Mozzarella Chicken

This recipe comes from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. It originates in Tennessee. The picture isn’t the most beautiful, but it is delicious!

I got home from grocery shopping without much time to think about what was for dinner. I’m sure that sounds familiar to many out there. I had bought a large amount of fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts. I split what I had into three portions. Two of the portions I put in zip-lock bags with different dressings (Catalina and Italian) so they could marinate for later meals.

Then I was still left with the decision of what I should make for that night. After a hard day I was in need of something super easy that would pretty much cook itself. I flipped through my mental cookbook, then browsed a couple on my real shelf. That’s when I came across this one. It’s a keeper.

Ingredients:
4-6 chicken breasts
2  - 10.75 oz cans cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 – 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 cups bread crumbs (I used crushed Club crackers)
3 Tbsp. butter (optional, I didn’t use it)

1. Arrange your chicken in a 9x13 pan. Spread your soup directly over the top of the chicken. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the soup, and then sprinkle the bread crumbs over the cheese.

2. (Optional) Chop the butter in little pieces and dot it around the bread crumbs. You can also melt the better and pour it over the bread crumbs.

3. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Make sure to check your temperature though. The recipe said you could start with frozen chicken, but I don’t know how much I trust that. It’s easy enough to thaw your meat. If you want to try it you can though.

Would be good with rice, mashed potatoes, toast, or noodles.

Looking back I wish I had pounded my chicken out a little. Mine were extremely thick and probably would have cooked faster/more evenly if I had. I’ll look into that some more.

Pickles!

Thank you Mom for sharing your pickle recipe. Love you!

There is NOTHING like a homemade pickle. Store-bought pickles just don’t cut it. I ran out of my stored homemade pickles a couple of months ago, but didn’t think I would have the chance to bottle more this summer. Luckily someone from town had some extra that they were willing to share.

Ingredients:
Freshly picked Cucumbers (6 lbs)
Dill
Garlic
3 quarts vinegar
3/4 cup canning salt
3/4 tsp alum

1. Prepare your clean jars by putting some of your dill in each. You need a couple of sticks along with a good amount of seeds (probably about a tsp).

2. Prepare your cucumbers by washing and scrubbing them to get the dirt and prickles off. Then put them into your jars. Once your jars are full you can put one or two cloves of garlic in each.

3. Boil your water along with the vinegar, salt (Canning salt helps your pickles stay crisp), and alum. Pour over the top of your cucumbers. Wipe the lips of your jars and put your prepared lids on.

4. Process for 20 minutes.

Pickles need to sit for 6-8 weeks so they can absorb the flavor. It will be worth the wait!

*Prepare your lids by washing. Then put them in a pot of water that never quite reaches boiling. They need to be in there long enough to get hot to the touch. 3-5 minutes should do it.

You will probably also need to make extra water.You could cut it into 3rds pretty easily. You will need at least one batch of water for about 7 quarts of pickles. It will depend on how well you pack your cucumbers in there.

Café Rio Chicken

I hate to say that I’ve never actually had Café Rio chicken, but I haven’t. Because of that I can’t tell you how true the name of the chicken is to the original. Someone with that knowledge will have to let me know.

This really was a great recipe though. I am always up for an easy recipe (especially crockpot). Thanks to my friend Katelyn for passing this one on to me!

Ingredients:
1 cup Italian dressing
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
4 chicken breasts, thawed

1. Pour your Italian dressing into your crockpot. Stir in your spices and garlic. Make sure everything is mixed well. Add your chicken and turn over a couple of times to ensure that everything is coated well.
2. Cook 6-7 hours on low. Make sure to check the temperature of your meat!

I’ve been looking into some different food safety and cooking tips when it comes to using a Crockpot. I found a couple of good articles that are very worth checking out. I learned a few important tips and was reminded of things that I had forgotten.

Enjoy!

Sorry for the Break

I hope you'll forgive me for being absent. It was a crazy week/weekend! I did a bunch of canning/bottling on Tuesday and Wednesday, my son got sick Wed. night, we were cleaning and organizing our house for possible sale, and then everyone else got sick Friday night. We all had to kind of veg out for the rest of the weekend. We are all feeling much better now and I should now be able to kick it into gear again. Enjoy the two gems below! :)

Bottling Chunky Salsa

I am a huge salsa fan! It is sad to admit, but I could sit down and eat a whole bottle of Pace salsa by myself in one sitting. I try and control myself, but sometimes I can't help it. Now you know my Achilles Heel. Growing up my mom would bottle salsa every couple of years. Some years were great batches, others were a little funky... Since I've moved out of the house I haven't really had much of the homemade bottled stuff. We'll play around with fresh a few times each summer, but I think the last batch of funky salsa made my mom give up on pleasing us.

Last year my sister in law made some awesome salsa. I've had the pleasure of trying it a few times while I've been over at her house. It is delicious! This year I asked her if I could get her recipe for it. She gladly shared. Thanks Laura! :) (This is a modified recipe from cooks.com)

*Note - This recipe makes about 1 quart. It is easily multiplied and can be used to make a huge batch. You can estimate how many times you want to multiply it by how many tomatoes you have, or jars you want to make. You can also adjust the heat by adding (or subtracting) jalapenos. This recipe is mild.

Ingredients:
3 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped (I like to chop them in advance and put them in the fridge, then drain the juice off in order to make the salsa more chunky)
3/4 cup white onion, chopped (I used my Food Chopper)
3-4 jalapenos (or 3-4 Tbsp. chopped jalapenos) (I used my Manual Food Processor).
* WEAR GLOVES when handling jalapenos! Also, do NOT touch your face at all. Be careful!
3 cloves garlic, minced (or 3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt (you can use canning salt if you want your color to stay extra bright)
1/3 cup vinegar

Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Put into hot jars and process in water bath canner or steam canner for 20 minutes.

Tips: Pretty much everything can be chopped in advance. That way it's easy to start and stop as you need to.

Caramels (No Fail)

This recipe was found in "Our Best Bites". It is awesome!!!

Anyone who knows my family really well knows that we enjoy making candy. We have a few old family recipes that are pretty popular in our small town. There is nothing like a taffy pull to get you in the mood for Halloween. One thing that has always evaded us, well me at least, is a good caramel recipe. I have always been secretly (or not so secretly) looking for a good one. My last attempt at making them didn't turn out so hot. In fact it was pretty much a failure. That was about 6 years ago. Don't get me wrong, they tasted GREAT!, but my roommates and I ate the caramel by scooping it out of the pan with a spoon. It would then slowly, but fast enough you could see, mush back together to make it look like there had never been a scoop taken out. I either haven't been brave enough to try again, or I just didn't think I had the right recipe yet.

As I was looking through this cookbook the words 'so easy and forgiving' stood out to me. I decided it was worth a try. :)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups light corn syrup
2 cups of heavy whipping cream, divided
2 tsp vanilla

1. Combine butter, sugar, corn syrup, and 2 cup whipping cream in a large, heavy stockpot (Go big, I thought my pot was big enough and ended up needing to transfer it into another. Give yourself plenty of space. The candy boils up quite a ways).Cook over medium-low heat, stirring gently, until sugar dissolves.

2. Turn heat to medium and cook until candy thermometer reaches 224 degrees, stirring occasionally. Stir in the remaining 1 cup whipping cream. Continue to cook over medium heat until thermometer registers 245 degrees (soft ball stage). Add vanilla.

3. Pour mixture into a greased 9x13 pan. Cool overnight and then cut into squares. Wrap individually in wax paper.

To be able to get that candy out of the pan more easily you can layer two pieces of wax paper in the pan before you pour the caramel in. Then after it is cooled you can simply lift the caramels out and cut them more easily.

Taco Soup!

I had a hankering for some Taco soup the other day. It was probably the big thunderstorm and the buckets of rain. Or it could be that I'm just super excited for Fall to be here! I love cold weather and I especially love all of the foods that are directly related and linked to the season!

I did something a little different with my soup today that turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself, and I do). I tried it on my husband. He approved. So I took it to my parents' house and made them and my siblings try it. They also liked it. I have a brother that is a pretty picky eater. He didn't even want to try it, but I twisted his arm (not literally). He had one spoonful and admitted that it was good. His excuse for not eating was that he already had the bread out for the PB&J that he was going to make. Weirdo. It was good. So... statistics say 7 out of 7 like it (but only 6 will eat a bowl).

Ingredients:
2 quart bottles of tomatoes (you could also do canned stewed tomatoes)
4 cans of assorted beans (I used red, kidney, black, and pinto)
1 bag of freezer corn (canned would work also), thawed
1 red bell pepper, diced.
1 lb of cooked hamburger
2 cups of water
1 envelope of Hidden Valley Fiesta Ranch

1. I started by putting my tomatoes in the crock pot, undrained. Next went the beans. Make sure to drain them into a colander and then rinse them really really well. Then comes the corn, pepper, and your cooked hamburger. When you add your water judge according to your crock pot. I just added the water until I was happy with the height. You don't want it too full. After you get the height you want then add the ranch envelope. Stir everything well to mix it around.

2. Start your crock pot out on high until it gets up to temperature. Once I saw it was bubbling, I went ahead and dropped it down to low. Where everything cooked (or didn't need to be) you are really just needing to warm it and let the flavors simmer around. I did 3 hours on high and then it probably was on low for 2. We did eat a little after the 3 though.

3. Serve with your favorite toppings. We had tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese, and olives.

*If you didn't notice I've used this Ranch packet before. It is one of my new favorites. I love the extra kick that it gives to stuff, but in this case I love having that kick with a touch of ranch. It worked out great!