Southwest Egg Rolls w/ Cool Avocado Dip

These are so delicious! Thanks for another great recipe Stefany!

Southwest Egg Rolls

2-1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend
2/3 cup frozen corn, thawed
2/3 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
5 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
20 egg roll wrappers
Oil for deep-fat frying

Avacado Dip

1 cup ranch salad dressing
1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and mashed
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon grated lime peel or 1 tsp lime juice

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the first 10 ingredients. Place 1/4 cup of chicken mixture in the center of one egg roll wrapper. (Keep remaining wrappers covered with a damp paper towel until ready to use.) Fold bottom corner over filling. Fold sides toward center over filling. Moisten remaining corner with water; roll up tightly to seal. Repeat.

In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat oil to 375°.

Fry egg rolls, a few at a time, for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, combine the dip ingredients. Serve with egg rolls. Yield: 20 egg rolls (1-1/2 cups sauce)

Better Than Chili's Fajitas

My friend Stefany had my family over for dinner last night and she made these amazing fajitas. The marinade is awesome and gives so much flavor to the steak and chicken. I think these are the best fajitas I've ever had!

Better Than Chili's Fajitas

Marinade:
1/4 c lime juice
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp liquid smoke flavoring
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or 1 lb. sirloin steak

Marinate the chicken or steak at least 2 hours or overnight in fridge (the longer the better). Grill chicken/steak over medium high flame for 4-5 minutes on each side until cooked through. Cut into thin strips.

In the meantime mix together:
1/2 tsp lime juice
2 T water
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
dash of salt and pepper
1 T olive oil

Place in a large skillet and add:
1 large white spanish onion (cut into strips)
1 green pepper (cut into strips)
1 red pepper (cut into strips)
Cook until slightly blackened. Add the chicken strips and serve on warm tortillas and top with sour cream, cheese, guacamole, etc!

Thanks Stefany!

Sundae Brownies

This is a great dessert to make when you have company over and who doesn't like chocolate and fruit together? Just a couple tips for this recipe, cut the brownies into squares BEFORE you put the fruit on. That way you won't have to cut through the fruit and it won't look like a mess! Drizzle the chocolate syrup over just before serving, otherwise it kind of melts and spreads and doesn't look as nice.

Sundae Brownies

1 brownie mix (13X9 pan size)
1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 small can crushed pineapple
1/2 c. sugar
Sliced strawberries and bananas
Chocolate syrup

Prepare and bake brownie mix according to directions, let cool completely. Beat together cream cheese and sugar, stir in pineapple. Spread over brownie going all of the way to the edge. Cut into squares. Place bananas and strawberries all over cream cheese layer. Serve on small plates and drizzle chocolate syrup over.

Chocolate Cream Cheese and Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I will now refer you to my earlier post last August titled Fabulous Fudge Cupcakes. I would highly encourage making that recipe with these frostings, it's to die for! Just a warning the cupcakes will come out flat, I like them that way, they are fudgey. If you would prefer a lighter and more rounded cupcake, add 1/2 c. flour to the recipe. Now for the frostings, they are delicious! If you like cream cheese frosting and chocolate you will love this recipe. I like my frosting sweet, but if you prefer more of a dark chocolate taste, only add 1/2 c. powdered sugar instead of 2 cups. The peanut butter and chocolate combo is one of my favorites, they look a little lumpy because I ran out of smooth peanut butter and had to use crunchy!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz. package cream cheese
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. heavy whipping cream
1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. milk

In a double broiler melt chips and heavy cream, stir until smooth, remove from heat
In a mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and sugar until smooth, slowly add the chocolate mixture. Add the milk until you reach the right consistency, beating just until smooth.



Peanut Butter Frosting

1 c. powdered sugar
1 c. creamy peanut butter
5 Tbs. butter, softened
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/3 c. heavy whipping cream

In bowl combine the sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the whipping cream and beat on high speed until light and smooth.

Chicken Salad

Thank you Pioneer Woman for this recipe! I've tried lots of chicken salad recipes and this one is my favorite. There are so many flavor combinations in here that make it good. I added the dill called for in the recipe, but I think next time I'll try a little fresh basil and parsley (I love that combo) instead.

Chicken Salad

2 c. cooked and chopped chicken (I bought a small roasted chicken and took it off of that, it tasted great and saved time!)
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 c. grapes, cut in half
1 Tbs. fresh dill, minced or herb of your choice
1/2 c. mayo
1/2 c. sour cream (plain yogurt can be used too)
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice
Kosher salt
black pepper

Chop all of the fruit and veggies and place in bowl with chicken.
In another bowl stir together mayo, sour cream, lemon juice, brown sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. When the dressing tastes right (must taste for appropriate saltiness!) pour it over the chicken mixture and stir gently until well combined. Allow the salad to chill for several hours and serve over lettuce, in a croissant, pita pocket, on bread slices, etc..... :)

Mini Key Lime Pies

I love making these, they are so cute! They also taste really good too.

Mini Key Lime Pies

Topping
1 box (4 serving size) vanilla instant pudding
1 1/2 c. whipping cream
1/4 c. key lime or regular lime juice
green food color
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

Cupcakes
1 box Betty Crocker Supermoist white cake mix
mini size baking cups

Frosting
Betty Crocker Whipped fluffy white frosting
1 Tbs lime juice
1/2 tsp grated lime zest

In large bowl, beat pudding mix and whipping cream with wire whisk 2 minutes. Let stand 3 minutes. Beat in 1/4 cup Key lime juice and the food color; stir in powdered sugar until smooth. Cover and refrigerate.

Heat oven to 375°F (350°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 72 mini-size muffin cups (if you don't have three mini muffin pans, just bake one pan at a time, cover the batter between bakings) Make cake batter as directed on box. Spoon about 1 tablespoonful batter into each muffin cup. (Muffin cups will be about 1/2 full.) Refrigerate remaining batter. Bake 10-12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Repeat with remaining baking cups and batter. Cool cupcakes completely, about 15 minutes.

Remove paper baking cups from cupcakes. Swirl about 2 teaspoons topping on top of each cupcake (I like to use a cake frosting bag and tip for this, but you could just as easily use a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off).

Stir frosting in container 20 times. Gently stir in 1 tablespoon Key lime juice and the lime peel. Spoon frosting into 1-quart resealable food-storage plastic bag. Cut 1/2-inch opening from bottom corner of bag. Squeeze 1 rounded teaspoonful frosting from bag onto topping. Garnish with fresh lime wedge, if desired. Store in refrigerator.

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Apples N' Cream Bread Braid and How To Pics

So I did try the bread braid recipe with the apple pie filling and it was delicious, it reminded me of an apple filled donut I had at Krispie Kreme years ago, so good! I did try a new cream cheese filling though and it worked out even better, here are some pics to show you the process of rolling and cutting out the braid, let me know if you have any questions! It turns out looking so beautiful people will think you are a master baker!

Cream Cheese Filling

1 8oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 Tbs. sour cream
1 egg
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Beat all ingredients together until smooth, about 30 seconds. This is enough filling for at least two braids, so cut in half if only making one.

For the apple pie filling I dumped the can of filling on a large cutting board and chopped up the apples into small pieces. I then scooped it all up and placed in a bowl. I added 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp lemon juice and stirred it all up, it was then ready to go!
Refer to Cherries and Cream Bread Braid post for instructions and bread recipe.
After brushing on the egg wash, I sprinkled raw sugar over the top of the Apples and Cream braid. drizzling icing over it when it is cooled is also really good, just like a danish pastry!
Oh, and I would highly recommend making this on parchment paper.

Double Peanut Butter Cookies, Yah Baby!

This has been my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe for years, I love the soft chewyness of it. I do not like those hard things with the criss cross shape on them (you know what I'm talking about!)
So I had this epiphany about adding peanut butter chips to the peanut butter cookie and they turned out awesome, careful though, when you start eating these, you won't be able to stop!

Double Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c. butter, softened
1 c. smooth Peanut Butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c. Reeses peanut butter chips (just eat the remaining 1/4 c. while you're making these)

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream together butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar for 2 minutes. Add in eggs and continue beating. Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir in peanut butter chips.
Bake for approximately 11-13 minutes until lightly browned.

Simple Steamed Salmon

I love salmon! I could eat it every day....
Anyway, this is my favorite method for cooking salmon, enclosing it in aluminum foil lets steam build up so the salmon is always super moist and delicious, very hard to mess this one up!
Sometimes I'll brush a yummy teryaki or maple glaze on, but most of the time I just stick to simple seasonings so that I can just enjoy the salmon's flavor.

Simple Seasoning:
All season's salt (I like the Simply Organic brand)
lemon
olive oil

Lay down a large piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet, place salmon on top, in the middle. Brush the salmon with olive oil, squeeze juice from 1/2 a lemon all over, and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Bring up all sides of aluminum foil and pinch to secure so that the salmon is completely encased.
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, open up aluminum foil so that the salmon is no longer covered and continue baking an additional 5 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

Cherry Cream Braid

This sweet bread recipe is to die for! It is so soft and moist and flavorful, I love making cinnamon rolls and even regular bread loaves out of it. This dough recipe will actually make enough for two braids, or one braid and 9 cinnamon rolls. My husband said it tasted like a donut, so that got me thinking.... I think I'm going to experiment and try to make Danish Pastries out of this dough recipe with an apple cinnamon and custard filling, I'll post pics if it turns out good!

Sweet Dough
(King Arthur Flour Co. recipe)

3/4 c. warm water
2 tsp sugar
1 Tbs active dry yeast
1/2 c. unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 c. vanilla yogurt (most small yogurts are exactly 3/4 cup, so that makes it easy!)
*You can also substitute plain or lemon yogurt
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla or almond flavoring, or 2 tsp. citrus zest
4 1/2 to 5 1/2 c. flour (to measure flour, always stir it to "fluff" it up, and then spoon it into the cup container and level)
1 egg + 2 Tbs. milk for egg wash

Filling for braid:
(You can use any type of pie filling, or a chocolate ganache, or almond filling would be good too)
1 can cherry pie filling
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Sliced almonds to sprinkle on top

In a small bowl, combine the warm water and 2 tsp sugar, stir to dissolve. Stir in yeast and 1/2 c. flour. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until bubbly and active, about 10-15 minutes.

In a large bowl (of bowl of KitchenAid if you have one) combine the yogurt, butter, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, and yeast mixture. Add the flour 1 cup at a time, mixing until the dough comes away cleanly fro the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and, adding only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface, knead about 5 minutes, until soft and pliable but not sticky. Let the dough rest while you clean and grease the bowl. Finish kneading the dough until it's smooth, supple, and springy.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn to coat all surfaces, cover with plastic wrap and a clean towel, and let sit in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled.

Before dough is done rising, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.

Preheat oven to 375

Gently deflate the dough and divide it in half.
Working with one half at a time, roll out into large rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Leaving half the dough uncut down the middle (this is where you'll place your filling) make nine cuts down each side to make your braid pieces. Cut out the four corners so that you have a lip in the center on each end. Spread half of the cream cheese mixture down the middle, place 1/2 the cherry filling on top. Starting at one end, pull the lip up and press down on sides to secure. Take one braid piece and fold over and secure. Now take another piece from the opposite side and secure, repeat with remaining pieces. Before you reach the end, pull up lip and secure and then finish braid.
Lightly beat egg and milk and brush over braid. Sprinkle almonds on top. Repeat with remaining dough piece or make into cinnamon rolls.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until braid is a golden brown.