January 9, 2011

Menu Plan Monday

Last week I made several recipes out of my new Rachael Ray Look and Cook book. I made Lemon Risotto, Orange Marmalade Chicken, Tomato and Ravioli Soup, and Marsala Pork Medallions. The lemon risotto is the best Rachael Ray recipe I have ever tried, hands down! The soup, chicken, and pork were all tasty as well, especially the Orange Chicken. I will share these recipes soon!

This week I am tackling three more recipes out of the book: Spinach and Artichoke Mac and Cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano Chicken, and the Marsala Burgers. I loooove having this new cookbook, I'm excited every day to come home and make something new for dinner!

  • Spinach and Artichoke Mac and Cheese
  • Parmigiano-Reggiano-Crusted Chicken Piccata
  • Panko-Crusted Chicken with Cherry Tomato Sauce
  • Marsala Burgers
  • White Chicken Chili

    Have you tried any new recipes lately?

    January 3, 2011

    For the Love of Christmas

    This year I got lots of cooking/kitchen related gifts for Christmas.


    Did you notice the pink tabs popping out of Rachael's Look and Cook book? I've gone through it everyday since Christmas and I'm still sticking them on the pages.


     A can opener! We had one that you have to manually turn around the can- this will be a huge time saver!

    A handy tool to measure pasta.



    My hubby got me this adorable apron. I can't wait to use it next year and every year after that to bake Christmas cookies. 
    We also got a chocolate fountain, but it's not set up yet. I'll take photos of that when we have some friends over to use it. :)

    What new kitchen gadgets or tools did you get from Santa? :)

    January 2, 2011

    Happy New Year!

    We are back from sunny, blue-skyed, 70 degree weathered Miami! We spent the holidays with our families, ate lots of Cuban and Venezuelan food, went to every restaurant imaginable, and stuffed ourselves with all kinds of desserts. The holidays are all about food, right? We ate cookies, chocolate souffles, arepas (Venezuelan), media noches (Cuban sandwiches), croquettas (Cuban snack), bollos (traditional Venezuelan Christmas Eve dish), pulled pork sandwiches (New Years), honey-glazed ham (my grandma's Christmas specialty), pancakes...

    I could go on and on....

    As much as we loved having everyone take us out to eat and shower us with delicious treats, I could not wait to come home and cook my own food!! We are huge healthy eaters! One of the reasons I love cooking so much is because I know what's going in my food and I know how to make it healthy, or at least, lighter than the original version. Being our first night back, I went to the grocery store this morning and picked up all the ingredients for my first recipe from Rachael Ray's Look and Cook cookbook!!



    Yes, the hubby got it for me for Christmas. And so did my Mom. And so did my mother-in-law. :) I must have mentioned that I wanted this book quite a few times then, hmmm...

    Anyhow, without further ado, here are some pictures of the various food/dishes/desserts we had the pleasure of eating throughout the past two weeks! I hope your holidays were just as marvelous. :)


    Baking up a storm in my Mom's kitchen. Christmas Crunch Cookies & Peanut Butter Blossoms. They were both SO GOOD that I may in fact make them again very very soon...




    A chocolate souffle we had at an Italian restaurant.


    Here I am waiting for my pasta!


    Fusilli pasta with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil.


    Mini dessert shots at our New Years Eve Party.


    This is called a Bollo, which is like a tamale, that we ate on Christmas Eve. My husband's family is Venezuelan and this is what you traditionally eat on Christmas Eve.
     

    Croquettas!! My favorite Cuban food and what I miss so much living here in Michigan!! They are filled with ham and cheese and then fried to perfection...


    There are lots of Cuban sandwiches, but this one, the media noche, has been my favorite since I was a kid. It is piled with layers of ham, pork, and cheese, between two pieces of Cuban bread. I LOVE them.


    Here were are at the Cuban restaurant, La Carreta. See how happy I am? And no, that's not a cafe con leche, I got hot chocolate, it was chilly that night!

    A brownie dessert we had out at a restaurant.


    And here we are as a family on Christmas day. :)

    There you have it, a few food pics from our trip. Trust me, there was so much more that I forgot to photograph! Hope you enjoyed. :) Stay tuned for a ton of Rachael Ray's new recipes, I just made one tonight that was amazing.

    December 5, 2010

    Menu Plan Monday

    This week will be fairly short as we will be going out of town by the end of the week. To make it easy I'm sticking to our usual rotation of recipes.




    Have you started your Christmas baking? I made these incredible brownies over the weekend.

    Thanksgiving Recap

    Thanksgiving has come and gone and I have not had a chance to share how it all went! I am very happy to report that there were no incidents, no melt-downs, and no mishaps. Every single dish came out perfectly! The desserts were made the night before. The sweet potatoes were made the morning of and hung out in the fridge until it was their turn to go into the oven. I had the turkey in later in the afternoon and basted it during it's final hour. The stuffing and carrots were made about an hour before we ate. Everything was delish- especially those sweet potatoes!! Oh, and the cranberry bars were AMAZING, I think I might make them again for Christmas because I am already craving them! All the recipes I used can be found here.

    Here are some pictures of the day.

     The Proud Chef next to her turkey!

     Before the sweet potatoes went into the oven.

     Turkey is done and resting before carving.

     The buffet server all ready to go.
     The sweet potatoes were the first to go!

     Our beautiful table. :)


    Hope your Thanksgiving went just as well! Now on to planning for Christmas!
     
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