Tag: Cream O Soup

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Chicken New Boston

I Googled Chicken Old Boston just to see if there was a reason that this recipe was called Chicken New Boston.  Even searching for Chicken New Boston yielded nothing on the first search page.  So this recipe may be new information for everyone.

So what do we think of when we think of Boston? Some people think of sports (we try not to acknowledge those teams).  Some people have the experience of Matt Damon’s Boston or the Boston of the New Kids on the Block.  There is the Boston of baked bean fame and the Boston of the Tea Party.  Boston clam chowder.  Ivy League Colleges covered in actual ivy.  Then there is the Boston in Cheers.  Let’s talk about that Boston because we’ve been watching that on Netflix sometimes and it helps make my metaphor better.DSCN2715You know how on Cheers there are the people like Norm and Cliff?  They are that gritty side of Boston.  The working class people from working class neighborhoods.  Old Boston, if you will.  If you were to imagine dinner at their houses, you’d imagine a roast that has been simmering all day.  Maybe a nice plate of spaghetti.  Food that is practical more than pretty.  Food that will keep you going in cold weather.

And then there is Diane.  There is no way she would sully her insides with that sort of food.  She’s lofty and above it all.  She represents that other part of Boston.  The part of Boston that embraces new food and new culture.  Chicken New Boston is something that Diane may whip up in her kitchen while wearing a ruffled apron.  DSCN2716I did not wear a ruffled apron while making this dish.  I think I was barefoot…

 

Chicken New Boston is a breaded chicken in a creamy sauce with mushrooms, artichokes and sherry.  Conceptually, it’s delicious.  Realistically, I had a hard time keeping the cornflakes on the chicken.  It might just be a me thing.  The sauce was amazing (even with the cream o’soup). It’s the sort of sauce that you’d want to mop up with bread or eat on top of noodles.  It’s sophisticated enough to make me feel like I should’ve put on my pearls.  Chicken New Boston

 

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Supper In a Bread Loaf

Supper in a Bread Loaf

There are days where making supper is just hard.  I am crap at following recipes (before this).  I am a reforming bad meal planner and never seemed to have the right combination of ingredients in the house to make the meal that I really wanted.  I’d have to scour cookbooks and the internet in order to find something that I was in the mood for using the ingredients I had on hand.

If you don’t already realize it, this is a very bad, time consuming way to go about meal prepping and planning.

It can result in creative and tasty dishes, but ends up being very frustrating.  Take out seems much easier than going through that stress every night.  It also doesn’t help when you ask the family what they want to eat and either no one has an idea or everyone has different ideas.  Making these decisions after a long day of making other far more important decisions is hard.  It’s a lot of pressure.  Making the decision to go through these recipes and make them all has taken a lot of pressure off.  I still don’t always have the right ingredients, but meal planning is significantly easier.  DSCN2433Enter Supper in a Bread Loaf.

This recipe is the poor man’s version of Beef Wellington.  It is because of this recipe that I had frozen bread dough in the house for the French Apple Coffee Cake.

Had my house already been clean, my children all in school, etc, I might have taken extra bread dough  to make beautiful decorations on the roll.  I might’ve egg washed it, made gorgeous cuts to make this into a work of art.  Instead, I just did the most basic version of this dish.

Well, sort of.

The directions say “season to taste”. For those of you that know me well, you know that my brain automatically shot in infinite directions.  “Oh, this could be good seasoned with taco seasoning.”  “Ooooohh, what about using my Krakow Nights seasoning?”  “I have some fresh herbs in the garden, but I think those might be the wrong choice.”  I settled on adding a bunch of Fox Point Seasoning.  I thought it would add flavor, but keep it true to the original intention of the dish.  It worked! The kids inhaled the meal.

My husband took leftovers to work.  His co-workers asked about it.  He said it was good reheated.  DSCN2439In order for busy people to make this dish in time for supper, there is some pre-planning that needs to happen.

Put the bread dough from the freezer into the fridge the night before you want to make this dish.  It will start the thawing process.  In the morning, move the bread dough into a container on the counter.  Cover it with plastic wrap. (Speaking of plastic wrap, my husband told me that environmental concerns means plastic wrap no longer has the coating on it that allows it to stick to anything. It now only sticks to itself.) Leave this on your counter until it’s time to actually make supper.

For this purpose, a lengthy rising time is not going to affect your end product.  It may even allow some of the bread dough flavors to develop a little more.

If you cook extra ground beef, throw it in your freezer for something else.  It’s much easier to do dinner in a hurry when at least part of it is already cooked. DSCN2443Substitute chicken, turkey, pork, or whatever for the meat.  For a vegetarian version, use mushrooms, cooked lentils, or eggplant as your filling, add some sauteed greens.

This is one of those unapologetic dishes that is basic and filling.  It’s open to all sorts of interpretation.  Open up your fridge, your pantry, and your spice cabinet, get creative.  If you have a great version of this dish, please feel free to let me know about it.

The Recipe:Supper In a Bread Loaf

If you like this recipe, check out 7 Make Ahead Dinners For Busy Moms and Other Important People and Freezer Meal: Tuna Burger Casserole

Pinnable Image Supper in a Bread Loaf

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Pork Meatballs

Who even knew that Cream of Onion soup was a thing? Apparently, it’s just me.  I asked John that question when he got home and he knew. I know my friends are laughing at me as they read this.

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I haven’t used canned soup in over a decade.  There were all those articles about sodium content and then I realized that it just didn’t taste like homemade soup from fresh ingredients. I am a snob. I like what Andy Warhol did with cans of soup.  I ate canned soup growing up.  I have eaten recipes that other people have made with canned soup, but I just didn’t buy it or use it in my own cooking.

 

So when Miles chose this recipe and it called for a can of cream of onion soup, I had no idea that was a thing that still existed.  I knew about cream of asparagus, cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, I think I had even seen cream of shrimp at one point, but because I don’t look in the canned soup section of the grocery store, I just didn’t know.

In the rules I set up for myself, I decided that I was going to follow the recipes exactly as written (except in cases where there were no instructions).  So with my shopping list, the boys and I set out for the grocery store.

The grocery store with children is always a challenge.  I like the company, to a degree, but they need to figure out how to steer the cart where I want it.  I hate the number of times I have to say “no” about things.  We are normally the loudest people in the store (and everywhere else we ever go), but our loud is normally more pleasant than obnoxious (or so I like to think).  We enjoy being together and making each other laugh and we are friendly.  Anyway, we went to the meat section and there was no ground pork.  There was pork sausage and pizza sausage, but no plain ground pork.  I asked the guy at the counter if there was any.  He explained that he couldn’t get any out because he was cutting something else and cross-contamination and whatnot, but if I could wait until 2.  It was noon.  I wasn’t going to drive back to Stoughton for ground pork.  I could’ve gone to the meat market across the street from my house, or as the kids suggested, I could just grind my own.  It’s a pain, but doable.  I grabbed some country style ribs and put them in my cart and started to walk to the yogurt area, when I saw the guy from the meat counter waving behind me.  I’m sure we were hard to find in the store since we are so quiet and all…This sweet, sweet man had taken pity on me and had stopped what he was doing and secured me the two pounds of ground pork I needed for the recipe.  He wouldn’t let me thank him or say anything to him about it or even acknowledge that he had done it because the store cameras may pick up the action.  I just hope he realizes how much I appreciate his efforts.

DSCN2340I, stupidly, didn’t start the recipe until much later than I should’ve because I was baking something else that I had started too late.  The oven was set at 375 for that and I forgot to turn it up to 400 which I didn’t realize until the end of the cooking time.  It might’ve cost me a bit on the browning of the meatballs, but they were still cooked through. I ended up getting supper on the table and had just enough time to eat before I sent John off to a Euchre tournament at the coffeehouse.  You know, like everyone does.  I figured it might be a good way to start meeting people in town.  John likes Euchre.

At dinner, instead of having epic rap battles, coming up with punny new jokes, or discussing new game ideas, we discussed these meatballs.  Nick was sure they had too many onions and picked them out.  (Reminder to self to cut them smaller next time).  The flavor of the pork was good.  The bread soak held in the juice.  Nick doesn’t think meatballs should have bread. I didn’t bother to explain the bonding principles to him this time.  I just rolled my eyes.  For some reason, the meatballs’ flavor reminded me of the inside of potstickers.  No idea why.  The cream of onion soup didn’t make the creamy sauce I was expecting from reading the recipe.  It was creamy, but could’ve probably benefitted from the addition of some milk to thin it.  John commented that this was one of those recipes where, if he had made it, he would’ve been very proud of himself, but because I had made it, it was just ok.  Miles ate it and declared it delicious, but that might’ve been partially prompted by the ego he had invested in having chosen the recipe.  He declined seconds and was “starving” by bedtime.

It’s not a pretty recipe.  It doesn’t make something eye-catchingly beautiful.  I’m sure there are ways to make it look better, but I’m not going to make that sort of effort for family dinner when it’s already late and everyone is starving and has places to be.DSCN2354

This is the sort of dish that is a great base for experimentation.  It could benefit from the addition of mushrooms, or French-fried onions on top of it.  You could easily make the balls smaller and serve them at a party on toothpicks.  Throw them on bread with whatever sort of veg you want, add some cheese, make a sandwich. Make the meatballs, make the soup, make meatball soup.  Add to pasta.  Meatballs are good.  Make your own cream sauce for these, if you prefer.

These are good basic pork meatballs.  Not the sort of dish I get overly excited about, but am rarely disappointed to be served.
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*This recipe is part of a red spiral bound book that was originally the Iowa State College Freshman Handbook that was presented to the Class of ’53.  The pages have been pasted over with recipes.