Panettone!!

As all of you know, I am a hard core Italian-American! And one of my Dad's favorite things to eat (only during Christmas) is Panettone. He normally buys it, and his wise words of advice are...

"Don't buy it from William's Sonoma because it cost a fortune and it taste the exact same as when you buy it from Costco or the grocery store. You know it all comes from the same place!"

So I thought, screw buying it, why not try and make it!!

P.S. If your not quite sure of what it is, it is like a sponge/angel food cake with fruit in it. Kind of like a really fluffy Italian fruit cake :)

This is Mario Batali's recipe from Food Network. It is pretty easy and it came out pretty good!

Panettone!! Oh yeah!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 eggs

3 egg yolks

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup currants, soaked in warm water for 1 hour and drained (you can sub Raisins here if you like. I am not a big fan of currants, so this is what I did!)

2 oranges, zested

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Butter and flour an 8-inch round deep cake pan or panettone mold. In a mixer, cream the butter with the eggs and egg yolks until pale yellow, 3 to 4 minutes.
Replace the beater with the dough hook attachment, and with the mixer running, add half of the flour. Add half the milk and mix for 1 minute. Add the remaining flour followed by the remaining milk and all of the sugar and mix well. Continue mixing and kneading with the dough hook until the dough becomes dry enough to handle. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and sprinkle with the currants, orange zest, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Knead by hand for 5 to 10 minutes.

Place the dough in the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. The top will be quite cracked. Remove from the oven, invert onto a rack and cool. Slice into wedges to serve.

Fettucini Alfredo

It may not be the healthiest thing, but on a cold night, with a fire and a movie, it is absolutely one of the most loved and comforting foods.

I thought I would give you a quick and easy way to make it.

1 pint heavy cream

1 stick of unsalted butter

1 cup Parmigiano reggiano

Black pepper

Dash of Salt

1lb whole wheat or spinach fettucini

DIRECTIONS:

On low-medium setting heat cream. Add stick of butter and wisk constantly. (It may be easier to cut up the butter into pieces so they blend easily.) Add cheese and black pepper to taste. Let

that mixture heat for 5-8 minutes until it is a thick cream. Boil water and cook pasta per package.

For a great dinner option, add some mushrooms and grilled chicken. For a vegiterian dish, try using spinach pasta!

Roast Turkery

This recipe is easy, simple AND delicious!! If you want to know how to cook a huge turkey (for example, our 21lber for Turkery Day) of if you just need a new recipe for dinner. They sell those amazing small turkeys that only have the breast!! Now, this recipe can conform to chicken, turkey, cornish hens, or even duck and really depends on the size of the bird! Feel free to play around with it!

The recipe below is for a Turkey. You will have to adjust with spices and olive oil for smaller birds.

Turkey
1/2 cup olive oil

4 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary

Thyme

Oregano

Lemon Dill or Dill

Parsley

Cheese Cloth

2 Lemons - Halved

DIRECTIONS

Remove all packages and neck from inside Turkey. Rinse with cold water and pat dry.

Remove fresh Rosemary from its sprigs and place in bowl. Mix olive oil and herbs together. This should form a runny paste. There is no set amount on each herb, so use whichever ones you like best.

Spoon olive oil herb mixture onto bird, making sure to reach all spots. Knead mixture into skin with hands. The fresh rosmary will be whole and the other herbs will have mixed in with olive oil.

Tuck wings underneath bird. Place lemon halves inside cavity of bird. Tie with cheesecloth and cook as per package. I would recommend 15 min a pound on a 325 degee oven. Basting every 15 min, after the first hour.

If your turkey becomes too brown on top, during the cooking process, make sure and put tinfoil on top. One hour before the turkey is done, take the tinfoil off again.

When you remove the turkey from the oven, flip it over (breast side down in the pan) and let sit for 45min to an hour. According to Gordon Ramsey, Turkey should never be piping hot, and should always sit for close to an hour. Once the turkey is done, it will be golden brown and juicy. Carve and eat!!

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust or if you want to make your crust... trust me it is worth the time!! (Pie Crust recipe below)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, EAGLE BRAND®, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

*Pie Crust
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball. Divide dough in half, and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Roll out dough on a floured counter. Don't over work it. Use as directed in pie recipe

Deceptively Delicious Potato Soup

So, it finally got cold last night and I was NOT in the mood for anything... really. I knew I would be hungry (being pregnant does that to ya) but I didn't know what I wanted. I searched in pantry, that pretty much had nothing, then I searched in our fridge, and came up with Buttermilk, garlic, and cheese? Potato Soup is all I came up with.

I got the recipe from Deceptively Delicious but to be honest I didn't really care for it. Now, I do

have to preface this by saying, I have never eaten potato soup so... I don't really know if it was good or not? My hubs liked it so I thought I would share it with you and if you try it out... let me know? I did add a couple things, but they can be removed if you are a vegitarian.

Potato Soup

Serves 8

4 Slices of bacon
1 small onion
1 clove garlic, cut in half
2 (14 ounce) cans reduce fat, low-sodium chicken broth
2 pounds potatoes, and kind, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup cauliflower puree
1 1/2 cups butternut squash or carrot puree
1 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese (optional)
store bought croutons (optional)

Cook bacon in medium heat pan until very crispy. Remove bacon and remove grease, leaving 2 teaspoons of drippings. Add onion and garlic to drippings, and cook, stiffing occasionally, until onion is soft but not brown, 5-6 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic!

Add broth and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Carefully spoon mixture into a blender or food processor and add the vegetable purees, buttermilk and salt. Puree until smooth. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with cheese, bacon, and croutons.

*Here is what I found out... after you blend everything it comes out very fluffy, like there is a lot of air in it. If you like that texture, serve. If not, I would put it back in the pan, I would turn it on low and stir to release some of that air.
*Also, be careful if you don't have low-sodium chicken broth. Do not add salt until you have tasted it.

Enjoy... or at least... tell me what you think!

Chicken Picatta

This is my father and my hubs favorite recipe. It has a lot of lemon, so if you are not too fond of the lemon flavor, you can cut some out :) As my hubs says "if you don't pucker... it isn't Picatta!"

Serving Size 4

2 Large Chicken Breats

1/2 cup White Wine (remember if you wouldn't drink it... certainly don't cook with it!)

White Flour

2 Cloves Garlic

1 tblspn Olive Oil

1/2 cup chicken broth

3 lemons (rolled and cut in half)

1 lb angel hair pasta

Capers (optional)

1/2 stick butter

Italian Parsley (chopped finely)

Red Chilli Flakes (optional)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Butterfly and pound chicken breasts. You want them as thin as possible, so they cook evenly and quickly. Dredge chicken in flour. In other words, simply put dry chicken in flour so they are covered with flour ever so slightly. Salt and Pepper to taste. Lay dredged chicken on seperate plate.

Poor olive oil in non non-stick pan and turn on medium-high heat. Place chicken in pan and cook on each side for 8 minutes or until side is brown. Flip chicken and repeat. If you have to remove some chicken to cook all of the chicken you can keep it heated in a glass dish, placed in the oven on 200 degrees. You should start seeing brown bits form on the bottom of pan. Don't worry about them. Cook all chicken and place in glass pan. Place in oven on 200 degrees F.

Start boiling water and cook pasta according to package.

Turn pan to high heat and add wine and garlic. Let simmer until brown bits on bottom of pan have soaked into the sauce (deglazing pan.) Turn heat to low and add chicken broth and lemons. After 5 min add chicken back to pan.

Drain Pasta, poor back in pot, add butter, sauce and chicken to pasta. If wanted add parsley and red chilli flakes. Serve hot and Enjoy!

Deceptively Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I bought this book a while back and I finally got around to making a recipe. I have been craving chocolate so I thought this was a great one to try. You see my hubs is like a child and only eats about 3 vegitables out of the 100, so I figured I would give it a go.

Recipe by Jessica Seinfeild - Decepetively Delicious

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
3/4 cup trans-fat free soft tub margarine spread
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 (15 - ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed. *She does non suggest pureing these, but after making them I would!*
2 Cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3/4 cups raisins (optional)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and margarine with a wooden spoon or on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the egg whites and vanilla, then the chickpeas and chocolate chips. Add the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt, walnuts and raisins (if wanted,) and mix on a low speed until a thing dough forms.

Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Press gently with a fork to flatten. Bake until the cookies are golden brown and just set, 11 to 13 mintues; do not overbake. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.