Giuseppepaolo

Happy Halloween Have you ever played with candied vodka? To be honest with you, until this past weekend I had never even heard of it. Until I watched Nadia G. on Bitchen Kitchen's Halloween Special play with some.  What fun! The candy flavor really comes through.  Pick a candy (gummy works great...and so does hard candies). Toss a good handful into a sealable glass jar along with about a cup or so of vodka. Let the candy get sauced for about 2 days, shaking the jar 3 times a day. Strain the vodka and get ready to play. One jar contained lemon drops, another had gummy peach rings and the third was red vines. When I strained my vodka, I placed cheese cloth over a mason jar and screwed on a band to hold the cloth in place. Worked beautifully. And how could I pass up this wicked find?  Brujas and Peotches Halloween Cocktail 2 shots peach (aka peotch) candy vodka 2 shots orange juice topped with lemon lime soda Its tangy and sweet...with a hidden bite. I haven't decided what to do w

One of my favorite dishes is Chicken Picatta. This dish is almost identical. It has a little more lemon flavor. Wine is included and capers have been excluded. Bottom line? It's delish! The other day I asked my friends on Facebook who their favorite celebrity chef is. The goal was to cook a recipe from the chef that was mentioned the most. The snafu? No one mentioned the same chef. Now I have to cook something from each of them. Tyler Florence was mentioned first...so here is  Tyler Florence's Chicken Francese Chicken Francese Printable Version 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded thin, to about the size of your hand 1 cup of all purpose flour Salt and pepper 4 eggs 3 TB water 1/4 extra virgin olive oil 1/2 lemon, sliced into rounds 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 cup chicken broth juice from 1/2 lemon 2 TB butter 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped In 2 wide shallow bowls (I often use pie tins) combine the flour and a good amount of salt in pepper in one, and the eggs and wate

I'm not big on pies. Although I love pecan pie. I'm not a fan of pie crust. But some aren't all bad. Cooked apple isn't my thing. But I love a good Apple Betty. So why did I make these Apple Pecan Mini Pies with Brie Cheese, you ask? Haven't you ever craved something that's not your favorite thing? Just to see if you can make it in a way that suits you? Well, that's kinda what I did. I saw the Honey Crisp apples (my favorite apples) at the store and had a weird craving to bake something with them. I've had some filo dough in my freezer that I've been dying to use. When I bought it, I thought I had bought the filo cups. HA! Well...that's not the case. I had the sheets. Let me tell you a little something about the sheets. Frozen sheets to be specific. IF you are able to find fresh filo dough....do yourself a favor and use it. If you can make your own filo dough...I'm totally envious. The frozen ones have a tendency to rip, tear, fall apart. And

Before I get carried away with tonight's dinner, I just realized that I never told you all who won the Muy Bueno Cookbook from my contest . I have no real good excuse as to why it's taken me so long. But I did inform the person who one...and she did receive it. Let's give a nice big round of applause to Tango from  Tangos Treasures WOO HOO!!!!!!!!! I hope you enjoy the cookbook as much as I am :) A while back (a long while back) I use to post Salubrious Sunday recipes. They were basically health conscious recipes that I posted on Sundays. Not sure why I stopped but according to my Facebook followers, there's quite a desire for healthy recipes. Which really isn't my forte. I am a lover of carbs, sugars, dairy (cheese, creams and eggs) and...alcohol. As you can imagine, healthy recipes can be quite challenging for me. Not that I don't have a lot of recipes to choose from. I just have a hard time finding one that satisfies me. I need recipes that don't leave me

Yes, you heard right. Beef Tongue. It's in there. It's good. I swear. And you're talking to someone who went waaaaaaaaaay beyond hercomfort zone on this one. Before we go there, let me say a few things here. And I think you'll wanna hear them. First off, for the past 3 weeks, I've been participating in the  Muy Bueno  Cookbook  Spotlight & Cook-Off sponsored by  Hippocrene  and hosted at  girlichef    This cookbook is truly Muy Bueno. Here's a list of the recipes I've cooked during these wonderful three weeks: Mushroom, Jalapeno, and Cilantro Salsa Prickly Pear Margarita Capirotada - Mexican Bread Pudding You can go to   girlichef 's site and see what everyone else made. After all, I'm not the only one reviewing it. When the Muy Bueno Cookbook arrived, of course I instantly started browsing through the recipes. The first thing I thought was....wow, I've either made or eaten a lot of these recipes! Do you know why that is? No, not because I h