Turning 30

I turned 30 a week or so ago...old I know!  Both sides of my family had GREAT dinners and desserts to celebrate.  I took pictures of the desserts...both cakes were Delicious!  This is for sure where Isaac gets his love of cake from.
Mimi (seth's mom) made a chocolate mint cake with a cream cheese mint frosting, my mom made a lemon blueberry pound cake AND mint chocolate brownies.  Did you guess yet that two of my favorite things are mint and chocolate.  To die for!!!

Along with these dinners and desserts I received many presents.  One being a VERY nice bread machine.  Well...let me tell you, it is a bit annoying currently.  I have posted many many success stories of my cooking and baking and decided to also share a failure times two.  How hard can it be, you add the ingredients in the order listed, hit a few buttons and wait approximately 3 hours while the machine does the work.  Easy right?
WRONG!!!!

Friday I attempted to make my first loaf of bread and it was a disaster.  Then I attempted another one...turned out slightly better but still considered a failure.  Seth decided to try one today (saturday) and it turned out fine.  I don't get it...I have no idea what I did wrong twice...there goes the easy factor of the bread machine.  My peasant bread you make in a bowl turns out WAY better than me and this new bread machine.  Tomorrow Seth is trying one of the recipes I made and we will see what happens.  So far all attempts have been different recipes on different settings.  I am convinced my setting is broken...it can not be operator error when it just seems so simple.
Enjoy and laugh at the pictures!

pepperoni swiss cheese "bread": disaster number one

huge holes on the bottom (bread was as hard as a rock)

rosemary olive oil "bread" doughy on the inside...very dense and heavy and as you can see lop sided.

slow cooked BBQ chicken

Oh my goodness...this recipe Addy ate 3 helpings of and I think she would have kept eating if I wouldn't have cut her off.  Isaac ate his helping and did not complain....so all in all I would say this was a great recipe. We (adults) also loved it because it had a little spice mixed with the sweet.  We ended up shredding our chicken/tearing it apart to add more sauce to the middle portions.  The meat just fell apart it was so moist and tender.  So easy and fast...cooks for hours and fills your house with a great small for hours!

BBQ chicken:
4 - 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts- place directly in slow cooker  Slice some raw onion to place on top of chicken breasts
Mix the following in a separate bowl:
1 bottle of sweet baby ray's bbq sauce
2 teaspoons of  minced garlic
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoons of white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes

Mix well and pour over the chicken.  Cook on low 4 - 6 hours

I used four chicken breasts

sauce

sauce poured on top ready to cook.

I don't have a picture of this cooked....since everyone was eating it up so fast.  The sauce does not stay as thick as it is when you first mix it.  Thins out while cooking, hence why we tore apart our chicken breasts a little and added sauce before we ate.  I also put some on a hamburger bun for a shredded bbq chicken sandwich and it was delicious!!!

Avocado Egg rolls with cilantro dipping sauce

This was a pinterest recipe and anyone who likes avocado NEEDS to try this.  If for nothing else to try this super cool blender trick.  However, if anyone saw my facebook status in the last couple of weeks let me advise you to wash your hands immediately after cutting the jalapeno pepper.  I did not, somehow touched my nose and thought I was a dragon breathing fire out of my nose for a good hour.  So very very painful.  However, Seth says it was worth it for the sauce.  I am not going to repeat the whole recipe and steps here, but I will share the pictures I took and the link to the recipe and steps.

who knew that you could take your blender blade and attachment and use it with a mason jar to blend up sauces.  Store your sauce in the same jar you mixed....don't have to clean your huge blender.  

avocado,sun dried tomatoes, and cilantro mixture

ready to be rolled up

all rolled

all rolled and ready to fry

DONE!! and ready to be dipped.  They were GREAT!

http://iwashyoudry.com/2012/08/31/avocado-egg-rolls-with-creamy-cilantro-ranch-dip/

Finger Food night

I needed to get a haircut but I also needed to have dinner.  So I came up with the brilliant idea to have finger foods that night so I could eat on my way to the haircut.  Success!!  Everyone was fans of the homemade chicken nuggets and pizza rolls.  Well...almost everybody of course Isaac wouldn't eat the pizza rolls, I left his roll plan.

Panko Crusted chicken nuggets:
1 cup of panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup of parmasen cheese
teaspoon of parsley
teaspoon of pepper
1/3 cup of melted butter

Cut chicken breast into small nugget size pieces, dip first in butter and then in the panko/cheese mixture.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 until golden brown.

Pizza rolls:
1 tube of crescent rolls
sliced turkey pepperoni
4 string cheese sticks (cut in half)

Place pepperoni and cheese stick on crescent roll before rolling up.  Roll crescent roll so pepperoni and cheese are inside and fold edges around so there is no meat or cheese showing.  Back at 375 until golden brown.

Pan seared Brussel sprouts with artichokes

Brussel sprouts are becoming one of my favorite vegetables.  Ever since I experienced them roasted there seems to be no stopping with the possibilities of what to do with this green vegetable.  This time around I combined the brussel sprouts with some canned artichokes and a small jar of pimentos.  Delicious!!

In a large saute pan, drizzle the bottom with olive oil, add your brussel sprouts, artichokes and the entire small jar of pimentos including the liquid.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika,basil and minced garlic.  Saute on low until brussel sprouts are tender, then turn up the flame and give them a good sear.  When browned nicely sprinkle with parmesan cheese and Enjoy!

before cooking

Done and ready to eat

BBQ Chicken with fried onions

At my house french's fried onions are a snack to the kids.  They both LOVE them, and who doesn't.  Even if you are not an onion fan, I bet you like fried onions. I am sure more people besides me have thought of this recipe, but one day it dawned on me that it would taste great on chicken.  I knew I would have to put something on the chicken to make the fried onions stick so I used honey mustard and this was delicious, the next time I used bbq sauce and that is what you will see in the pictures below. 
You coat the chicken with your choice of sauce, and then dip in the crushed onions.  Place on a cooling rack that is on top of a cookie sheet.  Back at 375 until chicken juices run clear and onions are browned and crispy.  This is so easy and so delicious.  A great alternative to shake and bake if you are a fan of that chicken you will LOVE this.

crushed onions and bbq sauce

chicken with sauce on it

coated with the crushed fried onions

after baking