Poultry

Honey Mustard Chicken

Dear Sis,

Today we tried another great and simple freezer meal.

Honey Mustard Chicken
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. 3 (1 gallon) freezer bags
  2. 18 chicken thighs
  3. 1 1/2 c honey
  4. 3/4 c unsalted butter
  5. 1/2 c prepared mustard
  6. 1 T curry powder
  7. 2 t salt
Label bags
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Run freezer bag under water just enough to remove frozen chicken from bag. Pour into a square baking dish.
  2. Bake 30 minutes. Separate chicken into a single layer and cook 1 hour more until sauce gets thick and sticky.
Fills bags
  1. Place 6 chicken thighs in each freezer bag.
  2. Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until dissolved and smooth. Cool before pouring equally over chicken thighs.
Adapted from Fix Freeze Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Ahrens
Adapted from Fix Freeze Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Ahrens
Tag Sis, You're It! https://www.tagsisyoureit.com/

Goes well with Mashed Potatoes and Cracker Barrel Style Carrots.

Love,

b

Chicken Fried Rice

Dear Sis,

Today we made homemade Chicken Fried Rice. It was better than Chinese take-out. More chicken and move veggies:) If you have any leftovers they can be frozen for later, and then thawed and reheated.

 

Chicken Fried Rice
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. 2-3 T avocado oil
  2. 1/2 lb. chicken breast, diced
  3. 3 eggs, beaten
  4. 3/4 c broccoli florets, chopped
  5. 3/4 c carrot, peeled and chopped
  6. 2 t minced garlic
  7. 1/2 c frozen peas
  8. 1/4 c green onion, chopped
  9. 4 c cooked rice of choice
  10. 1/4 c low sodium soy sauce
  11. 3 T maple syrup
  12. 2 T butter, melted
  13. 1 T dried onion flakes
Instructions
  1. Panfry chicken in 1 T oil until cooked through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
  2. Add an additional T oil if needed and fry eggs. Set aside.
  3. Add an additional T oil if needed and sauté broccoli, carrots, and garlic until tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add peas and scallions and heat through.
  4. Add rice to pan and stir until heated through. Add chicken and eggs.
  5. Combine soy sauce, syrup, butter, and onion flakes. Pour over fried rice mixture and stir until well combined.
Adapted from Freezer to Table
Adapted from Freezer to Table
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Love,

b

 

Creamy Broccoli Chicken Freezer Meals

Dear Sis,

Carter’s family is expecting its newest member in July 2018 and we just discovered we are expecting a new member in September 2018. Jen and I are excited that we just might have three batches of friends between our families soon:)

In any case, early pregnancy is exhausting, and I suggested we make freezer meals during our play date today.

Creamy Broccoli Chicken Freezer Meals
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. 6 (1-gallon) freezer bags
  2. 3 (1-quart) freezer bags
  3. 6 pounds chicken breast, cubed
  4. 1/2 c salted butter
  5. 1 pound mushrooms, chopped
  6. 3/4 c unbleached flour
  7. 1 T chicken base
  8. 1 T curry powder (optional)
  9. 3/4 c pepper
  10. 2 c water
  11. 4 c milk
  12. 2 T lemon juice
  13. 6 c frozen broccoli florets
  14. 6 c shredded Colby Jack
  15. 1 1/2 c bread crumbs (optional)
Instructions
  1. Label, date, and write cooking instructions on three gallon bags.
  2. Pan fry cubed chicken until cooked through. Cool. Divide among labeled bags.
  3. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Sauté chopped mushrooms until soft, about 5 minutes.
  4. Stir in flour. Add chicken base, curry powder if desired, and pepper.
  5. Gradually stir in water and milk. Cook stirring until sauce thickens.
  6. Whisk in lemon juice. Cool sauce. Then, pour equally over chicken portions.
  7. Top each chicken and sauce portion with 2 c broccoli florets. Seal bags.
  8. Fill three quart bags with 2 c shredded cheese and 1/2 c breadcrumbs if desired. Seal bags.
  9. Place each meal in an additional gallon freezer bag to avoid messes and to keep the chicken and cheese bags together during storage.
Cooking Instructions
  1. Thaw completely in refrigerator.
  2. Preheat oven to 350.
  3. Place creamy chicken broccoli mixture in a casserole dish. Top with cheese and breadcrumbs.
  4. Bake 35-40 minutes.
  5. Serve over rice.
Adapted from Fix Freeze Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Ahrens
Adapted from Fix Freeze Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Ahrens
Tag Sis, You're It! https://www.tagsisyoureit.com/

Optional Ingredients:

Jen didn’t love the rice curry flavor. She decided to leave it out in future so the sauce would taste more like mushroom soup, and even contemplated using condensed cream of mushroom soup to save time and effort.

Although I loved the flavor twist the curry powder offered, I didn’t love the texture of the breadcrumbs, and will be leaving those out in future.

 

Love,

b

1860s Thanksgiving

Dear Sis,

Our reenacting meeting this month was all about Thanksgiving traditions. Thanksgiving became a national holiday during the Civil War, causing it to be a more festive season than Christmas! We had a lot of fun making some mid-20th century recipes and eating the dishes other ladies had made:) These are the historic recipes we used with modern measurements and directions to ease the way for other 21st century home cooks:

Baked Goose

A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Class (1852)

Goose

6 potatoes

6 onions

4 apples

12 sage leaves

2 ounces of butter

pepper

salt

flour

Pluck and pick out all the stubble feathers thoroughly clean, draw the goose, cut off the head and neck, and also the feet and wings, which must be scalded to enable you to remove the pinion feathers from the wrings and the rough skin from the feet; split and scrape the inside of the gizzard, and carefully cut out the gall from the liver. These giblets well stewed, as shown in the recipe for Giblet Pie, will serve to make a pie for another day’s dinner. Next stuff the goose in the manner following, viz.: First put the potatoes to bake in the oven, or even in a Dutch oven; and, while they are being baked chop the onions with the apples and sage leaves, and fry these in a saucepan with the butter, pepper, and salt; when the whole is slightly fried, mix it with the pulp of the six baked potatoes, and used this very nice stuffing to fill the inside of the goose. The goose being stuffed, place it upon an iron trivet in a baking dish containing peeled potatoes and a few apples; and half-a-pint of water, pepper and salt, shake some flour over the goose, and bake it for about an hour and a-half. 

* recipe also suggested with duck

Baked Duck with Potato Apple Sage Stuffing
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. 3 pound duck, thawed, neck and giblets removed
  2. 3 medium potatoes, baked, peeled, and mashed
  3. 3 small onions, finely chopped
  4. 2 small apples, finely chopped
  5. 9 sage leaves, chopped
  6. 2 T butter
  7. salt and pepper to taste
  8. 2 T flour
  9. 5-6 medium potatoes, peeled
  10. 2-3 small apples, cored
Instructions
  1. Sauté onion, apple, and sage in butter in a skillet over medium heat until tender and liquid is cooked away.
  2. Mix sautéed mixture into mashed potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 and set out a roasting pan.
  4. Stuff potato apple sage mixture into chest cavity of duck. Place stuffed duck on a rack in a roasting pan. Dust duck with salt, pepper, and flour.
  5. Arrange peeled potatoes and cored apples around duck. Add 1 cup water. Cover and bake one and a-half hours.
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To Make Good Plane Buns

The Book of Household Management (1861)

1 pound flour

6 ounces of good butter

1/4 pound of sugar

1 egg

nearly 1/4 pint of milk

2 small teaspoonfulls of baking-powder

a few drops of essence of lemon

Warm the butter, without oiling it; beat it with a wooden spoon; stir the flour in gradually with the sugar, and mix these ingredients well together. Make the milk lukewarm, beat up with the yolk of the egg and the essence of lemon, and stir these to the flour, etc. Add the baking-powder, beat the dough well for about 10 minutes, divide it into 24 piees, put them into puttered tins or cups, and bake in a brisk oven for 20-30 minutes. Sufficient to make 12 buns. Seasonable at any time.

Sweet Lemon Biscuits
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Ingredients
  1. 3 c flour
  2. 1/2 c sugar
  3. 4 t baking powder
  4. 3/4 c salted butter
  5. 1 egg
  6. 3/4 c milk
  7. 1/4 t lemon extract or a few drops lemon oil
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450.
  2. Whisk together dry ingredients.
  3. Cut in butter.
  4. Stir in egg, milk, and lemon extract or oil until just combined.
  5. Press out dough on a floured surface and cut with floured biscuit cutter.
  6. Bake normal biscuits 12-14 minutes and small ones 8-10 minutes.
Notes
  1. Makes 1 dozen normal biscuits or 2 dozen small ones.
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Apple Sauce

Directions for Cookery, In its Various Branches (1840)

Pare, core, and slice some fine apples. Put them into a saucepan with just sufficient water to keep them from burning, and some grated lemon-peel. Stew them until quite soft and tender. Then mash them to a paste, and make them very sweet with brown sugar, adding a small piece of butter, and some nutmeg.

Apple sauce is eaten with roast pork, goose, and duck. Be careful not to have it thin or watery.

Apple Sauce
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. 8 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
  2. 1/4 c water
  3. zest of a lemon
  4. 1/4 c dark brown sugar
  5. 1 T salted butter
  6. 1/4 t ground nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Simmer apples, water, and zest in a saucepan until tender, 15-20 minutes.
  2. Mash. Stir in brown sugar, butter, and nutmeg. Cook to thicken as needed.
  3. Serve warm or cool.
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Boiled Parsnips

The Book of Household Management (1861)

Parsnips; to each gallon of water allow 1 heaping tablespoonful of salt.

Wash the parsnips, scrape them thoroughly, and, with the point of the knife, remove any black specks about them, and, should they be very large, cut the thick part into quarters. Put them into a saucepan of boiling water salted in the above proportion, boil them rapidly until tender, which may be ascertained by thrusting a fork into them; taking them up, draining them, and serve in a vegetable-dish. This vegetable is usually served with salt fish, boiled port, or boiled beef: when sent to table with the latter, a few should be placed alternately with carrots round the dish, as a garnish.

Large parsnips, 1 to 1 1/2 hours; small ones, 1/2 to 1 hour. Allow 1 for each person. Seasonable form October to May.

Parsnips and Carrots
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. 3 parsnips, peeled and coined
  2. 6 carrots, peeled and coined
  3. salt
Instructions
  1. Simmer parsnips and carrots in salted water until tender, 20-30 minutes.
  2. Serve warm.
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William got silly when it was time to leave and put my coat on instead of his.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

b

Sharing the Bounty

Dear Sis,

Last night, we delivered Labor Day cookies to our backyard neighbors. They sent us home with four huge garden tomatoes they wouldn’t be able to eat fast enough. Little did they know, we already had two perfectly ripe tomatoes on our kitchen counter. What to do with so many yummy tomatoes! We made Three Cheese Tomato Basil Pie for dinner, bought more pie crust in the morning, and made two more to share.

We knocked on our backyard neighbors door and said, “Hi, your tomatoes are back.” We also gave one to the vegetarian family that lives across from us. 

In the afternoon, we made a stop at the library for some new reading material and the local quilt shop, so we could pick up some Civil War Era reproduction calico for Evelyn’s pinafore. We got home in time to start cooking dinner.

In the middle of August, our vegetarian neighbors gave us three homegrown butternut squashes because they had too many. We steamed one and ate it for dinner right away, but after a few days of leftover squash, William and I were all squashed out. We needed to give squash a taste makeover! We made risotto, because everything is good when made into risotto!!! My handsome kitchen assistant did most of the stirring.

We also tried a new chicken recipe. Both were super yummy and went really well together. 

Butternut Squash Risotto
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Ingredients
  1. 1 lb. butternut squash cubes
  2. 2 T avocado oil
  3. salt & ground pepper
  4. 4 c chicken stock
  5. 3/4 c red onion, minced
  6. 1 T butter or ghee
  7. 1 c Arborio rice
  8. 1/2 c white cooking wine
  9. 1 c Parmesan, grated
  10. 1 t ground sage
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a jellyroll pan with foil. Peel squash, half and remove seeds, cube into bite size pieces. Toss squash with oil, salt, and pepper and spread over prepared baking sheet. Roast 15 minutes. Stir and roast 5 more minutes.
  2. In a large saucepan, melt butter or ghee. Sauté onion, stir in rice, add wine and cook 2 minutes. Add chicken stock 1/4 c at a time stirring and cooking down between additions.
  3. Remove from heat. Stir in Parmesan, sage, and roasted squash.
Adapted from Adventures in Veggieland by: Melanie Potock
Adapted from Adventures in Veggieland by: Melanie Potock
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Lemon Pepper Chicken
Serves 6
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Ingredients
  1. 6 thin cut boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 lb.)
  2. 1 T fresh ground lemon pepper seasoning
  3. 1/3 c unbleached flour
  4. 2 T avocado oil
  5. 2 T butter
  6. 2 t lemon juice
  7. 1 t parsley flakes
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat.
  2. Sprinkle chicken with lemon pepper. Then, dredge in flour.
  3. Panfry chicken 5 minutes per side, until cooked through. Remove to a serving dish and cover with foil.
  4. Remove skillet from heat. Melt butter, add lemon juice, and stir to deglaze pan. Pour over chicken and sprinkle with parsley flakes just before serving.
Adapted from Dinner at the Zoo
Adapted from Dinner at the Zoo
Tag Sis, You're It! https://www.tagsisyoureit.com/
Since we had a freak storm in the afternoon, during nap time, the evening was nice a cool. Perfect for a walk. We drove to the river trail near our house and walked 2 miles. Well, Mama walked 2 miles. William walked 1.5 miles:)

Our sun hat, which fit wonderfully at the beginning of summer, is hilariously small. Time to look for one on sale for next year:)

Love,

b