Friday Five: Leftover Roast Chicken

Sheeesh it's been quite some time since I posted a Friday Five.  Hopefully this one does not disappoint.  I make a roast chicken almost every week, and we ALWAYS have leftovers.  My husband prefers the legs and wings, the boys and I eat the thighs.  We always have the entire breasts leftover (and sometimes more). So here's my Friday Five things to do with leftover roasted chicken.

1. Chicken Stock.  I haven't bought chicken stock since Thanksgiving (when gallons and gallons are required).  What I do is cut off all the usable meat (white and dark) and store it in a freezer bag.  Then I take everything leftover, this includes bones, onions, herbs, and anything else I roast with it.  Throw everything in a crock pot.  Just cover with water and cook for 12 hours.

 Let it cool, poor through a strainer.  I used to freeze it in ice cube trays, but I use it so often I just keep in quart containers in the fridge now.

2. This is perhaps the most obvious... Chicken Salad!  Now sure, you could just chop it up and mix in some mayo, but why stop there?  How about adding some toasted chopped pecans or walnuts, sliced grapes, a bit of chopped onion and some garlic powder.  YUM!

3.  Chicken Quesadillas.  This is my favorite thing to use leftover chicken for.  Shred or cut your chicken into small cubes.   Saute' some onions in a skillet until caramel in color and add your chicken with about a cup of salsa (add more or less depending on how much chicken you have).  You could also use taco seasoning and water instead, but we rarely have that on hand.  I also like to add cumin and extra garlic powder.  Add your filling to tortillas and sprinkle generously with cheddar cheese, fold over.  You can finish them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or in another skillet with a bit of butter or olive oil.  Serve with sour cream, sliced avocados, and more salsa.  Sometimes I add black beans or corn to them as well.

4.   Chicken Tacos.  Make the same filling as you would for quesadillas.  Add to taco shells with your favorite taco toppings.  We usually skip this meal because Munchkin only eats the taco shell (which he calls chips).

5.  Chicken Shepard's Pie.  This is a new recipe I just came up with.  My husband and I thought it was great, Munchkin not so much... but he doesn't even like chicken nugget these days.  Anyway, saute' a cup each of carrots (I really can't stand peas so I never add them) and onions until soft. Add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic.  Cook until it's all soft, then add your chicken (about 2 cups).  In a small bowl I crushed 3 beef bouillon cubes, 2 teaspoons of onion powder, and a teaspoon of black pepper.  I added this to the chicken with about a half cup of water (or chicken stock if you have any).

In the mean time make your favorite mashed potato recipe.  Add your chicken to a square baking dish and top with your potatoes.  Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

 I didn't get a picture of it straight out of the oven.   It was more brown than I meant but it was still very good

Hope you enjoyed this Friday Five.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

As promised... (and kind of late) I am posting the recipe I used for Munchkin's Birthday Cake.  It took a while for me to decide on it.  I've actually never been a huge fan of chocolate (except for brownies... love some brownies) but the Munchkin definitely is into chocolate.  After I decided on chocolate cake I had to scour the web for recipes.  I can create recipes and throw things together when it comes time to cook... but baking is another story.  Anyway I stumbled upon one that I'd actually seen before. Does anyone else watch Barefoot Contessa?  I do when I get a chance.  I remember watching her make this chocolate cake and it made my mouth water even as a non-chocoholic.  So here it is... 


Beatty's Chocolate Cake


Ingredients

• Butter, for greasing the pans
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder 
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup veggie oil 
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (all I had was instant... and the cake still came out great!)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.  I actually used two 6-inch pans, and used the left over to make cup cakes.  Just remember to bake seperately because they have different baking times.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.  This recipe is courtessy of foodnetwork.com.  Love them just search for 5 star recipes.. you can't go wrong.

I had a lot to do on the days prior to the party so I actually mixed all my dry ingredients before hand.  I stored 2 batches in seperate freezer bags in my pantry.  I wanted the cakes to be fresh, so the day before I added my wet ingredients and baked away.  It was eazy peazy almost like using boxed cake mix... just 100 times better.

After finding the perfect cake I had to find a good frosting to compliment it.  Now, I love me some cream cheese frosting but I wanted to try something new.  Enter white chocolate buttercream!!!  When searching for a frosting recipe I look for recipes that DO NOT include shortening.  I think it leaves a greasy feeling on my tongue, the main reason I don't like canned frosting.  Anyway... I found this recipe for Whipped White Chocolate Buttercream at Comfortably Domestic.  You need to visit her... 1. because her pictures will make you want to dive head first into the frosting and have your way with it, 2. the frosting came out perfectly delisious.

To decorate I just added food coloring.  I also crumbled animal crackers for the sand (I didn't have any graham crackers and we've been working on a gigantic wholesale tub of them for way too long).  To make the black and white checkered pattern I used black edible paper cut into 1 inch squares.  I found it at Walmart... don't remember how much.  

So there you have it.  I will definately make this cake again.. it recieved rave reviews from all that tasted it!

Friday Five: My Favorite Thanksgiving Eats!

Not sure if I've mentioned this... but I love food.  Seriously, I love the smells and tastes.  I love to cook (most of the time).  When I went away for college, I missed home cooked food so much that Thanksgiving was like my absolute favorite holiday.  Anyhow, there are so many wonderful foods to eat on Thanksgiving, but if I had to choose just 5 (God forbid.. lol), this is what I'd choose.

1.  Alton Brown's Roasted Turkey.   For those of you who are turkey gurus, I'm sure you've heard of brinning.  Basically it's like a marinade for your turkey.  It makes the meat super juicy and flavorful.  Anyway, last year is the first time I tried it, it's words can't explain good.  I followed Alton Brown's recipe exactly.   The week before Thanksgiving last year I did a small practice turkey (we were having everyone we know over so I didn't want to experiment with the actual bird).  Anyway, it was so good, my husband and I ate that sucker right out the roasting pan.. I didn't even have to make a gravy, although I did on Thanksgiving because of tradition.   This recipe is on Foodnetwork.com, it's 5 star with well over 3,000 reviews... try this recipe now!!

2.  Sausage Stuffing - When I was a little girl, stuffing was never a fav.  The soggy mess that comes out of the bird (usually made with store bought stuffing mix) just wasn't very appealing to me.  However, a couple of years ago I discovered experimented with homemade stuffing.  Let me just tell you it's a 100 times better.  Last year I found a recipe for homemade stuffing and it has totally changed my perception.  First of all it is not cooked in the bird (I stuff my bird with herbs and onions and things like that).  I've made this recipe using both cornbread and white bread and I can't decide which way I like better.  It's from a Food Network Magazine Nov. 2010 (50 Stuffings), it was a mini pull-out cook-book ).  Here it is if you'd like to give it a try.

Brown 1 pound of crumbled sausage ( I always use turkey sausage) in 6 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.   Add 2 cups each of diced onions and celery (I never add celery because I can't stand it) and 1 tablespoon each of minced sage, and thyme; add salt and pepper and cook 5 min.  Add 3 cups of chicken or turkey broth and bring to a simmer.  Beat 2 eggs with 1/4 cup chopped parsley in a large bowl.  Add 16 cups of cubed stale bread, then pour in the vegetable broth mixture and toss.   Transfer to a buttered baking baking dish, dot with butter.  Cover and bake for 30 mins at 375.  I also add dried cranberries in mine when I mix everything together... just think it really sends it over the moon.


3. Baked Macaroni and Cheese - Now, I love all things cheese, but the marriage of cream, butter, pasta, and cheese all baked until golden and bubbling is pure heaven to me.  I grew up eating baked macaroni and cheese in a non-traditional way.  My uncle made it using big ziti noodles (so the cheese sauce oozes out with each bite).  I have my own recipe to make it, and folks have always told me it's the bomb.  Lol, funny story... When I first started dating my husband I made mac and cheese for him.  I was so busy talking and (ok flirting) that I totally over cooked it and it was this dry lumpy sad excuse for mac and cheese.  Well he of course ate it, but later on he told me he could help me out.  Then, a few days later during my "tutoring" he explains that his ex-girlfriend made the best mac and cheese and he was going to show me how.  Now, I don't typically get all "black girl", but oh no he didn't (neck swerve and all)!!!  Seriously! The nerve, and in my kitchen no less.  So of course I'm fuming and when his mediocre mac and cheese was done I ate it and told him (ever so sweetly) that I could def make it better.  So of course a challenge was set and at Thanksgiving at my uncles house we had a tasting(blind, no one knew who's was who's).   I won of course!!

Anyhow, I don't typically measure when I make it so I don't have an exact recipe but I basically make a cheese sauce using garlic, white wine, and heavy cream.  I add sharp cheddar, monteray jack, and colby cheese, then a sprinkling of nutmeg and pepper.  I like to use big ziti noodles like my uncle.  I do not add bread crumbs on top, never been a fan of that.  I also don't use egg.  If I do it right (and I don't every time.. kids yelling and pulling on my leg and what not), then the cheese sauce is thick enough with out needing eggs or flour.   It takes a while because I have to constantly stir.  Anyway if you want another great recipe, Patti Labelle's Over the Rainbow Mac and Cheese is delicious too.  Try it out, I also think it's easier to make.

4. Mashed Potatoes  A heaping pile of hot, creamy, buttery mashed potatoes with rich brown gravy spilling over the sides is just sooooo good.  Last year (can you tell it was my first time hosting last year?) I found out that there is a trick to perfect mashed potatoes.   Now I don't know the whole science behind it, but the milk or cream you add should be hot.  Also the butter should be melted.  It makes for the perfect consistency.  Some times I make herbed mashed potatoes.  Just heat the milk and butter and add chopped fresh herbs to it (usually sage and thyme, possibly basil if I have some).  YUM!!

5. Collard Greens - This is a staple on my plate on Thanksgiving.  I've loved collard greens since I was a child.  My mother told me that her father (my pop pop) called the juice left over in the in the bottom of the pot "pot liquor".  Has anyone else ever heard that?  It always makes me smile when I think of him.  Typically collards are cooked on some type of pork, but since hubby doesn't eat pork I cook mine on smoked turkey wings.  The result is just as divine.

With these five dishes, I could eat Thanksgiving left overs for weeks.  I love this food so much that even though the fam and I will be heading over to my mom's for Thanksgiving I know that the plate of food I'll bring home will not be enough and I'll be making these same 5 dishes for a second Thanksgiving for my small family.  LOL, then we can have tons of leftovers, just like I like it.

By the way, it is not by accident that I haven't chosen any pies or dessert.  I know lots of people love dessert on Thanksgiving.  Usually I'm too stuffed to eat dessert and to be completely honest... I don't like pumpkin or sweet potato pie (call me crazy if you want).

What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods?

Graphics for Friday Comments

Friday Five: Favorite Candy

Hello Rosey Readers!!! It's almost Halloween!! I'm such a kid at heart and I love all holidays (especially Christmas). In honor of this wonderfully spooky (Munchkins new favorite word) and awesomely sweet holiday, here are my five favorite candies of all time.

1. Snickers! By far my favorite! Who doesn't love a caramelly, chocolatey, nutty bar of goodness! I've had ice cream Snickers and even fried Snickers. Back in the day I'd get a king size Snickers with no guilt... Not anymore. The only time I eat Snickers these days is around Halloween when I get two bags of fun sized Snickers, and only pass out one to the trick or treaters.

2. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, peanut butter and chocolate... Has there ever been a better pair?... Shhh don't tell jelly...lol

3. Twizzlers. Now I know they are not totally guilt free but I do feel better about eating a bag of twizzlers than I do a bag of Snickers. I love them, fruity and chewy. Have you ever had chocolate Twizzlers? how about the sour filled ones? They're good but nothing beats good ol' strawberry.

4. Werther's Original Caramels. OMGsh!!!! These are the best hard or soft caramels out there!!!

5. Peanut M&Ms. Yum-O (wait do I sound like Rachel Ray?) anyway. I totally prefer peanut over plain... Does anybody disagree? I don't often get these (even though I love them) but here and there I'll add them to trail mix. Try this recipe I use: mix together 1 cup of the following: walnuts, almonds, cashews, raisins, and dried cherries and add 1/2 cup of
peanut M & Ms. Make 1/2 Cup baggies for a quick or on the go snack.

What kind of candy do you love?

Bananas About Birthday Cake!

So last post I bragged talked about the red velvet cake I made for hubby's birthday.  Today I'll show you the banana cake I made for Little Bear's first birthday.  I really wanted to do a kid friendly cake.  Yes, that would possibly be any cake.. but I really wanted something sweet and moist and fun.  I read somewhere/everywhere that adding a box of pudding to cake mix makes it extra moist, so I knew I was going to do that.  I wanted to make a cake from scratch, but I didn't want to overwhelm myself since I was already making a scratch cake for hubby the same day.  I decided to just remix a boxed cake mix instead.  But what flavor... hmmm.  I love carrot cake, but like I said before I've made it soooo many times. I didn't want to do chocolate since we were already having red velvet.  The idea came when my husband mentioned something about eating one of the brown bananas in the pantry. Hmmm, I thought, what about banana cake? Perfect... Little Bear loves bananas.  Then I decided to add a filling like the professionals. In my research I stumbled onto a baking forum (can't remember which) and it was suggested to replace milk for heavy cream when making instant pudding for a great filling. Just in case you wanted to know... heavy cream + instant banana pudding = heaven.

So here it is... Banana Cake with Banana Filling and Vanilla Butter Cream... Enjoy!

For the cake:

To make the cake I simply added one really ripe banana (squished up of course) and a box of banana flavored instant pudding to the regular cake, plus anything else the box called for.  I used Funfetti cake mix... but you could use yellow or white too.

I made regular vanilla butter cream frosting (I'm thinking a could have added a box of banana pudding to that too, to give it banana flavor... but that may have been too much)  I will never use a canned frosting again after tasting real butter cream.  It just doesn't compare.

For the frosting:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened 

• 4-5 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• up to 4 tablespoons  heavy cream

I start by beating the butter till it's creamy, then I sift in the confectioners sugar little by little.  I don't have a stand alone so this can be a tedious process (if your reading this hubby... hint hint; ) After everything is all incorporated and smooth add your vanilla and salt.  Last add the heavy cream.  Some recipes call for milk... but I just think if your going for butter CREAM... you should use cream.  LOL... keep tasting until you get it exactly right.  I do this a lot.  The original recipe came from here but I added more sugar. I also use her chocolate ganache recipe... yum!

For the filling:

• 1 box of instant pudding
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• Mix until thick and smooth
• Taste... visit heaven.

 I ended up using two boxes of cake.  3 nine inch cake rounds, and 1 six inch round.  I only made one of the cakes banana, you couldn't tell once it was all assemble because the filling had such a great banana flavor.

After cooling completely.  I stacked my layers be sure to shave off the rounded tops of the cake so you have a level surface.   So the bottom part has three layers with banana cream filling between.  After stacking, I gave it a crumb coat. I needed to have a really smoothing frosting job because I was using fondant.  This is actually a picture of the Red Velvet cake with a crumb coat... totally forgot to take pics while I was doing this one.

I made a big batch of marshmallow fondant, you can read this post to find out how. After coloring and rolling it out (which took longer than I care to admit... I almost threw it all out and said F-it) I carefully laid it over the top and around the sides.. And still made lumps, bumps, and wrinkles. I wasn't too worried about the poor covering job because I knew I could hide a lot of the oopsies with decoration... And I did.  Two tiers wasn't too bad... I ended up using the top tier for his smash cake.  I just lifted the whole thing off when it was time.  It left a little ring on the bottom part... but honestly.. who cares?

So that's it... It's not at all what I was planning on doing. Sorry I didn't get more pics... I was on a cake mission almost impossible by that time.  I had originally wanted to do some kind of jungle cake with animals on top. As you can see it's a long way from that... I think it looks like a spaceship actually. Anyway, no matter what it looked like, it was moist, creamy, and down right delish! Of course the most important thing was that Little Bear loved it... And so did everyone else.

My First Fondant Cake

In just under two months my Little Bear is going to be 1 year old.  While I'm very excited that he's growing  up (please read: sleeping better, feeding himself, and becoming more independent). I am also going to miss holding a sweet sleeping bundle, or watching him lay on his back and play with his feet.  While I look forward to him saying Mommy for the first time (and several hundred times per day after that), I will long to hear his small baby coos and babbles.  The uncertainty of whether or not there will be a baby number three makes this just a little bit harder.

On the bright side, birthdays = cake!  Usually I'm not into cake, and opt for cookies or brownies instead. However, on special occassions like birthdays, I love to whip up a delicious cake from scratch along with some tasty scratch icing.  I am slightly new to the scratch cake baking scene.  I've only ever made three varieties: Yellow, Strawberry (Scratch, that means no strawberry jello for color and flavor), and Carrot.  My favorite by far is Carrot cake with to-die-for cream cheese frosting : ).  For Munchkins first birthday I made him a basketball cake

This cake was a combination of a scratch carrot cake and a Duncan Hines carrot cake.  I just didn't have the energy to make both from scratch.  The bottom part was three layers and the basketball was cake baked in a bowl.  I also used canned and homemade cream cheese frosting.

Then for Munchkin's second birthday I made a train cake.  This was a combo cake too... I was up until 3am putting it together but I was very happy with the results.

My husband and I decided not to go so big for Little Bears birthday, 1. because I don't have the energy or want to do a big party. 2. He won't remember anyway and will enjoy a bigger party when he is 2. Even though we are not doing a big shindig, I do want to honor his special day with a special cake (and maybe one for smashing). My husbands birthday is the day before and he has been heavily hinting that he doesn't want to get short changed in the cake department. There goes my idea of one cake two names... Hehehe, oh well.

For my husband's cake I want to make something decadent. I haven't decided on a flavor but he's already had carrot and he really likes red velvet so i'll probably go with that (although it's not my favorite). I was thinking of adding a chocolate ganache between the layers just to kick it up a notch. These are some practice cupcakes I made.  Strawberry cake with chocolate ganache and strawberry buttercream frosting.

Little bear will most likely get a caramel cake or Italian cream cake. I really want to dec it out so I'm going to try my hand at fondant. I've been researching some techniques and recipes and learned you can make fondant with marshmallows. Yesterday, I ran to Walmart and picked up some supplies. I used a box cake to practice making my first fondant cake. Making the fondant wasn't has hard as I thought. It was more difficult trying to keep the boys occupied while I worked. 

If you want to try it, all you need is:

8 ounces mini marshmallows

1 pound confectioners sugar

2 tbsp water

Food coloring or flavored extracts (optional) 

 First melt your marshmallows with water in a microwave safe bowl.  

I only had blue and yellow food coloring left in the house, so I chose to go with a white, blue, and brown look.  The brown is just cocoa powder.  I added my cocoa powder to the liquid marshmallows then began adding the confectioners sugar.  In my research I found it referred to as powdered sugar, pulverized sugar, as well as icing sugar.

Once it gets almost impossible to mix, turn it out onto a heavily powdered work surface and continue adding in the sugar until its not sticky any more.  I found that if you greased the surface then dusted with sugar it didn't stick nearly as much.  Please note, this is a very messy process.

Sorry, I couldn't get this picture to rotate.

Just outside the picture above, Munchkin is standing there repeatedly saying "want taste fonnan".  LOL!!! 

After I thought I had added enough sugar I kneaded it a bit more on a surface greased with crisco.  Then I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until later (basically nap time).

Next I rolled it out on some wax paper.  I read that you should use a plastic rolling pin for fondant, but I only have a wooden one.  Being the clever gal that I am (wink wink) I covered my rolling pin with wax paper too.  It was pretty easy to roll out.  Then I picked up the whole thing, fondant and wax paper together and placed it over my cake.  Then just peeled off the wax paper.  I had already given it a good smooth crumb coat.   Trim the extra with a knife or pizza cutter and have fun decorating.

My First Fondant Cake!

I learned a lot making it and if you look closely you can see some little imperfections.  I hope to make one more practice cake before Little Bears birthday.  I'll try and roll the fondant a bit thinner next time.  After dinner I let Munchkin sample the practice cakes.  While he was devouring it, he said

"Mommy, dis is de-wi-shus!!"

Stuffed Peppers

In my imaginary future, my husband and I own a cute down home restaurant.  It will have a cute and creative name to go along with its yummy menu.  When I try out a new recipe (that I've created or transformed) I ask my husband "Can it go on the menu?"  In his best food critic voice, he answers.

This week I tried stuffed peppers.  A friend of mine recently wrote about making them for her hubby and how much he liked them. Now,  I don't particularly like peppers, and I actually don't remember if I've even ever had a stuffed pepper, but I figured, what the hay, I'd try it anyway.   I have a basic knowledge of what is typically in a stuffed pepper: meat, rice, and other veggies.  I decided to make my stuffed peppers without the aide of a classic recipe, so if you are used to a certain type of stuffed peppers, this probably isn't it.

My Stuffed Peppers

This is what I used:

3 large peppers
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 package success brown rice (cooked)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/4 large onion (you could probably use 1 small one, but I only had a large one in my pantry)
1 cup (or a handful) of baby carrots.  Ever since my son started eating food I've been adding random        vegetables to my dishes.
1/2 cup of corn (left overs from the night before, no wasting in this house)
1 big spoon full of dill vegetable dip (a random leftover from my refrigerator)
2 big handfuls of cheddar cheese
A few shakes of pepper, garlic powder, and onion salt. (I typically don't cook with salt at all but I thought this needed it)
1 table spoon (I think) of olive oil, I don't measure when I cook, I kind of guesstimate ; )

This is what I did:

Preheated my oven to 375 degrees and started my quick rice.

In my Cuisinart Prep Plus II I chopped my onion, then carrots.  Next I rinsed, washed, and cut the tops off my peppers.  The pepper tops (minus the stems and a few bites for my Munchkin, which he chewed and spit on the floor) were chopped in my processor, and the inside of my peppers were cleaned out.  I browned the turkey meat with olive oil, and after about 5 minutes added my chopped veggies.  I let that cook and simmer till the meat was cooked through and the onions were translucent, then drained off the liquid.  Next I added my tomatoes, leftover corn, dill veggie dip, brown rice, and a handful of cheese.  Last I seasoned to taste.

I over filled my peppers and loaded them into a glass dish with a little olive oil (Okay I actually put too much olive oil in the bottom of my dish, don't make my same mistake) .  My family loves cheese probably more than chocolate, so I piled on the cheese!  There was some leftover stuffing which went into the baby food maker with more brown rice, and the rest offered to Munchkin with some sweet potatoes for dinner.

After the cheese was perfectly bubbly and brown I took it out of the oven.  Took 500,000 pictures (I have a new found respect for food photographers).  It smelled delish, and the fork full that I snuck out of one tasted great too.  Then I spoke to my mom on the phone, and she mentioned tomato sauce.  Following our conversation I added a little on the bottom of the dish.

Fast forward an hour when hubby gets home and this was the conversation:

Hubby: What's that?

Pink Lady: Stuffed Peppers.

Hubby: Interesting.

Pink Lady: What do you mean interesting? Haven't you ever heard of stuffed peppers?

Hubby: No

Pink Lady: Well give it a try and tell me what you think.

After cleaning his plate.
Hubby: That wasn't bad.  The pepper was a bit much, but the inside was good!

Pink Lady: Yeah, I don't like pepper so I will most likely only eat the stuffing.

Hubby: So why did you make this?

Pink Lady: Wanted to try something new.  So can this go on the menu?
This is where he puts his best food critic voice on
Hubby: Yeah, The stuffing was great, creamy and flavorful! You can make this again.  Pepper lovers would love it.  Next time I'll skip the pepper though.

Pink Lady: Maybe next time I'll skip stuffing peppers and stuff tomatoes instead. ; )

ENJOY!!!

Pineapple Cake, Chicken Pot Pie, and Turkey!

Wow.  What a holiday! Thanksgiving was... wonderful, typical, messy, loud, exciting, juicy, delicious, tiring, quite the learning experience and basically indescribable.  It's been about a week and a half since my last post.  I've hosted two major events, cleaned my house top to bottom (twice), changed countless diapers, made some winner recipes, and of course some losers.  Oh and BTW, the chicken pot pie was delish!!!

Let's start with my new favorite comfort food: Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie.  Gone are the days of me hating chicken pot pie.  No more will I cringe when someone mentions them, and slowly the memories of the frozen ones will fade.  I decided to start with roasted chicken instead of boiled.

For the veggies I added carrots, broccoli, potatoes, and chopped onions & garlic.  After sauteing my onions, garlic, carrots and potatoes I sprinkled them with flour and added the milk.  To give it more flavor I threw in fresh minced sage and thyme.

Mmmmm the smell was to die for.  After I had a nice sauce going on I added a healthy amount of sharp white cheddar cheese.  Please note, when I say healthy, I mean it in the same way people refer to a plump woman.  To finish off my chicken sauce I added some fresh nutmeg (Yes the choir is singing).  I poured my mixture into a frozen pie shell, and topped it with another.  Before I put it in the oven I sprinkled cheddar cheese on top.  I actually ate it standing up, right out of the pie plate.  My husband was on his way back for thirds, when he stopped short and said I was trying to sabotage his diet.  Needless to say it was comforting, warm, and delicious.

Two days after my comforting chicken pot pie, I found myself in my kitchen at 3am cleaning.  It was the eve of my Mary Kay Business Debut.  Lately I've given up trying to clean my house during the day.  There is a demanding 21 month old, and a twice as demanding 2 month old that make it almost impossible to make cleaning progress.  My late night cleaning was a success as was my debut.  In the weeks leading up to it I'd been researching everything, from time lines to what to serve.  I splurged a bit on the menu, but it was worth it.  Pink pineapple upside down cake, sugar cookies with pink frosting, pink (well maroon) hot punch, and apple butternut squash soup (the only think on the menu that wasn't pink).  The ladies loved the food almost as much as the satin hands treatment they were greeted with.  My dinning room was all decked out with pink products and samples.  It was great! This has been such a wonderful business for me.  It's made me feel feminine and girlie again.  I get the chance to get out of the house for reasons other than food shopping, and get paid lets not forget the perk of making a little cash on the side : ).

On over drive after my debut, I began working on Thanksgiving.  Late night food shopping trips, and more 3am cleaning sprees made for a wonderful day.  The turkey was juicy (and only slightly undercooked, long story).   The Mac and Cheese was superb, and the dates wrapped in prosciutto... dynamite!  The fried stuffing balls were a bust, but I guess you can't win them all.

I am so grateful for my family and friends.  Cliche? Yes! Totally true? Yes!  We had a  marvelous time laughing and catching up, and of course eating.  These are the times that I cherish, can't wait for Christmas!!!

"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. 
Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal. 
P. Vaull Starr