Chicken Pillows

First, a couple of items of business:
 
     1.   I know I've been slow to post lately and haven't been posting as much as usual -- I'm sorry.  I've been really busy with the normal things like work, volunteering, social activities, etc., plus, I've been in the process of buying a house.  I close this week, so hopefully things will slow down and I'll be able to post more regularly. 

     2.   Can somebody please come up with a better name for this recipe? Puuuhhllleeeaaassseee???  I completely understand that there is nothing appetizing about the name of this recipe.  Honestly, I only made them because my mom wanted me to.  In the end, I'm glad I did.  They ended up tasting great.  But, that name . . .

Anyhow, this recipe is one that I modified from another one of my mom's cookbooks.  The cookbook is called 101 Things to do With a Dutch Oven.  The recipe is on page 54 of my mom's version of the cookbook.  If you haven't figured it out by the name of the book -- this is a recipe for a dutch oven.  I modified the recipe slightly and cooked it in the regular oven and everything came out great. 

I found this recipe to be relatively easy to make and quite filling.  I served it with some veggies and called it a meal!

Here's what I used:
2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Bunch of Green Onions
8 Ounces Cream Cheese, Softened
2 Can of Crescent Rolls

Here's what I did:
1.  Seasoned and diced the chicken.  Preheated oven to 350 degrees. 

2.  Cooked the chicken in a pan until browned on outside and thoroughly cooked.
    
     Hint:  The next time I make this recipe, I'll use shredded chicken as I think
     it fits these little chicken pockets more easily that diced chicken, but the
     diced chicken did work out fine.

3.  Set chicken to the side to cool

4.  Finely sliced the green onions.

5.  Mixed the green onions with the cream cheese.

6.  Added the cooled chicken to the cream cheese mixture.

7.  Opened the cans of crescent rolls and divided the dough into 16 triangles.

8.  Placed one scoop of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of each crescent roll triangle.

9.  Rolled up each crescent roll like a jelly roll (beginning with the widest end).

10.  Ensured that all seams were tightly sealed on each pillow. 

11.   Placed the pillows on a cookie sheet, with as many seams down (against the cookie sheet) as possible.

12.  Baked for about 12 minutes.  Remove them from the oven when the crescent roll is golden brown and flaky.




     The next time I make this recipe, I am going to try it with a Mexican flare.  I'll used diced chilies and such.  If it turns out well, I post the recipe on here (of course!).

Enjoy!

Blueberry Cheesecake Pie

I was browsing through my mom's cookbooks a while ago because I was in a bit of a recipe funk.  I was looking for something fruity and relatively light as it's still summer.  I found this recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens' New Cook Book (irony:  It's not new.  It's older than me).  In the cookbook, it's called Blueberry Strata Pie and it's on page 241 of my mom's version of the book.  I ended up deviating from the recipe quite a bit, so I'm not sure I can say it's my version of Blueberry Strata Pie; I think it's more like the Blueberry Strata Pie was my inspiration for this pie.  Anyhow, it turned out great.  It was light and refreshing and fruity, exactly what I was looking for.  I'll definitely be browsing through my mom's old cookbooks more often!

Here's what I used:
21 ounces of Blueberry Pie Filling
8 3/4 ounces Crushed Pineapple
8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 Cup + 3 tablespoons Sugar
1 tablespoon Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust
2 tablespoons Cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
Whipped Cream

Here's what I did:
1.  Drained the Crushed Pineapple, setting the pineapple juice to the side.

2.  Blended the Cream Cheese, 3 tablespoons Sugar, 1 tablespoon Milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. 

3.  Stirred the crushed pineapple into the cream cheese mixture.  Mixed well.

4.  Spread the cream cheese mixture over the Graham Cracker Crust. 

5.  Refrigerated the cream cheese and graham cracker crust while finishing the rest of the pie.

6.  Combined the cornstarch and pineapple juice.

7.  Cooked the cornstarch and pineapple juice on medium heat until it thickened.

8.  Once it thickened, removed it from the heat and added the Blueberry Pie Filling and Lemon Juice, stirring until well combined.

9.  Set the pie filling mixture to the side to cool completely.

10.  Once the pie filling was completely cool, I spread it over the cream cheese mixture in the pie crust.

11.  Refrigerated until completely cool.

12.  Top each piece with a dollop of Whipped Cream immediately before serving.

Enjoy!