Category Archives for Original Creations
Southwestern Burgers
Yesterday I shared with you a great Homemade Chipotle Ketchup, and while it is super good just with fries, I thought I would give you something else to put it on. Southwestern Burgers. This is a burger I created just to go with the ketchup! It’s a beef patty with corn and black beans, seasoned with cumin and chili powder and draped in pepper jack cheese. Top it all of with the chipotle ketchup, and it’s one sassy burger!
Roasted Asparagus and Mushroom Quiche
It’s going to be a fun week here on Edesia’s Notebook. I’m participating in another fun blog hop series hosted by Savannah of Hammock Tracks. This series is called “The Garden’s Bounty” and includes a week’s worth of recipes chock full of fresh garden produce.
Today we are sharing with you casseroles or other hot savory dishes, tomorrow will be salads, Wednesday will be soups, Thursday will be preserves, pickles, or salsas, and on Friday we will share with you some sweet treats to end the week.
The hot savory dish I chose for today is a quiche that I created a few weeks ago. My family loves quiche (my four-year-old daughter Lena calls it “egg pizza” because it’s wedge-shaped), so I make it for dinner quite often. I have already shared with you my Broccoli Cheddar Quiche and my Spinach Cheese Quiche with Potato Crust. I happened to have a handful of mushrooms and some asparagus leftover from some other meals, so I thought they would be fantastic in a quiche together. Since roasting is the only way I prepare asparagus, I tossed the mushrooms and asparagus together and roasted them for the quiche, maximizing their flavor. The resulting quiche was amazing.
Roasted Asparagus and Mushroom Quiche
Ingredients:
½ lb. fresh asparagus, trimmed
4 oz. fresh mushrooms, chopped
Olive oil
Kosher salt
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
½ tsp salt
9” pie crust
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with foil. Cut asparagus into 1” pieces. Place asparagus and mushrooms on baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with salt. Roast 12 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350°.
Combine eggs, cheese, and salt in a medium bowl. Add roasted asparagus and mushrooms. Pour into pie crust. Bake 30-40 minutes or until set.
Makes 6 servings.
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Crazy Cooking Challenge: Pan Fried Chicken and Country Gravy
It’s Crazy Cooking Challenge Day! In this challenge, all the participants make and blog about the same dish each month. Each blogger is to post a unique version of whatever that month’s dish is. This month’s assigned dish was fried chicken. So we were to find a great fried chicken recipe, make it, and blog about it.
Pan Fried Chicken and Country Gravy
Ingredients:
1¼ cups flour
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp black pepper
3 lbs. bone-in, skin-on chicken (I did 8 legs & 2 thighs)
1½ cups Crisco
1½ cups canola oil
2 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Combine flour, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and black pepper in a large resealable plastic bag or large bowl with a lid. Add chicken pieces, seal, and toss to coat chicken evenly. Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet, and arrange floured chicken pieces on the cooling rack. Place in the refrigerator for an hour. Remove from fridge.
Put Crisco and canola oil in a 12” skillet and heat to about 325°. Add half of the chicken pieces and cook until golden brown on one side, about 12-15 minutes. Carefully flip each piece over and cook another 12-15 or until internal temperature reads 180°. Remove chicken from skillet and place on a plate lined with paper towels.
Remove all but 2 tbsp of oil in the skillet. Stir in 2 tbsp flour and cook for a minute or two. Slowly whisk in the milk, and bring to a boil. When it starts to thicken, reduce heat to low. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with fried chicken and mashed potatoes.
Makes 4 servings.
Putting the chicken in the fridge for an hour may seem odd, but I used that technique when I made my Crispy Baked Orange Teriyaki Wings and they had the crispiest, yummiest golden brown skin, so I thought why not try it with fried chicken. An hour in the fridge kind of dries out the skin just a tad so that it can’t get soggy at all. My fried chicken had a perfect golden brown crust that didn’t have a tendency to fall off, like some do. I was very pleased with it.
This chicken made the perfect summertime meal with mashed potatoes, pan gravy, and corn. Yum!
While it turned out perfectly, I certainly won’t be in any hurry to make it again soon. It was pretty labor-intensive, a mess to clean up (I was reminded of why I don’t ever fry things), and the oil splattered and burned me into 2 places. But I am really glad I did it, and now I can say that I have successfully made fried chicken!
Check out all the great fried chicken recipes below and come back next month too see what kind of unique cheesecake recipe I come up with!
Rhubarb Glazed Salmon
This is a new salmon recipe I created earlier this week. I love pairing fruit flavors with salmon; they just seem to go so well together. In the past I have used blackberry, lemon, orange, and apricot. We had a pretty good rhubarb crop this year, and I thought it would taste really good on salmon. I searched around online for a rhubarb glazed salmon recipe, but all I could find were recipes for salmon with a rhubarb sauce. So I made my own recipe. Turned out pretty well!
This was so yummy! Rhubarb does go really well with salmon. How much honey you need to add to the rhubarb will depend on how tart your rhubarb is. Mine was quite tart, so if yours is sweeter, you probably won’t need as much honey.
I served this salmon with Gingered Brown Rice. To make that, I made my standard Baked Brown Rice, and added about 8 coins of sliced ginger to it before throwing it in the oven. You don’t even need to peel the ginger. The ginger flavor will infuse the cooking water as it cooks. Then when it’s done, just remove the spent ginger coins and discard. The rice will have a lovely ginger flavor throughout.
Mexican Brownies with Cinnamon Dulce de Leche
Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! I love Cinco de Mayo and consider it a food holiday! We love Mexican food and margaritas and think it’s totally awesome that there’s a holiday for them! I created a new “Mexican” dessert the other night and want to share it with you now. The name sounds really fancy, but really, it’s just cinnamon and cayenne stirred into a brownie mix and topped with cinnamon-flavored sweetened condensed milk that’s been cooked. Easy peasy, but so good!
Mexican Brownies with Cinnamon Dulce de Leche
Ingredients:
1 (19 oz.) box brownie mix
Egg, oil, and water called for on brownie mix box
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp chipotle or cayenne powder
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
¾ tsp cinnamon
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° (or whatever temperature the brownie mix box says to use).
Make brownie mix as directed on box. Stir in 1 tsp cinnamon and chipotle or cayenne powder. Bake according to box directions, in either an 8×8 or a 9×13 pan. Remove from oven and let cool.
Meanwhile, remove the paper label from the can of sweetened condensed milk. Place can in a large pot and completely cover with water. Place on stove and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 2½ to 3 hours, making sure the can is covered with water at all times. *IMPORTANT!* If the water level dips below the top of the can, add more water to the pot to cover it. If the can isn’t covered by water, it will get too hot and explode all over your kitchen. With tongs, remove can from hot water and allow to cool for several hours.
Open can and pour contents into a small bowl. Add ¾ tsp cinnamon and stir to combine. Pour dulce de leche over the brownies and smooth it out. Cut brownies and serve. Refrigerate leftovers.
Makes 9 thicker brownies (8×8 pan), or 15 thinner brownies (9×13 pan).
I made mine in an 8×8 pan and didn’t use all of the dulce de leche topping. I’m not totally sure it would be enough for a 9×13 pan, though, so if you are doing a 9×13 pan, make two cans of the sweetened condensed milk. You will probably have too much that way, but it’s better than not enough. Also, the dulce de leche kind of soaks into the leftover brownies when you refrigerate them, so it’s nice to have a little extra to drizzle on those.
This is a decadent dessert that finishes off a yummy Mexican dinner perfectly. The cinnamon and ground pepper add just the right amount of spice and heat. And you can’t beat the convenience of a boxed mix!
I hope you are all able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by enjoying some delicious food and don’t forget the margaritas!
Crispy Peanut Butter Chicken Fingers with Apricot Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
I am so excited to share with you my creation for this month’s Improv Challenge. The premise of this challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients. The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.
This month the assigned ingredients were peanut butter and jelly. Interesting! As a mom of two small children, I make my fair share of pb and j sandwiches, and I do cook and bake with peanut butter a lot, but I have never made anything with peanut butter and jelly in it. I did some looking around online and found some interesting sweet treats using pb and j, but I was really wanting to find something savory. I didn’t find anything, and after several days of trying to think of something on my own, I was resigned to the fact that I would have to do something sweet. Then, all of a sudden, an idea popped into my head. I honestly have no idea where this idea came from, but I thought it was pure genius. I again looked around online to see if anyone else had done it and found only one recipe that was vaguely related to what I had in mind. It used different ingredients and a different method, though, so I went my own way and made up this recipe myself.
I coated chicken tenders in a mixture of peanut butter and coconut milk, then breaded them with crispy Panko breadcrumbs. I baked them in the oven until juicy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Then I whipped up a spicy sweet dipping sauce made with apricot jam.
Crispy Peanut Butter Chicken Fingers with Apricot Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:
1½ cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 tbsp sesame seeds
⅛ tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup coconut milk (I used light)
⅛ tsp salt
½ tsp Bangkok Seasoning (Thai seasoning)
¼ -½ tsp cayenne
1 – 1½ lb. chicken breast tenders, about 8 tenders
½ cup sweet chili sauce
¼ cup apricot preserves or jam
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°. Combine the Panko, sesame seeds, salt, and oil in a medium skillet and toast over medium heat, stirring often, until light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Spread the bread crumbs in a shallow dish and let cool.
In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, coconut milk, salt, Bangkok, and cayenne. Pour mixture into another shallow bowl.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, place a wire rack on top, and spray the rack with vegetable oil spray. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Dip each tender in the peanut butter mixture, then coat with the Panko mixture. Press on the bread crumbs to make sure they adhere. Lay the chicken on the wire rack.
Bake until the meat is no longer pink in the center and feels firm when pressed with a finger, about 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the sweet chili sauce and the apricot preserves. Serve chicken fingers with dipping sauce on the side.
Makes 4 servings, 2 tenders each.
Improv Challenge: Salmon with Lemon Cream Sauce
Today is reveal day for the Improv Cooking Challenge. The premise of this challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients. The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.
Shared at:
White Bean, Sausage, and Kale Soup
I recently cooked with a veggie I had never used before. Kale. I don’t know why I had never used it before; I like leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard. So when Grimmway Farms sent me a coupon for free produce, I thought it was high time to give kale a shot. It’s winter, so of course, my mind automatically went to soup. Even though I had not had kale before, it just seemed like it would go well with beans and sausage. Here’s what I came up with.
White Bean, Sausage, and Kale Soup
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage
2 cans white beans, one drained and rinsed, the other not
4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
6 cups red kale, chopped
Directions:
Heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until onion begins to get soft. Add sausage and break up into chunks. Cook until sausage is browned and cooked through. Drain off grease.
Add beans, broth, and kale. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes or until kale is softened.
Makes 6 servings.
It worked really well. I made this soup when my mom was visiting and she had never had kale before either. She heard other people say that it was kind of bitter, so she was a tad skeptical. But we were all pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t bitter at all and had a lovely flavor. Kale is much sturdier than spinach, and since my mom is not a fan of wilted spinach in soups, she liked it much better than if I had used spinach. My husband loved it too and my 18 month old daughter gobbled it up!
I love having a wide variety of soups in my repertoire in the winter, so I am glad to have branched out and added a new veggie to the mix. This is a nice, hearty soup for a cold winter day.
Spinach Cheese Quiche with Potato Crust
Quiche is a favorite meal at our house. And it’s my go-to meatless meal; easy to throw together when I don’t have a new meatless recipe planned to try out. Earlier this year I shared with you my Broccoli Cheddar Quiche, and in that post, I mentioned that I also make a quiche with a shredded potato crust. I got lots of feedback about that, people saying that they would love to see that recipe. Well, I just finally got around to posting it!
Spinach Cheese Quiche with Potato Crust
Ingredients:
3 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed and dried
4 tbsp butter, melted
¼ tsp salt
6 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
½ tsp salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°. Place potatoes, butter, and salt in a bowl. Toss to combine. Spray a 9” pie plate with cooking spray and spread potatoes evenly in bottom and up the sides. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, place eggs, spinach, cheese, and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine. Remove potato crust from oven and turn oven temperature down to 350°. Pour in egg/spinach mixture into crust and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until cooked through.
Makes 6 servings.
I like to keep frozen hash browns on hand for this very reason. Quiche makes a great last minute meal because I always have eggs and some kind of veggie I can throw in there. It’s really fun to experiment with different kinds.
Raina at Connor’s Cooking chose to make this recipe when she was assigned my blog for the Secret Recipe Club in June 2012. Click on the button below to check out her post!