Oven Fried Chicken

Ever go into a kitchen store and come out with a million things? One shopping trip I returned with a silicon healthy mat. Say what? A silicon mat that has portions elevated so hot air can circulate underneath the food. My point... I love new gadgets and dohickeys especially if it makes life easier. Of course, my immediate need comfort food after an arduous week lead me to out my new dohickey to use. Of course, I thought I was handing the new transitions at work well but my cravings for bad food have proven otherwise. So, why fight it?

In the end, I decide to drown my woes in fried chicken. Of course, frying is not really my thing. I hate standing over hot oil and I always get burned. So I was happy to have the mat on hand. I could make fried chicken without standing over a hot stove, getting burned or wasting a bunch of oil. Best of all I could make something bad and feel good about it. Woo hoo!!

Oven Fried Chicken
Makes 6 Servings

Ingredients

2 pounds of chicken
2 tablespoons of adobo seasoning

½cup of flour

1 teaspoon of paprika

½ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of black pepper

vegetable oil spray

Tools: silicon healthy mat
*Note: If you do not have a silicon healthy mat, you can get similar results by placing the chicken on a rack in a baking sheet.

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place silicon mat ( or wire rack) on a shallow baking sheet and spray with vegetable oil.

Pat chicken dry and sprinkle with adobo seasoning.

In a bowl combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper.

Dredge chicken in flour mixture and place on silicon mat.

Place chicken in oven and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes turn over and bake for another 30 minutes.

It's healthier than it would be if I fried it in a pan!!

Ham & Cheese Egg Muffins

It's back to school and around this time of year I try to do everything possible to make life a little easier in the morning. Many days we're a fine line between being on time or an hour late to work. It all depends on what time we get out of the house. So in addition to trying to pack everything up the night before, I decided it would probably be helpful to have a breakfast we could eat on the go. My choice this week was egg muffins.

I love this dish because there's not a lot of prep time which means I can spend Sunday doing something else, like preparing dinner for the week or spending time with family. It's also great because you can use it to get rid of the little bit of cheese (or other items) that always seem to be left behind after making something.

Of course, I am the main culprit of not eating breakfast in the morning (and almost being late) so having these in the fridge leaves me few excuses. Mix and match the ingredients and see what works for you. It's a quick fix for the morning rush.

Ham & Cheese Egg Muffins
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
8 eggs
1 cup of spinach
6 slices of Virginia Ham
1/2 cup of milk
4 ounces of Vermont white cheddar cheese
4 slice of swiss cheese
sprinkle of salt and pepper

Cookware Needed: cupcake tin

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cupcake tin with olive oil or grease with butter.

In a large bowl whisk together eggs, salt and pepper. Then add in milk.

Dice ham and cheese and add to mixture. Mix with a fork until thoroughly combined.

Next add salt to spinach, then add spinach to egg mixture. 

*Hint: If using frozen spinach unthaw and squeeze water out before adding to egg mixture.

Spread mixture evenly among cups and bake for 20 minutes or until done.

Store in the fridge and reheat in the microwave. Yum. Hand held food. It always taste better when you eat with your hands!!

Corn Chowder

I thought about writing the intro to this like a rap song. It's an ode to another time in my life ... college. I've had many conversations with my friends about how we miss Maine. So when I saw Rachel Ray making Fish and Corn Chowder the way people in New England make it, it made me reminisce. There are some dish that are just made better in New England. I found that out when I tried to order a lobster roll and was fed a cold lobster sandwich with mayo.

When I decided to try this recipe I knew I had to enlist the help of a very truthful friend. There are a couple of friends I know I can ask when I'm trying recipes out and I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend come over and be a guinea pig. But I had to make some adjustments. She doesn't eat pork and seafood is a no, no too. But I really wanted to make this dish. I had been craving a new England dish since we cancelled our trip to Maine.

Luckily, I figured it out. No epi-pens needed. Whew. Though I may try this dish again, with pork bacon and crab. I will continue to add additional potatoes and corn starch (or maybe flour) because I like my chowder thick.

But back to my initial thought... I have to go with it. For my friends that do not eat pork

"This goes out to you. This goes out you. This goes out to you, and you and you..."

Corn Chowder

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 ribs of chopped celery

1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic

1 diced onion

2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of thyme

1 teaspoon of paprika
4 slices of turkey bacon

4 ears of corn (kernels removed)

4 red potatoes diced

1 cup of heavy cream

1 cup of almond milk

2 cups of chicken stock

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Salt and ground black pepper

green onions - optional

sriracha - if you like spice it's really good -optional
chicken or Crab -optional

*Note: You can eat this dish by itself or add crab or chicken. It is also ok to use seafood stock instead of chicken stock. It's your preference.

Directions:

Pour a tablespoon of olive oil into a large pot over medium heat. Allow the pot to get hot then add bacon. Allow the bacon to brown and crisp.

Once the bacon is crispy, add celery, onions, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Once onions and garlic begin to brown use a paddle or spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot.

Add the corn, potatoes and paprika to the pot and cover. Allow everything to cook for 5 minutes.

Then add chicken stock to the pot and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

In a separate pan on medium low heat, allow butter to melt and add heavy cream.

Then add cornstarch and whisk together until mixture is thoroughly combined. For even thicker chowder add flour. Add mixture to corn and potatoes, then add almond milk.

Allow chowder to simmer on medium low heat for another 10 minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste. The amount of salt you add greatly depends on how salty your bacon is.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Tiramisu Cheesecake

I try to make really special cupcakes for my teachers' assistants. It's my way of showing them I am thankful for all of the help they give me during the school. Since it was my birthday...Woo Hoo,  I decided to make something special for myself.

The cupcake that was the biggest hit with my TAs was the tiramisu cupcake. I'm not sure whether it's the drizzle of coffee over the cupcake (yes, I'm sorry... I give my students coffee... They drink it anyway) or the mascarpone whipped frosting on top. Either way, it's not too sweet and totally delicious. 

I knew I didn't want cupcakes and the bakery near us has a wonderful tiramisu cake so I wasn't going to make that. Then it came to me tiramisu cheesecake. Of course, then I had to figure out how I was going to make it. It might sound weird, but people make cheese cakes many different ways. The base is always cream cheese but some people add sour cream or heavy cream. It depends on what you like. So then I had to figured out whether I was going to add sour cream or heavy cream. Use lady fingers or a cookie crust and so on and so forth.

In the end, I decided I would use lady fingers because what is tiramisu without lady fingers? I also decided to add sour cream. Typically, I would not add sour cream to my cheesecake mixture but I really wanted it to be light despite all of the layers and elements.

Tiramisu Cheesecake

Makes 12 servings

Ingredients

6 oz Lady Fingers

3 packages of 8oz cream cheese

8 oz of tiramisu mascarpone

½ cup of sour cream

1 cup of sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla

4 tablespoons of flour

3 eggs
½ cup of Kahlua
½ cup of strong coffee

½ cup marsala wine

4 tablespoons of butter

4 tablespoons of cocoa powder for dusting

pinch of salt

Supplies: Mixer and spring form pan.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place a large oven safe pan of water in the bottom of the oven.

Remove cream cheese from the refrigerator to soften. Grease spring form pan with butter.

Warm coffee, Kahlúa (or any coffee liquor) and marsala wine in a pot until it begins to boil. No worries moms ...cooking helps to intensify the overall flavor and boils off the alcohol. 

Let the mixture cool.

Place ½ of a cup of coffee mixture aside to incorporate into cream cheese mixture later.

In a bowl or stand mixer add cream cheese and sugar; on medium speed mix until smooth (about 4 minutes).

Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add marscapone, sour cream and vanilla; mix for another 4 minutes. 

Scrape the bowl, add flour and a pinch of salt; mixed until well combined. 

Lastly add eggs one at a time and mix on medium speed. 

Scrape the sides of the bowl. If you are using a stand mixer make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl. Large clumps of cream cheese sometimes are hiding there.

 Then add coffee mixture and blend until incorporated.

Dip the lady fingers in coffee mixture. Be careful not to drown the lady fingers. If left too long the biscuits will absorb all of the liquid. Press the lady fingers into the bottom of the springform pan.

Place remaining lady fingers along the side of the springform pan with the flat side facing inward. Space lady fingers evenly apart around the sides of the pan.

Finally, pour the cream cheese mixture into the springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 45 minutes until the edges have set and the center jiggles just a little.

Turn the oven off and open the oven door. Allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for an additional 20 minutes.

Let the cheesecake cool in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

I was pleasantly surprised with this recipe. The sour cream really did make it nice and light and the flavors were perfect. Nothing too over powering and a velvety texture. Happy Birthday to me!