Chicken Soup Question

Friday i made chicken soup for the first time using broth. In the past i've always been a purist and boiled chicken parts for hours on end to get the real flavor. This time i decided to cheat. Only ingredients i used were carrots, 3 stalks of celery,black pepper, broth cans, 1/4 of an onion and 2 bnls chicken breasts (originally frozen). Everything came out fine after simmering for about 1 1/2 hours which gave the soup plenty of time to let the flavors blend.

The only issue i had was that the chicken seemed dry. I baked the chicken breasts for 15 minutes and then chunked them up into the soup so they could finish cooking. Not sure if it's especially a good idea to toss in raw chicken when people keep on sampling the pot for flavor every couple minutes! ;)

My question is, why was the chicken dry? Is it because i baked it for a few minutes before tossing in the pot? Ot would it be because i used cheap frozen chicken in the first place?

In the past i traditionally use bone in chicken which of course adds to the flavor and is obviously more moist. I've never used bnls chicken before. I've baked my fresh bone in chicken and then tossed it into the pot with no negative side effects.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

Also looking for additional ingredients i could use to really spruce this up.....

BBQ!

http://milwaukee.citysearch.com/profile/41002945/milwaukee_wi/ashley_s_barbeque.html

Went to Ashley's on 15th and Center today for lunch with a friend of mine. His dad knows the owner and has raved about it for years. What can i say? Killer! My friend had rib tips and i had honey bbq wings. the rib tips were literally falling off the bone and yet had that charcoal flavor from proper cooking. The 12 piece wings i got were good but i should have gotten the 6 piece. Very filling of course but the flavor was interesting. It almost tasted like they had sweet n sour sauce mixed in with the bbq sauce. Don't get me wrong. They were damn good but after eating that many i noticed something was "odd". The regular bbq sauce is a custom recipe of course. I know they start off with Open Pit and then add stuff to it to make it killer. Excellent. Wish i had gotten ribs but i was craving wings at the time. No regrets really. Just itching to go back there and try something different!

Yeah the neighborhood ain't too great. Tell me something i don't know. The owner (Darnell) was super cool and talked to us for a few minutes after we ordered. Very nice guy and clearly a good salesman. His daughter was cute as a button and wound up getting hugs from both of us. Highlight of the trip was her looking at me and walking away when i was going to give her a hug! Even at the youngest of ages, the ladies seem to avoid me!!!

Grand total we both spent appx $8 a piece which was right on our mark considering we were starving and wound up stuffed! :) Very extensive menu for fried foods. Clearly not trying to be anything special aside from a take out restaurant that just serves up damn good food.

I look forward to going back there in the future. Every dollar i spend there is one less that goes to crummy money pits like pizza shuttle etc. It feels good spending a buck or two more than you normally would for a place where the owner and staff are friendly and are just trying to make an honest living.

If you get the chance to order food from Ashley's, i guarantee that you won't be disappointed with the taste. In this fast food world we live in today, you can find cheaper and faster food i would be shocked if you could find bbq that tastes better....

Potato Pancakes

Yeah I don't have pictures because my camera is broken and I don't have the funds to purchase a new one yet.

So last night I made potato pancakes.

Ingredients:
3 small potatoes (I used yukon gold) - shredded
1/2 small onion - chopped finely
1 egg
1/4 cup pancake mix
1 tablespoon of sour cream (I used low-fat I don't recommend consistency not that great)
parsley (I used a couple shakes of the dried stuff)
salt
pepper
oil

Peel and shred you potatoes set aside (I have a small handheld grated that I now loathe). Drain the water from the potatoes and press in a cheese cloth to remove as much water as you can.
Chop onion. As fine as you can. Put onions in a bowl with the potatoes.
In a frying pan add a liberal amount of oil heat on meduim.
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir like crazy. Combining the eggs well.

Salt and pepper to taste of course. Remember to salt your mixture now because its hard to properly season potatoes after the fact.

Once your oil is very hot. I used 1/4 cup measuring thing to ration out the mixture into the oil and flattening with a spatula. Turn once when the side is brown. When other side is brown. Drain on napkin.

Food Photography Tips

I came across this article and thought we could all learn something from it and use it towards our future posts.

http://www.slashfood.com/2007/09/26/food-photography-tips-from-a-pro/

Chili Mac

So last Friday while at Whole Foods I decided that I wanted chili mac. You know the hamburger helper stuff. But I wanted to just try and make it. I think that should give me points. Since it was so long ago since I made it I will just kind of guesstimate on amounts and stuff. This was a measure free meal.

75% lean ground beef
generous shake of macaroni noodles
sea salt
pepper
Mrs. Dash Spicy
palmful of cilantro chopped
one can (14.5 oz) of diced tomatoes
one can (6 oz) tomato paste
one cup of chicken broth
one clove of garlic, minced
half a small red onion, chopped fine
couple drizzles of olive oil
one can of black bean drained and rinsed
a couple shakes of dried oregano
a couple shakes of dried parsley
a couple of shakes of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
salsa verde
colby jack cheese
sour cream

Here is what I did:

Put a salted pot of water on to boil. After the water began a rapid boil add noodles and cook about al dente. Don't overcook, you don't want mushy noodles. Drain and return to pot. Set aside.

Browned the ground beef on medium heat seasoned with the a half a capful of spicy Mrs. Dash. after browned all the way through lower heat and drain ground beef. Return ground beef to pan. Push meat aside add a little olive oil and add onion and garlic to pan. Soften onions and mix together with ground beef. Add diced tomatoes and salt. If tomatoes are to chunky for you (mine were) chopped with wooden spoon. Taking a kitchen scissors to the tomatoes in the can works well too. Mix well. Add chili powder, oregano, and parsley, stir well. Add tomato paste entire can and add chicken broth until its an consistency you like. Taste. Salt and pepper to taste. Add cilantro, stir well. Add cumin. Cover for 10 minutes. Stir in cheese.




I served mine with salsa verde and sour cream.

Veggie Chili

So Last night I made Veggie Chili. Picture will be posted later.

Here is how I made it:

1 -Medium sweet onion diced
5-Garlic Cloves diced
1-Green Pepper diced
2-Carrots diced
1-Butternut Squash diced
1-cup frozen corn
1-Can Black Beans, rinced and drained
1-Can of Light red kidney beans, rinced and drained
1-Container of Frozen Homemade Tomatoe Puree, Thawed- made with Paczesny's tomatoes :-)
(or you can buy a can of tomato puree)
1-large can of Tomato sauce
1-small can of tomato paste
1-1 1/2 cups of Water (adjust to how thick you like your soup)
3 TB Chili Powder
1 tsp Smoked Spanish Paprika
1 TB Red Pepper Seasoning
2 TB Hot Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

I sauteed the onions, garlic, and green pepper in a LARGE soup pan with a drizzle of Olive Oil. Then I added in the Carots, and squash and sauteed together for about 5 minutes. Then I added in the remaining ingrediants and brought to a boil and covered and reduced to low and simmered for 1.5 hours.

I think I added in a little more than 1 tsp of the smoked paprika, so that flavor kind of took over my chili a little bit, but in the end it turned out super yummy. Be CAREFUL when cooking with Smoked Spanish Paprika....it's a very over powering spice.....or maybe it was just really strong since I bought it from the Spice House at the Public Market....which by the way is my new favorite place to buy all my spices :-) It's VERY reasonably priced, so check it out!

Chicken Pot Pie

I forgot to take a picture......but I decided to make a post anyways.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:
3 cups of Chicken Stock
2 Yukon Gold Potatoes peeled and diced
1 Sweet Potatoe peeled and diced
1 cup of Frozen Peas
1 cup of Frozen Veggie mix: Carrots, Corn, and Peas
2 large Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts diced
1/2 Cup Flour
1 1/2 cup Skim Milk
1 tsp Fresh Thyme
1 TB fresh Parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste
1-frozen roll of Phyllo Dough, a few full sheets

I first boiled the ckicken stock in a large saucepan. I added in the next 4 ingredients and brought to a boil and covered and simmered for about 7 minutes. Then I added in the diced chicken and cooked for another 5 minutes until the chicken was cooked through. Then I took a strainer spoon and removed the chicken and veggies from the stock and placed it aside in a bowl. I turned up the heat on the stock to simmer, while whisking the flour into the milk until all flour was dissolved. Then I poured the milk mixture into the stock and cooked for another 5 minutes while stirring rapidly. Then I added in the chicken and veggie mixture into the stock mixture along with the thyme, parlsey, salt and pepper.

From here I poured the mixture into a greased 11x14 casserole dish and topped it with the phyllo dough. I sprayed the top of the dough with cooking spray. Kept it at 400 for about 16 minutes til the dough was crispy.

That's it!!! Turned out Fabulous!!

Best part is that Michael ate ALL the veggies that I put in this dish.....with no complaints!
:-)

Tamara's Beth's Hank's Eggs "Surprise"

Last night at Whole Foods Beth was telling me about Beth's Hank's Eggs and although kind of weird seemed interesting enough for me to make an attempt at making something like it.

The ingredients:
1/2 ham steak (fully cooked)
3 small potatoes
3 large eggs (I think I should have used more)
1 clove of garlic
1/2 small onion (I used white but a red onion would work nice)
1/3 medium yellow bell pepper
1/3 medium red bell pepper (I would have used green to if I felt like looking for one at the store)
tablespoon of olive oil
pat of butter
pepper
oregano
parsley
paprika
couple ounces of colby jack cheese - shredded
seasoned salt
Mrs. Dash table seasoning
sea salt and pepper to taste


I cut my potatoes into thirds and dropped them in a pot of salted water to boil. (I find they fry up better if you do this). I cooked them until fork tender. Cut them into semi-thick slices and let them cool slightly.

Other prep work:
fine chopped the onion
minced the garlic
chopped the bell pepper in bite-sized pieces
chopped ham steak into bite-sized pieces

Heated the olive oil and butter in a pan tossed in the potatoes. Those started to brown and I added in the onion and bell peppers and garlic. Added black pepper (I love the stuff). I let those cook down. The potatoes continue to brown and get a nice crust to them.

I pushed that to the side and added the ham that I seasoned with the Mrs. Dash (liberally). Cooked the ham until it had a nice color then mixed in with the potatoes. I added the seasoned salt and oregano. Stir well to blend flavors.

At this point, I beat the eggs. Made sure the potatoes were cooked like I like them. pushed everything to one side in the pan and added the eggs. Scramble scramble scramble. Before the eggs were fully cooked I mixed everything together. Did a little taste test added some salt. I added about 1/4 of the cheese and stirred together. Topped with parsley and paprika. Finally I added the rest of the cheese on top. Turned off heat and let that melt.



I served Tamara's Beth's Hank's Eggs "Surprise" with slices of green apples and tomato and a piece of butter toast.

Movie Night Treats

So last night we decided to order Pizza Man pizza since Jolly has never had it before. In celebration of Tamara's Birthday today, I also made her a Peanut Butter Pie that she had requested along with an Oreo Pie for those non peanut lovers. Everything turned out pretty good, although Jolly is crazy and still thinks that Rocky Rococo's is better than Pizza Man.

Great times!!!

Here was the recipe that I used for the Peanut Butter Pie:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1646405

For the Oreo Pie, I simple made a package of Oreo pudding and added in some cool whip.

I also cheated and bought store made pie crusts as I didnt' have enough time to make them myself.

Veggies (follow up from 8/13/2007)

Chicken Ka Baobs. Total there were eight. All i had to pay for was 3 chicken breasts (one package), whole Portabella mushrooms, and an onion. Grand total i think i spent $6 on this meal.

Seasoned with garlic and black pepper, the chicken was cut into fairly small chunks so that it wouldn't take too long to cook. Clearly the fire is going a little more hot than we had hoped for but we managed. The following were from my garden:
-2 green peppers
-1 very large red pepper
-1 avg size yellow Vidalia pepper
-1 orange pepper
-2 purple peppers



Thoughts:

The purple weren't anything special in the end. The color cooks out of them and they look green in the end. I had heard that they taste a lot like greens but never personally tried them so there was only one way to find out. No regrets in using them since peppers are always good. The onion was good and plentiful on the ka bobs but i'm debating on whether i should go with a red onion next time. Supposedly the reds hold their flavor and the act of grilling brings it out better. Might pull out the McCormick's marinade again for the chicken next time after i cube it up. That should give it a nice surprise. The shrooms were killer. Period. Never sacrifice taste for cost. The 'Bella shrooms are worth the cost.

Results:

A total of 8 ka bobs were made. Since Jolly stopped by (he has food radar), he contributed 5 hot Italians which stretched the meal. With the Italians, the three of us wound up having 2 leftover which was my goal. They weren't all that great reheated for lunch but at least it was healthy!

We all ate 2 ka bobs and a sausage except for jolly who ate like 50 of his Italians. Washed the ka bobs down with a Berry Weiss while sitting on my front stairs like usual and enjoying a cool evening.

Stay tuned for more ka bob recipes as the summer progresses....

Veggies! (8/13/2007)

'Nuff said.



















Harvested on 8/9. Two cauliflower heads, one green pepper, one yellow, 5 tomatoes, 12 garden salsa peppers (hot and super yummy), sage (for drying), three cayenne peppers (longer in lower left), and 8 super chillies (shorter in lower left).

This weekend i added an additional 10 tomatoes, 6 salsa peppers, 4 super chillies, 3 cayenne, 2 green, one orange, one red, and 2 purple peppers. I accept cash, credit cards, first born, beer, or food in exchange for my spare veggies/herbs!!!

Tonight: Ka-bob time!!!

lots and lots of food

Saturday my parents had a small engagement party for Michael and me and so Michael's whole family came down from Green Bay to Kenosha. My mom grilled out Bulgogi, which is a Korean style Marinated Meat shown in the upper middle of this pic. She also had Brats, veggie salad, cucumber salad, potato salad, fried rice, and beans. Everything was super delish!! Oh and for dessert my sister made me a Lemon Cake and some Brownies!

Well...It was dinner

I went to the Brewers/Mets baseball game yesterday, so dinner was an after thought really. Well Bob/Matt and I went to Pick n Save to buy beer. So we bought pre-made sandwiches. I have a turkey and cheese on white bread. The bacon was a nice surprise. It wasn't that bad. The lettuce was wilted and the tomato was to wet. I can't forget the chips, we had Sun Chips Garden Salsa flavored. They were tasty.

The best part of the night was when we were in the game. (The Brewers lost) I got my favorite baseball accompaniment, peanuts.


Didn't forget to take a picture of those babies.

Lentil Soup 7-30-07

Monday night I decided I wanted to try to make Lentil Soup.


I didn't like the recipes that I found online,
so I sort of mixed things up a bit.





Ingredients:





1- Splash of EVOO

2-Potatoes diced


2 Cups Diced Carrots


2 Celery Stalks diced


1 large Onion Diced

2 Cups Butternut Squash


5 cloves of Garlic Diced


1/2 bag Brown Lentils


8 cups water


3 cups of Chicken Stock


1 small can of Tomato sauce


1 Splash of Red Wine


Salt and Pepper


Dash of Oregano

1-Cup frozen peas (add these 10 minutes before soup is done)

I sauteed the first 5 ingredients in a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a large soup pot. Then I added the remaining ingredients and brought to a boil, then reduced the heat and simmered for 1 hour. That's it! I also added some hot sauce in mine to add a little kick. Turned out pretty easy to make, and pretty inexpensive. I will try it again using different ingredients sometime in the future! The pic of the soup was taken today, as I brought some in for lunch!

Sloppy Joe

Well I had sloppy oes for dinner on July 27th, so I am a bit late on the post. I must say that I made some concessions with the meal because I was seriously lazy. First off, I used bread because I was not going to buy buns. Secondly, I remember having corn with this meal. If I wasn't going to buy buns there was no way I was going to buy corn. So instead I had broccoli, I love broccoli. I was a little disappointed with the broccoli presentation wise as it was mostly stems. Oh well.

So lets see if I can remember what i did. I can make ant recipe complicated.

1 lb. of 85% lean ground beef (good choice)
4 oz. can of tomato paste (why buy sauce when you can make it yourself)
2 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 medium onion
red, green, and yellow bell peppers (I buy them frozen)
1/2 clove or garlic
couple turns of olive oil (extra virgin of course)
1/2 teaspoon of chicken grill seasoning (I didn't have steak seasoning)
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 1/2 tablespoons of dijon mustard (a tad bit to much - a little shy of 1 tablespoon would have been fine)
about 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (a liitle over)
about 1 tablespoon of white vinegar(a little under)
a pour or red wine
3 tablespoons Worcestershire's sauce(roughly)
sea salt (enough to taste - tomato paste is unsalted)
pepper
oregano
Mrs. Dash Spicy (mainly red pepper flakes)

Ok those were the ingredients.

cook ground beef - olive oil, onion, bell peppers, paprika, grill seasoning, salt, pepper. Drain. Combine with other ingredients. Simmer 20 minutes.

I cooked the broccoli in a little water. Drained. Plated with a little butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper.



Pretty tasty.

Marchese's Olive Pit

(it's sideways and won't go right :) )

We've been meaning to go here for a while now and, man, it was worth it. If you are a fan of the thin crust, fantastic taste, pizza this is one of the best places in Milwaukee. I picked Jim up at work and we headed down the road to Marchese's before heading back to where we started for a gallery night stop. Parking was nice and easy as we arrived there at 5:30pm. There were a few folks in there already and the atmosphere was really nice and friendly. We were served right away. This place is just pizza too which is why we were there!
We got a regular size 'create your own' with cheese, red sauce, green olive, mushroom and onion. We also ordered some plain bread and oil that was super tasty.



We're definitely going back to have a white sauce pizza and then a no sauce pizza. Web info Marchese's Olive Pit

Appetizers Only

Well when you go to a classy establishment such as Village Pub, you should fight it. Go directly to the bar food. Yesterday we did just that.

Beth, Hostad, Crass and I shared a lovely combination from the appetizers menu.

Chicken Nachos

They come with salsa and sour cream cups.

Chicken Fingers

Comes with ranch sauce, of course. Also in this picture is Beth's Newcastle.

Broccoli and Cheese Poppers

Comes with a tasty marinara sauce.

To accompany this meal, I had a Leine's Sunset Wheat.


When you combine these with various beers, it a delicacy like no other. Ok I'm kidding but it was tasty.

Sorry about the pictures we were eating off a small bar table and we had already started to eat.

Turkey Sandwiches and Cheese and crackers (Jazz in the Park)

Last night a bunch of went to Jazz in the park and we all brought various foods to eat.

The main part of our meal was Turkey Sandwiches provided by Shane and Jess. Here's a pic of how the sandwiches turned out. Also we brought cheese and crackers, and hummus and pretzals. Here's another picture of Mike and the some of the

wonderful cheese that we had. I opted to put some hummus on my sandwich with turned out to be quite good idea.

It was all pretty simple yet delicious!

Marinaded Chicken w/ Rice (7/26/2007)

What: Marinaded chicken w/ rice.

Why: I had frozen (boneless) chicken breasts that i needed to do something with since i normally think chicken is bland and boring.

Total time: Excluding chicken prep and marinade time, this can be done in appx 30-45 min.

How: -McCormick's Chipotle marinade packet after thawing (mostly) the chicken breasts. Stab the chicken with a fork a bunch of times so the marinade can soak in better and so that it'll me a bit more tender. Make sure to cut off excess fat since most chicken breasts are sold untrimmed and thus have gobs of fat which are gross. Remember that the fat on chicken isn't very deep or thick so you're just going for the garbage on the edges. Don't go to crazy because this fat also keeps it moist. You just want to nip off the overly excessive junk (commonly found on frozen chicken breasts in a bag). I should also note that the marinade packet is for 2# of meat and i was using appx 1.2#. Thus i had leftover marinade goo but that's not a bad thing!

-Marinade supposedly takes 30 min but obviously longer is better. I was short on time (and hungry) so i only waited 15.
-Start cooking the rice since it's not the minute rice crap and takes a bit longer.
-Cookie sheet with tin foil on it and the edges curled up which means less mess to clean.
-All 3 chicken breasts placed on the foil and baked at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
-Pull out chicken breasts and pour some extra marinade onto them. Just enough to cover them a bit one more time.
-Place back into oven for another 15-20 min.
-Somewhere in here you should be keeping an eye on the rice.
-Appx 30-40 minutes later, both rice and chicken are done and ready to be served.

Thoughts: I should note that the extra marinade at the 1/2 mark helps add flavor AND keep the chicken moist. The marinade is kind of a paste which works nicely. Once the chicken was done, you could take the excess marinade off with your fork and add it to your plain rice making the rice less boring.

Overall, a semi healthy recipe considering. The marinade packet had it's share of salt n nasty stuff but that's the only down side. Everything else was completely bland and simple. Only thing lacking was a veggie to which i am open to suggestions. Perhaps taking one of my bazillion fresh tomatoes and dicing it up to top the chicken breast at the half way point? I'm thinking some corn would have been good with this. Maybe some green beans. Suggestions?

Verdict: "This shite is f'ing good man. Know what i'm saying?" (kjolly)
"Damn dude, i think he'll be done with my leftover chicken before i finish my rice." (kratt)
"How are you going to tease me with good shite like this and only give me one piece?" (kjolly)
"*Burp!* Who's doing dishes?" (me)

BLT

Last night I was too tired to come up with anything fancy.....so I opted on BLT's.

There's something about a nice BLT on a HOT SUMMER DAY. We had ours on Toasted Wheat Bread. And of course Michael did not add tomotoes to his, so I had them all to myself!

Dinner 7/24/2007 - Jimmy Johns

Yesterday's dinner was special. It happened to be the anniversary of our friend's death. So we all order from his staple, lunch, dinner, just need food location. Jimmy Johns. I forgot to take a picture of my actual sub because I was cranky and really needed to eat. There is a picture of the group of us holding our subs. I will post it as soon as I get it.

Update: Here is the picture of everyone holding their Jimmy Johns.



But until then I will post a picture (although slightly blurry as it is from my phone) of Castner eating JJs.

What are we doing?

Through many internet travels we have come across other blogs that featured food or people dinner. So Pam and I have decided that it would be fun if we did something like that. Also to take some of the pressures of blogging out of it, it will be a multiple person blog, could be fun. Well as an experiment Pam and I are going to start off and see if we can do this with some consistency.

The plan is to take pictures of what we eat for dinner. Whether it be something that we spent time laboring over, dinner at a friend's house (if they don't mind), or the fast food (delivery). Then discuss it. You know look, taste, smell, or the all-important texture. Whatever works for the poster.

I am thinking this will be a lot of fun, so if you want to join us in this venture let us know.

Tam