Pine nut Pilaf

This recipe is on the inside cover of a pine nut clamshell container from great lakes international trading co (click here), I had all the ingredients on hand so made it as a side with grilled pork chops last night and it is great! I shouldn't be surprised since they bothered to put it on the cover hahaha, but I was surprised none-the-less. Pinenuts are expensive but sooooo worth it in this recipe - click here to see how to toast pine nuts to bring out even more fragrant nutty flavor. 

Apricot Pinenut Rice

 

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Author: Jill Wilkes

Ingredients

• 1 medium Onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 cup Long Grain or Basmati Rice
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 14oz can Chicken Broth
• ¼ cup Water
• ½ cup Great Lakes’ Dried Apricots, diced
• ⅓ cup Great Lakes’ Pinenuts, toasted
• 1 Tablespoon Basil
• ½ teaspoon ground Cumin
• pepper

Instructions

1. Cook onion in olive oil over low heat.
2. Add rice, salt, broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down to simmer for 15 to 18 minutes (until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed).
3. Add apricots, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in the pinenuts, basil and cumin.
5. Pepper to taste and serve.

note: I omitted the onion and it still has great flavor, and I used dried basil. Yum. 

Braised Short Ribs in Tomato BBQ Sauce (re-run)

I did a couple re-runs this week for Halloween ideas and said I was done with re-runs for now, but then I saw this recipe I posted 5/16 that was delish and now I want to make it again (I'm hoping you do too - or at least want to read about it again hahah!). 

I don't usually eat ribs (too messy and too much work!) but I saw a recipe that looked good so I thought I'd try to make them for company coming to Sunday Supper - ran it past Dave and he vetoed pork spareribs (too messy and too much work haha) but requested beef short ribs. Um ok, well then I had to find a recipe that looked good for those since I've never made them before! I found this recipe in a cookbook "American Bistro" and decided to give it a try - like how I experiment on guests haha? 

geez I have a lot on my plate! short ribs,
smashed potatoes, roasted carrots, broccoli
slaw, and a roll. Yum...I'm still full.

So...this is a delicious and pretty easy recipe that everyone loved. I served them with smashed red potatoes and broccoli cole slaw (2 other recipes I've never tried before and turned out SO good - I lucked out that the whole menu turned out so good! I'll post those recipes on another day).

I followed the recipe with a couple tweaks: I increased the meat to 6.35 pounds (to serve 8), only used one onion so Dave wouldn't freak out, added more carrots and 1/2 cup more of the tomatoes, bbq sauce, and beef stock. Forgot to garnish with parsley and it totally didn't matter.

One thing I will do in the future is to cook the ribs and sauce ahead of time and let it cool so I can remove some of the fat, short ribs are a pretty fatty cut of beef. I tried to skim off what I could before serving, it would have been much easier to do when it was cool and the fat rises to the top and hardens. Otherwise this is a great, flavorful recipe.

braise the ribs in a large nonstick skillet, then transfer to a dutch oven. then in the skillet saute the veggies.

after sautéing the veggies and adding the other sauce ingredients pour over the ribs in the dutch oven.

finished ribs in the sauce.

Ingredients:

• 5 pounds lean beef short ribs, cut into 3 to 4" pieces
• salt and pepper
• 3 T. vegetable oil
• 2 onions, thickly sliced into rings
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/2" thick slices
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup bottled barbecue sauce
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 t. Dijon mustard
• 2 T. finely chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, season the ribs with salt and pepper. 
2. Preheat the oven to 325'. In a 12" nonstick skillet, heat 2 T. vegetable oil over medium-high heat. In batches, brown the ribs on all sides, using kitchen tongs to turn and brown them evenly, for 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the ribs with a slotted spoon, drain briefly on paper towels, and then place in a large, ovenproof Dutch oven or other heavy pot. 
3. In the same skillet, add the remaining 1 T. oil, increase the heat to medium-high, and brown the onions for 7 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently and watching carefully so that they brown but do not burn. Add the carrot and saute for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, bbq sauce, beef stock, and mustard and stir well. Increase the heat to high and simmer for 1 minute to mix the flavors. Pour the tomato sauce mixture over the short ribs and mix to combine.
4. Cover and bake the ribs for about 3 hours, or until the meat is very tender, turning the ribs every 45 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with the parsley. Serve immediately.

Can be prepared up to 3 days ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Reheat gently on the stove top.

Serves 6

from the American Bistro cookbook

Panko Crusted Baked Scallops

I love scallops but very rarely make them for some reason...until I found this recipe and now they are a go-to staple! We've had good luck with Costco scallops - we divide the big package into 2 small freezer bags and freeze until ready to use; they thaw pretty quickly and I usually have the rest of the ingredients on hand so it's a good last minute dinner. 

1-1 1/2 pounds large sea scallops (16)

1/2 t. coarse salt

1/4 t. coarse pepper

1/4 t. paprika

1/8 t. cayenne pepper

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

4 T. parmesan cheese, grated

2 T. unsalted butter, melted

2 T. olive oil

Preheat oven to 400'.

Dry scallops with paper towels and remove any attached side-muscle on the scalp by pinching it off.

Combine the remaining ingredients, stir until combined.

Place the scallops in a 2 quart baking dish, cover with the bread crumb mixture.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the topping is browned.

Tip-sy Tuesday: Easy Chicken Teriyaki

I made this to go with our sushi tower non-birthday dinner (way back in August!) because P requested 'meat on the side' of her sushi, and chicken teriyaki seemed like it belonged on the same plate hahaha. And oh my gosh it turned out great and it is so simple which makes it the perfect 'meat on the side' dish!

Cut up chicken breasts in bite-sized 1" pieces. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat, add chicken pieces but don't crowd the pan (leave space around each piece). Brown for about 3 minutes, turn each piece over and brown for another 3 minutes or until the chicken is cooked thru. Remove from the pan if you have more chicken then the pan could hold. Continue frying the chicken pieces until they are all cooked adding more oil as needed. Once all the chicken is cooked, add it all back to the pan and stir in enough teriyaki sauce to coat. Done! Serve with additional sauce, sticky rice (or sushi towers) and roasted broccoli.

A little secret - I made this 2 hours before people came over and put it in my smaller crockpot on low and it was perfect. Didn't dry it out at all, and I was able to clean up the splatter from frying before everyone arrived.

Note: I used store-bought teriyaki sauce because it was a very hectic day, but I thought about making it from scratch because it doesn't sound hard - here's one recipe I thought about trying:

• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 1/2 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tsp peeled and minced fresh ginger
• 2 tsp peeled and minced fresh garlic (2 cloves)
• 2 tsp cornstarch

Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl; add to the cooked chicken and cook until thickened 30-60 seconds. 

recipe found here

Creamy Polenta with Garden Tomato Sauce

I've been looking for different ways to use the tomatoes and beans from my garden when I found this old recipe - except I didn't plant plum tomatoes this year so had to buy some to make this dish 🤷‍♀️ so I'm still on the lookout for tomato recipes haha. Oh well - this recipe is totally worth having to buy tomatoes! I added meatballs and sausage chunks but think it would taste great meatless, and if you don't want to deal with making polenta the sauce would be great over pasta.

        

Garden Tomato Sauce Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced, about 1/2 cup
• 1 small celery stalk, trimmed and diced, about 1/2 cup
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, diced
• 18 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 to 8 pre-cooked Italian-style chicken sausage, cut into chunks (optional)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Creamy Polenta ingredients:

• 2 cups reduced-fat milk
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups stoneground cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons butter

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery, onion, and garlic; cook, stirring, 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes and any juice from the bowl. Mash lightly with a wooden spoon. Add oregano and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes, until tomatoes have cooked down and formed a chunky sauce. Add sausage and stir to combine. Cook 5 to 10 minutes, until sausage is heated through. Add cheese and stir well. Remove from heat and keep warm until ready to serve.

             

To make polenta, combine milk and water in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Gradually add cornmeal, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Add butter. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring almost constantly, 25 to 30 minutes, until polenta is thick. Serve topped with warm sauce and chunks of sausage. Serves 4.

recipe by Karen Berman (I ripped this out of a newspaper and it's been in my file forever - I have no idea where it's from!)

                                     

*my notes:

-there was a lot of juice in the tomatoes so it took longer than 20 minutes for it to cook down into a chunky sauce.

-I added 4 chicken sausages and also 16 small frozen meatballs, let them cook in the sauce until warmed thru. We weren't eating this until later so I put it in the fridge and warmed up in the microwave before serving.

-I always have to add additional water when cooking polenta, not sure what I'm doing wrong but every time it is immediately too thick but not cooked yet; I stir in more water in 1/2 cup increments until the polenta is done and the consistency is what I want.

Parmesan Bubble Bread

Here's the recipe for the bread my sis reviewed along with the Italian meatball soup a couple days ago (click for that post). I found half a bag of unbaked frozen rolls while cleaning out the freezer and wondered how to use them up besides just baking Dave and I a batch of random rolls hahaha. Bubble bread came to mind, I've made pull-apart monkey bread in the past but this one is a little different - I didn't really follow a recipe so all amounts are just to your taste or what you have on hand. 

Let the frozen rolls thaw enough to shape them but the dough is still cold. Cut in half and roll in smaller balls. Roll each ball first in melted butter, and then in grated parmesan mixed with chopped cooked bacon, garlic powder, and a little pepper. Place in a baking dish, cover with a kitchen towel; let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour. Preheat oven to 350', bake rolls until golden brown about 20-25 minutes. 

Here's her review in case you missed it the other day:

the bread she sent was fantastic.  I could just eat it .. and eat it.. and eat it. 

Whatever is sprinkled on the top was GREAT.  My only negative comment is that they were in tiny little circles (all stuck together) so I had to break off a piece to eat it. That made me feel bad when I scarfed the first one and took a second.  Like I was eating a second roll.  In my defense the first one was tiny… 

Anyway.. the rolls were yum. 

My Sis is Hungry: Italian Meatball Soup

When cleaning out the (formerly known as 'black hole of doom') freezer, I came across half a bag of store-bought meatballs and figured I should make something to use them up (since I didn't even know they were in there I didn't want to put them back and forget them again!). Thought about meatball shepherds pie, or how about meatball chili - is meatball chili a thing cuz' I'm so going to make that in the future! I made Italian meatball soup instead, and as soup tends to do it just got bigger and bigger and made so much I had plenty to share. So since my sis hasn't had many meals from her sis lately I gave her some and this is her review (note: this started off with enough liquid to be called 'soup' but after it sat in the fridge overnight most of the liquid was absorbed so it turned into a very thick chunky hearty stew. Oh, and I also gave her some pull apart rolls that I experimented with after finding frozen dough balls in the freezer hahahah, I'll give you that recipe another time but she included a review for that too!): 

Meatball Stew?? Is that what this is called?? If not it should be. HAHAHA..

My sister said I could add water to make it meatball “soup” but I liked it thicker honestly.

This tasted kind of like Vegetable soup.  There was quite a lot of veggies in it.  and I do love meatballs.  Wasn’t sure about these meatballs though.. they were kind of “hard”.  Like not unedible hard but like firm.  Which in a stew I liked.  If was on my spaghetti I wouldn’t as a side note.  Oh but if my sister would like to make me some spaghetti with these meatballs I would be happy to try that to be sure. HAHA..

Anyway- this stew was good, pretty filling and I liked the mix of pasta, veggies and meat.  Made it much more of a main dish than I usually consider stew/soup to be.

 

Oh separate note- not sure if I was supposed to review the bread she sent but that was fantastic.  I could just eat it .. and eat it.. and eat it. 

Whatever is sprinkled on the top was GREAT.  My only negative comment is that they were in tiny little circles (all stuck together) so I had to break off a piece to eat it. That made me feel bad when I scarfed the first one and took a second.  Like I was eating a second roll.  In my defense the first one was tiny… 

Anyway.. the rolls were yum. 

I forgot to tell my sis to try parmesan on top - delish!

                                        

German Chocolate Bars

 I made these for LeDonna's birthday, in the past I've made her just about every German Chocolate thing I can think of - bread, cupcakes,  - this year I googled for some other ideas and found this one for bars (pretty sure I'm going to have to go back to regular ol' German chocolate cake next year, I'm out of different ideas hahahaha). Oh, and Happy Birthday Mary - I know you also love German Chocolate so here ya go, enjoy these virtual bars :) 

The base is a cake mix but you only add an egg and melted butter, it turned out very much like brownies which I found really interesting, maybe I'll try this again without the German chocolate topping and see what it's like. 

Crust:

• 1 box devil's food cake mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg

Filling:

• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350'. Grease or spray a 13x9 baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the cake mix, butter and egg, and press flat  into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 7 minutes and remove from the oven.
3. While the crust is baking, mix together the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, egg, pecans and coconut. Pour evenly over the warm crust and sprinkle evenly with the chocolate chips. Bake for 24-30 minutes until the top is light golden brown.
4. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting into squares.

My note: the crust is barely set after 7 minutes and when I added the filling it started sinking into the cake base. I then figured out to spoon small amounts of the filling all over the cake and gently smooth with a spatula. Don't dump all of the filling in the center of the cake! 

recipe found here

 

Broccoli Casserole

I've had lots of broccoli casseroles in my day, and they're pretty much all the same; so when Cathy made this one I figured I'd like it as much as any other version but I was wrong - pretty sure this one is the best I've ever had so naturally I had to have the recipe. 'Cuz when someone asks me to bring a veggie side in the future I have to be able to bring this dish and amaze everyone. Well, at least amaze everyone who would be amazed at broccoli casserole that is ;) 

                    

                    

I didn't ask what the trick is to making this dish so good and she didn't volunteer it - so when I got the recipe and saw the magic ingredient I could only think "of course! makes perfect sense now", because what isn't a better idea than using stuffing as casserole topping?! I've never heard of it and it's genius.

• 1 1/2 cups fresh broccoli
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 T. flour
• 1/2 cup sour cream 
• 1/4 cup grated carrots
• 1 T. grated onion 
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/8 t. pepper
• 3/4 cup herbed stuffing mix
• 2 T. melted butter

Remove outer broccoli leaves and cut into 1" pieces. Cook stalks 5-6 minutes in salted water; add floretes and cook 5 minutes more. Blend soup and flour, then add sour cream, carrots, onion, salt and pepper; stir into broccoli. Put in a 2-quart casserole dish. Combine stuffing mix and melted butter, sprinkle on top of broccoli mixture. Bake at 350' for 30-35 minutes, when middle bubbles it's done. 

Meaty Minestrone

I read another of those 'Hannah Swenson' series books about a woman who owns a bake shop and solves murders - as implausible as that sounds, they are mostly light quick easy reading and she includes recipes so win-win. This recipe for meaty minestrone ('meaty' because minestrone is usually vegetable and pasta based) turned out fantastic, I ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - and my friend Al also loved it and since he's Italian and a foodie I feel like he should know hahaha! The books might not be very deep, complex, or realistic - but this soup makes up for it in spades :) 

• 1 cup onions (2 small or 1 large), chopped into small pieces
• 1 cup celery (about 5 stalks), chopped into small pieces
• 3 or 4 uncooked Italian sausages (mild or spicy), cut into bite-size pieces (note: I removed the meat from the casing and pulled it into small pieces; used 2 mild and 2 spicy links)
• 1 medium-size yellow summer squash, chopped
• 1 small to medium zucchini, chopped
• 1 cup peeled carrot slices, chopped (I used crinkle-cut slices and chopped in bite size pieces)
• 2-inch square parmesan cheese (I used the rind, remove it before serving)
• 1 to 2 t. minced garlic
• 2 cans (14.5 oz. each) beef broth (I used a 32-oz. box instead)
• 1 24-oz jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup water
• 2 cans (6.5 oz. each) sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup dry, uncooked corkscrew pasta (I used small shells)
• salt and pepper to taste

additional ingredients depending on how full your crock pot is and if you want to stretch the soup:

• 1 cup cut green beans (I used frozen)
• 1 15-oz can white beans, rinsed and drained (I used great northern)
• 1 cup tomato juice (I added a cup of bloody mary mix instead)
• 1 beef bouillon cube mixed with 1 cup water (I omitted this since I had a bit extra broth above)
• grated parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top when serving

Spray the inside of a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray (or use a crock pot liner).

Add the onions, celery, Italian sausages, squashes, carrot slices, and garlic; toss together. Pour the beef broth over the mixture, then add the spaghetti sauce. Measure one cup of water and add it to the empty spaghetti squash jar, swish around to clean out any remaining sauce, and add it to the crock. Add the mushrooms with juices, stir everything until well mixed. Add the hunk of parmesan. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or until the vegetables are tender. Add the uncooked pasta. If you have room in the crock and want to add any of the additional ingredients, do it now. Stir again making sure everything is incorporated, cover and cook on LOW for another hour. 

Before serving, check the seasonings and add salt and pepper as needed.  Serve in soup bowls, sprinkle with grated parmesan if desired. 

from 'Coconut Layer Cake Murder' by Joanne Fluke

Thousand Island Dressing

We like thousand island dressing but don't eat it that often so I don't usually keep it on hand - it takes us forever to go thru a whole bottle of store-bought and I end up having to pitch it.  I make this easy homemade version for the times we do want it - like on grilled reuben sandwiches and leftover corned beef salad, or just 'cuz it sounds good.

• 1/2 cup mayo (I use light, gotta save where I can!)
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons dill pickle relish
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• pinch of minced onion or onion powder
• pinch of garlic powder
• pinch of coarse salt
• a couple dashes of Tabasco, to taste,  if you want the dressing a little spicier

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, adjust seasonings as desired. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or so before serving. 

a grilled rueben (corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese
on rye bread) needs thousand island in my book!

any leftover corned beef and sauerkraut from the sandwiches
becomes a delicious salad with the addition of baby greens, shredded swiss cheese,
 and chopped dill pickles, drizzled with homemade thousand island dressing. 

Peanut Butter Granola

Going on a road trip with my sister and 4 nieces...gonna need snacks. I was originally going to make a snack mix recipe that has pretzels, cereal, cheez it's, and ramen noodles but when I told Dave I wanted to make it he "forbid" me from having anything with orange powdery cheese on it in the car! I said "excuse me, we are adults and aren't going to get cheez it's in the car, duh". Then he went on a minor rant about how there's already glitter embedded in the car that he can't get out and to please not add orange powdery cheese to the mess I've made LOL. I laughed, rolled my eyes, and found a different recipe just in case we actually do make an orange mess in the car hahahaha. So we have peanut butter granola instead - if we don't eat it all in the car it'll be great added to some plain greek yogurt for breakfast.

• 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/3 cup honey or pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chopped toasted nuts (almonds, peanuts, etc.)
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 325'
2. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
3. In a glass bowl, combine peanut butter, honey or maple syrup, vanilla, coconut oil, and salt. Melt until the ingredients are smooth and well combined. (took me just a few seconds on high).
4. In a large bowl combine the oats and nuts. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon until evenly coated.
5. Spread the granola onto the prepared baking sheet, bake for 15-20 minutes stirring a couple times.
6. Let the granola cool completely before stirring in the chocolate chips if you are using.

Yields 4 1/2 cups of granola. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks. 

found the recipe at Mels Kitchen Cafe.

Chicken Marsala

Yay - feels like it's time to start staying in more and getting back to Sunday Suppers... not sure why we don't do them in the summer but it just never seems to happen, I've missed it! I really enjoy looking thru my files of recipes I want to try, I have years worth ripped out somewhat organized in a giant file folder (after I make the recipe and decide if it's a keeper I move it to my actual recipe book or computer file) - I should probably make the recipe before feeding it to guests to see if it works but I totally experiment on everyone,  what's the worst that can happen? Ha, they can just go home and eat a sandwich if my dinners don't turn out :)

not the prettiest picture, much better
in person I promise! 

This week it's Chicken Marsala - I've eaten it a bunch of times but never made it, says "easy" so I decided to give it a try. Turns out it's very easy and delicious - especially if you just follow the recipe and don't try to "fix" it...yep that's what I did of course! Still turned out great, I just thought it was too soupy so added a little flour/water to thicken it and it instantly was too thick - everyone was standing in the kitchen waiting to eat so I didn't take the time to correct it by adding more broth and thinning the sauce back out but if I had time I would have and no one woulda been the wiser. As it was though the flavor is really good, we had it over herbed angel hair (click here for that recipe) with roasted broccoli and I got no complaints! Oh, and I tried my hand at making "georgian cheese bread" to round out our meal, I'll post that this week. You're gonna love it.

I followed a Tyler Florence recipe I found on foodnetwork.com - I was originally going to try a recipe I had in my file but while researching other ways to make it I landed on Tyler's and liked it so much I won't keep experimenting coming up with a better version.

Notes: don't add anything to thicken the sauce, just follow the recipe. And I used diced pancetta instead of prosciutto, yum.

Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced
• 8 ounces crimini or porcini mushrooms, stemmed and halved
• 1/2 cup sweet Marsala wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them; pound with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Put some flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly.
Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet. When the oil is nice and hot, dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess. Slip the cutlets into the pan and fry for 5 minutes on each side until golden, turning once – do this in batches if the pieces don't fit comfortably in the pan. Remove the chicken to a large platter in a single layer to keep warm.
Lower the heat to medium and add the prosciutto to the drippings in the pan, saute for 1 minute to render out some of the fat. Now, add the mushrooms and saute until they are nicely browned and their moisture has evaporated, about 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Pour the Marsala in the pan and boil down for a few seconds to cook out the alcohol. Add the chicken stock and simmer for a minute to reduce the sauce slightly. Stir in the butter and return the chicken to the pan; simmer gently for 1 minute to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.
Recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence and JoAnn Cianciulli

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White Beans in Marinara Sauce and Arugula Salad with Fresh Mushrooms

I got the idea for this dish when we went to Greece a couple years ago and had giant beans in a tomato sauce, and loved loved loved them. I found a couple recipes in cookbooks but then just sort of made this version up and it's stuck - I make them all the time.

sometimes I add a handful of halved cherry tomatoes 

 I don't know where to get giant beans here - for real, there are huge giant white beans out there! Get them if you find them - so I use canned white beans, usually Great Northern or White Cannelini and sometimes a mixture of both. Rinse them really well, put into a small roasting dish, and mix in some jarred marinara sauce (or any spaghetti sauce would be fine I think) - bake at 350 for anywhere between 30 - 45 minutes (you can't really overbake, they just cook down more the longer you bake them. If they seem dry I add a little hot water or olive oil to loosen them up a bit). Season with salt and pepper, and crumble feta cheese over the top for the last few minutes in the oven.

They are good by themselves, or as a side dish to grilled or roasted meat and chicken. I occasionally add halved cherry tomatoes and/or additional italian seasoning - it's a very adaptable dish. But white beans, marinara, and feta alone is just delish...I hope you'll try them!

This time we had them with grilled marinated pork tenderloin and a super easy salad of arugula and fresh mushrooms tossed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, coarse salt, and parmesan.

salad ingredients

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

I made these to take to my sisters house Monday for the Fourth - pretty easy although I'll warn you they're a little messy to make - especially on a warm day :). 

First I made small chocolate chip cookies using my small cookie scoop (about 1 tablespoon). After they're completely cool match up the cookies into roughly the same size pairs so the sandwich will be pretty similar on both sides. Let a tub of vanilla ice cream sit on the counter until it gets soft (not too soft though, that's when the messy part really starts happening!), then spoon some onto one side of the matched pair and top with the second cookie, press lightly to spread the ice cream. I then take a small knife and fill in ice cream around the edges of the cookies so the ice cream fills up the entire space between them - since it's July 4th I rolled the edges in patriotic sprinkles but any other time of year I just leave them plain. Put in the freezer until they are solid, then wrap each sandwich individually in wax or freezer paper and tape shut with a piece of masking tape (or you could be really cute and use patterned washi tape!) - I actually like how old fashioned it looks to have them folded up in white paper and sealed with masking tape, it's cute.

Roasted Garbanzo Beans

I roast just about everything - asparagus, green beans, broccoli, carrots, cherry tomatoes (click here to see that post, so good)...you name it I've probably tried to roast it. One thing I really love to roast is canned garbanzo beans - have you tried them? Great to add to a salad (it's especially good in my almost Greek salad, click here for that recipe), serve as a side dish with chicken or pork, or eat plain as a snack - they get crunchy and remind me of popcorn. They really remind me of popcorn if you turn up the oven too high and they start exploding and popping in the oven! For real, be careful opening the oven door if you hear them start popping - they'll fly around just like air-popped popcorn!

Rinse well and drain a can of garbanzo beans. Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt. Put in the oven 350'-400' (I usually start high and if they start popping I turn the oven down) and let them roast until they are done to your liking. Sometimes I just do them for a few minutes so they are hot but not too crunchy, other times I leave them in longer...and sometimes I forget they're in there and they get really really crunchy and those are good too! Just experiment to see how you prefer them - they taste much different after roasting them.

Rolo Cupcakes

My niece Mickey requested cupcakes for her graduation party and sent me what seemed like hundreds of Pinterest ideas for what she would like. I decided to make 2 different flavors -'Rolo' which is a dark chocolate cake with caramel, and 'cookie dough' yellow cake with a ball of cookie dough in the batter ... she was thrilled.

The Rolo cupcakes are filled with homemade caramel, when I first looked at the recipe I was thinking that sounded like a lot of work and I wasn't crazy about that haha, but it was very easy to do and I'm going to be using this caramel recipe for lots of different things in addition to the cupcake filling. Don't let that part scare you off of making these! I followed the recipe exactly even though while I was waiting for the sugar to melt in a dry pan I was second guessing the instructions for sure! You put granulated sugar in a pan over medium heat and stir, and wait, and stir, and wait - it took quite a while before it started to melt and then it got weirdly chunky before it did indeed finally melt. Don't let it cook too long or the sugar will burn.

this is what the sugar did before melting completely. 

I'll admit I cheated on the cake part of the recipe; I planned to make the cake from scratch as instructed but then saw that I had a devils food cake mix in the cupboard and decided to use that as a short cut. I did add a big scoop of sour cream and a handful of mini chocolate chips to the batter to jazz it up a little.

After the cupcakes are baked and cool, scoop out some of the top (I cut a circle with a sharp knife and then scooped it out with a small spoon saving the cake I removed) and fill with a little less than a tablespoon of cooled caramel sauce, replace the piece of cake you removed, then frost with chocolate buttercream and drizzle with a little more caramel. Top with an unwrapped Rolo.

These turned out super good, the only negative I heard was that they are almost too moist - I think the caramel soaks into the cake quite a bit so it gives it a very moist texture, you almost want to eat them with a fork. But really, if the only downside is chocolate cake that is too moist (instead of dry!) then I'm good with that.

Seasoned Breadsticks

I was asked to bring rolls to dinner the other night and of course I can't just bring rolls, that'd be too easy. But I didn't have a lot of time so I doctored store-bought breadstick dough with olive oil and spices and made spiral breadsticks to go with Steven and Candy's goulash dinner - yum.

This is hardly a recipe, more like a tip or trick:

-Open the can.
-Lay the dough in 2 sections on a parchment lined baking sheet. I saved time and didn't separate them until after adding the seasoning.
-Brush with olive oil.
-Liberally sprinkle with spice of your choosing. For one half I did 'herb salad' blend and the other half I used coarse black pepper and coarse salt. They pretty much looked the same after baking. Use whatever you have - I've done poppy seeds, italian spices, garlic salt...all good.
-Turn the dough over and repeat on the other side.
-Separate the breadsticks and twist them a couple of times to make a spiral.
-Place on baking pan, gently press the ends so the curl doesn't come out.
-Bake following the directions on the can.