Cherry Skillet Chicken with Risotto

This cherry chicken recipe came from a cookbook full of recipes for preparing ahead of time and freezing in bulk.  I actually prepared the cherry chicken dish months ago, so I'll give instructions for the way I made it (freezing and cooking).  The recipe called for dried cherries, but I used cherries that I had "marinated" in port wine (they were left over from making chocolate covered cherries).  I drained all the liquid from maraschino cherries, replaced it with port wine, and let them soak for weeks (a trick I learned from my mom for making chocolate covered cherries).  The chicken can be served over pasta, rice or even on a salad.  I tried it over pasta, but definitely prefer it over the risotto.  I love risotto, and it's such a great side dish for so many meals.  I used to be very intimidated by risotto, but when I actually decided to make it I realized it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had feared.  This is a very basic risotto recipe, you can certainly get much snazzier with it.

Cherry Skillet Chicken
Ingredients

my frozen meal

2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup port wine marinated maraschino cherries (or 1/3 cup dried cherries)
(1/3 cup hot water, if using dried cherries)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup tbsp port wine from cherries
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp sea salt
For cooking:
2 tsp olive oil

Instructions for preparing & freezing
1)  Flatten chicken breasts by laying each between two sheets of wax paper and pounding to 1" thick with either a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.  Place chicken into a 1-gallon freezer bag.
2)  If using dried cherries, put into a small bowl and cover with hot water.  Let stand for 5 minutes.
3)  Add to freezer bag with chicken:  cherries (if using dried cherries, drain water and add cherries to the bag), chicken broth, vinegar, port wine sugar and salt.  Seal and gently shake bag to mix ingredients and distribute cherries.
4)  Freeze.

Instructions for cooking
1)  Completely thaw in refrigerator.
2)  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chicken and cook until it begins to brown, about 3 minutes each side.
3)  Reduce heat to medium-low, and pour cherries and juice over the chicken.  Cover and simmer about 12 to 15 minutes.


Risotto
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
4-5 cups hot chicken broth
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
assorted fresh or dried herbs (I used oregano, parsley and basil)

Instructions
1)  Heat olive oil in a large pot.  Saute onion in oil until translucent.  Add rice and stir until grains are all coated with oil.  Add wine and stir constantly on medium heat until wine is absorbed.
2)  Add 1 cup hot broth, stirring until liquid is absorbed.  Continue cooking for about 20 minutes, adding the broth 1 cup at a time and stirring almost constantly.  The rice creates its own creamy sauce, adding more liquid makes it creamier...so add liquid to desired texture.
3)  Remove from heat, stir in cheese and herbs, and serve immediately.

enjoy!
 ~ j

Biscuits & Gravy

I know I've mentioned breakfast being our favorite meal around Casa de Sharp, and here's another breakfast recipe for you.  I made both recipes and then froze them for enjoyment at a later (lazier) date.  I froze the gravy in muffin pans and then transferred the little gravy muffins to a big zip-loc bag.  The biscuits are star-shaped because I don't have a biscuit cutter, but do have lots of fun cookie cutters.  The stars were just the right size, and I think they make pretty darn cute lil' biscuits.

Cute little stars served up with
some Boca breakfast sausages

Freezer Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 packages dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

5 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup shortening

2 cups buttermilk

Instructions:

1) Dissolve yeast in warm water, set aside.  Sift flour, cut in shortening.  Add yeast and buttermilk to dry ingredients; mix well.  Knead quickly 20 to 30 times.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours.

2) Punch down, roll 1/2" thick.  Cut with biscuit cutter.  Place on a cookie sheet, then freeze.  After frozen place in freezer bag until ready to serve.

3) To prepare:  Place unthawed on cookie sheet in cold oven.  Bake 400 degrees until brown, 25-30 minutes.

**My biscuits turned out a bit on the dense side, but everything I bake here in Denver turns out dense.  I will never be able to adjust for the elevation, so I've given up...but mostly because we're moving down in the world in a few months!  (good for many, many reasons, not just for my baking)  I also think the yeast I used was a little bit on the old side, AND of course, I refuse to use white flour.

The Boca Crumbles definitely made the
gravy less photogenic - I swear that's not cat food!

Country Gravy
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of ground thyme
4 cups milk

Instructions:
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour, salt, pepper and thyme until smooth.  Cook and stir over medium heat until browned, about 10 minutes.  Gradually stir in milk so that no lumps form, and continue cooking and stirring until thickened.  If they gravy becomes too thick, you may thin it with a little more milk.
** I added Boca crumbles to this batch of gravy while I was heating it, which made it look a bit like canned cat food and not very photogenic...but it was really tasty!!

enjoy!
 ~ j

Spinach & Cheese Manicotti (w/freezing instructions!)

Last weekend I went on a cooking and freezing binge.  Every so often I take an entire day (or an entire weekend) and cook up a bunch of meals to freeze.  I love having all this pre-made stuff in my freezer...pre-made by me, not Stouffer's or whoever else makes all that garbage.  One of the dishes I made was manicotti (the recipe came via my mom from allrecipes.com...except for the freezing instructions, those are all me).  Of course, as always, I didn't quite follow the recipe, so I'll do my best with measurements and whatnot.  Cooking is definitely an art, not a science, and 100% depends on your personal tastes (for example, when a recipe calls for garlic or cheese, I always use more than it tells me too).  But I'm really trying to pay more attention to measurements and times so that I can share these a bit more articulately here!  And just a note about the photos, I had a hard time making the cooked stuff look very pretty

Ingredients:

1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese

1 (16 oz) bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

½ cup minced onion

1 egg

2 tsp dried parsley

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

1 ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

spaghetti sauce (see previous "Put down that jar!" post)

1 (8 oz) package manicotti shells

Instructions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350.

2)  In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, onion and egg.  Season with parsley, pepper and garlic powder.  Mix in 1 c mozzarella and ¼ c Parmesan.  (**If you want to freeze this, stop here and skip down to "Freezing Directions.")  

3)  In separate bowl, stir together spaghetti sauce and water.  Spread 1 c sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Stuff uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture, and arrange in a single layer in the dish.  Cover with remaining sauce.  Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

4)  Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 min, or until noodles are soft.

**Freezing Directions:

Cook manicotti shells about 2 minutes less than the instructions tell you too, until slightly softened but not fully cooked.  Drain, rinse and stuff with ricotta mixture.  Place stuffed shells on a waxed paper lined baking sheet, so that they are not touching.  Place manicotti in freezer until frozen through.  Once they are all frozen, place manicotti into a zip-loc freezer bag or other freezer-safe container.

To thaw:  Place desired number of shells in the refrigerator overnight, and then continue with "Step 3" above.  OR continue with "Step 3" using frozen shells, they'll need to cook longer than 45 - 55 minutes (I did mine this way and started with the shells covered with aluminum foil...but I'm not sure how long I ended up cooking them, I just kept checking them).

enjoy!
 ~ j