Kitchen Chaos

In the car today hurrying home because we were all hungry, we got to talking about food - 'cuz that doesn't make you hungrier. Daisy started talking about one of her favorite meals that we can't eat anymore, beer can chicken (gluten in the beer ya know and all the gluten-free beer I have seen has been in bottles.) We told her that you can make it with other things such as sprite, apple juice whatever. Then Hubby said that apple juice with a cinnamon stick would be good and a very loud EWWWWWW was heard from the back seat. So tonight I proved her wrong. I didn't do it in the style of beer can chicken - mainly because we were going to church and I didn't feel it was wise to leave food on the grill like that. And we had no apple juice. Here is what I did: I put 5 frozen chicken breasts into the crockpot and then dumped an entire jar of apple sauce on top and then filled the jar 3/4 with water and poured that on top. I thinly sliced a large onion on top, added som...

Sometimes you start thinking about a food you enjoyed as a child and want to recreate that. Even a quick version of it, just something to give you a taste of the childhood comfort food. The other day I was in Sams and saw a 4 pack of canned salmon which led me to thinking about the salmon croquettes we ate when I was a child. I loved them, it was one of my favorite meals – not that I was a picky eater, I liked most anything my mom cooked. It wasn’t one of my dads favorites, I am not sure why. Maybe it wasn’t something he grew up eating. I am not sure why I have such a vivid memory of this,  it is strange the stuff you remember from childhood. Anyway, most of the recipes I have seen call for crackers or bread crumbs crumbled up with the canned salmon and maybe some egg as a binder. Crackers aren’t gluten free but corn chips are. Those little crumbs at the bottom of the bag (that are too small to dip in the guacamole) are perfect. Because I didn’t know how it would turn out...

I had decided that a pot roast sounded wonderful. Yum. I love a good pot roast. For some reason my sisters don't but I love them. My normal method is to drop the meal in the slowcooker with some onions, potatoes, carrots and a packet of onion soup mix. Except I didn't have any onion soup mix, and I forgot to check at the store for any, and I don't even know if it is gluten-free/dairy-free. So I instead thought about what makes onion soup the deliciousness that it is and the answer is onions caramelized into oblivion. Note that this is more of a method than an actual recipe mainly because it kindof depends on what you like.

Both of my kids love participating in the 4-H County Food and Nutrition contest. Daisy has to go into another room with three adult judges and then gets judged and ranked. Her first year she won first place for applesauce bread, last year I don't remember how she placed with her baked apple. This year she won first place again! She made Butternut Squash and Chicken Pasta which is so perfect in the fall.

Both of my kids love participating in the 4-H County Food and Nutrition contest. Junior is considered a "Clover Kid" and so he isn't really judged - he gets asked questions but his ability to answer isn't scored. His dish for 4-H Food and Nutrition was Baked Cheese and Pasta - well Macaroni and Cheese but he didn't do macaroni noodles. His dish has been more challenging for me just because of various problems. The first time he made it, I forgot we were doubling the recipe when we added the cheese. So it only had half of the necessary cheese. It was good, just not cheesey.

This is one of the easiest, quickest throw-togethers. The hardest part is the mashed potatoes and if you aren't doing dairy-free then you can pick up mashed potatoes at the local fried chicken place. This is something I have been making for years - although not often because Hubby is less than thrilled with vegetarian meals. Normally I do add the cheese and have buttery potatoes but that doesn't fit in with the dairy-free. Sheperdless Pie

I have to confess, I thought split pea soup would be gross. I am not too fond of canned peas (I don't pick them out of things though) and that was my thought of what this would taste like. I was wrong. It doesn't happen very often, but yes I was wrong. Hubby also was not thrilled with the idea of trying it, but he likes it as well. About the only way I can think of descibing this is a spring vegetable soup. It just tastes like spring. This is great with grilled cheese, or bread or any number of things I can't eat. 10 cups water 1 pound dried split peas 1 pound ham cut into pieces or ham bone 1 medium onions 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 or 3 carrots chopped 2 or 3 celery stalks chopped Heat water and peas to boiling, boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and put in crock pot. Let sit for one hour then plug in crockpot. Toss in remaining ingredients. Cook on low for eight hours or high for 4 hours. Ok, now a confession: if your family ...

I got this recipe from Recipezaar.com - one of my favorite places to get recipes. Apparently the person who posted it on recipezaar, found it on Hillbilly Housewife 's website. In any case, this is a yummy filling recipe that even my "I don't like black beans" Hubby liked as well as my "I don't like soup" son. I served it with the gluten-free corn bread which went nicely. Oh, why dried beans? They are cheaper, lower in salt, and that's what I had. I had bought the beans before finding a recipe, I know a bag of beans will make a good sized pot of soup. I am not sure how many cans it would take. I think this recipe could be converted to gluten-free it just has the bullion cubes which have wheat and I am not quite sure how to replicate their flavor with ease.

Absolutely Yummy Gluten-Free Cornbread recipe came from my Grandmother's Mexican Cornbread dish. Its a wonderful meal and really isn't spicy-hot. I have made it somewhat healthier than her original which called for bacon drippings and I am pretty sure more than 1/3 of a cup (I think it was 1/2). I am pretty sure this could be done even healthier but I haven't really puttered with it too much. First the Mexican Cornbread recipe and then I will do the regular cornbread. Oh, I make this in a number 8 cast iron skillet (which for some reason means 9 or 10 inches) and it fits perfectly.

For some reason I have never had this classic Southern dish and so thought I would try it this year. I had gotten the recipe after reading A Year of Crockpotting and reading some of the comments on her first trial of black eyed peas. Anyway the recipe I sort-of used is right here . I say sort-of because I added way too much cayenne. The recipe called for 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and since I couldn't find that I used ground red pepper. A little over 3/4 of a teaspoon. I should have used 1/4 teaspoon.

A brined turkey is so much moister and better than a regular turkey. It is well worth the effort. This recipe is based off the recipe for Good Eats Roast Turkey, but I have changed it a bit.