Fresco Spice Blends – Homes In Progress

Overnight Chicken Broth

Posted on January 5, 2024January 5, 2024 by carrienotcary

One large carrot peeled and diced. One stalk of celery diced. One quarter to one third of a white onion cut into strips. 3 baked bone in skin on chicken breasts.

Earlier in the evening I baked the chicken. I sprayed the glass baking dish with avocado oil spray. I added the chicken and sprayed the top of each chicken breast before I sprinkled approximately 1 1/2 tsp of Fresco Spice Blends Penney’s Little Italy over the tops. Baked uncovered at 375 for 35 minutes

Back to the stock. Add water to cover about 8 cups. A splash of Reisling leftover from our son’s wedding weekend ❤️ probably 1/4 cup or less. If you are doing dry January skip the wine. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours overnight or whenever you have 10 hours to spare. Wake up to chicken broth and the beginning of a nice chicken soup.

I’m going to take the skin off and debone the chicken later today and dump it all (minus the bones and skin) in a stock pot on the stove to simmer and smell nice until dinner! I will also add in more carrots that are peeled and diced, diced celery, and some minced garlic and maybe ginger briefly sautéed in a little olive oil or butter.

Add more water throughout the day when you think it needs more.

Add the noodles at in the last 10 minutes of cooking when you’ve brought the soup to a boil. Follow the package directions for the noodles that you choose. That’s dinner!

Food, spices, Uncategorized

Quick dinner

Posted on June 21, 2022June 21, 2022 by carrienotcary

chicken with olive oil and Fresco Spice Mexicali salsa blend

Geez, it’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything! Supposedly life had slowed down over the past year and a half but I don’t buy it. I’m still rushing around trying to put dinner on the table.

Roasted potatoes with Fresco spice blend Everyday Seasoning

Pre heat your oven to 425. Cut up 3 Russet potatoes into small pieces and mix with olive oil and whatever spice you like best. I really like the Fresco Spice Blends. I used 1 tablespoon of their Everyday Seasoning. Mix well and spread evenly on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking you can cut up carrots and broccoli. I was lucky in that I already had diced carrots in the fridge. Set aside.

Above are photos of my time saver, frozen pre cut chicken that I simply thaw and combine with olive oil and my favorite spice blend. This week I’m loving Fresco Spice Blends Mexicali Salsa.

Either bake the chicken in a pan at 375 for about 25 minutes or saute (fry that is) in a pan over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through.

While the chicken is cooking steam the vegetables in the microwave for about 3 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pan and put in a bowl to serve later. Pour about 1/4 cup of chicken stock into the pan while it is still on low to medium heat. Use a utensil that works best for the type of pan you used. My pan is non stick so I used a wooden spatula. Scrape the browned chicken bits and mix with the chicken stock. Let the liquid cook for a minute or two and then add the steamed carrots and broccoli and mix well. I added one teaspoon of Fresco spice blends California Fresh seasoning and continued to cook until the carrots were as tender as I liked.

Ta da! A complete meal in about half an hour. It definitely helps to have frozen pre cut chicken on hand, as well as vegetables that were already cut ( at least the carrots were), and using boxed chicken broth.

Food, seeds

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Posted on November 2, 2021 by carrienotcary

We carved four pumpkins so needless to say we had a lot of seeds. One batch was tossed with Rustic Rub from Fresco Spice Blends. It gave them a nice salty barbecue flavor.

Everything but the bagel seasoning from Fresco Spice Blends

We also tried a mixture of Ranch seasoning also from Fresco Spice Blends and Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Ranch seasoning blend.

Ranch from Fresco Spice Blends mixed with Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Ranch seasoning blend

That wasn’t bad but Everything but the Bagel seasoning was the clear winner again this year.

Food

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Posted on October 29, 2020 by carrienotcary

Roasted pumpkin seeds are one of my favorite things about Halloween. A little bit of work will give you something to snack on for days.

These pumpkins are gutted and ready to be carved.

Before you carve a pumpkin you have to take it’s guts out. Take the top off, scoop out all the goo inside, and pick out the seeds. Pro tip, do this messy stuff on top of a layer of newspaper. When you are done just throw the newspaper away. If you are very handy in the garden maybe you could use this newspaper under a layer of mulch to keep weeds away. Our growing season is over so this mess went straight to the garbage.

I keep this really simple. I put the seeds just as they are in a bowl and season them with a tablespoon of what ever sounds good from my spices.

Then I put them on a baking sheet, trying to spread them out into a single layer, and then bake them in a 250 degree oven for 90 minutes or longer.

The chosen spices this year are my go to garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder

then Everything but…from Fresco Spice Blends. This is basically an everything bagel seasoning

and finally Ranch seasoning also from Fresco Spice Blends.

The winner this year is the Everything but…. seasoning. I guess it’s true, you really can use everything bagel seasoning on well, everything. Or at least pumpkin seeds. Enjoy!

Food

Mac n’ Cheese in a hurry

Posted on October 7, 2020 by carrienotcary

Okay folks this is ridiculously easy. A pot of water, a box of mac n’ cheese, and a tablespoon of spices. That’s it.

Follow the instructions on the box.

When you are mixing the cheese sauce into the drained noodles add 1 tablespoon of Everyday Blend from Fresco Spice Blends. There, that’s it. A satisfying side dish or add whatever diced cooked chicken, veggies, or even bacon and you have something that will hit the spot when you are stretched for time. That’s not entirely necessary, just get a spoon and dig in. Enjoy!

Food, Uncategorized

Jambalaya and Roasted Potatoes

Posted on August 27, 2020 by carrienotcary

My mom sent us home with a bowl full of baby red potatoes. We were also given a couple leftover grilled Italian sausages to bring home to our daughter who stayed home to study for her CPA exams. The next day we still had both of these ingredients so I decided to roast the potatoes with olive oil and a tablespoon of A Bit of Tuscany from the Fresco Spice Blends. They probably roasted at 450 for about 30 -40 minutes. The next time I roast these little guys I will cut each one in half and roast them cut side down to get that nice carmelized flavor. These were good but cut in half might be better. I’ll let you know. I was just lazy with this dinner.

We sliced the sausage and ended up with maybe one and a half cups of slices.

I baked some previously cut up chicken that I had in the freezer. Again I just used olive oil and seasoning. I think I used Coast to Coast seasoning from Fresco Spice Blends. If it isn’t obvious yet, I love their spices. I didn’t measure but it seemed to be about 2 cups of cooked chicken after it was baked at 375 for 25 minutes and cut into smaller pieces.

I added the sausage, chicken, and a teeny-tiny bag of frozen diced ham to a Zatarain’s jambalaya mix and in about half an hour dinner was on the table. The ham is not pictured because it was literally a pint size freezer bag that was only maybe a quarter full of leftover diced ham. It just didn’t seem photo worthy. Dinner however was amazing with really minimal effort.

Food, friends and family

Happy Mother’s Day a little early

Posted on May 8, 2020 by carrienotcary

Look what I found on my doorstep yesterday! On Monday I placed my order from Fresco Spice Blends and by Thursday afternoon it had arrived. Speedy!

Originally I was just planning on replacing my Fresco Ranch seasoning that I purchased ages ago at the Fort Wayne Farmer’s Market. Then I realized that I had to share what I had discovered. So I went online and ordered one for me and one for my mom, then added a few more blends that looked too good to resist.

Last night I roasted cut up sweet potatoes and russet potatoes tossed with olive oil and Fresco Spice Signature Blend. So very good! I used about 1/2 a tablespoon of seasoning and some olive oil poured over the potatoes in a bowl. Mixed it together then spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet and baked/roasted them on the center rack of my oven at 450 for 15 minutes. I took the pan out and flipped the potatoes over then put them back in for 10 minutes on the same rack. I like crispy potatoes so I finished them for 5 more minutes on the top rack of the oven.

This container is the Coast to Coast blend.

The seasoned potatoes went really well with grilled chicken. Again, I just mixed spice and olive oil.

In one bag I used olive oil and one tablespoon of the Coast to Coast seasoning and in the other bag I used a tablespoon of Penney’s Little Italy. Very easy and delicious! Today we can enjoy the chicken again sliced on a salad, in a tortilla wrap, or maybe just dipped in hummus for a snack.

The other half tablespoon of Signature seasoning from the potatoes? That was put with olive oil into a quart size freezer bag of smaller chicken pieces. Now I have seasoned chicken that I can defrost and cook another night.

Did you actually think that my freezer was organized? Um no, I’m lucky if the kids remember to reseal the bag of chocolate chips!

Mom, if you’re reading this, sorry to spoil your surprise! Happy Mother’s Day a little early!