Cooking with KP

Sweet and Savory Garlic Chicken

This is a quick and amazingly delicious way to cook chicken. The chicken turns out moist and well-seasoned. They will come back for seconds.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs

3 Tablespoons of olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced (6 tsp. pre-minced)

4 Tablespoons of brown sugar

½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

¼ teaspoon of smoky paprika

1 Tablespoon butter
Seasoned salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle both sides of chicken pieces with seasoned salt. Use the tablespoon of butter to fully coat the bottom and sides of an oblong baking dish. In a small skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat and add garlic. Saute for 4-5 minutes or until garlic is just beginning to brown. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Add brown sugar, paprika, and pepper. Mixture will be thick or paste-like Place chicken cut side down in baking dish and brush/spoon mixture on tops of chicken to fully coat the tops. Bake for 25-30 minutes until chicken reaches 165 degrees and juices run clean. Turn on broiler and broil for 2-4 minutes.

Yam Patties

When my daughter was younger, the only way she would eat sweet potatoes is if I prepared them this way. This a great side dish. It provided just enough sweetness to balance a savory meal.

8 frozen pre-made sweet potato patties

1/3 cup brown sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. ground ginger

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper (yes, pepper)

2 Tablespoons honey

5 Tablespoons softened butter

¼ cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, pepper, honey, and butter in the bottom of a casserole pan or cask iron skillet. Lay sweet potato patties on top of the mixture. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully turn over the patties. (If using pecans, sprinkle the pecans on top of the patties and spoon a little of the buttery mixture at the bottom of the pan on the top of the pecans.) Return to oven and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Flaky Cheddar Biscuits

I found this recipe online at BAKERMAMA and it is wonderful. The key is the buttermilk!

With just 5 ingredients and 15 minutes you are going to bake the flakiest, butteriest, cheddar biscuits you'll ever eat!

This recipe makes 12 biscuits.

2 cups self-rising flour

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

½ cup + 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, divided

1 cup lowfat buttermilk

2 cups sharp cheddar shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 450°F. Butter a large baking sheet or round baking pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar. Cut in ½ cup (1 stick or 8 tablespoons) cold butter with a pastry blender or two knives in opposite directions. Add the buttermilk and stir with a sturdy spoon until well combined. Add the cheese and fold it in with the spoon and then your hands until well distributed throughout the dough.

Flatten the dough out to ½-inch thickness on a floured surface. Fold in half and then in half again and flatten back out to ½-inch thickness. Repeat the folding process at least three times to help create all those flaky layers when the biscuits are baked.

Cut dough into rounds with a 2-1/2 inch round dough cutter. Place biscuits about an inch apart in the buttered baking pan/sheet. Gather, press out and cut any remaining dough until all the dough has been formed into biscuits. You should have about 12 biscuits total.

Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter. Brush each biscuit with the melted butter.

Bake for 15 minutes or until biscuits have risen and are starting to turn a light brown on top.

You can toss in some garlic powder, parsley flakes/finely chopped chives, and cracked pepper for a spicy biscuit that is amazing as well.

Crock Pot White Beans and Ham

I enjoy red beans, but honestly, navy beans or Great Northern beans are my favorites. I enjoy cooking them in my crock pot, especially on laundry days. Although my mother cooked hers on the stove top, she is the person who taught me this wonderful recipe. In her traveling as a military wife, a woman that my mom rented a house from taught her to use the nutmeg with white beans and she always add just a small amount to her beans.
1 pound of white beans/navy beans, rinsed and sorted
1 32 oz. box beef broth (this makes it taste so much better than just water)
2-3 cups of water (use two cups if you like a thicker broth/ 3 cups if you want thin broth)
1 large onion, diced
1 medium green pepper,diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
3-4 green onions, diced
3 T. parsley flakes
2 large bay leaves
1 T. garlic powder
1/2 T. black pepper ( I like pepper-feel free to reduce to your taste)
1/2 T. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (yes, nutmeg!)
1 ham bone or two ham hocks
1 cup diced ham
6 slices of bacon cut into 1-inch pieces (do not fry)
YOU CAN ADD SOME SAUSAGE TO THIS RECIPE IF YOU WANT MORE MEAT IN THE DISH.

Put all items in the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Twenty minutes prior to serving if your ham hocks haven't fallen apart, remove from crock pot and shred the meat from them and return them to the pot until ready to serve. Serve with white or brown rice. The beef broth works magic in the area of flavor.

Pickled Red Onion Cole Slaw

Whenever you have a lot of red onion left over, try pickling it. Pickled red onion is great in salads,
on burger, tacos, and we like it with white beans. You must have pickled red onions for this slaw recipe, so the first party is for pickling red onions.

Quick Pickled Red Onions:

1 large glass jar with tight lid or a bowl with a very tight lid
1 large red onion or two medium ones, sliced thin
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of hot water
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch of red pepper flakes

Place onion slices in jar. In a large measure cup or bowl whisk together all other ingredients. Pour over onion. Let hot water reach room temperature. Put lid on jar or bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. I prefer overnight refrigeration.

Slaw
1 16 ounce bag of cole slaw mix
1/2 cup diced pickled red onions
1/4 cup pickling juice from red onions
1/2 cup Canola oil or Olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
juice of one lime

Put cole slaw mix and red onions in a large bowl. In a small mixing bowl whisk all other ingredients and pour over slaw and onion. Toss well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes prior to serving. I like to let it sit in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Panettone Bread Pudding with Lemon Sauce

One of my favorite family traditions was sitting with my mother, drinking some hot tea or coffee and eating slices of Panettone bread with a little cream cheese or butter spread on it. Every Christmas I am sure you see yellow boxes of Bauducco Panettone in the grocery and big box stores. It is a wonderfully moist sweet bread or specialty cake filled with raisins and fruit. If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it. Don't think it is just another fruit cake; it is a not. It is great without anything on it, it is great sliced into French toast, and it is great as a bread pudding.

1 pound Panettone bread, wrapper removed and sliced into 1 inch cubes

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cup whole milk

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 Tablespoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the sides and bottom of 9x12 baking pan with butter. Place the cubes of bread in the pan. In a large mixing bowl, add the four eggs and whisk them well. Then add all other ingredients and whisk for about 3 minutes. Pour over bread cubes and mash down with spatula to help the bread begin soaking up the liquid. Let pan set on counter for 5-10 minutes. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Remove from oven. If the bread pudding has risen in the middle, it is ok. It will come to rest evenly.

While the pudding is baking, make your sauce

1 egg, well beaten

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, not margarine

1/4 cup water

3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Put all ingredients in saucepan over medium high heat. Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to stir boiling mixture for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let rest 2-5 minutes prior to drizzling over the top of the bread pudding.

Asparagus and Green Bean Casserole

Here is a great side dish for family meals, pot lucks, and just because you want some.

1 10 ounce package of frozen asparagus, thawed
1 can of green beans, drained
1 can of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
1 Tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic power
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup shredded mild cheddar, divided into 1/2 parts
1/2 stick butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 casserole dish. In a mixing bowl, mix asparagus. (If you get full/long spears, cut them into 3 sections each), green beans, soup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, pepper and 1/2 cup of cheese. Pour into casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle bread crumbs on top and dot with cubes of butter. Bake for 10 more minutes.

Cheaper Cuts of Beef Don't Have To Be Tough

Most people avoid the cheaper cuts of beef because they tend to be tough. With 8 children and three adults in our home, my mother had to find ways to tenderize the cheaper cuts of beef. One way to cook "down", as my mother used to say, a tough cut of beef steak is to season both sides of the steak with garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper. Lightly brown the steak in a large skillet and on top add a diced green bell pepper, medium onion, a bay leaf, parsley flakes, a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce, and a can of diced tomatoes. Cover with lid. Let the steak simmer for 30-50 minutes. Remove lid and thicken juices by cooking 5-10 more minutes. You can also do the same with a cheap beef roast in a crock pot. Add all the ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. The flavor is simple, amazing and great with mashed potatoes.

Fall Vegetables for a Healthy You

As the fall approaches, we will all start to stay indoors more hours. This will lessen our vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, and K, which are enhanced by sunlight. Below are a few vegetables you might want to increase in your diet as the fall and later winter days approach. Besides, they are very tasty. In fact, in the next few weeks, I will be posting recipes that incorporate many of these delicious veggies.

Sweet potatoes and yams are very rich in carotenoids, vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, iron and fiber and are delicious when baked and eaten plain (without butter) or used in soups, casseroles or stir-fries.

Bell peppers are great sources of potassium, manganese, fiber and vitamins A, B, C and K. These sweet peppers are flavorful additions to salads and healthy stir-fries. You can choose from a rainbow of colors, including: green peppers,yellow peppers, orange peppers,and red peppers.

Summer and winter squash are rich in carotenoids, vitamins A and C, potassium, magnesium and fiber and can be served alone or added to many dishes.

Just a few tips for you...

Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato- based sauces. No more stains!

Use lifesavers candy to hold candles in place on your next birthday cake! Kids love them.

Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugarcone to prevent ice cream drips!

Zap garlic cloves in the microwave for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off!

If your celery begins to wilt in the fridge, fill a large cup half full of water and place celery in the cup. Put back in the fridge for two hours--it will be crisp. (Learned this from my mother).

Cooking Myth Busted

A Potato Can Save a Salty Soup or Stew. True or False? False. "This is an attractive idea, but it doesn't work because potatoes are not particularly absorbent," says Wolke, who conducted his own soup-and-potato experiment for his Cooking Myth Busters book. "There is no reason they would attract salt." If you remove the raw potato from the soup, the potato will taste salty, but so would a sponge — it has simply soaked up some of the salty liquid. Still, there is hope for salty stews: Adding a bit of vinegar or sugar can "cancel out" the saltiness by giving your taste buds competing flavors.

Super Moist Turkey

If you are looking for a way to get a moist turkey, you might try one of these family hints:

1--bake the turkey upside down--breast down for the first half of the cooking time. It will help the darker meat cook more thoroughly and the fatty juices of the darker meat will drip down to the breast and add moistness. Use a deep roasting pan for this.

2--bake the turkey with the breast up, but rub it with butter, garlic powder and pepper only. Do not salt the skin. Instead, mix salt in a cup of warm water and pour that cup of salted warm-not hot-water inside the cavity of the turkey. The salt water will steam up into the turkey, making it very moist.

3. bake the turkey with the breast up and slice two lemons and one orange in halves. Place the halves inside the seasoned turkey and the juices will steam into the meat, adding moisture and flavor.

Hint of the Week

Here is something I learned from my wonderful Mother, the greatest cook I have ever known. When you have just a small serving of cooked vegetables leftover from dinner, don't throw them away. Keep a large plastic container in the freezer and put the vegetables in the container. Mix them--carrots, corn, green beans, broccoli, etc. When the container is full make a pot of soup or stew. Also, if a recipe calls for 1/2 a chopped onion, chop the whole onion and add the half to the freezer container. My mother made the best vegetable soups from this idea.

Hint for the Week

With Fourth of July quickly approaching, you might be thinking of making Deviled Eggs. If you want perfectly boiled eggs, place eggs in a large pot and completely cover with cold water. Do not layer eggs on top of one another. Bring water to a rapid boil for 2 minutes, reduce to simmer and let eggs simmer 8 minutes, return to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and empty hot water and fill pot with cold water. Let sit for 5 minutes. To peel easily, slightly crush shell in your fist and roll on counter with a firm grip. Of course, you don't want to push through the egg, but by making the shell crack in many small pieces, it is easier to peel. My father saw this on a cooking show years ago and taught me this. It truly works.