What You Should Have Eaten #57

Chicken in a Fresh tomato and Eggplant Sauce

I’ll be honest, I found these pictures on my phone and realized I had forgotten all about this meal. I don’t remember much about it other than liking it.

My apologies that there isn’t any commentary, but I’m extremely behind this week. Here are pictures, though!

 

What You Should Have Eaten #46

Pan-Roasted Garlic and Herb Chicken Breasts
with Chopped Salad and Creamy Caper Dressing

A Triple Sun is not really all that great of a drink. The banana liqueur and the multiple vermouths make it too sweet. It looks pretty, though.

I don't normally enjoy hot foods, but I thought I'd go ahead and a dash or two of hot sauce. I knew I had a bottle in the cabinet that I bought quite some time ago on sale and never opened. Turns out that hot sauce does have an expiration date and it can go bad. I took the wrapper off and what I saw in the neck of the bottle was brown and nasty. The bottle ended up in the trash pretty quickly.

For the dressing I used sour cream instead of mayo or yogurt.

I've never bought capers before but I'm vaguely familiar with them. Dad would use them in various recipes when I was a kid, but I never ate them. I remember them being tinier than the ones in the jar I bought. I'm sure the larger size made them easier to chop.

No radicchio this time, either. Too expensive, and it still looked like crap. I went ahead and bought a bagged salad, something that I knew the kids would eat with some ranch dressing. And I went with a regular cucumber instead of a seedless one.

This turned out to be quite a tasty dish, and the kids even enjoyed it. If I make it again, I'll probably save the dressing and drizzle it onto the salad instead of just tossing it in. I ended up wasting a lot of uneaten salad because it really doesn't keep all that well.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Eaten #43

Orange and Herb Chicken Caesar

This is a variation on last week’s dinner. I’m expecting it to be just as easy to make and just as tasty.

The drink with this meal was a Sweet Orange: triple sec, orange juice and apricot nectar. Very fruity, not much of a kick at all. Not bad, but it was kind of a waste of alcohol. I think I would have rather have had a glass of fruit juice.

While tasting complete different, there wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the preparation of this meal and the previous one. It’s amazing how a few substitutions can really change a meal.

I liked this meal more than the Tex-Mex recipe. I’ll always choose citrus over spicy, even if it’s a very mild spicy. The kids liked this too, so that was a pleasant bonus.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much

What You Should Have Eaten #42

Tex-Mex Grilled Chicken Casesar

I had a bit too much fun at the 2^nd Annual Flying Saucer Beer Fest the previous night, so no cocktail. Just water and Powerade for me tonight.

 

I ran out of chili powder with only about a tablespoon available for the recipe, but I’m not all that worried about it. Less spicy is how I roll.

 

I actually bought some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano instead of substituting parmesan cheese. I figured why the hell not. It was crazy expensive, though, so, yeah, that’ll be my reason for not doing it again in the future.

 

Since I always use the pre-minced garlic in a jar, I don’t buy whole cloves. Had I read the recipe ahead of time I would have realized that I needed a clove to rub around the salad bowl. Oh well, I ended up rubbing it with some of the minced garlic and juice.

 

All of the chili powder went to the chicken, so there was none for the croutons. I did, however, misread the recipe and dumped some garlic in there. I was okay with that.

I knew the kids wouldn’t eat a “fancy” salad, so I tore up some of the romaine for them, drizzled some ranch dressing on it and added some croutons (my daughter loved them, my oldest son not so much). I cut up some of the chicken and put it on the side instead of on the salad. They liked it.

I enjoyed the salad. It was very flavorful without being spicy, and that’s what I’m always worried about when doing anything Tex-Mex. The croutons could have been cooked a smidge longer since some of them weren’t crunchy all the way through, but they still tasted good.

What You Should Have Eaten #39

Chicken in a Fresh Tomato and Eggplant Sauce with Spaghetti

I had a problem right off the bat with the wine. It was an older bottle, a 2002 vintage of Xanadu Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc to be exact, and the cork did not want to leave its home. It was comfortable, I guess. No amount of corkscrewing was getting this badboy out. I ended up sticking a small steak knife in there, slowly slicing my through the cork along the inside edge of the neck, and I was actually able twist the cork out with an extremely small amount actually falling into the bottle. I was very pleased with myself.

This was the first time I had ever cooked with eggplant, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. There were clumps of seeds randomly scattered through the inside. It wasn’t a problem, though. I think the only problem was the amount I used. I could have used a bit more.

I went against my usual leaning and included a small bit of onion. I was cooking for an old friend, so I decided I wasn’t going to stray from the recipe all that much.

One way I did stray was to prepare extra spaghetti and chicken. I knew my kids wouldn’t eat the night’s final product, but they eat chicken and they eat spaghetti, so I just made extra a didn’t combine them. They got plain chicken and some spaghetti with Parmesan cheese. The kids are a bit weird in that they’d rather not have sauce.

I made two pounds of spaghetti, but I didn’t adjust the amount of boiled water, so I ended up with some sticky pasta. I don’t know how the kids choked it down without any sauce, but when it was mixed with the chicken, wine, broth, etc., it all ended up coming together.

My dinner guest had a dessert treat for the kids: sundaes. Snickers ice cream, strawberry ice cream, caramel and brownie ice cream, bananas, Hershey’s chocolate sauce, cherries, butterscotch sauce and sprinkles. The kids were in heaven, and they were so wired until bedtime.

This was a simple but tasty dinner. I think this’ll be something I fix again in the future.

Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Eaten #37

Warm Tangerine and Grilled Chicken Salad served on Grilled Garlic Crisps

My ex-mother-in-law brought me some peaches yesterday (not necessarily out of the kindness of her heart. She was given some and didn’t think she’d be able to eat them all. Oh well, they smell wonderful.), so I decided to make a dessert. My son suggested peach cobbler, and I just happened to have all the ingredients, so that’s what I’m doing.

 

 

I was a little hesitant about this dish when I started slicing up the peaches. The first one I cut into was rotten in the middle. I was hoping this wasn’t a subtle message from the ex MiL (doubtful), and I was also hoping this wasn’t going to happen as I cut into the other three peaches (it didn’t). I tasted one of the slices, and it was delicious. If nothing else, the filling would be excellent.

 

 

And I say that because the topping gave me pause. The butter did not cut into the flour and sugar easily to make a crumb topping, and the milk/egg mixture did not just moisten the topping, it made it doughy. I just put some dough blobs on the filling and crossed my fingers when I put the stuff in the oven.

 

The drink is pink. Already, this is a bad sign. Meh, it’s passable but no great shakes. I think this is the most Galliano I’ve put into a drink. It’s usually a teaspoon or two, but this time it was ¾ of an ounce. Like I said, not bad, but not great.

After going through my cooking photos, it seems as if I already made this drink. I apologize for the double post

Let’s start out with changes to the ingredients. Apparently tangerines aren’t in season, so I had to substitute some generic oranges. I think they’re Minneolas. Also, I’m doing two pints of red grape tomatoes because my Kroger Marketplace didn’t have any yellow ones. And I actually bought olives for this. I didn’t with the last recipe that called for them, but I decided to try them. I did, however, but some green ones that were stuffed with blue cheese, so we’ll see how that affects the recipe. Also, no fennel bulb. I guess I’ll throw in a little bit of whatever is in my fennel spice jar…seeds?

Let’s do this!

I really need to read these recipes in advance…or pay attention to the recipe’s name. I didn’t realize I’d need to get my grill ready. Not a problem, though. The coals can heat up while I get everything chopped and prepared. This’ll be the first time I’ll be cooking chicken on the grill. Before it’s either been steak or hamburger. This should be interesting.

I couldn’t find any chicken cutlets, so I got some breasts and I’m going to cut them in half to make them a bit thinner.

My God, these olives smell nasty. I hope including them won’t come back to haunt me.

Fennel = licorice. I hate licorice.

 Yeah, there is no way I’m going to make my kids eat this. I don’t know if I want to eat it.

There is a better-than-good chance that I’m using a paint brush to brush the olive oil on the pita.

 This is by far one of the ugliest things I’ve cooked, and also one of the worst tasting. In the beginning, the orange tries to exert itself, but everything is overpowered by the olives. It’s awful. I tried to eat my entire serving, but all I could choke down were the pita and the chicken. I think I’m going to try and pick out the chicken and save it for lunch, maybe drown out the olive by bringing along some steak sauce or something. I hate to just throw it ALL away. I spent so much money on the ingredients, and that’s what I’m most disappointed about.

The cobbler was good.

Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!