Baked and Breaded Moist Chicken

I wanted to make a baked chicken and decided to experiment.  I came up with this recipe and thought it came out pretty good.



*Please keep in mind that all measurements are an estimation

Ingredients:
6 Boneless/Skinless Chicken Thighs

Breading Paste:
-3/4 cup breadcrumbs (I made my own breadcrumbs by grinding up (in the magic bullet food processor) croutons since i didn't have breadcrumbs
-4 Tbsp Mayonnaise
-1-2 Tbsp Spicy Brown Mustard or Dijon Mustard (Amt depending on your like/dislike of mustard)
 *I'm not a fan of mustard, but baked with chicken I think it goes great!
-1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
-A Sprinkle of Fresh Rosemary Needles

Directions:
1. Grease 9 x 13 in pan
2.  Pat chicken dry and lay in pan
3.  Salt and pepper chicken (both sides)
4.  Mix breading paste: breadcrumbs, mayo, mustard, parmesan cheese and rosemary
5.  Spread paste on both sides of thighs

Bake at 400 degree for 20-25 minutes (Check to make sure cooked all the way through thickest piece of chicken)

Teacher's "Survival Kit" (1st Day of School Bribe, I mean Gift)

Inspired by Pinterest, I decided to make a "Survival Kit" for my 2nd Grade daughter's new teacher for the first day of school. 

I found stickers, girls/boys hall passes, teacher notes, colorful pens, glue stick, snacks (cookies baked by her new student and mom, popcorn, chocolate, granola bars, and powdered iced tea) and can't forget a small bottle of acetaminophen (Tylenol) for all the headaches I'm sure she'll have.

 

I found a cd basket and decided to stuff it with all these goodies.

BAD BAD BAD review of Nutella Cookie Recipe!

I found this recipe on Pinterest.    Recipe called for 1 cup Nutella, 1/2 c sugar, 1 c flour and 1 egg 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes.  I thought it  was so simple and too good to be true.  In my opinion WAY too good to be true.  I love Nutella, but I did not like it in this cookie.  There was no mention of greasing the pan, so it stuck to my pan like glue and never really seemed to bake.  It looked awful and tasted awful.  BAD BAD BAD!  Total waste of my ingredients.  I really don't know what happened. How can some people rave about it and I thought it was awful?  Please don't try it.  Thanks for letting me vent.

Salmon Italiana Recipe

My dad first introduced this recipe to me.  He makes it for potlucks and family parties, but I cook it once a month if I can.  It's such a flavorful and hearty dish that I just had to share.  I serve it with rice (as with most everything) and a green salad.

Ingredients: 
1. Salmon -enough steaks to line the bottom of a 9x13 in pan (Sorry don't pay attention to weight) I usually buy the individually packaged salmon steaks from Costco
*Season with lemon pepper or salt and pepper.  Stab the salmon with a fork all over so the fish soaks up all the flavors.  
2.  Italian Salad Dressing (not the creamy) 1/2-3/4 bottle *You want the salmon to be saturated in the dressing, not just a drizzle on top.
3.  Chopped Tomatoes (Roma is great) and Cilantro - enough to cover the fish
*I am not a huge fan of cilantro, but it really tastes great in this dish.  Not the same without it.
4. Shoyu or Soy sauce ( I just drizzle it in circles a few times over the fish)  Feel free to be generous, cuz it's such a complimentary flavor.  *I always drizzle it over when the fish is cooked and on my plate.

Let marinate for as long as you like.  Longer the better.  I have cooked it almost immediately and it's still good, but so much better when you let it marinate.  


Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish.  Check at 20 minutes.

Lilikoi Bars (Self critique)

Here is a recipe for lilikoi bars that I came up with while combining a few others.  I think they're delicious!  (so does my husband and 7 year old)

First you need to make the crust, bake it, then add the lilikoi mixture, then bake again.

Crust
One package Betty crocker sugar cookie mix (follow back of bag instructions for baking time and degrees)
Smooth over bottom of GREASED 9X13 in pan 



Lilikoi Mixture:
4 eggs
1/3 c flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1 Tbsp butter
*Whisk together
3/4 c lilikoi juice (no seeds)
*Whisk together, then pour lilikoi mixture onto baked cookie crust.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.   (It's hard to tell when they are ready.  Still haven't figured out a good way yet, maybe tooth pick?)
Sprinkle powdered sugar over top ( I used a strainer to get it real fine)

Mermaid Nails

I came up with these just playing around with my new grey nailpolish (looks blue but it's actually grey) and a silver nail art pen.  You can barely see the silver dots until the light hits my nail in just the right spot. 

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe Critique

Two Thumbs up for this recipe!  I used this frosting to practice my icing skills, using a freezer ziploc bag (the thickness of the freezer bag is better for "drawing").  Pictures are of my attempts.

From All Recipes.com

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

This is my daughter's name (Tiare).  Of course this is the one she chose to eat.  This was done first with a tiny snip of the corner of the ziploc.  I barely cut off the tip.

I snipped a little more off the corner of the bag to make these flowers.  Definitely need to practice my flowers. 

Sprinkles!

Creamy Hamburger (with Pasta) Recipe

This is a really easy weekday meal.  I served it with Caesar salad. 
Ingredients: Small Pasta (not noodles) I used costco whole grain pasta
Ground Beef
Milk
Butter
Cream of Mushroom soup
Parmesan Cheese 
Chopped Onions
Chopped Garlic
Chopped Fresh Oregano
Chopped Fresh Parsley
Salt/Pepper to taste
*Oregano and Parsley really add to the flavor, do not omit.

1.  Boil Pasta in Salted Water then strain and toss in vegetable/olive oil so it doesn't stick.

2.   As pasta is boiling, begin chopping onion and herbs.
3.  Toss onion and garlic in pan with a little oil, then brown ground beef, breaking it into pieces.  Season ground beef with salt/pepper to taste.
4.  When browned, add oregano and parsley, then butter, milk, parmesan cheese to taste and cream of mushroom soup.  Add salt/pepper to taste if needed.
5. Stir constantly since milk products burn quickly.  Let simmer for a while, still stirring.

DO NOT COMBINE pasta and sauce.  I made this mistake and the pasta just soaks up the sauce, and it becomes very bland.  Keep leftovers seperate. 

Critique on Cookie Dough Frosting (on brownie)

Brownies with Cookie Dough Frosting (Pinterest recipe)
I just used the boxed brownie mix, and followed a recipe that is pretty much Nestle's choc chip cookie dough recipe, but no eggs, so that it is perfectly safe to eat.  I thought it was WAY too rich, but if you like super sweet, then by all means!  The cookie dough by itself wasn't too bad.  I'm thinking of making small chunks out of the dough and then freezing it and adding it to vanilla icecream or just keeping it by itself for a little frozen delight snack!  I would give it a thumbs down on brownies though.  Will not put it on brownies again.  Even my seven year old daughter gave it a thumbs down.

Pinterest inspired nailpolish organizer

Just bought a hurricane vase from Ross' ($4.99) to organize my nailpolish in a very cute way.

(Pinterest version)  I liked this jar, but couldn't find one

My Version (Looks like I should have bought a couple of these vases)

  This is great because if I need a hurricane vase to decorate I can just dump the nailpolish in a basket (hide it in a cabinet) and have a pretty vase to hold a candle or flower arrangement. 

A Retirement Party I'm working on

To be Continued... Don't mind the generic pics in the frame and books on table. This was just a sample set up to get ready for the day of.  Theme is black and gold.  Added to this dessert/candy buffet will be a donut tower and mini cupcakes on a cupcake stand.

 The clear/printed cello bags to take candy home and twist ties in a mini wine glass.

Add caption

Baby shower (boy)

This was a boy baby shower for someone at our church.  It was an awesome team effort to cut costs and increase creativity!  It was a nature them, so we had flowers as centerpieces, leaves, and trees as decor.  I am not an artist at all, but we had two really great artists that did the drawings on the wall, the clouds and the table covers: Leila and Lorelei.  The table covers were butcher paper taped to the tables. 

I made the centerpieces by spraypainting recycled cans (Costco canned veggies).  I found blue hued hydrangea at the local farmers market for $1 a bunch!  Such cheap centerpieces.

Another woman made lime green punch.

Love the raindrops.  Not sure how Leila made these...maybe she'll comment on it and share. =) The drawing was painted with watercolor to match the other decor. 

This was an activity that we did at the shower instead of a game.  Decorating onesies for mom to take home and keep.  We broke the guests into teams and mom was able to pick her favorite.  The winning team won prizes.  Leila made these trees to match the other drawing and strung chords across so that we could pin the onesies up.  *I bought fabric markers for this activity, but probably should have stuck to puff paint.  Participants mentioned that it was difficult to use the markers because the material bunched.  Something to think about.  We could have also used fabric remnants and cut and glued to onesies, but we went with the markers to cut costs.

 

This was a delightful dessert buffet created by Kelli and Kathy.  Gourmet cupcakes made by Janella.  Shower guests loved this! 

To Pretty Up the Home

I am blessed to have beautiful and bountiful rose bushes.  I love being artsy fartsy with them and trying out different vases and ways to display them.  Here's the latest. 

In the bottom picture: The farmer's market here sells hydrangea for $1 a bush.  How can I resist fresh flowers at such a reasonable price?  The vase is filled with wine corks that I was GIVEN at a yard sale.  A woman had planned on doing an art project with them but never got around to it, so this is what I came up with.  I put a small mason jar in the opening of the vase.  I had so much fun working with hydrangea that I bought myself a plant. 

These are candle holders from the centerpiece at my wedding.  They were just sitting on a counter catching dust.  I cleaned them off and thought they would be so pretty with floating flowers in them.  Will try with pink roses and plumeria flowers.

An idea for those corks you've been saving

Saw this on a design show, took forever, but such a cheap and chic decor idea for the home!

Here's the link to the step by step directions 
http://www.aplaceforusblog.com/2011/10/brown-paper-flowers-tutorial.html
These were great to add some style to a blank white wall above our dining room table.  It is very complimentary to our brown carpet, and dining room set. 
*If you clicked on the tutorial, you will notice that she used brand new store bought paper bags.  I used recycled paper bags I already had in my pantry.  So these are not only cheap (free besides glue and tape) but also made out of recycled materials!

I also made three more of the large flowers and put them on the corner of a large awkward mirror we have in our living room (we are still renting, so can't remove it).

Baby Shower (Neutral)

This was my first time throwing a neutral baby shower.  Pricebusters (sorta like a dollar store, but sooo awesome!) had great decorations, so most of these decorations were bought.  I went with a polkadot theme.  I found matching hanging lanterns and made centerpieces to coordinate with polkadots on table cloth.  I bought color coordinating plates, napkins and utensils, and to make it a little more engaging and fun, I bought some pink cups and some blue cups.  Guests had to choose pink if they thought mom was having a girl or blue if they thought it was a boy. 

Centerpiece: Foam ball, toothpicks, marshmellows, wooden dowel, flower pot, florist foam (inside the pot), ribbon, double stick tape, curling ribbon and clear cellophane (to keep the bugs off). *If I had more time to play around with this centerpiece, I would have tried something different with the bottom.  It was quite wobbly and could not be taken home in one piece. 

Favors were little bags of frosted animal cookies with alternating pink, blue and yellow curling ribbon.  The cutouts were baby carriages, onesies, teddybears and bottles.  These were to write encouraging words or advice to the new mother.  I had a poster board taped to the wall where guests could tape their cutouts to the board and mom could take it home.