Posted on May 26, 2014
Filed Under Holiday cooking
Breakfast on this Memorial Day…
RED raspberries
WHITE plain unsweetened yogurt
BLUEberries
Remembering the many heroes who died for our freedom.
3 Responses to “Memorial Day – Red White & Blue Parfait”
Summer is coming to Ohio. We think. Today we’re wearing jackets, but we’ve had a few warm days as teasers and the forecast looks promising.
These quesadillas are great for summer for 2 reasons: 1. They’re quick (summers seem busier, less time cooking) 2. They don’t use the oven.
These quesadillas are great year-round for 2 reasons too: 1. They’re easy. 2. They’re so good.
Sometimes when we have Grilled Chicken Breast Salad, I purposely have Shannon grill a couple more pieces of chicken than we’ll need. When I’m cleaning up after the meal, I chunk up the leftover chicken and put it in the freezer for such a time as this: Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla night.
This is not a recipe from anywhere, it’s just a thrown together dish.
This is a good walk-into-the-kitchen-30-minutes-before-mealtime-thinking-“what-can-I-make-QUICKLY” option.
So, get out your frying pan and start heating it up, I set mine to 300 degrees, which would probably be medium-low on a stovetop. Get out the sour cream, frozen chicken chunks, tortillas, can of black beans, and shredded cheese. Put the chicken in the microwave for 1 min to thaw. Put a bit of olive oil in the frying pan, add the chicken, and sprinkle with chipotle seasoning. Fry and stir a couple times.
While that’s frying, get the other stuff ready… Butter 1 side of each tortilla, drain the beans, open the sour cream and cheese.
Take the chicken out of the pan. Put 2 tortillas in the pan, butter side down. Smear with sour cream. Add chicken, beans, and cheese.
Put the other tortilla, butter side up, on top.
I didn’t time how long to fry it before flipping, I just waited til the bottom tortilla was nicely browned and the cheese started melting a bit. Flip quickly, but gently, if that makes sense. If you flip quickly and wildly, you may have beans and chicken chunks hitting the ceiling. 
After the second side is fried, put on a plate and cut into fourths with a pizza cutter. Top with sour cream and salsa.
For sides, I serve extra tortilla chips & salsa and applesauce.
I make four quesadillas total (only 2 fit in the pan at a time) and I tried something different for the second batch… Instead of layering, mix the sour cream, chicken, beans, and cheese together. Put 2 tortillas in the pan, divide the mixture between them, spread it out, and put the other tortilla on top. Either way works great and tastes the same.
Now, for a bit of a concise recipe that doesn’t have pictures mixed in, in case you want to copy and paste it somewhere. These measurements will be very estimated because I never measure them and the chicken amount varies with how much leftover there is at the moment.
Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas …add or subtract to your liking
2 cups of chicken, chunked
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. chipotle seasoning
3/4 cup sour cream, plus extra for garnish
1 can black beans, drained
2 cups shredded cheese
8 tortillas, each buttered on one side
If chicken chunks are frozen, thaw in microwave for 1 min. Heat electric frying pan to 300 degrees or medium-low for stovetop. Sprinkle seasoning over chicken and fry in olive oil for several minutes, stirring now and then. Take chicken out and put 2 tortillas in, buttered side down. Put 1/4 of the sour cream, chicken, beans, and cheese on each tortilla OR mix those 4 ingredients together and spread 1/4 of the mixture on each tortilla. Fry for several minutes, flip gently, and fry the other side. Put on a plate, cut into fourths with pizza cutter, and garnish with sour cream and salsa. Round out the meal with tortilla chips, extra salsa, and applesauce. And dinner is served!
Summer, we love you and welcome you! Please come and stay for awhile!
Posted on May 15, 2014
Filed Under Cakes
You know how actions speak louder than words? These very cupcakes pictured here are a case in point of that. I made these one morning and what do you know, some utility guys came to replace the telephone pole out in our front lawn that afternoon. After they were here for awhile, I put a bunch of cupcakes on a glass platter, locked the dog in the garage, and took the cupcakes and a little table out, offered them as I was setting them on the table, and said I’ll just leave them out here, eat as many as you want.
There were 3 guys on the crew.
They ate almost all of them.
Or maybe they took some for the road.
Anyway, that has got to be one of my favorite things. Making a lot of something and seeing it get inhaled.
They also did rave about them when they brought the platter and table to the door before they left. So, there were words, too. But the actions spoke louder.
Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cupcakes …from the Derstine cookbook
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups water
1 cup oil
2 Tbsp. vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix together until smooth. Here’s a tip for if you’re in a hurry… use a cake mix instead of mixing the cupcake batter from scratch. Fill cupcake papers 1/2 full. I made a note that says I used my biggest scoop for the cake part (which would be the Pampered Chef large scoop) and a heaping regular spoon for the filling. Put 1 rounded teaspoonful of filling on top of each one. Bake at 350 for 22 minutes. The recipe says 20-25 min, but 22 min was perfect for my oven. Makes 34 cupcakes.
FILLING:
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 egg
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
Beat cream cheese, egg, sugar, and salt until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.
You don’t need to drop the filling in all neat and stuff. Let them have some character. Imperfect perfection.
They come out of the oven all puffed up like this. ^^^
And then as they cool, they kind of go down a bit in the middle.
And last, but not least, I have a little note by my recipe that says “165 calories each if makes 34.” I’m pretty sure I must’ve figured that out for a friend. Because why would I be eating cupcakes if I was on a diet?!
6 Responses to “Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes”
You know, for being a “non chocolate” person, I will eat one of these, if I must. I haven’t ever made them as cupcakes tho, I always pour a choc cake batter into a cookie sheet and the swirl the cream cheese thru it. They are much daintier this way.
Wow, good for you, Shannon, eating a CHOCOLATE something! I like your cookie sheet tip for a time saver. Going to try that sometime!
Oh la la. I love love love these cupcakes. They were my all-time favorite growing up and they still are. I don’t make them often because they are not safe in this house. Or maybe I should say I am not safe with them in the house. ????
Yeah, Freida, me too… not safe with them in the house! That cream cheese chocolate chip center just continuously calls to me!
These speak “Pennsylvania” all the way through the filling! Don’t PA cooks always have some kind of stuffing/swirl to their dishes? Anyway, it takes me back to our church’s first meals together with the PA influence. And good for you to serve to working men! They always perform better when you feed them – I periodically give to our mailman, and sometimes he brings the mail right to our door!
Mom, whatever language these cupcakes speak, I am quite fluent in!
I’m coming down for breakfast.
Great! Bring some granola! ????
I was just thinking – what it needs is a sprinkling of granola on top.