Recipes | Ladies Learn

I love these tacos! It took me a while to get the recipe just right and now they are magical. Just so you know… This is an original recipe with a little grandma technique, you know a pinch on this a dash of that. One time you will need one can of tomato paste the next time you will need two. Same thing with a half of a bell pepper versus a whole. Sometimes the four chicken breasts will produce more meat or broth one time and then the next time a lot less. Again, just so you know.

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Here’s what you need:

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts with bone in and skin on

1 small onion

1 small bell pepper

1 can black beans

2 cans tomato paste

Extra chicken broth

Salt, pepper, ground cumin, garlic powder.

1 tbs. Oil

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You will need a large skillet with a lid. Set your burner to low or just above low. Add oil to pan and place chicken into pan on top of oil with skin side up.

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Add 3 Tbs. of Cumin Powder

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Add 1 Tbs. of Garlic Powder

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1 Tbs. of Salt and a 1/2 Tbs. of Pepper

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Then flip the chicken and take note of the time.

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Also cover the chicken with a lid. You will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes for about an hour.

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While the chicken is cooking low and slow you can prep the rest of the ingredients.

Empty the can of beans into a colander and rinse them.

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Then dice the bell pepper

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and onion

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Remember to turn your chicken every 15 minutes and keep the lid on, don’t have your heat too high!

At about 45 minutes you will notice this beautiful little pool of juice and broth at the bottom of the pan. You want this! Great job!

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Once the chicken is cooked all the way through and pulls apart easily, turn off your burner and remove the chicken to cool.

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Your broth will look like this…

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With a slotted spoon remove all of the floating scraps, for lack of a better word, and discard them.

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Now your broth should look like this. You don’t have to remove every little thing, it came from the chicken, you’re gonna eat the chicken, it’ll be fine!

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Now add your tomato paste. Now here’s where I turn into my grandma… I put in one can, if I find a want a little more then I bust open the other can and add a tablespoon at a time. The tomato paste is what makes it taste a little sweet. I’ve tried tomato sauce, tomato juice, but the paste is where it’s at.

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Throw your paste, onions, peppers, and beans into the broth on a medium burner. It should be a low simmer. you want the peppers to turn to a dark green a little and the onions to soften. Don’t turn your heat up so high that you cook away your broth.

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While this is cooking, shred your chicken. It may still be hot, so be careful.

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Once the mixture has cooked for a little while and the chicken is all shredded add it to the pan.

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Stir it together, and analyze… this is where I added a little more tomato sauce, thinned it out with the canned chicken broth. You may also want to add more cumin, salt and pepper or even some chili heat.

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Stick them in a taco shell with some fresh lettuce, cilantro and lime or whatever you like and enjoy!

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This recipe takes about two hours to prep and cook. It is not one you want to do in a crunch. But I have made it with ground turkey and I’m sure it is still fabulous with ground beef. To do that just cook the meat, season it with the cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper and set it aside when it is done. Prepare the beans, onion and bell pepper the same. Then you will need 2 cans of chicken broth, add the paste, beans, onions, and peppers to the broth and proceed the same as above.

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By Brooks | Also posted in Entrees | Tagged chicken dinners, chicken tacos, tacos | Comments Off

If I’m making cookies, 9 times out of 10, it’s these. My mom has made them my whole life. In fact, it never occurred to me (until later of course) that chocolate chip cookies didn’t ‘normally’ have oatmeal in them. That’s just what I knew. Apparently, this recipe came from her best friend, who got it from a friend, who probably got it from a friend. That person probably stole them from Mrs. Fields, because they’re pretty dang close. My mom and I modified them a bit to make them ‘fluffier.’

DISCLAIMER: I cannot be responsible for any weight gain, over indulgence of cookies, or diet mishaps that may occur from baking these cookies. You will want to eat the whole batch, I promise. So do a little meditating before making them and pray for some self-control, you’ll need it.

What you’ll need:

1 cup of butter (salted is best, unsalted works, just add more salt)—make sure it’s room temp

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup of brown sugar (golden)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 cups of flour (when I’m feeling guilty, I use half whole-wheat flour, makes them calorie-free…haha)

2 1/2 cups of rolled oats (It’s VERY important that you do NOT use instant oats, your cookies will not turn out right)

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of salt (1/2 if you use unsalted butter)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup finely chopped milk chocolate (I use a Hershey bar or Kisses—freeze these for better chopping)

1/2 cup walnuts (or pecans)

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees

Start by mixing the wet ingredients:

First, cream together butter and sugar

Add in eggs

And then the vanilla

Cream together until well mixed, it should look like this

Set wet ingredients aside and mix dry ingredients:

Flour

Oats

Baking powder and baking soda

Salt

Then mix dry ingredients well with a fork

After dry ingredients are mixed, add the wet ingredients

Mix together

Feel free to taste the dough at this point, you know, to make sure it’s not poisoned or anything…

Next add in your semi-sweet chocolate

Then chop up your milk chocolate if needed:

Either by pounding with a mallet

Or in a chopper

You want your milk chocolate to be pretty finely chopped, this will create little ‘slivers’ of milk chocolate in your cookies…mmm…

Add to dough

Then add the nuts. As you can see, I don’t measure this part. I just go by ‘feel’, yeah that looks about right.

Then mix all the goodies in until you have a scrumptious looking dough like this. Good place to do the ‘poison’ test.

Roll dough into balls, about 1” thick

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes

The secret to making moist, soft cookies is when you think they’re done, it’s too late. You want them to be just barely golden, flip over a cookie to see if the bottom is golden to determine if it’s done or not. If the bottom’s a little golden, they’re perfect.

Place cookies on a paper towel to cool.

Enjoy!

I have also just frozen the dough balls, to bake up fresh warm cookies. I will note that the dough is just as tasty frozen as it is not, so this trick doesn’t really work for not eating the dough.

Click here to download the recipe in PDF format!

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By Sarah | Also posted in Cookies | Tagged baking, chocolate chip, cookies, how to make chocolate chip cookies, mrs. fields, mrs. fields recipe, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies | Comments (1)

It’s full title is: Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Strawberries and Chocolate on Top. It’s like chocolate and strawberries were made for each other! If you make it for someone else, they will Ooooh and Aaaahhh. If you make it for yourself, you won’t want to share. But whoever eats it, will love it!

This is a 3 part process, but totally worth the work! Here is what you’ll need:

Brownie Cake

1 Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix (Follow the directions as listed on the back of the box; 1 Egg, 2/3 Cup Water, 2/3 Cup Oil)

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Frosting

1/4 Cup or half a stick of Butter – Softened (Salted)

4 Oz. of regular Cream Cheese

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

1 Cup sifted Powder Sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Ghirardelli Non-Sweetened Cocoa

1/4 tsp. Cinnamon (Optional)

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Topping

A Container of Strawberries

2 – 4 Squares from a 4 Oz. baking bar of Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar

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Let’s get started!

***Just so you know, I have doubled the recipe here in the photos. My daughter was having a bake sale and I wanted to make two cakes, so that is why there are two. But you can make one and with the ingredients above, it will work out fine! It has also given me a chance to show you two different cakes.***

First make the brownie as suggested on the box. Remember I am doubling!

Brownie mix

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Water

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Egg

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Oil

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Mix

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Instead of using an 8 inch square pan, use an 8 inch round pan!

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Fill the pan about 2/3 full. If you are making one cake, it will only be one full box of brownie mix per pan.

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Bake them according to the directions on the box. 325 degrees for 45 – 50 minutes.

Now for the frosting!

Mix together the butter and cream cheese. Don’t make the mistake I did, let the butter and cream cheese softened, otherwise it will be lumpy, like mine was, but it still tasted great.

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Mix well, until it is creamy.

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Add the vanilla

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Sift into the bowl the powder sugar

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Mix into the butter and cream cheese

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Add cocoa, remember I’m doubling the recipe!

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Add cinnamon (I think the cinnamon gives it a great mysterious flavor) mix well and then refrigerate

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Don’t overcook your brownies. You want them to be moist and chewy. Set on a cooling rack for at least one hour before you frost it.

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When it is time to frost your cake, put a dollop of frosting on the plate to keep the cake in place. The frosting acts like a glue and keeps the cake from sliding around.

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Center the cake on the plate.

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Then put the frosting on top of the cake

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Spread it evenly around the top of the cake allowing some of it to spill over the sides a little

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Then wash your strawberries

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And dry them! This is an important step. They need to be dry.

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Then decorate the top of the cake with them. Here are two of my ideas

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Cake #1

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Cake #2

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Each cake will only need 1 to 2 Oz. of Chocolate for the top. (That’s about 2 to 4 squares from this particular bar.)

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Put them in a glass bowl

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Into the microwave for 30 seconds then take them out and stir. Put them back into the microwave for 30 seconds and take them out and stir. Do not put the chocolate in the microwave too long it will burn and it will become clumpy. You can also do this over a double boiler.

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It should look like this

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Take a spoon full of melted chocolate and drizzle it over the strawberries making swirling motion with the spoon

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Cake #2

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Cake #1

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OK, this is the yummiest cake! Just look at it, you know you want some!

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By Brooks | Also posted in Desserts | Tagged chocolate and strawberries, chocolate cake, strawberries | Comments (2)

Don’t you just love the Crock-pot? I sure do! I mean you can wake up, put your dinner in the Crock-pot and go about your day, then at dinner time make a simple side dish and eat a fantastic dinner with low stress and little work. We love chicken at our house, we probably eat a couple of chickens a week. I like to buy organic chicken whenever possible, but if it isn’t available or if you buy non-organic chicken, Costco has a good buy for two whole chickens at a pretty good price most of the time.

Start with a whole chicken. I like to get one that is not stuffed. Take it out of the package and remove the innards from inside the chicken. I know, it’s gross, I don’t like doing it, but you don’t want to cook the chicken with them in there. I don’t use these unless I’m making gravy, so you can do whatever you want to with them. Wash the bird under cool water, give it a quick shower.

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Have on hand:

1/4 Cup Salt

2 Tbs. Olive Oil, Garlic Powder and (*Optional Spice/Herb)

1 Tbs. Pepper and Onion Powder

1 1/2 Cup Water

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Put all of the ingredients into the Crock-pot and put the chicken in breast side down.

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My optional spice/herb today was Thyme, but you can use what you like. Curry, cumin, Cajun spices, rosemary…etc. Use fresh herbs, add fresh garlic and/or onions, it all works.

I usually don’t think far enough ahead so I end up setting it high for four hours. If you were doing this for eight hours you can do it on low.

4 hours – High

8 hours – Low

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Half way through the time set I turn the bird so it is breast side up and let it continue to cook. If you forget to do this it won’t ruin anything, but it will cook more evenly if you do do it. The chicken is brining at the same time it is cooking. Just a thought.

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You will end up with a tender, juicy chicken!

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Serve it up and watch it disappear!

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By Brooks | Also posted in Entrees | Tagged chicken, cooking, crock-pot, crockpot, Parties | Comments (1)

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When St. Patrick’s Day comes around, I know most people think of Corn Beef and Cabbage for dinner. We are not big fans of beef at our house so I decided to look for “Traditional Irish Food” hoping to find a soup or side I could prepare and found this recipe for Irish Soda Bread. You can find this recipe and also many interesting facts about Irish food and culture at this website: http://www.sodabread.info/

This recipe is very simple with few ingredients. In the past most people were able to have these ingredients in their possession and so this is a common white soda bread recipe.

All-Purpose Flour

Baking Soda

Salt

Buttermilk (Soured Milk)

Be sure to pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees and have on hand two cake pans, about 8 – 10 inches in diameter. Also, butter or oil for greasing.

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You can mix this by hand or in a bread machine, but I have used my Kitchen-Aid! Love it!

Also, you will need to sift all the dry ingredients together before adding the buttermilk. I have put a sieve on top of my bowl for this purpose.

You will need 4 Cups of flour

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Here they, are all 4 Cups

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Then add 1 tsp. of Soda to the flour

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1 tsp. of Salt

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Then sift into your mixing bowl

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Now add 14 oz. of Buttermilk

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And mix, but not for too long! Only until it is mixed well together. The Baking Soda acts as the rising agent in the bread, there is no yeast, so by over mixing you will allow the gases from the soda to escape.

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When it is ready it will look like this

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Then in your cake pan add a little butter or oil and grease it up. I’m not really sure what I was thinking here, I don’t need that much butter and I don’t need that big of a pan, but it worked.

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Butter makes everything better, don’t it!

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Now, stick that lovely clump of dough into the center of the pan and…

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Take a knife and cut into the top a criss-cross

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Like this

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Then cover with another cake pan and stick into your 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.

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After 30 minutes remove the top cake pan and continue to let it cook for another 15 minutes.

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Doesn’t it look beautiful? Just like at the store.

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Hi, baby soda bread. So warm and lovely, are you ready for me to eat you?

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Now you should know that it is a good idea to let this bread sit for about 15 – 20 minutes it will continue to bake on the inside and then cool.

Also, it will spoil pretty fast if it isn’t eaten in the first day, so be sure to cover it and even put it in the fridge if you want to keep it fresh longer.

Cut it open and steam rises from it.

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Then I made a Traditional Irish Lamb Stew! It made this bread taste so good. Well, I said it above about beef, but we just don’t eat a lot of meat at our house, mostly chicken, so lamb was quite the treat.

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But I want to tell you a secret…do you want to hear it? Well, come a little closer…

Little closer,

Um, this bread isn’t really my favorite, it tastes like a dried biscuit.

But I really wanted to do something “Irish” and something “Traditional” and this sounded like something easy to do, so hear it is. Other recipes you may be interested in that are not so traditional but much better tasting are:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/irish-soda-bread

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/breads/irish-soda-bread-4/

It is always fun to try something new! Baking is one of my passions and so is eating!

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By Brooks | Also posted in Breads | Tagged baking, bread, cooking, irish soda bread, soda bread, St. Patrick's day | Comments (1)