adventures in the kitchen
Friday, May 29, 2009 Country Cooking at its finest :)

This past Thursday evening, to celebrate three family members' upcoming birthdays, we enjoyed a delicious meal that combined several old family recipes that have been passed down through the generations. Below I have listed a few of those recipes. Though not the healthiest dishes ever, I assure you they will delight your taste buds--especially those of you from the south!

Grammy Jean's Celestial Chicken
As with any old family recipe, this recipe is not very specific in ingredient quantities. If I had to guess, I would say we usually use about 2 lbs. of chicken, about 2-3 cups of buttermilk, about 4-5 Tbsp. sesame seeds and about 1-2 cups of self rising flour. That being said, here is the celestial chicken recipe my Grammy Jean gave my sister-in-law when she married my brother:

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts
Buttermilk (enough to cover chicken breasts)
Sesame Seeds
Self-rising flour
Oil

Directions:
Cut raw chicken breasts into small bite-sized pieces.
Soak cut breasts 2-3 hours in buttermilk, or overnight if possible.
Combine sesame seeds and flour in a pan an thoroughly coat chicken breast pieces.
Drop pieces in hot oil until crispy--only use a small amount of oil because it will burn.

Grammy Jean always serves white sauce with her celestial chicken. She melts about 4 Tbsp. of butter in a small sauce pan, slowly adds about 4 Tbsp. flour to make a paste, then slowly stirs in about 2 cups of milk until it forms a gravy. She seasons it with salt and pepper to her liking.

Grammy Jean's Brown Rice
(this is one of the recipes Grammy Jean gave me when I got married)

Ingredients:
1 stick margarine
3/4 cup white rice
1 onion, chopped
1 can beef consomme soup
2 or 3 beef bullion cubes

Directions:
Put margarine, rice and onion in a skillet and cook until tips of rice begin to brown. Place in baking dish. Add beef consomme and bullion cubes. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.


Mrs. Patterson's Mac-n-Cheese
My mother-in-law was kind enough to share her mother's (Payton's grandmother's)homemade mac-n-cheese recipe with me. It was a huge hit with my family!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup dry macaroni noodles
salt
1 stick butter
Milk
5 eggs
1 lb. cheddar cheese cut up in small blocks
pepper
cooking spray

Boil macaroni noodles for 10 minutes in water salted with 1 tsp. of salt.
Drain noodles and return to pot.
Put one stick of butter in pot with noodles and stir until butter is melted.
Pour milk into pot until the noodles are almost completely covered with the milk (there will be some still sticking up out of the milk, but the majority are covered)
In a separate bowl, stir eggs until they are well mixed. Pour eggs into pot of macaroni and stir.
Add cubed cheese to pot and stir.
Pour macaroni mixture into greased casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until top is light brown.
Posted by kristy :: 6:54 PM :: 0 comments

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Friday, May 1, 2009 Halibut Alaska

I rarely prepare fish at home because I prefer it grilled and I don't have the patience to clean the grill afterward! Baking it tends to make your entire house smell fishy, but this dish created a yummy aroma and was a hit with my whole family. I have a picky husband and a sometimes-picky two year old, so that's really saying something! Try this out if you're looking for something different. I found it on the Kraft site, so it's super easy. I cut the sour cream and mayo way down to save on calories, and it was still really good.  I should have taken a picture, it turned out beautifully. Enjoy!!


Halibut Alaska
1 1/2 lbs Halibut (or Tilapia, any similar fish would work)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup mayonnaise 
1/3 cup grated Parmesan (I used  Sargento's shredded Parmesan, mozzarella, and asiago)
1 Tbsp. lemon pepper seasoning (I used Cavender's Greek seasoning instead)
Dash ground red pepper (cayenne)
3/4 cup Japanese style bread-crumbs (any bread-crumbs will do)

Heat oven to 425. Place fish in 15x10x1 inch pan. (I used a 9x13 Pyrex). Mix all remaining ingredients except bread crumbs. Spoon mixture over fish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake 25 minutes or until top is golden brown and fish flakes easily with fork. 



Posted by kristen g. :: 1:12 PM :: 2 comments

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