Slow-Cooker Italian Chicken

Looking for a super easy, fool-proof slow-cooker family meal?  How about this classic: Italian chicken!

All you need is a few ingredients and your trusty old slow-cooker.  Pour everything in and forget about it for a few hours.  The perfect meal for those busy weekdays and one the entire family will love.  The chicken comes out creamy and tender.  I served this over brown rice, broccoli on the side and a piece of garlic bread--YUM!

Ingredients:

2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used chicken tenders cut into bite sized pieces)
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pkg. Italian dressing seasoning
1/4 cup water or chicken broth

Rice or pasta

Directions:

Place chicken in a slow cooker. Mix softened cream cheese, cream of chicken, water or broth and Italian Seasoning together and pour evenly over chicken. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or until chicken is fully cooked and tender.  Serve over rice or pasta.

Source:  Adapted from Chef-in-Training

Valentine's Day Heart Sugar Cookies

Recently, I had the pleasure of spending a Saturday night bonding with my friend ,Vanessa, over a few glasses of wine and while decorating these Valentine's day cookies.  Vanessa is a fantastic cook and baker (amongst other things) and we had both talked about how we should get together one night to share baking and decorating tips.  After a few attempts to coordinate a date, we were finally able to get together.  It was so great to catch-up with her and I was so happy with how these cookies turned out!

 My friend, Vanessa's gorgeous chocolate heart cookies.  Simply beautiful!!

The classic sugar cookie recipe and royal icing recipe is listed below.  To make the heart design on the  cookies, start by piping a border of royal icing on your cookie and flood the center with same or coordinating color.  Then immediately (if you wait too long it won't work as well) add dots to the border area of the cookie.  Finally, drag a clean toothpick through the dots and you'll make this lovely connecting hearts design.


Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

Parchment paper or Silpat mat

Directions:
-In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
-In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes.
-Add the egg and vanilla and beat another minute or so.
-Add the flour mixture slowly. (Be careful not to add too much at a time or you will have a snowstorm of flour.)
-Blend until all of the flour is incorporated and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
-Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a piece of parchment paper. 
-Using your hands, knead the dough a few times.
-Place the dough in a large plastic (Ziploc type) bag and refrigerate for about 2 hours. If you want to speed up the chilling process, place the bag of dough in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes. Just don't forget it in the freezer, or it will become to firm to work with (and then you'll have to wait for it to thaw). 
-When it's almost time to remove the dough from the refrigerator (or freezer), preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
-When the dough has chilled and is firm, take out about half of the dough, leaving the rest in the refrigerator (until your ready to work with it).

Royal Icing

Ingredients: 
4 Tablespoons Meringue Powder (I use Wilton Brand)
4 cups (about 1 pound) powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract


Directions:
Beat all ingredients until stiff peaks form. 
*Make sure all bowls and utensils are totally grease-free or your icing will never reach proper consistency.
Spoon some of the thick white icing into individual bowls and add coloring.  Then divide each colored batch in half.  Carefully, add and stir warm water to the icing to get a think and a thin "flooding" consistency.  Decorate your cookies.  Cookies will need 12-24 hours to dry completely.

Source: Glorious Treats

Small Batch Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 4 cupcakes)

Not so long ago I was having a major cupcake craving (ever get one of those?) and wanted to bake a batch but realized I had a little problem.  All the recipes I have make a full batch of either 18 or 24 cupcakes.  That is great in most situations and cupcakes tend to freeze very well, but having that many buttercream topped goodies within easy reach is just not a good thing for this girl (read: no self control) ;)

So, when I came across this recipe I knew my problem was solved!  A perfectly simple, vanilla cupcake and buttercream recipe that only yields enough batter and frosting for 4 cupcakes (or 8 minis)...Yes!  I slightly adapted the recipe by using cake flour to lighten the cake (all purpose flour will work too) and heavy cream instead of milk to make the frosting a little richer and it worked beautifully.  

The hearts were made out of fondant which I dyed pink and cut out with a small heart cookie cutter.

So, if you are still looking for a special treat for your Valentine's day make these!

Vanilla Cupcakes (yields 4 cupcakes)

2 egg whites
4 Tbs. sugar
4 Tbs. butter, melted and cooled
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup  cake flour (can sub AP flour if needed)
1/2 heaping tsp. of baking powder
2 pinches of salt
3 Tbs. milk

1.  Line a cupcake pan with 4 cupcake liners.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In large bowl, whisk together the egg whites and sugar.   Stir in the melted butter and vanilla.

3.  All at once, stir in the flour, baking powder and salt.  Keep stirring until everything is smooth and well-combined.  Add milk and stir until incorporated into the batter.

3.   Fill each cupcake liner with batter.  I love my large cookie scoop for this. If you don’t have one, simply divide the batter evenly between the 4 cupcakes.

4.  Bake  12-14 minutes.  The cupcake should pass the toothpick test.  Cool Completely.

Vanilla Buttercream (frosting for 4 Cupcakes)

4 Tbs. butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 tsp. heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar

1.  Beat or stir briskly the butter,  milk and vanilla.
2.  On low, or slowly, add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time.  Incorporate your powdered sugar before adding the next installment.  Add more milk if needed.
3.  Pipe onto cupcakes and eat!

Cupcakes are best the day they are made.  Refrigerate if you will not be eating them in about 6-8 hours.

Source:  WiskTogether