Parmesan Crisps

Simple, fun, elegant and easy what else could you ask for. These parmesan crisps add a touch of elegance to any salad or appetizer.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (or other hard cheese within your budget, but not the powdered stuff)

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 325F.

2. Place 2 tbsp of grated cheese in a pile on a Silpat or wax paper and arrange into a disc about 4″ in diameter. Continue with rest of cheese making about 4 disks.

3. Place in oven and bake for 12-14 minutes.
 

4. Remove from oven and allow to cool. If desired, form into cones or cups. Serve with salads, appetizers, or just munch on them for a treat.

Creamy Chicken Casserole

Another easy meal day. We needed to use up some vegetables and left-overs. Autumn is finally setting in here. It is the perfect time for casseroles, warm yumminess.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 rib of chopped celery
1 large chopped carrot
1 medium chopped leek
1 medium chopped potato
1 boneless, skinless chopped chicken breast
1 cup grated cheese
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup cream
1 cup milk
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1 tbsp chopped lemon balm
2 hamburger buns
garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste
1/2 tsp herbs de Provence
Butter spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop vegetables. Chop and season chicken.
 

2. Saute chicken. Steam carrots and potatoes.

3. Remove chicken from the pan. Add the flour to the pan. Stir in with juices and oil over medium heat. Whisk in cream and milk. Add chopped garlic. Heat and stir until it thickens to a gravy.
 

4. Add vegetables, chicken, herbs and eggs to an oven safe dish.

5. Stir in gravy.
 

6. Top with shredded hamburger buns. Coat with butter spray and herbs de Provence.

7. Place dish in oven and bake for 45 minutes.
 

8. Allow to cool. Serve.

Personal Broccoli Casseroles

If you are looking for an easy way to do green vegetables for a side, this is the way to go. 2 minutes of preparation and you have a wonderful accent dish.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup chopped broccoli
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (many other cheeses work well)
2 eggs (I used 1. 2 would have been better)
Salt and pepper to taste

Yields 2 servings

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. 
 

2. Divide into 2 – 8 ounce ramikins. Place in oven.

3. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

We’ve been married for a while now. The curious and fun part of marriage is the blending of our histories and traditions.

Funny thing, we each grew up with tuna casserole as a comfort food. However, they were quite different. Her’s was essentially tuna and noodles, ours was tuna and potato chips.

One day we decided to mix them up and we hit on a winner. The salty, crunchy taste from my childhood, but much more filling due to the pasta from hers.

This isn’t a fancy meal, but it is yummy and better yet, super easy for a weekday meal.

Ingredients:
12 ounces canned tuna
10 ounces cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup milk
1/3 lb of cooked shell (or other firm) pasta
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups crushed potato chips

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Mix tuna, mushroom soup, and milk in a 2 quart oven safe dish.

2. Mix in cooked pasta and peas.

3. Cover with potato chips.

4. Bake for 30-40 minutes until chips are brown and casserole is bubbly.
 

5. Allow to cool and serve.

 

Soft Pretzels

The wife’s been wanting soft pretzels and hasn’t been able to find a good one out. Those are the words I love…a challenge.

I tend to try things the easy way to get the hang of it and then experiment from there. This is try number 1, easy pretzels.

After searching on-line for some recipes, I noticed the dough was very simple. So to try this out I thought packaged pizza dough would work just fine. I was right.

The real secret to pretzels and bagels is to boil the dough in baking soda water before baking. This creates the chewy texture.

I tried these in a convection oven at 475F, next time I will try at 400F. The outside got too done while the middle wasn’t quite cooked through. That being said, they were pretty darn good. We threw them back in the oven at 350F for a little bit to finish them up.

Ingredients:
1 can of pizza dough
2 tbsp baking soda
4 cups of water
1 tbsp coarse salt

Yields 6 pretzels

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Roll out the dough and cut into 1 inch slices, lengthwise.
 

2. Shape dough into rolls and then make a pretzel shape (keep practicing).

3. Mix soda and water and bring to a boil.

4. Place 2 pretzels at a time in the water. Boil for 1 minute 10 seconds, flip and boil for another 1 minute 10 seconds.

5. Remove pretzels from water and allow to drain. The pretzels will be very spongy at this point. Continue with remaining pretzels.

6.  Arrange pretzels on a greased cookie sheet or Silpat. Coat generously with salt.
 

7. Place in oven and cook for 12-14 minutes until golden brown.

8. Enjoy your fresh pretzels.