Pesto Stuffed Chicken

5-6 Boneless, Skinless chicken breasts, trimmed

4 oz cream cheese

2 1/2 TBS pesto (I use Classico in the jar)

2 TB feta cheese

1/4 tsp garlic

1/8 tsp cayenne

Pepper

1 TB Parm Cheese

10-12 thin slices of ham

1 cupish of Seasoned Flour

2-3 TBS of flour

Preheat to 325 degrees

Beat the check breasts until they are about 1/4 in thin

Mix Cream cheese, Pesto, Feta Cheese, Garlic, Cayenne, Pepper, and Parm in a bowl.

Spoon onto chicken breast, top w/ ham and roll up (I prefer just to fold it over, but thats just me)

heat oil

dip chicken into seasoned flour and fry until brown on each side. Transfer to baking dish and bake for about 15-20 minutes until the chicken is no longer pink.

****My notes: Next time I will bread the chicken (Flour, Egg, and Bread Crumbs) and probably skip the whole baking part all together. I think a balsamic gravy type thing would be good too. Christpher and I loved it and I will make it again. Next time I may add some roasted red peppers to it as well.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaccckkkkk

Ok, so I just totally realized that I have not been on here in about 6 months! I just completely forgot about you guys and my recipes. I have been so busy w/ work (which I quit by the way) for those of you who knew the situation go ahead and have a celebratory drink right now for me. I'll freak out over not getting a paycheck next week! I am planning my wedding and now looking for another job. I have 2 of the most precious puppies ever!! Mojo and Sophie!

Anyways. I am going to get back into cooking very soon and I plan on posting some things for ya'll again! I have missed my little blogger family. So update me...how is everyone? Have any recipes you want to pressue me into making?

Irish Meal--Part 3

Irish Cream Bundt Cake. Recipes from AllRecipes.com. OMG this is the best cake EVER!! It was a huge hit at the party I took it to and it was almost completely gone! Amazzzzzzing. Oh and just so you know, I nixed the pecans. Not how I roll.


1 cup chopped pecans
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over bottom of pan.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in eggs, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur. Beat for 5 minutes at high speed. Pour batter over nuts in pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto the serving dish. Prick top and sides of cake. Spoon glaze over top and brush onto sides of cake. Allow to absorb glaze repeat until all glaze is used up.
To make the glaze: In a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Irish cream.

Irish Meal--Part 2

Corned Beef and Cabbage (and potatoes and carrots and onions) :) I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com I did make a few changes. After about 8 hours I put the corned beef in the oven at 200 degrees for an additional 2-3 hours. I filled the pan up half way w/ juice from the crock pot. I did this because I needed to cook my veggies. WELL the crockpot wasn't big enough so I just boiled the veggies in the jucie from the crock pot on the stove. It was delicious and tender!

Im tired of copy and pasting. Heres the link!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Corned-Beef-and-Cabbage-2/Detail.aspx

Irish Meal-Part One

Amazingly Easy Irish Soda Bread- Recipe from AllRecipes.com
This is really good hot and fresh right from the oven, but I wasn't a big fan of it the next day.


4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup buttermilk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

Sweet, Spicy, Sticky Chicken

This is a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com Instead of hot sauce I used Sweet Thai Chile Sauce, which is delicious. I also shook the chicken in flour before throwin it in the veggie oil. It was good, but I like more of a sauce and this was more......well sticky! I guess I should have figured that out by the title--right? This did not make good left overs. Just an FYI.

1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger root
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
Mix together brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and hot sauce in a small bowl.
Lightly salt and pepper the chicken strips.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken strips and brown on both sides, about 1 minute per side. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens, 8 to 10 minutes.

My Teapot

Okay so I bought this teapot at a flea market, just for looks. I bought it because I thought it looked like a Tomato, but some of my friends are arguing that it's a pumpkin.

My defense: Pumpkins don't have big honkin leaves like that! Plus, I bought it and I'll call it a raddish if I want to!! :)

So anyways, Poll...Tomato or Pumpkin?!?!

Sweet Thai Chili Ramen Noodles...yep u heard me!

Okay so I found this Sweet Thai Chili Sauce at Wal-Mart that is TO DIE FOR!!! It dressed up some ramen noodles which makes them delicious and still cheap!

1 chicken breast, cut into strips

1 package of ramen noodles (any flavor will do...u won't use the packet)

Garlic Powder (maybe a tsp?)

2TBS butter

2 eggs, scrambled

1/2-3/4 cup of Sweet Thai Chili Sauce

start a pot of water, bring to a boil and boil noodles only

melt butter in a pan on medium low heat, add chicken and sprinkle w/ garlic. Put a lid on it and cook until no longer pink

add Sweet Thai Chili Sauce and egg to the mixture and stir to incorporate. Add ramen noodles. (Don't cook them all the way, u don't want them to be soft)

and eat it. Yeah takes about 10 whole minutes and tastes delicious! But it is SPICY!

Adrienne's Amazing Pumpkin Cookies

Adrienne sent me these cookies already made for me and I ate the whole bag in about 2.4 seconds.

She sent me the recipe and everytime I make them they are GONE! You can find the recipe on Adrienne's Blog at http://linebetweengeniusandinsanity.blogspot.com/2008/11/baking-extravaganza.html

Lobster Tails and Shrimp

Ok so Winn Dixie had lobster tails on sale. they look really pretty, but I think I over cooked them. I seasoned w/ Old Bay and Garlic...and of corse almost a stick of butter.

The shrimp I sauteed w/ butter, garlic, lemon and old bay as well. The shrimp was very good, but the lobster was a bit over cooked. But it was my first attempt and I think they are pretty, nonetheless!

Chocolate chocolate cookies- Hershey's

These were alright. Im not a big chocolate chocolate cookie fan.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
10 oz pack white chocolate chips

heat oven to 375 degrees

beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs; beat well.

stir together flour, cocoa and baking soda; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto un-greased cookie sheet.

bake 8-10 minutes or until set. cool slightly and remove to a wire rack.

BBQ Pork....turned into BBQ Nachos

Ok so I would love to lie to you and tell you that I made this 7 lbs pork shoulder blade for other reasons such as sandwich's and such...but I didn't. I made it for the sole purpose of making BBQ nachos. During football season we are the proud owners of Jag's season tickets (even tho im a Giants fan, but whatever...we live in Florida and Christopher likes the Jags, whatev) So anyways, back on subject, we go to the home games every sunday and at half time Christopher gets a slaw dog and I get some BBQ nachos. Well football season's over and I have been craving them. Lemme tell ya these nachos make the ones at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium look like shizzle! Even Christopher said they were better. Ok..follow me and I will take u on the journey of making BBQ nachos!!

First let's make the meat:

4-7 lb pork shoulder (i accidently got shoulder blade)

Mccormick BBQ Pork seasoning packet.

follow the directions on the back of the packet. and let it simmer for hours and fall apart!

Next: Cheese Sauce

1 TBS Butter

1TBS Flour

1 Cup Milk

3/4 cup of diced velvetta

dash cayenne (more or less to ur liking)

dash garlic powder

melt butter in a saucepan. add flour and stir for about a minute or two to let the flour cook a little.

whisk in milk slowly. Let is heat up a little and add cheese, cayenne and garlic powder.

stir until cheese melts and remove from heat. ( put the leftovers in a jar in my fridge)

Now the Chips

Go to the store and buy some. hehehe U didn't think I was THAT motiviated did you??

Assemble the Yumminess

place chips on a plate

top w/ pork

drizzle about 1/4 cup of ur fav BBQ Sauce on top of pork

smother w/ cheese!

I could literally eat this every day.

Chicken n' Dumplings

3 bone in, skin on chicken breasts (Remove the skin of ONLY 1 chicken)
salt
pepper
32 oz box of chicken stock
11/2 cups water (give or take)
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
dash of cayenne (literally a dash)
1 TBS fresh minced parsley
about 1/2 tsp sage
2 TBS butter
4 tubes of Phillsbury country biscuit (the cheap ones that come in a for pack, small biscuits)

place the chicken, stock and water (you may have to add more water, just make sure it covers the chicken) in a big pot and boil on med heat until it starts to simmer, then turn to low and let it continue to simmer for about an hour and a half (just makes it more tender the longer you simmer)

remove chicken and place on a plate to cool (remove skin and poke holes so it cools faster)

Add remining ingredients (except biscuits and chicken) to the top and continue to let it simmer...u can turn it up to about medium low.

unwrap biscuits and take one at a time and smash it to flatten a little and cut into 6-8 pieces and drop into simmering water.

Once chicken has cooled shredd and return to the pot (discard skin and bones)

Simmer for a little while longer until it thickens. If it doesn't thicken then do a slurry, but it was really thick for me.

This is a really really good recipe. U absolutely must use chicken w/ bone and skin to begin with or its not as yummy. I've tried to cheat but it doesn't work as well. This is a good base recipe and if u want to add veggies then by all means go for it! My picky fiance won't eat it if it has veggies in it!

Salisbury Steak- AR

This is a recipe I found on AR that I tweaked a little. It was actually really good. Christopher gave it a 4, but said he would like it in the dinner rotation.

Everything in red are things that I added to the recipe.

1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed French onion soup
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup panko crumbs

1tsp parsley flakes

1 tsp garlic

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1 tsp garlic powder

5 sliced mushrooms

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix together 1/3 cup condensed French onion soup with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, parsley, garlic, cayenne, salt and black pepper. Shape into 6 oval patties.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties. Pour off excess fat.
In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining soup until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder, garlic powder, and mushrooms. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

***You have to double the sauce in this recipe. I served this with rice and it was plenty of gravy for just for just the patties, but not even close to being enough for the rice.

The sauce is delicious. I need to fiddle around w/ the patties a little bit, but the sauce is amazing!

Really Easy Cauliflower

This is really yummy and really healthy. I cut a head of cauliflower into small pieces and boiled it in salt water for about 20 minutes until it was tender.

Once it was done I transferred it to a serving bowl and tossed it with about a tablespoon of McCormick Vegetable Supreme sprinkle stuff. Toss it around and serve warm.

Soooo no butter, no extra salt and it tasted delicious!

Here's a picture of it in case you have no clue what I'm talking about. It's also good on almost any veggie.

Cathy's Banana Bread- From AR

This actually came out very good. Im not a big banana bread fan, but this was good. Christopher liked it as well.

The only change I made was to add a tsp of cinnamon and subed 1/3 of the sugar for brown sugar


1 cup mashed bananas
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup margarine
1 1/3 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x13 inch pan, or two 7x3 inch loaf pans. (I used a bunt pan, it took about 45 minutes to bake)
Combine banana and sour cream. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and banana mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; stir into the banana mixture. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan or pans.
Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Beef Stew

This was the best beef stew I have ever had/made in my entire life!!!!

2 LBS stew meat

3 TBS flour

2-3 tbs veg oil

pepper

2 cups beef broth

2 cups water

1 envelope of GOLDEN onion soup mix

1 TBS garlic powder

1 TBS parsley flakes

1 Bay Leaf

6 Russet Potatoes Chopped

3 Carrots chopped

Heat the oil in a big pot to medium high heat

Toss meat in flour and pepper

brown the meat in oil until most of the sides are brown

add beef broth and water and turn the heat up

add the soup mix, garlic, parsley, and bay leaf simmer for about 30 minutes

add potatoes and carrots and simmer for another 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are soft

remove bay leaf

serve w/ rice and cornbread

Spicy Spaghetti w/ Meatballs and Garlic Biscuits

Remember the post earlier where we made meatballs and froze them? Well I used those meatballs for this recipe and they were FAB!

Place frozen meatballs on cookie sheet and bake 350 for about 15-20 minutes.

Make Sauce:
10 oz Ragu Traditional Sauce
2 TBS of olive oil
1 TBS minced onion
4 garlic cloves, pressed
1TBS fresh minced parsley
1 tsp brown sugar (maybe add a touch more)
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I know, but it needed more!)
1/4 tsp oregano flakes
1/2 tsp paprika
1 box of angel hair pasta cooked


heat olive oil and add onion and cook until almost translucent and then add garlic and cook for a second or two.

add everything else and simmer for about 20 minutes.

take the meatballs out of the oven and add to the sauce mixture and simmer for another 20 minutes or so.

I sprinkled w/ a touch of cheese for the photo opt! :)


Garlic Biscuits

Refrigerated Biscuits
2 TBS butter
1 tsp garlic powder
dash of parsley

cook the biscuit according to package directions
nuke the butter, parsley, and garlic for about 30 seconds to a minute until its melted
right before the biscuits are done pull them out and pour the butter mixture on top and thrown them back in for a minute to brown.

They taste so good!

The Famous Mandoline

Meet my Mandoline! Its the best thing since...umm....since my garlic press!!! :) I got it from Christopher for Christmas. And it's red!

Meatballs

These are raw in the pictures, but they were on their way to the freezer so I could have 'homemade frozen meatballs'. Anywho.

1 lb ground beef
1 tsp fresh minced parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground sage
5 cranks pepper mill
salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 TBS worcestershire sauce

Mix it all and shape into balls.

To freeze:
place on a baking sheet making sure they don't touch and freeze.
once they are frozen you can vaccume seal them in a zip lock bag

To bake:
350 until they are done :) I haven't made them frozen yet, but raw they only took about 10-20 minutes.

Hot BBQ Grilled Chicken

Ok so I forgot to take a picture of this before we started to devour it. Christopher actually give this a 5!!! I know right!

3 Chicken boobs

3/4 cup of Kraft Thick and Spicy Honey BBQ

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp ground ginger

couple turns of pepper mill

2 tbs honey

1 1/2 TBS of brown sugar

Dashes of cayenne and pepper

preheat grill to medium highish heat

pound chicken to 1/4 inch and cut in half (making 6 pieces)

sprinkle w/ dashes of cayenne and pepper

mix remaining ingredients and microwave for about 1 minute or until hot and sugar dissolves

baste chicken in bbq sauce while grilling. I flipped mine 2 times. But they only cooked for about 10 minutes

I served this w/ that yellow rice. I found it to be really hot so I cut mine into strips and wrapped it in a tortilla to cut some of the heat. I also added a touch of ranch. It was delicious. AND AND Christopher gave it a 5!!!!

Panko Crushed Chicken

3 Chicken boobs
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp garlic
2 eggs
1/2 flour
3 cups panko crumbs
oil to pan fry

trim fat from chicken and pound until about 1/4 inch thicks
heat oil to med highish
put flour, egg, and panko in 3 separate bowls
add garlic and cayenne to the egg mixture
dredge chicken in flour, then egg, and then panko and pan fry

I've added spices to the panko, but I find it stays better if you add it to the egg mixture. Sometimes I add parsley, italian seasoning, onion powder or whatever else I find I might want to add. Very versatile. Chicken is always very moist and delicious!

Anita's Best Brownies since 1994

You can find this recipe on Grouprecipes.com under Anita's name. They are seriously some delicious brownies. I put these in front of my guys and they are GONE in minutes. And I mean the entire pan. They don't sell the premelted chocolate stuff here in Florida so she has to mail it to me!

2/3 cup flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter (softenened)
2 eggs
3 packets of Nestle's Choco Bake Pre-Melted unsweetened chocolate
1/2tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
Directions
Cream butter and sugar
Beat in eggs and chocolate
Sift together flour, salt, baking powder.
Beat in dry mixture gradually into wet mixture.
Stir in vanilla.
Spray 8x8 pan with Pam.
Bake at 350 for 25 min or until toothpick comes out semi-wet.
Cool in pan for about 5min.
Cool on wire rack.
Enjoy

I believe I can Fry

So I used my mandoline slicer to slice up some onions and squash. I bought an onion ring batter and added a little cayenne pepper and garlic to the batter. Dipped them and fried them until they were done to my taste. Oh and I figured I'd throw in some pickles for good measure. The devoured the pickles and squash before I could get a decent picture.

Potatoes Au Gratin

Yep, I love love love my mandoline slicer!!

2 good sized taters, peeled, sliced super thin

1 TBS butter

1 TBS flour

1 cup milk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 cup cubed velvetta

1/2 block of cream cheese

salt and pepper

6 (or more) strips of bacon. I make 8 and eat 2 leaving me w/ six...but really needed more.

Preheat 350 degrees

Handfull of Shredded cheese (I used 4 cheese)

melt butter over medium high heat until it bubbles a bit

add flour and stir until blondish-brown

slowly pour in milk and let it get hot, not yet boiling

add cheeses, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper and stir constantly until melted.

layer potatoes, cheese, and bacon until u run out of everthing:)

top w/ shredded cheese

bake for about 40 minutes

Yum!

Potato Chips

I got a mandoline for Christmas from Christopher and i love that thing!

All I did was slice the taters on the thinest setting.

Sprinkled w/ garlic and cayenne and fried until crisp.

sprinkle w/ salt. OMg soo good.

Potato Balls

ok so you know those tater skins we made earlier? Well I don't like to waste food, muchless a potato! Its basically the same concept but in a ball. Get it?

flesh of 2 cooked potatoes

dash of cayenne

dash of garlic powder

1/2 cup of cheese

2-4 strips of bacon crumbled

cream cheese (I wanna say I used 2 good TBS, but I cannot remember)

mix it all together and shape into balls (hehe I said balls:)

bake 350 until browned. Make sure u spray the pan really good

I think these may be better deep fried or pan fried. They taste really good, but they stick to the pan a bit.

Box Brownies gone Cream Cheese

Ok so some people make the box brownies and swirl in Cream Cheese on top, but somehow I always mess that up and its all gooey-yuck.

So what I do is mix the brownie mix by the directions and then add a softened block of cream cheese and mix it into the batter and bake.

They don't look all that exciting, but they were ALL eaten and then Christopher was mad they were all gone. Very moist and delicious.