Sauteed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce

Don't let the fancy-shmancy title fool you! This recipe is super easy and tasty. I got a new cookbook for my birthday this year that I love. Its called Great Food Fast from The Kitchens of Martha Stewart. Has Martha ever failed? Okay, okay...there was that one minor mishap that landed her in the slammer but overall she's pretty genius. Dorie Greenspan is still my #1 gal but Martha's a close second. The book has pictures of every dish which is always helpful when picking recipes.

Sauteed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce
Source- Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, pounded thin
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 T olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 T Dijon Mustard ( Excuse me, do you have any Grey Poupon?)
1 t dried tarragon (or 1 T fresh)

Directions-

1. Sprinkle each chicken breast with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. (If you aren't keen on grease fires, make sure you have a lid.) Add the chicken; saute until cooked through, 10-12 minutes, turning once. (Because I pounded those suckers thin, it took more like 8 minutes.) Transfer to a plate; keep warm.

2. Pour the wine into the hot skillet; cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about one minute. Whisk in the cream, mustard, and tarragon. Cook, whisking, until thickened, about two minutes.

3. Pour any accumulated chicken juices into the sauce. Right before serving, drizzle the cream sauce over the sauteed chicken. (I had way more sauce left over.)

Mushroom Porkchops

I've been on a lifelong search for a really great porkchop recipe. Sadly, this recipe wasn't it. It was good, but it wasn't "holy crap I could eat that everyday for the next week and be happy". I would make it again but I'll continue search for the porkcop recipe that makes me weep.

Mushroom Porkchops

Source: All Recipes

Ingredients-

4 pork chops (I used boneless. Bones scare me.)
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch garlic salt, or to taste
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

Directions-

1. Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic salt to taste.

2. In a large skillet, brown the chops over medium-high heat. Add the onion and mushrooms, and saute for one minute. Pour cream of mushroom soup over chops. ( I added a half cup of water at this point because it seemed to thick. Don't. Trust me, it thins out.) Cover skillet, and reduce temperature to medium-low. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes, or until chops are cooked through.

Chewy, Chunky Blondies

I just bought a new cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It has a great mix of different baked goods recipes that sound amazing. The best part about it, for unexperienced bakers, is she tells you specifically how to do each step. I like to know how long to mix each ingredient. I've been spending the last week going through all 500 pages and flagging all the recipes I want to make. Because I'm a complete amateur baker, I decided to start with something simple. BLONDIES! I figured I couldn't mess these up.

But just as I was getting ready to place the pan in the oven, I noticed the vanilla on the counter that I forgot to put in. oops. sigh. Only I could mess up blondies.

Luckily, they were still amazing without the vanilla!

Chewy, Chunky Blondies

Source- Baking: From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperture

1 1/2 cups (packed) brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 t. pure vanilla extract

Add-ins from original recipe:

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips or Heath toffee bits

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

My add-ins:

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Directions-

1. Center a rack and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9x13 baking pan and place on a baking sheet.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. Beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add both sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, or until well incorporated. Add the eggs one by one, beating for one minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce mixing speed to low and add the dry ingredients until they disappear into the batter.

4. Using a rubber spatula, stir in add-ins. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and use the spatula to even out.

5. Bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. They should pull away from the sides of the pan and the top should be a honey-brown. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for about 15 minutes before turning the blondies out onto another rack. Invert onto a rack and cool the blondies right side up to room temp.

Makes approx 32 bars.

Mashed Cauliflower

If you've never had mashed cauliflower, you are totally missing out. If you close your eye, you'd swear you were eating mashed potatoes. Minus all the carbs! I'm not even a huge cauliflower fan, but I'm definitely a fan of this recipe.

Mashed Cauliflower

Source: Unknown

Ingredients-

1 medium head cauliflower
1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon straight chicken base or bullion (may substitute 1/2 teaspoon salt)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh or dry chives, for garnish
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions-

1. Set a stockpot of water to boil over high heat. Clean and cut cauliflower into small pieces. Cook in boiling water for about 6 minutes, or until well done. Drain well; do not let cool and pat cooked cauliflower very dry between several layers of paper towels.

2. In a bowl with an immersion blender, or in a food processor, (I used my Kitchenaid mixer on medium high speed) puree the hot cauliflower with the cream cheese, Parmesan, garlic, chicken base, and pepper until almost smooth.

3. Garnish with chives, and serve hot with pats of butter.

**I did copy this off someone's blog so if it was yours, let me know!

Artichoke Chicken

I originally saw this recipe on The Baking Bailey . I was afraid my husband wouldn't like it because he isn't a huge fan of artichokes but luckily the main flavor in the topping turned out to be the parmesan cheese. You can definitely taste the artichokes, it just isn't predominant. He ended up scarfing it down and getting seconds!

Artichoke Chicken

Source: The Baking Bailey

Ingredients-

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (I used about 3/4 cup)
2/3 can of artichoke hearts, chopped roughly
1 teaspoon garlic powder
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded

Directions
1. Mix mayo, parmesan cheese, artichoke hearts and garlic powder in bowl.

2. Spread over chicken and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until top browns slightly.