Pork Tenderloin Rolled With Rosemary & Pancetta

Another great recipe from the "Mastering The Grill" cookbook.  Although we ran out of propane for the grill we just stuck this bad boy in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes and it turned out great! 

Pork Tenderloin Rolled With Rosemary & Pancetta
from the Mastering the Grill cookbook page 209-210
Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1 once pancetta finely chopped
salt and pepper
2 pork tenderloins, a little more than 1 pound each
1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions:
Mix the garlic, rosemary, pancetta, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Make a slit down the length of each tenderloin (butterfly).  Rub all over with pancetta mixture and coat in olive oil.  Set aside for 5 minutes.  Cook on grill for about 8 minutes.
Sauce used is from the Food Network June 2011 magazine...
Old Bay Mayo
Mix 3/4 cup mayo, the zest and juice of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon Old Bay, 1 minced scallion and a few drops of hot sauce.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Happy Father's Day!  What a great day of baking, playing outside, going to the park and relaxing on the couch... This cupcake recipe was found on allrecipes.com by lovetohost.  This recipe makes 24 cupcakes, which I thought were a lot for two people so instead I made cookies with the left over cookie dough.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
by lovetohost from allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs
Directions:
Mix together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.  Beat together butter, brown sugar and white sugar in a standing mixer until combined. Add one egg, vanilla and beat until smooth.  Mix in the flour mixture.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Put tablespoon size balls of mixture on cookie sheet and freeze for 2 or more hours.  Once done follow directions on cake box mix and pour into cupcake tin (lined).  Plop one frozen chocolate chip cookie ball in the cupcake batter.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes.  Let cool for about 10 minutes.

Bowtie Pasta with Marscarpone Cheese, Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes & Spinach

Another great recipe from Italianfoodforever.com.  I love how the Marscarpone cheese makes this dish so creamy.  I think next time I will use a rotissery chicken and peas instead of the spinach.  Then it may come close to one of my all time favorite meals from Doolittles.

Bowtie Pasta with Marscarpone Cheese, Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes & Spinach
from the website: Italianfoodforever.com by Deborah Mele
Ingredients:

1 Cup Mascarpone Cheese At Room Temperature

Zest & Juice of 1 Lemon

1 Teaspoon Cracked Black Pepper

3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken breasts, diced

1/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled & Minced

Salt & Pepper

1/3 Cup Chopped Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Bag Baby Spinach 

Package Pasta

Directions:

Mix together Mascarpone, zest and juice of lemon and pepper in a bowl and set aside.  Cook pasta to al dente according to package, but take off 2 minutes before al dente, drain and save some pasta water.  Meanwhile brown chicken in a skillet.  Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes.  Return drained pasta to pot and add mascarpone mix and put on medium heat.  Mix well and then add chicken, spinach and sun dried tomatoes.  Mix together and serve with Parmesan cheese on top.

Pasta with Artichokes and Pancetta

Your house will smell like an Italian Restaurant after cooking this meal.  This meal is so tasty and simple to make.  I did cut some corners to change it up a little bit.  One of my new favorite blogs i've come across is Italian Food Forever and that's where this recipe came from.

Pasta with Artichokes and Pancetta
from the Italianfoodforever.com
Ingredients:
1 Jar of marinated artichokes, cut up

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

2 Cloves Garlic,  Minced

2 Ounces Pancetta cut into small chunks

3/4 Cup Dry White Wine

Salt & Pepper

Dash (or 2 or 3) Red Hot Pepper Flakes

1/3 Cup Chopped Fresh Parsley

Pasta

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package.  Meanwhile heat oil in pan cook pancetta until cooked through.  Add artichokes and white wine bringing to a boil.  Turn down heat and add salt, pepper, and pepper flakes and let cook for about 7 minutes.  Add parsley and mix well.  Add mixture to pasta and toss.  Top with Parmesan Cheese and serve.

Mexican Hot Dogs

Hot dogs seem to be a summer staple in our house every year, but it can get kind of boring using the same old ketchup every time.  I picked up the latest Food Network Magazine (June 2011) at the grocery store because the picture on the cover had three different hot dogs with awesome toppings.  We decided to try the Mexican Hot Dog just because of the avocado on top.  Well we didn't wait long enough for the avocado to ripen so we both agree the dogs would have been much better if the avocado was perfectly ripe.

Mexican Hot Dogs
Grill the dogs and top with chipotle mayo, chopped avocado and cotija cheese crumbles

Chipotle Mayo
By the one and only Mr Bobby Flay
Ingredients:
1 cup mayonnaise
2 chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tablespoon adobo sauce
1/2 lime, juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Puree all ingredients together in food processor or blender and top on hot dogs

Real Housewife of New Jersey

Not only do I watch reality TV, but I also buy their cookbooks.  Let's hope Teresa cooks as well as she flips tables...

Habanero Hot Sauce

Hot, Hot, Hot....I found this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen website by Dax Phillips and brought it to my parents house last Sunday.  Everyone that tried it turned red.  This stuff is HOT!  I couldn't even try it because the smell made my eyes water.  This dip is also good to freeze since this recipe makes a ton!

Habanero Hot Sauce
From the Tasty Kitchen by Dax Phillips
Ingredients:
4 whole cherry tomatoes
1 whole onion, halved
3 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 whole Habanero peppers, stemmed
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon Turmeric powder
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lay tomatoes, onion, and garlic on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for 15 minutes.  Put ingredients and the veggies in blender and puree until desired consistency.

Flower Power!

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day, my sisters birthday and my mom's birthday at my parents house.  My sister and I decided to do a "round 2" on making cupcakes.  The first round was for my dad's birthday and we made cupcakes in the shape of a golf course from the What's New Cupcake book.  This time for my mom's birthday we created these great flower cupcakes from that same book.  Here are a few pictures of how they turned out (pretty good if I do say so myself)

A great picture of the flower cupcakes

My sister and I with our cupcakes.

Smoked Crab Burgers with Lime-Cilantro Butter

I LOVE crab.  My mom makes the best crab dip that I have been eating forever....When Brent said he wanted to try to make these burgers my mouth immediately started watering.  This recipe is from the Mastering the Grill and let me tell you these burgers are to die for!

Smoked Crab Burgers
From Mastering the Grill page 110
Ingredients:
2 scallions, thin sliced
1/2 roasted bell pepper finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons grated onion
2 tablespoons mayo
1 teaspoon Cajun spice blend
1 pound canned back-fin crab meat
4 slices center-cut hickory smoked bacon, cut half lengthwise
1/4 cup Lime Cilantro Butter
Directions:
Mix scallions, bell pepper, garlic, onion, mayo, spice blend and crab meat in bowl until blended.  Form into 4 patties about 1 1/4 inches thick and wrap 2 strips of bacon around each burger so that the burgers look as though they have been tied with ribbons.  Grill burgers until browned but soft in center.  Dip with cilantro Butter

Lime-Cilantro Butter
From Mastering the Grill page393
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 clove garlic
flinely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions:
Heat butter and garlic in small skilled until garlic starts to sizzle.  Stir in lime zest and juice and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro, salt and pepper.  Serve warm.

Date Night!!!

Friday night date night...Well after Max goes to sleep tonight.  We had a great grilled steak dinner with rosemary potatoes thanks to my husband :o)

Up next for the night is one of my favorite wines:  Louis M. Martini, which has been on sale for the past month...gotta love that!  As my friend from playgroup says "I'm in need of some vinotherapy...Pour me a drink"

And a redbox movie...True Grit!  To which my husband says it seems odd that we are drinking red wine and watching this movie.  I think it's more of a whiskey type movie...but I am definitely not a whiskey type girl (see earlier post).

I love Friday night date nights!

Cookies n Cream Cupcakes

There are no words for these cupcakes!  After a long day of a baby getting up at 5am, planting flowers, making lunch for 4 and planning dinner I must have been nuts to want to bake cupcakes.  I'm actually surprised that there was frosting left to frost the cupcakes.  Below is the link from How Sweet It Is cooking website.
Cookies n Cream Cupcakes

Bobby's Baked Chicken with Dijon & Lime

This is the dish that I was talking about in an earlier post.  This chicken is much more flavorful than the Limehouse Chicken I tried last week.  This is from Paula Deen's Family Cookbook by her son Bobby Deen.

Bobby's Baked Chicken with Dijon & Lim
From the Paula Deen's The Deen Family Cookbook pg 78
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts (for just Brent and I)
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon mayo
1 clove garlic, minced
zest and juice of 1 lime
salt & pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Rinse and pat chicken dry.  In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, mayo, garlic, lime zest & juice and pepper.  Season chicken with salt.  Slather chicken with mustard mayo mixture and place in a sprayed baking dish.  Bake for 30 minutes.