Smoky Sweet Potato Chicken Stoup

Rachael Ray always wins me back eventually. I just happened to catch an episode of 30-Minute Meals last Friday and she made Smoky Sweet Potato Chicken Stoup - it looked so amazing that I wanted to lick the TV. So I looked it up this week on foodnetwork.com and here we are! It looks kind of tricky because there are a lot of ingredients but it really isn't too hard to make. I still think that Rachael relies on her superhuman chopping and dicing abilities to get these recipes done in 30 minutes. However, us mere mortals will still be able to make this "stoup" in 45! I served this with pepperjack grilled cheese sandwiches...quesadillas would be fun too!

SMOKY SWEET POTATO CHICKEN STOUP
Rachael Ray, foodnetwork.com
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

2 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium carrots, peeled
2 ribs celery
1 large onion, peeled and halved
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus a spoonful of sauce from the can
Salt and black pepper
1 t dry thyme
1 bay leaf
1 C dry white wine
5 C chicken stock
1 large sweet potato
3/4-1lb chicken tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 scallions, white and green parts thinly sliced
1/4 C cilantro leaves, a generous handful, roughly chopped
1/2 C sour cream for garnish, optional

DIRECTIONS:

Heat a soup pot over medium-high heat with 2 T of extra-virgin olive oil, about 2 turns of the pan.

While soup pot heats, chop carrots in half lengthwise and then slice into thin half-moons. Add the carrots to the pot while it heats, stirring to coat the carrots in the oil. Chop and drop in celery and onion, chopping them as small as you can without driving yourself crazy. Add the garlic, chipotle, and adobo sauce and stir to combine. Season the veggies with salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook the veggies together for 1 minute. Add the wine and reduce 1 minute. Add the stock to the pot, cover the pot, and raise the heat to high. Bring the stoup to a boil, remove the cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into quarters lengthwise, then thinly slice into bite size pieces, Add the cut chicken and sweet potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through. Turn the heat off, add scallions and cilantro. Serve each portion of stoup with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Extra-Special Spinach and Artichoke Dip

I can almost file this recipe under "failure," but it went okay the 2nd time around. Let me start at the beginning...

My original intent was to find Outback Steakhouse's Artichoke Dip recipe. Even though the internet is wonderful, it let me down big time and I couldn't find the recipe online anywhere.

I looked around for awhile and eventually found a recipe that sounded pretty amazing, mostly because it (1) contained Alfredo sauce and (2) did NOT contain copious amounts of mayonnaise. Don't get me wrong, I love mayonnaise under the right circumstances, but if I'm making a dip I really don't want to think about how when I'm eating it, I'm really just swallowing a gigantic blob of mayo on a chip.

In reading the reviews of the recipe I found, I noticed that some people said it was fun to use fresh spinach and also that if you followed the exact directions of the recipe, which said to "spread" ingredients in an 8x8 pan, the dip wouldn't turn out correctly. One reviewer said it was NECESSARY to put this dip into a food processor or a blender. So I chopped up a bunch of fresh spinach and threw the whole shebang into my food processor. As it blended, I started to get a very uneasy feeling. When the cream cheese had finally been blended, I was horrified to see that the dip looked alarmingly like that green jell-o fluff you can buy in the grocery store deli and I find to be absolutely disgusting. Or something pistachio-flavored. And I am supposed to bring this dip to a New Year's Eve party tomorrow night!

So my only choice was to drive to the grocery store at 9:20PM and pray that they weren't totally out of artichoke hearts so that I could have a re-do. THANKFULLY it turned out well the 2nd time. At least I think so, because I haven't baked it yet, but it's already better than the 1st time because it's a normal spinach/artichoke dip-y color. And it tastes good. The green one did too, but since people would be expecting it to taste like that green fluffy stuff...yeah. It's just better to make it again!

ARTICHOKE & SPINACH DIP - RESTAURANT STYLE
From allrecipes.com with modifications by Kira

Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic (I used 5)
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 (10 ounce) container Alfredo-style pasta sauce (Bertolli's is best)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (6-cheese Italian blend)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (I used the entire package)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place garlic in a small baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven 20 to 30 minutes, until soft. Remove from heat. When cool enough to touch, squeeze softened garlic from skins.

In an 8x8 inch baking dish, spread the roasted garlic, spinach, artichoke hearts, Alfredo-style pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and cream cheese.

Cover and bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until cheeses are melted and bubbly. Serve warm.

Kira's directions for step 3: Mix the cream cheese, the Alfredo sauce, and the roasted garlic until it's mostly blended. Squish the roasted garlic until it's fairly well blended with the rest. Add the shredded cheese and the Parmesan. Mix well. Then, add the artichoke hearts and the spinach and take care not to overmix. Place in baking dish and top with a little bit of grated Parmesan.

Green Bean Casserole for the 21st Century

My mom brought this recipe to Christmas and suggested that we give it a shot. It's one of those recipes that doesn't really tell you a whole lot about amounts and times and specific temperatures, which kind of wigged my mom out, but in the end it turned out to be very good! Luckily for her I'm 100% comfortable with a recipe that doesn't tell me anything. It combines that traditional comfort of the old-school green bean casserole but it adds some distinctly modern twists. No cream of mushroom soup, etc. Anyway, it's tasty and fairly easy...sounds like a holiday dinner winner to me! I added a little bit more structure to the recipe for this blog, so the version below is by no means verbatim from the source.


GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
From Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh green beans, cut into smallish pieces
6oz fresh button or Portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 sweet red pepper, diced
6oz of goat cheese or cream cheese (or combination of both)
1 large onion, thinly sliced in rings
Dry packaged breadcrumbs
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Boil green beans for 3ish minutes and drain. Add green beans, mushrooms, and pepper to a 9x13 casserole dish. Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roast in 350 oven for 10-15 minutes. While green beans etc are roasting, sauté onions in olive oil until tender. Coat with breadcrumbs so they resemble onion rings. Remove green beans etc. from oven. Add goat cheese/cream cheese and mix well to coat. Add onions on top and return to oven for 8-10 minutes or until heated through. Turn on broiler for extra browning effect.

Cranberry Salsa

Although my rule is that I have to actually make something before posting, I am breaking that rule for this delightful cranberry salsa that my Aunt Joan made for Thanksgiving this year. I am GOING to make it, probably this week, but since the recipe is still in my wallet from Thanksgiving and I'm avoiding work, I will go ahead and post anyway! I have already shared this recipe with like 50 people - I actually passed it around at my YMCA Group Exercise training last week. Yikes!

This is awesome with tortilla chips and I think it would also be delightful paired with pork roast or potentially even baked chicken (depending).

CRANBERRY SALSA
From Joan Hill

Ingredients:
1 bag fresh cranberries
1 C sugar
1 C water
2 jalapenos, diced (seeds are optional, only if you want to bring the heat)
2 bunches green onions, sliced
1 t cumin
1 T lime juice
2 T diced cilantro

Directions:

Cook berries with sugar and water until skins pop. Add remaining. Mix it up until it looks like salsa. :)

UPDATE: I have now made this and I can say FOR SURE that it is ridiculously easy to make. And it's pretty! Enjoy.

I'm heeeeeeeeeere! :-)

Hello, faithful blog readers! It's funny how I stopped nagging Kira to post here every day once she invited me to become a co-poster. ;-) After three weeks, I have finally gotten so sick of eating out that I spent the evening cooking up a storm (pepper steak! soup! no-bake cookies! granola bars! zucchini muffins!) and I'd like to share one of the recipes with you.

I've been a major baby lately about the winter weather, and one of the ways I've been "coping" has been to eat soup for lunch and dinner. It's probably the least weird of my coping mechanisms, and doesn't usually get me the same kinds of looks as wearing a scarf all day at work or wearing a coat for an hour after I've gotten home does. Anyway, here is the recipe that served as the inspiration for the soup I made tonight:

Italian Wedding Soup Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis Show: Everyday Italian

Meatballs: 1 small onion, grated 1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley 1 large egg 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 teaspoon salt 1 slice fresh white bread, crust trimmed, bread torn into small pieces 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 8 ounces ground beef 8 ounces ground pork Freshly ground black pepper Soup: 12 cups low-sodium chicken broth 1 pound curly endive, coarsely chopped (1 pound of escarole would be a good substitution) 2 large eggs 2 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish Salt and freshly ground black pepper To make the meatballs: Stir the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the cheese, beef and pork. Using 1 1/2 teaspoons for each, shape the meat mixture into 1-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on a baking sheet. To make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and curly endive and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the curly endive is tender, about 8 minutes. Whisk the eggs and cheese in a medium bowl to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Gradually drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a fork to form thin stands of egg, about 1 minute. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. Finish soup with parmesan cheese if desired.

Thank you, Giada, that sounds delicious but time-consuming. Additionally, I have zero patience for making meatballs and even if I could find escarole or endive at our yucky grocery store, I would have no interest in ingesting either. Here is the recipe as I made it tonight:

2.5 boxes chicken stock
1 box frozen spinach
1 bunch parsley
2 eggs
2 tbs parsley
2 c dry egg noodles
2/3 pkg trader joe's mini meatballs
15 cranks of the pepper grinder

In a large stockpot, bring 10 cups of chicken stock and two cups of water to a boil. For me, using 12 full cups of store-bought chicken stock would be wayyyyyyyy too salty, so if I don't have any homemade chicken stock on hand (or am too lazy to thaw it), I add water. Once, it's boiling, reduce heat to medium and add everything else and cook for about 8-9 minutes, or until noodles and meatballs are cooked. Reduce heat and add the eggs beaten with parmesan, making sure to temper the eggs first by gradually adding about 1/2 cup of the hot broth to the eggs before drizzling the eggs into the soup. If you don't, you'll end up with scrambled egg chunks in your soup and this is not very appetizing. For me, serving with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese is a must!

Enjoye! :-)

Welcome, Lisa!

I am honored to announce that this blog now has TWO authors! The lovelye Lisa will be joining me in posting her favorite recipes for your viewing and cooking enjoyment. I can't wait to get my hands on some of Lisa's recipes...and you should be excited too! :)

Apple Crisp

I love apple crisp because it's the lazy baker's apple pie. Although I guess that with the advent of refrigerated Pillsbury pie crust apple pie has become pretty lazy too. Anyway, the thing that I love about apple crisp is the delicious salty-sweet crumbled topping. I have a tough time not eating a bunch of it before it's even baked actually...surprise surprise!

When I was a kid, my mom used to make this quite a bit during the fall. She'd make it in the afternoon, so I'd have some when I came home from school, and then we'd all eat some for dessert after dinner. If she put it into a 9x13 pan, there would usually be about half left. By the next afternoon, though, it would almost always be gone...mom couldn't stay away from it! Mom thinks that her mom, my Grandma Hill, cut this recipe out of a newspaper about 60 years ago. Well believe me...what was good 60 years ago is still good now.

APPLE CRISP
from Grandma Hill

Ingredients:

6 medium peeled and sliced apples (peeled is important...I forgot that once and this didn't turn out so well)
1/3-1/2 C sugar (to taste really)
1 t cinnamon
1 C water
6 T shortening (you can do 3 T butter, 3 T shortening if shortening totally disgusts you)
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1 C flour
1 t baking powder
smidge salt

Directions:

Simmer the apples, sugar, cinnamon, and water for 7-10 minutes. Mix the shortening, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt until crumbly. Pour apples into deep baking dish (I've used several different sizes...just as a rule, though, the smaller the dish the deeper it needs to be) and cover with crumbled mixture. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until the apples are soft and the mixture underneath the crust is brown.

Quickest Chicken Stock

Ryan was so crushed when MCL didn't have Chicken and Noodles this afternoon that I said I'd make them for dinner. It's actually a lot more work than it sounds - luckily, though, most of the work is just sitting around and waiting. I thought I'd try Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything for a chicken stock recipe and I found this one for "quick" chicken stock. It's not as quick as pouring it out of a carton or anything, but I guess it's quicker than it could be. He does have a recipe for chicken stock that takes 3+ hours. Anyway, I gave this chicken stock a try and it's delicious.

QUICKEST CHICKEN STOCK
From How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Ingredients:

1 whole (3-4 pound) chicken, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
1 C roughly chopped onion (don't bother to peel it)
1 C chopped carrot
1/2 C roughly chopped celery
1 sprig fresh thyme or pinch dried thyme
1/2 bay leaf
Several sprigs fresh parsley
1 t salt, plus more if necessary
About 3 1/2 quarts (14 cups) water

Directions:

1. Cut up chicken if you like; it will speed cooking.
2. Combine all ingredients except water in a stockpot; add the water
3. Bring just about to a boil, then partially cover and adjust the heat so the mixture sends up a few bubbles at a time. Cook just until the chicken is done, 30-60 minutes.
4. Strain, pressing on the vegetables and meat to extract as much juice as possible. Taste and add salt if necessary.
5. Refrigerate, then skim any hardened fat from the surface. Refrigerate for 4-5 days (longer if you boil it every 3rd day, which will prevent spoiling) or freeze.

Pico de Gallo

This summer, desperate for a twist on my super-easy pico de gallo (4 ingredients, you know what they are) I started looking for a slightly different take on the traditional pico. But I didn't want it to be TOO different. None of that "made with basil" pico garbage. I ended up finding my recipe in a WONDERFUL cookbook by Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything. He isn't kidding about the everything. If you need a reference cookbook, it's a great choice. I need a reference cookbook because anytime I go outside of my chicken comfort zone, I have no idea what I'm doing. Mark helps me through those trying times.

I served this pico for the first time at our annual 4th of July party. It was gone in about 3 minutes, so I'm guessing that meant it was good? Anyway, it's not too tough - although the chopping scallions part is rough on eyes - but the reward is worth the onion trauma! I wish I had a picture because this stuff is gorgeous. Maybe next time I make it I will take one - if I don't eat it all first.


PICO DE GALLO
from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Ingredients:

2 C cored, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped tomatoes
1 C minced chopped scallions (preferred), onion, or a combination
1/2 t minced garlic
2 T freshly squeezed lime juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 stemmed and minced jalapeno or hot red chiles, or to taste, or cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes to taste
1/2 C minced fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

1. Combine first six ingredients, then taste and see whether you want to add more salt, pepper, or chiles. Stir in about half of the cilantro, then set aside for 1 hour, or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day.
2. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish with remaining cilantro, and serve.

Kira's Notes:

I used Roma tomatoes - I like them better. I would also go with the scallions - it sucks to chop them all up but don't worry, it's totally worth it in the end! I go a little longer on the garlic than Mark indicates. The first time I made this I think I used not jalapenos. But it was still very tasty...basically, you just can't screw up this pico. So throw in whatever you like.

Butternut Squash Gratin

Since it has FINALLY gotten cold outside - well, not 90 degrees anyway - I'm thinking fall and yummy casserole-type things...like this super-dee-duper-delightful butternut squash gratin! This isn't the easiest recipe in the world, lots and lots of chopping and dicing, and as you might guess with a quick glance down the recipe it isn't fast either. I'm betting that Rachael Ray has a recipe out there for butternut squash gratin in 30 minutes...because she is a compulsive liar...but if you ever stumble upon it, DO NOT BELIEVE HER, THIS DELICIOUSNESS CANNOT BE RECREATED IN 30 MINUTES and DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING!!!! So yes, this takes awhile, but it's great for a holiday dinner or even just any night when you have the time. My mom and I made it last year for Christmas dinner and I believe it will be making a repeat appearance! :)

BUTTERNUT SQUASH GRATIN

Ingredients:

1/4 C unsalted butter
4 C thinly sliced onions (about 1 lb)
2 1/2 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 t sugar
1/2 t ground black pepper
3/4 C chicken stock (low sodium preferred)
2 C fresh breadcrumbs from soft bread
2 C (packed) sharp white cheddar, grated
1 1/2 T chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 t dried thyme

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 13x9x2 baking dish. Melt butter in a large skillet, saute onions until light golden in color (about 8 minutes). Add squash and saute 4 additional minutes. Sprinkle sugar, salt and pepper over squash and onions. Saute until onions and squash carmelize. Spread mixture in prepared dish. Pour chicken stock over mixture. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes. **This can be done 1 day ahead - if you do that, reheat in 350 oven for 10 minutes before proceeding.**

Increase oven temperature to 400. Mix remaining ingredients together (hello, cheese!) and sprinkle over squash and onions. Bake uncovered until top is golden-brown and crisp, about 30 minutes. You can always turn on the broiler for a few if you aren't getting the top quite as golden as you would like.

Suddenly, everyone loves squash! :)

White Chicken Chili

I had this chili for the first time at the home of my parents' very good friends. Their son-in-law had been hard at work in the kitchen making dinner for everyone and boy did he do a great job! My mom begged for the recipe, and so this is Benji's chili by way of Kathy. There's a bit of cilantro, so that makes it just a little tiny bit Mexican. Maybe like 1/16th. And you can make it even MORE Mexican by serving with shredded cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. Anyway, it's the best kind of recipe because it tastes like it took you a long time and a lot of effort when in reality... :)

I didn't do a very good job writing down the directions for this recipe - on my piece of paper all they say is "cook onions and garlic, add other stuff," so I am going to try to expand upon that for my (possibly three?) faithful readers! :)

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI
Recipe from Benji Rutgers

Ingredients:

1/4 C butter
1 C diced onions
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
3C chicken stock
4 C cooked cubed chicken (you can use canned chicken for this, but don't try and serve it to Ryan!)
2T fresh chopped cilantro
2t dried basil
1T chili powder
2 15oz cans Great Northern white beans, do not drain liquid
2 roma tomatoes, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Saute onions and garlic in butter in large stock pot until cooked through. Add everything else except for the diced tomato. Heat through, simmer for awhile if you want to, cook it until it tastes good I guess! (this is what happens when you fail to write down most of a recipe and you cook mostly by feeling - sorry!). When you are ready to serve, ladle into bowls, adding about a tablespoon of diced tomatoes to each bowl. If desired, add shredded cheese and sour cream. Serve with tortilla chips.

Muy bien! :)

Hot Caramel Apple Cider

If you'd like to recreate the deliciousness of Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider in your very own home and on a large scale, this recipe is for you!! I got this from my friend Amber, who was not previously a fan of apple cider, and she's now won over for life.

HOT CARAMEL APPLE CIDER

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon apple cider (I prefer unpasteurized, but with this recipe it might not matter)
1/4 C caramel ice cream topping and extra for garnish
1/4 C brown sugar
Whipped cream (Redi-Wip is perfect...easy to squirt!)
Cinnamon for garnish
Cinnamon sticks for garnish
OPTIONAL: Crown Royal (wink wink)

Directions:

Bring first three ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. At this point, you can transfer it to a crock pot if desired. Ladle into mugs and garnish with whipped cream, cinnamon, caramel drizzle, and a cinnamon stick.

FALL DELICIOUSNESS!!!! :D

Green Beans Ah-mahn-DEEN

I hope that Lisa will still try these green beans even though they share a name with Amandine, the dreaded French exchange student at whose hands Lisa suffered for two entire summers. So although Amandine might not have been a delicious dish, these green beans are very easy and SUPER-tasty.

GREEN BEANS AMANDINE
from Allrecipes.com, submitted by Brenda DuFresne

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound fresh green beans, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 C water
1/4 C slivered almonds
2 T butter
1 t lemon juice
1/4 t seasoned salt

DIRECTIONS:

In a saucepan, bring beans and water to a boil; reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook for 10ish minutes until crisp-tender; drain and set aside. In a large skillet, cook almonds in butter over low heat. Stir in lemon juice and seasoned salt if desired. Add beans and heat through.

Kira's notes:

I let the almonds/butter mixture go for quite awhile until the butter was brown butter and the almonds were all toasty and a bit salty-tasting. DELIGHTFUL.

Laughably Easy Lasagna

I had hoped to post a recipe for Chicken Under a Brick to the blog this week, but unfortunately it seems that Rachael Ray and I have had ANOTHER difference of opinion on what constitutes a complete and informative recipe and so let's just say that Chicken Under a Brick did NOT turn out as well as I had hoped. It tasted good in the end, but it was the "during" that was the problem. In fact, it almost set off my smoke alarm. I maintain that Rachael Ray is a LIAR.

Anyway, I have a very lazy lasagna recipe that is basically foolproof and always comes out delicious no matter what. Which is, RACHAEL, the best kind of recipe. This is a slightly jazzed-up take on my mom's lasagna recipe - thanks Kathy!

KATHY and KIRA'S LAUGHABLY EASY LASAGNA

Ingredients:

1 package lasagna noodles
1lb ground beef or sweet Italian sausage (or mix)
1 jar Newman's Own Roasted Garlic pasta sauce (<--IMPORTANT)
8oz dry curd cottage cheese (or rinse off the regular stuff)
3 C shredded mozzarella cheese
1 C shredded cheddar cheese (or whatever kind you want)
1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese
Handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Directions:

Boil noodles. Brown ground beef or sausage; drain grease. Mix ground beef with the pasta sauce. Layer cooked noodles, sauce/meat, mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Put more cheese on the top layer than on the others, sprinkle Parmesan, and garnish with the handful of chopped parsley - evenly distributed. Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour; broil for 5-10 minutes until the cheese on top is bubbly, browned, and yum-o-licious. Cool for a few minutes and serve!

"Nick's" Pizza

There's a place near Indiana University's campus called Nick's...Nick's...something. Nick's Pub? Nick's Hut? Nick's Extremely Shady-Looking Eating Establishment? Not sure. It looks pretty dreadful from the outside. If you try and go to Nick's before an IU sporting event, such as a basketball game, you'd better get there early. It's easy to find Nick's, because you'll see a line forming outside - they only let as many people inside as the restaurant can seat. Which isn't fun during basketball season for those waiting in the freezing Indiana winter. Anyway, once you are waved in, you have to wander aimlessly through the rabbit warren of a VERY CROWDED restaurant trying to find any open table, and then if you happen to find a table, you probably also need to beg some chairs. So after all of that, you'd better hope that their food is good. Well, luckily, it is FANTASTIC. I got a burger, which was good, but after I saw Ryan and his dad's pizza, I regretted my decision. Ryan absolutely fell in love with the pizza. It's very fresh-tasting. So I decided that I was going to try and re-create Nick's pizza in our kitchen. Following is my approximation of what I did - tweak to your tastes!

Sadly I do not have a picture. And that's EXTRA-unfortunate because this pizza was drop-dead gorgeous. Our camera was missing in action, packed already for our vacation, and I didn't want to hunt it down because hey...I was hungry!

"NICK'S" PIZZA

Ingredients:

1 Boboli thin crust pizza shell
1/4 lb sweet italian bulk sausage
1 green Bell pepper, cut into thin 1-inch strips
1 C baby bella mushrooms, thinly sliced
4 green onions, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
Pizza sauce to taste (I lazily used Contadina's "Pizza Squeeze," it was actually good)
2ish C mozzarella, mozzarella and cheddar, whatever you want cheese
1/4 C fresh-grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450. Brown the sausage, drain. Put sausage in a bowl, and mix with garlic and onions. Set aside. In the skillet, sautee the green peppers and mushrooms for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Spread pizza sauce on Boboli crust. Arrange sausage mixture, green peppers, and mushrooms on crust. Place crust in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove crust from oven and drench with mozzarella/cheddar/whatever cheese. Top with the fresh-grated parmesan. Place back in the oven and turn on the broiler. Broil (on bottom rack, so your cheese doesn't burn) for 5-7 minutes or until it looks like it's done. Remove, cool, cut, and serve!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Chicken Cutlets with Mushroom Sauce

So this recipe represents a first for me...it's from a "light" cookbook! I usually hate anything that says it's healthy or reduced fat or whatever because sometimes those sorts of recipes just aren't very tasty at all. Because they don't require half a stick of butter, which makes EVERYTHING tasty. Of course, in the picture, you can see that I served this with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and Green Beans Amandine, neither of which could be classified as anything less than FAT. Anyway, read on for a SHOCKINGLY healthy recipe!!

CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH MUSHROOM SAUCE
from Light and Tasty

INGREDIENTS:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4oz each)
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper, divided
2 t butter (see, not very much!)
2 T chopped green onion
2 garlic cloves, minced (I used 3...hee hee)
2 C sliced fresh mushrooms (I used baby portabellos)
1/2 C chicken stock
1/2 t dried tarragon
2 t cornstarch
1/4 C red wine or additional chicken stock

DIRECTIONS:

Pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness. Sprinkle both sides with salt and half of the pepper. In a large nonstick skillet, cook chicken for 4-5 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the green onion and garlic; saute for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until softened, about 2 more minutes. Stir in the chicken stock, tarragon, and remaining pepper. Cook over medium heat until mushrooms are tender.

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and wine or additional chicken stock until smooth. Stir into the mushroom mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Spoon mushroom sauce over chicken breasts and serve.

Serves 4.


Since this is a HEALTHY recipe, here is some nutrition info:
One serving = 169 calories, 3g fat.

Buca's Marinara Sauce

I decided to go ahead and post another recipe for Lisa because, well, first of all, Lisa is the only person who reads this blog. And I appreciate her for that! But also, she already has the Breakfast Stars recipe since I emailed it to her last week. She might not have this one yet though!

This is from my foodie coworker, Amber, and it is supposedly THE very recipe that Buca di Beppo's uses for their delightful marinara sauce. One thing you can count on with a Buca-inspired recipe...LOTS of garlic! This makes A TON of sauce, so don't whip this up for a spaghetti dinner for two. Well, I guess you could, if you were planning on eating spaghetti dinners for two for the entire rest of the week as well. I haven't tried freezing this but I'm sure it would do just fine.

BUCA'S MARINARA SAUCE

Ingredients:

1/4 C olive oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
6 cloves (delightful!) garlic, chopped
2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
salt to taste
3 T fresh chopped basil

Directions:

Heat olive oil over medium heat inside LARGE saucepan...or even a smallish stockpot (if you need to know how large of a saucepan you will need, pay close attention to the 52oz of crushed tomatoes that you will be adding!!!!!). Saute the garlic and onion in olive oil for 8-10 minutes. Add tomatoes and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add fresh basil before serving.

Note: If you like sweeter sauce (and Amber does, Kira does not) you can add 1-2 teaspoons of white sugar.

Breakfast Stars

Okay, so it's been awhile since I posted anything on this blog. Lisae, my apologies. I am going to start posting recipes again, though, because I have finally learned how to balance my life (meaning work and Zumba...that's not really too much of a life now that I think about it) and so I am sort of cooking again!

I made these last week for a breakfast meeting that Ryan had at our house with some work colleagues. I also brought some in for my group. These are great to make for any breakfast get-together and they always impress because they are (1) tasty and (2) ADORABLE. I didn't think to take a picture of them when I made them last, but hey...with a name like Breakfast Stars, how could they NOT be cute?

BREAKFAST STARS

Ingredients:

1 package won ton wrappers
1 lb sweet Italian or regular sausage
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
3 green onions, sliced up really really small
2 C colby cheese, shredded
1/2 C ranch (or lite ranch, I guess) dressing

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray. Arrange won ton wrappers in mini muffin tins, folding them so that they look sort of like stars but still have room to scoop filling in the center. Bake for 5ish minutes until they are slightly browned and beginning to get crispy.

While the won ton wrappers are baking, cook sausage until no longer pink and drain. Mix sausage with the rest of the ingredients. Scoop filling into won ton wrappers - I used a teaspoon - and bake for 6-7 minutes until mixture inside is bubbly.

Serve as quickly as possible! These are good cold even hours later, but let's just say that they are much better when the won ton wrappers are still crispy. Mmmmmm....

Note: If you are lazy (like me) you can always make the sausage/veggie/cheese/ranch/fatty goodness mixture the night before and refrigerate!

Soft Gingersnaps

It's almost Christmas, so I decided to get into the cookie-baking mood!! And I'm not talking place and bakes here. That's what I do the other 11 months of the year. No...this time of year, I want my soft chewy gingersnaps! All the ginger, none of the snap. Perfect!

A guy I dated my freshman year in college was pretty unspectacular in every way EXCEPT his mother made THE BEST soft gingersnap cookies I have ever tasted. And although she didn't really like me that much, because she had a really creepy Electra complex and was secretly in love with her son (at least that's what I told myself), she made them for me a few times and I will never forget how delicious they were.

Sadly, this is NOT her recipe. I'm sure she keeps it under lock and key and her gingersnap recipe, although amazingly fantastic, certainly wasn't worth marrying her son. So, I'm making do this Christmas with the following recipe...don't worry, though, they are still pretty good...Ryan has already eaten about 5!

SOFT GINGERSNAPS
From Shawn Barto, www.allrecipes.com
Yield: 66 cookies (more or less)

1 1/2 cups butter (no substitutes), softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 t baking soda
2 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
1/2 t ground nutmeg
Additional sugar

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

Roll into 1-in balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes * or until puffy and lightly browned. Cool on baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to wire cooling racks.

YUM!

* When I am making 2 sheets of these, I leave the top sheet in for 8 minutes and then let the cookies stay on the sheet for 1 extra minute after I take them out. The bottom sheet stays in for 9 minutes but I still give those the extra minute on the sheet after they are out. After the extra minute, I remove them from the sheet and place them on cooling racks. My oven runs hot, but I would think that if you leave these in the oven any longer than 9 minutes you are going to start getting crunchy cookies...if that's what you like, great...but since this is a recipe for SOFT gingersnaps, it's probably not what you're looking for! :)

Blueberry Delight

I haven't been posting anything lately because we've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to cook anything new or cool. I have relied heavily on frozen vegetables and Chicken Kiev...not post-worthy. But, luckily for my struggling blog, I did try a new pie for my mother-in-law this Thanksgiving! I also made chicken and noodles for the first time, so I will post about that one later.

A few weeks ago, Janie told me about a pie that she used to love when she was a little girl that had cream cheese, sour cream, and blueberry pie filling on a graham cracker crust. She said that she used to request it on her birthday and other special days and it was just SO good. I thought it sounded gross, because I have an issue with cream cheese, but I went home and looked up a recipe based on those ingredients figuring that even if I thought about half of the ingredients were disgusting that I could still make it for her. What I found was a recipe for "Cherry Cheese Pie." You can use either cherries or blueberries with it, and Janie said that the pie I took to Thanksgiving reminded her also of Cherry Delight, so I've renamed the recipe. I'm sure you can see why - Cherry Cheese Pie sounds disgusting :) She really liked it, and said that although she hadn't eaten it in years and years, she thinks it was exactly what her mom used to make. So that was worth my squickiness about the ingredients. Anyway, here it is.

BLUEBERRY DELIGHT

2 8oz packages cream cheese (softened)
1/2 C sugar, plus 2 T for later
2 eggs
1/4 t almond extract
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 21 oz can blueberry (or cherry) pie filling
1 8-inch graham cracker pie crust

Preheat oven to 325. Combine cream cheese, 1/2 C sugar, eggs, and almond extract in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium/high speed until smooth and fluffy.

Pour mixture into pie crust.* Bake at 325 for 35 minutes or until set.**

Mix sour cream, 2 T sugar, and vanilla in a small bowl. Spread over pie. Bake for 5 more minutes at 325.

Cool pie to room temperature, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Spoon pie filling over individual pieces prior to serving.

* It looks like you're going to overflow the pie crust, but this is okay. You won't. When I tried this recipe , I still wasn't entirely clear on when the fruit was added, and as a result was freaked out that it wasn't going to work and I would have to start over, etc...luckily, everything turned out okay.

** I had to bake it for about 40 minutes to set, and my oven runs hot. I checked to see if it was 'set' by seeing if it still jiggled in the middle when I wiggled the pie pan. Jiggly in the middle is bad.