For the requests, baccon chicken rounds

Hi guys. Been a long time. Due to the unexpected passing of my amazing, and sorely missed precious father-in-law, I not only haven't blogged, I haven't been really cooking, for any other reason than survival. Just this week, four of my 5 children (one my honorary foster) has started school. I find myself alone with just my toddler. I can keep the house clean, keep up on laundry, weed the gardens, and still feel like I an not getting much done. Then, a few days ago, I grabbed my favorite apron, and decided it was time for me to get my rear end back to the kitchen. Batches of breads, a blueberry pie, and baccon chicken rounds were the end result of that decision. After sharing a picture of the chicken, a few friends asked for the recipe. So, I'll share it here, as well.

Let's cook!

Ingredients
4-6 chicken breasts
16 slices of baccon
Minced garlic
6-10 Tbs greated parmesan
1/2 white onion or a large shallot

Fold plastic wrap over each chicken breast.

I like to use large pieces so as the chicken spreads out, it doesn't get uncovered.

My meat mallot mysteriously disappeared, so I used an old rolling pin to pound the chicken breasts as thin as possible.

In between thinning the chicken, cook the baccon until cooked, but don't crisp it up, it will need to bend later!

And of course, drain the baccon on a paper towel, so we can pretend we are removing enough grease to say its not as fattening. But be sure to save the baccon drippings in the pan. You'll need them two more times.

Slice onion/shallot and sautee in the reserved baccon grease. Open plastic and lay 2-2 1/2 slices of baccon on the widest side of chicken breast. Add a bit of minced garlic, some sauteed onion/shallot, and greated parmesan.

Using the plastic wrap to help, roll the chicken up around the baccon like a burrito.

Use a toothpick or two to secure the chicken roll, and seal and brown all sides in the baccon grease. Place in a 300 degree oven. Bake about 20 minutes, until chicken breasts are cooked through.

Boil up your favorite pasta, while the chicken bakes. I found a really wonderful multi-grain corkscrew pasta for this.

In the baccon pan, I warmed a spaghetti sauce and crumbled up remaining baccon to add to sauce.

When chicken is fully cooked remove from oven and allow to rest about 5 minutes.

Lay each chicken roll on a cutting board, and cut into 1" rounds.

Lay over pasta. Today, we used my 2year olds plastic plate for the pictures. No idea why...

Smother with sauce. Alfredo, marinara, spaghetti, or white wine sauce all work.

top with more greated parmesan, and serve with garlic bread, and something green and crisp!
Lastly, please enjoy. It feels good to be back in the kitchen. It's been about a month, and now I feel I'm slowly finding myself again, after the loss of my best friend. Next few post, one will have my father-in-laws famous bbq marinade. Look for it. I hope to see you soon. There is a comment box below, feel free to ask questions, give feedback, or just say hi!

orchard chicken salad

No soggy, mushy limp salads for us! You know what I mean, the kind of egg, tuna, or chicken salad the is just a small amount of mostly mayo flavor. There it sits. The only way to add any texture was to slip a pixels of lettuce in, and hope for a touch of crunch.

I love chicken. It's so diverse. You can do anything with chicken, add anything to it, and cook it 100 different ways. So, I was bored a few months ago. We were painting the house, and it was so hot. I didn't want to heat up the house. I put my paint roller and brush in a bag, and told my hubby I was going to make dinner.

I looked at the hams, steaks, and even the seafood we had just had delivered. Nothing looked good. Then I saw the apples, and celery. Now that I can use. We are getting somewhere. I grabbed a few fresh veggies, a few strips of baccon, and the package of chicken breasts. Let's make a chicken salad, but one with life, color, and texture!
Are you with me? Good, let's cook!

I started some water boiling for the chicken, and tossed a few slices of baccon in the frying pan, while I chopped, and chopped, and did I mention chopped?

This is one of those recipes where you need to have a slap chopper. It isn't quiet, but its quick and effective.

Chop up two apples, add a few cups raisins. Then dice up your boiled chicken breast and crumble your baccon into your bowl.

Add your favorites. Anything goes. One small red onion, one green bell pepper, celery, heck, why not add a bit of pineapple if you want?

Add 3 Tbs of Italian dressing and 3 Tbs of ranch. Salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, sky's the limit here, it is your chicken salad!

Add garlic powder. We are so blessed here in town. There is this older Italian gentlemen, who roasted, smokes, dries, and grinder garlic. That's all he does is garlic powder. He only charges $3.00 for his unbelievable aromatic, heavenly concoction. I have to sprinkle this into all my cooking. Oh the smell!!!! Here, I'll get it closer, can you smell that!!! It's amazing, right?

I ran out to the garden and grabbed a few spring onions, dice and chop...

At this point all your ingredients are in. I make my own mayo, so I don't like to leave it on the counter long. Add a small bit, and stir with a fork. Add until you have the consistency you desire, and either serve on warm rolls, or chill for a few hours to allow flavors to marry. I prefer it warm and fresh, but it is very good the next day too.

Here's a peak at this salad, on a Buttery buttermilk roll. Oh what a combination!! Serve with a green salad, or a cranberry salad, or maybe some sliced fruit. I think it is absolutely perfect with a cranberry orange walnut salsa, but y'all have to wait for that post!!!
Happy chopping!!!

Stuffed lasagna pastry

Do any of you go to Strings Italian Cafe? I fell in love with their salad 12 years ago. I just love it. They have another enticing item on their menu, the whole family likes. I decided one day to figure out how to make it at home, and after only two tries, it worked. It is a lasagna stuffed pastry.

First, make your family favorite lasagna, and save the leftovers in the fridge. Wait two days, so it dries up a little bit. Then all you'll need is to make puff pastry dough, or purchase it in the freezer section of your grocer. I haven't mastered puff pastry dough, so I still buy mine! You will also need a bit of marinaria and alfreado sauce, an egg, and some garlic powder. Ready? Let's cook!

Cut out as many squares of lasagna as you will need. Then cut your pastry dough to about double the size of your piece of lasagna.

Place the lasagna in the center of your dough square and seal up the sides and bottom, tucking and pinching until the whole thing is a ball with no openings.

Place on a baking sheet with the seams down. Cut two vents into the top of your pastry. Soak garlic powder into an egg white, and brush onto the entire pastry.

Follow baking instructions on the package of the puff pastry, or bake at 350 until completely golden brown. Place hot pastry on a plate, and pour alfreado on one side, and marinaria on the other. Serve with a crisp green salad! Enjoy and happy cooking!

Buttery buttermilk rolls

Alright, we made all that wonderful butter, and got the buttermilk as a bonus, let's use it!! These dinner rolls are stop and say *wow* good. Great with pastas and bbq's, and really delicious as a sandwhich roll. It is a very simple recipe, but a bit time consuming. And every bite well worth it! Now, let's bake!!

Measure out your dry ingredients.

When you add your buttermilk, bring it to room temp or about 110d

Mix well and knead about 5 minutes.
Cover with cheese cloth and allow to rise until about doubled in size. Here is where its starts to take time. You need to knead, again. About 5 minutes, again. And let it rise until doubled in size....you guessed it, again.

Punch the dough down, and then roll it out to a rectangular slab, about 1 1/2 inch thick.

Now to cut out your rolls. I use a tumbler from our wedding set, cuz it gives me perfect 3" diameter circles.

Melt 1/2 cup butter. Brush the top of each roll with lots of butter.

Fold each roll in half, over the butter pinching the edges to seal.

When you have finished buttering, folding, and sealing all of your rolls, take a breath.

Lay them on a baking sheet, and walk away. That's right, they need to rise, again. This time they only need to rise about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 and bake 20-22 minutes.

The moment they are out, brush all over the top with lots and lots of melted butter.

Serve warm with dinner, or store in air tight container or bag AFTER completely cooled, to use as sandwhich tools.

Either way, enjoy these delicious rolls. Keep your eyes peeled for the most amazing chicken salad, its fabulous on these rolls!

Your ingredients are;
1 cup milk or buttermilk
2 pkg. dry yeast 4-41/2 tsp
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 to 1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
more melted butter

Happy baking!

Butter

Okay, I'll admit an addiction in our family. While most people will readily admit to a sweet tooth, I have a savory tooth! The saltier, butteryier, the better! So, as a first post we will start with a foundational ingredient. It's pretty, smells wonderful, its creamy...its butter.

At over $3.50 a lb in stores, for butter that's been handled who knows how, and salted to different levels, I really got sick of wasting my money on it. We use a lot of butter. A sweet sister on mjf suggested I make my own a simplier way than with an old fashioned churn. This has saved my an amazing amount of time, and the results are fantastic, and the butter, delicious!!



I do try to watch for sales on whipping cream, but dairy doesn't go on special often. The cheapest places I've found it so far are Costco and Winco.

You need to let the whipping cream at least come to room temp, but its even better if you can let it sour a bit before you make your butter.

It's so easy!! To begin, all you need is a food processor, two containers, and salt if you want salted butter. Simply poor whipping cream to max liquid mark on your processor, and go! The length of time you need to whip changes. It's all determined by weather it is sour, what the date is on the carton, and what temp it is. Whip until you see it separate, and bits of butter swirling around. Watch closely at this point...as soon as these bits start to clump together, stop the machine.

Take the lid off, and the blade out. Starting at the center, use a rubber spatial and push the solid butter up and around the sides, essentially packing the butter, and wringing the buttermilk out. Pour off the buttermilk into one of your containers, to use for baking or drinking! Push the butter back down off the walls of the processor and replace blade. Sprinkle salt to taste, and give it a quick whirl to distribute the salt.

I put about 3/4 of the butter into a shallow tuperware bowl, and chill. Once set, I slice into three equal sticks of butter, and wrap them in waxpaper. The last 1/4 of butter stays in the processor for one more quick spin. I add 1/2 tsp of olive oil to the butter, and whip it in. This butter is spreadable right out of the fridge. I put this on a airtight container, and toss it in the fridge.

The more you do this, the better each batch turns out. If you stop too soon, the butter isn't as creamy, and you will not get as high a yeld. If you process too long, you will cream the buttermilk back into the butter. The taste is amazing. And for about $3.00 you have a lb of butter, about 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, and a bit of whipping cream left to toss in the processor with powered sugar, and make your own whipped cream.

Once you get it down, you'll never go back to storebought again.
Better baking days to all from this Fried Okie!