A Meaty problem

I love to cook, anything...I love baking and making cookies and cakes and pies, but I also love making soups (especially) and yummy twist on boring old recipes. (Like hamburgers, or plain ol' chicken).
Here's my problem: I hate touching raw meat of any kind. YUCK!! Totally grosses me out! I usually make my boyfriend do the dirty work. Like make the hamburger patties, or skewer the chicken bites for kabobs. Now here's the real BIG problem. I have to make my dad a meatloaf for his birthday dinner, part of the making process is having to mix the meat and others with your hands, then molding in with your hands. I'm totally grossing out about this, but I'm trying to help my mom and have a good birthday for my dad (since he was stuck in the hospital for his actual birthday).
I guess I have to suck it up, or get a bulk load of food grade gloves. (I'm opting for the second). If you want to gift me some gloves that'd be good :-)

Breakfast Cinnamon Bread Pudding

I posted the recipe of "Breakfast with the boyfriend" before I actually made any of the dishes. I did however have the intention of making the bread pudding that day, for breakfast today. It is AWESOME! It came out really well (and I even used some fairly new bread). Although my boyfriends HATES pecans (and i added them in there) he loved it. It is really simple to make and a good crowd pleaser. It kinda tasted like a cinnamon french toast, but less invasive to make.
Defiantly try this one, you wont be disappointed.
~Enjoy~

Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas

Since football season is here this is a great and easy recipe to make while watching the game, and you wont even miss any of it.

Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas

1 store bought rotisserie chicken, shredded
3/4 cup buffalo sauce (Franks is the best to use)
1 1/2 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
12 soft flour tortillas
nonstick spray
blue cheese dressing
celery sticks

In a large bowl, combine chicken with sauce, and stir to evenly coat. Add cheese and toss. Divide mixture on six tortillas and top each with remaining tortillas. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray over medium high heat. Cook quesadillas, one at a time, abut 3-4 minutes per side. Cut into quarters and serve with blue cheese and celery sticks.

Breakfast with the Boyfriend (or Husband)

Cinnamon-swirl breakfast bread pudding

It is said that the Queen of Sheba used cinnamon to mesmerize King Solomon. So it has power. Prepare this bread pudding ahead of time so that in the morning, all you have to do is turn on the oven.

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 loaf day old bread, cut into cubes
1/2 cup pecans chopped (optional)
nonstick cooking spray
maple syrup

In large bowl, whisk eggs and milk. Add the brown sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon and whisk until combined. Stir the bread and pecans into the egg mixture. Coat and 8-by-8 inch backing pan with cooking spray. Pour in the bread mixture and cover with foil. Let it sit in the refrigerator at least one hour (overnight would be better). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake covered for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes, until brown. Serve with hot maple syrup.

Berries with honey-lime yogurt sauce

This simple yogurt sauce dresses up everyday berries, and the hint of lime will wake your taste buds

3 cups mixed berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)
1 cup plain yogurt
3 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp lime zest

Place berries in a serving bowl. In a small bowl, combine yogurt, honey and lime zest. serve berries drizzled wit yogurt sauce. Garnish with mint.

Mimosa Sunrise

Bubbles in the morning-not just for the bath. So luxurious!

1/2 ounce grenadine
1 ounce orange juice
3 ounces champagne or sparkling wine
Orange slice for garnish

Pour grenadine into a champagne glass. Add orange juice, the top with champagne. Garnish with orange slice.

Curried Split Pea Soup

So the other night I had the house to myself and I LOVE soup! I decided to make a carrot habanero soup that I've been dying to try... well needless to say (since that is not the title of this blog) It was a major disappointment, it kind of came out like pureed baby food. yuck!
The curried split pea soup is a good one I know I can fall back on (courtesy of Alton Brown).
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of peas what-so-ever, but my boyfriend loves them so I tried this out for him. And the whole family we're the guinea pigs (dad HATES peas and mom likes them). This was going to be a contoversal dinner.
It came out amazing and my dad had 2 bowls. You really don't taste the peas and it is really yummy

Curried Split Pea Soup

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp mince fresh garlic
12 oz dried green or yellow split peas (rinsed and picked through)
5 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp curry powder

Place the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. once melted, add onions and a generous pinch of salt and sweat 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and continue to sweat for additional 1-2 minutes, making certain they do NOT brown.

Add the peas, chicken stock and curry powder. increase heat to high and bring to a boil. reduce heat to low and cover. Cook at a simmer until the peas are tender and barely holding their shape (approx: 45-50 min). Taste and adjust seasoning to liking. Using a stick blender, puree soup to desired consistency.

~Enjoy!~

I like adding a little bit of Parmesan cheese on top for extra flavor.

More cook books

So this time I was at Borders. (I had a coupon). I went with the intention to just get the William-Sonoma Potato cookbook, which I did get. I went with my friend and he loves looking at the fiction books, so we browsed those for a while, and then i went back to the cookbooks (cause I'm already in the middle of my own fiction book). He followed me into that section and we were wandering around. He likes to cook as well when he has the time and the food in his house. He made a joke that we should have our own Top Chef Throwdown. (of course I enthusiastically agreed.) Now he is Italian so he has the Sopranos cookbook, while we were looking at all the books I spotted a new Sopranos entertaining cookbook and showed it to him. He was flipping through it looking at he recipes and found a few he liked, so he flipped it to the back to see how much he would have to shell out. $2.99!!!! He was completely shocked and of course he got it, now I'm standing there thinking "hey, I showed it to him I want one too". So we look on the self and there is one more and someone is standing right in front of it. I motion to him to grab it. Him and I got the last 2 copies for 2.99. So I walked out of Borders with 2 cookbooks costing me $15 total.
I'm proud to be quite the savvy shopper.

Slushies

Here's a drink recipe I cant believe its taken me this long to put up.
Ever since I can remember going to our lake house with our family friends, Cindy would bring this slushie mix (that was NOT kid friendly). I didn't get my first taste of this slushie until this past summer. It was worth the wait! It is really refreshing!

Cindy's Slushie

1 (12 oz) can concentrated orange juice
1 (6 oz) can concentrated lemonade
1 cup tea (made with 3 tea bags)
1/2 cup sugar
7 cups water
2 cup Seagram's

Put all ingredients in large resealable container and place in freezer. Let sit for at least 48 hours in the freezer. Stir occasionally (2-3 times a day). Fill tall glass 1/2 to 3/4 full of slush, then fill up with 7-up (or sprite). Stir and drink.
~Enjoy~

Its incredibly easy to make, and its a hit with everyone. Just make sure you get a big enough container to hold is all. I have tried to make it in a large bowl and separate it into to seal-able containers, but that didn't work too well. Somehow all the ingredients didn't separate equally.
I got my container i use now from bed bath and beyond and it works wonderfully