Slow Cooker Chicken Philly Sandwich

There is this little sandwich shop near my parents' house called The Philadelphian. My dad swears they have the best Philly cheese steaks you can find, in Utah at least.I remember making runs to this sandwich shop on Saturday afternoons to pick up lunch when we had been working in the yard. I found a recipe for a Slow Cooker Chicken Philly Sandwich and immediately thought of my dad and The Philadelphian. I have always been curious what a Philly cheese steak tastes like, since I do not eat beef.I figured I would give this recipe a try. Who knows if it tastes anything like a real Philly cheese steak. All I know is that it was really good, and we will be making it again.

Slow Cooker Chicken Philly Sandwich

2 Tablespoons butter
1 large sweet onion, sliced
2 green peppers, sliced
3 chicken breasts, sliced
2 Tablespoons steak seasoning (The blog I found this on says to use Dale's, I just used what I had in my spice cabinet.)
sliced mozzarella cheese
hoagie rolls

Toss chicken with steak seasoning, salt and pepper. In slow cooker add butter, onions and peppers. Then add chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours. Broil hoagie roll with a slice of cheese on top until toasted and cheese is melted. Serve chicken on toasted hoagie rolls.

Enjoy!

Caramels

I have never been amazing at making caramels. My little brother, Nathan, makes killer caramel. We use the same recipe, but somehow his ALWAYS comes out 100 times better than mine. Which of course, means that it is all user error. After asking my mom a few questions about her recipe and why my caramel always came out wrong, I realized that my recipe was not entirely the same as my mom's, which is the one my brother uses. I had written down one very important part of the recipe very wrong. I wrote down to heat the caramel to hard ball stage. Does that sound wrong to anyone else? If not, you are not alone. It never crossed my mind that it could be wrong. But if you think about it, you want your caramel to be soft and chewy. It would only make sense to heat it to soft ball stage, right? I changed that one little thing and voilà!
Caramels

2 cups sugar
3/4 cups white Karo Syrup or light corn syrup
1 cube butter (1/2 cup)
1 can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts, optional (I like to use walnuts)

Butter the bottom and sides of an 8x8 glass pan. Sprinkle with nuts if desired. Set aside.

Mix together sugar, butter, corn syrup, and 1/2 of the milk in a large sauce pan. Stir in high heat until boiling. Then add the rest of the milk. Turn to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, to 240 degrees (soft ball stage). Once it reaches  240 degrees, remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour into buttered pan. When cool, cut and wrap in waxed paper.

Enjoy!

Two Timin' Pasta

TWO TIMIN’ PASTA BAKE

I LOVE pasta! I could eat it every night. Bo, on the other hand, loves pasta with meat, but I finally found a Pasta that he also LOVES! It’s very simple and eat it with some garlic bread and you have the perfect concoction. I threw in some sun dried tomatoes last time and we loved the new addition, thanks to my friend Archie for the suggestion. (Jess Nelson)

INGREDIENTS:

1 box Penne Pasta

1 (15 oz.) jar Alfredo sauce

1 (24 oz.) jar Marinara Sauce

2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1 Cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese

(Optional) Sun dried tomatoes

Cook pasta according to directions and drain.  Mix the sauces together in a large bowl.

Add the mozzarella and stir to combine.  Toss the penne in until well coated.

Pour pasta into 9x13 baking dish and cook on 350 for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese and bake for another 5 minutes. 

This is so simple and so good! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Thanks for the original recipe which you’ll find HERE. J

Key Lime Pie

I got the recipe for the Key Lime Pie from my friend Tenille. She brought it to a BBQ. This pie is so light and decadent. I make this pie for every cookout that we need to bring a dessert to. It is the perfect combination of sweet and tart.
Key Lime Pie

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 large limes, zested and juiced (or 3 small limes) + extra for garnish if desired
1/2 large lemon, zested and juiced (or one small lemon)
1 graham cracker pie crust

With an electric mixer, beat heavy cream until just about fully whipped. Add sweetened condensed milk, lime and lemon and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Spoon into crust. Garnish with extra lime wedges and zest, if desired. This pie can be served immediately or refrigerated until ready to eat.

I personally think the longer it sits in the fridge, the more the flavors develop and you get a stronger lime flavor.

Enjoy!

BBQ Pork Burgers

This is more of an idea, rather than an actual recipe. We have been spending a lot of time outside enjoying the nice weather lately. So have our neighbors. One of our neighbors was grilling one night. He was telling us that they were making BBQ pork burgers. We were intrigued. We don't eat ground beef. We rarely have turkey burgers because I always feel like they lack real flavor. I asked him about his BBQ pork burgers. He told me he just mixes BBQ sauce with his ground pork and slaps them down on the grill. He puts foil down first, just in case the burger falls apart. Which it will if you add too much BBQ sauce.

The other night I decided to make these BBQ pork burgers. I changed it up a little bit because I had some ground turkey that I needed to use up as well. So I mixed together the ground turkey and ground pork. I added some sauted red onion and then the BBQ sauce. They turned out delicious!

Since there isn't an actual recipe, here are some tips and the measurements I used.

I used approximately 1 pound of ground turkey and 3/4 pound of ground pork.
I added half a red onion that I had sauted in a little bit of olive oil. You could add the onion raw, but my husband hates onions unless they are fully cooked.
I added about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of BBQ sauce. Any kind of BBQ sauce will work.
Mix it all together well with your hands and form into patties. I separated my patties with wax paper to make it easy to pick them up and get them on the grill.
Use foil on the grill if you are afraid that your mixture is too wet and might fall apart. I could have done fine without using the wax paper, but it did make clean up really easy.
Add cheese just before removing from the grill and allow it to melt.
Serve on hamburger buns with BBQ sauce, (or ketchup and mustard), sliced onions, tomatoes and lettuce.

Enjoy!

Baked French Fries

Baked French Fries

I made this with the Baked *Fried* Chicken and they were all gone the next day. I had to cook my fries for about an hour and a half. I think I did 3 Potatoes and threw them all on one pan, so that might have had an effect on the cooking time.  AMAZING!!!! :) 

Ingredients:
4 medium russet potatoes, unpeeled

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut potatoes lengthwise into slices that are 1/3-inch thick. Soak potato strips in a bowl of water for 5 minutes. Dry the potatoes with paper towel. 

In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, olive oil, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt.  Toss. Divide the potatoes between 2 baking sheets coated with olive oil spray or lined with parchment paper and spread into a single layer. Bake until the potatoes are golden brown, about 50 minutes, turning the potatoes every 10 minutes. 

Place the cooked potatoes in a large bowl and toss with garlic, parsley, and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Thanks TO Shape!

Baked *Fried* Chicken

This chicken is amazing and a lot healthier than fried chicken. I made it the other night with some homemade french fries (see under appetizers). Bo and I loved it!

Prep Time:     25 mins (includes soaking time)
Cook Time:   40 mins.
Yields:          6 Servings

INGREDIENTS

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast tenderloin
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp seasoned salt (I used Lawry's seasoned salt)
3/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp paprika
1/4 C butter
Buttermilk (I don't always have this on hand so you can use the buttermilk substitute recipe HERE)
1 gallon-size Ziploc (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place thawed chicken breasts in a bowl of buttermilk and let soak 20-30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Combine and mix thoroughly flour, salt, Season All, pepper and paprika in a gallon-size ziploc bag or bowl.
4. Cut 1/4C of butter into a few pieces and place in a 9x13-inch pan. Melt butter in preheated oven.
5. Spread melted butter around the bottom of the pan. Lightly spray the pan with cooking spray, if needed, to make sure that there are no dry spots.
6. Shake excess milk off of chicken and completely coat each piece in flour mixture. Either shake in the bag until coated or dip each piece in the bowl until coated.
7. Place each piece of chicken in the preheated pan.
8. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn each piece of chicken over and continue baking for 20 more minutes, or until cooked through.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Bakerette for the recipe!