Breakfast Pizza

This one is easy, and really requires no cooking hardly. If you can scramble an egg, you can do it!

What you'll need:
Tortilla
Shredded Cheese
Pizza Sauce
Scrambled eggs

Scramble your eggs like normal. In a separate pan warm a tortilla on low. Spread on the sauce. Add cheese. Raise the temp a little bit so the cheese starts melting. Add the finished scrambled egg on top and let it melt into the cheese. I like it when the tortilla is slightly crisp.

You could add bacon, or even fresh spinach as well. It was fast, easy and delicious! A great afternoon snack too!

Biscuits

I don't have a "recipe" perse, just a basic way of making them.

1-2 cups of flour
2 tablespoons powdered buttermilk (optional if you use buttermilk to make)
2 teaspoons baking powder
A couple of shakes of salt
2 HEAPING tablespoons of vegetable shortening
Milk (to consistency)

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add in the shortening and then use your hands to combine it. You have enough shortening when the flour kind of holds form when you squeeze your hands together. Add milk to consistency. For a "drop" biscuit it needs to be runnier, and for a rolled out biscuit it needs to be firmer.

Also, you can add garlic powder and cheddar cheese for YUMMY biscuits (and dill!)!

Chicken a La King

Can y'all tell I make a lot of chicken?

This is something that Carl requested from me, so, I guess I had to cook it, eh?

You will need:

2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 can chicken stock
frozen veggies of your choice
onion
garlic
biscuit mix (Or my recipe for biscuits!)
Shredded cheese (optional)
Cornstarch for a slurry

Start off by sauteing your onion in a little olive oil. Add salt and pepper. While it's sauteing, cut your chicken into bite sized pieces. Toss with the onion, and let brown. You want it to be MOSTLY done, but not dry. Once it's mostly done, add your frozen veggies. I added about 2 cups of veggies, one of corn and one of pees (it's also good with fresh carrots!). Let that cook a minute, then add in the stock. Make a cornstarch flurry and add in. Bring to a low boil.

Meanwhile, make your biscuit dough. You want to make a "drop" biscuit consistency.

Pour the chicken mixture into a baking dish. Spoon big biscuits on top. Put in the middle of a preheated 400 degree oven.

Bake until the biscuits are mostly browned. Add shredded cheese (optional) and bake until bubbly. Enjoy!

Mustard Chicken

I know it doesn't sound all the delicious... but it is.

I got a 10 pound bag of Chicken Thighs and Legs for .48 cents a pound the other day. I get real bored just breading them and baking them though, so last night I decided to try something different.

I squeezed about a fourth of a cup of dijion mustard, another fourth of a cup of white wine, and two tablespoons or so of olive oil into a bowl. Then I added dill, garlic and pepper and mixed it up. It stays well homogenized because of the mustard. I salted the chicken, and dipped it in.

I baked the chicken at 450 for an hour. Half way through I spooned the rest of the mustard mixture over the chicken.

It was amazing. Quick, easy, and yummy!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Yum.

That's all you have to say about this recipe. It's amazing. It needs to have a monument.

CRUST:
1 package of graham crackers (know how they come 3 to a box? You want 1/3 of a box)
1 stick of butter
2 tablespoons sugar

FILLING:
2 eight ounce packages of SOFTENED cream cheese
2 eggs
3/4 of a LARGE can of pumpkin (don't ask me how many ounces it is, there are 2 sizes, get the big one.)
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cinnamon & Nutmeg to taste

Crush up your graham crackers and add in 1 stick of melted butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mix well. Press into a springform pan OR a pie pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

You need to let your cream cheese sit on the counter for a few hours. Or stick it in the microwave for 45 seconds.... but it doesn't work AS well. So let it sit on the counter. Add it to a bowl, with the sugar, and beat on high until its well mixed. Add in one egg at a time and make sure its incorporated well, then add in the pumpkin. Get over the willies of tasting something with raw egg and taste it to make sure that there is enough pumpkin flavor for you. I made mine with like 20 ounces of pumpkin and it STILL wasn't very strong!

Once you're happy with the pumpkin, add in spices to taste. Pour onto the cooled crust.

Bake in a 325 degree oven. I added in a big dish of water (because the pie pan was too big to fit IN a pan of water). I baked mine for around 50ish minutes. If it still jiggles a TINY bit in the middle, thats okay. It'll set up in the fridge.

Chill as long as you can stand it. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

I made this for our churchs Thanksgiving Brunch recently, and got a request for the recipe, plus, my foodie buddy wanted it as well! I got the inspiration from Bobby Flays throwdown with my fav Ree Drummond!

You will need: (Makes a roasting pan full!)

Bread (I used the ends of loaves, for my recipe I used 2 hamburger buns and around 4-5 slices of bread)
3-5 large eggs (depending on how much bread you use)
Milk
Vanilla
Sugar
Pumpkin

Start off by setting your bread out on the counter a few hours before you want to make it. Overnight works as well. You want your bread to get stale. Now, I didn't have that much time, so I cut it up into chunks and then put it in the oven on 350 for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly. You want it to be dried out and crusty (but not burnt. Mine was burnt. Yeah, I suck at making anything bread related... just a hint: DON'T get all impatient and turn the broiler on and then start washing dishes... bad idea)

If you're using about as much bread as me (and my recipe makes a large roasting pan full) you want to add around 5 eggs. Beat the eggs until they are well scrambled, add a couple of splashes of milk (I really have no idea how much I added. A half of cup maybe?), 2/3 a cup of sugar (or a little more if you like it sweeter), and a good splash of vanilla. Whip until well incorporated. Now you're going to add your pumpkin. I used about 3/4 of a can of pumpkin (15oz can). I didn't find it to be highly pumpkiny. If you want more pumpkin flavor, use the whole can. It'll take a little bit to get it incorporated with the eggs and such. Once it is, mix with the bread. If your bread is not well coated, or soaked with the mixture, then add some more custard liquid (I just beat 1 egg and milk and a teaspoonish of sugar in a separate bowl and then added to the bread mixture).

Put in a greased pan, and bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees. Once the custard is set (its no longer jiggly) its done! You can serve with a caramel sauce (or even a caramel whiskey sauce!) for even more deliciousness!

Bacon, Leeks and Pasta

Yuuuuuummy.

Whenever I buy an ingredient that I'm not QUITE sure how to use... I always go to Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman's) cooking blog. I LOVE her recipes. I desperately want the time and energy to make her cinnamon rolls.

Anyway. I digress.

So, I bought Leeks yesterday at the store, got home and went... "Mmmmhmm...so... how do I fix these?" So I went to her site and found THIS recipe.

Great! Except I didn't have pancetta. Or cream. Or white wine.

NO MATTER! I created my own recipe!

You will need:
1-2 Leeks
Bacon
Buter (honestly, can I make anything without it?)
Garlic
Parmesan Cheese
Pasta (I used fettuccine)
Reserved Pasta water

Cut the bacon up into little pieces, and begin frying it. No oil needed. Begin chopping the leeks. Use the white to light green parts, and I just sliced it up, then separated the rounds. Chop 1 clove (or more if you want it), of garlic.

Add garlic and leeks to the pan once the bacon is browned slightly. Begin cooking your pasta. Add salt and pepper to the leek mixture (easy on the salt....bacon + parmesan cheese means you won't need a lot). Continue cooking leeks and bacon on low until the pasta is done (and the leeks are softened). Add pasta, 1-2 handfuls of shredded parmesan cheese, about 3 tablespoons of butter. Mix well. Add a little bit of the pasta water to thin out the sauce if needed.

Top with Parmesan cheese shavings (which you make with a veggie peeler and a block of Parm).

ENJOY.