Friday, May 9, 2008

Basic Ice Cream Recipe/ Southern Peach Delight

So, I have been trying out ice cream recipes for the last few months and came across this gem. This is the one that I like the best and it is a good base recipe for more flavors. The recipe calls for peaches, but you could substitute any fruit or ingredients that you want. Raspberries with white and dark chocolate chunks would be good, lemon or lime, or mint chocolate chunk. You can just play around with this recipe until your butt gets as big as mine. Enjoy!

Southern Peach Delight
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. and 3 Tbs. white sugar
3-1/2 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped; (I used 1-1/2 small bags of frozen peaches half way thawed)
1-2/3 c. and 1 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
1/3 c. milk
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

In a saucepan pour in eggs, sugar, cream, milk, and salt. Cook on low, stirring with a whisk constantly (you don't want to burn the cream) until the mixture starts to thicken to a thin custard. Let cool completely in the refrigerator or freezer.While custard cools, puree' all of the fresh peaches (or if using frozen blend 1 bag of the peaches and chop the 1/2 of the other bag.As soon as the custard is cool place the peach puree' and custard in your freezer bowl. Freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Once the ice cream has thickened (almost done) pour in the remaining chopped peaches. Freeze some more and you are done. I put my ice cream in a bowl and let it freeze some more over night in my freezer. Serve as is or sprinkled with sugared pecans. So, so yummy!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Twilight Punch

Red, fruity punch, smells like Bella, looks like her blood too... :).

Ingredients:
2 liter bottle of ginger ale
64oz Cranberry Juice
46oz Pineapple juice (look for the big cans of juice)
12 oz can Frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
12 oz bag frozen strawberries or raspberries or mix of both

Start with all ingredients cold, refrigerate 24 hrs prior to mixing.
Mix everything together in a bowl and add the ginger ale last. The recipe will fill 2 extra large pitchers or 4 regular pitchers. You can also add more ginger ale, water, and/or ice to taste.

Yummy Spaghetti

All you do for my yummy spaghetti is add the following to your already prepared noodles and sauce.

Ingredients:
Olive Oil (or Vegetable Oil)
1 Red Bell Pepper, sliced into strips
1 Green Bell Pepper, sliced into strips
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, sliced into strips
1 Orange Bell Pepper, sliced into strips
1/2-1 onion sliced into strips (depends on how onion you want it)
1-2 garlic cloves minced (depends on how garlicky you want it)
1 pound Mild or Hot Italian Sausage

Preheat oven to 350. Get a cookie sheet with the high edges (not the ones with no lip on the edge). Poor a good amount of oil into the pan and place sausage on it. Rub each piece of sausage with oil, covering it. Cook in oven 20 minutes on each side (40 minutes total). When they are done slice into little circles.

Heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Add Garlic and sautée for about five minutes. Add Onion and Bell Pepper. Sautee for about 20 minutes, or until veggies are to desired consistency. Add sausage and about a cup full of sauce to deglaze the pan (mix sauce in and then rub the pan bottom to get all the nice juices up off it). Serve on top of spaghetti.

Chicken Parmagian

Here is my very easy chicken parmigian recipe.

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
Oil (veggie, olive, whatever you have!)
Mozzarella Cheese
Parmigian Cheese
PREGO Traditional Spaghetti sauce (okay, so you can use whatever kind of sauce you like, but this is my favorite)

First take the four chicken breasts and tenderize the heck out of them (I use the pointy side of the tenderizer)! Seriously, pretend it is someone you hate and pound, pound, pound. Little pieces of chicken should be flying every where. I like to cover everything around in plastic wrap and wear yucky clothes that I can immediately change from as soon as I am done. Now go take a shower, come back and finish the rest (put the chicken in the fridge first before you shower!).

Next mix the egg and milk in a bowl big enough to fit each chicken in. In the other bowl poor a shallow layer of bread crumbs. Heat on medium a good amount of oil in your skillet (you want the oil to come half way up the chicken breast). When you splash some water into the oil it should sizzle. Now, you don't want the oil to be too hot or the inside of the chicken will be raw, and the outside burnt.

Now you are ready to fry! Dip each chicken breast in the egg/milk mixture, then the bread crumbs (both sides, get it nice and covered) then into the pan. I cook mine about 7 minutes on each side. After that place the chicken in a 9*13 baking pan and cover with Mozzarella cheese. Repeat with each breast until they are all done.

Now, cover the chicken breast (that already has melted mozzarella on it) with your spaghetti sauce, making sure to cover the whole thing. The add more mozzarella cheese and some parmigian cheese. Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes (or until heated through and cheese is melted).

Yum, yum yum.....

Monday, May 5, 2008

Chicken Flautas

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

6 10-inch flour tortillas
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. cooking oil
2 c. shredded cooked chicken
1 c. canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c. salsa
1/2 c. shredded Mexican cheese
2 Tbsp. snipped fresh cilantro

Warm tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds or until heated through.
In a large saucepan, cook onion and garlic in the 1 teaspoon hot oil until tender. Stir in chicken, black beans, salsa, the cheese, and cilantro.
For each flauta, spoon about 1/2 cup filling across each warm tortilla about 1-1/2 inches from one edge. Roll up tortillas as tightly as possible. Secure with wooden toothpicks.
Place flautas on a large baking sheet and brush with 1 tablespoon cooking oil. Bake in a 350 degrees F oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and heated through. Serve as directed.
Serve with guacamole, salsa, and sour cream.

Banana Margaritas

1/2 c. lime juice
3 bananas
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. milk

Rub rims of glasses with a lime wedge and dip in sugar. Blend all ingredients together. Sometimes we add ice.