Chris' Recipes

Bon Appetite!

Potato Soup

Written By: Chris - Oct• 06•12

A couple weeks ago, mid week I got a text from Nick requesting Bri’s favorite  Potato soup!  They joined us on Sunday for dinner and had asked in advance if I would please make a big batch so they could take some home.  You may wish to cut this recipe in half, because it makes a lot!  I used 10 lbs download samsung handy e mail. of potatoes along with all of the other ingredients and there was not only enough for dinner, but I was able to send a big bowl (14 Cups) home with them, we froze about as much and also had enough for lunch the next day for a few extra friends Download photos from icloud to mobile phone!

Ingredients:

10 lbs leo app herunterladen. Potatoes
1 whole stock Celery
3 Large Sweet Onion
2 sticks Butter
4 Cups Chopped Ham (I used Turkey Ham!)
2 Quarts of homemade Chicken Stock
8 Cups Water
1/3 Cup Chicken Base – to taste – start with less, add more as you don’t want it too salty matlab herunterladen!
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Corn Starch
6 Cups Skim Milk
1/2 Cup Wondera
1 Pint Heavy Cream

Start by washing the potatoes and getting them into some boiling water to easily peel them.  Bill’s aunt Charlotte sent me this helpful hint some time ago and I had never tried it until now…  Well, my peelings didn’t slip off as easily as in the video, but none the less – I do find that this method was a time savor.  Click on this link, watch it and see if you find that peeling potatoes couldn’t be easier musik downloaden umsonst!

I ended up using a small small paring knife to “scrape” off much of the peelings, but none the less found that it did seem easier than peeling the entire ten pounds of them with a traditional vegetable peeler!  The potatoes end up being par-cooked.  While they cool, chop the onions and celery

Place half of the butter into your stock pot over low heat.  Season the onions and celery with salt & pepper and saute over medium heat, stirring occasionally until they become translucent

Chop the ham into small cubes and add it to the onions and celery.  Cook for about five minutes over medium high heat trying to caramelize and brown the meat some to draw out the flavors.  While it’s cooking, chop the potatoes into your desired size cad parts. (my kids like bigger chunks, so they were about the size of a nickle.)

Combine chicken flavoring to water and/or use home made chicken stock.  I used some of each because of what I had on hand.  I prefer the paste-like chicken base in combination to my homemade stock

Add potatoes to celery, onion and ham combination and cover with stock, continuing to cook over medium heat allowing he potatoes to cook through and become tender

Next, you’ll make “roux”, which is simply a base of flour and (fat of any type) but I prefer the richness and flavors of butter.  It is used to thicken and flavor sauces, soups, etc hörspiele zum downloaden gratis. Melt the other half of the butter in a sauce pan over very low heat.  Gradually sprinkle in the flour and immediately begin stirring.  Continue to stir the mixture constantly until it reaches a nice golden color

While continuing to stir, slowly add in milk, which has been mixed with the corn starch while cold – stirring constantly to avoid any lumps.  I decided that this wasn’t going to thicken fast enough, so i added some Wondra, which is a very finely sifted flour.  Continue to stir over medium low heat until the sauce thickens software video.

Pour the thickened sauce into the soup.  Once you are ready to eat, turn off the heat and add the cream.  Serve immediately.  We prefer to garnish with fresh Cilantro and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese memory herunterladen.

Enjoy kostenlose videoclips herunterladen!

Cheers!
~Chris

 

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Roasted Spaghetti Squash

Written By: Chris - Oct• 04•12

There are so many types of squash readily available during this season that I have a hard time controlling what I purchase!  During these times when the wonderful produce is available I often struggle with limiting how many and/or how much I bring home.  Most of the year we are very limited here in the Midwest and it’s a lot of fun creating healthy dishes while the produce is so delicious and fresh wordpress seite komplett herunterladen.

The spaghetti squash (also called vegetable spaghetti, noodle squash, spaghetti marrow, gold string melon) is an oblong seed-bearing variety of winter squash.  The fruit can range either from ivory to yellow or orange in color.  We don’t see much of the orange variety, which has a higher carotene content.  Spaghetti squash contains many large seeds in it’s center and the outside flesh is usually bright yellow.  When raw, the flesh is solid and similar to other raw squash; but when cooked, the flesh falls away from the fruit in ribbons or strands like spaghetti.  It can be used to replace and/or cut back on carbohydrates and it actually tastes terrific! android 7 for free!

Preheat your grill or oven to 350

Wash the skin of the squash with warm water and dry with a towel.  Rub the skin with olive oil and place in a shallow baking dish.  Poke squash with a knife in a half a dozen or so spots around and Bake at 350 for 60-90 minutes, depending on the size until you can pierce the skin and flesh underneath easily with a paring knife.  My grill got a bit hotter this time, so it took only about an hour.  Keep your eye on it minecraft windows 10 herunterladen.

Let cool for a few minutes before you cut into it.  Once it has cooled for a bit cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds in the middle with a big spoon and discard lustige videos zum downloaden kostenlos.

Then, using a fork, fluff up and scrape out the flesh.  It will look like spaghetti abd herunterladen!

Top with some browned ground beef, onions and garlic and your favorite marinara.  Sprinkle with Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese download audio.

Rich, moist, creamy, delicious and healthful has never tasted so good!  We paired ours with a beautiful bottle of Mitch’s 2006 Sangiovese from Cosentino flash player for mac!

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

Posted in Grilled, Main Dishes, Recipes, Side dishes , , , | 1 Comment »

Roasted Garlic

Written By: Chris - Sep• 19•12

It happens every time… All I have to do is place a smash garlic clove in a skillet with a dash of butter or oil and Bill comes wandering into the kitchen enthusiastically wondering what’s for dinner and telling me how good it smells in the house!  I get the same results when I roast garlic as he just loves it avira.oe.setup.msi.msi herunterladen!  I buy garlic in bulk at Costco.

If you’ve never roasted fresh garlic, I encourage you to do so.  Besides the fact that there are various health benefits, garlic tastes delicious.  Roasted garlic is a particularly sweet.  Roasting provides a more mellow way to prepare it.  It can be added to a meal or eaten as a snack or appetizer.  It can also be added to foods such as an addition to chicken, soups or roasts download audio stream from youtube.

As part of a healthy diet, roasted garlic may promote overall cardiovascular health.  Some medical centers report that garlic consumption decreases systolic and diastolic blood pressure.  According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, garlic consumption decreases levels of both total and LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol adobe indesign cs2 kostenlos download deutsch. Additionally, the UMMC suggests that garlic may help to increase HDL, or “good,” cholesterol levels, thereby further reducing a person’s cardiovascular risk film selber machen programm kostenlos downloaden. Because it is a powerful antioxidant, garlic may further help to prevent heart disease by blocking oxidation–damage from reactive oxygen molecules known as free radicals–of LDL cholesterol Resources wizards unite.

Ingredients:

fresh Garlic bulbs
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Heat oven or grill to 400 degrees.  With a sharp knife, cut the top off the head of garlic exposing a bit of each each clove of garlic.  Place garlic head in a piece of foil and drizzle olive oil on top.  Sprinkle each bulb with a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper can be downloaded anonymously with tor.  Seal the foil around the garlic.

Place foil pouches on the top rack of the grill and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, or until completely tender and soft herunterladen. (I also roasted beets at the same time for use at a later date).

Open the pouch and allow to cool.  Once they are cool enough to handle, squeeze each clove gently at the untrimmed end and the roasted garlic will slide out.  I smash it anyways, so I don’t care if they don’t come out in one piece.  This will store in an air tight container in the fridge for about a week jquery.

We enjoyed the sweet savory garlic spread on a piece of toast at dinner!  Delicious Download the antivirus program vista for free!

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

 

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Roasted Beet & Feta Salad

Written By: Chris - Sep• 18•12

I’m still surprised how much Bill and I enjoy eating Beets!  As a kid I stayed clear of them, mostly I believe only because I didn’t know what I was missing!  Today we eat them because they are tasty!  It is an added bonus that they are highly nutritious!  Beets are good for our “cardiovascular health”.  They are a root vegetable that have a unique pigment and antioxidants in the root.  The greens tops offer protection against coronary artery disease and stroke.  They help lower cholesterol levels within the body, and have anti-aging effects program for music for free.

They are easy to prepare and can be roasted, peeled, steamed, and then eaten warm with butter as a delicacy; cooked, pickled, and then eaten cold as a condiment; or they can also be eaten peeled, shredded raw, and then eaten as a salad.  This salad is made from roasted beets and has bright and delicious flavors hexen bilder kostenlos herunterladen!

Ingredients:

3 Roasted Beets – chilled
2 Tablespoons White Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Pure Honey
1 Tablespoon Honey Mustard
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Basil
Mint
Beets
Feta
Pecans, toasted and chopped

The instructions for roasting the beets are on a link within the ingredients.  I roasted these along with some garlic a couple days in advance and the peelings literally just rubbed off with my fingers… but wash them quickly because they stain video vimeo herunterladen!

Peel and slice the roasted beets and arrange onto plates download youtube handy videos.

Combine the mustard & honey mustard, drizzle in olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Sprinkle crumbled feta cheese and pecans over sliced beets to your liking.  Add chopped fresh basil and mint.  Spoon a light amount of dressing over the salad

The textures and flavors of this salad are bright, rich and delicious Download and install audacity encoder!

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

 

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Rosemary Chicken with Roasted Garlic Cream sauce

Written By: Chris - Sep• 17•12

We love Rosemary… it is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple or blue flowers.  It’s native to the Mediterranean region, but grows like crazy in California!  We first fell in love with the fresh herb during our initial visits to the valley.  We were shocked to see it growing in large shrub sizes and would take zip lock baggies home at the end of our trips.  An interesting tip that I learned from Wikipedia is that Rosemary is a member of the mint family.  It grows in many locations that it needs no water to live other than the humidity which is carried by the sea breeze download sophos for free.

I had a plant die last winter and it was not a hearty enough perennial to come back, but this years will be brought inside for enjoyment during our cold months herunterladen.

This chicken and cream sauce is quick and simple to prepare.  The sauce made of wine, rosemary, and cream makes ordinary chicken breasts taste very special herunterladen!

Ingredients: 

2 Chicken Breasts
Olive Oil
Sprigs of Rosemary
Salt & Pepper

Cream Sauce:
1 Tablespoons Butter
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 Bulb or Head of Roasted Garlic
1/2 Cup Chicken Stock
2 Tablespoons White Wine
1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
Salt & Pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh Rosemary for Garnish

Place chicken breasts between 2 pieces of parchment or wax paper and using a wooden roller or meat mallet, pound them into an even ½-inch thickness.  This tenderizes the meat and ensures even cooking.  If you don’t flatten them and leave them in their natural shape, the thin side of the fillet dries out while the thicker side finishes cooking herunterladen.

Preheat the grill and be sure that it is very hot.  This helps create nice grill marks and chars the meat in the short amount of time it takes to cook these.  Rub each flattened breast with oil, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped rosemary.  Place chicken onto the grill and watch carefully.  When pounded thin, chicken breasts only need 2-3 minutes per side.  I prepared grilled vegetables along side, cooking the onions longer than the peppers adobe flash playeren apple.

For the sauce, place butter in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Add flour and cook constantly stirring for about a minute.  Pour the chicken stock into the saucepan whisking constantly to ensure that there are no lumps download panasonic tv app.  Cook the stock over medium high heat until the liquid is reduced in volume by half, about 5 minutes.  Squeeze the smashed roasted garlic cloves into the stock and Stir the cream into the stock.  Remove from heat and set aside.  Stir the wine into the cream sauce and spoon immediately over the cooked chicken breasts.  Garnish with Rosemary and serve live backgrounds.

We enjoyed this meal paired perfectly with a delicious Joseph Phelps – Freestone Pino Noir.  Below is my lovely pup “Simba” with one of my Rosemary plants fritz os 7.11 herunterladen.

Enjoy!

Cheers!
~Chris

 

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