Bumps in the road

Well this week was an interesting one for sure. Had a big meal planned for this weekend, and all my plans fell through once I got a surprising letter from the IRS. So, budgets got cut, and among the fluff is this weekly blog post, so I had to scale down on the recipes a bit. Doesn't mean they're not just as good, but not exactly what I had planned :) First I made french onion soup, my onions were starting to look a bit sad, so I thought I'd use them up quick as I could. It's a really cheap meal and not that difficult to make, it just takes time, so make sure you set aside a whole afternoon to get it. It really needs the time to get all the flavors working properly. The second dish I made was my grilled chicken with tomato and cucumber salad. It's so fresh, and perfect for this time of year. If you don't have a grill, consider getting a grill pan for your stove, they're rather inexpensive and they are quite wonderful :) Alright, on with the recipes!

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 medium onions, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme (I used about 2 teaspoons dried)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup of red wine
• 3 heaping tablespoons of flour
• 2 quarts of beef broth (you can substitute beef boullion, it won't have as great of a taste, but it'll do in a pinch)
• 1 baguette, sliced (I cheated. Used sandwich bread, pre toasted. But that's what happens when money is short)
• 1/2 pound of sliced cheese (you can use whatever you prefer, gruyere is recommended, but as it's expensive, most white cheeses will work fairly well. I used colby jack.)

Directions

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 40 minutes, checking occasionally. They should get a nice bit of a golden color. Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 50 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Lay a slice of gruyere on top of the slices and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the cheese croutons on top.

Alternative method: Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese. 

Grilled Chicken with Cucumber and Tomato salad

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts
• oil as needed
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1/2 small cucumber, peeled and diced
• 2 tablespoons finely diced onion
• 2 tablespoons finely diced cilantro (My stores haven't had cilantro recently, I substituted this cilantro spray I found. It isn't nearly as good as fresh, but it adds the flavor)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat grill over medium heat, flame, or coals. While grill heats, toss together the tomato, cucumber, onion, cilantro, lime juice and salt. Refrigerate while you cook the chicken. Brush chicken breasts with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until no longer pink, about 7-8 minutes per side. Drain salsa if needed and serve over chicken. I made rice to go along with it, cause it's what we had, but it tasted really well together :) 

Enjoy!

My favorite meal of the day!

This week I had a bunch of people over for brunch on the table I just recently refurbished! I made Caramel French Toast, a bacon and egg scramble, Raspberry Cream Cheese coffee cake, and sangria, along with some fruit and juice and coffee. It was really nice, everyone seemed to like what I made, even the kids seemed to enjoy the foods, especially the Caramel French Toast! It was a lazy week, only highlighted by an FRG meeting, which was interesting, and going to some garage sales! Gotta love deals :) Well, on with the recipes I suppose. Most of these are things that can be made early, so you have plenty of time to socialize or get the house ready, that's why I love them so much :) Hope you enjoy!

Baked Caramel French Toast

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 T butter or margarine
• 1/3 cup whipping (heavy) cream
• 1 T light corn syrup
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/4 t salt
• 8 (3/4-inch-thick) diagonally cut slices of french bread. You'll wanna get the skinnier kind if you can, the fat kind doesn't fit in the dish as well, but still tastes just as great :)

Spray 13x9 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. In 2-quart saucepan, mix the first 4 ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Do not boil! Spread topping in baking dish. In shallow bowl, beat eggs with fork. Beat in milk, vanilla and salt. Dip bread slices into egg mixture, making sure all egg mixture is absorbed; arrange over topping in dish. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
When ready to bake, heat oven to 400 F. Uncover baking dish; bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and toast is golden brown. Remove from oven; let stand 3 minutes. Place large heatproof serving platter upside down over baking dish; turn platter and baking dish over. Remove baking dish, scraping any extra caramel topping onto toast. Serve immediately. If you don't have a big heatproof serving platter, consider baking it in smaller containers so you can just flip it onto plates. Makes 8 servings.

Make-Ahead Scrambled Eggs

• 8 slices bacon
• 1 package (8 oz) sliced fresh mushrooms (I omitted these, in an attempt to make it more kid friendly)
• 3 T margarine or butter
• 16 eggs
• 1 cup half and half or milk
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t pepper
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 T chopped fresh chives
• 4 italian plum tomatoes, quartered, sliced
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese  

In 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Crumble bacon, or cut. I prefer to cut it as it makes more uniform pieces; set aside. Reserve 1 T bacon drippings in skillet. Add mushrooms to drippings; cook 4-5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Remove from skillet; set aside. Wip skillet clean with paper towel. Melt margarine in the same skillet over medium heat. Beat eggs in large bowl. Add half and half  (or milk), salt and pepper; blend well. Add egg mixture to skillet; cook over medium heat until firm but still moist, stirring occasionally. Stir in soup and chives. Place half of egg mixture in 3/12 or 4-quart slow cooker. Top with half each of the cooked mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese and crumbled bacon. Repeat layers. Serve immediately, or cover and keep warm on low setting for up to 4 hours. Makes 12 servings

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup margarine or butter
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 t almond extract
• 1 egg
• 1 package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup raspberry preserves
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour bottom and sides of 9 or 10 inch springform pan (these pans are awesome btw. Have a nice cake come out clean every time!) In large bowl, combine flour and 3/4 cup sugar; mix well. With pastry blender or fork, cut in margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup of crumb mixture. To remaining crumb mixture, add baking powder, baking soda, salt, sour cream, almond extract and 1 egg; blend well. Spread batter over bottom and 2 inches up the sides (about 1/4 inch thick) of greased and floured pan. Just make sure to have enough of a dip in the middle to hold the cream cheese and raspberry mixture. In small bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 egg; blend well. Pour into batter lined pan. Carefully spoon preserves evenly over cream cheese mixture. In another small bowl, combine reserved crumb mixture and sliced almonds. Sprinkle over preserves. Bake for 45055 minutes or until cream cheese filling is set and crust is a deep golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes; remove sides of pan. Serve warm or cool. Store in refrigerator. Makes 16 servings. 

Simple Sangria

• 1 bottle of red wine (I used shiraz)
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 shot brandy (I used rum)
• 2 cups of ginger ale

Pour the red wine in a pitcher. Slice the lemon and orange into wedges. Squeeze into the pitcher, making sure not to add any seeds. A good way to do this is hold your hand under the fruit as you squeeze it, so you can catch any seeds, and the juice can just run through your fingers. Once the fruit is all squeezed, add the wedges as well. Add the sugar and the brandy or rum. Refrigerate overnight or until cold. Right before serving add the ginger ale. Enjoy! And drink responsibly ;) 

Going out of town?

With my husband being in the military and deploying, something I, and all military wives have to eventually face, is the possible reality that our husbands may be injured or die. There is no way to avoid it, it's a reality we live with all the time, and everyone handles the worry of that reality differently. I have realized that someday I may have to face it, but for the most part I, and I'm sure most military wives try to ignore it the best that we can. We know it's a possibility, but there's no reason to dwell on it, because we still have a life to live, some have jobs to do, or children to raise or households to run. One of the worst parts of the deployment for me so far, besides not having my husband with me, has been having to update my address with my husbands unit whenever I leave town and then return. Why? So that, God forbid something should happen to my husband, they know where to find me, and where to send that dreaded black car that carries the message of death. As someone who enjoys travelling, I will have to make many of these phone calls, and I dread them. The first one I had to make, I had to explain the reason behind me giving them my new address, and I couldn't help but get a little emotional just at the thought of it. I love my husband, I am so incredibly proud of who he is and what he does, and I do not begrudge the army for the sacrifices that we already make, and may have to make in the future. I'm also not trying to say that they should not have this system in place, it exists for a good reason. I would hate for me to end up like the woman who was in Illinois when her husband was killed in action, and found out through facebook and a text message before getting official news from the army. However, that doesn't make the reminder of the ultimate sacrifice that my husband may have to make someday any easier, or less upsetting. I pray that I never see that car pull up to my house, that no other military wife would ever have to see that car pull up to their house, but that is the sacrifice that some of us, as military wives, will be called to make. I just hope I will be strong enough to handle it as well as anyone would be expected if that day ever comes.

Welcome to Funky Town

This week was a little funky, everything I seemed to plan for this blog fell through or wasn't going to work for some reason, but luckily I got some last minute inspiration for an awesome dinner using stuff around the house one day! Things have still not sunk in for me, I'm still cooking enough for two, and wanting to turn to say stuff to him or show him something before remembering that he's not home. Luckily we live in a wonderful computer age so I still get to talk to him pretty much as much as I'd like, but it'll never be the same. Enough of that, lets get back to the most important part of this blog, the food! Using the leftover prosciutto from last week's recipes, and some sliced cheese I have around the house, I did an oven baked, breaded chicken cordon blue, which was amazingly tasty, and like the other one looked pretty fancy. I was craving some honey mustard to put over it, and because I didn't have any, I made my own. While I know at least for me, it was intimidating at first, making your own dressings is really pretty easy, I'm not sure why I don't do it more often. Using mostly things you have around the house you can make some really awesome dressings and vinaigrettes, altering them to your own preferences. Sadly I don't have any photos yet, hopefully I'll get one up in the next day or two, but I'm currently out of town, and don't have access to my photos.

Chicken Cordon Blue

• 2 chicken breasts, or 4 chicken cutlets (same as the saltimbocca, if you can't find cutlets or they are too expensive, feel free to get chicken breasts, butterfly them but cut all the way through, so you have two pieces about the same size but half the thickness of the original chicken breast)
• 4 slices of prosciutto
• 4 slices of swiss (or another cheese if you prefer)
• around 1/4 cup butter (melted, you can always add more if you don't have enough)
• around 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (plain, and add your own seasonings, or seasoned, same as above, you can always add more later)

This is another roulade, or a rolled meat, which is what the last recipe would have been considered. You can do it with beef, chicken, pork, etc. but chicken is my favorite to do it with. You could just stack it if it would be easier, but the roulades always seem a bit fancier for not too much extra work. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Top the chicken with a slice of prosciutto, and then a slice of cheese. Personally I did two with swiss and two with provolone because that's just what I have. Swiss is traditional but really any white cheese would work very well. My husband loves spice so I may have to try it with pepperjack sometime. Starting at the short tapered end roll it up as tightly as you can, and secure with a toothpick. Dip in the melted butter, making sure it completely covers the chicken, and then roll it in the breadcrumbs. Place on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake for 30-40 minutes. 

Honey Mustard Dressing

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon prepared mustard 
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

I used brown mustard, because its all we had around the house, so I used a bit more honey because I prefer a sweeter honey mustard, but that's the great thing about making your own dressings. You can alter them however you'd like. In a small bowl whisk together all the ingredients. Store covered in the refrigerator. 

Hope you enjoy! Please leave a comment if you have any questions, comments or ideas :)

Bruschetta and Saltimbocca

Last night was all about Italian food! I went to my friend Amanda's house, and made her family some Bruschetta with feta and a balsamic reduction, similar to what my husband and I had at the Mellow Mushroom on one of our date nights. Sadly our local grocery store had every fresh herb except Basil, so it wasn't quite as great as I was hoping, but everyone still loved it, so if you'd rather not go through the trouble and expense of fresh herbs it will still taste alright with dried :) After that we had Chicken Saltimbocca. Saltimbocca is italian for "Jumps in your mouth" and is typically veal or chicken topped with prosciutto (a sort of thin bacon, normally found near the imported cheeses in the grocery store) and seared. Ours was also topped with some spinach and parmesan cheese as well. Everyone liked that as well, even though two at the table are not fans of spinach normally. Since, in my mind an Italian meal would not be complete without some sort of pasta, I also made a creamy sun dried tomato pesto pasta, which did not turn out quite how I would have liked, but was still a nice accompaniment to the meal. All together it was a very enjoyable meal, and the planning for it definitely helped keep my mind off of my husband being gone. Hopefully it will continue to do that for the next 8.75 months!



Bruschetta

Ingredients

• 8 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
•  3 cloves garlic, minced (Personally we are big fans of garlic and this was not quite enough for us, next time I would add more, but if you are not a fan of garlic, feel free to put even less in)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 loaf French bread, toasted and sliced (Normally the thinner the better, I prefer the thinner styled ones but our silly small town grocery store only had the big fat ones. If you can't get a thinner loaf, cut the slices in half so they're easier to manage)
• Balsamic vinegar to taste
• Feta to taste

 Mix together everything but the bread, vinegar and feta in one bowl and set to the side. Pour the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan. Use as much vinegar as you want, personally I am a big fan of it, but it can be very strong. Put twice as much as you think you might want in, and boil on medium until it has reduced by about half and is the consistency of a syrup. Ours took about 10-15 minutes for that. Once that's done, you can either put everything on a platter separate and let people pile the bread up as they'd like, or you can put it together like I did, and pile the tomatoes on the slices of bread, drizzle with the balsamic and crumble the feta on top. Personally I prefer to do the latter juts because it is so pretty, but it is up to you :) I really enjoy this as an appetizer cause it requires little cooking, and most things can be done ahead of time, so it's relatively easy to throw everything together right as everyone arrives.



Chicken Saltimbocca
 

Ingredients

• 6 (3-ounce) chicken cutlets, pounded to evenly flatten (If you can't find chicken cutlets, or if they're too expensive, you can just buy chicken breasts, and butterfly them, but cut all the way through, so you have two piece about the same size as the original piece, but half as thick)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 paper-thin slices prosciutto
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 (14-ounce) can low-salt chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Place the chicken cutlets flat on the work surface. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Lay 1 slice of prosciutto atop each chicken cutlet.

Squeeze the frozen spinach to remove the excess water. Season the spinach with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, toss the spinach with 1 tablespoon of oil to coat.
Arrange an even, thin layer of spinach atop the prosciutto slices. Sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over each. Beginning at the short tapered end, roll up each chicken cutlet as for a jellyroll. Secure with a toothpick.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large skillet over high heat. Add the chicken and cook just until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Add the chicken broth and lemon juice, and scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium. Cover and simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a platter. Simmer the cooking liquid over high heat until it is reduced to about 2/3 cup, about 5 minutes. Season the cooking liquid with salt and pepper, to taste. Remove toothpicks from the chicken. Drizzle the reduced cooking liquid over the chicken and serve immediately. I really enjoyed the cooking liquid on this recipe, the whole thing was very good, but the flavor that the liquid had, with the little bit of bite from the lemon juice was delicious.

Sun-dried tomato Pesto Pasta
I don't have a picture of the recipe, because I was not really a fan of how it turned out, but in case anyone else would like to experiment, here are some quick instructions on how I did it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of pesto (I did this with sun dried tomato, but you could use basil instead if you prefer)
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• 1 lb of your favorite pasta, cooked
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

 Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add pesto and stir into the oil, continuing to stir as the pesto heats up. Once it starts to get a little bubbly, add the cream slowly as you stir. You can even add more cream, or some of the pasta water if you would prefer. Turn the heat to low and stir in the pasta, making sure to get as much covered with the sauce as you can. I used bowtie pasta just because I love how it looks, but you can use whatever you'd like. Salt and pepper to taste and serve!

That's it for this week! If you have any suggestions, questions, or would like to share your pictures if you make any of these, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. :) See you next week!

Here we go...

I don't really know where to start. My name is Carissa. I am an army wife, my husband is in Afghanistan and I needed something to keep me busy and help me keep track of the days. I combined that with my love of cooking and decided to make this blog, inviting others to follow me on my adventures with food, separation and the army wife life. I have set a goal to post every Sunday and I am determined to stick to it (and give you all permission to scold me if I don't!) I've never had a blog before so bear with me! My husband just left yesterday, so no recipes for today, but next week I will be doing my first recipes focused on Italian style cooking! That's all for now, but I have one more thing to leave you all with, a little something silly I found online while I was doing some research for this blog :) 

 

Recipe for a military spouse 

1 1/2 cups patience 

1 cup courage 

3/4 cup tolerance 

Dash of adventure 

1 pound of ability 

To the above ingredients: add 2 tablespoons of elbow grease and let stand alone for one year. Marinate frequently with salty tears. Pour off excess fat and sprinkle ever so lightly with money then knead dough until payday. Season with international spices. Bake 20 years or until done. Makes unlimited servings. Serve with pride --author unknown-- 

Well there it is! It's still a little half baked, and has a lot of work left to be perfect, but it's on it's way!