Broiled Lobster Tails

We were lucky to find some lobster tails on sale and took advantage.  The last time we tried lobster we boiled them...and failed.  I found a recipe on AllRecipes.com using spices and broiling in the oven...and scored!  I will list the recipe but our tails were a lot smaller than I think that recipe called for so I ended up wasting butter so just note to adjust based on the size of what you have; you only need enough to baste.
This mix brought an amazing taste to the lobster!
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon paprika
White pepper to taste
Salt to taste
Preheat oven on broil.
Use baking sheet (I lined with aluminum foil).
Cut tails along top, lengthwise, using shears.  To get to meat, I cut a thick line so meat was exposed.
Baste with melted butter and sprinkle with mixed spices.
Broil about 10 minutes until meat is opaque.

Everything Apple for Fall!

Haven't tried any of these recipes yet but plan to and will post! For now, check them out through link below:

Everything Apple for Fall!

Pumpkin and Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a favorite that my mom used to make.  Perect for fall time and really easy.  All I needed to pick up was pumpkin!

1 can pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 tsp milk
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

In large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg
In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt
Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture along with dissolved baking soda; mix well
Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla
Drop by spoonful on baking sheet
Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes

Note: it can be difficult to tell when the cookies are ready.  I recommend baking the full 12 minutes, let them cool and try one to determine if they should be baked less or more.

Enchilada Casserole

I found this recipe through a forum but not on Pampered Chef, although it is a recipe apparantly found in the 29 Minutes to Dinner cookbook.  Really easy and quick meal!

1 lb lean ground beef (the leaner the better since you don't drain off the fat!)
1 tbsp Southwestern Seasoning Mix (or taco seasoning)
1/4 tsp salt (add amount to preference, I eye-balled it)
1-10 oz can enchilada sauce
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup medium thick and chunky salsa
12 yellow corn tortillas
1/4 cup snipped fresh cilantro, divided
1 cup shredded Colby & Monterey Jack cheese blend, divided
sour cream and lime wedges (optional)

Combine beef, seasoning mix, and salt in 10" skillet; cook over medium-high heat 8-10 minutes or until beef is no longer pink.  Add enchilada sauce, water, and salsa; bring to a simmer and remove from heat.

As beef mixture cooks, place tortillas in a stack and cut into 1 inch pieces (easiest using a pizza cutter!).  Snip cilantro using Kitchen Shears. 

Arrange half of the tortillas evenly over bottom of the Deep Covered Baker; top with half of the beef mixture, half of the cheese, and sprinkle 2 tbsp of the cilantro over cheese.  Repeat with the tortillas, beef and cheese.

Microwave on high 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Garnish with remaining cilantro. 

Serve with sour cream and lime wedges if desired.

Grilled Chicken Penne al Fresco

MSuper easy and fairly inexpensive! Another Pampered Chef one.

4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes (I used grape)
3 cups uncooked mezze penne pasta (I used plain penne)
3 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
1/2 tsp each salt and coarsely ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves, divided
1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup packed - I used from the can)
2 cups diced grilled chicken breasts (easiest to grill before starting)

Spray Deep Covered Baker with olive oil using Kitchen Spritzer (I used can spray canola oil the first time I made this and spread coconut oil the second). Slice garlic into baker using Garlic Slicer (I smashed gloves with knife and cut into small pieces). Add tomatoes.

Cover; microwave on high 4-5 minutes or until tomatoes begin to burst (mine burst pretty quick so I just let it go the full 5 minutes), stirring after 2 minutes.

Crush tomatoes using Mix 'n Chop (if you don't have this, its a great tool!). Add pasta, broth, wine, salt, and black pepper.

Return baker to microwave; cover and microwave on high 16-18 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring after 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, coarsely chop basil with Chef's Knife. Reserve 2 tablespoons for garnish. Grate cheese using Rotary Grater.

Carefully remove baker from microwave and remove lid, lifting away from you. Add remaining basil, cheese, and chicken to baker; mix well.

Garnish with reserved basil, additional Parmesan cheese and black pepper, if desired.

** I made the mistake of using dried basil leaves, estimating the amount but I used WAY to much! I just used what I had left, which was probably about 1/4 cup, but if I were to use dried again I'd probably just sprinkle some on until it looked good! Next time I make this, I will just get fresh basil leaves.

Other notes:
If you don't want to use wine, 3/4 cup chicken broth can be substituted.

Any tube-shaped pasta requiring 9-11 minutes cook time, such as penne or rigatoni, can be substituted for the mezze penne pasta.

**update 10/5/14: this time I used cooking wine and fresh basil, great flavor!  I chopped the basil up in a kitchenaid chopper, pretty easy.  Again, too much basil for my taste so I just sprinkled it in until it looked good instead of measuring.  I'm not sure how much garlic I used the first time but today I only used 2 cloves and it was great. Three might have worked but I think 4 would have been too much.  I also used a full box of penne (more than 3 cups) and it was fine.

Cheesy Chicken Tortellini Bake

This is another Pampered Chef recipe from "Stoneware Inspirations" cookbook.  I was drawn to this because there was only a few items I didn't have already and it was pretty basic.  It was really easy and there has been lots of left-overs!  So good, definitely making it again!

Pasta mixture:
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, pressed
16 oz white Alfredo pasta sauce
2-9oz packages refrigerated cheese-filled regular or spinach tortellini
  * I found a 20 oz package of mixed tortellini that was awesome.  I almost just bought frozen but decided     against it and I think I'm glad I did.  If anyone tries this with frozen (its much cheaper), let me know how it comes out.
1-1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
  * I cooked frozen chicken tenders on the stove and cut them with kitchen shears.
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (eyeball measurement)
2 tablespoons snipped fresh basil leaves OR 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves (I'll let you guess which one I used!)

Crumb topping:
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
   * I didn't have enough left for a full 1/4 cup but couldn't tell the difference
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
   * I used 2 tblspns butter before it was melted...whoops.  It was fine.
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (I used the store brand in a can.)
   * this made more topping than I felt was needed, I recommend 3/4 cup bread crumbs.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

For pasta mixture, heat oil over medium-high heat; add onion and garlic.  Cook and stir 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender.  Stir in pasta sauce, tortellini, chicken, milk, water, peas, and black pepper (I put all of this in a bowl so I could just add it all in at once, worked nicely).  Heat until mixture just comes to a boil; remove from heat.  Stir basil into pasta mixture.

Meanwhile, for crumb topping, stir together bread crumbs, cheese, and melted butter; mix well.

Spoon past mixture into square baker (I used the deep covered baker without the cover); sprinkle with crumb topping (I didn't use all of it as it ended up being a lot!).

Bake 15-20 minutes or until edges are bubbly and topping is golden brown.

Lasagna Roll-ups

This is a Pampered Chef recipe and are actually called Pasta Roll-ups. I can't begin to tell you how delicious these are!  My husband said I could make these any time, any day...he had never given me so many compliments!  I think what makes these so wonderful is the blend of cheese.  I found this in the "Stoneware Inspirations" cookbook.

I give links of the PC tools here so that you can see what they look like; if you don't have those things, use whatever you have that is comparable! 

9 uncooked lasagna noodles
5 cups prepared Heart Meat Sauce (I just used our favorite blend of Ragu, Mama's Special Garden)
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 tblspn Pantry Italian Seasoning Mix (I used good ol' italian seasoning, store brand)
1/3 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese (I used from a can, store brand...see a pattern here?)
2 tblspn snipped fresh parsley (I used 1 tblspn dried parsley, you guessed it, store brand)
15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese (not sure I paid attention to the part-skim note but used organic brand since it was on sale)
1 egg yolk (feel the need to advertise the egg seperator here)
1/4 teaspoon salt (eyeballed this)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper (another eyeball measurement)
dash nutmeg
Additional parmesan cheese and parsley (optional) (opted out of this)

Preheat oven to 350

Cook noodles in 8-qt stockpot according to package directions; drain.  Notes: I accidently cooked 2 extra noodles and had enough cheese filling to use them!.  After draining, I laid them out on a pastry mat, which worked really well so that the noodles didn't become too dry while I was getting everything else together.

Meanwhile, combine meat sauce, tomato sauce and seasoning mix in saucepan.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10-minutes. (Basically folks...heat up the sauce)

Combine Parmesan cheese, parsley, ricotta cheese, egg yolk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in Classic Batter Bowl (this is 2 quarts or 8 cups); mix well until blended.

Using large scoop (this is a basically a cookie scoop holding about 3 tablespoons.  I used the medium scoop and overflowed scoop), place 1 scoop cheese mixture on one end of each lasagna noodle; gently roll up (roll them loosely). 

Spoon 3 cups of the sauce into square baker (I used the large bar pan here since I had extra noodles and just didn't take up the whole pan).  Place roll-ups on top of the sauce, seam side down.  Spoon remaining sauce over roll-ups. Note: I did not measure how much sauce, I just put down enough sauce to have enough left to cover it all.

Cover baker with alumuinum foil.  Bake about 40-45 minutes or until sauce is bubbly.  Remove baker from oven and carefully remove foil.  Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese and parsley if desired.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Mama's meatloaf

I title this as if its unique to me but really I've just played around with the ingrediants over the years and my last batch was pretty good so wanted to share!

1-1 1/2 lbs ground beef or turkey (or a mix of both!)
chopped red onion, amount based on preference (I eyeball this one)
green pepper (same as red onion)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
Worchestire sauce, I eyeballed this as well but I believe it was around 1-2 tsp
1 cup ketchup or BBQ sauce or 8oz tomato sauce (I usually used tomato sauce but used ketchup last time)
1 garlic clove, pressed (my newest edition...probably my best!)
salt and pepper (eyeball to your preference)

Mix all together, plop in a loaf pan, bake at 350 for about an hour, top with ketchup if desired!

Thoughts behind this blog

I'm the first to admit, I'm not exactly World's Top Chef...not even close.  I've never really enjoyed cooking; I mean all that work and its gone so quickly!  And, until recently, I just had to follow the recipe word for word because I'm a stickler for the rules.  I assumed it wouldn't come out right unless I listened to the experts writing the recipe.  Thankfully I've loosened up a bit and realized that I can make some substitutions, add a little more of this, don't add that, and cut some corners here and there.

I have to give much credit to my good friend, Amy.  She is a Pampered Chef consultant and a fantastic cook.  She's got me hooked on PC gadgets and recipe books and I am loving every minute of it!  I watched her make random adjustments and she even advertises her shortcuts in her PC shows.  I've learned a lot from her and often think to myself, "what would Amy do?"

This blog serves two purposes: to document my best recipe trials for myself and my readers and to hopefully inspire some other amateur wanna-be cooks out there like myself!  Please, please, please send me anything you want me to add on here.  This is not just for me but for all of you as well!