Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

*Originally from OurBestBites.com

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

1/3 C Cream Cheese
1/4 C salsa verde
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp granulated garlic
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 T sliced green onions

2 C shredded cooked chicken
2 C grated pepper jack cheese

small corn tortillas
kosher salt
cooking spray

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it's soft and easy to stir. Add salsa verde, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or come unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 tbsp of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges.

Then roll it up as tight as you can.

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place plan in oven and back for 15- 20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.


How it went: These took a little time to assemble, but the effort was well worth it!

My take: We liked these so much that I've already made them again. Very good, and they seem pretty healthy, too.

Homemade Cinnamon Bread

*From thepioneerwoman.com

Homemade Cinnamon Bread

Ingredients
■1 cup Milk
■6 Tablespoons Butter
■2-½ teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
■2 whole Eggs
■⅓ cups Sugar
■3-½ cups All-purpose Flour
■1 teaspoon Salt
■⅓ cups Sugar
■2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
■Egg And Milk, Mixed Together, For Brushing
■Softened Butter, For Smearing And Greasing
Preparation Instructions
Melt butter with milk. Heat until very warm, but don’t boil. Allow to cool until still warm to the touch, but not hot. Sprinkle yeast over the top, stir gently, and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Combine flour and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar and eggs with the paddle attachment until combined. Pour in milk/butter/yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the other half and beat until combined.

Switch to the dough hook attachment and beat/knead dough on medium speed for ten minutes. If dough is overly sticky, add 1/4 cup flour and beat again for 5 minutes.

Heat a metal or glass mixing bowl so it’s warm. Drizzle in a little canola oil, then toss the dough in the oil to coat. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and set it in a warm, hospitable place for at least 2 hours.

Turn dough out onto the work surface. Roll into a neat rectangle no wider than the loaf pan you’re going to use, and about 18 to 24 inches long. Smear with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle evenly over the butter-smeared dough. Starting at the far end, roll dough toward you, keeping it tight and contained. Pinch seam to seal.

Smear loaf pan with softened butter. Place dough, seam down, in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix a little egg with milk, and smear over the top. Bake for 40 minutes on a middle/lower rack in the oven.

Remove from the pan and allow bread to cool. Slice and serve, or make cinnamon toast or French toast with it.

How it went:

That is one HUGE loaf! On thepioneerwoman's blog she kept talking about how hard it is to get her bread to rise where she lives (up in Montana or somewhere). I obviously do NOT have that problem here in the desert heat of Las Vegas. I didn't even let the dough rise as long as the recipe calls for, and still this is how big it was!

My take: I'd probably make it again. It was pretty good, and it'd be even better if it hadn't risen so much. That way the bread to cinnamon sugar ratio would be more even. I did find myself thinking that with all the work that went into it, I might as well have made cinnamon rolls. So keep that in mind. But I guess it all depends on what you want - bread, or more of a sugary treat.

Shrimp Pasta in a Foil Package

*from thepioneerwoman.com

Shrimp Pasta in a Foil Package

Ingredients
■½ cups Olive Oil
■4 cloves Garlic, Minced
■3 whole 14.5 Ounce Cans Diced (or Whole) Tomatoes
■½ cups White Wine
■2 pounds Jumbo Or Large Shrimp, Peeled And Deveined
■Salt And Pepper, to taste
■Fresh Parsley, Minced
■1 pound Linguine, Uncooked
■Red Pepper Flakes, to taste
Preparation Instructions
Cook pasta for 1/2 the recommended cooking time. Pasta should still be very firm.

In a large skillet or pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for a minute. Dump in the tomatoes and wine. Stir the mixture together, season with salt and pepper, and allow to cook for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare a large parcel of heavy duty aluminum foil. It should be large enough to hold the entire pasta dish.

Throw the shrimp on the top of the pasta sauce. Throw the drained pasta over the top, then pour the whole dish onto the foil. Tightly wrap the foil into a parcel.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and keep warm until serving.

Open the foil parcel right before serving. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil over the top. Squeeze on lemon juice, if desired.

Here's how it went:

Making the sauce.

Adding the shrimp.

And then the pasta. Let me just say that this skillet is really big. There is just a lot of food there.

All the food in the foil package.

My take: I didn't like this and wouldn't make it again. There was so much food that it was hard to mix it all up. Plus, it was just messy working with all that saucy liquid in a foil package. It definitely leaked. And even with all the mess, I wasn't a fan of the final product. Not enough flavor for me.

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream with Ferrero Rocher Pieces

*From Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Recipe Booklet

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream with Ferrero Rocher Pieces

1 C. whole milk

1/2 C. granulated sugar

8 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I use semisweet) broken into 1/2 in. pieces

2 C. heavy cream

1 t. pure vanilla extract

1 C. chopped Ferrero Rocher pieces

Heat the whole milk until it is just bubbling around the edges (this may be done on the stovetop or in a microwave). In a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse to proces the sugar with the chocolate until the chocolate is very finely chopped. Add the hot milk; process until well blended and smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and let the chocolate mixture cool completely. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla to taste. Cover, refrigerate, and chill for 2 hours or longer.

Mix according to ice cream maker directions. Add Ferrero Rocher pieces during the last five minutes of mixing. If a firmer ice cream consistency is desired, place in an airtight container in the freezer for two hours or longer. Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before serving.

Here's how it went:

Pulsing the sugar and chocolate pieces.

Heating up the milk on the stovetop.

The milk/chocolate/sugar mixture.

Adding the heavy cream.

And mixing in the ice cream maker.

Now for the little bit of heaven.

All chopped up and ready to go.

So delicious!

My take: I've used this chocolate ice cream recipe a lot before, but if I added anything I used York peppermint patties (which is also really good). But when we were in California we had some Ferrero Rocher gelato, then I saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa where she made some chocolate ice cream like this, so I decided to go for it. It turned out really well, and Jack even said this was better than his previous favorite (homemade coconut ice cream). I did learn from Barefoot Contessa that you shouldn't use chocolate chips for your chocolate pieces, since they have some sort of waxy additive in them. And I always put my homemade ice cream in the freezer after mixing it so that it gets hard like normal ice cream.

Crawfish Etouffee

*Recipe from Houston River Baptist Church 50th Anniversary Cookbook

Crawfish Etouffee

1 stick butter
1 med onion, chopped
1 med. green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 C. celery, chopped
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. red pepper (I used ground cayenne pepper)
1 10-oz can Rotel
1 10.5-oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 10.5-oz can cream of celery soup
1 10.75-oz can cream of shrimp soup
1 10.75-oz can cream of cheddar soup
1 lb. crawfish tails

1. Saute in butter the onion, bell pepper, and celery until tender. Add seasonings, Rotel, and soups. Cook and stir until all ingreidents are blended together.

2. Add crawfish and cook about 20 minutes until crawfish are done. Add 1/2 C. water or more if needed should the mixure get too thick. Served over cooked rice.

Here's how it went:

Sauteeing the veggies.

Cooking it all up. I was worried it was too light-colored, but I guess it browned up with time because it came out looking like this:

So good!

My take: Having never made crawfish etouffee before and only ever eaten it a few times, I was a little worried about the end product. But Jack and I both like etouffee, so I wanted to try it out. This recipe was so easy and came out tasting really good! It has a spicy kick to it, but I like that. I often ask Jack (when I try out a new recipe) if it's worth repeating. That's the true test. This time I didn't have to even ask him. As we were eating he said it's a definite repeater.

Lime Pound Cake with Strawberry Sauce

*From Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade


Lime Pound Cake with Strawberry Sauce


1 (16 oz) boxes pound cake mix
1 1/3 cups water or whole milk (I used water)
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 large eggs
1 t. lime zest
1 T. lime juice
Strawberry Sauce (recipe follows)
Garnish: lime wedges and fresh strawberries


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a tube pan with nonstick baking spray with flour.


2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, water, butter, and eggs; beat at low speed with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium, and beat for 2 minutes, stopping to scrape bowl as needed (batter will be thick). Stir in lime zest and lim juice. Spoon batter into prepared pan.


3. Bake for 1 hour and 10 mintues, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Serve with Straberry Sauce. Garnish with lime wedeges and strawberries, if desired.




Strawberry Sauce


1 1/2 C fresh strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
2 t. lime zest


1. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine strawberries, sugar, and lime zest; process until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides.

My take: This actually turned out pretty well, as evidenced by the fact that Jack and I ate the whole thing by ourselves! Over the course of a few days, of course. I did think the cake was a little dry - could have done with some sour cream or something.


Here are some pictures I took along the way:

Gathering my recipe and ingredients.

Prepared tube pan.

Zesting the lime.


Mixing all those ingredients together.

Adding the lime zest.

And the lime juice.

Time to bake it.

And ta da!

Making the tangy strawberry sauce.




And there you have it.

Chicken, Tomato, and Fresh Mozzarella Ravioli Salad

*From Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade

Chicken, Tomato, and Fresh Mozzarella Ravioli Salad

1 (9 oz) package refrigerated four-cheese ravioli (or you can use the frozen kind as well)
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 (8 oz) package fresh mozzarella ball, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
3/4 C Italian dressing

1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain, and rinse well with cold water, tossing to cool.

2. In a large bowel, combine cooked pasta, chicken, mozzarella, basil, salt, and pepper. Drizzle with dressing, and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

My take: Good, mostly because it has fresh mozzarella in it, but not great. I love fresh mozzarella! But I thought there was too much Italian dressing, so next time I'd put it on the side or only use 1/2 cup. I also added grape tomatoes.