Lydia's Winter Kitchen
Happy New Year!!! As we welcome in 2023, I need all the easy and quick recipes. Our schedules are super busy, and I need to be able to walk in the door, throw a meal at the boys, and head back out the door for extracurricular activities. I am learning how to enjoy this busy season by preparing a semi-balanced meal, sharing the meal around the table, and talking about our day’s highs and lows. Even in the busyness, dinner time has quickly become my favorite part of the day because we are all together.
Before I share a couple of recipes, I would like to take a moment and talk about “high/low” (what we call it at our house) and challenge you to do the same at your table. When we first started going to Pine Cove, there was a morning when the parents got together and shared their high for the year and their low for the year. They also encouraged parents to use this concept with their family each night at dinner. We started this several years ago, and it has been such an eye-opener for Scott and me. It gives us a chance to celebrate a high immediately as a family and talk through the low parts of our day. It is also a great segue into any other intentional conversations we need to have with each child.
In the Bed Baby Community Group one Sunday morning, I was lamenting that I was OUT of quick recipes. Sonjia McReynolds quickly came to my rescue with the following recipe. You might have leftovers at home, but if you take this dish to a potluck, you are coming home with an empty plate. I just knew I would have some leftovers from the potluck, but that Crock-Pot was empty! This would also be a great recipe to make and share with another family. Hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!
Garlic Parmesan Chicken With Pasta
12oz. bottle of Buffalo Wild Wings Parmesan Garlic Sauce
2lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast
1 cup milk (plus additional 1/2 c. if needed at the end)
8oz. cream cheese
½ cup shredded parmesan
1 box of your preferred type of pasta (we like rigatoni)
Directions
Place chicken in the bottom of your Crock-Pot.
Pour the bottle of BWW sauce.
Add milk.
Add parmesan cheese.
Lay the block of cream cheese on top.
Cook on low for 5-6 hours.
Shred chicken breast.
Cook pasta.
Pour the cooked pasta into Crock-Pot.
Mix into the chicken.
Sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top.
The Policy and Personnel Committee hosted a luncheon on the Sunday we called Dr. Michael McEwen. We had a delicious lunch, and Mrs. Kathy Jenkins (who snagged this recipe from Tricia Daniel) brought dessert in a black iron skillet, also known as a chicken fryer! Well, honey, who knew there was even a skillet called a chicken fryer? A chicken fryer has a higher edge than a traditional black iron skillet. If you don’t have a chicken fryer, have no fear, you just take one of the pastry layers out, and use your regular sized black iron skillet for this recipe.
Iron Skillet Apple Pie
1 stick of real butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
5 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1 cup white sugar
2 t. cinnamon-mix these together and mix the apples with this mixture
Three 9” piecrust, pre-rolled
There are two to a box, so you will need to get two boxes. The other crust is fine to freeze.¼ cup white sugar to go on top of the pie
3 T. real butter cut into small pats to put on top of the pie.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Place 1 stick of butter in a deep skillet and melt butter in the oven. When melted, stir in 1 cup packed brown sugar and put back in the oven until you get the apples peeled and cinnamon sugar mixed in.
Take the skillet out of the oven and place 1 piecrust over the sugar-butter mixture.
Top with half the apples.
Put another piecrust on top of this.
Top with the rest of the apple mixture.
Top with remaining piecrust.
On top of the piecrust, sprinkle ¼ cup white sugar and dot with the 3 T. of butter.
Cut 4 slits in the top for steaming.
Bake for 60-70 minutes until the crust is golden brown.