CHICKEN FRANCESE WITH LEMON BASIL PASTA

Look! I actually got a new recipe up! This is a fast, easy recipe for delicious, classy chicken. 

Meet the cast of characters - a pound of pasta, 2 large eggs, 3 tablespoons of milk, 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 lemons, EVOO, 5 garlic cloves, salt & pepper, white wine, plum tomato, and our main star - 1 1/2 to 2 pounds thin-sliced chicken fillets. Not pictured - basil. 

Start boiling a pot of water for the pasta.

Start by whisking the two eggs with the milk;

 
melt the butter in a large pan;

and dip the chicken cutlets in the egg wash.

Saute the chicken in the butter

until it's a nice, golden brown - about three minutes per side.

While the chicken is cooking, zest the lemons

and finely chop the garlic.

In a separate pan, heat up the olive oil and start sweating the garlic and lemon zest over a low heat. 

 
Once the water is boiling, add salt and the pasta. Cook until al dente.

Add the wine to the garlic and lemon and reduce for 30 seconds. Add a ladle of the pasta water and the juice of one of the lemons and let it reduce for 30 seconds more.

Once the chicken is done, transfer it to a plate and cover with foil. Add the juice of the other lemon and scrape up the delicious brown bits from the bottom of the pan and spoon the juices over the chicken.

Add the drained pasta to the pan with the lemon and wine sauce and mix well. Add some finely basil
and put it on a plate with the chicken and a plum tomato. Trust me, this is yummy!

Double Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing

We were feeling very virtuous this weekend, having rearranged and cleaned the family room, that I decided we deserved some decadence. So I tried this cake recipe that I found on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

Cake
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 squares semi sweet chocolate
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter

Icing
2 squares semi sweet chocolate
1/2 cup butter
6 tablespoons milk
3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Cake


Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt in a large bowl.


Add the butter, milk and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Beat on low for about two minutes.

Add the eggs and melted chocolate to the batter and mix for an additional two minutes.



Pour into two greased and floured 8 inch layer pans (try not to eat all the batter, it's divine!) and bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until done.

Icing



In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine chocolate, butter and milk. Bring to a boil stirring frequently.


Remove from heat and beat in confectioner's sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, adjusting consistency with milk or sugar if necessary.


Ice the cake!

APPLE STUFFED CHICKEN BREAST from allrecipes.com

This is another fast, easy winner of a chicken recipe. Think chicken with stuffing full of apples and cheese? Yeah, now you're getting the picture. It is divine!!

Let's meet our cast, shall we? You're going to need the ever lovely chicken breast (again, I used the thin cut breasts to save me from having the beat the chicken because, really, there are too many chicken beaters in the world already), an apple, some cheddar cheese, a handful of fresh parsley, some chicken broth, seasoned bread crumbs, a teaspoon or so of cornstarch, white wine, and olive oil.

First, chop the apple into a semi-fine chop. You want the pieces big enough to bite into but not so big that they're falling out of the chicken. While you've got the knife out,

why not do a quick chop on your parsley as well. You'll need it at the end of the preparation.

Then grate some cheddar cheese. Don't get rid of the little nub of cheese that's left over - give it to a starving family member to tide them over til the chicken's done.

In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs, cheese and apple together. Then put a pile on each chicken breast and roll it up. Use toothpicks to fasten the chicken.

Heat a pan over medium high heat, add the olive oil and brown the chicken, about 3 minutes a side. Add the wine and the chicken stock, lower the heat, and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Take the chicken out of the pan and whisk in the corn starch. This will make a lovely, creamy sauce to drizzle over the chicken.

Add the parsley to the top for a touch of freshness.

Look at all those yummy apples and cheese! As Helen pointed out, this one's definitely a keeper!

Ingredients

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup chopped apple

2 Tbs shredded Cheddar cheese

1 Tbs Italian-style dried bread crumbs

1 Tbs butter

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup water (I substituted chicken stock)

1 Tbs water

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions:

1. Combine apple, cheese & bread crumbs. Set aside.


2. Flatten chicken breasts between sheets of waxed paper to 1/4 inch thickness. Divide apple mixture between chicken breasts and roll up each breast. Secure with toothpicks.


3. Melt butter in a 7 inch skillet over medium heat. Brown stuffed chicken breasts. Add wine & 1/4 cup water. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink.


4. Transfer chicken to serving platter. Combine 1 tablespoon water and cornstarch - stir into juices in pan. Cook and stir until thickened. Poor gravy over chicken and garnish with parsley.
   
   

PINEAPPLE CHICKEN

Here's another really easy recipe for chicken from allrecipes.com. This one combines the rich flavor of onions with the sweetness of pineapple and orange, to great effect.

The cast of characters includes: chicken, dry onion soup mix, pineapple, an orange, chicken stock and some olive oil. Not shown are the staples - salt & pepper. Don't you like how I've artfully arranged everything in the pan to show that all you need is one pan? I'm arty that way:)

Do your basic salt and pepper on both sides of the chicken, then brown each side in a medium hot pan with a little olive oil - about 3 per side. If anything gets stuck to the bottom, don't worry - you're adding liquids and you'll be able to scrape all the good browned bits off the pan into the juice.

See that lucious, golden color? That's what you're going for.

Mix one package of onion soup mix with 2 cups of chicken stock. You can easily use water instead (and the recipe calls for water) but I prefer the bit more flavor you get from using chicken stock.

After the chicken has browned on either side, add the soup/stock mix about 1/2 the can of pineapple chunks. Do NOT add the juice from the pineapple - just the chunks. Cover the pan, bring the heat down to low, and simmer for 30 minutes.

When you're done, you get this juicy piece of chicken that is full of onion and just a hint of sweetness from the pineapple. And if you add the orange instead of just using it as garnish, it gives you another layer of taste. Yummy! I paired it with a delicious pasta salad of bowties, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar & olive oil.

Pineapple Chicken from allrecipes.com

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 package (1 ounce) dry onion soup mix
1-1/2 cups and 2 tablespoons water
3/4 (15 ounce) can pineapple, drained
3/4 large orange, sliced in rounds
2-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil


DIRECTIONS:
1. Spray large frying pan or electric skillet with vegetable spray. Brown chicken breasts in pan, meat side down.
2.Turn chicken over; add pineapple chunks, onion soup, and water.
3.Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes. Garnish with cooked pineapple chunks and fresh orange slices

EASY PEASY CHICKEN CORDON BLEU

This is a super fast, extremely easy recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu that I found on allrecipes.com. Here's what you need:

Chicken breasts (I used the Perdue thin cut breasts so I didn't have to pound or butterfly anything to make it thin enough), bread crumbs, sliced ham, and sliced Swiss cheese. Not shown: salt, pepper and cooking spray. Oh, you should have some toothpicks handy, too.

Ready? Seriously, the worst thing about this recipe is handling the raw chicken. Salt and pepper the chicken on either side to taste. Then take a piece of chicken, put a slice of ham on top and a slice of cheese on top of that. Roll the chicken and close it with a toothpick or two. Remember how many toothpicks you use because you don't want to find it when you're chewing - it will ruin the experience, I promise you!

Place the rolls in a baking dish that you've sprayed with Pam or some other cooking spray. Top the chicken rolls with the bread crumbs and stick them into a 350 degree oven. Then walk away for 30 minutes. Seriously, you're done.

After 30 minutes, pull out the dish, slap a couple of pieces of Swiss across the top and stick it back in for another 3 minutes.

That's it - now you're really done. I served it alongside green beans with hazelnuts and lemon. Delicious combo! Really, does it get easier?

Chicken Cordon Bleu

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
6 slices Swiss cheese
4 slices cooked ham
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 7x11 in baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Pound chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness.
3. Sprinkle each piece of chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Place 1 cheese slice and 1 ham slice on top of each chicken breast. Roll up the breast and secure with a toothpick. Place in baking dish and sprinkle chicken evenly with bread crumbs.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove from oven, and place 1/2 cheese slice on top of each breast. Return to oven for 3 to 5 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Remove toothpicks and serve immediately.
   
   
   
   
   

Butter Pound Cake

Happy New Year! While we recuperate from the holidays this weekend (lots of reading, naps, etc.) I tried out a cool new application on my iphone. It's called The Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner. You choose one item from each category of dish type, ingredients and ready in and then see all the different recipes for those items. I chose desert as my dish type, fruit as my ingredients, and over an hour in my ready in and got this Butter Pound Cake (the only reason I can come up with for it showing up in the fruit ingredients is you can put fruit on top?). Anyway...I suggested it to Mary Beth with the idea of putting ice cream on top and she suggested frozen strawberries instead because she doesn't like her ice cream melted into cakes. It's ok we're going to admit her into an asylum after the weekend. Since in New Jersey we have no fresh fruits that are in season in January, we opted for the frozen strawberry option.

It's a very simple recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup butter
6 eggs
3 cups white sugar
3 cups flour
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon extract

1 container frozen strawberries (optional)

Directions

Preheat over to 325 degrees F.


Grease and flour one 9 or 10 inch tube pan.


With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.


Add eggs one at a time and mix well (I mixed about 2 minutes per egg).

Add in alternately the flour, heavy whipping cream and extracts and blend well.


Pour batter into pan and bake at 325 degrees F for 1.5 hours or until center springs back from small amount of pressure. Immediately turn out on to cake rack to cool.


Add strawberries as desired.

Lemon Lovers Pound Cake

I was trying to come up with something for New Year's Eve desert other than the standard that we usually bring - which is the old standby homemade chocolate chip cookies. So I decided to try this Lemon Lover's Pound Cake. This is not a calorie friendly cake so it is the perfect desert to have before we all start our New Year's Resolutions of losing weight.

Ingredients

1 cup of butter softened
3 cups of sugar
6 eggs
5 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon of lemon extract
3 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sour cream

Icing

1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes each).

Stir in lemon juice, peel and extract.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixuter alternately with sour cream. Beat until just combined.

Pour into greased and floured 10 inch fluted tube pan (also known as a bundt pan). Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For icing, in a small mixing bowl, beat the sour cream and butter until blended. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar. Beat in lemon juice and peel.

Drizzle icing over the cake and store in the refrigerator.