Happy Friday!!  WHOOOOO HOOOOOO.  As I type this post I am stranded in the house as the driveway is completely filled in from a snow drift.  No big deal as our snow removal guy is en route.  This gives me just enough time to share this delicious, quick and easy chicken recipe with you and kick off Friday with a bang.

Ingredients

• 2 Boneless Chicken Breasts
• 1 Cup of Mushrooms ( sliced)
• 1 1/2 Cups Salsa
• Mozzarella cheese
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Black Pepper

Method

1. Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees
2. In a preheated sauce pan add the olive oil and begin to brown the chicken.



3. Add the mushrooms and let cook down for about 3 minutes.



4. Turn the chicken and brown the other side and then transfer to baking pan.



5. Top the chicken and mushrooms with the salsa and top with the cheese.







6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted and cooked through.



7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Over cooking a boneless chicken breast can really turn into a bad experience.  Make sure to just cook it through until no longer pink.  Remember that boneless does not take as long as bone in too cook.

Do you Remember

Remember back when I baked homemade beer bread.  It was very good but had a funny after taste and many of you tried the recipe and some suggested the same problem with the amount of baking powder.  Well I was concerned about that so I made the recipe again last night and tweaked the 4 1/2 Teaspoons of baking powder to 3 Teaspoons.  It was much better.  I also halved the amount of melted butter on top and it was still delicious.

Here are a couple of snapshots of the finished product.

I hope you have a great Friday and I will talk to you on Monday.

Take care

zesty

Happy Monday to you!  I first want to thank everyone for their kind words regarding Friday’s House update.  I greatly appreciate it.  How was your weekend?  Mine was a bit nutso as we have been trying to find a second vehicle and a Nintendo Wii.  We checked all over PEI for  Wii and came up empty so we took a trip to New Brunswick yesterday for a Wii and still came up dry.  We looked at a few vehicles as well but just couldn’t find the right one.

So here is a little challenge.  Can anyone find a Wii in their area and if so I will buy it and ship it to myself!  Sound like fun?  Looks like I may have to buy one online at this point or wait a little longer.

Ok I really have to share with you an amazing recipe today.  Do you ever feel like you want to impress your house guests or company with an over the top appetizer? If so, this is the one for you.  It is quite simple but the results are amazing.  I honestly just didn’t make the title up with having proof to back it up.  You have to try these cheese puffs.

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter ( softened )
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 1/2 Tsp. Coarse Salt
• 1 Cup Flour
• 4 Large Eggs
• 3/4 Cup Grated gruyere cheese
• 1/4 Cup grated Asiago cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F.
2. In a saucepan combine butter, water milk and salt.
3. Bring to a boil and then add flour; Remove from heat and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon.
4. Dough will dry out and pull from sides of sauce pan.
5. Put back on medium heat and beat a further 50 seconds to dry the dough even more
6. Transfer dough out of hot pan to a bowl and add eggs one at a time; beating vigorously with each egg.
7. After last egg add the Gruyere cheese and beat well.
8. Grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper .
9. Drop dough from a teaspoon allowing room to expand.
10. Sprinkle tops with Asiago cheese and bake for 15 minutes at 400.
11. Then lower the temperature to 350 and bake another 15-20 minutes to dry the interior.
12. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes
13. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Make sure to beat the mixture well after each egg addition and the thing to look out for here is to ensure the center of the puff is nice and dry and flaky.  Lowering the heat after the first 15 minutes is key to allow the inside to continue cooking but not brown the outside too much.

Zesty Around the Blogsphere

Before I go – you should check out a fun pancake recipe I feature on Picky Palate yesterday.  I think you might like it especially all the oatmeal lovers.  It is called Whole Grain Oatmeal Apple Pancakes.  Let me know what you think.

I hope you have an amazing Monday and I hope you have some luck finding a Nintendo Wii.  I better get going here and get ready for work.  The sunrise was amazing this morning from the dining room table and I think it gave me a little extra boost of energy.

Take care

zesty