Author: Nicole

Hi thank you for stopping by. I am very excited to have you here. Pull up a chair and have a seat, this is the view from my side of the table.
Recipes

Braided Spaghetti Bread

Nicole
Gorgeous!

Through Pinterest I found this recipe, and I am in love with it. It’s not that it’s anything extraordinary, but it’s fun, easy, inexpensive, visually impressive, and a great way to use up leftovers. Saturday night we had spaghetti for dinner. I just used spaghetti sauce out of the jar. I was short on time, and let’s face it… its easy!


I had remembered seeing this recipe on Pinterest and I decided to make a little extra spaghetti up to give this recipe a try. Admittedly I was a little intimidated at the idea of ‘braiding’ the bread, but in truth it’s really not braiding more like laying lol! I can handle that! I have included the original link so that you can see the step by step pictures the original poster posted. The original recipes comes from the Rhodes bread recipe book.
Pre-Baked
My Variation of Ingredients:
  • 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I used the store brand 4 cheese)
  • 1 small package of spaghetti noodles
  • 8 oz. package of mozzarella cheese
  • 1 loaf of frozen bread (Rhodes, or Bridgford)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 TBS Parmesan cheese
  • Dry parsley
  • ½ tsp. Garlic powder

My Variation Directions:
**Using Left Over Spaghetti** I used leftover spaghetti which already had sauce on it. I weighed out 14oz of spaghetti with the sauce already on it. I added an additional 1 cup of spaghetti sauce to the left over spaghetti and mixed it in well. This will help prevent the spaghetti from drying out as its baking. You will want to make sure your spaghetti is very saucy. I also took a knife and fork and cut the spaghetti into 1 inch pieces to make sure it would work easier with the dough and serving it.***


Follow these wonderful step by step directions CLICK HERE

Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Meatballs with Gravy

Nicole

I really loved this recipe, my husband on the other hand did not. I couldn’t get out of him what he didn’t like, but I thought it was great. I was more work than I really wanted to do that night, but the end results were worth it. The meatballs were tender, but not mushy, and the gravy was super creamy and simply delicious!


Meatball Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
  • 1 large egg, slightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (I used Panko)
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 -2 teaspoon season salt
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons dried parsley

Gravy Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions:
  1. Mix all ingredients meatball ingredients together in a large bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer to save time)
  2. Shape into small meatballs and set aside to get your gravy started.
  3. In medium saucepan, melt butter
  4. Once the butter is melted add the onions. Sauté onion until the onions are translucent.
  5. Whisk in flour and cook until bubbly, then whisk in beef broth. This should all be done slowly to avoid lumps.
  6. Bring to a boil, and add remaining gravy seasoning.
  7. Reduce heat and simmer.
  8. Add your meatballs to the simmering gravy.
  9. Gently place meatballs in gravy. Do not stir for at least 20 minutes (this is a must) or you will risk breaking the meatballs.
  10. After the 20 minutes are up you may begin gently stirring your gravy.
  11. Continue cooking in the gravy for another 20 minutes, and the meatballs will be thoroughly cooked.

Original Meatball Recipe
Original Gravy Recipe

Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Roasted Cabbage

Nicole


I love roasted vegetables, and for some reason I have grown to really enjoy cabbage. It’s taken awhile to get there, but here I am. It must be the German blood line in me creeping out. I still can’t stomach sauerkraut… maybe someday.

I was looking on Penterest a few days ago and discovered a cabbage recipe I had never thought of and one that was a must try. I wasn’t in favor of the recipe itself so to speak, but I was definitely in favor of the concept of roasting cabbage.

The original recipe called for lemon to be drizzled over the cabbage, but I am not a huge lemon fan. I love the smell of lemon!  I just don’t really care for eating it unless it’s for dessert.

I took the concept of roasting the cabbage and ran with it. I just so happened to have a half head of cabbage that needed to be used up, so the timing was perfect, and so was this recipe!

I love how this roasted cabbage turned out. I had no idea how good it would be in truth it was a shot in the dark, but one well worth taking. This will definitely be a recipe I will be making over and over again! It’s easy, and fantastic!  

Ingredients:
  • ½-1 head of cabbage depending on your needs
  • Olive oil (or any type of oil I used pecan oil)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees
  2. Line a jelly roll pan with tin foil for easy clean up.
  3. Slice cabbage into ½ inch slices and place each slice on your lined pan. Remove most of the stem, but leave enough to insure your pieces would stay together.
  4. Drizzle oil on each side of the cabbage and rub in. As stated in the original recipe you can use a pastry brush to easily spread the oil.
  5. Generously add salt and pepper to each side, then place in the oven.
  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cabbage is brown enough for you. I loved the browner areas, they were bursting with flavor. 

Original Recipe


Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Garlic and Parmesan Panko Baked Fried Chicken

Nicole

I was in the mood for fried chicken, but in all honestly I was being too lazy to be bothered with frying it so I decided to make dinner easy and go for oven “fried” chicken.

Most recipes I found online required you to use plain bread crumbs, but I only had Italian bread crumbs, and I wasn’t in the mood for those spices.  I decided to use up some panko I had on hand and a few other ingredients and see how it turned out.

To my surprise this speedy recipe turned out fantastic! The chicken had a wonderful flavor, it was crispy, and very moist inside. I typically don’t have a lot of faith in baked chicken because it’s just not as good as fried chicken, but this recipe really turned out excellent! 

Ingredients:
  • 3-4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 cup of plain panko
  • ½ cup parmesan cheese
  • 1 tbsp. garlic powder
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 eggs
  • Cooking spray

Directions:
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Spray a baking dish or jelly roll pan down with Pam or some other type of cooking spray. For easy clean up line your pan or baking dish with foil, then spray the foil with cooking spray.
  3. In a shallow dish add panko, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and mix together.
  4. In a separate bowl add eggs and scramble up with a fork until the eggs are frothy.
  5. One at a time take each chicken breast and add it to the egg dip, then add each chicken breast to the panko dish and evenly coat the chicken breast with the panko spice mixture.
  6. Place the chicken on the sprayed pan, then bake for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked in the center.
  7. It’s that’s simple!

 Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Paulie’s Cottage Pie

Nicole


After listening to my husband’s friend Paul talk about his wonderful cottage pie recipe I had to give it a try. I listened closely to what he was saying and wrote the recipe down as soon as I got home. I hope I didn’t forget anything, but I can’t imagine that I did. 

This recipe turned out perfect! I don’t know that there would have been anything else I could have done to make any better! It’s hard to top perfection! After all Paul is English so I suppose he would know how to make a rockin’ cottage pie!

This recipe is terribly easy!  You could certainly make this in advance as a freezer meal, or even make the meat and mashed potatoes up ahead of time and have everything ready to throw together as a quick and easy meal.

We all loved this recipe! It definitely takes comfort food to a whole new level!!
Ingredients:
  • 1 Bell Pepper diced
  • 1 Onion diced
  • 1lb. Ground Beef
  • 3 Cloves of Garlic
  • Salt and Pepper to tastes
  • 1 Can Campbell’s Chunky Vegetable Soup (Hearty Soup not the condensed)
  • 1 tbsp. Montreal Steak Seasoning
  • 1 pound of potatoes peeled, diced, boiled, and mashed
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese.

Directions:
  1. Bring a pot of cold water to a boil.
  2. To the boiling water add peeled and diced potatoes boil until the potatoes are fully cooked, drain, and mash.
  3. Add salt, pepper, and sour cream if desired to the mashed potatoes. (I did to make the potatoes creamy)
  4. In a skillet add ground beef, bell pepper, onion, and garlic, cook until meat is browned then drain off excess grease.
  5. To the ground beef add Montreal Steak Seasoning, salt and pepper, and mix together well.
  6. To a baking dish ( I used 2 ½ quart baking dish)  add the ground beef mixture, top the ground beef mixture with Campbell’s chunky Vegetable Soup be sure to spread out evenly
  7. Over the vegetable soup add mashed potatoes, and spread out evenly.
  8. Top the cottage pie with shredded cheddar cheese.
  9. Bake on 350 for 20-30 minutes until the cottage pie is bubbling.
  10. Allow to set for about 5 minutes before serving.

Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com