Breadstick Fun and Breakfast Enchiladas

A while ago, I bought some Pillsbury breadsticks to go with the soup that we were having for dinner. Evan was helping me cook and he offered to put the breadsticks in the oven. When he got them out of the can and put them on the baking stone, he made one of them into an "S" shape. Obviously that one was for Seth and he LOVED it!! So, last week we had soup for dinner again and I grabbed a can of Pillsbury breadsticks for us to play with/eat!!

Great idea, Daddy!! :)

And last night, for dinner, we had Breakfast Enchiladas. I was looking in my Southern Living cookbook for something fun that we hadn't had before and these are what looked best to me! They were easy to make (but not super fast) and we all three thought they were delicious!

Breakfast Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 lb package of ground pork breakfast sausage

2 T. butter or margarine

4 green onions, thinly sliced

2 T. chopped fresh cilantro

14 large eggs, beaten

3/4 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

Cheese Sauce (recipe to follow)

10 (8 inch) flour tortillas

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeños

Optional Toppings: halved grape tomatoes, sliced green onions, chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Cook (scramble) sausage in large nonstick skillet; drain well; set aside.

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add green onions and cilantro, and sauté 1 minute. Add eggs, salt and pepper and cook (scramble the eggs). Remove from heat and gently fold in the sausage and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese sauce.

Spoon about 1/2 cup of egg mixture down the center of each flour tortilla; roll up. Place seam side down in a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking dish. Pour remaining cheese sauce evenly over tortillas; sprinkle evenly with monterey jack cheese.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly. Serve with desired toppings.

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Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup all purpose flour

3 cups milk

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles, undrained

3/4 t. salt

Directions:

Melt butter in sauce pan over medium low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and whisk in cheese and remaining ingredients until smooth.

Tip: cook the sausage first, then make the cheese sauce, then scramble the eggs... that way you are ready to assemble as soon as the eggs are cooked!

He gets really excited about dinner... like his mommy! haha :)

Croque Madame Casserole

Keeping it simple today... Just a recipe! I made this last night and it was super simple and super delicious! Apparently, it's a french thing... but I got it from Paula Deen... so we'll call it French Southern cuisine :)

Croque Madame Casserole

Ingredients:

6 T butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 cups milk

2 T Dijon mustard

3/4 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1/2 t. nutmeg

12 slices of white bread

3/4 lb. deli ham

2 cups grated Gruyere cheese

6 eggs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease a 13x9 inch casserole dish. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over low heat until bubbling. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until thick and bubbling. Whisk in the mustard, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Pour a thin layer of the sauce into the prepared casserole dish and cover it with 6 slices of the bread, then slices of the ham and an even layer of cheese. Repeat the layers once more, ending with a third layer of sauce to cover all. Bake the casserole for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Working in two batches, fry six eggs in a skillet (3 at a time)- cooking until the whites are set on both sides. Top each portion of the casserole with a fried egg. Top with remaining gruyere and return to the oven until the cheese melts.

*****swiss cheese is the cheese that is most closely related to gruyere... if you can't find gruyere or it is more expensive than you want it to be! :)*****

Before the eggs...

With the eggs...

It's a pretty rich dish, so I served it with a salad :)

Happy Wednesday!

Just 3 days until Razorback football starts! :)

White Hot Chocolate

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving... We sure did! We got a chance to spend some quality time with both sides of our family and we ate a TON of good food. I already gave you my favorite pie crust recipe so today, I thought I would give you a great recipe that I recently found for hot chocolate.

A few weeks ago, Evan and I had our community group (small group from church) over to our house. I made Paula Deen's "White Hot Chocolate" and set up a "hot chocolate bar" complete with dark chocolate shavings, crushed peppermints, mint leaves, marshmallows and whipped cream. It was really fun and the recipe is definitely a keeper! :)

White Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

4 cups half and half

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In medium saucepan, over medium heat, combine white chocolate chips and heavy cream. Stir continuously until white chocolate chips have completely melted. Stir in half and half and vanilla extract. Stir continuously until heated through. Pour into mugs and serve.

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In addition to our two Thanksgiving celebrations and a little black Friday shopping, we also cut down our Christmas tree this past weekend! Here are a few pictures from our time at the Christmas tree farm! :)

Cheers ;)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

I hope everyone had a great weekend (despite a devastating loss for my fellow Razorback fans). The highlight of my weekend was the cooler weather that we (finally) had yesterday!!

And in honor of this long awaited fall feeling, here is a delicious fall recipe that I made last week on the first official day of fall. I found this recipe on a friend and fellow food blogger's blog: Lindsay's Menu.

I just had to try this recipe because I felt like chocolate and pumpkin were an unlikely pair and I had to see for myself how it worked... it totally works!! I LOVED this recipe!! Evan and I polished off the whole loaf with no help from friends or family... haha what?? At least it wasn't all in one night! :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 heaping cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first five ingredients and mix well. Add remaining ingredients. Mix together and pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. (Lindsay recommends that you cover your bread with foil for the last 10ish minutes so the edges don't get too dark.)

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Let me know what you think of the pumpkin/ chocolate combo if you try this recipe or have tried one like it! :)

The Importance of Following Directions...

First of all, Happy Mother's Day!!

Mother's Day was a little different for my family today because it was also the day that my sister was leaving for Europe for a month. So, we started our morning at Cracker Barrel, and then we all went to the airport to see my sister off!

Because I won't see or talk to my sister for the next month, I wanted to do something special for her today. This girl LOVES sugar. LOVES it. So, I decided to make some mini cinnamon rolls for her to take on the plane (because she's also SUPER picky and I don't really see her LOVING the dinner and breakfast that they'll be serving her on the plane! haha).

Anyway, when I was making these precious mini-cinni's last night, I was reminded of a key cooking lesson... The Importance of Following Directions.

The recipe clearly stated that I needed to put the cinnamon rolls in a round cake pan BUT I decided to put them on a baking stone because I could fit them all on the same thing and it would be easier to clean up... DUMB idea. Apparently, cinnamon rolls need the support of being able to grow side by side... haha. Here's what I pulled out of the oven:

Not exactly what you want to give as a gift...

Fortunately, I still had enough of the ingredients to start over... this time I put them in a CAKE PAN and Evan said a little prayer over them :) because he didn't want me to have a nervous break down... and they turned out just perfectly!! haha Lesson learned.

So, I wrapped them up in the most precious box (a small photo box that I found at Hobby Lobby) and tied some napkins in with the bow that said, "Life's short, eat dessert first!" Which is appropriate because I think that's her personal motto... and gave them to her this morning! Here are a few pictures:

Now, if you are still reading this terribly long post...

Here is the recipe for the Mini Cinni's:

Mini Cinni's

Ingredients:

2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls

6 T. butter or margarine, softened

1/3 cup firmly packed, light brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 T. granulated sugar

1 t. ground cinnamon

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 T. milk or half-and-half

1/4 t. almond or vanilla extract

1/8 t. salt

Directions:

Unroll crescent rolls and separate each dough portion along center perforation to form 4 rectangles; press diagonal perforations together to seal. Stir together butter and next four ingredients; spread evenly over one side of each rectangle. Roll up, jelly-roll fashion, starting at the long side of the rectangle. Gently cut each log into 6 (1 inch thick) slices, using a serrated knife. Place rolls, 1/4 inch apart, into 2 GREASED ROUND CAKEPANS. :) Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes or until golden. Cool 5-10 minutes. Stir together powdered sugar and remaining 3 ingredients. Drizzle over warm rolls. Yield: 2 dozen. **Note: I doubled the filling because I like a lot of goody in my cinnamon rolls! :)

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Who knew tiny cinnamon rolls could be such a fiasco?? But the good news? Ugly cinnamon rolls still taste GREAT!! haha So Evan and I have been munching on them all afternoon!!

What (hard) lessons have you learned (or been reminded of) in the kitchen??

Fruit Tart

Evan and I had community group last night. Each time our group meets, a different couple brings dessert and last night, it was our turn. I made two fruit tarts because I wanted something fresh, light and springy (even though it was cold outside yesterday!). This is a very easy recipe, it looks way more impressive than it is and (in my opinion) it also makes a great breakfast!

Fruit Tart

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (they come two in a package)

1 T. sugar

1 (2.9 oz) cook and serve (not instant) lemon pudding and pie filling

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

2 egg yolks

2 cups water

fruit of choice (I used strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges and kiwi)

Ingredients for glaze:

3 T. red current jelly

1 t. orange juice

Directions:

Prepare pie crust in a tart pan with a removable bottom. Note: do not stretch the pie crust to fit the tart pan because it will tear during baking. Instead, cut the second (unused) pie crust left in the box to fit in the spaces that the first pie crust doesn't reach. Sprinkle the pie crust with 1 T. sugar and poke several holes with a fork. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 9-11 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely.

In a medium sauce pan, combine pudding mix, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, egg yolks and blend well. Stir in 2 cups of water and cook over medium high heat until the mixture boils- stirring constantly. Cool 5 minutes- stirring twice. Pour into the shell. Refrigerate until set. Once the filling is set, arrange the sliced fruit on top. Then melt together the jelly and orange juice in a small sauce pan and pour over the fruit. Refrigerate until you serve.

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I arranged the fruit differently on each tart.

Here's how they turned out:

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Also, I still don't have any recipes/prayer requests for this Friday's "Pray For Us Friday" and Friday is quickly approaching!! I know you have some great recipes and even if you don't have a specific prayer request, every family could use a little prayer!! :)

Email me at racheleabell@gmail.com

Can't wait to hear from you!!

Quiche

How do you make a quiche?

5 eggs and 1 cup of milk

It really is that simple... almost. To make a quiche, all you have to do is whisk together 5 eggs and one cup of milk. Then fill an (uncooked) refrigerated pie crust with your ingredients of choice (usually a meat, a veggie and cheese- layered in that order) and pour the egg/milk mixture over the top. Then pop it in the oven for 35-45 minutes (until the eggs are set) at 375 degrees.

Last night, I used chicken as my meat; sliced black olives, chopped green onions, and a few chopped tomatoes as my veggies; and shredded habanero cheddar cheese.

Here's what it looked like:

A few other great combinations are:

1. sausage, mushrooms and cheddar

2. bacon, spinach and swiss

***If you have a good quiche combination to share, please put it in the comments***

Biscuits and Gravy

Bad news... my plan for tonight was to make gravy on film so that you could see first hand how easy it is to do. However, blogger WILL NOT let me upload the video. So, this post is a little more boring than I planned for it to be.

The reason I was going to show you how to make gravy instead of just telling you is because I feel like a lot of people are afraid of gravy and it's really nothing to be afraid of! The way I made gravy tonight is a really simple recipe that my mom taught me and she learned it from my great aunt. So, needless to say, it has been enjoyed by a lot of people over the years!

But first... the biscuits! This is a GREAT recipe from Southern Living for Whipping Cream Biscuits.

Whipping Cream Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup cold butter or margarine, cut into pieces

4 cups self-rising flour

2 cups whipping cream

Directions:

Cut 1 cup butter into flour with a pastry blender or a fork until crumbly. Add whipping cream, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 3 or 4 times. Roll or pat dough to 3/4 inch thickness; cut with a 2 inch round biscuit cutter, and place on a lightly greased backing sheet or stone. Bake at 400 for 13-15 minutes or until golden.

Easy Breakfast Gravy

Ingredients:

2 T. butter (could also use bacon grease or sausage drippings)

2 T. flour

1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup

milk

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In order to keep the gravy from getting lumpy, you'll want to keep your whisk going the whole time. So, I suggest that you keep the ingredients that you'll need next to you so you don't have to leave your skillet! First, melt the two tablespoons of butter in a skillet, then whisk in the 2 tablespoons of flour (I also said on the video that it doesn't really matter how much butter/flour you use but you have to use equal parts, e.g. if you use 4 T. of butter, you must use 4 T. of flour.) After you've whisked the butter and flour together, whisk in the cream of chicken soup. Finally, thin the mixture with milk- keep adding milk until you are happy with the consistency of the gravy. When you like the way it looks, add salt and pepper until you like the way it tastes!

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Even though the post was a bummer, our dinner was great! We had scrambled eggs and sausage links with our biscuits and gravy. Here's a pic:

One last thing: We have a difference of opinion in our home as to what condiment goes best with scrambled eggs. These are the two condiments that we disagree over:

and

Which spouse do you think belongs to which condiment and which condiment would YOU choose??

Tribute to the Tea Room

In the town where I went to college, there was a fun little lunch spot called Shaw's Garden and Tea Room. My friends and I were their #1 customers!!! We had to stop ourselves from going there every single day for lunch. The best part about the restaurant (other than being surrounded by friends) was the basket of happiness that they placed on our table as soon as we arrived... it was full of mini broccoli muffins. I would be willing to bet that those little goodies were solely responsible for my "freshman 15"!

Anyway, I stumbled across the recipe for those muffins in one of my Southern Living cookbooks and they were the inspiration for tonight's meal. I made chicken salad and fruit salad to go with them because that's what I ALWAYS ordered at the tea room.

For my chicken salad I used chicken, light mayo, celery, fresh parsley and salt & pepper and I topped it with salted cashews. I can't really tell you the measurements that I used because I just added things in slowly until I liked the way that it tasted.

Here's the recipe for the muffins... apparently I'm in a muffin mood this week? No more muffins for a while, I promise! :)

Broccoli Muffins

Ingredients:

1 (8 1/2 oz.) package corn muffin mix

1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 small onion, chopped

2 large eggs

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

Directions:

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in the center of mixture. Stir together eggs and melted butter, blending well; add to broccoli mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter into lightly greased miniature muffin pans, filling almost full. Bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Let stand 2 to 3 minutes before removing from pans. Yield: 3 dozen mini muffins.

And here's how the whole meal looked

Isn't it funny how food takes you back?

What food has a special memory for you?

Sausage Muffins

You're going to LOVE this recipe!! It is SO easy to make and it is SO easy to make a meal around these muffins! The other great thing about this recipe is that most of the ingredients are probably already sitting in your pantry or fridge.

When I made these, we had them for dinner and I served them with a plate of fresh veggies (fried squash, sliced tomatoes and black eyed peas). However, they also make a fabulous breakfast food, alone or with scrambled eggs or fruit! They are very versatile! I think they would also be great with soup... but I've never served them that way.

Sausage Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. ground pork sausage

2 cups all purpose flour

2 T. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Brown sausage, stirring until it crumbles; drain. Combine flour and next 2 ingredients; make a well in the center. Combine milk, egg and butter; pour into well in dry mixture, stirring just until moistened. Stir in sausage and cheese. Place paper baking cups in muffin pan and coat with cooking spray. Spoon batter into cups. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan immediately. Yields 1 dozen.

And here are some pics of the veggies that I served the muffins:

I just sliced some fresh tomatoes, sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper and put a little fresh Basil on top... delicious and couldn't have been any easier!

Then I sliced up some fresh squash, sprinkled each slice with salt and pepper and then a little bit of flour (on both sides), sprayed a skillet with butter flavored cooking spray and then pan fried them! Also delicious!

And finally, I opened a bag of frozen black eyed peas and cooked them according to package instructions! haha What? There's no shame in frozen vegetables! :)

There you have it! A quick and easy meal! Enjoy!

Pound Cake for Allison

These are my best friends from college:

Aren't they beautiful? Allison is the one in the front center and she is the reason for this post! She is in her first year of pharmacy school at UAMS and she has a friend from school that is having a birthday this weekend. Allison called me because she wants to make a birthday cake for her friend and she needs a good recipe! She told me that it can't be chocolate, coconut or carrot! So, I suggested this easy (because she's busy becoming a pharmacist) and delicious recipe for Sour Cream Pound Cake.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick margarine

8 oz sour cream

1/2 cup Wesson oil

1 box Duncan Hines Butter Cake

5 eggs

1 t. vanilla

Directions:

Mix sugar and margarine well, then beat with a mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add sour cream; beat well. Add oil; beat well. Add cake mix; beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add vanilla; beat well. Bake in a greased and floured bundt pan for 1 hour at 350.

Funny Story:

The first time that I cooked dinner for Evan, when we first started dating, a really complicated (from scratch) pound cake was on my menu! Obviously I was trying to impress him but it also wasn't really that different from what I would have done for any dinner guest because I had been cooking my ENTIRE life! So anyway, I slaved away on the pound cake and after I finally put it in the oven, I started working on the rest of the meal. An hour or so later, when I took the cake out of the oven and turned it out on the cake stand, it just deflated... literally like a popped balloon!!! WHAT??? I had made that cake 1,000 times, as well as tons of other cakes and this had NEVER happened!! I FREAKED out! My new boyfriend was on his way to my house (luckily it was a long drive since he lived an hour away!) and I had been telling him how much I liked to cook and he was going to think that I'd been lying the whole time! (Side note: My mom thought this was SO funny that she couldn't even help me figure out what to do because she was laughing so hard!) Just in time, I found this recipe for a Sour Cream Pound Cake that was quick and easy (thank goodness for cake mixes!!). I quickly drove to the store for the ingredients and threw this version of pound cake together! The cake was still in the oven when Evan arrived but he never figured out my secret! Haha This story seems so silly now because Evan WOULD NOT have cared and he was eventually going to figure out that I wasn't (at all) perfect but it seemed like the end of the world at the time!!

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This is now my "go to" pound cake and I like to serve it with sliced strawberries and fresh whipped cream!! It seems very springy to me... I might make one this weekend! Happy cooking and let me know if you need a recipe suggestion too!! :)