Chicken Marsala June 2, 2009

This is the last of the recipes from the cooking extravaganza that my friend Jen and I had a few weeks ago.  I’ve always wanted to try chicken marsala, so I was really excited when I saw that this was on the menu.   I love cooking with boneless skinless chicken breasts because they’re so easy to cook with and I always have them on hand.  However, sometimes it’s hard to find new and exciting ways to cook them and I get bored really easily with the same old chicken dishes.

Jen was in charge of pounding the chicken breasts.

I really liked that this recipe was super simple.  You could definitely pull off this dish from start to finish in 30 minutes, easy, which makes it perfect for a weekday meal.  And even though you use very few ingredients, you still get a really nice, rich flavor in the end.

There are a few different ways to pound out the chicken breasts for this recipe, but my favorite is to use plastic wrap.  Place a piece of plastic wrap (about a foot long) on the counter, and then place one chicken breast in the middle.  Cover the piece of chicken with another piece of plastic wrap.  Using a meat mallet or a heavy-bottomed cup, whack the chicken until it’s about 1/2 inch thick.  This way it keeps the counter and your hands relatively clean, and it makes for a really easy clean up — just fold the plastic wrap over so the part the chicken touched is on the inside, and throw away!

Chicken Marsala

Adapted from: AllRecipes.com

Makes: 4 servings (1 chicken breasts each)

1/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to about 1/2 inch thickness

8 tbsp. olive oil, divided

8 tbsp. butter, divided

1 c. sliced mushrooms

1 c. Marsala wine

1/2 c. cooking sherry

1) In a shallow bowl or plate mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano.  Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, making sure it’s well coated.  Shake slightly to remove some of the excess flour.

2) In a large skillet, heat 4 tbsp. butter and 4 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat.  Once hot, place two of the chicken breasts in the pan and cook until lightly browned.  Turn the chicken over and add the mushrooms.

3) Pour in the wine and cooking sherry.  Cover the skillet and simmer for 10 minutes, turning once, until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear.  Repeat with the remaining two chicken breasts.

Jen and her husband Frankie with their respective bowls of chicken (Jen likes mushrooms, Frankie doesn’t)

Aren’t they adorable?

Baked Ziti June 1, 2009

Happy first day of June! I’m so glad it’s finally getting warm here. I love summer!

This baked ziti was the second thing that Jen and I cooked during our cooking extravaganza. I love baked pasta dishes, because they’re always so easy to make and they freeze and reheat really well. This one was a little bit different than the baked ziti I always make, because it calls for adding some fresh basil (always a good thing!) and ricotta cheese. I will definitely be making it sometime soon!

That’s me!  Mixing spaghetti sauce into the cooked ground turkey.

Mmmm, look at that fresh basil and garlic!

(And wine and Wheat Thins…hey, we can’t have hungry cooks!)

Jen and I with the finished product!

This recipe is really easy to customize to fit your own tastes.  You can use ground beef or turkey and you can add more or less cheese and fresh herbs.  Instead of using plain tomato sauce, we used spaghetti sauce, which will bump up the flavor quite a bit.  My favorite is Prego Fresh Mushroom, but you can use whatever kind you like.  Instead of using shredded mozzarella cheese, Jen ended up buying a few balls of fresh mozzarella.  We cut it up into chunks and mixed about half into the pasta mixture and then sprinkled the rest on top right before baking.  I actually liked this better, because then there’s little pockets of cheese inside the pasta, along with the nice little blobs of it on top.

Baked Ziti

Makes: One 13×9 inch pan (about 8 servings)

Adapted from: Foodfit.com

1/2 lb. ziti pasta

4 tsp. olive oil

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 1/2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. ground turkey

2 c. tomato sauce (or spaghetti sauce)

1/3 c. fresh basil, chopped

1 c. ricotta cheese

2/3 c. grated mozzarella cheese

1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the pasta and cook until just shy of being done (you want them to be still slightly chewy in the middle), about 8-10 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

2) Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Once hot, add the onion and saute until translucent and soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and saute for one minute more.

3) Add the ground turkey to the skillet with the onion and garlic, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until turkey is completely cooked through.  Drain off any excess fat.

4) Add the tomato sauce to the skillet and mix until combined.  Heat over low heat until bubbly, about 5 minutes.

5) In a large bowl, mix together the turkey mixture, pasta, basil and ricotta cheese.  Spoon mixture into a greased 13×9 inch pan.

6) Sprinkle the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese evenly over the pasta mixture.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and browned and the mixture is heated through.

I’m Back! Plus Crock Pot Turkey Chili May 31, 2009

Hello again!  It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  I bet you almost forgot about me, didn’t you?

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last posted.  I feel terrible!  In my defense, I haven’t actually cooked almost anything this past month.  It’s not like I’ve been cooking these fabulous things and just not sharing.

This past month has been, well, stressful.  I managed to get sick, break up with my boyfriend, take all of my finals, and decide to move to a city I’ve never lived in before all in the space of about a week.  Not my best week, obviously.  Needless to say, I was a bit stressed.  I didn’t really eat anything that entire week.  Like literally, there were a few days when I would be getting ready for bed and realize “oh, I didn’t eat dinner.  Wait, or lunch.  Uh-oh, or breakfast!”  And even when I did eat, it was either pre-made TV dinners or cereal.  I couldn’t really bring myself to cook anything.  I feel like I lost my cooking mojo for a bit, but luckily I’m starting to recover.

I moved to Kalamazoo for the summer to live with my little sister.  It was an incredibly last-minute decision, but so far I’m really happy with it.  We get along surprisingly well when my parents aren’t around, haha.  My friend Jen also lives in Kalamazoo, and she had me over for a little cooking extravaganza.  She usually tries to cook a ton of food in advance  and then freezes it, so her and her husband don’t have to cook a lot during the week, and so her husband eats something other than beef jerkey and crackers when she’s off in Big Rapids during the week taking classes.

I had so much fun cooking with Jen!  Her house (and especially her kitchen) is absolutely gorgeous, and I was so excited to finally get to see it!  It was nice to get back in the kitchen and actually cook.  We made three entrees, all of which I’ll be posting, the first of which being turkey chili in the crock pot.  I’m ashamed to admit that I walked out of her house without actually having tasted anything, but from what I’ve heard from Jen and Frankie, everything was delicious.  I can tell you that at the very least, everything smelled amazing as it was cooking!

Everyone, meet Jen!  She’s very enthusiastically browning the ground turkey for the chili.  Also, isn’t the backsplash in her kitchen really pretty?

This is a really great recipe for chili that I will definitely be making sometime in the near future.  I love that it uses the crock pot, because it frees up so much time that you would normally be spending standing by the stove, stirring the chili on the stovetop.  With this recipe, you chuck everything in the crock pot, turn it on, and then let it be.  It’s awesome.

With chili, I’ve found that it’s really important to taste often as you’re adding spices.  Everyone likes their chili a certain way, and you’ll never know if it tastes right to you if you don’t, well, taste it!  We started by adding about half of the spices that the recipe calls for, and then tasting and adding more as we saw fit.  If I remember correctly, we increased the amount of cumin and cayenne pepper to about 1 teaspoon each to fit Jen’s tastes. Also, this makes a TON of chili.  It completely filled up Jen’s extra large crock pot, so if you only have a normal sized crock pot (and unfortunately I don’t know the volumes of each, but you can see the size of Jen’s from the picture below) I would recommend halving the recipe, or making it in batches.

Crock Pot Turkey Chili

Adapted from:  Allrecipes.com

1 1/2 tsp. olive oil

1 lb. ground turkey

1 onion, coarsely chopped

2 c. water

1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes

1 can (16 oz.) kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 tbsp. garlic, minced

2 tbsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. cayenne pepper (or less, depending on your tastes)

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1) Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the ground turkey and cook until it’s no longer pink.  Place the turkey in the crock pot.

2) Add all other ingredients into the crock pot and mix well.  If desired, start by adding only half of all the spices, and then adjust to reach the flavor that you like.

3) Turn the crock pot on high and cook for 2-3 hours.

Crispy Onion Chicken April 17, 2009

I am so glad that it’s Friday.  Three weeks and counting until I’m done with my first year of pharmacy school.  I can’t even begin to wrap my head around all of the things I need to do before the end of the semester.  So, if my posts are a little sparse for the next three weeks or so, you know why!

I made this chicken last night and was really surprised at how good it was.  I’ve had this recipe forever, but never got around to making it…I always found something that seemed more interesting.   This has very few ingredients, but those few ingredients really pack a punch.  The flavor is fabulous.  It’s salty and crunchy and a little bit tangy.   Even better, this uses mostly basic ingredients so you’re likely to already have everything in the house to make it.  It comes together really quickly, and would be perfect for dinner on a weeknight.

Like usual, I’ve written the recipe for 1 serving, but this can be easily increased to however many servings you want.

Crispy Onion Chicken

Makes: 1 serving

1 tbsp. butter, melted

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/4 c. french fried onions, crushed

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast

1) In a medium sized bowl, combine the melted butter, Worcestershire, garlic powder, pepper and Dijon mustard.

2) Place the french fried onions in a shallow dish or a plate.

3) Dredge the chicken breast in the butter mixture, covering well.  Then dip the chicken breast into the onions, making sure it’s well-covered.

4) Place the chicken breast on a greased baking sheet.  Top with remaining sauce and onions.

5) Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and onions are crisp and browned.

Buttermilk Lemon Bars April 6, 2009

I love summer.  For someone who has been in school for 17 out of 22 years of her life, summer means freedom.  Waking up late, playing outside, swimming.  This year, summer means the chance to read a real book (not a textbook!), no studying for 3 solid months, and finally, finally, a break.

We only have 4 more weeks of school.  I’m finding it very hard to study when it’s sunny outside.  All I want to do is go outside and play.

These lemon bars, to me, are the epitome of summer.  There’s something about lemons that just brings to mind sunshine and warmth.  And since it’s currently April and STILL SNOWING….well, I needed something summery.

I’m not usually a huge fan of lemon bars.  I’ve only had them a few times before, and they’ve always either seemed overwhelmingly sweet or way too tart.  The buttermilk in these bars seems to balance both quite well.  It mellows out the sharp tartness of the lemons and adds a creaminess that balances the sweetness.   They’re still quite tart, but it’s not the kind biting acidity that lemon flavored foods can sometimes have.

I would recommend making sure that the bars are very cold before trying to cut them.  The filling is very smooth and custardy, which makes them pretty messy to cut unless they’ve had time to solidify in the fridge or freezer.  Since lemon is the main (and really only) flavor in this dessert, I strongly recommend using freshly squeezed lemon juice.  I’ve found that bottled lemon juice tends to have much more of that acidic bite, and usually has a very unappetizing aftertaste.  The recipe only calls for 1/2 cup of juice, which is very easy to squeeze by hand, and it really makes all the difference.

Buttermilk Lemon Bars

Adapted from: Baking Bites

Makes: about 16 (2 inch x 2 inch) bars

Crust

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. lemon zest

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, room temperature

Filling

4 eggs

1 1/3 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. lemon juice, freshly squeezed (about 4 large lemons)

1 tbsp. lemon zest

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8×8 (0r 9×9) inch square pan.

2) In a medium bowl, combine all the crust ingredients except the butter.  Mix well.

3) Using two knives, a pastry blender or (my favorite) your hands, mix in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press the crust mixture evenly onto the bottom of the greased pan.

4)  Bake for 16-19 minutes until just lightly browned.

5) While the crust is baking, whisk together all of the filling ingredients in another bowl.

6) Pour the filling mixture onto the crust while it is still hot and bake for another 20 minutes.  The filling should not jiggle when gently shaken.

7) Cool completely, then cut into bars.  Dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Spice Awesomeness and a Wedding Cake Update April 3, 2009

So, I probably don’t say it much, but I have a pretty fantastic boyfriend. He’s caring, he’s considerate, he doesn’t like sports (how jealous are you?), and best of all, he’s pretty handy with some wood and a few power tools.

And why is this important, you ask? Because he used his construction skills to build me a spice rack! And not just a small, boring spice rack. A huge, pretty spice rack that was exactly like I wanted. I showed him a picture of what I wanted it to look like and he said “yeah, I can build that.” And he did!

I love it!  I had a small, 15 bottle spice rack before, but it just wasn’t working out.  There were way too many spices that I wanted to have, and I didn’t have any place to put them.  The bottles and baggies of them ended up getting shoved into a small cabinet that had some room in it, but then I ended up having to take everything out each time I needed to find it again, because there was no order to it.

Some of the spices I bought at my local supermarket, but I ordered most of them from the Savory Spice Shop.  They’re a fabulous shop based out of Colorado and they offer a ton of herbs and spices at really reasonable prices — most of which are a lot less expensive than the tiny little jars you find at the grocery store.  They’ve even got some really interesting ones, like honey powder, cheddar cheese powder and black sea salt, all of which I bought.  They also offer a ton of organic products and their own custom spice blends.  I highly recommend checking out their website.  But be warned — you probably won’t be able to resist buying something!

So, needless to say, I’m a very happy girl.  A girl that can’t wait to use all the herbs and spices that are waiting in her pretty little spice rack!

Wedding Cake Project Update:

My wedding cake project is going well.  My cousin and his fiance finally “decided” on flavors, meaning that they said “oh, we think some sort of spice cake would be nice, and do whatever you think would be good for the other two.”  So, after a little bit of thought, here’s what I decided on:

Bottom layer: chocolate cake, filled with chocolate ganache and frosted in chocolate frosting.  It’ll basically be my triple chocolate cupcakes in cake form.

Middle layer: spice cake with penuche filling (kind of a thick, brown sugar caramel frosting) and frosted with cream cheese frosting.

Top layer: vanilla bean cake filled with strawberry filling and frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream.

I made mini test cakes last weekend and then made my friends come over to act as taste-testers.  The spice cake is absolutely FANTASTIC.  Probably the best cake I’ve ever eaten.  And coming from a big chocolate cake fan, that’s saying something!  The chocolate cake was delicious too.  I had a few problems with the vanilla bean and strawberry cake.  The actual vanilla bean cake tasted good, but it was a little on the dry side, and the strawberry filling never set, so once I cut into the cake it came spilling out everywhere.  But I have a few ideas on how to fix it, so it should be fine.

I tried my hand at making marshmallow fondant last weekend, too.  About 5 minutes into making it, I broke my hand mixer.  Apparently the fondant is a little bit too thick and hard to mix for my poor mixer’s little motor.  Luckily it was almost completely mixed, and I was able to finish it by hand.  When I make this at my parent’s house, I’ll have my KitchenAid mixer, so hopefully that won’t be a problem again!  The fondant was pretty impressive…and the best part about it?  It actually tasted good!  I used this recipe, and it was a breeze to make (well, aside from breaking the hand mixer.)  Just make sure to use a stand mixer, or a very sturdy hand mixer!

I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures of the test cakes because I didn’t actually decorate them – I just covered them in fondant.  And to be honest, they didn’t really look all that great without the decorations.  I will definitely be posting pictures of the finished product though.  The wedding is next weekend, so I’ve got lots of work to do!

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes March 23, 2009

So, remember last time when I posted and said that I was trying out delicious but healthy desserts?  These definitely do not fit into that category.  They are amazingly delicious, but definitely not healthy!

I’ve been toying around with the idea of a filled cupcake for a few weeks now, but never got around to making them because I didn’t want to have to eat them all or tote them to class to give away.  Luckily for me, I had a study group at my house last night, and that was the perfect opportunity to try them out and pawn them off on others.

These cupcakes are amazing.  Amazing.  I think the best compliment I got all night was when one of my friends told me he wanted to go home and brush his teeth with my cupcakes.  I’m not sure why he’s brushing his teeth with cupcakes, but whatever…to each their own, right?

I used the recipe for Hershey’s perfectly chocolate cake and frosting for these, and let me tell you — those Hershey’s people sure do know how to make a cake!  The cake was super moist and chocolately, and every single one of the cupcakes rose and formed a perfect domed top.  They were also firm enough so that I could easily cut out the middles (to make room for the filling) without the cake pieces crumbling and falling apart.

I have also found my go-to chocolate frosting from here on out.  I’ve made quite a few chocolate frostings over the years, but this one is hands down the best.  I was a little skeptical at first because it only calls for cocoa powder, and I was concerned that I wasn’t going to get the real punch of chocolate flavor, but I was so wrong!  It was chocolatey, sweet and smooth, and it piped wonderfully, holding it’s shape very well.  I will never use another chocolate frosting recipe.  Ever.

For the filling I made a simple chocolate ganache and filled the cupcakes using the cone method (which I’ll show you how to do below). I really liked having the filling in these cupcakes, because it had a different texture than the cake and the frosting, and brought the chocolate flavor up one more notch.  I have a very high tolerance for chocolate, so if you’re thinking you don’t want such a rich cupcake you can easily leave the filling out and just frost the tops.  But if you’re going for super rich and decadent, definitely go for the filling!

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from: Hershey’s

Makes: about 12 cupcakes

Cake

1 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. + 6 tbsp. all-purpose flour

6 tbsp. cocoa powder (I used 3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder and 3 tbsp. dark cocoa powder)

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1/2 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 c. boiling water

Chocolate Ganache Filling

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 c. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c. (1 stick or 8 tbsp.) butter, at room temperature

2/3 c. cocoa powder (I used 1/3 c. unsweetened and 1/3 c. dark)

3 c. powdered sugar

1/3 c. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the cake:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.  Grease the liners with a small bit of cooking spray (optional, but I find that it helps).

2) In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add the egg, cream, oil and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.  Beat in the boiling water.  The mixture will be thin.

3) Pour batter into prepared muffin tin.

4) Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a knife inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.  Remove from pan and cool completely.

5) While the cupcakes are cooling, place the chocolate chips in a small heat-proof bowl.  Heat the 1/4 c. heavy cream in a small saucepan over low heat until it is almost boiling.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips.  Let the mixture sit for about 30 seconds, then stir until the mixture is smooth and silky.  Refrigerate while you make the frosting and core the cupcakes.

6) For the frosting, place the butter in a medium bowl.  Beat until smooth.  Add in the cocoa powder, vanilla, 1 cup of the powdered sugar and a little bit of the cream, beat until smooth, adding more cream if necessary.

7) Beat in the remaining powdered sugar and enough cream to reach the desired consistency.

8) Once the cupcakes have cooled, core them using the cone method (shown below.)

9) Fill the cupcakes with about a teaspoonful of the chocolate ganache, and place the tops back on the cupcakes.

10) Frost with chocolate frosting and garnish as desired (I just sprinkled mine with a little bit of raw sugar).

The Cone Method

1) Using a thin knife, cut a circle in the middle of your cupcake about 1/2 inch in.  Keep the edge of the knife pointing towards the middle of the cupcake as you go around, creating a cone shape from the piece that you’re cutting out.

2) Gently pull out the cone-shaped piece of cake the you just cut.  Set it aside, but do NOT throw it away (or eat it!) — you’ll need part of it later.

3)  Put about 1 tablespoon of the chocolate ganache into the hole of the cupcake, but make sure that the filling doesn’t quite reach the top of the hole.

4) Grab the cone piece that you cut out and carefully tear off most of the cake, keeping the part that was the top of the cupcake intact.  Place that piece back on top, covering up the filling.

Creamy Jell-O March 18, 2009

Today has been a good day.  Not only did I clean my entire house, exercise, and make a delicious dinner, but I also got asked to make a WEDDING CAKE.  My cousin Matt is getting married next month, so my aunt called to see if I would be interested in making the cake.  This is his second marriage and they want the reception to be very laid back, so I’m not too worried about it.  I probably would have said no if they were looking for a flawless, professional-looking cake.  I’m pretty decent at cake decorating, but I’m definitely not up to par with the professionals!  They haven’t decided yet if they want an actual tiered cake, or a bunch of cupcakes.  Either way, I’m super excited!  I’ve been hoping for another opportunity to decorate a cake for a while now.  I will most definitely be sharing the process and the finished product on here as soon as I get more details!

I’ve been trying to try out some healthier desserts lately.  I have a huge sweet tooth, and I’m always trying to find things that are healthier, but still taste great.  This definitely scores in both categories.  And as a plus, it’s very diabetes friendly so I can feed it to my dad the next time I’m home!  He, like me, also has a huge sweet tooth, which is no fun when you watch how much sugar you eat.  This is super easy and quick to make, so it’s perfect if you’re looking for an easy weekday dessert.

I made this with cherry Jell-O because it’s my all-time favorite, but you can use any flavor you want.  The non-fat plain yogurt adds a healthy punch of protein and a creaminess and really nice tang that makes it so much better than regular Jell-O.  I recommend using the thick Greek kind of plain yogurt, if you can find it.  I was so excited to find that my grocery store started carrying the Fage brand, which is absolutely fantastic.

Creamy Jell-O

Makes: about 4 half-cup servings

1 box sugar-free Jell-O (the small, four serving box)

1 c. boiling water

1/2 c. cold water

1 c. plain, non-fat yogurt (the thick Greek kind, if you can find it)

Cool-Whip or whipped cream, for serving

1) Empty the package of Jell-O powder into a large bowl.  Add the boiling water and stir until dissolved.

2) Whisk in the cold water, then the yogurt until smooth.

3) Pour into four ramekins or cups.  Cover and chill until firm, 1-2 hours.

4) Serve with Cool-Whip or whipped cream, if desired.

Panko Crusted Chicken with Sour Cream Chive Sauce March 16, 2009

I can’t believe it’s been almost two weeks since I last posted!  I have a good excuse though — this past week was spring break.  My boyfriend and I went on a road trip to Nashville, Tennessee.  It was a ton of fun!  We stayed at the Opryland Hotel, which if you’ve never heard of it, is this absolutely HUGE hotel that’s made to look like a rainforest.  There are real, living tropical flowers and trees all over, and the entire place is kept at relatively warm and humid to emulate the rainforest.  There were about 7 different restaurants and 3 or 4 bars in the hotel alone, a ton of interesting shops and even a nightclub!

It was a pretty long drive from here to Nashville (about 8 hours), but we managed it quite well!  On the way back we stopped in Kentucky to visit my aunt and uncle, who have a gorgeous house out in the country, complete with two of the most adorable dogs ever.

But now I’m back to the real world of school and studying.  I love traveling, but it is kind of nice to be home.

This is a dish that I adapted from a Cooking Light recipe in their October 2008 issue.  It was originally for pork chops, but I’m not a huge fan of pork…in the chop form, at least.  I’ve tried it both with pork chops and chicken, and I definitely prefer it with chicken.  I thought the combination of seasonings in the flour coating sounded a little strange at first, but it really works.  And the sauce is fantastic.  I could put it on just about everything.  It’s creamy, it’s tangy and it has just the right of onion flavor. I’ve used both chives and green onions in the sauce, and I didn’t really notice any change in taste.

Panko bread crumbs are from Japan and they’re a lot chunkier than regular bread crumbs.  They make a fantastic coating on meat because they’re very crispy.  I usually find panko in the Japanese section of the international aisle of my grocery store, but they might also be near the regular bread crumbs.

Panko Crusted Chicken with Sour Cream Chive Sauce

Adapted from: Cooking Light

Makes: 2 chicken breasts, and about 1/2 c. sauce

1/4 c. flour

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. onion powder

dash cayenne pepper (to taste)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 egg white

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 c. panko bread crumbs

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2-3 tbsp. olive oil

Sauce:

4 tbsp. sour cream

1 tbsp. mayonnaise

2 tsp. red wine vinegar

2-3 tbsp. chives, finely chopped

1-3 tbsp. milk

salt and pepper to taste

1) In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, salt and pepper.

2) In another medium sized bowl, beat the egg white and soy sauce.

3) Place the panko in a third medium sized bowl (I used cereal bowls for this, but you can also use plates if that’s what you’ve got laying around)

4) Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a frying pan.

5) Dredge the chicken breasts first in the flour mixture, then the egg white mixture, then cover with panko.  Press the panko into the chicken to make sure it’s nicely coated.

6) Once the oil is hot, add the chicken and cook about 2 minutes on each side, until well browned.  If the chicken is not cooked through, transfer to a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until fully cooked.

7) For the sauce, combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, red wine vinegar and chives.  Add enough milk to reach the desired consistency (I liked mine kind of thick, so I only added 1 tbsp.  If you want it to be more saucy, add more milk.)  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chocolate Banana Bread March 1, 2009

I am a sucker for a good banana bread.  Take me to a bake sale, and if there’s a loaf sitting there looking moist and pretty, I’ll buy it.  I am also a HUGE chocoholic.  So much so that I have a chocolate stash in the top drawer of my nightstand (but shhhh!  It’s a secret!).  I love putting chocolate chips in my banana bread (if you haven’t ever tried that, give it a shot…it brings banana bread to a whole new level!), so when I saw a recipe on Joy the Baker’s blog for a chocolate banana bread with chocolate chips, I thought to myself, “this is genius!  Why didn’t I think of this before?!”  Luck was on my side, as I had all of the ingredients already in the house, including two very ripe bananas just begging to be used.

(Also, if you have never seen Joy the Baker’s blog, make sure to check it out!  She does amazing things in the kitchen, and her pictures are always gorgeous.)

The bread turned out fantastically, and will definitely be added to my ever-growing list of things to DEFINITELY make again.  I adapted the recipe just a bit — I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and upped the amount of chocolate chips (I just couldn’t resist!).  As you can see from the picture, it has a very crumbly texture which makes it very difficult to cut nice slices, but the taste is so amazing that I don’t really even care. But even though the texture is crumbly, it still is extremely moist. You get a nice jolt of chocolate, followed by a mellow banana aftertaste.  It’s perfect plain, or if you want to get fancy,  slathered with a bit of salted butter.

Chocolate Banana Bread

Source: Joy the Baker

Makes: 1 loaf

1 stick (8 tbsp.) butter, at room temperature

3/4 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 c. buttermilk

1 c. mini chocolate chips

1) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder.  Set aside.  (Note: If you’re wondering why my cocoa powder is two different colors, I ran out of regular unsweetened cocoa powder and had to use 1/4 c. dark cocoa powder)

2) Place the butter and sugars in a large bowl.  Using an electric mixer, beat until well-mixed.

3) Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth and fluffy.  Then beat in mashed bananas.

4) Mix in the dry ingredients and the buttermilk.  I did it in 3 installments – about 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/3 of the buttermilk each time.

5) Fold in the chocolate chips.

6)  Spread batter into a greased loaf pan.  Because of the long baking time, Joy suggested placing the loaf pan on top of an insulated cookie sheet, or two cookie sheets stacked on top of each other to keep the bottom of the bread from browning too much.  This worked perfectly for me!

7) Bake at 350 degrees for 70-75 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  If the top of the bread is getting too browned, place some foil over the top after it’s been in the oven for about 30 minutes, and then remove the foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking time.