a nice looking pizza and twice as good! Happy eating!