The Copycat Chef

...bacon wrapped teriyaki chicken... pg. 117

2012-05-07T15:11:00.002-07:00

you can find this recipe HERE
Oh. MY. GOSH. These are to die for! Really. You need to make these. Like yesterday. They were pretty easy to make. My bacon was a little on the thick side, and they say not to use thick bacon. But mine turned out great.

So I'm usually not a fan of things wrapped in bacon. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE bacon. But I HATE soggy, or undercooked bacon. I'm truly a bacon snob. So I was really nervous making these, for the fact that the bacon wouldn't crisp up. I guess I should mention that I baked these in the oven. Our propane was out the day I made these, otherwise i would have used the grill... anyway.... Lets go back to the marinating... I was little hesitant in marinating pineapple. That sounds really gross. I did it anyways.

The recipe says to heat the oven to 400 and cook for 20 minutes. Well after about 15 minutes, the bacon wasn't crisping. So I turned it up to 425 and cooked it an extra 5 minutes. So 25 minutes total. They were PERFECT! perfectly cooked, bacon was perfectly crisp. They were just so good! The thing I didn't like was the pineapple. That was not my favorite. If I hadn't marinated it, it would have been fine. But as it marinates, it sucks up all the sauce, and it was just not good. Maybe someone else would like it. But Jeff and i didn't care too much for the pineapple.

Ohhhh I wish I could make these again tonight! yummmm.

...teriyaki sauce... pg. 46

2012-05-07T14:50:00.002-07:00

you can find this recipe HERE

This was really fast, really easy, and I can not believe I've never made my own teriyaki sauce before! Maybe I thought you'd use too many weird ingredients that I never have on hand. Well my friends, let me tell you, I had every single thing to make this. And it got me so annoyed that it was so easy. So I will be making this from now on, instead of paying a fortune (well maybe not a fortune, but maybe like 4 bucks) for store bought sauce!

My only question for those who have made this before... did yours thicken?? In the recipe it says after adding the cornstarch mixture, it will thicken up. Mine didn't at all. it was very runny. Still delicious, just curious...

...lime-cilantro rice with pineapple... pg. 204

2012-05-07T14:30:00.003-07:00

you can find this recipe HERE
So I hesitated even posting this one, because I messed up on it. I didn't really like it, but because i messed up on it, I wanted to try it again and give it one more try before I never make it again! :)

As you can see in the heading, it calls for LIME. Well stupid me, thought I had lime juice before I began. I did not. I had LEMON. NOT the same. :( But I was already almost done making it when I realized this. So this was just not good. We still ate it, but I couldn't really get around the pineapple in my rice. I just found that a little strange. So I'll let you know after the next time I make it, if I like it!

...baked creamy chicken taquitos... pg 108

2012-05-07T13:59:00.004-07:00

you can find this recipe HERE

I have truly been in a funk lately. I have not been the best "homemaker" these days. Nothing ever sounds good while looking through a cook book, and even walking around the store... I just wander around, and end up buying the most random stuff that most definitely does not equal something to make for dinner! So last Sunday night I told Jeff that he had to pick two things out of the cookbook for me to make this week. This being one of them! Don't really know why it took me this long to make these. They are AMAZING. And they were SOOO easy to throw together (once the chicken was cooked and shredded). Surprisingly, I had every ingredient for this, except the pepper jack cheese and fresh cilantro. You could just use Cheddar cheese, but the pepper jack just added an extra kick, which was nice. It wasn't spicy though... my son LOVED them. And he's pretty picky.

My medium sized cookie scooper worked perfectly!

Ummm, did I mention how delicious these are?!? My sister, Allison was over the night I made these, and she loved them too! I paired it with the caramelized green beans. The beans turned out so much better this time then they did last time. I told my husband that the next time we have to take appetizers somewhere, these bad boys are coming with us!

...creamy tomato soup... pg.96

2012-03-23T22:14:00.002-07:00

you can find this recipe HERE

I don't like tomatoes. Never have. However, I love salsa, spaghetti sauce, etc. In fact, the other day I was telling my mom I was making this for dinner and she told me that when she was pregnant with either myself, or my older brother, she made homemade tomato soup all the time. She made it so much that she eventually hated it. So I'm kinda thinking that she was pregnant with me. That's the only reason I can think of why a normal person, like myself, would hate tomatoes! :)

I used to work as a bookkeeper for Safeway. and they have a really yummy Tomato Bisque soup that I ate frequently. Loved it. Well when I was pregnant with Cohen, there was a co-worker eating that particular soup. The smell of it made me gag. Like, really gag, several times. Ever since then, probably 4 1/2 years, I haven't been able to eat tomato soup. So I thought it had been long enough, because i was craving a toasted cheese sandwich. And what else goes with a toasted cheese sandwich? NOTHING.

This soup is REALLY good. Sooooooo flavorful. Creamy and tasty.

The only problem, after eating about half the bowl... the thoughts and tastes and smells came back from 4 1/2 years ago... and I couldn't finish the rest of my soup. :(

So for the rest of you tomato soup lovers, you MUST make this soup!

...french bread, hoagies, and sandwich rolls... pg. 32

2012-03-23T21:52:00.005-07:00

you can find this recipe HERE

I've actually made this recipe about 100 times. It's the recipe used for the cheesy garlic bread swirls. but I've never made it into actual french bread, or hoagies. I had some left over meatballs, and thought, "Huh, maybe I could make meatball sandwiches". Well my friends, that's exactly what I did.

the loaf on the left is very large. I knew we couldn't eat that many loaves in one sitting. So I made a bigger one to freeze for later use. :)

I have never made meatball subs, nor do I usually order them places. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever had one. These were really good! The bread was very tasty, good texture. I would definitely use this recipe again for future bread uses.

...creamy cilantry-lime ranch dressing... pg.85

2012-03-23T21:44:00.002-07:00

you can find this recipe HERE

This is a wonderful pair with sweet pork. I'm not sure what else it would be good on.

Nothing really to say about this one. It's really easy to throw together. And it tastes great! Much like Cafe Rio/Costa Vida.

...mexican-style sweet shredded pork... pg.140

2012-03-23T21:23:00.004-07:00

Cafe Rio/Costa Vida. I say that name, and most of you start drooling, Yes? Just me??

After moving here from Utah, having Costa Vida (yes, my fav) regularly, I went through withdrawls. I found copycat recipes online for this sweet pork and made it frequently. Well this is the second time I've made this pork recipe from the cookbook. It's dang good! Overall, out of all the recipes I've tried for sweet pork, this one isn't my favorite, but it's really good. There's just something missing that gives it the authentic Costa Vida sweetness. One of the major differences between recipes is this recipe calls for apple juice, the others call for Coke.

I threw in the black beans from the cookbook, made some lime-cilantro rice, used those awesome tortillas from Costco, and added the cilantro-lime ranch dressing, and VOILA! Deliciousness in my mouth.

So if you're looking for a yummy pork recipe for tacos, try this. If you're looking for something to hold you over until the next time you get the chance to eat at Cafe Rio/Costa Vida... yeah, try this.

...black bean soup... pg. 94

2012-03-23T21:07:00.005-07:00

Well honestly, I thought no one was reading my blog, So I wasn't as on top of posting my stuff, But I guess I DO have some followers! :)

you can find this recipe HERE

While I was visiting my dearest friend, Courtney, in California, we were going through this cookbook and she was picking out things she wanted me to make for her while I was visiting. She chose this.

Which I'm so glad. I was putting this one off for as long as I could... I'm not a HUGE fan of black beans. If I had the choice, I would choose refried, or even pinto (this drives the hubby nuts, since he's a huge black bean lover). Anyhooo...

This is severely amazing.

When we were shopping for ingredients, we couldn't decide on mild or hot green chilies. Why don't they sell medium?! So we went with the hot. We both like spicy, and luckily Courtney's husband does too, because this was SPICY. While we were eating it, we would be sniffling, and wiping our noses, in between our raves of satisfaction in this soup! It's sooooo good. The spices in it, and the texture, everything. Just excellent!

Must note: I made this the second I got back home, but this time I used mild chilies (which didn't give ANY heat at all). So don't really know what to do about that. If any of you see medium spiced green chillies, let me know! :) Jeff loved it though.

...garlic-balsamic asparagus... pg. 192

2012-02-13T15:26:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE

My sister had left some asparagus at my house from the party the night before. So after I made sure I could use them, I whipped up this fancy little diddy. These were so easy & quick to make... so that was a major plus! They were tangy, and crisp, and just yummy!

...roasted pork tenderloin... pg.148

2012-02-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE

I was hosting a dinner party, and thought pork tenderloin would be perfect. I searched high and low on pinterest, and random googling {yes, that's a word}. I just was not thrilled with what I was finding. Then duh, I looked in the Best Bites cookbook. They have three different recipes to cook the pork tenderloin. I chose the Rosemary-Balsamic. I bought just over a 7 pound roast. So I septupled { ? } the recipe! Everything was smelling very good while I was rubbing it into the roast.

Then I left it in the fridge for just about 6 hours to marinate.

While it was cooking, I was getting really nervous that the roast would taste too vinegary (okay, so I like to make up words...) I was sooooooooo nervous. When I pulled out the roast, I cut into it to make sure it was done. A section for the corner fell off, so I grabbed it and threw it in my mouth. oh. wow. My nerves turned to excitement, and I couldn't wait for everyone to taste it!

this was amazing. I will probably never use another recipe for pork tenderloin again!

...black beans... pg.202

2012-02-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE

I knew I was making tacos on this particular night. And in the morning i was supposed to turn on my crock pot to cook my homemade refried beans. But I didn't. So an hour before dinner, I realized I didn't have any beans to go with our tacos! {GASP}

Well thanks to my handy dandy cookbook we did not go bean-less. {un-gasp}

Sorry, didn't take pictures through the process. These beans are so easy to make. SO easy. I'm not even a lover of black beans. But these are GOOD. My husband especially loved them. And of course my kids did too.

...caramelized green beans... pg.188

2012-02-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE

I love green beans. but I honestly never cook them because I don't know how. I remember 2 summers ago, I was so proud of myself cause I bought a big bag full of green beans from a farmers market, for super cheap. I got home, cooked up a batch... and threw them out. They were nasty! Bitter, and just not good. I just don't know how to cook green beans! Sad...

Now I do!

These beans are sooo flavorful, and crunchy, yet soft, and the bacon just adds such a nice salty flavor! So scrumptious! I even got my son to eat them! :)

okay, this picture is a little scary. I totally over cooked the onions. But my husband and I don't like onions anyway, so we didn't care.

...oven-baked steak fries... pg.182

2012-02-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE

There's not much to say here. They are french fries. They are really easy to make. REALLY easy. So if you are looking for a side... this might be it! And my kids loved em.

They weren't like out of this world. but they were good. And I would definitely make them again!

...pizza sauce... pg.155

2012-02-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE

I needed a pizza sauce recipe. That's all. Nothing special. Thought I would check out my handy dandy cookbook before I checked the internet. Well of course there was in there. I started mixing my things together.

The page across from this recipe is titled, "How to make great pizza in the oven".

Well, the tip I was most thankful for was it says, "drizzle crust with a little olive oil and brush all the way up to the edges. Sprinkle with garlic salt." Simple enough. But it adds sooo much flavor, and wonderful texture to the crust before you put the goods on!

This was hands down the best homemade pizza we've ever cooked!

...creamy corn chowder... pg. 97

2012-02-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE
I've been wanting to make this for a while, but my husband never wanted me to. He's not much of a corn guy, unless it's off the cob. Well it was the day before we were leaving out of town, And we were going to be gone for almost 10 days. I was trying to cook up things that would go bad by the time we got back. I had a huge loot of bacon. GOOD bacon. And I was NOT going to let that go to waste. So I guess the hubby didn't have a say in this one!

First of all, has anyone heard the amazing trick to fry your bacon in the oven???? Oh my gosh. I am furious to those that knew, and didn't tell me sooner. Really... thanks. But wow, I'm glad I know now! This has changed the way I think about preparing meals.

You just throw some slabs of bacon on a cookie sheet, bake at 425 for about 15 minutes. That's how long I cook it for, cause I like it on the crispier side. Just adjust to your liking.

That's it! No flipping, no splattering, no juggling three things at once while you're preparing your meal. brilliant.

Now back to the soup. It was pretty easy to throw together. And this was absolutely amazing. When my husband got home, I explained to him why I made this soup. Then he tried a bite. Then he finished his bowl, and had MORE! Ohhh this is so yummy.

HAVE TO TRY

...overnight caramel sticky buns... pg.59

2011-12-28T14:31:00.000-08:00

I was sooo excited to make these. For a week I had planned to make these, and a breakfast casserole left in my crock pot all night, on Christmas Eve. That way when we woke up Christmas morning, all I would have to do is bake the rolls, and breakfast was served!

The sticky buns were insanely easy to throw together. It literally took me two minutes to get them ready to rise overnight. The next morning, they looked amazing! I popped them in the oven for twenty minutes... finished opening presents, took them out... and they didn't look the way I thought they were going to.......

They just kinda fell out of the pan! The rolls didn't stick together, and all the "gooey-ness" didn't melt. But the rolls were perfectly brown. I was really disappointed. I'm not sure why the sugar didn't melt! It didn't come close to looking like the picture in the book! They were still really good. You just had to pick out the rolls that had the melted goodness on them!

So if anyone tries these, please let me know if you had a different (or same) outcome!

...peanut butter and white chocolate chip chocolate cookies... pg. 211

2011-12-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

I will be honest, I was a little skeptical with this recipe. I'm always hesitant when eating a homemade chocolate cookie.... I feel when you're baking with cocoa powder, it could go one of two ways: not enough cocoa so it's bland, or waaaay too much and it's an overkill. So I usually skip baking chocolate cookies all together.

Well, these are great! And I will definitely be making them again! The peanut butter chips where such a yummy surprise! It took the edge off from being a chocolate overload. Excellent!

...gingerbread cookies... pg. 210

2011-12-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

You can find the recipe HERE

You can't get ready for Christmas, and NOT make gingerbread cookies! It's just not right. So of course I asked my baking assistant to help me.... My mister Cohen buns. He loves making cookies. He gets to pour every ingredient in the mixer, and he turns it on. It's so much fun!

Now for the cookie cutting! Molly even got to help with this one! She loved it!

I don't know why I don't have any pictures of the finished product. That's downright silly of me. Especially since my two little helpers loved them! Yes. They are quite delicious. When my sister-in-law was baking hers, she had texted me and told me how yummy her house smelled... And she was right!

I really liked this recipe because it tasted so old fashioned. Like ones your mom, or grandma, or great-grandma would make. Not some foofy, modern, hip recipe. And I liked that. When it comes to Christmas... I like tradition. Don't give me something different!

So try these, you won't be disappointed.

...whipped buttercream frosting... pg. 240

2011-12-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

You can find this recipe HERE

HANDS DOWN, BEST FROSTING!!!! Just had to get that out first.

So, I had been planning on making my young women's class at church, individual cupcakes, and deliver them for Christmas. I was racking my brain, and could not find a good frosting recipe, I could add peppermint too. While I was on the internet looking, my sister-in-law texted me and told me that she was in the process of making the gingerbread cookies from the cookbook, and she made the buttercream frosting from the book as well, to put on top of the cookies. I was shocked, and a little embarrassed, because I didn't know there was a frosting recipe in the cookbook!! So I grabbed my book, which is getting pretty raggedy by now... and flipped to the recipe for the buttercream frosting. In the title of the recipe it says, "It's sure to win over nonlovers of frosting everywhere!" Which made me immediately think of my husband, and his entire family! They hate frosting. Whenever I make cupcakes, I leave some without frosting for my husband. And if i ever made a cake for my in-laws, I would barely have a layer on top of frosting. Or, they would just scrape it off. So this was now my challenge!!

I mixed up this frosting, added PEPPERMINT extract, and oh.my.gosh. Seriously. AMAZING.

I was trying to make the frosting swirled with red and white, but it didn't work out very well. I had frosting everywhere! If there had been a camera on me while I was doing that, I'd be in trouble, cause I was making a huge mess, and I was licking it off of everything....

YES IT'S THAT GOOD!

Now for the challenge.... When my husband came home, first thing I did when he came home was I told him he HAD to eat one of those cupcakes. He wouldn't do it right away. I think he waited until after dinner. But then he devoured it. And when I asked him what he thought, he chuckled and said, "that's pretty darn good!" :) Which if you knew him, you knew, that was huge! Now my next challenge is to make it for my in-laws while I'm there next week, and see what they think!

Chocolate cupcake, with this amazing peppermint buttercream frosting.

This is what I handed to each of my girls for their Christmas treat!

...chicken tortilla soup... pg. 100

2011-12-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

You can find the recipe HERE

I'm not really sure what to write about for this one. It was really easy to make. Except you have to marinate the chicken for a few hours. The chicken in it is really good. and very flavorful. The only thing was......... I was not thrilled with this. My sister was over for dinner, and while we were eating, my husband, sister and I were just silent. So finally I asked what everyone thought of the soup. Nobody was thrilled with it either. Maybe it's just our taste. And maybe it was because I used chicken broth with less sodium. I'm not sure. This was the first time I made something and said that I wouldn't probably make it again.

Sorry ladies of Our Best Bites. Not a winner for me.

Has anyone else made this? I'd love to hear your comments about this!

...classic mashed potatoes... pg. 178

2011-12-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

You can find the tutorial HERE

I know, I know. Who needs a recipe for mashed potatoes?????? Well.... uh hem, me. When I was first married, I tried to make them all the time. But something was just always off. So I'd ask my mom, or sister-in-law. And everyone just told me, add butter, milk, salt and pepper. K. Well, if you've learned from me by now, I don't know ratios people!! I don't know how much or too little to put of this stuff. So ya know what, I appreciated this recipe. :)

Yeah, I forgot to take more pictures too. Sorry.

...apple pie... pg. 222

2011-12-27T12:36:00.000-08:00

You can find the recipe HERE

I have NEVER made a pie before. Nope. It scared the poop out of me too. When I was looking through the cookbook at the beginning of this challenge. I KNEW I wanted to save this for Thanksgiving. I know what you're thinking... "First time making a pie, and you want to TRY it for Thanksgiving?!" Yeah, I know. Sounds crazy now. I was a little stressed out when I began. Just because every recipe I had ever read on pie crusts stressed the point of making sure every utensil, ingredient, even the bowl was ICE COLD. So I rushed through making the crust, so nothing warmed up.

Okay, I'm totally frustrated with this crust. I ended up cutting the edge off, cause it looked ugly. But then I realized I needed part of the edge to fold over. Duh.

So I faked it.

You guys, the smell itself, is worth it!!! {Which if you were at my house during this point, I was swearing off making a pie EVER again!!}

TA-DA!! I even cut out little pumpkins to cover up any imperfections in the crust! :)

The Lattice crust was by far the hardest part. I actually really like Dutch apple pies. So I thought about doing that on top instead. But I said, if I'm making a pie for Thanksgiving... GO BIG! So i did the fancy shmancy crust. I was also nervous that with having a lot of other pies for dessert, no one would eat mine. Well, mine was the first one gone!

This was DELICIOUS!!!! And I know I said I would never make a pie again. I totally want to make another. I just won't ever do the lattice crust, AGAIN!

I'm back in business!

2011-12-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

So I've been away from my computer for awhile. Literally.... Our main computer wouldn't turn on for over a month. We purchased and tried three different power cords, and none of them would work. So we thought it was a goner! ALLLL of my pictures were on it, from all the recipes I've made, and not to mention pictures of my kids. :( I was super frustrated. So we had a little dinky laptop of my dad's we were using in the meantime. Two nights before Christmas, something magical happened. My dad had been trying to get our computer to work, and he found a cord that made our laptop turn on!! My husband came home with it and I was shocked! Oh I'm so happy to have our computer back!

So, alas, I'm back in business! I have a lot of catching up to do. I've made probably twelve things out of the cookbook since this all happened. But because of all this, I'm pushing back my challenge, one extra month. So instead of March 1st... I'm giving myself until April 1st to finish all these recipes.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

...orange chicken with snow peas... pg. 118

2011-12-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

This was really easy to make. Which is a plus. I wasn't totally thrilled with it. Will I make it again? Yes. Will I jump up and down and shout from the rooftops, how delicious this is? no, probably not. I made this a while ago, so I'm trying to remember what it was lacking. It does mention in the headline of this recipe to add extra red pepper flakes if you want to kick it up a little. I'd probably do that.