Bananas Foster Waffles - Our Christmas Morning Breakfast

This year, we spent the week before Christmas with my parents and my sister on a Caribbean cruise aboard the Norwegian Pearl.  Every morning, we would all sit on the back patio of the pool deck on the ship and enjoy eating breakfast outside.  On one of the mornings, both Kevin and I had waffles with a banana topping that reminded me of bananas foster (which is one of our favorite desserts!).  The banana topping went really well with the waffles so I decided to make this for our Christmas morning breakfast. 

To go along with the waffles, we made mimosas (I even squeezed fresh oranges for the orange juice and we also had some fresh pureed strawberries to add a twist on the mimosas).

And of course, we had to have some bacon to go with our breakfast.

But getting back to the delicious bananas foster waffles that I made.....I adapted this waffle recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/, and I used Paula Deen's bananas foster recipe for the topping (which I have used with much success in the past for dessert, which I serve over some vanilla ice cream).

Ingredients:

Waffles-

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bananas Foster Topping-
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 bananas, sliced into 1 inch slices
1/4 cup dark rum (I used Myer's dark rum)

Directions:

For the Waffles-

In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar; set aside. Preheat waffle iron to desired temperature.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture; beat until blended.

Ladle the batter into a preheated greased waffle iron. Cook the waffles until golden and crisp. Keep waffles warm in a 200 degree oven until you are ready to serve.
 
For the Bananas Foster Topping-
 
Melt butter in a large skillet. Add brown sugar and stir together. Add the bananas and cook until caramelized over medium-high heat. Pour in the rum and catch a flame off of the gas stove or a long lighter. Stand back when ignited and flambe. Be careful; a flame will shoot up above the pan. Let flame die down. Serve over your waffles, and garnish with a little whipped cream.
 
These were soooooo good!  They were perfect for a special occasion breakfast.

Toffee

I've been wanting to make toffee for awhile now, and I finally bought myself a candy thermometer and made a batch of toffee to go along with the oreo truffles I made to bring to Christmas Eve dinner.  I didn't realize how easy it was to make toffee....and only 5 ingredients!  I was pretty happy with my first attempt at making candy, and I thought these went good with the truffles.....although these are pure butter and sugar so I wish I didn't have all of these leftovers :)  I adapted this recipe that I found on http://www.allrecipes.com/.  Next time, I may do a layer of white chocolate on the bottom and semisweet chocolate on top.

Ingredients:

1 pound butter (4 sticks)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used a little more than 2 cups)

Directions:

1.  In a heavy saucepan, combine butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils (I just kept stirring with a whisk until it boiled, and then I didn't stir anymore after that). Boil to brittle stage, 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) without stirring. Remove from heat (I actually removed from the heat once the mixture reached 295 degrees).

2.  Pour hot sugar/butter mixture onto a rimmed sheet pan that's been greased with butter (or pam).  Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and let it sit for 2-3 minutes so that the chocolate melts.  Using a rubber spatula, spread out the melted chocolate and sprinkle walnuts on top and press into chocolate.  Let the mixture cool and break it into pieces before serving.

Caribbean Jerk Chicken Sandwiches

Kevin and I recently got back from a Caribbean cruise that we went on with my parents and my sister.  It was a great vacation, and it was hard to come back to freezing cold weather afterwards. Last week, we decided to use some of the Caribbean jerk seasoning that we bought on our vacation to make chicken sandwiches.  There was a snow storm that night so I decided to grill up the chicken on our indoor grill, and they turned out very good.  This was a good weeknight meal and the jerk seasoning added lots of spice and flavor to the chicken breasts.  Of course we had to top the sandwiches with some melted cheese! 

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts halves, butterflied and pounded out a little bit

4 sandwich buns

salt, pepper, and Caribbean jerk seasoning, to taste

4 provolone cheese slices

1 medium yellow or white onion, sliced

1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips

2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Season chicken breasts liberally with salt, pepper, and Caribbean jerk seasoning.  Grill either outside or on an indoor grill until chicken is cooked completely through (on my indoor grill it took about 7-8 minutes).

Meanwhile, saute the onions and red bell peppers in butter over medium heat until softened (about 8 minutes). 

During the last couple minutes of grilling the chicken, put some of the onion and bell pepper mixture on top of each sandwich followed by a slice of cheese.  Cook until the cheese is melted, stick them on buns, and enjoy!

Fruit Salad

I've found myself eating less fruit now that it's wintertime, so I made an effort to buy a lot of fruit when I went to the grocery store last week.  A few days later, I threw some of it together for a quick, light side dish to go with the Caribbean jerk chicken sandwiches we were having for dinner. 

For this fruit salad we used a whole pineapple, 2 mangos, half a carton of strawberries, and some red grapes.  Fresh and delicious!

Pizza Cups

I took my first foods class when I was in middle school, and there is one recipe that I learned in that class that I remember and still make to this day.....pizza cups (it's a little hard to tell from the picture above, but these are little deep dish pizzas baked in a muffin pan)!  After learning to make these, I would always volunteer to make dinner for my family, and eventually they all got super sick of me making pizza cups every single time :)  Regardless, I love these little pizza cups and still make them about once a month on a weekday because they only have a few ingredients and always taste great (I also bet kids would love them)!  The recipe below makes 8 pizza cups (muffin sized) which feeds 2 hungry adults, but a lot of times I'll make a double batch so that I can use a whole pound of ground beef and have leftovers for lunches.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound ground beef
1 cup tomato sauce (we usually use store bought unless I have some leftover sauce in the freezer)
1/2 cup yellow or white onion, diced (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
1 can refrigerated biscuits - 8 biscuits (we usually use the pillsbury buttermilk biscuits)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
salt, pepper, and italian seasoning, to taste
pam or olive oil to grease the muffin pan

Directions:

1.  In a large skillet, add ground beef, onions, and garlic.  Heat over medium heat until beef is browned through and onions are softened.  Remove from heat, and drain excess grease.  Stir tomato sauce into the beef mixture and season with salt, pepper, and italian seasoning to taste.

2.  Meanwhile, take each refrigerated biscuit, and flatten with your hands and stretch out a bit.  Press each biscuit on the bottom and up the sides of a greased muffin tin (so the biscuit will form a little cup and come all the way up the side of the tin).

3.  Put a pinch of cheese in each biscuit cup.  Then spoon the beef and tomato sauce mixture to fill each cup.  Sprinkle the top with more shredded cheese.

4.  Bake at 350 degrees until biscuit cup edges are golden and cheese is melted (this usually takes me between 18-22 minutes).  If you love pepper like I do, put a little fresh cracked pepper on top of the pizza cups.  Let pizza cups cool for a few minutes and serve.

Coconut Chicken Strips

I made coconut shrimp a few weeks back for a thanksgiving appetizer, and I loved the flavor and the dipping sauce, so I decided to use the same recipe and concept to make coconut chicken strips.  As a kid, chicken tenders were one of my favorite meals, and it was nice to find a new twist on chicken tenders that I liked.  The sauce was very good with the coconut chicken tenders, although next time I'll also have some honey mustard for dipping just because I love chicken tenders and honey mustard together.

Ingredients:

Peanut oil (or you could also use canola or vegetable oil), for frying
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
3 large eggs
splash of milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 tablespoon granulated garlic powder

Zesty Dipping Sauce-
1 (6-ounce) jar orange marmalade
1/4 cup sweet Asian chili sauce
1 lime, juiced

Directions:

Make your dipping sauce just by mixing the ingredients together in a small bowl, and store it in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat.

Heat oil (enough to have a depth of about 1/2 of an inch) in a large skillet over medium to medium high heat.

Season your chicken strips with salt and pepper and set aside.

In medium bowl mix together panko and coconut (I first put the coconut in the food processor and pulsed a few times to get the flakes a little smaller so that they would stick better to the chicken). In another medium bowl beat eggs with a splash of milk. In a third bowl mix flour, onion and garlic powder together. Dredge chicken in flour, then eggs, then the bread crumbs.

Place chicken in the large skillet and fry, in batches, until crisp and golden brown and cooked through; 7 to 10 minutes.  Drain on a paper towel-lined sheet tray. Keep warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.  Serve hot with Zesty Dipping Sauce on the side.

Sweet and Sticky Chicken Legs

I absolutely love bone-in chicken.  A lot of people I know would much rather cook with boneless, skinless chicken breast (which I like too), but I just think that bone-in chicken is so much more flavorful and juicy.  I also prefer the dark meat so I often will roast up bone-in chicken drumsticks and thighs.  For me, boneless skinless chicken breast can get dry baking in the oven (which is why I almost always bread and pan fry boneless chicken breasts instead of just baking them), and the color just isn't as appealing as roasted bone-in chicken with the skin on. 

Anyway, I was looking through one of Giada's cookbooks (Giada's Kitchen:  New Italian Favorites) and spotted this recipe using bone-in drumsticks.  It ended up juicy and sweet (and a little messy), and I served it with a side of cous cous.  I will be making this one again sometime, except next time I will probably use both drumsticks and thighs.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup soy sauce
5 fresh rosemary sprigs
5 garlic cloves, halved
10 to 12 chicken drumsticks
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Directions:

Combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary sprigs and garlic cloves in a large, resealable plastic bag. Shake and squeeze the contents of the bag to dissolve the honey and the brown sugar. Add the chicken drumsticks to the bag and seal, squeezing out as much air from the bag as possible. Marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Remove the chicken drumsticks from the bag, reserving the marinade, and arrange them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the skin is caramelized and very dark in spots, 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the marinade in a small saucepan. Bring the marinade to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook over low heat until thick, about 15 minutes.

Use a pastry brush to brush some of the cooked marinade on the cooked chicken. Place the chicken on a serving platter. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and the chopped parsley.