Baked Fried Chicken and Baked Ziti for Senior Lunch.

I've been a little busy this past week.  I've had family visiting, and gee, we've been having a lot of fun, talking, laughing, eating...

We like to eat in my family, and cook as well. 

However, I've still kept up with my cooking stints at the Senior Center.    We had Baked 'fried' Chicken last week along with some Potato Salad, Deviled Eggs, Creole Succotash and dessert.   It was a good meal.  Oh and I also made some Zucchini Corn Bread to go along with it as well.    I found the recipe on Avril's blog, who just so happened to be the blogger I was assigned to last month for my Secret Recipe Club reveal.   I did modify it a little, I had some yellow squash in the freezer along with the zucchini and they went so nicely with the zucchini.

I made some Apple Crostata's for the Senior Lunch and they were well received, but my attention was also caught by her recipe for Zucchini Cornbread.    So I made some. 

Then this week we had Baked Ziti, Salad, Garlic Bread along with sliced Tomatoes and Cukes.   I also made some Bread Pudding for dessert which was served with a Creme Anglais sauce.

And since it's St. Paddy's day this week, we'll be serving a traditional lunch of Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots and Potatoes.   I'll also be making some Soda Bread along with some kind of dessert, I'm thinking maybe a fruit cobbler might go nicely with it.  

I do love a good Corned Beef.    

 

Potstickers with Healthy Solutions Spice Blend for Poultry and Pork

I had to do it.

I had to.

I heard about this incredible spice blend that didn't use salt or msg to 'amp' up the flavours.   They were also having a contest to see if some of us home cooks could come up with some ideas.  And since I love to cook, entertain and feed people good food, I decided to enter the contest.

I actually had this spice packet hanging around for awhile.  I kept looking at it, trying to come up with something original, tasty and fun.  

And I did it.

At least, I think I did it.

And judging by how quickly the Potstickers disappeared at Tapas, I think I hit the nail on the head.

It does require just a little prep work, but once you get going this goes together fast. 

BTW, this makes a great filling for egg rolls as well.  

1 pound Ground Pork + 1 tablespoon Olive oil for browning.
4 finely chopped Baby Bok Choy (about 2 cups)
2 finely chopped Carrots
1 finely chopped Leek
8 oz. finely chopped Mushrooms
2 teaspoons Spice for Poultry and Pork
2 teaspoons Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp. Sesame Seed Oil.

Using my food processor I chopped each of the vegetables individually and set them aside while the meat cooked. 

Brown the ground up pork in a little Olive Oil for browning purposes.   Then add the two teaspoons of Spice for Poultry and Pork.

Add the chopped vegetables and stir around until they've cooked a little and released some of their moisture.

  Stir to combine.   Taste.    At this point I also added 2 teaspoons of Soy Sauce and 1/2 a teaspoon of Sesame Seed Oil.       I then set this aside to cool while I got the wonton wrappers ready.
I used full size egg roll wrappers and cut them into fourths for these.   If you can get wonton wrappers, use those, but my local store rarely carries them.

Set out the ingredients and get ready to make Potstickers.   I've found it handy to have a small bowl with water sitting right by me when making any kind of potstickers or wonton bites or anything to do with sticking the wrappers together.

Take a wonton wrapper, place a scant teaspoonful of filling in the middle.  Wet the edges of the wrapper, fold over the other side of the wrapper, making pleats in it.  You're aiming for a flat bottom and a pretty pleated top. 

Then just keep on going.    Remember, wrapper, filling, moisten, fold and pleat. 

Also, before I forget to say this, if you happen to have a clean dishtowel handy, dampen it at little and use it to drape over the finished potstickers.
Trust me on this, you don't want them to dry out too much.
This makes over 60 potstickers, really, 60 or more, and you can freeze them at this point before you cook them because they freeze brilliantly.    Just place them on a flat cookie sheet, place them into the freezer until they are frozen, then dump the frozen potstickers into a ziploc bag.   And when you're ready to cook them, just pull out however many you want, and cook them.

And I guess I need to tell you how to cook them, don't I?

So, the next step, add a couple spritz's of cooking spray to the pan, and then a little olive oil, or coconut oil. Heat up, and then add the potstickers, flat side down.  My picture of them browning away was too blurry to use, so just close your eyes and imagine.    As soon as they're browned a little, add some water, about a 1/4 cup or so, stick a lid on the pan, let it steam away, then take the lid off after a couple of minutes, and pry the potstickers off of the bottom of the pan.
If you did this right, you won't need to pry, just slip a thin spatula under them, and place them on a plate with some gyoza sauce.

I've used commercial sauce in the past and it's ok, but I like my own sauce the best.
Just 1/4 cup soy sauce, a little sugar, about 1/2 tsp. or so, 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp. sesame seed oil and whisk together.   Add some chopped green onions, about 2 to 3 onions, and serve.   I also like a sprinkle or two of sesame seeds, but that's me.

And since I had a lot of filling left over, I decided to try making some eggrolls with it.  
I have to say, I don't think I've ever had such good egg rolls, ever.    And luckily, there's enough more of the filling in the freezer to make a couple more.   I just served myself these with some Sweet Hot Chile sauce.   

BTW, I came in third in the contest.   I won a bunch of Healthy Solutions Spice Blends and had a blast with them.
Check it out.

Omelets and a slight break from posting.

Taking a few days to visit with family, so have not been doing a great deal of cooking.  

I did make an awesome omelet the other day, filling it with some leftover veggies from the stir fry the night before. 

I'll share how I did that next week, cause I want to recreate it. 

It was that good and nicely filling without a great deal of heaviness to it. 

The filling was chopped up snow peas, red onion, red pepper and some diced tomatoes.   The only seasoning I used was some Badia seasoning called Sazon.  

So good...

Baked Baby Bella Mushrooms

Do you ever play around in the kitchen and come up with something that's a riff on another recipe but you like your rendition a lot better?

Did that sentence even make sense?
I have a recipe for Garlic Baked Mushrooms that I love, but this rendition, OMG good, as well.  

I found some Baby Bella Mushrooms on sale last week, bought them, then realized that the menu plan for the week, really didn't lend itself to having mushrooms added to it.

But...

I did have Tapas, so I pulled the mushrooms out, washed, and halved some and quartered some others and decided that they might make a nice addition to Tapas.

I think I was right, cause they disappeared in short order.

All I did was put them down, turn my back for a couple of minutes and the plate was empty!

I love it when that happens.

Not really a recipe here, just a how to.
 Melted about 3-4 tablespoons of butter, and added three crushed, chopped cloves of garlic and one shallot cut into very thin slices.   Warmed the garlic/shallot mixture up

and then poured it over the mushrooms, tossed them up a little and baked them in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Had to take a picture before I put them out.
And I did snag one before all the other people ate them.
These would be so good as a side to a steak or ...
I bought some more mushrooms before the sale ended.   I have plans for them.  'giggle'.

Apple Crostata for Secret Recipe Club

I was sweating it a little.   My Secret Recipe Club reveal was coming up and I'd been so busy I'd only glanced at my assigned blog for this month.   My assigned blog was Baking and Creating with Avril.
sigh...

Never mind actually making stuff from it.
But...

I done did it.  Found 'the recipe', and ended up not only completing my assignment, but also made dessert for the Senior Lunch this week.
 

I'd already planned on some kind of slab Apple Pie, and then I found Avril's recipe for Apple Crostata.  And pardon me Avril, I did modify it a tad.   After all, I'm cooking for upwards of a 100 people at a time.
Avril has a lot of great sweet recipes on her blog as well.  I've got a couple bookmarked that I want to try my hand at, later on. 

What is the Secret Recipe Club you ask?   Well, we're a bunch of bloggers, divided up into 4 groups, A, B, C and D.  And once a month we're assigned a blog to make and post a recipe from.   I used to be in Group B, but am now in Group A and am having fun getting to know the bloggers in this group.     You never know who got your blog until the REVEAL DAY!!!, which for Group A is today, or the first Monday of the month.

So, without further ado, and no drum roll either...

I had already planned on making a slab apple pie,  which I did, but I also doubled the recipe and made two large crostata's, along with the apple pie.   I figured since we were peeling apples anyway, I'd use them in as many ways as possible.
I got lots of positive comments, well, actually, compliments on the Crostata's.   The crust was easy to pull together and was lovely and flaky.   I did modify it just a tad though.  I mixed it by hand instead of in the food processor.   And I used a mixture of Crisco and Margarine because that's what I had on hand to use.
Here's Avril's recipe,  I did double it. 

Pastry:

1 cup flour
2 Tbsp. Sugar
1/4 tsp. Kosher Salt  (I omitted the salt as there was salt in the margarine already)
1 stick unsalted butter, diced, and cold  (I didn't have real butter, but used a mixture of crisco and margarine instead).
2 Tablespoons ice cold water

Mix pastry ingredients together until it resembles peas, using either your hands or a food processor.  Form into a disk and place in the fridge to rest for a few minutes, well, more like an hour or so if you can before rolling out.  My dough only had a chance to rest for as long as it took us to peel 10 pounds of apples.    Hint:  If you are peeling that amount of apples, place them in some acidulated water so they don't brown.  Won't hurt the taste, but they do tend to look yucky. 

Filling:

3-4 medium baking apples, or a good tart apple.
1/4 tsp. grated lemon zest
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar + 2 Tbsp.
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg  (I didn't have any nutmeg but did have some whole allspice so I smashed them and added them to the filling.)
4 Tbsp. cold butter, diced

Peel and chunk up the apples, sprinkle them with 2 tablespoons of sugar and zest and set aside.  I also added a little of cinnamon here as well as the allspice.

Make the crumb topping by combining the flour, salt and sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (if using nutmeg) by 'cutting' the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal.  Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees,
Take the dough out of the oven and roll it out into roughly an 11 or 12 inch circle.  (My circles weren't all that great cause I was running against the clock at this point and needed to get them into the oven NOW!)  Mound the apples in the center, leaving a border of about an inch or two.   Place the topping on top of the apples, and fold the crust in around the apples.  (Don't do like I did, and not seal it up.)

Bake for around 25 minutes until the apples are done and it's lovely and brown.
Serve with some ice cream or whipped topping.

I have to say that the two I made for the lunch disappeared fast.  I also went home and made one for myself cause I didn't get a chance to taste more than just a bit of the crust.    And Avril is right, this also makes a nice breakfast. 

I will probably make this again, it wasn't all that hard and made a lovely change for desserts for our lunch.  

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