Flaming Pears

I thought I saw this recipe in a cookbook, but then I couldn't find it. So I kind of winged it.

For this, I used:
About 1 lb pears, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp organic butter
2 tbsp organic sugar
rum

1. Melt butter in skillet.
2. Add pears and sprinkle with sugar.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pears are soft and liquid has evaporated, 10-20 minutes.
4.  Pour rum over pears, light on fire, and let the alcohol burn off.
5. Serve while hot, with ice cream or cream.

One Pot Chicken Rice Soup

I know this isn't a very Christmasy meal, but my husband and I both got a cold this week, so when my mother in law said she didn't have dinner plans, I offered to cook. When I looked up chicken rice soup recipes on Pinterest, they all had cooked chicken. Which is fine....if you have some leftover cooked chicken. But we didn't. And who wants to go through cooking the chicken separately, and the rice, and then adding it to the soup (when you're already sick and feeling like a soggy tissue)?

So I tried making it all in one pot.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices

2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

2 quarts water

1 cup brown rice

2 lb package of chicken (I used legs & thighs, but breasts would be fine, too).

1 bag frozen peas

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Instructions:

1. In a large pot, add water, chicken, and rice. Add more water if needed to make sure all the chicken is covered. Bring to a boil and cook about 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, chop vegetables.
3. Add carrots, celery, onions, oil, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme
4. Cook another 20 minutes, until vegetables and rice are tender. Pull some of the chicken off the bones. It should come off pretty easily.
5. Add the frozen peas, salt & pepper to taste.

This turned out really well! I wasn't sure because all the recipes I found called for cooked chicken and cooked rice. But I wanted to make the whole thing in one pan. And it worked out really well. The rice thickened the broth so it was nice and thick and stew-like, and the rice was perfectly done at the same time as the chicken and veggies. I have never made chicken soup before (except chili verde), but I will definitely make it again. It was super easy and really tasty, and everyone liked it, even my picky son.

Red Beans and Rice--Slow Cooker Vegetarian Meal

Now that it's winter, I've finally dusted off the crockpot. I love soups and stews, but for some reason, I never use a crockpot in the summer. This is the second time I used it in the past 2 weeks, and I love it!

The recipe I found for beans and rice used sausage, but I didn't have any, so I made it vegetarian this time.

Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
1 lb bag dry small red beans
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
3 cloves minced garlic
2 bay leaves

2 tsp Creole seasoning (I use Tony Chachere’s)
2 tsp original Tabasco sauce
2 tsp salt
1 cup dry brown rice

Instructions:

1. The night before, add the beans to the crockpot and cover with water to about 2 inches above the beans, and let it sit overnight.
2. Drain beans in morning, cover with water to cover about 2 inches above the beans, and turn the crockpot on low. If you won't be around all day, add the other ingredients. I was home, so I left the beans on for about 4 hours before adding the other ingredients, b/c I like my vegetables a little firm.
3. If you'll be around, after 4 hours, open the crockpot and add all ingredients EXCEPT salt & seasoning. You'll also need to add 2-3 more cups of water.
4. Cook 4 more hours or until rice is soft. 
5. Add salt & seasoning and serve hot.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

 Today I made my very last zucchini bread of the year *sob.* I had a cup of leftover zucchini from the lemon blueberry bread I made, so I used it to make The Charm of Home's chocolate zucchini bread, since my last one was such an epic failure. Somehow, I hadn't made a chocolate one all summer after that, even though I love chocolate zucchini cake. Now that it's winter, I'm in more of a chocolate mood, so I chose this recipe out of all the delicious looking ones left on the list of 50. Below is the recipe for a whole loaf (I made a half-sized mini loaf).

Ingredients

2 large eggs

1/4 c honey
1/2 c coconut oil, in liquid form
1/2 c organic sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder
1/3 c cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Special Dark b/c it's more chocolatey)

1 c all-purpose flour
2/3 c. whole wheat flour
2 c shredded zucchini
1 c chocolate chips, save 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top of bread

Instructions:
Prepare a loaf pan & preheat oven to 350.
Combine in a mixing bowl eggs, honey, oil, sugar, vanilla
Add flours, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder and stir to combine
Add zucchini and chocolate chips and mix well.
Pour into loaf pan and spread 1/4 chocolate chips on top
Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes
Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack. I like the chocolate chips still melty, so I always eat it warm. 


This turned out really well! I would definitely  make it again. It tasted like my mom's from when I was a kid...not all dry and gross like the one I made earlier in the summer.

Drunken Pears, aka, Pears in Port Wine

 This was a wonderful recipe I took to my book club this fall. Our pear tree was loaded this year, so much so that we were giving away pears by the bag-full. Sadly, Fannie only has a few pear recipes. But this one was very good. Would definitely make it over and over!

Ingredients:

• About 1 lb. pears, peeled, cored and sliced in quarters horizontally. I was using drops, so mine weren't perfect quarters, but large chunks. 
• 1/2 c. water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• pinch of lemon rind, or dash of lemon juice
• Port wine/red wine

Instructions:

1. In a sauce pan, combine water and sugar and bring just to a boil
2. Add pears, cover and cook until tender but still firm
3. Place pears in a serving dish (I used my 8x8 pyrex bc I was transporting it to book club. A pie pan would work, too)
4. Pour wine over pears and let sit for at least 1 hr. Fannie calls for port wine, but I didn't have any, so just used a sweet red someone had given us that we had opened and not finished. 

It turned out great! Everyone loved it, even my mom, who doesn't drink wine. The pears really absorbed the flavor and were such a pretty color, too. It looked as good as it tasted. Now if only I can find my camera with the pictures on it...

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Bread #2

 

 This is probably my last zucchini bread recipe of the year. I have a bit of grated zucchini leftover, though, so I may make a small loaf. I have loved making so many recipes for zucchini bread this year, but sadly, today I grated my very last zucchini, which has been sitting on the counter for months. I thought it might be seedy and hard or bitter, but it was tender and perfect. So I made lemon zucchini bread, which has such a delicate flavor that it needs a perfect zucchini.

I made a lemon blueberry zucchini bread recipe earlier in the year, so this is my second one. It's adapted from The Baker Mama's recipe.

Here is what I used:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup coconut oil, (or use 1 stick butter, softened, which I recommend)
1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1-1/2 cups blueberries (I used frozen, but fresh would be great, too!)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well combined. Beat in the yogurt, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons lemon juice until smooth.
3. By hand, mix in the flour, baking powder and salt until just combined.
4. Mix in the zucchini, then blueberries.
5. Divide batter evenly between two prepared pans.
6. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I used coconut oil here, which didn't turn out to be the best idea. Coconut oil is either liquid or solid. It's very difficult, if not impossible, so get it 'softened.' So I used it more on the melted side, but it immediately congealed when I added cold ingredients. It was virtually impossible to mix or spread into the loaf pans. So I would definitely use butter for this one! I don't know why I didn't, as I usually only use coconut oil if the recipe calls for cooking oil. Oh, well. Live and learn!

Chicken Chili Verde

I made this with the green enchillada sauce I posted yesterday. I got a similar recipe from a friend which used pork, but I didn't have pork, so I went looking for a recipe that used chicken, then combined bits and pieces of several recipes until I had something I could make.

For this, I used:
2 lbs chicken legs (you could use whatever parts you have)
1 can green chilis
2 cans (or 3-4 c. cooked) white beans (I used 1 of navy beans and 1 great northern)
16 oz green enchillada sauce
3 c. chopped green tomatoes
1 can yellow hominy

In a large pot, add the chicken and enough water to cover
Cook until chicken is tender and falling off the bone
add remaining ingredients and cook about 10 mins until tomatoes are soft

Green Tomato Green Enchillada Sauce

I've had a plethora of tomatoes this year. It seemed like the crop would never end. But, it froze for the first time last night, so I had to pick all my tomatoes the day before, even if they weren't ready. Hence, a plethora of green tomatoes! I now have almost a bushel of green tomatoes, and have exactly 3 recipes for them.

A friend of mine has as chili verde that uses them, so I hit her up for the recipe...which called for green enchillada sauce. I didn't have any on hand (who does?) so I looked up recipes for it. I found one, which calls for tomatillos, which I also don't have. But remember what I do have?

So, I made green enchillada sauce using green tomatoes instead of tomatillos, and I have to say, it wasn't half bad! In fact, it was pretty tasty.

My recipe follows (makes about 20 oz)

ingredients:
About 3 c. green tomatoes (1 lb approx)
1 onion
2 jalepenos
1/4 c. cilantro
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions:
Put 4 c. water in a large saucepan on medium heat
Chop the tomatoes, or stem small whole ones and add to the water
Chop the onion and add to pot
slice the garlic and add to pot
seed jalepenos and add
add lemon and lime juice and cumin
cook until tomatoes are very soft
add salt & pepper & cilantro and let cool
process in food processor or blender.

This was pretty tasty. I'm not sure what green enchillada sauce is supposed to taste like, so I'm not really picky. But it tasted close enough to what comes on Mexican food in the restaurants where I've had it, and it was beyond easy, so I would definitely make it again.