Casserole #12 - Ham and Noodle Casserole

 The Year of Casseroles

Casserole #12 - Ham and Noodle Casserole

    I really loved this casserole from Treasured Southern Family Recipes, published in 1966.  I added garlic powder, a sprinkle of parsley flakes and had to use cream of chicken soup in lieu of cream of mushroom soup. I'm happy to say that the cream of chicken soup worked really well with this.  I used macaroni noodles, but you could use rigatoni, bow-tie, or egg noodles. My modifications will be in italics. 

Ingredients:

2 tsps salt

4 oz noodles (macaroni, egg, bow-tie or try your favorite)

water

2 tbsps butter

1/4 cup chopped onion (I used closer to 1/2 cup, because I wanted to)

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1 1/4 cups diced, cooked ham

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (I used cream of chicken and it was good)

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp chopped pimento

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

parsley for decoration, if desired

1/2 cup grated cheese (the original recipe says American cheese; I used Monterrey Jack)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Fill a large pot about half full with water. Bring to a boil and add salt and noodles. Boil rapidly until al dente. Remove from heat and let stand for a few minutes while you finish with the other ingredients. While heating water to boil, melt butter in a saucepan. Add onion and green pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the ham and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Heat soup with milk, ensuing they are well combined. Stir in pepper, pimento and garlic powder. Thoroughly drain noodles and return to saucepan. Pour soup mixture over noodles, add ham and veggie mixture and stir until well combined. Pour mixture into lightly greased 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese, place in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes or so. Serves 4 - 6.

Ham and Noodle Casserole

Ham and Noodle Casserole

Charley The Muffin Man is so jealous!

Garlic-Parmesan Bread

 Garlic-Parmesan Bread

   I made up a simple garlic-parmesan bread for my ladies group. It turned out better than any garlic bread I've made before. There haven't been many times I've made fresh garlic bread, but it's still true. I'd say it was actually the best results I've had. I used a stick and a half of unsalted butter, but you could use one stick and/or salted butter. Use more or less of the seasonings if you wish. I used fresh grated Parmesan, but you could use regular powder Parmesan in a can also. 

Ingredients:

1 loaf french bread/baguette or bolillo (This would work with regular sandwich bread also, because bread is bread)

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter or salted if you prefer, softened

1 clove garlic minced

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp dried parsley flakes

Parmesan cheese to taste (use as much as you want)

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place softened butter in a bowl. Add minced garlic and seasonings to butter. Stir until butter and seasonings are well combined. If using a loaf or Bolillo, slice bread in half lengthwise.  If using sliced sandwich bread, lay out slices on a cookie/baking sheet. Spread seasoned butter on bread. Place bread in the oven and bake until the bread is toasty and the cheese (if using), is melted. If using loaf or Bolillo bread, gently place directly on the oven rack. If using sliced sandwich bread, you can still place directly on the oven rack, but you may want to leave it on the cookie/baking sheet. Remove from oven and serve with soup, chili, stew, pasta or whatever dish you like. 

Garlic-Parmesan Bread

Appetizer #13 - Parmesan Rice Squares

 The Year of Appetizers

Appetizer #13 - Parmesan Squares

    This super simple recipe is in my 1968 Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My modification(s) in italics. I try to use different cookbooks in my collections (I don't want to use a cookbook for a theme, which I have already used for the year's theme). However, I saw this recipe when I decided on using this cookbook for Appetizer #12 (Sweet-Sour Suprises) and I wanted to make these Parmesan Squares.  I liked this recipe and I like how you can change up the recipe if you want to. For example, use powdered Parmesan cheese instead of freshly grated cheese (like I did this time around), you could add garlic powder like I did or add spicy seasoning like chipotle pepper.  Ranch seasoning would be delicious! If you're making this for a party, I would double or triple this recipe.  Try it and see if you like it. 

Ingredients:

2 cups bite-size square rice cereal (like Chex brand)

3 tbsp butter or margarine, melted (I used butter)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp or to taste garlic powder or your favorite seasoning

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees. In a bowl, lightly toss rice cereal squares with melted butter. Sprinkle seasoning and Parmesan and lightly toss to ensure rice squares are coated. Pour on to a baking pan or cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Remove from the oven, cool and enjoy. 

Parmesan Rice Squares

Appetizer #7 - Coconut Chicken Bites

 The Year of Appetizers

Appetizer #7 - Coconut Chicken Bites

    This recipe comes from 2007's The Taste of Home Cookbook, from Reader's Digest. I had to modify the recipe, because I once again, did not have all of the correct seasonings. I'll list what I used in italics and what the original seasonings were that I did not use. Even with my substitutions, I really liked these little bite-sized nuggets. They would be yummy with a hot honey sauce or a hot orange marmalade sauce. Instructions for the sauces will be below. 

P.S. Sorry for my plain-jane photo. 

Ingredients:

2 cups flaked coconut

1 egg

2 tbsps milk

3/4 pound boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into nugget-sized pieces

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp celery salt (If you don't have this, use regular salt like I did)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin (I used chili powder)

Oil for frying

Directions:

Finely chop coconut in a blender or food processor (This took awhile for me, because I tried using a blender and it did not work great). Pour coconut into a bowl and set aside. Combine egg and milk in a separate bowl until well combined. Pour flour into a small bowl and toss the chicken a few pieces at a time, in the flour. Dip floured chicken pieces in the egg mixture and then in the coconut. Place chicken pieces on a tray and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Fry a few pieces of chicken at a time in 2 inches of oil (heated to 375 degrees) for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side. They should be golden brown. Drain fried chicken bites on paper towels and place in a bowl. Combine seasonings and sprinkle over chicken bites. Toss to coat chicken bites and serve warm with or without a dipping sauce. I actually opted to mix my seasonings in with the flour, before coating in the egg mixture and coconut. 

Dipping Sauce #1 - Hot Honey Sauce:

Heat 1/2 cup honey in a microwave until it is a little bubbly. Remove from the microwave and add sriracha sauce to taste.  Add more or less honey and sriracha. It really depends on how much sauce you want and how sweet or hot you want it. 

Dipping Sauce #2 - Hot Orange Marmalade Sauce:

Follow directions above, only use orange marmalade. 

Coconut Chicken Bites

Appetizer #2 - Amy's Crazy Corn Dip

The Year of Appetizers 

Appetizer #2 - Amy's Crazy Corn Dip

    This recipe is in The Women's Council of Realtors - Southwest Dallas and was submitted by Amy Deckert of First American Home Buyers Protection. There is no date, but I'd guess it's either in the 90's or early 2000's. It calls for white and yellow corn, but there's nothing wrong with using two white or two yellow (Like I did). Get as close to the size for the cans as you can. I liked this. Initially I ate the dip with crackers, but I also ended up enjoying it over rice and even by itself. *I actually made this two weeks ago, but just haven't been able to post until now.

Ingredients:

15 oz can white corn, drained

15 oz can yellow corn, drained

10 oz can Rotel, spicy or mild (I used a generic brand)

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder (I used 1 tsp)

1/2 tsp salt

one handful or as (much as you want, really) cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. Mix together the corn, Rotel with the seasonings and stir in the cream cheese. Make sure everything is well combined and stir in the cilantro. Pour into your baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips or even use it on top of rice like I did. 

Amy's Crazy Corn Dip

Pie Number 22 - Lemonchick's Chicken & Vegetable Pie

 The Year of Pie

Pie Number 22 - Lemonchick's Chicken & Vegetable Pie

    This is my creation! 100% mine! I loved it. I really loved the seasonings I chose. The only two things I would do differently, is to bake at 375 degrees, not 350 degrees and I would make a gravy with 1 cup water, not 2 cups of water (it made too much gravy). I baked the pie for 35 minutes at 350, but ended up adding at least 15 more minutes. The crust never did get golden, but it was still a good crust.  If I'd baked it at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes, I think the crust would have turned out more like how I wanted it to (golden). The first piece out of the pie pan did not come out very, well, but that was because it was still too hot. The second piece I had (the day after) came out just fine. I thought this creation of mine was really good and I hope you like it. 

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast diced

1 medium/large potato, peeled and diced

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 12oz bag frozen mixed vegetables, use the "steam in a bag" kind

1 cup water

1-2 tsp chicken bouillon (I used a low sodium variety)

3/4 tsp onion powder

3/4 tsp garlic powder, 

3/4 parsley flakes, 

3/4 tsp celery salt

3/4 tsp spicy chili seasoning 

3/4 tsp ground sage 

1/2 tsp salt, plus a sprinkle

1/2 tsp pepper, plus a sprinkle

canola oil

cornstarch

two-crust pie crust (unbaked)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle a bit of canola oil in a large heated skillet. In a saucepan, boil diced potato in water until softened, but not mushy. Drain cooked potatoes and set aside. Season diced chicken with a sprinkle of salt, sprinkle of pepper and 1/4 tsp of each of the rest of the seasonings and add to the skillet. Cook completely and remove from skillet. Add chopped onion to the same skillet and cook until translucent. Return chicken to skillet and turn burner to low. In a saucepan, boil 1 cup water and 1-2 tsp chicken bouillon. Use a little bit of water mixed with cornstarch, to thicken the bouillon into a gravy. If it is not thick enough, add a little more water/cornstarch mixture. 

Combine the gravy, potatoes, onion, chicken and vegetables. Pour into unbaked pastry shell, add top crust and crimp edges to seal crusts together. Cut slits into top crust and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden. Remove pie from oven and let cool. Serve pie with a sprinkle of parsley flakes if desired and serve with a garden salad. 

Serves 8

Lemonchick's Chicken & Vegetable Pie
(cooked by not golden)

The first piece of pie that I took out wayyyy too early.

The second piece of pie that came out wayyyy better. 

Week 43 - Cheesy Rontini Casserole

Cheesy Rontini Casserole 

Week 43 of 52

Vegetarian Entree #6

    Yeah, so I created this recipe and I have to say I wasn't super pleased with the results.  It was something I "threw together". I've been dealing with several issues and just put this together, because I didn't want to put the pressure on myself to find a recipe I liked. The cool thing about this recipe, is you can modify amounts (use more or less) and you can modify the ingredients. For example, don't have black beans, use pinto? Use diced tomato with seasoning, rather than plain diced tomato. Modify seasonings as you wish. Make it your own. 

Ingredients:

2 cups rontini noodles

1 can black beans, drained

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 can corn, drained

1 cup shredded cheese (I like colby jack)

1 recipe white sauce (below)

salt

pepper

garlic powder

spicy/creole seasoning

1/2 cup or more panko bread crumbs

1 tbsp butter, melted (more if you use more bread crumbs)

White sauce 

    1/4 Cup butter (melted) 

    2 cups milk

    1/4 cup flour 

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1/8 teaspoon pepper 

• Make a medium white sauce by melting butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour and once it is bubbling, slowly pour in milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened. Season with salt and pepper. 
• One trick I've used for white sauce, is to heat the milk in the microwave for a one to two minutes before adding. It has helped it to thicken quicker in the past. 

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook your noodles to al dente, drain and pour into a bowl. Mix in the beans, tomatoes and corn. When you've made the white sauce, stir in the shredded cheese and stir until melted. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, spicy or creole seasoning or your favorite blend, to taste. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Mix together bread crumbs and melted butter and sprinkle evenly over the casserole. Bake for 30 minutes.  Serve with hot, toasty, French bread or rolls and a salad. 

Cheesy Rontini Casserole

Cheesy Rontini Casserole

Grandma Marlin's Norwegian Best Bean Hotdish

 Grandma Marlin's Norwegian Best Bean Hotdish

    This recipe is adapted from The Centennial Harvest - A Collection of Recipes from The First Unitarian Church of Dallas. My church. We are Unitarian Universalists.  It was founded in 1899; the 100 year anniversary was celebrated in 1999 and the cookbook was published in 2000.  I joined the church in about 2009/2010. The original recipe was submitted by a member and due to this cookbook only being 10 years old, I'm not going to name her, for privacy reasons.  A friend in the Twitterverse, said she has a cookbook with a very, similar recipe. It goes by the name "4 Bean Bake" in her book and that recipe is popular with her family. 

    Yeah, so this recipe wasn't complicated, but I felt like I used a lot of bowls in making it. I did the washing up, while it was in the oven. When it was finished, there was more liquid than I'd thought there would be, but I liked it. I served my Best Bean Hotdish over some brown rice and had two little pieces of buttered and toasted sourdough bread (to sop up the juices).

Ingredients:

1 Big Can of Baked Beans (I used a large can of Bush's Original Baked Beans)

2 Cans Kidney Beans

2 Cans Great Northern Beans (The original recipe calls for butter beans)

1 lb Bacon, cut into 1 inch strips

3 Large Yellow Onions; Sliced and then sliced in half (The original recipe calls for 4 large Bermuda onions, sliced)

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 Tsp Dry Mustard

1/2 Cup Vinegar

    Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Drain the beans, saving the liquid and mixing the beans together in a large bowl.  The original recipe also says to cut your bacon into 1 inch strips, but you can certainly cut into smaller pieces if you like. Whatever size you choose, you'll fry it gently, not letting it get crispy, and remove from your pan. Put your onion in the skillet and fry for several minutes (about five minutes at least), stirring to coat with the bacon grease.  Whisk together the last four ingredients and stir into the onions. Simmer for 20 minutes. If the liquid evaporates, add in a little of the reserved bean juice, so it doesn't stick, because you don't want the onions to get dry. Mix the onion mixture into the beans, add the pieces of bacon which you had set aside and combine all ingredients. Pour the mixture into a large casserole dish.  The original recipe says a covered casserole dish. I had to use the largest casserole dish that I own, which does not have a lid. Since my dish did not have a lid, I used foil and it worked fine. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. I really don't know how this could ever fit in a regular sized casserole dish, because it made a huge amount. 

    Serve as a side dish or over rice.  The side of sourdough bread went really well with this dish, because again, "hello!!" there was juices to soak up. I have no idea how many servings to say this made, so let's just say "a lot", because it was a lot. 

    The verdict? I really, liked this recipe and would definitely make this again. 

Great Norther, Kidney and Baked Beans

Onions

The bean, onion and bacon mixture.

Yass!!! It looks yummy, just out of the oven.

I wasn't going to include two pictures of the finished dish, but you can see my UU (Unitarian Universalist) Flaming Chalice (our church symbol) tattoo, so I'm including this photo, because my church means a lot to me. 

A close-up of yumminess.