Cast Iron Love

Well, this morning's drive was quite miserable.  After seeing 60-degree temperatures and sunshine yesterday afternoon, it was definitely NOT what I was expecting to see when I looked outside today.  Screw you, April showers.

I made better-than-El-Rodeo chicken fajitas last night.  I know it seems like I'm always saying how everything I cook is amazing; and, that's the end of that statement.  It is.  Here's what I did:

Heat 2 tablespoons-ish of canola oil in a cast iron skillet.  The cast iron skillet is vital to the preparation of this dish.  If you don't have one, get your ass to Bass Pro and buy one.  I recommend Lodge brand.  You're welcome.

When you get back from shopping, slice some boneless, skinless chicken breasts into strips, and place in a bowl or on a paper plate like I did because I don't have a dishwasher and attempt to use as little dishes as possible when making a meal.  Sprinkle a few shakes of the following spices onto the chicken, and make sure it coats all of it: Kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Adobo seasoning, paprika, chili powder, and cumin.

Throw the chicken into the heated oil in the skillet, and cook for about 10 minutes.  Do NOT overcook the chicken.  I know that you're all terrified of serving undercooked poultry, but as long as it's not pink in the middle, it's perfectly fine.  Trust me.

Remove the chicken from the skillet, and into the same skillet (for God's sake do NOT clean it), put some sliced bell peppers and onions.  I used half a bag of "stir-fry pepper mix" I had in the freezer, along with half of a fresh onion, sliced.  I added a couple shakes of crushed red pepper, but you could also include fresh jalapeno.  You could really add whatever you wanted here, I kind of wished I had some mushrooms too.  Dump a couple splashes of beer in with the veggies (I hope you picked up one of those nice Bass Pro Shops coozies while you were out), turn the heat up to medium-high, until the beer is almost gone, stirring frequently.  Lower the heat to medium-low, add the chicken back in, toss around for a minute or two, and that's that.

Heat up a couple tortillas in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds, and add the chicken and peppers and whatever toppings you so desire.  We didn't have any sour cream, but honestly it didn't really need anything, it was SO flavorful on its own. 

Happy cast-iron cooking!

Tuesday Morning

After last week's craziness, coupled with being on my deathbed all weekend, I'm quite thrilled to have a fairly quiet week ahead of me.  But for the love of GOD, can it please warm up to at least 50 degrees for longer than one day at a time?  I'm so sick of wearing a winter coat.  It's March 25th, for crying out loud.

When I was coming up with my weekly meal plan on Sunday, I decided to check my Pinterest boards for inspiration.  I found this little gem on my Food From the Homeland board.  I'm allowed to call it that because I have an Asian husband.  The recipe has since been relocated to my NAILED IT. board, because, well, I totally did.

General Tso's Chicken - better than takeout.

It was seriously SO good.  Marinating, then coating, then frying the chicken was kind of a pain in the ass, but definitely worth it.  You could also complete those steps, and then add whatever sauce you wanted to it - or possibly paint thinner, because the chicken was that good.

Tonight I'm making pork chops in the cast iron skillet, and some kind of sauce/seasoning...it's probably going to be one of those nights where I use all 8761345 bottles of condiments in our fridge.  That number is only slightly off; I would estimate that 2/3 of the refrigerator space is occupied by some kind of salad dressing, sauce, or pickled item.

I'm also going to join the cauliflower craze that appears to be sweeping the Pinterest world, since I scored two heads of it for about $3 at Weis.  I have a few recipes in mind, but I'm a little skeptical on any recipe that uses a vegetable for its main ingredient, and claims, "Tastes EXACTLY like buffalo wings!!!"  Um, kay.  I'll be the judge of that.

Oldhead

I am officially old.  I was home by 8:30 last night, on St. Patrick's Day, and in bed by 10:00.  I had five-ish drinks or so, and I was at work, on time, and functioning this morning.  And I'm totally okay with that.  It seems like it's been a decade, when in reality it was only three years ago, that I started my day at 7 AM drinking green beer and eating an Irish breakfast before work.  Once the workday was over, on that same day, going out for "happy hour" turned into something more like a Happy Evening, and quite an Unhappy Morning.  Good times, but I'm glad that stage of my life has ceased.

Moving on...this past weekend included all of my favorite things: food, family and friends, drinks, and sunshine.  Friday night, we tried out a new-to-us restaurant, Smoked BBQ, and it was great.  I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for authentic barbecue, without an overly smoky taste.  That's one of my biggest pet peeves; I prefer my meat to taste like meat, not woodchips.  I got the Bleu Rachel sandwich, which had thick-sliced turkey breast that was smoked perfectly, topped with bleu cheese and a creamy apple slaw, on the biggest pieces of toasted rye bread I've ever seen.  Amazeballs.

On Saturday, my mom, sister, and sister's BFF/basically my other sister, came down for lunch and outlet-shopping, so we hit up our favorite wing joint, the Boro.  It was outstanding as usual.  Later in the day, an impromptu cookout turned into an all-night gathering at my brother-in-law's house, which was super fun.  It was so nice to be outside, even if it was a tad chilly. 

Emma's first outdoor soccer tournament of the season is this weekend, here's hoping it's above 50 degrees and the sun is shining!

Spring is in the Air

FINALLY.  I'm beginning to feel more like a happy person again.  It was still daylight at 7:00 PM last night, and it was fabulous.  It's amazing what a little extra sunshine and above-freezing temperatures will do for a girl.

This weekend was quite productive, and the sun was out!  After spending an hour and a half deciding where we going to eat on Friday after work, we ended up at the Parkside, which is always delightful.  Saturday morning, I woke up early and headed to TC for the day, making stops at my grandparents' house, my BFF's parents' house to pick up a few bottles of the best water ever, and the elementary school to see my mom, before heading to another BFF's house to play arts and crafts and drink wine.  Sunday was spent cleaning and organizing, and I also made one of my favorite meals in the world, Ham and Green Beans. 

We went to the gym this morning for the first time in probably two months, and it was great.  I started a "running for beginners" plan, since I'm in terrible shape.  It's a 12-week program, so we'll see how long this lasts.  Also, my co-workers and I started a 30-day "arm challenge" at the beginning of the month, which includes various amounts of push-ups and chair dips, plus planks, for anywhere from 15 to 90 seconds.  I like it, and even if I don't do a whole workout, it's a quick thing that takes less than 5 minutes to do every day.

In addition to all of that, I've been going to physical therapy for 4 weeks now, and I feel like my back is going to be #beast this summer from all of the exercises.  Also, my back/neck pain is actually going away, or at least feeling better, for the first time in almost six years.  Win!

#Wah.

I just can't, with this winter any longer.  It's affecting my mood on a daily basis, I'm sick of looking at this disgusting, dirty snow.  I'm tired of my winter clothes, coats, scarves, and gloves.  I don't want to do anything but watch 13 hours of Netflix every day of every weekend.  I promise I won't complain too much this summer when it's 104 degrees.  I just want to be sitting by the pool, in a bathing suit and sunglasses.  That's all.

Shits and Giggles

For some reason, today doesn't really feel like Friday.  I'm obviously thrilled that it is, but I just don't have that WOO IT'S FRIDAY feeling.  Perhaps it's because I've been so miserable all week.

SHITS

- I'm so sick being cold.  And furthermore, I'm sick of spending money out the ass to simply not freeze to death.  I hate oil.

- It's supposed to snow again on Sunday, during which time I'll probably be a #snowplowwidow.  Let's make that a trending hashtag.  Go.

GIGGLES

- I'm getting my hair done tomorrow by my BFF Heather, and I am SO freaking excited about it.  I've been wondering how long it would be until I could pull off these roots as an "ombre" look.  (The answer is never.)

- I have my second PT appointment after work today, and I'm looking forward to it.  I've been doing my weird neck exercises religiously all week, so I hope he sees a little bit of improvement, and teaches me some other weird stuff I can do all day while sitting at my desk.

- I made chicken alfredo last night for dinner, and it was downright amazing.  I had originally planned to use a jar of Prego alfredo sauce, but I opened it, and it kind of smelled like nacho cheese.  It was certainly "not-my-cheese" [ba-dum-ch...get it?!] that I wanted to serve to my family over perfectly seasoned chicken and al dente fettucine.  So I made this go-to sauce I discovered a little while ago, which is so so so good.  I need to remember to halve the recipe next time though because it made way too much.

Welp, that's really all I have to complain and rejoice about today...

After an awesome time beginning on Friday at 6 PM up until Sunday at about 8 PM (most of which having to do with food -- Italian Lodge Friday (HOLLA to my new fans!), Boro Saturday for lunch, Bube's Brewery for dinner that night) this week has totally sucked.  Let's count the ways.

- We'll go ahead and get the Broncos completely blowing the biggest game of their careers out of the way first.  There, I said it. 

- Then I thought, well, hey, at least I have off on Monday!  The governor then decided to point and laugh and call the rest of the state off as well.  Bye bye, 7.5 hours of personal leave.

- Of course my physical therapy appointment was still on as scheduled, so I had to shovel my driveway, clean off my car, actually put a bra on and venture a mile out into the world.  The appointment went great, but whilst I was in there, it proceeded to snow another two inches, and my vehicle was plowed into its spot.

- I then spent the rest of the day and night by myself, watching stupid daytime TV, and drinking beer rum and cokes.  (I had a beer with my chicken enchilada lunch, it only seemed right for that moment.)  Miah didn't get home from work until 11 PM, at which point, I was clearly sleeping.

- We didn't actually see each other with our eyes open and awake until last night at 8:30 PM, since I obviously worked yesterday, and he had to take Emma to soccer at 6:00 last night.

- Fast forward to this morning, when I thought I'd wake up to a solid 3 inches of snow with a 1/4-inch of ice on top of it and receive a day off work (a free one this time)...alas, we were only granted a 3-hour delay and I had to again, clean off my car, put a bra on, and leave the house.  [#firstworldproblems]  My car was like a giant Ford Igloo.  I almost fell several times, while trying to simultaneously avoid being impaled by flying icicles in all directions.

I'm at work now, and to give yet another indication of how shitty today was: I starting writing this post at 11:20 this morning...it is now 4:09.  I hate actually having to do WORK at work.