Taco Rice

I feel like a broken record when I say I found a recipe on Cassie's blog. As I've said before, she and I share a similar cooking style so it's only natural that we'd make each others recipe often. Whenever I make tacos SP wants rice on the side, so when I saw this Taco Rice I figured it was a win-win.


I promise the rice is in there somewhere. Not my best food styling moment but I was experimenting with the lights from my new light box and ended up overdoing the plate a bit.

I was a little disappointed by this dish. It lacked oomph. There wasn't any sauce, which is a big no-no in our house since we love our sauces. And SP told me he really missed the taco shells. After talking it over with Cassie she said her husband often adds crushed tortilla chips to his serving, so I modified the directions below to reflect that. I also changed the ingredient list a bit so there'd be some sauce. I'll definitely try this one again because I think it has potential.

Taco Rice
Cassie Craves

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 pound ground beef
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup sour cream,
4 cups steamed rice
Shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, crushed tortilla chips and shredded mozzarella for topping

Heat the vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and saute until the onions are barely soft. Add the ground beef and break it into small chunks. Add the cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper and tomato paste. Let this simmer for about 5 minutes. Combine salsa and sour cream. Stir into the ground beef.

Spread 1/2 to 1 cup of the steamed rice on each plate. Top with the seasoned beef. Top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, crushed chips and cheese.

Crispy Parmesan and Garlic Chicken

I finally joined Pinterest. So far I'm not quite getting the addiction many people have, but I have found some yummy looking recipes, like this one for Crispy Parmesan and Garlic Chicken. Jamie's blog is new to me but it looks like she has a lot of great recipes.


We both really enjoyed this take on Chicken Parmesan. I used jarred sauce since we had some in the pantry and it was easy, but this would be truly amazing with some of SP's homemade sauce. The only thing to remember is that you need to marinate the chicken overnight, so plan ahead. I had to thaw my chicken breasts in water so they could marinate since I forgot to take them out of the freezer early enough.

I ate my leftover chicken for lunch the next day with a salad made with mixed greens, shredded carrot, tomatoes, mushrooms, red onion and balsamic vinegar and oil.

Crispy Parmesan and Garlic Chicken
Jamie Cooks It Up

1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
3/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
4 chicken breasts
1 cup panko bread crumbs
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Cooked pasta
Spaghetti sauce of your choice

Heat garlic, olive oil and poultry seasoning in a small sauce pan over medium heat for 1 minute.

With a sharp pair of kitchen scissors cut each chicken breast in half. Then cut a couple of long slits in the top of each chicken piece. Be careful not to cut all the way through. Put chicken in a plastic food storage bag and pour the warm marinade over the top of it. Seal the bag, toss it around to coat the chicken, then put it in your fridge to marinate up to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and take the chicken out of the fridge. Pour panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese into a loaf pan. Smash them together with a fork to combine. Dip each piece of chicken into the cheese and bread crumb mixture. Press it into the chicken with your fingers.

Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Arrange the chicken on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with spaghetti sauce and cooked pasta.

Weekly Menu - Week of January 22, 2012

Things have gotten a little hectic around the THC household lately. Thankfully I came up with this meal plan early in the week and I'm actually done with next week as well. I love when that happens. It's the exact opposite experience of what I posted about last week, having trouble making a plan because nothing sounds good.

UPDATE: I've had to make some changes to our weekly menu. Like I said, it's been a crazy time in the THC household.

Sunday - Homemade pizza

Monday - Crispy Chicken with Creamy Italian Sauce and Bowtie Pasta, Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli: I saw the chicken recipe on Pinterest and knew I had to make it. I'm planning to use Panko instead of corn flakes because I have a HUGE box in my pantry already.

Tuesday - Hoagies after exercise class. :)

Wednesday - we have an appointment after work so we'll get something out.

Thursday - Poached Salmon with Creamy Piccata Sauce, roasted potatoes, green beans: This is my recipe for the Healthy Recipe Swap and I'm very excited. The cod or halibut were incredibly expensive ($30/lb for halibut, what the heck?) so I decided to stick with salmon.

Friday - Homemade calzones stuffed with pepperoni and olives

Saturday - Spicy Chicken in Garlic Lime Broth over Spaghetti: I love this recipe of Mary Ellen's but haven't made it in awhile.

Sunday - Potato Rosemary Soup, turkey, tomato and cheese panini with herbed mayo for dipping: I love a good soup and I'm excited to make sandwiches to dip instead of plain bread.

Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce

When you are part of a community of food bloggers you tend to notice when a recipe becomes popular. Suddenly you see everyone making it and you start to wonder what all the fuss is about. If you're lucky, the recipe is outstanding and you're happy to add it to your arsenal. I've seen this recipe for Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce on a few of my favorite blogs lately. The ingredient list alone drew me in and the rave reviews sealed the deal.


You know me and my love for cream sauces so this one was guaranteed to be a winner. I didn't use reduced-fat sour cream so my calorie count was a bit higher, but otherwise I stayed true to the original recipe. I'm not exaggerating when I say I loved this meal. The sauce. Oh the sauce. I do love sauce and this one was perfectly creamy without being overly rich. The bite from the Dijon was perfect to accent the nice, mild onion flavor from the chives and shallots. You definitely want to serve this over mashed potatoes to soak up that delicious sauce.

I know I say this often but I apologize for the awful photos. I actually got a light box recently but haven't had time to set it up. I hate when I don't have good photos for a recipe I love because I don't want the lackluster photos to deter anyone from http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmaking the recipe. I will definitely be rephotographing this either with the light box or natural light. For now, go to Prevention RD, who made this the same night I did, for some absolutely drool-inducing photos.

Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce
Slightly Modified from Gourmet Day to Day

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, (about 1 pound), trimmed of fat
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour, divided
3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 large shallots, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup chopped chives, (about 1 bunch)

Cut each chicken breast in half length-wise to make two, thin piece. Alternatively, place chicken between in a plastic food storage bag and pound with a meat mallet until flattened to an even thickness, about 1/2 inch.

Place 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup flour in a plastic food storage bag. Add the chicken, seal the bag, and toss to coat evenly.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, cover and keep warm.

Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and freshly ground black pepper. Cook, stirring constantly and scraping up any browned bits, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour; stir to coat. Add wine, broth and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt; bring to a boil, stirring often.

Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until heated through and no longer pink in the center, about 6 minutes. Stir in sour cream and mustard until smooth; turn the chicken to coat with the sauce. Stir in chives and serve immediately.

Recipe Swap Roundup - SRC-style

If you are a food blogger you've probably heard of the Secret Recipe Club (SRC). If you aren't familiar with the concept, your blog is entered into a pool and swapped with another blog. You have approximately one month to pick a recipe from the blog you're assigned, make it and write about it. I've been a member for a few months and it's a lot of fun. Some of the ladies on the cooking board have been trying to get into the club, but there's a very long wait list. It was suggested that we do a SRC-style swap as part of the recipe swaps I host to give everyone a bit more freedom and creativity. This was a very popular swap, judging from the number of participants, so I'm planning to do this type of swap every 2 months or so.

Jenna ended up making three recipes, but her favorite were Snickerdoodles, which reminded her of her love for cinnamon toast:


The Cookaholic Wife needed some appetizers for her New Year's Even party and the Bacon and Cream Cheese Jalapeno Bites were the perfect way to satisfy her love for jalapenos and cream cheese:


Jaida had some beef stew meat to use up, which meant the Beef and Guinness Stew was a perfect choice (and delicious, too, even for non-beer drinkers):


Swap newcomer Jenni got one of her "must cook" recipes made with Shrimp Fra Diavolo:


Katie and her daughter both enjoyed these flavorful and delicious Shrimp Tacos:


Allison had a bunch of bananas quickly becoming over-ripe on her counter, which lead her to these indulgent Banana Crumb Muffins:


Nicole was happy to use her husband's new immersion blender and add a new soup to her rotation with Roasted Squash Soup with Sweet Potato and Parsnip:


Carrie wanted something simple to ease her back into the kitchen and this Tortellini & Pancetta in Mushroom Walnut Sauce was the perfect choice:


Mary Ellen's Chicken in a Tomato-Basil Broth over Cous Cous was a delicious burst of summer in the middle of winter:


Ashley had a tough time choosing which recipe to make, but these Potatoes Romanoff were calling her name:


Melissa's family had a taste of summer with this Blackberry Peach Cobbler, using berries and peaches from the freezer stash she created over the summer:


Swap newcomer Eva made these Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies to share with her husband and his peanut butter-loving coworkers:


Melissa was able to use a bag of almond meal she had on hand for her Almond Tilapia with Wilted Tomatoes & Spinach:


Lauren was smitten with her German Chocolate Brownie Bites (which are part of two posts):


The chicken in Heather's Un-stuffed Chicken Florentine was too small to stuff, but the filling worked just as well as a topping:


Jey regularly orders Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps when she's out, so she was excited for a homemade recipe:


Cathy had an easy time choosing her recipe for Snickerdoodle Blondies since she loves both snickerdoodles and blondies:


Melissa had my blog and chose one of my favorite dishes, Chicken Sriracha Stir Fry:


Lisa really enjoyed how simple and tasty her Pretzel Bites were to make and eat:


My Hearty Ham and Potato Soup really hit the spot:


Coleen chose to make Stuffed Peppers since she hadn't made them before:


(Coleen had camera issues so this is the photo from Cooking for Fun)

Swap newcomer Kristina had some pork in the freezer that needed to be used up, which lead her to Pork Tonkatsu:


The Cooking Nurse had stocked up on pumpkin around the holidays, which made her choice of Pumpkin Cream Pie an easy one:


Lishie's husband requested stuffed peppers and she was able to find chorizo at a market in Manhattan, so Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers was a no-brainer:

Cake Batter Cookies

We all know I don't really bake, so when our friends invited us to their house for dinner and asked that I bring dessert I figured I'd end up buying something at a bakery. Then I remembered seeing these Cake Batter Cookies on Stephanie's Top Ten Recipes of 2011 and thought it would be a nice way to use up some cake mix I had in the pantry and get Baby Girl in the kitchen with me.


These could not have been easier to make since all you are really doing is dumping the cake mix in a bowl and adding baking powder, eggs, oil and chocolate chips. Like Stephanie says, I bet these would be fun using different kinds of cake mix and different add-ins like nuts or M&Ms, raisins or even dried fruit. The possibilities are endless and because the dough is so simple the sky's the limit.

Baby Girl had a blast helping me (she especially loves stirring and dumping things into bowls). She even had her own spoon to take the dough from the bowl and put it on the cookie sheets. I love getting her into the kitchen and she loves helping so it's a win-win. My only complaint is that my cookies spread in the oven. Next time I'll chill the dough a bit before putting it on the cookie sheets. I've modified the directions below.

Cake Batter Cookies
Slightly Modified from Stephanie Cooks

1 (18.25 oz.) box cake mix
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix and baking powder. Add eggs and oil, then mix until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips, or your choice of add-ins. Cover the bowl and chill for 30 minutes. Once chilled, drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes approximately 30 cookies

Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

I had a pack of two pork tenderloins in the freezer that I wanted to use up and no real recipe in mind. SP asked for something simple with bold flavors, preferably not Asian-inspired (i.e. no soy sauce, ginger, etc.) A quick Google search led me to Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin. Sold!


I was in love with this recipe after I mixed up the marinade. It smelled absolutely intoxicating. I am so happy my rosemary plant is still doing well because fresh rosemary was wonderful in the marinade. After reading through the recipe I decided to modify the cooking method for the pork because (1) a quick sear always adds nice color and flavor and (2) I couldn't see the tenderloins cooking through after only 25 minutes in the oven.


The result was absolutely delicious. The pork had just a hint of pink in the middle and was moist, juicy and flavorful. And the sauce. Oh the sauce. The citrus burst with the touch of cream was perfect. Next time I'll double the marinade recipe (quantity changes reflected below) because I wished there was more sauce. I served the pork with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. The extra sauce would have been great over both, which is why there'll be more next time.

Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin
Modified from Chocolate and Zucchini

1 pork tenderloin

For the marinade:
4 oranges, juiced
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 rounded teaspoons honey
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For finishing:
1/2 cup heavy cream
Salt
A handful parsley, coarsely chopped

Cut the tenderloins in 3 or 4 equal portions and place them in a plastic food storage bag. Whisk together the marinade ingredients and pour them over the meat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees. Remove the pork from the fridge and pour the marinade into a small saucepan.

Heat a cast-iron or other heavy bottomed, oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Place the pork pieces into the skillet and sear on all sides, about 10 minutes total. Put the skillet in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, until cooked through but not dried out (the meat should be pale pink in the center; if using a meat thermometer, the recommended safe internal temperature is 160°F), flipping the meat a couple of times during the roasting.

While the meat is roasting, put the saucepan with the remaining marinade over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Keep boiling, uncovered, stirring regularly, until the marinade has reduced. Add in the cream, salt and parsley. Stir, and keep warm over low heat.

When the meat is ready, remove the skillet from the oven, and transfer the meat to a cutting board. If there are any juices in the skillet add them to the sauce and bring back to a boil. Cut the meat pieces into thick slices and serve with the sauce.

Weekly Menu - Week of January 15, 2012

I love meal planning. In the 6 years I've been doing it I know it's helped save us money, time and hassle. I started planning weekly menus when we were saving to buy a house. It was purely about saving money at that point. And, to be honest, I can't even remember how we grocery shopped or cooked before that. Without a list of recipes and ingredient lists, how the heck did I know what to buy? Or cook on a Tuesday?

That being said, there are plenty of weeks I struggle to create a meal plan. Sometimes, like this week, I'm so inspired by blog posts or cravings that I have my meal plan done early in the week. Other weeks it's Friday afternoon and I'm desperately trying to finalize our shopping list when nothing sounds appealing. But I still meal plan because at this point I don't know any other way to cook meals for my family.

Sunday - Pork Chop and Hash Brown Bake: I didn't get to make this last week so I'm carrying it over. The mystery casserole from the freezer will have to wait another week.

Monday - Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans: I first saw this recipe on Jessy's blog but have since seen others on my cooking board make it and rave about it. I can't wait to try it.

Tuesday - Hoagies

Wednesday - Taco Rice: Another Cassie recipe that I know won't steer me wrong. I love tacos and whenever I make them SP is always asking for rice on the side, so this is brilliant and perfect for us.

Thursday - Crispy Parmesan and Garlic Chicken, pasta and salad: I finally joined Pinterest and this was one of my first pins.

Friday - Homemade pizza

Recipe Swap - Hearty Ham and Potato Soup

Want to see what other SRC-style recipes were made during the swap? Here is the link to the SRC-style Recipe Swap Roundup

If you are a food blogger you've probably heard of the Secret Recipe Club (SRC). I've been a member for a few months and it's a lot of fun. Some of the ladies on the cooking board have been trying to get into the club, but there's a very long wait list at this point. Enter the SRC-style theme for the most recent installment of the recipe swap. Judging from the number of participants I'm planning to do this type of swap (swapping whole blogs instead of specific recipes) every 2 months or so.

I received The Cooking Nurse, the blog that brought me one of my all-time favorite soups - Chicken Gnocchi Soup. I spent some time browsing through the various categories and had such a tough time narrowing it down that I finally told SP to decide. He chose this Hearty Ham and Potato Soup. Perfect for a cold winter day...except we haven't been having typical January temps. Still, it was close to 40 degrees the night I made this, as opposed to the almost 60-degree days we've been having lately. Not that I'm complaining, because I most certainly am not. I love this weather.


This was a delicious, easy soup to make. I prepped the ingredients ahead of time so all I had to do when I got home was cook it. I upped the amount of ingredients so we were sure to have enough leftover for lunch the next day. I've said before that I'm not a big fan of soup but that's changed lately. A big bowl of hearty soup with bread for dipping is pretty darn good in my book. And PS, Baby Girl pronounced this soup "delicious," which is an automatic "make again" in my book.

This post is actually doing double duty as both my recipe for the SRC-style swap and my entry into Branny's Charity Souper Bowl. As many of you know, we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat, Dusty, on New Year's Eve. I know it's only been about two weeks but we still miss him every day. The house is too quiet. I find myself stepping around his non-existent food and water bowls in the kitchen, propping our doors with door stops to keep him from banging them open and doing my usual "locate the cat" scan of the house when I get home from work. Dusty came to us from our local SPCA so it's very fitting that I dedicate my Charity Souper Bowl post to him. We love you, pal.


Please consider blogging about a soup and submitting it to Branny for the Souper Bowl. Shelter animals will always hold a special place in my heart and organizations like the SPCA always need help caring for animals.

Hearty Ham and Potato Soup
Slightly Modified from The Cooking Nurse

2 tablespoons butter
2 ribs celery, diced (about 1 cup)
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups diced ham steak
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar

Melt butter in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions and celery and cook until just tender. Add the potatoes, ham and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and thyme.

In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.

Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot and continue cooking soup until heated through and bubbly. Add cheddar cheese and stir to melt.

Santa Hat Brownies

As soon as I saw my friend Jessy's post for Santa Hat Brownies I knew they needed to be part of our Christmas dinner. I emailed my mom to ask her to make the brownies and bring the rest of the ingredients to our house for dinner so Baby Girl could help her assemble them.


Watching the two of them assemble the brownies was priceless. Baby Girl loved helping and the resulting brownies were adorable. But man, are they rich! I don't eat dessert that often but I could barely finish one of these. I think the buttercream was very, very sugary and heavy so I, personally, would prefer whipped cream. I don't know how they whipped cream would hold up, but at least it would be lighter. Even so, these are a really cute addition to any Christmas table.

Santa Hat Brownies
Gourmet Day to Day

1 pan of brownies, baked and cooled
20-24 small strawberries
1 batch of buttercream frosting (or a frosting of your choice)

Buttercream Frosting
(you will have some extra buttercream left with this recipe)

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter (softened but not melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low-speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

To Assemble Brownies:

Using a small round cookie cutter or a small drinking glass, cut out brownies. Clean and remove stems from strawberries, cut the stems off flat so it will sit flat on the brownie. Place strawberries point side up on the center of each brownie circle.

Using a piping bag (or zip-top bag with the corner snipped to create a piping bag in a pinch) Pipe the frosting around the strawberry for the white rim of Santa’s hat and top each strawberry point with a small drop of frosting.

Note for storage: If you plan on refrigerating these cuties, make sure you chill them uncovered first. This will allow the buttercream to harden so you don’t you lose your cute Santa hat topper to plastic wrap!

Pretzel Ranch Chicken Tenders

Another simple, easy and delicious dinner from Cassie - Pretzel Ranch Chicken Tenders. I love how the salty pretzels and the Ranch combine to make a perfectly seasoned chicken tender.



Pretzel Ranch Chicken Tenders
Cassie Craves

1-2 pounds chicken breasts, sliced into strips
Ranch dressing
Pretzels

Place chicken tenders in a bowl and cover with ranch dressing; stir to combine. Let sit for 5 or 10 minutes or cover and refrigerate overnight.

Process pretzels in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Coat chicken tenders in pretzel crumbs. Cook over medium heat in a skillet with a small amount of oil, or bake in a 350-degree oven, until cooked through.

Serve with additional ranch dressing for dipping.

Weekly Menu - Week of January 8, 2012

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with our weekly meal plan. Now that the holidays are officially over (in our house they extend to my birthday), I'm getting back into the swing of things. It's hard for me to believe it's January already. Aside from the freak Halloween snowstorm we haven't even had snow yet. But that's the Northeast for you. We don't usually get measurable snow until after the New Year. I'm envisioning lots of comfort food in the coming months!

Sunday - Final birthday celebration = SUSHI and cupcakes!

Monday - Orange and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli: The marinade alone smelled amazing. I can't wait to try what I hope will be a flavorful pork dish.

Tuesday - Hoagies: I'll finally come clean and admit that we've been getting these weekly since I started taking my exercise class. Oops. We each eat half of a hoagie and take the other half for lunch the next day. One of their Italian hoagies was the first thing I ate after giving birth and it always hits the spot to this day.

Wednesday - Hearty Ham and Potato Soup, ciabatta for dipping: This recipe is doing double duty as my recipe swap recipe and my entry into Branny's Souper Bowl Challenge

Thursday - Pork Chop and Hashbrown Bake, green beans or salad (or maybe salad with green beans): This is one of SP's favorite dishes and he was very excited to hear it's on this week's menu.

Friday - Homemade pizza (if I remember to pick up pizza dough sometime this week)

Saturday - Italian Nachos: We usually have a big lunch on Saturdays so this will be perfect for dinner.

Rigatoni with Chicken, Bacon and Mushrooms

By now you all now how much I love pasta. And cream sauces. And chicken. So when a dish combines all three, with the added bonus of mushrooms and bacon for SP, it's guaranteed to be a winner in our house. Cassie recently had this Rigatoni with Chicken, Bacon and Mushrooms on her weekly meal plan and I immediately added it to ours as well.


With the exception of our New Year's Eve dinner (which I'm sad I didn't photograph because SP said it was the best meal I've made in a very long time) this is one of the only meals I've cooked. After Christmas dinner I haven't spent much time in the kitchen between leftovers, takeout, and my birthday. It felt good to actually cook a proper meal. And bonus points for using only one skillet (and a pot to boil the pasta). Thanks for yet another winner, Cassie.

Rigatoni with Chicken, Bacon and Mushrooms
Slightly Adapted from Cassie Craves

1-lb rigatoni
Garlic powder
Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
6-ounces mushrooms, cut into quarters
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup apple juice
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
15 fresh basil leaves, julienned
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream
Parmesan cheese

Cook rigatoni in boiling salted water according to al dente. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, sprinkle chicken with garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until golden brown and cooked through. Remove to a plate.

Using the same pan, cook the bacon just shy of crispy. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until onions are translucent. Increase heat to high and add chicken stock and apple juice. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil and let cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and half of the basil; season with salt and pepper. Reduce to medium low heat and cook until the sauce begins to thicken, about 15 minutes.

Stir cream and remaining basil into the sauce. Add chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan. Stir to combine. Add rigatoni to and toss to combine. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve with additional cheese.

Recipe Swap Roundup - Special Occasion

Every Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve I like to make a special meal, something we don't normally eat, to celebrate. I thought it would be nice to see what other people like for special occasions, hence the theme for this recipe swap.

Leanne had never heard of Mungo's but loved the at-home version of their famous Mungo's Salad:


Lishie is a big fan of over-easy eggs and she loved my recipe for Asparagus with Fried Egg and Pecorino:


Ashley brought her Hoisin Braised Short Ribs to her parent's house as a comfort food meal even her 3-year-old nephew enjoyed:


Mary Ellen loves making appetizers for Christmas Eve so her recipe for Sausage Balls was perfect (and delicious):


Jenna enjoyed her Horseradish Crusted Filets and would happily make it again for another special occasion:


Jaida's Spinach-Stuffed Mushrooms were a hit at one of her holiday parties:


The Cookaholic Wife loved the combination of caramelized onions, cream and bleu cheese in her Filet with Onion-Bleu Cheese Sauce:


Jey's Steak Marsala was a delicious way for her and her husband to have a date night:


My recipe for Endive Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Walnuts was a big hit as a Christmas Day appetizer:


Coleen has never tasted or made Potato Pancakes before, but really enjoyed them:


Jessy's attempt at Cranberry Ricotta Gnocchi was a comedy of errors, but even so she and her husband enjoyed this slightly different dish: