Friday, January 14, 2011

Lemon-blueberry muffin bread

Ever go to re-organize/clean out your freezer and surprise yourself?  Well, while snowed in from the recent snowstorm that put 25 inches outside my door I found 3 bags of almost empty frozen blueberries.  How on earth I ended up with 3 of them I still don't know.  They equaled about a cup, so I new I could do something with them.  What I ended up with is the recipe below...there would've been a picture but Chef decided he enjoyed the bread so much, it was practically gone before I could find the camera.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp lemon extract
1 cup fresh blueberries
sugar for sprinkling

Directions


1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease loaf pan or muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2.Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg, lemon extract and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill pan and sprinkle top with sugar.
3.Bake for 45-60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

If making muffins bake 20-25 minutes.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Not your same ol' same ol' chicken recipe

Ok..Ok I know. Its been quite a while since I posted a recipe.  Been making the same ol' same ol'.  But tonight I was feeling creative. So here is a new chicken recipe!  I am always trying to find a new way to make chicken and I think I found a keeper.



Braised Chicken

2-3 tbsp oil


6 drumsticks (or chicken thighs)

2 tbsp butter

1 yellow onion diced

2 garlic cloves crushed

1-28 oz can diced tomatoes

1 small bag of frozen green beans



seasonings needed:

salt

pepper

garlic powder

cayenne (use for spicy version)

red pepper flakes (spicy version)

pinch of sugar



Heat large pan with oil on high

Season chicken with first 3-4 seasonings

Brown chicken...1-2 min per side. Remove from pan and set aside.



Add butter to pan. Add onion and garlic. Stir about 5 times. Add can of diced tomatoes with juice.

Season with 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, dash of cayenne and red pepper flakes if using, and pinch of sugar.

Bring to simmer and lower heat to med low. Cook for 10 min. Add green beans.



Put browned chicken back in pan. Cover pan and cook for 20 min. Turn chicken over. Cover and cook another 25 min.



Serve over brown or white rice. Maybe even mashed potatoes.