Mmmmmm . . . this buttermilk syrup has got to be my new favorite syrup e-ver!

Have you ever had it?
It is divine!

We made this last night for dinner. Yes, french toast for dinner.
Hey, we had eggs and bacon too to make it a nice well balanced meal.

So I took a quick pic of my dinner so I could share this ever-so important syrup recipe with y’all.

You will love it. Just ignore what you put into it, k?
All the calories are removed when you boil it.
(hee hee snicker snicker snort)

Coconut French Toast

Sorry, I don’t have an official recipe for French Toast. We just combine eggs with a little milk, vanilla and cinnamon. There’s no rhyme or reason, it’s just a little of this and a little of that. But once you make your little concoction, put some coconut on a plate and you can either dab the milky bread on it or sprinkle coconut on the top of the bread once it’s in the pan. You definitely want toasted coconut. It’s the best.

Buttermilk Syrup

2 cubes of butter (that’s 1 c. total)
2 c. sugar
1 c. buttermilk

Combine in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add:

1 T. vanilla
1 t. baking soda

Warning, that baking soda does make it foamy, but fun! :)

________________________________________
Live on the edge. Enjoy every drip and drop of that syrup.
Indulge yourself.

You deserve it!

Goodness gracious me oh my! I made this last night for dinner–for us and for a neighbor that is battling cancer once again. She had two different kinds of breast cancer at the same time and did the whole mastectomy thing along with chemo and radiation. She’d be doing pretty good over the past couple years and now has lung cancer (never smoked). It’s completely unrelated to her previous cancer. They removed a lower section of the lobe of her lung. That poor girl. Just breaks my heart that someone so kind and giving as her has to go through all this. I hope this is the end of it for her.

So, this is a favorite in the Bradford household. I thought that I had posted it once upon a time and *gasp* much to my surprise, I hadn’t! If I’d have known I hadn’t posted the recipe, I would have taken a photo yesterday. Must do that some day. In the meantime, try this, you won’t be disappointed! Especially since we are coming into soup season. And shucks, anything I can cook in a slow cooker is my best friend.  :)

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

2  (14 oz) cans of chicken broth
3-4  chicken breasts
3  cloves garlic
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. dried oregeno
1 t. salt
1 t. crushed red pepper
2  cans great northern beans
1 can white shoepeg corn
3 T. lime juice
2 T. chopped fresh cilantro

Add chicken, broth, cumin, oregano, garlic, salt and red pepper to slow cooker. Cover and let cook for about 6-8 hours on low or until chicken falls apart. Shred the chicken with two forks. Drain and rinse the beans and corn and add them to the slow cooker. Add chopped cilantro and lime juice to slow cooker. Put cover back on and let cook for 30 more minutes until heated through.

The Bradford Variation:
I usually only use 2 chicken breasts for our family. The breasts we get at our store are pretty big. I also have a tendency to add more chicken broth so it’s a little more ‘soupy’ ’cause I like that better. I also don’t like quite as much red pepper and I use frozen white corn rather than canned corn. And if you’re not a cilantro fan (what????) you can always leave it out or sprinkle it on top if some of ya are and some of ya aren’t. Cilantro is such a weird herb–you either love it or you hate it. I’m a lover for sure!

We all make our own alterations to make it just like we like it, eh? :)

p.s. I thought I was going crazy because I couldn’t find this recipe on my site. I could have sworn I shared it before. So I went and looked at my old Typepad blog and there it was. I just haven’t gotten those over here yet. Oh well, it’s a recipe so nice I had to post it twice. :)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Okay, I think this by far my most favorite thing I’ve made recently . . . and I made it twice last week! I got it from favfamilyrecipes.com.

Our family is kind of split on our feeling towards broccoli + zucchini, so I just put in a little of both. My favorite is the carrots and celery along with chicken+rice and that sauce! Yum! We also made our rice without beans. I dunno. That thought just seemed to ruin it for me. Also, after researching coconut milk, which really is good in the rice, I found out it’s not exactly the healthiest, so I informed my children that we won’t be eating our rice like that anymore. Maybe a treat a couple times a year. ;) Not to mention, it’s rather expensive.

Also, I doubled the recipe for our family and actually tripled the sauce recipe the second time we made it. Topping it with cashews is really yummy too!

Trust me on this folks, you won’t be disappointed with this one!

Oh and be sure to tune in tomorrow for St. Patrick’s Day. I’m feelin’ lucky….are you?

isn’t it just pretty??

Rumbi Rice Bowls

The Guts

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
4 carrots, peeled and grated (I just used a bag of grated carrots)
3 celery stalks, washed and sliced
1 zucchini, chopped into small cubes
1 1/2 c. chopped broccoli florets
2 c. chicken, grilled and cut into small cubes 

—OR you can get the pre-cooked grilled chicken strips at Costco in the deli section. It comes in a 2-pack.. use one of the packages and cut up the chicken into little cubes.. just saute the chicken for a few minutes in a skillet before serving. We used the Tyson Chicken Chunks found in the frozen food section.

The Directions

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots, celery, zucchini, and broccoli (pretty much equal parts of said vegetables.. you can add more or less veggies depending on your taste). Saute ONLY until vegetables are crisp tender. About 1-2 minutes tops. Serve over Rumbi rice and top with chicken. Serve with Spicy Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce on the side (about 3 Tbsp. per bowl.. you can add more or less depending on your taste).

The Hawaiian Rice

2 c. long grain white rice
2 1/2 c. water
1 (14oz) can coconut milk (about 1 1/2 c.)
1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 can red beans, drained and rinsed

Combine all ingredients in a rice cooker. Gently stir it all together so the beans are all mixed. Place the lid on and start the rice cooker. Fluff rice with a fork before serving.

If you don’t have a rice cooker… Combine water, coconut milk, and sugar in a saucepan. Stir in rice and beans. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 18 to 20 minutes, until rice is tender.

The Spicy Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce

3/4 c. Mr. Yoshida’s teriyaki sauce (found in the grocery store by the BBQ sauces)
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. chili garlic sauce (in the Asian section of the grocery store. we used the one in the clear plastic jar with the green lid — if you want to make it spicier, add more of this to the sauce. Uhhh, yeah, not our family…or I should say….me. i just used  about 3/4 t.)
1 tsp. fresh ginger
pinch of salt
pinch of brown sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. cold water

Combine Yoshida’s, soysauce, garlic sauce, ginger, salt, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Combine cornstarch and water and SLOWLY add to sauce for thickening. You want it to be slightly thicker than the Yoshida’s sauce. Allow to simmer for about a minute. Cool to room temperature and serve with your rice bowls. (If you find that the sauce is too thick when it cools, just add a little more Yoshida’s to it)

It’s funny how life works. A spontaneous choice to follow a link that Becky Higgins suggested on Facebook (which is a rare thing for me to do) lead me to Lisa Russo’s site. I took a quick tour and stopped on page three . . . where I discovered the most delicious of recipes . . . if you’re a pesto fan . . . which I am!

She got the recipe from TastyKitchen.com.

behold . . .

zuppa di gnocchi e pesto

photo from tastykitchen.com

Even though I’m including the recipe here–just so I can have it forever and ever amen–I would highly suggest printing the recipe from the source at Tasty Kitchen because it just looks so awesome when printed and then you can see the other amazing recipes there!  Like this one that we are going to try too: Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Noodle Soup.

Ingredients

• 3  Chicken Breasts, On The Bone
• 1 whole Yellow Onion (Quartered)
• 8 cloves Garlic, In Skins
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 3 pinches Salt
• 3 pinches Black Pepper
• 2 cartons Chicken Broth, 32 Ounces Each
• 1 jar Pesto 8oz
• 1 package Gnocchi, 16 Ounce
• 3 whole Roma Tomatoes Seeded And Chopped

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Place chicken breasts in a roasting pan. Break apart quartered onion and scatter around and on top of breasts. Toss garlic, skins and all, around the chicken. The garlic will not flavor the chicken at this point. We are merely roasting them and will add them to the broth in a bit. Drizzle olive oil on chicken. Salt and pepper to taste and roast for 35-45 minutes or until the center is white and no longer pink.

Once cooked, allow the chicken to cool so that it can be shredded by hand. Scoop out roasted onion and garlic to use in broth. While the chicken is cooling, pour broth into a Cuisinart or blender along with the onions and roasted garlic (skins removed after roasting of course) and three tablespoons of the pesto. Pulse until there are no large chunks of garlic left. About 3 five second pulses should do the trick. The roasted garlic will give the soup a velvety feel in your mouth. Definitely don’t skip this step. It’s so worth it.

Back to the chicken. After shredding it, mix in the rest of the pesto. Stir well and set aside.

In a large pot, bring the broth/garlic/pesto mixture to a boil. Add gnocchi and cook until they float. In soup bowls, place a pile of chicken in the center. Ladle the hot broth over the chicken and garnish with chopped tomatoes. Mangia bene (eat well)!

A couple of Bradford House notes:
I don’t do bones. We just did chicken breasts. ;)
We topped ours with some grated parmesan cheese too. Yum!

Goodness gracious! I thought that I had posted this recipe and went looking for it on my blog to send to a friend and realized I hadn’t! I have to thank my dear friend Kristy Banks again for this yummy breakfast!

This has become our new favorite for Christmas morning. It’s something you whip up the night before and it’s all ready to put in the oven, so it can be baking while you’re opening your plethora of presents.

I’m tellin’ ya though, it’s di-viiiine and you’ll want to eat it more often than just Christmas. And….we do. ;)

CARAMEL FRENCH TOAST

The minute my little friend Kristy said the word ‘cheddar biscuits’ I knew I had to have the recipe. Yummy! And it would be silly of me not to share it with you all, wouldn’t it?

Cheddar Biscuits

2 c. Bisquick
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2/3 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
1/t t. garlic powder

Mix until dough is sticky. Spoon into greased muffin pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.
Mix 2 T. butter and 1/8 t. garlic powder and spread over on top of baked biscuits.

Okay, so I apparently didn’t read the ‘top of baked biscuits’. . . until just now. I actually spooned it on before baking and it was good that way too. Guess I’ll have to try it the way I’m suppose to make it. :) And if you’re a big fan of the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits? Yeah, it’s like that! Yum!

(black png flourish-ee image was from rhonna farrer years ago. but you can buy amazing things from her now here.)