Sliders

Sliders have been a favorite of ours ever since we saw Alton Brown (from Food Network's "Good Eats") make them. They are a quick fun meal especially for the weekends!

INGREDIENTS:

-About 1 lb. ground beef

-dinner rolls

-Worcestershire sauce

-Garlic (chopped)

-American cheese slices

-Sandwich pickles

-Ketchup and mustard

DIRECTIONS:

-Mix the ground beef with Worcestershire sauce and chopped garlic. (As much as you want...sorry, we guesstimated!) Divide up the ground beef into small patties...about half the size of a normal hamburger.

-Spray a skillet with cooking spray, then grill up the burgers. About a minute before they're done, add the cheese slices on the top of each burger.

-When done, arrange each burger on a dinner roll, and top with pickles and ketchup/mustard as desired.

COMMENTS:

-Not much to comment on here. For some reason these taste better (and are more fun to make) than normal cheeseburgers. Enjoy!

Shrimp Scampi

We hadn't had seafood in a while, so I did an allrecipe.com search for "shrimp" and this is what came up. Good stuff!

INGREDIENTS:

-1 cup olive oil

-2 lbs large shrimp - peeled and deveined

-1 cup all-purpose flour

-1 1/2 cups dry white wine

-1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

-5 cloves garlic, minced

-5 tbsp fresh lemon juice

-1/2 cup chicken broth

-1/2 cup butter, diced

-salt and pepper to taste

-2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS:

-In a deep skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Lightly coat the shrimp in flour. In batches, saute shrimp in oil until golden brown; each batch should take approximately 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

-Discard oil and add the wine, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, lemon juice, and chicken broth to the skillet. Cook over high heat until liquid has reduced by half (approximately 5 minutes). Stir in butter and season with salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat to medium, add shrimp, cook for 1 minute (until shrimp are heated). Sprinkle with parsley before serving.

COMMENTS:

-We skipped the flouring of the shrimp. This was mostly for time and convenience sake, but someone also left a comment on allrecipes that the recipe was just as good without the flouring. They did say that if you opt to flour them, only put on a very very light coating.

-Because we didn't do the flouring, and our shrimp were already peeled, deveined, and precooked (yeahhhh Price Chopper), we just heated up the shrimp a little, then took them out to do the sauce, and put them back in at the end. No draining required.

-2 things that we would do differently. First, we bought small shrimp because they were on sale. Mistake! Big shrimp would have been more filling. (We ended up snacking on carrots after dinner to compensate...haha) Second, I heated the liquid for 5 minutes like they said, and I thought the liquid reduced by half, but I think I was wrong. There was a lot more liquid at the end than I think there should have been. Hence the eating of the shrimp in bowls. Maybe we should have reduced it longer?

-Either way, the shrimp tasted very good. Next time, I'll just cook longer and buy bigger shrimp! We served the broiled broccoli and garlic that you may remember from one of our past recipes--this was a really good side dish. Enjoy!

Beef Fajitas with Spanish Rice

This delicious creation has actually been made once pre-blogging days. It was delicious then, and it was even more delicious now. The recipes (there are actually 3 here) come from my regular Betty Crocker cookbook. Please note that this recipe takes a bit of pre-planning and time coordination. This is a great fun dinner, especially if you are craving Mexican food!

Note that there are 3 recipes needed for this.

INGREDIENTS:

Fajita Marinade:

-1/4 cup veggie oil

-1/4 cup red wine vinegar

-1 tsp sugar

-1 tsp dried oregano leaves

-1 tsp chili powder

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Spanish Rice:

-2 tbsp veggie oil

-1 cup uncooked regular long grain rice

-1 medium onion, chopped

-2 1/2 cups water

-1 1/2 tsp salt

-3/4 tsp chili powder

-1/8 tsp garlic powder

-1 small green bell pepper, chopped

-1 can (8 0z) tomato sauce

Beef Fajitas:

-1 1/2 lb beef boneless top sirloin steak, 1 1/2 inches thick

-12 flour tortillas

-2 tbsp veggie oil

-2 large onions, sliced

-2 medium green or red bell peppers, cut into 1/4 inch strips

-1 jar (8 oz) picante sauce

-1 cup shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese

-Guacamole

-3/4 cup sour cream

DIRECTIONS:

-Start with the marinade first, the night before or morning of the meal. Mix all marinade ingredients in shallow glass or plastic dish. Add the top sirloin steak, and turn to coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.

-The rice and fajitas can be cooked at the same time, so I'll separate out those directions.

Spanish Rice:

-Heat oil in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat. Cook rice and onion in oil about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until rice is golden brown and onion is tender.

-Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender.

Beef Fajitas:

-Set oven to broil.

-Remove beef from marinade; reserve marinade. Place beef on rack in broiler pan. (Line with aluminum foil for easy clean up.) Broil beef with top about 3 inches from heat about 8 minutes or until brown. Turn; brush beef with marinade. Broil 7 to 8 minutes longer for medium-rare to medium. Discard any remaining marinade.

-While beef is broiling, heat oil in 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat. Cook onions and bell peppers in oil 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender. Cut beef across grain into very thin slices.

-For each fajita, place a few slices of beef, some of the onion mixture and Spanish Rice, 1 heaping tbsp each picante sauce and cheese, about 2 tbsp Guacamole and 1 tbsp sour cream in center of tortilla. Fold it up!

COMMENTS:

-Where to start? Well first, we've found it's easier to slice up the beef before you put it in the marinade. And don't skip the marinade. Trust me, it's worth it for the flavor!

-To cut down on time, we used instant rice. We cooked it up in just a couple minutes, then added all the ingredients and let it sit on low heat for a minute or two. Done!

-The Betty Crocker recipe actually doesn't call for the Spanish Rice as part of the fajitas--we made that up, because we skipped the onions and felt like the fajitas needed more. The rice is soooo good in the fajitas though. Definitely worth it.

-Things we also skipped on: guacamole. Oh, and I highly recommend using shredded "taco blend" cheese instead of cheddar or monterey jack!

-We first made this meal when we had a couple friends over one night. It's definitely a fun get-together meal.

-I have included pictures of both my girly fajita, and Craig's "manly" fajita. Guess which is which!

Chicken with Peppers and Artichokes

This recipe is from Betty Crocker's Best Chicken book again. I have wanted to try something with artichokes for a while so this fit the bill!

INGREDIENTS:

-1 jar (6 0z) marinated artichoke hearts

-1/3 cup white wine or white wine vinegar

-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

-2 medium red bell peppers, each cut lengthwise into fourths

-4 medium green onions, sliced (1/2 cup)

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS:

-Drain marinade from artichoke hearts; reserve. Mix reserved marinade and wine in shallow nonmetal dish or resealable plastic bag. Add chicken and bell peppers, turning to coat with marinade. Cover dish or seal bag and refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

-Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Remove chicken and bell peppers from marinade; reserve marinade. Cover and grill chicken 4-6 inches from medium heat 5 minutes. Turn chicken; add bell peppers to grill. Cover and grill 10 to 15 minutes longer or until bell peppers are tender and juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.

-Strain marinade. Mix marinade, artichoke hearts, onions and pepper. Heat to boiling; boil and stir 1 minute. Serve artichoke sauce with chicken and peppers.

COMMENTS:

-Most importantly, we didn't cook it the same way. Since we don't have a grill, we just cooked the chicken and peppers on a skillet. It still pretty much comes out the same way, I would imagine.

-Skipped onions as usual.

-The end result was really good! The marinade was tasty and even Craig liked it. I was taking a chance on him with this one because he's only eaten artichokes one other time, and he wasn't sure he would like them. He did end up picking out the actual artichokes, but he liked the marinade at least. If you are an artichoke fan, this is a good dish to try!

Cookie Dough Brownies

Well, my first ever solo baking experience was interesting to say the least! Yes, we laughed, we cried, and in the end, the brownies tasted delicious. And the Giants won the Super Bowl. So all was right in the world. :) But I think, like my idol Rachael Ray, I will stick mostly with cooking from now on...

INGREDIENTS:

-1 package fudge brownie mix

-1/2 cup water

-1/2 cup oil

-1 egg

-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Filling:

-1/2 cup butter, softened

-1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

-1/4 cup sugar

-2 tbsp milk

-1 tsp vanilla

-1 cup flour

Glaze:

-1 cup chocolate chips

-1 tbsp oil

-1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 13x9 inch pan. In large bowl, combine brownie mix, water, egg, and oil; beat 50 strokes by hand. Stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Spread in greased pan and bake at 350 for 33-35 minutes; do not overbake! Cool completely. In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla; blend well.

Add flour and mix well, then spread over cooled brownies. In small bowl, melt 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 tbsp butter on medium for 1-2 minutes or just until chocolate is melted; stir until smooth. Carefully spoon glaze over filling and spread to cover. Sprinkle with chopped nuts, pressing down slightly. Cut into bars and store in fridge.

COMMENTS:

Tip #1: If you use your brand new shiny KitchenAid mixer to mix the butter/brown sugar/sugar mixture...do not stick your spatula in the bowl while the mixer is mixing. (Crying episode #1)

Tip #2: The chocolate for the glaze doesn't really melt in the microwave. I don't know how in the world the creator of this recipe was able to do that. I ended up with a thick, but not melty, chocolate glaze. Which, needless to say, did not spread well on top of the brownies. (Crying episode #2) Craig helped me by melting an additional 1-2 cups of chocolate chips (these are not diet brownies!) so that we could get enough glaze to cover all the brownies. Phew, crisis averted.

But as I said, in the end, these brownies were delicious. I got the idea for them from a post on thenest.com and those ladies never steer me wrong. I made them for the Super Bowl (we had a few people over) but we had tons leftover. DARN. So we've had brownies for dessert all week. :) This is definitely a good twist on your traditional brownie! Just make sure you learn from my mistakes!

Cari's Chili

Today Craig and I felt like some comfort food, because it's yucky and icy here in Albany. So I went through my bridal shower recipes again and came up with Cari's chili recipe. Good stuff! I've never made chili before and Craig was interested (read: scared) when I said I would try it, so here we go...

INGREDIENTS:

-1 lb. ground beef

-salt and pepper

-chili powder

-1 onion

-1 can of kidney beans

-2 8oz. cans of tomato sauce

-ditalini or rice (about 3 servings)

-cheese (grated or shredded)

DIRECTIONS:

-Brown the ground beef with the chopped up onion. Drain the grease from the pan.

-Add the kidney beans and tomato sauce. With each can of tomato sauce, add half a can of water.

-Add salt, epper, and chili powder to taste. (For me, this was a lot of chili powder.) Let simmer for about 1 hour on medium heat.

-When the chili is almost done, cook the ditalinis or rice. Once the chili is done, add the rice to the chili and stir. Serve with the cheese on top.

COMMENTS:

-So GOOD! We really liked this version of the ever-changing chili. I did end up adding a little bit of Frank's Red Hot as well, for some added kick.

-We skipped the onions as usual, but it was still very flavorful without.

-As for the cheese, we used a taco cheese mixture, but Craig said he thought regular cheddar cheese might be good to try next time.

-We ate up with a loaf of fresh Italian bread, and some glasses of beer. Yummmm. :)

Everybody watch out, I'm baking (yes, BAKING) tonight for the Super Bowl tomorrow. I'll let you know how this goes...GO GIANTS!