N is for Nice Bread

           In my family, bread is not just a carb. It is a utensil and is often personified. There is always some sort of bread in my house. But there are two different types of bread: "nice bread" and "the bread".

         "The bread" is used when talking about a loaf of something like whole wheat or white bread. But if it is called "nice bread" then it is a loaf of Italian bread or semolina bread, and sometimes it may even be a baguette. Most of the time it is a type of Italian bread that gets called "nice". My grandma says this every time that she describes certain breads. I honestly don't know why she says this, but it is almost like bread is not an inanimate object.

          For my family, bread is not just something to eat on the side of pasta. We use it as a utensil. Once you finish your bowl of pasta, there is always sauce left over in the bowl. So what we do is use the bread and wipe the bowl clean. Then the delicious sauce is not wasted but instead sopped up in your bread. This is not something to do at a restaurant, but it is what happens naturally at home once we are finished.

          Bread is a wonderful thing. I love bread no matter what people say about carbs, I still enjoy it completely. If I was allowed to, I probably would eat a whole loaf of bread with my meal. It does not matter if you treat bread as a person or as a utensil. It is still great!

Examples of nice bread.

A type of  "the bread"

M is for My Bad / Mexican Fiesta

          I am SO sorry that I was able to post yesterday. From the time that I woke up to the time I was able to go to bed, I was doing something. I did not have one extra minute in the day. After I got home from school I did part of an essay. Then I went to the library for a special program for people who were affected by Hurricane Sandy. After that, I went to youth group. Then it was time for my homework and studying for my quarterly exams because it is the end of the marking period. By the time I was able to go to bed, it was very late and I just did not get time for my M post. So here is my late M post...

          Even though my whole family is Italian, we all love Mexican food, and my uncle especially does. So for his 40th birthday, we threw him a Mexican fiesta. And of course, like many family gatherings, we had it at my house. My mom's whole family was there making it a psychotic and huge party. There was so much food that it didn't all fit in the kitchen. My mom had to set up several tables so that all of the food would fit. It was insane!! We had everything from nachos to fajitas. We had pork tacos, regular taco meat, chicken fajitas with peppers and onions, and nachos. That was a fraction of the food that was here. The amount of food and dessert could probably feed ten families. But for some reason, my grandma's biggest party fear is that we will not have enough food. For every party my family has an excessive amount of food, but she always thinks that there will not be enough. So she always makes a ton of food and my mom and I always make a ton of food. Uhhh, the problems of a bunch of fat Italians.

          Since my family has had multiple Mexican fiestas, we even have a fiesta station. It is basically a machine that has heating vats on the bottom and a tortilla warmer on top with places for multiple toppings attached on the side. This time, we filled it with nacho cheese, refried beans, tortillas, and a bunch of taco fixings like lettuce and tomatoes. This is what it looks like...

This was such a great purchase for fiesta endeavours!

          Overall, I love Mexican fiestas with my family! Although they are a bit hectic, they are so much fun. What are your favorite type of family parties?

L is for Lemons

Lemons are great! I use lemons in so many of my recipes. Whether I use the juice or the zest, it is all good. Lemons are so useful, but the most common way that they are used in my house is actually in a baked chicken recipe. This is one of my sister's favorite dishes and the great part is that it is SUPER easy. This is the recipe off the top of my head because I never write it down and I do it differently every time I make this:

Ingredients:
-boneless chicken breasts
-regular breadcrumbs
-parmesan cheese (optional)
-salt & pepper
-meat tenderizer
-meat tenderizer
-parsley
-garlic powder
-dried onion flakes
-juice and pulp of 1/2 of a lemon (save the other half for the end)
-eggs
-milk

Pre-heat oven to 375. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the juice and pulp of the lemon, 2 eggs, and 1/2 cup of milk in a bowl. Set aside. Using a fork, poke holes in the chicken breasts on both sides and then sprinkle the meat tenderizer on both sides. In a 1 gallon sized zip-loc bag mix the following ingredients: 2 cups bread crumbs, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, salt (do not put a lot of salt in because the meat tenderizer is also salty), pepper, parsley, garlic powder, and the onion flakes. Lay a breast in the egg mixture and make sure to completely cover and submerge the chicken with the egg mixture. After the breast is fully wet, transfer the chicken to the bag with your dry mixture. Seal the bag and coat the chicken in the bread crumb mixture. Repeat this until you have done this to all of the chicken breasts. Once coated in the dry mixture, lay the breasts in a glass pan sprayed with cooking spray. Drizzle some lemon juice over the breasts and then spray the tops of the chicken breasts with cooking spray. Cook until crunchy and golden brown on the outside. You may need to flip over the chicken half way through cooking. I often check on the chicken because no matter how hard I try, sometimes it still sticks to the bottom of the pan. This chicken is great served with pasta in a butter sauce or even mashed potatoes.

A-Z Challenge K is for Kosher

I know what you're probably thinking. What's a little Italian girl know about Kosher cooking? It just might surprise you how much I know about cooking and keeping Kosher. My cousin Holly had severe allergies when she was young. She could barely eat a thing. Believe it or not, we found that the one thing she could eat was all the Kosher treats she wanted and they never, ever made her sick. We visited a lot of Kosher delis, food stores and bakeries hunting around for that little Parve symbol. Thankfully, my family has A LOT of Jewish friends and they helped us out. Especially, my Aunt Lynn.

This is the symbol to look for!!

These chocolate jelly rings are amazing!!

Although we have a lot of Jewish friends, I have to say my Aunt Lynn has been the most instrumental in helping me learn all about Kosher foods and Jewish cooking. Since I was born, we have always celebrated the Jewish holidays with her and her family. She has taken me under her wing and showed me just how she does it. There is no where else like my Auntie Lynn's kitchen, it's always a party at her house. We have a ball celebrating all the holidays with lots of laughs, food and so much joy. Whether we're rolling matzo balls or layering up some noodle kugel, my Aunt Lynn's house is the place to be.

Manischewitz is my favorite brand of mix to use for making matzo balls.
How do you like your matza balls- chewy, soft or hard? I prefer mine to be chewy but not too soft. 

Here's one of my favorite recipes for Challah bread. It's kind of a pain, but nothing tastes or smells better than a loaf of freshly baked Challah.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 ounce package of dry yeast
3/4 warm water
2 tablespoons of light cooking oil
2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 eggs
4 cups flour
poppy seeds are optional- I am allergic so we always leave them out

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Add oil, salt and sugar. Separate 1 egg reserving the white at room temp. for a final glaze; beat the yolk into the remaining  2 whole eggs. Add beaten eggs to the yeast mixture. Stir in flour and knead on a floured board until firm and elastic. Place dough in a large greased bowl, cover with a plastic bag or a clean cloth, and let dough double in bulk for one to two hours.

Turn dough out onto floured board and knead again. Divide dough in half; then divide 1 of the halves into 3 sections. With well-floured hands roll the three sections into long ropes; press the ends of the three ropes together; braid and press the other ends together. Divide remaining half of dough into 2 sections one larger than the other. Make 2 more sets of braids. You know have 3 braids, in three sizes. Place largest braid on greased baking sheet. Place medium braid on top of large one, and smallest braid on top of the medium one. Let loaf stand at room temp for 1 hour. Then brush with the egg white to get a shiny looking crust on top. Sprinkle with poppy seeds (if desired and you're not allergic to them, like me) and bake your loaf of Challah in a 375 degree oven for 50 minutes or until golden brown. This recipe yields one large loaf.

Enjoy!!

J is for Junk Food

          Today, everyone is on top of their health. But that does not matter when it comes down to junk food. There is that one thing that we all have that makes ditch our diets our diets. Junk food is everything from corn dogs to ice cream. People eat junk food for many reasons. It can bring people back to their childhoods or it may be a guilty pleasure. But no matter what the reason is, we all like at least one junk food item. My favorite junk food are french fries. Even though they are so simple, french fries are one of my favorite foods. They are perfect in their golden brown in crispy ways. Yum!!

          If you are feeling like making a super candy junk food try chocolate covered Swedish Fish. Here is the recipe and the back story.  Enjoy!! My teacher loves Swedish Fish. So one day in class we were talking and she said her two favorite things are Swedish Fish and chocolate. I then had an idea! So one night I created chocolate covered Swedish Fish. I brought them in to her and she really liked them. I have made them a few times now and they are surprisingly very tasty. The almost taste like a gummy-chocolate covered strawberry. They are very simple to make, too. The best way to make them is by using the medium sized fish; I found that they hold the perfect ratio of chocolate on them. Melt a good amount of semi-sweet chocolate and have a baking sheet ready lined with wax paper. By trial and error I have figured out the perfect way to efficiently dip the chocolates. The fastest way to do this is to grab the gummy fish by the tail and drag it in the chocolate first belly-side down then flip and cover the back. These lay out very well on a baking sheet and are very easy to store once they set and are cooled. But you must keep them in the refrigerator because the chocolate will melt right off and it will be one big mess. But besides that, these are perfect and keep for a  long time. What is your favorite junk food and why??

P.S.- This is Farawayeyes- she asked for a picture of the habenero sauce that I featured a couple of days ago. It would be with be in an isle near the barbecue sauces. This is what it looks like...

I is for Instant Mashed Potatoes

Eww. That's all that needs to be said.

The bleak color. The foul, dry flakes. The nothing smell. That is what I used to think of instant mashed potatoes. I used to have no life and did nothing except my homework and cook. But now between TONS of homework, sports, clubs, youth group and even more homework, (and when I can squeeze them in, my friends) I have a lot less time to make mashed potatoes from scratch.

A  huge time saver.

When I come home and am requested to make dinner and I know  I have 6+ hours of homework, I really don't feel like boiling potatoes, then peeling and then mashing them. So sadly I have resorted to the flaky potatoes. Believe it or not, but those faux mashed potatoes are actually starting to grow on me.

I would like to provide you guys with a great, set recipe from start to finish, but I don't really have one. I throw in a ton of stuff and keep tasting and throwing in more stuff until I make those dry flakes palatable.

The absolutely essential wet ingredients I always use are: real butter, milk, half & half, cheese, sour cream, and even a shot or two of ranch dressing. Now, let's talk about dry ingredients. I don't go cheap on the seasonings because potato flakes need all the help they can get :) Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion flakes, parsley, and a mixture of different ground peppercorn are a must. There are many other things I can throw in with these potatoes to help fix them up, but these are my favorite.

What do you throw in with your mashed potatoes? Are you an instant mashed potato hater or fan? Who makes the best mashed potatoes in your family?

H is for Habenero Pomegranate Cherry Sauce

This sauce mixes habenero peppers along with cherries and pomegranate. Although it is from Costco, my family and I still consider this a very good sauce. It starts of tasting sweet because of the cherry and pomegranate pieces and then you get a great kick from the habeneros.

Even though it is labeled as a sauce, I have used it as a marinade, condiment, and have added it to multiple dishes to enhance the flavors. It is thick and gooey with pieces of the fruits and the habenero peppers.

If you ever find yourself in a Costco, be sure to look for this great ingredient!