Cream of Chicken Soup/Broccoli Rice Casserole

When I was a kid I hated broccoli. Every once in a while my parents would serve it with dinner*, and I would choke it down... often in tears at the injustice of it all. Then one day I was introduced to the best thing ever:

Broccoli. Rice. Casserole.

Apparently it had been served at holiday meals for years and I had been oblivious all that time. I was in college and someone pointed out the casserole to me and I bluntly replied, No thanks. I don't like broccoli. But whoever this angel was convinced me that you couldn't even taste the broccoli, so I decided to be polite and took a small portion to try. I was an adult now, after all.

So I grudgingly took a bite of this casserole that I was sure I was going to have to immediately wash down with whatever I was drinking, and then the sweet deliciousness grazed my tongue and I was in love. With the casserole, anyway.

Broccoli didn't suddenly become my favorite food of all time, but I'll at least eat it willingly now. I don't think I've mentioned, but I'm currently assisting with some of the school gardening programs in Houston, so recently I've become acquainted with the broccoli plant.

Source: http://gardeninggarden.com/2009/09/18/growing-broccoli/

Before this, I always kind of thought broccoli just grew right out of the ground, sort of like asparagus. 

Source: http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/Asparagus-Plants-for-Sale-Jersey-Male-Asparagus-Crowns-c48.htm

Just imagine those little stem toppers blossoming into a broccoli head. That's basically what I thought happened.

So anyway, I learned the broccoli is actually the flower bud of a very large plant and if you let it continue to grow, little yellow flowers will blossom out of the broccoli head. Also, I learned that fresh-picked broccoli is delicious.

Arlond, on the other hand, has not been convinced. For a man that loves his vegetables, he's actually pretty picky about which ones he eats (mostly potatoes, peas, corn, and carrots—but only if they're cooked!). I recently roped him onto the asparagus bandwagon...but only because bacon was involved. Baby steps, I say.

So I tried the same route that got me on the broccoli train, but he didn't fall for the cheesy goodness that is broccoli rice casserole. I'd kind of given up on the idea until I had an epiphany:

Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole.

I mentioned it to Arlond and he said it sounded good. So I decided to whip up a test batch. Anyway, here's the recipe for the original:

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter
1 16 oz. bag of chopped broccoli
2 cups of rice
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
2 cups of shredded cheese (I use sharp cheddar)
1 cup milk
1 cup water

Recipe:
1. Sauté broccoli in butter
2. Mix all other ingredients together in a 9x13 dish
3. Add broccoli to pan--mix well
4. Bake at 375°F for about an hour

While this recipe is delicious, there are a few issues that I wanted to address:

1. I want to add chicken.

2. A 9x13 casserole is perfect for taking to a social gathering, but much too big for the two of us.

3. I've always used instant rice, but I want to switch to whole grain.

4a. I don't really like mushrooms.

4b. I want to get away from using canned soup. Especially condensed soup.

So my goals were to make a smaller portion using whole grain rice, a homemade substitute for the cream of mushroom soup, and also throwing some chicken in there somewhere. I also used fresh broccoli instead of frozen, but that wasn't a serious change. I've gotten pretty good at downsizing, so my biggest concerns were the substitutions.

I figured that the rice would be in the oven long enough that it would cook similarly to the instant rice, so I just decided to test it out that way (Note: This did not really work, but more on that later). I basically just decided to mix the chicken in with everything else and see what happens. I debated on whether or not to pre-cook the chicken, and ultimately decided against it. My chicken nugget recipe only has the chicken bits cooking for 20 minutes before they're done, so I figured doubling that would most definitely be enough when they're cut approximately the same size. So all that was left was the condensed soup.

I googled "cream of mushroom soup substitute" and basically learned that all I needed to do was to make a roux. I checked out a few different recipes and decided to wing it:

1-2 Tbs butter

1/4ish cup flour

Milk

Chicken stock

Sea salt

Pepper

Melt butter is small pan. Slowly add flour until a thick paste forms. Add equal parts milk and stock until desired consistency is reached. Salt and pepper to taste.

Also, I realized this is basically identical to my dad's gravy recipe, except for the whole turkey/chicken stock difference. So since I learned from my mistakes last time, the roux actually came out quite nicely and could potentially serve as a chicken gravy.

So when it was all said and done, this was roughly my recipe:

3 Tbs butter

1 head broccoli, chopped

1 chicken breast, diced

3/4ish cup whole grain rice

1 recipe homemade cream of chicken soup

More milk

1 cup cheddar cheese

Sauté broccoli in butter. Mix chicken, rice, cream of chicken soup, and milk in 8x6ish glass baking pan. Add broccoli and mix. Add cheese. Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes.

So the one major problem with my final product is that the rice did not fully cook and was still crunchy. Despite this, it was delicious. Also, I'm pretty sure the rice in the remaining servings is soaking up all the remnant liquid-y goodness and is getting slightly less crunchy as I type. It probably won't be completely cured, but it's a start. Next time, I'm debating between partially pre-cooking the rice or just adding more liquid for it to soak up in the casserole and possibly cook it a little longer. I plan to ask my rice-loving friends at school tomorrow for input. I will keep you posted on the results of my queries. 

*Note: Earlier I claimed that my parents served broccoli out of a can when I was a child, but I was recently informed that this was simply not true (or at least, my mother never did). As such, I have retracted the statement and instead would like to say that they served me frozen broccoli. My mom also claimed that she may have possibly served us fresh broccoli, but I don't remember ever seeing it in the fridge, so I think she made that part up.

Philly Cheese Steak and Elvis Cookies

One thing I really love doing in the kitchen is taking a basic recipe and making it awesome. This is probably due in part to the fact that I don't really follow recipes, ever. The funny thing about this is that I have to have a recipe before I'll try to make something, even though I rarely follow it exactly.

One of my favorite ways of doing this was tweaking recipes at the restaurant where I worked. Every time I ordered something I added special notes about how I wanted it made (which I'm sure all of the cooks loved): Put pepper jack cheese on my sandwich instead of colby jack. And instead of ranch I want ranch and salsa mixed together. Oh, and throw some onion rings on top for the heck of it! And things like, What would happen if you fried a blintz? Or my personal favorite, Ignore whatever I just rang in, I really want you to make *insert something completely different and not on the menu but with more or less the same ingredients*. While I was being a total pain in the ass, pretty much everything I tweaked came out awesome. I converted my co-workers to order my creations and sometimes I'd even recommend them to a customer (Key Lime Pie with a cup of strawberries, anyone?).

Another thing I often do is try to recreate menu items at home. This is how my awesome Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich was born. Way back when I first started working at the restaurant, we had an amazing Philly sandwich on Parmesan-crusted sourdough bread on the menu and eventually took it off for reasons unbeknown to me. So one day I made it at home and it might be even better than the original:

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich
Sliced roast beef
Sliced onion
Sliced green pepper
Sourdough bread
Butter
Grated Parmesan cheese
Shredded mozzarella cheese

Butter one side of each slice of bread then sprinkle buttered side with Parmesan cheese. Put roast beef, onion, and green pepper on one side of a skillet at medium-low heat and bread on the other side (butter-side down). Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of bread. Stir meat and veggies until warm, then place on half the bread slices. Top with other bread slices with Parmesan cheese on the outside. The whole process should take less than 10 minutes total, with probably 5-6 minutes cook time. It doesn't take long to heat up the meat and veggies and takes even less time to grill the bread, so work quickly!

End result: Awesome-ness

 

So that's a pretty typical conversion to awesome. Today, however, I took things to a new level: Elvis Cookies.

 

As everyone should know, Elvis Presley was known for his peanut butter, banana, honey, and bacon sandwiches. I'm not yet brave enough the throw the bacon in yet, but the combination of the other three is like the supreme trifecta of win in any context. Peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich—Check. Peanut butter, banana and honey on a bagel—Check. Banana pancakes topped with peanut butter and honey—Check. 

 

So I've known for a while that you can use honey and a substitute for sugar, and recently I learned that you can use a banana (among other things) instead of eggs in certain recipes, so I thought to myself, I could make peanut butter cookies with a banana instead of eggs and honey instead of sugar and they would be Elvis Cookies.  So I found a basic peanut butter cookie recipe and went to work:

Elvis Cookies

1/2 cup soft butter

1/2 cup peanut butter (could probably add more, if desired)

2/3 cup honey

1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2-1 banana
1 1/4 cup flour
I might just go crazy and add bacon bits next time
Sugar

Mix butter and peanut butter until creamy. Add honey, baking powder, and baking soda. Add vanilla and banana. Add flour. For the riskier bakers, throw in some bacon bits right about now. If it is too sticky (and it probably will be), put it in the fridge for an hour or two. Roll dough into 1-inch balls, coat with sugar and place on baking sheet 2 inches apart from one another. Smash cookie balls down with a fork. Bake at 375°F for about 9 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Elvis Cookies have left the oven!

Voìla! I was pretty impressed that they actually looked just like regular cookies when they came out of the oven. They were soft and chewy and tasted very banana-y, which is kind of weird for a cookie, but still delicious. I think next time I will add more peanut butter and/or less banana because I feel like the peanut butter was a little overshadowed by the banana. Also, I kind of want to go completely crazy and put bacon in a cookie. I was telling my mom about this idea tonight and she told me that once I put bacon in them, they aren't cookies anymore. Instead, she said, they were hors d'oeuvres. I disagree on the basis that I would still serve them for dessert and not as appetizers.

I told my husband about my Elvis Cookie project and he's pretty skeptical of the whole thing, but I think when he comes home tomorrow he'll understand. I think the real issue is that he doesn't like fruit. Because he's a freak of nature. But he likes banana bread, so I think he'll love them once he tries them.

I just can't tell him about the bacon next time.

Urban Gardening

When we first moved to Houston, my husband said we should take our old pantry shelving and grow some plants on them on our patio. I kind of gave him a look of skepticism and we didn't really talk about it again after that. It'll never work, I thought. Between the two of us there wasn't a single green thumb, or even a green toe. Every plant that has come into our home has left it dead faster than you can say, "Hey honey, did you ever water the plants?"

Nonetheless, the old pantry shelves are still out on the patio, waiting for someone to re-assemble them and put them to good use. Then the other day, Whole Foods posted this video about growing your own herbs, and I thought it was pretty cool.

I brought up the video with my husband and he said something to the effect of, "See? I told you you'd want to do it." I'm still not convinced that we can pull it off, but at least now I'm vaguely interested.

My two major concerns are 1) if we can keep anything alive that doesn't whine when it's not fed, and 2) if we have enough sunlight for anything to grow out there.

The video talks about how some herbs need more light than others, but I'm not sure my south-east facing patio gets even 4-6 hours of sunlight per day. I mean, it doesn't get satellite service and barely gets cell phone service, so how could the sun possibly get through, right? I should maybe check that out sometime. When I'm home during the day. Like I was today... Whoops.

I guess I'm also concerned about the so-called "winter" down here. What happens when it freezes? Will all my plants die? Can I fix that? Am I really responsible enough to check the forecast to preemptively save the plants from their utter demise (I'm pretty sure the answer is a resounding NO to this one)? Why did I think it was a good idea to start thinking about this project in the fall?

So more than likely I'm going to try to make this happen because I think it would be really cool to be able to go out and pluck the herbs I need for my food and use them that day. Plus if you keep them alive long enough you can actually save money! But I have a feeling it won't be until after "winter" is mostly over. In the meantime, I intend to do some research to figure out a logistics plan to keep plants alive. Maybe I'll adopt a house plant for the winter and see if I don't kill it (*insert sarcastic chuckle here*).

More later.

Butter

Last week, my cousin posted an article about making your own organic butter on Facebook. Ah ha! I said to myself, This will be perfect for my blog! So since I'm working doubles the entire weekend, I figured I should get this one in before I do nothing but eat, sleep, and work for the next couple days.

But first a few notes about the butter and margarine debate. I think we used butter mostly at my house, but I can't say for sure. I think it was pretty interchangeable, but from what I can remember, we had Land O Lakes butter sitting out on the table (rarely in the fridge) most of the time. I liked that we kept it at room temperature because it was actually possible to spread it on foods that were not scalding hot.

When I got married, I'm pretty sure we switched over to margarine, because that's what my husband was used to using, and I didn't have much of a preference at the time. But then I found out the awful truth about margarine: It's bad for you.

Long story short, it's imitation butter. And imitation is never better than the real thing. It goes back to the removal of the saturated fats and replacing it with scientifically engineered compounds like trans-fats, and we all know trans-fats are big no-nos.

So then I tried buying butter at the co-op grocery store. Surprisingly, they had about 15 different kinds of margarine and exactly one kind of butter. Sweet cream butter that had to be refrigerated and was hard as a rock. This would not fly with my husband. So we went back to the margarine until I recently found Land O Lakes spreadable butter with canola oil at the regular grocery store. They had a few more options there as well, but I'm happy with the canola oil mix for now and my husband will use it so everyone is satisfied.

So anyway, I decided on a whim at about 8 o'clock tonight to make my own butter using the article I mentioned previously. It claimed the process took ten minutes, so I figured why not?

I had already obtained organic heavy whipping cream ahead of time, and the only other ingredients are an electric mixer, ice water, and sea salt (to taste), so I was ready to go a few minutes after eight. The first step was to mix the whipping cream until it became a butter-like substance, which, supposedly takes about 10 minutes. I think it ended up taking me closer to 20, but it was a bit extended because I had to check the bowl several times to see if buttermilk was separating from the butter at the bottom. When it was finally separated, I had to find a couple containers appropriate for saving the buttermilk and coax said liquid into the containers while simultaneously not including the butter. This probably took another five minutes or so.

After that I had to check my freezer to see if we had ice cubes ready (we did, yay!) and pour the ice water into the bowl to wash the butter and try to remove more buttermilk. I washed it three times and the water began running clearer, so I figured I was good to go. The last step was to remove the rest of the liquid and then salt and wrap it up. Well, this whole removing the rest of the liquid part was probably the most time consuming part of the task. I squeezed and squeezed out liquid with my spoonula until I couldn't get any more out and so I went to salt and wrap up the butter and call it a day. But when I picked it up and tried to mold it into some cute, square-ish shape, I realized there was a ton of liquid still inside the butter ball. So I tried squeezing out more liquid with the spoonula, but none would come out. I finally resorted to squeezing out the liquid as best I could with my bare hands until I finally gave up and figured it was good enough. This whole process probably took me another 20 minutes or so.

Then there was the task of trying to figure out how to shape it into a cute little butter block. Well, I didn't really have any ideas, so after a few sorry attempts I ended up just lining a storage container with wax paper and shaping the butter to the container shape. I think in the end it took me about 50 minutes from start to finish, but I think I could shorten this to about 30 minutes or so once I've done it a few more times. I plan on taking some of the butter to work tomorrow and trying it out, along with some of the buttermilk. I think I'll put the butter on my roasted garlic sourdough bread I bought to go with the lasagna I made for lunch (and have for leftovers tomorrow!). No idea on the buttermilk. I may just add it to some oatmeal. Pretty excited about the whole thing, nonetheless.

In other news, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is fascinating and makes me want to garden more than ever. I'm very disappointed that I'll be moving mid-summer and so a garden is out of the question again this year. Last year they dug up my backyard to do work on the downstairs duplex, so it was a no go. Before that I didn't have yard space to call my own, so I haven't had the chance to try it out. Hopefully next year though. However, I just got done reading the part where the author learned how to make cheese, and it seems about as easy as making butter, so I think that will be my next project.