Southern Chicken Pasta

Do you ever start making dinner and then come to realize that you are missing most of the ingredients in your recipe? Well that is exactly what I did for my Southern Chicken Pasta only to find out that this dish is fabulous! I have been making all types of pasta dishes with boneless skinless chicken breasts and this one was voted 5 stars out of 5 by my family! It has a great Southern Flavor with the caramelized onions and green beans and tomatoes, it's like having a Southern Fried Chicken supper without the "Fried" part.

Ingredients

• 1 pound broken up Lasagne Noodles
• 4 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• I Red Onion, chopped
• 3/4 cups Dry White Wine
• 3/4 cups Low-sodium Broth, More If Needed
• 1 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces (steamed)
• 1 small can chopped tomatoes (drained)
  
• 2 ounces Parmesan Cheese, grated

Method

Cook pasta according to package directions in lightly salted water. Drain and set aside.
Cut chicken breasts into chunks and sprinkle on salt and pepper.
Heat butter and olive oil over high heat in a large skillet. Add chicken chunks in a single layer and do not stir for a minute or two in order to allow the chicken to brown on the first side. Turn the chicken and brown on the other side. Cook until done, then remove chicken from the skillet.
Turn heat to medium. Add onion and let cook until golden brown. After about 1 minute, pour in wine and broth, stirring to deglaze the pan. Allow the liquid to bubble up, then continue cooking until it's reduced by at least half (most of the surface of the liquid should be bubbling at this point.)
Turn off the heat. Add green beans, tomatoes, chicken, and cooked pasta to the skillet. Toss to combine. Add plenty of Parmesan Cheese and toss to combine.
Serve with extra Parmesan Cheese.

This post has been shared with these fabulous blogs! Nettie

{Sunday's With Joy} Honey Mustard Roasted Cashews

This is one of those recipes that you make and you say, "Oh....WOW!" I snack on nuts every day. Cashews are one of my favorite nut, all buttery and crunchy, yummy on salads or just by the handful. This is a fantastic way to eat a cashew. I could eat up every little last piece of these wonderful Honey Mustard Roasted Cashews, but I must refrain myself! Your friend's will be thrilled if you make these before you go to a party and bring them as a gift, or else you may be sitting in front of the computer shopping and then unbeknown to you, your bowl of nuts has vanished!  Not that this happened to me or anything like that.

I am fortunate to be a part of a wonderful group, Sunday's With Joy, and this recipe was chosen this week from Joy The Baker Cookbook. Do yourself a great favor and get yourself a copy of  this wonderful cookbook. I have loved every recipe that I have made from this cookbook, you will too! Nettie

This post has been linked up to these fabulous blogs! Nettie

Best Chocolate Sheet Cake

It's Judy's Surprise Birthday and I have been wanting to make this incredible cake ever since I saw it on The Pioneer Woman Cook's Blog. She says it's The Best Sheet Cake Ever, and I trust her. Everything that I have made from her blog has been delicious and my kids have asked me to make it all the time! Well she was right! Friends were going back for second and third pieces! I wanted to make a delicious cake for Judy and her friends, since I didn't know how many people were going to be there to surprise the HECK out of her, I thought that a sheet cake would be perfect! I read every single one of the comments on TPWC Blog, which is saying a lot ( she usually gets around 800 comments or MORE per post) and so many people commented that this cake was really difficult to mess up. I thought of this the whole time that I was talking to my best friend while trying to make the cake and frosting. Do you ever do that? Leave out an ingredient while you are having a serious conversation on the phone? I have, sugar , while making pies, not good at all!I didn't leave out any ingredients for this cake, but my mind was really concentrating on two things at one time. I recommend this if you are feeling lazy and need to be challenged! Talking and Baking!

This sheet cake is wonderful warm after just being freshly frosted or perfect the day after for breakfast, or as a late snack, or before lunch, or after a hike! My kids are asking me to make another sheet cake since this one was whisked away for the party, okay kids, for your birthday! Make sure to decorate the cake if you like, I am in no way a skilled baker-ess, I drew out JUDY and a Heart, but it was still hard to tell what that exactly was...

As we were all hiding waiting for Judy and Tom to come back from their date night, Judy's Mother called Judy from the back room asking her if she could show her something on the computer, the lights were off, we were quiet as mice, we all jumped out and yelled SURPRISE!! Thank goodness, Judy is young and has a very strong heart, I would have collapsed, don't yell at me and come jumping out at me from a dark room, years will come off my life! You are an amazing sport Young Judy!!

Judy still trying to recover, you did a great job Tom keeping it a secret!

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:
2 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa Powder2 sticks Butter
1 cup Boiling Water
1/2 cup Buttermilk
2 whole Beaten Eggs
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla

FOR FROSTING:
1/2 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
1-3/4 stick Butter
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
6 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Note: I use an 18x13 sheet cake pan.
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.
In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake. Enjoy! Take this sheet cake to your next party, you will make lots of friends! Nettie This post has been linked up to these fabulous blogs!

< Sunday's With Joy > Apple Crisp

This recipe comes from Joy The Baker Cookbook, 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes. I have changed the recipe a bit by adding a cup of blueberries for the filling, I just had to, I have a lot of blueberries still! For the topping, I also added a half cup of slivered roasted almonds and a half cup of unsweetened coconut. Apple crisps are just perfect like that, you can add whatever you have on hand, in this case I happen to have lots of almonds, pecans and coconut!

Lily is having her first dinner party with sister and brother in law and we are invited and I am in charge of bringing dessert! Oh goody, I made two apple crisps! We served the apple crisp warm over ice cream. Lots of ooohs and ahhhs were going on, so I think the party was a success!

It was a perfect day for apple picking! Have to get the right apples for the crisps!

Last day to pick Paula Red's and Ginger Gold's. Just keep walking until you get to a fence, slim pickings but if you are persistent, you can find them!

First stop, taking thousands of photos of sunflowers. Hubs likes taking just as many pics as me, probably more! Joy The Baker calls this crisp, "Man Bait Apple Crisp". I've got my man and he is in love with Sunflowers and me. He'll be even more in love with me when he tastes this crisp!

Second stop, grape vineyard, lots of photos of grapes too, because we can.

Oh yes, I remember this is why we came to the apple orchard, to pick apples!!

Of course the star of the show, The Moore Paparazzi is going crazy for these beauties.

How many can we get? As many as you can carry!

 

Peanut Butter Cookies

Somehow I imagined that my daughter and I would be baking peanut butter cookies for her Girl Scout Troop Meeting, but the days get away from us and I ended up baking them, which really is such a therapy for me. I really love to bake, I feel like all is well with my world. Plus, I know that when we are having snow blizzards in a couple months, we will be having lots of mother/daughter bake -a - thon's going on!

Peanut Butter cookies are one of my favorite cookies. One reason is that they are very easy to make, the other reason is that I always have all of the ingredients on hand. My family loves PB & J  and PB & Fluff sandwiches. Have you ever seen an exploded PB & Fluff sandwich? Don't leave it in your locker all day! I have used Natural peanut butter to make these wonderful cookies. Peanut butter cookies are instantly recognized for their crisscross pattern . I used crunchy peanut butter for these cookies, but you can use smooth peanut butter if that is what you prefer. P.S. In case you were wondering, the Girl Scouts loved them! 
Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour

Directions:

1.Mix butter and sugars together using a hand mixer or Kitchen Aid. Add in all remaining ingredients and mix until combined.
2.Roll the dough into small 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Squish to about 1/4 inch thick using a fork, making a crisscross pattern.
3.Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 3 dozen cookies.
Inspired from The Joy Of Cooking Cookbook. This post has been linked up to these fabulous blogs:

Foodie Friends Friday

{Sunday's With Joy} Chili Cheese Fries

Chili Cheese Fries. I have to admit what comes to mind first when I read this is french fries smothered in chili. But not these tasty fries that my family now wants me to make every night. Yes I doubled the recipe and the vultures dove in and whoosh the plate of chili cheese fries had disappeared. I did one thing differently than the recipe stated, I added one red onion diced. So far all the Joy the Baker recipes that I have made have been wonderful and I have not been disappointed. Get the cookbook, you won't be disheartened.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

I really love pumpkin and since it has been rainy and colder, I have been feeling like baking something with pumpkin, what could be better than a pumpkin chocolate cake? This cake is moist and filled with chocolate, not overbearingly sweet. This cake received rave reviews from four different friends, all saying it was one of the most delicious cakes and that they didn't want to share! Perfect review I think! I baked this cake in a Rose Bundt pan to show off the pumpkin, chocolate and pecans in a beautiful design. I think it is a show stopper.

This cake is very moist and rich, I used Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Bittersweet Chocolate Chips for this recipe.

Here is what you need: butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, baking chocolate ( I used both Ghiradelli chips and Ghiradelli baking chocolate), vanilla, pumpkin, pecans, cinnamon ( not shown).

Beat butter, add sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Mix dry ingredients. Add to mixed butter, sugar and eggs, then add pumpkin.

Add pumpkin to batter.

 

Grease Bundt pan well.

After dividing the batter in half, add melted chocolate. Mix well.

Sprinkle chopped pecans to the bottom of the greased bundt pan.

To the other half of the batter add chocolate chips, mix well.

Pour pumpkin batter with chips on the bottom layer, sprinkle a layer of pecans, top with chocolate batter, sprinkle pecans to the top. Bake 60-70 minutes, test with a knife that it comes out clean. This cake took about 10 minutes longer to bake, the knife did have melted chocolates on the knife, so it doesn't come out perfectly clean. Let cool for 15-20 minutes, my cake stuck in one spot, I eased it out and put it together where it had come apart, it still looked beautiful.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

 Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
• 1 cup (6 ounces) Bitterwseet chocolate chips
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans, divided

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon; add to the creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin, beating well after each addition. 
• Divide batter in half. Stir melted chocolate into one portion. In a well-greased 10-in. fluted tube pan, sprinkle 1/2 cup pecans. Spoon chocolate batter over pecans; top with pumpkin batter. Sprinkle with remaining pecans.
• Bake at 325° for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. This recipe was inspired from Taste Of Home.This post has been linked up to these fabulous blogs!