Molly's Chicken

I had some extra tomato sauce from the chicken cacciatore we had last week, so I went to the trusty allrecipes.com and searched for things including chicken and tomato sauce under the healthy tab. What a great resource! Well, when I saw something titled "Molly's Chicken" I knew I couldn't pass it up! This is made in the crock pot and seeing as I swapped in boneless chicken breast for the chicken legs, I should have brought the time down significantly, but I wasn't thinking. I had it on low for 7 hours, and it easily could have been done around 5 hours (I'm estimating). You can see in my photo my sauce was a little dry, as was the chicken- but still not bad. So if you make this with boneless skinless chicken, bring the time down. (I also partially blame my slow cooker...I think it cooks things too fast, even on low, but enough pointing fingers.) Otherwise, the flavor was great and I served it over a bed of veggie fried rice. But how can a meal go wrong with veggie fried rice? I'll answer for you, it can't. It just can't.

INGREDIENTS

* 3 1/2 pounds chicken drumsticks, skin removed (I used 1 lb chicken breast)
* 1/2 cup soy sauce
* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce


DIRECTIONS

1. Place drumsticks in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and tomato sauce. Pour sauce over chicken.
2. Cover, and cook on Low heat 8 hours.

Aunt Gwen's Exotic Pretzel Jell-O

In our family, it wasn't a holiday if my Aunt Gwen forgot the "Exotic Pretzel Jell-O." I've seen a lot of recipes that are similar to this, but none that really compared! Now that our immediate family has expanded, we don't see my aunts an uncles very often (I guess I AM the Aunt :) ). So, I took it upon myself to make the jell-o dessert for Easter. I of course forgot to take a picture of it that day, but luckily I took home leftovers.

*I also made Carl's grandma's Cinnamon Sour Cream Coffee Cake, which is always a hit, but for probably the 4th time, I forgot to take a picture. I refuse to post without the photo...so you'll just have to wait until I make it again. Don't worry, I'm sure it won't be long!

Ingredients:
*2 Cups coarsely chopped Pretzels
*3/4 Cup melted Butter
*3 Tablespoons Sugar PLUS 1 Cup
*1 - 8 ounce softened Cream Cheese
*1 small carton Cool Whip, thawed
*2 - 6 ounce Raspberry Jell-O
*2 - 10 ounce packages frozen Raspberries
*2 Cups boiling Water

Preparation:
Mix Pretzels, Butter and 3 tablespoons Sugar and press into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool completely.

Beat Cream Cheese and 1 cup Sugar until creamy. Add Cool Whip and spread on cooled crust.

Mix together Jell-O and water. Add frozen Raspberries until slightly jelled. Spread on Cream Cheese mixture and refrigerate until set.

Gruyere Potato Soup

Yaaaaaaaay! The Gruyere is gone! Please understand, I really love Gruyere, but to avoid freezing it (because I am horrible at using frozen cheese) I just wanted to use the whole bar of cheese. So one last time, I searched for recipes using Gruyere and found a potato soup, but then I kept searching to find one that sounded the best and came across this one. I wanted to make it for our last Friday of Lent, so I skipped the bacon, but it was still really really good! It had a nice light flavor.

Since I left out the pig, I started with a little olive oil to cook the onion. The only other thing I would do different is add some fresh garlic with the onion to give a little more flavor.

I also cut it in half, and that was the perfect amount for the two of us to have it as our main meal. I served it with my Perfect Side Salad.

Ingredients:

* 4 slices bacon, chopped
* 3 medium onions, chopped fine
* 3 cups chicken broth
* 3 1/4 cups water
* 3 pounds boiling potatoes (preferably yellow-fleshed)
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 pound Gruyère cheese, grated (about 2 1/2 cups)
* 1 tablespoon Madeira or Sherry if desired
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Preparation:

In a heavy kettle (at least 5 quarts) cook bacon over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp and spoon off all but 1 tablespoon fat. Add onions and sauté over moderately high heat, stirring, until pale golden. Add broth and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.

Peel potatoes and cut into 3/4-inch cubes. Add potatoes to soup and simmer, covered, 10 minutes.

In a small bowl whisk together flour and remaining 1/4 cup water until smooth and add to simmering soup, whisking. Simmer soup, covered, 5 minutes.

In a blender purée Gruyère with 3 cups hot soup broth. Stir purée into soup with Madeira, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste and remove soup from heat. Soup may be prepared up to this point 3 days ahead (cool uncovered before chilling covered). Reheat over low heat but do not let boil.

Just before serving, stir in parsley.

Chicken Gruyere with Sauteed Mushrooms

I had quite a bit of Gruyere cheese leftover from the Au Gratin potatoes we made last weekend, so I just searched allrecipes.com for recipes including Gruyere. I came up with this one. It was really good, and again really easy. Carl also really liked it, not that he's a tough customer :) My only suggestion is to maybe add a little more salt. I felt the chicken could use a little more flavor- or another great substitution (which I'll try next time) is to use 1 part Gruyere and 1 part Parmesan.


INGREDIENTS
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
* 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
* 1/4 cup butter, divided
* 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
* 1 pound fresh mushrooms (I used canned- it's what I had)
* 1 onion, sliced into rings
* 1/2 cup white wine
* 8 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a shallow dish, stir together the flour, salt, pepper, parsley, and dill. Rinse chicken breasts, and pat dry. Dredge chicken in the flour mixture.
2. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Place chicken into the hot buttered skillet, and fry until brown on both sides. Transfer chicken breasts to a 1 quart glass baking dish. Add remaining butter to skillet, and fry the mushrooms and onion until wilted and lightly browned. Stir in the white wine, and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 3 minutes to blend flavors. Pour the mushroom mixture over the chicken in the dish.
3. Cover dish, and bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. After 20 minutes, remove cover, and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Continue baking for 10 more minutes, or until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly.