yummy to my tummy

Williams-Sonoma always has yummy sounding recipes in their catalogs and I've always wanted to try them out. I finally took the plunge. Their latest catalog has Italian-American recipes and I've made three of them so far. Today I made the bolognese sauce and it is really good. I like it the best out of the three recipes that I tried. Isaac chowed down on it tonight and Scott really enjoyed it too although I only have pictures of Isaac. Try it out it's yummy!

Oh My Yum! Part 2

Last month over on Bake at 350 Bridget posted a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars. I made these last week and OH MY are they yummy! Here's the link to the recipe on her blog Bake at 350. Bridget is a great baker but she is known most for her cute, cute cookies. She made the cookies for my out of town wedding guests a couple years ago.

Oh My Yum!!!

The other night I made this for dinner. It's a bad picture but oh my yum!!! It's called penne with cream, asparagus and pancetta. Yes, CREAM. YUM! It's from this cook book (click on book to seen the link) that Scott's parents gave us for Christmas last year. I've been wanting to cook from it forever. The couple who wrote the book are clients of Scott's parents and the Sevs eat at their restaurant in Rhode Island all the time. It was such and easy recipe and so so good. We ate half of it in one sitting. It's basically cheese and cream mixed in with pasta and asparagus. Top it with pancetta and baked. I love baked pasta.

mmm King Ranch Chicken

A couple of you asked for the King Ranch Chicken recipe from Isaac's birthday party so here it is. I wish now I had taken a picture but oh well, you'll just have to imagine its tastiness. This was my grandmama's recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 package corn tortillas
• 1 3lb fryer boiled and boned OR 4 bone-in breasts baked (we used breasts for the party)
• 3-4 Tbs chili powder
• 1 Tbs cumin
• 1 onion
• bell pepper
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 lb sharp Cracker Barrel cheese + more for topping (we also add pepper jack cheese)
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 can hot rotel tomatoes OR for kid-friendly diced stewed tomatoes

Directions:

Saute onion garlic and pepper until soft. Add chili powder, cumin, soups and tomatoes. Stir until well blended.

Make layers in a casserole dish

• tortillas
• chicken
• soup mixture
• grated cheese

Cover with foil and bake about 30 minutes at 350F until bubbly

Enjoy!

Redemption

I have to redeem myself...this is a picture from last year of a gorgeous and yummy chocolate pie I made. Let's forget about the cake disaster even if it did taste sooo good. But back to the chocolate pie. This pie is highly sought after at all family gatherings. My mother once made 50 mini pies for a family gathering so that everyone could have their own pie.

Here's the Chocolate Pie recipe. It was my grandmother's...it may have even been her mother's recipe. I'll have to check on that.

Set aside in a bowl: 1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp/dash of salt

if lumpy make sure you sift

separate 4 eggs - whites go in separate mixing bowl

In a saucepan:

4 yolks - beat til creamy

stir in 2 cups of milk and put on medium/medium-high heat

stir constantly until mixed

pour in dry ingredients

stir while cooking until it boils for about 5-10 minutes, it should get thick

add 1/4 stick of unsalted butter

1Tbs of vanilla

stir until the butter melts and pour into a pre-baked pie crust

for the meringue: beat reserved egg whites 1/2 way until they are foamy

sprinkle in 4-5 Tbs or 1/4 cup of sugar

beat until peaks begin to form

spread over pie

(be sure your meringue is touching all sides of the pie crust, this will keep it from shrinking in the oven)

bake in a 400 degree oven (you must watch the pie at this point)

take out of oven once the meringue has browned.