So Easy Moist Baked Chicken

Here's where you can make a nice dent in your shopping bill and have something ever so delicious without even glancing at a recipe book:

• I added cut up yellow onions and celery; sprinkled with my BBQ rub, and covered with an olive oil. You can use any seasonings of your choice.

• Cover with aluminum wrap with shiny side up, away from chicken, or cook in a pot with a lid. About 1 hr at 350F. The onions caramelize with the celery and become a delicious topping or side dish; I never make enough. Keeping the chicken covered helps keep chicken moist.

• After pulling out of the oven and letting it rest for 10 minutes, I had to check my cabinet for what olive oil I had used. It was a basil-flavored Olive Oil, which added a scrumptious taste!

• Once cool, you can remove from bone and either cut up to freeze, add to soups or serve just as it is.

• Store in juices to keep chicken moist when you heat it back up before serving.

Note to self; cut up more onions and celery next time!

Charlotte

Secret Chili Recipe Ingredients

At national cook-offs, the ingredients are guarded like a national secret. Some will hint at the special ingredient, others will claim they will go to their graves before they even hint at what gives their chili its special flavor.

Over the years, I have heard of a variety of "secret" chili recipe ingredients, and tried a few myself. One of my favorites is baking cocoa; it helps to balance the acid in the tomatoes.

I have also tried a couple of tablespoons of honey from my beehives. If you like tang, use a couple tablespoons of lime juice, it gives the chili a little spanish twist.

Want a little nutty taste? Try peanut butter. I experimented with both regular and light and couldn't tell a difference so I would pick the lighter version.

Don't forget cooking with beer. Cooking removes the alcohol leaving the taste of the different hops. Try different beer varieties until you find one you like. In the chili, I mean, and not all together!

What is your secret chili ingredient?

Charlotte

Homemade Chili Recipe

For those of you who have canned, frozen and otherwise preserved summer produce from your garden, now is your chance to shine - and be inspired to gardening even more. There are few dishes that chase away bone-chilling winter than homemade chili.

Over the years, I have tried a range of recipes from vintage to modern. I have also tried a number of combinations but forgotten to write most of them down - well, except for this one. I was making it at one of my brother's homes and my sister-in-law insisted I write it down as I was throwing it together.

One of the nice things about chili is there are a only a few basic ingredients; after the basics, you can customize to your own taste.

I start with fresh tomatoes when I can, or a jar of canned tomatoes. When you start adding other preserved garden produce like green peppers, zucchini, squash, and whatever else you may have handy, this chili recipe becomes a culinary adventure.

Do you also have a secret chili ingredient? Every chili maker has one!

Charlotte’s Homemade Chili Recipe

For this recipe, you will need:

• 16 oz. can pinto beans; 16 oz. can red beans or 32 oz. of one kind of beans

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef (optional)

• 1 large cut up yellow onion

• 1-3 cut up garlic cloves

• 2 cups water

For seasoning:  

• 2-3 tablespoons chili power

• 1 teaspoon fresh-dried oregano from garden

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon baking cocoa

• 1-2 teaspoons salt

• Bay leaves

Instructions: 

• Add and brown ground beef.

• In a larger pot, mix tomatoes and beans.

• Add seasonings and 2 cups water. Cook on low.

• Drain browned hamburger and onions; add to simmering pot.

• Taste test.

• Add salt if necessary. Add 2-3 bay leaves. Cook for 15 minutes longer.

• Remove bay leaves.

• Serve, or store in small containers to freeze for later use.

Charlotte

Spicy Spices

My spice drawer mid-year, not bad. So far. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Spicy Spices

We all do it, keep spices too long, then wonder why our dishes don't have flavor.

Dried spices, in general, are good for about 6 months stored in small glass jars. Some will last longer if you store them in a dark place until used.

I go through my spice drawer once a year to re-organize the jars. They start out the new year cleaned out, in alphabetical order, with a list of which ones I need to buy fresh.

By the end of the year, the drawer is a mess but I still know which ones to replace, and which herbs I need to grow.

To keep track of jars, I write the date I bought it on the glass jar bottom so I can easily determine which ones are out of date.

Don't throw them away; you can compost dried spices and with some good soaking, reuse the glass jars.

Many of these jars are also now keeping nails, screws and other small items stored in my garage workshop. In my crafts room, more jars hold buttons, needles and pins. And throughout the house, a little spice jar holds favorite cat treats. They are the same treats in all jars but my cat Shirley Honey insists on sampling them in every room. Suppose she’s testing for freshness?

What is your favorite spice?

Charlotte

The Secret to Soft Chewy Cookies

The back of Nestle's Tollhouse Cookie Chips bag doesn't tell you this but, like even meals cooked at the White House, there is a secret to making soft, chewy cookies.

After mixing the cookie batter, place in the refrigerator overnight. The resting gives ingredients a chance to blend together.

When baked, your cookies will come out soft and chewy.

They really should add this to the recipe; it makes all the difference in the cooked cookie!

Charlotte

Sweet Potatoes

I can still remember taking a bite out of a favorite pie and not being able to take a second bite. Once I started to eat less processed, more natural foods, my taste buds changed. What once I craved, I could no longer eat because it was now too sweet.

The same thing happened eating sweet potatoes. Once slathered in brown sugar and topped with marshmallows, a traditional midwest Thanksgiving dish, I now cook these sweet treats baked without anything else.

How to Bake Sweet Potatoes

1. I try to pick the same sized potatoes so they all finish baking about the same time.
2. Wash then dry the potatoes.
3. Make a cross cut somewhere in the center.
4. Bake at 350F in center rack until the potatoes feel soft. Allow to cool on a cookie rack.
5. Store in refrigerator until you want to use it.
6. I slice mine, then add to a salad or eat three pieces with a protein at dinner as a sweet treat.

Charlotte

Cooking a Husband?

My grandmother gave me this charming Cleveland Baking Powder postcard from 1884 inside an old recipe book. As I was getting ready to frame it, I noticed the back.

It's a recipe for "cooking a husband."

Who knew??

Charlotte

Pancakes Rachel

During my niece's summer visit, one morning she asked for pancakes.

To celebrate, we popped a few chocolate chips while the cakes were cooking.

With the chocolate, she said no need to add syrup or honey.

Would you like a bite?

Charlotte

Cupcake Pan Burgers

I bake a lot of things in my cupcake pans.

One of my favorite treats is baked hamburger patties with lots of onions.

Each cupcake is about a 3 oz. serving of hamburger. Built-in portion control.

Once baked, I can also individually freeze, then pop them in a bag for future use.

Charlotte

Thick Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe

This sugar cookie recipe is a family recipe from one of my sisters-in-law. I should warn you, Grandma Green's sugar cookie recipe makes a lot of dough! Use this recipe when you're ready to cut out a lot of cookies and when you have a lot of help to make them. I like this sugar cookie recipe for icing-decorated cookies. The recipe is less sweet and kids can more easily manage the denser dough. I haven't tried to freeze this dough before it's cooked. Finished, decorated cookies do freeze well, or so I'm told. When I bring these cookies home from family reunions, there rarely are any left to test freeze.

Thick Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe

This sugar cookie recipe is a family recipe from one of my sisters-in-law. I should warn you, this is a vintage recipe and Grandma Green's sugar cookie recipe makes a lot of dough!

Use this recipe when you're ready to cut out a lot of cookies and when you have a lot of help to make them.

I like this sugar cookie recipe for icing-decorated cookies. The recipe is less sweet and kids can more easily manage the denser dough.

I haven't tried to freeze this dough before it's cooked.

Finished, decorated cookies do freeze well, or so I'm told. When I bring these cookies home from family reunions, there rarely are any left to test freeze!

Charlotte

Thin Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe

One of my all-time favorite sugar cookies recipe comes from my mother's 1954 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. Over the years, I have  modified the recipe but not always remembered to write down the changes. Except for 2009, when I apparently tried the recipe with all butter and rolled the dough out very thin. I do like melt-in-your mouth thin Christmas sugar cookies!

This is an easy sugar cookie recipe to double; if you can't use it all at once, store it covered in the refrigerator for later use. One year, I also made this dough into two-inch logs and froze them in wax paper. When I needed sugar cookies, all I had to do was slice them, add sprinkles and bake.

Steamed Basil Carrots

I ran across this recipe years ago and am still amazed at how simple, and delicious, it is.

Scrub fresh carrots. Don't bother to peel them if you've washed them well.

Quarter carrots into equal-sized strips; steam in steamer until done, about 8 minutes.

Add cut up fresh basil or, when you can't find where you put it, dried basil leaves.

The original recipe called for a drizzle of melted butter but I stopped doing that one night when I was short. If you want a little more flavor, dry a butter flavor substitute. Toss until fully covered. I prefer to eat it warm but

it's also good cold as next day left-overs.

Charlotte

Banana, Peanut Butter, Honey and Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

Quickly turn banana ice cream into a delicious, decadent desert:

1-1/2 peeled medium bananas, sliced into coins and frozen until solid

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 teaspoons honey

1 rounded tablespoon dark chocolate chips

Blend bananas in food processor or electric chopper until thoroughly

smashed into a smooth pulp, like mashed potatoes.

Add peanut butter and honey; mix thoroughly.

Remove from the food processor and place in a freezer-safe

container. Add dark chocolate chips and mix well by hand.

Freeze until solid.

Makes two servings,

Charlotte

Spearmint Water

I came across spearmint water by mistake.

I had saved some spearmint sprigs in a jar in the refrigerator for a friend's garden. When she was delayed picking up the spearmint sprigs, I happened to taste the water and found it wonderfully refreshing.

Pick spearmint early in the morning; add to water and refrigerate. By noon, you'll have delicious, refreshing water.

Pour it into a plastic bottle to take with you. No sugar or sweetener required, drink as is!

Charlotte

Stuffed Daylily Salmon

Every time I make this, guests have raved over the whole presentation.

It's so easy, I almost feel guilty!

Make sure you're using daylilies that haven't been treated with any chemicals or pesticides.

I first make the salmon stuffing, then let my guests cut their own flowers.

To make salmon stuffing:

Measure 2 ounces per serving canned pink salmon.

Mix 1 TBSP real mayo and 1/2 tsp interesting mustard per serving.

Grey Poupon is my fall back.

Use fresh onion sprouts for stamens. If you have bean sprouts, those will also work as stamens. Remove daylily stamen by pinching with fingers; then wash flower with spray wash so you don't damage flower petals.

Allow to dry. Place on serving plate. Stuff with salmon mixture. Serve!

If you don't have daylilies, you can still make the salmon and serve with minced onions.

The flower, though, adds a lot, don't you think?

Whipped Honey

It's a funny name, isn't it, and the honey is not whipped at all but "whipped honey" is one of the common names for this easy to make, honey-based delicacy. Whipped or creamed honey is basically honey that's been crystalized and turned into a butter-like consistency. Europeans prefer to have their honey in this whipped or "cream" form, which isn't sticky and reminds me of a honey butter.

To make, use 1 part whipped honey starter to 10 parts liquid honey.

Mix well. Cover. Store in a cool spot.

Mix once daily for 3-5 days until the mixture becomes as thick as molasses.

Pour into storage containers.

Store again in a cool spot for 6-10 days.

The honey molecules will mimic the whipped honey starter and become smooth as butter. Great to spread on breads and fruits. These also make delicious gifts!

Mango Chutney

Can you remember where you found a recipe? I can't, either and then I tend to change it so the original recipe may or may not be what I make. I remember the first time I made this recipe because a friend gave me a basket full of mangos. Since then, it's become a favorite family summer dish, either as a cold salad or a side dish to something off the grill. Make it the night before and allow to marinate for best flavor.

1 peeled and cut-up mango

1/2 peeled and cut up cucumber

1/4 cup diced green onions

1/4 cup slided cilantro

1/2 cup lime juice

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp chili pepper (optional)

Stir. Store covered in refrigerator. Stir periodically to keep mixed.

Simple Apple Compote

When my brother used to visit on leave from the Navy, this was one of his favorite dishes.

He would add it to homemade pancakes instead of maple syrup; pour it over store-bought vanilla ice cream and ate it hot out of the microwave.

Cut up one apple per serving. I like to use Gala, Granny or an apple with a little tartness to it.

Mix 2 tbsp equal parts sugar and cinnamon; add 2 tbsp lemon juice per apple. Mix in microwave dish.

Cook on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Mix again and let cool for a couple of minutes.

It will be hot right out of the microwave.

You can also add raisins and a little lemon zest to give it extra zing. Good cold, too!

Charlotte

Radish Relish

Now you've successfully planted a bunch of radishes and you don't know what to do with them. This very fast to make recipe is very versatile; use it in place of mayo on sandwiches; as a side dish to something off the grill, or as a quick summer salad. The radishes give this relish a little kick after you bite into it!

One bunch of fresh radishes, trimmed of stems and roots

4 celery stalks, trimmed of leaves and white stems

1 large navel orange, peeled well and sectioned

1 scallion stalk, bulb cut off

1 tsp. salt

Process all ingredients in food processor or alternatively chop as fine as possible and mix together.