Basil Alfredo Sauce with Chicken and Broccoli

Do you ever pull out a protein from your freezer in the morning and say something like 'I'll make dinner with this tonight' and then when it comes time for dinner you have no idea what to do with the protein now fully thawed in your fridge? That happens to me a lot... Like, maybe I should get better at meal planning, a lot. Yesterday morning I pulled two big chicken breasts out and said the same sort of thing as I always do, that I'd figure out what I'd do with them later. I had a general idea, I wanted to try making Chicken and Noodles---a dish my grandma made when I was younger, but when it came time to actually make dinner, I ran out of gumption. It happens a lot to me while pregnant I'm finding... I just don't have the energy for a lot of the things I like to do. In this case, it was making the homemade noodles, I just couldn't face standing up for that long.

SO. Now I had these two chicken breasts that I had no idea what to do with. I spent the next 30 minutes perusing through my many cookbooks and still not finding anything. I tossed around the idea of a stir fry, but decided against... I just couldn't find anything that really tickled my fancy. So I opened my fridge and decided to come up with something on my own.

It was delicious.

I had everything I needed for a cream sauce, the chicken, and some broccoli. So this is what I did:

First I started with the cream sauce (actually, first I got my pasta going, I hate forgetting to make the pasta until the last moment...use about the same amount of pasta as you have chicken). I make cream sauces by heart now, so I don't really use a recipe... This is an approximation of what I did:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cream
some salt and pepper
a pinch each of garlic powder and onion powder
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh or frozen basil

Once that was all thick and delicious, I chopped up the two chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and got them frying in some butter with a little bit of garlic powder sprinkled on as well. As that was frying I chopped up two heads of broccoli and once the chicken was still just barely pink, I tossed the broccoli in, put a lid on it and waited (stirring a few times) for the broccoli to get tender (but not mushy).

After the pasta was cooked and the broccoli-chicken mixture was done I tossed it all together with the cream sauce and we ate! It was fantastic if I do say so myself, and Aaron even liked the broccoli in it---which is saying something considering he doesn't really like broccoli.

Curious what the funny looking noodles are? Elk shaped pasta from IKEA. TOO FUNNY.

Serious Chocolate Cupcakes

For serious.

So, my sister and her husband came to visit us West Coasties a week and a bit ago, and while she was here she made these delicious chocolate stout cupcakes (well, the recipe calls them muffins, but we agreed they must be lying). I loved them, but a) I'm not particularly a fan of stout and b) would never actually have stout in my house... So when I decided to make them from the recipe she left me I realized I would need something to substitute for the stout. I was musing over using buttermilk or something like that when I remembered that I had a whole whack of smashed blackberries (seedless, thanks to my fantastic husband!) in my freezer! And I thought: how awesome would chocolate blackberry cupcakes be?!?

The answer, my friends, is way awesome.

They aren't super blackberry-y, I imagine if you cut down on the cocoa you could bring out the blackberry more, but I just love the richness and slight berry hint it brings to the INTENSE chocolate flavour.

Serious Chocolate Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a saucepan over a low heat, melt:
1 c. smashed blackberries (although any smashed berries would work...)
1 c. butter
1 c. cocoa

While that is melting, in a large mixing bowl combine:

2 c. unbleached flour
2 c. white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Once the first mixture has melted and been whisked together, whisk in:

2 eggs
2/3 c. sour cream

Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until everything is combined and moist (here you want to treat it like a muffin recipe). Divvy it out into either buttered muffin tins or paper lined muffin tins and pop in the oven for 25 minutes!

Once they were cool, I iced them with a Ganache frosting:

In a double boiler heat:

1/2 c. cream
6 oz. dark chocolate

DO NOT MIX. Once you know that the chocolate has melted, remove from heat and mix. Let cool for about 2 minutes before icing. (I iced most of mine by dipping, it gives them a nice look)

Enjoy!

The Yummiest Dinner Rolls Ever

Seriously.

I'm not exaggerating. They are SO good. And they are quite simple---all you do is jazz up a regular dinner roll recipe with buttermilk, dehydrated onions, and whatever herb you want and then top with cheese!

The Yummiest Dinner Rolls Ever

4 1/2  c. unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 tbsp yeast

1 1/4 c. buttermilk

1/4 c. dehydrated onions (or 1/3 c. fresh green onions, chives, or fried regular onions, whatever you have handy)

1 or 2 tsp dried or fresh herbs (just add in enough until it looks good)

1/4 c. sugar

1/3 c. butter

1 tsp salt

1 egg

Enough sliced cheese to top each roll generously

In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of flour and the yeast.  In a small saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, butte, and salt until butter melts (no warmer than 120F). Add to flour mixture along with egg and beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speeds for 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl, and then on high for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Shape dough in a ball and place into an olive oil greased bowl, turning once to grease the surface of dough. Let rise in warm place for 1 hour.

Turn dough onto a very lightly floured surface and shape however you desire (I make mine hamburger size so Aaron can make sandwiches in them for work). Place shaped rolls onto parchment paper lined baking trays and let rise for 40 minutes. Once raised, top with sliced cheese.

Preheat oven to 375F. Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown. Immediately remove rolls and place on wire racks. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before you slice into one, though, otherwise they mush (I'm looking at you, Aaron).

Enjoy!

Cookies are Happiness in a small package

I  love making cookies. I know I've talked about my love of personal sized desserts and cookies are my favourite. Normally I make chocolate chip cookies. Mostly, I think, due to good memories from my childhood. They are crunchy on the outside, gooey-soft on the inside and full of chocolate! What's not to like?

The other day I got the hankering to make cookies and decided to try something different. So I cracked open my trusty cookbook and found a recipe without even a picture simply titled Ginger Cookies. I like ginger and I like cookies so I thought I'd give it a try.

They were DELICIOUS. And I didn't realized it until I was half way through making the dough, but the recipe makes 120 cookies. Holy mackerel. So, at the suggestion of my dear sister, I packaged some up and Aaron and I played cookie fairy. It was a ton of fun and we even got invited in for dinner at one of the houses we stopped at. All in all, a marvellous project and a wonderful evening.

Spicy Bacon Mac and Cheese

I love things that are full of whimsy and the unexpected. I wouldn't say that I'm particularly 'adventurous' (Everest holds no appeal and I don't even like sushi), but I like things that make you laugh and smile because you weren't expecting it. Like this song:

It is SO bizarre that it makes me laugh and I appreciate that. I don't know if that really translates into my cooking all that often, but I think in this instance it does.

Spicy Bacon Mac and Cheese

1/4 c. butter

1/8 c. bacon bits

1/8 c. flour

1 c. milk

1 c. cream

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

dash of black pepper

1 tsp regular yellow mustard

2 1/2 c. cheddar cheese

Fried bread crumbs (saute bread crumbs in butter until crispy) 

Cooked macaroni noodles (you'll have to eyeball how much, I didn't measure...)

Melt butter in medium sauce pan then add bacon and flour. Fry for a minute before adding milk, cream, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Stir on medium heat until sauce thickens then drop heat to low and add mustard and 2 1/4 c. cheddar cheese. Stir until completely mixed and then mix in macaroni noodles. Divvy up between as many ramekins as you want and sprinkle with cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake at 375F for 15 minutes and then enjoy!

Two Desserts

What's this? Silence for almost two months and then not one, but TWO blog posts in one day?? Crazyness!

I didn't include this in the last post because the other was all meals. These are two desserts I made that I'm supremely proud of.

#1 Apple Pie (made sometime in October)

I made this at my sister's house and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Apple pie is so fantastic...

#2 Two-toned cake, using a 1950's invention, The Magic Cake Pan.

This was a lot of fun. I did it for Aaron's nephew's birthday. It caused much hilarity, which was totally the point. 

Mmm... now I'm hungry for Apple Pie... maybe lasagna and apple pie tonight?

Cooking like a Tired Pregnant Lady

I would like to go on record saying that I have NO complaints about pregnancy. Seriously, I have had the easiest pregnancy I have heard of in a long time. That, however, doesn't mean it's as easy as being not pregnant. I think that's where I find the most problems, really. I tell people I am really enjoying pregnancy and that it's been very kind to me, and then they expect me to be just like when I wasn't pregnant. Not gonna happen. I have small bouts of very deep depression (thankfully they seem to last just a few days), and I am tired all. the. time. This tiredness is what is keeping me from being cooking extraordinaire that I enjoy being. It also means that once I'm done cooking something exciting I have to sit down for, like, three days...so blogging usually gets forgotten.

SO. I have gone through my trusty iPhone and found all the pictures from the last month (there are pitifully few) and am going to post them here. For therapy's sake.

Spinach, bacon, cheddar cheese Quiche. SO YUMMY. I'm making it again on friday, and this time I'm using fresh spinach (fried) and onions (fried with the spinach). It's going to be delicious. 

See? This is what I'm talking about. I have been so crazy tired, that store bought perogies (which aren't actually too bad if you get the Superstore No Name brand, weird as that seems) fried with onions and served with sour cream actually made it on to my blog. Sad day.

THIS was a yummy homemade meal. Roasted, Herb and Butter Rubbed Chicken with Cajun Fries and Peas and Corn. 

Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes, served with Beef Gravy and Fried Mushrooms. 

There you go. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm making lasagna tonight and, if I still have oomph left after that, I might post pictures. But don't hold your breath...