Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore with Pasta

Farfalle pasta swimming in a juicy sauce with tender, fall-off-the-bone cacciatore chicken. Just set the slow cooker to go then all you need to do is cook the pasta when it's time to eat!

Ingredients:

8 chicken thighs

Topping:

2 tsps smoked paprika

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Sauce:

4 tbsps tomato paste

796 ml (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1 tsp salt

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 red pepper, diced

1/4-1/2 cup stuffed Manzanilla olives

3 cups farfalle pasta

1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

To start, combine the topping ingredients and coat the chicken thighs.

Then in the crockpot mix sauce ingredients together. Nestle the meat on top of the sauce and sprinkle on any extra topping. Place the onion, red pepper and olives on top then cover and set on low for 6 hours.

Remove the chicken to a covered casserole to keep warm. Add the rosemary and parsley to the sauce, cover and set on high for 10 minutes.

Also, start boiling the farfalle.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the sauce. Stir to coat. 

Serve the pasta topped with a tender, juicy cacciatore chicken thigh or two!

Serves 4-6

Garden Directional Sign DIY

After a few years of contemplating (procrastinating) we finally made our garden directional sign.

Using leftover pine or spruce from something or other (probably fence boards) we set to work. Pallet wood would work as well. (Try saying that 5 times fast!)

I googled the mileage from home to some of the different places we have been to over the years. Then I printed out the info in large font. Using carbon paper and a stylus I traced everything onto the wood. If you don't have carbon paper you can blacken one side of any paper with a lead pencil, then use an old ballpoint pen as a stylus for tracing. A little time consuming but it works.

Once the transfers were done my husband cut the boards and tapered the ends. 

I watered down different coloured acrylic craft paints and gave each sign a wash, making sure the lettering showed through the wash.

Once they were dry I painted little things that were memories of those places (like bears in Algonquin Park) and finally painted the lettering in black.

Hubby gave them all a coating of this outdoor varathane to hopefully protect them from the elements.

 

Then he used his pneumatic nailer to attach all the signs to an existing post we have in the garden. Good thing he did it because I would have just nailed them on and would probably have split the wood.

So there you have it, our garden directional sign... yes people have pointed out that the arrows are not all pointing in accurate directions. That doesn't matter to me. I just love it!

Blueberry Lemon Cake with Mint

This unpretentious little blueberry cake has a subtle lemon mint punch!

Topping:

1/4 cup flour 

2 tbsps sugar

2 tbsps cold butter

Cake:

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsps finely chopped mint

zest of 1 lemon

3 tbsps fresh lemon juice

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup blueberries

9" cast iron pan or cake pan

First add vinegar to the milk and set aside.

Then make the topping... mix the flour and sugar together and cut the cold butter in. Rub together a bit with your fingers until crumbly and set aside.

For the cake, stir the flour, baking powder, sugar, mint and lemon zest together. Then add the lemon juice, egg, milk with vinegar, and melted butter. Mix until just combined and pour into a greased pan. Add 1/2 the blueberries on top.

Sprinkle the topping over the berries.

Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes then scatter the rest of the berries on top and bake an additional 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Cool about 20-30 minutes before cutting.

Sausage Mishmash

Definition of mishmash... a confused mixture. A jumble of different ingredients that just work!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp avocado oil

2 large sausages (I used 340g of rapini parmesan sausages but use your favourite)

1 onion, sliced

1  1/2 cups frozen kernel corn

1  1/2 cups chopped spinach

2 tbsps fresh chopped parsley

1/4 cup broth, wine or water

Heat the avocado oil in a large skillet. Add sliced onion and cook until lightly browned. Slice the sausages either in rounds or lengthwise and add to the pan until cooked through. Add the remaining ingredients and stir together.

Served here with sweet potato melting potatoes using the method in this recipe:

https://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2021/05/melting-potatoes.html

And if you topped the mishmash with a fried egg you'd have a heck of a breakfast!

Serves 2-3

Tropical Salmon

Get your Omega-3s on with this easy sheet pan salmon! 

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets

1/2 cup chopped fresh pineapple (reserve the bark)

1/4 cup chopped red pepper

2 tbsps coconut oil or melted butter

2 tbsps lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsps honey

pinch red pepper flakes

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsps minced garlic

a few grinds of black pepper and pink himalayan salt

lemon slices

fresh parsley to garnish

Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Lay the pineapple bark and lemon slices down the middle and place the salmon on top.

Combine everything and spoon over the salmon to marinate in the fridge for no more than 30 minutes.

Then bake in a 450°F oven for 20-25 minutes or until salmon flakes easily.

Rest 10 minutes then garnished with parsley.

Served up here with some quinoa and shredded carrots.

Serves 4

Clean Out The Fridge Quiche

For this clean out the fridge quiche I used this-and-that I found hiding on shelves in my fridge. Bet you've got what it takes to throw together a clean out the fridge quiche in your fridge too! 

Ingredients:

2 tsps olive oil

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup diced red pepper (or green or yellow)

1 cup chopped spinach (or kale or any greens)

2 tbsps fresh chopped parsley 

2 cups leftover latkes diced (or any cooked potatoes)

6 eggs

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup shredded cheese (gruyère is good, but whatever you have)

1 tbsp dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

a few drops of hot sauce (optional)

1 - 28g scoop unflavoured protein powder (optional)

parmesan to top

3/4 lb store bought pie dough (or make your own)

10' pie plate

This pie dough had been in the fridge a good while so that's where the incentive for this recipe started. 

Roll the dough to fit a 10' pie plate, then pinch or crimp the edges. Place shell in freezer for 20 minutes. Reserve any leftover dough (see note at end of this post)

Heat olive oil in a skillet and sauté onion and red pepper until just lightly golden. Remove from heat and add spinach and parsley. Cool in fridge, then spoon into pie shell.

Top the sautéed veggies with diced potatoes. I used diced store bought latkes that weren't very good to begin with but worked well in this quiche. (Those are the things that look like croutons here 🠇) 

Whisk the eggs, milk, dijon, hot sauce, salt and pepper together. Also the protein powder if using. Stir in 1/3 cup shredded cheese and pour over the vegetables. 

Top with the remaining 1/3 cup shredded cheese and sprinkle with some parmesan.

Bake at 375°F on the bottom rack of the oven for 15 minutes to ensure that you don't have a soggy pie bottom. Then move the pie to the middle rack, turn down the heat to 350°F, and bake another 15-20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Let stand 15 minutes...

then slice and serve.

Keep scrolling to see what to do with that bit of leftover pie dough.

I had enough leftover pie dough to make a half recipe of this Berry Apple Pie!

Recipe here🠇

https://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2019/10/strawberry-and-apple-cast-iron-skillet.html

Green Tomato and Apple Loaf

I know we have just planted our tomato plants in the garden but before you know it the end of season will be here. And you'll have an abundance of green tomatoes. This is a tasty transformation of those green tomatoes into quick bread. 

And I've included a link to my Chocolate and Green Tomato Bread at the end of this post too.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1  1/2 cups grated green tomato

1/2 cup grated apple, with peel

Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix the eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla together and combine with the dry ingredients. The mixture will be crumbly.

Stir in the green tomatoes and apple and the batter will come together but will still be thick.

Grease and flour 2 - 9 X 5 loaf pans and spoon the batter in.

Bake at 350°F for 55-60 minutes. A cake tester should come out clean.

Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on racks.

Then slice and serve.

Makes 2 - 9 X 5 loaves

You might also like Chocolate and Green Tomato Bread

https://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2016/10/chocolate-and-green-tomato-bread.html