Crock-Pot Chicken

Here is the post to finish out that teaser I gave you guys. This was the main dish that I served with those mouthwatering cheddar biscuits (weren't those great?). I'd been wanting to make this for a long time-I mean....slow cooked chicken, there's nothing to not like there really, especially because it pretty much just requires putting stuff in the crock-pot and then walking away for 8 hours. The only thing that kept me from making them? The recipe calls for white wine. Here's a little thing about me: I don't drink (alcohol) at all. Ever. And, neither does Michael. So, sorry guys, you won't be able to get any fun margarita recipes, etc. here (but check out some of the awesome people on my blogroll, they make some great stuff). Anyway, I didn't want to get an entire bottle of white wine just to use 1/2 a cup for this recipe. Ironically, my day job is doing liquor promotions, so I've been learning more about this stuff I don't drink, and I learned-you can buy small bottles. So I did. And this turned out great. I might try it with chicken broth next time though, the acidity of the alcohol was a bit much with certain bites. I'll let you know how that idea pans out :) (It turned out great--that's how I always make this now)

Crock-pot Chicken

From My Kitchen Addiction's Busy Day Chicken

Cheddar Biscuits

The waiting is over! As shown to you in my earlier preview, here is recipe #1 of the two dishes I made for dinner that night! (I chose these because I felt it would kill you most to wait for these, and I hate to make you suffer.) I am very proud of myself. They're real food! I had to cut vegetables and knead dough and everything! And the look Michael got in his eyes after he took the first bite...that was all I needed to know I am the best girlfriend in the history of girlfriends (to him, anyway). And when I bit into one I solidified my own self belief that I am awesome (don't judge me!). This recipe makes 12 biscuits. They were gone by the next night. It took us only 24 hours to eat them all....and that required restraint. Good luck with these gems, try not to make them every weekend...I'm fighting the urge.

--UPDATE: I added a food processor method below. Next time I make these, however, I may use a combination of food processor and the old fashioned way. I would use the processor until after I had the butter cut in, then I would pour it into a bowl and continue the steps from there. I just wasn't a fan of how finely the scallions and cheese were cut in from the processor. They tasted fine, though, and Michael still liked them :) So you can really do it however you'd like.

Cheddar Biscuits

Taken (and slightly adapted) from hotpolkadot

New Apartment + Recipes Preview/Teaser

Here they are! A few pictures of my lovely new apartment! (And, at the end of this post, a preview for a couple recipes I will be posting later on).I figured, since this is a cooking blog after all, I'd start this out with a picture of my wonderful little kitchen! I could share a couple dozen photos showing you everything in it, but we're all busy people, so hopefully you get the idea :)

Peanut Butter Cream Pie and Strawberry "Ice Cream"

Finally! I am BACK! We're completely moved in (I might post a picture sometime later) and I love our new place! It's adorable and pretty and wonderful :). And I finally have a kitchen all to myself!!! So, to make up for the fact it's been like a month since I shared a recipe I'm giving you all a double dose! These are the two first new things I've made in this kitchen and they are delicious, yum yum yummy desserts!

Here, have a bite. It's the least I could do.

Yesterday I made peanut butter pie. It's a recipe I've had sitting in my recipe box since I was in high school that I had pulled out of one of my mom's old magazines. It seemed easy, refreshing (a prerequisite for a dessert Michael will love), and it has peanut butter sooo....you can't go wrong. Funnily enough, although I thought the fact that it was chilled would mean Michael would like it, he wasn't very excited, he feared it would be too "rich" (*eye roll*). But I persevered and made it anyway. And I am soooooo happy I did! It is amazing! And when Michael took his first bite, he looked at me with wide eyes and then gave me a big peanut buttery kiss. He approved. It's a super easy to make recipe, requires very few ingredients, and not too bad for you either, especially if you opt for lower cal ingredients (ie. fat free milk, etc.).

Neglectful

I know I haven't blogged/shared a recipe for awhile now, and I'm sorry! But I have a good excuse! My boyfriend, Michael, moved here a week ago and we have been insanely busy trying to find a new apartment (found one), finding him a job (still working), I've been working and auditioning like crazy (booked a short film!), and all the extras that go along with all of those. Once things have quieted down and we're moved (July 9th is when we move), I will be back and better than ever, I promise you!

Bisquick Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's not a whole lot of space for me in my current apartment, so some recipes are on hold until I move (2 more months!) and have more space to hold ingredients, cookware, etc. One day I just desperately wanted chocolate chip cookies. I even had all the ingredients! Well...almost all. I did not have baking powder and/or baking soda. Which was required for EVERY recipe. And, I was lazy, I didn't want to have to go out and buy any. Not to mention I wasn't sure I'd have room to store the leftover. Then, in a remarkable quirk of fate, I stumbled upon a Bisquick chocolate chip cookie recipe! "Whaaa???" I thought! I debated it. I was like, "What if they're bad? Then it'll be a complete waste!". I even petitioned my facebook friends to see if they had any experience with this (no one did). In the end I decided "I really want chocolate chip cookies. And how bad could it be?".

Let me tell you what-this was a success! The first thing that indicated this would turn out well was the fact that the cookie dough was scrumdidlyumptious! Mmm...I want some now.....

Ah! Sorry, got distracted. Anyway, I baked them (what was left after I assaulted the dough), and ate them, and they were great! The texture is definitely different, it will be obvious this is different than a normal cookie, it sort of reminds you of a Bisquick biscuit (which makes sense), but in a still perfectly tasty way! Don't get me wrong, I would never choose these before a good old fashioned real chocolate chip cookie. But, if you are feeling lazy, or just are missing a couple ingredients, these are a great way to still get your cookie fix!

Bisquick Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Betty Crocker Recipes

"Eat This" Chicken Fingers

I'm a simple lady with simple tastes. I don't usually want anything to do with frou-frou dishes (except for some select desserts), and really, I probably have the palate of a 5 year old. But gosh darn it I'm going to make the best immature food I can! Anywhozzle (yes, that's a word, I said so), I subscribe to Eat This, Not That's emails, which are actually some very realistic, and awesome tips for anyone just trying to make healthier choices. They also have these great "Cook This, Not That" articles, giving recipes for healthy versions of your favorite things you can cook at home. I LOVE these chicken fingers. They are also something you can tweak around if you feel like it. It's just a great, simple, yummy recipe that adults and children and adults-who-eat-like-children alike will love :)

"Eat This" Chicken Fingers

from "Cook This, Not That"

(disregard the pizza. That's a slice of Amy's Organic that went splendidly with the chicken.)

250 calories per serving (makes about 4 servings)

Superior Macaroni and Cheese

There are certain recipes you will always find a million versions of, everyone's got their own kind. This applies to (for example) chocolate chip cookies, chocolate lava cakes, spaghetti and meatballs, and macaroni and cheese. For a recipe-o-phile like me, this means you end up with a looot of different recipes, for one thing (don't even get me started on how many chocolate chip cookie recipes I have). The hope is, once I try them out, I will be able to narrow it down to one recipe (or...at least less). After the first time I made this macaroni and cheese, I deleted all other mac'n'cheese recipes, and no longer even look at others. It is unnecessary. I know I will not like anything more than I like this. I am in a monogamous mac'n'cheese relationship, and I have no desire to cheat. It is a "healthy" (ish) version, it is full of flavor, is thick and creamy, and makes you happy!

Breakfast

Nature's Pride 100% Whole Wheat Bread toast, lots of natural creamy peanut butter, and banana slices, mm mm mmmm.

(once again I am not being compensated in any way by Nature's Pride, it is merely what I happen to use. Thank you)

Simple Peanut Butter Granola Bars

This is one of my favorites, and one of the easiest, of my recipe finds. A big problem with a lot of granola bars is that they are secretly full of crap and bad for you. These are wholesome, healthy, and suuuper yummy! I got extremely excited about eating these warm the first time I made these, but I ended up not being a fan (not to mention they were a little overcooked--I adjusted the cooking time the second time I made these, which will be the time you see in the recipe). But, once cooled, they are extremely good, and once made they are great to just wake up and eat a granola bar for a speedy breakfast. Another HUGE perk of these is that they only NEED 4 ingredients. I knew they would be healthier if I'd opt for certain add ins, but I also knew that I'm broke and that that would have to be saved for a later, more lucrative, period in my life (I did put the chocolate chips in, however, I am me after all). And, I always impress people when I tell them I made my own granola bars. So now you can impress people too!

Lightened Up Spinach Artichoke Dip

I don't much like green vegetables. We don't get along. Which is why I was so annoyed when my best friend, Alex, would insist we share Spinach Artichoke dip whenever we would go out to eat at T.G.I. Friday's. To my surprise, I liked it-and grew to like it more and more the more I ate it. I was so proud of myself! I liked something healthy! Yay! Then, a year or two later, I found out-actually not so good for me. Well, sheesh, what's the point of eating green things if they're not even good for you?! Figures. Enter this recipe. I found it back when finding recipes was an occasional thing, and not yet an obsession, on Kraft's recipe website. It is supposed to be a makeover of the very dip I fell in love with at Friday's. Healthy Spinach Artichoke dip! Yay! But-would it taste good? Answer: yes!!! Yum! It is one of my favorite things to make now, and I hope it becomes that for you too!

Lightened Up Spinach Artichoke Dip (Recipe Makeover)

from Kraft Recipes

Super Chocolate Oreo Crunch Brownies

These brownies are pure, sinful bliss. I was first introduced to them when I was catering. To make money, while I'm still a newbie actor, I'm doing promotional modeling and occasionally catering. During one catering event (through Mayan Woods Catering), Chef Paul had what he called "Triple Chocolate Oreo Crunch Brownies". They were thick, decadent, frozen brownies with hunks of dark, milk, and white chocolate, oreos, and marshmallows in them. At the end of the night there were tons of leftovers so I took some home. I was so in love with those brownies I immediately started thinking of how to re-create them. When I had another opportunity to work with Chef Paul, I asked him, and he gave me a a general run down. I believe it was only a week later that I made these. I have some confessions: I was lazy/don't have room for a lot of ingredients, so I used boxed brownie mix, I don't really use white chocolate, so I decided to pass on it this time (but that does not mean I won't use it next time or that you should not use it), and I believe this was something of a work in progress. I used a 9 x 13 pan and I think the brownies were just a little too thin to support all the add-ins, it made them extra gooey, so (even though they are still AWESOME) next time I will use a smaller pan so the brownies are thicker, and hopefully they'll hold together better. And because of the goo-factor I really do advise freezing them, it's the only way to keep them from being a mess, and for some reason (and I know this is shocking as I tend to like my desserts warm and gooey) they are just better cold. Ok, enough anticipation, here's the recipe (please feel free to toy around with it, this is not one of those you need to follow to the letter):

Making lemonade!

I'm not actually making lemonade. But I AM taking these "lemons" and making lemonade in the form of this version of oil pasta.

This was my lunch yesterday, and today. I used whole wheat linguine this time (something I'd been nervous to try-turns out tastes just as good! So I'll probably use that from now on), and put some of the cut up chicken breast from my botched attempt at delish.com's Chicken alla Milanese in it. A thoroughly lovely meal! Oh, and yesterday I made some extra insane brownies. I'll share those with you later ;).

(Note: I don't advise trying to make that recipe from delish.com, I think it may have been wrong. 1 cup of parsley just does not seem right, as my poor chicken can attest.)

Failure

Well, folks, one of the saddest things that can happen while cooking happened today. I tried a new recipe (for "Chicken alla Milanese"), and it was not good. It tasted extremely strongly of parsley and it just was a disappointment and a failure. And worse, it was a waste. I wasted food, time, and money. To try to at least get something out of it, I scraped the parsley mixture off the chicken breasts and will save them to try to put the chicken in something else (such as making a Campbell's Select Chicken Noodle soup more chicken-y, like I ended up doing for my lunch). It's times like this I really can't wait until Michael moves here, because even if he doesn't like it, he'll eat it anyway. Anyone else have recipe failure happen to them? Sucks, huh?

Linguine con aglio e olio d'oliva

I have been eating what my family calls "oil pasta" for as long as I can remember, from Christmas Eve's Feast of the Seven Fishes with all of my Grandpa Blogna's family, to learning things to cook for when I moved out to NYC . It's a recipe I learned from my mom, who learned it from my dad's mom, who learned it from grandpa's mom (my great-grandma Helen Blogna-maiden name Porrini). I don't even have this recipe written down anywhere, I just know how to make it-so bear with me on this recipe. It's basically just linguine with olive oil that is cooked with garlic-it's Italian name is linguine con aglio e olio d'oliva (linguine with garlic and olive oil). It is extremely good, easy to make, and goes great with a lot of different things, or used in different variations. And-BONUS-it makes my hands smell like garlic!

Linguine con aglio e olio d'oliva "Oil Pasta"

The Most Delicious Thing You'll Ever Eat AKA Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie (UPDATED PHOTOS)

Before I decided to just jump in and do this blog, I sort of waded in the shallow end by doing mini blog posts through notes on facebook. Thusly, I will have my first few recipes I put on here be the same ones I put there. I'm going to tell you right now "you're welcome" for this recipe. It's amazing, it's ridiculous, it's The Most Delicious Thing You'll Ever Eat! I thought my eyes would bug out when I first saw this recipe on How Sweet's blog. Chocolate chip cookie + pie!?? So, it didn't really take me long to tackle the recipe and bask in the wonder of it's yumminess. I eventually learned that this is some sort of adaptation of a Kentucky Derby pie? But I think that uses bourbon? I don't know, all I know is that since I ate all of it....I miss it. I genuinely miss that pie. And my waistline won't let me make it again so soon. *sigh*
Disclaimer: this is a very rich dessert, especially when eaten warm, ideal if you love chocolatey goodness. If you're not such a fan of the richness, it probably would be pretty good to you served cold maybe?
Alright enough! Here it is:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup (which equals about 16 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled 
• 1 cup chocolate chips (I used 60% dark cocoa Ghiradelli chips...mmm)
• 1 unbaked pie shell (The recipe called for a regular unbaked crust, but I used KeeblerReadyCrust in graham cracker (and later homemade graham), I'm sure anything would be good though-use your preference!)

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Then beat in flour, sugar, and brown sugar, until well blended. Then blend in melted, room temperature, butter. Stir in (with a spoon, etc.) chocolate chips. (The consistency will not be like regular cookie dough, and it won't taste that awesome, so don't be disappointed. Just wait, the pie will be worth it.)
• Pour in to pie shell. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Let it cool for a bit before cutting it, or it'll fall apart. Or just eat it falling apart, no judgement here. You can eat it warm and gooey and chocolatey like me. Serve it warm with ice cream and let it get all up in that pie like HowSweet, or serve it cold, like Michael probably will when I make him eat some. No matter what, just attempt to keep control of your drooling, I know I am right now.....I really do miss that pie.


Note: I am not, in any way, being compensated by anyone mentioned in this blog (Keebler, Ghiradelli, even HowSweet). I am merely telling you what I used and liked, all of my promotion of them is just from genuine love :)

Hello There!

Hello! Welcome! Thank you for joining me on my little venture into food blogging. If you don't know me already, I feel I should let you know a bit about myself!

My name is Kayle Blogna and I was born, and grew up, in the small town of Massillon, Ohio. I went to Catholic school for 13 years (preschool all through high school), and then I knew I needed to get out of there. I have always wanted to be an actress, and knew I wanted to train and pursue that dream in New York City. Which is where I attended The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts-The School for Film and Television for 2 years, studying on camera acting. Now, I am graduated, am auditioning and working as much as I can, I shot a feature film last summer, etc. etc. (You can visit my website www.kayleblogna.com to learn more about my acting). I also do promotional modeling to make money. I have a wonderful boyfriend, Michael, who will be moving to New York this summer and will become my official recipe guinea pig (because he can eat and eat and lose weight, he will keep me from blowing up from all my yummy creations). My favorite color is red, I love roses, African elephants, TV, movies, Disney (especially princesses), vampires (I love the Twilight books, hate the movies), and oh of course cooking. How did I get obsessed with that you ask?

I am Italian on my Dad's side (Sicilian and Northern Italian...that's where my last name, Blogna, comes from), and Irish and German on my Mom's side (the German genes seem to not have come out in me at all). I got the bum end of being Italian, instead of having a wonderful Italian mother who cooked for me constantly (like Michael's Mom, lucky boy), I just got an Italian father (who expects to be cooked for, but not so much in doing it himself). I love my mother, but she doesn't enjoy cooking. I, however, always was interested in cooking, baking, etc. I used to make blueberry muffins using the Jiffy mix and pretend I was on my own cooking show. My favorite (only thing I liked) part of going over to the Blognas was watching and helping my grandma make homemade pasta, wedding soup, scapellis (something that no one seems to have heard of, but they're amazing, let me tell you),etc. After moving to New York, I steadily got more and more into cooking, especially when I started becoming a little healthier (don't get me wrong, I still love cookies, I just try to have as few processed things, etc.). Recently, this has expanded into a food blog/recipe collecting obsession, and now I decided-I'll just do it! You'll find I love chocolate, peanut butter, carbs, chicken, and pretty much deliciousness.

I hope you enjoy this blog, enjoy the recipes, enjoy my banter, and enjoy eating! Thank you for being here and reading this silly blog about a Cooking Actress!

P.S. As I am by no means a professional food blogger (unfortunately), I apologize for the very basic website, and for the not so awesome pictures taken by either the digital camera I got for my 18th birthday, or by my phone (which is not one of those cool phones with a super amazing camera). So, ya know, apologies. Head on over to one of the blogs listed there on your right after you're done looking over here, you can enjoy a pretty blog over there! :P

P.P.S. If I ever mention a brand name, unless otherwise noted, assume they are not paying me and I am not officially endorsing them. I just want to be honest with you about what I used. Thanks :)