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!