January 27, 2016

Chicken Philly Cheese Dip

laura.smoak@gmail.com Appetizer, Chicken, Dips 9 Comments

In case you haven’t heard – the Panthers are going to the Super Bowl!!!!! The last time this happened I was just a wee college freshman watching it in a dorm room with friends. We’ve been waiting a long time for this.

It’s not just that we’re going to the Super Bowl. The entire season gave us weekly cardiaCAT arrests ( <—bleh – WHY DO YOU LET ME SAY THINGS LIKE THIS???). However, Sunday’s game was almost magical. At one point I thought Andy was rewinding the game to rewatch an interception, but – NOPE – it was just another interception, thank you!

–>DAB<–

I swear I think he may have had tears in his eyes by the end of the game…and I…I just had a huge grin plastered across my face the entire time. I mean – how can you watch Cam and not just smile?? He is so fun. Sunday was also a great day because…

We were still snowed in, so lots of family time and snuggles
Carolina beat Virginia Tech in men’s basketball (Go Heels!)
This Chicken Philly Cheese Dip ↓

Andy took his first bite of this and did his quiet chuckle, followed by “wow.” If you’re someone that loves food, I’m sure you can relate when you know something is probably going to be good, but then is actually much better than you even expected. Close your eyes….now imagine the scent of baked chickenny, peppery, onionny, cheesy goodness wafting through the air. Now…dip a piece of soft, yet crunchy, baguette into said goodness, then taste……. I know, right?!?

One thing you should know about me is that I generally don’t do much in the way of dippy-type appetizers. Usually, I’ll just put out blocks of gouda and brie with some crackers and apple slices and call it a day. If not cheese, I’ll do little one-bite type things, but almost never a dip. I just don’t prefer making something so heavy when dinner is the star. The Super Bowl is an exception to that. If there was ever a day meant for purely snacking – this is it. Meatballs, chicken wings, pigs in blankets and dips….all the dips. I’m not gonna lie. I’ll even go for the processed cheese block dip. It’s fine for just one day, right?

This year I’m taking my dip making game up a notch, which (let’s be honest) is like from zero to one. I love this dip because it allows me to use two of my favorite kitchen things: my cast iron skillet and my stand mixer. You’ll see the iron skillet come across this blog quite a bit, but the stand mixer not so much because I don’t bake very often. But you guys (((YOU GUYS!!))) my stand mixer is seriously the most beautiful thing in my kitchen. It’s the Martha Stewart Blue that was only available at Macy’s a few years ago, and it was a gift from my now mother-in-law while Andy and I were still dating. I’m pretty sure she knew I’d stick around, but figured it would seal the deal. She was right! Just kidding, I’m not that vain, but it really did mean a lot because she knows how much I love the color. The picture makes it look similar to the Ice Blue color that’s still available, but it’s really much closer to a Tiffany blue. It has a permanent place in the corner of my kitchen (not as pictured), so we can see each other anytime we want. (Insert all the googly heart eyes.)

If you don’t have a stand mixer, no problem – just mix this by hand. You could try a hand mixer, but I just don’t think it would work as well. One other thing you’ll learn about me from this post……………………… I sometimes use canned chicken……… *Buries face in pillow.* Actually, no. I’m gonna own this. Y’all, in a pinch, canned chicken works well for stir-fries, casseroles and dips (and many other things, I’m sure). I actually prefer it for dips like this because why in the WORLD would I take time to boil or bake my own chicken just to smother it in cheese? And… (listen closely because you will never hear me say this again) –> I wouldn’t even substitute rotisserie chicken here. Just make this as is, and take it to your Super Bowl party with some fresh sliced baguette. And for all you people without kids that go to bed at 7:30, have fun at your parties! We’ll be at home watching with AR because she is totally obsessed with football and an early bedtime. If you happen to make this dip, can you just come over to our house and watch?? You bring the dip, and I’ll have plenty of gouda and wings!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion – diced*
1 green bell pepper – diced*
1 tbsp Montreal steak seasoning
8 oz block cream cheese – room temp
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (plus more for topping)
2 (10 oz) cans chicken breast
Garnish: chopped jalapenos from a jar (if desired)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Heat the oil over medium-high in an iron skillet (or other frying pan if using a different baking dish). Add the onion and bell pepper, and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in steak seasoning.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine cream cheese, mozzarella, chicken, onions and peppers using the paddle attachment. (You don’t have to use a stand mixer for this, but it does make it much easier – I would not recommend using a hand mixer – just use your arm muscles 😉 )
Spread mixture back into iron skillet (or other baking dish), and top with additional shredded mozzarella and chopped jalapenos if desired.
Bake for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly. Serve hot with baguette slices and additional jalapenos.

*You could easily double the veggies in this. I only had one of each on hand when I made it, but they cook down so much between the sauteing and baking that it would be fine. If you do that, I would add an additional 1-2 tsp of the steak seasoning.

January 22, 2016

Quick and Easy Snow Cream

laura.smoak@gmail.com Uncategorized 0 Comments

I’m not planning on posting more than once a week (for now), but there’s SNOW on the ground, so I’m making an exception. Remember, my blog = my rules 🙂

Fact: I hate being cold, but I LOVE a good Winter snow. There’s also something about the threat of a major snowstorm that makes people go crazy at the grocery store. Seriously, I bought so much food we probably don’t need to grocery shop again until Spring. And it’s not just bread and milk, I tend to get things I almost never buy. *Walking down the baking aisle* “oh, muffin mix! What if we’re snowed in for forever and want muffins??” In the cart it went. I’m not against muffins. We just rarely make them because we’re more savory breakfast food people. But the thought that we *might* want muffins and can’t run out to get them was just more than I could handle. The same thing happened on just about every aisle, and I left the store sobbing just thinking about how much money I spent.

There’s just something about a snow day that makes the entire season of trying not to freeze to death worth it. Playing outside, checking in on your work from home, watching an almost two-year-old see Frozen for the first time (don’t worry, not the whole movie, so please no comments about no screen time before 2), eating soul warming stew…and of course – snow cream! Most people have their go-to way of making this, so here’s mine!

Ingredients:
8 cups snow (more or less)
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk*
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Whisk milk and vanilla together, then put in freezer while you scoop your snow.
2. Add the snow gradually until you have your desired consistency.
3. Enjoy immediately and store leftovers in the freezer.

*If you don’t have sweetened condensed milk, sub 1.5 cups milk and add 1/4-1/2 cup sugar depending on how sweet you want it.

Easy peasy! I’ll be back next Wednesday with a real recipe, so please come back then!

January 20, 2016

Soul Warming Chicken Pipette Stew

laura.smoak@gmail.com Chicken, Freezer Friendly, One Pot Dishes, Pasta, Soups and Stews 8 Comments

Winter has finally arrived in North Carolina…if you need me you can find me bundled up in a chunky sweater and fluffy socks and probably curled up under a big blanket. All that unless there is snow on the ground! People tend to laugh at the South for shutting down when it snows, but I actually love it. As a teacher, Andy is automatically in the group that gets to stay home, and sometimes my office will close or tell everyone to work from home if we’re able. We’ve only had one dusting this year, but snow’s in the forecast for Friday, and I’m really hoping it’s a good one. Last year Anna Ruth was just under a year old and we were dealing with ear infection after ear infection, so we didn’t take her outside much.

This year I have visions of sledding and building snowmen, then coming inside for hot chocolate and warming up by the fire. The reality, though, will be playing trying to get a perfect picture outside for 10 minutes before deciding AR is too cold, then trekking back in and getting snow and dirt all over our mudroom. Then no hot chocolate because this loser mom generally just can’t justify the amount of sugar, and also HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN MY KID HOPPED UP ON SUGAR?? <—I’m sure it’s like most almost two-year-olds, but I try to avoid it as much as possible. I know the day’s coming when she’ll know what sweets are, but for now she doesn’t and, therefore, doesn’t feel deprived by not having them.

One thing I can get behind on a cold, snowy day is this Soul Warming Chicken Pipette Stew. Yes, I just went there. It doesn’t even have to be a cold, snowy day. Below 80 degrees? I’ll have the soul warming stew, please. This is really somewhere in between a stew and a soup, but closer to stew, so that’s what I’m going with. This is so easy – especially when prepped ahead. A couple of variations – if I happen to have it I like to make it with homemade turkey stock and leftover turkey from Thanksgiving or Christmas. Also, *leaning forward, looking at you over the rim of my glasses* I cannot stress this enough – subbing tortellini with the pipette takes it completely over the top. I’ll use tortellini if I have it, but generally just use whatever little tube pasta I have on hand, which in this case is almost always pipette (Barilla brand). There’s just something so fancy sounding about making Chicken Pipette Stew, right? Any small tube pasta works, but then it can’t realllly be called Chicken Pipette Stew…it would be something like Chicken Elbow Macaroni Stew, which would be very sad. Ok, fiiiiine, you can still call it Chicken Pipette – I won’t tell. Anyways, back to the point, this is great for a crowd and freezes really well if there are leftovers. We generally get two dinners and two lunches out of the batch, but Andy eats a lot, so it may go even further for some families.

If you’re making this all at once, you’ll need to give yourself about an hour (though, more than half of that is just time to let it cook). Let’s talk about your prep ahead plan for a minute. When I plan this for a weeknight meal I always dice the veggies and shred the chicken on the Sunday afternoon before. I prepped this during the commercial breaks while watching the first quarter of the #Panthers game. Then the night of it’s simply softening the veggies, adding the other ingredients and stirring occasionally. If you’re making this all the night of, just dice the veggies first, then shred the chicken after you’ve added the broth. Feel free to add any other herbs or spices you like. I like to add a little crushed red pepper or hot sauce, but don’t add it until serving so that AR can eat it. Ok, now it’s your turn – run on to the store and make sure you have everything on hand, so you can have this ready to warm you back up after a long, cold day. Thanks for reading!

I’m looking for a reliable recipe calorie calculator, but when I put the ingredients into a free online counter it came out to roughly 380 calories per serving if you break this into 8 servings. One serving is perfect for me, but Andy generally goes for seconds.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
3 carrots – fine diced
4 stalks celery – fine diced
2 small shallots (or one medium onion) – fine diced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic – minced
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 (24 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I use the kind with basil, garlic and oregano)
8 cups chicken broth or stock (or 6 cups broth and 2 cups water)
2 cups uncooked short tube pasta (I use Pipette from Barilla)
1 whole rotisserie chicken – skin removed and shredded off the bone (or 3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat.
Add carrots, celery and shallots and cook until tender – about 5-7 minutes
Stir in Italian seasoning, bay leaf, garlic, crushed tomatoes and chicken broth. Reduce heat to just under medium, but not quite medium-low. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Bring mixture to a boil then add pasta and cook according to package directions.
Towards the end of the pasta’s cooking time, add the shredded chicken.
Serve hot garnished with parmesan and hot sauce if desired.
Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for three months.

January 13, 2016

5 Ingredient Lemon Basil Spaghetti

laura.smoak@gmail.com Pasta, Quick and Easy Mains 15 Comments

As promised, I’m coming at you today with my first recipe for Miss Foodie Two Shoes! I’ve been going back and forth (and back and forth) for quite some time trying to decide what I should post first. To be honest, we make so many different things, and our favorites change all the time, so instead of coming with a “signature” dish, I’m sharing a staple we come back to time and time again. This dish is great for company, and it’s what I make to take to friends with new babies almost 99% of the time – and if you’ve received a meal from either my mom or sister, then this is probably what you got. It comes together so quickly. Like, literally, the sauce is done before the pasta water even comes to a boil, so then you find yourself annoyed that you have to actually wait for the pasta to cook and have to restrain yourself from eating the sauce with a spoon…No? Just me? I introduce to you 5 Ingredient Lemon Basil Spaghetti. First though – three major things I learned while creating this first recipe post:

I cannot do natural light photos in the afternoon at my house. I simply have to shoot on the weekends so I can use the light we get earlier in the day.
I’m really excited to learn how to use a natural light simulator for those times when natural-natural light isn’t an option.
I need (a LOT) more practice, and I hope to revisit this post in the future once I’ve improved my skills.

This picture doesn’t do it justice, so you’ll just have to trust me. You guys, this stuff is so easy to put together and it is SO good. It makes a ton, so I like to make it for dinner at the beginning of the week and eat on it for lunches and at least one more dinner. <—- That last part isn’t true. I always have full intentions of having it for another dinner, but I end up taking a few bites here and there until there’s definitely not enough for a meal, so it just makes sense to finish it as a snack. I need help. Seriously, though, this is one of those dishes that I eat straight out of the container with the fridge door open. It’s one of the few things that I can’t decide whether I like better hot or cold…and if you know me, you know I’m allllll about hot food.

You’re only working with five ingredients here (not including salt and pepper), so they have to be good. The key here is the tube of basil. I use the Gourmet Garden brand, and it is equal to three bunches of basil. I’m sure you could do this with fresh basil, but it would just take longer to prepare. Also important here is the lemon zest and juice. In a pinch you can use lemon juice from a bottle, but the zest plays a huge part in giving this that freshy fresh flavor we’re going for. Am I even allowed to say things like “freshy fresh” in my FIRST recipe post? I’m so annoyed at myself right now. Moving on…As with pretty much any pasta dish, you can use gluten free or whole grain pasta, or even any other shape, but y’all this really is best with plain white thin spaghetti noodles. Sorry, not sorry. We generally have this with grilled or panko breaded chicken breasts, but shrimp is also a really good addition to make it a main dish. This week I marinated three chicken breasts in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and dried basil and baked them in the oven. I’m making that stretch for this meal, two lunches and chicken phillies for dinner later in the week. So here we go – yay, first recipe! I’ll stop now, so you can go make this. Once you have that first freshy fresh bite, you won’t be able to stop – you’ve been warned…

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 lb thin spaghetti
1 tube chopped basil (I use Gourmet Garden)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 lemons (zest and juice)
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions.
While spaghetti cooks, zest and juice the lemons into a medium bowl. Add the basil.
Whisk in the olive oil to emulsify the ingredients together.
Stir in the shredded parmesan and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Drain spaghetti noodles, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking liquid, and toss with the lemon basil mixture. I generally add about ¼ cup of the reserved water, but add as little or as much as you want for your desired consistency.
Serve hot or cold! Store leftovers in the fridge for up to a week.

January 12, 2016

Welcome!

laura.smoak@gmail.com Uncategorized 0 Comments

Hi there, and welcome to Miss Foodie Two Shoes! Anyone who knows me well knows that I’ve been talking about starting a food blog for nearly two years. Most of what we eat is made from scratch at home, and over the years we’ve come up with some really delicious recipes, as well as time saving and meal planning ideas that I think could be beneficial to some. My hold-ups have been finding a name and getting over my fear of not knowing how to build a blog. I finally decided to just go for it with plenty of encouragement from my hubs, family and friends. I have no experience with website building or photography, so (fingers crossed) you’ll see me improve in those areas. I’m learning as I go, so please bear with me!

Before we get into all the awesome food, let me give a little more background about myself. My name is Laura Peascoe, and I work for a global leadership organization. I went to the University of North Carolina (Go Heels!), and majored in Journalism & Mass Communication. My job doesn’t involve much creative writing, so I’m really excited that I’ll get to do that here! I’m wife to a really tall redhead named Andy, and mother to nearly two-year-old Anna Ruth and our dog Bailey. Andy is a seventh grade science and social studies teacher, and is also getting his Masters of School Administration so he can become a principal. We’re practically high school sweet hearts even though we didn’t start dating until the end of college. We went to the Homecoming dance together our senior year, so that counts right?? We live in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is equal distance from the mountains and beach – both of which we love!

You’ll hear a lot about Andy, Anna Ruth and Bailey over time, so I won’t force too much extra reading right now. In the meantime, here’s my current favorite picture of my people…

If you’re visiting this little blog of mine, I’m guessing it’s because you’re into delicious food. Here are the types of things you’ll find in my posts:

Recipes that are easy (hello, life with a toddler!)
Recipes that can be prepped or totally made ahead
Recipes that can be frozen
Recipes created with leftovers in mind that can be made into new meals later in the week
Tips for getting more veggies into your diet
Meal planning ideas

Andy and I love to cook together, so you’ll see stuff from both of us. We love all flavors and kinds of food, so I hope we’ll be able to teach you what we know. I try to make things as healthy as possible, but you’ll see plenty of pasta and cheese, as well…really, we’re going to be all over the place. And that’s fine because my blog = my rules. Okay, that’s enough wordssss for now. My first recipe is coming up tomorrow, so please come back then! Thanks for stopping by!!