Home at Last! The Ranch Kitchen's Chicken Divan!

HOME AT LAST!

HOME!  The last few weekends have been hectic to say the least!  Showing cattle is fun, but hard work on good old dad, mom, and especially the kids.  January used to be one dull month before cattle showing!  But now, there is now time to rest, especially on the last few weekends of the first month of the year!  Showing in the junior and open Hereford cattle shows at the Fort Worth Stock Show has become a tradition for our girls and ranch.  However, as of the last few years we could not do it without our ranch herdsmen Steve.  His help with our cattle and constant gentle guidance of our Audrey been a God send for us all.  Thank you Steve!

My husband this year completed two years as the Texas Hereford President during our National Hereford Show weekend.  It's an association we all hold dear to our hearts.  The people and ranches in their membership have become like family to us all and it was an honor for Scott to lead this historic association. He was blessed to have a great group of officers and executive committee members to assist him. I have just been so very proud of how he has really given everything he had to insure the associations success.

Today, I finished up most of the laundry and attempted to get my house back in order!  The meal I served on this Super Bowl Sunday is not necessarily a party food, but comfort food at it's finest.  It's filling and above all one of my favorite meals to make in the winter.  Along with the rice, a salad and the avocados I served with ranch dressing, dinner was ready in under an hour and fifteen minutes.  It's cheesy texture pleases even the pickiest kiddos and will fill up those men in your house.  Left overs are my favorite and I profess to even eating it cold...in my house eating something cold is the ultimate compliment!

The Ranch Kitchen's Chicken Divan

10 chicken tenders

10 broccoli spears. frozen or fresh

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

juice of 1/2 lime equalling about 3 tablespoons

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup mayonnaise (no light)

1 cups sour cream (no light)

Spray a 9 x 13 inch glass dish with Pam.  Place chicken tenders in dish.  Place broccoli spears on top of chicken tenders.  Mix soups, lime juice, mayonnaise, sour cream well.  Add grated cheese to this mixture and blend.  Pour this mixture on top of chicken topped with broccoli, making sure to cover all of the dish.  Cook on 400 for 1 hour or until the mixture begins to brown on top.

Serve with cooked long grain rice or Uncle Ben's. 

Alise

The Ranch Kitchen's Stuffed Jalapeno and Cheese Chicken



The Ranch Kitchen's Stuffed Jalapeno and Cheese Chicken

Over the holidays I decided to spice up that ordinary chicken breast with what I had in my pantry.  The recipe I share with you today is very similar to how we cook dove breast. Dove is a type of wild game bird that when I am lucky and the weather is not too hot or dry in Texas, we have an abundance of.  My husband used to bring home dozens of them from his hunts and cooking them for dinner was always a special occassion.  But Texas has been under drought conditions! So it's the next best meat for this dish - chicken!

My dad was down and I wanted something special that would give that 'wow' factor.  My girls call him Grandpappa and he is very much loved.  For him a good meal is the ultimate expression of love as he often says the saying 'made with love' when describing a great homeade meal.  I love him a ton and enjoy cooking for him when he come down.

With the sandwich slices of deli hot pepper cheese, a can of pickled jalepeno's from my pantry, chicken breast and bacon this recipe was born rather simply.

The Ranch Kitchen's Stuffed Jalapeno and Cheese Chicken

4 - 6 chicken breast (slice a pocket slice in each breast to 3/4 down)

6 slices of Hot Pepper Cheese (sliced sandwich thin)

1 jar - 8 ounce size of Pickled Jalapeno, drained

4 - 6 slices of bacon, uncooked

Tony Chachere's (Cajun) seasoning to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees or on the roaster element on your convection oven.   Slice each chicken breast 3/4 down in the thickest portion of the top of each piece making a pocket.  Place folded Hot Pepper Cheese in each pocket along with 2 - 3 slices of pickled jalapeno.  Toothpick breast together to hold in cheese and jalapeno mixture.  Wrap with one slice of bacon wrapping over the pocket filled with cheese and jalapenos several times, tooth picking to secure as necessary.  Place prepared chicken in an oiled pan and season with Tony Chachere's or a good Cajun seasoning spice rub. 

Cook for 1 hour or until juices run clear when you slice into a chicken breast.  I served this with a salad, asparagus, my zucchini squares (for a later post) and good old Southern Iced Tea. Don't forget to remove the toothpicks before you serve this dish.

Enjoy....this recipe is definitely a keeper in our household now.

Thanksgiving and my birthday at the last Texas A&M vs. Texas football game in Aggieland.  Dad takes this trip with us when the Aggies have Thanksgiving at home each year.  We tailgate with friends and eat great food. Great memories!  Here he is with Audrey our youngest at the game!

Alise

Life Sometimes Gets in the Way

It's been a while, and more than a just a week or two since I posted on my blog The Ranch Kitchen!  Life has been just a little hectic.  I have discovered a few new things this fall.  The first being that it's never easy to send even the second kid off to college.  You miss them greatly.  Second...you continue to miss the first one you sent off and realize they are starting to make a life of their own! Third, little sisters seem to be resilient in how they handle both big sisters being off at school, even if mom and dad are not!   Fourth, you will go to any extreme to spend time with your girls and find that quality time when you can.  And fifth with each change in life something new seems invariably around the corner and life adapts, moves on, and you continue to get caught in the whirlwind that is life.  

With that said, I am back to the land of blogging after taking a short hiatus to start a new job, getting used to kids being off at college, running the roads on weekends visiting Texas A&M and stock shows with our retiring American Hereford Queen, and all manners of just being overwhelmed just a tad.  I am now ready to post some new recipes with help of my older two daughters who are going to help me post and manage this site from here on out.  The Ranch Kitchen has always been about my family and now my older two daughters Ilissa and Bethany will help me with recipes for this site keeping our ideas fresh and current.   They are both becoming great cooks in their own right and majoring both in communications and journalism from a graduate program at Texas Tech for our Ilissa, and undergraduate for Bethany at Texas A&M.  They should be able to teach old mom a thing or two and rev up the Ranch Kitchen site.

So, today as the holiday season draws near I wanted to share with your recipe from one of my newest addictions Pinterest that may have hindered some post I could have gotten done!  It addicting to say the least and if you are not a member, just message me your email and I can send you an invitation.  It's like a designer's/favorites' board of sorts that you 'pin' all your the ideas found on the Pinterest site or pin from your favorites bar once you download the 'pin' off Pinterest to share pictures you have found.  One of my favorite things that both my daughter's have done for me this season is to post their Christmas Wish List on Pinterest so that I can get a few hints for presents under the tree.
 
On my board entitled 'Oh Christmas' I have the following recipe for a Christmas Morning Cheese Danish.  It looks absolutely wonderful and I am going to make it for our staff at my school for our Holiday breakfast this weekend and for my family for Christmas morning.  On Christmas we don't eat lunch, but have a huge brunch with our girls.  It's a family tradition I enjoy after opening presents.

And I have to give credit where credit is due, as this recipe is from kitchengirljo.blogspot.com.  You'll want to click on the website link in the previous sentence and check it out.

• 

Christmas Morning Cheese Danish 

 

Ingredients:

 

2 cans ready to use refrigerated crescent rolls

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg white

 

Glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Method: Preheat oven to 350* degrees and grease a 13X9-inch baking pan. Lay a pack of crescent rolls in the pan and pinch the openings together. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg together until smooth. Spread the mixture over the crescent rolls evenly and then lay the second pack of crescent rolls on top of the cheese mixture and brush with egg white. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Top with glaze after cooling for 20 minutes.

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The fun of Pinterest of reposting what others have found.  This was repinned from Food I know I am going to love a board of my friend Diane Johnson.  I am also enjoying all the wonderful ideas and recipes she post on Pinterest as well.

Cheater's Lasagna

Another already long week at work. The moon has been full and it is evident everywhere!  I have always put a lot of stock into the moon phases as a teacher and this week so far has not disappointed! LOL!

Tonight as I shopped for our annual tailgating weekend at Texas A&M, I wanted dinner in a hurry.  I have desserts and cheese balls to make in anticipation of our crowd on Saturday when we beat IDAHO and all the veggies and such to pack in the RV so we are ready to grill!! We are excited that both our big girls will be in Aggieland to be with us and are excited about their friends ring dunks and getting to visit with both them and their parents and our other special friends while at the tailgate and other events.  The weekend can't get here fast enough!   

Considering dinner, I thought of my love for lasagna, but wanted my own take on it.  So, with a little help from some jumbo pasta shells, store bought spaghetti sauce, cheeses, and browned hamburger meat I have a updated version I call 'Cheater's Lasanga'! 

I learned early on that as a cook you don't have to follow all the rules.  You can tweak recipes and come up with new reinvented ones that can be just as fabulous!  This new lasagna recipe is right up there with some of my favorites.  I hope you'll try it and learn to experiment more in the kitchen.  I think the thing that turns most developing cooks off are long winded recipes with ingredients that are not found in their local groceries.  Don't make life hard.  Pressing the easy button in the kitchen is done a lot of my house and you should try it! Use what you have and you'll find that you are more creative in the kitchen than you think!

Cheater's Lasagna

2 lbs. ground beef, browned and drained
1 package of jumbo pasta shells, cooked and drained
2 - 16 ounce cans of store bought spaghetti sauce
     - I prefer Hunts 4 Cheese Spaghetti Sauce
1 cup Colby Jack Cheese
1 - 16 ounce container of Ricotta Cheese

Brown ground beef and drain.  Cook pasta according to package directions and drain.  In a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex dish place one can of Spaghetti Sauce.  Spoon half of Ricotta Cheese over spaghetti sauce in 1 tsp. sections over sauce.  Please cooked pasta shells over mixture.  Add second half of Ricotta Cheese in 1 tsp. sections over pasta.  Place browned hamburger meet over mixture.  Sprinkle Colby Jack cheese.  Pour second container of spaghetti sauce on top of mixture.  Cook on 425 until mixture is bubbly and cooked through.  

Enjoy....recreating lasagna is as easy as you make it!  So cheat away!

Alise  

Snickers Cookies

Exchanging recipes are the heart of what cookbooks and friendships are for me. Just the other day at a meeting a colleague and friend just knew I had heard of the recipe I share with you today.  I hadn't and immediately went out and bought the ingredients so that I could make these Snickers Cookies asap!  I finally made them tonight, two weeks later and am so glad I did.  My middle daughter will be proud they came out slightly browned as I tend to over toast bread and desserts as I get distracted!  :o)

So give it a try...the variations on this recipe could be endless with all the candies available in our market and grocery stores.



Snickers Cookies ala Sigrid

1 roll of ready made sugar cookies, sliced in 1 1/2 inch rounds -do not roll with out with rolling pin -
1 package of Snicker's Mini Candy Bars

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Slice sugar cookies rolls in to 1 1/2 inch slices (see pictures).  Place one Snicker's Mini Candy into the center of each round and form sugar cookie dough around the candy, much like when you played with play dough as a child.  Place Snicker cookies on a cookie sheet and bake until slightly browned. 

Cool and serve with a big glass of milk.



These are at the top of my list now.  Get cooking.  Enjoy!