A Tradition is Made

 Over a year ago, while perusing Alton Brown's book "I'm Just Here for the Food," Brian discovered a curious recipe.  It's a little thing called "Chip Chop" and as soon as he saw the recipe, he thought that it would be a fun thing to try.

Calories aren't listed in AB's books, and AB Himself often states "I said it was delicious,  I didn't say it was good for you."  So, in this house, "Chip Chop" is now an annual tradition. 

This thing is awesome!  Essentially it's just a pork chop, dredged in crushed salt and vinegar potato chips.  Flavor-wise, it's SO. MUCH. MORE.  It's crunchy, junky and perfect.

In the book, AB suggests side dishes such as fried green tomatoes or macaroni and cheese. We had none of these things in the house, and frankly, those things paired with Chip Chop make me want to check to see if our health insurance covers bypass surgery.  :)  So we paired it with a green salad with light honey mustard dressing and it was good!

p.s.  Will did not partake of the Chip Chop.  Rather, he settled on a leftover burger, green beans and applesauce.  First time in a few weeks he didn't have the same dinner that we did.  Progress is being made in that direction as well!

Fresh AND Cheap!

I can't believe it, but as a family we're getting better at this penny-pinching thing.  At first it was tough, but now it's almost like a game, seeing what we can do to save a few bucks. 

One thing that can always use cutting is the grocery bill.  I mean, it's SO EASY to pile all sorts of items in the ol' grocery chariot, and then nearly pass out from the sticker shock.  But do you put anything back once it's reached the conveyor belt?  Probably not.  Lately I've gone heavy on fresh produce, because we could all use some more of it, nutritionally and waistline speaking.  This is the most expensive part of the trip, by far!  It just doesn't seem fair that cookies and ice cream are often cheaper than apples, salad greens and watermelon. 


So, for fun, I checked out a little store called "Banana Joes."  I walked in, expecting more of a vegetable stall and found much more!  Instead of just ears of corn and maybe some apples, I was pleasantly surprised by peppers of all kinds, peaches, nectarines, lettuces, bananas, apples, you name it!  Also, they had a deli, milk, homemade chicken salad, hummus, and a slew of other things.  Most of it is local, but some things (bananas, milk) weren't local.  I filled up a cart with fruit, veggies and two gallons of milk.....for $27!  Peaches and blueberries for breakfast, salad greens, a rainbow variety of peppers for salad and chili....Now this is a place I can live with!  :)

Asian-Marinated Flank Steak

I know, I know.  I'm trying really hard not to make separate meals for our three-year old, getting him used to eating the same things that we eat.  But sometimes, you just want something with a little more complex flavor.

This Asian-Marinated Flank Steak is from June's Cooking Light Magazine.   It marinates for 24 hours in the fridge, and then you grill it.  We chose to serve it with white rice and use up the rest  of the veggies from the kabobs we had the other night.  The flavors were excellent paired together!  The only thing missing was a little bit of broth or pan sauce over the rice.  However, since this is a Cooking Light recipe, I totally get why there wasn't one!  And now I have some fabulous leftovers for work. 

The Big One, enjoying his waffles, fruit and Gogurt!

The Little One, enjoying the cool breeze and his Exersaucer while we eat!

A Marriage of Coconut and Chocolate

I love it when Brian bakes.  Even though it's hot, and turning on the oven is almost UNTHINKABLE, I can sit on the other side of the house with a cool breeze blowing in the window, smelling whatever's in the oven.  I love benefitting from his baked treats.  And last night was no exception.

He's been tinkering with two of his favorite cookie recipes:  chocolate chip and coconut macaroons.  Both of them are awesome in their own right.  But what about putting them together?  Sounds fabulous.  Probably not going to be quite fabulous until a few tries though, so let the first batch commence!

The trick was to figure out how long they needed to bake in order for neither cookie to be raw OR burned.  So what ended up happening was to drop the dough in spoonfuls like normal, and then  pipe chocolate chip cookie batter out of a plastic bag with one corner cut out.  The chips kept clogging the hole, so they blew out several Target-brand storage bags.  Perhaps there's a pastry bag in Brian's birthday future!)  The first batch came out slightly underdone, but still tasty. 

Add just a little more baking time and VOILA!  Perfectly browned cookies.  However, they were slightly tough.  He tinkered with the butter amount in the chocolate chip cookies, substituting shortening for part of the butter so that they wouldn't spread out so much.  Next time he'll add back in some butter.  And then....the best cookie of the night was drizzled with some additional melted chocolate!

 

Same cookies, after dinner tonight.  Tonight's cookie was a little softer, perhaps from sitting in a container in a humid house all day.  Or perhaps these cookies are the kind of thing that's better the second day?  Only time (and a lot more baking and taste-testing) will tell!

Currently, this cookie doesn't have a name.  Any ideas?

Kaboom!

In a further quest for good health, I bought a spaghetti squash.  I actually really like spaghetti squash, but don't buy it often 'cause I'm the only one that does!  I usually serve it with tomato sauce and half the amount of spaghetti than I usually have.  (Less carbs that way) It's also really good with just some butter, salt and pepper. 

So anyway, I did what I usually do:  poke a bunch of holes in it with a sharp knife and then microwave it whole.  I've heard of people cutting it in half, putting it face-down in a pan with a little water and baking it, but uncooked spaghetti squash can be VERY difficult to cut in half.  Out of the microwave, you can cut it in half easily, remove the seeds with a spoon and then scrape the flesh into "spaghetti strands."  Apparently, I didn't cut enough holes in it, because Brian was feeding the baby and heard it explode in the microwave!  Three seconds later, the timer went off, indicating that it was finished cooking.  What a mess!   Salvageable though, and delicious.  :)

Hooray! Grill's fixed.

The title of this blog says it all!  It turns out that we could purchase new burners for our grill, which has been out of commission for a couple of months.  (It's bad when the flames come outside the grill!)  I will gladly take a $40 fix over buying an expensive new gas grill ANY day!

So far, we've had grilled hot dogs, steak, kielbasa, and some potatoes and corn in foil packets.  Welcome back!  :) 

All-American Steak Fajita

As with many, many other things in our house, our Fajita Night has now been AltonBrown-ized!

He recently had an entire show dedicated to tacos.  I didn't watch it, but you know Brian did.  And if I had to guess, I'm sure that AB is totally against the little packet of seasoning that comes in a taco kit.  Or against taco kits at all.  That's ok, because I'm not crazy about them either.  That packet....not so much flavor and way too much sodium.  Recently I had just been adding diced onion and a little cumin to the meat.  However, this taco concoction rocks!  I know it's for tacos, but it really jazzes up steak fajitas. 

We used Taco Potion #19 (AB's recipe), skirt steak, onions and green/orange bell peppers.  Then for topping time:  Brian likes 'em crunchy so what's crunchy?  Leftover broccoli slaw!  It really added something.  I also put sliced avocado on mine.  Finish with some colby-jack cheese and voila!  A masterpiece!

I am so looking forward to my leftovers lunch at work today!