Chicken Pesto Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms with Steamed Artichokes

This should probably be two posts.  The mushrooms are really the recipe and the artichokes are more of a how-to.  For some reason, I have always been intimidated about cooking artichokes, and therefore, have never done.  I really came up with the mushrooms to go with the artichokes, but they turned out really well.  They were inspired by this post from Proud Italian Cook.

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Chocolate Bread

I am just going to post a link to this recipe because I didn't change anything at all.  That is very odd for me as I can't seem to follow a recipe exactly, but this time I did, so you can find it here at Bread in 5.  Not to worry though, as good as it is, I am already thinking up adaptations of my own that I can't wait to try.  And, of course, I will share them with you.  The bread is really very simple to make.  It just has some wait time in there that you have to plan for.  I think it makes a wonderful breakfast.  My husband and I had it on a lazy Sunday morning for breakfast with strawberries, but I think it would be great for a special occasion breakfast -Valentine's Day and Christmas both come to mind.  It would also be a great breakfast to have when there are guests in the house.

Basic Yellow Cake

I have been searching for the perfect yellow cake for a long time to make for birthdays, weddings, etc.  This might be it.  I found the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.  It has a good flavor, and possibly more importantly, it is moist.  I never have trouble with other flavors of cake being moist, but yellow just never seems to be quite moist enough.  The cake was also incredibly easy to work with.  I used two eight inch pans, which meant I had really thick layers, so I torted them.  This was definitely the easiest cake to torte I have every made.  And, if that wasn't enough to make you try it, the fact that it iced so easily might do it.  I almost think I could have forgone the crumb coat.  All that being said, I am not one hundred percent sure this is the one, so I will continue to try more recipes, and keep you updated on the progress.

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Green Curry Chicken

I just love the coconut curry combination, and this recipe will definitely fulfill that craving.  It is just a quick throw-it-together kind of meal, but it has lots of flavor.  It is great for a weeknight when you want something really good, but don't want to spend the evening in the kitchen.  The amounts are really just guidelines and can be adjusted for your own taste.  For that matter, you could substitute any of your favorite vegetables for these too, but for me that coconut curry combination just isn't complete without the butternut squash, so I really recommend keeping it.  You could serve it over any rice, but I used jasmine cooked with refrigerated coconut milk instead of water.

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Daring Cooks Challenge: Braised Short Ribs with Grits

This challenge was a lot of fun and yielded wonderfully delicious results.  I used the hostesses (Carol) recipe for Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs.  I only made a few very small adjustments to the original recipe and chose give it a southern twist an serve it over grits instead of mashed potatoes, noodles, or polenta.  Here is her recipe with my adjustments added in.


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Soft Sugar Cookies for St. Patrick's Day

I have been wanting to try this recipe for a while.  I have seen it on numerous blogs all stating that these cookies are supposed to taste like those big frosted sugar cookies you see at the grocery store.  I know, cookies from the store are supposed to be bad, but how many people out there have never tried one of these?  For me, when my kids were younger, they were always the thing I would pick up from the store when my kids were supposed to take refreshments to something, but I didn't have time to bake.  After all, the kids seemed to love them, and if I were lucky there would be one left over for me.  So, when I was looking for something to make for St. Patrick's Day, I knew these would be perfect - after all, they are supposed to have colored icing and sprinkles, right.  These cookies do really taste very much like the store bought version, but they are better - more buttery and maybe a little less sweet.  I will warn you that having them around can be dangerous, so you might want to make them when you have plenty of people around to eat them.  My husband is used to me wanting to get my baked treats out of the house so I won't eat them, so he has offered to take them to work, but I haven't said yes yet.  I keep thinking that I might just want one more!

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