New home

Well I've moved!

That's right Anya Cooks! now has her own domain!

http://kskitchenonline.com

I am not deleting this blog but I hope you'll come visit me in the new kitchen!

New Blog Site

I am debating on moving my site to wordpress. Anyone have any thoughts about them? Good, bad, indifferent?

Chicken Pot Pie

YUM! Really yum! This was such a tasty recipe. I am utterly delighted! I was going to bring my parents some but I think I will just make them their own. I think they'll enjoy it immensely (especially if I add the peas that I omitted because we dont like peas in this house). It had the wonderful thick sauce that I love and a nice crispy crust. I think I might add a bit more flour next time just to get it a tad bit thicker and hopefully it will hold together a bit better.

I think this one is a keeper!

Chicken Pot Pie
Adapted slightly from The Girl Who Ate Everything



1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen green peas (I omitted these because neither of us are big fans of peas)
1/2 cup sliced celery (These were omitted because I thought I had celery and didnt.)
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
32 oz. carton chicken broth for boiling(reserve 1 3/4 cups chicken broth for sauce)
2/3 cup milk
2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts (I used one in a tin for the bottom crust and a rollout crust for the top)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
In a pot, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add the carton of chicken broth to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain (reserving 1 3/4 cup chicken broth for filling) and set aside.

In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and combine with the chicken, carrots, peas, and celery mixture. Here you can add more chicken broth if you like depending how runny you want your filling.

Place the chicken filling in bottom crust. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Ten in 10: Ten Weeks to Healthy in 2010

I am going to participating in the Ten in 10: Ten Weeks to Healthy in 2010 challenge hosted by recipegirl! I am deadset to get healthy this year if it kills me. haha. Anyway, yea more healthy! My primary goal is to be more healthy in general. This includes eating less red meat and definitely less fast food! Today I signed back up for sparkpeople and also joined "The Biggest Winner" challenge we have going at work. My buddy Lester is going to do it with me so that helps. Wish I had someone that lived near me though to go walk with. Ah well. I'll get a dog and she'll walk with me!!


Wish me luck, gang! This is gonna be a long journey!

I am back!!!

Hello, my lovelies!! Are any of you still out there after my long absense? It has been so long since I have posted and I am sorry for that!

I have good news and then more good news! Which would you like first? The good news? Ok great!

We closed on our house and have been moved in since 11.17.09! It has been extremely hectic and busy with moving and the holidays so I havent really had much time to think much less focus on my cooking and blogging as I'd like. But I am back and the other good news is that I have a yummy recipe for you as well!!

Before I get to the recipe though I have more to share! Thanksgiving was *not* what I would say was a good food thanksgiving. It was good but mostly not homemade. We had just moved in and I couldnt find most of my pots and pans so we bought 99% of the food. I announced at dinner that I would be making a "from scratch" Christmas dinner and that was that.

Christmas dinner was wonderful! I was so pleased with how everything turned out. Fortunately Ethan was there to help me or I might have gone insane...well more insane! We had turkey, ham, cornbread sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, garlic cheese grits, deviled eggs, brussell sprouts, corn casserole, spinach dip with homemade pita chips, sausage balls (that I forgot to put out!!), watergate salad, peanut butter pie, yule cake, and banana pudding. Oh and of course a huge relish tray to nibble on while I was still cooking.

Everyone said it was wonderful and that made me very happy. We had snow for Christmas too which was good and bad. Great to have a white Christmas (the first in DFW since 1926, I hear) but bad because my parents couldnt make it to dinner. We sent them lots of leftovers though.

Ok so I've rambled enough. Time for food. I wanted to attempt a yule log because they always look so darn festive. I found a recipe that looked like it would be a great beginner recipe and ran with it. Other then the cake breaking into 3 sections when I unrolled it from the towel it was great! I almost cried when it broke but Ethan cheered me on and said I could fix it and no one would even know. He was almost right. heh.



Chocolate Cake Roll
Recipe from Kraft

6 squares semi-sweet chocolate, divided
6 Tbsp. butter
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour, divided
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup water
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar, divided
3 cups thawed whipped topping, divided

HEAT oven to 350°F.

SPRAY 15x10x1-inch pan with cooking spray. Line with waxed paper; spray with additional cooking spray.

MICROWAVE 3 chocolate squares and butter in medium microwaveable bowl on High 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add granulated sugar; mix well. Beat eggs in large bowl with mixer on high speed 3 min. or until thickened. Blend in chocolate mixture. Add 1/4 cup flour and baking soda; beat just until blended. Add remaining flour alternately with water, beating well after each addition. Spread evenly into prepared pan.

BAKE 15 min. or until top of cake springs back when touched; sprinkle with 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Immediately invert cake onto clean towel; remove pan. Carefully peel off paper. Starting at one short side, roll up cake and towel together; cool completely on wire rack.

BEAT cream cheese and remaining powdered sugar in medium bowl with mixer until well blended. Gently stir in 1-1/2 cups COOL WHIP.

UNROLL cake carefully; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture onto cake, completely covering top of cake. Roll up cake; place, seam-side down, on platter.

MICROWAVE remaining chocolate and remaining COOL WHIP in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 to 1-1/2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 1 min. Cool 2 min.; spread onto cake. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Hiatus

Ok gang. If you havent noticed I havent posted in awhile. I'm super busy with tons of OT at work and trying to purchase a house so I havent had anytime for anything but that.

I will be back though so dont give up on me! My goal is to be back by September 1st.

Mwah!
Anya

Coconut Delights

Cookies are soooo bad for me especially ones that have sweetened condensed milk. These little cookie bars were so decandent and yummy! mmMm. I brought some to work for Darlene and Patty (my official taste testers) and they were scarfed down before I could blink!

Coconut Delights



1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter, melted
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325F.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter in a small bowl and mix well. Lightly butter 13x9 inch pan. Press mixture firmly into bottom of pan.

Pour sweetened condensed milk over crumb mix then top with chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. Next sprinkle coconut and pecans over the top.

Bake 25 minutes or until browned lightly. Cut into bars once cooled.