Chicken and Peppers in Vinegar Sauce

This is a recipe I found in Parade magazine several years ago. It's certainly easy, and it has a delicious flavor. Did I mention that we like chicken?



CHICKEN AND PEPPERS IN VINEGAR SAUCE

3 Tbsp olive oil

8 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 large red bell pepper, stem and seeds removed, thinly sliced

1 large yellow bell pepper, stem and seeds removed, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 cup balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp clover honey

2 cups low-sodium chicken stock or broth

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Heat oil in a medium Dutch oven over high heat until it shimmers. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels; season with salt and pepper. Place chicken in the pan, in batches, top-side-down. Cook until golden brown, 4 minutes. Turn over; continue cooking 3 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate.

2. Add peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the vinegar and cook until reduced by half. Add honey and broth, season with salt and pepper, cook for 5 minutes. Return the chicken and accumulated juices to the pot. Reduce heat to medium, cover the pot, and cook until the chicken is tender, about 15 minutes. Remove the chicken to a platter. Cook sauce until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Stir in parsley and pour sauce over the chicken.

DONNA'S NOTES: For the two of us, I've used 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and 1/2 cup of chicken broth, and it made a lot of sauce. I also used only one pepper, and more would have been better.

Curry-Chutney Snapper

We eat a fair amount of fish, so I'm always on the lookout for tasty recipes that go together easily. This is definitely one of them!

Curry-Chutney Snapper

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 11 minutes

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons curry powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 (6-ounce) red snapper or mahimahi fillets

1 tablespoon butter 

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup mango chutney

1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a shallow dish. Dredge fish in flour

mixture. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add fish; cook 3 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when

tested with a fork. Remove from skillet; keep warm.

2. Add broth, chutney, and hot sauce to skillet; bring to a boil. Cook 1

minute, stirring constantly. Spoon sauce over fish; sprinkle with

cilantro. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet and 2 tablespoons

sauce).

DONNA'S NOTES: I rarely use snapper for this. It will work for any mild-flavored white fish, and cod is perfect. I don't add the hot sauce for us.

Angel Food Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting

I'm going to give you these two recipes together, because that's how I've made them. They're both very easy, and nothing you can buy in a store tastes as good as a homemade angel food cake!

Both of these recipes are from the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, which is very old and still a key component of my collection of cookbooks!

Angel Food Cake

1 cup sifted cake flour

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ cups egg whites (10 to 12 medium-sized eggs)

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

Sift flour and ¾ cup of the sugar together 3 times. Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar in large bowl at high speed of mixer until light and fluffy. Sprinkle remaining sugar over egg whites, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Fold in extracts. Sift dry ingredients, 2 tablespoons at a time, over beaten egg whites. Fold in gently but thoroughly with a wire whip or rubber spatula. Pour batter into ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Make sure that there is not a trace of any fat or grease in pan, or cake won’t rise. With a long knife, cut gently through batter to remove air bubbles. Bake in preheated moderate oven (350°) for 40 to 50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cracks are very dry. Invert pan immediately and place on funnel or bottle. Cool cake in upside-down pan for at least 1 hour. Cut cake out of pan with a sharp knife. Using two forks, separate cake into pieces, or slice with a sawing motion using a knife with serrated edge. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Seven-Minute Frosting

1½ cups sugar

1/3 cup water

¼ teaspoon salt

2 egg whites

1½ teaspoons light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients, except vanilla, in top part of double boiler. Beat about 1 minute to mix thoroughly. Then, put over boiling water and beat constantly with rotary beater or electric mixer for 7 minutes, or until frosting will stand in stiff peaks. (Stir frosting up from bottom of pan occasionally.) Remove from over boiling water and add vanilla. Beat until of proper spreading consistency. Makes 5 1/3 cups.

DONNA'S NOTES: I've found that the evaporated cane juice I generally use in place of white sugar doesn't work well for making any kind of a meringue, which is essentially what an angel food cake is. So, I use white sugar for beating the egg whites and evaporated cane juice for sifting with the flour. And, for this cake, I do use cake flour.

I use my KitchenAid stand mixer for the entire operation of making the cake. Its slowest speed is just fine for stirring the extracts and the dry ingredients into the egg whites. A serrated knife works fine for slicing the cake.

And, I use my KitchenAid hand-held mixer for making the frosting. It's fun to see it develop!

Hazel's Neighbor's Apple Cake

I'm showing this under the name our family recognizes for this recipe. When I first worked for Mountain Bell, in Phoenix, one of my co-workers (Hazel) brought this cake for everyone. She explained, however, that it really wasn't her neighbor's recipe; it was her mother's neighbor's recipe. That seemed a bit cumbersome to me, so it's always been Hazel's Neighbor's Apple Cake to me! 

It couldn't be easier to make, and it works as a dessert or as a coffee cake.

Hazel's Neighbor's Apple Cake

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon


Mix all ingredients together. Fold in 3 medium apples, sliced, or 1 can of sliced apples. One cup or less of chopped nuts may be added. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes in well-greased, un-floured oblong pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cool.


DONNA'S NOTES: The sugar can be substantially reduced, without sacrificing the flavor. I use non-GMO canola oil. 

Mexican Lasagna

This recipe is being posted by special request. I've had this recipe for at least 45 years, and I rarely make it anymore; Matt just doesn't like casseroles. However, this is really delicious!

I usually made it in a deep Corning ware casserole dish, but I imagine you could use a different baking dish and simply pay attention to how you might need to adjust the baking time.

Mexican Lasagna

Boil two chicken breasts and bone and skin them. Cut chicken up into small chunks. Sauté small diced onion, or chopped green onion, until clear. Add 1/2 can diced green chilies, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, and 1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted, and 1/2 cup chicken broth. Add chicken pieces. 

In a casserole dish, put layer of uncooked corn tortillas, meat mixture, and layer of grated longhorn cheese. Repeat as needed, ending with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.



DONNA'S NOTES: I usually reserved some of the liquid from cooking the chicken breasts to use as the chicken broth requirement. 

Pork Medallions with Dried Cranberry Sauce

Well, finally! A recipe that's not for chicken!!

I made this for dinner last night. I really like cutting a pork tenderloin into medallions, because it's a better use of a tenderloin for the two of us. While I love pork tenderloin and have several recipes for preparing it, it's more than Matt and I can eat in one meal. This technique solves the problem.

This particular recipe takes a bit of time, primarily to reduce the sauce. It's definitely worth the trouble, and I'll share some quicker medallion recipes in the future. This recipe is easily reduced for half of a tenderloin.

Pork Medallions with Port and Dried Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 pound pork medallions

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1/2 cup tawny port wine or cooking sherry

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

Directions

Place cranberries in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add water and stir together. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 3 minutes. Drain, reserving both cranberries and cooking liquid. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Season pork medallions with salt and pepper and add to skillet. Sauté on both sides until browned and no longer pink inside, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a platter, cover loosely, and keep warm.

In the same skillet, add chopped shallot and cook for 30 seconds. Pour in port and vinegar and bring to a boil, stirring to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the skillet. Boil until liquid is reduced by half, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chicken stock, thyme and reserved cranberry liquid; boil all together until reduced by half, 5 to 7 minutes.

In a small bowl dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water and mix together. Whisk mixture into saucepan and let simmer, stirring, until sauce is slightly thickened and glossy. Stir in reserved cranberries and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon sauce over pork and serve.