About these ads

Archive for the 'What We Ate' Category

WWA: Bacon & Chicken wraps

Published January 18, 2013 What We Ate 2 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I found this recipe on Pinterest and knew I had to try it because it combines (basically) the only meats I eat: chicken and bacon!

photo (8)

Ingredients:
- 4 chicken breasts, cut into thirds (we bought the trimmed and cut pieces which come with about 12 pieces in the package, because I’m lazy and didn’t want to cut it up, aha)
- 1 package of bacon
- garlic powder
- chili powder
- paprika
- brown sugar
- salt and pepper
- cooking spray

Prep&Cook:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lightly spray an oven-safe dish with the cooking spray. Set aside.

We started by rinsing and tenderizing the meat.

photo (7)

While Ryan worked the chicken, I made two bowls of spice mixes. They both had garlic powder, salt, and pepper, but one had chili powder and the other had paprika (because I’m not a huge fan of spicy things). I didn’t measure, I just sort of kept adding stuff until it looked like there would be enough to cover the chicken.

photo (6)

We covered both sides of the chicken in seasonings:

photo (5)

Folded the pieces in half and wrapped them in bacon:

photo (4)

Rolled them in brown sugar and placed them in a the oven-safe dish.

photo (3)

We cooked them for about 35 minutes. I was afraid the chicken would dry out but I also wanted the bacon to get crispy. During cooking, we periodically removed some of the bacon grease, and we turned the chicken wraps about half way through.

photo (1)

And here we go!

photo

Ryan is all about presentation (see above), while I just threw a few on a plate and picked them apart (not pictured) aha.

The chicken did get a little drier than we would have liked, but it was still delicious! Next time we’re going to use thicker pieces of  meat.

Diary of a Recipe Addict has a ton of other great recipes, so if you’re looking for something new to try you should definitely check it out!

About these ads

What we ate: baked mac&cheese

Published November 12, 2012 What We Ate Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I decided it was high time for Ryan and I to try to cook something together. I needed to know if we could work together in the kitchen, and see if I could get away with taking pictures of him because, “it’s for my blog!” We compromised and you’ll see his hands in about half the pictures, ahaha.

We made baked mac&cheese, his recipe (that he thought up while we were at the grocery store).

Ingredients:

- 1 box pasta
- 1 jar Newman’s Own mild cheese sauce
- shredded cheese
- bread crumbs
- bread (for a side!)

Prep&Cook:

Cook that pasta. Don’t cook it all the way though because you’re going to stick it in the oven and it will cook more!!

While the pasta is cooking, get your bread crumbs ready. We didn’t have any so we crushed up some croutons instead.

This was basically my only job so I took it very seriously.


Drain the pasta and mix it with the entire container of cheese. At this point you might be thinking to yourself, “Why continue? This is delicious just the way it is! A slight spice, the occasional pepper chunk. Mm, mm good.” You can stop now if you want, but you’ll be wasting all those croutons.

Layer it in a dish with the crouton crumbs.

And top with shredded cheese!

We were going to bake it at 375 for a while, but then we realized it might get dried out.

So we set it to broil to crisp up the top.

Looks good, right?

Serve with those rolls I listed in the original ingredients. Because what could go better with carbs than more carbs!

We accidently dried the cheese out trying to bake it, but it still turned out pretty amazing. And we had fun!

What we ate: blue cupcakes!

Published June 10, 2012 What We Ate Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , ,

We had a baby shower at work on Friday and I brought blue cupcakes! I made them the same way I made the rainbow layered cupcakes, except instead of dividing the batter into different bowls I just added more food coloring after each layer.

I was going for a gradient effect, which I got, but I  would have liked it better if I made the layers thinner. There would have been room for them to go from super light to really, really dark!

But they were still a big hit at the party! Every one got eaten!

Have you made any fun snacks lately?

What we ate, pizza with friends!

Published June 7, 2012 What We Ate 5 Comments
Tags: , , , , ,

On Sunday nights, I get together with some friends to watch Game of Thrones (although we’ll have to find something new to watch now since the season finale was Sunday).  And usually, we eat! This past Sunday, we styled our own pizzas.

We each made our own mini pizza and then combined efforts to make a big one. Which, naturally, everyone was too full to eat. I’ll spare you the ingredients and just share the results.

Claire made a white-sauce pizza with bacon and broccoli:

Kevin put a lot of corn and cheese on his:

Jordan put everything on his:

I tried pickles on mine. I wasn’t sure if I would like it so I only put them on one side. And I liked them!

For our group pizza, we sectioned the crust up with food coloring and each took a quarter. Here’s pre-cooked, where you can see more of the ingredients:

And after it was cooked:

We all know that pizza is one of my favorite foods, but this pizza was especially good because we had so much fun making it! We wore fun aprons and passed judgement on each other’s choices. Livin’ the good life, pizza stylin’ style.

What we ate: grilled cheese!

Published May 10, 2012 What We Ate Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , , , ,

I love grilled cheese almost as much as I love mac&cheese and pizza (aka a lot). I’ll make one and it will be so delicious that I’ll have another right after. Then repeat the next day. Repeat, repeat, repeat, run out of bread, pick a new food.

This is how I make THE BEST grilled cheese!

Ingredients:

2 slices Panera sour dough bread
2 slices Velveeta cheese (or, you know, you could use real cheese)
Bacon bits, optional

Prep&Cook:

Pre-heat your favorite grilled cheese pan.

Butter bread.

Add cheese.

Sprinkle with bacon!

More cheese!

Cook.

Obviously you didn’t need me to walk you through making a grilled cheese, ahaha.

We also put pepperoni in some, and used different cheeses. A lot of people think grilled cheese is boring but just like everything else in life: it’s what you make of it :)

What we ate: quail eggs

Published March 10, 2012 What We Ate 5 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

As I mentioned yesterday, my friend bought a pheasant and some quail eggs off Amazon. Being a SUPER picky eater, it took me a while to digest (hahaha) that I would have to help consume these strange foods. Luckily, it was more fun / tasty than I thought!

This is the story of the quail eggs.

We made quail omelets! Well, more specifically, we made a single-egg quailmelet (just as cute as it sounds) and tried to make a giant quailmelet but it turned into scrambled eggs. Which are boring.

Ingredients:

1 quail egg

1/4 slice cheese
1 tbs milk

Prep&Cook

Preheat skillet to medium heat.

Crack that egg into a bowl,

add milk,

and beat.

Pour into buttered skillet.

Top with cheese while it cooks. Be quick! It’s so small it’ll be done in 2 minutes!

Fold into an omelet shape (mine always come out a little blobbish).

Serve and enjoy :)

Quail eggs are delicious! And get very fluffy when they cook. When we tried to make the giant quailmelet (which was already too big for the pan we were using) it fluffed up so much.

Here’s the scrambled eggs (again) with the pheasant I shared yesterday:

What we ate: pheasant

Published March 9, 2012 What We Ate Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

When my friend said he ordered a pheasant and some quail eggs off Amazon, I thought he was kidding. When we had to look up some pheasant recipes, I still didn’t think it was a big thing. Oh, but then he brought a smoked pheasant and 2 dozen quail eggs to my house so… I guess he was serious.

This is the story of the pheasant.

We found this pheasant recipe on the Food Network’s website. I think you should be able to guess by now that we tweaked the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 small pheasant (we used a smoked one)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 sage leaves
2 bay leaves3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 rosemary branches
1 14-oz can peeled tomatoes and their juices
1 can chicken broth
8 slices pancetta
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Prep&Cook

Quarter the bird (or tear it up. Which ever is easier) and put it in a skillet with the oil.

Sear it on all sides (or just cook it for a while, turning occasionally, because you aren’t sure what sear means.) Remove from skillet and set aside.

Add onions, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, garlic, and parsley and mix it around until the onions start to brown.

Add the broth and tomatoes, bring to a boil.

Wrap your pheasant pieces in the pancetta and set them back in the pan.

Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

We cooked off all the liquids and ran out of chicken broth. So I popped open a can of chicken soup and used the broth from that. Sometimes, you have to get creative.

Remove bird pieces to a platter, and if there’s any liquid left in the pan it can be used for a sauce. We didn’t have a sauce.

(Featured here with scrambled quail eggs!)

Eat!

I would suggest NOT using a smoked pheasant. Or, if you have a smoked pheasant, find a recipe to accommodate it.

What we ate: bbq chicken braid

Published February 27, 2012 What We Ate 2 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

While I favor food on the blander side (total, plain bread, cheese pizza), my friend really likes his food to kick him in the mouth. And it’s sometimes hard to find something that’s tasty enough for him and safe enough for me.

I regularly complain that food has too much flavor. Seriously, who does that?

Anyway, when I found this recipe for a bbq chicken braid on Mangio da sola, I said to myself, “Kerry, this might be a perfectly balanced recipe!”

Man, was I wrong.

Just kidding! It was so good I want to try making more with different fillings!

Due to time restraints, we altered the recipe. Aka we didn’t make our own dough.

Ingredients:

- 1 ball of dough from the grocery store
- 1 package pre-cooked/pre-cut chicken (we used Purdue)
-  1/2 medium onion
- 1 and 1/2 c bbq sauce
- shredded mozzarella cheese
- shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 egg white

Pre&Cook

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

- Cut the chicken into tiny little pieces.

- Cut up the onion.

- Mix chicken, onion, and bbq sauce in a bowl, set aside.

- Roll out the dough on parchment paper, aiming for an 11 x 17 rectangle. The parchment paper will make it easy to move the braid onto the pan, and easier clean up when you’re done cooking :)

- Cut 1 inch wide segments down each side of the dough sheet, going about a third of the way in.

- Spread the chicken mixture down the middle of the dough, covering the uncut area. Top with cheese.

- Fold the dough segments over the filling, alternating sides, to give it a braided look.

- Brush tip with egg white.

- Cook about 20 minutes, or until light brown.

Eat! We let it cool for, maybe, 10 minutes so we wouldn’t burn our mouths.

What we ate: bacon baskets (close enough)

Published February 23, 2012 What We Ate 5 Comments
Tags: , , , ,

I’ve wanted to make bacon baskets for quite some time, but figured my Mom wouldn’t want me making them for a couple of reasons.

1) What if the bacon grease catches fire in the oven?

2) What if you mess up and waste all that bacon? Bacon is expensive!

3) It looks messy.

Solution? Wait until my parents go away! (Or, as my brother would say, “Just move out! Then you can do whatever you want! What’s the matter with you?!)

Ingredients:

- Bacon. And a lot of it!

- Whatever you want to put in the baskets. Like salad. Or mac&cheese.

Prep&Cook:

- Preheat oven to 400 degree.

- Wrap aluminum foil around the cups of a muffin pan.

- Weave the strips of bacon around the muffin cups like you’re making a basket. Because you are!

- Place muffin pan in or on another pan, to catch the grease.

- Cook until done. Now this is where I ran into the problem because after an hour, I just wanted the bacon be to done. And it definitely LOOKED done. But it wasn’t done.

In retrospect, I should have looked up a cook time. Then I would have known that it takes about 3 hours. Not 1 hour.

When I turned them over… Just, yuck.

It looks like it just came off the pig! Needless to say, these did not get filled with food. And they were TINY! Who wants to eat in tiny little portions? Not an American, that’s for damn sure!

Next time I’m going to try wrapping the bacon around a medium-sized bowl. And fully cooking it.

What we ate: maple bacon pancake

Published February 20, 2012 What We Ate 2 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I love bacon.

Last Thursday we made a maple bacon pancake, which we found at allrecipes. At first I was like, “Uhm, that sounds too weird. Plus pancakes make me VERY thirsty. Maybe we can find a different recipe?”

Good thing we didn’t because this was delicious!

Ingredients:

- 4 ounces bacon (we used a whole package)


- 1 cup pancake mix (we used Aunt Jemima, much to the distress of my mom. She’s a confirmed Bisquick user.)
- 1 1/4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 eggs
- cooking spray!

Prep&Cook:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- Cook the bacon! Then make it into bacon crumbles.

- Spray a 9 inch glass pie plate (or, you know, whatever you have) with cooking spray.

- Combine pancake mix, 3/4c cheese, milk, maple syrup, sugar, and eggs. Pour into the pie plate.

- Bake 10 to 15 minutes, or until you can jab it with a tooth pick and the pick comes out clean.

- Top with remaining cheese and all the bacon that you haven’t eaten yet, and bake another 5ish minutes (until the cheese is melted).

-Eat!

About these ads

Hi, I'm Kerry and welcome to The Tragic Whale! Click my face to learn more about me.

May 2013
S M T W T F S
« Apr    
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

There is supposed to be a picture here.

Look, it's my mom! She's waving.

%d bloggers like this: