Potato Latkes

I do not have an actual recipe for this. I just have a method that I have come up with over the years. It is a combination of many recipes I have used in the past. But I don't need a recipe anymore. They are relatively simple, so you just have to get the consistency right and then you're golden.

One thing I've learned is that you need to be really patient with the potatoes. You need to let them lose as much water as possible. If they stay too wet, they won't crisp up real nice. So let them drain a looooong time. And you'll probably have to still drain more water while they're sitting in the bowl waiting to be fried. Here is my "recipe"

4 medium to large yukon gold potatoes, grated
1/2 medium yellow onion, grated (I have also used chopped green onions heer and it was good that way too!)
1/2-1 tbsp flour
1 egg beaten
oil for frying (I use canola oil)

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir until well combined. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and coat pan with oil. You'll want to use enough oil to coat the bottom of the skillet, but not too much, or they won't cook right. Drop batter by tablespoons into hot oil and flatten with the back of the spoon, forming a pancake shape. Fry until golden on both sides (about 5-6 minutes each side, depending on how crispy you like them.) Drain on paper towel lined plate. You can keep them warm in a 200 degree oven on a baking sheet while you cook the rest.

Chicken in Mushroom Pan Sauce

Another recipe inspired by Elly! Actually, I first saw the recipe that inspired this meal on Ashley's blog, Delish. It looked so yummy, and since I had a bunch of mushrooms left from when I made my soup, I decided to do a mushroom sauce instead of an herb sauce. I also did not use wine because I was cooking for my daughter as well and I guess I felt more comfortable skipping the wine altogether and just used broth. It was so tasty and comforting. I also made mashed potatoes for the first time in a long time. Its kind of hard for me to make mashed potatoes, because the meals that they go with are usually meat meals. And since we're kosher, that would mean not using butter or milk or cream in my mashed potatoes. And I was pretty sure, until tonight, that you just can't have good mashed potatoes without all those things. Well, I will say that they are certainly better with butter and milk and cream, etc. BUT. My mashed potatoes were very good tonight.

Chicken in Mushroom Pan Sauce

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced horizontally or pounded thin (I always slice mine)
flour for dredging
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2-3/4 cup chicken broth (I used part homemade stock, part store-bought broth)
3 ozs sliced baby portabella mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic, minced

Add flour, salt and pepper, and oregano to a shallow dish. Mix together and dredge the chicken in the flour. Add oil to a skillet and heat. Cook chicken in skillet, about 4 minutes on each side, until done. Set aside and keep warm. Add mushrooms to pan and cook until tender, about 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute or so. Add broth and cook until reduced and thickened; about 5-7 minutes. Serve sauce over chicken and potatoes.

Non-dairy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

4 small-medium yukon gold potatoes
2-3 cloves smashed garlic
chicken broth
2 tbsp non-dairy margarine

Boil potatoes with garlic cloves. Drain and smash with a fork. Add broth and margarine and mix until smooth and margarine is melted.

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Chicken fingers!! When I decided to make chicken fingers tonight, I decided to try something new. I have always used bread crumbs to bread my chicken, but my Dad always used cereal, so I decided to give that a shot. And I though Rice Krispies would be perfect. Partly because I had some, but partly because they're so crunchy. It worked out wonderfully and I can honestly say I don't think I'll be using breadcrumbs to bread my chicken ever again. Here's how I did it:

Kayte's Chicken Fingers (serves 3-4)
Ingredients
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into nuggets or strips
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups Rice Krispies cereal, crushed
1/4 cup Canola oil

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Season chicken pieces with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Dredge strips or nuggets in flour, coat with egg, then coat in crushed Rice Krispies (I crushed mine in a gallon sized freezer bag and used my hands). Add chicken pieces to pan and cook, flipping once, about 5-7 minutes per side. If your skillet isn't big enough to fit all of the chicken (mine wasn't) keep the cooked chicken pieces in the oven to keep them warm. I laid mine out on a plate covered with a paper towel to soak up some of the oil.

I served the chicken with oven fries and roasted broccoli.

Oven Fries (serves 3-4)
2 medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes
olive oil cooking spray
salt and pepper to taste

Cut potatoes into strips. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and lay the potato strips out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and spray with cooking spray. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, flipping halfway through so that they cook evenly.

Roasting broccoli is done pretty much the same way as the fries, except the broccoli only has to roast for about 10-15 minutes.

Breaded chicken in Mushroom Sauce

I had such a hard time coming up with a good idea for dinner tonight. I knew I had some boneless skinless chicken breasts thawing, but I couldn't think of anything yummy to make. So my good friend Michelle helped me brainstorm. First, she suggested fajitas, which I've never made, but they sounded great. Only problem was, I didn't have most of what I'd need to make them. And I did not feel like going to the store. So then we started talking about sauteeing them on the stove top and Michelle told me all about how she makes them. And I had everything I needed (since it doesn't require many ingredients) so I decided to go for it.

The result was a dinner that everyone loved. Maura said "this is the best chicken you've ever made!" Which was really sweet of her to say, but I did remind her that she says that a lot :-) She's not hard to please. Here's the "recipe" the way I made it, using Michelle's instructions.

Michelle's Breaded Chicken in Mushroom Sauce (source: Michelle)
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin or sliced in half (I always slice mine down the center to make 2 separate pieces)
~2 tbsp olive oil
flour
mushrooms (I used pre-sliced baby bellas)
vegetable broth

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil. Dredge both sides of chicken in flour. Add to pan and brown on both sides; approximately 3-4 minutes per side. Add mushrooms and cook through, about 3 minutes. Add vegetable broth (I did not measure the broth at all, but I'm guessing I used 1/2 cup or so) Cook over medium heat until sauce is reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes.

I served this with roasted yukon gold potatoes and garlic green beans. The green beans were really simple. I just threw some frozen green beans into a pan sprayed with olive oil. I also added 1 clove of garlic, minced finely. I cooked them over a medium heat for about 5-7 minutes, until they were cooked through. My mom has asked for an actual recipe for my roasted potatoes, so here it is

Roasted potatoes (serves 3-4 people)
3-4 medium potatoes (I use either Yukon Gold or Red potatoes)
olive oil spray
salt and pepper
Italian Seasoning

Preheat oven to 425. Cut potatoes into chunks. Spray baking sheet with olive oil and spread potatoes on baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning (the options are really endless here as far as what you season the potatoes with. I have used garlic and basil, or rosemary. It's really all about what you want to use) Spray potatoes with olive oil and bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Oh Kitchen, how I missed thee!!

I missed my kitchen so much while I was on vacation. I got to cook dinner for everyone (meaning about 24 people) only once. It was quite the experience. But I loved it. I made shredded BBQ chicken, breaded zucchini, and corn on the cob. The whole dinner was a huge hit. It was a ton of work though. Imagine shredding enough chicken for 24 people. Not a quick meal! But anyway, I missed my kitchen and did not get any chances to bake at all.

So tonight, I got back in the kitchen and threw together a dinner with what I had on hand. I made some BBQ chicken in the oven and roasted some potatoes. I was going to make a veggie side, like roasted zucchini. But I forgot to pick up veggies at the store yesterday, and all the veggies leftover from before we left for vacation looked questionable. So no veggies with dinner tonight.

For the BBQ chicken, I just let the chicken pieces soak/marinade in some BBQ sauce for about 15 minutes(Hunts' Hickory and Brown Sugar...sooooo good!) I lined a baking sheet with foil, placed the chicken pieces on the baking sheet and baked them at 425 for about 25 minutes. I took them out about basted them, then put then back in the oven for another 15 minutes, basting with the sauce one more time before they were done cooking. It was super easy and super yummy.

To roast the potatoes, I just cut them into chunks, laid them on a baking sheet (which i sprayed with olive oil first), sprayed the potatoes with olive oil, and then sprinkled some salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning on them. I threw the potatoes in the oven at the same time as the chicken, and they were done before the chicken, so i probably should have waited.

I also decided to bake tonight, since I haven't baked in over a week, and I loooove to bake. Also, tomorrow is Maura's first day of 3rd grade and I wanted to bake some goodies for her to have in her lunches for her first week of school. I used a recipe I have used over and over again for Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. But I made it differently. This time I used Dark Chocolate cocoa powder and White Chocolate Chips. This is by far my favorite cookie recipe. I am not a huge fan of white chocolate, so I was hesitant to try it this way. They were very tasty, but next time I will stick to other add-ins. I have made them with semisweet chips, and with chopped up dark chocolate and milk chocolate bars. The original recipe comes from foodnetwork.com and can be found here.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Add white chocolate chips and stir to distribute evenly.
For cookies: Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.
For bars: Pat dough into a greased 9 inch square baking pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into squares when cooled

Oh, and here's a picture of the beach for you :-) We went to Bethany Beach, Delaware last week and had a blast with my entire family.

Happy Birthday Maura!

Maura turned 8 years old today! We took her to Hershey Park over the weekend and did some celebrating and had lots of fun there. And tonight, my mom and my brother and sister came over and we had a really nice dinner and really yummy cake. Maura's new favorite meal is the Caramelized Baked Chicken from allrecipes.com. This is the first recipe in my blog and definitely one of the best chicken dishes I have ever made. So she requested it for her birthday dinner. It was delicious and everyone loved it. I think my brother had about 4 pieces. He's a big eater!

I made Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake and let me tell you...it was perfect! It was seriously the best chocolate cake I have ever had. It was rich and moist and "perfectly chocolate" I can't say enough about it. I made a frosting that I found on allrecipes that uses Cool Whip and vanilla pudding mix. It was much lighter than most traditional frostings, but still very sweet and good. I will say that next time I think I will stick with a buttercream icing. I just like a richer, denser frosting. But the frosting tasted wonderful and the cake was amazing. It was my first attempt at cake decorating, so it's a little droopy. But I did the best I could and I think it turned out pretty well! So here are the recipes for the cake and frosting.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake (source: hersheys.com)
Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.
Cool Whipped Frosting
Ingredients
1 8 ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 3.4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
In a medium bowl, combine pudding mix with milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Gently fold in whipped topping until no streaks remain. Spread evenly over cake.

Everything was wonderful tonight and Maura had a great time. I'm so glad that my family could come and share everything with us tonight. It made the night extra special for all of us. My dad was sorely missed. This is Maura's first birthday without him and that is very hard. So I'm gonna put a picture of him in here too, cause I know he was here in spirit! (it's a very old picture, but it really captures his wonderful, funny personality :) )

Oh! And this post would not be complete without a picture of the birthday girl herself! I couldn't get a picture of her tonight because she just wouldn't stand still long enough and my phone camera isn't good at action shots. So this is the best I can do!

Not exactly blogworthy....

But ya know what? Its food, this is a food blog, so I'm posting about it! Tomorrow is my daughter's birthday and I will be busy baking her cake tonight and tomorrow night will be very busy with lots of cooking and celebrating. So I wanted an easy dinner. I was going to make pasta, but I had pizza for dinner, and I didn't want pasta and pizza in the same day for some reason. So I decided to make hot dogs, oven fries, and roasted zucchini.
The oven fries were really yummy. I don't always do well with these. I always seem to over cook them and they get gross. This time they were very good though. I sprayed them with olive oil spray and sprinkled some salt, fresh ground pepper, and garlic powder. They were very tasty! I know my hot dog looks naked. I did put toppings on it, but I took the pictures first. I also want to mention that roasted zucchini is my favorite vegetable, and if you think you don't like zucchini, try it roasted and I think you might change your mind!

BBQ Chicken, Potatoes, and Green Beans

BBQ Chicken is one of my favorite foods. I love it on the grill and could eat it a couple of times a week and not complain. Living in an apartment, unfortunately, means that I do not have an outdoor grill. I do have a George Foreman Grill, but it's such a pain to clean and I really didn't feel like dealing with it. So I decided to just try it in a skillet on the stove top. I've made bbq chicken this way before, except the last time I used boneless skinless breasts and cut them into chunks and made BBQ chicken wraps. This time, I used chicken leg quarters. I use this kind of chicken a lot lately because it is very in expensive (kosher meat is ridiculous sometimes) and it tastes really yummy. I took the quarters and separated the leg from the thigh to make it easier to fit into my little skillet. I "marinaded" the chicken pieces in BBQ sauce for about an hour before cooking. I like to do this because I like my chicken really saucy and that helps it hold onto some of the sauce and the flavor. I have to confess here that I used bbq sauce from a jar. I just used Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce. It was delicious! I sprayed the skillet with some olive oil spray, and cooked the chicken pieces over a medium flame for about 35-40 minutes. I basted with more sauce on each side a couple of times during cooking. It was really good and easy and everyone here loved it.


For the potatoes, I took 3 medium-large red potatoes and cut them into relatively small pieces. I laid them on a baking sheet coated with olive oil spray and sprayed them with the oil. I sprinkled salt and pepper and chopped rosemary leaves on them and roasted them at about 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. They were brown and crispy and delicious.

I tried something new with my green beans, and I won't be making them this way again. I sauteed them in olive oil spray and garlic. That, on it's own, probably would have been fine. But I also squeezed some lemon juice on them and that did not taste right to me. Rob liked them though, so that's a big success!

Oh, and I usually leave the skin on the chicken when I cook this type of chicken because I love it so much. But I decided that it was time for me to start taking it off. And I did not miss it at all! The sauce got cooked right into the meat and tasted wonderful!

A week without Maura!

So, my aunt took my daughter away from me for a whole week. She is out of town visiting her best friend (my cousin) I miss her terribly and the week cannot go by fast enough. Rob and I have decided that this would be a great week to make some meals that Maura might not like. I have heard so many fantastic things about Giada's Balsamic Chicken on the What's Cooking board, and this seemed like something Maura might not be into. Although, I think I may be wrong about that. I think she would absolutely love this meal! Anyway, I fully intended to try it quite a while ago. I bought some balsamic vinegar just for the occasion. And then I didn't make it...so I used the balsamic for something else! Then, my good friend Steph (better known as skidunks) said she was making this the other day, and that inspired me to actually make it! It was so good and not as hard to make as I thought it would be. I think the only thing I will do differently next time is marinade it longer. Like all day or something. I marinaded for about 2 1/2 hours and it was really good. But I think all day would make it even better. Oh, and since I didn't use the type of chicken Giada calls for in her recipe, I would probably make less of the marinade. We had a ton leftover and throwing it out makes me feel wasteful. Anyway, my changes have been made in italics.

Balsamic Chicken Drumettes (source WC nesties: original source Giada De Laurentiis)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 sprigs of rosemary
5 garlic cloves, halved
10 to 12 chicken drumsticks (I used 3 chicken leg quarters)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (I left these out because I didn't have any)
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (again, I left this out because I didn't have any)

Combine the balsamic, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce (I used less sodium soy sauce), rosemary sprigs, and garlic cloves, in a large, re-sealable plastic bag (I was clumsy and let go of the bag while getting the marinade ready and spilled it everywhere. so be careful!). Shake and squeeze the contents of the bag to dissolve the honey and the brown sugar. Add the chicken drumsticks (or leg quarters...or whatever kind of chicken you feel like using) to the bag and seal with as little air as possible in the bag. Place in the refrigerator and marinate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Place the chicken drumsticks on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake until the skin is caramelized and very dark in spots, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the marinade in a small saucepan. Bring the marinade to a boil (in order to kill bacteria). Reduce the heat to simmer and cook over low heat until thick, about 15 minutes. Reserve.

Use a pastry brush to brush some of the cooked marinade on the cooked chicken. Place the chicken on a serving platter. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and the chopped parsley.

I served this with oven roasted red potatoes. I tossed the potatoes, which I cut into eights, in some olive oil, salt and pepper, and rosemary. They were fantastic. I cooked them in the oven for the same amount of time as the chicken. They were a little brown on the outside, but I like them that way :-)

I also sauteed some zucchini in some olive oil and one minced garlic clove. Oh, and salt and pepper of course. They are soo good this way. I normally roast them, but have tried sauteeing them and it gives them such a different flavor. Rob really likes them this way and even went back for seconds of the zucchini. Anyone who knows my husband, knows this is extremely strange, especially since he took seconds of the zucchini before he took seconds of the meat or potatoes!

Tried and true!

Tonight I decided to make a dish that I knew we all love. It's a dish that I found on elly's blog and it has become one of our favorite dinners. It is so easy and so delicious. It takes a while to cook, but since it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare it, the hour wait for it to be done is really not a big deal. The sauce that is left behind in the bottom of the baking dish is amazing, and I love the way it tastes with the potatoes. I always use yukon gold potatoes because their buttery texture goes so well with the sauce. There isn't really a recipe for this meal. It's all done by taste/sight. I use an oval baking dish (no clue about the size) You start off by cutting up your potatoes. For the 3 of us, I use 3 yukon gold potatoes, peel them, and cut them into eights. Then, coat the bottom of the baking dish with olive oil and the juice of half a lemon. Add the chicken ( I use 3 chicken leg quarters) and potatoes to the baking dish and coat both sides of the chicken and potatoes with the lemon juice and olive oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper and oregano on both sides of the chicken and on the potatoes and squeeze the juice of the other half of the lemon over everything. Add enough chicken broth (I almost always use veggie broth cause that's what I always have) to cover the bottom of the pan (elly says 1/3 cup, but i never measure) Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. Make sure to check periodically to make sure you don't need to add more broth, or to baste with the sauce if you'd like.

Tonight I roasted zucchini and broccoli and they go so well with this dish. I cut the zucchini into chunks, and the broccoli into florets, laid them on a baking sheet coated with olive oil, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and then sprayed them with olive oil spray. This is my favorite way to eat veggies, and my previously non-veggie eating husband loves them this way. I pop those in the oven when there's about 20 minutes left for the chicken. I love this dish and will continue to make it over and over! Thanks Elly!