Simple Stuffing

This past Thanksgiving was the first one where the husband and I were playing host. He always takes care of the bird and potatoes, my job was to do the rest. So I made a green bean casserole like you'd find on the back of those french onion cans and homemade stuffing... both were a hit- especially by my little Lovie.

Now when it comes to stuffing... I'm generally a huge fan. YUM. How can you go wrong with baked carbs?Well some people add too much to theirs, IMO, and that's where you can go wrong. Again, JMO. I like a simple, plain stuffing. After all it's a side dish and you don't want it to overshadow the star turkey, right?

I found this recipe and went with it and it was PERFECT. I was a little fearful there would be too much celery but that's why you cook it first. Man, I can't wait to make this stuffing again... and I'll be doing so in just three days. Yahoo!  The only thing I've changed is the name (it's called Bread and Celery Stuffing)!

Simple Stuffing

Ingredients


1 (1 pound) loaf sliced white bread
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning salt and pepper to taste
1 cup chicken broth

Directions

Let bread slices air dry for 1 to 2 hours, then cut into cubes.

In a Dutch oven, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Cook onion and celery until soft. Season with poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir in bread cubes until evenly coated. Moisten with chicken broth; mix well.

Chill, and use as a stuffing for turkey, or bake in a buttered casserole dish at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

ABCDEasy Chicken Pot Pie

How hard could it be to make a pot pie when things such as premade pie crust and frozen veggies, as well as chicken in a can exist? NOT HARD.

How tasty could such a concoction be? THAT'S ANOTHER STORY.

Haha, I kid. Sort of.

ABCDEasy Chicken Pot Pie

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pkg of 2 each pie crusts, room temp
• 1 frozen bag of veggies of your choice, thawed
• 1 (or more) can of chicken breast, drained
• 2 cans of cream of ____ soup (I used chicken, next time I'll use potato I think!)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Unroll 1 pie crust in bottom of ungreased glass pie dish
3. Pour soup on top (I used condensed soup so I spooned out 1/2 a jar and layered it atop the pie crust and added water to the rest and mixed real good before adding)
4. Add chicken
5. Add veggies
6. Unroll 2nd pie crust over
7. Cut slits on top
8. Bake on top of cookie sheet (in case there is spillage) for about 45 minutes or until golden brown

VERDICT:
Edible. My problem was mainly with the veggies. They were awful and soggy. I'm thinking they should've been tossed in frozen. Not sure though as I'm not really a cook. Also the chicken was... I dunno exactly but I could tell it wasn't fresh chicken. If I had the time and energy, I definitely would've used real chicken breast and fresh veggies. I'm certain it would be tastier. It wasn't horrible, but it could be better. But, it's definitely super quick.  The pie crust is my favorite part of this- but that's the case with any pot pie.

I did save some for the baby though and am hoping she might enjoy it for dinner (didn't get done in time for lunch cuz I'm a bad momma like that :(  )- hence the name of this dish.

The Pefect Fried Potato!

Maybe I've just been living under a rock since birth but I've recently mastered
the perfect fried potato
... and the trick is in the MICROWAVE.

For 2 servings--
Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 5-8 mins in microwave (unless you're using leftover baked potatoes!!), 10-15 mins in pan


After you pick your taters you wanna fry up, scrub em down (or peel if that's the way you roll), and stab them with a fork. Place on microwave safe plate and nuke for about 5 minutes - give or take depending on the size of tater. Carefully remove tater from microwave and if fork easily goes through the thickest part, you're done with the microwave... otherwise stick it back and nuke for another couple minutes or so.

Let stand for a couple minutes and then slice taters. *Please be careful as taters nuked for a couple minutes retain their heat very well... I highly recommend the use of an Ove Glove or something like it!* Let cool a little and dice or cut up to sizes you want.

Prep your pan- heat pan on med-high, add oil and/or butter.
Add taters and let sit for several minutes.
Add seasonings to your liking.
Toss taters occasionally and when they get the color you like, remove.

I like mine nice and crispy so I leave mine sit for about 5-10 minutes on each side, turning occasionally.

SOOOO YUMMY.  And SOOOOOO much faster than either boiling taters first (something I learned to do from my husband) or just cooking them down from raw.

Crash Hot Potatoes - for hot weather

I love love love Crash Hot Potatoes. I love potatoes, period, but hot damn are those CHP's all kinds of awesome. So because I'm trying (really really hard) to cook more, I wanted to make these again... except it's been near 90 the past couple days and there's no way in hell I'm turning on the oven when it's that hot out. Sorry. Not gonna happen.

Then I remembered seeing an episode of Racheal Ray's 30 minute meals during my maternity leave (oh yeah, I had a baby end of December!!! HOLLA out to the cutest babe in the world!!) where she made a potato dish that ended up looking very much like CHP's except she did it all on the stove TOP in a pan! No oven turning on needed!

But. I can only really go online at work (did I mention I had a baby? yeah my time is hers when I'm not at work) and this computer is ridiculously slow and old so trying to find something on foodnetwork.com is just too much to put up with.

So I just went with this (below) and it turned out... FANTASTIC!! Wahoo!! : )

Hot Weather CHP's

(serves 2 hungry adults)

You'll need:

• 8 each small red potatoes
• extra virgin olive oil
• seasonings of your choice
• microwavable plate
• microwave
• skillet
• stovetop

You'll do:

• scrub/clean 8 small red potatoes
• poke each tater with fork a couple times
• place on microwavable plate and microwave on high for 5 minutes*
• when tender (if fork easily goes through) but not too tender, press taters down (mashed potato thingie works great!)
• heat skillet
• while skillet is heating, drizzle olive oil on top of taters
• season well with salt, pepper, thyme, basil, whatever you want/like!
• add couple turns of olive oil to hot pan
• gently add taters and cook for 5-10 minutes per side
• remove when brown and crispy looking and ENJOY!

Quick, easy, and perfect to make when it's too hot out (and in) to turn on the oven. Even the husband liked them (again)! : )