In the kitchen all weekend long
I was in the kitchen all weekend long. It felt good to be productive, but boy did I make a mess! It was seriously insane. The dishwasher ran twice, the compost container was filled to the brim & every single surface in my kitchen was covered with stuff! Inspiration was sparked after I took Cooper to the library on Friday and picked up the Heart of the Artichoke by David Tanis. That book will be mine one day; I'm totally smitten.
This is what I made:
- Coconut Butter
- Breakfast Pizza
- Sesame Peanut Candy*
- Scalloped Corn*
- Tomato Salad with a Cilantro Vinaigrette*
- Peppered Chicken Wings*
- Melon Salad w/ Mint and Lime*
- Moscow Mules
Which one are you most interested in?
*= recipes from Heart of the Artichoke Cookbook
Crispy Fried Chicken
I think it's incredibly important to challenge yourself in the kitchen, and making fried chicken is a GREAT way to do so. If it means you'll make your fried chicken-loving friend/spouse/partner/child happy, then it's totally worth it. If it means you might not be able to button up your skinny jeans at the end on the night, then WHY ARE YOU WEARING SKINNY JEANS while eating fried chicken?? Seriously! You should know better. Think-elastic waist pants with a non-clingy dress on top. It's summer.
Let's get back to challenges! This one was a challenge. Not because the process was complicated (it's really not!), but because I am always terrified to fry things in bubbling hot oil. I've been burned by oil countless times, due to my general kitchen klutziness and impulse to do MULTIPLE things in the kitchen while frying. Don't be me. Pay attention when you fry stuff. Put blinders on and focus. Why? Because delicious Crispy Fried Chicken is worth the attention. Also it's amazing with a drizzle of honey on top. Just saying...
This weekend…
I woke up Saturday morning to find my hard drive failed. YIKES! No computer for almost two days made me SUPER productive in the kitchen. With the thought of possibly losing all the data on my computer, I had to get my nervous energy out somehow. So I made stuff, lots of stuff. I tried 5 new recipes (all were good except one) and I can't wait to show you!
Here's a glimpse:
- Fried chicken (my first time making it!)
- Honey Rosemary Lemonade (soo addictive)
- Biscuits (I put too much whole wheat flour in- boo!)
- Cucumber Vodka (infusing as we speak)
- Bacon, Tomato & Iceberg lettuce salad (SCRUMPTIOUS!)
- Two more batches of Strawberry Vodka (I had a party to go to)
- Baked Oatmeal for breakfast this AM (I added nectarines!)
- Tessy's Banana Bread (for dessert tonight & breakfast tomorrow)
Now it's time for me to get reunited with my computer. It's back up and running, but now I have SOOOOOO many photos to edit! So thankful to have my computer back.
What did you eat this weekend?
Flat Roasted Chicken
Here's a lesson in food blogging for you: If you want to share a scrumptious recipe with people, make sure to protect your photos from being deleted. You could potentially write your way out of this quandary. You could describe how epic the buttery lemon sauce was that accompanied the chicken. You could tell your readers how easy it was to flatten a chicken and how much faster it cooks when it's prepared that way. You might even want to tell them how you used the leftover chicken in quesadillas one day, threw it in a burrito bowl for lunch another day and finally topped the last bit on a Greek pizza for dinner. But really, who cares about all of that when there isn't a picture like the one you see above?
I made this chicken TWICE in one week. The first time was intended for you...the second time was to make up for the accidental photo deletion. That's right. I lost over 40 photos. With a flat roasted chicken recipe this amazing, making it twice in one week was no big deal. In fact, I didn't mind at all.
Continue reading→
Chicken Avocado BLT Salads
Murphy's Law says that when I post about a season changing, the season that I'm saying goodbye to comes back to tell me that it hasn't yet departed. So guess who had a little heat wave this weekend??? The Bay Area! Which meant that it was in the high 80's at my house!! Saturday night I had a mad craving for BLT sandwiches, but already devoured a tasty grilled cheese/mushroom sandwich at Bar Tartine with my new friends Jenifer & Mati at lunch. You can't really have sandwiches twice in one day, can you? So I followed my craving and turned it into this hearty Chicken Avocado BLT Salad!
Casey and I enjoyed our meal outside while sitting on the steps of our back deck. Sometimes I forget about the Indian Summer situation we have here during "Fall." You'd think after 30 years, I'd learn. Doh.
Food craving was fufilled. I am a happy camper. My husband gets some greens in him and we have leftovers for the next day.
High fives all around.
Valentine’s Day 2010
Hi you!
Hope you had a very nice Valentine's day!
Ours was a day of overindulging!
Casey gave me my own copy of A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table and panda card!
The card gave me permission to overindulge yesterday so I did!
It's a good thing I have my own copy now because I spilled a little butter on the library copy! Woops! Continue reading→
Savory Chicken Pocket Pies
Let me begin by telling you how IN LOVE I am with this book!
Mad Hungry: Feeding Men & Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn (The Executive Food Director for Martha Stewart Living) It's beautifully written and OMG the inside is a graph designer's dream. It's like Blueprint magazine made a cookbook filled with the tastiest looking man food!
I started to mark the recipes I wanted to make with tags and then I had to stop because I found myself marking EVERY SINGLE PAGE.
Recipe Revisited !
Pulling one out from the vault! This time I have daylight pics and some tasty additions.
Last night called for something hearty, warm and comforting.....
I made Chicken Sausage & Bean Casserole with Sage!!
