Pantry Revisited

I had to take a Mexican appetizer to a party this weekend and needed something that was quick and delicious. I finally found a recipe for spiral pinwheels and made those. They were horrible. Not at all what I was expecting. So it was back to the drawing board and back to the store at the last minute to whip up something different. An ex-co-worker suggested these and they were great. So easy and quick to fix. Try them if you have a party and want something a little different. They went over very well at the party. I could have eaten the entire platter of them myself. We had margaritas with them. I do not have any pictures because they got eaten before I could snap one. But trust me, delicious. Mix together: 8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature) 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese one egg 1/2 cup frozen whole corn kernals Put about a teaspoon in Tostito Scoop chips. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until set. Then top with chives and/or jalapeno slice. Serve warm.

I'm allergic to shrimp. What makes it doubly bad is that I used to love shrimp and ate it all the time. So when my friend Pamela of Cookies With Boys chose this dish as our Craving Ellie challenge this week, I knew it would be good, but would not be one that I could eat myself. I decided to make it anyway and just substitute good ole chicken for the shrimp!! First let me say that I was so happy when Pamela joined this group because she is one of my favorite bloggers. I love reading her posts. And you will too. She is funny and smart and always has something wonderful on her blog to eat! Check out this recipe which is posted on her blog! This was an extremely easy dish to prepare. I cooked up some chopped chicken in the skillet with a little olive oil, and then finished the recipe as it was supposed to be for the shrimp. I did add just a touch of white wine to the sauce and used dried dill instead of fresh. I served it ladled onto a big ole piece of french bread that I had drizzl...

Every time I bake with toffee chips, I think of Heath Ledger. You get it, right, Heath Toffee / Heath Ledger. I know I'm weird. But in honor of the Oscars this week, I thought a photo of Heath was appropriate. He was a great actor with a brilliant future ahead of him. Sad. Of course, my real photo choice of the week was going to be my personal favorite Hugh Jackman. Since he was the host of the Oscars, I think it only fitting that we post a photo of him, as well, right? After all, he IS the sexiest man alive. I knew he could act, and look pretty, but dang - he can sing and dance too! Okay girls - get your minds out of the gutter and back to the matter at hand. Truly, get serious! We are here to talk about crunchy toffee bars. Let me just say that I am glad I made these earlier in the weekend because I ended up having to spend some time with a nice young doctor at the ER due to a severe asthma attack! It's heck not being able to breathe folks. It has now turned into acute bronc...

Any Neil Diamond fans out there? I've never liked him myself, mainly because of that stupid song he sang about Cracklin Rosie. Yikes. But he did a song called "Crunchy Granola Suite." Let me hear that, let me near that Crunchy granola Let me hear that, let me near that Crunchy granola suite Drop your shrink, and stop your drinkin’ Crunchy granola’s neat Sing it out Alright Da da da daDa da da da daDee dee dee doDeedle-ee dum dum I’ll have a double please This week for my CEiMB group, we made granola. I have never been a granola fan. It is mostly too sweet for my tastes. I would go so far as to say I hate granola bars and cereal of any kind. I did love the granola grabber cookies we made in our TWD group. Anyway, I made this home-made granola last week and I have to say that we have not been able to keep our hands out of the huge baggie of granola. I have been eating it every morning for breakfast with yogurt, but also as a snack when I get home from work. I can't seem...

Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater chose the Chocolate White Out Cake for us this week. The photo is on the cover of Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Baking From My Home to Yours. Ever since I purchased the book I have wanted to try this cake. I tasted it back in November when my friend Amanda at work made it for my boss's birthday. It was delicious and I couldn't wait to try baking it myself. Since it was Valentine's Day on Saturday I thought it would be the perfect day to bake the cake and take it to my dance friends on Saturday night. I wanted to make it perfectly. That sentence alone should be a warning that nothing ever goes the way you plan. I did not have a candy thermometer so it was off to Target for a purchase. They only had one kind and it was big. But it worked. Upon returning home, I realized I did not have the right sized cakepans. Mine are nine inch. I had one eight inch so I decided I would make a tall cake in that and make a flatter cake in the nine in...

Rebecca of Ezra's Poundcake chose Spaghetti and Meatballs from the Barefoot Contessa's collection and it was a great choice! Thanks Rebecca. Go on over to her blogsite to get the recipe and try it out for yourself. We are always up for some good pasta. I found the only bottle of Chianti we had in our wine fridge, and as I photographed it I was thinking maybe I should drink it instead of cook with it. But I managed to withhold and put it in the sauce. I'm not a big fan of drinking red wine anyway. I'm a white wine girl. Love Muscata, Pinot Grigio, or just a good chardonnay. But I have to say Reisling is my all-time favorite. I did not change the recipe much, but I did not use the fresh parsley because I forgot to buy it at the store. I used fresh ground turkey for my meatballs mostly for good health purposes, but for taste as well. I loved the meatballs, but the sauce was not my favorite. I think I prefer a sweeter sauce and maybe it was the wine that I used, but the w...

It's always such fun and such an honor to have a fellow blogger bestow an award on you! My friend, Pamela at Cookies with Boys sent these to me. I always enjoy Pamela's posts. She is funny, creative, and always has something good cooking on her blog. Plus, I just love chatting with her! Thanks Pamela for these. Now I have to follow the rules and pass these along to other deserving bloggers. I'm not sure how many I am supposed to pass to, so I will just choose a few of my favorites. With so many wonderful, talented bloggers out there, it is a very hard task for me to choose. Some of my favorites have already been "awarded." I love to read all the following because they photograph well, they are fabulous cooks, and/or they bring me such joy with their humor! If you haven't received these already and want these awards, come on over and pick them up!!! Just know, even if your name isn't mentioned below, I love you all and you have all been an encouragement t...

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly was teriyaki chicken thighs. Jessica of Johnstones Vinblanc chose this delicious recipe! Thanks Jessica. Jessica loves beagles so I'm a fan of hers already. I have a good beagle friend next door to me named Weezie. Weezie is a sweetheart and loves to watch television. She tickles me doing that. While I love chicken, I think the thighs are my least favorite part. However, these really were tasty. A few of the edges burned just a bit in the broiler, but not enough to hurt them thank goodness. Probably because, as usual, I was trying to do two things at once. My good friend Shelby at TWD had some delicious looking granola on her blog this week. I decided to try that and I was mixing that up as my chicken was in the broiler about to set the house on fire! By the way, the granola is to die for. Check out her blog for the recipe. Her photos always make everything look fabulous. I can't wait to have this granola for breakfast over my yogurt...

I apologize. I'm afraid it is just "sinking ships" for me. I had an extremely busy weekend and so no TWD this week for me! But head over to Tuesdays With Dorie and see what all the other fabulous bakers did with this week's challenge chosen by Whisk: a food blog by Shari . Shari is one of my favorite blogs to visit. She always has such beautiful photos and is amazingly creative! I can't wait to see how everyone's floating islands turned out. As my friend Pierce always says, "there's always next week's challenge!" Dang, he's a tasty morsel for an "older" guy, doesn't he? If my weeks clears up and I'm able to cook, check back on Thursday for some Teriyaki Chicken Thighs. Yum. Have a GREAT week!!!

This week in my CEiMB group, my really good friend Cathy of the Tortfeasor made a fantastic choice with the warm spinach and artichoke dip. Cathy and I work together and we have some really good laughs about our cooking experiences. If you have never read her blog, you have missed a treat. She never fails to make me laugh. She is such a kind, caring person and that showed through even in her choice of recipe for us this week. I'm sure there were lots of recipes she personally wanted to try, but she thought of everyone that might be going to Superbowl parties and how this would be easy for them. And she was right! It was easy and quick to mix up . .. and then easy to bake. I used a big jar of marinated artichoke hearts instead of the frozen. We usually spend superbowls with our good friends Tom and Rachel and Randy and Phyllis. This year Rachel hosted. I took the spinach dip and some fruit and Rachel served us some great chili, cornbread, mexican pizza and a great chocolate chip pi...

Jessica of Cookbook Habit chose the World Peace Cookies for this week's baking adventure in our Tuesdays with Dorie group. My friend at work, Amanda , talked to me about these cookies before I made them. She said they wouldn't look that special when you cut them, or even when you take them out of the oven, but then when you put them in your mouth it will rock your world. She said and I quote, "World Peace Cookies changed my life!" She's so cute. I couldn't wait to try them after all that. My life is in a constant state of change anyway. So I was going to make them to take to a superbowl party. Got all the ingredients out. I really loved that I had all the ingredients I needed already in my pantry. My new salt was just begging to be used. Wait, what is that amaretto doing in this group? Yikes, that is for a different recipe. Not sure how that got in the picture. Once I got them rolled into logs, okay don't say it, don't even think it, I mean it, I can...