Slow Cooker Pork Chops

I bought some pork on sale awhile ago, and decided to use it for dinner a few nights ago. My mom had just had hand surgery, so she wasn't in much of a position to do much cooking, and it fell upon me. With this in mind, I pulled out my trusty crockpot and got cooking.

2 Tbsp. Shortening
4 Pork Chops
1 Egg, Beaten
1/2 C. Flour
1 Large Onion, Sliced
2 Cans Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 Cups Milk

Many pork chop recipes call for you to brown the pork before putting it in the crockpot, and this recipe was no exception. I began by melting the shortening in a skillet over medium heat.

Next, I whisked the egg up in a small bowl, and measured the flour into another small bowl.

I defrosted the pork chops and, dipping them first in the egg, then in the flour, laid them in the skillet to cook.

While they sizzled away merrily, I sliced up the onion.

I didn't end up using quite the whole onion. Maybe about half of it. I'll save the rest for later and maybe make some onion rings out of them or something.
Once the pork chops were done on one side, and flipped, and done on the other side, I took them out of the pan.

Then I greased the crock pot, laid the pork chops in the bottom, and covered them with the onions.

Then, I mixed up up the other ingredients: the milk and the soup.

I poured the mixture on top of the onions, and set it on low to cook for a few hours.

After about 8 hours of simmering (recipe calls for 8-10) I made some rice and turned the crock pot onto low. The sauce was sizzling. :D

I dished out some of the pork, and then spooned the sauce over some rice.

Yum yum yum yum yum! Delicioso!

Creamy Shredded Crockpot Chicken

This recipe has no official name, so I made one up.

It all started when my dad brought home a couple coupons for a new product. Phillidelphia, that company that makes cream cheese, had just come out with a new thing called "cooking cream". It's basically like an extra creamy cream cheese stuff that is flavored. It sounded delicious, and I decided to try something with it. It was basically like cream cheese, so I figured I'd find a recipe that called for such and then substitute the new cooking cream. We carefully clipped the coupons and headed to the store to pick up the ingredients. There were several flavors, and I chose the Italian Cheese and Herb flavor and, once purchased, we headed back home. It was once home we realized we'd completely forgotten to even use the coupons that prompted our purchase in the first place. *blonde*

Here's the recipe I used:

6 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast Halves

1 (8 ounce) bottle Italian-style Salad Dressing

1 (10.75 oz) Can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Cup Chicken Broth

1 (8 oz) Package Cream Cheese

1/2 tsp. Dried Basil

1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme

Salt and Pepper to taste

I started with the chicken. I greased the bottom of the crock pot and put them in. i didn't make six, just five, cause I figured it would make the sauce creamier, and because it saves on chicken. ^_^

Next, I poured the dressing on top. We didn't have a lot of it, and not nearly as much as the recipe called for, but it worked. I put it in the crockpot and started it cooking on low. Then, before leaving for work, I made the chicken broth using bouillon, and added the other ingredients. I didn't use quite all of the cream cheese stuff, since it's a 10 ounce container, and the recipe only called for 8 ounces. I stuck the rest back in the fridge for a later time. (Although I don't think I ever used it... hmm... it's probably still in the back of the fridge somewhere. :P)

Once those were all mixed, I stuck them in the fridge to be added later, and went off to work. 

Thankfully, I have family members at home, so I asked my mother to please add the cream mixture at about 4:30. Also, she shredded the chicken up for me when she added the cream sauce. It was pretty easy, since the chicken had been cooking all day and was extremely tender.

Once the cream mixture had been added, the crockpot was left to simmer another hour on low. Meanwhile, I got home and made some rice. When the rice was done, I spooned some of the shredded chicken over it. 

I really liked it. I think it probably would have been just as good if made with regular cream cheese, but I liked the extra flavor the special stuff added. Definitely something I'd make again.

Chicken and Bacon

Ok, now is the moment you've all been waiting for!

Well, maybe not, but I know I have. I am going to share the recipe of my very most favorite meal EVAR!!!

*ahem*

Anyway, yeah, this is my favorite meal. It's the meal that I always have on my birthday, and my sister happens to love it, as well, so when her birthday rolled around, she requested it. I was very happy. :D

1 jar Dried Beef (sometimes called Chipped Beef)

6 large Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 lb. Bacon, uncooked.

1 pint Sour Cream

1 can Cr. of Mushroom Soup

You start with a greased, 9x13 pan. Rip the dried beef up into small-ish chunks and cover the bottom of the pan.

Then, take the chicken breast and wrap the bacon around them. I like to use 2 slices of bacon per piece of chicken, but this might change, depending on the size of the chicken pieces, and how many slices of bacon you have in the pound. Basically, you want to use the whole pound of bacon, and you want to put as many pieces of chicken in the pan as you can. That's about 6 large pieces of chicken, but maybe up to 8 smaller pieces.

Next, mix the sour cream together with the cream of mushroom soup.

Scoop it out, and spread it evenly over and around the chicken.

Then you cook it. It has to cook slowly; 3 hours at 275˚. The kitchen smells wonderful while it's cooking. :D

Oh wow, the picture is making me hungry. :P

Make some rice, and spoon the sauce over the chicken and the rice.

My mouth is watering. ^_^

French Dip Sandwiches

I was scrounging around the other day, trying to come up with something to make for dinner. I had been thinking hamburgers, but we were all out of ground beef. We did, however, have a medium size piece of beef. It was thin cut, and said "perfect for pan frying!" on the package, so I figured it had to be good for something. I looked up recipes for beef, and came across a recipe for French Dip Sandwiches.
Now, I love French Dip Sandwiches, so I got all excited and clicked on a few of the recipes. That's when I began to get rather disappointed. Every single recipe called for slow-cooking. Usually, I love slow-cooker recipes, but when I wanted to make a meal *now*, those recipes were no good.
I puzzled for a while, and looked around to see if I could find a recipe that didn't call for 3-4 hours. Nothin' doin'. Also, several of the recipes called for Beef Consumme. Something I didn't have, and could not make.
I considered making something else, but the idea of French Dip Sandwiches was firmly rooted in my mind, and I wasn't going to be swayed easily. Finally, I decided to just improvise, and see what happened.
My grandmother used to tell her kids that they were having "an experiment!" for supper. I like that idea. :D

I started by thawing the beef. Then, I sliced it into thin slices.

Once it was all cut up, I lay them in a frying pan and cooked them.

When they were all cooked, I chopped them up into even tinier pieces.

Then, I put them in a pot with some beef broth (2 cups of beef broth, made from bouillon) and a can of condensed French Onion Soup.

I put it on the stove, on low, to simmer.

While that simmered, I decided to fry up some extra onions with butter. This had the double effect of adding delicious flavor to my meal, and a delicious smell to the kitchen/house.

Once the onions were done, and added, I let it sit and simmer a while longer. Maybe 20 minutes or so. I could probably have been served right away, but I needed to wait until certain people were home from work, for dinner. It certainly didn't hurt it, and probably helped enhance the flavor. :)
Once I was ready to serve it, I toasted some hoagie rolls, and put a slice of mozzorella cheese on it. Any mild cheese would work, but this is what I had handy, so it served. Then, I piled on the beef, and put a small bowl of the broth, or au jus sauce, on the side.

It was oh, so good. :D

Hot Chicken Salad

A couple years ago, while searching for something to make for dinner, my mother suggested we make Hot Chicken Salad. I had never heard of such a thing, so we began to search through her old recipe book and we discovered the recipe. It is a recipe from my grandmother, which gives it extra value in my opinion. So anyway, we made it, and it was amazingly delicious. I've made it several times since then, and decided to whip it up the other day. 

2 Cans Cream of Mushroom Soup

4-5 Cups Diced Chicken Breast (about 3-4 Breast Pieces)

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

3/4 Cup Real Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp Minced Onion

1 Cup Diced Celery

4 Diced, Hard-boiled Eggs

1 8oz Bag Plain Potato Chips

I started by boiling, and chopping up the chicken breasts. I boiled two, then discovered it wasn't quite enough, so I had to boil another one. 

While the chicken was boiling, I also hard boiled the eggs.

Now, you may think this odd for all the cooking I have done, but I have a very difficult time hard boiling eggs. For whatever reason, I can never remember exactly how it's done. Is it start them cold and boil them 10 minutes? Or maybe you put them in boiling water, then turn it down, then let them sit 10 minutes? Or is it put them in cold water, let them boil, and then immediately transfer them back to cold water? *sigh* Way too many options. (Turns out, it's put them in cold water, bring it to a boil, boil them for 10 minutes, let them cool for about 2 minutes, then transfer them to cold water)

Anyway, I have always ended up with undercooked eggs. And once you crack them to see if they're done, you're out of luck. 

BUT! This time, I did it right! I was ridiculously pleased with myself. ^_^

Once I had the eggs done, I chopped them up. 

Then I mixed the eggs, chicken, and other ingredients together.

Once they were all mixed, I greased an 11x13 pan and spread the bottom with crushed potato chips. *NOTE* The potato chips do not get mixed in with the rest of the ingredients. They get crushed and layered on the top and bottom of the rest of the casserole 

After putting in a layer of chips, I spread the rest of the stuff on top, and sprinkled more crushed chips on top of that.

Into the oven it went! 425˚ for about half an hour, or until it's bubbling and the chips are starting to brown. Like so:

It's especially delicious when you add a side of potato chips. :D

It's definitely a favorite meal of mine... although my brother professed to absolutely hate it. He does really dislike mayonnaise, though, so that could be the reason. :)

It's also good reheated, but I'd recommend adding fresh potato chips to the top if you do that, since the ones it was baked with tend to get a bit soggy after they've been sitting for awhile. 

Swedish Meatballs

I would love to tell you that I have this fabulous recipe for meatballs that I love and use all the time.... except I don't. The truth is, I have never in my life made meatballs. Mostly because I don't care for homestyle meatballs, and since that's what most people make, I thought that the only way to get the flavor I liked in a meatball, was to purchase them pre-made at the store. I have since learned otherwise, but have yet to try my hand at making the perfect meatball.
Anyway. So tonight, as usual, I was strapped for time. More than usual, actually, since I worked late, leaving me about 20 minutes to make dinner for my dad before he had to return to work. I decided to make swedish meatballs. They taste good, and I knew we had some meatballs kicking around in the freezer. I also was pretty sure we had everything we might need to make said meatballs, so I headed home to begin.
I started by looking up a recipe for swedish meatballs. Most everywhere reccomended that I make my own meatballs, but I disregarded that part and skipped to the sauce. One particular recipe I found called for a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup, a can of Cream of Chicken Soup, and a can of Evaporated Milk. I knew we had all these things, so I began.

Now began the adventurous part of the meal. After I put the water on to boil for the noodles, and set the meatballs to defrost, I checked the can of Evaporated Milk. I knew it had been in our pantry for awhile, and I wasn't certain as to it's reliability. The "best by" date was stamped on the bottom, and revealed the can to be... 2 years expired. Hmmm. How bad could it really be? It's canned, right? Can't be that bad! Just to be certain, I googled information about evaporated milk gone bad, and found several succesful stories of past due evaporated milk being used, and enjoyed, and no one dying afterward, which is after all the most important part.
So I mixed the soups and the milk, and then added the defrosted meatballs.

I let them simmer for awhile while I cooked the noodles. I picked shell pasta because it was what we had in the pantry. :P

Once the noodles were done, I poured the meatballs and broth over them and served it.

It was very good. :D

Mexican Beef Casserole

The other day, while browsing the grocery store for some good ideas, I came upon a can of Fiesta Nacho Cheese soup. It was with all those cream soups that Campbells makes, and it looked like it had the makings of a good meal in it, so I got it and placed it on the shelf at home, waiting for inspiration to strike. The other night, it did.
I needed something quickly, since I have about a 1 hour window in which to make and serve dinner, so I grabbed a pound of frozen beef from the freezer and browned it.

Once it was done, I added the can of Fiesta Nacho Cheese Soup (With a name that exciting, it had to be good, right?) and mixed it in. Meanwhile, I boiled up some water for noodles.
The beef was looking a bit dry, and a bit blah, so I threw in a can of Cheddar Cheese soup, a can of Tomatoes with Green Chiles, and a handful of chopped chives. Notice the handwritten warnings all over my soup cans. This is because I have brothers who like to steal my cheddar cheese soup for their own evil purposes. >_<

It looked much better, and much more festive after that. By this time, the water was boiling, and I cooked some egg noodles while keeping the meat mixture warm. When the noodles were done, I deliberated over whether I should mix them in, or serve the meat over them, and finally decided to just mix them in. The result appeased my love of all things colorful. :D

Being a mexican meal, I served it with tortilla chips.

It wasn't bad. And this from a girl who can't stand things that are too spicy. And this was spicy. Really spicy. Even my dad said so, and he likes spicy food. I didn't mind too much, though, since I mixed in a ton of sour cream to cut the spice. I love sour cream anyway. :D
I'm not sure I'd make it again, or if I did, I might use different noodles, and perhaps forgo the Fiesta Nacho Cheese as well, just to cut down on the spiciness. I'll have to figure out something else to use that soup in.

Chicken and Cheese Crescents

Before I begin this blog, let me just point out the new stoneware pan I just got. It was in a pile of free stuff on a table at our church. I'm rather excited about it. It has apples. I love appley kitchen stuff. *is ridiculously pleased with new pan*

Anyway.... so the other day I was trying to come up with a quick easy recipe for dinner. We didn't have much in the house, and I didn't have much time. I opened the fridge to see what I could come up with. We had some chicken I had boiled the other day in preparation for.... whenever I might need it. There were also some crescent rolls, ready to be made. I had no idea what I could make with these things, but I went to my favorite recipe site, www.allrecipes.com, and plugged in these two ingredients. The first thing that came up was something called Chicken and Cheese Crescents.

Preheat Oven to 350˚ F

1 (4 pound) whole chicken, cooked and deboned
2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup
2 1/2 C. milk
1 C. shredded cheddar cheese
2 cans refrigerated crescent roll dough

It looked good, and easy, so I decided to give it a try. I made it, and promptly realized I had forgotten to take any pictures. No problem. It was a liked recipe, so I just made it again a different time. :D

I started by shredding the cheese, and putting the milk, half the cheese, and the cream soups into a pot on the stove and cooking them until the cheese was melted, and all the ingredients were combined.

Next, I opened up the crescent rolls. Now, the recipe calls for a whole chicken. I had not a whole chicken. Either the first time, or this time. The first time, I had some pre-cooked chicken breasts that I shredded up. This time, I resorted to canned chicken. It was easy, and it tastes fine. I took each crescent roll triangle and piled some chicken and a pinch of the leftover cheese on the wide end and rolling it all up inside. I tend to pile the chicken and cheese rather high.

When I had rolled them all up, I put them in my beautiful new stoneware pan, which I had previously greased. You may notice there are not 16 here, which is the proper count from two cans of crescent rolls. You are correct. The other four had been cooked the evening before to accompany my dinner. ^_^

The next step was to take half of the gravy mixture stuff I had just finished cooking and pour it around the crescent rolls. Not on them, just around them.

Into the oven they go! I baked them for about 15 minutes, then pulled them back out. They're starting to puff up nicely.

The rest of the broth was then poured on top and layered with the any remaining chicken or cheese.

I put them back into the oven. The recipe says to cook them until the cheese is melted and the rolls are brown. However, as you can see here, the rolls were no longer visible, and were not likely to be getting very brown anytime soon. So I guesstimated at 10 minutes. I was wrong. It took closer to 15. I might even recommend 20. The rolls will be a bit soggy, obviously, but they won't  be undercooked.

Looks delicious!

I must say, this is one of my favorite recipes. Relatively quick, fun to make, very easy, and quite good. Throw a salad on the side, as you see here in my serving suggestion, and voila! Dinner. :)