 People have been telling me about pinterest for months and I've never really taken the time to go on the site and see for myself what it's all about. (I spend a lot of time sitting at my computer already so I'm hesitant of internet sites that can drain even more time out of my day.) I was curious enough to check out pinterest anyway and I was pleasantly surprised. It was really interesting and I found tons of recipes! I posted a bunch of my recipes onto my boards and it was really quick and easy. I am not the computer savvy person that my husband is, so I felt really accomplished having navigated this site independently. (I like to take the credit but it wasn't really me but the fact that pinterest makes it really easy.) After an hour on pinterest, I was completely sucked in. It was fun to watch as people "repinned" or "liked" one of my recipes. I posted this Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe on my muffin board today.  Chocolate Chip Muffins 2 ½ cups flour 1 cup + 1 Tablespoon sugar 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder 2 eggs ½ teaspoon salt 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla ¾ cup butter ¾ cup milk 1 cup chocolate chips
Blend in flour mixture alternating with milk.
Bake 21-23 minutes at 350. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.  If you're a pinterest fan - check out my muffin board.
Ciao!
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 I have been craving this multigrain bread for a couple of weeks now and I just didn't take the time to make it until last weekend. It is really good and totally worth the effort that goes into baking it.  Multigrain Bread 1 ¼ cups 10 grain cereal 4 Tablespoons honey 2 ½ cups boiling water 4 Tablespoons butter 3 cups bread flour 2 ½ teaspoons yeast 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour 1 Tablespoon salt
Add salt and knead for 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Bake 25-30 minutes at 375.  The smell of this brad baking in the oven was incredible. Luckily for me, I was pretty tired so I resisted the urge to slice into the piping hot loaf. I put the loaves on wire racks to cool and went to bed instead. 
It will take some time to put this bread together but it is so worth it. It's really good - this one's going under my favorites category.
Ciao!  It was dinner "to go" again last Friday night as we dashed off to another wrestling tournament. I planned to pack up some chicken chimichangas to take with us to the tournament so I cooked extra chicken thighs with my Chicken Bonne Femme. Too bad they were so good that we ended up eating the "extras" - oops. So after a trip to the grocery store to buy more chicken, I got started on my chimichangas. Chicken Chimichangas 3/4 cup chicken broth 1 cup whole grain brown rice, cooked 3 boneless chicken breasts 1 Tablespoon oil 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed 6 ounces cheddar cheese 1 Tablespoon flour 1 Tablespoon water 6 flour tortillas - I like to use large burrito sized tortillas for chimichangas Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and place on a baking sheet. Poke holes in breasts with a fork and bake 30 minutes at 350. Dice chicken when cool.
Heat a small amount of oil (I used olive oil) in a skillet and cook 2 chimichangas at a time in hot oil. Turn once.
I adapted this recipe from a Cook's County magazine. You could easily adapt this to a vegetarian recipe by replacing the chicken broth with vegetable stock and eliminating the chicken breasts. I made a slightly healthier version of the chimichanga by making mine on a whole wheat tortilla and eliminating the cheese. You can also bake the chimichangas instead of frying them to make them even crispier.  Ciao!
 When the weather turns cold, it's time to get out my dutch oven and make a hearty winter dinner. This winter hasn't given us too many cold days in Georgia so I have to take advantage of them when I can. Last week we had one cold, windy day so I pulled a recipe out of my Cook's Country magazine for Chicken Bonne Femme - a perfect cold weather meal. According to the article in the magazine it was originally a Creole dish. I wouldn't say that I'm a huge fan of Creole cuisine but this chicken dish flavored with bacon and wine and fresh herbs sounded too good to pass up.  Chicken Bonne Femme 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs 5 slices of bacon 1 1/2 pounds fingerling potatoes, cut in half 1 onion, chopped fine 4 garlic cloves, minced 2 teaspoons fresh thyme 3/4 cup white wine 1/2 cup chicken broth 1 teaspoon hot sauce 3 scallions
The chicken was super moist and tender and the broth was rich and flavorful.  On a side note: I was really nervous about using my dutch oven on the stove top because I had heard all sorts of horror stories about people who cracked their expensive le creuset dutch ovens by heating them on the stove. I do not have a le crueset dutch oven but I have another brand and I carefully read over the instructions once again just to make sure that I was not going to experience a kitchen catastrophe in the middle of fixing dinner. I didn't see anything that warned against putting mine on the stove top so I went ahead with the recipe as directed.
Ciao!  I tend to think of muffins as healthy but the truth is they often hide lots of fat and calories inside their pretty little wrappers. I found this recipe for pumpkin muffins Family Fun magazine and I was intrigued by the ingredient list. A muffin with whole wheat flour and the use of molasses to replace some of the sugar - I'm sold. I admit that I was somewhat skeptical at first but these muffins were absolutely beautiful - and delicious.  Pumpkin Praline Muffins Topping 3 Tablespoons cold butter 1/3 cup flour 3 Tablespoons brown sugar 1/3 cup chopped pecans Batter 1 cup flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1/4 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup canned pumpkin 1/3 cup molasses 1/3 cup canola oil 2 eggs 1/4 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla
Bake 15 minutes at 400.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
The muffins came out of the oven with beautifully rounded tops and they didn't deflate when they cooled! These muffins were a masterpiece for the eyes - and they tasted just as good as they looked. I love the bright blue cupcakes papers too - the perfect pop of color to highlight these marvelous muffins. Thank you Family Fun for the great recipe. Ciao! |
