Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fried Egg and Cheddar on Sun-Dried Tomato Bread

There is this fantastic, lovely, delectable little bakery on Kelley St on the west side of Manchester called "The Bakeshop On Kelley Street." I've had chili there before which was amazing, and today I stopped in and got a half loaf of sun-dried tomato bread and a big piece of pumpkin cheesecake. There is a selection of breads, pastries, cakes, pies, and desserts along with chili, soup, and coffee. There are cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries, napoleons and eclairs....need I say more? I definately do not have a sweet tooth or anything like that, but whenever I am craving some baked good this is the first place I will go! I made a egg sandwich for lunch and it was amazing on the sun-dried tomato bread.

Fried Egg and Chedder on Sun-Dried Tomato Bread
I don't really need to list the ingredients and make directions like usual. This is pretty basic.
 I toasted 2 slices of sun-dried tomoato bread. While those were in the toaster I made 1 fried egg ( I would have used 2 but there was only 1 left). When the egg was cooked I put some shredded sharp cheddar cheese on top and let it start to melt. Put it between the 2 pieces of bread and there you go...amazing breakfast sandwich. I won't be using any regular store bought bread ever again unless I have too.
Oh and just to show you how good the pumpkin cheesecake was look at this picture below!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could barely eat half in one sitting because it was so big, although I probobaly could have because it was delicious.

Here is a link to the bake shop's facebook incase anyone wants to check it out..

Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control,but other things do fall under the jurisdiction.I can decide how I spend my time,whom I interact with,whom I share my body & life & money & energy with.I can select what I can read & eat &  study.I can choose how Im going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities.I can choose my words & the tone of voice in which I speak to others. &most of all, I can choose my thoughts." -Elizabeth Gilbert- Eat,Pray,Love

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Leila Shams

I found a designer from LA who has so many adorable clothes in her Spring and Fall 2010 collections. I'm pretty sure I would have to special order anything by Leila Shams because it dosen't seem there is anywhere online I can purchase and no stores on the east coast. Here are some clothes from her Fall 2010 Collection. It is suppossed to have a "superstitious" theme and be focused on bad luck...black cats, smoke & mirrors.

Chain-Smoking Dress

Chain Gang Cable Pullover

Sequin & Skull Bead Dress

Kit-tee

Lucky Wrap Dress

Black Cat Dress

Monday, November 1, 2010

Stephanie's Roasted Chicken

Stephanie's Roasted Chicken

This chicken is soooo good! I combined 3 or 4 different recipes that I had and added some ingredients. I think this makes a really good "Sunday dinner" and is something I would make over and over again.
 













 Ingredients:
-1 whole roasting chicken
-fresh rosemary sprigs
-4 cloves of garlic minced
-4 cloves of garlic chopped
-1 onion cut into 8 pieces
-2 to 3 lemons sliced
-lemon juice
-3/4 stick melted butter
-black pepper
-thyme
-parsley 
Directions:
-Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken; trim excess fat.
-Starting at the neck cavity loosen skin from breasts and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat.
-Preheat over to 400 degrees.
-Combine 3/4 stick melted butter,2 tablespoons lemon juice,1/4 teaspoon pepper,1 teaspoon thyme and 1/2 teaspoon parsley,and 4 cloves minced garlic in a small bowl. Use a brush to rub the mixture under loosened skin and all over the entire chicken, inside and out.
-Put the pieces of the onioin inside the cavity of the chicken along with the remaining 4 cloves of chopped garlic,6 to 8 rosemary sprigs,and 2 sliced lemons.Put remaining slices on lemon on top of chicken.
-Place chicken, breast side up,in a roasting pan or casserole dish.
-Roast, basting twice with leftover butter mixture, about 1 1/2 hours, depending on the weight of your roast.
-Adding 2x3 inch pieces of potatoes around the chicken with butter or olive oil drizzled on them while you roast it is optional. When I made it I served and orzo salad and asparagus on the side.



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Never ending pasta bowl

This is a really quick and simple recipe to make and I think it's amazing. I made it for dinner last night with some mozzarella and spinach flank steak pinwheels but I could eat this alone as a pasta dish all the time and be completely satisfied. The 4 cheese rosa sauce is to die for! I don't think I'll be eating pasta with regular sauce very often anymore because this new 4 cheese rosa is addicting!

Chicken & Prosciutto Tortelli with Ricotta, Peas, & 4 Cheese Rosa Sauce

INGREDIENTS

1 Jar Bertolli 4 Cheese Rosa (You use about 3/4 of the jar)
1 Package of Chicken and Prosciutto Tortellini
 1/2 Cup Riccota (unless you'd like more)
1/2 Cup peas (unless you'd like more)
6-8 Slices of Prosciutto torn up into smaller pieces


 1/2 Cup Shredded Mozzarella or Parmesean

DIRECTIONS

- Boil water. Add tortellini. Follow directions on package to cook. Add peas to boiling water when pasta is almost done.
- Heat sauce with shredded prosciutto in it.
-Drain pasta, and mix in the ricotta and shredded cheese.
-Top tortellini with the sauce.



Told you it was simple.=)


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Rosemary & Sun-dried Tomato Ham and Capicola Sandwich

Boars Head alone is the best lunch meat I've ever had, in my opinion nobody can top it. I always experiment with sandwiches depending on what type of lunch meat I'm in the mood for. I think that this is the best sandwich I've made so far. Enough said.

 (Recipe makes 2 sandwiches, if you prefer not so much meat use 2     slices of each meat on each sandwich instead of 3, and if you want more cheese, just add more.I like mine with more cheese then in this recipe )

 ROSEMARY & SUN-DRIED TOMATO HAM AND CAPICOLA SANDWICH


Ingredients



 6 Slices Rosemary & Sun-dried Tomato Ham







6 Slices Hot Capicola







6 Slices Hard Salami







4 Slices Smoked Gouda







 4 Slices Asiago 









2 Onion Rolls








5 (Or However Many You want) leafs of lettuce





I also put diced olives and a diced up claussen kosher dill spear pickle inside mine.
& For condiments, I use beer & brat horseradish mustard on the inside of one roll and I know it sounds kind of weird but on the other roll i spread some vegetable cream cheese.
Enjoy =)

Friday, October 15, 2010

love pinups

Chefanie's Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

Okay, these poppers are nothing short of amazing. I've made them for a few years now and normally they are all eaten within minutes. I like the fried poppers but these are sooooo much better and they only involve THREE ingredients. 

-12-15 jalapenos
-1 8oz block of cream cheese
- 1 12 oz bacon


-I usually cut the jalapeno in thirds if they're big ones, if not I half them (lengthwise), cut off the stem and take out all the seeds. 
-Spread the inside of each jalapeno with cream cheese
-Cut the slices of bacon in half, and wrap half of a slice around each popper. Use a tooth pick to keep it in place.

-Bake at 450 degrees for 15- 20 minutes. Sometime I cook longer if the bacon isn't as crispy as I like it.

** You can also mix some shredded cheddar with the cream cheese if you prefer too **



Saturday, October 2, 2010

French Bread Pizza

I haven't been able to blog lately because I've been really busy....It is now no longer summer! I love the summer time more then any other season but I say bring on the foliage, apple cider, THANKSGIVING, halloween, and crock pot dinners. Glendi has come and past. I wish that it was a week long festival so I could eat greek food religiously. The food was great this year as usual. I still think I make better greek food then pretty much anybody. I will leave you with a recipe I made a few weeks ago, its really easy to make on a night when you don't want to spend too much time getting dinner ready. I made mine with eggplant and whatever I had on hand already. Obviously you can top it with whatever you want. Next time I want a spinach, feta, mozzerella one. With minimal tomato sauce.

French Bread Pizza
INGREDIENTS
-1 loaf french bread from the bakery
-tomato sauce, I used roasted garlic and onion sauce
-1 bag shredded mozzerella cheese
-1 eggplant sliced in 1 by 1 inch pieces (i used pingtung long eggplant from the farmers market)
-4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
-1 small container ricotta cheese
-1/4 of a red onion chopped
-olive oil

DIRECTIONS
-Cut the loaf of french bread in half and then in half again lengthwise
-Coat bottom of pizza pan with olive oil (not a lot)
- Saute onions, eggplant, and garlic in olive oil until tender.
-Top each piece with eggplant, garlic, onion, and sauce.
-Spoon some riccotta cheese on top.
-Sprinkle top of each piece with mozzerella cheese
-Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees

*I sprinkle with parmesean and oregano after its done*

Makes 4 pieces of pizza.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Chef Steph's Chicken Enchiladas

I have only had enchiladas once before in my life and I loved them...when my mom ordered them at Margaritas a few weeks ago, i knew I had to learn how to make enchiladas. I think this is my favorite mexican dish. Tyler said it was one of the best meals I ever made him....after 3 years of cooking for him almost every night that was a huge compliment to me...So here's the recipe...enjoy!


INGREDIENTS:
2 yellow hungarian wax peppers
2 red chili peppers
1 purple pepper (may be substituted for 1 red pepper, i just didn't have any red ones off hand or I would have used one)
1 purple onion
1 vine tomato (2 if you prefer)
1/2 can black beans, drained
Flour tortillas
at least 1 LB or 3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 cup of sour cream
Enchilada sauce

1 bag of colby-jack shredded cheese

salsa is optional to top the enchiladas with

DIRECTIONS:
- The first thing you want to do is cook the chicken breasts until they are done and let them cool off.
-Cut the peppers vertically in half or in thirds and de-seed them. After you've removed all of the seeds chop the peppers into small pieces, along with the purple onion.
-Put the onions and peppers into a frying pan with 2 tbsp of melted butter and fry them for 5-7 minutes on medium-low heat.(While these are cooking it is a good time to shred up the chicken breasts that you cooke and to dice the tomato)
-Once the chicken is shredded and the vegetables are grilled combine the chicken with the peppers,onions,and tomato.
-Mix 1/2 of the bottle of enchilada sauce and 1/2 can of black beans in with the chicken and vegetables and mix well.
-Lay out the tortilla and put 1 cup of the mixture in the center of it, fold ends and wrap. Place enchilada seam side down in casserole dish. Repeat until you are out of mix. For me it made 5 large enchiladas.
-Mix 1 cup of sour cream with remaining enchilada sauce and spread over the top of the enchiladas.
-Cover enchiladas with shredded cheese ( I love cheese so I used the entire bag)
-Cook at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
- Serve with more sour cream and salsa if desired

I'm still stuck using my camera phone so the pictures aren't the best quality.




Saturday, September 11, 2010

Remembering September 11



I will never forget the devistation and tragedy that took place on 9/11/2001, it was the first time in my life that I realised the harsh reality of how evil  and cruel some people in the world could be. I never imagined I would live to see such a tragedy.

 Four planes were hijacked in the USA...two hit the World Trade Center towers in New York City, one hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C. causing a portion of it to collapse, and one was destined for another landmark, but evidence shows that the passengers found out about the terrorists plans and tryed to take control of the plane...they succeeded in stopping the plane from reaching its destination ...Nearly 3,000 people were killed.


20% of Americans knew somebody who was hurt or killed in the attacks...There were only 289 bodies found "intact"....and a total of 19,858 body parts were found.
1609 people lost a spouse or partner and an estimated 3,051 children lost a parent. 
Nearly 1.4 million Americans changed their holiday transportation from a plane to a train or car in 2001.
This is the biggest catastrophe to happen to the United States since Pearl Harbor.


I hope that all of these victims and their families are in your hearts and prayers today.


September 11 2001 Video.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Confessions Of An Economic Hitman---one of the best books I've ever read...

"The US spends over 87 billion conducting the war in Iraq, while the U.N. estimates that with less then half of that we could provide clean water,sannitation,adequate diets,and basic education to the entire planet"...




More about the book...

Thursday, September 9, 2010

My 5 Favorite Actors

Robert De Niro
He's hilarious and he plays a good gangster.
Good Robert De Niro movies I've seen-
Goodfellas, Godfather, Righteous Kill, Meet the Fockers/ Meet the Parents...(new one coming out Christmas 2010 cant wait), Analyze that, Hide and Seek, Heat, The Untouchables
Morgan Freeman
Good Morgan Freeman movies I've seen-
Shawshank Redemption,Gone Baby Gone, Evan Almighty,Lucky Number Sleven, Se7en,

Edward Norton
Good Edward Norton movies I've seen-
Pride and Glory, 25th Hour,Death to Smoochy, American History X, Fight Club,
Matt Damon
Good Matt Damon Movies I've seen-
The Informant, The Bourne movies,The daparted,Eurotrip,Oceans Elever, Saving Private Ryan

Leonardo Dicaprio
Good Leo Dicaprio movies I've seen-
Shutter Island, Departed, Gangs Of New York, Titanic, Romeo & Juliet,


Ps- if i could have top 6 number 6 would be
 BRAD PITT OR MARK WALBERG