Grilled Chipotle Chicken with Corn Fritters!

Made this dinner tonight and it was a success! My roommate likes it best with bites of chicken and corn fritters mixed together!! 

First up the chicken: 

A night before mix together the following (leave in a ziplock in the fridge overnight): 

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts 

1 tablespoon EVOO

1 chipotle chile (chopped)

1 tablespoon chipotle adobo sauce 

Juice of 1 lime 

1 garlic clove chopped

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon each salt & pepper

On the day you want to serve this dish, just grill the chicken (on the grill or inside on a pan) for 5-7 minutes each side. 

Now onto the star of this dish... Corn Fritters: 

You'll Need: 

2 ears of corn, cooked and cut off the cob (fresh corn is the best) 

2 eggs 

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro 

3/4 cup flour

Vegetable oil, for frying

Mix all the above together in a bowl, add a pinch of salt and pepper. Add a layer of vegetable oil to a small skillet or pan. Once it is hot drop in 1 tablespoon or so of the corn fritter. Cook 3 minutes on each side and flatter with a spatula. Make sure to serve them right away! 

Stuffed Mushroom Side

I usually only eat stuffed mushrooms on thanksgiving made by my mom. But I figured I would give them a try as a side to chicken, and they were awesome! I made this recipe up totally myself, so not much measuring was involved, but I think that's the best way to cook. 

Also an observation we made at dinner tonight is for the week we go through a entire head of garlic, thank god there on 50 cents! I guess that's what you get when you marry an Italian girl! 

What You'll Need: 

3/4 pound ground pork

1 egg 

1 big handful cup Italian breadcrumbs

1 big handful parmesan cheese

3 gloves of garlic (crushed) 

1 teaspoon parsley 

6 medium sided portobello mushrooms 

EVOO

What to do: 

1. Cook the pork on the stove until completely cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Then let the pork cool 

2. Mix together, cooked & cooled pork, egg, breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic, parsley. Mix together (works best with your hands.. chefs best tool).

3. Wipe down each mushroom with a damp paper towel then remove the steam. Stuff each mushroom with the pork breadcrumb mixture, make sure to really pack it down. 

3. Place the stuffed mushrooms on a baking sheet, drizzle each one with EVOO and place in the over on 350 for 20 minutes. 

They come out golden and  delicious! 

Churro Cupcakes

When I get out of work at a normal time I usually have time to make dinner and blog but when I get out of work early you get dessert too. I've been really wanting to try fall type cupcakes so I was looking up recipes today and stumbled on Churro Cupcakes from the food network. 

Basically they came out awesome and I want it to be Cinco De Mayo.. today! 

The original recipe max 28 cupcakes so I cut the recipe in half here's what you'll need: 

Cupcakes: 

• 2 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 3/4 cup of milk

For Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1/2 stick softened butter
• 1/2 brick softened cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups confectioner sugar
• 1 teaspoon of milk

What to do: 

First Make the cupcakes. 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar.
3. Add eggs, one at a time. 
4. Beat in vanilla.
5. Add flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and pour in milk. 
6. I like to use an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake tins. 
7. Bake 20 minutes on 350

 

For Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:

1.  In a mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese. Mix in vanilla and cinnamon; add confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time until all is incorporated.
2. Add a small amount of milk when the icing is too thick. 

I like to use a plastic bag to create a piping bag 

Chipotle BLTS

My roommate is always complaining that he wants to eat more fish -> total sarcasm here, I've never met anyone who could eat lobster from a steak house, roots, smith and wollensky, whatever and say "That was ok." 

In order for my husband to get his seafood fix, tonight I made Chipotle Shrimp BLTs with  parmesan zucchini rounds. 

What You'll Need (4 sandwiches): 

• 1/2 pound large shrimp
• 1 lime
• 8 slices of bacon (cooked) 
• 1 tomato sliced
• 4 largest pieces lettuce 
• Chipotle Mayo (mix 1/2 cup of mayo with 1 tablespoon chipotle in adobo sauce)
• 8 slices of bread

What to do: 

Season shrimp with salt, pepper and lime juice and place in a skillet over medium heat with some oil and cook, 2-3 minutes per side. Once the shrimp are cooked, toast the bread and create an assembly line: 

Bread, little bit of chipotle mayo, slice of tomato and lettuce, 2 pieces of bacon, 4 shrimp, more mayo and top with other slice of bread. 

Pork Pot Stickers

Happy Sunday everyone.. 

Today we made homemade pork pot stickers and garlic honey slow cooked chicken! Asian Sunday if you will. The thing I learned while making pot stickers is that they are so simple to make and you can really fill them with anything, buffalo pot stickers to come?! 

The trickiest part of this meal is finding the won ton wrapper in the grocery store ha! I ended up asking the people behind the asian station in shop rite and they pulled out a bag of like 200 wrappers from the fridge for $5 dollars so look out for more pot-sticker recipes to come! 

Pork Pot Stickers

Slow cooked honey garlic chicken over rice

What You'll Need (to make 18 delicious pot stickers): 

• 1/2 pound ground pork 
• 1/4 cup of shredded carrtors
• 3/4 cup shiitake mushrooms (diced) 
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon hoisin
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 18 won ton wrappers (or more)
• vegetable oil
• Soy Sauce, for serving. 

What To Do: 

In a large bowl, combine pork, carrot, mushrooms, garlic, hoisin, and sesame oil. 

Place won ton wrappers on a flat surface, spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of pork into each wrapper. 

To close the wrapper you'll need to rub the edgers of with water and seal shut. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add vegetable oil -- fry the pot stickers one side at a time (2-3) minutes. then I finished them in the oven, 350 for 10 minutes to ensure they were cooked all the way through. 

Pretzel Crusted Pork

This meal is insanely simple to make but so good... My husband, better know as my roommate and sous chef describe it as "crunchy, flavorful and really good." 

Pretzel crusted pork with parmesan kale

Okay, let start with the parmesan kale so simple. Buy a big thing of fresh kale and break it into pieces, fill a baking sheet with it and drizzle with evoo, salt and pepper and parmesan cheese. Bake in the over for 15-20 minutes on 325. SO simple! 

What you'll need for the pork

• 5 thin pork cutlets 
• 2 cups of pretzel (crushed up.. the secret here is to use a blender or food processor and really grind it up)
• handful of breadcrumbs 
• 1 egg

What to do: 

Season pork with salt and pepper. Lightly beat the egg in a bowl and add a splash of milk. Mix together crushed pretzels and bread crumbs. 

Work in an assembly line and coat each cutlet in egg then pretzel mixture. 

Once complete in a big pan add EVOO and turn on medium heat and cook the pork 7-8 minutes of each side, until its golden brown! Serve up with your kale.

Grown Up.. Roll Ups..

Some of my favorite meals I like to food are from Rachael Ray's look & cook book. First I like all the pictures (that's the only reason people buy cook books anyways), Second her meals are relatively easy for week nights. 

I made a meal from that book tonight with my own twist, chicken roll ups, and it only took about 30 minutes or so. 

What you'll need: 

• Chicken cutlets (thin store bought or pound out) 
• 1/2 cup Bread Crumbs
• 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese 
• tooth picks
• 1 small can fire roasted tomatoes
• EVOO
• 2 gloves of garlic
• 1 box bow tie pasta

What To do: 

Season the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper (both sides). In a small bowl mix together bread crumbs and cheese, place a small amount of the mixture in the middle of the chicken and roll the chicken (once roll secure with a toothpick). 

Continue with all the chicken, at the same time boil water to cook the pasta. Once all your chicken are assembled, place a small amount of oil in a pan and add the chicken, brown on both sides. Once the chicken is cooked remove from the pan. Add crushed garlic and fire roasted tomatoes to make a quick sauce, season with salt and pepper and add the chicken back into the sauce, let simmer for a 5-10 minutes. Put pasta on the bottom of each plate and layer chicken and sauce. 

Hope you enjoy!! 

Cookie Dough Truffles

I am always looking for fun desserts to try. 
So tonight it was cookie dough truffles. 

Chocolate Truffle Heaven 

What You'll Need (for about 2 dozen) 

1/4 cup softened butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1 pound chocolate candy coating or chocolate chips (melted) 

What To do: 

To make this little piece of heaven you'll need to first beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer (until creamy). Add vanilla, beat in flour and milk. Stir in chocolate chips.

Shape in 1-inch balls (they don't have to be perfect in size at all). Make sure to roll your fingers into flour to avoid a sticky mess. Place them on foil or wax paper and put in the fridge for 2 hours. 

Melt chocolate coating and dip each cookie ball into the coating. Store in the refrigerator (at least an hour). At the end these might not look perfect but they are pretty good! 

Someone already ate some :)

French Onion Soup

This past week has been crazy insanely busy at work, so cooking was at minimum in our house. So tonight to make up for my lack of cooking all week I made steakhouse french onion soup. 

What you'll need to make 4 bowls of soup: 

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons butter4 medium onions, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoons fresh thyme
4 cups beef stock
4 thick slices crusty bread, toasted
1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese

What To Do: 

Heat  a deep pot over medium to medium high heat. Add oil and butter to the pot. Add thinly sliced onions to the pot . When all the onions are in the pot, season with salt and pepper and fresh thyme. Cook onions for about 20 minutes, until tender and caramel colored. 

Add beef stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Arrange 4 small soup bowls on a cookie sheet and preheat the broiler. Ladle the soup in the small bowls. Top each one with bread and cheese. 

Place the tray under the broiler until the cheese is golden brown then enjoy!! 

Final product 

Turkey Meatloaf Burgers

Today was the first rainy fall day. So the perfect dinner was Turkey Meatloaf Burgers & French Onion Soup for dinner. A one point Chris was combining the two (dunking the burgers into the soup) so I'd say it was a success. 

What you'll need

1 pound of ground turkey meat 

1 large egg 

salt and pepper

1/3 cup breadcrumbs 

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley 

2 tablespoons poultry seasoning. 

Thinly sliced american cheese

4 large English muffins (split and toasted) 

What to do: 

• Mix in the turkey, egg, breadcrumb, parsley and poultry seasoning; season with salt and pepper. Form into four 4-inch patties (picture above)

• Heat a skillet and add a liberal drizzle of EVOO. Warm over medium-high heat, add the patties and cook, turning once, until cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Top with the cheddar or American during the last minute

• Serve the patties on the English muffins.

Turkey Meatloaf Burgers

Slider Sunday

For the first weekend of football week one, we did "Slider Sunday." Full of guacamole, chips, sliders, cupcakes, mimosas and the best friends :) I am sure this blog is going to be filled with many Sunday posts in its future. 

(Falcons, Jets and Steelers cupcakes) 

These was an assortment of sliders on the menu today

• Pulled Buffalo Chicken sliders (left) 
• Meatball sliders with fresh mozzarella sliders (middle)
• Beef BBQ with Cheddar cheese and fried onions sliders (right)

Though a fan favorite poll the fav for the day was: Beef BBQ with Cheddar cheese and fired onions. 

What You'll Need: 

• 12 Slider rolls 
• 1 Lb of ground beef
• BBQ sauce 
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce 
• 1/2 Cheddar Cheese
• Salt and Pepper 
• 1 Red onion
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup flour 

What To Do: 

For Crispy Onion Straws: Slice the red onion into thin rounds (as thin as you can get them). Separate all the little rings and lay them into a shallow baking dish and cover with buttermilk (let them sit for 20-30 minutes). Mix together Flour, salt and pepper. Heat oil in a deep skillet (about an inch), toss the onions into the flour mixture shake off excess and then place into the hot oil. About 2-3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Remove from the oil and place onto a plate with a paper towel and set aside. 

To make the burgers: Combine ground beef, tablespoon of BBQ, Worcestershire sauce, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil. Form into small slider sides burgers. Cook them in a pan (2-3 minutes per side) and then you can keep them in the oven to stay warm. 

To create the sliders: Toast the buns under a broiler, then place one cooked patty on the buns, add BBQ sauce and place fried onions on top. 

Hope everyone have a happy funday sunday... with many more to come! 

Wok it Out...

Sometimes you just need to wok it out.. so that is what we did on Sunday! As a warning you will need patients when cleaning the pan !! 

 What you'll need: 

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breast (sliced thinly.. thanks to my Sous Chef)
• 2 gloves of garlic
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 carrot thinly sliced 
• 1 Bag Kame Stir Fry Noodles
• 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce 

What to do: 

Making food in the Wok is awesome but it gets really hot... the key to keeping everything from sticking is to keep using vegetable oil. 

Add oil -- first cook chicken breast and garlic for 5 minutes. The add broccoli, carrots and stir fry noodles cook for 3 more minutes. Then add in teriyaki and soy sauce and cook for a few additional minutes. Then enjoy :) (like this guy below) 

Eggs Benedict Anyone?

Eggs Benedict is one of my favorite things to eggs so on this long weekend I made my own take on eggs benedict ... Steak and Eggs Benedict with a homemade hollandaise sauce! 

What you'll need (recipe below is for 2 but just double in size for more people) 

For the Sandwich: 

• 2 English muffins sliced and toasted 
• 1 medium strip steak or  filet mignon
• 4 large eggs 
• salt and pepper

For the Sauce: 

• 2 Egg Yolks 
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• Salt 
• Dash of Hot sauce 
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter; melted. 

What to do:


Season steak with Salt and Pepper, and place in a grill pan (cook for 3-4 minutes per side).  Remove from grill and allow to rest for a few minutes before slicing. While waiting slice and toast the english muffins. Once the meat as rested you can slice it thinly and place on op of toasted english muffins. 

In a non-stick skillet, crack a few Eggs into the pan, ( don't overcrowd the pan). Once the eggs are cooked to your liking layer them on top of the steak. 

To make the hollandaise, whisk together 2 eggs yolks and lemon in a small bowl. Then place the bowl over a small sauce pan with boiling water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Slowly whisk in melting butter and hot sauce. Once complete drizzle hollandaise over the eggs. 

more s'mores

Keeping with the s'more theme, I made s'mores bars to bring to a BBQ. 

Ingredients: 

Crust: 

Half a stick of melted butter

2 cups crushed graham crackers (crumble them up) 

Dough: 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

1 egg

1/2 cup softened butter

pinch of salt

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Candy bars

First to make the crust, break up the graham crackers and add in 1/2 a stick of melted butter. Spray the bottom of the 9x9 pan with pan and add in the crust (mold into the pan). Once this step is complete it will look like the picture above. 

Then in a small bowl, mix together: sugars, vanilla, egg, and softened butter. Then add in the salt, baking soda and flour. Gently stir in mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. Once the dough is made, place on top of the crush and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes add chunks of the Hershey’s  bar on top, gently pushing down and place back in the oven for 5-7 more minutes. 

Take out of the oven (hopefully it will look like the below picture ) let them cool then cut and serve!