Mini Pot Pies

I decided to follow the trend of baking everything in cupcake tins.. and these came out AMAZING! They are perfectly moist.

* Adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-pot-pie-ix/

Ingredients (Makes 12 regular muffin sized pot pies):
-12-cup muffin tin
-1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cubed.
-2 nine inch Frozen Premade pie crusts (I recommend Trader Joes brand)
-1 cup frozen  peas
-1 cup chopped carrots
-1 cup chopped celery
-2 cups (or enough to cover the mixture) chicken broth.  You can also just use water.
-A pinch of assorted spices (onion powder, garlic powder or garlic salt, pepper, celery salt, etc.)
For Gravy Mixture:
-1/3 cup butter
-1/3 cup chopped onion
-1/3 cup all purpose flour
-Dash of salt
-Dash of black pepper
-Pinch of celery seed and other assorted spices (onion powder, garlic powder or garlic salt, pepper, etc.)
-1 10.75 oz can cream of chicken soup
-2/3 cup milk
-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
-Thaw pie crusts based on directions on the back of the box
-If you have not already, chop 1 lb chicken breasts, and 1 cup carrots, 1 cup celery, and  1 cup onion.
-In a saucepan over medium heat, combine chopped chicken, carrots, celery, and onion.
-Add enough chicken broth to cover the mixture
-Add pinch of assorted spices listed above
-Boil mixture on medium for at least 15 minutes, periodically checking to see if chicken and vegetables are ready.
-Remove saucepan from heat and set aside.

To make gravy mixture:
-Cook chopped onions in butter in a saucepan over medium heat until onions are translucent.
-Stir in flour, salt, pepper, celery seed, and other assorted spices of your choice
-Slowly stir in condensed cream of chicken soup and milk
-Stir in 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-Simmer over medium-low heat until thick
-Remove from heat and set aside 

-Press pie crusts into bottom and up sides of each muffin tin.
-Use slotted spoon (or regular spoon) to scoop chicken and vegetable mixture into the bottom of each cup.  I also like to include the chicken broth, it makes the pot pies nice and moist. **Remember to leave room for the gravy mixture.
-Spoon gravy mixture over the chicken mixture.  Do this for the remainder of the tins.
-Cover top of tins with remainder of the cups.  Use fork to seal the crusts over the mixture.
-Make several small slits on the top of each pot pie to allow steam to escape
-Brush melted butter or mixed egg over the pot pies for a shiny appearance.
 *** Optional: If you have more of the gravy mixture, you can put it on top of the pot pies with some extra shredded cheddar cheese.. this makes it even more decadent.

-Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes (I always check periodically after 25 minutes just to be safe), until pastry is golden brown, or until gravy mixture is bubbling.
-Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Americanized summer rolls

Shout out to Alexa for introducing me to this recipe 3 years ago...

Americanized summer rolls! ((Almost)) All-American ingredients encased in these delicious summer roll wrappers.

Ingredients:

-Summer roll wrappers (Also called spring roll wrappers, and NOT to be confused with egg roll wrappers).  I used these , nowadays they are so common that you can get them at almost any grocery store, even in some Targets!
- Thai rice noodles.  Once again, you can buy these at the grocery store.
-Raw spinach
-Natural creamy peanut butter
-Sriracha hot sauce , also found at your local grocery store haha
- OPTIONAL (but highly recommended) Avocado, sliced.

Directions:

-Cook rice noodles according to instructions on the back of the box and drain.  Set aside.
-Create assembly line with summer roll wrappers, then spinach, then bowl of drained rice noodles, optional pealed and sliced avocado, then peanut butter, then hot sauce.
-Place warm water in a shallow long and wide bowl, then place summer roll wrapper into water and press intermittently into water until it's texture becomes flexible and until pattern on summer roll wrapper disappears.
-Use fork, spoon, or spatchula to get summer roll out, and then place roll on plate.
-Take a few spinach leaves and place them on the summer roll wrapper (optional: use a rolling pin or other round surface to flatten the spinach leaves onto the summer roll wrapper).
-Use fork to place noodles on top of the spinach leaves (always make sure that you leave enough space at the end of the summer roll wrapper to roll it up).
-Place optional avocado slices on top of noodles.
-Roll the entire mixture in the summer roll in the same way that you would create a sandwich wrap.
-Once you have rolled the mixture, place peanut butter on top of the roll.
-place a few drops of Sriracha sauce on top of the peanut butter (depending on how spicy you want it to be).  Mix sriracha sauce with peanut butter.
-Then, wet another summer roll in the same way mentioned above, and wrap the roll around the first roll with the peanut butter and sriracha on top.
-These are surprisingly delicious!

Pretzel Fried Chicken (Honey mustard pretzel chicken)

I have perfected honey mustard pretzel chicken.

Uhhh.. yummmm!

 

This is super easy to make.. and the ingredients will last you forever!

Ingredients:

-5 pieces Fryer chicken (I just used chicken tenders and it came out just as good.  You can see that I have 5 pieces above.
-A mallet or something to flatten the chicken (I used a mug)
-Plastic wrap or something to put the chicken between while flattening
-1/2 lb pretzel meal (just ground pretzels, I like to crush them to a meal-like consistency but also leave some bigger pieces. I used multigrain pretzels, I think they taste the best with this dish).
-Salt
-Pepper
-Vegetable oil (only if frying, if baking, exclude this ingredient)
Equal Parts (to coat/ hold pretzels to chicken and for dipping sauce):
-Yellow Mustard (I used Frenches)
-Coarse whole grain mustard
-Dijon Mustard
-Honey
-Mayonnaise

Directions:

-If baking, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
-If frying (like I did..oooh I'm bad!), pour vegetable oil into a skillet
-Combine equal parts (I used 2 tbsp of each to coat chicken and for sauce) preferably in a shallow bowl.  Yellow mustard , coarse grain mustard, dijon mustard, honey, and mayonnaise.  Taste and add to your own preference (Like a TRUE chef ;P)
- Add dash of salt and pepper to mixture.
-Place chicken tenders between plastic wrap or anything else to keep them protected.
-Use mallet or flattening devise to pound chicken breasts until they are 1/2 inch thick.
-Create assembly like with chicken breasts, honey mustard mixture, and crushed pretzel meal.
-Use fork or tongs to dip chicken tenders in pretzel meal
-Then dip chicken tenders in honey mustard mixture
-Then dip tenders in pretzel meal.
-If baking: Place tenders on greased baking sheet for 15 minutes, turning halfway to brown both sides.
-If frying: heat the skillet with vegetable oil.  Place bread crumb in pan. If it browns within 1 minute, the skillet is ready for the chicken.
-Fry chicken for 5 minutes, then turn over to fry for another 5 minutes.
-Serve with extra honey mustard dipping sauce.

Tomato Basil Mozarella Capese. 2 ways. With a twist!

Tomato basil mozzarella caprese!

I had been crazing this forever and decided that it was time to make it myself! The twist is fig balsamic vinegar instead of normal.. it gives it just a faint sweet taste of fig.. so delicious!

Ingredients (The following ingredient amounts are enough to make the dishes above):

-3 vine ripened tomatoes (unrefrigerated)
-FRESH basil.. I used some from a basil plant
-Fresh mozzarella cheese, the small balls in brine are preferred, they make all the difference! I used the marinated mozzarella balls from trader joes.
-good quality extra virgin olive oil (I used Pompeian extra virgin olive oil), once again, it makes the difference between good and EXTRAORDINARY! ;P
-Fig balsamic vinegar
-salt and pepper to taste

*I don't put measurements next to the ingredients because it really just depends on taste.. add as much as you want! Just remember: you can add stuff in, but you CAN'T take it out!

Instructions:
For the salad:
-Chop the tomatoes into bit sized pieces or smaller
-cut the mozzarella balls into fourths
-chop the basil into small pieces
-drizzle with olive oil and fig balsamic vinegar
-sprinkle with salt and pepper

for the whole tomatoes:
-Slice tomatoes diagonally into pieces with the consistency of your choice
-LIGHTLY sprinkle salt and pepper over the tomatoes
-Place 1 basil leaf over each tomato slice
-flatten the mozzarella balls with the bottom of a spoon, and place on top of the basil leaves
-sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil and fig balsamic vinegar

-I did this in about 10 minutes without any other instructions, and ate immediately! 

Cheeto Brittle

Because the BEST kind of brittle... has CHEETOS!!

Whiny willowy skinny people should avert their eyes (Not that I haven't tried to be willowy on many occasions).... go visit hungry-girl.com or something.. I LOVE hungry girl by the way.. but I wanted to eat some food that reminded me of childhood... so here we go!

Cheeto Brittle!

Serves 2-3:

Ingredients:


1/2 bag (or 4oz) of crunchy cheetos (more or less depending on how coated you want them to be)/
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp baking soda

Thiss is howw we dooo ittt..

- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F
-Spray baking sheet, line with aluminum foil or parchment paper, and then spray again
- Cut up the butter into at least 4 smaller pieces (I cut it into 8 smaller pieces)
-Add cut up butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and honey  to a sauce pan and bring to a boil
-Continue to stir and stir as it boils for at least 5 minutes
-Remove from heat and add vanilla extract and baking soda, continue to stir until combined
-Add cheetos, and stir until combined
-Add mixture to the baking sheet and place in oven
-Bake for 45 minutes (It may take longer), stir at 15 minute intervals
-Once the brittle is done, allow to cool.
-Once it has cooled enough, break it up into small pieces.

Low Calorie Frothy Green Tea Frappuccino

So easy and refreshing... and from looking at the calories at Starbucks, who knew that green tea matcha powder is 0 calories?!

Ingrediants:

-Japanese Matcha green tea powder.  Make sure that it is powder, not bags or leaves.  I bought mine from Whole Foods.  I use Matcha stone ground green tea powder from the Republic of Tea.  It is pricey but worth it because it is very high quality.
-Fat free milk (or any kind of milk if you aren't watching calories)
-Splenda (Again, if you aren't watching calories, feel free to use sugar)
-Ice (optional, only if you are using a blender which is highly recommended)
-If you aren't watching calories, I've heard that Torani Vanilla Syrup is a great addition

-In a blender*, combine ice (depending on the desired consistency.. a few cubes makes more of a latte consistency, more cubes turns it into a frappuccino), As many cups as you want (1 cup= 12 oz, I used 2 cups) of milk (I used fat free for this recipe), 1 tbsp of matcha powder per every cup (12 oz), and as much splenda as you want.

-Blend together until the ice no longer makes noise.

-Taste and add more of something if you aren't satisfied.

* If you do not have a blender, you can mix or shake all of the ingredients, minus the ice, in a cup.

-The latte/frappuccino will be delicious and frothy if you put the ingredients in a blender.. just sayin! ;)

Calorie Count:

Fat free milk= 90 calories/ cup * 2 cups= 180 calories
Matcha powder= 0 calories
Ice= 0 calories
Splenda= 0 calories

180 calories for a 24 oz "starbucks" drink that is also GOOD for you?? Awesome!

Butternut Squash be mine!

Aren't these darling?!

Butternut Squash Ravioli Hearts

Ingrediants

-Wonton wrappers (or you can be the ultimate overachiever and make your own dough)

-Heart shaped cookie cutters (I actually used heart shaped measuring cups and just pressed down firmly)

(If you don't want to make hearts then you can make your own cute little raviolis by folding them in half)

-1 cup roasted butternut squash puree**

-1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

-1 pinch cayenne pepper

-1 egg yolk

 -1/3 cup Parmesan cheese plus extra for garnish

-1/3 cup brown sugar (optional, I like mine very sweet!)

-water

-cornstarch (optional, to help wontons stick)

-sage & butter (optional, for sauce)

-dash of salt

-dash of pepper 

Directions:

-Combine butternut squash puree, mascarpone cheese, cayenne pepper, egg york, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and optional brown sugar and mix until thoroughly combined

-Taste the mixture, add anything that your heart desires <3

-combine lukewarm water and optional corn starch (just a pinch of corn starch) in a bowl.

-Prepare the wonton wrappers, if making hearts, I like to take two wrappers at a time (stuck to each other), and place the cookie cutter firmly on the wrappers.  Gently separate the wrapper hearts afterwards.

-Once you have two cut out hearts, place them next to each other and coat the outside of each heart with the water/cornstarch mixture.

-Place a small spoon full of butternut squash mixture in the middle of one of the wonton hearts.

-Place the other wonton heart on top, and press firmly on the edges to match up the wontons and ensure that they stick together.  You don't want the mixture to ooze out!

-Continue this with the rest of the wontons/ butternut squash mixture.  The butternut squash mixture can be frozen and the ravioli can also be pre made and then frozen.

-bring water to a boil in a sauce pan that is big enough to hold all of the ravioli

-place the ravioli in the boiling water and stir LIGHTLY.  You don't want the ravioli to stick to the bottom, but you also don't want to break it.

-when ravioli floats, it is done! Remove with a slotted spoon (I bought mine from dollar tree!)

-serve with melted butter combined with sage or eat it plain!

**To roast the butternut squash: Get the pre-cut kind (it's just easier),

-Preheat then oven to 400 degrees F

-Line a baking pan with foil, and put a few small chunks of butter on the foil (1-2 tbsp)

-Put the pan with foil and butter in the oven until the butter has melted

-After the butter has melted, spread it around so that it evenly covers the foil

-Toss the butternut squash chunks around on the pan so that they are evenly coated

-Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, tossing the butternut squash twice throughout.

-Puree the butternut squash with with a mixer, another fancy appliance, or just with two forks like I did.

-It should turn into a smooth mixture with minimal chunks.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

The most addicting dip that I've ever tasted... after many recipes and tweaks, this is the best!

Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken Dip

And yes, I know that my camera phone does not do it justice! Onto the recipe:

-A deep baking dish that is oven safe
-2 cooked pieces of chicken (More or less depending on how much you like chicken).  Many say boneless skinless chicken breasts are the best.  However, I like to cook two chicken drumsticks with the skin on.  I peel the skin off once the chicken has finished cooking.  This way, the chicken will stay juicy from being on the bone, and have nice flavor from the skin.
-12 oz cream cheese (this is a base, once again you can use more or less, but this is what worked for me).
-1/4 cup blue cheese salad dressing (more or less depending on how much you like blue cheese, but this is a good amount to start out with... Remember, you can put more blue cheese in, but it is much harder to take it out!)
-1/4 cup ranch salad dressing (depending on how much you like ranch dressing, you can also substitute this for the blue cheese dressing, and vice versa).
-1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles (cheddar cheese works too.. and I put in much more than 1/4 cup because I love blue cheese)
-Franks Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce, as much as you want! Just pour and taste like a true chef ;P
-Fritos and celery for dipping.

-Optional:
-Grated cheddar cheese and panko bread crumbs to make a nice and crispy topping for the dip.

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
-Soften the cream cheese
-Shred the chicken
-mix everything together in a deep, oven safe baking dish
-Sprinkle optional cheddar cheese and bread crumbs over the mixture
-Taste and make any adjustments, I added more hot sauce and blue cheese!
-Bake for 20-30 minutes (every oven is different)!

Obsessed with cooking (ice cream sandwiches, scotch eggs, and fried oreos)

I've decided to stop going out to eat in favor of learning how to cook all of the foods that I love, and and I am broke and hopefully I will save some money.. so onto the recipes!

All of these dishes are actually inspired by items that I ate off of menus at different restaurants... A few weeks ago I went with some friends to a place called Piper's Pub in South Side.  I never thought that I would be a fan of Scottish cuisine but everything was delicious! For dessert we had a shortbread ice cream sandwich.  I automatically tried to make something similar the next day... The result is below: 

Ooey Gooey Ice Cream Sandwiches

These are actually NOTHING  like the ice cream sandwiches that we had at Piper's Pub.. I got a little bit carried away and basically created my own.. but they are still delicious in their own way:

-Keebler Fudge Stripes Original Cookies

-Any kind of ice cream that you want (I used cookies and cream)

-Hot fudge sauce

-Natural salted peanut butter

1) Place two cookies fudge stripe side down on a plate

2) Put the hot fudge sauce (while room temperature or cold), on the up side of the cookie, and the natural peanut butter on the other side of the other cookie.

3)Put ice cream on one of the cookies

4)Pick the other cookie up and put it ice cream side down on top of the peanut butter/hot fudge.

5) Squish them together (but not too hard)!

6)Put them in the freezer to chill or eat them right away!

I can't believe I just gave six step instructions on how to make an ice cream sandwich... this is why I decided not to be a teacher!

The first (and BEST) thing that we had to eat at Piper's Pub was their SCOTCH EGGS.  I had never even heard of these before.  But after eating them, I kept craving them for days on end.  I finally decided to venture out of my cooking comfort zone and work with eggs, which opened the door to a whole new world of cooking options!  Hard boiled eggs, deviled eggs, poached eggs, over easy, over hard... so many possibilities.  Anyway, onto the actual recipe!

Scotch Eggs!

 
-Six hard boiled eggs

-1 lb pork sausage meat (I think I used Jimmy Deans sausage with sage)

-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

-1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting)

-1/8 teaspoon salt (or more)

-1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper (depending on how much you like pepper)

-1 egg, beaten

-2/3 cup dry bread crumbs (I used panko)

-Various other seasonings for the bread crumbs (I used garlic powder, paprika, Parmesan cheese, and some parsley) season to taste.

-Canola/vegetable oil for deep frying.
-Hot sauce, mustard, or any other condiments to eat with the scotch eggs (hot sauce is my favorite).

1) Hard boil the eggs... after much effort, on my third try I was able to cook the eggs perfectly without those ugly greenish/brown rims around the yolk (however, even if you DO see rims, the eggs are still edible and still taste good, they are just overcooked):
-cover eggs in cold (or room temperature) water in a sauce pan that is just big enough to hold all of them without touching.
-Turn the burner up to high heat
-start a whirl pool with your spoon and make the eggs spin.  This will help the yolks to set.
-After the water has been at a rolling boil for 1 minute, turn off the burner and remove the sauce pan (with the eggs and water still inside) to a burner that has not been heated up.
-cover the pan with the water and eggs still inside and let sit for 12 minutes.
-when the 12 minutes are up, drain the eggs and crack them slightly, then immediately put them in cold water and into the freezer (some people put them into an ice bath, but it works just fine if you put them in the freezer).  Slightly cracking the eggs beforehand keeps them from cooking any longer because the cold water gets underneath the shell (no yucky green color!)
-Check on the eggs after 5 minutes, if they have completely cooled down, then you can drain them again and put them in the refrigerator.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
-The eggs will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks IF you leave the peels on.
-Run eggs under water to make the peeling process easier.


Prepare to assemble the eggs:
-Prepare the breadcrumb mixture in a bowl by mixing the breadcrumbs with whatever spices you enjoy.  I used garlic powder, paprika, salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. 
-In a separate bowl, combine the sausage meat and Worcestershire sauce
-In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, and pepper
-Mix the flour mixture into the sausage mixture.  I also added some garlic powder and more sage.
-Prepare one additional bowl with a beaten egg
-Peel the hard boiled eggs if you haven't already (run under warm water to make peeling easier).

 Finally, the fun part!
-Roll the peeled eggs in the flour.  This will help the sausage mixture stick.
-Begin to roll the sausage around the eggs.  You can use a little bit or a lot! Just make sure that the eggs are completed coated.
- Next, dip the sausage coated eggs into the beaten egg mixture.  Shake off any additional egg mixture.
- Roll the eggs in the breadcrumb mixture until fully coated.
- Put Canola or vegetable oil into a skillet/frying pan/sauce pan, and turn on the burner to medium/ high heat (or 375 degrees)
-Test the heat by throwing a breadcrumb in.  If it browns after a minute, you're in business.
-Put the eggs in and turn after 2 1/2-3 minutes.
-Check on one egg to see if it is cooked by cutting through the egg.
-If it isn't, you can finish it off in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 400 degrees.  My eggs were perfectly fried so I did not have to bake them.


I am very proud of myself for making perfectly hard boiled eggs and learning how to fly without a deep fryer!

And lastly... Fried Oreos!

These are super easy to make! I don't have a deep fryer and just made them using vegetable oil in a skillet...

-1/2 cup Bisquick
-1/2 cup milk
-9 oreos, or 18 mini oreos
-Canola or vegetable oil for frying

1) Put vegetable oil in the skillet and turn it up to high
2)Whisk together Bisquick and  milk
3) Coat Oreos with the mixture
4)When the oil begins to bubble lighty, drop the oreos in
5) Check on the oreos periodically, and turn once, after the bottoms are the color of funnel cake

Yummy! Just make sure to eat them while they are still hot! They are not very good at room temperature...


Well that's all for now... I have all kinds of food plans for this weekend!

I'm baaaaack

A lot has happened since I last updated... I have moved to Pittsburgh, finished my first semester of grad school (just 3 more to go!), pulled various all-nighters (by choice and by circumstance) and had time to try out lots of different recipes and restaurants, among other things! But I'll leave it at that..

Since it's been so long.. I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures, so here we go!

The first picture features my favorite thanksgiving food EVER.. Homemade crescent rolls. This past thanksgiving was the first time that I made them all by myself... I will have to post the recipe at a later time because it is at my parents' house.

 Taking a break from the food theme.. I got these wonderful Blank cards from the Warhol Museum... Free admission with a Pitt ID! The Pitt ID is like a VIP pass.. free bus access, free museums, etc... my only complaint is that bars aren't included.  Pittsburgh is crazy expensive! So its the LEAST that they can do! ;P

Going back to food (how can I resist).  This is one of my favorite pasta recipes.  It is super easy to make.  All you need is pasta, olive oil, lemon juice, basil, and feta cheese.  Like a true chef, you don't need to measure the ingredients.  Just keep tasting and adding until it tastes good!  I can't even remember how many times I've made this.

Yummmmmy!

My birthday just passed recently (The Big 2-5!) and my friend Christina painted this beautiful picture for me.  She is extremely talented.  You should check her out! Seriously, I am so jealous of her artistic abilities...   http://www.etsy.com/people/waterforhearts?ref=si_pr

And a Christmas gift from my parents.. I couldn't help it, I had to post this.  Michael Kors! <3

A recent obsession... nail polish.. ever since I saw a friends collection last weekend, I just went crazy.  This is total bling bling.  It's Milani Jewel FX GEMS.

Today after sitting through 3 hours of class, I decided to be spontaneous and try a recipe that I've been thinking about forever, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with gorgonzola cheese.

 Ingredients:
All you need is bacon, medjool (or any other brand) dates, and gorgonzola cheese.  You will need differing amounts depending on how many you want to make.  I made 10 stuffed dates using 10 Medjool brand dates (they are pretty big!), 5 pieces of bacon, and less than a quarter lb of gorgonzola cheese  Remember, gorgonzola cheese is STRONG!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Wash the dates and cut them halfway open the remove the pits.
3. Stuff the dates with gorgonzola cheese depending on how much you like the stuff.  Blue cheese and goat cheese are also good alternatives
4. Wrap bacon around the dates.  Secure the bacon with a toothpick or put the closure on the bottom.
5. Cook for 20- 30 minutes.

 Thats all for now!