Spiced Honey Lemon Chicken

Courtesy of Mindy Carlson

2 full chicken breast pounded to an even thickness
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
4 tsp. olive oil
1 tbls. butter, melted
3 tbls. honey
zest and juice of 1 lemon (or 1/3 cup)
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. paprika

1. Combined all of your ingredients in a small bowl or ziplock. Pour over chicken. Allow to marinate for at least 1 hour in the fridge, but you can marinate the chicken for 24 hours, and longer is better!

2. You can either grill or broil the chicken. To grill, preheat the grill to medium-high heat and grill over high heat for 3 minutes on each side, then over indirect heat for 5 minutes on eat side. To broil, heat the over to 400 degrees and cook for 10-15 minutes on each side, until cooked through and the juices run clear.

Sweet Carmelized Brussels Sprouts

Courtesy on Mindy Carlson.... but may have originally come from The Noshery.
(Photo from Flickr)

I've never had brussel sprouts in my life but I ate two servings of this and can't wait to make it for Chris.

6 tablespoons butter, divided into 3 tablespoons
1 onion, thinly sliced
kosher salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, quartered
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water
4 slices of bacon, cook until crispy then cut into small pieces

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium heat. (Mindy cooked the bacon first and used the bacon fat to start cooking the onions, YUMMY) Add onions and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and pepper. Saute until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the combined vinegar and sugar. Stir until brown and glazed, about 3 minutes.

Quarter brussels sprouts length wise. Heat the olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add in the brussel sprouts and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute until brown at edges, 6 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and the remaining 3 tablespoons butter. Saute until most of water evaperates and sprouts are tender but still bright green, 3 minutes.

Mix in cooked, crispy bacon and serve on top with onion. ( Mindy mixed them all together in a bowl before serving, I highly reccomend this)

Serves 4

Fried rice with shrimp and snow peas

Martha Stewart Living February 2010
I saw Martha make this on the Today Show yesterday and it looked so yummy I had to get the recipe and make it right away.

Ingredients

1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 large eggs, beaten
12 large shrimp (about 12 ounces), peeled and deveined, tails on
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped lemongrass (yellow and pale green parts only)
3 tablespoons minced garlic (about 4 large cloves)
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger (from one 2-inch piece)
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped Thai chile
12 shiitake mushroom caps, sliced 1/2 inch thick (11/2 cups)
1 cup snow peas, trimmed
4 cups day-old cooked long-grain rice, preferably jasmine (from 1 1/3 cups dry)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
5 scallions, white and pale-green parts only, sliced crosswise (1/2 cup)
Lime wedges, for squeezing
Garnish: scallions, thinly sliced lengthwise

Directions

The secret: Day-old rice. It’s drier than freshly steamed rice, so it fries easily without sticking to the wok.

1. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wok over medium-high heat; swirl to coat. Scramble eggs, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds; transfer to a plate.

2. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon oil to wok, and heat until shimmering. Cook shrimp, tossing occasionally, until seared, 1 to 2 minutes; transfer to a plate.

3. Add remaining 3 tablespoons oil, the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and chile. Cook, tossing, for 1 minute. Add mushrooms, and cook for 2 minutes. Add shrimp, and cook through, 1 to 2 minutes. Add peas, and cook until bright green but still crisp, about 1 minute. Stir in rice, and heat through. Add soy sauce, and stir to coat. Toss in scrambled eggs, breaking up any large clumps, and scallions. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze limes over fried rice. Garnish with scallions.

NOTES: I used brown rice. Also, due to all the chopping (which is well worth it) you could totally prep all the food ahead of time and then pull it all together when it's time for dinner.

Squash Stuffed Apples

Squash Stuffed Apples

Serves 4 - Use organic ingredients whenever possible


2 Granny Smith or Pippin apples

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon fresh apple cider or unfiltered apple juice

2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey

2 heaping cups butternut squash, cubed

1 tablespoon Earth Balance non-hydrogenated margarine

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/8 teaspoon salt

Pumpkin pie seasoning or cinnamon


Preheat your oven to 325˚

Core the apples and them cut them in half across the middle.

Using a paring knife and spoon, scoop out some of the pulp to form apple “bowls”. Save the pulp.

Put the apple into a small baking dish.

Whisk together the apple cider and agave nectar and pour over the apples.

Bake for 30 minutes, basting the apples at least once with the sweetened cider in the dish

While the apples are baking, peel, seed and cube the squash.

In a skillet or large pot with a cover, melt the margarine over a medium low heat.

Add the cubed squash, reserved apple pulp, maple syrup and the tablespoon of cider and saute covered for 15 minutes.

Stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick or burn.

Let the squash mixture cool for a few minutes uncovered before putting it into your food processor with the salt and blending until smooth.

Transfer the squash mixture to a pastry bag and pipe into the apples.

If the cider in the baking dish has not thickened, pour it into a small pot and bring to a fast simmer for 1 minute to thicken it

Pour the thickened cider over the stuffed apples and sprinkle them with pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.

Nutter Butter Banana Trifle

Making this little gem isn't as hard as you think. Even making the pudding from scratch was rewarding.
3 cups milk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla
5 medium ripe bananas
1 (1-lb) package Nutter Butter's
2 cups sweetened whipped cream
Garnishes: Nutter Butter cookies, dried banana chips, fresh mint sprigs.

1. Whisk together first 4 ingredients in a large sauce pan over medium-low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, 12-20 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla until butter is melted.

2. Fill a large bowl with ice. Place saucepan in ice and let stand, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until mixture is thoroughly chilled.

3. Meanwhile, cut bananas into 1/4 inch slices. Break cookies into thirds.

4. Spoon half of pudding mixture into a 3 quart bowl, picture or trifle dish. Top with bananas and cookies. Spoon remaining pudding mixture over bananas and cookies. top with sweetened whipped cream. Cover and chill 2 to 24 hours. Garnish, if desired.


Ok all you lazy bones, yes you could just use instant pudding but trust me, making the real stuff was not that hard!!!!

Here's what you do. Instead of real whipped cream they suggest extra creamy cool whip completely thawed.

Instead of the pudding you just use:
3 cups milk
2 vanilla instant pudding
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat above with an electric mixer for two minutes or until thickened; let stand 5 minutes.
Stir in 1 (80z) container sour cream.

Proceed with rest of recipe.

Thank you Southern Living

Luscious Orange Cake

Recipe Courtesy Victoria Carlson
Photo and Cake Made by Samantha Lee

Some of you may remember I made this for Marci's birthday in April. This is where it came from. The pros aforementioned above.
Cake:

1 pkg yellow cake mix (I always use Duncan Hines)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 (11oz) can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:

2 (8 oz) cans crushed pineapple with juice
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 (8 oz) tub Cool Whip

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three round 9 inch cake pans. Combine cake ingredients in bowl and mix with hand mixer for one minute on low and then three minutes on medium. Mixture should be smooth with small bits of mandarin orange. Pour equally into three pans. Bake for 25 minutes until cake is spongy to the touch or a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes IN PANS on wire rack. Then remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make frosting. Drain pineapple juice, adding it to pudding mix and combining well. Add pineapple, powdered sugar and vanilla. Fold in cool whip.

To assemble cake, frost between each layer, then outside of cake. I added toasted coconut and a sugared orange slice to the top of my cake for display purposes only.

Summer Fruit Salsa & Homemade Cinnamon Chips

Recipe and Photo Courtesy Samantha Lee

Fruit Salsa

half of a fresh pineapple, coarsely chopped
one ripe mango, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp minced cilantro (don't be afraid of it - just embrace it)

Combine all three ingredients in a bowl one hour before serving time to let juices flow and flavors combine.

Cinnamon Chips

1/2 stick melted butter
4-8 6 inch flour tortillas (for this photo I used whole wheat)
cinnamon sugar (combine cinnamon to sugar at a 1-2 part ratio)

Brush melted butter on one side of flour tortilla. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Place on a cookie sheet and cut into triangles with a pizza cutter. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and bubbly. Let cool, then remove with spatula.