Chicken Casserole / Random Recipe Challenge #22

For this months challenge Dom at Belleau Kitchen had us count our cookbooks to our random birthday number. What ever the number is that's the cookbook you'll cook from. My number is 16 and my count happened to land on Sally Bee once again. I haven't got quite a large selection of books as of yet so I might be going through similar books for the challenges from time to time. The best thing about Dom's challenges are the fact that I get to open my book on a random page and challenge myself to prepare dishes I haven't made before. So, the random page I ended up with was Chicken Casserole. I haven't made chicken casserole just eaten them, so this was exciting because I've always wanted to learn how. I'm sure that there are hundreds of version but for now this is Sally's version. It turned out really well, wasn't greasy at all and it felt light in the stomach and comforting for the cold weather. It was tasty and not salty. I did follow her method and had the exact ingredients, mine turned out to be more like a chicken soup rather than a casserole. I don't know what happened there. The family enjoyed it so this is worth a try..

...here's that beautiful rainbow my darling daughter took a photo of from inside our car..

Ingredients

2 tbsp plain flour
freshly ground peeper
sprinkling of dried mixed herbs
4-6 skinless chicken breast portions cut into chunks
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 rashers (slices) very lean bacon cut into cubes
225g/8oz shallots peeled and halved if large
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 courgettes sliced
1 red and 1 green bell pepper deseeded and sliced
300ml/10fl oz/1 1/4 cups white wine (alcohol will burn off during cooking)

*if you prefer this dish without the wine add more stock or non alcoholic grapejuice.

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas mark 3. Mix the plain flour with some black pepper and dried mixture herbs in a large bowl, dust the chicken breast in the flour and set aside. Reserve some flour for the sauce.

Over medium heat add the olive oil in a large lidded flameproof casserole dish. Add the chicken and bacon and fry until golden. Add the shallots and garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add all the remaining ingredients - the peppers, courgettes, stock and wine. Stir in the reserved flour to add thickness to the sauce. Cover and cook in the oven for about 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is nice and tender.

Serves 4

Glazed Pecans

Pecans are such a nice addition to breads, salads, etc. I buy them at the supermarket glazed. I decided to make my own glazed pecans the other day and I added them to my salad. I just love the sweet, savoury and sharp combination in a salad. This was quite easy to make as well. I only had 1/2 a cup of pecans so my measurements are for that amount of pecans. You can double it up and garnish what ever you like or munch on it by itself. Perfect as a gift as well : )

Ingredients

1/2 cup pecans
1/2 tablespoon butter
1/2 tablespoon dark brown sugar (you can use golden brown sugar)
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup

Method

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine butter, brown sugar, maple syrup in a small saucepan over low heat. Once butter and sugar's melted add the pecans. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until pecans are coated. Remove from heat and line baking tray with parchment paper. Transfer pecans to baking tray and cook in the oven for 7 minutes. Let stand to cool for 25 minutes. Can be stored in a tight container up to 2 weeks. When giving as a gift write the use by date. : ) Enjoy!

Lemon Polenta/Cornmeal Cake Random Recipe Challenge #21

For this months Random Recipe Challenge over at Dom's Belleau Kitchen it's store cupboard finds. We're to use or find something in our cupboard/pantry that's been neglected that should've been used or cooked ages ago. What a fun and wonderful challenge this is. What I found lurking in the back of my pantry was a package of cornmeal that I purchased a year ago because I wanted to make my first cornbread for Thanksgiving. That didn't happen I went with a store bought bread rolls instead. So the cornmeal's been sitting there for a year now and fortunately it hasn't expired.

I flipped through my cookbooks and found a nice recipe from Nigella, a Lemon Polenta Cake. You can substitute the polenta with cornmeal which is what I did, Yay!

I had a bit of trouble turning it onto the plate it broke a little....

This cake's so delicious you can have it anytime of day. We were going to have it after dinner for dessert and that didn't happen. We ate it first then dinner, lol. We drizzled lemon syrup over it which made it softer, sticky and tangy-much more lemony. The syrup was another recipe that went along with the cake.

Ingredients

For the cake

1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
1 cup superfine sugar
2 cups almond meal/flour
3/4 cup fine polenta/cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)

For the syrup

juice 2 lemons
heaping 1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 x 9-inch springform pan

Method

Line the base of your cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer. My son and I used the wooden spoon method.

Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs.

Beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.

Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and icing sugar in a small saucepan. Once the icing sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.

October Final Round Up

Spaghetti Pasta With Zucchini, Cherry Tomatoes, Feta and Parmesan Cheese

While a lot of places are beginning to feel the Autumn season sorting out their closest for their cozy sweaters, scarves and boots, It's still summer here. I can't wait for it to start getting cooler. That's when I love being outdoors with my babies going for a walk. People are still wearing their tank tops and shorts around here and there's no sign of cooler weather anytime soon.

Last night I put together something very quick and summery for dinner with the help of my sweet boy of course. I don't know what I'll do without him when he starts going to school. Anyway, this recipe is pretty much one of those "Add as much as you want or need" so there's no fuss and measurements.

Since I started learning how to cook, bake, read more and more cookbooks, learning more about ingredients such as herbs, spices, oils, and vinegars. I am now even more excited about cooking, baking and experimenting. My son shaved the parmesan cheese it looks like he really enjoyed it : ) There was so much of it on the plate...lol.

Kiddies and I took this photo while we went out for a quick walk after dinner and saw this cloud over at the other neighbourhood. It was about 7pm and it wasn't quite dark yet. It looks much more amazing seeing it in person.

Ingredients

1/2 a box of spaghetti
salt
4 zucchinis/corguettes
some cherry tomatoes
lemen
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
feta cheese
fresh parmesan cheese

Method

Place the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling water add some salt to the water, cook time suggested on the box. While the pasta's boiling crush the garlic with the flat side of the knife and slice the zucchinis. Sauté the garlic and zucchinis in a pan with olive oil on medium low heat until the zucchinis are soft and translucent. Drain the pasta and keep a 1 cup of water from pot it was cooked in. Keep the water if the pasta gets a little dry add a tad bit. Mix the pasta, zucchinis, cherry tomatoes, drizzle of olive oil, squeeze a wedge of lemon or as much as you want in a large bowl. Top it off with feta and shredded parmesan cheese....Yummm


TTFN!

Oven Baked Banana Boat

There hasn't been much cooking in the kitchen lately. Cold and Allergies have arrived and I've been taking care of the family so in other word I haven't had much rest. Been up most of the night with very little sleep and up very early to get daughter off to school. Mummy's don't get to rest...

Anyway, I've made this with the kiddies 2 months ago and didn't get to post it. They wanted to roast some smores. We had the chocolates and the marshmallows except for the graham crackers. What we did have was some bananas. I remember watching pioneer woman's episode when they made a banana boat while camping so we did that instead. It's really quite easy....

This is my sweet boy's boat. After I've finished slicing the banana through the center not going all the way through, he stuffed it with dark chocolate morsels and marshmallows.

This one's his sissy's, you basically add how much you want really or whatever you like in it. Like peanut butter, peppermint, caramel and so on.

Wrap them in aluminum foil and bake at 350F for about 10 minutes. Get your spoon ready and enjoy! I don't have a photo after it was baked kiddos were too excited to eat them! : )