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Matthews Cooks: Vivian's Sort Of Greek Chicken

It’s dinner time, and if you’re in a dinner rotation rut, Vivian’s Victuals has your back. Love the flavor-loaded dishes of the Mediterranean? This Sort of Greek Chicken recipe might just be the recipe you’ve been looking for.

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Vivian’s (Sort Of) Greek Chicken

  • Eight pieces chicken or one whole one cut up 

  • Jar of artichoke hearts, drained

  • About six fresh mushrooms, sliced

  • Jar of black or green olives, drained

  • ¼ cup diced onion

  • 4 (more or less) cloves garlic, diced

  • Greek seasoning, or thyme and oregano

  • 2 TBSP lemon juice

  • Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F.


Spray a baking pan with oil and put the chicken pieces in the pan, with space between the pieces.

Mix the mushrooms, artichoke hearts, onions, olives, garlic, lemon juice and seasonings in a bowl and spread evenly over the chicken pieces. Cover with foil and bake about 30 minutes. Take the foil off, baste the pieces, and cook another 30 minutes.

Great served with couscous, pasta, rice or roasted potatoes.

Greetings from Matthews Cooks! We’re a ragtag group of home cooks submitting original recipes from our own kitchens and sharing the adventure with Matthews Beacon readers. If you’d like to add your own, please send them to renee@matthewsbeacon.com , and she’ll forward them to me (Vivian). When you send in recipes, add your family story, if there is one. It can add new dimensions to a dish. Please do not use recipes from cookbooks, as we need to respect copyright laws. If you first got a recipe from a book, then changed it over the years to suit your kitchen, that would be fine.

Matthews Cooks: Oven-Fried Sesame Chicken

My Grandmother, Zinaida, was from a small village in western Ukraine. She and her family moved to Odessa when she was young, so they could attend school.  About 1894, when she was 16, they migrated to New York. They took the required classes in English, hygiene, and citizenship. All her life, my Grandmother followed the rules she learned in those classes. She was always afraid she would be sent back to the Ukraine if she didn’t follow the rules.

She had difficulty with some words, no matter how long she lived here. The two words that she always mixed up, causing great hilarity in the family, were “kitchen” and “chicken.” She would announce that she was going to stuff and roast a kitchen, but had to clean the chicken first. I can still hear her voice and her laughter as she realized her mistake.

~Vivian’s Victuals

Sesame Chicken2.jpg
“[Zinaida] had difficulty with some words, no matter how long she lived here. The two words that she always mixed up, causing great hilarity in the family, were “kitchen” and “chicken.” She would announce that she was going to stuff and roast a kitchen, but had to clean the chicken first. ”
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Oven-Fried Sesame Chicken

2 ½ lbs chicken
2 TPSP butter, melted
¼ cup sesame oil
¼ cup toasted sesame seeds
3 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
½ cup flour

Preheat oven to 400F.

If your sesame seeds are not toasted, warm a small pan to medium heat and put the seeds in the dry pan. Stir often, and when most of the seeds are light brown, remove the pan and put the seeds in a small bowl (to prevent the heat in the pan from scorching the seeds).

Cut chicken into serving size pieces. Mix the melted butter and sesame oil and brush each piece. Put remaining ingredients in a paper bag. Add the chicken pieces and shake well.

Place the chicken in a foil lined baking pan. Bake at 400F for 50-60 minutes until browned, turning occasionally.


Greetings from Matthews Cooks! We’re a ragtag group of home cooks submitting original recipes from our own kitchens and sharing the adventure with Matthews Beacon readers. If you’d like to add your own, please send them to renee@matthewsbeacon.com , and she’ll forward them to me (Vivian). When you send in recipes, add your family story, if there is one. It can add new dimensions to a dish. Please do not use recipes from cookbooks, as we need to respect copyright laws. If you first got a recipe from a book, then changed it over the years to suit your kitchen, that would be fine.

Tyleen’s Tasty Food presents Keto Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Just in time for dessert season, Tyleen has the recipe to fill all your pumpkin spice cravings on a Keto diet. Dig in and enjoy without the sugar crash of Thanksgivings past.

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Keto Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

From Tyleen’s Tasty Food

This recipe includes 3 layers- the crust, a pumpkin filling, and a cheesecake swirl, meeting all your dessert desires in one serving.

Crust Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs

  • 7 tbsp butter

  • 3⁄4 cup coconut flour

  • 1⁄4 cup Monkfruit brown sugar sweetener

  • 2 tsp of vanilla

Method of Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until a dough forms.

Spread dough on a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 5-7 minutes.

Cheesecake Filling Ingredients:

  • 8oz cream cheese°

  • 1⁄4 cup sour cream

  • 2 large eggs

  • 1 Tbsp vanilla (I love vanilla so I used a Tbsp, you can use less)

  • 1⁄4 cup Monkfruit sweetener

Method of Preparation:

Mix ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.

Add the cheesecake layer on top of the cooked crust and bake at 350°F for 8 minutes. Remove from

oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

Pumpkin Filling Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs

  • 1 cup milk or heavy cream (depending your on calorie needs)

  • 1-2 cups cooked pumpkin (approx. 1 small pumpkin roasted or you can used canned)

  • 1⁄4 cup Monkfruit brown sugar sweetener

  • 1 tsp of cinnamon*

  • 1⁄2 tsp salt*

  • 1⁄2 tsp of ginger*

  • 1⁄4 tsp of ground clove*

    *Or you can use pumpkin pie spice

  • 1 tsp of vanilla (again here you can use more)

Method of Preparation:

Add the pumpkin layer on top of the cooled cheesecake and bake an additional 45-55 minutes at 350°F.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely before you enjoy- unless you are the kind of person that

likes hot cheesecake, in that case, dig right in!

Circles of Dreams by Lorraine Stark

Circles of Dreams


Beneath my magnolia tree

a gentle breeze kept

making invisible circles

around me.

I did not understand at first-

and then I realized it was

gathering dreams, hitchhiking

on the perfect breeze pursuing

their chance to find out their end

and I bid each one success as I

stood beneath my magnolia tree

I watched her white saucer flowers

catch their tears of happiness and

I knew each passenger of the wind

reached their destination


By Lorraine Stark


Image via Unsplash photographer @brunonw

Image via Unsplash photographer @brunonw

Man on the Other Side by Lorraine Stark

Man on the Other Side

I do no know of your
Beliefs
But I do respect
Them
Your traditions
And celebrations
Because you are
My brother
My fellow man
And even if we
Are not the
Same color or
Gender
Or strive for
The same ideals
Or share the
Same religion
It is good
To share and
Speak out loud
And clear
So man will learn
And not forget
Who is beside him
On the other side

by Lorraine Stark

Image via Unsplash photographer @jjacobs15

Image via Unsplash photographer @jjacobs15

Evening Shadow: Sonnetina by Lorraine Stark

Evening Shadow

She was as real as a beautiful rose.
Throughout the years when she wasn’t looking,
He’d sometimes just stare and wonder and think
How lucky he was to be in love with
Her and to grow old together sharing
Everything, memories, hard times and good.
Over the years he sometimes still pictured
The shadow of her youth passing his store
Remembering his wish to just speak to
Her and now their evening shadows are one.

By Lorraine Stark

Image via Unsplash

Image via Unsplash

Catnap - Dizain by Lorraine Stark

Catnap

How beautifully she displayed the flowers
Each one gracefully enhanced the bouquet
Even the housecat checked it each hour
If it could speak, I’d wonder what it say
As its long whiskers brushed by on the way
To the backyard garden where roses grew
Between pine trees arching to a sky blue
He’d carefully step between the new blooms
Settle down take a nap and sleep right through
The wind carrying new scents of perfume

By Lorraine Stark

Photo by Unsplash photographer @8moments

Photo by Unsplash photographer @8moments

City of Light - Poem by Lorraine Stark

City of Light

The last time she saw Paris, it was in her dreams

as she was eating an eclair with extra cream

The last time she saw Paris it was in a history

book and the twirl of a globe

The last time she saw Paris she was atop the Eiffel Tower

Ah! the last time she really saw Paris was on the travel channel

as she pretended to dance ballet at the Champs Elysees and the

music played on in her head, has her imagination no end, the last

time she saw Paris, she stopped by in the rain to see the Seine River

and then she woke up, once again

By Lorraine Stark

Painting by Matthews artist Prudy Weaver

Painting by Matthews artist Prudy Weaver

Enchanted Whistle

Enchanted Whistle

In the distance
Of morning mist
An enchanted whistle
Can be heard
Coming down the track.


Closer,closer
Like a swan
It glides until
It stops
Upon sunlit wooden ties.


It beckons
Hearts yearning
And promises to
Carry dreams
Over the mountains
Crossing bridges
Through the tunnels
Passing fields
Until the next stop
Where new dreams await
And old ones lay
On idle rails.


It comes to rest
Like an old man asleep
It seems to sigh
And snores gentle steam.


At the next station
Don’t pass your chance
Or be side tracked
When you hear
The whistle blow
For the one time only
Special ride on the
Dream track


Clicty,clack
Clicty,clack.

By Lorraine Stark

Image via Unsplash by @kholodnitskiymaksim

Image via Unsplash by @kholodnitskiymaksim

 
 
 

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