"what exactly is...'spicy chicken?'"

i heard from a very reliable source this past week that at least one person has been going through withdrawal from these little stories from my kitchen, so i made a point of bringing something delicious to the, erm, "table." (that was bad. i know.)

i've decided it's gotten too hot to have the crock pot on all day long, so instead, i spend a fair amount of time in the evening hovering over my stove and oven - a brilliant solution, don't y'all think? this week, however, had some particularly yummy results. my mother and i planned to have dinner together on wednesday night, so wednesday afternoon, i emailed her asking if she had any "special requests." i had been thinking along the lines of a particular side or dessert, but her response was "...spicy chicken." this is not the name of some chicken i've made before. i was a bit befuddled. i asked her what, exactly, is "spicy chicken?" her answer - and this is why i love my mother - was brilliantly simple: "chicken that's spicy. i've got a hankerin' [sic] for something spicy." she doesn't know this, but that was almost the exact opposite of what i'd planned for dinner that night. well, except for the chicken part. but i had definitely not been going in the spicy direction until her gentle nudge. the best spicy chicken i could think of that i had a recipe for was those crock pot chicken fajitas that we all love, but by this point, it was 4 in the afternoon. not nearly enough time for a crock pot. it was then that i remembered one of my favorite dishes from one of my favorite restaurants and used all i remember about it as inspiration for wednesday night's dinner - which was, by the way, a huge hit in both the departments of delicious and spicy.

i googled a recipe for lime pepper marinade for fajitas and, interestingly enough, none of the top 5 results included pepper. go figure. the marinade recipe i doctored is below. y'all know that i always try to give credit where credit is due, but this recipe came up on so many different sites that i wouldn't know who to thank.

ingredients:
lime-pepper marinade (recipe below)
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 fresh jalapenos, sliced
2 fresh serranos, sliced
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 large onion, sliced into rings
1 cup shredded monterrey jack cheese
salt

lime-pepper marinade:

4 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed, and minced
1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons tequila
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from real limes)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground black pepper

directions:
combine all ingredients for marinade. cover chicken with marinade, let marinate for 2 hours in the fridge.

preheat oven to 350.

coat a large skillet with olive oil cooking spray and heat over medium high heat. cook marinated chicken breasts until browned on both sides, 3-5 minutes per side, depending on size. remove chicken to an oven-proof dish. sautee jalapenos and serranos for about a minute in the same skillet chicken was cooked in. top the chicken with the peppers and bake for 20-30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. meanwhile, in the same skillet, caramelize onions. sprinkle with salt and cook until they're as done (or not) as you like them. [if you're cooking for my mother, this will be quite a while.] once the chicken is cooked, turn on the broiler and top the chicken with the cilantro and cheese. broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly. (i only broiled for 2 minutes. ish.)

serve the chicken over the caramelized onions. suggested sides - black beans, cilantro lime rice

here is my finished product (well, not quite finished because i don't have it plated with the onions in this photo, but right out of the oven!):

we loved this dish. some of us could have used a little less cilantro (momma), but overall, it was a hit and took care of that "hankerin'." it's pretty spicy, so feel free to cut back on those peppers if you'd like. also, don't forget to wash your hands after handling them. if you dare to go all the way with the peppers, however, and they get the best of you, the best solutions are milk or bread - they'll do a lot more to absorb the heat than water, which will just help to spread it around.

try it out - let me know what y'all think!

♥ whit

back from the bayou!

...go for the music, stay for the food!

i cannot believe we're halfway though the year! goodness. seems like just yesterday i was chopping off my hair, and now it hits my shoulders and i can't wait to get it cut.

so! we're back from the magical land known as loosyana and we had an absolutely fantastic time. my wonderful mother and i have gone to bayou country superfest every year since its inception - this was year three - and every year, we perfect the trip a little bit more. - by "perfect," i mean we find another delicious place to indulge because it is vacation, after all. this is our general itinerary: leave houston in the early afternoon and head east! this year, we ran into the joads before we were even out of houston. (yes, mother, that's the joads, with a d, not the jobs like in the Bible.)  these nice folks, bless their hearts, had a u-haul, with a trailer attached to the back, with a canoe strapped to the trailer holding, i can only imagine, what wouldn't fit in the u-haul. the first real stop we make is in jennings, la, at the boudin king.  even though we've been going for three years now, we still haven't quite figured out how to say "boudin" correctly, but we have come up with some creative ways to avoid pronouncing the word at all, and despite the fact that we can't say it, we are pretty comfortable declaring that this is quite possibly the best boudin in the state of louisiana. it at the boudin king, after all.

once we've gotten our fill, it's on to the other side of the mississippi. once we get to baton rouge, there's usually a trip to walmart because we've forgotten something. this year, it was my pajamas. whoops. i did, however, become the proud owner of an LSU t-shirt. then it's back to the hotel. last year, there were some mysterious buses with tennessee plates parked in our hotel parking lot - turned out they were billy currington's band's buses. billy himself was in mississippi, but we met a nice young man named doug who played guitar for billy and was kind enough to entertain our star-strucked-ness for a few minutes. logically, this year, we were hoping for the same sort of dumb luck...didn't happen. so we stayed upstairs and did our second favorite thing to do at the hotel - you know, when we can't hang out with almost-stars - lie in bed in my LSU pajama shirt, eating reese's, watching "swamp people." i was a happy gal. (there was some sort of marathon going on, so we saw lots of gators and lots of "chootin'") i drifted off to sweet dreams of gators and toothless cajuns (and believe me, i say that with all the love in my heart). when we woke up saturday afternoon (that's right, afternoon), we got ready and headed off to christina's for breakfast. my mother had read a piece on christina's in southern living last year and we wanted to go then, but we waited until sunday to try it out, and christina's is closed on sunday. next time you're in baton rouge, eat at this place. oh my goodness. these may have been the best biscuits i have ever had in my life ever. and they were gigantic. and buttery.
they came that way, so there was no worrying about making sure you get the butter on while they were still warm so it would melt. carbohydrate perfection. then when we were leaving, or paying to leave, momma asked the lady at the register if she was, in fact, christina - and she was! it was almost as exciting as the time we were leaving the kenny rogers show and saw kenny getting on his bus and momna said, "great show, kenny!" and mr. rogers looked right at her and said, "thank you." okay, it was not almost as exciting as that, because when that happened, she called everyone she knew and told them about it. this was only enough excitement to make her forget to tip our waiter. never fear, i reminded her and we took care of it. we had a few hours to kill before bayou country day one, so we went downtown to the old capitol - there is some really interesting louisiana history to be learned there, among it a certain diary of a confederate woman (sarah morgan) that really begs some more looking into - she talked a lot about those horrible yankees who came to burn her city...i do plan to read it at some point in the not so distant future. so! after our history lesson, it was time to go to death valley. and it's true what they say, there really isn't anything quite like a saturday night in death valley. saturday was definitely my favorite day of the festival - jerrod niemann, little big town, eric church, carrie underwood, and keith urban!
(also, this was the day we had jambalaya at the festival that i swear is made with alligator sausage but momma eats it anyway and somehow convinces herself it's not alligator). i loved sunday, don't get me wrong, but since for me, the main events were eric church and keith urban, it was a tiny bit anticlimactic. jerrod niemann, LBT, and carrie were all great - but eric church and keith urban were absolutely amazing! this is the third time i've seen keith urban live (twice at bayou country), and he always puts on an incredible show - actually gets up in the crowd and everything! you can't help but love him! and after seeing eric church at an up-close and personal event at our radio station, he stole my heart. he's such a rocker, but still so country, sings about blue jeans, jack daniels, and bruce springsteen - what more could you ask for? love, love, love me some eric church! and keith performed late into the night - seriously, after midnight. that's late for us. so we slept in late on sunday (yes, later than the "afternoon" when we woke up on saturday) and went to another of our favorite spots to eat, boutin's, where you do not, in fact, eat boudin. if you are a seafood person, you get the...i've forgotten what kind of fish, with a crabmeat stuffing, topped with a crawfish etouffee. a-mazing.
or, if you're more of the same persuasion as my momma, you get this chicken that's wrapped around a sausage in a rotel cream sauce. it is all so bad for you, but i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it's worth every. single. bite. oh yeah, and there's often life music and dancing. i really wanted some bread pudding when we were done, but i seriously could not manage to fit it in, so we waddled off to the mall. did a little bit of shopping, then back to LSU - it's really a beautiful campus. lots of giant trees, old buildings...i see why people love it. the show on sunday was joe nichols, sara evans, dierks bentley, jason aldean, and rascal flatts. we missed joe nichols by a little bit, but everybody else put on a good show. dierks and jason were my sunday favorites. much for the same reason that i love eric church. they don't seem - to me - to be quite as hardcore as eric, but they're on the same side of that country-rocker spectrum. i had an alligator sausage (not in jambalaya, by itself) for dinner on sunday. with creole mustard. if you know me, you probably already know i have an insane

aversion to mustard. even in those lay's chips that are the carolina barbecue flavor. just can't eat 'em. but this creole mustard...they're onto something there. after rascal flatts, we went back to the hotel, straight to sleep, and these two tired girls made their way back to the great state of texas on monday (and one of us went straight to work!) it was a fantastic weekend - i'm not wishing my life away or anything, and i intend to enjoy every minute between now and then, but i can't wait for next year!

♥ whit

crockpot chronicles: day 6

goodness, is it as hot where y'all are as it is where i am? i swear, we go straight from spring (for a day or so) to blazing (which seems to last forever) to a short-lived fall, maybe a cold snap, and back to the beginning. i'm living off of icy diet cokes from mc donald's, sweet iced tea, and iced coffee (made without the help of a french press). going to work is something of a relief because they run the air conditioner there - daddy always told me that when i'm paying for it, i can set the thermostat wherever i want. turns out that when i'm paying for it, i can tolerate it a bit warmer than i could in my father's house. but with the warm weather comes that much-needed and much-welcome break from the higher education. another semester down, one step closer to that wrap-around porch with the breeze that never stops.

but i digress. i left everyone hanging in the middle of getting to know and love my crockpot, but no more! i'm back, with some time on my hands, and let me tell you, dinner tonight was delicious. granted, that wasn't such a surprise - a while back i made this dish...just didn't get around to telling y'all about it. that being said, here's my crockpot take on chicken fajitas.

before it becomes an issue, i realize that this is not "fajitas" in the traditional sense if for no other reason than that the chicken is shredded. don't let that dissuade you. i promise, you won't be disappointed.

the original recipe is:

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas – from www.stacymakescents.com

1 yellow onion, sliced

3 sweet peppers, sliced

1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs

½ cup chicken broth

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cumin

1 ½ tablespoons chili powder

Squirt of lime juice

Tortillas

Fajita fixings

Combine sliced onion and peppers in the bottom of a greased crockpot. Lay chicken on top of veggies. Pour chicken broth over top. Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder. Give a nice quirt of lime juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into juices. Serve meat mixture with slotted spoon on tortillas with your choice of fixings.

now. the first time i made this, i followed the recipe pretty closely. today, i kind of winged it because i thought i remembered it. like i said, today's dinner was delicious, but i think i prefer the first version to the more recent. my notes are these: grease the crockpot with olive oil. with the exception of the "spicy" peppers (jalapeño, serrano, habanero - that part comes later), i put all the veggies in under the chicken, so the layering would be oil, veggies, chicken, spices, liquids, "spicy" peppers. i don't remember if i used a white onion or a yellow onion, but that probably really doesn't matter. i used green bell peppers - probably one or two, but i really can't imagine myself using three. i'm just not that wild about bell peppers. not that i don't like them, i just really don't see what the fuss is all about. today, i used two bags of a frozen 3 pepper (red, yellow, and green bells) and onion (white) mixture. great when you're in a hurry, but i would still rather the first way. i'm pretty sure i put in a poblano the first time, too, which i am pretty wild about. i used frozen chicken breasts - i'm still amazed by the fact that you can throw something frozen into a pot and have dinner when you come home. chicken broth, yes - i forgot that today. i've never really measured spices and seasonings in cooking (baking, of course, is another story), so i'll say i put a little bit of salt, a whole lot of cumin, a good bit of black pepper, and some garlic powder, and some chili powder (which i couldn't find this morning). also, instead of a squirt of lime juice, i used a generous amount. let me say this. i will always prefer fresh fill-in-the-blank to what comes in the bottle, but shoot if it doesn't save you a lot of time. and that is the point of the crockpot chronicles, is it not? i did some sliced mushrooms the first time, too, and both times (because this part, for me, is key) i sliced up a fresh jalapeño, a serrano, and a habanero. word to the wise - use a cutting board for this part, don't just slice it over the crockpot, and remember to wash your hands when you're done. speaking from painful experience here. also, if you're not a fan of the spicy but you still want the jalapeño flavor, rib and seed it before it goes in. same with the serrano, but definitely leave out the habanero. takes more time, i know, but i had a house full of runny-nosed people tonight. when it's done, just shred up the chicken. fan. tastic. the first go-round, i just put this chicken/veggie mix on tortillas and it was a big hit - with me and with my parents. today i went a little farther - sour cream, guacamole (that i bought at the store - granted, it was HEB so it was freshly made), pico de gallo (again, thanks, HEB), shredded cheese, and some black refried beans (just a can of goya that i doctored up a bit - if you're curious, let me know).

y'all should definitely try this one out. it has been by far my favorite, and quite healthy as well.

and now to the judges - hey, the olympics are coming up!

• ease of prep - 5 - throw and go. love it.
• multiple parts/same pot - 4 - the store-bought sides are super easy, but those black beans sure were good.
• cooks for 6-8 hours - 5 - set it and forget it.
• crockpot to table ease - 5 - i set everything up assembly-line style tonight and everybody did their own thing before we all sat down.
• freezer leftovers - 5 - i'm glad i made this with something like...three pounds of chicken. - i guess i forgot to add that as one of the changes - but it's great in the freezer. put it in, juice and all, and i'm telling you, the flavor only gets better.

24/25 - told y'all this was my favorite. try it out. let me know how it went for you, whether you prefer the fresh or frozen onions and peppers...all that good stuff. y'all have a great memorial day weekend! my mom and i are off on our traditional girls' trip for this weekend. we plan to eat quite well. i'll tell you all about it when we get back! be safe!

♥ whit

crockpot chronicles: day 5

okay, i know this isn't quite another day...but i owe y'all!

Crockpot Chicken and Rice – from forkinit.blogspot.com

Ingredients

2-4 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese (let sit out to soften)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 pkg. italian dressing seasoning (the dried kind in the packet)

rice

stir the cream cheese, cream of chicken, and seasoning together in the crockpot. i actually start it on low and let them sit in there for about 30 min so the cream cheese is softer to stir. (but don't forget about them like i did today!) put the frozen (because i'm lazy) chicken in and cover with the mix. cook on high 4-6 hours or until the chicken is cooked and fall-apart-tender. after the first two hours when the chicken is softer i cut it up into strips for easier eating. how easy is that!?

cook the rice in a pot (or rice cooker if you're not dumb like me and know how to use the stupid thing) and smother with chicken mixture! the italian seasoning is the secret ingredient! so yum!

the previous instructions/comments are from the blog (it's an awesome, check it out!) where i found the recipe - not my original thoughts. my original thoughts are these: this was quite yummy. i love things that are cheesy, and this totally fit the bill. it was also quite simple. i took the cream cheese straight out of the fridge and put it into the crockpot, let it sit there for the recommended 30 minutes, then i added the soup and attempted to stir them together. that's not entirely true. i attempted to whisk them together, which was a mistake. don't use a whisk. use a spoon. or something. but not a whisk. everything else was good - i shredded the chicken instead of cutting it into strips; i've become a shredded-chicken super-fan. my only complaint about this recipe is that it stuck to my crockpot like nobody's business.

this is that whole...tough cleanup i was talking about.

 i scraped as much of it as i could off, because in my family, we love the crunchy corners of the casserole, but let me tell you, it was a pain in the behind getting it out. lots of elbow grease, and the whole time i was paranoid about scratching my crockpot. (i ended up using comet, which totally did the trick, but i'm not sure i was supposed to use it on the crockpot. doesn't seem to have done any damage, and i've used the crockpot since then.) anyway, on the blog i linked to, there are lots of great comments, and even some ideas about how to help with that particular problem - like adding up to a cup of milk or water. some folks also mentioned adding veggies, which i had thought about myself - i think broccoli or mushrooms would bze fantastic! - probably not for the whole six hours, though, i guess closer to the end would be a better idea. for the rice, i did some brown rice that i had in the pantry - perfect!


judges?

  

• ease of prep - 4 - the whole...whisking thing. 
• multiple parts/same pot - 4 - the rice...but some folks suggested doing that in the crockpot, too, so maybe i'll give that a shot next time.
• cooks for 6-8 hours - 5 - enough said!
• crockpot to table ease - 5 - rice in, chicken on top - you're done!
• freezer leftovers - 4 - this is kind of a guess, because it never made it into the freezer (yummy yummy!), but i'm thinking about how you'd have to make a fresh batch of rice or pasta or whatever you want to use.

that brings us to a total of 22/25 - i loved this one. except for the cleanup. i'm definitely going to try it again with some of those suggestions i mentioned earlier. let me know what y'all think!
♥whit

crockpot chronicles: day 4

good afternoon, everyone! i know we've had a bit of silence, but between midterms and rodeo, there just hasn't been a whole lot of extra time - that's not to say i haven't been getting my money's worth out of that crockpot, though! i hope y'all are ready for a series of rapid-fire recipes, because now that it's spring break, i'm eager to let y'all know what i've been up to the last week or so. here goes!


Easy Slow Cooker Turkey – from slowandsimple.com

INGREDIENTS

2 to 3 pounds boneless turkey breast tenders or cutlets, or use chicken breast halves

4 medium potatoes, sliced

4 medium carrots, sliced

1 can (10 1/2 ounces) French onion soup, undiluted

DIRECTIONS

Put vegetables in bottom of crockpot. Add turkey breast. Pour in onion soup. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Serves 6.

this one was super easy. except for the fact that i was trying to peel the carrots and potatoes without a vegetable peeler. kind of like trying to shave your legs with a paring knife except that instead of your legs, it's carrots and potatoes, but it's just about as easy and just about as effective. (my daddy bought me a vegetable peeler this weekend, so we won't have to worry about that anymore!) the only other trouble i had was trying to find the french onion soup in the grocery store, but that's only because i didn't see it right in front of me. it was there the whole time. also, i used chicken breasts, not turkey. 3 pounds. like i said, it was super easy, but when i got it out, there was just not a whole lot of flavor. as in, like, none. i was afraid to salt it because i thought with the french onion soup being undiluted it might be way too salty, and i figured the soup would have had enough flavor on its own to flavor the chicken. i was wrong. ask my mother. since i made so much of this chicken, i have about a pound of it sitting in the freezer right now. trust me, it will be doctored before i eat it again. i'll let you know how that goes.



judges?

• ease of prep - 5 - i cannot, in good conscience, dock points here because i didn't own a vegetable peeler. who doesn't own a vegetable peeler?
• multiple parts/same pot - 4 - more carrots, more potatoes, less chicken. maybe that would help with the flavor thing, too.
• cooks for 6-8 hours - 5 - i'm tellin you, these are fantastic for school days!
• crockpot to table ease - 5 - into a bowl or onto a plate, and you're good to go.
• freezer leftovers - 5 - it's in the freezer. and it was easy. and i see it being quite easy on the way back out, too.

this reconfirms my previous thought about adding a "yummy" category because this one got a 24/25 and that did not account at all for the major lack of flavor. that part will be in a future update, once i work through all the leftovers in the freezer. check back, but at this present moment, this is not what's for dinner tonight.

♥whit

cardinal nation

today's not about crockpots or crochet hooks or knitting needles - it's about a very happy girl and what made her that way.

this is how i felt when i heard the news

after that horrible day earlier this year when my beloved albert pujols saw fit to move on to other things and leave behind the team and city that have loved him since no one knew who he was, i am so, so relieved to see yadier molina staying around for at least five more years! here's the article that made my heart swell up real big like the grinch in the end of that movie - i didn't ruin that for anyone, did i? a great big thanks to yadi, melvin roman, john mozeliak, and everyone else involved for not breaking my heart for a second time this off-season. i must admit, i wasn't always a yadi-lover like i am now. i tended to get quite frustrated with him when he was a younger player, but after he pulled it out for us in the series in '06, he has had my heart, and i could not be happier that i don't have to take it back! (*ahem* albert, this could have been written about you.)

my two favorite parts of the story are quotes from cards gm john mozeliak and from yadi himself:

"I really admire what Yadi was willing to do. You certainly don't know what the free-agent market might have looked like for him. His willingness to really want to be here and stay here really says a lot about his commitment to the organization." - john mozeliak

 "I was still thinking [about] it [being] a business, but my idea was to stay here. My commitment was to stay here with the organization. It's everything. I grew up here [as a player]. I feel good here. It was my first choice to stay here, and I'm glad we got it done." - yadier molina

thanks, #4, for reminding me that loyalty still matters to some people, and thanks, john mozeliak, for appreciating what you have.

i love my team. i love its fans. i love when it all falls into place.

mike matheny, this year is going to rock. you hear me? go cards!

♥ whit

photo of yadi from http://buenojoe.com/2011/06/senor-yad/

crockpot chronicles: day 3

hello! i hope y'all have had a great weekend - i sure did! i'm sorry i'm late in getting this third review up; there's been quite a lot going on in my little corner of the world. so! here's the chicken and vegetable bake my mom and i had on thursday night. for a lady who is such a picky eater and generally doesn't like vegetables, she was quite fond of this chicken dish, so i'll step a little out on a limb and say it may be safe for picky eaters!

Chicken and Vegetable Bake – from slowandsimple.com

INGREDIENTS

8 chicken thighs

1 pkg. frozen vegetables

2 cans whole potatoes, drained

1 can water chestnuts

1 tsp. garlic powder

Salt & pepper

1 bottle Italian salad dressing

DIRECTIONS

Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, & garlic powder. Place chicken in bottom of crock pot. Add remaining ingredients. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or high for 4 to 6 hours.

i made a couple changes to this one. instead of chicken thighs (because my favorite picky eater doesn't like dark meat), i used chicken breasts. i had a 5 lb bag of frozen boneless, skinless breasts, and i used about half of them. dumped them in the crockpot frozen and seasoned them there. this may not have been the best idea, it may have been better if they had at least been thawed, but i don't imagine it had too much of an adverse effect. since the recipe wasn't specific, i just picked the frozen veggies that appealed the most to me - my bag happened to have squash, zucchini, carrots, and asparagus, but get whatever looks yummy to you! the recipe didn't say to, but i drained the water chestnuts, and i'm happy with that decision. also, i didn't shred the chicken in the crockpot when it was done cooking, but i think the next time i make this recipe i will, and the reasons for that are twofold. one, it would be easier to evenly portion out servings. two, i think shredded chicken would have better absorbed some of the juices/sauce so it wouldn't have been quite as runny. since it was a bit rich in liquid, i'd recommend serving it over some rice. i didn't do that this time, and like i said, we loved it, but i think it would have been a nice addition. maybe some wild rice? also. it would be a great idea to cut up the potatoes before you try to serve. i didn't pay much attention when i was putting it together, but i imagine they're about as easy to cut straight out of the can as fresh potatoes, and since i like to cut things with a fork, probably waiting till it's done is best. as you can see in the picture, i had a whole potato on my plate, which is fine for me, but not too little-kid-friendly. i'm guessing. 

here we go:

• ease of prep - 5 - another dump and go - love, love, love that!
• multiple parts/same pot - 4
  almost totally complete! only lacking some rice/pasta, but now that i think about it, that's probably not totally necessary. maybe cut down on the dressing a little? or not. your call. but the more i think about it, the more i think i would add a second bag of veggies. maybe the same, maybe some variety...but they would stretch the chicken out even further.
• cooks for 6-8 hours - 5
  in the crockpot at 9, on the table at 7. perfect after 10 hours. (okay, it wasn't really on the table, it was on a plate in my lap watching the big bang theory. i feel that honesty is important here)
• crockpot to table ease - 5
  i'd actually give it a 5+, but i hate when people say "on a scale of 1 to 10, she's an 11." well, no, she's not, the scale only goes to ten. and this scale only goes to five, so i'm not going to go against my better judgement and add a +. but it was really, really easy.
• freezer leftovers - 5
  it's in the freezer. and it was easy. and i see it being quite easy on the way back out, too.

this one is definitely a front-runner with a final score of 24/25!

i know i got behind by one recipe this week - so sorry! i will get in four this coming week, and i'll try to push it and get that fifth one in, too, so we can see all ten before we're done. i hope y'all all have a fantastic week, and a happy leap day!

♥ whit

crockpot chronicles: day 2

we made it halfway through the week! - should be a downhill slide from here til friday, don't y'all think?

we had some delicious italian beef on monday, and today we went for some more beef, but from a different region - slow cooker barbecue beef? yes, please! here we go:

Slow Cooker Barbecue Beef Sandwiches – from Southern Living via myrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 (3 1/2-pound) eye-of-round roast, cut in half vertically

2 teaspoons salt, divided

2 garlic cloves, pressed

yes, i buy store brands. no, i'm not store-loyal. :-)

1 (10-ounce) can condensed beef broth 

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

3 tablespoons steak sauce

1 teaspoon coarse ground pepper

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

12 Kaiser rolls or sandwich buns

Dill pickle slices

Preparation

Sprinkle beef evenly with 1 teaspoon salt.

Stir together remaining 1 teaspoon salt, garlic, and next 7 ingredients. Pour half of mixture into a 5 1/2-quart slow cooker. Place beef in slow cooker, and pour remaining mixture over beef.

Cover and cook on HIGH 7 hours.

Shred beef in slow cooker with two forks. Serve in rolls or buns with dill pickle slices.

the prep (or getting things in the pot) for this one took a little more time than the italian beef, if only for all the measuring. i must say, i am a fan of throw-and-go. (as in...throw it in the crockpot and go away.) i used the same chuck roast as i did yesterday. well, not the same one, but the same as in it was chuck like yesterday's and i bought it at the same time. also, it was only 3 pounds, not 3 1/2, and i did not cut it. i don't think any of this affected (that's affect, with an a) the outcome negatively. yummy in my tummy!

other notes

• i grated the garlic instead of pressing. gosh, i can't wait to get myself a microplane. [random sidenote - got a gift card to crate & barrel for my birthday and i saw one in the catalog so it probably won't be much longer!]
• i used fresh lemons for the juice, one, because i didn't run into any bottled juice in the store and two, i have this handheld juicer i love using. it took 4 small lemons to get the 1/2 cup of juice - watch for seeds!
• the whole "mixture" came out to about 3c for me, so 1 1/2 c in the crockpot before the roast, 1 1/2 c after. it usually helps me to know how much of something i've got coming so i know what size bowl to mix it up in. i know some of y'all know what i'm talking about, when you start getting everything put together then you realize it's not going to fit...
• don't forget, when you're shredding the beef in the crock pot, to pull out any fat - it came off pretty easily for me again today.
• i used those same hawaiian rolls from last night because they're so yummy and just the perfect size.
• i skipped the pickles because pickles are gross. if you don't find them gross, by all means, but i just couldn't do it.
• i didn't have a side, but i would go for some green beans. i have this great green bean and pine nut recipe that uses fresh green beans and, if memory serves, takes under 10 minutes. fantastic!

now to the judges:

• ease of prep - 4
  it did take like 15 minutes. and 15 minutes to put everything in a pot? come on. i can take one point for that.
• multiple parts/same pot - 2
  again, no other parts here. but a green bean side wouldn't have been much trouble at all, so i can leave a couple points here.
• cooks for 6-8 hours - 5
  the recipe says 7, i took it out at 6 1/2 - the roast almost fell apart in the crockpot. perfect!
• crockpot to table ease - 5
  no problem here at all. put some meat on the buns/rolls, spoon a little juice (really not thick enough to call it a sauce) over the top, and since pickles are gross, we're good to go.
• freezer leftovers - 4
  i'm starting to worry that this is a sort of double-taxation category and these recipes are getting penalized twice for not having a side. for this reason, there may be some scoring revision before all is said and done, but for now, i'm going to leave it as-is. (i'm also thinking of adding a yummy-ness category because that seems pretty important!)

final score - 20/25

i'm going to check out for this p.m.; all this yummy food is wearing me out! - i'd love to hear how the italian beef turned out for y'all!

crockpot chronicles: day 1

as promised, here's the italian beef! (spoiler alert: i just had it for dinner, and it was delicious!)

here's the original recipe as i received it - the notes/comments are from my sister-in-law, jamie:

Italian Beef – from Jamie Koonce

Ingredients

6 lbs Rolled Rump Roast (I just get a roast that I would use for roast and potatoes)

2 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1 package onion soup mix

1 jar of pepperoncini

3 cups of water (sometimes a little less)

Directions

Mix dry ingredients and sprinkle over meat. Add water and the pepperoncinis (and the juice). Put all in crockpot and cook on low all day. Remove from pot and shred with fork (I sometimes also take the stems off of the pepperoncinis). Return to juice after shredding. Serve on rolls (I use Potato) and add shredded mozzarella.

now for my notes: i used a chuck roast instead of the rump roast - it was a bit cheaper per pound than the rump roast and there was more of it at the store. i also only used 3 pounds instead of the 6 - i am, after all, a poor college student cooking for one, sometimes 3. i put the roast in the pot and seasoned on top of it. since i halved the beef, i eased up on the spices, too, but i am a student of the rachael ray school of cooking, so i just seasoned until it looked good. half of the onion soup packet, half of the jar of pepperoncinis - i just eyeballed it all. also, on the pepperoncinis, i got sliced instead of whole, which eliminates the de-stemming step. this morning, from fridge to crockpot was ten whole minutes. then, when i got home tonight, it took another ten to get it ready for my tummy.

this is what it looked like when i walked in the door. i put the beef into a separate bowl and proceeded to shred. this is a good time to get out any fat, and for a couple of reasons. one, when you take the beef out, it tends to separate itself along the fat lines. two, if you do it right then, you don't have to think about it later. i'm all about the simplification. there really wasn't much fat on the roast anyway, so it didn't take much time. then the beef went back into the juice. a word of caution here - it will splash, and it will be hot. keep your bare arms out of the way because if not, ouch! i put my little sammiches together on those little hawaiian dinner rolls, because seriously, who doesn't love them? topped off with some cheese - i used mexican blend because it's what i had on hand - and a little cup of juice for dipping. i was quite pleased with myself.

the cost breakdown was as follows:
3# chuck roast $13.44
pepperoncinis $1.72
hawaiian dinner rolls $2.98
the onion soup, cheese, and spices were on hand, but let's say (leaving lots of room) $5 there.
which brings us to $23.14 for the whole meal, before tax. i'm estimating 12 meals out of it, so that's about 2 bucks a meal, which i can totally swing. hey, almost as cheap as mcdonald's, and a whole lot tastier!

now for the scoring breakdown:

• ease of prep - 5!
• multiple parts/same pot - 2
  this really didn't have any other parts, but i don't think it needed any. granted, a vegetable wouldn't have hurt, but under the "keep it simple" premise, i didn't want to mess with it.
• cooks for 6-8 hours - 5
  i left it for 6 on the dot, but i don't think any longer would have hurt it one bit.
• crockpot to table ease - 5
  ten minutes is a completely acceptable time frame in my world.
• freezer leftovers - 4
  it does go right in the freezer - it's great - but if i'm any hungrier next time i pull it out, it's going to need a side, so that's the only reason it lost a point here. what i do love, though, is that it would just take some fresh rolls to make a brand new dish.

final score - 21/25

y'all get out your crockpots and non-cook along with me! let me know what you thought!

as a side note, i tend to get a little frustrated with the lack of formatting in can do on this blog. if any of you have any pointers for the technologically challenged (i'm a no-html girl), i'd be forever indebted. thanks in advance!

crockpot chronicles: intro

y'all ready to get down to business? let's go!

i think we'll start off easy. the best idea i've come up with for that is some slow-cooker meals. i've spent some time searching the internet, my own cookbooks, and the recipe boxes of my dear family members looking for the simplest crockpot recipes. the goal was this: a meal that requires minimal preparation, has multiple parts (meat and veggies, generally) that are in the crock-pot at the same time, cooks for 6-8 hours, has a high degree of crockpot-to-table ease, and makes leftovers that can go in the freezer. this search came as a solution to several challenges. first, as a full time (plus) college student who works, i don't often have the time to come home and cook a whole meal, but on the flip side of that, i also don't have the cash to eat out every night, even if it is the mcdonald's dollar menu. second, i'd like to have something with a bit more nutritional value than whatever grade of "beef" it is that they use at taco bell. this is not to say that i don't enjoy the occasional baja chicken chalupa or fries and a diet coke, but they're not going to constitute my daily meals. (well, the diet coke might.) with these criteria in mind, i have compiled a list of recipes to test out. just to avoid my fear of the unknown for now, i'm sticking to the beef/pork/chicken family. once i get a little more confident in my cooking and i'm sure i won't kill anyone, i may branch out to seafood, but not quite yet. - i know it sounds weird, at least it did to me, but i have found some seafood crockpot recipes. the recipes i chose will be scored on a 25-point scale (that's right, this is official!), and at the end of the testing period, i'll put together a ranking for all to enjoy! this go-round i'll plan on eight recipes, which is about two weeks in my world, and they'll start tomorrow, monday. first up is going to be italian beef - yum! i'll do my best to update on a daily basis with a report of how everything went. i hope y'all enjoy, and as always, any suggestions are much appreciated! have a great week!

it's the weekend!

and it's been a pretty big one for me! i had a birthday, but the real news is...eleven inches of my hair came off yesterday and got sent off to locks of love! i haven't had any more than a trim in at least eight years, so this was, as they say, kind of a big deal. i guess i'd been wanting to cut it for a long time, and i finally worked up the nerve (and grew it long enough) to do it - gone!, just like that. chandra, the woman in the picture holding what used to be attached to my head, was wonderful. a couple short hours and a good dose of salon gossip later, we were finished. since i was making such a big change, i figured the color might as well be something brand new, too. it's going to take some getting used to, but so far, i'm loving the new 'do. i went with my parents tonight for a delicious dinner at del frisco's double eagle steakhouse here in houston. the food was outstanding! crab cakes, filet mignons, and banana bread pudding - yes, please! i feel so lucky that i still have my parents close enough to get to spend lots of time with them. as my birthday weekend draws to a close, i'd just like to send out a huge thank you and an even bigger i love you to my mom and dad. they've done more for me than i could have ever deserved, shown me over and over again what real, unconditional love looks and feels like, and they have never given up on this work in progress. thanks, mom and dad, for turning me into the woman i am today. i hope i'm a daughter you're proud to claim, because i'm sure proud to have you for parents. i love y'all!

welcome to wednesday!

i hope you're not feeling too much of a sugar hangover from all the valentine's day candy. - funny how, in my head, at least, valentine's day is just as much a candy holiday as halloween.

what's newsworthy today:

• i got a report tuesday morning from the mommy of the joys of my life (also known as my sister-in-law) that valentine's gifts arrived just in time! one heart headband even made an appearance at school on valentine's day. i feel so honored!
• i just hit my first milestone in the blog world - i have a member! so it's my mother, yes, but i would want no one else to be my first (and only, so far!) member. honored, again.

i've been toying around with a couple ideas of how to start things off here. after revisiting pinterest (is that not the best invention ever?), i noticed that my recipe board was the biggest of all, so i figured i'd start off there. details on that to come in the next couple days.

i don't want anything around here to get stale, so i'll try not to spend too long on any one topic. as i said yesterday, your comments and suggestions are not just welcome, they're encouraged!

hoping y'all are having a wonderful wednesday,
whitney

valentine's day crafts

i have two nieces (ages 6 years and 11 months) and one nephew (age almost three), and they are the joys of my life. they live a few states away, so i don't get to see them as often as i'd like to, but they're my favorite people to craft for! i think my mom and i will keep the post office in business with everything we send to them! hey, if grammy and aunt whitney can't spoil you, who can?

some of the inspiration for the valentine's crafts came by way of pinterest, and some by way of google searches. also, allfreecrochet.com is a great site with lots of ideas for all sorts of projects. i'll try to find the links to the sites where i got the patterns for all these goodies, and i will update with links as soon as they're found. until then, i'll just share the pictures of the finished products!

heart elephant for c, age 11 months

"moomintroll" for d, age 2 years 11 months

bobble bag and headbands for a, age 6

as relatively new crocheter, i am quite proud of my efforts. there is certainly room to improve, but i think it's a pretty good start! i hope my little ones enjoy their goodies, because i sure enjoyed making them! happy valentine's day! ♥

welcome!

i'd like to take this opportunity to welcome y'all to my version of the deep south! i hope this valentine's day finds you well and with lots of chocolates, whether your sweetie bought them for you or your momma did.

i'm a georgia peach by birth, and, after a stint above the mason-dixon, where my love for cardinals baseball was cultivated, i became a rough-and-tumble texan by transplant. the road to where i am hasn't always been smooth, but i'm currently two semesters away from (finally) graduating with my bachelor of arts degree in spanish from the university of houston. the plan then is to continue my education, although the where/what questions remain unanswered at this point. during my free time (can y'all hear the sarcasm?), i wait tables, which has become my main motivation for finishing my degree. when all is said and done, i'd like to have a huge front porch east of the mississippi and south of the mason-dixon where i can sit and sip my sweet tea while i watch a bunch of kiddos catch lightning bugs on those summer evenings that seem to stretch out forever. until then, i'd like to share with y'all my love of cooking, crafting, and entertaining. (for the sake of full disclosure, i must say that my opinions on myriad subjects may sneak in from time to time.) i am, by no means, an expert in any of these areas, and i'm a something of a beginner in at least one of them, but i hope we can all share and learn together.

i'd love any suggestions y'all have, or ideas for anything new to try. again, welcome, and i hope this is a fantastic time!