Chicken Cacciatore

This is a very easy recipe. I use to make this a lot while living over seas. It brings back lovely memories.

you will need:
3 Tbsp olive oil
bone in Chicken thighs ( 4 to 6)
1 sweet onion
 8oz fresh portabella mushrooms, sliced
2 chopped garlic cloves ( or 1/2 teaspoon of chopped in a jar)
2-8oz can unsalted tomato sauce
1-16oz can fire roasted tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1/2 to 1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsp unsalted Butter
( combine the following spices together)
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp.  ground thyme
1/2 tsp. ground rosemary

Put the olive oil in a Dutch oven pan, heat on medium heat high heat. Salt and pepper chicken and brown on both sides. remove chicken and set aside.
add onions and cook about 2 minutes add mushrooms and 1/3 of the  mixed spices. cook until the mushroom are cooked down. about 4 minutes.

add tomato sauce and tomatoes, Garlic and about 1/2 Tbsp of the salt,  and 1/3 of the spices,stir well, bring to a boil and taste. add more salt if desire. add bay leaves and stir.

add Chicken on top. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the spices left.   cover turn down the heat to simmer.cook for 30 minutes.
Uncover and sprinkle the rest of the spices on top. continue to cook for 15 uncovered on low ( simmer)
remove chicken and whisk  butter in sauce.
 serve over noodles of your choice top with parmesan cheese if desired. 

copyright 2014 by "Auntie E Cookbook/M Dubros"

Kitchen Gadgets

It has been awhile since I have blogged about  kitchen gadgets. Well I am back and have many new gadgets to share with you all.

The first is a Euro Cuisine Yogurt Maker.
I purchased this with a gift card. The price was 49.00, which I paid zero for. Since the gift card was obtained by points I earned from an account. I like this kind of purchase. Most of the time this is the only way I can get some things I like, and not feel guilty spending the bucks. I got  mine from Williams Sonoma, online ordering.

 Today I decided to give it a try. The ingredients were just two things....Milk and Yogurt. Yes I know, you are asking why yogurt. Well in order to make yogurt you have to have the bacteria. Yogurt has the probiotics in it already. Now you know this is a good bacteria and can be sure the product will be safe and healthier. You may use the powdered one you buy at the speciality stores if you choose.

With this machine you have to heat the milk to 180 and cool it to 110, then add in the yogurt. Pour it into the jars and set the machine. I will give it 10 hour due to I like it firmer. The timer goes up to 15 hours. Will post the recipes and tell you how it turned out later this week.

I wanted a yogurt machine for some time. Was looking at two types. One that you just pour the milk  mixture in cold and it does all the cooking and cooling for you. The other was this one. Looking at both of them I came to the conclusion that the fully automatic one had some down sides I did not like. First of all it cooked in a Plastic container. My thoughts were, what about bacteria and sterilizing the plastic. It is very hard to make sure the plastic is clean and bacteria free. My second thought was the cooling done process. What if you let it go too long, will it just keep it cold. The answers the those questions were not found. The third was the yogurt is made in one container. That makes for a faster turning bad time. Each time you take the yogurt out of the refrigerator it allows air born bacteria in.

Therefore I went with the glass jars and this machine. I thought I could manage the time issue and complete the process. I also felt good about the cleaning of the glass jars. Once I find the prefect timing for my prefect yogurt, I can make it at night and be up to complete it in the morning.

The cost to make the yogurt is about 20cents per 7 oz. that is great compared to the dollar plus in the store for 6oz container.

Roasted Maple Salmon

This is a recipe my daughter loved. It is a really easy one with the cooking time of 15 minutes. A quick dinner paired with a salad and steamed veggies.

You will need:

4 Tablespoon of maple syrup.
2 Tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce
1 Tablespoon grated Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon water.
mix these ingredients together and set aside.

• Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit
• Place 4 fresh salmon fillets( about 6 oz each) in a shallow baking dish,
• top each with one half of the sauce
• Place in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then remove and bast with remaining sauce, return to oven for 5 to 8 minutes more, ( the thickness of the fillet will decided on the time.)

***Note if you want to use frozen fillets you will need to follow these directions:

Place fillets in 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, remove from oven and  put  all the sauce on top, return to oven, turn up to 450 for 10 more minutes.