Honey Pecan Chicken

No pictures for this one guys. I know you are disappointed but relax, sit down, and enjoy the ride. I told you I love food porn, therefor I have a massive cookbook collection. I have made few things out of any of the cookbooks but I have them and that's all that matters. the one great thing is that with the advent of the Internet I can look at recipes all day long for FREE!! I love it, only problem is that I then print, print, print and now I have tons of 8 1/2 x 11 pages that don't fit into my recipe card book. Every once in a blue moon I get pissed off at the stack of recipes and purge some and write down the rest to be filed in my card index. Oh the joys of cooking. Going back to my non-virtual cookbooks, I have had this weight watchers cookbook for years and only ever made one thing out of it, Wild Mushroom Risotto, which is damn good by the way ( I will hook y'all up with the recipe one day). I was skimming through it the other day, checking out the pictures, getting hungrier by the second when I saw a dish called honey pecan chicken. Well the name sounded tasty so that was check one. Then I noticed the recipe contained 5 ingredients, one of which was chicken, huge check two for me. Then I saw the picture and man did it look good. I decided okay time to break out of my one recipe per cookbook mold that I had been following. So I made it and I am glad I did. This is definitely a recipe to move into your regular rotation. I served it with broiled asparagus and mashed potatoes but most anything would go well with it. Good eats my friends.

Honey Pecan Chicken
Ingredients:
2 or 3 thin cut chicken breasts (or you can just pound the ones you got thin)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (can do in a food processor or can put in a bag and pound away)
2 tbsp crushed cornflakes ( can also use total)
2 tbsp honey
2tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce (I used Cantonese sauce b/c it was all I had and it tasted just as good)

-Preheat the oven to 425
-Mix the pecans and cornflakes and put on a flat dish with a lip
-Mix the honey and soy sauce together in a bowl
-Dip the chicken in the honey mixture, then the pecan mixture, then place on a greased dish
**for easy clean up just put foil over the dish, spray the foil with PAM, and put the chicken on that. Throw foil away after.
-Bake the chicken for 10-15 minutes. If the chicken is thin it wont take long to cook so keep an eye on it.
-Eat the chicken

Hilarious Olan Mills Photography

I have to give you the link to one of my favorite blog sites' (List of the Day) most hilarious posts. The reason I love this post so much is for the pictures and the awesome captions written by Cary underneath. The captions are priceless. I wish I had the talent to come up with stuff this good but I don't so I shall just direct you to someone who can deliver. Follow the link for some laughs and good times. I am also posting a couple of my baby pics, straight olan mills style. Olan Mills knew how to do some great portraits. My parents never did get a shot of me in "the library" though, but check it out; you can see a primitive fence in the background. Also that green shag carpeting made to resemble grass does not look so safe. Can carpet contain asbestos? Please, no fat kid jokes. Oh and the last picture is of my parents. I hope that I can one day have a wedding portrait taken as spectacular and incredibly dated as that one.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup Recipe!

Now I realize the picture does not look too yummy; I think my everyday dishes suck at food photography. That being said, this recipe is super good. I picked it up over at Simply Recipes The recipe is super easy and is perfect with a simple grilled cheese sandwich. The perfect cold weather food, or if you are like me, the perfect any weather food. Now I made this recipe with pre-roasted red peppers. I am sure it would be more delicious with homemade roasted red peppers but I didn't have the time. So if you want to make your own roasted red peppers follow these steps: Roast the red bell pepper by placing it over or under an open flame until it is blackened on all sides. (You can use a grill, cook top gas burner, or oven broiler.) Place the blackened pepper in a bag, close the bag, and let the pepper steam for 10-15 minutes, or until the skin feels like it can easily be slipped off. Remove the pepper from the bag, peel off the blackened skin, remove the seeds. See I told you this was too much work. Much easier to just buy the peppers pre-roasted. Good eats my friends!

Roasted Red Pepper Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
1 can of drained roasted red peppers
3 large russet potatoes, peeled and chopped small (around 5 cups)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic
2 quarts chicken stock
1 cup hot milk or cream
1/2 stick of butter
1 tbsp ( at least!!!) Cayenne Pepper
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Cut pepper into strips. Place peppers, potatoes, garlic, and onion in a large soup pot and add the stock. Cook over medium-high heat until potatoes are soft. You can tell by sticking a fork in them, the potatoes will immediately break apart.
Add hot milk and butter. Purée in a blender or food processor until very smooth. You can also use a hand blender. Add cayenne,red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste.
Serves 6-8.

Bad Blogger, no!

I have been horrible about posting stuff. Life has been crazy, so I apologize. I know all one of y'all is sad that I am not posting more. Speaking of y'all: I am very sorry for the blatant use of the word y'all throughout my blog. If it offends you sorry, but I really don't care. Y'all is my word and I am sticking with it. Besides, its way better than you people, which is such a horribly Yankee thing to say. Haha. I am just kidding about Yankees. I am a Jew so I go hand in hand with Yankees. Though I am a southern Jew so in reality I eat grits with my matzoh. I don't even eat matzoh actually. I think it is awful and feel bad for the poor Jews wandering in the desert who didn't have time for the bread to rise. I bet they had wished that they go have eaten some delicious, perfectly risen challah. I bet they wished they could have had some french toast made out of that challah. Wow, I think I am going far beyond the boundaries of sacrilegious here so I am just gonna shut my mouth. I wanted to post some pictures of an oyster roast I attended at my friends Tre's house. The pictures are not stupendous but I love to see things in black and white. I wish there was more contrast though. Tre's oyster roast was a bit more sedate than the last one, but with us all getting older.. I mean I am almost 28, not really, I still have 6 months to go, but we are getting older; I, far slower than the rest. The one thing I did enjoy at the oyster roast was listening to a drunken discussion between a devout catholic and an atheist who began the discussion by debating why catholics didn't allow gays to marry. It then moved into morals, ethics, and all kinds of fun stuff that you should normally never talk about sober, much less wasted. Good thing all parties involved are nonviolent and not likely to get offended easily. I am going to post a recipe later today that will hopefully have you all go rushing out to buy ingredients to make the soup so get prepared and put on your shopping shoes.

Pictures for you

I am random, ask anyone. Therefore I am providing y'all with pictures of Bellas birthday party that went down a year ago. Why? Because I just thought you might enjoy looking at a bunch of dogs wearing birthday hats, eating doggy birthday cake, drinking doggy martinis- shaken not stirred. Can you tell I'm single? Let's just hope that I never wind up being the crazy cat/dog lady (they aren't the same actually; CCLs wear peasant skirts and smell like cat urine whereas CDLs wear high top reeboks, jean jammers, and are covered in dog hair). I will marry a goy if I have to. LOL. For you non-jews, a goy is a non-jew: essentially you. I am just kidding about the whole goy-marrying being a bad thing. I love Goyim ( is that even a word?). The majority of men I have dated are all goy. If I am completely messing up the grammar and syntax of the word goy be sure to let me know...I am not known for my spectacular jewishness. I actually could care less what type of religion my future hubby worships as long as he isn't religious in whatever religion he believes in. I would like some spirituality though. Actually I have been reflecting a lot on religion lately. I think its because I work with so many religious people. I feel like I don't know enough about Judaism. I actually am not really what I would consider jewish. I am as far as my cultural heritage is. I also do celebrate some holidays and do believe in many jewish beliefs but I also believe in other things that are sacriligious for jews, such as tatooing my body. I have a couple, therefor I will never be allowed to be buried in a jewish cemetary. Oh well. If it matters to me in my old age, I can always get them removed, but for now I don't care, especially because I want to donate my body to science. It sounds more noble and I can't wait until some med students carve my body up on a table. OKay, I am going to end this conversation on a positive note. I am going to leave you with a couple of dog pictures. I should probably tell you, Bellas not jewish, I think her birth mom was a Jehovas Witness.

Bella Birthday Pawty Fan-atics


Pinto Bean wears all kinds of hats


Jamie and Kili in celebration mode

Bellas the belle of the ball

Posts

Anyone know why when you look at my blog you can't see the top posts, but once you scroll down and the scroll back up you can. Anyone have any solutions???

Networking Mixer tonight at Frogs

Patrick's throwing a networking mixer at Frogs Cantina in midtown tonight. He is also having a $5 aycd keg. Should be good times. Come if you want.

Jack Handy Quote of the Week

"It takes a big man to cry. It takes and even bigger man to laugh at that man."
-Deep thoughts by Jack Handy

Photoshop-aholic

R U Ready for some photoshop???? Instead of watching my pointless but favorite show, Dancing with the Stars (I am going for the hot frenchman), I played around with photoshop and here are my results. Not great, but this is my first time trying it out. See if you can guess which 4 haven't been photoshopped. Also the more intresting pictures were all taken at Davids house in Cabbagetown.

Funny diary Entries

Excerpts from a Dog's Diary
6:00 am - At last! I Go Pee! My favorite thing!
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
6:00 pm - They're home! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!



Excerpts from a Cat's Diary

Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape.

In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches.

The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe —for now...


**I have seen both entries before circulating throughout the mass of forwards but wanted to give credit where credit is due since I did steal it straight from his page.