The kitchen's story

Peanut Blossoms and Cranberry Oatmeal Goodness

 

Peanut Blossoms are your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, rolled in sugar, baked 9 minutes at 350, pull out-put a hershey kiss in the middle, put back in for 1-2 minutes and let cool.  Yum.

These particular cookies are not all my own doing - they started with BC's oatmeal mix and I added the steps on the back of the pkg, plus a touch of vanilla and a good handful of dried cranberries.  Baked at 350 for 9 minutes too.  They were decent...not my ultimate fav but good.

Chicken Wrapped Sausage with Roasted Califlower & Garlic Bread

 Pound out chicken breast to very thin, remove casing from a turkey store spicy italian sausage and wrap the chicken around the sausage.  Place seam side down in the pan of hot evoo.  Brown on all sides until golden, transfer to oven safe dish and put in 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  On a cookie sheet place the cauliflower.  Pinch of salt and pepper, drizzle of evoo, into the 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Remove when roasted to liking, sprinkle with parm.  This was a unique recipe and very tasty.  Try it, share your opinion.

 1 can each of the following: kidney beans, black beans, chili beans - none of these drained.  Brown 1lb of ground turkey, season with garlic powder, salt, pepper and a taco packet.  Add meat to bean mixture and add chicken stock to desired soup consistency.  Let cook together 20-25 minutes.  Add stock if you desire.  Ladle, sprinkle of cheese, green onions.  Oh, yes, this is a fav.

   In a large bowl: chopped onion, 1lb of ground turkey, 3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs, an egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Squish with hands, let little ones help, they love it.  Spray loaf pan with non-stick, press the meat mixture in pan, cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Pull out, put squiggle of katsup, put back in for desired crispy edges.  Pull out, heat green beans, slice meat cake.  Good stuff.

Grilled Pork Chops, Stuffing, & Broiled Mozzarella

      Saute chopped onion and pork chops, 6 minutes on each side.  Put chops on plate and cover with foil.  Use onions and the same pan to make stove top stuffing.  Put chops back on top, sprinkle with mozzarella, broil for 2-3 minutes.  Yum.

Making Breakfast for my family makes me feel domestic and good

Cinnamon Pancakes with maple syrup...made from the Fresh n' Easy mix with an egg, melted butter, water, milk and cinnamon.  Scrambled eggs were, well, whole eggs cracked open in a bowl and whisked up with a pinch of salt, a couple of twists of the pepper and grated colby jack.  Strawberries are fresh, rinsed clean and cut in half.  Simple, all the food groups, delicious!

Chinese Chicken Salad

Simple, Summer Salad that is so yummy.

Baby Spinach, Romaine chopped bite sized, Crunchy Asian Noodles, Mandarin Oranges, Chinese Mandarin Dressing--use for chicken marinade and for salad dressing.  Grill marinated chicken, slice on an angle.  Mix greens with dressing.  Put oranges around plate, put sliced chicken atop salad and top with crunchy noodles.

Yumminess!!

Tortellini Salad

This is good as a main dish or side dish.

Cook cheese tortellini by package instructions.  While draining rinse with cold water to begin the cooling process immediately.  Add one red and one green bell pepper that is diced very small.  Add 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese.  Add a good pinch of salt and a health bunch of turns of the ground black pepper.  Then shake up your favorite italian dressing and pour over all of the ingredients.  Gently fold and stir all together without breaking up the tortellini's.  Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a few hours or over night before you are going to serve.  Really fresh and delicious!  (If you chill this over night and the next day it is a bit dry because it absorbed the dressing, then pout a little more and toss right before you serve.)

Tortilla Roll Ups

It does not get any simpler than this - and so tasty, so yummy!

Make these the the day before your going to serve.  Leave a block of cream cheese out an hour or so to make spreading is a bit easier.  Take a burrito size (or larger) and spread a thin layer of cream cheese.  Next sprinkle hot sauce down the middle.  Then a couple spoonfuls of chopped olives and use the back of the spoon to spread them around.  Next place three slices of turkey down the same middle that you did the hot sauce.  Then roll up the tortilla as tight as possible.  Wrap with foil and put in the fridge.  When ready to serve, take out of foil and slice in 1in pieces and plate. 

Clifford as a cake - how fun!

This was such a fun cake to make for my daughter's 3rd birthday!  Red is tricky but do-able.  I bought red color paste and then I bought red food mist.  The outline is chocolate icing in a tube with a very fine tip.  The white of the eyes is decorating gel.  The white on the bones is just classic white frosting.

The cake inside is Funfetti cake, which Sally calls sparkle cake!  I made it to the box specifications.  The rest is free hand carving, a prayer, a wink and a nudge!  Sally loved it!  She said, "Oh, Mommy, it's Clifford.  Thank you, thank you berry much!"  Your welcome sweetie!

Farley Family Recipe has been handed to my husbie!

Okay, I cannot share the secret family here, truth is, I didn't even make this, my husbie did...because it was a holiday, because he was craving it, because it's his mama's recipe.  I post this because I was so impressed with him making it and because it was so yummy!

Toasted (and some a little beyond toasted) & Red Sauce

I bought the most delicious Chicken Sausage & Spinach ravioli from Trader Joe's (or Peter Joe's as Sally so lovingly calls it...so cute).  Get to two pie plates, scramble an egg in one and put bread crumbs with Italian seasonings in the other one.  In a nonstick skillet, heat up some evoo (but not too hot like my first batch...toasted becomes beyond toasted).  Flip ravioli in egg, then bread crumbs, then place in hot pan.  Let sit 4 minutes then flip for 4 more.  Heat some red sauce in a small pan and serve together.  Simple and so tasty!

Ooeey Gooeey Pumpkin Goodness...Seriously, make this, eat it all and make it again!

Paula was the originator but I have tweaked this to fabulousness!

First, in your mixer, put one yellow cake mix, one stick of melted butter, one egg.  Mix for a couple of minutes...it will end up like sticky play-dough.  Spread this mixture with your fingers across the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  In the same mixing bowl, mix 2 cups pumpkin puree, 1 box powdered sugar, another melted stick of butter, fresh grated nutmeg, cinnamon, 3 eggs, 1 block of room temp cream cheese.  This mixture will be very soupy.  Pour it over the flattened out cake mixture.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.  It will come out very gooey on top so watch the color and doneness of the cake part on the bottom.  Let sit for 20 minutes, then put in your refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or over night...cut in 1 inch squares and serve...or save it for you and your fam...YUM!

Another addition to my personal verision of food groups

Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Fresh Cracked Pepper, Fresh Crusty on the outside-soft on the inside French Bread.  Is there anything better when the kitchen smells of Ragu with basil and your taste buds want to be absolutely delighted?  Very simply - No.

(And the other personal food groups: chocolate peanut butter ice cream & chips and salsa.)

Spinach Stuffed Porkchops

Cut lean pork chop almost all the way thru like an open book.  Chop fresh thyme, zest of one lemon, pinch of salt, fresh black pepper, squeeze out frozen chopped spinach - mix all of this and then spread a nice layer on the open pork.  Take a cheese stick and cut stick in half and then the length in half again.  Place two in the middle and fold back in half.  Sprinkle some salt and ground pepper on the outside and place in a skillet to brown on both sides.  Then transfer skillet to a 350 degree oven and let cook 20 minutes more minutes.  Side dishes: While pork is browning, mix together corn bread with real corn and a very tiny chopped up jalapeno.  Put in the oven at the same time as the pork, or at the time line stated on the box so that the pork and corn bread are done at the same time.  Cook the rest of the can of corn and make a salad.  Enjoy!

Big Flavor Shrimp & Asparagus

I love shrimp.  I have learned to buy them clean and deveined.  I think you only make that mistake once.  I put some Old Bay Seasoning and grilled this on a stove top grill pan.  In a nonstick I put 1/2 cup water and a drizzle of evoo.  Bring water to a boil and stick in asparagus.  Keep water boiling and as it evaporates the asparagus will begin to get a nice evoo pan browning...but keep the stalks moving with a wood spoon and shake of the pan.  Once the water is completely gone, cook only about five minutes more with lots of movement.  Remove pan from heat and sprinkle a couple of shakes of grated parm cheese over the top and shake the pan twice more.  Serve everything up and eat.  Yum!

Saint Patty's Day Treat

Thank you Bakerella for this inspiration for these St. Patty's treat!  They are delicious!

In a large food storage bad put 22 Mint Oreo Cookies and 8 more with the minty filling removed.  Use rolling pin to smash into powdery crumbs.  Dump crumb mixture into mixer and add one 8oz block of room temp cream cheese.  Roll this mixture into 1" balls and place on a foil lined cookie sheet.  Place cookie sheet in freezer for 20 minutes to solidify and it helps them stand up to the melted chocolate coating! 

Place a double boiler on the stove with 1" of water and bring to a boil.  Drop in one bag of white chocolate chips and stir until melted.  Roll each cook drop in the chocolate and place in candy paper cup.  Sprinkle colored sprinkles and let chocolate reset for 30 minutes.  Then call in the fam because this one is a winner!

Husby requested chocolate goodness for Bday!!

In your mixer: yellow cake mix with egg, oil & water per box instructions.  Then add 1/3 cup of sour cream and 12 large marshmallows.  Spray two cake pans with non-stick for baking.  Oven set to 350 degrees.  Bake cake to doneness (tooth pick comes out of center clean).  Let cool for 1 hour.  Place a tbsp of frosting in the center of the cake plate.  Frost the top of the the first cake.  Then with a micro-plane, grate chocolate on top of the frosting layer.  Take the second cake and invert when you place it on top so that the smooth pan side of the cake is what is facing up.  Frost the rest of the cake.  Make a pretty design with the knife.  Put some powdered sugar in a sifter and sift onto the cake.  Then grate some more chocolate on top of the cake. 

Moist, sweet, decedent...Happy Birthday, Babe!!!

Low Fat Chicken Broccoli Fettucini Alfredo

So, so simple and quite tasty.

Put on a full stock pot of water over high heat to boil.  Cut two boneless chicken breasts into strips.  In a skillet with a drizzle of evoo over medium high heat add the chicken strips.  Put course salt and fresh pepper on the side facing up.  Let cook for 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown and then flip with tongs and let cook another 5-7 minutes.  In the mean time microwave half a large bag of broccoli florets, with a 1/4 cup water and covered in saran for 6 minutes.  Once this is all started in another skillet melt two table spoons of marg.  Once melted add two tbsps of flour and whisk until the flour has cooked for 2 minutes.  Add 2 cups of 2 % milk to the skillet and whisk until the lumps of flour have dissolved.  Keep over a very low heat.  Add wheat fettuccine to boiling water for 7-9 minutes.  When chicken is done remove from heat.  Drain the broccoli.  Whisk the milky mixture as it thickens.  Put drained pasta back in stock pot.  Add chicken & broccoli.  Add some fresh nutmeg and ground pepper to sauce, whisk a couple of times and pour into stock pot.  Stir mix together, add some parm cheese.  Way better than white flour pasta and heavy alfredo sauce...better tasting and better for you!  Nice.

Corn in the form of soup is simply delicious

3 slices turkey bacon, extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 yellow onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 zucchini, 2 white potatoes, 2 small leeks, 1 bag of frozen corn, 3 tbsp flour, 3 cups chicken stalk, 3/4 cup half & half, 1/2 cup 1% milk, course salt, fresh pepper, paprika, rosemary & thyme.

Start with slicing the leek top and bottom off and then the bulb in half and slice the halves very thin.  Fill a large bowl with water and place the half moon slivers in the water so the dirt will fall to the bottom the bowl.  Set to the side. Slice bacon into small pieces.  Brown in the bottom of a stock pot with a touch of evoo for about 5 minutes. Add chopped onion to pan and minced garlic cloves.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper.  Let the onion begin to soften.  Add small chopped zucchini, small chopped potato, bag of corn and rest of spices to the pot.  Let cook all together for five minutes.  Add the flour and stir to coat everything.  Let cook for 3-5 minutes or until the flour begins to paste.  Add 3 cups chicken stock, half n half, milk and the drained leeks to pot and bring to a boil.  Once a boil reduce to simmer for ten minutes.   Get out blender.  Ladle half of the mix into the blender and puree and then pour back into stock pot.  Leave heat on low while you chopped some parsley.  Ladle to bowls, top with parsley and enjoy every sweet and savory bite!