Month: February 2020

Chicken · Daily Thoughts · Meats · Uncategorized

Baked Fried Chicken

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Face Book is such a great way to keep up with memories of what we have done on a specific day for the last few years. It is so great to see memories pop up with pictures of our kids or grandkids and how they looked 2, 5, or even 7 and 8 years ago, if we have taken pictures and posted them. One thing I truly enjoy is the recipes that folks have posted and I shared so I would have them on my page and then would not loose them. This recipe popped up yesterday on my memory page. After going back and reading it, I realized that I never made it but it sounds so good that next week, we will definitely be making it. *sorry I don’t know who to give the credit for this but whoever it was, thank you! It sounds like a winner that will go with a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and hot buttered rolls…….ending with maybe a coconut cream pie loaded with whipped cream. Now, that will be a memory meal!

Place thawed chicken breast tenderloin strips in a bowl of milk. Let soak for 20-30 minutes.

Mix in a Gallon Size Ziplock or Large Bowl:

1/2 teas salt

1 Tables Season All

3/4 teas Pepper

1 cup flour

2 teas paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1/2 stick (4 tables) unsalted butter into a few pieces and pace in a 9×13″ baking dis. Melt the butter in the preheated oven.

Spread melted butter around the bottom of the pan. Highly spray the pan, if needed, to make sure that there are no dry spots.

Shake excess milk off of chicken and completely coat each piece with the seasoning mix. You can either shake the chicken in the bag, until coated, or dip each piece in the bowl, until coated.

Place each tenderloin in the melted butter and place in oven. Bake for 20 minutes and then turn chicken and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes or until chicken is done. ENJOY!

*ok, I can tell you right now, that I will add some garlic powder to the mix and also probably pour a little more butter over the chicken when I turn it before continuing to bake on the other side. After all, can you really have too much butter?

Uncategorized

Chile Rellenos

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Ingredients

  • 6 fresh Anaheim chile peppers
  • 1 (8 ounce) package queso asadero (white Mexican cheese), cut into 3/4-inch thick strips
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening for frying
  • 1 cup sharpe cheddar cheese

Directions

Taken from Allrecipes

  1. Preheat the oven’s broiler and set the oven rack at about 6 inches from the heat source. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place peppers onto the prepared baking sheet, and cook under the preheated broiler until the skin of the peppers has blackened and blistered, about 10 minutes. Turn the peppers often to blacken all sides. Place the blackened peppers into a bowl, and tightly seal with plastic wrap. Allow the peppers to steam as they cool, about 15 minutes.
  2. Rinse cooled peppers under cold water to peel off the skins, and cut a slit along the long side of each pepper to remove the seeds and core. Rinse the peppers inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels. Stuff the peppers with strips of the cheese.
  3. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl with the baking powder. In a second metal bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until the whites form stiff peaks. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture. Place flour into a shallow bowl.
  4. Heat the vegetable shortening in a skillet over medium heat. Roll each stuffed pepper in flour, tap off excess flour, and dip the peppers into the egg mixture to coat both sides. Gently lay the coated peppers into the hot shortening. Fry peppers until lightly golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes per side.
  5. Spray a 9×13” baking dish with Pam. Pour about 1 cup of the green enchilada sauce in bottom of dish. Place fried green chiles in pan over sauce. Pour about 1 more cup of the sauce over the top of green chiles (dont saturate with sauce. Might not need entire cup over top). Sprinkle the 1 cup of the sharp cheddar cheese over the top and place in preheated 400 degree over for about 8-10 min or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling! Serve with pinto beans and salsa with homemade flour and corn Chips!
Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

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HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!! What a great way to say I Love You by dropping off some wonderful homemade cupcakes to friends or family.

A dear friend had requested either red velvet or carrot cake cupcakes when she found out that I was baking her something. Because I had a whole bag of carrots in the fridge, I thought to myself, “self, should you make a kale-carrot smoothie or carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting?” and guess what won out?  Because I had not made a homemade carrot cake in a long time, I began to go through some old cookbooks and decided to try this recipe which was in an old cookbook I have had since the 70’s. They were passed down to me by my aunt Gladys. The actual print date of the cookbook is 1961. I (I know you are never suppose to begin a sentence with “I” but because it is Valentines, please be kind to forgive me) have to tell you that besides the recipe that I have made before with a can of crushed pineapple in the carrot cake, this one is the best one I have found. It is super moist and light and the flavor is wonderful. Of course, all the cream cheese frosting certainly didn’t hurt the flavor either. So grab a bag of carrots from the grocery store and get the food processor out. These are just delicious and will be a perfect ending to our night at home tonight. Yes, that’s right, Mr. Cupid and I will be at home tonight. We have a dinner planned of Olive Tapenade, Bruchetta with Garlic Bread, Salami and cheese wraps. We plan to celebrate tomorrow night but because my Valentine is now working, I have the feeling he will be so thankful to stay home tonight and then celebrate tomorrow night. Besides, I have to find out what happens in the next episode of A Place to Call Home …..

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, well beaten

1 teas vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teas cinnamon

1 heaping teas pumpkin pie spice

2 teas baking soda

2 teas baking powder

1 cup crushed pecans or walnuts (I didn’t put them in the cake, but sprinkled them over the frosting this time

3 cups grated carrots

 

Directions

Mix oil and sugar; beat well. Add beaten eggs. Sift all dry ingredients 2 -3 times. If you add the nuts to the batter, add them to the flour mixture. Mix dry ingredients with the sugar mixture. Add carrots 1 cup at a time and mix in well after each addition. Either bake as cupcakes or layer cakes or one 9×13″ cake. Bake until cake feels firm to the touch but still looks shiny on top. Cool and Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting*

*Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 8 oz cream cheese, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

1 teas vanilla

Mix all ingredients together until no lumps remain in mixture. I added a little pineapple juice to the frosting and blended it in to give it extra flavor. Sprinkled the crushed pecans over the top.

 

Daily Thoughts · Salads · Starches · Uncategorized

Zipppity Do Da Pasta Salad

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

Since I am in a most supercalifragilistic kind of mood today, I have that old song, “Zippity Do Da” going over and over in my mind today. Just coming home from Phoenix where I went to visit our daughter and family for a few days. Then last night returning home to Randy taking me out for Mexican food, how can I not be in a great mood?

This morning, I was to meet a new friend for coffee at 9. Because it was my first morning back in town, I began to think, “why did I accept this invite, when I wish I had made it for another day and could just stay home and bake.” But after meeting with her, well, all I can say is that I met a kindred spirit and it just made my day. Felt like I could have sat and talked to her for hours. Isn’t it always like that? When we least expect it, God puts someone in our lives that seems like such a gift. Was so thankful I kept the appointment. We began to share some of the things in our lives that have led up this point and it was apparent that we have so much in common. AND…….we both love white bakery cake!

But back to the pasta salad. As I sat there and began to tell her about the blog, I remembered that I had never posted the pasta salad that many have requested the recipe. So here it is….trust me on this one. It is just so simple, yet it is so so different from most pasta salads and everyone who tried it loved it. So get those salad forks ready and get ready to put this recipe on your “favorite recipe lists for bridal luncheons, Mother’s Day luncheons, and any Spring or Summer day you want something wonderful to eat besides chicken salad.”

Ingredients

1 bag or box of bow tie pasta

1/2 purple onion finely diced

one small jar of chopped pimentos, drained

1 cup finely grated parmesan or mozzarella cheese, (or a combo of both which is what I did)

1 8 or 12 oz jar of olive tapenade. (One jar I bought was 8 oz and another was 12 oz, but because I was making salad for 25, I used 3 jars and 3 boxes of pasta)

1 bottle of Kraft Roasted Red Pepper dressing

*opt if you want to add some cut up pepperoni or dry salami, it goes well with this recipe also, just add the amount you desire to the pasta once you have added rest of ingredients.

Directions

Cook pasta according to directions on box. Drain and cool.

Add all ingredients except the dressing and stir. Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Depending on what brand of olive tapenade you use, will depend on how much of the dressing you will need. If the brand you use has quite a bit of the olive oil in it, you might want to drain some of the olive oil off so that you would need more of the roasted bell pepper dressing.

After you have added the ingredients you want in the pasta, add enough of the dressing to make it moist.  Keep covered in fridge. Right before serving, you might want to add a little more dressing if it has soaked in too much into the pasta. Sprinkle some extra grated cheese on top and serve.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

First Day of School All Over Again

Chocolate Castles8 Comments

It has happened, Randy has gone back to work. Today was his first day and it was very hard to see him walk away from the car.  I felt like I was 30 again, dropping off my first baby at school.  Yes, I cried. After all, we have been together pretty much 24/7 for 5 years now and it was like, “oh my goodness” who will I talk to? Who will run to the store for me when I am cooking and realize that I’m out of sugar? Who will help me carry up groceries to our home? Who will vacuum? Who will sit on rainy cold days and watch A Place to Call Home with me?

As you can tell, it is still all about me. When he received the letter on Thursday that he was to come to work today, we had tears of joy and just stared at it. What? Is this really happening? Will people think that I nagged him so much that he just couldn’t take it anymore?  Will he be so tired at night that he won’t want to talk to me?  As I sit and write this, I realized that it really is all about me. Let me start with some thoughts about him, so I won’t completely sound spoiled rotten.

First of all, he was excited as a monkey finding a bowl of bananas.  He kept telling me, “you are going to miss me tomorrow”, which I would reply, “oh goodness no, I’m free now to go to lunch with friends and shop and go get my nails done.” All the things that I would feel guilty for doing when he was at home. He has never ever complained about anything I wanted to go do or anytime I was gone, it was just my silly guilty feelings of knowing that he was at home while I was out having lunch or spending money.

Young folks think that is silly Im sure, but we were just raised in a different generation that we didn’t live such separate lives from our spouses as many do today.  When we were first married, I remember telling Randy that I would just never think of spending more than $50 without telling him first. He did the same of me. We didn’t think anything about it. We didn’t have girls nights out or go on vacation with friends. Times were different.

But today, as I was loading the dishwasher and folding clothes and cooking, it was kinda nice to have my kitchen back to myself…..WHAT AM I SAYING?????? IT WAS GREAT, DOUBLE GREAT , TRIPLE GREAT ,TO HAVE MY KITCHEN BACK TO MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!! I actually removed the yellow tape from down the middle of the kitchen that he knew not to cross when I was baking. Today I didn’t have to “redo” stacking the dishes in the dishwasher. With him not here to sit and talk to, I have done 3 loads of laundry, already made a huge dent in dinner prep and dusted. Talked on phone and changed the sheets on both beds.  Why is that? Why do we get more done when the hubbies are not here? I don’t have the answer. If you do, please write and tell me.

Our conversation over the last few days has been about  how it took us 2 years for both of us to accept his retirement. Then the 3rd year, we threw away the divorce attorneys number that we had been keeping beside the phone.  We began to speak to each other again, well other than, “GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN and GO FIND SOMETHING TO DO and “no, I don’t want to go to Home Depot with you”. We  kinda got in the groove of a new routine of him being home and both of us moving and settling in  Arizona. After that 4th year, we both knew that we wanted to settle back in Texas and we had a common goal…….selling our house there and traveling for 6 months before settling down back in Dallas. When you travel, it is so easy to be together  all day, every day, so we really got in the hang of him being home and “helping” me around the house. We have been back in Dallas now since July and Randy has been asking the Lord to give him more of a purpose, other than finding the best deal on vacuum cleaner bags. Thanks to Randy’s brother mentioning Randy’s name to the company he works for, Randy received a phone call last week offering him this job. So we have been out trying to find another car for him to drive to work since we have been a one car couple for these last 5 years.  Because, as Mr. Retirement had pointed out, “why do we need two cars when we will be doing EVERYTHING together?” Our search began last week with Randy telling me that he just wanted a car to drive back and forth to work in. So we had a budget we were going to stick to. After 2 or 3 days and looking at some of the cars that he had found, we (well, me) started to think that maybe if we bought a little cuter car than what he was looking at, wouldn’t it be fun for me to have this little cute car to run around town in while our old car could sit in the parking lot at his work. After all, why should he have the new cute car just sitting there in a parking lot, when I could look so spiffy running around meeting friends for lunch in the new car that I have already named (even though we haven’t bought one yet) .

We did find a car that both of us like. Hopefully by the time Mr. Goes To the Market 3 Times Before He Decides Which Loaf Of Bread To Buy, the car we like will still be there. For two days I have been pointing out the positives of why we should get this particular car. For one thing, it is so cute. Secondly, we can both get in and out of it without the need or a fork lift. Thirdly, it is white so it would go with my hair, no matter if I have it colored blonde or red AND it goes beautifully with his silver hair…wait….after thinking about it, he would look much better driving our old red car as silver goes so much better with red than white………so because I’m such a giving person, I will LET him drive the old red car to work and I’ll drive the white car. Because that’s what loving wives do…we give and give and give…..just like I’m going to let him take me out Friday night to celebrate his first week of work.  Doesn’t it make you wonder why he wanted to work and be gone all day away from such a loving wife that makes our marriage all about him? Maybe this week, he will find out just how blessed he is to have such a loving wife when he opens up the Visa bill the end of Feb to see that I missed him so much I had to go shopping and  have lunches with friends so I wouldn’t miss him so much….bless his heart…!!!!!