Cooking Light's Cheddar Chicken Chowder

I love corn chowder but have never attempted to make it. As I scanned my 1997 Cooking Light Annual Recipes cookbook, I found a Cheddar Chicken Chowder recipe on page 290. This recipe made 7 servings and was great the first, second and third night.

When I make this recipe again, I will change the bacon cooking part. The recipe called for me to cook the bacon in a Dutch oven. I understand why which was to coat the pan for cooking the chicken. My problem, I burnt the bacon and scorched my chicken. I was able to salvage the chicken but the bacon had to be trashed. When I remake this recipe, I will cook the bacon on my griddle then transfer the grease to my stock pot. This will save me time because I am familiar with this cooking method plus I won't burn the bacon.

The only thing I changed about this recipe was to omit the table salt and used my old standby of Herb Ox sodium free chicken broth. Directions were easy to follow making this a fun, hearty, warm, and filling winter dish.

Websites:

• Cooking Light - http://www.cookinglight.com/ 

Kroger's Potato Skin Poppers

If you have a large family, this recipe was made for you as each serving is huge and very filling. Note that prep time for this dish is 45 minutes and cook time was 20. My suggestion, gather the family in the kitchen and have them help with prep. It makes the prep time fly.

I replaced the frozen diced potatoes with fresh, fried potatoes. I needed more protein so instead of 3 cups of potatoes I used 2 cups and added 1 cup of diced cooked chicken. For the chicken, I poached it in Biltmore Century White Wine as per Looneyspoons recipe on page 95. Love that recipe.

The poppers by themself are a bit bland so I suggest pairing them with salsa or guacamole which gives them a nice kick plus an another veggie serving. I enjoyed this dish with Flip Flop Moscato. The sweetness of the wine enhanced the poppers which I topped with guacamole making this a great dinner.

Websites:

• Flip Flop Moscato - http://www.flipflopwines.com/wines/california-moscato/ 
• Biltmore Century White Wine - http://www.biltmore.com/our_wine/wines/search_type.asp?type=1 
• Looneyspoons - http://janetandgreta.com

Kroger Potato Skin Poppers

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Diced, Fried Potatoes
• 1 Cup Diced, Poached Chicken
• 2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1 Cup Sour Cream
• 3/4 Cup Cooked Bacon
• 1/3 Cup Chopped Green Onion
• 8 - 12 Flour Tortillas
• 2 TBSP Melted Butter

Directions

     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients but tortillas and butter in large bowl. Spoon mixture into tortilla's and roll burrito style. Brush with butter and place seem side down on a baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Cut diagonally and serve with salsa or guacamole.

Black Eye Pea Soup With Greens and Ham

I love it when my husband gives me recipes. When he does it means there is something he is craving and it probably contains something I don't care for. In this recipe it was the collard greens. I am not a fan. For some this would mean I am not a true Southern, but I can not get past the smell of vinegar on the greens. The smell is so overpowering that I can not enjoy the blandness of the greens. This recipe was an interesting compromise.

Because we watch our salt intake, I did not use frozen black eye peas. Instead I substitued dried peas. A great resource for cooking dried beans is Linda Stradley of What's Cooking America (http://whatscookingamerica.net/Vegetables/driedbeantip.htm). I have this site indexed and refer to it often. Her method makes cooking beans simpler and they taste better than overnight soaking.

I used Herb Ox for the chicken broth to cut sodiam and I omitted the 1 3/4 teaspoon of table salt. I used leftover Christmas ham but did not dice. I used the rump portion and dropped into the soup.

I did alter this recipe a lot because I used dried peas. Instead of taking 20 minutes to cook, the beans took 1 1/2 hours. I mixed all the ingredients except the collard greens and vinegar and cooked for 1 hour. Then I added the vinegar and collard greens and let simmer an additional 20 minutes. Worked great.

Because it had collard greens, I was nervous about how the dish would taste. Overall the dish was really good. The greens gave an added texture to the dish and using the rump part of the ham compensated for the lack of table salt. As leftovers the next day it was better than the first.

I paired this dish with homemade cornbread by Donald Gazzaniga. The sweet cornbread brought everything together in a healthy fashion.

Websites:

• Linda Stradley of What's Cooking America
• http://whatscookingamerica.net/Vegetables/driedbeantip.htm

Black-Eyed-Pea Soup With Greens and Ham

Attributed to Melanie Acevedo

Ingredients

• 6 Green Onions, Chopped
• 2 Clove Garlic, Minced
• 1/2 Pound Collard Greens (Frozen is fine)
• 4 Cups Cooked Black Eye Peas
• 3 Cups Water
• 3 Cups Chicken Broth
• 1/2 TSP Tabasco Sauce
• 1 1/2 Pounds Diced Ham
• 1/4 TSP Black Pepper
• 2 TSP Red Wine Vinegar

Directions

     In a large pot, heat a bit of oil over moderately low heat. Add green onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally for 2 minutes. Add black eye peas, water, chicken broth, Tabasco, ham, and black pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil and let simmer partially covered for 1 hour. Stir in collard greens and vinegar. Let simmer an additional 20 minutes. 

New Year's Celebration

For New Year's Eve I tried 3 different recipes. All three were hits with my guests but I was a little disappointed with the desert. Let's start with the main meal which was a recipe by Kroger for Italian Meatballs. When I share with people that I only recently tired meatballs, I get the oddest looks. We didn't eat meatballs growing up. A friend of mine insisted I tried hers at a work potluck and they were delightful. Now that I have conquered my fear of meatballs I have cooked them twice. Both times successfully. Yum!

This recipe called for only sausage as the meat which made them a bit spicy. I enjoyed the fact that these were smaller meatballs not larger ones. I used Panko crumbs instead of plain bread crumbs which cut sodium from the dish. The recipe did not specify, so I used 2% milk. Prep time was 25 minutes and cook time was 20. I paired the meatballs with Barilla's tomato and basil pasta sauce over spaghetti noodles. We had plenty for leftovers and leftovers were just as yummy as the first night.

Instead of pairing a wine with our Italian Meatballs I tried a recipe from Good Housekeeping by Kate Mathis called Pomegranate Margaritas. As I am not a huge fan of margarita's I thought this would be an overpowering drink. The limeade and pomegranate juice tapered down the tequila and brought everything together nicely. Since this made a large pitcher, I was able to bring to leftovers to my New Year's festivities. One tip, make sure this is drink is served ice cold. I let the pitcher chill for 2 hours.

For desert I made another Kroger dish called Black-and-White Brownies. Since this had both white and bittersweet chocolate I figured there would be a nice smooth balance between the two chocolates. Instead the bittersweet chocolate overpowered the white chocolate which caused me to be very disappointed. All I tasted in each bite was bittersweet chocolate and butter, no white chocolate. I did bring this to the New Year's Eve festivities and it was a hit with the group. Prep and cook time was less than an hour.

Overall, each dish was a crowd pleasure but for me only one will make it into my permanent recipe collection, Italian Meatballs.

Websites:

• Kroger Italian Meatballs Recipe
• http://krogercincinnati.mywebgrocer.com/Recipes/Johnsonville-Italian-Meatballs/54772?SearchTerm=johnsonville 
• Pomegranate Margaritas Recipe
• http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/pomegranate-margaritas-recipe
• Barilla Basilico Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce
• http://www.barillaus.com/Products/63/basilico-tomato-and-basil-sauce.aspx 

Black-and-White Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Cup White Chocolate Chips
• 4 TBSP Butter
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 2 TSP Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 TSP Ground Nutmeg
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/4 Cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 TSP Baking Powder
• 1 Cup Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks

Directions

     Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9" square pan. Heat white chocolate, butter and sugar in a heatproof bowl on low in the microwave for 1 minute intervals, stirring after each minute. Repeat until the chocolate softens taking care not scorch. You should be done within 5 minutes depending on your microwave. When butter is melted and white chocolate softened, stir in vanilla and nutmeg. Let the bowl cool till lukewarm. Beat in eggs. Whisk together flour and baking powder. Stir into egg mixture. Stir in 3/4 cup of chocolate chunks. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chunks. Bake for 25 minutes. Let pan cool before cutting. Cut into 16 squares.