Monday, July 11, 2011

Tuxedo Cake


You just can't go wrong with Chocolate buttermilk cake, Whipped frosting, chocolate ganache, and strawberries!

We got this fantastic recipe from Annie at Annies-eats. PLEASEEE go check it out. It may look intimidating to make your own from scratch chocolate cake. But trust us. IT.IS.SO.GOOD!

fruit salsa

grilled steak marianade




Are you hungry yet? Are you itching for some yummy summer grilling?

Best Steak Marinade in Existence

In blender, mix:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tbs garlic powder
3 tbs dried basil
1 1/2 tbs dried parsley
1 tsp ground black pepper
Optional:
1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce
1 clove minced garlic

Pour over meat. Cover and refrigerate for minimum 1hr (overnight is best)
Grill meat to liking.

Enjoy!!! 



Rosemary Ranch Chicken Marinade

This is my new favorite marinade that Meredith found.  I've made it for all my recent events.  Everyone loves it. The chicken is so moist and flavorful.   I used it for marinading the chicken and the veggies when I make Kabobs.  If you are doing both, I would double the marinade.





Rosemary Ranch Chicken Marinade for Kabobs
adapted from realmomkitchen

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup homemade ranch dressing (hidden valley recipe)
3 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or a fresh sprigs chopped
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon white sugar

5 boneless skinless chicken breast halves – if making Kabobs-cut into cubes

Other Items for Kabobs- cube each item so it is skewerable

Fresh pineapple- cubed/chunked
cherry tomatoes- washed
canned whole potatoes
green/red/orange/yellow peppers- cubed/chunked
onions- cubed/chunked
Mushrooms- washed

Directions:

  1. In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, ranch dressing, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, pepper, and sugar. If you are making Kabobs then make 2 bowls- One for chicken and one for veggies. Equally pour marinade over each bowl or Ziploc bag. Stir to coat with the marinade or move the bag around to cover the food. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer.
  2. Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers and discard marinade. Thread like veggies on skewers.You can baste with the veggie marinade. DO NOT use the chicken marinade for basting.
  3. Grill skewers for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear or the veggies are cooked.


Dirt Cake

Its been so hot out lately that some nice cold and creamy dirt cake sounded so yummy.  I misplaced my bag of gummy worms so I added some mini chocolate chips instead.  After I had the cake assembled, I found the bag of worms on the counter.  Guess the boys will enjoy them another day.

Mostaccioli/ Mrs. Taylors Goulash



Let me start saying it was hard for me to make this dish.  First, I normally make it for a crowd. I've never made it for just the 4 of us.  My normal shopping consists of Sams club where I get the peppers, onions, meat, cheese, spaghetti sauce and sour cream in big portions so bare with me as I make this in smaller portions.


I got this recipe from my moms neighbor.  She calls it Goulash but its what I consider mostaccoili. I love her goulash and the mostaccioli at Billy’s Tip ‘n Inn. So, I combined the two.





Ingredients

1lb Ground Turkey or Beef
1lb Bulk Ground Italian Sausage
1 lb sour cream
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 box of penne or ziti noodles
a few small baby carrots chopped (adds sweetness)
1 chopped onion
1 piece of celery chopped
1 pepper chopped- red or green
Mozzarella cheese ( I like the big bag of stuff at Sams)

Brown together the Turkey, Italian Sausage, peppers, carrots, celery and onions.  Drain the grease then add the Spaghetti sauce.  In a separate pot- boil the water and cook the noodles. Keep the noodles and meat SEPARATE!


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Layer in a 9x13 pan with some of the noodles, then meat sauce then a few dollops of sour cream all over. Repeat with the noodles, meat sauce and sour cream until you have used everything up.  Then top it with that delicious Mozzarella Cheese and Parmesan if you have it.  Cover with foil then bake for 45 min to 1 hour. At the end remove the foil and bake till the cheese gets a little "kissed" on the top from from the heat about 15min.

Enjoy! Serve with garlic bread and a salad.

Honey-Lime Taquitos

Baked Honey-Lime Chicken Taquitos
from sweettreatsandmore

makes about 12 taquitos

12 flour or corn tortillas
2 cups cooked and shredded chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar or pepper jack cheese

Cooking Spray
Kosher Salt


Honey-Lime Sauce:

2 limes juiced
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic
3 tablespoons sour cream


Preheat oven to 425.

In a small bowl whisk together the juice of 2-3 limes, honey, cumin, garlic, and sour cream. In another bowl pour the honey-lime sauce over the shredded chicken. Let it marinade for 20-30 minutes.

Mix the cheese in with the chicken mix, and add a dash of salt and pepper.

Place a damp paper towel over one corn tortilla and microwave for 20-30 seconds, until the tortilla is soft and moist, and doesn't crack when you roll it.

Place a spoonful of chicken on one end of the corn tortilla and roll it up tightly.  Repeat until all corn tortillas are rolled.  Place the taquito seam-side down on a lightly greased baking sheet. Lay taquitos next to each other, but not touching. Spray a little cooking spray over the tops of the taquitos and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Matt's Salsa


 From Sisters who love to cook

1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
1 can (28 Ounce) Stewed Tomatoes (Remove Juice)
1 can (14 Ounce) Diced Tomatoes
1 can (7 Ounce) Diced Green Chili's
1 Onion, chopped
1 Lime, juiced into a cup
1 clove Garlic, Minced
1-3 Jalapenos, seeded and sliced (3 for hot)
2 teaspoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Salt
3/4 teaspoons Ground Cumin
½ cups Cilantro (add more to taste)

In a large food processor, combine all ingredients and grind to your preferred consistency.

(For a small food processor, this may be done in batches mixing tomatoes and drier ingredients)

Makes a big batch.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Serve with tortilla chips or use as a dipping sauce.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Meatball Sliders

This dish is a great recipe to make double the meat part so you can freeze it. Then for those nights that you just don't have time to cook, all you have to do is pull out some of the already cooked meatballs, thaw them, then you have half the work already done.


Meatball Sliders
yields 20 sliders
For the sauce:
2 jars spaghetti sauce (approximately 56 oz)
   Optional: If your spaghetti sauce is on the *plain* side you will want to spruce it up with some onion, garlic, basil, oregano, parsley, and some sugar.
Water
For the meatballs:
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup milk
1lb. ground beef pr ground turkey
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried basil

For the pesto:
1 jar of Classico-Traditional Basil Pesto
or Annies's eats recipe for pesto

For the sliders:
24 dinner rolls
Olive oil spray
12 slices provolone cheese

Directions:
1)To make meatballs, combine 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs and milk in a medium bowl and let rest 10 min. Then add remaining breadcrumbs, ground meat, egg, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and basil into bowl. Roll meatballs into 1 1/4 in diameter. 
2) Bake meatballs at 375 degrees for 25min or until cooked through. 
3) In a large deep saute pan, saute onion and garlic in butter or live oil until onions are translucent. Add in spices.Pour in jar sauce and add water to thin down sauce to your liking. Bring to a boil then simmer.
4) Add meatballs to sauce and let simmer 30 min.
    *If making enough to freeze some for later then this is where you will remove that amount and let cool down on jelly roll pan and then freeze.
5) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To assemble sliders, lay rolls open and spray lightly with olive oil. Bake in oven for 5 min or until lightly toasted. Slice a cooked meatball in half and lay both halves down on bottom roll.  Spoon small amount of sauce over meatballs. Top with cheese. (leave the top of the roll off) Bake another 5 min. Then spoon pesto on top of cheese and some spaghetti sauce. Top with top of roll. 




Monday, June 13, 2011

Ginger Beef Stir-Fry

This is a very easy dish that has great flavor and doesn't taste like it is missing something authentic. I like making this dish with whatever veggies I have on hand. Just because you don't have carrots or peppers doesn't mean you can't make this dish. I just can't wait for my garden to bloom so I can just walk outside and get whatever I need! Hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do.









Ginger Beef Stir Fry
1 tsp. cornstarch
¼ cup cold water
3 tbsp. plum sauce
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 lb. boneless sirloin steak, cut into thin strips
1 tbsp. vegetable
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin
1½ cups small broccoli florets
1 carrot, peeled and julienned
4 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tbsp. salted peanuts, chopped (optional)
Rice, for serving
Sesame seeds, for garnish
Directions:
1) In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water; whisk until smooth.  Stir in the plum sauce, ginger, soy sauce and red pepper flakes.  Set aside. (Ginger- I use veggie peeler to remove the skin then a microplane to shave/grate it) 
2) In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the steak strips until no longer pink.  Remove to a plate and set aside, draining the excess fat from the skillet if necessary.  Add the oil to the pan and heat through. 
3) Add the red pepper, broccoli and carrot pieces to the skillet and stir fry until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. 
4) Mix in the green onion and garlic and cook about 30 seconds.  Return the steak pieces to the pan.  
5) Add the sauce to the pan, stirring well to coat everything.  Cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes more.  Stir in the peanuts.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Menu 6/13/11

Monday: Ginger beef stir-fry









Tuesday: Mini meatball sliders with basil pesto

Wednesday: Korean bbq beef

Thursday: Mexi-chicken campanelle

Friday:Grilled chicken with Filipino bbq sauce.

Saturday:Chicken rollatini with-prosciutto

Sunday: Turkey burgers

Flour Tortillas

Once you see how easy and how much better these tortillas are, you will probably never go back to store bought. If you don't have much time, I like the recipe from Our Best Bites- Flour Tortillas. But if you do have a little bit of time then definitely try Fine cooking-handmade flour tortillas. They really are about the same ingredients and time except the fine cooking ones you have to let the dough rest for 30min-2 hours.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Beef Taquitos

We like mexican in this house. This recipe can be made for a main dish or cut up for an appetizer. Also, it just so happens to be one of my LEFTOVER MAKEOVERS. I will make a chuck roast in the slow-cooker and use the meat for pot roast one night, french dip sandwiches another, and/or beef taquitos/burritos. You can also make these and freeze some for a snack or such later.









Beef Taquitos
adapted fromOur Best Bites- Baked beef taquitos

3 cups cooked beef roast
4 oz green chilies
1/2 tsp minced adobo chili (from adobo sauce can) RINSE SEEDS OFF and USE GLOVES!
3 tsp adobo sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
zest from one lime
1 Tbsp lime juice
12 oz queso fresco cheese

20-6" white corn tortillas or soft flour tortillas
Olive oil cooking spray
Kosher salt

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2) Combine in a medium bowl, meat, adobo chili, adobo sauce, garlic powder, coriander, cumin, chili powder, zest, and juice and mix well.
3) Microwave 10 tortillas wrapped in damped paper towel for 1 minute to soften.
4) Crumble 1 Tbsp of queso fresco cheese down middle of 1 tortilla. Then add 2 Tbsp meat mixture. Then roll up and place seam side down on a lightly sprayed baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
5) Lightly spray tops of taquitos with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
6) Bake for 20 min or until edges are golden.

* If you want to freeze some of these, you will make them all the way up until the baking part and then freeze them. When baking them from frozen, make sure you write on the freezer bag "bake at 425, for 30 min." These can be baked right from freezer without thawing first. Or you can just freeze the meat mixture into a freezer bag. Make sure you write on he bag what it is though.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Root Beer Pulled Pork

 Pulled pork is one of my favorite meals that I can make one day and make it into something else the next.  I cook the pork in the slow cooker, shred it, then split it up into freezer bags in dinner serving sizes. Another thing I like about this is, out of a 2.5 lb pork tenderloin I get 3 dinners out of it. Plus if I can keep an eye out for when it goes on sale, it makes for a super cheap dinner.









Here is the recipe:
Root Beer Pulled Pork sandwiches 
from The girl who ate everything

1 (2lb) Pork Tenderloin
1- 12 oz can Root Beer
1 bottle BBQ Sauce

Directions:
1) Put pork tenderloin in slow cooker.
2) Pour root beer all over and cover with a lid. Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours.
3) Once cooked, drain and remove root beer from slow cooker. Shred pork and separate into meal size portions (2/3). Place 1/3 back into slow cooker on warm and pour in bbq sauce. Heat for 20-30 min.

* Ideas on how to use pulled pork:
   fajitas
   pot pie
   nachos
   cuban sandwich
   chili


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Meat Pies

The meat mixture in these pies have endless possibilities. The seasoning is just WOW.SO.GOOD.


















Adapted Natchitoches meat pies- From Our Best Bites.

Meat Pies
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
5 mushrooms, chopped

1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
2+ tsp. Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
Tabasco sauce to taste
2 cans beef broth
Puff Pastry, Thawed or pie crust dough

Egg wash- 1 egg and 1/4 cup water whisked 




Directions:
1) In a large skillet, brown ground beef and ground pork, breaking the meat into small pieces. When it’s about halfway cooked, drain excess fat (if necessary) and then add green and red peppers, mushrooms, onion, celery, and garlic. Cook until vegetables are tender and onions are translucent. 
2) Add 2 tsp. Tony’s and 1/4 tsp. Tabasco. 
3) Add beef broth and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Cook for about 20 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Season with additional Tony’s and Tabasco if necessary, keeping in mind that the seasonings will mellow in the pie. 
*You can refrigerate this mixture for 3-4 days before baking the pies.
4) Take puff pastry and lay out on a lightly floured surface. You can make these into any size you want. I made One BIG one for two of us to share and a few smaller ones. Place meat mixture into middle of puff pastry, leaving a 1/2inch border. Fold over puff pastry and crimp edges with fork or twist edges shut. Brush with an egg wash.

5) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min or until golden on top.







Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Nick's Grilled Chicken

It is summer time! I love grilling for many reasons:

  • If you do it right, very few dishes to clean.
  • Doesn't heat up the house.
  • Isn't a heavy meal so it is nice and lite.
  • Brings happy memories of summer time fun and relaxing.







Nick's Grilled Chicken


2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Newman's Own Family Recipe Italian (Paul Newman's)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Onion powder

1) Pound chicken breast to be 1/4 in thick.
2) Combine all the ingredients into quart size zip-block bag.
3) Marinate 1hr or more.
4) Turn grill onto high heat and spray grates with olive oil.
5) Once the grill is at 400 degrees put chicken on and turn down heat to medium high.
6) After 5 min flip chicken. Cook until internal temp is 165-180 degrees.


Apple Upside Down Biscuits















Do I need to say more?
We LOVE Ree Drummond-The Pioneer Woman, and thanks to Bry for introducing me to this new recipe!

You most certainly can make this with pineapple and it is most delicious! I made this one with apples but you could make it with blueberries, peaches, raspberries, mmmmm the possibilities!

Apple upside down biscuts

Apple Upside Down Biscuits
¾ cups Packed Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
1-½ cup Chopped Fresh Pineapple (I Used Chopped Peeled Green Apples)
Biscuits
2 cups All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Sugar
¾ teaspoons Salt
¾ sticks (6 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter, Frozen
1 cup Buttermilk, Plus Extra If Necessary

Directions:
*From “Perfect One Dish Dinners” by Pam Anderson.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
Pineapple: Heat brown sugar and 3 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat to a spreadable consistency. Pour into a 9-inch round cake pan, tilting to coat pan bottom; top with pineapple.
Biscuits: Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt with a fork in a medium bowl. Using a box grater, coarsely grate frozen butter into dry ingredients, mixing quickly with fingertips to evenly blend. Stir in buttermilk with a fork, adding extra droplets of buttermilk over any dry patches, if necessary and mix until dough just comes together.
Turn dough onto a floured surface. With your fingers, pinch dough into 10 rough rounds and arrange over pineapple. Bake until biscuits are golden brown and pineapple topping is bubbly, about 20 minutes. Invert onto a serving plate and serve immediately with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream.