Chicken Zucchini Casserole

I recently made a huge discovery. The past couple of weeks have been really hot - over 100 every day. I like to grill when it's that hot so that I don't heat up the house even more with the oven, but there are days when I just want something baked for dinner. Like pizza. I make pizza at least every other week. So I got out my pizza stone and cooked it on the grill. I had heard of other people doing it, and it worked great. I put it right over the flames (it was taking too long on indirect heat, and I had 3 pizzas to cook), and it didn't burn at all. Then I had a thought - why not "bake" other things on the grill? I bought several stones from Pampered Chef years ago and rarely used them. So far I've successfully cooked zucchini casserole (which my family loves so much they literally lick the pan - see recipe below), eggplant parmesan, and even a beef pot pie with leftover roast beef, veggies and gravy. I wasn't sure if that one would work out, since it had a pie crust on top, but it came out flaky and perfect. Who knew? I just periodically adjust the flames to get the right temperature and rotate it several times; it takes about the same amount of time to cook, maybe even less. Dave said I shouldn't do all my baking on the grill because it costs more for the propane. But on these super hot days, it's an awesome alternative.

Here's the Chicken Zucchini Casserole recipe from Taste of Home. I made a few changes.

• 1 package (6 ounces) chicken stuffing mix
• 3/4 cup butter, melted (I use 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup milk)
• 3 cups zucchini, diced 
• 1 medium carrot, shredded
• 1-2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 small onion, chopped 
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
• 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine stuffing mix and butter and milk. Set aside 1/2 cup for topping. 
• Saute the zucchini, carrot, onion and celery. Mix with chicken, cream of chicken soup, sour cream and remaining stuffing mixture.
• Transfer to a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with reserved stuffing mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Yield: 6 servings.

Happy 100th B-Day Julia

August 15th is Julia Child's 100th birthday.  I really admire and like her as a person.  Her autobiography, My Life in France, was a fun read.  (But, I wouldn't recommend Julie and Julia, the book.  I liked the movie, but I stopped reading the book in the first chapter.  Julia was right, Julie was rather vulgar.)  I haven't read any of her cook books, but I'm sure they're great, too.  Her views on cooking changed the way that we in America look at food.  She inspired a generation of chefs and home cooks.  She was revolutionary and personable.  In honor of her birthday, I thought I would publish probably the only "French" recipe I know.  It also happens to be one of my cooking triumphs.  I think Julia would have been proud of me.  A few years ago, Aaron and I went to the French buffet at the Parisian in Vegas.  I had the creme brulee, okay, it was so good, I had two.  I had always wanted to recreate it at home, because you can't pick that up at your local Walmart, but I didn't have individual ramekins (who does?).  So, one night I decided to just go for it and make a family sized creme brulee.  Amazingly, it turned out!  It was delicious and creamy.  I enjoyed it for several days, hoarding the leftovers in the fridge, hiding them from the kids.  So, in honor of Julia, I share this recipe with you.  It's from America's Test Kitchen, but I did change the pan size and, of course, the cooking time.

Creme Brulee Family Style

4 c. heavy cream, chilled
2/3 c. granulated sugar
pinch salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
10 large egg yolks
1/4 c. turbinado sugar (you can also use regular sugar)

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees.  You will need two pans--one slightly smaller than the other.  I used my extra large 9x13 pan and a slightly smaller oval casserole dish.  Cover the bottom of the 9x13 pan with a dish towel.  Place the smaller casserole inside--make sure there is 1/2 to 1 inch space between the two pans all the way around.  Bring a kettle of water to a boil.

2.  Combine 2 c. cream, granulated sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.  Take the pan off the heat, cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

3.  Stir in the remaining 2 c. cream.  Place the yolks in a large bowl and pour in 1 c. of the cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly, until smooth.  Whisk in the remaining cream mixture until thoroughly combined.  Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a large measuring cup or pitcher.  (Don't skip this step, you want to make sure there are no bits of cooked egg in your creme brulee--just silky goodness.)  Pour the custard into the casserole.

4.  Place the pan in the oven and carefully pour enough boiling water into the pan to reach two-thirds of the way up the sides of the casserole.  Bake until the center of the custard is just barely set and is no longer sloshy.  I think I baked it for 35-40 minutes.

5. Transfer the casserole to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.  Cover the casserole with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours.

6. Just before serving, uncover the casserole and gently blot the top dry with a paper towel.  Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the top of the casserole.  Shake it to distribute the sugar evenly.  Ignite a torch and caramelize the sugar.  Refrigerate, uncovered, to rechill the custard, 30-45 minutes.  Serves 8.

If you don't have a torch, you can caramelize the sugar in your oven.  Adjust oven rack to uppermost position.  Preheat oven on hi broil setting.  Place sugar topped custard in oven and broil until sugar is caramelized.  Watch this carefully, it shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes, but burnt sugar is terrible, so again watch carefully.  And you will definitely need to rechill the custard after doing this.

We had this for Family Home Evening.  I had made it the night before and chilled it all day.  We put the sugar on, got my dad's industrial blow torch, and Aaron caramelized the sugar while the kids watched.  It was very dramatic.  Then we dug right in without chilling it again.  Oh man, just thinking about it is making me salivate.

The recipe actually calls for a vanilla bean, but again, who's got that?  If you want those instructions, email me.  You will have 10 egg whites left over from making this, you could make an egg white omelet or an angel food cake.

I hope you will try this recipe in honor of Julia.  She would want you to cook something interesting, to have fun in your kitchen, and to enjoy eating.   Bon appetit!

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

This is my first ever post in this blog!  This can only mean one glorious thing: I've had time to cook, and the cooking has been good.

A friend of ours gave us a few zucchini from his garden - too many for us to consume in its pure form so I searched for zucchini bread recipes and found one from allrecipes.com that included blueberries - which we also just happened to have!  It was delicious and the blueberries proved to be a wonderful compliment to the zucchini bread.  Now, this recipe is for four mini-loafs, but I made one full loaf and one batch of muffins, so I had to sort of eye the cooking time and stagger them a bit.  Otherwise, I stuck to the original recipe and everyone who tried it (I brought the loaf into the costume shop because that much bread is just too tempting) loved it.  Next time I want to try to cut the oil and sugar by using applesauce, but this occasion was a "use-what-we-got-I-don't-want-to-leave-the-house-in-this-heat" kind of day.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread:

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.
3. Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Grace's Mexican Rice

I have been meaning to publish this recipe for a long time.  For those of you that already have it, I have made some improvements that I hope you will like.

Grace's Mexican Rice

1 lb ground beef
1 lrg onion, diced
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 tsp each chili powder, cumin, and dried oregano
1 tsp cumin seed
3 tsp salt
1 1/2 c rice
4 c water

Brown the ground beef and onion together.  Add the other ingredients and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil and stir once more to make sure the rice isn't clumping on the bottom of the pot.  (I recommend wearing an apron for this step.  I can't tell you how many times the tomato sauce has jumped out of the pot to get me.)  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 30 minutes, stirring half way through.

Serve with:

avocado
lettuce
cheese
onion
olives
tomatoes
salsa
sour cream (or ranch dressing)
Fritos


When I first started making this, Emily suggested to me that I add more water and extra spices--very good advice.  But, I always hated buying the minute rice for this.  First, I don't actually like minute rice, and second, I had a perfectly good sack of rice already in my kitchen.  I started experimenting with regular rice, but, I usually ended up with it being slightly crunchy.  Then I was reading a recipe in America's Test Kitchen where they were cooking rice with other ingredients, and they said to put in more water and cook for a longer time.  So, I tried it with the Mexican Rice and, lo and behold, the rice was perfectly cooked and the meat-rice mix was moist, even a little juicy.  Yummy!

Since first writing this post Dad Abbott has given some more information about the recipe and its origins.  Here it is:


About "Mexican Rice." Judy has often quipped that she married me so my mother would share her secret recipe for Mexican Rice. Here's the background.

After the war and delayed schooling, like so many others couples, my parents struggled financially. Mexican Rice was an unusual dish suitable for entertaining that didn't cost an arm and a leg and was always a big hit. One night guests commented that they had just eaten the same "Mexican Rice" a night or so earlier at a friends, someone my mother had given the recipe.

That was disappointing, so my mother made "Mexican Rice" a family secret. I recall on more than one occasion women saying they had tried to duplicate it, but they could never get it right. This was the early, early 1950's before Mexican cooking was common among Anglos. Our friends didn't recognize the taste of cumin in the meat & rice base.

I hope everyone in our family who likes Mexican Rice has an authentic recipe. It is my all time favorite recipe, but is so labor intensive I usually request it only for birthdays. And now that my mother has passed on, I'm sure she won't mind you sharing it with your friends. You might check with Judy first though if she's your source. Look what she went through to get it.

More Soups from Soup Week

Emily wanted this recipe from Soup Week.  I love it at this time of year, because I can make it at lunch time and come home after a cold soccer game to a warm meal.  It's a recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  I modified it for the crock pot.  I like it better that way.  The beans are creamier.  Yum!

White Bean and Garlic Soup

1 lb white beans (The recipe calls for cannellini beans, but I've always used great northern beans.)
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped fine
1 small head garlic, top third and loose papery skins removed and discarded
6 cups chicken broth
salt
1 sprig rosemary, or 1 tsp dried
1/4 c. minced fresh parsley, or 1 Tbsp dried

1.  Soak the beans by either bringing the beans and 6 cups water to a boil, simmer for 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let soak for 1 hour.  Or you can put the beans in a big pot the night before you want to make this, cover them with water and let them soak until you are ready to make the soup.  Drain the beans and put them in your crock pot.
2.  Cook the bacon in the same pot you used to soak the beans in over medium heat until crisp.  Transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate, leaving the rendered fat behind in the pot.  Add the onion and cook until softened.  Stir in the garlic head and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Transfer the onion and garlic to the crock pot.  Add the broth and 1 tsp. salt (If you are using the dried herbs, add them now).  Turn on the crock pot to low and cook for 6 hours.
4. Add the fresh herbs, if you are using them now.  Remove the garlic head and squeeze out the softened cloves.  Mince the softened garlic and return it to the soup.  Discard the fresh rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve, garnishing with bacon.

Serves 8

Don't be scared by the whole garlic head.  It roasts in the soup and turns nutty and mild.

Recipes from Soup Week

As promised here are the requested soup recipes from our soup week. (As a side note, when I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner this week, Sophie said, "Egg Drop Soup," and everyone groaned. I guess we're still recovering.)

This first recipe is for Hilary. I got it off the Martha Stewart website.

Seared Beef and Noodle Soup

1/2 lb rice noodles (You can also substitute angel hair pasta.)

1 1/4 lbs beef sirloin (about 1 inch thick)

salt and pepper

2 Tbsp olive oil

10 oz white mushrooms, sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

6 c. beef stock

3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp. rice wine vinegar

2 carrots, cut into thin strips

1/2 Napa cabbage, shredded (I used regular cabbage.)

2 scallions, including green parts, thinly sliced

1 c. bean sprouts (I left these out and put in peas instead.)

1. Place rice noodles in a large heatproof bowl; pour boiling water over noodles. Let sit until translucent but still slightly chewy, 5-10 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

2. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Season beef with 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper and rub with 1 Tbsp oil. Sear beef in pan until golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Sear other side, 3 to 4 minutes more. Remove beef.

3. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining Tbsp of oil, mushrooms, and garlic; cook, scraping up any browned bits, until mushrooms are tender, 3-5 minutes.

4. Add stock, soy sauce, vinegar, and 2 c. water to the pan (I thought the water made the soup weak, so used more stock instead.); bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat; stir in carrots cabbage, scallions, and bean sprouts. (I like my veggies less crunchy, so I simmered them until I thought they were done.)

5. Cut beef diagonally into very thin slices. Ladle the broth and veggies into serving bowls, and place the noodles and sliced beef on top.

Serves 4-6

This next soup is for Tammy. It's a recipe Aaron got in Germany on his mission.

Allgauer Kase Soupe

2 Tbsp butter

2 pieces of bread, cut into cubes

4 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp flour

4 c. chicken stock, hot

125 g. (or so) soft, spreadable cheese

(We like Boursin, but Alluette is nice too. It should have garlic and herbs in it. This is the flavoring of this soup, so get something nice. You can find this kind of cheese in the specialty cheese section of most grocery stores.)

salt and pepper to taste

dash or two nutmeg

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1. Make the croutons. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add the cubes, toss and saute until golden brown. Set aside. (When I make this, I cut up a piece of bread for each person who will be eating-8 for our family-then I melt the butter (4-6 Tbsp. for my family) in the microwave and toss with the bread. Then I spread the bread on a cookie sheet and broil it in the oven until it is golden brown. Toss the croutons and brown on the other side.)

2. Make the soup. Melt the butter in the soup pot. Add the flour and stir and cook for a little bit. You want to make sure it doesn't taste like flour. Whisk in the hot broth until there are no lumps. Cook at a simmer for 7 minutes.

3. Cut the cheese into chunks. Stir the cheese into the soup until it melts. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and parsley. Bring to a simmer.

4. Serve with the croutons on top. Or if you're a purist, with them on the side, you don't want your food to touch.

Serves 4 (I double this for my family and there's usually just one serving left over, which Aaron and I fight about for lunch the next day.)

Soup Week

I always have my kids tell me what they want to eat for the week. It puts some of the meal planning stress off of me. The other week everyone wanted soups. So we decided to have soup week. That's right--a whole week with soup every night for dinner. It was kind of fun and we took pictures of all the delicious soups we ate.

We started out on Friday night with delicious White Bean and Garlic soup. This one was my choice.

It's a great soup because you can make it in the crock pot. The garlic is lovely and mild because it's roasted along with the beans. You also add rosemary. Plus I absolutely adore bean soups and there's bacon. What could be better?

Saturday night was St. Patrick's day so we had Hilary's Irish soup and Brennan's soda bread. I also bought sausage. One time Johnsonville made an Irish sausage. It was lovely, but I haven't been able to find it since. We had bratwurst instead.

The kids loved the bread and the soup. They kept saying how good it was. I used both a leek and cabbage. I really don't like pureed soups, so I only pureed a portion of it.

Sunday night was Cream of Vegetable Soup. I had a mix of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots left over from a fondue dinner we had had earlier in the week and it needed to get used up. I looked up veggie soup recipes and found one that had all three in it. It also had a hint of curry which was a revelation. It made the soup so good. I pureed some of this soup too, but the broccoli didn't puree well and made the soup grainy.

Still, it was a good soup and I served it with cheese.

Monday night I killed three birds with one stone. Hannah wanted grilled cheese--that means tomato soup. Maggie wanted clam chowder and Caleb wanted chicken noodle. I always serve another soup when I make tomato soup because half the kids don't like tomatoes. Good old Campbell's makes the meal do-able.

I had to come up with my own tomato soup recipe when I couldn't find good tomato soup in the canned soup aisle (It was all gone). I also wanted it to be tomato basil soup and somehow could never find the recipe. On a different note, one evening we were eating chicken noodle soup at my mom's house, who really makes the best chicken noodle soup on the face of the planet, and Caleb says, "This is okay, but my mom makes the best chicken noodle soup." I laughed and laughed because the chicken noodle soup I "make" is right out of the can. The clam chowder we had is out of the can too. Aaron was disappointed.

Tuesday night was Aaron's request--Allgauer Kase Soupe.

I burned the croutons. It's a family curse. We always burn the garlic bread. Bread in the oven is tricky. But the soup is totally delicious--creamy and herby with a crunch from the croutons--yum!

Wednesday night was Sophie's night. A little while ago I had watched too many Asian cooking shows and wanted to make a noodle bowl. After a little research, I found a promising recipe on Martha Stewart. Sophie LOVED it. She has requested it many times since. If it weren't for the scarcity of steak in our diet, I'm sure we would have had it more often.

It really looks beautiful in the bowl. The steak is rare and then the hot broth cooks it as you eat. I ate it with a spoon, but really you need chopsticks. Sophie ate all the leftovers the next day--slurping and "mmm"ing all the way through.

Thursday was a soup Caleb wanted, I wrote it down, and then he changed his mind to Chicken Noodle, then when we got to this night, he told me that this was the soup he wanted all along. Funny boy. It was Potato Soup.

I love this soup because it has bacon and sour cream in it. It's super yummy.

So, that was our week of soup. The kids were glad when we were done, proving once again that too much of a good thing isn't so good. Also, we had a hard time keeping spoons and bowls clean. It seems like we spent the whole week wondering where the clean spoons were. And finally, as Aaron pointed out, the problem with soup every night for dinner is that then the next day you have soup leftovers for lunch and then soup for dinner again. It was an interesting experience anyway. If you want me to post any of the recipes for the soups we had, let me know.