Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Well, it’s been a while since we have updated this bad boy. Sorry about that--it's been pretty busy with the holidays. I hope you had a great Christmas, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or Hanukkah, and may 2012 be your best year so far! I have to say, my cabinet and spice rack are continuously growing with all these new ideas for dishes to make. It’s been an adventure! This next recipe is really good. I borrowed it from a friend, Smashley, who has a blog as well that you should also check out! Gotta give her some major props. She not only cooks, but also does wonderfully crafty things. It is: http://kissmysmash.blogspot.com/

Prep time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1/2 cup of milk
-2 eggs
-2 sleeves of Ritz crackers
-3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 can of cream of chicken soup
-2 tablespoons of sour cream
-2 tablespoons of butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.2. Place the Ritz crackers into a large Ziploc bag. Seal the bag, and crush the crackers into small pieces (think breadcrumbs).

3. Add pepper to the crackers. Yes, I know--in the picture that is salt. LOL, I omitted it out of the recipe because of the salt on the Ritz crackers already.

4. Line up 3 bowls. Fill the first one with the milk (and mix in the eggs), the second with the shredded cheese, and the third with the crackers. 

5. Rinse the chicken breasts in cold water.

6. Using your newly created assembly line, dip each chicken breast into the milk, then into the cheese, and finally, into the breadcrumbs. What I took away from Smashley's blog is that she had trouble getting the cheese and cracker bits to stick to the chicken. So, I decided to try and mix milk and eggs to help form a stickier consistency. (Also, I wonder if the order of things matters--like cracker bits before cheese? I will try that next time). You really have to kind of mash both the cheese and cracker bits onto the chicken.

Here was the result. Notice that I sprinkled extra cheese over all the chicken just for good measure.

7. Place the chicken in a pan, and cover with tin foil. Bake for 35 minutes. 

8. While the chicken is baking in the oven, heat up the can of cream of chicken soup, and combine with the sour cream and butter.  

9. Stir over medium high heat until well combined and hot.

10. Remove the chicken from the oven, remove the tin foil, and place back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until the edges of the chicken are golden brown and crispy.

 11. Remove the chicken from the oven, pour sauce over each piece, and serve. Yum!

BTDubs, did you happen to notice that in this last picture, there is a piece of chicken missing? Yeah, it didn't escape. Actually, since Josh was my guinea pig, when I told him about what was in the sauce (sour cream) he got a little scared. So here's a note, don't tell your guinea pigs what you are making, just have them eat it. He did end up taking a little bit of sauce in the end.

Cranberry Apple Pie

This is a great holiday pie recipe, and it's unique! My aunt introduced this recipe to us one year at Thanksgiving, and I have been in love ever since. For those of you who are not too keen on cranberries, the bitterness of them is actually balanced well by the sweetness of the apples. I must warn you though, cooking apples that you slice up yourself are always best. If you use the apple pie filling in a can, your pie will be a little bit, shall we say, liquidatious. I know this from lots of experience! 

Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients:
*Pie filling:
-9 inch pie crust
-1 egg
-3/4 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/3 cup flour (or more to thicken if liquidy, if you are using canned apples instead)
-1 tsp cinnamon
-2 tablespoons butter (softened, not melted)
-4 cups peeled and sliced cooking apples (Cortland and McIntosh are good ones) or 1 can of apple pie filling
-2 cups fresh cranberries
*Pie topping:
-1/2 cup quick cooking oats
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 cup softened butter

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Separate egg yolk from egg white. Throw the egg white away and keep the yolk.

3. Place pie crust in a pie tin. "Paint" the inside of the pie crust with the egg yolk, using a cooking brush.
Make sure to coat the entire pie crust to prevent cracking.

4. Place pie crust in oven and bake for 5 mins to seal egg yolk. Remove pie crust from oven and set aside.

5. Wash, peel, and slice apples into small chunks (I would say for me that translates to half the size of a golf ball) and put in large bowl, along with washed cranberries. Set aside.

6. Mix all ingredients (minus the fruit) well in a large mixing bowl. Butter may not mix as well if it is not softened, so break it up with a fork into small pieces.

7.Once mixed well, add in the apples and the cranberries slowly, and gently mix until all fruit is completely covered.

8. Put all ingredients into the pie crust and set aside. Now prepare pie topping.

9. Mix pie topping ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Again, butter may not mix well, so break up with fork into small pieces.

10. Once mixed well, sprinkle topping over entire pie until covered well. Bake for 40 minutes at 425 degrees.

Russian Tea

If you are looking for a warm drink for those cold winter nights, here is one of my favorite recipes. It has vitamin C also, to help fight against all those cold and flu germs! I have heard this called many things, but Desert Tea and Russian tea have been the most common names. It smells very yummy, and also makes a great gift idea.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Serves: 12

Ingredients:
-20 oz Tang
-1 pack sugarless lemonade (Kool-aid packet)
-1/2 cup sugar
-2/3 cup unsweetened instant tea mix with lemon
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.

2. Add 2 tablespoons (or more to taste) to a cup of hot water and enjoy!!

Pork Chops

This next recipe is a classic, easy recipe for tender, juicy pork chops. 

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-1 green pepper
-1 onion (I usually use a yellow one)
-6-8 pork chops (I usually get 4 big ones and cut them in halves, so I end up with 8)
-1 cup Italian bread crumbs (or plain, but I like to jazz it up for flavor with Italian)
-¼ cup milk
 -1 cup flour
-1 tsp paprika
-¼ tsp garlic powder
-¼ tsp pepper
-2 eggs
-Vegetable or olive oil

1. Combine flour, paprika, garlic powder, and pepper in a large Ziploc bag. Note: You can experiment with other spices, but these are just some basic ones). Set aside.

2. Mix eggs and milk in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Pour breadcrumbs in a bowl. Set aside. Line up the mixtures as follows in this order: spices, milk, bread crumbs. You now have an assembly line for your pork chops!

4. Take each pork chop and place it in the Ziploc bag of flour. Seal and shake the bag until the entire pork chop is coated. 

5. Dip each pork chop into milk and egg mixture until entire pork chop is coated. 

6. Dip each pork chop into bread crumbs, using a fork to press the bread crumbs onto the top, bottom, and sides. 

7. Cut up the green pepper and onion into long, thin pieces. 

8. Grease a pan with vegetable or olive oil and set on the stove on medium heat. Place all pork chops into the pan, along with the onion and green pepper pieces for flavor, and place a lid over the pan. Cook for 10 minutes.

9. Flip pork chops over onto other side, move onions and peppers around in the pan, and cook for 10 minutes.

10. Take a shot glass full of water (or less—just don’t add too much or you will get soggy pork chops!) and pour it into the pan. Turn down the heat to low, place lid over the pan, and let simmer for 10 minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!

Here's a fun tip...that left over green pepper you have? Don't throw it away! Chop it up into little pieces, put it in an empty container (I used a clean water bottle), and freeze it for next time.

Spicy Chicken Sandwiches (feat. Brent and Aaron!)

Here is another tasty recipe, courtesy of Brent and Aaron which tastes similar to the spicy chicken sandwich that Wendy's has.Very quick, easy, and deeeelish!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-Pam cooking spray or vegetable oil
-1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
-2/3 cup water
-1 egg
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon salt
-1-4 teaspoons cayenne pepper (depending how spicy you like it!)
-1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
-1 teaspoon onion powder
-1/2 teaspoon paprika
-1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
-4 boneless chicken breast fillets
-Hamburger buns
-Sandwich fixings (i.e. cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, etc.)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the hot sauce, egg, and water in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, onion powder, paprika and garlic powder.

4. Pound each of the chicken pieces until about 3/8-inch thick. Trim if necessary to help it fit on the bun. For easy cleanup, place the chicken in a zip bag before pounding.

5. Dip each piece of chicken in the watered down pepper sauce mixture.

6. Coat each piece of chicken with the flour mixture.

7. Roll each piece of chicken in the watered down pepper sauce and egg mixture.

8. Coat the chicken again in the flour mixture and set it aside. Repeat for other fillets.

9. Place chicken on baking pan.

10. Bake the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes or until brown and crisp.

11. Place chicken on a bun and assemble sandwich with the toppings you like and serve.

Now, I am not particularly a fan of spicy food (seriously, even hot cheetos make me cringe!) but this recipe was really yummy and not too spicy for my taste! Thanks for sharing, boys!

Martha Stewart's Peanut Butter Cookies (feat. Brent and Aaron!)

Hello ladies and gentleman! Today we are doing something a little bit differently, because frankly, change is good! We are doing a special blog in which we will feature one of our friends or family members and one of their very own recipes, and we are calling it a Food Feature Blog (FFB). You will see many more of these as we go along on our gastronomical journey. Today's FFB is starring two wonderful friends of ours, Brent and Aaron.

Brent and Aaron

A very special thank you to them for sharing these great next two recipes, and for also helping the creative process as well. Six hands are better than two, after all, especially when photography in the kitchen is involved!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Makes: 1 dozen

Ingredients:
-8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
-3/4 cup smooth/crunchy peanut butter (we used crunchy!)
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
-1 large egg
-1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-3/4 teaspoon baking soda
-Extra sugar for topping
-Hershey's kisses

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. In a bowl mix butter, peanut butter, and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until well combined.

3. In another medium mixing bowl, mix flour and baking soda together. Add to the butter mixture, and beat until well mixed.

4. Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough, shape into a ball, and place on one of the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough.

5. Add some sugar to a separate bowl. Take a drinking glass and dip the bottom part of it into the sugar. Then press on one of the cookie balls to add a sugary topping. Repeat until all cookies are flattened and sugar-coated.

6. Transfer to the oven, and bake until golden brown, approx. 18-20 minutes.

7. Unwrap a Hershey's kiss, and press it into the middle of the cookie after it is out of the oven, and before the cookie cools.

Enjoy! These cookies are really delish, especially when accompanied by a nice tall, icy cold glass of milk (I am from the dairy state, what did you expect?) Mmmmm!

Victorian Lavender Cookies with Rose Water Icing

Hello there! Welcome back. So, I decided to try this recipe I found online from The Spice House. This was inspired by a cookie contest we had at work. I didn't want to bring one of forty varietites of chocolate chip or sugar cookies, so I searched online to find something truly unique. So, if you are brave enough to attempt this one, you are going to need some special ingredients, including dried lavender and rose water. I got these also from the Spice House's website, and their shipping is extremely quick. I highly recommend them. This recipe makes about 4 dozen. I made mine a little bigger, so I came out with about 3 dozen. You also will need 2 bowls: One for the cookie batter, and one for the frosting.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Makes: 4 dozen

Ingredients:
*Cookie mixture:
-1/2 cup of butter
-1 cup of sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp. of lavender, crushed
-1 1/2 cups of flour
-2 tsp. of baking powder
-1/4 tsp. salt
*Icing:
-2 cups of powdered sugar
-5 1/2 tsp. of water
-6 1/2 tsp. of rose water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix the butter and sugar together.

3. Crush the dried lavender with the back of a spoon.

4. Mix the eggs, lavender, flour, baking powder, and salt into the butter/sugar mixture.

5. Roll dough into round shape (a little bigger than teaspoon size).

6. Bake for 10 minutes.

7. While the cookies bake, prepare the icing by mixing the powdered sugar with water and rose water.

8. After the cookies have cooled for about 10 minutes, drizzle the icing over them.

This recipe is interesting, to say the least! It's sweet, but it has a very different, distinct taste. Josh was kind enough to be my guinea pig for the recipe, and he remarked, "It tastes like a doughy flower." I remember a girl in my World History class in high school making rose cookies, and they were delicious--they weren't like these. We had done a unit on Egypt, and rose water is a pretty common ingredient in Egyptian bakery. I think my next batch will be more rose-ish and less lavenderesque. I will have a go at my own recipe sometime, and let you know how it turns out!

No Peek Chicken

One of the goals of this blog is not only to share recipes with you, but also to make an online recipe book so that I don't have to go hunting for tiny recipe cards. One stop shopping! Now that's what I am talking about! This recipe takes a bit of time, but the prep is quick and the result is well worth the wait.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-2 cans of cream soup (I use mushroom myself, but cream of celery or chicken also works)
-1 1/2 cans of milk (what I mean by this is enough milk from a gallon that you can fill up an empty can of that cream soup, plus another 1/2 can)
-1 package of dry onion soup
-1 1/2 cups Minute rice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the 2 cans of cream soup, milk, and uncooked Minute rice together in a 9 x 13 pan.

3. Rinse the chicken breasts under cold water.

4. Place the chicken breasts in the pan on top of the rice mixture.

5. Sprinkle the top of the chicken with the dry onion soup mix.

6. Cover the top of the pan and seal tightly with aluminum foil.

7. Bake in the oven for 90 minutes. The key to this recipe is NO PEEKING! You have to just trust that all will be well (it always is!)

So, what do you think? Did you peek? I know I didn't!