Chicken Tetrazzini

In this case, it’s turkey tetrazzini.  We fried a turkey breast for Christmas and with the leftovers, I made turkey tetrazzini.  It’s a huge timesaver to make a big batch of anything and freeze the extra in several dishes for ready to heat and eat meals.  This recipe makes a lot.

The green dish is for tonight and we now have 4 additional dinners.

The extra dishes will go in the freezer.  That’s four nights I don’t have to cook!

Here’s the recipe I use:

1 – 16 oz. package angel hair pasta, cooked al dente
1 stick butter
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, minced
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth
2 cups water
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1-1/2 cups frozen green peas
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp. salt (if needed)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1-1/2 tsp. paprika
5 cups cooked, shredded or chopped chicken
1 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.

2.  Melt butter in large pot.  Cook onions, bell peppers, garlic and mushrooms til onions are clear.  Add cream of mushroom soup, broth, water and cook til ingredients are blended.

3.  Stir in pasta, cheddar cheese, peas, wine, parsley, salt, pepper, paprika and chicken.  Mix well.

4.  Stir into buttered baking dish.

5. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

6.  Bake for 40 minutes

Garden Time!

Not time to plant yet but time to start thinking about planting.  And, time to start begging for a garden expansion . . which isn’t likely to happen but it never hurts to ask.  We’ve talked about the garden and we’re going to change some things. Last year I planted over 80 tomato plants, mainly because they come in those little 6 packs and we kept buying different varieties and I hated to throw anything out.  Planting all those tomatoes left little room for anything else in the garden.  And, I’m allergic to tomato vines so Vince had to do all the weeding and picking and that didn’t work out so well.  This year, I think we’re going to plant maybe 3 slicing tomato plants and 3 Juliet plants and buy the rest from the Amish.  They sell boxes of canning tomatoes for probably less than it costs me to grow them, considering how much watering I had to do and the cost of our water.

The plan for the 2011 garden is to concentrate more on the items we love that are more expensive to buy.  This week when the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog arrived, I spend an hour or so going through it and ordered some of the seeds we will need.  Not only are their catalogs beautiful and I so enjoy sitting and looking at them (I hear some of you saying get a life!) but their seeds are all non-GMO and you can read their statement about their seeds here.

My seeds arrived today and here’s what I got:

The bottom one in this photo is a loofa gourd — good for making dishrags and body scrubs, an orange okra and two types of carrots.

Sugar Snap Peas, Jackson Wonder Bush Lima Beans, Bolita Bean (which is kinda like a pinto bean and I think my grandpa used to grow these), White Whippoorwill Cowpeas (I think these are like the cream peas my grandparents planted) and the typical Purple Hull Peas.

Six Week Purple Hull Peas, Mesclun mix, New Zealand Spinach, Endive and Apple Green Eggplant.

I can hardly wait to start planting!  There are probably other seeds I will have to buy but there’s no use buying more than I’ll have room to plant.  The lettuce, spinach, mustard, etc will be planted real early and will mostly be harvested before time to plant the okra and some of the peas but no matter how I plan it, I want more garden space.  It would be easy except for those blasted deer that eat everything!

Are you planning to plant a garden in 2011?  If so, what will you be planting?

Almost Finished Knitting Project

Back in March of this year, I started a Clapotis scarf and even though I was carefully noting which rows I had done, I set the project aside for months and didn’t work on it at all.  When I picked it up again in November, I had lost my notes and could not figure out where I left off or where to start again so I ripped it all out and started over.  I won’t make that mistake again.

While watching the very sad Missouri/Iowa game last night, I finished the knitting.

It’s made with Rowan Denim, 100% cotton yarn.  It doesn’t look like much now but once I finish unraveling the dropped stitches and then get it blocked, I think I’m going to love it.  I have 2-1/2 skeins of yarn leftover but there’s only 109 yards on each skein.  I’m thinking of making these fingerless gloves to match the scarf.