Barely There Chicken Stew

Still on overload of meat from the family holiday visiting, I found myself leaning towards a non meat dish when I stumbled across Chicken and Barley Stew. Containing loads of veggies, hearty barley, and just enough meat to satisfy the table counter parts, I had to give it a go.

Modifications Made:

As with most chicken recipes, I started out with a whole chicken boiled and de-boned creating a rich tasty stock for the stew. With the stock and chicken removed, the onion, celery, and carrots were added to the pot to saute in 2 tablespoons of butter instead of wine with quantities increased to match the poundage of chicken boiled. From there on the rest of the instructions were followed as written.

Scaled for Likability: Great

For whatever reason, if the recipe states it is going to be a stew, a soup, or a stoup I can never get the recipe to be turn out like the pictures. And let me tell you, the pictures on the blog where this recipe was discovered are just beautiful. My picture shows an edible meal. Aberdeen's Kitchen shows mouth watering, award winning food pictures. Just GORGEOUS. Seriously, go check out the pictures.

Back to the point: too much filling not enough stock. This was a result of cooking an entire whole chicken and increasing the veggies to match. While the entire chicken was not used as a whole quart bag was saved back, the remaining amount was still too much. The end product turned out more like a fancy version of my chicken and rice dinner than a soup, stew, or stoup. Thick as it was and lacking in juices, the stew(ish) was over the top fantastic with the wholesome, earthy flavors of the carrots, celery, and barley. The potatoes and chicken were added bonuses. Sadly, the original post showed spoonfuls of heavily laden barley stew. Mine, not so much. Barley was there but more like as in an after thought, not as in the main base. All in all, even with the result looking nothing like the original post, the recipe was so good, it will be added to the T&T meals. Score!

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes for flavored tomatoes, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one can tomato sauce, two low sodium chicken and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots, juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almost tender. Green beans and corn tossed in, heat t

Way Too Rich, Extra Heavy Cheesecake

Pictures are deceptive. What this picture of this recipe does not show is how old and faded the print out paper is, how many stains are smudged across various spots, and the numerous notes written in the top right corner with the first one dating back to college days in 2001. Yikes, twenty years ago makes this paper print out old, no wait, that makes me old. Eek. Sadly, my current living quarters do not allow for cooking of this cheesecake. In fact the last time this recipe has been made have been close to six or seven years. That is just too long. Too long. Luckily, we are spending Spring Break at family with a real oven. A family who will help eat this oh so rich, very decadent, supremely yummy cheesecake. Modifications Made: There are four keys to a successful cheesecake. ONE: all ingredients must be room temperature. If your house is ice chest cold, then warm the ingredients on the stovetop. TWO: do not over mix. Excessive mixing creates air pockets resulting in split mi

Layered Lemon Curd Loaf

Good grief us heat loving Texans have made it. What a week it has been. Winter is over and Texas winter is back. Last night to celebrate the end of The Great Freeze 2021 with heating pads, electric blankets, and space heaters we indulgently ate ice cream. Yes, it was 32 degrees outside but directly in front of the space heater it was bliss.. Tonight it was back to everything lemon with The Best Lemon Curd Loaf Cake using this Lemon Curd recipe. Modifications Made: For the bread, sugar was reduced by a quarter cup, greek yogurt was used instead of sour cream, lemon extract instead of lemon zest, and glaze was omitted. Scaled for Likability: Good Love this lemon curd. Have made several versions and this is by far the easiest. Bread was not excessively sweet, had a moist, crumby inside, and a crunchy top layer. Layers of bread to curd was good but the addition of a sweetened cream cheese would have been better. Bread was served cold and would have been great with a drizzle of lemon

Eating Waffles

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