Shepherd's Pie

It started with a roast.

I used a rump roast because that's what I know. You could use whatever roast you like. I cooked mine in the crockpot, with sliced green pepper and yellow onions, I filled the crockpot with low sodium beef broth until it was half way up the roast and added a packet of Italian Seasoning. Then I cooked it on low for an entire day.

Shredded the meat, and used some that night for philly cheesesteak sandwiches.

The next night was shepherds pie. So this is how it goes.

- Cook half a bag of frozen corn and half a bag of frozen peas. (You could cook up a entire bag of the corn, green bean, and carrot mix instead) I think its yummy with any sort of veggies, I even cooked up some diced celery until soft and threw it in.
- Mix veggies with leftover shredded meat, peppers, and onions.
- Mix up a packet of brown gravy or make your own out of the broth you cooked the meat in, and pour over veggie/meat mixture.
- Top with pre-made mashed potatoes- You could use some you had left over, I used the canned potato pearls because I was too lazy to make homemade. I mixed some cheese in my potatoes before I baked it, I used cheddar but you could obviously use anything.

Bake at 350 until the potatoes have slightly golden on top. This served 8 people easily.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken and Grits

If you know me, you know that I LOVE bacon!! I was really craving bacon wrapped chicken. So that's exactly what we had for dinner. I wish I had taken pictures for this post but then I would be craving it all over again. I was almost positive Chad would not eat the grits, but what do I know?? He loved them, his plate was cleaner than mine!!

This served just the two of us because we really liked it. I am sure it could serve four, it was really filling. I served the grits on the plate, sliced the chicken roll-ups, laid it over the grits and drizzled with the gravy.


Chicken-
-2 chicken breasts- split (like you do for piccata)
-blue cheese
-dried thyme
-dried parsley
-4 pieces bacon

(You could use goat cheese or feta in place of blue cheese, and it would be yummy to add sun-dried tomatoes, or roasted red peppers)

So it's pretty self explanatory. You sprinkle a little cheese on each of the four pieces of chicken. Then sprinkle with the thyme and parsley, I like lots of thyme. Roll up to the best of your abilities. Wrap one piece of bacon around each chicken roll-up. Roast in 425 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until bacon is slightly crisp and chicken in firm.

Grits-

-1 cup chicken broth or stock
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup cream
-3 Tbsp butter
-1/2 cup quick cooking grits (or cornmeal for grits and polenta)
-Sea salt
-3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring stock, water, cream and butter to simmer. Slowly whisk in grits. Reduce heat to low, cover and let sit until grits are creamy and soft. Stir occasionally, 5 minutes or so. Add a pinch of sea salt and the cheese, stir until well mixed.

Lemon Thyme Gravy-

-2 Tbsp butter
-2 Tbsp flour
-2 cups chicken broth or stock
-1 tsp dried thyme
-Salt and pepper
-Splash Lemon juice

Melt butter, whisk in flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in broth/stock and thyme. Cook until thick and hot. Season with salt and pepper, take off heat and stir in lemon juice.

Teriyaki Bowls

Chad and I both love Chinese- and honestly if you are in Draper or near Draper, or not even close, you should hit up Fong's for some AWESOME food. It is worth the drive!!

Anyway, we decided to try out some more Asian type foods. And one thing we always come back to is tempura. Now I love myself some Vegas Roll at Happy Sumo which is tempura dipped and fried, and it is divine! But Chad is squeamish about the raw fish, so we just recreated the also very yummy, teriyaki bowls.

I marinate my chicken overnight (or even a few hours) in either:

Veri Veri Teriyaki
Teriyaki Tukami Collection

I like either of these because they have great flavor and I personally love how the sauce is packed with sesame seeds. I have tried lots of other brands that are good too, but some are REALLY salty, almost like putting straight soy sauce on the chicken.

You can brown the chicken in a skillet, or obviously as the weather is getting warmer, grilling is a great option. Just make sure to baste the chicken with the marinade every couple minutes for the first half of the cooking time. (I also like to cook the left over marinade in a saucepan on the stove, until it gets thick and hot. I reserve it for serving)

Tempura Veggies- recipe adapted from FoodNetwork- Wolfgang Puck

You can use any veggies you like. We usually pick a variety with things like, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, onions, eggplant, mushrooms, squash, asparagus. Whatever sounds good to you with Asian flavors, is going to be yummy. Just make sure that all the veggies are cut relatively thin or bite size so they cook evenly. This recipe will batter up quite a lot of veggies. It will probably serve enough veggies for 6-8 people. I have even doubled it with great results.

1/4 cup rice flour
3 cups soda water, divided
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Optional- dash of sesame oil (I like the toasted kind but it is pretty strong so just use a little)

Mix the rice flour and 1/2 cup soda water in a small bowl. Set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder and cornstarch into a medium bowl. Stir in the remaining 2 1/2 cups soda water, salt, cayenne and dash of sesame oil, if using. Add the rice flour mixture to flour mixture. Allow to sit, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for 1 hour or so.

When ready to make- dredge in batter and fry in oil at 375 degrees. I like to do one type of vegetable at a time so I can keep them in separate piles after cooking. Chad dislikes squash and gets a little bugged if he accidently eats one, so this way people just take the veggies they like.

I make up a bunch of rice, serve it in bowls. Pile some veggies on, add some sliced Teriyaki Chicken, and drizzled with the hot thickened sauce. You can obviously use the stuff right out of the bottle if you don't have any of your marinade left over or if you just didn't feel like cooking it down.

Chicken Piccata

This is Chad's favorite dish lately. He asks for it almost every week. Lots of people have asked for this recipe, so here it is. Some people don't use bread crumbs (they just dredge in seasoned flour-and go right to the pan) but I just love extra crispy chicken.

I have doubled and tripled this recipe and it always works out great.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast- Split into 2
(I have split this two diferent ways- I butterflied the breast so there is less pounding needed, I have also halved [length-wise] and then pounded, I thought both worked great- You can also buy chicken cutlets which are already cut thin so you can skip splitting and pounding all together)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 extra-large egg
1/2 tablespoon water
3/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
(I have even used some crushed up boxed stuffing mix- I didn't worry about making it uniform- some of the crumbs were much larger than others and I thought the texture was great)
Good olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (1-2 lemons)- (I have used the bottled lemon juice- It obviously isn't as good but it's fine in a pinch)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
Sliced lemon, for serving- Optional
Chopped fresh parsley leaves, for serving- Optional


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of parchment paper or in a plastic bag and pound out to 1/4-inch thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Mix the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the egg and 1/2 tablespoon of water together. Place the bread crumbs on a third plate. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, dip in the egg- again shaking off excess, and then dip in bread crumbs, lightly pressing to make sure the bread crumbs really stick.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until browned.(If you are making more than 2 pieces of chicken make sure to only put a few in the pan at a time so they can brown well) Place them on the sheet pan-(they can sit while you cook more chicken if needed) Bake for about 10 minutes- until cooked through.

For the sauce, wipe out the pan with a paper towel. Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and then add the lemon juice, broth, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (Some people add capers here- about 1/4 cup- I don't). Boil over high heat until reduced in half, about 2-5 minutes. Off the heat, add 2 tablespoons of butter and lightly stir to combine. Salt and pepper more if needed.

Serve chicken with a sliced lemon and sprinkle with fresh parsley. I like to serve the sauce on the side, mainly because some people like more or less sauce than me.

We've Moved

We figured our blog address should be more "US" and less "ME" so our blog is now at

cahuntsman.blogspot.com

See you there!!!
Chad and Anne

P.S. Anne might still use this blog for recipes and ideas so check back. :)