Holy cow, I haven't posted anything in so long, sorry about my absence. I had a terrible pain in the right side of my face that left me pretty much debilitated for the last two weeks! We still don't really know what it's from, but I have definitely fallen back in love with my slow cooker since I've been pretty much out of commission. (I'm sure my husband appreciates it also).
Since I haven't been feeling very well, I have depended on my slow cooker to help me out, and oh boy has it really come through for me! I have been cooking for my husband by throwing things in this wonderful machine and letting it go until he's hungry! I have a couple of recipes that I've done this week that I felt the need to share. These are the easiest recipes and from the rave reviews from my husband, they are also quite tasty.
The first is a spin off on a bbq pulled pork sandwich. I, of course, had not been grocery shopping, so all we had were some misc. chicken parts, so I created bbq pulled chicken sammies!
B-B-Q Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
Asst. chicken parts: legs, thighs, whatever is on hand
Your favorite barbeque sauce
Vegetable stock
White wine
Salt and Pepper
Add your chicken parts to a 5-7 quart slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and enough b-b-q sauce to coat each piece of chicken. Then add vegetable stock until the liquid covers half of the bottom layer of chicken. Toss in a couple slashes of white wine, and put the lid on the slow cooker. Turn the slow cooker on low heat and cook for 8hrs. Once the chicken is done, simply pull the meat off of the bone with a fork and place on bread. My hubby likes it drizzled with a little more b-b-q and topped with melted cheese.
The next recipe is for another chicken dish...in my house there is always an abundance of frozen chicken :) and this recipe is even easier than the last one!
Cream Of Mushroom Chicken
2 frozen boneless chicken breasts
3 cans condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
Salt and pepper
Egg Noodles
In a small slow cooker, place 2 frozen chicken breasts. Add 2 cans of soup (do not add water), salt and pepper. Place lid on cooker and turn on low heat for 8 hours. After 7 1/2 hours, add in the final can of condensed soup and stir. Then place lid back on for another half and hour. In the meantime cook Egg noodles according to the directions on the bag. Once noodles are done, remove the lid to the slow cooker and turn off the heat. Take 2 forks and pull the meat, then place meat and sauce on top of the egg noodles.
To me, this does no look super appetizing, but from the rave reviews I received, this meal tastes much better than it looks!
I hosted Christmas brunch this past Christmas for my family, and my husbands family. It was the first time that our parents had met, and I had tons of anxiety about how the meeting would go since we would be getting married in 6 months. To top the normal anxiety over two completely different families meeting, I also had to create something for everyone to eat. Our families are complete different, not only in their daily lives and beliefs, but also in their tastes in food. My mother in law is a vegetarian, which is no problem, but she is also allergic to night shade veggies (which is basically everything I eat!). And my parents are not fans of beans, rice and burritos, which is what my mother in-law really only eats. A week before Christmas, I finally decided on a menu. I would do bagels, homemade veggie cream cheese, orange juice, etc, but I still needed a main star dish!
So I finally figured out that I would make a quiche. I did some research and found that all quiche's start out with basically the same ingredients, and then you can add whatever extra ingredients that you would like. I decided that everyone would like cheddar cheese (who doesn't love some Vermont cheddar cheese) and spinach. The more I make this dish, the more I experiment with different added ingredients, my husband especially loves when I add bacon to the mix :)
Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup mayo
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup minced onions
8 or so, ounces of shredded cheddar cheese
2-3 cups chopped fresh spinach
5 cooked strips of bacon (I used have the amount, because I only put it on half of the quiche)
salt, pepper, garlic powder
1 frozen deep dish pie crust
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Hand whip eggs, half and half, mayo, and flour in a bowl. Then fold in onions, cheese, spinach, bacon, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Pour mixture into the pie crust, and place in oven. Bake for 45 mins. Remove from oven and let sit for about 10 mins to set up.
Oh boy, this has been a super busy couple of weeks. My business is finally starting to pick up, and both of my best friends had their birthdays less than a week apart. I made the boob cake for my friend PJ's 40th birthday, and the penis cake for my best friend Amy's birthday. On top of those very challenging cakes (since i don't have erotic cake molds...yet) I had a muffin order, and a couple of sauce orders. As if that was not enough, I still had a week full of working and other 'wifely' duties, I was asked to make one of my husbands favorite dishes, corn stuffed pork chops. This is a fairly simple meal, but I can't lie and say that it was made with any type of enthusiasm :)
I came up with the recipe for my husband, because although I do not eat much meat, (really only chicken for protein) my husband happens to be quite the carnivore. I hate getting stuck in ruts of making the same things over and over again and he hates eating the same bbq pork chops every time he wants pork. So I made this stuffing with corn, Italian bread crumbs, an egg and some butter and thought that it would go well in pork chops. iIt took a long time to get the 'chop stuffing' technique down, but I think I have finally mastered the best way. They started out being more like pork sandwiches, with the stuffing between two thin chops, and now they are pork stuffed rolls.
Ingredients
thinly cut pork chops, beaten to about paper thinness if possible
1 egg
2 tablespoons softened butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs
1 can sweet corn (drained)
Barbecue sauce
salt and pepper
garlic powder
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a foil lined baking sheet, place pork chops in one layer.
In a bowl combine egg and butter, whisk until combined. Slowly add in bread crumbs until the mixture starts to get dry. Add in about 3/4 of the can of corn. Stir until it looks like stuffing, see photo below.
Stir in salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. I like mine a little more garlicky, so I tend to add tons of garlic powder. After everything is incorporated, take a tablespoon and spoon into the middle of the pork chop, then roll pork chop around filling, leaving the seam side down on the pan.
Once this process has been done to all pork chops, drizzle them with a little bbq sauce.
Place chops in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes until pork is thoroughly cooked. Let stand about 10 mins to cool and let the juices redistribute.
Who wouldn't want to receive a boob cake for a special occasion? This was my thought when I received one for my 21st birthday a couple of years ago. I had just started my catering business and had named it Gabriella's Goodies, which my best friend thought was hysterical because we are always joking about my breasts being my 'goodies'. So, she decided a boob cake was very fitting for the occasion, and I have to admit, after I got over the shock of my cake being boobies, I really loved it!
It's now two years later, and one of my good friends is celebrating his 40th birthday, so I thought, what better way to celebrate a big birthday than with a boob cake! This wasthe first one that I made, but it was so easy.I'm not the first one to make the boob cake, nor is the recipe homemade, but I think its a fun one to share anyway :)
Ingredients List
2 boxes of your favorite cake mix
2 oven safe bowls that are the same size and a good boobie shape
Hershey Kisses
Red food coloring
Buttercream frosting
Follow the instructions on the cake mix to create the batter. Spray your boob bowls with a non stick cooking spray so that they won't stick. Fill bowls 3/4 full. I found that its easier to remove them from the oven if you put the bowls on a baking sheet before placing them in the oven. (this will also help with clean up if the batter overflows the bowls) Once your oven is preheated to the temperature that's specified on the box mix, place baking sheet with bowls in the oven. (I had a little extra batter left over, so I actually made some cupcakes as well.) How long they will need to be in the oven will depend on how large your bowls are...mine took almost an hour. This is the only tough part about the process because you really do need to babysit them while they are in the oven. You can check to see if they are done periodically by inserting a knife or toothpick into the cake, if it comes out clean, then they are done. Once they are fully cooked, remove them from the oven and let them sit upright in the bowls for about 30 mins. After 30 mins, the bowls will still be hot, so be careful when handling them. Line a baking sheet with foil, and turn the bowls over. Let this sit for about an hour before trying to remove the cake from the bowls. Place each cake side by side with only a small gap (for proper boobie look), and make sure to let the cakes cool completely before frosting. Frost with the butter-cream, leaving some left over for dying pink. After the cakes are frosted put the remaining frosting in a bowl and use only a drop of the red food coloring to dye the frosting pink for the nipples. Place one unwrapped Hershey Kiss in the center of each cake, and then cover the kiss with the pink icing.
You now have a simple boob cake :)
(and maybe some A cup cupcakes as well)
My husband came home and said that he had seen a recipe that I needed to make for him. I am now his wife, so I figured that it would be my wifely duty to make sure that his foodie needs were met :) I looked over the recipe and realized that it could be my weight loss downfall. I have one sure weakness to my dieting....peanut butter cups, and the recipe that he needed to have was for Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups.
The recipe is very easy, and doesn't take any crazy ingredients...most of the items that it calls for are already in the pantry, so I tried my hand and made him these tasty treats. They didn't look anything like the lovely picture on the recipe, but I think they tasted pretty amazing. I am now going to have to burn the recipe so that I can't make these tasty homemade goodies every day of the week. Check out the recipe below if you are like my husband and I and can't resist a peanut butter/chocolate combo!
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