Spanish Rice

Confession: sometimes I make Mexican meals just because I'm craving this rice.  It's something my Mom has adapted over the years and it has kind of boiled down to the basic ingredient of her red sauce enchiladas.  It's delicious and even Jeff (who generally isn't a fan of Spanish rice) eats it up. 

The basic amounts (can be doubled and tripled or whatever depending on the size of group you are cooking for):

2 cups water
1 cup rice
1 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion salt
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup salsa

Fry the rice in the cooking oil for two or three minutes.  Add water and the rest of the ingredients.  Cover and simmer at a medium/low temperature for 20-30 minutes until the rice is tender and the water boiled out/absorbed.  
 

Turkey a la King

With the holidays approaching, we are already knee deep in turkey and are exhausting all of our standard "leftover" recipes.  One of my favorites is Turkey a la King, brought to you from my mother via her mother.  Because it was passed down like that there is not a set recipe (as with most things in my kitchen repertoire).  

1 Can Chicken Broth
1 Can Cream of Chicken
Two spoonfuls of Chicken Soup Base (a couple of bouillon cubes are a fine substitute)
Add a little bit of flour and water to thicken if needed (see what I mean about no exact recipe?)
Little bit of thyme (again...)
Chopped Turkey
Frozen Peas

Serve over biscuits or rice (biscuits!)

Combine broth, cream of chicken, soup base in a sauce pan and then thicken as needed.   Add thyme and turkey and peas.  Let simmer until the peas are cooked through.    

Grandpa Menlove's Marinade

My dad's side of the family boasts quite a few turkey farmers, so turkey is a fairly common Sunday dinner main dish. Most often is prepared using Grandpa Menlove's famous marinade. He carves a turkey into steaks, soaks it in marinade and then grills it. Side it with rolls and Melt-in-your-Mouth potatoes and you've got my ideal Sunday dinner. I'm usually too lazy to carve a turkey, though, so I just use chicken breasts.

1 cup soy sauce
1 cup cooking oil
1 cup (or 1 can) 7-up
1 tsp garlic powder

Combine and mix in a large bowl. Add turkey or chicken. This much marinade works for about 10 chicken breasts. They don't need to be fully submersed while marinating, just coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinate in the fridge for several hours (or overnight is best) before grilling.

Best Ever Dinner Rolls

Rolls have always been kind of intimidating to me. I guess bread in general has always intimidated, but rolls especially. Unfortunately (fortunately?) for me, my mom's rolls are one of a select few things that just make my mouth water and I couldn't live without them when we moved to Ohio. After nearly a year of craving them every single Sunday, I finally bucked up and tried to make them myself. That first attempt is something that I am not proud of. They were flat, dry and all around yucky. Two years later, I am proud to say that I am a master at making them and they work every single time. The trick is rising time. Don't cut it short, even if it means letting the first rise happen all through church.

1/2 cup potato flakes
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
1 cup milk (warmed for one minute in the microwave)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp yeast
4-5 cups flour

Combine potato flakes and water in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, warmed milk and butter. Mix until combined. Add sugar, salt and yeast. Mix until combined. Add flour and mix until the dough is slightly sticky to the touch (if you're using a kitchenaid or bosch, this is usually when the dough pulls away from the sides on its own). Don't be afraid to use more flour than called for if necessary, but always err on the side of too sticky rather than overly stiff. Knead for 6-8 minutes and then cover and let rise until doubled in size (1-2 hours). Punch down and mold into rolls (sadly, I'm not going to give instructions, but you can google all the different ways to mold into rolls. I will always prefer the classic pull and pinch underneath into a nice round ball method). Arrange on a baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled in size again (this is where you really don't want to cheat yourself. Give yourself at least forty-five minutes of rising time, even though my mom says you only need twenty minutes).

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until golden on top. When you take them out of the oven, immediately baste with butter.

I can usually get twenty four rolls with a little bit of dough left over.

Scotcharoos

Another camping favorite is scotcharoos. I honestly can't remember a camping trip when I was growing up (or currently) with my family that did not involve eating one (or four...) too many of these.

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup
1 Cup peanut butter
1 box rice kripies
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Heat sugar and light corn syrup in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Add peanut butter and stir until smooth. Pour peanut butter mixture over rice kripies in a large mixing bowl. Mix together. Press into a brownie pan (quickly, before it cools too much!). Melt the chocolates chips in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir to make smooth. Spread the chocolate over the rice krispy. Allow to cool. Cut into squares.

Coconut Chex Mix

We've been gearing up for a fun camping trip with some of the families in our ward. I love camping. Growing up it was our standard family activity. We went on multiple long camping trips every summer and many, many more smaller camping trips. Of all the things I learned from these vacations, the most important was that food is essential. Especially snack food. Coconut Chex Mix is insanely unhealthy, but no camping trip (or New Year's Eve) is complete without it.

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Light Corn Syrup
2 Cubes Butter
1 tsp coconut extract
1 Large Box Chex Mix
1 Cup Coconut Flakes
Handful silvered almonds

Combine sugar, light corn syrup and butter in a sauce pan. Heat to a boil and let boil for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add coconut extract. Pour sugar mixture over the Chex cereal in a large mixing bowl. Stir in coconut flakes and slivered almonds.

Store in a large tupperware.

Cafe Rio Chicken Salad (bonus! Cafe Rio Rice and Tomatillo Ranch Dressing)

Cafe Rio... oh, how I miss thee!

For any of you who know my mom, you know that she is an expert at copying restaurant recipes. Are you in love with Los Amigos smothered burritos? Shoot me an email. I've got the secret recipe... courtesy of Mom. Do you find yourself craving PF Chang's lettuce wraps? Again... my Mom. To this day, though, her greatest achievement has been recreating Cafe Rio's chicken salads (and raising seven incredible children, of course). Now that Jeff and I are here and far away from Cafe Rio (sob!) and Los Amigos (sob!), we can still find a little piece of home in my Mom's tried and true recipes. The best part? Most of them are easy pleasy crock pot recipes! And because she is not a recipe snob, I figured she wouldn't mind me sharing with you...

Cafe Rio Chicken

1 (8 oz) bottle of zesty italian salad dressing

1 T chili powder

1 T cumin

3 cloves garlic, minced

5 lbs chicken breast (but, hello! I never use 5 lbs. Have you seen the price of chicken?)

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours. Shred chicken and cook additional 1 hour. Make a salad by placing a heated flour tortilla (Sam's club cook-it-yourself tortillas-- to die for!) in a bowl. Put rice, heated black beans, chicken, shredded cheese, torn romaine lettuce, picante sauce, guacamole, cilantro lime dressing all inside tortilla (of course, you can choose your own fillings. Who has picante sauce laying around?)

Cafe Rio Rice
6 cups water
6 tsp chicken base or boullon
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 onion
1 can chopped green chiles
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1 cup converted rice (which, I assume, means regular rice. Converted? What?)

Place cilantro, onion, garlic, and chopped green chilis in a food processor and whirl until well chopped. Place all ingredients in a pan and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Cafe Rio Ranch Dressing
1 pkt ranch dressing mix
1 lime (juiced)
2 tomatillos (but I ommitted those tonight and it was still fabulous)
1 clove garlic
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 jalapeno-- to taste (I only use this sometimes)

Mix ranch dressing according to directions on package. Place dressing and remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend well. Refrigerate until use.

Cafe Rio Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
I have never used this because I *heart* the ranch, but my Mom likes it

3 T red wine vinegar
2 T fresh lime juice
3 Cups oil
1 1/2 T minced cilantro
2 T minced purple onion
1 clove garlic
1 sm jalapeno (to taste)
1 tsp sugar to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Place the vinegar and lime juice in a blender. With blender on, gradually pour oil into vinegar. Add remaining ingredients and blend. Adjust ingredients according to taste. Very good marinade fo chicken. Tweak sugar and salt to taste.