Chicken Cordon Bleu

I've never been one to crave Chicken Cordon Bleu.  But any time I make risotto, I always end up with leftover white wine.  I hate for it to go to waste so I use my AllRecipes app to find different recipes with white wine in them.  I found this particular Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe and made some alterations of my own. I'd make it again...definitely! 

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Ingredients:

6 boneless chicken breasts

6 slices Swiss cheese

6 slices deli ham

1 c. plain bread crumbs

1 t. paprika

1 t. garlic powder

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 T. butter

3 T. olive oil

1/2 c. white wine

1 t. chicken bouillon granules

1 T. cornstarch

1 c. heavy whipping cream

Parsley (for garnish)

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs, paprika, and garlic powder.

 

Pound chicken breasts to an even thickness.  Place cheese and ham slices on each chicken breast.  Fold the edges of the chicken over and secure with toothpicks.  Brush each chicken breast with beaten egg then roll in bread crumb mixture. 

 

Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat.  Add chicken to skillet and cook 2-3 minutes on each side until chicken is well browned.  Transfer chicken to a greased casserole dish and cook for 10-15 minutes. 

 

Meanwhile add wine and bouillon granules to butter in skillet.  Reduce heat to low.  Blend whipping cream and cornstarch in a small bowl.  Slowly whisk into wine sauce.  Cook, stirring until thickened.

Remove toothpicks from cooked chicken and drizzle sauce over top.  Sprinkle with parsley.

 

In my test kitchen:

 

Don't quote me on the oven cooking time.  It might depend on how thick your chicken is.  Mine were smaller and I pounded them out thin.  I also think it needed more than 1 slice of Swiss cheese.  I could barely taste it.  I also messed up and dumped the cornstarch right into the butter sauce rather than mixing it with the whipping cream first.  So it started out a little lumpy and I had to whisk the crap out of it to smooth it out.  Also, it has been referenced that you can use chicken broth instead of white wine.  I highly recommend trying it with the wine.  If you're concerned about the alcohol content, don't be.  It cooks out.  I have come to love the flavor left behind when cooking with wine.  It's very distinct and elegant. 

 

~Happy Cooking!

 

Berry-filled Doughnuts

Insanely easy to make...for those days when you just want a doughnut.

Berry-filled Doughnuts

Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable oil
1 tube (7.5 oz) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, separated into 10 biscuits
3/4 c. seedless strawberry jam
1 c. confectioner's sugar

Directions:
In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat oil to 375 degrees.  Fry biscuits, a few at a time, for 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.

Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or plastic bag; insert a very small tip.  Fill bag with jam.  Push the tip through the side of each doughnut to fill with jam.  Dust with confectioner's sugar while warm.  Serve immediately.

In my test kitchen:
Hold up!  I misread the recipe when I made these and searched the store forever for seedless raspberry jam.  Finally found some but didn't realize it called for seedless strawberry jam until I typed the recipe out here.  Slightly annoyed since seedless strawberry jam was all I could find at first!  Point is though...you can make this with a variety of fillings and it would be great.  Strawberry or raspberry jam, lemon pie filling, or simply roll them around in some cinnamon/sugar as soon as they come out of the fryer.  I have some leftover lemon pudding that I am going to try this week. 

Be careful not to fill these too full.  It's hard to know how much is getting into the doughnut.  It took me about four doughnuts to get the hang of it. 

~Happy Cooking!

Aloha Smoothie

Refreshing drinks for the warmer weather...that's where I'm at these days.  I occasionally slip in some spinach just so I can not feel guilty that my daughter NEVER eats vegetables and my son only eats carrots.  This smoothie is great for those who hate bananas.  (You either love 'em or hate 'em!)

Aloha Pineapple Smoothie

Ingredients:

10 oz. pineapple juice
2 T. plain yogurt
2 scoops frozen strawberries
2 scoops pineapple sherbet
1 scoop crushed ice

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a blender and serve immediately!

Garnish with a piece of sliced pineapple or strawberry for fun!

In my test kitchen:

I tried this with lime sherbet rather than pineapple and really enjoyed it.  So try either.  Lime sherbet mutes the strong pineapple flavor but works really well.  The plain yogurt is definitely omittable.  So don't buy some just for this recipe.  But I would recommend making sure you use frozen fruit and not fresh fruit.  It changes the texture of the smoothie to use fresh fruit. 

Frozen fruit is kinda pricey.  So I like to buy large quantities and slice it myself and freeze them on  tray.  Then, once frozen, I store the fruit in freezer bags.  It's nice to keep an assortment of fruits on hand to try your own smoothie concoctions.

~Happy Cooking!

Savory Green Beans

What's up with me and green beans?  A year ago I wouldn't have even thought to serve them since Clint has always hated them.  But on a whim I cooked up some fresh ones last summer and now it seems to be the vegetable of choice for dinner at our house.  This was a nice dish served on Easter.  The family loved it.

Savory Green Beans

Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
3 oz coarsely chopped pancetta
1 shallot, thinly sliced
salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Add the green beans and boil 3 - 4 minutes until just tender.  Drain beans and immediately plunge into ice water.  Allow to sit in ice water until cold, then drain well, and set aside.

Cook pancetta in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crispy, then set aside.  Reduce heat to medium, stir shallots in the pancetta fat, and cook gently until the shallots have turned dark golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Place pancetta and green beans in skillet; toss and cook until warmed through, about 2 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

In my test kitchen:

I must admit that I didn't really follow the directions about the ice water.  I recently ate at the Wild Rose and their green beans were amazing.  The insides tasted great and the outside had a slight crunch but not because it was underdone.  I suspect an ice water bath has something to do with that.  So I'll have to try again.  Nevertheless, this is still good if you immediately remove the green beans and run them under cold water.  (Which is what I did because I was in a rush.)  My shallots cooked up much faster than 10 minutes so keep an eye on those little things!  And I used bacon instead of pancetta due to cost.  My only suggestion is to toss the bacon in right at the end.  Otherwise your once crunchy bacon will soften up when warmed with the green beans.

~Happy Cooking!
 

Berry-Topped Puff Pancake

The family thoroughly enjoyed this Sunday breakfast.  You can improvise with the fruit a little bit to your own liking.

Berry-Topped Puff Pancake

Ingredients:
2 T. butter
2 eggs
1/2 c. 2% milk
1/2 c. flour
2 T. sugar
1/4 t. salt

Topping:
1/3 c. sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 c. orange juice
2 t. orange liqueur
1 c. sliced strawberries
1 c. fresh blueberries
1 c. raspberries
Confectioner's sugar, optional

Directions:
Place butter in a 9 inch pie plate.  Place in a 425 degree oven for 4-5 minutes or until melted.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk.  In another bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.  Whisk into egg mixture until blended.  Pour into prepared pie plate.  Bake for 14-16 minutes or until sides are crisp and golden brown.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine sugar, and cornstarch.  Gradually stir in orange juice and liqueur.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Cook and stir 1-2 minutes longer or until thickened.  Remove from heat. 

Spoon berries over pancake and drizzle with sauce.  Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired.

In my test kitchen:
So...when making the pancake, I was lazy and didn't want to pull the pan out of the oven.  I just pulled the rack out and poured the batter in from there.  I'm not sure if that was the reason that the pancake came out lopsided?  But the part that rose higher than the rest burned pretty badly so I will attempt to pour the batter in the pan while it's on a more level surface next time.

I didn't have fresh blueberries or raspberries on hand but I had some frozen ones.  Those worked just fine but fresh raspberries would have been preferable;  the raspberries were a little mushy once thawed.  I think I used a different ratio of fruits as well.  It was more like 1 1/2 c. strawberries, and 1/2 c. blueberries and 1/2 c. raspberries.  I think the main point is just to have enough fruit to put in your pancake.  Fresh peaches would have been great too!  I used orange extract in lieu of the liqueur. 

The biggest difference to the dish for me was that I put the blueberries into my sauce to break down a bit.  I'm not a big fan of whole blueberries.  I find their skins to be really tough and I don't enjoy eating them.  So adding them to the sauce helped soften them up and break them down a bit. 

I scooped out the blueberries and added them to the pancake first.  I didn't use all of the sauce prepared. You can use that to your liking.

~Happy Cooking!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

 

 I’m ashamed to admit that I ate about 20 of these cookies.  But they were so good!  Another fantastic recipe from AllRecipes!  This was in the December/January 2014 issue.

Ingredients:

1 ¾ c. all-purpose flour

½ t. salt

1 t. baking soda

½ c. butter, softened

½ c. white sugar

½ c. creamy peanut butter

½ c. packed brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 t. vanilla

2 T. milk

40 mini peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions:

Prehead oven to 375 degrees.  Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda.  Set aside. 

Cream together butter, sugar, peanut butter, and brown sugar until fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla, and milk.  Add flour mixture; mix well.  Shape into 40 balls and place each ball into an ungreased mini muffin tin. 

Bake for about 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie.  Cool and carefully remove from pan.

In my test kitchen:

Other people suggested that you can use a cookie sheet and don’t need to use a mini-muffin pan if you don’t have one.  I was fortunate to have a 24 cup and 12 cup pan and it was really nice to cook them that way.  These cookies are definitely done at 8 minutes.  They may not look like it, but they are done.  I might even suggest pulling them out at 7 minutes…but then again, that’s because my oven runs rather hot. 

~Happy Cooking!

Honey Mustard Chicken

Honey-Mustard Chicken

 

 

I’m in a fun cooking group.  We meet monthly and the person who hosts the group at her house selects a theme and provides the entrée.  It was my turn to host last month and the theme was “Simple.”  I had everyone select a recipe that used 5 ingredients or less.  I think one of the most daunting parts of learning to cook is seeing a recipe that calls for a zillion ingredients.  For working moms like me, that sometimes discourages me from wanting to cook.  This was a fun get together because I discovered that you can still cook an amazing, family-pleasing dinner with a handful of ingredients.

Ingredients:

1/3 c. Dijon Mustard

¼ c. honey

2 T. mayo

1 t. A1 sauce

4 chicken breasts

 

Directions:

Mix wet ingredients in a bowl or large Ziploc bag.  (Set aside ¼ c. for basting and/or dipping.)  Add chicken and fold to coat.  Lightly oil grill and cook chicken until no longer pink, basting with sauce as needed.

In my test kitchen:

I’ve never really been a big fan of Honey-Mustard items before.  So I was hesitant to try this recipe.  And when I taste tested the sauce before putting it on the chicken, it seemed really bitter.  So I added another 2 T. of honey.  So maybe try the sauce and add more mustard or honey to your liking.  Also, one great thing about this recipe is that it really doesn’t need time to marinate.  I cooked it right away the first time I made it and let it marinate the second time and didn’t taste much of a difference.  You can also use an indoor or outdoor grill for this.  (I used a George Foreman grill the first time.) 

~Happy Cooking!

Cheese Blintz Hot Cakes

Cheese Blintz Hot Cakes

 

I was flipping through a magazine a came across these little delights.  Never would have guessed that these would taste as good as they did.  And they were really easy to make!  Perfect Sunday morning breakfast!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

½ c. flour

¼ c. milk

1 ½ T. sugar

¼ t. baking powder

1 c. cottage cheese

2 T. butter

Jam, powdered sugar

Directions:

In blender, mix eggs, flour, milk, and baking powder, 10 seconds.  Add cottage cheese; blend until just incorporated.  On griddle, heat butter over medium heat.  Working in batches, spoon batter by ¼ cupfuls onto griddle.  Cook, flipping once, until golden, 5 minutes.  Repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8.

In my test kitchen:

I made these exactly as directed but instead of pouring them onto the griddle in ¼ cupfuls, I did 1/8 cupfuls.  They also took a little longer than 5 minutes to cook.  I got 16 pancakes out of it.  They tasted great with raspberry jam and powdered sugar.

~Happy Cooking!

Lava Baby Cakes...Oh Baby!!!

When I crave something sweet, it’s usually a chocolate cake with ice cream.  In my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, there is a picture of a chocolate cake that looks soooo good.  Over the years, I would look at the recipe but would eventually move on to a different recipe because this one calls for whipping cream and I never had it on hand. 

As I have started cooking more, I have learned that whipping cream is sort of a staple.  At least, that is, with the recipes that always catch my eye.  So I have started keeping it in the fridge.  I finally attempted this recipe and love making it as a follow up to Sunday dinner.  It does take a little TLC to make, but it is so worth it! 

Lava Baby Cakes



This is how the lava cake looked last month when I served it to my family

This is how the lava cake looked when my friend Melissa is in charge of plating.  SOOOO much better! 

Ingredients:

1 ¾ c. semisweet chocolate chips

2 T. whipping cream

¾ c. butter

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1 ½ t. vanilla

1/3 c. all-purpose flour

3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder

Powdered sugar (optional)

Raspberries/strawberries (optional)

Directions:

For filling, in a small heavy saucepan, combine ¾ c. of the chocolate  chips, and whipping cream.  Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Remove from heat.  Cool, stirring occasionally.  Cover; chill about 45 minutes or until firm.

Meanwhile, in a medium heavy saucepan, cook and stir the remaining cup chocolate chips and the butter over low heat until melted.  Remove from heat; cool.

Form filling into 6 equal-size balls; set aside.  Lightly grease and flour six ¾-cup soufflé dishes or six 6-ounce custard cups.  Place dishes or cups in a 15x10x1 inch baking pan (cookie sheet) and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, egg yolks, granulated sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes or until lemon-colored.  Beat in cooled chocolate mixture on medium speed.  Sift flour and cocoa powder over mixture; beat on low speed just until combined.  Spoon 1/3 c. batter into dishes.  Place 1 ball of filling into each dish.  Spoon remaining batter in dishes.

Bake in a 400 degree over for about 13 minutes or until cakes feel firm at edges.  Cool in dishes for 2 to 3 minutes.  Using a knife, loosen cakes from sides of dishes.  Invert onto dessert plates.  If desired, dust with powdered sugar and garnish with raspberries or strawberries.  Serve immediately.

In my test kitchen:

I add a little raspberry extract (1/2 t.) to the chocolate chips and whipping cream…just to give that inside melty chocolate a little raspberry flavor.  I also found that I can’t get six cakes out of my recipe.  I get more than enough for 6 balls of filling…actually a little too much for my liking.  I make my chocolate balls just a little smaller than probably recommended.

It can be a little tricky to invert the cakes onto dishes.  Mostly because you want to serve the cakes warm.  So the cups can be a little hot when trying to flip them.  I typically put the plate on top of the cup and cover the soufflé cup with an oven mitt when flipping it all upside down. 

Definitely, definitely serve this with a scoop of ice cream, fresh fruit, and some raspberry sauce.

 

~Happy Cooking!

 

 

Berry Spinach Salad with Almonds

This is an easy salad to take to parties or family gatherings…or just to eat at home.

 Berry Spinach Salad with Almonds

Ingredients:

1 T. butter
½ c. sliced almonds
1 T. sugar

1 package (10 oz) fresh baby spinach

3 c. sliced fresh strawberries

Dressing:

½ c. sugar
½ c. canola oil
¼ c. cider vinegar
¼ t. paprika
¼ t. Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

In a small skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Add almonds; sprinkle with sugar.  Cook and stir for 3 minutes or until almonds are lightly browned.  Spread on foil to cool; break apart.

In a large salad bowl, combine spinach and strawberries.  In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients.  Pour over salad.  Sprinkle with sugared almonds; toss to coat.

In my test kitchen:

I find that my almonds need to cook longer than 3 minutes.  But my stovetop is a little slow at getting to the appropriate temperature.  Before I transfer to foil to cool, I put the almonds on a paper towel.  Just to soak up any leftover butter.  That way the almonds don’t come out greasy.  You could also substitute store-bought candied walnuts or pecans and I think this would taste good.

I have never used 3 cups of strawberries.  I usually use about 2 cups.  And I like to add ¼ c. dried cranberries as well.  Just to shake things up a bit.

I don’t use all the dressing.  In fact, I probably only use half the amount and it seems to be plenty.  So I would recommend starting with a smaller portion of the dressing and toss to coat.  You can always add a little more until you get it to your liking.

~Happy Cooking!

Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes

My husband has always hated green beans.  For the first 8 years of our marriage I NEVER cooked them.  But for some reason, this last summer I just needed a break from carrots and zucchini and bought some fresh ones.  I cooked them up and surprise, surprise!  He actually liked them!  So now we eat them all the time. 

I came across this recipe on the AllRecipes site.  It is now my favorite way to cook grean beans.

Green Beans with Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces

1 ½ c. water

¼ c. butter

1 T. sugar

¾ t. garlic salt

¼ t. pepper

1 ½ t. chopped fresh basil

2 c. cherry tomato halves

Directions:

Place beans and water in a large saucepan.  Cover, and bring to a boil.  Set heat to low, and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain off water, and set aside.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Stir in sugar, garlic salt, pepper, and basil.  Add tomatoes, and cook stirring gently just until soft.  Pour the tomato mixture over the green beans and toss gently to blend. 

In my test kitchen:

Some people who reviewed this recipe said the sugar was not necessary.  So the first time I tried this I put in a ½ T.  It was very sweet.  So I would recommend a good pinch of sugar but no more than that. 

I reduced the garlic salt down to ¼ t. and added 1-2 cloves of chopped fresh garlic.  I also have a hard time finding fresh basil at the grocery store sometimes.  But Walmart has this cool tube of chopped fresh basil…in a paste form.  I used that as an alternative once and it was great!  I don’t think you will get quite the flavor you want if you use dried basil. 

I used grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes.  I read somewhere that they have less water in them?  Who knows.  Grape tomatoes worked well though. 

This makes a lot of sauce.  I would recommend not pouring the whole thing over the green beans.  Start with half the sauce and toss to coat and add more as needed. 

Last, I crumbled up some crisp bacon and sprinkled it over the top of the green beans just before serving.  It was a nice touch! 

~Happy Cooking!