Chicken in Crescent Roll & Pear and Blue Cheese Salad

So we had the rents over for din din - so decided to make our all time FAVORITE meal!!  The chicken is soooooo good - everyone I know LOVES it!!  Thanks to Mrs. Perrine for this lovely recipe!  It's so easy too - and you have to cook this from a frozen state, so you can make it ahead of time OR make lots and save for a later date....one time saver is buying pre-cooked chicken...tastes the same and then you don't have to worry about cooking chicken beforehand.  We had this with wild rice, cream of mushroom soup for a topping, and the salad.

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

4 cups cooked chicken, diced

8 oz. cream cheese

4 tbsp. melted butter

4 tbsp. lemon juice

4 tbsp. milk

4 tbsp. chopped onion

2 package Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

melted butter

seasoned croutons

Combine cream cheese and butter. Blend in lemon juice, milk and chopped onion.  Add chicken.

Break each package of crescent rolls into 4 squares.  Pinch together 2 triangles to make one square.  Pat each square to 6” size.  Put ½ cup chicken mixture on each square.  Pull up corners and pinch to close.

Dip in melted butter and roll in crushed, seasoned croutons.  Freeze on tray (must not have deep sides, roll gets too doughy when baked in pan with sides).

Bake from frozen state for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Serve topped with cream of mushroom soup diluted with ¼ -1/3 can of milk.

Serves 4

This salad was super good!!  Thanks to miss Tiff for this recipe (I swear I have made almost everything on her blog!)  Again - really easy to make and the pears were a good compliment to the chicken!  Enjoy!!

Ingredients:
Cider Vinaigrette Dressing (below)
1 medium bunch romaine
2 medium red or green pears
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (1 oz)
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of ground pepper

Make Cider Vinaigrette.

Remove any limp outer leaves from the romaine and discard. Break remaining leaves off the core, and rinse with cool water. Shake off excess water and blot to dry, or roll up the leaves in a clean kitchen towel or paper towel to dry. Or use a spinner to dry leaves. Tear the leaves into bite-size pieces. You will need about 8 cups of Romaine pieces. Place romaine in the bowl.

Cut each pear into fourths. Cut the core and seeds from the center of each fourth. Cut each fourth into 1/4 inch slices, add to romaine. Add the cheese and walnuts to romaine.

Pour the vinaigrette over the salad ingredients, and toss. To keep salad crisp, serve immediately

Pinecone Cheese Ball

Tis the Season....so try this festive appetizer!  It is really good - and people will be amazed with your "pine cone building" technique :)  I used Ritz crackers - and it was really good!!  The only thing is people are always "nervous" to be the first one to wreck it -- ha ha.  Enjoy - and Merry Christmas MONTH!!

Ingredients:

8oz cream cheese, softened

2 cups Shredded Cheddar Jack Mexican Style cheese

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons chopped canned green chilies

1/3 cup sliced almonds - toasted

Ritz Crackers

Place cream cheese, shredded cheese, and mustard in food processor.  Process until blended - then stir in chilies.

Place on a sheet of wax paper - shape into 4 inch oval to resemble a pinecone.  Insert almonds in rows to completely cover cream cheese mixture.  Cover - refrigerate at least 2 hours until firm.  Let stand at room temp for 15 min before serving.

Oven Baked Pineapple Pork Chops

Had a "Lisa night", so thought I would make something simple and yummy!!  This is really easy - and you can make as few or as many as you want!  I made this with noodles - but it would taste good with just about everything!!

Ingredients:

8 oz can pineapple slices, drained and juices reserved

2 T soy sauce

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon garlic powder

4 pork loin chops

1/3 c Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 teaspoon paprika

Combine 4 tablespoon pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic powder in a shallow bowl; add pork chops, turning once to coat.


Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.


Gently toss bread crumbs and paprika in a pie pan; add pork chops, coating both sides.


Arrange pork chops in a shallow ungreased 13x9 baking pan; bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.


Turn pork chops; place one pineapple slice on each pork chop.  Baked 25 additional minutes; serve warm.

Fon "DO"

So we had a cookbook club "meeting" last night - and our theme was fondue!  Finally got to use those fondue pots we got from our wedding :)  It was really fun!!  We did a cheese fondue - and dipped bread in that.....which was super yummy!!  (we might have even filled up a little too much on that....)  Then we filled the other pot with oil - and cooked up some steak and chicken......the sauces for dipping are below.  (we liked the mustard one the best)

For 1 lb of chicken or beef – cut meat into cubes…..add 3 cups veggie oil into fondue pot.  Turn to 375 degrees – and let heat up (about 15 minutes).  Then just cook up the meat until it’s done.

Béarnaise sauce:

1/2c butter

¼ c water or dry white wine

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 teaspoon finely chopped onions

¼ teaspoon salt / pepper

3 egg yolks

Combine in blender until smooth, cook over low heat to thicken – remove from heat and stir in ½ cup mayo.

BBQ Sauce:

1 cup ketchup

¾ cup water

¼ cup vinegar or lemon juice

3 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup chopped onion

Mix – place over medium heat to simmer, stir often, lower heat – and simmer covered for 10 to 15 min.

Mustard sauce:

¼ cup mayo

¼ cup Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1 garlic clove, minced

Horse radish sauce:

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon horse radish

2 tablespoon dried chives

¼ teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Fruit Sauce (to go with fruit fondue):

4 cup frozen raspberries

2 cup vanilla yogurt

8 tablespoon sugar

Whip in blender and serve

Cheese sauce (to go with bread fondue)

                   Serves 5

8 oz shredded Gruyere cheese (found in fancy cheese section)

8 oz shredded Swiss cheese

1 cup white wine

2 tablespoons flour

¼ teaspoon nutmeg, salt, and pepper

1 loaf French bread cut into 1 inch cubes

Greek Turkey Burgers

Um we are cooking rockstars!!  I told Ross it keeps getting better and better -- I have LOVED every single thing we have made so far!!  (Thanks Tiff for the recipe!)  This was SUPER good - and really easy to make.  We made this with roasted red potatoes.  We put cucumbers, tomato, and pepperonchini's on top of the sauce - and it was perfection!!  Can't wait to eat these for leftovers :)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 1/3 lb ground turkey breast

1 (4oz) package crumbled feta cheese

¼ cup finely chopped red onion

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon lemon zest

½ teaspoon salt

Veggie cooking spray

½ cup grated English cucumber

1 (6oz) container fat-free Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

½ teaspoon salt

4 French hamburger buns, split and toasted

Toppings: lettuce, tomato, thinly slice cucumber

Garnish: Pepperoncini salad peppers

Stir together first 6 ingredients.  Shape mixture into 4 (1/2 inch thick) patties.

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat.  Coat grill pan with cooking spreay.  Add patties; cook 5 minutes on each side or until done.

Stir together cucumber, yogurt, mint, and ½ tsp salt in a small bowl.  Serve burgers on buns with cucumber sauce and desired toppings.  Garnish if desired.

Savory Oven Beef Rib Stew

Got this recipe from my sister-in-law Stacy - and it was super YUMMY!!  Really easy to make - and was good for a cold winter night!!  Didn't realize it was a stew - so we made this with creamette noodles (and it actually was really good!!)

Serves 5

Ingredients:

1 cup beef broth

½ cup dry red wine or beef broth

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon dried marjoram

3 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon salt and pepper

2 lb beef boneless country-style chuck ribs

2 Tablespoons olive oil

6 medium carrots; cut into 2 inch pieces

2 medium stalk celery, chopped (about 1 cup)

1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

2 large cloves garlic, minced

In 13x9 in glass baking dish – mix broth, wine, tomato sauce, thyme, and marjoram.

In plastic bag – place flour, salt, pepper, shake and mix.  Add meat and shake to coat.

In skillet – brown meat in 1 Tablespoon of olive oil.  Turn onto all sides until both sides are brown.  Take meat off – add another Tablespoon of olive oil and cook carrots, onion, celery, garlic for 3 min.  Add the veggies into 13x9 pan.

Cover tightly with foil – bake at 350 for 1-2 hours or until meat is tender.   Eat with creamette noodles.

Egg Bake

So we had the Sodahl clan over for brunch - so I made a great Ronhovde favorite.  This is super yummy -- and my FAVORITE breakfast food out there!!

Serves 6

Ingredients:
2 packages Jimmy Dean sausage
3 cups croutons
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
6 eggs beaten
2 1/2 cups milk
cream mushroom soup
small can mushrooms

Brown and drain sausage.  Then grease pan - put in croutons and sausage.  Mix milk, eggs, cheese - then on top of that - mix cream of mushroom soup, 1/4c milk, and the drained mushrooms.  Pour this on top of sausage.

Refrigerate overnight - then bake at 350 degrees for 45 min to 1 hour.