Pressure Cooker Turkey Tetrazzini

It seems I've completely neglected this blog! Has it really been since January? And here we're already in December.

We have been eating, really we have. I just haven't been keeping track of any of it. I've actually been doing a lot of cooking in my pressure cooker. Yes, I kept hearing about how handy these appliances can be, and I decided to buy one. I got the Farberware one from Walmart. From what I can tell, they're all pretty much the same whether you buy the Instant Pot that everyone is talking about, this one from Walmart, or another brand.

I really didn't use my pressure cooker much at first because I really didn't know where to start. Thankfully, I stumbled across the Farberware 7-in-1 Pressure Cooker Facebook group (although other brands are more than welcome), and that has made all the difference.  Questions answered, recipes shared, and plenty of support. Now, I use my PC all the time. It really is as handy as everyone said.

We had this turkey tetrazzini for dinner tonight. I've made it before on the stove, but it turns out so well, and it's so easy in the pressure cooker, I see no reason to do it any differently from now on.

Pressure Cooker Turkey Tetrazzini 
adapted from the Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals cookbook

Ingredients:

• 3 T butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped green pepper
• 3 T flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 8 oz. dry pasta
• 2 cups chopped cooked turkey
• 1 cup shredded cheddar

Directions:

1. Heat PC on brown/sear setting; melt butter. Add onion, celery, carrot, and green pepper; saute until cooked and starting to brown. Add flour, salt, and pepper; cook for a few minutes. Stir in broth, milk, pasta, and turkey.
2. Put lid on PC and set to cook for 1/2 the time listed on your pasta bag or box. (For my Farberware, I use the Vegetable setting because the default time is 8 minutes, so there's less adjusting. I set it for 6 minutes tonight.)
3. Depending on your time schedule, you can either release the pressure when the time is up or do a Natural Pressure Release (NPR). Once the pressure has been released, remove the lid and stir in the cheese.
4. Serve immediately or replace the lid and leave on the Keep Warm setting until ready to eat.

I really love that I can brown or saute things right in the pot before adding other ingredients and setting it for pressure cooking (or even slow cooking). The pressure cooker will also keep the food warm until we're ready to eat, so it's great for throwing everything in whenever I have time and then expecting a great meal ready at dinner time. It's definitely my kind of kitchen appliance.

Chicken Quinoa Casserole with Broccoli

This was one of the other recipes I wanted to try for my Secret Recipe Club post this month, but I chose the Tuna Enchiladas, which I happen to have made for dinner again tonight.  Only this time I used a can of salmon instead of the tuna.  So good! My SRC recipes often become favorites around here.

I made this casserole a week or so ago, and I see why Cathleen called it her new favorite casserole.  It is excellent!  I'd tried quinoa a time or two in the past, but I hadn't really been impressed.  But this?  This casserole makes me love it.  There's just something about the texture of the quinoa and all the flavors.  Everything goes together so well.  You should definitely try this.  Soon.

A little melted cheese on top doesn't hurt, either.

Chicken Quinoa Casserole with Broccoli
adapted from A Taste of Madness

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. chicken seasoning (I used Canadian Chicken seasoning)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed (I used 1/2 red quinoa and 1/2 white)
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced in thin strips
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 3 cups broccoli, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup hot water, from steaming broccoli

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
2. In a large nonstick pan (preferably oven-safe), bring the chicken broth to a low boil. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, chicken seasoning and flour until fully combined. Slowly add the flour mixture to the boiling liquid and mix until smooth and bubbly.
3. Stir in 1 cup water and the quinoa. Place the chicken strips over the quinoa mixture and sprinkle with salt and chili powder. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. (If your pan isn't oven safe at 400˚, pour the mixture into a greased 13x9" baking dish before adding the chicken.)
4. While the casserole is in the oven, steam the broccoli until tender. Set broccoli aside and reserve 1 cup of the hot water.
5. Remove the casserole from the oven, and add the broccoli and up to 1 cup of the hot water until the consistency is creamy and can be easily stirred in the pan. Sprinkle with the cheese, and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

I recently got a gorgeous ceramic nonstick pan that worked perfectly for this.  I figured why use a separate baking dish if I don't have to?  Fewer dishes, right?  Even though I really don't mind washing dishes...

 

I'm not exactly sure what chicken seasoning the recipe referred to, so I used some Weber Canadian Chicken seasoning.  I visited their webpage but couldn't find it listed, so I'm not sure if it's available anymore or not, but it's similar to this Montreal Chicken seasoning. The flavor was really good, and now I'm thinking of ways to use this seasoning for things besides just grilling chicken.  I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of it before.

 

I will definitely be making this again.  I'm now wondering how it would turn out to mix everything up and put it all in the crockpot instead of baking it.  I'm thinking of using some chopped cooked chicken and just mixing in a 16-oz. bag of frozen chopped broccoli, and then letting it all cook together.  I think it would be great for a potluck.

Grow Sprouts in a Glass Jar

I never had sprouts until I went to college, and then I fell in love with them.  After college and marriage, I occasionally bought alfalfa sprouts in the grocery store, but then I stopped because they were fairly expensive and not always good.  Then I mostly forgot about them until a couple years ago when a friend of mine mentioned that she had been growing her own sprouts, and she gave me some seeds so I could try it too.

Since then I've been growing my own sprouts regularly.  It's easy.  Very, very easy.

Grow Your Own Sprouts

You will need:

• A glass jar - a wide-mouth pint jar works great.
• Sprouting seeds of your choice - I use The Sprout House Organic Sprouting Seeds Salad Mix Broccoli, Clover, Radish, Alfalfa along with some lentils. 
• Cheesecloth or nylon to cover the top of the jar and a canning ring or rubber band to hold it in place.
• Water 

Directions:

1. Place about a Tablespoon of sprouting seeds in jar, and put the cheesecloth or nylon over the mouth of the jar and secure it in place.
2. Cover seeds with water and allow to soak overnight, or 8-12 hours.
3. The next morning, pour water out and add more water.  Swirl seeds around in the water a bit to rinse them and then pour the water back out, draining well so that there is no excess water.
4. Let the jar sit on your kitchen counter, rinsing and draining them a couple times a day, until they have sprouted and begin to have small leaves.  You want to be sure they don't dry out, but you don't want them sitting in water either.
5. Once the sprouts have reached the point you like them - usually in 5 days or so, rinse them one more time and place them in a container and refrigerate.  I usually put a folded paper towel in the bottom of the container to absorb any excess water.

Enjoy!  and repeat the process as needed.   Sprouts are good on sandwiches or salads or just eaten by the handful with a sprinkling of sea salt.  So good, and good for you too!

sourdough biscuits make great sandwich buns for lunch

 This isn't exactly a recipe, though in the end you get something really good to eat, so I guess it kind of is after all.  I posted this a couple years ago on my other blog, but when I went looking for it, I had a hard time finding it.  I finally did, so I'm posting here - and fixing the images that somehow disappeared.  (Note: do not link directly to pictures you've posted to Facebook.  They may work for a while, but eventually you will end up with a missing image in your post.)

Review: Make Ahead Bread

I received a free digital copy of the new cookbook Make Ahead Bread: 100 Recipes for Melt-in-Your-Mouth Fresh Bread Every Day by Donna Currie through NetGalley.

I have been baking bread for as long as I can remember, but I never get tired of looking at and trying new recipes, which is why I was happy to take a look at this book.  Just flipping through it and looking at the gorgeous pictures makes me want to try every single one of the recipes.

The book begins with a chapter on the basics of bread-making, including ingredients and equipment.  Even though I've been baking bread for ages, I learned a thing or two.

I love the premise of the book - breaking up the process of baking bread  into multiple parts, meaning that the bulk of the actual work - the mixing, kneading and forming - can be done whenever the baker has time.  It means that, no matter how busy your schedule may be, you can still make and enjoy homemade bread.  Mixing, kneading, and the first rise are done on the first day - Prep Day.  Then the magical step in the process is refrigeration - the dough is kept in the refrigerator for anywhere from 8 to 24 hours, or longer - which improves both the flavor and the texture of the bread.  As well as allowing the baker to bake the bread on his or her own schedule.  Baking Day is usually pretty simple - remove the bread from the refrigerator and bake it.  And then enjoy, of course!

I bake sourdough most of the time anymore, which requires a longer rise time than breads made with active dry yeast, so I know that extra time does something special to the bread.  The author does include a few sourdough recipes and a very thorough explanation of starting your own sourdough starter.  There are also a few gluten free recipes included.

Once I started paging through the book, I could hardly make myself stop.  Here are a few of the recipes that caught my eye:

• Page 30 - Fresh Corn and Cheddar Loaf
• Page 32 - Sauerkraut Rye
• Page 38 - Stuffing Bread with Dried Cranberries - because cranberries are definitely my thing.
• Page 80 - Cheesy Breadstick Twists
• Page 94 - Sourdough English Muffins
• Page 99 - Oatmeal and Orange Buns with Toasted Coconut

I'm sure I will be making some variation of several of these!

I also enjoyed all the pictures throughout this book.  While I can picture a lot of recipes just by reading through them, having gorgeous full-color pictures in a cookbook definitely take it to the next level.  I do wish there was a picture for every recipe and that the pictures were better labeled, (sometimes the picture is on the page before the recipe; sometimes on the page after) but it wasn't too hard to figure out which picture was for which recipe. 

It also would have been nice to see the book start with the most basic loaf - something for people who have never really baked bread to ease into it with - and for the recipes to be somehow labeled for difficulty, so those same people could easily pick some simpler recipes.  I don't think any of the recipes look terribly hard, and Currie does a good job of breaking them into manageable pieces and sharing handy information and tips for success, but I would hate for someone to be turned off of bread making because the recipe that was a bit harder than they were ready for.  For those of us who have been baking bread for a while or those who would bake bread if only they had the time, this book is an excellent resource.