Chicken Wellington

I made this last night for dinner and it was delicious! I have made it once before and while it is not necessarily quick and easy, it isn't too complicated.
I have adapted this recipe from Taste of Home's recipe for Chicken Wellington. I use less butter, cook the chicken first and use puff pastry instead of pie crust.
Oh--and I meant to take a picture of this, but I was trying to get dinner done (and eaten) before Nicholas needed to eat and go to sleep. By the time I realized that I hadn't taken a picture, we only had a few bites left!

And one of the keys to this is to remember to defrost the puff pastry (about 45 minutes before you need it).

I apologize for the lack of measurements--I'll try to explain so you know how much to use!

Chicken Wellington
4 Boneless Chicken Breasts (Pound to flatten a little)
Olive Oil--just enough to cook the chicken in so it won't stick
Dried Rosemary
Salt and Pepper
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tiny pats of butter

Sauce
1 chicken bouillion cube
1 1/4 cup hot water
2 tablespoons butter
2-3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons chicken broth

Sprinkle chicken breasts with rosemary, salt and pepper (both sides). Cook chicken in just a little olive oil until cooked through. Do not overcook!

Grease a cookie sheet.

Cut sheets of puff pastry in half. Put chicken breast in the center and place a dab of butter on top. Fold pastry around it, pinching the edges to seal. *Note--the chicken is hot and will make the pastry melt a little. I do all this right on the cookie sheet so I don't have to try to transfer it.

After you have wrapped all four chicken breasts, brush the tops with the beaten egg.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 18-20 minutes. Let sit for a few minutes after taking them out of the oven.

While the chicken bakes, make the sauce. (I forgot to do this last night until last minute!)

Melt butter in a skillet. Add flour and stir until smooth.
Dissolve bouillion cube in hot water. Add bouillion mix to the butter and flour and whisk until smooth. Add wine and chicken broth and stir until thickened.

(I added a little too much flour last night and it didn't all dissolve and ended up with flour lumps in it. So, I just poured the sauce through a wire mesh sieve and all the lumps were gone!)

Top each pastry bundle with a little sauce and enjoy! We also enjoyed the sauce on our mashed potatoes!

Grilled Peaches with Raspberry Syrup and Whipped Cream

What a hot day! I was on Facebook this morning, and saw a post from EZ Orchards about all the foods that you can make on the grill. The idea of grilling peaches sounded good to me, so this afternoon, we drove to EZ Orchards and picked up peaches with the rest of our fruits and veggies.

This really was pretty simple--I did search Martha's website (yes, we are on a first name basis) for some ideas and modified one of her recipes a little. And I'm sorry--I didn't measure anything.

--Slice peaches in half and remove the pit and stem. (Use as many peaches as you have people! I was cooking for 3.)
--Brush peaches with melted butter (I had to use Smart Balance since I'm out of everything! Still worked although not my first choice.)
--Sprinkle peaches with brown sugar.
--Place peaches flesh side down on foil and cook on a medium temperature grill for about 10 minutes.

While the peaches are cooking--whip some heavy whipping cream (I always add a little powdered sugar) and make the raspberry syrup.
I have raspberries in my freezer and I really just grabbed two handfuls out and thawed them. Then, I put two soup spoons of sugar in with the raspberries and let it sit for about 5 minutes while I whipped the cream.
Next, I mixed it up and squished the raspberries with the spoon. After it was good and squished, I ran it through a wire mesh sieve to separate the syrup from the solids and seeds.

I placed two peaches in each bowl (one for the little guy), topped it with raspberry syrup and added whipped cream to the top. I sliced mine, then topped it since I knew I had to finish eating it before I needed to feed the baby--but I left Jamie's whole.

It is simple--the fruit flavors are there and not overpowered by sugar and really yummy! There is one peach half left and I think Jamie and I may battle for it! And it took maybe 15-20 minutes to do the entire thing.

This is Me...Welcome!

I am: a wife, a mom to two boys, a teacher, a Christian, a little bit of a control freak, a Martha Stewart groupie, a meal planner, and someone who loves to cook and try new recipes.

I am not: a gourmet chef (although sometimes I try to pretend), someone who makes flawless meals, someone who always has a clean house or a stocked pantry or someone who always has everything turn out just right.

This blog is not a place where you will find someone who always follows recipes to the letter; sometimes dinner just has to get on the table. While I will try to include pictures, you won't get pictures of each step of the recipe. I have two little boys, and it is very rare that I can make dinner uninterrupted, never mind stopping to take photos of chopped garlic. And I promise to include the failed recipes as well as the successes. Sometimes, it just doesn't work, or life just happens and we order pizza. I will include my tried and true recipes as well--I counted my dinner recipes the other day (yes, I realize that I'm a little nuts) and I figured that I have around 125 main dish recipes for dinners.

I'm excited to start this blog--I get asked for recipes a lot, and I love to talk about what I'm cooking. My wonderful husband loves to eat what I make, but to be honest, I don't think he wants a play by play description of how I made it. So, thanks for joining this blogging adventure with me--I hope it will be helpful and will inspire you to make great meals for your family!