Costa Rican Pioneer Woman

In desperation of some good ole southern comfort food, I have had to go all out and become a  Costa Rican Pioneer Woman.  I am a fan of old fashioned cooking from scratch, but not quite so much on the totally from scratch.  The kind of scratch where you have to make your needed ingredients before you can put a recipe together.  I like Cool Whip, you know airy, light, fluffy, frozen, white, and whipped stuff that is spoon-lickin good.  While homemade whipped cream is good, it has a different flavor here in Costa Rica.  Their cows just don't produce the same milk.  I am sure of it.  It isn't bad, just a little different.  It is a lot harder to get that creamy goodness from their cows, when so many look like this.  As David said, this poor cow is preserving his life by keeping this figure.

I am sure we crave things because we aren't supposed to have them, can't have them, can't get them, or dent the budget.  Right?  Why else would I crave so many food items that call for tons and tons of butter and cool whip?  Probably because butter cost me $1.25 per stick and my Cream Cheese Pound Cake calls for 4 sticks and the cream cheese is $2.50, and the fact that when I make it I eat it til it is completely gone, gone to the last crumb.  And Cool Whip, well you will know the day I ever find that for sale in this country.  I am the girl who always had 5 containers of cool whip in the freezer.  It was a pantry staple., 

I have tried two different whipped cream recipes so far, and no winners yet.  Maybe it is the ingredients I have or maybe we just haven't found the right one.  So, for all of you cooks out there with some old timer recipes that have survived the modern world, please share with me your whipped cream recipes.

I don't know why I have been craving Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole, but I have been for weeks.  It isn't like I made this all the time at home or anything, I think I have only made this two other times.  Laura Gerrald always made this, and Laura, I thought of you and your family all while I was making this.  

This is a basic, throw it all in, quick and easy dish, that is sure to please.  All this dish takes is 

4-5 chicken breasts

about 1 cup chopped ham (lunch meat or leftovers)

a stick of margarine, melted

5-6 slices swiss cheese chopped (I used about 1 C of shredded swiss cheese)

1 bag of croutons (this is where the recipe got not so quick)

Mix all together.  Place in greased casserole dish.  Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

I have looked for a couple of weeks at several stores and have found croutons at only one store and I refused to pay the enormous price they had affixed to the front of the bag.  And, they were probably out of date.  So, I looked around online and found several different recipes for croutons, mixed them up, made my own and what do you know we had some croutons that were the best I have ever tasted.  My husband doesn't like croutons, and he was impressed.

We typically buy this European style bread at one of the local bakeries, problem is they are always out, so it is hit or miss if they have it.  Last week was a miss week every time we stopped by.  So, I went to the other bakery and bought a loaf of bread.  It was terrible, inedible for sandwiches.  To the fridge it went...I knew what I could do with it.  It was already so dry, I though this stuff will be easy to use for some crunchy croutons.  So, yes, there was a week worth of planning for this Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole.  

You have to try this recipe.  They were awesome!  Much more tasty than anything poured from a prepackaged bag.

What you need:

1 loaf of old bread, more than a day (this was like 5 days old) Chopped into squares

1/2 - 3/4 tsp garlic salt

3/4 tsp mixed garlic seasoning (something like Mrs. Dash garlic seasoning)

6 T olive oil

cooking spray

In a very large mixing bowl mix the garlic salt, garlic seasoning, and olive oil.  Place bread pieces in bowl and stir trying to coat all pieces as well as you can.  Line a large cookie sheet with foil, grease cookie sheet, pour bread pieces on cookie sheet.  I then sprayed the pieces with the cooking spray and lighlty sprinkled a little more garlic salt on top.  Place in a preheated oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes, then remove turning pieces over, spray other side, and bake for another 15 minutes.  Remove, let completely cool on cookie sheet, then place in airtight container or plastic bag.  They say you can store for 6 months, but I don't think you would ever keep them that long because they are that yummy.  

Use these in the recipe mentioned above for Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole and you will have this yummy goodness.

After 5 hours in the kitchen yesterday of making croutons, sifting and making self-rising flour for my cinnamon roll recipe (I will save that for another day) and then making the cinnamon rolls for breakfasts, making whipped cream for chocolate mouse dessert, lemon blueberry streusel topped muffins for breakfasts, and then finally finishing up dinner....Yes, I for sure felt like a bonafide pioneer woman after being in the kitchen that long.  At least I didn't have to whip and cream my own butter or pluck the feathers from the chicken.  If I have to go that pioneer my family will just have to be vegetarians, that is just all there is to that.