Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo

8 oz linguine

1 cup fresh broccoli florets

2 Tbsp butter

1pound(ish) of bite size chicken pieces

1 10 3/4 oz can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Prepare linguine.  Either add broccoli during last 4 minutes of cooking linguine or steam them separately.  Drain linguine mix well.

Heat butter in skillet over medium heat.  Add chicken and cook until well browned and cooked through, stir often.

Stir soup, milk, cheese, black pepper, and linguine mix into skillet with cooked chicken.  Cook until mix is hot and bubbling, stir occasionally.  Serve with extra Parmesan cheese that was not in the original ingredient list. =)  

Yum, simple, goodness.

Fresh Berry Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350.

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/2 pint or so of fresh berries

Put butter into 8x8 pan or whatever dish you'd like to bake in.  Stick it in the oven until it is melted.  Meanwhile mix your dry ingredients and add the milk.  Stir this up.  This is the cobbler part.  Pull out the buttered dish.  Add your fresh berries (I cut up strawberries and added whole blueberries and red raspberries).  Pour the mixture over the berries. Do not stir. Simply stick back in the oven and bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.  Let cool slightly.  Serve with ice cream if you wish.

YUMMMMM!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
chopped nuts as desired

Make sure that butter is soft.  If it's fresh from the fridge nuke it ever so gently.  Combine nicely softened butter, sugars, and vanilla.  Beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Stir in baking soda.  Gradually stir in flour.  Mix in your chocolate chips and nuts.  I use walnuts and/or pecans...and by use I mean I pack those babies full.  Sometimes I'll eliminate the chocolate chips and just add the nuts before I chow them down.

             Enjoy!

Oh you're on of those...ok if you must:  Drop onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes in your preheated 350 degree oven.  Recipe says it makes 50 - 4 inch cookies.  I find that hard to believe but mine never much makes it past the dough stage before it's gone so I really can't verify this for you. 

Grilled 3 Cheese with Bacon and 1000 Island

Simple. Quick. Yummy.

What you need: butter, cheeses, bacon, thousand island, two pieces of bread.

Pick three cheeses of your choosing. My choice was provolone, chedder, and feta. Fry yourself up three slices of bacon. I had extra lean turkey bacon. Butter up the outsides of your bread. I had homemade Parmesan Italian Bread (see previous post for recipe). Slap the cheeses, bacon and some thousand island dressing in the center - slap the other half of bread on (butter side out of course). Grill to your pleasing, frying at a low heat to get those cheeses melted while browning the bread slowly.

Viola!

Sandwiches rock! Quick, easy, and super tasty.

Baked Hush Puppies

3/4 cup whole ground cornmeal
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk with lemon juice)
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 minced jalapeno
4 minced scallions (green onions)
pepper to taste

Mix dry ingredients.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Bake around 10 minutes in mini muffin tins in a preheated 350 oven.

Super easy. I served mine with slow cooked country style boneless BBQ ribs from the local meat market, whole red potatoes fresh from my garden (also in the slow cooker), and a green salad.

Tuna Fish on Italian Parmesan Bread

I wanted to make some bread...picked out a recipe for Italian bread and added some fresh parmesan cheese to the mix just for kicks.  Then, what to eat on it......I had one little bitty can of tuna fish in the pantry so I whipped myself up a tuna fish sandwich with baby dills on fresh made Italian Parmesan bread.

Note: This is a bread machine recipe.  Course you can use the recipe and do all the labor - but I cheated and put it in the lazy lady machine.  I love that machine!

2 pound loaf:
1 1/4 cups + 3 Tbsp warm water
2 Tbsp butter
4 cups flour
3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 Tbsp dry milk
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 tsp active dry yeast OR 1 3/4 tsp bread machine/fast rise yeast

Add warm water and butter to pan.  I sliced the butter into three sections and placed it strategically in the pan to cover all areas.  Mix your dry ingredients (flour, Parmesan, milk, sugar, seasonings) except yeast.  Add this to the top of the water.  Level and make sure you cover your corners.  Make a well (not too deep don't expose the water) and add the yeast.  Lock the pan into the bread machine if you haven't already.

Push the correct buttons and let it rock n roll.  This is a basic bread.  I used medium crust.
Note that when I made this I didn't use warm water and it still got good rising.  Not recommended of course, but if you happen to mess up don't go throwing it all out just because of the cold water you accidentally added.  Came out beautifully.   Tall loaf so I cut one slice and ripped it in half for a full sandwich.  Rocked it with some tunafish, pickles, and tomato.  Added bonus the house always smells so awesome and you don't have the added heat from the oven being on.  It's perfect.

Go make you some bread, baby!  =)