Archive for ‘recipes’

October 8th, 2008

Trina's Cookie Mix

by Becca

Today’s recipe hails from my best friend, Trina. I think she originally got it from some magazine, I’m not quite sure. She calls it a cookie base, meaning you can add whatever combo of candy to it you want. 

Today we’re making chocolate chip cookies with heath toffee bits in them. It’s GOOD!

Let’s start with the ingredients:

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

 

  • 2 1/4 cups of flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 package of instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Step One: Add flour and baking soda to a large bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Step Two: Take the sticks of butter and place them in another large bowl.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Then melt the butter for 30 seconds to soften it.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

 

 

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Once the butter is melted, it is time to add the sugars.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Add 1/4 cup of white sugar

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Then add the 3/4 cup of brown sugar

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Then add the pudding mix. Wondering why we’re adding pudding mix? Trina claims it leaves the cookies soft for weeks. I’m not sure because when we made the cookies they last only a few days. ;)

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Once you’ve added the pudding mix it is time to stir again.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Now it’s time to add the 2 eggs and 1 tsp. of vanilla extract.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Of course, it’s time to stir again!

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

 

Now, after you’ve stirred the ingredients well, it is time to add in the flour mixture you made before.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Be sure to stir as your pour the flour in.

Trina's Cookie Recipe

As you gradually add the flour and mix, the dough will form. 

Now, this cookie mix is made so you can add whatever type of cookie you want. We chose to add in chocolate chips and toffee bits. These were the original ingredients, but I know Trina has used this recipe for several other cookies. She suggests if you are doing a combo of chips and nuts to do one whole bag of chips and half a bag of nuts. For our recipe we did about half and half.

 

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Look at those yummy chocolate chips!

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

We added some toffee bits!

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Alright, once the mix is complete, start playing a tablespoon of cookie mix on the cookie sheets. As you can see, we use an ice cream scoop to do so.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

Once you’ve got them laid out, it’s time to bake! Put them in for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Trina's Cookie Recipe

They come out looking (and tasting) delicious!

September 15th, 2008

Poppy Seed Chicken

by Becca

Today I am going to share with you Gray’s favorite meal. This recipe is originally from my friend Justin Adams’s family. I’m not sure where it came from before then, but there are a lot of similiar recipes on the internet. 

 

Here are some of the characters:

Poppy Seed Chicken

The Complete Cast:

 

  • 1 cooked, de-boned chicken
  • 1 small sour cream (80z.)
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • 1/4 cup of milk
  • salt & pepper
  • Ritz crackers (60)
  • 1 stick of butter
  • Poppy Seeds (of course)
First, we need to cook our chicken.

Poppy Seed Chicken

I usually fill a stockpot with water and place the chicken inside to boil for about an hour. Be sure to rotate the chicken every fifteen or so minutes so it will not stick. Also, check the chicken before you remove it to make sure it has cooked.

While the chicken is cooking I usually work on the ritz cracker topping. I crush the ritz crackers until they look something like this:

 

Poppy Seed Chicken

Put this aside and once the chicken is done, it’s time to de-bone.

 

 

Poppy Seed Chicken

I use a 8×8 pan but you can double the recipe for 9×13.

Poppy Seed Chicken

Once you’ve placed the chicken in the pan, it’s time to pour on some ingredients. 

Pour over chicken In order:

 

  1. sour cream
  2. cream of chicken soup
  3. cup of milk
  4. salt and pepper

Poppy Seed Chicken

Pour the cracker crumbs over the mixture and then melt the butter and pour it over the crumbs. Then mix the butter into the crumbs so it’s evenly covered. You could also mix the butter and crumbs first and then pour it over the mixture. I’ve found it’s easier to go by the first method.

Poppy Seed Chicken

Once that is poured, pour and toss some poppy seeds on top… 

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

It’s yummy and tasty!

 

 

 

 

 

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September 10th, 2008

Importing Cooking Blog

by Becca

So, things are about to get a little messy around here. I realized having several blogs is really time consuming and I never update the others. So, I’m importing the blogs into this blog.

There may be some confusion until I get it all sorted out.

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August 20th, 2008

Spaghetti

by Becca

 

It’s been a month, crazy! As I was making spaghetti the other night, I thought, “Why not put it on the cooking blog?”

 

 

101_5531

Here’s some of the cast. I used whatever noodles are available, these were from my mom. Gray insisted on Prego sauce, but we use any sauce we like at the time. I also use 1lb of ground beef… it makes it taste yummy!

 

101_5529

I start off by boiling the water, since that takes forever… and then I moved on to cooking the ground beef.

 

Spaghetti

Once the ground beef is cooked, we drain it.

 

Spaghetti

And put it back in the pan and pour the sauce over it. Turn the heat down to low for this and cover it with a lid until the noodles are ready.

 

Spaghetti

 

 

 

 

 

Spaghetti

Spaghetti

Once the water is boiling, add your desired amount of noodles! My box said to cook the noodles for about 10 minutes.

 

Spaghetti

Spaghetti

I added some Oregano to the noodles… yummy.

 

Spaghetti

Once the noodles are finished, drain them as well.

 

Spaghetti

And that’s it! Viola, spaghetti!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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July 1st, 2008

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

by Becca

This recipe is from Allrecipes

PREP TIME  15 Min COOK TIME  50 Min READY IN  1 Hr 5 Min

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 individual package chocolate graham crackers, crushed
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Mix cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar. Press into the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate. Refrigerate crust while making filling.
  2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and egg yolk. Stir in vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour filling into pie crust.
  3. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until filling is set.
  4. Let it cool off for a little while (1 hr is suggested) and then refrigerate, preferably overnight.
My husband is a huge fan of cheesecakes and I love chocolate chips.
1 Hr 5 Min
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June 25th, 2008

Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken

by Becca

This recipes hails from Allrecipe.com

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon steak sauce
  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
*Note: I doubled the sauce ingredients to have some dip on the table. I’m not a huge fan of mayo so I cut that in half.

 

DIRECTIONS

 

  1. Preheat the grill for medium heat.
  2. In a shallow bowl, mix the mustard, honey, mayonnaise, and steak sauce. Set aside a small amount of the honey mustard sauce for basting, and dip the chicken into the remaining sauce to coat.

Basting

3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill chicken over indirect heat for 18 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, or until juices run clear. Baste occasionally with the reserved sauce during the last 10 minutes. Watch carefully to prevent burning!

 

Grilling

The results were pretty great. Because I made extra sauce for dipping, my husband completely devoured his chicken… until he got full. He could only manage to eat half… but we had HUGE chicken breasts.

 

The final product

I now have a very happy husband who has pretty much declared this as a staple of our household recipes.

Happy Husband

 

So, try it and let me know how it goes!

 

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June 13th, 2008

Chicken Cordon Bleu

by Becca

 

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 20 minutes (or less)

Makes: 4 servings

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 slices prosciutto or cooked ham
4 slices Swiss cheese (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1. Place a chicken breast half between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound meat lightly into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Remove plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining chicken.

2. Place a slice of prosciutto/ham and a slice of cheese on each chicken piece. Fold in the bottom and sides; roll up and secure with a wooden toothpick.

3. In a 10-inch skillet, cook rolls in hot butter over medium-low heat for 20-25 minutes or until no longer pink (170 degrees F), turning to brown evenly. To serve, remove toothpicks.

When I did this, I found that after a while I could remove toothpicks and the chicken held together. This made it easier to cook.

 

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June 13th, 2008

Coming VERY Soon!

by Becca

I’ve wanted a cooking blog for a while now. I’ve recently had the time to put one together. So expect to see many recipes and other tidbits to come!

June 9th, 2008

Chicken Cordon Bleu

by Becca

Chicken Cordon BleuOriginally uploaded by becsaboo

It’s been a few days since my last post. We’ve been dealing with the truck acting up a bit and on Wednesday we’re taking it in to get looked at. I’m hoping it’s fixed by this weekend because I’d like to go to a wedding on Saturday, if we can afford gas, that is.

I’ve been enjoying trying new recipes and here is one from my cookbook. Gray and I both enjoy chicken cordon bleu and I always wondered how it was made. The picture shows one of my attempts, the insides are a little open because the piece of chicken that I used was a bit small.

Prep: 20 minutesCook: 20 minutes (or less)

Makes: 4 servings4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 slices prosciutto or cooked ham

4 slices Swiss cheese (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1. Place a chicken breast half between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound meat lightly into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Remove plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining chicken.

2. Place a slice of prosciutto/ham and a slice of cheese on each chicken piece. Fold in the bottom and sides; roll up and secure with a wooden toothpick.

3. In a 10-inch skillet, cook rolls in hot butter over medium-low heat for 20-25 minutes or until no longer pink (170 degrees F), turning to brown evenly. To serve, remove toothpicks.When I did this, I found that after a while I could remove toothpicks and the chicken held together. This made it easier to cook.

It was yummy and Gray enjoyed it. I recommend using bigger pieces of chicken or having a few side as this is not going to fill you up as a big chicken cordon bleu would.

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June 4th, 2008

The Cooking Wife

by Becca


Yummy Potatoes

Originally uploaded by becsaboo

Now, although my maiden name was Cook, I didn’t enjoy cooking until high school and even then, it was more of a last minute effort if I was starving. At college I didn’t have a proper kitchen to cook in, except the year I lived in Beasley so I was forced to eat off my free lunch plan as a RA and starve the other years. Kidding, mostly.

When I moved in to an apartment this past fall, I suddenly realized, “I’m getting married in 9 months, I should start cooking so I’m used to it by then.” So I began to cook here and there. It was hard to do so because I had a very busy fall schedule. Cooking and I had a few rough patches, until January came. Having no job and being frustrated with trying to find one, I took up cooking.

First it was the spices, Trina introduced me to the basics and then suddenly, I was opened to a whole new world. I was trying new recipes, cooking a lot and then there was Pampered Chef. I went to a party, got a new recipe and a lovely measuring cup that is my best friend.

Now I am a frequenter to allrecipes.com, an amazing resource and a few cooking blogs. The picture is from the other night when I cooked a new recipe, hot crush potatoes from thepioneeerwoman.com. Gray said it was one of the best meals I’ve made yet. He also loves the cheesecake chews I made yesterday.

So now I really enjoy cooking and baking foods, especially when my husband enjoys them, which isn’t really that hard. I was blessed to get an awesome cookbook as a wedding present and I’ve subscribed to a cooking magazine. I think cooking is highly understated.

I should have been a professional cook, but I’ll settle for being Gray’s. :)