Ham & Potato Soup

Ever wonder what to do with ALLLLLL that Ham leftover from Easter dinner?  Well, wonder no more, this soup is AWESOME!!!!

I don't have too many pictures because making the creamy broth made it impossible to grab the camera, since ya know, I only have 2 hands and all.

I loosely followed the recipe, it didn't seem like it was going to make much, so I 'kind of' doubled it.  More like I added however much ham and veggies, salt and pepper, but straight up doubled everything else (water, chicken boullion, flour, butter and milk)  You will see why later :-)

Listed below is roughly how much I used

Ingredients: 

6 1/2 cups Water
Ham-however much you want/have
1/2 bag(5#) of Potatoes, peeled and diced
3-4 decent sized whole Carrots, sliced
3-4 stalks of Celery, sliced
1 bag of frozen Corn
1/4 of a whole Onion, chopped
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
4 packets of Chicken Bouillon (they were 1 Tbsp each)
10 tbsp Butter
10 tbsp Flour
4 cups Milk 






1.) Put Water into stockpot and get boiling.

2.) Peel and slice/dice all veggies, and put veggies and ham into stock pot (potatoes first, then carrots, they take the longest to cook)

3.)  Add Chicken Bouillon, Salt & Pepper 

This part gets tricky, can't multi-task here, must focus on the creamy part of the soup.  Since I have non-stick pans, I can't use metal utensils on them, so had to use a rubber coated whisk.  I don't think it has the same effect as the directions say.

4.) In a separate saucepan, melt down butter

5.) If using Stainless Steel cookware, use a fork. If using non-stick cookware, use a rubber coated whisk or similar item.  Add in flour and mix well.  For me I got this pasty, clumpy mess so I don't know if I did it wrong or what.

6.) Slowly add in Milk to Butter/Flour mixture and mix well as you pour as to not create lumps.  It's like making gravy.

7.) Once all milk is added, continue stirring over low-medium heat until thick

8.)  Immediately pour into stockpot and combine thoroughly. Cook until heated through

9.)  Serve immediately with Ritz crackers....SOOOO YUMMYY!!!!!





Sidenote:  You will probably have leftovers depending on how many people you cook for.  It will turn into a 'solid' form, but put what you want to heat up in a bowl, add some water and mix well.  Heat it up for about a minute, stir again, and continue heating and it should be perfect.

  

  

Toffee Bars

Well, I decided to do something different for a dessert item, so I looked through my Better Homes & Garden New Cook Book for something and I came across these Toffee Bars....THEY ARE YUMMY!  I will say though, I am not a fan of Walnuts or Pecans, so if I make this again, I will probably just leave out the nuts.  My husband also suggested making it in a smaller pan (9x9 or 8x8 square pan) so that it's thicker. So again, if I make this in the future, I will probably make some modifications.

Ingredients:  

1/2 Cup Butter, softened
3/4 Cup packed Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 Tsp Vanilla
1 cup Flour
1/8 Tsp Salt
3/4 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate pieces (regular chocolate chips work just fine)
1/3 Cup chopped Walnuts or Pecans
1/3 Cup Chocolate-covered Toffee pieces (Mini Heath candy bars, mashed with my meat tenderizer)







Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350*

2.) In large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds

3.) Add brown sugar, egg and vanilla.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl as needed

4.) Beat in flour and salt until combined

5.) Spread dough evenly in an ungreased 9x13 pan

6.) Bake for 15 minutes or until edges begin to brown and surface is dry

7.) Remove from ofen and immediately sprinkle with chocolate pieces

8.)  Let stand about 2 minutes or until chocolate is softened; spread evenly

9.)  Sprinkle with walnuts and toffee pieces

10.) Cool in pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes

ENJOY!!! (With a glass of milk :-)  )  

 

Chicken Parm

We had a craving for Chicken Parm so one day when I didn't have school or work in the evening, I got crackin' in the kitchen for Chicken Parm!  This meal gets a little tricky/crazy in the middle, when you put the chicken in the pan of oil so be prepared!

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts (as many as you need)
Pasta (Angel Hair, Spaghetti, Thin Spaghetti, anything)
Your favorite sauce
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1 Egg
Milk
Bread Crumbs
Parmesan Cheese
Oregano   







1.)  Beat the hell out of the Chicken Breasts.  No really, it takes some effort!  Place between plastic wrap on a cutting board or flat surface and use the flat side of a meat tenderizer.  Start from the middle and work your way out until about 1/4" thick

2.) Mix Egg and some Milk (not a lot, enough to make a creamy mixture) in a shallow dish, set aside

3.)  Mix together Bread Crumbs, Parmesan Cheese and Oregano in a shallow dish or cookie sheet with sides, set aside  (no real exact measurements, just eyeball what you think you need.  You can always make more if needed)

4.) Fill cooking pot with water and get that boiling. Also get your sauce heating up on medium heat in a saucepan on a burner out of the way 

5.) Get a saute pan (pan with high sides) and a splatter screen, put about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the pan.

6.) Get ready, this is where is gets tricky.  Put your pasta in your boiling water and get that cooking

7.) Get your oil heating on medium heat.  Once the oil gets a little thinner/runny, it should be getting hot.

8.) My pan was too small to fit my 2 large pieces of Chicken, so I cut them each in half.  Thoroughly coat Chicken in Egg mixture then coat in Bread Crumb mixture on both sides.  Transfer to hot pan immediately, and put on splatter screen.

9.) Flip Chicken after 2-3 minutes.  Drain pasta

10.) Transfer Chicken to a plate and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese 

11.) Put a layer of pasta on the serving plate, add sauce, then place chicken on top

Enjoy!









 




 

Funfetti Birthday Cake

I try to keep up on everyone's birthdays at work, so I obviously couldn't forget the bosses birthday!  He wanted Funfetti, loves sprinkles! So instead of getting a box mix, I made my own Funfetti cake!

Yellow Cake Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Butter
3 Eggs
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 3/4 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 3/4 Cup Milk

1.) Let Butter and Eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Grease and flour 1-9x13 baking pan

2.) Put Flour, Baking Powder and Salt into bowl/measuring cup, stir together and set aside

3.) Preheat oven to 375*

4.) Beat Butter on medium speed

5.) Gradually add Sugar until well blended

6.) Add eggs one at a time, blend well between each, then add in Vanilla 

7.) Alternate adding in Flour mixture and Milk until all are gone

8.) Mix just until well blended, add sprinkles and stir by hand

9.) Pour into baking pan and spread evenly

10.) Bake approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

11.)  Let cool completely before frosting/decorating


Use this Frosting recipe and decorate however you'd like!
 

             

Mmmmmm, Stir-Fry

Over the years, I have changed up my stir-fry a little bit, but I think I have finally got it to where we like it.

Ingredients:

2-3 Boneless Chicken Breasts- diced and boiled
2-2 1/2 cups dry Minute rice-cooked per instructions
1 can of baby corn nuggets
1 can of sliced water chestnuts
Fresh snow peas (ends cut off, washed and cut into bite size pieces)
Matchstick carrots
Mustard Seed
Sweet Peppers- cut into bite size pieces (red, yellow, orange)
Onion-diced into reasonable pieces   
1 jar of Sesame Garlic sauce (or your favorite sauce)


Directions:

1.) Get out a large fry-pan (Wok if you have one) and put in corn nuggets and water chestnuts, juice from can too.  Also sprinkle in mustard seeds to your liking.  Cook on medium heat to get them softened up

2.)  Prepare other ingredients into bite-size pieces; Peppers, snow peas, onion.  Once all these are cut into pieces, add them plus carrots into pan to cook.  You should have enough liquid in the pan from the canned veggies, but if it gets dry add a little water.

3.)  Dice up raw chicken, put saucepan on stove and bring to a boil.  Once rolling boil, add chicken pieces.  Cook until done, shouldn't take long at all.  Drain chicken in strainer

 
4.) While chicken is cooking, make your rice per instructions. With Minute Rice, boil same amount of water as rice.  Once boiling, remove from burner, add rice, stir together.  The put lid on pan and let sit for 5 minutes.

5.) Once all items in Wok are cooked/tender, and liquid is mostly gone, add in chicken and rice.  Mix well
 

6.)  Add in your favorite sauce, mix together and serve!

 YUMMY YUMMY!