Lemon and Garlic Grilled Chicken

Lemon and Garlic Grilled Chicken - Cynthia R.

Juice of 1 lemon, approximately 3 tablespoons
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic, about 2 medium cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 pound chicken breasts (I usually cut really thick chicken breasts down to thin them out and make the pieces a little smaller so they absorb the marinade better)

Combine all marinade ingredients. Place chicken in a Ziploc bag and pour marinade over chicken. Seal bag and place in fridge overnight. Grill (or cook in frying pan). Serve with sides of your choice or cut into bite sized pieces and add to desired recipe (I'll be sharing a few with you soon). Note: If you cut your chicken into smaller, bite-sized pieces and then marinate it, you can get away with only letting it marinate for 5 or 6 hours instead of overnight.

Often, I will double the marinade and chicken and grill it all up and freeze the extras to use later.

Recipe from www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com

Lemon Cream Pasta with Chicken

Lemon Cream Pasta with Chicken - Cynthia R.

3 cups shredded or cubed Lemon Garlic Chicken (see separate recipe) or use regular grilled chicken
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 (16 ounce) package tube pasta
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS
In a large saucepan, season the chicken broth with the garlic powder and pepper. Bring to a boil and add lemon juice and pasta. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until all liquid is absorbed, about 25 minutes.

Stir chicken into cooked pasta, along with the cream, parmesan cheese and lemon zest. Cook, stirring, over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Stir thoroughly before serving.

Recipe from www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com

Lemon Tarts

Lemon Tarts - by Laura L.

Sour Cream Pastry Dough

2 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter chilled and cut into ¼ inch slices

½ cup sour cream

Put the flour and salt in a 3 quart bowl and stir to blend. Scatter the butter slices over the flour, and cut in with a pastry blender until the mixture consists of particles that vary in size from small peas to bread crumbs. Stir in the sour cream with a fork. The pastry will appear dry because the sour cream is thick and does not disperse easily. With your hands, manipulate dough into a ball. Divide dough in 3 balls. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until cold and firm, about 4 hours and up to 3 days. The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month.

Roll dough on a lightly floured wax paper. Use lightly floured rolling pin. Make the dough quite thin. Not as thin as a tortilla, but thin. Cut dough using a circle cookie cutter slightly bigger than the size of the tart pans (like a muffin pan only much smaller). Cook on 400 for about 12 minutes until lightly brown.

Lemon Curd

Grated rind of 2 lemons

½ cup lemon juice

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

6 eggs well beaten (with electric beaters)

Combine lemon rind, lemon juice and sugar in top of double boiler. ( I just boiled water in one sauce pan and placed another saucepan on top of it.) Add butter. Heat over boiling water until butter is melted. Stir in eggs slowly. Continue cooking, stirring constantly until mixture is thick enough to pile slightly, about 15 minutes. Spoon filling into cooled tart shells.

Oreo Truffles

Oreo Truffles - Tracy W.

1 bag Oreos (mint are good)
1 8oz package cream cheese
1 pound white chocolate (dipping chocolate)
8 oz milk chocolate to drizzle

Mix Oreos and cream cheese in the food processor. Roll mixture into small balls. Dip in melted white chocolate. Cool. Drizzle with melted milk chocolate. Store in refrigerator for up to two weeks.

I had these at a Valentines party and they were awesome!
(photo from http://meemoskitchen.blogspot.com/)

Coming Soon! Recipes with Lemon!

We have a Recipe Club scheduled for the end of the month. Bring any recipe that uses lemon. Should be fun!

Cake Wrecks

I added a new link at Tracy's suggestion. This one is more for entertainment value, then cooking ideas. Enjoy!

Roasted Holiday Potatoes

Roasted Holiday Potatoes - Tracy W.

Peel and cube russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and butternut squash. Add chunks of red onion and garlic cloves. Add rosemary. Toss with olive oil to coat. Place on baking sheet and roast at 425 for about an hour until fork tender.

(served at MP1 progressive dinner)

Skillet Apples

Skillet Apples - Tracy W.

Peel, core, and slice a variety (granny smith, mackintosh, golden delicious, fuji) of apples (about five). In a skillet melt a few tablespoons of butter. Add some sugar. Less is best. Add cinnamon, a cinnamon stick and freshly grated ginger. Add craisins. Sauté about 10 minutes until apples are soft, but not falling apart. Serve hot or cold. The craisins will plump. If you make ahead and want to serve hot, just microwave for a couple of minutes.

(served at MP1 progressive dinner)

Brownie Trifle

Brownie Trifle – Lynne H.

1 (19.8 oz) pkg. fudge brownie mix
(eggs and oil for brownie mix)
1 (3.9 oz) box chocolate fudge instant pudding
(milk for pudding mix)
1 (6 oz.) pkg. toffee chips
1 (12 oz.) container frozen whipped topping, THAWED
Fresh mint, for garnish (optional)
Semi-sweet chocolate curls, for garnish (optional)

• Prepare brownie mix and bake according to package directions in a 9 x 13 pan. Cool brownies. Crumble or cut brownies into small pieces.
• Prepare chocolate fudge pudding mix according to package directions, omitting chilling procedure.
• Place half of crumbled brownies in bottom of 3 qt. Trifle bowl, or other glass bowl
• Top crumbled brownies with half each of pudding, toffee chips, and whipped topping.
• Repeat layers with remaining half of crumbled brownies, pudding, toffee chips and whipped topping.
• Cover and chill at least 8 hours.
• Garnish with chocolate curls.

You can use chopped up heath bars, instead of toffee chips – to be extra decadent!
This was served at the MP2 Progressive dinner 2008. (also 2002) It looks beautiful, can be made ahead, feeds a crowd, and is scrumptious!

Holiday Recipes

If you have any great recipes from Thanksgiving or Christmas that you want to share, email me so I can post them.

Date Delight Cake

Date Delight Cake - Jen O.

1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 tsp. baking soda

Mix the above and set aside.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

Cream butter, sugar and eggs and add to the date mixture.

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Add flour, salt and soda to the batter and mix. Pour into a 9 x 13 inch pan.
Spread on the unbaked cake the following mixture:
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 pkg. chocolate chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve with Cool Whip or whipped cream on top.

This recipe is from the MP2 Ward cookbook. I just had some of this yesterday at Jen's house. It is sooo good! Yummy!

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins
(from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Muffins-II/Detail.aspx)
I originally found this recipe here: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/10/week-in-the-l-8.html

1 small sugar pumpkin, seeded (for 2 cups of pumpkin puree)
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 (more like 18) muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

Split pumpkin in half. Remove seeds and strings. Place on baking sheet, cut side down. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven until tender, about 90 minutes. Remove pumpkin pulp and puree in blender. Measure out 2 cups pumpkin puree; set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together 2 cups pumpkin puree, vegetable oil and eggs. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. (Makes about 18 muffins)

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

These are really good! I've made them at least 3 times in the last few weeks.