Tequila Lime Chicken and Black Beans

After looking through my new Pioneer Woman cookbook, I had to have a little summery Mexican theme tonight.  I saw the recipe for Tequila Lime Chicken and had to make it.  I’m always looking for ways to make chicken on the grill with actual flavor.  I get so bored with chicken! 

Tonight was a lot of good and a little bad.  The chicken and the black beans were delicious.  I also tried the Mexican Rice recipe from the book and it was kind of a mess.  Not a complete failure – it didn’t burn or set my kitchen on fire or anything.  But, while the flavor was really good, I just couldn’t get the texture right.  I have some sort of problem with rice.  Unless it comes from a box, I will screw it up.  I realize this is like saying I have trouble boiling water.  I’ll try it again because the recipe was easy. The trouble surely came from user error.

Now for the good – I made the marinade in the morning before work so it had all day to work its magic.  It couldn’t be easier to make – just a handful of ingredients – but the end result has a really fresh and bright flavor. And surprisingly, the chicken wasn’t raw or totally charred!  I do all the cooking and baking in the house.  But grilling?  That’s Matt’s area and I gladly avoid the grill.  But he had a late meeting and I didn’t want to wait until 8:30 to eat.  After tonight he better watch out – I might just take over the grilling too!

I topped it with a little monterey jack cheese.  It would have been great with some pico de gallo too.

Even though the recipe was in the cookbook, it was also on tastykitchen.com.  Here it is:  Tequila Lime Chicken.

The black beans were so simple and great too.  I found the recipe on allrecipes.com but changed it based on the comments. I sauteed the onions and garlic before adding the beans.  I also drained and rinsed the beans and replaced that liquid with chicken broth.  I’ve never made the recipe as written but I loved this version and will definitely make it often.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sadie Saturday–MonkeyHead

Hi!  This is my favorite toy, Monkeyhead. I’ve told you before that I don’t play with toys very much.  I’m too laid back.  Monkeyhead may be slowly changing that.

One day I started chasing one of the cat’s fuzzy toys but my mom made me stop – something about it being too small and I’ll choke.  Fun hater. But later that day she showed up with Monkeyhead.  I loved it right away!  I fetched it a whole bunch of times and then sat down to lick it. 

I still don’t play very often or for very long.  I get bored if I chase it more than a handful of times. But, every few days when I decide to play, this little guy is my favorite!

Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle

Last weekend, when we had friends over I, once again, made two desserts.  This isn’t me being ambitious.  It’s me being nervous and indecisive.  I couldn’t decide which to make and since I had never made either, I figured one would work out.  I’ve had a few kitchen disasters with guests so now I probably overdo it just in case. But better to have too much food than not enough, right?

The other dessert that night was the Slutty Brownies.  Of course with the attention-grabbing name, that had to be written up first.  But, in truth, I am less of a chocolate dessert fan than most people.  I will pick the cheesecake or fruit dessert over chocolate every time.  And when I say fruit dessert, I don’t mean a bowl of berries.  That has its place, I guess,  but it’s boring.  I mean fruit with lots of sugar, butter or cream mixed in somehow. Between the two desserts, I actually preferred this one.  Too bad it doesn’t have a sassy name too.

The recipe as written was designed to go in cute little parfait cups.  I don’t own those so it went in my trifle dish (trifle glass?).  Calling it cheesecake is a bit of a misnomer. I was expecting something with a denser layer.  It’s very light (in texture, not in calories).   But, because of the ingredients, it definitely does have a chessecakey (technical term) flavor.  Regardless of the name, it’s delicious.

Here’s the recipe:  Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits  update: I forgot to mention – I doubled the recipe.  Tastykitchen.com has a nifty tool where you can change the number of servings and it will adjust the recipe.  cool!

Aside from learning how to layer things in a trifle without it being a complete mess, next time I will probably make more of the graham cracker butter mixture.  I know it’s supposed to be the “crust” on the bottom but I think it would be good layered throughout and I didn’t have enough.  Maybe in parfait glasses it would work better?

I know, my food styling is impressive.  Dirty knives and a roll of paper towels in the background  add to the photo, don’t you think?  I really need to think about my photos more if I’m going to blog!

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Feline Friday–Sunbeams Make Me Sleepy

Well, hi there!  This is one of my favorite spots.  The sun comes in so bright and warm.  I was just giving myself a little bath…

That was hard work.  Time to take a nap again.

Zzzzzzz…….

I’m an angel

What? I didn’t get in the trash while you were gone. Why would you think that? Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, the cats knocked over your office trash and got in the kitchen can. I tried to stop them. Really.

Slutty Brownies

Embrace your inner slut.

This brownie recipe was sent to me by a friend who knows I like to bake from time to time (thanks, Christine!) and I’m so glad she recommended them.  I made them last night and they were a big hit.

The recipe is a creation of the blogger, The Londoner.  Here is the link to her recipe. She named them Slutty Brownies because they are so easy and a little filthy.  Ha!

And, truly, they couldn’t be easier.  Cookie mix, brownie mix and Oreos. Mmmmmm…

All you do is mix up your cookie dough and brownie batter.  Press the cookie dough in your pan, layer with Oreos and top with the brownie batter.  Cook according to the brownie batter’s time for your pan size.

There is one thing I will change for next time (and there will definitely be a next time).  I’ll make the cookie dough from scratch or buy the Toll House dough that is premade.  The cookie dough from the bag doesn’t make very much and it didn’t cover a 13X9 pan.  It ended up slightly dry and while delicious, it doesn’t have a cookie texture.  Don’t get me wrong, you’ll love it as is; I just want the cookie layer a little thicker.

Serve warm out of the oven with ice cream.  Oh my.  The Oreos are warm, the brownies are just slightly underdone, and everything is gooey.  Come on.  You know you want to….

Sadie Saturday – I’m Worth It

I went to the salon (groomer) yesterday. Mom was complaining that my haircuts cost twice as much as hers. But at least I get a bath, too!

Anna Tunic

I finally got around to making something new!  Actually, over the past month or so I cut out two other patterns and fabrics and just didn’t feel like making them.  I wasn’t crazy about the fabric/pattern combinations– it’s a problem I have.  I love all these crazy prints in the store and buy the fabric but then realize I don’t have a lot of good patterns for loud fabric or it’s something I wouldn’t wear.  I’m accumulating quite the stash of pretty fabric that I have no idea what to do with.

Anyway, this is a pattern I’ve wanted to make for awhile. The pattern is the Anna Tunic by Amy Butler.   The fabric is Fandango by Kate Spain. I love longer shirts and figure I can wear this with my straight leg or skinny(ish) jeans.  Here’s what the pattern was supposed to look like:

I think mine (though in a larger size) looks pretty close.  I haven’t made the flower yet.  I didn’t think I’d want it initially but it probably would be a good option to have. This is a great blouse to show off a cute fabric. It’s also lined and the buttons and button loops on the back are a nice detail.

Making the tunic wasn’t too hard.  Other than some confusion with how to construct the yoke (I must have read those directions 20 times!), it really wasn’t too bad.  I had several hiccups but those were my own doing. I will likely make a couple more and I’m sure they will go quickly now that I’ve been through the process. 

The fit is a little big – it’s too baggy  throughout.  Next time I make one, I’ll probably take in the upper portion a bit and figure out how to move the up the waist.

Forgive these ridiculous picture.  The light was fading and my remote was downstairs and, well, I was lazy.

Even Ollie has been bitten by the sewing bug.

 

Have a great weekend!

Sewing assistant

Kirby is so helpful

Key Lime Pie

Happy Mother’s Day!

Key Lime Pie is one of my top five desserts but I had never made it myself.  I made two this weekend and I know there will be many more in my future.

I found this recipe at tastykitchen.com which is always my first stop if I’m looking for a recipe online.  I love the comments and reviews – they are very helpful and positive – not like some other websites that can get pretty snarky.  Here’s the recipe: Key Lime Pie

This recipe has a few things that I really like.  First, it’s tart.  I don’t like overly sweet Key Lime pie.  Second, it has coconut in the graham cracker crust.  I thought it was a little odd and I almost left it out because I’m not a coconut fan.  I’m glad I didn’t.  It added some sweetness and you never really actually “taste” the coconut.  And finally, the whipped cream recipe was great!

The whipped cream recipe calls for adding plain gelatin.  I thought that was really weird.  Well, I found out it is used to stabilize the whipped cream so it doesn’t break down into a watery mess.  And it works!  The first pie was made Friday and as of Sunday afternoon, the whipped cream is holding up fairly well (it looked great for two days).  I also read about a product called Whipit that does the same thing.  I think I’ll try that next time.  The gelatin is a little touchy.  I had to trash my first bowl of cream because the gelatin hit the cold cream and must have set too fast because it was stringy.  I’m pretty sure I heated the gelatin too long.  The next two batches were just fine (because I actually followed the directions).  I’m so excited to have learned this trick!  This must be how pastry shops keep their whipped cream looking so nice.  The second time I made the whipped cream I added an additional tablespoon of sugar – the pie is so tart I wanted the whipped cream to be sweeter.

I decided the pie looked a little sad and plain in the first picture so I added some more whipped cream! A little extra whipped cream never hurt anyone.

Give it a try!