Tangy Tater Salad

If you're looking for a new twist on an old favorite, try this: Sunny Anderson's Tangy Tater Salad.  Delicious!  The bacon, jalapenos and splashy white wine vinegar make it sweet & sour, and you'll never miss the mayo.  Hope you enjoy!

*A little something extra: based on reviews I read, I also opted for a little less sugar.  I don't think we missed it. i also used an extra slice or 2 of bacon and fresh chives as extra garnish goodness.

Crock Pot Oldie: Salsa Chicken

I really need to crack out the crock pot more often - millions of moms can't be wrong, right? 

This morning I looked at our plans for a busy day and thought ugh, what to make for dinner... I pulled out 4 frozen chicken breasts and thawed them (mostly) while adding a giant red onion, about 10 cloves of garlic (thanks to my large Costco bag), 2 cans of black beans and ~32 oz salsa (also thanks to our standard 66oz Costco salsa jar... Troy loves that stuff) into our crock pot and the house already smells amazing.

Dozens of online recipes for salsa chicken recommend corn, but we happen to be out, and/or taco seasoning, but then again, lots of reviews swear by just chicken & salsa.  So, here's to hoping it really is yummy.  We'll let ya know in 8-10 hours :)

Here's a pic so far, about 5 mins into cooking the recommended 8-10 hours on low:

INGREDIENTS / PREPARATION:

*Google for yourself and pick which recipe suits your on-hand ingredients.

. . . We'll check back with the finished result tonight . . .

*and here it is*

 

I shredded the chicken about 30 mins before serving and slid it back into the salsa sauce  to soak up the juices - it shredded beautifully, soooo tender.  I also happened to add a can of stewed tomatoes, for funsies.

I'd say try serving this with sliced avocado, jack cheese, sour cream, tortillas, in a taco shell or over brown rice.  We enjoyed ours over a bowl of healthy & nutty quinoa.  The leftovers could be a great base for chicken tortilla soup.  What a way to spread out 4 chicken breasts, too... this made tons of food.

My verdict?  I thought this was very easy, affordable and one less thing to think about at 6pm when emory needs to eat/get a bath, etc.  I will be breaking out the crock pot again soon :)

Flaming Cupcakes

Aren't these little flame-filled strawberry chocolate cupcakes to die for?  I love the drama!  My friend Katie sent me this recipe link and at first I thought, how perfect for Emory's first birthday ~ so festive!  but then I thought hmm, fire & booze, maybe Em's a little young for that... tempting though... I heart sprinklebakes.com.

PW's Blackberry Cobbler

I just love the Pioneer Woman, don't you?  I found this "Betsy's Cobbler" recipe in her first cookbook and then googled it now to add here, and wow - what lovely pictures she took!  Check out her recipe and step by step directions here. 

*Doesn't her cobbler look de-licious?  You can ignore my pics or use them as validation that if you try this, yours will turn out amazing, too - just 5 ingredients, so simple... yum.  And of course you could do this with blueberries, peaches, raspberries, whatever your heart desires.

up close & personal

Directions straight from the PW's website:

Ingredients

• 1 stick Butter
• 1-¼ cup Sugar
• 1 cup Self-Rising Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 cups Blackberries (frozen Or Fresh)

Preparation Instructions

Melt butter in a microwavable dish. Pour 1 cup of sugar and flour into a mixing bowl, whisking in milk. Mix well. Then, pour in melted butter and whisk it all well together. Butter a baking dish.  Now rinse and pat dry the blackberries. Pour the batter into the buttered baking dish. Sprinkle blackberries over the top of the batter; distributing evenly. Sprinkle ¼ cup sugar over the top.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until golden and bubbly. If you desire, sprinkle an additional teaspoon of sugar over the cobbler 10 minutes before it’s done.

*And check out this link if you're like me and you don't keep self-rising flour in your pantry.  You can turn your All Purpose into self-rising super easily!

Let's make this again, because it was really yummy the first time...
here we are round 2 with more blackberries... pre-oven:

 and warm & delicious post-oven:

BBC&A Salad with Caramelized Onions & Grilled Chicken

Bacon, Blue Cheese & Apple Spinach Salad

Mmm, a simple salad to put together and who doesn't love the combo of blue cheese, apple, caramelized onions & bacon.  You could change up the ingredients based on what you have on hand.  I'm sure some toasted pecans or avocado would have been lovely.  Here's what I used:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups fresh spinach
• 1 apple, cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 slices bacon
• 2 grilled chicken breasts cut into chunks
• 3T red wine vinegar
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• *optional, toasted pecans, avocado chunks :)

Preparation:

In a mixing bowl, pile fresh spinach, apple chunks, blue cheese crumbles and chunks of grilled rosemary chicken.  (Prepare the chicken however you like.  I used: balsamic, extra virgin olive oil, garlic salt, kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, dash of red pepper flakes, 2T dried rosemary for my chicken marinade), here's another possibility.)  Season salad with fresh black pepper and kosher salt.  Set aside. 

Cut 3 strips of bacon into 1/2" pieces.  In a skillet, cook the bacon rendering the fat, over medium to medium high heat.  Remove the cooked bacon and set aside on a paper towel.  Saute thinly sliced red onion in the bacon goodness.  Add 3T red wine vinegar and fresh cracked black pepper, creating a nice vinaigrette, and voila :) drizzle over your salad and enjoy!  The warm vin wilts the spinach in a nice kind of way, don't forget to top with your bacon crumbles.

Carrot Cake Cakeballs

Every time I make these, I get compliments.  

(Did I just type that, so cake-ballsy of me.)  But it's true.  And I can say that because I did not come up with the original cakeball, I merely imitated it and made it a cherished member of my family.

The carrot cake cuties pictured above are just a holiday version of these.  Sub in carrot cake mix and dip in white chocolate.  A piece of cake.  ball.   (te-hee)

*Thanks Bakerella for posting the original!

Confetti Carrots with Fresh Dill

How cute are these carrots from our garden :)

and here they are all glossied up with butter & fresh dill!

Blah, winter.  Even in Dallas it gets pretty ridiculously cold (we just had a week of the teens).  All my cute veggies froze, EXCEPT these rock star carrots.  So I probably should have let them live and carry on their stellar genes, but instead I picked them and we ate them.  And they were delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 bundle of fresh carrots
• splash of chicken stock
• a couple of pats of butter
• a handful of fresh dill
• kosher salt & pepper

Preparation:

Rinse and peel the carrots.  If they're baby carrots, you don't have to peel too much, as they should be nice and tender.  Trim back the greens (which I've heard you can eat fresh, chopped up just like parsley atop a nice salad).  Saute with a splash of chicken stock and a couple of pats of butter until fork tender (a couple of mins).  Wilt in fresh dill, season with kosher salt & pepper and enjoy.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Now that I sit down and look at this picture, I'm not sure it looks all that appetizing, but these were actually pretty tasty!  We stuff chicken breasts with all kinds of things pretty often though, so this post is more about an easy idea than the exact recipe.  Since this was a while ago, I'm ad-libbing it here anyway :)

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup feta
• 1/4 sun dried tomatoes
• olive oil, salt & pepper
• optional, Italian bread crumbs 
• optional, bacon :)

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 375.  Chop spinach and sun dried tomatoes and combine with feta in a bowl.  Butterfly chicken breasts, being careful not to cut all the way through.  (If you do, no biggie, it will still taste good.) Spoon spinach/tomato/feta mixture into the chicken pockets.  *Optional, wrap the chicken breasts in bacon.  Drizzle olive oil and rub all over chicken.  Season well with salt & pepper.  *Optional, sprinkle Italian bread crumbs atop for some fun crunch.  Place in a baking dish and cover.  Cook for ~45 mins or until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Try stuffing with roasted red peppers, olives, sauteed onion, garlic, ham, swiss, apples, more bacon... the options are endless.

Prosciutto-wrapped Asparagus

Mmm... easy & pretty, who doesn't love a savory bundle of asparagus, boursin & prosciutto?   Feels healthy!  Tastes like bacon :)  Make ahead for a cocktail party or serve with brunch.

Ingredients:

• 3 bundles of fresh asparagus for ~15 bundles, can scale to your liking
• 1 package of yummy creamy boursin cheese
• ~15 slices of prosciutto
• olive oil, splash of chicken stock, salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

Rinse and trim your asparagus.  I'm in agreement with these guys that the snap trick doesn't always work, and you may end up wasting too much of the good green stalk.  Just use your judgment.  It's not rocket science.  

Saute the asparagus in a little olive oil & a nice splash of chicken stock (or however you prefer to prepare it to a crisp bright green). *This only takes a couple of seconds!  Feel free to shock in an ice water bath to stop the cooking if you're afraid you'll overcook, otherwise I simply toss them in the pan til bright green (seriously, it happens fast) and then I lay them on a sheet pan to cool.  Season with kosher salt & pepper.

Take ~5 stalks and smear a nice teaspoon's worth of boursin in the middle of the bundle and wrap in a slice of prosciutto.  Stack the bundles on a serving dish and serve warm or room temp even.  Hope you enjoy!

Paula's Pumpkin Trifle

I've been snapping pictures here & there of food for some time now, telling myself I'd get around to posting them eventually (post-baby, when I do blog, I tend to write about my cutie patootie instead of food)... well, when I finally sat down to go through some food pics, I found this Paula Deen Pumpkin Trifle from Thanksgiving 2009!  Ha, told ya I was behind... I do remember it was pretty darn good though, so here it is...  xoxo to the lovely Paula Deen :)

*My version pictured above has notes in blue: 

Ingredients:

• 2 (14-ounce) packages gingerbread mix *too much work, I bought 2 loaves of pumpkin bread from the bakery!
• 1 (5.1-ounce) box cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (30-ounce) can pumpkin pie filling
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 teaspoon ground cardamom or cinnamon
• 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping *I did make my own whipped cream, 1 pint of heavy whipping cream plus 2T powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla... yum
• 1/2 cup gingersnaps, optional *not optional, the crunch is so good!

Preparation:

Bake the gingerbread according to the package directions; cool completely. *or do what I did and buy cake already made :) Meanwhile, prepare the pudding and set aside to cool. Stir the pumpkin pie filling, sugar, and cardamom into the pudding. Crumble 1 batch of gingerbread into the bottom of a large, pretty bowl. Pour 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then add a layer of whipped topping. Repeat with the remaining gingerbread, pudding, and whipped topping. Sprinkle of the top with crushed gingersnaps, if desired. Refrigerate overnight. Trifle can be layered in a punch bowl.