Dorito Chicken!

I know what you're thinking --- eww. Well, prepare to be surprised by this easy and delicious recipe! For six or seven drummies, you need 2 cups of crushed Doritos. Crack an egg and brush onto raw chicken, then shake chicken with Doritos in a closed bag. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes (or until thoroughly cooked). Enjoy!





You can see the colorful veggies Melinda made here to accompany our experiment.

Have you ever eaten a sandwich that can taken a bite out of you?

O.k....that's a line from the Simpsons when Grampa puts his false teeth in a hamburger bun so that he can liven up his job at Krusty Burger. Unfortunately his teeth sandwich gets wrapped up and served to a drive through customer. And it does bite the customer.

I did not try to eat a false teeth sandwich but I did try lengua this past weekend! Lengua is tongue and it is popular in Mexican dishes. Presumably, the taco could taste me...right?? I had a taco that looks very similar to this one:

It was good! It surprised me that it was gray which almost constantly reminded me that it was not a "regular" meat to me but a special meat. And that specialness was the fact that it was tongue. If you looked closely at it, you could also see the tastebuds but I tried not to look too closely.

It was very tender and tasted like chicken but a very tender chicken. The taco pictured above is pretty much like it was served: lengua, cilantro, onion on a flour tortilla. I'm not a big fan of cilantro so I took large chunks of it off but I kept some of it.

My advice is to try it! But if you can't get past the gray color (and it was really hard for me), I suggest mixing it into your rice and beans or covering it with salsa. I couldn't finish my meal so I saved it as a leftover and mixed it was my chalupa fixin's. When I couldn't see the grayness, I ate it readily. I could have not cheated but it was much easier to eat both items (chalupa and lengua) all mixed together.

I have heard that some lengua is served in a sauce so if you try it in a different restaurant, you might see something not gray. Or it might be cooked differently and not look the same. Any way you try it, try it! It's worth a trip out of your comfort zone :)

Update from the Booklahver

I have seriously neglected this blog as well as all blogs. What can I say?? I'm lazy.

So here's an update on Booklahver and Mr. Wonderful life:

*Today I ate a meal I entirely prepared myself!! Yeah! It's Shake'n'Bake and I hay-lped!
Seriously, I did make all the things I'm eating with the exception of the chocolate-covered cherry and the free snacks that were calling my name from the breakroom. What was my magnificent lunch feast? I had cabbage and potatoes (the potatoes were scalloped from a box but the cabbage was from the CSA), kohlrabi with honey, butter, and carrots, and 2.5 tea-soaked eggs. The kohlrabi and carrots were from the CSA and the eggs were from our very local family farm. It was pretty good. Next time I make the kohlrabi, I'm going to treat them like carrots. I'm not a big fan of sweet veggies.

*The CSA and my perception of it has gotten a lot better. Mr. Wonderful and I had a heart to heart about the CSA and we are taking it one session at a time. It helps that we are getting more things that I know what to do with (beets, carrots, lettuce, cabbage and the like). I'm not a big fan of greens so we have been feeding wilted greens to the horses that sometimes border our fence. I suppose we can feed the cows the greens too.

*I tried to make sauerkraut. It was not successful. The problem: I did not use a good seal. I used a plate with a rock on it but I should have used a bag with water. So yeast or other bacteria got in it and made it smell funk-eee!! I may have not used enough water for the brine either.

*Complete the analogy: Booklahver loves purple.
Beets and red cabbage are purple.
Therefore, Booklahver loves _______ and _________.

Beets have become my new favorite veggie! My favorite part, besides the eating, is the beautiful color of them. I like staining my cutting board, my hands, my pans, everything with purple. It's just makes me think of the beauty in nature...man, I want some beets!

*I had a salad the other day from the salad bar at the local cafeteria. You know, it was o.k. But I missed the flavors I'm used to. And I have to say, it's because I eat locally grown food. Everything just tastes so flavorful. The salad bar food tasted alot like water, crunchy water. I know that this may sound like I'm biased but I could really taste a difference. After I drowned it in bleu cheese, not too much :)

*We are remodeling our kitchen and I am BEYOND excited! Magnolia Blossom cabinets with Yellow Brick Road trim, white tile with blues, greens, and yellows...pure heaven. Mr. Wonderful is going to install frosted glass in our cabinets to break up the monotony of the wood. Also: I pulled off half the wallpaper already. Our brown wallpaper revealed a "straight from the 80s small roses floral". In strips, no less. I also bought fabric for curtains. Triciathered and Tiny Robot helped me seal my decision. Thanks ladies!!

Th-th-th-that's all folks!

The things we do for love

Yesterday, Mr. Wonderful did not have to be at work at a specific time so I suggested he make a stew! You know, one of those "throw all this stuff in the crockpot" kind of things. Well, he did (after modifying a recipe) and I was greeted at 5:50 with a wonderful, wonderful stew! I call it Impromptu Stew and it is full of hearty goodness that is too good to keep a secret. So here it is (I don't know the measurements for everything so I'm just going to put down ingredients with some guesstimates):

Mr. Wonderful's Impromptu Stew

2 tablespoons of oil

1 teaspoon of oregano

1 lb of bison stew meat (or use whatever meat you wish)

zucchini

squash

small red potatoes

onion

1 can of corn

flour for thickening

at least 1 cup of water

1 tablespoon of beef granules

I think that was it. It is soooo yummy! I dunked whole wheat sourdough bread and then whole wheat bread from Texas French Bread until it was so soaked, I had to use my spoon to get it out! You can put in whatever veggies you like, your own meat, just whatever you want!! I especially liked it because everything we used (with the exception of the canned corn) was local and it will be a good solution to "hurry!! we gotta eat this NOW!"

I'm surprised I had never thought of this before but then again, I'm a little gunshy in the kitchen.

Bison Bill sez: "Try bison meat!! You'll love it!"

Chicken-By-the-Seat-of-My-Pants Chicken

Last night I was charged with making dinner for the household plus 2 guests for a total of 5. Melinda told me she had put chicken in the fridge to thaw. I thought they were chicken breasts, so I searched for recipes matching that ingredient. I found one for Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Spinach, Bacon, and Bleu Cheese. It was easy and tasty-sounding. SOLD!

So I headed to HEB, bought a bunch of fresh spinach (ignoring the recipe's call for the frozen variety), some Amish-made bleu cheese, and some Doritos to snack on while I concocted dinner.

I had made 12 strips of bacon, set them to dry, and crumbled the cheese. I washed and chopped the spinach and mixed them all in a large bowl. Then I took the almost thawed chicken out of the fridge and realized there were no breasts, only tenders and dark meat. Oh dear, no stuffing was going to be possible.

After stress-eating a handful of Doritos, I calmly washed the chicken pieces and layered half on the bottom of a casserole dish. I then put the cheese/bacon/spinach mixture on top, and covered that with the remaining chicken pieces. I baked the dish (covered) for 45 minutes at 375. It turned out fairly well. Unfortunately I forgot to make a starch...rice or something so Melinda graciously made toast. As everyone finished their bowl o' chicken, I think the experiment turned out fairly well.