Very First Fried Chicken

Have you ever made fried chicken? I hadn't.

I've made baked, "breaded" chicken and I've made cutlets, which is beef or pork breaded and fried, but I had never made friend chicken. Guess that goes to show how far North I must live. ;)

My sister and I (absurdly) married fellows who share a birthday. Since they only just got married, we agreed we had to do something with the four of us, and settled on cooking dinner at their brand new house.

Growing up, my family's birthday tradition was that my mom would make your favourite meal (or whatever you requested) on your birthday. My sister and I tried to get our husbands to name their favourite meal so we could cook that, but neither would. So I suggested mashed potatoes and cutlets, which was probably the most common birthday meal in our family. Everyone agreed, and my sister and I went out to buy the groceries. We found everything except the cutlets... So we bought chicken fillets instead, and called it good.

I breaded the chicken, and as I was setting them in the frying pan, I realized I was making fried chicken. The two guys then thought it completely absurd that I had never made fried chicken, although I've never even had homemade fried chicken.

Anyways, I was really concerned that making it gluten-free would make it less good, but everyone was amazed at how good it was and insisted they couldn't tell.

I used white rice flour, rather than a GF flour blend, and I bought some rice bread crumbs, both of which I doubted.

I followed my mother's instructions on making cutlets. I mixed some seasoning salt into the flour, then coated the raw chicken in that. Then it got a raw egg bath, before being covered in bread crumbs and dumped in the frying pan. My sister got a fancy-dancy fried chicken frying pan for her wedding, which is extra deep and has a screen lid. I had probably an inch of melted margarine in the pan (forgot to pick up olive oil, might try coconut oil next time), and I fried it until it looked done. I warned everyone to cut into the chicken to check for doneness, because I was too afraid of burning it.

This left us with tender chicken meat, covered in crispy breading, which was tasty, moist, perfectly cooked, and paired with mashed potatoes perfectly. Also, something that my fast-food-deprived-mouth was excited to eat (read: reminded me of a lot of restaurant food I haven't been able to enjoy).

Very simple birthday dinner, but something that I enjoyed cooking and will definitely be making again.

Gluten Free Butter Pecan Cheesecake Truffles

As I said in my last post, I made two desserts for the wedding. I immediately settled on sugar cookies for the first dessert, but the second dessert took a lot of brainstorming. I wanted something that would travel well, be spectacular, unique and gluten-free. I wanted something in small servings, but we already had cookies and tarts. 

After a couple weeks of thinking and searching, I put it off for awhile. Then one of my favourite blogs, EZ Gluten Free, posted a recipe that I thought sounded pretty perfect. The best thing was that I could make it several days ahead. Since I had a lot of things to do the week before the wedding, I made it as early as I could.

The recipe does include a lot of chilling time, and one ingredient did require some hunting down, but the actual work didn't take all that long and I managed to get some other things done will the ingredients were chilling.

Also, seriously, does it get better than Butter Pecan Cheesecake Truffles?

So you really need to click through and read that recipe, but to sum it up for you... You brown some butter and brown sugar on the stove, then mix it with some cream cheese and vanilla. The cream cheese mixture goes in the fridge to chill, and you mix some chopped pecans with some crushed cookies. The very specific gluten-free pecan shortbread cookies were the hardest thing to find, but I did find a pack at the health food store. Also, it's the only ingredient that is explicitly gluten-free. If you don't care about gluten content, just use regular pecan shortbread cookies.

Once the cream cheese stuff is chilled, you scoop up little balls of cream cheese and roll it in the pecan mixture. Once every little ball was rolled, I put them into containers between layers of plastic wrap and froze them for several days. I kept the containers frozen until it was time to leave for the rehearsal dinner. The wedding (and rehearsal dinner) was all in a town two hours from home, so I put the truffles in a cooler until we got there, and then they went back in a freezer. A few minutes before the reception, I pulled out some mini cupcake liners and plopped each truffle in a liner on a table. It took maybe five minutes. Right away, they were frozen solid, but they warmed up pretty quick, and by the time the last one was devoured they were still a little cold.

Overall, these worked perfectly for what I wanted. They didn't take long to make, they kept well, and they travelled just as well. Oh, and they delicious. Everyone who had one told me they were amazing.

Except my sister (the bride). Apparently, she doesn't like cheesecake. I knew that, I guess, and she didn't mind, because there were plenty of other sweets. The groom, on the other hand, told me that I'm going to go visit them and make these. I don't think he even cares if I visit, as long as he gets more of these.

Freezer Meals: Teriyaki Chicken

The second meal to come out of my freezer and into my slow cooker was teriyaki chicken.

Ingredients
Medium - large bag of carrots
Red onion cut into large chunks
2 large cans pineapple (undrained)
4 garlic cloves
4 chicken breasts (or eight chicken thighs)
1 cup teriyaki sauce
Split between 2 bags, seal, mix, lay flat, freeze
Directions for bags:
Add 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce to pot. Cook low 6-7 hours. Serve over hot rice.

 It was super easy to throw everything in the bag, like easier than the other ones. The only part that took any time was the carrots. I wasn't sure from the recipe what to do with them, so I julienne'd them through my mandoline. The original recipe called for chicken breasts, but my grocery store was absurdly out of chicken breasts, so I substituted chicken thighs, and left them whole.

Freezer Meals - Italian Sausage and Peppers

The first meal from my freezer cooking that I made was Sausage & Peppers.

Ingredients:
6 Italian Sausages
2 Green Peppers
1 Red Pepper
1 Red Onion
4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
2 Cand Italian Diced Tomatoes
2 Tbs Italian Seasoning
Split between two bags, seal, mix, lay flat, freeze
Directions for bags:
Add drizzle of olive oil, cook on low 6 hours, serve over hot noodles or fresh french bread with mozzarella cheese.

Just looks like veggies to me!

Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

I did work on spring cleaning this weekend, but I got stalled and distracted a lot. My sister came into town (she lives on a farm 1.5 hours from here) and I spent a ton of time with her. I also decided to make chocolate muffins.

A friend of mine posted a photo of her adorable 9-month-old baby covered in gluten-free chocolate muffins crumbs, and I asked for the recipe. I've been in kind of a baking funk for a really long time, but having a clean kitchen now makes me want to bake again. After reading through the recipe and realizing I had everything I needed, I made it. Simple as that.

The recipe comes from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. My friend has the cookbook, but she tracked down and shared the blog recipe.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Growing up, peanut butter cookies were one of my favourites. They were one of the first things I made by myself, without my mom's help. I loved how easy they were to make, I loved pressing a fork down into the soft dough, I loved the peanut smell that filled the kitchen and I especially loved eating them.

Oddly, peanut butter cookies aren't something I've attempted gluten-free. Until now. And I think "attempted" covers it. 

I followed this recipe which is flourless, dairy-free and easily egg-free.

I started out with such good intentions! Even when I saw things were starting to go wrong, I pressed on and made the little fork indents, but... Well. You'll see.

BBQ Chicken and Potatoes in a Slow Cooker

When I don't have much time to prep dinner, I steer towards my slow cookers, because I can put something together at lunch and then eat it a few hours later. When I don't plan for something specific (and find ingredients and a recipe), then I fall back on one simple guideline: Potatoes, chicken, flavour. It's simple, low-prep and fool-proof. I usually have chicken and potatoes on hand, whatever flavour I use can vary from spices to sauces, whatever I'm feeling or whatever's handy.

I buy baby potatoes, and we like eating them with the skins on. You could peel and cube larger ones, but slices of potatoes also works well. You want to cover the whole bottom of the pot.

Taco Pork Tenderloins

Something I've been trying to do lately is make a little extra for dinner and plan for leftovers. Often our leftovers just sit in our fridge until we give up and throw them out.

One of the best ways to do that is to make two meals at the same time. I saw a recipe in a magazine for pork tenderloins, and underneath it had a couple of ideas of what to do with the leftovers. One of those ideas was to shred the pork and put it on a sandwich, another was to put it in a taco. That one sounded brilliant.

So I put bought two pork tenderloins and put them both in the slow cooker for a day. We ate one for dinner that night and it was delicious, and the other went in the fridge. The next day, I shredded it, added taco spice, warmed it back up and we had tacos. It was also delicious.  I'm going to have to do more meals like this.

Tuna Casserole

I was never a fan of canned meat as a kid. I flat out refused to try tuna for a very long time, and I'm not sure if it was my aversion to fish or my aversion to canned meats. When I was just dating my now-husband, he introduced me to tuna salad sandwiches. I actually enjoyed the one he made for me, so I started making them. Like, all the time. I lived off of tuna salad sandwiches in highschool.

After I got married, my husband made a tuna casserole. I loved casseroles, and I loved my tuna salad, but tuna and pasta? I wasn't sure. Once again, I enjoyed it, and after that, I started making tuna casseroles. We both liked them quite a bit, so they become a staple in our early days of meal planning.

When we started eating gluten-free, I wanted tuna casserole, but I couldn't use a can of cream of chicken soup anymore. Instead of googling how to make a gluten-free version, I just made it up. It took a few tries, but I figured it out. M and I love it, and it's super easy, and uses things we have on hand (which most of the stuff I make up does). It's not dairy-free yet, but I'm getting there.

Quick Meals - Tuna Spaghetti

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't always have a lot of time to eat, and I eat some creative meals sometimes. This is definitely one of them. Sometimes, I look at whatever ingredients I have on hand and type them into a Pinterest search. I've gotten a lot of really great recipes this way.  I'll type things like "Bacon hashbrown" or "egg spinach" and it comes up with pins where people typed something like "Breakfast casserole with bacon and hashbrowns". This time, I opened my cupboard and grabbed a box of gluten-free spaghetti and started boiling it. While it was cooking, I found a can of tuna and searched "tuna spaghetti." The recipe I found was a lot more complicated and involved sauteing garlic, but I skimmed it, got the basics, and went from there.

I dumped one cup of garlic and herb pasta sauce into a microwaveable bowl, stirred in a can of tuna and heated it up. When the pasta was done, I dumped the sauce on top and chowed down. Super quick, easy, nutritious and delicious. It could have had chopped fresh veggies or cheese to make it better, but my focus was time and ease. Feel free to make it your own. 

This made two servings, which meant it could have been a meal for my husband and I, but instead it was lunch one day and dinner another for me.

Quick Meals - Huevos Rancheros

I've been working two jobs for six months now. This means a couple of things. Primarily, it means I don't have a lot of spare time. And what spare time my schedule does leave me gets eaten up by fun, enjoyable things (like dancing! I've taken up ballroom dancing). This means that I either eat really poorly (hello, cans of soup) or really creatively. When I have that extra mental energy, I think up some pretty cool meals that take a minimum amount of prep time, and when I don't, I eat like a college kid.

This is one of my favourites. I bought a big bag of frozen corn tortillas at a Mexican grocery in Saskatoon, and they are quite the staple. I scramble two eggs and heat up three tortillas with a dab of butter and presto! It makes a great breakfast, a quick lunch, and a good dinner. Not that I eat it three times a day, but it's very versatile and I love it. If I have some salsa or guacamole on hand, I throw that on there too. Or a slice of avocado, if I haven't eaten the whole avocado before the eggs cook.

It's basically a super quick version of huevos rancheros. I love it.

My Untraditional New Year's Eve Party

I'm pretty sure I was meant to be a sixties housewife, but somebody somewhere messed up and I was born in the nineties. What the crap, guys? I live in a time where I'm not expected to bake, host dinner parties and clean all the time. I'm expected to have a job, go to work, and be independent. I would way rather be home all day, keeping the house clean, making casseroles for dinner, baking plenty, and hosting dinner parties often. Honest to goodness, I was meant to be a sixties housewife.

But with the way life has been going, I haven't been hosting much. The last event I had at my house was in May. Recently, a couple friends of mine were planning a New Year's Eve Bash, so I jumped on the chance to host it. Yes, that meant I would need to do a lot of cleaning, but goshdarn it, I wanted to have people over again.

Until it was time to plan the party, and then I realized I've never even been to a NYE party... I mean, my parents had friends over every year, and I used to go out to a big youth event, but that's it. I've never even been to a bar for NYE.

So I didn't know what to make, what to serve, what to do, or what to have on hand. I felt totally at a loss. I figured it out, and I think it went really great, but I didn't exactly do anything traditional.

Banana Bread

I'm not going to say I'm an expert on banana bread, but there are twelve loaves of banana bread in my kitchen.

I used the same recipe for each one, which is why I'm no expert. I thought about trying a different recipe for them all, but that would require a lot more time, effort, footwork (different ingredients) and I can't possibly taste them all, so I wouldn't have results for you!

Ten loaves in my freezer!

Flour Blend

I'm not going to say this is the be-all-end-all of gluten-free flour blends. I'm not even going to say this is the only flour blend I will use. I'll more than likely use a different grain every now and then, and I'm perfectly happy to use store-bought blends. But if I want a big mix of flour that I can use confidently, this is the one I will turn to.

If I don't need a lot:

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup white rice flour

1 cup coconut flour

1 cup potato flour

1 cup tapioca starch

Pour each flour into a large bowl and stir gently with a long spoon, or dump them all into a large ziplock bag and shake gently.

If I need a large batch of flour:

1 lb brown rice flour

1 lb white rice flour

1 lb coconut flour

1 lb potato flour

1 lb tapioca starch

I needed the largest pot in my kitchen, and then I stirred gently with a wooden spoon, and a whisk once the tapioca starch was less likely to get everywhere.

It's important to note that coconut flour is very dry. When I use this flour, I always add a little more liquid to whatever I'm making (applesauce, banana, water, milk, yogurt, etc). I also add a little xanthum gum, about one teaspoon per "batch". I'm admittedly not very precise with my xanthum gum.

Gluten Free Chex Mix

M's dad lives a 16 hour drive from here. I am told only Canadians measure distance with time, but it's the only way I know how. So his dad (and sisters and grandparents) all live South of the border. Which is great, and we've gone to visit them a couple times, both over Christmas. His grandma makes Chex mix every single year for Christmas, and M's dad picked up the habit (and the recipe). I'm not hooked on it, because I've only had it two Christmas's, but M loves it, and misses it around the holidays.

When my family, up here, decided to have a Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner, I had to figure out what to bring. Something gluten-free, without being really obviously gluten-free, and something everyone would enjoy. I thought of Chex mix, for M's sake. I didn't use his dad's recipe, I used a recipe I found online that called for a slow cooker.

Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer

So, you know that I've been on a serious coffee kick lately, right? Like, three weeks ago I had never had a cup, and now I can't make it through morning without one.

Well, I'm also trying really hard to embrace fall this year. Normally I pretend it's summer until the day it snows, and then I count down the days to the next summer. This year, I'm trying to find things to love about every season.

Also, one of my favourite blogs, Pintester is having a Pintester movement, so I decided to make this for the purpose of submitting. I realize this is the very last day to submit, but I've been tired and busy.

So in honour of those three things, I made a dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo pumpkin pie coffee creamer. Aren't I fancy?

I found it here, but of course this wouldn't be a real Pintester post if I made it that exact way, so I substituted something. I couldn't find any pumpkin pie spice! I don't know why, when my grocery store is already selling Christmas lights, but I couldn't. So instead I threw in undetermined amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.

So there's everything I used. That container of white stuff is coconut milk. I opened the can yesterday to try a few spoonfuls in my coffee. You can also tell I like No Name stuff. Hey, it's cheap.

So I threw everything in my blender, including the spices I didn't picture before.

And then I hit go. I didn't really expect it to be this colour, but hey, that's cool.

I threw it back in the container that had had the coconut milk, because I am very against dirty dishes.

And bam. It was super easy to whip together, and I feel good about all the ingredients. I tasted a spoonful of the stuff, and ohmygoditwasamazing! It tasted like thick, creamy, pumpkin pie. I could have eaten the whole container with a spoon. Honestly, I liked it better before I put it in my coffee. It did taste like pumpkin pie, and I didn't need to add sugar, but I just didn't like how my pumpkin pie stuff started tasting like coffee.

A normal coffee drinker would probably love it.

Slow cooker lasagna

Working 11 hours in a day, between two jobs doesn't leave much time for eating. I usually have one hour between getting off work and having to be at work. Thanks to two very different dress codes, I have to change in that time too. Some days, I just down a can of chicken and rice soup, some days I heat up some leftovers, and some days I actually have it together enough to make an actual meal. By that, I mean my husband who gets home fifteen minutes before me sometimes starts dinner, unless I put something in the slowcooker. The problem with slow cooker meals is that I usually have to put it in at lunch time. If I have it together, I can prepare it the night before, toss it in at lunch, and eat it at dinner. Otherwise, I have to prepare it at lunch hour, which leaves me less time to eat another meal.

Yesterday was one of those days. I prepared it at lunch, and ate it at dinner. There were three reasons I selected this recipe.

1. I miss lasagna. Like, a lot.
2. I bought gluten free lasagna noodles awhile back, but I haven't had the time to prepare a lasagna (let's be honest, they are a little intensive. 
3. My roommate recently made a lasagna, and has been slowly eating it over the last week. Staring at it every time I open the fridge made me desperate enough to try anything.

I wasn't really sure about this recipe. The blog I found it on said she thought it would dry and crunchy, but it wasn't. I thought the same, but even worse, because my noodles would be gluten free. But they weren't! Actually, they were a little bit soggy. The recipe says to cook on low for three hours, but I had to cook it for four, because my time is a little limited. I would still highly suggest it to anyone, GF, or not.

I found it here, and I made some tweaking. First of all, she didn't mention any beef, although her picture shows some. I wanted beef, so I browned some, and layered it in there as well. Second, M hates parmesan, so I took that out and added a little more mozza instead. This recipe is pretty relaxed, and you can do whatever tweaking you like.

Here's what I used

1 box lasagna noodles - uncooked

1 1/2 cups cottage cheese

1/2 - 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 egg

1/2 - 1 pound ground beef

1 jar spaghetti sauce

Here's what I did:

Brown the ground beef. Mix the cheeses and egg together in a bowl. Layer.

Start with sauce on the bottom, then dry noodles. I had to break mine to get them to fit in the pot, and then I put the broken pieces around the edges. Layer some cheese, beef, sauce, noodles, until you run out. Finish off with some sauce.

You can add cheese for the last half hour, which I didn't for two reasons. First of all, I wasn't home half an hour before I ate this. And second, I wanted parmesan, M didn't, so I put parmesan on my plate after I served it.

Shepard's Pie

I made Shepard's pie last night! I worked off of this recipe. This is honestly the first Shepard's pie I've ever made. I've had some at other people's houses a couple times, but my mom never made it, and I've never made it. I was kind of afraid of it turning out terribly, but it was actually really delicious. My one drawback was that it took a full hour to make, and I had to go out after work and buy some things, so I didn't start making it until six, and I don't really like eating dinner at seven.

I scaled this down a little bit, not exactly, just based on what we had on hand, and knowing how much we tend to eat. We still did have leftovers, though.

1 lb of ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups mixed frozen vegetables
1 lb baby potatoes
1 stick of butter, divided
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400F. Chop the potatoes roughly, and boil until tender (15-20 min). I leave the skins on, because hubby and I like mashed potatoes with skins, and it's easier, and has more nutrients.

While the potatoes are cooking, melt half of the butter (4 tablespoons) in a large saucepan over medium heat. Here's where I kind of messed up. I put the whole stick of butter in, and it started browning before I could get the onions in, but I think that made it way more tasty. I love browned butter. Saute onions in butter, and then add beef. When beef is just cooked, or almost cooked, add in the frozen vegetables. Here is where I realized I added too much butter, and needed 4 tablespoons still. So I strained off about 4 tablespoons of grease and fat.

Add salt, pepper and Worcestershire. Add some beef broth, and simmer on low, uncovered, for ten minutes. Add more beef broth as necessary to keep it moist.

Mash potatoes with remaining butter, or in my case, beef drippings, which made them super tasty too.

Spread beef mixture in dish, and spread potatoes on top. Rough up the potatoes with a fork so they brown well. Cook in oven for 30 minutes or until potatoes brown. You can broil for the last few minutes if necessary.

And bam! Yummy, manly food hot and ready to eat.

(I made this again, a few nights later. The second time, I went from memory. I managed to get the butter in the potatoes, but I forgot about the Worcestershire sauce and beef broth, and I didn't bother to simmer the beef. Turned out yummy and tasty. Honestly not as tasty as the first time, but quicker, and still delicious. Photos are from round two.)

Banana Bread

My mom had a bunch of bananas going bad, so I took them off of her and made muffins. And then there were some leftover, so I made banana bread too! Hubby keeps begging me to make it for him, so I caved and did, mostly because I didn't want two batches of muffins on hand. In hindsight, I should have made two batches of muffins. Mmm, muffins...

The recipe is a little more consuming than the muffin one, using a few more dishes, and the ability to cream butter and sugar. Hey, I only said it's a little more consuming, not like it's hard!

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups Gluten Free flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preaheat oven to 350F, grease a loaf pan.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift flour, xantham gum, baking soda and salt together, add to creamed mixture, mixing well. 

Fold in bananas and vanilla. 

Pour mixture into pan, bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan ten minutes, then on rack.

You could add up to half a cup of shelled, coarsely chopped walnuts, or chocolate chips, if that suits your fancy. 

There is nothing better than a cup of tea and a slice of warm buttered banana bread.

Day 77: Blender Fudge

I had a serious craving for fudge today. I have the recipe my mom always made, the kind that goes in the microwave and doesn't take much work. But I didn't feel like doing that much work, and I had a paleo fudge recipe pinned to my baking board, so I made that. I technically didn't make paleo fudge, because I used peanut butter, regular honey, and normal cocoa, but hey. Close enough, right?

It doesn't take much work, besides cleaning out your blender later, and you'll want to eat it so fast you forget to take any pictures.

So you melt some coconut oil, and then you throw a bunch of stuff in your blender, and then you blend it. You might find yourself standing there watching it blend for awhile, but I promise it's worth it.

And then you pour it from your blender into a mold. I used a couple of ice cube trays. Here's another fun fact about Robynne: I don't actually have any cube-shaped ice cube trays. I have at least half a dozen different ones, but not a single one is cube-shaped. I have hearts, apples, pumpkins, pears, ovals, and diamonds, though. So I made some fun shaped bits of fudge that were about two-bites big each, which is just the right amount for a creamy, chocolatey, smooth fudge. I threw one in the fridge, and the other two in the freezer, so I wouldn't eat them all in one day.

Everyone goes on about microwave fudge and Oh look! It's so quick and easy! but I think I like this better. No cooking at all, and nothing dirty but a blender.

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Melt coconut oil. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or blender. Pour into silicon tray, muffin tin, or lined muffin tin. Chill for 30 minutes, and store in air-tight container.