Wrapped, Stuffed, Baked Chicken Breasts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

4 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breasts

1/4 cup Yellow Mustard

1/4 cup Brown Mustard

3/4 cup Honey

12 slices of thick-sliced bacon

1 cup shredded Mozarella cheese

About a dozen slices of Pepperoni

12 wooden toothpicks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice breasts horizontally to within a half inch of going completely through. Place 3 slices of pepperoni in each breast, along with a couple tablespoons of shredded cheese. Wrap the outside of each breast with 3 slices of thick bacon and secure chicken slices and bacon to the chicken with the toothpicks. Place 2 completed breasts in a 9×13 bowl that has been sprayed with Pam or some butter spray. Mix the two mustards and the honey in a bowl and pour mixture over the breasts. Place in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes (longer for larger breasts). Before taking from oven, you can add more cheese on top of the breasts and use the broil feature on your over long enough to melt it over your chicken. Don’t forget to take out the toothpicks before you bite into it. This would be very good served with a nice baked potato.

 

Butterscotch Blondies

Butterscotch cake with pecans? Can’t beat it.

 

Ingredients

• 1 package yellow cake mix (I used the yellow butter mix)
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup butterscotch-flavored chips
• 1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl, beat cake mix, butter and 1 egg at medium speed until crumbly.
2. Press evenly into greased 13×9-inch baking pan. Bake 15 minutes. Remove from oven; sprinkle with pecans and butterscotch chips. (I used a 9×9 pan, but it made it too thick and I had to cook it too long)
3. In small bowl, beat sweetened condensed milk, remaining 2 eggs and vanilla. Pour evenly over chips.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes longer or until center is set. Cool thoroughly. Cut into bars. Store covered at room temperature.

 

Candy Cane Candy

 

 

 

A really simple candy recipe that I found on allrecipes.com, a really good site for finding recipes of all kinds. There is actually no cooking involved in this recipe, just melting the chips, so you won’t need a candy thermometer or anything special. I’ve altered the original recipe a little bit, due to my own experience making it as well as reading some of the suggestions from other people who made the recipe. A very nice Christmas treat and a hit at office parties.

Ingredients

• 2 (10 ounce) packages white chocolate baking chips
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1 1/2 cups crushed candy canes
• 1 dash red or green food coloring (or both)

Directions

1. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a little extra on each end, and spray the foil with Pam butter flavored cooking spray. (this allows you to remove the candy easily after cooking)
2. Combine the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until almost melted, remove from heat and continue to stir until smooth. When chips are completely melted, stir in the peppermint extract.
3. Spread evenly in the bottom of the prepared pan.
4. Using something with a pointed end, like a skewer, scatter a few drops of food coloring on top of the candy and swirl it around to make it more decorative. There’s no need to go very deep into the candy as the food coloring is just for decorative use only.
5. When crushing the candy canes, be careful not to crush them into dust. You already have the peppermint extract for the flavor so the crushed canes need to be in larger (up to 1/4″) pieces. You may even want to sift out the dust to make the candy prettier. Put the candy cane pieces on top of the candy and press them slightly into it with a spoon or spatula.
6.  Chill for 2 hours, then cut into squares. Note on cutting any candy or fudge. Use a slender knife to cut with and have a container of very warm water to dip the knife into after each cut to warm the knife and make it easier to slice through the fudge without breaking it.
7. Store covered at room temperature.

 

Dirty Cheesy Rice Stuff

Decided to try something new tonight and changed the recipe a little bit and Oh My Goodness, it was yumtacular. Serves 2 very well.

Ingredients

1 package of Cajun Sides Dirty Rice
1 Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage
2 cups of Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbs Butter (or something similar)

Directions

Slice the sausage into 1/8th inch slices and fry in a skillet. Frying brings out much more flavor from the sausage. No need to fry completely, but enough to make sure it has a very good amount of heat in it.
Follow directions on the package to make the Dirty Rice.
Once the rice comes to a boil and you reduce the heat, add the fried sausage and allow the rice to finish cooking.
When rice is completely done and just before serving, add the shredded cheese and mix well, then serve immediately.
This is soooo good.

 

BK’s Chess Pie

The most delish pie I’ve ever ate and always gets huge raves at family get-togethers. The recipe is from my sister Brenda Kay.
Warning, if you are diabetic, don’t even smell this pie. Also, cut it into small slices so you have enough for everyone. People will want 2nds, 3rds, etc.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of butter
2 cups of sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vinegar (white)
1 tablespoon of corn meal (white, self-rising)
1 tablespoon of vanilla flavoring
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 unbaked, deep dish pie crust

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix sugar and cornmeal in a large mixing bowl.
Melt butter and add to mixing bowl.
Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well as you go.
Add buttermilk, vinegar and vanilla, mixing very well all ingredients.
Pour mixture into an unbaked pie crust and place in the middle of the oven on a cookie sheet or pizza pan to keep from spilling contents into your oven.
Cook at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 325 degrees and cook for an additional 45 minutes.

Two notes…One, when the 45 minutes is up, do NOT remove the pie from the oven. Just turn the oven off and let the pie sit inside until the oven cools (30ish minutes). If you remove the pie from the heat, it will fall, like a cake does. Leaving it in there until it cools allows it to have a better texture…..Two, you can’t dry this pie out, so over-cooking is not a big deal, as long as you don’t overcook it to the point where your pie crust is burnt.
Remove pie from oven and refrigerate until it cools (overnight is best).

 

Best Beans you ever ate (CrockPot)

This recipe can be used for Pinto or White (Great Northern) Beans. Pinto beans need to cook for one hour more than the White beans is the only difference.

Ingredients:
Small bag of beans
3 pork chops or some type of good pork meat
* salt, pepper, minced onions, garlic powder to taste
Preparation:
Prepare the beans the night before by putting them into a large bowl of water and wash thoroughly, removing trash, rocks, hulls, broken beans, bad beans, etc. Rinse several times to remove all the dirt. You’d be amazed to know how dirty those beans really are. Once beans are clean, put them into a bowl and add water to about an inch above the beans and place in the fridge overnight to soak.

Cut pork into small pieces (~1″ chunks) and fry until browned to add color to the bean soup. Make sure there are no bones.
Pour water off beans and put beans into the crock pot. Add fresh water to beans to about 1-2 inches above the beans. Add cooked Pork pieces, salt, pepper, garlic and onions to taste. Set Crock Pot to 7 hours for Pintos or 6 hours for White beans. Serve with Cornbread and get your air freshener ready.

 

Marie’s Sweet Tea

Warning…..this is true Southern Sweet tea. You can reduce the amount of sugar in it, but then don’t complain if it isn’t good, because it wasn’t made to this recipe. This recipe was given to me by my sister, who makes the best sweet tea in the world.

Ingredients:

9 small bags of plain tea. Any brand will work, but Lipton’s is the best.

2, yes 2 cups of sugar.

Implements (important):

You will need a 2 quart sauce pot with lid.

Wooden Spoon.

Put tea bags into about half of pot full of water and place on stove top. ( I like to stir the bags around in the water to get more tea flavor out of them)

Bring water to a full boil, then cover and remove from heat.

Let tea sit in covered pot for at least 2 minutes.

Put sugar into a one gallon container.

Pour hot tea over sugar and mix well with the wooden spoon.

Add cool water to fill up the container and put in the fridge.

note: You can add lemon flavoring to it if you wish, but personally, I don’t like lemon in my tea.

 

 

 

Parmesan Chicken (crock pot)

Shopping List:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 16 oz cans of your fave spaghetti sauce. (I prefer Ragu with meat)

1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Grated Parmesan Cheese

*salt, garlic powder, minced onions to taste

Your favorite pasta (I use egg noodles)

Put one can of sauce into the crock pot, add salt, onions and garlic and mix.

Add thawed chicken breasts and cover with the second can of sauce.

Set crock pot for low setting, 6 hours.

When you have about 15 minutes left on your timer, cook your pasta in a separate pot, so it will be ready and hot.

When the crock pot is done, put breasts and sauce into a 8×8 or something similarly sized baking dish.

Sprinkle Parmesan Cheese over breasts.

Cover with Mozzarella cheese and place in oven on broil until cheese is melted completely.

Serve chicken, sauce and cheese over pasta.

 

 

Cheesy Taters and Sausage (crock pot)

Ingredients

5-6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and sliced.

1 Smoked Sausage, Kielbasa, etc, sliced. Whatever you like. I prefer the smoked sausage.

2 cups of shredded Cheddar cheese.

2 cans of Cream of Potato soup.

1 can of evaporated milk.

*add salt, pepper, minced onion, garlic powder all to taste

I generally start out by adding the evaporated milk to the crock pot so as to make it easier to mix the other ingredients.

Add your salt, pepper, minced onion and garlic, quantities depending on what you like or don’t like.

Add both cans of Cream of Potato soup.

Add Potato slices and Sausage slices.

Set Crock pot for 6 hours on low setting and go get some fresh air somewhere because the smell of this cooking will drive you insane.

When it is done cooking, add the shredded cheese and mix thoroughly just before serving. You don’t want to add the cheese while it is still cooking, because it will melt away to nothing but a greasy mess and won’t have the consistency needed.

 

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls

Very yummy recipe good for get togethers like Super Bowl parties, World Series, Poker night, etc.

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls
Ingredients
1 unsliced loaf of sourdough bread (preferably round)
8 to 12 ounces Sharp Cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
3-ounce bag Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 package (pouch) Ranch dressing mix
Method
1.Using a sharp bread knife, cut the loaf in both directions in a
checkerboard pattern, being careful not to cut through the bottom 
crust.
2.Place slices of cheese between cuts.
3.Sprinkle bacon bits on bread, making sure to get between cuts.
4.Mix butter with ranch dressing mix. Pour over bread.
5.Wrap loaf in foil and place on baking sheet.
6.Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
7.Unwrap. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until cheese is 
melted.
Serve Hot 

I've found that the key to making this work is how thinly the cheese 
is sliced. Using the slicer I have, I can only get slices of about 
1/8th an inch thick. It really should be smaller so it melts into the
bread better.