Roast Chicken in Brandy Sauce

This was a great-tasting chicken dish, and I am realizing that even though I don't prefer the taste of wine in a dish, I like the taste of brandy!! I used some apple brandy that I had in the cupboard. I also used two chicken breast halves and cut the recipe in thirds. The sauce was a bit runny, which was OK if I had mashed potatoes on the plate, but I had to move the salad to a bowl. I used my dutch oven to cook in so I could put it in the oven. I think this will also be a good left-over meal tomorrow.

Roast Chicken in Brandy Sauce

1 4- to 6-lb. roasting chicken
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
6 T butter
1/4 c. onion, chopped fine
3/4 c. brandy
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 T minced parsley for garnish

1. Cut the chicken into serving pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Melt the butter in an ovenproof skillet and brown the pieces of chicken in it evenly over moderate heat.
3. Add the onion and continue to cook until it is tender and glazed. Add the brandy and turn each piece of chicken so that it is coated with brandy.
4. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and place in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.
5. Remove the foil and pour the cream into the chicken mixture.
6. Continue to cook at 350ºF for 5 minutes longer. Serve at once, piping hot, garnished with the minced parsley. Serves 4-6.

Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup

Finally, a recipe that is a "keeper"!! It is sure obvious when a good recipe comes along, and this one is it. It is a bit complicated, which is surprising considering it is supposed to be from the simple Shakers. I didn't have Vermouth, so I used some leftover white wine I keep in the fridge for recipes. I didn't slice the celery too thinly, and left some of the leaves in the mix. I am so happy with this recipe, but I will have to work on how to make it even smaller. I halved the recipe and got 4 good-sized bowls of soup. Also, I would love to have a bit more chicken in the soup. I cut the chicken up in large chunks, and I think I would make them smaller next time so I could get noodles, celery, and chicken all in one spoonful. The recipe says to add the wine mixture and chicken, and then to heat up to serving heat. Well, the soup was already boiling, so all I did was stir it in and turn off the heat!! It was quite warm when I sat down to eat it. I heated up some of those sourdough brown and serve rolls to eat with this soup, and the tastes worked well together.

Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup

1 c. chicken broth
12 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. dry vermouth
1/4 c. butter
1 c. heavy cream
12 oz. wide egg noodles
1 c. thinly sliced celery
1 1/2 c. water
3/4 c. flour
2 c. cooked chicken, diced
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. finely chopped fresh parsley

1. Combine 1 cup broth, vermouth, and butter in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Continue to boil 15 to 20 minutes or until liquid is reduced to 1/4 cup and has a syrupy consistency. Stir in cream. Set aside.
2. Bring remaining broth to a boil in a Dutch oven. Add noodles and celery. Cook until noodles are just tender.
3. Combine water and flour in a medium bowl until smooth. Stir into broth mixture. Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Stir in reserved cream mixture and add chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Heat just to serving temperature, do not boil. Sprinkle with parsley. Garnish as desired. Makes 8-15 servings.

Oven-Fried Chicken Italienne

I needed to use up some cream of mushroom soup, so I searched my recipe box until I found this recipe. It was designed for a fryer, but I used boneless breasts. I have to say that the chicken was dry, and the outside was too crunchy. I didn't overcook it, so I don't know what happened. Perhaps I didn't have enough of the soup between the crumbs and the chicken? Anyway, I will use the leftover chicken without the crust, and won't be keeping this recipe.

Oven-Fried Chicken Italienne

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 c. milk
2 fryers, cut up
1 c. Italian-seasoned bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Dilute soup with milk.
3. Coat chicken pieces with this mixture and then roll in seasoned bread crumbs.
4. Bake in a shallow pan for 1 hour. Serves 5-6.

Fluffy Rice and Chicken

I imagined this dish would turn out like one of my favorites that my mother made, I think it was called Chicken Supreme. She would make it for big parties in a huge pan. This was nowhere close to that dish. Again, I am realizing that I don't like certain "easy" cooking ingredients, like cream of mushroom soup. The rice wasn't cooked (probably because I forgot to cover the pan), even though I added extra milk to the soup because it seemed too thick. I am not a fan of mushrooms, so I spent half of the time picking out the mushrooms from the rice. The chicken was well-cooked, moist and the texture was good. However, overall I didn't like the taste of this dish. Someone who enjoys mushrooms might like this better.

Fluffy Rice and Chicken

10 1/2 oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup
3/4 soup can milk
3/4 c. uncooked white rice
4 oz. canned mushroom stem and pieces
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 chicken breasts, halved

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Mix mushroom soup and milk, reserve 1/2 cup of the mixture.
3. Mix remaining soup mixture, rice, mushrooms (including liquid), and half of the onion soup mix. Pour into un-greased baking dish.
4. Place chicken breasts on top and pour reserved soup mixture over chicken breasts. Sprinkle with remaining onion soup mix.
5. Cover and bake 1 hour.
6. Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer. Serves 4.

Quick Scotch Bars

This was a strange recipe. Basically you mix a ton of sugar and butter with some oats and bake it. The optional chocolate topping was necessary in my mind. The result was a brown sugary bar, almost like candy. I really can't keep this extremely sweet dessert recipe, though!! I can't even imagine a scenario where anyone but me would like this. I was afraid it wouldn't hold together, but it set up fine after cooling well. I can't believe I am saying this, but this bar is WAY TOO SWEET!!

Note: Later, since I didn't want to waste it, I crumbled these bars over ice cream and it was yummy. Sort of caramel flavored.

Quick Scotch-Teas

1 c. butter, softened
2 c. brown sugar
4 c. quick-cooking oats
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
chocolate chips, optional

1. Combine butter and brown sugar in saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring, until melted. Remove from heat.
2. Blend in oats, salt, and baking powder, mixing well.
3. Pour into greased 13" x 9" x 2" baking pan. Bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes.
4. Sprinkle with chocolate chips immediately after taking from oven. Spread chocolate chips as they melt.
5. Cool and cut into bars.

Lemon Squares with Jam Filling

I was craving something sweet for dessert, so I made this variation on a lemon bar. It was good, but not so different from my standard lemon bar recipe that I need to keep a separate recipe. Basically, you just add a layer of jam between the crust and the lemon curd topping for a standard lemon bar recipe. I wish I had cooked it a bit longer, so the top of the lemon curd was more crispy.

Lemon Squares with Jam Filling

2 c. flour
1/3 c. powdered sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 c. butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 t. baking powder
3 eggs
1/3 c. lemon juice
2 T grated lemon zest
3/4 c. strawberry or raspberry jam
3 T. flour
confectioner's sugar for dusting on bars

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Grease and flour an 11" x 7" baking pan.
3. In a large bowl, stir together 2 cups flour, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes, or just until firm.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, baking powder, and 3 Tablespoons flour. Add the eggs, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix until well blended.
5. Remove the pan from the oven and spread the jam over the crust. Spread the lemon topping over the jam and bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until the topping is set.
6. Let cool in the pan on a rack. Dust the top lightly with powdered sugar before cutting into squares. Makes 15 squares.

Creamy Chicken and Potatoes

This recipe was selected to use up some cream of chicken soup. I didn't really like the taste of the soup in my last recipe, but I don't like to waste anything!! Of course I didn't like the taste of the sauce of this recipe. Plus, there was no flavor to this dish. The sweet potatoes didn't work with the sour cream flavor. The only flavor was from the green onions!! Also, I had to add some milk to the sauce because it was not liquidy enough. This is not a keeper.

Creamy Chicken and Potatoes

10 oz. can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 c. sour cream
4 medium green onions, chopped
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 lb. new potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch wedges

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the soup, sour cream, and all but 2 Tablespoons of the onions and set aside.
2. Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, smooth side down, and cook 1-2 minutes or until lightly browned. Turn pieces over, add potatoes, and pour soup mixture evenly over all.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover tightly. and simmer for 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center and potatoes are tender, stirring midway. Top with remaining green onions to serve.

Best Chicken Croquettes

I have tried several recipes for "croquettes" and I haven't been happy with any of them, although this is the best so far. Perhaps, like fudge, I don't actually like croquettes. The sauce was horrible, I now know I don't like the taste of cream of chicken soup. The croquettes were so oily tasting, but at least they didn't fall apart on me!! I won't be keeping this recipe, perhaps one of my other croquette recipe will be a success ...

Best Chicken Croquettes

10 3/4 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 c. finely chopped cooked chicken
1/4 c. fine dry bread crumbs
2 T finely chopped celery
1 T finely chopped onion
1/4 t. poultry seasoning
shortening
1/2 c. milk

1. To make croquettes, combine 1/3 c. soup, chicken, bread crumbs, celery, onion, and 1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning. Mix well. Shape into 6 croquettes or patties (if mixture is difficult to handle, chill before shaping). Roll in additional bread crumbs.
2. In a skillet, brown croquettes in melted shortening.
3. Meanwhile, in saucepan, combine remaining soup, 1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning, and milk. Heat, stirring occasionally. Serve with croquettes. Makes 3 servings.

Chicken Chow Mein

I had some water chestnuts, chicken broth, and cooked chicken to use up, so I decided to make my chicken chow mein. It had been a while since I had made it and didn't know if I would still like it. I did, I will be keeping this recipe. I served it over some white rice. I left out the bean sprouts, and added some carrots instead.

Chicken Chow Mein

1/4 c. cooking oil
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 onion, sliced
3 c. thinly & diagonally sliced celery
17 oz. canned bean sprouts
4 oz. canned sliced water chestnuts
2 t. sugar
2 c. chicken broth or water
2 c. sliced, cooked chicken
2 1/2 T cornstarch
1/4 c. cold water
1/4 c. soy sauce

1. Heat oil in deep skillet. Add salt, pepper, onion, celery, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, sugar, and chicken broth. Cook about 10 minutes. Don't over-cook veggies.
2. Blend together cornstarch, water, and soy sauce. Add to veggies and stir until mixture thickens.
3. Stir in chicken and serve immediately over chow mein noodles or cooked rice. Makes 5-6 servings.

Fudge Brownies

These were good brownies, especially for breakfast!! I didn't have any ice cream, so I used whipped cream instead. These brownies were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, the way I like them. You have to be careful not to overbake them, otherwise they will get too hard. I downsized the recipe and lessened the cooking time to about 35 minutes. I also made the mistake of mixing the sugar and flour ahead of time in a bowl, so I just added the egg and vanilla and then stirred in the chocolate. I left out the nuts, but for those who like nuts, they would be good. This recipe was originally from Good Housekeeping.

Fudge Brownies

1 c. butter
6 oz. squares of unsweetened chocolate
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. flour
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
8 oz. walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease 9" x 9" baking pan.
2. In heavy 3-quart saucepan over low heat, melt butter and chocolate, stirring frequently. Remove saucepan from heat.
3. With a wooden spoon, beat in sugar and eggs until well blended. Stir in flour, vanilla, salt, and nuts. Spread batter evenly in pan.
4. Bake 45-50 minutes until toothpick inserted 2 inches from edge comes out clean. Cook brownies in pan on rack.
5. When cold, cut brownies crosswise into 4 strips, then cut each strip into 3 pieces. Store in tightly covered container. Makes 16 brownies.