Friday Feast: Chicken Divan Casserole

When I became an Ahern I tasted Chicken Divan for the first time and it has become a favorite of mine and our kids love it too!  I will always remember sitting around my In Laws' kitchen table on birthdays and enjoying this delicious casserole while the vegetarians at the table ate from a separate dish in which my Mother-In-Law had prepared a version without meat. 

I got the recipe from my Mother-in-Law and started making it all the time. Over the years our recipe evolved and I am honestly not sure how close it is to the original any more, but this is how our family likes it.  The word "casserole" is in the name since traditional Chicken Divan is made separate from the rice and served along side it. 

(Click to enlarge. Then right click and choose "Save Photo". Print as a 4x6" photo.)

[ emilie ]

fun food: mini veggie pizzas

Looking for a way to get your kids to eat more veggies (read: shove veggies down your kid's throats if you have to)? I have a clever trick. Mini Veggie Pizzas. My kids love them and I do too. They are addictive and it's a good thing because you can load these up to high heaven with as many fresh veggies as you want.

6 english muffins (or 12 halves)

1/2 brick cream cheese

1/4 c. mayonnaise

2 tsp. dry ranch dressing mix

assorted vegetables, chopped finely
(we use tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, peppers, green onions & cauliflower)

* you may choose to use low or non-fat cream cheese and
use lowfat mayo or omit the mayo for a healthier version.

- Toast english muffins and set aside to cool.

- Use an electric mixer to combine cream cheese, mayo and ranch powder.

- Chop an assortment of veggies into small pieces. Make sure as you chop you have a variety of shapes...some small squares, half circles, long strips, etc.

- Spread 1-2 Tbsp of cream cheese spread onto each english muffin half.

- Have kids decorate their muffin with veggies to create a face with an emotion.  This can be one they choose or assigned (since most will automatically choose a happy face). 

Ella made this one and it is surprised!

- Eat up and love that your kids ate their veggies.

 As you can see, Ella loves them.Evangeline makes the face with a variety of veggies, picks off the broccoli to eat and then rejects the rest...muffin and all. I would LOVE to know if this recipe works for you.  Did your veggie-hater reform? 

[ emilie ]

Friday Feast: Classic Quiche

I love pie in any form.  So quiche is a classic at our house.  The great thing about a quiche is, that like Cheesy Potato and Whatever Soup, you can chuck in whatever stuff you have in your fridge.  Eggs, crust and cheese stay constant, but everything else can be random and very experimental (fun or dangerous: you decide).

And go ahead, use a pre-made refrigerator pie crust. It's all good.

Quiche is an oddly outdated meal, but try it...you'll like it!



(click to enlarge. then right click and save. print as a 4x6" photo)



Friday Feast: Best Banana Bread

I am pretty much in love with banana bread. It's perfection. I always buy 5 bundles of bananas at a time so we have enough left over to allow them to turn brown and sweet and perfect for banana bread.

This was the very first recipe that I really made up. I made tweak after tweak to a base recipe that finally it hardly resembled the base recipe at all. You can also replace ALL of the regular flour with whole wheat pastry flour and it pretty much tastes the same.  Awesome!  And my mother declares this the very best banana bread she has ever tasted. I hope you like it too.

EMILIE'S BEST BANANA BREAD

1 3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

4-5 very ripe bananas

1/3 c. butter, softened (or margarine)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. banana extract

2 T. milk

2 eggs

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fit with a paddle attachment, mix bananas until mostly smooth.

3. Add butter, vanilla, banana extract, eggs, and milk. Mix until well combined.

4. Add dry ingredients to mixer and mix until just combined (do not over-mix).

5. Spray just the bottoms of 2 small loaf pans with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly between pans.

6. Bake @ 350 for 30-40 minutes.

7. You may also choose to make one large loaf in a bread size pan. Bake @ 350 for 50-60 minutes (cover with foil if top become too brown).

8. Remove from oven and place on cooling racks. Brush tops of loaves with some additional butter while still hot.

9. Once cooled wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store for up to 3 days.

Friday Feast: Creamy Italian Chicken

Some recipes just remind you of a person.  I got this recipe from a member of my church two years ago named Nancy Winn.  She was my Visiting Teacher (an LDS woman who is assigned to visit another woman each month).  At the time I had a 3 year old and a 1 year old.  During her monthly visits she always brought a little gift for me, shared a message of faith and then did something to serve me. 

On one monthly visit she dropped off a big helping of this recipe.  It was amazingly good and our little family gobbled it up!  When I called her later, with pen in hand, to ask for the recipe, she gave it to me off the top of her head....that's when you know a recipe is well loved by a family.  And now it is very well loved by our family too!  Thanks Nancy!

Dinner Party: Month 1

As I mentioned here, after reading The Reluctant Entertainer I decided to entertain in my home at least once a month. Now, before this time, our dinner parties have been extremely informal and have included me being stressed out, frazzled and witchy to my family on the day of the party (ie: Why is our bathroom so messy! Gosh!!!).

Having read the book we made some changes, did well at some concepts and struggled with others. Here's the skinny...

What we did well:
- The morning of the party arrived blustery and cold.  We had planned on making ribs and the bar-b-que fixings, but changed over to a simpler menu. I made my Slow Cooker Beef Stew, bought greens for a salad and mixed up a batch of 5 Minute Artisan Bread.  This change was wonderful because it (a) allowed more time to tidy the house, which needed tidying and (b) was easy and worry free.


(click to enlarge. then right click and save as. print as a 4x6" photo)

- I asked our guests to bring the dessert.
- I purchased a $10 table cloth from TJ Maxx which covered our battered kitchen table and made me feel very grown-up indeed.
- We had the table already set when our guests arrived so we could focus on being present with them, catching up and being relaxed.
- Ahead of time I designed and printed simple place cards and let Ella (6) write the names of our family and our guests on them.  It was a fun and meaningful touch.

What needs improvement:
- I should have run the tablecloth in the dryer with a steam ball after taking it from the package. It was very wrinkled. Not a big deal, but good to remember for next time.
- I apologized for the salad not having fancy salad fixings.
- I realized we need a fancy water pitcher.  And by fancy I don't mean crystal, I only mean NOT plastic.  Next on my small to-buy list.
- I should have offered more varied side dish options, like red grapes and cheeses. This would have made the fact that our guests' kids didn't care for the stew less noticable and also would have given them other healthy options to eat instead of avoiding dinner all together....they could have snacked on bread, grapes and cheese.
- We ran out of eating utensils for dessert. Again, not a big deal, but maybe we should invest in some inexpensive additional forks/spoons.

Overall I was very happy with our progress.  I was especially grateful for my choice of menu. It was warm, comforting and not stressful to prepare.  When I realized that a bay leaf had remained in the pot I simply declared whoever found it the winner of the night. 

Hello new relaxed attitude!



*beef stew photo by blogchef.net

Friday Feast: Cheesy Potato & Whatever Soup

I guess this could also be called Cheesy Potato and 'Leftover Veggie' Soup. It's my go-to creation on unexpectedly blustery days when there are a few rag tag veggies just hanging out in my fridge. You could increase the amount of potatoes and just leave it as a Cheesy Potato Soup, but why not put those extra veggies into action!  You could add brocoli and cauliflower as I did this past week.  You can also add diced carrots, cabbage, asparagus, sauteed bell pepers....probably not all in the same pot....whatever. 

Is this low calorie?  I guess it could be based on the choices you make in low fat cheeses and milk.  But it's probably okay to indulge in a truly hearty, thick and comforting soup once in a while.  Right?

Oh, and sprinkle some crumbled bacon over the top sometime...just for me.

- Click recipe card to enlarge.

- Right click and choose "save as" to save to your computer.

- print on home printer or have printed at a photo lab in 4x6" size.

Enjoy!

my recipe box: monkey buns

I mentioned monkey buns on this blog once and about a million of you asked for the recipe. Well, I finally got my act together enough last night to take step by step photos to post here. This has been a tradition in my family for 30 years. It is delightfully sticky and caramel-y and completely bad for you, but oh, so good.

You start this process the night before you want to have your sticky buns.

1. Generously grease a bundt pan with cooking spray or crisco. Make sure you grease all the way to the top and the middle flute.

2. Add 16 frozen Rhodes Roll balls evenly in the bundt pan.

3. Melt 1/2 c. butter in the microwave.

4. Add 1/2 c. brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.

5. Add 1/2 package of Jello brand Cook N' Serve butterscotch pudding from the small box. I usually just eyeball what is half.

6. Whisk together and pour evenly on top of rolls.

7. Grease underside of plastic wrap and place lightly over bundt pan.

8. Place on counter top and let rise overnight.

9. In the morning, these will have risen to the top of the pan (and sometimes ballooned slightly over the top). Gently remove the plastic wrap and place bundt pan into a cold oven on the second to bottom rack.

10. Turn on oven to 350* and let bake for 15 minutes.

11. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes in the pan. Invert carefully onto a plate (larger than the diameter of the bundt pan) and go crazy! Pull off buns from the ring...careful!....they're hot! Lick your fingers and get ready to come away a sticky, but happy, mess.

MONKEY BUNS
16 Rhodes frozen rolls
1/2 c. melted butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 pkg. cook n' serve butterscotch pudding (small box)

1. Generously grease a bundt pan with cooking spray or crisco. Make sure you grease all the way to the top and the middle flute.
2. Place 16 rolls in bundt pan.
3. Combine melted butter with other ingredient in a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
4. Pour over rolls and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let rise overnight.
5. Uncover and place in cold oven on 2nd to bottom rack. Turn on oven to 350* and set timer for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Invert onto serving plate.
Caution: buns will be hot! 

You can also print out the 4x6" recipe card by clicking below to enlarge. Then right click and choose 'Save Picture". Print and cut along grey cutting guides.

freebie: recipe card template

It's been a month or two since I featured the wonderful recipe cards designed by Emily Merritt.  I have been transferring a few recipes over to these cards and realized, after much typing and resizing of text, that the cards weren't working well for me.  Being somewhat of a foodie, my recipes have too much info to fit on the card when the photo is so large.  So, I have made a slight modification to my template (based on Emily's original).  I thought I would share in case some of you had the same problem.

My new template has a smaller square photo in the top corner, leaving room beneath for additional recipe instructions.  This download is a layered Photoshop file.  It also includes cutting guides for easier trimming after printing.  If you don't want the trimming lines and excess space, simply open file and change "Canvas Size" to 4x6 inches.

Download my modified recipe card template here.

The font for Recipe category ifs Fling LET and can be downloaded for free here.

lemon drop cookies

i adore lemon and this recipe is perfect for Spring!
i made it up this weekend over the course of three different batches.
there are lemon drop candy pieces inside the cookies.

the result? Chewy, lemony, crunchy, delightful.

click to enlarge to original size, right click and choose "save picture"

then print onto 4x6 card or as a 4x6" photo.

*adapted from a recipe from Taste of Home magazine.

i was late...way late.

here goes modesty out the window.

i am usually on top of things.

i snagged the demi moore "ghost" haircut in the same year the movie came out (with disastrous results). i blogged before everyone had a blog. i knew about jack johnson when he was still an unknown indie artist. you get the picture.

and yet...

i have never read The Pioneer Woman blog.

i heard about it years ago, but for some reason i never latched on.

until now.

know what changed my mind?

mac 'n cheese.

i made it last night for dinner (with some modifications)

and it was divine! heaven! sinful!

here is the ensuing recipe card for my files.

click picture below to enlarge, then right click and
choose "save" to have your very own copy in 4x6" format.

note: my changes to the recipe are on the card above.

i am late to the party...but i am a believer.

and there's only one thing left to say,

pioneer woman mac 'n cheese....you. complete. me.

Recipe: Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here in the Ahern household, we take this holiday pretty seriously. Check out our wicked-cool Coat of Arms pictured left.  You don't want to mess with a Wild Heron...or three!

But I'm pretty sure you may be more interested in this..my Irish Soda Bread Recipe. It's quick, easy and delicious! If you're not a bread maker don't worry! There's no yeast and it's goof proof!

Make it tonight! Click here for the printable 4x6" recipe card pictured below.  It's the first in a series of printable recipe cards from my kitchen to yours...per your request! 

Simply open the pdf, print and trim to 4x6".  Enjoy!

Ahern Irish Soda Bread Yields 1 loaf

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour or substitute with ¾ c. flour + 2 T. cornstarch
2 T. granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3 T. unsalted butter (2 tablespoons softened + 1 tablespoon melted)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or substitute with 1½ c. milk + 1½ T. lemon juice or vinegar

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in large bowl.
- Work softened butter into dry ingredients with fork or fingertips until texture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add buttermilk and stir with a fork just until dough begins to come together. Turn out onto flour-coated work surface.
- Knead until dough just becomes cohesive and bumpy (do not knead until dough is smooth, or bread will be tough.)
- Pat dough into a round about 6 in in diameter and 2 in high and place on greased baking sheet and cut a cross in the top.
- Bake at 400* 20-30 mintues or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.
- Brush top with melted butter.

Note: this bread is always best warm. When it cools it loses some of its magic so make it right in time for dinner!