Making use of that one random item.

So I have had this Butternut Squash sitting on my counter for a good month now. I bought it with the intentions of making soup, but just never got around to it. Well Today was the day. But there was a slight issue, I'm tired of soup. I've made it a couple times with in the last week, and I'm just not feeling it. So I jumped on the net and started searching for things that I could make with the Butternut Squash. 

I found a recipe for Parmesan Butternut Squash Gratin. It seemed easy to make, and looked delish from the photos.

While looking at the wonderful picture of the Parm. Butternut squash gratin, it hit me. What would be marvelous with this?! Chicken Cordon Blue. Cue drool. 

Grocery List:

Butternut squash
Butter garlic
Panko bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper
Chicken
Thinly sliced ham 
Swiss cheese
Flour
Thyme
Egg

Chicken Cordon Blue

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Breast

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 8 thin slices deli ham

• 16 slices of Swiss

• 2 teaspoons Thyme

• 1/4 cup Flour

• 1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

• 1 teaspoon Olive Oil

• 2 eggs

• 2 teaspoons water

Preheat oven to 350 

Lay the chicken between 2 pieces of plastic wrap Using the flat side of a meat mallet, gently pound the chicken to 1/4-inch thickness. 

 Lay 2 slices of cheese on each breast, followed by 2 slices of ham, and 2 more of cheese; Roll up chicken and pin together with a tooth pick

Season the flour with salt and pepper; spread out on waxed paper or in a flat dish. Mix the bread crumbs, Thyme, kosher salt, pepper, and oil. 

Beat together the eggs and water, the mixture should be fluid.

 Lightly dust the chicken with flour, then dip in the egg mixture, lastly coat with bread crumb mixture. 

Carefully put chicken into a baking dish and into the Oven. Cook 35-40 minutes.

Parmesan Butternut Squash Gratin

Ingredients:

1 Butternut Squash

2 Coves of Garlic

1/4 C.Butter

1/3 C. grated Parmesan Cheese

1/4 tsp. Salt

Pinch of Black Pepper

Preheat oven to 375.

Peel, halve lengthwise and seed squash; cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange with slices overlapping slightly in baking dish.

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Reduce heat to low. Add garlic; cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft and butter is infused with garlic flavor. Do not let butter brown. In small bowl, mix bread crumbs, cheese and 1 tablespoon of the butter-garlic mixture. Brush squash slices with remaining butter-garlic mixture. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and bread crumb mixture. Bake uncovered 30 to 40 minutes or until squash is done.

I am very proud of this dinner. Brian, my husband who hates squash, said that he really enjoyed the gratin and gave it high marks! Even my son ate it!! Definitely will make again!

French Onion Soup.

Last night I told Brian to grab a cook book and pick something for me to make. I wasn't feeling like cooking, but as the first day of the new year, I figured I needed to at least make it the first day on my new year resolutions.

So He picked Kreachers French Onion Soup from the HP cook book. I tweaked the recipe as I was cooking it to add more flavor. I was surprised that I actually didn't really care for it. Generally I'm not a soup person, but this sounded yummy, and by all accounts it was, I just don't like eating nothing but onions...

Grocery List:

4 medium Onions
butter
Parmesan Cheese
salt
Ground black pepper
Sugar
flour
Basil
Thyme
Beef or Chicken broth
Baguette
olive oil

Ingredients for Onion soup:

4 medium onions
1/2 stick of melted butter
2 tsp. of Basil
1/2 tsp. of Thyme.
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Black Pepper
1/4 tsp. of Sugar
`1 tbs. of Flour
6 C. of Chicken or Beef broth.
1/2 C. Grated Parmesan Cheese


Peel the onions, cut them in half and slice thinly as possible. In a heavy soup pot, melt the butter and add the onions. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the sugar and continue to stir over medium-high heat until the onions have browned.  Blend in the flour, basil and thyme. Gradually add the stock while stirring and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the head to a simmer and cook uncovered for 30 minutes.

Baguette:
Preheat oven to 350
While the soup is cooking, slice the baguette in 1 inch thick slices. Using a pastry brush, brush olive oil on each side of the cut pieces. Place the slices oil side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese. Toast the bread in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until browned.

Once everything is ready, pour soup into a bowl, add round Baguette and sprinkle with the rest of the Parmesan Cheese. The rounds are really good in this soup.

Cinnamon Rolls Anyone?

This morning I decided to make a breakfast item from my Harry Potter (HP) Cook book for my family on the last day of the year. Flipping through the pages a recipe caught my eye. This is it! I decided to make cinnamon rolls for this special day. Well, little did I know that it would take 4 HOURS to make them! Oi!  But trust me friends, It is worth it.

This is something to prepare the night before and then just pop them in the oven in the morning. Our "breakfast" was finally ready at 1!

Grocery List:

Active Dry Yeast
Sugar
Brown sugar
Powder Sugar
Flour
Salt
Cinnamon

Butter milk
Heavy Cream
Butter
Cream Cheese
Eggs
Vanilla



Ingredients for Dough:

1/4 C. Warm water
1 packet of Active Dry Yeast
1 tbs granulated sugar
2/3 C. Butter Milk (or Whole milk)
4 tbs. butter
3 C. All purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1/3 C. granulated sugar.

alright friends this gets slightly complicated, but I will try and do my best to not make it so!

1.In the mixing bowl whisk together the Flour and salt.
2. In a small bowl/cup combine water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix and set aside until puffy
3. Heat the Milk and butter in a small sauce pan.
4. Using a separate bowl whisk the Eggs and the remanding sugar.
5. Add milk mixture to Egg mixture. Whisk together.
6. In the mixing bowl, mix the Yeast and Egg mixtures to the flour.

I kneaded mine by hand. It seemed a little too sticky for my mixture. Knead for 10 minutes ( I'll admit I only did 5 minutes...) Placed needed dough in an oiled bowl, turning to coat  and then cover with plastic wrap. Set aside and let rise for ......... 1 1/2 - 2 HOURS! I only did 1 1/2. I can't wait that long!

After the dough has doubled in size, turn out on to a lightly floured surface (pretty important since the dough is so sticky). Roll out dough to approx. 16" X 12".

Cinnamon Filling

1. Combine 1/4 C. Brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of Cinnamon ( I did 1 1/2 tablespoons.).
2. 1 tablespoon melted butter.

On rolled out dough, brush melted butter evenly. Next take the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture and spread over the dough.

Roll up the dough into a log shape.

The best way to cut the roll is with dental floss, but I didn't have any, so I just used a really really sharp knife. Be careful and not to apply a lot of pressure when cutting. If you are using dental floss, slide the floss under the log, then bring up both side of floss to the middle, cross over like your going to tie a knot, and keep pulling until cut has been achieved.

Cutting my roll I just cut the log in half, then cut it into quarters. You can get 8-12 cinnamon rolls depending on how big you want them!

Place rolls in a 9" X 13" pan. I used a Demarle round mold for mine. Once in the pan, they Roll should have a little room, but not a lot. Cover. Leave them to rise for another 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Awesome huh?!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Rotate pan half way through cooking.

Icing

1 C. shifted powered sugar
4 Ounces. room temp. Cream Cheese
1 tbs. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. Vanilla ( I did a whole tsp.)

It's best to use a mixer/beater for the icing. It mixes it easily and smoothly.

Once the Rolls are out of the oven, put icing on them, and enjoy!

Cheesy Potato Soup

Okay I lied. I'll post this recipe since I told my friends I would give it to them ;)

SUPER Easy to make! It takes about 30 minutes, makes about 8 servings. I like to freeze the remanding amount for days when I don't want to cook :)

Ingredients:

1 lb of Bacon
1 Onion diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
9 potatoes, cubed ( I don't peel my potatoes, but you can if you want )
4 cups of Chicken stock
3 tbls of butter
1/4 C. flour
1 cup of butter milk (heavy cream works too)
3 tsp. (or so) of Basil
1 tsp Pepper
Salt to taste ( I don't put in salt because of the Chicken Stock has enough in it for taste)
Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

1. Cook bacon in the oven until crispy (or not, whatever you prefer. Just make sure it's cooked thoroughly), and then chop into small pieces.
2. Saute Onion and Garlic over Medium heat. Using bacon grease makes it more delish, but I used olive oil. Once done, set aside
3. In a big pot add the cubed potatoes and 4 cups of chicken stock (the chicken stock should cover the potatoes.) I put just enough in to barely cover the Potatoes. Cover and Bring to boil. Once boiling reduce heat and simmer. Add Onion and Garlic mixture to pot.
4. Mix flour, basil and pepper in a bowl.
5. In a separate pan (I use the one I used to cook the onion and garlic) melt 3 Tbls of butter. Once melted, add the flour mixture little by little. Stir constantly
6. Whisk in Butter milk (or Heavy cream). Stir constantly, bring to boil.
7. Add cream mixture to simmering Potatoes and onion mixture. Stir.
8. once potatoes are done, remove from heat.

When serving top with Bacon and Cheese. This part you can add as much or as little as you want. :)

A little about this bloggy blog

So this next year I have decided to take part in a 52 week cooking challenge. Each week there is a theme to inspire you to cook, and to be creative with food. I will post all my recipes and pictures of food here.

Why?

Well I'm a stay at home mom who loves to cook, but also hates it. I feel uninspired and most of the time just clueless on what to cook. I hate cooking the same thing every week. I am always looking for new recipes to make and try out.

Now I know there will be times when I post nothing, and other times I will post a shit ton. It's just part of life!

Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Blogging of food starts Jan. 1st 2013! LET'S DO THIS!!