January 27, 2012: Buttermilk Chicken With Mushroom Sauce Recipe

I bought some low fat buttermilk recently because I swore I’d seen a main dish entrée I wanted to try. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the recipe so I was on the hunt for a dish I could make to use the buttermilk sitting in my fridge. I found this one online and it wasn’t loaded with calories – at least after I put my own twists on the recipe.

Buttermilk Chicken with Mushroom Sauce served with Skinny Mashed Potatoes and Sugar Snap Peas

Buttermilk Chicken With Mushroom Sauce

1 T. olive oil

8 white mushrooms, thickly sliced

4 pieces bone-in, skinless chicken pieces (breasts and thighs)

2 cups buttermilk, divided

Salt and Freshly ground black pepper

¾ cup flour

½ t. dried sage

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Place chicken pieces in one cup of buttermilk. Let sit in refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Add olive oil and place in oven to heat. When heated through (about 5 minutes), add sliced mushrooms to bottom of pan.

Remove chicken from buttermilk. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dredge with flour.

Place chicken pieces on top of mushrooms. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turn chicken over and bake 10 more minutes.

Mix together remaining cup of buttermilk, sage and cream of mushroom soup. Pour over chicken. Bake another 10 – 20 minutes, until juices from chicken run clear.

To serve, place a piece of chicken on each plate. Whisk sauce in pan and spoon over the top of each piece of chicken.

Serves 4

January 25, 2012: Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread

Zucchini bread may sound healthy, but other than the nutritional value of the veggie, it doesn’t have any fewer calories or fat content than any other type of sweet bread. Still, it’s quite yummy – especially with the addition of chocolate chips.

Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 ¾ cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups peeled, grated zucchini (about 1 large or 2 small)

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

½ cup mini chocolate chips (I used regular chocolate chips; you could certainly add about 1 cup more if you’re a chocolate lover)

1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

In medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another larger bowl, beat eggs until light in color. Gradually add sugar and continue beating. Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini, nuts, chocolate chips, and lemon zest.*

Fold in dry ingredients until combined and then pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees 50 to 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Remove bread from pans to cool on wire rack.

*If you have a stand mixer, just mix all ingredients at once, starting with the wet ingredients and adding the chocolate chips and nuts after combining the rest of the recipe.

December 30, 2011: Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Recipe

While I had company for Christmas last week, I made everyone breakfast one morning that consisted of biscuits and sausage gravy along with hash browns. The hash browns were dehydrated – we get them from a store in Clay Springs that sells lots of “survival” type food and containers. All you do is add a bit of hot water and they reconstitute so you can fry them. Those hash browns are very tasty!

When everyone ate the biscuits and sausage gravy I got lots of compliments and even one, “Those are the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever tasted” from my dear father-in-law (and he’s old enough to have tasted lots of biscuits and gravy!). I think the secret to these being so good was the addition of whipping cream. Try this recipe and see if you don’t get compliments, too.

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Recipe

2 cans Pillsbury Grands biscuits

2 pounds breakfast sausage roll, such as Jimmy Dean

1/3 cup flour

2 cups 2% milk

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 t. dried sage

Prepare the biscuits as directed on the can.

Meanwhile, cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat. Drain excess fat, reserving at least a couple tablespoons in bottom of skillet. Sprinkle sausage with flour. Cook and stir for a couple minutes to thoroughly cook flour so it doesn’t taste raw. Slowly add the milk and cream, stirring constantly. Add the seasonings. Slowly bring to a boil. Boil, stirring constantly, for about five minutes, until gravy is the right consistency. You may need to add additional milk if the gravy is too thick.

To serve, spoon sausage gravy over hot biscuits, sliced in half.

Serves 8 – 10

December 16, 2011: Cube Steak With Mushroom Sauce Recipe

Usually when I prepare cube steak it comes out as chicken fried steak. Sure, that’s yummy, but it’s also calorie-laden – and that’s the last thing I need during the holiday season! So instead of frying it, this time I baked the cube steak to make it tender.

Cube Steak with Mushroom Sauce served with cheddar mashed potatoes and green beans.

Cube Steak With Mushroom Sauce

2 cube steaks (about ¾ pound)

Salt and pepper

½ cup flour

1 T. olive oil

4 ounces mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 t. beef bouillon

1 cup water

1 t. Worcestershire sauce

Sprinkle the cube steaks with salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour.

Heat the oil in a heavy, oven safe saucepan or Dutch oven to medium. Add cube steaks and cook just until crispy on each side, turning once. Remove steaks from pan and add mushrooms. Cooke for about a minute, until mushrooms are soft. Add bouillon, water and Worcestershire sauce. Place steaks on top of mushrooms and sprinkle with any remaining flour. Cover and place in low (250 degrees) oven. Bake for about 1 ½ hours, until sauce is thickened.

Serves 2

Tip: You can also make this dish in a crock pot. Just brown the meat before putting in the crock pot and set it to cook on low for 4+ hours.

December 9, 2011: Snickerdoodles Recipe

One thing I absolutely adore about the holiday season is that it gives me the license to do baking, lots of baking. I always make fruit breads, pies, a special pastry (one year I made Christmas stollen – man, that was time consuming but yummy), and cookies. Always lots and lots of cookies. Perhaps the favorite cookie I make each year, outside of sugar cookies, is snickerdoodles.

When I make cookies for Christmas, I always turn to my collection of vintage cookbooks – they have THE best recipes as well as really cute pictures. Here’s the one I use to make snickerdoodles.

Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups flour

2 t. cream of tartar

1 t. baking soda

¼ t. salt

1 ½ T sugar

1 ½ T. cinnamon

Cream butter; add one cup sugar gradually. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Shape into balls using one level teaspoonful of dough; roll in combined sugar and cinnamon. Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees about 8 minutes (cookies should not be brown so watch carefully). Makes about 5 dozen.

By the way, it’s the cream of tartar in this recipe that keeps these cookies soft. But they’ll only stay soft a couple days so if you’re making them in advance, pack them in an airtight container and freeze.

November 25, 2011: Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

When you need a little something to fuel your Black Friday shopping, try making these homemade cinnamon rolls the night before (or even several days earlier and store them in the freezer until ready to thaw).

My recipe for cinnamon rolls simply uses a basic sweet roll recipe that is spread with lots of butter, cinnamon and sugar.

Cinnamon Rolls

Yeast dough:

½ cup milk

¼ cup sugar

2 t. salt

3 T. butter

3 packages yeast (6 ¾ teaspoons)

1 ½ cups warm water

5 – 6 cups flour

Place milk, sugar, salt and butter in small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl of a stand mixer. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 ½ cups flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Mix on Speed 2 for about one minute. Add flour, half cup at a time, and continue to mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Knead on Speed 2 about two minutes longer until dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

Filling:

1 stick butter, melted

½ cup sugar

¼ cup cinnamon

Mix together sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough out on floured surface to large rectangle, about 12 x 24 inches. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Starting with long side, roll up into a cylinder shape. With a very sharp knife, cut pieces one inch thick. Place on one or two buttered baking sheets with rims. Cover and let rise until doubled, about a half hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake cinnamon rolls for 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Allow rolls to cool. If you are freezing the rolls, place cooled, unfrosted rolls in airtight containers and store in freezer.

To frost cinnamon rolls, stir together 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and about 3 tablespoons milk or water. Adjust as necessary to make a medium thin frosting that easily drips from a spoon. Drizzle over top of warm rolls.

Makes about 24 rolls.