what's cookin' Spaghetti & Italian Meatballs

Meatball mixture


Tonights menu is
Spaghetti & homemade Italian meatballs

Meatballs-

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound sausage
1 cup of Italian bread crumbs
tbs parsley
tbs Italian seasoning
1 egg
tbs garlic pepper
2 spoon fulls minced onions (if you put fresh onions the meatballs don't hold there form as well)
2 garlic cloves
squeezed fresh lemon halve (optional)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions
Be prepared to get dirty. Combine all ingredients together and mix it all together with your hands. Form meatballs with your hands. But each meatball on a cooling rack that is on a cookie sheet (I do this to let all the fat drain off the meatballs). Cook at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Spaghetti Sauce-

Ingredients
1 jar spaghetti sauce (Walmart brand is my favorite)
1/2 cup onions
2 garlic cloves

Directions
Chop up the garlic and onions. Put in a pot with spaghetti sauce. Turn on medium low heat and let it simmer for a couple hours. Stir occasionally. You DON'T want your sauce to burn. It is 4:30 right now and we are eating at 7, so this is how long I am letting my sauce simmer.

Sky baby

This morning you were so stinkin' adorable. I just had to snap a couple pictures because there are really reasons why I love you so much. You are 18 months and my little best friends. You love wearing my shoes, You probably love Chocolate just as much as me, your favorite thing is sitting on the counter and helping me cook or sitting up the "big" chairs. And the best of all you never fail to flash me your big beautiful smile.

whats cookin' Spinach Alfredo

Ingredients
One package frozen spinach thawed
One can Alfredo sauce
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup onions chopped
tbs of butter
fresh squeezed lemon half
dash of pepper and salt
Milk if needed
Bowtie noodles

Directions
Put tbs of butter in sauce pan and add the onions, lemon, & garlic. Once lightly brown add Spinach & Alfredo. Dash with Salt in pepper. Let simmer while you cook the noodles (12-14 minutes). If sauce becomes too thick you can add a little milk. If you want more of an Italian flavor you can add Italian seasoning and parsley.
Poor sauce on top of noodles and serve.

Halloween Party

Halloween Party
Come for a night of spooky fun on Halloween. Be prepared for delicious treats and lots of fun games.
October 31st, 2009, 7:30pm
Lexington Condo's 327 w 300 n apt 21 Provo, UT 84604
Hosted by Adam &Rachel Braegger and Kaley & Clint Thomas
Costumes requested or one will be provided.. just kidding. Dressing up is just fun!
some of the activities will be:
Pumpkin Bowling
Making caramel apples
Pumpkin carving (byo-pumpkin)
Costumes Scavenger hunt
..add much more

RSVP to Kaley Thomas or Rachel Braegger
kaley.thomas(at)hotmail(dot)com
mrsbraegger(at)hotmail(dot)com

Happy Birthday Chloe

Here Chelsey I hope you like these pictures.
Thanks for inviting us to celebrate Chloe's Birthday with you!

The yummiest Banana Bread

Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Directions
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

-I doubled the recipe. On the smaller/taller loaf I sprinkled chocolate chips on top which. It is just a yummy and simple recipe. I loved it. I never but butter on my slices because the banana bread has such great flavor on its on it doesn't need anything else.

whats cookin' salsa chicken

Salsa Chicken

Ingredients
4 Chicken breast
1 1/2 cups salsa
spoon full orange marmalade
1 1/2 tsp All spice seasoning
1 tbs brown sugar
olive oil
tsp lime juice (optional)
can corn
can beans

Brown rice

Directions
Start by cooking the rice let rice sit for 30 minutes in water until you start the slow cooker. Takes about 1 hour. I am sure you could cook the rice without a slow cooker but its a lot easier to use one so thats how we did it.

Cook chicken in tablespoon of olive oil.
Once cooked add all ingredients and let simmer until rice is done. It simmered for a good half an hour. I don't like black beans so we cooked those separately and added them on-top of the dish. You can do that with both of the black beans and corn.

Serve over rice

-I wish I could take credit for this meal but I can't Sam came over and made it for Clint and I. It was so delicious. I will defiantly be making it. Next time I am going to try using mango salsa and swap the orange marmalade for peach jam.

whats cookin' Garlic Cheddar Chicken

On tonights menu...
Garlic Cheddar Chicken

Prep Time:15m
Cook Time:40m
Ready in:55m
Yield:8 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded thin

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, and cook the garlic until tender, about 5 minutes.In a shallow bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano, pepper, and salt.Dip each chicken breast in the garlic butter to coat, then press into the bread crumb mixture. Arrange the coated chicken breasts in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Drizzle with any remaining butter and top with any remaining bread crumb mixture.Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

-I only defrosted 3 chicken breast but cut them all in half (diagonally) which gave me 6 pieces. I have never made this recipe. It just looked yummy and we were in the mood for chicken tonight. If anyone has a really good chicken recipe they should comment and give it to me. For the side I am just using mashed potatoes I had left over from making the Grilled Pork Chops. I made WAY to much potatoes

Review
It was really yummy. The chicken was so tender. Next time I think I will combine my normal breaded chicken recipe with this recipe. I know the pictures don't look very fancy we had 5 people eating so we just used paper plates.

whats cookin' Creamy Alfredo Pesto Pasta with Shrimp

Creamy Alfredo Pesto Pasta with Shrimp

This is my recipe that I made up mixing to recipes together here is the websites that I got the two recipes from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Pesto-Shrimp/Detail.aspx
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/creamy-pesto-pasta.html

half a jar of Alfredo Sauce
1/2 lb Bowtie Pasta (that's 1/2 a 16oz box or a little over 3 cups dry pasta)
1/3 cup Pesto
Clove of fresh garlic chopped
Parsley (I am using fresh but you can use dried if you don't have fresh)
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
olive oil
2 tbs butter
1/3 cup milk
Parmesan cheese
kosher salt
black pepper

Place tomatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil (3-4 T should do it) toss with your fingers making sure everything is coated and then lightly sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Cook in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes. You can tell the tomatoes are ready when the skins start to split. Don't overcook them or they'll be mush!

Cook bowtie noodles

While the tomatoes and pasta are cooking-
Simmer in a large frying pan pesto, garlic, milk, butter, parsley and parmesan (about 2 spoon fulls).

Next add the can of Alfredo and shrimp to the pesto sauce in the frying pan let simmer for about 5 minutes.

When Tomatoes are done add them to the sauce. Poor finished sauce over bowtie. Dash with salt and pepper and grate fresh parmesan over the top.

whats cookin' Grilled Pork and Mashed Potatoes

Grilled Pork and mashed potatoes

Meat
I only used about 2 porks yesterday for the tacos and the package had about 6 pork chops. Since I already defrosted it I am going to go ahead and grill some chops tonight.

6 Tbsp table salt
6 tbsp sugar
Your favorite dry rub (I highly recommend Cavender’s Salt Free All-Purpose Greek Seasoning)
4 Bone-in rib or center-cut pork chops

Dissolve the salt and sugar in 3 quarts cold water. Seal the chops and brine in 1-gallon ziplock bags, pressing out as much air as possible. Refrigerate, turning the bags once, for an hour. Remove the chops from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Coat the chops liberally with the dry rub.

Build a hot, 2-level fire. Grill the chops, uncovered, over the hottest part of the fire until browned on each side, 2 ½ to 3 minutes per side. And cover with heavy duty aluminum foil of a disposable aluminum roasting pan. Continue grilling, turning once, until desired doneness. (Don’t let the thermometer touch the bone.)

-Now the recipe I have that is how the grill the chops but I am defiantly not a hight tech griller so I just put them on a hot grill and fill them after about ten minutes. Cook twenty minutes totally.

Remove the chops to a cutting board and let them rest for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.



Potatoes

Russet potatoes
cream cheese
stick of butter
milk
dollop of sour cream
dash of salt


-Depending on how much potatoes I do a half to a full the of cream cheese
Add the milk is just until the potatoes become a mashed potatoes consistency.
Butter is a stick to a half of stick.

Boil potatoes cut and peeled potatoes until you can stick a fork through easily and the potatoes starts to fall apart. Drain. Transfer to a big bowl. Add cream cheese. and butter I cut it into pieces and mix it in. Then I blend them with a mixer. Add milk. Blend again. add a dollop of sour cream mix in. add dash of salt.

whats cookin' Pork Tacos with homemade tortillas and salsa

I am going to start trying to blog each day and tell everyone what I am cooking for dinner.
So here it goes... hopefully I can keep up with it cause I think it would be fun. I would love everyones comments... especially if you have made it before with a different recipes.

Tonights the menu is
Pork Tacos with homemade tortillas and salsa

Meat
First I will chop the pork in bite size pieces. I am marinating the pork in marsala cooking wine and chopped fresh garlic with a dash of lemon pepper. Marinating for about 1 hour. I am cooking it just on a frying pan. Do not remove the pork until all the marsala has evaporated if pork is full cooked before the marsala has had a chance to evaporate turn down the heat and let it simmer.

Tortillas
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Flour-Tortillas/Detail.aspx?prop31=1
Yes I am making them homemade and yes you can do it to. This recipe is surprisingly easy and they turn out amazing!

Salsa
finely chop all the below ingredients then mix together
6-8 tomatoes
half lemon
half lime
two cloves of garlic
medium onion
dash of sugar
salt and pepper
handful of cilantro
half a jalapeno

Put it all together
Start with the tortilla add sour cream then pork top with cheese, salsa and a little lettuce!

red box lover

To all of you red box movie lovers I am sure you are annoyed like Clint and I about the fact that there are absolutely No movies out right now. So thus began this post. I am listing all the dvd release dates my family is excited to see. Hope this is helpful for y'all too!

September 22
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Comedy, Romance)

September 29
Baby Einstein: World Animal Adventure (Family)

October 13
The Proposal ( (Comedy)

October 20
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi )

October 27
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (Animation, Family, Fantasy)

November 3
I Love You, Beth Cooper (Comedy)

November 10
The Ugly Truth (Comedy, Romance)
Up (Adventure, Animation)

November 17
My Sister's Keeper (Drama)
Star Trek (Sci-Fi)

November 20
Now I know this is not a dvd release date BUT this is the day we can all go see New Moon in Theaters!!!!
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=62784948

November 24
Angels & Demons (Suspense Thriller)

December 1
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (Adventure, Comedy)
Terminator Salvation (Action, Sci-Fi)

December 8
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Action, Adventure, Fantasy)



Thats all for now. I will do a new one in December... from January to April

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