Mondays are one of my favorite days of the week. How many people do you know who can say that?! I love them because I am a hairdresser so I sleep in and stay in the house in my PJs until, well…I can’t tell you how long. I did accomplish a new recipe to share though and it did not require standing in the kitchen all day!
I present to you: The Ingredients. Easy!
The girls and I were getting together at April’s as usual. When flipping through the Stockyards City cookbook, deciding what to take to dinner, the Amazing Asian Salad Toss caught my eye. We decided to build the whole meal around the salad. April made her famous homemade chicken curry to add to the mix. I must say this took all of 5-10 minutes to put together and all the girls cleaned their bowls, a few went back for seconds, and acted as if I made something from scratch!
This November 12 edition of the Heavener Ledger ("Gateway to the Mountains" - serving Heavener and LeFlore County since 1904) is but one example of the challenges Oklahoma faces re: poor bridges and roads. For more information on what looks to be possible improvement in our state's situation, click this photo to visit a NewsOK article recently published.
Sticky dough, take one. Okay - sticky dough, take two. Okay, let's do cheesecake! - photo from "Pinch My Salt."
I don’t know about you, but after all the food at Thanksgiving it is hard to get motivated to cook. I wanted to make Cattleman’s Hot Yeast Rolls for you so you could have the recipe for your Christmas meal. I have to confess, I wasn’t going to tell you about this until Julie admitted that her bread did not rise at Thanksgiving.
Take One
I mixed up the recipe and my dough, unlike Julie’s, did rise, but it was too sticky. The problem being that I could not buy yeast cakes so I converted the recipe for dry active yeast and followed the instructions on the yeast package to a T. Then I continued with the recipe as it was written, not thinking to cut back on my liquid to compensate for the liquid I dissolved the yeast in. I added some extra flour and realized that by the time I got enough flour mixed in, the dough would be way too floury. So, instead of wasting any more time I dumped the dough in the trash and headed back to the store for more yeast. Just the place I was hoping to avoid the day before Thanksgiving.
Take Two
Upon arriving home I decided to call the Fleischmann’s helpline. Just what I thought, instead of dissolving my yeast in water like the package tells you to the nice lady at Fleischmann’s told me to heat up about 1/2 cup on milk from the recipe and dissolve the yeast in the milk. Again my dough was too sticky and to top it off it was the worst bread dough I have ever tasted in my life and I have eaten a lot of bread dough and cookie dough and cake batter. Sorry, back to my story. I decided to make the hot rolls just like the recipe said and see what happened. The dough rose just like it should have, but again it was very sticky. I kept telling myself that it would get better after I let it rise the three times the recipe calls for.
Not exactly fish eggs…much better! I am a hairstylist and any excuse we can find to bring food to the salon we jump at. The day before Halloween we all dressed up and had a pot luck. I have to say I don’t think I have ever seen that much food in one place before! I knew from the past that its best to take something that can easily be snacked on in-between clients. Everyone at work “jokingly” calls me Betty Crocker; little do they know it’s really not as hard as it looks!
Flipping through the cookbook I looked for a recipe that had ingredients that I might already have at home. I finally decided on Cowboy Caviar. It definitely doesn’t look too pretty, if you’re a presentation person, but sure does taste good! (Friends at work turned their noses up at first but by the end of the day it was gone!) This is a very simple recipe if you need something last minute. Also, if you are following through the cookbook with us and cooking most of these items I would suggest buying a large bag of shredded cheese and a box of cream cheese from Sams. It will save you time and money, both of which I know we can all use these days!
Cowboy Caviar
by Tracy Holland
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (8oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 cans chopped black olives
2 T. oil
2 T. lime juice ( I cut one lime in half and squeezed the juice from it into the mix)
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
Combine beans, olives, oil, lime juice and spices. Let sit 2 hours. Spread cream cheese on a plate and top with bean mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Happy Cooking!
Whitni
Editor’s Note – Want to see the other recipe’s Whitni and Jani have prepared from the cookbook thus far? Simply go to our “Categories” section on the right hand of our home page, and use the drop down selector to find “Stockyards City Cookbook.”
Editor’s Note – Okay, everyone…this post is from Jani, Whitni’s mother. Recall that we kicked off our Stockyards City Cookbook Cook-Through last week. Here’s their second entry!
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I would like to begin by saying that after reading her first post I think my daughter, Whitni, has shown me up! Unfortunately there will not be a slide show with my post. I’m not even sure I know how to do that. Maybe if I am really nice she will teach me how to set up a slide show when she is home for Thanksgiving.
I looked through the Stockyards City Centennial Cookbook several times before I chose my first recipe. I ended up picking Natalie Browne’s recipe for Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole. I did make one omission to the original recipe, the mushrooms. We are not much on mushrooms at our house. In fact when I asked my husband if he wanted me to put the mushrooms in he said he only wanted mushrooms ‘…if they would give him hallucinations,’ – such a kidder!!
The recipe was very easy to make and the ingredients were easily found. For our family of three (my husband, our 17 yr. old son, and myself) there was plenty of food. In fact, we only ate half of the casserole and that was with everyone having seconds. Which means leftovers will come in handy for dinner another night when we have had a hectic day (translates to: Jani doesn’t want to cook) . Oh wait, my family doesn’t eat leftovers! Well, maybe if you decide to prepare this for your family there will be enough to keep you out of the kitchen an extra day.
We had green beans, salad, and rolls with the Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole. I loved the fact that the recipe calls for rotisserie chicken, this saved a tremendous amount of time. I will definitely make this casserole again.
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
from Natalie Browne
1 box Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice Mix (fast recipe)
1 (8oz) sour cream; 1/4 C Italian dressing
1 pkg. sliced mushrooms
1 rotisserie chicken
1 sm pkg sharp cheddar cheese
1 can chicken broth
Shred chicken meat. Cook rice in chicken broth, last 5 minutes add mushrooms. Mix chicken, rice, sour cream and Italian dressing together. Put in a greased 9×13 inch pan. Sprinkle cheese on top. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until bubbly.
The only other change I made to the recipe was I used mild cheddar cheese instead of sharp. For the cheese I bought a 2 cup package of finely shredded cheese and did not use all of it.
If you are looking for an easy dinner this one fits the bill. I think you could even make this ahead of time, freeze or refrigerate, and pop it in the oven when you get home from work.
Happy Cooking, Jani
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole - easy, lots of food and tasty!
Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.
