A Twist on the BLT

BLT's have long been a favorite sandwich of mine (although I'll admit to cutting the tomato out for years!!). Last year, however, I found a recipe that brings a twist to this classic sandwich that proved to be delicious! Simply adding chicken was a great change that we all enjoyed. It's been added to our list of repeat-recipes. :-)

*This recipe is modified from the Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications "Ultimate Chicken" from 2010. I tried to find a link to this recipe, or this edition online, but I didn't come up with the same issue title or recipe. However, here is a link to their website with other recipes: BHG Magazine Recipes
Chicken BLT
8 slices bacon
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, sliced thin
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 cup miracle whip
2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley (optional)
8 1/2 inch thick slices challah (egg bread, toasted)
4 green lettuce leaves
1 tomato, sliced

1) In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels; set aside. Wipe out skillet. Season chicken with salt. In same skillet, cook chicken in hot oil over medium heat for 8 to 12 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, turning once.
2) Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine miracle whip, mustard, lemon peel, lemon juice, and parsley (if using).
3) Spread four slices of bread with half of the miracle whip mixture. Top with lettuce, chicken, tomato, and bacon. Spread remaining slices of bread with remaining miracle whip mixture. Place on top of sandwiches. Serve immediately.

Some Things That Actually Taste GOOD With Zucchini!!!

Who knew that zucchini could actually taste good?!? Not me. That is, until I went visiting a great gal, who shared some amazing chocolate zucchini bread with me. Holy cow!!! It was so good. Even better than that, she gave me the website where she found the recipe. Here it is: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/08/chocolate-zucchini-bread/
I liked it so much that after baking the recipe myself, I bought the cookbook from the bloggers linked above. So far everything I've tried has been pretty fantastic. I especially like their recipe for chipotle chocolate chili. Delicious!
But this is a post about zucchini. In my quest to become a better cook, I've also been trying to learn more about food. Like what's healthy and what's not. Besides the obvious stuff. Enter zucchini. Or really, enter vegetables in general! For a long time I've been really good about feeding (by that I mean, making available in the fridge or on the counter and everyone can fend for themselves...) my family fruit. I have several kids who love apples. For a while my now four-year-old was eating at least four (or more) a day...can there be such a thing as too many apples in a day? Doesn't that just keep the doctor extra away?!?? Anyway, we pretty much always have lots of fresh fruit to choose from. Vegetables are a different story though. We are pretty good about eating carrots and cucumbers. But other veggies have a harder time making it into our diet on a regular basis. Ummm, even the cucumbers and carrots do if I'm being totally honest.
That's why I was so excited to find both of these recipes that actually taste good with zucchini. (The pasta one isn't on their website; it's in the cookbook). Of course the bread is delicious, but not really the kind of thing you can eat every day and reach any kind of fitness goals...However, the zucchini chicken pasta was also fantabulous, so I now have a new recipe to add into the rotation. And it has vegetables!!! And we liked it!!! And the kids ate it!!!
Who knew?
:-)

Peaches, Peaches, and More Peaches

I learned last summer that you can't wait too long to do something with a wonderful box of peaches. Otherwise, you end up with rotting, fruit-fly attracting blobs that smell of regret. :-(
BUT, before I learned that about peaches, thankfully, I did something with the other box!
Here is my first ever peach cobbler. It came out fabulous! The only problem was, a little bit went a long way, and we ended up with too many leftovers. Even with sharing! That's ok; next time I'll know to invite some friends over when I want to make this recipe. :-)

This was my first time really working with peaches. A friend who knows way more about stuff like this than me, pointed me in the right direction. Yay for friends!! I looked up how to prepare them for freezing (and my friend gave me directions too), and I was so proud of myself when I finished the first box up! It took what felt like forever to boil all of the peaches, peel their skin and cut them into slices. I had NO idea if I was doing it right....but we've been enjoying the fruits of that labor all winter long, so I guess I did ok.
Here are the peaches ready to be bagged for the freezer.

 So beautiful!! They are absolutely delicious. The kind that melts in your mouth and leaves juice running down your arm. Yum.

 And here are all of the gross skins and pits!! Ewww! This part was not so fun. Does anyone have any good tips on how to remove the peach from the pit? I tried the twist method with these...yeah...about that...didn't work so hot for me! Maybe I just need more practice?!? At any rate, the job got done. It was a pretty fun learning experience all in all. I'm looking forward to it being peach season again this year, so I can try it all over! Maybe I'll actually get to try canning some of them, too.

Here's a little video I took right after taking the cobbler out of the oven. A little cheesey, I know! But it was exciting!!!

Dutch Oven Delights

This summer we invested in our first Dutch oven. We are so excited! Attempting to use it as much as possible on our camping trips has yielded the following conclusions:

1.  Cooking with a Dutch oven is a lot of work!
2.  The results are totally worth it. 

The first recipe we tried was a basic chicken and rice recipe.

 It received a thumbs up from the tasters!

We got a little more creative on our next trip and tried some chicken enchiladas. DELICIOUS!

 Dessert on another day had to be apple crisp. Ahhh, apple crisp. ;-)

I will say that not everything has been a success. We had a fail on the first camping trip with our attempted dessert. It was supposed to be a wonderful pineapple upside down cake. Except that it didn't cook all of the way and we ended up with a gooey mess that smelled great, but was pretty inedible.

Then on our second camping trip I attempted to make biscuits and gravy. The biscuits came out ok, except that we managed to get ash all over them...but the gravy was a total disaster! That same trip my hubby tried to make breakfast on another morning. "Mountain Man Breakfast," consisting of potatoes, sausage and eggs. It would've been good, except our potatoes somehow ended up full of water from staying in the cooler for the first two days. So we choked that one down.

But overall it has been so much fun to cook with our Dutch oven! I have literally been laughing from the pure joy of just trying to figure everything out as we've been cooking. It has been a fun experience.

Validation

So. A year has gone by since I began this blog, and admittedly, I haven't been posting as consistently as I would like to. Or even as much as I have thought about posting, which has actually been a lot! I do have lots of pictures saved from my cooking adventures this summer (now that we're well into fall!), and I hope that I will be able to blog about them soon.
But not now.
Now I want to talk about how I have been feeling as the year mark has approached and passed since life changed last year. And I want to talk about validation.
This has been a year of sorrow. It has been a year of trying to maintain a positive attitude and not let my emotions ruin life in the present. It has been a year filled with self-doubt. Especially as a mother. I've noticed the self-doubt gaining more presence in my mind as the year mark was approaching. In relation to this blog I've wondered if there was even a point to what I have been trying to do here. It was starting to seem crazy and self-indulgent. Maybe it is still self-indulgent, but I'm not worried about the crazy part anymore! It does make sense, and I want to direct your attention to an episode of On Point radio with Tom Ashbrook for the explanation.
It was playing as I drove home from book club tonight and it was exactly what I needed to hear. The guest was Adam Gopnik and they were discussing his new book called, The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food. Let me just say that I can't wait to get the book and read it myself. (Side note...I'm already thinking ahead about whether to switch my book club selection to this book!)

I felt so validated as they were discussing the meaning that food has for people.

....I'm hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year for the family that will be in town. I've never made a turkey before, and it's really intimidating. On that note, I will try to "carve" out some time to get back to this blog. If not for anyone else, it does have meaning for me. And I've been making some yummy stuff that I'd love to share. :-)

Classic Strawberry Shortcake

Tonight I made this recipe for the first time. It's another one from the Comfort food cookbook (see my previous posts for more info on cookbook). So far there hasn't been a single dud in this cookbook. FANTASTIC!!!!!
Even the meatloaf is good. It, along with the lemon coconut bars, are even better the second day than the first. I've been enjoying meatloaf sandwiches all week long! And the lemon bars disappeared way too fast. (Both recipes were made for the first time in the last couple of weeks). Those will definitely be happening again.
But first, a new recipe. Classic Strawberry Shortcake. Mmmm. :-)

Half Hawaiian Burgers

Ok. So these only rate to be called half Hawaiian burgers because I was tired, and skipped out on making the bacon to go with, and completely forgot the cheese....not nearly as tasty as the regular version, but still fun to be outside with some nice weather at last.
Spring BBQ

And, at least one person didn't mind because we did, of course, have watermelon!

To make the version that rates the name is pretty simple. I learned how to make these from a daycare provider we had a few years ago. She was an awesome daycare provider, and a great cook! We now hardly ever grill hamburgers without making them this way. So here it is:

J's Hawaiian Burgers

First, mix in some kind of seasoning with your ground beef and shape it into hamburger patties. I like to use this kind (which was incorporated into the way we make this recipe while living in New Orleans):





Next, begin cooking bacon. One slice per burger is all that we like to use.
While the bacon is cooking, prep the rest of the ingredients - pineapple slices, cheese and lettuce.
For the pineapple:

• On a piece of tinfoil, spread some BBQ sauce.
• Lay pineapples down on sauce in a single layer.
• Add BBQ sauce on top of pineapples.
• Wrap up the tinfoil to be cooked on the grill.

Slice your cheese and lettuce.
Then you should be ready to cook! As the meat is cooking, baste it with the BBQ sauce. Turn it several times throughout the cooking process, so that more BBQ sauce can soak in. Add the pineapple to the grill when the hamburgers are about halfway done. Cheese goes on top of the burgers in the last minute of cooking.

Place on a toasted bun and top with the lettuce, bacon and pineapple. Delicious!

We like using Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce on ours. :-)

We tried it once with Kraft and it was gross! So now we don't try to save on the BBQ sauce...it really is key for this recipe.

If anyone has any other yummy ways of making burgers, feel free to share! :-) I'd love to learn some other great things to cook.