Southern Holiday Comfort

Its been a long, exciting, overwhelming holiday week for the Bird family. Our furnace fan decided to go out 3 days before Christmas. Luckily, we have SEVERAL great friends who offered heaters etc. to keep us comfortable for the short time before my dad surprised us, who came from Austin TX the night before Christmas Eve & he fixed our furnace before we froze to death. THANK GOODNESS because now, there is snow outside. Snow. In Memphis. Thats right. I’m shocked too. Anyway, I wanted to make some comfort food before the family heads out south bound again. White Chili it is. I am here to share it with you! This one is an adaptation from my kitchen when i was unsuccessful at finding a recipe catered to my tastebuds. 😉

White Chili

4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

half a yellow onion, chopped and sautéed

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can of whole kernel corn (do not drain)

1 can of Mexican Rotel (do not drain)–let me again stress the importance of using the MEXICAN kind with the blue label

1/2 cup of water

1 chicken bouillon cube

1 packet of ranch seasoning

1 teaspoon of cumin

1/4 teaspoon of white pepper

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 1/2 tablespoon of chili powder

1 (8 ounce) block of light cream cheese

4 ounces of monterey jack cheese, shredded

Two things to keep in mind if you plan to continue reading. One: if you notice, the ingredients in my pictures are doubled (i was cooking for a larger than usual crowd.) If you’re just cooking for your immediate family, the measurements in THIS recipe will be adequate. If you’re having company though, I would suggest you double your batch too.

Two: I decided a little late that I would be including this recipe in my blog (I still find myself beginning to cook without thinking about the pictures I’m supposed to take) so missing are pictures of chopped & sautéed onion & raw chicken breasts. (Not that anyone would enjoy looking at a picture of that anyway.) Gross.

Moving on.

Gather your STUFF.

Just like everything else i make, I am sure to season and refrigerate my chicken breasts to let them “marinate” for a couple of hours, if you will. (Poultry spices, Lowry’s seasoning, several chicken bouillon cubes, a little garlic, a little vegetable oil, and some water to not quite cover the chicken.)

[insert imaginary picture of seasoned, raw chicken here.]–or don’t.

First, chop & sauté your onion.

[insert picture of onion here]–I will, the next time i sauté & capture the moment for another post.

Throw your sautéed onions into the bottom of a crock pot & put your chicken (drained of any liquid) on top of the onion.

Pour the corn, black beans, Rotel, and water on top of the meat.

Then add the rest of the spices-bouillon cube, ranch seasoning, cumin, white pepper, and chili powder.

Mix it all up. Shred your monterey cheese (avoiding slicing your knuckles, which seems to be the only thing i can do professionally). Put your cream cheese and monterey on top & leave it as is, like so.

If you’ve got 6-8 hours, cook it on low. If you’re like me and procrastinate on getting the necessary ingredients from the store, set it on high for 2-3 hours instead. after that window, you can stir the cheese in. You’ll also want to shred the chicken with two forks.

 

When completed, it should resemble this. (i know, this stuff doesn’t photograph very well but it IS amazing!

This chili is fantastic with some super simple corn muffins I make with a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, a small can of creamed corn (instead of milk, which it calls for), & an egg (thanks mom!). Its only 50 cents a box & tastes like a whole new muffin when you add the corn to it. Try it! You won’t regret it!

My husband loves his topped with (more) onions & he dips tortilla chips in it. Also a winner! (he even set this picture up for me.) Note: delicately arranged accent tortilla chips. Hahaha I love that man.

 

Thanks again for reading!

-Mrs. B

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

Everyone knows that cold weather is notorious for spreading the unmotivated bug. The “I just want to lay in bed buried in blankets all day” feeling. In Memphis, we don’t get those days often but when we do, I get an intense craving for chili…& this is the one I make. I’m not sure it could get any more basic. I’m sure there are more complex versions with more ingredients out there but this is my take on it. The one that doesn’t take all day, since I’m buried under the covers for most of it.

Easy Peasy Chili

1 pound ground beef, spiced, cooked, & drained

1 & a half packages of McCormick Chili powder

1 can diced tomatoes (I typically use Mexican Rotel to add a little heat)

20 ounces of tomato sauce (I buy the 29 ounce can)

1/2 chopped onion

1 chopped green bell pepper

1 can light or dark red kidney beans, rinsed & drained

3 beef bouillon cubes

3 cups of water

First, gather your ingredients.

Dice the onion & pepper and throw it into a pot with your ground chuck. Season with Lowry’s season salt.

Simmer over medium heat until onion and pepper are just about cooked through, about 15 minutes. Drain.

Add the remaining ingredients to the pot, stir, and simmer until flavors combine, about 30-45 minutes.

Again, with the food that isn’t very photogenic. What’s that all about?

It looks a bit better when you serve it up! Eat up & stay warm!

P.S- the recipe I’ve provided will feed about 4. If you’re having people over for dinner or you’ve got a super sized family, you’ll want to double the recipe, as I sometimes do. 🙂

-Mrs. B

Who Needs Mac & Cheese?

My family isn’t too hard to please. One of their favorites (its a nice vacation from mac & cheese for the kids) is Chicken Rotel. If anyone knows my toddler, he is on the chicken-kick of the CENTURY right now. Seriously, the kid won’t touch ANYTHING that isn’t chicken….or yogurt-but thats a different story. My family loves that it tastes good. I love that its easy. So here we go. For this adventure, you’ll need:

1 pound of velveeta

1 can of MEXICAN Rotel–I stress “mexican”, with the blue label, because this is where you get a little bit of kick. For all you weenies out there, I suppose you could use Original.

1 sweet onion, chopped

4 ounces fresh baby bella mushrooms, chopped (could substitute with canned but i LOVE baby bellas)

1 small box of thin spaghetti

1/2 can of cream of mushroom soup

4 large chicken breasts, diced into smaller pieces

1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic

6 bouillon cubes

Lowry’s season salt to taste

Lets gather the ‘accoutrements’, shall we?

Remove the canned mushrooms..I stumbled upon the baby bellas in the fridge after I had regretfully resorted to canned mushrooms as a substitute since I was in a hurry but got lucky.

Chop your veggies & place them in a skillet with a little olive oil. I just love these.

Saute those suckers until they’re beautiful. (my husband pitched in on this task)

Now cook your chicken on the stove in its marinating liquid. I usually take about a cup and a half of water and probably 4 chicken bouillon cubes, some garlic, poultry spices, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and Lowry’s & let the chicken soak it up all day in the fridge before cooking. The extra flavor really is worth it. In ANY dish.

To cook the noodles, i do the same. No, i cant use plain water with a dash of salt for these noodles (but you can). I cook my noodles in chicken broth. 6 cups of water with 6 chicken bouillon cubes. You decide.

While your noodles are boiling and your chicken is simmering on medium low in its juices, combine the ingredients for your cheesy sauce.

Place the velveeta, thinly sliced, in a skillet with the can of rotel (don’t drain the liquid off), and half a can of cream of mushroom soup.

Heat it slowly, until the cheese has melted and the ingredients have blended well.

Drain your tasty noodles and chicken to remove all the liquid from them both. Combine everything-the noodles, chicken, cheese sauce, & sautéed veggies to a 9×13 casserole dish. Mix it up well.

If you dont think you have enough cheese already, you’re welcome to sprinkle your cheesy choice over the top (this makes it look prettier when its done too).

LOOSELY place a piece of foil over your casserole before placing it in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 350. The foil isn’t absolutely necessary, I just really hate dried out chicken.

I apologize for not taking a picture of the finished, baked product but we were in a massive rush to get everyone ready, fed, and out the door by 5 for my step-daughter’s school play. At least she went with a full belly. And DOMINATED her piano solo, by the way. So instead, I will leave you with my two favorite kids, after Ava’s rock show.

Happy Holidays

-Mrs. B

Good Conduct Pays Off..Lack of Rest Does Not.

So my daughter from another mother has been having just a teensy issue this year with keeping quiet during school. She must get that from me. Fourth grade has been brutal this year, but she’s not caving under pressure. I thought it would be a good idea, when she felt really down about her conduct grades, to offer a reward for good conduct lasting until Christmas.

So i proposed that with a set of guidelines about her conduct performance at school & at home, that I would host a Christmas themed sleepover for her and up to 10 of her friends. (what was I thinking, right?) Well, she blew us out of the water by not only avoiding getting the “3 strikes” we allowed her, but by getting ZERO strikes from the time the reward was introduced to the time that it took place. I can’t explain how proud I am of her, because this talker knows better than anyone how hard keeping your mouth shut can be. We can’t help that EVERYTHING we say is super important. Not everyone thinks thoughts as important as ours. 😉

Ava asked REPEATEDLY what would happen if she were to get the “3 strikes” before her sleep over and I reluctantly told her at that point that she would have to call each of her friends to let them know that her party was cancelled (since we’d be sending out invitations several weeks ahead of time). She was extremely worried about this…& STAYED worried about this literally until the day before her party (when she rocked her piano solo). Poor kid. For that, I felt like i may have been doing more harm than good but she surprised us.

We made up some festive invitations and envelopes with some serious Christmas spirit inserted in the text.

Of course only two of the 7 girls RSVP’d–i didn’t put it on the invitation in all caps, or anything… -__-

Ava chose the menu which consisted of pizza (a bit of a last minute change of heart from the original homemade chicken noodle soup idea she had), tacki’s hot mexican chips, which of course we found at the THIRD gas station we went to looking for them, kettle corn, and hot chocolate for a midnight snack…and of course home made cookies and cream cake pops dipped in not only chocolate, but white chocolate too. And sprinkles. Trust me, they were worth the trouble.

After the girls arrived, we started our activities.

We decided to do a couple of gift swapping games at her party. The first was Dirty Santa and these girls had a blast stealing gifts from each other.

The second was like a musical/hot potato gift game. Whoever was holding the gift when the music stopped, had to tear off a layer of wrapping paper (which there were many of). No one wanted to let go of the gift!

Ava won, by the luck of the draw but with her sweet heart, she told me to send it around the circle one more time & someone else got to keep the gift. What an awesome kid.

After the pizza arrived and they scared the delivery girl away with their incessant high pitched screams, the girls decorated Christmas cookies.

That awful tablecloth was to keep the mess at a minimum but surprisingly, they didn’t need it. These girls were pretty proud of their cookie creations…& very happy to eat them too.

We had ornaments to decorate but ran out of time. I think Ava and I will save that one for a smaller crowd. I bought way too many sparkles to let this number of hyper girls get their hands on them. After all of their crafts, the girls ate some kettle corn and watched one of Ava’s Christmas favorites, Elf.

It sure is tough being a kid these days, isn’t it?

I’m not sure why we called it a sleep over because they didn’t do much of that until 5 am. Then 30 minutes before their chauffeurs arrived at their designated time in the morning, I couldn’t get a signal of life form from any of them. They were dead to the world. I think they had fun and I did too. All of us were EXHAUSTED.

Overall, a definite success. The rest of the weekend was spent recuperating. Every last one of us. Oh, and baking-for a birthday cake set to go out Sunday morning. Happy Birthday, Hunter!

Ava fell asleep by 7 pm Saturday night. Partly due to my energizer bunny personality & never resting, I wound up sick at the doctor Sunday, where I met a vivacious FNP who gave me all the tools I need to get past this crud I’m stuck with. I REALLY liked this lady. Today, I’m getting a little much needed rest while miss Josie and I both get to feeling a little better.

We definitely had an eventful weekend and are counting down the days until Christmas. I hope everyone’s family is having as much fun as mine is through these holidays & creating new traditions along the way.

Take care.

-Mrs. B

Too-Good-To-Name-Mexican…holiday style!

No need to save this one for the holiday season. You definitely should’t reserve this one for 1 month of the year just because it ends up looking much like a mexican Christmas wreath (at least thats what my husband said as soon as he walked through the door). Much like him, you taste it, you’ll understand. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and go to the grocery for the ingredients TOMORROW!

This-One-Has-No-Title…make up your own. 🙂

2-3 cups cooked chicken

1/4 chopped black olives

1 cup mexican blend cheese

1 small can chopped chilies, undrained

1/2 cup sour cream

1 package taco seasoning

2 rolls of BIG crescent rolls

1 small chopped tomato

1 lime (juice)

2/3 cup finely crushed tortilla chips

My stack of ingredients:

Start by cooking your chicken on the stove the best way you know how. I always marinate mine in concentrated chicken bouillon, about a tablespoon of vegetable oil, poultry seasoning, and a little seasoning salt for a few hours in the fridge…or it comes out tasting like nothing. Next, chop up your deliciously flavorful chicken like so.

Place it back into your skillet (or in my case, wok) and add the chopped olives, chilies, shredded cheese, sour cream, and taco seasoning. The colors are sensational.

Stir it all up until its nice and incorporated. Then seed and chop up your small tomato & squeeze a lime on it and finely crush your tortilla chips (reserving 2 tablespoons of crushed chips for later). Add tomatoes and chips to your chicken mixture. This is where it gets REALLY mexican!

Next, unroll your crescent dough and separate the triangles. arrange on a large greased cookie sheet or pizza stone making a circle, with the widest ends of the dough completing the middle and overlapping each other. There should be a 5 inch diameter opening in the circle…gosh am I happy to have pictures to better explain this step.

One thing I would change is using ALL of my dough to make the circle to begin with. The floppy, sticky dough was overwhelming me as i tried to juggle a sick baby and stand over the stove simultaneously, so i saved the second roll for a little later in the recipe when I could better manage it. (you’ll see in the following pictures) Anywho, after you’ve arranged the beginning of your “wreath”, top the widest sections of your dough with the chicken mixture we whipped up a little earlier. (ps, your dough circle should look a BIT fuller than mine unless you decide to go the route I did also)

That is one strange looking dinner. Next, bring the points of the triangles up and over your filling and tuck under the wide section of dough in the middle. After that step was completed and all my dough points were “tucked”, i tucked the rest of my dough to fill in the gaps. Last, i topped my crazy looking dough wreath with the remaining crushed chips and mexican cheese & tossed it in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes (or until golden brown). Keep in mind, its pretty heavy so maybe tossing it isn’t such a good idea after all. At this point, my husband walked through the door. I enthusiastically showed him our uncooked dinner and he said, confused, “it’s a wreath?….” How dare he doubt me!

I wish i could eat it now, mainly because for some strange reason I love the taste of crescent roll dough. Don’t judge me. Instead, use this baking time to prepare your side dishes like black beans and mexican rice which is what i chose to pair with it. 25 minutes fly by and DING. It’s done. When i pulled it out of the oven, i wanted to sing “Feliz Navidad”.

By this time, my husband had come at least halfway around and no longer completely doubted my credibility.

I served our…mexican-amazingness-with-no-name alongside sour cream and salsa for smothering.

;

I was always a believer. My husband didn’t completely get it until the first bite socked him in the tastebuds. But he had seconds and asked me to pack more for his lunch tomorrow. I will be trying not to eat this for lunch (to save it to share for leftover dinner tomorrow. I’ll be working on a Disney Princess cake thats going out this weekend. And maybe I’ll post some pictures of it when its finished. Anyway, back to the Mexican Chicken Wreath; I think we have a winner. Do it. Seriously. You’ll thank me…….& Feliz Navidad.

-Mrs. B

A Chocolate Chip & Cheesecake Dream

I hate it when my sugar tooth strikes. Its like a pang in the side that does not subside until it is fed. And with this recipe, you can ensure that that pesky tooth well be WELL fulfilled. I tried this recipe out in the ‘test kitchen’ late last night when the mood struck and boy am I glad I did. It is a winner in my book & it receives five amazingly gold stars from me & mine.

First, a little side note about some ingredients. My favorite thing I found about this treat was that I conveniently had all the ingredients, excluding plain flour. I typically substitute self-rising flour for plain flour, salt, and baking powder or soda in just about everything i use it for. The first few times I did this, I calculated the conversions to make sure i still had enough of a leavening agent etc but after wasting time with my calculator, the answer was pretty consistent…you don’t need conversions. Just about any amount of self-rising flour can be a seamless substitute for plain flour & those extra ingredients that i just don’t feel like adding. After 3 pages about flour, lets move on.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

cookie ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

cheesecake ingredients:

1 block (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Your ingredients should look a little something like this

First, in a large mixing bowl (I just LOVE my KitchenAid), cream together your butter, shortening, brown and granulated sugar, vanilla, salt and vinegar until its nice and creamy.

Then, just when you’re starting to want a taste, beat in your egg.

After that is incorporated, slowly add your baking soda and flour. Mix until combined and stir in your abundance of chocolate chips.

Don’t forget to practice self-restraint after that last step. I failed miserably.

When you’ve got your cookie dough made up, you’ll want to transfer it into two bowls (divided in half). After all, you’ll need your mixer to make up your cheesecake batter.

Add the softened block of cream cheese and sugar to your mixing bowl. I use my wire whip attachment for making cheesecake.

Whip it “real good”…then add your egg & vanilla.

After adding your egg, beat it just until combined.

In a 9×13 non-stick baking pan (which you have sprayed generously with PAM), spread half of the cookie dough evenly to cover the bottom. It should look a little something like this.

Top it off with a layer of cheesecake (using all the cheesecake mixture).

It looks delicious already. Lastly, Spread your remaining cookie dough to cover the layer of cheesecake throughout the pan. This step can be tricky. I greased my hands a bit and flattened chunks of dough between my hands into discs and fit them all together to cover. Hopefully it winds up looking like this.

Pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until golden brown. I used my brand spanking new convection oven (microwave) and it did a fantastic job. Although if you are doing the same, shave off 5 minutes or so on the time, as convection ovens tend to be faster.

Viola!

I stuck mine in the freezer (since i started this endeavor a bit late in the evening and I am all about instant gratification). It cooled a lot faster so i could cut it into squares and enjoy a piece…or two. No one likes to eat hot cheesecake so i don’t encourage skipping this step before you dig in. If you’ve got more time or incredi-strength, you’re welcome to cool yours in the fridge. For me, no thanks.

After cooling, cut them into squares. Your only requirement now is to store these babies covered, in the fridge and to share them as best you can with your family..GOOD LUCK!

Hello World!

Well, I am now the newest kid on the block at wordpress. I am completely green with this “blogging” thing so any direction would be a big help! I decided to pick it up to share with my friends and family over a ridiculous amount of miles what i do with my time. I intend to include food & dessert recipes (mom friendly), any craft i happen to be doing at the time, family memories, & tutorials at request…we’ll see how that goes; I’ll be brand new at that too. WISH ME LUCK!

Thanks for reading.

Mrs. Bird