Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash

I have been holding on to this recipe for a cold winter's day. It looks so rustic and warms me up inside just by looking at it.

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

So I realized our blog has been a little neglected. Holli and Charly have been in Utah for the past two weeks. I should have done more blogging, but when you are cooking for one, it's hard to find the motivation. Plus after working for 10 hours a day, the last thing you want to do is...well anything.

Sorry guys, Holli has the camera so these aren't my pictures. Source

Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup

With the Super Bowl coming up I thought I would post a Super Bowl-esque recipe. My mother-in-law went to a cooking class a few years ago and it was geared toward cooking Super Bowl food. In this class she learned how to make a Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup. She posted this recipe on her blog lovinfromthebarneckoven.blogspot.com. We have been making this soup for a few years and love it every time! We started when I was on a big wing kick and would try anything with buffalo wing sauce in it. I also think you could cut out most of the chicken stock and add extra Velveeta cheese and make a dip if you shredded the chicken. But that is just a thought. This soup is really easy and will warm you up on a cold day. It is a winning recipe for any wing lover!

Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup

1 small onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1/4 cup (4 Tbs) butter

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

14 oz. Can chicken broth

2 cups cooked & diced chicken (1 used 3 breast)

4 oz. Velveeta cheese

1/4 to ½ cup Franks Red Hot or Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce

1/4 cup sour cream

Bleu Cheese Crumbles (if desired)

Cook onion and celery in butter until tender, stir in flour. SLOWLY whisk in milk and chicken broth. Add chicken. Add velveeta and stir until melted. Add hot sauce, sour cream and sprinkle with bleu cheese to your taste preference. Cook low, stirring constantly until heated through and bleu cheese is melted. SERVE!

This make enough for about 4 people. It is a big hit and the pot is usually scraped clean.

You may use rotisserie chicken from the grocery store if desired.

Chili Verde and Salsa

Merry Christmas everyone. Because it's Christmas this will be a very special blog post. The Coats family loves Mexican food. We can put some Mexican away- especialy my sister Lindsey. We love Mexican food so much we forgo the traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, ham and the works and have a Mexican feast! The main attraction of our Holiday feast is the ever popular Chile Verde. We have a recipe that my Dad holds as a benchmark for all mexican restaurants we go to. I still don't think he has found one that has satisfied him. I have been holding this recipe back for a special day. It is as close to a secret family recipe as we have in my family and today I found out that I had it's origins all wrong, but that's a story for another day. Well now that I am stuffed with our blessed holiday tradition, here is the recipe. I also included a nice blended salsa recipe. You can put this on a tortilla or over rice or just put it on a plate with beans, rice, and whatever other Mexican stuff you like.

Chili Verde
3 TBS vegetable Oil
1 large (5-6 lbs) Pork Boston Butt(boneless if possible), cubed 1 1/2" - 2"
1 16oz can (or equivalent in small cans) Ortega whole or diced green chilies
1 large white onion, diced
1 8oz canned crushed tomatoes (not drained)
3-4 TBS garlic powder
4 TBS cumin powder or more to taste
2 cans chicken broth (enough to cover meat)
1 - 2 TBS Salt to taste
corn Meal (if needed)
1 C. blended Salsa (if desired)

Brown pork on medium high heat until there is no pink. Add onion and chile and saute 5 - 10 min until onion is soft. Add tomato, garlic powder, cumin and stock. Add enough stock to cover the meat. Boil 2 hrs uncovered. Add salt to taste. If too thin add 2-3 TBS corn meal to thicken. You can add 1 C. Blended salsa (See next recipe) 30 min before Chili Verde is done.

Blended Salsa
1 large can whole tomatoes
1 large bunch of cilantro
1 bunch green onions (green parts only)
1 small can pickled jalepenos
garlic Salt to taste

Add all ingredients into blender. Pulse a few times and taste. Add more salt or jalepenos until you reach desired hotness and saltiness. Remember that the salsa will get hotter as time goes on. You can also cut out the middle of the Jalepeno rings to make salsa more mild. If you want the salsa to be a little chunkier be careful how many times you pulse it. If you want a more blended salsa pulse more until it has reached the desired consistency.

Arroz con Pollo

I had a hard time making a meal plan for this last week. I love to cook and I love food, but for some odd reason when it comes to planning meals for the week I hate it! I had one day left and was having difficulty knowing what to make and then it came to me. Arroz con Pollo! It’s a classic Latin American dish that you can find variations in almost every country in Latin America and Spain. Its Latin American comfort food and I can get down with that! Most recipes I found used saffron which is the most expensive spice and I just didn’t want to drop that kind of money so I kept looking. I decided to look at my go to blog www.simplyrecipes.com and see if they had a recipe. They did and theirs did not use saffron. My suggestion for this recipe is use only thighs or thighs and legs and not breasts. The breasts turned out a little dry. Other than that I think this was a home run.

Arroz Con Pollo Recipe

INGREDIENTS

Chicken

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 1/2 to 3 pounds of chicken thighs or breasts, bone-in, with skin on, rinsed and patted dry

1/2 cup of flour for dredging

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Paprika

Rice

2 tablespoons olive oil (can use up to 1/4 cup)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 cups of medium or long-grain white rice

3 cups* chicken stock

1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste or 1 cup of diced fresh or cooked tomatoes, strained

Pinch of oregano

1 teaspoon salt

*Check the instructions on the rice package for the proportions of liquid to rice. They can range from 1:1 to 2:1. If your rice calls for 2 cups of water for every cup of rice, then for this recipe, use 4 cups of stock for 2 cups of rice.

METHOD

1 Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet (a skillet that has a cover) on medium high heat. Put the flour in a wide bowl, mix in a generous sprinkling of salt, pepper, and paprika. Dredge the chicken pieces lightly in the flour mixture and put in the pan to brown. (You can skip the flour dredging part if you want. It just makes a nicer coating for the chicken.) Cook a few minutes on each side, just enough so that the chicken has browned. Use a slotted spoon to remove from pan and set aside.

2 Add the rice to the pan to brown. Add a little more olive oil if necessary. Stir first to coat the rice with the olive oil in the pan. Then don't stir too much or you will prevent it from browning. Let it brown and then stir a little to let more of it brown. Then add the onion and garlic. Cook the onion, garlic and rice mixture, stirring frequently, until the onions have softened, about 4 minutes.

3 Place the chicken pieces, skin-side up, on top of the rice. In a separate bowl, mix together the stock, tomato, salt, and oregano. Pour the stock mixture over the rice and chicken. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, and cover. Let cook for 20-25 minutes, depending on the type of rice and the instructions on the rice package, until the rice and chicken are done. Fluff the rice with a fork. If you want you can sprinkle with some peas. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4-6.

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

We made this last week and couldn't get enough of it. By now you should know I love to make soups and with winter coming up I'm sure I will post more soup recipes. This one was really easy to make and took only 40 minutes. If you don't have apple wood bacon that's ok, but look into getting some soon because it's so good! I really like Oscar Meyer's Super Thick Cut Apple Wood Bacon. This soup is creamy, but has the crunch of the bacon and corn that hit this one out of the park. Now that things are getting cooler it’s a good time to try this because you can still find some summer vegetables at the store. Also soup is really good to make extra of and freeze. Then when you don't have a lot of time to make dinner you just thaw and enjoy. That is exactly what we are doing today with this recipe!

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Ingredients
2 slices apple wood-smoked bacon
3/4 cup sliced green onions, divided
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 pound yellow summer squash, chopped
1 pound frozen white and yellow baby corn kernels, thawed and divided
2 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk, divided
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation
1. Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan. Crumble bacon, and set aside. Add 1/2 cup onions, celery, and squash to drippings in pan; sauté 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

2. Reserve 1 cup corn; set aside. Place the remaining corn and 1 cup milk in a blender; process until smooth. Add remaining 1 1/4 cups milk, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to blender; process just until combined. Add pureed mixture and reserved 1 cup corn to pan. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt. Ladle about 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with about 1 tablespoon bacon, 1 tablespoon remaining onions, and 1 tablespoon cheese.

Quick and Easy!

I made this one last Monday I think. Holli has had no appetite and that has made it hard to cook because I am essentially cooking for myself. On the other hand we have had a lot of leftovers. The favorite thing I made this week was One-Pot Chicken and Brown Rice. I gave Holli a list of the meals for the week and asked which one sounded better. She said this recipe sounded the best. The problem is I had planned this recipe for Sunday so the chicken wasn't defrosted. By the time the chicken defrosted and all was said and done it was 9 PM. This was so easy to make and most of the ingredients we already had! Plus very little dishes and clean up!

One-Pot Chicken and Brown Rice

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4.

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (6 to 8 ounces each)

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 large yellow onion, cut into 8 wedges

2 celery stalks, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

2 medium carrots cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

1 bay leaf

1 cup brown rice

DIRECTIONS

In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Season chicken with salt and pepper and place, skin side down, in pot. Cook until golden brown on both sides, 10 to 12 minutes total. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from pot; add onion and celery. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook 20 minutes.

Add carrots, bay leaf, and 1 3/4 cups water; stir in rice and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook until rice absorbs almost all the liquid, 40 to 45 minutes. Let stand, covered, for 10 minutes before serving.