Friday Potluck & Adobo Lime Tacos

There are some benefits to just having me and the fur babies in the house. If it's a mess, it's our mess. The grocery bill is MUCH lower than when K is home.

The bad things are that I have to shovel, keep his truck running (more of a challenge mentally and literally when it's 20 below than you might think), and WORST OF ALL, I am responsible for consuming ALL leftovers. I'm good at eating the same thing two nights in a row, and maybe a lunch.

Thai Yellow Curry & Friday Potluck

Happy Friday!

I was so relaxed that I forgot it was Thursday! How does that even happen?? I had every intent of posting last night after I made this delicious yellow curry. Guess I was too relaxed from my fabulous massage yesterday. These things happen.

Guess what! I didn't post until This Very Minute.

So today, a little late, I bring you Thai Yellow Curry & Friday Potluck.

BBQ Chicken Pizza Recipe

Every week, I try to participate in a few recipe hops. When I'm not cooking very much, this is harder to do than at other times. I always find so much inspiration in these hops... of course one of my favorites is my own Friday Potluck.

My favorite hop hosted by someone else is Full Plate Thursday over at Miz Helen's Country Cottage. There are always fantastic recipes, and a great variety of bloggers to be found each week at Miz Helen's place.

A few weeks ago, on September 8, I found a great BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe. Since I still had leftover pizza crusts from my DIY pizza party, in which I trotted out my new Red Star Yeast for this month's Iron Chef Challenge over at A Latte with Ott, A, I figured I'd hit pay dirt with this recipe.

And boy! was I right!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

modified from BBQ Chicken Pie @ 4 Little Fergusons

2  8"-10" pizza crusts or dough (my recipe or yours)
1-2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup bbq sauce
2 small green onions, diced
1-1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
tomatoes, sliced

I like to work with pre-cooked pizza crusts since it really cuts down the cooking time of the pizzas, and because it's nice to work with existing ingredients. I like to grill my pizza crusts; they then last for about 1-2 weeks in the fridge. However, if you have fresh dough, then you can still use this recipe.

Cook and shred the chicken breasts; I seasoned mine with garlic and rosemary and then broiled on high. Mix the shredded chicken with all but 2 tablespoons of the green onions and barbecue sauce. Spread across the pizza crusts.

Split the cheddar cheese between the two pies and then top with the tomatoes. Finally, top the pizzas with mozzarella.

Cook under broiler for 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Linking this with

Adobo Lime Chicken Tacos

Back in December, I won a spice giveaway by Spices Inc. We had the spices shipped to my parents' house to await our journey to Alaska since I learned about winning less than a week before we left.

This is the spice set, dubbed "The World Kitchen Connection." If you want to purchase, you can do so on the Spices Inc. website.

I was really excited to try the Adobo Lime Rub and was very pleased with the results. The rub creates a very flavorful chicken and leaves a delicious little kick, perfect for tacos!

Adobo Lime Chicken Tacos

Chicken
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp Adobo Lime Rub

Cut chicken breasts in half and cover each side with the adobo lime rub. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes to allow the flavor to soak into the chicken. Grill and cook thoroughly.

Shred the chicken.


The Tacos
lettuce
tomatoes
grated cheese
sour cream
mango salsa, or your favorite salsa
taco sauce (optional)

Build your tacos. We were proud to set up our taco bar on our new patio table and eat our first meal outside - of the year, and at our new house! This was so tasty and amazing. We highly recommend.

Proudly linking this post to:

Cremini Chicken Marsala over Pesto Pasta

This is one of those recipes that grew from a glimpse into the fridge to see what was there and a lightning bolt of inspiration. I was already planning a pesto with fresh basil, and I decided to make a bruschetta (which ended up becoming a pesto bruschetta).

We had lots of cremini mushrooms begging to be eaten, so I decided to make cremini chicken "marsala" -- this may be a bit of a misnomer, since I have never made a marsala and don't have marsala wine, but it was fantastic anyway!

Cremini Chicken Marsala

olive oil
2 cloves garlic
4 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
red wine
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1/4 onion, sliced thinly

Heat oil in a pan and saute garlic until golden. Add the mushrooms and a splash of red wine.

If needed, add more wine and oil, a splash at a time. Saute mushrooms until the color is just right.

Set the mushrooms aside, leaving the juice in the pan. Add onion and saute till translucent. Then add chicken.

Once the chicken is cooked, add the mushrooms back in. Add a splash of red wine and a little bit of water to deglaze the pan and create a gravy. Saute together until the sauce thickens (it's ok to add a bit of flour if it just won't thicken).

Remove from heat and serve with pesto pasta.

Pesto Pasta
basil leaves
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves
freshly grated parmesan
16 oz pasta, cooked to al dente

Combine all ingredients, except for pasta, into the food processor. Blend until you achieve the texture you like and then stir into the pasta.

This was so tasty and delicious. Can something be tasty AND delicious? I submit that it can be all that AND delectable.

Please enjoy.

Proudly linking this up to these linky parties -- please check them out and find some fantastic menu inspirations!

How PF Changs Lettuce Wraps Beat Me Up!

 When we lived in Colorado Springs, I discovered so many amazing chain restaurants. Two in particular stand out -- Melting Pot and PF Changs. I adore Melting Pot, and was inspired by Melting Pot and it's yummy fondue goodness to purchase a fondue pot. We haven't made fondue in quite sometime, but I did make this fantastic cheese fondue for a date night with K last August.

I am sad to report that Anchorage (and for that matter, Alaska) doesn't play host to a single fondue restaurant, at least that I've found, which includes Melting Pot. Similarly, we also lack a Changs... and Olive Garden. So, if you're a fan of any of these restaurants and cannot live without them, I suggest looking elsewhere for your next move. Most of us, however, do just fine.

That said, I crave the PF Changs lettuce wraps from time to time. So I did what any tough Alaska chick would do -- hit Google up for the best Changs lettuce wrap recipe... and pulled out my knives and my skillet.

I found this fantastic lettuce wrap recipe on the Web and gave it my all. It was an epic battle of Erin vs the lettuce wraps, and I'm sad to announce that the lettuce wraps won. Details of the battle follow. Read on if you're brave.

Step 1: Dice up the chicken into itty bitty pieces

Step 1.5: Keep dicing the chicken into itty bitty pieces. This takes awhile.

Step 2: Mix up your marinade. Dump the chicken in and set aside while making cooking sauce and prepping the filling ingredients.

Step 3: After at least 15 minutes of marinating, dump the chicken and oil into a skillet. and stirfry for 3-4 minutes.

Step 4: Set chicken aside. Either wipe out pan or start with new pan. Ad more oil, followed by ginger, garlic and onion. Stir fry.

Step 5: Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts. Stir fry more.

Step 6: Add the chicken in, followed by the cooking sauce. Cook until thickened and hot.

And this is where the wheels came off the wagon, the damned sauce didn't thicken, bits of the filling and chicken started sticking to the bottom, yet the whole mess remained a little too oily. Still, I wasn't ready to be beaten up by chicken, even such fabulous chicken as these lettuce wraps presented.

We didn't have cellophane noodles, so I opted to keep on trucking.

Step 7: Plate up the chicken and prepare the lettuce by rinsing whole leaves and plating. You can see a little of the oil, even after I drained the mixture. I feel that this may be one of the benefits of the cellophane noodles.

Step 8: It was at this point that I realized I didn't have a dipping sauce, a la Changs. I set K to googling to look for a sauce; he found this chicken wrap recipe from Food.com, which I may try next time. So we mixed up the "Special Sauce" to serve with the wraps.

Step 9: Load up a wrap and eat.

The verdict: though ok, these are definitely NOT PF Changs wraps. If I were to repeat this recipe, I would use about half the oil for cooking, be sure to use the cellophane noodles to soak up any remaining oil, and use iceberg instead of bibb lettuce. Bibb lettuce was what I had though, so it was important to use existing ingredients. At least I got some pretty pictures!!!

So, while Changs left me black and blue and crying in the blue corner, I gained a healthy respect for PF Changs and an earnest desire to try again till I get it right. However humbling the experience was, I feel it important to share failures right alongside successes. So here goes! A while back I found a blog party tracking disasters... but it doesn't look like she's doing any of them anymore. If you have a suggestion for where I can post disasters to share the DON'Ts I'm all for it.

Also, if you have a fab recipe for lettuce wraps, bring it on! :)

Broccoli & Oyster Mushroom Stir Fry w/ Soy Ginger Coconut Chicken

Is that title a mouthful or what?!?!? I tried to shorten it and make it catchier, and failed miserably. Short of coming up with an acronym, with a ton of consonants that sounds like you're speaking with a mouthful of marbles.

I haven't been able to stop talking about my CSA box. I'm not yet sure if it's a good deal dollarwise, but it is fantastic in terms of introducing me to new ingredients!

The lovely ladies of Glacier Valley CSA have been so kind as to provide several recipes for their tasty treats! Tonight's fantastic stir fry was based on one of their recipes.

Tonight's fantastic chicken is another story; it grew out of a series of delicious thoughts. A marinade and a search for a crunchy, sweet texture.

Together, the flavors and textures combined for a dish that was spectacularly delicious; and my first experience with oyster mushrooms was a screaming success.

I'd never seen oyster mushrooms before.
They're kind of funny looking. But their flavor is amazing... light and easy to enjoy.

Broccoli & Oyster Mushroom Stir Fry
modified from Glacier Valley Farms

1-2 cups sliced oyster mushrooms
2 cups broccoli florets
1 tbsp peanut oil (I substituted vegetable oil)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion (I used two shallots)
Optional: 1 small can water chestnuts, diced

Though the recipe calls for the onion (shallots) to be sliced into small wedges, I opted to thinly slice them to add a bit more crunch to the dish.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat and saute the onions for about a minute.

Add the broccoli and a teaspoon of water and then cover immediately to steam to broccoli for a few minutes. After removing the lid, allow the remaining water to cook off.

Then add in the mushrooms, garlic and water chestnuts, cooking until the mushrooms are tender.

Soy Ginger Coconut Chicken

Marinade
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce or braggs
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 large chicken breasts, cut into 1" cubes

Combine all ingredients and marinate chicken in refrigerator overnight.

Breading
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded coconut
several cups frying oil

Ponzu sauce for drizzling.

Stir together Panko crumbs and coconut.

Remove chicken from marinade and coat with Panko/coconut mix. Heat the oil in large, deep pot until rippling.

Drop several pieces of chicken in at a time and cook until a deep golden brown. Remove with tongs and set aside on paper towel to drain.

Serve with Broccoli Oyster Mushroom stir fry over brown rice. Drizzle with Ponzu sauce for an additional citrus flavor.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!

I'm linking this recipe up with: