Roasted Chicken

What a delicious bird. It came out beautiful and tasty too!

*RECIPE TO COME

Here are some recipes I CANNOT wait to try!

Smothered Country Fried Steak

Oxtails (I made this before but I didnt record the recipe or the results)

Turkey Necks soup or stew

Jerk Chicken

Asian Chicken Sliders w/Miso Aioli

Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

Mediterranean Quesadillas

Grilled Jumbo Shrimp w/Mango Butter Sauce and Cilantro or Coconut Rice

Crawfish Etouffee

Chicken & Waffles (I guess I would just make some waffles and fry some chicken lol!)

Garlic-Herb Chicken and Spinach pasta

This was soooo good! I made it a 2nd time with broccoli and my boyfriend and his mom loved it too!
*RECIPE TO COME

Chicken Parmigiana

*RECIPE TO COME

Baked Chicken Recipe

*PICTURE AND/OR RECIPE TO COME

I got a spontaneous taste for Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

At first I was going to go make a quick run to Publix and grab some from their bakery. But then I mentally went through possible ingredients I had on hand. I don't have any yeast here but then I remembered that I have an unopened box of Bisquick.

And I know that you can typically make several breads and things with Bisquick. So I looked online and sure enough there were several Bisquick cinnamon roll recipes. I took step by step pictures of what I did as well as measured everything exactly (unlike when I cook dinners LOL.....I can get away with not measuring so much when cooking other things) because when baking stuff I'm always scared it won't come out right unless I follow the recipe EXACTLY.

***Rolls***
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 1/2 cups Original Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

***Glaze***
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk (I had to use water because I ran out of milk, LOL)
1 tsp vanilla extract


Directions:
***ROLLS***:
Heat oven to 375 F. Grease bottom and sides of rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches. Stir together 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Stir Bisquick, 2 tablespoons sugar, and then milk in a large bowl.

Mix with a fork; dough will be sticky. Gradually mix in enough Bisquick (up to 1/4 cup) to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto surface well dusted with Bisquick; gently roll in Bisquick to coat.

Shape into ball; knead 10 times. Roll into rectangle, 15x9 inches; spread with butter.

Sprinkle evenly with sugar mixture; sprinkle evenly with raisins.

Roll up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side. Seal well by pinching edge of dough into roll.

Cut into 1 1/4-inch slices; place cut sides down in pan.

Bake 23 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan.

Spread Glaze over warm rolls.


***GLAZE***: Stir powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth.

Randoms ((Catfish, Pretty garlic bread, and Homemade Marinara sauce))

I made the catfish fillet earlier this week and I made the homemade marinara and the frozen garlic bread to go with my lasagna (Stouffers) for lunch! Recipes are below

Pan-friend catfish fillets

::INGREDIENTS::

Catfish fillet
Milk
Canola or vegetable oil
Fish coating such as FishFry or something similar

-Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

-Pour milk into a medium bowl. Dip catfish filets into milk and hold up and let the milk drip off. Roll the milk-soaked filet in the fish coating.

-Add the coated catfish filets and cook for 5 to 7 minutes on each side. Cook until golden brown and fish flakes easily with a fork. Drain on paper towels.

Homemade Marinara Sauce

::INGREDIENTS::

8-10 cherry tomatoes
Basil
Italian seasoning
Oregano
Pepper
Salt
Sugar
Onion Powder
Garlic powder
Tomato paste
Olive Oil

-Smash tomatoes in small pot and then turn stovetop to medium to let it start bubbling, then reduce heat

-Add next 8 ingredients to taste (I didn't measure anything).

-Let cook for about 2-3 minutes to allow flavors to soak into tomatoes.

-Add a can of tomato paste, about 2 tbs of olive oil and stir. *Optional: I added a bit of water to thin it out a little to desired thinness.* Cover and let cook on medium for 3 minutes.

Publix brand frozen garlic loaf. Yum!!

Healthier Hair, Skin, and Nails--The benefits of a Green Smoothie

I had some spinach, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, celery, bananas, and an apple on hand the other day and then I remembered that I'd read up about green smoothies a few months ago and wanted to try one. The main thing for the green smoothie is: some kind of green vegetable(s), banana for the consistency, ice and water, and then a natural sweetener. I've heard some people use agave, coconut water, or fruit for sweetener. In this batch, I used:

1-2 cup fresh spinach leaves
1/2 banana
1/4 green apple
1 cup ice cubes
about 1/3 water

It came out realllly smooth and sweet from the banana and apple


Green smoothies have benefits such as: more energy, you're getting your vegetables and fruits raw with all the vital nutrients and minerals the body needs, easier to consume in one glass than eating vegetables/fruits several times throughout the day, easier for the body to absorb and consume in this blended state. Read about more benefits here: Ode to Green Smoothie

Finally took a picture ((Chicken Salad revisited))

The first time I made the chicken salad, I only made about 2-3 cups. I was experimenting so I didn't want to make too much. Well it was all gobbled up fast and so my boyfriend asked if I could make some more. This time I made a large bowl of it. So I whipped out my camera because I knew I forgot the last time.


Last time I cooked the chicken on a grill pan and it looked like this:


And it caused the chicken salad to have a pretty light brown color instead of white.
This time I poached the chicken at the suggestion of my boyfriend, but I think I actually liked it better on the grill pan. (Unless I simply suck at poaching chicken). I liked it in chunks (like the grilled chicken first time I made it), rather than shredded (like I had to do with the poached chicken).

Chicken Salad Picnic

Today for our picnic, I made chicken salad, cole slaw and deviled eggs....and also had some store bought fruit salad. This was my first time making chicken salad and it came out soooo good that I wanted to jot down the ingredients so i won't forget. We ate it on 12 grain bread with romaine lettuce.

CHICKEN SALAD INGREDIENTS:
marinated cooked chicken breast
mayo
coleslaw dressing
chopped celery
toasted walnuts
dried cranberry
onion powder
garlic powder
sea salt
fresh dill

Mix all ingredients together and chill in the fridge.

(Next time I'll try to remember to take a picture!) :-D

Marinated New York Strip Steak

This was fulllll of flavor and the meat was so tender!



I marinated the steak with--
Liquid smoke
Soy sauce
Montreal steak seasoning blend
Olive oil

Then it was fried/grilled on both sides with 2 spices--
Adobo
Mrs. Dash salt free steak seasoning



I also marinated a chicken breast that my sweetie cooked and ate. Those ingredients were--
oil
balsamic vinegar
oregano
thyme
mustard
garlic
sea salt and pepper

Trying Something New for the Next 6 Weeks......

I haven't cooked anything worthy of taking photos of in a couple of days, but I just wanted to write about my plans for 6 weeks. I'm going to be trying a new eating plan that involves a lot of lean meats and vegetables. Therefore, I'm going to be using recipes from those food groups mainly. I don't know how easy or hard it will be, but I know I LOVE mashed potatoes and rice so I hope I get to eat at least a little of that!

If I get some good results physically, I may even post some before and after photos! LOL

My Sweetie made burgers

Well this could be considered a little gourmet, maybe?

This is my first time eating a burger with anything other than lettuce, tomato, pickle and ketchup. These are turkey burgers pre-seasoned with diced tomato, bell pepper, and cheese from Jennie O.I'm not sure of my boyfriend's recipe, but I had spinach and melted pepper jack on my burger and it was too good! He had a spinach, ricotta cheese, and chopped onion mix, along with some fresh tomatoes and shredded cheese. The first picture is mine. The second is his plate.

Marinated Shrimp!!! So good!

I got this recipe from Allrecipes.com. It's called Grilled Marinated Shrimp. I don't have a true grill so I used an iron griddle. So, technically I used the marinade from this recipe but I couldn't follow the preparation instructions.......I really wanted to use my skewers because I have a huge pack of them that I'm just itching to use somewhere. Oh well! I followed instruction #1 and #3 from this recipe and the taste was unbelievable. I served it with rice and grilled yellow squash. Next time I may do more shrimp because it was all gone after dinner!

I finally purchased a fryer..............

....and I fried some chicken. I prefer baked chicken over fried, but I had been craving fried chicken alll last week so I caved in and bought a small fryer. It was only $26 + tax at Target.

I really didn't measure anything. I just combined some flour and seasonings and coated my cleaned chicken with it; coated with an egg and water mixture next; and, then coated with plain flour.

I then, filled the fryer with canola oil, turned the fryer up to about 360 degrees and let the oil heat up. I placed about 3 at a time in the oil and let it fry for about 20 minutes. Gosh, it came out goooooooood and flavorful! Oh yeah, I brined the chicken for about an hour before I began frying it. Finger-lickin' good, I tell ya!

One of my favorite desserts................

I really really "heart" that Maple Butter Blondie from Applebee's. It's so warm, light, and yummy with the butter sauce and vanilla ice cream. So instead of having to run out to Applebee's just to get this dessert, I decided to try my hand at baking it. The taste was right on the money. It tasted amazing, but there are a few adjustments I like to play around with on this recipe.

I used:
Blondie
1 cup Flour, 1 cup
1 tsp Baking powder
¼ tsp Salt
½ cup Sweet butter, softened
½ cup Granulated sugar, 1/2 cup
2/3 cup Packed light brown sugar, 2/3 cup
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts

Maple Butter Sauce
3/4 maple syrup (the real stuff, not the pancake syrup)
1/2 melted butter
3/4 brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla extract to the butter cream. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in nuts.

Spread batter evenly into greased pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out "almost" clean. Let it cool completely

For Maple Butter Sauce, melt butter and syrup. Add brown sugar, stirring until dissolved.



NEXT TIME I MAY TRY:
The blondie at Applebee's is slightly more cakelike than the ones I made. I think that requires a little more egg in the batter. Also, I didn't use any baking soda and I think perhaps that helps it rise a little more.

My blondie is actually more of a caramel color than "blonde" so I'll try and work with the brown sugar/white sugar measurements and see what I come up with.

And lastly, for some reason the maple butter sauce I made isn't that creamy white like Applebee's. I think some white ingredient needs to be added to it but I can't figure it out yet.

Banananana Puddin'!

So, I used the Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding by Paula Deen a couple of years ago and it was wonderfully flavored! I got a taste for it the other day and so I made it again. I went to the grocery store and bought all my ingredients, all the while getting very excited about my banana dessert I would soon be devouring. Paula uses chessmen cookies, but I just use the standard Nilla cookies. Do you know, when the cashier was ringing up my groceries, he held up my cookies and exclaimed, "Is somebody making banana pudding?"

I said, "Yep, i am!!"

And then he said, "What kind of banana pudding are you making?? Why do you have this instant pudding stuff? You supposed to make it from scratch like grandmaw used to make it."

Well at first I was about to shy away because honestly I was thinking in my head: 'i don't know how to make it from scratch'. LOL but then I decided to stand my ground because I remembered how well received my banana pudding was when I made it a few years ago. I told him that the pudding I was gonna make is the new age pudding and that it's OFF THE HOOK, FANTABULOUS! lol.

He laughed and he said he would take my word for it. Hee, hee. Well I followed Paula's recipe to the tee, the only thing I changed was that I used Nilla cookies. Someone I spoke to that also uses this recipe, has said that she's tried it with Chocolate chessman cookies (mmmmm!) and it was delicious! Anyway, here are some snap shots of my dessert! Enjoy!

Lazy Day Sunday

Pita bread!!! That's what was used in the quesadilla!

Yummy quesadillas I ate tonight. I HAD to talk about it!!!

Today we had dinner at The Grape restaurant. I had a fabulous time there! Ok, I have to rave about the Mediterranean Chicken Quesadillas. I'm guessing the feta cheese made it have a mediterranean flair to it. Instead of tortillas, the chicken and cheeses were housed between two slices of crunchy lightly buttered bread. MMMMMMM! I'm gonna have to get a name and location in groceries stores for that bread so I can try this at home. Oh, and I can't leave out the best part....the sauce it was served with! It was served with sun-dried aioli sauce and it was simply scrumptious. I had no idea what aioli was so I did a quick search and found that's its only about 4-5 ingredients used to concoct it! So once I find that bread, oh yeah its on!!!!!!

Food pictures I've taken this year

Here are some foods I've snapped pictures of between January and now.

Most (or maybe all of them) are standard meals that I've made several times before, and so I consider them nothing special. But I'm still excited to post them anyway!!! *A few of the dishes pictured have recipes included with them--just click on the picture!!*

Baked chicken, rice & gravy, cabbage, and sweet potato

Potatoes Au Gratin with Chicken, peas, breadstick

Supreme pizza

Red beans and rice w/sausage, spinach, cornbread (I use buttermilk as substitute)

Blackened catfish, black beans & rice, cabbage and carrots

Garlic parmesan pasta and chicken

Baked Ziti

Thai Chicken Pizza

Cooking Notes Vol. 071808

I've just read that for cake-like brownies you're to add one more egg than the regular recipe calls for.

Baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents. When mixed with acids (i.e. buttermilks, chocolate, honey, etc.) they cause the pastry to rise. In fact, the action starts to happen immediately while you're mixing the batter and so therefore it's important to bake promptly otherwise the dessert won't rise. Also, baking powder can be a substitute for baking soda (as in, if a recipe calls for both ingredients you can add a little more baking powder), however baking soda cannot be used to substitute baking powder.

Decided to try Stuffed Chicken last night

So, I had some chicken breasts in the freezer and I took it out and put it in the fridge to thaw. By the time it thawed I wanted to put it back into the freezer and nap LOL. But, I don't think you can re-freeze chicken that you've just thawed so I forced myself on into the kitchen.

My first thought was to chop up the chicken, pull out some pasta, and make chicken fettuccine alfredo. But I did a quick recipe search on Allrecipes.com for chicken recipe ideas. I saw a picture for Spinach Stuffed Chicken and it looked yummy. I didn't have all the ingredients for it though so I sort of substituted some ingredients and added a little extra.


INGREDIENTS:
Chicken Breast halves

Thawed Frozen Spinach

Sauteed Mushrooms

Olive oil

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Onion Powder

1/2 cup Grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbs. Grated Romano cheese

2 tbs. Softened Cream cheese

1 tbs. Ricotta

1 tbs. Shredded Fontina cheese

2 slices Pepper Jack

1 tsp. Oregano

1/2 tsp. Italian seasonings

3 dashes Nutmeg

3 dashes Black pepper

Slices of Turkey Bacon

Paprika

Parsely

Melted butter

WHAT I DID:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thaw the spinach in a bowl in the microwave. Chop up sauteed mushrooms (i used a chopper) and add to spinach. Add the ricotta, parmesan, romano, fontina, pepper jack, and cream cheese to the vegetables and mix until fairly smooth. Stir in garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, italian seasoning, nutmeg, and pepper.

Lay the chicken breasts out on a clean surface, and flatten or pound to 1/2 inch thickness. Spoon some of the spinach mixture onto each one (about 2 tbsp). Roll up chicken to enclose the spinach, then wrap each chicken breast with 1-2 slices of bacon. Secure with toothpicks, and arrange in a shallow baking dish. Pour melted butter or olive oil over chicken.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and chicken is cooked through. Garnish with paprika and/or parsley.



NEXT TIME I MAY TRY:
Next time I'll try to follow the original recipe a little closer using more ricotta cheese. I want the cheese to be a little stiffer so that it doesn't melt into the baking dish so much. Also I may try adding in another veggie. The chopped mushroom was a nice touch!

I decided to try a recipe for Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi

Tonight I tried mahi mahi. It was really good and my first time making it! My boyfriend said that he liked it. After he finished his food he simply said: "Amazing." So I'm glad it came out so tasty. I cooked some Uncle Ben's whole grain rice along with some stir fry veggies. It was a light but filling meal and everything went together very well!!!! I'm glad I'm writing this down because I probably would forget about it completely.

What I did:
Season with sea salt and pepper
Marinade--Soy Ginger sauce, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, honey
Marinade for 1 hour covered in refrigerator

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Set aside marinade.
During the last couple of minutes while the fish is in the oven, heat up the marinade while constantly stirring to make the glaze. Place fish on a dish and pour glaze across food.


NEXT TIME I MAY TRY: Seasoning before I cover with the marinade. I salted and peppered it afterwards. It was good how it was, but I think that will add just a hint more of the good flavor.

Comments, tips, suggestions are welcomed!

Hello there.....My intro

This is the beginning of my blog on cooking......or, learning to cook great meals, I should say! Bare with me, because some things won't be perfect and when I mess up something or it doesn't come out right, I will freely admit it here. These scratch sheets are here for me to learn from trial and error and to keep a space where I can gather recipes, tips, and tricks that work well. You're more than welcome to learn along with me!

Enjoy my blog!!