Michelle Cooks Everyday» Uncategorized

Rachael Ray…..the end

Michelle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:02:32 +0000

Well, I may have missed some schedules, I might not always have been on time, and I’m probably famous for not following her recipes to a T! However, considering all things, I feel great about this blog! I have enjoyed it. I love all your nice comments, and for those that weren’t so nice, thanks for reading anyway! Several have asked what is next for this blog? Well, I’m going to take a little break, at least until I get my own kitchen back. Hopefully we’ll move down south in a few weeks and I’ll post some more recipes. They won’t always be Rachael Ray, but I would love to share some other recipes that I love with you. I’ll admit this wasn’t easy to keep going, with a few trips, and especially with the husband pretty much gone for the last 4 months. But I’m glad I stuck with it! Hopefully we’ll set this up to re-post some recipes for those that started following toward the end can see what I did in the beginning! Our biggest news that I have not shared on this blog yet is we are expecting a little girl in May! Which made making menus and picking food pretty hard these past 20 weeks! So I hope everyone has a great new year! We’ll see you back soon, until then, Happy Cooking!

Rachael Ray: Italian Sponge Cake In Five

Michelle — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:00:45 +0000

This Rachael Ray dessert makes up in no time. As many of you have noted, there is no baking involved. I will say it is important to buy good sponge cakes. The sponge cakes that I bought were not great. So the ice cream and strawberries were good. I liked the honey on the cakes, just the cakes didn’t taste right. That’s my best advice for this one.

Recipe: Italian Sponge Cake In Five

Italian Sponge Cake In Five

Cookbook: Rachael Ray Online

Total Time: 5 minutes

Notes: I didn’t do anything different, just wish the cakes were better.

Rachael Ray: Chicken Tacos with Spicy Grape Salasa

Michelle — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:00:03 +0000

I’ll be honest: the only reason I tried this Rachael Ray recipe is because I did not want my red grapes to go bad. Looking back, I can’t tell you how glad I am I made this, or how wonderful it is. I was worried about it. I’m not a huge fan of chicken tacos, I rarely eat shredded chicken in anything Mexican, I like fajita chicken much better, but I thought well I have the grapes so why not. I even only made 1 taco for myself, expecting not to like this. One bite, that is all it took to convince me that these are possibly some of the best tacos I have ever made, or ever eaten in my life. I know this may sound like an over statement, and I’m building this recipe up, but I strongly recommend you try this out tonight. I even told a co-worker about it, he made it, and he and his guest loved it too. So it’s not just my opinion, but others have verified, these tacos, they are good!

Recipe: Chicken Tacos with Spicy Grape Salsa

Chicken Tacos with Grape Salsa

Cookbook: Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine

Total Time: 10 minutes

Best Friend Says: (she ate one too!) “These are so good, I think I’ll need another one!”

Notes: I didn’t do a thing different here, followed the recipe to a “T”. I do recommend using an upside muffin tin to help stuff your tacos, it does make it a lot easier! I think I first saw that tip on Rachael Ray!

Rachael Ray: Chinese Barbecued Lettuce Wraps

Michelle — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:04:46 +0000

I have really enjoyed Rachael Ray’s other lettuce wrap or lettuce cup recipes. I wasn’t a huge fan of lettuce wraps until I started making them. I’m not really sure why, there isn’t anything in them I don’t like. I was surprised that the Little One ate some of these. Even the water chestnuts, I don’t think he was too sure of what they were. I didn’t give him one in lettuce, just some of the filling. Possibly with a side of rice, because he loves rice!

Recipe: Chinese Barbecued Lettuce Wraps

Chinese Barbecued Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Cookbook: Cooking Round the Clock

Total Time: 20 minutes

Notes:I think this could’ve used a little more salt, I added some soy sauce and really enjoyed the flavor. Maybe a little more orange flavor too, I love the smell of the orange zest cooking with the chicken. I was pleasantly surprised how fast this cooked up. We were running a little late for dinner, but in no time it was ready. I didn’t use mushrooms, if the husband were home I would, but I don’t like them, so I didn’t.

Winner!

Michelle — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:39:13 +0000

I used Random.org to pick the winner, just the list randomizer because I only had a few entries, here are the results!

Emily W.

Valerie

Stacie

Danielle

Emily S.

Heidi

Congrats Emily W.! You’ve won a year subscription to Everyday with Rachael Ray!

Rachael Ray: Everything Chicken Roll Ups

Michelle — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:00:50 +0000

Here is another fried chicken Rachael Ray recipe. I love everything bagels and cream cheese. I first fell in love with them in high school. During yearbook we’d always make an “illegal” trip to New York Bagel and Co. That’s what I would always get, an everything bagel. I thought I’d give this Everything Chicken a try, and it tasted like a chicken rolled in an everything bagel with cream cheese. It was delicious. I debated about baking this chicken, but I had to make these quick so frying it was. Again, this is something that I think you could bake on high heat and sprinkle with a little EVOO and get the same effect. Sometime I will try that over frying.

Recipe: Everything Chicken Roll Ups (recipe coming soon)

Everything Chicken Roll Ups

Cookbook: 365 Days: No Repeats

Total Time: 15 minutes

Notes:I am really bad at rolling things in chicken. There wasn’t as much cream cheese in these as I would like, but maybe Rachael Ray needs to have me on her show and teach me how to roll these up. They did alright, like I said not enough cream cheese. I also made these without poppy seeds because I didn’t have any, and $4 for a little jar was a little too much for my taste. Also, some how I ran out of eggs, so I just dipped them in milk.

Rachael Ray: Maple Ham with Spicy Creamed Spinach

Michelle — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:00:49 +0000

The main reason I picked this Rachael Ray recipe is for the spinach. I like spinach in salad, but cooked spinach is not my favorite. The Husband loves spinach, so this was for him. The great thing about this meal is it comes together so fast. The crazy thing is I started making this when I got the call that my cousin had her baby, so about 30 minutes later we had all eaten, very quickly and were out the door. So if you don’t have a lot of time to cook or eat, this one is perfect for you!

Recipe: Maple Ham with Spicy Creamed Spinach

Maple Ham and Spicy Creamed Spinach

Cookbook: Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine

Total Time: 20 minutes

Husband Says: “The ham was good, and I really liked the spinach. A little spicy, it was nice.”

Notes: I didn’t change anything on this, maybe would’ve made 2 ham steaks and had more spinach. I don’t usually cook it down, and I knew it would cook down some, but that spinach cooked down a lot. So I’d get 2-3 times more spinach then you think you need!

Ingredients

wilt spinach

heat ham steakadd both cheeses to spinach

stir together

Rachael Ray: Salsa Stoup and Double Decker Quesadillas

Michelle — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:00:16 +0000

My husband was not excited about this Rachael Ray recipe, honestly neither was I. Who knew it would be 95 degrees today? A salsa stoup was the last thing we wanted to eat. I should have served it cold, which I just thought about, oh 3 hours too late. However, I’m so proud of him for giving it a try, because it wasn’t bad! I did change up the quesadilla a bit, but everyone ate theirs, including the baby! The quesadilla is a great dipper in the soup!

Recipe: Salsa Stoup and Double Decker Quesadillas

Salsa Stoup adn Double Deck Quesadillas

Cookbook: 365 Days: No Repeats

Total Time: 30 minutes

Husband Says: I forgot to ask him….so I’ll have to update this later, I think he enjoyed the quesadilla because he ate 2….

Notes: If I were to make this stoup (a soup but slightly thicker, it’s a Rachael word!) again, I think I would leave out the celery. It just didn’t seem to fit, maybe I didn’t saute it enough, but I didn’t like it in the stoup. Other then that I thought the stoup was delicious. For my Double Decker Quesadillas, I changed it up a lot. Instead of putting a layer of Pepperjack cheese, I used refried beans. I also brushed them with butter, not vegetable oil. I loved these Quesadillas, and we got a little bit of protein, so I think it was a nice balance! I did not make the avacado mash in the linked recipe, it isn’t in the book!

Ingredients

saute veggies in oil

add broth and tomatoes

spread beanstop with tortilla then cheese and scallions

top wtih 3rd tortilla and bake

stir in cilantro

stoup is ready

Rachael Ray: Ham, Cheese, and Chive Scones

Michelle — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:00:17 +0000

This Rachael Ray recipe would make an excellent breakfast. I always like things you can mix all together and cook without messing up many dishes. This is a good one. I’m not very good at shaping scones, and maybe my dough was too wet, but I think I should’ve just dropped them like biscuits. I gave it a shot, scones, but it just looked like 1 big biscuit that I cut into pie like slices. I’m sure it taste the same, it was good, maybe a little too sweet.

Recipe: Ham, Cheese, and Chive Scones

Ham, Cheese, and Chive Scone

Cookbook: Big Orange Book

Total Time: 20 minutes (might very for oven time)

Husband Says: “It tasted like cornbread, it was sweet. It was good.”

Notes: I would probably use less sugar, it was just too sweet for me, but over all I thought it was a nice different take on ham and cheese. Other then the fact mine might not have looked like scones, they were good.

Ingredients

mix all dry ingredients

after mixing with milk and egg shape into scones

bake

New post soon

Michelle — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:43:23 +0000

I am out if town but I will have a new post soon for dinner tonight. Hopefully I’ll have wireless soon!