Surf & Turf

I showed Jordan my food blog and he thought it was too dark. He picked this template instead of the black one. He thought the background needed to be lighter to go with the different foods that I post. What do you think?

I love grilling during the summer but after I while I get a bit bored with just having grilled meat for dinner. I found this recipe in one of my Cuisine at Home magazines and I've been waiting for shrimp to go on sale so I can try it. :) Well, shrimp was on sale at Harris Teeter this week so I gave this recipe a go!



Ingredients:
4 strips bacon
1 pound tenderloin or top sirloin steak (I just used whatever steaks I had in the freezer)
4 slices baguette, about 1 inch thick, brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper
1 pound shrimp, peeled & deveined
1 Tablespoon flour
salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
red pepper flakes to taste
1 cup dry white wine
3 Tablespoons butter (unsalted if you wish)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Juice of half a lemon
Steak skewers

Directions:
Saute bacon in a skillet over medium heat until nearly crisp but still pliable - about 4 minutes. Drain on paper towel lined plate.

Preheat grill to medium high. Loosely weave a strip of bacon between pieces of meat on your skewer. I put two pieces of bacon on each skewer. Lightly coat meat with not stick spray and season with salt and pepper. Set aside while you get the shrimp going.

Toss shrimp with flour, salt and pepper. Saute 1 minute per side in the oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Stir in tomatoes, garlic and pepper flakes; cook 1 minute, then deglaze with wine. Simmer until reduced by half, about 3 minutes.



While the sauce is simmering, put meat on grill and turn occasionally until cooked to desired doneness - about 4 minutes per side for medium rare. Remove from grill and tent with foil.

Grill prepared baguette slices about 1 minute per side.



Add the butter, parsley and lemon juice to the shrimp sauce.

I broke the skewers and placed each on a grilled baguette. Then spoon shrimp and sauce over the skewers. The sauce soaks into the bread and is heavenly with the shrimp and steak! Honestly, Jordan and I both really enjoyed this recipe and I will definitely be one I make again and again!!

Banana Bread

This recipe makes the best banana bread I've ever had. It's the only recipe I use - why mess with a good thing!

Ingredients:
5 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 2 large bananas)
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
2 egg whites
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray. Beat butter in a large bowl. Add sugars, blend. Add egg, egg whites and vanilla; blend. Add mashed banana; blend.

Now, the recipe states to mix the rest of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl - I do not do that. I just dump them into the bowl with the banana mix along with the heavy cream. Mix until combined.

Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake until brown and when toothpick comes out clean when inserted into center. The recipe states 1 hour and 15 minutes. I bake for an hour then check to see if it's done. In my case it was not - so I let it cook another 5 minutes. Checked - and cooked again for another 5 minutes. When I checked this time it was perfect - totaling 1 hour and 10 minutes. If I would have cooked another 5 minutes it would have been dried out. 1 hour and 10 minutes and the bread was perfect!!

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

I've been on a crockpot kick over the past week. I rarely use my crockpot in the summer but for some reason I used it twice last week. I found this Chicken and Dumpling recipe on allrecipes.com and honestly my version is completely different. I thought the original recipe had a good start but really needed extra ingredients to make it a good meal. Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup chopped carrots
2 stalks chopped celery
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
1 can refrigerated biscuits
1/4 teaspoon pepper (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)

Directions:
Place the butter, soup, veggies, seasonings and onion in a slow cooker. Stir to combine, then place chicken into soup mixture. Fill with enough water to cover.

Cover, and cook for 5 hours on High.
This is my favorite part - walk away!!


Remove chicken breasts and shred on a cutting board. Put the chicken back into the slow cooker, stir to combine. Tear the biscuit dough and place on top of the soup mixture.

Cover and cook until dough is no longer raw in the center - mine take about an hour.

Once the dough is cooked take a spoon or a fork and push the dough down into the soup so it mixes in.

Now you are ready to serve!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Yummy!

This is by far the best tuna casserole I've had and I probably won't ever make a different one! I found this recipe on allrecipes.com Normally I make this in the fall/winter but I had a craving for it the other day. I love summer but I'm already tired of just eating meat from the grill!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter divided
1 (8 ounce) package medium egg noodles
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced (I only used 4 oz)
1/4 flour
2 cups milk
2 (6 ounce) cans of tuna, drained and flaked
1 cup frozen peas
3 tablespoons bread crumbs (I crumble Ritz crackers)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Boil egg noodles as directed on package, drain.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in onion, celery, and garlic, cook until tender. Mix in mushrooms (I had to add a bit more butter here) and continue to cook a few more minutes. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and butter a medium baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter.

In a medium saucepan melt 4 tablespoons butter, whisk in flour until smooth. Gradually whisk in milk and continue cooking until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in tuna, peas, mushroom mixture, 1/2 cup cheese, and cooked noodles. (Taste here and season with salt and pepper to your liking). Transfer to the baking dish and top with remaining cheese.

Melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a small bowl. Mix with bread crumbs and sprinkle over the casserole. (I didn't feel this was enough bread crumbs so I melted another tablespoon of butter and mixed with more crushed crackers)



Bake 25 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned.



Serve with toasted bread and salad. Enjoy!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I promise you this is the easiest recipe and it tastes wonderful. I only have one photo as I was rushing to make this. I had a ladies night on Thursday and I wanted Jordan to have some sort of dinner to eat.

First off, it's a crock pot/slow cooker recipe. Yay!! :) I LOVE recipes that I can use my crock pot. This recipe freezes well. I recommend eating this the night you make it and using a freezer bag to freeze the rest so you can have a nice dinner on a night you don't have time to cook!

Ingredients:
1 onion chopped
1 can chili beans
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans
2 (10 oz) cans diced tomatoes
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 bottle of beer - I like to use a darker beer like Newcastle
1 package of taco seasoning
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Shredded cheese - we use cheddar or mexican - whatever you have on hand
Sour cream
Tortilla chips

Directions:
Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, taco seasoning and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Stir to combine. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover and cook for 5 hours.

Remove chicken breasts from the soup and allow to cool long enough to handle. Shred chicken and place back into soup for another 2 hours or until ready to serve.

Serve topped with cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream and tortilla chips.

Cake Balls?

I made this new recipe for our 4th of July party. I have seen recipes over the past few months for Red Velvet cake dipped into some sort of white chocolate that hardens. Mary has one on her blog, Kelly Korner's has one and I even saw one on allrecipes.com.

They looked really good and seemed kind of easy (except Mary's, hers were homemade!) and I thought how festive they would be for the 4th of July.

Well, I thought they were horrible! They were a pain to make, I didn't like the way they looked and I could barely eat one bite. I almost threw them out because I was embarrassed to take them to a party and say I made them. Our friend Jeremy tasted one for me and he said they were good and I should bring them. So, I didn't throw them out and actually people did seem to enjoy them. Our friend Allen actually really liked them as he had 4 or 5!

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos because I was not planning on posting them here because I didn't like them. But I've decided to write about my experience and add my two cents if you try to make these in the future.

One thing I learned is that I don't like Red Velvet cake! Ha! It doesn't have a flavor - tastes like...nothing! I also learned that people raised in the south LOVE Red Velvet cake - hence why I think a few people at the party liked them.

Here's what I did:
Ingredients:
1 box Red Velvet cake mix
1 can cream cheese frosting
1 package white almond bark
wax paper

Directions:
Bake cake according to directions on the box. Allow to cool for a few minutes until cool enough to handle. Crumble cake into little pieces in a large bowl. When cake is completely crumbled add all of the frosting. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Using a melon baller or a cookie scoop, roll cake into balls and place on a plate. Place cake balls in the freezer until frozen solid - 2 hours or over night. Melt almond bark according to directions on package. Place wax paper on a cookie sheet. Use toothpicks to dip the cake balls into the almond bark and place on cookie sheet. Once hardened, transfer to a platter. Keep cold until serving.

My suggestions after making these:
Don't use Red Velvet cake unless you like it! :) I think chocolate would be much better. Maybe a yellow cake mix with chocolate almond bark. I liked the cream cheese frosting but a half a can might have been enough. I felt these were too moist - like I was eating raw cake batter. (Well, not quite, but you get the idea.) I also thought dipping them was a pain - using an egg separator would have been much easier. I tried finding one before I made this but the grocery stores I went to did not have one. I also felt the white almond bark was a pain to work with. I think the chocolate would be more forgiving - the white ended up looking pink and would show imperfections easily.

I will try these again but use a different combination. Maybe chocolate with chocolate. Who knows. Stay tuned!!

Nachos

We had a tray of shredded left over pig from the 4th of July party we had on Friday. I decided to make nachos with it for dinner tonight. I found this recipe on Pioneer Woman Cooks and made a few changes to it so that it suited our tastes. She didn't give measurements so I had to eyeball the ingredients.

Here is how I made the nachos.

Ingredients:
Tortilla chips of your choice - I went with the round ones as I thought they would fit nicely in a baking dish.
1 can black beans
Meat of your choice - again we used pig, but you could use shredded chicken, hamburger, brisket etc.
Shredded Monterrey jack cheese
1 small can enchilada sauce
2 tomatoes
1 jalapeno - 1 was plenty spicy for me but Jordan could have had more. Start with one and add another if you want it hotter.
1 small onion
Cilantro
1 lime

The meat I used was already cooked. If you have left over chicken or beef feel free to use that for this recipe. If not, then you'll need to cook whatever meat you plan on using.

Place a little bit of olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the meat and cook until warm. Pour about half the can of enchilada sauce onto the meat. Use just enough to coat it.


Warm the beans in a pan on the stove.

Dice the tomatoes, jalapeno, onion & cilantro and mix in a bowl. Cut the lime and squeeze a 1/4 section of it into the bowl. Add a dash of salt. The Pioneer woman calls this pico de gallo - it tastes an awful lot like Jordan's homemade salsa!


I used a 9" pie plate and layered the bottom of it with tortilla chips. Sprinkle some of the meat on top of the tortilla chips. Then add some of the beans. Next add some of the pico de gallo; then top with cheese.


Repeat with another layer except stop with the cheese.


Broil in the oven until the cheese is melted. I put mine on the second rack in the oven and baked for about 10-15 minutes checking often. Then top with more pico de gallo.


We served ours with sour cream. This would be a great appetizer at a party. I thought these were good but needed more cheese. I used 3/4 of a bag of shredded cheese and it needed quite a bit more. But I like my nachos cheesy!

Parmesan Chicken

This is my absolute favorite chicken recipe. I've been making it for several years and I think I got the recipe from Epicurious. It's been so long I forget! Give it a try - I promise you won't be disappointed!

Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
1 1/2 English muffins
6 boneless chicken breasts. (I just use two)
3/4 cup finely grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese (I've used nice cheese and the Parmesan out of the can - both are good!)
Parchment paper

Directions:

Whisk together mustard, vinegar, salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (you will use the other 1/4 teaspoon later) in a large bowl and add chicken breasts, tossing to coat well. I like to let this marinate a little bit while I prepare the rest of our meal.


Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pulse English muffins in a food processor until finely ground. Add cheese, butter and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper and pulse until combined well.


Transfer to a shallow plate or dish. Dredge chicken, 1 piece at a time, in crumbs, coating completely and pressing gently to help crumbs adhere. I had quite a bit of crumbs left over. I put them in a zip lock bag and will save them to try this same recipe with pork chops.


Transfer chicken to the baking sheet. Bake in oven until golden brown. The recipe says 15-20 minutes but it took me closer to 30 minutes to get a nice golden brown color.