Creamy White Chicken Chili

Creamy White Chicken Chili

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1-1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbs canola oil
• 2 cans (15-1/2 oz.) great northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (14-1/2 oz.) chicken broth
• 2 cans (4 oz.) chopped green chilies
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

• In a large saucepan, saute the chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add the beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
• Remove from the heat; stir in sour cream and cream.

Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole

My search continues for creative ways to use up leftovers that my family will actually eat. Mashed potatoes are a classic side dish where I always end up with lots meaning enough to feel slightly guilty about throwing them away. Next day mashed potatoes never taste good simply reheated and so they usually end up in my trash can.  I recently ran across this recipe in my search and thought I would give it a try and they turned out fabulous.  Even my picky non-leftover eating husband loved them!  And since I made some pretty major tweaks to the original recipe, I am now calling it my own.  Enjoy!

Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole

5 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 cup canned milk
1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp garlic salt
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
12 slices bacon, crispy cooked and crumbled (about 1/2 cup)

or substitute real bacon bits

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place all ingredients, except cheese in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium-high speed until potatoes are smooth and creamy.

2. Spoon mixture into lightly greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover.

3. Bake 30 minutes or until heated through.

Christmas Figgy Pudding

For Christmas dinner this year I wanted to try something from a traditional or maybe a better term is old fashioned Christmas dinner and I thought what better than figgy pudding, we've all heard the Christmas song with the lyric "...so bring us some figgy pudding, now bring some right here." So I thought I would give it a try and it was truly to die for. I believe I found this recipe on the Food Network site but, no author was listed. One quick note though instead of using the ramekins I made the individual puddings in a muffin pan.  They are extremely rich, so just a little bit goes a long way.  The final dish is similar to individual date cake's with a rich cream sauce over the top. We will be making figgy pudding every year for Christmas from now on, yummy! (I know that if your anything like me you don't even want to think about Christmas for at least another 300 days but, if I don't add this recipe now I will never remember and figgy pudding will be lost because I tend to be scatterbrain especially around the holidays.) 

Figgy Pudding

• 1 1/2 cups chopped dried pitted dates
• 1/2 cup chopped dried figs
• 2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 100 grams (3 1/2 ounces or 7 tablespoons) butter, softened
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 75 grams (2 1/2-ounces) dark chocolate, grated
• Butter, for coating ramekins 
• Ice cream or whipped cream, for garnish

Sauce:

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 200 grams (7-ounces or 14 tablespoons) butter
• Fresh figs, quartered, for garnish 
• Vanilla ice cream, optional
• Whipped heavy cream, optional

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the dates, dried figs and water to a medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the baking soda. Let cool for about 5 minutes, then add to a blender and puree. Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat well. Fold in the flour, the pureed date mixture and the chocolate. Put the mixture into 4 buttered, 1-cup individual ramekins, filling halfway or slightly under. Put in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  Prepare the sauce by stirring the sugar, cream and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Simmer until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir until incorporated. Remove the ramekins from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes. May be served in the ramekin or unmolded onto a small serving plate. With paring knife cut a cross in the top of the puddings for the sauce. Pour the sauce into the cross in the center of each pudding, then pour more sauce over the puddings and it allow to soak in slightly. Top with fresh figs and vanilla ice cream or heavily whipped cream. Serve warm.

Orange Cream Cookies

This is a Betty Crocker recipe that I found and made for Rylan’s 13th birthday. I made them to go with an orange dreamsicle cake that I was making for him. They were so good! I added just a hint more orange extract to give them some extra orange flavor and they became an instant family favorite.

Orange Cream Cookies

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) sugar cookie mix

3 Tbs butter or margarine, melted

2 tsp orange extract

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

5 drops yellow food color

2 drops red food color

1 ½ cups white vanilla baking chips

1.  Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir all ingredients except baking chips until soft dough forms. Stir in baking chips.

2.  On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough with 1 1/2 tablespoon-size cookie scoop or by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.

3.  Bake 9 to 10 minutes or just until dough is set (do not overbake). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely.

Lindsey's Margarita Jello Shots

Lindsey brought these little treats to Thanksgiving dinner this year, a twist on the traditional green jello salad.  They were a fun appetizer and very yummy for those of you margarita lovers, and I do believe she used Patron tequila so they were top shelf all the way!

Margarita Jello Shot

6 ounces Lime Jello
16 ounces Water (boiling)
6 ounces Tequila
2 ounces Triple Sec
1 ounce Lime Juice
1 ounce Water (cold)

So regular Jello Instructions tell you to dissolve Jello with boiling water. So your cold water amount is your booze amount. Place in individual small plastic (shot size) cups to set. It takes all night for these to set up in the fridge.

Cutout Cookies

Tomorrow we are taking treats to preschool and the letter of the week is "Q" so we made letter Q cutout cookies to take to school and share!

Cutout Cookies

• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 heaping cup shortening
• 3 eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and shortening into a dough.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix/knead the dough.
3. Roll the dough out thin and sprinkle sugar over the top and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
4. Bake cookies in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10 to 13 minutes.
5. Frost and decorated as desired.

These are great cookies, perfect for any holiday baking so get those cookie cutters out!

Step 1: Mixing all your dry ingredients with your shortening, I used actual shortening Crisco sticks not butter or margarine. 

Step 2: Turning into dough!

Step 3: I rolled my dough pretty thin because I was using small cookie cutters. I also sprinkled sugar on the dough and then gave it another quick roll so that the sugar wasn't just sitting on top of the dough that way I could frost them easily.

Cutting out our letter "Q" cookies

All done! Do not over bake, I didn't let these brown at all that way they will stay nice and soft. 

After we got with all  Q's we needed, the kids went crazy making all sorts of shapes as you can see hearts, dog bones, flowers, and of course gingy men.  This recipe doesn't make a lot of cookies, so if you need quite a lot you may need to double it. But, since I only needed a few it was perfect and we didn't have to spend all day cutting out loads of cookies!

My trusty cookie assistant was very helpful today.

Today's cookie brought to you by the letter "Q"

Soft Buttermilk Sugar Cookies, Page 190

So just a quick clarification on this recipe.  I have been going through the cookbook this week looking for errors etc. before we place our last order next month.  There were a few duplicate cookie recipes and about five sugar cookie recipes.  This recipe is one of my cookie recipes and they are quick, super soft, and delicious but, it is more of a hybrid cookie somewhere between a sugar cookie and a snickerdoodle. It isn't really what I think of as a sugar cookie, sugar cookies should resemble more of a "cut out " type cookie. So a better name would be Cinnamon & Sugar Cookie which better describes what the end result will be.  Cissy are just enjoying a batch on this cold wintry day.

My little mermaid princess Cissy

enjoying the cookies we just made!

Recipe Correction: Helen's Dinner Rolls, Page 67

If you haven't made these rolls, you really should because they are fabulous!  But, I did make a typo on this recipe it should read: 2 1/4 cups warm water (not warm yeast) but, you do add the 2 TBS of yeast to the warm water to get your dough started.  Another trick to these rolls that Aunt Helen shared with me is to bake these rolls on parchment paper that way the rolls won't stick to the pan and it will help keep your rolls soft while baking.  Aunt Helen also placed these rolls on the pan with the sides of the rolls touching when she baked them so they come out looking like a restaurant style dinner roll. Sorry for the typo!

Grandma Shirley's Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies

My amazing Husband spent most of his day Saturday organizing all of our food storage and this my friends is not an easy task. At one point I went down to see if he was still hard at work and he mentioned that we had so much oatmeal and raisins that they were coming out of our ears. It was then and there that my craving began and the search for a delicious oatmeal raisin cookie was on! So, I of course went to my trusty Guymon Family Cookbook and found several recipes that looked delicious and I narrowed it down to this one on page 191. They were pretty darn easy to make and after the first batch came out of the oven everyone devoured them! My picky Husband who's job in life is to perfect upon anything he can asked if he could add a few things and so I stepped aside and let him work his magic and he created utter oatmeal cookie perfection! He added milk chocolate chunks and around two more cups of oatmeal than it had originally called for. It was so yummy that we even hid a bowl of them from the kids just to make sure our kiddo's didn't devour them in one sitting! You need to try them out! The kids kept telling me that it would be gross to add applesauce to a cookie but have since come around and can't wait until we whip up our next batch! Just a little something to think about but I think they would be delicious with some added orange zest. That's if you would like to add upon perfection...

Red Velvet Cheesecake

The whole process is pretty easy just a little time consuming because you do have to bake 2 cakes. But each part is simple. It makes a lot of cake and tastes better the second day.

Ingredients

Cheesecake:
3 8-oz pkgs cream cheese – room temperature
1-1/3 cups sugar
3 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tbs vanilla
3 eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream

Red Velvet Cake
2 Tbs butter – softened
2 Tbs shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz red food coloring (a small bottle)
1 cup + 2 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream Cheese Icing
8 oz pkg cream cheese – softened
3-1/2 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Spray two 9” round cake pans generously with PAM. Trace bottoms of pans onto parchment paper, cut out, and place in bottom of pans. Set aside.

For the cheesecake:
Cream together cream cheese, sugar, and cornstarch with mixer. Add eggs and vanilla – beating until smooth. Add cream & beat in just until combined – don’t overmix. Pour into one of prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes – watching closely near end of baking time. Cool at room temperature, then place in refrigerator for about 2 hours. Run knife around outer edge, tapping pan to remove cheesecake onto the palm of your hand. Set in refrigerator until cold.

For the cake:
Cream butter, shortening, and sugar. Add egg, then mix in cocoa and food coloring. Scrape bowl with a COLORED spatula (red would be best to keep from staining a light colored one). Add flour and salt, then buttermilk – beating well. Sprinkle baking soda over batter, then pour vinegar and vanilla over the top. You’ll see it foam slightly. Fold into batter until well mixed. Pour batter into the other prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, or until it tests done. Cool, then remove cake from pan. Using large serrated knife, cut this layer in half when cold.

For the frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Add sugar and salt, then cream & vanilla. Continue to beat until smooth and it forms peaks. Set aside.

To assemble cake:
Place first half of cake layer onto serving plate (be sure to remove parchment paper from the bottom!) Protect outer edges with waxed paper if desired. Spread generously with a layer of frosting. Carefully slice cheesecake in half in the same way as the red velvet layer, placing one half on top of red velvet cake & frosting. Add another layer of frosting. Repeat layers. Spread frosting carefully around outer edge of cake – being careful not to ‘drag’ red velvet crumbs with the knife. Now frost top of cake. Using remaining frosting, place in pastry bag with decorative tip. Pipe edge on top and bottom. *Note: This frosting contains butter, which can soften and melt in your warm hand. Work quickly, or it can make the frosting start to droop. Store in refrigerator.

Sounds like a lot but don't get intimidated! I hope you like it!

Recipe Of The Week: Chicken Tetrazzini, page 285

In our family cookbook there are two chicken tetrazzini recipes one from Grandma Shirley and another one from Karen.  Since I have never had tetrazzini now seemed like a good time try it. Eventually I want to try both recipes because they are both so different.  I had made a roast chicken night before and with only three people and two munchkins we always have way too much chicken and I am always searching for a way to use the left overs.  This was a great recipe and one that I will make again. A creamy white sauce with pasta, mushrooms, and my leftover chicken worked out great.  I have also ran across numerous recipes for turkey tetrazzini and I think you could use leftover turkey in it and it would be really good also.  Another reason try this recipe was to clarify the quantity of chicken broth.  The recipe calls for  1 1/2 cup chicken broth and then later another 1/2 cup.  In reading the directions I couldn't see why you would need to add chicken broth in two separate steps.  When I was typing this recipe I asked grandma if she knew why and she couldn't remember either.  So anyway I just added two cups of chicken broth when making my sauce and it turned out great.  I also used capellini pasta instead of spaghetti, it is a much smaller pasta noddle and really absorbed the sauce well.  Happy Cooking!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

So I first made these cookies this summer when my mom decided to grow a garden that would feed a small army.  We had zucchini, zucchini, and more zucchini and after a few weeks of zucchini every night a boycott was brewing within my house. So I began the search for a way to use up the plethora of zucchini being delivered and ran across this recipe.  Zucchini cookies may sound a little strange but they are truly delicious. So if your a fan of zucchini bread these cookies are for you.  They are moist, chewy, and just sweet enough. When I did make a batch they wouldn't last the night at my house and as soon as the cookie jar was empty they were the cookie that was requested.  A great cookie that everybody loved from husband, teenagers, and toddler's and a perfect way to use up extra zucchini.  I think I actually found this recipe in Taste of Home about a week after the cookbook was sent off to print so it didn't make it in.  But, it is a recipe to keep and one that we enjoyed and will enjoy again come zucchini season.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups finely shredded zucchini
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
• 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the zucchini, nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls 3 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. (8 dozen.)

Uncle David's Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes

Uncle David came across this recipe in the Salt Lake Tribune and thought it would be good to try for Thanksgiving dinner, so we made it and it was fabulous!  This is a great recipe but, I have to add that Brent mashed the potatoes with a little cream cheese and they were the smoothest potatoes that I have ever eaten.  So when attempting this recipe call Brent and see if he is available for his expert "mashing" services beforehand and enjoy!

 

CREAMY BACON AND SCALLION MASHED POTATOES

One 5-pound bag Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
8 strips bacon, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
3 scallions, thinly sliced
One 8-ounce block cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup whole or skim milk

Place potatoes in large saucepan. Cover with cold water, then set over medium-high heat. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and return to pot. While potatoes cook, heat large skillet to medium-high. Add bacon and cook until just crisp, about 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer bacon to paper towels to drain fat. Drain off all but about 1 teaspoon of bacon fat from skillet. Return skillet to burner over low heat. Return bacon to skillet, then add garlic powder and smoked paprika. Heat for 1 minute, then remove pan from heat. Stir in scallions; set aside. When potatoes are cooked and drained, add cream cheese, butter and milk to pot. Mash until creamy and mostly smooth. Mix in bacon-scallion mixture; season with salt and pepper.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

Here is a new recipe that I am so excited to share because it is so easy and so delicious that if you like chocolate and caramel you will love it. A couple weeks before Christmas I went into a cooking slump everything I made was a flop, I even managed to botch Rice Krispie treats.  So being totally depressed but needing to make a batch of Christmas treats for a good friend, my mom came to my rescue with the following recipe. She received it from a friend at school who swore that these cookies were fool proof and sure enough they are and super delicious as well.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

1 Box Devils Food Cake Mix
2 Eggs
1/4 Cup Oil
1 Bag Rolo Candy
Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cake mix, eggs, and oil.  Roll cookies into balls with a rolo in the middle and then roll balls in sugar.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  Do not make a double batch because they will not mix.

Enjoy!

Recipe Of The Week: Play Doh

So for my new recipe this week I thought I would try making Play Doh, and mom if your reading this,you can stop laughing now.  Okay, so after all the months of endless holiday cooking and baking I really needed to try something low key and also I really needed something to entertain Cash today since he didn't have preschool.  So we tackled Play Doh, it is my lovely Aunt Eileen's recipe and is on page 391 of the family cookbook and it is an awesome recipe.  My kids helped make it and they had so much fun, it turned out great and was super easy but, you know with me cooking there had to be at least one minor recipe malfunction, because that's just how recipes seem to roll at my house.

For starters I have two kids who refuse to share anything. One boy who refuses to touch anything pink, and a girl who refuses to touch anything blue. So I knew we would never be able to reach a compromise on the color of the dough.  So I thought I would just make two batches and then realized I didn't have two cups of salt.  So now what, okay I would make one batch and then divide it, and then color it. This way I could have one blue and one pink and everybody would be happy!  I think this was a very important direction to follow: Add the color to the water, which now I must add could be a really critical step if you don't want your hands to turn the color of the dough your mixing.  We ended up with both batches turning out great and even though my hands look like pink and blue Easter eggs, nobody cried and it worked so that's what I call a success!

Making pay doh gingy men

Cash making an army of gingy men

Say cheese!

Showing little sister how it's done, what a helper!

Cissy making giant and hearts and now giant gingy men

We love our play doh!

New Years Resolutions & New Recipes

So last year when I was working on the cookbook, I cooked and cooked and did mention that I COOKED a lot.  So many recipes I had to actually cook because there wasn't an ingredient list or something was missing like the cooking temperature or time.  So I would cook them and try to recreate them as best I could, while this might be simple for lot of cooks at the time I was still what I would call a cooking novice.  We tried so many new recipes, it was really a cooking adventure for our family. Towards the end of the cookbook I had to fill 400 pages so I was frantically trying to get new recipes because I had to fill up pages in the book and I wanted to make sure any recipe with my name on it, I had cooked and it was good.  While it was a lot of work, it was a lot of fun I really pushed myself and my cooking abilities and while I had failures the success outnumbered them. 

So as I was writing my New Years Resolutions this year and I vowed that none would have anything to do with weight loss, because dieting for the first week in January is never successful for me and I hate setting myself up for failure, I am way to competitive for that.  I thought back to last year and cooking new recipes and how much I learned and enjoyed cooking and eating new foods.  Now Mike could eat the same five or six meals each week for the rest of his life and I think it is good for him to try new things too.  I am always thinking of others! So this year I am going to try a recipe a week, something different that I haven't tried or haven't made forever. And to keep myself honest or better yet to keep track of what works and doesn't work I am going to blog about it, now Guymon family I am adding you all on here as administrators so feel free to blog your recipe adventures with me!  In the hope that as we get closer to the family reunion this year I can simply look back at the blog and have some ideas of how to put together the new mini cookbook we are creating.

Who Is Crazy Enough to Write A Cookbook Anyway?

Well I guess the answer to that question is me! Last year I decided to tackle what I thought would be just a little project, because "I can type really fast" and I desperately needed some of my mom's recipes that she wasn't sharing and the good news is that I actually finished it and the bad new is it almost killed me (not really but, very close.)  And now a year later, with typo's and lot's of new recipes that I wish were included or would be awesome if they were added you may be asking yourself if I am going to do another cookbook and the answer is NO WAY!  Hahaha but, I am trying to get together a list of a few new recipes that I am going to put together in much much smaller way to share with everyone.  I am still thinking of the best way to accomplish this and since my face book addiction is slowly being replaced by a new blogging addiction, what a better way to get off my butt and get started by blogging my way through it.  I really wish I would have blogged my journey making the cookbook last year because it was such an epic journey for me on so many levels that I would love to go back and read through all my trials and success but, then again I barely had time to get dressed each day when I was in the midst of cookbook creating let alone blog time.  So since it's a new year and a new mini cookbook being created here we go!