Holidays are here again.

Oh me, oh my, how quickly time has passed us by.

All this time I've been thinking about Christmas preparations, Thanksgiving has crept up on me. It's less than two weeks away. I know I'll make turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes. Oh, of course Jimmy's must have blend of mashed potatoes with rutabaga. Now, to decide on the something green and dessert.

Oh, it should be so easy with Jimmy being the pastry chef, but it's not. I love it all. Pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, and again all those flavors in cheesecake form..mmmmm. I want a little of everything!! It's not such a hard decision when you are celebrating with all the extended family, but since our family members are scattered throughout the US it's hard to get together. So I have to shrink everything down for four.

Oh brilliant, just solved my own problem. I'll make mini-pies, that way I can have it all. I could freeze the ones we don't get to. You are probably thinking that I'm crazy, but it is the season of eating so that's my excuse.
If you ask Jimmy, he would say who am I trying to kid, I eat like that all the time. Yes, I love sweets, that's why Jimmy is my perfect match--he doesn't mind.

Then I have to make the Thanksgiving cards with the kids for the family. Every year, I outline Kai's hands to make hand turkeys. Last year was Kai's and Nico's hands, this year will be Kai's and Bella's.

After Thanksgiving is over, I have to start testing cookie recipes and decide on what all is going in our gift baskets. Stress, stress, stress!

Now, I'll turn on the radio and listen to the Christmas songs to help motivate me.

Until the next post, live, laugh, love and eat well.

Menu for the week of 11-05

Ok, so we cooked too much food last week and had leftovers that carried over for the next day. This week starts off with the Spicy Panko chicken that was planned for Monday.

Tuesday: Spicy Panko coated Chicken with rice

Wednesday: Chicken and Andouille sausage Jambalaya over rice(leftover from Tuesday)

Thursday: Italian Sausage with spaghetti squash

Friday: Penne pasta with bacon and veggies

Saturday: Take out from Greek Island

Sunday: Football day (every Sunday is until the big game) Most likely pizza, nachos and hot dogs.

My Spicy Panko Chicken

Ingredients:
For the rice:

1 1/2 cups of rice

3 cups of water

For the chicken:

2 chicken breasts (that would actually be 4 halves)

Salt

black pepper

1/4 cup of mayonnaise

3 tablespoons of hot sauce (we like Winston's hot sauce from Austin,Tx)

1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

1 gallon size plastic bag with a zip top

The chicken is best marinated over night, but 15-30 minutes will do too.


1. I usually poke the breasts all over with a fork then season with salt and pepper. Place seasoned chicken in the plastic bag.


2. In a small bowl mix the mayonnaise and hot sauce together. Taste to see if it's spicy enough, if not add more hot sauce, then pour into the plastic bag. Squish everything around in the bag to make sure that the chicken is coated in the spicy mayo. Put back in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.


3. Put the rice and water into a 6 cup sauce pan. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Then lower heat to a simmer and cook for twenty minutes. Turn off the heat and let it sit for at least 10 before opening the lid.


4. Turn the oven on to 375 degrees. Take the chicken out of the refrigerator. Pour the Panko bread crumbs into a plate and season with more salt and pepper. Take one piece of chicken at a time and coat with the panko bread crumbs by pressing crumbs onto chicken. Make sure the chicken is completely covered with the bread crumbs. Finish coating the rest of the chicken this way.


5. Spray a sheet pan (cookie pan) with cooking spray. Place coated chicken breast on pan and put it in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes then flip the chicken breasts and cook for another 10 minutes. The internal temperature should be 165 degrees, if not cook longer. If you don't have a thermometer, cut one of the breasts in half to see if the chicken juices run clear.

6. Serve with rice, extra hot sauce and your choice of vegetable or a simple salad.



This is a picture of the tandoori chicken, mushroom korma, spinach and chickpea masala and brown basmati rice coconut pilaf from last week. Yes, I made everything.

the cooking toddler

I finally got Kai cooking on camera! Unfortunately for unknown reasons, the camera did not pick up sound so it's a silent video. Click on the media player above to see him in action. Yes, my two year old son is cooking all by himself- he was fully supervised. He insists on being allowed to do what he knows, I think it's alright as long as I know that he won't hurt himself. I do not let him cook unsupervised so please don't worry.

We went to the American Baby Faire today. It's a great expo to attend if you're a first time parent, not so much fun if you already have them. I totally forgot about it, but my dear husband was sweet to remember and take me! It took us two hours to go through the whole thing. We made out with a few samples and a better understanding of the new stroller we want, plus found an item that both kids can share for Christmas.
They could improve it by adding more info and products for people who already have kids and call it a 'Baby and kid faire' or something like that.

We saw the new Dodge mini van up close and I seriously like the rotating back seats! I never ever thought I would consider a mini van for a vehicle, but they've come a long way. I don't think we really need one for a couple more years. Hubby likes the Caddy SUV, but again we'll have to battle it out when the need arises.

More food and fun.

I started this blog as an attempt to keep a journal of sorts. I am terrible at the actual pen to paper, so I'm hoping this will last longer than one month (the longest journal kept). I am also going to do my best to write more about food and fun, so there will be weekly postings of my weekly menu, an original recipe if I'm using one during the week, and a post about my faves of the week or new findings.

This weeks menu starts tonight because we had Chinese take-out for dinner last night. After a trip to the grocery, I really don't feel like cooking since our grocery trips involve going to at least three shops for ingredients!

Thursday: Basic meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes and roasted butternut squash puree.

Friday: Tandoori chicken, brown basmati rice, garlic nan, mushroom korma, and spinach and chickpeas spiced with garam masala.

Saturday: Mushroom lasagna with meat sauce.

Sunday: Football day- Husband's choice for game food

Monday: Hubby's favorite spicy oven baked crispy panko chicken with rice

What an ambitious menu. It's all fairly simple to make, really. Here's how I made tonight's meatloaf.

I got out my handy Cuisinart mini prep. Washed the following:

1 stalk of celery
1 small bell pepper

Then, peeled and roughly chopped one small onion and placed it in the food processor and pressed chop until it got to my desired size. No tears! Dumped the onions into a mixing bowl, then rough chopped the celery and bell pepper and tossed it into the food processor and chopped until the desired size was reached. Dumped that into the mixing bowl and added a handful of breadcrumbs, 1/2# of ground sirloin and 1/2# of ground chuck and 2 strips of smoky bacon that went through the same chopping process as the veggies, couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce, about a quarter cup of ketchup, and good ol' salt and pepper. Combine everything together with your hands, form into a loaf shape, place in pan and bake at 375 degrees until done. I check it after forty-five minutes with a thermometer. When it reaches 165 degrees it's done.

For the sides:

Roasted Sweet Potatoes
wash 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces, sprinkle on olive oil, salt, pepper and a little garlic powder.
put on a baking pan and place in oven. should take about 30 minutes to cook.

Roasted Butternut Squash Puree
Wash the squash and then cut in half length wise. Scoop out seeds, sprinkle some olive oil on it and put it on a baking pan cut side down. I added fresh sage leaves to these. So before you put the squash on the pan lay fresh sage leaves in the area that the squash will go, then top them with the squash. The two are a good combo and the squash gets scented this way.

Bake it for 30 minutes or until it gets soft. When cooked, scoop squash into a blender, add butter(as much as you like), salt and pepper and a splash of cream or milk, push the puree button on the blender. Voila it's done. pour it into a serving dish.

That's what we're having for dinner. I told y'all earlier that I'm not a professional chef so measurements and cooking times are approximated. If you really need exact times, temperatures, measurements, and a weekly shopping list so you can follow my menu, I can give those to you. Just ask.

Bon apetite!