Apple & Spices Turkey Brine

Williams-Sonoma Apple & Spices Turkey Brine. My turkey was sooo good. I thank Williams-Sonoma, and my turkey thanks you too.

Chicken Skewers

Since this blog is about what I eat for dinner, not all of it has to be this long recipe with a lot of ingredients. I am a huge fan of fast meals with lots of variations. This is one of them.

Chicken Skewers
6 Thawed Chicken Breasts, sliced into long strips
Finely chopped bread crumbs
Seasonings, like chili powder, garlic powder or parmesan cheese etc.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a small bowl mix enough bread crumbs, and seasonings of your choice to coat the chicken. (Sometimes people will dredge this in egg and flour before the bread crumbs, but I usually don't have the time to be adding all those steps and dishes. This will make the breading a little crumbly, but that really doesn't bother me.)

Next, I pour the bread crumbs mix into a bag and add the chicken a few pieces at a time. Shake until all the chicken is coated. Once coated remove the chicken and thread it onto the skewers.

Lay the chicken on a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet and cook until the chicken is done, about 8-10 minutes. If you don't have a wire rack, it can be placed directly onto the cookie sheet, but remember to flip it about halfway through so that the bread crumbs don't get too soggy.

Variations I have also tried so far:
-Shake the chicken with chili powder first in a zip lock bag and let it sit for about 30 minutes before shaking with bread crumbs.
-Lemon pepper marinade to marinade the chicken, and bake with and without bread crumbs.
-Plain chicken and bread crumbs, along with different dipping sauces.

I usually get 2 meals for one with these because the next day I will add the leftovers to the top of a salad, or to a chicken wrap.

Side Note: If you are using wood skewers and want a nice presentation soak them for about a half hour first, this will stop them from burning in the oven, and also allows the chicken to slide right off the skewer.

Pasta Salad

This is a family favorite for cook outs. While the recipe says to refrigerate at least 4 hours, it really is better to make a day ahead of time so that everything has time to really marinate and meld together

12 oz Colored Spiral Noodles
2 c Broccoli Florets
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese, cubed
8 oz Cooked Ham, cubed
1/4 c Parmesan Cheese
8 oz Italian Dressing, Wishbone Robust works well

Cook spiral noodles according to package.
Steam broccoli until tender, but firm
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours

Apple Crisp

8 Medium Apples- peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 c Flour
1 c Brown Sugar
1 c Rolled Oats
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 c Butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Place apple slices in a 2 qt baking dish
Sprinkle with lemon juice
Combine flour, sugar, oats, Cinnamon, and nutmeg
Cut butter into 1 inch chunks, and blend into dry ingredients
When crumbly, sprinkle over apples
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, turn oven down to 350 and bake another 30 minutes

Cheese- Hamburgers

I was looking through one of those church cook books. This one was from 1981. And Cheese- Hamburgers caught my eye. I figured that it would be a fancy burger with all sorts chopped up stuff circa 1981. I read the recipe and it turns out to be what I call sloppy joe's. Then I noticed that it was my Grandma Beckman that submitted the recipe. I remember my mom trying to force me to eat sloppy joe's, but I have no idea if this is the recipe she used, or if it came out of a can. I don't remember her putting cheese on it though, if she had, I probably would have eaten it.

2 lbs. ground beef
1 c chopped onions
1 green pepper, chopped
small celery stalk, chopped
16oz tomato soup
Season to taste
American Cheese slices
Hamburger Buns

Fry meat until slightly browned. Add seasoning. Add the onion, pepper, celery, and soup. Place in a double boiler and cook 1-1/2 hours. Butter buns. Put a slice of cheese on one half, heat to melt cheese, then fill the buns with the meat mixture and serve.


I imagine that the seasoning she is talking about is salt and pepper? I don't know. But I think I will try it with taco seasoning and see what happens. Maybe give it a little more flavor.

Chicken Stock

If you know me, you know I am not a fan of eating anything that resembles an animal. Bones, blood, even dark meat on a bird just makes me nauseous, and once I usually see any of it, there is no way I am eating it. Well, you will be proud to know that I made my very first whole chicken tonight, and ate it too. When I was a teenager, my mom had bought a thing of chicken parts, and asked me to clean it up. She never asked me to do that again, because I cut everything I could off the meat and tossed it. I think we all had a very small dinner that night.

Anyway, for some reason, I was grocery shopping a few weeks ago, I decided that I was craving rotisserie chicken. But I live in Kenosha, and our grocery stores don't do that. So I bought a 5 pound chicken and a bag of seasoning. Then I started thinking, what in the world am I going to do with 5 pounds of cooked chicken. So chicken stock it is. And once again, you all should be proud of me because after I ate my dinner, I stood there and tore up the rest of the chicken. But I would rather not talk about that.

Chicken Stock:
Chicken, leftovers, bones, everything but the gizzards and the neck
Carrots, chopped into 3" pieces
Celery, leaves and all, chopped into 3" pieces
Whole yellow onion, skin included, cut into quarters
1 Bay leaf

Toss everything into a stock pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to just a boil, and reduce to a simmer. It is important to not let it come to a rolling boil. Check it every half hour for the first few hours and skim off the foam that rises to the top. Let it simmer until the broth is the right consistency and taste for you. You may have to add more water if the level gets to low in the pot.

Once the stock is done to your liking, remove it from the stove, and pour it through a fine mesh strainer to remove all the chicken parts and veggies.

Put the strained stock into the fridge and let it cool down. Once cold, remove the layer of fat that has accumulated on the top. At this point, I divided the stock in half, some to freeze for sauces, and some for soup.

For chicken noodle soup, I brought the stock to a simmer, and tossed in bite sized pieces of carrots, celery, peas and a few cloves of garlic. In another pot, I boiled egg noodles (can use rice also). When the veggies were tender, I added in the cooked pasta, and the chicken, and simmer for a few minutes to warm the chicken. Next time, I think I will add some cold water to the stock, and boil the noodles in it rather then a separate pot.

The soup turned out well, but next time I will use uncooked chicken so that the broth with be a little less savory.

Chicken Rice Casseole

This dish is so easy. My only complaint is the cook time. I have to plan ahead to make this otherwise we would be eating at 9 o'clock.


1/2 Pkg Dry Onion Soup
1 cup uncooked Rice
4 Chicken Breasts
1 can Cream of chicken or celery soup
1 can full of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a 2 qt casserole dish:
Sprinkle 1/2 Package dry Onion Soup. Then add rice over top of onion mix.
Layer chicken breasts on top of rice layer. Mix 1 can water with 1 can cream of chicken soup and pour over top of chicken and rice.

Cover with foil and bake for 1 and 1/2 hours or until rice is done and Chicken reaches internal temperature of 165 degrees.

Sometimes I like to sprinkle bread crumbs over the top about 20 minutes before it is done.