Tuesday Twister

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

If you've read the side bar of this blog you know I have a thing about recipes.  I like to try new things & keep recipes that I might try for later.  This week I decided it was time to go through my collection of recipes that I have been clipping and saving from newspapers and magazines.  Some of these are as old as my marriage (18 years!).

Do you see that large file box?  That is where I stored all my recipes (sorted by category).  And the large pile of papers in front of it is all the recipes I got to recycle!  Wow- lots and lots of recipes that require processed food, or unsoaked grains, or refined sugar.  I still have quite a few recipes left in there- but my collection is infinitely smaller now.  Of course now I'm collecting recipes online too- so my collection grows in different ways...

This week we tried out The Nourishing Cook's Pizza Soup recipe.  My chicken stock was thick so our "soup" turned out more like a sauce over homemade croutons.  I also used 1 1/2 c. of jarred pasta sauce instead of canned tomato sauce.

With a generous sprinkling of parmesan on top it was nice.  But I think what would really make this fantastic would be to include mushrooms with the sauteing of the onion, and then add in sliced olives & organic pepperoni at the end.  That would also make it more of a main course than an appetizer/side.  Don't keep any leftovers- the bread gets too soggy.  Another great way to use up any "failed" sourdough bread you have too!

I also made Passionate Homemaking's Dutch Baby Pancakes.  I have made Dutch Babies/Oven Pancakes using the recipe in Nourishing Traditions, but what I liked about this recipe is that it all cooks in one big pan & her recipe doesn't add water which may be why it gets more of a "puff".  Great protein breakfast because it has a lot of eggs!

One day we were having roast chicken & I decided to loosen the skin all over the chicken & place Spinach Basil Pesto  in between the meat and the skin.  I didn't add anything else to the pot & just let it cook on low all day.  The chicken was fall-apart-tender by dinner time & very tasty!  Plus, it even made some of it's own chicken broth in the bottom of the pot.  Serve it with some rice & veggie - dinner is done!  Did you know you can use the time bake on your oven to cook rice?  I put my soaked rice along with another cup of water & a pat of butter in a covered casserole in the oven.  I set the delay bake on the oven so it would cook at 350 for 45 minutes before we were going to have dinner- it worked great!

The other thing I wanted to share with you was that I used Nourishing Traditions Recipe for Yogurt Dough to make a chicken pot pie.  I used half of the dough & divided it into half again.  Rolled out each of those very thin & used them for the crusts.

I pre-baked the bottom crust (I don't want soggy crust) while I worked on the filling.  For the filling I just combined some cooked chicken (from our roasted chicken above) thawed frozen vegetables, about 1/4 c. pasta sauce, 1/4 c. chicken stock (again from roast chicken), and 1/4 c. yogurt.  I added some italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic.  I forgot how much this dough shrinks- I should have stretched it out further maybe?

 this is funny- that crust is seriously unhappy!  I should have poked it with a fork to keep it from puffing up...

I added the filling, put the crust over the top, and continued baking at 350.  It tasted just as good as other pot pies I've made using store bought pastry crust- so cool!  I rolled out the other half of the dough into two more flat sheets (between parchment paper), rolled it all up like a newspaper and froze it so I can use it for other sweet or savory dishes later.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing with you about some butternut squash recipes!

Enjoy!
Lisa