Thai Chicken With Basil

We had an abundance of basil from our garden this summer.  Basil is one of my favorite herbs and it was so nice to be able to go pick it fresh from my backyard.  Plus, it saved me money!!  This is one of many dishes that we made that used our fresh basil.  It was delicious and easy!

Thai Chicken With Basil
adapted from: foodandwine.com

2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce (the original recipe called for Asian fish sauce, but this is what I had)
1 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. water
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 onion, cut into thin slices (I used dehydrated onion)
1/4 tsp. dried red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 1/2 c. lightly packed basil leaves

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oyster sauce, soy sauce, water and sugar.  Add the chicken and let it soak up those yummy flavors, while you begin cooking your onion.  In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook it for 2 minutes.  Add the red pepper flakes and garlic and stir it for another 30 seconds.  Remove the chicken from the marinade and add it to the frying pan.  Cook the chicken until it is no longer pink inside.  Then add the marinade to the frying pan and cook it for another minute.  Remove it from the heat and gently stir in 1 cup of the basil leaves.  Top it with the remaining basil leaves when you serve it over rice.

Homemade Freezer Salsa

This year, my tomatoes went absolutely crazy in my garden.  We are not huge tomato eaters, so in order to use them up, I made freezer salsa.  The rest I just washed, dried and froze them by 10's (or so) in a freezer bag.  Then, when I want fresh salsa in the middle of January, I will take them out, toss them into a pot of boiling water, remove them and take the skins off, and I'll be ready to start a batch of freezer salsa!  At least I hope that is what I will do, I've never tried it until this year, but my neighbor assures me that it works.

Freezer Salsa

by: Carolyn

10-12 tomatoes

2 small peppers (I used some from my garden, and I don't know what variety I planted.  But they are small, light green, and not very hot.  Does that help?)

1 serrano pepper, sliced, with the seeds removed (you can leave the seeds if you want more heat in your salsa--we're a mild family, around here)

handful of cilantro

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. dried, chopped onion, rehydrated (actually, just slightly less)

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

juice of 1 lime

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. fresh ground pepper

Blanch your tomatoes by putting them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds, then taking them out and putting them right into a bowl of freezing cold water.  Then the skins should slide right off.  Remove the stems, cut them in half from the top and then squeeze out the seeds.  Toss them in a blender and blend them up until they are the consistency that you like.  In a food processor, finely chop your peppers (whatever kind those were...), serrano pepper, and cilantro.  In a large pot, stir together the tomatoes, pepper mixture, garlic, onion, sugar, lime juice, salt and pepper.  Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer it for 10-15 minutes.  Feel free to pull out your tortilla chips and start tasting it now.  I added things and got it to the flavor I wanted, while I was cooking it.  Pour it into your jars, or containers and freeze it until you are ready for it.  

Creamy New Potato Soup

This is the time of year when soup and vegetables from my garden sound so appealing.  The other night I was really wanting something.  I just wasn't sure what.  So I let my taste buds lead the way, and I ended up with this soup.  It was delicious, and Fall-y, and worked for a sick neighbor, too!

Creamy New Potato Soup
by: Carolyn

4 c. chicken broth
1/2 tsp. onion powder
small potatoes, or larger ones, cut into chunks (I used all my little "new" potatoes from my garden)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 c. milk
1 bag of frozen peas
fresh ground pepper
ham, cut into small pieces

In a large pot, bring the chicken broth, onion powder and salt to a boil.  Add the potatoes and cook until they are tender.  Meanwhile, in a saucepan, whisk together the butter and flour over medium-high heat.  Slowly pour in the evaporated milk, stirring constantly.  Continue stirring until it begins to thicken.  Add this mixture to your pot with the potatoes and stir it gently.  Stir in your frozen peas (I added about 3/4 of the bag, but you can add more or less, according to what you like).  Add your sliced ham and milk, and bring it to a low boil, then turn the heat down and cook it until your peas are tender.  

Pickled Beets

My husband's grandfather Theurer used to pickle beets and Dustin grew up loving them.  He has been begging me for years to make some pickled beets, and they just sound so disgusting that I couldn't bring myself to do it.  This year, we planted two rows of beets in our garden (which was a big sacrifice, in my opinion, giving up two whole rows of space).  The weather must have been perfect for beets this year, because they grew like weeds!  I used the leaves for green smoothies, and we pulled all the beets last week and pickled them, using Dustin's grandpa's recipe.  So, I am putting this on here for future posterity (and maybe for future me, as I will probably get talked into this again).  Now these are not spiced pickled beets.  Dustin's grandpa didn't make them that way, so Dustin didn't want them that way.  These are just regular ol' pickled beets.  If you want spices, google it.  There are tons of recipes.

Pickled Beets
from: Herman LeRoy Theurer

1 quart cider vinegar
4 c. brown or white sugar (or mix them, like I did)
1 pint beet juice
1 Tbsp. salt
Beets

First, wash your beets and remove the greens.  Boil them for 30-45 minutes, or until they are tender.  Remove them from the water and the skin will easily peel off.  Slice them into chunks, or slices, or if they are small enough, you can leave them whole.  Put them into quart size jars, leaving about an inch of headspace.  Meanwhile, in a large pot, stir together the vinegar, sugar, beet juice and salt and bring it to a boil.  Carefully pour it into the jars (with beets in them), leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.  Then you will need to put lids on your jars and process them, based on your altitude.  For my altitude, I had to process them for 40 minutes.  Leave them alone for a couple of weeks, to let the beets pickle (this has been the hardest part for my husband!).  

I don't know how many beets we used, but I did end up making another batch and a half of the sauce to pour over the beets.  You may need to make more if you have more beets than sauce.

The Easiest Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars Ever

One of those yummy recipes came across my Facebook feed yesterday, and I couldn't resist.  This is seriously easy.

1 yellow or white cake mix (I used yellow)
2 eggs, beaten
5 Tbsp butter, melted
2 cups mini chocolate chip cookies (although I'll try it with regular chocolate chips next time)

Mix everything together and spread into a greased 11 X 13 baking dish
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Cool, cut and devour.  So good!  I'll edit and add a picture when I make these again.

Mashed Potatoes and Ham Casserole

Tonight I needed to come up with a quick dinner without a trip to the store.  I had ham in the freezer & some packages of mashed potatoes to use, and I found this recipe online.  I've already lost the link but it was so easy I actually remember how to make it.  It actually turned out quite delicious.

Mashed Potatoes and Ham Casserole

4 cups mashed potatoes (I used instant potato pearls)
1 1/2 cups diced ham
1/2 onion
2 Tbsp butter (used separately)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/3 cup crushed cornflakes

Dice the onion very fine (I so love my Pampered Chef chopper) and place it in a bowl with 1 Tbsp butter. Microwave the onion and butter, uncovered, for 2 minutes (stirring after one minute)
Prepare your mashed potatoes, and add the onion, ham, salt, pepper and garlic powder (you could use minced garlic instead or leave it out and I'm sure it would be fine).
Grease the bottom of a 1 1/2 quart baking dish, and pour the potato mixture into it.
Sprinkle the grated cheese on top, layer that with the crushed corn flakes, and cut up your remaining 1 Tbsp butter over the top.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

Kalua Pork (Gluten Free)

My mother-in-law is in town again.  That means that I have to think Gluten Free in my cooking.  Which is actually pretty hard for me to do.  My friend, Jacque, was also in town and told me to try this recipe, given to her from her sis-in-law, who does all gluten free cooking.  She actually has a great website: www.eatingglutenfree.com.  Anyway, this recipe was super easy (in fact, it was ridiculously easy) and very tasty.  And, of course, gluten free.

Kalua Pork (or is it Khalua?)
from: Jacque

1 2-3 lb. pork roast
1/2 Tbsp. salt
4 Tbsp. liquid smoke
1 c. water

In a crockpot, pour the salt, liquid smoke and water over the pork roast.  Cook it on high for 6-8 hours.  When it is done, shred it with a fork and serve it over rice.  You can add pineapple to the top of it, which I thought added so much to the taste.  But I do love sweet with salty.  You could also get creative with veggies, or cheese, or whatever you wanted to spice it up a bit.  But it was delicious simple, too!