More fall cookin' at the Cottage and Pinterest #4

It's still in the mid to upper 80s here in Florida, welcome to "fall". At least it's breezy so it FEELS cooler than it is. 

This time I whipped up another pin from Pinterest. Cheesy Corn Casserole. Recipe from Saveur.com

Serves 12

4 slices bacon, finely chopped

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ cup flour

3 cups milk

4 oz. cream cheese, cubed

2 oz. Velveeta, cubed

2 cups grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese

1 tsp. paprika

3 lb. fresh or frozen corn kernels

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 375°. Heat bacon in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium heat, and cook, stirring, until browned, about 8 minutes. Add butter and garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add flour, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in milk, and bring to a boil; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese, Velveeta, cheddar, and paprika, and cook until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in corn; season with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a 9″ × 13″ baking dish and bake until top is golden brown and bubbling, about 40 minutes. Let cool before serving.

 I should have used a bigger dish...

Holy Southern heart attack in a dish. The only healthy part of this dish, was me using skim milk! Let me tell you, this is pretty good, but needs some tweaking. Being my first try at this one, I followed the recipe. Dear God, 12 servings...and there's just two of us. I will be dropping some of this off at my brother's house on my way to work in the morning. Speaking of my brother, little Georgia is 8 months old now (time flies...), cute as a button and she's sick :-( First illness of any kind and straight to the hospital. Well, not straight, they took her to their pediatrician (they have Sunday hours!) and were then sent to the hospital. Poor little pumpkin...

 

Here she is with daddy at the beach. She's got a couple of teeth and she started crawling last week. Into everything of course. She's a super happy little girl. We all love her to bits. Auntie Robin can't get enough of her :-)

 

Pinterest #3 - Mississippi Sin

We finally got a touch of cooler weather (meaning less than 90 degrees) which makes me want to cook. I've been trying to do more of things I pin on Pinterest and this is #3. I whipped this up on Sunday afternoon.

Mississippi Sin

16oz sour cream
8oz cream cheese, softened
2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup chopped ham
1 green onion, chopped
1/4 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
French bread loaf

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, except French bread; stirring until well blended.

Cut a thin slice from top of bread loaf; set slice aside. Using a gentle sawing motion, cut vertically to, but not through, bottom of the loaf, 1/2 inch from the edge, to cut out center of bread. Lift out center of loaf. Fill hollowed bread loaf with the dip. Wrap loaf with foil.

Bake dip at 350° degrees for 1 hour. Serve with reserved bread cubes, crackers, or potato chips.

Recipe compliments of Steph at  Plain Chicken check out her other goodies!

It feels like Fall!

Ok...it feels like it's not 100 degrees outside. According to my fancy schmancy thermostat it's 79 degrees out there. I would guess it's a little warmer than that, BUT it's GORGEOUS! Blue skies, steady breeze and it's definitely 70something in the shade!

Cooler temps make me want to cook. Who knew anything would really cause me to WANT to cook. I don't want to over do it or anything, so tonight we are having the infamous Crock pot Italian Chicken. Yeah, crock pot - i'm not really sure dumping stuff in a pot and plugging it in qualifies as cooking...but at least I was motivated enough to start thinking about making dinner before 7pm. It's a good thing right? Like I said..don't want to over do it for the first day that actually FEELS somewhat fall-like here in the Sunshine State.


It's quick and easy - here we go!


If you're lazy (like me), put one of those liner bags in your crock. Why do dishes if you don't have to? Now dig out the following...

1. 8 ounce brick of cream cheese (you can use the 1/3 fat or the fat free kind if you want)
2. 1 packet of Good Season's Italian Dressing mix (the dry stuff)
3. 1 can of condensed cream of something or other soup (the recipe calls for cream of chicken, I use whatever I have on hand - tonight, it's cream of mushroom)
4. 2 - 4 chicken breasts

Let the cream cheese soften up a bit, mix it with the soup and the Italian dressing mix. You can do this in the crock or in a bowl - we don't really care :-) If you're a food safety Nazi, make sure your chicken is thawed or fresh. If you're lazy (like me) and like to live on the edge (haven't gotten sick yet) just throw the frozen chicken in the crock. Either way, spoon the cream cheese mixture on top. Cover it, and cook it. Low all day, high for 4 hours. Obviously you'll want to make sure your chicken is cooked. When you go the lazy route (frozen chicken) I tend to check on the chicken after a couple of hours and cut it up. Smaller pieces to cook - if you cook it all day, you can shred it (pull it) before you serve it. Yummo!








When the chicken is done, cook up some rice or egg noodles, plate up your choice and top with the yummy, creamy, Italian chicken concoction.

If'n you want to get all fancy for guests, you can add mushrooms and maybe add a little roasted asparagus on the side. 

Happy Fall Y'all!

'Tis the season! And while it feels NOTHING like Autumn here in Central Florida, I'm trying to pretend that it IS fall. Around here, fall generally falls sometime around Christmas...if not January.


In honor of the first day of the season, i'm going to share a yummy, healthy-ish, fall APPLE dessert that showed up in my inbox today! So after you hit the orchards (yeah, we don't get to do that here either), whip some up!

Apple and Caramel Bread Pudding

Soymilk and fat-free ingredients offer a health twist to delicious bread pudding. From http://www.eatbetteramerica.com 

prep time:15 min
start to finish:50 min
makes:8 servings

1    cup unsweetened applesauce
1    cup vanilla soymilk
1/2    cup fat-free egg product
1/4    cup packed brown sugar
1    teaspoon ground cinnamon
1    teaspoon vanilla
5    cups 1-inch cubes French bread
3    tablespoons sliced almonds
1/4    cup caramel fat-free topping, heated
1.    Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 9-inch quiche dish or pie plate with cooking spray.
2.    In large bowl, mix all ingredients except bread, almonds and caramel topping with wire whisk until smooth. Fold in bread. Pour into quiche dish; sprinkle with almonds.
3.    Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and set. Cut into wedges. Drizzle caramel topping over each serving.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.


Super Egg Substitutes

• Egg whites provide the protein from eggs but don't contain the cholesterol found in egg yolks. That's good news for your heart.

Success

• Bread pudding made with a bread that's too soft can be very soft and almost mushy. Gently squeeze bread loaves to choose the one that has some resistance and doesn't feel like a marshmallow!

 I can't wait to whip this up myself. It looks soooo good!






 

Recipe Fail.

Mr. Paisley and I whipped up this dish Monday night for dinner. I was super excited about it. So i'm bummed that I didn't care for it.

I found the recipe on Pinterest and it looked soooo good. It's from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.

Roasted Lemon Garlic Herb Shrimp

(adapted from Fine Cooking)

1/3 cup olive oil


1 lemon, zested then half cut into thin slices and other half into wedges


3-4 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves removed


sea or kosher salt and fresh black pepper


spaghetti/pasta, couscous or rice for serving


1 pound fresh shrimp, medium-sized, deveined with tails off


5 cloves garlic, minced



1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a 9x13 baking pan combine olive oil, lemon zest and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for 12 minutes. Meanwhile cook pasta, couscous or rice.


2. Remove pan from oven, add shrimp, garlic and the thin sliced lemons (don't squeeze them), toss to coat with oil mixture. Bake for 8-10 more minutes or until shrimp turn pink and start to curl. Serve over pasta, couscous or rice tossed with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh-squeezed lemon with additional lemon wedges for serving.



Ours did not look this pretty and bright. The lemon was over powering. We put it over angel hair spaghetti.
 
Mr. Paisley took the leftovers for lunch the next day and said it was better. I dunno...I wanted to like it. I might have to play with it a little and see if I can make it into something I like.
 
You might like it better - maybe my tastebuds were having an off day. Mr. Paisley wasn't ready to write it off, so I say give it a shot. If you make it or change it up, let me know what you did and how you liked it! I love shrimp...

Shrimp - what could be easier in the summer?

Yummy shrimp recipe...even better that it's quick, easy and low calorie.

Ingredients:

Marinade/brine

• 1    pound shrimp raw
• 1    clove garlic small, minced
• 1    inch ginger piece, minced
• 1/4    teaspoon salt   

Veggies

• 8    ounces snow pea pods   
• 1    each sweet bell pepper yellow, orange or red, largish diced
• 1/2    cup scallions, spring or green onions sliced
• 1    clove garlic large, chopped

 Sauce

• 1 1/2    tablespoons sugar   
• 2    tablespoons rice vinegar   
• 1 1/2    tablespoons ketchup   
• 1    tablespoons cooking sherry or shaoxing (Chinese cooking wine)
• 1    tablespoons chili garlic sauce   
• 1/2    tablespoon sesame oil   
• 1    teaspoon soy sauce   
• 2    teaspoons cornstarch   

 Directions

• In a medium bowl. Mix together the shrimp, garlic, ginger and salt. Set aside to brine for 20 minutes at room temperature
• Meanwhile prepare the green onions, red pepper and garlic.
• Add the sugar, rice vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, sherry and cornstarch to a small bowl and whisk until combined.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of peanut of vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high to high heat until the oil just starts to smoke.
• Add the snow peas, red bell pepper and garlic to the skillet and stir-fry (constantly stirring) for a couple of minutes until the veggies are slightly blistered and beginning to brown.
• Remove the veggies from the pan and set aside.
• Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan. 
• Add the scallions and stir fry for 30 seconds.
• Reduce heat to medium-low and add the shrimp. 
• Cook for 30 seconds to one minute.
• Then add the sauce and allow to poach for about two minutes until the sauce has thickened is more sticky and coats the shrimp. There will not be a lot of sauce.
• Add the vegetables. Toss to coat.

Serve immediately over rice.

Recipe from Recipeland.com

Personally, I think i'd serve it over lo mein type noodles or rice noodles...but it would be good over rice as well.

Crockpot 101

Since a friend of mine just bought her first crockpot I thought I would share a recipe / tip that was shared with me. I use it almost every single week. It's healthy, it's easy, it's a major time saver, and it saves money as well. What could be better?!

If you're lazy in the kitchen, like me, the first thing you want to do is line your crockpot with one of those fabulous Crockpot Liner bags. I hate washing a crockpot. I think it stems from "back in the day" when they didn't have a removable crock. 

Take a bag of frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts and put them in the crockpot (I use half a bag from the warehouse club since there are just 2 of us). Add a carton of chicken stock (not broth). I buy the low sodium kind. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low 8-10 hours. In an hour or two your house will smell yummy.

If you want the breasts to stay whole, you might want to check them at 8 hours and remove them if they're done. At 10 hours, they will fall apart for sure when you try to take them out!

Now that your chicken is cooked, shred one breast and add it back to the chicken stock. Add a can of carrots (or slice and cook fresh ones if you like, add some celery and onions too while you're at it).  Add cooked noodles. I use No Yolks Dumplings. Voila - really, really, REALLY good homemade chicken noodle soup. This makes 5-6 good sized bowls of soup - plenty for hubby and I for dinner and a couple of lunches. 

Doesn't it look yummy? This was the last time I made the soup - and I boiled the noodles right in it when I was reheating!

Some days I just dump the bag of stock and shredded chicken / carrots into a large pitcher and stick it in the fridge to make the next day or later in the week. When I'm ready to make it, I pour it in a pot and bring it to a boil and just add the noodles and let them cook in the soup! No need for the extra step. It also freezes well - just skip the carrots and noodles to freeze it, add them later when you're ready to cook it!

As for the rest of that chicken - I store mine in a gallon Zip-Loc bag or one of those Zip-Loc containers in the fridge. During the week my fabulous husband will pull out a piece or two and make dinner with it. Basically, the chicken just needs to be reheated.

Heat up 2-4 pieces in a skillet with 8oz of cream cheese (we use fat free), a packet of Italian or ranch dressing mix and a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup, throw a bag of Steamers type veggies in the microwave and boil up some noodles to spoon it over - dinner is served in under 30 minutes. 

Aside from that, I have a zillion and one (exactly 1 zillion and 1 - I counted) chicken recipes that I have found online. I'll post more later - hubby has his own "recipe" book of the ones he has printed out and makes regularly. They're very good and easy to make (trust me, he is NOT into cooking...so they gotta be easy!) 

On that note - he just stuck his head in my office to say "Dinner is ready - we're eating on the deck tonight". What girl wouldn't want to hear that?