Apple Pancakes

Ummmmmm.... yum. That is pretty much all I need to say. Oh, and I am really irritated that blogspot randomly rotates my pictures and I can't get them back right.

Apple Pancakes
Serves: 1-2


1. Heat up your griddle to 4 out of 10 if you have an electric stove like me. You know when it is ready when a drop of water dances on the pan.


2. Take a medium/large apple and peel, core, and slice it. I used Pacific Rose because that's what I had on hand. Any apple suitable for cooking will work. You will need 4 slices, but don't make them mega thick.

3. Mix the following: 1 cup pancake mix (I like Krusteaz), 3/4 water, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon white sugar, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. If it is too thin, add more pancake mix a tablespoon at a time until you like the thickness.

4. Place 2 slices of apple on the pan for about 15 seconds and flip over. Pour 1/4 of the pancake mix over each slice. You know it is time to flip the pancakes when there are tons of popping bubbles and the edges start to dry out. Flip over and cook for another 2 minutes or so. Repeat with 2 more slices.

5. Serve with syrup or whatever else you like. Makes 4 large pancakes.

Naanwich

According to Wikipedia: "Naan is a leavened, oven-baked flatbread. It is one of the most popular varieties of South Asian breads and is particularly popular in northern India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan." According to me: "Naan is super soft garlic bread.... don't get the curry flavor, it is nasty."

We had a bunch of garlic naan bread from Trader Joe's and we needed to use it up. This was pretty damn good.

Naanwich
Serves: 1

1. Slice one piece of naan in half the short way. Butter one side of each half like you are making a grilled cheese. If you don' t know how to make grilled cheese, maybe you should take a cooking class instead of reading blogs.

2. Make it exactly like a grilled cheese sandwich. Ta-da. Pictured is ham, provolone, and roasted red peppers. We also tried turkey, bacon, and provolone.

Creamy Pasta - Hold the Cream

I found this recipe on Molly's 'things I want to try list'. She found the recipe here. To be honest, I thought this was pretty boring. We don't like feta, so I changed it out for mozzarella. I would definitely cut back on the amount of pasta... there isn't enough "sauce" and it makes way more than two of us could eat.

Creamy Pasta - Hold the Cream
Serves: 3-4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped (about 2 teaspoons)
One 16 oz jar roasted red peppers, drained, rinsed and chopped
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
One box whole wheat penne
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Heat the oil in a medium heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the peppers and cook until heated through. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Transfer the red pepper mixture to a food processor, add the broth and all but 2 tablespoons of the feta (I added all my feta). Process until combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.

Cook the pasta to al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Toss the pasta with the sauce, adding the pasta water by the tablespoon if needed. The sauce should cling nicely to the pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Divide among serving bowls. Sprinkle with parsley and reserved feta (or parm!) and serve.

Deep Fried Cookie Dough

One time I asked a carnie at a fair who was selling deep fried oreos what the batter was. She said its basically funnel cake batter, you can deep fry anything as long as you coat it in funnel cake batter. So I decided to see if that is in fact true. I would only advise eating this if you are really into the raw cookie dough flavor. I am not so much so I only ate like one or two of these. If you are pregnant or have a medical condition or whatever, you shouldn't eat these because there is potentially raw egg in them... I don't know how well they get cooked thru to make them super safe.

Deep Fried Cookie Dough
Yield: 12-15 balls of gooey-ness

1. Make a standard chocolate cookie dough recipe. Get out your cookie scoop and form about a dozen or so cookie balls and place them on a small tray or baking sheet, don't let them touch. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze solid, at least 2 hours. I am sure you could use the refrigerated cookie dough as well.

2. Make the batter by whisking together the following:
1 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The result should resemble pancake batter. Adjust the flour as necessary.

3. Heat up your deep fryer. Coat each cookie ball in the batter. If you do not cover it completely the dough will leak out... not good. So coat it well. Drop a couple at a time into the fryer and fry for about 2 minutes until golden. Drain on a paper towel. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Everbody in the Pool Chicken

One skillet? Perfect. This is great when you don't want to dirty a bunch of pots and pans.

Everybody in the Pool Chicken
Serves: 2-3

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup diced onion
1 can mushrooms, drained
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 medium redskin potatoes, cut into bite sized chunks
1 can cut green beans, drained
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf

1. Heat the oil in a skillet and place the chicken breasts in and cook about 7 minutes and turn over and cook another 7 minutes (or until cooked thru). Add the onions and butter when you flip them. Salt and pepper to taste.

2. Leave it all in the pan and add everything else. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Most of the liquid will be absorbed. It is done when the potatoes are cooked thru. Remove the bay leaf and serve.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Yep I said cookie dough cupcakes. I saw this recipe and HAD to make it. I read all the reviews and there seems to be 2 complaints: they are dry and the cookie dough cooks instead of being raw dough. Well I fixed the dry problem and think I eventually fixed the raw issue, but I will have to make them again. See the last 2 pictures? The one at the bottom is putting the dough top and center, the one with the hole in it was from me pushing the raw dough into the batter which worked much better. Next time I might try putting the dough in first then the batter.

I didn't use the actual original recipe, just the concept. So here is my version:

Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Cookie Dough:

Make one recipe Nom Cookies but do not bake them. Instead take a small cookie scoop and fill it just barely full and place on a pan. Repeat 23 more times. Freeze at least 2 hours (I froze them overnight).

Batter:
-1 box Devil's Food cake mix (or whatever flavor you like)
-1 small box chocolate pudding and pie filling (I think it is around 3 oz)
-4 eggs
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup veggie oil

Mix all the ingredients together. Preheat the oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups. It is probably best to do this in 2 batches of 12 so that the oven will bake properly. Fill each cup 2/3 full of batter. Press a frozen dough ball into the middle of the batter and push all the way down. Or try 1/3 batter, add the dough, 1/3 batter... see if that works better. Bake in the oven for 16 minutes. If you bake it too long, the dough will cook ruining the point of this recipe. Cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely. After fully cooling, frost.

Frosting:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in whipped cream. You may want to refrigerate this for a little while to try and firm it up a bit. Put a big blog in a Ziploc sandwich bag, cut off a small corner and use it like a piping bag to get the frosting on there.

I really like these cupcakes refrigerated. Plus with the halfway raw dough and the cream cheese frosting, you should probably serve these immediately or refrigerate them anyway.

Chicken Penne Al Fresco

I got this easy recipe from Molly. I just copy/pasted it so I will leave her notes in. Yes I am feeling lazy right now. My only change was that I used canned basil/oregano/olive oil seasoned tomatoes.

Chicken Penne Al Fresco
Serves: 2-4 depending on which way you follow the recipe

INGREDIENTS
* 1 teaspoon olive oil
* 4 cloves garlic, sliced (2 cloves)
* 2 cups cherry tomatoes (1 medium tomato, chopped)
* 3 cups penne pasta (1 cup)
* 3 3/4 cups chicken broth (1 can, about 1 3/4c)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
* 1 1/4 cups fresh basil leaves, (1/2 tsp dried +5 small fresh leaves)
* 2 cups diced cooked chicken (1 x-large breast cooked in olive oil)
* 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I probably used even more than that)

1. Coat a microwave-safe casserole dish with olive oil; stir in the garlic and tomatoes. Cover and microwave on High until tomatoes begin to burst, 4 to 5 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Remove garlic and tomato mixture from the microwave and crush the remaining tomatoes with a fork. Stir in pasta, chicken broth, salt, and pepper.

2. Cover and return to microwave. Cook on High until pasta is tender, 16 to 18 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. Remove pasta from the microwave, then stir in the basil, chicken, and Parmesan cheese.

*1st cook time only took about 3 minutes for me. Second cook time took about 13.

Grilled Pizza

I had been thinking about trying to grill pizza for awhile and then it showed up on Lindsay's blog so I decided to try out her recipe. It was kind of successful We had the grill on as low as it could possibly go and cooked for wayyyyy less time and the crusts still got burned... especially the buffalo one because it was closest to the tank. I don't know why our grill is super mega inferno hot.

Grilled Pizza

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients
* 1 tube pre-made pizza crust (we used Pillsbury)
* 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
* 1 cup pizza sauce
* Meat and veggie toppings of your choice (We had thin sliced lunchmeat pepperoni, fresh basil, green and red peppers, mushrooms, and onions)

Directions
1. Preheat an outdoor grill for low heat and spray grate with cooking spray

2. Roll out prepared pizza dough to a size that will fit your grill (we used 1 tube of dough, cut in half, for 2 individual pizzas).

3. Place on grill for 5 minutes, or to desired doneness, and flip over. Now add the sauce, cheese, and other toppings. (OURS TOOK LIKE 3 MINUTES)

4. Cover the grill and allow to cook over high heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. (WE FLIPPED THEM OVER AND TOPPED THEM, TURNED THE GRILL COMPLETELY OFF AND CLOSED THE COVER, THEY STILL ONLY TOOK 5 MINUTES TOPS)

-Notes: I had heard that if you don't cook up the toppings before grilling, they won't cook enough. So I sauteed the veggies beforehand.

I made a Buffalo chicken version that was topped with:
-Mix 1 small can chicken (drained) with 1/2 cup ranch and 1/2 cup buffalo sauce, spread on crust
-Top with cheddar or colby jack cheese

Grilled Whole Chicken

This is only kind of a recipe. I wasn't overly thrilled with the marinade so I am not going to bother including it. Just find a marinade that you want to try and use that... this is more about how to cook the chicken.

Grilled Whole Chicken
Serves: 3-4

1. Kind of butterfly a whole chicken (3.5-4 pounds is good). Place a rinsed (and guts removed) chicken on a cutting board, backside up. Take some good strong kitchen scissors and cut down one side of the backbone. Now for the gross part... grab the chicken and yank it open so you kind of crack the breastbone area so that the chicken will kind of lay flat. If this is confusing... go to youtube.com and look up 'butterfly a chicken'.

2. In a large roasting pan, place the chicken guts side up. Take a couple cups of marinade and pour it allllll over. Let it soak in for a few hours (in the refrigerator of course).

3. Preheat the grill to low. Place the whole chicken on the grill guts side down. No need to ever flip the chicken. You will want to take some of the leftover marinade and brush it on a few times while cooking. It should cook for about an hour, maybe an hour and half depending on the size of the chicken. If you do not have a digital meat thermometer, buy one. The chicken is done when it is at least 160 degrees in the thick part of the meat around the "armpit" area.

Basic White Sauce

For the millionth time... no clue what to make for dinner... use what is around. I found a recipe for a basic white sauce on allrecipes and modified it. It was ok, not a ton of flavor, but it was a good base.

Basic White Sauce
Serves: 1 pasta dish for 2

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons stick margarine
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 boullion cubes, smashed to bits
1 cup boiling water
1 cup milk
2 cloves minced garlic
1 handful of mozzarella cheese
pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan, melt margarine. Stir in flour and bouillon until blended. Add garlic. Gradually add water and milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Throw in the mozzarella and stir. Season with pepper.

-While I was making a half box of linguine, I tossed in about a dozen frozen shrimp into the boiling water for the last 2-3 minutes of cook time and drained the pasta and shrimp. Then I added a box of my favorite veggies to the white sauce (after microwaving the package) then topped the pasta with the sauce. Serve with garlic cheese bread.

~*Mod 4 Photographic*~

One of my favorite photographers has had two really awesome posts lately....

Murray was nominated for a super sweet contest, so vote for #3!!!
http://mod4.com/blog/2009/07/help-choose-the-winner-of-a-boutique-photo-handbag/

Also, they posted about Simplicity! How sweet is that? We are honored.
http://mod4.com/blog/2009/07/simplicity-day-of-coordinating-special/

Beer Can Chicken

We got a new grill, and this was the first thing we made on it. At Lowe's we found this nifty stand for $4 to make this recipe so much easier since you don't have to figure out how to make the chicken balance anymore! I highly recommend picking one up!


Beer Can Chicken
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients
1 whole chicken, guts removed, rinsed and patted dry (about 3.5 pounds is a good size)
1 hunk of onion
1/2 can of beer
1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce
spray butter


2-3/4 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-3/4 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme


Directions
1. Preheat the grill to about 375. Mix up all the spices in a small bowl.


2. Chug half a beer and leave half. Pour in the worcestershire sauce. Place can in the stand. Violate the chicken and shove the cavity over the can and press down as far as it will go. The drumsticks should just barely touch the grill grate. I usually tuck the wings close to the body and tie a piece of string around the entire bird to keep them tucked so they don't dry up and burn.


3. Shove about half of the spices underneath the skin wherever you can. Shove the chunk of onion into the neck hole of the bird as far as you can. Spray the bird with butter all over then rub the remained of the seasoning all over.


4. Carefully place on the grill and cook over 375-400/medium heat for about an hour. Chicken is done when the internal temperature reaches 180 with a meat thermometer.


5. Remove from grill and let stand for about 5 minutes before cutting into it.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Yet again we were faced with nothing in the fridge and no good ideas for dinner. What we really wanted to eat was Buffalo Chicken Dip, but that is not really a meal. So I made it into one. It was freaking good. Please note, I found this recipe for the pizza dough and it is a no-wait, no-raise recipe, which is awesome when you are in a hurry. It makes the dough pretty dense so don't you dare complain about it or say that I missed a step because I didn't let it raise... that's the point!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients
* 8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used reduced fat)
* 6 oz Frank's buffalo sauce
* 4 oz Ranch dressing (I used Hidden Valley)
* 1/2-3/4 pound ground chicken
* 1 cup shredded colby jack or cheddar cheese

*3 cups all-purpose flour
*1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
*2 tablespoons vegetable oil
*1 teaspoon salt
*1 tablespoon white sugar
*1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Lightly spray a pizza pan with non stick spray.

2. In a skillet, cook the ground chicken until no longer pink and add the cream cheese, buffalo sauce, and ranch and heat over low until combined.

3. Meanwhile, combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Squish into a ball and then roll out onto the pizza pan. The crust is decently thick if you use a regular sized circular pizza pan. Squish up the edges to make an edge crust. Bake for about 10 minutes.

4. Remove the crust and dump on the chicken mixture and spread out. Top with shredded cheese. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is done.

Chicken O'Brien

This was another one of the 'what's in the fridge that I can throw together and make a casserole' recipes. It was pretty good, but definitely needs more seasoning. I'm sure you can think of something that will make it even more tasty.

Chicken O'Brien
Serves: 3-4

4 chicken breasts (or thin sliced breasts or tenders)
1 can condensed cheese soup
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
2+ cups of frozen potatoes o'brien hash browns
1 cup shredded cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 375. In a 9x13 pan, spray with non stick spray and lay out the chicken in a single layer. Mix together the soup and milk and spread over the chicken. Add the corn and a layer of potatoes then the cheese.

2. Bake for about 45 minutes, depending on the cut of chicken. You may want to broil for the last 2-3 minutes to crisp up the cheese. Just watch it or it will burn.

Ideas on how to kick up the seasoning?

Hot Potatoes

Mmm tasty. Another good grill recipe. You can adjust the fire by taking all, some, or none of the seeds/membrane out of the jalapenos.

Hot Potatoes
Serves: 3-4

6-8 medium to large sized red potatoes, washed and dried
2 jalapenos, deseeded/membrane if you wish, cut in a large dice
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
Grill seasoning and garlic salt to taste
Handfuls of shredded cheese (mexican, colby jack, cheddar etc)

1. Layout a length of foil. Spray with some non stick spray. If you have a mandolin, get that puppy out, otherwise do it by hand. Slice the potatoes decently thin and place on foil. Throw in the butter and jalapenos and sprinkle with the salt and seasoning.

2. Fold up the foil and place on the grill. Cook on a medium heat grill 30 minutes, turning once. Cooking time will vary depending on how thin the potatoes are... this is a trial and error.

3. Remove from grill and carefully open the foil. Sprinkle on a layer of cheese and cover lightly with the foil so it gets all melty. Serve.

Fabulous Corn

We make this a lot when we grill. It is an easy and awesome side dish and we can't get enough of it. Try it, you will like it.

Fabulous Corn
Serves: 2-3

1 can corn, drained
1/2 cup of diced onion, red pepper, and green pepper... don't measure, just dice up a couple small hunks
1 tablespoon butter
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Garlic Salt
2 tablespoons chive & onion cream cheese (or plain if you have that)

1. Over medium heat in a small pan, saute the onions and peppers in the butter for a few minutes until they soften some. Add the corn and continue to cook, stirring frequently. Sprinkle with the steak seasoning and garlic salt to taste (maybe like 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of seasoning). Cook for about 8 minutes.

2. Add the cream cheese and stir to coat. Cook for another couple minutes and serve. YUM

Easy Grilled Asparagus

This is barely a recipe... but sometimes you, dear reader, need some ideas on what to make for dinner, so maybe this will help.

Easy grilled Asparagus
Serves: 4-6

1 bunch asparagus
spray butter
steak seasoning

1. Lay out a chunk of foil. Bend the asparagus until they snap (easier than trimming) and place on the foil. Use spray butter and coat spears. Sprinkle with Montreal Steak Seasoning.

2. Fold up packet and place on a medium heat grill for about 8 minutes, flipping once. Cook time depends on how firm you like your asparagus.

Taco Rice Skillet

I needed to use up some ground turkey and we needed a quick meal. So I looked up some recipes as inspiration and started throwing whatever into a pan. Worked out great and the leftovers made a great midnight snack... the guys at it as dip! I think it would make a better dip if you switched out the shredded cheese for a big hunk of Velveeta... might try that in the future for a yummy party dip.

Tace Rice Skillet
Serves: 3-4

1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 package taco seasoning
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup salsa
1 cup frozen corn
1 1/2 cups uncooked instant rice
1 cup shredded cheese


In a skillet, cook turkey and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain if necessary.

Stir in taco seasoning, water, salsa and corn; bring to a boil. Add rice. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.

Sprinkle with cheese; cover and let stand until the cheese is melted. Serve with tortilla chips.

Apple PB Cookies

These are tasty and almost healthy! You definitely need to eat these within 24 hours or they will fall apart from the moisture content. I actually cut the recipe in half and made like 10 cookies (yes I cut an egg in half haha). I found this recipe at Pennies on a Platter



Apple PB Cookies
Yield: About 2 dozen

1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 Cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
3/4 Cup granola clusters (Or Just Bunches cereal, I would add more next time)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Cup diced apples, about 1/4 inch, I used granny smith

1/2 Cup sugar to roll cookies in

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until light mixed well. Beat in peanut butter until combined then add the egg and vanilla until well combined.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, granola, baking soda and salt. Slowly mix into the wet ingredients following the apples until just combined. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough, roll into sugar then place onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. With tines of a fork, press down slightly making an X on top of each cookie. Bake for 8-9 minutes, cookies should look somewhat soft inside when you take them out. Let cool/finish baking out of oven for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack

It is an honor just to be nominated....

Friends and Family...

As you may or may not know, one of my many talents is wedding planning!! I am able to indulge this, well, obsession really, thru my very good friend's company Simplicity Day of Event Coordinating where I am an assistant DOC. Well Simplicity has been nominated for the best wedding planner in Detroit in the Click on Detroit's Vote 4 the Best contest! If you could take a minute of your time and vote for us, we would truly appreciate it!

Just click here to cast your vote... you can only vote once per email account.

http://wdiv.cityvoter.com/simplicity/biz/334808

THANK YOU!!!!!

P.S. I also support Kreativ Imaging for best photographer if you happen to wander over to that section of the voting =)