Apple Dumplings

I want to give Pioneer Woman full credit for this recipe. I have modified it a little, but I would never have thought this up on my own.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of crescent rolls
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced into 8 slices each
• 2 sticks of salted butter
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar (I used 1 cup of brown sugar because I was almost out of white sugar, and I am probably NEVER going to try this without brown sugar EVER, because caramel.)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• cinnamon to taste
• 1 can (12 oz) of Mountain Dew (I used a 7.5 oz tiny can, and the sauce may have been a little bit skimpy, but there was still plenty)
• Vanilla ice cream or sweet whipped cream for serving

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a 9x13 inch casserole dish. (You can also use Pam spray.)

Peel, core, and slice the apples.

Open a can of crescent rolls, and separate the dough triangles. (I did one can at a time, since the dough expands out of the can and gets stickier, so for ease of handling, one at a time.) Wrap each slice of apple in a triangle of dough and snuggle them all up in the casserole dish. It fits nicely with 8 on each side.  Sprinkle cinnamon over all.

In a 2 quart saucepan, melt the butter. It seems like a lot of butter, but don't skimp. It's necessary. When melted, stir in the sugar and vanilla. You don't need to boil it, or stir it until the sugar dissolves. You want it to be kind of grainy. All that is necessary is to stir it until the sugar and vanilla are all wet and mixed in.  Then pour it over the apple-in-a-blanket things you made. I took the trouble to get a spoon and make sure all the pastry had some of this syrup over it.

Bake in your 350-degree oven for 40 minutes. I nearly over-baked it (too many other things happening, and I didn't get to it the moment the timer went off),  and the pastry on the end dumplings was a bit chewy. But still yummy and delicious. Serve with ice cream, pan sauce, and bask in the compliments and proposals of marriage.

If you want to see photos of the process and the finished product, google Pioneer Woman Apple Dumplings.

Easy Basil Chicken

I saw this on Facebook, actually. I'm not proud of it, except it really makes fantastic chicken. There are no amounts, proportions, or ratios listed, so you can make 1 serving or 100.

Ingredients:

• boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• enough basil pesto to put about 1-2 tablespoons on each breast
• sliced tomatoes (I didn't have fresh, so I used canned diced tomatoes, drained)
• mozzarella cheese (I used shredded, but you could also use sliced, just make sure you can cover each piece of chicken)

That's it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Arrange the chicken in a baking dish (I did spray mine with Pam), spread pesto over each piece, layer on tomatoes, then cover with cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes.

There you have it: a terrific Italian-flavored dish with no pasta. (You can have pasta, but it doesn't need it.) Serve it with garlic bread, tossed salad, and Bellissimo!

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

I am pretty sure this comes from some edition of the Hershey Cocoa Cookbook. I learned it from my mother. It's one of those recipes that she tended to make on winter nights when she was craving chocolate but couldn't get out to the store, because all of the ingredients were always on hand at our house.  Generally I mix it up while waiting for the last things to cook, and get it into the oven just before serving dinner. Then it's hot out of the oven when it's time for dessert.

Batter:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 Tablespoons melted shortening
• 1/2 cup milk

Pudding:

• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 3/4 cups hot tap water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mix the ingredients for the batter. Spread it in a 7x11 rectangle pan. (9x13 is too big, but if you don't have a 7x11, you can use a square cake pan or a smaller oval.) You do not have to grease the pan. In fact, DON'T grease the pan. 

Mix the brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Sprinkle it evenly over the surface of the batter. Then pour the hot water over that.

Transfer it carefully into the preheated oven. Bake 45 minutes. Serve it hot! (You can get 8 servings out of a rectangle pan if you keep them small.) 

Some people swear by vanilla ice cream to accompany hot fudge pudding cake. Some like lightly sweetened whipped cream. Cool Whip or Redi-whip is delicious on this.  Personally I like it without any topping at all.

I can't really advise you on how to store leftovers, because it's always gone by nightfall, or breakfast latest. In theory, I guess I would portion it out in individual servings and refrigerate it, then microwave it for about 30 seconds before serving.

White Chicken Chili

I found this on howto-simplify.com. It's really pretty easy, and you can make it hot or mild, however you like it.

• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded *(see notes)
• 2 cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed *(see notes)
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 box (32 oz) chicken broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• the juice of one lime

1. In a large pot, saute the onion and cook it until it starts to become translucent.
2. Add the chicken shreds, beans, corn, green chiles (with the juice from the can), cumin, and oregano to the large pot. Stir to combine everything, and then add the broth.
3. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes to allow the broth to reduce. Add salt and pepper to taste, and the juice of one lime. (If you like cilantro, you can add 1/2 cup chopped fresh at this time, or you can serve it as a topping on the side.
4. You can simmer the chili until you're ready to serve.
5. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, avocado, tortilla chips or corn muffins.

Notes:
*I might have mentioned before that if you use frozen boneless-skinless chicken breasts for your shredded chicken, an easy way to prepare it is to boil them, right out of the freezer, in water to just cover, and a few cubes of chicken bouillon. Boil them until cooked. Remove them from the water and let them rest a couple minutes, and then toss them in the bowl of your stand-mixer, and use the paddle attachment to reduce them to shreds. It only takes less than a minute.
*You can use black beans or pinto beans, as well. It reduces the whiteness of the chili, but it doesn't change the taste.