Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Bud Light Spicy Chicken Drumsticks with White Cheese Mac n Cheese

I used this recipe and blog for the chicken. ( http://picturetherecipe.com/index.php/recipes/grilled-beer-marinated-chicken/attachment/grilled-beer-marinated-chicken-legs-by-picturetherecipe/ )

Ingredients: * 8-10 chicken drumsticks
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1 tsp onion salt
* 1 tsp paprika
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 1/4 tsp cayenne
* 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
* 3-4 cloves of garlic
* Juice of half a lime
* 1 cup beer
* handful of chopped fresh parsley
* Salt to taste


 

Basically you put it all in a plastic gallon bag and let marinate for 4-24 hours. I marinated mine for about 24 hours and the flavor was really good... I would let these sit in the bags for as long as possible.

For the Mac.N.Cheese. I just made this up.

Preheat Oven to 350 deg F

I used a normal butter and flour rue.

Put a tbsp. of butter and 2 tbsp. of flour in a pan and stir until well mixed. Then add a 1/2 cup of milk and stir over heat until incorporated. Start your pasta at the some time.

After this add your white cheeses..... I used Fontina, Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Mascarpone Cheese. I added these to the warm pan of rue until I like the flavor.

When pasta is al dente, take it off the heat and put into a baking dish. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and then put extra mozzarella over the top an put in the oven to cook for about 10 minutes.

While you are making the pasta..... cook the drumsticks on the grill!!!! YUM!



Plate and Enjoy!!!!

Roasted Rosemary Garlic and Citrus Chicken with Couscous and Fontina stuffed Mushrooms

So.... It's snowing!!! So I dug through the fridge and pantry and decided to see what I could make with what I had. This is what I came up with.

Chicken tenderloins
1 tbsp. chopped garlic
1 lemon
2 tbsp. lemon juice
Salt and Pepper
2 Sprigs Rosemary
1 tbsp. Olive Oil

Mushrooms
Fontina Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Parm Cheese
Pepper
Can of Fancy Crab Meat
Garlic Salt

Stovetop Coucous


Preheat your oven to 375 deg F.

Cut your stems off your mushrooms and cut out the center. Chop those to put in your chicken. Use the tops to fill with a mix of your cheeses, salt and pepper, garlic, 1 tsp olive oil, and crab meat.


Assemble your Chicken.


10 minutes after you put your chicken in the oven (for 25 to 30 minutes) start your couscous according to package instructions.

Put your Mushrooms in the oven when your chicken has about 15 minutes left.

Assemble your plate and enjoy :)


Especially on a snow day.....


Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Rosemary and Red Wine Steak with Broccoli and Quinoa

Ingredients:
- Pinch of Salt
- 1/4 Tbsp pepper
- 3/4 Tbsp Olive Oil
- Rosemary
- 1 Tbsp Chopped Garlic
- 1/4 cup Red Wine
- 1/4 cup Beef Broth
- A Pinch of Brown Sugar
- 1 lb of Steak

- Broccoli
- Box of Quinoa



You have two choices..... You can throw everything in a bag and let it marinate for a few hours .... or you can make a sauce. I made the sauce.

Start cooking your quinoa according to the directions on your box. When this is done just cover and wait for your steak and sauce.


I seasoned my steak on the side and let it wait until the sauce was done.

Throw some olive oil in a fry pan with 1/2 of your rosemary and 1/2 of your chopped garlic. Allow your garlic to brown a bit.

Add your wine and boil for 2 minutes. (Now this is when I accidentally tossed my phone into the boiling sauce..... yea.... go me right? Anyway I got it out really fast.... burnt my fingers and tossed it into some rice .... so that's why I don't have any pictures except for the last one)

While your sauce is boiling, throw your broccoli into a steamer pot. Let steam for about 7 minutes and remove from heat.

Add your broth and sugar to your sauce and boil for another 10 minutes.

Toss your steak onto another fry pan while your sauce simmers. I used a really thin strip steak so I only cooked each side for about a minute on a pre-heated pan.

Add the rest of your rosemary and garlic to your sauce, let simmer for about 3 minutes, and remove from heat to pour over steak.


Throw everything on a plate and enjoy!!!

This was delicious.... and my first foray into quinoa was a success.... also my phone is allliiiiivvveeee  like a technological Frankenstein's monster... yay!




Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Lemon Thyme Shrimp with Herbed Pearled CousCous and Garlic Green Beans

Ingredients:

- 1lb of Shrimp
- 1 Lemon
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1-2 tsp Chopped Thyme
- 1/2 tsp Salt

- Green Beans
- 1 Tbsp Chopped Garlic
- 1 tsp Olive Oil

- Box of Pearled Couscous

How To:

 Put everything in the first ingredient section in a bag to marinate.... I left mine for about 2 hours while I was at Boxing...... that s**t is fun! but tiring....

Time to cook...
 Throw your green beans in a steamer pot for about 7 minutes. Or get a microwavable bag.

 At the same time, start your couscous on the stove. (This will take about 15-20 minutes total)
 Wait until you have about 5 minutes left on the couscous and toss your green beans and shrimp in fry pans.

 Let cook about 2 minutes a side for the shrimp. Toss your green beans in the olive oil and garlic on another pan for about 5 minutes....
Serve garnished with thyme and lemon and Enjoy!!!!!!!


Monday, January 20, 2014

I'm finally getting around to blogging about all of the food my family and I made during Christmas..... Here we go....

 
 
 The Seafood grocery section made me soooooooo happy... take a look at those gigantic octopi!

 The first night we made a whole chicken.... This was a baked chicken with onions and carrots. The chicken was rubbed down with Spanish Provential Spices and olive oil. The chicken was stuffed with dates and lemon for some extra flavor. Heat your oven to 400 degrees and bake the chicken according to how many lbs of chicken you have... Serve with a rice or pasta side.


 Chicken Sausage Pasta!!! This was delicious. We chopped a whole zucchini, a red pepper, and an onion. Then we put the pasta on to boil.
 Cook your chicken chorizo sausage to 90 percent done.
 Spice your veggies with basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and maybe something a bit spicy....
 Put your sauce on the stove and spice however you like it. We used basil, salt, pepper, and about a tablespoon of chopped garlic.
 Chop your sausage and put into pan to finish cooking and put a slight sear on it.
 Add your veggies to the pan to cool until just slightly crispy.... cook longer if you like your veggies soft.
 Here are the finished serving dishes for this delicious pasta!


 So..... now we venture onward toward a traditional Spanish dish.... Paella!! We decided on a seafood and sausage paella.
 First we started our broth. We used a vegetable bouillon cube and 3 cups of water.
 Then we have our paella rice to cook.... so cook your rice according to the box but cut off about 1/3 of the time so it's not too soft.
 We used some leftover sausage....
 Octopus and squid....
 Paprika, Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Lemon, Saffron, and Cayanne Pepper for our spices.... Spice to taste.
 We used a red pepper, an onion, and a bag of diced zucchini for our veggies. Put your veggies in the pan to sauté for about 7 minutes. Add your spices except for the saffron. Add your proteins and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add your cooked rice, saffron, and about 1 cup of your broth. Let simmer until all of the broth is absorbed. Try your rice.... If you like it.... serve! If you want it softer... and another 1/2 cup of broth and allow to absorb again.... repeat as necessary.
 Serve with lemon and enjoy!



 
 My dad also made an amazing spiced and grilled salmon.... but I don't have pictures....


Try to make and enjoy a couple of these dishes with your family!

Beef Stroganoff...Delicious!!!!

Ingredients
  • 1 ½ pounds beef, top sirloin, thinly sliced
  • Olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 ½ cups mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 2-3 Tablespoons flour
  • 1 ½ cups beef broth
  • 1 Tablespoon ketchup
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • ½ teaspoon basil
  • 4 Tablespoon white wine (something relatively dry)
  • 4 Tablespoons sour cream
  •  1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
  • 2 Cups chopped green beans
  •  1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
  •  1 package of egg noodles
 
I don't have any pictures for this one except the final one... So I'll just try to give pretty good instructions...
 
  1. Heat a sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Briefly sauté half of the beef in ½ tablespoon oil to brown. Remove beef and any juices from pan into a bowl. Repeat with ½ tablespoon olive oil and remaining beef.
  2. In same pan, add 1 more tablespoon oil and sauté onions, mushrooms, and garlic until only slightly crunchy. Remove to bowl with beef.
  3. Melt 2 tablespoons butter. Mix in 2 tablespoons flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. My flour butter mixture was really thick and I added the beef broth pretty much immediately.
  4. Add ketchup, paprika, and basil. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring for pretty much the whole time.
  5. Add meat, mushrooms, and onions to sauce and continue to simmer for 15 minutes more.
  6. Put your egg noodles into boiling water for about 7 minutes. Make two batches if you want more noodles with your sauce. 
  7. Throw your green beans into a steamer pot at the same time and steam for 5 minutes. Then remove the green beans to a sauté pan with 1 tsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp. of chopped garlic.
  8. Remove the sauce from heat after the 15 min and stir in wine and sour cream.
  9. Serve over the noodles.