Ruth Chris Steakhouse Stuffed Chicken

Or at least my take on it. I had the chicken breasts, and a pile of stuff from Christmas, so when I looked up recipes that matched, this came up. And it was very good. Not something I normally would make, but it was easy and tasty. Most importantly, I had the ingredients. Then I added a little flair of my own. THE FILLING• Boursin Cheese• Worcestershire sauce• Hot Sauce• Cheddar Cheese Bring the Boursin to room temp, mix in the the other ingredients. I’m guessing I did about a tablespoon of the sauces and about 1/4 cup of the shredded cheddar. I put the huge breast on my cutting board under some plastic wrap and pounded it flat. Then fill the breast, fold the sides up and seal with skewers or toothpicks. Here I salted mine with some wonderful Scottish...

A New Lasagna

I had a huge hankering for lasagna tonight. But I wanted it to be less cheese-forward and more veggie-forward. So I worked up my usual sauce, sauteed a diced onion and added garlic at the end, browned up some ground white-meat chicken that I seasoned with Cajun spices. But then tossed in a diced red bell pepper and a couple of finely shredded carrots. I added a large can of crushed tomatoes, two cans of fire roasted diced and one small can of tomato paste. I brought this to a gentle simmer for about an hour. Season with oregano, basil and black pepper. Heavily. When I made a spaghetti sauce for my daughters, I often included non-traditional elements to add veggies in their diets. This would include bell peppers, zucchini and carrots. They turned out pretty good,...

Foley Mashed Potatoes (with a ham steak and peas)

Sunday-night supper. Potatoes were a common side. My mom actually had a calendar marked off on who was in charge of pealing the potatoes that each night. So while the ham steak seems like the feature, it really is the Foley Mashed Potato. I did just one potato tonight, but it goes like this. Peal and slice 3-4 potatoes, place in boiling water with some salt for 25 minutes. Put in a bowl, add a tablespoon of butter, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of poultry seasoning. Add half a cup of milk (I can’t do milk anymore, so I did half a cup of oat milk). Using a hand blender, make it a fine puree. No lumps The ham steak is easy, it doesn’t need anything, just pan sear in a cast iron skillet with some butter on a high heat. Just a minute or two on each...

Mojo Chicken with Black Beans, Jasmine Rice and a Mojo Salad

Tonight: Mojo Chicken with Black Beans, Jasmine Rice and a Mojo Salad. This is absolutely a FEAST of a meal. And it is pretty simple. While I do love making an authentic Mojo Sauce, and it’s not that hard, tonight we just bought one in a bottle. We took 3 chicken leg quarters and marinated them in the Mojo Sauce for 9 hours. Absolutely Google Mojo Sauce if you want to make your own. It is great. This is my first time with this approach… air-fry the chicken for 45 minutes at 370°, and let it rest while everything else comes together. With heat off, it ends up in the air fryer for about 1 hour. If you don’t have an air fryer, bake or grill as needed. About an hour before dinner time, we began the beans. In olive oil, saute a handful of onions. Add...

Creole Shrimp

Tonight we give you Creole Shrimp. This ends my continuing effort to explore foods James Monroe may have enjoyed as President. The first was chicken, the second was beef, the third is seafood. All this will end up in my final James Monroe Geocache, A Taste of History. Creole cooking has its origins in France (and as we has established, he was an ambassador to France), but tied with the influences of African origins in the West Indies, culminating in the establishment of creole and then Cajun styles of cooking, a wonderful (and my personal favorite) uniquely identified style of authentic American cuisine. So in my imagination, in a Colonial America, with its close ties to both France, the West Indies via trade and our burgeoning traditions in New Louisiana, I see...