One of Paula Deen's recipes

Last night I used that last huge chicken breast half to make Paula Deen's Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps. They were very tasty and very easy. Here is the way it appears on the Food Network site.

Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (about 4 breasts) 1 (1-pound) package sliced bacon 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar 2 tablespoons chili powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut chicken breasts into 1-inch cubes. Cut each bacon slice into thirds. Wrap each chicken cube with bacon and secure with a wooden pick. Stir together brown sugar and chili powder. Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture. Coat a rack and broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. [I covered the pan with aluminum foil because I knew it would make a mess and it did.] Place chicken wrap on rack in broiler pan. Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes or until bacon is crisp.

Recipe Summary Difficulty: Easy Prep Time: 25 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 12 to 15 appetizer servings User Rating: 5 stars

I was able to de-bone the breast and cut it into 20 cubes. I had halved the sugar/chili mixture and that was about right - there was a little left over, but not much.

Tonight I made The Y chili, a relic from hubby and my past. The town we grew up in had a greasy spoon in the YMCA building, affectionately known to us as the Y. Their chili was a legend, and one of hubby's mom's friends asked the cook how he made it, and he told her. Here is my take, 50 years later. Hubby and I were talking at supper that the original was very salty, but no one eats as much salt today as they did back then. We're also a lot more aware of fat content too. So here's how I do it to get the taste and texture without so much salt and fat. The ground beef is not in chunks or hunks - it's in very fine "beads."

Y chili for hot dogs (hamburgers and fries)

2 lbs. ground beef, not round or sirloin
about 2 quarts cool tap water
16 oz. tomato sauce
2 tablespoons good quality chili powder
2 tablespoons dehydrated minced onion
1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
(I added no salt - the bouillon and tomato sauce have plenty.)

Put the water and ground beef in a large saucepan or dutch oven and use your hands to squeeze them together into a pudding-like mixture. Put on the burner on high to bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and cook until the meat is no longer pink. It will be sort of grayish-brown. Drain off the liquid and that will remove the fat also. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. You'll need to add some water to thin it down some. If you can avoid adding the fat back, you can use a little bit at a time of the water the meat was cooked in till you get the right consistency - not too thin, not too thick. Otherwise, just use fresh water. Simmer at least 30 minutes covered. Will be even better the next day. I always freeze and LABEL the leftover in 1 cup lots. That's enough for 6 to 8 hot dogs.

That's it for tonight.

Tinkering with a recipe

I decided to use the chicken breasts that were accidentally thawed for a casserole for Sunday supper. Hubby likes good old comfort food, even while watching the Super Bowl. I used a recipe called Creamy Chicken and Rice from my new Taste of Home Recipe Card magazine I bought Friday. I made a few changes to start with, and I suspected that it was going to make way more than I wanted, even though it said it served 6. I'd say it would serve 10 generously. So, while my mind is fresh, I'm going to write out the changes I'll make next time because we did like it enough for me to make it again.

My Creamy Chicken and Rice

Cook until tender chicken pieces that will give you 2 to 2-1/2 cups diced meat, approx. 45 minutes – time depends on size and type of pieces. Or use leftover chicken or supermarket Rotisserie chicken.

Prepare 1 box of Uncle Ben’s Wild and White Rice Mix according to package directions. When rice is cooked spread in bottom of 9” x 9” Pyrex baking dish.

While rice cooks, de-bone and cube chicken – need 2 to 2-1/2 cups.

Preheat oven to 425°.

Also while rice cooks, make white sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 c milk
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes until thickened and bubbly. Stir almost constantly.

Reduce heat; add 6 to 8 oz. cubed Velveeta and 1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream. Stir until cheese is melted. Stir in the cubed chicken. (Next time consider adding toasted slivered almonds for taste or frozen peas and diced pimiento for color.) Pour over rice in the casserole.

Melt 3 tablespoons additional butter; toss 24 crushed saltines with the butter. Sprinkle over the casserole.

Bake uncovered at 425° for 10 to 15 minutes or until heated through and saltines are golden. Serves 4 to 6 people.

This morning, Kat cooked up a storm in my kitchen - homemade pound cake, two bite brownies, cheese ball, teriyaki wings, and she got together the ingredients for the meatballs that she'll prepare at her friend's house. She reminds me of my late mother-in-law. She was a whirling dervish in the kitchen. She could cook up a scratch meal in 1 hour and have the kitchen clean at the same time.

That's all for tonight.

Crunch time on the Super Bowl recipes

I must be an idiot when it comes to this blogging stuff. Why do I have to reset my font and color every time? Sometimes it won't even let me have arial, but forces me to use the dreaded New Times Roman which I do hate.

Well, on to the recipes. One that I always get requests for is "Janet's Cheese ball." Janet is my niece. She brought this to my house for Christmas 10 years ago, although it seems like yesterday. That's what happens when you get old - time just flies on by. I like this because it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand, it's quick, and it makes just a small amount, but it's easy to double, triple, quadruple (yes, I have), well, you get the idea.

Janet’s Cheese Ball

For each 8 oz. block of cream cheese you need 1 pkg. of Good Seasons Italian dressing mix, kept dry (regular or the Zesty, you can’t tell the difference)
Jane’s Crazy Mixed Up Pepper

Soften the cream cheese to room temperature and mix in the dry salad dressing. Form into a ball and roll it in Jane’s Crazy Mixed Up Pepper. That’s it. Do make at least a few hours ahead of time so the veggie flakes from the dressing can rehydrate.

We like it with Triscuits and Wheat Thins, but use your favorite cracker. The Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Pepper is with the spices, and is in a cardboard container like the small Kraft's Parmesan Cheese package. Look hard, along the bottom of the shelves and you will probably find it. If you can't locate it in your stores, it's made of coarsely cracked black pepper and the herbs and spices that are in Lawry's Seasoned Salt, without the salt.

I'm off to Paula Deen's Food Network site to look for a recipe she made earlier this week. I missed the part of the show where she made it, but saw it at the end and was interested. Kathryn took what she thought were my chicken wings out of the freezer to thaw and I didn't pay attention until it was too late - she got out huge breasts. So, I'll be trying something new. The recipe had what looked like small pieces of chicken tenderloin wrapped in bacon and sprinkled with something. I'll just cut up the whole breasts. I might try making what some restaurants call boneless wings by cutting the breasts into appropriately sized pieces and proceeding with my Teriyaki Wing recipe.

That's all for tonight.