2 loaded Pac-Man Paninis And 1 Kitchen Meltdown!

Christilynn here!

I had a super busy day yesterday! I’m still on winter break, but was asked to come into school to give a couple of tours for the incoming freshman this upcoming semester.

By the time I got back home it was around 4:00 pm. I had to be at my friend’s house at 5! She had recently went through tremendous hip surgery and it was her birthday, so I told her I would cook us both dinner and we could have a picnic in her room – she really can’t go anywhere else!

I already knew I would be late, so I had to give her a call and let her know.

rushing around my kitchen so I wouldn’t be too late, I raided my fridge and cabinets. I knew i wanted to make something very filling and satisfying because I knew she had to take medicine that required eating beforehand.

I found a whole loaf of olive oil ciabatta bread from the bakery, and remembered I had recently brought my George Forman grill back to my house. Right then and there I knew I wanted to make a panini : )

I made a 3 cheese (parmesan, gorgonzola, cheddar) , chicken, tomato, onion, pesto panini!

I pretty much used the cheese left from the 1up Mushroom Bruchetta

http://thegamersgirlfriendscookbook.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/1up-mushroom-bruschetta/

Loaded Pac-Man Panini

(the gorgonzola for some reason really reminded me of the little balls pac-man eats so I had to name it that!)

This will make two loaded paninis

• 1 loaf olive oil ciabatta bread (not pre-sliced)
• 1 box honey roasted pre-cooked Perdue chicken (I didn’t have enough time to actually bake chicken but if you want to go for it!)
• 1 small onion
• 1 sliced tomato
• 1 clove of garlic
• Gorgonzola cheese (pre-crumbled)
• cheddar cheese
• 1 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese (pesto)
• as many slices of parmesan cheese you want (paninis)
• 1 cup basil (I used dried because we didn’t have any fresh, both work just fine )
• olive oil

unfortunately, I ran out of my house with the food as fast as I can and was unable to take a picture of it :/ I apologize! I promise you though, these paninis will be hearty and satisfying!

For The Pesto

Dump your basil, garlic, and parmesan cheese into your food processor. Pulse the mixture a couple of times until everything is incorporated, and the garlic clove is chopped and blended as well. continue to pulse the food processor and carefully add in enough olive oil to make a slightly liquidy (it’s a new word I just made up) spread.

For The Panini

I used my George Forman grill to grill the panini, but you can really grill this any way you want. it you do have a panini maker or George Forman, make sure you plug them in so they are hot and ready to go by the time your ready!

Slice the onion and tomato into thin slices. Take your ciabatta loaf and cut off the end pieces. then cut it right down the middle. you should have 2 little bread loves now. To each small loaf, stand it up vertically and cut right down the middle (so you are creating the sandwich bread slices)

On the bottom slices of bread, spread the pesto, and layer the slices of parmesan cheese. on top of the place the tomatoes, then the chicken. After the chicken, place the onions and cheddar cheese on top. On the top layer of bread (underneath) spread more pesto, and sprinkle some gorgonzola cheese on it. Place the bread on top of the sandwich and press down.

(Dont forget to spray your grill!)

Place the paninis in or on the grill until they get the awesome grill lines and are nice and crispy, and the cheese is all melted!

As for the kitchen melt down, I was wrapping the paninis in a brown paper bag wrap and completely knocked one of the paninis off the plate and it EXPLODED in mid-air and splattered allll over the floor…I only had enough bread for the two paninis……………… 5 SECOND RULE!

I picked the two slices of bread up and removed the rest of the ingredients (that were still left) from the bread and made the panini all over again with the bread…. I made sure that would be my sandwich : D

anyway….

I hope you enjoyed the recipe! i know I’m getting hungry again just writing about it!!!

~Alexa & Chrsitilynn~

Video Game Controller Sugar Cookies!

I hardly ever post twice a day, but I felt I should quickly share this before I head off to bed!

I was searching on line for cool cookie ideas to send in the care package I was making for Kyle when I stumbled upon these delectable treats!

Courtesy of Ms. Humble herself, these awesome pictures pretty much say it all!

Sugar Cookie Video Game Controllers! Can it get any better than this!? I instantly fell in love with the spot on detail and knew it would make Kyle laugh! So simple, but so intricate! A perfect balance!

I will definitely be trying this out in the near future!

Here’s the link to the blog, Not So Humble Pie, to get the recipe and directions!

http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2009/12/wii-xbox-ps3-controller-sugar-cookies.html

Thanks again to Ms. Humble for letting us use the photos! They’re great!

~ Alexa & Christilynn :3

1UP Mushroom Bruschetta!

Hello again! It christilynn providing you with another delicious recipe!

I woke up yesterday morning with the sun shining in my face. I hopped out of bed knowing it was going to be a gorgeous yet busy day for me. By 11 am. I was at the grocery store making a very large purchase. Not only had I volunteered to send a very bulky and delicious care package to my boyfriend, i also voulenteered to make enough yummy treats for his three house mates and his best friend.

I arrived back home and somehow managed to bring all the groceries in with one trip ( Trust me..if a car drove by they would have stared at me because I looked pretty funny). I definitely need to fuel up for this day of baking ( i started around 1 pm. and didn’t finish until 10 pm.!) thought about something small but delicious  could make myself.

When I unloaded the groceries I was reminded of one of my favorite Super Mario Games – Super Mario 64. For those of you who have not played it, it starts off with a note Peach writes to mario saying she baked him a cake. I laughed to myself wondering if she took as long as I knew I was going to take with all of the baked goods I was about to make.

With that game in mind, I thought of making myself a Super Mario themed lunch. What would the lunch consist of? Mushrooms of course!

I raided the fridge and came up with:

Roasted Zucchini, Sautéed Mushroom Bruschetta topped with Caramelized Onions, Parmesan and Gorgonzola Cheese.

I promise you this recipe will satisfy both sweet and savory, creamy and crunchy cravings! So here it is!

1up Mushroom Bruschetta

• 1 zucchini
• 1 normal size onion
• 1 fresh carton of baby bella mushrooms (already chopped to go!)
• 1 bag of bruschetta bread (This can be found in the bakery department – its bread sliced into brushcetta size – if you cannot find that, french bread will do)
• 1/4th cup dry white wine
• 4  tbsp. butter
• Fresh Parmesan cheese ( I bought the wedge – its actually a lot cheaper than buying it pre-shredded!)
• Gorgonzola cheese ( I bought the pre-crumbled )
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

This Recipe should make around 8 to ten bruschetta bites!

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees and be careful!

Zucchini:

Slice the zucchini 1/8th inch thick  and place on a non stick pan or pan with tin foil. Sprinkle Olive oil and LIGHTLY salt and pepper the zucchini. Use your hands and gently mix to coat and incorporate the ingredients. Place the zucchini in the oven for about 7 minutes. When the 7 minutes are up flip the zucchini slices over and cook for another seven minutes.

PLEASE NOTE! : If some of your zucchini slices begin to look very charred, do not panic. some will get charred to a crisp. this happens :3

Your Zucchini should look like this!

While your waiting for the zucchini, rinse and pat your baby bellas dry. Thinly slice the onion so when it caramelize it will be long, stringy and delicious : )

Take a large nonstick pan and heat 2 tbsp. of butter and a generous sprinkle of olive oil, on medium high heat. on the other burner, heat a medium to small pan with another 2 tbsp. of butter and generous sprinkle of olive oil on medium – medium high heat.

(By now, your Zucchini should be ready to flip – don’t forget!)

When both pans are heated, place the baby bellas in the large pan, and sliced onions in the smaller pan. Stir both occasionally to coat and re-coat them in the butter and olive oil. (I used the same utensil for both… no big deal : P )

You want to cook the mushrooms until they are golden brown, and caramelize the onions – this will take about ten minutes, so you can head back over to the zucchini in the mean time and pull them out of the oven.

set the oven to 375 now, and place your bruschetta bread on a nonstick pan. Sprinkle a little bit of olive oil on it and place it in the oven for about 5 minutes (or when the crust around the bread starts to turn a golden brown)

When mushrooms are golden brown, pour in the wine and stir. let it cook for another three minutes.

When onions and mushrooms are done take them off the heat. (the bread should be done as well)

What you do with the cheese is up to you. what I did was took my potato pealer and sliced the parmesan cheese so it gave me paper thing slices.

As far as construction goes, I layered 2 pieces of thin parmesan cheese on the bread, then 2 zucchini, then a couple of mushrooms, then the onions, and then the gorgonzola cheese.

Hope you enjoy the recipe!!!

~Alexa & Christilynn ~

Cheesy, Spicy Carbs with a X-2 Twist!

Hello world! Christilynn here!

I suppose since this is the first post, I should give a brief explanation of how this blog works… click on the “about” pages – there’s your brief explanation : P

Attending a commuter college has its ups and downs. Today unfortunately, I’m getting hit with the down. Two very important people that I love dearly have gone back to school today. Alexa, who is the…co-writer i guess you can say ^^ of this blog, and my boyfriend Kyle… he would be the gamer :p ….and one of two guanine  pigs for you guys (the other is Alexa’s boyfriend…. he’s not so much of a guinnie pig as a very willing person who would risk pretty much anything to get his hands on what we cook XD)

So I was really thinking about what our first post should be for the blog. Thinking, thinking, thinking – GOT IT!

There are two important things you must know about both Alexa and I.

#1) Our first RPG/default/the good ol’ days/cosplay inspiration (oh yeah… maybe three things… we love cosplay… ) video game is FF X-2.

I literally have no idea what possessed me to buy this game. I liked video games, but i had never played an RPG …and when I bought the game I was still being taxied in my mothers van and had an alowence of 20 dollars a week…… I hitched a ride from a friend, went to the mall and bought a 45$ game that I had NO idea what it was…all because the cover looked pretty. Alexa and I started playing it AND NEVER STOPPED… we actually held her parents up at one point because they wanted to leave (taking us with them) but we needed to find a save point first! …sometimes people don’t understand -.-;

#2) We’re obsessed – OBSESSED… with risotto.

Alexa and I have this horrible habit of waking up …walking to the couch….and laying back down. over the years we have decided it may seem a little bit more productive if we do this together… I don’t think we’ve convinced anyone yet, Lex ^^;

While vegging (so THATS how you spell it…) on the couch, we turn on the food network to feast our eyes on the delicious sight of food. (drooling usually ensues….then stops because Ina Garten and her denim shirt appears on the screen threatening us to use ‘Good Vanilla’… I have nightmares…) One of our favorite cooks is Giada De Laurentiis.

We ended up seeing an episode where she made a delicious mushroom and gorgonzola cheese risotto topped with freshly chopped chives – here’s the link to the recipe – we both STRONGLY suggest it!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/gorgonzola-and-porcini-mushroom-risotto-recipe/index.html
We went out to our local farmers market and bought the stuff we needed and ran back home to cook it. We have fallen in love with it ever since.

So! Getting back on track! I feel it would only be appropriate to start the blog off with a Final Fantasy X-2 Risotto!

Spicy Cheese and Chocobo Risotto!

I know I know, why chocobo… they aren’t as cute and cuddly as you think! when I was playing X-2 I got attacked by fiends and one of them was a cute chocobo – naturally I didn’t want to hurt it so I ignored the chocobo and attacked the other two…… then the chocobo bit me and I got a game over… -.-’

Spicy Cheese and Chocobo Risotto

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• about 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cups of grated pepper-jack cheese (or however cheesy you want it)
• 2-3 thinly sliced chocobo…okay… chicken breast (depending on the size)
• Salt
• pepper
• red pepper flakes
• 1 cup of sour cream
• (and if you can get your hands on it) Stonewall Kitchen’s Chicken and pork spice rub (I swear by it)

Chicken:

Start off by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Using a nonstick pan or tin foil, place the chicken down and season it with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, chicken and pork spice rub and or any other spices you would like to add (you can make it as salty, spicy etc as you want it). Place it in the oven and bake for about 8-15 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken – to test it cut one open and make sure the juice runs clear)

Risotto:

Pour the chicken broth into a pot and heat on a medium setting. In a large sauce pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat. Toss the onions in and cook until they are tender (not brown!) this will take about 3 minutes. Add the Arborio rice in and stir, coating the rice with the butter. Add the wine and let it simmer, about another 3 minutes. Begin to ladle in 1/2 cup of chicken broth, stir and wait for the broth to evaporate. Add in another 1/2 cup of broth, stir,and wait for it to evaporate. continue this process until the risotto is soft and texture is creamy. (If it seems like your running out of broth, turn down the heat and cover the risotto with a top between ladles) This will take about 25 minutes.

When risotto is finished, set the heat to low and add in the pepper-jack cheese, parmesan cheese, and 1 tablespoon of butter (save a little bit of both cheeses to top). Stir until both cheeses are melted and incorporated. Slice the chicken into small strips and fold it into the risotto along with tomatoes. Sprinkle as much red pepper flakes on top as you would like, along with the left over cheeses. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and enjoy!!!

We hope you enjoy our first recipe! Let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from anyone who tries it out!

So here’s to friends all over the world! Enjoy!

~Alexa & Christilynn~