Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pillows

Step right up folks and see the wonder that is me making a dessert! I usually don't dabble in the pastry realm of cooking, mainly because the measurements are too meticulous and the cleanup is a disaster. But this time, I have found a dessert that has little to no mess and is super delicious!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

1-2 Thawed Puff Pastry Sheets
Smooth Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chips
Half and Half
Granulated Sugar

1. Cut the puff pastry into 2"x 2" squares.
2. Place a dollop of peanut butter in the center of half of the squares and sprinkle with a couple of chocolate chips.
3. Set the remaining squares on top of the ones with peanut butter and chocolate and crimp shut.
4. Place on a well greased baking sheet and brush on the half and half and sprinkle generously with sugar.
5. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes or until browned nicely and let sit for 5 min before digging in.


These were fantastic! Simple, delicious and no mess made whatsoever.  If I ever buy puff pastry again, this will be the first thing I make with it.

Lemon Pepper Salmon

This dinner time, I decided to go with the old favorite of my miso salmon, but then I thought to myself, "Miso salmon is good and all, but I want to try something new." I scoured the depths of the internet, searching in vain for a new recipe until I stumbled upon Lemon Pepper Salmon. It sounded too good to be true!  I got all of the necessary ingredients and went to work.

Lemon Pepper Salmon:

1 1/4 lbs Salmon

1 Tbsp Melted Butter

3 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp Onion Powder

1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper Seasoning

1/4 tsp Cracked Black Pepper

1. Cut your salmon into single serving pieces and pat dry.

2. Mix the brown sugar, onion powder, lemon pepper and cracked pepper in a bowl.

3. Brush some melted butter onto your salmon filet and place on an aluminum foil lined greased baking sheet.

4. Sprinkle a bit of the mixture onto the salmon and gently rub in.

5. Roast at 425 for 20-25 min.

This recipe turned out quite well if I do say so myself.  I would like to tweak a couple of things about the original recipe though. First of all, this was not a very peppery dish as I was led to believe.  I believe that doubling the amount of lemon pepper and cracked black pepper would do the dish wonders. And secondly, I was expecting a bit of caramelization on the fish but was sadly disappointed. To combat this, I would suggest broiling the salmon for 10-12 minutes instead to get a nice crust on it.

Tests and Stew

So the reason that I am late this week in my update is because I have had 3 tests and I am incredibly lazy.  Any who, heres the skinny: I had three tests, Data Structures, Abnormal Psychology and Statistics.  I am fairly certain that I passed my Data Structures test, I got an 82% on my Psych class and I know that my score was higher than some psych majors and I have no idea how well I have done on my stats test. fingers crossed.

Since I was spending all of my time studying last week, I wanted to make a dish that would be simple yet delicious and one that would not require globs of my time.  I pondered profusely until I came up with the idea to make a stew! Beef stew to be precise. I whipped out my handy dandy crock-pot and went to work

Beef Stew (serves 8-12):

20 small New Potatoes
24 small Whole White Onions, peeled, fresh or frozen and thawed
16 oz or 60 Baby Carrots
1 sliced Bell Pepper, any color
3 lbs Beef Stew Meat
4 cups Beef Broth
1 tsp dried leaf Oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
6 Tbsp Cornstarch
6Tbsp cold Water

1. Place potatoes, sliced in half, into the crock pot followed by the meat and finally the onions, carrots and bell pepper.
2. In a bowl, mix together all the other ingredients EXCEPT for the cornstarch and water and pour over the meat and veggies
3. Cover and set on LOW for 9-10 hours.
4. Turn your pot on HIGH and mix together the cornstarch and water in a separate bowl before mixing into the stew.
5. Cook on HIGH for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally.


I served this over rice cooked in beef stock and I must say, it turned out great! I will definitely be making this another time.

Buffalo Chicken Poppers

I made this dish to join the festivities which was the Super Bowl this past weekend.  What this is exactly is some sort of boneless buffalo wing contraption. Anyways, here is how it is made:

3 Cups Shredded Chicken
1/4-1/2 Cups Hot Sauce (I used Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce)
3.5 oz Cream Cheese
1.75 Cups of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
3/4 Cup Diced Green Onion
1 Cup Flour
3-4 Beaten Eggs
3-4 Cups Crushed Corn Flakes

1. Mix the hot sauce, chicken and cream cheese together.
2. Add the cheddar and the green onion and mix well.
3. Roll portions of the mixture into small balls, about .5-.75 inches in diameter.
4. Roll each ball in the flour, then the egg and finally the corn flakes before placing on a parchment paper covered baking sheet.
5. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min and serve warm with ranch or bleu cheese.

So as you might be able to tell from the photo below, I made the mistake of crafting the poppers too large, around 1-1.5 inches.  While they were still delectable, I think that if they would have been smaller it would have been a much more entertaining food to eat, and I took the liberty of changing the size for you in the recipe that I wrote out.

Taco Night!!!

So Thursday night I didn't feel the inspiration to create any spectacular works of food so I went with a good anchor which is tacos.

I made three different taco fillings:
1 lb 80/20 ground beef with taco seasoning
1.5 lb steak strips for fajitas seasoned with a touch of seasoning salt
4 bags of tyson pre-grilled chicken

My friends came over and we all partook in this glorious of meals and it was good.

Kaytucky Chicken

Sorry for the late post folks.  I have had a lot of work on my plate but now I am free to update at my leisure.  So on the menu last Thursday was this interesting concoction called Kaytucky Chicken.  It is almost like a hand held chicken pot pie but not quite.

Kaytucky Chicken
8 Chicken Fillets
8 Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets
8 oz Cream Cheese
8 Slices of Bacon
1 Green Onion
Garlic Powder
Cayenne Powder
Salt
Pepper
1 Egg

1. Cook up the bacon to any degree of doneness you prefer (I like mine kinda crunchy) then break into tiny pieces
2. Chop up the green onion and mix in with cream cheese and bacon.  Add garlic powder and cayenne powder to taste
3. Make a slit in the chicken and stuff a bit of the mixture into the chicken, about 1/8 of the mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper
4. Wrap the chicken in the thawed puff pastry, using the egg to glue it together and place on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for 30-35 minutes


All in all I would say that this turned out fairly well.  It was creamy and delicious as it should be.  I would definitely make this again.


This may not be the best picture on the planet but I must say that it is pretty good considering it was taken with my cell phone