Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. Beginning today, until the end of the Lenten Season, I will be sharing a recipe that is in keeping with the traditions of old Church teachings, and that was to abstain from meat during Lent.
Continue reading “Mozzarella in Carozza (Mozzarella in a Carriage)”
We’ve already established that today is National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day. While some of are great bakers and can whip out a perfect White Chocolate Cheesecake with our eyes closed and one hand tied behind our backs, not all of us have those skills.
Today is Ash Wednesday. In our house, it is a day of fasting and abstinence. Not a whole lot I can share recipe-wise for Ash Wednesday. So I turned to the National Day calendar for a little inspiration. Oh yeah, good stuff. Today is National Oreo Cookie Day. The easiest way to celebrate National Oreo Cookie Day would be with a package of Oreos and a big, cold glass of milk. The National Biscuit Company (today known as Nabisco) first developed and produced the “Oreo Biscuit” in 1912 at its Chelsea factory in New York City. Today, the block on which the factory was located is known as “Oreo Way”. If you live in New York City, today might be a great day to eat your Oreos while strolling down Oreo Way.
Do you have a Chick-Fil-A near you? If so, than you know what I am talking about when I say they have the absolute best Chicken Sandwiches on the planet. And the dining experience, be it inside the fast-food establishment or simply ordering at the drive-thru window, is pure delight. The crews at Chick-Fil-A are some of the happiest, friendliest people you will ever encounter.
While the fast food chain has been around since the 1940s, unlike other fast food chains, their growth has not been rapid. This has not diminished its popularity. For us, their overwhelming popularity was apparent during our vacation to Wyoming last year. We had a four-hour layover in Denver, more than enough time to have lunch at the Airport’s Food Court, with time remaining for a little airport shopping. Denver’s sprawling airport does not have a shortage of restaurants to choose from, yet the only one restaurant in the massive two-story food court needed cattle pens to handle the long lines. That restaurant was the Chick-Fil-A.
My favorite sandwich has to be their Spicy Chicken Club. Living where we do, we can’t get a Chick-Fil-A sandwich when the craving strikes. What we can do is fix their wonderful sandwiches at home. If spicy isn’t your thing, skip the Sriracha sauce and replace the Pepper Jack Cheese with a slice of White Cheddar instead. It’s still an awesome sandwich.
Hot and Spicy Chicken Club Sandwiches
6 Tyson Chicken Breast Filet
6 Slices Bacon, crisp
6 Slices Pepper Jack Cheese
6 Hamburger Buns, lightly grilled
1/3 Cup Mayonnaise
1/2-1 Tablespoon Sriracha
Sea Salt, to taste
1 Large Tomato, sliced
6 Lettuce Leaves
Cook chicken patties in the oven as directed. While the chicken is baking, fry bacon crisp and let drain on paper towels.
Mix mayonnaise, Sriracha Sauce and Sea Salt in a small bowl.
Wipe down griddle, butter buns and toast lightly.
Place sliced cheese on chicken patties, return to oven long enough for cheese to melt.
Spread mayonnaise on toasted buns. Place lettuce and tomato on bottom bun. Top with chicken patty. Top patty with bacon and top bun. Serve.
When Kiddo was just a little Kiddo, we did a lot of fun things with our food. We celebrated more. And we took our faith more seriously as well. I can remember making these beautiful pancakes for my family to enjoy on Shrove Tuesday. Back then, we had time in the morning before Kiddo rushed off to school and Hubby headed for the office. I miss those days.
When I came across a recipe for Easy Chicken Paprikash in my now 25+ year-old Campbell Cookbook, it sparked my curiosity. Just what is Chicken Paprikash. Sounded middle-eastern to me. Boy, was I wrong. Chicken Paprikash is a Hungarian dish. The traditional rendition is made with dumplings and utilizes a whole chicken. It more closely resembles Chicken and Dumplings (surprise!). The more modern adaptations utilize wide egg noodles or even Bow-Tie pastas. Just as the name implies, this dish relies in a heavy dose of Paprika, a spice commonly used in Hungarian cuisine. The sauce takes on a rosy color. And for those Dracula fans, in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, Jonathan Harker dines on Chicken Paprikash during his tourney through the Carpathian Mountains to Dracula’s castle.
Oh my, now my mind is swirling with all sorts of dinner party ideas and counts and scary stuff! Yeah, check the local weather reports and make this on a night that thunderstorms are in the forecast. What fun!
Easy Chicken Paprikash
4 cups cooked Wide Egg Noodles, for serving
1 tablespoon Butter
4 Chicken Breasts, boneless
10 oz Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
3 Teaspoons Paprika
1 Pinch Cayenne Pepper
1/3 cup Sour Cream
Parsley for garnish
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook egg noodles according to package directions. Keep warm until ready to serve.
While the water comes to a boil and the noodles cook, melt butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
Brown chicken for about 5 or 6 minutes per side in the hot butter. Remove, keep warm and set aside.
To the now empty skillet, heat soup with paprika and cayenne pepper. Add sour cream and whisk to blend smooth. Heat through.
Return chicken to the pan, cover and simmer until breast are cooked through and no longer pink. Spoon sauce over chicken to coat well.
Spread pasta on a serving platter. Top with chicken and garnish with parsley.
Whatever you do, don’t serve with Blood Oranges!
I love Chorizo. I love it with scrambled eggs, in rice dishes, as a filler for everything from Omelettes to Tacos. Chorizo-filled burritos are the absolute best! Grilled Spicy Chorizo-Bean Burrito Supreme and Grilled Beef and Chorizo Spicy Burritos are two of our favorite.
Continue reading “Awesome Spicy Spread Chorizo-Bean Burritos”
Have you ever bought pasta at Costco? My spaghetti purchase lasted our family for six months – eight 1-pound packages of Organic Spaghetti Noodles. Wow, it just dawned on me, we eat over a pound of spaghetti a month! And then there are those variety packages of Penne, Casarecce and Rotelle. We are big pasta eaters in this house. I think we eat more pasta and rice than we do potatoes.
Continue reading “Mozzarella Chicken Marinara over Rotelle (Corkscrew Pasta)”
This year, for Mardi Gras, I thought it would be nice to give you some options for a sit down supper. If you have been following along, you already have my recipe for the traditional King’s Cake for dessert and a savory Shrimp and Crab Cheese Wheel to get things started. We’ve now reached into the suggestion box for the main event.
Continue reading “Spicy New Orleans Shrimp over Jasmine Rice”
Now that we’ve gotten Fat Tuesday’s dessert out of the way, let’s talk about something sinfully delicious to get this party started. I love shrimp. And thanks to Forest Gump, I cannot think New Orleans Gulf Shrimp without thinking Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
Continue reading “New Orleans Savory Creole Shrimp and Crab Cheese Wheel”
Did someone say cake? Where there’s a cake, there is bound to be a party, right? So, what is a King’s Cake and why do we eat it? Sometime between January 6th, King’s Day or the Twelfth Night of Christmas, and Lent (a time of abstinence, penance and self-control) we have the most outrageous party of all, Mardi Gras. And what is a party without a luscious cake? But this isn’t just any old cake. The King’s Cake is rich in tradition and folklore.
Hey, did you think we could leave National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day with just one delicious recipe for candy featuring peanut butter? No way! One of my all-time favorite candies has to be truffles. I like things that are creamy, and nothing is more creamy than a good truffle. The first time I made truffles, I was so thrilled that they looked “professional”. The key to truffles has to be chill, chill and more chill. The colder the center, the easier it is to get the outside coating over a well-shaped ball. If things happen to go sideways, just stick the candy back into the refrigerator or freezer, and chill again.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
3 tablespoon Butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy Peanut Butter
3/4 cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
1 1/4 cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
1 tablespoon Shortening
1/4 cup Milk Chocolate Chips
1 teaspoon Shortening
Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
In a medium bowl, mix together the butter and peanut butter until smooth and well combined.
Sift powdered sugar, incorporate into the peanut butter mixture. Mix until a smooth dough forms in the bowl. Form the dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon balls. Place the peanut butter ball on the prepared baking sheet. Place in the refrigerator until chilled through, about 30 minutes.
While the peanut butter balls are chilling, melt the sem-sweet chocolate with 1 tablespoon shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 25 second intervals, stirring between, until chocolate is fully melted.
Remove the peanut butter balls from the refrigerator. Dunk the balls, one at a time, into the melted chocolate using a fork to roll the balls in the chocolate to fully coat. Let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place the coated peanut butter balls back on the baking sheet and repeat until all the balls have been coated.
Place chocolate covered balls back into the refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes.
While the candy is chilling, melt the milk chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon of shortening in the same way the semi-sweet chocolate was melted.
Remove the truffles from the refrigerator. Usint a fork dipped in the milk chocolate, drizzle over the truffles for an attractive presentation.
Truffles are best when chilled and should not sit out more than 10 minutes before serving.
Did you know that today is National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day? I suppose the correct way to observe this day would be to talk about how to make your own Peanut Butter. I’m sure there are recipes out there and that making your own Peanut Butter isn’t all that complicated. You can bet your bottom dollar it’s a heck of a lot healthier, too. I’m just not that into Peanut Butter, except maybe slathered over my pancakes with a good helping of maple syrup. And, yeah I like Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, too. But where I really like Peanut Butter is in candies.
One of my favorite cooking shows has to be Valerie Bartinelli’s gig on Food Network. While I like to watch shows with “real” chefs to help fine-tune my culinary skills, it’s the shows that feature non-professional chefs that are the best for recipes. I adore escargot, but really how often are you going to serve up some snails? However, some melt in your mouth Buckeyes and the whole family is clamoring from more.
Valerie’s Crunchy Toffee Buckeyes
Buckeyes
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch kosher salt
1 cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
3/4 cup Heath Chips (or 3 candy bars, chopped)
12 ounces Semi-sweet Chocolate, chopped
Special Equipment
Wooden Toothpicks
Combine the peanut butter, vanilla and salt in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer, adding about 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar at a time, until all the sugar is incorporated and the mixture is stiff and dry to the touch. Mix the toffee by hand.
Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls (about 32) and place on plates. Insert a toothpick into the center of each ball and freeze until firm, 1 hour.
Once the balls are frozen, put the chopped chocolate in a small, heat-safe bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan filled with 1/2 inch of barely simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water) and heat, stirring, until melted.
Remove the balls from the freezer and, one at a time, dip them in the chocolate, leaving a small round of peanut butter still visible. Let the excess chocolate drip off before returning the balls to the plate. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Remove the toothpick before serving.
Crème Anglaise is French for “English Cream”, a light pouring custard served as a dessert cream or dessert sauce. It’s delicate vanilla flavor compliments the deep rich chocolate of the soufflé so well. One of the things I look for when trying a new recipe for soufflés is a sauce. I have never been served a soufflé that did not include a lovely sauce. Some of my favorites are a Vanilla Sauce, a White Chocolate Sauce or a Grand Marnier Chocolate Sauce. Sometimes I’ll make a Chocolate Soufflé and serve it with a scoop of softened Vanilla Bean Ice Cream if I’m not in the mood to make a nice sauce.
Just look at that hair – those eyes – that contagious laugh of hers. Phyllis Diller was one wild character. You can bet, her chili was just as wildly delicious.
Continue reading “National Chili Day with Phyllis Diller’s Famous Chili Recipe”
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