Rhubarb bars

CRUST
1 c flour
5 tbls powdered sugar
1/2 c butter, softened

FILLING
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups rhubarb
1/4 flour

Mix the crust ingredients.  Pat into a 9 x 13 pan.  Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Mix filling ingredients and pour over the top of the baked crust.  Bake at 350 for an additional 35 minutes.  Cool and cut.

NOTES:

• Delish and easy!
• The crust was buttery and delicious.
• The filling was a little sweet and could have used more rhubarb.  Next time try three cups of rhubarb with this amount of sugar or 1 1/4 cups of sugar with the 2 cups of rhubarb.
• Source: Parish cookbook from Sacred Heart in Norfolk, NE (p. 222)
  
  
  
  

Crockpot Orange Chicken

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts3/4 cup orange marmalade3/4 cup barbecue sauce2 tbsp. soy sauce

• Cook the chicken breasts in the crockpot on high for 3 hours.
• Mix the three sauce ingredients together in a bowl
• Drain the chicken and pour the sauce over it.
• Continue cooking on high for an additional 30 minutes.

NOTES:

• Source
• The sauce is pretty outstanding.  I'm actually going to freeze the leftover sauce and try it on grilled chicken or pork.  It would also probably be excellent on baked chicken.
• The original recipe recommended starting with thawed chicken (which I did), but it would also work with frozen.  The chicken was pretty overcooked, almost falling apart, but it was still very moist.
• Everyone liked it :)

Basic Lentils with Carrots

I don't know when we became Lentil People, but they seem to have become a Friday go-to for us. No photo, because they're lentils and not very attractive, but trust me, they're good. This is also a very versatile recipe: add more water/chicken stock for soup, add ham or bacon on a non-Friday, etc.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

  1 medium yellow onion, chopped

  1 carrot, chopped

  3 cups water

  1 cup French green lentils, rinsed

  1 bay leaf

  1 teaspoon dried thyme

  Sea salt and pepper

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add carrot, water, lentils, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer until lentils are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove bay leaf, adjust seasoning and serve.

Via Whole Foods

 

World's Best Hamburger Buns

• Source: King Arthur Flour's Beautiful Burger Buns.  These were easier to make than going to the store for buns, and infinitely better. 
• 
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• 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• *For best results (a smooth, slightly soft dough), use the smaller amount of water in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate); and something in between the rest of the time.

topping

• 3 tablespoons melted butter

1) Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a soft, smooth dough.

2) Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until it's nearly doubled in bulk.

3) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball; flatten to about 3" across. Place the buns on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until noticeably puffy.

4) Brush the buns with about half of the melted butter.

5) Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden. Remove them from the oven, and brush with the remaining melted butter. This will give the buns a satiny, buttery crust.

6) Cool the buns on a rack.

Yield: 8 large buns.

Lime and Chili Rubbed Chicken Breasts

Molly has been recommending this recipe to me for quite awhile and I finally had all the ingredients plus good grilling weather all at the same time.

It's delicious and could not be easier!

2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb)
2 teaspoons olive or canola oil

• Heat gas or charcoal grill. In small bowl, mix chili powder, brown sugar, lime peel, salt, garlic powder and ground red pepper. Rub both sides of chicken with oil, then with spice mixture.
• Place chicken on grill over medium heat. Cover grill; cook 10 to 15 minutes, turning once or twice, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (170°F).

Refrigerating the "rubbed" chicken 20 to 30 minutes before grilling really enhances the flavor.

You can bake the chicken. Place the rubbed chicken in a foil-lined shallow baking pan and bake in a 375°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

NOTES:

• I dipped the first piece into the spices and it picked up way too much.  Lesson: rub, not dip.
• Make extra pieces and serve it cold on salad.  You'll be glad you did!
• Source

Corned beef and cabbage

SERVES 6 TO 8

Use flat-cut corned beef brisket, not point-cut; it’s more uniform in shape and thus will cook more evenly. When slicing the cabbage, leave the core intact or the cabbage will fall apart during cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 (4- to 5-pound) corned beef brisket roast, rinsed, fat trimmed to 1/4 inch thick
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 cups water
12 carrots, peeled (3 chopped, 9 halved crosswise)
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 onion, peeled and quartered
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon whole allspice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
1 head green cabbage (2 pounds), cut into 8 (2-inch) wedges
Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine beef, broth, water, chopped carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, and allspice in Dutch oven. Cover and bake until fork slips easily in and out of meat, 4½ to 5 hours.

2. Transfer meat to 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Strain cooking liquid through fine-mesh strainer into large bowl, discard solids, and skim fat from liquid. Pour 1 cup cooking liquid over meat. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and let rest for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, return remaining cooking liquid to Dutch oven, add butter, and bring to simmer over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and simmer until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add carrot halves and cabbage, cover, and cook until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer vegetables to serving platter and season with pepper to taste. (Reserve cooking liquid for making Creamed Chipped Beef using leftover corned beef; recipe at right.)

4. Transfer beef to carving board and slice against grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. Serve with vegetables.

NOTES:

• This was really outstanding!  I started with a better than average piece of meat from Costco, so there was less fat to begin with, but even so, letting it rest while the veggies were cooking made it easy to slice nicely without the falling apart tendency I get when I cook it in the crock pot.
• I did not add carrots to the beginning step (to be discarded later)
• I also did not add the extra spices called for, since the spice packet with the meat seemed comparable. 
• In particular, cooking the vegetables later made for really great texture and a not over salty flavor.  
• I'd definitely do it this way again.
• Source: Cook's Country

A Water Upgrade

In a moment of weakness and dire thirst, I recently decided it was worth the buck and a half to get one of these delicious MetroMint products.  They really are very good, but when I got home and still had a partial bottle left over, I tried a little (very little) experiment and made my own version.  In a side-by-side taste test, I couldn't tell the difference.  Since then, I've been making this "recipe" pretty regularly, even to the point of washing out the bottle and reusing it for the rotation (one batch there and another in my beloved water bottle - one always cooling in the fridge and the other travelling with me).

Note: the only remotely "hard" thing about this process is measuring one drop.  I do have a bottle of doTERRA's Wild Orange with a convenient dropper lid, and I've tried a variety of things with the mint including covering the bottle opening with my finger, tipping it and then just sticking my finger in the water.  "Home Economist Sue" does not recommend this.  "Practical, I'm only making it for my own consumption Sue", does.