And the topic is.....BACON!

Everyone has their favorite foods....in this house, a popular one (and maybe in your home too) is BACON.  Bacon is one of those universal foods you can put with almost anything and it's just good.  Baccon and eggs.  BLT's.  Bacon Smothered Chicken.....Yummy. 

In my house, when I make bacon, i have to have AT LEAST 2 packs of it, if not three.  Depends on if ALL of the kids are home.  Like the other night, i made 3 packs of bacon for 6 people.  Yea, we like our bacon.  Then this weekend, it was just me and Jeremy, and we susficed with one. :D

Today's recipe.....Bacon Smothered Chicken

1 lb bacon, crumbled and cooked
5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken
2 bags shredded cheese of choice (Cheddar is a good choice)

I put the chicken in the oven (350), with some water and my favorite seasonings (adobo, italian seasonings, and if i am feeling up to it, some McCormick Montreal Chicken, and a little cayenne pepper), and cook it up.  Just when it's about done, i pour some cheese, then bacon, then cheese over top. Bake for another 15-20 minutes (til the cheese is nice and melted and I like a little crisp to my cheese)

Volia`  A meal fit for a king!  (or some bacon-starved kids!)

Short-cut Chicken Cordon Blue.......

I have searched online for recipies for this dish....my kids LOVE my version, which I tweaked off of one I found...See....for some reason, my family doesn't like swiss cheese (something to do with not trusting cheese with holes...LOL)  and I had to make my own version.....Here goes.....

5 lbs of boneless/skinless chicken cooked, and cubed
4 cups of cubed ham, cooked
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
2 cans of cheddar cheese soup
4 cans of milk (filling up the aboved mentioned soup)
4 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
buttered noodles. :)


I cook my chicken with adobo, italian seasonings and a little crushed red pepper flakes.

I put the soup in a sauce pan, with milk and when hot I add shredded cheese.  Then i add the chicken and ham to the soup mix. 

I then take my "soupy mix" and put it over the noodles and serve :)

What is in your spice cabinet?

Spices and garnishes are what makes the dish....

My spices are probally the most standard spices around. Below is a list. 

• salt
• pepper
• garlic (powder, salt, minced, dried)
• Onion (''  ''  '' ''   ''    '' ''  ''    ''  '' '' )
• adobo (of course!)
• steak seasoning powder
• steak seasoning (generic montreal steak seasoning)
• about 5 - 6 kinds of McCormick montreal steak seasonings
• italian seasoning
• parsley
• oregano
• basil
• bay leaves
• Tastefully simple seasoned salt, onion onion, garlic garlic, bacon bacon.
• sprinkles (and lots of different kinds)
• food coloring
• cinnamon (sticks, ground and with sugar)
• nutmeg
• allspice
• and many more......can't think of them off the top of my head

Italian Garden Chicken and Non Traditional Cabbage -N- Noodles

It's just before grocery shopping.  You have odds and ends of this and that.  Or what about those days, when you just didn't have time to put things together for dinner, or you're running late?  What can you make?

This is some common happenings here at my house :)  I am bad at time management.  With all of the kids that run in and out of my house, and dealing with HS'ing, and my high functioning son.....its a wonder how anything gets done!  :) But this dish took me literally 5 mins pre-prep, 20 minutes to throw together.  30 mins to bake....and Viola`.  (NOTE:  I cook for 8 people!!)

Italian Garden Chicken

5 lbs of boneless/skinless chicken
1 bottle of Italian Dressing
3 lg tomatoes
1 lg green pepper
1 pkg of crumbled bacon (or 1 cup fresh bacon)
sliced cheese (optional)

Marinate your chicken for at least an hour for the juicy taste to cook in, though when i made it today, i didn't marinate (but it would taste better if u did :) )

place chicken and dressing in metal baking pan. top with cheese (optional), tomatoes, bacon and green pepper.

bake on 400 for 30 mins :)

The dish

Up close :)

Non Traditional Cabbage and Noodles :)

Butter/margarine (2 sticks for cabbage, one for noodles)

Italian seasonings

minced garlic

1 head of cabbage

1 box of your favorite pasta

salt

(This time i added 2 tsp Montreal steak seasoning and 1 tsp chili powder, just for kicks)

cook cabbage with butter, Italian seasonings, garlic and salt to taste.

boil noodles and add  butter  and salt and pepper to taste.

combine....

Enjoy! If you try my dishes, please leave me some feedback! 

Until next time :)

And this, my friends, is why I cook....

My family has gone thru alot of changes....we have added a few children (We have become a family of 8 now!), made some friends, and lost some friends thru the years....

I like to expirement with foods, but have VERY picky people eating which makes the fun challenging....so my rule used to be "you eat what's on your plate, or else"  But I have changed that to "you at least have to TRY what I make, and if you don't like it, there are leftovers or a pb&j.

Cooking, for me, is kinda like a retreat...I like to expirement, as I said before, and I like to create.  If I find a new recipie that the kids like, it becomes one I make often.  Some examples are Hamburger and peas, short cut chicken cordon blue, pork lo mein. (stories to follow!)

One of the recipies I like to make, and has become a staple in  my house is Mac and Cheese.  When I was a kid, my mom made this AMAZING mac and cheese cassarole...but no matter how hard I would try, I could NEVER duplicate it...So I played around with my recipie, and came up with this....Now, you can take out what you don't like, but here's my sure hit.

Mac N Cheese

What you need:

• 1-32 ounce box of Elbow noodles (and really, you can use whatever kinda noodle you want, I have used wagon wheels, farfelli, and rotini)
• 3-8 oz packages of your favorite shredded cheese (usual favorites here are mozerella, white and yellow cheddar and Colby Jack)
• Milk and Butter (I never measure, just pour)
• 2 tps of minced garglic (the kind you get in the jar you keep in the fridge) or if none available, Garglic powder works (but the minced is best)
• Salt and Pepper, to taste.

What to do:

1. I boil the noodles with salt and the garglic.....
2. If adding meat, I cook/fry it up while I am waiting for the noodles.
3. Then combine the drained noodles, meat, and cheese with about a stick of butter and I pour milk over, and stir....if it seems sticky (cheese isn't melting like it should) add more milk.
4. Now, here is where I determine, time-wise what to do next.  Sometimes I serve from the pan.  Other times, I pour into a gently sprayed pan, add cheese and breadcrumbs and put in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Yummy!

Variations:  Add some pepperoni or bacon with white cheddar cheese or ham or hot dogs with yellow cheddar.  Hamburger is another good mix-in, but WELL drained!

This recipie is a HUGE hit with my family and I make it for birthday parties (like the one we just had last weekend, for Cj, my youngest, I made 4 big pans of it, one with pepperoni, ham, hotdogs and one plain.)

I'm back................

So, the last year has been an upheaval!  But Alas, I am back.

MORE TO COME!

The first time....

The first time I ever made a dinner for my friends, I was 17, had my first place and only one child.  I made this HUGE spaghetti dinner.  And I learned that you should add oil and salt to the noodles as their cooking, keep your eyes on the garlic bread in the oven, and it's easier to use ground meat instead of meatballs THAT ROLL OFF THE PLATES....(I should have known better.....)

So imagine me, having my first dinner in my first apartment, crying because my noodles were clumpy, sauce watery,  the bread was burnt and the meatballs went rolling everywhere.....But every ounce of food I made was eaten  without complaint.(I LOVE MY FAMILY!)

HAHAHA.....

As a child, some of my earliest memories are of my mom always in the kitchen.  Usually she'd be shooing me from the tray of cookies she had just made.  My mom put Betty Crocker to shame.  She used to can her own fruits and veggies, make her own sauces and jelly, grind her own meat....all in all, my hero. I don't know how she did it, but we had an immaculate house and a home-cooked meal EVERY night....And when she used to make her sauce or jelly, I used to "help" and thought I was big sh!t for it! 

I guess I should explain why I call this "Ghetto Row".  I live in a small borough, and I live in the only ROW homes in this borough....sure, there are doubles but only 1 row......We joke around that we're living in the "ghetto".  It's not too bad here, though, because the neighbors keep to themselves and don't bother no one.

So now you know the "inside" joke......Another recipe to come :)

Questions and comments welcome.......