An Easter BBQ (Crispy Cheddar Chicken)

SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!
And this Easter weekend to celebrate my boyfriend and I went on a food adventure: a BBQ in the park.

I found this Crispy Cheddar Chicken recipe one day when I was online, and decided that Jamie and I HAD to try it the next time he came to visit. And then we ran into a complication, we wouldn't be able to cook it in an oven, because we were going to be in a park!

Yeah, I kind of started freaking out around this time.. But it's ok, because we figured it out. And it tasted delicious. We just put everything in a roasting pan, and poured the sauce overtop of it. True it wasn't the same crispy deliciousness that it could have been, but it sure did taste good! We were both satisfied (and surprised!) with how well it turned out. (Keep scrolling, the picture of the chicken is coming...)

While we were waiting for the chicken to cook, we ate a delicious dark chocolate orange, and some fruit.

Here is the handsome man himself making sure that the charcoal BBQ was ready for the chicken to start cooking. I have to admit, by this point I was nervous, I've never really BBQ'd before...and NEVER with charcoal!

It's it lovely? Here is the chicken sitting nice and pretty while it cooks. We decided to have baked cheesy potatoes with it too. TIP: partially cook your potatoes in the microwave before you stick them in the coals, it's really speeds up the time, and still tastes like BBQ baked potatoes!

Our beautiful potatoes...we decided to eat them before the chicken...we were getting hungry by this point, even with all the fruit and chocolate.

THE CHICKEN! It was really, really good! I'd really like to try it in the oven sometime, the way the instructions tell you too, because this wasn't crispy chicken, it was more like a BBQ chicken "bake," and it was really good...  

We ended our meal with some classic salt & vinegar potato chips (you can never have too many potatoes) and a couple of card games.

What have you done to celebrate the return of spring? :)

Experiment: Honey-Garlic, Lemon and Rosemary Chicken

A couple of days ago I posted a short post about the herb rosemary. When I first started looking at stuff about rosemary, I wasn't planning on mentioning it, until I had my first mug of rosemary tea, and then I knew I had to share it.

Well, I have something else to share. An experiment! I had some chicken to cook, and I wanted to try marinading the meat in rosemary. My next thought was to add lemon juice and ginger, but we didn't have any good fresh ginger/I forgot we had ginger powder.

My next thought was of Honey-Garlic, but wait! would that work with rosemary? There was only one way to try, and my parents let me use them as guinea pigs (they're great like that).

A few years ago I was told the "perfect ratio" of oil to acidic for a marinade. Unfortunately I've forgotten what it is, but it hasn't stopped me yet! I tend to have a higher concentration of acidic (like lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar) then oil, but my mom is the opposite and no matter who cooks the meat tastes good. So until I am told that perfect ratio again, I'd say it's up to you, and your taste buds!

Back to the chicken.

My ingredients ended up something like this:
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 fresh cloves of garlic
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
2-ish teaspoons of rosemary sticks
2 chicken breasts cut bite-sized pieces

I mixed everything, and let it sit soaking for a few hours while I did random chores/school.
My chicken dinner is shown bellow pre-devouring, sitting on a bed of barley, with green beans on the side.

A delicious experiment. Remember to think outside the box, try new foods, and never forget to experiment with flavours. :)

YoYo's

I don't know about you, but YoYo's is one of my FAVOURITE places to eat. In fact I went there for "lunch" with two of my classmates. You see we have a tradition, to go to YoYo's after our last midterm, and today was the wonderful day that we got to go eat and that lovely nectar of the gods! (ok, I don't believe in multiple gods, I just like the expression, and I've always had a thing for Greek mythology!)

Are you ready to see the beautiful buckets of bliss that we devoured? Look no further!

Now, I don't usually hold to the whole "No Fat" nonsense (I love fat!), but the thing I like..no ADORE about frozen yogurt, is that you don't feel sickly sweet after you're done eating it. Ice cream is great, but YoYo's is better.

Oh, and the one with the waffle cone, closest to you..that's mine. :)

P.S. Never heard of YoYo's? Not sure what I'm talking about? Wonder no longer! Here's the link: http://yoyosyogurtcafe.com/, you can thank me later ;)

Rosemary

I have been learning quite a bit about rosemary today, and most of it has been related to hair or skin products, not food.

(Thanks for the photo Google!)

Basically what I learned is that it is an ancient herb, loved by the Romans, Egyptians and many people today!

It is a common herb in food, and as I type this I am drinking a rosemary tea (1 tsp. of rosemary + boiling water steeped for 5-ish minutes = a yummy rosemary tea!). It's my first time trying it, and I love it. When I was younger I used to hate the dried sticks of rosemary in my food, and that always turned me off from it. The problem is, I love the flavour! So for now this is my solution, rosemary tea.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time to talk about rosemary, but here is one of the great sites I was looking at today, it mainly focused on the beauty side of the herb:

http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip1093.htm

enjoy! :)

Scrambled Eggs, Sausages & Hash Browns

Today was supposed to be a waffle wednesday. But it didn't happen.

Ok, ok, I'm a little bitter about it not happening, but I have to admit that I had pretty fantastic meal anyways: scrambled eggs, sausages and hash browns.

You can tell I was feeling sorry for myself...because I ate all five of those lovely sausages!

The meal was easy to make, the sausages were re-heated, and the hash browns were just grated pre-cooked potatoes fried with salt, butter and garlic powder. The scrambled eggs were the crowning glory.

Simple to Spectacular will always be a well loved book of mine, because it was where I found this fantastic recipe:

5 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all of the ingredients in a fry pan a cook at medium-high heat whisking constantly, but not whipping the eggs. If the eggs stick to the bottom of the pan, take the pan off of the heat, whisk until the eggs "unstick" and then replace on the heat.

The eggs will clump like curds as they cook, and when they have a consistency like oatmeal you will know that they are done (8-10 minutes cooking time). DO NOT OVERCOOK!

Seriously the best scrambled egg recipe. Thanks Jean-Georges Vongerichten & Mark Bittman :)

Blackberry & Pear Pie

You read that right folks, blackberry and pear pie! It's FANTASTIC! (in case you were wondering) And when my hopes were dashed for a blackberry and apple pie, pear seemed like the next best option.

Here we go:
4 large, ripe Bartlett pears, peeled and thinly slice
1 1/2 cups fresh, or frozen blackberries, sliced in half
1 cup organic evaporated cane juice sugar (or granulated white sugar)
1 teaspoon of fresh lemon zest
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
2 pie crusts, pre-made

We ran into our first problem when we couldn't find a bowl big enough...solution? A POT!

So, once we had enough room to mix everything together, we continued on with the preparations..

..we added some lemon zest!

..and finished putting together all of the ingredients. Yeah, the flour wasn't fully stirred into the mix when the photo was taken. It will look better further down, I promise!

Here is the top pie crust getting rolled out..

...and here is how it looks on the pie! See, I told you the mixture looks better once it's all mixed in!

And finally, the finished pie! ...yeah it tasted as good as it looks. :)

A big thanks to Eliza Domestica for this recipe  Her blog was were I got this recipe from, Google is great like that. Check out the link bellow:

http://www.elizadomestica.com/recipes/dessert-recipes/blackberry-pear-pie-recipe

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's February, how the time does fly...

This past Sunday (Feb 3 super bowl Sunday, the day the Baltimore Ravens kicked butt!), five friends and I decided to bake, watch a movie and hang out before watching the game. We baked chocolate chip cookies, ate pie, and watched The Sound of Music (LOVE Julie Andrews!).

The recipe we used was that original recipe that this blog was partially named after: Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. 

In a bowl combine:
2/3 c. butter, margerine, or vegetable oil1/2 c. white sugar1/2 c. packed brown sugar1 egg1 tsp vanilla
In a second bowl combine:
1 1/2 c. flour1/2 tsp baking soda1/2 tsp salt1/2 chopped nuts (optional)1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
(for a softer rounder cookie add 1/4 c. more of flour)

Combine the two bowls. (Pre)Heat oven to 375' and drop dough about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 min or until delicately browned.

Makes 4-5 dozen 2" delicious cookies. :)