Nacho Night!

We both had the kind of day that just called out for Nachos and Margaritas... and so it was!

We sprayed down some foil with nonstick spray, folded up the edges to make not so little boats, then piled on the chips, cheese, beans, taco meat, tomatoes & salsa. Popped our foil boats onto a baking sheet and broiled those puppies until the chips smelled toasty and the cheese was bubbling! Added hot sauce, sour cream, & cilantro. Supper fast and most definitely needed! The Mike's Margaritas were the perfect accompaniment and the al fresco dining a delight. 

Gotta love good friends, tasty grub, and summer nights!

Vietnamese Goodness!

Tonight we made Five Spice Chicken Bahn Mi Lettuce Wraps and they were SOOOO stinking good! Fresh and spicy. Totally YUM YUM YUM! Washed down with a perfectly chilled White Zin, and you have a perfect summer meal!

Marinated Carrots
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup distilled white vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 cups carrot—cut into matchstick-size pieces

Mix 1st 3 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add carrots and allow to sit, covered for at least 1 hour.

Five Spice Marinated Chicken
1/4 cup soy sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons minced sweet onion
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons five spice powder
8 large skinless boneless chicken tenders

Toss all ingredients into a gallon sized ziplock bag. Seal and squish to fully coat all chicken pieces. Let marinate for a minimum of 1 hour. Cook or grill until golden and cooked through. Allow to rest for 10 - 15 minutes. Slice at an angle.

Spicy Lime Mayonnaise
¼ cup favorite mayo
2 packets True Lime (or juice from 1 lime)
Sriracha hot sauce (to taste)

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Additional Ingredients
1 -2 heads romaine lettuce hearts, separated
1 English hothouse cucumber, cut into ¼ inch thick slices
fresh cilantro sprigs
2 jalapeno chilies, thinly sliced

Assembly
Take two lettuce leaves and use them taco style for all your fillings. Start with a slather of the Lime Mayo, then pile on the marinated carrots, cucumber slices, jalapeno slices, 5 spice chicken and cilantro. Eat. Enjoy. Repeat.

Hope you love it like we did!

~Megan

Soup...It's What We Needed!

Okay, I apologize; the lack of posting is MY FAULT. Mea culpa. :)

A few weeks ago, we decided we needed a "lighter fare" for supper, so we thought Minestrone soup would be great. Somewhere along the way, we realized that Minestrone was the inspiration for the soup (and, it still had an Italian flair), but as usual, we created our own masterpiece.

Italian Meatball Soup:

Meatballs:

1.5 lbs ground turkey

3/4 cup quick oats

1 cup milk

T. or so each: onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, parsley

Worcestershire

2 T. olive oil

S & P to taste

* Shape into balls and line up on cookie sheet. Place in a preheated 375* oven for 20-ish minutes - until cooked through.

* We recommend using a small ice-cream scoop to make the meatballs - it helps to guarantee uniform cooking.

* Also, another tip: to double check your seasonings, pinch off a small bit of the meat mixture, and cook it up in a skillet. It'll cook in no time, and you'll be sure you have the spices correct. :)

(This is how we knew we needed to add more salt.)

Soup

2 cartons chicken stock

1 bag TJ's mixed frozen veggies

1 cup-ish frozen chopped spinach

Cannelini beans

cooked lentils

shredded cabbage

1 can diced canned tomatoes

1 big pinch red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic sliced thin

salt to taste

* Add all soup ingredients to a pot and allow to simmer 20 - 30 minutes. Add cooked meatballs to a bowl and ladle veggie soup over meatballs. Eat. Enjoy. Yum.

Dessert: Grilled Stone Fruit

This is one of my (Aym's) favorite "fake-out" dessert. "Fake out" because it seems so impressive, when really, it's beyond easy.

1/2 peach and 1/2 plum per person (or more, if you want to)

Heat your griddle pan to hot, spray with cooking spray, and grill the fruit (cut-side down) until slumpy and warm. We served this with Megan's "Holy Cow, This Should Be Illegal" Butterscotch Sauce and Whipped Cream. YUM.

More posts coming soon! Once I get my slacker-tushy in gear.

Updates coming soon...

Experimental Soup Night

Megan here... tonight I was on my own in the kitchen.  It's kind of dangerous to leave me alone in the kitchen with no specific idea of what I am going to make to eat... you NEVER know what my crazy little brain will conceive!   Tonight was no exception.  I had bulk breakfast sausage leftover from making biscuits and gravy the other morning and some shredded lettuce beginning to wilt - also a left over, this time from fish tacos, some stock and some lentils... sounded like soup to me! When I served it up, my hubby said "This is good! Really good.  You need to post this on the blog." So here you go. 


Sausage Soup
4 oz. breakfast sausage (not in links, if that is what you have, remove it from the casings prior to cooking)
2 cups shredded lettuce (any green would work - spinach, kale, spring salad mix)
1 carton chicken stock
6 baby carrots, sliced thin
1 cup cooked lentils
3 fat cloves of garlic, sliced thin
2 t. lemon pepper
salt to taste


In a 4 qt or larger pot, crumble sausage and cook until lightly browned.  Add the shredded lettuce and stir along with the cooked sausage until the lettuce begins to wilt.  Add the chicken stock.  Add your carrots slices.  Cook over medium high heat until carrots are tender, about 8 minutes. At this point I grabbed my immersion blender and whizzed everything together. If you don't have a stick blender, you could just leave everything chunky and make this a more rustic soup.  Next I added the lentils and garlic slices (I have a basic mandolin I use to get thin, even slices for the carrots and garlic). Finally the lemon pepper and salt.  I served this in large deep soup bowls and drizzled with a nice fruity extra virgin olive oil. 

Soup before blending.

Served with really yummy olive oil dribbled on top.

We enjoyed this soup thoroughly and I know it will become a regular in our house!  I might try mixing up the ingredients next time... bacon instead of the sausage, and spinach instead of the lettuce and maybe orzo instead of the lentils... sounds like another experiment to me!

~Megan~

Welcome Home Aymie!

First let me apologize for not getting this post up sooner! A run in with the metal baby gate left me with a cracked knee cap and loads of nasty bruises - I've been too tired and busy icing to get this up sooner.  Hope you try out some of the recipes, they were so tasty, I know we'll be making them again!

For Aymie's first Two Chicks Night after her trip to Africa, we made a D-LISH meal that is perfect for summer.  We started with Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers, followed them up with Crock Pot Roasted Chicken and a Roasted Corn Salad, then finished the meal off with a very tasty Lemon Blender Pie with fresh strawberries and whipped cream!

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers
From "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" by Ree Drummond

18 fresh jalapenos

8oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

3 green onions, chopped

18 slices thin bacon, cut in half

barbecue Sauce

toothpicks

Rubber gloves

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 275*

- Donning rubber glove, begin by slicing jalapenos in half lengthwise.  Scrape out the seeds and any membranes. Set aside.

- In a large bowl mix together cram cheese, green onions, & cheddar cheese until combined.

- Next, stuff each jalapeno half with the cheese mixture.

-Wrap once slice of bacon around each stuffed jalapeno, covering as much of the surface as you can, being careful not to stretch the bacon too much as it contracts while it cooks. 

- Brush the surface with barbecue sauce.

- Secure with a toothpick and pop into the oven for 1 hour or until the bacon is sizzling.

Crock Pot Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry

1/2 a small yellow onion

1 lemon cut into wedges

lemon peper

kosher salt

aluminum foil

Directions:

- Begin by taking a long sheet of foil and crunching it up and coiling it into a ring.  Place the foil ring in the bottom of your crock pot.

- Apply lemon pepper and salt liberally to the inside and out side of your chicken.

- Stuff the onion and lemon wedges inside the bird.

- Place the prepared chicken on top of the foil ring in your crock pot.  Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.

- Remove chicken to a roasting rack and broil in your oven for 8 - 10 minutes or until the skin in browned and crisp.  Serve.

Roasted Corn Salad

From "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" by Ree Drummond
Veggies: 

Olive Oil

8 ears fresh corn

1 red onion

2 yellow squash, quartered length wise

3 baby bell pepers

1 dry pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

12 basil leaves, chiffonade into ribbons

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 garlic cloved, minced

pepper to taste

Directions:

Brush veggies with oil and grill until some brown marks show - just until tender and heated through, still firm.  We used a grill pan but you certainly could use an outdoor grill.  Roughly chop the onion, squash, and peppers. Using a sharp knife, scrape the corn kernels from the cob.  Add the chopped onion, squash, peppers, and corn to a large bowl.  Toss in the tomatoes.   Whisk all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and poor over the veggies. Stir to coat and serve.

Lemon Blender Pie I'll have Aymie post the recipe soon!  Trust me, you'll want to add it to your arsenal of fast and easy dessert recipes! For now I'll leave you with the picture so you can drool!

Happy summer eating!   

 ~Megan~

Summer's Bounty Menu

Tomorrow night our menu is:
STARTER: Jalapeno Poppers  - think fresh jalapenos filled with creamy cheesy goodness, wrapped in bacon and slathered in BBQ sauce! So very yummy!!!
MAIN DISHES:  Crockpot roasted chicken - it is amazing, trust me & Grilled Summer Veg Salad - squash, corn, baby bells, red onion all grilled to perfection then drizzled with fresh basil vinaigrette.
DESSERT: GF Lemon Blender Pie with fresh strawberries for dessert.  


My mouth is watering as I type.... time to go sop up the laptop keyboard! Yay for summer eats!!!


~Megan~

Pizza, Brownies, & Raspberry Frozen Yogurt! Yummers!

The whole meal on Thursday was D-LISH! Here is the run down:

Ingredients:
pizza dough
olive oil
bacon, cooked and crumbled
gorgonzola
cherry tomatoes, sliced in 1/2 from top to bottom with seeds squeezed out
avocados
salt & pepper to taste 

We used a pizza stone, so I preheated the oven with the stone in it for 20 minutes at 450*. I rolled out the dough on a piece of parchment paper. Next we rubbed down the dough with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Then topped it with the mozzarella, bacon crumbles, gorgonzola, and cherry tomatoes.  We let that get nice and bubbly for 10 minutes, then removed the pizza from the paper and returned it to the hot baking stone for another 3 minutes to crisp up the crust a little.  Pulled it from the oven, and topped it with avocado sliced and munched! Paired it with a glass of Three Wishes Merlot, and YUM!!


Dessert was Truffle Brownies from Trader Joe's made in a 9 inch cake pan instead of the called for 8 in square, which gave us lovely little wedges of chocolate chip studded brownie cake.  We served it with a scoop of raspberry frozen yogurt that I had made earlier in the day. Super simple. Super easy. Super tasty.

Ingredients:
1  12 oz. package frozen raspberries, thawed
3 cups strained yogurt (or greek yogurt)
1 can sweetened condensed milk


Whiz the raspberries and sweetened condensed milk in a blender until a uniformed paste consistency is reached. Stir mixture into the 3 cups of yogurt.  Add the lovely pink concoction to your ice cream machine and process according to directions. I had to do mine in two batches. I then added both batches to a plastic container with a tight fitting lid (I used the old yogurt container,)  taped it to get the air bubbles out, then smoothed a piece of wax paper on top before placing on the lid.  Tamping it on the counter helps get rid of air bubbles and give the frozen dessert a smoother, more velvety texture.  The wax paper keeps the top from getting iced over.
 

Pizza Pie!

Since I was a kid, I've LOVED pizza.  What's not to love??? Carbs, dairy, veggies and meat... a complete meal!  This pizza promises to be a good'un!  Bacon, blue cheese, avocado, tomatoes.... doesn't that sound tasty?!?!!


We're also going to make chocolate chunk brownies and raspberry frozen yogurt for dessert. Can't wait for Thursday night!!

Summer Panini Sammies!!!

Sarah G. joined me in the kitchen last night since Aymie was unavailable (something about a multi-leg international flight to Malawi with many many teeenagers). We made some might fine Panini sammies: Pioneer Woman's Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Apricot Sauce  and from Southern Living, Strawberry-Turkey-Brie Panini.

Grilled Chicken with Apricot Sauce Panini fixins.

We started with homemade baguette for both.  And I used chicken tenders instead of the chicken breast called for in PW's recipe.  I flattened the tenders in a freezer bag with a meat tenderizer, then slathered them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Using my grill pan they not only cooked up in seconds, but had attractive restaurant-ish grill marks.  Everything for the Strawberry Turkey Brie panini was purchased fresh and it was simply a matter of assembly.  I happen to have a waffle iron with a grill plate accessory that we used to make the tell tale grill marks of a pressed panini sandwich.   We did have to hold the lid down to really press the sammie, but hey, it worked!

Strawberry Turkey Brie Panini fixins (turkey was shy & hid off camera)

And while the Chicken sammie was tasty, the Strawberry Turkey was D-LUSCIOUS!! Sarah and I agreed that you could easily sub in the grilled chicken from the first recipe for the turkey in the second recipe, or leave it out all together for an excellent vegetarian sammie.  The combo of the warm juicy strawberries, creamy brie, pungent basil, sweet yet spicy red pepper jelly, and crunchy homemade baguette is crazy addictive! I will definitely be making that one again!  Thanks Sarah for sharing the link! And to Aymie we wish traveling mercies and lots of Excedrin!  

~Megan~

Next Tuesday... June 7 th

Tuesday Night Breakie!

Tasty vitals for sure Maynard! Chorizo and potato frittata, sour cream pancakes with cinnamon vanilla syrup, & arugula salad with lemon and olive oil dressing - the perfect balance.  We washed it all down with decaf Texas Turtle coffee topped with whipped cream and a glass of chilled gewurztraminer! All followed by a lusciously tangy Campari Grapefruit Sorbet! 
All I can say is D-LUSCIOUS! 

Chorizo & Potato Frittata
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/3 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic minced
4 ounces chorizo, diced (we used Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo)
2 medium red potatoes
6 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped
kosher salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium low heat. Sautee the onions & garlic until they're beginning to soften. Add chorizo and potatoes and brown.
• Meanwhile, whisk eggs together until they begin to froth. Add milk, thyme, salt, and pepper. Whisk well.
• Pour eggs into skillet and place into oven and bake until puffed and brown, about 10 - 15 minutes.
• Carefully remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. 

Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes  
(from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl)
1 cup sour cream
7 tablespoons AP flour (we used Pamela's Kitchen Gluten Free all purpose baking and pancake mix)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
butter 
syrup*

• Place an iron skillet or griddle over medium-low heat.  You want it to get nice and hot.
• Place the sour cream in a medium bowl. Dump in the sour flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
• Stir together very, very gently.  Stop short of the mixture being totally combined.  You want the pancakes to have some interesting texture.
• Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl.  Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
• Pour the egg mixture into the sour cream/flour mixture.
• Stir together gently.  Don't worry about the mixture being totally combined; a little white and yellow swirling is fine.
• Melt about a tablespoon of butter in the skillet.  Pour the batter into the skillet 1/4 at a time.
• Cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, then flip.  Cook for another 45 seconds and remove to a plate.
• Slather with butter and syrup and eat to your hearts desire!

* We did not have maple syrup.  So we took about 1/2 cup of agave syrup added about 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and a teaspoon of vanilla extract in a small pot and brought it to a boil - cooking it for about 3 minutes.  YUM YUM YUM! I might not ever need to have maple syrup again!

Campari Grapefruit Sorbet  - Refreshing and not too sweet; with the right amount of pithy bitterness.  We'll definitely be making this again! Thanks Sarah G. for suggesting the recipe and bringing some of the ingredients!

Sunday Afternoon Suprise

Who says that our cooking adventures can only be on Tuesdays? Not this gal...
Megan and I had been emailing recipes back and forth to each other, brainstorming this coming Tuesday night menu, and I had sent one for Giada's Baked Panzanella Caprese, which I've made gluten-free before (and, I think my words were, "I might just be craving it right now...").

The craving was still pretty intense on Sunday afternoon, so I showed up at Megan's house with the ingredients, and I told her we were having Italian for lunch. :)

Our ingredients:

Tomatoes, garlic, basil, cheese (the original recipe calls for fresh mozzarella; I had a bag of mixed Italian cheeses, so we used that. I think I liked it better this way than with the fresh, but use whatever makes you happy), bread, olive oil, and balsamic. Simple, easy, good.

You are most welcome to use whatever yummy bread you like; due to the fact that I'm gluten-free, we used my favorite g/f bread on the market: Udi's. Seriously, if you need to be g/f, get this bread. It's so good, even my gluten-able friends like it (shameless plug done). Oh, make sure you've got REALLY good tomatoes. I got ours at Sprouts, but if you've got some in your garden, please make this dish. Please. I'm begging you.

Slice the tomatoes thickly. Sprinkle with salt & pepper and try not to eat them all right then and there. Layer them in a single layer in a greased baking dish. Chop up a clove of garlic, sprinkle that over the tomatoes, then drizzle with two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.

Cover the whole thing with the cheese and some basil. Then, add a layer of the bread. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, and throw the whole thing into a 350-degree oven until the bread is golden and crispy, the cheese is melty, and the tomatoes, garlic, and balsamic have gotten happy together.

Then, make another pan of the dish, as we had to. I'm pretty sure we would've made a third pan, but we ran out of cheese. :)

Enjoy!

The End of May...

Tomorrow night's kitchen experiments will be Sour Cream Pancakes and Chorizo & Potato Fritatta!  Breakfast for dinner = YUM!  And you know we'll let ya know how it all turns out!

Rose Sorbet

I read a about a recipe for Rose Sorbet eons ago and was very intrigued. So last month when the first of our delicious smelling magenta roses were blooming in full glory, I snipped 6 of them and informed Aymie that we would be making Rose Sorbet for dessert that night! After looking all over the internet, I cobbled together a recipe that would work with the kitchen tools and ingredients we had on hand. And the results were gorgeous! Amazing taste and out of this world color!

First let me say that if you try this recipe for yourself,

you want to be sure your roses were grown pesticide free!

INGREDIENTS: 6 large roses, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups water. Note: the more fragrant the roses, the stronger the flavor of your Rose Simple Syrup.

DIRECTIONS: We pulled all the petals from the 6 roses, rinsing them well in the basket portion of my salad spinner.

Then spun them dry, and added them to my food processor along with the sugar. We pulsed the rose petals and sugar until they formed a finely chopped paste.

Next we added the rose & sugar paste to a large pot along with the water and simmered for 10 minutes.

Then we strained the liquid from the rose mixture by pressing it through a fine mesh sieve. Once all the liquid was removed, we discarded the petal pieces and placed the amazing smelling Rose Syrup in the fridge to cool.

Once chilled, we added it to the ice cream machine and processed it. After an hour more in the freezer, we had rose flavored deliciousness!

Photos, Pics, Updates for May 24th

Aymie here. Just realized the date and remembered that I needed to pay a parking ticket (oops! Don't tell my momma). Well...that'll get in the mail...later tonight or tomorrow or...

FOCUS. Right. Blog...

Tonight's theme became "Comfort Food." Cheesy pasta bake, red wine, and what one of our dear friends calls "Sneaky Chocolate Cake." Include laughter with good friends and dining alfresco, and that's the sign of a great Tuesday night dinner.

Alfresco dinner. First of the season.

This (recipe here) was yummy and just what the soul (and hips?) ordered, but since Megan always comes up with ways to change recipes, we thought next time we'd add some lemon zest to the sour cream/cottage cheese bit, and maybe add some red pepper flakes to the meat sauce. (Update: I forgot to add that we used gluten free pasta in this dish - brown rice pasta, actually.)

Dessert. Really, it's pretty much why we're here:

This is the "Sneaky Chocolate Cake"; I'll explain why it's so sneaky in a moment. We just took a gluten-free chocolate cake mix (we recommend Pamela's) and when it was just out of the oven, and therefore still screaming hot, we threw a bunch of chocolate chips (milk and white) on top and let them melt.

Then, we did this to it:

Hello, you sexy thing, you. Where have you been all my life???

(For the record, it's sneaky because it's possible that we might've added a bunch of shredded zucchini to the batter. You couldn't taste it, nor did it change the texture, it just added a "hint" of healthy. Granted, we didn't quite tell one of the dinner guests about said zucchini until well after she had enjoyed a mighty large piece of cake. That's another story...but we're not sorry about it!)

Tonights Menu...

Tonight we are going to modify a dish by Ree Drummond, a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman. We're making her Sour Cream Noodle Bake. It's kind of like a lasagna casserole with a twist! We'll also make a GF Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake! Check back to see how it all goes!

Diggin In!

We're finally getting around to kicking off this blog! There is a backlog of yummy Tuesday night kitchen adventures we need to post! Where possible we will include links to the original recipes, any modifications we've made, step by step photos, and final pics & observations of the finished creations. We welcome suggestions and commentary, so let us know what you're thinkin!