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Crispy Chicken Bites
I’ve been doggy sitting a few hours today… my chuck does not like to share haha! Here’s a recipe for crispy crunchy baked chicken bites: 2 (or more) medium chicken breasts, skinless, and boneless milk bread crumbs* + salt +pepper + chili pepper or seasonings of your choice, mixed Preheat oven to 350F, coat a baking sheet with some non-stick spray. Cut the chicken breasts into cubes, one cube at a time dip in milk, dip in crumbs, dip in milk again, then crumbs again. Lay on the baking sheet. bake about 40 minutes, until golden. Cool, serve w a dipping sauce, like ranch or salsa. * a little hint,…
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Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Bacon Cheddar Biscuits
Yes, i realize that’s a lotta cheddar, but even my Chuck loved it! SOUP: 4T butter (I used salted, but i recommend unsalted) 4T AP flour 2c half&half 2c chicken/vegetable stock (i used a cube of knorr dissolved in 2 c of boiling water) about 3c of fresh broccoli 2-3 carrots, julienned small onion, diced and sauteed w 1T butter 1c sharp cheddar In a medium pot, melt butter and whisk in flour. Keep whisking and cooking it on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. It’ll be paste-like so keep whisking. Add cream and stock and cook for about 20 minutes. Whisk occasionally. Then, add the onions, broccoli and carrots…
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Walnut Bread
I’ve baked this bread every week in October and November 2011. I loved it so much. Got the recipe from Sweet Paul Magazine. Whenever I didn’t have many oranges available for the 1/2c juice the recipe calls, I squeezed as much as possible from what I had and used sweetened applesauce for the remaining value. Make sure you start by cooking the dried fruits, either apricots, or cranberries, and cool completely before adding to batter. Make these into muffins if you want. This recipe is my favorite for fall so far.
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Pumpkin Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
Made these as a Thanksgiving gift for my boyfriend’s mom last year. She loved them! Here’s my recipe: Pumpkin Cupcakes: cake: 4 eggs 1 1/3 c sugar 2/3c vegetable oil 15oz pumpkin puree Preheat oven to 350F. Beat all until smooth. In a separate bowl. sift together: 2c flour 2t baking powder 1t baking soda 2t cinnamon 1/2t salt Add to pumpkin mixture and mix until well blended. Stir in 1t vanilla extract. Fill cupcake tins 3/4 full. Bake 20 minutes for standard size cupcakes, or 30 minutes for muffin sized. Frosting: 3oz cream cheese, softened 1/2c butter, softened 1t vanilla extract 2c powdered sugar (or less if you…
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Polish Street Food – Zapiekanki
Being raised in Poland, I got to experience lots of different foods, but my favorite were always street foods. They were usually served out of little kiosks, or food trucks, and were a great way for people to get together after school/work and enjoy something yum. Today I got an extreme craving for this amazing “pizza bread”, or what we call, “zapiekanki” and decided I should take a stab at it and try to replicate it in my kitchen. Usually made on a long french baguette, they’re covered with mushrooms and cheese, then drizzled with ketchup when served. Here’s my recipe for two zapiekanki: for the baguettes: 1 1/2c flour…
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Sugar, Sugar!
I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I’m obsessed with Sweet Paul Magazine…. The new Fall’12 issue is out already and I could not believe my eyes when I saw this recipe, mostly because it’s GENIUS. And so so flexible and inspiring! I told you to save the apple peels from the Apple Spice Scones’ recipe for this reason: ~8oz of Apple Pie Sugar: peels from 6 apples 2/3c sugar 1t cinnamon 1/2t allspice 1/4t nutmeg 1/4t dried ginger pinch of salt 1. In a dehydrator or low oven, dry apple peels until crispy. 2. Using a spice grinder or a food processor, grind the dried peels until very fine. 3…
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Apple Spice Scones
Is it Fall, yet? Heard people say “you know Fall’s here when coffee shops start serving Pumpkin Lattes” hehe. So it’s here! I don’t know about you guys, but Autumn to me reads apples, pears, pumpkins and cinnamon. And booties with sunglasses., skinny jeans, hoodies and red lipstick…. browns reds and yellows. Ha! Although Chicago still celebrates summer weather, I was inspired to bring back my September scones. Apple spice scones. Yum. You will love these. I do. Bf does. Been making these for two Autumns already. Here’s the recipe, before I think of anything else fall I want to add on here… ‘Njoy <3 Ingredients: 1c wheat flour…
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Gingerbread Pound Cake
…and still no new mixer… So I made this by hand. I used Paula Deen’s pound cake recipe, and added my fall twist on it. Her Ingredients are: 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, plus more for pan 1/2 cup vegetable shortening 3 cups sugar 5 eggs 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan 1/2 teaspoon fine salt 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract I used margarine instead of butter. You will also need 4T cocoa powder and 1T gingerbread spice (i make mine from cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, nutmeg, ground cloves, in big batches, about 1/2…
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Blueberry Banana Pancakes
New morning routine (after doggy beach with Chuck, of course) I had one very very ripe banana starring at me, so I had to use it. I’m not fond of only banana flavored things (although banana juice sounds like it’d be fun) so I added a bunch of blueberries. 1 3/4 c flour 2 1/2 t baking powder pinch of salt 3T vanilla sugar 1 1/2 c milk 1 egg 2T melted butter 1 banana 1c blueberries, fresh Mix all ingredients except for blueberries (I use a juice blender), let sit in a fridge about 10-15 minutes, mix in blueberries. heat up a non stick pan, no oil needed.…
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Conan in Chicago
I’ve been trying to score freebies lately so when i saw an entry form to go to Conan’s live taping in Chicago I pretty much jumped out of my skin, stood outside of it, and gave it a slap on a face! They made me choose what day I wanted to go, I figured, well, people rarely call off work on Tuesdays so I might have better chances to get selected, right?! TOTALLY RIGHT! Today was the day. I couldn’t sleep last night I was so excited! I woke up early, went to claim my tickets and waited. And waited some more. And went to the show at The Chicago…
