chicken cordon bleu croissants

So, it's been a while since I posted some new food.  But now I have a real camera, and lots of taste testers... also there was wine involved.  Maybe if wine was involved more often, I'd post more recipes.  But I digress.

I love love LOVE Pillsbury croissant dough.  And biscuit dough.  There are always a few tubes of each in our fridge.  The funny part is, I can't remember the last time I actually made biscuits or croissants (read: crescent rolls.  Sorry, France).  But, we do make tomato bacon cups (I like to use the layered biscuits for those), and we make donuts with regular biscuit dough (I'll post that recipe soon), and with the crescents... they're so delightfully fluffy and simultaneously crispy that you can wrap them around just about anything edible.

Enter chicken and cheese.  And ham.

...and wine.

The Merlot was for Orange Slice, the Malbec was mine, and the pink whatever was for Shawty.

The ingredients, as always, are simple and cheap (and you should always keep them on hand).

ingredients
-crescent roll dough (Pillsbury, though I mentioned it before, is totally not your only option.  Pick up some Great Value stuff next time you hit Walmart.)
-2 small chicken breasts (while there's something to be said for fresh raw meat, I rarely know far enough ahead of time when my roomies' tummies will start to growl.  So we keep a bag of frozen breasts in the freezer all the time.  If you can help it, take them out of the freezer and put them in the fridge in the morning.  I'll admit, this time I did thaw them in the microwave.  I trimmed off the outside bits that got a little nuked, but they didn't turn out too bad.)
-sliced swiss cheese (in keeping with making these similar to the traditional cordon bleu idea, I went with swiss, but these would really be good with any kind of cheese.)
-sliced ham (regular deli ham would do just fine, but if it's the extra-thin variety, I'd wrap it around a few times.  I was lucky enough to have a package of the thick stuff on hand.)
-butter, salt, pepper, parsley, garlic powder... (the point here is to use whatever you have.  I'll go over what I did, but mix it up, guys.)

Preheat your oven to 375.  Then pour another glass of wine (I say "another" because I'm way ahead of you.)  Slice up your chicken breasts into 8 equal slices.  I just seasoned them with salt, fresh cracked pepper (from a pepper mill I stole from work a long time ago... shhhh...), and a dash of parsley.

Open your can of dough (and don't jump or drop it when it POPS).  On a foil-lined baking sheet, spread out the individual triangles.

Slice up your ham and cheese into manageable sizes, and assemble!

Try to wrap them up tight to minimize cheese leakage.  Can't waste cheese.  I had a couple that had small openings, though, and I didn't have much of a problem.

Once they're all wrapped up, brush them with some butter.  I also added a dash of garlic salt to the top.  I do love me some garlic.

That's right, we don't have a pastry brush.  Learn to drizzle, mother****ers.

Pop them in the oven for about 12 minutes, or until the rolls really start to brown up on the outside.

I was worried that the chicken wouldn't cook all the way through, so I held my breath and sliced one open...

...success!

These were gone in about 3 minutes.  Careful, they are very, VERY hot, and you won't be able to resist eating one anyway.  So have some water on hand.

...or wine.

eat up.

J.

bacon-apple grilled cheese

This was an impromptu midnight snack, so pictures were taken with my phone.  I'll have better ones next time :)

There's a reason that bacon is the first word here.  Bacon is very important.  Bacon... is like a gorgeous woman.  It is never unwelcome, seems to fit in anywhere, and even when it is unexpected, it still seems only to improve its surroundings. 

So it's only logical that when one of my roommates (we'll call her Orange Slice) said, "Make me a grilled cheese," it quickly evolved to, "...with bacon!"  As for the last ingredient, let's call it a stroke of fortune.

These sandwiches have this quality of tasting gourmet, but a gifted chimp could make one.  Let's talk about it.

ingredients
-apples (I'd recommend granny smith, or another not-too-sweet variety)
-bacon (I can only hope that you already have bacon in your home, so use what you've got.  If not, you can really go anywhere from smoky to maple here, you're not going to mess it up)
-cheese (the beauty of grilled cheese sandwiches is that there is no wrong cheese to use.  But for this one, we used cheddar... because it was what was in the fridge)
-bread (we used honey wheat)
-cream cheese
-butter

Start with the bacon.  I told you there was a reason it was first.

 

There are a few easy secrets to great bacon.  If your skillet is too hot, the bacon will appear done but it will never get crispy.  So keep your skillet at a medium heat, and don't overload the pan.  Don't fuss with it too much, flip it when it is almost all browned, then give it another minute or so.  It will crisp up when you take it out of the pan, so plop it on some paper towels, and try not to eat it while you cook the next batch.

  

Somebody thought she was getting some bacon.

While your bacon is cooking, core your apples, but don't peel them.  Then slice them into rings about a quarter of an inch thick.  One medium granny smith apple is about enough for 2-3 sandwiches, depending on how much you want on there.

I am terrible at coring apples.

The apples don't take all that long to cook, you don't want them to turn to mush.  I threw them right in with the bacon during the last few batches (I was cooking for 3, here).

While those finish up, spread some cream cheese on one side of the bread, and butter on the outside.  I do not know what inspired me to use the cream cheese, but I am SO glad I did.  I can't explain why.  Just do it.  Trust.

At this point, we just drained the bacon grease from the pan.  Hooray, fewer dishes!

 Home stretch! I'm sure you know how this works.  I found it easier to assemble in the pan, only because I was using shredded cheese.  Place the bread butter-side down.  Add cheese, add bacon, add more cheese, and top with the other piece of bread.  Your skillet should still be on medium heat, so once you see the cheese melting nicely, go ahead and flip it over.  Another couple minutes, and you're good to go.

eat up.

J.

winterocalypse

So, last night my roomies and I made a trip to Walmart.  Storm of the century, they're saying, you know.  I don't buy it, but I must say I'm hopeful.  A few days snowed in could be fun.  We stocked up on canned goods (like mexicorn, whaaat?), and candles, and of course, beer and wine.  So, winter party at my place.

But the biggest adventure of all?  Batteries.

I never knew how many C batteries could be on a shelf until I was looking for Ds.  "Hey there's some!  Wait... no never mind.  But wait here's... damn it!"  There were literally empty boxes of D cell batteries strewn across the floor.

Entire shelves of food were empty, and the canned goods aisle was packed too tight to navigate.  It's amazing how, in St. Louis, you mention a foot of snow and suddenly it's the end of the world!  But like I said, I'm a little excited.  Maybe I'll get some time off work, time to relax, and maybe spend some time in the kitchen :)

I'll see you when I dig my way out.

J.

ten-minute custom pizzas

The infamous first dinner that sparked a new food blog.  These things meet every standard I end up making all my meals by:
-cheap
-easy
-fast
-healthy (if you want)
-magically delicious (is that copyrighted?)

Obviously, you could make these however you want, with whatever ingredients you want, which is going to change how healthy, cheap, fast or easy this meal will be.  But I can tell you that my combination worked like a charm.  Here's how it goes.


ingredients
-whole grain flatbread (I use FlatOut, which come in a variety of flavors and are all-around awesome)
-alfredo sauce (I recommend Classico's Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo, gives the perfect little flavor kick)
-Italian cheese blend (or whatever nice melty cheese you like)
-grilled chicken, chopped (I used Tyson's diced grilled chicken here, I've never used pre-cooked chicken unless it was from a rotisserie or something, but I was pleasantly surprised.  like I said, the whole purpose of this meal was minimal prep, so that helped a lot)
-frozen chopped spinach (this one speaks for itself, but I just had to say something)
-fresh tomatoes (I used the little Nature's Sweet ones, they're the perfect size for these little personal pizzas)

The longest part of the prep process is the amount of time it takes for the oven to preheat; and I was using a decent oven, too.  Preheat to 400°. 

Pull out your flatbread (each will make one pizza, which serves one person), and spoon on the alfredo.  Don't load it up too much or your crust won't get crispy and your toppings will slide around and it will just be a goopy mess.

Scatter the cooked chicken over this, then cover with cheese.  My motto has always been, "If it doesn't have cheese, put cheese on it.  If it does, put more on it."  But seriously, don't go overboard here, either.  You want enough for a nice thick layer, and to hold your toppings together, but too much will just be a mess.

Slice your tomatoes and lay them over the cheese.

When it comes to the frozen spinach, I don't bother trying to thaw it. Just grab a knife and chop it apart a bit.  Once you do this you can pull it apart and spread it over the pizza.

I have two reasons for using frozen spinach instead of fresh.  First, it's already chopped!  Come on people, we're eliminating prep.  Second, as much as I love spinach--on pizzas, sandwiches, pasta, in omelets, stuffed with feta in croissants (oops, spoiler alert)--fresh spinach just doesn't keep that long.  This way, I can pull it out whenever I need it and not worry about wasting the rest.  That's called eating well when you make $8.50 an hour.  

So, you've got your pizza all topped and pretty looking, and by now your oven it probably about ready.  If you have a pizza stone, use it.  That will help your bread really crisp up.  If not, just use a cookie sheet (I like to throw some foil on the sheet first, and I just assemble the whole thing on it--hello, easy cleanup).  Leave it in for about ten minutes, or a few more if you like yours really well done.

As a finishing touch, I like a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a dash of parmesan cheese, and boom!  As a quote from one of my roommates, "this looks like something I'd pay ten dollars for!" The whole grocery bill, which included enough supplies for probably about 8 pizzas (except the chicken, which was only enough for 2) cost me about $15.  Say whaaaaaaaaat?!

eat up.

J.

first post!

Hello, world.  I want to preface this first post by giving you a quick rundown of how this blog was born.  It took three things.

1. I split a bottle of wine with my lovely mother, and proceeded to cook us dinner.

2. I took pictures of said dinner, and showed it off to my roommate, who quipped, "you ought to have your own cooking show!"

3. I did not go to work today because at some point last night, I fell ill with the flu (or some like-minded nasty thing) and therefore have nothing better to do than futz around on the internet.

...that last one is not that important.  It was mostly the first two.

Basically, I'm making this blog because I know I can't be the only one out there who has trouble finding truly quick, easy, crowd-pleasing recipes with ingredients you probably already have- or SHOULD start keeping on hand. One of my roomies is a vegetarian, another will pretty much only eat something that is mostly comprised of meat, and only two of us can cook.  I've made it my goal to overcome these obstacles and make everyone's tummies very happy.

Because hunger is unacceptable.

J.