The Best and Easiest Way to Cook Bacon

Seriously, I used to have a love-hate relationship with bacon. As in I loved the taste of bacon, but hated getting popped by grease standing over a skillet to fry it. That day is no longer. Now I can officially love bacon with all of my being (well, part of me can wish it was healthier, can’t it?). And you will too once you give up the skillet and the popping grease and try this.

bacon 21

The Best (and Easiest) Way to Cook Bacon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Lay desired number of bacon strips out on a cookie sheet (foil-lined if you wish).
3. Cook bacon in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, depending on thickness of bacon, until it is at your desired crispness.
4. Remove from oven, lay cooked bacon slices on plate covered with paper towels to absorb extra grease.
5. Enjoy!

bacon and pancakes1

Serve with a stack of (gluten-free) pancakes, crumble on some loaded baked potato soup, serve in BLTs, the possibilities are endless…

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Creamy Potato Soup with Sausage & Kale

This is one of our favorite soups. I’ve had several people ask for the recipe, so I thought it would be a good time to share it on here. (I’m not sure why I haven’t before actually, we make this quite a bit, especially in the fall/winter.) It is similar to Olive Garden’s Zuppa Tuscana soup.

soup with spoon brighter 1

Creamy Potato Soup with Sausage and Kale

ingredients:

– 3-5 links (around 1 1/2 pounds) sausage (mild Italian pork sausage, chicken sausage, sweet/spicy, whatever you like), cut into slices/chunks
– 4-6 slices bacon, diced
– 8-10 small red potatoes or 6 medium russet or golden potatoes (or a mixture), cubed
– 1 medium/large onion, diced
– 3 cloves garlic, minced
– 4-5 cups chopped kale
– 8-10 cups chicken broth (chicken stock or water + chicken bullion)
– 1/2 cup heavy cream
– salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, to taste

directions:

1. Brown sausage in soup pot until cooked through. Remove from pot and reserve for later.
2. Add bacon bits to pot and cook through.
3. Add diced onion to bacon bits and saute until onion is soft. Add garlic and cook a few minutes longer.
4. Add cubed potatoes and chicken broth.
5. Cover and simmer/boil until potatoes are soft.
6. Once potatoes are done, add in sausage, kale and cream. Stir to combine.
7. Taste and season as needed. (I usually add just a touch of pepper and Italian seasoning, the sausage/bacon/broth tend to make it salty enough already)

Enjoy!

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The Best Fried Chicken Strips

These seriously are the best fried chicken strips. I came across this recipe from Christy Jordan‘s cookbook Southern Plate a couple years ago when the New Orleans Borders Bookstore was closing. Drew and I were checking out the good deals on books and I started looking through and reading her cookbook and I was hooked! They are pretty much all her family recipes and are great Southern staples. Everything just looks so tasty in there!

If you like yourself a good home-cooked Southern meal, well then go buy this cookbook and get to cooking!

Fried Chicken Strips (also known in her cookbook as Fried Chicken Planks)

recipe from Southern Plate cookbook by Christy Jordan

makes 4 servings

ingredients:

-cooking oil
-4 or 5 Boneless Chicken Breasts
-2 eggs
-1 to 2 sleeves saltine crackers
-salt & pepper

directions:

1. Pour cooking oil into large skillet to a depth of 1/4 inch. Heat over medium heat while you prepare the chicken.
2. Beat chicken breasts until flattened, between 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch thick.
3. Cut each flattened chicken breast into three strips.
4. Crack eggs into bowl and beat with a fork.
5. Crush the saltine crackers and place in another bowl. Lightly salt and pepper the cracker crumbs.
6. Dip each chicken strip first into the egg mixture, then coat with cracker crumbs. Make sure to coat each piece completely.
7. Drop chicken strips into oil and cook over medium to medium-high heat, turning once, until browned on both sides. (If needed, cut a small slit into the first couple strips to make sure the insides are cooking correctly.)
8. Place on a paper towel lined plate to absorb extra oil.

I often serve this chicken with my Mamaw’s mashed potatoes and gravy, but it is also really great with another of Christy Jordan’s recipes in this cookbook — Comeback Sauce. Comeback Sauce is a Southern classic and is great dip for chicken, fries, etc. (If you are from Louisiana and like Raising Cane’s sauce, this is pretty much exactly the same thing!)

Comeback Sauce

makes 1 cup

ingredients:

-1/2 cup mayonnaise
-1/2 cup ketchup
-1 1/2 Tablespoons ground pepper

directions:

1. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl until well blended.
2. Can serve immediately, but is best if refrigerated several hours.

Enjoy!

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Chicken & Vegetable Fried Rice

This is one of our favorite dinners actually. It is a recipe that both Drew and I really love (which is pretty rare, since usually we both have very different favorite foods). I really love that is is both delicious and also a relatively well balanced meal. It is a good way to get a lot of veggies into one dish. I posted a picture of this on Instagram & Facebook and several people asked for the recipe, so here it is:

Chicken & Vegetable Fried Rice

serves about 4 people as an entree

ingredients:

-1 cup uncooked white rice (makes about 2 cups cooked)
-Water, for cooking rice
-2 Chicken Breasts, cut into small cubes
-6 cups uncooked fresh vegetables, cut into small pieces (they cook down quite a bit) I usually use onion, green bell pepper, broccoli, carrots, celery, and whatever else I already have in the fridge.
-6 Tablespoons butter* (see note below)
-2 eggs
-soy sauce
-teriyaki sauce
-ground powdered ginger

*The butter really adds a wonderful flavor to this recipe, so don’t substitute it with olive or other cooking oil. I use stainless steel pans that have a tendency to stick more than nonstick-coated pans would. This is the amount I usually have to use for this recipe to keep things from sticking. If you have nonstick pans, you might try using a little less butter and add more if needed.

directions:

1. Cook rice. I use a rice maker, that way it can cook all on its own while I’m preparing everything else. If you don’t have one, just cook rice on stove according to package directions.
2. In wok (or other large skillet), melt 3 Tablespoons butter. Once melted, add chicken and cook until done.
3. Once chicken is done, transfer it to bowl.
4. Place remaining 3 Tablespoons butter into wok/skillet and add veggies. Cook until soft. I usually put the lid on my wok and let them steam for a little bit.
5. Once veggies are done, scoot them over to the side, making a space on the bottom of your wok/skillet. Crack in 2 eggs, scramble, and cook until done.
6. Once eggs are done, mix eggs and veggies together, add chicken and cooked white rice. Stir.
7. In a liquid measuring cup, add soy sauce until just under the 1/3 cup line. Add in teriyaki sauce until just over 1/3 cup line. Add a pinch of ground powdered ginger and stir together.
8. Add sauce to rest of ingredients in wok/skillet and stir until all combined.

Enjoy!

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Creamy Potato Soup

This is my favorite potato soup recipe — one my mom used to make all the time when I was a kid. It has an excellent buttery, creamy flavor, lots of big potato chunks, and the consistency is nice — not as thick and gravy-like as some other recipes I’ve tried. It is really easy to make and it is really great leftover!

Creamy Potato Soup

ingredients:

-6-8 large potatoes (I prefer Yukon Gold, but any kind will work)
-1 onion
-water
-1 stick of butter
-1 small can of evaporated milk
-salt & pepper to taste

directions:

1. Cut up potatoes into small chunks and place in large saucepan/soup pot.
2. Cut up onion and add to pot with potatoes.
3. Fill pot with water until water line is an inch or so above potatoes/onion.
4. Cut half a stick of butter into chunks and place in pot. Add salt and pepper.
5. Place the lid on the pot and cook on the stove until potatoes are tender.
6. Add other half a stick of butter and small can of evaporated milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve with grated cheddar cheese (and bacon), if you wish!

Enjoy!

P.S. If you would like your soup to be a little thicker and have smaller bits of potato, you can take a potato masher and mash down into the soup a couple times, breaking down some of the potatoes to thicken the broth. Just be careful that you don’t turn the soup into mashed potatoes!

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Homemade Flour Tortillas

I never really ate tortillas much as a kid. I never really liked the taste of the store-bought ones. When we had taco nights, I would just mix up all my taco toppings and pick them up with tortilla chips and skip the flour tortilla.

Last summer when I was shopping at our local grocery store in New Orleans, I noticed that our grocery store sold homemade tortillas in the bakery section. I bought some and after trying those, I changed my opinion on flour tortillas. They were really tasty! Then of course, it occurred to me that I could make them at home myself and they would be even better! So I tried that. Now, I am officially addicted to homemade flour tortillas. Seriously. We’ve made them three times in the last few weeks. (and this recipe makes 12 and there are just 2 of us!)

You should definitely try this recipe! These are amazing!

homemade flour tortillas

makes 12 tortillas, recipe from fearless homemaker, (originally adapted from mexican made easy, as seen on kitchen meets girl)

ingredients

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or you can use part whole wheat if you want to make them slightly healthier)
3/4 cup shortening (i used vegetable shortening)
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup lukewarm water

directions

In a large bowl, blend the flour and shortening until the mixture resembles fine meal.

In a small bowl, mix the salt and the water until the salt has dissolved. Using the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer, add water/salt mixture to the flour mixture, mixing until the liquid is incorporated. Mix for 2 to 3 minutes, or until smooth. If you don’t have a stand mixer, stir the liquid into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon, then knead by hand.

Divide the dough into 12 equally-sized pieces and roll each into a ball. Coat each ball with a thin coat of flour.

Roll each ball into a thin 8 inch round, as thin as you can get ‘em — this keeps them soft and pliable once they’re cooked. After you roll them out, you can take an 8” salad plate, turn it upside down on top of the circles, and cut off any excess around the edges. Voila! Perfect circles. Or if you don’t care if they are perfect or not, just leave them as is.

Cook each round in a heavy non-stick pan over medium-high heat, flipping once, until puffed and golden on both sides, about 3-5 minutes per tortilla. Or if you have a flat electric griddle, that works perfectly and you can cook 2 at a time.

Careful not to cook them too long or they will get crunchy and will break when you try to stuff them. (Although they will still taste delicious)

Here are step-by-step photos of the process as well:

Flour and shortening,

plus salt water equals dough.

Tear dough into 12 mounds,

then roll those into balls.

Coat dough balls and rolling pin in flour,

then roll into circles.

Set up the kitchen, assembly- line style, with plates for raw and cooked dough.

Let dough cook several minutes per side,

then flip to the other side. Dough will bubble up. It seems that in our case, ones made with part whole wheat flour bubbled up more.

Then before you know it, you have a kitchen full of delicious tortillas!

Great for breakfast burritos, normal burritos, quesadillas, covered in honey and cinnamon, or even just to snack on. (all of which I have made with these, by the way. I told you I was addicted!)

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Cheesy Chicken Lasagna

One of my favorite things about Fall is warm and delicious comfort food. It hasn’t even gotten very cool in New Orleans yet, but we’ve already made chicken pot pies, chicken and dumplings, and many other yummy dishes. Tonight we tried a new recipe — Cheesy Chicken Lasagna. It was delicious! We will definitely be making it again! Recipe from here, originally from here.

Here is the recipe:

Cheesy Chicken Lasagna

2 cans (12 oz) evaporated milk (not fat-free)
1 (1 oz) pkg. dry Ranch dressing mix
3 C. cubed, cooked, chicken
1/8 tsp pepper
1 (12oz) lasagna noodles, cooked
1 1/2 C cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 C mozzarella cheese, grated

Cook the chicken and noodles first at the same time. Once noodles are done–rinse in cold water and set aside (it keeps them from sticking together). Combine evaporated milk (don’t use fat-free version) and Ranch dressing in a 3 quart heavy saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently until dry ingredients are dissolved. Stir in chicken and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes (don’t do any less), stirring frequently. Layer half of lasagna noodles, poultry sauce, and cheese in well-buttered 9×13 pan. Repeat layers again.  Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

For extra cheesiness, increase both cheeses by 1/2 cup.

Enjoy! 🙂

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Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

Drew and I made homemade chicken and dumplings for the first time tonight. I don’t know why we hadn’t ever before. They always sound so good. I always thought for some reason that dumplings would be hard or time-consuming to make, but they weren’t hard at all! Actually they were really easy and dinner was done pretty quick.

Here is how I made them:

-1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off and shredded (or around 3 cups cooked chicken)

-10 cups chicken/vegetable broth

-3 cups flour (and more for rolling surface)

-2 Tablespoons butter

-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-salt to taste (I just shook some in)

-1 cup milk

In a large pot, bring broth to a boil. I didn’t have homemade chicken stock, so I used 4 cups vegetable broth, 4 cups chicken broth and 2 cups water mixed with two teaspoons chicken soup base. The flavor was really good with the combination of chicken and vegetable broth. I also added a little salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a mixer (or bowl) mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter, mix, and then add the milk. Form the dough into a ball.

Heavily flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll the dough out thin, or until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Dip a pizza cutter (or other cutter) into the flour and then cut dough into roughly 2×2 inch squares. Once your broth is boiling, take the dough squares one at a time, dip each side in flour and drop into the broth, stirring while you add them. The extra flour on the dumplings helps to thicken the broth.

Cook for about 20 minutes or until they aren’t doughy tasting when you bite into one. Once the dumplings are cooked, add in the shredded chicken and enjoy!

They were so tasty! The best dumplings I’ve ever had actually. I will definitely be making these again!

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Stuffed Green Peppers with Quinoa & Home Canned Tomatoes

Goodness, it has been a long time since I’ve shared cooking and food related things on here! I’ve still been cooking just as much, if not more, but just haven’t gotten around to sharing those tasty things.

One night this week for dinner I made stuffed green bell peppers. There are many ways you can make them. My mom always made them with rice, I’ve had them with oatmeal before, and when I was visiting in France several years ago, my friend Anne-Nelly’s mom made them for dinner one night with Quinoa (she also made stuffed tomatoes, which are equally delicious!). If you’ve never used or heard of Quinoa before, it is a grain-like substance of little seeds, but when cooked is similar in consistency to rice or couscous. It is known for its nutritional value–high protein content, fiber, lysine and essential amino acid content, high in magnesium and iron and is gluten-free. It is great and easy in this recipe and is much healthier than using rice or oatmeal.

1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup dry quinoa and 1 jar (mine was a pint, because that is what I had, but a quart jar would work as well–if I had it I would have preferred the extra tomatoes of the quart size) of home canned tomatoes. You need at least two cups of liquid in with the quinoa, so depending on how much liquid was in your tomatoes, you might have to add extra water. With a pint jar of tomatoes, I ended up adding an extra cup of water. If you don’t have canned tomatoes, you can also use a jar of crushed tomatoes that you buy from the store or you could just cook the quinoa in water and add fresh tomatoes into the rest of the inside mixture (I’ve also used tomato sauce or paste before and my mom uses ketchup). Cook according to directions on quinoa, but most likely you will bring them to a boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes.

2. In a large skillet, brown 1 lb. hamburger (could also use ground turkey, sausage or whatever you prefer or leave out for a vegetarian option). Drain meat and add 1 onion, several cloves of garlic, and any chopped vegetables you would like (I added carrots to mine and the bits of green pepper around the tops I cut off) and cook until done. Also add salt, pepper, or other spices to taste.

3. Once quinoa is done, mix it in with meat and vegetable mixture.

4. Cut the tops off of your green peppers (this recipe should make 4-5 peppers, but I only had 3, so as you can see I had filling left over), place in baking or loaf pan and stuff peppers with filling mixture. You can also steam the peppers before baking if you want, but I’ve never done so. If you have extra filling, stuff it around outside of peppers in baking pan.

5. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or so, until bell peppers are tender. You can also add cheese to the tops in the last few minutes of baking.

Enjoy! 🙂

All due credit given to my wonderful older sister, Blair, for her yummy home grown and home canned tomatoes. Oh and also to Drew, who put the peppers in the oven and monitored them while I went to my Pilates class. That is also why they are a little burned on top! 😉

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Beef Vegetable Burgers

The weather has been so nice! We cleaned today and had the door open for a while (it is nice, but Drew’s door doesn’t have a screen, so we don’t keep it open too long to avoid mosquitoes creeping in). In honor of the spring/summery weather, we decided to have a backyard barbecue style dinner, with a little bit of a twist. 🙂 (I love twists!)

Drew cutting garlic 🙂

Who likes bland burgers? Make your burgers healthier and tastier by adding in a little salt, pepper, fresh onion, garlic, carrots, and celery! 🙂

Put your hamburger right in and mix it all up.

Form into patties.

We grilled ours on our George Foreman grill. It allows the fat to run out & makes it a little healthier. 🙂

I usually eat my burgers without a bun, to take off the added carbs, but Drew, of course, wanted buns, so I reluctantly agreed. We took a nice little walk to Robert’s Fresh Market that is just a few blocks away. I picked out fresh baked Ciabatta buns. Much, much tastier than gross-stuffed-full-of-chemicals-and-preservatives-typical buns. (or “meat bread” as Kelsey used to say when she was little)

Paired with some steamed broccoli and au gratin cheesy potatoes, we had a nice little taste of summer for dinner. 🙂

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