Balsamic Garlic & Pesto Chicken

Do you ever just have those days where you come home and throw some crap from your fridge together and it turns out AWESOME?!?! No? Well, occasionally I do and it happened the other night.

I seriously think I spend half of my life at the grocery store. I typically go ever single day. Yeah, I am one of those people. I have a problem though...if I do all my grocery shopping at once - say, like a week at a time - I don't want the meals I decided on at the first of the week, then I get all pouty, then I eat out - it is just a mess. So, I just go everyday and it works out. Long story! Anyway - the other day I came home from work and I just didn't want to go to the store and  I just didn't want to eat out (yep, it was one of those days) so, off to the fridge I went. I checked the freezer and we had some chicken, so I thawed it out (by the way, I used to say I "unthawed it" until John pointed out how ridiculous that was - yeah, I bet some of you say unthawed too). I started grabbing stuff out of the fridge and the pantry - basil, olive oil, pine nuts, parmesan, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper and just started mixing stuff up. I came up with a nice balsamic-y, garlic-y, pesto-y marinade and it turned out to be pretty dang good!

Mmm yummy chicken!

 

Hey - another picture of John and me :)

And another weird face!

Awesome Chicken

• 1 pound chicken - your choice (bone in, boneless, skinless, skin on - whatever works)
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup pesto (basil, parmesan, olive oil, garlic, pinenuts, salt and pepper or just get store bought - for this recipe that is completely acceptable)
• 3 to 4 cloves of extra garlic
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

So...I can't tell you how I make my pesto because I don't measure anything, but here is a good reference for a recipe. I don't use pecorino though - just parmesan.

Anyway - combine all ingredients and pour over your chicken. Marinate in the fridge for at least an hour - longer is better. Up to 24 hours. Grill over medium heat.

Easy recipe, but packed full of flavor! Enjoy!

  

New Rotisserie - fancy!

So...a few weeks back, John and I got a new BBQ. It was seriously about time too. Our BBQ was on its last leg. Poor thing. With that new BBQ, we also got a rotisserie! I was so excited because I have always wanted a little rotisserie setup, but didn't want to waste the money buying one that would fit our old BBQ when I just knew we would eventually get a new one. And we did...did you hear? We got a new BBQ...finally! AND it has a rotisserie :)

We all know that I frequent food blogs. In fact, I have this cool app on my phone called Pulse that puts all my food blogs in once place, so I can just check up on them once a day or so and in just one spot. Convenient! I ran across this recipe on the Chow website for Asian Marinated Baked Chicken. My mom used to make little Cornish game hens that had a pretty similar marinade, so I was excited to try this. Instead of baking the chicken, like the recipe calls for, we used the new rotisserie. It worked out great and the chicken was delicious! I served it with some sauteed veggies - YUM!

 

 

Here is what I did:

Marinade 

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger (from 1 [3- to 4-inch] piece)
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic (from about 5 medium cloves)
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 3-4 pound whole chicken cleaned

For Basting

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger (from 1 [3- to 4-inch] piece)
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic (from about 5 medium cloves)
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Yes, that is the same recipe - I just made double :) Use half to marinate and save half to baste your chicken the next day.

Combine all ingredients and pour over the chicken. I just used a ziploc bag and rotated every few hours. Marinate for 24 hours.

Put your chicken on the rotisserie - make sure you tie up the loose ends with kitchen string - they will fall and prevent your rotisserie from rotisserie-ing. Cook over medium heat until your thermometer reads 160 degrees when inserted into the chicken. While the chicken is cooking baste ever 5-10 minutes to get a nice brown color.

Well, that was it. Pretty easy. John thought the rotisserie was going to be horrible to clean up and it wasn't. Yay! That means we can rotisserie again.

 

 

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

John and I had a great Memorial Day weekend. Sure the weather sucked, but we made the most of it. Friday night, we stayed at home and ordered some take out. It was just nice to relax after being in Baltimore for a week. 

Saturday...to continue the relaxation...we got massages then went to a delicious brunch. It was relaxing and the perfect day for it since it was raining! 

On Sunday, we decided to be a bit more ambitious....oh wait, no we didn't. We did go to brunch with some friends then I planned an awesome Mexican fiesta though. We ended up making some grilled carne asada fajitas on our new BBQ! They turned out pretty awesome! The best part about this meal was that almost everything was made on the grill. That just means there are less dishes for John to do and that makes him happy :)

Carne Asada Fajitas

For the Steak Marinade

• 2 thin steaks - you can use flank, hangar, etc. I used rib eye because I always use rib eye
• 1/4 onion 
• 1 jalapeno
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 bunch cilantro
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste 

Place all ingredients (except the steak) in the food processor and blend until fairly smooth. Place the steak in a ziploc bag and pour the marinade over top. Marinade for 24 hours for best results and maximum flavor. Grill your steak to your liking. 

For the Rest

• 1 small onion  sliced
• 1 green pepper  sliced
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 1 jalapeno sliced (remove seeds for less heat)
• juice of 1 lime

Heat a veggie basket or grill pan on the grill over medium heat. Spray with non-stick cooking spray (I got some Weber non-flammable stuff - it is sweet). Place the onions on first. Grill until starting to char on the edges. Place green and red pepper and jalapeno on next. Grill until tender - about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Finish off with the juice of one lime. 

To assemble - place your sliced carne asade and peppers in  a tortilla. Garnish with sour cream, cilantro, and avocado. 

The corn was super easy too - just go ahead and wrap in foil. Place on the grill for 10-15 minutes. To spice it up, run with jalapeno butter - YUM!

Monday, the weather actually cleared up a bit, so we went for a hike to Ghost Falls. Little did we know we were going to end up in the middle of a mtn. bike race. Yeah - that was an experience. We planned to hike in an out - which is five miles, but we opted for a longer hike, so we went past the falls. I would say we hiked about 7 miles. John wore his flips flops and now he has some pretty blisters. Here are some pics:

 

 

It was a really pretty hike. AND not too hard. I will definitely do it again. 

Well, that pretty much sums up the weekend. It was nice and relaxing and filled with a little adventure. Have a great week everyone!

 

Baltimore

Well, I'm back from my work trip and settled in at home. Baltimore was pretty cool. The Inner Harbor area was beautiful, but go about five blocks out and you are in some seriously scary areas. We have no idea how good we have it here in Utah!

Here are a few pics I snapped while out and about...

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day. I'm off to BBQ!

Great view for a morning run

I've been in Baltimore for work since Sunday - hence the no blogging. Great views for my morning run though!

I'll post more pics when I'm back in Utah!

Italian Meatloaf Burgs

I wrote a post a few weeks back about burgers and how much I love them. Well, I just wanted to let you know - I REALLY do love them! With burgers, the possibilities are endless! You can just about turn your burger into anything you want it to be.

I was reminiscing the other day about a trip I took to Europe with my mom, step dad, brother and step sister…it was an awesome trip…filled with lots of laughs…some fighting…lost luggage keys (poor Jill)…crazy Scottish people karaoke-ing to Abba and falling through doors at a dive bar…LOTS of driving (I mean lots)…women with beards…hairy cows…lots of shopping…castles…William Wallace…one pound fefty…AND best of all some really amazing food!

I think one of the most memorable meals for me (well, besides the blood sausage my brother ate - holy yuck!!) was at this little dive somewhere in England that served these awesome burgers. Let me tell you, they weren’t just burgers it was like eating a whole meatloaf on a delicious bun. These burgers were so juicy and tender and just all around dang yummy! Oh and they were huge! Seriously, a meatloaf on a bun.

I love meatloaf - and we have already established that I love burgers - so, why not meatloaf burgers? And not just plain old meatlof…Italian meatloaf, which really is like a huge meatball. Oh yeah, these are good!

• 1 pound ground beef
• ½ pound Italian sausage - I use hot
• 10 basil leaves chopped up
• Handful of fresh oregano chopped up
• ½ onion finely diced
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix up. Do not over mix, just mix until incorporated. Make over sized patties (this made 4 huge patties). BBQ until cooked through - yes, they need to cook through because of the pork. To make these extra fantastic, add a little garlic butter to your bun and toast - delish!

You could also make these with turkey - ground turkey and turkey sausage. I think they would be just as good too!

Crock Pot Beer Pork Tacos

I love Mexican food…oh wait, I love all food :) But I really do love me some yummy Mexican food…you just can’t go wrong.

The other day, I came across this website with a bunch of taco recipes. One in particular caught my eye - crock pot cheddar beer chicken tacos - these suckers look delish! AND here you are thinking…more tacos? Yep, more tacos. And I am serious when I say, these were exceptionally yummy too!

I had just made a trip to the Costco and bought a package of the pork tenderloin roasts. Well, I love pork tacos, so why not use pork instead of chicken in this recipe? It could be tasty…and it was! The pork was so  tender…I mean, so tender and extremely flavorful.

I followed this recipe pretty much all the way through - I mean I didn’t add any fresh onions or jalapenos or anything, which just isn’t like me, but I wanted to see how they would turn out by just using the original recipe. A couple of notes: In the recipe it mentions not using all of the spices…well, I used all of the spices because I like big flavor! I would say my roast was about 3 pounds. It also says to add the cheese at the end. I didn’t  add the cheese because I didn’t want the extra cleanup (yeah, it would get all gooey in my crock pot), but I definitely topped with cheese. Last, but not least, I used a full bottle of beer. It was just easier.

Anyway…Here is a direct link to the recipe. Have fun with it! Enjoy!