4-legged smoked turkey

4 smoked turkey legs
1 smoked turkey breast
2 pounds baby carrots
1 Tablespoon flour

Sprinkle the flour into a turkey roasting bag.


Hold the top of the bag closed, and shake the bag to distribute the flour all over the inside.

Pile turkey legs, carrots, and turkey breast into bag.

Tie roasting bag closed with twist tie that comes with the turkey bag.

Slash top of bag 3 or 4 times with sharp knife to let air escape.

Cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit according to turkey bag directions. (The more weight in the bag, the longer the cooking time.)

Take out of oven. Cut open bag.

Serve meat on platter.

Enjoy!

chicken with bok choy rice

Serves 4.

Slice boneless, skinless chicken breasts into long strips.

Place in large skillet.

Add water to a depth of about 2 inches.

Simmer until the chicken is cooked through. (No pink interior color. Replenish simmering water, if need be.)

While the chicken is simmering:


In a saucepan, place:
1 and 1/2 cups rice
3 cups water
1 baby bok choy, diced

Cover saucepan.

Simmer rice and bokchoy until all the water is absorbed.

Serve rice onto plates.

Arrange hot chicken strips on top.

Mandarin oranges make a good accompaniment.

***

Review:

3 forks
The diners ate and were satisfied, but menu did not elicit extraordinary enthusiasm. Maybe because bok choy is not a familiar vegetable in this setting . . . ?

cucumber wrap

Hooray for Boo!

She prepared this easy summer entree for us

the afternoon our air conditioning quit.

For each serving:

• Put large flour tortilla on plate.

• Cover with fresh spinach leaves.

• Layer a slice of chicken deli meat on top of spinach leaves. (Omit if preparing vegetarian version.)

• Cover chicken sliced meat with thick layer of diced cucumber.

• Season with Ranch salad dressing and Parmesan cheese

Guten Appetit!

***

Review

3.5 forks for presentation
3.5 forks for flavor

chicken Tchaikovsky sandwich

Chicken Tchaikovsky Sandwiches are the perfect complement to Asparagus Soup (see my last post).

Recipe:

Chop or shred:

cold, cooked skinless boneless chicken
(1/2 chicken breast per sandwich)

Mix with:
chopped dill pickles
mustard

chopped pecans

Serve on whole-grain sandwich bread.

Best appreciated with good company and Tchaikovsky playing in the background.

Enjoy!!

allspice cinnamon chicken

Faced with the necessity of cooking something in the kitchen while generating graphic designs in the basement, I opted for a throw-together-and-forget-about-it baked chicken.

Simple.

For 6 smallish summertime appetites (each serving = 1/2 chicken breast).

Put in a baking pan --

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

cover with

• orange juice

sprinkle generously with

• cinnamon and pumpkin pie seasoning (or allspice)
  

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit one hour or more.

Split carrot soup

I started the split carrot soup yesterday, let it rest in the refrigerator overnight, and finished making it today. It's really easy.

For about 12 servings:

• Put 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts in a big pot on the stovetop and cover with plenty of water. Add poultry seasoning to taste. Also add a little olive oil.

• Add 2 pounds of baby carrots to the chicken and water.

• Start simmering.

• Simmer until the ingredients are cooked thoroughly.

• Cover and house in the refrigerator overnight.

• The next day remove the chicken meat from the soup. Reserve a few cooked carrots. Blend the cooked carrots and broth.

• Cut the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces.

• Dice and saute half a yellow onion.

• Combine the blended carrots, the reserved carrots, the sauteed onion, and the cooked chicken pieces in the big pot again. Add more poultry seasoning and a little salt, if you like.

• Cook thoroughly -- about 30 or 40 minutes.

• Serve warm with garlic bread and milk.

*

Review:

5 forks for unexpectedly sweet flavor
3 forks for appearance

Baked plum chicken delicious!

We just had our first meal of Baked plum chicken. It is really good!

I accidentally cooked it longer than I had intended -- about one and a half hours. Tasted great!

Everyone had seconds and there was concern that leftovers be available for snacking later.

***

Review:

5 forks for flavor

Baked plum chicken -- In the works*

*"In the works" recipes are dishes I just made up and am cooking right now--

even as I write this blog entry.

• 
  

Half the fun of cooking is that delightful feeling of not knowing (yet) if a newly devised dish will work!

I just assembled something that I think will be tasty. It is baking right now, so here is how it is made:

• In a 9 x 13" baking dish, place:

2 pounds chicken breast, boneless and skinless (They were on sale this week!)
1 1/2 cups white rice
3 cups water
1 boy choy stalk, finely sliced
6 or 8 prunes, sliced
1 tablespoon butter or oil (omit if the chicken breast has skin)


My dilemma with this concoction was how to season it. I got out the curry powder and rediscovered the good old poultry seasoning. Opened each container and reminded myself of the flavors. Hmmmmmmmm . . . They both smell good!

I opted for the poultry seasoning this time because I think it will go with the prunes/plums better than curry powder. Maybe I will try this recipe next time with curry powder instead.

• Sprinkle with poultry seasoning.

• Bake at 350 degrees F for about an hour.

• 
  

(You can tell it is done when the chicken is not
pink inside and the rice has absorbed all the liquid.)

• 
  

I will keep you posted when I find out if the resulting meal is a success or not!

Toasted turkey bagel sandwich

I am posting a lot of recipes today -- accumulated over the last week or so as we cleaned out our storage unit. There was a ton of physical labor -- lifting, hauling. Lots of mental/emotional investment, too, in the give away, throw away, put away sense.



This recipe was a mega popular meal after one such arduous day:

For each diner --

• toast a plain or onion bagel

• 1/2 bagel open-face with cheddar cheese (until the cheese is melted and the bagel slightly browned)

• 1/2 bagel open-face with sliced, seasoned precooked turkey breast

Serving suggestion:

I served these simple sandwiches with custom sliced pickle salad.

How do you wrap a wrap?

My question is asked with utter humility. Whenever I try to assemble a wrap, the filling falls out.

Last night, for instance. Boo and I made a filling for flour tortilla wraps. It was sort of lumpy.

*recipe*

Squash and cucumber turkey wraps

Have on hand:

Flour tortillas (enough for your diners)
Fresh leaves of spinach

Mix together chopped:

cucumber
yellow squash
hickory-smoked turkey breast (precooked)

Season with:

mustard
mayonnaise
Italian salad dressing

Assembly:

We placed each flour tortilla wrapper on a plate and lined it with a layer of fresh spinach leaves, Topped the spinach leaves with the mixture described above. Okay . . .

Now the hard part: rolling up the wraps. They just don't hold together. At all. The mixture falls out both ends and it is hard to figure out how to hold the wrap with my hands so it has some stability. Anyone have any suggestions?

**

Review:

Besides the structural defects, the wraps taste pretty good.



Rating: 4 forks for flavor
3 forks for presentation (because it looked funny)

3 forks for entertainment factor while eating

Today's dilemma

Got up this morning, woke up the family, drank a cup of coffee, and drove 200 miles round trip to the nearest airport to meet a plane. By the time I got home, everyone was hungry -- those who had made the road trip with me, as well as those who had already eaten lunch (tuna sandwiches), but were willing to consider having lunch all over again.

A survey of the pantry got my mind going re: what to serve for lunch.

We had glorified Ramen noodles, cooked in a big pot on the stove top (instead of the microwave because I fixed five servings simultaneously). One small can green peas and a small can of chicken soup with rice added a little meat and color to the Ramen noodles. Everyone liked the food. Just didn't eat very much of it.

Suggestion on making tasty Ramen noodles would be appreciated!