Chicken Mole (Southern Living 1981)

Lindy picked this dish for us. It sounded fun, but with a SUPER long ingredient list...a little intimidating! I started off by changing the directions to suit my fancy. Or taste. Or whim.

Anyway, I started with cooking chicken breast (enough for 2 nights' dinners) in the crock pot. Have I mentioned how much I love slow cooking? Set it and forget it! I threw in some of the extra onion and bell pepper from this recipe and a little pepper.

Next I sauteed the onion and pepper until tender (Hey! I followed directions on that one!). I then added the following friends to the pan:

Y'all. Check out the measuring cup in the above photo. I have to brag on myself right here. Sorry, not sorry. The last time I cooked a whole chicken...I. Saved. The. Broth. I know, revolutionary, right? Then, y'all. I took it one step further. I froze that stuff into ice cubes! So now I have a bag of yellow ice cubes in the freezer. I had all kinds of ideas for labels for the bag, but I settled on "chicken broth ice cubes" and the date. I'm original like that. Plus, I didn't want to freak out and/or encourage the boys.

The chocolate and cinnamon and nutmeg kinda weirded me out. I had a bad experience with cinanmony main courses with Lindy's Bengalese Chicken. My family HATED it. I did too. Just being real. Maybe I overdid the spices or something. I totally followed directions on the spices in this recipe. Except for not really measuring the spices. I also added cumin because it just felt right. Maybe I wanted the smokey flavor of the cumin with the smokey flavor of the "smoked" Tabasco. I added about a total 2tsp of cumin.

Back to the mole.

That's when it looked like this:

And I was concerned. J-Boy does not like having "weird" vegetables (read anything but carrots or corn) in his food. Junior doesn't like ANY vegetables. I knew this would be a NO GO.

I had to do something! I had already planned to try to hide the flavor of the mole in quesadillas, but this would make dinner last for 2 hours while the boys picked at the vegetables with disgust and horror. 

SO.

I skipped the cornstarch step, grabbed the immersion blender and went to town. 

I don't have a picture of it blended up because it was apparently at this point that I lost my phone, had a baby on one hip, was trying to cook while conducting a math lesson, checking spelling, talking on the missing phone, etc. 

I tossed the newly immersion blended mole into the fridge. When the chicken was done, I shredded it and moved half of it to the fridge for the next night's dinner. I mixed the mole into the chicken that was still in the crock pot. Upon tasting it I knew I needed more cumin and a bit of salt. And some pepper. Then, YUM!

I made quesadillas so the boys would eat it. Maybe. So, the verdict?

The Hubs - loved it, wants it again

Junior - said it was too spicy. I think he might think vanilla pudding is too spicy.

J-Boy - liked it. Because...I kinda tricked him....it went down as follows:

J-Boy poking at dinner with wrinkled nose: "Hey...what's in this quesadilla?"

Me: "Chicken and cheese" (which, P.S., is completely truthful)

J-Boy takes a bite: "I like it."

J-Boy turns to his brother: "It CANNOT be spicy. Chicken? Not spicy. Cheese? Not spicy. Duh."
Me to myself: VICTORY!!! I HAVE CRACKED THE CODE!!!!!

 Baby Girl - ate about 1/49256426 of the 1/4 I gave her. Victory. She eats only pizza, ice cream, some baby foods that have fruit, hummus, cheerios, crackers, and bread. Anything else that passes her lips is a sheer miracle.

Me - I liked it. I would do it again for sure. I liked that I could break it down and prep the mole even the night before and then have the chicken in the crock pot. Having it as quesadillas was a total win for our family, plus it stretches the chicken a bit further, which is nice! 

Six-Layer Dip (Southern Living 1981)

Layered dip was made for a party! 

Or at least a large group. Or at least a group of which I will be a part. Yum!  I have always been a fan of the layered Mexican dip, even though it commonly features my arch-nemesis - olives. I even eat it with the olives! I know, right?

You are about to discover the world's best six-layer dip because...no olives! Yay! I like being in charge.

Here's the original recipe:

I followed my mom's recommendations on this one and added the refried beans to the bottom. See her writing? In red? And again in blue. I followed both sets of directions! Yay me! I think it was good to have a little less tomato, so it was more garnish-y than layer-y.

 Layers in progress!

 

I changed a bit about the guacamole portion of this recipe. I don't know what they were going for with mayonnaise in guacamole, because I've never heard of such. I made guacamole how I always make it. 3ish ripe avocados, lime juice, cilantro, jalapeno, salt...everything to taste (The Hubs' taste actually, because I'm not a connoisseur of guacamole).

Otherwise it was the same. Except of course, no olives. And less tomato. And I used some of the extra cilantro in the tomato layer. Added freshness and yum-ness.

I made it for our Sunday School - we hosted a lunch a few Sundays ago. Everyone liked it. Except my boys - who didn't have it. I can tell you they wouldn't have liked it though. Know why? Beans.

Baby Girl liked this one! I gave her the bottom two layers (being careful to stay away from the jalapenos), and she really seemed to like it! Especially when I gave it to her on a chip.

~Audry

Country Pride Pork Cops (Southern Living 1979)

Country Pride Pork Chops (slightly updated) = delicious

I can almost guarantee that I'll always vote for something that comes from off the grill.   This recipe did not disappoint.

We have eaten this recipe twice in the month of July, trying it with different cuts of pork chops.  The first time we made this recipe, we used thin sliced pork loin chops.  We had about six pork chops weighing in at a little more than 1.2 pounds.  Using this cut of meat, the meat was definitely well marinated.  The pork chops tasted really good.  We used more sugar the first time, too, than the second time.  We all agreed it was better without as much sugar, because you could taste the smokiness of the grill a little more.  And why grill something if you can't tell it's grilled?  The second time, we bought two center cut pork loin chops that weighed in at just a little over one pound.

The verdict?  The thinner pork chops definitely had a stronger taste of the marinade.  However, we actually preferred the thicker cut of meat - taste-wise and presentation-wise.

 K-man said this is a recipe that could impress people.  Easy to prepare and impressive?  Is there a better combination when it comes to a meal? 

This recipe did need some tweaks - I mean, do people actually still cook with MSG?  I do remember our mom having a small jar of MSG growing up, but I do not have MSG on my spice shelf and do not plan to keep it around.  So, here's how I updated Country Pride Pork Chops. 

Country Pride Pork Chops (Updated from Southern Living 1979)
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup red cooking wine
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/16 teaspoon ginger
1-2 pounds center cut pork loin chops

Combine first 7 ingredients in a 1 gallon ziploc storage bag; mix well.
Place the pork chops into the ziploc storage bag; close and refrigerate overnight.  Our meat ended up marinating at least 18 hours for each version of this recipe. I do recommend flipping the bag over when you wake up in the morning.
Grill chops 6 to 8 inches from heat.  Ours only took about 30 minutes to cook.  However, this can all depend on how hot your grill gets - so make sure that you use a meat thermometer.  Don't want anybody to get sick from undercooked pork!

This recipe is a winner.  Quick, easy, delicious. 

Lindy

Baked Chicken Nuggets (Southern Living 1981)

Lindy assigned me this recipe. It was one I had scoped out and planned to make if no one assigned it to me. Chicken Nuggets? Win! 

Here's the original:

 

I used a mixture of panko and Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. It was simply what I had on hand. Because I used the Italian breadcrumbs, I left out the thyme and basil. It was good! I'm sure there would be no harm in doing both, but we're a family who likes to dip our chicken, and the light Italian-y flavor was good for those who like to dip. I also tried dipping half in milk and half in butter (like the recipe instructed).

 

On the pan ready to be cooked.

But no picture of already cooked. Sorry! I'm 0-2 or 3 this month. eck. 

The Hubs loved these. He preferred the dipped in butter ones, while the boys preferred dipped in milk. The ones dipped in butter were crispier, but I thought both were very good. The Hubs said they were way better than the kind you buy in the freezer section at the store (man, does this guy know who makes his dinner or what?!?).

We'll definitely have these again. Easy, tasty, and bake up quickly. It would probably be a good one to make and freeze either baked or unbaked!

~Audry

Blueberry Crumble (Southern Living 1981)

 This is actually a recipe from April, but I had to go back in time for it, y'all! 

I took the kiddos to pick blueberries at a local you-pick farm. It is too fun! So we went back! Really, have you ever been to a you-pick farm? We loved it - I couldn't recommend it more! Freshly picked blueberries are SO MUCH better than the kind you get at the store. WOW! I want to grow some at home! Except...I'd kill them. Or they just wouldn't grow from the seed. It's a wonder I manage to keep these kids alive and healthy because I promptly kill every plant that enters our home (or yard). Sigh.

So, the first time we went blueberry picking, I asked the boys what they wanted to make. Junior wanted to make a cobbler and J-Boy wanted to make a pie. (Of course. Does anyone else's kids do this? If we have more than one choice, it's like a law of nature that they  MUST pick opposites. If you know how to change this, let me know!) 

So, we went pie the first time. The second time I knew we'd need to make a cobbler. I couldn't resist trying out this recipe, even though it wasn't in the right month!

 Here's the original recipe:

I made a few modifications. Fresh blueberries (of course), about 1/4 cup sugar, and I also used about 2T of flour to keep the juice thick. I used the juice of 1/2 a lemon. 

I followed the topping directions pretty closely, except I went a little light on the brown sugar. I try to leave out some sugar whenever possible.

So, here's the haul that went in to the crumble. 

 

Notice the blackberries? The boys found a wild blackberry bush entwined with one of the blueberry bushes. They were pumped and went to town picking. Junior asked me to include them in the crumble.

The berries with the sugar, but before the flour got involved. I think.

Here's the topping ready to go.

Action shot. Maybe I was also falling? Not sure.

Y'all. This. Was. Fantastic. We had it for dessert when some dear friends of ours were over for dinner. It was 100% approved by all.  It even got "2 kicks" of approval from our friends' in utero little one! :)

Well, Junior didn't like it, but I'm attributing that to the fact that 1. He doesn't like fruit, and 2. He put chocolate ice cream with it. Not a good combination in my opinion.

There was only one teeny serving left. I accidentally had it for breakfast the next morning. Yum! I was so into it, I forgot to take an after picture! This is a winner recipe. Go pick some blueberries. Eat some. Make some crumble. It's a win.

~Audry

Chops in Sherry (Southern Living 1979)

Very good and very easy.  That about sums up this recipe.  The picture I took of it wasn't very good, but this is something that's definitely worth trying.  Tweaks included choosing thin sliced pork chops, which allowed the cooking time to decrease.  The major tweaks were that I skipped the mushrooms and used white cooking wine instead of sherry. 

Chops in Sherry
6 thin sliced loin pork chops
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1 cup carton low-fat sour cream

Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper; brown on both sides in well-sprayed skillet.  Remove chops, and place in shallow casserole dish.  Combine sherry and sour cream.  Cover and bake at 375F for 35 to 40 minutes, or until done.

This main dish was a big hit with K-man and the kids.

Lindy

Savory Beef and Vegetables (Southern Living 1979)

For some reason this recipe caught my eye in the July section of the 1979 Southern Living cookbook.  Not sure why, because I knew that I wouldn't be able to cook it like it prescribed.  Mushrooms?  A jar of onions?  Pepper strips?  No, I knew none of those things would work for my (picky) husband or even for my not-so-picky children.  Did I mention that I don't like mushrooms either?  Despite these "minor" issues, I wanted to give it a go.  And with all my tweaks this was a huge success for my family.  When I asked K-man what I could do to make it better, his response was "nothing."  :-)

Savory Beef (adapted from Savory Beef and Vegetables (Southern Living 1979))
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1-2 t brown sugar (I used closer to 1 t)
1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1-1/2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T apple cider vinegar
2 T white cooking wine
1 pound steak (I used sirloin), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 T cornstarch
Noodles (I used whole-wheat rotini)

Combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and wine into a gallon size ziploc bag; mix well.  Add steak; make sure the steak is well coated with the liquid mixture.  Marinate overnight in refrigerator.  Mine marinated about 19-20 hours.
Remove steak from marinade.  Add cornstarch to marinade, stir well, and pour into a skillet.  Add steak to skillet; simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile, cook noodles.
Serve over noodles.

Lindy

Banana Breakfast Bars (Southern Living 1979)

These were from the June section of the 1979 cookbook.  I only changed a couple of things to make them more kid-friendly, and they turned out really well.  Little Man and Little Miss also helped me with the baking - taking turns pouring in ingredients.  Only one crying incident that I can remember, because she stirred "some" of the oatmeal right out of the bowl.  She helped clean up the mess, and we just continued right along with the baking.  I really enjoy having them helping me.

Banana Breakfast Bars (Southern Living 1979)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
4 cups quick-cooking oats
3 mashed ripe bananas
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins

Combine butter and sugar; cream until light and fluffy.  Add egg, beating well.  Stir in oats, banana, salt, and cinnamon; mix well.  Add raisins, stirring well.

Spoon batter into a sprayed 13- x 9- x 2-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350F for 45 minutes; allow to cool in pan.  Cut into 2-inch bars.  Yield: about 2 dozen.

I cut them small as directed above, but that made them more like cookies instead of breakfast bars, at least for my kids.  :-)

Lindy

Creamy Beets (Southern Living, 1980)

Yes... before we go any further, I made a recipe entitled "Creamy Beets".  A couple of take aways - I like beets.  I did not, however, love this presentation of beets.  It was good enough to determine I would like to try beets again, though, so it wasn't too bad.

On page 136 in Southern Living, 1980; Creamy Beets are as follows:

I truly didn't change too much.

Creamy Beets

1 1/4 lbs. fresh beets

1 tbls lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

5 drops hot sauce

1/2 cup sour cream

- Peel & cut beets, steam

- Add remaining ingredients to cooked beets, except sour cream, over medium heat until warm.  Remove from heat and add sour cream, stirring constantly.  Serve warm.

The Steamed beets, ready for the remaining ingredients.

The final product.  I don't think this picture does the PINK color justice.  I'm really surprised Chris ate this... I guess after all of these years he does love me ;0)

I think my downfall in the looks was peeling the beets prior to cooking them...  As this was the first time I have ever made beets, I was in a time pinch and wanted to skip the cook, cool, then peel steps.  Seeing my hands dyed red while peeling/cutting the beets I kept thinking this would be a disaster and my white steaming basket would never be the same again.  I am happy to say, the red stain washed off easily.  From the steam basket and my hands.  What a relief.

Until next time,

Chery

Good Old Southern Popovers (Southern Living 1979)

Well, when I saw the recipe for Good Old Southern Popovers, it intrigued me.  A roll - with no yeast.  I am not a yeast bread maker.  I want to be, but I'm just not daring enough I guess.  I tried one yeast bread recipe from Southern Living 1979 while we were at the beach.  I didn't even report out on it, because I just wasn't impressed.  I know I shouldn't give up so easily, but I'm always worried that I'll get distracted and forget to take care of the dough.  Maybe one day life will settle down a little, and I'll have time to devote to a yeast bread...  Nah. 

Back to the popovers.  Little Miss helped me with this recipe.  She wanted to wear her apron and thought I needed to wear mine, too.  No pictures of that, sorry!  Little Miss really loved being a "cooker".  Anyway, this recipe was quite easy. But, I was very concerned over the temperature of and length of time in the oven.  However, not being a popover expert, I decided I'd stick to the recipe.

I wish I'd listened to my little inner voice on this one.  The popovers were WAY over done, as you can see, and I even took them out of the oven a little early.

I'd like to try it again, just because the recipe was easy, but I will definitely decrease the time in the oven to closer to 20 minutes for the first bake with the oven down to 400F.  If / when I do that, I'll let you know the results.

Lindy

Cinnamon-Chocolate Cupcake (Southern Living 1981)

I love cupcakes. And cookies. And ice cream. And cakes. Okay, fine. I love dessert. I saw this recipe and just had to try it! Cinnamon + chocolate = Yum!

First of all...microwave cookery struck again. Really, who cooks cupcakes in the microwave? I couldn't bring myself to even try, so here comes the first modification. Second, I doubled the recipe and only got 17 cupcakes. I also changed out the vegetable oil for coconut oil. I thought it was interesting that the cupcakes were eggless, but I knew the vinegar and baking soda together would probably do something with that.

 I followed the directions until it got to baking time. 

I decided that 350 was a good temp to start with, then I just watched them until I thought they were done. I guess it worked okay.

After the cupcakes were out of the oven, I started on the frosting. I took a bit to The Hubs for sampling. He said it tasted like a honey bun. I asked if that was a good thing, and he said yes. Whew!

I packaged them up in my cupcake carrier because we were heading to dinner at Lindy's. We'd had Little Man to spend the night and returned him home via dinner together (+ a friend of Lindy's and her family). Fun drop off! PS I love my cupcake carrier - and I get tons of compliments on it! It's so handy! A gift from my grandmother - she gives the most thoughtful and best gifts! 

These cupcakes were a winner. 

Really, everyone liked them! Or at least, everyone said they did. Junior ate leftovers x 3, J-Boy x 2...so that's a success in my book! In my opinion, the frosting overpowered the cake a bit, so it would be nice for the cake part to be a bit bigger.

If I was going to make them again, I would still double the recipe, but just make 12 cupcakes and probably not double the frosting. With 17 cupcakes I had some frosting leftover. This is a good go to recipe - especially when you don't have any eggs on hand.

~Audry