Chocolate Bailey's Cookies and Foodie Pen Pals

We've got a lot to cover today.  Let's start with these beautiful cookies.  First, they're pretty.  Second, they're chocolate.  And third, they're laced with booze.  Not many ways to top that.  The cookie is soft and chocolatey, but the Bailey's Irish Cream leaves an undertone of something different that pairs nicely with the white chocolate chips.  A perfectly chewy cookie with several layers of flavor, just asking to be paired with a glass of milk.  Yum.

I'd pinned this recipe around St. Patrick's Day when the Bailey's recipes started making the rounds.  Ali from Gimme Some Oven posted this lovely treat and I didn't care to wait a full year to make them.  I'm not even sure why I made them in the first place, but the recipe was so easy and the cookies taste so perfect, that I had to make them again. This time for sharing with my Foodie Pen Pal.

Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu

It's really not much for looks but oh, does this ever taste good.  The juicy chicken blending with creamy, melty Swiss cheese and sweet ham, covered in a seasoned bread coating, this meal is perfect comfort food.  Served over a bed of egg noodles, it's just perfect.  Plus easy since it's a crock pot meal.  When Dave's parents, Madaline and Ernie, came home earlier this month, Dave and I were both off to work when they arrived.  I wanted to have something at the ready for dinner, so I put this together in the morning, plugged it in and by the time we were all got home, the kitchen smelled great and dinner was a pot of boiling water away from being on the table.  No plated meal pictures this time around--it was just a mess, but a delicious and very satisfying mess is was!

Dave is a huge fan of chicken cordon bleu, but it's a lot of work.  I don't really make breaded chicken and then to stuff it and then bread it--ug, that sounds like work.  I don't want to work when I cook.  So when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I pinned it before I even read the recipe!  And then I made it immediately (ok, well, like 3 days later, but still).  Nikki at Chef in Training posted this and it's just too easy and too delicious not to try.  I used a little less stuffing mix because my store had 6 ounce boxes (not 8 ounce--weird), and I probably used a little more ham and cheese because I wanted to completely cover the chicken breasts.  I probably should have used a bigger crock pot so I could have just one layer, but I didn't realize my chicken breasts weren't going to fit until I'd already gotten started.  Next time, I'll go with the 6-quart crock pot.  Because everyone loved this, so there will absolutely be a next time!

Lime Bread

I had a lot of limes leftover from Cinco de Mayo.  Apparently we didn't make as many margaritas as I expected.  So what do you do when life hands you limes (but fails to deliver on the tequila)?  You make lime bread!  This is a tart bread, but soft and cakey, and lots of lime flavor.  Lime is well complimented by cranberry, white chocolate, and coconut, among other things, so if you want to cut some of the tart lime flavor, consider adding a cup of mix-ins, which will also be a nice variation on the texture, as well as the taste.  Some of this lime bread went to work for a meeting, some stayed home for Dave, Madaline and Ernie to enjoy, and the rest is in the freezer (probably until the next time I see Cindy--she'll probably love this stuff).

For this recipe, I made some adjustments to the Lemon Bread recipe I used a few months ago from Lind at Stick to Your Hips.  While that recipe is great, I wanted to experiment with substituting sour cream and applesauce for some of the butter and thought this would be a good opportunity since I could compare.  The results were pretty awesome--a slightly softer bread, but otherwise I didn't notice the missing fat.  Again, I went with two big loaves (8 x 4 and 9 x 5), but mini loaves would be great since this packs a lot of lime in it (a result of wanting to use all my extra limes).  One thing I might change is that the lime glaze--more like a syrup--didn't complement this bread the way the lemon glaze added to the lemon bread.  Instead, I'd suggest adding a bit more powdered sugar and making a thin glaze that will set, rather than the syrup version of a glaze.  The recipe below is for the syrup-style, but let me know if you do it differently!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Is there anything cuter than mini muffins? Ok, puppies and babies are cute.  Let me clarify: is there any cuter baked good than a mini muffin?  Oh, wait, little mini cupcakes with gobs of frosting as tall as the cupcake are pretty cute.  Hmm, well what I'm trying to say is that these mini muffins are cute!  Plus you get to eat loads of them because they're tiny.  And you'll want to eat loads of these.  Soft on the inside, lots of peanut butter flavor and speckled with mini (so cute!) chocolate chips, I'm pretty sure eating by the handful is acceptable.  If not, I've been unacceptable recently.

These were a just because kind of treat and since it made so many, I sent some with Dave to a vendor show for him and his colleagues. Dave loves peanut butter and chocolate and I liked how this recipe from The Baker Chick was heavy on the peanut butter with a chocolate kicker.  Often it's the other way around.  But anywho, Audra from The Baker Chick is a lovely blogger, recently engaged, who makes beautiful desserts and fun treats, among other things. I can't remember if I've shared one of her recipes before, but you should definitely poke around her site.  These were easy to make (just two bowls, a whisk and a spatula) and since they're so stinkin' cute and ultra-tasty, they'll put a smile on your face while you bake and eat one. Or three.  Or ten.

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

Remember when I made Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Meatloaf and was so excited because meatloaf could have a personality?  Yeah, I guess meatloaf has some sort of food schizophrenia because this meatloaf is also awesome and had a totally different personality!  When did this happen?  And is meatloaf ok with it?  I hope it's not having an identity crisis, because frankly I'm excited by the many faces of meatloaf, namely the face that makes them all tasty.  This was a great version of chicken parm--lots of flavor and cheesy, saucy goodness.  And it's not fried, so it's definitely better for you than the traditional route, especially if you opt for a reduced fat or fat free cheese.

I'd pinned this recipe a while back and since I'd realized that my meal plan for the week included some variation of Mexican nearly every night, I decided it was a good time to branch out.  Dave loved the idea since he's a big fan of the original version and he enjoyed this as well.  The recipe comes from Joelen at What's Cookin' Chicago, which has lots of yummy dishes you should probably check out.  The only adjustment I would make is maybe to mix some mozzarella cheese in with the ground chicken since we like things cheesy where I live.  But otherwise, this was perfect and delicious and yummy paired with a side of pasta and a salad.