Mom's Baked Chicken and Rice

So these days when you ask your Mother to send you a recipe, this is how you get it:

The standard picture text message of a 20 year old, faded notebook of recipes with her barely legible scribbles. I'm just glad I can make out most of it.

Rice w Chicken
Melt 1 stick butter in 9x13 pan
Add 1 box Uncle Ben's rice & 1 Cup minute Rice (no idea why we need to mix and match but OKAY)
Add 1 can French Onion & 1 Can Beef Consomme Soup or Beef Broth
Can of mushrooms if prefer
Add only 1 can water. Top with Chicken and bake 1 hr @ 350 degrees.

Boom. Now for this one, I don't have all the ingredients on hand. I'm not going to the store either, so I'm going to make due with what I got, which means one substitution (packet of onion soup instead of a can of the Campbell's french onion) and just going without mushrooms. Which sucks cuz I like mushrooms. Also I guess I have neither of those kinds of rice, but I have a random container of rice next to the stove and some kind of boil bag jasmine rice. Lets keep to the spirit of the recipe and mix 'em up and see what happens. Oh yeah, I'm assuming this is for a full package of chicken, which is a couple pounds, but I'm only using it with one large breast chopped in half.

The cast:

Start with melting the butter in the pan. I'm going with a short bus pan since I'm not doing a whole package of chicken. I tossed in the beef consomme soup too, no rhyme or reason. We're doing this on the fly here.

I was using the microwave to melt the butter. I bumped the pan pulling it out and liquid splashed everywhere and I made a mess. Maybe I shouldn't have added the beef consomme just yet.

Throw in the packet of onion soup mix and an empty can's worth of water to count for the can of french onion soup that I didn't have. This isn't really halving the recipe, but I'm going to leave out the additional can of water the recipe calls for. I am probably going to have too much liquid but we'll see how much the rice soaks up. I can always pour off the excess.

Add in the rice, I don't need it in the boil bag, so I went ahead and cut it open and bombs away.

Place chicken on top, throw in the oven at 350 degrees and find something to do for an hour.

So much for excess, that cooked up perfectly!

Spaghetti and Meatballs from SimplyRecipes

Ingredients
Sauce
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ½ chopped sweet yellow onion
• 3 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 cup very finely chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped crimini brown mushrooms
• 2 28-oz cans Italian plum tomatoes (get San Marzano brand if possible)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste concentrate in tube
• ¼ cup grated parmesan-romano cheese blend
• Salt to taste (about 1 teaspoon)
• ¼ cup red wine

Meatballs
• 1 lb ground beef (at least 16% fat)
• ½ lb fresh bulk Italian style pork sausage
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
• ½ cup finely chopped crimini brown mushrooms
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup unseasoned bread crumbs
• ¼ cup grated parmesan-romano cheese blend
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Red wine

Spaghetti
• 1 1/2 lbs dry 100% semolina spaghetti, thin spaghetti, or bucatini

Method
1 Prepare the sauce. Heat olive oil in 4-5 quart pot on medium-high heat. Add onions and cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add carrots and mushrooms, blend together for 2 minutes. Add canned tomatoes, stir together. Add basil and parsley, stir tomatoes with a potato masher until sauce starts to thicken about 5 minutes over medium high heat. Add tomato paste concentrate, stir to blend. Reduce heat and simmer while preparing meat balls, stirring occasionally.

2 Prepare the meatballs. Mix by hand in a large bowl beef, Italian sausage, basil, parsley, mushrooms, eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese, herbed salt, and pepper until well mixed. Use small melon baller, or teaspoons to form 1-inch round meat balls. Roll and compress into tight balls.

3 Heat frying pan on high heat. Add olive oil. Sear and brown meat balls on all sides. About 2-3 minutes. Depending on pan size you may need to brown two batches of the meatballs. Do not crowd the pan by stacking the meatballs. Cook in a single layer. Do not over-cook. As meatballs are finishing, add a little bit of red wine to de-glaze pan.

4 Add ¼ cup red wine to the sauce. Then stir in ¼ cup cheese. Add salt to taste. Add meatballs, gently stir. Simmer sauce and meatballs for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5 While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot with 4 quarts of water in it to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add 1 Tbsp of salt. When the water returns to a boil add the pasta to the pot. Leave the pot uncovered while you cook the pasta on high heat with a vigorous boil. Put a timer on for 8-10 minutes, or whatever your pasta package directions say is appropriate for al dente (cooked but still a little firm). Drain.

To serve, place thin layer of sauce on plate, add pasta, add sauce and meatballs, sprinkle with grated parmesan-romano cheese.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/spaghetti_and_meatballs/

Seafood Pasta with Sherry Tomato Cream Sauce

Ingredients
• Salt
• 1 1/2 pound penne rigate or bow tie pasta
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 2 large shallots, chopped
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• A pinch or 2 crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or seafood stock
• 1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 pound shelled, cooked or raw bulk lobster pieces
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup cream
• A handful chopped chives or parsley or both

Directions
In a large saucepan boil water for the pasta. When water begins to boil add salt liberally, let water return to a boil and cook pasta to al dente. Drain.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat with olive oil, 3 turns of the pan. Add mushrooms, shallots and garlic, red pepper flakes and saute 5 minutes. Deglaze the pan with sherry, stir in stock and tomatoes and bring to a bubble. If using raw seafood, season with lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Raise the heat a bit then add the seasoned seafood and heat through or cook until just about firm and opaque, a couple of minutes. If using cooked seafood, season the seafood when you add it to skillet with lemon zest, salt and pepper.

Stir in heavy cream and toss hot pasta with sauce and chives and/or parsley, adjust seasoning and serve.

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=1886

Broccoli and Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
Cooking spray
2 cups chopped onion $
1 cup presliced mushrooms $
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons butter $
1.1 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1/4 cup)
4 cups 1% low-fat milk $
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
4 ounces uncooked vermicelli, broken into 2-inch pieces
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded light processed cheese (such as Velveeta Light) $
4 cups (1-inch) cubed cooked chicken breast $
3 cups small broccoli florets (8 ounces) $
1 cup half-and-half $
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, mushrooms, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; add butter to mushroom mixture, stirring until butter melts. Sprinkle mushroom mixture with flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Gradually add milk and broth, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 10 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Add pasta to pan; cook 10 minutes. Add cheese to pan, and stir until cheese melts. Add chicken and remaining ingredients to pan; cook 5 minutes or until broccoli is tender and soup is thoroughly heated.
Holly Kapherr, Cooking Light
MARCH 2009

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-chicken-noodle-soup-10000001880025/

Baked Chicken Marsala

Marsala is Italy's most famous version of fortified wine and it makes an outstanding sweet sauce when used in this easy baked chicken Marsala recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup crushed Italian flavored croutons
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms (baby portabella is a favorite)
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Marsala Wine

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes

Preparation

Put thawed chicken breasts in a large ziploc bag and pound chicken into thinner portions with a mallet or rolling pin. Next, crush the croutons in another ziploc bag until they are fairly fine. Melt a half cup of butter in a saucepan with the crushed garlic clove. Then, dredge the chicken through the butter and place in the ziploc bag with the crushed croutons to thoroughly coat the chicken. Place the crouton crusted chicken into a shallow baking dish. Melt a little more butter and add a touch of olive oil to saute the mushrooms and add the sherry once the mushrooms get soft. Let it all simmer for another minute or so. Pour the sauteed mushroom mixture over the coated chicken breasts. Add salt and pepper and a dash of paprika if you like, and then bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with fresh parsley.


Source: http://wine.about.com/od/howwineismade/r/Chickenmarsala.htm