Jalapeño Popper Dip

It's all about football in our house on this overcast Sunday. Hubby got up early to watch the Packers and Bears play, but he will miss the Steelers and Jets game later because he has to go to work. He's a huge Steelers fan, so Hubby isn't happy he has to go to work and miss his team play. Frankly, I couldn't care less about the Packers/Bears game, but after watching the Dennis Byrd clip on Sportscenter this morning, I'm rooting for the Jets. Hubby isn't happy about this, so I made him jalapeño popper dip to appease him a little bit. I think he's forgotten all his anger, as right now he's got a bit of dip on his chin . . . Happy football day!

Jalapeño Popper Dip

*From Tasty Kitchen

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 4-ounce can chopped green chilies, drained

5 jalapeños, seeded and diced (or sub two 4-ounce cans of diced jalapeños, drained)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400º. Stir together sour cream, cream cheese, and mayo in a large bowl until combined.

Finely chop jalapeños.

Add green chilies and jalapeños to cream cheese mixture and stir.

Add Panko and parmesan cheese in a small bowl and mix to combine.

Pour cream cheese mixture into an oven safe dish.

Sprinkle Panko mixture on top.

Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes, then put it under the broiler for 1-3 minutes to brown the top.

Serve with chips, pita chips, crackers, veggies, and bread. Enjoy!

Black Bean Mac & Cheese

I love macaroni and cheese. I prefer to make it myself or I ramp up the blue box stuff by adding sharp cheddar, black pepper, and ground mustard and topping it with breadcrumbs before sticking it under the broiler. It's a quick fix for my constant cheese cravings, but I usually feel guilty after I eat it. There's not much in the way of health benefits to gooey cheese and pasta. But when you add black beans, well, the guilt factor definitely goes down! I was terrified as I was adding the black beans to this. I kept thinking I was messing up my yummy mac & cheese. But it ended up being really yummy! I won't always make my mac this way, but I will occasionally add some hot sauce, black beans, and cilantro to my blue box mac.

Black Bean Mac & Cheese

1 box of mac and cheese (or make your own)

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 teaspoon of hot sauce (or to taste)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Chopped cilantro for topping

Make the mac according to the package directions. Turn the burner to low, stir in shredded cheddar and allow to melt. Meanwhile, heat your drained and rinsed black beans in the microwave until warmed through (a minute and a half should do it). Add hot sauce to the mac. Gently stir in black beans. Serve with chopped cilantro sprinkled on top. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Swirl Cake

I love all things cinnamon. For me, the sweetness of sugar isn't necessarily a craveable thing, but the bite of cinnamon is something I physically need. Seriously. And go figure, I would desperately crave cinnamon when the hubby is sick, so I spent most of second half of the day baking this cake while he was in bed moaning and groaning about his tummy. (I say that like he's being a big baby because I like to tease him, but really Hubby is a trooper when he's sick.) Anyway, back to the food. This cake is rich, completely unhealthy, and very yummy. I think my only change would be to the basic cinnamon frosting I made for it. Next time, I will use a cream cheese glaze so that the frosting doesn't overpower the cake.

Oh, I used my Nana's bundt pan to make this recipe.

I had an overwhelming sense of her being tickled to see me use it, just like I feel whenever I use one of her old pans. She would be so happy to see me cooking like I am! And she would have loved some of these recipes. I miss her so much.

Cinnamon Swirl Cake

Cake:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

Swirl:

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

Cinnamon frosting:

2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 325º. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Combine cinnamon and brown sugar for the swirl and set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition.

Stir in vanilla.

Add in sour cream and flour mixture, a little at a time. Mix just enough to fully incorporate the flour.

Spread half the batter into into the prepared bundt pan.

Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture into the pan, leaving only a small amount for the top.

*Next time I will sprinkle a small amount of the cinnamon mixture into the bottom of the bundt pan first and then add the rest to the middle, as the bottom of the bundt pan is actually the top of the cake.

Add the rest of the batter.

Top with any remaining cinnamon mixture. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting the pan.

For the frosting: Cream together butter, sifted confectioner's sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Add in milk, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. Beat until fluffy. Top the warm cake with frosting and serve.

This is also delicious heated up with your morning coffee! Enjoy!

Creamy Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas

Whenever my mom makes enchiladas, she makes my brother do the "enchilada dance." Imagine a 6'3", 120 pound special needs kid dancing around in his rather spastic way and giggle a little because he can be so stinking funny and he'll do just about anything for enchiladas. Now, I'm sure my mom's enchiladas are delicious, but I don't eat them because they have ground beef in them, and I have been participating in a ground beef boycott for many years. Not that I have a political issue with ground beef, but it's yucky, so we don't get along. NO ground beef! But when someone does the enchilada dance, you have to make the enchiladas, so what do you do when you refuse to eat the ground up moos? (Moos are cows, in case you didn't spend your childhood hanging out with little Hubby.) You find a recipe for creamy green chili chicken enchiladas from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Oh yum. This is my new favorite enchilada recipe! Chicken, green chilies, black beans, and a creamy green chili sauce? Oh yum. Again. You should make this now, because it's amazing. Trust me. And thanks Mel's Kitchen Cafe!

Update: I've been making this recipe for years now and have edited it a bit as I've seen fit. My whole family LOVES this dish. The 4-year-old and the 1-year-old scarf this down. It's delicious. I really love to serve it with a light salad and some Mexican rice. Yum!

Creamy Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas

*Slightly adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Filling:

3 cups cooked, chopped chicken

2 4-ounce cans whole green chilies, lightly drained and diced

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, cubed

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

Handful of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1/2 of a lime

Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons flour

2/3 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 7-ounce cans green enchilada sauce

2/3 cup sour cream

2-3 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

8-10 soft taco size flour tortillas

Fresh chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 375º. In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, green chilies, lime juice, and cilantro. Mix well.

Add the chicken and black beans. Mix to combine and set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for 5-6 minutes until translucent, then add flour and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in chicken broth and milk. Cook until the mixture has thickened, about 2-3 minutes.

Remove the skillet from heat and stir in sour cream and enchilada sauce. Spray a 4-quart (or 15x10 inch) baking dish with cooking spray. Spread about 1 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the dish. Fill each tortilla with about 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture.

Top with a small handful of cheese. Save about 1 cup of cheese for the top of the enchiladas. Roll the tortilla up and place it seam side down in the baking dish. Continue filling the enchiladas until the dish is full. You might have some leftover filling, which is good with tortilla chips! Pour the white sauce over the top of the enchiladas.

Top with remaining cheese and bake for 30 minutes until hot and bubbling. Broil for a few minutes to brown up the cheese. Sprinkle fresh cilantro over the top and serve. Enjoy!

Chicken Breasts Diable

Hubby chose this recipe from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan and when I saw the title, I expected it to be spicy. This is delicious, but it's definitely not spicy. According to Dorie, diable, which means "devil" in French, means there will be mustard in the dish, and dijon is about as spicy as it gets in French cuisine. The lack of spice didn't mean a lack of flavor, however. This was very good and so easy. From skillet to plate it took less than 30 minutes and Hubby loved the dish. We will be making this one again and again!

Chicken Breasts Diable

*From Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

4 chicken breasts, pounded lightly, at room temperature

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 medium shallot, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1/3 cup dry white wine

*(I used chicken stock because we drank all the wine the night before . . . )

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons dijon mustard

1-2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 200º. Pack the chicken breasts dry. Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and add butter and olive oil. When the butter is melted, add chicken to the pan. Cook until well browned, about 4 minutes each side. Add a small amount of oil to the pan if it dries out. Cut a breast to make sure it's fully cooked, transfer to a baking dish or rimmed plate, season with salt and pepper, cover with a foil tent, and keep it warm in the oven while you prepare the sauce.

Lower the heat to medium, toss the shallot and garlic into the pan and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Cook, stirring, until just softened, about 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and stir it around to pick up the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for a few seconds.

Pour in the heavy cream. As soon as it reaches a boil, stir in the mustard and worcestershire sauce. Taste and add more pepper, mustard, or worcestershire sauce, depending on taste.

Remove chicken from oven. Pour any juices on the plate into the sauce and stir again. Serve the chicken with the sauce and enjoy!

French Bread Baguettes

After our trip to France, Nick and I have been obsessed with finding bread that is similar to what we had while there. Every meal in France includes a basket of bread for the table. It's amazing. And impossible to replicate. I haven't given up yet, but I don't have high hopes for finding a recipe and technique that measures up to a real French baguette. I don't want to sell this recipe short, because it was very good. The flavor was great and the texture was great, but it wasn't a French baguette. It didn't have the crusty crust or the air-pocketed interior we came to expect in our bread. As a first try, it wasn't bad and I will definitely make it again, but without the hope that it will match up to the multitude of bread we consumed in France.

French Bread Baguettes

*Bread machine recipe

1 1/8 cups water, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

3 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons wheat germ (this can be found in the cereal aisle)

1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Cornmeal for dusting

Place all ingredients, except cornmeal, in the order listed in your bread machine fitted with a paddle attachment. Select the dough program and push start, which will mix, knead, and allow the dough to rise.

When cycle is completed, remove the dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Punch to deflate and let rest for 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a long narrow baguette and place on a baking sheet that has been dusted with cornmeal. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 30 to 40 minutes in a warm place. While the baguettes rise, place a pan of hot water on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 425º.

Dust dough gently with additional flour. Using a serrated knife, make 4 diagonal slashes in each loaf, about 1/4-inch deep. Bake bread in a preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes until browned and hollow sounding when tapped. Cool on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely, slice, and enjoy!

Leek and Potato Soup and an ASPCA Donation

For Christmas, my wonderful hubby bought me Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, Around My French Table. I think I've paged through it about 10 times since Christmas, and I want to make every single recipe in the book. Today I decided it was time to try one out, so I chose a simple soup recipe. According to Dorie, "Soups don't get simpler or more French than leek and potato." Amen. The best part about this one is that, while it's amazing as is, it's also a great base to add other ingredients, such as fennel (which I'm going to try next time), spinach, watercress, corn, or chicken. All I needed was a baguette and some good French wine and I could have closed my eyes and imagined we were back in Paris at a café watching the beautiful people strolling along the Rue Cler. Ah, l'amour.

Another reason I chose to make a soup recipe is to support Branny Boils Over in her Charity Souper Bowl in the month of January. Every link to a soup recipe made by a participant means she will donate $1 to the ASPCA. I'll be making a few soup recipes this month and I will also be donating to the ASPCA to help in the contribution. So, in the spirit of the Charity Souper Bowl, here is the leek and potato soup recipe, which I am dedicating to our fur babies, Gus and Joey.

Leek and Potato Soup

*From Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Salt and white pepper (I had black and it worked just fine)

3 leeks, white and light green parts only, split lengthwise, washed, and thinly sliced

(I only had 2 leeks, so I added 3 extra potatoes)

1 large russet potato, peeled and cubed

6 thyme sprigs

2 fresh sage leaves (optional)

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups whole milk

Melt the butter in a dutch oven or soup pot over low heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir until they glisten with butter, then season with salt and pepper.

Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until the onion is soft but not colored. Add in potatoes and leeks.

Pour in milk and chicken broth.

Add thyme, sage, and a little more salt.

Increase the heat and bring the soup to a boil. As soon as the soup bubbles, reduce heat to low. Cover the pot, cracking the lid a little bit and simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft. Taste and season generously with salt and pepper.

At this point, you have a few choices: you can ladle the soup into bowls as is, or you can mash the vegetables, which is what I chose to do with an immersion blender.

Garnish with parsley and enjoy!

Oatmeal Cookies

What do you do when you have a craving for pumpkin oatmeal cookies at 9pm? You make them, of course! However, although you thought you bought a million cans of pumpkin purée, it turns out that you are fresh out of that rather important ingredient. So now what do you do? Because you are incredibly stubborn and one-minded about food cravings, you make regular oatmeal cookies and hope for the best. And these were pretty close to the best. Full of cinnamon, chewy and a little crispy, these little cookies are delicious! I opted not to put any nuts or raisins (we all know how I feel about those yucky little things) in the cookies, so they truly are a pure and simple oatmeal cookie. And that's what I love about them!

Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or do 3/4 cup all-purpose and 1/2 cup bread flour so the cookies don't flatten out as much)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I used 2 1/2 teaspoons because I love cinnamon!)

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

*I put a few chocolate chips on one batch of cookies and didn't like the outcome. Chocolate and cinnamon weren't a good match here.

Preheat the oven to 325º. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Gradually add this to the butter mixture. Mix in the oats and nuts (if using) until just blended. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased or Silpat-lined cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

Mmm, breakfast!