Thoughts on the Paula Deen Scandal and Gold Medal Fajitas

*Note: I wrote this last summer when this scandal first started and apparently never got around to posting it. It sounds like Paula will be coming back to TV soon although still not for Food Network which is a shame; her food is amazing!*

 I have to admit I do not know much about the lawsuit Paula Deen is involved in so I am stating my opinion based solely on her use of inappropriate language. Do I like the fact that she used the N-word to describe someone; No! I do however think it has been blown way out of proportion. Would I feel differently if it had been derogatory against me? Maybe, I can't say. This is what I do know...I remember visiting my grandparents in Florida one summer when I was in high school. I don't remember the topic of conversation but somewhere in the conversation my grandfather used the N-word too. I was shocked to say the least and a little disappointed. Then I had to remember that my grandfather was born and raised in South Carolina.  He lived during a time when that word was used very commonly. It didn't make it right but it did help me understand. Paula grew up in that same situation. 

I also try very hard not to judge others keeping in mind John 8:7 (NLT): 

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, "All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!" I know I am not in the public spotlight like Paula is but I am not perfect either. 

She has apologized and tried to make things right, she can't go back and change what she said. Is it right to destroy her entire life over this? It makes me a little disappointed in her but I still think she is an amazing chef and I love her recipes. I therefore am not boycotting Paula Deen and am sharing another one of our favorite recipes of hers with you tonight.

Paula Deen's Gold Medal Fajitas

Ingredients
1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
Dash hot sauce
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds meat (boneless, skinless chicken breast, skirt steak or peeled and deveined shrimp)
1 medium onion, halved and sliced lengthwise
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
1 lime, juiced, for topping
Sour cream, for topping
Salsa, for topping
Guacamole, for topping
Cheddar cheese, shredded, for topping

Directions
In a heavy duty resealable plastic bag, combine 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, hot sauce, salt, pepper and your choice of meat. Seal and toss the bag around to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator. *Cook's Note: 15 minutes for shrimp, 20 minutes for chicken and 1 hour for skirt steak.

Preheat your cast iron servers in a preheated 400 degree F oven for at least 20 minutes, to get a good sizzle when you plate the fajitas.

Heat the outside grill or a large indoor grill pan to medium-high heat. Remove the meat from the marinade and place it on the hot grill, discard the marinade. Cook chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side, skirt steak about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare and about 2 minutes for shrimp. Slice the chicken and steak into strips if you are using.

In a large skillet heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and fry the onions and bell peppers until crisp-tender with some salt and pepper.

Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm them in the oven with the servers for 15 minutes.

When you are ready to serve, remove the cast iron servers from the oven and quickly arrange the meat and peppers and onions on it. It will immediately start to sizzle from their fat and moisture. Serve sizzling immediately with the warm tortillas and other accompaniments.

Enjoy!

Back Again 2.0 and Turkey Shepherds Pie

I apologize for the long hiatus. Life got in the way! A repost about 2 weeks ago got me in the mood again and so here I am! I have so many yummy recipes to share with all of you and I hope you'll do the same in return. Every few months I definitely get in a meal rut so it's nice to have some new ideas.

This recipe comes from another of my favorite TV chefs: Rachel Ray. Andrew has a good friend from high school that I swear has her voice, personality, and looks a lot like her too! Rachel has a lot of tasty ideas although she does cook a lot of pastas so if you are a carb watcher a lot of her stuff may not be for you. She also has a really cool garbage bowl (a bowl where you put all of your scraps and trash) that I would eventaully love to have for my kitchen (although I'm sure I could use just any large bowl; I just always forget!). This yummy dish doesn't use any pasta but some delicious mashed potatoes do grace the top! Even my pickiest eater ate 2 big bites without complaining (although she still asked for some chicken nuggets...sigh). This is also one of her many "Yum-o!" recipes which means it's good and good for you. To find out more about Yum-o!, Rachael's nonprofit organization, go to www.yum-o.org.

• Ground Turkey Shepherd's Pie
• Serves 4
• 
  
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Ingredients:

• 4 large Idaho or Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (2 1/2-3 pounds)
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 slices bacon, chopped or snipped with kitchen scissors
• 2 pounds ground turkey or ground turkey breast
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• Pepper
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (eyeball it)
• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2/3 cup half-and-half or cream, divided
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons chives, snipped or chopped
• 1 teaspoon paprika

Directions:
Place the potatoes in a small, deep pot. Cover with water, set the lid in place and set the pot on stove. Turn the heat on high and bring potatoes to a boil. Salt the water and cook potatoes until tender, 12-15 minutes.

While the potatoes cook, place a deep skillet on the stovetop over medium-high to high heat and add 2 tablespoons of EVOO, two turns of the pan. When the EVOO is hot, add the bacon and cook until crisp, 5 minutes, then add the turkey and break it up with a wooden spoon. Season the turkey with salt and pepper and brown it for 5 minutes, then squish it off to the sides of the pan and add the onions and carrots to the center of the pan. Season the veggies with salt and pepper and let them cook in the center of the pan, where it is hottest, for 5 minutes, then mix everything together.

Add the Worcestershire sauce and poultry seasoning to the turkey, then turn the heat down to medium and cover the pan with a foil tent to keep in some of the moisture. Cook another 6-7 minutes.

Pre-heat the broiler to high.

Drain the potatoes and place them back in the warm pot. Use a pot holder to hang on to the pot while you smash them up. Add 1/3 cup half-and-half, salt, pepper, egg, butter and chives and smash away with a masher until potatoes are almost smooth, but are still a little lumpy.

Remove the foil from the turkey pan and stir in the peas and the remaining 1/3 cup half-and-half. Scrape up any good bits from the bottom of the pan and turn off the heat.

Scrape the turkey into a small casserole dish, top with a thick layer of smashed potatoes, then transfer to the broiler. Cook until top is brown, then sprinkle with paprika and serve.

Enjoy!

Birthdays and Hawaiian Ham and Cheese Sliders

Birthdays are a super special event in our house or at least we try to make sure they are :0). While working on the plan for this year's upcoming birthdays of our soon to be 4 and 2 year olds, I am reminded of last year's parties. The almost 3 year old (at the time) was finally able to have an opinion about her party theme and chose a monster party which turned out to be a blast! And since our littlest was too young to decide for herself, we chose a luau theme which was perfect for her late June birthday. The hit of the luau were these incredibly delicious ham and cheese sliders on Hawaiian rolls! I had first discovered them at our niece's birthday and they were so good I knew they would make the perfect addition to our luau. I'm pretty sure I could eat an entire pan of these myself so beware ;0).

Hawaiian Ham and Cheese Sliders

1- 12 pack King's Original Hawaiian Sweet Dinner Rolls
1 lb. Deli Ham
1 lb. Swiss cheese (thinly sliced)
1 stick of butter
1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 1/2 tsp dried minced onion
Poppy seeds

You can leave rolls intact but slice through the middle. Layer with cheese, ham, and more cheese. Top with roll tops. Place rolls in a 9x13 pan. Mix butter, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and onion in a small saucepan until butter is melted. Pour over tops of rolls. Sprinkle with poppy seeds. You can refrigerate a few hours, overnight, or not at all (I usually go for not at all as I want them now but for the party I did them before hand and refrigerated them until I was ready). Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown and cheese is melted (if tops are browning too quickly, cover with aluminum foil until cheese is melted). Serve warm.

Be on the lookout for more on this year's parties: a Superhero party for our eldest Super Girl and either an owl or Elmo party for the youngest :0) I've included a few pictures below of our monster party and luau for fun. Enjoy the sliders!

The birthday girl waiting so patiently!

Party favor bags for the guests

Funny face but a good one of her monster outfit; thanks Grandma Grace!

Birthday banner

Dessert!!

The birthday girl posing for her invites

The dessert table is prepared

Teddy bears in inner tubes

Teddies on the beach

Umbrella wreath

Birthday banner...love my cricut!

Party favor buckets

Fruit platter

Birthday girl in her Hawaiian dress

Back Again and Buttermilk Brined Turkey Breast

Welcome back! I know it's been awhile. My laptop died and typing on an iPad is not the easiest thing to do so I was lazy and gave up. For Christmas, I got a bluetooth keyboard case for my iPad so I am back in business with lots of recipes to share! 

     One of my favorite foods is BBQ. We have a few sit down BBQ restaurants up here in the north but BBQ is generally expensive and paying a tip on top of that deterred us most of the time. I had just commented to my husband that they should have a BBQ fast food restaurant of sorts when we noticed a sign on a restaurant being built. It read City BBQ and wouldn't you know, it is exactly the type of restaurant I was talking about! 

     For the last two years, we have frequented City BBQ a lot of times. In fact, while I was pregnant with G, we ate there at least once a week and that was my first meal after her delivery. About a year and a half ago maybe, my brother in law got a smoker and smoked pork for my nephew's birthday party and a turkey at Thanksgiving...the flavors were amazing! I began wishing for our own smoker. My wishes were granted this year for my 30th birthday when my husband bought me a little charcoal smoker. The pork was delicious but it took a really long time as it was hard to keep the smoker up to temp. We decided to go ahead and upgrade to a propane smoker and I'm so glad we did! We've now smoked a few pork butts, a chicken, and a couple turkeys. We still enjoy going to City BBQ for delicious food but we also enjoy making our own at home as well. I saw a picture of a buttermilk brined turkey on Pinterest (I told you I was addicted) but after discovering the brine to be a mix you were supposed to buy from Williams and Sonoma, I ran to my next recipe source: The Food Network. Hooray! I discovered a buttermilk brine created by Guy Fieri. You can check out the original page here. 
     Fieri's recipe has you baking the turkey but if you have a smoker I highly recommend it! We used a mixture of cherry, apple, and hickory chips. The fresh turkey breast I bought at Target was a little over 6 pounds so I doubled the brine.

Buttermilk Brined Turkey Breast

 

Ingredients

• 1 (2 1/2 to 3-pound) turkey breast, bone-in
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup hot sauce (recommended: Crystal; I used Frank's)
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper

Directions

Combine all the ingredients together in a large resealable plastic bag (or box in my case). Place in a bowl, to catch any leaks, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. Take out, pat dry and smoke (see link above for oven directions).

Prep work is done!

Turkey is swimming in the buttermilk brine.

Into the fridge we go...goodnight!

Turkey is out and warming up slightly before going into the smoker.

Love our smoker! We are able to cook several things at once which comes in handy sometimes. 

About 3 1/2 hours later we reached the magic temp for turkey

Beautiful golden brown!

Nice and juicy... and look... a nice pink smoke ring!

Dinner was delicous and there's plenty of leftovers for sandwiches!

I'll try to get back to my weekly posts; enjoy! 

A little about my sister-in-law and CAKE!

Okay, so I love my husband's family dearly! I hang out with them even when my hubby is not around which I think says a lot :0) My hubby has just one sister and we have a lot of interests in common. One thing my sister-in-law loves to do is throw parties (in particular her children's birthday parties) and she sets the bar pretty high. Each party is centered around a theme including food and even an adult beverage. It's so much fun and she always shares ideas which is nice. I don't even remember what kind of party it was where she first introduced us to this absolutely marvelous creation...The Chocolate Lover's Dream Cake. I'm not 100% sure on the origin of this cake, I just know she got it out of a cook book that doctors up store bought cake mixes. Be sure to try this one...you won't regret it!  

Chocolate Lover's Dream Cake 

Cake:
1 box Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Chocolate Cake Mix
1/3 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup chocolate milk 
1 small box instant chocolate fudge pudding (dry)
1 16oz container sour cream 
1 bag chocolate chips (I use milk choc., original recipe calls for semi sweet) 


Glaze: 
1 1/2 teaspoons water 
3/4 cup chocolate chips (milk or semi sweet) 
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons light corn syrup 


Mix all cake ingredients together. It will be extremely thick! Spoon into a greased and floured 12-cup (make sure it's 12 cups!) bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then turn out on a cookie sheet to cool. When the cake is cooled, make and top with glaze. Store at room temp loosely covered or in fridge. 


I can't just leave you with one cake so I am going to share another doctored up cake mix for you that I discovered from a very talented coworker of mine. You can check out her blog post and others by visiting Basilmomma. This recipe originally comes from one of my favorite ladies...Mrs. Paula Deen. I've made these a few times now and I'm pretty sure I could eat the entire cake in one sitting! I turned this into cupcakes for birthday parties and it works beautifully (the icing even works fairly well being piped onto the cupcakes). 

 Pink Lemonade Cake 

Adapted from a Paula Deen recipe 

Cake: 
1 box of Duncan Hines white cake mix 
1 tsp lemon zest (I used 2 tsp) 
2 tsp pure vanilla extract 
3 TB of Country Time Pink Lemonade Powdered drink mix 


Frosting: 
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened (I used 1 stick, your preference)
1 pound of confectioners sugar 
5 TB frozen pink lemonade concentrate (use just a bit more if it is thick, to taste) 
1 tsp pure vanilla 
1 tsp lemon zest (I used 2 tsp) 


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare cupcake pans (Basilmomma used 2 - 8 inch round cake pans). Prepare the cake batter according to the box directions using the ingredients listed.  To the batter add the lemon zest, vanilla and pink lemonade powder.  Stir to combine.  Pour the batter evenly to the pans.  Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Remove the cakes and allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.  Then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to completely cool. While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting by beating together the confectioners sugar and the softened butter until fluffy.  Beat in the remaining frosting ingredients until combined. Ice your cake/cupcakes. 


My youngest angel just celebrated her first birthday with a luau and my next blog post will feature these amazingly yummy ham and swiss sandwiches. Until then, here is a picture of my girls in their tutus from my last posting...enjoy!

Cooking with Parmesan and Tulle Tutus

Sorry it's been awhile; springtime is super busy in our household.  Since summer is in full swing now, it's time to start sharing some more recipes with all of you. It is super hard to believe but my littlest angel is going to be a year old tomorrow. Every birthday is wonderful but the first one is always special. In thinking about what pictures I want taken to celebrate this event, I decided I wanted a colorful tutu picture with colorful balloons. The next step...a tutu. I've seen lots of tutus around but some of them seem really pricy. I can sometimes be crafty so I decided to look up instructions on the Internet and try my hand at one. I would say I had success. Below are the two I've made so far...one for each of my girls. I'll post pictures of my girls in them once we have pictures taken.

Okay, back to food. Last night we had our second night of steak this week. The first night I made grilled corn on the cob and grilled asparagus; both were delicious but this time I wanted something different so I went straight for my favorite place to hunt for recipes...Pinterest. I was going for potatoes and I found a recipe from My Adventures in the Country that looked positively delicious. I did a few modifications because of ingredients on hand but I thought they were delicious. 

Twice-Cooked Bacon Parmesan Potatoes 

Olive oil cooking spray 6 slices bacon (I used the refrigerated ready-to-eat kind) 
3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (I used the itty-bitty ones!) 
4 cloves minced garlic 
1/2 cup grated parmesean (she uses parmigiano-reggiano...would be delish but expensive!) 
Kosher salt 
Fresh ground pepper 
Parsley (I used dried....fresh would be good too) 


First, I washed the potatoes and boiled them for 20 minutes. I left the peel on but you could peel first. Drain potatoes and let cool slightly before cutting them into large bite sized pieces. Spray a baking sheet with the olive oil spray and place potatoes cut side down. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. While baking, mix together garlic, parmesean cheese, and parsley. After 15 minutes, flip potatoes over, sprinkle with the parmesean mixture and bake once more for 15 minutes. Yum! 


With my love for parmesean cheese, I decided to look for something else using this wonderful ingredient. Once again using my favorite "search engine" (Pinterest) I searched high and low and came up with this recipe for Parmesean Chicken posted by Plain Chicken. 

Garlic Parmesean Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 


Marinade: 
1/2 cup olive oil 
1/2 cup ranch dressing 
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce 
1 tsp vinegar 
1 tsp lemon juice 
1 Tbsp minced garlic 
1/2 tsp pepper 


 Ranch Spread: 
1/4 cup grated Parmesan 
1/4 cup ranch dressing 


Parmesan Crumb Topping: 
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs 
1 teaspoons garlic salt, 
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan 
2 tablespoons melted butter 
1 cup shredded provolone (I used sliced- 1 slice per breast) 


Combine ingredients for marinade and pour over chicken.  Let marinate in refrigerator for 2-3 hours or overnight.  Grill 12-15 minutes, until chicken is done. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the ranch spread and parmesan crumb topping. For the ranch spread, mix 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan and 1/4 cup ranch dressing. Set aside. For Parmesan crumb topping, mix bread crumbs, garlic salt, shredded Parmesan and butter.  The crumbs should be evenly moistened. Position rack in center of oven. Preheat broiler. Transfer cooked chicken to oven-safe casserole dish. Spread 2 tablespoons ranch spread on each breast, then top with provolone and Parmesan crumb topping. Place chicken under broiler and cook until cheese melts and crumb topping begins to turn light brown. Enjoy!!

Memories, Lemon Bars, and Cucumber Sandwiches

Okay, so my last post got me thinking about memories from my childhood. Today I'm going to focus on my Grandma Adalee. When i used to visit her in the summer we used to enjoy going to the movie theater and singing in the car together. Her favorite song to sing with us was "You are my sunshine". We also enjoyed walking out at their beachfront condo on Medeira Beach. As far back as I can remember, she was very much into healthy eating. We often ate Grape Nuts cereal (yuck!) and Ruth's Golden Oatmeal cookies because they did not have preservatives. :0) My favorite thing to eat at her house were toasted deli sandwiches. She made them on sandwich buns with chicken, Swiss cheese, and tomato; yum! I still make them at home on occasion. Another wonderful recipe from her were date nut bars. The following recipe for these creamy lemon crumb squares reminds me of them; the crust is very similar! I'll include the date bar recipe in a future post.

I have also included a bonus recipe for cucumber sandwiches. This recipe did not come from my grandma but I got this recipe from a friend of mine's sister and they are absolutely delicious! I never thought that I would like cucumber sandwiches but I'm pretty sure I could eat an entire recipe of these myself! I made these for our girl's night last week and I just had to share it with you.

These recipes are pictured on a plate that I saved from my grandmother's when she moved into a nursing home. Miss you Grandma!

Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares
(Found on Pinterest- original recipe from The Pioneer Woman)

1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, slightly softened
1 cup brown sugar (lightly packed)
1 cup oats
1 can (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk
½ cups lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix butter and brown sugar until well combined.Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.Add oats and flour to butter/sugar mixture and mix to combine.

Press half of oat crumb mixture into the bottom of an 8 x 11 inch pan. You can use a 9 x 13 pan; it will just be thinner.

Mix together condensed milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Spread onto the bottom layer of the crumb mixture. The other half of the crumb mixture mix and knead together with clean hands so that the butter that you added earlier gets incorporated then crumble on top of lemon layer but don’t press. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Allow pan to sit on counter for 30 minutes after baking. Cut into squares and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until cool.Serve cool. Makes around one dozen.


Cucumber Sandwiches

2 8-oz packages cream cheese (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup mayo (I used light)
1 package ranch dressing dry seasoning mix
Hawaiian dinner rolls
Cucumber
Dill weed

Mix cream cheese, mayo and dressing until well mixed. Split Hawaiian rolls in half. Top each half with some of the cream cheese mixture, top with a thin slice of cucumber,and sprinkle a little dill weed on top (it's missing in my picture). Enjoy!