Not Pork Chops and Mashed Potatoes

I was going to make a RR meal, and for the most part I did, but I drifted. RR meal, now for my take on the meal. I didn't have the ingredients for the pork chops so I marinated mine in Spicy Mango Hawaiian marinade. I did not smash up the peas as she did, I just sauteed some shallots, threw in the peas let them cook for a few then threw in the mint and some salt and pepper. viola. I have to say about the sweet potato hash. OMG I loved this dish. I didn't have the Smoked Paprika, however I did have a dash of liquid smoke. I also let my potatoes cook a little longer than she did. If you think you might not like these potatoes, make them anyway, you might be surprised.

Chicken Lasagne

2 cans Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 lb roasted garlic chicken
1 jar any spaghetti sauce (I was a little lazy)
1 handful Sun dried Tomatoes reconstituted
Ricotta cheese
6 oz chopped Spinach drained
Spinach Lasagna noodles Mario Batali recipe
Bechamel Sauce
One 8 oz shredded Mozzarella
Oregano
Garlic
Salt
Pepper

These were the ingredients that I used for the lasagne. I loved it, however, my honey wished I had not put the chicken in it. So next time I will leave it out. You gotta please the honey. lol

Christmas cookies and candy 2008

My Christmas cookies and candies are a group effort. Thanks to Paula Dean for her Monster cookies. I added a few more secret ingredients to the monster cookies. Its a secret for now. But when Christmas rolls around I'll add them to the blog. Thanks to Ina Garten for her Outrageous Brownies and her Rugelach. Thanks to a magazine recipe and my twist for the coconut macaroons.
Thanks to my Dad and a couple aunts for the inspiration for the peanut butter fudge.
This upcoming Christmas season I am going to use a couple of my mothers cookie recipes she made this past year.
And as for the lemon cookies, well lets just say, take a good look. You won't be seeing them again.

I know this is not an appropriate time for this particular post. But persaonally I can eat these sweets any time of the year. I hope you enjoy them whenever you make them. I will post the fudge and the macaroons and moms cookie recipes later.

Birthday cake

I made this cake for my cousin and my friends birthday. Its just a basic cake mix for a half sheet cake plus basic cake mix for the two coffins. The icing is my aunts recipe.

I used the green to represent grass plus it was Christmas time so I needed some red and green. You can use your own cake mix or icing, this is not a recipe but an idea. Hope it inspires someone. lol

Buche de Noel

I saw this recipe on Sara's Secrets. I was going to make this on Christmas 2007, but got very busy and ran out of time. So I knew that I was going to make it Christmas 2008. This cake took me some time. A lot of time. Did I mention how long it took to make this cake? LOL Seriously it did take me some time but I will do it again. It is going to be a new tradition. I do have to make some changes. I haven't completely decided on what changes, but here is my thought at the moment. For starters I will not make the buttercream icing. Sorry Sara, I love ya gal, but I either really screwed it up or your recipe calls for way to much butter. I love some butter but this was like putting a spoon in a tub of butter. But lets just pretend I messed this recipe completely up. It is entirely possible if not probable. lol I enjoyed the cake itself, and it was very reminisent of my Moms pumpkin roll cake. Which got me thinking hmmmm. So next time I will use moms pumpkin roll recipe with a different icing. But I am going to keep the look of the cake. It will still be a process, but given thought to some planned prep work, it won't be bad. Last time I did the entire cake in one day instead of breaking it up. I will not make that mistake again.

I loved the chocolate ganache. I thank Sara for her technique of painting the ganache on the cake. I will invest into a holly leaf cookie cutter. That was a little time consuming.

The powdered sugar really sets it off in my opinion. I can't wait to make the new version. I hope I didn't discourage anyone from attempting this cake. It is totally worth it. I did not make Sara proud with this cake stay tuned for my own recipe.

A little Italian

Almost Italian





2 chicken breasts
1 can (14 ounce) fire roasted tomatoes
6 roasted garlic cloves
cooking spray
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

I only had 2 chicken breasts in the refrigerator and 4 people to feed. I decided to fillet the chicken to make four pieces. I then put each piece in a plastic food storage bag and pounded them out to make cutlets. I then seasoned with salt and pepper and oregano, added 1 tablespoon of ricotta cheese, a few pieces of pepperoni and mozzarella. I wrapped the chicken around the filling and held it together with toothpicks. Spray a baking dish (I used an 8 x 8 inch pan) with cooking spray. Put the wrapped chicken in dish and pour 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes over the dish. I then added about 6 cloves of roasted garlic, a little more S and P. It was delicious, easy, and worthy of making again in the future.