Sunday, April 27, 2008

BBQ Chicken Quesadillas with BBQ Ranch Dipping Sauce



2 chicken breasts, poached or grilled on the BBQ!
1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
Small bunch of chopped cilantro
1/4 of a red onion, finely diced
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
4 flour tortillas
Canola Oil
Non-stick frying pan

Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup Hidden Valley Ranch
3 T BBQ Sauce
1 T chopped cilantro
Mix until combined.

Chop up or shredded cooked chicken breast. Toss in your favorite sauce.
Heat 1 T oil in a non-stick skillet and lay in 1 flour tortilla. Add a small handful of the shredded cheese. Top with 1/2 of your chicken and sauce mixture.
Add in 1/2 of your chopped cilantro and 1/2 of your choppped onion. Lay another flour tortilla on top.
Cook on medium heat until golden brown on one side.
Flip with a spatula. This part takes practice, but the cheese should help you to to hold it all together. Try to do this as quickly and precisely as possible.
Grill on the other side for 1-3 mins or until golden brown.
Repeat for another quesadilla.

Serve with extra BBQ sauce and BBQ Ranch dipping sauce.
Or, try with sour cream and guacamole.

ALSO GREAT WITH PULLED PORK!!!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Stuffed French Toast with Balsamic Strawberries and Chopped Basil


I literally dreamed up this recipe the other night! I had a dream where I made this french toast for Jon. I've never made it before, but I guess sometimes answers come to you when you are sleeping.

Serves 3.

6 pieces of thick cut crusty bread
1 package of cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 cup cream or half and half
Dash cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Butter
Canola oil
Powdered Sugar
4-5 strawberries
Balsamic Vinegar
Granulated Sugar
FRESH chopped basil for garnish
Non-stick skillet

Balsamic Syrup:
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sugar

Bring to a boil, stirring often.
Let simmer for 20-30 mins on medium heat until reduced to a syrup.
Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

French Toast:

Preheat oven to 300.

Whisk together eggs, cream, vanilla and cinnamon in a large bowl. Whisk well.

In another bowl, combine softened cream cheese with 1 T of powdered sugar.

Slice 4-5 ripe strawberries and chop basil.

Put 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture onto the middle of 3 pieces of bread and assemble them into sandwiches with the rest of the bread.

Soak each sandwich in the egg/cream mixture for at least 2-3 mins each making sure it is fully saturated.

Move the sandwiches to a warm/hot oiled/buttered non-stick skillet and let brown on each side. Be careful not to burn; you want a nice golden brown.

Once the sandwiches are browned, move to a baking pan that has a rack in it (to lift the toasts off of the bottom of the pan).

Let bake an additional 10-12 mins.

Serve with balsamic syrup, fresh strawberries, and chopped basil.
Or, try maple syrup without the basil!