Baked Chicken with Garlic and Shallots and Random Chili

I appologize for my absence, I was kinda... GETTING MARRIED! 

See:

Ok, so now that I'm married and back from an amazing 2 week honeymoon, I am dying to cook. Last night I made "Hey look, kidney beans" Chili. No pics unfortunately, the camera was still packed (and tired). But here's the basic idea:

Random Chili

Ingredients: 

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 16oz can petite diced tomato
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• Appx. 6oz beer
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 tbsp dried minced onion
• Chili powder to taste - I used about 3 tbsp
• Red pepper to taste - I used about 2 tsp
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• Black pepper to taste
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Spray dutch oven with cooking spray, brown ground beef with 1/3 of each of the spices (peppers) and all of the garlic and onion. 
2. Once browned, add the diced tomatos and tomato paste, along with the beer.  Drain and add kidney beans.
3. Add the rest of the spices. Heat mixture until heated through, then drop heat to low and simmer for at least 1 hour.
4. Serve over rice with sour cream and cheese (if desired)

Ok, and now for tonights dish. We got shallots today at the grocery store, they looked so good and they inspired my chicken dish. I also wanted some Thanksgiving-y food since I missed the holiday due to my honeymoon.

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Shallots

Ingredients: 

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 6 shallots, remove outer skins and cut in half
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp rosemary
• Coarse salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (or 8 pealed garlic cloves, I was just kinda lazy)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425, and while oven is preheating, put the butter into the caserole dish you'll use to bake the chicken in the oven, remove when the butter is melted.
2. In the caserole dish with the melted butter, add the thyme, rosemary, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper, and make sure all onions are coated in the butter. 
3. Dredge the chicken through the buttery spice mixture then line the chicken breasts in the caserole dish. 
4. Bake for 50-60 min or until chicken is baked completely.  Serve and YUMM!

Side suggestions:

- Mashed potatos

- Stuffing 

- Scalloped corn caserole

Beef Tenderloin with Portobello Duxelle and Mac and Cheese

I haven't been posting a lot because the wedding is exactly 1 week from today! Oddly, I find myself having a bit more time this weekend than previous weekends, mostly because I have been working so hard I have done nearly everything I can ahead of time!  Its an awesome feeling to not be super busy this weekend. 

We haven't had a ton of interesting food in the house, and tonight was not real exception.  I knew I wanted to make homemade mac and cheese with velveta, a childhood favorite.  We also had some fresh portobellos and enough filet in the freezer to feed everyone actually coming to the wedding.  So, I found this recipe and it is seriously. awesome.  Easy? No. Good, oh yeah.

Beef Tenderloin with Portobello Duxelle

1. Filet mignon, 4 steaks about 7 oz (we used smaller steaks because that's what we had) each
2. Olive oil
3. Salt, pepper to taste
4. About 2-3 large portobello mushroom tops cut into small pieces
5. 1/3 cup onion, very finely chopped (food processor if you have one)
6. 4 cloves galric, finely chopped
7. 1 cup white wine
8. 2 tbsp butter

Directions

• Rub salt and pepper into the filet, cut a slit into one top to stuff later w/ the portobello duxelle
• Melt butter in heavy-bottom fry pan (I use cast iron), saute portobello, onion, and garlic for about 5 minutes or until softened and browned
• Add white wine and allow to cook until ALMOST dry - about 5 minutes
• Remove mixture from pan and allow to cool slightly
• In the same pan, heat olive oil until smoking, sear the filet for 1-2 min on each side
• Place steaks on a cookie sheet, stuff with the protobello duxelle
• Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, serve immediately

Homemade mac and cheese - the easy way

1. 1 box cavatappi noodles
2. 1 lb of velveta cheese, cut into marble sized chunks
3. 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
4. Milk
5. Salt, pepper to taste
6. 3 slices bread, cubed

Directions:

• Cook noodles, drain except for about 1/2 cup of water
• Over a low heat, melt the velveta and water into the noodles, add shredded cheddar cheese, salt and pepper
• Put in caserole dish, place bread on top
• Bake at 350 for 30 minutes