Chicken Fried Chicken

30 saltine crackers
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons dry potato flakes
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Place crackers in a large resealable plastic bag; seal bag and crush crackers until they are coarse crumbs. Add flour, potato flakes, seasoned salt, and pepper to bag and mix well. Beat egg in a shallow dish or bowl; heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. One by one, dredge chicken pieces in egg beat, then place in bag with crumb mixture, seal bag and shake to coat. Reduce heat to medium and cook coated chicken in skillet for 15 to 20 minutes, turning frequently, until golden brown and juices run clear.

Lentil Soup

1 pound French green lentils

4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 large onions)
4 cups chopped leeks, white part only (2 leeks)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
1/4 cup good olive oil, plus additional for drizzling on top
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cups medium-diced celery (8 stalks)
3 cups medium-diced carrots (4 to 6 carrots)
3 quarts chicken stock
1/4 cup tomato paste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese


In a large bowl, cover the lentils with boiling water and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Drain.



In a large stockpot on medium heat, saute the onions, leeks, and garlic with the olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and cumin for 20 minutes, until the vegetables are translucent and very tender. Add the celery and carrots and saute for 10 more minutes. Add the chicken stock, tomato paste, and lentils. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 1 hour, until the lentils are cooked through. Check the seasonings. Serve hot, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with grated Parmesan

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Turkey Pot Pie

I always buy an extra turkey at Thanksgiving so I decided to bake it and figure out what I was going to do with it later.
After making turkey avocado sandwiches I decided to make pot-pies with the rest.


Chopped up turkey
2 cup frozen peas and carrot mixture
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 3/4 cups broth from the juices you baked the turkey in, you can add more broth if there was not enough.
2/3 cup milk

2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
Place the turkey/veggie mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

 
 

Apple Bars

1/2 cup Dried apples
1/2 cup Organic Medjool Date
1/2 cup Almonds (unsalted)
1/2 cups walnuts (unsalted)
3 tsp Cinnamon.

Place dates and apples in a food processor and pulse to make into paste. Addnuts and cinnamon and pulse mixture to grind up. Press into a loaf pan linedwith plastic wrap. Or you can roll into balls and roll in unsweetenedcoconut.

Chicago School Peanut Butter Cookies

These are my favorite peanut butter recipe, I have been making them for years.

1 1/4 pound (5 sticks) butter, softened

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups brown sugar, packed

1 pound peanut butter

3 eggs

5 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add both sugars and mix until no granules remain, about 5 minutes. Add peanut butter and mix until combined. Add eggs; continue to beat on high speed for 1 minute. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture; stir until well-blended. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonsful onto greased baking sheets. Flatten dough with palm of hand to form 3-inch circles that are 1/4 inch thick. Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom

Apple Spice Friendship Bread

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter (Recipe below this one, needs 11 days to make starter)
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon nutmeg, cloves, baking soda and salt, set aside
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Amish Friendship Starter, eggs, oil and vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Finally stir in the chopped nuts and apples. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

Friendship Bread Starter

So I started the recipe for the starter seven days ago and I have to say it is one of the best Starters I have ever made, in a few days I will be making the bread to go with this. I seen the book forsale at Costco but was in a hurry so I was not able to get it. I think it would make a wonderful Mother's Day gift, or a gift for any reason with a bag of the starter and a loaf of bread. I will post the link to her page, she has a lot of recipes on there I have only made a pumpkin Friendship bread so I am pretty excited to try out a lot of the recipes, there is even a weight watchers recipe.
http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/
Amish Friendship Bread starter is passed from one friend or neighbor to another, usually in a Ziploc bag or ceramic container.
Starter Ingredients
1 (0.25 oz) package dry active yeast
¼ cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup milk
1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in water. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine flour and sugar. Mix thoroughly.
3. Slowly add in milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand at room temperature until bubbly, and then transfer to a plastic bag. This is Day One of the ten-day cycle.
4. For the next 10 days, care for your starter according to the below instructions. Do not refrigerate the starter. It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment. If air gets in the bag, let it out. Do not use a metal bowl or spoon.

Day 1: Do nothing
Days 2 – 5: Mash the bag.
Day 6: Add to the bag 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Mash the bag.
Days 7 – 9: Mash the bag.
Day 10: Pour entire bag into a nonmetal bowl. Add 1-½ cup flour, 1-½ cup sugar, 1-1/2 cup milk. Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into four one-gallon plastic bags. Keep one the bags for yourself and give the other bags to three friends along with this recipe.

Baking Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Put the remaining batter in a bowl and add the following:

3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1-½ teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1-2 boxes instant pudding (any flavor)
1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)

3. Grease two large loaf pans.
4. In a bowl, mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1-½ tsp cinnamon.
5. Dust the greased pans with sugar/cinnamon mixture.
6. Pour the batter evenly inot the pans and sprinkle the remaining mixture on the top.
7. Bake for one hour or until the bead loosens evenly from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.