Tag: In the kitchen

Crispy Tender Fingers.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz17 Comments

Am I the only one who is bored of cooking dinner? I know I shouldn’t complain especially since I’m only cooking for two people and both of those people are pretty easy to feed, but still some days it feels daunting. In my next life I’m gonna be like Oprah and have a personal chef; where do I sign up for that?

But prepare meals I must; I had a pack of chicken tenderloins thawed out and decided to try and make some crispy tenders to place on top of a green salad. I’ve NEVER been successful in making crispy tenders without frying them and I’m NOT a fan of frying anything for a few reasons:

  • The smell
  • The mess
  • someone in this house has to manage her cholesterol. I won’t mention any names, but she writes a blog about nothing and can’t get over the fact that she has to worry about cholesterol. (But, please ask her about her bone health!)

Wait; do you call them chicken tenders or do you call them chicken fingers?

The recipe that I used will make you want to call them Damn Delicious crispy chicken.

The trick is to crisp up your Panko BEFORE putting it on the chicken. Also, she uses a simple dredging of flour, egg, mustard, mayo and salt/pepper. I added garlic because it keeps the vampires away.…stay away Barnubus Collins.

Super easy and super good; fifteen minutes in the oven and CRISPY AS ALL GET-OUT!

I was amazed they tasted so good because I MADE THEM. You know how food tastes better if someone else makes it; even a simple turkey sammy is better if I don’t use my paws to create it.

I had ONE damn delicious tender on top of a salad with some roasted spare-grass. ONE and I was full. Please explain to me why I can’t lose weight? Effing mental-pause.

The Coach declared that we should have these once a week, but possibly on Tuesday so we can call it Tender Tuesday. And then he suggested that Monday should be Meatloaf Monday. Since when did I let him make any decisions? Kidding, he gets to decide at least 22 things.

If I keep up with this ‘creating good food’, things could get out of hand and I don’t want my people to have high expectations when it comes to me and the kitchen. Next thing you know The Food Network will be banging at my door asking for me to have my own show and I think we all know how I’d be when fame went to my head. *un-frickin-bearable*

Did you make anything surprisingly good lately?

XO

Trying to be a happy camper in a time of sadness. Suz vlogs about rocks, naturally.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz26 Comments

Pollyanna might crack

In general, I am ever the Pollyanna. But even this Pollyanna is struggling.

My heart hurts so much.

All of it. terrible. bad. horrible. should.not.happen.

We are a family of law enforcement appreciating people.

Our oldest served. Our future son in law currently serves. Some of our very closest friends serve as LEO and Firefighters. They/we are all appalled at the actions of four uncaring individuals.

And the outcome of those four uncaring individuals has escalated into chaos, death and pain for many innocent people.

2020 can suck it.

Sunday morning I did a little stroll on the pool lanai after working on my rock project. Turns out it will be finished in 2020 and not 2022 as I’d thought.

Turns out laughter is medicine.

Linds came over last night to prepare and enjoy a meal with us; she made crack chicken soup because her dad requested it earlier in the week. It was delicious by the way, but seeing her was even more delicious.

The recipe called for 8 pieces of bacon. I suggested she use 10. She asked her dad how many he recommended; his advice was for 18 pieces. Are all men in love with bacon?

I made the two ingredient pretzel bites that Alli had shared recently; they were so good.

I made them into two different batches; one with just some butter and salt and then some with some ranch dressing powder.

The first batch I forgot to put parchment paper down and every little pretzel bite stuck to the pan, so there was a lot of cussing in the kitchen for the first batch.

My kitchen is actually accustomed to this type of behavior.

After dinner Linds and I laid in bed and face-timed her sister. We are weirdos with the same weird sense of humor; we giggled, guffawed and rolled at our own silliness.

You know the place where some people have abs? That place on me is sore.

THAT is the best kind of sore and I really appreciated the levity in such a heavy time.

I was going to post on Friday, but our internet went out Thursday afternoon when a lightning storm hit us. Did you even miss me?

We didn’t get it repaired until Saturday afternoon. Ya’ll, I’m a survivor.

I hope everyone is doing ok and finding some joy in the midst of all the heartache and anger.

XOXO

Just a smidge of ice cream for me—I wasn’t always this delightful.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz14 Comments

Thank you all for your kind words regarding my DNA/Brother post. I really wasn’t looking for sympathy, but I suppose that is a natural reaction for people who are not sociopaths.

I met up with my Linds yesterday for lunch; we decided to meet at Jason’s Deli because it’s convenient and they have free ice cream.
It’s a place the kids and I used to frequent when they were younger; I could get my salad bar fix, they loved a lot of the menu and the free ice cream.
One time I took them with a few friends, and I recall all of the girls coming back to the table with the most ginormously filled cones; it was ridiculous.
I was a bit irked by it; annoyed. Why did I get annoyed by something as small as an overloaded free cone? I don’t know. I was a bit anal-retentive back in the day; also, I was afflicted with severe PMS. I’m much more relaxed now.
Thank the good lord for that.
Or maybe I’m just tired.

Anyhoo, Linds and I had a nice lunch and we caught up a bit after her long trip to New Zealand.
I asked her to get me a chocolate ice cream cone.
This is what she came back with; she’d already had a few licks of hers before she arrived at the table.

Me: WHY IS MY ICE CREAM CONE SO SMALL? 
Linds: You remember that time…..when you were so annoyed by the extra-large cone? 
Me: yes, but, really?  
Then my child proceeded to explain to me that there was ice cream INSIDE the actual cone too; it wasn’t just surface ice cream.  
Me: What? INSIDE? I had no idea that’s how ice cream cones worked. 

We had a good laugh and really, it was MORE than enough ice cream for me. And it was even better having some time together.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I have to cook dinner at least 5 nights a week.
What? You too? *sigh* It becomes redundant, doesn’t it?
I honestly wish we didn’t need to eat every day because I don’t like cooking that much. But I do it, so yeah, where’s my gold ribbon? 
One thing that does make the daunting chore of preparing dinner so many days of my life is my Instant Pot. Do you have one? I’m not a gadget fan, but this one is worth it.
Everything I make in it comes out well. Chicken dishes, beef dishes and possibly my favorite thing to do in it are hard-boiled eggs; they peel like buttah.

Last night I made a big batch of lime/cilantro shredded chicken; it’s great for tacos or on salads and YUM.
The Coach thoroughly enjoyed it even more so because today he has to prep for his colonoscopy.
Some people get to have all the fun. I suppose tonight I’ll have leftover shredded chicken over a bed of salad….hmmm, I guess I’ll have to eat in the bathroom away from the colonoscopy victim.

Wow. I talked quite a bit about food today. What’s for dinner? 
XO