Recipe #8: Thanksgiving Chicken Enchilada Dip

Not the best photo, but man, was this delicious!

For the first time, I was officially assigned a dish for Thanksgiving.  Normally, my main contribution to the meal is sending out the invitation email and filling the water glasses, so this was a pretty big deal.  I was assigned appetizers!  So, I flipped through my cookbooks and, since oven space was going to be at a premium, I decided to do a slow cooker dip.  After much deliberation, I decided to go with a chicken enchilada dip.  

I gathered all of my ingredients then headed to my mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving.  After having been burned by strange can sizes before, I made sure I had all of the sizes for the cans right.  

I dumped in my chicken, bell pepper, diced chilies and tomatoes and reassured every single member of my family (separately) that YES, THE CHICKEN IS SUPPOSED TO BE RAW WHEN IT GOES IN THE CROCKPOT!  

Then, I cooked that deliciousness for about 4 hours.  Then, I added my cream cheese and my cheese.  However, at the final step, I realized that my meticulous can measurement counting had been for naught.  The recipe called for one package of cheese.  I assumed this was the regular, normal-person-sized bag.  However, this recipe's one package of cheese turned out to be the Costco family-of-seven-sized bag.  Dang it.  So, I ended up foraging my family's fridge for assorted cheese.  I came up with half a block of sharp cheddar and a few slices of American cheese.  Eventually, the final product tasted delicious.  

Recipe #7: How Do You Spell Foul Coffee? H-O-N-E-Y

The foul coffee with the delicious portion of my breakfast, my fresh bagel from New York Bagel and Bialy's in Skokie.

I don't know what happened this week.  I had intended to make Matzo Ball soup from scratch and be very hard-core.  However, every time I was going to make it, something came up.  So, this recipe, from my Taste of Home cookbook was a backup.

It started off with tons of ingredients that I love: coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, vanilla and milk.  However, not even this all-star combo could save this drink.

You would think that this team would be rock-solid.  However, you would be wrong.

I mixed up the ingredients in a saucepan, and divided it into two mugs.  My beau and I toasted our fancy-coffee breakfast.

A happy toast, before I realized that the honey had betrayed me. 

However, my satisfaction was short-lived, as all I tasted was honey.  I did not like my honey-milk, which I could not get to taste like either coffee or fall spices.  My beau finished his, whether out of politeness/obligation or actually liking it, I am not clear.

In the future, I will leave the fancy coffee preparation to the baristas at Starbucks.

Recipe #6 How-I-Bribed-My-Boyfriend-To-Decorate-for-7 Hours Chicken & Dumplings

It was chicken-y and dough-y and dumpling-y.  It was magnificent!

Christmas comes just once a year, and although I have been celebrating half-Christmas, I am usually chomping at the bit to get to the holiday season immediately after Halloween.  I start furtively listening to Christmas carols and lighting pine candles as soon as Trick-or-Treating ends.  My favorite part of the Christmas season is putting up the Christmas tree.  I held out as long as I could.  I really did.

I only made it until November 17.

Since I have managed to stuff 3 Christmas trees (one of which is 8 feet tall), 43 feet of garland and countless other decorations into my tiny apartment, I knew I could use help with the decorating—particularly the box-hauling, which is my least favorite part of decorating.

Enter my saint of a boyfriend, who not only volunteered to help me with all of this, but also agreed to haul boxes and unwrap ornaments with a smile on his face and a Santa hat on his head. 

Me with the hero of the hour!  

As a preemptive “thank you” for the help with the decorating, I made him chicken and dumplings.

It was amazing.  The recipe only calls for a few things too, so it was very inexpensive.  I only needed two chicken breasts, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, some celery, butter, a bit of milk and refrigerated biscuit dough.  I added carrots too, since I had some on hand.

After chopping the celery and grating the carrots (and one knuckle), I dumped all but the biscuits into the crock pot and let it sit for about 6 hours. 

It was gorgeous, even if the carrots did cost me the first layer of skin on my  right, middle knuckle.

Then, about 30 minutes before serving, I just broke up a bunch of the biscuits and dumped them into the soup mixture.  In those thirty minutes, they turned into divine dumpling lumps.

It was delicious!  We ate a ton and still had leftovers to sustain us through our long 7 hour decorating day.

The house also looked amazing!

Recipe #2: Ridiculously Easy Cranberry Pork Roast

First of all let me apologize for my significant lack of posting over the last couple of weeks. Time has flown by and gotten away from me. The recipes have been made, so I have kept up with that half of the blog. Now to finish what I have started. I began this post a few weeks back and am now finishing it (along with the others).

Through the chaotic whirlwind that was my weekend, I have failed to post about the masterpiece that turned out to be my second recipe. Now that Fall is underway, I've proclaimed it to be Crock pot season in my apartment. My ancient Crockery Cookery book will be my best friend in this celebration of sorts.
While I was flipping through it last Wednesday night, all the recipes were capturing my attention until I stopped at one I could not resist! Cranberry Pork Roast! My mouth literally watered at the thought! ( I'll admit, Autumn Pork Chops almost tied and will likely be made this week or next!)
The ingredients could not have been more straightforward. Pork loin roast, check! Cranberries, spices, honey! Triple check! Then all I had to do was dump it all in the crock pot, done!

Recipe #5: Cinnamon-y, Nutmeg-y, Delicious Apple Crisp

Sometimes when you make apple crisp, you have to make a miniature one for yourself, to be eaten immediately.

The recipe for this week is actually one of the few recipes I made semi-annually in the pre-cookbook blog era.  It's from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook.  I found it at a Goodwill store a few years ago.  It's the exact same 1973 edition as my mom's, so I already knew where most of the recipes were.  This is our family's go-to cookbook.  Almost always, when I ask my mom how to do something she says, "Check Betty."  It's our go-to for strawberry shortcake, gingerbread frosting and even pancakes.  (Although, my mother "accidentally" left out her secret ingredient when telling me where to find the pancake recipe.)

The Salisbury family cooking bible.

This recipe is super delicious and easy to make.  The one and only part of this that stinks is the peeling and prepping of all the apples.  Worst.  Someday, I shall invest in one of those peeler/corer/slicer devices.

Seriously, look at all that fine hand-peeled apple rind.

Aside from the extensive apple prep, this recipe is super simple: flour, sugar, a whole stick of butter, cinnamon and nutmeg, all mixed together, then dumped on top of the apples.  Then, you just bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Then, when it's finished, your entire apartment smells amazing and you have this....

It's magnificent!

5 recipes down, 47 to go!

Non-Cookbook Sausage Bake

It isn't much to look at, but it is salty, delicious and possibly my favorite recipe of all time. 

My mother makes this dish once a year, on Christmas morning.  She only makes it once a year because it provides an entire month's worth of sodium in just one convenient serving. 

This recipe was given to us by a college friend of my mom's who is like an aunt to me.  (Hi Kelly!)  It starts off amazing...with two pounds of sausage.  TWO POUNDS.  Because this casserole is not for the faint of heart (or the faint of arteries).   

Oh Jimmy Dean!  You are a wonderful, wonderful man!

While the sausage is browning, you layer in a bag of seasoned croutons in a 9 x 13 pan.  After the sausage is browned, dump that in too.  Next comes a bag-full of yummy cheese!  Any kind will do, but the recipe calls for cheddar!

Next, whisk up 4 eggs, some milk and some dry mustard.  Dump that in next.  The final touch is the sauce, half a cup of milk mixed with a can of cream of mushroom soup, drizzled on the top like salty confetti!  

Bake at 350F for an hour.  (Optional steps: Stare at the kitchen timer obsessively.  Salivate whenever you catch a whiff of that breakfast-y goodness.  Pace around the oven for an hour.)  Then, enjoy!

Despite my mother's attempt to preserve my cardiovascular system by making this once a year, now that I have my hands on the recipe, I decided to make it this week for a few reasons.

1.  It's just plain delicious.  It contains two pounds of sausage.  How could it not be good?

2.  I, like always, was feeling a little bit Christmas-y.  What can I say?  After Halloween is over, I just couldn't help myself!  It was either make Christmas-y food, or put up the tree.  I chose the more socially acceptable of the two.  (Only 50 days to go!)

3.  It was my third year anniversary at work, and my friend Andy and I decided to make a special dinner to celebrate.  As Andy's contribution to the work potlucks mainly consists of soda, it was determined that I would do the cooking, and he would be in charge of drinks and entertainment.  Since he brought the fixings for mimosas AND Disney's Little Mermaid, I'd say he knocked it out of the park.

All in all, a wonderful weekend!  Also, the Disney Blu-Ray came with a special sing-a-long that started whenever we paused the video.  This scene?  "You want to kiss de girl!"

Recipe #4: Vermicelli Noodles with Sausage & Spinach

Delicious vermicelli noodles with sausage and spinach in a garlic cream sauce!

One of my favorite places to eat is Hai Yen, a Vietnamese restaurant in Chicago.  While there, my beau and I like to go to the Vietnamese grocery store down the street.  This place has all kinds of great stuff, from tea to fancy ramen noodles to prawn-flavored chips to fish heads.  It is always fun to go and pick up some ingredients that might not be so easily found at the local Jewel-Osco.  While I did not pick up any fish heads, I did grab some vermicelli noodles.

It occurred to me, once I made it home that I have no idea how to use these vermicelli noodles.  I mean, I know how to cook them, but not much else.  So, rather than have them languish in the pantry indefinitely, I turned to my cookbooks.  I found a recipe in my big Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook that used vermicelli noodles.  It was a vermicelli, spinach and sausage in a garlic-cream sauce.  Plus, the recipe called for a dutch oven and I got a similar piece of cookware from work last week.

I absolutely love this cookbook.  It has tons of good, general information and a lot of categories.  They  even have a "convenience cooking" section of meals that are quick and easy.  This recipe was one of them!  

The recipe called for pre-cooked, smoked sausage.  I didn't know exactly what the recipe was referring to, so I just bought some Italian sausage.  It occurs to me now that they might have intended me to use something like kielbasa. Instead, I just cooked the sausage and sliced it as directed.

Next, I chopped garlic and onion to put into the pot with the sausage.  I put in more garlic than directed because, well, who doesn't love garlic?

After sweating the onions and getting them nice and translucent, I added the chicken broth and water that the recipe called for.  There seemed like a lot of liquid, but I pressed on.  When it came time to add the noodles, I did so, but it seemed like there was too much broth and not enough noodle.  I tossed in the rest of the package.  However, in just a few minutes, the noodles had soaked up all of the liquid.  Then, I couldn't fit the spinach in.  So, I just piled it on, put the lid on the spinach and hoped that it wilted.  Fact, it did!

Pre-wilted piles of greenery!  Yes, Mom, my stove is still dirty!  (Sorry!)

So, i just added in the cream, stirred it all together and served!  It was delicious!  I served it with some delicious bread I bought from a French chef at the farmer's market.  It was a great meal, and took a surprisingly short time to prepare.  I will definitely make this one again!

Seriously, it was a wonderful meal!  That bread was terrific too!

4 recipes down!  48 to go!