valentine's day

This may not be interesting to anyone, but since this is my blog and I want it to serve as a sort of online diary of sorts, here's my valentine's post. 2013.

Bear with me...

I've been wanting to try my hand at creme brulee for a while now, and after a few dropped hints, I finally got my culinary torch!! what a perfect valentine's gift, fire-maker + butane. :)

Blake picked us up my FAVORITE pizza, white pizza from Coal Vines, and after we devoured it, I started on my Pioneer Woman recipe.

It was really quite simple. (I think the name just intimated me)

PS. Those precious sky blue ramekins were a V-day gift to myself! How did I not register for those when we got married?

I also tried my luck with these dinosaur planters that I've seen all over the blogs. I not sure if anything could be more perfect for Blake.

I bought the two dinos at Dollar General, spray painted them Key-lime from Home Depot, then cut a whole in their back with a box cutter, and finally, planted a cute little succulent.

It sits on his desk as we speak, now, just to keep it alive. Fingers crossed!

Quinoa Black Bean Burger

1/4 cup quinoa

1/2 cup water

Bring to a boil, cover, cook on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.

Mash 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans in a small bowl. The recipe I was following (that I canNOT find online anymore) used the phrase black bean "paste" (bleh) so, now that you have that lovely visual, let's move on.

In a medium bowl mix:

your cooked quinoa

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

1/2 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

(to be honest, I didn't measure the above 3, just did a couple "shakes" of each - we love LOTS of seasoning)

2 tablespoons minced onion

1/2 tablespoon Franks RedHot sauce <-so unexpected, but right up my alley

then mix together your mashed Black Beans - with your hands!!

(then I found a picture of what I can only assume will be me and Franks RedHot in 30 years)

Makes 5 patties. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a frying pan.

Place patties in heated oil to cook. 3 minutes on each side.

Our favorite - Hawaiian sweet bread buns :)

Blake did pepperjack and A1 sauce

I did feta and avocado!

Pinterest - making the world better, one pin at a time

Lemon Oat Bars

You betcha. This happened last night. Old fashioned oats + Lemon cream filing = one very satisfied Johnson household.

Did you need a close up of the lemon gooey goodness?

because, here it is again...

Recipe:

(1) 14 oz can of sweetend condensed milk

3 teaspoons of grated lemon zest

1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice

mix together in small bowl, set aside.

1 cup oats

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup softened butter

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

mix until crumbled. pack 1/2 of dough into an 8x8 pan, bake @ 375 for 10 minutes.

Take out and pour lemon filling. Bake another 20 minutes.

Don't even bother with letting it cool, just dig in. And, for some reason I feel healthy eating it - I mean, it's lemon and oats, right?? Don't correct me if I'm wrong, please.

a puff pancake

Originally saw this recipe here, and just had to try.

plus strawberries drenched in cinnamon-sugar and powdered sugar.

Made it for the brothers Johnson, as Kyle made a stop through Dallas, and I think it may have passed the test. It got two Johnson approvals (or maybe they were just being nice to me)! The only thing I may try to add next time, some homemade whipped cream, ohh, my mouth is watering.

The Recipe on the Bisquick Box

Hello!! I need to make more of an effort of reading recipes from boxes, bags, packets, etc. This chicken finger recipe on the Bisquick box was SO tasty. I normally try to be much healthier with dinners around the Johnson household, but sometimes you just need a chicken finger with white gravy and homemade mac and cheese with bacon.

3 chicken breasts - sliced into strips

2/3 cup bisquick mix

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp paprika

1 egg

3 tbsp butter

Mix bisquick mix, parmesan, salt and paprika in a ziplock bag. Dip chicken into egg, place in ziplock, shake shake shake, place on a foil-lined, cooking-sprayed cookie sheet, drizzle with butter and bake at 450 for 12 minutes.

I'm all about the fast and easy when it comes to dinner.

Also... this weekend I received one of these:

it's huge and it's white and it's heavy, and I love it!!! THANKS MOMMMM!!! I haven't been this excited about a kitchen-y object in a really long time, maybe ever. I'm taking an adventure in bread making this weekend, we will see how she turns out!

crockpot - cooking or not?

no ones knows... it seems impossible with how easy it is. You're literally doing nothing and then 8 hours later, delicious meals... I don't get it, but I love it.

I get these serious cravings sometimes, and recently I've learned this isn't exactly normal for non-pregnant people. Last week it was fried mushrooms. This week it was chicken tacos. Found some crockpot recipes online, and with all the different ways comin' at me, I decided to choose the best (read "easiest") and start my "cooking"

3 hardy chicken breasts pieces

one cup of chicken broth

one package of taco seasoning

Didn't even mix it up - just threw it in there and after work, 8 hours later, it was TACOOOOOO TIMEEEEE.

See all that junk on top? Delicious mixture of white corn, black beans, cilantro, tomato, green pepper, avocado, onion all chopped up (no measuring over here, just use as much or little as you want) mix in some lime juice and garlic salt and there you have BLACK BEAN CORN SALSA.

mmmmm... I've never been so excited for leftovers.

also, look at these:

Crockpot: Attempt #2

I was previously disappointed in my crockpot experience a couple months back. It was ok, but not everything people had been telling me about with this crockpot cooking technique. I also had issues with forgetting to turn it on in the mornings, so it took me about 3 days to cook one crockpot meal. But, I didn't want to write it off completely just because my own forgetful mistakes, so here is take two:

Bacon-Wrapped BBQ Chicken

3 to 4 chicken breast

6 to 8 strips of bacon

1/2 cup of BBQ sauce

1 to 2 apples, peeled or grated

1 lemon - juiced

In other recipes they had you mixing the lemon juice, sauce and apples in a bowl first, but I just dumped everything into the crockpot at once.

1. Drizzled a little BBQ sauce in bottom of pot.

2. Laid 3 chicken breasts wrapped in bacon down.

3. Threw in one honeycrisp apple (peeled and diced in my case)

4. Poured rest of the bottle of BBQ sauce on top. (I used a whole bottle, not just 1/2 c)

5. Squeezed lemon on top of everything.

6. Cooked on low for 8 hours.

I didn't even need the knife pictured above, the chicken just fell apart.

(mouth is watering as I type this)

What I learned: Wait to add the apples until the end, maybe an hour out? I'm not sure, the apples cooked for 8 hours, and were mush, delicious mush, but I wish I could have had a little crisp instead of apple sauce.

fried egg and avocado sandwich

an easy dinner for those nights you just don't feel like cooking. and hey, I've never even fried an egg before!

Let's do this recipe thing quickly, so I can get on pinterest tonight.

1) Fry up 4 slices of bacon.

2) Drain grease, leaving just a touch of it in the pan.

3) Fry your egg.

4) In a bowl, mix 4 ounces cream cheese, teaspoon of parsley, a touch of salt and pepper.

5) Toast your bread (I stopped at the store to pick up Hawaiian sweet buns (bigger than the rolls) and it was a great decision, delish!)

6) Cut one avocado into thin slices.

7) Spread cream cheese mixture on toasted Hawaiian bread, lay bacon, avocado slices and fried egg, and enjoy. Preferably with a full glass of cabernet. :)

easy, and the ultimate test, Blake liked it! he had two...

my pinterest challenge

I'll just be a little early on my Pinterest Challenge reveal, just because I kinda cheated a little and took an easy way out - I cooked. With the move and still working on big projects and not having this house look like a home yet, I opted to cook something I've pinned to fulfil the challenge.

Introducing a little blagging. Bragging on the blog, if you will... (Blake coined the term and I like!)

With this pin, I'm pretty sure I made the best dinner I've ever made last night. Insert Blagging.

I think I've been juvenile in my tastes for about 25 years, but lately, I've been trying things I haven't even heard of - and loving it! (Proscuitto. Instance #1. I spent about 10 minutes yesterday looking for this in the special cheese section of Tom Thumb. Embarrassing. Helpful lady stocking shelves explained to me that it was thinly sliced dry-cured ham. Well. There ya go.)

Other fun ingredients never used before. Phyllo dough. Artichoke hearts. Sun-dried tomatoes.

Guys, I literally grew up on turkey and bacon sandwiches. Hello brand new world of food!

You can find the recipe over HERE!

Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil wrapped in Filo

Mission Accomplished.

chicken empanadas.

I can never tell if photos of food look appetizing or just like piles of disgusting. Either way, here was dinner last night. Paula Deen's chicken empanadas. Con quac and black beans y cerveza. Tried to get out of our little taco pie, salmon, or baked chicken routine. Dinner at the Johnson house is those three on repeat - mixed with different sides. But not last night!!!!

Yum! Paula says it's Intermediate level cooking - so here ya go if anyone wants to give it a go.

3 cups chopped, cooked chicken

1 package shredded Colby and Mont. Jack cheese

4 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 tbs. ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 package refrigerated pie crusts

Preheat oven to 400. Combine chicken and next 7 ingreds. (Make sure your cream cheese is softened - your combining process will be much easier) Roll out pie crust dough and cut out 3-inch rounds (with cookie cutter or kitchen glass in my case). Makes 12-15 circles. Fill with chicken mixture. Fold over dough and press edges, use fork to seal. Bake for 15 minutes!

The only improvement for next time would be, for me, to make the pie crust circles much thinner, for a crispier outside!

eating delicious and healthy?

Lately I've been hearing quite the compliment from my boo on my cooking talents. And, when I write compliment read complaints. Our skinny Blakey has been throwing around a few complaints about these new pounds he's gained since our holy matrimony in December. All a testament to my self-proclaimed wonderful cooking skills! (I'm really not that great of a cook - I like to pretend, but I am trying to learn!)

I was pleasantly surprised last night with my "following recipe" abilities. It actually turned out pretty delicious. And, it was healthy - for this new health food kick we're on - in attempts to get Blake back to his hot 6-pack bod! ow ow! (and, for me too, of course - steak, potatoes and texas toast cannot be every single meal. though I dream...)

Here she is:

Greek Pasta with Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans

FIXINS: 2 cans Italian-style diced tomatoes, 1 can cannellini beans - drained and rinsed, 10 ounces fresh spinach - washed and chopped, 8 ounces penne pasta, 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese.

(I halved the tomatoes and beans - and actually, now that I think about it, didn't measure any of those - just did what I felt it should look like and it was fine)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cook pasta in boiling salted (kosher, thanks to some Lauren Kimmel persuasion) water.

2. Meanwhile, combine tomatoes and beans in skillet, bring to boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

3. Add spinach to sauce; cook until spinach wilts, stirring constantly.

4. Serve sauce over pasta, sprinkle (or douse - in my case, LOVE feta!) with feta.

(I added a touch of Olive Oil to my penne to make the whole thing a little more warm and cohesive)

So EASY, and so yummy. Warning - just to be fair - I definitely liked this more than Blake did. Not really a man meal. This chick meal would be great for girl's dinner or some sort of brunch Bridal or Baby shower! (in a smaller portion obvi)

Also, for the record. I do NOT like tomatoes - on anything I ask that they be removed. But, in this dish I loved them. Maybe I've loved them all along? The flavors were perfect together! Genius - you Greek Pasta with Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans recipe maker you!