I feel like chicken tonight! Like Chicken Tonight!!

Yes, chicken is a common theme in these parts, but when it's cheap and easy - who could blame me?  I'm continuing on my trend of using my deep covered baker because it makes things so stinking easily, I can't resist!  So, without any real further ado, I bring you the Grilled Chicken Penne al Fresco.

  I'm starting to use some of the tomatoes from my garden.

It's easy to tell the crazy looking homemade ones (with no fertilizer or pesticides) from the perfect ones from the store.  I have about 100 tomatoes that will be ripe in about a week, but for this recipe, I had to supplement.  I quickly diced them, threw them in the baker, and baked them with the garlic.

 Then I added the noodles and the other ingredients (except for the chicken and cheese) and threw the baker back into the microwave.

I ended up added the extra (extra large) chicken breast that was left over from my last baker round, and a whole cup of parmesan because we love our cheese!

Thomas loved it, but I would have loved to add some fresh garden zucchini, peppers, and maybe some more veggies!

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and the DCB

I was fortunate enough to receive an e-cookbook for my Deep Covered Baker this week. I always kind of write off the baker, unless I have a really good recipe - like the Rocky Road brownies. However, I've decided to try more recipes in there, since it is considered the "magic" baker, and see how it goes.

Starting off, I was looking to do something with chicken.  I found this incredible deal last week on obviously hormone injected chicken breasts. They were around a half a pound a piece, and only two fit comfortably in my baker at a time...  So, I put some fajita seasoning on them, as well as some garlic powder, and popped them in the microwave (with the lid on) for 8 minutes.  I flipped them over, re-seasoned as necessary, and went for about 8 more minutes.  Usually, you can do a breast in about 8 minutes total, but these were horkers and needed a lot of time due to thickness.

While that was going on, I sauteed a small red onion (from my garden) in a pan.  Then, as the chicken was finished, I chopped it up in my food chopper (of course) and threw it into the pan as well. I also took all of the pre-made BBQ sauce I had and added it to the pan to let the chicken simmer.

I then started the other two chicken breasts on the same 8/8 minute rotation.  As they were finished, I also added them to the pot.

There are recipes for BBQ sauce that I've found, but I didn't want to bother when we had an exorbitant amount of sauce already in the house from our last BBQ meatball dish. 

Finally, we stacked the meat high on some sweet King's Hawaiian rolls, served with chips, and enjoyed on the patio.  All in all, I was done in about a half hour, and the clean up was only my baker (piece of cake), and the stir-fry pan.  Amazing...  and these are the reasons why I love summer!

A sneak peak dessert!

Shhh...  don't tell anyone this, but this recipe hasn't even been "released" yet!  Oh sure, it's out there, and it has been published, but it hasn't been officially published yet, so you're getting a sneak peak at a new Pampered Chef recipe from the new fall line up of goods!  Because of that, I'll actually post the recipe here.  I tried finding it elsewhere online, and it's not as easy as it looks. 

So... without further ado... Let me introduce to you, the...

Microwave Rocky Road Brownie Dessert!!!
Ingredients:
1 cup walnut halves, toasted (I subbed 1/2 cup of chopped pecans)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

16 large marshmallows (cut in half)
20 milk chocolate kisses, unwrapped
Vanilla Bean ice cream (optional, but not really!)

(Yep.  It really is as great as it sounds.)

First, you coursely chop your nuts, if you didn't buy them already chopped. 
Next, combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl, set aside.
Cutter butter into pieces, and chop the unsweetened chocolate.  Place butter and chocolate in microwave, uncovered, on high for 1 - 2 minutes or until mostly melted, stirring every 30 seconds.

Add sugar and eggs to the chocolate mixture; whisk until smooth.  Fold in flour mixture and 1/2 of the nuts until incorporated.  Then, pour your batter into your Deep Covered Baker, spreading evenly.  Microwave, uncovered, on high for 5 - 7 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.  Use oven mitts to remove your baker from the microwave.

After that, top your brownies with your halved marshmallows, the chocolate kisses, and the last 1/2 of your nuts.  Microwave, covered this time, on high for 1 - 2 minutes, or until the marshmallows start to soften.  Remove baker from microwave.


Let dish stand for 5 minutes, covered.  Then, spoon onto plates and serve with ice cream.  It will be well worth the 15 minutes (tops) it took to make!!

I've gotten a great deal of compliments on this already, so if I were you, I'd get out there while the recipe was still young and impress your friends.


Enjoy!

So good, even down to the last drop!!

Deep Covered Baker

My first two forays into the Pampered Chef realm have come about purely due to curiosity.  PC sells a Deep Covered Baker - a stoneware product that helps to cook things quickly, easily, and fairly efficiently.  I have heard stories, and if you go to a PC party, or meet someone who has one of these dishes, you'd swear that there was nothing you couldn't do with it.

Now, truth be told, I received one of these for my wedding.  In fact, it has traveled with me from place to place and across the country and has never been used.  Truth #2: Stoneware used to scare me.  I had a pizza stone once that I didn't know what to do with and ended up chucking it because of the various spots that had accumulated due to improper seasoning.  See why I've avoided this??

Fast forward, here I am (four years and 2000 miles away from that newlywed me) with a deep covered baker in my cabinet, a consultant's package of products in the mail, and a few recipes just ready to burn the house down.  I might as well start with one of the pieces I already have.  This time I'm armed: I've read the product use and care instructions, and passed the quiz on stoneware.  I'm on it!

After looking through my refrigerator and going through the different recipes, I decided that my first dish would be the Chicken Mexican Lasagna.  This recipe has limited ingredients (a plus), pre-cooked chicken (a bigger plus), and a very short cooking time (dingdingding - we have a winner!).  So, I have bolstered my courage, pre-seasoned my baker, and layered my ingredients in a fairly rushed artful manner.  I even used a fresh onion out of my garden - bonus!  20 minutes later, I was serving up some hot, tastey goodness.

Now, if I was a great and organized chef, with my camera ready at hand, my dish might have looked something like this.  (Hmmm... add to that "if I had followed the layering directions the way I was supposed to."  I don't make excuses for the way I cook, but I was elbow deep in enchilada sauce and the print on the recipe I had was extremely small in the dim light of my kitchen.)  My lasagna was smooth on top, since I uber-layered the chicken within the lasagna, and I'm not a great cutter who could make a perfect piece like that.  Regardless, it was delicious.  The recipe claims eight servings, and maybe if I had more sides that would have been the case.  Instead, I just served it with lettuce to add a nice crunch.  My husband and I ate VERY well, and I still had enough for two big lunch leftovers.  I'm a huge fan of having something filling left for lunch, so a definite mission accomplished on this one!

I'm on a roll now, I've worked on one recipe and still have some energy to keep this going.  (Who am I kidding?  This project will probably be old within the month, but if I don't set my sights high, I can't predict where I'm going.  At least I'm going to try.)  After success #1, I decided the next day was the perfect time to try my second recipe.

At the last PC party I went to - the one that pulled me over the edge to becoming an independent consultant - the woman sitting next to me was a former consultant.  She pointed out some great gadgets in the catalogue, contributed to the discussion during the cooking demonstration, and started raving about how the deep covered baker makes chicken a breeze.  I hate making chicken.  Well, I hate touching any kind of raw meat, but minced meat, or boneless meat, that is easily handled with minimal touching is okay.  Since this makes that easier, I decided to give it a try.

We bought a small fryer (young chicken, whole chicken, or whatever your terminology) to process.  I still made my husband, Thomas, take out the neck and gizzards, clean and oil the bird.  I created the seasoning mixture and we popped that puppy in the microwave.  30 minutes later we had one done bird.

Now, I did have one problem with the chicken: it looked like it had been boiled.  Sure, there were seasonings on it, and it looked super juicy, it just didn't look a thing like the chicken in the picture.  Maybe I missed something, but this bird looked pale, and in a house where things are constantly coming off of the grill, that just doesn't fly.  (haha, that bird really doesn't fly.  nerd)

So, going against my warranty, I popped the whole thing into the oven under the broiler, busting rule #1 of the product's use and care instructions.  It was only for two minutes, just enough to give this girl a tan, and the chicken really was perfect.  I doubted everyone, and in hindsight I can apologize for being so naive.  I served the chicken up with a bagged salad - Pear Gorgonzola - and Thomas made some garlic pita bread.  Awesome meal made within 40 minutes (including prep time).

So far I'm two recipes in and I'm pretty impressed with myself (and OF COURSE the baker).  I'm truly ready to start this challenge.

Game On!