Corned Beef and Cabbage

This year I cooked my Corned Beef and Cabbage in the Crock Pot. It was tasty and tender. I am opposed to tough Corned Beef ;). Here is the recipe (again, from allrecipes.com).

Corned Beef and Cabbage
1 (3 lb) corned beef brisket with spice packet, cut in half (I leave whole but I have a large Crock Pot)
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (I use about 10 small, red onions, skins left on and kept whole)
1 lb baby carrots
3 cups water
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP cider vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 small head cabbage, cut into wedges

Place the corned beef in bottom of a 5 quart slow cooker. Add onion, potatoes and carrots. Combine water, garlic, bay lear, sugar, vinegar, pepper and contents of spice packet; pour over vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours, or until meat and vegetables are tender. Remove corned beef and vegetables to a platter and cover with foil. Place cabbage in Crock Pot and cook until crisp-tender, about 15 minutes. If you like soggy cabbage, then add it in with the other vegetables, but my prefence is crisp-tender cabbage.

Alton Brown's White Trash

OK...I must say this stuff is AMAZING!!! So easy to make and rather addictive. It is the perfect addition to your Christmas gift baskets, too. I first had at at Christmastime in December 2011. I was visiting with my BFF, Deb. We were working on a rather difficult puzzle and we were in need of sustenance. Well, she had some of this on hand and so she shared it with me. I found myself reaching for more over and over again. I was IN LOVE with the flavors - the sweet mixed with the salty! I asked her what it was and she said it was something called White Trash, but that's all she knew about it, as her sister-in-law sends it to her for Christmas every year. The name was all I needed to ferret out the recipe! A little tickle into the GGM (Great Google Machine) and this recipe popped up. If you want to impress friends, just bring this to your next Bunco or Bridge game. You will be the star of the show!

Alton Brown's White Trash
3 1/2 cups Cheerios toasted oat cereal (I like the Honey Nut Cheerios)
3 cups Rice Chex
3 cups Corn Chex
16 oz M&M's plain chocolate candy
2 1/2 cups salted mixed nuts
2 cups small pretzels
2 (11 oz) pakcages white chocolate chips (Ghirardelli brand preferred)

Dump the cereals, M&Ms, nuts & pretzels in a large bowl.

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler very slowly, stirring occasionally, being careful not to burn the chocolate (you can also use microwave but I don't like using one at all).

Dump melted chocolate over the rest of the ingredients and fold over and over until you have well-coated hunks and chunks.

Spread the whole mess out on parchment paper and set in a cool place until it sets up, then break it into pieces. Store in zip-top bags or air-tight containers.

Lemon Chicken Piccata

This is going to be tonight's dinner. It is a new recipe that was found on allrecipes.com.

Lemon Chicken Piccata
5 large skinless, boneless chicken brest halves, cut into 1/2" pieces
Salt and pepper, to taste
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 TBSP vegetable oil, or as needed
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
3 TBSP capers, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup + 1 tsp butter
3 TBSP minced Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

Preheat oven to 200°F (95°C). Place a serving platter into the oven to warm. Season the chicken beast pieces with salt and pepper and dredge them in flour. Shake off excess flour. Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet; pan-fry the chicken pieces until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Work in batches and do not crowd skillet, added oil as needed. Place the chicken pieces onto the warmed platter in the oven. When finished with all the chicken, drain most of the oil from the skillet, leaving a thin coating on the surface of the pan. Cook and stir the minced garlic in the skillet until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Pour in the chicken broth. Scrape and dissolve any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet, until the sauce reduces to about 3/4 cup, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the lemon juice and more. Drop the butter into the skillet and swirl it into the sauce by tilting teh skillet until the butter is melted and incorporated. Add the parsley; removed from the heat and set aside. Arrange the chicken medallions on serving plates and spoon sauce over each portion to serve. I am going to serve this over linguini.

Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken

This recipe turned out AMAZING!!! I originally found it on Pinterest. From there I followed it to the http://www.tablefortwoblog.com, where she called it Crockpot Honey Bouron Chicken - but there is no bourbon in it, so I'm changing the name to Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken When my husband tried this he said it was restaurant quality. My daughter-in-law and her mom have both made it since and they love it to! It is SO good and SO easy!

CROCK POT HONEY SESAME CHICKEN
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, about 5
Salt & pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce (I use regular)
1/4 cup ketchup (I wanted to leave this out so badly! lol...but I didn't)
2 TBSP vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Cornstarch
Sesame Seeds

Place the chicken thighs in crockpot and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides. In a medium sized bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, ketcup, oil, garlic, onion and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine well. Pour over the chicken in the crockpot. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or high for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours. When done, removed chicken from crockpot and cut into chunks. Prior to putting the chicken back in the crockpot, combine some cornstarch in water and whisk it into the crockpot to thicken up the sauce. Put the chicken back in and stir to recoat the chicken with sauce. Serve hot over a bed or white rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds. I doubled this recipe (except I kept ketchup at 1/4 cup as I have a thing about ketchup lol) and it turned out just fine.