new recipes

so, this weekend i tried a couple of new recipes and thought i would share them with you. 

cha cha's white chicken chili

friday night was the first really chilly night of the season and so we stuck around the house, enjoyed our first fire and had a bowl of this yummy chili. 

we give it
*****



 
oven fried onion rings

along with our chili i decided to try this onion ring recipe that i found on http://www.notwithoutsalt.com/.  i love onion rings and i thought it was a neat idea to use crunched up kettle chips as the crispy part of the rings.  not to mention they were done in the oven and i didn't have a pot of oil to get rid of afterwards.  i will say when i do them again, i will be sure and crunch the chips pretty small.  sometimes they didn't stick too good, but even just the chips baked in the oven were very tasty!
 
we give it
*****
red velvet cake balls

while trying out new cupcake recipes for my friend sarah's wedding reception i stumbled upon http://www.bakerella.com/.  this is a great website just for oohing and ahhing...everything is adorable.  anyways, i had heard about cake balls, but never tried them...until this weekend.  they are SUPER saweet!  her's turned out a lot prettier than mine...that's for sure.  the hard chocolate shell and moist cake on the inside is a nice combo....just beware of the sweetness!

we give it
*****

what's cookin' this week?

here's what's on my menu for the week:

chicken w/ lemon caper sauce {cooking light magazine}
spicy stir-fried chicken and spinach {weight watchers magazine}
quiche lorraine {mamma T's recipe book}
meatloaf cups {mamma T's recipe book}

i never made the stir-fried chicken from a couple of weeks ago, so it's back on the list.  quiche lorraine and meatloaf cups are some of our favorites from my mom's recipe book.  i know....meatloaf....you're thinking 'no thanks!'  we do our meatloaf in muffin tins so the cups get crispy all the way around and no weird ingredients! 

hope you have a  y u m m y  week!

cornbread...oh how i love thee....

there are some musts when it comes to making cornbread:

1.  you must have a cast iron skillet

2.  you must put oil in the skillet and then into the oven to get very, very hot before you pour the cornbread into the skillet

if you don't follow these two very important rules, then in my book...and my husbands...you have NOT made cornbread!  i have seen some cornbread made in cake pans and that just does not cut it.  if you have never made cornbread this way, you better try it this week b/c i promise that you will fall in love!

here's how you make the best cornbread ever....

-choose a cornbread mix...i happen to love jiffy 

-mix ingredients according to the package that you choose.

-pour cooking oil into a cast iron skillet, enough to coat the bottom

-place skillet in oven, w/ just the oil in the bottom, while the oven preheats to 350/400 degrees

-after quite a few minutes pull skillet out and pour cornbread mix into skillet...you should see bubbling around the edge of the skillet from the hot oil....this is goooooood.

-bake according to package directions, or until cornbread is is a golden/light brown color.

this folks is what the bottom of the cornbread should look like.....so stinkin' good!  if you are like mymichael, then you will follow with butter and either honey or sorghum over the cornbread.  i simply prefer butter.

go try it...tonight!

we give this:

*****

grandma nita's soup

monday was a little on the cool side and cloudy which put me in the soup mood for dinner.  last year for christmas my mom gave me an awesome gift...a binder with all of her and many of my grandmother's recipes.  this is awesome b/c i am constantly calling here asking for one recipe or another...i am typically in the grocery store at the time.  not to say i don't still do that...she has a great memory...she almost always knows exactly what i need!  sooo...monday night i pulled out my recipe binder and flipped to the soup section and say "grandma nita's soup" and thought that would be perfect. 

now, if you haven't figured out already, you soon will...i never really follow a recipe to the 'T'.  i almost always end up tweaking it some way or another.  sometimes it's b/c i don't have the ingredients and sometimes it's just b/c i think it sounds good.  so....below you will find the actual recipe and then i will explain what i changed. 

grandma nita's soup......

1# {pound} ground beef

1 medium onion chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

2 cans whole kernel corn {or you can use frozen}

1 jar of V8 vegetable juice

3 or 4 potatoes diced

1/2 bag of shredded or sliced carrots

1 can peas

salt, pepper & garlic salt to taste

brown ground beef and drain off fat.  return beef to pan, add onion, celery, potatoes and carrots.  cook for 5 minutes.  add V8 juice and 2 cups of water.  cook until potatoes are almost done, then add corn and peas.  serve with cornbread.

now, on my soup, i used 1 sweet potato instead of 3 or 4 regular potatoes b/c mymichael absolutely hates regular potatoes....i know...weird!  but, let me tell you, those sweet potatoes were AMAZING in the soup!  i also used frozen corn and only put 1/2 a can of peas...b/c really....i hate peas.  i also addes bell pepper to the list of veggies and a can of regular stewed tomatoes.  i bought the 6-pack of V8 cans and used two of those cans instead of the 1 jar.  other than that...i added lots of garlic salt, kosher salt & black pepper b/c we like our food well seasoned! 

as mentioned before, this is great to serve with cornbread....and that folks is a completely different post!

we give this recipe:

*****

beef carnitas

sunday evening i decided to make beef carnitas that had previously been mentioned in this post.  the recipe for beef carnitas calls for beef stew meat to be used.  this is a great recipe b/c typically stew meat is harder to work with, tends to be fatty and such.  so, usually that is what i use...on this occasion i happened to have left over roast from a previous night last week and decided that i would use that instead.  since my meat had already been cooked it was a fast "throw together" meal. 

the recipe calls for the carnitas to be cooked on the stove top, but for me everytime i make it i do it in the crock pot.  mainly b/c i work all day and i like having recipes that i can start in the morning and have minimal work when i get home at night. 

here's what i did this time for the carnitas:

-saute onion, garlic & red pepper on stovetop

-chopped up roast and cook with onion, garlic & red pepper for a couple minutes

-put roast mixture into crock pot {i set on 4 hours b/c it was a sunday and i didn't start it until the afternoon...ona typical work do i would set it to 10 hours and add enough beef broth to cover meat mixture in crock pot}

-add remaning ingredients to mixture, including orange wedges

-put lid on crock pot and go shopping while it cooks

-hours later take lid off crock pot and smell wonderful aroma & sample a tasting

you can eat carnitas many ways...typically they are served with warm flour or corn tortillas.  this time i made some crunchy taco shells and a tostadas for us to eat with them.  be sure and add cilantro at the end...can't have mexican food without cilantro! 

this is one of our favorite meals...mymichael can eat the meat up....there were no leftovers that night!

we give this recipe:

*****

{fyi:  when i am not using already cooked meat, i put the stew meat frozen into the crockpot with some beef broth and/or water, salt, pepper & garlic salt.  let it cook all day...10 hour setting.  then when i get home i take the meat out and shred it with a fork then do the rest of the recipe on the stove top and let it simmer about 30 minutes}

cupcake time

my friend sarah is having a wedding celebration in a couple of weeks and has decided that she wants to have a dessert bar with cupcakes.  we figured saturday would be the perfect time to try out a recipe and also have yummy treats at carissa's party that night.  we decided to try out the magnolia bakery chocolate cupcake recipe and then use white mountain frosting with sprinkles.  now, the magnolia bakery is pretty well known, it's a bakery in new york city...their cupcakes have been made famous on sex & the city and other movies.  you typically have to wait in a line when you go to the bakery....which by the way is adorable.  so anyways, here are some of our pics while making cupcakes.....

the white mountain frosting that we chose to ice the cupcakes with is an old recipe.  it was used back in the day before powdered sugar had been invented.  it is a super light and very tasty...not too sweet...type of icing.  the downside to it is that it has to be refrigerated fairly soon after icing if you are not eating immediately.  the longer it sits in the fridge, the harder it gets.  so, we may not actually be able to use it for the wedding celebration b/c we wouldn't want it to be hard...we will see.  we are going to do some more testing this weekend. 

the cupcakes ended up being a little "packier" than i like.  last night i tried a german chocolate cupcake recipe and they were much lighter and pretty tasty.  but i have one more recipe that i want to try.  it is my mom's chocolate bundt cake w/ chocolate chips.  it is super moist b/c it has pudding in the recipe.  so, i am going to try making cupcakes with it...i'll let you know how it turns out! 

cupcakes are just too cute...there are a hundred ways you can dress them up!  the dessert bar at sarah's wedding celebration will be super cute....can't wait to share more pics/ideas of the desserts!

happy cupcake eating!!!

carissa turns 30!

i'm telling you...this was a super busy weekend!  saturday i got to have fun and celebrate my friend carissa turning the big 3-0.  dinner at mcgill's, the king las vegas suite at the hard rock hotel & a private table at friction...it was a fantabulous girl's night!  i have to tell you...this girl has more close friends than just about anyone i have seen.  we had a private room for dinner that 23 of us squeezed into....and that's not everyone!  it was awesome getting to see her have fun with all the different girls from her life...childhood to high school to college to graduate school to church to her kid's preschool mom's.  how fun to celebrate with everyone you love the most.

i personally fit into her high school category.  i met carissa through sarah who had grown up with carissa.  she was a couple of years older than us, so carissa would drive sarah and i over to the high school for musical practice....and get this she drove us in a purple chevy cavalier...with a sunroof....and a cd player....while listening to the romeo & juliet soundtrack {love me, love me, say that you love me...you know the words!}.   that's right...go ahead and say it...we were cool {or so we thought}!  good memories.

so here are some pics from the evening, including lauren doing the single ladies dance!

{our rockin' suite...i love the carpet!}

{mcgill's for dinner}

{i told you there were a bunch of us!}

{a little single lady action from lauren!}

thanks for a great night carissa!