Friday, May 28, 2010

Everything tastes better with a little balsamic!

I think that if you put a little brown sugar and balsamic on anything it will taste better... hence the following recipe for Green Beans with Carmelized Onion:

Green Beans with Carmelized Onion

Ingredients:
1 Pound Fresh Green Beans
2 Medium Sweet Onions
2 Tbs Butter
2 Tbs Brown Sugar
2 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar

Cook Green Beans in boiling water to cover 15 minutes. drain.
Cut Onions into thin slices and cut each slice in half
Cook onion in nonstick skillet over medium high heat 8-10 min-do not stir
Cook stirring often 5-10 m in or until golden brown. Reduce heat to medium; stir in butter and brown sugar.
Add green beans and cook 5 minutes or until heated. Toss green bean mixture with vinegar.
Enjoy!!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

This recipe started because Harris Teeter had whole chickens on sale... I have roasted a couple of whole chickens in the oven but I decided I wanted to make one in the crockpot.

As I was prepping I realized that the recipe said to "de-skin" the chicken... DE-SKIN A CHICKEN!?!?! They must be crazy, this does not sound very pleasant. As I started to "de-skin" the chicken I was thinking to myself "wow this is the most disgusting thing I have ever done... this recipe better be PRETTY DURN GOOD if I am ever going to do this again!!!

Well... the recipe turned out GREAT and Andrew even went back for seconds AND ate it as leftovers the next day... therefore I will share it! Good luck with the "de-skinning!"

Prep Time:
15 Min
Cook Time:
8 Hrs
Ready In:
8 Hrs 15 Min
Ingredients
  • 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, skin removed
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic

Directions

  1. Remove skin from chicken, and empty inner cavity of contents within. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel, and place inside the slow cooker.
  2. In a bowl, stir together the chicken broth, soy sauce, olive oil, honey, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, and minced garlic. Pour mixture over chicken, and cover.
  3. Cook chicken on low setting for 8 hours, or 4 hours on high setting.
I served with White Rice and Carmalized Onion Green Beans (recipe to follow) :-)

Okay...I have been talking about it so here it is!

I absolutely LOVE to cook. To me...spending my whole day standing in the kitchen making different recipes is therapeutic and fun! Husband Andrew is a "meat and potatoes" kinda guy so he is a really good sport putting up with my constant urge to try a new recipe. I'm not quite sure why I have an aversion to making the same thing twice... but I do!

I get most of my recipes from Southern Living Magazine, The Food Network and Taste of Home Magazines I buy at the grocery store checkout. :-)

I always talk about the recipes I make and people want "copies" of them so I decided... why not start a blog so everyone can just access this for the recipes they want!!? My goal with this blog is to share with everyone the recipes that Andrew went back for seconds on... and of course the ones that I think are delish! As I make new recipes I will post them and give feedback on what we thought. Most of the ones I make are "work all day long and come home to cook" friendly recipes which don't take tooo long and don't require to many ingredients or pots & pans!

Enjoy the recipes...

Melissa