Friday, April 22, 2011

Feta Topped Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
2 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette dressing
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp seasoned pepper
1 large roma tomato, cut into 8 slices
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Set oven control to broil. Brush both sides of chicken with dressing. Sprinkle both sides with Italian seasoning and seasoned pepper. Place on rack in broiler pan.
Broil with tops 4 inches from heat about 10 minutes, turning once, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut. Top with tomato and cheese. Broil 2 to 3 minutes longer or until cheese is lightly browned.

Grilled Taco-Barbeque Chicken

2 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup barbeque sauce
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 tsp ground cumin

Heat closed medium size grill for 5 minutes. In shallow bowl, mix taco seasoning and oregano. Brush chicken with oil; coat with taco seasoning mixture. Place chicken on grill. Close grill and cook for 4 to 6 minutes or until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut.
In a 1 quart saucepan, heat barbeque sauce, chili sauce, and cumin to boiling over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Serve sauce with chicken.

Key Lime Cupcakes with Meringue

Ingredients:
24 paper liners for cupcake pans

For Cupcakes:
1 large lime, scrubbed (for 1 tsp zest)
4 large eggs
1 pkg (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix
1 pkg (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil

For Filling:
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup Key lime juice

For Meringue:
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Reserved 3 large egg whites
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill cupcake pans with liners.

Prepare the cupcake batter:
With a citrus zester or fine grater, zest the lime and reserve one tsp. Separate three of the eggs, place the whites in a large clean mixing bowl and the yolks in another mixing bowl. Add the remaining egg, cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, lime zest and lime juice to the egg yolks. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl then increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. The batter should look well blended. Spoon or scoop 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full. Place the pans in the oven. Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 22 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for five minutes. Increase the oven heat to 450 dregrees.
Run a knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups placing them on a wire rack to cool for 15 mintues before filling.
Prepare the filling:
Place the sweetened condensed milk and Key lime juice in a small bowl and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a medium tip. Press the tip 1/4 inch into the center of the cupcake and squeeze the bag to release about 1 Tbsp filling into the cupcake. Scrape of any excess filling. Place the cupcakes back into the pan.
Prepare the meringue:
Add the cream of tartar to the reserved egg whites and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until frothy, 45 seconds. Add 1 Tbsp of the sugar. Continue beating on high, adding one tablespoon sugar at a time, until the whites form stiff peaks. Spoon two tablespoons meringue onto the top of each cupcake and swirl to spread it just to the edges of the cupcakes. Place the pan in the oven and bake until the meringue in light nutty brown in color, five to six minutes.
Lift the cupcakes out of the pan and serve at once or allow the cupcakes to cool for 10 minutes, then serve.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Rice and Curry

Curry sauce
1 to 1 1/2 lbs hamburger*
1 large onion, chopped
1 Tbsp curry powder, heaping
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
Milk

Cook hamburger with onion on medium low heat. Once hamburger is almost browned add the curry, sugar, and salt. Stir in with hamburger and cook until hamburger is done. Remove pan from heat.
Add flour and stir in really well. Once the flour is completely stirred in, pour milk on top of mixture until it is covered.

Turn the heat back on to medium high and stir mixture continuously stir mixture so that it doesn't burn on the bottom. Gradually turn up the heat to high and continue to stir until sauce thickens. If sauce is too thick, add a bit more milk.

* Make sure you don't buy lean ground beef. You want the extra grease so that the flour will have something to mix with. This helps the curry to thicken once the milk is added.

Serve the curry over white rice.