Pork chops breaded with panko and shredded parmesan cheese. To die for...and certainly something I'd serve again. Since we're trying to eat light (ish) I served them with roasted butternut squash and an arugula salad. Delish!
Showing posts with label favorite recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label favorite recipes. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2016
My New Favorite
I made this for a Friday night dinner and it was awesome! Not surprisingly, the recipe was from America's Test Kitchen.
Pork chops breaded with panko and shredded parmesan cheese. To die for...and certainly something I'd serve again. Since we're trying to eat light (ish) I served them with roasted butternut squash and an arugula salad. Delish!
Pork chops breaded with panko and shredded parmesan cheese. To die for...and certainly something I'd serve again. Since we're trying to eat light (ish) I served them with roasted butternut squash and an arugula salad. Delish!
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Taking the Reins
As I've mentioned before, my husband is the cook. I CAN cook, but he's more of the family chef than I am. I can certainly feed my family, and I can make good food, but fancy food is not in my reparte.
Except for last night, where I have to say I made a pretty damn good Chicken Marsala.
Chicken Marsala is my favorite meal. It's what I judge a new (to me) restaurant on, and a favorite at some of my favorites. So when I saw that Brian had put it on the menu with rice and steamed zucchini, I was excited for a Monday night dinner. Being excited for anything on a Monday is a stretch, so this was a big deal.
In comes Murphy's Law. Good Ol' Mr. Murphy likes Mondays. And a big monkey wrench was thrown into the Chicken Marsala plans. Huge accident on the MassPike involving a coffee truck overturning and leaking fuel, which naturally brought gridlock and a rotten commute for all. Even for me, the lady who has nothing to complain about now that she has a itty bitty commute compared to the big honking 35-miles-each-way-through-Hell that I had years ago. I called Brian on the way home and reported the mess, and told him that it was going to take a while. He said that we could order sandwiches when he got home, whenever that was going to be.
Upon getting home though, I remembered that driving in that kind of mess just sucks the energy right out of you. Sometimes Brian would have a hot meal waiting for me and the travel stress would just slide away like water off a duck's back. So my mind was made up...dammit, I'm going in.....to the kitchen.
Instead of rice, I chose mashed potatoes since potatoes go bad a lot faster than rice. I pounded chicken breasts, sauteed mushrooms and onions, made sauce from scratch. All while feeding the kids sliced apples and leftover homemade mac n cheese with ham and fielding math questions from Sean and Minecraft video recaps from Will. At one point my house grew very smoky, and I had to run around opening doors and windows. (No fire alarms!) I was plating the chicken as the garage door opened, and everything was perfect. Well, truth be told the house was a little chilly because I forgot to close the dining room window. Usually I'm the chilly one but I was in a camisole and busting my butt in the kitchen! The chicken was perfectly cooked, soft without a hint of "rubber." The mushroom and onions didn't burn at all and the sauce was blended nicely. Awesome, I pulled it off!!!
And Brian? He loved it. Not that our local sandwich place doesn't have mighty fine wares, but a homecooked meal from someone that loves you at the end of a stressful day....nothing better than that.
Except for last night, where I have to say I made a pretty damn good Chicken Marsala.
Chicken Marsala is my favorite meal. It's what I judge a new (to me) restaurant on, and a favorite at some of my favorites. So when I saw that Brian had put it on the menu with rice and steamed zucchini, I was excited for a Monday night dinner. Being excited for anything on a Monday is a stretch, so this was a big deal.
In comes Murphy's Law. Good Ol' Mr. Murphy likes Mondays. And a big monkey wrench was thrown into the Chicken Marsala plans. Huge accident on the MassPike involving a coffee truck overturning and leaking fuel, which naturally brought gridlock and a rotten commute for all. Even for me, the lady who has nothing to complain about now that she has a itty bitty commute compared to the big honking 35-miles-each-way-through-Hell that I had years ago. I called Brian on the way home and reported the mess, and told him that it was going to take a while. He said that we could order sandwiches when he got home, whenever that was going to be.
Upon getting home though, I remembered that driving in that kind of mess just sucks the energy right out of you. Sometimes Brian would have a hot meal waiting for me and the travel stress would just slide away like water off a duck's back. So my mind was made up...dammit, I'm going in.....to the kitchen.
Instead of rice, I chose mashed potatoes since potatoes go bad a lot faster than rice. I pounded chicken breasts, sauteed mushrooms and onions, made sauce from scratch. All while feeding the kids sliced apples and leftover homemade mac n cheese with ham and fielding math questions from Sean and Minecraft video recaps from Will. At one point my house grew very smoky, and I had to run around opening doors and windows. (No fire alarms!) I was plating the chicken as the garage door opened, and everything was perfect. Well, truth be told the house was a little chilly because I forgot to close the dining room window. Usually I'm the chilly one but I was in a camisole and busting my butt in the kitchen! The chicken was perfectly cooked, soft without a hint of "rubber." The mushroom and onions didn't burn at all and the sauce was blended nicely. Awesome, I pulled it off!!!
And Brian? He loved it. Not that our local sandwich place doesn't have mighty fine wares, but a homecooked meal from someone that loves you at the end of a stressful day....nothing better than that.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Brian's Creations
Brian wrote the menu last week, and it was all based on ideas instead of recipes. I don't usually cook like that, I prefer a recipe. But he's good at it.
First one was his new take on Chicken Parmesan. He had seen something on a food network gameshow that gave him the idea, and this is the result:
Fresh Chicken Parm with Couscous
Pan-fried chicken cutlet, topped with canned tomato, a slice of mozzarella and a spinach-arugula blend. Oh, and shredded parmesan. Couscous was a nice departure from the normal spaghetti, too. It tasted light and fresh, which while I love traditional chicken parm, one does not describe it as "light."
Seared sea scallops over linguine.
This recipe puts Olive Garden to shame! I say that because we went to Olive Garden last month and it was truly disappointing. I ordered a chicken pasta dish that was like sixteen bucks and what was it? A pound of angel hair with a little butter and wine, couple of pieces of chicken and a whole pepper cut into huge hunks. Not their best efforts. This was scallops, a wine and butter sauce, pepper and onion stirfy and some more of that shredded parmesan. Not to mention, the rest of that spinach and arugula blend, with Brian's own made-up balsamic and lemon dressing! (Totally made up on the spot, and it was great!)
I wrote the menu this week, and it's back to recipes. It'll still be good, though.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Guac Talk
Hi, I'm Ginny and I'm a guacamole fan. Make that a guacamole addict, and I'm roping my husband in on it, too.
Good LORD I love guacamole. And if it's homemade, even better! Actually, now that I've been making it myself for some time, I don't think I'll ever buy store-made again. I don't even use a recipe. Just a few avocados, a chopped tomato, finely-chopped onion (red is better but white will do in a pinch), fresh lime juice and salt, and fresh cilantro. I mix 'em together and bring on the chips!
I didn't think my husband would ever eat avocado, but now we edge each other out at the bowl. Funny how things change over the years!
I'm thinking now that the avocado could shine in other dishes. Perhaps a salad with avocado and either grapefruit, orange or mango, and definitely the red onion. My wheels are turning for this summer.
Good LORD I love guacamole. And if it's homemade, even better! Actually, now that I've been making it myself for some time, I don't think I'll ever buy store-made again. I don't even use a recipe. Just a few avocados, a chopped tomato, finely-chopped onion (red is better but white will do in a pinch), fresh lime juice and salt, and fresh cilantro. I mix 'em together and bring on the chips!
I didn't think my husband would ever eat avocado, but now we edge each other out at the bowl. Funny how things change over the years!
I'm thinking now that the avocado could shine in other dishes. Perhaps a salad with avocado and either grapefruit, orange or mango, and definitely the red onion. My wheels are turning for this summer.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
More March Meals
The last few weeks have been insane. Getting a house ready to sell is way more work than I ever thought.
It's going well, though. I've packed up a lot of things for storage, and we've painted, cleaned, fixed, installed, and lots of other action words and items. Pretty soon though, I'll be packing up the cookbooks. That's ok though, there's still the Internet. :)
I haven't had time to write individual meal posts, so how about a summary.
One night last week we had Pork Lettuce Wraps, courtesy of this month's "Cooking Light." Usually I make these with chicken, so this was a nice change. The ground pork is mixed with garlic and ginger and sauteed, and the vegetables (peppers, cucumber, etc...I didn't have any carrot so I put some onion in there instead) were supposed to be raw. I don't really like raw veggies on a wrap, so I opted to sautee lightly. It called for a serrano pepper, but only half of a serrano pepper. Right, anyway....I chopped up a whole one because they're small and I am just NOT going to put half a serrano pepper away in the crisper to rot slowly. I ignored my desire to put sriracha sauce in the mix and I'm glad I did because OH BABY! Those were spicier than expected. Delicious though. Brian wasn't crazy about them because of the intense flavors. (Fresh garlic, ginger paste, serrano) I served the leftovers over rice the next day and was thrilled with them.
We were replacing the carpet in the family room over to Pergo laminate flooring on St. Patrick's Day weekend. I had anticipated that this would take both Saturday and Sunday, so there really wasn't a point to making a corned beef and cabbage dinner. Which is really too bad, because I love corned beef and cabbage! So I planned an Irish Beef Stew instead. And thanks to the awesome skills of hubby, my brother and my dad, the floor was done in a day! I am SO THANKFUL that we have family members that not only have the skills to do this kind of work, that they don't mind helping! The stew was really good, with some Irish soda bread on the side. (not made by either of us, but bought at Price Chopper.)
Lastly, and I feel this really deserves its own blog entry....steak over arugula with a parmesan butter. This recipe was out of Epicurious (goodness what a great cookbook!) and it only called for 12 oz of ribeye steak. I was skeptical, I really was. But sliced up, and served with a balsamic brown sugar and shallot glaze and the aforementioned pamesan butter? This was good enough to be restaurant food. And I wasn't at all unhappy with the amount of steak. So, so very good. And a very easy recipe to boot, the only difficult part was making sure you didn't overcook the steak.
That's it for now, folks!
It's going well, though. I've packed up a lot of things for storage, and we've painted, cleaned, fixed, installed, and lots of other action words and items. Pretty soon though, I'll be packing up the cookbooks. That's ok though, there's still the Internet. :)
I haven't had time to write individual meal posts, so how about a summary.
One night last week we had Pork Lettuce Wraps, courtesy of this month's "Cooking Light." Usually I make these with chicken, so this was a nice change. The ground pork is mixed with garlic and ginger and sauteed, and the vegetables (peppers, cucumber, etc...I didn't have any carrot so I put some onion in there instead) were supposed to be raw. I don't really like raw veggies on a wrap, so I opted to sautee lightly. It called for a serrano pepper, but only half of a serrano pepper. Right, anyway....I chopped up a whole one because they're small and I am just NOT going to put half a serrano pepper away in the crisper to rot slowly. I ignored my desire to put sriracha sauce in the mix and I'm glad I did because OH BABY! Those were spicier than expected. Delicious though. Brian wasn't crazy about them because of the intense flavors. (Fresh garlic, ginger paste, serrano) I served the leftovers over rice the next day and was thrilled with them.
We were replacing the carpet in the family room over to Pergo laminate flooring on St. Patrick's Day weekend. I had anticipated that this would take both Saturday and Sunday, so there really wasn't a point to making a corned beef and cabbage dinner. Which is really too bad, because I love corned beef and cabbage! So I planned an Irish Beef Stew instead. And thanks to the awesome skills of hubby, my brother and my dad, the floor was done in a day! I am SO THANKFUL that we have family members that not only have the skills to do this kind of work, that they don't mind helping! The stew was really good, with some Irish soda bread on the side. (not made by either of us, but bought at Price Chopper.)
Lastly, and I feel this really deserves its own blog entry....steak over arugula with a parmesan butter. This recipe was out of Epicurious (goodness what a great cookbook!) and it only called for 12 oz of ribeye steak. I was skeptical, I really was. But sliced up, and served with a balsamic brown sugar and shallot glaze and the aforementioned pamesan butter? This was good enough to be restaurant food. And I wasn't at all unhappy with the amount of steak. So, so very good. And a very easy recipe to boot, the only difficult part was making sure you didn't overcook the steak.
That's it for now, folks!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Zucchini Feast
What do you do when you have a bumper crop of zucchini? Well for starters, you share it. So far my daycare provider and coworkers have both benefitted from the tons of zucchini that I've managed to grow this year, as well as two of my neighbors! After that, you start to cook with it. A lot! Although I love zucchini grilled or sauteed, we need some other ideas.
We had friends over for dinner the other night and I tried something I'd never done before: fried zucchini. It was, in a word, awesome! I never realized how delectable fried zucchini is. The recipe came from Joy of Cooking and was very simple. Flour, club soda, parsley and dill. Dip the zucchini in the batter and fry for a few minutes. We dotted it with a little cider vinegar and the four of us polished it off!
Chocolate zucchini bread. This recipe yielded two delightful loaves of bread, and they smell heavenly! Plus the boys have been fooled before....can Mama pull it off again? Only time will tell...
Mark Bittman's Lemony Zucchini Risotto. Fried eggs this time instead of poached, and it was every bit as good as the first time! I seriously wanted to lick the bowl. There's leftover risotto for lunch at work tomorrow, sans eggs. If only it wasn't messy to bring an egg to fry!
Guess what? Still have a ton of zucchini. Some of it is shredded in the fridge, waiting to become Cheddar Zucchini Bread. The rest? Not so sure. I'm still looking for new and exciting recipes.
We had friends over for dinner the other night and I tried something I'd never done before: fried zucchini. It was, in a word, awesome! I never realized how delectable fried zucchini is. The recipe came from Joy of Cooking and was very simple. Flour, club soda, parsley and dill. Dip the zucchini in the batter and fry for a few minutes. We dotted it with a little cider vinegar and the four of us polished it off!
Chocolate zucchini bread. This recipe yielded two delightful loaves of bread, and they smell heavenly! Plus the boys have been fooled before....can Mama pull it off again? Only time will tell...
Mark Bittman's Lemony Zucchini Risotto. Fried eggs this time instead of poached, and it was every bit as good as the first time! I seriously wanted to lick the bowl. There's leftover risotto for lunch at work tomorrow, sans eggs. If only it wasn't messy to bring an egg to fry!
Guess what? Still have a ton of zucchini. Some of it is shredded in the fridge, waiting to become Cheddar Zucchini Bread. The rest? Not so sure. I'm still looking for new and exciting recipes.
Sunshine Pie
mmmmmm......pie.
I love pie. It doesn't matter what kind, I pretty much love it all. But a summer "peach and cream" pie with fresh peaches? For breakfast, even?
Yes, please. I baked this pie on Sunday, and the house smelled heavenly while it was in the oven. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com,, which I go to often. I did tweak the recipe a little bit, after reading other pie maker's notes. I cut the sugar down to half a cup instead of a whole cup (there's six peaches in there, so enough natural sweetness. I didn't miss the excess) and instead of baking it for an hour at 300 degrees, I did 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then 45 minutes on 350 degrees. The top was golden and everything was perfection.
Peaches are perfection in fact, they taste like warm sunshine.
I love pie. It doesn't matter what kind, I pretty much love it all. But a summer "peach and cream" pie with fresh peaches? For breakfast, even?
Yes, please. I baked this pie on Sunday, and the house smelled heavenly while it was in the oven. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com,, which I go to often. I did tweak the recipe a little bit, after reading other pie maker's notes. I cut the sugar down to half a cup instead of a whole cup (there's six peaches in there, so enough natural sweetness. I didn't miss the excess) and instead of baking it for an hour at 300 degrees, I did 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then 45 minutes on 350 degrees. The top was golden and everything was perfection.
Peaches are perfection in fact, they taste like warm sunshine.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Day Seven: Taco, Taco Taco
Dinner tonight was chicken and apple tacos. Very simple: sauteed chicken thighs, onion, granny smith apple, minced garlic, chili powder, rosemary, sage and coriander. Served on flour tortillas with a blend of cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Sometimes I toss it with a little cooked rice, or change the cheese to monty jack or even the apples to Golden Delicious. It's up to you.
The kids had their chicken with raw slices of apple, a little leftover cornbread and a mozzarella cheese stick. If it's the same ingredients as my dinner, I call it a win!
The kids had their chicken with raw slices of apple, a little leftover cornbread and a mozzarella cheese stick. If it's the same ingredients as my dinner, I call it a win!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Best. Pork. Ever.
The veggie of the week was broccoli rabe. Not a fan....quite bitter. But the pork? That MORE than made up for it!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
My Favorite, At Home
Chicken Marsala!
I don't know why we never considered making this at home....it is incredible!! There were plenty of leftovers so I got to enjoy some for lunch today, and perhaps even tomorrow too. Delicious!!!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Fabulous Holiday Lunch
Today is President's Day. We're celebrating by sorting through MORE clutter, taking the dog for a bath at Petsmart and oh yeah, I brought work home. But there is one thing that made today special:
Sausage and Butternut Squash Risotto!
Brian's started something where he picks a different veggie every week to bring home and highlight. This week's is Butternut Squash. I LOVE butternut squash, pretty much any way that I can get it!
Risotto is a slightly complicated dish, involving a lot of hands-on time while cooking. The end result is totally worth it, though. Total ingredient list: Arborio rice, sweet bulk Italian sausage, chicken broth, roasted butternut squash, cinnamon, allspice, Monterey jack cheese. Heaven in a bowl! Even better: there's lots of leftovers, enough for me to take some to work and some for Hubby to take to his work to feed his co-workers.
Monday, January 9, 2012
A Side Dish Worth Remembering
Dinner tonight: pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes and Brussel Sprouts with Bacon.
BACON!!!! it makes everything fantastic. But especially brussel sprouts.
They were so good, I ate them first. Eat your veggies!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Birthday Treats
Tomorrow is my birthday, but my family got together today, being the weekend and all. Nothing is better than having my family over for my birthday, I love family dinners.
Today's dinner was ALL. ABOUT. ME!!! A nice dinner at home, and I got to pick everything that went in it. So Italian it is....with both chicken and eggplant parmesan! Good Lord I love both of those things. To have them both on the same plate is just about as perfect as it gets!
For dessert I chose a Cake Doctor Recipe...one that resembles one of my favorite childhood treats. Hostess Cupcakes!! Devils' food cake, creamy filling and if they spell out "Happy Birthday Ginny," well, that is just sweet.
Today's dinner was ALL. ABOUT. ME!!! A nice dinner at home, and I got to pick everything that went in it. So Italian it is....with both chicken and eggplant parmesan! Good Lord I love both of those things. To have them both on the same plate is just about as perfect as it gets!
For dessert I chose a Cake Doctor Recipe...one that resembles one of my favorite childhood treats. Hostess Cupcakes!! Devils' food cake, creamy filling and if they spell out "Happy Birthday Ginny," well, that is just sweet.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Truckstop Fare
You can always tell when Winter Break starts for Brian....there's a stellar menu on the side of the fridge. This week's cookbook featured is "The Joy of Cooking" so it's a "Week of Joy!"
Last night's kitchen experiment: chicken-fried steak. I personally had never had it, but it sounded delicious. (It's breaded steak with gravy. What doesn't sound delish about that??) I posted it on Facebook and got several responses of "OMG, that is sooooo good!" And at least two people insisted that you MUST eat it with mashed potatoes. Which was good, because that's what we were having as a side dish. Since the potatoes were my responsibility, I chose to go the extra mile and added whole milk instead of 2%. It really does make for a better-tasting mashed potato.
The verdict? Brian and I loved it, and "squabbled" over the leftovers for the next day's lunch. (Turned out there was enough for both of us to have them, BTW) The kids...ehh. Sean liked it, but he was more into the apple slices and corn on his plate. Will politely tried a piece (which is a miracle in itself) and announced "Dad, I tried it and I don't like it." So he had a hot dog instead.
Last night's kitchen experiment: chicken-fried steak. I personally had never had it, but it sounded delicious. (It's breaded steak with gravy. What doesn't sound delish about that??) I posted it on Facebook and got several responses of "OMG, that is sooooo good!" And at least two people insisted that you MUST eat it with mashed potatoes. Which was good, because that's what we were having as a side dish. Since the potatoes were my responsibility, I chose to go the extra mile and added whole milk instead of 2%. It really does make for a better-tasting mashed potato.
The verdict? Brian and I loved it, and "squabbled" over the leftovers for the next day's lunch. (Turned out there was enough for both of us to have them, BTW) The kids...ehh. Sean liked it, but he was more into the apple slices and corn on his plate. Will politely tried a piece (which is a miracle in itself) and announced "Dad, I tried it and I don't like it." So he had a hot dog instead.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Cook All Weekend
We found ourselves with a free weekend with no plans, due to an early-season snowstorm. It's not even Halloween yet, and there was a decent-sized Nor'easter knocking on our door.
Snowy weekends always make me feel like cooking. This one was no exception!
First up: applesauce. Done right this time, I remembered to COVER THE PAN of apples while it was cooking. Made all the difference in the world.
Brian made Chicken Divan for dinner, which is one of my favorites. It's a tricky recipe though,if you prepare it the way that it's written (on the can of cream of chicken soup, that I saved the label many moons ago) the chicken turns out raw in the middle. We've tweaked it over the years, but it still sometimes comes out wrong. A little microwaving saved dinner! And the meal is cooked perfectly for leftovers at work tomorrow...it certainly won't be overcooked from microwaving.
Then last night we lost power. It was heavy snow falling, and a lot of Central MA was without power. We're one of the lucky ones, losing it for only three hours. So this morning, Brian made waffles. (And those were so special, they need their own blog post, with a little co-authoring.) After breakfast, I baked some banana walnut muffins. Don't get too excited...they're a box mix. I did stir in half a bag of chocolate chips to dress them up a little, though.
At the grocery yesterday, I bought the last two sugar pumpkins that were in Stop and Shop. And today, we've roasted them in the oven, to process the pulp for Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie later on. (And muffins, or bread, or whatever we feel like making. Gosh, I love pumpkin!)
On the stove right now: baked potato soup. I had this soup at our local coffee shop a few months ago and honestly I've wanted to have some more since! Hubby is not usually a fan of soups, unless, according to him, they clog his arteries upon digestion. :) This ought to do the trick.
My back is aching, and I should call it quits soon. But I'm still dreaming about baking some cookies for the kids, and I just found the recipe for the Squash and Apple Turnovers that we made last year from the October 2010 Cooking Light. AND I just found a recipe for beef and butternut chili. Yes, I'm the only one who will eat it. But who cares?? A girl needs lunch at work.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Pork and Sage...A Happy Marriage
Friday Night.
Pork chops, cut into chunks. Sliced Golden Delicious Apples and onion. A little cumin, minced garlic, and a bunch of fresh sage that one of Hubby's co-workers sent home with him. Sauteed together on the stove, and served atop warm flour tortillas. Add a little shredded colby jack cheese. Let your teeth sink in.
DIVINE. :)
Pork chops, cut into chunks. Sliced Golden Delicious Apples and onion. A little cumin, minced garlic, and a bunch of fresh sage that one of Hubby's co-workers sent home with him. Sauteed together on the stove, and served atop warm flour tortillas. Add a little shredded colby jack cheese. Let your teeth sink in.
DIVINE. :)
Friday, April 8, 2011
Flaky Beef Turnovers
I got two cookbooks out of the library the last time I was there, I like to do that once in a while to mix it up. One of them was a Gooseberry Patch "Homestyle Favorites."
I have never, ever been disappointed in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook, they have great meals! We tried the Flaky Beef Turnovers the other night. Basically they were flaky pastry filled with steak and potato. Wow!!!!!!! Sean loved them, but Will ended up having yogurt and fruit. I enjoyed mine, and Brian had two. However, the only thing I would have to disagree with was that the recipe was listed in the "Weeknight Favorites" section. Any night that you have to wait for pastry to defrost and then roll out and fill=not a weeknight dinner in our house!
Next up: Turkey and Rice Casserole on Sunday.
I have never, ever been disappointed in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook, they have great meals! We tried the Flaky Beef Turnovers the other night. Basically they were flaky pastry filled with steak and potato. Wow!!!!!!! Sean loved them, but Will ended up having yogurt and fruit. I enjoyed mine, and Brian had two. However, the only thing I would have to disagree with was that the recipe was listed in the "Weeknight Favorites" section. Any night that you have to wait for pastry to defrost and then roll out and fill=not a weeknight dinner in our house!
Next up: Turkey and Rice Casserole on Sunday.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Puffed Apple Pancake
Hubby was very kind to my sick butt today...he let me sleep in! When I got out of bed at a leisurely 9:30am, I found that not only was the coffee ready, but there was a Puffed Apple Pancake in the oven.
What exactly is that? Well, let me tell you......it tasted like a dutch baby and an apple pie got married. Empire apples gave it a really tart taste, with sweet pancake-y goodness around it. One slice per person, since it wasn't the healthiest thing on the planet. (Sometimes you just have to splurge though) This thing was AWESOME.
Tomorrow I'll tell you about our fabulous Saturday afternoon date, with dinner at a local restaurant that it's a crying shame we've lived here so long and never tried!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Birthday Pizza and Cupcakes
We hosted a small family get-together for Sean's first birthday last weekend. Since it was about ten people, we had "make-your-own" mini pizzas. BJ's sells a big pack of personal-size Boboli pizza crusts and individual sauce packets. They came out great! Everyone got to have exactly what they wanted for toppings, how much cheese, etc. Brian put them directly on the oven grates so they would crisp up nicely. Mmm.....
The birthday cupcakes were out-of-this-world!!! We went back and forth about whether to make them or buy them, and I'm so glad we made them. They're from the Cake Doctor's second cake book, and they were the cookie-dough cupcakes. Yellow cake mix with Tollhouse Cookie Dough in the centers, then frosted with a homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. The frosting was perfect, perfectly chocolate and not at all sickly-sweet. We served them as is, I'm glad I didn't add ice cream to the plate because then it would have been just too much and taken away from the goodness of the cupcake. Everyone loved them! Sean especially enjoyed his:
The birthday cupcakes were out-of-this-world!!! We went back and forth about whether to make them or buy them, and I'm so glad we made them. They're from the Cake Doctor's second cake book, and they were the cookie-dough cupcakes. Yellow cake mix with Tollhouse Cookie Dough in the centers, then frosted with a homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. The frosting was perfect, perfectly chocolate and not at all sickly-sweet. We served them as is, I'm glad I didn't add ice cream to the plate because then it would have been just too much and taken away from the goodness of the cupcake. Everyone loved them! Sean especially enjoyed his:
Monday, November 8, 2010
Nothing Like Roasted Chicken
BJ's had whole chickens on special a couple of weeks ago, so I brought home two for the freezer. Nothing starts off a weekend nicer than a roasted chicken on Friday night!
People often tell me that they're mystified by roasting a whole chicken. Oh, it's so easy! Just take out the giblets (that plastic bag in the cavity filled with innards) and toss it in the trash. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Put it in a roasting pan, and then spread it with some butter. Saute an onion and a celery stalk on the stove until slightly tender, and then stuff it in the empty cavity. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
I usually roast a chicken at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn it down to 375 degrees for an additional 45 minutes. The higher temp browns the chicken a little more, and makes the skin crunchy. (yes, the skin is super-bad for you. But just a little taste now and then won't kill you.) However, to be safe, I also use a digital thermometer probe that beeps when the chicken itself is 160 degrees. Then it comes out of the oven and is tented in foil, and the temp coasts up to 165 degrees, which is a safe eating temp.
Mashed potatoes and canned green beans rounded out the meal nicely, along with my husband's homemade gravy. Have I mentioned lately that he totally rocks with gravy and sauces!!!!
People often tell me that they're mystified by roasting a whole chicken. Oh, it's so easy! Just take out the giblets (that plastic bag in the cavity filled with innards) and toss it in the trash. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Put it in a roasting pan, and then spread it with some butter. Saute an onion and a celery stalk on the stove until slightly tender, and then stuff it in the empty cavity. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
I usually roast a chicken at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn it down to 375 degrees for an additional 45 minutes. The higher temp browns the chicken a little more, and makes the skin crunchy. (yes, the skin is super-bad for you. But just a little taste now and then won't kill you.) However, to be safe, I also use a digital thermometer probe that beeps when the chicken itself is 160 degrees. Then it comes out of the oven and is tented in foil, and the temp coasts up to 165 degrees, which is a safe eating temp.
Mashed potatoes and canned green beans rounded out the meal nicely, along with my husband's homemade gravy. Have I mentioned lately that he totally rocks with gravy and sauces!!!!
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