"The Experiment"

Ok, I should come up with something better than "the experiment"... but I don't know what to call this. People's comments pretty much confirmed what I suspected. People still check this blog, whenever it's updated, and people are using (some) of the recipes. Believe me, I know what it's like to get stuck in a rut... you make the same 15 things over and over, right? That was the whole point of starting this blog, to get new ideas. Anyways, onto my idea...

Each person who wants to participate takes one week and posts what they ate that week (dinner only). You can do it one of 3 ways: plan ahead and post what you are planning to eat; post as you go along; or wait till the end of the week, and post then. If it's something that seems fairly obvious, like lasagna, then just write what you had, no need for a recipe. Is this making sense?

So, for example, say I had last week. I'd post the list of what we ate (below) and then post all the recipes (one per post).

Monday- lasagna

Tuesday - chicken enchiladas (something I've already posted)

Wednesday - sloppy joes

Thursday - poppyseed chicken

Friday - pizza

(I'm just making this up, so I'm not posting the actual recipes)

If it's something you've already posted, make it a link. If it's a new recipe, then make it into a new post. You'll be responsible for posting 5 recipes for that one week. So when you're all done, you should have at least 6 posts.

I don't know, I'm hoping this works. It would give us all some new ideas, and see what other people are making for dinner. If possible, write what you served with it (rice, salad, rolls, veggies, etc.)

Does this all make sense? If yes, I'll post weeks and people can pick which one they want.

Questions? Comments?

Who's In... ?

Ok, I have an idea that I thought we could do on this blog. But first I want to know... who regularly checks this blog? Not nearly as many people contribute compared to those who read it (I think). So what I'm wondering is this:

Do you check the blog?

Would you be willing to participate in a little experiment?

Leave a comment... :)

7-Up Chicken-Dutchoven turned oven recipe.

Got this awesome recipe from my Aunt Verla years ago and my Mom figured out how to do it in the oven.  Easily a family favorite, Home style meal.

Makes a lot, so you may want to half it.  Serves 8-10 depending on how much chicken you want.

Basic ingredients: 

1/2-1 pound bacon

little flour

8 chicken breast or 12 thighs

Lawry's seasoning salt

Garlic powder

pepper

Carrots 

potatoes

onions

1 can of 7-UP

Butter/margarine

Fry up bacon.  I cut mine before with my kitchen shears to make it easier. 

Then  place your bacon in the roasting pan.  Save the bacon grease to brown your chicken.

Flour your chicken breast and then pan fry them in the bacon grease.  Add more oil if needed.

Then placed browned chicken breasts  in roasting pan.  Season LIBERALLY with Lawry's seasoning salt, garlic powder, and pepper.  This is where it gets most of the flavor.  I do it over board and then do some more.  You can always add it later in your cooking if it isn't flavorful enough for you.

I just use baby carrots so I don't have to cut them.  (I go for easy) And then I quarter a large onion when I'm making a half batch, but quantities all depend on your own preference of vegetables.

Then I peel the potatoes and throw them through my Bosch food processor french fry cutter (Love my Bosch)  A whole post in itself I'm telling you!!

Add 1 cube of butter/margarine, 1 cup of water, a can of 7-up and into the oven at 350 degrees.  Now depending on the size of your potatoes it can take between almost 1.5-2.5 hours .  With my potatoes cut like this 1.5 hours is usually sufficient.  If you are still in a dutch oven, it cooks over hot coals for about 45 minutes -1 hour. 

NOTE: this is not a meal that freezes well for later,unless you removed some for freezing before all the vegetables are done.  Otherwise you loose all the texture once you freeze it.  I suggest just halving and eating leftovers for a small family.

Spudnuts

For the Saturday night LDS General Priesthood session, my family's tradition is to get together after the session, make homemade spudnuts, and talk about what the boys learned. This is one of my favorite traditions and I look forward to it, twice a year. I love it partly cause we get to eat donuts (yum!) but I love the family together time. So I'm posting our family recipe for homemade spudnuts. Even Cory (who doesn't love donuts) thinks these are delicious.

It makes A LOT, which is why we usually only do half a batch.

Full Recipe ½ Recipe

1 cup shortening ½ cup

2 yeast cakes 1 yeast cake

5 eggs 3 small eggs

1 cup sugar ½ cup

2 cup mashed potatoes 1 cup

4 cup lukewarm milk 2 cups

1 T. salt 1 ½ t.

10 – 12 cups flour 5 – 6 cups

Scald milk with shortening, sugar and salt. Pour into big mixing bowl and let cool to lukewarm. Add yeast and let soften. Add beaten eggs and enough flour to make a thin batter. Add mashed potatoes and enough flour to make a soft dough. Let rise till double in size. Roll out and cut, then rise again before frying. Fry in hot grease and dip in glaze.

Glaze

Full Recipe ½ Recipe

1 (2#) package powdered sugar ½ (2# bag) powdered sugar

1 cube butter ½ cube butter

4 T. vanilla 2 T. vanilla

Enough hot water to make thin Enough water to make thin

Island Pork Tenderloin with Coconut Rice

This was taken from my sister's blog: ldssuperchef.blogspot.com. She's an amazing cook and this is one of my favorite recipe's that she makes!!


Island Port Tenderloin

2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 pork tenderloins (2-2.5 pounds)
2 TBSP olive oil
1 cup packed dark brown sugar (this is different than regular brown sugar)
2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 Tbsp tobasco sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make spice rub with first 5 ingredients.
Rub all over pork (you dont need to trim the pork). Heat oil in a pan (I use a deep pot). Then barely brown the pork (just the outside part...the pork will still be raw).
Put sugar, garlic, and tobasco in bowl then pat into pork. Rub it all over.
Place in a baking dish and place it in the oven for 30 minutes or until pork is not pink in the middle. When done slice the meat and pour juices over the cut meat.

Coconut Rice

1 cup jasmine rice (uncooked)
1 can coconut milk (should be in ethnic isle of grocery store)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk

Rinse rice with cold water until water runs clear.
Add all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat to low. Cover and cook 25-30 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes--do not let it over boil or you will end up with a sticky mess all over your stove. Serve warm along with the pork tenderloin.

Sloppy Chicken

This is much like many chicken crockpot dishes out there. But somehow this was so stinking easy (I made it while on bed rest) and really, REALLY yummy.

Into the crockpot, toss:

2 chicken breasts (I threw mine in frozen 'cause I hadn't planned ahead)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Cook on low for 5-6 hours, stirring once in a while (I think I remembered once, maybe twice). We pulled the chicken into lots of pieces (basically shredded it) and served all of it over rice.

I had low expectations for the Ritz -- I thought they would turn into gross mush. But they dissolved entirely into the mixture -- you wouldn't even know they were there. Yet I swear they did something for the overall texture and taste. Delicious.

Strawberry cream muffins (or raspberry)

 Strawberry Cream Muffins (or Raspberry)-

Taste of Home cupcakes and Muffin magazine

submitted by Stephanie Moon-Nampa ID.

This recipe is awesome, just a slight change that we did, but they were so tasty.  The best from scratch muffin I've ever had.  So delicious that they almost could pass for a cupcake!!

1c. fresh raspberries (we used strawberries diced small)

¾ c sugar (we used 1 c.)

¼ c. butter softened

1 egg

½ tsp almond extract

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 ¼ c flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 c. half and half

1 c. finely chopped vanilla or white choc chips

Streusel

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp sugar

In a small bowl toss raspberries/ diced strawberries with ¼ c. (we did a ½c. from looking at other fruit muffin recipes) sugar; set aside. 

In large mixing bowl cream butter and other ½ c sugar. Beat in egg and extracts.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt: or just add to cream mixture alternately with cream.  Stir in chips (we put them in my little chopper so they were very small) and reserved fruit.

This is after I had 12 muffin in tins.

Fill greased or paper filled muffin tins ¾ full-full.  Combine the brown sugar and remaining sugar and sprinkle on top for the streusel.  

Bake 375 for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes and then remove to wire rack.  Make 12-16 muffins. 

Can't wait to make these again!