Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

 

 

Today's recipe -- Cranberry Chicken

by Lenore Neptune

Today's recipe is from our most recent church cookbook. Temptations!!!  Some of the recipes are available online but there are even more in the cookbook.  Let me tell you . . .I have about three favorite cookbooks and this is my "go to" cookbook most of the time.  Well worth the money. (no, they ARE NOT paying me to write about their cookbook . . .I don't know how many copies (lots and lots!) that I have bought and given as gifts though!!  You can buy one from the link above and they will mail it to you!)

This is definitely a satisfying and savory recipe!!
Cranberry Chicken

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 8 ounce bottle French dressing (or catalina or Russian -- all three work!)

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

6 to 8 chicken breasts (I've made it with large bone in breasts for supper club and it is really good!  For the young adults, I use boneless skinless chicken breasts - giant bag from Costco.  The bone in breasts have more flavor - just fyi!!)

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 9 X 13 pan with pam or line pan with foil for easy clean up. 

Combine cranberry sauce, dressing and soup mix.  Sometimes I zap in the microwave for 45 seconds to a minute so that the ingredients combine easier.

Arrange chicken pieces in baking dish and pour sauce over each one (use all the sauce).  Bake
uncovered for one hour or until chicken is cooked through (large bone in breasts make take longer than an hour).

Serve with wild rice and green beans and salad . . .yummy meal.

ok - here are my "extra" notes.  Sometimes I add a few - a cup maybe - of extra frozen cranberries to my sauce.  I also triple or quadruple the recipe for the young adults.  BUT do not triple or quadruple the onion soup - it will be too salty.  If you quadruple, you can probably use two envelopes of onion soup.  Another thing I do when I use this recipe for a large crowd . . .I use the crockpot.  IMPORTANT note:  the breasts are not as pretty when cooked in the crockpot (only use boneless - the others would probably fall apart).  When I use the crockpot, I remove the breasts from the crockpot at serving time and place on a large platter.  If I'm using the crockpot, I save back some of the "sauce" ( in the morning, don't put a cup or so of the sauce in the crockpot - but store it in the fridge).  Before serving heat reserved sauce and spread it on each breast once on the platter.  Presentation matters to me!!  I usually try to make sure a cranberry or two is on top of each breast.  The sauce leftover in the crockpot is really good to put on the rice.

This is an easy and delicious recipe!!  Something Satisfying and Savory for this Saturday . . .is a good thing!

Now I must finish preparations on my Sunday School lesson. . .it is on gratitude!  I am grateful for this gorgeous day . . .and for good food . . .and good friends . . .and sooooo many other things.  Most of all, I think I am grateful for God's grace!

P.S.  I forgot to tell you a couple of things!  Lenore Neptune is the mother of my boss!  I think that is cool.  She passed away several years ago so I really think it is neat to be using her recipe.  Also, please feel free to link up and share a recipe.  Just click on the link and follow the directions.  Last but not least, if you are a regular reader . . .I participated in Wednesday Hodgepodge this week.  One of the questions asked how I am like my siblings - ways we are all alike.  I had a hard time with this one but Becky (middle sister) and I talked and came up with several ways -- 1) all three sisters love to read . . .and not just love to read but love to read mysteries!!  2)  all three of us have been divorced at one time or another  3) all three of us have bad vision (but I had lasik surgery 10 or 12 years ago so I don't have to wear glasses except to read)  . . .seems like there were a couple of other things but I can't think of them now.

Don't forget to link up!

Sumptuous Saturday . . .on Monday - EEK!

 

 

 

 

Let me tell you about a wonderful and easy cake!!  This is a recipe for Carrot Cake that is one of the best I've ever tasted. . . so I'm classifying this recipe as Sumptuous!!  Yes, I know it is not Saturday - life just got in the way of blogging!!!  Do you see the picture of my old timey grater?  It works so well!!!  It was Mark's grandmothers, I believe!!  I guess you can tell from the other picture that the last time I made Carrot Cake was on the fourth of July. 

 

Carrot Cake

 

1 1/2 cup oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs separated - jumbo

Sift these ingredients together:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour - I prefer white lily

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

 

1 pound carrots grated very fine to make 3 cups grated

 

Put oil in bowl of mixer. Add sugar and mix. Add egg yolks one at a time mixing after each one. Add carrots next. Add flour mixture about  a third at a time. Beat egg whites in a clean bowl with clean beaters until peaks form. Gently fold into cake batter. You need three 9" pans - grease and flour them and cut out wax paper circles and put in pan and divide batter between the three pans. Bake in preheated oven - 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes then cool on rack completely before icing

 

 

Icing

2 - 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese - let soften

2 tsp vanilla

2 sticks land o lakes salted butter - softened (no other brand is as good!)

2 boxes powdered sugar

1 cup chopped pecans (if you like nuts)

Enough pretty pecan halves to decorate bottom of cake

 

Mix butter and cream cheese in mixer. Add sugar and vanilla . Stir in nuts. Ice cake. Decorate with pecan halves. You will have extra icing - be generous between layers. Mark likes to dip pecan halves in the leftover icing.  This recipe is actually a "double batch" of icing -- one recipe (which would be half of this one) is not enough . . .so since we have double icing, I definitely think this classifies as sumptuous!!

 

Happy baking!!

 

 

Satisfying Saturday . . . or Savory Saturday . . .or Sumptuous Saturday????

Satisfying, Savory,



 

Sumptuous Saturday

I've been thinking that I might post a recipe every Saturday and I was thinking of giving that particular blog post each week a name.  I looked up a list of adjectives that begin with "S".  Do you like any of those?  Satisfying Saturday?  Savory Saturday?  Sumptuous Saturday?  I also need a cute logo for that???  I just bought this piece of clip art.  I wish the watermark wouldn't show.  (note:  there is an eccentric woman in our church who always makes up a name for each month - like awesome auspicious august . . .so when I was trying to come up with a name, I kept thinking of silly senile Sandra . . .that is what she calls herself!!!)  I would love to start this and have others link up with good and fun recipes, too.  I have no idea how to set up my blog so that others can link.  (Lauren - if you are reading this, can you tell me how to do that?)  I can always google some directions, too. (I did google it and I haven't found out how to allow others to link yet but I really want to add that feature!!!)  I think that I would love for some folks to guest post on this day with some good recipes also. 

So today, I'm going to share a recipe that I made recently for our Tuesday night Young Adult Bible study group.  I tripled or quadrupled it for Tuesday night.  I served about 19 for dinner and had enough for several lunches left over.  I made one pot without shrimp (in case someone had an allergy) and I made the other pot with shrimp.  We thought the "with shrimp" pot tasted better AND it was "licked" clean.  Ingredients below are for one recipe only.  The recipe was originally from www.Allrecipes.com and then www.plainchicken.com posted the recipe with her changes.  I followed her recipe and made a few changes of my own.  When you post a recipe, I think you should always give the original cook a shout out if possible. 

So here is my first Sumptuous, Satisfying, Savory Saturday recipe:

 

 

SLOW COOKER JAMBALAYA 

adapted from AllRecipes.com
adapted from www.plainchicken.com
approximately 5-6 servings

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·         1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes (if you cut them when they are still slightly frozen, they cut soooo much easier!!)

 

·         1 pound shrimp (my addition) – raw, no tails, no peel, deveined – of all places, Walmart has frozen bagged shrimp from USA waters – I refuse to buy the frozen ones from other countries after reading about the polluted waters (I added  the frozen shrimp after I got home from work)

 

·         1 pound smoked turkey sausage, sliced

 

·         1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

 

·         1 stalk celery chopped fine

 

·         3 Tbsp chopped onion

·         1 cup chicken broth

·         2 teaspoons dried oregano

·         2 teaspoons dried parsley

·         2 tsp minced garlic (I always buy the kind in the little jar that is already minced and keep it in the refrigerator)

·         2 teaspoons Cajun/Creole seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama or Tony's or Luzianne)

 

·         1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

·         1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

·         2 packs of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice - Garlic & Butter flavor

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DIRECTIONS:

·         In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes with juice, onion, garlic, celery, and broth.

·         Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, and thyme. 

·         Cover, and cook 7 to 8 hours on Low, or 3 to 4 hours on High. Add shrimp and return to boil by turning on high.

         

·        Open bags of rice and dump in the crockpot and stir around and cook for about the last 45 minutes to warm through.

 

I tripled  (or quadrupled) for Tuesday night – used two crockpots (7 quarts) – everything fit except a little of the chicken broth.  Saved it and if needed, added to crockpot with rice, etc.

 

Hope you enjoy as much as I did!!  It was easy to make . . .the chopping is time consuming but I chopped my meat the night before.

Link up and share a recipe with us!!