Chicken Lemon Penne

1 lb penne pasta

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1" cubes

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

pinch of salt, plus 1/2 tsp

pinch of pepper, plus 1/4 tsp

1 cup chicken broth

2 cup heavy cream

zest of one lemon

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 cup fresh, flat-leaf parsley

1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Season the chicken with the Herbes de Provence and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Take the chicken out of the skillet and set aside. Pour off any excess oil from the pan. Add the chicken broth to the pan and cook over med-high heat, using a wooden spoon to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the cream, lemon zest, and cayenne. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for about 10 minutes. (At this point, I dissolved about 1tbs of cornstarch in a little cold water, or you could us chicken broth, and stirred it into the sauce.)

Add the pasta, chicken, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper, chopped parsley, and lemon juice. Toss to coat the pasta and chicken with the sauce and serve.

Bowtie Salad

It tastes better if made the day (or at least a few hours) before. I reserve some of the coleslaw dressing and fold it in before serving to make sure the salad is moist. Also the cashews shouldn't be added until just before serving so they don't go soft.

454 g (1 lb) 1 box of bowtie pasta

One large bottle (2 cups) of coleslaw salad dressing

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

4 stalks of celery, diced

2-3 cans of mandarin oranges, drained

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/2 cup of red grapes, cut in half

1/2 cup unsalted cashews (optional)

1/4 cup Craisins (optional)

Add salt and pepper for taste

Pumpkin Spice Cake

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cup pumpkin

4 eggs

2 cup flour

2 tsp baking soda

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (or more)

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

dash of cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar and the oil. Blend in the vanilla, applesauce and the pumpkin. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Mix the dry ingredients together and beat into the pumpkin mixture until smooth.

Bake in a greased 9X13 pan or the batter makes great muffins or smaller size cakes too. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.

Cool then ice with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Beat 8 oz softened cream cheese with 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 tsp vanilla until smooth. Add 3 to 4 cups of powdered confectioners sugar ( I like it sweeter and add 4 cups) -- beat for a few minutes until creamy.

Heart In A Cupcake!

For the cupcakes and the hearts you’ll need:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

3 eggs

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

the seeds from half a vanilla bean

1/4 t. salt

2 1/2 c. flour

1 1/3 c. whole milk

red food coloring 

For the Laffy Taffy buttercream you’ll need:

10 pieces of strawberry Laffy Taffy candy

2 T. heavy cream

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2 c. powdered sugar 

Directions: 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees (F). 

Mix the butter and sugar together at medium speed for about 90 seconds, until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until creamy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything gets well combined. Add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla and mix until the batter is smooth. Finally, alternate between the flour and milk, beating on med-high speed until the batter is light and creamy.

Pour a little more than 1/3 of the batter (about a cup and a half) into a smaller bowl. Add red food coloring until you get your desired pink or red color. Pour the batter into a non-stick (or lightly greased) 8x8 baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes until the edges of the cake start to turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely (to speed up the process, I stuck in in the fridge).

Once the sheet cake is cool, loosen the edges away from the pan with a knife and then invert the pan onto a cutting board. Use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out a dozen cake hearts that are small enough to fit into an average-sized cupcake pan.

Spoon two heaping tablespoons of the remaining batter into paper-lined cupcake tins, so they’re about half-full. Put one heart into each tin and press it point down into the batter. Keep all the hearts facing forward in the pan. Cover with another teaspoon of batter and bake for 24 minutes.

Allow the cupcakes to cool before frosting.

Here’s the tricky part—you’ll have to keep the cupcakes facing forward so you get the right cross-section of the heart when you cut or bite into the cupcake (to get the full heart effect). So keep all the cupcakes facing forward as you move them from the cupcake tin to a cookie sheet for cooling/frosting. After frosting, put heart candy on them (or some other decoration) that can also face forward so you know which way to cut the cupcake in order to see the heart shape inside (if you cut the heart in the wrong direction you just get a rectangle shape—not very romantic!).

For the buttercream, melt the taffy and the heavy cream together in a small bowl for one minute on high, stirring every 20 seconds. Stir the mixture together until it’s smooth, then stick it in the fridge so it cools a bit (the cream will keep it from hardening). 

In a mixing bowl, whip the butter for 30 seconds until it’s smooth. Add the powdered sugar, a half cup at a time, whipping until fluffy. Finally, with the mixer on medium-low, drizzle in the melted and cooled taffy mixture. When it’s all in, turn the mixer up to high and whip the frosting until it’s fluffy. If you’d like, add a little pink or red food coloring to get the desired shade. Then frost! 

{recipe copied from here} 

Zebra Cake

      Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk (whole, 2% or 1%)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons Double Dutched Dark Cocoa

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 9" x 2" round baking pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment, and spritz again. Set the pan aside.

2) In the bowl of your mixer, blend the sugar and eggs until lightened, about 2 minutes. On low speed blend in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

3) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on medium speed 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and lump free. Be sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing.

4) Remove 2 cups of the vanilla batter and place it in the measure you used for the liquid ingredients. Sift the cocoa over this batter, and stir well to combine. Be sure to use a sifter to avoid cocoa lumps in the batter.

5) Now for the stripes. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of vanilla batter into the center of the cake pan. Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of the chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. This causes the vanilla batter to spread out. Continue to alternate batters, in bulls-eye fashion until all batter is used. You will now have thin rings of each batter on the outer edges of the pan, thicker rings towards the center.

6) Bake the cake in the center of the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost as desired.

Soft Pretzels

Makes 12-14 pretzels

Combine:

1 cup of warm water

2 1/2 teaspoons of active yeast

let sit for 5 minutes and them add:

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

2 tablespoons soft butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

mix for 3 minutes and then add

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Knead until the dough loses its stickiness. Let in rise in a covered and oiled bowl until doubled in sized. Punch down and divide into 12-14 pieces.

Roll into 18 inch snakes with tapered ends. Loop into traditional shapes, or hearts, letters, numbers... the possibilities are endless.

Place on a greased baking sheet and let rise until almost doubled in size again. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Here comes another exciting step. Bring a pot filled with 4 cups of water to a boil. Carefully add 5 teaspoons of baking soda. We loved watching each spoonful fizz as it went in. Don't use an aluminum pan for this step. Carefully lower the pretzels into the water for one minute or until they float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon and return to baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt

Bake until golden. These pretzels are incredible hot out of the oven, but should keep well for several days in an airtight container. I figured on having snack time covered for a couple of days... but this batch is almost gone!

Honey Lime Enchiladas

6 tablespoons honey

5 tablespoons lime juice ( 1-2  limes)

1 tablespoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded (about 3 small chicken breasts)

8-10 flour tortillas

1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded

16 ounces green enchilada sauce

1 cup heavy cream 

Mix the first four ingredients and toss with shredded chicken. Let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour (if you can let it set several hours EVEN better). 

Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas. 

Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

Serve up with some Mexican rice, or fresh salsa and chips.