Disaster averted

Honey Mustard Chicken
Pillsbury: The Best of Classic Cookbooks Copyright 1998

GLAZE:
½ cup apple juice (Tip:If you don't drink apple juice you can get a 4 oz bottle in the baby food section)
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon salt
dash pepper

CHICKEN:
3 to 3 ½ lb. cut-up or quartered frying chicken, skin removed if desired

1. GRILL DIRECTIONS: Heat grill. In small bowl combine all glaze ingredients; blend well. Set aside. I boiled it until it thickened.
2. When ready to grill, place chicken, skin side down, on gas grill over low heat or on charcoal grill 4 to 6 inches from medium coals. Cook 45 to 60 minutes or until chicken is fork-tender and juices run clear, turning often and brushing frequently with glaze during last 15 minutes of cooking. Bring any remaining glaze to a boil. Serve with chicken.
I used the oven directions:
Tip: To bake chicken in oven, place, skin side down, in a 13x9-inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Remove most of pan juices; turn chicken. Bake an additional 15 minutes, brushing with glaze as directed above.

I thought this recipe was going to be a disaster. Well, okay, a disappointment - disaster might be too strong of a word. I mixed the glaze ingredients together and it had very little viscosity and I couldn't see how it would stick to the chicken so I decided to boil it first and all was well. Fortunately I only had 5 small pieces of chicken - I would have ended up short on glaze if I actually had over 3 pounds of chicken.

I thought this was rather tasty. Not too tangy, not too sweet - just about right for my tastes. I think this glaze would be great on boneless chicken or chicken wings too.

I used the pasta odds and ends to make pasta salad again. I've been doing great as far as working with what I have on hand. I think I'm close to a trip to Costco. After this week, there will be very little left in the freezer. If I really want to challenge myself, I can try to stretch it another week, which might not be a bad idea since next weekend is Easter.

So I don't know what to think about this cookbook. Both this chicken and the cookies had some issues, yet they both were enjoyable when all was said and done.

Question of the Day: Are you cooking on Easter? What are you making?

Not-such-a-smash potatoes

Smashed Potatoes
Big Kitchen Instruction Book Copyright 1998

2-3 pounds red potatoes, unpeeled
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped green onions

Scrub potatoes well and cut in half. Place in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are tender and can easily be pierced with a fork. Drain water from potatoes and return them to the saucepan. Add milk and mash just slightly. Turn heat to low and add butter, salt and pepper. Mash just a little more, but leave them slightly lumpy. Stir in sour cream, and add a little more salt and pepper if desired. Stir in parsley and green onions and serve.

Makes 4-6 servings.

I made the Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Caramelized Onion Gravy again, and even though I did everything the same, it wasn't as 'perfect' this time. It was very good, but the meat was a bit stringy, as most pot roasts I've made or eaten in my life have been. It was still enjoyable but not at that perfect point being tender but not stringy. Maybe I had a different roast this time - 'rump', 'round', 'top', 'bottom' - it's all very confusing.

Since the main course was a rerun, I thought I'd make these smashed potatoes to go along with it and they were okay. I could have done without the parsley and the lite sour cream probably took away from some of the richness that I'm used to in mashed potatoes. I usually add some cream cheese. But my husband ate a ton of these and he's usually not really into potatoes so I can't say this recipe is a dud. Minus the parsley, I think I would have really liked these. I thought they had great eye appeal too.

This is a great 'go-to' cookbook when you're looking for a basic recipe. It has recipes for most common veggies, and popular recipes for most main ingredients. Nothing novel about the recipes but a nice choice for someone just learning to cook (someone without fancy tastes).

Question of the Day: What do you usually add to your mashed potatoes?

Pasta salad - always a hit

Creamy Italian Pasta Salad
Favorite Brand Name 365 Pasta Recipes Copyright 1997

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced I crushed it with the salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil I used dried
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cups spiral pasta, cooked, rinsed with cold water and drained I used about 2/3 of a 1 lb box
1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes I used roma tomatoes, seeds removed
½ cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper
½ cup slivered pitted ripe olives I used a can of sliced olives

In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, garlic, basil, salt and black pepper. Stir in pasta, tomatoes, bell pepper and olives. Cover; chill.

Makes about 6 servings.

Last night was a simple night. I only ate this pasta salad and hubby had a deer steak and pasta salad. I was going to make myself a veggie burger but this salad was filling enough.

I can freestyle pasta salad pretty well but then I couldn't blog about it here so I made this simple recipe. I think I can say with confidence that we enjoyed this since there wasn't even one noodle left. Hubby really loves pasta salad and my son scarfed down quite a bit of this too. I used 2/3 of a 1 lb box of pasta and that worked great since we ate it right away. I'm not sure if the recipe would have been too dry if we didn't eat it right away since I used so much more pasta than it called for. Personally, it doesn't seem to matter what the dressing/pasta ratio is, the pasta always seems to suck up all the dressing when I make any type of pasta salad and then let it sit.

Question of the Day: Can you make a pasta salad that stays creamy?

Ground beef is back in the rotation

Beef Stroganoff Casserole
Favorite Brand Name 100 Best Hamburger Recipes Copyright 2003

1 pound lean ground beef
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup dry white wine
1 can (10 ¾ ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 cups cooked egg noodles
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place beef in large skillet; season with salt and pepper. Brown beef over medium-high heat until no longer pink, stirring to separate beef. Drain fat from skillet; set beef aside. Heat oil in same skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes or until onion is tender. Add wine. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in soup, sour cream and mustard until well combined. Return beef to skillet. Place noodles in prepared dish. Pour beef mixture over noodles; stir until noodles are well coated. Bake, uncovered 30 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with parsley, if desired.

Makes 6 servings.

I finally picked up some ground beef in the grocery store. That trip to Costco may never happen. I had everything else on hand to make this recipe, except the ground beef and sour cream. Oh, and the mushrooms but those were marked down. They looked as fresh as any other mushrooms in the store. I actually had mushrooms when I planned to make this but I ended up using them on a pizza.

We enjoyed this. Cooking the mushrooms with the wine gave them a nice flavor. I didn't feel this was lacking anything but I couldn't help but think of the Meatballs Stroganoff from a while back and wonder how a bit of tomato paste and paprika might do in this casserole.

Question of the Day: What did you have for dinner last night?

Thin cookies

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies
Pillsbury: The Best of Classic Cookbooks Copyright 1998

1 cup sugar
½ cup margarine or butter, softened I used butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel I omitted this
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup sugar and margarine; beat until light and fluffy. Add milk; lemon peel, vanilla and egg; blend well. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; mix well. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes for easier handling.
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart ion ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F for 7 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

Yield: 3 dozen

I'm not sure what happened to these cookies. They were quite good but they came out completely flat - they looked nothing at all like the picture in the cookbook. I know I didn't mess anything up ingredient-wise. I omitted the lemon peel but that should have affected anything. Maybe it was the whole wheat pastry flour I used? I used real butter and chilled the dough for a couple of hours (was that too long?). The body of the recipe only mentions margarine so maybe they prepared them with margarine.

I enjoyed them regardless of their flatness. They were chewy and buttery. I happen to love the taste of nutmeg but I'm sure you could adjust the flavoring of these to your liking if you don't. Just the vanilla would have been sufficient but cinnamon in place of the nutmeg would have been great too.

I was eating one while watching television and I actually held the cookie up and was able to watch television through one of the little holes in them - that's how thin these were.

I've had this cookbook for ages but this was the first time I've cooked from it. I'm not sure why since it seems to have a lot of good recipes in it. Sometimes a cookbook gets pushed aside unfairly - it happens when you have a lot of them.

Question of the Day: When did you last eat a cookie? What kind of cookie was it?