Bacon-Wrapped Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

MMMMmmmm....bacon. 

Recently on Facebook there has been an influx of "share this so it saves it on your timeline" recipes. I shake my head and wonder why these people don't use Pinterest for this purpose, so you're not scrolling through 8 days worth of posts for one recipe. Well, I'm not gonna lie, I got snagged by one my dear friend Jill shared and then posted a picture of her dinner that night. 

There it was "Bacon Wrapped, Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts" and it looked delicious. 

The great thing about this particular recipe is you can change the number of servings, swap the plain cream cheese for a flavored one, stuff with spinach, the possibilities are endless. Tonight I used the Philadelphia brand  jalapeño cream cheese spread. Dinner was delicious and it didn't disappoint. I served up the chicken alongside some Alexis brand roasted red potatoes. Hope you all enjoy this simple and versatile recipe. 

Bacon Wrapped, Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

1 boneless skinless chicken breast

2 tablespoons cream cheese

1 tablespoon green onion, Chopped

2 pieces bacon, Partially Cooked

Directions:

Pound out Chicken breast so it is about 1/4" thick.

Mix together cream cheese and green onions and spread cheese mixture over 1 side of chicken breast.

Roll chicken breast up to conceal cream cheese.

Wrap partially cooked bacon around chicken breast and secure with toothpick.

Place on baking sheet and back for about 30 minutes at 375.

Broil for about 5 minute to crisp bacon.

Grilled Peaches with Balsamic Reduction

Saw the peaches at the Farmer's Market yesterday morning and grilled peaches entered my brain.

Fried Squash

This is now tied as my super #1 favorite way to eat squash!  It is quite easy to make and is a nice accompaniment to the country ham, stewed potatoes, fried okra, fresh sliced tomatoes and biscuits that made tonight's dinner.

1. Chop squash into bite size pieces and place in a bowl.
2.  Pour buttermilk onto squash - just enough to cover it.
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto squash.
4. Mix well.
5. Heat veggie oil to frying temperature.
6. In a Zip-Loc baggie, add white corn meal (2 cups or so to start)
7. Grab a handful of squash, letting the excess buttermilk drip through your fingers.
8. Drop squash into baggie. 
9. Using your dry hand, toss the squash until it is covered in cornmeal then shake off excess cornmeal.
10. Drop into hot oil and fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
11. Repeat with rest of squash.

My arm is tired of whisking, but that's some dang good mayo!!

Yesterday, I got a wild hair and decided to make my own mayonnaise. I had everything to make it too. You see, I had went to the local market earlier in the day and bought some produce. I love some fresh, local produce and I came home with these purple potatoes. I had envisioned turning them into  a purple potato salad to go with the pork spareribs I had cooking in the crock-pot. I decided to make JC's mayo before I started on the potatoes, which in turn was a very wise decision. I began with with the food processor recipe in the book. It didn't work. I tried to save my turned mayo with a teaspoon of dry mustard as Julia describes in her book. I pulled out half of my kitchen gadgets to help the save this unappealing liquid. I used my immersion blender, used a Pampered Chef hand crank food processor and regular blender. And just my luck, nothing worked. Defeat! I was ready to raise the white flag and accept the fact that I COULD NOT make homemade mayo. 

I don't give up very easily, so I began again. This time I pulled out a metal bowl and wire whisk. In hindsight, this is a heck of a lot easier to wash versus all the  gadgets thrown in the sink. I'm forewarning you that you will get an arm workout, but it's worth it. So, here I am whisking the heck out of this egg yolk and oil concoction and it thickens. It's turning into mayo! AND then, just as I am almost finished with the entire process, the power goes off. 

REALLY? Here I have a crockpot of ribs, that I still need to brush with BBQ sauce and put under the broiler, but I have no potatoes cooked for the potato salad or any other sides ready. I also have room temp mayo that needs to go in the fridge and a pile of mayonnaise failed equipment in the sink. ARGH. Did I mention that it's 104* outside?  But I have a nice jar of mayo that  I made myself.

Apparently the almost the entire military installation I live on, is without power. 6 out of 7 neighborhoods are without power, barracks are out, it's dinner time and all the soldiers are returning home from work. Great. I shove the mayo in the fridge and pray the power comes back on soon. An hour later, we're still without power and we take the dog to stay downstairs in the cooler part of the house with 2 large bowls of water. My husband & I load up the kids and off the local pizzeria we go. The hubby & I enjoy a couple of cold beers and some delicious NY inspired pizza with our boys while hoping the power has been restored. 

We arrive back home and we're 3 hours in with no power. It's still 90-some degrees outside and public works is trying to fix the problem. Let me say, I am so glad we have a sprinkler, because that's where the kids played until around 9:30 when the street lights came on. I was one happy lady. I go downstairs to wash the dishes and accidentally knock my food processor bowl onto the floor  and it cracks straight up the side. Sigh. Out to the garbage it goes with all of it's accessories and I go to bed, leaving a sink full of dirty dishes. 

I awoke early this morning to wash dishes and taste test my mayo. It really made me wish that I had made it earlier in my culinary adventures. It is awesome.  

Hot Ham & Cheese

For dinner tonight I chose to make Hot Ham & Cheese Sandwiches.  These sandwiches are always good but vary on the bread I purchase -sourdough to ciabatta (the ciabatta being my fave) as well as the mustard we put on them.   

If all my money lines up as well as a trip to Trader Joe's, the sandwich is made from Ciabatta, Gruyere and Black Forest Ham. (shown on the right) Today, I never made it to TJ's, so we had Sourdough, Swiss and Black Forest Ham.

My Mom asked me what else I put on them, and I told her we have experimented with different types and flavors of mustard but I was plan on using Dijon.  She asked if I had ever used the sauce that is used on one of our large family's favorites - Ham Delights.  I said no, so we gave it a shot.  We gave it a shot. Let me tell you...I may not make my Hot Ham & Cheese Sandwiches any other way again!!!

To accompany the sandwich, I made beer battered onion rings. I have used other beers in the past but this time, I chose Papst Blue Ribbon.  The onion rings above were made using Coors Banquet.  I do think that using different beers gives the onion rings different flavors. All goods but different flavor.

All in all our dinner was very filling but labor intensive.

Hello? Is Anybody There???

I have become quite slacken in my duties to document our food adventures.  Why?  Mostly because of my kids schedules, school letting out for the summer, spontaneous beach trip, transmission going out in my car, planned beach trip, having to move, clutch going out in my husbands car, needing a new tire on my car before it can be drove from having the transmission fixed and that has made me tired, irritable and frustrated beyond belief.  
Beginning today I vow to do better.  Once I make a run to Trader Joe's to grab a couple items for dinner tonight I will begin anew.