Turkey, Havarti, Bruschetta Panini's

This is comfort food and one of my family's absolute favorite meals.

First you need to make your yummy Bruschetta, which consists of:
3 cups chopped Roma tomatoes
8-10 basil leaves rolled and sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tblsp Italian seasoning blend ( I prefer the Tuscan Garlic from Willow House or Tuscan Sunset from Penzy's)
Mix it all together and set aside


For your Panini's you will need:
1 lb of sliced turkey from the deli (I think I got the honey mesquite, but any turkey or chicken breast flavor will do)
1 8oz package sliced Havarti cheese
sliced bread (I use either french, italian or sourdough)
butter for spreading on outside of bread slices
mayo for spreading on inside of bread
Panini Press, Panini Pan with press, grill pan or regular skillet (If you are using a grill pan or regular skillet you will need a pan a little smaller that will fit inside and something to weight it down. If you are using a cast iron skillet on top then it will probably be heavy enough on its own.)
I have a Mario Batali cast iron Panini pan and press that I just LOVE!!

Anyway, here's how I put it all together. First I preheat my pan on medium, then I lay out my bread slices. Lightly spread butter on the outer sides and mayo on the inner sides. 1st goes down the cheese (I make it fit my bread), then a couple slices turkey ( again I fold to fit my bread), then I lay the one sandwich side with the cheese and turkey on my pan, spoon some bruschetta on the turkey (about 2 tsp), lay another piece of cheese and cover with the other slice bread. I can fit 2 sandwiches in my pan. Then I place the press over the top and press a little. Now in my pan I have to flip my sandwich over to cook it evenly, so I would say I cook it about 3 minutes on each side or til golden brown and cheese is melted.
While your first two are cooking start preparing the next two and so on. I usually get about 8-10 sandwiches.

I don't know why that turned out so fuzzy, but you get the picture. We always have ours with some Italian Wedding Meatball soup and no I didn't make it myself (Progresso is our fav), but I have recipe I really want to try sometime.

Bon Apetitt:)

Grandmother's Banana Cake

My almost 15yr old daughter, Emily missed a couple days of school from being sick and so needed some extra credit in her Home Ec class. I had a few overripe bananas that needed using up, so she made my moms super easy and delicious banana cake. I guess she just needs to take one piece to show her teacher and I hope we can spare one cause it is soooo good. I especially love this recipe because its so easy to add in your favorite extras. Emily added in some Heath bits and coconut to hers and it was an excellent choice!


Grandmother's Banana Cake

Cream together 1 cup sour cream and 1 cup sugar, then add 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 cup mashed bananas.
In a separate bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp each of nutmeg and ginger.
Stir dry mix into wet mix just til blended. Pour into 9x13 pan sprayed with nonstick spray and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes (til top springs back when pressed).
Dust top with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream.
Really good served warm.
Add ins: chopped nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, oatmeal, heath bits or ??

Hope you enjoy:)

Pork Chops with Apple Stuffing

Made the most amazing Pork Chops with Apple Stuffing Casserole for dinner tonite. So sorry, but I can't figure out how to flip this picture around:(  Anyway, I stumbled upon a cart full of Stove Top Apple flavored stuffing at my local Price Cutter Plus marked down to $.75 a box and I had $.50 q's that doubled, so couldn't pass up that deal. Came home and was just itching to make something with that stuffing mix. So I thawed out a pkg of boneless sirloin pork chops I had in the freezer and seasoned them with S&P, garlic powder, rosemary, thyme and sage, then browned them in some EVOO. I removed them from the pan and sauteed a small chopped onion with a chopped up granny smith apple in the drippings. I poured a can of cream of chicken soup in a 9x13 pan then stirred in 1/3 cup of sour cream along with the remainder of a bottle of white wine I had in the fridge (about 1/4 cup or so). Stirred it all up right in the pan and then laid the pork chops on top (4 good sized chops). Then I spread the onion & apples on top of the chops and then the prepared stuffing on top of that. Topped it off with about a cup of shredded cheese and baked at 350 for about 40-45 min. Talk about some serious comfort food! The salad in the background is just sliced english cucumbers, sliced red onion, cherry tomatoes cut in halves and some chopped parsley fresh from my yard tossed with some balsamic vinaigrette. So light and refreshing and helps cut the divine richness of the casserole.
ENJOY:)

And So It Begins

Here goes my 1st leap into the world of blogging. And as with any new adventure there is no telling where this will lead, but with giddy nervousness I have set my course for parts unknown. Will people really be interested in what I have to share? There are so many blogs out there covering the same topics that I intend to (with way more tech savvy people than me), but I am hoping that drawing on my 40 years of life experiences and just being my down to earth self  I can offer something of value to you, my readers.
So here I am in the middle of the night, with the kids all snug in their beds and the hubby at work, actually posting to my blog. And yes, I promise I will get a profile picture up as soon as I can get my 14 year old to show me how.
Now I must get to bed so I can drag myself out of it at 7am and get those kiddos off to school.

Night All and God Bless:)