Breakfast Potatoes

I made these potatoes as part of my husband's birthday breakfast last Saturday and everyone seemed to really enjoy them! My husband is a big "breakfast fan"--much unlike myself! He's all about having a breakfast complete with eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, biscuits, etc, whereas I'm content just having a bagel and coffee :) Since it was "his day", I wanted to make it as special as possible, so I prepared all of the above components--minus the sausage, because I thought that might be overkill! There's really nothing particularly fancy about these potatoes--just a simple, quick recipe!

Breakfast Potatoes

5-6 red potatoes, diced
1 stick butter (or margarine)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons onion powder
Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Melt butter and oil on medium-high heat in 12 inch skillet. Add potatoes, garlic and onion powder and stir to coat. Generously season with Kosher salt and pepper. Stir frequently until tender, brown and crispy--approximately 20 minutes.

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Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions

Oh, how I love the State Fair!!! I'd be lying if I said that the food wasn't one of my favorite aspects :) Without fail, I ALWAYS have Italian sausage with peppers and onions---so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My husband and I decided to recreate this "fair favorite" at home over his little mini-vacation and was it ever a treat! I think what really makes or breaks this recipe, however, is the type of sauce you use--I almost prefer a sauce with a hint of sweetness to it. That would be my one suggestion...make sure you use a good sauce!!!

Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions

6-8 Italian Sausage Links
1 green pepper, cut into strips
1 red pepper, cut into strips
1 medium Vidalia onion, sliced thinly
1 jar of your favorite pizza or marinara sauce (again, I'd try to get one that has a hint of sweetness or just make sure you add a bit of sugar to the sauce!)
Brat Buns
Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Place Italian sausage links in a skillet and cover with water. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Remove sausages and place on grill or in grill pan and cook for 7-8 minutes (maybe slightly more or less, depending on how well you like them cooked!). While sausages are grilling, saute peppers and onions in 3 tablespoons of butter or margarine until tender.

To serve: Place one Italian sausage link on each brat bun. Pour sauce over sausage and top with peppers and onions. Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top.

Shrimp Scampi

This is the last full day I'll have with my husband and kids...he goes back to work on Wednesday and I signed up to work tomorrow. I was trying to figure out what to make for lunch, when I remembered that we had some shrimp leftover from when we had fondue the other night for my husband's birthday. I certainly didn't want it to go to waste, so I immediately thought I would make shrimp scampi...one of my favorite dishes! We've experimented with several different recipes over the years and I decided that I would just kind of "wing it" this afternoon. I thought it was pretty good, if I do say so myself :) My husband and I have tried recipes in which I thought the "wine flavor" was too much, so that was my one major change. I added half white wine and half chicken broth. I didn't have fresh parsley, so please excuse the dried. If you're making this for a family of 4 or more, I would at least double it!

Shrimp Scampi

8 oz angel hair
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons olive oil
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese (for garnish)
Fresh parsley (for garnish)

Directions:

Boil pasta according to package directions. In the meantime, melt butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 10-15 seconds, stirring constantly to make sure it does not burn. Add shrimp and continue cooking for 3-5 minutes--continuing to stir constantly. Add wine and chicken broth and bring to a boil; allow to boil for 1 minute. Add pasta, salt and pepper and stir to coat. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Chicken Francese, Buttery Garlic Potatoes and Garlic Green Beans

Today is my husband's 30th birthday...now I no longer have to listen to all of his little digs about my age! We're only about 8 months apart, but I happen to be the older one, so he's always teasing me--especially because he knew I had a rough time with turning 30 :) Having two small kids and no babysitter makes it a bit rough to plan an evening out, so I decided that I would plan a nice, romantic fondue dinner for tonight (after the kids go to bed) and I made this meal last night in honor of his birthday. The chicken recipe is from Donna (My Tasty Treasures) blog and as usual, this recipe was fantastic! It reminded me a lot of a lemon chicken recipe that I have made in the past, but it did slightly vary and I really enjoyed it for a "change of pace". I was extremely "iffy" about the potatoes--I kept looking at the recipe and knew that the ingredients sounded wonderful, but never before have I made potatoes in the microwave...other than when I just start baked potatoes in the microwave, but they inevitably end up in the oven to crisp up a bit. I thought the flavor was outstanding and I didn't mind in the least bit that they weren't prepared in the oven--they would be perfect for a quick weeknight meal! The green beans weren't really a formal recipe...I just kind of played with them until I got them right!

Chicken Francese

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs)
All-purpose flour, for dredging
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 large eggs (I only used 2 and had plenty left)
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon with rind, cut in thin rounds
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flat chopped leaf parsley (I forgot to get some, so I used dried)

Directions:

Pound your chicken breasts till they are about ¼ inch thick. Put some flour in a shallow platter, season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, beat the eggs with 3 tablespoons of water to make an egg wash. heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet.

Dredge both sides of chicken in flour mixture, and then dip them in the egg wash. Let it coat completely. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 2 minutes on each side. Until golden, turning once. Remove cutelts to a large platter in a single layer to keep warm.

Toss the lemon slices into the pan and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Until fragrant. Add the wine, broth, and lemon juice, and simmer for 5 minutes to reduce the sauce slightly. Roll the butter in some flour and add to the skillet, this will thicken the sauce. Stir to incorporate and dissolve the flour. Reduce the heat to medium-low and returnt he chicken to the pan; place the lemon slices on top of the cutlets. Simmer gently for 2 minutes to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.



Buttery Garlic Potatoes

6 small red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon minced garlic

Directions:

Place the potatoes in a 2-qt. microwave-safe dish. In a small bowl, combine the butter, seasoned salt, paprika, parsley and garlic; pour over potatoes and toss to coat.

Microwave, uncovered, on high for 8-10 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring frequently.

Source: Taste of Home



Garlic Green Beans

1 pound fresh, washed, trimmed green beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 - 3/4 cup finely chopped vidalia onion
2 garlic cloves, minced (I tend to use a bit more garlic when I cook! We can never have too much garlic!!!)
Sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Steam green beans to desired tenderness (approximately 10-12 minutes). While beans are steaming, add oil and butter to a skillet on medium-high. When butter melts, add garlic and onion and saute until onion becomes tender. Add cooked beans to the skillet and stir to coat. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Beijing Beef

This might honestly be my new favorite "at home" Chinese food recipe!!! (Thank you, Sarah!!!!!!!!!!) I've tried and tried over the years, to make something that tasted even remotely close to what I have when I eat out and this was pretty darn close. I did make a couple of minor changes and will reflect them below--I definitely trust my sister's judgment and thanks to her suggestions, it turned out perfectly! My husband not only had seconds, but made a point to mention that he thought it was the best "Chinese-style" dish I had ever made.

Beijing Beef

1 1/2 lbs flank steak (sliced thinly, against the grain)
6 tablespoons cornstarch (for dusting)
oil (for frying)

Marinade:
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Sauce:
10 tablespoons water
10 tablespoons sugar
7 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon crush chili pepper (I substituted a little chili powder and red pepper flakes, b/c I didn't have chili pepper)
5 teaspoons cornstarch

Vegetables:
2 tablespoons garlic (minced)
1 medium red bell pepper (cut into chunks)
1 medium green bell pepper (cut into chunks)
1 medium vidalia onion (cut into chunks)

Directions:

In a bowl or resealable bag combine all marinade ingredients and mix well. Add beef slices and marinate for 15 minutes. While beef in marinating, mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and refrigerate. When the beef is done marinating coat the beef slices with 6 tablespoons of cornstarch. Remove any excess cornstarch and deep fry (either in a deep fryer or wok) beef slices in batches until floating or golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Add a couple tablespoons of oil to the wok and add minced garlic and stir fry for 10 seconds. Add red and green bell peppers and onions and stir fry for 2 minutes. Remove vegetables and set aside. Pour sauce into the wok and heat until boiling. Return veggies and beef to pan and mix with sauce mixture until well-coated.

Source: Delectable Dining

Quick Pork Fajitas

I am so behind on posting!!! I made the pork tenderloin and these pork fajitas a few weeks ago and am just getting around to posting. I'm going to start by saying that while this was a great way to use up the leftover pork tenderloin, I still am somewhat partial to steak or chicken fajitas. My husband and I generally don't care to reheat meat, so I was trying to think of a clever way to utilize the leftover pork. I always tend to use Allrecipes.com as my "fallback" and came across this recipe. It was definitely "good" and if you happen to be a huge fan of pork, you'd probably really like these, but I think I definitely gravitate more toward steak or chicken...perhaps more out of habit?!?

Quick Pork Fajitas

1 - 1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, thinly sliced
3-4 tablespoons fajita seasoning
1 onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper OR red bell pepper, sliced
6 flour tortillas, warmed

Directions:

In shallow bowl, toss pork pieces with fajita seasoning. In large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, stir-fry pork pieces with onion and green pepper until vegetables are just tender (about 5 to 10 minutes). Wrap portions in flour tortillas with salsa.

Source: Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Marinated Pork Tenderloin

If you want to see how this pork should really look, make sure to check out Donna's (My Tasty Treasure's) blog...her pictures were WAY better!!! We had some minor issues as far as the cooking time goes and had to cut into it several different times. I had to laugh, because I bought a pork tenderloin, having absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it and then I came across this recipe on Allrecipes.com. To my surprise, Donna posted the very same recipe the next day! She is an absolutely amazing cook, so the fact that she recommended it, let me know that it was definitely worth trying. It was wonderful, although I think I ended up using a 3 1/2 pound pork loin instead of (2) 3/4 lb pork tenderloins, so I should have researched the cooking time a little more thoroughly as I grossly underestimated the amount of time it would need. Tomorrow, I'll be posting a recipe that we tried to utilize the leftovers!!!

Marinated Pork Tenderloin

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons sherry
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pinch garlic powder
2 (3/4 pound) pork tenderloins

Directions:

Place soy sauce, brown sugar, sherry, dried onion, cinnamon, olive oil, and a touch of garlic powder in a large resealable plastic bag. Seal, and shake to mix. Place pork in bag with marinade, seal, and refrigerate for 6 to 12 hours.

Preheat grill for high heat. Lightly oil grate. Place tenderloins on grill, and discard marinade. Cook 20 minutes, or to desired doneness. Slice into medallions, and serve.

Source: Allrecipes.com