Fun Memorial day or July 4th treats!

Garlic chicken with creamy dijon sauce & almonds

My hubby loved this! You can also slightly adapt this recipe sprinkling crushed bacon on top. How good does that sound?

Chicken
Garlic - 2 cloves
Cream - 2-3 cups
Dijon mustard
Almonds - handful
salt/pepper
flour - tsp
bacon crumbled - handful
parmesan cheese
ziti
1 cup white wine

Cook ziti according to directions. Toast Almonds. Cook chopped garlic in some olive oil. Cook chicken (season each side with salt & pepper) in olive oil with garlic, on each side until browned. Set aside. Deglaze pan with white wine. When halved, season with salt/pepper, add dijon mustard, cream & flour to thicken. Wisk until thickened & combined. Put chicken back in pan to warm up & soak up sauce. Put ziti on plate, chicken on top of ziti, sauce on top, then sprinkle with almonds, shaved parmesan cheese and crumbled bacon bits (not in picture). Enjoy!

Sorry picture isn't the best, but this dish is tasty!

Fancy Phyllo Cup Party Treats

Frozen phyllo cups
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
2 tbsp. milk
1 package cream cheese (softened)
1 container whipped cream
Raspberry,strawberry or cherry preserves

In microwave, melt white chocolate chips and milk for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave at 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and melted chip mixture until smooth. Fold in whipped cream.

Spoon or pipe into phyllo cups & drizzle with raspberry preserves (might be easier to microwave for 20 seconds or so). Cover & refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish with white chocolate curls if desired.

Farmers Porch

I did it! Re-did the Farmers porch, it's ready for spring/summer! I painted everything (cushions, furniture, pillows), made flower arrangements & cleaned. Everything is spruced up & is now matchy-matchy! Here are pictures, hope you like:

Can't wait to sit out there with a glass of wine, my hubby & watch it rain! (:

POT PIE

Chicken Pot Pie & Veggie Pot Pie! I have to make both because some of us are vegetarians & the others don't eat many veggies! Of course, YOU can make with chicken & veggies all mixed together in one dish! I'll show you my dishes though, or you could make one or the other! My daughter LOVES the veggie pot pie! I used refrigerated biscuits for the top (quicker), but you can use pie crust if you want to make it fancy! They even sell pre-made pie crust, or you can make your own. Here are my recipes:

VEGGIE POT PIE

Saute Onions, Celery, Carrots in olive oil with a little pat of butter. Add broth when they start browning & saute until tender. Season with salt & pepper. Once tender, coat with some flour (about 2 tbsp.) & stir. Then add about 1 cup of milk & stir until thickened. Empty this veggie mixture into a bowl. In the pan, add a little cooking sherry to deglaze the pan. Then add some cut mushrooms, zucchini, whatever softer veggies you have (or add at end of cooking the harder veggies, whichever works). I had leftover zucchini from a previous meal! You can do that, frozen veggies (peas are good), corn, potatoes. Whatever you have & like. Cook until just tender. I also add about 2 tsp.'s apple cider vinegar for taste & Thyme, rosemary, sage! Herbs give a lot of flavor to the dish. Do the same thing, add flour, stir then add about a cup of milk. When done, put in bowl. Stir all veggies together, then put in baking dish (sprayed with cooking spray). Top with refrigerated biscuits. Cook 350 degrees until biscuits are lightly browned & veggies are bubbly!

Picture of Mushrooms cooking:

For the chicken pot pie, make exactly as above, except add cut up chicken. Great way to use up leftover chicken! Here's my veggie & chicken mixture in the bowl.

Here's the mixtures in the baking dishes with biscuit tops:

...and wallah! The dishes:

VEGGIE POT PIE:

CHICKEN POT PIE: