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!!