Baked Buffalo Chicken Pasta

The buffalo + chicken + cheese combination is a real winner in my house. Those three in combination with about anything else is almost guaranteed to be a hit with my husband. It's his own personal trifecta, if you will. When I asked if this buffalo chicken pasta sounded good for dinner, I'm pretty sure he responded with something along the lines of "Good God, yes."

There is a bit of prep for this dinner, but it could actually be broken down a bit or done in advance. I had some leftover chicken breast that I was able to use, and I cooked both my pasta and the cheese sauce at the same time. I believe everything was ready to be put in the oven about 25 minutes after I started. While it was baking into a spicy, cheese-laden pan of deliciousness, my lovely husband cleaned up the pre-dinner dishes. I think it was his little way of telling me he would support the making of this dish whenever I decided to make it. I {heart} teamwork. ;)

The finished product was delicious, but was lacking that little extra oomph that we were hoping to have from the buffalo sauce. It may have been that I was just short of the 1/3 c. needed, but next time, I'll go a little more heavy handed on it. We added some extra to the leftovers and it was delicious. The cilantro, green onions, and blue cheese really finished the dish beautifully. Even our youngest enjoyed eating the "spicy macaroni and cheese." Maybe she's just a girl after her daddy's heart.

Baked Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Serves: 4-6 main dish portions

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. pasta (I used orecchiette)
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into chunks
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 4 oz. grated monterey jack cheese (I used half a brick) + more for topping
• 1/3 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese + more for topping
• 1/3 c. buffalo wing sauce
• 1/3 c. panko bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• For garnish: 3/4 cup chopped green onions, 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, 1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese, additional buffalo wing sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Prepare water for pasta and cook according to directions.

While pasta is cooking, heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter, and once it’s melted and bubbly add the flour. Whisk together to create a roux and cook for 1-2 minutes until mixture gets a bit golden in color. Add milk, stir and turn down heat to low. Continue stirring until milk thickens. Add in grated cheeses and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Stir in buffalo wing sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Spray a baking dish (9 x 13 is fine) with non-stick spray. Add pasta and chicken, then pour cheese sauce over and mix throughly until everything is coated. Sprinkle with additional grated cheese and bread crumbs. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is golden brown. Remove from oven and serve with gorgonzola, green onions and cilantro. Drizzle with buffalo wing sauce.

Source: How Sweet Eats

Mini Meatball Sliders with Basil Pesto

There are a lot of things pesto goes well with: pizza; pasta; as a dressing for salad; on a turkey sandwich. But adding it in addition to a marinara sauce was new to me. If it's a new concept for you as well, let me tell you, it's delicious.

The marinara sauce alone is a great reason to make this sandwich. It's honestly one of the best homemade sauces I've ever had. Whether it's the blend of ingredients, the length of time it simmers, or the fact that the meatballs are actually cooked in the sauce that make it so good, I'm not sure. All I know is that I want to eat it by the spoonful, find bread to dip in it, and may have done a mini happy dance when I realized there would be leftovers for another meal.

On to the meatballs: I was a bit skeptical of cooking the meatballs in the sauce. Would they be cooked all the way through? Would I miss the browning on the outside? I should not have worried. They turned out delicious, and were cooked all the way through. The only change I would make to the meatballs would be a bit more seasoning. They were good, but a little crushed red pepper flakes, or a little more of the garlic/basil combo would not have been a bad thing.

The total cook time on this is a little daunting as the sauce simmers for just under two hours, but it's a lot of inactive, hands off time. And trust me, totally worth it.

Two of these sandwiches with some chips and a salad made a great dinner, but I could just as easily see making these to snack on while watching some football, or having friends over. You can easily freeze any leftover sauce to pull out for a quick spaghetti dinner. It's really something special.

Mini Meatball Sliders with Basil Pesto 

Yield: Approx. 20 sliders

Ingredients:
For the sauce:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (28 oz.) can tomato puree
• 1 (28 oz.) can tomato sauce
• 2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• Water (optional)

For the meatballs:

• ½ cup breadcrumbs, divided (I like panko)
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. dried parsley
• ½ tsp. dried basil

For the pesto:

• 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 small cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp. pine nuts
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the sliders:

• About 2 dozen white dinner rolls
• Spray olive oil
• Sliced provolone cheese (about 12 slices, depending on size)

To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the onion to the pot and sauté until tender, 5-8 minutes.  Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, stirring, about 1 minute.  Add the tomato puree, tomato sauce, parsley, basil, oregano, salt and sugar.  Add water to thin the sauce out to your desired consistency.  Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Let simmer for at least 2 hours.

To make the meatballs, combine ¼ cup of the breadcrumbs with the milk in a medium mixing bowl.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Add the remaining breadcrumbs, ground beef, egg, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley and basil to the bowl.  Mix well until thoroughly combined.  Form into meatballs, about 1¼ inches in diameter.  Add the meatballs to the simmering sauce about 45 minutes before the sauce is finished. Cover and let simmer until the meatballs are cooked through, 35-45 minutes.

To make the pesto, combine the basil, garlic and pine nuts in the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse until finely chopped.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  With the processor running, add the olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube until well incorporated.  Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and stir in the grated Parmesan.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble the sliders, preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  Slice the dinner rolls in half and lay open on a baking sheet.  Spray the rolls lightly with olive oil.  Bake for 5 minutes, just until lightly toasted.  Slice a cooked meatball in half and place both halves on the bottom portion of a roll, flat side down.  Spoon a small amount of sauce over the meatball.  Top with sliced provolone.  Repeat with the remaining rolls.  Bake again, 5 minutes more, just until the cheese is melted.  Spoon a small amount of additional sauce over the provolone, and finish small spoonful of the pesto on top.  Serve immediately.

Source:  Annie's Eats

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

Fall is my favorite season: leaves changing, OSU football (though that hasn't been much to celebrate as of late. Geesh!), cooler nights, and all the tasty pumpkin and apple treats. It seem as though my Google Reader is overflowing with sumptuous treats to try, but this one practically begged to be tried.

A perfectly spiced pumpkin cake-like cookie, sandwiched with a smooth and beautiful cream cheese filling screams fall to me like nothing else. My friend Jo said they tasted a lot like a little pumpkin roll and I completely agree. As it turns out, I really needed some fall goodness in my life and promptly inhaled more of these than I care to admit in such a public forum. They are addictive. You've been warned.

If you need a little extra fall goodness in your life too, these are a great place to start. I used both my mini scoop and my cookie dough scoop to make several different sizes and it worked out perfectly. The recipe yielded a ton of these tasty treats (something close to 38-40 mini sandwiches and 10 regular sized) and was pretty simple to put together. All the cookie ingredients are mixed with a whisk, and a mixer is only needed for the icing. The icing included maple syrup to give it that extra little something-something, but mine got lost in there somewhere. Next time I make these, I'm pulling out the Grade B maple syrup and using that instead.

They seemed to keep fine for about two days in the fridge. After eating our fair share and sharing with friends, family, and neighbors, we didn't have any that lasted past two days. :)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 TBSP cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup canola oil
• 3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk to sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.

Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to drop heaping TBSP (or smaller) of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling.

Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Filling
Ingredients:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3 TBSP maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese an beat until combined. Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to over-beat the filling, or it will lose structure.

To assemble:
Turn half the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe filling (about a TBSP) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoopie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.

Source: Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, who adapted it from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Mini Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

What is there to say about these cookies? The title is alluring enough for me, but if you need more convincing, what if I told you that the edges are crispy while the middle is chewy; they are delicious both right out of the oven and after they've cooled down; and the dark brown sugar that is used adds a depth of flavor to these cookies that is really tasty. (I'm not gonna lie - using the dark brown sugar was a little scary and left me wondering if I had screwed everything up by not using good, old, reliable light brown sugar. Turns out, I was worrying needlessly.) If you don't have dark brown sugar, these cookies will still be delicious with light brown sugar substituted, I assure you.

I used a little package of mini peanut butter cups I picked up at Trader Joe's (what don't they carry?!), but this recipe would work splendidly with those new mini Reese's cups, or even the regular traditional sized, just cut into smaller chunks.

Serve warm or cold with a tall glass of milk. Sigh a happy sigh. Repeat.

Mini Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Yield: 18 large- / 36 regular-sized cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups + 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 12 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 12 oz. package mini peanut butter cups (unwrapped, and chopped if not already bite-sized)

Preheat oven to 325°. Line two baking sheets with parchment or a silicon mat. Place butter and sugars in a mixer bowl, mix on medium high until well-combined, 2-3 minutes. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix on low just until combined. Stir in peanut butter cups until distributed. Chill dough 15 minutes.

Scoop 1/4-cup dough balls onto a lined baking sheet (if making large). Bake 11-15 minutes, until the edges brown and the center is still soft. Let cool on the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Source: Slightly adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride, originally adapted from Cook's Illustrated Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easy Chocolate Marshmallow Fondue

My mom gave my husband and I this fun little fondue pot for our anniversary this year. Our daughters instantly wanted to break it in as they are no strangers to the deliciousness of chocolate fondue. Mama didn't raise no fools, if you know what I mean. :)

The girls helped me prep the ingredients and create our "dippers" list (I had our 7-yr. old write them down to encourage her to spell/sound them out). Then they watched in anticipation as we poured the chocolate-marshmallow fondue goodness into the bowl.

It was finger-licking good!

Easy Chocolate Marshmallow Fondue

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. milk chocolate, broken
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 5 large marshmallow, cut up
• 2 Tbsp. whipping cream
• Cubed fruit, cake, graham crackers, or marshmallows for dipping

Place the chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, add the marshmallows and milk, and microwave in 15 second increments, stirring after each increment, until the chocolate and marshmallows are melted. Add whipping cream as needed until smooth. Re-warm an additional 15 seconds if needed, then place in fondue pot or bowl over a lit candle. 


Serve with fruit, angel food cake, graham crackers, marshmallow, cookies, etc. for dipping.

Source: Slightly adapted from Tasty Kitchen

Breakfast Sandwich Goodness

So this post isn't so much a recipe as it is a method: A very delicious and buttery method, at that. Think of it as a breakfast sandwich that puts others to shame. What's the secret? Simple. Tender, savory scones.

Prior to meeting AJ Perry, the creative and culinary genius behind Sassafras Bakery, I had only had a savory scone once before. It was delicious, but wasn't something I craved.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago: While talking with AJ about savory scones, she recommended warming the scone, and sandwiching a couple eggs in it. Intrigued, I tried it. It is not an understatement to say I was blown away. The tender scone was the perfect vehicle for transporting my fried egg white and cheesy goodness into my belly. The first scone I tried was a Sassafras's Roasted Corn and Jalapeno Scone, but my breakfast sandwich was equally delicious with the Butternut Squash and Spinach scone pictured above.

I would go so far as to say that about any savory combination would make a delicious egg sandwich: Ham and Gruyere (this one is a biscuit, but it's kinda like a scone), Bacon and Cheddar, Cheddar and Dill, and the list could go on. While I've never made any of the above, I've had them bookmarked to try for a long time.

Or, if baking one isn't your thing or you just want an amazing scone made for you, Sassafras Bakery usually has a savory option at the Worthington Farm Market every Saturday morning. Her scones are also sold at several retail locations around Columbus. You can check out her savory selection here.

Corn Cakes with Tomato Relish

 

We've enjoyed so much farm-fresh produce through our farm market this year, and while I'm excited about fall being just around the corner, I'm really going to miss all the delicious local veggies we've been eating this summer.

These corn cakes are a tasty way to enjoy the last couple weeks of summer corn and tomatoes. The corn cakes are crispy, the tomato relish is very fresh and flavorful, and the ranch gives the dish the creamy finish it needs. We ate these as a light lunch, but they would also make a delicious side.

Summer won't be around for much longer, so enjoy this one while you can!

Corn Cakes

Yield: 12 Corn Cakes

Ingredients:
For the corn cakes:

• 3 large ears of corn, shucked
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cornmeal
• ¼ cup red onion, finely diced
• ¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp. buttermilk
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• Canola or vegetable oil, for frying

For the relish:

• 1 large tomato, cored and chopped
• 1 scallion, minced
• 1 tbsp. minced fresh basil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Juice of half a lime
• 1½ tsp. olive oil
• 1½ tsp. white wine vinegar
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 ripe avocado, pitted and diced (I did not include)
• Ranch dressing (optional)

Cut the corn kernels off of the cobs and  place in a large bowl. Place 2 cups of the corn kernels in the food  processor and pulse several times, until the corn is slightly pureed but  still chunky. Scrape the mixture into the bowl with the remaining corn  kernels. Add the flour, cornmeal, onion, basil, baking powder, and  baking soda to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir to  mix well. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and butter, and stir just to  combine.

To make the salsa, combine all of the  ingredients except the avocado in a medium bowl and mix well to combine. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 2 days. Just before  serving, mix in the avocado.

Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add just enough oil to barely cover the bottom of the pan and heat  until sizzling hot. Scoop the batter into the skillet a heaping  tablespoon at a time, cooking the cakes in batches of 4 or 5 so that  they are not touching. Fry 1-2 minutes per side, until golden brown. Transfer the cooked cakes to a wire rack and repeat with the remaining  batter.

Serve immediately topped with the relish and drizzled with ranch dressing, if desired.

Source: Annie's Eats, originally from Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen