Pan-Seared Greek Chicken

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

6 Chicken Tenderloins (or 2 chicken breasts)

1 Bell Pepper

1/4 Cup Pitted Kalamata Olives

1/4 Cup Diced Tomatoes

1 Cup Crumbled Feta Cheese

Directions:

In large skillet, saute chicken tenderloins in 2 tbs olive oil until juices run clear. Remove from pan. In remaining olive oil saute bell pepper, olives, and diced tomato until they are softened and warm. Place chicken back in the pan for a few minutes, then remove from heat, top with feta cheese, and cover with lid for 5 minutes to let cheese melt. Serve with bread and olive oil, or over a bed of orzo pasta. Serves 2.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Confused by your sweet tooth? Why settle for either cookie or cake when you can have both? Yes, I mean it... the Cookie Dough Cupcake. These are insanely easy, ladies, and insanely good.

Ingredients*:
1 Devil's Food cake mix (and all necessary accompanying ingredients)
1 package of break-and-bake chocolate chip cookie dough
*I am sure this would be really tasty with homemade cake and cookies, but this is the quick and easy way.


Directions:
1. Prepare cake mix and put in muffin cups. Bake for about nine minutes.
2. Remove cupcakes from oven. Break up cookie dough and roll each cookie into a ball. Drop one ball in each cupcake, pressing it down if it doesn't naturally sink.
3. Return cupcakes to oven and bake for the duration of the time required for the cupcakes.
4. Remove from heat, cool.
Icing is optional. Sometimes the cupcakes are pretty enough not to need it.

Enjoy!

Derby Hat Cupcakes!

More cupcakes, ladies. This one can be done with any cupcake variation. I chose strawberry cupcakes and butter cream icing. This "recipe" is really more craft instructional.

1. Make cupcakes. (I used a strawberry boxed cake mix.)
2. Put butter cream icing in an icing bag with cap. I mixed butter cream and cream cheese after softening them each in the microwave for 15 seconds.
3. Swirl icing on cupcakes. Make two layers of icing swirl.
4. Top with edible pearls.
**Stop here for simple, classy cupcakes. Keep going for fun Derby ones.
5. Buy small doll hats and ribbon from Hobby Lobby and make little hat toppers. (I used no glue on these. The hats are sold individually or in a package of six. I bought 2 packages of six for the price of 2 individual, so go bulk!)
6. Top hats onto the iced cupcakes, and voila!

Enjoy!

Classic Apple Pie

I love making pies.  One of my favorite cookbooks is Farm Journal's Best-Ever Pies.  If there is ever a pie you need a recipe for and you've never heard of it before that person asked for it, you'll find it there. 

But now that you've googled it and found that you can only order used copies from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, understand that this recipe cannot be found there, only on this blog and whatever recipe book my highschool homec teacher had.  May dad asks for it every birthday!

Ingredients:
Pastry for two-crust pie (I don't venture to make my own, I buy Mrs. Smiths)
1/3 C sugar
1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
dash of salt
8 C thinly sliced peeled tart apples (8 medium)
2 tbsp stick margarine

Heat oven to 425. Prepare your crusts or thaw according to package directions.

Mix your dry ingredients then add your apples and mix thoroughly. Pour apples into 1st crust.

Cover apples with dotted margarine then cover pie with 2nd crust.  Cut 4 slits in top crust and press edges together.  Cover edges with aluminum foil.

Bake pie for 40-50 minutes.  My oven usually does great for a full 40 minutes max.  If the crust starts browning too much before you've reached 40 minutes, place a sheet of foil over your pie until finished baking (nobody likes gooey bottom crust!)  Enjoy!

Chicken Braid

This is a recipe my mom first got from Pampered Chef but over time I've slightly altered it to our taste!

Ingredients:

2 cans of crescent rolls
2 C chopped/shredded cooked chicken
1 C chopped fresh broccoli
1/2 C chopped red pepper
1 clove of minced garlic
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 C mayonnaise
couple shakes of salt

Preheat oven to 375.

Unroll dough, still sealed, onto ungreased, nonstick cookie sheet, laying it out as a long rectangle.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl.

Place mixture down the center of the dough.

Wrap the remaining dough around the mixture, sealing up the ends.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a toasty brown.  Don't undercook, your bottom crust will be gooey ;)

Corn Pudding

My mom got this receipe for corn pudding from a chef here at a great resturant in Louisville. My sister and her make it all the time and I love it so I stole the receipe to post here!

(FOR SOME REASON PICTURES AREN'T POSTING SO I WILL EDIT AND ADD THEM LATER)


1 can of cream style corn

1 can corn (drained)

4 eggs

3 T corn starch

1 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Dash of salt


Combine all of the ingredients in a large baking dish. Bake in oven for about 45-60mins (until top is brown) at 350 degrees.

Best Baked Ham and Swiss Sandwhiches EVER

These are great for any party or for lunches at home (They heat up well!). They go fast so I usually double.

Ingredients:
1 stick butter (not pictured)

2 tbsp mustard

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp poppy seeds

Sliced ham ( I use one prepackage ham, Hillshire Farm)

Dozen Hawaiian Sweet rolls (cut in half to make sandwhich)

Package of Kroger sliced Swiss cheese

Need Foil As Well

Mix the first 5 ingredients and cook for 5 mins over medium high heat (It will still be thin when done). Roll out a small amount of foil and assemble each roll individually on its own peice of foil. Cut rolls and put ham, cheese and about 1 tbsp + of sauce on each sandwhich. Wrap up the foil. Put all foil balls on a cookie sheet. Bake for 20mins at 350 degrees.