Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

I actually don't think I've ever had Chicken Cordon Bleu before making this recipe, so I can't judge the taste against the real thing. What I can tell you is that this was very flavorful and definitely worth the whole having-to-touch-raw-chicken thing. I will tell you right now that I hate touching raw chicken, and pretty much just stood there gagging the whole time I did it for this recipe. But thankfully I persevered and ended up with this super easy delicious chicken. I found the recipe on Pinterest (of course) and the original recipe is here. I cut it down to use only two chicken breasts, and used panko bread crumbs instead of homemade ones.

Ingredients:

CHICKEN:

2 large chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts
8 slices deli ham

3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp butter, melted

10 thin slices of swiss cheese

PARMESAN-DIJON CREAM SAUCE
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 crushed chicken bouillon cube
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
CHICKEN
1. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs and melted butter.
3. Slice the chicken breasts in half, so that you end up with four thinly sliced chicken breasts, as if you had pounded them out to be thin, not as if you had cut them into strips. I hope that makes sense.

4. Lay the cut chicken breasts in a single layer in the dish.

5. Layer each chicken breast with two slices of ham.

6. Layer the swiss cheese on top of the ham, making sure the entire chicken breast is covered.

7. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top of the cheese.

8. Bake the chicken for 30-35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through completely, the cheese is bubbling and the bread crumbs are golden.

SAUCE
1. In a medium saucepan, melt the 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat.
2. Stir in the flour, whisking constantly. Cook the flour/butter mixture for 1-2 minutes.
3. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking quickly.
4. Stir in the chicken bouillon granules and salt.
5. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer and thicken, about 3-5 minutes. My sauce took about 4.
6. Once the sauce is bubbly and thickened, remove from heat and stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted.

7. Keep the sauce warm until the chicken is finished baking.
8. Serve each chicken cordon bleu portion with warm sauce.

My sauce ended up being a really thick texture, and I even added some extra milk after it was done. I think it may have something to do with the type of parmesan cheese I used. It was kind of stretchy and unappealing looking, but it tasted delicious. Even Chris liked the taste of it over the chicken, and he is not the biggest mustard fan. The chicken was enjoyable, and so simple. This is definitely a recipe I would make again, because both Chris and I enjoyed it.

Preztel Bites with Cheddar Sauce

I made these to eat for a snack before a football game. They were a process, to say the least. They were delicious though.The cheese sauce I was less impressed with, but I'm still going to post it because it seems like a decent base. I got the recipe from here and here.These would be great for a party, because the recipe makes a lot!

Ingredients:

Pretzel Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel or kosher salt

Cheese Sauce Ingredients

2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
8 oz shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

I used regular salt because I forgot to buy larger salt, and it tasted just fine. It didn't look as pretty, but it will still work.

Directions:

Pretzels:

1. Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.

Foaming yeast

 2. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Remove the dough from the bowl and oil it with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an large pot.
5. Put the dough onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Slice or tear each rope into 1-inch pieces.
Make sure to place a lightly damp towel over the pretzel pieces to prevent them from drying out while you roll and cut the other pieces.

I don't have space to oil my counter, so I wrapped plastic wrap around my table and put oil on that.

8 equal parts

Rolling out into ropes

Half of the pretzel pieces. Yup, that's only half.

6. Put a handful of the pretzel pieces into the boiling water and boil them for 30 seconds.

7. Remove the pretzel pieces from the water using a slotted spoon, or a potato masher, which is what I had on hand. Drain them on a paper towel and place them on the baking sheets.

Mashers: Not just for mashing anymore

8. Brush the top of each pretzel with the egg and water mixture and sprinkle with the salt.
9. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 10 – 12 minutes.

Yummy!

Cheese Sauce:
1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.

2. Whisk in the flour and cook for 30 seconds, whisking constantly.
3. Slowly whisk in the milk until no flour lumps are left.  Stir constantly and bring the milk to a simmer over medium-low heat until it thickens, about 3-5 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the stove and stir in the shredded cheese until all of the cheese has melted. Serve warm.

 

The cheese sauce didn't have a whole lot of flavor, and it definitely didn't reheat well. I don't recommend it. A beer cheese sauce would be excellent with these, though. I plan on trying one in the future.

The pretzels were excellent though, and I will definitely be making those again. I will probably just make them in the regular pretzel fashion though, instead of the bites. It took a long time to boil them all in small groups, and it would have been much easier to just have to do eight pretzels instead of so many bites.

Potato Skins

We ended up with a bag and a half of potatoes when we came back from my parents' house a few weekends ago. They apparently think we starve and like to load us up with food when we visit. I used some for a baked potato soup, but still had a bag left. I asked Chris what he wanted me to make with potatoes, and he immediately responded with potato skins. I've only ever had these maybe once, and now I know why because they take a long time! They aren't a lot of work, it's just a big time commitment to make them. They ended up being really tasty though, and worked perfectly for our dinner while we watched football on our couch. I used these two recipes as my base for how to make them, and then went from there.

Ingredients:

Potatoes 

  Shredded Cheddar Cheese

  Sour Cream

  Bacon Bits

Directions:

1. Wash your potatoes, and then coat them in olive oil.

2. Bake your potatoes. I chose to do mine in the oven at 400° for 50 minutes on a regular sheet pan. 

3. Once the potatoes have cooled, cut them in half lengthwise.

4. Take a spoon and core out the inside of the potato. Brush the inside and outside with another coat of olive oil.

5. Bake the potatoes for 10 minutes at 450°, then flip the potatoes over and bake for another 10 minutes.

6. Place the shredded cheese inside the potatoes and put back in the over just long enough to melt the cheese, about 2 minutes.

7. Cover your potatoes in delicious toppings and enjoy!

These had a delicious crispy crust and the toppings were a good addition. I think some chives are also normally added, but I didn't  have those around my kitchen. I would definitely make these again, even though they took so long. The time is worth it for a yummy perfect potato skin.

Bread Bowls

This recipe is from last week, when it was colder and not 80° like it is right now. Stupid weather. I wanted Panera so badly, but there isn't one anywhere around us. So, I decided to make my own bread bowls to put some soup in. I used this recipe and adjusted it to make 4 servings.

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast

1 & 1/4 c warm water

1 tsp honey

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

3 & 1/2 cups flour

1 egg

1 tsp water

Directions:
1. Put the yeast, honey and warm water in a bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes until it is creamy and foamy.

Before and After

 2. Add the salt, oil and 2 cups of flour to the bowl. Add in the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well.
3. When the dough has come together, put the mixer on high and let in knead for 6 minutes.

This is what it should look like once done.

4. Lightly oil the bowl and dough.

All lubed up.

5.Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rise for about 40 minutes.

6. After the dough has doubled in size, take it out and divide into 4 equal portions. Shape them into round loaves and place them on lightly greased baking sheets. Cover with the damp cloth and let rise again for about 35 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 400°.
8. Beat together egg and water to make an egg wash. Brush the loaves with the wash.
9. Bake the loaves for 15 minutes. Brush with egg wash again and put back in the oven to bake for 10-15 more minutes until golden brown.

Before the second egg wash

10. Take out and cool on wire racks.

All yummy and brown!

11. To make bowls, cut off the tops of loaves and scoop out the middle to create a bowl shape. 

Next time, I will probably just make two larger bowls, because the bowls were pretty small and didn't hold a lot of soup. They were very tasty though, and fairly easy to make. I will definitely be making this recipe again, and would recommend it for an easy bread bowl. 

I made a broccoli-cheddar soup to put in the bread bowls, and I used this recipe, which was amazing. I don't really even like broccoli-cheddar soup, but this one was tasty. The bread bowl worked perfectly and were a great addition to the soup. Overall, an excellent dinner.

Italian Layer Bake

I have a thing for sandwiches. And that thing is that I really like them. I could eat Jimmy John's every day for a week and be very happy with my life. I liked this recipe because it was super easy, and kind of sandwich-y while still feeling like a dinner meal. I used different meats and didn't include the egg layer, because it sounded kind of gross to me.

Ingredients:

1 (8-ounce) container refrigerated crescent rolls

1/4 lb each of:

  Sliced deli turkey

  Sliced deli pepperoni

  Sliced deli genoa salami

  Sliced Provolone cheese

Peperoncini peppers

1 egg, beaten

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Open the crescent roll dough and unroll. Lay 1/2 of the dough in the bottom of and 8x8 inch pan, making sure it connects.

3. Layer the turkey, pepperoni, salami, cheese, and peppers.

I only put the peppers on half because Chris doesn't like it so spicy.

4. Place the other 1/2 of the dough over the layers.Brush the beaten egg over the top of the dough.

5. Cover the pan with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 20 to 22 minutes, or until golden and heated through.

6. Let cool 15 to 20 minutes then cut and serve.

Like I said, super easy. I didn't use ham in my recipe, because I don't like ham, but you can use almost  any combination of meats in this. The peperoncini peppers added some nice bite. Some tomatoes would probably be delicious as well. I paired this with a greek salad, and it was a very tasty dinner.

So many yummy layers!

Halloween Door Decoration

I love decorating for the holidays, and Halloween is one of my favorites. I just love the spooky atmosphere. I decided I wanted to make something to hang on my door to make it a little more festive and to cover up the No-Smoking sign that's on it. I originally wanted a wreath, but I found this super cool styrofoam grave at the Dollar Tree in town and knew it could be amazing with just a little more decoration.

Here's what I started with:

The spider on the grave wasn't very distinct, and the whole thing was just kind of plain.

Supplies:

Styrofoam grave

Black fabric roses

Glitter

Gray, white and black paint

Ribbon to hang with

I bought the grave, set of black roses and some glitter paint to do this project. The rest of the paint and the ribbon I already had.

First, I painted the whole grave gray. I just went over it with a foam brush and tried to keep the coat from looking too even.

Next, I painted in all of the spiders black to make them pop a little more. Look at all the new spiders that you couldn't even tell were there before!

Then I went over the spider web in a white pearly paint.

While I waited for the paint to dry, I took the roses and spiders off of the stem and painted the edges with glitter glue. The plastic spiders I completely covered in glitter to make them fancy.

I also went back over the spider web with glitter glue to make it sparkly as well.

Sparkles!

I also went back through and touched up any spots where the paint looked bad.

Fully painted

I added some rhinestone eyes, because I found them in my craft drawer and hot glued on the flowers and hanging ribbon. The roses are on the left, and the flowers on the right are two sets of leaves on top of each other with a rhinestone in the middle.

And it's done! I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it looks great hanging on my door. It's amazing what a little paint can do!