Great Recipe from Barefoot Contessa

A few teachers at Mason were talking about how great this recipe thought so Ryan and I tried it out on a weekend and absolutely loved it. It's from Food Network's Barefoot Contessa, her site is here. This recipe makes a lot and is great cold or heated up the next day, it's a good summer recipe.

Orzo with Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients
1 small eggplant, peeled and 3/4 inch diced (we used summer squash instead)
1 red bell pepper, 1 inch diced
1 yellow bell pepper, 1 inch diced
1 red onion peeled and 1 inch diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 t of kosher salt
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
1/2 lb of orzo or rice shaped pasta

For the dressing:
2 freshly squeezed lemons
1/3 c of olive oil
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t fresh ground pepper

To assemble:
4 scallions, minced, white and green parts
1 cup of pine nuts
3/4 lb of feta, 1/2 inch diced not crumbled
basil leaves julienne

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Toss the vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper on a large cookie sheet covered in foil. Roast in oven for 40 minutes or until browned turning with a spatula once.

Cook the orzo in boiling chicken broth for 7 to 9 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the roasted vegetables, scraping all of the liquid and seasonings from the cookie sheet into the bowl.

For the dressing combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and pour on the pasta and vegetables. Let cool to room temperature and add scallions, pine nuts, feta and basil. Serve at room temperature.

This was so tasty!!! You can mix up the vegetables too, add what you like. It definitely needs the feta, and the dressing though.

Tasty dinner I whipped together

Now that school is over I plan to blog more on here, sorry it's been so long, I haven't had much time to cook but I do now. So let's start with something I just threw together for dinner with things I had in the fridge and cupboard.

Ingredients:
1 box of pasta, I used Penne
1 Onion chopped
6 slices of bacon cooked
1 container of Philadelphia Cooking cream, I used Italian Herb and Cheese, I absolutely love this stuff, if you can catch it on sale, stock up.

Boil Water for the pasta. While you are waiting for the water to boil, cook your bacon in a skillet.
Once the bacon is cooked removed and drain, then crumble. Cook onion in the bacon grease. Add your cooked pasta with the bacon and the cooking creme and a can of diced tomatoes if you'd like. Cook it all together until heated through. Voila.. quick, easy and tasty dinner.

Starting the New Year with some Whoopie... Whoopie Pies that is

I have to say I was totally sucked into Top Chef: Just Desserts this season and everyone on there made Whoopie Pies... so after reading Bon Appetit I decided to try making them myself. This is Martha Stewart's Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pie Recipe.

Cookie Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of cocoa powder, not Dutch-process
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup of Crisco
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Put butter, Crisco, and sugars into a bowl and mix on high until smooth.





Add egg and mix until pale and fluffy.





Mix in half the flour mixture.
Then the milk and vanilla.
Mix in remaining flour mixture.










Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls on a cookie sheet with parchment paper on non stick foil, spacing 2 inches apart.
Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched about 12 minutes. Let cool on wire racks. Cool completely.










Filling ingredients:
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 stick of unsalted butter softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix peanut butter and butter with mixer on high until smooth.
Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar. Beat until combined. Raise speed and mix for 2-3 minutes until fluffy and smooth.
Spread frosting on back of one cookie and top with a cookie comparable in size.

Quick and easy Festive Soup

I was looking for something different to make with ground beef and started flipping through a Pillsbury cookbook I had at home and came across this recipe.

Beefy Nacho Soup
1 lb of ground beef
Pack of taco seasoning
2 cans of condensed nacho cheese soup
1 can of diced tomatoes and green chilies undrained
1 1/2 cups of milk
Shredded cheese
Tortilla chips

Brown the ground beef and drain in a large pot
Reduce heat to medium and add the taco seasoning, soup, diced tomatoes and milk. Cook 10 minutes stirring frequently until heated through. Top with cheese and tortilla chips. I also added green onions and sour cream to it which gave it even more flavor.

The recipe only called for 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning and 1 can of nacho cheese soup but the extra seasoning and soup gave it an extra kick while the sour cream on top cooled it down.

Katie's bacon wrapped chicken

Chicken was on sale at a local grocery this week for $1.79 a pound. After we stocked up, I had to find a new chicken recipe. Here's what I came up with:

Boneless skinless chicken breast halves
Worcestershire sauce
Bacon
Sliced fresh mushrooms
Onion sliced
Monterrey Jack shredded cheese
1 bottle of Marzetti's honey mustard salad dressing

Put chicken in a glass dish and poke holes in it with a fork
Pour Worcestershire over it to soak in and marinade. I put quite a bit actually.
Refrigerate for 1 hour. You can cover it if you want, but I didn't and it came out just as good.
Cook bacon, drain and set aside.
Cook onion and mushrooms in bacon grease. Let sizzle on low.
Preheat oven to broil
Broil each chicken breast for 10 minutes on each side.
Take out and top with bacon and cheese and cook until cheese is melted.
Serve with mushrooms and onions and dressing.

We also had baked potatoes which went quite well. It's not too time consuming but oh so tasty!

A Spanish kind of Sunday meal

For some reason Mexican food sounded really good and I came across a new enchilada recipe in Taste of Home yesterday that I thought I would try. Couple it with some home made Spanish rice and you've got a South of the Border Sunday meal.

Enchiladas
8 servings

2 cups of cooked chicken
1 package of 8oz cream cheese, softened
8 flour tortillas (6 or 8 inch)
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of salsa
Shredded cheese
1 can of sliced olives
1 can of chopped green chilies
Shredded lettuce to top
Chili Powder

Combine chicken with cream cheese, green chilies, and sliced olives. I added some chili powder for more flavor as well. Mix 1 cup of salsa with sour cream. Spread in bottom of 13 x 9 pan. Spoon about 1/4 cup of chicken mixture down the center of a tortilla, roll up and place seam side down in a 13 x 9 pan. Spread the remaining salsa mixture on top of the tortillas. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with lettuce and serve.


Home made Spanish rice
2 T oil
1 cup of uncooked rice (I used Italian Arboro Rice because it's thicker)
1 onion chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
1 can of Mexicorn
1 can of chicken broth
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
2 t chili powder
1 t salt

Heat oil over medium heat
Saute onion, corn and bell pepper
Add rice and cook until rice is browned and onion is tender
Stir in tomatoes and chicken broth and chili powder and salt
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until all of the liquid is cooked out.

This rice had a ton of flavor and was quite tasty. It could even be served as a meal if you wanted to add some chorizo sausage to it, which I may do when I make it again.

Homemade Cherry Danish, perfect for the holidays

I was cleaning up some of my old magazines and came across this recipe in Taste of Home, I figured I had to try it. Never made homemade Danish before but man did it sound good. You make the dough the night before and put it in the fridge, perfect for entertaining or the holidays.

2 packages 1/4 oz. each of active dry yeast
1/2 cup of warm 2% milk (110 to 115 degrees)
6 cups of flour
1/3 cup of sugar
2 tsp salt
1 cup of cold butter
1 1/2 cups of warm half and half cream (110 to 115 degrees)
6 egg yolks beaten
1 can cherry pie filling

In a small bowl dissolve the yeast in warm milk. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. (I used a serrated biscuit cutter to mix the butter into the flour and sugar mixture)
Add the yeast mixture, cream and egg yolks. Stir until mixture forms a soft dough, it will be sticky. I found it better to use your hands to mix it then a spoon since it was very sticky. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Punch dough down; divide into quarters. Roll each portion into an 18 x 4 rectangle. (Best to do this on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin). Cut into 1x4 inch strips. Place 2 strips side by side and twist together. Shape into a ring and pinch the ends together. Repeat with remaining strips. Place 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. (I used Pam for Baking, worked perfectly). Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. (Putting them in an oven that isn't turned on works well too.)

Using the end of a wooden spoon make a 1/2 inch deep indentation in the center of each roll and fill with 1 Tbsp of cherry pie filling. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned. Remove from pans to cool.

Icing: 2 Tbsp of softened butter, 3 cups of confectioners sugar, 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract, 4 to 5 tsp of half and half.

Beat butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in the confectioner's sugar, vanilla and enough cream to achieve a drizzling consistency.

I found I had to add more than 4-5 tsp of half and half to make it thinner.

Drizzle over rolls.

These Danish were quite tasty out of the oven, mine didn't rise as much as I would have liked, partly because the yeast didn't dissolve all the way into the milk. The recipe makes 3 dozen. I only did 2 sections of the dough and froze the other 2 sections. Let me know how you fare with them!