Au Gratin Broccoli and Cauliflower

My husband hates vegetables. I have to act more like his mom at the table than a mom to my 3 kids when it comes to vegetables. He would tell you otherwise, but it's true.
I spotted this recipe today from the Sister's Cafe and it looked great. I'm always on a hunt to serve up veggies in a different way. Even Josh loved this!!!

16 oz fresh broccoli and cauliflower florets
1/2 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese *I used mild, didn't have sharp
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
3 green onions, sliced *I didn't use green onions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp ground red cayenne pepper
1 T Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp paprika
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together mayonnaise, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, green onions, garlic, mustard and red pepper; set aside. Cover and steam florets 6-8 minutes until crisp tender. Drain well. Arrange florets in baking dish. Spoon cheese mixture over florets. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and paprika. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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And I'm back...

So last time I said I was done hibernating...I guess I wasn't. This time, it's for reals.
I'm back to cooking. And it feels good.
I'm trying out some new stuff.

Tonight I made these recipes from The Pioneer Woman Cooks (HUGE fan of hers):
she has pictures on her blog so I won't post any here- plus we all ate it too fast to take a pic!
Try these ones out. She was right- these two dishes go perfectly together. Yum. Yum.

Fluffy New Potatoes
9 or 10 medium to large new potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup sour cream
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1½ cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 garlic clove, pressed
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Rinse and dry the potatoes, then place them on a baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes and massage to coat. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Place the sour cream, cream cheese, Monterey Jack, chives, garlic, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Cut each potato in half lengthwise.
With a spoon scoop out inside of the potatoes, leaving a very thin rim of potato inside the skin. Add the potato pulp to the mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Using a fork, gently mash the ingredients together until fluffy and smooth. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells.

Bake the potatoes in a 375 degree oven until thoroughly warmed through. The potatoes will soften, “melt”, and fill the potato shells as they bake. It took mine about 20ish minutes- I just watched them.

Ranch Style Chicken

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
Thick cut bacon
Bacon grease
HoneyDijon Mustard
Lemon juice
Paprika
Crushed Red Pepper (optional)
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Canola oil
To begin, mix together 1/2 cup Dijon or country/grainy mustard with 1/2 cup honey. Add juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne if you like things a little spicy.
Whisk it together until smooth.
Next, rinse the chicken breasts under cool water and pat them dry.
Pound the chicken breasts so they have a more uniform thickness, which means they’ll cook more evenly and won’t be dry around the edges.
Place one chicken breast between two sheets of waxed paper…
Lightly pat the waxed paper so it adheres to the chicken. With a mallet or a rolling pin (you can also use a heavy can!) lightly pound the chicken breast so that the thickness is uniform. By the time it all evens up, it’s usually around 1/2 to 3/4″ thick.
Next, just add all the chicken to the bowl with the marinade. You’ll want to cover this with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the fridge for at least an hour.
While the chicken is marinating, go ahead and fry up some bacon:
any kind of bacon will do; just keep in mind that the bacon will eventually go into the oven, so you don’t want to get it too crisp in the skillet.
Next, and this is important, reserve 1/4 cup of the bacon grease, and go ahead and clean out the skillet. Otherwise, it’ll get too smoky.
When you’re ready to prepare the chicken, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Remove the chicken from the fridge and pour off excess marinade into the sink. Heat half of the reserved bacon grease with an equal quantity of Canola Oil in the clean skillet over medium-high to high heat. (We want to sear the chicken, not cook it completely.) When the grease is sufficiently heated, add a batch of chicken to the skillet. Don’t overcrowd the skillet—just 3 pieces is usually enough.
Watch the chicken, and when it starts to get brown/black on one side…
Flip it to the other side. Cook just until brown/blackish areas appear. Each side should cook for a maximum of 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.
Repeat with all the chicken breasts, then set them on a large baking sheet. If you look a little closer, you’ll notice the chicken is definitely not fully cooked.
Go ahead and throw the pan of chicken into the hot oven for about ten minutes to continue cooking. Then remove the pan from the oven…
And lay a couple of bacon slices over each chicken breast.
Next, grab some grated sharp cheddar and sprinkle it over the top as generously as you’d like.
Just return the pan to the oven for an additional five minutes, or until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling.
Then serve immediately…

Next I plan to make these recipes. I'll let you know how they go.
Oh and I also made these but made them cookies instead of bars. Really good.

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What I'll be serving...

*****Edit: The barbecue was a hit. My SIL and MIL ended up bringing over a bloomin onion maker and a deep fryer for the onion rings and here's how they turned out. They tasted divine. I made some fry sauce (mayo & ketchup mixed) to eat with them. YUM YUM. And we had Angel Lush for dessert. We were STUFFFFFFED.

For Father's Day this year I wanted Josh to feel extra special (first year without his dad) so I've set up a barbecue for him with his whole family. His favorite genre of food would have to be steak (ironically my least favorite) so I set out on a mission to find a good recipe for cowboy steak. I think I have a winner in this one. SO here is my Father's Day suggestion (NOTE- it is not tried and true yet):

Cowboy Steak & Onion Rings, found here
courtesy of Coyote Cafe

4 rib eye steak, 1 1/2 inch thick bone-in (or t-bone steaks)
4 onions, cut into rings, 1/8th inch thick
3 cups milk
3 cups flour
1/2 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons paprika (hot Hungarian is best)
vegetable oil(for deep frying the onion rings)
salt and pepper salt and pepper
Directions
Bring steaks to room temperature before grilling.
Soak onions in milk for one hour, drain.
In a large bowl or pie pan mix together flour, chili powder, cornstarch, salt, cumin, sugar and paprika.
Dredge onions in flour mixture, shaking off any excess.
Heat oil in a large heavy frying pan (cast iron works well) and heat to 360-degrees F.
Add onions in batches, cooking until golden brown --BE CAREFUL - they cook fast (30-45 seconds). Transfer onion rings to paper towels to drain off excess grease.
Meanwhile, season steaks with salt and pepper and place in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Cook about 7-10 minutes per side, pouring off excess fat before turning. Finish cooking steaks on the grill (or skip the frying step and just grill steaks to desired doneness (10 minutes per side).
Serve steaks with onion rings, baked potatoes and salsa, or as desired.

My in-laws are bringing other parts of the meal. But dessert will either be this or this.
What will you be serving?

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Cafe Rio Recipes

~Final product~
~Cilantro-lime rice~

***FINALLY made this dinner again tonight. It was heavenly!***
(substituted chicken instead of pork)

I originally got these recipes from Kelly awhile back before I knew who Kelly was. But I knew I liked Cafe Rio and that my brother wanted nothing more for Christmas than a Cafe Rio gift card. SO I figured getting the recipes would be a good thing. Boy was I right. They are not for the beginner cook- I mean, not hard really but just a long process I would say. But the end result was supreme. It was great to serve for my scrapbook group as I broke the cardinal rule of "don't offer food that you've never cooked before." I hadn't tried these recipes out but they served me well anyway.

Cafe Rio Dressing & Sweet Pork
1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)
2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green Tabasco for the jalapeno.)
Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate.* be warned... this makes a ton of dressing, but it will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
3-4 lbs pork roast (can substitute chicken)
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups salsa

*Mix ingredients in a crock pot and let cook for 10 hours on low.
Once you've made the dressing, pork, rice & beans, it's almost time to eat. But you still have to assemble the salad. Start with a tortilla (we used the disposable aluminum pie tins, but you could use a bowl), then layer on cooked beans, rice, romaine lettuce, pork, dressing, and any of your favorite toppings: pico de gallo, guacamole, tortilla strips, cheese, cilantro & lime.

Cilantro-lime rice & black beans
Cilantro-Lime Rice
1 cup uncooked rice
1 teaspoon butter or margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, lime peel, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice.

Black Beans
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 cup tomato juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

In a nonstick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro

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Simple Popovers

I got this recipe from Everybody Likes Sandwiches (great foodie blog btw). It's meant for breakfast but I thought I'd try it out for a side dish. It was great with strawberry jam. Very light and simple. Nothing too fancy shmancy.

2 eggs

1 c skim milk

1 T butter, melted

1 c minus 2 T flour

1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously oil up 10 cups in a 12 cup muffin tin and add the greased tin to the oven to get hot. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, milk and melted butter together. Add in flour and salt and whisk until combined but still slightly lumpy. Remove hot muffin tray from oven and pour batter in each cup halfway. Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden brown and puffy. Remove from oven and serve warm with preserves and fresh fruit.

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Home Run Garlic Rolls

Home Run Garlic Rolls
taken from EAT magazine

Easy (takes a bit of time for the rising of the rolls) and delish on the side with just about anything!

1 16 oz. loaf frozen white or whole wheat bread dough (I used Rhodes rolls), thawed
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

Lightly grease at 9x13 pan, set aside. Shape dough into 24 balls, place in prepared pan. Cover, let rise in warm place until nearly double (1 1/2-2 hours)
Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, stir together melted butter and garlic. Brush butter mix over rolls. Sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden. Remove rolls from pans and cool slightly on wire rack. Serve warm. Makes 24 rolls.

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Tomato Basil & Mozzarella Crostini

Recent addition to our tried and trues thanks to EAT magazine. So good.........


1 8 oz. loaf French bread
2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
ground black pepper
4 oz. fresh mozarella, thinly sliced
24 red and or yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
snipped or shredded fresh basil
olive oil
salt
fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 425. For crostini, cut French bread into 1/2 inch thick slices. Lightly brush both sides of each bread slice with oil. Sprinkle with pepper. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 5-7 mins or until crisp and light brown, turning once.Top crostini with mozarella slices, tomato halves, and basil. Drizzle with additional oil, sprinkle with salt and additional pepper. If desired, garnish with additional basil leaves. Makes 16 servings.

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