Author: Jo

Homemade Marinara Sauce

If you’re in need of a quick and easy pasta dish, canned marinara sauce is probably the way to go.  But nothing beats the taste of homemade marinara sauce, and if you have the time, I would highly suggest trying this recipe before heading to your pantry to grab that jar of the pre-made stuff.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 2 (14.5 oz) cans of stewed tomatoes
  • 1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste
  • 4 Tbsp chopped, fresh parsley
  • 1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • Extra virgin olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pan)
  • Half an onion, finely diced
  • 1/2 cup of white cooking wine
  • 6 – 8 leaves of fresh basil

Add stewed tomatoes (including juice) to a food processor or blender.

Then add your tomato paste.

Finely chop or mince your garlic and add it to the tomatoes.  I think the more garlic the better!

If you’ve never cooked with fresh herbs before, this is flat leaf (a.k.a. Italian) parsley.  I think it has more flavor than the curly style parsley, but you can use either variety.

Give the parsley a rough chop and add it to the tomatoes and garlic.

Next, add the dried oregano.

And finally, season with salt and pepper.

Blend until totally combined and smooth.

Add your finely diced onion to a skillet coated in olive oil.  Cook at medium heat for about 2 minutes, or until your onions become nice and translucent.

Once your onions have been cooking for a couple minutes and are nice and soft, pour in your blended sauce.

Next add the white wine and stir to combine.  Once your sauce is bubbling, turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When your sauce has finished simmering, turn off the heat and grab a nice handful of fresh basil leaves.  Fresh basil has the most wonderful smell!

Tear leaves into small pieces and add to the sauce.  You can also chop the basil with a knife, but I like tearing it to give it a more homemade look.  Give the sauce a stir to wilt in the basil.

And there you have it!  You’ve made delicious, homemade marinara sauce!  Make it in bulk to freeze so you’ll never have to resort to the pre-packaged, processed stuff again!  Hope you enjoy!

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Cookie Dough Peanut Butter Cups

I subscribe to several food blogs, so every morning my inbox is full of new posts containing tons of recipes.  Some I delete automatically, like if I see the word “mushroom” in the title, and others I just know that I want to try immediately.  The following recipe was one of those “try immediately” ones, and I was glad I had an excuse to make it for our Bible Study instead of Steve and me having to eat them all.  After I read through the blog post containing this recipe, which you can find over at How Sweet It Is, I immediately texted our small group leader to request that I be the one to make dessert this week.

These chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter cups are SUPER rich, so make sure you have a glass of milk nearby while eating them.

Here’s what you’ll need:  (makes 24, but I doubled the recipe to make 48)

  • 2 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Melt butter in a small sauce pan.  Now remember that I doubled the recipe, so if you’re only making one batch you’ll melt just one stick of butter.  I tried to take all the other pictures as if I was just making the one batch so you wouldn’t be confused, so just keep that in mind.

Scoop out 1/3 cup of tightly packed brown sugar.  You’ll be amazed at how much more sugar you can get in the measuring cup after you press it down a bit.

Add brown sugar to the melted butter.  Again, this shows my double batch.  You’ll only want to use one 1/3 cup of brown sugar to make a single batch.

Stir brown sugar and butter together until the brown sugar dissolves and bring it to a boil.  Let it boil for 1 – 2 minutes then remove from heat.

Add peanut butter to the hot brown sugar and butter mixture.

Stir in peanut butter until it’s completely blended.

Then stir in the vanilla and set aside to cool completely — about 15 – 20 minutes.

Get out your mini muffin tin and add paper liners.

Melt milk chocolate either in the microwave (in a microwave safe bowl) or using the double boiler method.  If you melt the chocolate in the microwave, make sure you only heat it in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each 30 second period.

Spoon about a teaspoon of chocolate into each paper liner and brush up the sides using a pastry brush.  This might be easiest if you take the liners out while you’re brushing the chocolate up the sides.

Once you have all the liners coated in chocolate, pop the entire tray into the freezer for about 15 – 20 minutes.

Your peanut butter mixture should be cool by now, so pour it into a mixing bowl and add the powdered sugar.

Add salt.

Add the flour and mix everything together.  You’ll want to start slow at first or you’ll end up with powdered sugar and flour all over yourself and your kitchen.

Add mini chocolate chips and gently stir or fold into the cookie dough.

The cookie dough will be a little too wet at this point, so stick it in the fridge for about 15 minutes so it has a chance to firm up.

Take your chilled, chocolate covered paper liners out of the freezer along with your chilled cookie dough.

Scoop cookie dough into the chocolate cups.  I used a small cookie dough scooper, but you can use a spoon or whatever you have on hand.  I found it best to not add too much cookie dough (just enough so it reaches the top of the cups) because you still have to cover them with chocolate.

Stick the filled cups back into the freezer for about 10 minutes, and in the mean time, melt some more milk chocolate.

Once the cups are chilled again, take them out of the freezer and spoon the melted chocolate over the top of each one so it’s as smooth as you can get it.  You might want to melt more chocolate than you think need because I ended up not having enough when I got to the last couple cups.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this step, so I apologize about that.  Pregnancy brain!

Chill cups one more time so that the chocolate firms up and then they’re ready to eat!

I think it’s best to store these in the fridge too keep them as firm as possible until you’re ready to eat them.  And don’t forget to have that glass of milk handy!  You’ll definitely need it!

I hope you enjoy!  I know I definitely did!

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Chicken Parmesan

I’m always trying to think of new ways to incorporate chicken into our dinners.  This obviously isn’t a new recipe, but I hadn’t made it in several months (Steve is not the biggest Italian food fan like I am).  I originally found this recipe on the Food Network Website as one of Emeril’s delicious dishes.  It’s my favorite Chicken Parmesan recipe so far because of the melty cheese and the fact that you finish cooking the chicken in the oven, so it has a wonderful crispy outside, but is totally moist and juicy on the inside.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp milk
  • spaghetti or linguini pasta (you can determine the amount you want)
  • shredded or sliced mozzarella cheese
  • about 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling on top at the end
  • your favorite marinara sauce
  • extra virgin olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400° and position the rack to the middle position.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil for your pasta.

Trim excess fat off of chicken.  If you like your chicken a little thinner, you can either butterfly the breasts or pound them out a little flatter.  If you do, just make sure you adjust your cooking time since a thinner chicken breast will cook faster.

Here’s the seasoning I used first on the chicken breasts.  I got it at Sam’s Club, and I think you can find it at any major grocery store.  It’s just a mixture of several different spices.  You can also make the seasoning yourself — just Google Emeril’s Original Essence recipe and you should be able to find it pretty easily.

Lightly sprinkle Emeril’s seasoning on both sides of the chicken breasts.

Prepare your assembly line starting with the flour.

Add the egg and milk to a bowl and whisk together.

Your final step in the chicken coating assembly line will be the bread crumbs.

You can certainly just use bread crumbs, but I like adding some grated Parmesan cheese to mine.  I use about equal parts bread crumbs and cheese.

Mix the cheese and bread crumbs together so that it’s all evenly distributed.

Take your seasoned chicken breasts and coat both sides with flour.

Then dunk the flour covered chicken into the egg and milk mixture.

Then finally, thoroughly coat the chicken in the bread crumb and cheese mixture.  Try to make sure not to leave any wet spots.

Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat and add the chicken breasts.

Cook about 4 minutes on the first side, then turn and cook 1 – 2 minutes on the other side.  If you butterflied or pounded out your chicken breasts so they would be thinner, you may want to only cook them for about two minutes on the first side and about one minute on the second side.  I let mine get a little dark, so you want them to be a little more golden and not so dark brown, but that’s what happens when you try to cook, clean, and take pictures at the same time.  Time can get away from you!

Spoon marinara sauce over chicken breasts.

Then add a generous helping of mozzarella.  You can add a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese too if you want.

Place entire skillet into the oven for about 4 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and chicken is cooked through.  Switch the oven to broil for about 1 – 2 minutes to start to brown the cheese.

While your chicken is cooking, add the pasta to the boiling water.  Spaghetti doesn’t take very long to cook and you want it to be al dente, or still have a little bite to it.

When you take the chicken out of the oven, the cheese should be nice and melted.

Drain your pasta, and add it back to the hot pot along with some olive oil to keep it from sticking.  Then add marinara sauce and stir to coat completely.

Add pasta and chicken to your plate and enjoy the crispy outside of the chicken breading combined with the juicy inside.  Just perfect!!