Quesadilla Game Night

Erin and John (Ballz) came over last night for quesadilla/game night. The quesadilla maker is one of our all-time favorite kitchen gadgets. Yes, it takes up a lot of space, but it is most definitely worth it! Doesn't that photo look delish?? For filling, we used chicken (tossed with homemade taco seasoning), sauteed onions, sauteed mushrooms, and cheese. Sour cream, guac, salsa and corn were served on the side. The first photo is my dish. Isn't it colorful?

The second photo is Andrew's dish, because he made me take a picture of it. Doesn't his guac look like snot? I do not like to pile the fillings on my quesadilla like that, because it makes them soggy. And the guac looks like snot.

Andrea and Courtney and John (25) came after dinner and we played Taboo and Would You Rather? and had some drinks and watched SNL. Good times.

Andrew and I went out this morning in search of pancakes and stopped at B&N afterwards to look for some new games. We picked up Dicecapades, Loaded Questions and Snatch-It (I had a gift card), so if anyone wants to come over to play, let us know! There are still tortillas and cheese left-over, so if you act now, you might get lucky!

Yay it's the Weekend! and Inside-out Stuffed Tilapia

HAPPY WEEKEND! It is really sick how happy I am that it is the weekend. We have no plans, yet still, I am ridiculously happy. We did trek over to Wal-Mart and buy cheapie amateur tennis rackets and two tubes of balls. I have not played tennis since high-school, so that should be interesting.

Anyway, this will be short and sweet. I have to get back to my celebratory it's-the-weekend beer. Unfortunately, I finished the last of my hooray-it's-Friday margarita mix (hint-hint Jill).

Tilapia was on sale for 4.99 per pound, and fish is good for us, so I went for it. Broccoli crowns were 99 cents per pound at KK this week, so I blanched them in boiling water for 4 minutes (covered) and tossed with olive oil, garlic and red pepper. Delish.

I just sort of threw this recipe together. I cheaped out on the cheese in the filling, so I increased the quantity so I remember for next time.

Inside-out Stuffed Tilapia

• Four tilapia fillets (about 1.5 lbs)
• 7oz imitation crab, finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• olive oil
• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup dry seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 1/4 cup grated Locatelli Romano cheese (or parm), separated
• sprinkle old bay
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• two tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
• s&p

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat olive oil and add onion and celery.
3. Cook about 3 minutes and add garlic.
4. Cook an additional 2-3 minutes and add crab, stirring to combine.
5. Cook 2 minutes and add wine.
6. Cook about 5 minutes and add fresh breadcrumbs, a sprinkle of old bay, s&p, and about a tablespoon dried parsley, stirring to combine.
7. Cook until mixture is heated through.
8. Blot excess water from fillets and place in a 9x13 baking dish coating with non-stick spray.
9. Place about 1 tablespoon of crab mixture on top of each fillet.
10. Top each fillet with a sprinkle of dry breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup shredded parm and lemon juice.
11. Cook at 350 for approximately 20-30 minutes, or until fish is flaky.

Company! and Buffalo Chicken Pizzas

Jillie Bean came over for dinner. (We love company!)

I let her pick from three recipes, and she chose Buffalo Chicken Pizzas- one of our favorites! Andrew was very happy and said she might even be invited again. He gives this dish a 5 out of 5. Even though I didn't ask. That's the last thing I need- Andrew rating my recipes every night. (Hear that, sucker? :P)

Buffalo sauce is big in our house, as I am sure you will gather over time by the number of buffalo-ed meals we have. (I think Andrew believes hot sauce is one of the four food groups. You know, cheese, hot sauce, beer, meat.)
Ken's wing sauce makes my life a lot easier. Yes, I can use regular hot sauce and doctor it up with butter, etc, but Ken's is all ready to go, and I usually buy a million bottles when it goes on sale for 2/$3.

Once, when I was feeling very ambitious, I made homemade whole wheat pizza dough for this recipe. (That's the other picture you see here.) It was really good, but not worth the extra effort really. Beside, english muffins hold up to the toppings very well. I usually try to buy the low fat e. muffins from Stop&Shop, but Pathmark had the double pack of Thomas' for 1.99, so there you go. So much for low-fat.

This recipe is a litle annoying because I don't really measure anything any more, so bear with me, and if you give it a go, use more or less of whatever you like more or less of.

Buffalo Chicken English Muffin Pizzas

What you need:

• english muffins
• cooked chicken breast, chopped into very small pieces (it does not matter how you cook the chicken)
• blue cheese dressing (we prefer Wishbone Fat Free, when we are being good)
• Ken's Buffalo Wing Sauce (The perfect amount of kick for us. May be a bit too much for those with a very low tolerance for "spicy")
• shredded mozzarella cheese (yay cheese)

1. Toast english muffins until lightly brown.
2. Spread about 1 teaspoon of blue cheese dressing over each e. muffin.
3. Toss chicken with Ken's Wing Sauce
4. Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of chicken onto each e. muffin.
5. Top each muffing with a good amount of mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and topping is hot.
7. Pig out.

We like to have these with extra blue cheese dressing on the side, and a green salad.

Fricassee Fricassee Fricassee

What's easier than slow-cooker dinner? Slow-cooker dinner left-overs, of course!

Wednesday night is often left-over night. Which is nice because it gives me a bit of a break mid-week, just when I start to lose my steam. So here's the scoop on the slow-cooker fricassee I made on Monday. I found the original recipe on allrecipes.com and changed it up just a bit. I had never made fricassee before, but as it turns out, I think it is very similar to caccitore. Which I have also never made. Interestingly, both words are very fun to say. fricassee fricassee fricassee caccitore caccitore caccitore

I don't typically care much for chicken with tomato sauce, but this was a bit different from what I was expecting, and ended up being quite yummy. I brined the 4 lbs of chicken legs in a salt and sugar bath and mixed the tomato concoction the night before and left both in the fridge in ziplock bags (what else?). Andrew didn't have to be at work early, so he popped it all into the slow cooker for me, so it wouldn't have to cook for 12 hours. (Thanks Andrew. Good job!) Oh yeah, and I took the skin off the chicken, so there wouldn't be a ton of grease in the SC. Very unappetizing.

The chicken was on sale for 99 cents a pound, so again, a very cheap meal. Are you noticing a trend?

If you don't have the super-monster size slow cooker, I would half this, as it filled the SMSC to the top.

Cuban Slow Cooker Chicken Fricassee

2 large onions, chopped (not too small)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic (or more, if you don't want anyone kissing you good-night)
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 large can plus 1 small can diced tomatoes (I think that's about 45oz)
1 cup dry white wine (or chicken stock)

1/4 cup sofrito (in the Spanish aisle of the store, near the Goya stuff)
1 tablespoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
4 pounds chicken leg quarters, skin removed

1. Place chicken in bottom of crock pot. (I use those crock pot liners. Who wants to have to scrub out a pot that's been cooking for 8 hours??)
2. Combine other ingredients and pour over chicken.
3. Cook on low 7-8 hours, or until chicken is cooked.
4. Serve over brown rice with a can of black beans and corn tossed in. Delish.

Pretty easy, eh? There were some comments on the allrecipes site, that said the recipe provided, slightly different from the above, was lacking flavor, so people recommended the sofrito and sazon. I did not know what the sazon was, so I checked it out in the store.

Apparently, SAZON is Spanish for MSG.

So I left it out. I don't know why really, but I figure if it shouldn't be in my Chinese take-out, it shouldn't be in my slow-cooker.

First Blog-a-rama and Cheap-o Zucchini Pasta

Hello, and welcome to my blog. I hope you find it to be a very happy place. :)

We had a vegetarian meal tonight. We need to detox from all of the meat we've been eating lately. It wasn't a particularly exciting dish, but it was yummy, quick, and it made good use of the zucchini I got for 49 cents a pound.

Well, that's actually a lie. It should have been 49 cents a pound, but the cashier thought my zucchini were cucumbers, so she charged me 50 cents each. I weighed them at home, and they came to 2.3 pounds, so I got jipped out of 37 cents. Figures.

Anyhoo- this recipe needs a name, so I will call it, Cheap-o Zucchini Pasta. Because even though the zucchini were 50 cents a pop, this meal still cost less than $5, and could easily feed 4. Well, maybe 2 and me. :)

Cheap-o Zucchini Pasta

• 13.25 oz whole wheat pasta (we used rotini, and I say "13.25 oz" because whole wheat pasta doesn't come in 1 lb boxes. I guess they thought we wouldn't notice. Nice try, Barilla. But doesn't the fact that it's whole wheat mean it's better for me and I can eat more?? But you are giving me less?? WTF??)
• 3 large zucchini, cut into small chunks
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• a big hunking tablespoon of minced garlic (the kind from the jar is such a time and smelly-hand saver)
• 15oz petite diced tomatoes, in a can, with juice
• about 1/2 cup olive oil
• about 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup shredded locatelli (or parm. yay cheese)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• red pepper, salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat water for pasta. When it boils, throw in a handful of salt, stir, then add pasta and cook to al dente according to package. (My All-Clad cookware manual says not to add the salt until the water boils, or you'll get spots on the pot. And I love my All-Clad and want to make sure that it is shiny and without spots forever.)


2. Heat the oil and toss in onion. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add garlic. Cook an additional 2-3 minutes.


3. Add wine and a sprinkle of red pepper (or more if you like it HOT) and reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the wine stops smelling really wine-y and reduces a bit.


4. Stir in zucchini and tomatoes (with juice). Cook the zucchini to your liking. (I only like to cook it 6-7 minutes, so that it still has a little firmness to it, but if you like it mushy, or perhaps you have just had dental work, by all means...)


5. Add pasta to zucchini mixture and toss with cheese and basil. Serve HOT with extra cheese. (yay cheese)