I Never Met A Recipe I Didn't Alter

Since Pat is a leg man, not a breast man (he's never actually said this, but he did marry me so I assume it to be true) last night I made a combination of a Pioneer Woman recipe for Spicy Chicken Legs and a Sister Ashley Recipe for Caramelized Chicken Breasts. It was delicious and easy and we all ate it like crazy! The most exciting part for the "cooker" (that's what Kelly calls me) is that I made extra chicken for tonight's meal. In addition to the chicken, we had Cheesy Orzo (another Ashley recipe), and a Mixed Green & Toasted Walnut Salad with a Vanilla-Pear Vinaigrette. Since it was Pat's birthday, I made a quick Sour Cream Cinnamon Breakfast cake.

First I made the chicken legs, but made a few changes to P-Dub's recipe.

Roasted Chicken Legs with Caramelized Onion Sauce

1. Melt only a 1/2 stick butter (for about 20 legs) and mix in 1 Tablespoon of Paula Deen's House Seasoning (House Seasoning: 1 cup salt 1/4 cup black pepper 1/4 cup garlic powder Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months).

2. Cut the skin off the legs (to eliminate some fat) and place legs on broiler pan, brush with butter mixture and sprinkle more seasoning on top of the legs. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

3. Pull out legs and rebrush tops with butter. Broil for about 10 minutes until brown.

4. Pull out legs again, flip them over and brush bottoms with butter and sprinkle with seasoning and broil for 10 more minutes.

While the legs were acookin', start Ashley's Caramelized Onion mixture from this delicious recipe she published on her blog. Follow her directions (sans chicken), and add about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of chicken broth in step 2, then reduce. Turned off heat and set aside.

When the chicken legs are out of the oven, put about 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 legs into the caramelized onion mixture and heat through. Set aside the rest of the chicken legs you baked for a future meal (in our case, we are making Chicken Enchiladas tonight and possibly Chicken Pot Pie another night).

Ashley's Cheesy Orzo

Make it! It is awesome and a HUGE kid hit! I have to admit I burn the bottom every time, but I am blaming it on my electric range (I prefer gas). I am going to start adding stuff to it. I think it would be good with some frozen green peas mixed in and maybe some mushrooms.

Mixed Green & Toasted Walnut Salad with a Vanilla-Pear Vinaigrette

You can click here for a printer-friendly version on the recipe I got from Cooking Light magazine (December 2005).

I made 1/2 this dressing recipe and had entirely too much. I also added about 1 teaspoon Hormel Real Bacon Bits to the dressing. Good call. I will eat leftovers today for lunch, but I will add some Blue Cheese crumbles to the salad.

Post Script: I just ate lunch and must reiterate. This salad is ok last night, but really good with the added blue cheese. I also added more toasted walnuts and more bacon sprinkles. I think it needs all three to make it a great salad. Notice the dressing has no oil in it, so the blue cheese and bacon help a lot!

1 cup vertically sliced red onion

2 (10-ounce) packages Mediterranean-style salad

2/3 cup Vanilla-Pear Vinaigrette

1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

To prepare salad, combine onion and lettuce mix in a large bowl. Add Vanilla-Pear Vinaigrette, and toss well. Sprinkle with walnuts.

Note: Nutritional analysis includes Vanilla-Pear Vinaigrette. Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 2 cups)CALORIES 55 (38% from fat); FAT 2.3g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.5g,poly 1.5g); PROTEIN 1.8g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 20mg; SODIUM 73mg; FIBER 2.9g; IRON 0.4mg; CARBOHYDRATE 8.1g Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2005

This photo is not Pat and this is not the cake I made for him last night. I made this cake in January, and

this cake we tried to decorate with pink icing and sprinkles. Pat doesn't necessarily like pink icing.

Fake Birthday Cake (aka: Sour Cream Cinnamon Breakfast Cake)

I got this recipe off some lady's blog. She said it came from The Bridge Street Inn Bed and Breakfast in Charlevoix, Michigan. I am not a baker. I do not bake, nor do I make dessert on a regular basis (for reasons I confessed here before). But this cake is easy, fast and fortified with pecans for good health. I first made this recipe on Christmas morning, 2007, and Pat loved it. Pat does not usually eat dessert and does not have a sweet tooth. So for him to rave over it...it is worth making again.

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup oil

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup chopped pecans

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

1. Beat eggs until fluffy. Add sugar and beat again. Blend in cake mix, sour cream, oil and nuts.

2. Pour 1/2 batter into greased bunt pan.

3. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over batter. Swirl lightly with a knife.

4. Pour remaining batter on top.

5. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.

Tonight we are having Cream Cheese & Chicken Enchiladas. They are so easy! I'll be back with that recipe later!

Diet Soda Shenanigans

Call it vane. Call it stupidity. Call it denial. The claims of artificial sweeteners causing cancer didn't make me slow my diet coke intake. However, if diet coke is going to make me fat, I may have to curb my cravings. The latest study conducted by Purdue University (what do those dorks know anyway? Right, Brian?) says their lab rats got fat from the saccharin!

Here's what the LATimes said this morning:

"In the experiment, funded by the National Institutes of Health and by Purdue, nine rats received yogurt sweetened with saccharin and eight rats received yogurt sweetened with glucose, which is close in composition to table sugar. After receiving their yogurt snack, the animals were given their usual chow.

At the end of five weeks, rats that had been fed sugar-free yogurt gained an average of 88 grams, compared with 72 grams for rats that dined on glucose-sweetened yogurt, a difference of about 20%. Rats fed sugar-free yogurt were consuming more calories and had 5% more body fat.

In a related experiment, scientists gave the two groups of rats a sugary drink and measured changes in the animals' body temperatures. Body temperatures typically rise after a meal because it takes energy to digest food.The rats in the saccharin group experienced a smaller average temperature increase, scientists said -- a sign that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners had blunted their body's response to sweet foods, making it harder for the animals to burn off their extra calories.

You can read the bad news yourself at the LA Times, but it doesn't get any sweeter.

Now Showing

My best cooking weeks seem to be those that I actually make a "meal plan" in advance. And by the term "best cooking" I am not necessarily referring to the quality of food, but to the quanitity I am able to serve the fam. I used to try to cook three big meals a week and fill-in with leftovers, sandwiches and (should I admit this?) cereal and ramen noodles. And while we still eat our share of noodles and cereal, I am realizing that with more mouths to feed around here I am better off having a prepared meal every night. Eeeks!

Ideally this is what I do each week. Throughout the week I keep the Food Network channel on as background while I do my daily grind. If I see a good recipe, I run to the computer and print it out for future reference. On Sundays I go through my cookbooks, favorite cooking websites, the pile magazines to which I subscribe and the print-outs from the previous week (sometimes there are none). Sadly, there are times when I dread it like no tomorrow. Then there are weeks I am excited and can't wait to get started. Here's this weeks plan:

First I decide what I am going to cook and scribble it down on the magnetic pad of paper seen above (only $1 at Michael's). Then I make my list. Then I plead with Pat to keep all three kids while I make a "quick trip" to the grocery store. Since his food depends on it, he always agrees.

I am dying to give you all the recipes and tell you how I cooked chicken tonight to be used in two (possibly three) meals this week. And I am dying to tell you how I am also letting some mashed potatoes do double duty too, but I have one HUGE problem.

Pat has already gone to bed. It is his birthday. I guess I'll have to fill you in tomorrow .

Stay Tuned for this Week's Menu

I plan on posting my whole week's menu and recipes later, so stay tuned if you need a few easy ideas. If you're not interested in what we are eating these days, just walk away from your computer and don't look back. If you are a "foodie," may I suggest you never return to this blog again? Ever!

And if you like coffee cake disguised as a birthday cake...see you tonight!

Big Brother Loves Sister So Much That He Proves Her Right

To My Tormenting Big Brother Greg,
Thanks for calling me while Survivor was on tonight. If you called more than twice I wouldn't know because I turned off my phone. By calling you a "wise-ass" I created an expectation that you felt inclined to stoop to (sorry for the preposition at the end of the sentence). For this I am sorry.
I love you and hope to catch up soon. How does next Thursday night sound?
Kristy

Paula Deen's Baked Spaghetti

Is this illegal? Are the Copywrite Cops going to come knockin' on my door? I hope not, but if they do I will share (but that is not an invitation, so don't think about it). What's for dinner tonight? Paula Deen's Baked Spaghetti is for dinner, that's what!

I want no credit for it, Copywrite Cops, sirs. It is Paula's recipe and not mine. I want everyone to go and buy her cookbook and make her millions of dollars more. Because it is her recipe. Not mine.

Do yourself a favor and make a double batch. Freeze the second half for another night.

Survivor Starts Tonight

It is no secret, "the sisters" and Mom love Survivor. Tonight Survivor starts. Please make note, do not call any of us between 7:00pm and 8:00pm; we won't answer the phone (Greg...don't be a wise-ass).

As much as we love the show, we loved celebrating Sara's 40th birthday with a surprise Survivor birthday party even more. Several of us rented a beach house, made Sara leave the beach house, and prepared to surprise her with a "dinner" (so she was told). When she returned home the Survivor theme song was playing and Sara was presented her big birthday dinner.

What's for dinner? A huge bowl of rice, of course.

Being a true Survivor fan, she knew this music and this rice was not just any ol' birthday dinner.

So we all chowed-down on the rice in wooden bowls and used sea shells for utensils.

The blue team poised for action (note unlit torch).

The yellow team lighting their torch after winning their first challenge.

The pink team fishing with homemade cane poles.

The orange team, the ultimate winners of the entire two-night, ten-challenge party.

The red team acting goofy.

On your mark, get set, out wit, out play, out ____? I can't remember the last part of the slogan.

Action shot of a relay I think John and Lorie designed.

More action shots.

Captain of the cheerleading squad, my mother-in-law, my friend, I-Lean.

Great idea: Fishing at dusk with bloody squid. Can you say Shark Bait?

Look Ma, watch this!, I'ma gonna go out in this here water with this here bloody squid and I'ma gonna geet us sum dinner.

When Pat came out of the water with only seconds to spare carrying this little fish, we all thought for sure he rigged the event. Is that is fish in his pocket, or is he...? But my sportsman-of-a-husband doesn't have to cheat. That boy can put food on the table (and all Brian brings home is Hagan Daas)!

Some may call us hokey and others may say we are corny; you are both right! But no matter how silly we all look I can say from the bottom of my heart this was the most adult fun I have had with my adult family...ever!