Chicken, Corn, and Green Chili Casserole

Today's dinner recipe comes from One Pot of the Day: 365 Recipes for Every Day of the Year (Kate McMillan/Williams Sonoma, 2012).  I bought this last year and have only made a couple of the recipes.  I pulled it off the bookshelf last weekend and flipped through it, looking at all of the pages I bookmarked trying to remember which recipe on those pages was the one I wanted to make.  Most of the time it was obvious, but a few times I thought, "What was I thinking? I don't want to make any of these recipes."

The cookbook is organized chronologically.  There is one recipe for each day of the year.  June 16th is Chicken, Corn, and Green Chile Casserole.  The casserole is similar to a chicken pot pie but with corn and green chiles instead of mixed veggies and a cornbread-like topping instead of pie crust or a biscuit topping.  The sauce holding everything together is basically milk thickened with a little flour and seasoned with cumin, salt and pepper, onion, and garlic.

The completed dish turned out pretty well.  The filling was delicious.  Just a bit creamy with lots of chicken and corn.  The green chiles added some spice without being too hot, and combined well with the cumin.  The topping was just okay  It came out a little doughy even though I left the casserole in the oven for 30 minutes instead of 20.   The topping was just flour, cornmeal, baking powder, milk, and green onions.  I added 1/2 tsp of salt to the batter even though it didn't call for it because I thought it might end up being too bland.  I'm glad I did.  I think the topping would have been quite dull without it.  Adding just a bit of salt helped bring out the flavors.

I would definitely make this recipe again, but I think next time I'll change up the topping a bit.  I think using equal parts flour and cornmeal (the original recipe calls for 1 cup and 1/2 cup respectively) and maybe adding an egg will make the topping come out hardier and with more of a cornbread flavor.

I'm not thrilled with the photo, but the sun had gone down by the time the casserole was finished, and I had to rely on kitchen lighting and camera flash.

Playing Catch Up

Happy New Year! It was a very busy December for me both cooking-wise and work-wise. Work went absolutely mad in December. Between holiday parties (5), a huge job assessment questionnaire to complete, and a last minute website makeover, I was dead tired and mentally exhausted.

I did get to do a bunch of baking and cooking for the above mentioned holiday parties. I made toasted oatmeal cookies and shortbread cookies for our libraries' open houses, stuffed pasta shells (x2) for the end of the semester parties for our student library aides, and Holiday Beans for the staff Christmas party.

I really like the Toasted Oatmeal Cookies. I found the recipe at the Betty Crocker website.  The first time I made this recipe, I adapted it a bit to use what I had on hand.  I had used my oats to make granola, and I realized that the granola was very similar to what goes into the cookies: oats and nuts, toasted in the oven before being incorporated into the dough.  Instead of the 2 1/2 cups of oats and the 1 cup of nuts, I used 3 1/2 cups of granola. The recipe only calls for brown sugar, but I've found that this can make the cookies come out too thin and a little too sweet.  It works better if you don't pack the brown sugar, and I think I might try it with 1 cup brown and 1/2 cup white next time.

I've mentioned the shortbread cookies in a prior post.  The recipe I use comes from Brown Bag Designs Shortbread pans.  I've used their Classic Shortbread recipe for years, and it never fails.

Now for the stuffed pasta shells...I realize that I haven't blogged about these before, and I must amend that oversight right now.  These are always a huge hit, and I've made them for potlucks at work (current and past jobs) and for family dinners and special occasions.  I got the idea from a pasta cookbook I have.  I changed the recipe, of course.  I just can't seem to help myself.  They're not difficult, but there are several steps and the prep takes a while.  The filling has cream cheese, cheddar cheese, mozzarella  milk, eggs, and a little basil.  I use my regular spaghetti sauce I make (usually without meat though) for covering the shells before baking.  The shells are vegetarian as long as you don't use any meat or broth in your sauce.

Stuffed Pasta Shells

For the filling:
1 eight (8) ounce package cream cheese, softened
3 - 4 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup milk
3 - 3 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I use a mix of cheddar and mozzarella.)
1 1/2 tsp. dried basil (optional--sometimes I forget to put it in and the shells are still yummy.)
a couple of dashes of black pepper


1 box jumbo pasta shells (I like Barilla, but I've had good results with other brands as well.)
3 cups spaghetti sauce (approximately--should be enough to fill in all of the spaces around the shells once they are in the pan with some sauce left to go over the top of them.  The sauce doesn't need to cover them completely, but there should be plenty)

Make the Filling:
Place the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl.  Beat it on low speed with a hand mixer until the cream cheese is smooth.  Add the eggs and continue beating until well incorporated.  There may still be small chunks of cream cheese, but that's okay as long as it's mostly blended well with the eggs. Stir in the milk, and then fold in cheese.  The filling can be mixed and chilled an hour or two head of time.  Chilling the filling helps thicken it and makes it easier to fill the shells.

Pre-cook the Pasta:
Cook the pasta shells according to the package directions, but for a minute less than al dente.  For example, if the pasta box says that the shells will cook to al dente in 10 minutes, I cook them for 9 minutes.  Drain and rinse the shells in cold water until they are cool enough to handle.

Assemble the Shells:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Rub a little olive oil over the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.  Spread about 3/4 cup of sauce in the bottom of the pan.

Using a teaspoon (not the measure, but the place-setting spoon), spoon filling into shells.  Fill each shell with a heaping scoop.  The shells should be filled but not overstuffed.  The edges of the shells should still be able to touch.  Place each shell in the pan as you fill it.  You should be able to fit all of the shells into the pan.

Pour the remaining sauce over the shells then gently shake the pan to get the sauce into all of the spaces between the shells.  Loosely cover with a piece of foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven, take off the foil, and sprinkle the top of the shells with some freshly-grated Parmesan cheese. Put the pan back in the oven for 15 minutes, until the Parmesan is melted and the sauce is bubbling.

Remove from the oven and let sit for 20 minutes before serving.

After all the craziness of the last two weeks of work, I flew back to California to spend Christmas with family.  I got a chance to relax over the holidays, and I had a great time visiting my wonderful family: mom, sister, brother-in-law' and nephew, and some of my dearest friends.  I didn't get to see my brother and sister-in-law, but we did have a nice talk on Christmas.  However, I got to visit them back in September, which was great.  I was so happy to see them.  They moved away when I moved here to Arizona, and I hadn't seen them since I moved.  Hopefully we can all be together next year around Christmas.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and wish you a very Happy New Year.

Quinoa, Squash, and Scones

Dinner tonight was quinoa cooked with Lipton Onion Soup Mix and a butternut squash casserole. The idea for the quinoa came from my friend James who mentioned that he cooked quinoa this way. I boiled the water and then added the quinoa and soup mix. It took longer to cook than I remembered from the first time I made quinoa. I realized after I measured the water into the pan that I didn't have quite a whole cup of quinoa, so I had to scoop out some of the water. I estimated how much based on how much I was short of quinoa, but I think I didn't scoop out quite enough. It took about 30 minutes to cook instead of about 15. I also made a butternut squash casserole from a recipe I found cut out of a magazine in the recipe binder both my mom and I have added to. It was basically caramelized onions and roasted squash with cumin and thyme. Very tasty. The quinoa was good, but I think I needn't have used the entire packet of soup mix as it was pretty intense. I think I'd use a bit less next time.

Yesterday, I suddenly had a yen for baking. I decided to make orange-cranberry scones. As I mentioned in my previous post, I like the ones at Starbucks, but it gets expensive, and lately I've been concerned about what ingredients are going into the things I eat. It's pretty scary reading the ingredients lists on some food packages. Not that there aren't those certain items I purposely turn a blind eye to, but I've been trying to eat those sparingly.

Anyway, I thought I'd try making my own orange-cranberry scones. That way I'll save money, I'll know what's going into them, and I won't have to waste time stopping by Starbucks. I looked up several recipes and ended up using one from the Land-O-Lakes website, but I added a citrus glaze I found in a recipe on another website. Orange zest and dried cranberries went into the dough, and the glaze consisted of a mixture of lemon and orange juice and powdered sugar, which was added after they came out of the oven. They turned out well, I think. The texture was very similar to the Starbucks ones, soft on the inside and a bit crispy on the outside, and there was plenty of orange and cranberry flavor. The recipe didn't call for any salt, and I noticed its absence in the way that salt adds something to the flavor (even though it's not salty). The scones weren't bad by any means, I just think that the addition of a little salt would have punched up the flavor a bit. I think I'll try making some with lemon and currants next time.

Friday and Saturday Nights' Dinners

Yesterday I made Fennel and Squash Gratin from the Raley's 75th Anniversary cookbook. (For my east coast friends, Raley's/Bel Air is a chain of grocery stores here in Northern California.) This recipe consists of butternut squash, acorn squash, fennel bulb, onion, mascarpone cheese, and havarti cheese. The squash was microwaved ahead of time to minimize baking time, and the onion and fennel were sauteed until the onion was soft. Then everything was mixed together including the mascarpone and cubed havarti and put in a baking dish. After baking for about 30 minutes, it came out bubbling and lightly browned on top. I let it set for a little while before serving.

I have to admit that it was tasty, but it was pretty rich. There are different kinds of richness in foods, at least to me. Some kinds of richness I can enjoy more of, and other types I can only handle in small amounts. This squash dish was of the latter variety, unfortunately. I'd never had fennel bulb before and was nicely surprised by the way it tasted. The licorice smell was pretty strong coming off of it when I was chopping it up. You can find the recipe for the gratin on the Raley's website here. I have found many good recipes from Raley's on their website and in their free magazine, Something Extra. Check it out.


Last month, I wrote a post in which I mentioned making Curried Chicken and Vegetable Roast from a recipe I cut out of the November issue of Food & Wine magazine (I mistakenly attributed it to Eating Well magazine). The chicken had come out on the bland side, but the vegetable were okay. I decided to try making it again, but this time I made some changes to the recipe and to how I made it last time. (Sorry, the photo doesn't look super appetizing, but the food tasted really good.)

This time I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which the recipe originally called for. These worked much better than the cut up chicken I used last time. For the curry marinade/sauce stuff, I began like last time making half the recipe. However, this time, I used half the non-fat Greek yogurt, but I kept all of the spices at the original amounts called for--essentially doubling the spice I used last time. I also used fresh ginger this time instead of powdered ginger--this made a big difference to the taste. I also included the juice from half a lemon. I mixed it all up, tossed in the chicken, and stirred until all the pieces were well-coated. I then covered the bowl and let it sit for about 90 minutes.

Once again, I used carrots, onions, beets, and Brussel sprouts. I did not put in any squash since we just had squash yesterday. A little olive oil, salt & pepper, and a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary rounded out the vegetables. Everything went into a rectangular baking dish (the one I used was slightly smaller than a 9x13) and then set the chicken pieces on top. Everything roasted for about an hour. This time, the dish turned out sooooo good. Everything was cooked just right, and the chicken was very flavorful.

Here's the recipe for the yogurt marinade:

1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
2 Tbs minced fresh ginger
2 large garlic cloves minced
1 Tbs Madras curry powder (I used one from Williams-Sonoma, but you can get this at Cost Plus and even some regular grocery stores)
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Put all ingredients in a bowl and stir well to blend. Coat chicken pieces and allow them to sit for at least an hour before cooking.

This is really good, and if you don't like really hot-spicy curries, I recommend the Madras curry powder I got from Williams-Sonoma; it wasn't very spicy, just a really flavorful blend of spices.

Squash Casserole Recipe

A few people asked about the recipe for squash casserole I mentioned a few times on facebook. This recipe is adapted from another recipe (see below), but I tweaked it a bit after making it the first time to cut some of the extra fat and to obtain a firmer, less soggy result. Don't get me wrong...it tasted great making it just as printed, but I found that leaving out some of the extra fat it called for didn't affect its taste and gave a firmer texture.

Summer Squash Casserole
adapted from "Summer Squash Casserole with Nuts" by Paula on allrecipes.com
8 servings

Ingredients

1 pound summer squash, sliced
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoon milk
1 egg
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
4 ounces sliced pancetta, cooked & drained (blot off any extra fat)-optional
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add squash, and cook until tender. Drain well.

3. Place squash in a large mixing bowl. Mash well. If there seems to be a lot of extra liquid, drain some off so you won't end up with a soggy result. Mix bell pepper, sugar, onion, egg, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, cheese, nuts, and pancetta (optional) to the mixture. Transfer the mixture to a 1-quart casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs. Dot with the butter.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes.

5. Allow casserole to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

I've also made this recipe with bacon instead of pancetta, but the result was not tasty. For some reason, the bacon got rubbery during the baking of the casserole, but the pancetta didn't. Once when we were out of pecans, I used walnuts which turned out pretty good.

When you cut up the squash to cook it, you can scrape out the seeds or leave them in. I've made this both ways. If you leave the seeds in, you'll end up with more liquid when you mash the squash, but you can just drain some of it off. I usually leave the seeds in unless they are really large and tough.

Dinner Report #1

Well, my friends, here is the first post of my Dinner Report blog--made just for you all. I've had lots of nice feedback from my friends on Facebook about the "dinner reports" I've posted. It's kind of cool since I was really posting things about what I'd made for dinner because, sadly, nothing more interesting happened on that day.

But, you know, I like to cook, so talking, or writing, about it is fun for me. I like trying new recipes, cooking old favorites, and tweaking recipes with good (and sometimes odd) results (like the time I mixed up cardamom and coriander in the recipe for Black Bean-Sweet Potato Burritos).

Anyway, here is the first recipe I'm posting. It was the last thing I posted about on Facebook, so I thought it appropriate to start with this one. The official title is Spinach and Sausage Deep-Dish Pie. We always just called it Spinach-Sausage Pie. I'm not sure where the recipe came from, originally. My mom cut it out of a magazine many years ago and pasted it onto a recipe card, but there's nothing to indicate which magazine.

Spinach-Sausage Pie

1 pound Italian Sausage, cooked and drained
4 beaten eggs
1 10 ounce package of frozen spinach, thawed and well-drained
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
Pie crust pastry (enough for a two crust pie)

1 beaten egg
1 Tbs. water

In a bowl, combine the four beaten eggs, the spinach, mozzarella, undrained cottage cheese, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Stir in sausage; set aside.

Prepare pie crust, set aside 1/3 of pastry. On a lightly flowered surface, roll out remaining pastry to a 14 inch square. Transfer to an 8x8x2 square baking pan; line with pastry. Fill with sausage mixture. Roll out reserved pastry to a 12 inch square. Place atop filling, folding edges under sides of bottom crust. Seal and flute edges.

Combine remaining egg and water; brush over pastry. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape. Cover the edges of the crust with foil. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for an additional 35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Notes:
I used an already prepared pie crust from the grocery store (I think it was Pillsbury.) I can make pie crust, but using the already made crust cut way down on prep time. I use part skim-milk mozarrella, low-fat cottage cheese, and non-fat milk, which cuts down the fat a little bit but doesn't affect the flavor or texture. Definitely allow the pie to rest before serving; this will give the filling time to set. This reheats fairly well in the microwave.

If you want to make your own pie crust, here's the basic pie crust recipe my mom always uses and which I use too.

Plain Pastry
from Better Homes and Gardens Pies and Cakes, copyright Meredith Corporation 1966.

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
5 to 7 Tbs. cold water

Sift together flour and salt; cut in shortening with a pastry blender or fork until pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle 1 Tbs. water over part of mixture. Gently toss with fork; push to side of bowl. Sprinkle next Tbs. of water over dry part; mix lightly; push to moistened part at side.Repeat until all is moistened. Divide dough and form into two balls. Flatten ball on lightly floured surface. Roll from center to edge until dough is 1/8 inch thick.

I can remember my mom making this when I was a kid. I didn't care much for it because I didn't really like spinach or pie crust. My tastes have changed since then. I still don't want to eat a big ol' plate of spinach, but I like it in things, and I have developed a taste for pie crust too. I just wish I could develop a taste for all the super-healthy foods I happen to dislike too. I'm working on it.