Chicken Philly Cheese Sauce

Chicken breasts
Green Pepper Chopped
Onion Chopped
Cheese Sauce (instructions below)
Hoagie Rolls

Cheese Sauce
Butter 1Tbs
Flour 1Tbs
Milk 1c
Shredded Cheddar 1c
Shredded Mozzarella 1c

This cheese sauce tasted awesome but the texture came out a little funny but you can't notice once you get it on the sandwich.

Well you first start of by making a kind of roue which is just a cream made of the butter and flour. First melt the butter in a sauce pan and once that is done whisk in the flour being sure to keep it moving because it WILL BURN EASILY (believe me I know).

Once you get it to a good consistency slowing pour your milk being sure to whisk it real good. Leave it on the heat until it begins to thicken just a little and then add your cheesy goodness. You may want to switch from a whisk to a wood spoon or spatula for this because the cheese gets stuck on the tip of the whisk and if you are like me and lack the patience to deal with it will safe your blood pressure.

After you get a gooey delicious cheesy sauce then remove from the heat and let sit.

Now you take your veggies and chicken breast and throw 'em in a pan and cook. Be sure to make a mess of the chicken breasts breaking it apart to make a good consistency for the sandwich.

Once that is done up then toast your rolls and construct the deliciousness.

Jalapeno, Lemon, Garlic Pesto

2c basil
1c spinach
1 clove garlic
1 lemon's juice
1 jalapeno
1/4c parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
tad of water

YES IT IS TRUE, 2 posts in one day. I have had this one on the back burner and never through it up here. First step is put everything in a food processor (i used a Magic Bullet) and blend the S*** out of it. Once you have grainy green paste you are good to go. I have no pictures but I have had it on angel hair pasta three times, once with chicken, once with pork chops, and once with out any meat (i know its a sin for a dude to pass on protein but i had none so deal...).

The MANWICH!!!! STEAK SANDWICH!!!

-Steak
-Jalapeno (sat on counter until red and shriveled)
-Onion
-Cilantro
-Oregano
-Garlic
-1 large bun

This one is for the real dudes. Cheap, easy, and "F"ing delicious! Rough Chop all veggies and begin to saute with olive oil in a pan. Slice steak into ¼ inch pieces. Add meat to veggies. Cook until meat is browned and onions begin to caramelize. Serve as a sandwich on a bun. If this doesn't satisfy your everyday dude then I don't know what will.

Caramelized scallops, onions, and apples over steamed snap peas

Fresh Scallops
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Lemon
Snap Peas
1/2 apple
1/2 onion

Now this one sounds terrifying because it is scallops, but seriously dudes if you want to impress your girl friend with a dish that is easy to cook, plate, and eat give this a try.

First start by chopping your apple and onion so that is done and out of the way.

Then coat a pan in oil. Not too much just enough to put a layer down. Then put it over med-high heat and let it get hot before putting in the scallops. Now salt and pepper your little seamen and then they are ready to go in the pan. Once your pan is hot then drop in the little critters and let them cook on that side for about 2-2.5 minutes. Then flip em over and do it again. Once they look like they have a nice little bit of caramelization on them then pull them off throw them on a plate and set aside.

Now in the exact pan that you cooked the scallops in put your chopped onions and apple. saute until caramelized.

At the same time as you are doing up the apples and onions, fill a pot with your snap peas and put a little bit of water in the bottom. Toss that pan on a burner set to about med-high heat. Cook them until they are a lively green color and hot when you eat them. I assume you could probably do this part with a steaming pot if you happen to have one laying around but I am no chef and I am in college, so my method works fine enough.

I guarantee that if you do this right you will be a happy man and if you leave any for your girl friend you will be an even happier man.

Jalapeno Chicken Cheese Dumplings Galore

2c flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
dry basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
(1) 8oz pack of crm cheeze
2 good size chicken breast
2jalapeno peppers
1 clove garlic

Once again I began by making the dough. This dough was pretty simple and I made sure to get measurements so there should be no mishaps. Start by putting the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt, baking soda, pepper, garlic powder, basil, and then form a well in the middle. Pour the about 1/4 cup of water into the well and mix. Continue to add water a tablespoon at a time until the dough is tacky and just barely clings to your fingers.

Next, pull the dough out and kneed on flour board until consistent texture all the way through. Cover with a damp towel/ paper towel and set aside while preparing filling.

For the filling you must start by prepping the chicken. I pan fried mine, but I imagine you could boil or grill it for a different taste. Once the chicken is cooked you need to shred it. To do this I took two forks and pulled the chicken apart until it was shredded through and through. Once the chicken is shredded then you need to move on to putting the filling together.

To make the filling add cream cheese, peppers, garlic, chicken and mix thoroughly. I added a little salt to taste but it really is not needed.

Now, you need to get your dough back out. Roll your dough into a tube about 2 to 2.5 inches thick. Then cut off about a 1 inch peace of the tube at a time. Flour your board again and rolling pin (I a wine bottle from the night before) and flatten your 1 inch pieces out. Once flat, spoon in a glob of filling being sure to leave enough room to fold up the edges of the dough and crimp it closed tightly.

Once you get your dumplings formed fill a pan with about 1/2 inch of your oil and heat it up. Drop your dumplings in the pan being careful not to burn yourself it hurts (I know from experience, it hurts like a S.O.B.). Once your dumplings have been in for about 1 minute or so roll them over and you should now see a goldeny brown dumpling staring you in the face. Let that side cook for a minute or so and then pull it out and the entire dumpling should look a beautiful golden color. Let them stand for a minute or two on a paper towel to cool and let oil drain off.

Once they have cooled enough for you to plate them its WAM BAM THANKYA MAM the most delicious thing that you will eat at that moment.

A Dough Boy Special

Dough:
-Flour 5 cup
-Yeast 1.25oz (five of the little packets that I had)
-Olive Oil

Sauce
-Tomato Paste 1 can
-Grape Jelly 1 tbls
-Water .25 cup
-Oregano
-Parsley
-Basil
-Garlic Powder
-Finely diced onion
-Finely diced Jalapeno (guts removed)

Toppings (I used)
-Mozzarella Cheese
-Pepperoni
-Green Pepper
-Onion
-Mushrooms.

Now I am not going to admit this was the easiest thing to cook. I will say however that is was a fun and successful battle in the kitchen. I walk through the entire process here and it took some time, about 3 hours to be exact, so if you are in it for the long hall block out some time.

I started by adding the yeast to warm water to get it... ready I guess, I don't really know (note at this time i only have about 3 packets used do not do this use all 5 now!). Next I put my flour in the bowl and formed a little crater in the middle. Then I added the yeast concoction and began to mix. What I got was not dough it was a gummy flakey mess so i struggled to miss up some more yeast stuff and added it on. After some kneading and mixing I finally got what I considered to be dough. I threw a towel over it and let it sit for 1.5 hours.
(If for some reason you are not feeling up to making a dough you can usually get a hearty chunk from a local pizzeria for really cheap and it works just as well.)

After waiting 1 hour I began work on my sauce which was supposed to be a red wine sauce. I was envisioning it being just like The House Of Pizza's pizza sauce in Hammond, Indiana (best thin crust pie in the world btw), but I forgot my red wine at the register so I settled for grape jelly because it is all I could find. I added the paste, jelly, seasonings, and veggies into a bowl stirred them up and then transfered them to a sauce pan where I cooked them on low heat, with the intention to pull some of the flavor out of the Jalapeno and onion. I now let this sit.

Returning to my dough, I found that it had nearly DOUBLED in size I cautiously removed the puffy ball from the bowl and smashed it. I began to knead a little flour into the dough and WAM BAM THANKYA MAM! I had the dough I was looking for. I Chopped off about a third of it and threw the rest in the freezer (I hope it stays good). At this point I began to think my name was Mario because I started tossing it around and all was going well until I went to catch it and sent my hand through the middle. No worries though because with a little patchwork everything was as good as new.

Next, I oiled a pan and arranged my dough. I threw on a hearty amount of toppings and then tossed it in the oven at 500 F.

After 15 min I peeped in to check on the little guy and quickly pulled him out. I had taken the crust just past crisp to the point where it only has a few small burns on the bottom. So for all of you I suggest only going about 14 minutes at that high of heat or, drop the heat down a tad.

The Pizza ended up looking great, tasting totally awesome (aside from being crunchy in places) and still having leftovers ( a rarity for me). The only things I would have changed in this trip to the kitchen is make the right amount of yeast the first time and checked the oven about 2 minutes faster. Enjoy!



Feel free to ask any questions you have.

Tomanion BBQ Pork Chop

To start things off I am going to tell of the Tomanion BBQ Pork Chop.

Ingredients
-Pork Chop
-Tomato
-1/2 White Onion
-Cilantro
-Salt
-White Rice
-Garlic Clove
-Olive Oil
-Favorite BBQ sauce

Due to my lack of grill, I began by using a grill-pan to cook the pork chop until tenderly done.

While that was going I decided that a pork chop was not enough and that I wanted to get fancy so I CHOPPED one tomato and 1/2 of an onion and minced the garlic. Added the tomato, onion, and garlic into a pan with a little olive oil in bottom (I am not a chef but I would say it was enough for normal cooking purposes). Let ingredients cook together until the smell makes you drool, or until the onions begin to brown. At this point add a hearty amount of your favorite BBQ sauce (I think I had Masterpiece at the time) to the pan and stir ingredients. Let simmer.

Boil rice (I like to use minute made because of ease)

Now for the difficult part. I put the rice on the bottom, lay the pork chop on top of the rice and then dowse the entire pile in the Tomanion BBQ sauce. Finaly season with salt and finely chopped cilantro if for no other reason than it looks pretty.

That is my first post. Simple, easy, and perfect.

Who, What, and Why

Hello All,

I am posting this to give an explanation of what I am doing with this blog. The objective of this blog is to provide readers with narrative recipes for meals that will serve to satisfy your everyday dude, and hopefully everyone else. I have no professional cooking experience and am just a country boy from Indiana that loves sharp knives and fire so naturally I am a HUGE fan of being in the kitchen. So, don’t expect perfection with every post because pretty much everything I cook is a complete experiment. I encourage all readers to comment, give advice, criticize, and try recipes and tell me how they go. If all goes well with this who knows maybe I’ll write a cookbook or get on Food Network? Lofty dreams I know but hey it could happen. So here we go, get ready to ignite your taste buds and try some of my creations.