Feed Your Kids – Page 40 – The leading authority on basketball cupcakes and Basil-Lime martinis…

Going off-topic so much lately, I’m thinking about starting a second blog…

Two things: You’ve got to see this video of this 13-year old amateur marksman (markswoman? shootist? pistolera? I have no idea what the term is…). No matter your feelings on guns (especially guns and kids, which I will admit skeeves me out a little), you’ve got to admire her skills. Her dad is a friend … Continue reading “Going off-topic so much lately, I’m thinking about starting a second blog…”

Two things:

You’ve got to see this video of this 13-year old amateur marksman (markswoman? shootist? pistolera? I have no idea what the term is…). No matter your feelings on guns (especially guns and kids, which I will admit skeeves me out a little), you’ve got to admire her skills. Her dad is a friend and former co-worker of my Hubby’s. She would like to be on the Army’s shooting team someday.

Also…

Hubby won tonight at his monthly poker game! We might just have to teach Boy how to play poker on our vacation, when we have some down time. He would be SCARY good at it. Girl, on the other hand, can’t bluff to save her life and will put on sunglasses and a hoodie (Unabomber-style) when we play “I Doubt It“. Boy ALWAYS wins.

Jamaican Jerk Grilled Chicken with Pineapple Salsa, Crunchy Roasted Corn, “Gallo Pinto” Rice

Jerk-Grilled Chicken Jamaican Jerk Seasoning (scroll down for the seasoning recipe) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded slightly to flatten (to help them cook uniformly) (I used about 1/4 cup of the seasoning for 5 large chicken breasts.) Spray your grill/grill pan with Pam (or brush with oil). Rub the seasoning all over the chicken breasts … Continue reading “Jamaican Jerk Grilled Chicken with Pineapple Salsa, Crunchy Roasted Corn, “Gallo Pinto” Rice”

Jerk-Grilled Chicken

Jamaican Jerk Seasoning (scroll down for the seasoning recipe)
boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded slightly to flatten (to help them cook uniformly)
(I used about 1/4 cup of the seasoning for 5 large chicken breasts.)

Spray your grill/grill pan with Pam (or brush with oil). Rub the seasoning all over the chicken breasts and then let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes (15?) while you heat up the grill. Grill over pretty low heat until the inside of the chicken is done, but still juicy, and the outside is nicely browned. Hubby cooked ours last night and he did a PERFECT job. Slice the chicken into about 8 pieces per breast. Depending upon the size of the breasts (and the hunger of your guests), you can get 1 1/2 to 2 servings per breast.

Pineapple Salsa

I can’t link to it, or give you the exact recipe, because it’s from Fine Cooking’s “subscribers only” website, but it’s basically diced pineapple, bell pepper (I used an orange one), radishes and minced cilantro, seasoned with a little salt and pepper and a dash of lime juice.

Gallo Pinto Coconut Rice

I used long-grain brown rice, with mostly coconut milk (and a little chicken stock) for the cooking liquid. When it was almost done, I stirred in some canned (drained and rinsed) black beans. Season with salt and pepper. When we were in Costa Rica a couple of years ago, we were served Gallo Pinto (rice and black beans) at every meal and we loved it. Every place does it a little bit differently, sometimes with tomato and/or onion, sometimes with cilantro, sometimes shaped into little timbales, but always delicious. I think that “gallo pinto” actually means “spotted rooster.” Funny. Btw, “pico de gallo“, another of our favorite foods, actually means “rooster’s beak.”

Crunchy Roasted Corn,
adapted from a recipe from Great Country Farms

6 ears fresh, raw, corn on the cob
3/4 cup mayonnaise
about 1 tsp. BBQ seasoning
2 Tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 to 3 cups dry, plain (unseasoned) bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet lightly with Pam (or brush with oil).

Whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice and seasoning. One at a time, brush each ear of corn liberally with the mayonnaise mixture and then roll in the breadcrumbs to coat and lay each one on the baking sheet.

Bake, uncovered, for 35 to 40 minutes until lightly browned and crisp. Last night, I baked ours for 35 minutes, but it really would have been better if they had gone a few minutes more, so I would recommend cooking yours until they are darker than mine is in the photo.

Nota Bene: You can use your choice of seasoning/flavoring, instead of the BBQ seasoning. Some good options:

a little cumin (one of our favorites on corn on the cob)

Baby Bam

Finely chopped chives and a little salt

Finely chopped fresh jalapeno and cilantro

seasoned salt (or No-salt seasoning)

Italian seasoning or, just omit the seasoning altogether and use Italian-seasoned bread crumbs

New iPhone

I was at Barton Creek Mall briefly yesterday and happened to see the line of (mostly) guys, waiting outside the Apple store for the new iPhones:

I was at Barton Creek Mall briefly yesterday and happened to see the line of (mostly) guys, waiting outside the Apple store for the new iPhones:
iphone photo.jpg

Chicken & Corn Chowder with Thyme

I made this recipe from epicurious for dinner last night. Sorry for the terrible photo – the soup was the same exact color as the inside of my bowls and my photography skills aren’t near what I would like them to be. Someday, I’m going to break down and take a class…but not today, so … Continue reading “Chicken & Corn Chowder with Thyme”

Adaptations:
I browned the pieces of chicken a tiny bit (in the bacon fat that was drained off out of the pan) before placing it in the soup.

I added a tiny bit of my BBQ seasoning, because Girl loves it with corn.

I cut back the amount of onion a tiny bit, and added a minced garlic clove (when the onions were almost done).

I used 1/2 cup half-and-half and 1/2 cup milk, because I ran out of half-and-half, and also just to cut the richness/fat content a little bit.

I have posted another Potato-Corn Chowder recipe before, but this one is a little different (added chicken and bacon, subtracted celery, substituted thyme for dill). They’re both good, just subtly different.

Fideo Info

Here’s the scoop on fideos, for folks who may not have used them (or heard of them) before. Fideos are Spanish and they’re a kind of “home-y” comfort food and NOT a gourmet/upscale kind of food. They are a type of pasta, so they can usually be found in the pasta aisle (usually down low, but if they’re not there, try the “Hispanic Foods” aisle). The kind that I buy is in a small, yellow box and it’s called “Q & Q” (Quality and Quantity) and it costs about a quarter for 5 ounces. I have better luck finding them in larger, discount-type stores, rather than in gourmet markets (think HEB, not Central Market). For my buddies on the East Coast, think Giant, rather than Wegman’s. I will admit that are a little difficult to find (and sorry, Trish, I have NO idea where to buy them in Korea.)

The good news, however, is that there is a REALLY easy substitute. Fideos are really just extra-thin spaghetti/angel-hair. The only difference is that fideos are pre-cut into short, equal little lengths (about 3 inches?), so a great substitute (and one that a lot of recipes tell you to do, anyway) is just to buy angel hair or really thin spaghetti-type noodles and break them into pieces. You’ll have to buy the angel hair that is packed into boxes or long bags like spaghetti, rather than the angel hair that is curled into little “nests” (or would that be “hairballs”?)

I must admit that I’ve never done the “broken noodles” thing, myself, but I imagine that the dish would cook up exactly the same. As you know, I am a bit…umm….let’s go with “particular”…and I like the precision of the noodles being all the same size, so I do think it’s worth the trouble to find the actual “fideos”, but don’t stress about it. Some recipes will tell you to toast the pasta before you cook it, some don’t, but I usually do, even if it doesn’t say to, because it just gives it better flavor.

So, Staci – don’t turn that cookbook page, baby – it’s just pasta!

Chorizo and Mushroom Fideua (fideos)

I used this recipe from epicurious for dinner tonight. I was trying to prepare the recipe exactly according to the directions, but ended up having to adapt it because I didn’t realize that there was a difference between Spanish chorizo and Mexican chorizo. Apparently, Spanish chorizo is already cooked and is more solid when its done, so that it can be chopped or sliced. Mexican chorizo is much more “loose”, so I ended up grilling it, then just squeezing it out of the casing and directly into the onion/pepper/mushroom mixture. The chorizo was already pretty heavily seasoned, so I left out the cayenne and paprika, but added about 1/2 tsp of dried oregano, because I like it. The fact that they were not obvious “chunks” or slices of the sausage probably turned out to be a good thing. The chorizo was just kind of incorporated into the sauce, so it was pretty subtle. I used a package of chorizo that had three “links” in it.

Also, the fideos that I used (27 cents per box – you can’t beat that!) came in a 5 ounce box (so I had three 5-ounce boxes, or 15 ounces) and I just couldn’t bear to throw away the extra 3 ounces for no good reason, so I just mixed it all in and added about 6 ounces of extra chicken stock. I was getting tired tonight and the kids were getting pretty hungry by the time this was ready, so I forgot the parsley at the end, but it would have been a nice addition. Cilantro would have been good, too.

I also toasted the fideos before I added them to the sauce. 375 degrees for about 10 minutes, but watch them closely…

The bottom of the fideos got all nicely toasted and crunchy. It’s funny how some of the strands of fideos ended up really small and crispy, while the ones in the middle absorbed all the liquid and were nice and fat and juicy. It was like spaghetti with nice little crispy bits. The kids liked this really well and even tried some of the mushrooms.

Fresh figs and Maytag Blue cheese

Just about my favorite snack/appetizer in the whole world… I’m the only one in the family that will eat them and I am perfectly OK with that, because it means that I don’t have to share.

Just about my favorite snack/appetizer in the whole world…
I’m the only one in the family that will eat them and I am perfectly OK with that, because it means that I don’t have to share.

Cool Stuff

OK, I know that lately this blog has been about anything other than food, but here are some cool things that I’ve come across lately that I wanted to share with you: 36 matches carved from a single block of wood, available from Lifeisgoods.com for $19.50 Handmade wooden salad tongs, available from KentuckyArts.com for $14 … Continue reading “Cool Stuff”

OK, I know that lately this blog has been about anything other than food, but here are some cool things that I’ve come across lately that I wanted to share with you:

36 matches carved from a single block of wood, available from Lifeisgoods.com for $19.50

salad tongs.gif
Handmade wooden salad tongs, available from KentuckyArts.com for $14

yoga toes.jpg
Yoga Toes Toe Stretchers, available from Overstock.com for $44.99.
I have toes that tend to curl under and do all sorts of weird-looking contortions, even though I wear good shoes that fit and don’t “scrunch” my feet. I have just ordered some of these, so I don’t know how they’ll feel yet, but Self magazine calls them “surprisingly refreshing.”

PS – I promise that I really am going to cook dinner tonight and will have something yummy to show you, probably Chorizo and Mushroom Fideua (found that recipe by searching epicurious for “chorizo”, because I have some in my freezer and “kid-friendly”)

Scar

If anyone else (besides Staci) had a question about the scar on my knee in my “show off my hiking boots” photo – here’s my answer (it’s hidden in the comments section, so you guys might not see it, otherwise): Those really are my nasty ol’ scarred-up legs. Not a super story on the scar, … Continue reading “Scar”

Those really are my nasty ol’ scarred-up legs. Not a super story on the scar, but semi-noteworthy…

When I was about 7 – 8 months pregnant with Girl, I had a little fender-bender in Hubby’s truck that bent up the right front fender (somebody T-boned me, trying to pull onto Lamar at 2222 in front of me). There just happened to have been a really big hailstorm not too long before that and all of the body shops were swamped and couldn’t take his truck to be fixed for a couple of weeks.

During that time, I walked into the bent-up bumper and gashed open my knee. It was pretty gross – blood spurting and all. It didn’t hurt at all, but Hubby was mortified and felt awful (he went straight home afterward and hammered down the bent bumper so that the sharp part wasn’t sticking out anymore). We had just been out to lunch with my mom (we were treating, because she was updating our wills for us, because of the baby) and it happened as we were dropping her back off at her office downtown. There just happened to be a Dr. that worked in her office building and he fashioned a bandage out of a (clean) dishtowel from their office kitchen (thanks, Dr. Guckian!), but even he looked like he was going to pass out (he’d been teaching at the time and hadn’t actually practiced medicine in a while, plus I was alarmingly pregnant and there was a LOT of blood).

Did you remember that I used to work for a plastic surgeon? We called him and he met us at the hospital (thanks, Dr. B!) and stitched me up (no anesthesia, because of the baby). I couldn’t bend my knee while it was healing, plus I was on crutches (NO FUN when you’re pregnant) and couldn’t drive for a few weeks afterwards. I was really lucky that it didn’t hit any tendons or anything that could have messed with the functionality of my knee, so my knee works fine, it just looks ugly. Sometimes people ask if I’ve had knee surgery…I wanna say, “yeah, knee surgery with a can opener”. If I had knee surgery and my surgeon left me with a scar like that, I think I would sue…

Anyway, that’s the story….

PS – It’s not the plastic surgeon’s fault that my scar looks bad – the gash was just that long and deep (1/2 inch to 3/4 inch?), I wasn’t giving him a great situation to work with, but most knee surgery scars look much better than that, so… I actually think he did a very good job – it’s very smooth and flat and has never caused me a bit of pain.

I actually kinda like my scar; it think it makes me look “tough”; it’s my badge of honor. It also makes me think about Girl and how we went through it “together” and how cute and overprotective Hubby was of both of us. Sweet.

Car Update – hopefully the final one…

I finally picked my car up yesterday from the second of two repair shops that were working on it in the same day and I can finally say that it is at least starting to resemble my old car again. I was mortified the first time that I picked it up last week and it wasn’t braking properly and was pulling to one side. The body shop was saying that they had fixed everything that they could on it, but I was terrified that would be the permanent future state of the car. It was awful. All kinds of engine indicator lights had turned on: “Check Engine” and “VSC tracking” (whatever the heck that is). After a visit to the dealership for an alignment and some other repairs (some related to the accident, some not, plus some routine maintenance), I am starting to get happy with it again. I have always babied this car; it’s been taken to the dealership for routine maintenance and oil changes precisely according to the recommended schedule. I keep it pristinely clean inside. I am inordinately proud of this car and LOVE it. It’s the first car that I ever paid cash for and didn’t have to get a loan on. When I get a door ding or paint chip, I rush it to the body shop to have it fixed. The guy at the body shop (who presumably makes money off of my hyper-vigilance) actually told me once, “It’s never going to stay perfect, you know…it’s OK for it to have a couple of marks.” Silly man doesn’t know what he’s talking about. 😉 Of course, I had completely forgotten about the windshield crack that happened just before the wreck that I hadn’t had a chance to get fixed yet, so that will have to be taken care of now. It happened on a gravelly road (piece of gravel flew up and hit it) in the middle of nowhere (on my way to TDS ranch for a party), so I will have to bear the responsibility for that cost myself, but I’ve now spent over $3000 on my car in the past week (I haven’t been reimbursed anything by the insurance company yet) and still have a windshield to go. The food on this blog may get really boring for a while….rice and beans, anyone?

I realized that I never did photos of the “damage”. The extent of the damage isn’t easily in photos, but here are some, anyway. This photo is of the underside of the car, and shows where the frame was slightly bent (this is only one side of the frame, but it was bent similar on the other side, as well):

This photo shows the bumper damage. The reason that there are some vertical marks is that the guy that hit me had a “brush guard” on the front bumper of his truck.

We did indulge in one extravagance yesterday that was unrelated to car repair: we bought “Rock Band” for the kids. A very fun game and I can tell already it’s going to turn into a huge “time suck” for our family – but that’s what summer’s for, right?