Chicken with Peach and Melon Salsa

So as I was surfing the foodnetwork website for some ideas on what to cook that week, I came across this recipe. Let me tell you, it is soooo good! Chris was a little sketchy at first with the fruit salsa, but even after all the chicken was gone he ate it with chips, cause it's so tasty!

It's a really, really easy recipe, if you can't find jerk seasoning (which I couldn't) then just get some good chicken seasoning, and I doubled the recipe for the salsa. Also, you can just find a pre-cut melon medley for like 2 bucks ready to go at walmart.

Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can peach halves, drained and rinsed
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 teaspoons Jamaican Jerk seasoning
1 cup pre-cut melon medley, diced
1 tablespoon diced pimientos
1 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat.
Place peaches halves on grill pan and grill 2 to 3 minutes per side. Set aside to cool and then dice into small pieces.
Season both sides of each chicken breast with 1 teaspoon Jamaican jerk seasoning. Place chicken breasts in pan and grill for 6 minutes per side, or until cooked through.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine grilled peaches and remaining ingredients. Stir thoroughly.
Serve chicken topped with peach and melon salsa.

French Onion Soup

I just this soup yesterday. I love it! And the best part of it is that my house smells like onions for the night!!

French Onion Soup
(Pampered Chef)

Soup:
4 large onions
¼ cup butter or margarine
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
8 cups reduced-sodium beef broth
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Croutons:
8 1-inch-thick French bread slices
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese


Preheat oven to 400°F.

For soup:
Slice onions. Melt butter over medium heat; add onions and sugar. Cook and stir 15-18 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are tender and golden brown. Stir in flour and salt. Gradually add beef broth; bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Cover; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Pour into soup bowls, put French bread on top, sprinkle (I use much more than a sprinkle) on cheese and broil until cheese is melted.

Sharon's Meatloaf

I hate meatloaf. Well, until I ate my mother-in-law's. It's pretty good. In fact, it's the only meatloaf I'll eat. I just made it the other day, and it was good.

Sharon's Meatloaf

2 lbs. Hamburger
1 package of Mrs. Cubbison’s bread stuffing
1 egg
½ cup chopped celery
Small onion, chopped

Mix all ingredients together until the loaf is firm. Shape and place into a pan. Bake at 350 for 1-1½ hours.

Eat.

Tagliatelle Contadina

Don't be intimidated by the ingredients, it's a really easy and delicious dish!! Of course, my family, being who they are, doesn't like pasta (unless it's spaghetti...). My aunt was stationed in Italy (her husband is now a General in the Air Force, congrats) for 3 years or something and she picked up this recipe...or I got it from Martha Stewart, I have a similar one and can't remember which goes to whom. But I'm pretty sure this is my aunt Yvonne's. Not positive though.

Tagliatelle Contadina

4 fresh sage leaves (I usually put in a few pinches of dried sage)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary (again dried)
2- 4 oz. hot Italian sausages
3- 4 oz. sweet Italian sausages
3 Tbs. olive oil (I use only 1-1½ )
¾ cup plus 2 Tbs. heavy cream
3 roma tomatoes, diced
¼ cup frozen peas
2 tsp. butter
Salt
Pepper
¾ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 lb. fresh tagliatelle , linguine or fettuccine
¼ tsp. crushed red-pepper flakes

Boil water and some salt. Remove casings from sausage and brown over medium heat in olive oil. Add sage, rosemary, ¾ cup cream, and tomatoes to the sausage. Cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add peas, and cook, 1 minute. Add butter, and gently stir until incorporated. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and the remaining 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Add pasta to boiling water. Drain immediately and add to sauce. Toss well and serve with garlic bread or whatever.

Razz-Ma-Tazz Bars

I used to make these ALL the time for a guy at Brian's old work!! He loved them! And I love them too! Somehow, the white chocolate (which I generally don't like, as a rule) is not too prominent a flavor as it is in other baked goods. Anyway, I love these bar cookie things. And I think I got the recipe off the back of a Nestle package, not sure though.

Razz-Ma-Tazz Bars

½ cup butter
2 cups white chocolate chips
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 cup flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. almond extract
½ cup raspberry jam
¼ cup toasted, sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and SUGAR a 9” square baking pan. Melt butter and add 1 cup of chips and let stand; do not stir. Beat eggs in bowl until foamy. Add sugar and beat until lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in morsel/butter mixture. Add flour, salt and extract; mix until combined. Spread 2/3rds in pan and bake for 15-17 minutes or until light golden brown around edges. Heat jam and spread over warm crust, stir remaining chips into remaining batter and drop onto jam. Sprinkle with almonds and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool on wire rack and cut into bars.

Parmesan-crusted pork chops

This is one of my favorite recipes. It is SOOOOO good. And super fast and super easy. Here is the link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/parmesan-crusted-pork-chops-recipe/index.html
Parmesan-Crusted Pork Chops
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Prep Time:
15 min
Cook Time:
12 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
4 servings
Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup dried Italian-style bread crumbs
3/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan
4 (1/2 to 3/4-inch thick) center-cut pork loin chops (each about 10 to 12 ounces)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil
Lemon wedges, for serving

Instructions
Whisk the eggs in a pie plate to blend. Place the bread crumbs in another pie plate. Place the cheese in a third pie plate. Sprinkle the pork chops generously with salt and pepper. Coat the chops completely with the cheese, patting to adhere. Dip the chops into the eggs, then coat completely with the bread crumbs, patting to adhere. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a very large skillet over medium heat. Add pork chops, in batches if necessary, and cook until golden brown and the center reaches 150 degrees, about 6 minutes per side. Transfer the chops to plates and serve with lemon wedges.
Copyright 2009 Television Food Network G.P., All Rights Reserved

Pickled Asparagus Rolls

My sister-in-law introduced me to these - and I ate almost the whole plate. They are seriously delicious and wickedly addictive.

a jar of pickled asparagus - not regular mushy asparagus, but pickled
1 pkg of cream cheese, softened
about 1 lb. ham slices (honey, hickory, whatever)

Spread a thinnish layer of cream cheese on a ham slice and place an asparagus spear at one end. Roll tightly. Repeat. Then cut each roll into thirds. You can make these the night before and they keep nicely.

Texas Caviar

This isn't real caviar, so don't worry!! BUT, it is a fantastic dip for good old tostitos (sometimes, I just eat it with a spoon, it's so good)! I LOVE it!

Texas Caviar-

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed with cold water
1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed with cold water
1 can corn niblets (I just use normal corn)
1 jar pimentos, chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 cup scallion, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2-3/4 cup oil (I don't always use that much)

Chop all those thing that need to be chopped and rinse your beans. Boil sugar, vinegar and oil until sugar is dissolved. Pour in onto everything else and refrigerate. You can substitute chickpeas or black beans for the black-eyed ones if you want. And white beans for the pinto.

BBQ Chicken

I don't have a picture of this (or really much of a recipe), so I'll just tell you how I do BBQ chicken. And maybe this is a well known way of preparing BBQ chicken and I just found out.

First, I get bone-in thighs and legs (they don't dry out). I've found that Tyson chicken is the largest and most juicy. So, you take a ton of mustard (which I hate-mustard in general) and rub it ALL over the chicken. Make sure you get under the skin and everything. Let this sit for an hour or two. Then bake the chicken for ten minutes at 300. Take it out and pour BBQ sauce all over it (I usually skip the pre-baking step...don't tell Brian). Now, we use the best BBQ sauce EVER! Head Country. Only made in OK. In fact, if we ever move, I'll be buying tons of it before we go (now that I think about it, it might be available in some parts of the west). After slathering the chicken with sauce, you can either continue baking in the oven (I don't know how long, an hour maybe?) or you can grill it-I'm not the griller in the family, so I don't know how long that takes.

Anyway, this chicken is great and really quite easy!! Serve it with whatever. Leftovers are quite good in bbq chicken salad. Or just plain salad with some ranch.

Peanut Butter Cookies

My absolute FAVORITE cookie is the peanut butter cookie!! And the perfect way to have them is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside (although I prefer every cookie that way, so...). I made them tonight because Brian isn't home and he dislikes them. All the more for me, yay!!

This recipe makes the best peanut butter cookie I've had. And of course, I got it from my mom. Somehow, she can always make the cookie look perfect-I have yet to perfect that...I'll get there though, even if it takes me 20" (on my waist....or thighs I suppose, but most likely waist). And I have no idea of the caloric intake of each cookie, because while I am relishing every single crumb, the thought is far from my mind (until I look at the scale the next day).

Peanut Butter Cookies

½ cup butter or margarine
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup peanut butter
1 egg
½ tsp. Vanilla
1¼-cup flour
¾ tsp. Baking soda
¼ tsp. Salt

Thoroughly cream butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture. Shape in 1-inch balls; Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Press gently with floured fork tines to make a crisscross on the top of each cookie. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from pan. Makes 4 dozen. I usually cook them for only ten minutes. That makes a perfect crunchy outside and chewy inside.

They look a little pale, but that was the flash on the camera.

On a side note, I found this interesting website on peanuts and...did you know that you press the crisscross pattern into the cookies because it more evenly distributes the dense dough? I always wondered that. And now I know.

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/recipes/peanutrecipes.html

Let me know if you decide to make any of the peanut recipes in the above link (it's the "105 Ways to Use the Peanut" section. I'm curious to try a few, but don't have the guts.