Egg drop soup depends heavily on the taste of the broth so if you make your own broth from bones (chicken, pork or a combo), your soup will have more flavor. This Chicken and Rice recipe includes a recipe for making your own broth.

If you are using canned broth, I highly recommend that you enhance the flavor by steeping such items as: ½ cup of cabbage, dried porcini or shitake mushrooms.

To make the soup, pour two cans of chicken broth (approximately 30 oz of broth) in a saucepan:

Add:

4 or 5 minced baby carrots
½ cup minced onion
1/3 – ½ cup minced celery with leaves
¼ – ½ cup cooked sage sausage
3 or 4 diced white mushrooms
(½ cup cabbage/two dried porcini or shitake mushrooms for flavoring)

When the vegetables are tender, remove the cabbage, porcini and/or shitake mushrooms.
Mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons cold water and add to broth while stirring.

Scramble one egg in a bowl. Pour about half the egg into the chicken broth in a thin stream back and forth across the broth. Wait a few seconds until the egg begins to float to the top. Stir. Add remaining egg in a thin stream. Wait and then stir. Add about a tsp of sesame oil to the soup and stir well.

Kernel corn is another common addition to this soup. To make it meatless, omit the sausage, use vegetable broth and add a pinch of sage.

Everyone loves a good pancake!  My favorite mix is Pioneer Buttermilk Mix–altered slightly to make it tastier and maybe even healthier.  Here’s the recipe I use:

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

3/4 cup Pioneer Buttermilk Biscuit and Baking Mix

1/4 cup ground oatmeal (put regular oatmeal in a food processor and grind to flour)

Mix everything and then make pancakes as usual.  You can use 1/2 cup Pioneer and 1/2 cup oatmeal if you want to get even healthier.  The oats add a touch of old fashioned character.  Serve with real maple syrup.  Yum!

I’ve been playing with recipes for Alfredo Sauce for years. I found one that I liked in the cold section of my grocery and relied on that until recently when the price went way up and they slashed the size of the container. So this is my recipe so far. Subject to change. And it may be a bit hard to follow because the measurements are somewhat inexact at this time. Boil the noodles and have them ready before you begin the sauce. If you want grilled chicken in the dish, grill and dice it ahead of time. Mushrooms should always be cooked ahead of time, separate from the sauce. If you add uncooked or slightly cooked mushrooms to alfredo sauce it gets very thin and watery.

Okay, here it is, the almost masterpiece:

1/4 cup butter melted in heavy-duty sauce pan

To the butter add:
2 ounces cream cheese

Stir constantly with a wire wisk while melting the cheese/butter over low heat.

When the cream cheese is melted, it will result in a somewhat thick sauce. Slowly add half and half, about 1/4 cup at a time, up to about 3/4 cup. Continue stirring with the wire wisk as you add. You want the mixture to thin before you add the “real” cheese.

Begin adding shredded parmesan or romano cheese, about 1/8 cup (not packed) at a time. Add and stir with the wisk slowly to give it time to melt into the mixture. I used between 4 and 5 ounces total. If the mixture gets too thick while you’re adding the cheese, add a little half and half (drizzle some in–I’d guess about 1/8th cup) and then more cheese until the consistency is right. You don’t want it too thick–it will thicken as it cools and adheres to the noodles. I like mine just a little thinner/runnier than pancake mix.

The above amount easily serves two people as a main course (with chicken) with plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. If you serve salad and bread, I’d say the above can accommodate four people.

The first few times I made this dish with cream–it results in a thicker sauce that doesn’t reheat as well (tends to separate). The half and half is also marginally better for me.

When the sauce is the consistency you want, toss the noodles and chicken in the dish. Grilled shrimp, crab and/or grilled scallops go very well in this dish also.

Ooooh, la-la! Today’s mailbag brought a very special treat. Saffron. From the French Alps. I’m not talking about powder either–these are the actual saffron threads. Rich, dark maroon with the elusive smell like that of a fine wine. A sweet flowery scent that you can almost taste.

You know I had to try saffron. I talked about trying to grow it myself, but the bulbs are very hard to procure (the ones that produce the cooking saffron, not the decorative plant.) But Lucile, from Glandeves, helped resolve my curiosity. She not only sent the wonderful French Alp saffron, she included some rare, wild grown saffron from the Himalayan region of Tibet and a great looking tea from Tibet as well. The tea is a mix of saffron and top-grade white peony. It’s a “white” tea–I can’t wait to try it. With the perfume of saffron, it is bound to be a luxury. I’m also very partial to natural teas.

Glandeves has some other pretty unique saffron products–a syrup, a liquor, and even saffron meringues. The site is in French and English.

Lucile–THANK YOU!!!

If anyone has any favorite saffron recipes, send them my way. I’m going to be trying my hand at paella, I think, but I may need to start with something a little easier, perhaps a cream sauce over rice with fish. Yum!!

Update: I tried the tea. It is quite wonderful. It is a little like the fine Japanese teas that I had in Japan. It is smoother than most green teas, however. Definitely hints of sunshine in an open field of grass and flowers.

Homemade granola is quite good and lower in salt and sugar than most store-bought granola snacks. Here’s my recipe:

4 cups of oatmeal
1 cup bran cereal
1 cup grapenut cereal
(You want about 6 cups of cereal–you can pick your own favorites!)
1 cup flour
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup chopped pecans

In small bowl mix:
1 cup melted margarine or baking-type olive oil
3/4 cup honey warmed slightly in microwave for easier stirring
1/2 cup buttermilk

Mix everything together in 9/13 oblong baking pan. Make sure it is mixed well–any cereal or powdered milk not coated with the liquid mixture isn’t going to bake well.

Cook at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Stir once after 15 minutes. The longer you bake it, the crunchier the granola. If it isn’t sweet enough for your taste-buds, up the honey to 1 cup and/or when eating this mix as cereal, you can always add sugar!

This recipe started from a newspaper clipping from at least twenty years ago. I’d give the chef credit for his/her part in it, but have no idea who submitted it or what paper it came from! It’s an excellent dish and simple to make, but a tad high in calories if you’re watching that sort of thing.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 to 3/4 cup of chicken broth
2 small cans of green chilies, chopped (or you can use fresh roasted and diced green chiles)
2 tsp mustard

1 cup cream

4 oz Monterey jack cheese, grated

Hot cooked rice

Marinade
Marinate the chicken breasts for at least four hours in:

1 tablespoon honey
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil

Cooking Instructions:

You can grill the chicken breasts for additional flavor, but if not, in ovenproof skillet, sauté the chicken breasts and garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. When they are almost cooked, add chicken broth, chopped chilies and mustard.

Cook on pretty high heat until the liquid has cooked down some. Add cream and simmer. Sprinkle with cheese and then put the skillet under the broiler until cheese melts.

Serve over the rice. Steamed asparagus or steamed brocolli goes wonderfully as a side for this dish.

This green chile enchilada recipe is a casserole. Think of it as Mexican lasagna. It freezes very well, which is a good thing because it takes about a half hour to prepare.

Two dozen corn tortillas

16 oz sour cream
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 to 1 pound grated monterey jack cheese (or mix some cheddar in there too!)

Sautee:
1 minced garlic clove
6 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
1 large sweet yellow onion, diced
6 fresh green chiles, diced (about 1 1/2 cups) You can use roasted chiles also.
2 diced jalapenos
1 pound hamburger

When hamburger and vegetables are cooked through, mix in the sour cream and cream of mushroom soup.

Spray bottom of large casserole pan with non-stick spray (glass or metal). Use at least a 9×11 pan a deep pan is best.

Layer the bottom with a row of corn tortillas. Spoon a thin layer of hamburger mix across the tortillas and then a layer of cheese. Add a layer of tortillas and so on until the casserole dish is completely layered, ending with cheese (you should get about 3 to 5 layers.) Refrigerate for two or three hours to let the flavors begin to meld. Bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes until the center is hot. You can bake covered or uncovered.

Serve with Spanish Rice and refried beans. Creamy jalapeno sauce is an excellent toppping for this casserole.

This sauce is commonly used to smother burritos, tacos, and enchiladas (where green chile is already in the enchiladas, but the sauce is poured over the top for additional flavor). The sauce uses previously roasted and peeled green chiles.

In skillet, heat 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil. Saute the following:

1 minced garlic clove
1 small onion, diced

When the onions are soft, add
1 small fresh roma tomato, diced (if you’re using canned tomatoes do not saute merely add at the end)

Heat until tomatoes have softened.

Add six to eight roasted, peeled and diced green chiles and ½ cup to ¾ cup chicken stock. (Note: If you do not have roasted chiles, you need to sautee the fresh chiles with the onions!)

Simmer on low heat for five to ten minutes so that the flavors merge. Serve on top of your favorite recipes!

Can also be served as a salsa. Can be eaten as a side dish lightly smothered with monterey jack cheese.

Look here for instructions on how to roast and freeze green chiles.

Grilled chicken breasts can be used in a variety of dishes: chicken salad sandwiches, chicken casseroles, chicken in alfredo sauce, chicken in pasta salad.

All require a nice, simple marinade to keep the chicken juicy and flavorful. Here’s my favorite:

Marinate chicken and ingredients for 3 to 4 hours. I usually start with frozen chicken. Marinate until the chicken is thawed, turning several times.

4 or 5 breasts of chicken
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil

The olive oil will keep the chicken from sticking during cooking. The soy and honey will carmelize just slightly when grilled, giving a wonderful depth to the chicken. Once the chicken is grilled, top it with sauteed mushrooms, onions and cheese. Or dice the chicken and use in quesadillas or one of the other dishes described above.

Grill or pan broil.

Enjoy!

The secret to grilled salmon is to avoid over-grilling. If anything it’s better slightly cool in the middle than overcooked. When you overcook it, that is when the fishy smell and taste enter the picture.

Start with fresh salmon, not frozen. It’s easier to grill with the skin on. If there are scales on the non-skin side (the eating side), rinse them off and pat dry. Sprinkle the eating side with seasoning. I use Furikake–I prefer Aji Nori flavor or JFC – Nori Komi Furikake (Rice Seasoning) 1.7 Oz.. (Furikake can be found in Asian stores. It’s a mix of salt, sugar, roasted sesame seeds and small pieces of nori seaweed. It’s very flavorful–mostly a fruity sweet sensation. The sugar in the mix helps helps the salmon sear. Delicious!)

If you don’t happen to have furikake flakes, I’d advise dissolving a 1/2 tsp sugar per salmon serving (about 1/4 to 1/3 of a pound), or a 1/2 tsp of honey or 1 tablespoon orange juice in soy sauce and water. Brush the eating side of the salmon before grilling.

Grill skin side first and then eating side last. If you aren’t sure when it is done, take it off and see if the middle flakes apart–a bit of resistance is okay! It takes about 15 minutes total to grill a 3/4 pound piece of salmon.

When the salmon is done, peel the skin off, cut to individual serving size and serve with salad and wild rice!

I like lasagna. I don’t like all the layering and the big long noodles and getting everything just so. Thus, I invented a fake lasagna that isn’t a spaghetti bake either because I used shell noodles. It was much easier to make than lasagna because I didn’t have to layer anything perfectly or line up noodles.

Brown the following in a skillet:

Two mild Italian sausages removed from the skins (Just push the meat out the skins of the sausage and into the pan.) Break up the sausage with a fork. If you don’t remove the skins, it doesn’t work because you can’t chop it small.
1/2 pound of lean hamburger. Break up the meat as it cooks into pieces.
3 minced garlic cloves

When the meat is browned add:

1/2 tablespoon Basil
dash of oregano (about 1/2 tsp or to taste)
1 tsp sugar
1 can of diced unsalted tomatoes (12 to 16 ounces)
1 large can of tomato sauce (13 ounces) I accidentally used the salted can so didn’t add any other salt
1 small can of tomato paste (8 ounces)
Large bunch of chopped baby spinach leaves (optional)

Mix it all in with the meat. You might add a little water, just enough to clean the cans.

Then mix into the pan:
1 tub of ricotta (16 ounce, whole milk kind)

In a large bowl:
Grate at least 12 ounces to a full pound of mozzarella (I had 8 ounces of mozzarella, but then grated a bunch of monterey jack because I didn’t have enough cheese)
mix/sprinkle in about a cup of grated Asiago (or Romano or Parmesan)

Stir/fluff the cheese so that the asiago is mixed in there with the other cheese(s).

Prepare a pound and a half of your favorite pasta (I used big shells, one bag and not quite a half a bag of little shells. Maybe it was a 1/4 of a bag of the little ones. This isn’t a science, it’s more what is in the cupboard at the time…)

Drain and rinse the pasta and then mix in the meat and ricotta cheese. Stir well.

In a baking dish, put in a layer/large spoonful of the meat/pasta. Then put in a healthy layer of the grated cheeses. Then a layer of the meat/pasta and then more cheese. Keep doing these layers until you have the baking dish full and are out of ingredients. Bake at about 350 until the cheese bubbles on top.

It’s not complicated, but I cooked this on the fly using whatever I had on hand!!!

Husband rates this one: “We can have this again.”

The secret to good hashbrowns is dry potatoes. Yes, dry potatoes. Some people achieve this by shredding the potatoes and then leaving them uncovered in the fridge to dry out overnight. Me? I shred them on a paper plate (which immediately begins to soak up moisture) and then press with a paper towel or two. That’s it. I then heat peanut oil and make a pan full of hashbrowns. Salt and pepper one side while the other side is cooking.

Some people believe you need to cook them on high heat. Not so. Just heat about two tablespoons of peanut oil to prevent sticking, add a nice flat layer of shredded potatoes, and cook on medium heat. You want the bottoms to brown, so I recommend an iron skillet. If you cook on high heat, the bottoms brown before the middle has a decent chance to get done. The middle is essentially “steam cooking,” which is why you don’t need to drown the hashbrowns in oil. Hashbrowns do not require deep frying!

For best results use an Idaho or russet potato. They are higher in starches, stick together better and contain less water than red potatoes.

What a great treat. And hashbrowns made at home are low in fat and low in salt!!!

This recipe bears a resemblance to my chicken casserole recipe, but instead of pasta, it’s made with rice. Instead of chicken, it uses hamburger. It’s a good meal that can be thrown together quickly because most ingredients can be kept on hand (frozen hamburger, cream cheese lasts forever in the fridge, onions, canned green chiles if you don’t have fresh, and garlic.) The mushrooms are an important ingredient and hard to keep fresh on hand, but you could use canned or leave them out. I also have a rice maker, so that makes this dish speedier and easier. Here’s the dish, with the preferred ingredients:

In skillet brown/sauté the following:

1 pound lean hamburger
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium chopped onion
3 chopped Anaheim chile or two chopped poblano chiles (can substitute a can or two of chopped Anaheim chiles found in the southwest section of most stores, usually with taco supplies.)
4 to 6 ounces fresh chopped mushrooms

You’ll need three cups of cooked rice. After it is done cooking and has “rested” for five to ten minutes, add 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and 4 ounces cream cheese.

When the hamburger mixture is cooked, add it to the rice.

Voila! You have homemade hamburger helper!

Additional, optional toppings:

• Bacon bits
• Slivered almonds
• Toasted pine nuts

Imitation crab purchased in the store is extremely high in salt. Luckily it is very easy to make your own imitation crab–without the salt, but just as delicious!

Thaw and drain excess water from 1 pound of frozen Pollock fish. Marinate in:

4 tablespoons sweet white wine (I actually use a nectar pear wine–you can use chardonnay.)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 tablespoon honey

Directions:
When the fish is ready to cook place flat on lightly greased (I use olive oil) tin foil.

Bake in oven at 300 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until the fish flakes apart.
Drain as much water as possible from the fish and chop. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. The sesame seeds are particularly good in California rolls.

Add and mix well: 1 tablespoon regular sugar. (Imitation crab is highly sweetened!)

Higher Salt Alternative Seasoning:
To make it taste even more like crab, add one can of real crab (or fresh, cleaned crabmeat.) Be aware that canned crabmeat is quite high in salt, but mixing in one can with the pollock dilutes the salt and adds to the overall taste! I rinse the canned crab meat which also helps take some of the salt out.

Use the fish in place of most any imitation crab recipe—salads, California rolls, and dips. Because it is not “pressed” or colored, it may not work for recipes that call for crab sticks.

There are many types of curry dishes—curried rice, stews, curry flavored vegetables. This recipe most closely resembles curry that I had while in Japan. It is best described as a thick stew. I use S&B – Golden Curry Sauce Mix – Hot (Large) 8.4 Oz. rather than making my own curry roux. I do this not because I am lazy, but because I really like the flavor. Curry is not a single herb, which is why curry dishes vary so widely in types and flavors. By using the store-bought roux, I get a consistent flavor. The roux is available in most Asian markets, and it comes in hot, medium and mild. I use the “hot,” but it isn’t very spicy. Other people I know use half mild: S&B – Golden Curry Sauce Mix – Mild 3.5 Oz. and half hot because the curries do seem to have a different flavor.

Add to a crockpot approximately:

1 ½ cups diced potatoes
1 ½ cups diced carrots
1 ½ cup chopped onion
1 stalk celery, chopped (optional)
enough water to just cover the vegetables (about 4 cups)

approximately 6 oz curry block—it comes in various sized packages I use a small package and sometimes throw in an extra block or two (half an additional package) depending on the size of the batch.

2 grilled chicken breasts, sliced into bite-sized morsels (you can use beef or shrimp also—for those who hunt wild game that is gamier than you like, such meat is good in this dish—simply soak the wild game in milk overnight, drain and then grill it or cook in a pressure cooker. Add it to the curry crockpot mix and let cook for several hours.

Cook all ingredients in the crockpot until vegetables are tender, checking occasionally to see if more water is required. The sauce should generally be about the consistency of a cream soup such as a clam chowder, but can be made thin like a broth soup.

Serve over fluffy white rice.

Warning: Do not add salt to this dish if you are buying a prepackaged curry sauce mix. There is more than enough salt in the curry blocks.