Saturday Night Specials

I think I like apricots now. When I was a child (I still am a child) we had two apricot trees. What a chore they were, when they were on we picked like crazy. We made apricot nectar, jam, fruit leather and some dried apricots. I don't remember having Apricot Chicken. Searching through my recipes I found several, but not quite what I was looking for so I mixed them up a little. This chicken was so tasty and tender the nuts and the jam add tons of flavor to the rice. Yesterday on my daughter blog she posted the song I Did It My Way, sung by the Three Tenors performed for Frank Sinatra. So here is my way Apricot Chicken.
My Way Apricot Chicken

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup wild rice
1 cup chopped nuts not fine
4 boneless chicken breast
1 cup apricot jam
1 cup low cal French dressing
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 c dried apricots
1 envelope onion soup mix

Combine onion soup mix and 2 cups chicken broth in small sauce pan. Cook rice in chicken broth instead of water. While that is cooking heat oil in skillet and add chicken and nuts. Cook chicken for about 5 minutes until brown on both sides. Remove chicken from pan and combine cooked rice, nuts, apricot jam, and French dressing mix well together. Pour rice into a glass casserole dish, place chicken on top of rice with dried apricots on top of chicken and bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

Awards

THANK YOU THANK YOU

Donna from My Tasty Treasures gave me my first reward she has an incredible blog where she shares the kitchen with her fire fighting husband. Check it out often mytastytreasures.blogspot.com

I am passing this award on to my ten most favorite blogs about food.

Linda from - imaweekendcook.blogspot.com/
The five sister -sisterscafe.blogspot.com
Katherine- Smoky Mountain Cafe
Cheryl -cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com
Laura- Real Mom Kitchen
5 Star Foodie
Joie- joiedevivreanamateurgourmetsguide.blogspot.com
Barbara- barbarabakes.blogspot.com
Julie- Pia Productions
Chocolate Blonde

Check out all of these great blogs and let me know what you think.
After you receive the award

1. Put Logo on your blog
2. Nominate 10 blogs to receive
3. Link nominees
4. Let them know they received the award
5. Share the love and link post of the person who sent the award.

Dinner and a Movie Friday

He is just not that into you

A few years ago when I was single I read the book and had a light bulb moment. Wasted time and energy. I believe allot of single women fall into this situation. The movie makes women look like they are stupid when it comes to dating most are, me included. A few big stars Jennifer Aniston, Ben Afflec, and Drew Barrymore. Some what entertaining and true about the dating life. All single women should see this movie and take it to heart.My mom always makes this pull apart on Christmas morning I missed Christmas this year and the craving was building. The cream cheese mixture add tons of flavor.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Pull Aparts

24 frozen bread rolls, thawed but cold ( Rhodes brand recommended)
1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup butter melted
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon each, grated orange rind and lemon rind
1 cup powdered sugar
5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Press about 1 teaspoon cranberries into each thawed roll. Place the rolls in a 9 by 13 inch pan coated with non- stick cooking spray. Combine the butter, 1/2 cup sugar, cream cheese and orange juice. Blend well and pour over rolls. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size.

Heat oven to 350. Combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the rind and any remaining cranberries. Sprinkle this mixture over the risen rolls. Bake immediately for 25 minutes or until rolls in the center are cooked through. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle over rolls. I believe this recipe came from Rhodes Bake-N-Serv but I am not sure.

Stay at home Thursday

I always wondered how this was done, now I know. It is not allot of work but a little standing time. So get it in the oven and forget about it. They serve this at my favorite places to eat you can have steak, soup, salads, pork, fish, enchiladas, and a variety of different sandwiches. This is what I have every time I go. I have tried different items but I always go back to my favorite. At the restaurant they call it Rare Roast Beef after seeing how it is cooked, I would not call it not rare just mouth watering pink. They have three location with different names and menus but all three have this sandwich on the menu. It is served with a horseradish sauce that you can pour on the sandwich or dip it in.

Never Fail Medium Rare Roast Beef

4 lbs or larger roast beef (try to avoid the fat)
flour
steak seasoning
Garlic powder

Have roast beef at room temperature (very important)
Dredge with flour combined with seasoning shake off excess flour from meat.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Cook 5 minutes per pound.
Turn off oven and leave roast in oven for two hours.
DO NOT open oven at any time until the 2 hours (plus the 5 minutes per pound) are up VERY IMPORTANT!
Let stand at least 10 minutes after removing from oven before carving.

I used sourdough bread, butter lettuce, thinly sliced red onion, Swiss cheese and lots of paper thin rare roast beef.

Horseradish Sauce

2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons horseradish
salt and pepper

Mix together and lightly butter bread use the rest for dipping.

Low Cal Wednesday

Several months ago Suze Orman was on Oprah talking about the deficit of the country. In the audience that day the credit card debt was over two million dollars. Wow you say. I believe she said the audience consisted of 250 people. She talked about ways people could try not to use your credit cards. One of her suggestions was to eat at home. We took this literally until today, I believe it has been about 60 days since we have eaten out. We do not have any credit card or any debt period but enjoyed the challenge to see if we could do it.

Today we are celebrating my parents 55 Wedding Anniversary. If or when I celebrate my 55 Wedding Anniversary I will be 101 years old. I probably won't care and either will any one else. What an accomplishment for Mom & Dad. We would have celebrated the 50th but we had a death in the family that week it was not time to celebrate. We get to eat out. Now I don't really want to go out. I won't know what the calorie intake will be, I will try to eat lite.



Since I won't be cooking today I am sharing my favorite low cal treat. They can be eaten hot or cold I prefer the cold method. They come in twelve bags inside this bag. I just keep in the freezer and get one bag out at a time. All natural soy beans. The pod is not edible. One of the best things if you are watching your cholesterol 0g of cholesterol. Great heart healthy treat. The FDA has determined diets low in fat and cholesterol that include 25g of soy protein per day may reduce the risk of heart disease.

Veggie Tuesday

Get out the blender or the food processor. This soup had so much flavor and was also beautiful to look at. I doubled the recipe because I felt like it was not enough for four people. It is very easy to make you could whip it up after work.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
2/3 cup sliced shallots
1 15oz jar roasted red peppers packed in water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons whipping cream
3/4 teaspoon grated orange peel
thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and red pepper flakes saute 5 minutes. Add red peppers with their liquid. Stir in sugar; saute 2 minutes. Add 2 cups broth and simmer 5 minutes. Cool soup slightly. Working in batches, puree soup on blender. Return soup to pan. Bring to simmer; stir in orange juice. Thin soup with additional broth, if desired. Season with salt and pepper.
Whisk whipping cream and orange peel in small bowl until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle orange cream over. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

Gourmet Monday

The oven probe! While I was fixing this dinner I decided to try and use the oven probe. We got out the owners manual and still could not get it to work. This again is another first for me. I have never cook lamb before. It was very tender with tons of flavor in every bite. It was very easy to make and looks like you worked for hours.

Oven Roasted Rack of Lamb

1 2-pound rack of lamb about 8 ribs
3 tablespoons olive oil divided
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon Greek seasoning
3 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 12 oz container cherry tomatoes

Preheat over to 425 F. Rub lamb with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with 11/2 teaspoons rosemary, then salt and pepper. Place on large rimmed baking sheet. Place 2 tablespoons oil, 11/2 teaspoon rosemary, and tomatoes in large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat; scatter around lamb.
Roast lamb and tomatoes until thermometer inserted into the thickest part of lamb register 135 F for medium -rare, about 30 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes. Cut lamb between bones into individual chops. I cooked the lamb for about 45 minutes it was to rare at 30 minutes.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2 lb medium potatoes
5 large garlic cloves roasted
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
3 teaspoons olive oil

I roasted the garlic in a Terra Cotta roasting pot while the lamb was cooking. Roasting the garlic makes it spreadable. Boil the potatoes until tender, add garlic and thyme to potatoes and serve.