Cranberry Ranch Chicken

Now that we're closing in on fall, it's time for some yummy and easy comfort food!

When my friend Marcy first told me about this recipe six year ago, I thought it sounded kinda gross, but the Mrs. (who wasn't yet the Mrs.) thought it sounded good, so I made it. She was right, and this one-pot dish has become a staple of our dinner table, especially in the fall and winter.

This is one of those recipes anyone can make, because all it requires is dumping four ingredients in a dish, stirring and cooking. One tip, though, the better the quality of Ranch dressing you use, the better. When Marcy gave me the recipe she said to use the jarred Ranch you find in the refrigerated area of the produce section of the grocery store, like Marzetti or Marianne's. I've used regular bottled Ranch, and I've found the cheap store brand leaves things a little oily. Name brand (e.g. Kraft, Hidden Valley) work fine.

Ingredients
1 lb chicken cut into bite-size pieces
8-10 oz Ranch dressing (see note above)
1 can WHOLE BERRY cranberry sauce (NOT the jelly kind)
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 lb egg noodles (cooked as directed)


Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray (makes clean-up a little easier). Mix the chicken, Ranch, cranberry sauce and onion soup mix in the casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Serve over egg noodles. For a little more balance and color, serve with a green veggie. I've found steamed broccoli is the perfect pairing.

Give this recipe a try. I'm pretty sure you and your family will like it as much as we do!

Chicken & Vegetables in White Wine Sauce

Here's another easy and tasty recipe that's sure to please. As is often the case with my recipes, feel free to change the ingredients to suit your taste.

Before you get started, there's an important tip about cooking with wine. In the grocery store you can find what's called cooking wine. DO NOT BUY IT! Any chef will tell you this simple rule: If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it. That does not mean you have to be a wine connoisseur. Just use what you like. If you're not a wine drinker, just ask a friend or someone at the store. I used Barefoot Chardonnay with this. And of course, if you use a wine you like to drink, it makes it very easy to find the right wine to pair with the meal!

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pound chicken cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 gloves garlic chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 cup white wine
2 cups cooked rice (I used Jasmine rice, which adds a nice aromatic flavor, but use whatever you have/like)

Directions
Cook rice according to directions.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Brown chicken until almost done. Add carrots, onions and garlic and cook until veggies start to soften. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two. Slowly add wine and scrape bits off bottom of pan. Stir in onion soup mix. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer 5-10 minutes. Serve over rice.

As you can see, I served it with a side of broccoli to add a little more color to the dish. The kids should love it, too!

Veggie & Turkey Sausage Lasagna

I know, I've been very slack lately posting recipes, but I'm gonna try to do better with several in the can, as we say in TV.

This recipe is another lesson in Italian cooking, as I long ago promised, but an intermediary step. It is lasagna, but not traditional in a couple of senses. One way is the ingredient. The other is a short-cut in the cooking.

This is something I came up with kind of on the fly. We were looking for a big family dinner with leftovers that had some nutritional value. So I lasagna took care of the first part. Vegetables took care of the second. This is also another of those recipes you can tweak for whatever your taste.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil1 lb turkey sausage (removed from casings and crumbled)
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup broccoli florets
1 zucchini sliced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
Handful fresh basil
2 jars tomato sauce (whatever kind or kinds you like)
1 box no-cook lasagna noodles
1 lb ricotta
1 lb shredded cheese (I believe I used one bag of Italian recipe and one Taco blend)

Directions
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or wok (a wok is actually ideal for later). Brown sausage. When it's about done, add onion, garlic, carrots and broccoli, and cook until they start to get soft. Add zucchini, mushrooms and basil, and cook until they start to get soft. Add a little sauce and the ricotta. Cook until the whole mixture is well mixed and starts to get a little bubbly.

Spread some sauce in bottom of a large roasting pan (aka lasagna pan). Place a third of the lasagna noodles (no need to cook these) on top of the sauce. Spread some more sauce on top of noodles. Spread half of the sausage/veggie/cheese mixture, and sprinkle with some of a third of the shredded cheese. Top with another third of noodles, then more sauce, then the rest of the mixture, a third of the shredded cheese, last of noodles, more sauce, last of shredded cheese. Sprinkle some Italian herbs on top if you'd like, and yes, I like!

Cover pan with foil and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes until the whole thing is bubbly and melty. Yes, those are technical culinary terms.

Congratulations. You have made lasagna. Eventually we'll get to the real deal, but like I said at the top, this is a great intermediary step to learn some of the basics.

Serve this up with salad, garlic bread and the rest of the sauce heated.

We fed four adults and a child, and still had about half to put in the freezer for another day plus a couple servings for lunch at work the next day. I originally planned to make it with much less of the sausage, but I'm glad I used it all. It added a great flavor! You could make it without meat at all, but again, I think you'd lose a lot of flavor.

Gold Medal Meals: Beef Stroganoff

OK. I admit it. I dropped the ball. An out-of-town weekend trip and the busyness of life with two kids kept me from continuing my plan of a meal from a different nation each night of the Olympics. So on this night where London extinguished its cauldron, I decided to make one more Gold Medal Meal.

One of the traditions of the Closing Ceremonies at the Olympics is the hand-off to the next host city. In this case, London passes off to Rio De Jeneiro, Brazil, for the next summer games, but the next host is Sochi, Russia, home of the XXII Olympic Winter Games. So in honor of Russia, I decided to make Beef Stronganoff (or Stronganov).

As I often do, I searched for an easy recipe for the dish, and then added a few touches of my own. In addition to getting me back to the Olympic theme, this unlike many of the other Gold Medal Meals, fits with the theme of simplicity in cooking this blog targets.

Ingredients
12-16 oz package egg noodles
1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup (low or reduced fat preferably)
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
In large pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to directions.

In large skillet over medium-high heat, brown ground beef. Just before it's all done, drain the grease. Stir in the onion, and cook two more minutes. Stir in garlic and mushrooms. Cook two more minutes, or until mushrooms are tender. Stir in soup, salt and pepper, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 8-10 minutes. Stir in sour cream, simmer two more minutes. Serve over noodles.

It's not the most photogenic dish, but it's pretty tasty, even if our little guy wasn't willing to give it a chance. My wife and I talked about how it would be an easy dish to hide some veggies, like diced carrots, by adding them in with the meat and other veggies.

Gold Medal Meals: El Cubano

 Earlier this week I told you how my German Pork Roast was a set up for another dish. That dish was tonight's dinner.

I guess I fell in love with the Cuban Pork Sandwich when I lived in Florida. They were pretty common fare down there, and usually pretty good. Since then I've figured they're a great way to use leftover pork, too. And they're easy to make.

Ingredients
1 loaf soft, crusty bread (If you can find a Cuban loaf, go with that, as that's the traditional bread. I found what I think the local grocery store called a French loaf, which was long, wide and not very high. You can certainly scale this down. I went with the big loaf, because I was making it as a family dinner with leftovers for lunch)
Roasted pork sliced (I used one of the two I made with the German Roast Pork)
Ham
Swiss cheese
Mustard (I used deli mustard)
Pickles

Directions
Slice the bread in half and spread the mustard on the top half. Layer the bottom with the slices of pork. Top with a layer of sliced deli ham, Swiss cheese and plenty of pickles. Top with the other half of the loaf.

Of course, the key to a Cuban sandwich is heating and pressing it. Traditionally, it's done with hot bricks. Seriously. But if you're like me, you probably don't have a lot of hot bricks sitting around. I do, though, have a George Foreman Grill that also doubles as a sandwich (panini) press. So I heated that up, cut the sandwich in half so it would fit and grilled each half for several minutes. You want to add some pressure to flatten it as much as possible, and may even need to rotate the sandwich along the way to get it even. It's done when the bread is nice and toasty and the cheese inside is good and melted. That's it! This sandwich will not disappoint.

To add to the Cuban flavor, I served it with black beans, (Spanish) rice and, of course, fried plantains. Unfortunately, I learned the trick to plantains too late. Turns out you need really (over)ripe ones. A lot of the stuff I read said the blacker the better, as you want a high sugar content, so buy them several days ahead and put them in a paper bag to try to ripen them. At any rate, peel the plantains and cut them into 3/4-inch pieces. In 350-degree oil, fry them for about three minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Standing the pieces on their end, smash them flat with a spatula. Put them back in the hot oil for a minute or so until they are golden brown. Remove, drain and sprinkle with salt.

 

I'm gonna take a few days break in posting recipes. We're having Chicken Lombardi tomorrow for a taste of Italy. Then we're going out of town for a few days for a wedding. I promise more recipes next week. If you have any ideas, feel free to share!

Gold Medal Meals: Pierogi

When I was in college, my Broadcast News teacher was David Hazinski. At the end of the school year, he would host a party at his house, complete with authentic Polish sausage and pierogi made by nuns at a convent in Pittsburgh. So imagine his dismay when one year he found out the nuns had retired from the pierogi making business, and he had to find them somewhere else.

For those who don't know, pierogi are basically Polish dumplings, which can be filled with all sorts of things, from the traditional potato to meat to fruit and other desserts.

Well, I have a little idea now what those nuns went through to make their culinary art, and I will admit, this recipe does not really fit into my goal of easy-to-make dishes. It was definitely labor intensive, but good things are worth the effort, right? I did a simple online search, and when I saw one that mentioned Pittsburgh, I had to go with that in honor of Hazinski and the nuns.

Now my pierogi were surely not as good as the ones the nuns made, but they were pretty good. And they marked another country off the list in my Olympic tour of dinners.

Ingredients
2 cups flour, plus extra for kneading and rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream, plus extra to serve with the pierogi
1/4 cup butter, softened and cut into small pieces
Butter and onions for cooking


Filling:
5 large potatoes cut into pieces
1 onion
8 oz shredded cheese
2 tbsp butter

Mix flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, beat the egg. Add beaten egg, sour cream and butter to flour mixture. Mix until a good dough forms, but don't overdo it. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 20-30 minutes.

Boil cut up potatoes in a large pot until fork tender. While the potatoes are cooking, chop onions finely and saute in butter. When potatoes are done, drain and mash. Mix in cooked onions and cheese. Let mixture cool. I also added some salt, pepper, parsley and garlic powder just for a little extra flavor. You can tweak however you want.

On a flour-dusted surface, roll out dough until about 1/8" thick. Using a cookie cutter or a drinking glass cut out circles depending on how big you want. Make about one-inch balls of filling and wrap inside a circle of dough. If the edges don't seal, moisten with a little water. A good seal is very important, or else you'll wind up with empty pierogi.

This picture is of a double batch, which is about 30-35 pierogi. I made them last night so they'd be ready to go for dinner tonight. I made about half of them and plan to freeze the rest for another day. If I were to make them again in the future, I would put them in single layers separated by wax paper, as they tend to stick together and then tear a little as you pull them apart.

When it's time to cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Working in batches, place the pierogi in the boiling water and cook for 8-10 minutes. They'll float to the top. Let them dry and cool.

In a large pan, saute half a chopped onion in some butter. Working in batches, cook in the butter and onions until brown and a little crispy.

Apparently the traditional accompaniment is sour cream, which is a good combo. They may not look like much, but these little fried carb balls are quite filling.

I served mine up with some sauteed carrots for a little color.

Again, these may not meet with Hazinski's approval, and they're certainly nothing like the nuns made, but it was definitely a fun experience. I would like to experiment more with different flavors in the future, especially the dessert versions. It's also given me confidence to try my hand at ravioli, as I've long wanted to do. Smacznego! That's Polish for bon appetit!

Gold Medal Meals: German Pork Roast

We got back on the podium tonight, if you will. After taking an American fast food break from our run of Gold Medal Meals, our culinary tour moved back to Europe. Germany specifically.

The way I arrived at this dish is interesting, in that I actually had to figure out a meal that would give me the leftovers I need for another dish later this week. I don't want to give it away, but the main ingredient I need is roasted pork. So I figured the Germans would be a good choice to do up a pork roast. Indeed, I found several recipes for Schweinebraten, and picked a simple one. As always, I made some slight adjustments for my needs and based on my stock of ingredients. Also, I'm including the ingredients and directions I followed, but below that I've included some notes I think would make this even better.

Ingredients 
3 tablespoons olive oil 
4 garlic cloves, minced 
1 teaspoon lemon juice 
1 teaspoon mustard (I substituted deli for stone-ground)
1 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon each dried oregano, thyme and rosemary, crushed 
1/4 teaspoon pepper 
2-4 lbs pork roast (the original recipe calls for boneless whole loin roast, but for economy's sake, I went with a loin rib end roast)
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges (I suggest
3 medium onions, cut into wedges 
1 medium yellow tomato, cut into wedges

Directions
Mix olive oil, garlic, mustard, lemon juice and spices in a bowl. Rub mixture all over the roast. Place roast on a rack in a roasting pan. Cook at 350 for about 20 minutes. Add potatoes, onions and tomatoes. Cook for 40-70 minutes or until pork reaches 160 and potatoes are cooked through. Let meat rest 10 minutes before slicing

  

Now, I'd never cooked this before, and the pork turned out tender and juicy, but I thought it could have used a little more flavor. Using the stone-ground mustard that the original recipe called for probably would have helped. I also would have liked a little more color, and would probably use a regular red tomato if I ever make it again and/or some carrots. That being said, we thought the roasted yellow tomato was delicious! I might also toss the potatoes in a little oil and maybe a little seasoning, such as seasoned salt or onion soup mix just to add a little flavor.

Regardless, like I said, the roast was very nice. A little apple sauce definitely made a nice accompaniment, and helped our two-year-old enjoy it a little more.

Again, this was a set-up meal for something later this week. The only hint I'll give is that it won't be European like tomorrow's meal will be.