Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Tonight's FHE before Christmas was an open house at friends.  We didn't know if we could make it since other friends from MN were due to arrive.  They were delayed so we went.  Boy were they delayed!!  See story below recipe.  It was such a fun evening with many friends and wonderful food and games.  I made 

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Place chicken breast pieces (personally not fond of chicken livers) in a ziplock bag. Add some Italian dressing and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, precook as many pieces of bacon as you would need in the microwave, oven or grill until partially done.

Wrap each chicken piece with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. I also put in a water chestnut or pineapple chunk before I wrapped each one.

Place on a foil wrapped pan in the oven at 425 for around 15-20 minutes or until bacon is done the way you like it.

This is very easy and as Kent said, "You can't go wrong with bacon!"

Meat Pies for Sale

Finnish Meat Pies are sold at the train stations in Finland. I remember buying them at the "kioski" to eat. Apparently so does another woman whose Mother is also Finnish. I ran into her at the grocery store and she said she most remembers the meat pies at the "asema" but has never made them since she doesn't have a recipe for them.

Well my Mother has the meat pie recipe and I grew up eating them -- especially at my brothers' teenage parties and other fun events. I guess since they could be considered a Finnish hamburger, my Mother would serve them to teenagers. I've never made them myself though as I remember them being time intensive -- at least in ratio to how quickly they are consumed.

Recently our daughter has been asking me to make them, so I guess it's time to make them for my kids and to share the recipe.

Finnish Meat Pies (Lihapiirakat)

from Finlandia Ranch

Dough:

2 cups milk, heated

1 Tbsp. dry yeast, dissolved in a little warm water

2 tsp. salt

4.5 - 5 cups flour

1/2 cup shortening

Mix as you would any bread dough, working in the shortening last with your fist, kneading well. Cover and let rise 1 hour.

Meanwhile prepare the filling as follows:

In a quart size kettle, boil 1/2 cup Quick Pearl Barley in 2 cups water for about 20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Stir now and then during cooking.

In another kettle, prepare the following:

1 1/2 cups chopped onions

1 beef bouillion cube

1 cup water

Boil these together until onions have wilted; approximately 10 minutes.

Then add to onions, 1 lb. hamburger, stirring until hamburger is cooked. Take off heat and now add the cooked barley and the following spices:

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. white pepper

2 tsp. dill weed

and salt to taste.

Now your dough should be ready, so roll it out real thin, using 1/4 of the dough at a time. Use an empty Crisco can as your cutter. Place a tablespoonful of meat filling in the center of each round, moistening edges with a little bit of cold water. This helps seal it. Fold it in two and pinch it to seal it. Place on counter top to raise. By the time you have all of them filled, the first ones are raised and you can star t deep fat frying them. Drop as many pies into heated oil as you can. Let cook on one side, then turn over and cook the other side. Keep turning over a few times until brown. Take out with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to drain. Place another paper towel on top and a heavy bath towel, to soften the pies. Then cool and heat before serving. And of course eat some as soon as they are cooked. That is when they are best. Make a slit in the pie and squirt mustard or ketchup in.

Handy and quick snack to have on hand. Goes well in a lunch box or take along on a picnic. They freeze well. You may reheat them individually in the microwave or put a batch in the steamer to reheat them.

Hope you enjoy them as we do.

Homemade Pizza

My husband was in the mood for his Mother's homemade pizza for lunch.  It's so easy to whip up the crust and we didn't even wait to let it rise.  Our youngest was my helper and he put half pieces of string cheese near the edges and folded over the crust so it was like a Pizza Hut too.  It really did taste oh so good!  I hope you'll give it a try.

Title: Mom Adams' Pizza Crust

Description:
Made overseas over the years when pizza was not available to her children.  Now requested of Grandma at every family gathering, especially for birthdays.

Ingredients:
1 c luke warm water
1 T sugar
1 T yeast
2 T olive oil
1 t salt, scant
3.5 cups white flour

Hunt's Garlic and Herb Spaghetti Sauce

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in water with sugar. Add remaining ingredients and knead. Let raise 15-20 minutes.  Grandma just uses spaghetti sauce nowadays, but used to make her own sauce.

Add whatever toppings you enjoy.  She uses onion, green pepper, sausage, pepperoni, hamburger or ground turkey, mushrooms, cheese, etc. (I also like artichokes, black olives and tomatoes.)

Bake 425 about 15-20 minutes.

Sunday Dinner

It's so nice to have help with the Sunday meal by everyone in the family.  Today I had help with the Pork Roast and gravy by my hubby.  When I was eating it I suddenly realized it tasted so familar. It was!  He'd snuck onto our RS Blog to get the recipe used for Kahlua Pork. 

Dessert, fruit salad, veggies, and biscuits were made by our kids and I did the mashed potatoes.  Our guests set the table.  

Since it was "Fast Sunday", where we fast for 2 meals and give the money we would have used for those meals to the Bishop, who gives it to those who need it as a "Fast Offering".   I didn't want to make rolls, because of the smells, before church, so we tried Drop Biscuits. Here is the recipe we used.    

Drop Biscuits<-----click here to go to the link

2 cups All-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup shortening
1 cup milk
Preparation:

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture is course. Add milk, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 1 dozen.

Our  youngest did a great job making his 1st fruit salad all by himself, as neither I nor Dad had much extra time to do much other than answer questions like, "Do we have more pears?" or "Can I add another banana?"  He was so proud of his combine fresh and canned salad of whatever we had on hand.  It was so worth the stickiness and peels on the table and floor:)

Casserole of Rice and Beef

I had a pound of hamburger thawing out in the refrigerator and with a green pepper from my neighbor's garden, and some food storage, I made a casserole dish my Mother often made us growing up. 

She got it from Joyce, her neighbor during their Army days, and it's one I've always liked and that kids usually like as well.  

Casserole of Rice and Beef

1/2 cup dry rice

2 cups tomatoes or tomato sauce

3/4 to 1 lb. ground beef

1/2 green pepper, diced

1 medium onion, chopped

dash of pepper

1 tsp. salt

2 cups water from tomato sauce 

Sort rice, but do not wash.  (I love these older directions).  Melt butter (I still use this even in this Pam or EEOV era) in frying pan.  Add dry rice, chopped onion, diced green pepper, salt, pepper and hamburger.  Brown to a rich golden brown.  Add tomatoes and water.  Let simmer in the covered frying pan (I only use cast iron nowadays) for 30 minutes.  Watch it so it doesn't dry out.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream.  

It also goes nicely with corn I think and/or green salad.

I given this recipe with canned goods when it is "food storage" bridal shower.  I give rice, canned tomatoes or tomato sauce with the recipe for their food storage.  Often I buy tomatoes that have diced green peppers in them so I can make it without buying a fresh green pepper. I've even given them canned corn too, so they'll have a side.  

Olympic Size Salad and Salmon

Tonight we returned to our monthly Recipe Exchange dinner and invited our husbands. It's been extremely hectic, so little time to prepare, I made a quick salad.  My husband added the Olympic decorations pictured here. 

We also grilled salmon and the recipe for the marinade is below. Thanks to Jessica for sharing both recipes with me.  

You may also see other pictures and read about our husband's night out at the RS recipe exchange at http://rollinghillsrs.blogspot.com/2008/08/hubbies-night-out-relief-society-recipe.html

Craisins Salad

Head of red leaf lettuce
Head of green leaf lettuce
Head of iceburg lettuce
8 oz. pkg. shredded mozzarella
8 oz. pkg. shredded parmesean
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
8 oz. craisins (dried cranberries)
1 c. sliced toasted almonds

Toss together.

Dressing:
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1 c. sugar
1/2 onion chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp mustard
1 c. vegetable oil

Mix everything in a blender except for oil. Add oil, blend again.

Makes an Olympic sized salad!  Tonight I just used a huckleberry vinaigrette I'd purchased since it's also huckleberry season.  

Grilled Marinated Salmon

1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
lemon pepper to tast
garlic powder to taste
salt to taste
1/3 C. soy sauce
1/3 C. brown sugar
1/3 C. water
1/4 C. oil

Season fillets with lemon pepper, garlic powder, and salt. In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water and oil until sugar is dissolved. Place fish in a large resealable plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture, seal and turn to coat. Marinate each side for 2 hours. Put in 9x13 pan lined with foil and bake at 425 for 20-25 min.

More of the recipes others brought can be found at http://recipeparty.blogspot.com

Earliest Easter for the rest of our lives

Easter Menu March 23, 2008

Appetizer -- Veggie Rabbit (see recipe in previous post)

Leg of Lamb -- I fixed lamb for my Mother.  I found this recipe at http://www.recipezaar.com/55600 and like it much better than what I tried on my Easter 2007 post.  If I didn't cook last year's so long, it would have been much better.  

Spiral Ham (our kids haven't grown lamb tastebuds yet)

Small yellow potatoes with drippings from lamb

Karelian Rice Pastries (see recipe below)

Egg butter

Broccoflower and Carrots, steamed
Jello Eggs on bed of lettuce

Blueberry muffin bunnies

Peeps tulips
Dessert -- Strawberry Shortcake

Title: Karjalan Piirakka (Karelian Rice Pasties)

Description:
Comes from the Eastern part of Finland, Karjala, where Mummo was born. Nowadays they are popular all over Finland. Served often at our Finnish dinners. Always a part of our Christmas Eve dinner.

Ingredients:
For the Rice Filling, use the recipe for Rice porridge on this site (Dec. 2006).   Just omit the sugar.

For the crust:
1 c water
1 1/2 t salt
1 2/3 c rye flour
2/3 c all purpose white flour
Mix water in bowl, salt, stir, add flours slowly. It will be a sticky messy job. If too sticky to roll, just add a little more flour. Can make ahead and put in a ziploc bag and roll out when ready.

For egg butter:
1 cube slightly softened margarine or butter
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped,
a tiny bit of salt since butter already has salt
Mash and mix together.

Directions:
Roll out crust in a thin oval shape. Place rice porridge in the middle. 

Pinch sides of crust up around the filling. 

Place on cookie sheets close together. 

Bake at 375 or 400 depending on your ov

en, until light brown. When light brown, open 

your oven and lift up one to make sure the bottom isn't brown. They do not taste good if they are. One the stove top, melt a stick of margarine and some water in a kettle. Use tongs to remove each pastry and dunk it completely in the mixture. Prepare a couple of old towels laid out with wax paper on them. Place the dunked pastries on the wax paper and then wrap the wax paper and towel combination up over them to keep them warm. This process softens them. Mummo says to keep them under the towel as long as you can stand it. She samples them at many stages.

Serve with egg butter, or cheese or lunchmeat or plain butter on top of the rice part.

Meat and Potatoes

When a friend of mine asked what Finnish recipe recipe I'd suggest she make her husband, knowing he's a big meat and potatoes eater, I shared this Karjalan Paisti recipe.  This comes from the Eastern province of Karelia in Finland.  Since the Karelian colors are red and black, I suggest serving it with a red and black place setting. It's the type of recipe you just put in all the ingredients and cook on low in the oven all afternoon.  I suspect you could leave it in the slow cooker or crock pot all day, but I've yet to try it that way.

Then it's served over boiled or mashed potatoes. My Mother served this a few times a year growing up, mainly when guests came.

Karelian Ragout
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 4-5 hours
Oven temperature 300 degrees F
Suitable for freezing

1 lb. pork (try to get meaty pork, so you don't have to cut out the fat)
1 lb. mutton (this is optional, as it's expensive or just use a little bit of lamb)
1 lb. beef (or other meat like venison)
water
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 onions, quartered
15-20 whole allspice
1 bay leaf

1. Cut up the meats into chunks and place in a casserole dish. (She always used her old yellow largest pyrex bowl).
2. Add the salt, allspice and onions and pour over enough water to just cover the meat.
3. Cook in a slow oven until tender. Cover the dish with a lid towards the end of the cooking time.

Here's another recipe to serve over mashed potatoes I need to try sometime. Just gotta find the reindeer first:)

Braised Reindeer
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Suitable for freezing too.
3 lb frozen reindeer meat or venison
3/4 - 1 lb. freshside of pork or bacon
1 tablespoon salt
10 whole allspice
1 1/4 cups water
1. Cut up the pork or bacon into thin strips and brown in a cooking pot. Cut the frozen reindeer or venison into thin strips, add in small amounts to the pot and brown.
2. Add the seasoning and the water. Cook slowly with the lid on until done.
Butter or oil can be used instead of the pork or bacon.