Slice of Love

There is nothing better to me than a slice, or 3, of gourmet pizza and a glass of Malbec wine. I will admit that I do not make my own dough. There are so many delicious doughs available to us for so cheap. For example: Whole foods, Trader Joes, and the new find thanks to Anna, Guiseppes. So I spend more time creating new pizzas while sipping on red wine. My brother, Kilgo, and his best friend, Sam came to visit us on Sullivans a few weekends ago. One night when I went to bed early, the boys ordered crappy/ greasy pizza. So I decided to spoil them the next night and make them two delicious pizzas...

 

Barbeque Pizza and Chicken Grape Pizza

BBQ

• dough
• one shredded cooked chicken breast
  
• mozzerella
• about a 1/4 cup Franks hot sauce (Kilgo's all time choice)

1. My brother is an extremely picky eater so this one is super simple. Spread the hot sauce all over the rolled out dough.
2. Add mozzerella to your liking.
3. Then the shredded chicken.
4. Bake according to dough; usually 400 degrees

Chicken and Grape Pizza

• dough
• one shredded cooked chicken breast
• about a cup and a half of sliced red grapes
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup basil pesto
• mozzerella
• Parmesan
  
• red pepper flakes

1. Roll out the dough and spread the pesto on. 
2. Next, sprinkle the mozzerella, chicken, grapes and walnuts.
3. Top with Parmesan and red pepper flakes.
4. Bake.

I have two more staple pizzas in our household to look forward to: Pear and Goat Cheese, and Chicken and Broccoli with cream sauce. :)

~Charlotte

Sweet Spicy Sticky Chicken

Almost always use CA blend...the best.

Asian food! Who doesn't love a good stir fry. This is one of my all time favorite recipes because I often have everything I need on hand to make it. Hint: I always keep a knob of ginger in my freezer, and almost always have a pack of stir fry veggies and chicken there as well.

Whatcha need:
1 lb chicken breasts or tenderloins, cut into bite sized chunks
Flour, for dredging
Salt and Pepper
Vegetable oil, approximately 4 Tbsp (eyeball it)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp honey
1/2 C soy sauce
4 tsp chopped ginger root
4 tsp hot sauce
4 tsp chopped garlic
1 bag frozen veggies, thawed out for an hour and drained of excess water
Rice, for serving

How ta do it:
1.) Start rice and dredge chicken.
2.) Heat veggie oil in a pan. Transfer chicken to the heated pan and cook through until no longer pink.

3.) Combine brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, chopped ginger root, hot sauce, and garlic in a bowl. Mix together.
4.) Add drained veggies to the pan.

5.) Cover with mixture and cook for approximately ten minutes, until heated through and sauce thickens slightly. Serve over rice!

Nom nom nom. In my mouth.

Just so yall know...we also made some a-ma-zing Kung Pao shrimp this week...recipe still to come.

Enjoy! This is a great dish to serve to guests...everyone who has tried it loves it!
~A

PS...Original recipe found here, although I've changed the amounts quite a bit!

Delicious Summer Basil Pasta!

My great photography skills...haha not :)

I went away for a week and when I came back my basil plant had absolutely exploded. There is now tons of glorious basil! How exciting. This was my first attempt at using the basil as a main ingredient, rather than on pizza or in a caprese sandwich (one of my absolute favorites!)

Hi Basil, I love you.

This is a recipe for pasta with basil cream sauce. I topped it with grilled chicken to make it more of a meal, but you could use shrimp as well. I used low-fat Neuchatel cheese in place of cream cheese and cut out some fat from the original recipe (found here on allrecipes.com) and it was still plenty delicious. A great dish using summer flavors!

Ingredients:
8 ounces uncooked pasta, your choice (I used rotini, but anything would be good, especially angel hair)
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed into bite-sized pieces
3 Tbsp olive oil
6 ounces cream cheese or Neuchatel cheese, cubed
1/4-1/2 cup of milk (the more milk you use, with higher fat, the creamier. I just used skim, though)
1 tsp minced garlic
16 fresh basil leaves (I used an assortment of sizes)
1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
3 Tbsp grated Parmeson
3 Tbsp shredded Mozzarella

Method:
1.) Cook your pasta until al dente, drain.
2.) In the meantime, combine cubed cream cheese and milk. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until it is one smooth mixture. It's going to look...weird. And not very delicious.  

3.) Put basil leaves, olive oil, and garlic into a food processor. Pulse until smooth. (By the way, I hate big, clunky food processors. This one does the job well and isn't that hard to clean when you're done! I highly recommend it. It's a Hamilton Beach.)

4.) Add the cream cheese/milk mixture, process again until smooth. It will look...odd. Again.

 

5.) Toss cooked and drained pasta with this mixture. Stir in Parmesan and tomatoes. We topped our bowls with the chicken instead of stirring it in. Totally your preference. We also topped it with Mozzarella. Again, it's personal preference.

Honestly, I was a little nervous when I went to try it. It did look kind of strange but when I tasted it I absolutely loved it! It was a great way to use up lots of basil and have a nice summer pasta. I would definitely recommend it to anyone-serving with a side salad and crusty bread makes it a great meal.

Enjoy!
~A

Blogging Hiatus: Over!

We have had company for the vast majority of the time since our last blog posts! We had an amazing time and got to cook with those near and dear to us. Got to do some vegetarian, some super southern dishes, and some amazing brunches.

Now that stuff has settled down somewhat, we're finally back to blogging! We have lots of great recipes to share with you all :)

 For starters, heres a super easy way to make enchiladas to serve a crowd! This makes 10 enchilladas, with 2-3 being an average serving size.

Ingredients:
10 burrito-sized flour tortillas
2 10-ounce cans of red enchilada sauce, mild to hot depending on your preference
1 pound shredded chicken, ground turkey, or ground beef
4 cups Mexican-mix cheese

Preparation:
1.) Cook your meat. If I'm using ground turkey, I just brown it in a skillet. If I use chicken, I just cook chicken breasts in the oven it until no longer pink in the oven, and shred the chilled meat.
2.) Heat enchilada sauce in a large skillet until simmering.
3.) Dip a flour tortilla halfway into the enchilada sauce skillet

4.) Lay it flat on a large plate. Use about 1/10th of the whatever meat you choose and fill the enchilada like so:

5.) Sprinkle some cheese on top of chicken.
6.) Roll it up and put into a baking dish:

7.) Pour any remaining enchilada sauce on top of all the enchiladas and sprinkle with all the remaining cheese. If you want, you can add jalapenos on top for some more kick! Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melty and bubbly. (We didn't take any after pictures because we were starving! But it surely is delicious.) Serve with sour cream and guac.

I got this recipe from a great family friend when we were living in Austria, so I have to give her much credit! Definitely a staple when I need some awesome Mexican food. Thank KH :)

Variations:
Add salsa, sauteed onions or green peppers to the filling. Use hot sauce to give it an extra kick. Be creative.

Have a lovely Wednesday!
Anna