RECIPES: Kathi's White Chili and Heavenly Buttered Rolls

The other night I made CLASSIC BBQ CHICKEN (click for the link to that recipe.) I love this recipe! And since I have made a pack with myself not to waste the chicken carcass (because it makes wonderful broth and can make one more meal with the chicken) I decided to make White Chili using the left over carcass from the BBQ Chicken. I served the chili with these addicting Heavenly Buttered Rolls. Did I say addicting? I meant ADDICTING!

Once again, I think my MIL (mother-in-law) will be proud of me. Can you believe it Penny, I haven't thrown away a carcass since I started this blog. I admit it, I use to throw away the carcass because I didn't want to mess with it. My mother and grandmother would probably have a fit, like Penny did, if they knew that I did that. Actually, Penny didn't "have a fit," she's not like that!

Anyway, I found a recipe in my "Crème de Colorado Cookbook" but as you know by now, I have a hard time following a recipe without doing things "my way" so I decided to give it to you the way I did it and call it Kathi's White Chili.



KATHI'S WHITE CHILI

One Chicken Carcass

Put the lonely chicken carcass in a large pot of water and place on stove. Add 3 or 4 peeled carrots and 4 to 5 stalks of celery cut into quarters. Then add 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper, 2 tsp. onion powder, 2 tsp. garlic powder, 2 tsp. basil and 2 tsp. chicken seasoning along with any other seasoning you think would add nice flavor. I'm guessing on the amounts because I usually just go through my spices and add what ever jumps out at me, I never measure, I just dump it in and hope I don't ever do it on any one spice! Call me reckless, but that's the way I do it! Bring to boil, then turn down the heat to a strong simmer (is that a cooking term?) and cover with the lid.

If you don't have a carcass laying around in your kitchen, you can do this with a whole chicken!

Meanwhile, dump 1 pound dry White Northern beans into another large pot, bring to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover with a lid. I don't wash or sort my beans, once again, there's that reckless side of me, and I've never had a rock in my meals, at least I didn't find one as I was eating the dish!

Now go to a "Herd Quitters" meeting like I did for 2 1/2 hours with Dan the Man. Or just find someway to kill 3 to 4 hours. Ohh, hope the house doesn't burn down while I'm gone. Reckless again, I know...

When you get back and if your house is still standing, take the chicken carcass or whole chicken out of the broth and turn off the burner. Chicken should be falling off the bone. If it is not to that point yet, turn the heat up a little, put the lid back on and check back in half an hour.

Let the chicken cool and then when it is cool enough to work with without burning your fingers, pull the meat off the bones and put in the refrigerator.

Strain the broth, keep the carrots, but toss the celery. Strain the beans. I guess if you see a rock or other foreign object, you can remove it. Dump the beans into the broth, cut the carrots into chunks and add to the broth and place on the stove. Simmer and cover until the beans are tender, somewhere around an hour or so.

Meanwhile... If you did the whole chicken, shred what ever chicken meat you want to add to the chili and put the rest into a bag and freeze. You can use the left over for another meal. You need about 3 cups of chicken for the chili. I got my other chicken from the freezer, out of my shredded chicken stash I have in there. It was my last package so I'll have to boil up some more chickens soon.

Anyway, this recipe sure is long....

After the beans are tender, add the chicken, lots of cumin (I love, love, love cumin) like 2 or 3 tablespoons, two cans (you know those little cans) of diced green chiles and anything else you want to flavor the chili with. You could add onions, jalapenos, whatever... The secret to a great soup is the spices you add so be sure to taste the broth and add some if you think that it needs it. Cook for a half hour or so on low heat. Let those flavors meld together.

Yummmm, smells so good!

Serve with sour cream and shredded Monterey jack and cheddar cheese. Oooo, sliced black olives would have been good, too bad I didn't have any.

Delish!


Then I also made these rolls.

They are heavenly, addicting, so good they should be outlawed!




HEAVENLY BUTTERED ROLLS

Generously spray a cast iron skillet with cooking spray. Put seven Rhode’s frozen dinner rolls in the skillet. Cover with a towel and leave for 5 hours or so, or until the have risen and are touching each other in the skillet. They should completely cover the skillet if they have risen enough. Brush with melted butter. Use real butter, don't skimp! Sprinkle with course salt like kosher salt or course sea salt. You can stop there or add more flavor by adding sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic powder, dried onion flakes, rosemary... You get the idea. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until deep golden brown on top. Serve in the skillet and try to behave yourself. You don't have to eat four of them, but you can if you want to!



I baked mine just a little too long. Hate it when that happens, but they were still delicious and I had a hard time behaving, actually I didn't behave at all! I ate three! Oink, oink!

It was just Dan the Man and myself for dinner that night, so I didn't want them to go to waste!

There I feel better justifying my weakness.

oink!

Tator in his basket with His Piggy

(my mom gave me this little pig about 30 years ago,
it oinks when you squeeze it and Tator has adopted it.)

RECIPE: Whole Grain Sunflower Bread

This is some darn good tasty bread. I made it yesterday to go with the chicken noodle soup I made for dinner.

Whole Grain Sunflower Bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbs canola oil
1 Tbs honey
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup rye flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dry active yeast
3 Tbs raisins
3 Tbs sunflower kernels




Directions

Select "dough" cycle on your bread machine. Add ingredients in order. Make a well in the center for the yeast. Start bread machine. At the end of the dough cycle, remove the dough and place on a floured surface. Knead dough for about a minute or two. Shape into desired loaf shape and place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cover with towel and let rise until almost double in size, about 40 minutes or so. Pop into a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. Brush top with butter and enjoy!

I almost always make bread this way. It is so easy to let the bread machine do all the work, but when it comes to baking the bread I don't trust the machine and I hate the loaf that it produces. You can shape your loaf any old way that you please or you could place it in a greased loaf pan as well. I usually shape mine in a french bread loaf or just a round loaf.

Saving money, Decluttering and Focaccia Recipe

After our trip to Japan, I feel a desperate need to save a little money to make up for the expense of the trip! It's also a New Year and we all have been programmed to try to do something better at the beginning of each year. I never ever have kept a New Year's resolution, so therefore I don't make them, that way I don't have to fail every year when I get lazy and don't finish it!

Right now I feel compelled to try to save a little money by using what I already have and not buying anything new! The one area in our house that seems to be overflowing is the pantry. We have a nice walk-in pantry that I am sure I would like even more if it was nicely cleaned and organized! I am constantly having to push things aside every time I put groceries away. Why is that? If I already have food in there, why am I buying more?

The pantry "before" picture!

So in order to combat my messy pantry and save money, I am going to see how long I can go without buying groceries besides for the staples like milk, cereal, cheese, and what ever else I feel is a true essential. We are blessed and fortunate to have our own beef, chicken and eggs, so I already save money there.

I'm going to look to my pantry everyday for our meals. I am also going to clean and organize a shelf everyday. Did I just say that? Writing it down in this blog makes me feel accountable now. Oh well, that's what I need is to feel accountable for my actions in order to accomplish this task. I've been wanting to declutter my kitchen for a long time so maybe this will blossom into a whole kitchen cleaning and organizing thing. Don't get me wrong, my kitchen really isn't a pigsty, but the older I get, the less stuff I want. Who needs all those lunch boxes I have stashed clear in the back of my cupboard? And who needs 10 different mixing bowls! Do you see what I am talking about? The only problem I foresee is what do I do with all this perfectly good stuff? I could take it to Goodwill, won't sell it on Ebay because there isn't a demand for it there, besides the shipping would kill any good deal.

I read in a magazine this month that you can have a "swap party" with your friends. You all go through your house and find things that you no longer need or use that are in good condition. Then you bring them all to some one's house and display them. Everyone looks at the stuff and decides if they need any of it. If you want it, you can put a clothespin with your name on it. If two or more people want one item, you draw a clothespin to see who gets it. You can even do themed "get rid of your stuff" parties like kitchen ones, clothes ones, Christmas decoration ones, etc. Then at the end of the party you gather all the unwanted stuff and take it to a charity like Goodwill. Sounds like fun to me, but I'm afraid I would take stuff I don't really need and would be in the same situation that I am in now. I guess I could always tell my self that I was not allowed to chose anything! LOL

I started my pantry digging yesterday and for dinner we had a ham and bean soup and homemade focaccia. I made up the ham and bean soup recipe as I went along. I feel blessed to be the kind of cook who doesn't need a recipe to cook a meal. Due to my many years of restaurant work and love of cooking in general, I think I'm pretty handy in the kitchen. You can be too if you just learn a few basics. I had a bag of "soup mix beans," carrots, celery, onion and left over ham from a roast (thanks Jen, the roast was wonderful). That was the ingredients for the soup along with some spices. Easy and cheap! I made the focaccia dough in my bread machines and then baked it in the oven. It also made enough for two meals, so there is more savings!

Focaccia is an Italian flatbread. It's easy to make and makes any meal special. When I make something I'm not sure how is going to turnout, I usually bake fresh bread to go along with the meal. As long as we have fresh bread, everyone is happy, even if the meal is not so good! LOL Now there's a tip for you!

Here's my recipe for focaccia:

Italian Flatbread

7 1/2 oz warm water (80 degrees)
3 cups flour
2 Tbs dry milk
3 1/2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs, cut into 6 pieces, butter
2 tsp active dry yeast

Olive Oil
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Basil
Garlic Powder

Put the first 7 ingredients in your bread pan in the order that they are given. Place the butter around the edges of the pan. Make a slight well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the yeast. Mix using your bread machine's "DOUGH" setting. When the dough is done, take it out of the pan and place it on a floured surface and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead dough on floured surface for about 1 minute. Roll dough into a rectangle to fit large cookie sheet. Place onto greased pan and press dough evenly into pan forming an edge. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 20 to 30 minutes until slightly risen. With the handle of a wooden spoon, make indentations in dough at every inch. Brush dough with olive oil, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and spices. You can use any spices that sound good to you! Bake for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Cool slightly and cut into squares for serving. Yummy!!

Wish me luck with my endeavor! Better yet, why not join me?!? Let me know if you are jumping on board with the "cut back on groceries" thing, using what we already have and cleaning and decluttering our kitchen! Leave me comments and let me know your ideas, accomplishments and whatever. I look forward to hearing from you.

For those of you who are following the "Tokyo for Christmas" part of the blog, I will finish it shortly. I just needed a break from it and wanted to post this!