Leap Day!

Jenna had to eat and run again, so I (Jami) get to blog this time.  Justin and I decided to get a movie in while Harlee slept though, so this blog post is a bit late!  We wanted to be sure to get a Leap Day dinner in, though, so Jenna came over to cook even though I didn't need her babysitting services tonight.  Unfortunately there are no cute pictures of Harlee this time either, but to update everyone on him he's learning to crawl!  I'm excited but I'm okay with waiting as loooong as possible for him to figure it out completely - I'm beginning to realize how NOT baby-proof our house is!  Can we just freeze him at his cute playful sitting-up stage?  Haha just kidding, I'm enjoying every minute of his progress and growth, I just need to suck it up and start plugging our outlets and child-locking our cabinets...  In other news, I think he's FINALLY starting to sprout his first tooth!  Or at least, there's a hard lump in his bottom gums that wasn't that prominent before, so I'm assuming that's a tooth.  Paired with a runny nose and some extra crabbiness, that can only mean one thing, right?  Well, I guess we'll find out...

So in honor of Leap Day we made Garlic Chicken Leg Quarters and Spicy Four-Cheese Macaroni.  (Did ya pick up on the "4" theme, by chance?  'Cause Leap Year is every four years?  Yeah?  haha).  This is something I'll definitely want to make more than every four years, though.  It was pretty tasty!!  Here are the recipes:

Garlic Chicken Leg Quarters
   (adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-garlic-broiled-chicken/detail.aspx)

1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried parsley
4 boneless chicken leg quarters, with skin
dried parsley, to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a baking pan.
In a microwave safe bowl, mix the butter, garlic, soy sauce, pepper, and parsley. Cook 2 minutes on High in the microwave, or until butter is melted.
Arrange chicken on the baking pan, and coat with the butter mixture, reserving some of the mixture for basting.
Broil chicken 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until juices run clear, turning occasionally and basting with remaining butter mixture. Sprinkle with parsley to serve. 

**Note: The original recipe said to broil the chicken, and either I don't know how to use the broiler or our broiler doesn't work, because the chicken wasn't done after the 20 minutes it called for.  I adjusted the temperature and left it in for a bit longer, so the 40 minutes is an assumption.  Be sure to check!  This tasted DELICIOUS though!!


 Spicy Four-Cheese Macaroni
    (adapted from http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-four-cheese-macaroni-10000000222589/)


1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 2/3 cups milk
3/4 cup (3 ounces) cubed pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
3 ounces Velveeta
6 cups cooked elbow macaroni (about 3 cups uncooked)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1/3 cup crushed crackers (your choice of flavor)

Preheat oven to 375°.
Place flour in a large saucepan. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat 8 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Add cheeses; cook 3 minutes or until cheese melts, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in macaroni and salt.
Spoon mixture into a 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray.  Sprinkle crushed crackers over macaroni mixture. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until bubbly.



We also served oven-roasted asparagus, a simple recipe I refer back to quite often, and you can find it on this previous blog post.  Enjoy!

Brupper!

Jenna passed the torch once again - we had a late night tonight and she's got an early morning tomorrow so I offered to do the honors of blogging.  It was a long day of babysitting for her today!  I had a morning client and then I didn't have another until later in the day so I utilized her babysitting services to get a little house cleaning done.  And then we decided to run down to a cute little shop in Chester, IL, called Pinky's Sugarland, owned by Jenna's friend Dianna Mueller.  Jenna had been talking about her cake pops for a LONG time and I finally got the privilege of getting to try them and see her shop.



 It was a fun spur-of-the-moment adventure!  I feel like we almost cleaned her out though... I'm going to have to ration these cake pops out over the next month or so or I'm going to turn into one!

Anyway, we made it back just in time for me to get to my last couple of clients, during which it sounds like Harlee slept the whole time for Jenna (he sure does make this easy for her...), and I made a pit stop at IGA to get a few things for our "brupper" - breakfast for supper!  There I ran into our friend Debbie who happened to not have any plans for dinner, so we invited her to join us.  I think she's glad she did, the meal turned out great!  I'm glad she came too because she sure does a good job of cleaning up my kitchen afterwards... :-)

Here's the lineup:

Fresh squeezed orange juice - can't beat that!  It took an 8lb bag of oranges to make 3 glasses though... whew!

Bacon - I don't think I need to post a recipe for that...

Scrambled eggs - just beat about 6 eggs with maybe a half a cup of milk (I failed to measure...) and a little bit of salt and pepper and pour into a pan, cook on medium heat and stir frequently to avoid them sticking to the pan until they stiffen to your desired texture.

Hash browns - chopped some yellow potatoes and fried them in the bacon grease with some salt and pepper.  Yum!

Biscuits and gravy - for the gravy just cook about a 1/2 lb of ground pork sausage until no longer pink and drain grease, then add in about 3 cups of cream and stir in flour a little at a time until it reaches desired consistency (some like it thick, some like it runny).  I think I used about 5 tbsp of flour for ours.  Salt and pepper to taste (I threw in a tiny bit of cayenne pepper for a little extra kick) and serve over biscuits:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt , and cream of tartar.  Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add milk all at once.  Using a fork, stir just until mixture is moistened.

Drop dough into 12 mounds onto a greased baking sheet (we used parchment paper) and bake for 10-14 minutes.  Serve warm.


Ah this was delicious, and VERY filling.  Probably not the healthiest of meals, but I think it's okay to splurge every great once in a while.  And now you have lots of yummy ideas for breakfast!  And I have lots of leftovers...

Enjoy!

Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

60 degrees in February can only mean one thing: go to the park!  Harlee napped most of the time while I was babysitting (we played with toys before that), so when Jami and Justin got home, we all walked to the park!  Harlee had so much fun swinging and going down the slide, and so did the rest of us.

After some laughs and smiles at the park, we walked back to the house where Jami made our dinner.  I entertained Harlee as he sat in his little walker.  I can’t tell you how preparing the chicken was since I had no part in it, but I can tell you it seemed pretty easy and it was really delicious.  It seemed similar to the blackened salmon: rub the chicken and put in a hot pan of oil and cook until done.  And flip it, of course.  It was a bit spicy, but if you don’t like spice, that’s probably easy enough to leave out.

 

Harlee even enjoyed some of our dinner.  Not the chicken or the rice, but he did chew on some broccoli and bananas.  He seemed to enjoy them.  

 

Here’s the recipe:

Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

   taken from allrecipes.com

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust this to your spice preference)

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon dried parsley

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic powder

3 tablespoons lime juice

In a small bowl, mix together salt, black pepper, cayenne, paprika, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and parsley. Sprinkle spice mixture generously on both sides of chicken breasts.

Heat butter and olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken until golden brown, about 6 minutes on each side. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons garlic powder and lime juice. Cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently to coat evenly with sauce.

    *Side note: this sauce tastes delicious mixed with white rice, which we served with the chicken.  Yum!

Mardi Gras!

Bon Temps Rouler!

In honor of Mardi Gras, Jami and I (well, mostly Jami) cooked up a big Cajun/Creole feast! Josh and I came over to play with Harlee while Jami cooked up a big pot of jambalaya.  It was pretty darn spicy, but pretty darn good.

My cooking tastes so good because of the faces I make...

She also made muffuletta.  I’d never had muffuletta, but these sandwiches were quite tasty, too.  I’m not a huge fan of olives, but I’ll eat this any day.

Of course, a meal wouldn’t have been complete without our “world famous” cornbread!  Also delicious.  Granny and Debbie stopped by, but they didn’t eat (they had already eaten liver and onions at Mary’s….), but Debbie sampled the jambalaya and cornbread.  The jambalaya had quite a kick to it, but it was still tasty. 

The best part was after dinner…. Beignets!  (Pronounced Ben-Yays, not Bay-uh-nets…. Jami.)  This was our first time ever making beignets, but they turned out delicious!  Granny tried one and said they tasted  just like Café du Monde.  I hope she was being honest!  Even if she wasn’t, they were still really good, especially with powdered sugar piled on top.  Yum Yum.  Justin fixed a pot of coffee, and it was the perfect complement to our puffy little pastries. 

 

Jambalaya, muffuletta, beignets and zydeco music made for the perfect Mardi Gras feast.  Oh and Harlee, well, he was just dandy, too.

Jambalaya

   adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/Chicken-and-Shrimp-Jambalaya/Detail.aspx?prop31=7

1 pound fully cooked smoked sausage link, cut into 1/4-inch slices

Small yellow onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 chopped green bell pepper
1 chopped jalapeno pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 15oz can diced stewed tomatoes
3 cups water
1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 bay leaves
2 cups sliced okra
1 pound fresh or frozen raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
Hot pepper sauce to taste

 In a pan oven over medium heat, cook sausage, onion, celery, peppers, and garlic until tender. Add remaining ingredients except okra, shrimp and hot pepper sauce. Bring to a boil. Cover; reduce heat and simmer 20 to 25 minutes or until rice is tender. Add okra, shrimp, and hot pepper sauce. Cook 2 to 3 minutes or until shrimp turns pink. Remove bay leaves. Serve!


Muffuletta
    adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/muffuletta-sandwich/detail.aspx

1 loaf fresh Italian bread or sourdough bread
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
8 oil-cured black olives, pitted and chopped
8 pitted green olives, chopped
salami, thinly sliced
ham, thinly sliced
provolone cheese, sliced

In a small bowl combine olive oil, olives, spices, and Parmesan cheese.
Slice bread in half lengthwise and divide into sandwich-size portions.  Spread olive mixture on both halves.  Layer with salami, ham, and provolone cheese.  If desired, place in oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bread is crispy.  Enjoy!

Check back here for that delicious cornbread we can't get enough of...


And let's not forget those bayonets or beignets or whatever they are ;-).  Just a note - we made the dough first so it could refrigerate while we cooked dinner and ate it.  It was ready to go for the next step when we were finished!

Beignets
   from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/costas-french-market-doughnuts-beignets/detail.aspx

1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
1 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
7 1/2 cups flour
1 quart vegetable oil for frying
1 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

Pour 1/2 cup room temperature water into a small bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let stand for about 5 minutes to dissolve.
Combine the shortening, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the shortening mixture and then stir in the evaporated milk. Wait for the mixture to cool down until it is lukewarm. Then, add the yeast and water mixture and beaten eggs.
Slowly mix in the flour until the dough forms a ball. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Working with a small portion (a little larger than a baseball) at a time, roll out the dough 1/8-inch thick. Cut the rolled out dough into strips 2 to 3-inches wide, then cut again in the opposite direction and at an angle, making diamond shapes.
Heat your oil for frying in a deep and wide, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat to 360 degree F (180 degrees C).
Slide dough slowly into the oil to avoid splattering and deep fry until they puff up and are golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Carefully remove onto a rack with paper towels underneath and allow to cool until you can handle them. Place in a clean paper bag with confectioners' sugar and shake gently until covered generously or, use a sifter to dust the beignets with powdered sugar.  Enjoy!

 

Penne with Tomato-Cream Sauce

Jenna isn’t feeling entirely inspired tonight so she passed the blogging to me this time.  She reported that she got some knitting done while he napped, but he was rather fussy while he was awake.  Sounds like they spent a lot of time in the sunroom watching traffic drive by – Harlee is definitely entertained by that, as I’ve found on many occasions!  My guess is he’s working on some teeth… But then I feel like he’s kinda been doing that for months, with all the drooling and chewing on things he’s been doing.  Still haven’t detected any nubbins breaking through those gums yet though!  We’ve been trying different homemade purees of sweet potatoes, bananas, and squash so far.  He’s not too sure about it, and it sure is funny watching his faces (as you could see from his sweet potato experience from the last blog!).  I’m not in any hurry though – he’s just experimenting right now and from what I understand (and been told by his pediatrician), teeth are a sign that the digestive system is developed enough to handle solids, and since there are no teeth, well, no hurry!  He’s still getting the good stuff from his momma, which is important!

Speaking of good stuff, Jenna was in a pasta mood tonight so that’s the route we took.  It was interesting, since anything that required water had to be done in the bathroom sink.  Our kitchen faucet sprung a leak last night, so it’s out of commission until we fix it.  Anyway, I came up with this recipe about two years ago and I’ve been coming back to it quite a bit because it’s pretty tasty!  Add some easy homemade garlic bread and a salad and we’ve got a great meal!

Penne with Tomato-Cream Sauce

1 16oz box of penne pasta, cooked al dente

1 lb ground beef (or your choice of ground meat - venison in our case!)

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 small yellow onion, chopped

½ cup sliced mushrooms

2 15oz cans tomato sauce

1 cup half & half or heavy cream

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown the beef with spices.  Drain grease (if you have any – venison doesn’t create any) and add peppers, onions, and mushrooms.  Add tomato sauce and cream, and stir while adding cheeses.  Stir until heated through and cheese is melted.  Combine with cooked and drained noodles, and serve!

Homemade Garlic Bread

½ loaf (or 8 slices) French bread

~4 tbsp Butter spread

1-2 tsp garlic powder

1-2 tsp Italian seasoning

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread butter on both sides of bread slices.  Arrange on a baking sheet and sprinkle with garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and cheese.  Bake for 8 minutes, until cheese is melted and bread is toasted.

Hawaiian BBQ Sandwiches

Harlee was super easy today.  He slept for two hours, and then Jami came home just in time to feed him.  Our dinner was, in theory, easy.  Hawaiian BBQ sandwiches with sweet potato fries and homemade potato chips.  Sounds like a meal that should be super easy, but I think it was the prep time that took the longest.  Slicing potatoes took a long time, and the whole time Harlee was kind of fussy.  So I held him while Jami sliced pineapple and potatoes.

Anyway, our meal was tasty when it was all done… two hours later.  The sandwich was based off a sandwich I ate at The Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney in Florida.  BBQ sauce, pineapple, ham and swiss cheese.  Yum!  And the potato chips turned out surprisingly crispy, for being done in the microwave.  And the sweet potato friends also turned out yummy.

Harlee’s started on solids now, and he joined us in eating sweet potatoes.  Just in different form.  He’s not too sure about them at the moment, though, and I think more got on his face than in his mouth.

Looks like he's liking it here!

Well... maybe not so much...

 **Jami's side note: we made both potato chips and sweet potato fries because Jenna said she didn't like sweet potatoes.  She changed her mind after trying these though :)

Sweet Potato Fries

4 sweet potatoes, cut into large french fries
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp lemon pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Toss sweet potatoes with Italian seasoning, lemon pepper, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Arrange fries on a baking sheet in a single layer.
Bake for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes, or until fries are crispy on the outside. 

Sweet Potatoes for Baby

2 sweet potatoes, cut into chunks

Place potatoes in a steamer basket and place in a pan with about a half inch of water.  Steam on stove, covered, on medium-high heat until potatoes are tender and easily pierced with a fork (of course I didn't keep track of the time - one of these days I'll learn to do that!).


Place steamed potatoes in a blender with about 1 tbsp of the water from steaming and blend to a fine puree, adding more of the water as needed.


Let cool and serve to baby!  If you can resist eating it all yourself, that is...  Store the rest in clean ice cube trays in the freezer.  Once frozen, pop them out and keep in a freezer safe bag, thawing one cube at a time as needed.




Microwave Potato Chips
    (from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/potato-chips/Detail.aspx)


1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 potato, sliced paper thin (peel optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Pour the vegetable oil into a plastic bag (a produce bag works well). Add the potato slices, and shake to coat.
Coat a large dinner plate lightly with oil or cooking spray. Arrange potato slices in a single layer on the dish.
Cook in the microwave for 3 to 5 minutes, or until lightly browned (if not browned, they will not become crisp). Times will vary depending on the power of your microwave. Remove chips from plate, and toss with salt (or other seasonings). Let cool. Repeat process with the remaining potato slices. You will not need to keep oiling the plate. 

Hawaiian BBQ Sandwiches

~ 1 lb of ham, sliced 1/8th inch thick (or desired thickness)
4 slices of pineapple
4 slices Swiss cheese
French bread cut into 8ths for 4 sandwiches (you can use whatever bread you like, but French bread seems to be sturdy and crusty and holds onto the juices well)
~ 4 tbsp honey barbeque sauce


Lightly toast the bread.  Spread bbq sauce on one side, pile on as much ham as you'd like, and top with Swiss cheese.  Place a pineapple slice on the other side.  Repeat for the other 3 sandwiches.  Toast in oven at 400 degrees at about 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted.  (We used 400 degrees since that's what it was set to for the sweet potato fries - 350 may work just fine too but might need a longer cook time).  Enjoy!