Gilled Chicken in a homemade Citrus-Sesame marinade

This was a really easy, yummy meal I threw together, but I wanted to share the recipe for the homemade dressing, which I doubles as a marinade for the chicken. DH and I both loved it! We put the dressing over an avocado & tomato salad and made garlic bread with parmesan to top off the meal. Very nice, very light & healthy, too.

Dressing ingredients:

• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
  

Penne with broccoli, turkey sausage & basil

Okay...another new meat experiment. This one was not so easy. Slicing uncooked sausage on the diagonal? Easier said than done! I think that if I try this again in the future, I'll grill the sausage halfway first.

This turned out really nice, despite the sausage mishaps. It had a nice light flavor, and the fresh basil was the perfect touch! I doubled this recipe, by the way, which is why it looks like such a massive amount in the picture.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. penne pasta
• 1 large bunch of broccoli, cut into florets
• 12 oz. hot Italian turkey sausage
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1/4 cup freshly grated romano or parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions:

• Heat large saucepot salted water to boiling on high. Add pasta and cook according to label. Add broccoli florets to pasta water when 3 minutes of cooking time remain. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water; drain pasta and broccoli.
• Meanwhile, thinly slice sausage on the diagonal (here is where I would recommend to grill the sausages to halfway cooked before slicing).
• In 12-inch skilletcook sausage on medium 9-10 minutes or until it begins to brown, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and garlic and cook 3 minutes longer, stirring.
• Stir pasta, broccoli and 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water into sausage mixture; heat through, adding additional water if needed.
• Remove from heat, stir in basil, cheese and red pepper.
  

Orange Beef & Pepper Stir-Fry

I've been experimenting with meat other than chicken, and while I learned that beef is tough to cook, this turned out pretty good!

Ingredients:

• 1 navel orange
• 1/4 cup cooking sherry
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 pound beef eye round steaks, trimmed and sliced into thin strips
• 3 tsp canola or vegetable oil
• 1 red pepper
• 1 orange or yellow pepper

Directions:

• From orange, grate 1 teaspoon peel and squeeze 1/3 cup juice. In large bowl, combine orange peel and juice with sherry, soy sauce and cornstarch. Add beef and toss to coat; set aside.
• In 12-inch skillet, heat 1 teaspoon oil on medium-high until hot. Add peppers and 2 tablespoons of water, cook 5 minutes or until peppers are tender, stirring frequently. Transfer to medium bowl.
• In same skillet, heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil on high. With slotted spoon, transfer half of beef to skillet, reserving orange-juice mixture. Cook 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently. Transfer cooked beef to bowl with peppers. Repeat with other half of beef.
• Add 1/4 cup water and reserved orange-juice mixture to skillet; heat to boiling. Boil 1 minute, then add in beef/pepper mixture to sauce; serve over brown rice or egg noodles.
  

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies!

This coming Sunday happens to be my last Sunday at my job before I switch to a normal Monday-Friday shift, so I decided to bake something a little special for my Sunday crew. I followed a classic Nestle recipe, and they turned out great.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (one 12-oz package) Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
• In separate bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat well after each addition.
• Gradually beat in the flour mixture. When fully combined, stor in chocolate chips and chopped nuts.
• Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake for 11 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
• Let cool on sheets for 3 minutes, then move to wire racks.
  

Campbell's Lemon pepper broccoli chicken

This was thrown together one night thanks to a recipe on a can of Campbell's cream of broccoli soup. It was easy to follow and pretty tasty.

Ingredients:

• 1 lemon
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 can Campbell's cream of broccoli soup
• 1/4 cup milk
• pepper to taste

Directions:

• Cut six thin slices of lemon. Squeeze remaining lemon to create 2 teaspoons of juice.
• Heat vegetable oil in skillet. add chicken and cook until browned.
• Mix soup and milk in a bowl until combined. Add to skillet. Add lemon juice, and top chicken breasts with lemon slices.
• Sprinkle pepper over chicken to taste. Cover and heat to a boil. Cover and cook on low heat for 5-7 minutes.

I served this over a plain white rice, and it suited it. It was light and citrusy, and with a side of corn, was a perfect quick meal.

Earl Grey Tea Coookies

An old coworker of mine used to make these all the time, and before she left, I made sure to get her recipe. They're unlike any cookie I've had - like a sugar cookie with "tea" and lemon flavors. Very yummy - but baker beware - use decaf tea if you plan to eat them at night! My husband and I couldn't figure out why we couldn't fall asleep at night after the first time I made these. It didn't take us long to realize it was the tea in the cookies - haha.

The original recipe from realsimple.com says to use a food processor to pulse together ingredients, but since I don't have a large enough food processor, I just used a large mixing bowl and my hand mixer, and they came out great!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea leaves (contents of 6 tea bags)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  
• Mix the flour, granulated sugar, confectioners sugar, tea bag contents, salt together in a large mixing bowl.
• Add in vanilla, 1 teaspoon of water, and the butter.
• Mix until a dough is formed.
• Divide the dough in half and place each half on a sheet of wax paper. Roll each half into a 12-inch log, about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
• Slice log into discs, about 1/3-inch thick. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet 2 inches apart.
• Bake 11-12 minutes or just until the edges are golden brown.
• Let cool on pan for 3 minutes, transfer to wire racks.
  

Dijon terriaki chicken and garlic mashed red potatoes

I found this chicken recipe online and thought it sounded interesting (and easy). It came out SO good - I loved it and so did my husband. The combo of ingredients sounds weird, and I was hesitant to try it because I'm not a big dijon fan, but the combination of all the different flavors ended up being great. The red mashed potatoes were pretty standard, but a great side to accompany this chicken. Yum!

Ingredients for chicken:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 4 ounces dijon mustars
• 1/4 cup terriaki suace
• 1/4 cup bacon bits
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Pour 2 tbsp terriaki sauce into a 9x13 baking dish to coat bottom,
• Laye chicken in baking dish, slather with mustard. Pour remaining terriaki eveny over chicken. Top with bacon bots, then parmesan.
• Bake 30 minutes.

Ingredients for garlic mashed red potatoes (serves two):

• 8 red potatoes, cubed
• 2 tsp crushed garlic
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  
• salt, pepper (to taste)

Directions:

• Place cubed potatoes in a large pot, pour enough water over to cover.
• Add 1 tsp crushed garlic to water.
  
• Bring to a boil, cook at a boil for an additional 10-15 minutes until potatoes are easily pierced.
• Drain potatoes, return to pot.
• Add butter, mash with a course masher (or mixer if you prefer them creamier).
• When butter is melted, add milk and continue to mash until they are at your desired consistency.
• Add garlic powder and salt & pepper to taste.

First post!

So, not only am I fairly new to cooking, I'm very new to blogging. I'm sitting here at work plugging away at making a beautiful and functional blog, and I haven't a clue what I'm doing!

Anyway, I'm an amateur cook but I enjoy cooking very much and wanted to start a blog to share recipes and "e-mingle" with other cooks. I started out very simple - pasta, marinara sauces, oven-ready meals, that sorta thing. But I started baking cookies in the last few months and really enjoyed it, so off I went.

My husband, Matt, is a police officer in the NYPD, so we don't have very many days off together. I also work a late shift 3x a week. Basically, there is not a whole lot of time in my world that requires me to cook dinners. But I like to, so when I get the chance, I do.

I hope anyone who happens upon this enjoys my posts and recipes. I hope to learn a lot over the next few years and *maybe* even teach a thing or two! Cheers. :)