Chicken Pesto Florentine and Tomato, Basil and Goat Cheese

So I found a dish that I really liked from Fazolis while my husband was deployed. But as my luck has it, it didn't stay popular so it was off the menu soon. It was Chicken Florentine. I absolutely loved it. So I did some searching on the internet and I found a recipe that would work and it was off the website www.allrecipes.com but I didn't keep it to the original recipe I tweaked it.

Now I've also been looking through a couple of cookbooks I borrowed from the library here. The one was a Scottish cookbook, inside of it as a side dish or an appetizer is a Tomato, Basil and Goat Cheese dish. Oh man, we tried it tonight and I absolutely love it! My husband who isn't a fan of tomatoes went back for seconds and my son who, if anyone has a toddler or young child knows how picky they can get, tried the goat cheese and wanted more!  All around I believe it is a success and I will be making it again.

Chicken Pesto Florentine

2 tbsp Olive Oil (possibly more if desired)
2 1/2 cloves garlic chopped
1 package skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size chunks
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
1 package Alfredo sauce mix
1 package pesto mix
Penne Pasta, cooked to Al Dente
Italian cheese mix or Parmesan cheese

1) Heat oil and saute garlic until light brown.

2) Cook chicken until no longer pink in center, keeping warm.

3) Mix Alfredo sauce according to packet. Once Alfredo is mixed accordingly mix in the dry pesto mix.

4) Add spinach in with the chicken, cook for 2 more minutes. Then mix chicken and spinach mixture in pot with drained cooked pasta, then stir in mixed sauces. Mix all together well and top with cheese.


Tomato, Basil, and Goat Cheese:

2 plump, ripe tomatoes
2 small packages of goat cheese (I used one rosemary and one plain)
12 basil leaves, or a tablespoon dried basil leaves to top
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1) Preheat the broiler.

2) Blanch and peel the tomatoes by plunging them into boiling water for 10 seconds then plunging them into cold water until completely cold. Take them out of the water and peel them. Then slice tomatoes horizontally.

3) Open the packages of goat cheese and place generous amounts on slices of tomato, stacking the tomato and goats cheese alternately. Sprinkle salt, pepper and if using, dried basil leaves over tomatoes and goats cheese.

4) Place under broiler until cheese bubbles, serve immediately.

Tomato, Basil and Goat Cheese recipe used from the "The Scottish Kitchen" by Christopher Trotter & The National Trust of Scotland

Spaghetti & Garlic Bread

Sorry guys about being away for a bit. I've gotten back on the loop. Things are finally evening out with me, I think the Doc finally got my meds fixed! YEAH! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a New Year. I had a wonderful one out with my family in Texas. So much good food and sweets! I miss it!

Any special plans for Valentines day? I know I don't have any as of yet.


Ever had a comfort food? I know I have, I love my moms spaghetti, I have no clue why but it is so dang good! So I decided today before my husband went to work I would cook some spaghetti so he could take it for supper tonight. Well I figured it would be a great time to back to posting and a simple recipe at that. Well I wanted the spaghetti and for those that know me know I absolutely LOVE garlic bread. I do. I can't help it and I don't know why. Its just so good. So naturally I had to bake some garlic bread as well. So while I didn't get a picture of the spaghetti I did get some of the garlic bread. So please don't be afraid to tell me what you think if you try any of the recipes on this site, its a wonderful learning experience and to find out what you guys did different is always intriguing.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

1 lbs ground hamburger
1 lbs ground Italian sausage
1/4 green bell pepper chopped
1/4 red bell pepper chopped
1/4-1/2 yellow onion chopped
Garlic, Rosemary and Parsley, to taste
1-2 16oz tomato sauce

1) Place of pot water on to boil, prep for spaghetti. Once boiling, add noodles, cook until al dente.
2) Brown meat in skillet and drain off excess grease. Place chopped onions and bell peppers in with meat and stir until tender.
3) Make sure grease is drained and then stir in tomato sauce, add rosemary, garlic and parsley, to your tastes. Cook and let simmer for anywhere between 5 minutes to 20 minutes.
4) Serve meat sauce over noodles with garlic bread. Enjoy!

Garlic Bread Loaf:

2 pkg or 5 tsps active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
6 cups all purpose flour
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Onion Powder
Italian seasoning

1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) In a mixing bowl dissolve yeast in water. Add the milk, shortening (may need to microwave a bit to melt), sugar, eggs, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth.
3) Stir in enough of remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic about 6-8 minutes, adding more flour as you go if needed. Place in greased bowl turning once to coat. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled.
4) Punch dough down. Turn onto lightly floured surface. Shape  into loaf form (or whatever form you want). Place on baking sheet, brush with olive oil, sprinkle the garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning over loaf and let rise again for about 30 minutes.
5) After 30 minutes, slice dough on top of the loaf and place in preheated oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown all around.
6) Serve warm with butter and enjoy!

Irish Pot Roast

So its been a while since I got the opportunity to post. I got a job (seasonal) but still its a job, I enjoy it so far, hopefully it lasts me through the season. But after working this weekend I wanted something good and hearty to eat. I found a recipe for Irish Pot Roast on allrecipes.com. I did the typical Suzie tweak on it and the result is a recipe that will stay in my recipe book from now on. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I myself and my family did. I appreciate any feedback may it be good or bad I would love to have it.

Irish Pot Roast


2 (12floz) can or bottle of Irish Stout Beer (such as Guinness)
1 (10.75 oz) can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (1oz) package dry onion soup mix (such as Lipton or Korrs)
1 small onion chopped
4 cloves garlic minced (or what you like)
1 boneless beef chuck roast
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 bag baby carrots
1 package baby red potatoes, quartered
3 stalks celery cut into 3 inch pieces

1) Mix beer, cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, onion and garlic together in slow cooker. Season beef roast with salt and pepper and place in the slow cooker. Arrange the carrots and potatoes around the meat.

2)  Cook on low for 6 hours, then add celery. Continue cooking until the roast falls apart easily and the potatoes are softened about 2 more hours. Serve meat and vegetables with the remaining gravy on top.

Gravy (its the gravy that I made so its a little different)

A couple of ladels full of remaining "juice"
1-2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1) place the juice in a bowl and then add one at a time the flour in the tablespoons, and whisk together, obviously using a whisk.

Pour over meat and vegetables and enjoy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls w/ Butterscotch Candy Corn icing.

So it is the fall season. I'm in the mood for baking, cooking and hot cocoa. I've been busy in the kitchen and finally catching up on all my blogging. Yet again I don't have my camera still. I will find it soon though. Also I don't have a stand mixer so all the mixing that goes into my doughs and my mixtures are all mixed by hand so. Anyways so I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls below. I don't get to make a lot of pies but I do love pumpkin pie. So I decided that I would make my own pumpkin cinnamon rolls and they turned out awesome! I made some butterscotch candy corn icing to go with it and will include the recipe for that as well.

Ingredients:

2 packages dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you can add more if you like)
4 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar


1) In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. After yeast is dissolved add in can of pumpkin, mix together.

2) Combine the flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture, stir until soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 20 times. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together butter and brown sugar and cinnamon.

3) After dough has rested roll dough out into a large rectangle. Spread the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon mixture over the dough. Roll dough up into log and pinch seam to seal. Slice into 1 inch pieces and place cut side up in a lightly greased 10x15 baking pan. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

4) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned.

Butterscotch Candy Corn Icing:

1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 - 1 cup candy corn
1 tsp water
2 tbspn shortening

1) Place items in microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds at a time stirring between each cycle.

2) Once mixture reaches consitancy that you like, spread over pumpkin cinnamon rolls fresh from oven.

Serve pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie

So I had never had chicken pot pie before. I decided that it might be interesting to try making and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it, my son enjoyed it and my husband enjoyed it. I have adapted this recipe from a "vampire" cook book that I picked up called "Love at First Bite" the book is amazing and I can't wait to make more things from it! The name of the recipe in the book is "Chicken Vamp Pie". They call for mini pies to be made but I have no oven proof cups so I made a large one.

Ingredients:

1 package frozen or refrigerated pie dough
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 celery stalk
1 leek, diced *(white and light green parts only, discard dark green part)
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 medium potato
2 cups cubed chicken
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out pie dough and cover a pie dish bottom with one of the rolled out pie dough. Bake in preheated oven until pie crust is prepared.

2) Cook chicken. When chicken is done cooking cube up and set aside.

3) Saute onion, celery, leek, and carrots in butter until onion, celery and leek are translucent. Dust with flour; stir and cook for a few moments. Add chicken broth, then add potatoes and cubed chicken. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes or until vegetables are cooked and liquid is thickened.

4) Stir in frozen peas and cream and remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into the prepared pie crust, top with un-baked pie crust and bake in oven for 20-30 minutes or until pie crust is done.

Halloween Surprise Cookies

Well, I finally have a spare moment. I don't have any idea where my camera so I can't post any pictures of this but I guarantee that these are DELICIOUS! My 3 year old son loved them and I had to put them out of his reach. He also helped make them so he enjoyed that. I cheated this time and used pre-made sugar cookie mix from Betty Crocker but I should have some next time that are all from scratch.

Halloween Surprise Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2-1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 bag candy corn
2 teaspoons of water (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

1) Empty contents of cookie mix into bowl. Mix in cinnamon then prepare the cookie mix according to instructions on the bag. Mix in the water if you need to use it.

2) Use a spoon and scoop mixture onto a cookie sheet, then press butterscotch chips and candy corn into the mixture.


3) Bake cookies in oven until slightly browned on the bottom, or for about 10 minutes.

4) Cool on wire rack and enjoy!

I'll try to get pictures soon. I have a few more recipes to add.

Shrimp Lo-Mein

So have you ever gotten that craving for Chinese food that won't go away? I have, and believe me, with Chinese "fast food" restaurants around here just about every block and in every mall its hard to find one that you like, then remember the name of the dish you like and then remember which restaurant it came from. So I was looking around on the internet and came across this one recipe for Lo-Mein. It sounded good and I happen to like Lo-Mein, and my husband and I both like Chinese food so I decided to give it a try. This has been adapted from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe on Yahoo's recipes. This recipe turned out great and it also gave you a BIG dose of veggies.

Shrimp Lo-Mein

1 pound fresh or frozen medium/large shrimp (I opted for frozen)
1/3 cup water
3 Tablespoon Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch (if no cornstarch you can use 1 1/2 TEASPOON of white flour)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 Medium onion, chopped
2 cups cabbage, shredded
2 cups fresh or frozen pea pods (I opted for frozen baby sugar snap peas)
2 medium carrots, shredded (use a peeler for this goes quicker)
4 oz wheat angel hair pasta (Okay so I didn't use exactly 4 oz)
2 green onions, sliced

1) Thaw shrimp if frozen. Cut shrimp in half length wise or width wise. Set aside

2) For sauce: In a small bowl combine water, soy sauce and cornstarch. Set this aside as well.

3) Pour oil into a wok or large skillet, add more oil as necessary during cooking. Preheat over medium high heat. Stir fry celery and onion in hot oil for 2 minutes. Add cabbage, fresh pea pods (if using) and carrots; stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes more until veggies are crisp and tender. Remove veggies from wok/skillet.

4) Add shrimp to hot wok/skillet. Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until shrimp turn opaque. Once opaque push shrimp from center of the wok/skillet.

5) Stir sauce and add sauce to center of the wok/skillet. Cook and stir until bubbly. Return cooked veggies to the wok/skillet. Add hot cooked noodles, green onions and thawed frozen pea pods. Toss all ingredients together to coat with sauce. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes more until everything is heated through again.



**Make ahead tip** Prepare vegetables then cover and chill up to 4 hours before cooking with shrimp.


While I haven't tried it yet, I believe it would be easy to change this to a chicken recipe.

Please let me know what you think.