Nicole

Sweet Garlic Butter Sauced Pasta

November 1, 2012 Nicole

This is my favorite way to use up left over pasta of any kind. I have used this recipe with left over tortellini, spaghetti, and linguine. Anything you have left over will work great. I hate having left over pasta go to waste. It’s not that expensive, but waste is waste.

Before I was married I would make this sauce and add tortellini to it that would be my quick and easy dinner. Now that I am more frugal I use any left over pasta in this sauce to make a nice side dish for a casserole or chicken or whatever we are having that needs a little extra to go along with it.

Waste not want not right?

I have always loved the ease of this garlic butter sauce. I will admit that it’s not very easy for me to cook it slowly but cooking it slowly really is the key to the success of the garlic. There seems to be a fine line between overcooked bitter garlic and crispy sweet garlic. Patience is a must with this recipe but its well worth it!!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
8 ounces cooked pasta noodles

Directions:

Preheat skillet on a medium flame or on a medium heated burner. To a warm skillet on add butter and olive oil.
Once the butter is melted adds minced garlic.
Sauté garlic on a medium to medium low flame so that the garlic gets crispy and toasted but does not burn or get scorched. The goal is sweet garlic flavor not bitter garlic. Cooking it as low as possible is the key for success with this sweet garlic. Be patient it’s worth the wait.
Once the garlic is a nice toasted brown color add cooked pasta.
Mix pasta in the butter garlic oil mixture until pasta is well coasted.
Continue to heat until pasta is warmed through.

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Recipes

Butternut Squash with Brown Butter (Martha Stewart)

October 30, 2012 Nicole

My parents made yellow squash all the time when I was a child and I hated it. The only type of squash we ever had was yellow squash and to be honest with you I have never tried any other type of squash in my entire life until last week. I doubt I will ever eat yellow squash again, but there are plenty of other choices in the squash world.

Last week when my husband and I were at Trader Joe’s I found a butternut squash that intrigued me. Like I said before I have never had any other squash and for the price of $1.95 for a big squash I thought I would give it a try. My thought was …. What do I have to lose?

As apprehensive as I was about making the butternut squash it actually surprised me! I really liked it. Making it with this Martha Steward recipe it turned out tasting like a mild sweet potatoes. I was shocked at how much I liked it.

My husband was thrilled because he loves sweet potatoes and thought this tasted even better than sweet potatoes. I don’t know if I would go that far, but I must say this is a keeper recipe and so is butternut squash! You just never know what you might like you might like until you try it.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 butternut squash (about 1 3/4 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup low-sodium canned chicken broth
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon dark-brown sugar

Directions:

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until golden brown.
Add squash; sauté, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and tender when pierced with a fork, about 16 minutes.
Add chicken broth, the water, and brown sugar; cook until liquid has evaporated and squash is nicely caramelized, about 6 minutes.
Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper.
Serve.

Original Recipe Source

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Silhouette Sunday: Bridal Shower Party Favors

October 28, 2012 Nicole

I am co-hosting a bridal shower in a few weeks. The other host and I have been trying to come up with shower favor ideas. We want to give each guest a little something to take home with them just as a thank you for their attendance at the bridal shower.

The wedding will be a destination wedding so for most people (including myself and the other host) this will be our only way of being part of the wedding. The wedding colors are purple and silver so both of those colors were what we wanted to work with.

We went to a local card store in hopes of ordering some really cute favor boxes that we could fill with something like jordon almonds or even chocolates.

It didn’t take long at the card store to realize that ordering 25 small favor boxes would quickly blow our bridal shower budget. After decorations, food and drinks we were on a tight budget. The cost of 25 boxes was going to be around $50 plus the price of the printing ink, and shipping, plus a flat setup fee. WOW-ZERS!! Yep that would have sent us over our budget.

After looking at the favor boxes it hit me! Why not see if I could find favor boxes on the Silhouette online store. BINGO! We agreed on this cute little box. We bought some purple card stock and we are filling the boxes with Hershey kisses to incorporate the silver. How cute is that?

Our original price at the card store was going to be at least $60.00! Yikes! With a little playing around on Silhouette online store we made our own bridal shower favor boxes for under $20.00!

How cute are they?

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Recipes

Alice Springs Chicken

October 26, 2012 Nicole

On one of my many visits to Amy’s finer things I came across this recipe. Oh I couldn’t wait to try it! Chicken, Bacon, Cheese!!! YES Please!! All of my favorite things in one pan… Add a pizza to the pan and I would have had everything I loved in one. HAHAHHA!

When I first realized that this recipe has a honey mustard sauce I was a little leery. I like honey mustard, but I wasn’t sure I liked it THAT much, but I decided to give it a try anyway, and wow am I happy I did!!

This recipe is very easy to make. Dinner was literally done in less than 1 hour. I followed the directions exactly the way they are listed with no problems at all.

Dinner was phenomenal. I can’t tell you how many compliments I received. We had this at a get together of a few friends and it was a HIT!

The honey mustard, chicken, bacon, and cheese combination works incredibly well together. The chicken was tender enough to not need a knife, and the flavor was the die for. If you want to make a really good impression as a cook, and you are someone who likes honey mustard this is a recipe for you!!

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness (each breast was 6oz. for me)
Seasoning salt
6 slices bacon, cut in half
¼ cup regular mustard
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Sprinkle and rub the chicken breasts with seasoning salt. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon. Do not discard grease. Sauté chicken in the bacon grease for 3 to 5 minutes per side, or until browned. Move chicken to a 9×13 pan.
In a small bowl, mix the mustard, honey, mayo and dried onion flakes. Apply the honey mustard to each breast, then layer with mushrooms, bacon, and shredded cheese.
Bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and chicken is done.

Original Recipe Source

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Silhouette Thanksgiving Ideas! @silhouetteam

October 25, 2012 Nicole

I know I am jumping the gun a bit, but I am already thinking ahead to Thanksgiving and how I want to decorate the house. Taking down the Halloween decorations will be so sad if we don’t have something to go up before all the Christmas decorations go up. I hate the transition time between holidays. The house always looks naked.

I have decided that one of the many things I would like to do it make a Thanksgiving themed garland to hang over my dining room table. Not only will it make a nice decoration leading up to Thanksgiving, but it will also look wonderful while everyone is eating Thanksgiving dinner around the dinner table.

I have been using the Silhouette machine to make small leaves out of card paper check them out. Aren’t they cute? When I get the garland made and hung up I will post pictures of it. This afternoon I will be heading to the hobby store to find some ribbon to attach all the leave to. I have no doubt it will turn out cute!

I also made this cute little Thanksgiving box. I am thinking about placing one at each persons dinner place setting with nuts, or candy, or something else in it as a take home and a thank you for coming. What do you think? Cute huh!