Monday, December 18, 2006

roasted potato bites

12 potatoes (unpeeled)
1 Tbsp olive or vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 oz. chive and onion cream cheese spread
3 Tbsp. sour cream
other toppings such as cheese, bacon bits, chives....

Preheat oven to 425. cut potatoes in half crosswise. cut a thin slice off bottom of each. carefully scoop out a small amount of pulp from each potato half using a cook corer (a pampered chef gimmic, but you can use a melon baller or a spoon I guess) In a bowl with some kind of lid or a gallon zip lock if you don't have that, combine the garlic, salt and pepper. Add potato halves and toss to coat.

Place potato halves, hollowed side down, on a baking stone. bake 30-32 minutes or until deep golden brown and tender. remove from oven and cool slightly.

Combine cream cheese and sour cream by mixing in another bowl. If you have a cake decorator set or something fancy like that you can pipe the cream cheese mixture into the hollowed out part and it looks really fancy. If you don't have those, you could drop the mixture into the holes with a little scoop of some sort or a melon baller or I guess just a spoon. or maybe an ice cream dipper...? Sprinkle with toppings, if desired. place on serving platter. serve slightly warm.

this is really tasty!! I got this recipe out of a pampered chef book, so they try to sell you all their tools through the recipe. I hope you can make it without them! this would be a good side dish or something good to take to a party.

december menu

this is a little late coming out but i thought you might still want to see what we've been eating this month.

dec 18 : baked parmesian chicken
dec 19: braised herb chicken with potatoes (i haven't ever made this i'll let you know if it's good)
dec 20: left over Baked Blue chicken (recipe below) 10/10!!!
dec 21: maybe more blue chicken if there's enough, maybe frozen pizza :)
dec 22: left over Baked parmesian chicken
dec 23: family burrito
dec 24: fly to AR
return home dec 29: chili
dec 30: Hamburgers (hopefully on our grill we are bringing home!)
dec 31- hopefully some new year's party
jan1 : bacon-pineapple pizza
jan 2: artichoke chicken (i think i've posted this recipe before)
jan 3: frozen herbed chicken with potatoes
jan 4: small group
jan 5: left over artichoke chicken
jan6: chinese dumplings
jan 7: spanish noodles


a few recipes worth making:

California Sherry Chicken

4 chicken breasts
1/4 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup cooking sherry
1/2 c chicken broth
1 garlic clove pressed
1/2 lemon
4 carrots
4 zucchini squashes, julienned

1. place chicken in resealable plastic bag with flour, salt and pepper. seal bag and shake to coat. remove chicken from bag shaking excess flour
2. heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. brown chicken on both sides until golden. remove and set aside.
3. in same skillet combine sherry, broth, garlic and a squeeze of lemon and bring to aboil. return chicken to skillet, reduce heat to low and simmer until chicken cooked through.
4. saute carrots and zucchini in separate skillet until ttender. add to simmering chicken and sauce and heat through before serving.

**one of our favorites!

Baked Parmesian chicken-10/10!!

2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove minced
1 c dry bread crumbs
2/3 c grated parm cheese
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1/4 tsp pepper
6 chicken breasts

1. preheat oven to 350. l ightly grease 9x13 baking dish
2. in bowl blend olive oil and garlic, in separate bowl mix bread crumbs, parm cheese, basil and pepper. dip each brerast in oil mixture then the bread crumb mixture. arrange coated breasts in prepared baking dish, and top with any remaining bread crumb mixture.
3. bake 30 minutes until chicken done



Baked Blue Chicken- yummmy!!

1/2 lb blue cheese crumbled
1 pint sour cream
4 chicken breasts
1 c bread crumbs
4 pressed garlic cloves
1 beaten egg
1/2 c flour
2 tbsp butter'
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste


1. preheat oven to 350. combing flour and bread crumbs.
2. salt pollo lightly, dip into beaten egg and then dip into flour/crumb mixture. place butter and oil in skillet and brown chicken.
3. place browned meat in baking dish
4. mix blue cheese, sour cream and garlic
5. pour over pollo
6. cover and bake 30-40 minutes until chicken done

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Carmel Popcorn

Caramel popcorn

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 Stick (4 oz.) margarine or butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 to 4 quarts of POPPED corn
PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients except soda and popped corn in a 1½ to 2 quart microwave safe bowl. Put in microwave (HIGH) and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from microwave and stir in soda.

Put the popped corn in a brown grocery bag and pour the syrup over the corn. Close the bag by rolling it down a couple times and SHAKE HARD. Cook in the bag on HIGH microwave for 1½ minutes. Remove and shake vigorously and cook in the microwave another 1½ minutes. Shake when you remove it from the microwave and pour it on a large cookie sheet to cool. Store in an airtight container when cool.

this original recipe had you micro it for another 1 1/2 minutes, but some of it got burned. So, I deleted that part from the recipe. It is very tasty!!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Forget-It cookies

this recipe doubles very nicely- i would recommend doubling or tripling for a cookie exchange.but try the recipe first and get it dialed so you don't waste egg whites by making them fall.



2 egg whites
2/3 c sugar
6 drops mint extract
green food coloring
chocolate chips

heat oven to 375. beat egg whites until very fluffed (orh!)-about 5-10 minutes or more. SLOWLY add sugar. one year i just dumped in the sugar and the egg whites totally fall apart. the sugar should be added over a 7-10 minute period of egg white whipping. beat till peaks form. slowly add the drops of mint extract. i can never get drops to comeout of that little bottle though. i just end up adding some mint- slowly if i can. lastly, add green food coloring until you like the color. if you need to, do extra beating. the egg whites need to form stiff peaks so the cookies will hold their shape. i beat my egg whites probably 15-20 minutes this time to get them nice and firm. lastly, add the chocolate chips by hand. drop blobs of batter onto greased cookie sheet. put into the oven and turn the oven off. leave over night- they must be completely cool before trying to remove from the sheet.