Happy Valentine's Day...pear oven pancake

Happy Valentine's Day to all! We have been celebrating all week at our cute little Valentine table for two :) I bought red chargers after Christmas on clearance figuring they were good for 2 holidays and the beautiful frosted bowl was a Christmas gift from Nathan & Tammy. Isn't it gorgeous?The heart plates were "won" in the Christmas exchange game a few years back, the white plates are my Mikasa Goodwill bargains, the red heeled shoe server was also a gift from my sister which is a conversation piece every time I use it for guests.
We used it one night last week when we had breakfast for dinner and served a Pear Oven Pancake.
I really have to apologize for showing my second serving on an already messed up plate but I was so anxious to try this recipe I forgot to take photos of our first servings!

Pear Oven Pancake
recipe copied and pasted from verybestbaking.com

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons butter, melted
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
* 3 large eggs
* 1 ripe pear, cored and thinly sliced
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 450º F.

POUR melted butter into 9-inch deep-dish pie plate or cake pan. Swirl to coat bottom and sides of plate.

COMBINE flour, 1/4 cup sugar and salt in medium bowl. Whisk evaporated milk and eggs in another medium bowl until blended. Add to flour mixture; whisk for 30 seconds or until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pie plate. Arrange pear slices on top of batter in pinwheel design, pushing down slightly. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Sprinkle top with sugar mixture.

BAKE for 15 to 20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Serve warm.

My notes: I made it exactly as written but served it with a homemade and winged caramel sauce, melted sugar over medium heat until golden and added a few tablespoon's of butter, a teaspoon of vanilla and stirred until all sugar was dissolved. It was very good and so was the pancake - we will definitely be making this one again so simple and easy.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

verasatile crockpot chicken...

Two weekends ago we were up at Jayme & Scott's helping to remodel their bathroom and Jayme made this crockpot chicken for the hungry workers. She served it with the guacomole on soft shell tacos and it was fantastic.I made it for ourselves this week, the first night we ate it as soft shell tacos.
And the second night, I added an undrained can of fire roasted tomatoes, a can of drained chickpeas, a can of drained and rinsed black beans, a can of drained mexi-corn (corn & pepper mix) and enough chicken broth to make the right consistency for soup. Served with tortilla strips and fresh avocado (and cheese for Jeff) it was one of the tastiest soups I've made.

Crockpot Chicken
recipe from Andrea Sonnek

2 to 4 frozen chicken breasts
1 package taco seasoning
1 can original Rotel tomatoes (do not drain)

Put in crockpot and turn on Low and cook for 4-5 hours, open crockpot and shred chicken with two forks and cook for one more hour.

My notes: I was making this from memory since it seemed so simple and forgot about the frozen chicken breasts. I had fresh ones so it only took 4 1/2 hours total for the chicken to be completely done.

Thanks Jayme & Andrea - this recipe is a keeper!

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca

This recipe was the cover photo on the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Cooking Light magazine. While my version didn't photograph as nice as theirs it sure was tasty.
Served with roasted sweet potatoes and leftover garlic mashed potatoes for Jeff it was a wonderful meal.

Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca
Cooking Light magazine - original recipe with nutrition info HERE.
Ingredients

* 4 (4-ounce) chicken cutlets
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 12 fresh sage leaves
* 2 ounces very thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into 8 thin strips
* 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
* 1/3 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
* 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
* Lemon wedges (optional)

Preparation

1. Sprinkle the chicken evenly with salt. Place 3 sage leaves on each cutlet; wrap 2 prosciutto slices around each cutlet, securing sage leaves in place.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan, and swirl to coat. Add chicken to pan; cook for 2 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.

3. Combine broth, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a small bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth. Add cornstarch mixture and the remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil to pan; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook for 1 minute or until slightly thickened, stirring constantly with a whisk. Spoon sauce over chicken. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired.

I made it exactly as directed. Jeff doesn't like lemony tastes to his chicken so I only put a slight amount of sauce on his serving. The prosciutto and sage really made this dish.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

the Great Cooking Magazine Challenge

Today, I am joining my friend, Suzy (Kitchen Bouquet), for her Great Cooking Magazine challenge. If you are like the both of us you have a pile of cooking magazines laying around because there is a recipe or two that you just have to try. Suzy challenges us once in a while to open them up and try those recipes we've bookmarked. Please click HERE to go to her blog and see her entry as well as the other's participating.

Last night we had a date night meal at home so it was a great time to use the new wine themed plates that Jayme & Scott gave me for Christmas. What is date night at home? Well for us it is me choosing all the activities, LOL! Actually, I make an effort to set a nice table and prepare a nice meal while Jeff opens a bottle of good wine. Then we went bowling for 3 games (on the Wii) before sitting down to watch the movie "I Hate Valentines Day".
The napkin rings and napkins were also a gift from Jayme & Scott.
I really like the wine plates, one plate features Venice...
and one Paris.
I had planned on showing a new chicken recipe we tried on Friday night but I'll save that one for later. Because yesterday, I received my March 2011 issue of Food Network magazine and it is labeled Pasta, Pasta, Pasta! The Italian Issue with a photo of Pea-Prosciutto Sauce over ravioli on the cover. This issue is going to end up dog-eared because I love pasta! The cover photo looked great and I had all the ingredients in the house so I chose this recipe to highlight.
Their website is still showing the Jan-Feb 2011 issue so since it is not yet online, I couldn't link the recipe. This recipe is one of many in an article titled Super Easy Pasta Sauces.

Pea-Prosciutto Sauce
Food Network Magazine March 2011

Cook 4 ounces chopped prosciutto in a skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until crisp, 4 minutes. Stir in 3 sliced garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon tomato paste; cook 1 minute. Ladle in 1 cup pasta-cooking water and simmer until reduced by half, 4 minutes. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and simmer until thickened, 3 minutes. Toss with 1 pound cooked ravioli, 1 cup blanched frozen peas and some chopped parsley. Top with grated parmesan.

My notes: To lighten the sauce I used 1 tablespoon olive oil instead of 2. In the same issue of the magazine was an article on lightening up alfredo sauce by using low-fat milk and low-fat neufchatel cream cheese. So instead of using the heavy cream, I used 1/4 cup skim milk and 2 tablespoons of the low-fat cream cheese. It was a great substitution and the sauce still had a rich, creamy taste. We served the sauce over our favorite frozen butternut squash ravioli (YUM!). I also didn't have parlsey on hand so that was omitted. Recipes like this that only use a TB of tomato paste makes me thankful I started buying the tubes of paste.

For dessert I pulled out the December 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine and made

Espresso Chip Meringues by Giada De Laurentiis. You can view the recipe by clicking on the titled link.
If you make 12 like the recipe says mine were huge - about 2 1/2-3 inch diameter.

Marsha - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, we will definitely be making this one again! Thumbs UP to the espresso meringues, I like the sweet taste and airy texture.
Jeff - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, he had a 2nd helping. Thumbs Down to the meringues, he'd rather have a real cookie as he thought this one was like eating styrofoam, LOL! Just means there are more for me to enjoy.

Baked Flounder

Per the American Heart Assoc. recommendations we have been trying to eat more fish in our dinner rotations. Last night, I tried a new recipe for Baked Flounder in Lemon Sauce from Cooks.com.It was quite good even though I had an oops moment when making the very simple recipe.

Keeping it real...Jeff grabs a non matching glass and I leave the lens cap on the table :) We are such low fuss diners!


Baked Flounder with Lemon Sauce
from Cooks.com

2 lb. flounder fillets
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 c. melted butter
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. grated onions

Cut fillets into serving size portions and place in a well greased baking dish. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over fish. Bake at 350 degrees (20-25 minutes). Serves 6.

My notes: To lighten the recipe I only used 1/4 cup melted butter and I used my new Hungarian Sweet Kulonleges Paprika from Penzeys.com. My OOPS moment came when I didn't put on my reading glasses and put in 2 TB of onion instead of 2 tsp - it still was good but maybe a little overpowered by the onions. I will definitely be making this one again and actually put on the glasses.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Valentine's blend

A few weeks ago my friend, Debbie (Mountain Breath), did a beautiful tablescape post highlighting her new cardinal dinnerware. You can view her post HERE. In the post, a tin of Valentine's Blend chocolate and rosebud tea was shown so I asked her what it tasted like since I couldn't imagine the taste combination. She said it was hard to explain and so she sent me some, Thank you, Debbie! It's cold today so I used my tea set that my sister brought me home from Japan several years ago. The cups don't have handles so it's nice to cradle the warm cup in your hands to warm up.The taste is hard to describe, I smelled the chocolate more than I tasted it and spied the rosebuds in the leaves but can't say their flavor was overwhelming either. It was a great tea to break my usual green tea with lemon habit and I definitely will have it again. While I drank my tea I snacked on my new favorite cocoa roast almonds. They don't have any more calories or fat than plain almonds so they are a healthy treat that tastes a teensy bit decadent.


Marsha - Thumbs Up to the tea & almonds.
Jeff - hates tea but Thumbs Up to the almonds.

Interesting story, I grew up in a family that always had afternoon tea. As kids when we got off the school bus our farmer dad was in the house for his afternoon break and mom had tea ready with a homemade treat. We started young by having tea with milk and sugar which was mostly warm milk with a splash of tea and we later graduated to a cup of tea with a splash of milk. I don't think I had straight tea until I was a married adult which is how I usually drink it now. Oops, I got off topic - the story here is how much Jeff wanted to impress my parents the first time he met them. He arrived at our home just as tea was being served and mom poured him a cupful. He hated tea and tried to force it down and thought the milk and sugar made it even worse. Just as he got half a cup down, dad warmed it up by filling the cup back up again! He finally managed to drink it all and politely declined more but let me know later to never invite him over at tea time again :)

Parmesan Baked Walleye...

Jeff & I are trying to eat healthier so instead of the usual fried fish I tried a new recipe for Parmesan Baked Walleye. I served it over wild rice with onions, mushrooms & peas. While I love my dining room sometimes it is fun to eat in the family room so we recently added a bar height table for two. Perfect for playing gin rummy too! You'll start to see this table a lot as I look forward to starting to join in some of the table setting memes that are out in blogland.

Parmesan Baked Walleye

1 lb walleye fillets
1/4 cup olive oil
2 TB fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (I use shredded)
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 TB dried parsley
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper

Mix together the parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, salt and pepper. Cut fillets into serving size pieces, dip into mixture of olive oil and lemon juice. Coat with the parmesan/crumb mixture and place fish in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. Bake uncovered in a 500F degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until fillets are opaque and flake easily.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP