Chicken Braciolettini with Mushroom and Wine Sauce

Please forgive me for this sad little picture of a truly wonderful dish.  I will make the lame excuse again that I only have time to cook at night and the bad lighting (and my hunger) usually don't allow me to get a good picture.

I served it over creamy polenta with goat cheese, but it would be just as wonderful over pasta, potatoes or even spinach leaves if you're looking for a healthier option. 

The next time I make this I'm going to deviate from the original recipe and add chicken broth to the sauce, I like the flavor it adds.

Chicken Braciolettini with Mushroom and Wine Sauce
source: My Italian Grandmother

Ingredients:

6 large bonesless chicken breastss
1 tsp chopped garlic
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 pound fresh shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 bunch fresh parsley (can you believe my Super Target was OUT?)
6 thin slices Prosciutto
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup oil
1 cup Madeira or Marsala wine (I used a red table wine)
1/2 pound whole button mushrooms or thinly sliced large mushrooms

Directions:

Pound the chicken breasts to a uniform thickness.  On each piece of chicken, evenly arrange the chopped garlic.  Sprinkle with pepper, cheeses and parsley.  Cover each breast with a slice of Prosciutto.  Roll each breast, tucking in loose ends and secure with toothpicks.

Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Brown the chicken well all over.  Remove to a baking pan and bake for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven until the chicken is cooked thru but not dry (Instead I returned my chicken to the sauce and covered with a lid to finish cooking the chicken).

For the sauce, drain the fast from the skillet but don't wash the pan.  Over medium heat, add the wine and deglaze the pan with a wooden spoon.  Add the mushrooms and cook for a minute or two.  You can add some flour at this time to thicken the sauce if desired.

Remember to remove the toothpicks from the chicken before serving!

Creamy Polenta with Goat Cheese

I finally found a great substitute to potatoes and pasta.  I don't know why I thought polenta would be difficult to make, but leave it to the Pioneer Woman to break it down into steps I understanz.

My awesome new Super Target let me down for the first time ever when I was shopping for this recipe.  There was no plain goat cheese to be had, only herbed goat cheese, hence the dark flecks of color in my polenta.  It tasted great, but wasn't as pretty as it could have been...  : P

Creamy Polenta with Goat Cheese
source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Ingredients:

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces goat cheese

Directions:

Bring 4 1/2 cups water to a boil.  Pour the cornmeal into the water in a thin stream, whisking constsantly to avoid unsightly lumps.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.  Add water by the tablespoon if needed.  Add salt.

When polenta is cooked, stir in the butter and goat cheese (interesting factoid, the goat cheese melted 3x faster than the butter).  Taste and season appropriately.  Serve with a meat course such as this, this or this.

Kahlua-Pecan-Brown Sugar Baked Brie

A wonderful, fancy and super easy to prepare appetizer that'll definitely impress.  Just don't do like me and injure yourself removing the rind top from the Brie.

Kahlua-Pecan-Brown Sugar Baked Brie
source: Noble Pig

Ingredients:

1 whole wheel of Brie
1 cup Kahlua
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup chopped pecans
Crackers for serving

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the rind off the top of the Brie wheel, but leave the rind on top while in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. When the Brie is done baking, remove the rind and discard, exposing the yummy cheese.

While the Brie is baking, use medium saucepan to bring the Kahlua and brown sugar to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until it reaches a syrupy consistency.  Add the pecans to the pan for 2 minutes to warm them through and coat them with the sauce

Pour the Kahlua sauce over the Brie and serve with crackers.

Caleb's First Christmas

We started Christmas morning by opening presents at home.  Brent and I got some cool presents, but I know that you, dear Interwebz, are more interested in Caleb's fun gifts.

Aunt Colleen got him this rad Baby Einstein music player thing and it's a favorite.

Some Fisher Price Roll-Arounds from his stocking are another favorite, he bats them all around the room, I love watching him army crawl all over as he chases them.  My favorite is the one with the blue octopus thing in it with all the mutli-colored little balls that jingle around.  Very fun.

Gee Gee was awesome and wrapped Caleb's presents super loosely so he could unwrap them himself. 

Caleb's big gift from Mommy and Daddy was a LeapFrog Learn and Groove Table that he lurves.  We practice standing up with it and he loves all the buttons, sounds and lights.  When his baby legs get tired, he sits on my knee so he can keep playing.

After getting cleaned up from our at-home Christmas morning, we headed over to Brent's parents for presents with Caleb's MeeMaw and Papa.

First up for Caleb was a bunch of fun clothes, including this cow patterned footed PJ number.

And even though he really appreciates all the clothes, he couldn't help but show his REAL opinion about all the new duds. 

Overall, we received and gave some really cool gifts.  Thank you so much, family, for making it a kick-butt first Christmas for Little Man.  In fact, Caleb is spending the night with Brent's parents and we are getting ready to go spend the Christmas gift my grandparents gave us.  Thanks for dinner Grandma and Grandpa Brunton!!!

Does anyone else think that Caleb really looks like Marlon Brando in this pic?  It's the chin, I'm sure.

Sweet sweet baby skin

I never realized how perfectly sweet my baby would be.  I remember when I first smelled his little breath as I lay in the hospital bed the day he was born.  I was in perfect wonder over the life in my arms, amazed that we had all made it safely through delivery, when I first caught a whiff.  His breath was like nothing I'd ever smelled before.  Perfect freshness.

And now the rain-fresh breath is no more, but he has this perfect, silky skin.  It's darkish toned like his dad's, and soft and smooth and wonderful. 

And he has these irresistable leg rolls, my mom calls them Dairy Queen wrinkles :)  He loves it when I am the nom nom monster and nom on those little rolls!  Baby laughs... but that's another post.

It's safe to say I'm intoxicated by my beautiful baby. 

Caleb v puffs. Round 1

Since he started eating purees, Caleb has tried all the Stage 1 fruits and vegetables.  The only one that he didn't seem to care for was the bananas, and I think it's because of the texture.  He seems to have a sensitive gag reflex (which has already given me a few near-heart attacks) and texture/dryness seems to really set it off.

We decided to try these little puff cereal things that dissolve really quickly.

They are a yummy strawberry flavor so we thought he'd enjoy them.

 

Well, so far the body language isn't giving us a lot of hope for the puffs...

What is this stuff you're feeding me...dirt??

Blech!!!

Sorry mom, I gave it my best shot!  Maybe next time!

Fancy Macaroni

For the past couple years, the women in my family have worked ourselves silly preparing and cleaning up after Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals.  This year we declared from the get-go that we weren't doing it this time, we wanted easy, good food, and we wanted to have time to sit, visit, and play with the baby. 

For Christmas Eve, we decided to do a casserole and my mother in law put me in charge of finding a good recipe.  You know I can always count on the Pioneer Woman to drop a recipe of such mouth-watering proportions that I have to make it right.now and this time she did not disappoint.  As soon as I saw her post about Fancy Macaroni go up, I knew I'd found my Christmas Eve casserole.

It was so wonderfully good, the sauteed onions and all the yummy cheese, not to mention BACON, made this one spectacular dish.  Below is the Ree's recipe exactly as she posted, with notes for my slight adjustments.

Fancy Macaroni
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Ingredients:

4 cups Macaroni
8 Tablespoons Butter
2 whole Medium Onions, Cut In Half And Sliced Thin
10 slices Regular Bacon
1 Tablespoon Bacon Grease (reserved From Bacon Slices)
¼ cups All-purpose Flour
2 cups Whole Or 2% Milk
½ cups Half & Half
2 whole Egg Yolks, Beaten
Salt & Pepper (to Taste)
½ cups Grated Gruyere Cheese
½ cups Grated Fontina Cheese (I used Butterkase because I couldn't find any Fontina)
½ cups Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
4 ounces, weight Chevre (soft Goat Cheese)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook macaroni for half the time of the package instructions. Drain and set aside. (I also rinsed the noodles with cold water so they wouldn't stick together)

Fry bacon until slightly, but not overly, crispy. Drain on a paper towel. Reserve grease.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a skillet and saute onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown and soft. Set aside.  (besides sauteeing the onions in the same skillet I'd cooked the bacon, I added the reserved bacon grease to the butter)

In a pot, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle in flour and whisk to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat for 1 minute. Pour in milk and half & half, then cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until thick. Reduce heat to low. Add salt & pepper to taste. (Do not undersalt!)

Beat egg yolks and drizzle 1/4 cup hot mixture into the yolks, stirring constantly. Stir to combine. Pour egg mixture into sauce and cook for another minute.

Add cheeses and stir until melted. Add onions and bacon and stir. Taste for seasonings and add more salt if needed. Add cooked macaroni and stir to coat.

Pour into a baking dish and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until sizzling and hot.