Chicken Tetrazzini

A great way to use leftover chicken. I never seem to have any leftover, so I often start with fresh. You can boil a couple chicken breasts with bay leaf if you're in a hurry, but cutting the breasts into strips and sauteing it gives the chicken a better flavor.

Ingredients:
3 to 4 cups cooked chicken
salt and pepper
8 ounces thin noodles or spaghetti, cooked and drained
6 tablespoons of butter
8-12 ounces sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup flour
1 cup cream or half-and-half
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
paprika

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Cook noodles according to directions. Meanwhile, in a skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over med-low heat; saute mushrooms until golden.
• In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter; stir in flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir until smooth; add chicken broth and cream. Cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened. Add chicken, mushrooms and sherry; heat through.
• Place noodles in a buttered baking dish; pour on sauce. Top with Parmesan cheese and sprinkle with paprika
• Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Servings: 8

Fluffy Yellow Cake

A light and fluffy yellow cake that is great with a chocolate buttercream frosting. This is birthday cake at our house!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks, room temperature
3 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Spray parchment paper and dust with flour.


• Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and 1 1/2 cups sugar in large bowl.


• In medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, buttermilk, oil vanilla and yolks.


• In a large mixer bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, 30 seconds. With mixer running, gradually add 1/4 cup sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks form, 60 seconds. Transfer to bowl and set aside.


• Add flour mixture to mixing bowl. With mixer running, gradually add butter mixture until almost incorporated, about 15 seconds. Scrape bowl and beat until smooth, about 30 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer stand.


• Stir 1/3 of the egg whites in to the batter, then fold in remaining whites. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.


• Bake until toothpick inserted in center come out clean, about 22-25 minutes. Cool pans on rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto greased rack to remove parchment paper. Invert again and cool completely on rack, about 1 hour.


• Frost with a chocolate buttercream frosting.

Sausage, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese Pasta

I love the strong flavors in this dish. Use a milder cheese or sausage if you like.

Ingredients:
1 (10 ounce) jar sundried tomatoes in oil (chopped, reserve oil)
3 links of Hot Italian chicken sausage
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
12 ounces angel hair pasta
salt and pepper
2 ounces soft goat cheese, coarsely crumbled

Directions:

• Heat 2 tablespoons of the reserved oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
• Cut the sausage from the casings and brown in skillet, breaking into small crumbles as it cooks.
• Add onion and saute until tender, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute.
• Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
• Add the wine and tomatoes, simmer 2 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta 5 minutes until al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking liquid.
• Add the pasta to the tomato mixture and toss to coat, adding some of the reserved liquid to moisten.
• Season with salt and pepper. Mound into bowls and sprinkle with goat cheese.

Servings: 4

Homemade Noodles

Homemade noodles are a favorite dish of my entire extended family. My Mom made beef and noodles as a special meal when we were kids. The grandkids begged them to be included in holiday meals, so now they're a side dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It takes a few tries to get them just right, but they're worth the effort.

This is more of a "how to" than a recipe. The recipe begins with flour and eggs. I start with about 3 cups of flour and mix in 6 eggs. Add flour as needed to make a workable dough. Roll out about 1/3 of the dough onto a floured surface, dusting with additional flour to keep it from sticking. Roll to about 1/8 of an inch.

Roll up the dough into a tube, dusting with flour as needed.

Continue with remaining dough until all dough is rolled into tubes. With a thin, sharp knife, slice tubes into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pinwheels.

Unroll pin wheels into strands of dough and lay on a large flat surface to dry. I use my kitchen island. My mom used the kitchen table. Let dry about 3 hours, turning noodles once, until no longer sticky.

When dry, place noodles in gallon size freezer bags and freeze until ready to use.

For a main dish: Boil 1-2 pounds of stew beef in enough water to cover. Simmer for 2 hours. Add water and beef broth and return to a boil. Add a bag of noodles and boil 30 minutes stirring often. Excess flour on the noodles will thicken the broth.

For a side dish: Bring beef or chicken broth to a boil. Add desired amount of frozen noodles. Boil 20-30 minutes stirring often.

Macaroni and Cheese

This is not the stuff in the "blue box". This is real mac and cheese. Vary the cheeses for different flavors or use a combination of them.





Ingredients:

2 cups macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 1/4 cups milk
3 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, american, etc.)



Directions:

• Cook the macaroni according to package directions; drain.


• In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Cook onion in butter until tender.


• Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Add milk all at once and stir until thickened and bubbly


• Remove from heat and stir in 2 1/2 cups cheese until melted


• Combine cheese and macaroni and pour into a 9'x13" baking dish coated with cooking spray.


• Sprinkle with remaining cheese


• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Servings: 6