Bajio's Green Chile Chicken Salad

If you've never tried Bajio's green chile chicken salad, I highly recommend it. It's a green chile chutney sauteed with shredded chicken, piled on top a bed of lettuce. It doesn't need much dressing because of the chutney, but I like to add just a little drizzle of the tomatillo ranch. Top with cheese and tortilla strips and you've got a delicious salad! Trent and I both love the salad so I found a recipe for the green chile chutney and made the salads last night. Turned out pretty dang good. A little different from Bajio's version, but still delicious!

Green Chile Chutney

3 large annaheim peppers, halved, seeds removed

1 - 2 jalapeno peppers, halved, seeds removed
4 oz. can diced green chiles

5-7 tomatillos, husks removed

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup sugar

dash of chili powder

dash of cumin

dash of salt

1 large sweet onion, halved

Directions:

Place peppers, tomatillos, and onion on baking sheet/rack. Roast in 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until nicely browned. Remove from oven and place tomatillos and about half the roasted onion in blender and process until mostly smooth. Dice peppers and remaining roasted onion. Add all ingredients except the remaining raw onion into a large pot. Cook over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or until thickened and reduced. Add more sugar/peppers to adjust the spiciness/sweetness to taste.

For Carmelized Onions:

Slice the remaining onion and saute with a little bit of the green chile sauce over medium-low heat until carmelized.

For chicken, marinate 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves in 1 cup lime juice and 1 cup oil for at least 2 hours. Remove chicken and discard marinade, season chicken and grill with a little balsamic vinegar until cooked through. Shred chicken.

To assemble salad take about 1 cup of chutney, desired amount of chicken and caramelized onions, and saute until well heated. Place on top of lettuce, add pico, shredded cheese, tortilla strips and tomatillo ranch and dig in!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream and Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I found this recipe and couldn't stop thinking about it so I had to make it last night. With Trent being a lover of all things peanut butter, and all things ice cream, I knew I couldn't go wrong. It was pretty yummy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Makes roughly 3-4 cups of ice cream

Ice Cream
2 cups half &half

¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

½ cup sugarPinch of salt

½ cup smooth peanut butter

Peanut Butter Patties
6 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Combine the half & half, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium high heat. Stir the mixture frequently until it comes to a full, rolling boil. Remove from the pan from the heat and stir in the peanut butter until well blended.Chill the mixture covered overnight in the refrigerator.

In the meantime, make the peanut butter patties. Stir together the peanut butter and sugar in a small bowl until thoroughly combined. Cover a dinner plate with plastic wrap. Using a spoon and your finger, scoop up small pieces of the peanut butter mixture, about ½ teaspoon each, and drop them onto the wrap covered dinner plate. It may help to refridgerate the peanut butter for a few minutes, to make it less sticky. Once you’ve used all of the mixture, put the plate in the freezer overnight.

The following day, freeze the ice cream mixture according to your ice cream maker’s directions. After you’ve removed the ice cream from the machine, stir in the peanut butter patties by hand. (I don’t recommend adding them to the machine, it can result in a sticky gooey mess.)

As if the ice cream wasn't sweet enough, I decided to make some chocolate sugar cookies to go along with it. Thought it would make a yummy ice cream sandwich (and it did!).

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Makes roughly 3 dozen 4-inch cookies

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups sugar, plus a few tablespoons for decoration

½ cup plus

2 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a food processor or electric mixer, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. Add the butter and then the egg on low speed, or while pulsing. Continue mixing until dough comes together. Measure a couple of table spoons of sugar into a small bowl. Roll about a tablespoon of dough between your hands to form a ball, then roll the dough in the bowl of sugar, coating the outside. Place on a parchment paper or Silpat lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart and slightly flatten the dough with your hands. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 3 to 4 minutes on the baking sheet, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

For dinner I made this Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

It was really easy to make and turned out pretty good. I got the recipe from here.

INGREDIENTS

2 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts

¼ box Mrs Cubbison’s dressing mix

1 egg, beaten

Sliced HamSliced

Swiss Cheese

1 pint Sour Cream

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

DIRECTIONS
Dip chicken in egg and dressing crumbs and place in bottom of 9x12 baking dish. Place slices of ham and Swiss cheese across top of chicken. Top with soup and sour cream mixture. Sprinkle a little dressing mix on top. Bake at 350F for 1 hour.

Maxon's Rocket Cake

For Maxon's birthday this year I tried to redeem myself from last year's mishap. He loves Little Einsteins so I decided on a "Rocket" cake. It tuned out pretty good. Definitely not 100% satisfactory, but at least edible. I had a little bit of a hard time with the fondant covering Rocket, but eventually got the job done. For the cake I didn't do anything fancy. Just a Funfetti box cake (every kid loves Funfetti right?). I did 2 round layers, with just buttercream in between the 2. Rocket is cake too, covered in MMF.

Pesto pasta with chicken and sundried tomatoes

This dish has become a favorite to make of mine. I love pesto, so fresh and somewhat healthy. And I love sundried tomatoes. But my favoite part has to be the toasted pine nuts. For some reason they just really make the dish for me. I've eaten it without them, and it just wasn't the same. It makes a lot, so it'll feed us for a couple days. Maxon even loves it!

Pesto Pasta with Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

1 (16 ounce) package bow tie pasta 1 teaspoon olive oil (or oil from sun-dried tomatoes) 2 cloves garlic, minced 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and cut into strips 1 cup pesto sauce (store bought, or recipe follows) Parmesan cheese ½ cup pine nuts

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2.	Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic until tender, then stir in chicken. Cook until chicken is golden, and cooked through.
3.	In a large bowl, combine pasta, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto. Toss to coat evenly. Toast pine nuts (400 degrees for a few minutes until golden brown) Sprinkle parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts on top. Pesto Sauce INGREDIENTS: ½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 cup fresh basil leaves ½ tsp salt 2 cloves garlic ½ cup toasted pine nuts ½ cup parmesan cheese Blend all together in a blender or food processor. Makes about 1 cup.

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies!

A favorite treat of mine when I was little was Little Debbie's Oatmeal Cream Pies! A while back a friend of mine mentioned she'd found a homemade version of these at a bakery and said they were to die for. I decided I'd better find the recipe! I searched and found one on another cooking blog and let me tell you, it did not dissapoint!


Oatmeal Cream Pies
Cookie Ingredients
1 cup margarine
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups quick oats

Cream Filling Ingredients
2 teaspoons very hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow cream
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

1. In large bowl, cream margarine, sugars, molasses, vanilla, and eggs.
2. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3. Add to the creamed mixture; mix in the oats.
4. Drop dough by TBS on ungreased sheets. (I used a small cookie scoop.)
5. Bake at 350 degrees F.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes,or until just starting to brown around the edges.
7. They will look moist; don’t overcook.
8. While the cookies bake prepare the filling.
9. In small bowl, dissolve the salt in the hot water.
10. Allow this to cool.
11. Combine marshmallow cream, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in med bowl; mix on high until fluffy.
12. Add the cooled salt water and mix well.
13. Spread filling on flat side of one cookie, press 2nd cookie on top.

Try them out and let me know what you think!