Easy after work one dish meal.

Chicken Asparagus Skillet

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubs
1 teaspoon salt free seasoning such as Mrs. Dash (R)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
1 bunch green onions, trimmed and sliced
8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
1 lb. asparagus trimmed of woody ends and cut into 1 inch pieces
1, 14.5 oz. can chicken broth
1/2 dry white wine

2 cups fine no yolk egg noodles

1/4 minced fresh parsley optional

Coat chicken cubes with salt free seasoning. Set aside

In a large deep skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Saute garlic, onions and mushrooms until soft. Add asparagus and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add chicken, broth and wine. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, lower heat to a simmer and simmer 5 minutes or until chicken is opaque. Stir in noodles, cover and simmer 10 minutes or until noodles are cooked. Sprinkle with parsley before serving if desired. Serves 4.

Easy whole wheat bread

This yeast bread fixes up in a snap. It also slices well and freezes well. It is especially good for toast in the morning. Make it first for hot bread with dinner and keep the rest in the refrigerator or freezer for future meals.

NO KNEAD WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

3 cups flour
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package dry yeast
 2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup brown sugar
 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix together flour, warm water, sugar, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat until very smooth. cover and let rise in warm place until light and bubbly, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Mix hot water with brown sugar and melted butter. Cool to lukewarm. Add to first mixture and add whole wheat flour. Mix until smooth, but do not knead. Place dough in 2 greased loaf pans and let rise until double in bulk, about 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes. Loaves are done when they sound hollow when tapped.

Cool pans on wire rack 10 minutes. Carefully remove loaves to rack to finish cooling. Brush tops of loaves with melted butter.

Slow Cooker Beef and Wild Rice

Wild rice can be an expensive ingredient. I get a better price on it when I buy it on my travels to Wisconsin or Minnesota. My local bulk food store also has a more reasonable price than the grocery store.

Slow Cooker Beef and Wild Rice

1 cup raw wild rice, rinsed and drained
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced onion
8 oz. fresh mushrooms halved
2 lbs. boneless round steak, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 teaspoons salt free seasoning such as Mrs. Dash (R)
1, 14 oz. can reduced sodium beef broth diluted to 2 1/2 cups

Place ingredients in a 5 quart slow cooker in the order listed, do not stir. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serves 8.

Easy Skillet Jambalaya

I have rediscovered parboiled or "converted rice". It makes cooking an after work skillet dinner quick and easy.

Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya

2 teaspoon canola or olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced scallions
1 large stalk celery, sliced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped or 2 tablespoons dried
1 lb. peeled deveined shrimp
2 cups low salt canned or home made chicken broth
1 cup converted rice
1/2 lb. low fat smoked turkey sausage, cut into half inch slices
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
pinch of salt and dash of black pepper
1 large bay leaf
1, 14.5 oz. diced tomatoes with juice

In a large, non-stick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add scallions, celery, bell pepper and parsley. Cook and stir for 3 minutes or until onions are tender.

Add shrimp, broth, rice, sausage, thyme, peppers, salt and bay leaf. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and simmer 5 minutes or until shrimp are curled, pink and opaque.

Stir in tomatoes, with juice, and bring to a simmer again. Cover, turn off heat and let stand 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving. Stir well. Serves 6.

Serve with hot sauce of choice if desired.

Rice,Lentil, Sweet Potato Stew

Rice, Lentil, Sweet Potato Stew

This can easily be made into a meatless dish by omitting the sausage. Pork or beef sausage could be substituted. The last time I made this I used a spicy chicken sausage.

1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

1 large onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon each: ground cloves, ground coriander, ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to your taste

1 cup brown rice

1/2 lentils, rinsed and picked over

2 fresh plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice

12 to 16 oz. smoked turkey sausage cut into 1 inch slices

In a 4 quart pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and spices and stir 1 minute. Add rice, lentils, tomatoes, salt and 5 cups water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 1 hour.

Stir in sausage and sweet potatoes and simmer until sweet potatoes are softened, about 30 minutes.

Serves 6,

Pie Filling Cake

When I was writing my cook book in 2009 I could not find my 1976 church cook book. That was the year I was married and that was the first cook book I used. Many of the recipes I had written in other places so I was able to put them in my own book. This is one recipe I didn't have until I found it in a box in the garage last month. Can't wait to have an occasion to make this again.

Pie Filling Cake

1/2 lb. butter or stick margarine

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1, 21 oz. can pie filling, flavor of your choice

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beating in one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder. Stir into creamed mixture a little at a time. Place 3/4 of the batter into a greased 7 1/2 inch baking pan. Spread fruit filling over batter. Spread remaining batter to cover fruit. Bake at 350 F. for 45 minutes. Serves 10 to 12.

Door County sour cherries

Just discovered that allrecipes.com has published my sour cherry sorbet recipe. Read the reviews and loved the feed back. My husband and I vacationed in Door County, Wisconsin this year. Got my 2 lb. bucket of pitted  and frozen sour cherries and will make this years batch soon. Also stocked up on wild rice while up there even though there's a new bulk food store in my town that has a good price for it. 

Picking up local food products is our plan for shopping on vacation trips. We bring along a good sized cooler to keep perishables safe for the ride home. We discovered two new artisan cheese shops in Door County this year. One had some "cave cured" cheese. We picked up one that was a cave cured Cardona. Have never heard of  Cardona cheese before. It is a sharp hard cheese. The cave curing imparts a mineral taste to the cheese that I liken to the mineral taste of Spanish wines. So I find pairing this particular cheese with a Tempranillo wine is perfect.

We picked up chopped cherry jam and cherry juice this year along with some locally made wines. Got some Wisconsin maple syrup. The local farm markets sell many varieties of canned local produce. This year we picked up a jar of spicy pickled cabbage. It's sort of like Wisconsin kimchee (sp?).

Saw one farm report while up there that Wisconsin will have a bumper crop of cranberries. Evidently Wisconsin provides 52 % of the cranberry crop in this country on average each year. I'm interested to see if the price is less per pound this year. I'll stock up in my freezer if it is.

My gas grill is no more so not able to grill on my Sunday off. I'm going back to a charcoal kettle type grill.

To all my readers: Have a great Labor Day holiday?
CJ