Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

A friend brought this bread to my house for dinner one night, and I had to have the recipe. It is so yummy! Too good to keep the recipe to myself. And it is super easy.

Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup hot water
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons rosemary
1 teaspoon salt

Mix first three ingredients and let sit to nice and foamy. Add the rest of the ingredients. Let dough rise in greased bowl til double the size. Roll dough into one large round loaf, or two smaller loaves. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until top is golden brown. When out of the oven, melt butter all over the top and sprinkle with salt.

****Here are my edits. I used SAF yeast, so I didn't let it foam in the sugar water. Just added it to my dry ingredients and it was good to go. I only use half the amount of rosemary. I have made it with the full amount, but I think it is too much. I let my loaves rise again before I cook them. I think it makes them extra fluffy and yummy. The last time I made it I left the extra loaf on the pan to cool (I cooked it on a cookie sheet) and covered it with a towel. Later that night when I went to put it away, the bottom was a little soggy right in the middle. Next time I will leave it on a cooling rack.

This bread is perfect to eat with oil and vinegar, for dipping in chili or soup, or just plain. Enjoy!

Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

I made this for dinner on New Year's Eve Eve this year. I'd made it once or twice before, but I haven't quite yet gotten my timing down right. The first time, we ended up eating at about 8:15pm. This time it was still about 7:30 when we finally sat down. Methinks I need to start preparing at 3:00 in the afternoon.

I got the recipe first from Michelle at Scribbit, which if you're not familiar with, you totally should be. She is an award-winning mom blogger, without the whole "mommy community" thing going on, which at times, can be quite cloying. The recipe as she found it was called Chicken Caesar Lasagna, but there's absolutely nothing Roman about it. Definitely no anchovies here. Just creamy, cheesy, vegetable-y goodness. I've made a couple of edits in the way of recipe helps.

Original recipe

Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

1 box lasagna noodles (about 15 noodles)
2 bottles light Alfredo sauce
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
3 cups cooked chicken breast, diced or shredded
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 ounces chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup diced onion
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook noodles according to package directions, drain and rinse with cold water; drain again. (Hint: if you don't have a pot large enough to boil lasagna noodles in, and don't want to wait for half to soften enough to bend and fit the other half in the water -- they cook unevenly that way -- use a roasting pan. It's okay to get it out more than just for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.)



In a bowl combine Alfredo sauce, lemon juice, and black pepper. In a skillet saute onion, pepper and carrots in olive oil. Once onions are translucent (about five minutes) stir in spinach and cook one minute more.

Lightly grease a 13x9x2-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Add a scoop of sauce mixture to the bottom of the pan and smooth around to coat. Stir spinach mixture and chicken into Alfredo sauce. Arrange 4 noodles in bottom of dish. Top with one-third chicken mixture then 1/2 cup grated cheese. Repeat layers twice more. Use the last three noodles on the top of the last cheese layer. They won't overlap, but will provide a good guide for cutting up and serving later. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top layer of noodles.

Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until heated through and browned on top. Let stand 15 minutes before serving. Makes 12 servings.


(This second picture was taken of cold leftovers the next day.)

Chocolate Chex Mix

My husband's family has a New Year's Eve tradition of making large batches of Chex Mix, and watching movies all afternoon and evening. He looks forward to that Chex Mix and relaxation. Try as I might, I haven't been able to get the Chex Mix recipe. It's not quite the original, which easily can be found online, but my mother-in-law has been making it for so many years that she no longer uses a recipe and doesn't know the measurements. So I've been unable to replicate the tradition. I've tried several substitutes -- Barbecue Chex Mix (FAIL!), Chex Muddy Buddies (too sweet and not munchy enough), and others. This year, a friend gave us some white chocolate Chex Mix as a Christmas treat. It was pretty good. Mind you, Ben does not like white chocolate at all, and since we've been married, I've lost my taste for it because it's so rarely, if ever, in the house. But this snack was really good. We gobbled it up almost entirely in one night.

So I decided to try to make it for New Year's Eve this year. I thought that Chocolate Chex might be a yummy twist on an original, so I bought that.


I also did little pretzel rods, dry roasted peanuts, M&M's, and, at the last minute, I added marshmallows.





I thought I had a bag of white chocolate chips in the cupboard, so I didn't buy any with the rest of the goodies. I'd forgotten that I had used about 2/3 of the bag on a yummy cookie recipe for a church activity at the beginning of the month. I still had a little less than 2/3 cup left. I also had about half a bag of vanilla-flavored white baking chips in the freezer. I'd asked my friend about her white chocolate coating. She said she just heated the white chocolate in the microwave with a little oil.

It didn't work. Not for me. For one thing, the baking chips are most definitely not the same as white chocolate chips (despite the ingredients being just about the same). They cooked differently, and I ended up burning the whole thing.

Crap.

My husband suggested that I just make a chocolate coating instead.

Duh.

I decided not to take anymore chances (read: waste anymore chocolatey goodness), so I Googled "chocolate candy coating recipe." The first hit was a dipping recipe from Hershey. Chocolate chips and shortening. Not oil. Not butter. Not margarine. Shortening. I wasn't sure I had any. The last time I remember buying any was probably two years ago.

Fortunately, that stuff has a shelf life longer than Twinkies. Yay!



So I made the chocolate coating -- in a double boiler, instead of in a less reliable microwave -- and poured it over the dry mix. I spread the whole thing out on parchment paper on two cookie sheets and stuck them in the fridge to solidify quickly, since it was already about 7:00pm on New Year's Eve.



Verdict: It was really good, but a little too sweet. I think my mix would have been fine if I'd been able to go with the white chocolate coating. The chocolate chocolate was good, but I'd have made a few modifications if I'd known I was going that route. First, I wouldn't have used Chocolate Chex. Second, I would have used less M&M's and more peanuts and pretzels. Either way, I should have used more marshmallows. The world can always use more marshmallows. I might also add a little peanut butter to the coating. Mmmmm...

8 cups Chex (though by the time I was done snacking before adding the chocolate coating, this may have been down to 7 cups...ssshhhh!!!)
2 cups dry roasted peanuts
2 cups pretzels (I'm a little anal and didn't want big pieces, so I used mini rods and broke them in half first)
2 cups plain M&M's
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
2 cups chocolate chips
2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp shortening

Mix the cereal, peanuts, pretzels, M&M's, and marshmallows in a large bowl or roasting pan. In a double boiler over medium heat, melt the chocolate chips and shortening together. When smooth, pour over dry mix. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the boiler bowl and get every bit of yummy goodness! Mix the wet and dry ingredients together thoroughly, until all the dry goodies are well-coated.

Line two rimmed cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spread half of the Chex Mix on each one. Leave out to harden, or put in the fridge to harden more quickly. I think it only took 20 minutes for me in the fridge. Break into pieces and store at room temperature.


(Sorry I didn't get a dry picture -- the coated pictures are still while the chocolate was hot and melty.)

New posts!!

I know it's been a really long time since we posted anything, but I tried out a few new recipes in the last little while and thought I would like to share them.

What have *you* been making lately?

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

After Thanksgiving I wanted to try my hand at making turkey enchiladas with some of the leftovers. But, I didn't have any enchilada sauce and I kept forgetting to buy some at the store. So, I went to my trusty Food.com and looked up enchilada sauce.

This one had the most reviews, all of which were positive, so I thought it was a safe bet. And, it was. It turned out really well, and it was really easy.

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced onions
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/4 cup salsa
• 1 (6 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups water

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and saute for 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Add onion, oregano, chili powder, basil, ground black pepper, salt, cumin, parsley, salsa and tomato sauce.
4. Mix together and then stir in the water.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Use in place of canned enchilada sauce.

**Jillian note: I added more cumin than it called for, just because I know my family loves cumin. And, I used picante sauce because we were out of salsa. Also, I would suggest measuring out all the spices and mixing them together in a bowl before you start to make it easier on yourself. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

I had a week or two when I was craving chili. It was during our 'cold snap' here in Arizona. It actually got down to 32 degrees!!

Also, I *love* sweet potatoes. Strange? Maybe, but so what. They are tasty, okay?!

Enter---> Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili. *cue heavenly music*

You may think it sounds really weird, but just try it, okay? You won't be sorry. I got this recipe from Life Blessons.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
via eat me, delicious, adapted from The Clueless Vegetarian

Serves 3-4 as a meal.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup vegetable broth
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 28-oz (796mL) cans diced tomatoes
2 19-oz (540mL) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp crumbled dried oregano

Heat the oil in a large saucepan* or Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the onions are soft - about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder and the cumin and cook for another minute or so. Add the vgetable broth and the cubed sweet potatoes, reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, until the potatoes are almost tender - about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes with all the juice from the can, the beans, salt, and oregano. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then let simmer until the potatoes are completely tender - about 20 minutes.


Go for the Dutch oven if you can, unless your saucepan is really very large. (Jillian note: I just made it in a big pot, and it worked out just fine.)


**Jillian note: To make it more of a 'meal', we added some of the leftover smoked turkey from Thanksgiving. Holy scrumptious, Batman! And, because my hubby is a better chef than I am, he had the brilliant idea of putting a couple of the smoked turkey bones in the chili while it was simmering to impart more of that yummy flavor. *drool*

Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

Like many people, I *LOVE* pumpkin. Nothing says Fall like pumpkin, am I right?! So, when I saw this recipe for creamy pumpkin pasta I just *had* to try it. And, it turned out really good. My kids ate it right up!!

Creamy Pumpkin Pasta


Ingredients

• 1 small onions, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 2 cups chicken broth, made from bouillon
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
• 1/4 cup romano cheese, shredded
• 1 lb penne or 1 lb rotini pasta

Directions

1. In a large skillet, saute the onion and garlic in butter, over medium heat, until soft, not brown.
2. Whisk in the pumpkin, broth, creams and seasonings to taste.
3. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water until al dente.
5. Drain pasta and stir into pumpkin, simmering 2-3 minutes more until thick.
6. Stir in parsley and garnish with romano, more parsley and pumpkin seeds if desired.