Tag Archives: onion

What’s cooking?

Welcome back to our kitchen! Pull up a chair at our kitchen island and get comfy. Outside of our mini Mardi Gras feast and unbeetable Valentine cake, we’re sharing the recap of what we whipped up in our kitchen over the past week. We’ve got some exciting nostalgic dishes we’ve made a bit more modern to share with you!

Drumroll please..we tested out four more family recipes from Mr. B’s grandparents handwritten cookbook that dates back to 1949! It’s so special thinking about and picturing Howard and Rose cooking these very recipes together back then in their kitchen, perhaps doing the same exact things were doing in the present day.

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This super crunchy coconut granola! It’s been perking up our morning Greek yogurt and fruit routine. Try it! Next time I’m thinking I’ll use coconut extract instead of vanilla.

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Chicken Marsala with homemade garlic bread and garden salads.

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Seared tuna, a fairly regular staple at our table, was served as the main dish alongside of diced oven roasted rutabaga.

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The first family recipe tested was parsley curried corn. Originally we prepared as directed straight from the recipe, but in the end slightly altered it to more of our taste. SPICE! Yeah, we had to kick it up a notch and make it a bit more modern with the addition of hot madras curry powder. This dish was absolutely delicious and is a new favorite for sure.

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The second B family recipe tested was, pork tenderloin in cream sauce. Again, after preparing as originally directed, we modernized and altered by seasoning to our taste, it just didn’t have the pizazz we were after. We ended up adding green peppercorns and chopped onions.

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We paired the pork tenderloin with garden sweet peas, sautéed mushrooms in a pepper sauce and puréed sweet potatoes seasoned with maple, butter, pepper. D-licious!

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Oven roasted eggplant halves stuffed with zucchini, yellow squash, spicy Italian sausage, onion, and gorgonzola cheese. Like spaghetti, these were even better served as leftover for lunch, the flavors just popped even more!

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The stuffed eggplants were served with a side of roasted garlic butter mushrooms sprinkled liberally with salt and cracked black pepper. These little guys were like a vegetarian alternative to Escargot! The mushrooms gave the texture and the butter, garlic, salt and cracked black pepper brought the taste. Plus who doesn’t like the fact that the caps hold in all that buttery goodness? It’s all about those vehicles for butter 😉

The third family recipe tested was “Boston Baked Beans” and “BBQed Chicken”.

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The Boston baked beans used dried beans and minimal ingredients which consisted of molasses, sugar, salt and a bit of pepper and home cured bacon. The Flavor was fantastic!

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The BBQed chicken was a chicken quartered and the sauce was from scratch. The sauce simmered away for quite a bit of time on the stove, then it covered the chicken and was baked. This recipe was delicious with a delightful blend we were not accustomed to. Oh! the chicken came out super moist too!

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Then there was a quick last-minute dessert created. Inspired by our recent trip to Manimal in Itaewon, Mr. B halved bananas and drizzled them with homemade caramel and then topped it all off with fresh vanilla whipped cream. Boom! Front runner to the Bananimal!

Alright folks, we will meet you back in our kitchen again soon!

Backpackbees

Savory: slow-cooker Wine-O chicken

We are always searching, or trying to create an easy but delicious dinner to throw together during the workweek. Here’s a recent one that we thought was certainly worth sharing. It’s a must if you are a fan of fresh rosemary, onions, garlic and wine! Come onnnn who here isn’t a fan of wine?!

Slow-cooker wine-o chicken
Cooking Time: 4 hours on High; or 8 hours on Low

Ingredients:

2 Cornish Hens – thawed, (Don’t forget to remove the giblets!)
4-6 Sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 Medium sweet onions
8 Cloves of fresh garlic, outside skin removed
A few pads of butter or margarine for rubbing skin of hen
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Bottle moscato wine, or your favorite white wine
1 1/2 Cups Chicken broth

Directions:

First, rinse clean and pat the hens dry. Next slice the onions to your desired thickness and place as many as you’d like at the bottom of the slow-cooker. Then throw in 4-6 cloves of garlic and several sprigs of the rosemary, as well. (remove the woody stems prior to serving.)

Stuff cavity of each hen with following: 2 slices of onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 sprig of rosemary. Next rub the skins of the hens with butter or margarine. Add the desired amount of salt and pepper to the skin of hens on both sides.

Lastly, place both hens, breast side down, into the slow-cooker. Add wine and chicken broth. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 8 hours, making sure the internal temperature of each hen reaches 165 degrees fahrenheit.

Enjoy!

Backpackbees