Atlanta Trip 2011

So the Hubs and I went to Atlanta, Ga for the weekend and ate.....a lot! We went to a joint called Stone River Legendary Steaks. Semi-upscale steak house with a lot of flavor!

Christopher had their Lobster Bisque which he thoroughly enjoyed. I, however, found it to be L-A-M-E! It tasted like Campbell's tomato soup w/ a dash of heavy cream and a sprinkle of lobster-like particles. Whatever floats his boat and it had better float for about $4-5 a bowl!

To the left is what they call "Stone Puppies" They are basically little mini rolls with poppy seeds and served w/ a deliciously amazing honey butter. These were pleasurable to the taste buds!

I would love to show you a picture of the meal we ordered, however, we were so excited when it came that we forgot to take pictures until it was all gone. Well it was mangled to the point that taking a picture would not do it justice!

I had a sirloin steak served "oscar" with fries. It was a decent steak. I ordered it medium, which was a mistake. I should have asked for medium rare, but I'll know next time. "Oscar" as they call it, is throwing a few pieces of crab meat on top. Nice touch, but not worth the extra $6.00 I paid for Oscar! Christopher chose the tuna and mashed potatoes. I expected it to be a tuna fillet, however, it was sushi size pieces of tuna that were barely left in the pan long enough to turn white, muchless brown a bit! He ordered it medium and it came out RARE! He said that he enjoyed the meal.

Overall nice experience, however, I would probably not return. The bill didn't meet my taste's expectations.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

I'll give you the recipe as soon as I remember how I made them!

Jalapeno Cornbread

Jalapeno Cornbread

1 package of jiffy cornbread mix

1 Egg

Milk

6-7 pickled jalapenos

1 TBS pickled jalapeno juice

Half handful of cheese

Follow directions on jiffy mix box.

Chop jalapenos as small as you like

Add jalapenos and juice

Bake as normal

Sprinkle with cheese if you like!

Sides- Cilantro Lime Rice

So tonite went better. I bought some Carnitas from BJ's and they were awful! No flavor, fatty, yucky...should I go on? Nah.

To the right you will find my Cilantro Lime Rice. It's actually pretty good. We get this at one of the "Chain" Mexican restaurants in our area. The flavor is subtle, yet delicious.


2 cups chicken broth
1 cup rice
dashes of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper
1-2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
1 TBS lime juice (give or take, more or less, whatever)

Bring broth to a boil and then add rice
Throw in all the other stuff, cover and let it roll
When rice is pretty much done I add a little more lime juice

Side- Chinese Noodles

So tonight wasn't as successful as yesterday. Good, not great. I made Potstickers that I bought frozen from Bj's and those were delicious, however, my Chinese Noodles left a little to be desired. They were a good start, but need a lot of work.

I used ramen noodles because the chinese noodles at my store were like $4 and that defeated the whole "save money" thing so I opted to borrow ramen's noodles! :)

3 packs ramen noodles, discard flavor pack
1 packet of stir fry dry seasoning (follow directions, sugar, soy, water)
1/2 cup broccoli
2 eggs

After I boiled the noodles I heated up the pot again and stir fried the broccoli in a tid bit of oil.
Added the noodles, stir fry sauce and scrambled eggs.
Eh, it was ok. Christopher ate all of it that I put on his plate (except the broccoli) but I didn't think it was all that good. The flavor was pretty good, but the noodles went soggy on me too soon. BUT, I should have known that would go down all sogged-like. So in the future I will spring for the real Chinese noodles!

Sides are important, too.

This little experiment has taken a turn for the best? I work late almost every night and even tho I enjoy cooking....it's late and I'm tired! Grabbing take out 3-5 nights a week adds up. I spend on average $20.00 a night for Christopher and I. Also, do you ever get in a rut and everything you work so hard making turns out to be junk? I'm there. I always overlook side dishes because after I slave away over the main course I don't care anymore about sides. So the purpose of "Sides are important, too" has a few main goals:

1. Try some new side recipes and make my own
2. Save money
3. Because I've been reading the Pioneer Woman's blog and decided I needed a project


I went to BJ's (bulk store) and bought some of the premade, gulp, frozen entree's. Go ahead and stone me now. Blasphemy! It'll all make sense...maybe. This evening we had Premade Chicken Cordon Bleu, Macaroni and Cheese and my new side dish Big Bird Bowl. (I can name it whatever I want, don't roll your eyes at my corny name...hehehe it also has corn in it!)

1 Small yellow squash (cut into thin slices)
1 Small can of corn
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Dash cayenne
2 TBS butter
Handfull of french fried onions

Melt butter over medium-high heat
Add squash slices and stir to coat in butter
Add spices, however much tickles your fancy. I went easy on the garlic and cayenne, little heavy on the onion.
Sautee until squash starts to brown a tid bit.
Add corn and stir to heat thru.
Add handful of french fried onions (again, however much floats your boat)

I'm not a big squash fan, but I actually really liked this. Everything in it is yellow and I figured if Big Bird were to ever come over for dinner that he'd probably like this.

So lets review:

Frozen Chicken Cordon Blew $10.00 for pack of 6. I used 3: $5.00
Box of the fancy mac n' cheese that I got onsale 2 weeks ago: $2.00
Squash, corn and such maybe: $3.00

Total of $10.00! I saved $10 this evening. Yeaaahhhhhh!

Mega Breakfast 3

It was time for another Mega Breakfast! Allison just had baby Ellie and she was 3 days old! We had some of the regulars: bacon, sausage, grits, eggs, hashbrown casserole....U get it. Some additions were added.


Sausage Gravy:

1 package of Jimmy Dean Ground Sausage (sage is the best for this)
Good 3 TBS flour
2 cups milk
Biscuits (duh)

Crumble and brown sausage
Sprinkle flour over sausage and cook until browned. You don't want that flourey taste!
Gradually stir in Milk.
Salt, Pepper and throw it on a biscuit!


I had some boneless ham steaks in the fridge and had a burning desire to eat them that morning.

2 ham steaks cut into 6 pieces
Brown Sugar
Small can of sliced pineapple
Hungry belly

Heat griddle to about 350
Slater both sizes of ham w/ brown sugar and cook until brown and heated thru. Throw the pineapple on there too and brown it a bit.
Add about TBS of brown sugar to pineapple juice
When I took the ham off the griddle and into my serving dish I poured the pineapple/brown sugar sauce over it. Big Hit! Too Easy!!





Here's Ellie! Isn't she the sweetest little thing!

Below is the whole Shebang! Yummy!

This Ends Today

I work a lot and every now and then I get a Thursday off. Just a lonely Thursday, I have to go back to work on Friday (stupid, huh?) Anywho. I woke up at 7:30 and my auto pilot was freaking out thinking I was late to work, but my body was like F you...we're off today. So I let the dogs out and we lounged in bed until about 10. I dragged myself out of bed, took a shower, and went to meet my friend for lunch. My hubs calls while I'm on my way to meet her and tells me to go check out a rug sale in the parking lot of the mall, kinda weird, but ok. No go on the rugs so I stammer inside the mall. Pick up a CD and a few t-shirts and then it hits. I want to buy something really cool, something cooking like...something at Bed Bath and Beyond! I still have $100 and some change in gift cards left from my wedding. (I know, how?....it just happened) They haunt me. They taunt me. They rule an entire pocket of my purse. I can't decide. I walk in there and just can't decide what to get. Do I buy the entire wall of gadgets? Save it and get that really expensive Dyson? I just don't know. Well the bug hits me at the mall and I B-line to my car to head off to BB&B. This Ends Today I say to ChiChi! (Side note: ChiChi is my car, she's bad ass) We blast the new rockin' CD we bought and zip on over. I will spend all the gift cards and get just stuff I want/need/whatever. I'm hopeful, excited, giddy, if you will. I walk thru the whole store. Hmm, kitchen mats, cheesecloths, gadets, plates, napkins, placemats........it's like Disney World for foodies! So I just puruse and see what's on sale and what I want. So then I'm thru....done w/ the whole store and I have nothing, nothing. So I walk back thru the store and pick up things here and there and it's not $100, but it's something. I walk to the front to pay and put my basket down and walk out. I buy nothing. I don't understand what the hold is these cards have on me? Why can't I spend them?! Seriously, is there a store in the world that you walk in and can't find ANYTHING you want? Unless it's like Baby Gap I pretty much have a want for everything! Therefore, I still have the gift cards and this is not over. I will overcome you BB&B Gift Cards.

The Grocery Store

Have you ever noticed you plan out a party, weeks meals, etc etc and you have this mental shopping list you've been preparing for days or even weeks, you go over it again in your head while driving in the car to the store...Chicken, sour cream, cheese, rice, etc etc. Then you grab your buggy, cross the threshold into said store and boom.......your mind is blank. What am I here for again? Do I have eggs? God those green beans look good. Did I need eggs? Is that my neighbor? What am I making Tuesday? Seriously! What happens in your noggin? Is it an over load of your brain when it sees all the stuff you could buy or is it some special grocery store conspiracy so you'll buy more? Whatever it is, you promise yourself that next time you will bring a list. But it's too late for that so you have to go isle by isle scanning everything to make sure you don't miss anything and end up buying three times as much as you needed. Your list was short! It had maybe 20 items on it and now you need another buggy and an assistant (my friend hates it when I call a shopping cart a buggy, I'm gonna see if I can type buggy like 15 more times before I'm done....buggy buggy buggy buggy buggy!) Anywho, back to what I was saying. You now have enough stuff to feed a 3rd world country and make dinner for the next week. So you walk to the front to pick an line, damn it! I need crackers, which is like 15 isles back, but you're here and you need them so you trot back to the back and get the stupid crackers. Well by this time everyone else in the store has decided to check out now. You don't know how or why, but it just happened you spent 2 hours at the store and spent a billion dollars. Now, load all this mess into your car. You're exhausted by this point because it's Florida, it's hot and you just loaded 1/4 of the store in your car. You plop down in the front seat and.......Shit! I forgot the rice!

Mega Breakfast II

Prepare yourself....Mega Breakfast is baaaaaack! This Saturday, maybe Sunday. Not sure yet, but I've been planning the menu for a week. Be prepared pics, posts, and stories to come this weekend!!


Oh, and here's me making a funny face during the ceremony at my wedding. Christopher and I have several pictures where we are making some crazy faces.

Grilled Chix Teriyaki and Fried Rice

So I kinda made something similar to this w/ the previous pork chop post, however, I did not have enough soy sauce and so I improvised! You like that?!? Just on a Wim? :)

Chicken
1 Bottle of cheap Teriyaki Marinade
1 Tiny can of Crushed Pineapple
2-4 TBS of Brown Sugar
Chicken (of course!)

Fried Rice
3 Cups of Cooked Jasmine Rice
Soy Sauce
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Cayenne
Butter
3 Eggs
A lil Veg Oil

Combine pineapple, teriyaki, and brown sugar. Heat on low until bubbles. Grill chicken, however you grill it, about 10 minutes before it's done start basting w/ new and improved teriyaki sauce. Take off grill and pour the remaining sauce on top of the chicken. Make the Rice yo!

Rice:
Heat butter and scramble eggs, set aside.
Heat a few TBS of veg oil and then dump in the rice, movin around a big to brown. Add spices, soy sauce and sesame seeds (yeah, I forgot sesame seeds and I'm not scrolling back up to add them.) Shimmy shake it all around until brown.

Corn:
Shuck corn and smear w/ butter. Shake some Creole or Cajun seasoning . Roll up in Tin Foil and throw it on the grill.

Husband rated the Chicken 5, Rice 4....dinner overall 4. (altho, I feel the average should have been 4.5. Ya know, but whatever.) Everything I dropped the dogs ate up like they hadn't eaten in days. I guess thats not really a compliment seeing how they eat their own poop. Whatever, stop bursting my bubble!!