Crunch Top Apple Pie

For this week, I decided to make an apple pie from Paula Deen for Thanksgiving. My son wanted apple pie, so I decided Paula Deen since I didn't have plans on making the vegetable soup. This was the first crust that I made from scratch in a long time.

The recipe was very easy to follow and can be found here. The filling tasted good, but I'll have to let you know tomorrow how it tastes.

THURSDAY - IT WAS DELICIOUS!

These are before baking.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

My Girl Paula: White Chili

Last week's recipe for My Girl, Paula was ANYTHING GOES. I spotted this recipe in the January/February 2008 edition of the Cooking With Paula Deen magazine. Both Jimmy and I thought this sounded good.

I used a bag of Tyson chicken that was cubed cooked chicken. I simmered the chili all day on low. It was very yummy and I will definitely make this again. We topped the chili with cheddar cheese and jalapenos.

Ingredients:

5 cups chopped cooked chicken

3 (15 oz) cans Great Northern beans, drained

1 (32 oz) box chicken broth

1 (16 oz) jar mild salsa

1 (8 oz) package Monteray Jack cheese with Peppers, cubed

2 tsp ground cumin

Garnish: cheddar cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos

Directions:

In a 6 quart electric slow cooker, combine chicken, beans, broth, salsa, cheese and cumin. Cover, and cook on high for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Garnish with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos, if desired.

Serve with corn chips.

Microwave Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo - Pampered Chef

My friend Lysa just recently became a Pampered Chef consultant. She sent me this wonderful booklet of recipes after I ordered the Deep Dish Baker.

I decided to make this dish since it sounded easy and I hadn't had alfredo in ages. It was super simple and so yummy. My son had two huge helpings!

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 clove garlic

salt

pepper

uncooked fettuccini noodles

bottle alfredo sauce

fresh block parmesan cheese (I used Kraft grated cheese)

dried parsley

Directions:

Drizzle oil on bottom of deep dish baker. Cover with chicken breats. Season chicken heavily with salt and pepper. Press garli on top of chicken using Garlic Press. Cover with lid and microwave on high for 12-14 minutes or until chicken is done.

While chicken is cooking, prepare fettuccini according to package directions on top of stove. Drain well.

Once chicken is done, drain liquid. Dice chicken; put back into Baker. Add in alfredo sauce, noodles, mixing thoroughly. Microwave covered for 2-3 minutes until heated through. Grate fresh parmesan cheese on top. Sprinkle with parsley.

The Cookie Carnival: Pecan Pie Cookies

This month's Cookie Carnival challenge was Pecan Pie Cookies. Since pecan pie is one of my favorites, of course, I had to try it! Boy, where these delicious! Sweet, but yummy! Definitely need a glass of milk with them!

The recipe was chosen from Jen at Beantown Baker. She made an excellent choice!

Pecan Pie Cookies - from Land O Lakes - makes ~3 dozen

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F.

Combine all cookie ingredients except flour and baking powder in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking powder. Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make indentation in each cookie with thumb; rotate thumb to hollow out slightly.

Combine all filling ingredients in small bowl; fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon filling.

Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

Ruby's Crispy Oven Chicken

This is the last recipe that I wanted to make from the September/October 2009 Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine. This was from the Light & Luscious section. My son didn't think he would like it because of the cornflakes, so I made it into chicken tenders, and ha! He liked it and even had seconds!!! This was very good and I would make this again.



Ingredients:



2 cups crushed cornflakes cereal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
2 egg whites
3 lbs split chicken breasts (used boneless

Directions:



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a shallow dish, combine cornflakes, salt, and red pepper.

In a separate shallow dish, lightly beat egg whites.

Dip each chicken breast in beaten egg white; dredge in cornflake mixture, pressing cornflake mixture gently to adhere to chicken.

Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion of chicken registers 165 degrees. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4-5

My Girl, Paula: Pepper Steak

This recipe can be found on page 77 of "The Lady & Sons, Too!" Cookbook. It was good, not my favorite of Paula's recipes, but good. We made the dish Thursday over at my mom's. My parents both loved it. My son decided it was okay and wrapped it up in tortillas. Not a bad idea.! We ate it over rice.

My mom bought cube steaks. She was worried the round steak wouldn't get tender.

Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality. They were taken with my camera.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 lbs round steak, trimmed of fat and cut in strips

1 cup water

1 medium onion, sliced

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

2 medium green bell peppers, cut into strips

2 T soy sauce

2-3 tsp. sugar

1 T cornstarch

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot. Add the meat and brown for 5 minutes. Stir in the water, onion, garlic, salt and ginger. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. After 10 minutes, add the peppers.

Stir together the soy sauce, sugar and cornstarch. Pour this into the pot and stir until the liquid thickens. Place tomato wedges on top of the meat and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 mintues longer.

Serve over rice.

Serves 4-6.

Paula Deen's Spicy Orange Grilled Chicken

This is another recipe from the September/October 2009 edition of "Cooking With Paula Deen". I believe there is only one more recipe that I want to make in this edition.



I was going to make this for dinner Wednesday, but never got to. I can't make it Thursday night either. I had the meat in the refrigerator marinating. I got home too late from work and then had to turn around to go to a Boy Scout committee meeting. I went ahead and cooked the meat inside.

I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts since that is what I had. It worked good. I used Coke Zero and low sugar marmalade.

I tasted a small bite of chicken. It was very good and spicy! This was very good in a salad and I put some in a tortilla...real good that way too.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cola flavored carbonated beverage
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup cider vinegar
4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2 T adobo sauce from chiptole peppers
2 1/2 lbs chicken legs
2 1/2 lbs chicken wings

Directions:

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine, cola-flavored beverage, marmalade, vinegar, chiptole peppers, and adobo sauce. Add chicken. Seal, and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight.


Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Spray grill rack with nonstick nonflammable cooking spray.

Removed chicken from marinade, reserving marinade. Grill chicken, covered with grill likd, for 12-15 minutes, turning frequently, or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion of leg registers 180 degrees.

Pour reserved marninade into a grill-safe saucepan. Grill for 15-20 minutes, or until marniade is reduced to 1 cup. Brush sauce on chicken before serving.

Serves 10-12

Oven-Crisp Potato Wedges

I got this recipe from one of those recipe cards you get in the mail. This one is from Time Life Family Favorites Made Easy. This was easy to make. I baked it a little too long, though, and didn't have to cook under the broiler. I made these with cheeseburgers. Tasty side dish!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes (I used yukon gold)

1 T olive oil

4 tsp finely minced garlic

3/4 tsp coarse salt

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 525 degrees (my oven doesn't go this high). Quarter potatoes and place in large bowl. Drizzle olive oil over potatoes and toss.

2. Sprinkle garlic, salt, paprika, and pepper over potatoes; toss to coat well.

3. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray. Arrange potatoes on prepared baking sheet. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice during cooking.

4. Raise heat to broil. Broil potatoes until crisp, watching closely not to over brown., about 1-2 minutes.

Serves 4