Winter Chicken Bake

Welcome to yet another episode of Eating with Kyle. If you couldn't guess, I'm your host, Kyle. Today, I have a wonderful recipe that I found from the wonderful AllRecipes website. It actually wasn't what I had planned to cook tonight. I was originally looking for a Chicken and Rice recipe that would be good with 3 boneless chicken breasts, but for some reason all the recipes asked for either a full chicken or 8 breasts. What's up with that???



Anyway, the recipe that I have for you today is call Winter Chicken Bake. It's a bunch of great things all mixed together and baked. It was surprisingly tasty and not as sweet as I expected. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture for you today because I was so hungry that I forgot to take one. I do have a picture of the leftovers though...please pardon the brightness. ;-)



On to the recipe!







Winter Chicken Bake



Ingredients:


1 sweet potato
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 Golden Delicious or Granny Smith Apple
about 20 baby carrots, chopped
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 Tbsp your favorite BBQ sauce
1 cup dried cranberries


Directions:


1) Preheat oven to 375F and spray a baking dish with some Pam.
2) Slice the sweet potato in half and poke the peel sides with a fork. Put in a microwave-safe dish and add about 1/2 cup water, or until the water is about 1/2" deep. Cook 9-10 minutes in the microwave. Let cool. Peel & cut into large chunks, then set aside.


3) Arrange the onion, carrots & apple in the baking dish. Cover the chicken on both sides with the BBQ sauce and place on top of the apple mixture. Add the sweet potato to the dish and then sprinkle the cranberries on top.


4) Bake for 55-65 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink in the thickest spot. Cool for 5 minutes.

Another Kielbasa Attempt

What's this? ANOTHER blog post in under a week? Are the planets in alignment? Are we in Bizzaro World? Fear not, my friends, for I was able to get out of work on time tonight AND had the drive to actually cook and try to modify a previous recipe that I posted. As the title of this post suggests, I'm trying to use kielbasa again.





So, since my local grocery store tends to put kielbasa on sale for Buy 1 Get 1 Free all the time, I had an extra package in the freezer from my last recipe. I didn't have any potatoes, but I did have a few other ingredients in stock, so I figured I'd try something similar.





Kielbasa, Zucchini & Peppers

Ingredients:
1 Yellow Pepper
1 Zucchini
1 Yellow Onion
1lb rope of your favorite Polish Sausage
1 pinch of Coriander Powder
1 tsp Thyme leaves
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 box of Goya Yellow Rice



Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425F
2) Roughly chop the onion and yellow pepper into medium sized chunks
3) Slice the zucchini about 1/4" thick, halving the larger slices to reduce cooking time
4) Put onion, pepper and zucchini in a bowl and lightly coat with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme and coriander and toss with your hands. Spread onto a large baking sheet.
5) Slice the kielbasa about 1/4" thick and distribute on the baking sheet as well.
6) Cook the rice using the directions on the box. Once you cover the rice, put the baking sheet in the oven.
7) Roast for 25 minutes tossing after 10 minutes. Increase oven heat to 450 when there is 10 minutes left.
8) Plate the rice and serve the kielbasa on top.

Enjoy!
--Kyle

Living with Allergies: Silk Nog

Sorry for the lack of updates folks! It's been very busy the past few months and I've barely had time to cook anything. There are a couple of recipes that I'm working on and I should be able to get a new one up in time for Thanksgiving.

However, in lieu of that, I've decided to try something new. As many of you know, I suffer from dairy allergies. A number of people get this confused with Lactose Intolerance. However, it's not the lactose that I'm allergic to but rather some other protein in milk. This makes enjoying some of my favorite foods and drinks rather...difficult.

Case in point: Egg Nog

I've loved egg nog ever since I was a child and it's one of the things in the holiday season that I really really miss being able to enjoy. This year however, my local grocery store started carrying Silk Nog - a soy alternative to the holiday favorite.

I first saw it a couple weeks ago, but was a little scared to try it. My love of nog got the best of me however and today I broke down and bought a carton. Just shaking the carton told me that something was different with this product. When I went to pour myself a glass, I immediately noticed a diffence in the consistency. It was thin. It definitely didn't have the same consistency as normal egg nog. This was highly disappointing, but I can kind of understand it. Soy milk always seemed thinner than regular milk to me.

After getting over my immediate shock at the lack of thickness, I gave it a taste. I'm sad to say that it doesn't really taste like I remember egg nog tasting. In fact, it has the nutty flavor of regular soy milk with a slight egg nog flavor added on top. It's definitely different and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm sure that a little fresh ground nutmeg would have made it taste a little better, but since my kitchen is a little understocked in terms of ingredients and tools at the moment, I had to go without.

As this product is really the only one out there at this time for those of us with Milk Allergies, I believe that it is an good replacement for the real thing. My hope is that in the future, they can alter the recipe that they use to give it a more authentic flavor instead of it just being Egg Nog flavored soy milk.

A trip back to my childhood

Long time to see! After a month+ long hiatus, I'm back with another recipe for you!

This time, I'm going to share with you my family's lasagna recipe. My family has been making this recipe since I was a kid. All I've been able to discover about the recipe is that it came from a recipe magazine from the late 1970s.

It wasn't until this year that I actually started making this recipe myself, due to not having enough kitchen equipment to properly make it. As a bonus tonight, I'm also going to give you a slight alteration to the meat sauce for use as spaghetti sauce! :)

The Gorman Family Lasagna Recipe

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1-1/2 LB ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 12-oz can of tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp oregano leaves
• 1/2 tsp thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1 bay leaf

Other layers

• 2/3 of a 16oz package of lasagna noodles
• 2 eggs
• 1 15oz container ricotta cheese
• 1 16-oz cube mozzarella cheese, sliced
• Optional: 1 16oz package of shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Heat some oil in a 5-qt Dutch Oven
2. Brown the ground beef and onion until all the juices have evaporated, stirring frequently.
3. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, oregano, thyme, pepper, garlic salt and bay leaf. Heat to boiling, stirring frequently
4. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
5. Discard the bay leaf and spoon off any fat from the sauce.
6. Prepare the lasagna noodles according to package and drain.
7. In a 13x9 baking dish (or a special lasagna pan) arrange half the noodles, overlapping to fit the pan.
8. Combine eggs and ricotta cheese; spoon 1/2 the mixture over the noodles, then layer 1/2 the sliced mozzarella. Spoon 1/2 the meat sauce. Repeat with the rest of the noodles, cheese and sauce
9. [Optional] Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella on top.
10. Bake in 375F oven for 45 minutes or until heated through. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes.

Bonus Spaghetti Sauce

Alter the above sauce recipe as follows:

• Increase sugar by 1Tbsp
• After adding all ingredients add 1/2 cup of water at a time until sauce is proper thickness.
• Simmer according to directions for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Kyle's Experiments: Kielbasa and Potatoes

It's been a while since I've had time to actually cook something more than a TV dinner, so when circumstances at work allowed me to leave a few hours early, I decided to treat myself to an experiment!

Every once in a while, I get an idea in my head that takes starts as something normal and makes some changes on a whim. Sometimes it turns out really good, other times it's a failure...though not too much of a failure that it's inedible. ;-)

So, originally, I was just going to use a kielbasa with one of those boxed mixes for a simple meal. Instead, due to the extra time available, I decided to do a nice home cooked meal instead. This meal was a alteration of the classic sausage, peppers and potatoes. I decided to use sweet and red potatoes, red and green peppers, and a custom made marinade.

You may asking, "Kyle, was this experiment a success?" The answer is yes! However, it's still a recipe that's going to need more testing, so be advised that measurements, times and temperatures will vary. Anything that's marked with a * is an estimate, not set in stone.

Kyle's Kielbasa and Potato Bake

Ingredients

• 1 Large Sweet Potato, cubed
• 1 Large Red Potato, cubed
• 1 Kielbasa rope
• 1 Vidalia Onion, roughly chopped
• 1 Green Pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 Red Pepper, roughly chopped
• between 1/4 and 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil*
• 1/2 tsp Ground Pepper*
• 2 tsp Garlic Powder*
• 1/2 tsp Paprika
• 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper (optional)
• 1 tsp Cumin

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees*
2. Cut the potatoes into small cubes and place in a large bowl. This will allow for faster cooking. The red potato should be cut smaller than the sweet potato.
3. Roughly chop the peppers and onion and also place in the large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, add the olive oil and seasonings. Whisk together, then pour over the potato mix, mix with your hands until everything is coated.
5. Cut the kielbasa into 2" pieces and add to the potatoes. Mix by hand again.
6. Pour the mixture into a 9" x 13" cooking dish and cover with aluminum foil*
7. Cook for 30 minutes, remove the foil and stir. Continue cooking uncovered for another 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
8. Serve with your favorite type of salad. I prefer a spinach salad with Balsamic Vinagarette.

**Note:** I've found that this method results in very soft sweet potatoes. You might want to reduce the amount of time, or forego the aluminum foil. This is something that will be tested again in the future.

Poultry, Veggies and...Jello?!? Oh My!

Happy Tuesday everyone! After the Turkey Day in May meal, I decided I needed to experiment with some new recipes.

So, I borrowed a couple of magazines from my Turkey Day friend and found one that seemed unusual. Of course, it stuck out to me because it has one of my favorite flavors: Lemon! What's so unusual you ask? The lemon flavor comes from Lemon Jello.

Unfortunately, my friends don't believe that Jello could work in something like this. I planned to prove them wrong. Did I? The answer is yes! The dish was amazing, even with my alterations! Plus, it makes a TON so I have plenty for a couple of days.

Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken
• 1 package fresh snow peas (about 2 cups)
• 1/2 small white onion, halved, then sliced
• 1 small red pepper, cut into strips
• 1 package of Lemon Jello
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 2 Tbsp italian dressing
• 1-1/2 tsp minced garlic
• Pasta of your choice

Directions:

1. Cut the chicken into slices
2. Start boiling some pasta. I used campanelle.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the skillet and brown.
4. Add the onion, pepper and snow peas. Cook about 2 minutes, or until the onion softens.
5. Mix the Jello and cornstarch in a small bowl, then stir in the chicken broth, italian dressing and garlic.
6. Once the Jello is dissolved, add it into the skillet. Reduce heat to medium and cook 3-4 minutes or until the mixture thickens.
7. Spoon the chicken on top of the pasta and enjoy!

Turkey Day in May

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The big attraction is all the food that we have to eat! Unfortunately, with it being May, there's still 6 months until Turkey Day.

As such, my friend and I decided that we'd throw a Turkey Day in May party yesterday for my roommate (who LOVES turkey) and the rest of our friends. We decided instead of doing a traditional Turkey Feast, we'd put a Spring/Summer spin on a few of the dishes.

This was a day of firsts for me. It was my first time preparing a dish for a turkey dinner and the first time that I've carved a turkey.

Our menu for the day was simple:

• Roast Turkey
• Grilled Seasoned Potato Wedges
• Grilled Corn on the Cob
• Braised Carrots
• Bacon & Bourbon Stuffing
• Romaine Lettuce Salad
• Strawberry Roubarb Pie

Today, I'm going to focus on the dish that I was in charge of, the Bacon & Bourbon Stuffing.

Bacon & Bourbon Stuffing

Ingredients:

• 1 LB thick-cut bacon, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
• 1/2 loaf pumpernickle bread, lightly toasted & cubed
• 1/2 loaf dark rye bread, lightly toasted & cubed
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 Tbsp dried thyme
• 1-1/2 Tbsp dried sage leaves
• 1 Quart chicken stock (more as needed)
• 1/2 cup bourbon whiskey

Directions:

1. Begin by toasting all your bread and cubing it.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
3. Place bacon in a large skillet and cook over medium high heat until crispy. Drain on paper towels and reserve all bacon grease left in the pan in a bowl.
4. In the same skillet, melt the butter over Medium heat. Add the onion, celery, garlic and rosemary to the pan and cook until the onions are soft. Add the reserved bacon fat.
5. Place the bread cubes into a large bowl. Add the eggs, thyme, sage and bacon. Toss to mix. Add the onion mixture and mix evenly again.
6. Pour the bourbon and chicken stock into a separate bowl and stir. Add the mixture to the bread bowl and mix with your hands. Keep adding chicken stock until you reach the desired consistency.
7. Place the stuffing into the baking pan and bake for about 1 hour. It will be ready when a knife stuck into the center comes out clean. You can increase the bake time to produce a crispier top.

Well, that's the recipe for today! If you have any suggestions, questions or comments, please let me know!