Quinoa, Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

I wanted to prepare an updated version of chicken divan. I thought quinoa might be a good fit for this dish. I like adding quinoa where I can because it has so many health benefits. I divided this into 1 medium sized casserole for us and a smaller one for my mom. If you don't need that much, divide the ingredient amounts by half.

3 cups cooked quinoa
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
4 cups steamed broccoli florets
1 medium onion diced,sauted
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 8 oz. container of pub cheese or2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2/3 cup SOS mix(recipe below)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
tabassco to taste
1 1/2 cups Panko crumbs
1/4 minced parsley
1/4 melted butter or margarine

Spray 1 medium casserole and 1 small casserole dish with cooking spray, set aside. Preheat the oven to 350. In a medium sauce pan whisk the chicken stock, SOS mix, salt and pepper together. Turn the heat on medium high. Cook stirring constantly until the mixture begins to boil and thicken. Turn the heat off and stir in the pub cheese and the tabassco, if desired. Saute the onion in the oil in a medium skillet until translucent. Place quinoa, chicken, broccoli and onion in a large bowl. Pour the cheese sauce over all and mix well to coat. Divide the contents between the 2 casserole dishes. Toss the panko and parsley together with the meleted butter or margarine. Sprinkle over the top of both dishes. Bake for 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

SOS Mix
SOS Mix is a good alternative to canned cream of ______ soup. It has no preservatives, gluten, salt or artificial anything. This is a powdered base made with powdered milk, dehydrated onion and cornstarch. You can mix this base with any liquid to make sauces wherever you might add canned soup. Oh, and did I mention that this works well in your slow cooker? Here's what you need

1 1/2 cups of powdered milk
1 cup cornstarch
3 tbsp dehydrated onion flakes

Place all the above in a container, cover and shake to mix well.
To Use- add 1/3 cup of SOS Mix to 1 1/4 cup liquid.
Pour the liquid into a sauce pan and whisk in the SOS Mix off the heat.
Turn the heat up to medium/high and bring to a slow boil, mixing continuously, until thickened.
Add salt, pepper, and other seasonings or cheese to make your desired sauce.
Use as in recipes calling for a cheese sauce, white sauce, or canned soup.

Quinoa Salad with Green Grapes and Avocados

This combo may sound odd but it has to be one of the best bbq offerings I've ever had. The quinoa provides an unexpected boost of protein while the fresh ingredients make this salad light and refreshing. Add cooked chicken for a light lunch. There is no mayo so this salad can sit out without the worry of keeping it cold.

Serves 10

3 cups cooked quinoa
1 large english cucumber, diced
5 green onions, diced
3 large avocados, diced
3 cups of halved green grapes
1/2 cup minced cilantro or parsley
4 large green limes, juiced and zested
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp sweet and spicy mustard
1-2 tbsp honey

Toss the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk the last 6 ingredients together and pour over the salad. Toss to coat and serve.

Christmas at the Garrene's

I am reposting my usual Holiday dishes but this year I will not be cooking, in fact, there hasn't been much cooking going on around here for several weeks. We have finally decided to remodel our kitchen. This has been a huge undertaking and we are now in the home stretch. Cabinets are being installed as I write. Hopefully I will have some great photos to post soon. Happy Holidays!!

This has to be my favorite time of the year, hands down. I usually am in charge of dinner on Christmas Eve so I try to keep it simple making much of meal ahead of time. I also try to make Italian food like ravioli's or oso bucco. Christmas day is less hectic with chruch out of the way, we spend a relaxing morning around the tree opening gifts. My parents will stop by for sweet rolls and coffee before heading off to my brother's house. Then everyone will meet back here for dinner. Prime rib is always on the menu with potatoes gratin.
This weekend Bjorn and I are finishing up the decor(inside and out, shopping for gifts and I'm making cookies. The kids come home this in a few days and I want to have as much done as possible. My first grade class is studying Winter Holidays around the world this month. We always conclude the unit by decorating gingerbread cookies. Chris and Noel will usually come to my classroom the last day of school to help my students complete their houses. It's messy but a lot of fun.
Several years ago, I started putting up 2 trees. We have a large one in the living room and a small one in the family room. I wanted to do something special with all the decorations the kids would make each year they were in elementary school. Thus the idea of a small tree was born. I think I enjoy decorating this tree most of all because every year I can take a stroll down memory lane with the kids.

It also turned out to be a nice way to enjoy a tree no matter which room we happened to be in. You can't beat the smell of a fresh pine tree.

Gingerbread Cookies

My class will be decorating Gingerbread Cookies on Friday as the big finish to our holidays around the world unit. Gingerbread is not my favorite holiday cookie to make because I found that no matter what recipe I used the cookies all turned out the same-dry! As I was researching a recipe this week I found that most everyone was experiencing the same problem. I decided I would just have to do some trial and error of my own to see if I could rectify the problem. I am happy to report that I nailed it on my first try. The trick is not to roll dough to thin and I added an extra egg to the dough. I also raised the amount of shortening to 1 cup and swapped half of that for butter to give it better flavor.

Yields about 5 doz. cookies

4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground pepper(optional)
1 1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 softened butter
3/4 sugar
2 extra large eggs

Combine the flour, baking soda and ground spiced in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter, shortening and sugar together until fluffy. Add the molasses and the eggs one at a time. With the mixer on low add the flour mixture and mix until just blended. Place the dough in the center of a large sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap well and flatten into a disc. Place in the frig for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 325. Roll the dough to just under 1/4 inch. Cut into desired shapes. Bake on a lined baking sheet for 12-14 minutes. Cool completely and decorate as desired.

Simple Glaze

2 1/4 powdered sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1 1/2-2 tbsp plus 1 tsp milk
Food coloring

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Divide into bowls or squeeze bottles and color as desired. Spread or squeeze onto cookies. Let harden before storing.

Sugar Cookies

This is the best sugar cookie recipe I have yet to stumble across. It rolls out easily and holds its shape during baking. I usually use one small cookie cutter to get 5 to 6 dozen and I sprinkle them with colored sugar before baking. You can also add food coloring to the dough during mixing for colored cookies. I do not recommend this recipe if you plan on frosting them. The amount of sugar in the cookie combined with a sweet frosting will put your loved ones into a sugar coma. Do use real butter and vanilla extract. Shortning and artificial flavorings detract from the overall flavor.

With a mixer cream together
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup softened butter
add
1 teaspoon real vanilla
2 eggs
Stir in
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Spoon out onto plastic wrap. Cover and pat into a disk
Refrigerate 2 hours
Preheat oven to 375
Divide the dough into 4ths and roll out on a lightly floured board
Roll each piece 1/4 inch thick
Cut with cookie cutters, rerolling and cutting the scraps into new cookies
Keep the board and rolling pin dusted with flour
Lay on greased cookie sheets or line the sheets with a Silpat pad
With a spray bottle, lightly mist the top of each cookie with colored sugar or other decorations. The water helps your decorations to stick to the cookie.
Bake for 7-8 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets half way through for even browning.
Let cookies cool a few minutes before removing from the pan.
Makes 5 dozen 2 inch cookies

Stelline de Oro Cookies

The translation for this cookie is little golden stars. This is a nod to my Italian Heritage. I never got to know my Italian Nona very well so I never had the opportunity to learn authentic Italian cooking or traditions from her. But here's where I take my hat off to my mom because she went out of her way to learn how to make authentic Italian food from her dear friend Phyllis Gacilonne. Phyllis taught my mom how to make ravioli's, biscotti, pizelles, pizza, cannoli's, meatballs and marinara from scratch, just to name a few. My mom made biscotti for Christmas long before it was being sold at fancy coffee shops and grocery stores. Without my mom and Phyllis, I would never have learned to make some of the dishes that I consider to be a part of my heritage.

Cook's Notes- If you don't want to use yellow food coloring, you can use saffron threads instead. You need to steep them in a teaspoon or 2 of warm water before adding to the dough or glaze. Cut back on some of the orange juice in both the dough and the glaze if you opt for this method, otherwise both may be too wet.

Makes 8 dozen

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 sticks of softened butter
zest and juice of 1 large orange
6 drops of yellow food coloring
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Glaze
4 teaspoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 cup powdered sugar
4 drops yellow food coloring

gold sanding sugar

In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, set aside.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, orange zest, vanilla, orange juice and food coloring. Mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix with the mixer at low speed. Spoon the dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap well and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Cut off a small piece of dough and roll the dough out onto a lightly floured board to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a small star cookie cutter, cut out the cookies. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat. Bake at 375 for 6-7 minutes. They should be firm to the touch but still pale. Remove to a rack and cool. Frost with glaze and sprinkle with gold sanding sugar if desired.

Gingersnaps

I love the taste of gingerbread but have no desire to frost the little buggers. Too much time and effort to watch people gobble them up by the fistful. So I compromise and make these. I happen to think these taste better than those little brown cookie people.

Makes about 90 cookies

Cook's Notes- I use the smallest of cookie scoops to make these. The scoop makes a round ball and saves me some time as I don't have to hand roll them. I pour the sugar into a pie plate and scoop 15 cookies into the sugar at a time. Roll them in the sugar

and then load one cookie sheet before doing the next sheet full.

3 sticks softened butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
4 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups flour
raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 375. Line baking sheets with parchment or silpats. In a medium bowl mix together the flour and baking soda, set aside. In a large bowl with a mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and the molasses. Mix well. Add the spices and mix again, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer running on low,add the flour and baking soda mixture. Mix until just combined. Drop by rounded tablespoon into a plate of raw sugar. Coat all sides with the sugar. Place the balls of dough onto the cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes.