CHICKEN ON CIABATTA WITH GRILLED FRUIT

Hi everyone.  Do you ever get tired of making a big dinner and would like to just make something simple? But then you think, that won't be enough of a dinner for my family.  Well today I have a recipe of mine for a really well balanced meal that is both filling and satisfying, not to mention really delicious.  Great for a Sunday brunch, a late afternoon or anytime really.

CHICKEN ON CIABATTA WITH GRILLED FRUIT

Serves four

1 loaf of good Ciabatta
2 whole Chicken Breasts cut in half
Brie
Roasted red Peppers cut into strips
Arugula
Pesto
Mayo
2 large ripe Plums
2 large ripe Nectarines
Fresh Pineapple
Honey

Prepare the fruit for grilling.  Cut the Nectarines and Plums in half.  Cut thick slices of Pineapple.

Flatten the Chicken just a little, salt and pepper the chicken.  Grill it on your stove top grill or outside.  Set aside.  Cut the Ciabatta loaf in half lengthwise.  Brush with a little olive oil and bake in the oven for about 5 minutes at 400 degrees.  Remove from the oven and spread with mixture of half Pesto and half Mayo on both sides.  Put slices together and cut in half and then cut each half in half again to make 4 sandwiches.  Open bread and on one half put the chicken breast,  then 3 or 4 slices of Brie, then the roasted Red Peppers, then about a handful of Arugula.  Top with the other half of the Ciabatta.

Place the Plums and Nectarines face down on the grill.  Put the Pineapple slices on the grill.  Grill until nicely browned with grill marks.

On each plate place the Chicken sandwich, 1/2 plum, 1/2 of nectarine and slice of pineapple.  Drizzle the fruit with honey.

If you want to make the fruit your dessert.  Drizzle with honey and top with whipped cream.  YUMMY and good for you.

Thanks for stopping in today.
Ciao
Grayce

VEGETABLE CASSEROLE

Hi everyone. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  After the rain on Saturday, Sunday turned out to be the perfect Spring day.  Summer is coming.  I promise.

I am always trying to find ways to perk up vegetables and serve them in some other way.  A long time ago when all my children were home, I experimented with this dish and it turned out to be a great way to fix veggies.  It makes a great side dish or you could serve it for lunch with a salad and some toasty bread.  I think you will like this a lot.

VEGETABLE CASSEROLE

1 quart casserole buttered
About 3 oz of Mascarpone cheese (room temp)
1 1/4 cups of Ricotta (room temp)
2 eggs beaten
Juice of one lemon
3/4 tsp Herbes de Provence
1/4 of an onion minced very fine
1tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 1/2 cups of cooked vegetables.  Get the packaged mixed veggies of your choice.  Cook and drain. (cook just until al dente.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Blend the Mascarpone, Ricotta until smooth.  Mix in the eggs, lemon juice, Herbes de Provence, onion salt and pepper.  Add the cooked vegetables (well drained) and mix in gently.
Pour into the buttered casserole.  Cover casserole with a mixture of bread crumbs and melted butter.
Bake for about 25  to 30 minutes until bubbly.

A great way to serve vegetables.  And quick and easy.  Great with Chicken, Pork Chops even Fish.  Try it soon.

Thanks for stopping in today
Ciao
Grayce

MINI BAKED ALASKA

Hi everyone.  I don't have much time today so I am going to give you a very simple recipe.  This is one you can whip up in a very short time if you buy the ingredients.  Or, if you have time you can bake the cookies yourself.  I almost always bake my own but on occasion have run to the Bakery to get some.  The other good thing about this yummy little treat is that you can mix and match a ton of different combinations.  I have done big thick Oatmeal cookies with Vanilla ice cream, Thin Lemon crisps with Lemon Sherbet, Chocolate Chip with Vanilla or Chocolate (for the Chocoholic) and on and on.  Make up your own combination.  They are fun, delicious and people will think you are a baking Wizard!

MINI BAKED ALASKA

Cookies (as many as you need 1 per person)
Ice Cream or Sherbet (you match the flavor with the cookie)
Meringue

Take one cookie and with an ice cream scoop (large) place one scoop of the ice cream on top of the cookie.  Put in the freezer until frozen solid.

To make Meringue, put 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons of water into a small saucepan and cook until it reaches 235 degrees on your thermometer.  In the meantime beat 4 egg whites until foamy, add 1/2 tsp cream of tarter then whip until the whites are stiff.  In a thin stream while still beating on high add the sugar mixture to the egg whites.  Beat until glossy.

Take the cookies out of the freezer and quickly frost them with the meringue.  With your mini torch quickly brown the meringue.  There you have it.  Mini Baked Alaska.  What a great treat!  Try them soon.  Your guests will love them and your kids will want them all the time.

Thanks for stopping n today have a great weekend
Ciao
Grayce

LINDA'S CELEBRATION EGGS

Today I have a wonderful recipe for super delicious stuffed eggs from my sister Linda.  They are amazing!  Not to mention how beautiful they look on your platter.
Without further ado here is the recipe.  Try them soon.

LINDA'S CELEBRATION EGGS

1 dozen eggs
1/4 cup Knudsen sour cream
1/3 cup Miracle Whip
2 heaping tsp Sweet Relish
5 strips Bacon
2/3 cup grated Cheddar Cheese
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
Black Olives
Red Bell Pepper
Chinese Red Hot Garlic Sauce

Using a large pan, put eggs in cold water.  Bring to a boil, take off the burner and cover for 15 minutes.  They will now peel exceptionally well.  In a bowl, put the yolks of the eggs and place the halved whites on your best egg dishes.  With a fork flake the yolks.

In a skillet cook bacon until well done and finely chop.  This can be done ahead of time.  Add all top 7 ingredients to the eggs.  Salt and Pepper lightly.  Mix well and taste.  If the balance is there and they are not too dry, the ingredients are fine.  Eggs come in different sizes so the mixture of sour cream, mustard, miracle whip and relish will vary.  Add just a shot of the Chinese Hot Garlic Sauce, if you like just a little hint of heat (trust me, it's delicious).

I like to pipe my egg mixture into the shells, but you can spoon it in.  You will have plenty to be generous.  Slice the black olives and put a circle on top of each egg.  Put a small piece of red pepper in the center of the olive.  It is really beautiful!  Garnish with flat leaf parsley and thin slices of the pepper and serve.  Chilling will enhance the flavor.

The cheese adds a new dimension to the eggs and the hot garlic sauce makes them exceptional as an appetizer with drinks or punch.  I promise you, people will ask for the recipe.  It never fails once you balance the flavors and texture to suit your taste.  You can sprinkle with paprika before putting the olives on but I skip this step.
Mama Mia!!!!!

Thanks Linda for the great recipe.  Try it soon my followers, it is really great!

Thanks for stopping in today
Ciao
Grayce

STUFFED CHICKEN ROLLS

First of all Welcome to Jeff a new follower. (il benvenuto e gode di). Today I am sharing a recipe of mine that is another different way to serve Chicken.  It is a combination of some wonderful flavors that I think you will really enjoy.  And since we are supposed to have rain and cold for the next 3 to 5 days (ugh) we may as well make something wonderful for dinner.  Again, when will it be Summer?  Enough cold already.  Anyway, this dish is sure to warm the cockles of your heart (whatever those are) and make your tummy happy.

STUFFED CHICKEN ROLLS (ala Grayce)

serves four

4 boneless chicken breast halves
Wild rice (get a pkg of precooked at Trader Joe's or make 1 cup
Fontina cheese
Mushrooms
Italian flat leaf parsley
Chicken broth
White Wine
salt pepper
Butter

You can buy Breast filets and then pound them out slightly or use regular skinless breast halves and really pound them out nice and thin.  Cook the rice.  Slice 1 and 1/2 cups of mushrooms and saute them in 2 tablespoons of butter.  Put the rice into a bowl and with a slotted spoon lift out the mushrooms and add to the rice.  Add salt and pepper. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped parsley. Place one slice of Fontina cheese on each flattened breast, then some of the rice mixture.  Roll up and secure with a tooth pick.  Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the saute pan in which you did the mushrooms.  Add the chicken breasts and cook over med heat until brown on all sides.  Remove from the pan.  Add 1 cup chicken broth, and 1/4 cup of white wine to the pan.  Cook for about 3 minutes.  Add the chicken back into the pan and cover and cook over low heat until the chicken is no longer pink.  About 40 minutes. Remove from pan and place on a platter, pour the juice over all.  Serve with a green vegetable and a salad.

You can also remove the chicken from the pan, let stand for a minute or two, slice each one on a diagonal and serve on a bed of sauteed spinach.  (Saute quickly with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper) Yummy.

Thanks for stopping in today (this is Wed. recipe but I am writing it Tues night)
Ciao
Grayce

PORK TENDERLOIN (ITALIAN STYLE)

Good morning everyone.  Thanks to those of you who had such beautiful comments on my blog yesterday.  It was such a hard day for me.  Thanks again.

Today I have a simple recipe that I make for a change of taste to the little Pork Loins.  You can get them at Trader Joe's two in a package, in most markets and at Costco.  They are about 1 1/4 inch around and cook up in about 35 minutes.  So you can easily have a delicious dinner on the table in about an hour.
There are so many ways to make these tasty loins and all are wonderful.  This is one that is my Italian version.  I hope you enjoy it.

PORK TENDERLOIN (ITALIAN STYLE)

2 little Pork Tenderloins about 1 1/4 ' around
Olive Oil
Garlic
Oregano
Red Wine
Salt and Pepper

Make slits in the tenderloins and put slivers of garlic in them.  In a large plastic bag add 1/2 cup Olive Oil, 1 tsp dried Oregano, 1/4 cup Red Wine.  Put the tenderloins in the bag and seal it up.  Lay the bag flat in a baking dish.  Let them marinate for about a 1/2 hour.  Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Remove tenderloins from bag and discard the juices.  Place them in a shallow pan and salt and pepper them.  Bake  for about 35 minutes.  Let stand for about 5 or 6 minutes before slicing.  While the pork is cooking you can boil little potatoes in water with about 1 tablespoon of salt.  When done, drain and add 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter and some fresh chopped parsley.  Add a crisp green salad or some fresh asparagus (now in season).  And there you have a great, delicious dinner in a very short time.

Thanks for stopping in today
Ciao
Grayce

LADY BALTIMORE CAKE

Today is a very emotional day for me.  It is my Mother's Birthday.  She died at 90 years old a couple of years ago just after her 90th birthday.  I miss her so much.  I still cry every time I think about her, which is most of the time.  She was the most important person in my life.  I am what I am because of her.  She was the kindest, most honest, most loving person I have ever know.  Even though she lived in Oregon with my sister, I talked with her everyday.  Some days when my sister was not at home, she called me two or three times a day, or I called her.  Just saying hello.  I would give all that I have to have just 5 more minutes with her.  I loved her so much.  Don't ever be too busy to call your parents as often as possible.  When they are gone you will wish you could speak with them one more time.

Anyway, one of my Mother's favorite cakes, was one she called, Lady Baltimore Cake.  I think it may have been from Betty Crocker.  I have it written down from my Mom but she probably got it from the Betty Crocker cook book that she had for years and years.  So today, in her honor here is the recipe.

LADY BALTIMORE CAKE

2 9" layers grease and flour the pans
Cream until fluffy 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter and 2 cups of sugar
Sift together 3 cups sifted SOFTASILK flour, 4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt
stir in alternately with 1 1/2 cups thin milk (1/2 water)
2 tsp vanilla
Fold in 6 egg whites stiffly beaten

Pour into prepared pans and bake until cake tests done. (350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes) just until done.  Do not over bake.

Frost with fluffy cooked frosting,
Mix together and boil to 242 degrees
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 cup water
Pour slowly, beating constantly over 3 stiffly beaten egg whites, add 1 tsp vanilla.
Frost cake and sprinkle top and sides with coconut.

It is a moist and delicious cake.  Try it for your next special occasion.

Thanks for stopping in today
Ciao
Grayce