And for dessert....

Apple of My Eye Cheesecake

I found this recipe by googling "easy desserts" but after printing it, can't find it again to reference. This was my first cheesecake - I even had to buy the spring form pan! Problem is, the old grocery store didn't have a 9" spring form pan, so I got a 9 3/4" and really should have increased the recipe a little, as the cheesecake came out kind of short. However, it was freaking delicious...Amir's favorite dessert is apple pie and one of mine is cheesecake, so this is really a recipe for everyone to love!

Crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 TBS sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter of margarine, melted

Filling:

3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

2 1/2 cups of chooped & peeled apples

1 TBS lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

6 TBS caramel ice cream topping, divided

Combine ingredients for the crust; press onto the bottom of lightly greased 9" springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes; cool. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low just until combined. Stir in vanilla. Pour over cooled crust. Toss apples with lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon; spoon over filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minues. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen. Drizzle with 4 TBS caramel topping. Cool for 1 hour. Chill overnight. Remove sides of pan. Just before serving, garnish with whipped cream and drizzle with remaining caramel. Store in refrigerator.

I am not a baker by any means and this dessert was fantastic!

Phreaking Pheasant....

So, Amir goes on a hunt yesterday morning with some of his friends for pheasant and chukar...I had no idea what a chukar even was, so I googled it :)

He told me to find a recipe so that I could cook the meat when he got home. What an interesting challenge. I actually ended up using this recipe that calls for quail, and adapted it a little for four birds instead of 16...pheasant and chukar are a little bigger than quail, so you'll need to cook for longer than the recipe says.

Bacon-Wrapped Quail Stuffed with Goat Cheese

16 (4 oz) quail, rinsed and patted dry

1 1/2 tsp of kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves

8 cloves garlic, peeled and halved

16 oz. soft fresh goat cheese

16 sprigs of fresh rosemary

16 strips of thick-cut bacon

Season each quail inside and out with salt and pepper. Transfer to 1 to 2 large bowls, add oil, thyme, and garlic. Toss to combine. Refrigerate, covered at least 1 hour and up to 48 hours.

Preheat over to 500 degrees. Remove 1 quail from marinade. Stuff cavity with 1 oz. goat cheese and 1 spring rosemary and tie legs loosely with kitchen string. Wrap 1 strip of bacon around breast and transfer quail, breast side up, to rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining quail, using 2-3 baking sheets.

Roast until just cooked through (cut into inner thigh; meat will still be slightly pink) about 15 minutes.

The quail can also be grilled rather than roasted. To avoid flare-ups from the dripping fat, cook the bacon separately and stuff it in the cavity of each bird along with the cheese.

All in all, not too bad. I found that Amir really does not like rosemary, so this recipe will have to be altered if I were to make it again. Please excuse the pitiful looking side items - I forgot to take a pic until the end and this is all that was left of the green beans and potatoes!!

These are some of my favorite potatoes - basically boil red potatoes until cooked throughout - cut into quarters and toss with a little butter, italian dressing, thyme, sage, salt & pepper. They are always a hit!

So, I hate Lettuce, but I LOVE this salad!!

Probably because it's made with spinach...super simple and I don't have a real recipe. I got the idea one time when I had lunch at La Madeline for the first time. I am not a big salad person at all, but I was having lunch with a colleague and her salad looked good. It's really iceberg lettuce that I hate...I think it has no taste. I have made this salad with baby spinach and mixed greens and it is great either way!

Knock-Off La Madeline Chicken & Spinach Salad

-1 chicken breast for each person that is eating

-fresh baby spinach (enough to fill your bowl)

-red bell pepper, diced (a handful per bowl)

-mushrooms, sliced (a handful per bowl)

-Worchestershire sauce for chicken & fish

-Salt & pepper

-Italian seasoning

Brush worchestershire sauce on chicken and season with salt, pepper & Italian seasoning. Saute in a pan with either a tiny bit of butter or olive oil, depending on how healthy you are trying to be! Slice chicken and place on top of salad made with all other ingredients (spinach, mushrooms, red bell pepper). If desired, top with shredded mozzerella cheese and/or bacon pieces. Best served with balsamic vinegarette dressing, but also good with peppercorn ranch. Super easy and delicious!

I'm Cooking Light again!

Back on the health-kick...Snowboarding in Vail made me decide to get back in shape again!
Here's one of my favorites:


Chicken Enchilada Casserole from Cooking Light

-Cooking spray
-1 1/4 pounds skinned, boneless chicken breast
-1 1/2 cups chopped onion
-4 garlic cloves minced (again, the laziness; I just use a big spoonful of chopped garlic out of a jar) -1/2 cup beer
-1/2 tsp ground red pepper
-1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
-1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
-1 can (2.25 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained
-2 cans (4.5 oz each) chopped green chiles, drained
-5 TBS all purpose flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp ground cumin
-1/2 tsp ground coriander
-2 cups 1% low-fat milk
-2 large egg whites, lightly beaten or 6 TBS egg substitute
-3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
-3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
-6 (6 inch) corn tortillas, cut in half
-1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
-1/2 cup salsa


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a large non stick skillet with cooking spray; place over medium heat until hot. Add chicken; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from skillet; let cool. Shred chicken with 2 forks; set aside.

Recoat skillet with cooking spray; place over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; saute 5 minutes or until tender. Add shredded chicken, beer, red pepper and tomatoes; cook 10 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporates. Remove from heat. Reserve 1 tablespoon green onions and 1 tablespoon olives for garnish. Stire remaining green onions, remaining olives and chiles into chicken mixture; set aside.

Combine flour, salt, cumin, coriander in a medium saucepan. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Place over medium heat; cook 7 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Gradually add hot milk mixture to egg whites, stirring constantly with whisk. Set aside.

Place cheeses in a bowl; toss well. Set aside (I avoid this step completely by buying the Sargento reduced fat shredded 4 Cheese Mexican!)

Spread 1 cup white sauce in bottom of a 2 1/2 quart round casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 tortilla halves over sauce; top with 2 cups chicken mixture, 1/2 cup white sauce and 1/2 cup cheese mixture. Repeat layers twice, ending with sauce. Set remaining 1/2 cup cheese mixture aside.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until hot. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese mixture, reserved green onions & olives; bake an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

NOTE: You can assemble the casserole ahead of time; cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight and then bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until bubbly. Ir freeze casserole, thaw in regrigerator 24 hours; then bake for 1 hour or until thoroughly heated.

A Work in Progress Picture!

A Belated Holiday Meal Post...

Alright so this blogging thing is harder than I thought! It has been a LONG time since I posted, but I did take pics of food I made!! Here's an old favorite I made for Thanksgiving...This is my Granny Ima's recipe..love how it calls for "OLEO" - does anyone still use that word?

Granny Ima's Broccoli Casserole

-1 cup cooked rice

-1/2 cup chopped white onion

-1/2 cup chopped celery

-3 TBS. oleo (butter)

-1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup

-1 box chopped broccoli - or 1 bunch fresh broccoli, chopped

-1/2 lb. Velveeta

Saute onion & celery in oleo. Add rice, soup, broccoli & cheese. bake 30 minutes at 325 degrees.

Wasabi Salmon

One thing you will learn about me in this blog is that I am a lazy chef...I like to save time because a lot of days, it's 8 pm before I get around to cooking dinner. This leads me to pay a premium for pre-chopped veggies, etc. at the store. Sure the difference between whole mushrooms and the cleaned/sliced ones are only 20 cents, but the time it saves me!!!

Last night I had a meeting with a financial planner and didn't get home until about 7:45 pm. I had bought some salmon yesterday at the store and decided to try out a new Cooking Light recipe...only I got lazy and completely revised it. I started out with their Wasabi salmon recipe and ended up with this...

D'Ann's version of Wasabi Salmon

A couple of shakes of low-sodium soy sauce (roughly 2 TBS)

1/2 tsp of sesame oil

About 2 TBS of wasabi cream sauce

3 (6 oz) skinless salmon fillets - approx. 1 inch thick

Mix everything but the salmon in a bowl and then spread on salmon and let sit for a few minutes. Heat a non-stick skillet with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add fish; cook 3 minutes. Turn fish over. Reduce heat to medium; cook 8 minutes or until fish is done.

Ideally, I would have served this with jasmine rice and snow peas or something, but I didn't have any vegetables that sounded good in the house, so I just served it over some white rice with a little salt/pepper and finely chopped green onions. It was really delicious :)

I finally cooked! And remembered to take a picture!

One of the reasons I tried to start cooking more is that we eat out SO much...it's not too friendly on the budget. So, in honor of eating out, I thought I would try to whip up a recipe that's reminiscent of one of my favorite restaurant dishes - Chicken Madeira from The Cheesecake Factory. I found the recipe on a message board, but could not trace the original source. This was the first time I tried, and would do things a little differently next time - a little less Madeira wine (probably cut it down to 2 cups) and then dust the chicken breasts with a little flour before browning. All in all, though, it's a good recipe and a pretty good copy cat for The Cheesecake Factory's dish!

"CHEESECAKE FACTORY" Chicken Madeira

Chicken:

1 TBS Olive oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets

8 asparagus spears

4 mozzerella cheese slices

Sauce:

2 TBS Olive oil

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (I used the pre-cut baby bellas)

3 cups Madeira wine (I used the cheapest bottle possible)

2 cups beef stock

1 TBS butter

1/4 tsp Ground black pepper

Heat up 1 TBS olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cover each chicken breast with plastic wrap and use a mallet to flatten the chicken to about 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle each fillet with salt and pepper.

Saute the chicken fillets for 4-6 minutes per side, or until the cihcken has browned just a bit and is cooked throughout. Remove chicken filets from the pan and keep warm. Don't clean the pan!

With the heat still on medium, add two TBS of olive oil to the skilet. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute for about 2 minutes. Add Madeira wine, beef stock, butter and pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the stock has reduced to about 1/4 of its original volume. When the sauce is done it will have thickened and turned a dark brown color.

As the sauce is simmering, steam your asparagus. The asparagus should be slightly tender when done, not mushy. Set oven to broil. Prepare the dish by arranging the cooked chicken on a baking pan. Cross two asparagus spears over each fillet, then cover each with a slice of mozzarella cheese. Broil the fillets for 3-4 minutes or until light brown spots begin to appear on the cheese. To serve, arrange two chicken breasts on each plate, then spoon 3-4 TBS of madeira sauce over the chicken.,