The Real Chicken in a Biscuit

Imagine moist fluffy yummy biscuits.  Deep golden brown top, flaky, with a yummy buttery smell.

Got a good mental picture?  Ok, great, because my husband ate the biscuits I made before I could take a one.

I've been in the mood for experiments lately.  After watching a show on perfect biscuit making, I discovered the secret: crisco!  And all this time I thought butter was enough.  Unfortunately, I don't have any crisco.  All I have is butter and I can't believe it's not butter.  Did that stop me?  Of course not!

Luckily, I had roasted a whole chicken just a day ago.  I always save the drippings for myself to eat later (yes I know, I'm weird), so when I opened the tupperware today to get some out, I saw a nice thick layer of white fat had floated up and solidified on top of the gelatin beneath.  Say, that looks a lot like crisco.

That's when I got an idea.  Use the chicken fat as a substitute!  It should work the same right?  So instead of the usual 6-8 table spoons of butter, I used the chicken fat.  Well, I added one table spoon of butter for flavor, but cutting it into the flour was as easy as pie.  Rolling them out was not a problem, cutting them into little circles worked just fine, and guess what?  They even baked up nice and golden brown.

Have you ever had that little cracker "Chickin in a Biscuit"?  Well, that could describe the flavor, just more fresh I would say.  They were very yummy, and we had them tonight with cream chipped beef.

So, if you don't have exactly what you need for your dish, get creative!  You can always find a substitute!

Chopped

Yes yes, I love the show Chopped.  So, the other night while Nick was rummaging around the cupboards saying he was hungry, I took it as a challenge.  I wanted to do my own Chopped meal.

Basket Ingredients:

Mayo
Chipotle Pasta Mix
Dominos Hot Sauce
Spinach

Plan of attack:  PIZZA!

Other ingredients:

Mozzarella cheese
Cooked Chicken
Banana Peppers
Green onions
Flour, yeast, sugar, water, olive oil (Dough)

Yes, this was a very different pizza indeed.  We had a Suddenly Salad box mix and a left over thing of hot sauce from a few weeks ago.  Nick had been saying he wanted something spicy, so all those ingredients just popped into my head.  Sort of like a buffalo chicken pizza.  I figured it would work just fine.

I made my yummy pizza dough, which is super easy.  And I don't let it rise either so it turns into a nice crispy thin crust.  Then I mixed the chipotle salad seasoning with mayo and the hot sauce, spread that over the rolled out dough, and topped it with cheese, chicken, peppers, onions, and spinach.  Let it bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, and voila, $10,100 dish!  Let's just say, Nick ate almost the entire thing (he saved a piece for me), told me it was the very best pizza I had ever made for him, and insisted we go out and get the ingredients to make it again.

Success?  I would say so!

I Eat Out

As most of you know, I can't eat normally…..hence the name of my blog.

It has been about seven or eight years since I have walked into a restaurant, sat down, ordered a meal, and eaten it right there at the table.  Am I bitter about that?  No, I'm not.  It does make me a little sad sometimes that I don't get to experience exotic and different cuisines, things I have never tasted before.  And when we go out with family, I always feel awkward sitting there watching everyone else enjoy their food, while I have my little to go box already ready.

Because of this, my husband and I never go out to eat.  We'll stop at a drive through once in a while, or pick up a soup or something from a deli, but it always comes home with me.  I know it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but really, you don't realize how much of our culture revolves around eating.

But Nick did something very special for me for our anniversary.  He took me out to dinner.

What?  Why would he do that, you ask?  Well, this is where it gets cool.  One of the girls he goes to school with is a waitress at a Thai restaurant here in town.  Nick knows I love Thai food, it's some of my favorite ever.  So he had the thought to ask if maybe the owners of the restaurant would be ok with me bringing my blender and them blending my food in the kitchen.  His friend asked the owner, and he said that would be perfectly fine.  Wow!

Now, it was supposed to be a surprise, but I can't hardly wait for anything.  That and I had been nagging Nick about making sure to do something spectacular for our anniversary.  I guess to get me to stop bugging him, haha he told me.  And I looked forward to it every day.

I was happy to see the parking lot was nearly empty when we drove up to the restaurant.  I already felt awkward enough bringing a grocery sack full of hugemongous blender in with me.  But it wasn't bad at all. Nick's friend was our waitress, and she gave us a nice corner table, and we ordered our food.  To make it easy, since blending for me has become somewhat of a science, I just ordered a soup.  Then she took my blender back to the kitchen and we waited for our dinner to arrive.  Nick got his and finished it before I got mine, haha, so I sat there sipping rootbeer while I waited.  We were concerned because we didn't hear my blender going, and it is VERY loud.  After we asked if they needed help, like, if they wanted me to go back there and show them how to do it, they said it was fine.  We told them to run it on the highest setting and then strain it, because I guess they had just run it on a low setting to start and were unhappy that it wasn't straining well.  After a few minutes, we heard the loud roar or my blender, and giggled to ourselves about how funny it was.

And then, they brought me my soup.

It was weird, I have to tell you, actually eating there.  But, once I got over my fear and took a sip, it was the best tasting Thai soup I have ever had.  It was blended perfectly!  They had made me something superb that I could eat without any trouble at all.  And I have my wonderful husband to thank for that, because he thought of it.  That was one of the most thoughtful and special things he has ever done for me, and I will never forget it.  After seven years, we went to dinner together.

On the way out, we made sure to thank the owner and kitchen staff for being so accommodating.  They said we were welcome back anytime, preferably when it was slow, haha.  But we are going to take them up on that.

In short, that was the BEST anniversary ever!

Kale Salad

Now this is something I never actually got to taste.  Sad day, right?  But for the longest time I have been wanting to try making a kale salad.  All the recipes I had been reading recommended pairing it with green apple, because kale can be a little bitter.  So I got a bundle of kale and a golden delicious apple to get started.

Another tip I found somewhere was to crunch the kale leaves as you pull them from the stalk.  For whatever reason, this helps to curb the bitterness as well.

But here is what you will need to make my Kale and Apple Salad.

1 bunch kale
1 golden delicious apple
1 bunch radishes
1 scallion
Feta cheese
Sweet Balsamic dressing

For the kale, like I said, just rip it off the stalk into the pieces and crunch them with your fingers.  Make the pieces fairly small.  Clean the radishes and apples and chop them into bite size pieces.  Mince the scallion.  In a large bowl, toss the kale, radishes, apples and scallions together until they are nice a mixed.  Then, pour enough dressing to coat everything evenly (without saturating it).  Top with crumbled feta cheese.

Like I said, I didn't get a chance to taste it, but it smelled incredible, and there wasn't any left by the time dinner was over.

Lemon Merengue Pie

Unfortunately, I did not save the recipe I used for this pie.  Let me just tell you though, making a lemon merengue pie is super hard!  I had never done it before, and one day had this insatiable craving.  So I got all the ingredients I needed and started baking.  Yikes, it took me two hours.  What with the crust, the filling, the merengue.  So much whipping going on in my kitchen at once!  And I don't think I did the filling just right because it never quite set up.  It still tasted great though, just not the firm gelatin texture I was expecting.  The merengue however turned out perfectly, and I am proud of that because I had to whip it in a plastic bowl.  I wasn't confident it would set up, but it actually did just fine.  And was probably the best part of the whole pie, even after the Nilla Wafer crust I invented.

So, I think I will need to try this one again sometime.  If any of you have any good tips on how to get the filling just perfect, or have a great recipe, let me know!

Salmon Dip

My dad makes this AMAZING salmon dip, and I am going to share it with you.

Traditionally, it should be made with fresh home smoked red salmon,  but not many people have an uncle who used to fish commercially like me.  SO!  It's ok to use the canned stuff.  In fact, that is what this recipe will use.

Like many of my recipes, simplicity is key.  No need to muddle up a good tasting protein with a lot of fancy doodads.  Salmon is lovely just how it is.  So, to start, you are going to need a can of red salmon. The can I picked up had a lot of bones, so make sure you go through and pull all those bones out.  It's fine if you smush the meat, you're going to be doing that anyways.  Once you have all the bones out, go ahead and  smash the meat up with a fork until it's nice and crumbly.  Then, stir it with half a package of cream cheese until it makes a bit of a paste.  Then, my favorite park, jalapenos!!!

You can use fresh if you want, but I like the pickled kind.  Take about 10 slices of pickled jalapenos, diced, and mix that in as well.  You can use more or less, depending on how much heat you can stand.  And I like a lot of heat, so I tend to go a little heavy on the jalapenos.  Remember to leave the seeds out, those are the parts that burn the most.

And there you have it, a very tasty dip that's perfect on chips, crackers or baguettes.  Or just on a spoon (that's how I eat it, hehe.  One of the few things I can eat without blending because it's so creamy).  Try it at your next family get together or work party, it will be gone in minutes I promise.

Brie Stuffed French Toast

This is an idea that I had while rummaging around my fridge tonight, trying to think of something to make myself.  I love cheese, and the other day I bought myself a small package of spreadable Brie, because it is a cheese I can eat by itself.  Not to mention it has fantastic flavor, and can be used in so many preparations.

My idea was to use some of the slices of Cinnabon bread I had to make french toast, and make a creamy filling out of the Brie.  And it turned out even better than I had expected.  Way better than any stuffed french toast I've gotten at IHOP.

And it is very simple as well.  To start, mix 1 tbsp of spreadable Brie and 1 tbsp cream cheese until it's smooth.  Then add a drop of vanilla and stir it in.  Next, add powdered sugar, just enough to make the mixture nice a creamy.  You want it thick, but spreadable.  Set it aside.

Beat together 1 egg, drop of vanilla, and 1 tbsp half and half.  Set aside.  On a slice of Cinnabon cinnamon bread, spread the Brie filling evenly over one side.  Dip the other side until it is soaked in the egg mixture.  Place in a hot buttered pan.  Dip another slice of bread in  the egg mixture, only soaking one side, and place it dry side down on top of the slice already in the pan, creating a sandwich.  Brown and then flip.  When both sides are sufficiently browned, remove from the pan, butter, and then douse with syrup and powdered sugar.

And then if you are me, toss in the blender with some milk and puree away.

Of course this recipe is only for one serving, I can't get my husband to eat french toast to save his life.  But, obviously you can easily double or even quadruple to feed however many people you want!  It's a super tasty treat for any meal, enjoy!