Chicken Corn Chowder

 

   Last Saturday seemed to be a very uneventful eventful day. I guess what that means is, although nothing was really going on, the day seemed to be quite a busy one. I woke up early in order to get to my hairdresser so she could chop 10 inches of my hair off. After that, I made a few stops in town at our local farmers market, the consignment shop, and then a few stores to pick up some groceries.

   Mike decided on Friday that he wanted to go race the car at the track one last time before winter. He left early Saturday morning in order to get the car ready and inspected before testing. While I was walking around the farmer's market I realized how cold it was getting and decided I would make some soup. Mike would be outside in the cold all day and figured he would enjoy something to warm his bones. The only problem was that I wasn't exactly sure what soup to make, nor did I have a recipe in mind, so, I bought a few different things that I figured would get me started at least.

   When I got home I checked our stock and noticed we still had some potatoes left from the potato soup we made last week. I also knew I wanted some kind of corn chowder so I got to work on both my Pinterest board and the web. I finally came across this soup from Tasty Kitchen and, judging by the picture, it looked AMAZING!!! I read through the ingredients and had everything but the bacon. (bummer!!) I kept looking but eventually decided I would just suck it up and go get the bacon because this soup looked awesome! AND IT WAS!! I changed the recipe a little, as usual, but I'm hoping it only made it better.

Chicken Corn Chowder
INGREDIENTS:
     1 lb cooked chicken, shredded (The recipe didn't tell me whether to cook it first but better safe than      sorry)
     1 cup chopped onions
     1 cup chopped red pepper
     2 cloves of garlic, minced
     1 4oz. can chiles (I used Rotel chiles and tomatoes)
     5 cups of chicken broth
     2 cups russet potatoes, peeled and diced
     1 can whole kernel corn, drained
     1 14oz. can creamed corn
     1/2 cup all-purpose flour
     1 cup skim milk
     1 1/2 cup grated cheese
     a couple hits of hot sauce
     salt and pepper to taste
     3 slices of bacon

DIRECTIONS:
Cook bacon in a large saucepan over medium heat until crispy. Remove the bacon and let it drain on a paper towel. Place off to the side. Keep drippings in the saucepan.

Add chicken, onion, red bell pepper, and garlic to the saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or so. Add diced chiles and cook for another minute. Add chicken broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Add whole kernel corn and creamed corn, stir well.

Pour flour into a medium bowl. (I use a mason jar instead, easier to mix.) Whisk in the skim milk, or pour it into the mason jar and shake. It should get to be like a pancake mix consistency. Add the milk mixture to the soup and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens. Stir in grated cheese and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Garnish with crumbled bacon and extra cheese.

Enjoy!!
   
   
   

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cinnamon Icing

Hurricane Sandy is on her way and I decided to channel my inner Martha. I spent the day baking and preparing for dinner this evening. I made this WONDERFUL dessert and also got some sweet potato casserole all ready for dinner. Unfortunately, I just guesstimated on the casserole so I can't post it because I have NO IDEA of the measurements. (If you're interested anyway, however, I'll put ingredients, at least, at the bottom.)

This dessert was AMAZING!!!! I found a bunch of different websites with suggestions on how to make this. I decided to go with this one from The Country Cook, however, because it seemed to look the most appealing...AND EASY!! And let me tell you easy it was!

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cinnamon Icing
INGREDIENTS:
     1 box of spice cake mix
     1 15oz. can of pumpkin puree
     3 eggs
     1 tub icing
     cinnamon (optional for the icing)
  THAT'S IT!!!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat your pan with non-stick cooking spray.

     2. Mix together all ingredients until smooth.

3. Spread mixture into pan. I used a bundt pan but you can use any kind of pan you have.

4. Bake for about 30 minutes. Cake should spring back to the touch and toothpick should come out clean.

5. Let cool completely.

6. While your cake is cooling, go ahead and start on your icing. 

a. Scoop icing out into a small bowl in order to mix easier.

b. Add cinnamon in small amounts and mix until desired taste.

7. Frost your cake and voila!!

You can also make this look like a pumpkin by coloring the icing orange and adding a flat bottom ice cream cone covered in brown or green icing in the middle. 

I decorated mine with orange sprinkles. :)

You must refrigerate this cake!!

ENJOY!!

OK, sweet potato casserole....cut the sweet potatoes into small cubes and boil until fork tender. Using a mixer blend these together with milk, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Do it just like you would mashed potatoes but keep tasting to be sure they are sweet enough. You can add in some marshmallows too if you would like. Then spread into a deep pan and top with marshmallows to create a sweet crust. Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I make mine ahead of time and keep it in the fridge which is awesome! Just increase the cook time a little if you do that, but watch to make sure the marshmallows don't burn. Browning is completely fine though.

   
   

Make ahead Frozen Breakfast Burritos

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" Well, I'm definitely guilty of not eating my Wheaties. It's not that I'm not hungry or too late to make breakfast. It's usually that it just takes too much effort at 7am. Yup...I am LAY-ZEE in the mornings! I would say out of 5 work days I eat breakfast maybe 2 of them, and that's if I'm motivated enough to drive through the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru on the way to work.

I've seen a lot of recipes about frozen breakfast burritos that you can heat up quickly in the morning. Yesterday I was bored at home so I figured I would try this out. I looked at a few different recipes to get some ideas of how much of each thing I needed, but ended up just winging it. 

I have to be honest, I have not yet eaten one of these burritos so I can't make any promises about their taste after being reheated, but I know they would have been good if I ate them right away.

Frozen Breakfast Burritos (makes about 9-10 burritos)

INGREDIENTS:

     9ish eggs

     2-3 cups onion, chopped

     1-2 cups pepper, chopped (I used green but it doesn't matter)

     2 cups shredded cheddar cheese or enough slices of American for each burrito (How come they don't make shredded American cheese??)

     2 cups cooked sausage (I used the pre-cooked stuff you throw in the microwave and just cooked it a little with the peppers and onions)

    splash of milk

     tortillas (Whole wheat for me!!)

DIRECTIONS:

In a saute pan, throw a little slab of butter and the chopped onions, peppers, and sausage. (If you used the pre-cooked sausage you can also throw it in with the eggs.) Let them cook until the onions are transparent or the sausage is browned. When these are done put them in a cereal bowl and stick them to the side.

Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and wisk together with a splash of milk. Pour them into the same pan you used for the onions and scramble. (I like to add the peppers, onions, and sausage here because I like them to be incorporated all together. Up to you.)

Lay out your burrito on a flat surface. If you are using American cheese break it in half and put one half in the middle of the burrito. (If you are using shredded wait until the end.) Then layer your eggs, sausage, peppers, and onions. -If you like a little hot sauce throw that in now, too- Don't layer too high because then you will have trouble folding your burrito. On top throw on the shredded cheese or the other piece of American.

Now comes the complicated part...folding. Here is the easiest way I have found to do it. Rotate your burrito so that the fillings are horizontal. Fold the tortilla in half and then tuck your fingers so that you create a pocket around your filling. (The edges do not need to be "rolled" under the filling. That won't matter.) Then fold in the sides. Nothing fancy, just one fold. Finally, roll the pocket up until the seam is on the bottom. I wish I had pictures because its really hard to explain, but I'm sure if you YouTube folding burritos you can find a good explanation.

Roll your burritos up in aluminum foil and throw them in the freezer. It seems between the many recipes I've read, you can microwave them on high for about 2-3 minutes and they will be good to go.