Nacho Burger

Last night we tried the Nacho Burger, and it was probably in the top five best burgers I've ever had. It kicked most restaurant burgers in the pants.  We have tried a mexi-burger before with salsa and crushed tortilla chips but this was way more flavorful.  We didn't add the red onion because I didn't have one but the salsa had plenty of onion so that was Ok.

Also, I know I haven't been posting much on here but  have been doing more of my recipe finding on Pinterest.

Prepared Pantry Blueberry White Chocolate Muffins

So I debated about sharing this since it calls for tidbits and flavor you can only get at the Prepared Pantry.  But if you are able to pick up these items it so worth it.  If not you could use the base recipe and makes substitutions.  I made this while camping with my parents and my mom declared it one of the best muffins she has ever had.  Nuf said.
Here is the recipe.  I used blueberry tidbits instead and no walnuts.

Red Velvet Cookies-to die for!!

Just tried these red velvet cookies made out of red velvet cake mix.  Soooo good!!

Beef and Broccoli

We had some ymuuy heads of broccoli sitting in our fridge just waiting to be used.  I wanted to something different than just steaming and eating them though, my husband suggested beef and broccoli.  After looking through a lot of recipes online, I found this one and it was great!  We loved the flavors!  I used about a pound of meat and doubled the marinade and the sauce and I thought that was perfect.

Cafe Rio Pulled Pork

I was in charge of girls night this month and we had Cafe Rio (and Cupcake Wars as previously mentioned).  So I assigned out all of the different toppings but I was in charge of one pot of meat.

Here is the recipe I used and it is pretty danged good.  Great on sandwhiches too.  And easy.

Here's the recipe!  I did exacty what she said.  I did two smallish pork roasts so I did double the sauce.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

I posted this recipe on my family blog and you can find it here. These came out really good and they were fairly easy to make.

Potato Tomato Bake

My hubby is not a big meat eater.....he prefers to not eat meat. So, I have a hard time coming up with dinner ideas sometimes. Last night was an experiment that my husband loved!

Red potatoes (small cubes)
Can of Italian Diced Tomatoes
Can of Tomato Sauce (small can)
Can of mushrooms
Half an onion chopped
Italian Seasoning
Oregano
Cheese


Mix all the ingredients except cheese. Put in baking dish and sprinkle cheese on top.
Put foil on for first 40-50 minutes until the potatoes are tender and then remove for last 10-15 minutes to brown up the cheese.

Cilantro Lime Mango Chicken

I had a lot of limes on hand (love limes!) and mangoes were on sale so I searched for a recipe where I could use them with chicken. I found this on allrecipes.com and gave it a try with a few adjustments.

I used an anaheim pepper instead of jalapeno because it was cheaper and fresher at the store

I took regular chicken breast and just sliced them kind of thin

I baked the chicken slices in the oven

I did not add the grilled vegetables

We made it into a wrap with a little bit of rice and rolled into a warmed tortilla.

Yummy and very pretty. Would be a great summer supper.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amazing-Southwest-Cilantro-Lime-Mango-Grilled-Chicken-Sandwiches/Detail.aspx

Dulce de Leche cake

We attended a Cinco de Mayo party and were asked to bring this cake. It was delicious!

DULCE de LECHE CAKE

CAKE INGREDIENTS

Yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter (1 cube)

1 1/3 cups water

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs at room temp (you can quickly warm them in a bowl of hot tap water)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom only of pan with PAM or grease w/shortening. I think a glass pan does a better job but any 9x13 pan is ok.

In a quart sauce pan heat butter over medium heat for about 8 minutes stirring

frequently, just until golden brown. This happens quickly once it gets "frothy",

Remove from heat and cool 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, browned butter, water and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes (brown flecks from butter will appear in batter). Pour into pan. Bake 30 -40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center of cake. Cool completely @ 1 hour.

FROSTING INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups butter (3 cubes)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup canned milk

2 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter in sauce pan. Stir in brown sugar. Heat to boiling stirring constantly. Boil and stir over low heat for 2 minutes. Sir in canned milk and heat again just to boiling. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add powdered sugar gradually beating after each addition. Continue beating as it cools until of spreading consistency. This frosting sets as it cools so get it on cake when spreadable but not set. If its sets before you get it on the cake you can reheat it slightly while stirring constantly.

Cover frosted cake and keep in a cool place. Can be made the day before if necessary.

Friendship Bread Goldmine

Have you ever gotten friendship bread or a friendship bread starter?
If not it's kind of like sourdough bread where you have a starter and you can keep refreshing it and using it and giving (and possibly annoying) all of your neighbors. 
I did once.  The bread was quite good but I wasn't sure it if it was sooo much better than regular sweet bread and you had to babysit for ten days before you could make it.
Plus I had to find three friends who wanted to take the starter after it had mulitiplied.  So the next time I was asked I said no.
Then I read the book, "Friendship Bread" which I loved.  And I learned that you can make tons of variations on the original.
So, I just thought I would share this site with you in case you were ever offered some friendship bread starter.  The possibilities are endless!

Check it out here.

White Sauce Chicken Enchiladas with White Mexican Rice

I made this and this for dinner tonight after finding it on a recipe blog that I love. It was really yummy and simple. It almost seemed like there wasn't enough sauce for the enchiladas, but it turned out perfect in the end. Per my husband's request, I added a little bit of corn inside the tortillas...and I think it added a nice little touch. The rice is SO yummy! I could probably cook up a batch and just eat it all on my own.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Having recently received some fresh vanilla beans, I figured the best use of them would be to make ice cream.  I found a recipe that I REALLY liked here.  Here is the shortened version if you don't want to go to the site.  If you are not too familiar with making ice cream, she does include pictures and step-by-step instructions for making it on the site.

Ingredients

• 1 whole Vanilla Bean, Split And Scraped
• 3 cups Half-and-half
• 2 cups Sugar
• 8 whole (up To 9) Large Egg Yolks
• 3 cups Heavy Cream

Preparation Instructions

Heat half-and-half and 2 cups sugar in a saucepan over low heat, adding vanilla “caviar” to the mixture. Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated.
Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling into the 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until quite thick, stirring constantly. Tthen pour into a bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine.
Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for at least eight hours.
Serve with something chocolate. Enjoy!

Blueberry Oat Scones

Tried these this morning.  Delish!! Next time if I have lemons on hand I think I will add some lemon zest.

Apple Cake

My sister in law made this and had me try it. It was SOOO yummy! So, I snagged the recipe from her...but when I made it, it wasn't as amazing as hers. So, if you try it, let me know what you think. 

Apple Cake
1/2 c soft butter
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 can apple pie filling
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c sour cream
1 egg


Combine butter and cake mix. Pat mixture in 13x9 pan. Bake @ 350 for 10 minutes.
Arrange apples.
Mix sugar & cinnamon.
Sprinkle over apples.
Blend sour cream and egg.
Drizzle over apples.
Bake 25 minutes.
DO NOT OVERCOOK! 

 Here are my tips on the cake: 

I made the crust too crusty...with the butter and cake mix, I melted the butter, but next time I won't, I'll just set it out all day and let it get soft. Mix the soft butter in really really good with the cake mix. Also, I pushed the cake/crust too hard into the pan. Next time, I'll just lightly pat it down so the moisture can seep into it more. Other than that it turned out really good, the non-crust stuff was super yummy...kind of custard-y.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of it!

Pizza-Nini

I just made up an awesome dinner tonight.  I was cooking something in the crock-pot and it was no where near done when the troops starting getting ravenous. 

So, luckily I was at Sam's early today and they had a bag of Ciabatta Rolls (8 large rolls for about $3.50).
I have a weakness for ciabatta so I grabbed a bag knowing I could make something awesome out of them.

So, basically we put pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, olives, and cheese in the roll, then cooked them in my panini maker (Christmas present-love it!), until bread was crispy and cheese was melty.

Yummmmmm!!!!

I'm already thinking up my next filling when I pick a bag again.

And I have dinner all ready for tomorrow.  Bonus!

Chicken Fried Steak

My husband I are big lovers of a good chicken fried steak. I have wanted to make some for a long time, but had never found a good recipe. I found one recently that looked promising and tried it out. The recipe can be found here. As for how it was, I liked it but it does need some tweaking.  If you make it, you need to add more seasonings to the flour as the flour was bland.  Also it came out tasting a bit greasy.  It was my first time frying something with Criso, so that might have been why.  Also add more S&P to the gravy, otherwise this is a good starter recipe.

Thai Goldmine

I love Mexican food.  I can eat several times a week.  But Asian food is becoming a close second.  I don't much about Thai food, but what I have had is really good.  I just checked out the website on my Coconut Milk can and found a wealth of recipes. 
So, here I am-breaking my own rules because I haven't tried them yet, but they look really good and doable.

Check it out here!

Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac N Cheese

We tried this mac n cheese recipe last night.  This is my favorite homemade mac n cheese recipe I have ever tried and it was the easiest because you usually have to cook your noodles then bake,  because this is all on the stove.  I have usually found my homemade versions a bit bland too, but the hot sauce (don't worry- you can't tell it's in there), the dry mustard, and the Kosher salt really help boost up the flavor.  This was so easy and good that it will definetly be a keeper.

Creamy Black Bean Salsa Chicken

One of my friends gave me this crock pot cook book for Christmas. I love crock pot meals because I always seem to have more energy and motivation to make dinner earlier in the day. I especially liked this meal because you just stick the chicken in frozen. No thawing! I love it. http://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/2010/09/revisiting-creamy-black-bean-salsa.html I used chicken breasts instead of thighs because that is usually what I have on hand. It worked just fine. We ate it as a soup. Delish! We all really liked this meal!

Spice it Up

We love this recipe. The majority of my kids like it, even though it is quite spicy (you can adjust the heat if you want). We eat it with the raita over rice or on a pita/tortilla.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cucumber-Cilantro-Raita-Yogurt/Detail.aspx

Note to family: This is not the meal to cook if you are having my parents over for dinner.

Almost Famous Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I got this from Food Network Magazine.  They were trying to knock-off a soup from a restaurant called Panera Bread.  It is the best broccoli cheddar soup I have tried.  And the loads of broccoli more than make up for the half and half right? The soup is pureed so the kids aren't whining about big pieces of veggie.  Served in a bread bowl or with some yummy rolls or fresh bread.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

6 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth (I made up three chicken bouilion cubes)
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cups broccoli florets (fresh, or frozen-slightly thawed)
1 large carrot, diced
2 1/2 cups grated cheese (any combo of white or yellow)

1. Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.  Whisk in the flour and cook until golden, 3-4 minutes, then gradually whisk in the half-and-half until smooth.  Add the chicken broth, bay leaves and nutmeg, then season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, until thickened, about 20 minutes.
2.  Add the  broccoli and carrot the broth mixture and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaves,  Puree the soup in batches until smooth; you'll still have flecks of carrot and broccoli.  Return to the pot.
3. Add the cheese to the soup and whisk over medium heat until melted.  Add up to 3/4 cup water if the soup is too thick.  Ladle into bread bowls and garnish with cheese.

Crockpot Tomato Chicken

Made up Crockpot Recipe I really really liked.

A couple cans of Diced Tomatoes (Italian or regular)
Tomato Sauce
Mushrooms
Green Peppers
Chicken
Italian Seasonings (oregano, basil, or Italian Seasoning grinder)
Any other veggies you want

I made this to go over brown rice, but I also ate a huge bowl of it just plain too. Tasted really delicious and very healthy....mostly veggies which is awesome and an easy meal to go over rice or potatoes.

Stacked Enchilada's

This recipe is super easy and delicious! It's a must try! My husband and kids gobbled it up! I got the recipe from my old collage roommates bakery blog designerbakery.blogspot.com ! 5 stars in my book!

Stacked Enchilada's

This sauce is very watery, its a thin sauce. That's a good thing because the sauce runs all over your plate, so good. I usually double the recipe if I'm making it for five or more people. You don't want to run out of the sauce.

For sauce, in a pot:
Saute 1 yellow onion
Add:
2-8 oz cans tomato sauce
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
2 tsp sugar
1 Tbs chili powder
3 cups water

Fry up 1 lb hamburger with onion flakes. Warm up corn or flour tortilla's (whatever kind you like the best) the actually recipe calls for corn but I like flour best! Then onto assembly!

To Assemble:

Put a little sauce on plate, then tortilla, top with hamburger, lettuce, cheese, and sauce. Place another tortilla on top and repeat as many times as you can handle. Usually a 3 stacker is good. Then top with lettuce, sour cream, tomatoes, avocado. These are really filling once they are all stacked up, so be prepared! P.S. I only put the lettuce on top just a personal preference! Enjoy!!!

Brazilian Lemonade

Last night for FHE, I tried the Brazilian Lemonade.  I don't know why it is called lemonade because it is made with limes, but you could call in garbage and it would still be good. I followed the recipe exactly and it was so good.  Tristan thought it would be too sour, but it wasn't at all.  I will definitely make this again.

Welcome

It's that time of year when Julie hasn't had enough adult conversation and does crazy things.  And you get to be a part of it!  If you got invited to this blog, I thought you might be interested in sharing recipes.  I know there is a million recipe sites out there, but the purpose of this one is to share amongst friends new recipes we have tried and for you to review how you liked it.
There aren't many rules.  Feel free to participate as much or as little as you want to.  It's not a private blog, but the purpose isn't to gain readership from strangers, but more to share recipes amongst friends.
I will give all authors admin priveleges so feel free to invite other people who you think would enjoy this exchange.
I was thinking that mostly we would post new recipes we have tried, and not so much a huge list of family favorites from years ago.  But if you do, the recipes police won't come.  I guess it is just the "one" in me and that just want the new and exciting recipes.
In the labels if you could label four things:
1) Your Name
2) Recipe Category (desserts, bread, etc)
3)Your rating: 1-5 Stars
4) Difficulty level: easy, moderate, easy-but time consuming, difficult etc.

Also, please only include recipes that you have tried, not ones that you want to try.  Please list the source you got the recipe as much as possible. If you got the recipe online you can just include the link and not the recipe.

Thanks! I hope this is fun and helpful.