Water Chestnuts Are Gross.

Hot Pepper Jelly

2011-08-21T15:10:00.001-05:00

A little back story first:
I'm trying out some different recipes for Christmas gifts. I'm kind of shooting myself in the foot if I go into too much detail b/c i don't want everyone to know what they are getting from me for Christmas, so let's just say I'm seeing what's good and how much of the good stuff certain recipes make. Yes, I'm already thinking about Christmas presents, but when you don't plan on buying stuff for people and instead are making their presents, you kind of have to plan ahead.

So with that said, today I made Hot Pepper Jelly. What on earth do I do with Hot Pepper Jelly, you may ask yourself? Well personally I dump the jar onto a big ole' hunk of cream cheese and dig in with some crackers. It's an EXCELLENT appetizer and super easy to do...especially if someone else gives you the jelly. lol

The recipe I'm using comes from the St. Michael's and All Angels Cookbook. This was the parish I grew up in located just outside Stone Mountain Village and right down the street from my elementary school. The recipe comes from a lady named, Cynthia Sutton and while I don't know who she is, Mom said she had wonderful recipes and that she was sure this one was equally as good. If memory serves, she said something along the lines of "Ooh its a Cynthia Sutton recipe!" :)

Ok enough rambling, onto the good stuff.

First off: your canning jars. You will need 5 8oz. jars. Wash them and then put into a hot water bath. I usually fill the jars with some water so that they won't float.

Bring the water to a boil while making the actual jelly. They will be nice and hot by the time the jelly is ready to be put into them.

Take 1 large bell pepper (any color will do, but I used green b/c i'm poor and they are cheap.), cut the top off, remove the seeds and quarter. You want the actual quantity of bell pepper to equal 1 1/2 cups. Toss into the food processor or blender.

Next, take your jalapenos (fresh from my garden or your's or your grocery store), chop off the tops, slice in half length-wise, remove the seeds and measure out a 1/2 cup (add more or less for varying degrees of heat) and add to the bell pepper in the food processor.

Grind up the peppers until they look like this:

Transfer the pepper mixture (juices and all) into a large pot and then add 6 1/2 cups of sugar, a pinch of salt and 1 1/2 cups of white distilled vinegar.

Stir the mixture well, bring to a brisk boil and then boil for 3 minutes. DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE STOVE WHILE THIS IS GOING ON! I made the mistake of leaving to do a tiny bit of vacuuming, only to return to it boiling over and it smelling oddly-enough like burnt marshmallows. (Burnt sugar is burnt sugar, yes?) This is also why they are no pictures of the mixture boiling...priorities.

After the mixture boils for 3 minutes (hopefully, without incident...) Now this is where I got confused a little and I'm hoping it doesn't effect my end product. The recipe calls for "1 bottle of Certo", which I found when I Wally World, but it was SUPER pricey ($6.00+ for a 2 pack) compared to a big packet of instant fruit pectin (97 cents). So I read both packages and came to the conclusion that one bottle and one packet made the same amount of end product and I went with the packet. (I had a tiny bit leftover after filling the jars and I put it into a clean jar without a lid, just so I could taste it after it firmed up. It seems to firming just fine - so I'm guessing everything went correctly with the fruit pectin .)

***UPDATE***
Monday, Aug 22
I'm now under the impression that the one packet of fruit pectin wasn't enough. After sitting out for several hours to cool and firm, the jelly was still rather fluid, so i'm not going to cheap out next time, and i'll be buying the actual Certo. Oh well, live and learn right?!
**************

So add the bottle of Certo and continue to boil for one more minute.

Remove the pot from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Your jelly jars should be nice and hot now. Use tongs to remove one from the water and then use a baster or ladle to put the liquid jelly into the jar. Next screw on the lid and set aside. Continue this until all the jars are filled and lidded.

If you want the jelly to be more of that neon green color, I would add some green food coloring or food gel to the jelly after removing it from the heat, but i'm fine with the natural color.

The jelly is still cooling in its jars so I haven't tried it yet, which I guess isn't a very good thing to do. I probably should have waited to try it before I went and posted about it - but nothing ventured nothing gained. I have FAITH that it will be tasty and if it isn't... well I'll have some ideas that might make it that way.

Fingers Crossed!!

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Hot Pepper Jelly

by: Cynthia Sutton

yields: 5 8oz. jars.

5 8oz. Bell jars

1 1/2 cups bell pepper (any color)

1/2 cup of jalapenos (fresh)

6 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of white distilled vinegar

1 bottle of Certo or one packet of instant fruit pectin (should say on the package that it's good for 5 8oz. servings)

pinch of salt

Grind peppers in blender or food processor. Mix peppers, sugar, salt and vinegar into a large pot. Bring to a brisk boil. Boil for 3 minutes. Add Certo/Fruit Pectin and boil for an additional minute.

Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Pour into hot, sterilized jars and seal.

Peach Daiquiris

2011-07-11T10:57:00.003-05:00

On Independence Day, David and I took the kids up to Peach Park in Clanton, AL to get peaches, boiled peanuts, ice cream and to play around on the playground.

Last week, I finally got around to using those peaches to make some fabulous peach daiquiris. So here we go - a tasty summer treat that can be for the whole family, just make the ones for the kiddos virgins! But no kiddos were in site that evening therefore much rum was put into ours! :)

I enlisted David's help on the peeling of the peaches since my knife skills were terribly off that night. So peel the peaches . I KNEW that i had read something about it being easier if you dunked them in boiling water for a few seconds and if David had the internet or I had a smartphone, the peeling process wouldn't have taken so long or ended up in my hand being cut.... So dunk your peaches in boiling water for about 10 seconds and the skin should come right off.

While your food slave is peeling the peaches, go over to the blender and pour in half a big can of (or a whole small can) frozen limeade, as much or as little rum as you like...i like a lot and 2 tablespoons of sugar or whatever sweetener you prefer.

It should look a little something like this

when all is said and done.

Next, fill about half - two thirds with ice and then peaches (which have been peeled and quartered) and blend on "chop" until you get the consistency you desire.

I'm not a fan of chunks in my drinks so I blend them for about 30 seconds and they come out looking like this. Serve in a tall glass with a spring of mint, if available (all my herbs are at my house and I wasn't that night.) and ENJOY!!

Now sit back, watch "Gladiator" like we did (or not) and enjoy the peachy goodness of summer!

Grayson's Rainbow Cake

2011-06-10T14:50:00.008-05:00

It's been forever since I've posted, I know. I've been super swamped at work and finishing my friend, Lisa's new website, www.papergrace.com, was my top priority. But I did take photos while making a birthday cake for David's 5 year-old daughter, Grayson. Here's David with 2 (Eliana and Grayson) of his 3 youngin's this past saturday.

So May 15th was Grayson's birthday and I wanted to do something special for her.

I'd seen the "recipe" for a Rainbow Cake several different places on the interwebz and I thought I would try my hand at it. I say "recipe" because I used a box cake mix... I know I know...but considering how labor intensive the layers are, I wouldn't do it any other way. I did, however, make my own buttercream frosting, so that's at least something.

Onto the RAINBOW CAKE!

Go ahead and chuck everything the box says to into your mixer (stand-up or hand held) and just follow the directions. Easy Peasy. Literacy = Cooking Ability.

While you're out picking up your boxed cake mix, eggs, etc... make sure to grab the food coloring. I just went to Wal-Mart and bought some classic gel food coloring from the grocery section. They also sell them in neon colors, but I wanted a more "traditional" rainbow cake.

Divvy the batter into 4 bowls. 4 bowls for the 4 different color layers.

Now start adding the food coloring to the bowls. You can use as much or as little as you want. It just depends on how deep and vibrant you want the colors.

Let me preface the next comment by saying that I'm not much of a baker. That being said, I only have 2 - 9'' round cake pans, so I had to bake the layers in batches. If you have 4 cake pans, well bully for you and your baking time will be cut in half. :P So grease up dem pans good and bake according to the directions on the box.

Red and blue into the oven!

Yellow and green layers coming out of the oven!

The layers MAY brown a little bit on top, like below, but not to worry because you're going to be trimming that off anyway to level the cake.

After the layers come out of the oven, let them cool a little in the pans and then

G E N T L Y work them out. This is the most nerve-racking part of baking to me. One wrong move and BOOM! you're screwed. So take your time and be careful.

Put them bad boys onto a cooling rack and let cool thoroughly. Also I would lean back and enjoy your colorful handiwork at this point. It's so cool!

While the layers are cooling, go ahead and make the buttercream frosting. I'm not gonna post the recipe because there are a 1000 recipes and the one I just linked to is as good as any and the one I used.

And yes this frosting is ridiculously bad for you, but hell i f you can't eat a huge, bad-for-you, colorful birthday cake on your fifth birthday, when can you?!

So frosting time:

Cream the butter until smooth and then add the 100,000 lbs. of sifted powdered sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla and again beat until smooth. And yes a diabetic coma is a distinct possibility while making this frosting. Just think about carrots or wheat germ or something.

Now I chose to keep the frosting white b/c the cake layers are so colorful. Plus how boring does a plain, white cake look until you cut into it and HOLY SMOKES! It's like Timothy Leary died inside my cake! Truly epic as my gamer-side would say.

So frosting made, cake layers cool. Let's put this thing together!

STEP ONE: trim the layer tops as flat as you can without murdering the layer. It's not too hard, just take your time and a big, serrated knife is a big help. Save the scraps! We're gonna throw a little sumpin' sumpin' together with those in a minute.

STEP TWO: ice the top of your bottom layer with a reasonable amount of frosting. Stack the next layer on top and repeat until all the layers are assembled.

Use the majority of the leftover frosting for the outside of the cake. This shouldn't be a problem and you will probably ice the whole cake and have a fair amount of frosting leftover.

What to do with the leftover frosting and all those cake trimmings? Why not grab an iced tea glass, martini glass, etc... and make a little cake parfait? Don't worry about them being not the prettiest thing in town; they'll taste awesome and no one will care.

A few sprinkles and VOILA! scraps turned into dessert loveliness!

So what's that iced rainbow cake look like, you want to know? How about this?

The sprinkles. Oh the sprinkles. I'm still finding them a month later all over my kitchen... I recommend putting a dish towel under the whole mess and just go to town with them thar' sprinkles. Its a good way to take out some frustrations. But oh the sprinkles... I even found one on the floor in the backseat of my car today. That cake was NEVER IN MY CAR!

And here are the colorful wonderful insides!

So there you have it. A Rainbow Cake fit for anyone who doesn't want a boring cake. Here is Grayson blowing out her candles and then a few pics of the girls chowin' down!

Hope to post again soon! And for my friend Beth, I will be doing a post on searing soon! Probably some big, fat Yellowfin Tuna steaks with ginger, wasabi and soy sauce! YUM!! Oh I think i'll have that for dinner tonight. lol

Portobello Mushroom, Artichoke Hearts and Goat Cheese Pizza

2011-04-21T09:22:00.001-05:00

So I finally have my kitchen back! Last night I didn't have the bf and/or his kids to cook for, so I made something quick, delicious AND nutritious! I found the recipe on the Allrecipes.com last fall and I finally got around to making it.

I changed the recipe up a little bit since I don't like red and yellow peppers, but you can add them or anything else you think might be good for that matter. This is a GREAT versatile recipe for kids and adults. I added spicy Italian turkey sausage and pineapple b/c I had the pineapple already and I wanted some meaty goodness too.

The recipe calls for using the store-bought refrigerated pizza dough, but I remembered that the Publix bakery makes their own take-home pizza dough and so I figured that was a good compromise between homemade dough and canned dough. (I suck at making dough, plus this was supposed to be an easy meal.)

Okie dokie - Go ahead and preheat the oven to 350° and then roll out your pizza dough big enough to fit a large circular baking sheet.

And then drizzle the dough with olive oil and scatter two cloves of minced garlic on top of the that.

After taking care of the dough, I removed the turkey sausage from its casings and put it into a hot pan with a light coating of olive oil on medium-high heat. Brown the sausage and then drain on a big ole pile of paper towels. (I have a picture of this, but its kinda gross looking so I won't be posting it!)

Once the meat is drained and patted "dry" with the paper towels, we're ready to start loading up the crust with goodies! Slice portobello mushroom caps to a medium thickness and arrange on the pizza first. On top of that add marinated (and drained) artichoke hearts, pineapple chunks, and the turkey sausage. This is where you can shine as a cook! Add anything to the pizza that you think you or your family might like. You can use tofurkey crumbles instead of meat or actual tofu. Feel free to add things like broccoli, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, shrimp, etc... Next, I topped it off with 4 oz. of goat cheese, crushed red pepper and a good drizzle of balsamic vinegar. (The balsamic vinegar kind of caramelizes in the oven and ends up smelling and tasting like honey! It's awesome!)

Now stick that bad boy in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until the crust turns a lovely golden color.

Viola! Portobello, Artichoke, Pineapple, Sausage and Goat Cheese Pizza! I wish ya'll could have smelled the kitchen while it was baking because it was incredible!

I removed the pizza from baking sheet and onto a piece of parchment paper so I could easily cut it with my pizza wheel and not mess up my new pizza baking sheet. Just slice 'er up and serve! ENJOY!!

Portobello Mushroom, Artichoke Hearts and Goat Cheese Pizza

Ingredients:
1 - 10 oz. can refrigerated pizza crust dough (or homemade)
1 tablespoon olive oil 

2 cloves garlic, minced

 2 Portobello mushroom caps, medium-thin slices

 1 - 6.5 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained

1/2 lb. of spicy Italian turkey sausage

1 small can of pineapple chunks (or you can use the pineapple rings, if you like)

 4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled 

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a baking sheet, or round pizza pan.

Spread pizza dough out evenly on the prepared pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle the garlic over the crust. Arrange mushrooms and artichoke hearts then add any additional toppings, and crushed red pepper.

Finally dot with pieces of goat cheese and drizzle balsamic vinegar over the top.

Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

Kitchen Remodel

2011-03-16T12:24:00.002-05:00

So in August of 2010, I moved from Jasper to Montgomery, AL. I live in my great-grandmother's house and the last few years my grandmother lived in the house, it fell into a slight amount of disrepair. I had turned the dishwasher on to run overnight and when I came out into the kitchen the next morning, the kitchen had some serious flooding. The dishwasher was just dumping water onto the floor. Here begins my journey of having the kitchen and back porch remodeled.

Over the past few months, new appliances have been bought (some even installed), new granite countertops and a new kitchen sink were installed, and over the past 2 weeks the new slate floor and back splash were installed.

This week, they've started the prep work for painting (scraping and caulking) and next week, they will hopefully start painting.

Then all that's left is the install of the stainless steel back splash behind the stove, the re-installation of my range hood, new light fixture, and then finally the plumber comes to install my NEW dishwasher, which has been sitting in my dining room since probably November and I get my disposal hooked up again.

I'm hoping for it to be all done by the first week of April, but we'll just have to see how things go.

All of this is the reason I haven't cooked in FOREVER! My stove has been in the living room for 2 weeks and will probably be there another 2. I'm hating it! I may have to bust out the crock pot lasagna recipe I have.

Old Fridge

New Fridge

There was a small office created by this wall on the back porch that my grandfather used, but it was really too small to do anything productive in and since it's not attached at the ceiling, i thought demo'ing it would be pretty easy and would create a lot more natural light (There are two windows behind the wall). Mom agreed and since she owns the house that was kind of a big part. So down came the wall!

And it's now one of my favorite spaces in the house!

Cleared out all the office stuff and got my "new" washer and dryer!

...which, along with the stove, were residing in the living room.

The new slate floor being laid down. The white specks are the spacers

The back porch bathroom waiting for the new toilet to be installed.

Back porch slate, laid, grouted and sealed!

The back porch stairs that lead out to the breezeway and garage.

The wood facing has been painted to match the slate.

The kitchen after the install of the new stove, countertops and cracks in the plaster walls have been spackled.

The hole where my stove used to be. But you can see the new countertops and how jacked up the old floor was.

The new sink (a single bowl) and back splash.

Close up of the back splash

Before they could lay the slate on the kitchen floor, they had to put down a leveling agent.

Starting to grout the kitchen floor.

The finished floor.

Tybee enjoying the new floor!

More photos as the remodel progresses!

Pecan Sandies

2011-02-12T21:42:00.003-06:00

I know this is kind of a random thing for me to be doing this time of year. And granted, I originally made this recipe for the cookie exchange at work before Christmas...but when is there a BAD time for cookies?!

This recipe was in the December 2010 Southern Living, in the cookie exchange article they did. By the way, if you can get your hands on a copy of that issue, get it! There are so many great recipes in that issue.

Okie dokie, let me start by saying, this is a weird recipe and I always wonder if I'm doing it right. The "dough" comes out looking more like cornmeal and I add water, but we'll get to that part shortly.

You can either chop your own pecans or buy the ones already chopped up from the store. Either way, we are going to be toasting them in the oven. So go ahead and preheat your oven to 350ºF. Spread the chopped pecans out in a single layer on a baking sheet and pop that bad boy into the oven for about 7 minutes (you'll start to really notice the fragrance!).

While the pecans are toasting, I went ahead and started making the dough. Cream 2 sticks of softened butter with 1/2 cup of sugar at medium speed using an electric mixer.

I've done this using my hand mixer before, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use my NEW Kitchen Aid Stand-Up Mixer!! It's so cool!

Mix the butter and sugar together until fluffy and then gradually add the flour, mixing until just blended.

After all the flour has been incorporated, add the pecans and vanilla extract.

Now this is the point where I'm staring down into the mixing bowl, saying to myself "How is this dough? It's WAY too dry!" And this is also where I add approx. 3/4 cup of water. It makes the "dough" more dough-like and easier to roll into the logs from which you cut the cookies. It's probably cheating or something, but I don't care... it works!

Go ahead and preheat the oven again, but this time to only 325ºF. Ok, ss I was saying, next you will divide the dough in half, shaping each half into a log about 1 1/4 inches thick and about a foot long. Wrap the two logs in parchment and put into the fridge for about an hour.

After the logs of dough (that sounds really unappetizing! lol)...anyway, after you take them out of the fridge, slice them into 1/4 inch thick rounds and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Place them in the oven for 20-30 minutes. The original recipe calls for only baking them 18-20 minutes, but if you cut them a little thicker like I tend to, they will take longer to cook. Just keep an eye on them until they turn to a satisfactory golden.

If you don't feel like making the cookies now, the dough will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer! So there we go: quick and dirty pecan sandies! Enjoy!

**UPDATE: These cookies are WA-HEY! better the following day. Last night I ate a few that were still warm and I have to be honest, I thought they were kinda gross and became disappointed. But this morning while heating up my leftover spaghetti that I was having for brunch (hey, it isn't ALWAYS Commander's Palace over here, as much as I may make it look that way.) ...ok so while waiting on the microwave, I ate a couple this morning and was so very pleasantly surprised to find out that they were indeed...perfect! YAY ME! So go ahead and make this recipe until you can't stand the thought anymore because they are that awesome.**

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Southern Living's Pecan Sandies

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Parchment paper

INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350º. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 6-8 minutes. Stir halfway through.

Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add flour, beating just until blended. Stir in pecans and vanilla extract.

Divide dough in half, and shape each portion into 2 (1 1/4 inch thick) logs (about 12 inches long). Wrap in parchment, cover and chill for 1 hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 325º. Cut logs into 1/4 inch thick rounds and place 1/2 an inch a part on a a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake at 325º for 20-30 minutes (depending on thickness) or until light golden in color. Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then move to wire cooling racks and let cookies completely cool.

Chinese Pineapple Chicken

2011-01-15T23:18:00.002-06:00

Well, first things first, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I hope ya'll had a good time and made sure to eat your collard greens, black eyed peas and cornbread. I made, probably the best batch of my collard green soup ever, while visiting my friend, Greg, in North Carolina, where they still have Harris Teeter or as my grandmother used to call it "Teeters".

Meanwhile back at home, I've not been to the grocery store since before Christmas and I wanted to cook tonight, so I rummaged thru my recipes and pantry and came up with Chinese Pineapple Chicken. I've been wanting to make this for awhile because I love Chinese food, but the only Chinese restaurant I'll eat at here in Montgomery is Ming's Garden, but they don't deliver and it's kinda far away. So if I could make some good-ass Chinese food at home - all problems solved. Plus I know exactly what goes into it!

Let's get started, shall we? Ok, so I was kind of a nerd and prepped all my ingredients this time using the new prep cups my aunt gave me for Christmas. I was waiting on the brown rice to cook, so I figured why not? No one in their right mind would normally do this.

First, cut four chicken breasts into medium-sized chunks/

[ASIDE: Now this is where I would like to say, thoroughly read your recipe when you decide to make it because I didn't read it this morning and was quite surprised to find out it required 2 hours of marinating. To the average person, this would pose a problem, but to those of us lucky enough to have a FoodSaver® we don't need no stinkin' 2 hours.]

Anyway, the point is: Mix your soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and eggs together, pour into a large bowl and add your chicken chunks . Cover and let marinate in fridge for 2 hours or an hour if you've got the marinating container for your FoodSaver®.

After the chicken's marinated, add flour and cornstarch to the chicken to create a thick batter.

[NOTE: If you've got a container with a lid, I would transfer the chicken and marinade into that before adding the flour and cornstarch since shaking the mixture is a great way to evenly distribute the batter over the chicken.]

See?

Next, heat oil in large frying pan or wok on medium high heat. Add chicken and fry until browned, turning when necessary. Be patient frying the chicken chunks, frying them too quickly will make them ugly and have dark brown burned spots on them.

Also, monitor your oil temperature, adding oil if necessary and adjusting the heat if the chicken seems to be cooking too fast or slow. Frying can be tricky, so take your time.

I did my frying in 6 small batches since I didn't have enough oil to use my huge Calphalon pan. [Remember the whole "haven't been to the grocery store in a month" thing.] Once each batch is done, transfer it to either a paper towel-lined cookie sheet or a cooling rack on top of a paper towel-lined cookie sheet. A slotted metal spoon or tongs are perfect for removing the chicken from the oil.

While your chicken is cooking, move onto the yummy pineapple sauce.

In a medium saucepan, combine pineapple chunks and pineapple juice. Bring to a boil then add your brown sugar and soy sauce, and let simmer for 7 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water into a paste.

Stir the paste into the boiling sauce, turn heat to low and let simmer, stirring occasionally until thick enough to coat a spoon.

Finally, pour chicken pieces and sauce into a large bowl and mix until thoroughly coated.

I chose to serve mine over a bed of brown rice because it's yummy and good for me! Now, unfortunately, I am kind of congested today and haven't really tasted anything all day, BUT what I could taste was awesome! And I'm totally eating leftovers all week long! :)

Enjoy!!

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Chinese Pineapple Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken and Marinade:

4 chicken breasts

4 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. sesame oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp pepper

6 Tbsp flour

6 Tbsp cornstarch

corn or canola oil for frying

Sauce:

2 cups pineapple chunks

2 cups pineapple juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp soy sauce

Instructions:

Cut four chicken breasts into medium-sized chunks.

Mix your soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and eggs together, pour into a large bowl and add your chicken chunks . Cover and let marinate in fridge for 2 hours or an hour if you've got the marinating container for your FoodSaver®.

Add flour and cornstarch to chicken to create a thick batter.

Heat oil in large frying pan on medium high heat.

Add chicken in small batches and fry until it is browned, turning when necessary.

Once each batch is done, transfer it to either straight onto a paper towel-lined cookie sheet or a cooling rack on top of a paper towel-lined cookie sheet. *TIP: A slotted metal spoon or tongs are perfect for removing the chicken from the oil.

In a medium saucepan, combine the pineapple and pineapple juice. Bring to a boil, add brown sugar and soy sauce, and simmer for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water into a paste.

Stir the paste into the boiling sauce, turn heat to low and let simmer, stirring occasionally until thick enough to coat a spoon.

Pour chicken pieces and sauce into a large bowl and mix until thoroughly coated.

Serve on a bed of white or brown rice.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

2010-12-10T21:20:00.003-06:00

I'm doing this post as a courtesy to my friend, Mary. By the way, Mary - the recipe was a "note" on facebook and not a blog post, which is why you didn't find it on here. Also so for the lack of pictures, these were apparently all I posted on facebook.

So now I'll just repost here what I posted on facebook back on Nov. 04:

I was hunting the interwebz for recipes yesterday and trying to decide what to fix for dinner. It was cold and rainy and damn it, i wanted soup! Lo and behold, the Lord blessed me with this SUPER EASY recipe for Broccoli Cheddar Soup.

BROCCOLI CHEDDAR SOUP

INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup butter
1 onion, diced medium
3 cloves of fresh garlic, chopped
½ tsp fresh ground pepper
1 lb fresh broccoli florets
4 cups chicken bouillon
*12 oz. can of chicken broth*
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups half & half
8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar

INSTRUCTIONS:
Melt the butter over medium heat.

Add onion; cook until softened.

Add garlic and pepper; cook 1 minute.

Stir in broccoli and chicken bouillon, bring to a boil, and then simmer 15 minutes until broccoli is tender.

Whisk flour into half &half in a separate bowl until dissolved (i first whisk all the flour into 1/2 cup half and half until a paste is formed, then add the rest of the half & half).

Add to soup, stirring until thickened.

*NOTE: Up until this point, I followed the recipe to the letter, but the soup thicken VERY quickly and soon became the consistency of porridge. So being the smart, crafty girl that I am, I added a can of chicken broth...slowly. I added about 1/3 of the can, stirred it very well and then added another third, stirred and so on.

Reduce heat to low, stir in cheese until melted.

Adjust seasonings as needed and serve with crusty french bread.

Enjoy!

Spicy Chipotle Meatballs

2010-11-21T14:24:00.010-06:00

I made these meatballs a couple of weeks ago and just now got to posting about them. Trust me, these suckers are definitely SPICY! But so good!

These meatballs are a slight adaptation of the recipe on Simply Recipes.com.

First, preheat the oven to 450º.

I chopped the uncooked bacon and 1 garlic clove and then combined them in a large bowl.

Using my small chopper, I combined the eggs*, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add this to the bacon and garlic.

*side note about my eggs this recipe. My friend and co-worker, Summer has 3 chickens in her back yard and she brought me 6 of their eggs! I used three of them because they are kind of small. If you're using XL eggs from the store, just use two. It's the first time I've ever cooked with "farm-fresh" eggs before! So cool!!

Finally, add the meat and using your hands, mix all the ingredients well.

Now, with wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.

When meatballs are done baking, drain the fat from baking dish.

Now, combine the tomato mixture with your favorite tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). And pour the sauce on top, covering the meatballs evenly.

Bake until sauce has thickened, about 15 or 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking a second time, go ahead and start your pasta, whatever kind you like. I used no-yolk whole wheat eggs noodles, which are always awesome. Just follow the directions on the package.

Spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and enjoy!

Feel free to garnish with freshly-grated Parmesan!

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Spicy Chipotle Meatballs
makes approximately 15 meatballs

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon chopped into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 large eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt
1 ¼ pounds ground meat (feel free to use beef, pork, veal, any combination of those three, or even turkey)
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 or 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, stemmed, seeded and sauce reserved
1 teaspoon dried oregano
24 oz. of your favorite tomato sauce
1 lb. pasta (whatever kind you desire)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450º.

Chop bacon and 1 garlic clove, combine in a large bowl.

Combine eggs, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add to bacon and garlic. Add meat.

Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together well.

With wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.

When meatballs are ready and drain the fat from baking dish.

Incorporate the tomato mixture with tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). Pour the sauce on top, covering meatballs evenly.

Bake until sauce has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking again, start water boiling for your pasta and follow directions on package.

Once the meatballs and sauce are finished baking, spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and ENJOY!

Chicken Mushroom (and Spinach) Lasagna

2010-11-15T10:15:00.012-06:00

I've been meaning to make this for awhile and I finally got around to it this weekend.

The recipe doesn't call for spinach, but I had some left over from a previous recipe and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I snapped the little stems off and added it to the mushrooms.

This recipe is one of the best things I've cooked in awhile, by FAR! I HIGHLY recommend this one!

INGREDIENTS:
1 10 oz. package of baby 'bellos or white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 a bag of baby spinach (pinch off the stems)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 1/4 cups of roasted chicken*
2 1/2 cups of skim milk**
1 cup of half & half
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
9 no-boil egg lasagna noodles***
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyère

*Regarding the roasted chicken, you could easily pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and use that - or you can do what I did and make your own 'quick' roasted chicken at home. (see recipe below)

**The original recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of whole milk. I don't drink whole milk and so all I had was skim milk and some left over half & half for another precious recipe. So I split it up. Just use whatever milk you happen to have on hand. Yes, it may effect the richness of your sauce, but that really isn't a huge problem with this recipe. (The wine gives it such a good kick that you won't notice.)

***I didn't use the "no-boil" noodles because I already had a new package of whole wheat lasagna noodles. Also I recently bought a Pasta Boat and it makes cooking pasta SO easy. And I cooked the noodles slightly less than al dente, since they're going in the oven anyway.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Roasted Chicken Breasts

Preheat oven to 400° with rack in middle.
Brush the chicken with EVOO on both sides Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Chicken Mushroom (and Spinach) Lasagna

Preheat oven to 425° with rack in middle.

Cook mushrooms, spinach, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in olive oil and add 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes.

Add wine and simmer briskly 2 minutes.

Transfer mushroom mixture to a large bowl and stir in chicken.

Bring milk to barely a simmer in a medium saucepan.

In a different pan, Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter medium-low heat. Add flour and cook roux, whisking constantly, 3 minutes.

Add hot milk in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Add thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve 1 cup sauce. Stir Parmesan into sauce remaining in pan, then stir into mushroom filling.

Pour half of reserved plain sauce into baking pan, spreading evenly to coat bottom.

Add 3 lasagna noodles, overlapping slightly, and one third of mushroom filling, spreading evenly, then sprinkle one fourth of Gruyère over top. Repeat 2 times.

Top with remaining 3 lasagna noodles and remaining plain sauce, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with remaining Gruyère.

Cover with foil, tenting slightly to prevent foil from touching top of lasagna but sealing all around edge, and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until cheese is golden, about 15 minutes more.

Fresh out of the oven!

Let lasagna stand at least 10 minutes before serving.

Again, I can't stress just HOW good this non-traditional lasagna is! Don't be put off by the roux - it only takes a few minutes.

Enjoy!

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Chicken Mushroom (and Spinach) Lasagna

INGREDIENTS:
1 10 oz. package of baby 'bellos or white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 a bag of baby spinach (pinch off the stems) *optional
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 1/4 cups of roasted chicken
2 1/2 cups of skim milk
1 cup of half & half
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
9 no-boil egg lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyère

Preheat oven to 425° with rack in middle.

Cook mushrooms, spinach, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in olive oil and add 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes.

Add wine and simmer briskly 2 minutes.

Transfer mushroom mixture to a large bowl and stir in chicken.

Bring milk to barely a simmer in a medium saucepan.

In a different pan, Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter medium-low heat. Add flour and cook roux, whisking constantly, 3 minutes.

Add hot milk in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Add thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve 1 cup sauce. Stir Parmesan into sauce remaining in pan, then stir into mushroom filling.

Pour half of reserved plain sauce into baking pan, spreading evenly to coat bottom.

Add 3 lasagna noodles, overlapping slightly, and one third of mushroom filling, spreading evenly, then sprinkle one fourth of Gruyère over top. Repeat 2 times.

Top with remaining 3 lasagna noodles and remaining plain sauce, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with remaining Gruyère.

Cover with foil, tenting slightly to prevent foil from touching top of lasagna but sealing all around edge, and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until cheese is golden, about 15 minutes more.

Let lasagna stand at least 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken and Dressing

2010-05-31T11:49:00.018-05:00

Yeah yeah yeah - I know I'm not exactly on-the-ball with the whole posting thing, but shush because here comes a good'un!

There's a country cookin' restaurant here in town and every once in awhile they have chicken and dressing. I attempted to make it once using my homemade dressing recipe and while it came out very tasty, it wasn't what I was looking for. So i scoured the internet for a few suggestions and Viola! Sarah's Chicken and Dressing was born.

I wasn't under the impression that this was a "southern thing", but apparently it is. I don't care if your southern or not - try this any time of the year because it is yummers!

First things first - we need a whole cooked chicken. Now, feel free to use a rotisserie chicken for this, but the ones at my local store are greasy and yucky, so i opted to boil a whole fryer. I believe it was approx. 4 lbs. Plus this way, I get to use my grandmother's cast iron pot! (If you decide to use a rotisserie chicken, you'll need to pick up a couple cans of chicken broth.)

Place the chicken into the pot along with a coarsely chopped onion, 3 celery stalks and some carrots. You can use 2 or 3 regular-sized carrots instead, but I had the baby carrots on hand. (The chicken ought to come with a bag of goodies including the neck, liver, etc... I placed them around the chicken with the vegetables so they'll add to the flavor.) Also add a tablespoon of white pepper.

Now cover the whole thing with water, cover your pot and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn the heat down to a gentle boil and cook for 90 minutes. If it starts to boil over or isn't boiling enough, make sure to adjust the heat accordingly.

Once the chicken is done, it should look a little something like this:

Use a baster to remove 4 cups of the broth because we will be using it for the dressing. As for the veggies and chicken parts, do with them as you please. Personally, I gave the cats some of the liver and stuff and the rest went into the garbage (I hate cooked carrots!).

While the chicken is cooking, use this time to make your cornbread. I picked up 2 packages of Martha White Buttermilk Cornbread Mix. Its easy and good, but if you prefer to make your cornbread from scratch - knock yourself out! Follow the directions on the package of cornbread and then add chopped onion and celery.

Mix all this up good and then transfer to a pan. I'm using my great- grandmother's cast iron pan, but if you don't have any cast iron, a normal pan will do fine. (PS: if you are in the market for cast iron, I wouldn't buy it new. Try and find pieces at a flea market or thrift shop. The older, the better because it's seasoned and worn in.)

Bake the cornbread according to the directions on the package and then let cool briefly. Once the cornbread is done, remove it from the pan and put into a large bowl. Don't worry if it breaks and crumbles or whatever because we're going to be smushing it all up in a second anyway.

After putting the cornbread into the bowl, add 3 slices of torn-up white bread and the 4 cups of chicken broth from the chicken. Mush the whole mixture up with a fork or potato masher.

To this mixture, you'll add the chicken, which I've already deboned and pulled apart by hand.

Now mix in 3 eggs, sage, poultry seasoning and salt & pepper, ending up with this lovely concoction:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray. Transfer the dressing and chicken into the dish and pop that bad boy into the oven for 50 minutes.

The finished product will look pretty much exactly like this when you remove it from the oven. The top doesn't really brown so much as "harden" to more of a light crust. It gives a little resistance when biting into it and its lovely!

Serve with cranberry sauce and you're good to go! Enjoy!

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Chicken and Dressing

1 boiled chicken (save the broth)
1 tbsp white pepper (for the chicken)
2 packages of cornbread mix
5 eggs (2 for cornbread and 3 for dressing)
3 slices of white bread
3 unpeeled carrots (for the chicken)
2 onions (1 whole and 1 chopped)
6 stalks of celery (2 whole and 4 chopped)
3 tbsp sage
2 tbsp Poultry seasoning*
Salt and pepper to taste

*before BUYING poultry seasoning, check to see if you have all the makings for it instead and
make your own by combining equal amounts of the following dried herbs: rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme.

Boiled chicken:
Place chicken in a large pot with onion, carrots, celery and white pepper; add water to cover.

Cover pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a gentle boil and cook for about 90 minutes, or until chicken meat is falling off of the bone.

Remove chicken, let cool and shred or chop the meat.

Dressing:
Prepare cornbread according to package instructions.

To uncooked cornbread, add chopped onion and chopped celery.

Cook according to cornbread mix instructions.

In large mixing bowl, add cornbread, white bread, and 4 cups of chicken broth. Mix with a potato masher.

Add deboned chicken to the mixture and stir.

Add 3 eggs, sage, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper.

Pour mixture in a large casserole dish sprayed with non-stick spray.

Cook at 350ºF for approximately 50 minutes.

Sangria compliments of The Columbia Restaurant

2010-04-21T16:18:00.008-05:00

Last week, I went back to my hometown of Lakeland, Florida with my family for Sun N' Fun. Previous to going to the fly-in, we stayed in Tampa and went out to Clearwater Beach to have dinner at The Columbia Restaurant. Not only do they have super-awesome food, they have a super-awesome gift shop, where I bought a copy of their cookbook.

Last night, I made a pitcher of Sangria, black bean dip and their 1905 Salad. Prepare to be a little bummed out at me though because I only took pics of the Sangria. Trust me, you really wouldn't want to see what pureed black beans look like and I was just too lazy to take pics of the salad. BUT don't worry - I'll most definitely be making the salad again soon! It's a great light salad and easy to make!

Onto the Sangria! And believe me, this recipe is so easy, you'll make it once and never need to look at the recipe again.

Pour a bottle of red wine into your pitcher. (I used a Woodbridge Cabernet).

Next, add 1/4 cup of brandy. I'm not a brandy drinker except for cherry brandy in a Singapore Sling (my favorite!) so I just bought a run-of-the-mill brandy.

To this add, two tablespoons of lemon juice and orange juice.

Now add, a cup of club soda and a tablespoon of sugar.

Stir the whole mixture with a wooden spoon until well mixed. I then stuck the pitcher into the fridge to let it chill for awhile. Its so much more refreshing and summery if its chilled, in my opinion.

Once chilled, pour into large wine glasses. Garnish with an orange slice and maraschino cherry and ENJOY!!

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Sangria (serves approx. 4)

Ingredients:
1 bottle of red wine, preferably Spanish
1/4 cup of brandy
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 cup of club soda

orange slices
maraschino cherries

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together in a large pitcher except for the orange slices and cherries. Stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Chill for 30+ minutes. After chilled, serve in large wine glasses garnished with an orange slice and maraschino cherry.

Blog Downtime

2010-03-14T16:49:00.005-05:00

I must apologize for my lack of posts as of late, but my grandmother passed away Monday, March 15. Since I live in her house, I played host to my uncle all week, did "family" business and had more people in this house than I've ever seen in my 31 years.

In honor of Grannie Jean, I will be cooking her Easy Chicken Pie later this week or possibly this coming weekend.

Here are a few pictures of Grannie Jean with all of us.

Atlanta College of Art Graduation Lunch May 2005

Papa, Grannie Jean and Myself circa 1982

I would cook this week, but I'm heading to Atlanta for a few days. With Wednesday being St. Patrick's Day , I'll be spending the day at Limerick Junction in the VA-Highlands area of Atlanta. Why? Well for several reasons...A: it's where my drinking club meets on Wednesday nights anyway, and B: it's the oldest Irish pub in Atlanta. Doors open at 11:30am, kiddos!

Everyone have a great week and I'll be back soon!!

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

2010-02-24T13:49:00.010-06:00

So I'm trying to be more healthy these days by eating more veggies and cooking healthier stuff and ya'll are just going to have to learn to live with it. :)

I was standing in the checkout line of my Wal-Mart (HEY! I live in a small town; it's pretty much all I've got.) when I picked up a Cooking Light Magazine and started flipping through it. I ended up buying it because they had some good lookin' recipes in there. And this week's post is one of those good-lookin' recipes.

I try not to cook stuff with pasta too often because of the carbs, but whatever...this looked good, damnit!

As previously stated, I live in a small town, BUT we still have a fresh seafood place! So I went down there and picked up a pound of fresh, raw shrimp. Now I've been to some pretty good seafood markets and see people buy shrimp with the heads on...um yeah no. I will peel and devein shrimp all day long (and sometimes i feel like i have) but I will NOT remove heads. EW! GROSS! So get fresh HEADS-OFF shrimp unless you're weird and want to cut their little heads off.

Peeling the shrimp is the easy part, Deveining them can be kind of gross, but remember that little line of brown you're cutting out isn't really poop - its more like sand and dirt, but sometimes you run into some other nasty stuff. Just buck up! Be an adult and get over it. That's why the good Lord made soap and short term memories.

If you don't know HOW to peel and devein shrimp, here's a handy little video from epicurious.

When finished, they should look like this:

It's a good time to put on your pot of water to boil for the pasta because by the time its boiling, you'll be ready to cook the pasta.

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is heated up, roll it around the pan, covering the entire bottom.

Put the shrimp and 1 1/2 tsps of garlic in the pan and saute until the shrimp are done. They will start to curl up and will be the traditional "shrimpy" pink when they are done.

Now, remove them from the pan and place in a container to keep them warm until the sauce is done. I put them in the plastic dish with a lid and wrapped it in a towel.

Keep your pan hot while setting the shrimp aside because you're going to be adding another tbsp of olive oil and 3/4 of a cup of onions. (I recommend having the onions diced and measured out before starting the actual cooking process. There's no real "down" time in the recipe.) Saute the onions until they become soft and almost translucent.

Add to the pan, the last tbsp of garlic, the crushed red pepper, basil and oregano and STIR CONSTANTLY. It will burn quickly, if you don't. Cook for about a minute.

Next, add tomato paste and lemon juice, cooking for an additional minute or so. The whole mixture will start to brown a bit. (Feel free to add an extra tbsp of oil here, if you need to. I did. It seemed too "dry".)

Finally, add in crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and salt. Cook the whole sauce down until it starts to thicken, stirring frequently. This took about 5 -7 minutes and is a GREAT time to go ahead and put the linguine in the water that should be boiling by now.

The sauce should be the consistency of a thin paste, now. So go ahead and put the shrimp back in the pan.

Give the whole thing several good stirs to mix it all up and continue to cook it for about another 2 or 3 minutes. Just long enough to bring everything to the same temperature and mix the flavors well.

By now the pasta should be done, so drain it and put some on a plate or in a bowl because it's time to add the sauce and shrimp!!

VIOLA!

The only change or footnote I would add to this recipe the next time around is adding more shrimp. I love shrimp and I think it could have used a 1/2 pound+ more. I guess it depends on what size shrimp you're using though.

Anyhoo! Here are the nutritional facts on this little guy. As to what they consider a "serving size" I haven't a clue. ENJOY!!

Calories: 477
Fat: 10.7g (sat 1.4g,mono 5.3g,poly 1.7g)
Protein: 33g
Carbohydrate: 59.4g
Fiber: 5.4g
Cholesterol: 172mg
Iron: 5.4mg
Sodium: 552mg
Calcium: 121mg

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Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Ingredients:
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 oz. uncooked linguine
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 ½ tbsp minced garlic, divided
¾ cup diced onion
1 tsp crushed red pepper
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh, lemon juice
1 ¾ cup canned, crushed tomatoes
¼ tsp salt
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained

Instructions:
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add 1 ½ teaspoons of garlic and the shrimp; sauté for 3 minutes or until shrimp are done.

Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add remaining 1 tbsp oil and onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until softened.

Stir in remaining 1 tbsp garlic, pepper, basil, and oregano; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Stir in tomato paste and lemon juice; cook 1 minute or until slightly darkened.

Stir in crushed tomatoes, salt, and diced tomatoes; cook 5 minutes or until thickened.

While the sauce cooks down, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; keep warm.

Return shrimp to pan; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Serve over pasta.

Oven-Fried Chimichangas

2010-02-20T12:31:00.009-06:00

Today's recipe is a tried and true favorite of mine. It's so simple and versatile that a lot of times I don't even have to go to the store for anything.

I found this recipe on fromthegalley.blogspot.com awhile ago and I've made several changes, but that's the great thing about the recipe. It allows for creativity. :)

First things first: cook the chicken. Now you can cook the chicken breasts any way you see fit, but I thawed them in the microwave and cooked them in a pan with some fajita seasoning to make them more "mexican". If you want to just continue cooking them in the microwave, go right ahead or boil it. Just cook it somehow! lol

It should look something along the lines of this, when its done:

After the chicken is done, set it aside to cool long enough to be able to handle. To shred the chicken, I'll put one breast at a time in a medium sized bowl and pull it apart with two forks. Again, this is a thankless process but looks SO much better than chopped chicken.

Go ahead and preheat the oven to 400°F.

In a large bowl, mix together 1/2 of the salsa, cumin, oregano, chicken, green chilies, and 1 cup of the cheese. (This is when you can add ANYTHING you like to the mix. I've used black beans before, onions, roasted red peppers, etc...)

I ended up making 5 chimichangas out of this batch, but it depends on how much filling you put in each one. Just use your judgment on filling the tortillas.

This next part can be a little tricky/frustrating, but just do the best you can when folding them up. I fold the ends in first and then roll them up.

They should look something like this:

Go ahead and dump the rest of the salsa all over the chimichangas and top off with the rest of the cheese.

Pop the little dudes into the oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

.....DING!

YAY! They're done!! :) Yummers!

I normally serve them with reduced-fat sour cream because I love sour cream!

Well, that's about it. I told you this recipe was super easy! Enjoy!!

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Oven Fried Chimichangas

Ingredients:
1 24oz. jar of salsa, divided
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried crushed oregano
1 small can of diced green chilies
2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
2 cups shredded cheese
5 burrito size tortillas

Condiments of choice (sour cream, extra salsa, green onions, red peppers)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400°

Mix together 1/2 of the salsa, cumin, oregano, chicken, diced green chilies and 1 cup of the cheese.

Place a medium amount of the mixture in the center of each tortilla.

Fold opposite sides of the tortilla over filling and then roll from the bottom up and place seam-side down on a lightly greased baking dish.

Pour the remaining salsa over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cup of cheese.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes (cheese should be melted).

Serve with condiments of your choice.

Pineapple Cheese Casserole

2010-02-13T16:09:00.006-06:00

I know what you're thinking..."Pineapple Cheese Casserole? Ew." Well, stop that right now because once you've tasted it, you'll never question me again! NEVER! :)

The first time I ever had this dish was when I was in Montgomery, AL with my mom. We were cleaning out my grandmother's house and decided to order dinner from Martin's Restaurant. That place has THE best fried chicken among other things. Anyway, so at Mom's suggestion, I tried their pineapple cheese casserole and well... obviously I liked it seeing as I'm making it here. :)

Now this isn't their recipe, per se...but they are all pretty much the same. So onto the food!

This is a super simple recipe and it takes no time at all. So this would be great for a week night dish and if your picky eaters like cheese and pineapple - you've got a crowd pleaser on your hands!

Preheat the oven to 350° F and spray a medium-size casserole dish with cooking spray. Now I veered off the recipe here - actually, I just didn't read it very well and used a 9x12 dish. If this is what you end up using, be aware that you will have to make 1 1/2 times the topping recipe.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and flour.

Next stir in 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Add the drained pineapple chunks. Make sure to get your spoon up under the pineapple chunks after adding to the dry ingredients, the flour and such likes to hide underneath. Mix until well combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. *Remember - I would recommend using a smaller dish than this 9x12 one.

In another bowl, combine one sleeve of Ritz™ crackers* (smashed into crumbs), melted butter, and reserved pineapple juice. Mix until well combined!

*While at the grocery store, buying some things I needed for the recipe, I noticed that Ritz™ now makes whole wheat crackers. I figured why not try to make this a LITTLE bit better for me or at least have more nutritionally-redeeming qualities so that's what I used. And by the way, they are good!

Go ahead and spread the crumb mixture on top of pineapple mixture.

Now, pop it in the oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. (There will not be much difference in color between the casserole before you put it in the oven and when you take it out.)

This makes a good side dish, but I also eat it by itself as a snack or even dessert.

Enjoy! Next post: I'm thinking about Chipotle Bean Burritos.

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Pineapple Cheese Casserole

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups grated sharp cheddar
2 20 oz. cans pineapple chunks, drained, and 6 tablespoons pineapple juice reserved
1 cup cracker crumbs (recommended: Ritz™ Whole Wheat Crackers)
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Prep a medium-size casserole dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and flour. Next, stir in the cheese.

Add the drained pineapple chunks, and stir until ingredients are well combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish.

In another bowl, combine cracker crumbs, melted butter, and reserved pineapple juice, mix until evenly blended.

Spread crumb mixture on top of pineapple mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Motherlode Cookie Bars

2010-02-08T13:43:00.014-06:00

Yesterday, I was totally in the mood for something sweet and since I haven't made a dessert lately....I whipped out the dessert section of my cookbooks. I found this recipe on Picky-Palate.com and I never thought I would actually make them because of how decadent they looked, but guess what? I done made 'em.

These are the ultimate in cookie bars with 4 layers of cookie, each one different and wonderful. The layers are sugar cookie, double chocolate chip, peanut butter and regular chocolate chip and then it's topped off with a drizzle of semisweet chocolate!! (I apologize in advance for the pictures. For some reason, I was having focus issues! :P)

The first layer is the easiest since you use Pillsbury™ Sugar Cookie dough in a tube. So, take the sugar cookie dough out of the fridge for about 5 minutes before you start to layer it in the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking pan (line with foil and spray with cooking spray) in order for it to warm up a bit. Heat is actually going to be a KEY ingredient in this whole layering process. Several times I thought "There's no way this will cover the whole pan!" and then I started using my whole palm to squish out the dough and not just my fingertips. If you let the heat from your hand warm up the dough, it will move much easier.

The sugar cookie layer is the easy part because of the pre-made dough we used. Now preheat the oven to 350°F.

The next layer is DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP*!

With stand-up or hand mixer, cream together the butter (softened!) and white & brown sugars until light and fluffy. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until well combined.

In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Slowly add to wet ingredients (after adding the wet ingredients, I found it was almost impossible to incorporate everything with the spatula. I recommend puttin' your hands in there and working it all together) then stir in chips. It should look a little something like this:

*both the recipe for the double chocolate chip dough and the chocolate chip dough make about 1/3 more than will be needed. So either change the recipe accordingly (there are too many fractions involved for me) or you can bake the extra as regular cookies.

Layer the dough over sugar cookie layer, pressing gently. The white stuff on the chocolate layer is flour. The dough kept sticking to my hands and putting some flour on them helped tremendously.

Onto the PEANUT BUTTER LAYER!

This layer isn't so much a layer of "cookie" as it is well.... peanut butter, sugar and an egg.

So mix all of it together and it should be the consistency of a thick paste. Spread that on top of the double chocolate layer. This will end up being a very thin layer.

Last but not least is the top layer of CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE*!

Basically we do the same thing we did with the double chocolate layer but don't add the cocoa powder.

So, cream the butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl; mix to combine. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips.

Spread out the majority of the cookie dough out on top of the peanut butter layer. This layer doesn't need to be flattened out. You want it to have peaks, etc..

Put the whole thing into the oven for about 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. This will take a while to bake because of all those crazy layers!

Once the bars are done cooking, let them cool in the pan more or less completely. You should then be able to remove the whole thing from the pan by lifting the foil out, like this:

Cut it up into however many bars you'd like. They can be pretty thick so smaller would probably be best. The edges are not flat and are much crispier than those in the middle, so you might consider "trimming" the edges off, but personally, it doesn't bother me.

You can now melt down the last 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (and a little milk) and drizzle it over the bars. But this is TOTALLY up to you!!

Enjoy!!

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The Motherlode Cookie Bars
Preheat to 350°F.

Layer 1: Sugar Cookie
1 Roll of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough

Press sugar cookie dough into bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish that’s been lined foil and sprayed with cooking spray.

Layer 2: Double Chocolate Chip Cookie*
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ¾ cups flour
1 ¼ cups Hershey’s™ Chocolate Cocoa Powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Using a stand-up or hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until well combined.

In a bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to wet ingredients then stir in chips. Layer over sugar cookie layer, pressing gently.

Layer 3: Peanut Butter Cookie
1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg

Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined. Press over chocolate cookie dough.

Layer 4: Chocolate Chip Cookie*
2 sticks softened butter
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 bag chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well mixed. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl; mix to combine. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips. Spoon dough evenly over peanut butter cookie dough but don’t press, just leave uneven.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until center of dough is cooked mostly through. Edges will be brown.

Let cookies cool completely. Lift out of pan with edges of foil.

Drizzle top with 1/2 Cup melted chocolate chips if desired.

*The recipe below makes 1/3 more then what you’ll need for the bars, use extra for cookies

New ketchup packets? hmmm...

2010-02-04T20:13:00.002-06:00

I found this story on msnbc.com a minute ago and thought I would pass it along!

After 40 years, Heinz revamps ketchup packets

PORTLAND, Ore. - For decades there was only one way to use the humble ketchup packet, and it was messy. Now, thanks to a redesign by Heinz, fast-food lovers have a choice: the traditional squeeze play — or the option to dunk.

You want fries with that, in the minivan? No problem.

The redesigned ketchup pack, unveiled Thursday by H.J. Heinz Co., is shaped like a shallow cup. The top can be peeled back for dipping, or the end can be torn off for squeezing. It holds three times as much ketchup as a traditional packet.

"The packet has long been the bane of our consumers," said Dave Ciesinski, vice president of Heinz Ketchup. "The biggest complaint is there is no way to dip and eat it on-the-go."

Heinz struggled for years to develop a container that lets diners dip or squeeze, and to produce it at a cost that is acceptable to its restaurant customers.

Designers found that what worked at a table didn't work where many people use ketchup packets: in the car. So two years ago, Heinz bought the design team a used minivan to give their ideas real road tests.

The team studied what each passenger needed. The driver wanted something could sit on the armrest. Passengers wanted the choice of squeezing or dunking. Moms everywhere wanted a packet that held enough ketchup for the meal and didn't squirt onto clothes so easily.

Heinz is rolling out the new packs this fall at select fast-food restaurants nationwide. It will continue to sell the traditional packets.

The company said it is still working out prices with customers. But the new packet should cost only a little more, even though it holds much more ketchup.

Heinz is by far the biggest ketchup maker. About half of its ketchup is sold in stores and the other half is sold to the food service industry through its exclusive contracts with chains like Burger King and Wendy's.

McDonald's, the nation's largest burger chain, does only limited business with Heinz.

Heinz sells more than 11 billion ketchup packets every year. But neither the ketchup maker nor the major chains would say who plans to carry the new design.

Customers may force the issue.

Rants about the messy packs have helped spawn hundreds of anti-ketchup-packet groups on Facebook.

Matt Kurtz, a 22-year-old student in New York, has drawn 269 members to the group he started after he ripped open a packet too quickly and spilled it on his jeans while on a road trip two years ago.

"That's when I said 'There has to be a better way.'"

At a McDonald's in Covington, Ky., customers said a redesign was overdue.

"You use up a lot of ketchup now with the packets, I always get extra ones," said Skyler McDermott, 29. "Maybe now you won't have to use your teeth to open them."

These issues come as no surprise to Heinz's Ciesinski. "We created the packet in 1968," he said. "Consumer complaints started around 1969."

Collard Greens Soup and Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

2010-02-04T15:08:00.023-06:00

I woke up this morning knowing I had a huge bunch of collards in the fridge and that they needed to be cooked...lo and behold - its rainy and gross and cold out today. *IDEA* SOUP!!

I have a couple different anecdotes regarding collard greens soup, but I'll make them fast!

The first time I was introduced to collard greens soup, I was working at a local sandwich shop called Wright's Gourmet in Dunwoody, GA. Mrs. Wright made this amazing soup with collards in it. Well, I thought collards were gross up until that point. Now I'm a collard greens eater for life! This recipe isn't her's. I'm sure its locked in some safe with all the other fabulous recipes they have. (Her pimento cheese is drool-worthy!) I highly recommend eating there if you ever get the chance!

Ok, so this next part isn't an anecdote, but whatever. I bought a bunch of collards at the store the other day because the bags were gigantic and I didn't need that much. Also, I like to buy the bunches when I can because then I can cut the stems and such off, which I'll show you in a bit.

And the cornbread got made because well.... cornbread is awesome and goes with soup! Plus the soup had to simmer for 45 mins and it was the perfect time to make the cornbread. :)

First things first. Prepare the raw collards. When you buy them, they will look like this:

Take a big knife and cut the entire bottom off, pretty much everything below where the leaves stop. Next you'll take each leaf individually, which looks like this:

Fold it in half and run the knife along the edge, cutting out the spine of each leaf.

You want to do this to the majority of leaves in the bunch. The recipe calls for 1 lb. of collards and I used all but 4 or 5 of the leaves in the bunch.

Once all the leaves have been cut, start tearing them up into large bite-sized pieces and toss them in a sink full of cool water. (These, unlike the bagged ones, need to be washed)

Give them several good swirls in the water to rinse off any dirt, etc that might be on them.

Once they are good and washed, transfer them to a large stock pot and add 10 cups of chicken broth and a ham hock (I already had some frozen ham necks in the freezer, so I used those. I added a 1/2 tsp of liquid smoke though to make up for the fact that the necks were not cooked.)

Put the whole mess onto the stove and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. The broth will not cover the collards fully until the collards wilt down a bit. Just move 'em around every now and then to help them out!

Once the collards have smooshed themselves down and the broth is boiling, cover with a lid and simmer for 45 mins. This is what they'll look like before you cover and simmer them.

Now this is when i started to make the cornbread, but to make this whole thing flow better, I'll do the cornbread in a sec.

So 45 mins have past..*whew* that took forever! lol :)

The collards are a deep, rich green now and bordering on being cooked to death, but that's a good thing. Remove the ham hock (or necks in this case) and give them to your dog once they've cooled or something. My cats won't touch them so I toss 'em in the round file, if you know what I mean.

Bones removed. Now add 2 cans of Great Northern Beans and 1 1/2 cups of cubed ham. (Use a centercut ham slice for its thickness.) Add cayenne pepper, garlic, apple cider vinegar and some salt to taste. Give it a good stir and cover again and let simmer for another 20 mins.

Once done, it should look a little something like this:

Ladle it out into a bowl and serve with the upcoming jalapeno cheddar cornbread!

NOW ONTO THE CORNBREAD!!

I didn't even know I had this recipe until I started flipping thru my "cookbooks". Who knew?!

Anyway, I've never made cornbread from scratch before and let me just toot my own horn here - it came out PERFECT! :) yay me!

First, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix all your dry ingredients into a large bowl. (flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder)

In another bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients. (eggs, milk, melted butter)

Slow stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones making sure to remove any lumps, but DON'T OVER STIR!

Add 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Once it has sat, transfer to a cast iron pan. I suppose you could use some other kind of pan, but I'm southern and use my great-grandmother's cast iron. Smooth out the top and sprinkle with cheese and a few scallions.

Pop that bad boy in the oven for 30-35 mins or whenever a toothpick comes out clean.

And *voila* this is what you get:

Serve it up with the yummy soup you just made! And you've got a delicious (somewhat healthy), warm-your-insides kinda meal!

ENJOY!!!

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Collard Greens Soup

Ingredients:
1 pound collard greens
1 ham hock
10 cups chicken stock
2 cans Great Northern Beans
1 1/2 cups cooked, cubed ham
1 bunch green onions, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke, optional
salt to taste

Instructions:
Prep the collards by removing the spine, tearing up into medium-sized pieces and washing them in cool water.

Put collards into a large stock pot with with chicken broth and ham hock

Bring to a boil(stirring occasionally) and reduce to a simmer.

Simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove ham hock and add remaining ingredients.

Simmer for an additional 20 minutes.

Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 cups shredded, extra-sharp Cheddar
1/3 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts
3 medium-sized fresh jalapenos, seeded and minced

Instructions:
Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter.

With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don’t over mix!

Mix in 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a large cast-iron pan.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated cheddar and extra scallions.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool and cut. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Herb Encrusted Roast Beef with a Port Reduction

2010-02-02T23:04:00.013-06:00

Now, I know I've done this recipe before but that was with fillets because my oven was broken at the time. This time I'm using a REAL roast! :)

You want to use a 5 lb. boneless strip loin roast or a 5 - 6 lb. top sirloin roast with cap removed, and trimmed if necessary. Take the roast out and let it warm up to room temp... about 30 mins. Then season the whole roast with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 400°F

Next, put a pan large enough to accommodate the roast on over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil is heated, add the roast.

You will be searing the roast all over (including the sides) for about 2 -4 minutes each. You may have to hold the meat with tongs while you sear off the sides; it tends to not want to stand by itself. (do not wash the pan when you're done searing the roast! we're saving it for later!)

Now, take the roast from the pan and put it on roasting rack in a roasting pan or heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet, lined with foil for easier cleanup. Leave the roast alone at the point because we've got to make that awesome herb crust!

The crust is super easy! Take a medium-sized bowl and combine the breadcrumbs, garlic, shallots, thyme, marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle 4 tablespoons of butter over it and combine.

You can't be afraid to use your hands for this next step and if you are...I guess you could use a brush or something. It's time to cover the roast in the mustard. I like to use a Dijon Horseradish Mustard, Heinz™ makes one as does Emeril. Now the recipe calls for "1/3 cup Dijon mustard", but i just use enough to cover the roast well...so you can just use your judgment. Also, if you don't like horseradish, feel free to use any of your favorite Dijon mustards.

Once the roast is covered with mustard don't bother washing your hands because we've got to get that breadcrumb mixture on it. Begin pressing the mixture all over the roast into the mustard. Don't worry if some falls off around the roast, it never all sticks!

We ready for the oven! Stick our little roast on in there and let him cook for about an hour. If the top starts to brown too much, just tent some foil over it. :)

AND NOW..... THE REDUCTION! oh man this is my most favorite part of this recipe.

Ok so you know that pan we seared the roast in? The one I told you not to wash? Well now is the time for it to be put to work!

Put the pan over medium-high heat and warm up the pan. Add 2 cups of port. Don't go sticking your head over the pan trying to smell everything in there because the port is steaming off and will damn near kill you if you inhale the fumes. Trust me - its extremely unpleasant!

While the port is bubbling, use a wooden spoon to clean up the bottom of the pan, loosening up all those little yummy bits of roast. Once the "fond" is released from the bottom of the pan and is mixing nice with the port, go ahead and add 2 tablespoons of butter and continue reducing until its about 3/4 as much as we started with.

If you've made the reduction before the roast has finished in the oven, don't fret my pet. I normally transfer it to a Pyrex™ measuring cup and just let it sit on the stove. It doesn't really separate and can easily be reheated if necessary.

My roast, as far as you know, finished up just as I was done making the reduction though. /wink

So remove roast from oven and let little dude rest for 10-20 minutes before carving him across the grain, into 1/2 inch thick slices.

I was super busy around the time the roast came out (seriously! i was!) and didn't get a very good "end product" photo... but you get the idea!

This is probably my signature dish and people are always so impressed when you tell them what you're fixing. Little do they know, its so ridiculously easy! Enjoy!!

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Herb Encrusted Roast Beef with a Port Reduction

Ingredients:
1 5-pound boneless strip loin roast or 5- to 6-pound top sirloin roast
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup bread crumbs
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium shallots, minced
1 tbsp thyme, chopped
1 tbsp marjoram, chopped
4 tbsp melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup Dijon mustard

Instructions:
Let the roast sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Position a rack in the middle of oven and heat to 400F.

Put roasting rack in a roasting pan or heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet (line pan with foil for easier cleanup).

Season the roast liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.

Heat oil in large pan over medium-high heat.

When oil is hot, sear meat on all sides, including ends, about 2 - 4 minutes per side

Transfer meat to roasting pan.

Set aside while preparing crust.

In medium bowl, combine breadcrumbs, garlic, shallots, thyme, marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon salt,
and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Pour melted butter over mixture and toss to combine.

Smear the mustard all over the roast

Press breadcrumb mixture all over the roast into the mustard.

Roast the beef about 60 minutes for strip loin roast or 60-80 minutes for top sirloin roast, depending on thickness.

Check the crust often. When it is golden brown, tent the roast with foil to prevent burning.

Remove roast from oven and let meat rest for 10-20 minutes before carving across the grain, into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Port Reduction Sauce

Ingredients:
fond from searing the beef
1-2 cups port
1-2 tbsp unsalted butter

Heat the pan with the fond over medium high to high flame.

Pour in the port and watch it steam off.

Use a wooden spoon to rub at the fond while the port is boiling so the fond is suspended in the port.

Stir the butter in and continue to reduce.

Remove from heat and serve with roast.

New Layout

2010-01-25T01:41:00.003-06:00

I redesigned the header for the site and then started poking thru some of the templates that were available. I picked this one out, but I'm not sure what I think about it. Any thoughts? I think it might be too hard to read. Gimme some feedback, please!

Also, I made french bread today and will be posting the recipe and pictures tomorrow! Oh, its 1:43am... I guess I mean I'll be posting later today hehehe :)

Chicken Lasagna Rolls

2010-01-22T17:24:00.005-06:00

I've been meaning to make this recipe all week and I finally got around to it today! YAY! Aren't we all excited? Yes, we are!

Okie dokie, so I've had this recipe for probably several years, but have never made it. In fact, I'd never really even looked at it that closely until this week. Well, I discovered it lacked greatly in pretty much every conceivable way... so I fixed it up!

This week it's another Sarah Original!!
(Sorry for the lack of pictures, they just weren't up to my standards this time.)

Ok, first we need to cook the chicken. To be honest, I don't know exactly how long I cook chicken when I boil it. I took 3 thawed chicken breasts, put them in a large pot with enough water to cover them and put them on the stove to boil. I probably boil them for about 7 - 8 minutes before pulling one out, cutting it in half to see how done it is (usually still raw in the center) and then putting it back in the pot for another 8 or so minutes. I know its not very cool to say that I cook them until I "feel" they should be done... but its what I do. Sorry!

After the chicken is done, set it aside to cool long enough to be able to handle. To shred the chicken, I'll put one breast at a time in a medium sized bowl and pull it apart with two forks. This is a thankless process but looks SO much better than chopped chicken.

Onto the noodles! Cooking them is simple; just follow the directions on the box! Try to cook them in a dutch oven or wide, shallow pot so that the noodles can stay flat.

While the noodles are cooking, mix the following together: egg, chicken, ricotta, 3/4 cup of mozzarella, 2 Tbsps of Parmesan, thyme, basil, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

Go ahead and prep your baking dish too. Take 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce and cover the bottom of the dish. And preheat the oven to 375°F.

After the noodles are done cooking, I used a pair of tongs to gently pull them out one by one and laid them out on a large plate.

Next, I put out a sheet of parchment paper to make the rolls on so the noodles wouldn't stick to the counter. Then I laid out one noodle and spread a good layer of the chicken/cheese mixture onto it.

After you've got all the rolls made and in the dish, evenly spread the remaining sauce over the lasagna rolls and sprinkle half of the remaining mozzarella on top of sauce.

Cover the dish with foil (I tented the foil so my cheese wouldn't all come off when I removed it later) and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven.

Time to take the foil off! Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and a bit of freshly cracked black pepper on top and bake uncovered for another 8 -12 minutes or until golden brown.

Be careful not to cook too long uncovered or the exposed parts of the noodles will become hard and crunchy.
Here's the final product! Serve with a romaine salad or asparagus, if in season. (I'm so angry I can't find good asparagus in the winter!!) Enjoy!

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Chicken Lasagna Rolls

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
3 cups spaghetti sauce
8 - 10 lasagna noodles
1 egg
15 oz. Ricotta cheese
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella
5 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon minced thyme
1 tablespoon minced basil
1 tablespoon minced sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
Salt and pepper

Instructions:
Cook chicken. Let cool and then shred using two forks to pull the meat apart. Set aside.

Cook noodles in boiling salted water until al dente - do not over cook as they will be going into the oven and cooking again for the final dish.

Mix ricotta, ¾ cup of mozzarella, 2 tablespoons Parmesan, egg, chicken, spices, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper in small bowl.

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Evenly spread 1/3 of sauce on bottom of the baking dish. Spread about 2 tablespoons of ricotta mixture over each lasagna noodle. Carefully roll up, placing seam side down in baking dish, on top of sauce.

Evenly spread remaining sauce over lasagna rolls.

Sprinkle the half of the remaining mozzarella top of sauce. Cover in foil and bake for 40 minutes or until it bubbles. Remove from oven.

Top with remaining mozzarella and a bit of freshly cracked black pepper and bake uncovered 5 - 10 minutes or until browned.

20 Great Foods You Aren't Eating

2010-01-17T21:22:00.005-06:00

I found this article online at TimesOnline from the UK. (I added the photos!) I thought it was interesting and that I should pass it along! Enjoy!
______________________________________________________

20 Great Foods You Aren't Eating.

These easy-to-buy superfoods could help you to live a healthier, flat-bellied and longer life, says our nutritionist.

Baked beans
Great for soluble fibre (the type that helps to lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels), baked beans also give you 6g of protein per average serving; about the same as in a medium-size egg. Have them on toast, with a baked potato or, if you absolutely must, straight from the can.

Green tea
Swap a couple of cups of your builder’s brew a day for green tea. Especially rich in polyphenols, green tea antioxidants have antibacterial and antithrombotic roles, and regulate the immune system. The lazy man’s solution to boosting antioxidants, which may also help to fight tooth decay.

Oily fish
Fling fresh sardines under the grill, or have them from a can; either way, like mackerel, salmon and anchovies, they are great for omega-3 oils, which seem to make platelets in the blood less likely to clump together and cause a clot.

Parsley
Chew on some after a meal and this herb, which is rich in chlorophyl, can help to keep your breath fresh and mop up pongy odours; vital if out on the town after eating. Also good for vitamin C, a vital antioxidant that helps to protect sperm from free-radical attack.

Apples
With an astonishing 150 supernutrients packed into each apple you eat, this easy-to-transport, easy-to-eat, no-waste fruit is especially good for quercetin, an antioxidant that appears from laboratory research to help to kill off viruses such as herpes, which causes cold sores. Quercetin sits just under the skin so never peel your apples before eating.

Grapefruit
It is said that eating a grapefruit before each meal helps you to cut calorie intake in the meal itself, possibly because it slightly lowers blood sugar and makes participants feel more satisfied. Grapefruits also give you glucaric acid, a supernutrient known to lower “bad”, artery-clogging cholesterol.

Tomatoes
This vegetable is packed with the red pigment lycopene, the main antioxidant in the prostate gland. Studies reveal that men eating tomatoes (or tomato products such as purée, juice and soup) ten or more times a week have a 35 per cent reduced risk of developing prostate cancer.

Pomegranates
You don’t need to fiddle around with fresh pomegranates. Israeli scientists found that men drinking only a couple of gulps (100ml) of this powerful juice each day for 12 months helped to reverse artery damage. This may be down to the fruit’s increasing production of paraoxonase, a cholesterol-breaking enzyme.

New potatoes
A baked potato gives you fast-release energy, making it a great post-workout, muscle-refuelling food. If you are not an exercise nut, new potatoes are a better option. They provide slow-release energy to keep blood sugar levels and appetite under control between normal meals.

Oats
Have them in muesli or porridge, Oatibix or oatmeal. Full of the soluble fibre called beta glucan, which lowers “bad” cholesterol, they also give us silica, a trace mineral believed to be vital for good- quality skin, metrosexual or otherwise.

Poached eggs
Eggs give us lecithin, which is turned into choline once eaten, a vital component of transmitters in our brains involved in memory. This brain-boosting food is also fabulously filling — eat two for breakfast (poached or boiled, not fried) and, according to research, you will eat 400 calories less during the rest of the day.

Frozen peas
The ultimate convenience food, frozen peas lock in the B vitamins needed for a healthy nervous system, plus soluble fibre to help to fill you up and keep cholesterol under control. A 140g portion gives you 16mg of immune-boosting vitamin C, about as much as you will get in a satsuma.

Prunes
Blend them with milk and yoghurt to make an antioxidant-rich, free-radical- zapping drink that also gives ferulic acid, a supernutrient associated with bowel health. The special sugars in prunes will also help to keep you regular and potentially help to resist bowel cancer.

Dark chocolate
The dark varieties (above 70 per cent cocoa solids) are rich in antioxidants. Studies have shown that flavanol-packed cocoa acts in an “aspirin-like” way to stop blood cells clumping together.

Frozen berries
An easy way to increase potential brain- boosting, anti-ageing antioxidants to help to keep you ahead of the game on the work front. Throw them into smoothies or defrost and mix with yoghurt for breakfast.

Olives
Put on home-made pizzas or eaten as a bar snack, olives are good for monounsaturated fats, phenolics and vitamin E, which are all important for artery health and long life.

Almonds
Ditch cholesterol-raising snacks such as biscuits and cakes and trade them in for a fistful of almonds. Research shows that this will help you to feel full and cut back on artery-clogging fats.

Chillies
These are sure to raise your metabolism: the hotter you can stand, the more their effect. Expect a 15 per cent increase in calories burnt for about two hours after eating a hot chilli sauce.

Wholewheat pasta
The ultimate filling — and so easy to cook. The wholewheat variety has a lower glycaemic index than plain and releases energy slowly. Good for sportsmen who need muscles packed with energy.

Turmeric
As used liberally in Gordon Ramsay’s recipes, this is a great source of curcumin, which is believed to have anti-inflammatory effects and may help to fight bowel cancer. For Indian takeaways, choose healthy dishes such as tandoori chicken and chicken tikka, which provide turmeric but don’t have loads of fat.

Mexican Casserole

2010-01-14T13:35:00.022-06:00

A long time ago, I found a recipe for a Mexican casserole that I never got around to cooking. Well, I pulled it out of my binder the other day and decided it was time to make it since it seemed simple enough. Therein lied the problem. It was too simple and I thought it could use some JAZZING up!

So here is my take on the Mexican casserole. Keep in mind, you can make this recipe your own VERY easily by adding black beans (which I may do next time) or anything else you think might fit the taste buds of your particular crowd.

Firstly, preheat the oven to 400°F and then combine the Bisquick, eggs, milk and salt & pepper.

Next, I browned the ground beef along with the chopped onion.

Once that is done, drain the whole thing. I usually put my colander on a stack of paper towels on top of a plate. That way i can throw the lot out afterward and not worry about all that grease going down my drain.

I put the meat/onion mixture back into the pan and added the corn, Rotel, jalapeños, green chilies and taco seasoning. (If you don't want it to be as spicy, add half or 3/4 of the seasoning instead of the whole packet.) Give the whole mess a good stir to mix everything up well.

It doesn't matter what type of baking dish you use, just so long as it will all fit. And *remember* the Bisquick WILL RISE - so a deeper dish would probably be best. So let's put everything into that dish now!

The original recipe called to add the green chilies in a ring around the edge of the mixture, which I did. But after eating it, it was kind of weird and gross to get a big, ole' forkful of slimy green chilies - so this is when i decided mixing them up with the rest of the veggies would be a good idea. Granted, it does look cool... but no one will know because you'll have covered it with awesome cheesy, Bisquicky goodness.

Just ignore the green ring around the cheese in the following picture. This is the step where you would cover the whole meat concoction with half of the cheese.

Now cover the whole thing up with the Bisquick.

Then the rest of the cheese!

Pop that bad boy into the oven for 30 minutes!

And after 30 minutes, you should be pulling the following loveliness out of your oven.

I couldn't wait to try it so I grabbed a big, metal spoon and scooped myself out dinner.

I don't see why you couldn't maybe add a dollop of sour cream along side it or anything you think might add to its enjoyment.

So there it is - super simple, yet so yummy!!

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Mexican Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds, ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can green chilies, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can Rotel, drained
2 Tbsp sliced jalapeños (optional)
1 package taco seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups Bisquick
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 ¾ cups Mexican blend cheese, shredded (divided)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to at 400°F

Combine Bisquick, eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

In a large pan, brown the ground beef with the onion. Drain and put mixture back into pan.

Add the corn, jalapeños, green chilies, Rotel, and taco seasoning (If you don’t want it to be very spicy, add half to three quarters of the package).

Mix well and put into baking dish.

Spread half of the cheese over the top.

Pour Bisquick over the cheese and finish off with the rest of the cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Van Gogh cake

2010-01-09T23:09:00.002-06:00

I was Stumbling around the internet this evening when I came across this Van Gogh cake.

It's so cool, I just had to share it!

Chubble Bread

2010-01-08T00:29:00.009-06:00

I've made this recipe several times before, but never for the food blog-loving public. So here goes!

I didn't take a whole lot of photos b/c i didn't anticipate turning them into a blog post. Oh well...

Now in the recipe it says to you a stand-up mixer, but I don't have one. So I do it all BY HAND! And let me tell you that making bread isn't for the weak. I couldn't help but think about the pioneer women doing this every morning for breakfast...ugh. Keep in mind that there is NOTHING WRONG with doing it by hand, it's just a whole lot of work.
________________________________

Chubble Bread
This recipe came originally from To Be Mrs. Marv..., but I have modified it in a few places.

Sponge:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Dough:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
3 tsp olive oil
Sponge, above
3 1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
a pinch of kosher salt

Stuffs:
10 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese from a can
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 bunch parsley, chopped
2 tsp garlic power
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/4 t red pepper flakes
3 Tbsp olive oil

Sponge:
Sprinkle yeast over the warm water in a large bowl, whisk it in, and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Dough:
Sprinkle yeast over the warm water in a small bowl, whisk it in, and let stand until creamy, about 5 to 10 minutes. Using a heavy-duty mixer, add the dissolved yeast and the olive oil to the sponge in the mixer bowl; mix in with the paddle attachment until well blended. Add in salt. Add in flour 1/4 c at a time - when you get to 3 cups, the dough should stop being very sticky and become only slightly sticky.

Change to the dough hook and knead at medium speed until the dough is soft, velvety and slightly sticky, 3 to 4 minutes. At this point you will be able to pull the dough up into peaks with your fingers. Finish by sprinkling flour on the counter and kneading the dough briefly. Transfer to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled about 90 mins.

Stuffs:
Feel free to prep and toss together all stuffs ingredients in a large bowl. Coat the mixture with oil. Cover with a towel and set aside.

Stuffs & Second Rise:
Empty out bread on a non-sick surface. Shape into a flat rectangle, approximately 1/2″ - 1″ thick. Using a pizza wheel, cut loaf into inch wide strips. They do not need to be uniform. Then cut off one inch ends.

Put about half of the stuffs in a wide bowl and then begin adding the dough squares/balls into the bowl. Toss dough in the stuffs and gently coat them. Add in more stuffs periodically so that they stay separate.

Divide mixture into your baking pans. I have been using 2 round cake pans (it gives them that Sister Schubert's look) Once you have dough in pans, cover with plastic wrap and leave for second rise in a warm area. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Baking:
Preheat oven to 400°f. Brush top with olive oil and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

DO NOT OVERCOOK THESE! They tend to dry out easily!!

2 year break is over! lol

2010-01-08T00:27:00.000-06:00

So I've gotten back into reading my food blogs and now that i've got a big ole' kitchen I've decided to revitalize MY food blog.

It's a new year - so why not?

2010...GO!

The Good Wife's Guide - May 1955

2008-10-01T12:20:00.005-05:00

Just in case any of you wives need a refresher on how to act, cook, etc...

click to enlarge! I know it's a little tough to read.

FOOD NEWS: Aspiring Chef Dies After Eating Red-Hot Chili Sauce as a Dare

2008-09-29T10:26:00.000-05:00

An aspiring chef died after eating a super-hot chilli sauce as part of an endurance competition with a friend.

Andrew Lee, 33, challenged his girlfriend’s brother to a contest to see who could eat the spiciest sauce that he could create.

The fork-lift truck driver, who wanted to cook for a living, prepared a tomato sauce made with red chillies grown on his father’s allotment. After eating it, however, he suffered intense discomfort and itching. The following morning he was found dead, possibly after suffering a heart attack.

Toxicology tests are being conducted to try to establish if he suffered a reaction to the food.

An inquest was told that Lee, from Edlington, England, was in perfect health and had just passed a medical examination at work. He was a keen cook and would often prepare meals for his parents. It is believed that Mr Lee had never prepared a dish as hot as the one he made the night before his death.

Lee’s sister, Claire Chadbourne, 29, said that he took a jar of the sauce to the home of his girlfriend, Samantha Bailey, and challenged her brother Michael, 29, to see who could eat it. “Andrew just ate the chillies with a plate of Dolmio sauce,” she added. “It was not a proper meal because he had already eaten lamb chops and potato mash after work.

“He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over. His girlfriend scratched his back until he fell asleep. She woke up and he had gone. It is incredible. Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce? We don’t know of anything else that could have caused his death. The postmortem showed no heart problems.

“He loved cooking for his friends. He always said he wanted to be a chef but didn’t want to start at the bottom.”

An inquest was opened and adjourned in Doncaster last week.

article taken from FoxNews.com

Spicy Sweet Chicken

2008-09-29T09:25:00.007-05:00

I made this earlier in the week, last week - but never got around to posting it. Sorry!

12 ounces to 1 pound of skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized chunks
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon chili paste
1 green onion, chopped [optional]

Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and five-spice powder. Toss to coat.

Heat oil in large skillet over high heat.
Add chicken; cook until browned, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes or 4 minutes.

Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds, stirring to keep from burning.
Add next 3 ingredients to skillet.

Boil until reduced slightly and chicken is cooked through, stirring frequently, about 3 or 4 minutes.

Serve over rice; sprinkle with green onion if you like.

This is the first time i've ever cooked with Chinese Five Spice and i have to admit - i'm not a fan. I think i would like it better if it were Chinese Four Spice and they forgot to add the cinnamon. Cinnamon is just not something i'm a fan of in anything but desserts...

This was a good meal though. Extremely simple and tastey - not to mention good for you!

The 2008 Great Miller Lite Chili Cook-Off

2008-09-29T08:58:00.011-05:00

My dad and i went out to Stone Mountain to go to the 29th Annual Miller Lite Chili Cook-Off this past Saturday. And it was AWESOME!!

First off, I've never been to a cook-off and secondly, it was the most redneck thing i've done in awhile. Man, i love reconnecting with my southern roots!

My favorite was by a group called "So Fine Bovine". I don't know if they won or not, but it was good and they got my vote. There were an incredible 295 booths!! I think randy and i might have to enter next year b/c there were definitely some lame chilis what i know we could beat hands-down! Also, how fun would it be to camp out for two days, drink beer and serve people chili? I'm being serious by the way! :)

Rice with Chorizo and Shrimp

2008-09-19T10:32:00.011-05:00

I'm a little snoozy this morning - so pardon my shortness on the post. i just don't have a long drawn-out post in me right now. But the pics are good!

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan; add the onions and peppers, cook for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the crushed garlic, mix well.

Add the diced tomatoes, mix well and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the rice and stir for about 2 minutes.

Add the chorizo slices and the seafood stock, stir well and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Add the shrimp, cover the pan, and let cook until the shrimp are done, about 8 minutes.

Stir the shrimp into the rice and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Serve warm.

This was a good dish - and i still have a bunch in the fridge that i need to eat on this weekend. I don't know how much cooking i'll do this weekend since i have ...*cough* world of warcraft raids *cough* lined up both tonight and saturday night. SO DORKY! lol

A footnote turned into an entirely new post

2008-09-19T10:32:00.010-05:00

As the title says, i had intended this to be a "ps" at the bottom of the previous post, but it took on a life of its own b/c once you get me talking about Irish Carbombs... well i pretty much won't stop. So here's the original footnote-y post.

OMG! I just found this posting/recipe on hungry girl por vida It's a freakin' Irish Carbomb cake!

Anyone who knows me, knows that my FAVORITE DRINK in the whole wide world is an Irish Carbomb... sweet ambrosia! And now there's one in freakin' cake form!

For those of you unfamiliar with the wonderfulness of the Irish Carbomb, let me tell you about it.

Recipe:
half a pint of Guinness
half a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey
half a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream

The two half shots are poured together into a shot glass and served next to the half pint of Guinness.

Once the imbiber is ready, you drop the shot into the beer [this part is notoriously messy] and chug it as fast as you can. Why? Well because if you don't, the Bailey's curdles and you end up with a nasty mess that someone just paid $6.00 for and should rightly be able to kick your ass for not finishing!! <-- voice of experience on the paying end!

Here's a pic. Compliments of Google Images. I know i've pics of my very own carbombs, but hell if i know where they are.

2 recipes, 1 post...

2008-09-16T07:38:00.007-05:00

Here are two of the promised recipes - the third is coming tomorrow!

I'm gonna go in chronological order. So first up - POTATO CROQUETTES!

I made this recipe on a night i so totally did not feel like cooking, and i wanted some type of comfort food - potatoes seemed like a good choice. Unfortunately, i didn't have all the necessary ingredients and ended up improvising. So i'm going to tell you how i made them, and then post the recipe for how they are supposed to be made.

You need two cups of mashed potatoes to start this whole recipe, so i took a few potatoes, washed, skinned and then sliced them. Throw those in a pot of boiling water and then drain them once tender. Then put the drained, sliced potatoes into the pot with a stick of butter [yes, a stick] and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk depending on how creamy you like your potatoes. I wouldn't make them too thin b/c you're going to be making patties soon enough. Ok now get to mashin'!! I mash the hell out of my potatoes - in fact, i honestly get a little pissed off if i see lumps and its a good way to take frustrations out. MASH THEM FOOLS!

Alright, enough mashing of the potatoes. Now is when my making of these croquettes strayed from the original recipe. See i didn't have the cilantro, red chili, or spring onions...i just completely left them out which i KNEW would make them a little bland, but i wasn't too concerned that night.

So i put 2 cups of mashed 'taters in a bowl along with an egg , grated cheese,low fat mayonnaise, sesame seeds , breadcrumbs (enough to bind everything together), and salt & pepper to taste and mixed it all together until a good consistency for making patties.

At this point, the recipe said to put the mixture in the fridge for 30 mins, but i was HUNGRY and didn't care to wait - so i didn't. I made little silver dollar-sized patties while my oil heated up over medium heat.

And then i fried them until golden brown on both sides. Just keep an eye on them, it doesn't take too terribly long.

And Voila! my fairly bland potato croquettes. lol In fact, they were very good, but i ended up dipping them in bbq sauce! YUM!

Potato Croquettes:

Ingredients:
2 cups of mashed potatoes
1 egg
¼ cup grated cheese
1 sprig of cilantro - chopped
1 red chili - chopped
2 spring onions - chopped
2 tbsp of low fat mayonnaise
2 tbsp of toasted sesame seeds
Breadcrumbs (enough to bind everything together)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Form into small patties and set aside in the fridge for half an hour before frying.

Heat up a little bit of oil over medium heat and pan fried both side until golden brown.

Serve warm.

________________________________

Next is a Sarah Original! I was sitting at work and REALLY wanted spaghetti bake for dinner b/c i'd seen it at a restaurant the weekend before and it looked really good. I could have looked up a recipe, but who needs a recipe for something like that if you consider yourself a cook? Honestly?!

So here's my version of the SPAGHETTI BAKE

First i browned a lb. of ground beef, adding a couple teaspoons of garlic and salt & pepper.

While your browning the meat, go ahead and get your water boiling for the spaghetti noodles. I normally like the thin spaghetti, but i got the regular spaghetti noodles and i broke them up into thirds. You know how spaghetti bake always has short, fat noodles - well this is how you get them! Then just cook the pasta according to the directions on the ole' package. Also go ahead and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Once the meat is done browning, i put it in a colander, drain it and run hot water over it - try to get some of the natural fat off the meat, plus it makes everything all greasy :P yuckers. I usually wipe out the pan with a paper towel as well to get the majority of the grease out of the pan too.

Put the ground beef back in the pan. Now this is where i kinda messed up - see, instead of throwing the meat directly into the pan, i should have waited and sauteed the veggies a bit first - but i forgot and didn't. Everything came out well since you end of baking the whole thing which gives the veggies some extra softening time - so SCREW IT - i never messed up - forget i even mentioned it! lol

So meat in pan. Now add the jar of pasta sauce [or your own homemade sauce, you snooty bastards!], onion, mushrooms, tomatoes and a little extra garlic b/c its awesome!

At this point, the pasta should be done. So toss it in the pan as well.

Mix everything together really well and put into a greased baking dish. Once its all in the dish, cover the top with cheese b/c cheese RULZ as the kids say. lol Stick the whole shabang in oven for about 15 to 20 mins - just check on it every once in awhile to see if the cheese is good and melty.

I threw together some quick garlic bread too. Melted some butter on the stove and added minced garlic then spread it over the bread. And added a layer of parmesan, put it on a baking sheet and tossed it in the oven with the spaghetti. EASY PEASY!

And its so purty when it comes out of the oven!

Let it cool just for a minute or two - then scoop into a bowl or onto a plate and serve with the bread and a salad if you like!

Sarah's Spaghetti Bake:
i'm not going to put any real quanities in this recipe. You adjust it to your needing - whether its the 5,000 or just the two of you!

ingredients:
1 - 2 lbs. of ground beef
traditional spaghetti noodles
jarred spaghetti sauce [any flavor you choose]
medium yellow onion - diced
canned diced tomatoes [sometimes i get the italian flavored ones from publix]
sliced baby bellos
grated parmesan
minced garlic
salt & pepper
italian cheese mix [they should have this at the grocery store. its normally parm, romano, etc... all together in one bag]

instructions:
preheat the oven to 350°F.

cook spaghetti according to directions on package, but break noodles into 3rds.

brown ground beef and add garlic and salt & pepper to taste

Once the meat is done browning, i put it in a colander, drain it and run hot water over it

Put the ground beef back in the pan. Now add the jar of pasta sauce, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes and more garlic if you like.

Now add the cooked pasta, mix everything together well and transfer into baking dish. Cover top with cheese and put into oven for 15 - 20 mins until cheese melts well. Once its done, pull it out of the oven and let cool for a bit.

Serve and Enjoy!

Absolutely nothing to do with food....

2008-09-15T14:53:00.004-05:00

Like the title says - this post as nothing to do with food, but i found this a humorous observation.

Below are two pics of me and i find the similarities awesome! lol

Doesn't look like too much changes in almost 30 years!

ps: i have 2 dishes on my camera needing to be uploaded and i'm cooking rice with shrimp and chorizo tonight! So REAL FOOD updates tomorrow, kiddies!

September is National Biscuit Month!

2008-09-09T09:33:00.005-05:00

I just found this out and being a southerner, i LOVES me some biscuits! My grandfather used to make them every morning when we'd go down to Montgomery, Al to visit. I have his recipe somewhere and i'm planning on making them in honor of National Biscuit Month. Also its kind of funny that Montgomery's minor league baseball team just happens to be called The Biscuits. I feel the hum of the string theory, don't you?

Anyways until i make Grandada's biscuits, i thought we'd do a brief little history of that wonderful little creation! - while researching the biscuit, i realized i needed a few more qualifiers than "biscuit, history". I forgot those crazy Brits call cookies biscuits and that apparently to the rest of the world they are sonomous with scones as well - what's WRONG with you people?!

"southern biscuit, history" didn't yield much more. Then "american biscuit, history" - We have a winner! Here's what i found: Wikipedia entry: Biscuit

In American English, a "biscuit" is a small form of bread made with baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent rather than yeast. (Biscuits, soda breads, and corn bread, among others, are sometimes referred to collectively as "quick breads" to indicate that they do not need time to rise before baking.)

Biscuits are extremely soft on the inside and similar to scones or more closely to the bannock from the Shetland Isles. In the United States, there is a growing tendency to refer to sweet variations as "scone"and to the savory as a "biscuit", though there are exceptions for both (such as the cheese scone). A sweet biscuit served with a topping of fruit and juice is called shortcake...

Biscuits are a common feature of Southern U.S. cuisine and are often made with buttermilk. They are traditionally served as a side dish with a meal, especially in the morning. As a breakfast item they are often eaten with butter and a sweet condiment such as molasses, light sugarcane syrup, sorghum syrup, honey, or fruit jam or jelly. With other meals they are usually eaten with butter or gravy instead of sweet condiments. However, biscuits and gravy (biscuits covered in country gravy) are usually served for breakfast, sometimes as the main course.

A common variation on basic biscuits is "cheese biscuits", made by adding grated Cheddar or American cheese to the basic recipe....

Beaten biscuits date from the 1800s and are a Southern U.S. food. They differ from a regular biscuit in that they are more like hardtack instead of soft because the dough is beaten with a hard object or against a hard surface for at least a half hour. They are also pricked with a fork prior to baking and are usually smaller than a regular biscuit. These are the biscuits traditionally used in "ham biscuits", also known as hog cakes, a traditional Southern canapé, which are simply tiny sandwiches of these bite-sized biscuits sliced horizontally, spread with butter, jelly, mustard, filled with pieces of country ham, or sopped up with gravy or syrup."

Ok, its at this point that i MUST interject that i do not like biscuits and gravy! Not everyone from the south does :P gross and now QuikTrip gas stations have this: Hotzi Sausage Gravy Stuffed Biscuit /vomit

So enough gross stuff in regards to the biscuit. I PROMISE this month i will fix my grandfather's biscuits and MAYBE just MAYBE share the recipe with ya'll. And i've apparently just found out that his a "beaten" biscuits. hmmm - learn somethin' new everyday, don'tcha?

Pork Au Poivre

2008-09-02T07:24:00.011-05:00

1 Pork Tenderloin
1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon fresh-cracked Black Pepper
2 Teaspoons Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth
1/2 Cup Dry Red Wine
Salt

Slice tenderloin lengthwise, being careful not to cut through to other side. [the tenderloin i had was already in split in two. every time i buy a Publix tenderloin they are split in two, so this whole part really didn't apply to me, but i made due!]

Split meat into one large, flat piece.

Spread mustard over both sides of the meat and rub in pepper, pressing gently so it adheres well.

Cut meat crosswise into 4 even portions.

In large skillet, heat oil over medium flame.

Put tenderloin in the pan and cook for about 10 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 155 degrees, turning once.

Transfer meat to a plate and tent with foil to keep it warm.

Add chicken broth and wine to pan and cook over medium-high heat, scraping up any bits that have stuck to the pan.

Continue to cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until sauce is reduced to about ½ cup. Pour sauce over meat, season with salt, and serve

I didn't feel much like fixing some fresh veggie as a side, so i nuked some baby limas which were awesome and compliments of Green Giant.

This was REALLY good and its kept well in fridge too. One night, i even sliced up a piece and made a sandwich. This is a keeper!

Nutritional Facts:
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 230 Calories; 7g Fat (31.6% calories from fat); 32g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 92mg Cholesterol; 172mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 4 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Hoisin and Honey Glazed Chicken

2008-08-25T08:42:00.009-05:00

I didn't know what to fix for dinner the other night, but i knew i wanted to fix something tasty and simple. I wasn't in a huge cooking mood. So i went thru my recipes and found this one. It comes from carmencooks.wordpress.com and it was WONDERUL!! This is going to find its way into my regular rotation!

First you preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Then take your chicken [i used two boneless skinless chicken breasts] and cut it up into chucks. Then place on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.

You want to then put the cookie sheet into the oven and roast at 400 for 25 minutes.

While the chicken is roasting, use this time to make the sauce/glaze. Throw all your other ingredients in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes, until it is slightly reduced. Then put aside 1/3 cup for later.

When the chicken is done, put it in the sauce pan with the sauce. Toss the chicken around in the sauce until it is WELL coated.

Now put the chicken back onto the cookie sheet and spread the rest of the glaze over the chicken. Roast for another 10-12 minutes. The glaze should become thick and sticky.

Now pull out the cookie sheet and serve the chicken on brown rice.

That's it! Its so simple! I love it!

ps: i apologize for the crappy pics this time around. i was tired and lazy and have no other excuse! lol

Here's the recipe!

Hoisin and Honey Glazed Chicken

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1/3 cup Hoisin sauce
1/3 cup honey
5 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Sriracha (this was ALOT - i recommend maybe half of that)
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spread the chicken on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer and roast them at 400 for 25 minutes.

While the chicken is roasting, combine all the other ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes, until it is slightly reduced. Put aside 1/3 cup of the sauce in a small bowl.

When the chicken is ready to come out, transfer to the saucepan. Make sure chicken is coated in sauce. While the chicken is in the saucepan, I usually drain the fat from the baking sheet.

Return the coated chicken to the baking sheet and pour the rest of the glaze from the saucepan over the chicken. Roast for 10-12 more minutes, until the glaze is thick and sticky.

Sprinkle the sesame seeds over them and serve with the reserved glaze on the side.

-----------------

Tonight, i'm fixing pork tenderloin in some capacity. YUM!

Coconut Shrimp with Apricot- Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

2008-08-21T07:30:00.002-05:00

My dad wanted me to make that coconut shrimp i made right before i started this blog, so i did. And this is a remarkably simple recipe to make, but no one has to know that. All they'll know is they're eating awesome coconut shrimp that you SLAVED over. lol

First, you want to get your battering station ready:

a bowl with 1 cup flour
a bowl with 1 egg (lightly beaten)
a bowl with 1 cup panko bread crumbs and 1 cup shredded coconut

Then just dredge the shrimp in the flour, dip the shrimp into the egg and into the panko and coconut mixture. I did this while heating up the peanut oil i used to fry them.

I need to make a comment about the shrimp here though. The first time i made this recipe i used fresh shrimp with the tails on from the grocery store; they were specifically bought for the making of this recipe. This time though - i didn't have the resources - and already had a bag of frozen Costco shrimp in the freezer... i know, i know... get off my back. lol

Anyway - i found that you really want the bigger, prettier shrimp for this recipe. You need more actual shrimp surface area in order to get more shrimp taste and less coating. Don't get me wrong, they were still very good - just not as good as the first time around.

Now onto the dipping sauce:

2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
1 tablespoon apricot preserves

Mix them up well and serve with them skrimps like so!

I served them with a romaine lettuce salad with carrots, cheese, egg and some slivered almonds. It was a good meal and very easy to make! YUM SHRIMP!

Chicken and Pea Casserole

2008-08-11T10:17:00.008-05:00

Now i'm not one to normally make a casserole. They tend to be a little old school for me, but i found this recipe at Allrecipes.com and just had to make it. This is a perfect "i'm not in the mood to cook" recipe.

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

I thawed the chicken and put the water onto boil for the pasta. The recipe didn't call for any specific way to cook the chicken, so i whipped out my trusty grill pan and brought it up to temp on a med-high flame.

I seasoned only one side of the chicken with approx 1/2 tablespoon of sale, fresh-ground pepper, basil and oregano. i LOVE those grill lines!!

And then added to pasta to my boiling water.

While everything was cooking [pasta and chicken] I went ahead and started putting together the sauce. 1 10oz can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 package of frozen peas, 3/4 cup of sour cream, 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 2 1/2 tsp onion powder, and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper. Once the chicken was done grilling, i added 2 cups of it cubed to the mixture.

Stir this well. Then once your pasta is done cooking [about 9 mins for al dente], drain and mix everything together. Pour pasta mixture into a 9x10-inch casserole dish, and spread out evenly. Top with Parmesan cheese or an Italian blend, and spray the top with a bit of cooking spray.

Then stick that bad boy in the oven.

I baked it for about 23 mins and then let it sit for another 5 to 10 and it was still steaming hot!

This was a really tasty recipe and EASY! Here's my version:

Chicken and Pea Casserole

INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 (16 oz.) package of rigatoni pasta
1 (10 oz.) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup sour cream
2 cups of cubed chicken breasts
1 package frozen peas
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp basil
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp freshly-ground black pepper
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese or Italian blend

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375°

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes; drain

Cook chicken in whatever way you want. I grilled it. Season with 1/2 tbsp of salt, pepper, basil and oregano.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together mushroom soup, sour cream, chicken, and peas. Then season with garlic powder, onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper.

Stir cooked pasta into chicken mixture until well combined. Pour pasta mixture into a 9x10-inch casserole dish, and spread out evenly. Top with cheese, and spray the top with a bit of cooking spray.

Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove from oven, and let cool 5- 10 minutes

Herb-encrusted steaks with a Port reduction

2008-08-04T07:58:00.011-05:00

Saturday night i thawed out a couple beef tenderloin filets. I didn't want to do some traditional "throwing them on the grill" and i really wanted to fix a recipe that has quickly become one of my favorites. So i combined the two!

Instead of making this recipe as a roast beef, i made it using two wonderful little filets.

I thawed the filets out during the day, so they were pretty much at room temp when i decided to start cooking. If your's aren't - let them sit for a little bit [the recipe says 30 mins, if you're using an actual roast].

At this point you want to go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 400°, which is what i did on saturday...only to discover when it was time to put the steaks in, that my oven wasn't working. So i whipped out my toaster oven and pre-heated it 400°. I SERIOUSLY doubt this would work if you're using the roast though. Wait 'til the oven's fixed!

So oven [whatever kind] is pre-heating. Heat a small amount of oil in your pan over med high heat and bring up to temp. While i was waiting, i rubbed the meat liberally with salt and pepper then placed them into the hot pan. I seared them on each side about 3 mins. I like my steaks as close to rare as possible but still warm in the center.

While the steaks are searing, use this time to make the herbed breadcrumbs for our crust.

In medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, garlic, shallots, thyme, marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pour melted butter over mixture and toss to combine. It should look like this:

Remove the steaks from pan when finished cooking. Set them aside to cool to the touch because as soon as you can, we're going to be rubbing our hands all over it lol. I place my roast beef in a 9x9 baking dish lined in aluminum foil [for easy clean-up]. The steaks i needed to put into little individual casserole dishes lined with foil [see pic below].

Now that the meat's resting in its dish and cool; we smear the meat with Dijon mustard!

Personally, i like horseradish with my steak, so i found this:

Emeril's Kicked Up Horseradish Mustard

The recipe calls for 1/3 cup Dijon mustard, but i don't measure it. I just get a good layer of mustard on the top and sides of the meat. This goes for using individual steaks or a roast. And if you don't like Dijon, use a mustard you DO like.

So steaks are rubbed with mustard, now its time to coat in the breadcrumb mixture. Scoop up some of the mixture with your hands, and start smooshing it into the mustard-smeared meat. Do this until your all out of breadcrumbs. If i can't seem to get anymore to adhere to the meat, i sprinkle what's left on top.

Finally, we throw them bad boys in the oven. For medium rare, about 60 minutes for strip loin roast or 60-80 minutes for top sirloin roast, depending on thickness. For the steaks, i did 15 mins because i most definitely DID NOT want them over cooked.

While the meat's cooking, we can move on to the BEST part! The Port Reduction! Now, first i need to preface this with the fact that i LOVE LOVE LOVE port!! So any chance i have to cook with port and take a few nips out of the bottle for my own enjoyment - i do!

Firstly, heat the pan with the fond [this is what's left over in the pan after searing the steaks or roast] over medium high flame; Pour in the port and watch it steam off.
Use a wooden spoon to rub at the fond while the port is boiling, “cleaning” the entire pan so the yumminess of the fond is suspended in the port. When the volume has reduced by half, add a pat of butter. Now stir the butter in and continue to reduce until the sauce is thick enough to your liking.

Now saying "thick" here is a bit of a misnomer - it WILL NOT BE THICK like bbq sauce or something like that - its not thick by any standard of the imagination. Its thin - like the wine you're using. Just reduce it a bit and give it enough time to really soak up and combine flavors. This reduction is SO DAMN GOOD!!

Ok, by now the meat should be able to come out. Now if you're going according to the recipe i'm going to post in full, you should let the meat rest about 15 mins before serving, but since i used steaks, there was no need.

Plate 'em up and serve with the reduction. You can either serve it on the side or pour some over the steak. I went with the latter.

SO GOOD!!

Here's the recipe!

Herb-Encrusted Roast Beef with a Port Reduction

Ingredients:
1 5-pound boneless strip loin roast or 5- to 6-pound top sirloin roast with cap removed, trimmed if necessary, patted dry
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup coarse bread crumbs
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium shallots, minced
1 tbsp thyme, chopped
1 tbsp marjoram, chopped
4 tbsp melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup Dijon mustard

Instructions:
Let the roast sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Position a rack in the middle of oven and heat to 400F.
Put roasting rack in a roasting pan or heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet (line pan with foil for easier cleanup).
Season the roast liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.
Turn on exhaust fan.
Heat oil in large sauté pan over medium-high heat.
When oil is hot, brown meat on all sides, including ends, about 2 - 4 minutes per side
Transfer meat to roasting pan.
Set aside while preparing crust.
In medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, garlic, shallots, thyme, marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
Pour melted butter over mixture and toss to combine.
Smear the mustard all over the roast
With hands, press breadcrumb mixture all over the roast into the mustard.
Roast the beef until instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 125F for medium rare, about 60 minutes for strip loin roast or 60-80 minutes for top sirloin roast, depending on thickness.
Check the crust often.
When it is golden brown, tent the roast with foil to prevent burning.
Remove roast from oven and let meat rest for 10-20 minutes before carving across the grain, into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Port Reduction Sauce
Ingredients:
fond from searing the beef
1-2 cups port
1-2 tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions:
Heat the pan with the fond over medium high to high flame.
Pour in the port and watch it steam off.
Use a wooden spoon to rub at the fond while the port is boiling.
You should “clean” the entire pan so the fond is suspended in the port.
When the volume has reduced by half, add a pat of butter.
Stir the butter in and continue to reduce until the sauce is thick enough to your liking.
Remove from heat and serve with roast.

Memphis, TN - the land of BBQ

2008-07-30T08:06:00.017-05:00

So while in Memphis, my friend Jenn and I hit up a couple of the more famous bbq places there, Corky's and Central. Friday lunch was Corkys.

Corky's Bar BQ
5259 Poplar Ave
Memphis, TN 38119
(901) 685-9744

First out came these great rolls with honey butter.

Then the entree! I had the pulled pork plate with cole slaw and baked beans. Its funny though b/c just up until recent i would NOT eat cole slaw - now i won't eat it unless its on top of something [ie: bbq or hot dog]

This was THE best bbq, i've ever had in my life. It literally melted in your mouth. It was fantastic! The slaw was pretty good and the beans were...meh. The sweet tea was good though!

Saturday afternoon, we hit up Central BBQ for lunch. This was my favorite, by far!

Central BBQ
2249 Central Ave
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 272-9377

Central was my favorite b/c not only was the bbq great - but my tea came in a plastic cup and i LOVE take-home plastic cups. lol Here are a few pics of the interior of Central BBQ.

If you read the menu board carefully, they offer a bologna sandwich. I SO wanted to order the bologna sandwich, just to see what it would have been like. But atlas...i did not.

Then out came my food and it was AWESOME. I ordered collard greens, mac n cheese and the pulled pork plate. SO GOOD! And i loved how they sprinkled the mac n cheese with paprika...ooh fancy mac n cheese!

This bbq was equally as tender, but Central had a better choice of sides. They also had better sauces than Corky's.

Saturday night, we went to eat at the restuarant where Jenn works downtown, called Spindini. And i'm going to preface this with - "Holy crap! that place is expensive!" and this is coming from a girl who lives and goes out in Atlanta!

Spindini
383 South Main Street
Memphis, TN 38103
(901) 578-2767

We both had salad. She had the caesar salad, but it wasn't a traditional caesar b/c it had an orange tinge to it - i believe it may have had some tomato something or other in it. I, on the otherhand, went for a classic wedge of lettuce with bleu cheese and bacon. This thing was HUGE and really very very good! I would definitely recommend it.

After that, we decided to split an entree. I wanted the manicotti, but Jenn wasn't feeling that so we split a good ole' standby - Chicken Parmesan.

It was very good too, but i couldn't help but feel that it had been beaten to death in the back. It was a very thin chicken parmesan. And i'm not saying i wanted this giant chicken breast, but maybe they could have not smooshed it so very much. All in all - it was very good, but i just can't justify the prices we paid - even with her employee discount...

So that's it for the food adventure part of Memphis! There was a lot of other things that went on, but drama isn't the name of this food blog! lol

Memphis is a nice city - but i'm SO glad to be back in Atlanta.

Recipe tomorrow! I don't know what i'm cooking yet for dinner, but i've got chicken thawing. So who knows!

Lots of pictures tomorrow!

2008-07-28T08:20:00.007-05:00

I went to Memphis, TN this past weekend and had lots of good bbq! I took tons of pictures and will be posting them tomorrow! I'm still recovering today and too lazy to even worry about it.

I did do some shopping too though - 3 words. William-Sonoma Outlet. I bought Calphalon Infused-Anodized 5-Qt. Deep Sauté Pan for about half of what it retails for... i love finding a bargain! Also got some MATCHING [shocker, i know] small plates to replace the mismatched ones i've had since college. ADULTHOOD HERE I COME! lol

On a different note, CONGRATS to my co-worker, Randy and his wife Darci on their new baby girl, Sydney Claire! Randy became officially responsible for another human life on Saturday, July 28 at 5:26 pm EST - Lord help us all! lol

Kidding, Randy and again.. congratulations!!

TOMORROW FOOD FOOD FOOD!
UPDATE:
Here are a couple of pics of Randy, Darci and Sydney.

Shrimp Etouffee and Blackberry Cobbler

2008-07-23T07:41:00.012-05:00

I was tired of the same old thing so i went scouring the internet for a shrimp etouffee recipes and found one on nolacuisine.com and figured where better to get a recipe for cajun food? And it was awesome! Also I halved the recipe b/c i figured one pound of shrimp was plenty for one person with leftovers. i'm not halving the one i'm posting b/c fractions and math are beyond me.

Onto the cooking!

First i made the shrimp stock:

The shrimp stock is the following:
The Shells and tails from 2 lb. of Shrimp
1/2 Cup chopped Onion
1/4 Cup chopped Celery
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Bay Leaves
3 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
1 tsp. Black Peppercorns

Add all ingredients to a 2 qt. saucepan. Cover this with cold water, it should be about 6-8 Cups Cups. You’ll only need 1 1/2 Cups for the etouffee. Bring almost to a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

While your shrimp stock is simmering, put shrimp in a bowl and sprinkle with a tablespoon of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning and toss so all the shrimp gets covered.

Next i got out my grandmother's cast iron skillet and melted the butter.

After the butter melted, i added the onions, bell pepper, and celery, sauted until translucent. This picture below is before i added the red pepper :)

Next stir in the flour to make a blond roux, stirring constantly, about 3 or 4 minutes. Stir in a tablespoon of Tony Chachere's. Add a small amount of the shrimp stock, stir well to form a paste, add the remaining stock gradually, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, Thyme, Worcestershire, and hot sauce, a little salt, black pepper, and Cayenne. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Finally add the shrimp, green onions, and parsley, simmer for 10 minutes more or until the shrimp are cooked through.

That's it! I served it over white rice that i cooked in the normal rice cooking way, but threw in a couple bay leaves while it was boiling to give it a little more flavor.

While the etouffee was cooking, i started to put together the blackberry cobbler. Firstly, i need to preface this with a little back story. I picked the blackberries myself on saturday and then VACUUM-PACKED them until i could use them.

This recipe is actually Paula Deen's Peach Cobbler but i figured fruit is fruit and decided to try it with blackberries.

I didn't take any pictures of my actually putting the cobbler together, but this is what the finished product looks like!

Here are the recipes!

Shrimp Etouffee
compliments of NOLA Cuisine

2 Tbsp Creole Seasoning (Tony Chachere's is THE BEST!)
4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Onion, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Celery, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Bell Pepper, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Flour
3/4 Cup fresh Tomatoes, diced
1 1/2 Cups Shrimp Stock
2 Tbsp Minced Garlic
I bundle of Fresh Thyme
2 tspWorcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Hot Sauce (I like Louisiana Hot Sauce or Texas Pete)
1/2 Cup Green Onions, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp minced Italian Parsley
2 lb Good Quality Shrimp, Peeled and Deveined, Save shells for the stock
3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste

Season the shrimp with 1 Tbsp of the Creole Seasoning.

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet, add the onions, bell pepper, and celery, saute until translucent. Whisk in the flour to make a blonde roux, stirring constantly, about 4 minutes.

Stir in the remaining Creole Seasoning. Add a small amount of the shrimp stock, stir well to form a paste, add the remaining stock gradually, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. You may need a little more stock, but the end result should be the consistency of a gravy, not too thick, not too thin.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, Thyme, Worcestershire, and hot sauce & black pepper. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add the shrimp, green onions, and parsley, simmer for 10 minutes more or until the shrimp are cooked through.

Blackberry Cobbler
compliments of Paula Deen

4 cups fresh blackberries
2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup water
8 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the peaches, 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Put the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place in oven to melt.

Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Batter will rise to top during baking. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

RUSH tonight - recipes tomorrow!

2008-07-22T10:04:00.004-05:00

I cooked last night - shrimp etouffee and blackberry cobbler, but i'm only working a half day today so no time to post the pics from the camera i didn't even bother bringing into the office.

Why am i taking a half day? oh i don't know... maybe to go see RUSH tonight!! So excited - third show for me this tour! W00t! Yes, they are starting to become wrinkly old dudes.. but shit happens to the best of us.

So pics and recipes tomorrow! Btw - it was all VERY VERY good!

Buffalo Chicken Burgers and Asparagus

2008-07-17T07:58:00.018-05:00

I'd found this recipe online awhile ago and I'd been wanting to try to for ages. So last night i finally went and bought the ground chicken i needed to make these little patties of sauciness.

First off, i need to preface this by saying they were VERY good - just REALLY reminded me of my mom's salmon croquettes in texture.

I started by making the dressing first so that it could chill out in the fridge for a bit while i made everything else. I mixed mayo, red wine vinegar, milk, ranch powder, blue cheese and pepper in a medium sized bowl. Got it all good and mixed and stuck it in said fridge.

Next, i made the yummy buffalo sauce. I melted butter over medium heat, and then added garlic
and sautéd until fragrant. At this point, i added sliced hungarian wax peppers. I coated them well with the sauce and stirred them around for a minute or so. Finally, remove the sauce from heat and add the additional red wine vinegar and hot sauce and stir well.

Now on to the burgers!

Mix the ground chicken, bread crumbs, egg, garlic, salt and pepper and hot sauce in a large bowl. That's the easy part. Now you've got to take that sticky meatloaf-esque concoction and make the patties. Sounds simple enough... yeah, not so much.

They are REALLY sticky! Originally, the recipe said "dredge in flour" after forming the patties. I found out that dredge is replaced by "liberally sprinkle" in real life. I did it over the sink so i didn't have to worry about being particularly clean and gave each one a health sprinkling of flour while in hand so that i could form the patties.

Keep in mind they are very fragile, so if your pan is hot, you could go straight to the stove with them.

Its cooking time!

I used my new grill pan, but you could easily do these on an outdoor grill or in a pan. I cooked them for about 3 mins on each side before i started slathering on our buffalo sauce, which i did several times, turning them along the way. All in all, i think they were on the grill 5 mins per side and i think i flipped them at least 2 or 3 times along the way - grilling in the sauce. I, then, placed them on a plate to rest a bit.

So now while our burgers are resting, i can real quickly go over the asparagus, which was SO perfect. Every now and then Publix will actually have decent, tiny asparagus and when they do i buy a lot. lol

So i washed it and then cut the bottom 2 inches off and placed it in a pan. Fill the pan up with water until its covering about 1/2 of it, place it on the stove at medium heat and give a few shakes of salt. That's pretty much it - i use a pair of tongs to rotate the asparagus around so it cooks evenly. Once the asparagus turns a BRIGHT GREEN you are good to go. [In the pic, the asparagus was just put on the stove] All i add to the asparagus is salt, pepper and a little bit of Parmesan cheese and its ready to eat. i've never understood putting butter on asparagus - its just so good mostly naked!

Ok, asparagus done - burgers almost done!

I bought some french hamburger rolls, sliced one and then toasted it briefly on the still hot grill pan. Put that bad boy on a plate, add the chicken patties, more of our buffalo sauce [add the peppers too if you want some extra kick] then topped it off with a heafty spoonful of dressing. And i ended up with this!

These burgers were VERY good as i stated earlier, but the texture takes a little getting used to. I think i might make then in the future as whole chicken breasts, instead of ground chicken breast.

The recipe i'm going to list is for 8 servings - which i halved. But don't look at me to make the adjustments precisely - i can't do math and fractions and stuff.

Buffalo Chicken Burgers
Serves 8

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground chicken breast
1 egg
1/3 cup bread crumbs
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, minced
salt and pepper to taste
a generous splash of hot sauce
approx. 1/2 cup flour

Dressing:
1 cup mayo
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon ranch dressing powder
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
pepper to taste

Buffalo Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
4 fresh peppers, sliced [whatever suites your hotness liking]
2 bottles Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
pepper to taste
8 buns, lightly toasted
celery to garnish

Directions:
Mix chicken, bread crumbs, egg, garlic, salt and paper and hot sauce
Carefully form patties and liberally sprinkle with flour as you are doing so.

Dipping sauce/dressing
Combine mayo, vinegar, milk, ranch powder, blue cheese and pepper.
Cover and put in the fridge

The sauce
Melt butter over medium heat, and then add garlic and sauté until fragrant.
Add peppers and mix well within the sauce.
Remove from heat and add red wine vinegar, hot sauce and stir to combine.

Grilling the patties
Spray your pan with non-stick spray and pan grill the patties.
Depending on the size and thickness of your burgers, this should take about 5-6 minutes per side. When burgers are mostly cooked through and starting to turn golden, add sauce to coat the patties. Keep turning and coating until they've been on for about a totally of 10 minsutes

Serve burgers on toasted buns with dressing

Blanched Asparagus

Ingredients:
one bunch of asparagus
salt
pepper
parmesan cheese

Directions:
wash asparagus and then chop off the bottom 2 inches or so
place into pan
cover 1/2 way with water and place on medium heat
salt water and asparagus
let water come to a boil and rotate the bottom pieces of asparagus with the top ones so everything cooks evenly
once the asparagus turns a lovely bright green, remove from heat, and drain
then sprinkle with salt, pepper and parmesan

FoodSaver® - I LOVE YOU!

2008-07-15T15:31:00.011-05:00

Ok so I've wanted a real FoodSaver® forEVER and I finally got one thanks to my mom and dad!

Well, due to how busy they are and that I'm about to wet my pants in anticipation, I went ahead and ordered it today. A REAL FoodSaver® on MY counter top in a matter of mere days... it boggles the mind.

So if you don't hear from me once it arrives, its b/c iIve vacuum-packed myself for freshness. I'm going to [pardon the expression] suck the air out of EVERYTHING in my apartment. I may have to make one of those mega-shopping trips and go to COSTCO and buy half a cow just to suck all the air out of it and throw it in the freezer.

OMG! i'm so freakin' excited!

Here's what the ole' girl looks like and all the stuff she comes with:

So i will be saying "So long, rarely used toaster oven!" and "Hello, my stainless steel, long-awaited beauty!" /swoons *THUD!*

PS: I promise I'll actually cook something tomorrow night! This blog's supposedly about cooking, I think...

Where the magic happens...

2008-07-15T07:48:00.006-05:00

I didn't cook anything last night - but i made some mint tea. The recipe is completely unimpressive and i'm not 100% on getting it right yet, so here are some pictures of my kitchen.

Today's is Stubbs' birthday! Happy Birthday, you lucky bastard in living in Hawaii! To make everyone else jealous - here's a picture of his back yard

ARGH!

2008-07-14T10:43:00.002-05:00

ok so i'm having some serious formatting issue with this whole "use our easy template" crap blogspot is laying on me. eventually i'll get this thing looking halfway decent, but until then - as the cliche goes - please pardon our mess.

stupid HTML!

UPDATE: hey look at me! making things not look so much like crap! W00t!

Also i am more than willing to open up my shiny new blog to GUEST CONTRIBUTORS! so if you've got something awesome you wanna share, let me know!

Herb & Cheese Savory Crackers with Balsamic Syrup

2008-07-14T10:39:00.005-05:00

Recipe from Dragon's Kitchen
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour 2 tbsp of fresh rosemary
1/4 cup of butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of sour cream Salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor, place flour, rosemary, butter, salt and pepper. Pulse until combined.
Add the Parmesan cheese and sour cream.
Pulse until the dough comes together.
Roll dough out into a log and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Slice dough into cookies and place them on a lined baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes, until they just start to brown.
Serve with balsamic syrup.

Balsamic Syrup
Ingredients:
1 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of light flavored honey

Directions:
Combine balsamic vinegar, sugar and honey in a saucepan over medium/low heat.

Simmer until reduced by ½ and has the consistency of syrup.

Be careful not to let it reduce too much or it will become bitter and hard. Also watch out for the fumes from the vinegar as it cooks.

Allow the syrup to come to room temperature. You can cover and refrigerate the syrup for up to 2 weeks.

COMMENTS: These were goodish... i don't know how i feel about them. One thing i did learn is the more i cook with rosemary, the less i believe i like it.

Ricotta-Stuffed Bacon-Wrapped Dates

2008-07-14T10:37:00.004-05:00

Recipe courtesy Dave Lieberman

Ingredients:
1 pound (about 12 to 13 slices) bacon
25 Medjool dates (about 3/4 pound)
1/3 cup ricotta cheese

Special Equipment: toothpicks, a bamboo skewer for removing pits

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Cut the bacon in half lengthwise to make twice as many slices. Set aside.

To remove the pits from the dates, cut the tips off each end of the dates and insert the flat end of the skewer until it pushes the pit out of the date. Repeat with remaining dates. [i didn't use a skewer. I used a metal chopstick. Anything narrow and pointy will work]

Place the ricotta in the bottom corner of a strong plastic bag and seal tightly. Use scissors to cut a small hole in the tip of 1 of the corners. Now use the bag like a piping bag to fill the dates with the cheese. [i felt SO professional doing this lol]

Wrap the ricotta stuffed dates with a slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick through the belly of the date.

Arrange all the prepared dates on an aluminum foil covered baking sheet, allowing at least a little space between each one for good browning. [I used the foil for easy clean up]

Roast for 15 to 20 minutes or until bacon is browned and crispy. Remove from the baking sheet and gently remove toothpicks.

Serve immediately!

COMMENTS: These were very good as well, but you really could only eat a few at a sitting. I actually ate a couple yesterday and i think they're better the NEXT day b/c the sweetness of the dates is mellowed slightly by being wrapped in all that bacony-goodness for 24 hours. lol

Saturday Night

2008-07-14T09:48:00.002-05:00

So this past saturday night i had the parental units over for a dinner composed of tapas. Mom brought a couple of things, but i made the majority of the meal by serving the following:

coconut shrimp with an apricot sweet chili dipping sauce and a chinese honey mustard dipping sauce
ricotta stuffed, bacon wrapped dates
herb and cheese savory crackers with a balsamic syrup

The pictures i have are from the contributing website b/c i didn't know i'd be starting a food blog on monday. Gimme break - i JUST started!

Water Chestnuts are gross.

2008-07-14T09:37:00.001-05:00

I've been an avid reader of food blogs for a year or so, hording recipes from them and stashing them in my huge binder only to be shared with those lucky enough to have the giant binder thrust upon them. But now, its time for me to share my recipes and dining experiences with complete strangers.

welcome to water chestnuts are gross... because they are.