The Hardest Part of this blog....

So when I started this blog, it wasn't coming up with new recipes to share, or telling you the inspirations the meal was created from.  It was the fact I never measure a damn thing unless I am baking..  And since my Sister Wife Snow is the baking wife and I'm the bacon wife (long story peoples) I never have really needed to measure anything when I cook.  I just judge by taste, consistency and whatnot.  Then I decided to make this and now I have to give you measurements.  So without further ado here is my first actual recipe posting attempt and hopefully it turns out.

Tonight's dinner  was actually inspired from a pic of something I saw waiting in a grocery store check out line on one of those over priced cooking mags you see in the check out lane. 

Its called Cheesey Chicken Surprise

  Ingredients:


3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 box (about half a pound) of Penni Noodles
1/2 block of Velveta cubed (I hate the stuff except for this meal)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk

Crunchy topping
 1 Box Stove Top
1/2 cup melted butter

Preheat Oven to 375

Add Pasta to boiling water

While pasta is cooking grill up chicken breasts using your favorite  seasoning (I prefer something with a little kick)  then cut up chicken into small bite sized cubes.

In a sauce pan add the milk and cubed velveta and stir until velveta is completely melted. 
Stir in sour cream and cheddar cheese is completely blended.

Drain Noodles and pour back into pan.  Stir in the cheese sauce until fully blended and add chicken

Crunchy topping:
Take 1 box of stove top and grind with a food processor or use a rolling pin and a freezer bag until its ground down. 

Microwave 1/2 cup butter until melted and combine with stovetop until it makes a nice topping.

Pour Noodles into a casserole dish and cover with stovetop topping and cook at 375 for about 30 minutes.

This meal will serve 6-8 adults, and I'm sure you can cut the calorie count down by substituting the butter with some home water, or replacing the sour cream with some cottage cheese.  But this is a fantastically rich and creamy meal that even my two year old loves eating.

If you have any questions about this recipe, please feel free to leave a comment.

 

"Ethnic" Food for thought....

So if you were like me growing up in the Tri-Cities, eating ethnic food meant once a year you got to go to Chinese Gardens for Almond Chicken and Pork Fried rice.  As I got older, my taste buds developed, and the Tri-Cities started growing into something almost resembling a real town, we got more cuisines from lands I'll probably never get to visit.

    Indian food has always intrigued me because of the colors and spices they used.  So one day my wife and I went to India Palace around 3:00 pm.  The place was empty except for 2 of the oldest Indian people I have ever laid eyes on.  After sitting down, the old lady comes up to me and hands me a cordless phone.  Now at this point I am mildly confused and a little amused.  I say "Hello?"  wondering who may be on the other end.  Another Indian voice says "You want the lunch special?"  Looking over at the lunch buffet and realizing that it was about 2 hours past its prime we got up and left.  Then about 3 months later I went with some co-workers  and tried again, this time, it was an utter disappointment and I think 2 of them got food poisoning.

If any of you know me you know I wasn't about to give up on an entire countries cuisine due to 2 bad experiences.  So I decided to make Tandoori Chicken myself.  And I needed an ingredient called garam masala.  And if you know anything about Tri-Cities Grocery stores, this turned into a wild goose chase.  I finally decided to try the asian market/pho restaurant in the Richland Uptown next to the Octopus Gardens.

We walk in and its like every bodega you've seen in every movie.  Sparse merchandise, weird stuff from far away lands.  And then out from behind the curtain comes an old Vietnamese guy with one of those weird stump arms, you know the one where it ends at the elbow but not rounded off.  So now I feel guilty for interrupting whatever secret business he had going on behind the mysterious curtain so I buy a packet to make Chicken Sattay. A packet that I threw in my cupboard until this morning when I decided to make it.  So I pull the packet out turn it over to read the directions and find this:

Now my Vietnamese being a little rusty I figured I could wing it, I mean how complicated could this be.  I open the package, and out falls Packet A and Packet B.  Son of a Biscuit eating Bulldog....  So I open both and sniff, guessing the first one is a marinade of some kind and the second being a peanut sauce of the gravy variety.   SOOOOOOOO  to make a long story short(ish)  Dinner wasn't a grand success but did turn out eatable.  Here's a pic of the final product with some fried rice and naan (indian flat bread).

If you REALLY want the recipe, leave a comment below and I will post it.  Other wise I will posting actual recipes sooner or later here. 


And if there is any recipe you'd like me to make and post here, just let me know and I'll do my best to make it.

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times.....  Who would want more?

And so it begins....

So I've been asked to post some of my recipes...  So in my infinite wisdom I've decided to start a cooking blog.  Not sure how often it will be updated but I will try to make it different from the deluge of other cooking blogs out there by giving you the back story, costs and pictures of the meals I'll be cooking.

Now about my cooking background....  I have none.  I was living with my wife in Finley WA (for those of you that don't know the area be thankful) and our meals consisted of Taco Bell and KFC every night.  Then the miracle of BBQ week on Food Network happened and I was hooked.  I went out to our scrap heap (yes, in Finley everyone has a scrap heap)  and I fashioned together a BBQ out of an old hot water heater, a hubcap, and some old pieces of metal. 

After that I began to explore other cooking techniques that didn't involve me standing out in the snow cooking red meat.  Since that fateful week I have been building a cooking repertoire that rivals that of your grandma cooking Sunday Supper... 

Now most of my stuff isn't low calorie, or fat free..  But it is Flavorly (my wife's most used word when it comes to my cooking) and usually not to difficult to make.  And just remember, if the food is made with love, no matter how bad it tastes, your family will appreciate the effort. 

I will post pics of tonight's dinner in a few hours.