Stuffing Muffins

Prep Time: 10 minutes     Cook Time: 40     Total Time: 50 minutes     Makes: 12 muffins
Ingredients:
14.5 ounce can of chicken broth
1 cup mayonnaise
6 cups of stuffing mix
1/8 teaspoon dried sage leaves and thyme leaves, crushed
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh parsley

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 350° and grease muffin tins, set aside.
2. Combine mayonnaise and chicken broth in a bowl.
3. Toss mayonnaise mixture and stuffing mix in a large bowl until liquid is absorbed, about 4 minutes.  Evenly divide mix into muffin pan, pressing firmly and mounding slightly.
4. Bake for 40 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Loaded 'Baked Potato' Soup

After a nice family supper, if you ever find that you have left over baked potatoes, this soup is a perfect way to use them up, of course I also make baked potatoes just so I can make this soup.
Also, you can cheat and just do the potatoes in the microwave on the 'baked potato' setting and you can have this scrumptious soup anytime in a matter of minutes.
My entire family loves this soup, with the exception of my hubby, but he's a big ol' crank so he doesn't count!


Ingredients:

• 2 medium baking potatoes, baked and mashed 
• 10 fluid ounces chicken broth 
• ½ cup milk 
• ½ cup half and half cream 
• 3 strips of bacon 
• ¾ cup shredded old cheddar cheese 
• 2 tablespoon chives or green onion 
• ¼ cup sour cream 
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Fry up the strips of bacon in  the soup pan, when cooked crumble them to bacon bit size.  While the bacon is frying mash the potatoes, I used my electric mixer, just because I'm lazy, it's easier and I'm pretty much guaranteed of not having any lumps.
2. Once the bacon is fried, remove to a bowl and drain all of the fat, except for 1 teaspoon.  Add a bit of the chicken stock to deglaze the pan.  Once the pan is deglazed you can mix in the mashed baked potato to the chicken broth and then slowly mix the rest of the chicken broth, cream and milk together and then heat it.  You can add some pepper to taste but I recommend waiting on the salt, since the bacon garnish adds salt already.
3. Serve in bowls and garnish with sour cream, bacon bits, shredded cheddar and green onion or chives.

Dig In and Enjoy

Red Cabbage Salad

A nice twist on coleslaw that's been a family favorite since long before I was born.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a red cabbage
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 honeycrisp apple
• 1/4 onion
• Italian dressing, enough to coat

1. Slice the cabbage just the same as you would for coleslaw, then thinly slice the onions, celery and apple.  Julienne the green pepper and toss with enough dressing to lightly coat the coleslaw.
2. Chill for 10 to 15 minutes and then serve.

Now there's nothing left to do but dig in and enjoy

Chicken Broth

Does making your own chicken broth seem intimidating to you?  Well don't be, it's easy and super tasty to do it all yourself.
There are two basic ways to make chicken stock. One method uses the leftover bones from a chicken carcass and vegetables, and takes several hours of slow cooking. The second method uses chicken backs and wings, sautéing them first, and takes about 1 hour to prepare. We prefer this second method as it yields a more rich, delicious stock. But the first method can be a great way to not let good bones go to waste.
Of course I prefer the first method, since I like to use up the old bones and I'm not a big fan of wings, legs and backs.

Method 1. Leftover Chicken Bones

1. Put the leftover bones and skin from a chicken carcass into a large stock pot and cover with cold water. Add veggies like celery, onion, carrots, parsley. 
2. Add salt and pepper, about 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of pepper.
3. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat to bring the stock to barely a simmer.
4. Simmer uncovered at least 4 hours, occassionally skimming off the foam that comes to the surface. 
5. Remove the bones and strain the stock.
6. If making stock for future use in soup you may want to reduce the stock by simmering a few hours longer to make it more concentrated and easier to store.

Method 2. Chicken backs, wings, and legs.

• 4 lbs of chicken backs, wings, and or legs that have been hacked with a cleaver into 2-inch pieces. You can ask your butcher to prepare the chicken pieces this way.
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped.
• Olive oil
• 2 quarts of boiling water
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 bay leaves

1. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a large stock pot. Add one chopped onion. Sauté until softened and slightly colored - 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
2. Add half of the chicken pieces to the pot. Sauté until no longer pink, about 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer cooked chicken to bowl with onions. Sauté the rest of the chicken the same way. Return onion and chicken pieces to the pot. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until chicken releases its juices, about 20 minutes.
3. While the chicken pieces are cooking, fill a large tea kettle with 2 quarts of water, bring to a boil.
4. After the chicken pieces have been cooking for 20 minutes, raise the heat level to high, add the 2 quarts of boiling water, 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 bay leaves. Return to a low simmer, then cover and barely simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. Strain broth and discard solids. Broth can be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for several months.

Dig In and Enjoy