Smokin' the Day Away...

Justin's birthday is less than 2 months away and I'm never one to give presents early...well, maybe 1 day early but that's IT!  And it's usually because I'm too excited about giving the gift and I'm about ready to spill the beans...but this year, I set a new personal record.  I gave him his birthday gift two months--yes, MONTHS--early!

We spent this past New Year's in Kansas City celebrating with Justin's college roommates.  Jabin, our host and son of a grocer, works in the milling industry and knows his food inside and out...And yes, there are days I secretly wish some of Jabin's tricks of the trade would have worn off on Justin when they lived together.  For example, when the guys came to stay with us back in October, Jabin took over the kitchen and had a HUGE breakfast whipped up--and cleaned up--in no time.  Like I said, why didn't that rub off on my husband?!

Anyhow, back to the story.  On New Year's Eve, Jabin introduced my husband to his smoker.  He had received the smoker as a gift from his parents and this thing was a gift from God...it was an electronic smoker AND had a digital thermostat!  All you had to do was load up the wood chips, throw in a pan of water (IF you wanted, it wasn't necessary), put the meat inside, shut the door, plug the baby in and set the temperature.  It was that easy!

The husband and I were never into smoking.  We bought a large Brinkmann grill several years ago and it has a smoker box on the end--but that just seemed like too much work....  In fact, back when the guys came to visit in October, we were sitting around the firepit when Jabin asked my husband, "What have you been smoking lately?"  We all sat there and our jaws just fell to the ground...and then I asked, "What the hell do you mean by that?!"  Turns out, Jabin had spied our grill/smoker box and was referencing THAT.  Not wacky tobacky....but we all got a good laugh out of that!

After we returned home from Kansas City, bellies full of smoked chicken wings, Justin decided he wanted a smoker just like Jabin's.  We priced them and they were actually fairly affordable.  Being the middle of winter, I decided I would buy him one for his birthday in June and it would be a HUGE surprise!  Because, really, would he even remember wanting a smoker for that long???

I was wrong.  For the past three months, my husband has been asking about the smoker.  Finally, I agreed to go to our local Ace Hardware just to "look" at one.  We got to the store, only to find out the company is discontinuing them--and as a result, Ace couldn't even order a floor model for us to look at!  We went to Home Depot--they didn't have any.  We went to Tru Value--they couldn't access the smoker, either.

So, what does a good wife do? I went on Amazon (duh!) and found an incredible deal on one.  Knowing the smoker wouldn't be around for much longer, I ordered it and told J-Money that his birthday gift was on its way!

If this isn't proof that my husband was a wee-bit excited about the smoker, I don't know what is...they had cut down a hickory tree at work, so they chipped it up and brought home 7 gallons of chips!  That's enough to last us, well, forever.

Anywho, the smoker arrived about two weeks ago and we've already fired it up a few times.  I have to admit, I kinda like the thing!  In a way, it's very much like a slow cooker--throw your food in, leave it all day and you come home to an incredible meal.  In fact, I think it will definitely replace our slow cooker during the Spring and Summer months!

The first weekend, we smoked some chicken quarters that we had in the freezer...we had no idea what we were doing and looking back, I feel bad for Jabin.  Little did he know that we would be calling him every 5-minutes about how to do this, how to do that...thankfully, he was a good sport and got us through the basics.

Because we were smoking chicken, we needed a brine to keep the meat from drying out--we eventually figured out a recipe for the brine and  and got the chips soaking in beer.  After 3 hours in the smoker, this is what we had!

After plating up my food, I took one bite of chicken and couldn't help but laugh!  Justin gave me a puzzled look but once he tried the chicken himself, he totally understood.  I couldn't believe we were responsible for such delicious chicken!  I was frankly surprised that we didn't kill the whole tray of chicken between the two of us, but it sure made for good left-overs :-)

That was two weekends ago.

This past weekend, we tried smoking a pork loin.  Again, we had some pork in the freezer (I promise I'm not a food hoarder!) that we defrosted and rubbed.  I had no idea how to smoke pork, so this time I went online for some information.  Luckily, I found a super awesome website full of tips and recipes.  We had struck gold!

We ultimately decided on a Memphis dry rub and a Western Carolina mop sauce.  They weren't identified as "matches" on the website and the dry rub was for pork butt (not a loin, like we had), but based on the ingredient list, I figured they'd go well together!

Much to my surprise, I was actually correct for once!  5 hours later, we took the pork out of the smoker, pulled the meat and warmed up the mop sauce.  Justin thought he had died and gone to heaven!  I can't even imagine what the mop sauce would be like drizzled over a pile of good ol' pulled pork!

For sides, I made fried cabbage and gluten-free Cheesy Garlic biscuits.  The fried cabbage was a new--and super easy--two ingredient recipe. Cabbage and bacon.  Anything with bacon is a guaranteed hit, right?! The directions said to serve it hot, so I did...but once it cooled off, I liked it even better.  Next time around, I'll just have to remember to make it early enough to chill it in the fridge for a while!  As far as the biscuits were concerned, I used the gluten-free Bisquick mix.  J-Money was CONVINCED they were something quite special--or, "off the chain" as he so Southern-ly put it.  I'm still not sure why he thought they were so great...???  Maybe he was just trying to suck up?!  Who knows!  But one thing that I thought was funny--he had no clue they were gluten-free!  I love tricking my husband :-)

So, what's on the menu for this weekend?  Smoked brisket!  I bought one at Sam's yesterday and I got the smallest piece available--it weighed in at 14 pounds!  That's a ton of meat!  But, the husband was excited--he will be eating on smoked brisket for several meals...and that excites ME--I won't have to do any cooking for a while!

Recipe of The Week: Chicken Chimichangas with Green Sauce

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I LOVE Mexican food!

One of my favorites is a good ol' cheesy, deep-fried Chimichanga...they rock my socks off!

I'm always up for a culinary adventure but really, making chimi's at home has always sounded like a lot of work.  If a recipe is very time consuming, it automatically gets put in the "weekends only" file and based on how busy our weekends are, the recipe may never be used.

Just the other day, I ran across a Chimichanga recipe on Allrecipes.com that looked pretty good, had positive reviews and seemed like something I could modify to make a heck of a lot easier/quicker...which I did! 

I finally made it the other night and it was DELICIOUS!  They also fried up pretty easily and without making a huge, greasy mess--another plus!  The recipe makes a significant amount of filling--we had enough for at least 2 meals.  The first time around, we did just the chicken and cheese--then the second time, we added sauteed onions, peppers and tomatoes to the mixture.  We're pretty sure they were even better the second time around ;-)

For those of you who also appreciate a good Chimichanga (and maybe need a last minute meal for Valentine's Day!), here's my version of the recipe:

Photo Courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Chicken Chimichangas with Green Sauce
1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
2-3 pitted green olives (I skipped these)
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 T. fresh lime juice
1" cube of pepperjack cheese
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1 (8 oz) package shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 (1 oz) package taco seasoning (I used Mrs. Dash's Fiesta Blend)
3 chicken breasts
8 (10 inch) flour tortillas
Vegetable Oil
Various toppings: guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheese, etc

Place chicken breasts in crock pot and add taco seasoning/Mrs. Dash,1 tablespoon of lime juice and 3 tablespoons of water.  Cook on high for 3.5 hours or until chicken is done.  Remove chicken breasts from crock pot and shred.  In a separate bowl, stir together the cream cheese and Monterey Jack cheese until well blended.  Fold in chicken and add several spoonfuls of chicken juice, if you wish.  Pour the cream of chicken soup, Pepperjack cheese, green chiles, olives, jalapeno and remaining 1 tablespoon of lime juice into a saucepan; warm over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. 


Evenly divide the chicken mixture among the tortillas.  Fold each tortilla into a rectangular packet around the filling. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place 2 chimichangas at a time in the oil, seam-side down (this keeps them from coming open), and fry until golden brown.  Remove from oil and drawn on paper towels.  Ladle warm sauce over the chimichanga and add any toppings of your liking.

Recipe of the Week--Lettuce Wraps and (Baked) Crab Rangoon!

I have to be somewhat honest here--these recipes aren't necessarily "new" to us...however, I came across them not too long ago and we made the Lettuce Wraps and Crab Rangoon just last week so they're fresh in my mind. And I'm already craving them again!


I love a good Lettuce Wrap. PF Chang's are amazing but we rarely ever are near one. I'm telling ya, these wraps are VERY similar to the ones served at PF Chang's! I've tried various recipes over the years and this one is here to stay. Oh, and you HAVE to make the dipping sauce--it's spectacular! And super easy :-) One thing I should mention--don't be intimidated by the length of the ingredient list. Everything comes together super quickly and if you're willing to spend the extra money, you can get most of the produce items in already-prepared forms.

Now--the Crab Rangoon. I'm not trying to brag, but I've been known to make a great Crab Rangoon. In fact, I about burned down our apartment building frying up a bunch of them for the neighbor boys several years ago. But it was totally worth it :-) One of my secrets involves REAL crab...not that imitation kind...or even the kind in a can. I'm talking the fresh crab from the meat section. You can buy a plastic cup of it for about $6 and it will go a really loooooooong ways--trust me. And my other secret--CHIVE cream cheese. Not the regular cream cheese, but the Philadelphia kind with the chives already in it. The recipe I posted below also calls for Sriracha Chile Sauce (aka Rooster sauce) but if you're not one for spice, you can totally skip it and still have a killer Crab Rangoon!

Asian Lettuce Wraps (Recipe by Our Best Bites)
2 t. canola oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. minced fresh ginger
1 lb ground chicken
3 oz. mushrooms, finely chopped (about 8 small mushrooms)
1/2 t. kosher salt
4 C bagged coleslaw mix or thinly shredded cabbage
8oz canned sliced water chestnuts, drained, rinsed, and finely minced
1/2 C thinly sliced green onions
4 T. soy sauce
1 t. sesame oil
1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 3-4 Tbs juice)
1/2-1 t. Sriracha or other hot sauce (1 tsp of Sriracha is fairly spicy in my opinion, so if you want less or no kick, just give it a little, or you can leave it out completely)
1/3 C roughly chopped cilantro
1-2 heads iceberg lettuce


Dipping/Drizzling Sauce:
4 T. soy sauce
4 T. rice vinegar
3 T. water
2 t. honey
1-2 t. finely minced fresh ginger

Heat a very large skillet to medium-high heat on the stove top. When hot, add vegetable oil and then garlic and ginger. Saute for about 30 seconds, until fragrant, and then add ground chicken, chopped mushrooms, and kosher salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until chicken is cooked through. (*At this point, sometimes I have some extra liquid in the pan from the chicken. If it’s quite a bit, I tilt the pan and spoon it out so the chicken can cook and not boil.) Add cabbage/coleslaw, water chestnuts, and green onions. Cook for about 2 minutes, until cabbage starts to wilt. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, the zest from the lemon and the lemon juice, and hot sauce to taste. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.


To prepare dipping sauce, combine all ingredients and whisk to combine.


To serve, carefully remove the individual leaves from the head of lettuce. (The closer you get to the center, the easier it becomes!) Place chicken mixture in the leaves and serve with sauce.  Yield: about 5 C chicken mixture. Makes 14-16 lettuce wraps.

Sriracha Spiked (Baked) Crab Rangoon
1 pkg. Wonton wrappers
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature (I prefer to use the Philadelphia Chive variety)
2 - 2 1/2 t. Sriracha chile sauce
1/2 t. soy sauce
3 T. finely chopped green onion (you don't need this if you use the Chive cream cheese)
1/4 t. black pepper
1/4 t. grated lemon zest
4 oz. well-drained lump crab meat (trust me, it's worth it to splurge for the real stuff!)
Salt, to taste


To make the filling , combine the cream cheese and chile sauce (to taste) in a bowl. Add the soy sauce, green onion, pepper, lemon zest, and crab meat. Use a fork to mix well. Taste and add salt, as needed. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes before using, or refrigerate up to a day in advance.


Fill each wonton skin with about 1 teaspoon of the filling. Center the filling, brush two adjoining sides with water, then fold to create a triangle. Place on a baking sheet coated with non-stick cooking spray. You may also want to spray the wontons with nonstick cooking spray to help brown them.


Bake at 425 °F (210 °C) for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown (you may need to flip them half-way through the baking time so that they brown evenly). Or you can just fry them in hot oil--but baking them makes ya feel a bit more healthy. Serve warm.


*And if you don't like spice at all, feel free to omit the Sriracha...you will still have a very yummy, and traditional, crab rangoon!

Favorite Things--Marinade

Our evening meals are generally cooked over a hot, open flame during the summer months.  It's just too hot to crank up the oven or even have the stove going.  Needless to say, it's just too hot to be outside but it's definately worth it for some grilled meat!

A few weeks ago, I was craving some good old traditional Barbequed Chicken...I was in the condiment aisle of the grocery store and stumbled upon this:

Stubb's All-Natural Chicken Marinade...they have an entire line for all your different meats, but this one rocks...It's a nice blend of brown sugar, onion, garlic and citrus flavors. 

It seems that with most marinades, you let the meat sit for 30 min-2 hours.  Stubb's actually suggests marinating your meat for no less than 2 hours, so I let the chicken sit in the fridge all day.  The flavor was AMAZING!  It grilled up really nicely and even had the black crispies on it...yummmmmm :-)

For a store-bought sauce, it doesn't taste like it.  If you were really sneaky, you could probably convince house guests that it was a homemade marinade!  And at $2.99/bottle, the price can't be beat and I'm pretty sure we'll never use plain jane BBQ sauce again.

Some Tacos for All That 'Slaw

Remember the coleslaw recipes I shared earlier this week? 

If you read far enough down http://taddylonglegs.blogspot.com/2011/06/coleslaw-crazy.html to find that I mentioned the slaws were the perfect topping for tacos, you're my newest favorite person ;-)

And I don't mean just any "regular" tacos, either.

One of my go-to staples has always been seasoned taco meat for tacos, burritos, Mexican lasagna, whatever it was we had on hand that would constitute a meal.

Fast-forward and Justin and I can no longer handle seasoned taco meat.  If he wants his stomach to get upset and my GERD to get out of control, it will definately make that happen!

As a result, we have become Taco Snobs. 

We're so done with that straight-out-of-an-envelope seasoned meat junk.  And my god, no boxed taco shells purchased from the grocery store either!

The trick to a good taco--wait, nearly amazing taco--is this:

A good old corn tortilla.  Fried in some hot oil!!!  A flour tortilla would be good, too, but there's just something about a fresh corn tortilla (we prefer the white corn variety) that can't be beat.

Make sure you don't fry your tortilla too long--you want to be able to fold it in half.

Once it's out of the oil, it's time to stuff it!

If you made the Spicy Taco Slaw, the best taco filling is:



Oh, yeah--that's right...Good, old processed Cheez Whiz!  I saw the combination over at http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/ and was slightly curious so we had to try it.  While your tortilla is still hot, spread a little Cheez Whiz on the inside, top with your ground beef and onion mixture and our personal touch, the Spicy Slaw.  You'll be in taco heaven.

When we made our Mexican Coleslaw, we had chicken tacos with it...once again, it's easy peasy.  All it requires is:

Dump it all in your crock and cook until the chicken easily shreds.  Fry up your tortilla, stuff with some chicken and Mexi Slaw...but to really set it off, add a spoonful of fresh salsa.  None of that jarred junk--skip it, it will RUIN the yummy-ness!

Trust me--make sure you add some corn tortillas to your shopping list next week and give the tacos a try.  The old boxed shells and enveloped seasonings are likely to go out the window! 

Indian Butter Chicken

Last week as we were putting together the grocery list, Justin specifically requested "that Indian chicken you made one time."  WHAT?!  The guy who "hates" Indian food is actually requesting it?! 

I have to be honest--I've grown tired of my standby recipe so I decided to try something different.  I had seen a recipe for Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken) and we had most of the spices on hand...it sounded like a perfect blend of curry, garam masala and cardamom. We added it to the menu and popped all the ingredients into the slower cooker yesterday afternoon.

Not trying to brag, here--but it turned out delicious!  It reminded me of the Butter Chicken from The Globe in Topeka.  The spice blend was perfect--it wasn't spicy but it wasn't as strong as some Indian dishes can be.  We served it over rice and had regular peas on the side.  I have never made a successful peas paneer but oh, they would be great with this dish!  When it was time to eat, Justin asked where the bread was--I completely forgot to pick up some naan but as this recipe creates a lot of sauce, the naan would have been the icing on the cake. 

I've recently developed a strong aversion to reheated chicken...but I decided to be brave this morning (okay, I was starving and there was nothing else to eat) and have the left-overs for lunch.  I think it was almost better the second day!

Crockpot Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
adapted from Stephanie O'Dea at www.crockpot365.blogspot.com

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (mine were frozen solid)

1 onion, sliced
6 garlic cloves, chopped
4 T butter
15 cardamom pods (I used about 2 t. ground cardamom instead)
2 tsp curry
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (you can adjust this to make it more spicy)
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 can coconut milk (I used light)
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
2 T lemon juice
1 cup plain yogurt (to add at the end, I used greek yogurt)

Use a 5 quart or larger crockpot. Carefully sew together the cardamom pods using a needle and thread. You can put them in a little cheese cloth bundle, instead, if you have that in the house. Put chicken in crockpot, and add onion, garlic, and all of the dry spices (this is where I added the ground cardamom). Plop in the butter and tomato paste. Add lemon juice and coconut milk. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. The chicken should shred easily with 2 forks when fully cooked.

Stir in plain yogurt 15 minutes before serving. Discard cardamom pods. Salt to taste, serve with white or brown basmati rice.

Tastes Like Chicken...Must Be Chicken

If you know Justin very well, you will know he LOVES chicken wings...and his hot sauce.

Ironically enough, Mom called on Monday night to say the Kite's on Highway 24 has an All-You-Can-Eat Chicken Wing buffet with a bunch of sides on Mondays for just $6.99....as we already had something in the crockpot for supper, I figured we'd go another time.  But then I realized I already had a new Chicken Wing recipe on the menu for this week and figured if Justin didn't like the wings, we'd definately hit up the buffet next week to make up for it.

Needless to say, I think Justin liked the new recipe.  He ate 4 pounds of wings.  Yes, 4 pounds.  I only had 5 wings myself before he wiped them out!  You know those people who blog about feeding a family of 4 on $10 a day?  Well, that will never be us!  I bet you he could easily eat $10 worth of home-cooked food at breakfast alone.  Justin definately burns off anything he eats at work the next day, but there's times I think he may want to get his cholosterol checked :-/

If any of you out there are chicken wing fans, you may like this recipe...it's super simple and yummy! It doesn't have an overpowering Asian flavor, either...it's just different from your typical hot wings and would be great for those who aren't into Buffalo sauce.  I had mine with brown rice and it went well together!  Some food for thought--After removing them from the crockpot, I usually put the wings under the broiler to crisp them up a bit...or you could go super unhealthy and fry the wings rather than slow cook them, then top them with the sauce!

5-Spice Chicken Wings
1 C. Plum Sauce
1 t. Chinese Five-Spice (more or less to taste)
2 T. Butter, melted
3 lb. Chicken Wings

Spray crockpot with non-stick cooking spray.  Stir together plum sauce, 5-spice and butter.  Place frozen wings in crockpot, top with sauce.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  If desired, garnish with orange or pineapple slices.

(We had tons of chicken wings, so I just filled our crockpot to the top and went heavy on the 5-Spice...I also added some cayenne pepper for a bit of heat and even though we didn't have quite a full cup of the plum sauce, things balanced out well!)

Another Recipe for the Books

We're almost two months into the school year and I'm still on my slow cooker kick.  I've think we've only cooked 2 or 3 meals either on the stove or in the oven this entire time...it's so easy to come home over lunch to let the dog out and bring the cat in to eat, throw some stuff into the crockpot and come home to find supper waiting on us!

For the most part, we've been able to avoid rotating recipes.  There's so many sites on the Internet that we could probably have a different meal every night for several months.

Justin and I tend to like our food on the spicy side...in his world, that also means salty.  I'm not sure how he equates salty to mean spicy, but to me--spicy is just that, spicy!

I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com while preparing our weekly grocery list.  As we've both been fighting colds and our heads are full of congestion, I figured a little chipotle pepper might clear out our sinuses!  The recipe called for about 3 peppers--I put in 7 or 8...it had some heat but unfortunately it did not solve our head problems ;-) 

CREAMY CHIPOTLE CHICKEN

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup melted butter
salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup (we used the light version)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (once again, the light kind) cut into cubes

3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced

1 tablespoon adobo sauce from chipotle peppers

Directions

Place the chicken breasts into a slow cooker, brush with butter, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and minced garlic. Pour in the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth, and add the cream cheese, peppers, and adobo sauce. Stir the mixture gently. Cover, set the cooker to Low, and cook for 6 hours...I just put some butter straight from the fridge into the crockpot and it didn't make any difference--I didn't cube the cream cheese either.  A good stirring at the end combined everything very well!  Also, I chunked the chicken before serving...slow cooked chicken breasts just aren't visually appealing to me :-)

Another Favorite

For the past week and a half, all of our meals have been made in the crockpot.  I love casseroles just as much as the next person, but slow cooked meals require so much less prep and mess--and that's exactly what my meals require...no work!

I found this awesome website that has been a huge help--www.crockpot365.blogspot.com.  Some gal started it in 2009 as a New Year's resolution to use her crockpot every day for 1 year without ever reusing a recipe.  And she did it!

Personally, I love her website.  It seems that so many crockpot recipes I would find were basically some version of chicken and rice or things were heavy on cream-of-whatever soup...which is fine, but frankly, it gets old after a while.

I absolutely love Indian food and was over the moon to see that she successfully made a few different Indian dishes in the crockpot.  Some of the recipes are in this week's rotation but last week I tried the Tandoori Chicken and it was out of this world!  The blogger used a whole chicken but I've read other places not to slow cook a whole chicken--apparently the internal temperature doesn't reach the correct temperature quickly enough and it increases your risk for food poisoning.

With that said, I tried boneless-skinless chicken thighs knowing the dark meat would soak up all the flavors.  After 8 hours on low, it came out FANTASTIC!  I've tried other Indian dishes at home and they were terrible...but this was so good that I took the leftovers for lunch (well, pretty much just rice & the sauce since I still can't do much meat) on Friday and I've found myself thinking about it everyday.  No joke. Plus, Justin has a strong dislike for anything Indian but he loved it as well and thinks we should eat it at least once a week!  Overall, it's not as "Indian" as other dishes, especially curry dishes--so if you've never tried Indian, this might be a good dish to try.

So here's the recipe...like I said, I used thighs instead of a whole chicken and I skipped the food coloring.  We didn't have any on hand and I was not about ready to drop $4 on a new bottle of red dye.  Also, if you don't have some of the spices and you're not sure if you'll like them, check around to see if you can buy them out of a bulk bin.  I bought the cheapest cardamom that Dillon's had and just one bottle was $7...

Tandoori Chicken

3-4 lbs chicken (thawed or frozen, doesn't matter)

1 cup plain yogurt, divided (you could use sour cream, instead and that's what we used)

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

6 cardamom pods, or 1/4 teaspoon ground

1 tablespoon cumin

6 cloves garlic

5-6 drops red food coloring (optional)

1 lemon, juiced

In a small mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup yogurt/sour cream with all dry spices, and the red food coloring. Place chicken into a 5-6 quart slow cooker and pour cream/mixture on top of meat.  Toss garlic cloves on top and squeeze on the lemon juice.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4.  Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of yogurt/sour cream.  Serve over basmati rice...we also enjoyed ours with naan on the side!

It's really that easy--but you would never know by tasting it!

Another Yummy Recipe!

We made this recipe Tuesday night and it was delicious!  One of my old Creighton buddies, Kathy, had posted it on Facebook and since we've been trying new dishes lately, I thought we'd give it a shot.  I had always wanted to try a recipe with leeks (I'm a bit of a green onion lover!) so this was a perfect fit...PS They're not kidding about how dirty leeks are!  Be sure you clean them VERY well :-)

Rachel Ray's Super Herbed Sautéed Salmon with Creamy Leeks and Bacon
--Try halibut, mahi-mahi, or tilapia….chicken works too!--

3 Tbs EVOO
6 bacon slices, chopped
3 lg leeks, super dark green parts and roots discarded
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ tsp dried thyme
1 large pinch of red pepper flakes
2/3 cup white wine
1 ½ cups chicken stock
¼ cups half and half or heavy cream (we used 2% milk and it did the trick!)
(4) 6-ounce portions salmon fillet, skin removed (we used about 1lb. chicken instead)
½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
3 sprigs fresh dill, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon (we used lemon-pepper seasoning)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat a lg skillet over medium heat with 1 Tbs of EVOO, once around the pan. Add the chopped bacon and cook, stirring every now and then, until crisp, about 2 to 3 minutes. While the bacon is getting crisp, get the leeks ready.

To clean the leeks, cut each in half lengthwise, and then thinly slice each half into half moons. Fill a large bowl with cold water, transfer the sliced leeks to the water, swish and swoosh the leeks around in the water, and then let them sit without messing with them for a minute. Using your hands, skim the leeks from the water without disturbing the grunge that has settled to the bottom. Drain the leeks thoroughly, feeling them for grit. If you feel some, repeat the cleaning process with a clean bowl of water. Don’t forget to thoroughly wipe off your cutting board after chopping the leeks, otherwise the next thing you chop of the board will have sand and grit in it.

Once the bacon is crisp, remove it from the skillet to a paper-towel-lined plate and reserve. Don’t wipe the skillet out; there is lots of bacon flavor in there. Return the skillet to the stovetop over medium heat and add the leeks, half the garlic, the thyme, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Add the white wine and cook for 1 minute, then add the chicken stock and half-and-half. Bring the mixture up to a simmer, then turn down the heat to medium low. Simmer the mixture for about 10 to 12 minutes, until tender and creamy.

While the leeks are cooking, start the salmon. Season the salmon on all sides with some salt and pepper. On a plate, combine the parsley, dill the remaining garlic and the lemon zest. Gently press one side of each salmon fillet into the herb mixture. Preheat a medium or lg nonstick skillet over medium heat with the remaining 2 TBS of EVOO. Once the oil is hot, add the salmon fillets herb side down. Cook the salmon about 2 to 3 minutes on the herb side, then turn the heat up to medium high, flip the salmon and continue to cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until cook through.

Add the reserved crispy bacon to the leeks and stir to combine. Divide the leeks among 4 serving plates. Top each pile of leeks with a portion of the salmon. Cut the lemon into wedges and squeeze the juice over the fish.

Our Newest "Favorite" Meal

A few weeks ago, our basil was out of control...there was tons of it and it had grown as tall as my hip!  I started scouring the internet for ways to use it in main meals and suddenly remembered the Spicy Basil Chicken at Tuptim Thai in Topeka.  Frankly, I think it's one of the best dishes I have ever eaten and I crave it all the time...however, I'm not going to drive all the way to Topeka just to eat supper.

I immediately went to Allrecipes.com and they had so many versions of the Spicy Basil Chicken to pick from.  I chose the one that looked fairly simple but still had flavorful ingredients--I have to admit that I was leery of the fish oil at first, but trust me, that's the key to unlocking the recipe's yumminess!

We have now made it several times and there's hardly any leftovers!  It's now our go-to dish when we can't think of anything else to cook.  We've been having egg rolls on the side but one of these days I want to make my homemade crab rangoon instead--last time I made them I about burnt down Aggie Village but I would make sure alcohol isn't involved this time around!!

For those of you who might want to try it sometime, here's the recipe!

Spicy Thai Basil Chicken

Ingredients:

3/4 cup coconut milk (I was able to find lite coconut milk which was awesome for the fat content)

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (I've only been able to find this at Dillon's thus far)

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, sliced

2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1/2 inch strips

3 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

5 green onions, chopped

1 1/2 cups chopped fresh basil leaves

* The last time I made it, I put the mushrooms/onion/basil in the food processor and it did an awesome job in no time at all

Directions:

1.In a bowl, mix the coconut milk, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, and red pepper flakes.

2.In a skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion, ginger, and garlic, and cook until lightly browned. Mix in chicken strips, and cook about 3 minutes, until browned. Stir in the coconut milk sauce. Continue cooking until sauce is reduced by about 1/3. Mix in mushrooms, green onions, and basil, and cook until heated through. Serve over cooked rice.