Greetings from New Hampshire!

Hello everyone! Sarah here. Apologies for the lack of posting for the last two weeks. First it was finals week, and then Rebecca went home to Texas while I stayed for senior week and graduation. Now I'm home in New Hampshire, and I'm happy to say I've been cooking for my family!

I made dinner last night and tonight, and I'm excited to share them with you.
Last night's meal was a tuna noodle casserole.
Tonight's meal was sautéed garlic chicken and mushrooms.

My new partner in kitchen krime is my dear mother. I could be going it alone and probably doing fine, but I know that my mom has a lot of cooking experience, and I invited her to cook with me and share her tips and tricks. You never know what you'll learn!

I didn't grab any pictures of the tuna noodle casserole, but boy was it delicious. Didn't taste like tuna at all, and I could probably fool my sister into thinking it was chicken. (Mom doesn't think she knows what tuna tastes like anyway.)

The tip I learned from Mom making this meal was about the cream of mushroom soup. The stuff is thick, and it sticks to the can. To make it creamy before adding it to the bowl, we put it in the liquid measuring cup to stir it a bit. (We did this to the tuna earlier too.) Then when it was time to add the milk, we measured it in the same measuring cup... and then poured a little into the cream of mushroom soup can. Swirling it around and using a utensil loosened up the bits that were clinging to the can. Same thing for the measuring cup. This is how you can get as much of the soup as possible!

Now tonight's meal was taken from a recipe for an individual person's lunch. We made it for four people (my sister ate early tonight). We didn't have garlic butter, but we do have these little pre-crushed cubes of garlic in the freezer, so we added two of those to the butter as it melted. Couldn't really taste it in the finished meal though.

Also, we sautéed the mushrooms first and then put them on a plate and sautéed the chicken separately because my brother doesn't like mushrooms and I wanted him to enjoy the meal too.

A little monochromatic, but still a tummy-pleaser.

My brother's, sans mushrooms: at least the cuke gave some color to the plate!

It was really good, and Mom and I started thinking about how we could change it up next time we made it. Water chestnuts! Oh my goodness, do I love those... Some red peppers would add some crunch and color too. And baby corn would go well.

I'm really excited about how motivated I am to continue cooking! Last semester with Rebecca was a lot of fun and a great learning experience, and now I'm furthering my kitchen education with my mom! Got a few yummy desserts planned too... Can't wait to share them with you!

Until next time,
Sarah

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Recipes and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Tuna noodle casserole

Site:
http://crepesofwrath.net/2008/12/02/tuna-noodle-casserole/

*Notes:
We had no peas in the house, so we simply omitted it from the recipe. I just bought a bag though, so we shan't have that problem again!

Sautéed garlic chicken and mushrooms

Site:
http://frenchyfood.blogspot.com/2011/04/garlic-chicken-mushroom-sautee.html

*Notes:
We used regular white rice. One cup was fine, boiled in two cups water. Since we were feeding four and not just one, we used 2 pounds of boneless/skinless chicken thighs (about 6 thighs). We used two cubes of pre-crushed garlic, and as much margarine as we needed. Mushrooms were sautéed first and separately. Chicken was cut up into bite-sized pieces. We did not use the salt and pepper, but we added soy sauce to our plates. The recipe says to cook on medium heat for 15-17 minutes - I used high heat and stirred constantly, and it cooked in about 10 minutes. Smaller pieces cook more quickly.