Greek Chicken Skewers with Greek Lemon Mayonnaise on Pita Bread

Hello everyone! Last night I was feeling inspired and decided to try my hand at inventing a recipe! So, I came up with this chicken recipe which was fabulous, so, I thought I would share it with you. Please try it and any feed back is welcome! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Chicken Skewers:

4 chicken breasts, diced

2 shallots, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 lemon (you will need both juice and rind)

a couple of tablespoons of olive oil

dried thyme

dried oregano

salt and pepper

4 - 6 pita breads

Lemon Mayonnaise:

1/2 cup mayonnaise (not Miracle whip!)

1/2 lemon rind

pinch of dried oregano

salt and pepper

In a bowl, place shallots, garlic cloves, juice and rind of lemon, olive oil, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper. Whisk together, and then, add chicken cubes. Place in the fridge for about an hour - do not marinade any longer than an hour, as the lemon will begin to "cook" your chicken.

Preheat your grill.

After the chicken has marinaded for an hour, skewer the chicken on soaked wooden skewers, or stainless steel skewers. Place on the grill and grill for a bout 4-5 minutes per side. (if you have a panini press grill you may place the top grill on top of the chicken, and cook for about 7-8 minutes without flipping.

While the chicken is cooking whisk together all ingredients for mayonnaise and set aside. The mayonnaise can be made up a day ahead - the longer it sits the more the flavours blend.

Once the chicken is cooked through, place some olive oil on the grill and place the pita breads on the grill for a couple of minutes each.

Serve the chicken skewers, the mayonnaise, and the pitas by taking the chicken off the skewers, and placing it inside the pita along with the mayonnaise and a nice greek salad on the side!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Cheers!

Chicken Pesto Pasta

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I am back from my holiday, and have some new recipe ideas. This one is easy, and so tasty! I hope you all try it and let me know how you like it!

Chicken Penne Pasta: (serves 4)

Ingredients:

-1 White onion
-Pesto (fresh or from a jar - fresh pesto recipe follows) - to taste
-4 Fresh Chicken Breasts, cut into strips
-1/4 cup of white wine
-2 fresh bell peppers, chopped into strips
-a bunch of asparagus, chopped into 2" or so pieces
-Olive oil
-Salt and pepper
-1 bag of penne pasta
-fresh parmesan cheese, grated
- salt and pepper

In a large pot, bring water to a boil for cooking the pasta. Salt the water generously. Cook the pasta until al dente.

Meanwhile....

Heat up a saute pan on medium heat, and add olive oil. Saute the onions until translucent. Add the garlic. Add the chicken strips, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and let cook until browned lightly and cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan, and add the wine. With a wooden spoon, scrape the pan to pick up all the little bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the bell peppers and the asparagus until just softened, but, still has some crunch. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. The wine will have reduced. Add the pesto. When the pasta is cooked, mix all ingredients together. Put mixture in serving bowl, and top with fresh parmesan cheese.

Pesto:
- 1 large bunch of fresh basil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 Cup of toasted pine nuts
- 1/4 Cup of olive oil
- 1/4 Cup of fresh parmesan cheese
- juice of half a lemon

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and whir until it forms a paste. If it is too thick, add more olive oil.

White Chicken and Bacon Pizza

Hello to all!!!! As you all know, I have a new job! But, I will still be blogging about recipes and food ideas, just not as often. Hopefully, you will try today's recipe - it is a pizza recipe my mom used to make for us all the time, and I make for my boys, and they love it! It is a white chicken and bacon pizza! Sooo good!!!!!!

What you will need:

Fresh pizza dough (I make my own, but, that is another recipe!!)

Left over chicken (rotisserie chicken is great for this recipe!), shredded.

Cooked bacon, cut into large pieces

1 tup of ricotta cheese

Fresh garlic cloves (1 or 2)

Parmesan cheese, grated

1 onion, sliced thinly

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Butter (not margarine)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out your dough according to the size of your pizza stone. Sprilkle some olive oil on the stone or baking dish and spread the dough out on top. Set aside.

In a pan, drizzle some olive oil, and melt approximately 1 tblsp of butter. Put all the onions in the pan, and let them cook down and caramelize. Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar on the onions and stir. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, a good hand full of parmesan cheese, grated garlic, and salt and pepper. Sprinkle a little olive oil in the mixture and set aside. Mixture will be thick.

Time to build the pizza!

On the prepared pizza dough, spread the ricotta mixture right to the edge, top with onions, shredded chicken, and bacon. Top with parmesan cheese, and then, drizzle with olive oil.

Place the pizza in the oven and bake until dough browns around edges, and is fully cooked. It will depend on the size of your pizza!

Let it cool a little before cutting your slices. Enjoy!

Fricciolini

Yesterday I posted a pork loin roast recipe, and promised everyone I would post a recipe for the left overs today, so, good morning everyone, and here is the recipe for fricciolini! Fricciolini is an Italian slang word used by my mom's family to describe these little balls of yummy-ness!

There is no measuring in this recipe - EASY!!!!

In a food processor put your left over meat.

Add any left over potatoes if you have any (if not, put a potato in the microwave and cook until very tender)

Add an egg or two depending on how much meat you have.

Add a huge hand full of parmesan cheese, grated.

Add a nice amount of parsley, and salt and pepper.

Once everything is in the food processor, whir it all together. The mixture will start to stick together. Once this happens, make little balls out of the mixture however big or small you like, and put on a cookie sheet. Flatten them out a little. You may put them in the fridge at this point to set up a little bit. Once you are ready to cook them, put some olive oil in a pan, and heat it up. Meanwhile get yourself a little bowl and put some flower in it, mixing it with salt and pepper. Run the fricciolini through the flower to just dust them, and place in the hot oil. Shallow fry them until golden brown on both sides!!!!!!! YUMMY!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Paula

Rosemary Thyme Pork Roast

Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope your holidays were very joyous! It is a new Year, and here is a new recipe - very much a comfort food, and I don't know about you, but, with all the snow we have been getting I can take all the comfort I can get!

The recipe originally came from the Rachael Ray Show, which most of you know, I love! But, I tweaked it a little bit to make it easier to cook in a short amount of time! Enjoy it everyone and let me know what you think of it!

Ingredients:

1 pork loin roast (2-3 lbs or so) with silver skin trimmed.

8 cloves of garlic

3 large sprigs of rosemary (or 2 Tblsp if dried)

3 large sprigs of fresh thyme, or (or 2 Tblsp if dried)

Olive oil

salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Make 8 slits in the top of your roast with the sharp end of a knife and push a garlic clove in each slit. Slather the whole roast with olive oil. In a small bowl combine the rosemary and thyme, and salt and pepper. Add a little olive oil to it to make it into a paste. Using your hand, rub the rosemary mixture onto the top of your roast. Put the roast into a roasting dish, or a baking pan, and cover it with tin foil. Place in the oven for 40 minutes or so, depending on the size. Remove tin foil, and let cook to crisp up for another 20-25 minutes, or until cooked through. The roast should still be a little pink as pork can be tough if over cooked. Serve with roasted potatoes, a salad, and cranberry sauce, or apple sauce! It is MOST yummy!!!!!

Try it and enjoy! Tomorrow, I will post a recipe for "Fricciolini" which you can do with the left overs from the pork roast!

Cheers!

Paula

Sausage and Apple Appetizers

Hi all! so, on the week end I made a new recipe which my husband absolutely loved! So, I thought I would share it with all of you.

Ingredients:

4 mild Italian sausage

olive oil

1 large apple, or two small ones (I used Macintosh apples) cored, and cubed. (make sure the cubes are small enough to place on top of the sausage slices).

dried sage

brown sugar

apple cider

salt and pepper

In an oven dish, bake the sausages until golden brown on all sides, let cool, and cut into slices, across the sausage, on a diagonal. In a hot pan, place a small amount of olive oil just to coat pan and place the sausage slices flat in the pan. Brown both sides, and then, set then on a platter and let cool. Place a small amount of apple cider in the same pan and de-glaze the pan, making sure to pick up all of the yummy brown bits. Place the apple cubes in the pan, along with the sage (to taste), salt and pepper and brown sugar. Let the apples soften and then, take out of pan. Put the apple pieces on top of the sausage pieces and secure with a toothpick, so each one is a nice little bite! The juice left over in the pan can then be drizzled over top of the sausage and apple bites. These can be made ahead of time and then placed in the oven in an over proof dish, covered with tin foil to heat up. They were a hit - hope you try them, and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Banana Bread Pancakes

• A friend asked me to post this recipe, so, this one is for you Jeanette!
• 
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tblsp sugar (white)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• cinnamon - as much or as little as you like
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil
• 2 whole bananas, mashed

In a bowl place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and stir with a fork until combined. In another bowl mix together the beaten eggs, milk vanilla extract, oil and bananas. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture, and mix with a fork until just blended - the batter should be lumpy. In a pan or griddle, melt some butter or spray with non -stick spray and pour the batter with a large spoon or a ladle, and form the pan cake - flip the pan cake when bubbles begin to form on the surface! yum! Serve with extra bananas on top and of course real maple syrup!

Short cuts: use your favourite pan cake mix and make it as per directions on the box, and then, add the mashed bananas and the cinnamon.

Enjoy!