Easy Chicken Marsala

Jason and I ate dinner at a very dear friend's house this summer. She made chicken cordon bleu with a marsala cream sauce. It was amazing! There's nothing better than great food mixed with great company! Ever since then I've been thinking of recreating her recipe. I came across this recipe on Pinterest and decided to go for it! This was my very first time to make chicken marsala and it turned out great! And surprisingly it was fairly quick and easy. I served it with some bow tie pasta- I will definitely be making this again very soon. I followed the recipe exactly- but my sauce didn't turn out quite like the one in the blogpost. It was a little too runny-- so I added some extra heavy cream, chicken broth, and instant brown gravy mix. That really did the trick! The recipe below is adapted from the original recipe on I found on Pinterest. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
- 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (The original recipe says to cut the chicken breasts in half and pound them. I skipped that step by buying HEB's chicken breasts that are "young chicken" and "thinly sliced")
- 1/2 cup of flour
- About 1 cup of veg. oil- depending on the size of your pan
- 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 1/2 cup of sweet Marsala wine (next time I might add a little less)
- 1/4 cup of chicken stock
- 1/4 cup of sherry or dry white wine (next time I might add a little less)
- heavy whipping cream, as needed
- instant brown gravy mix, as needed
- salt, pepper, thyme, basil, garlic powder

Directions:
1) Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Place some flour on a plate and dredge each piece of chicken in it.
2) Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a skillet. Pan fry each piece of chicken for 2-4 minutes on each side until they are golden brown. Remove chicken and place them on a serving platter.
3) In a separate pan, melt butter and add mushrooms. Season lightly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Saute mushrooms for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add marsala wine, white wine, chicken stock, and a few tablespoons of cream. Bring to a boil and then let simmer, allowing the liquid to reduce. At this point, taste the sauce and see what it needs. This is when I added a little bit of thyme, basil, and instant brown gravy mix (for color and thickness). I also added a little more cream to give the sauce more of a rich taste.
4) Pour mushrooms and sauce over chicken and serve. Voila!

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Toasted Butter Pecan Cake

First... Let me apologize for not being a very consistent blogger. I have so many recipes that I've tried this summer that I need to share with you, but I just can't find the time to upload them! Where has the summer gone? I'm already back in my classroom this week trying to get things ready for my new bunch of babies that will be here in a month! I'm so excited and a little anxious, too. I'm hoping for 20 little angels (and NOT 20 of the opposite haha).

Now... Let's get to the important stuff. This recipe is AWESOME! It made a 13x9 pan and also an 8 inch round pan. Jason and I kept the 8 inch for us and he brought the 13x9 pan to share with his coworkers. Some of his coworkers said it was one of their all time favorite desserts. Wow! It really is delicious. And the frosting is the best part. So yummy!!!! Try it!

Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups butter, softened
- 2 cups of chopped pecans
- 2 cups of sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 3 cups of flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of milk

Frosting:
- 16 ounces of cream cheese, softened
- 2 sticks of butter, softened
- 2 lbs of powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 to 3 tablespoons of milk, as necessary
- extra pecans for garish, optional

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour three 9" round cake pans (or the pans of your choice).
2. In a medium skillet, melt 1/4 cup of butter over medium heat. Add pecans; cook until toasted and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Spread across sheet of foil to cool.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Add vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Fold in toasted pecans.
6. Divide between cake pans and back 25-30 minutes, until cooked. Cool Completely.
7. For Frosting: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Beat in enough milk, if necessary, to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cake. Store in refrigerator.
8. Voila!

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Blackened Salmon with Southwestern Cream Sauce

Jason and I were shopping at HEB today and an employee was cooking and giving samples of this recipe. Jason tasted it first and LOVED it so of course I tried it too. It was so good that we decided to buy the ingredients and cook it tonight for dinner. It turned out great! And it was so easy. We will definitely cook this again.

The sauce was the best part! The base is the HEB green sauce shown below. I had never used this until now- it's yummy!

Ingredients:
- 2 salmon filets
- a tablespoon of fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 tablespoons of sour cream
- 4-5 tablespoons of HEB's "that green sauce"
- lime juice
- a tablespoon each of olive oil and butter
- seasoning: salt, pepper, blackening seasoning, southwest seasoning

Directions:
1) Heat the olive oil and butter in a skillet.
2) Season the meat side of the filets. Cook the filets in the skillet, meat side down for about 5 minutes with the lid on (depending on how thick the filet is).
3) Flip the filets once they start to blacken and cook on the skin side for an additional 5-6 minutes with the lid on, until the salmon is fully cooked.
4) In a small sauce pan, combine the green sauce, sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice on low until warm. Do not turn the burner too high or the sour cream will curdle (yuck). Taste the sauce and see if it needs more heat (add more green sauce) or if it's too hot (add a little more sour cream). I also put a little black pepper and chipotle pepper in the sauce for an extra kick.
5) Remove the filets from the skillet and top with the sauce.
6) Voila!

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Cake Batter Cookies

For some reason I'm wide awake so I thought I'd share a new recipe with you! These are so good and so easy! It's a great twist to "normal" chocolate chip cookies. The original recipe says that you can use any kind of cake mix. I used yellow cake. I made two batches of these- one batch for some family that spent time with us on the 4th of July and another batch for a dinner party. I used less chocolate chips the second time because I thought there were way too many for the first batch. Both batches were devoured! It was unanimous- the recipe is delish!

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips (depending on your taste)

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2) Mix everything together. I used my hands to mix it because it's not a smooth dough so the spoon wasn't really working for me.
3) Take a teaspoon of the batter and roll it into a ball. Continue until all dough has been formed into balls. Bake for 10-15 minutes on a cookie sheet.
4) Voila!

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Pork Chops with Pineapple Fried Rice

Not a great picture but a GREAT recipe! This is straight from the Pioneer Woman. My sister tried it first and she gave it raving reviews so I had to try it too. I'm a sucker for fried rice and this has become my favorite fried rice recipe. A few days after I made this, I tried it again but with shrimp. It was delish, too!!

Ingredients:
- 1 can of pineapple rings in 100% juice (the PW used fresh pineapple but I didn't have any on hand)
- 2 cups of rice, cooked
- 6 pork chops (or 1 lb of peeled and deveined shrimp)
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 1 onion, sliced
- 6 tablespoons of soy sauce (I added more than this)
- 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1 tablespoon of Sriracha
- 3 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 eggs
- 1 small jar of pimentos
- 1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed veggies
- I also added some shredded cabbage

Directions:
1) Cook rice and set aside.
2) Grill or saute pineapple rings until they have grill marks. Then cut up into bite size pieces and set aside.
3) Heat butter and oil over medium high heat, then add the pork chops in the pan. Saute on both  sides until they have nice color.
4) Throw in the onions and cook them with the pork chops.
5) Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, and Sriracha. Stir it all around and let it cook and bubble up for a few minutes.
6) Remove pork chops and set aside, while the sauce and onions cook for a little longer. Then pour the sauce and onions over the pork chops and set aside.
7) Add a small amount of oil to the same pan and heat over medium high heat. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant.
8) Then crack the eggs and immediately stir them to scramble them. Add veggies and a little more soy sauce. Add cooked rice and stir around for a couple of minutes.
9) Pour the pork chops, sauce, and onions back in the pan and serve.
10) Voila!

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Asian Noodle Salad

This recipe is from the Pioneer Woman but I found it on Pinterest, of course! It is really delicious and the perfect summer lunch. It's a cold pasta salad with an Asian flare made with a ton of veggies. You can really use whatever veggies you like. I used most everything she did, but I left out the spinach, cashews, and bean sprouts. Her recipe calls for linguine noodles. I think next time I will use macaroni or shells. I loved this salad but eating linguine noodles cold (and without pasta sauce) felt weird to me. This recipe makes a huge bowl full so you can eat it for many days!

Salad Ingredients:
- 1/2 a package of pasta noodles cooked, rinsed and cooled (whichever kind you prefer)
- purple cabbage (I used the kind already washed and cut in the bag)
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 orange bell pepper
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 1 bunch of green onions
- 1 cucumber
- I also some broccoli slaw (found by the shredded cabbage and coleslaw mix in the grocery store)

Dressing Ingredients:
- 1 whole lime, juiced
- 8 tablespoons of olive oil
- 8 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 2 or 3 tablespoons of sesame oil (found on the Asian isle in the store)
- 1/3 cup of brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons of fresh ginger, chopped ( I just used a grater and minced it instead of chopping it)
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 whole jalapeno pepper, chopped
- cilantro

Directions:
1) The first thing you need to do (after boiling, rinsing, and cooling noodles) is get all the veggies chopped up. This is what takes the longest.
2) Once everything is chopped up, mix the salad ingredients together.
3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. I think I used less olive oil and more soy sauce and sesame oil. I like a lot of dressing on my salad, so I added a little more of everything.
4) Mix the salad and dressing together with tongs or hands and serve.
5) Voila!

*Note: I made this during the school year and brought it for lunch for a whole week! This recipe really makes alot. And it keeps really well in the fridge. Enjoy!

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Homemade Crepes

YUMMMM! That's pretty much all I have to say about this.

Every time I eat crepes I think about this clip in the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. How funny are Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in that movie?!



I came across this recipe while looking at this breakfast blog post. I love dessert crepes so much! I did not realize how easy they are to make. Virtually everything you need is stuff you probably keep on hand. You can put whatever you'd like in the inside and on the outside. I've been stuck on Nutella lately, so inside of these crepes I put: Nutella, French vanilla cool whip, and strawberries.

By the way, if you haven't tried Kraft's French vanilla cool whip, you are missing out! That stuff is so good. I haven't tried the cinnamon kind yet.

Ingredients: (yields a large bowl full of batter mix)

- 2 cups of flour
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- a dash of vanilla extract
- about 2 cups of hot water

Directions:
1) Combine all ingredients except water and whisk together in a bowl. Set aside.
2) Boil about 2 cups of water. When the water starts to boil, remove the pot from the burner and set aside for a few minutes.
3) Preheat pan or skillet that you want to cook the crepes in on a little higher than medium heat.
4) Start adding 1/4 cup of the hot water at a time to the crepe mixture, whisking constantly, until the batter reaches the consistency on melted ice cream. You will need to add about 1 and 1/2 cups of water total.
5) If you are using a nonstick pan, you might not need to grease your pan. But if you are using any other kind, be sure to spray the pan with PAM before you make each crepe. Pour less than half a ladle (depending on the size and thickness that you'd like) in the preheated pan and swirl slowly. Cook on each side for about 20-25 seconds. The crepes bubble up, similar to pancakes, so you'll know when it's time to flip them.
6) Remove from the pan and fill with all of your favorite toppings.
7) Voila!

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