Caramel Apple Rice Pudding a Canning No-No??

Caramel apple rice pudding is usually a big no-no where the FDA is concerned or you won't find it in any canning recipe book out there, but the rebel in me tried it.  You know what... it's delicious and it works! It's a shelf stable snack or dessert. Within all the power outages going on, it was worth a try. So far it's been on my pantry shelves for five months and it's still as good as when I first canned it. I think this is a keeper for my fall canning repertoire. So I'm sharing it with you.

Back in May last year, I tried my hand at making rice pudding my way. I liked it so much I decided to try and can some so whenever I wanted a quick dessert or snack I could have it. You know me, I'm all about making it once and enjoying it many times. I've been canning rice and milk products for more than a couple of years now with no ill effects, so why not rice pudding? Worse comes to worse it would be a failure.

Turns out that Mel doesn't like rice pudding so I'll be canning these in half pint jars just for me. (grinning, goody-goody gum drops!) This was an experiment so I only tried a case of jars. I figured one testing jar per month. If it held true for twelve months, I'd do full pint jars next fall. This way I could have two servings for me within a week if I wanted it.

Caramel Apple Rice Pudding

8- 1/2 pint jars

What you'll need

6 cups diced peeled apples, small dice* 1/2 cup water 2.5 cups white sugar 2.5 cups brown sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 TBS raisin for each jar

1/4 c long grain white rice per jar, rinsed well

milk to fill jars

*NOTE- I used my Vidalia Onion Chopper's small grate or you can hand chop apples into 1/4" pieces.

Putting it all together

• In medium saucepan combine apples, water, white and brown sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• Over medium heat bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes stirring constantly to prevent burning.
• Remove from heat and stir in vanilla mixing well.
• Place 2TBS of apple mixture in each jar.
• Add raisins and rice to each jar.
• Top each jar to 1" headspace with milk.
• Using the debubbling tool stir contents of each jar.
• Wipe rims with towel to remove any splashed contents, lid and band jars.
• Place hot jars in a hot pressure canner.
• Seal and vent for 10 minutes. Pressure can for 15 minutes per your altitude.

There you have it. Caramel Apple Rice pudding in a jar. It's shelf stable for an anytime dessert or snack. The above picture shows a garnish of sliced fresh apple, sprinkle of additional cinnamon and small mint leaves with the rice pudding in a bowl. For just me, I'll simply grab a spoon and eat it out of the jar.

Now if you are one of those folks that want everything tried and approved by the powers that be, go ahead and ignore this recipe. It's canning with grains and milk which are not approve for home canning. But my house, my rules.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: Cream of Anything Dry Soup Mix

 Have you ever notice how many recipes call for Cream of something soup? I usually keep my condensed cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup canned (2 cases worth at all times in my food stores). I get nervous when I get below a case of my cream of anything soup gets low. The same thing goes for soup bases like poultry, beef, and vegetable.

Now being a scratch cook that makes her own bases, usually bone broths for the added minerals and vitamins, I spend hours making just these and canning them up because I love my body. My body, such as it is, is my temple for God. I take care of it the best I can. No MSG, low fat, low sodium, GMOs, and organic when I can get it. Read available and afford it. Not everything is this way, but I do try. By the same token, I'm not opposed to shortcuts like purchasing powdered bases and bouillons also in a pinch. This is the case with most of my dry mixes. Yes, I have access to a freeze dryer to make my own, but when averaging out the cost and time to make my own versus purchasing it, buying it in bulk wins.

This isn't my recipe, but it's pretty much standardized from many recipes. I make this up a quart jar at a time, then I'm less panicky when my food stores run low. If you have dehydrated vegetables and poultry on hand, then you can make Cream of anything soup by just adding water and a few extra ingredients to this base.

Dry Mix for Cream of Anything Soup

Makes Approximately 9 cups

What you'll need

2 c dry, whole milk (I use Hooiser Farms brand through Amazon)*

3/4 c cornstarch

2TBS onion powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 c chicken, beef, or vegetable bouillon*

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp parsley

2 tsp garlic powder (optional)

* Note- If you are watching your fat, you can substitute skim dry milk.

Can't decide what flavor to use, leave this out and add 1/2 tsp of base when you make a cup of soup. These recipes are pretty forgiving. 

Place in a quart jar and shake well. Store in cool, dark place.

Now how about some recipes on how to make a cup of soup? You know I wouldn't leave you hanging.

Cream of Chicken  Soup

What you'll need

1/3 c cream of Anything base

1 cup boiled water

1/2 tsp chicken bouillon if you didn't add it earlier

1 heaping TBS dried diced chicken or canned chicken

Putting it all together

• Add all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir well.
• Bring to a boil.
• Turn off the heat.
• Put lid on the pot and let steep for 5 minutes.
• Like a thicker soup? Return to low heat and stir until the soup reaches the desired consistency.

Cream of Celery Soup

What you'll need

1/3 cup of Anything Soup Base

1 cup water

1 heaping TBS dehydrated celery

1/2 tsp vegetable base, if not added to the mix

1/2 tsp celery seed, ground

Putting it together

Same directions as above.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

What you'll need

1/3 cup Anything Soup Base

1 cup water

1 heaping TBS dehydrated mushrooms, broken into small pieces

1/2 tsp either beef or vegetable base

Putting it together

Same instructions as above

Cream of Tomato Soup

I don't know about you, but I normally add milk to my tomato soup for the richer mouth feel.

What you'll need

1/3 cup of Anything Soup Base

1 cup of water

2 TBS tomato powder*

1 heaping TBS dried diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp vegetable or beef base if not added to the mix

1/4 tsp basil

*To make tomato powder, place dried tomatoes in a coffee grinder and pulse it until the pieces become powder.

Putting it together

See Cream of Chicken instruction.

The possibilities are endless. Cheese sauces, or casseroles, or have a different cream soup everyday for a month. Fix a sandwich and a small tossed salad for a complete, notorious lunch or dinner in a snap with this Cream of Anything Soup base in your pantry. There's no need to have to rush out to the grocery store for a can of Cream of Anything Soup because you forgot to pick some up.. Enjoy!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: Got Leftovers? Frugal Cooking

When I was a professional chef, oft times there'd be leftover cooked meats and vegetables. These had to be remade into a new line item, "day's special," within 3 days. In homesteading or homemaking, it's no different. No mouthful is wasted. Just like in business, waste equals loss time and money. You took the time to grow your own vegetables with the optimal (and sometimes, sub optimal results). Still, every mouthful used counts against hunger, right?

My take on leftovers is this. If the dish has enough left over to serve again as a meal then do so once. Everything still leftover after that is judged whether or not it will make another meal or more. If this is the case, it is divided up into meal sized portions and frozen. I don't can what has been cooked twice. If there is less than a meal portion, the leftover is remade into something else. Sometimes, there is just the need to clean out the refrigerator which is usually my case.

With egg production and sales ramping up, our refrigerator is slap full of eggs. At least one designated shelf is. Our refrigerator is set up with four shelves and fresh compartments at the bottom. The top shelf is drinks (sodas, ice tea, milk, and items too large to fit anywhere else). The next shelf is leftovers. The third shelf is eggs (6 flats of 30 plus 6 dozen cartons of eggs). All are spoken for and waiting on delivery. We are collecting over a dozen eggs a day and have two brooding hens sitting on a dozen eggs. The last shelf is pans of meat for the week. The bottom compartments is sandwich meats/cheeses and fresh vegetables. I imagine yours is set up something similarly (maybe not with the all the eggs).😉

When the leftover shelf is full of leftover in food containers, it's time to clean the refrigerator. It takes about a week to get full even with putting items in the freezer and using them. The coolers come out and the refrigerator is emptied, and then broken down and cleaned top to bottom. What can I say, old chef's training dies hard.

I take an inventory of what is leftover and make a meal out of it. Less than a single servings of vegetables are put in the "soup" container in my freezer. It's a recycled gallon mayonnaise jar from our grocery store deli. When one gallon is full, I'll make a pot of soup.  Or, when two gallons are full, I'll can the soup. Every mouthful counts.

Today was "clean out the frig day." I'm looking at the less than 1/4 lb of each of raw ground beef and deer sausage, onion small onion with green leaves on the top, 1 forlorn clove of garlic that was turning brown, 3 cayenne peppers I had picked earlier, less than a cup of rice, 3 homemade flour tortillas, a meal's worth of corn, a 1/2"x 4" block of cheddar cheese, and a rib of limp celery.

A menu began forming in my mind. Tonight, I'd go south of the border to Mexico. Well, sort of. Call it a American/Caribbean version of their dishes. What changes a meat laced side dish into an entrée? The amount of meat used, of course. I had almost 1/2 a pound which is more than enough for two adults.

Dirty Rice, Leftover Style
Makes 3 servings

What you'll need

1/2 lb ground meat or any combination
1 small onion, diced green and all
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 bell pepper, chopped*
1 rib of celery, chopped leaves and all
1 cayenne pepper, seeds and ribs removed
1 tsp Cajun spice blend*
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup rice, cooked
                                                             1/2 cup beef broth
                                                             Salt to taste

* Notes- I omitted the bell pepper because Mel doesn't like them.
*Are you still buying the salt laden Cajun seasoning? Why? You probably have all the ingredients to make it in your spice rack already. Hold on, I can fix this for you.

Cajun Seasoning Blend
Makes 1 cup

What you'll need

2 TBS paprika- sweet, smoky, or common
2 TBS garlic powder
2 TBS dried oregano
2 TBS onion powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin
About 1 TBS oil or fat from meat

• Place all ingredients in coffee grinder and pulse until mixture is coarse ground as shown in the picture. Store in air tight container.

Putting it all together

• Brown ground meat in a medium saucepan.
•  Drain off remaining fat, leaving 1 TBS of fat in the meat. *
• Add onions, celery, garlic, pepper, and seasonings to the pot.
• Cook until the onions are translucent. Add beef broth.
• Be sure to scrape the caramelized bits off the bottom of the pot.
• Add the rice. Stir well. Bring back to a boil.
• Reduce heat to low, cover the pot and let steam for 10 minutes.
• Serve.

The leftover tortillas and the little bit of cheese made quesadillas. Three-quarters of one made an excellent serving size. I reheated the corn with some butter. I had dinner whipped up lickity-split and who would know except you that it was made from leftovers or the condition some of the vegetables were in? It was delicious and my refrigerator is clean too.

Wow😲 this makes close to 100 recipes, cooking stories, how to cooking/culinary back to basics skills, and tips/notes I've posted in here! I still have so much more to share.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: Figs

True confession time, as a child, I hated figs, but my mother loved them. It wasn't until I became am adult that I started craving this fruit. Sunday, I told you about our fig and cherry harvest. Today, I'm sharing with you my two/three all time favorite recipes that use this wonderful fruit. We grow Black Mission figs and Celeste, white, figs here on our homestead. But here in the south, the Brown Turkey is the standard. It's the subtle taste difference that made me choose the previous two figs rather than the standard Georgia standard.

This picture does not do justice to size and color variations. white fig fruit is almost 1 and a half times larger than the brown, while the black fig is slightly smaller than the brown. The taste is what strongly differentiates for me. The white fig, being Italian in origin and the most fleshy, has a thicker honey sweetness to it while the black wins in overall sweetness. The brown tastes like a watered down syrup of the black fig. The red parts coloring (the seeds) I'll equate to wines. The whites are more pinkish like a rose, while the brown has the color of a good table red, and the black is compared to a claret or burgundy. So you can see why I passed on the brown figs. For me, it flavor, flavor, FLAVOR.

Up today is three and a mini recipes. One savory and two sweet. The pork loin dish is one we used to serve at a restaurant I used to work for many decades ago that served Mediterranean fare. When you think of fig cookies, what do you think of... Fig Newtons, of course. Here's an old knock off version of them.

Pork Tenderloin with Figs

Serves 4

This has a lot of steps and takes about 12 hours in preparation, but well worth it!

What you'll need

1 pork tenderloin, about 1 1/2 lbs, silver skin removed

12 fresh, ripe figs, cut in half lengthwise

8 queen green olives, pitted

8 black olives, pitted

1 large red onion, quartered, leave root end in tact

Marinade for pork

2 TBS fig butter, recipe below

2 TBS whole grain mustard

2 small cloves of garlic, minced

1TBS Thyme 

1 TBS rosemary

Salt and pepper, about 1/2 tsp of each to taste

                                           2 TBS Olive oil

 Rub on pork loin and place in the refrigerator for 8 hours to marinate.

Poaching liquid figs

¼ cup red wine,

¼ cup honey

¼ cup fig butter

   In a saucepan, on low heat, add everything in except the figs.
·       Heat n medium heat just until the honey is fully incorporated.
·       Add the halved figs in and poach them on low heat until they absorb the flavors and plump up.
·       When finished let it butter cool down and the syrup thickens. It will take on average of 25-30 minutes cooking time.

Putting it all together 

• ·       Sear the pork tenderloin on all sides, getting a nice golden brown.
• ·       Place the seared tenderloin into a baking dish along with your quartered and fanned out red onion and the olives.
• ·       Add the plumped up and thickened figs all around the baking dish and spoon some of the thick syrup on the top and sides of the seared tenderloin, this will act as a glaze.
• ·       Roast at 400F for 20 minutes or until internal meat thermometer reaches 145 temperature.
• ·       Let it rest 5 minutes before slicing.
• ·       Make sure each serving has a little bit of everything.
  
  

Fig Newtons
My children gladly picked figs all day if I would promise to make them these.

What you’ll need

1 pint fresh 9-12,or preserved figs, or 12 ounces dried figs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter
1/3 cup sugar
                                                       1 egg
                                                        1 tsp vanilla extract
                                                        2 TBS orange juice

Putting it all together

• ·       Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.
• ·       Add egg, vanilla, orange juice and combined dry ingredients to bowl and mix until dough forms.
• ·       Roll dough out on a floured surface into a 8”x14” rectangle about ¼” thick.
• ·       Cut rectangle in half lengthwise.
• ·       Spread fig paste onto half of each rectangle, lengthwise. To make fig paste puree fresh figs and drain liquid. If using dried figs mince fine.
• ·       Fold dough in half lengthwise to cover fig paste and pinch edges to seal.
• ·       Cut each log in half and transfer onto a greased baking sheet.
• ·       Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees until crust begins to brown.
• ·       Slice into cookie-sized segments and cool.

Fig Butter

Makes about 1 ¾ cups of fig butter.

What you’ll need

1 pint fresh figs, diced

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

2 TBS lemon juice

Putting it all together

• ·       Place all ingredients in a saucepan.
• ·       Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
• ·       Simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• ·       Mash figs into a puree.
• ·       Drain and cool.

I have no idea what's going on with my bullets?! I swear I didn't do anything other than hit the button.

There you go folks, three and a mini recipes using figs. I'll understand if you hold off making the pork loin for a weekend night. It's an extra special dish with extra little components to make.

In the restaurant, we prepared 40 servings a night and always sold out by the end of the night. We actually seared the pork loins over hot coals to enhance the flavors. We made the fig butter by the gallon every Monday. We sold it for $20 a serving in the 1980s. I believe it now it sells for $45.  It's an excellent the-boss-is-coming-for-dinner entrée, if they still do that. It's a salty-sweet-savory dish to impress and totally worth it. Y'all enjoy!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: French Fried Green Beans with Two Sauces

Well, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned making some French fried green beans as a serving suggestion. That brought a flurry of folks wanting my recipe for them. So today, I'm granting their wish.

A shameless plug

I guess it was introduced to these by our food distributor as a new line of products for my restaurant. It struck me as bar food rather than food you'd order in a restaurant. Was I ever wrong. In the past dozen years, French fried green beans have taken the country by storm as a "healthier" alternative to French fries. It really isn't when you look at the numbers. It's a perceived notion. Anything fried in oil is not good for you.

Don't get me wrong, I love deep oil fried foods too. I just use an air fryer or oven and alter the recipe a bit these days for my health's sake. Nowadays, I'll swap out potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans for variety in my menu. Although Whirling Dervish, Mel's cat, would rather have potatoes. she'll eat the other two also.

This recipe is keto friendly and gluten free also. Why? Because I like the fine texture of rice flour for a lighter coating over wheat flour. The lighter texture enhances the garlic/Italian seasoning and Parmesan flavors too. I'll enclose a note on how I premake them for the freezer at the end. I'll multiply this recipe by four for each gallon bag of beans in the freezer.

Jo's French Fried Green Beans
Serving 4

What you'll need

1 lb fresh green beans, washed and ends trimmed
1 cup rice flour
1 1/2 cups beer, any that you like
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/8 tsp cayenne, ground
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste

Sauce 1- Lemon Garlic Aioli
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 lemon, zest and juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, finely minced or paste
1/2 tsp parsley, minced fresh is preferred

Sauce 2- Sriracha Kiss
1 cup Ranch dressing
2 tsp Sriracha sauce
1 tsp prepared horseradish

• 
  
• Putting it all together
• 
  
• 
  
• In a medium sized bowl, add beer, flour, cheese, and herbs. Mix well.
• Add green beans and coat in the batter.
• Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees
• Line basket with parchment paper and place beans in a single layer.
• Set air fryer to 400 degrees for 12 minutes. If oil frying them, place in 400 degree hot oil and fry until golden, about 4-5 minutes. Drain on several layers of paper towels and salt them. If oven frying, place on parchment lined baking sheet. 400 degree oven for 12 minutes or golden.

For sauce 1- Lemon Garlic Aioli

• Combine all ingredients in mini food processor or blender. 
• Pulse until almost smooth. There will be bits of parsley left.
• Refrigerate covered 1 hour before serving.
• Can be stored for two days. 

For sauce 2- Sriracha Kiss

• Combine all ingredients.
• Refrigerate covered for 1 hour before serving.

This side dish can be served along with any sandwich, or singly as an appetizer. For an extra fancy presentation serve in a large, triangular coffee filter placed in a large martini glass. Pour dipping sauces in shot glasses. or stack them Lincoln log box fashion with choice of dipping sauce in the center. Or, simply as a side dish piling them lengthwise as you would asparagus on the plate drizzling dipping sauce on top. Enjoy!

Oh, when preparing this for the freezer, air fry for 4 minutes, oil fry for 3 minutes at 320 degrees and drain, or bake for 6 minutes. Place green beans on a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer not touching and freeze overnight 6-8 hours. Place beans in a freezer bag and freeze. To cook, place frozen beans in the air fryer, oven, or  pan of oil for recommended time and temperature given in the recipe.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: Grilled Spatchcock Chicken

I had to opportunity to butcher some chickens with a neighboring homesteader recently. Since this neighbor was new to butchering animals, my payment for teaching them the ins and outs of the techniques was half a dozen legs and thighs out of the forty they were butchering.

Homesteaders can spend a small fortune on specialty butchering products like propane fired deep kettles for scalding the birds, butchering tables, assorted special knives, a plucker, etc. We set the date for a weekend after the chickens were 12-weeks old. Like most folks coming off the government lockdown, money was tight.

The husband asked, "What do we need?"

The wife grabbed her notebook to write it all down. 

The husband was ready to mentally tabulate what they'd have to spend.

I rattled off my list. "Your water bath canner pot, a couple really sharp knives, a sharp pair of garden shears or kitchen shears, a work table, a meat thermometer, a couple 5-gallon bucket, and an ice cooler. Oh, and some clothes you don't  mind getting dirty in."

They smiled and answered back immediately, "We got all of that! Except a worktable."

"No worries. You still got that old door in the barn, two empty trash cans, and an old tarp? 

They nodded. 

"Clean 'em up with bleach, and then we got us a worktable!"

When I asked them how they were going to use the chickens (the chef in me snuck out), About half  were going to be cut into pieces for frying and about 15 birds would be left whole for roasting. The wife, being a city girl, had no idea how to cut up a chicken, but she'd watch others do it.

They had been on YouTube watching videos of people butchering chickens. They saw all the equipment, the dollar signs were rolling into a tidy sum equaling a house payment and they were worried. 

This was their first venture into raising their own meat. They didn't even know if they wanted to do this yet. Some people like my roommate, find the process distasteful. They'll do anything else to homestead but leaves the butchering to someone else. Me, I don't feel that way. I believe God populated the Earth with animals to help, feed, and clothe us. They should be cared for and respected throughout their lives until that time comes. The fact is, you can get it if you want it, but you DON'T HAVE TO HAVE IT. I teach the basics first. Remember my old chef's motto, Have knife and I'll cook? Well, it's the same for butchering.

Butchering day came. The night before I went over and helped them setup because we'd start at 8AM. I arrived an found the couple, his tween son from another marriage, and one and half sets of parents. Her father had to work. I started the class, "I didn't know we'd have so many hands today. Welcome to how to butcher a chicken 101. "

My teaching method is is simple; see one, do one, show one to teach one, and pass it on. The site I chose was close to the house and a faucet. I'd instructed hubby dearest to start a fire in the fire pit and to put the kettle on to heat by 7:30. I checked the temperature with the thermometer. It was right at 140 degrees and I poked the wood some. "You want to the temperature at 150-160 degrees before you butcher your first chicken."

I won't bored you readers with the slaughter and butchering process except to tell you how to spatchcock a chicken. There's just three steps:

1. Cut along either side of the back bone and place spine aside, 

1. Remove the chicken innards and turn the chicken breast side up.

1. Press hard on the center of the breast until you hear it crack. You will notice that the chicken now lays flat.

Congratulations! You've just spatchcocked your first chicken.

Now what can you do with it? Quite a bit. Spatchcocking a chicken is the first step of a partially deboned chicken, you can grill it in less time, it makes it easier to cut into pieces, roast it, you can do almost anything to it. I rarely hear at the dinner table, "I want the back pieces, please."

By Spatchcocking a chicken before you cut it up into pieces, it's easier to see where the cuts are for leg, thighs, wings. and breasts. I was teaching our homestead newbie wife how to cut up a chicken too. I was horrified to learn that they only wanted the breast meat and only a little bit of dark meat. That's our favorite part. We saved the back, hearts, livers, gizzards, and feet of the birds for broth, and the organs for pet food. The heads and other innards went to another homesteader's hogs. The feather went into the compost pile. Nothing was wasted. With so many hands working all forty chickens were in the cooler full of salted ice water for the night by early afternoon. Waste not want not.

What?! Is that it? No recipe?!
Now, would I do that to you after you patiently read through the story?

Grilled Chicken with Wild Rice Stuffing
Serves 8

What you'll need

2 chickens shown here

1 Spatchcocked chicken, raw
3TBS honey
1 tsp dried thyme, or 2 tsp fresh, finely chopped*
2 cloves garlic, minced or 2 tsp garlic powder*
1 tsp onion powder, or 2TBS minced fresh onion*
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground rosemary, or 2 tsp fresh minced*
3 TBS oil
1 tsp sage, dried and ground or 2 tsp fresh minced*

Notes-* I prefer using dried herbs when grilling. Fresh herbs tend to leave a charred flavor.

Wild Rice Stuffing
If you like Uncle Ben's, this is similar without the chunky bits
Serves 8- 1 cup servings

What you'll need

2 tsp salt
4 c water
4 cup chicken stock
4 c long grain rice
2/3 c dry wild rice
1/2 c mushrooms, chopped
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c dried raisins
1/2 c toasted pecan, chopped
half stick of butter
1/2 medium onion, small dice
1 rib of celery, small dice
1 tsp parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp turmeric, ground
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp black pepper

Putting it all together
Spatchcocked Chicken

• Blend honey and oil together until combined well.
• Dry entire surface of the chicken with paper towels.
• Coat entire surface of the chicken, front and back with honey mixture.
• Blend remaining herbs and spices, and sprinkle on both sides of the chicken slightly pressing the herbs into it.
• Place in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• After the marinade time is done grill over hot coals. Approximately 20 minutes each side. Until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees. 
• Set aside 10 minutes to seal juices in under a foil tent.

Wild Rice Stuffing

• In a cast iron Dutch oven pot, melt butter over medium coals.
• Add onions, celery, cranberries, rices, mushrooms, salt, and raisins to the melted butter. Cook while stirring until the onions are translucent. 
• Add broth, herbs and spices, and water to the pot. Bring to a boil.
• Stir at a boil for 2 minutes, and cover the pot. 
• Move pot so that the temperature simmers the rice mixture. 
• Once the liquid is all absorbed, the stuffing is done.

Serving suggestions- A green tossed salad comes to mind as an additional side. Place a cup worth of
stuffing onto a plate. Cut the the chicken into portions and place on top of the rice stuffing. This will allow any meat juices to run onto the stuffing. With a tossed salad, you've got a plate full over yumminess that can't be beat. The fruity, nuttiness of the dressing compliments the savory sweetness of the chicken. The sweetness of the honey has caramelized onto the skin of the chicken giving  it a crispy texture compared to the juicy savory meat.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo                                                       

Cooking with Chef Jo: My NOT Pasta Roni Angel Hair Pasta Sauce for Stores

I made my copycat version of Pasta Roni Garlic and Herb Pasta Sauce with some angel hair pasta last night to go with the succulent lamb chops with roasted asparagus for dinner. We were celebrating the final completion of laying of the foundation of the new chicken coop and feed/straw storage building. It took Mel three weeks to level and complete it. The first week was clearing the weeds for the 6'x 16' foundation. The second week was spent nursing pulled muscles in her back from zigging instead of zagging emptying the dish washer. The third week was laying all the sand and cap bricks into place level. Yes, Mel actually used a 6' level.

Anyhow I digress. As I was making the pasta sauce, I thought how easy it would be to make it in bulk in a powdered variety so I can make with other forms of pasta in short order. It would be a handy thing to have around. All the fresh stuff you'd need is water, butter, Parmesan cheese, (but I could dehydrate this too) and olive oil. It would be as easy to make as the boxed stuff without the preservatives except what was in the dehydrated milk.

I calculated how much I'd need for ten four-servings pouches like you'd get in a boxed package. When I calculated the costs, it was less than $0.50 a box. I haven't seen boxed that low in the grocery stores in about 20 years so the cost savings was fabulous also.  I'll give you the recipe for one four- serving box amount and you can multiply it by how many you'll think you'll need. I put mine in a quart canning jar and vacuum sealed it. I'll just scoop out 1/2 cup of mix for each four serving.

Jo's NOT Pasta Roni Garlic and Herb Pasta Sauce

What you'll need
3 TBS dehydrated whole milk powder*
1 1/2 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed or equivalent powder
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 TBS dried parsley
2 tsp dried Italian Seasoning
1 dash of white pepper
                                                             1 tsp onion powder
                                                             2 TBS dehydrated Parmesan cheese

Notes-* For my dry milk, 3 TBS of powder reconstitutes to 1 cup. My calculation reconstitutes to 1/2 cup of milk equivalent so the consistency is thicker like half and half or cream.

Putting it together

• In a lidded saucepan, place 1 3/4 cup water, 1 TBS butter and 1 TBS Olive oil
• Bring to a boil.
• Stir in 1/2 cup sauce mix.
• When dissolved, stir in 1 1/4 c of pasta of your choice.
• Boil for two minutes.
• Reduce heat to a low simmer and put the lid on the pot.
• Simmer for 10 minutes adding some more water if needed for bigger and thicker pasta. I usually use angel hair or medium egg noodles. 
• After time is up and the pasta is cooked, there will be some liquid in the pan. It will thicken as it cools.
• Let rest for 5 minutes and serve.

For service- For angel hair, linguini, or spaghetti, twirl the pasta servings into a bee hive formation.
The Parmesan cheese will continue to thicken as it cools to hold it together. You can sprinkle fresh grated Romano or Parmesan cheese on top with a pinch of fresh chopped parsley for a festive presentation. For egg noodles or rotini, scoop two scoops per serving with an ice cream scoop. Again, it will hold together as it cools or use a biscuit cutter and make rounds. Remove the forms used before service. Enjoy!

Y'all Have a blessed day!

Chef Jo