Hawaiian Pizza Jalapeno Poppers

We are a jalapeno popper eating kind of people. These delightful boats of cream cheese are usually the first thing to go at our family gatherings, followed so closely by deviled eggs that it's actually hard to call. While I am not opposed to mixing up an old favorite, Collin was not so sure and lingered in the kitchen as I was making these, making comments about how the jalapenos should be cut, etc. I eventually shooed him off and these were assembled in no time. (Ok, it took time, but what respectable jalapeno popper doesn't?)

She asks that you put a cube of pineapple and a cherry tomato on the ends of the toothpicks, but no one in my family would eat them and they would go to waste. So. I omitted that small detail but kept everything else the same.

She also tells you to put these in the oven, which I've never done. Poppers have always been a strict barbeque item and therefore this made Collin question them yet again. I made these with her burger recipe and he was a bit put off that the grill was not needed. A little out of his element, I think. Anyway.

Little poppers

Once these were done and he had shoved some down his popper hole, he admitted defeat in that these are really good. I don't know where the "pizza" part is supposed to come in, but who cares? These are delightful and we may have just found an unconventional new "barbeque" item. 

Capon's Chrissy Burger and Onion Rings

To me, a burger is a burger. It's delicious and the toppings are fun but at the end of the day, it is just a burger. There has only been one burger in my life that I've ever actually craved and it was from a little mom and pop restaurant called Kelly's. I swear he put crack in that burger. Once the craving hit there was nothing that could satisfy it. My mom and I would go there as often as was possible without jeopardizing our wallets or waistlines. He knew us, too, and would make sure to make our fries extra crispy the way we liked them. I don't think I ever tried anything else from there either. It was always about that burger and nothing else. Sadly, he went out of business and mom and I shared a cry in the car in front of the little empty restaurant the day we found out. Sometimes we talk about hunting him down in hopes of persuading him to make it for us one last time. *sigh*

In any case, I probably would have waited until it was the last recipe left to make this if it weren't for my friend Leah. She made it on the fourth of July and raved about it:

"So proud of myself, I made my first ever burger from scratch with homemade onion rings. They were delicious!"

We chatted about it for a bit and she convinced me that this was a definite keeper. So, since I was off today and had some time to create, I stuck this baby on the menu. I added in Chrissy's jalapeno poppers, too but I'll do a separate post on those. 

I was very skeptical about this burger because it only has 4 ingredients and 2 of those are salt and pepper. Could it be that less is more?

*drool*

The answer is hell fucking yes. This was amazing. Even her sauce, which has mayo in it, was mouthwatering. I cannot believe something so simple could turn out so freaking phenomenal. And a burger! And the best part? This burger is gluten free all on it's own. (Well, minus the bun and onion rings, obvi.) I just can't believe how good this turned out. Does it rival my beloved Kelly's burger? I decline to comment. 

The onion rings were simple and tasted like regular ol' onion rings. Calvin was intrigued, "These are super good, mom. Look! There's an onion inside!" He ate them up like nobody's business. 

Calvin approved.

Needless to say, I'm stuffed and I have found excitement for a burger again. Yay!

Zucchini "Lasagna" Bolognese

I've been slacking, I know. But - good news! Collin is on vacation for the next 12 days or so and this means I will have plenty of time to cook things! To get into the spirit, I decided to go after this lasagna inspired dish as I'm always down to make things no-carb.

Truth be told, I'm a huge sucker for Stouffer's lasagna and could probably (Ok, I can) eat the whole thing by myself and still want more. Because of this, I have never felt the need to create my own lasagna recipe. Thinking on it, I don't believe I've ever made a lasagna from scratch before...Anyway, this was on the menu tonight and after reading the recipe, I started early.

I made the sauce around 2 so dinner would for sure be ready by 5-6 ish. She tells you to simmer it for about an hour to an hour and a half to let it reduce and thicken. OK. I've thought this before, but now I'm convinced that she must have some sort of special celebrity oven that cooks things quicker than us common folk ovens. After 2 hours I still had soupy sauce. It had reduced some, yes, but nowhere near the consistency needed for lasagna. It took me cranking up the heat for another hour or so before it was finally a good consistency. Everything else went pretty smooth and, unsurprisingly, this only made 2 layers for me as opposed to her 3 layers. I'm really not sure how she did it to make it 3 layers, but I don't really think it matters how many layers you have so long as there are at least 2.

I was starving when I pulled this out of the oven:

Looks fairly lasagna-y

But I let it cool down for a few minutes before I decided to cut into it. 

Now. I was very unsure about this because of the layer of grease floating on top and around the edges. I was also very unsure about how to put it in the bowl. Once I figured out that a spoon was the best way I noticed this was no longer a lasagna, but a lasagna-y soup.

You eat it with a spoon.

It was about this time that Collin starts talking about how Dominoes has a special going on right now and it wasn't too late to order pizza. I, however, was determined to try this and like it. I had spent too many hours preparing this freaking dish and we were going to eat this soup, dammit.

The taste was actually not bad. It was very salty - very salty - but I do believe this would be better with actual noodles (duh). What I mean by that is that the sauce and the cheese mixture are pretty good, but the zucchini noodles were a total fail. They basically dissolved into the soup and I couldn't even tell they were there. I did, however, get a "This is good food, mom" from Calvin and I do agree that the taste is not bad. 

But. If you're going to spend half the day in the kitchen preparing lasagna, use this recipe, just substitute the zucchini for actual lasagna noodles (oh, and go easy on the salt). I understand that defeats the purpose, but now I'm stuck with three quarters of a pan full of salty lasagna-y soup that I can assure you will get thrown away. Take it from me: lasagna should always have carbs. 

Margarita Chicken Fajitas with Mushrooms and Spinach

Well it took what felt like forever to finish off that turkey, but I finally did and now I can get back in the swing of things. I will admit though, it felt so good to take a week off of grocery shopping so I can thank mom for that. Of course, by the end of the week Collin was begging me to toss what was left of the turkey and make something else, so we ate like crap on the days he was off and I started back up again today. I figured fajitas are always a crowd (and Collin) pleaser, so I kicked it off with this recipe.

This bad boy calls for some tequila, which we don't keep in the house as we tend to be more beer drinkers, but Collin had some co-workers over a few months ago and one of them left some Patron here. Lucky for me, cause I didn't really want to make a special trip to the liquor store. This recipe looks like it has a lot of ingredients, but once you put it all together it's really not that bad. Most of it is for the marinade which absolutely reeked of tequila. The whole time I was making it I kept having flashbacks to my 21st birthday where my co-workers kept feeding me Patron. This also reminded me of why I don't drink it. I recalled some memories I thought were locked away for good... *shudder* Anyway, she has you marinate the chicken first and after that it's smooth sailing.

What really threw me off here was the mushrooms. I can't recall a time I've ever eaten fajitas with mushrooms. Even spinach isn't really that strange of an addition, but I throw spinach in pretty much everything so maybe that's just me. It also felt weird not adding green/red peppers in here. Maybe I just need to stop being such a snob and expand my fajita horizons.

The recipe calls for flour tortillas, but I'm really more of a corn tortilla kind of girl, so I went my own way with that part, but this turned out pretty damn good. I found myself eating the chicken straight from the pan so I'll keep the marinade at the very least.

I probably should have put the chicken on top.

I don't know that I'll make the mushroom part again, but the chicken/marinade is a keeper for sure...at least until I run out of tequila. Then I'll probably never make it again unless someone else leaves tequila leftovers here.  I did, however, have 3 tacos so I really don't have any complaints. Look at me, expanding my fajita horizons already!

Dutch Baby Pancake

I always have the ingredients on hand for this recipe and I was going to make it when I first bought this book, but I didn't have a flour sifter and all my colanders have holes that are too big. I went in search of a flour sifter (ok, I went to one store) and settled on a colander with really small holes. Fast forward to a few months later and I still haven't made it. This morning I woke up starving and knew my usual fruit smoothie wasn't going to cut it so I decided to try this one out. I waited as long as I could so it would be more brunch time because I knew the calories were high and I'm hoping that making it 2 meals in one makes a difference. Of course, with 2 kiddos, waiting until brunch time really wasn't my choice...

This is a simple dump and bake kind of recipe. There aren't a lot of ingredients and you don't have to go around town looking for anything specific. You probably have all of the ingredients in your kitchen right now. You dump it all in a blender and have at it. One thing you may want to take note of: once you dump the ingredients in the blender, I wouldn't let it sit too long before blending. I put the flour and salt in first and went to go take care of something with the boys and I think it settled together a bit because once I added in the wet ingredients and hit "go" on my blender, it kind of clumped to the sides. A spatula took care of the stubborn batter and this was ready to pour into the pan in no time - no big deal.

This was fun to take out of the oven:

An aerial view

Am I the only one who thinks this resembles a certain lady part? hahaha Or has the internet ruined me?

I won't lie, I had an immature moment of laughter upon taking this out of the oven. Anyway, I cut this up and stuck it on some plates for me and the boy and we went to town. Calvin ate this up (of course, it's covered in butter and syrup and powdered sugar) and I almost went back for more before I remembered I have a baby gut to work on here. 

So. You really have no excuse not to make this because I guarantee you have everything you need for it already and it's delicious. I'd like to call for my sister Jen to make this because she's a Celiac and I'd like to see how it turns out for her. Guest post coming soon...?

Super Tuna Melts

I've been doing pretty good lately about working out and eating right-ish, so I tossed this bad boy on the menu for lunch today as a little treat for losing a few pounds. I worked out this morning to even the score and by the time I was out of the shower I was starving and craving cheesy tuna.

This calls for mayonnaise which, as stated before, I despise. I tried not to think about it as I was mixing the ingredients together and by the time these were in the pan, I hadn't gagged once and that is a very good sign. This also called for sweet relish, which I also hate. I think a pickle - or anything pickle related - should be dill or sour. I can't handle sweet or bread and butter pickles so I tried to find the smallest, least expensive container of it at the store. Unfortunately, that's not really a thing so I went with the least expensive. I think her deviled eggs also call for sweet relish so at least I know I'll use it one more time.

Anyway, This makes a lot of tuna mixture and, though she says to divide it between 2 sandwiches, I opted to stick a little bit in a tupperware for later. I have to be able to put my mouth around the damn thing and I just showered so I also didn't want leftovers falling on my boobs. Not that I'm ok with boob leftovers if I haven't showered...except that I kind of am.

A little background here. I am not the world's best grilled cheese maker. I get very impatient and usually burn the toast. I try to scrape it off before I give it to Collin, but he always notices and makes fun of me anyway. Needless to say, he's the grilled cheese maker in this house. I did manage to make a pretty good one once for my brother though. I used incredibly low heat and it took about 20 minutes but it didn't burn and that's what really counts. True to grilled cheese form, she tortures you by telling you to use low heat. I did this. And I danced around my kitchen because I was freaking starving and I don't know if you have ever heard the phrase "a watched pot never boils" but I think it should be "watched cheese never melts". I will admit, I took them off the heat a bit early because I couldn't take it anymore and this is what I got:

The picture in the book looks way better. Obvs.

Even with my half ass toasting, this was freaking amazing. It didn't even register in my tuna filled brain that this has the dreaded mayo in it. I finished off my sandwich and relieved my son of one of his halves. This was so good that I don't even really care that I basically ruined my workout (though when the high wears off, I probably will). So now I'm super happy that I stuck some of this in a tupperware for later because now my husband can try it when he gets home from work. Or I'll just completely fuck up my day and eat it myself. Whatever. 

Crab, Cream Cheese and Scallion Wontons

My mom cleaned out her freezer the other day and she gave me a big frozen turkey. I'm not usually the biggest fan of turkey, outside of the lunch meat kind, but I took the bird and decided to eat off of it all week. So, I injected it with seasoning and my husband smoked it and I meal planned around this turkey for the week. Now, as you may or may not know, there are no recipes in Chrissy's book that call for turkey. Apparently she feels the same way about it as I do. I flipped through the book and tried to find a recipe that I had all the ingredients for so I could save myself a trip to the grocery store and I landed on this beauty. The only thing I did not have was the crab meat. So, I broke my number one rule. I did not make this exactly as it appears in the book...can you see where this is going? Yes, I substituted the crab meat for turkey.

Now, I'm very certain that Chrissy does not read this blog. But if she ever did I'm sure she would have a heart attack from my little "substitution". Before I go on, I will say that I have every intention of re-making these exactly as it is written. I just needed to use up some damn turkey.

First, prep work. There really isn't a whole lot that you do to prep for this. It goes rather quickly and even stuffing the wontons doesn't take long. Andrew had his first Gerber baby meat the other day and I gotta tell you, pulsing up that turkey in my food processor looked an awful lot like meat baby food. And if you've never seen or smelled meat baby food then you're lucky because that shit is the worst. When Calvin was a baby he refused to eat it. Andrew, of course, eats the shit out of it but he's a little sausage so he eats anything.

Moving on...so prep - easy. Frying them up is also a piece of cake even though you use a massive amount of vegetable oil. Like, massive. You probably use about 2 standard size vegetable oil bottles. Is it really necessary to use that much? I think so. They have to float and if they stick to the bottom I imagine it would be a big mess. Luckily, vegetable oil is cheap and we should all be grateful that it doesn't call for 2 bottles of olive oil.

Try not to think about the fact that there is pureed turkey in there.

These were...good. And I say it like that because if I had used the crab meat, like anyone with a brain would have, these would have been absolutely phenomenal. We ate them and we actually went back for more - though I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe that's because that's just what you do when faced with finger food. After a while, I started dipping them in barbeque sauce because the sauce she has you make just didn't sit well with the turkey. Collin did request that I make these again, but that I use the crab meat next time and I 100% agree. In the end, we fought over who was going to eat the last one, but not the good way. Eventually, he lost and ate the last one and now I know not to fuck with Chrissy again. 

Creamy Parmesan Skillet Eggs

Today is one of the rare occasions I am working from home so, instead of my usual smoothie for breakfast I decided to check out the breakfast section and cook something from there. Lucky for me - I had all the things needed for this recipe! Yay!  When I told Collin I was making breakfast, he told me to make egg mcmuffins and I told him no. Tell me why, after he ate this delightful dish, I hear him in there microwaving a freaking egg for his mcmuffin. Men.

So this was easy and quick and in the skillet cooking in no time at all:

She tells you to use 2 cute little 6-inch skillets for this but, as darling as it looked in the book, who the hell just has 2 - 6-inch skillets lying around their kitchen? Well, I don't. So they all went into the big one that I have. This cooked in the time she said it would, but I'm not much for runny yolks so I cooked it a little longer to achieve more of an over medium egg. I don't know if this is supposed to happen or if it's because I cooked it longer but, once the eggs were removed, I found that the cheese crusted to the pan. In the book, she makes it seem like you'll be eating these out of the pan, so maybe it's supposed to do this, but for me it just looked like this:

That's after I scraped it all together with a spatula.

I'm actually kind of glad it turned out this way, because I could just pick off a few pieces and put it on my plate, instead of having to commit to the whole thing. 

I still had my fruit, so I still won.

This was delicious. I was afraid that it would just taste like a normal egg since the cheese stuck to the bottom, but it seems like the egg actually soaked up the Parmesan mixture and it tasted really good. It gave the eggs a nice kick! And I'd probably do it exactly the same way because the Parmesan "crisp" gave it a nice flavor when you wanted it, and I think it would be a little overwhelming if it was with every bite. 

Delightful.

Chinese Chicken Salad with Crispy Wonton Skins

I'm pretty into her "Salads" section of the book and had some trouble deciding on which one I would make next. This has three sections of ingredients and I wasn't really feeling it when I chose it, but the fact that it calls for shredded rotisserie chicken won me over. I absolutely love recipes that call for rotisserie chicken because it's so easy. You just grab the chicken, shred that shit and you're good to go.

It was a breeze finding everything for this (most of it I already had) but it took me a while to find the napa cabbage and I stood there in the produce section like a doof for like 5 minutes before I found it. The last time I looked for cabbage that long was when I was trying to determine which one would be the best one for my boobs. Confused by that? Google it. I won't ruin appetites on this blog. Anyway, there was no price, but I thought "How expensive could it be? It's cabbage" and stuck it in the cart. Uhm, that shit was like $5 close to $6. So be prepared for that.

That being said, I think napa cabbage will be added to my future salads. It's got the crunch of romaine, without being leafy, and I personally found it was worth the money. Who would have thought?

This baby is a chop and dump kind of salad. It took me no time at all and Calvin helped me make the dressing. The wontons were easy peasy and dinner was ready in 30.

I am forever grateful that this salad exists. I can't even believe how good this was. I went back for seconds and made it my lunch tomorrow - if it lasts that long. That's another thing. She tells you this serves 2 as a main course. I got 2 helpings for myself, Calvin ate, and I was able to pack one big lunch for Collin and one regular lunch for me out of it. So, if you're planning on not making this your main course, you might want to half it.

Good Lord. I think I might have to pack something else for lunch tomorrow because I already want more.

Look at it. Look at it in all its beauty.

Charred and Garlicky Broccoli and Cauliflower mash with Roasted Garlic and Ricotta

The length of these recipe names really cracks me up. That's only 2 recipe names up there. These two recipes I made as the side dish for the Brick Chicken from earlier. I stepped on the scale the other day and realized the few pounds I had managed to lose had returned and I have a feeling it has something to do with this book... and my sheer love for carbs as of late. This would be a (almost, but come on - does it really count?) carb free dinner and I could get down for that.

Let's start with the broccoli. Charred broccoli doesn't sound like fun to me. Actually, charred anything doesn't exactly make my mouth water...but I like broccoli so I went for it. I prepped this baby early in the day because within this recipe lies 2 other recipes that you need to make first. Roasted garlic and roasted garlic oil and cheesy garlic bread crumbs (the 'does it really count?' carb). Both were easy, but I'm glad I prepped early in the day because that would have been a nightmare come dinner time.

I have to say, once this was done, this is the best broccoli I've ever eaten. Disclaimer: this recipe contains whole cloves of garlic, so once the cheese and bread crumbs are in there it's easy to get a mouthful of straight garlic because they are hidden. If you're not one for whole garlic, like me, this is important to remember. Otherwise, this was fantastic.

This was before I forgot to add the cheese and bread crumbs

After the cheese and crumbs *drool*

The cauliflower mash was a last minute decision. I enjoy substituting cauliflower for carbs so I figured this one was a no brainer. I did not have fresh cauliflower, but I did have frozen, so I went with that since she has you boil it anyway. 

Here is where I think I had my problem: she tells you to drain the cauliflower and get it as dry as possible. I'm not sure how easy this would have been with fresh cauliflower, but it was a goddamn nightmare. I used so many paper towels before the cheap-o in me said "fuck it" and tossed the damp cauliflower in the food processor. That being said. I did not like this. The texture was more of a mousse texture and it was hard for me to get past that and eat it. I don't think the addition of the ricotta helped matters at all, as I think it contributed to the mushy feel. I mixed this with some broccoli and now that was good. All in all, I may try the cauliflower again - with fresh cauliflower...but probably not anytime soon.

Update: I was letting my brother's girlfriend Chelsea try this meal and my brother walked in and took a bite of the cauliflower mash. He loved it. Granted, he did think it was grits - but he wolfed it down like a rabid dog and then went to town on the brick chicken. He didn't touch the broccoli because he's strange...but Collin's friend was over and had some and told me he'd be asking for the broccoli and chicken again. I was loving the feedback last night! 

Cauliflower mousse 

John's Tuscan Brick Chicken with Charred Lemons

I decided to make a thing of it and do 3 recipes at once for dinner tonight. To spare you a never ending post and a ridiculously long title, I'll be posting these recipes separately.

This recipe requires a trip to Home Depot or, for me, my backyard. When we bought this house the previous owners left a nice pile of bricks behind. There was nothing brick at all anywhere that would have explained why they were there...they were just there. They also thought they'd be nice and leave a random tire in our backyard as well. Anyway, I grabbed two bricks from the pile, took them inside and washed them off. I noticed these were going to be a bit too big for my skillet, so I waited until the baby went down for a nap, headed to the garage, put on my husband's rubber boots and went in search of something to break these suckers in half. I grabbed a hammer and Calvin and I went to town. A few seconds later, I had pan sized bricks.

I'm glad I read this recipe beforehand, because it requires preparation and several hours of hanging out in the fridge. (The chicken, not me) The rub for this smells amazing and I will keep it in handy for other chicken recipes - particularly baked chicken. Once the rub is on the chicken, you're left with only 2 ingredients to use before this recipe is done. I like this because it's easy cleanup.

Alright. So. This started out seemly like a slam dunk recipe. Then I put my chickens in the pan. I must have bought some monster chickens because they barely fit.

All bricked up

Another thing I found was once these babies are in the pan, it's Snap, Crackle and Pop time. These things will pop you worse than bacon, so be careful. Flipping them over was a ticking time bomb. So. Because I had monster chickens, the cook time was off. So off, in fact, that I added about 5-8 minutes on top of the usual cook time, which was fine. No big deal. I started to get irritated though, and this is why I loathe cooking chicken quarters, when I saw the vein. As soon as you cut into it there was blood running everywhere. I prefer to bake chicken quarters because this doesn't happen. At that point, this had taken longer than I had hoped to cook, and I still had two more chickens to make, so I stick the freaking thing in the microwave just to cook it the rest of the way. Note: I did not use this chicken to base my taste on. 

This tasted like chicken. Nothing special at all. I'm not sure what I was expecting because when I realized it tasted like regular, nothing special freaking chicken, my irritation soared. I spent all that time and got grease popped on me for regular tasting chicken. I couldn't even taste the rub and I think it stuck mostly to the bottom of the pan. Save yourself the trouble and just bake the freaking chicken. 

Update: Check out the Charred Broccoli and Cauliflower Mash post for positive feedback on this chicken. 

Look at how big that freakin chicken is.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Yesterday was the 4th of July and I did a massive carb overload. I had vegetables for breakfast in preparation of the massive amounts of food I was going to be eating and they were the only vegetables I had all day long. I had a hot dog, two hamburgers, some sausage 3 or 4 pieces of pie (I don't remember how many I actually had) and some delicious cheesy cauliflower thing my mother in law made that had so much cheese and butter in it that it couldn't even be considered a vegetable anymore. She grilled vegetables, but I didn't even touch those. I had that shit for breakfast.

So today I decided I didn't need to be eating any carbs, and if I was really being truthful to myself I wouldn't eat them for the rest of the week. *sips beer* I originally had avocado chicken on wheat rolls and salad for dinner, but switched that over to these lettuce wraps real quick. I usually use this lettuce wrap sauce you get in a little pouch in the Asian aisle of the grocery store, and that's usually pretty good but I thought what the hell, I'll make it from scratch tonight.

This was more chopping and preparation than my carb filled ass would have liked, but it really wasn't too bad considering it was on the table in less than an hour.

No carbs here

I loaded mine up and found out the hard way that I needed 2 lettuce leaves to bear the load of the meat. As soon as I finished mine Collin was getting seconds and I have to admit I got up for more, too. I think we both understood that because this is healthy, we could have ridiculous portions. All in all, this was very good. I would probably still reach for the already made sauce packet for the sake of time, but if I wanted to impress company I'd reach for this recipe for sure. 

I have to add in that since I've been doing this, my pantry/fridge have been filled with random oils, vinegars, sauces, etc. that I'm going to have to put to another use somehow. I love the new diversity and skills that I'm getting though, which is one of the reasons I wanted to cook through this book. Ugh, I need to go roll myself to the couch now.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breasts and Thyme Roasted Carrots

I just want to start out by saying that I had this fabulous fancy dinner planned and when dinner time rolled around, all I wanted was a freaking hot dog. I had no hot dogs in the house and I'd rather stab myself in the foot than go to the grocery store on Fourth of July weekend, so I stuck to the plan and made this. I would also like to note that, because the oven temperatures were different, I made the carrots first and reheated them later.

That being said, I was thrilled about this one because it let me use my cast iron skillet in the oven, which I've never done and been dying to do. Oh, the things adults get excited about. Another reason is because it calls for goat cheese, which I've never in my life felt the need to try or purchase. In case you didn't know, goat cheese isn't exactly the cheapest of the cheeses and it honestly hurt my feelings a little to buy this. But, I'm determined to expand my cooking horizons so I bought the damn cheese in hopes it would be worth it.

This lovely dinner was made in the midst of, not one, but two crying, fussy kids and one husband who may or may not have been able to sleep through it all. Of course, my pounding the chicken out with a mallet may have had something to do with both sides of that...Regardless, dinner needed to be made and even though the names are all fancy dancy the prep work took no time at all. The majority of the time was spent in the oven for both recipes, which was fine with me because I think Andrew is cutting more teeth - hence the crying. The bigger kid wanted ice in his cup and clearly that's more than enough reason for a meltdown.

After all was said and done, this is what I pulled out of the oven:

It's beautiful.

She has you toss tomatoes around the chicken in the skillet and I did it for the recipe, but I didn't really think it was something I would do if I ever made this again. Uhm, those tomatoes tasted freaking ah-mazing. I absolutely would toss them in there again. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. So this recipe, hands down, is 100% the best thing I have ever made in my life. When I took a bite, I moaned. I know that sounds a bit after hours, but it really is that good. I'm also pretty sure that goat cheese just became my new favorite chicken cheese.

Ok, now. The Thyme Roasted Carrots. These were re-heated and you need to keep that in mind before you look at the picture. These were also phenomenal, for a roasted carrot. My carrots were smaller than what she suggests and I did not think to adjust the cook time to reflect the size of these carrots. My fault, but understand that they still tasted delicious even though they aren't the prettiest. Also, I very clearly have no idea how to plate anything and make it look pretty. I must have moved things around and taken 12 pictures and this was the winner. So. There's your background on that.

Anyway, make this chicken.

This plate is sad and embarrassing.

Zucchini Fries

I needed something to do with Calvin today since Collin is on nights and will sleep all day. Our kitchen is on the opposite side of the house as our bedroom, so I figured making these would be perfect and we wouldn't make too much noise. Of course, now that it's over and I'm writing this post I can hear a ridiculous amount of noise coming from the living room and I'm sure Collin is swearing in his sleep right now. Hey, at least I tried.

For starters, doing anything that is hands on with a 3 year old is bound to be a big fat mess...and once you add flour to that equation it becomes something much bigger than just a mess. Even though I knew this, I let him toss the zucchini into the flour bowl and cover them with flour. I just felt like I would prefer cleaning up spilled flour over spilled egg. Plus I just dust him off afterwards and then I don't have to change his clothes. Win-Win.

Anyway. I love that this requires cheese in the breading. And not only does it require cheese, but it requires more cheese than the Panko. Which, I mean, come on. That's a great start right there. This recipe is pretty standard in terms of breading something but, and she does warn you about this, the damn peel on the zucchini is a bit of a bitch about letting anything stick to it. I had to get a little rough...but managed to make it stick ok. You bread them all, stick them on a baking sheet, pop them in the oven and Voila! Zucchini fries.

I ate a lot more than four...

They did not all turn out as "pretty" as the picture. I picked the 4 best looking ones and went with those. Some were a bit patchy, some had super coating on one half and not so much on the other half...very homemade indeed. She tells you to dip them in either Honey Mustard Ranch or her Caesar dressing (both in the book) but they both include mayo and I really wanted to enjoy these so I went with Ranch out of a bottle (yes, I know how ridiculous I am). 

And enjoy them I did. These were my lunch. I had about 8 or 9. And I don't even care because there's a vegetable in there so really I had vegetables for lunch. 

Mmm. Vegetables.

Pad Grapow Chicken (Basil Chicken)

Am I the only one who reads this as Pad Gra-POW chicken? No clue how it is really pronounced but that's how it sounds in my head.

I came home from work today feeling very overwhelmed and the last thing I wanted to do was cook an extravagant meal, but the chicken was already thawed and I had to use it. So, I got together the ingredients and tromped my way over to my basil plant and stripped it of pretty much every basil leaf it had in order to get the amount needed for this recipe. It's been looking pretty sad lately, so maybe now it will do better.

I got to cooking at 5:06 pm and my butt was sitting in a chair, eating, at 5:33 pm. This is my idea of a great weeknight meal. The flavor was awesome, this is filling, but not too heavy and the whole thing was done before Andrew could even think about getting fussy. Calvin ate this in record time and for the first time in a while, dinner went quickly and smoothly. Oh, and cleanup? What cleanup?? Like, 2 pans and a tablespoon. I'll be keeping this one around and will probably make it so much that Collin starts to group it with spaghetti. My only "issue" is the lack of vegetables, but that's what your imagination is for.

I tried to recreate the picture from the book. Yeah. Didn't work. 

So Collin saw me struggling to get a good picture and I was complaining about the shitty light, so he ran to the garage to get a flashlight to hold while I took a picture. I did not use those photos because the light the flashlight gave off made this dish look a little too "sexy". Anyway, that's real love right there.