My mother-in-law Pat claims she’s not a good cook, but I wholeheartedly beg to differ. Some of my very best cooking tricks, tips and recipes have come from her. And some of my favorite non-recipe “recipes” come from her. Pat has a knack for making easy-to-prep food taste really good.

Today I’m sharing one of those non-recipe recipes. It is seriously beyond easy with only 3 ingredients. The recipe is a little old school, i.e. there is canned cream-of-whatever soup involved. I rarely buy canned soups, but I certainly do for this chicken recipe! The chicken comes out so tender and juicy, and the stuffing cooks perfectly, soft and yummy where it touches the chicken with a nice crunch around the outside.

(>> Find out more…)

My CSA has had Yukon Gold potatoes recently. Before we get to today’s recipe, let us first ponder on just how delicious Yukon Gold potatoes are. Mmmmmmm…

In an effort to mix things up with all the soft foods I’ve had to eat lately, I wanted to do something a little different with this week’s batch of potatoes.

I don’t know about you, but I love twice-baked potatoes. But, honestly, scooping the hot baked potato out of its skin is one of my least favorite kitchen tasks. The potatoes are always super hot and I invariably break some of the skins. As I was eating mashed Yukon Gold potatoes with the skins mixed in the other day, I had a revelation…as cute as twice-baked potatoes are, if you just mash the skins in with the potato and make a casserole out of it, it would be easier to prepare and probably taste just as good.

And so the twice-baked potato casserole was born! A bit easier to prepare than its classic counterpart and easier to serve to a crowd. And, the casserole version did taste just as good. Hypothesis proven correct! Enjoy!

Twice-Baked Potato Casserole

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds yukon gold potatoes (other bake-able potatoes will work, too, but yukon golds sure are yummy!)
• ½ cup warmed cream
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• ⅓ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ~1 cup shredded cheddar or cheddar-jack cheese
• sliced green onions (optional)

Instructions

1. Poke a few holes in your potatoes, wrap in foil and bake in a 350-degree oven for about an hour, until easily pierced by a knife. Leave the oven on.
2. Mash potatoes with the skins ON in a bowl by hand. Add cream, butter, sour cream, salt and pepper. Mix and mash some more! Spread in a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish. Top with cheese. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until cheese is all melted. Top with sliced green onions if desired.

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Last week when my sister-in-law Jessica was here to help, she cooked dinner for us every night. We kept telling her she was working too hard, but she just ignored us and kept slaving away. One night she even made homemade onion strings (recipe from The Pioneer Woman) that were TO DIE FOR. Sadly, when I went to photograph them, I discovered that my 50 mm f/1.4 lens was broken. (Side note: this was a horrifying discovery. Amazingly, when I took it to the camera store, I was within ONE DAY of the manufacturer’s warranty. It was a Halloween miracle!) Back to food…even though there’s no photo, you can be sure that Jessica’s onion strings were amazing and beautiful. And beyond tasty.

Another night Jess made teriyaki chicken for us in the crock pot. She got the recipe from her friend Carol who has seven kids and does an amazing job of making food that kids will eat and like, as well as adults. This teriyaki chicken was no exception! We loved it! And it was super easy to throw together, so I’m definitely adding this to the repertoire.

Easy and Delicious Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

 

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From my sister-in-law Jessica’s friend Carol, who got it from someone named Kirsten Bastian

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• Chicken (Jess used 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts)
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• (Jess used three chicken breasts and doubled the sauce recipe above)

Instructions

1. Place chicken in crock pot. Mix all other ingredients together then pour over top of chicken. Cook on low eight hours. (Jane note: I think Jess cooked it for about half that time at high since we started cooking later in the day.) Once chicken is cooked, shred with two forks and mix with sauce. Sauce will seem too thin, but once the chicken is shredded and mixed in it will be perfect.
2. Serve over rice.

Notes

Carol’s notes: I usually double the sauce and just put in some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. My kids only want this recipe for Teriyaki Chicken now. I also substitute – rice vinegar and some of our canned white grape juice and don’t add the oil.

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Carol has a blog where she catalogs her recipes for her own use. Jess had only super nice things to say about both Carol and her food, so I’m sure it would be worth browsing around her recipes for ideas! (Hopefully Carol doesn’t mind me linking to her!)