A Bachelor Party

Today my *tuttah and I went over to our parents home to surprise our mother with dinner.

*a tuttah is an endearing nickname for a lady of whom you share the same mother

She came up with a diabolical plan to surprise our mother with an afternoon of watching The Bachelor and giggling while eating the most scrumptious food.

We made: 

Poppyseed Chicken Salad with Red Grapes and Toasted Almonds on Homemade Bread

and

Raspberry and Lemon Sorbet served in Sparkling White Grape Juice

Mid way through the most horrible, trashy, and WONDERFULLY entertaining t.v. we had our dessert.

I love the companionship of women.  

There is nothing in the world like it.  

You can laugh together, cry together, dream together, and tell each other secrets that no one else in the world could understand.  It is always something that I crave.  I love the safety that is found in the unit that my mother and sister and I have.  We have an unbreakable bond and an unconditional and eternal love for each other...

...even if all we are doing is watching Brad Womack breaking hearts.

Burnt Cheese

Is there anything better than melted buttery cheese taken almost to the point of incineration?

No.  No, there is not.

This past Sunday we went to church and as John and I were dutifully tending to our church calling in the nursery with wee little ones, I thought hard about what to make for dinner.

After much pondering, here is what I came up with.

Mr. Murphy has declared this to be his new favorite way to eat chicken. He has lovingly named this concoction: 

"Rotastic Chicken"

-I beat 3 voluptuous breasts of chicken to death with a hammer. (I have yet to equip our kitchen with a mallet.)

-Then I seasoned each side with sea salt and fresh cracked black peppercorn pepper.

-I cut thick slices of pepperjack cheese and rolled them up in to the now flattened chicken breasts.

-I cooked all three breasts at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Or maybe it was 400 degrees.  Yeah, I definitely don't remember that part.

-At 20 minutes I took them out and poured a can of "Hot Rotel" over the sizzling chicken.  I also added some hot salsa.

-I let it cook for another 15-20 minutes and then took them out and served them with:

black beans

brown rice

and

creamed corn

The next day we ate the rest of our chicken, beans, and rice for left-overs and John prepared it for us.  When I sat down at the table to eat he blessed our food and then told me that there was a surprise under my rice and beans.

Giddy with excitement I squealed, "What can it be?!?"  Then I uncovered something heavenly.

It was a pile of burnt cheese. 

Now that folks is real love.  He is the ultimate eternal companion.

A Bag Full

I love grocery shopping.  I just really do.

I love driving to the grocery, I love walking in to the grocery with my cloth bags.  I love going isle by isle and picking each thing out. I love checking out.  I really love that John and I are big kids now and can pay for all of our own stuff.  I love carrying all of my groceries to the car.  One of my favorite sights of all is looking in my backseat with a car full goodies.  It makes me smile to see bags full of yummy things coming home to my kitchen.

Yesterday I went to the grocery and came home with these...

(we are cooking vegetarian for some friends Wednesday night, hence the tofu)

and made this...

Homemade bread and jam (for this recipe go here)

Bacon Wrapped Chicken in a Creme Sauce (here)

and

Broccoli Salad

The Hubs loved it dearly.  He has been asking for broccoli salad basically since we got married.  The moment finally came and he acted like it was Christmas.  That always makes me feel like I am the bomb wife.  So right before we got ready to eat Johns phone butt dialed our Pops.  He heard the prayer and he heard us both squeal with excitement as we started to eat.  Oops.

Anyway, it was a...

(FHE)

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The Mother of Invention

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

That is what my good friend Lisa would always tell me.  I used to be her "sous chef" before she left on her mission to Finland.  Yes, Finland...that's a weird place to go.

So, after church today the Mr. and I arrived at our humble abode with the thought, "What are we going to eat, we have nothing in the house!"  So, I went searching and found several vegetables and some chicken and rice.  I picked up my "go to" cookbook...

...and we found a skeleton of a recipe to work with.  We had the basics, chicken and brown rice.  So, we went from there, throwing in a little bit of everything in as we went.

We agreed that tonight would be our "last supper".  We are starting P90X tomorrow...We have mixed feelings.  

We love food, a lot, a whole dang lot. But we also want to be healthy and attractive people.  Hmmm...what to do?

So, we started throwing things together. 

Chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika. (about 3 breasts)

Add 3/4 cup brown rice

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup BBQ sauce (we did the homemade kind because apparently ours is an escape convict from our fridge...nowhere to be found.)

1 8oz. can of tomato sauce

2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

After throwing several ingredients around in the kitchen we felt satisfied with what was in there.  It smelled yummy and we wanted a nap.  So, we turned that awesome crock pot on high and went for a snooze and a snuggle.

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3 hours

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We had this delicious new creation.  Sometimes, NOT having a recipe is the best thing.  It allowed us to get creative and do some freeing hippie cooking, where anything goes.  HOW LIBERATING!

It tasted kind of Caribbean, so we put pineapple chunks on top and used tortillas as our utensils. OH. My. Gosh.

(next time we won't use 4 JALAPEÑOS!)

So, then it was time for our "last dessert".  One of John's favorite things I make are my fruit crumbles.  So, I used up the leftover frozen berries from our smoothies and made a quick quadruple berry crumble.

Then, the real gluttony ensued.  I tried to make homemade cinnamon whipped cream.  I made the mistake of buying half and half instead of heavy whipping cream.  All that stuff did was foam about 4 inches up!  So, we thought fast and decided to try and make it in to ice cream.  (Necessity really IS the mother of invention.)

In order not to shame ourselves, I will not include the contents of what we had to put in to the half and half mixture in order to make it ice cream ready.

We used our homemade ice cream recipe to make Cream Cheese Cinnamon Ice Cream! Oh, just kill me now!

John, right before he went in to diabetic shock from all of the sugar.

I think I will just throw away the rest of this...unless someone wants to come over and eat it for us?


Lesson learned: you probably have more meals in your kitchen than you think.

Garden Roses and Pecan Chicken

What is it about fresh flowers in the house that just makes everything alright? I have learned that simply buying fresh flowers makes you want to keep your home cleaner. Like you want to make your home worthy of these beauties.

I've always thought that roses were sort-of cheesy. But I found these Garden Roses at our grocery and I fell in love. They are so feminine and they look like something I would want to either eat or lay my head on. I can't decide.

We had the best chicken ever the other night. I mean really. I decided to try this recipe because after John went on the guys weekend with my Dad, Pawpaw, and my brothers. He came come raving about a dinner he had in the mountains at the restaurant on the top of Mount Pisgah in Asheville. He said he had Pecan Crusted Chicken.

Whoa! Fancy Shmancy!

I considered this a challenge; I had to make it better than what he had. There was much success. This recipe just rocks. All I would say is add some more cinnamon! (and maybe some more sugar too...)

Recipe:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 pinch white sugar
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

(OH! Paula!)

Directions:

1.In a small bowl, mix the eggs with the milk. Put aside.

2.In a medium bowl, mix together flour, seasoning, cinnamon, pecans, sugar, and salt and pepper.

*I used a hammer and smashed the pecans in to little bits so it stuck to the chicken better!

3. Dip the chicken in the egg mix, and press in the pecan mix.

4. Fry in hot olive oil until golden, about 5 to 10 minutes. Check to make sure the pecans don't burn. Place on paper towel to drain.

Well, I'm off to make my husband watch "Baby Mama" with me. Ooooo oooooooo. We are going to have a race to the bedroom and then count to three as we hurl ourselves backwards on to our luxurious down comforter and a mountainous pile of 9 pillows. We are just little kids in big bodies.