Tuna Noodle Casserole

I love TNC but we didn't have it much growing up since my dad HATES it. Who coudln't love this stuff? I have actually made this one twice in the last two months and my favorite part about it is that I don't need to defrost anything!!! I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and it is soooo good. It is amazingly similar to my Macaroni recipe so maybe I found that on allrecipes too...hmmm. I used to do that standard Tuna fish, noodles, cream of mushroom soup and some peas route but this is WAY better. Albeit a bit more work but totally worth it in the end.

Tuna Noodle Casserole


8 oz wide egg noodles
1 can tuna fish, drained
2 cups peas
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350
1. Prepare egg noodles as any pasta. Drain and let cool.
2. In a large sauce pan melt your butter over medium high heat and add your flour. Mix two together until smooth.
3. Add in your milk; whisking it to allow it to thicken-usually once mixture begins to boil it will be thick enough.
4. Add in cheese and whisk until melted and all ingredients are well combined.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the noodles, tuna and peas.
6. Spoon into a 2 qt casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Top with additional cheese if you wish and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Wow! Long time no post!! I am lucky to have enough time to post to one blog and so much has been happening at home lately that I put some good posts over on my 'life' blog instead :)

Anyhow, this is a recipe that I LOVE to make. It could be made as the main dish it is so hearty and filling. But, alas my husband needs some meat to call it a meal and this makes a perfect accompaniment. I don't make it in the summer too often but occasionally I will. I don't remember where I got the original recipe from (bad me!) but I know it is NOT mine and am not going to take credit for it. I read about it somewhere and then handwrote the recipe on a scrap of paper. I am now turning that scrap of paper into this post!

Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese


1 8 oz box of pasta, cooked and drained (use whatever shape/style you like)
2 Tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of milk
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
1. prepare pasta as you normally would and set aside.
2. in a large saucepan combine the butter and flour over medium high heat until well combined. There should be no lumps of flour left at this point.
3. Pour in milk and cook until thickened. Stir occasionally.
4. Add your cheese and continuously stir until all melted. Your sauce she be thick and creamy now.
5. Remove from heat and stir in pasta.
6. Spread in your prepared baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.
You can top with bread crumbs or potato chip crumbs before baking but we prefer not to

Watermelon Cookies

The minute I first saw these I wanted to make them. It just so happened that I found them over the Memorial Day weekend when I was looking for something to add to our family picnic. I found them on another blog: Amanda's Cooking and you can check it out HERE and she has a really great craft blog too! So, I decided to make these cookies just as the recipe instructs-I had never made dough this way but I was willing to try. Just one thing I forgot to do the first time around...you can see it in the picture below :) I call those my honeydew melons with seeds. I was able to fix it the second time I rolled the dough though and they were a hit. They taste really good and we all enjoyed them. Definitely something I would do again!

Watermelon Cookies


**These do not taste like watermelon, only look like one**

Cookie Dough
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teasponn baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold, unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 drops red food coloring (try not to forget this!)
1 cup miniature semi sweet chocolate chips

Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons milk
green food coloring

1.In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and red food coloring on medium speed until well combined.
3. Turn mixer down to low and gradually add flour mixture. Mix until no more flour can be seen. Gather the dough together in a ball using a spoon or spatula.
4. Remove dough from bowl and divide in two equal pieces. Between two sheets of parchment paper roll out each piece of dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
5. Place dough in refrigerator for two hours.
6. Preheat oven to 400.
7. Remove one batch of chilled dough from fridge. Remove top sheet of parchment paper and using a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter (I used a small drinking cup) cut out circles.
8. Using a sharp knife cut each circle in half and place on baking sheet.
9. Gently press the chocolate chips into each half circle. Repeat process with other half of dough.
10. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until slightly puffed. Don't let them get too brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
11. You can reroll any unused dough between the parchment and place back in the fridge and cut more cookies.
12. Mix all ingredients together for the glaze. You may add a splash or two more of milk if the glaze is too thick.
13. Have a wire rack ready on your table or counter with parchment paper underneath it.
14. Carefully dip and 'roll' the rounded side of each cookie in the glaze. Place right side up on the wire rack and allow any excess to drip off onto the parchment paper and then dry completely.

Shrimp Scampi

Brad and I both love seafood. I haven't eaten it much lately with being pregnant and now nursing but I still love it. One of our favorites when we go out to eat is shrimp scampi and Brad has always asked me to find out how to make it. Well, I did some research and kind of combined a couple of scampi recipes off of allrecipes.com. We found frozen shrimp for a really good price at Kroger a few weeks ago and I finally tried it out. I defrosted way too much so I had enough for two days and this was even better as leftovers. I served it over pasta and called it a meal.

Shrimp Scampi


1 pound peeled, deveined shrimp (I used frozen with tails on)
1 stick butter
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
salt
pepper
crushed red pepper flakes
parsley


Preheat oven to 350
1. Arrange shrimp in a circular pattern in a casserole dish or pie plate.
2. In a medium sauce pan melt butter. As butter is melting at garlic to pan and allow to simmer until fragrant. Add lemon juice and simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.
4. Pour over shrimp in casserole dish and top with some of the parsley. Cook for 25-35 minutes or until shrimp are hot and sauce is bubbly. Check on it after 10 minutes to be sure it isn't drying up.
Serve over pasta or as a side to steak or other seafood dish.

French Dip Sandwiches

I found this incredible easy recipe on allrecipes.com-I LOVE that site! I was willing to try the "real way" someday but when I found this I was so happy. I made sure to file it away in my brain for the right time. Brad and I both love these when we go out to eat so I wanted to try it at home without making a roast and then using the juices to make the 'dip'. But I had to have good au jus since that is Brads favorite part. He soaks his sandwich in it, he dips his fries in it and if I don't stop him he will drink any that is left over. Yes, he did that the other night in our home :)

French Dip Sandwiches


1 can beef stock
1 pound thinly sliced deli roast beef
provolone cheese
4 hoagie rolls-split open

1. Turn broiler on low. Place the hoagie rolls inside face up and put under the broiler until they are slightly toasted. Remove from oven; turn broiler off and set oven to 350.
2. In a pan heat stock until almost boiling. Reduce to medium heat and add roast beef allowing to heat through.
3. Remove beef from stock and pile on one half of each hoagie roll. Top with provolone cheese. Place back in oven until cheese is melted.
4. Place top of hoagie roll on sandwich-cut in half if you wish. Serve with a dipping bowl of the beef stock.

The Pioneer Woman's Chicken with mushrooms and artichokes....sort of

In food blog world Pioneer Woman is a legend. Revered by any blogger worth the salt in her recipes :) She is a wonder and rumor has it that they are now even making a movie about HER life. All because she started a blog! Her story is quite interesting and she has a way with words. She is a pro in the kitchen without ever taking real cooking course and her recipes are inspiring. I haven't done one...until now. This one was great for us. We always have tons of chicken in the house and we LOVE mushrooms in anything and Brad had just picked up a carton of fresh ones and asked if I could 'make something with these in it'...but of course he gave no suggestions ;) I really enjoyed this recipe but think I may try to add some cheese to the sauce next time. Don't judge, I told you we like cheese. Oh, and of course I had everything in the house so you know I jumped on this recipe (but I did tweak it since we don't like artichokes). However, I did the unspeakable. I committed the worst crime when it comes to handing on recipes. I forgot to take a picture!!! But, go to Pioneer Woman's website if you want to see this complete project. Plus, she has photos of EVERY step in the recipe. And, she is hilarious. Go see her site. You'll love it. I promise.

Pioneer Woman's chicken with Mushrooms and Artichokes

8 whole chicken legs or thighs (my package only had 5 legs)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
16 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
5 whole garlic cloves, minced (I thought this would be too much but did it anyway...trust me-do all 5!)
1/2 cup white wine (I omitted. Didn't have any cooking wine in the house. Only the good stuff and since I can't drink it I didn't open it :))
2 cups chicken broth (more as needed)
1 14.5 ounce can artichoke hearts-drained, rinsed and patted dry
1 cup heavy cream
freshly chopped chives to taste (you know I didn't have fresh ones)
Freshly grated parmesan
16 ounces pasta cooked and drained

1. Salt and pepper chicken pieces.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken to pan and brown for 1-2 minutes. Remove chicken from skillet.
3. Add mushrooms to pan with garlic. Stir around and allow to cook for a few minutes. Add wine and cook allowing it to evaporate a bit.
4. Pour in chicken broth. It should make the sauce very liquidy. Stir to get all the bits off the bottom of the pan. Return chicken to pan. Add artichoke hearts.
5. Place lid on pan and cook for 30 minutes on medium low heat. Check often to be sure the chicken broth hasn't evaporated. If it has just add a bit more.
6. Remove lid and turn heat to low. Remove chicken once more. Pour in cream and stir it around. Add chives and then put chicken back in pan. Put lid back on and continue cooking for 10 minutes to allow sauce to thicken.
7. Pour over pasta and top with parmesan and more chives.

Double Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

This is the dessert I made for Mother's Day dinner. I was really excited to try it but it was a semi-fail. It tasted great but the chocolate pudding stuff was supposed to get thick and mine never did. I found this recipe on kraftfoods.com and the picture looked great. Mine shows how runny the cake was but it was still delicious!

Double Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake


1 box chocolate cake mix and the ingredients needed to make it
1 box (4oz.) jello instant chcolate pudding
1 tub whipped topping
2 tablespoons strawberry jam (I thought I had jam but only had jelly...jam would have been easier)
2 cups fresh strawberries sliced; divided
3/4 cup milk

1. bake cake into two 8 inch rounds according to package directions. When done, remove from pans and cool on wire racks.
2. in a bowl mix milk and pudding mix with wire whisk. Beat for about 2 minutes. Mixture should be thick. Add whipped topping and mix well.
3. Place one layer of cake on cake stand or cake board. Spread jam on top cake and top with HALF EACH of the pudding mixture and strawberries.
4. top with second cake and finish off with other half of pudding and strawberries.
5. Chill for at least one hour. Store in refrigerator. Top with powdered sugar if you like.