recipe

KNR, p. 272 “Tomato Basil Chicken Soup”

We love all kinds of soups, but don’t always have broth on hand to make the base for a hearty one. Here’s a recipe that uses a can of soup from the grocery store shelf as the already flavored base, but becomes a filling meal for 3-4 when the other ingredients are added. The prep is simple – takes only ten minutes. Then depending on whether you have a cooked chicken on hand or uncooked chicken cutlets, use a crockpot or a large spaghetti pot, it will take anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours to cook.

 

Chin Bawambi, a previous contributor to our recipes and an enthusiastic cook, often uses a crockpot and this recipe was devised with that in mind. The Kerrian kitchen doesn’t have a crockpot, but we found that a spaghetti pot worked well for us. We just had to watch it and stir more frequently. He promises that no bodies wound up on the floor in his kitchen either, while he worked from home and created this delicious meal.

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"Tomato Basil Chicken Soup"
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2-3
 
Ingredients
  • One can tomato basil soup, Progresso
  • 1/2 can Goya black beans (about one cup)
  • 1 pound uncooked tenderloin chicken, cut into one inch chunks
  • 1 teaspoon Montreal chicken seasoning
  • 6 baby carrots, cut into one inch pieces (about one cup)
  • 3 celery stalks, trimmed and diced, (about one cup)
Instructions
  1. Use a crockpot.
  2. Pour tomato basil soup into the pot, then add black beans.
  3. Place the uncooked chicken chunks on top of the black beans.
  4. Sprinkle the Montreal chicken seasoning on top.
  5. Add carrots and celery and stir entire pot of ingredients until mixed.
  6. Cover and cook at medium high heat for first hour, then drop to low for another hour, stirring every 30 minutes.
  7. Celery and carrots should be fork tender when done.
  8. Serve with garlic bread.
  9. Variation: Chin reveals that the recipe also works well with beef as the meat ingredient.
Notes
Tips:
If using a spaghetti pot on the stovetop, cover and cook on medium for the first half hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes. For the rest of the time, drop the temperature to low and simmer until carrots and celery are tender, stirring every 10-15 minutes.

If using a cooked chicken, chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces, drop into the pot and mix with the other ingredients. Cook on medium heat until veggies are tender, about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

 

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KNR, p. 228 “Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies”

The ‘Season for Everything Pumpkin’ should include a great pumpkin cookie.  🙂

At the Kerrian household, the time between Halloween and New Year’s Day is when we add pumpkin to lots of dishes. Some turn out to be scrumptious, some we never talk about again, but we had never found the right combo for a pumpkin cookie. Until now. By simply adding pumpkin to one of our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes, and tweaking it a bit, this has become a tasty regular snack treat for Autumn.

We (me, any neighbors we could snag, and the mail gal) taste-tested this one until we were satisfied. We might have taken longer than we needed to. Taste-testing is a challenge we take seriously, no matter how many cookies must be eaten.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

great cookie
Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup spreadable butter or margarine (Land O Lakes butter with canola oil works well for this)
  • 1.5 cups firmly packed Domino’s light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup cane sugar
  • 2 jumbo eggs
  • 1.5 cups pureed or canned pumpkin
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 cups all purpose, unbleached King Arthur flour
  • 1 cup semi-sweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • Pre-heat oven to 375
  • In large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until creamy.
  • Add eggs, pumpkin, vanilla, sea salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg, stirring until thoroughly blended.
  • Add flour 1 cup at a time and beat until well-mixed.
  • Mix chocolate chips evenly throughout the dough.
  • Drop 1/4 cup dough for each cookie onto aluminum cookie sheets, about six per sheet.
  • Bake for 15-16 minutes until light golden brown.

Notes

Yield: 20-24 three inch cookies
Eat warm, five minutes out of the oven, or let cool completely and serve with ice cream. Sheila had a bowl of ice cream with a cookie and I made an ice cream sandwich with two cookies. Both of us had pecan praline ice cream with the cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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KNR, p. 202 “The Kerrians’ Famous Mac & Cheese”

 

The temperatures are cooling off and comfort food takes center stage at our house. We fend off the chill with body warming soup and hearty sandwiches, but every once in a while, we like mac & cheese for lunch or dinner.

I like to taste test the new versions with different goodies added to the mix, but there is a basic recipe that Sheila uses (and even I can make) that is fail-safe. We sometimes prepare it ahead and serve it as a side dish if we’re expecting a crowd.

A couple of thoughts: It looks like a lot of instructions, but you’re boiling noodles, grating cheese, making a sauce, and putting it together in layers – like lasagna. No bodies were found while making the latest batch. Promise.  🙂

Here’s our famous Mac & Cheese recipe:

 

The Kerrians' Famous Mac & Cheese

Sheila Kerrian
tasty comfort food
Print Recipe
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine American
Servings 4

Equipment

  • 2 quart baking dish
  • 3 quart pot

Ingredients
  

Noodles

  • 1 8 oz box small elbow noodles
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon butter or margarine for boiling water, to keep noodles from clumping
  • 1 teaspoon butter for tossing noodles

White Sauce

  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • 5 Tablespoons flour
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 pinch ground black pepper

Additional Ingredients

  • 12 oz sharp cheddar, grated
  • 2 cups croutons, seasoned  (we use the garlic & herb variety)
  • 1 cup bacon, crisp, crumbled   *optional
  • 1 whole tomato *optional

Instructions
 

Noodles

  • Bring 1 and 1/2 quarts water to boil in a 3 quart pot, add 2 teaspoons sea salt and stir.
  • Add dry noodles and 1 teaspoon margarine to boiling salted water and stir.
  • Boil noodles until fork tender, stirring frequently (about 20 mins).
  • (While noodles are boiling, prepare the White Sauce.)
  • Thoroughly drain the noodles, toss with 1 teaspoon butter, and set aside.
  • Preheat oven to 375.

White Sauce

  • In one quart pot, melt 4 Tablespoons butter on medium heat, being careful not to burn it.
  • Add 1 Tablespoon flour, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and stir until well blended.
  • Add 4 more Tablespoons flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, stirring each until well-blended and the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pot.
  • Remove from heat. Add 1 cup milk (1/4  cup at a time) stirring until smooth, without clumps.
  • Return to heat and gradually add 3 more cups milk, while stirring. As the sauce thickens, stir to keep it from sticking to the pot and/or clumping. It is ready when it is the consistency of creamy gravy.
  • Add pinch of black pepper. Remove from heat and set aside. It will thicken a bit more while sitting.

Cheese and Assembly

  • Grate all of the cheese and set aside.
  • Use a 2-quart baking dish. You will be assembling the mac & cheese in layers (like lasagna).
  • Spread 1/4 cup of sauce on bottom of baking dish.
  • Spread 1/3 of the noodles in the bottom.
  • Spread 1/3 of the remaining white sauce on the noodles.
  • Sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese on top of the sauce.
  • Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the croutons on top of the cheese.
  • Repeat the layers twice more, but with the top layer, crumble the remaining croutons and spread evenly on top.
  • Bake at 375 until heated through and cheese is bubbly, about 20 minutes, no lid.
  • Serve with salad.

Notes

Options: Create a well in the center of a whole tomato and serve mac & cheese in it.
Sprinkle crumbled bacon on top of mac & cheese as a garnish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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