Crockpot Italian Chicken

Crockpot Italian Chicken - This is another one of those tried and true recipes in our household that I like to turn to when I haven't planned anything else. My sister gave me this recipe several years ago.  It is tasty, filling, inexpensive, can be eaten year-round, and the best part is that it can be thrown into the slow cooker and be forgotten about. 

Crockpot Italian Chicken

Recipe adapted from southernfood.about.com

Total Time: 7 hours

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts  (fresh or frozen)

1 to 1 1/2 cups Italian Dressing (Store bought or homemade. I prefer homemade and use the Italian Dressing recipe from the Our Best Bites Cookbook.) 

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

4-6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced (I've also used fingerling potatoes or red potatoes)

4-6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

Optional: Celery, Bell Peppers, any veggie that sounds like it would taste good after being cooked in a slow-cooker.

Preparation:

Place chicken on the bottom. Add cheese, veggies and dressing. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until chicken is done and veggies are tender. 

The Harry Potter-Camping-Princess Birthday Cake

     We are celebrating a big birthday at our house this week! My daughter is turning five and she is thrilled about that fact. For her birthday cake she requested a Harry Potter-Camping-Princess themed cake, I'm not really sure how she dreamed that one up, but her wish was my command. I think the combination came from the fact that she has been obsessed with Harry Potter for the past few months. She listens to the audio books on repeat, thinks that she is going to Hogwarts when she is eleven, sometimes likes to wear her hair like Hermione, and she has requested a wand for her birthday. 

     When I first thought about how I would put this cake together I looked on Amazon for Harry Potter Action Figures and found that the prince range per character varying from around $10-$149. Etsy also had some cute options for Harry Potter peg dolls but the cost of a complete set varied so much that I decided that I should just make my own. They're not perfect by any means, but I don't think they were a fail either...although my daughter commented that Lord Voldermort looks like a Chinese guy.  It is relatively easy to guess the characters, and I spent less than $10 to make most of the characters. The peg dolls were from Amazon but you could order those anywhere. 

    To tie the Harry Potter, princess, and camping concepts together I made a very simple castle (since princesses and witches and wizards all reside in castles) using different sized round baking dishes. In the last book Harry, Ron, and Hermione camp for a portion of the book and so I decided to have them camp on the lawn in front of Hogwarts. To make the "tent" I hot glued some BBQ skewers together and then glued some fabric to the wood. 

Countdown to Europe: A few foods that I am excited to try.

Here are a few of the food items that I look forward to trying in London and Paris, in no particular order.

1. Fish and Chips and Mashed Peas - I am sure that this is nothing extraordinary, but I want to try pub grub and this seems like the best thing to order.

2. Galaxy Chocolate with Honeycomb - I have heard that these are delicious.

3. Pain au chocolat - I have only had the ones sold at Trader Joe's, I'm really excited to compare.

4. Mi-cuit au chocolat (petit) - I asked my friend who lived in Paris for a year about dessert and she said that this is her favorite. She described it as a chocolate cake with a dense chocolate center.

5. Macaroons - I have only tried the ones they sell at Trader Joe's and they are good but I don't understand the complete obsession that some people have. I'm hoping to see what the big deal is about by trying one in France.

5. Fresh Baguette - I cannot wait!

6. French cheese - I love Brie, I'm excited to try some other new cheeses.

7. Croque Madame - Ham and cheese sandwich with cheese and an egg on top. This looks and sounds so good!

8. Crepes - I figure I have to try one here.

9. Biscuit with clotted cream and jam - I've heard nothing but good things about clotted cream. This sounds so English. 

My Favorite Breadsticks

This has been my go to recipe for breadsticks for several years now. They are fluffy, moist, and buttery and are very delicious. I love this dough so much, that I have started using it occasionally to make hamburger buns. When I do that I don't add the garlic butter. I first found this recipe about 5 years ago on ABC News and have modified it and adapted it to suit my needs. 

Ingredients for the Dough

2 T sugar

3/4 tsp yeast

1 cup + 1 T warm water (I usually put the water into the microwave for about 25 seconds)

3 cups flour (I use regular white flour from WheatMontana, but if you want to use bread flour go for it)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup softened butter

Additional Ingredients

2 T melted butter

1/2 tsp garlic powder (Occasionally I use minced garlic.) 

To Cook

1. Combine warm water with sugar and yeast, proof for ten minutes.

2. Add flour, salt, and butter to your mixer and mix for about ten minutes.

3. Cover dough and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours and then punch the dough down.

4. At this point you can shape the breadsticks and place on a greased baking sheet and allow to rise for 30 more minutes, or you can allow the dough to rise for 30 more minutes and then shape the bread sticks and immediately bake. 

5. Oven should be preheated to 400 degrees F.

6. Bake for 12 minutes and then spread garlic butter mixture on top.  

Trader Joe's Pantry Staples

     We love Trader Joe's at our house, for the price, quality, and taste. Over the past few years that we have frequently shopped there, we've come up with a list of "staples" that we like to have in our pantry. Here are a few of our favorites. We have several more that I will share some other time. 

1. Trader Joe's Carolina Gold Barbeque Sauce - Delicious on anything that we have grilled. A little on the sweet side. I recently had great success with Crockpot BBQ Chicken using this sauce. All I did was put some frozen chicken into the crockpot as well as 1/3 of the bottle of sauce and cooked it on low for 4-5 hours (until the chicken was done.) Then I pulled the chicken out and shredded it, leaving the sauce in the crockpot because it was pretty watery. Then we ate the chicken on sandwiches topped with a little of the sauce from the bottle. The meat was very moist and tender and delicious, not dry like some crockpot chicken can be.
2. Trader Joe's Crushed Garlic -  I think that this is a great buy for the price. It can tend to stink up your fridge if you don't close the jar tightly. 
3. Trader Giotto's Pesto Alla Genovese - My husband is pretty picky with pesto, it has to be good or he won't eat it. This is one pesto that he really enjoys. I use it on everything such as pizza, chicken, or sandwiches.
4. Trader Jose's Salsa Authentica - Pretty tasty for a canned salsa (although in my opinion nothing beats homemade salsa.) Reminds me of Pace Picante, but less chunky. 
5. Trader Giotto's Pizza Sauce - Love this stuff, not chunky at all which is a major requirement for me when it comes to pizza sauce. It can go moldy pretty quickly if you don't use it fast enough. 
6. Trader Joe's Garlic and Herb Pizza Dough - It is only $1.19 and allows me to make pizza spur of the moment, which is great in a house with two kids that love pizza.
7. Trader Joe's Double Creme Brie - Pictured below is the Canadian version of their Brie, they also have a French version. This was my first time buying the Canadian version (the clerk described it as a little less moist.) It was good but I much prefer the French version. Such a yummy treat, I have a hard time sharing. 
8. British Style Crumpets - A family favorite in our household, toasted with warm butter on top. We originally purchased these because my sister was having a "tea party" with the nieces in our family and I had always wondered what a crumpet tasted like. They are better than "English" muffins, and are quite delicious. It is hard to describe the taste, so the best thing that I can do is recommend that you try them.  

A Taste of Brittany, France: the Kouing aman

     One of the things that I stumbled across in my research on France, is the Kouign-amann (I would assume that this is the official spelling, the menu at Les Madeleines spells it Kouing aman and becuase I am describing the Kouing aman that I tried there I am sticking with that spelling.) It is a cake that was invented in Brittany and it is made from bread dough layered with butter and sugar and is baked slowly until the sugar caramelizes.  Because I am trying to learn about and sample as much from France as possible before I visit, I of course had to try one. 

      To do so I headed to Les Madeleines in Salt Lake City. The menu at Les Madeleines describes the Kouing aman  as "caramelized and crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside." The description is perfect. 

     I have never been to France and so I honestly don't know how the Kouing aman made at Les Madeleines in Salt Lake City, Utah compares to those made in Brittany, France . . . but I will say that hands down this was one of the most delicious desserts that I have ever had. Period. So do yourself a favor and grab one, or two, or a whole box if your wallet allows it. At $5.50 per Kouing aman it is rather pricey, but I am glad that I bought at least two (one for right then and one for later.) 

     Apparently these are so popular at Les Madeleines that they offer overnight shipping to any of the fifty US states. The hours for Les Madeleines are from 8:00am - 4:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday and they are located at 216 East 500 South, in SLC. The parking is metered but there should be plenty available (it is right across the street from the Salt Lake City Downtown Library.) 

My "Fancy" Birthday Dinner Plans

One of my favorite meals ever is a good sandwich. When I moved to Washington, D.C. for a few months back in 2007 I was introduced to the deliciousness that is a Potbelly Sandwich, and I fell in love. Countless people had to listen to me rave about how good their sandwiches are, how there were no close comparisons in my part of the country, etc, etc. After years of cravings and resorting to desperate measures (including eating there for a few days straight on one trip to the East Coast, making myself almost late for a flight, and making my sister pick one up in the Chicago Airport and fly it home to me) there is finally a Potbelly Sandwich shop in the same state! It's a bit of a drive to get there but it is worth it. This is where I've requested to go to dinner this week for my birthday. It's not fancy but it is oh so delicious! 

January 2007 - My first night in Washington, D.C. when I moved out there for a semester. 

2009 - A quick stop on a teaching cohort trip to the District.

2011 - Introducing my daughter to the deliciousness of Potbelly Sandwich Works

2015 - Grand Opening of the Sugar House Potbelly Sandwich Works.