Beef Stew and Mexican Cornbread

Sorry, no pictures at the moment. I am having technical difficulties....

Beef Stew

I got this recipe off my friend Grace's blog . I finally brought my slow cooker home yesterday and got a chance to make this. SOOO good! The beef just falls apart, it's so tender!

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds cubed beef stew meat
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup baby carrots (I used 2 regular carrots and cut them up)
• 4 large potatoes, cubed (I used 3)
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley (didn't use this)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 onions, sliced (I used 1 big onion, I think 3 onions may have been too much for our taste)
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions:

• Place meat in a large plastic bag. (I didn't do all the meat at once, it was easier to cook that way)
• Combine 1/4 cup flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt; pour into the bag with the meat, and shake to coat.
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add stew meat, and cook until evenly browned on the outside.
• Transfer to a slow cooker along with the carrots, potatoes, parsley, and pepper.
• In a small bowl, stir together 2 cups of boiling water and dry soup mix; pour into the slow cooker.
• In the same skillet, melt butter and saute onions until softened; remove to the slow cooker.
• Pour red wine into the skillet, and stir to loosen browned bits of food on the bottom.
• Remove from heat, and pour into the slow cooker.
• Cover, and cook on High for 30 minutes.
• Reduce heat to Low, and cook for 6 hours or until meat is fork tender.
• In a small bowl or cup, mix together 2 tablespoons flour with 1/4 cup warm water.
• Stir into stew, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, or until thickened.

Mexican Cornbread

This I got off my fav recipe site, allrecipes.com. I really wanted cornbread with the stew, and thought mexican cornbread might be good with it. While it came out really good, I think next time I'd just make regular cornbread with the stew (or just leave out the chilis)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, melted (I used 6 T.)
• 1 cup white sugar (I used 1/3 c.)
• 4 eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1/2 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers, drained
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (didnt use this)
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (used 1c of cheddar since i had a whole block of it)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
• In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar.
• Beat in eggs one at a time.
• Blend in cream corn, chiles, Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese.
• In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.
• Add flour mixture to corn mixture; stir until smooth.
• Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into center of the pan comes out clean.
  

Buffalo chicken dip

Jake and I love this dip. It can be found on the Frank's Red Hot website . We've made it a few times to bring to different events and it's always a crowd pleaser, that is if you like buffalo chicken!

Ingredients:

• 2 c. shredded chicken (I use the can of chicken, like a can of tuna...but its chicken)
• 1/2 c. blue cheese dressing
• 1/2 c. franks red hot
• 1/2 c. blue cheese crumbles
• 1 8oz package cream cheese (I use fat free)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Place cream cheese in oven safe dish (the dish you will use for the dip). Place it in the microwave for 1 minute to soften.
• Mix together the chicken, dressing, red hot, and blue cheese crumbles.
• Mix this into the dish with the cream cheese
• Bake 20 minutes or until everything is melted

I like to eat this with crackers (Sociables are my favorite)

Banana pudding (GF)

This is the best picture I could get for some reason, sorry!

I believe this is the "Southern way" of making banana pudding. This is how my mom makes it and I love it.

Ingredients:

• 1 box (the small regular size) instant vanilla pudding
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 1 container cool whip, thawed
• bananas (personal taste as to how many, I used four)
  
• vanilla wafers (I used the gluten free ones I made, see post below) (Personal taste as to how many)
  

Directions:

• Whisk together the pudding and milk
• Stir in the cool whip
• cut bananas into little slices into pudding
• mix in vanilla wafers. Note: If using regular boxed vanilla wafers, leave as is. If using the GF recipe below, I broke them into smaller pieces.
  

Gluten Free vanilla wafers

My brother has Celiac Disease, which means he cannot eat anything containing gluten. He loves banana pudding (which has vanilla wafers in it), so I made these instead of the boxed kind. They are pretty good...just kind of difficult to get off the baking sheet (hence the crumbling in the picture above)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. shortening (I used I can't believe its not butter spray...just poured it in)
• 1 egg
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/8 t. salt
• 1 1/2 c. gluten free baking flour
• 1 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 T. water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325
  
• Mix together first 6 ingredients
• Sift in flour and baking poweder
• Add the 1 T. water and mix
• The batter is somewhat liquidy, so I just kind of pour spoonfuls on the baking sheet. I tried to do them in about 1 inch circles. The cookies spread out instead of up when baking.
• Bake about 10-15 minutes or until the edges start browning.
  

A metal spatula might work better to get the cookies off the sheet.

Meatloaf

Meatloaf...it's an interesting thing. Smush a bunch of beef together and put it in a loaf pan and cook. Whatever. Its good. I had a terrible craving for meatloaf with brown gravy...so I made some. It's not the best meatloaf, and I will probably try to make it different next time, but it was edible!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef (or whatever meat you want to use)
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 egg (I used egg beaters)
• 3/4 c. italian bread crumbs
• 1/4 c. worchestershire sauce
• 1/4 c. ketchup
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
  

Gravy:

• 1 c. mushrooms, cut
• about 2 Tbl onion, chopped
• 1 c beef broth
• butter
  
• water
• corn starch
  

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• mix together all the ingredients for the loaf.
• Put it into a loaf pan
• place loaf in oven on top of a cookie sheet (so the bottom doesn't burn)
  
• Cook until the juices don't run red

Gravy:

• heat butter in saucepan
• mix in mushrooms and onions
• cook until tender
• add beef broth and let simmer for 5 minutes
• mix together water and cornstarch
• add this to the beef broth mixture to thicken gravy.
  

Stuffed mushrooms

I love mushrooms, as long as they're cooked. This is my parents recipe, kind of altered.

Ingredients:

• mushrooms
• breadcrumbs
• shredded cheese (this time I used asiago...sometimes I use parmegian)
• minced garlic or garlic powder
• italian seasonings
• butter or olive oil

Directions:

• wash the mushrooms
• pop the stem out and scrape some of the insides out (put aside in bowl)
• take the stems and chop them up (i use my mini chopper)
• put them in a bowl and add breadcrumbs, garlic, seasonings and cheese.
• in a skillet, put a little butter or olive oil. Do this over medium heat.
  
• put the breadcrumb mixture in skillet and cook until it becomes a little gummy.
• Place the mushroom caps upside down on a cookie sheet and fill with the stuffing.
• Cook at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
  

Chocolate Mexican Wedding Cookies

These were not my choice to make. I asked someone at work what kind of cookie they wanted and this is what they came up with. These cookies have pecans in them, and i hate any kind of nut in my baked cookies....but I complied and made them anyway :) They are a little dry, and kind of sweet at the same time. Because of my not liking nuts in food, I don't like them much....but if you're a fan of nuts, you might enjoy them!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup ground pecans (I bought chopped pecans and smushed them up with my rolling pin)
  
• 1/2 cup German sweet chocolate, grated (I used semi-sweet chocolate)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup German sweet chocolate, grated (again, semi sweet)
  

Directions:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract.

• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, ground pecans, 1/2 cup ground chocolate, cinnamon and salt; mix well.

• Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.

• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours, or until firm.

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (180 degrees C).

• Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies are firm to the touch. Cool 1 minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.

• For the coating, sift 1/2 cup of the confectioner's sugar and 1/4 cup of the ground cocoa into a shallow bowl. While cookies are still warm, roll them in the coating.

Easy Lemon Cookies

I was looking for a certain lemon cookie that I like but have no idea what the name of it is. I couldn't figure it out and I came across these and decided to try them. They are similar to the chocolate crinkle cookies I have posted below, but with lemon instead. You can actually use any flavor cake mix to make these. They are very easy and very yummy.

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract (I used lemon juice)
  
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

• Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. I wrapped my dough in wax paper and put it in the freezer for about an hour, it makes it much easier to handle...not as sticky). Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.

• Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy. (9 minutes really is all you need. I couldn't tell mine were done and i burned the bottoms pretty bad. 9 minutes is DEFINITELY enough)
  

Garlic Cheddar Chicken

A fellow knottie (Becky) posted this recipe the other day and it sounded so good. I decided to try it today, and I was correct! It is yummy!!

Ingredients:

• Extra virgin olive oil (or butter)
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (I used about 6-7)
  
• 3/4 c. dry Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
• Various Italian seasonings to taste
  
• 8 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded thin (I used 6)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
  
• Heat olive oil in saucepan over low heat and cook garlic until tender (I sauteed it in the EVOO, but then added about 1/2 cup of I can't believe its not butter spray (just pour it in) to make a garlic butter)
  
• In a shallow bowl, mix bread crumbs, Parmesan and cheddar cheese, and seasonings
• Dip each chicken breast in garlic butter to coat then press into breadcrumb mixture
• Put thin layer of breadcrumb mixture on the bottom of 9" x 13" baking dish, then arrange chicken breasts in dish
• Drizzle with remaining oil and top with any remaining breadcrumb mixture
• Bake 30 mins. or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear
• For the last couple minutes, I sprinkle cheddar and parmesan cheese on to the top of the chicken and then turn on the broiler to make the top of the dish crispy/browned (I didn't broil, I just put it back in to melt the cheese)
  

Porcini, Caramelized Onion and Sage Risotto

I really wanted to try making risotto since I had never made it before. I came across this recipe on the William Sonoma website. It's pretty good! It's kind of a pain to make, but worth it! WARNING: This recipe makes way more than enough for 2 people....It makes like 6-8 servings....so if it's just 1 or 2 of you, cut it down in size.


Ingredients:

• 3/4 oz. dried porcini mushrooms (i only had 1/2 oz and i think it was fine)
  
• 1 cup hot water
• 5 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (i used chicken)
  
• 2 Tbs. unsalted butter
  
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 yellow onions, quartered lengthwise and sliced crosswise
• 2 cups Arborio or medium-grain rice
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh sage or 1 tsp. dried
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (I used asiago since thats what i had)
  
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Fresh sage leaves for garnish (didnt use this)
  

Directions:

• In a small bowl, combine the mushrooms and hot water.
  
• Soak for 30 minutes to soften.
  
• Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid, and chop the mushrooms.

• In a small saucepan over high heat, bring the stock to a simmer.
  
• Reduce the heat to low and keep the liquid hot.

• In another heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the butter with the olive oil.
  
• Add the onions and sauté, stirring frequently, until brown, about 10 minutes.
  
• Add the rice and mushrooms and stir until a white dot appears in the center of the grains, about 1 minute.
  
• Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed, about 2 minutes.

• Add the chopped sage, reserved mushroom soaking liquid (discarding any sediment at the bottom) and 3/4 cup of the stock.
  
• Adjust the heat under the rice to a simmer, if needed, so that the liquid bubbles and is absorbed slowly.
  
• Stir until the liquid is absorbed.
  
• Continue cooking, adding the liquid 3/4 cup at a time and stirring almost constantly, until the rice starts to soften, about 10 minutes.
  
• Continue cooking, adding the liquid 1/2 cup at a time and stirring almost constantly, until the rice is just tender to the bite but slightly firm in the center and looks creamy, about 10 minutes more.

• Add the cheese and season with salt and pepper. Stir to mix well.
  

• To serve, spoon the risotto into a shallow serving bowl. Garnish with the sage leaves. Serves 6.

4 layer dip

No picture, sorry!
A co-worker made this dip lastweek and I couldn't stop eating it...so I asked him how it was made. It can't get much easier than this:

Layer 1: mix together sour cream and a packet of taco seasoning (i used almost 2 large sized reduced fat sour cream containers)
Layer 2: sliced olives. I used to tiny cans....obviously drain them first!
Layer 3: Medium salsa
Layer 4: cheese. I used mexican cheese (the shredded bag of taco type cheese)

And VOILA! you're done! So easy, and soooo addicting....seriously...I'm warning you!

Mac and Cheese Lorraine

This came from the new Rachael Ray cookbook "Just in Time". I really liked it! Of course I changed some things up and will make note.

Ingredients:

• salt
• 1 lb gemelli pasta (or whatever pasta you want)
• 1/2 lb bacon, chopped
• 1 TBL EVOO
• 2 onions, quartered and thinly sliced (I only used 1 onion and chopped it into tiny pieces)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 TBL butter
• 2 TBL all purpose flour
• 1 c. chicken stock
• 1 c. whole milk (I used skim milk)
• black pepper
• 2 cups shredded Gruyere (I used 1 c. Gruyere and 1 c. cheddar)
• nutmeg, to taste (i skipped the nutmeg)
• 1 rounded TBL dijon mustard

Directions

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water, add pasta and cook al dente. Drain
• Cook the bacon in the EVOO in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. When crisp remove to a paper-towel-lined plate. Drain out all but 2-3 TBL of the fat. Add the onions and cook about 10 minutes, or until they begin to caramelize. Add the wine and cook for another minute.
• While the onions cook, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour (when i did this it just kind of lumped together...) Cook for 1 minute, then whisk in the stock and milk and bring to a bubble. Cook for a few minutes to thicken, then season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cheese, then add the nutmeg, mustard, and salt and pepper.
• Toss the pasta with the onions, then stir in the cheese sauce. Top each serving with some of the crispy bacon.
  

Sausage mushroom ragu and rigatoni

This came from the Rachael Ray magazine. Overall I'm not that thrilled with it and will probably not make it again. It was too watery for my liking. My regular sauce is better than this, in my opinion. Anyways, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• salt
• 1 lb rigatoni pasta
• 2 Tbl EVOO
• 1 1/2 lbs bulk italian sausage
• 4 portobello mushroom caps, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• pepper
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups beef broth
• 5 sprigs sage, leaves stripped and thinly sliced
• 1 cup grated pecorino-romano cheese, plus more to pass around the table

Directions:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain
• While the pasta is working, in a large, deep skillet, heat 1 Tbl EVOO, 1 turn of the pan, over medium-high heat until rippling. Add the sausage, crumbling with a wooden spoon and cook until browned. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a paper-towel lined plate to drain.
• Wipe out the skillet and add the remaining 1 Tbl EVOO, 1 turn of the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook over medium heat until softened. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Season with pepper. Stir in the tomatoes, beef broth, and sage. Stir in the sausage. Lower the heat and gently simmer the sauce for 10 minutes.
• To serve, toss the pasta with 2 cups ragu and 1 cup cheese.
  

Chocolate Crunch Strawberries

Chocolate covered strawberries are one of my favorite things to make. They are a real crowd pleaser too! On occasions such as birthdays at work, I like to bring these in. They are simple and yummy! My friend Kevin brought them in to work one day and he had made them with Crunch bar. WOW! The crunch just makes them that much better. I'm usually a dark chocolate girl, but these are great. Here are the very easy instructions on how to make them:

I usually buy 2 things of strawberries (I think they are 1 lb each). If using the crunch bar, you need 2 of the giant ones, and possibly a 3rd.

I use a sort of "double boiler". I put about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom pot, place the pot of chocolate on top of that one, and put it over medium to medium high heat. Try not to let the steam out. Put the chocolate in the top pot and stir around until its all melted. Once melted, you can turn the heat down.

Wash your strawberries. Make sure they are dry before dipping. Smear the strawberry around in the chocolate and then place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Once the cookie sheet is full (or you've run out of strawberries), I place them in the freezer for about 5 minutes to harden, then move them to the fridge.

That's it! It's as simple as that. Enjoy your delicious treat!

Apple Dumplings

I got this recipe from Rachel Rays magazine. It is a recipe from Angela Kinsey (from The Office). It is her grandmas recipe. They came out really good!

Ingredients:

• flour, for dusting
• 1 can crescent rolls
• 1 granny smith apple- peeled, cored, and cut into 8 wedges.
• 1 stick butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup mountain dew

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350. Ona surface dusted with flour, unfold the rolls. Place an apple wedge on the wide edge of each piece of dough and roll up; place the dumplings in an 8-inch square baking dish
• In a saucepan, melt the butter with the sugar and cinnamon over medium heat; stir in the mountain dew. Pour the mixture on the dumplings. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes; remove the foil and bake 15 minutes longer.

I served mine with low fat vanilla frozen yogurt. These are so easy and so yummy!!

Cheeseburger pie

A friend at work gave me this recipe. Jake was very excited to hear about it. I decided to make it tonight and glad I did. It's very tasty! I will write out the recipe as written and note the differences next to the things I changed.


Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 c. chopped onion
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 1 4oz can chopped mushrooms, drained (I used fresh mushrooms)
• 1/2 cup snipped parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 2 packages crescent rolls (8 rolls each)
• 3 eggs
• 6 slices American cheese (I used cheddar)
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions

• cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown and onion is tender; drain off fat
• stir in tomato sauce, mushrooms, parsley, salt, oregano, and pepper
• unroll one package of crescent rolls and place them in a lightly greased 9 inch pie plate; pressing edges together to form a pie shell
• Separate one of the eggs; set yolk aside
• Beat egg white with the remaining 2 eggs
• Pour 1/2 the beaten egg over the pie shell
• Spoon meat mixture into shell
• Arrange the cheese on top of meat; spread with remaining beaten egg
• Mix reserved egg yolk with water; lightly brush some over edge of pastry. Reserve remaining yolk mixture.
• Unroll second package of crescent rolls, form a top on the pie.
• Seal edges, cut slits in the top for steam to escape. Brush top with remaining yolk.
• Loosely cover the edge w/ tin foil.
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
  
• Cover center of pie loosely with foil.
• Bake for 20 minutes longer.
• Let stand for 10 minutes. (Make sure you let it stand, otherwise its too watery)
  

Chicken Ala Beth....

I don't really know what to call this, as I just kind of made it up as I went along. It wasn't the greatest thing I've made...but it wasn't bad either. I got the thumbs up from Jake. I'm not really sure on measurements, so I'll write what I put in it and guesstimate as I go along.

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in half (to make 2 thinner pieces)
dill
flour
lemon pepper
2 lemons
mushrooms
onion
white wine
egg
garlic
butter (i use i cant believe its not butter spray--0 calories)
vegetable oil

Ok, so I had to defrost the chicken, so while that was going on I chopped the mushrooms, onions and garlic then set them aside.

Once the chicken was defrosted, I cut them in half to make 6 thin pieces of chicken.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, dill, and lemon pepper. Scramble 1-2 eggs in a separate bowl. Take each piece of chicken and put it in the egg, then the flour mixture, then back in egg and back in flour mixture.

In a deep skillet, melt the butter on medium heat. After dipping the chicken in the egg/flour, brown each side it in the skillet. You may want to add some vegetable oil. I did this b/c my butter kept drying up fast. I ended up cooking the chicken all the way and then taking it out of the skillet and setting it aside.

In the same skillet, add the wine. After all was said and done, I probably had about 2 cups in there. Then I added the juice of 2 lemons. I let this simmer for a while

In a separate skillet, I sauteed the mushrooms, onions and garlic in some butter. Once they were sauteed to my liking, I added them to the wine mixture.

Once everything was added together, I put the chicken back in the skillet. I let it simmer for about 1/2 hour.

My problem was that every time I tasted it, it was either too lemony or too winey. I settled with a tad bit too winey. I made brown rice with it and drizzled some of the wine sauce over the rice. All in all it wasn't bad....but like I said, not one of my best.

Dijon-Tarragon Chicken

I needed help coming up with what to make for dinner tonight, so I asked my "email clan". Grace sent me this recipe and said she was making it tonight...so I sent it to Jake and he approved. I have never used tarragon before so I wasn't sure what to expect. (ok, I used it once, but it wasn't fresh and I didn't use a lot). Upon opening the package of fresh tarragon, I wasn't sure that I was really going to like this. It had kind of a funky smell. I continued on with it anyway. This dish is really good, however, I don't think I'm a huge fan of tarragon, so maybe I will use dill next time. I am listing the recipe how I did it. I tripled the stuff in the "gravy" because Jake and I like extra to put on our rice or potatoes....or whatever we're having with dinner. So, here ya go!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon butter
  
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cup light cream
• 3 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• flour (to coat chicken)
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt the butter and heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Mix together flour, salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour mixture, and place in the skillet. Brown on both sides. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and continue cooking 15 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear. Set aside and keep warm.
2. Put minced garlic in the pan and sautee a bit. Stir cream into the pan, scraping up brown bits. Mix in mustard and tarragon. Cook and stir 5 minutes, or until thickened. Return chicken to skillet to coat with sauce. Drizzle chicken with remaining sauce to serve.

Tonight I made fresh string beans and brown rice to go with the chicken. The extra sauce went great on the rice.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

So I had made these once before to bring to a family function. My cousins husband goes on to tell me how these are his favorite cookies...so I'm like, oh man, I hope I didn't ruin them! Well....I did. I don't know what I did because I had followed the recipe to the T. Anyways, I've tried again with a different recipe and they came out awesome! Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. I like to use a number 50 size scoop. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Cheesy garlicy chicken

Tonights concoction came from allrecipes.com (surprise, surprise). As usual, I changed the recipe around a little. Jake really liked this dish. I was slightly disappointed with it. The cheeses seemed to seep out of it (as you can see in the picture), instead of staying inside the chicken. At any rate, I will make this again. And here is what I did:

• oil, for greasing pan
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 tub of garlic and herb cream cheese spread
  
• 1 block of cheddar cheese; cut into 1/2 inch slices
  
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put a little oil (i used olive oil) on the bottom of the baking pan you will be using.
   
2. Butterfly each breast, cutting almost but not completely through. Smear in a layer of the cream cheese and place a slice of the cheddar in, the close the chicken up.
   
3. Pour milk into a bowl. In another bowl, combine breadcrumbs and Romano cheese. Dip each piece of chicken in the milk, then coat in the breadcrumb mixture. Place in a single layer in the pre-oiled baking pan.
   
4. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in lemon juice and garlic, and drizzle evenly over chicken.
   
5. Bake until chicken is done.

In error, I cooked the chicken and THEN put the butter mixture on afterwards....I thought it was fine that way. I also made mashed potatoes and put the butter mixture on those. mmm.

Shrimp Scampi

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I did, however, tweak it a little and will post to how I made it.

What you need:
1/2 cup butter
1 lb cooked shrimp (de-veined/de-shelled)
8 cloves garlic- minced (more or less depending on your taste)
3/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
pinch of red pepper flakes
Whatever pasta you enjoy (I used linguine)

Melt the butter in a pan on medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add in the shrimp and the garlic. Heat this for about 5 minutes, then add the wine and chicken broth. Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes while stirring occasionally. Add in a dash of red pepper flakes and you're done! I put it over pasta as I liked. I don't mix the whole batch into pasta because some people may like more or less sauce.

Enjoy!