Eggnog French Toast

My family loves for me to make this as soon as eggnog is available in the stores. Janet said that she makes this too.

She dips the bread in just eggnog and cooks iton her griddle, but said that this way it never gets that crisp browning on it.

When I make it I use about 1 1/2 cups eggnog, 1/2 cup milk and an egg or two.

When your using eggnog you don't want your bread left in the mixture to long, in fact it's best to just dredge it through enough to just get it covered.

Mine gets crisp on the outside, but if you've accidentally let it soak up too much mixture I will sometimes bake it in the oven for an extra 10 minutes at 350, after cooking it in a griddle.

Island Chicken

Janet I found it!!! This was a recipe I found in college and used to make pretty often, but I thought I had lost the recipe. I'm so glad I found it again.


2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tblsp olive oil
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1 tblsp lime juice
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp chopped parsley or cilantro

Pound chicken to 1/2" thickness. Combine oregano and cinnamon. Sprinkle over chicken.

Cook chicken in skillet over medium heat, with hot oil. 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove to a plate.

Stir pineapple juice, lime juice and cornstarch in skillet; cook, stirring until sauce boils and thickens. Stir in parsley. Spoon over chicken.

Chocolate Gateau

This cake is sinfully decadent, but actually not hard to make at all.

Cake:
1 (12 oz) pkg semi-sweet choc chips (*divided)
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
3 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup ground nuts (I use almonds)


Glaze:
3 tblsp butter
2 tblsp corn syrup
1 tblsp water
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (*reserved from cake)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1 cup chips till smooth (either in a double boiler of the microwave), set aside. In large bowl combine sugar and butter; beat until creamy. Beat in melted chips, eggs yolks, vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour and milk, beat well. Stir in nuts. In a different bowl beat egg whites till stiff peaks form. Fold into chocolate batter.

Spread into a greased 9 inch round springform pan.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Cool 10 minutes, than remove the sides of the pan. Cool completely.


Glaze:

In a small saucepan , combine butter, corn syrup and water. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate chips, stir until all chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Cool to room temp. Pour glaze over cake, covering top and sides.

Garnish as desired. We've either sprinkled with more nuts or our favorite, decorate with fresh strawberries.

Fettucini Primavera

This is what my Dad usually makes for our family on Christmas Eve. It tastes wonderful and it's really pretty easy.

*It used to be made with shrimp, which was delicious , but one I became allergic to shellfish the meat changed to chicken or a sausage like polska keilbasa.

In 1 tablespoon butter and a little olive oil saute your meat (if your having it) remove from pan and set aside.

Add veggies of your choice to pan and saute (zucchini, broccoli, julliened carrots, or red pepper cut in strips) When almost done add 1 clove of garlic to veggies. Remove from pan and set aside, they can be added to the meat.

Alfredo Sauce

In same pan mix 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup cream, 1 cup parmesan cheese, and season to taste with pepper, garlic and nutmeg. Simmer till thickened. It doesn't take long at all so you want to make sure that your fettucini noodles are done when your making your sauce. Add veggies and meat to your sauce and mix to cover, remove from heat.

Serve over cooked, warm fettucini noodles.

Mashed Potatoes: An Authentic Idaho Girl Recipe

I have felt like such a writing slacker, forgive me. I haven't felt much like cooking or eating or even writing about cooking due to my recent quadruple wisdom tooth extraction. BUT today I woke up and didn't feel the need to rush for the pain medication, so I feel honor bound to present the recipe that has kept me alive for the past week and a half. All Idaho girls should have this recipe (or their own variation) etched upon their hearts; here is mine, for a gi-normous batch of creamy, hot, steamy mashed potatoes.

Start out with a pot. Peal a bunch of potatoes, enough to mostly fill the pot (if your pot is the same size as my pot, that will be about 6-8 big old baking spuds). Wash the potatoes in cold water, peel them, and rinse them again (painful, yes). Cut them into same-sized manageable chunks. Put your potato chunks into the empty pot and just cover them with cold water. Add 2-3 teaspoons salt to the water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. When you can easily pierce the potato with a fork, they are done cooking (20-40 minutes). Take them out, drain all the water out and put the potatoes back into the hot pot to let more liquid evaporate off. Heat up about a cup of milk in the microwave, not boiling hot, but pretty hot (about 1 minute).

Put the potatoes in a big bowl (or your stand mixer) and use a hand beater (off, for now) to give a good mash to the spuds. Now, get some butter or margarine and put about 4 or 5 tablespoon chunks right on the potatoes and a teaspoon sprinkling of salt (I'm currently in love with kosher, coarse salt. Garlic salt is also good in it. Once, we used a bunch of roasted garlic; that was delightful). Next, pour about 1/2 a cup milk onto the potatoes, turn the beaters to low and carefully smash the potatoes; add milk, salt, and butter as needed to the proper taste and consistency (as defined by you). When they are mostly all smashed, whip it up on high to a creamy heaven. When I'm feeling extra unhealthy, I put pats of butter into the finished pile of happiness.

Crockpot Cranberry Chicken

This is what we're having for dinner tonight. It smells really good cooking.

6 chicken breast halves

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion

16 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 cup BBQ sauce

Layer all the ingredients in your slow cooker. Cook 6-8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.

Lazy Morning Breakfast Casserole

When I just don't want to mess with cooking but my family wants a warm breakfast we make this easy casserole. I based it on what I remember of Pat's Christmas casserole but made a few changes so that it works when you cook it the same morning you make it. The crust is a little crunchy, a little chewy. Chris particularly likes the peppers with bacon, but ham and broccolli would work just as well.

8 slices coarse sourdough bread, torn

1/4 cup butter melted

12 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup milk

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/2 cup bacon bits (the real kind) or 4 slices bacon, crumbled

4 oz can green chiles, chopped

1 1/2 cups cheese, grated

Melt the butter in a 9x13 casserole dish. Toss the bread in the butter. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl beat the eggs and milk. Add the remaining ingredients and mix gently. Slowly, pour the egg mixture over the bread in the casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees until the edges are brown and the eggs are set, about 30 -45 minutes. Serve with fresh or canned fruit.

Scalloped Celery

This is the most unique use of celery I've ever seen. My grandfather really liked this recipe and requested it for all the holidays. Amy told me I should post this recipe. :-)

4 cups celery, thinly sliced

6 Tbsp butter, divided

3 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 Cup milk

1 can mushrooms

2 Tbsp green peppers, finely chopped

2 Tbsp pimientos

1 cup sharp cheddar, grated

1 cup soft bread crumbs

Saute celery in 4 Tbsp butter until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Stir flour and salt in skillet. Add milk and bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients except reserved butter and bread crumbs. Stir until cheese melts. Add celery. Pour into 1 quart casserole. Toss bread crumbs with remaining butter. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Holiday Recipes

Janet and I were talking and we thought this would be a great time to share some family holiday recipes, so that we might get new ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

My Mother-in-law has several great jello salads that she makes for the holidays, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

Blueberry Salad

2 sm pkgs raspberry jello
1 can blueberry pie filling
1 sm can crushed pineapple

Mix jello with 2 cups hot water, stir in pineapple and pie filling; let set up. She usually uses a 9x13 inch glass pan.

Topping:

1 8-oz softened cream cheese
1 8-oz container sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
sugar to taste

Whip together until smooth. Spread over set jello.


Eggnog Salad

1 tsp gelatin
¼ cup water
1 can sliced pears
1 pkg lemon jello
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup eggnog
1 can mandarin oranges 11oz, drained

In a small bowl, combine gelatin and water. Set aside. Drain pears, save juice, set aside. Add enough water to pear juice to make 2 cups, bring to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat, stir in gelatin mixture and lemon jello, till smooth. Cool 15 minutes.

Stir in sour cream and eggnog. Dice pears and add fruit to jello. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate.