Ode to the Old Days

I love cooking. It always has a way of helping me relax after a long hard day. I work as a cook at a resort/casino which is a different experience for me. Normally I'm used to the bistro style personal restaurant where I know everyone who comes in and we all have a good time. I have the freedom to experiment new dishes and techniques, to make delicious food that I feel good making. Healthy, fresh, delicious food. Working at my current job, I've learned to work in a much faster paced kitchen, where so many people are constantly barking at me. Yesterday morning, I took muffin pans, sprayed them with Pam and then laid thinly sliced ham inside each cup to form a cup of itself. Then I cracked an egg inside each cup and let it bake. After they were done I laid them out on a pan and lightly poured a creamy mornay sauce over top after which I lightly sprinkled paprika on it. It looked beautiful! Unfortunately, however, I cook for all 3000 something employees, most of which couldn't tell you what a mornay sauce is. So many of them looked at my food in disgust and the dining room attendees come back and told me I should just scramble up some eggs instead. I believe I'm an excellent cook, but when every second of the day I'm being told that I've screwed up some how...it kind of gets to you. It makes it hard to sleep at night, I'm constantly thinking about the next day hoping I don't get yelled at for some insignificant reason. A good majority of the attendees (waitress/bussers) are women, however, as a cook, I work with men mostly. This is proving to be quite difficult. They are super patronizing, their vocabulary is narrowed down to mostly profanity. One of my co-workers purposely set me on fire the other week ago, thought it was so funny he tried to do it again...I smacked him. Then there's the guys who get super handsy... I've been finding that I'm losing my interest in cooking. I don't cook as much as I used to at home. When I'm at work I'm counting the hours till I'm off. They've kind of ruined it for me.

Andrea's Chicken Cordon Bleu

Ingredients:

* 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
* Kosher Salt
* Black Pepper
* 8 thin slices of deli ham
* 16 thin slices of Gruyere or Swiss cheese
* 2 tsp Fresh or 1 tsp dried, crushed Thyme leaves
* garlic powder
* butter
* 1/4 cup flour
* 1 Cup Panko bread crumbs
* 1 tsp olive oil
* 2 eggs
* 2 tsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. lay chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap and lightly pound from center out with the smooth side of a meat pounder. Don't pound too hard our chicken will tear or form holes. Lay 2 slices of cheese on each breast, followed by about 1 tsp butter and a little garlic powder sprinkled on top, followed by 2 slices of ham, and 2 more of cheese; leaving a 1/2-inch margin on all sides to help seal the roll. Tuck in the sides of the breast and roll up tight like a jellyroll. Squeeze the log gently to seal.

Season the flour with regular salt and pepper; spread out on waxed paper or in a flat dish. Mix the breadcrumbs with thyme, kosher salt, pepper, and oil. The oil will help the crust brown. Beat together the eggs and water, the mixture should be fluid. Lightly dust the chicken with flour, then dip in the egg mixture. Gently coat in the bread crumbs. You can use tooth picks to keep the roulades together. Carefully transfer the roulades to a baking pan and bake for 20 minutes until browned and cooked through. Cut into pinwheels before serving

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Southwest Chicken Taco Salad

4 heads of romaine lettuce

5 chicken breasts

2 cups chopped Roma tomatoes.

2 cups cooked black beans

2 cups of frozen or canned corn

1 package corn tortillas

Chipolte/Ranch dressing: see recipe below

Cook 2 cups of black beans to 4 cups of water

Cut corn tortillas into chips, or strips, and deep fat fry them in oil, or bake them for 5-10 minutes until crispy. oven set at 350 degrees to do so.

Rinse Romaine lettuce, and chop up into bite sized pieces.

Cook the chicken however you'd like, just make sure you cut it into bite sized pieces. You can boil it, fry it, bake it..anyway you'd like..they all work

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the lettuce, chicken, beans, corn, and tomatoes; Lightly coat the salad with the chipolte dressing. Place the tortilla chips on top of the salad and serve.

Chipolte/Ranch dressing:

1 packet ranch dressing mix

2 1/2 cups sour cream or cream cheese

2 T lime juice

3 T chipolte peppers

1 tsp ground cumin

2 T freshly chopped cilantro

Combine all ingredients, chill.

My Mom's Salisbury Steak Recipe

1 package ground hamburger
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
1-2 cups mushrooms button or sliced
1 medium onion
3 stalks celery
1 medium green pepper
1 package onion soup mix
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
2 cups milk

In a mixing bowl, combine ground hamburger, Worcestershire sauce, egg, and bread crumbs. Form into patties and slightly brown the outside of the hamburger in the frying pan.

Meanwhile, chop vegetables.

In a separate mixing bowl, mix together cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, sour cream, and milk.

Place the patties in a casserole dish. Smother the patties with the chopped veggies, lastly pour the cream mixture over the top evenly.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until thermometer placed inside the hamburger reads 155 degrees.

Caprese Panini

This is what I normally have for lunch. This and soup...normally tomato is the best, cause then you can dip your sandwich in the soup and go to town on that sucker. Anyway. All you need is:

1 Roma tomato
Pesto spread (basil)
Mozzarella cheese
2 slices of bread

Now here's the thing. I'm one of those crazy people where it really matter's what kind of everything you use..I like Roma tomatoes the best with this sandwich. I am also REALLY picky about my mozzarella cheese. I like my mozzarella cheese to be heavy cream based, soft and fresh. I also like like to use french bread or foccacia bread...but I also like to use that homemade bread..i think it's like Grandma's homemade or something..you can find it at the store. Anyway you can use whatever you want. I also like to saute up some mushrooms, cause sauteed mushrooms make everything better, or I'll fry up some bacon. It's basically a glorified grilled cheese sandwich. You can normally buy pesto spread at the grocery store. I like to get the fresh tub of it in the deli section, but it's your sandwich, you can do what you want. Or you can make it yourself.

On one side of the bread you spread the basil, on the other you spread butter and put it in the frying pan on med/hi heat. Put the cheese, tomatoes, and whatever else you want on there and wait till the cheese is melted and the other side of the bread is golden brown and delicious. Put together and enjoy.

My Amazing Chicken Fettucini Alfredo

Cook for your family!

8 chicken breasts
1 cup sweet butter
5 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp pepper
1 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 Tbs basil
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1 package of fettuccine pasta

Chop up chicken into bite sized pieces.
In a cooking pot, melt butter. Once the butter is melted and simmering, add the heavy cream. Heat for about 5 minutes, then add the parmesan cheese, and stir till melted. Once the cheese is melted, add the mozzarella cheese and stir till melted. Add the pepper, sugar, and basil.

Meanwhile, in a separate cooking pot, bring water to boil. Add the fettuccine to the boiling water and bring the burner down to medium. Cook until tender

Mix the chicken mixture in with the sauce and serve over the pasta.