Frenchie Chicken

Okay, so I deviated from Grandma's recipes again, and opted for some chicken cordon bleu from Epicurious.com.  Seeing as I didn't have a deep fryer, I did the variation mentioned in the review.

Chicken cordon bleu was my favorite post-school snack when I was a kid.  If my mom was a baker, she could have saved hundreds of dollars by making these suckers at home.  Then again, maybe it was all the preservatives in those frozen versions that I was so hooked on?  And while I religiously ate those pre-packaged chicken delights, they eventually changed the recipe on them.  While I'm sure it was "for the better" I just never did have the same devotion to them after that change.  Photo

So, while pottering around over the weekend and contemplating my shopping list, I thought, "Well, just maybe H-E-B has a different brand that'll be like those old-time chicken cordon bleus I loved so much!"  And then it stuck me!  I have a whole package of chicken in the freezer.  Not only that, but gosh darnit, I'm a cook and baker now.  I can make chicken cordon bleu!  While I'm pretty sure I'm not going to find that recipe in Grandma's boxes, I figured it wouldn't hurt to see what I could find online.  Photo


So, after a quick run to the store to get ham and cheese (among other food for the week), I delved into making chicken cordon bleu.  Some things I learned:

Substituting thigh meat for breast meat shouldn't be done.  Sure, it's chicken, and it turned out just fine.  However, it made it a lot harder to make the "envelopes" that were needed.  Plus, thigh meat does taste differently than breast meat.

Make sure you pound it, and pound it good.  While trying to fold the chicken, I realized that, yeah, I should have spent more time pounding the chicken.  A) it makes the cooking time change; and B) it'll make it easier to fold the chicken when it's thinner and more evenly cut.

Get the right kind of ham.  H-E-B didn't have any uncooked ham in the deli section, and I didn't want to head to the meat section at that point.  So, I opted for some low sodium (go me on the health front!) deli ham.  It works, but it just reminds me that I don't like semi-slimy ham.  If I do get pre-cooked ham again, I'll try for something with a bit more flavor.

Don't be afraid of the bread crumbs.  I think this was my first time really breading anything.  It's a bit different than preparing monkey bread.  Next time, more egg coating and more crumbs!  Also, there may be something to that half hour of letting the crumbs set that I didn't do this time around.

The reviewer is a genius.  That whole bit about browning the pieces before baking...GENIUS!  A) it really gets the house smelling delicious; and B) I think it helped the bread crumbs crisp up nicely.

I ended up baking the dish for 30 minutes instead of the suggested 15 minutes.  I'm guessing that since I had a couple extra pieces (7 instead of the 4) it was needed.   The good news...I can definitely make this dish again, and it'll only improve each time!

Put Some Stuffing In It

**Sneaky post...I've back dated it!**

While organizing some more of the recipes (I've decided to transcribe some of the newspaper clippings onto postcards for a more uniform look) I came across a stuff eggplant recipe.  I've never been an eggplant person, until I had some on a pizza while in Florence.  For whatever reason, it was the magic timing, and I've been enjoying eggplant.  Plus, that eggplant dish from Ket-Mo-Reh in Davis just makes me drool every time!

So, I purchased an eggplant from the store, hoping that I picked good ones.  By the way, how do you know if it's a good eggplant?  Once I got home, I started organizing my ingredients and getting things in order.

The dish took awhile to prepare, and had a lot of steps.  However, I found it really fun to make.  The entire time I was thinking it would have been nice to have someone other than Winston to chat with, but I made do with the dog and a glass of wine.  At least I had some good tunes going while this was in progress!

 

I really can't enough of Mr. Cast Iron!

 This part of the sauteing had garlic, mushrooms, olive oil, bread crumbs, basil and a host of other equally delicious food.  I could have just kept at this part forever.

This smelled amazing!

I'm thinking next time I could have carved a bit more out of the eggplant for some thinner sides.  It worked out well enough, but I found them to be a little thick when it came time to eat.

Before the cheesy goodness.

 Talk about an awesome, almost healthy dinner!  The ranch dressing is handmade, the bacon bits were from bacon leftover from the weekend and, of course, there's fresh stuffed eggplant!  I ended up only being able to eat half of a half.  Good meal idea for guests (if they like eggplant).  By the end of the week, I was pretty tired of the dish!

I even made a salad!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Who doesn't love shouting that phrase?  I certainly enjoy shouting it out on random occasions.  So, after a hard day of yard work on Saturday (see the before and after shots of the rosebush), I needed to make dinner.  Knowing that I was going to be in Texas this entire week, I was hesitant to bake anything.  However, I made a commitment, so cooking I must do.

I decided Sunday was the night to branch off from the all the sweet baking I'd been doing.  "Time to get serious," I said to myself.  As I headed off to the store, I called Mr. K (my brother) and asked him over for dinner with the promise of a chicken enchilada casserole.  Now mind you, this is my first ever casserole.  Who knows how this would turn out.

After the brief visit to the local Raley's (PS - they do NOT have wheat germ which is an ingredient I need for some dog biscuits - yes unrelated recipe), I started my prep at the time my brother showed up.  Score one for Remi - I remembered to pat dry my chicken prior to cooking!  And have I mentioned how in love I am with my little skillet?!

I love my cast iron skillet!

 So, while the chicken cooked, I cut the tortillas and grated the cheese (Baker's note:  Buy a better cheese grater!) and chopped the onion.  I did cut the onion in half, as it called for one whole onion.  After cutting the first half, I decided that a whole onion was just waaaay too much.

So, in goes the first layer of soups (cream of chicken and cream of mushroom) followed by the onions, green chilis, chicken, tortilla and cheese.  After a moment of self-doubt, I forged ahead and put in the second layer of ingredients (see above).

Voila!  I have the start of a chicken enchilada casserole:

Yes, I did have to smoosh it down to fit.

And into the oven for some baking (half covered, then uncover for the remainder of cooking time).  And out comes cheesy casserole goodness!

Lost some of the cheese to the foil :(

And in case you were wondering, "Is that thing edible?"  Mr. K gives his opinion:

That's his SECOND helping!

So, I now know how to make a basic casserole.  Future iterations of these dish will be spicier (good as is for those with a sensitive stomach).  So, my first entree from Grandma's recipes = success!

And, in case you were wondering about that rose bush mentioned earlier:

Rose bush pre-trim...

Rose bush post trim!

Yes, it's supposed to be trimmed back that far!  Hopefully this will help it get rid of the aphids and the majority of the disease.  This poor bush hasn't been pruned in years, let alone received any other care.