Chicken Nuggets + Tater Tots = Awesome Weekend

Hello All

I got some surprise visitors this weekend. Some welcome and some unwelcome, but I think that's how it always goes. I don't have insightful personal pieces of wisdom today. Generally, I just have grips about things/people that bothered me that I try to twist into wisdom but everything has been okay for a while. No lessons learned. Through lessons usually need to take a while to sink in before they become learned. This weekend I got to see some great friends and enjoy time with them at my house. I am a home body so that is my preferred way.

Luckily I made enough delicious dishes to keep my reputation in tact with my guests. First treat I made is homemade chicken nuggets. I wanted chicken nuggets one day and thought hey "I have chicken and bread crumbs how hard could it be?" I scoured my moms leftover cook books and found a Barefoot Contessa book and in it there were Parmesan Chicken Fingers. Yum. All I had to buy was parm and I was set. Since I anticipated these to be fantastic I made lots. Which turned out to be a good plan since my welcome guests showed up as I scooped the last few out of the pan.

To make a complicated recipe less complicated I created an assembly line. First dredge in the flour. Then dip in the eggs (I used egg whites, cause who really needs the yolks). Then the bread crumb parm mixture.

Assembly Line

Once assembled I put them straight into the pan but since I made a lot and it said to not crowd the pan I needed a holding area too.

The holding Area

Pan Fry in Olive Oil and Butter

They were awesome and quickly eaten. Juicy and flavorful. My boyfriend said they were as good as KFC, meaning they were so good on their own they did not need dip. That didn't stop us from getting everything that could be considered dip out of the fridge. 

After that lunch we agreed to order pizza for dinner. 

After an evening of shenanigans downtown we needed a hearty breakfast. I was prepared and created the Tater Tot Skillet of Awesome. It was awesome indeed with some hearty additions. 

This is the final product. I did not get a good pick of it prior (sorry) but there are good pictures on the website it came from. This uses a cast iron skillet too which I think is so cool. Whats in it is a whole green pepper, whole onion, cup of peppers (all chopped up), and a pound of venison sausage. You saute those all together. Then mix in 3 cups precooked tater tots (I added an extra cup) dump in 7 eggs (the meat increased volume so I added eggs until the mixture was covered. Finally cover it with cheese (I used twice as much as the recipe called for) and bake for 15 minutes. Can you say amazing, or should I say awesome (lol). I served it with a fruit bowl of cantaloupe and baby watermelon. I figured the boys needed some fresh fruit in their life. And nothing says summer like watermelon. 

The last summer treat I have discovered is this awesome recipe for Iced Coffee. It is as good as described. Its not acidic. Easy to drink. I drink my coffee black but iced coffee is always good with more so have it your way (sorry to steal the slogan BK). If I ever needed to make a lot of it I think I would try this iced coffee recipe from the pioneer women.  

Since those feats I have not conquered anymore fine dinning but the week has just begun.

Thanks for reading

Ktbug

P.S. I changed my favicon to a cute little cupcake. :-)

Strawberries, Cinnamon & Knitting

I have been racking my brain all day trying to figure out something profound to say. I feel my blog has lost is content. But really since my life is a whole lot of nothing these days what is there to talk about. When I travel to New York there will be lots of sparkle to talk about. When I start my new job there will be lots of hopes and fears to discuss. Right now all I do is spend time knitting/reading/cleaning until its time to cook something again.

I love cooking. Maybe I have missed my calling. I feel like my day is not complete unless i spend some time chopping, sauteing, sprinkling and tasting. I am not sure where I learned this passion from. My mom, whom is a fantastic cook, does not seem to enjoy cooking as much as I do. I just love this form of creation. I still follow recipes most of the time. I don't create off the top of my head but maybe a few more years of recipes and ill be able to make things up. Maybe ill write a cooking/knitting book in my future. I am also not the best baker yet but these muffins turned out all right.

I was searching earlier this week through this new food website I found called Tasty Kitchen and bookmarking things I like. I have found with this site if I don't book mark it ill never find it again. Since I had just bought some strawberries these caught my eye. Since I was making them after dinner for a treat I through in some cinnamon chips. I love cinnamon.

These are the muffins before the baked. I had to bake them way longer than the listed amount. I blame the stone muffin pan for that.

Strawberry Muffins with Cinnamon Chips

Then to fill most of my day I have been eagerly working on my new socks. Now you might remember these from an earlier post but I had to redo them because the size was wrong. These are called the ballet socks from the the toe up two at a time sock book. They are prettiest ones in the book in my opinion so that is where I am starting. The pattern was designed to weave gracefully in and out reminiscent of a delicate dance.I don't know if you can see it very clearly but this is what the pattern chart creates.

Gotta love the two at a time as well. Its taking way long than your typical sock but its gonna be cool to be done with both at once. Also it is much more important to pay attention and do it right to keep up with this pattern. Also I had to cast this one on 3 times during round 2 before I got it right.

Well that is all I am up to right now. I hope that was a more interesting read than the usual. Also you must try these muffins they really turned out great.
Thanks for reading
Ktbug

Movie Reviews

During my chick flick marathon I sampled the finest that redbox had to offer. This is the verdict. The ones with the stars are my favorites. 

*Life as we Know it

Cute movie. I would recommend it. Sorta sad in some parts. Sorta funny in others. Makes you smile. Leaves you feeling happy and hopeful.

Country Strong

Pretty dramatic. Good music. Not really worth the time.

Sex and the city 2

As to be expected. Extravagant. Unrealistic. Girly. Fun.

*The Switch

Great movie. Smart and funny. Easy to watch. Cute. Highly recommend.

Time Traveler’s Wife

Cute flick. Romantic in its own weird way.

*Just Go with it

Funny in the Adam Sandler kind of way. But not over done. Cute. Fun. Recommended.

How do you know

Eh not that great. I kept getting confused in the plot line and the relationships were not believable.

Morning Glory

Cute, funny and inspiring. I think I missed my calling I should have been an executive producer. 

Recent Eats

- I attempted to make sauce the way my mom does it. Saute onion and garlic (I added diced mushrooms and green peppers). Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Add some water to thin it. Season to taste. I cooked some ground venison and put in it as well. Served it with whole grain pasta. My brother said he liked it and he doesn't like pasta. Below is the pasta.

 These two are my brother (left) and boyfriend (right) enjoying the feast I made them.

Well that's all for now. I need to spend time cleaning and running errands. 

But lets be serious ill prolly watch TV and knit first. 

Thanks for reading 

Ktbug

Holiday Weekend

So much to catch up on Blog, how are you? Anything new?

Since my return from Canada I have been taking care of business. Cleaning things. Packing things. Unpacking things. Grocery Shopping. Shoe shopping. Business Casual clothes shopping.  My glorious summer of nothingness is coming to an end. But ill be damned (did i mention my blog was PG-13) if I don't get as many things off my to do list done as possible. 

First problem that needed solving was cleaning out my closet. I needed to make sure that I have all the business casual clothes needed for becoming a real 9-5 person. That includes shoes. 

I love shoe shopping. Thanks to my good friend Jessa I have a renewed love for shoes. I seem to have particular luck at DSW when shopping alone. My patent pending ;-) technique is to find ones i like and walk around the store in them to make sure they don't rub. Works every time. These are newest beauties. Tan flat, snakeskin Sperry flat and awesome peep toe heels. 

So I was driving home from the shoe store. Racking my brain trying to figure out what to do to salvage the weekend. My boyfriend is spending the weekend in Put In Bay with his friends and I am spending the weekend taking care of Boom and buying things (as you have already seen). Let's just say id rather be on an island sipping beer with friends than drinking wine with my dog in front of fan. So what do we do when we are sad. We by new shoes and make desert. 

Enter the Strawberry Pineapple Crumble with blueberries. Since its July 4th I threw in something blue in an attempt to make a red, yellow (no fruit is white), and blue treat. 

This is the crumble in the pan, it makes a nice 8x8 which is good if you don't have many people to serve. Its pretty dense and and has a creamy texture. Its not to sweet which makes it go great served warm with ice cream.

I had black raspberry chip ice cream from graters with my crumble and it was delicious. If your like my mom and pineapple in a baked good bums you out i think the recipe would still work if you put apples in instead.

Now what else does a young 20 something do when she needs to fill a Saturday night dog sitting. Redbox and knit that's what she do. I rented four movies and will remove them in a later post. If your curious what I am knitting its still that damn yellow sock. Turns out I made the wrong size and had to start over and I am having trouble casting on.

Finally lets remember July 4th is not only independence day but its also Boomers birthday. He turns 9 (i think) and shh don't tell him but I got him a beef flavored bone and canned food (he loves canned food) for his birthday. I think he will be excited.

Thanks for reading
Ktbug

One time I went to Canada

I went to visit my parents in Calgary. This post will show you the highlights. 

 Trying to get out of Chicago went like this
- get on plane 20 minutes late
- taxi to runway
- stop because all westbound traffic has been delayed due to a storm
- wait
- start again, 7th in line to take off
- computer on plane is broke so they must turn the plane on and off to fix it
- some law was passed saying we can't sit on the runway for more than 3 hours so we have to go to a gate
- all gates are taken cause all westbound traffic stopped
- we get a gate
- we taxi to gate
- we get 20 feet from the gate when the airport stops everything
- we sit on the plane while a massive rain storm sets in and the plane rocks like a boat
- i took this picture then...

- after a while we get the go ahead to pull up to the gate
- we get off the plane
- flight is canceled
- stewardess re-books us at the gate kiosk instead of making us wait in the huge customer service line
- i get hotel voucher, meal voucher, standby ticket for 9:50am the next day and a real ticket for 5:30pm

That was sorta fun

Finally I made it to Canada. This city is really big. And its really sunny all the time.

Canada has really good food. We went to a yummy donut shop. Also their money is sorta funny as well. The 5 has little kids playing hockey on it.  Something else funny about Canada is that the commercials advertise things like bug spray (or sunscreen) by explaining that since summer only lasts a month you don't want bugs (or sunburn) keeping you indoors. And everything is translated into french not Spanish. Pretty strange ay.

There is a restaurant across the street from my parents condo. Warren buffet once went to this restaurant and proclaimed this to be the best burger he has ever had. They remained it the buffet burger and it was yummy. Next to it is a french dish called poutine. Poutine is fries, with gravy and cheese curds. Its great. They also had fancy french wine. It was yummy as well. 

We also spent one day site seeing. We drove up to Lake Louise and hiked for a little bit.

So in conclusion. Calgary has great food, great shopping, its generally sunny, so its my kind of town. I enjoyed my stay but I am glad to be back in the states. Where the summer last longer, the winters are less cold, and most importantly everything is cheaper.

Thanks for reading
Ktbugg

I love Hobbies

Summer Time without a job is fantastic. I get to do all the things I love. All these things have kept me away from my blog through and for that I am sorry. I will attempt to catch you up on everything I have been working on.

First: Yummy Food

Creamy Chicken Baked Flautas which which are super yummy. The picture does not do them justice. They are full of chicken, cream cheese, shredded cheese, and seasonings. If your human then you must agree cream cheese alone means these taste fantastic.  

I also made the recomneded dipping sauce Cilantro and Lime Sour Cream yummy as well. 

Then for a yummy side to balance the meal, Colorful Black Bean Salad. Fantastic. You make it early and let the flavors marinate in the fridge for a few hours. Its great.

Second: Knitting

 Finally finished these silly socks. I think I did the cable wrong. These are from the book Favorite Socks.

By finishing those though I can know focus on socks from my new book. Toe-Up Two-at-a-Time Socks this is as far as I have gotten. I have two tiny toe covers. Ill keep you posted on my progress i have high hopes. Though at this phase they seem a bit big.

Third: Baseball

We (alex and I) went to the tribe game. Dollar dog night and fireworks. A good time and much needed date night. 

Fourth: Yummy Food Two

 these recipes I can't link for you besides to tell you buy the rachel ray look and cook book, its fantastic. These crescent rolls were adapted from the recipe in the book for the chicken with peaches dish. These crescent rolls have bacon and cheese rolled into them. Must do this again, amazing.

I trust any recipe by Rachel Ray that involved chicken. Its always flavorful and juicy. The flavors in this dish are peaches, slow cooked in a skillet with butter and lemon. Chicken cooked in a skillet with salt and pepper. And a sauce that contains chicken stock, shallot, ginger, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Absolutely amazing, and explosion of flavor.

That is about everything that has happened since I last checked in. I must take off for Canada soon so I should get back to packing.

Thanks for reading
Ktbug

When I have time...

Now I do!! I have time again to do things! Its fantastic. Once I caught up on sleep I started catching up on my reading. I am not quite done with it yet but it is fantastic I highly recommend it. I may have to pick up his other books before the summer is over.

Order it on Amazon

Next I caught up on my do to list of cooking. I attempted two recipes from on of my favorite food blogs "For the Love of Cooking". I attempted the vegetable pot stickers and the carrot ginger rice. Lets first discuss the carrot ginger rice. Yummy. In my rush to make both of these i did this one first. In hindsight I should have done the other one first. In true college kid fashion i have never cooked with any rice other than minute rice, this was my first attempt at basmati rice and it is yummy. Very flavorful. I added shrimp to the recipe for a little bit of protein.  Turned out great.

The pot stickers were somewhat complicated but turn out very pretty. I don't think I cooked them quite long enough and when i made the recipe it made far more than 20. I think they turned out good instead. I sprinkled a little bit of soy sauce on them and dipped them in sweet and sour sauce. Yummy. 

Looks like a professional made them right??

I still have more things to cook, read, and knit before my free time disappears forever. 

Thanks for reading

Ktbug