Sunday Dinner

Here is a short posts for everyone, I am up early thanks to a particular blind/deaf Great Dane who thought it would be funny to wake Mom and Dad up at the butt crack of dawn by knocking several glass dishes off of the kitchen counter that hadn't yet reached the dishwasher. As you all are already aware, Sunday dinner is a big thing in our house for me and the hubby. It's the only day of the week that we get to eat dinner together so we try to do something special. We bought a slab of ribs to do on the grill and they were really good, but a really poor cut of meat so we didn't get much meat off of them. My hubby knows what he is doing on the grill so they were good no matter how much work we had to put into eating them. He made them by rubbing them down with our favorite rub and then once they hit the grill he basted them with a mix of beer and applesauce, heavenly. No pictures but I did make two new sides, marinated tomatoes and green peppers and a homemade garlic butter to put on our french bread that Daniel toasted up on the grill.

Katie's Marinated Tomatoes and Green Peppers~

Tomatoes

Tuscan Italian Dressing

Green Peppers

Fine Sea Salt

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:

1.) Begin by slicing your tomatoes, not too thin, not too thick. I used tomatoes that were about a week old so they were really soft, please use a tomato that is still fairly firm as it will hold up better during the roasting process. Mine looked more like soup when I dished them up.

2.) Layer tomatoes on a baking dish and top with a teaspoon of your dressing.

3.) Slice your green peppers into slivers, and coat with about a tablespoon of the oil and sprinkle on about a dash or so of your fine sea salt.

4.) Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit until they have wilted down. I was outside helping Daniel grill up the bread so I wasn't exactly paying attention to the time. You will know when they need pulled out.

Garlic Butter~

Ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Ingredients:

1.) I think this is pretty self explanatory but you finely chop your garlic, finely people, you don't want to bite down on a piece of garlic. Add to your butter and mix well.

We used ours on french bread. I sliced the bread into slices, brushed some extra virgin olive oil on each side and Daniel grilled them until golden brown on each side. Right after pulling them off of the grill I spooned the butter on to one side. They were really good, but I will pulverize the garlic next time.

Apple Cake with Caramel Icing

German Apple Cake~
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups apples - peeled, cored and diced

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x13 inch cake pan.

2.) In a mixing bowl; beat oil and eggs with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat well.

3.) Combine the flour salt, baking soda, and ground cinnamon together in a bowl. Slowly add this mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Fold in the apples by hand using a wooden spoon. Spread batter into the prepared pan.

4.) Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes or until cake tests done. Let cake cool on a wire rack. Once cake is cool serve with a dusting of confectioners' sugar or with a Cream Cheese Frosting.

Caramel Icing~

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons milk
3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1.) Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in the brown sugar and the salt. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the milk, stirring all the while.

2.) Return to heat and bring to a boil again. Remove from heat and allow to cool until lukewarm (approximately 20 to 25 minutes).

3.) Stir in the confectioners' sugar and beat until smooth and cool enough to spread. You might need to add a few drops of milk if frosting gets too stiff.

All I can say is that there is very little left of this cake. It was so good! I didn't wait the full 20 to 25 minutes before adding the powdered sugar to the caramel icing so it was still warm when I put it on the cake, OH MY GOSH. If you have never tried this dessert I beg you to give it a shot. I didn't have a full cup of oil so I added apple sauce to get a cup and it turned out just fine.

Chicken Fajita Melts

I stumbled upon this recipe a few weeks ago on allrecipes and I knew that I just had to try it. Our family loves Mexican food and we also love anything that comes between or on top of a nice slice of bread. I figured since I am doing a birthday dinner for my Dad why not try it out then.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 (6 ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sliced onions
1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
1/2 cup tomato juice
2 tablespoons taco seasoning mix
1 cup salsa
8 (1/2 inch thick) slices French bread
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

1.) Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, and cook and stir until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

2.) Stir in the sliced onions and red peppers, and cook and stir for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the tomato juice and taco seasoning, and mix well. Cook mixture until the juice has thickened and the chicken is well coated with sauce, about an additional 7 minutes.

3.) Preheat the oven's broiler and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source.

4.) Spread 2 tablespoons of salsa over each slice of French bread. Evenly spoon the chicken mixture on top of the salsa topped bread. Sprinkle each sandwich with 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese.

5.) Place sandwiches under the preheated broiler and cook for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

This was really good and really easy to make. I didn't add the tomato juice because I forgot to pick some up from the store, I just added water to the mix. Also, instead of using the broiler I preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and baked them for close to ten minutes, until the cheese was melted and the bread was crispy.

I would like to thank the academy...

as well as my loving parents, all 850 of them, as well as my darling husband. Sometimes I crack myself up! It is award central here at Katie's Korner and it makes me very happy to be honored by such wonderful people. I got a little bit of sun over the weekend so I am not really blushing, at least I don't think I am. My friend Raouly or Raoulys Girl over at Who has the Thyme was gracious enough to share this award with me. She has temporarily dropped the girl portion of her name and she is yet another one who I don't know their first name. I don't feel quite so bad because Polly didn't either. Oh by the way, Polly is 5th Sister, she shared her name with me. I visit their blogs daily and they always leave me nice little comments on mine and yet I was not aware of their first name. Does that make me a horrible person? I hope not! I think everyone just gets caught up in their blogs and blogging identities.

Anyway, the stipulations of this award were to post it to your blog...check, share with everyone seven of your personality traits, heavens to betsy this is going to be a tough one...however we will still check it off, and lastly, share the honor with seven other people...that's going to be another toughy...but check check!

Here we go starting with my seven personality traits, my Husband is sure going to love this one. I am sure he has a couple of his own that he would like to give me.

1.) Caring...I wear my heart on my sleeve which isn't always a good thing.
2.) Anxious...I have an anxiety issue that the Doctor is going to be putting me on meds for. I don't understand why I am like this but I can take the smallest thing and blow it into such a large porportion that I make myself sick. This is not a good trait to have when suffering with Crohn's disease.
3.) Funny...I like to think I am funny, especially when I am around my family. I get this from my Mom. When you put her and my Aunt Karen in a room together with anyone willing to listen to one of their stories...lord help you...that is all that I will say. Also on that note, never tell these two woman something you don't want the rest of the family knowing. The story of my passing out after getting a shot in the tushy has been repeated at each family gathering for the past eight years, sadly, these people still find the humor in it.
4.) Crabby...boy can I be crabby, just ask my husband. When I am in one of my moods, which happens a lot lately with being sick and irritable, you might as well just stay away. Don't look at me, don't speak to me, don't breathe anywhere near me. God help us all when and if I become pregnant and have those pregnancy hormones raging through my body for nine months.
5.) Impatient...yet another one that I wish I didn't have. I am by the far most impatient person around, that is if my Dad's family isn't sitting around. I think the Murphy in us has done bad things to us. We don't tolerate stupid people, large groups of people, and in the case of my Dad, people in general. We also don't like to wait for things. I hate standing in line for anything, part of that is worrying about having to go to the bathroom while standing there. That's why I refuse to do large grocery trips without my Hubby.
6.) Fearful...I am the person who always thinks of the bad things. The what ifs and maybe's. You want someone to burst your happy bubble, you come see Katie. Maybe the medication will help me with that one as well.
7.) Emotional...I think this one sums up everything listed above and more. I cry at commercials, sad and happy stories, and everything in between.

I wonder if drinking would cure me of some of these horrible traits. I would love to be one of those happy go lucky people that are ready to conquer the world. My luck I would be the one who ruins her liver...see what I mean. How many true drinkers out there think about that? :)

So now it's time to share this award with seven others. Do I know seven others who haven't already received this award...it seems to be getting around.

Melissa over at Schweet N Savory
Sheila over at Alice and the Mock Turtle
Cassie over at Cassie Craves
Rachel at Rachel vs. "The Kitchen"
Pam at For the love of cooking

Two more to go, this is pretty hard...

Polly at the 5th Sister

and lastly,

Colleen over at Cooking This and That

I guess that wasn't too terrible. They are wonderful cooks and I really like their blogs. I am very picky about the blogs that I follow due to the fact I only prefer the ones that serve food I can see myself eating and I really am drawn to them by the way their blogs look. I guess I judge a book by it's cover because if it doesn't scream out to me, I pass it by.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Daniel loves the tortilla soup that is served at Max & Erma's and it has become my mission to try to duplicate it as close as I possibly can. I have also been wanting to use my crock pot more often seeing as most nights I don't feel like standing in the kitchen whipping something up. I found this recipe on my favorite site yet again and boy is it delicious.

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Directions:

1.) Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.

2.) Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired.

This soup did have a bit of a kick to it and the only thing I can think of is that it was the diced tomatoes with the green chilies. Now if you are like myself and prefer things without that kick in the back of your throat you can substitute that particular ingredient with just regular diced tomatoes. Another option is that instead of using the chicken breasts, I used chicken tenders, they cooked up much quicker.

Stay tuned for a new recipe tomorrow. We are celebrarting my Dad's birthday which was on April 18th, I couldn't make that celebration so I am throwing him a belated birthday dinner. Our family loves fajitas and just about anything served between two slices of bread so when I stumbled upon this recipe on Allrecipes I knew that I would have to try it out on them.

*I seem to be having problems with the template on my blog so I had to switch to this plain jane one. I will working on getting the blog back on the pretty side of things this evening.

Award

Heidi over at Tried-and-True cooking with Heidi has graciously bestwoed upon me another blog award.

The Rules:
1. Put the logo in your blog
2. Write five things you are passionate about apart from blogging
3. Tag 5 people on your lists and let them know you tagged them.

Five things that I am passionate about are:
1.) Spending time with my family. I am blessed to be surrounded by some of the most wonderful people in the world.
2.) I love to cook and research recipe books. I love the vintage cookbooks that my Mother-in-Law gave me, I cherish them.
3.) I am passionate about my dogs, there are days when I wish they would take a walk and not come back for several hours, but let's be honest, I would miss them terribly.
4.) I love the thought of doing yard work and having a green thumb, but reality is, I can't stand to garden and I am so lucky to have a Husband who enjoys it so much.
5.) I love to take picture. For Christmas this year Santa brought us a Nikon D40 and I am never without it. People make fun of me for the amount of pictures I take, but I just gently remind them that they are memories and one day they will be glad I took them. Daniel said just the other day, he was glad we have so many pictures of his Dad who isn't in the greatest of health.

Now for who I want to share this honor with:

Sheila at Alice and the Mock Turtle
Cassie at Cassie Craves
My friend at 5th Sister, and it's horrible that I am not aware of her first name.
Kathy at Three on Food
Lisa at One Step at a Time

Pass it on Ladies! Thanks again Heidi, I so enjoy stopping by to visit your blog!

Cheeseball

Daniel and I both love cheese. We love it sprinkled on top of stuff, spread on and dipped in. I usually always have on hand the ingredients to make our cheese ball for those last minute munchies.

Cheese Ball~
Ingredients:
8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 package of dried beef, chopped finely
3 tbsp. onion, chopped finely
2 dashes of hot sauce
2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup shredded mild cheddar
1 tbsp. milk

Directions:
1.) Mix ingredients together in a bowl and then refrigerate for a few hours to marry.

Now how simple is that?? Hope you enjoy! Sorry about the horrible picture...didn't feel like making it fancy.