Swedish Meatballs (Chicken) in sour cream sauce

(adapted from Cooking Light magazine and modified to serve 8. If you only need 4 servings, halve the recipe)

Jamie's note: These are moist and very delicious! Don't skip the rye bread - it really adds a nice flavor. Also, do not use purchased ground chicken. It just isn't as good as when you grind your own.

Meat mixture:
5 slices of deli rye bread - crusts removed
2 1/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 egg whites or 1 extra large egg
2 T cream

For frying:
1 T veg oil
1 T butter

1. Place bread in food processor, pulse 10 times or till coarse crumbs. You want about 2 cups.
2. Place chicken into food processor, pulse till ground.
3. Add chicken to bread crumbs.
4. Add onion to food processor and pulse till fine dice. Add to breadcrumb and chicken mixture.
5. Add salt, nutmeg, pepper, egg and cream to breadcrumb-chicken mix. Using hands, mix well. Mixture will be soft and slightly sticky.
6. Shape into approximately 40 meatballs laying on a piece of parchment, or directly scoop into hot pan using small ice cookie scoop
7. Heat large, deep skillet over med-high heat. When oil butter mix is hot, add meatballs. Cook 6 mins or so, browning on all sides.
Remove balls from pan and set aside.

For sauce
In same pan add:
1 tsp kosher salt
4 cups low fat, low sodium chicken broth
2 T flour (combined with 2 T water to make a slurry)

Mix to combine and bring to boil. Cook a minute or till slightly thickened, stirring constantly

Add:
16 oz sour cream - stirring to combine
then return the meat balls, reduce heat to med-low and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve immediately over hot buttered poppy seed noodles with something green for a veg. Peas, broccoli or green beans.

OR

if made early in the day, this is where you can let it all cool, then pop into fridge.  Place all into a large crockpot, add 1/4 C cream, milk or water and heat on low heat for 1 hour 15 mins, gently mixing a few times during the heating process. Eat and enjoy! :-)


Poppy Seed Noodles:
Cook 16-22 oz wide egg noodles (about 9 mins), drain, then pour over 6 T melted butter, 1 tsp poppy seeds, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 tsp poppy seeds and 4 T chopped parsley

Tip: oil hands so meat doesn't stick when rolling balls, or use a small cookie scoop.

Savannah's Cake In A Mug Recipe

 Chocolate cake in a mug

Ingredients (Dry to wet)

1large coffee mug

4 TBS flour (Plain)

4 TBS sugar

2 TBS baking cocoa (Dark or milk)

3 TBS Chocolate chips

1 egg

3 TBS milk

3 TBS oil (Canola)

Small splash of vanilla

Steps

1) Add all dry ingredients to the mug

2) Add egg to the dry ingredients

3) Add Canola oil and vanilla mix till smooth

4) Add chocolate chips and stir.

5) Microwave for 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't explode in the microwave

6) Let cool and enjoy 

Note: This makes a fairly large one, so can be shared by two. Rich, moist and dense.

Hummus recipe

Dedemed's hummus

    1/4 Cup Yogurt or sour cream
    1 15oz or 16oz can Garbonzo Beans (chick peas)
    1/2 Cup Tahini (sesame seed paste)
    1/2 Cup Lemon Juice
    2-3 Cloves of Garlic
    1/2 Tsp of Salt
    1/4 Tsp citric acid (if you need more lemon taste)
    2 Tbs water (if to thick)
    3-4 Fresh Mint Leaves (for taste)
    2 Tbs of Fresh Parsley (for garnish)
    1 Tsp of Cayenne Pepper or Paprika (for garnish)
    1/4 Cup of Olive Oil (for garnish)

Directions
In a food processor, first add the garbonzo beans, garlic, lemon juice and salt, blend until smooth. Next add, yogurt, tahini, water and mint leaves.  Whiz

this for several minutes till it's totally smooth. Optional, if your consistency is the way you want, but you want more lemon flavor, add citric acid to

enhance the flavor. Spread the hummus in a nice plate and garnish with parsley, cayenne pepper and olive oil.
Note: I like to serve this with warmed naan or greek bread - not so much pita as it's just not as good, kalamata olives, cucumber slices and roma tomatoes sliced lengthwise. Don't forget the olive oil on top.

Blender Custard Pie (Impossible Custard Pie, Magic Crust Pie)

Blender Custard Pie
2 Cups milk
4 large eggs
1 stick butter (1/2 cup) - MELTED
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C coconut
Optional: A few sprinkles of nutmeg in, or on top of mixture, and or cinnamon.

Preheat oven 375 degrees.
Prepare 9" pie pan (use one with taller sides if possible) by buttering or pam spraying. Place on cookie sheet lined with foil to help with any fall-out clean up. It may not be necessary, but it's still a good idea.

Place all ingredients in a blender, and mix till combined, about 30 seconds.
Pour mixture into prepared pie pan (I had an extra 1/4 cup of mix that I was afraid to pour when I used my shorter pie pan).
Sprinkle nutmeg or cinnamon if desired.
Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.

It will get golden brown, and will puff up like a souffle, but will settle down as it cools. It forms a slight crust on the bottom and one on top, with custard in the middle.

Note: You may be able to make 2 if using purchased foil pie pans.

Blueberry Buckle

Blueberry Buckle

 1/4 C butter, softened
 3/4 C sugar
1 egg
2 C flour, all purpose
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C milk
 2 C fresh blueberries (I have used frozen with no problem)

Topping: 2/3 C sugar
 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
 1/3 C COLD butter, cubed

 In a small bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Beat well after each addition. Fold in the blueberries.
Pour into a greased 9" baking pan.

 For the topping, in a small bowl, combine the sugar, flour and the cinnamon. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over the blueberry mixture.

Bake at 375° for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 4-6 servings (I guess they are feeding giants. I cut into 9 even pieces and that works for me).

Chicken Piccata

How to Make a Delicious Chicken Piccata

This Chicken PIccata recipe is the ultimate, delicious but so simple dinner party food. Easy to make but amazing to eat. The recipe shown in the video is for a larger group and serves 8 to 10 people. That is why I use a cookie sheet and the oven. For a large group, it's not practical to use only the frying pan on the stove.

(But, if you are making this for just 4 to 6 people, you could just do all of the cooking in the pan. In that case you would brown the chicken as shown in the video, and then, instead of putting the chicken in the oven on a pan, you could put it all back into the frying pan and cover it on the stove, on a low simmer for about 15 minutes).

Serves 8-10
Ingredients
4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, butterflied, pounded thin and then cut in half
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour, for dredging
4 tablespoons unsalted COLD CUBED butter
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large lemons, 1 juiced, 1 sliced
*1 cup dry white wine (double for more sauce)
*1 cup chicken stock (double for more sauce)
*1 bullion cube (double for more sauce - I used 1 large knorr cube)
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions
On a cutting board, fillet each chicken breast and trim off any fat. Place two pieces of chicken at a time between two pieces of parchment paper. Pound with a flat mallet, until the cutlets are about 1/4-inch thick. Set aside and repeat until all the chicken is pounded thin. Put some flour in a shallow dish. Season each side of the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper. Dredge each cutlet lightly on each side with flour.
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.When the oil is nice and hot, brown a few cutlets at a time for 3-5 minutes on each side until golden. Once the chicken is brown, place the pieces in a single layer on a cookie sheet with a rim, or a glass casserole dish. Continue until all the chicken is browned.

Turn up the heat, add the capers, smashing about half of them to release the juices, cook for 30 seconds or so and pour the white wine in the pan and boil down for a couple of minutes so the alcohol cooks off and reduces a bit. Then add the lemon juice chicken stock, bullion and butter. Allow it to cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly to emulsify. Spoon some of the sauce over the chicken, place the lemon slices on top, cover with foil and place in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and sprinkle with fresh parsley and/or grated cheese before serving. Serve remaining sauce over angel hair pasta or a wild rice mix.
Recipe adapted from:
http://cookingwithsugar.com

Jamie's notes:  Awesome recipe.
I just bought a cheap bottle of Chardoney. I doubled the sauce recipe to serve with angel hair pasta. Next time I make this, I will include some onion and garlic, sauteing in the pan drippings before adding the capers and the wine.

Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala from Laura Vitale with my modifications  (serve with baked or mashed potatoes)
Serves 3-4

http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=22&screen=4&sortby=a


Ingredients:
1-2  good sized Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, (if you can find chicken breast cutlets witch are pounded out chicken breast about ¼ inch thick, buy those)
All Purpose Flour, for dredging
1 cup Marsala Wine
1 cup Chicken Broth
2 Cloves Garlic, minced (I used 4-5)
2 Small Shallots, thinly sliced  (I used 1 med onion, really fine dice)
3-4 Tbsp Olive Oil (plus 1-2 Tbsp butter)
8 oz Cremini Mushrooms, halved (I slice them rather then halve them)
2=3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter Dredged in Flour
3 Tbsp Fresh Parsley, chopped
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

If you can’t find already thinly pounded chicken cutlets here is how you can do it at home.

1) Butterfly the breasts to make thinner. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them; pound with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/4-inch thick.

2) Put some flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly.

3) dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess.  Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet. When the oil is nice and hot - add butter, then slip the cutlets into the pan and fry for 4- 5 minutes on each side until golden, turning once – do this in batches if the pieces don't fit comfortably in the pan. Remove the chicken to a large platter in a single layer to keep warm.

4) Lower the heat to medium and sauté the shallots and garlic until tender and translucent,about 1 minute. Now add the mushrooms and sauté; until they are nicely browned and tender, about 5-7 minutes, season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the Marsala in the pan and boil down for a few mins to cook out the alcohol. Add the chicken stock and simmer for a minute to reduce the sauce slightly. Stir in the butter and return the chicken to the pan; simmer gently for 2 to 3 minutes to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper. and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.