Cream of Mushroom Chicken and Vegetables

Have you ever started cooking something with no idea what you were really planning.  Well I did, and this is where I ended up.  I did step one.  I sort of had a plan with what I was going to do with the cooked veggies after they were soft, but ended up making homemade cream of mushroom soup instead.  Who doesn't remember their mom making something like this when they were kids?  I am also really into wild rice blends and quinoa right now, so we'll see where that goes.

Cream of Mushroom Chicken and Vegetables
4-6 chicken thighs
2 cups carrots diced
2 cups celery diced
3 cups mini yellow potatoes halved
1 medium onion sliced
Any other vegetable you want to add (this is all I had in stock at the time)

Remove skin and excess fat from thighs.  Place sliced onions in bottom of slow cooker.  Even lay chicken over onions.  Add remaining vegetables over chicken and cook for 3 hours on high.  Make soup recipe as follows.

Mushroom Soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 cups chopped mushrooms
1 generous cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon butter
2 cups milk (your choice on %, I used 1/4 cup whipping cream and 1 1/2 cups 2%)

Heat oil in a large skillet over high then add mushrooms.  Saute until browned (5-7 minutes).  Add onion, saute for another 3 minutes until you can see onion start to turn translucent, then add garlic and butter.  When garlic becomes fragrant, add stock, thyme, rosemary, oregano and pepper.  Cook until stock reduces almost out (about 5 minutes) and add flour and mix to coat mushrooms.  Add milk and stir with a wooden spoon to combine, being sure to scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Return to boil then reduce and heat to medium low stirring fairly frequently until thickens (about 3-4 minutes).

Remove vegetables from slow cooker (don't worry if you don't get then all) and add to mushroom soup.  Mix to coat veggies and pour back over chicken. Allow to cook about 2 more hours on low.  Serve with wild rice.

 

 

 

And comfort food strikes again.  Enjoy!

PS. This is even better the second night!

Sausage, Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna Rolls

I have seen these Lasagna roll ups here and there and decided I wanted to give them a try.  There are probably 200 different things you could fill them with, I just kind of used what I had. If you wanted to make them meatless, it would be really easy.  Or use white sauce instead of red.  Basically any way you make lasagna, you could roll instead of layer.  I was even thinking of making thanksgiving leftover lasagna roll ups.  Kam might explode with excitement over that one though....

Sausage, Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna Rolls
What you'll need:
8 Lasagna noodles cooked according to package (make 10 just in case one tears beyond repair)
1 package ground sausage (you could use ground beef, turkey or chicken too)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
4 cups fresh spinach
1 cup diced onion
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (remove most of the oil and chop into smaller pieces)
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup parmesan reggiano
2 cups pasta sauce (if I wasn't making this after work I would have made homemade, but I went the quick rout today)

Begin boiling water and cooking noodles.  In a large frying pan, cook sausage until no longer pink. Remove some of the fat leaving about a tablespoon. Add onions and saute until tender and translucent.  Add mushrooms, spinach, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, pepper and oregano and cook on medium low until most of the moisture is out of the spinach and mushrooms.  About 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Lay 3 or 4 noodles onto a glass cutting board (or your counter will work too).  Spread a small layer of the meat mixture over each noodle. Leave about 2 inches of noodle bare.  Spread about 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce over meat and a thin layer of mozzarella.  Now starting at the end of the noodle with meat, fold the noodle over a tiny bit and begin to roll the bare end which will be the bottom.  If you work slow and steady, you shouldn't loose too much filling out the sides of the rolls.  Now use a spatula to transfer the roll into the pan.  You should have room for 8 rolls in your pan.  Cover each roll with 2 or 3 tablespoons more sauce and remaining mozzerella and parmesan reggiano.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, removing foil for the last 10 minutes.

Love this flower pepper!  Love it!

This was a great dinner.  Lasagna with a different presentation.  They were even better the second day!  I think these would be really fun to serve guests.  Kam was my assistant for this one and when I have about half done rolling them, I asked him if he could do this.  He shook his head in a funny Kam way and said NO, No, no.  He was pretty stoked to eat them though! Enjoy!

Snow finally blanketed Spokane.  Now I hope we get 12 inches before Thanksgiving so we can go sledding at our friend's Eric and Julie's.  We are spending the beloved turkey day at their house this year, and they have THE BEST sledding hill!  Here is a photo of us from last year's sledding adventure.  We love them!

Happy saturday amigos!

Easy Chicken Marsala

We are back in business!  Despite the fact that I bought some sweet new knives and sliced the top of my finger, it felt so good to be busy in the kitchen.  This was the perfect meal to kick off the newly wed dinner menu.  Well, newly wed menu created to satisfy Kam.  I've never really made chicken marsala before, meals like it, but not the real thing. There is something about using wine in cooking, I think you could make a wine reduction sauce and eat it over cereal and it would be wonderful (kidding).  But seriously, if you haven't ventured into the wine in sauces world, its time.


What you'll need:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 8 tenders
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter (optional) 3 cups button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper


In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Season flour with salt and pepper, use a fork to sift together.  Coat each side of chicken with flour and place into skillet.  Brown each side and cook through, about 10-15 minutes.  If your chicken is a little thicker, don't turn up heat too high or you will burn the flour.  


Once chicken is cooked, remove from pan and set aside.  Don't clean pan, add butter and melt.  Add mushrooms and cook down for about 3 minutes.  Add wine and reduce to half.  Add chicken stock and reduce again to half or until a thicker sauce forms.  Add half and half and mix.  Reduce heat to low, add chicken back into pan and cook for about 3 more minutes or until sauce is desired thickness. Sprinkle with parsley. Remove from heat.  Serve over potatoes, rice or noodles.

We ate ours over a similar Rice Pilaf that I have made a few other times, and Orange Balsamic Glazed Beets which will be the following recipe.  Comfort food, Fall is in the air!  Enjoy!

Get Your Skewer On

At my house, you know its summer when I start poking sticks through food and cooking them on the bbq.  Tonight was the first kabob night, many many more to come.  I kept it simple, but also added a new ingredient to the kabob that I hadn't tried before.  Artichoke hearts.  No regrets.

What you'll need:

3 medium precooked sausages cut into 1 inch chunks(we had some smoked hot links from Costco)
1/4 onion cut in half
1 red pepper cut into large chunks
1 can artichoke hearts halved
10-12 small to medium button mushrooms (stems removed)
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

Once everything is cut up, grab 4 skewer sticks and start running them onto the stick.  I tried to start with either sausage or red pepper because they are the strongest once cooked.  Evenly distribute all the vegetables and sausage onto sticks.  Melt butter in the microwave.  Add oil, garlic, mustard, salt and pepper to butter.  Mix until combined.  Brush over skewers.  Place butter side down onto Preheated bbq over medium.  Cook for 5-8 minutes, then turn 1/4 turn.  Repeat until onions are down and everything is browed or slightly blacked on edges.  Eat straight off stick!

Dex checking out a run-a-way asparagus.  He left it where he found it.

What's not to love?  Food on a stick.  I had some fresh asparagus that need to be use so I cut the ends off and spread the same butter/garlic over those.  They only take about 5-7 minutes too cook turning once or twice.  Dinner for two, dinner of champs! Enjoy!

Sausage Mushroom Pizza

I don't know if I will ever go out for pizza again.  I think you can make better than most restaurant pizza at home, and its quick and easy!  One by one I am checking off places that I will go out to eat.  If we go to a place now that servers food that is pre portioned or comes of the the freezer and is simply heated, I feel like we wasted $30.  For instance, a few months ago we went to this place down town Spokane called Rock City Grill.  Seemed solid. I ordered fish tacos, my staple if its on any menu, and Kam wanted to try one of their pizzas.  My tacos we bland and everything was mushy, like it came from the freezer, but it "looked" pretty and Kam's pizza was, well, the California Pizza Kitchen frozen BBQ Chicken would have won a blue ribbon compared to what he was chewing on.  There are so few places that actually make their food, or at least some of it, and the more I keep exploring new ideas and things to make at home for blog posts, the choosier I get.  Like pizza.  Its so simple to make your own curst, and if you cook it on your barbeque, its so deliciously wonderful, that I don't think I will ever be without pizza dough on hand again.  


Is anyone else going through this with me?  Getting tired of paying out the nose for something you can make better at home.  I guess I just needed to rant.


Now about this pizza.  Sausage, Mushroom and Olive has been my favorite pizza as long as I can remember.  Sure, there are others that I love love, but this will always be my A-One!  So, we made it.


What you'll need:


Pizza Dough
1 packet dry active yeast or 1 1/2 tablespoons
1 cup warm water
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (oh yes!)


In a larger bowl stir together sugar and warm water and sprinkle yeast over top.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Add oil, salt, vinegar and 2 cups of the flour and mix until well combined and not lumpy.  Add remaining 2 cups flour and begin to kneed.  It will seem too dry, but just keep working it with your hands.  Remove from bowl and kneed on the counter for about 2 minutes.  Place dough ball into a greased bowl (I just used olive oil cooking spray) and cover.  Allow to rise for 90 minutes.  Dough will double in size.  Once doubled, punch center (best part!). Divide into 3 parts and form into balls. If you want a larger pizza divide into 2.  Roll and stretch dough into desired thickness.  Mine was about 14".  You can wrap the other dough balls in cling wrap and freeze for another day. 


Pizza

1 chunk mozzarella cheese (I'm finding that I don't buy the pre shredded anymore, but rather the ball and slice it.  The cheese is so much moister, but if you prefer pre shredded, go for it!)

1 sausage (I bought a smoked link out of the meat case at our grocery store, and barbecued it before slicing it into rounds.  You could use anything from your favorite brat to bulk sausage.  Just make sure what ever you use, you cook it first!)

1/2 cup onion diced

1 cup black olives sliced

4 or 5 button mushrooms sliced

Olive oil

Pizza sauce (I had some store bought left over from another pizza adventure, sometime I will make my own)

Cook sausage.  While your sausage is cooking, place a piece of tin foil in your bbq, on the upper rack if you have it, or off to the side. Lay your sliced mushrooms onto the foil.  This will dry them out and cook them slightly.  If you skip this step, your mushrooms with be almost completely uncooked by the time your crust is done.  Once sausage is done, allow to cool enough to slice.  Leave mushrooms on foil until ready to place them onto pizza.


Place a little olive oil in a small pan and saute your onions until translucent.  Set onions aside.  Slice your cheese, as much as you like, I used about a third of the chunk, set aside. Slice olives. Gather pizza sauce, and about 1/4 cup olive oil and a brush. Take everything out to the bbq.


Stretch dough into a 12-14 inch circle.  Brush one side with olive oil and place oil side down onto bbq on medium heat.  Rotate half a turn once half way. Keep your eye on it, once it begins to brown, bush top side with oil and flip.  Add sauce, toppings and cheese.  Move away from heat and allow cheese to melt.  Once cheese is melted (about 5 minutes) move back over heat.  It will take just a few more minutes to brown the bottom.  Gently slide onto a cutting board.  Turn off bbq.

I really like Kam's cutting action in this shot.

It was lovely.  We made a BBQ chicken pizza not to long ago too and used the peanut butter barbeque sauce, that turned out excellent.  Not sure why I didn't photograph it for a post.  Another day.  I do have to say that there is one place in Spokane I will go to for pizza. South Perry Pizza.  Its yummy!  And we went to this place called Waddell's last weekend, best wings we've ever had.  No lie. So there are good places, I guess I just have to find them.


Also, I'm sick right now, so if the posts seem a little infrequent, I'm still here.  Kam and I are nursing colds.  But I have cooked up an idea for a new series of posts, so stay tuned for that.  Enjoy!