Chicken and Cheese Biscuits

Who doesn't love a good comfort food recipe? And nothing is better than good comfort food on a cold night! I found the recipe on tidymom.net and it met all the qualifications for comfort food. the biggest ones being warm, easy and ingredients I normally have in my kitchen.

1 stick of butter
1/2 cup flour
4-5 chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1-14oz can chicken broth
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
milk (as needed)
1 can biscuits

Place the already cooked and shredded chicken in the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bring butter, salt, pepper, and chicken broth to a simmer in a sauce pan. Whisk in flour until the sauce is smooth. Thin down with milk if needed. Pour sauce over chicken. Top with cheese and biscuits. Bake according to biscuit directions. (It took mine about 20 minutes and the biscuit directions were 8 minutes).

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

My pumpkin obsession has continued. These cookies are awesome, one of my coworkers called them the crack cookies because she was so addicted to them after 1 bite. They aren't overwhelming with pumpkin flavor but just a hint to make them festive. This recipe is from Bunny's Warm Oven but I found it on Cooking with Christine.

1 cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Place the butter in a bowl and mix it for 1 minute. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar and pumpkin and mix until blended. Beat in cream of tartar, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Beat in the egg. Add the flour and beat in as much as possible with the mixer then stir in with a wooden spoon. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for an hour. In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. Heat oven to 350. Drop teaspoons of the batter into the sugar mixture, roll around and place on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Repeat until all the dough is done. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Tzatziki Sauce

I love Tzatziki Sauce, I mean love love love. I love dipping raw veggies it in, I love it loaded up on my gyros, and I LOVED it on those greek burgers from yesterday. Now there are so many different recipes circulating on the Internet of how to make the best Tzatziki sauce. I honestly read about 10 different recipes then came up with this one on my own based on the advice from those recipes.

1 cup of Greek Yogurt

1/2 tbsp dried dill

2 tbsp lemon juice

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup of grated cucumber

Add all the ingredients to the food processor and blended until relatively smooth.

Greek Burgers

These burgers were awesome, they were quick to make and so tasty. They felt so much lighter with the feta mixed into them than a burger smothered in cheese. Don't read that wrong, I love a burger smothered in cheese this was just a good change. The recipe is from Food for my Family. I cut the recipe in half for the two of us and we were able to eat them the next day for lunch too!

2 lbs. ground beef
15 Kalamata olives (give or take) chopped (I used less than this because Gray hates olives)
½ cup feta cheese
3 scallions chopped
½ tsp fresh black pepper
½ tsp kosher salt
Mix together all the ingredients then pattie them out. Put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before grilling them. Heat your grill and place the patties on the grill. Cook on each side for 4 minutes flipping them twice on each side. Remove and top with Tzatiki, Cucumber, Tomato, Lettuce, ect.

This recipe was featured on Eat at Home Cooks Ingredient Spotlight for Ground Beef. 

Oven Baked Potato Wedges

I have been looking for a good potato recipe like this forever. I have tried so many that never would get soggy and not crisp up or would burn really quickly and the middle would never get done. Finally, this recipe from Pennies on the Platter came in and saved the day.

Potatoes
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Seasoning (I used Paula Deen's silly salt that my mom got me as a gift while she was in Savannah)

Heat oven to 400. Wash, scrub and dry the potatoes. Remove skin if necessary then cut into wedges. Mix the potatoes with a bit of olive oil, you want them to just be coated. Season with salt, pepper and seasoning of choice. Place on a baking sheet in one layer. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes turning every 10 minutes.

Cheesy Chicken, Bacon, Avocado Quesadillas

These were amazing. I was pretty sure this recipe wouldn't be a fail but I had no idea how creamy the avocado would make these quesadillas and how all of the flavors would flow perfectly together and yet you would be able to taste each item. Homerun! The recipe is from KevinandAmanda.com they seriously have some awesome recipes but as always it is slightly adapted.

4 medium-sized flour tortilla shells
1 lb chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 cup scallions, diced
8 strips of bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 avocado, diced
cheese, shredded (I used colby jack)
2 tbsp butter

Fry bacon is skillet. Set aside 1/2 tbsp of bacon drippings and rinse pan. Add bacon drippings back to pan and saute the scallions for 2 minutes. Add the chicken, salt and pepper. Cook until chicken is golden brown and cooked through. Remove chicken and scallions, rinse pan.

Add 1/2 tbsp of butter to pan over medium heat, place the tortilla in the pan, add the chicken, bacon, avocado and cheese to half of the tortilla then fold the the torilla in half. Cook for about 1 to 2 more minutes on each side. Repeat until all the quesadillas are made

7UP Biscuits

These are some of the easiest and most delicious biscuits I have ever made. I have seen the recipe on multiple recipe blogs but they all point back to Plain Chicken. They reminded us of Cracker Barrel biscuits.

2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-up
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix the sour cream into the bisquick then add the 7-up and stir together. The dough will be pretty soft. Roll the dough out onto a flat surface sprinkled with bisquick flour and cut into biscuits. Place melted butter in the bottom of a 9 inch square pan and place the biscuits into the pan. Bake at 450 until the biscuits are gold brown.

Shrimp and Grits

This is southern goodness at it's finest! I have tried several shrimp and grits recipes and this one is the best. I knew it should be though because I got it off of the Southern Living website. Gray and I both enjoyed big bowls full of this goodness.

2 bacon slices
1 pound medium-size raw shrimp
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

Cook the bacon is a large nonstick skillet until crisp. Remove bacon and crumble. Reserve 1 tsp of bacon drippings. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper then dredge in flour. Saute the mushrooms in the pan with the bacon drippings and oil for 5 minutes. Add the green onions and saute for 2 more minutes. Add the shrimp and the garlic and saute until the shrimp is slightly browned. Add in the chicken broth then add the hot sauce and lemon juice. Stir and cook for 2 to 4 more minutes. Place the shrimp and broth over cheese grits and top with crumbled bacon.

Cheese Grits

The other day I was looking through Southern Livings 100 recipes to "southern cooking", this is the grits that go with the Shrimp and Grits that will be posted tomorrow. The grits were great on their own and would be perfect for breakfast. They were quick and I had all the ingredients on hand which is always a plus. Just wait for the Shrimp part tomorrow though because they are good.

1 can chicken broth
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking grits
3/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

Combine chicken broth, milk and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat in a saucepan. Slowly whisk in the grits. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, mix in and serve hot.

Apple Dumplings

These guys are amazing. This is a famous Pioneer Woman recipe that had read a dozen times and finally made it for a friend's birthday dinner. They are sweet and warm and perfect. I swear that you will love them and be craving them for the weeks to come!

2 whole Granny Smith Apples
2 cans (8 Oz. Cans) Crescent Rolls
2 sticks Butter
1-½ cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Cinnamon, To Taste
1 can (12 Oz.) Mountain Dew Soda

Peel and core the apples then cut into 8 slices. Wrap the crescent roll around each apple slice and place in greased 9x13 pan. Melt butter then add the sugar and just slightly stir. Add vanilla and stir then pour the mixture over the dumplings. Pour the mountain dew down the sides of the pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serve right out of the oven with ice cream.