EatingWell Cookie Contest - you could win Cooking.com gift certificates

Do you have a favorite holiday cookie recipe?  Give it a healthy make-over and submit it to EatingWell for their 6th Annual Holiday Cookie Contest.  Here are the guidelines:

1. Replace as much of the all-purpose flour as possible with other whole grains, such as whole-wheat flour, white whole-wheat flour or oats.
2. EatingWell recipes do not use margarine or other partially hydrogenated oils.
3. We recommend limiting butter to about 1/2 teaspoon per cookie. You can reduce the amount of saturated fat in the recipe by substituting canola or nut oils for some of the butter in the original recipe.
4. Limit salt in recipes to 1/2 teaspoon or less per batch.
5. Use all sweeteners (white and brown sugar, honey, etc.) judiciously; less is better.
6. Steer away from ingredients containing artificial color or flavor. (Use natural versions whenever possible.)

The grand-prize for the contest is a $2000 shopping spree from cooking.com plus a year's worth of dairy products from Organic Valley (over $700 value).  Five runners up each will receive a $200 gift certificate from cooking.com.

You only have until June 4th to submit, so if you're interested, submit your entry here.  You can also read all the additional details and fine print here.  Good luck!

Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese - yes, please!

Is there anyone who doesn't love mac & cheese?  It's a great comfort food, all warm and creamy and cheesy.  When I ran across this recipe in a magazine that crossed mac & cheese with the classic flavors of buffalo chicken wings - I knew I had to try it.  So glad I did!  This was scooped up quick, with just a little taste left for lunch the next day.  Check out the recipe and my notes below.

Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese

7 T butter

1 lb. macaroni

1 sm. onion, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

3 C shredded chicken

2 gloves garlic, minced

3/4 C hot sauce

2 T flour

2 tsp. dry mustard

2 1/2 C half & half

1 lb. yellow sharp cheddar, cut into 1" cubes

8 oz. shredded pepper jack cheese

2/3 C sour cream

1 C panko

2 T chopped fresh parsley

1) Preheat oven to 350; butter a 9x13" baking dish.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; add pasta and cook for about 7 minutes.  Drain.

2) Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the chicken and garlic and cook 2 more minutes, then add 1/2 cup hot sauce and simmer until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

3) Melt 2 tablespoons butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in the flour and mustard with a wooden spoon until smooth.  Whisk in the half & half, the add the remaining 1/4 cup of hot sauce and stir until thick, about 2 minutes.  Whisk in the cheddar and pepper jack cheeses; whisk in the sour cream until thick, around another 2 minutes.

4) Spread 1/2 of the cooked macaroni in the buttered dish; top with chicken and then the rest of the macaroni.  Pour the sauce over the entire thing.

5) Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet and mix in the panko and parsley.  Sprinkle over the sauce.  Bake until bubbly, 30-40 minutes.

A few things about this recipe.  First, as you can probably tell, it's not health food.  So you're not going to serve it every night.  But everyone needs something creamy and cheesy now and then; this will be it, I promise.  Second, when I hit the grocery store to pick up the few ingredients for this I didn't already have on hand, there was no Pepper Jack cheese in the store.  At all.  I honestly didn't think that was possible, but apparently, it is.  So I used Monterey Jack cheese and it tasted fine.  Pepper Jack will definitely give it an extra kick, though, and the next time I make it, I will be sure to have Pepper Jack first.  Also, use whatever chicken you have or want.  I used a rotisserie chicken because that's what the original recipe called for, but next time, I will just boil some chicken breasts and then shred them.  It's a little more work but worth it.  Also, be sure to use real panko versus breadcrumbs.  It gives a nice crunch and adds texture.  And last, about the hot sauce - 3/4 cup sounds like a LOT of hot sauce and I was a little scared.  But it really didn't end up being overpowering at all.  And I actually used a blend of two different hot sauces.  I had been to a home show awhile back, and they gave out free bottles of Texas Pete's hot sauce; I had both Original Hot Sauce and the Garlic Hot Sauce.  They have a great flavor, so if you're looking for some, you can check out their website and keep an eye out in the store for them.  Or even order from them online.

Let me know if you loved this as much as we did!

Cinco de Mayo fun!

I never need an excuse to cook, but sometimes I like one!  So when Cinco de Mayo rolled around a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to whip up something more authentic to Mexican cuisine than a taco.  After doing a little research, I decided to go with some chicken enchiladas (a recipe adapted from one I found on allrecipes.com), rice and refried beans for sides, and churros for dessert (the churros mainly as a nod to the yummy churros and great memories of visiting the Mexican pavilion at Epcot at Walt Disney World).

Here is the recipe for the Chicken Enchiladas:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 1/4 C sour cream

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 T butter

1 bunch scallions, chopped and divided

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies, drained

1 (1.25 oz) pkg. medium taco seasoning mix

1 C water

1 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

5 flour tortillas

2 C shredded mild cheddar cheese

2 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

1) Place the chicken in a stock pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cover; simmer until chicken is no longer pink (about 15 minutes).  Remove chicken from pot and shred; set aside.

2) Preheat the oven to 350.  Combine the soup, sour cream, chili powder and cumin in a small saucepan.  Over low heat, bring mix to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Once simmering, turn off heat, cover, and set aside.

3) Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chicken, green chilies, taco seasoning, water, and about half the chopped scallions (the rest will be for garnish on top).  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in the lime juice and onion and garlic powders; simmer for another 10 minutes, then remove from heat.

4) Stir one cup of the soup mix into the chicken mix in the skillet.  Spread the remaining soup mixture across the bottom of a 9x13" baking or casserole dish.

5) Fill a tortilla with the chicken mix and sprinkle with a mix of both mild and sharp cheddar cheese.

Fold the edges of the tortillas over the mixture in the middle, and then place seam-side down in the prepared pan, on top of the soup mix.  Repeat with remaining tortillas to make five total.

6) Pour enchilada sauce over the enchiladas.  Cover with the remaining cheddar cheeses (should have about 1.5-2 remaining cups).  Sprinkle with remaining scallions and bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 25-30 minutes.

I apologize for the messy, half-eaten finished product picture, but that just proves how good they were!  I didn't even have time to take a picture before they were snapped up.

As I said, I served the enchiladas with Mexican rice and refried beans on the side.  It was a very filling and very tasty meal!

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And they're off! Derby party snacks.

I recently attended my first Kentucky Derby party, and it was a great experience.  Every detail had been thought of to make this party great: TVs to watch the races, race sheets to read up on the horses, Derby hat contests, race tickets, door prizes, Derby decorations and lots of food and drink!  Everyone also was asked to bring an appetizer or dessert to share and we were asked to bring an appetizer.  It took me awhile to decide on something, but I finally settled on these Tomato Bacon Cups.

Here's the recipe:

8 slices bacon

1 tomato, diced

1 sm. bunch scallions, finely chopped

3 oz. shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 C mayo

1 tsp. dried basil

1 (16 oz.) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough

1) Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly grease a mini muffin pan (two if you have them, it'll go faster).  I hit each cup with a very quick shot of cooking spray.

2) Cook bacon until crispy over medium heat in a skillet; you'll need to crumble it, and it will be easier than if it's chewy.  Add the bacon to a bowl; mix in the tomato, onion, cheese, mayo and basil.

3) Separate each biscuit into it's natural halves; cut each half into quarters.  Roll each quarter into a ball and then use a rolling pin to flatten into a little disc.  Place the disc into one of the muffin tin cups; press into the bottom and up the sides of the cups, making a little mold.  Fill each of the biscuit cups with some of the mixture (for me, it was a couple of teaspoons each).  You could conceivably roll out all the discs, then go back and fill at the end; when I tried that, though, I found the biscuit was loosing it's shape and I had to re-form/re-roll again, anyway.  So I found it easiest to go one by one.  Whatever works for you!

4) Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cups are golden brown.

The first few I made, I feel like I used too much biscuit dough (you can sort of tell in the picture above).  Originally I had been cutting each biscuit half into thirds; that's when I switched to quarters, and it worked much better.  Unfortunately, I guess my battery was low, because the pictures of those batches didn't end up on my camera.

These went over really well; so well, there weren't any left over to bring home from the party!  But I did snag one to test before taking (what if they were horrible?!) and I thought they were really good.  Just for something different, I might try cheddar cheese in a future attempt, or even some of those flavored mayos to give it a little something different.  Either way, I'd definitely take them to another get together, for sure.

Let me know if you try this, and how it turns out for you!

(If you need a mini muffin tin, check this one out - the one I used for this was a Wilton one)

Who doesn't like cookies?

Tomorrow will be a new soup (likely something hearty and warming since half the country is buried under a blanket of snow), but today I wanted to share a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I tried recently.  It's a modified recipe of what's probably considered "standard", but the modifications make such a big difference!  Soft and chewy in the middle with a slightly crisper edge, and the top crackles open just like cookies you get in a bakery.

1 C butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 C light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. hot water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C semi-sweet chocolate bits
1 C semi-sweet chunks

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Cream together sugar, brown sugar and softened butter until smooth.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Stir in the vanilla.  In a separate small bowl or dish, dissolve the baking soda in the water.  Add to the batter, then add the salt.  Stir in the flour and chocolate bits and chunks (actually stir - don't use a mixer).  Use a spoon or melon baller to scoop uniform balls of dough; roll briefly between your palms to form balls.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes.  They may not look completely cooked, but as long as the edges have a light brown tinge, they're done.  Let them cool on the cookie sheets for about 5 or 6 minutes before removing to racks or other container.

Welcome to Soup's On!

I love to cook and bake, and am always looking for new recipes and things to try. For 2010, we've decided to try one new soup each week. So each week, I will post the new recipe here. After we try it, I will post the results on how it turned out for us and share our reviews - what was good and not so good, tips on prep, possible modifications for the future. I'm hoping that some of you will choose to try it, as well, and let us know how your families liked them. And if you made any changes that you thought were great, please share those, too!

In addition to the weekly soup, I will sometimes share some additional recipes that are new to us that we try. Again, I'd love any comments on how they worked for you, or what changes you might have made.

The recipes will be ones shared from friends and family, our own creations, and maybe even a cookbook or two. If you have any great soup recipes that you would like for us to try and then post (with proper credit, of course!), we'd be happy to! Just send me a message with the recipe, and we will add it to the list.

I hope you enjoy the soups and making them as much as we are!