That's What Bob's Cooking

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rosemary Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

When planning this week’s menu, I wanted a night that was an “easy cook” night. Over the past few years Craig and I would take a loaf of French bread (or Baguette) slice it and then slice a wedge of brie, place the cheese on the bread and then broil it until it is bubbly. Voilà, dinner.

So I totally planned on making just the Brie and French bread tonight…..but, when I was on the elliptical machine at the gym this morning, like a true fat person, I was thinking of what to make for dinner….and decided that since it was 40 degrees outside (Seattle), and looked like it was going to rain, that soup would be the answer to my dinnerdilemma.

The soup is an “easy” kitchen clean up recipe, you all will very much enjoy!

Rosemary Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

1 cooked chicken, meat and bones, (used leftover Rotisserie Chicken)

4 cups water (approximate)

1-2 pkg. Fresh Thyme

2 large sprigs of rosemary

Salt and Pepper

1 Onion, diced

3 Stalks of Celery, diced

1 small potato, diced

Place cooked chicken in a pot filled with water. I usually never measure, it depends on the pot I am using.

Add a little salt and pepper and the thyme in to the pot. Boil for about 2 hours.

Once the chicken is “falling off the bones”, remove it from the heat, and drain and save the broth, remove the herbs and discard. Allow the chicken to cool, then pick off the meat from the bones, then chop.

Lightly sauté the onion celery potato mixture. Add the chicken and the broth.

Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes or so.

Serve with cracker or French bread.

Substitutions: Switch out Chicken for left over Pot Roast, or ribs (pork or ribs)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Jammy Granola bars

Jammy Granola Bars

INGREDIENTS
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (I've used steel cut oats)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
1 cup raspberry jam (or any other flavor you prefer)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350°. Generously butter an 8-inch square baking pan.

To toast the pecans, spread the chopped pecans in a pie plate and toast for about 5 minutes, until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the rolled oats, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and pecans. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the melted butter until the oat mixture is thoroughly combined.

Press two-thirds of the oat mixture in an even layer on the bottom of the prepared baking pan and top with the raspberry preserves. Sprinkle the preserves with the remaining oat mixture.

Bake the bars for about 45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking, until the top is golden brown. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the granola bars cool completely, about 3 hours. Cut into squares and serve.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Chicken Piccata with Capers

I always refer back to a time when I was living in Portland, and my cousin Lori and I would talk nightly on the phone about what to cook for dinner. One night in particular she called and asked what I was making, I wasn't sure, so I went to the refrigerator, pulled out some ham and swiss (I had for lunch sandwiches), and a chicken breast. During our talk, I completely made dinner, and was about to serve it when we got back around to the conversation of what we were making for dinner. When I told her I was having Chicken Cordon Bleu, I believe she said, DAMN, I go to the refrigerator and pull together a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich, and you can pull a gourmet dinner out of the trash...(so to speak, of course!)

Well tonight's dinner was one of those nights, when I walked in the kitchen I had no idea what I was making. When I ended it dined on a WONDERFUL dinner!! Check it out...

Chicken Piccata with Capers

Ingredients

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 ounce)

1 Tablespoon Black Pepper

1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 cup white wine (pinot grigio)

Zest of 1 Fresh Lemon

1 fresh lemon juice

2 Tablespoons capers

2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

Place each breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Place flour in a shallow dish, and dredge chicken in flour, pepper parsley mixture.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add white wine, lemon zest and juice, capers, and garlic to pan; scrape pan to loosen browned bits. Cook for 2 minutes or until slightly thick. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Return Chicken to pan, and allow to simmer no more than 10 minutes. Serve chicken over pasta. Top with sauce; sprinkle with parsley.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Honey Mustard Cumin Marinade

**UPDATE: I Posted this recipe a few months ago, and stated that I would take a picture the next time I made it.

Well, tonight I marinade Shrimp and placed them on a Caesar Salad. I would also recommend that you should double the recipe, then split it and put a little in the refer for another night. (I do recommend splitting it after making is, so that you don't cross contaminate the excess!)
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A few years ago Craig hosted a cookbook signing in the store he was working. The chef sampled a version of this recipe, use for chicken skewers. We have adapted it and used this on chicken, shrimp, as well as beef. All are amazing. This is such a quick and easy recipe, you will make it again, and again. The hardest part is grinding the toasted cumin.

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Honey Mustard Cumin Marinade

½ Cup Olive oil

¼ Cup Stone Ground Mustard

¼ Honey

4 Garlic Cloves

3 T Cumin

½ t Salt

½ T Fresh Ground Pepper

Toast cumin seeds in small pan, cool. Grind in spice grinder of morter and pestel.

Add in the rest of the ingredients, mix well.

Tonight we marinated prawns in this marinade. YUM!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Chicken Lettuce Wraps (P. F. Chang's style)

Many people love P.F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Craig and I really do, so I decided to make my own recipe. We always add rice to the mix whether of not we eat them at home or at the restaurant. The recipe below is my version of the wonderful Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Enjoy!!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons oil

1lb Ground chicken breasts

1 cup water chestnuts (2 Small Cans)

2/3 cup mushrooms

3 tablespoons chopped onions

1 teaspoon minced garlic

4 -5 leaves iceberg lettuce (we used Leaf lettuce, because we couldn't get the iceberg to come apart without ripping.

Special Sauce:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon lemon juice (Juice from 1/2 lemon)

1/8 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon hot mustard

2 teaspoons water

1 -2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce:

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions:

Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl. Mince the water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas. Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Fry the chicken until done. Remove chicken from the pan and cool. Keep oil in the pan, keep hot. With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil. Add garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan, when hot and thoroughly mixed add chicken. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes.

If you want the light and crunchy noodles that are crumbled over the top at the restaurant, fry 1/4 package of Chinese rice noodles in about 1 cup VERY hot oil for a minute or two. They will puff up. Flip noodles over. Drain.

Serve it in the lettuce"cups".

Top with"Special Sauce".

My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!