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.

Fogo de Chao

Melinda and I went on a "meat date" last night to Fogo de Chao. We called it that because that's the main attraction of this place. You pay $45 a head and flip over your 'cue card' to green, and waiters bearing various cuts and varieties of meat come by your table and slice off servings onto your plate.

It was awesome!

We started off at what appeared to be the world's largest salad bar, then sat down to await the meat purveyors. I sampled pork ribs (which were mouth-wateringly good), chicken wrapped in bacon (yum!), and savory beef and lamb. There were also little sausages, but they were over-seasoned for my taste.

Our waiter was very nice and explained how everything worked. He was prompt and checked in with us often but wasn't obtrusive. Three sides come with your meal, mashed potatoes, plantains, and fried polenta (which I simply couldn't get enough of!). We also ordered a half-bottle of wine to wash everything down. The selection we enjoyed was a Merlot from the vineyards of one of the Coppolas.

This place is certainly not cheap and had Melinda not had a gift certificate, we probably would never have been able to try it; however, I enjoyed every minute! I would go again if I had the cash just lying around. The service was excellent and the food was so tasty. We stuffed ourselves so we didn't order dessert; but the fried plantains were sweet enough to serve as an after-dinner treat.

How to kill a chicken

My beloved Slate has posted an article from a part-time chicken farmer on the ins and outs of killing a chicken. Personally, I know I could do it but I don't want to do it. Mr. Wonderful has been throwing the idea around of having chickens. Especially if I don't return to work. I think it's a good idea if we have them for eggs but I don't know about the meat part...I can't see us with five chickens one day and the next, there's only four. I can just picture it:

Jackson: "Mommy, where did Pete go?"

Me: "Who's Pete?"

Jackson: "He's the brown chicken."

Me: "They're all brown."

Jackson: "Yeah, but he has the little *some characteristic that only a child can pick out*. Where did he go?"

Me: "Uhh....maybe now is the time to talk about the purpose of chickens and how some chickens go to Chicken Heaven. By the way: did you name all of them??"

Yeah, not a pleasant conversation. Although: look how great my son* is!!

*My son is currently six months in utero. But I bet when he's born, he's going to be just as inquisitive, smart, and meticulous. :)

Last night's dinner: chicken stuffed with jalepeno and almond

Yes, it was as good as it sounds! Unfortunately it took forever to bake. The package said bake at 350 degrees until internal temps got to 160 degrees. After waiting an hour and still not seeing any progress, I raised the temp to 400 and covered the dish with foil. That sped things along and we were able to eat 20 mins later. Melinda made rice and some broccoli with cheese for sides and we washed it down with a not-bad Cabernet Sauvignon from "Man" vintners. (It's a screwtop wine, but it was quite tasty!)

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.