Wow!  This marinade was great!!! A must try for sure.

Southwestern Marinade

• 1/4 c minced fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 c olive oil
• 1/4 c minced fresh basil, parsley, tarragon, oregano, mint
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh thyme or rosemary

Whisk the ingredients together and add to a bag with 3 chicken breasts.  Pound the chicken breasts to about 1/2 inch thickness.

Cook on the charcoal grill until done.  YUMMY!!!!

So, I don’t have a picture of these, but I got the recipe from one of my friends at work.  I absolutely love them and they are very easy to make.

Ingredients:

• French Fingerling Potatoes
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• one packet of Ranch Dip Mix

Cut the potatoes into small slices and place in ziplock bag with the other ingredients.  Mix well.  Leave for minimum of  15 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Pour potatoes into a metal pan (I used a 9 x 13) and cook for 35 minutes.  Potatoes should be just slightly crunchy.   Cook to your liking.

DELICIOUS!

Sorry, I don’t have a picture for this one, but it was very tasty.

Ingredients:

• 1tsp Basil
• 1tsp Parsley
• 1tsp Garlic Salt
• 4 minced Garlic cloves
• 1 tsp Rosemary
• 3 Tbsp Tarragon White Wine Vinegar
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Salt

First, pound the chicken to about 1/2 inch thick chicken breasts. Place inside a large ziplock bag with the salt and sugar.  Add water until the chicken is covered, close and put in the refrigerator.  This is called Brining your chicken.  Leave in refrigerator for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Then, marinate the chicken in another bag with all the remaining ingredients.  Marinate for minimum 25 minutes.  Cook for 25 minutes at 350 degrees or until chicken is done.  Also tastes great on the grill.  This is a quick and easy recipe that is very good.

I love French Toast and have been making it from scratch for about 3 years now.  I have tried every recipe I could get my hands on and this one is my favorite.  I did a lot of trial and error.

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• 8 oz of heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 Tbsp nutmeg
• Loaf of Texas Toast Bread (or bread of your choice)

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly in a bowl you can dip the bread in one piece at a time.  (Like you are making scrambled eggs) Use a Teflon coated pan and turn the stove on 6 - 7 heat (or medium heat).  One piece at a time, dip your bread into the bowl and soak about 10-15 seconds.  Remove and cook in pan for about one and a half minutes per side.  It should brown very nicely.  When loaf is cooked, serve.

Chicken with Cream Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3chicken breasts, cut into strips or chunks
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4-8 cloves garlic, minced
• red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2 tablespoons white wine
• 2 cups of chicken broth (or one 14-oz can), seperated
• 4 oz cream cheese ( I used light)
• 2 tablespoons flour

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat, add the chicken to the pan. Brown chicken on both sides. Add the red pepper flakes and garlic to the pan and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up all of the brown bits on the bottom. Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer 10-15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and chicken broth has reduced. Remove chicken and set aside, keep warm. Mix flour with remaining broth and add to pan; mix. Add cream cheese, mix until thick and bubbly. Return chicken to the pan and coat with sauce. Serve with pasta, rice or vegetables.

*This was very good and worth trying for sure!  Easy too.  I found this recipe online by a lady named Melissa and it looked good.  WOW, yummy!

This recipe is a little high maintenance, but very very good.  I made it and served it over rice with broccoli on the side and thought it was excellent.  The lemon zest is very important and makes the flavor just right in your mouth.  It doesn’t take a lot, just a pinch or so.

Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (4-pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces (giblets, neck and backbone reserved for another use)
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Whisk the vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper in small bowl to blend. Combine the vinaigrette and chicken pieces in a large resealable plastic bag; seal the bag and toss to coat. Refrigerate, turning the chicken pieces occasionally, for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove chicken from the bag and arrange the chicken pieces on a large greased baking dish. Roast until the chicken is just cooked through, about 1 hour. If your chicken browns too quickly, cover it with foil for the remaining cooking time. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Place the baking dish on a burner over medium-low heat. Whisk the chicken broth into the pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the baking sheet with a wooden spoon and mixing them into the broth and pan drippings. Drizzle the pan drippings over the chicken. Sprinkle the lemon zest and parsley over the chicken, and serve.

5 Cheese Lasagne

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small white onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 11/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or 1/2 teaspoon each of dried oregano, thyme and parsley)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (16-ounce) package lasagne noodles (which contains approximately 16 to 20 noodles)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 ounces mascarpone cheese
• 4 ounces ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (about 4 ounces)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped plus about 12 small sprigs to garnish
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped (about 2 or 3 sprigs stripped from stems)
• 1/2 pound sliced provolone
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella (about 8 ounces)

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the lasagne noodles.

To make the sauce: Cook ground turkey meat with a little bit of olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium saucepot. Then add garlic and onions. Add crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer about 20 minutes, checking periodically to make sure the sauce doesn’t burn.

Boil the lasagne noodles until al dente, about 15 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Toss with olive oil so the noodles don’t stick together. Let cool.

This lasagne will have 4 layers but 2 different types of cheese layers. One cheese layer will consist of mascarpone, ricotta, Parmesan and egg to bind. Combine these 4 ingredients in a bowl and set aside briefly. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Layer 4 to 5 lasagne noodles lengthwise side by side in an ovenproof lasagne dish with edges overlapping. Top with half of the mascarpone/ricotta cheese mixture. (It is easiest to drop evenly spaced spoonfuls of this over the noodles, and then spread it out.) Distribute half of the fresh basil and half of the fresh oregano over the cheese, then layer another 4 or 5 lasagne noodles over the cheese in the same fashion as the first layer of noodles.

The second layer of cheese will consist of provolone and mozzarella. Spread half of the provolone cheese slices over the second layer of noodles and sprinkle with half of the mozzarella. Repeat the process with the noodles, remaining mascarpone/ricotta and noodles for the third layer. For the last layer, spread out the remaining noodles, top with remaining provolone, but then ladle the tomato sauce over and finish with the remaining mozzarella.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, remove and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Garnish with fresh basil sprigs.

Oh my gosh this was soo delicious!  It was actually quite an easy recipe.  I had some garlic bread to go with it that just topped it off.  This is a definite must try!

Cream Cheese Chicken

• 3 chicken breasts, cut into strips or chunks
• salt and pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 - 8 cloves of garlic, minced
• red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2 Tbsp white wine
• 2 c of chicken broth (or 14-oz can), seperated
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp flour

Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat olive oil in large saute pan over medium heat, add the chicken to the pan.  Brown chicken on both sides.  Add the red pepper flakes and garlic to the pan and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up all the brown bits on the bottom.  Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth.  Bring to a boil and simmer 10-15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and chicken broth is reduced.  Remove chicken and set aside, keep warm.  Mix flour with remaining broth and add to pan; mix.  Add cream cheese, mix until thick and bubbly.  Add small amounts of  heavy cream and cook on low heat until it is at the desired thickness.  Return chicken to the pan and coat with sauce.  Serve with pasta and vegetables if desired.
I really enjoyed this meal.  I thought the sauce could have been a bit less thick.  Definitely recommend trying this!

Matt and I drove to Austin, TX to celebrate Christmas with my family on New Years Day and to celebrate New Years Eve with LC Rocks and my friends.  We also took my two dogs with us.  New Years Eve was a blast!  We went to the Double Tree to see LC Rocks and The NewsBoyz perform. Sherry from LC Rocks was making Purple Margaritas for all of us.  After the show was over, we all went upstairs to the suite for the after party.

The girls dancing on stage to Girls Girls Girls.

CHRISTMAS on NEW YEARS DAY

We went over to my sisters house and she her house was gorgeous.  She had Christmas stuff everywhere.  We opened gifts and we all got exactly what we wanted and more.  Then, we had an Italian style dinner.  She made this Spinach Artichoke Dip that was to die for.  It is definitely in my top 5 favorite foods!  The recipe is below.

Her tree was massive and so awesome!  We had some good times and some laughs we won’t forget.

Matt and I also went to see Avatar at the Tineltown in Pflugerville in the IMAX 3D theater.  It was so intriguing.

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Spinach Artichoke Dip By Jackie

• 2 (10 oz) boxes frozen chopped spinach – thawed
• ¼ c real butter
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• 2 tbs minced onion
• ½ c all-purpose flour
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• ¼ c chicken stock
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp hot sauce
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 block cream cheese
• 2/3 c grated Romano cheese
• 2/3 c grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ c sour cream
• 1 c shredded white cheddar – set aside 1/3 c for top of dip
• 12 oz jar artichoke hearts – drained and coarsely chopped

Strain spinach. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible using cheesecloth, papertowels, dish rag. Chop it and set aside.

In saucepan over medium heat, sauté garlic and onions in butter until golden, about 3-5 minutes.

Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.

Slowly whisk in cream and stock and continue cooking until boiling.

Once boiling, stir in lemon juice, hot sauce, salt, and cheeses (minus the 1/3 c set aside). Stir until cheese has melted.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Stir in sour cream, then fold in dry spinach and artichoke hearts. Transfer to serving dish.

Sprinkle 1/3 c cheddar over top.

Microwave to melt cheese topping and serve.

Serve with sour cream, salsa, tortilla chips and bread for dipping.

So I made this recipe and I thought it was good, but not good enough to fix again.  It is worth trying though because the others that ate it loved it.

Ricotta, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, & Broccoli Stuffed Chicken:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Ricotta Cheese
• 4 oz Gorgonzola Cheese
• 2 oz Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Head of Broccoli
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 2 eggs
• bread crumbs
• 1 tsp Parsley
• 1 tsp Basil
• Boneless Chicken Breast

Preheat oven 400 degrees.  Pound boneless chicken breasts until it is even in thickness.  Mix flour and flaxseed in one bowl, bread crumbs in another, and beat eggs in a third bowl.  Dip the chicken breast into the flour mix, then the egg, then the bread crumbs.  Lay chicken flat on a cutting board.  Mix in a bowl Ricotta, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Broccoli pieces, Parsley, and Basil.  Spread over chicken breast and roll.  Use a toothpick to hold together.  Line the rolled chicken in a pan sprayed with Pam non-stick.  When finished cook in the over for 40 minutes or until done.