Amanda Jane Brown

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Tenders

June 13, 2013 By Amanda Brown Leave a Comment

After making these Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Tenders this week for the first time, I promise they will make another appearance at our table or as an appetizer at a gathering in the near future! They are packed with flavor, and let’s face it, who can resist anything wrapped in bacon? Petit Jean Meats bacon always makes a difference;)

My mom created this recipe last year after my aunt tasted a similar appetizer at a work event. After a little trial and error with ingredients and measurements, the final recipe is a hit! Serve these as the main meat for a simple supper or as an appetizer for a crowd.

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Tenders

Preheat oven to 325°.

10-12 Chicken Tenderloins
Thick-cut bacon slices (each slice cut in half)
Mozzarella Cheese Sticks (each stick cut into thirds)
Grill-Mates Montreal Chicken Seasoning

Marinade: (Double Marinade if preparing double batch of chicken)
1/3 cup bottled Italian dressing
1/8 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce

Mix Italian dressing, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce in a shallow dish or large ziploc bag. Place chicken tenders into marinade mixture, seal container tightly, and allow to marinate in refrigerator 20 minutes minimum.

In the meantime, cut bacon slices and mozzarella sticks (number depends on number of tenderloins). Remove marinated chicken from fridge and carefully place 1/3 of a mozzarella stick in the center of each tender and roll up tightly. Stretch each 1/2 piece of bacon gently, and carefully wrap the bacon around each tender. Place seam-side down onto a separate cutting board or plate.

Sprinkle each tender with the Montreal Chicken Seasoning. Transfer chicken to a baking dish and pour leftover marinade in the bottom of the baking dish.

Cook uncovered for 30 minutes at 325°. Then, lower the oven temperature to 275° and cook another 30 minutes. Before serving, you may want to drain each piece of chicken on a paper towel to remove excess marinade, but it is not necessary.

Printable Recipe

Mexican Corn with Cotija Cheese and Lime

June 5, 2013 By Amanda Brown 4 Comments

With the recent arrival of fresh summer corn on the cob into farmer’s markets and grocery stores, corn is making an appearance at our table at least once a week. A friend of mine recently told me about her family’s favorite way to prepare corn on the cob…with Cotija Cheese and Lime…and I immediately came home to research how to make it myself!

Our dear friend and neighbor, Marilu, who grew up in Mexico, told me that preparing “elote” (Mexican for corn on the cob) with cotija cheese and lime is very popular in her home country and is a common item sold by street vendors. If you are wondering, Cotija cheese is a crumbly, Mexican cheese that I found with a little help in the Kroger deli. It is sold grated or in a block.

My hubby is the official blog taste tester, and he gave it a thumbs up and requested it again, which means it’s a keeper! Keep in mind as you prepare this corn, that the cayenne pepper, specifically, can be altered accordingly to please those who like it hot…and those who don’t.

Mexican Corn with Cotija Cheese and Lime

6 ears of corn, husks on (grilling or boiling instructions HERE)
6 T. mayo
1 fresh garlic clove, minced or pressed
3/4 t. salt or to taste
1/2 t. cayenne pepper (gradually add a tiny bit at a time to increase heat, if desired)
3/4 cup Cotija cheese, crumbled or grated
1 lime, cut into wedges for individual servings

Click HERE for step-by-step, printable instructions for both grilling and boiling corn on the cob. Grilling is preferable for this recipe, but not always practical:).

Grill or boil corn according to instructions in link above. When corn is finished cooking, transfer to a plate and allow husks (if corn is grilled) to cool.

Peel back husks completely. You can turn them inside out to form a “handle,” or like we did, remove the husk completely.

Brush each ear of corn with the mayo mixture (a pastry brush works well), and sprinkle the crumbled Cotija cheese all over corn. You can also roll the corn in the Cotija cheese, but sprinkling allows you to put just the amount you desire. Insert corn holders or shave corn completely off the cob to serve. Give each person at the table a lime wedge to squeeze over their corn.

Printable Recipe

Linking to: Weekend Bloggy Reading

Deco-Mesh Wreath Ideas-Miss Kopy Kat Guest Post

May 15, 2013 By Amanda Brown 1 Comment

Hi There! I’m Miss Kitty from the Miss Kopy Kat blog.

Thanks, Amanda Jane, for asking me to do my first guest post ever.

It’s fun to have a seasonal or holiday wreath on our front doors

or mantels but it can get expensive and time-consuming to

have a separate wreath for each occasion.

When I saw a new burlap-looking deco mesh at Hobby Lobby,

I thought that it would make a good wreath base to add

different embellishments, ribbons, etc. to change it up.

This deco mesh seems to have more body and be more weather-

-resistant than actual burlap but gives “the look of” burlap

which a very popular trend now in even the most high end looks.

To begin the wreath base, get a 18″ or 19″ wire wreath form

in the floral section of the larger craft stores. They are usually

less than $5. You will also need tan craft paint and a package

of tan chenille stems (we used to call them “pipe cleaners”).

It also helps to have glue to keep the stems from sliding around.

Paint the wire form with two coats of craft paint. It does not

have to be perfect but it helps hide the form.

Place about 8 stems around the outside wire of the form and

about 7 stems on the inside of the form. Bend each stem in

half like a “V”. Push the ends of the “V” from the backside

of the wreath at your selected points. Then twist each stem

twice tightly onto the wire wreath form.

You don’t have to glue the stems down, but I like to.

Turn the wreath good side down and glue each stem onto the

wreath form on the backside. Be sure that the “arms” of

each stem are facing towards to front of the wreath so

they can secure all the elements onto the wreath form.

After the glue has dried, you can start adding the deco mesh.

This deco mesh from Hobby Lobby is more expensive than most of their other deco meshes and it is

not as many feet. It has a lot of body however and you don’t need a lot to go around the wreath.

You can use a 40% off coupon on the mesh and Hobby Lobby regularly includes it in the 50% off

ribbon sales. I could not find it on the Hobby Lobby website to order online. An alternative to this

product, if you can’t get it from Hobby Lobby, is a weather-resistant burlap-looking product from

the online source Mardi Gras Outlet. It costs more but it is 30′ long.

Unroll several feet of the mesh. About 12″ from the end of

the roll, gather the mesh (accordian-style seems to work well)

across the width…this is what gives you the “poufs”.

Keep the gather pinched tightly and place it on one of

the chenille stem set of “arms”. Twist the arms tightly around

the mesh gathered point.

This is what you first gather will look like with the “tail”

hanging out. Leaving a tail (to be secured later) keeps the mesh

from pulling through the twisted chenille stem arms.

Move about 12″ further down the mesh roll and do

another gather of mesh. Without letting go of the gather,

place it on the next set of arms to see if you like how big

the “pouf” will be. If you want a bigger pouf, let that

gather go and move further down the roll. If you want a

smaller pouf, just re-do a gather closer to your original one.

This mesh does not have a finished edge and unravels some.

To give a finished edge, just turn under the edge as you make

your gathers and it will hide the edge and keep it from raveling.

Try to keep your poufs about the same size all the way around.

Make a mesh pouf that ends on top of the first attachment point.

Secure the end of that pouf with the chenille stem arms of the

first pouf. Without cutting the mesh, then start making mesh

poufs the same way along the inner wire of the wreath form.

When you have finished going around the inner wire, cut the

mesh roll about 12″ from the end of the final pouf.

Pull the beginning tail and the ending tail to the backside

of the wreath form. Make one tail run along one side of

the back of the wreath form and the other one going

the opposite direction. Secure each tail onto the back of

the wreath form with a half of a chenille stem. You can trim

the ends if you would like to in order to make them neater.

Here is what your wreath base will look like:

See all those chenille stem open arms? They are waiting to

embrace all sorts of items on top of the “burlap” mesh.

To use the “arms” twist whatever you want on the wreath

with the arms and then pull the ends of the stems to the

back of the wreath form to hide them.

When you are ready to change the wreath, untwist the

stems, take out the old elements and add the new.

Hide whatever stems are still showing on the front side

by pulling them to the back of the wreath.

Here are just a few examples to get you started but the

wreath is only limited by your imagination:

With Memorial Day coming up soon, you could add some

patriotic ribbon to the wreath. I liked this ribbon because it

had a tan in it to go along with the color of the mesh.

Just use the chenille stem arms to hold down loops of the ribbon

(wired ribbon works best) along the shape of the wreath.

You can zig zag the ribbon between the arms that are on the

outside wire and the inside wire or just pick one or the other.

When you are finished attaching the ribbon, pull the ends of

the chenille stem arms to the back of the wreath to hide them.

Actually, I thought I had bought enough ribbon to make a bow

for this example but just going around the wreath took more

ribbon than I anticipated. To go around the wreath AND make

a bow, next time I would probably get at least 6 yards of ribbon.

Although packs of flat pre-made bows are one of my least

favorite things ever, these patriotic bows from Dollar Tree were

worth a try (50 cents each). It’s an example of how inexpen-

sively you can add things to your already good-looking wreath.

The gold twisty-tie served a dual purpose of holding the bows

on the cards AND securing the bows together so once they

were untwisted…oops…there goes the bow. To hide the gold

twisty it was covered with some cheap blue ribbon in the

front and tied in the back. I made it serve a dual purpose

too by forming a little loop on the back of the bow.

That gave me a way to attach the bow to the wreath with the

chenille stems but not have to tan stem show on the bow.

If the spot where you want an object for your wreath to be

does not already have a chenille stem there, just make another

“V” shaped stem, push it from the back onto a wire, twist

the stem on to the front of wreath (red arrow), and use the ends

of the stem (blue arrow)to hold your object on the wreath.

A lightweight object can almost “float” but a

heavier object might need to be secured closer

to the actual wire wreath form to stay put.

A wreath like this could be used not only for Memorial Day

but 4th of July, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day or President’s Day.

Originally, I was going to paint all of the white sections of the

bows a tan color, but that little idea was taking way longer than

I thought it would (does that ever happen to you?).

Here is ONE bow painted to give you an idea:

So, after Memorial Day, you are going to want a summer wreath.

The mesh almost looks like a fishing net already so you only

need to add a few more things to make it beachy.

Here are some of the ribbons that I thought about using

for the summer wreath:

The above ribbons are from Hobby Lobby…I promise, I have no connection with them…

I am just addicted to their ribbons, etc. especially when they are 50% off.

The crazy chicken-wire-coated-with-foam “ribbon” gave the

most seaside look for this summer wreath.

It was attached just like the original deco mesh on the wreath

with the chenille arms twisted around gathered points.

The foam starfish were so lightweight, they could be attached

with floral wire onto the chicken-wire ribbon. The fishing

floats are heavier so they were attached with floral wire

directly onto the wire wreath form.

The burlap look of the wreath is perfect for a Fall wreath.

This inexpensive garland of faux leaves is oh-so-easy to

add to the wreath with the chenille stem arms. Many

craft stores have similar type garlands for all seasons of

the year so that is a quick way to change the wreath up.

Another Fall-ish look (but you could just change the colors

for other seasons) is to use more mesh and a fancy ribbon.

Attach a layer of deco mesh the same way and with the same

chenille arms that you used to make the original base.

Then add wired ribbon on top of the colored mesh.

Remember, you can always add more chenille stems to the

wreath form to have additional attachment points for

your elements depending on where you want them

to “pouf” or be visually pleasing to the eye.

Other readily available and inexpensive seasonal items that

can be added to your wreath are wired garlands, ribbons and

little placards or sayings. Here is a St. Patrick’s Day wreath.

Add the ribbons and garlands with the chenille arms around

the circumference of the wreath. The placards can be

suspended with an additional chenille stem attached to the form.

Your wreath can also come in handy for events at your house.

Here’s an idea for a bridal shower using ribbon and flowers:

Attach white ribbon in loops with the chenille stem arms.

This is super-duper cheap wide synthetic ribbon from Michael’s.

They have it in good basic colors…it looks like satin but feels

like plastic…fun to use extravagantly then throw away.

Add faux flowers to the wire wreath form. Push the stems to the

back of the form and secure with floral wire or chenille stems.

Make the flowers “behave” by securing the ends where you want them to be with already attached chenille stems or new ones.

This idea would also make a good Spring/Easter wreath with

colorful flowers and ribbons.

Well, I want to try it with long tails too. Just twist a chenille

stem around two long lengths of ribbon, cut the ends into

“fishtails” and attach to the wreath form with stem.

A little more “romantic”:

Hostessing a baby boy shower? Add some blue ribbons with

the original chenille stems…they are long enough to add lots.

You could also add other elements like little stuffed bears,

baby rattles, or letters if you know the baby’s name.

Gosh, I wish I had had enough ribbon to make a big bow too.

Want an everyday wreath every once in a while?

Choose some fun ribbon and attach loops of it with

the chenille stems.

This would be a good look with a wooden initial in the middle suspended by chenille stems or invisible fishing line.

I don’t have an initial handy so , thanks, Pic Monkey!

You could use wreath at Christmas too, but maybe you

should give it a rest from all it’s work during the year.

I would love for you to visit me at Miss Kopy Kat blog!

I’m Still Here!

May 10, 2013 By Amanda Brown 3 Comments

Lest you think that I have abandoned the blog forever, I wanted to let you know that I am still here! I’ve known for a while that our family’s month of May promised to be crazy…and it has not failed to deliver on its promise:) It’s mostly “good crazy,” but unfortunately, there’s been a fair share of “bad crazy.” I’ll fill you in soon!

Unintentionally, the blog had to take a back seat to my family during these weeks, but I look forward to being back in the saddle in just a couple of weeks with some delicious recipes for summer and lots of other treats for your home.

Be on the lookout next week for a guest post from Miss Kopy Kat blog! You do not want to miss her post with fabulous ideas for easy wreaths for your front door all year long! She is super-talented and gives great tutorials!

Thanks for sticking with me, I have missed being here!!

Love,
Amanda

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