Favourite Christmas Brussel's Sprouts

This is one of those foods which people either love or hate. We enjoy Brussel's sprouts just boiled, or steamed, but this  is our favourite way to eat them.
 What you need: 1 bag of frozen Brussel's sprouts, 5 or 6 slices of bacon, chopped, 1 onion, chopped.
What you do: cook the bacon at medium heat,in a skillet, stirring often, until nearly crisp, and then add the onion. Cook until the onion is transparent. Add the sprouts, and about a cup of water. Cover the pan, so the lid is just off slightly, and let simmer for 20 minutes. Most of the water should be gone, but if there is still some there, remove the lid and let the rest of the water cook off. as always, enjoy.

Simple Cheese Sauce

My son called tonight to ask what he needed to have to make cheese sauce, and as I told him the ingredients, I said it is on the blog, but when I checked. I found out it really wasn't, although the basic white sauce is on a post in March 2012.

Once again, this is a very easy to make, and much healthier option to those package sauces. You can even do a gluten free version, if you have a flour blend which you use for gravy.

What you need: 2 Tbs butter or margarine; 2 Tbs flour; 1 cup of milk or cream; salt and pepper to taste, 1 tsp each of garlic and onion powder; and 2 cups of grated cheese, of any kind you like. I would usually use cheddar, or Gouda or a blend of the two.

What you do: In a large glass bowl or measuring cup - at least 1 litre - melt the butter or margarine for about 30 seconds. Add the flour and whisk. Add milk or cream. Whisk well to stir up all the flour blend. Return to microwave, and cook on high for 2 minutes. Add the seasoning, then cook on low for 3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until the sauce begins to thicken. Add cheese in thirds, and cook on low power until just melted before adding the next portion of cheese. When all the cheese in melted, use over cooked vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, or on macaroni.

As always, enjoy.

Chicken Lasagna

I had some cut up chicken breast, which was left over from a fondue, that I decided I should use to try something new. I had Wil and Luc for dinner, and a friend came over, too. I have another friend, who makes a chicken lasagna, which is delicious, so I thought I would try to make one. I looked on line for recipes, and found many, but did not see a combination that I wanted to make. I combined some ingredients from about 5 different recipes, to make something I thought would taste good. Luc told me it passed his taste test, and my friend, Kellie, said it was "Yummy". So here it is. -sorry I didn't take a picture before it was all gone.

What you need: 5-6 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces, some margarine or oil to cook it in, 1-3 cloves crushed garlic,  2 stalks of celery - chopped into small bits, 1/2 a large onion - chopped fairly fine, salt, pepper, 9 cooked lasagna noodles, a large batch of white sauce, or cheese sauce, and 2 cups of grated Mozzarella cheese. (you can use a commercially prepared sauce, such as Knorr Creamy Garlic or Alfredo, or jars of white pasta sauce. You need about 3 - 4 cups of sauce. 
Pre-heat the oven to 350*F
What you do: First put on a large pot of  water, on high heat, to cook the lasagna noodles. Then  heat oil or margarine in a large skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook on high to brown the pieces. Season with salt and pepper, and add chopped celery, onion, and garlic. (If you wish you could add some sliced mushrooms, but I can't eat those.) Add half a cup of water to the pan, then cover and let simmer. Add noodles to the water when it begins to boil. Cook about 9 minutes. Meanwhile, cook your sauce.

To make your sauce - 3 cups milk, 1/2 cup flour, 4 tbs butter or margarine, 1 tsp each of onion powder and garlic powder, 1/2 cup finely grated cheese, salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Add the flour, and use a whisk to mix together. Stir in the milk, then microwave on high heat about 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Remove the bowl from the oven, and add all the spices. Return to oven and cook on high for another 5 minutes or so, stirring every minute, or until the sauce is thickened, and smooth. Add the cheese, stirring well, and cook one more minute. An option for your sauce, is to replace 1/2 cup milk with a nice white wine. Some of the other recipes I saw on line used canned soup - either cream of chicken, cream of celery, or cream of mushroom in the sauce. You can use anything that you think will make a smooth sauce which has a good taste.

Assemble the lasagna by putting about one third of the sauce into your lasagna pan. Lay 3 noodles on top of sauce. Add half of the chicken and vegetable mix. Add 3 noodles, then 1/3 of the sauce, the rest of the chicken mix, the last 3 noodles, and the remaining sauce. Add all the grated cheese on top. Put into the oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with a Caesar salad, or  tossed or tomato salad. This should make 6 servings. If you have Luc over, it will feed 4 people.

As always - enjoy.