Recipe - Chicken Paprikash/Spaetzel

I like recipes and need to store them online. An old friend of mine sent out a Facebook plea for recipes so I thought I would start typing them up.

These should all be corn free provided you use corn free ingredients. I will mention brand names where it matters...

Chicken Paprikash (love you uncle Joe)

24 oz. cut up chicken breasts (you can use thighs but dark meat sucks)
12 oz. sour cream (Daisy)
48 oz. Chicken broth or corn free Apple Juice
1 large coarsely chopped onion
3 - 4 tbs Hungarian Paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
2 bay leaves
1 tbs safe oil
1 tbs garlic

Saute chicken and onion in garlic and oil until browned. Add 1/2 of the broth/juice. Add all spices. Simmer over low-ish heat until cooked (start spaetzel now). Once cooked, use rest of broth/juice with 1tbs of flour to thicken.* Continue to simmer over very low heat until ready to serve. Just before serving, stir in sour cream.

Serve over Spaetzel or don't bother.

Spaetzel

1/2 cup Horizon Vit D milk
1 1/2 cup King Arthur flour
1 egg

Mix ingredients above. Dough will be relatively thin, think a little thicker than cake batter. If it's too thick, add a bit more milk. Bring a large pot of water to a high boil. Pull out a metal tsp measuring spoon (make sure it's metal). Dip the spoon in the hot water and scoop up a spoonful of dough. Since the spoon is hot the dough should slide right off into the water. Repeat this process until all of the dough is in the pot. If it appears that your little spaetzels are sticking together, grab a big wooden spoon and give the pot a stir. This will need to boil for a good 20 minutes.

Drain spaetzel from water and VOILA!

*For those of you who are new cooks, there's a trick to thickening with flour. Get yourself a small rubbermaid or other plastic container with an air tight lid. Toss a tbs of flour in the bottom of the container and about 2 tbs of some fluid (water, juice, broth, etc.). Pop the lid on and shake like mad until the flour no longer clumps to the bottom of the bowl. If you pour this concoction SLOWLY into your pan while continually stirring .. you are likely to add thickener without accidentally creating lumps.

A word of warning, my brother seems to think that flour doesn't need to cook. Technically that's true, but then it tastes like a mouthful of flour, which is awful. My rule of thumb is that flour needs to be at a simmering temperature for at least 10 minutes before you can consider it edible.

Cherry Habanero Jam

Delish, corn free and eeeeezzzzzzz!

1 lb frozen private selections (fancy kroger brand) pitted cherries
1 lemon
2 habanero peppers

1. thaw cherries for 30 - 45 mins on the counter in a bowl
2. cut lemon in half, place half in ziploc baggie and toss in the fridge
3. cut remaining half of lemon up in small-ish chunks
4. toss 1/2 lemon, thawed cherries and habanero (pull off the stem please) into a food processor
5. dump processed pulp into a pan with 1 cup sugar
6. bring to a simmer and simmer until all sugar is melted

voila!

I canned mine, and I'm not sure I did it right, so won't bother putting the canning directions here. Warning ... it's hot!

Sourdough!

Yes, I made it ... and yes, it's fantastic! I used King Arthur flour (all purpose) and my starter finished in only one day, my sponge proofed for 10 hours and my dough rose in about 1.5 hours... it was delicious!

TIP: I used an old spaghetti jar for my starter and put the lid on it ... bad idea, there's gas buildup that needs to get out. Also, I believe the metal in the lid reacted with the starter and killed the first one I made. Best solution I came up with was using a rubber band and a piece of cloth over the top. This let the gas out of the jar as well as keeping flies and such at bay.


Follow the Directions here: http://www.prismnet.com/~sjohn/sour.htm (blogspot link won't work... sorry you'll have to copy and paste into your browser)

Safe for me!

I've decided to compile some of the 'safe for me' foods in one place for easy reference. Please know, I am not as sensitive as some and more sensitive than others - in other words, proceed with caution, read labels and know your own allergy! We are all very different in our sensitivities to various derivatives.

Waaay more to come, this is just off the top of my head tonight.

Pasta:
Kroger brand 100% Durham Wheat pasta - all varieties.
Kroger brand long grain rice.

Sauces/Condiments:
Kroger brand Natural Selections pasta sauce
Goya Coconut Milk
Trader Joe's Mayonnaise
Trader Joe's Yellow Mustard
Kikkoman Soy Sauce
Louisiana Hot Sauce

Dairy:
Kerry Gold Cheese All Varieties
Black Diamond Cheddar Cheese
Kroger Brand Natural Selections Parmasean (whole block, not shredded, grated, etc. - those contain cellulose powder to prevent caking and have cause reactions for me.)
Horizon Whole Milk, Half n' Half and Heavy Whipping Cream (cardboard carton causes me no issues)
Fage yogurt, 2% and whole (I haven't tested skim .. becauses I like the fat - also haven't tested the honey they serve with some of their yogurts)
Greek Gods plain yogurt
Presidente Brie

Bread:
n/a

Crackers/Cookies/Cereals/Chips:
Triscuits
Kroger Organic Sea Salt Potato Chips
Nature Valley Oan & Honey granola bars
Sesmark Rice Thins Rice Crackers - Brown Rice
Kroger Brand puffed rice - check label
Cream of Rice hot cereal
Old Fashioned Quaker Oats

Toiletries:
Dr. Bronner's Soap
Dr. Bronner's Shikakai Soap
Ivory Soap

Beverages:
LaCroix flavored waters
Stash Black Tea (English Breakfast Tea)
Folgers coffees (unflavored only, I'm not into froofie coffee anyway so haven't tested the flavored varieties)
Starbucks Komodo Dragon
Starbucks Anniversary Blend
Keurig cup - Green Mountain Sumatra
Keurig cup - Green Mountain Nantucket Blend
Keurig cup - Tulley's French Roast
Keurig cup - Caribou

Flour/Cereals/Sugars/Oils:
Sugar in the Raw
Kroger Brand Private Selections Turbinado Sugar
Domino Brown Sugar
Domino Sugar
King Arthur Flours
Red Star Yeast (three packs NOT the jar stuffs)
Kroger Brand Safflower Oil
Spectrum Apple Cider Vinegar
Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
McCormick's spices (individual spice bottles, not spice mixes)

Fruit/Veggies
Organic Chiquita Bananas (always buy green)
Kroger Canned Green Beans
Kroger Canned Black Beans
Kroger Canned Red Beans
Kroger Canned Pineapple Chunks
Kroger Canned Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)
Dried beans have never been a problem for me - always check labels

No shampoo! - Water Only, wait ... what?

yeah, I'm not kidding. I started washing my hair about every three days or so and then just stopped because I'm lazy. Nothing. Hair is great, smells good (like cloves which I put in my stash tea rinse the last time I washed), looks great and my dandruff I've had my whole life... magically gone.

Weird. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I'm pretty surprised by the results.

Oh, by the way. Organic Salt and Ground Black Pepper Kettle chips ... not corn free. I know, I know... no one ever said they would be - but a girl has to take chances.

Shampoo Update!

It just gets better and better. I am still using the Shikakai soap below for my hair and my body and my scalp feels fantastic! I have to smooth on a wee bit of Joboba Oil (NOW brand) on my wet hair after shower because it was getting a little dull and dry, but now it's lovely.

WORD OF WARNING: After poking about online a bit I discovered that some of this brand are scented ... these scented bottles often contain Organic Zea Mays (Corn) Starch.

As always, read labels carefully... reread them EVERY time before you buy! Ingredients change without warning. Be smart.

Shampoo!!!

I've been searching for shampoos that don't give me hives ... and it's been a long horrible battle. I tried going no-poo, but just couldn't take it. This works wonderfully. The PH is very alkaline, so I follow up a wash with a good Twinnings Black tea rinse (Edited to add: Twinnings gave me hives ... Stash tea gives the same results without the hives ... ), and so far so good....

From what I can tell online, Dr. Bronner's Citric Acid is not corn derived (their regular castile soap shows up on the cornfree list). Organic, Fair Trade and very concentrated. I use about 4 squirts to wash all my hair (just below my shoulders) so although it's pricey ($8/bottle), I have a feeling it will last for quite some time.

Ingredients: Organic Shikakai Extract (Organic White Grape Juice, Organic Sucrose*, Organic Shikakai Powder), Saponified Organic Coconut* and Olive* Oils, Organic Hemp Oil, Citric Acid, Vitamin E. *Certified fair trade by IMO. Oregon Tilth Certified Organic.