Easter menu

I feel like such a slacker. I have been meaning to post this for a week now... so please forgive me for not getting it up in time. I realize Easter was LAST weekend and it may be pointless to even post this now... but it was so delicious, it deserves to be up.
I had never cooked a ham before, but it didn't seem that hard (and it's not). You don't even need a recipe, the little card attached to it will tell you exactly how to cook it. But I wanted mine to be EXTRA special. Start off by finding a decent 10lb-ish spiral sliced ham. Mine was from the Springfield brand. Highly recommended, and not overly-priced like some of those "Honey" brands. I will also list the recipe for "funeral potatoes take 2" and a super yummy dessert salad.

For the ham:

1 (10lb) fully-cooked spiral cut ham
2/3C brown sugar
1/3C apricot jam
1 tsp dry mustard powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300.
2. Place ham cut side down on sheet of foil that has been placed on a rimmed baking sheet. Mix together the sugar, jam and mustard in a small bowl (here I added half the bag of glaze from the ham). Brush onto ham using a pastry brush. Reserve any leftover glaze. Enclose the foil around the ham.
3. Roast for 2 hours, or 14 minutes per pound if your ham is a different size. Apply the remaining glaze 20 minutes before the ham is done.

Note: if making funeral pots, start them when you add the final glaze and they will be ready for the oven when you pull the ham out.

Funeral Potatoes - take 2

Ingredients:

1 large bag frozen hash browns
1/2C butter, plus extra for buttering dish
1 can cream soup
1 pint sour cream
1/2C chopped onion
2 C shredded cheese (I like to add about an extra cup)
1C smashed corn flakes
salt and pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the soup, sour cream, and cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Add onions.
Butter a 13x9 baking dish and add the potatoes. Pour cheese mixture over and combine well. Cover with corn flakes. Bake for 45 minutes.


Apple Dessert Salad

Ingredients:

1C shredded coconut
1C mini marshmallows
1C pineapple tidbits
1C mandarin oranges
1C cored, diced apples
1C sour cream

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients well and allow to chill at least an hour.

3-Cheese {Manicotti}

So these aren't technically manicotti shells, but those would work too. I happen to like the jumbo shells better. They're easy to cook and cool and fill. And much easier to serve! I would have taken my own picture but after I covered them with sauce, you couldn't really see the shells anymore...

I've made manicotti (and jumbo shells) before and it's never tasted this good. This is the best recipe I've found. Thank you Food Nanny for restoring my faith in you. The sauce takes a bit of time to prepare, but it all works out with the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta. It really is quite simple. Sided with frozen garlic bread and a simple green salad... it's the perfect Monday night Italian dinner.

Three-Cheese Manicotti (made with Jumbo Shells)

Ingredients:

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4C sm onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2TBS canola (or olive) oil
1 can tomato sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp salt
24 Jumbo shells, uncooked
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2C Ricotta or cottage cheese
2C shredded Mozzarella, divided
1/2C grated Parmesan
1/4C fresh parsley, chopped (I used dried, almost worked better)
1/4tsp salt
1 pinch black pepper

Instructions:

Optional step: pulse the tomatoes in a blender, until crushed and set aside.
To make the sauce: cook the onion and garlic in the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, until the onions are tender but not browned. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, oregano, thyme, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil, decrease the heat, and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring often. Add water if needed to thin.
While the sauce is cooking, cook the shells according to package directions, being careful not to overcook. Rinse in cold water and drain. Separate the cooked shells and lay them out on a sheet of foil (you will use the foil to cover the baking dish with).
Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine the filling ingredients: eggs, ricotta/cottage, 1C mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper. Working on the foil, stuff the filling into the shells with your fingers. Do not over-stuff.
Discard the bay leaf from the sauce and pour half the sauce into a 13x9 baking dish. Arrange the filled shells in the dish. Pour the remaining sauce over and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Cover the dish with the foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Shells may be prepared and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking.

Chicken Pot Pie

.... from scratch? Well... it was supposed to be. And there won't be a picture for you... sorry.

I was nervous to make this recipe as I don't make dough... but I was excited to use my handy-dandy food processor my wonderful hubby gave me for Christmas for the first time making this pie dough. The machine did a GREAT job. It was like watching the chefs on TV make their dough...
The dough on the other hand... was terrible. I followed the instructions perfectly, but I could not get it to roll out without sticking to EVERYTHING (even with flour everywhere). And the Food Nanny expected half the dough to be able to fit the bottom and up the sides... ya right. With that dough, I was lucky to get it to fill the bottom of the pan. And for the top, there was NO WAY I was going to be able to roll it out and be able to pick up and lay it across the pan. It just crumbled. I admit, I broke down. I cried. My poor husband had to run to the store to get the refrigerated pie crusts (heaven-sent I tell you!). 9pm and dinner still wasn't done. And when I was grocery shopping I thought I should just go the easy route... should've listened to myself.

So here's my opinion on the matter... if you're really good at making dough and you feel comfortable doing so, go ahead and follow the recipe. If you're like me and don't bake... and certainly don't make dough... go ahead and cheat and go with the already-made stuff. I could've saved myself 2 hours and a ton of frustration.

The insides, however, were DELICIOUS. And this will definitely be something I will make again, just minus the homemade dough.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C flour
1/4 C chilled butter
2 bone-in chicken breasts
2 carrots, sliced crosswise (I used about 1 C baby carrots cut in half)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4C cold water
3/4C shortening
1 tsp salt
4 TBS ice-cold water
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4C flour
1/2C frozen peas

Instructions:

To make the crust, stir the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the shortening and butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle with the ice water, a TBS at a time, and stir with a fork to moisten all the dough. Gather the dough into a ball with your hands. Divide the dough in half. Roll out one half on a lightly floured surface and fit it into a 9in pie dish. Roll out the other half and set aside.
Put the chicken breasts in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 18 minutes. Remove the chicken to a cutting board or plate. Add the potatoes and carrots and return to boiling. Decrease the heat, cover, and simmer until they are tender, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, tear or cut the chicken off the bones into bite-size pieces, discarding skin, fat and gristle.
Remove the veggies from the simmering broth with a slotted spoon and set aside with the chicken pieces. Measure the broth and add water, if needed, to make 2 1/2 Cups. Return to the pan and simmer, stirring in the bouillon and the salt.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Stir the flour into the cold water in a small bowl or measuring cup. Stir into the broth and increase the heat to medium. Stir constantly until the broth thickens. Add the chicken to the broth along with the potatoes, carrots and peas. Stir to combine.
Pour the filling into the pastry-lined pie dish. Cover with the top crust, seal and flute the edges, and cut a slit in the top for the steam to escape. Bake 40 minutes, or until the crust is light brown.


Here is what I would do instead:
Use refrigerated pie crusts for the bottom, make the filling according to instructions, but add 1 tsp. each: onion salt, celery salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Top with 2nd crust, and drizzle with melted butter and bake according to pie crust instructions on box.

Crunchy Parmesan Baked Chicken

Last night was our first adventure trying out BYU's The Food Nanny's recipes. I had seen this recipe on one of the two episodes I watched and it looked easy and yummy... and let me tell you. It was SO easy, and SO delicious. My husband was RAVING about it and said it was a keeper! I had a really long and trying day yesterday, one that ended up making an emergency trip to the phone store an hour away. By the time we got home I was exhausted and didn't really want to cook anything. But I had pulled chicken out of the freezer that morning, and I knew I had to do something with it. This was such a quick throw-together meal. We had marinara sauce on the side to dip, but I ended up not dipping them at all. They were that good.

Crunchy Parmesan Baked Chicken

1-2C Buttermilk
1/2C grated Parmesan Cheese
Chicken Breast tenders (buy breasts on sale in bulk, freeze in double ziplock baggies and cut them up yourself. Save $$ - I used one large chicken breast, it filled up my baking dish and could've fed 3 people)
pinch of salt
2C Panko bread crumbs
2 tsp Garlic Salt
half stick of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400. Grease an oblong baking pan. Pour the buttermilk into a wide shallow dish or pie plate. Mix the Panko, cheese and garlic salt in another shallow dish or pie plate. Roll each piece of chicken in the buttermilk then dredge in the Panko mixture to coat. Arrange in the prepared baking pan. Drizzle the butter over all. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender and no longer pink. Sprinkle with salt to taste.


YUM!!! Food Nanny, I {heart} you!

Food Nanny

One good thing about living in Utah has been the free TV channels we get.... mostly BYU channels. I love PBS for my son, as he loves good, wholesome shows like Word World, Clifford, Sid the Science Kid and Sesame Street. And I, of course, I love all the cooking shows for myself!! I'm not sure which channel it's on, or what time it comes on... but I've come across this show called Food Nanny a few times. She's totally annoying, but she makes some super yummy-looking dinners that seem easy-peasy.
I looked up the website today and found this totally awesome tool to help me plan 2 weeks worth of dinners, with recipes and everything!! Check it out! I'm totally blown away at how FUN that was to find new recipes and dinner ideas!!