Buttermilk Soaked Onion Rings

So after ohhh 2 years we have finally opened our deep fryer that we received for our wedding. Sorry to whoever sent it to us… I can’t remember who you are but trust me we’re grateful…  Is it bad that we haven’t put it away since the unveiling a few weeks ago, but seriously if my hubby had his way we would make something in it every night!! He has become the4 official fry cook and has made some yummy eats recently. It was of course Sunday Football, and we love to make fun foods to nibble on so we went with chicken wings and these delicious onion rings. There wasn’t one recipe in particular that I went with, there are different methods and techniques, one is a light crunchy coating and the other a puffy batter type. I also noticed that most of the recipes only called for you to just dip the onions in the buttermilk and then the flour, I let mine marinate in the buttermilk for a few hours in the refrigerator, and you could tell the difference!! We went with the crunchy version slightly tweaked and wow they were better than I’ve had a quite a few restaurants.

Buttermilk Onion Rings

Items Needed

Deep Fryer/Dutch Oven

Cookie sheet

• 2 large Vidalia Onions
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1-2 tbsp hot Sauce
• salt/pepper
• 2 c all purpose flour

• Peel the onions and slice them crosswise into 1-inch-thick slices. Separate each slice into individual rings and then remove the papery thin membrane covering the inside of each ring. ***Ok so I know this sounds like a weird thing to do but you know when you bite into an onion ring and the whole onion comes out at the same time it is because this step wasn't done.
• In a Tupperware container add the buttermilk, hot sauce and a liberal amount of salt and pepper toss in the onions and give a good stir with a spoon than pop the top on a give a good shake then place in the fridge for about 2-3 hours, put mine on a plate and flipped it every 1/2 hour or so
• When ready heat the oil to 375 degrees in a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed stock pot, or a deep fryer like we used, line a cookie sheet with paper towels and set aside also take a shallow dish and pour in the flour
• You will need to do this next step in batches, take the onions out of the fridge and before dipping in the flour allow the excess to drain off and then dredge the rings in the second dish of flour, making sure to coat the rings evenly. Tap off the excess and transfer the batch of coated rings to the hot oil/basket we put about 5-7 rings in each drop of the basket. Fry the rings until golden brown and tender, about 2 1/2 minutes.
• Remove each batch to the paper towel lined cookie sheet and salt right away and try to not to eat to many right out of the fryer… Cook the rest of the onions in batches and eat right away!! They are so yummy you will be lucky if they make it to the table…

 

 

Eat and Enjoy!!

Toasted Ravioli

Sunday football is my favorite day of the week, both me and my hubby have fantasy football teams and are glued to the our TV and computers checking our scores and rooting for our teams. We love to have people over to watch the games and of course eat. I love to make snacks for us to nibble on all day and for some reason I have had a hankering for toasted ravioli, and thought why not… It also happens to be THE food of St Louis, being served at every bar and of course the stadium in St Louis.  I think its fun to make dishes from the different teams! Here is my version of Toasted Ravioli....

Mmmmmmm

Toasted Ravioli

Items Needed:

Frying Pan

Sauce Pan 

• 1 package of small Cheese Ravioli, I used Buitoni ( the light version)
• 2-3 cups, seasoned Panko bread crumbs
• Marinara sauce, I used Rao’s
• Parmesan cheese, finely shredded
• 2 eggs
• water
• pepper
• peanut oil
  
   

• Place 2 cups bread crumbs in a shallow dish and set aside, in a separate shallow dish mix eggs and a few tsp of water to make an egg wash, season with pepper
• Heat about a 1/4 inch of peanut oil to medium high heat
• Dip the ravioli in the egg mixture and then in the bread crumbs making sure to lightly press the bread crumbs to the ravioli 
• Than carefully add them to the hot oil in batches about 5-7 at a time so that you don’t over crowd the pan, cook about a minute or two on each side until nicely browned keeping a watchful eye on them
• Meanwhile warm up the marinara in a sauce pan
• Remove ravioli to a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with Parmesan ann serve immediately with the warmed marinara 

*** Notes: I use skewers to flip the raviolis, they are less cumbersome than a spoon or spatula and do a great job of flipping!  

Eat and Enjoy!!!!

Fabulous Roasted Chicken and an Anniversary

My husband and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary a few weeks ago,wow I can’t believe it two years, seems like just yesterday. I know how cliched that sounds but really it does, and my bff Karen  is getting married in a few days, so all this planning has brought it all back. It was a beautiful fall day in the Berkshires and I would do all over again in a heartbeat!!! Here’s a little peek:

  

The amazing view overlooking the Berkshires… 

 

  Me in my mothers 40 year old dress that my grandmother took great lengths to preserve!! 

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Our amazing cake by Something Sweet by Michelle

We usually go out to dinner to celebrate milestones like birthdays and anniversaries, but I thought instead it would be nice to invite my parents and my hubby’s mom over to our house for a nice family dinner. The only time we could all manage to get together before my parents jetted off to Vegas ( lucky devils) was on a Tuesday and of course I had to work. I thought I was going to get out a bit earlier than I did and so that threw off my whole menu or so I thought. I had my heart set on making “my version” of my mothers Roasted Chicken. I used to be scared to make Roasted chicken, burnt skin, pale skin, undercooked, overcooked the possibilities were endless. If I hadn't watched mom all those years and paid careful attention to her technique I could never do it on my own. Well since I was so crunched for time, when I got to the supermarket I decided to get chicken pieces instead, really a win win situation because some people like dark meat some, people like white meat, some both, and guess what unless you get a ginormous chicken there is never enough of each to go around.  So I grabbed some thighs, legs and some split chicken breasts. I prepared the chicken pieces as I would a whole chicken and holy smokes did it come out good. You know those times when you say why didn’t I make this sooner , yay this was one of those times.

Roasted Chicken

Items Needed:

Large Skillet

2 Baking dishes

Blender 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Bake time: 45 –55 minutes

• 4 split Chicken Breasts
• 4 Thighs
• 4 Legs
• 12 fresh thyme sprigs
• 12 fresh sage leaves
• 6-8 rosemary sprigs, cut each in half
• butter, 12 tbsp + 2 tbsp
• medium onion, quartered
• orange, halved and quartered
• salt
• pepper
• chicken broth
• maple syrup
• olive oil

• Rinse chicken and pat dry, carefully pull up skin than place a small sprig each of rosemary, thyme, and sage than season generously with salt and pepper all over
• Heat skillet over medium high heat and brown chicken, skin side first in batches until nicely browned removing to the baking dishes

• Place 1/2 the onions and oranges around the chicken, and six tbsp butter into each baking dish, and drizzle everything with a little bit of olive oil

  

• At the 30 minutes mark check the chicken to make sure not getting to browned
• After 45 minutes, check temperature of each piece to make sure cooked thru, remove chicken to platter and tent with foil and let rest while making gravy
• Squeeze cooked orange wedges into baking dish to get out remaining juice then discard the oranges wedges, pour the remaining onions, juices, and 1/2 c chicken broth into the blender, pour some maple syrup into a measuring cup up to 1/4 c ( use as much or as little as you like ) we used almost all of it, blend everything until smooth, than pour into small sauce pan and bring to a boil adding last 2 tbsp of butter**** Optional, depending on how rich you want the gravy!!
• Slice up chicken breasts before serving

Look at how juicy the chicken is Yummy!!!

Eat and Enjoy!!!

Snickerdoodle Cookies

 

 

When this rainy fall weather arrives I like to bake, I love the smells of fall cooking and baking to fill the kitchen. I ran across this recipe on Allrecipes and it looked like a must do. So before I started some fall cleaning ( Yuck)  I whipped up a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies and stuck them in the oven... What a great way to clean the house with the smell of cookies baking!!  I have a confession to make, ever since I was a little girl I thought Snickerdoodle cookies had snickers in them....Probably because someone told me that so they could have more!! 

How wrong was I !!!! 

Now that I know that they are a cinnamon and sugar delight  they will  become a staple around our house!!

 

SnickerDoodle Cookies

Items Needed:

2 Parchment lined cookie sheets

Cooling racks

Hand Mixer ( or your hands and a good stiff spoon  if you do not have one)

Preheat oven:

400 degrees 

*****The original recipes makes 48 I halved the recipe to make 24 so If you click on the link to the original just keep that in mind!!

• 1/4 c butter, softened
  
• 1/4 c shortening
  
• 3/4 c white sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
• 1 1/3 c plus 1 tbsp all purpose flour
  
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/8 tsp salt
  
• 1-2 tbsp sugar
  
• 1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

• Cream together butter, shortening, sugar , the egg and the vanilla
  
• Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt
  
• Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls in balls
  
• Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and roll the balls in sugar mixture
  
• Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes
  
• Remove from sheet onto a cooling rack

                  

  Eat and Enjoy!!!!

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

I love Hot Sauce! There is said it, I can add it to just about anything, except dessert that is! So when wondering what to make for dinner the other night I thought Buffalo Chicken….but with all this rainy,windy weather we have had I wanted something a little more…. comforting. So Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese it is. I knew that most recipes that I found would be quite fattening so I tried to slim it down a little… Just a little don’t worry! We always drink 1% Milk so that was one way to cut out some fat, and I subbed in Reduced Fat cheese instead of the full fat. And that's about it haha, so just a “little” healthy.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

Preheat oven 375 degrees

Items Needed:

Baking dish

Skillet

Big Pot

• 3 Chicken breast, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 1/2 box of elbow pasta
• 1/2 c blue cheese dressing
• 2 cups shredded cheddar
• 1 c milk
• panko bread crumbs
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2- 1 c Franks Red hot sauce

• Bring large pot of water to a boil, once boiling add pasta and cook following box directions, cooking just under al dente because we are going to bake later
• Heat skillet to medium high heat and add chicken in batches, salt and pepper chicken and brown for 4-5 minutes, remove each batch to a plate, when all chicken is done return to skillet and add 1/2 c hot sauce and cook until sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat and set aside
• Drain pasta and add pasta to baking dish by layering some pasta then some chicken ( makes it easier to mix together ) stir in the blue cheese dressing and mix well
• Wipe the chicken skillet clean and add the milk, bring to a slow boil adding shredded cheese in batches, once all melted add the cheese sauce to the pasta and chicken and carefully stir to combine all ingredients.
• Sprinkle top with enough panko breadcrumbs to cover dish and sprinkle a small handful of cheese, bake for about 25 minutes, tasting to make sure it is hot enough, and cheese and breadcrumbs are slightly browned

Eat and Enjoy!!!!!

What is your favorite add in to Mac and Cheese?

Stuffed Peppers

One of our favorite comfort meals in our house is Sloppy Joes, and one that my hubby loves to make. So last week he made a big ole batch of it for us. We kicked of Sunday football with Sloppy Joe sandwiches.. 

But why is this post titled Stuffed Peppers than, because I have already blogged about Sloppy Joes and this is a great way to use up the leftovers. I have said many a time, that I am a big fan of using leftovers to create a different meal. 

This one was a big hit in our house, I have made stuffed peppers before, just not this way but with the Sloppy Joes it was fab!!! 

Stuffed Peppers

Items Needed:

Baking Dish

Small sauce pot

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

• 3 Peppers top cut off and deseeded
• Sloppy Joe Mixture
• Spaghetti, broken into 1 inch pieces
• Shredded cheese

• Bring a pot of water to a boil, toss in spaghetti and cook until just under al dente
• Mix the spaghetti with the sloppy joe, and stuff the pepper and place in a shallow baking dish
• Some people boil pepper shell before baking, I do not, I pour water around the pepper in the baking dish about half way up the side of the peppers, this softens them just enough
• Bake for 25 minutes than sprinkle with some cheese and bake until cheese is melted and slightly browned

Eat and Enjoy!!!! 

** Took picture before water and cheese.. use your wonderful imagination... ; )