Crispy Fried Chicken

 Hi readers! Here is a simple fried chicken recipe that is perfect for dinner any night of the week. 

Ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken breasts, 4

1 cup buttermilk (store bought or homemade)

1 egg 

1 cup flour 

1/4 cup breadcrumbs 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp pepper 

1/4 tsp paprika 

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 

Vegetable or canola oil for frying

Instructions:

A few hours before you plan on cooking dinner, lay the chicken out on a flat surface and cover with plastic wrap, then use a meat tenderizer to make the chicken breasts even thinner. Now, whisk the egg and mix with the buttermilk. If you are making your own buttermilk, I usually mix about two cups of milk with about two tablespoons of white distilled vinegar and stir together. Once the buttermilk and egg are mixed together, add the chicken to the bowl. Cover and store in fridge for at least two hours.

Now, mix together the flour, breadcrumbs, and all the seasonings. Heat your cooking oil on medium heat. You want enough in the pan to cover the bottom half of the chicken. When this is ready, start dredging the chicken in the dry mixture, one piece at a time. Now start frying it up! It takes about 4 minutes on each side, depending on how thin the chicken breasts are.

When they are cooked, drain the excess oil off on a drying rack or just on paper towel on a plate. Serve with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing - you pick! 

Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

Hi readers!

It's blueberry picking season! Fresh blueberries can inspire a lot of great recipes - cakes, muffins, parfaits, overnight oats, and the list goes on... Here's a simple recipe for blueberry muffins with a cinnamon crumble topping.

*Yields 12 small muffins or 6 large ones*

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
Milk
1 1/2 cups blueberries

For the topping:

2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 pats butter, softened
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In a measuring cup, add the oil and the egg. Then add enough milk to make it equal one full cup. Whisk the wet ingredients and then add into the dry ingredients. Mix these on a low speed until all are combined. Gently fold in the blueberries into the batter. Spray your muffin tin with nonstick spray, and scoop in the batter. Now, mix together the ingredients for the topping. The butter needs to be cut into tiny chunks. Once mixed together, put a spoonful of the topping onto each of the muffins.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes. Enjoy!

Pressure Cooked Corned Beef

Hi readers! It's been a little while, but I'm back with a great recipe just in time for St. Patrick's Day! I recently bought the Ninja Foodi, which has many features, one being a pressure cooker. I have to say this was my first time pressure cooking and I was nervous to do it, but the Foodi has several safety features and if you follow the instruction manual, it is very simple.

I made a corned beef along with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots and it was a hit! Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

4 lb corned beef, flat or point cut
Seasoning packet - included with corned beef
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 onion, quartered

Instructions:

Rinse your corned beef under cool water. This removes some of the extra saltiness which I find overwhelming. Place your beef fat side down into the pressure cooker dish insert. Sprinkle the seasoning packet onto the beef. Pour in your chicken broth and balsamic vinegar. Toss in the onion chunks and whole peeled cloves of garlic. Set your pressure cooker to the high setting for 75 minutes. I prepared my potatoes and carrots on the stovetop while the corned beef was on the tail end of the cook time, but you could use the pressure cooker to make them after the beef is done. Online recipes recommend a cook time of 3-5 minutes for them if using a pressure cooker.

After the beef is cooked, the Foodi will begin releasing the steam/pressure slowly. It may take about twenty minutes for this to be completed.

When completed, remove your corned beef, slicing it against the grain before serving. The meat should be falling apart easily. Serve with your choice of sides - cabbage, carrots, potatoes, or anything else you like. I also like some mustard on the side for my corned beef. Enjoy!

Homemade Pasta

For Christmas this year I got the KitchenAid pasta attachment, and my Mom got the ravioli attachment! Today we put them to good use and made meat ravioli, cheese ravioli, and spaghetti!

Fresh pasta is worth the effort; the best part is that you can also freeze the pasta you make to cook at a later date.

Here's the recipe for the dough, which can be used for any type of pasta you want to create, and some ideas for fillings.

Ingredients:

Dough:
3 cups flour (don't worry if you can't find "00" - we used King Arthur all purpose flour and it worked great)
5 eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
1tsp salt

Ravioli filling - cheese:
4 oz. Ricotta cheese
1 tbsp grated Parmesan
1 egg
1 tsp Italian seasoning
Dash of salt and pepper

Ravioli filling - meat:
1/2 lb lean ground beef, browned on stovetop
1tsp Italian seasoning

*I recommend putting the ingredients for the meat filling in a food processor to achieve a fine consistency*


Instructions:

In a KitchenAid mixer, add the flour and make a well in it. Add eggs, oil, and salt. Using the paddle on the mixer, mix this until blended. The dough will be in small sticky pieces at this point.

Now remove the paddle and use the dough hook for the mixer to allow the mixer to knead the dough into a ball. You can knead this by hand if you don't have a dough hook. Remove the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Once chilled, cut the dough into three equally sized pieces. Using the pasta attachment, feed each piece of dough through, starting on setting 1 and finishing with setting 6. For settings 1 through 4, each time the dough comes out of the mixer, fold it in half before feeding it through again. After setting 4, just feed it through without folding. This will give you a thin and long piece of pasta dough.

Once your pasta sheets are thin enough, lay them out and dust with flour. Cut the sheets into lengths of about 8-10 inches each. If you are making spaghetti or fettuccine, now is the time to feed the sheets through the desired attachment. To avoid clumping together, the pasta needs to dry before cooking. We didn't have a rack so we laid them flat on the counter to dry.

If you are making ravioli using the attachment, use your flattened sheets, folding them in half and then putting the center on the sheet onto the attachment. Insert the plastic hopper and fill with your desired filling. Use no more than three small scoops of filling (approximately 1 heaping tbsp each.) Spread the filling evenly and press it into the corners of the hopper. Now use the hand crank on the attachment to feed the dough through, and watch as sheets of ravioli come out! Let these dry on the counter for about five minutes, then use a pizza cutter to gently cut the raviolis apart. This is easier than pulling apart by hand and keeps them neater.

For any types of pasta, bring water to a boil and allow pasta to boil for about 5 minutes.

Serve with your choice of sauce enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie

I tried an easy recipe for a homemade pumpkin pie today and it was a success! This one is quick and perfect for a fall afternoon.

Here it is!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup pure canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
9 inch pie crust, store bought or homemade (see my original apple pie recipe for a great crust recipe)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Press the uncooked pie crust into a pie tin or dish. In a stand mixer, combine all ingredients (beat the eggs first before adding) and mix thoroughly until smooth. Pour this mixture into your pie crust.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce oven heat to 350. Bake for approximately 30 more minutes, or until you can insert a knife into the center of the pie and it comes out clean.

Once done, the center may still appear a little jiggly. Let the pie sit out for at least an hour to allow it to set, then refrigerate.

Serve with whipped cream, or plain the way my hubby likes it!

Enjoy!

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Hi readers! Because my garden has been so successful this summer, I decided to make and can pasta sauce using fresh tomatoes, peppers, and onions.

I did use a packet of spices from the store, but of course you can use a mix of dried spices that you prefer. If mixing your own blend, I would suggest dried oregano, dried basil, onion powder, and paprika.

Here is my recipe for making and canning the sauce.

*Recipe yields 7 pints*

Ingredients:

6 lbs. fresh tomatoes, I used a mix of Jetstar and Roma tomatoes
Packet of store bought spices ("Mrs. Wages" brand, purchased at Walmart)
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 white onion
4 inferno peppers, or a different mild pepper of your choice (bell peppers or cubanelles are good for this too)
4 bay leaves
1 small can tomato paste

Canning supplies:
7 pint size Mason jars
Lids and rings, 7 each
Canning pot

Instructions:

Rinse your tomatoes. On the stovetop, bring a large pot of water almost to a boil (place burner on 7-8 heat setting.) Once the water is hot, start adding in your whole tomatoes. When the skin splits on them, remove them one at a time to a separate large bowl. Once they are all split, turn stovetop off. Let the hot tomatoes cool for a few minutes, then use your hands to remove the skins and a knife to remove the cores from the tomatoes. Put the chunks of skinned tomatoes on a cutting board and give them a rough chop so they are in smaller pieces. Remember these don't need to be very small or perfect, it is all going to cook down later. Also dice up the onion and peppers (after removing seeds.) Make sure these are smaller diced pieces.

Now add all of your vegetables, spices, sugar, and bay leaves into a large pot on the stove top. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow it to simmer for 25 minutes. While this is cooking, add the tomato paste to thicken it. Stir occasionally while simmering.

Once simmered for 25 minutes, you will have a nice consistency. Fish out the bay leaves if you can find them. If not, and they end up in your jarred sauce, just remove them before eating. Now scoop your sauce into your Mason jars, fill to just below the mouth of the jar. Wipe the rims of the jars with a napkin to remove any residual sauce or moisture. Put your lids and rings on snugly, and if canning now follow recommended canning instructions. Basically, you can do the canning process with a canning pot on the stove or outside with a propane hook up (like I did) but you want to can for a 40 full minutes before removing the jars. Also you want to make sure all of your lids pop. If they don't pop, do not store that jar in your pantry, just leave it in the fridge and eat within a week.

Here are some step by step photos of my pasta sauce and canning process.

Remember, you can make this recipe fresh and not can it, but just be sure to eat within a week of going that route.

Enjoy!

Soft Oatmeal Cookies

Hi readers!  I've had a really busy last six months or so.  To keep you up to speed, I got married and we moved into our new house in October, and I have been working on getting my deck and garden spaces perfected.  I've also been cooking up some new things in the kitchen, which I'll share today.

When I started this blog, we had moved into a condo and my kitchen space was small but exciting for me, as that was my first home with Josh and I really got more interested in cooking and baking.  Now that we are in our forever home, I have a beautiful kitchen with more than enough space for us to cook together.  So although the "Turtle's Kitchen" has itself changed, the essence of the blog is still about finding inspiration to cook new things in whatever space you have and enjoying it.

We've been experimenting with creating the perfect homemade pizza, grilled wings, and burger seasonings.  I've been baking and coming up with at-home latte ideas now that I have an espresso machine.

So today I'll share my recipe for soft oatmeal cookies, as well as some photos of other things we've made in the last month.

Now for the cookies!

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups rolled oats

Instructions:

In a mixer, cream together the softened butter and white and brown sugars.  When this is creamed together, add the eggs one at a time while mixing slowly.  Now add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla.  Mix thoroughly. Next, add your flour and mix until just combined.  Finally, add the oats. I like the hand mix these in or just put the mixer on the lowest setting to stir them in.  You don't want to overmix here.

Now, get your cookie dough onto sheets  lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes.  The tops of the cookies should look golden brown.

Your final result will give you a slightly crunchy outer shell, but a soft and chewy inner cookie.

These serve well with a cup of milk or hot tea (most specifically, always my personal favorite - a cup of Earl Grey.)

Enjoy!

I recently bought a Tetsubin teapot, shown here.  It's a cast iron Japanese style teapot that is amazing for steeping and serving tea in a cute way.  You can find them on Amazon.com for fairly cheap prices.

Here are some of the other goodies we've made recently:

Homemade pepperoni pizza!

A new take on pork chops - pesto parmesan pork chops! With homemade pesto of course.

Vanilla & cinnamon latte!

Stay tuned for my posts in the near future!