"Sticky" chicken wings, broccoli, and rice.

Last night I made something, mainly to empty some chicken out of the freezer. I got the idea from Martha's magazine this month (the food one.)
It was pretty tasty, but needed some spice, maybe a good squirt of Siracha or a spoon full of garlic chili sauce.It was perfect to get rid of some chicken wings I have had frozen a good while. They weren't as sticky as the photo in her magazine but trust me, they were messy enough!

Lee said "I knew you were the one when I saw you eat wings like a man at Sports Shack."

Awww, true love right there folks.

Meatballs, stewed green beans, and taters

Monday night, I was feeling a good, southern meal. My mom was still here and I wanted to make a nice big meal for her. I had no idea she would love it so much!

I served BBQ Meatballs (thank you Pioneer Woman), stewed green beans, and steamed fingerling potatoes.
Looks like she felt the need to re-post this recipe this week. They really are that good. The thing I do different is that rather than pour the sauce on top, I dab them about 20 minutes into the cooking, then again before serving. I mean, why waste this awesome sauce getting charred on the bottom of the casserole dish right?
(my thighs agree!)

For the green beans, I just diced some onion, garlic, tomato, and bacon - sauteed it all in a sauce pot until soft, then threw in green beans and about 2 cups (or almost enough to cover the beans) of chicken broth and let it cook, nearly an hour. Lee likes his green beans totally soft and almost mushy. Quote: "Always make these green beans. Always."

Potatoes - simmered in a steam basket on the stove about 1/2 hourish. Served with a little butter.I had a little meat left over so I froze it for an emergency or something.
Mom wanted to drink the bbq sauce out of the bowl, it is THAT GOOD! I substitute 1/2 of the ketchup called for with chili sauce. It just adds a little something (to my thighs).

Weekend Eating - Mom's in town!!

My mom is here visiting, and I have not seen her for 7 months! So we took on the town while she was here and ate alot of food!
Friday: We had Baby Barnaby's for breakfast/brunch before her hair appointment at Traci Scott with Justin, my hair guru.She had the breakfast tacos with chorizo and I had huevos rancheros. Yum! And not too terrible heavy either.
For dinner we went to Tia Maria's and had margaritas (and fajitas).
Saturday: Off to the Galleria we go! We stopped at Gigi's Dumpling house for lunch, which I had never been to. The prices were reasonable and the food was YUM! We had a shrimp/crab dumpling and chicken-ginger dumplings. My mom snapped a photo with her camera, I need to get it from her. They have all you can eat dim-sum on the weekends for $15 a person and it's totally worth it.
Dinner: We went off to Gravitas in the Downtown/Montrose area. I have been here many times for brunch but never for dinner. We had a really nice time!{image: kellyniemannphotography.}

We started off with stuffed calamari - which was grilled and stuffed with scallop mousse and lemongrass. It had a small salad of tempura green beans and some baby spinach on the side. Man o man was this yummy! It went perfect with our pino grigio. Then we both ordered the market catch - Flounder. It was served over a bed of mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, and green beans. It had a nice rich marsala type sauce over it as well.We finished off the meal with a little dessert - Chocolate Fondant with ice cream. We felt we needed a magnifying glass to see it!But it was still tasty!
Sunday: I had to take her to Canopy for eggs benedict. The BEST.
Sunday night I made the turkey tacos I just posted about. Very yummy and light.

Tonight is a basic meal - meatballs, potatoes, and green beans.

Fake-out: Pulled turkey tacos

Last night I tried a new recipe from Food & Wine magazine that was very similar to the pulled pork shoulder we just did. I like the alternative to all the fat that is in pork. It turned out REALLY well! My only add would be to put some whole chipotle's in the mix to simmer so you get that flavor into the meat. Otherwise, I am totally making these again!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Two 1-pound bone-in turkey thighs or drumsticks, skin and fat removed
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 medium white onion, cut into 1-inch dice, plus minced white onion, for serving
• 1 large oregano sprig
• 1 large jalapeño—stemmed, seeded and sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
• 1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
• 1 ancho chile—stemmed, seeded and coarsely chopped or torn
• One 2-inch cinnamon stick
• One 12-ounce bottle Mexican dark beer, such as Modelo Negro
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 small can chipotles in adobo sauce, whole - not choppped
• 12 corn tortillas
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds and cilantro sprigs, for serving

Directions

1. In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Season the turkey with salt and pepper and cook over moderately high heat until richly browned all over, about 8 minutes. Transfer the turkey to a plate.
2. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the casserole along with the garlic, diced onion, oregano and jalapeño and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the onion is softened, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato, ancho and cinnamon stick and cook, stirring, until the tomato releases its juices.
3. Return the turkey to the casserole, add the beer and water and bring to a boil. Add chipotle's, cover and simmer over low heat, turning once, until the turkey thighs are tender, about 1 hour. Transfer the turkey to a plate and let cool. Discard the oregano sprig and cinnamon stick and boil the sauce over high heat until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 12 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°. Wrap the tortillas in foil and bake for about 8 minutes, until softened and heated through. Remove the turkey meat and shred it. Transfer the sauce to a food processor and puree. Return the sauce to the pot and stir in the shredded turkey. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the turkey onto the tortillas. Top with minced onion, sesame seeds and cilantro sprigs and serve.

(Per Food and Wine - 220 calories a taco)
(so i had 3)
(yum)

From this experience, stay with the thighs. The drumsticks were hard to shred.

Do yourself a favor and buy a bottle of Chipotle Tobasco ASAP. Best thing ever, especially on these tacos!

Souffle

I attempted chocolate souffle for Valentines day and I think I would give myself a B if I was grading it!

I can't tell if either the dish was a little too large or I didn't quite whip and fold the whites correctly, but the texture was great. I need another recipe, as this one wasn't very rich to me.
But it was pretty tasty!

Fresh out of the oven (see how it isn't just bursting out of the dish?)


But the texture is right!
Yeah we hated it, can't you tell?Anyone else ever tried a souffle? I need a good recipe, and I will have to pick up a smaller dish it looks like!

Chipotle Pork Shoulder - Tacos

Monday was Kelly's birthday. (and Laura's). Instead of the same ole steak and potatoes, we decided to do something much different. Kelly is a Texas girl through and through (except she doesn't like pecans... i am still stumped) so we went with tacos. We made a chipotle pork shoulder, which you shred and serve with corn tortillas. I tried making my own, something I have done a number of times, but it was just taking way way way too much time!
Thank you, Lee, for going to Randall's TWICE in one night.

The pork, shredded in a bowl with fixin's on the side (Sour cream and avacado):

My taco - with a little Chipotle Tobasco dabbed on (YUM):


Singing Happy Birthday (while Lee and I clean up in the background.)I hope you had a great birthday Kelly! (and Laura!)

Recipe:

Chipotle Pork Shoulder

Ingredients:

3 onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 roma tomatoes diced

1 can (small) chipotle peppers in adobo

½ cup water

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

3 pound pork shoulder

Oven: 300

In a large skillet, or dutch oven, cook onions and garlic a good 15 minutes, until sweet to taste. Generously salt and pepper pork shoulder. Place meat on top of onions and garlic in dutch oven or oven proof large pot. Just thrown in entire can of chipotle chilis and adobo sauce ( no chopping…), and rest of ingredients. Add a little more salt and pepper.

Place foil over top of pot, or lid on dutch oven, cook for 3 – 4 hours. Don’t touch it, just let it do it’s thing.

Once finished, discard bay leaf and remove meat to bowl and shred. You can add a spoonful of the veggies in if you like. Note that the juices will be pretty spicy so keep tasting as you add juices/veggies into the shredded meat.

Awesome served on warm corn tortillas with a little sour cream and Tabasco.

(We made this the day before because of time and it was just as awesome)

Fresh veggies

No cooking this week, and off to vacation!