Quesadillas

Another one of my favorite easy dinners, and the best part is that you can do lots of different toppings on them. Enjoy!

Chicken and Black Bean Quesadillas

Ingredients:

• Tortillas
• Cheddar cheese, or cheddar/pepper jack cheese blend
• Chicken
• Black beans, canned and rinsed
• 1tsp garlic
• 1tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• Olive oil
• other possible toppings: green onion, red beans, pineapple, steak, etc

Directions:

1. Slice chicken breast into thin strips, put into frying pan with small amount of heated olive oil
2. Add the spices to the chicken and cook until the chicken is done (5-6 minutes)
3. Remove chicken from the pan, set aside
4. Put tortilla in the bottom and sprinkle a small amount of cheese onto the tortilla
5. Place chicken and toppings on the cheese, then add an equal amount of cheese
6. Place other tortilla on top and watch for the bottom of the tortilla to brown slightly
7. Flip the tortilla and allow cheese to melt completely
8. Store in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve, and serve with salsa and sour cream

Side suggestions:

• Dirty rice
• Red beans and rice
• Refried beans

Better than Bisquick

I've come to hate bisquick. Everything that it makes tastes the same. So I'm on a quest to find the best recipies for biscuits, pancakes, waffles, and taco pie. Thus far, I have conqured biscuits:

Biscuits

• 2 c flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Appx 3/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, and softened butter in a bowl. If you wash your hands and use your fingers, its easier. Add salt.
3. Add milk and mix together to form a dough. Flour the counter and dump the dough onto it, kneeding for 30 seconds. 
4. Flatten with a rolling pin to 1 about 1/2in thick.  Cut biscuits to desired size.
5. Bake 12 to 15 minutes.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I love chinese food. I've been eating it my whole life. Donald and I have perfected a few recipes, this is one of mine. Homemade sweet and sour chicken is nothing like what you get from the store, the sauce is far superior, a little saltier, but so good.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp flour
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• Cubed chicken breast
  
• 1/2 c soy sauce
  
• 2 tbsp thick soy (optional)
  
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
  
• 1/3 c pineapple juice (from can of pineapple, you'll also use the pineapple)
  
• 1 c pineapple in chunks (see, told ya)
  
• Sliced vegetables of your choice, I recommend carrots and possibly onions, but this is totally up to you. 
  
• Peanut oil (you can't use olive oil for this step, veggie or canola is also OK but peanut works best)

Directions:

1. In a small sauce pan, add the soy sauces, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and pineapple juice and heat thoroughly, but do not allow to reach a hard boil. Heat for 10-15 minutes. 
2. In a bowl, mix the olive oil and flour and mix to create a paste. Put the chicken into the paste and coat thoroughly. NOTE: This is called velveting, which is a way to coat chicken so a sauce holds without deep frying and adding calories!
3. In a wok, heat enough olive oil to cover just the bottom of the wok. Once heated, add the veggies and cook for a few minutes. Do not cook thoroughly or you'll end up with mushy veggies... gross. Remove the veggies from the oil and set aside.
4. Add the chicken to the heated wok and cook completely.
5. Once the chicken is done, add the veggies back and then the pineapple chunks. Pour the sauce over the entire mixture and allow to heat, which will only take 1-2 minutes. If you want to thicken the sauce, toss a spoonful of flour into the mixture.
6. Serve over rice!

Easy homemade brownies

I love brownies, and I used to make the box kind all the time. I'm now ISO the best fully homemade recipe, and this was my first try. I gotta say, it was quite good, but made way too much.  Enjoy!

Easy Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 c butter
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 c walnuts (omitted)
• 4 1.0 oz squares unsweetened chocolate
• 2 c sugar
• 1.5 c flour (sifted)
• 1 tsp baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt butter and chocolate together on low heat, stirring constantly. 
3. Allow to cool.
4. Beat eggs until light, then add sugar, chocolate mixture, and vanilla.
5. Add dry ingredients (flour, baking powder,. salt) and mix well. 
6. Add walnuts (optional).
7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Yumm!
8. 
   

Snow Day Chili

Today was a snow day! The husband and I both stayed home and enjoyed a bonus day at home, we cleaned, played games, relaxed, and I made chili! I love stews and chilis on snow days, they warm the soul. I've also been on a spicy food kick. 

Here are a few pictures of our snow day: 

Snow Day Chili - in one dis

h!

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef

2 cans diced tomato

1 small can tomato paste + 1/2 that same can of water

2 cans kidney beans (or 1 can kidney, 1 can

 pinto, your call, I just hate pinto beans)

1 tsp trader joe's chili sauce

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tbsp chili powder

Black pepper to taste

Garlic, cumin, corriander to taste

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in the same pot you will cook the chili in, and I highly recommend a dutch oven, specifically the enamel covered one from Calphalon. The heavy cast iron allows for very even heating over long periods of time. Plus, since it is enamel coated, you can clean it with soap unlike regular cast iron.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, if its too think, use some of the juice from the kidney beans to thin it out. 
3. Simmer for as long as you can, at least an hour. 
4. Serve with toppings of your choice, like cheese, sour cream, chives, chopped onion... 

Russian Tea Cakes

I love Christmas cookies but I don't generally go through the efford to make 30 different ones. These are a family favorite and I've gotten Donald to love them too.  They are a little dry and best served with tea or coffee. My grandmother used to make these all the time.

Russian Tea Cakes

Ingrdients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

6 tbsp confectioners sugar 

2 cups of flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

extra confectioners sugar to decorate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Cream butter and vanilla, add sugar and stir until creamy

3. Slowly add flour to the mixture, it will be very dry and cumbly

4. Add walnuts and mix

5. Using your hands, press dough into balls, place onto baking sheet

6. Bake 12 minutes or until the outside looks dry

7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then roll each cookie in the confectioners sugar

NOM! Enjoy!

Loss of a friend, gain of a new one

My trusty Casio exslim has met a sad end... its lens won't deploy anymore.  I think this is because on Thursday, I bought a new camera through woot.com which is arriving on Tuesday. The new camera is pink, a Pentax 8MP pretty nice camera I got for 90$!  I'm looking forward to its arrival, but I will miss my Casio, who has seen me through my honeymoon and through many other wonderful days of my life.

*cues When Will I Hold You Again*

(I get super emotional when electronics die, and don't get me started when stuffed animals get thrown away... I can't do it)

Blondies

Donald needed something for his work potluck last week, and I didn't have a whole lot of time to whip up something awesome (like a typical guy, he gave me exactly 1 evening's notice). I found this recipe on smittenkitchen.com which is one of my favorite cooking blots. They're simple and basic, but act as a good base that you can add fun things to. Enjoy!

Blodies

The ones on the left have chocolate chips, the ones on the right have chopped walnuts.

Ingredients:

8 tbsp butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup white flour

Pinch of salt

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Melt the butter in a pan, add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir until smooth.
3. Add flour, salt to the mixture.
4. Put in 8x8 pan, greased
5. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the center is set

Suggested additions: 

- chocolate chips

- chopped nuts, toast them in cinnamon/spices for extra flavor

- raisins or other dry fruits

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