Tequila Lime Chicken

If your household enjoys "American" Mexican as much as we do... you need to find different ways to enjoy it at least a few times a week. Tacos are a staple like milk and bread in our life. Spanish rice can be eaten for dinner, snack, breakfast, or any time. This dish is a great one to enjoy in the sun with your favorite libation in your cup and a pile of friends!

Tequila Lime Chicken

What you will need:
1 Cup Water                       1/3 Cup Teriyaki Sauce
2 Tbls Lime Juice              2 tsp Minced Garlic
1 tsp Liquid Smoke           1/2 tsp salt (use the pink one if you have it)
1/4 tsp ground ginger        1/4 tsp tequila (i know that's not a lot, but it works!)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can use other chicken if you like)

What you will need for the Mexi-Ranch:
Ranch --you would be smart to make your own
Salsa -- you would be smart to save yourself some time and just use your favorite salsa

Mix the ranch and salsa with about a 50/50 blend. Mix together and set aside in the refrigerator until you need it. This also makes for a pretty nice tortilla chip dipper.


Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl with a whisk.

Trim up your chicken breast to your liking.

Place the chicken in a zip top bag and add the marinade.
Let the chicken marinade for as long as you can. If I have the time and the foresight... I like to let it go overnight if possible.

Grill your chicken until it is done and then you are almost there.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees or use your broiler for the next part.  Depends on how closely you want to keep your eye on the chicken.  Place the chicken in an oven safe dish. Spoon a couple of decent tablespoons of mexi-ranch over the top of each chicken breast. Add some of your favorite cheese, we usually use colby-jack for this one. Bake the chicken just until the cheese is melted and you are ready to serve.

We usually make Tequila Lime Chicken with the Spanish rice that you can find on this blog. You can do what ever kind of rice you like or skip it all together.  Our plates usually start with a bed of spanish rice topped with the fancied up chicken breasts.  We finish it off with some crumpled up tortilla chips and a squeeze of lime.

Steak topper to top all Steaks

I love steak. I love all kinds of steak. I really love a really good steak. If you think a steak is a steak, stop reading and go elsewhere. If you want a fantastic steak.... visit  http://www.stokkesmeats.com/. This place unfortunately does not ship steaks. But if you are anywhere near Duluth, MN for what ever reason, bring a cooler and stock up on what ever fits your fancy. Damn tasty steaks and other meat products. It is more than worth the making up an excuse to travel to the Duluth area. 

If you are buying good/great meat, you don't really need to add a bunch of flavorings to make it enjoyable.  If you always buy good/great meat... this is just a way to change things up. If you can't always get good/great meat... this is a way to make things a little better.

Things you will need
1 Can Chipotle Peppers in Adobo sauce
Steaks (as many as you need for the night)
Salt and Pepper as you would usually season a steak
Garlic (dried, fresh, or from a jar)
1 Stick of Butter
Lime Zest and or Lime Juice

I usually buy this brand
but you can buy what ever brand you can find. 

The steaks are a little different story. Good meat = Good Meals. Make sure you find a meat monger that you trust and provides top quality morsels. 

Let the butter sit at room temp and become soft. When you get the butter to room temp you can mix that with a chipotle pepper cut up in to small pieces. I like to add some diced garlic, lime zest from half a lime, and lime juice from that half of a lime. When you have everything mixed in that you want for your butter... place the mixture on a piece of plastic wrap and form it into what ever form you would like. I usually make it back into a butter stick, but another popular form is more of a round disc form. Place this in the fridge to let it form up.

If you are cooking more than a couple steaks or want more of a bold flavor... play with the amounts of each ingredient. Anything that you see on this blog, should be a suggestion or used in an advisory role, Some people like stronger flavors... others more subtle seasonings. Any way you do this one... it will be great! (As long as you know how to cook a steak!)

Cook the steaks to the temps that you would like and when you remove the steaks for their rest period, place a couple of slabs of the compound butter on the steaks and cover. Let them rest for 5 minutes and the butter will melt. Makes okay steaks yummy, makes great steaks super tasty! Enjoy this one with who ever is worth the current price of steaks!

Pantry Cleaner

Chicken, Rice, & Whatever you can find
This one was something I found when I had looked in the freezer and the pantry and needed to clear some things out. You can sub a few different items in this one and add or subtract as you choose. 

Things you will need:
1 Cup White Rice                                     1 1/2 Cups Chicken Broth
1 can Cream of Mushroom                       1 can Cream of Chicken
2 Tbl Butter Melted                                  1 tea paprika
Other Seasonings as seen Fit                    Chicken

I usually use bone in chicken for this one, but you can use boneless chicken breasts too. The timing will change if you use boneless chicken. The original recipe calls for water, but i like it better with chicken broth. I also usually double this up to get more rice and flavor in the mix. The amount of chicken is limited on how much can fit in the pan.

Turn on your oven to 350 and spray a 13 X 9 baking pan.

In a large bowl stir together the rice, soups, and chicken broth. This is where you can add in different seasonings as you adjust it to your individual tastes. I usually peek in the cupboard and see what is available. Once you have everything mixed together you can transfer this to the baking dish.

Place the chicken in the pan making sure to keep the top side exposed. You can then drizzle the melted butter over the exposed chicken pieces and then finish off with the dusting of paprika. I like the smoked paprika right now.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the aluminum foil and continue baking for another 30 minutes.  If you use boneless chicken breasts, reduce your cooking time to 45 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered. Always make sure to check your temperatures on your chicken. 

Cheater's Pasta

So this one is about making something fast and easy. Which I never do. But it is pretty tasty. You can take this and make it the long way if you would like with making your own sauces, but you definitely don't have to.

What you will need:

1 Jar Alredo Sauce  (15 oz)                               1/3 of a jar of Sun- 1 lb of Pasta                                                      Dried Tomato Pesto
1 Can Cream of Shrimp                                    1 Can of Milk
Salt & Pepper to Taste                                      1 lb of shrimp
Parmesan Cheese                                              Seasoning as you wish


You are going to need to cook some noodles for your pasta. What kind of pasta? What do you like? This dish will work with almost any pasta that you like.  I usually use penne, but anything will do. Start the pasta water off early because the rest of the dish doesn't take too long. 

Start things off with your shrimp. again there will be an easy way... or one with more flavor.

You can cook the shrimp any way that you would like.  If you cook the shrimp by boiling in a pot... I suggest adding some old bay or other seasoning to make it more flavorful.

If you want to cook the shrimp with the most flavor... i suggest either saute the shrimp in a pan with some seasoning or grilling the shrimp.                                                                or      

While you are cooking the shrimp you want to start your sauce. The sauce in this case is super easy. I use a jar of alfredo sauce available at most stores. The light and the regular seem to taste the same.
add about 1/3 of a jar of    

Add a can of milk and bring to a light boil and then simmer. I usually add a bit of pepper, salt, and other seasonings to this just to change things up a little bit. I also add the shrimp to the sauce for a little bit to make sure everything is on the same page.

To serve you will want to start by plating some pasta and adding some Parmesan cheese.  This will help the cheese to melt when you add the hot sauce with the shrimp.  This is a super easy recipe that can be made in a very little amount of time. If you want you could make your own alfredo and tomato pesto sauce, but that will add some time and effort. The cheater's way is to buy the store products. Ask Sandra Lee about it. The pic has some spinach in it too.


P.S. if you don't like shrimp you can cut out the shrimp and substitute chicken. Again, if you grill and season the chicken it will taste better. (You will also want to swap out the cream of shrimp for cream of chicken.)

Twice baked potatoes
-with help from Krista

I am not usually a person who will get twice baked potatoes.  I've worked in restaurants and to me all it says is they rebaked the potatoes from earlier this week. But Mrs. Krista Beiswenger has shown me the light. These things are tasty.  They take some time... i know... everything i do takes time, but they are worth it!

What you are going to need:
- 4 BIG russet potatoes (sorry Linus)                          -1 Cup Sour Cream
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup Milk                                                -1/4 cup butter
-1/2 tsp salt                                                           - 1/2 tsp pepper

-1/2 tsp garlic salt (i used minced garlic)                    - Chives (optional)

- Shredded Cheese                                -Bacon Bits (optional) 

-Olive oil 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Make sure you select some nice large potatoes for this. Place scrubbed potatoes on a pan with a bit of olive oil to coat them.  You can sprinkle a bit of salt on them to cook them if you would like. Bake them for about an hour or until done. 

Once the potatoes are cooked... cut off a thin slice of the top layer of each potato.

Clean out the potatoes with a spoon and place the insides in a mixing bowl.  Get as much of the meat as you can without making the skin fall completely apart.

Using a mixer, blend the potatoes until smooth. Once smooth add the milk, sour cream, butter, and seasonings to the potatoes.  

When the mixture is smooth again add in more seasonings as needed and stir in the cheese and bacon bits. Cheese. How much cheese? What kind of cheese? I have used cheddar and gouda as a mixture. It was really good. But I think you need to use whatever you like and as much as you would like. Start with a little cheese and add more or less as you make the recipe over and over (because you will).  Once you get things all smooth and mixed... spoon the potato mixture back into the shells. 


Top this yummy stuff with some chives and throw it back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes at 400.  Until golden brown and extremely yummy!

-thanks Krista! 

Spanish Rice

This one is from Peah.  It's pretty good.  I have tried it with Minute Rice and you can use other white rice as well.

What you will need:
1 Cup uncooked rice              1 Cup Chicken Broth
1 Cup enchilada sauce            2-3 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp Chili Powder               Salt and Pepper to taste
(you can also add in some cayenne pepper for heat)

-- Over medium heat melt the butter and brown the rice for about 3-5 minutes.  Get it so that it has mostly changed color a little bit.

--Stir in the broth, sauce, and chili powder.
--You can adjust the level of heat to your rice by using a different level of enchilada sauce. Aaron likes mild. We do hot.  If you are making a bigger batch... you can mix some hot and some medium or whatever.  You can also add a little cayenne pepper for some added heat too.
--Add your salt and pepper.

--Cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally
--When the rice is done and it has thickened up the rice is ready

--If you want you can throw the rice in a baking dish with some cheese on it in a 300 degree oven for a few minutes to met the cheese on the top.

Very good.  Very easy.  Enjoy!  I usually make a double batch, but that's cause I like to eat.  Single serving should be good for 2-3 people.

Mini-Molten Chocolate Yummy

So supposedly these are very easy to make.  I have asked Pops to show me how to make them for a little over a year now.  And last weekend he... made them when I was gone.  So I will just go with the recipe and the directions he gave me.  They are really good, but remember a couple of things when you make them.  1-NO MORE THAN 18 MINUTES Cooking time!!! 2- Ice Cream.  3- Milk.  You remember those simple things and you should be good to go.

What you will need:
6 Tbsp unsalted butter                        1 1/2 Tbsp Cornstarch                      4 oz semisweet chocolate
2 Eggs                                                2 more egg yolks                              1/2 C sugar
Fresh raspberries or strawberries (optional)      
Parchment paper (kinda optional)

And some small souffle dishes.  If you get the ones that look like they are about a cup size you will get three servings out of this.  If you get the smaller, taller coffee cup looking ones... you should get four servings out of this size of recipe.

                                          








-- Make the souffle batter the day before you'll serve the dish, and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Cold batter is easier to work with when molding into your dish.

--To make the batter:
---Melt the butter and chocolate together in a saucepan and set aside.

---Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a mixing bowl and set aside.
---In a third bowl, whisk the eggs and the yolks together.
---Add the melted butter-chocolate mixture to the sugar mixture and combine thoroughly with a wire whisk.
---Stir in the eggs and whisk just until smooth. Refrigerate.

--Either put a good coating of butter on the inside of your souffle dishes and don't use the paper or a light coating and then use the parchment paper to line your dishes.  Both ways will work.
--Usually a circle of parchment paper that is about double the size of your dish will work to fit in the bowl.  Tuck it in neatly.  If you are really worried you can then butter the paper too!

--Pour the batter slowly and evenly into the dishes.  Fill the dishes about 2/3 full. Otherwise they will spill over the top and make a mess.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
--Bake on the top oven rack for 18 minutes.  This goes for if you are making 1 or a bunch!
--If you need to... use a sharp knife and go around the edges of the dish to take out.  Maybe a little shaking and coaxing too. You can also just serve right in the dish, but the thing is going to be hot!

--Serve as you wish... but do it immediately.  Don't get burnt by the yummy chocolate inside!