1.3.11

These are the cookies I made for the Fabulous New Year's Eve Baby Shower.  They are actually my favorite Christmas cookie recipe, but I just glammed them up with some silver sprinkles for the occasion.  I will admit to eating these for breakfast pretty much the entire month of December.  I know I am not the only one that thinks that Christmas cookies are an acceptable breakfast food....right???

Here is the recipe:

1 C butter
1/2 C powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
1 C corn starch
1 C flour
Baker's Chocolate

Mix butter and powdered sugar well.  Add vanilla and mix until blended.  Add cornstarch and flour, mixing well.  Chill dough for 2 hours

Shape chilled dough into balls.  Back at 375 degrees for 15-20 mins.

Heat Baker's Chocolate.  Dip cookie into chocolate and decorate.

12.31.10

It's the end of the year, so might as well do a photo dump post instead of just one picture.  This one deserves lots of images anyway.  So here goes...

Lindsey, Nancy and I hosted what we dubbed a "Fabulous New Year's Eve Baby Shower" for Tim and El.  (Here we are!)



And I must say, it was quite fab. Let me take you around for a tour of some of the highlights of what we had to offer. Most fab I think was the crostini bar. We got this idea from the gals over at Haute Apple Pie. What a fantastic idea it is - you can spend a lot or a little, takes very little preparation, and looks really impressive. I think the tags in front of each item adds to the fabulosity

and check out this tiny little play on grilled cheese and tomato soup!  They were as delicious as they are adorable too...courtesy of the always reliable, Ina Garten and Ree Drummond.  Here is the recipe for the roasted tomato soup (which I have always had available in the freezer since I made it first a couple months ago.  so good.), and here is the cheese puff recipe...but we (Nancy) sort of made them cheese toasts instead of puffs.



And then to not let the baby shower theme get lost among the new year's revelry, I froze some plastic babies in ice, which everyone had fun with once they thawed out.





We also had a baby pool.  Not a completely new idea, but I think it was a good one for a co-ed shower.  We split the days in 2 (am and pm) and sold each spot for $2.  And now we all just wait to collect our winnings!



Here are the guests of honor with some headwear we bought for them at the party store.  There was a plethora of tiny hats available at the party store. It was odd.



And I think this picture pretty much sums up the good times that were had this new year's eve!  On our end, this is the first year in many many years that we actually did something.  We have spent at least the last 3 years with each other, going to dinner and catching a movie.  We always had a great time doing that, but I think this was the most fun new year's eve I have had in a long time...possibly ever.

(as a side, this is the second year in a row that there has been a "fabulous" party thrown by members of our group. Last year, Nancy had a "Fabulous Holiday Party". We are hoping to make this a tradition and have different fabulous parties every year.)

7.15.09

Barney came over for dinner last night. We had the most yummy meal. Jon picked up burgundy pepper steaks from the butcher. I got the grill going and made my new fave potatoes (recipe on the bottom) and Barney brought over some sweet corn. It was such a joint effort and I was busting at the seams afterward.

...but not before we ate dessert. I was put in charge of dessert and since today (the16th) is Barney's bday, I picked up these awesomely delicious cupcakes to celebrate. Happy Bday, Barn!


Potatoes on the Grill

1. cut potato length wise 4 times across without cutting all the way through
2. between each section put a little bit of butter and a few slices of onion (or however much fits-the more the better), salt and pepper (and lawrys or whatever seasoning you like)
3. double wrap potato in foil
4. cook for 30-40 mins., turning every 10 mins.
5. that's it. so good. thank me later.

*I have also made these by just cutting the potato up in pieces, cut up about a half an onion rustic-style and mixed it all up in a bowl with softened butter (I think I probably use a lot of butter...maybe half a stick? I use Can't Believe It's Not Butter though. Is that better? Just make sure all the pieces are covered.), add your salt, pepper and seasoning and wrap it up like a present (double wrap).

4.11.09

I saw this sammy on Giada at Home recently and thought it looked yummy, so I gave it a whirl. [Side note: have y'all noticed Everyday Italian doesn't exist anymore? She only does Giada at Home now. The girl finally ran out of Italian recipes apparently...] Anyway, I thought this looked interesting because she used puff pastry instead of bread. Unfortch, it wasn't quite as delicious as I anticipated it would be. It was good, but not great. I actually think it might be better with bread - the puff pastry was a tad too crumbly. Here is the recipe:


Grilled Chicken and Avocado Napoleons

Ingredients:

2 (9 by 10-inch) sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed and cut into 12 (3 by 5-inch) rectangles
4 (4-ounce) boneless and skinless chicken breast halves
Kosher salt
Olive oil, for drizzling
3 tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 large avocado, thinly sliced into 8 pieces
2 cups baby spinach leaves

Directions:

Place an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the pastry on the prepared baking sheets. Using the tines of a fork, prick the top of the pastry all over. Cover the pastry with parchment paper and place another baking sheet on top. Bake for 25 minutes until golden. Remove the top baking sheets and parchment paper. Set aside to cool.

Preheat a grill pan or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Season the chicken with salt and drizzle with olive oil. Grill until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes on each side. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise and cayenne pepper.

To assemble the Napoleons: Place 4 pieces pastry on a work surface. Slice each chicken breast diagonally into 6 (1/4-inch thick) slices. Place 3 chicken breast slices on each piece of pastry. Place 1/4 cup of spinach and 1 avocado slice on top. Spread 1 teaspoon of the mayonnaise mixture on the underside of another 4 pieces of pastry to create the middle layer of each Napoleon. Place on top. Repeat the layering. Each Napoleon should be completed with a piece of pastry as its top.

Arrange the Napoleons on a platter and serve.

original recipe found here

Bakerella Cake Balls

The last dessert I made for Dizzy's shower were quite delicious...and easy! You might remember them from this post. Bakerella totally made these famous, so I cannot take credit for this recipe at all. You can find her recipe here. Mine is as follows:

-1 box Betty Crocker butter recipe yellow cake
-1 can cream cheese frosting
-about 4 boxes of Baker's white chocolate
-sprinkles
-parchment or wax paper

1. Make cake and let it cool completely (I waited about 6 hours)
2. crumble cake into a large bowl and mix thoroughly with 1 can of cream cheese frosting
3. chill mixture (I chilled it for about 3 hours)
4. roll mixture into balls. We used a standard size cookie scooper so that each ball would be the same size.
5. melt chocolate in microwave per directions on the package, 1 box at a time. (If you melt all the chocolate at once, it gets hard to work with)
6. Roll balls in chocolate using a spoon. Tap off excess chocolate in the spoon back into the bowl.
7. place on wax/parchment paper until firm. (Place in refrigerator to speed up this process)

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Yummy! When I tested these out about a month ago, I brought most of them to work and everyone loved them so much that they all made their own versions over the next few weeks. We had cake balls in our kitchen area for the next 2 weeks.

If I may offer an observation, the white chocolate almost always goes over better than the dark. I think it is something about the white chocolate being softer and easier to bite into or something.

bonus points for me being able to use my cupcake tower! woohoo!

Betty Crocker Cookie Brownie bars

These are so freakin good, I can hardly stand it. I also got this recipe from the fabulous Bakerella. You can find her post here.

The recipe is quite easy. Here it goes:

1. Buy the Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie bar box mix and make the bars according to the package in an 8x8 pan.

2. After the bars have baked, top with chocolate ganache.

-6 oz. (about 1 cup or half a bag) semi-sweet chocolate morsels (Bakerella's recipe called for a whole bag, but I thought that was too much - you could hardly taste the brownie- so I halved the recipe)
-1/4 cup and 2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
-3 Tbsp butter

3. In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage.

4. Pour over the chocolate morsels.

5. Let stand about 20 seconds and stir until smooth.

6. Pour over brownies and let set before cutting. (Both times I made this, I let it set overnight before cutting them.)

I mean, dang. These are so good.

party style fruit pizza

All the desserts I made for Dizzy's shower were super easy, completely delicious and totally semi-homemade. Anyone can make them. First up is an adaptation of a fruit pizza recipe. Instead of making it in pizza form, I decided to make it into individual portions.

recipe:

-Pillsbury sugar cookie dough roll
-1 8oz cream cheese (I used neufchatel cheese)
-1/3 cup sugar
-1/2 t vanilla
-fruit

1. roll out cookie dough and cut out circles -or- cut 1/4 inch sections off the roll.

2. Bake according to package until it is golden brown

3. Cool completely

4. beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together.

5. When the cookies cool, spread the frosting on them.

6. place fruit on cookies - strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, raspberries, and/or mandarin oranges work best.

7. Serve within about 5 hours, or the cookie will become rather soggy.


To make this in pizza form:

roll out softened cookie dough in a greased circle pan or you can just break it into pieces and sort of mold them together to make a relatively thin crust. Follow directions 2-5. Place fruit in triangle sections.


So yummy! And attractive, right? I'm not even a blueberry fan and I want to gobble those up. Enjoy!

taco filled pasta shells

I got this recipe from my friend Andrea and it was super tasty, so I thought I'd share. I also felt really proud of myself because I totally employed Robin Miller's Quick Fix strategies to make this (cook once, eat twice).

The base of this dish is regular old ground beef or turkey with taco seasoning. Here is where the "quick fix" came in. We decided to have tacos last night. When the meat was done to eat for tacos, I transferred a third of the meat (eyeballed it) to another pan and prepared it for the next day's meal.

I'm also always looking for good meals for 2. I hate having a ton of leftovers and I find that most recipes are for servings of 4 or more. Since I only used 1/3 of a pound of meat, I split the recipe in thirds. It made about 8-9 shells, which was still a little too much for just 2 people, but having only 1 portion of leftovers is better than 6.

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Here is the real recipe:

1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
1 envelope taco seasoning
1/2 package cream cheese, cubed
12 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
1/8 cup butter, melted
1 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce
1 can black beans
2 cups cheese (cheddar and monterey jack or mexican cheese blend)
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
1 cup sour cream
2 green onions, chopped

Regular method:
In a skillet, cook meat until no longer pink. Drain. Add taco seasoning with water and simmer. Add cream cheese, cover and simmer for 5-10 mins. Transfer to bowl and chill for 1 hour. Cook pasta. Drain. Gently toss with butter.

Pour salsa into baking dish. Fill shells with meat mixture and place into a greased baking dish on top of salsa. Add a spoonful of black beans to each shell. Pour taco sauce over filled shells. Cover and back at 350 for 30 mins. Uncover and sprinkle cheese and tortilla chips over shells. Bake for 10 minutes longer. Serve with sour cream and green onions.

Quick fix:
In a skillet, cook meat until no longer pink. Drain. Add taco seasoning with water and simmer. Enjoy 2/3 of the meat for tacos immediately. Transfer 1/3 of meat to another pan. Add 1 oz. cream cheese, cover and simmer for 5-10 mins. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate for meal later in the week.

Later in the week: Cook about 9 jumbo pasta shells. Drain. Gently toss with 1/2 T butter.

Grease a small baking dish. Pour about 1/3 C salsa into baking dish - or enough to thinly cover the bottom. Microwave meat for about 30 seconds to loosen it up. Fill shells with meat mixture and place into a greased baking dish on top of salsa. Add a spoonful of black beans to each shell. Pour taco sauce over filled shells. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 mins. Uncover and sprinkle cheese over shells. Bake for 10 minutes longer. Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream and green onions.

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Like I said, we still had leftovers of both shells AND taco meat from our taco night. I sent the leftover shells home with Barney (who stopped over while we ate) and I will eat leftover tacos for lunch this week. I think I'll see how the shells reheat next time - and maybe try to freeze them?

...and on an unrelated note, I need to work on making my food look presentable for photographing. Maybe I should have put a sprig of cilantro on the plate to add color or something. I guess adding sour cream and onions like the recipe calls for would have solved that, but we had neither in the house, so we went without. I promise this is good!

yummy yummy meatballs

I had a request to post the recipe for the meatballs that were pictured a few days ago. I happily obliged because these meatballs are so flipping delicious that I can hardly believe I made them myself. Here they are...



They are kind of an adaptation of a copycat recipe I found for Rao's meatballs. Rao's is an Italian restaurant in New York that is supposedly amazing - like you can't get a table there amazing. The good thing is there is now another location at Cesar's Palace in Vegas, which I have put on my list of places to go the next time we are in town.

I saw an episode of Giada's Weekend Getaways where she went to this restaurant. She had the meatballs, which they are known for, and they just looked so delicious that I had to make some of my own.

The copycat recipe is right here. My adaptation is as follows:

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 egg (1 egg per pound of meat)
• 1 cup shredded parmesan, romano, asiago cheese blend
• 1 1/2 Tbs parsley
• 1/2 small garlic clove (I use 1/2 tsp of Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic [you can buy this from my sister, Gina])
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
• salt (preferably kosher or sea salt) and pepper to taste
• 1 cup olive oil
• 26 oz. jar of marinara sauce

1. Using your hands, combine beef, egg, cheese, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl

2. Blend bread crumbs into mixture

3. Slowly add water until the mixture is quite moist

4. shape into golf ball size balls

5. heat olive oil in large saute pan. When oil is hot, but not smoking, fry meatballs in batches. When bottom half of meatball is brown and slightly crisp, turn and cook top half. Remove from heat and drain on paper towels (If you want to bake these rather than frying in oil, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place meatballs on a jelly roll type pan and bake for 15 mins.)

6. Lower cooked meatballs into simmering marinara sauce and cook for 15-30 mins. (I think the best is Prego Roasted Garlic and Herb, but that's just me)

7. Serve over pasta or on sub roll topped with mozzerella cheese

The best thing about these meatballs is that they freeze so well. I freeze them in small batches of 4. To reheat, I put about a half of a jar of sauce and the frozen meatballs in a covered sauce pan on medium heat for about 20 minutes (or until tender and heated through).

2.3.09

Look at how cute these are! I tested them out because I am thinking of making them for Dizzy's shower next month...and well, we like desserts in our house.

I definitely do not like the plain ones with the m&m on top. The flags might be a little overkill too. I think I like the white one with the red sprinkles best. Oh, and they were yummmmmy. Like, really yummy. I found the recipe on the Bakerella blog here.

italian chicken - crockpot style

I got this book about a month ago and am determined to try as many of the recipes as possible. I already tried one (teriyaki chicken) and it was terrible. Today we found a winner though:

Mama's Italian Chicken

4 frozen chicken breasts
1 envelope dry Italian salad dressing mix
1 can chicken broth.

Place chicken in greased 3.5 to 4.5 quart slow cooker. Sprinkle with salad dressing mix. Pour chicken broth over the top. Cook on high 4-5 hours or on low 8-10 hours.

We had this with some buttered noodles and steamed veggies. yummm. I'm not sure how appetizing this picture is, but trust me, it was delicious.

Crockpot Mexican Chicken

My sister posted about this crockpot recipe for Mexican style chicken and I tried it out last night. I have to say, it was so delicious that it deserves to get posted again here. Since it was crockpot style, it was also super easy. I think Gina may have served this over rice (?), but we had ours on tortillas with a little cheese. I also didn't have any corn, so I substituted that for diced green chilis, which might have given it an extra little kick.

Interestingly, as I was throwing everything into the crockpot, I realized these were the exact same ingredients for the enchiladas I make! In that recipe, I cook the diced chicken first, then add the rest of the ingredients below, combine them on the stove top and let it simmer, then fill tortillas and bake them with cheese on top.

So basically what we had last night was exactly the same meal, but the cheese was wrapped in the tortilla rather than being baked on top, the flavor was so much better, and again, a lot less work.

I imagine it would be really good as a regular taco filling too - add some lettuce, tomatoes, avacado, whatever floats your boat. So tasty!

Crockpot Mexican Chicken

Ingredients:4 boneless chicken breasts (diced)

1 jar salsa (around 24 oz.)

1 can black beans

1 can whole kernel corn (I substituted diced green chilis, but I bet BOTH would be fantastic!)

1 box rice (I used Goya Yellow Rice- 8oz. box)

Tortilla chips and/or tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese/Sour Cream

Directions:
Pour the diced chicken, salsa, black beans, and corn into the crock pot and stir to mix.

Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Make rice according to box and serve with Mexican chicken mixture either on tortillas or with chips.

Top with cheddar cheese and sour cream.