Welcome to the third edition of 97.9 The Hill’s Staff Picks!

Stuck at home during quarantine? Social distancing leaving you with a little too much free time? Running out of things to cook at home? Getting bored of eating frozen pizza? Well, say no more – the Chapelboro team has you covered.

Below is a list of easy-to-make, inventive dishes specially curated by your favorite staffers.

So dig into your freezer, pilfer through that pantry and let’s get cooking!

*Editorial note: The dishes below are inconsistent in their levels of difficulty, creativity and tastiness.

Ron Stutts (Morning Show Host)

The Dish: “The mighty hot dog”

I’m not much of a cook. Here’s my recipe for a couple of hot dogs:
Get a big pot. Fill it about half full with water. Turn on a burner on your stove, place pot on the bumper over high heat until water boils. Then get 2 wieners out of the fridge, and stick ‘em in the water to boil them for a few minutes.

While that’s happening, get a couple of hot dog buns out of the pantry and heat warm them up in the oven for a few minutes. When hot dogs are done and buns are warm, combine them and splash on some ketchup and mustard and you’re ready.  For an added treat you might add some chopped onions to the dogs and some potato chips on the side.

Voila! You have a gourmet meal worthy of no praise whatsoever, but it’s fast and it’s cheap. I have learned to prepare this wonderful meal over a period of many years, eating quickly and cheaply. You can thank me later.

Nicki Morse (Midday Host)

The Dish: “My family’s corn chowder”

  • potatoes
  • bacon
  • onion
  • kernel corn
  • creamed corn
  • milk
  • butter
  1. Fry 3-4 pieces of bacon (put to the side)
  2. Chop onions and fry in bacon grease
  3. Add can of drained kernel corn
  4. Add can of creamed corn
  5. Add cut-up, peeled potatoes
  6. Add 1/2 stick of butter
  7. Add 1/2 gallon of milk (whole or 2%)
  8. Add salt and pepper to taste and bacon crumbles
  9. Done when potatoes are done.

Aaron Keck (Afternoon Show Host)

The Dish: “Brad’s Sausage Pasta”
  • Box of pasta noodles (your choice)
  • One tube of breakfast sausage
  • One jar of salsa
  • One bag of shredded cheese
  • One teaspoon of love

Cook, combine, mix, and eat!

Aubrey Williams (General Manager)

The Dish: “Auburritos”

Auburritos is quite simply: Burritos made by me, Aubrey. These are super tasty, easy, and vegetarian!

  • Bell peppers (assorted colors if you like)
  • Mushrooms
  • Refried beans
  • Tortillas
  • Shredded cheese
  • Sour cream
  • Salsa
  • Guacamole (optional)

Cut up and lightly sauté the mushrooms and peppers in olive oil. My choice of seasoning is salt, pepper and soul food seasoning.

Heat the refried beans. Warm the tortillas.

Scoop the beans and veggies onto the tortilla. Sprinkle the cheese on it while it’s all warm so it can get melty. Roll it up. Top with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.

Brighton McConnell (News Director)

The Dish: “Freezer stir-fry”

Mine is a meal I make more often than just when I’m stuck at home, but it’s a good one to use what’s in the freezer: stirfry!
I usually have some lots of frozen veggies and chicken my freezer, as well as some sort of grain in my pantry. You make a frozen veggie medley by taking stuff like frozen broccoli, frozen corn, frozen green beans and mix it with some cut peppers, onions and water chestnuts (also a pantry item). You cook those in some hot oil in a pan while you defrost, season and cook the chicken in soy sauce in a separate pan. Then, you mix the chicken and veggies together on a low heat while you cook either a quick pot of couscous or rice. Lastly, serve the chicken and veggies on top of the grains!

Easy peasy.

Elle Kehres (Reporter) The Dish: “Momma’s cobbler” 

  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 1 cup of flour
  • 1 egg
  • some vanilla (add until you see fit)
  • a can of your favorite pie filling (I recommend the classic cherry!)
Stir all the goodies up (sans the pie filling) and throw the mixture in a oven-safe dish.
After, plunk the pie filling in the middle of the batter.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes and presto! Delicious dessert. I like to serve it warm with vanilla ice cream.

Victor Lewis (Digital Content Editor)

*Victor takes his recipes and advice-giving very seriously – proceed with caution.
The Dish: “Beans and rice”
When it comes to good quarantine eatin’, the all-time heavyweight champ is beans & rice. This is an infinitely variable food staple, so here’s how I usually make mine.
Step one is the rice. If you haven’t made your rice in the oven before, welcome to a brave new world.
  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F
  2. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear
  3. Boil enough water for your rice (the usual ratio is 1 part rice, two parts water). If you’ve got chicken stock – substituting half or more of your water for that would be delicious.
  4. Add the rice to the boiling water, along with two peeled cloves of garlic, a glug of olive oil (or a couple pats of butter!) and a little bit of salt. Optional flavorful additions include a bay leaf, a slice of lemon, dried rosemary, etc. Feel it out, find what works for you.) Stir it around and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
  5. It’ll need fluffing when it’s done, but that’s a problem to worry about after we gets the beans done. 20 minutes is enough time to get that sorted.

Step two: beans. The protein. The star of the show.

  1. Before you do any of this, prep your beans. If they’re in a can, let ‘em simmer for a bit. If you’re starting from dry, make ‘em ready to be eaten.
  2. Cut your bacon up into little strips and add into a lightly oiled pot. The sort of pot you’d cook beans in, because that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Make sure your cooking surface is at a medium-high heat, because we’re gonna be browning that bacon.
  3. After the initial sizzle of fat hitting heat, let the bacon sit for a bit then add a splash of water. We’re looking for optimum fat-rendering here, because that’s where flavor lives.
  4. Once your bacon is suitably crisp, take it out of the pot and put it elsewhere, but leave the fat.
  5. Add chopped onion and pepper to the bacon fat. When the onion turns a little translucent and things are starting to smell great, let it sit a while longer until edges are looking caramelized and then dump in a minced clove of garlic. Or two, if you’re really into garlic. Turn the heat down to a medium.
  6. When that gets fragrant, it’s time to get some beans in there. Pour in beans with just a bit of the liquid they were in – that’s true whether you started from dry or if they came in a can. Just a bit of that bean juice. Toss the crispy bacon back in, too.
  7. Stir things around, keep it moving for a second, cook the beans to your preferred level of doneness/mush. It’s a lot like pasta – everybody’s got a preference. All you need now is some extra flavor. Salt, plenty of black pepper, cumin, rosemary – whatever you feel like, just play it light and taste as you go.
  8. Plate it up with that rice. I’d suggest going side-by-side

Jada Jarillo (Marketing and Operations Manager)

The Dish: “Beefy mac ‘n cheese”
  • One box Velveeta Mac n cheese
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tsp. Garlic salt
  • 1 tsp. Onion powder
  • Pepper
  • Optional: 1 tomato
Sauté the ground beef in a large skillet mixing in garlic salt, onion powder and fresh pepper to taste. (An alternative is to sauté diced onion with the beef.)
Once the beef is browned add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the Mac n cheese noodles. Cover and simmer on medium heat for 7-9 mins, stirring occasionally.
When noodles are done the water should be mostly absorbed.  Add the Velveeta cheese and more salt and pepper as needed to taste.

Optional: Serve with diced tomato on top for a delicious contrast.

Anna Griffin (Creative Account Coordinator)

The Dish: “Easy peanut butter cookies”
A close family friend of ours would make these whenever we were low on baking supplies.
  • 1 cup Peanut Butter
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • 1 Egg

Ball them up and flatten each one out with a criss-cross fork press on a baking sheet.

Try them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, but they can be a little finicky. Just keep a close eye on them and check regularly!

Ali Evans (Account Executive)

The Dish: “Throw-it-all-in ramen”
*serves two
  • any veggies you have in the fridge – carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, celery, jalepenos
  • two packets of ramen
  • two eggs
  • green onion
  • hot sauce (optional)
  1. Put veggies into a large pot with a dash of olive oil and your favorite seasons.
  2. Once they’re cooked, add water and bring to a boil.
  3. Add in 2 packets of ramen, including the flavor packets.
  4. Let it all boil until ramen is thoroughly cooked.
  5. Soft boil your eggs (6.5 minutes in boiling water) slice in half on top of your soup
  6. Top with green onions & hot sauce (if that is your jam)

Kenny

*Kenny has offered both a savory and sweet option for your taste buds.

The Dish: “Kenny’s Famous Cheese Toast”

Take a piece of bread, room temperature, chilled or frozen (doesn’t matter.) Add butter first and then cheese. Recommend cheddar, or if you want to be wild, add cheddar AND Monterey Jack. Sliced cheese is better than shredded, but shredded will work if you are in pinch. Put in an oven or toaster at 350 for 5-7 minutes (until cheese is melted and bread is toasted to your preferred color of brown.)  If you want to be like a millennial, add some fresh avocado after toasting. If you want be like an octogenarian, add a tomato slice after toasting, or if you want to be like me, simply cut it in half for less messy eating and enjoy!

The Dish: “Kenny’s Famous Sugar Toast”

Take a piece of bread, room temperature, chilled or frozen (doesn’t matter.) Add butter first, so the butter cooks into the bread. Put in an oven or toaster at 350 for 5-7 minutes (toasted to your preferred color of brown.)  In a separate cup or bowl, mix cinnamon and sugar. Doesn’t matter how much, just make sure you use a 25% cinnamon to 75% sugar ratio, shake up thoroughly. When toast is finished, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mix on it and place back in toaster for 30 seconds-to a minute. (Enough to warm the crystals but not long enough to melt or char them.) Cut in half and enjoy, you’ll think you are eating at a French patisserie.

Tracey Himmel (Account Executive)

The Dish: “Easy spinach quiche”

  • Frozen pie crust
  • 1/3 cup of spinach (I use frozen spinach – it needs to be thawed and squeezed of all the liquid)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/3 cup swiss cheese
  • 1/3 cup cheddar cheese
  • ½ cup whole milk ( but heavy cream, half and half, or 2% will also work)
  • Garlic and salt and pepper to taste

Bake pie shell for 8 minutes on 400, then remove and put the egg mixture into shell. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Enjoy!

Anaies Gibson (Administrative Assistant)

*Disclaimer from Anaies: “Oh this is my forte! Not.”
The Dish: “BBQ chicken”
  • 1.5 pounds of boneless chicken (Or however much chicken is needed to feed their household.)
  • 1 bottle of barbecue sauce
  • 1.5 cups of rice
  1.  Preheat oven to 400.
  2.  Place chicken in a baking dish and cover it in barbecue sauce, if extra barbecue sauce is need use 3/4 of the bottle first then add a bit of water into the bottle and shake it up. Place in oven for 25 minutes.
  3. Take chicken out of the oven and use two forks to shred it to desired bite size. Place back in oven at 375 for 50-65 minutes.
  4. Cook rice until fluffy. [One (1) cup raw rice yields 3 ½ cups cooked rice, or enough for 3 light eaters. To be sure you have enough rice, prepare 1 ½ cups raw rice for 3 or 4 people and 2 cups raw rice for 4 to 6 people.]
  5.  Take barbecue chicken out of the oven and enjoy on top of rice or on the side.
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