Cooking on High: Artichoke Chicken

More than anything for this recipe I have photos. So take a photographic journey with me. 

For the side dish I made purple potatoes. They are very pretty but I didn't really notice any particular difference in flavor. They are all around fun and add some nice color to the plate. 

After a few minutes steaming to get them started, I pan fried them with some butter and garlic. 

This is a fairly simple chicken dish, you fry chicken in olive oil and then top it with this artichoke-cheese-stuff and finish it off under the broiler. 

The artichoke-cheese-stuff is a mixture of chopped artichoke hearts (I use the marinated in oil kind and chop them up with the Food Chopper), mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese. Now, if you know me, you know that I truly despise mayonnaise, I think it just tastes terrible and I don't like it at all. So I figured I've already ruined this stuff but I can always scrape it off later. 

How wrong I was! This was crazily delicious. Something happens during the broiling process that turns this weird looking stuff into the best thing that has happened to chicken since we figured out it tastes amazing fried. And everyone knows how delicious fried chicken is.

Frying the chicken in olive oil is easy. Flatten it to uniform thickness of about 1/2 inch with meat tenderizer (looks sort of like a mallet). 

Fry four minutes per side and it should be cooked through and still juicy and delicious. 

I seasoned with just salt and pepper to keep it simple since I was going to add the artichoke topping. 

Frying the second side and it already looks sooooo good! I love that nice crisp crust that you can only get from frying. I added a bit of rosemary at this point because rosemary is delicious and I can never let anything be. 

That's why I never do crock pot cooking, because I always want to mess with it: add stuff, stir, poke at it. It's also why I love 30-Minute recipes. 

I left the chicken in the pan and added the artichoke mixture to the top and spread it to cover the chicken. Then I put it under the broiler for about 5 minutes. This is a stainless steel pan so it's safe under the broiler. It gets VERY hot! I burned my finger taking it out of the oven. So be super careful and in addition to using a pot holder maybe use an oven mitt or something too. 

The finished product! It's stupidly delicious. I recommend this recipe to everyone! And I will definitely make it again. 

Turkey Meatballs, Fruity Style

So I have this new cookbook which has I think five or six recipes for tapenade, which is like a topping/sauce of chopped veggies or fruit and olive oil, similar to pesto but more chunky and less oily.

I found this recipe called "Tapenade Turkey Meatballs" and it sounded amazingly delicious! And I had all the ingredients! Or so I thought... The recipe called for 1 cup tapenade. I then consulted the tapenade recipes to find that I had only about half the ingredients for any given recipe of tapenade. As you can imagine this disrupted my culinary plans for the evening. Never one to let a little kitchen adversity bring me down I figured I would just wing it and put in something else.

The original recipe called for 1 slice of bread, processed into crumbs. I didn't feel like dirtying my BRAND NEW Manual Food Processor (I FINALLY got that thing! I've been waiting since March! Oh how I love Pampered Chef <3). So I used 1/3 cup Italian style breadcrumbs. At this point I already had 3/4 lb of ground turkey in my mixing bowl with one egg, so it was time to find the flavor that would have been provided by the elusive tapenade. To my fridge I did go to look for that special secret ingredient.

What I found was a variety of dressings, condiments and other unsuitable things that had no place in meatballs. I was perusing our large variety of hot sauces when I saw Spicy Pineapple Rum Sauce (from the Pampered Pantry). It looked to have a similar consistency as the tapenades in the picture so I decided that 1/3 cup of Spicy Pineapple Rum Sauce would be just the thing for these wayward meatballs.

Everything became mixed and then I used my Small Scoop (good for cookies too :D I made those earlier in the day) to make 30 little meatballs and put them into my new Small Ridged Baker (which is the newest piece of stoneware offered by my favorite company, so I have to test it out, right?) The recipe called for me to microwave them for 6-7 minutes and I thought that was a bad idea. I do not like cooking in a microwave, though I am learning how, especially after the never-ending heatwave this summer.

So I instead baked them for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. They came out moist, not crumbly and best of all not greasy/fatty because all the drippings collected in the ridges of my stoneware. (Which was surprisingly easy to clean, a huge relief after seeing all those ridges for the first time!) And not to forget the most important part of any dish - the flavor! They tasted phenomenal, I had amazed my own taste-buds this time. And my husband has (another) new favorite meal! :D

I paired them with a side dish of sauteed zucchini and squash from our garden, with some chopped vidalia onion, sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper and butter for flavor.

Not Baked Beans

This is easy, but sort of involved. I use dry beans, so I have to soak them overnight (I don't like the "quick soak" method), which is why I say involved. It usually takes me three or four days to make beans because I forget to put them in water for the first few days. I suggest reading your cookbook, the package instructions and watching Alton Brown's episode on beans to decide which way you think you aught to soak your beans. You can also use canned beans that you have drained and thoroughly rinsed, but I think using dry gives you more control of the flavor of the final product. And you get some bragging rights for cooking old school. I make a 1/2 pound when I do this, and it makes enough to feed hungry company. (I've never measured exactly how many cups this makes.)

After my beans have finished their long soak I treat them like rice and cook them in broth for an hour (do not cook your rice for an hour please). What I mean is that I cover the pot, bring them to a boil, then reduce to a simmer so they can slowly cook. This will cook the flavor of the broth into the beans and bring them to a properly squishy state, nobody likes crunchy baked beans.

After the hour is up, drain the beans but reserve about 1/2 cup of the broth. In your non-stick pan or pot (I use a pot, it just seems like a good idea), add 1/4 of one vidalia onion, chopped along with 1 T of Worcestershire sauce, 1 T of dry ground mustard and 1 T of your favorite vinaigrette (I am loving Pomegranate Blood Orange lately, I don't even remember where I bought it but it is amazing!) Cook that until your onions have taken on the color of the liquid, I cover the pot during this portion of cooking as well.

Measure up 1/4 cup of each of the following: ketchup, brown sugar, and barbeque sauce. Add all this to the pot and stir until well combined. Allow it to cook for a while longer and it will thicken and bubble. Add the beans and reserved broth and stir well. Cover and boil on medium heat for 10 minutes more.

Do be careful of the steam and mind that these beans are boiling, give them a minute or five to cool before serving. Nothing ruins dinner like 2nd degree tongue burns.

Serve at a barbeque, potluck or any old dinner! This is a great side dish with plenty of protein, if you don't mind the salt from the processed condiments. I try not to think about it, and it tastes so good that you may not care!

We've had this with burgers, meatloaf, chicken and also rice. It is an every-meal kind of food (meaning it can fit in with any sort of meal).

Peanut Chicken with Firecracker Green Beans

I'm wandering around the kitchen, trying to decide what to make. I ask Shane, "What do you want to eat?" And he says, "Oooh make that spicy peanut-y chicken!" So I did.

This is VERY easy to make. You need a non-stick pan and a spatula (NOT a turner) that will not melt. And tongs that won't damage your non-stick pan. And measuring spoons. Yeah, that's it for hardware.

So we start by heating less than 1 T of sesame oil with more than 1 tsp of crushed red pepper in the non-stick pan. Add the chicken and cook on low-med for about 5 minutes before flipping, don't fiddle with it and don't poke it and don't flip it early, it ruins the process. (By the way don't use frozen chicken, that's just silly.)

After your chicken has cooked on the second side for another 5 minutes, remove it from the pan and put in as many green beans as you feel like eating and cook them for about 5-6 minutes. They will absorb the flavor of the sesame oil and the crushed red pepper. Very yummy!

Now remove them from the pan and we shall make the peanut sauce! This is a basic sauce, so you won't have to do anything special. In the pan add 2 T each of sugar, peanut butter, water, and soy sauce. 1 T of your choice of oil (I use olive) and 1 clove of garlic crushed. Stir all this as you cook it over medium heat. The peanut butter will melt and then you need to let it cook unstirred until it starts to bubble (NOT boil) the sauce will look dark brown and thick like molasses. Give it another stir and then remove from heat. Add the chicken back to the pan and use the sauce to coat both sides. This is when you use that spatula by the way.

I serve this chicken on toasted buns with lettuce. That's it. It is so flavorful and delicious that any extras would be a distraction rather than a lovely addition. Of course, I have my green beans on the side :D

I have also diced the chicken and stirred it into white rice with this sauce, but for some reason that really brings out more of the peanut flavor. If you love that, it's amazing, if you do not, then just don't do it.

Turkey Apple Meatloaf

I can't believe I didn't blog at all in June! It's been so hot that I haven't been cooking much, we've been grilling and sandwiching.

So yesterday I put my central air to the test by baking a meatloaf. When we were at the store I was amazed by this new touch screen recipe printing kiosk - I LOVE it! (Family Fare in Midland if you want to play with it) And came across this interesting recipe for Turkey Apple Meatloaf.

When I told Shane I was making it he said, "I don't know about that, don't put in very much apple, if you have to use it." I sent him to play Fall Out New Vegas while I played with the food.

The recipe called for stuffing which I left out and did not call for banana pepper, which I added. The recipe was intended to feed a family but since I'm cooking for a couple I made it smaller. I used 1/2 pound ground turkey, 1 egg, 1/2 an apple diced (the other half became an appetizer), 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1/4 of an onion chopped, 1 banana pepper finely chopped, 1 1/2 T cherry mustard, and sea salt and coarse black pepper.

As I was chopping this variety of produce I said to Shane, maybe I'm not clumsy after all, maybe I've just always had terrible dull knives - which are the leading cause of kitchen cuts. Now that I have a set of quality knives, I never cut my fingers. I'm so happy that my finger tips no longer garnish our meals :D

I stirred and then rolled it into a giant ball, since I never seem to make meatloaf in a loaf pan, and put it into a round casserole to bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees F.

When it was done we topped it with Raspberry Habanero sauce (so sweet and so spicy) from the Pampered Pantry. We ate it with my homemade "baked" beans (which I did not bake, I'll have to blog them as well).

Short but sweet, I've been on a long break after all, can't go right into novel blogging. :D

An Asian Essential: Egg Drop Soup

This is my recipe for egg drop soup, distilled from about five or six sources. Everyone has their own way of making things, and of course this recipe is no different. Some people call for a pile of chopped vegetables for egg drop soup, others insist upon noodles, and still others say it's not egg drop if there are more than eggs in it. This recipe is simple, flavorful, fast and easy. I have received only raving compliments (no exaggeration) whenever I've made it. So here I'm sharing with you my special recipe for egg drop soup.

2 cups chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 T soy sauce
1/2 T sugar (or less)
ginger and white pepper to taste, I use a few dashes of each
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional, but add it before the eggs if you use it)
4 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup water (optional)

Combine everything except the eggs and the onions in a medium to large sized sauce pan, bring the broth to a bowl and then reduce it to a simmer. In a bowl mix the eggs, you can use a fork or a whisk, I use a fork since a fork is required for the next part.

Stir the broth and remove the stirring-spoon so the broth continues to swirl, then slowly pour the eggs over the tines of a fork. When the broth stops moving, stop pouring and gently stir again - repeat until you run out of egg. (This will make the long thin strands of egg, if you like big clumps, slowly add all the egg into a still pot of broth, but not all in one spot, move the bowl as you pour so it isn't one giant piece of egg.) Immediately add the onion and simmer for about 2 minutes.

Do not boil the soup after you've added the eggs unless you like your egg pieces to be smaller than grains of rice.

Some people add noodles to egg drop soup, and you can if you like, I would use egg noodles or ramen if you think noodles are a good idea. I've also heard that white rice is good in egg drop soup, cooked first of course!

I say the last 1/4 cup of water is optional because of salt preference. Without it I think it is a little too salty, but then I don't care for salt, so your soup may not need it. The optional sesame oil adds a slight smoky flavor, it is good, but I only add it about half of the time. It is pretty strong, so you only need a small amount. (It's also good for making peanut chicken - I'll blog it eventually because it is so good and so spicy!)

Now you can prepare a simple but crowd pleasing soup. It is easy to make half the amount or double the amount. The measurements above serve 4-6 depending on bowl size. This is a great (light) meal on its own, or a great precursor to your main dish. Try pairing it with Chinese cabbage salad, fried rice, teriyaki chicken, or even sushi. Or you can do like I did on Wednesday and pair it with penne Alfredo and asparagus. It tastes so good, it can go with any type of food! :D

So let me know if you like it! And when you prepare it, give me a little credit, since I took the time to experiment for the last four years to make it perfect!

Just Go With It

Sometimes when you are cooking things don't go the way you imagined. That's when it's most important to improvise, and be courageous enough to eat the results.

Today I made tostadas, kind of. I made refried beans, spicy rice and fried corn tortillas. I forgot to cook meat and we were out of peppers and onions. I had diced tomato in the refrigerator but forgot to add them. Sometimes new recipes are born of forgetfulness.

On the bottom was, of course, the corn tortilla. Then a layer of refried beans and then a layer of spicy rice, topped with another fried tortilla. We cut them with the pizza cutter and ate them sort of quesadilla style. They were delicious!

Here's the real recipe: Spicy Rice

Cook the desired amount of rice in chicken broth instead of water. When it's done add a small spoonful of chili sauce, or more if you like it really spicy. Add 1/4 cup tomato sauce and 2 T cream cheese. Stir until cheese melts and everything is combined. Eat it now or serve it as a side or in your favorite Mexican style dish!

Experimental Dessert: A Brilliant Creation or a Terrible Disaster?

In March I started offering My Pampered Chef Hosts and Hostesses free dessert when they host a party in the month that their birthday is in, and today (Saturday) I needed to provide a free dessert. I actually had this particular culinary adventure on Friday, but it's been a busy weekend (you know, homework, facebook, planning for the Pampered Chef party, facebook, housework, facebook...)

Originally I was going to bake a cake, but then I thought that was too boring. Then I was going to make a cookie dessert pizza thing, but decided that was too much work and too many ingredients. So I looked in my cupboard and I looked at my cookbook and I had a rare moment of total and utter recipe loss - I had no idea what I should make, and I had 12 hours until time to leave for the party (sleep took up a big part of the 12 hours). So I sat down and balanced my checkbook (math soothes me, don't ask because it probably won't make sense to you, I'm just that strange). While balancing the checkbook I came across the receipt from groceries earlier that day and on that reciept was two kinds of cheerios and an idea began to form.

I had both chocolate cheerios and cinnamon cheerios and at first I wanted to just cover and smother them all with a simple chocolate coating (2 cups chocolate chips, any kind, and 2T+2tsp shortening). It turned out I didn't have enough chocolate chips for that so I thought about the cheerio flavors - I'd already represented chocolate so more cinnamon would probably bring a nice balance to this thing I was making. I googled "cinnamon fillling" and found an amazing recipe for cinnamon rolls that I promptly stole the cinnamon filling from. I thought I would mix the cheerios in the cinnamon filling and then coat them in chocolate, like little coated candy treats. (Later I saw that cinnamon filling wasn't sticky enough to lend itself to this idea, so I came up with a new one.)

I mixed up a half batch of cinnamon filling in a mixing bowl and then a half batch of simple chocolate coating in the Double Boiler (then set to simmer so it wouldn't re-harden). I checked my cinnamon filling, and for cinnamon rolls, it would have been perfect, but I wasn't going to be making any sort of roll. So I doubled the butter (I know, I'm so bad, but it tastes so good!) and that gave it a smoother more "spreadable" consistency - but not at all sticky the way I had hoped it would be. I had another idea though, so all was not lost. But before I went and ruined two perfectly good things, I took a small bowl and mixed a spoonful of each sweet to give it a taste combined - the taste was good, the chocolate drowned the cinnamon a little in my sample, but overall there was more cinnamon filling than there was simple chocolate coating, so that wouldn't be a problem with the full size mixture.

I added the simple chocolate coating to the cinnamon filling and stirred until they were well combined, then I added 1 cup each of chocolate and cinnamon cheerios and stirred to coat. There was a lot of chocolate-cinnamon goo left so I added another 1 cup of each flavor of cheerios and stirred them in. This time they were all evenly coated without an excess amount of leftover chocolate-cinnamon sauce.

I spread out waxed paper onto two cookie sheets and cleared space in the refrigerator - chocolate sets best when chilled. I used my Small Scoop, which holds about 1 T, to scoop up about 65 of these little cheerio treats. I wanted them small because they had a lot of flavor, and if they ended up too big they'd be too sweet to eat. Once I had dished them all out I put them in the refrigerator overnight.

After packing up all my show supplies (cooking gadgets and toys, catalogs, order forms, netbook, first aid kit and aloe - I'm a little accident prone, and Pink Zebra demo products) I almost didn't remember to pack up my little creations! But luckily for me, since I had promised a free dessert, I did remember to pack them up (after sharing a few with my husband of course!) According to the guests, my brand new Chocolate Cinnamon Cheerio Treats are a brilliant creation, because there were only a handful leftover!

Next time I promise a dish, I think I'll plan ahead. (Even if these did turn out, you never know when a terrible disaster will land on your cookie sheet!)

The Invention of my Famous Quick Chicken Goulash

I say famous in the title, because I know that I'm going to be asked to make this one again and again! I was looking at the cupboard and I wasn't sure what I felt like making for dinner so I started setting things on the counter, to visualize the possibilities.

I started with tri-color rotini, because pasta is quick and Shane (husband creature) had to go to work in less than an hour. Also, they are pretty. Next to that box I placed a can of dark red kidney beans and a can of chicken. Ideas began to form in my head so I added a can of diced tomatoes and started the water to boil. I measured my pasta and went to the refrigerator to forage for produce. I found onions, garlic, green bell pepper and tomatoes, but decided it was quicker to use the canned diced tomatoes, so the fresh tomatoes had to stay behind.

The pasta water came to a boil so in the pot with the pasta. Set the timer and give it a stir and it can take care of itself in my non-stick pot, an invention handed straight from the gods to mankind. Nothing sticks to non-stick, not even ignored pasta!

On to my veggies! The onions and peppers I treated the same, almost. Of course, they are different creatures, you don't peel your pepper and you don't de-seed an onion, but I did mince them both with my food chopper. I had decided this dish would be soup-ish so I wanted them really little, I don't like big chunks of pepper or onion in my soup (unless it's French onion, and then peppers aren't invited at all). The onion went into the frying pan with a little sea salt and butter - to start them caramelizing faster. The pepper needed to wait a minute, as it wouldn't be added to the pan until the end. After peeling the garlic I pressed it right into the frying pan with the onions, which were about half way done at that time (I was going for a more light burn than a true caramelization). I added a little more butter and gave it a healthy stir before remembering I hadn't stirred the pasta since I had started it to boil.

So I stirred the pasta and then drained it, reserving 2 cups of my boiling water. To the same non-stick pot I emptied the can of diced tomatoes. I put the kidney beans back in the cupboard because I decided I didn't need competing proteins and I had already decided chicken sounded better. To the diced tomatoes I added the two cups boiling water and I hate to admit it, but 2 chicken bullion cubes (I'm out of canned low sodium stock!) I also added paprika, black pepper, basil and cilantro (I love cilantro, it goes all sorts of places it was probably never meant to go).

Back at the frying pan the onions were starting to get a nice crispy sort of brown, so I added the peppers and stirred them. Then stirred the soup, and then I opened the canned chicken, because yes it is edible, and rinsed it REALLY well. The onions were added to the soup and the chicken went into the pan to cook off the extra water. At this point I felt my soup was too thin, so I added about 1/2 can of tomato paste. I then decided it didn't have enough vegetables and it wasn't yet colorful enough so I added a can of corn, I normally use frozen, I really don't care for canned vegetables, BUT canned corn that is going to become part of soup is my one exception. I didn't even drain it, as I had added a bit much tomato paste and it would add a little bit of sweet and salty flavor.

By this time I had almost forgotten about the pasta again, but it was still hot when I added it to my soup, which I promptly decided was more like goulash than soup, so now it was a goulash (you see how recipe naming works now, don't you?) I also added the chicken, and debated adding black beans, decided against and stirred vigorously. This broke the rotini a bit, but that was fine with me. I let it simmer maybe 6-8 minutes before serving, allowing to cool for about 2 minutes and eating.

It was super yum, and Shane only poked it once to find out what all was in it before eating the whole bowl!

Waffle Brownies

This has got to be the easiest and fastest dessert ever, and it is also delicious! I found the recipe for waffle brownies when my friend Tanya shared a link to waffle cookies (you know I'll make them eventually):
Waffle Brownies

Anyway, here's how it went. I used a box of Jiffy chocolate muffin mix with mini chocolate chips (who doesn't love Jiffy mixes?) and per package instructions mixed it with 1 egg and 1/4 cup milk, then for added moistness and special flavor 1 T olive oil.

Using my Small Scoop, which holds about 1 T, I scooped the batter into the center of the waffle-cups (Is that what they're called?) of my waffle maker, which is the simple press kind. I would love the waffle maker that you flip, but mine is still cool because the waffles it makes are shaped like hearts.

I cooked these for a mere 30-40 seconds (using the timer on my microwave) and they came out fluffy and amazing. The ones I cooked for an entire minute were crisp, and darker but didn't have a burned flavor. We preferred them fluffy so I cooked the rest for 30-40 seconds each.

It made a decent amount, maybe a 20? I forgot to count, and they were going fast! I shared a few with my sister and my mom, who also loved them. I plan on making them again on Friday.

Here's a photo of the last one!

Green Pizza and Breadsticks

Part 2 of St. Patrick's Day's green eats was a green pizza and green breadsticks. I know I could have gone more green, and were I cooking for myself and my husband only, I would have, but you can't prepare a ton of food that your guests won't eat, that's just silly. These are extremely easy recipes, and if you love pizza and breadsticks, I'd say you need to give them a try!

For the pizza I started with a Pillsbury seamless dough sheet (like crescent rolls in a tube but without perforations) on a rectangular baking stone (Pampered Chef's Large Bar Pan, though I've never made "bars" on it) and baked it for 10 before adding fresh pressed garlic and tomato sauce, an easy and tasty (and fast) way to make some home made pizza sauce. On the sauce we add 4 cheese Italian blend, pepperonis, green olives and green peppers chopped with the Food Chopper and sliced green onions. Had this pizza not been meant for guests I would have also added spinach and artichokes, both chopped. However, this pizza was meant for guests so I stopped at the green onions. Then I topped those toppings with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-15 and it is yum!

For the breadsticks I used a Jiffy pizza crust mix that I added pesto and green onion tops to, and once flattened on a round baking stone I topped it with 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 and top with another 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. They were a little crispy, and to avoid that I'd either double the Jiffy mix or reduce baking time. I enjoyed the crispiness, but not everyone loves a crunch.

As we all know, when you have an alcoholic celebration pizza is your go-to crowd food, and nothing else will do. I love cooking, but more than that, I love it when people enjoy the food I've cooked. For that purpose these two dishes were a major hit, as everyone was pleased.

Green Cookies

In preparation for a day filled with everything green, I spent yesterday evening making green cookies! I dug out my mom's recipe for chocolate chip cookies (the best and only recipe I will use) and decided to try a new recipe I found for spritz cookies.

Since I'm not really a huge fan of chocolate (other than dark) I always leave the chocolate chips out of my chocolate chip cookies, I think it makes them too sweet and I prefer to focus on the sweet brown sugar and vanilla flavor of the dough. When I cream the sugars and butter I added a healthy amount of green food coloring to make them festive. When time to bake came I used my new Small Scoop, that holds about 1 T, to make perfectly even and adorable little dough balls that baked into wonderfully round and evenly sized chocolate chip cookies sans chips. They are amazing, and very pleasing to the perfectionist in me.

For my spritz cookies I had to beat them a little extra since my butter wasn't quite softened enough, which turned out to be a good thing as it made the dough nice and fluffy/creamy. I deviated from the recipe just a bit by adding 1/4 tsp of almond extract and 1/2 T of orange zest. I used my cookie press, which I've only used once before with not the best results. It turns out that the first time I used it my dough was too soft, which is why all my cookies were only vaguely pumpkin shaped (although definitely pumpkin flavored!). I used the dragonfly/butterfly plate (not 100% which one it's supposed to be) and since these cookies are green they sort of ended up looking like clovers, which is cool because I made them for St. Patrick's Day.

At the end of my baking adventure I now know I have 2 tools I would never want to be without again (at least when it comes to cookies)! Next time, I'm going to try baking cookies on stoneware, and I'll be sure to share.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I was feeling down today and after doing the dishes I realized it was high time there were some dirty dishes on my counter! Yesterday when my sister was trying to talk me into making her macaroni and cheese AND pizza I found a recipe on the Food Network website by Alton Brown (my most favorite chef ever! Good Eats :D) My sister got pizza only, but now I was equipped with a new and exciting recipe, that was burning a whole in the pocket of my mind, like a child with a quarter. (She said the pizza was amazing, mayhap I will blog about a repeat performance of the pizza recipe another time.)

So, obviously, you start with some al dente mac' when making a mac'n'cheese. So al dente I did, and then gave my pasta elbows a nice bath so they didn't stick together horribly. Now I had to multitask as I roux-ed and chicken-ed at the same time. (Chicken [cubed] + bruschetta flavored olive oil = yummy chicken!) To my roux I added green onions, ground mustard, paprika, one bay leaf and milk, simmer for 10 before removing the bay leaf and adding cheese (in that order, you don't want to try fishing a broken bay out of cheese). Alton wanted me to use cheddar, but I don't like cheddar and more importantly we didn't have any. I used Colby jack, mozzarella, Parmesan and provolone.

While that simmered (before the cheese was invited) I chopped broccoli and tended the chicken and procured an egg (different chicken). Again before the cheese, I tempered in one egg. I wasn't so sure about this at first, but Alton has never done me wrong before, so I trusted him on this. Finally the cheese! Now I combined all my ingredients: macaroni, chicken, broccoli and cheese sauce. Top with buttered breadcrumbs (I substituted half my breadcrumbs with chicken flavored stuffing, for funsies) and bake for 30 then rest for 5.

Taste test time! Beautiful, brilliant, amazing! Best macaroni and cheese I've ever made (<3 Alton). And right now, there are dirty dishes on my counter, mission complete.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html

Taco Munchies - A Win/Lose Recipe

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a recipe called "Taco Munchies". It looked easy and yum and something I could do quickly, I thought, "This will be a great recipe for a cooking demonstration!" So I put it in with the recipes for my sister to pick for me to demonstrate at her Pampered Chef party (later this week). I admit I didn't read it closely, just a quick skim of the ingredients, and as many long-time chefs do, I can pretty much figure out the rest after reading the ingredients. There are only so many places you can go with it after that.

I purchased the ingredients, there weren't many, and got ready to practice this recipe. It may be a case of worrying too much, but I like to practice a new recipe before making it for a crowd, to make sure there won't be unforeseen side effects. In this case, I was very lucky to have wanted to make it early. All the measurements were wrong, the baking time was wrong and even the baking temperature was wrong. If anyone were to follow these directions, they'd have many small over-flowing taco soups that would be way beyond Cajun (a colloquial for "burned"). And what else is odd is the ingredients list has garlic on it, but the instructions never called for garlic. Poor garlic. :C

So I start out unaware of these foul wrongs this recipe has, but luckily for me, when I cook for my husband and myself I always use about 1/2 or less than half the amount of meat a recipe calls for (healthier that way). So instead of 1 pound of ground beef I decide to fry 8 ounces. As it's cooking I roll out my seamless dough sheet (tubed crescent rolls with no perforations, amazing!) and cut them into squares. Not having worked with this dough a lot, I pick up a square right away and try to put it in a mini muffin cup - doesn't work out so well. It was too little and didn't cover the sides. I did a couple more and became a little frustrated, so I set it aside and measured 1 cup of salsa, because I thought an entire jar (with no specific amount listed, just "1 jar" of salsa) would be too much.

Then I realize that I have garlic out and no part of this recipe calls for me to do anything to the garlic. *facepalm* So I press the garlic into the cooking beef (which has been flipped and chopped into bits) and give it a little stir. During all this the dough has had a chance to set out and come to room temperature. I tried putting another one into a muffin cup and - success! It fit nicely, covering the sides and making little leaves on the edges. The dough definitely needed a rest before any attempts of stretching and squishing it into muffin cups should have been attempted. Next I mixed the salsa and ground beef + garlic, and my "wrong" measurements turn out to be the right ones! I had a little leftover filling but I can't imagine what I would do with another 1/2 pound of ground beef with these things!

Next comes baking. Recipe says 350, dough sheet instructions say 375, and I learned a long time ago that the people who write on those packages give you a temperature for a reason, it tends to take a lot longer if you cook them at the wrong temperature. I picked 375, I didn't want to wait an extra 5-10 minutes because of faulty temperature settings. I set my timer for 15 minutes, and after 10 I could hear them sizzling and I peeked at them to see what they were up to. They were already done, had I let them go a few minutes longer they'd have been burned and terrible - the recipe wanted me to bake them for 20 minutes, maybe because it had a lower temperature, but since this is a recipe I plan to use for demonstration, the less baking time the better. There's only so much chatter and fill you can give to people before they get bored and stop listening to you. I know, because I tend to stop listening if people are talking too much or for too long. Maybe I have ADD, but whatever.

I topped them all with cheese, which melted without additional assistance from the oven, lying recipe. Time to serve! After figuring out that I have no idea how to get the little devils out from their cups, and my traditional method of dumping cupcakes upside down wouldn't work because all the filling would fall out, I decided a couple burned finger tips would have to get the job done.

After one bite though... it was all worth it, Taco Munchies win the flavor festival this week! Perhaps it was the peach pineapple salsa, or maybe it was just a perfect combination of these comfort food flavors, but these were very yum!

Now I know how to make the recipe for later this week, and I have devised a plan involving a citrus peeler to free the munchies from their cups.

In the words of Alton Brown, "Remember, play with your food!" :D

Turkey Chili - A Surprise Inside

When I read the title on this recipe card I was thinking, "What's so special about turkey chili?" I learned it's dirty little secret when I read the ingredients list, it calls for beer! At first I wrinkled my nose at the idea of putting something as foul tasting as beer into something as amazing as chili. Then I remembered the first time I tried broccoli and decided to give this recipe a chance.

(I had spent my entire life up to the moment I tried broccoli believing I hated broccoli, merely because it was a weird little green tree. When I finally tried it, I LOVED it, and decided that there was no way I was ever going to not eat a food because I thought I might not like it. Which is why I always try the beer my husband drinks. So far the only ones I have liked have been so dark you couldn't see light through them - Guinness Extra Stout and He'brew Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah. In addition to those wicked dark beers I now eat pretty much every fruit vegetable except cabbage, because I think it has a strange texture, but still tastes okay, and lemons because I do not enjoy sour things - though I still use lemon juice and lime juice to cook with.)

Anyway, back to that chili! Another ingredient that this chili called for is chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, something I've wanted to try for a long time, but had never known what to do with them. After (finally) finding the chipotle peppers in the Hispanic foreign foods section in Meijer, I brought these little devils home to make an epic chili.

I read my recipe and instructions carefully, and started with my aromatics - onions and garlic in bruschetta flavored olive oil with a pinch of sea salt. To this I added chili powder, oregano and three chopped chipotle peppers, though the recipe called for a measly one along with tomato paste. Then I added the ground turkey, and cooked until well browned. Now it was time for that special ingredient! BEER! I poured in the whole bottle, thinking, "Wow, I hope this tastes good!" because up to that point it smelled amazing. I simmered my spicy mix for a few minutes, to cook off the alcohol and make a reduction (by half). Then I added a large can of crushed tomatoes and a well rinsed can of red kidney beans. Simmer for ten, garnish with a bit of freshly grated Parmesan and a side of cornbread (with bits of actual corn in!) Time for the taste test!

First bite and I'm thinking, "How have I gone my entire life without this amazing beer-ific chili?" Second bite and I'm thinking, "OMG! Maybe one chipotle pepper would have been enough!" All in all, this recipe is awesome and amazingly delicious, easy to make (30 minutes or less!) and was a fun flavor adventure. I highly recommend this one to everyone!

(Thank you Food Network recipe calendar!)

My First Cooking Show

So maybe you're already wondering, "What's a Cooking Show?". You're lucky I'm such a nice lady, I'll tell you what it is! When I talk about a Cooking Show I'm referring to going to someone's house and preparing a meal in 30 minutes or less in front of a group of people, usually mostly women. During the show I explain how to use and why I use the tools I'm using. Why would I do this? I sell Pampered Chef products, the most amazing things that can happen to your kitchen! :D

In any case, my first Cooking Show was at my own home, just in case I chopped off a finger I would know where my first aid kit is! I invited all sorts of people, and practiced the recipe the day before by making it and feeding it to my husband, while he pretended to be a guest. He won two cookbooks and played with all the gadgets I used. Then he got to eat the little pizzas I made, so he had a good night!

So the day of the show comes, and at first I was really nervous, I'm wondering what was I thinking to sign up for this? I started cooking, and I started talking, and before I knew it the pizzas were baking and I was playing a game with my guests - I asked them their favorite fruit and vegetable and recommended Pampered Chef (PC) tools that could make preparing that food item easier or faster. I remembered how much I loved public speaking and how easy it is (I was a competitive public speaker in high school through an amazing program called Forensics) it was fun and natural to talk to this crowd, even if it was a small crowd of people I know.

Apparently my demonstration was a hit, and so was the fruit and vegetable game, because those were the top selling items! I was really pleased with how well I explained the Round Up From the Heart program (you round up your change and it is donated to Feeding America: http://feedingamerica.org/) because EVERYONE chose to round up!

When I started I didn't have high hopes for making money, and that hasn't really changed. What has changed is that I think I might really enjoy this. I've always loved cooking, I wanted to be a chef, open a restaurant or be a caterer. The thought that someone might not like my cooking, send me back a plate of food or special order something so it doesn't even resemble the original meal made me not want to do these things. Now, I get to do something I love for people, with none of those concerns. If I'm lucky, I'll more than break even, and if I'm not, I get to play with food and kitchen toys and meet new people.

Happy Cooking!