Crispy Herb Baked Chicken

I'm back with another recipe! 

The last two weekends have been wedding filled.  Last weekend was my cousin's wedding in Virginia, and this weekend was the wedding of our good friends Marcin and Jessica.  I feel like I haven't stopped since we left for our roadtrip last Friday morning.

I figured that since I haven't cooked or posted in over a week, that I would make something that hasn't been featured on the blog yet.  Tonight we had Crispy Herb Baked Chicken.

Crispy Herb Baked Chicken

Recipe courtesy of my Hungry Jack Mashed Potatoes box

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cups mashed potato flakes
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 chicken breasts - boneless, skinless
• 2/4 tsp garlic salt or powder
• 2 tsp parsley flakes
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Line bottom of 9 x 13 pan with foil.  Melt margarine and brush/dip chicken in margarine.  Mix parmesan cheese, parsley flakes and garlic salt together and dip chicken.  Coat chicken with remaining potato flakes.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 to 60 minutes or until chicken is fork-tender and juices run clear.

I love this recipe.  It's simple, quick, and tasty.

Cookies in action

Here are a few photos my cousin took of the tea cup cookies "in action" at the bridal shower.  :)

Looks like I managed to get the colors right without having anything to match them with.  Sweet!

Beef Stew

It's been pretty chilly here in Michigan the last few days, pretty far below the normal temperature averages for this time of the year.  When it gets this chilly I think of two things:  the cider mill and comfort foods.  A trip to the cider mill wasn't in the cards yesterday, so I decided to make beef stew instead.  :)

Beef Stew

Recipe courtesy of McCormick

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. McCormick® Beef Stew Seasoning Mix
• 2 lbs. stew beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 3 cups water
• 5 cups cut-up fresh vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, onions and celery

McCormick's Directions:

1. COAT beef with flour.  Heat oil in large deep skillet or Dutch oven on medium heat.  Add beef; cook until browned on all sides.
2. STIR in Seasoning Mix and water.
3. BRING to boil; cover.  Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Add vegetables; simmer 45 minutes or until beef and vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  Thicken stew with additional flour, if desired.

My Directions:

1. COAT beef with flour.  Heat oil in large deep skillet on medium heat.  Add beef; cook until browned on all sides.
2. STIR seasoning mix and water together in a crock pot.  Add beef and vegetables.
3. COOK on high for 5 hours or low if you're going to have it on all day while you're at work.

This time I only used 1lb of stewing beef.  That's all I had in the freezer.  I used carrots, potatoes, and onions.  I didn't have any celery, so that was axed.  Even with the slight changes, it was really good!  The broth was nice and thick, no need to add extra flour.  I paired the stew with whole wheat bread and butter.  The perfect dinner for such a chilly day!

Just my cup of tea

Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon (and most of the evening) baking and decorating sugar cookies for my cousin who is throwing a tea themed bridal shower today.  You can find the sugar cookie recipe here and the icing recipe here.

The shower will have a retro-style to it, complete with 1950s-ish aprons.  The colors are yellow, red, and teal.  I had a bit of a hard time deciding how to decorate the tea cups, but I think they turned out alright in the end.  :)

Tea cup cookie

All packed and ready to go!

Each cookie is in its own clear favor bag and tied with a ribbon.  I ran out of red ribbon, so I used some polka dot yellow ribbon I had on hand.  I think they turned out really cute.

Last, but not least.

Here is the recipe for the last menu item I didn't purchase for Jessica's tea party.  :)

I first had this dill wrapped cream cheese crescent roll at the Miss America party I threw two years ago.  (I didn't have one last year because we were in Vegas for Miss America!)  My friend, Maria, brought it and everyone seemed to love it.  I thought it would be a nice "hot" option to include at the tea party.

Dill Wrapped Cream Cheese Crescent Roll

Recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.com and my friend Maria  :)

 

Photo courtesy of Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 tsp dried dill weed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. Unroll dough on lightly floured surface and press seams together. Sprinkle one side of block of cream cheese with enough dill to cover. Place cream cheese, dill side down, in center of dough. Sprinkle with more dill to cover. Bring sides of dough up around cheese block and seal to completely enclose.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 15 minutes. Serve warm.

You will use more than 1 tsp of dried dill weed.  According to Maria, she just shakes some on until it seems right.  I used almost the entire small bottle.  I probably could have used the whole thing.  This also seemed to be a hit at the party.  My mom even asked for the recipe so she could make it at the Octoberfest party they have with thier neighbors.

This saturday I will be working on some more iced sugar cookies for another bridal shower.  This time I'm making tea cups.  Please check back next week to see how they turned out.  The colors I have been asked to use are yellow, red, and teal.  I think I have a few good ideas, but still need to do a little more brainstorming.

What's Joey's favorite food?

SANDWICHES!
(That was for all my Friends-loving readers out there.)

This post is about the tea sandwiches we had at Jessica's personal shower/tea party.  We had two different kinds, Cucumber Mint and Basil Hummus.

Cucumber Mint Tea Sandwiches

Recipe courtesy of Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, rinsed, spun dry, and chopped fine (I couldn't find fresh, so I used dried mint.  It worked just fine.)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese
• 6 slices of whole-wheat bread
• 3-inch length of seedless cucumber, cut into thin slices (Mine had seeds)

Directions:

In a small bowl combine the mint, the butter, and the cream cheese and stir the mixture until it is combined well.  Spread the bread slices with the butter mixture, top 3 of them with the cucumber, distributing the cucumber evenly and seasoning it with salt, and top the cucumber with the remaining bread slices.  Cut off and discard the crusts and cut each sandwich diagonally into quarters.
 
 

These were actually pretty good.  And that's coming from someone who doesn't really like cream cheese!  As I stated in the ingredients section, I couldn't find fresh mint at my grocery store, so I used dried.  They turned out fine.  I'm sure that fresh mint would have been better, but oh well.  I had to make do.  I also used cucumbers with seeds.  I just broke all the rules with this sandwich.  :)  My tip for this sandwich is to use the slicing blade for your food processer if you have one.  My cucumber was perfectly sliced in about two seconds, and I didn't have to worry about cutting any fingers off.  It was great!  Oh, and the top row of sandwiches on the platter were decorated with slices of the cucumber skin I removed while peeling them.  I just stuck a toothpick through them like a ribbon and poked them into place.  I think they look super cute.

Basil Hummus Tea Sandwiches

Recipe courtesy of Healthly Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy

Ingredients:

• Hummus
• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, rinsed, spun dry, and chopped fine
• 6 slices of whole-wheat bread

Directions:
Spread the bread slices with hummus and sprinkle three of the slices with the basil.  Top those with the remaining slices of bread.  Cut off and discard the crusts and cut each sandwich diagonally into quarters.


I did not try one of these.  I have never had hummus and don't plan on trying it.  Yes, that's probably weird, but I don't care.  Hummus is just not something I feel the need to experience.  :)  The guest of honor seemed to enjoy them though, and that's all the counts!

Who wants some lavender?

I never knew there were so many recipes using lavender.  I always knew you could cook or bake with certain flowers, but wow.  There's a lot out there.

It was kind of a challenge to find the right lavender recipes to use for Jessica's personal shower.  In the end, I settled on two recipes that I knew I could make.  Lavender pound cake and lavender tea cookies.  Quick bread and sugar cookies have sort of become my two specialties, so I figured I couldn't screw them up too badly.  Thankfully, I was correct.

Lavender Pound Cake

Recipe courtesy of Joys of Lavender

 

Photo courtesy of Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter or margarine
• 2 cups of sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbls chopped dried lavender (I ground mine with a motar and pestal)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each egg.
3. Combine dry ingredients.
4. Combine buttermilk and vanilla.
5. Add alternately dry and wet ingredients to creamed butter.
6. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 5/8 inch loaf pans.
7. Bake for one hour or until tester comes out clean.  Cool on rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and let cool completely.  You can eat as is or you can drizzle your cake with a frosting.

This was easily my favorite food item from the shower.  I think it would be great as well without the lavender and served with strawberries and Cool Whip.

Lavender Tea Cookies

Recipe courtesy of What's Cooking America

 

Ingredients:

Cookies

• 1 tsp dried culinary lavender flowers
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt

Lavender Frosting

• 1 cup powdered (confectioners') sugar
• 2 Tbls dried culinary lavender flowers
• 2 Tbls milk
• 2 tsp light corn syrup

Directions:

Cookies

1. Grind lavender flowers with a mortar and pestle.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together ground lavender flowers, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.  Add flour and salt; mix until combined (dough should be soft but not sticky.)  Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until dough is firm.
3. Prepare lavender frosting; set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.   Remove dough from refrigerator.
5. On a lightly-floured surface, roll dough approximately 1/4-inch thick with your rolling pin.  Cut into desired shapes with your favorite cookie cutters and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.   (I use powdered sugar to "flour" my rolling surface.)
6. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges.  Remove from oven and cool on wire cooling racks.  When cool, frost with lavender frosting.

Lavender Frosting

1. In a small plastic bag, combine powdered sugar and dried lavender flowers.  Let stand at least one day before using.  When ready to use, sift the mixture into a medium-size bowl; discarding lavender flowers.
2. Add milk and corn syrup, mixing well.  NOTE: Additional powdered sugar or milk may need to be added (enough milk to make frosting easy to spread).  Spread on baked, cooled cookies.

I wasn't a huge fan of this cookie.  However a couple of people asked me for the recipe, so it can't be too bad, right?!  Don't get me wrong, the cookies were good.  They just had a little more of an "earthy" taste to them than the lavender pound cake did.

As you can see from the photo above, I let a few of them bake a little too long.  I think it was because the dough was warm.  I would suggest keeping it in the fridge until you're ready to bake them.  Go ahead and roll and cut out the cookies, but slide the baking sheet in the fridge while you're waiting to put them in the oven.

I also have to point out the cookie on the top of the plate.  Some of the cookies weren't exactly smooth on top and the frosting pulled away a little bit.  When I checked them in the morning, I found this little guy.  How awesome is that cute little heart within a heart within a heart??  I ran into the bedroom with the cookie to show my husband.  He just looked at me like I had lost my mind.  I still think it was pretty awesome.  :)