Thursday, December 27, 2007

Follow up on those recipes.....

Connie & Barb, here are the actual recipes for those two meals.

No Fuss Chicken

1 bottle (16 oz) Russian or Catalina salad dressing (sorry, I thought it was less.)
2/3 cups apricot preserves
2 envelopes dry onion soup mix (forgot about this ingredient completely!)
15 bonless skinless chicken breast halves (like I said, I've used thighs most of the time, or a mix of pieces)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, and my own addition)

In a bowl, combine dressing, preserves, soup mix & cayenne. Place chicken in 2 ungreased 11x7x2 inch baking pans; top with dressing mixture. Cover and bake at 350 deg. F. for 20 minutes; baste. Bake uncovers, 20 minutes longer or until chicken juices run clear.

(As I said, I always just pop mine in the crockpot & cover & bake for 6 hours or so on low -or maybe it's 8 hours, but I never leave it in that long. Either way, I use my crock-pot & the chicken always comes out beautifully tender, sometimes falling off the bone if I leave it too long. And it's fantastic over plain rice. The mix of the dressing & the juices makes a fantastic sauce for the rice.)

Torsk

6 (6 oz) cod fillets (do not need to be thawed, if using frozen fillets, and I've used flounder, halibut & tilapia with this recipe, so I assume any light-flavored, white fish will work. Though, you may need to adjust number of filets & broiling time if you choose a thin filleted fish.)

6 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp salt
1-1/2 c butter, melted (I use less.)
paprika

Preheat broiler. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Place the fish in a large saucepan. Mix together the water, sugar and salt. Pour the water-mixture over the fish. The water mixture should fully cover the fish, if it doesn't, add more water. Bring the water to a boil over a medium-high heat. Boil for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove fillets from water, and blot on paper towels to remove excess water. Brush with 6 Tbsp melted butter (this is all the butter I really use), and sprinkle with paprika. Broil for 8 to 10 minutes per inch of thickness, or until the fillets are golden brown. (The butter should almost start to caramelize with the sugar still in the fish & the paprika. Serve with the remaining melted butter.

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We ended up having the Torsk last night, with Herb & Butter Rice-a-Roni & salad. VERY yummy!!!!

Tonight we're going to have sloppy joes, and we'll have the No Fuss Chicken tomorrow (Friday). I realized that I have planned on Salmon for Saturday, and didn't want fish two days in a row. Rearranging things means we'll not have the same kind of meat 2 days in a row this week.

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So, this summer I joined the Mary Jane's Farmgirl Forum. It seems like a great group of ladies from around the world who have enjoyed the _MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook_ and who've found their way to the forum to exchange ideas & recipes, book reviews & suggestions & parenting advice, household hints & gardening wisdom. Anyway, there's also a Farmgirl Barter list on there, and I decided to offer up one of my grocery sacks for another farmgirl to make me an apron with fabric that I'd already bought. Problem is, I'm not much of a sewer, certainly not if there are more than straight lines included. So, having somebody make me an apron with my fabric in exchange for one of my grocery bags was a perfect idea, I thought.

One of the other farmgirls took me up on the offer, but asked if I'd be willing to exchange 2 bags for 2 aprons, instead. She picked out the bags, and I gave her free-rein to make a second apron in a pattern & fabric that she chose.

I just got my 2 aprons yesterday, and they are BEAUTIFUL!!!! The apron I sent the fabric for came back looking as fantastic as I'd assumed it would. (One little problem, I'm a little too chubby to actually button it, so I'm going to need to lose at least 10 pounds before I can wear it. I'm calling it INCENTIVE to lose weight!!!!) The other apron she sent is in a beautiful yellow & orange butterfly patterned fabric. It's lined in a solid orange, and has a yellow butterfly applique on the pocket. They're both full-coverage aprons, which is ideal considering how often I spill or splatter things on the front of me. *grin*

But, tucked into the box along with the aprons was..... A "Kirsten" Doll. The American Girl Kirsten doll!!!!! Evidently my Farmgirl Friend found me a Kirsten doll as an extra suprise. OMG!!!!! She'd made her oldest daughter a Kirsten costume for Halloween, and I was commenting on how fabulous the daughter looked, and how jealous I was as Kirsten was always my favorite of the American Girl dolls. I didn't realize she'd go out & find me a doll & sent it to me. Anyway, what a beautiful suprise that was yesterday.

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Let's see, temp wise we've been doing good. We started to drop down in temp yesterday, but I don't think it ever even got to the -20 that the forcasters were predicting. There was also a light breeze blowing that blew in some cloud cover, and best I can tell, it's about 0 deg. F. right now. Not bad, for late December in Alaska!!!!! We did have some good gusty winds on Christmas night, and snow as well. Not too much snow. Maybe a 1/4 of an inch. But just enough to make for a snowy Christmas. *grin* We're hoping to get through the rest of the winter without too much more cold, or better yet, without ANY MAJOR cold!!!! If it stays -30 or warmer through the end of February, we'll be pretty well through the worst of the winter with only that one serious cold snap.

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I think that about covers it for today.

Have a Blessed Day!!!!!!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

That chicken recipe sounds wonderful. I'm going to have to keep that one for future reference. We eat a lot of chicken in this house.

http://thewitchywoo.com/

Connie Peterson said...

A Kirsten doll??? Oh, wow!! My favorite, too! Both grandgirls have American Girl dolls and Jessica has the Kirsten because of the blue eyes.

Someday I'm going to have one - I want one with a St. Lucia costume. I keep hinting to my daughters .. maybe someday - or maybe I'll just bite the bullet and get one!!

Celticspirit said...

Thanks for taking the time to type out the recipe for the chicken. The fish one sounds great too. I'll let you know how the chicke comes out when I make it.


Your Farmgirl forum sounds like a lot of fun. I think it's totally awesome that you got the Kirsten Doll. I think those dolls are so pretty.

barefoot gardener said...

What a super-cool surprise! You will have to take pics of your super-fabulous aprons to show, and you will have to be holding your doll in at least one of them....k?

whimsical brainpan said...

You have made me hungry again!

That was very sweet of Farmgirl Friend to do that for you.

Toriz said...

That was really nice of her to send that doll.

I'm glad you aren't getting too much bad weather. Hope it stays that way for you.

MarmiteToasty said...

DONT mention chicken infront of Janet lol...... scrummie recipes.... Im just to stuffed and cooked out to do any more cooking for at least a couple of days....

x

Connie Peterson said...

The chicken was AWESOME!! The grandgirls loved it too. I put frozen drummies and wings in the crock pot, poured the mixture over and stirred once in a while. We used it as some of our finger food for New Years last night.

Thank you!