Italian Pot Roast

This week Jason shows us how to make an Italian styled pot roast. It's a perfect weeknight meal that you can set up before work and it's ready to serve when you get home. It's almost impossible to mess up and you will want to put it in your menu rotation! Follow along and see if this becomes a family staple! We're sure it will!

Italian Pot Roast Chuck roast (we used 2.5 lbs.) 1/2 juice & 1/2 jar of pepperoncini peppers 1 pkg. Zesty Italian dressing mix 1 can Golden Mushroom soup (or cream of mushroom soup if you prefer) -Place roast in crockpot. -In a separate bowl, whisk dressing mix, pepperoncini juice, and soup; pour over roast. -Add pepperoncini on top. -Cook on low for 8 hours. Let us know if you try it out! Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cooking.with.the.coldironsAnd on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CookingWithTheColdirons

Jello Refrigerator Pie (our first YouTube video!)

For our very first video, Jason explains how to make a super easy, super yummy, family favorite desert. You can use just about any flavor Jello you want!

You can literally follow along with Jason or try it later! Here's the recipe: 1 box Jello (I use sugar free as it gives a lighter texture) 1 cup hot water 1 cup cold water 1 package cream cheese. Sit out on counter about 15 mins. 1 Graham cracker or vanilla wafer crumb pie crust. Mix jello, hot water and cream cheese in blinder until well blended. Add cold water and blend again. Pour into pie crust and refrigerate at least 4 hours until set. Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cooking.with.the.coldironsAnd on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CookingWithTheColdirons

It's been a while, but we are starting back up!

Wow! It's been almost 10 years since we have made a post... I can't believe that this thing even still exists! SO much has happened since we stopped blogging... 

It all started when we bought a new house in October of 2013 and focused on creating a home. Life just got so busy with work and a new house that we just kind of lost interest in blogging.

Then in 2014 we eloped to Chicago and got married. Even though we had to return home to a state that didn't recognize it, we knew we were at least federally recognized.

Fast forward to 2015 when our marriage was finally valid all over the country. That set the stage for us to apply for foster care. After months of classes and breaking barriers we were approved and got our very first placement in January of 2016. We were the first same sex (legally married) couple in our region to forge a path to adoption through foster care.

After several years of up hill battles advocating for our kids, we ended up today with 3 adopted and 1 under permanent guardianship.

Now we are a family of 6 with 2 girls and 2 boys. All with really good appetites and a love of food.

So these past year have been discovering new foods and new recipes that, not only we love, but our whole family loves. So you may see a shift from the recipes we used to post and focus more on family favorites and slightly easier things to make. Granted, we do still love our fancier meals, but they will be less often. We will only be blogging things that we make and actually like. AND, we recently started a YouTube channel to show ya'll how we make this stuff.

Hopefully you will follow along with us and as always, Happy Eating!

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cooking.with.the.coldirons

And on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CookingWithTheColdirons

Chicken And Asparagus Pie

So life has been hectic lately. Carson is finally on day shift and off at nights, so that means we will be cooking again. It was just so hard to cook with us on opposite shifts. Lots of new ideas and great food will be coming your way!

Chicken and Asparagus Pie

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onions

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 cup half and half

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast

1 9oz box of frozen asparagus cuts thawed and drained

1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

3 tablespoons dry white wine

1 8oz can refrigerated crescent rolls

1. Heat oven to 350. In a 2 qt sauce pan, melt the butter over meduim heat. Cook the onions in the butter, stirring ocasionaly until they are tender. Stir in flour and cook until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Gradualy add half and half, salt, and pepper. Heat until boiling, stirring consantly until mixture is thick. Reamove from heat and stir in Chicken, Asparagus, Mushrooms, and Wine. 

2. Seperate cressent roll dough into 8 triangles. Place dough in an ungreased 9 inch glass or ceramic pie plate in a spoke wheel pattern, with narrow tips extending about 3 inches over rim of plate. Press dough in bottom and up sides to form a crust. Spoon chicken mixture evenly over the dough. Bring tips of dough over filling to meet in the middle. Do not over lap dough. 

3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

4. Serve and enjoy! 

As always, Happy Eatting!

Grandma's Banana Bread

I had some bananas that were about to go bad so I decided to whip up some banana bread. This recipe caught my eye because it doesn't use a bread pan.... (plus it's very yummy)

Ingredients:

2 Cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ Cup shortening
1 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup mashed bananas (make sure they are very ripe for the best flavor)
½ Cup chopped pecans (I like to use pecan chips)
1 teaspoon flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 inch tube pan, set aside.

Sift together the 2 cups flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.

Cream together the shortening and sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the bananas, mixing just until blended.

Combine the pecans and 1 teaspoon flour; stir into batter. Pour into the prepared 9" tube pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove and cool on a rack. This recipe makes 1 loaf.

Riesling Peach Glazed Ham!

Riesling-Peach Glazed Ham

I made this ham for our extended family reunion. Everyone loved it and there was no leftovers!!!!

Ingredients

• 1 fully cooked smoked bone-in half ham (6-8 lb)
• 1 cup Riesling wine
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 18 oz jar peach preserves
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup stone-ground mustard

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line a shallow roasting pan with foil
3. Place ham on the rack in roasting pan
4. Put ovenproof meat thermometer in ham so tip is in center of thickest part of meat and does not touch bone
5. in a 1 quart saucepan, heat wine, thyme sprigs, and shallot to boiling over medium-high heat
6. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until the wine is reduced to ½ cup
7. Remove from heat and discard thyme sprigs
8. Stir in peach preserves, brown sugar, and mustard
9. Brush half of glaze mixture over ham
10. Bake uncovered 1 hour 30 minutes, basting with remaining glaze mixture every 30 minutes
11. Cover loosely with foil
12. Bake 30 minutes longer or until thermometer reads at least 140 degrees
13. Let stand 15 minutes before slicing and serving

Mississippi Mud Pie

This type of pie was new to me. I will confess, since I've never made anything like this before, I ended up failing on the first attempt. I apparently didn't let it cook long enough after adding the egg yolks so the filling didn't set and it ended up being more like a loose pudding than a pie. Don't get me wrong, it still tasted really good, but I was embarrassed when I brought it to the dinner party we went to.... The second one, however, did turn out nicely. It is the one pictured. This is a dessert to impress for sure!

What you will need:

For the crust:

25 chocolate wafer cookies (6 ounces) broken into pieces, or 1 1/2 cups wafer cookie crumbs (I ended up using chocolate graham crackers because I could find any chocolate wafer cookies anywhere)
1/2 cup pecan halves
4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

For the filling:

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk
4 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the topping:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
coarsely chopped pecans, for garnish



Make the crust first:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a food processor, grind the wafers and pecans until fine crumbs form. Add melted butter and process till combined. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate till firm, about 15 minutes. Bake 8-10 minutes; transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. 


Now make the filling:

Combine the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Slowly whisk in milk (it helps if all these ingredients are at room temperature). Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until bubbling and thick, about 7 minutes (about 2 minutes after it comes to a boil).

Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl until combined. Whisk in milk mixture in a slow, steady stream until completely incorporated (it may be easier if someone helps you with this part). Return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly just until it returns to a boil, 1 to 2 minutes (this is where I failed the first time, so make sure you let it cook long enough). Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Stir in vanilla and butter, 1 piece at a time, until completely smooth.

Pour the filling into the crust. Press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard; refrigerate for 4 hours or up to 1 day. 


Make the topping:

Just before serving, in a chilled bowl, beat cream, sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Spread whipped cream over pie and sprinkle with the pecans.



Enjoy :)

Tennessee Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

Ingredients:

 

6 slices cooked bacon chopped

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup softened butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

 

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix the sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the bacon and chocolate chips. 

Drop cookie dough by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, let stand and cool completely.

This is a unique way to make some tasty yet unusual cookies. Make these for your next office or church event and enjoy the reactions when you tell everyone the reason they are so good is because you used bacon! This recipe makes around 40 cookies.

 

Cajun Chicken Stew

We recently made this stew for a Mardi Gras themed dinner party we attended. The flavors all come together in a wonderful explosion in your mouth that will leave you wanting more. This stew is also very healthy and could easily be served over rice to mix things up.


Easy Cajun Chicken Stew


Serves 4

Ingredients:
32 ounces low fat chicken broth
1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, shredded
1 can diced tomatoes
6 ounces tomato paste
3 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
2 cups chicken breast, leftover chicken cooked and cubed or raw chicken. If you use raw chicken increase the cooking time.
¼ cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons lime zest
¼ cup lime juice


Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until vegetables are tender. Serve with cheese and sour cream if desired.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1/2 cup oil or applesauce

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

4 Tbsp. cocoa

2 1/2 cups grated zucchini

3/4 cup chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan and set aside. Sift dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream sugars, butter and oil till light and fluffy. Beat eggs in one at a time, then add vanilla and sour cream. Stir in dry ingredients. Pour into prepare Bundt pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake in center of the oven for 45 minutes or till tests done. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes, remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Slice and enjoy with a tall glass of cold milk.