Rosemary & Sea Salt Rolls - Yummy!

How delicious do these Rosemary and Sea Salt rolls look? My mouth is watering. They were sooooo delicious. I will be making these again and again. I first had rosemary bread at Macaroni Grill in Atlanta, GA. It was so delicious. We would eat the whole loaf and ask for more. When I saw the my friend Ree, aka the Pioneer Woman, making these I knew they would be close to the perfection we had at Macaroni Grill. I might even go so far as to say they are even better. The best part is you start with frozen yeast rolls so you don’t even have to make the dough. These are super easy and super delicious. Add these to your dinner and you won’t regret it. Let’s get started:

Ingredients:

• Frozen, Unbaked Dinner Rolls
• Melted Butter, salted
• Fresh Rosemary, Coarsely Chopped
• Coarse Sea Salt

Directions:

Spray a small iron skillet with cooking spray (or coat with olive oil). I use the best of both worlds, olive oil spray. Place frozen rolls in the skillet, leaving plenty of room for rising.

Cover with plastic wrap (put a little spray on the top of the plastic wrap) and allow to rise for several hours. Check the package for details.

Viola! It's like magic.

After rising, brush rolls with melted butter.

Sprinkle on chopped rosemary. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Bake according to roll package directions (usually 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes - check package for cooking instructions), until rolls are a deep golden brown on top and look delicious. Let's just look at them one more time since they are so beautiful.....

Your friends and family will thank you! Enjoy!

Perfect Roast Chicken

One of our favorite and most perfect meals is a simple chicken roasted in the oven with some root vegetables. Nothing really beats the perfection of a roasted chicken and veggies. It’s easy to throw together and so satisfying. I mean, who doesn’t love a roasted chicken?? A crazy person, that’s who! Such a yummy meal. One of my dear friends, Ina (aka the Barefoot Contessa) taught me how to make the perfect roasted chicken. Well, she didn’t really have to teach me too much because it’s quite simple. Now I’d like to teach you how to make the perfect roasted chicken. Everyone should keep this recipe in their back pocket and pull it out when needed. Let’s get started:

Ingredients:

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 10 sprigs
• 5-6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 head garlic, approximately
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 4-6 red potatoes, halved
• Olive oil for drizzling
• 1/2 (or a little more) cup white wine or chicken broth

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Sometimes I forget this step, so this is an important reminder. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken.

Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, a few rosemary sprigs, both halves of lemon, and about 5 – 6 cloves of garlic, whole. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.

Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. If you don’t have kitchen string, like me, then you can cut a little slit in the chicken and tuck the legs inside. See my photo. It’s a nifty trick. Place the onions, carrots, potatoes and garlic in roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, about 10 sprigs of thyme, a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and drizzle with olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top. Pour wine or chicken broth in the bottom of the pan. If you had to use a giant pan like I did, you might need to use a little more liquid to cover the bottom of the pan. I think it's time I buy something smaller than a roasting pan for a giant turkey!

See how the legs are tucked through the side skin? Cool trick, right?

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes.

Doesn't that look delicious?? Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables and you are ready for the perfect dinner! Enjoy!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I can hear you saying...."a recipe with cinnamon AGAIN". Yeah, yeah, I recently posted two other recipes with cinnamon, but here’s another one. Guess what....I love cinnamon! Hello, my name is Dawn and I’m addict to cinnamon. Hey, I could be addicted to worse things! I could be an alcoholic, I could be a hoarder, but I'm not, I just really love all things cinnamon! And look, you all get to benefit from my cinnamon addiction and join in my fun. Two things I love are cinnamon and coffee cake. Put those two things together and I’m in hog heaven. And yes, I’ll eat like a pig and turn into a hog. This recipe makes the most awesome cake batter. It tastes a lot like my pound cake batter. I should know, I’ve sampled them both....several times.

Would you also like to make an awesome coffee cake? I’m going to assume that answer was yes and give you the recipe. This one was thanks to a Good Housekeeping cookbook I found on the bargain table at Barnes and Noble. Who knew Good Housekeeping was still publishing awesome cookbooks?? I was happy to discover this and I do love a good bargain! You’ll be seeing more recipes from this book soon. Okay, let’s get started:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sugar plus 1 3/4cup sugar
• 2/3 cup walnuts (or pecans), finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 3/4cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened, or margarine
• 3 large eggs
• 1 container (16 ounces) sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9-inch to 10-inch tube pan with removable bottom. I don’t have a tube pan so I just used my bundt pan and flipped the cake over after it came out. I’m sure it’s easier with a tube pan, but this method worked too! Dust the pan with flour after greasing. In small bowl, mix 2/3 cup sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon. Next time, I might double this mixture so I have more filling and more topping. Who doesn’t want more cinnamon, right??

In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat remaining 1 3/4 cups sugar and butter until blended, scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to high; beat until creamy, about 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

With mixer at low speed, add flour mixture alternating with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl. Beat in vanilla.

How beautiful is that batter?? Wish I could lick that paddle now!

Spoon one-third of batter into prepared tube pan. Sprinkle about 1/2  nut mixture evenly over batter, then spread half of remaining batter on top.

Sprinkle with a little less than remaining 1/2  more nut mixture (reserve some for topping); layer with remaining batter, then remaining nut mixture.

Bake cake 1 hour 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Check after an hour to see how things are progressing. You don’t want to burn this fabulous cake! Cool cake in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. With small metal spatula, loosen cake from side of pan and lift cake from pan bottom. Invert cake onto plate; remove bottom of pan. Immediately invert cake onto wire rack to cool completely, with nut mixture on top.

Doesn't that look delicious piping hot and fresh out of the oven? Well, it was delicious! Luckily this time I took some into work to share with others so David and I wouldn't eat the entire thing. It's not like we weren't prepared to give it a try. Give this recipe a try and you'll love it too. Thanks Good Housekeeping!

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

Are you in need of a quick and easy and flavorful meal?? Pinterest to the rescue! I love Pinterest so much. There's no way I'll ever be able to make everything I've pinned, but it's fun to work through as many recipes as possible. I've had this one pinned for a while and I couldn't wait to make it. David loves cilantro so I knew he'd love this one. I didn't think I liked cilantro too much, but I was wrong! This was really delicious in this dish and oh so flavorful! The cilantro just gives it that extra flavor punch! Cilantro plus lime equals Delish! If you have about 5-10 minutes to spare, you have time to make this awesome meal! Now let's get started:

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 lb shrimp, shelled and deviened
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 lime
• salt and pepper 

Directions:

Heat a large frying pan on medium-high heat. I like to use my iron skillet. It just makes everything better and reminds me of my parents and grand parents. Add oil to the pan, when hot add the shrimp. Season with salt and pepper. When the shrimp is cooked on one side, about 2 minutes, turn over and add garlic. I used frozen shrimp and just warmed them in the oil with garlic. Sauté another minute or two until shrimp is cooked, careful not to overcook. No one wants tough shrimp!

Sorry it's blurry, but you get the idea...saute' shrimp w/garlic.

Remove from heat. Squeeze lime juice all over shrimp and toss with cilantro. Serve hot.

I was so excited to use my new citrus juicer! It works great!

This is such a beautifully flavorful dish! And such a low calorie treat! Next time, I'm going to add another lime and a little more olive oil and serve it over pasta. The sauce this created was so fresh and tasty. It would be awesome over some angel hair pasta so a drop isn't wasted. I served it with rice so that helped collect some flavors too.  Give that a try this time!