Bourbon Chicken

What's up foodies? Y'all doing good? You Good? You Good? I'm good! You good? Okay, good? It has been a while since I have posted a recipe, and so today I am back with this delicious Bourbon Chicken recipe. 

I must add that this bourbon chicken does have bourbon in it, which I know traditionally bourbon chicken doesn't have bourbon in it. The recipe got its name because it was originally made on bourbon street, but I decided to add in some bourbon.

If you do not want to add the bourbon, you can leave it out, but keep in mind that the alcohol is going to cook out.

Ingredients: 

- 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breast)

- 3 tsbp. bourbon

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1/3 cup apple juice (I sometimes use 2/3 cups)

- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)

- 3 tbsp. ketchup

- 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

- 1/4 cup water

- 1/3 cup soy sauce

- 1/4 tsp. ginger paste (or minced ginger)

- 3 tsp. cornstarch 

- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

Cut the chicken thighs into 1-inch cups. Add the oil into a skillet and place over medium heat. Once the oil has come up to temperature, add in the chicken and cook until browned (about 3-4 minutes). Once the chicken is browned, remove from skillet. In a separate bowl, mix together the water and cornstarch until combined and no lumps are visible. Add in the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Place the sauce into a skillet over medium heat and let it come to a light simmer. Once the sauce comes to a simmer, add in the chicken and cook for 15-20 minutes. Serve with rice and enjoy. 

Vegetable and Beef Soup

Whats up my fellow foodies? Are you good? You good? You good? I'm good! You good? Okay good. Well, today I am sharing my recipe for vegetable and beef soup. I wanted to get this recipe and the video posted back in the colder months, but like usual, most things don't always go as planned. So even though we are starting to transition into the warmer time of the year, I still wanted to post this recipe.

Although, were I am, we still have a few more cold days left and that's why I decided to post this. After all, who says you can only have soup during the colder months? This soup is so basic and easy, but It tastes so good. Keep in mind while making this that you do not have to use everything that I am using. Make it your own and put what you want in it! It is pretty hard to mess up soup. If you've ever made any type of soup before, then you probably know that it always tastes better the next day, so I strongly advise making this ahead of time. I really hope you enjoy this recipe.

Recipe:

- 1 to 2 pounds ground beef

- 1 (29 ounce) can mixed vegetables

- 1 (29 ounce) can diced tomatoes (undrained) 

- 1 can corn

- 1 can sweet peas

- 1 can tomato sauce

- 1 onion, diced

- 2 stalks celery, chopped

- 1 clover garlic, minced

- 1 cup frozen okra (optional)

- 1 potato diced (optional)

- 1 tbsp, vegetable oil 

- 1 pack Knorr vegetable recipe mix (optional)

- 1 tsp. oregano

- 2 cups chicken broth

- 4 cups water

- salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

Brown the ground beef. When fully cooked, drain fat. Saute the onion in the oil until the onion is translucent. Add in the garlic and saute for about two minutes. In a big pot or dutch oven, add the ground beef, the onion, celery, and garlic mixture, tomatoes, mixed vegetables, corn, peas, tomato sauce, okra, and potatoes. Add in the chicken broth and water. Sprinkle in the vegetable recipe mix and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lid, and with the heat on medium low, let the soup cook for about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours. After that taste the soup to see if it needs more salt or pepper.

Serve the soup with crackers or cornbread and enjoy.

Cinnamon Rolls

CINNAMON ROLLS

What's up foodies? Y'all doing good? You good? You good? I'm good! You good? Okay, good! Today I'm going to share my recipe for cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls are one of my favorite sweet things to eat. There is just something so amazing about the soft dough, sweet filling, and the amazing cream cheese glaze on top.

As much as I love cinnamon rolls, I don't make them too often because I know how I am around them. I eat one, and one turns into two, and so on and so forth. For the past two weeks, I have been working on this recipe and I got it exactly how I want it. Now, I will admit, making cinnamon rolls is  a bit of a process, and I am no stranger to just hitting up the dairy section at my local grocery store and grabbing a can of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. There is, however, a sense of pride when you make them yourself.

To be honest, After testing and trying to perfect my own recipe for cinnamon rolls these past two weeks, I am pretty sick of them at the moment, but I'm sure I'll be back to loving them again soon.

Okay, enough of me...let's get to the recipe.

NOTES:

• It is very important that your water is warm. If it is too hot, it will kill the yeast and the dough will not rise. The easiest way to test is to place your finger in the water. When you do, the water should be warm to the touch. If you have to snatch your finger out because of the heat, it's too hot.
• If you want to make the cinnamon rolls in a mixer with a dough attachment, that is fine, but if you're using a spoon, after a while you might need to knead the flour in by hand if it is too hard to mix with the spoon.
• The warm place I like to put my dough is in the microwave or in the oven with the oven light on.
• You can use regular milk instead of half and half.
• Make sure the yeast you're using is not expired.

Ingredients:

Dough:

-1/2 cup warm water

- 2 tsp. sugar

- 1 pack (2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast

- 4 1/2  to 5 cups flour (all purpose of bread flour)

- 1 tsp. salt

- 5 tbsp. melted butter

- 2 eggs

- 1/3 cup sugar

- 1 cup half and half

- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Filling: 

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 2 tbsp. cinnamon

- 4 tbsp. softened butter

Cream Cheese Glaze:
- 4 ounces cream cheese (softened)

- 4 tbsp. butter (softened)

- 2 to 4 tbsp. half and half

- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

- 1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Stir together the warm water, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and pack of yeast. Let that sit and proof for five minutes (it should look foamy after five minutes). Mix together the flour and salt. In a mixing bowl, add the melted butter, half and half, eggs, vanilla, sugar, and oil and mix those together. Add in the yeast and water mixture and stir. Using a wooden spoon or mixer with dough attachment. Add in the flour a little at a time until a dough forms *see notes*. Knead the dough a few times by hand until it comes into a smooth ball. Place the dough into a bowl that has been greased with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place into a warm place to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or doubled in size *see notes*.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down to release the air and turn out onto work area. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 14 inches tall and 20 inches wide. Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon very well. Spread the softened butter all over the inside of the dough. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture on top of the butter, leaving a 1/2 inch border on all sides with no cinnamon sugar. Starting with the longest end, roll the dough up really tight. Slice the rolls into 1 inch pieces using a serrated knife. Place the rolls into a greased 9 x 19 inch pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise for 45 minutes to an hour in a warm place. Once the rolls have risen, remove the plastic wrap and place into a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cream Cheese Glaze:

Mix together the softened butter and cream cheese until combined. Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until the sugar is incorporated. Add in the milk or half and half until it is a thick, but runny consistency. Spread the glaze over the hot rolls.

Collard Greens

What's up foodies? Are y'all good? You good? You good? I'm good! You good? Okay, good. Today I'm sharing my recipe for collard greens. Now, when I was younger, I really didn't like collard greens or any other green vegetable for the matter, but it's one of those things that you grow out of.

There are several different ways you can make collard greens. What I do may differ from what others do.

Recipe:

- 1 large bunch fresh collard greens

- 2 or 3 pieces ham hocks  (or meat of choice)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 tbsp. vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- salt to taste

Directions:

Start by rinsing the entire outside of the greens and then start peeling the leaves apart and wash each leaf very thoroughly with cold water. Once all the greens are washed, start removing the leaves from the stem. You can do this by positioning your middle finger and thumb on each side of the greens and index finger down the stem and the run your middle finger and thumb down the greens (refer to video). Do this for all the greens.

After removing the greens, stack about 3 or 4 greens on top of each other and then roll them all together really tightly and start to slice the about 1/4 of an inch. When the greens are all cut, place them in a strainer and rinse the once again with cold water.

On medium heat, saute garlic for about one minute. Slowly add in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Add in the ham hocks or meat of choice and let that simmer, covered for about five minutes. Add in the collard greens, place the lid on and cook for 15 minutes. After fifteen minutes, add in the sugar and vinegar and season with salt and give it a stir. Replace lid and cook for another 15 minutes. Continue to stir the greens every 15 minutes for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the desired texture of the greens is reached. Adjust seasoning after the greens are finished.

If you prefer, you can remove the ham hocks and cut the meat off and add it into the greens.

Please remember to check out the video and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Lemon Pound Cake

Recipe By: Devin Judkins

Hello all my foodies out there. Are you good? You good? You good? I'm good! You good? Okay good. Today I am sharing my recipe for a homemade lemon pound cake. It's coming up on my 1 year YouTube anniversary of my cooking channel and I decided what better way to celebrate by sharing a different version of my first video I posted on my cooking channel, which was my regular all butter pound cake. Check that out here.

A few weeks ago, someone asked me if I could make them a lemon pound cake and so I said to myself "Why not film it and post it to my cooking channel?" because at the time I still hadn't figured out which of my recipes I wanted to share next. The person also wanted the cake in loaf form, which is why I made it like this.

Now, the cake that you see in the picture is just a small version of this recipe. When I made the cake, and took the pictures for this blog and for the thumbnail on my cooking channel, I didn't like them, so I made a smaller version to take new pictures. This recipe is for a FULL pound cake. I used a 16 inch loaf pan to make the original cake, but this can also be made in a regular bundt cake pan.

If you've made my regular pound cake, you will see that there isn't too much of a difference between that recipe and this one. I don't like to make recipes too complicated. I like to create a base recipe and add to it to enhance and improve it.

I have made this cake both in a bundt pan an obviously in the loaf pan, and there isn't really a difference in the cook time. I really hope you enjoy this recipe. I get lots of compliments on it. Happy baking.

Cake Ingredients
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups sugar
- 6 eggs, (room temperature) [separated while cold]
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup heavy cream, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1/2 tsp salt

For the glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and combined. Next, add in the egg yolks one at a time mixing only until the yolk is mixed into the batter. Add in the vanilla extract, lemon extract, and lemon juice and mix well. Mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and then alternate adding the flour and the heavy cream. Start with the flour, and end with the flour. Place the egg whites in a bowl and with your mixer on high speed, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Pour the batter into prepared pan and smooth it out evenly. Bake in preheated over for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. When the cake comes out of the oven. Let it cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes and then run a butter knife around the sides to loosen it up and then flip the cake out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Mix the ingredients for the glaze and spread it over the cooled cake.

Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

What's up foodies? Are you doing good? You good? You good? I'm good! You good? Okay good. Today I'm posting something a little fun for Halloween. Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats. Now, this idea is something that I came up with a little while ago, but I decided to wait and save it until closer to Halloween.

This isn't too innovative, I'm pretty sure this has been done before, but I think its fun for Halloween. When I originally thought of these, I was wondering how I could get all the chocolate to cover the rice krispies cereal, and then I remembered that they sell cocoa krispies and my problem was solved. Now, if you don't have cocoa rice cereal in your area, I suggest that you take regular rice cereal, place them into a plastic bag and then spray the cereal with cooking spray and then pour in some sweetened cocoa and mix them all together. I haven't tried that, so I can't tell you how it will work, but it's worth a try. You can also just use regular rice cereal.

Notes:
- It's very important that you keep your stove heat on low to prevent burning the chocolate and the marshmallows.
- I melted and colored some white chocolate to spread on top of them when they were finished.

Recipe:
- 4 cups mini marshmallows
- 4 tbsp. butter
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted (milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate)
- 5 cups cocoa krispies cereal
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
In a pot over low heat, melt the butter. When the butter is melted, add the marshmallows and vanilla extract and stir until the marshmallows have melted. Add in the melted chocolate and mix it in until combined. When the chocolate is combined, remove the mixture from the heat and add the cocoa krispies cereal and stir really well to combine everything. If you choose, you can add the mini chocolate chips when you add the cereal. Once everything is well combined, pour the mixture into a greased 9x9 or 13x9 inch pan and pat down evenly using a greased rubber spatula or clean hands. Let the treats set to firm about 10 to 15 minutes and then slice and serve.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

Recipe By: Devin Judkins

What's up foodies? Are you doing good? Okay, good. Well, today I am sharing my recipe for my all-time favorite dessert, Cheesecake. I really love cheesecake. I could eat it all day, everyday day. When I go to a restaurant and order dessert, you can bet if there is a cheesecake on the menu, I'm going to get it.

Now, my recipe doesn't stray too much from any other cheesecake recipes. This is a baked cheesecake, so you will have to cook it in the oven. Personally, I prefer a baked cheesecake over a no bake cheesecake because of the texture. I love the fluffy yet dense texture that you get from a baked cheesecake versus the creamy texture you get from a no bake cheesecake. I understand that not everyone likes a baked cheesecake, so I will be sharing a no bake cheesecake in the future.

Some people like to use either sour cream or heavy cream in cheesecake recipes. I like to use a combination of them both. It makes for a great texture.

Tip: If you are like me, you've had a problem with your cheesecake crust sticking to the pan. I saw on another website that if you add a piece of parchment paper into the bottom of the pan and then add your crust it will prevent the crust from sticking. I tried this out with this recipe and it works.

Notes:

- You can leave out the strawberry sauce and this makes a great plain cheesecake.

- You don't have to cook the cheesecake in a water bath, but it does help prevent cracks, if you choose not to use the water bath, you won't need the foil around the pan.

Recipe:

Crust:

- 1 1/2 cups cookie or graham cracker crumbs

- 5 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled

- 2 tbsp. sugar

- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

Filling:

- 4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

- 1 1/4 cups sugar

- 4 eggs, room temperature

- 1 cup sour cream

- 1/4 cup whipping cream or heavy cream

- 2 tsp. vanilla extract

- 1 tsp. lemon juice (optional)

- 1/4 cup flour

- 1/3 cup strawberry sauce get recipe

- Pot of boiling water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust: Butter the bottom and sides of a 10 inch spring form pan and wrap the outside of the pan twice with aluminum foil. Crush the cookie or graham crackers using the food processor or by placing them into a plastic bag and crushing them with a rolling pin or can of vegetables. Place the cookie crumbs into a bowl and add the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon if you choose and stir until combined. Pour the crust mixture into the pan and press the crust into the bottom of the pan using your hands or a cup until flat and even. Place the crust in the refrigerator while you make the filling. 

For the filling: Beat the cream cheese just until it loosens up a little and then mix in the sugar until all combined. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix. Remember to scrape the sides of the bowl. Next, add in the eggs one at a time, mixing only until each egg is combined. Add the heavy cream and sour cream and mix until combined. Add in the flour and mix. After the flour is mixed in, give the bowl a good stir to make sure everything is combined. Pour the batter over the crust and smooth out. Place teaspoons of the strawberry sauce all over the top of the cheesecake. Using a butter knife, make swirls through the batter. Place the cheesecake into a roasting pan and carefully pour the boiling water into the roasting pan. You want enough water to come up about half way of the spring form pan. Bake for 50 minuter or 1 hour and 10 minutes, keeping a check on it. When the cheesecake is done, the outer layer ring of the cheesecake should be firm, but the center should have a little jiggle to it. Let the cheesecake cool completely on the counter (1 1/2 to 2 hours) and then place in the refrigerator for overnight to set.