Bacon Ravioli

I found this fun little recipe in Foodnetwork magazine but made some changes to suit my family's taste and because I preferred to just use what I already had.

First you need to make the dough but if you prefer to skip this step I have use egg roll wrappers in the past.
to make the dough put 4 cups of flour and 6 large eggs in a food processor and mix until held together then wrap in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 min.

To make the filling you will need
2 Leeks, sliced
4 slices thick cut bacon, cooked
3 carrots or 10-12 baby carrots
1/2tsp ground sage
salt and pepper
1 3/4 C fresh parsley
1/2 C ricotta cheese
4 oz Gruyere cheese, finely grated
2 Tbsp corn starch

In the food processor mix the Leeks, bacon and carrots until finely chopped

Transfer to a pan and add 1 cup of water cook over medium high heat until the water is evaporated, then add the sage and cook for a few min more until the veggies start to brown.

remove from heat and mix in the parsley, let cool and then add the cheeses and corn starch.


Now you split the dough into 6 pieces and you can either use a pasta maker ( I don't have one but it is now going on my Christmas list) or roll the dough out with a rolling pins. Once you get it to about 1/16 of an inch or in my case just as thin as I could get it. Then place small amounts of filling into balls on the dough

Then use water to make little squares around the filling and then place another piece of dough on top and press down on the edges. 

Cut each square out.

Bring a pot of salt water to a boil and boil the ravioli for 10 minutes. Drain but reserve 1 1/2 C of the water.

To make the sauce you will need

5Tbsp of butter
1 pound mushrooms of your choice
salt
3 green onions, chopped
1 clove of garlic
one pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Tbsp parsley
1 1/2 C reserved water
2 Tbsp corn starch (optional)

Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a pan and then add mushrooms.

Cook about 3 min just until mushrooms start to soften and then add a little salt.  Add the green onions and garlic to the pan and cook another min. Add the tomatoes and cook another 4 min.

Now add the parsley and reserved water. Now cook till it slightly thickened (if you like your sauce a little thicker add up to 2 Tbsp of corn starch). Now add the remaining butter.
Now either mix in the ravioli or plate the ravioli and pour sauce on top.

ENJOY!!!

Honey Garlic Chicken

Honey Garlic Chicken is another pinterest recipe that I decided to try and let me tell you this one is to die for. You can find the recipe here.

Now I went to the store to get the meat mallet and some how got home and hadn't bought one. I know this has happened to everyone you come home without the one thing you went for.  So I put the chicken in between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and beat it till it was flat with a rolling pin.

Then mix in a bowl

2 cup flour
4 tsp salt
4 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp ground ginger
2 tbsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground thyme
2 tsp ground sage
2 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
and in a separate bowl mix

4 eggs
8 tbsp water
put a little salt and pepper on each piece of chicken. Then dip in flour mix, the the egg and then back in the flour and place in a pan of hot oil (the recipe calls for canola oil I didn't have any so I used peanut oil) and cook about 5 min a side.

Now you can stop here and enjoy the chicken which is so yummy as you can tell I cut a piece off to snack on as I was finish the rest and it was not my last taste.

Then you can make the sauce and pour over them.

2 tbsp olive oil
3 – 4 cloves minced garlic

cook for about 2 min to soften the garlic
then add

1 cup honey
¼ cup soy sauce (low sodium soy sauce is best)
1 tsp ground black pepper

and simmer about 5 min then dip the chicken or pour over the chicken.

I forgot to take pic of the finished chicken but let me tell you this will being staying at the top of recipe list.

Enchilada Casserole

I made a super simple Enchilada Casserole.  I made my tortillas but of course this could easily be made with store bought flour tortillas.

Tortillas
2 C of flour
about 2 tsp salt
2/3 C shortening
1 C cold water

mix the flour and salt together and then slowly add the shortening using a electric mixer after it becomes crumbles

then slowly add the water until it sticks together. Then you can roll it out with a rolling pin or use a tortilla press.

I love my tortilla press but they are alittle tricky to get your hands on.  You can get them online but finding them in a store can take some work. We have 5 kitchen stores in our town and only one carried them and they only ever kept one in stock, which seemed weird cause they always sold it right away and after a couple months I finally got there on a day that they had just got it in.

If you use a tortilla press I recommend covering it in plastic wrap, it makes it so much easier to remove the tortillas. If you do not add enough water it will not stick together well and you end up with this

If that does happen to you just add a little more water.

As you press them put them in a greased skillet for around a minute a side just till they are golden.

then for the super simple casserole I layered tortillas, enchilada sauce, taco meat, Monterrey jack cheese Repeat once more and then top with tortillas, sauce, and cheese.

 Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 min. Serve with lettuce, tomato, and sour cream.

Mini Deep Dish

I decided to make pizza night a little more fun for the kiddos tonight by make them each there very own mini deep dish.  First I made the dough.

Pizza dough

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.

Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour.

 Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. 

Instead of rolling it out I greased the underside of a muffin pan and placed the dough over the top.

 I baked them for 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven and then removed them from the pan. I did have to cut them to separate a couple of them.  Then I placed them on a cookie sheet to fill.

Next I put a Tablespoon of pizza sauce into the dough.

I placed a pepperoni in them but you could put anything you want in them.

Top with cheese. Remember they are deep dishes so really fill them to the top.

You can stop with just the cheese but I decided to put a couple of pepperonis on top.

Bake for another 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven and you have a yummy personal deep dish pizza.

Frappuccino

I decided to try my hand at making a caramel frappuccino.  I must say they turned out great.  You can also make a Mocha frappuccino by switching out the caramel for chocolate syrup.

First I made the caramel syrup. You can always by store bought but I have never been known to do things the easy way. (except for apple turns over, Pillsbury perfected that and who am I to mess with perfection)

Caramel Sauce

1/2 C packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp corn starch
1/4 C water
1/3 C light cream or half and half. ( I had neither so I mixed half milk and half heavy cream)
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

mix brown sugar, corn starch, water in sauce pan then add the cream and corn syrup. cook stirring constantly until thick and bubbly and then cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla stir till smooth. chill. keep extra refrigerated.


Caramel Frappuccino

3 oz of cold strong coffee. I used instant and double the coffee per water.
1 C ice
1/2 low fat milk
1 and 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 and 1/2 Tbsp caramel sauce

place all in blender and blend til smooth.  Top with a little caramel sauce.  This makes about a grande size you could double it if you are more venti person.

Quick and Tasty Sticky Buns

My Kids decided they needed sticky buns for lunch today. So here is the super easy quick recipe I made

store bought buttermilk biscuits (10 count)
1/2 Sugar
1/2 brown sugar
cinnamon
1/4 C butter melted
1 tsp vanilla

put biscuits in a 8x8 greased pan overlapping slightly.

cover with sugars and then sprinkle cinnamon on top.

mix the vanilla and the butter together and then pour on top of biscuits.

bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 20 min.

and enjoy!!!

Chocolate Penutbutter no bake cookies

1/2 C butter
2 C sugar
1/2 C milk
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 peanut butter
3/12 C quick oats
2 tsp vanilla

mix butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa powder in a sauce pan.

bring to a boil and then boil for about 1 min more. and then stir ion the peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. 

scoop onto wax paper and then refrigerate to cool.

So yummy!!!

Watermelon Popsicles

After I made the fruit salad below I didn't want to waste the scrap watermelon that wasn't in a balls so I made Popsicles for the kiddos but the adults were in love with them too.

I put 2 cups of the watermelon in my blender.

Then I mixed 2-3 Tbs of sugar in.

I added about 1/4 cup of water just enough to cover the melon. Then blended it until smooth.

Pour into the molds.

Freeze and then you have some super yummy watermelon Popsicles.

Fruit Salad

I made fruit salad for a BBQ but I didn't have any large bowls left after all the other food I made so I made a watermelon bowl.  First I drew the lined on the watermelon with a marker and then cut on the line with the knife. Now the important part is to cut the part you are taking off into several pieces it is much easier to keep the melon from cracking that way.

after you have removed the top I used a melon baller to get all the watermelon out.

then I scrapped the inside to get every last bit of watermelon out I did make stuff out of the scraps that weren't balls that I will post soon.

Then fill it with your favorite fruits. I used watermelon (of course), cantaloupe, strawberries, and blueberries.

Flag Pie

So we had a family BBQ for Fathers Day. I made potato salad, coleslaw, beans, smoked ribs, beer can chicken, and pulled pork and I made this pie which I wanted to try before the 4th of July to make sure I don't screw it up. 

I used store bought pie crust (I know not my thing but I had enough cooking to do) I put the crust in the bottom of the pie pan and then used my "pie saver" that you can get at walmart and most retail stores (it is normally used after you cut the pie to keep the sides from getting hard) but you don't need one it just made it easier to get the filling where I wanted it.

then I filled in the big section with cherry pie filling.

and then I used fresh blueberries and add a little sugar to them for the blue.

Now you roll out the second pie crust and with a pizza cutter make some stripes. I made some for around the blueberries too. Then I cut out 2 stars from the rest of the crust.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 40 min and you have an awesome flag pie.

Port Wine Chicken

Well its been awhile since I posted some tasty things because it is summer and that mean pool and grilling in this house.  I did manage to spend a minute in my kitchen a few days ago and I made Port wine Chicken that is yet another Pinterest recipe. (I am really loving trying all these new thing from pinterest). The original recipe can be found here. This recipe is super easy and very yummy!!! Everyone love it even the kids after they got past the fact that the chicken was red.

First I bought chicken Leg Quarters because it was cheaper then buying the thighs and leg separate and then I just cut them apart myself.

season them with salt and pepper and then brown them in a pan with alittle hot olive oil. Then remove them them from pan

then add one chopped onion and some chopped parsley to the pan and cook til onions begin to caramelize. Then add mushrooms I just used 16 oz of mushrooms I had in my fridge.

cook the mushrooms for about 3 minutes then place the chicken back in the pan and add a Port Wine.

then cover and simmer for about 30 min. Remove chicken and add a stick a butter to the wine to make the sauce.  Now I know it isn't pretty but trust me it is so yummy and the chicken is super tender