If you love to cook, you've come to the right place! Every recipe you'll find here has been made by one of us in our home kitchen. Each one is good enough to share with our friends.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Rosemary Oven-Fried Chicken

I saw this recipe last week on a blog I follow (she posts her blog updates to facebook to make it easy for me!).  I ended up using a bit more buttermilk as it didn't seem like enough in my pie plate (that's a great tip from Sally), and used regular panko, not whole-wheat.  I cut back on the ground red pepper, but the boyfriend still said he felt like his lips were burning, but he had seconds anyway!  I also used Sally's tip about using a mini food processor to chop the cashews and rosemary together.  My only problem was I had no idea how to measure the rosemary before the chopping.  So I'm pretty sure I used more than called for, but since we like rosemary, I wasn't concerned.






INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup nonfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 (4-ounce) chicken cutlets
1/3 cup whole-wheat panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/3 cup finely chopped dry-roasted cashews
3/4 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
Cooking spray
4 teaspoons honey
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Combine buttermilk and mustard in a shallow dish, stirring with a whisk. Add chicken to buttermilk mixture, turning to coat.
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add panko to pan; cook 3 minutes or until golden, stirring frequently. Combine panko, cashews, and next 4 ingredients (through ground red pepper) in a shallow dish. Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture; dredge in panko mixture.
Arrange chicken on a wire rack coated with cooking spray in a foil-lined jelly-roll pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until chicken is done. Drizzle each cutlet with 1 teaspoon honey.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Rhubarb Cake

Back in the fall a friend was telling me about a cake she'd had from a mutual friend of ours, Sue, but that she'd misplaced the recipe. So I contacted Sue and got the recipe for both of us. I've been anxiously awaiting rhubarb season so I could make it. Yesterday was the day! I mixed the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar and then cut in the butter (I usually have butter on hand instead of shortening). I beat the egg in the measuring cup with the milk, then mixed that in, and finished by stirring in the rhubarb. Batter will be stiff - use a wooden spoon. I used two tablespoons of butter for dotting the top. I tested for doneness with a toothpick.


1 c. sugar
½ c. shortening
1 egg
½ c. milk
½ t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 ½ c. flour
2 c. rhubarb(cut into 1 inch pieces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into 9” x 13” pan. 
Top with:
½ c. brown sugar
Dot with butter

Bake for 30 plus minutes until top is golden brown.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Chicken and Egg Noodle Casserole

The other day, we didn't feel like going to the store and didn't particularly have anything on hand for dinner, so the boyfriend looked in the cupboard, spotted the egg noodles and cream of chicken soup I had picked up for tuna noodle casserole, as well as some canned chicken.  He got on the internet and found this recipe.  Fortunately, we had nearly everything for it, including the sour cream because of my recent obsession with making my own buttermilk ranch salad dressing.  The only thing we didn't have was butter crackers, so we used a 1/2 cup of Italian bread crumbs instead.  We were pleased with how it turned out and the boyfriend suggested we try it again yesterday with the crackers (the picture is with the cracker version).  We found that the bread crumbs gave more coverage to the dish - the butter drenched crackers were great tasting, but the bites of them were further in between - unless I need to be better about crumbling them finer.


Ingredients
6 cups uncooked egg noodles (about 12 ounces)
2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
3/4 cup 2% milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts
1 cup crushed butter-flavored crackers (about 20 crackers)
1/4 cup butter, melted
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cook noodles according to package directions for al dente; drain.
2. In a large bowl, whisk soup, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper until blended. Stir in chicken and noodles. Transfer to a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. In a small bowl, mix crushed crackers and butter; sprinkle over top. Bake 30-35 minutes or until bubbly. Yield: 8 servings.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Reese's Peanut Butter Poke Cake

I found this recipe on Pinterest and Chris made it for me for Valentine's Day.  I requested it for my 40th birthday cake next week!  It. Is. Fabulous.

It was originally posted on Six Sisters' Stuff.

Next time I hope to get a picture!  We ate it too fast to snap one!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Poke Cake

1 chocolate cake mix ( I used Betty Crocker ) 
3 eggs ( Use the amount called for on your cake mix box )
1 1/3 cups water ( Use the amount called for on the cake mix box )
1/2 cup vegetable oil ( Use the amount called for on the cake mix box )
8 ounces cream cheese ( softened )
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 cup peanut butter ( creamy or crunchy )
12 ounces cool whip ( divided )
11 3/4 ounces hot fudge ( divided )
8 REESE'S Peanut Butter Cups ( broken into pieces )

Directions

Prepare and bake your chocolate cake following instructions on the cake mix box. When the cake is done cooking, take it out of the oven and poke the cake all over with a fork.

Microwave your hot fudge and pour ¾ of the jar on top of the cake so it will soak in.

Combine cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl or stand mixer and beat until smooth. Add peanut butter and continue mixing until thoroughly incorporated. Add half of the cool whip and continue mixing it until smooth.

Spread peanut butter mixture evenly over cooled cake. Cover and refrigerate until cool.

Spread remaining cool whip over peanut butter mixture. Drizzle rest of hot fudge over top. Then sprinkle the crumbled Reese's peanut butter cups over top. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Pasta with Sweet Peas and Bacon Bread Crumbs


Chris saw this recipe on the cover of a recent issue of Relish magazine, which comes in our newspaper once a month.  He wanted to try it AND make it himself!  So far we've had it twice.  The flavors are bright and fresh.  We will be making this many more times in the future!

Pasta with Sweet Peas and Bacon Bread Crumbs

3 slices bacon
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2/3 cup panko or dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
8 oz uncooked spaghetti or penne
1 1/4 cups frozen green peas
2 oz baby spinach (about 2 cups)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook bacon in a heavy skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and reserve 2 Tbsp drippings in pan.  Add butter and garlic to drippings; stir until fragrant.  Add panko and cook stirring constantly until golden, about 2 minutes.  Let cool.  Crumble bacon into panko mixture.  Add 2 Tbsp cheese.

2.  Cook pasta according to package directions. Add peas in final two minutes of cooking.  Drain, reserving 2/3 cup cooking water.  Return pasta and peas to pan.  Stir in 1/2 cup reserved water, spinach, remaining cheese, salt and pepper.  Stir 1/4 cup panko mixture into pasta.  If mixture looks dry, add remaining reserved water.  Divide among serving bowls; top with remaining panko mixture.

Serves 4

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

I had been thinking I should try my hand at making my own salad dressings (blame too many food and nutrition blogs and becoming aware of how much sugar goes into some dressings) so I looked on pinterest and found a few different pins for different dressings.  I thought I would start with Buttermilk ranch as that's been my favorite bottled dressing lately (I also adore Thousand Island - that's in the future).  I finally picked this recipe which calls for fresh herbs, but says you can use dried (awesome!  I don't have an herb garden).  The first time I made it, I hadn't remembered that we did not in fact have dried chives, so I tried dried minced onion - it was okay, but too onion-y.  I also take the easy way out and use jarred minced garlic.  The following is the recipe quartered, with the dried herb amounts - that way it stays nice and fresh in my fridge.

1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons sour cream
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp freeze dried chives
1/4 tsp dried dill weed
dash salt (1/16 tsp)
pinch black pepper (1/8 tsp)
1/4 tsp jarred garlic
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup buttermilk (I use about a 1/4 cup, sometimes upwards of 3/8 cup depending on how well I measured my mayo and sour cream)  - start with the 1/8 cup and thin gradually until you get the right consistency for you and if you're using it for salad or for a dip

Whisk together until smooth.  (The original recipe says that it will last three days covered and refrigerated).