Old Packard Factory

In the heart of Detroit, there are cars. Surprise! Packard was once a heavy hitter in the car world, but in '57 the doors closed on the factory forever. Enter Explorers!

One chicken, one goal

So I bought a 5 dollar chicken from Trader Joes. My goal for this chicken? See how much I can get out of it :) Today I took it apart, removed the thighs, legs, and wings. I took off one breast for Black Bean and Chicken Salsa Soup. Again stolen from A Year of Slow cooking

--1 pound chicken (I used frozen breast tenderloins) 
--1 cup dried black beans (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
--4 cups chicken broth 
--1 cup sliced mushrooms
--1 cup frozen corn 
--1 jar prepared salsa (16 oz)
--1 1/2 tsp cumin 
--1/2 cup sour cream (to stir in at the end) 
--shredded cheddar cheese, avocado slices, cilantro (all optional) 

updated 12/15: Pace salsa is pictured in the ingredients. Pace, and many Campbells products are now no longer being classified as "gluten free"---please read all labels and use your best judgment when making choices to feed your family. You can read a discussion about the labeling, here.
The Directions. 

You will need a 4 quart or larger.

If you know you are going to make this the night before (yay for meal planning!) soak the blackbeans in enough water to cover and another 2 inches overnight. In the morning, drain the water and rinse the beans.

If you don't have super hard water or live in a super high altitude, you can quick soak the beans by pouring boiling water over them and let them sit for an hour or two. I did an hour, but 2 would really be better if you have the time. 

Drain and rinse the beans. Add to the crockpot. Put in the chicken, and add the broth and salsa. Pour in the corn and mushrooms, and add the cumin. Stir, but don't disturb the beans---let them stay at the bottom of the pot, closest to the heating element.

Cover and cook on high for 9 hours. Yup. High. For 9 hours. It took a crazy long time for the beans to soften, but they did. 

If you are using beans you soaked overnight, canned beans, or pre-cooked beans, you can cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5--similar to normal soup-cooking time. 

If you'd like to thicken the broth (I did this), you can use your immersible blender (I love that thing) to blend a bit of the beans and chicken. If you don't have one, scoop out 2 cups of the soup and carefully blend in your traditonal blender. Stir the mixture back into the crockpot.

Stir in the 1/2 cup of sour cream before serving, and garnish with shredded cheese and avocado slices. 


I dont think I used a full pound. But One breast down, lets see how many meals come from this :)

Workin like a crazy woman

man, this 4am-11am then 6m-midnight thing is a killer. but it will be monies. Castor and Cooper are cute an annoying. Swimmi is swimming!!! He's a real fish now! lol. I will get some nice photos of him. and Herman is still alive! I thought he was dead for sure but low and behold he came out last night! Im so happy!

I need to get on plotting my Niagra Falls trip. While in Cali Brandi and Katherine gave me some smashed pennines, one of which was from Niagra Falls. :) They both also gave me pennies from the Winchester Mystery house, and got different ones! lol

Pizza Soup

So, still eating like a poor girl :) To mix it up with my yummo 16 Bean soup, Im also making Pizza Soup. I had some Breakfast Sausage in the fridge from when it was on sale for 99 cents a lbs (woot!) And yesterday when I went to pick up my check from Vinny at the Pizza Shop, I picked up the other ingredients. The Recipe is from 365Crockpot :)

--1 jar (14 oz) of pizza sauce
--3 empty jars full of water
--1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
--1/2 red onion, chopped
--1 cup sliced mushrooms
--1 cup baby tomatoes, cut in quarters (or 1 can diced tomatoes, drained)
--2 already-cooked Italian sausage (I used chicken Italian sausage)
--1 cup sliced pepperoni, sliced in quarters (Hormel turkey pepperoni is labeled gluten free)
--8 fresh basil leaves, chopped (or 1/2 T dried)
--1 T dried oregano
--1/2 to 1/3 cup of dried pasta (if your pasta is tiny, use 1/3 cup. if it's big, do 1/2. I used 1/2 cup Trader Joe's brown rice penne)
--shredded mozzarella cheese (to add later)

The Directions.

Use a 5 or 6 quart crockpot for this recipe. Serves 4 hungry adults, or 2 hungry adults and 2 kids with enough leftovers to feed them all again.

Wash and prepare veggies. Dump them into the crockpot. Cut up the sausage into small pieces--I sliced, then cut the pieces in fourths. Add to crockpot. Cut up the pepperoni, add it, too. Add basil and oregano. Pour in the pizza sauce, and follow with three empty jars of water.

Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours. Everything in this is already cooked, so you are really only heating through and allowing the flavors to meld.

Thirty minutes before serving, add the dry pasta, and turn to high. My pasta only took 20 minutes to soften quite nicely.

Garnish/top with shredded mozzarella cheese


This soup came out amazing!! I was eh the first day, but the second day and on the flavors were deep and delicios!! And I ate off it for a week! 

Broke, but happy

So after returning home from California, I realized a few things. 1. I havnt shopped for food in 2 weeks. B. I have worked in a week and a half. and 3. I have no monies. Time to empty the fridge and cupboards!!! Enter the crock pot. I heart my crock pot. So I currently have a concotion in there that is this, lol:

1 package 16 bean soup (bought a few months ago during a stock up session)
1 seasoning packet that came with said soup
water
3 cloves garlic
ground black pepper to taste
lemon pepper to taste
1 TBLS curry powder
1 TBLS Red Pepper flakes
Salt

I soaked the beans over night, rinsed and added to the crock pot. I then added enough water to cover the beans with an additional 1-2" water covering. I chopped the garlic and threw it in, and mixed in the seasoning packet. about 3 hours in I got bored and dumped the other seasonings in. May add more curry later. But yay! and came out pretty good, hurrah for beans :) **It came out fantastic! Yumm-o!

I also made no-knead bread to go with it.
(from Steamy Kitchen)

3 cups bread flour (I like Harvest King bread flour)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon fine table salt (or 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt)
1 1/2 cups warm water

Covered pot (five-quart or larger cast iron, Pyrex, ceramic, enamel...something that can go into a 450F oven.)

directions:

1. Mix dough: The night before, combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, doughy mess. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on countertop.

2. Shape & preheat: The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. Fold ends of dough over a few times with the spatula and nudge it into a ball shape. You can use your hands if you like, just keep your hands wet so that the dough does not stick. Generously dust a cotton towel (not terrycloth) with flour. Set dough seam side down on top of towel. Fold towel over the dough. Let it nap for 2 hours. When you've got about a half hour left, slip your covered pot into the oven and preheat to 450F.

3. Bake: Your dough should have doubled in size. Remove pot from oven. Holding towel, turn over and dump wobbly dough into pot, using your hands to get the dough off the towel. Doesn't matter which way it lands. Shake to even dough out. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle of loaf is 210F. Remove and let cool on wired rack. If not eating right away, you can re-crisp crust in 350F oven for 10 minutes. Best way to eat it? Smear a warm slice with some good butter (Kerrygold and Lurpac are both found in your grocery stores, usually on top shelf)

It came out REALLY good! Im very happy. Its a plain white bread, with a crispy crust, so next time I would like to add something like olives, sundreid tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, etc. Also, I dont own a Dutch oven so i used my big stock pot, and all was well. my biggest worry was my own self doubt and keeping the kitten away from the oven. LOL!