Did you hear? Monica got kicked off The Bachelor

YAY...oh wait, I mean :(

No, but seriously, I mean THANK GOD (and so does John)! I don't think I could have made it through another episode. Those girls are pretty mean to each other and are super catty too. There is so much drama. Then again, did I really expect anything different when you put 20+ girls in the same space who are trying to win over the same dude. I get a little bit embarrassed for them when I watch it. Plus, what's up with all the weird mouth movements - oh wait, I think that was catty. ;) But in all seriousness, if you watch the show, you will know what I am talking about when I refer to all the weird mouth movements. Enough already!

So, all in all, it was a fun experience having one of my friends be on show...and a little bit more than slightly weird...but I guess it turned out OK. It still is awkward that she gets recognized everywhere we go and complete strangers come up and talk to her like they know her (or try and make small talk). But hey, maybe I will get used to it...OR maybe not :)

I guess my final thought is...I can't wait for the little after show. Should be pretty interesting to see what Mo says now that she has watched the show and has seen how she was portrayed.

Short little blog post. And I am out...winning! :) Oh crap, catty again!

Catching Up

Geez! I have been slacking. Well, here goes on catching you up.

This weekend was great. Friday night I decided that John and I should have a nice relaxing night in. Make a fantastic dinner then watch a movie. I love crab cakes and had never made them before, so I thought I would give it a shot. I'll post pics of dinner and recipes below. Here is us watching movies...ooohhh exciting! :)

Saturday we woke up to snow (yuck) then headed to Lucky 13 for brunch. Lucky 13 is this yummy burger joint downtown-ish. It is cheap and good! Saturday night, we were going to head up to Park City for Sundance, but I really don't like Sundance, so I let the snow be an excuse for not going. Instead we stayed at home, made some pasta, and watched another movie. I guess we are getting old or something...just sitting at home all the time!

Sunday was pretty much the same story. Do you ever have those days where you just don't feel like doing anything? I mean, absolutely anything at all? As if I hadn't already been unproductive enough this weekend, that was yesterday for me. We made breakfast then I parked it on the couch and read a book. After several hours of that, I started to feel lazy and antsy, so I made some Chicken Tikka Masala (or as John calls it Chicken Tikki Dikki - who knows) and homemade Garlic Naan. I'll post those recipes another day because I am still fine tuning. Once that was done, I sat right back on the couch and kept reading. Needless to say, it was not a productive day for me.

OK....now that you are all caught up, here are some recipes.

Friday Night's Date Night Dinner

• Caprese Bruschetta
• Crab Cakes with a squeeze of lemon - Steak for John
• Creamy, cheesy, garlic risotto
• Roasted carrots

Caprese Bruschetta

• 1 french baguette sliced
• 3-4 tomatoes on the vine diced
• 1/2 a red onion diced
• 4 cloves of garlic minced + 1-2 whole cloves
• 10-12 fresh basil leaves chopped
• Sliced fresh mozzarella cheese - same number of slices as bread
• balsamic vinegar to taste
• olive oil to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

To make the tomato mixture, first saute your onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil for a few minutes - just enough to remove the sharpness. After that, combine your tomatoes, sauted onion and garlic, basil, a drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours.

When ready to serve, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place sliced bread on a baking sheet and rub with a garlic clove. Bake for about 5 minutes until just starting to get crusty. Scoop a spoonful of the tomato mixture onto each slice of bread and top with a slice of cheese. Bake for about 8 minutes more. Broil for two minutes at the end to get that golden brown color. 

Crab Cakes

These actually ended up being pretty easy to make. I was a little bit intimidated at first, but they turned out good and like I said were easy to make.

I started out using the recipe found here http://www.onceuponachef.com/2010/07/maryland-crab-cakes-with-quick-tartar-sauce.html. The only thing I did differently was add in some diced onion and jalapeno for a kick (1/4 diced onion, 1 small jalapeno). I am going to work on these a bit more though, because the mixture seemed really unstable. I let them refrigerate for about 5 hours before cooking them and they still seemed like they were going to fall apart at any moment. Let's just say that flipping these was very challenging.


Here is my full meal with the risotto and roasted carrots. Looks yummy!

Of course, John doesn't like seafood (although he did eat 1/2 of a crab cake - woooo big seafood eater :)), so he had steak. That steak does look pretty dang god though...mmm red meat!

So, now you are in the know and are all caught up. I hope everyone has a great week!

Meatloaf - no, not the artist!

My grandpa was really great at learning what foods everyone in my family liked and when we came to visit he always had our favorites prepared. Whether it was omelets, dunkin eggs, fresh strawberry pie, steak, or chicken noodle soup he always made sure he made the things we loved the most. This is something I hope I can master as well because I think paying attention to those little details is a great way to let people know you care about them.

One of my favorites when I was in my teens was meatloaf…and he made an awesome meatloaf. So, when I would visit my grandparents it always seemed like we had a meatloaf or two floating around. We would eat it plain or grab a homemade roll and make a sandwich.

Lucky for me, John loves meatloaf too. Also lucky for me, John doesn’t mind when I experiment with food and try new recipes. I have said this before…I love Italian food, especially meatballs. So I thought, why not take the concept of a meatball and turn it into an Italian meatloaf? I have made it for several years now and it is really yummy. It took me a while to get a solid recipe down, but I think I have mastered it now.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best :)

• 1 pound ground beef
• ½ pound hot Italian sausage (or mild Italian sausage)
• ½ onion diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 cup Italian cheese
• 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs (or regular bread crumbs if you don’t have these)
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 to ½ cup balsamic vinegar (optional - but highly recommended)

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or cover with tin foil and set aside. In a small mixing bowl, mix Italian seasoning, breadcrumbs, and milk. Stir to combine, then set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix beef, Italian sausage, onion, garlic, cheese, and salt and pepper (mix just to incorporate ingredients - do not over mix). Once mixed, gently mix in breadcrumb mixture. Form a loaf and place on cookie tray. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, then turn oven down to 375 degrees for an additional 45 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the balsamic vinegar and ketchup together - the balsamic goes a long way, so make sure you taste as you are adding to assure you get the desired tanginess you are looking for. Heat through in a small saucepan. When there is 15 minutes left, pour over top of the meatloaf and continue to bake. If you would like a little darker glaze, broil the meatloaf for a few minutes at the end. Take out of the oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Note: I do not use a loaf pan to make my meatloaf. I read somewhere that if you just shape a loaf on a baking sheet, it gives the meatloaf a nice crust. I have found this to be very true. If you were trying to be healthy, you could make this same recipe with turkey sausage and ground turkey.

I served this tasty meatloaf up with some spaghetti squash and garlic mashed potatoes. Both were excellent accompaniments to the meatloaf. 

Well, there you have it...meatloaf. Tonight I am working on some crab cakes. I have never made these before, but found a few recipes that looked good. I'll let you know how they turn out!

Beans, beans the magical fruit!

Admit it, you clicked on this post because you thought I was going to talk about tooting! :) haha! Just kidding. Well, good news, I am not. Get your minds out of the gutter :)

I am a big fan of chili…it is just so comforting. I usually make your traditional chili with beans, tomato sauce and ground beef. I was intrigued when I found this recipe for chicken and corn chili and thought I would give it a shot http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chicken-corn-chili-recipe/index.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews. Whoa that is a long web address!

Well, let me just say…following recipes is not one of my strong suits. I am always looking at a recipe and adapting in some way, shape, or form. I also like to compare multiple recipes and make some rendition of them all. It is probably the reason I don’t bake too often…I have heard you have to be much more precise and I really just don’t like to be limited! :)

Using the recipe above, I adapted to make this:

Look at my fancy picture taking :) And yes, looks pretty darn close to the original.

I served this with some chips for dunking - mmm, it was good!

Here is how I made mine:

• 1 rotisserie chicken - remove skin and shred
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1 green bell pepper diced
• 1 jalapeno pepper diced
• 1-2 teaspoons of cumin (I used more like 2 teaspoons and it tasted great)
• 2 cans green chilies (I used the hot ones)
• 1 can of corn (do not drain the juice)
• ½ to ¾ can of pinto beans drained and rinsed
• ½ to ¾ can of white beans drained and rinsed
• ½ to ¾ can of black beans drained and rinsed
• ½ go ¾ can of kidney beans drained and rinsed
• 2 cans of chicken stock - 3 cups-ish
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive Oil
• Cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and lime for topping
• And of course, tortilla chips for dunkin’

Add a teaspoon of olive oil to a large pot. Over medium high heat, sauté your onion, green bell pepper, and jalapeno until starting to get soft (maybe 3 minutes). Throw in your chicken, cumin, green chilies, corn, and beans (I probably used more like ¾ of a can of each, except the pinto beans because John doesn’t love them). Stir everything around. Add in your chicken stock and salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer for an hour or more. Serve with sour cream, cheese, cilantro, a fresh squeeze of lime, and tortilla chips.

I think the thing I didn’t like about the original recipe was the lack of color. It was just so blah looking. I think adding in the different kinds of beans and the additional green with the green bell pepper helped to liven it up. I think adding in a red bell pepper, would be yummy too.

I am definitely going to add this into my list of regular meals. It was really good and easy to make too.  It probably would have been a great meal to have tonight too, since it just started dumping snow :/ Oh well, I have leftovers for this weekend!

Wing Night!

I guess I told you all a little bit about this yesterday, but I will give you a little bit more detail.

Usually about once a month, our friend Eric hosts a wing night. We have been doing this for several years now and it never gets old. Eric is from Buffalo, New York, which is why I think he loves Buffalo wings so much. Oh wait, John and I are from Utah and we love Buffalo wings just as much… so,  I guess scratch that thought ;)

When we have wing night, Eric busts out his turkey fryer and makes gobs and gobs of Buffalo wings, Buffalo chicken fingers, and tater tots. Having a wing night yesterday was perfect because it was “International Hot and Spicy Food” day - just a random fact I stumbled upon while reading a food blog yesterday. Anyway, here is a picture of the wings:

And here is a picture of John getting excited to eat the wings (what a goof):

And here is a picture of Eric, the Wing Master:

For our contribution to wing night, we made up some mini pizza pockets because what goes together better than pizza and wings?

Finished Product

Making the pockets

A closer view

Crimped Edges

I pre-made the pockets, but if you are doing this for dinner, it is fun to get everyone involved and making their own pizza pocket. I made these at work one day and my co-workers took this idea home to do with their kids. They loved it - see, I can be kid friendly :)

Ingredients

• Pre-made pizza dough - I use the Pillsbury stuff in the can - each can makes 2 large pockets or 4 small pockets
• Your favorite toppings diced small (shredded Italian or pizza cheese, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, onion, olives, chicken, bacon, spinach, zucchini, etc. etc. etc.)
• Italian seasoning
• Red pepper flakes (optional)
• Cooking spray
• Marina, Alfredo, or Ranch for dipping (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray. Roll out your dough on a floured surface. Cut your dough in half or fourths - depending upon how big you want your pockets. Sprinkle dough with a little bit of Italian seasoning and red pepper flake. Top the bottom half with cheese, then your favorite toppings, then cheese again (I love cheese). Fold top half over bottom half and crimp to seal. Spray top with cooking spray and sprinkle a little bit more Italian seasoning and red pepper flake. Bake for 17-20 minutes. Serve with your favorite sauce.

A couple of things to note: You could put your sauce inside. I am not a big fan of sauce on pizza, so I do not do that. I also think it makes the crust a little bit soggy. If you have multiple people making pockets, place something on the top to differentiate whose is whose. I filled these with cheese, mini pepperoni, Canadian bacon, green pepper, onion, and of course, more cheese. Mini pepperoni are about the cutest things ever. I think I ate more than I put on the pizza pockets themselves :)

Well, that is wing night in a nutshell. It is just a great way to hang out, eat fried food, and have some fun. I am sure glad we met Eric from buffalo, so we can participate in the fun!

 

Stir Fry and Egg Rolls

I love making up a big batch of stir fry. There is something about the combo of meat, veggies, and soy sauce that I just love. Plus, it is basically a great way to get rid of any unused veggies you have in your fridge.

This weekend, I decided I was going to make up some stir fry, but I really wanted something else to go with it. I love egg rolls with hot Chinese mustard, but I really didn't want to get out the deep fryer. I started searching online and I stumbled upon this recipe for baked egg rolls
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-egg-rolls/
They seemed simple enough to make, so I thought I would give it a shot.

Stir Fry
Cut up your favorite veggies and saute with cubed up chunks of meat (or not) - I used chicken and shrimp, then serve over rice or noodles. Instead of trying to make my own Asian-y sauce, I used a stir fry packet found near the Asian stuff at the grocery store.  Turned out pretty yummy!

Here are the egg rolls. The only thing I did different was using ground pork versus chicken. They were really crispy and perfect with the side of Chinese hot mustard. 

Well, now that I have pretty much wasted my day avoiding going out in the snow John and I are heading over to our friends house for "wing night." It's just like it sounds. They make up a big batch of wings and we eat them. Who doesn't love wings? I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Two of John's Favorite things...Breakfast and Shooting Guns

John loves breakfast...I mean loves breakfast. I, on the other hand, could take it or leave it. Since I don't love it, I have this personal challenge to make really good breakfast that doesn't seem so breakfast-y. I really haven't succeeded yet, but in the meantime John has gotten to eat some really great breakfasts!

This weekend, I decided I would try a few new recipes. Yesterday I made a layered breakfast casserole and today we had some Mexican inspired breakfast burritos.

Breakfast Casserole

I think casseroles for breakfast in general are a great idea. They are easy to make and the possibilities are endless.

• 1/2 medium onion diced
• 1 green bell pepper diced (or the combination of 1/2 green bell pepper and 1/2 red bell pepper - that is what I did)
• 1 jalapeno pepper diced (optional)
• Hashbrowns (enough to cover the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish) cooked until just beginning to brown
• 1 package Jimmy Dean Reduced Fat sausage coked until just beginning to brown, but not cooked through
• 1 cup egg beaters (or 4 eggs beat together with a small amount of milk)
• 2 cups grated cheese (I used Gouda because my family gave me a whole bunch of yummy cheese for Christmas - it was so good with the gouda!!)
• Salt and Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray an 8 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray. Layer your hashbrowns then your sausage. Set aside. Mix together eggs, peppers, onion, salt and pepper, and cheese (reserve a small amount for topping at the end). Pour over the top of your sausage. Bake for 45 minutes. Pull out of the oven and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 10 additional minutes. Tada...it's gouda! :)

I served this casserole with a side of fresh berries. So good!

I am really not certain why I didn't think this would taste super breakfast-y because it certainly has all the elements of a good breakfast. Oh well, it was a success anyway.

This morning I went for breakfast burritos. Breakfast burritos are very easy to make, they are easy to wrap up and eat on the go, and they make great camping food.

Mmm! John enjoying his breakfast burrito.

Basically, take your favorite breakfast ingredients and wrap up in a tortilla. I used eggs, hashbrowns, cheese, bacon, tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, roasted jalapenos, and sour cream. The tortillas I prefer to use are the uncooked Don Julio found in the deli area. They just make the burritos seem more authentic.

After breakfast, our friend Eric called us to see if we wanted to go shoot some guns. John loves to shoot guns, so we couldn't turn him down. After some research, it turns out there is one gun range open on Sunday. Lucky for us, the wait wasn't too long. Here are a few pics:

Eric

I was going for the Sarah Palin look...I think I succeeded!

Zombie target!

John

John just killing some zombies!

After shooting, we went and grabbed some lunch. There is this little dive in SLC called the Cotton Bottom. If you haven't been, you need to go ASAP. They are infamous for their tacky decor and garlic burgers...or what I like to call GBs. They are so good. Homemade buns, two beef patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and garlic mayo served with a side of sliced pickles and plain old Lays potato chips. I usually just eat a half because they are so big. Freaking amazing! This place is always packed, but it is worth the wait. John and I eat here so much that we don't even have to order. We just come in, sit down and within a few minutes we have or burgers. Such a fun place.

Awesome decor!

GB, pickles, Lays

Yum! John having a bite of his GB!

Well, it has been a busy day so far. Good thing I have tomorrow off too! I think I will just relax and watch a movie.