7.27.2011

Cajun Chicken Alfredo w/ spinach






Hungry yet? Thought so. 


Ingredients:
- Chicken breast
- Fettucini noodles
- Spinach
Alfredo:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Cajun Chicken Seasoning:
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt

Mix the cajun seasoning together, and coat raw chicken breast. Let sit. Meanwhile, cook the fettucini noodles; when done, drain and rinse with hot water. Grill the chicken on a barbecue or in a cast iron pan, and set aside.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cream and milk and stir. Add parmesan cheese and whisk until parmesan cheese is incorporated and not grainy. Simmer over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, or until desired thickness.
I love spinach, and I like it a bit crunchy, so instead of sauteing or cooking it, I simply poured the hot alfredo sauce over a large helping of raw spinach. Mix together with tongs until the heat from the sauce has wilted all the leafy goodness. Toss with noodles. If the noodles are cold, run them under very hot water from the tap to warm them up before serving. Slice the chicken breast, place it on top or mix it in, and enjoy! 

7.25.2011

Bruschetta



Best snack ever. 

Ingredients:
- 2 medium sized tomatoes
- 1/2 red onion
- 3/4 of a can of olives, chopped
- A couple dashes of Italian seasoning

Chop everything up to your desired consistency and mix together. 

Eat with:
- Sliced baguette 
- Olive oil
- Crushed/Chopped garlic
- Fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
- Pepper

Preheat oven to a high broil. Combine olive oil and garlic, and brush on top of each piece of bread. Top with parmesan cheese, and sprinkle with some freshly ground pepper. Place on a baking sheet, and bake till slightly brown and crispy. Keep an eye on them, because they cook fast! No oven fires please. 

7.23.2011

Jellied Wine

To make up for my gross neglect of this blog, here is a special weekend post brought you by a summer day from not-heaven and inspired by a recipe sent to me by a friend. It's a great summer treat, and could be a classy dessert for a summery dinner party or whatnot (I personally think it's really just a way to justify eating jello as an adult =)).

Ingredients:
- 1 package gelatin
- 2 1/4 cups wine (fruity or sparkling works well, but I personally like more of a dry wine)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Chopped fruit

Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup wine and let sit. Combine sugar and 1/2 cup wine in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer and stir till sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the softened gelatin till dissolved. Add the remaining wine (1 1/2 cup) and lemon juice. 
Pour into an edged pan, bowl, compote dish, or pie pan and chill until set. Wine tends to take longer than normal fruit juices, so chill for at least 6 hours or overnight. 

When ready to serve, slice into small cubes and serve in bowls or wide rimmed glasses interspersed with chopped fruit. I used cherries today because they are in season and on sale and SO GOOD. I also used a really dry white wine, plus 1/2 cup of red wine because I ran out of the white. Play around with whatever you like; you can't really go wrong here! 

Enjoy!






In other news, I ate a pound of cherries today. Not even kidding.

7.15.2011

Chili Garlic Almonds

Best snack ever. You can find the main recipe HERE, and the seasoning I used today was 2 teaspoons chili powder, 1 tablespoon garlic salt, and lots of squirts of lime juice. Enjoy!



7.13.2011

Pine Nut Parmesan Chicken

This is another recipe inspired by items in my kitchen drawer. I know pine nuts are expensive, but I had some left over that needed to be used, and they added so much nutty goodness to this. I'm sure that other kinds of soft nuts would be delightful as well. 

I took one chicken breast and smothered it with chopped garlic, very finely chopped pine nuts, and freshly shredded parmesan cheese. I placed it in a buttered small baking pan, put about two teaspoons of butter on top of the chicken, ground some black pepper and salt over it, and squeezed some lime juice over the top. Bake for about half an hour at 350*.  




7.07.2011

Stir fry


Thanks to a decently large chicken breast that I grilled the other day (see previous post), I had some leftovers. I also had bean sprouts, fresh basil, peanuts, a jalepeno, and rice.

Put some sesame oil in a frying pan (I'd use a wok if I had one...). When hot, add the sliced up leftover cooked chicken breast. Cook till warmed through again. Add the bean sprouts, chopped jalepeno to taste, and chopped basil leaves. Add a couple dashes of rice vinegar and fish sauce; reduce to medium low heat and cover. Add about a 1/4 cup water. Mix about 2 teaspoons of corn starch with about 1/2 cup of water, and add when everything is pretty much all cooked together. Add the peanuts, and serve over hot rice. Mix it up with anything you may have in your fridge!

7.05.2011

Biscuits and Fruit


 




I decided to make biscuits for dinner, and finally got some pictures of them! The recipe can be found HERE.

And today I decided to be fruity. I grabbed some:

- Frozen blueberries
- Frozen strawberries
- Lemon zest (gives an amazing lemony taste without a ton of extra tartness)
- A drizzle of honey
- A teeny bit of water


It's Patriotic!


Put it all in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium-low heat until thawed; use a fork to smash everything together. I also used kitchen scissors to cut up the stringy strawberry flesh. 





Drizzle as you feel led. 




Scrumptialicious! You can also add whip cream if you can afford the calories. 

7.01.2011

Garlic Stuffed Grilled Chicken


I just have to say.... I love grilling. There's just something magical about it. And the great thing is, it's simple; at least I think it should be. 
Above we have a nice chicken breast which has been coated in course salt and pepper and parmesan cheese. Now, the amazing thing about this, however, is that there are surprises inside. 

Garlic. (Make a small incision in the thick parts of the chicken. Insert a smashed clove of garlic.)

(Repeat.)


(And repeat.)


(And repeat.)


That, my friends, is grilled garlic inside a piece of grilled chicken. Not sure you can do much better than that.


Oh, yup, that's garlic too. 

This is one of my favorite things to grill; what are yours? 

=)

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