Trisha Yearwood's Chicken Soup and Pioneer Woman's Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Apricot Sauce

Still obsessed with my copy of Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood, I made Trisha's Chicken Soup. The picture in the book was so beautiful and I was convinced that I needed to make it as soon as possible. I have tried five of her recipes so far, and I like this recipe for her Chicken Soup the best. It was delicious, outstanding, creamy, hearty, and quite addictive. My husband and I each had two bowls, in one setting.

I love how Trisha uses tricolor pasta to really liven up this bowl of soup. This soup is also chockful of veggies, bell peppers, onions, celery, red potatoes, and a bag of frozen mixed veggies!! To thicken the soup, Trisha uses a mix of Wondra flour and water and then finishes the soup off with a liberal dose of cream and butter. Thick, creamy, hearty and addictive, this is a soup recipe that I will make over and over again in my kitchen.


Chicken Soup
Adapted from Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood
Serves 10
Salt and Pepper
4 Whole Chicken Breasts, bone in and with skin
2 medium bell peppers, cored, seeded, and chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
1 48-ounce can chicken broth
3 medium red potatoes, chopped
1 16-ounce pacakage frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup tricolor rotini pasta, uncooked (I used the whole pound)
1 cup small carrots, cut lengthwise into fourths
3 tablespoons Wondra or all-purpose flour
2 cups (16 ounces) heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

Sprinkle salt and pepper on each chicken breast and place in an 8-10quart stockpot. Add the bell peppers, onions, and celery, then pour the chicken broth over all. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the chicken for 40-50 minutes, or until done.

Transfer the chicken to a bowl. Allow to cool slightly. Remove the bones and skin and discard. Shred the chicken and put back into the pot. (NOTE: I skipped the above steps because I used a rotisserie chicken. Instead I sauteed the bell peppers, onions and celery in about one tablespoon oil, until tender. I then poured in the required amount of broth and followed the steps below.)>Add the potatoes and cook for 12 -15 minutes. Add the mixed vegetables and cook for 12-15 minutes more. Add the pasta and carrots, and cook for 7 minutes more. (NOTE: I cooked an entire pound of the tricolor pasta separately so that the pasta would remain al dente. I kept the pasta separate until right before serving).In a quart glass measuring cup, mix the flour into 1/4 cup water until smooth. Pour in the cream, then add to the soup mixture along with the butter. Cook for 10 more minutes. Allow to stand for at least 15 minutes before serving. (NOTE: I spooned the tricolor pasta over each bowl prior to serving)

In the mood for both soup and sandwiches this week, I also made Pioneer Woman's Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Apricot Sauce. A creamy sauce is made from equal parts apricot preserves, mayo and Dijon mustard. You begin by spreading the sauce on two slices of good sourdough bread.

Layer spinach and sliced red onions on one slice of bread and the grilled chicken breast on the other side. Ree chose to leave her grilled chicken breast whole. I had to slice mine in order for it to fit on the bread.

I think you could definitely stop here and eat this sandwich cold, but Ree grilled hers and so did I. If you chose to serve it grilled, brush the bread with a little bit of oil to ensure that nice crispy brown crust. You can also find the recipe over HERE on Ree's website.


I am submitting both the soup and sandwich to my friend Deb over at Kahakai Kitchen for her weekly Souper Sundays roundup.
I am also submitting the Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Apricot Sauce to Foodie Friends of the Pioneer Woman.

Breakfast Sausage Throwdown and Pioneer Woman's Biscuits and Gravy

For Easter, I bought an entire leg of pork from the butcher. The leg of pork itself was about 20 pounds. Six pounds of the leg became a fresh ham for Easter. The remainder of the leg was ground, equaling about 12 pounds of lean ground pork, as well as two meaty ham hocks. I thought a Throwdown featuring breakfast sausage would be a fun way to use up some of the ground pork, so I opened up my Mark Bittman How To Cook Everything and got to work.

Disclaimer: The leg of pork is a very lean cut. Bittman calls for you to add 1/2 to 3/4 pound fresh pork fatback into 2 pounds of lean boneless pork. I skipped this step in both variations simply because I wanted to keep things on the lean side.

Using Mark Bittmann's, How To Cook Everything, I settled on two breakfast sausage variations. As a jumping off point, I chose Bittman's Basic Breakfast Sausage using the traditional flavoring of sage (pictured above, top photo). To spice things up a bit, I chose his Spicy Sausage with parsley, garlic, ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and cayenne (pictured below, third photo). I wanted to see which one we preferred in a taste test. I thought for sure I knew which one would win, but I was really surprised by the results.





Bittman's Basic Breakfast Sausage was a combination of one pound ground pork, 1/2 teaspoon dried sage, salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. We served this sausage with scrambled eggs and biscuits. The basic breakfast sausage was superb. It had all the familiar flavors of traditional breakfast sausage, only it was much more fresh and really much better than buying it in the supermarket. There was nearly any fat left in the pan and we really didn't miss all the calories. This is definitely a wonderful way to enjoy breakfast sausage in a healthier way.



Bittman's Spicy Sausage(photo directly above) was also made with one pound ground pork, but was combined with 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon ground dried thyme, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne. The blend of spices smelled terrific and you could easily see how flavor packed this sausage was going to be. Both my husband and myself love spicy and flavor-packed foods, so we were excited. I served this spicy sausage with Pioneer Woman's Biscuits and Gravy.



Pioneer Woman's Biscuit and Gravy is a quick and easy recipe, link found HERE. After cooking the sausage patties, Ree uses about 2-3 tablespoons of the sausage fat, whisks in 2 tablespoons of flour, and then adds in about 1 cup of milk. The homemade sausage that I used didn't yield any fat, so I opted for 2 tablespoons of butter, followed by 2 tablespoons flour, and 1 cup of milk. We loved this traditional Southern breakfast. It was quick, easy and delicious!

This is my submission to this roundup at Foodie Friends of the Pioneer Woman! If you would like to see what everyone else submitted, please click HERE to be directed to the FFPW site.

WHO WAS THE WINNER OF THE BREAKFAST SAUSAGE THROWDOWN?

IT WAS THE TRADITIONAL BASIC BREAKFAST SAUSAGE WITH SAGE!
I was expecting the spicy version to win, but it was the old familiar taste of the basic breakfast sausage that won out in the end!

Which sausage do you think you would prefer?

A Lush Giveaway, Awards and Chocolate Sheet Cake

This is going to be a busy post, so let's start with the food first. To congratulate my neighbors on the birth of their first grandchild, I made Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever. I figured a chocolate sheet cake was a sure bet. Everyone usually likes chocolate, right? I also like the fact that this cake serves 24, which was perfect for my neighbors because they have seven children, six of which still live with them and are under the age of eighteen. I wanted to make sure that everyone in the family was able to have some. (Note: I omitted the nuts in this recipe because most children aren't a fan).

The cake uses ingredients I always have on hand and was easy peasy to throw together. I even had enough batter left to fill a small ramekin for my daughter (a devoted chocolate fan). I tasted a bite of the cake and it was rich, chocolatey and moist. The cake is rich enough that you can satisfy your chocolate craving with a very small piece. Of course, if you really want to indulge, plop a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and call it a day. This is a great recipe for a large family or any other get together.

I am submitting this cake to Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman for their bi-monthly roundup of PW's recipes. Tomorrow's roundup promises to be a sweet one since we are celebrating desserts this time around. You can find the recipe for the chocolate sheet cake HERE on the Pioneer Woman's website.

I was very honored to receive two awards this week. Thank you to Sam of My Carolina Kitchen for giving me the Honest Scrap Award. Thank you also to Kathleen of Gonna Want Seconds for this beautiful Sunshine Award. I adore reading both of your blogs! In the interest of keeping this post from becoming a book, I would like to pass these awards on to all of you!



Onto the giveaway! I've mentioned before that I love my job at Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. I discovered the company as a consumer while traveling with my husband one summer and went broke buying everything in the store. Next to cooking, Lush is my second love. I love their products and so do my family and friends. When a store opened up in my local mall I ran for the opportunity to work there.

Lush is a UK-based company that has spread worldwide. All the products are handmade with fresh organic, fair-trade ingredients, based on natural ingredients, such as cocoa butter, essential oils, fruits and vegetables. The products are made with little or no preservatives and for this reason have expiration dates. The products are tested on humans, never animals. There are so many fun things, that it was hard to pick what to give away!

I wish I could make the giveaway available to everyone, but for now I will have to limit it to the US only. I am, however, looking into having items ship worldwide for the next giveaway.

I chose four items that are all related to food in one way or another:

First up is Helping Hands Hand Cream. Since we all spend so much time in the kitchen working with our hands and washing dishes, this is the perfect cream for us. This cream is packed with nourishing shea butter, soothing chamomile water, honey, and lavender. Our most popular hand cream. NOTE: The item pictured below is only 1.5 ozs. I am giving away the large sized 3.5oz hand cream.

Next, is a Blackberry Bath Bomb. Drop this purple, blackberry and frankincense scented bath bomb into your bath and relax.

Third on the list is a Creamy Candy Bubble Bar. I'm sure you're all familiar with liquid bubble bath, but this is a solid bubble bath with no preservatives at all. Simply break the bar in half and crumble one half under running water for a candy scented bubble bath!

And finally, a luxurious Melting Marshmallow Moments Bath Melt made to look like a cute little pink cupcake. The bath melts are one of my favorite products, much like a bath where you are being dipped in lotion. Cut the pink cupcake look-alike in half, toss one half in a warm bath and say MMM. This melt is packed with moisturizing cocoa butter, marshmallow powder, and almond oils. Great for dry skin.


The giveaway is open to all US Residents. The winner will receive all four products. To enter, simply leave a comment telling me which of these four products sounds the best to you. Your comments will help me when it comes time for another giveaway. Contest ends Friday, March 26th at midnight EST. Winner will be chosen with the random number generator on Saturday, March 27th.

I encourage everyone who is eligible to enter the contest, men included. These products make great gifts!

Pioneer Woman's Butter Chicken

I've really been into expanding my spice cabinet lately. Even though I have an entire cabinet dedicated to spices, I still need more. Recently, I have purchased saffron, cardamom, turmeric, and curry powder. I had fun cooking with the saffron and loved the pretty color it imparted to each dish. This week, I opened up my cardamom and was instantly in love. Who knew cardamom had such an intoxicating smell? That stuff is delicious and I'm on a mission to find new uses for it.

The first recipe I made with my cardamom was Pioneer Woman's Butter Chicken. I will tell you now that this chicken is absolutely delicious. I love the somewhat complex flavors of this dish and found it to be very comforting. I definitely suggest that you make this chicken, but only when you really want to be naughty. Why? Well, right before serving the meal, you pour in ONE PINT of heavy cream. Yes, one pint. The entire recipe serves four. I almost cried when I did it. Notice I said almost. Then I remembered that I had a pint of cream hanging around that just needed to be used up. Not one to waste food, I instantly felt better about the dish. Or at least that's what I told myself.



The chicken is marinated in a mixture of garlic, salt, black pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, cardamom, ground coriander, and the juice of a whole lime. It needs to marinade overnight (a step that is well worth it and makes the chicken exceptionally tender). The next day, you saute an onion with butter and cook the chicken for 10 minutes before adding tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. The chicken simmers for 30 minutes. Right before serving, you pour in one pint of heavy cream and garnish with cilantro. You can find the link to Pioneer Woman's recipe HERE.

You should definitely make this chicken if you have heavy cream that needs using up OR if you feel like indulging. I'll definitely be making this chicken again one day! In the meantime, I've used up all my heavy cream and will get back to lightening things up. Summer is fast-approaching.

I wanted to submit this recipe to Foodie Friends of the Pioneer Woman, but the weekend got away from me. This is definitely a great site worth checking out! The next roundup is in two weeks and will be featuring desserts.

SPECIAL NOTE: A couple of you asked whether or not I had hot pink legwarmers and other 80's gear just hanging out in my closet. The answer is yes. We have a lot of "costume parties" at work so I have a little costume section in my closet. I wish I had pictures to share, but we forgot to take pictures on Saturday. I had some 80's pictures from our previous 80's party, but I lost them when my hard drive crashed awhile back. I'm sure there will be a next time! Over the past few months, we've done 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's parties. In addition to that, we've done beach parties, pajama parties, fairytale parties, and Greek parties. I'm going to need a bigger closet soon!

Pot Roast and Mashed Potatoes, Pioneer Style

Tender, flavorful, fragrant and comforting are all words I would use to describe pot roast. Serve it up with creamy mashed potatoes and you are instantly transported back to Mom's Kitchen.

Everyone has their own recipe for pot roast. I like to start with a shoulder cut, just because I think it is the most tender. I also prefer to cook my pot roast in a crock pot rather than the oven. There are a lot of ways I cook my pot roast. Sometimes I throw in a jar of pepperocini peppers and let the roast cook in the peppers and their juice. I love to shred the roast and reserve the peppers and serve on a sandwich bun. Sometimes I do the traditional dried french onion soup mix and beef broth. Other times I throw in a packet of taco seasoning in case I want to make tacos, burritos, enchiladas or taquitos. The crock pot never lets me down.

Open to new possibilities, I decided to try the Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast. Ree's recipe is different than mine in several ways. First, she likes to use a chuck roast. Secondly, she cooks her roast in the oven. Lastly, she sears her onions, carrots, and roast before roasting in the oven. I have to admit, I was intrigued by the idea of searing the onions and carrots and was excited to give it a try.

I served the pot roast with PW's Creamy Mashed Potatoes. Loaded with cream cheese, butter, and half and half, the potatoes are insanely good. Definitely not your every day mashed potatoes, but so worth it. For the best results, make them a day ahead, refrigerator overnight, and bake the next day. You can find the recipe for the Creamy Mashed Potatoes HERE.
You can find the recipe for Ree's Pot Roast HERE.

Results/Notes: This pot roast was definitely a winner! My husband (meat lover that he is) said that this was probably the best pot roast I have ever cooked. In fact, he and I battled over the leftovers! I like the idea of searing the carrots and onions before roasting. Ree simply cuts her onion in half and sears each half. Although I like this concept, the onion fell apart while roasting and some of the pieces didn't have much color. Next time, I will slice the onion and give it some color before adding to oven. Other than that, this was simply delicious. A wonderful dinner, with leftovers and all for around $10 total.

I am submitting this to Foodie Friends of the Pioneer Woman, hosted by Debby of A Feast for the Eyes and Muneeba of An Edible Symphony. Foodie Friends has bimonthly roundups, which gives you plenty of time to cook along with us. Each and every Pioneer Woman recipe I have tried has been excellent! Head on over there by clicking on the link above to check out this fun new group!

Southern-Style Baked Beans, Pioneer Style

At my house, baked beans are somewhat like a condiment. We love them so much that we top our baked potatoes with them, spread them on our garlic toast, put them on a burger, and more. Baked beans compliment so many things, but they go best with pulled pork, which is what we had last night.

I've tried a couple different recipes for baked beans over the years and they have all been good recipes. Last night I made Pioneer Woman's Southern-Style Baked Beans, which are topped with bacon and baked in the oven for 2 hours. They were outstanding! I served them along with Tyler's pulled pork, baked potatoes, and garlic toast. The baked beans were the best part of the meal. We loved them. The sauce was thick and tangy with pieces of onion and green pepper running throughout. The bacon formed a crispy coating worth fighting over. This will be our new "go to" recipe for baked beans.

Quick Southern-Style Baked Beans-adapted from Pioneer Woman
**Serves up to 18- recipe is easily halved
8 slices bacon, halved
1 medium onion, cut into small dice
1/2 medium green pepper, cut into small dice
3 large cans (28 ounces each) pork and beans
3/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup distilled or cider vinegar
2 teaspoons dry mustard or 2 tablespoons Dijon

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Fry bacon in large, deep sauté pan skillet until bacon has partially cooked and released about 1/4 cup drippings. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels. Add onions and peppers to drippings in pan and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add beans and remaining ingredients bring to a simmer. (If skillet is not large enough, add beans and heat to a simmer then transfer to a large bowl and stir in remaining ingredients). Pour flavored beans into a greased 13-by 9-inch (or similar size) ovenproof pan. Top with bacon, then bake until beans are bubbly and sauce is the consistency of pancake syrup, about 2 hours. Let stand to thicken slightly and serve.

I am submitting this recipe to Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman, which is a new group that hosts bimonthly roundups of Ree's recipes. This time around we are making salad and vegetable dishes. Head on over there to see what everyone else is cooking up!

Homemade Chocolate Milk Mix, Pioneer Style

Thanks again to everyone for your well wishes regarding my back. I am pretty much back to my regular self now and it feels great! Having good health is something that I tend to take advantage of until something drastic happens. Sometimes it seems like life is so hectic and busy that you forget to take care of yourself. Before you know it you come down with a virus or you throw your back out. When my back went out a week or more ago, it really made me think. I decided that it was high time I started paying better attention to myself.

Awhile ago I posted about the glorious five pounds I gained, blaming it on Paula Deen's recipes. The truth is, that five pounds turned into ten pounds. Some of you know how this works. There are the ten or twenty pounds that you already wanted to lose and then there are the five to ten pounds that you somehow managed to gain. Losing and maintaining weight as a foodie is a very hard thing to do. However, here at Stirring the Pot I am determined to do something about it. After all, carrying around any extra weight is not good for your back. I'm proud to say that I've lost five pounds since my back went out. Christmas time is not the best time to try losing weight, but I'm hoping to stick with it :D

Now you're probably wondering "Why is she posting about homemade chocolate milk mix if she's trying to lose weight?" I have to confess that I didn't really make this for myself. I made this for my husband who is an avid chocolate milk fan. Almost every morning he drinks a chocolate milk and eats a banana for breakfast. I decided to try this homemade chocolate milk mix for a new cooking club, Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman. The current theme is breakfast/brunch recipes and this mix was the perfect breakfast treat for us.

All you need are these two ingredients for the mix:
This is really easy to whip up and the mix lasts for two weeks in the refrigerator. While I was making this I was thinking that it would be tasty to grate in some fresh orange zest. Doesn't everyone love the flavor of chocolate and orange? You could also add some peppermint extract, which would be great at the holidays.

Homemade Chocolate Milk Mix - adapted from the Pioneer Woman, find her link here.
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 ounces, semi-sweet chocolate pieces (preferably a good chocolate)

Heat cream over medium-high heat until slightly boiling. Add chocolate pieces and turn off heat. Whisk slowly until chocolate is melted and mixture is very smooth. Pour into a container and keep in the fridge up to two weeks. Mix with cold or warm milk, depending on how frightful the weather outside is.

Notes/Results: My husband really enjoyed it! He really liked the fact that there was a whole carafe of liquid chocolate to store in the fridge for two weeks. I don't think it will last that long! After all, it is really like a homemade chocolate sauce and is definitely good for topping ice cream or any other tasty treat.

Head on over to the Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman site, by clicking here. There is going to be a roundup of Ree's Breakfast/Brunch recipes on December 12th and let me tell you, there will be some fabulous recipes! I really wanted to make Ree's bacon, onion and cheddar biscuits, but thankfully I was able to reason with myself :D