Chicago Trip - Lindy's Chili

Ever since I was a little girl my grandfather has been taking me to Lindy's Chili. He knows all the waitresses there since he used to work nearby and the chili is outstanding. You can always count on a good, solid meal at Lindy's. This time I had a cheeseburger:


... that came on a soft bun with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion. I added a squirt of ketchup and a smear of mayo. SP and I shared the chili cheese fries:


... although if I'm being honest, I could have eaten the whole basket myself. The fries are hand-cut with the skins on, cooked to a crispy, golden brown before being smothered in cheese and Lindy's fantastic chili.

Bird in a Basket

Seems we have a lodger in the hanging flower basket on our front porch:


I first noticed something was up a week or so ago when I opened the door to leave for work and not one but two birds flew out of the basket. Pink petals went everywhere. I thought it was a one-time thing, but when we were away my mom mentioned a bird was nesting in the basket. When we got home I noticed that the bird was still there, only this time it wasn't leaving when we opened and closed the door. I wonder if there's an actual bird's nest in the basket. If it ever leaves I'll have to investigate, although I don't want to get too close since I know birds don't like humans messing with their nests. I'd hate for there to be eggs in there that get abandoned because I got too close.

Spring Gift Swap

I belong to a cooking board and to celebrate spring we did a Spring Gift Swap. Names were chosen at random using Elfster and today when I got home there was a big box waiting on the front porch for me from Brianna at ...A cookie a day. Yay! I love getting packages in the mail.

Here's the box after I opened it:


I love that everything was wrapped so it was a surprised to open each item. The first thing I unwrapped was the granola:


... followed by the preserves:


... and then the cookies:


In addition to the food she also sent pot holders, wooden spoons and a whisk:


Here's all the gifts together:


There was also a set of dish towels and another jar of preserves. I'm so excited by all these wonderful gifts. I can't wait to use them. Thank you SO much, Brianna!

Back from Chicago

Hello! I'm sorry for the lack of posting lately. At least it was for a fun reason - we were in Chicago for a long weekend visiting my grandparents. We left very, very early Friday morning (yay for 3am wake-ups...groan) and had a great weekend in the Windy City.

I have a bunch of food pictures to upload, as well as some pictures from the aquarium where SP swears I got the horrible head cold I'm still dealing with. Let me tell you, flying is bad enough when you feel 100%. Add a head cold to the mix and you have one very uncomfortable trip. Thankfully it was a very short flight and we didn't have any delays. Actually, we were quite surprised by how smooth our experience was. Going out and coming back were both fine - no delays, bags arrived in one piece and on time, etc.

I will try to upload and write these posts this week, but I have a feeling it might not happen until the weekend. Like I said, I'm still dealing with this cold and since I was off Friday and Monday and called out sick on Tuesday, I felt I had to come into work today. I foresee a very early night tonight. I haven't cooked since we've been back and since we don't have any food in the house I don't think I'll be cooking until this weekend.

Thanks for your patience. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming soon!

Meatball Subs

Our freezer is offically bare. This was the last of the meat, 2 pounds of ground beef turned into meatballs for meatball subs:


I didn't feel like frying the meatballs so I baked them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. The sauce was simply tomatoes, onion and garlic seasoned with a little red pepper flake and oregano. The meatballs were made by mixing the beef with onions, garlic, parsley, an egg, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and grated cheese. I could have used another egg to make them a little softer. I usually make my meatballs with meatloaf mix (beef, pork and veal) so these seemed a little lacking, but overall they were pretty good.

I filled the rolls with some sauce, sliced meatballs and topped with more sauce and some mozzarella cheese. Yum!

Kicked-Up Chicken, Potatoes, Asparagus

Another quick dinner - chicken, potatoes and asparagus - kicked up a notch:


After I pounded out the chicken I coated it in egg and then breadcrumbs mixed with cheese. They shallow fried while the potatoes cooked. Once they were done I tossed them with butter, salt and pepper. I used the grilled asparagus leftover from Mother's Day to make the asparagus with fried egg that we love so much. The egg and cheese with the asparagus is a great combo.

Spaghetti with Marinara and Ricotta

I always run into this problem on Mondays - I don't plan far enough ahead and have to scrounge for dinner. It was made worse this week because we were basically out of everything and hadn't had a chance to stock up at the wholesale club. But we always have pasta and cans of tomatoes so I made a quick sauce and served it over angel hair:


We still had some ricotta leftover so I added a dollop to my serving. I love the creaminess it imparts. A good, solid meal.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. We went to my parent's house for a cookout. We started the afternoon with some noshy things:


... including mozzarella balls with sundried tomatoes, garlic and herb cheese and olives, along with crackers and mini toast. I made deviled eggs:


... and just realized I never actually ate one. Whoops! I only had 10 egg halves due to issues peeling the hardboiled eggs.

My stepfather grilled some burgers and the rest of the spread included my mom's potato salad:


... grilled asparagus:


... and spinach salad with warm bacon dressing:


My plate, with a little of everything:


I was famished when we got to my parent's house and I made the mistake of filling up on the noshies. As a result I only ate most of my burger, a little potato salad and spinach salad. I didn't get to the asparagus at all. I was just too full. But luckily there were a ton of leftovers so I have asparagus for later in the week.

For dessert my stepdad got gelato from a local store:


He got chocolate, blood orange and lemon. All mixed together they produced the most amazing flavor combo. The citrus really cut the richness of the chocolate. This place does an amazing job.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you!

Scrambled Eggs with Spanish Rice

I had a little more Spanish rice leftover so on Sunday I used the rest of it to make scrambled eggs with rice:


This didn't work quite as well as the previous breakfast, but it was still tasty. The scrambled eggs got lost in the rice so I think fried is the way to go. The salsa and sour cream were excellent additions, though.

Leftovers for Breakfast

I love when I have a brainstorm that turns out to be a really great idea. We had some Spanish rice leftover and I needed a quick plan for breakfast this morning when it dawned on me - fried eggs, Spanish rice and sliced avocado.


I reheated the rice in a skillet with a touch of oil while I fried the eggs. The avocado I simply sliced, drizzled with lemon juice, salt and pepper. This was a fantastic breakfast. The yolk from the egg with the rice was a revelation. I'm always amazed by eggs - they can transform dishes I would never think would go well with eggs. The rice was just as good as the first night, if not better, and creamy, buttery avocado is always a plus in my book.

Pizza Friday

Last night we had another Pizza Friday pizza, this time with mushrooms and black olives:


After last week's bubbly pie I was excited to see that this one stayed nice and flat. I knew it was going to be a good pie as I was rolling out the dough. I guess the warmer weather is working in my favor because I rolled this dough out with no problems.


Not only did it look beautiful, it tasted fantastic. After one bite SP gave me the thumbs up. In fact, it was so good we ended up eating the whole pizza in one sitting (over the course of an hour or so). Yum!

Buffalo Chicken Tenders and Potato Salad

I love simple meals that taste so much better then you anticipated. We love chicken wings made with Frank's hot sauce, so I really wasn't concerned about the flavor elements of this meal, but we were both very impressed by how amazing this meal was. Both these recipes came from the May issue of Everyday Food.


The All-American Buffalo Chicken Tenders couldn't have been easier to put together. I did make a few changes (I didn't have buttermilk so I breaded the chicken in egg and milk first then dipped them into the flour) and I used Marie's blue cheese dressing instead of making my own, but the end result was the same. Have I mentioned how much we love Frank's hot sauce?

I made the Potato Salad with Celery and Scallions on Tuesday because it had to sit overnight, but it kept really well in the fridge for two days when I had to change my dinner plans around to accomodate a trip to the vet last night. This meal came together in less than 30 minutes, a definite winner in my book!

Avocado Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, Black Beans

I know Cinco de Mayo was on Monday, but my home life has been a little topsy-turvy lately so our celebratory meal didn't happen until last night. A woman on a cooking board I frequent recently shared a recipe for Avocado Enchiladas that sounded fantastic. Really, when it comes to avocados, you can't go wrong in my book. I love everything about them so I knew this recipe would be a winner.


I basically tripled the recipe so I'd end up with 6 enchiladas. I also used the enchilada sauce from this recipe and it was perfect. It's a great, simple sauce recipe and it made enough for me to have some leftover for another time.

My buddy Melissa has a recipe for Spanish Rice that I've been dying to try so I finally made it last night. This was seriously the best Spanish rice I've ever had. And it was so simple to make. Yum!

Black beans rounded out the meal. I got a recipe from a coworker (I used canned beans, but the idea was the same). I liked the flavor a lot, but the texture needed some work. Of course SP told me after dinner that he isn't a fan of beans (except for refried). Oh well. The rice and enchiladas were stellar so I'll definitely be making this meal again.

Avocado Enchiladas
Modified from ...But where do you get your protein?

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1 can (14.5 ounces) reduced sodium chicken broth

1 ½ tablespoons chili powder

1 small canned chipotle chile in adobo, minced, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from can

6 ripe avocados, sliced in half, pit removed and flesh scooped out
1/2 a small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
Lime juice
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 teaspoon cumin
Salt and black pepper to taste
12 flour tortillas
Grated sharp Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
Additional cilantro leaves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium saucepan, heat 1 ½ tablespoons oil over medium. Add flour and cook, whisking occasionally, 1 minute. Add broth, chili powder, chipotle and adobo sauce, and ¾ cup water; bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat, and simmer until lightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

Spray a glass baking dish with cooking spray. Mash up the avocado in a glass bowl. Add the onion, garlic, cilantro, cumin, tomatoes, jalapeno, lime juice, and salt and pepper. Mix together as you would if you were making guacamole.

Spoon the avocado mixture into the tortillas and roll them up. Place tortillas in the prepared baking dish and cover with enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with additional cilantro just before serving.

Clams Casino Pasta

I know not every recipe can be a winner, but Cook's Country rarely lets me down. But I have to say, this was just plain bad:


It looks good, doesn't it? Vibrant colors, lots of good bits like bacon and fresh breadcrumbs, but it was just not good. I want to like canned clams because of their convenience factor, but I think it's time to admit that I just don't like the flavor.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I ate a few bites of this, pushed the plate away and had a peanut butter, banana and Nutella muffin instead. SP was also excited for this meal but he told me he tried the leftovers I gave him for lunch and wasn't a fan. Oh well. You win some and you lose some. I just hate when I lose.

Burger and Fries

When your husband is sick you tend to make concessions to things you wouldn't normally agree to. At least that's what happens to me on the rare occasions when SP isn't feeling his best. Such was the case this weekend when we ran some errands on Saturday before hunkering down for the weekend. He wanted frozen hamburgers, specifically Bubba Burgers, and I was feeling bad for him so I obliged.

Last night we needed something easy for dinner so I decided to try the burgers:


The results were OK. Nothing stellar and nowhere near as good as homemade, but they were decent. In an effort to acknowledge Cinco de Mayo I used pepper Jack cheese and pickled jalapeno slices on the burgers, along with bacon and lettuce.

As for the fries, I decided to throw caution to the wind and deep-fry them. I just let them sit in the hot oil, bubbling away, for probably 20 minutes in an attempt to get them crispy. I think I succeeded, but I still didn't like the flavor the oil imparted (and I used vegetable oil, which shouldn't have much of a flavor at all). Maybe I need to look into peanut oil...

Macaroni & Cheese

Sunday night I made macaroni and cheese:


I didn't realize until I started making the sauce that we were out of cheddar cheese. We always have a ton on hand, so I forgot to check. We did have a very small amount (maybe 1/4 cup when it was grated), so I had to throw together a bunch of cheeses I found in the cheese drawrer - pepper Jack, provolone and a smidge of blue cheese crumbles. I threw in a small head of chopped broccoli that needed to be used and I topped the casserole with panko, which didn't work so well. Fresh bread crumbs would have been a lot better.

The sauce was seriously lacking in cheesy flavor, probably due to the missing cheddar. I should have compensated with some Dijon for flavor. And I'm not sure why the photo is so pink/orange. My apologies!

Muffins

A woman on a cooking board I frequent posted a recipe for Peanut Butter and Banana Nutella Muffins last week and I knew I had to make them.


Not only was it an easy recipe to prepare (I did all the mixing by hand and we all know I'm not a baker), it used ingredients I almost always have in my pantry.


The finished product was moist and flavorful, but I definitely skimped on the Nutella:


Next time I'll make more muffins (I think I ended up with 19) so I can cram more of that fantastic Nutella into each muffin. Yum!

Sunday Breakfast

Sunday morning I made us a hearty breakfast:


... of scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, bacon and hash browns.

Signs of Spring

I've been meaning to take pictures of some of our flowers. This is the hanging basket on our front porch:



One of the trees in our front yard is absolutely gorgeous. I didn't realize until I was discussing it with a coworker that it's a dogwood tree. I need to remember to take pictures of it in the fall/winter because it has these amazing red berries. So nice. Here it was a few weeks ago:


This is when I thought it couldn't be a pink dogwood because the colors were a deep red:


But now the flowers are most definitely pink:


I just love how perfect each flower is:





We also have pink tulips:


And a few daffodils (although by now these are gone):


I love spring!!

Pizza

After we had our wings on Saturday I made pizza:


Not my best effort, unfortunately. Forgive me...I've been dealing with a sick cat and husband. The idea seemed good - portobello mushrooms sauteed with garlic, salt and pepper - but the dough didn't cooperate. I'm not sure why but it had air bubbles everywhere, making the pizza look almost alien. It was still thin crust, despite it's resemblance to a Pizza Hut pizza in the above photo. It tasted good, but I wasn't thrilled with its appearance.