My mother makes a really delicious chicken & wild rice casserole, with mushrooms added if she's making it for me (she's not a fan of mushrooms).  I ask her to make it for me every year for my birthday.  At some point it occurred to me that it must not be all that easy to make, because she doesn't make it very often.

One day I decided I wanted some of that casserole, but I didn't have her recipe, and so I went searching for another good one.  I settled on this one from EatingWell.com, and the first time I made it, I got an idea of why my mom doesn't make hers all that often.  In fact, this time I divided the recipe among 2 dishes in order to freeze one to have later without all the trouble.  It takes me, personally, quite some time to make this casserole, and I have to have someone around to keep the kidlet out of my hair too, simply because of all the prep work -- once all that's done and it's assembled in a dish to bake, it only bakes for 30 minutes!

Chicken, Mushroom & Wild Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup wild rice
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 leeks, chopped and rinsed
• 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup dry sherry (see Note)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups frozen French-cut green beans
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preparation

1. Combine water and rice in a small heavy saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, place chicken in a large skillet or saucepan. Add lightly salted water to cover and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a clean cutting board and let cool.
3. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large high-sided skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until just starting to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until their liquid has been released and has evaporated, 12 to 14 minutes. Add sherry, increase heat to high and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle the vegetables with flour and stir to coat. Add milk; bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Stir in Parmesan, sour cream, parsley, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch (or similar 3-quart) baking dish with cooking spray.
5. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Spread the rice in an even layer in the prepared baking dish. Top with the chicken, then green beans. Pour the sauce over the top and spread evenly. Sprinkle with almonds.
6. Bake the casserole until it is bubbling and the almonds are golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

(As always, especially with EatingWell.com, see link for further details and other cooks' suggestions.)


I have made this one a few times now, and I love it; it's a very delicious dish, in my opinion.  I have made it with and without sherry, and I'm really not sure I can tell a difference.  This time I happened to already have some cooking sherry on hand, but if I didn't I probably wouldn't go to any great trouble to go buy some.

The first time I made it, I felt it could use more rice; the amount called for didn't even cover the bottom of the dish!  I have been playing around with that part of it, and I think 1 cup before cooking is a good amount, personally.  This time I also used half wild rice and half long grain brown rice, just because I had some on hand (previously I'd used all wild rice -- and I mean really just the black wild rice, not the mixture that is sometimes labeled "wild rice").  I also threw in some celery, carrot, and chives that I had in the refrigerator (used 1 stick each of celery and carrot, and later realized I could have added more, but I had been worried about making too much).  I substitute unflavored Greek yogurt for the sour cream, and I used 2 tablespoons dried parsley instead of chopping fresh.

Previously, I had grated my Parmesan cheese myself, but recently I discovered a brand of Parmesan (also comes with Romano) in the noodles-and-sauces aisle that doesn't contain anything but the cheese -- none of the anti-caking, anti-mold, and preservatives that most pre-shredded cheeses contain.  This leads me to wonder how those things can really be so necessary, if this one works just fine without them! Anyway, I used that kind this time, rather than grate my own, to save time and effort.  (I don't like using a shredder/grater -- it always gets my fingernails, and they're not even that long!)

By the time I'm halfway through step 3, the sauce is smelling so tasty I could just eat it by itself with a spoon!  For some reason I never seem to cook out all of the liquid as called for after the mushrooms and again after the sherry, but it still works out just fine every time, so I've stopped worrying about that and just been using the cooking times indicated in each step.  It thickens a little bit as it sits while I chop the cooled chicken, anyway.

As I mentioned before, this time I divided it in half between two 8"x8" glass dishes, to freeze one for later, and baked them together for 20 minutes instead of 30, based on advice I'd requested from my mother.  I checked it by tasting a couple of the green beans from the middle of the one we're eating from today, and they were done.

Blueberry Popsicles

Been meaning to get around to this one for a while, but naps have been sounding like a better idea lately than blogging!

Ever since our little boy got old enough to enjoy popsicles, I have made his myself, usually simply freezing some kind of fruit juice, which has worked out wonderfully.  I came across this recipe earlier this summer, and decided to try it, to use up some blueberries that needed to get eaten.  (It was in Family Fun magazine, but I don't see it on their website at the moment.)  The nutrition information below the recipe is as provided with the recipe in the magazine.

Blueberry Pops


1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 cup nonfat Greek vanilla yogurt


Simmer all ingredients except yogurt in a medium saucepan for 10 minutes.  Let the mixture cool for 20 minute, then blend it in a food processor or with an immersion blender until smooth.  Stir in yogurt.  Pour the mixture into popsicle molds and freeze.  Makes eight 3-ounce pops.


Nutrition information per serving (one 3-ounce pop): Calories 69, Total fat 0g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 16mg, Total carbohydrate 14g, Fiber 0.6g, Sugars 12g, Protein 4g, Vitamin C 8g

I did not have nonfat Greek vanilla yogurt available, only unflavored Greek or vanilla regular yogurt; I went with the vanilla regular yogurt.  I am considering trying it with unflavored Greek yogurt next time; I imagine it will only be slightly less sweet, which doesn't seem to be a big problem for my kid at the moment.  I also spontaneously decided to use honey instead of sugar when I made these, but I wasn't crazy about the way that tasted (though I like honey), so next time I plan to go with sugar as recommended.  My kid didn't seem to care; he has happily gobbled up every popsicle I've given him and asked for more.

Homemade Hamburger Helper

A day or two ago I came across this recipe on EatingWell.com, and we decided to try it for supper tonight.  It's kind of like beef stroganoff and Hamburger Helper, only better (than H.H., anyway).

Hamburger Buddy

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
• 2 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, large ones cut in half
• 1 large onion, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 pound 90%-lean ground beef
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups water
• 1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium beef broth, divided
• 8 ounces whole-wheat elbow noodles, (2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, or chives for garnish

Preparation

1. Fit a food processor with the steel blade attachment. With the motor running, drop garlic through the feed tube and process until minced, then add carrots and mushrooms and process until finely chopped. Turn it off, add onion, and pulse until roughly chopped.
2. Cook beef in a large straight-sided skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the chopped vegetables, thyme, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables start to soften and the mushrooms release their juices, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Stir in water, 1 1/2 cups broth, noodles and Worcestershire sauce; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
4. Whisk flour with the remaining 1/4 cup broth in a small bowl until smooth; stir into the hamburger mixture. Stir in the sour cream. Simmer, stirring often, until the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Serve sprinkled with parsley (or chives), if desired.

I used ground beef that was 92/8, 'cause that's what I found at the store (I pondered using ground turkey, and I'm sure it would work here).  I did not need to drain the meat after browning it.  I used my usual pre-minced garlic and dehydrated chopped onion, and just added them separately at the same time as the veggie mix (which somehow ended up as more of a puree for me instead of finely chopped, but oh well).  I also added 2 sticks of celery in with the other veggies in the food processor.  I added some mushrooms in whole slices, apart from the veggie mix, because husband and I love mushrooms.  I used unflavored Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream, and the garnish we chose was chives. 

I thought it was delicious, and relatively quick to make.  If you want any variation, there are many suggestions from reviewers on the page I took the recipe from; I didn't read all 100.  I noticed a few of the reviewers complained that it was bland and/or the thyme was too strong; we didn't have either problem.  Might be because I like thyme.  Might be because we've been cutting out sodium wherever we can for years now, so what's good to us might be bland to some.  My picky-eater 3-yr-old wouldn't even taste it, despite the presence of noodles (which he loves by themselves), but husband approved and said he would eat it again.  Also, no doubt it was much healthier than the boxed Hamburger Helper stuff!

Last week at the farmers market I bought some squash.  Prior to the last few years, the word "squash" (for me) only brought to mind one thing: those standard yellow squashes that the grocery store always has.  When I was a kid, if we bought squash at the grocery store, if Mama served squash with dinner, it was those.  More recently, as I learned more about food and as the foodscape in the USA -- or at least where I live and shop -- changed to include more types and wider varieties of everything, I became aware that there are so many different kinds of squash, with different names! (Not talking about things like pumpkins and zucchinis, because while I knew they were related to the yellow squash I was used to, they were obviously not actually called "squash".)  So when I sat down to start telling you about these squash I bought last week and the recipe I used them in, I thought to myself, I should make sure I'm clear about what kind of squash, since squash doesn't simply mean squash anymore, especially in the context of modern farmers markets.  So I googled "types of squash", and came across this website first -- which didn't really help because I didn't see exactly the kind I meant in the pictures, but which lists many cooking tips for different kinds of squash so I want to keep it handy! -- and then this website, which leads me to believe the squash I have is called summer squash, yellow squash, crookneck squash, or maybe all 3?  The kind I'm talking about is smooth-skinned, not bumpy like in those photos, and sometimes has a slightly bent neck (not as much as in those photos) or sometimes has a straight one.  Anyway, it's that typical yellow one which I referred to at the beginning of all this, if that helps anyone.  Perhaps I should have taken a photo before I gobbled them up! :)

I have also concluded that "squash" is another one of those words that starts to look funny after you've looked at it a lot.

Anyhow, I hunted for a recipe, hoping for a new and interesting way of cooking squash other than my old standard of slicing it into a pan on the stove with some oil.  I found this one!

Parmesan-Squash Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup finely chopped shallots
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups shredded seeded summer squash, (2-3 medium, about 1 pound; see Tip)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Beat egg in a large bowl. Stir in shallots, parsley, salt and pepper. Place shredded squash in the center of a clean kitchen towel; gather up the ends and twist to squeeze out any liquid. Add the squash and cheese to the bowl; stir to combine.
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pack a 1/3-cup measuring cup with the squash mixture and unmold it into the pan; gently pat it down to form a 3-inch cake. Repeat, making 4 squash cakes. Cook until browned and crispy on the bottom, 3 to 4 minutes. Gently turn the cakes over and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

One of the things I love about the recipes on EatingWell.com is the "tips & notes" bit that's in many of them, in which they briefly explain about some part of the recipe that might not be common knowledge, and usually wasn't for me.  In this case, I'd never tried to remove the seeds from a squash or grate a squash before; it helped to have someone say, "This is exactly the way to do it," rather than wonder if my guesses/attempts are right or not.

Anyhow, when I made this, my cakes did not hold together at all and I ended up with something more like hashbrowns than patties.  Knowing me, I'm sure it was something I did a bit wrong, and not a failing of the recipe, so you'll probably have better results.  It really didn't matter anyway -- I just scooped up the pieces and ate them as they were, and it was still really delicious!  Otherwise, the only thing I changed was using my trusty dried chopped onion bits rather than buying shallots, and using 1 teaspoon of dried parsley rather than fresh.

Dessert: Blackberry Cobbler

I bought some blackberries at the farmers market yesterday.

(Gosh, they look awfully red here, more so than they did to my eye!)

So today I wanted to find a quick and easy recipe for blackberry cobbler.  I used this one, halving it for the amount of blackberries I had.

Easy Blackberry Cobbler

• YIELD: Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh blackberries
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• Whipped cream (optional)
• Garnish: fresh mint sprig

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 375°. Place blackberries in a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish; sprinkle with lemon juice. Stir together egg, sugar, and flour in a medium bowl until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle over fruit. Drizzle melted butter over topping. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, if desired. Garnish with fresh mint sprig, if desired.
• For a neat presentation, bake for the same amount of time in 6 (8-oz.) ramekins on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet.

Didn't have any whipped cream or fresh mint on hand; I bet it would be good with milk though!  It was tasty enough by itself.

I also happened to come across this useful tip in a magazine today:

"Prolong the life of berries by using a sieve or colander to dip them in very hot (about 125 degrees) water for 30 seconds, then dry them off, let them cool, and store them as usual.  The process kills mold spores but won't hurt the fruit."
(Family Fun magazine, June/July 2011)

Good to know! I haven't tried it yet though, since I cooked all my blackberries and blueberries (recipe later) today!