November 18, 2011

I have a funny story about jambalaya and mac & Cheese; are you ready? We love recipes from America's Test Kitchen, and my "go-to" cookbook is The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. We've never made a recipe from there that we didn't love, until Saturday night. We were trying to decide on dinner for the evening, and Ryan was in the mood for shellfish. So, I pulled out my trusty cookbook, and we started flipping through the pages. We had almost settled on Shrimp Scampi, a recipe we've made numerous times and absolutely love, when Ryan saw Shrimp Jambalaya. I was game, so we decided on that. Hannah is not a fish lover, and absolutely doesn't eat shrimp, and I guessed that Liam wouldn't like it either. Hannah asked for mac & cheese, but instead of breaking out the blue box, I decided to try a baked mac & cheese recipe. Both were ready at the same time, and everyone was invited to try whatever they wanted. As fate would have it, no one liked the Jambalaya, and everyone loved the mac & cheese! Hilarious! The leftover mac & cheese went mush faster than the jambalaya. I guess it goes to show that sometimes you just never know what recipe will earn keeper status!

You probably can guess by now that we eat a lot of chicken around here. True to form, this week was no different, we had chicken a few times. One evening I made a new chicken recipe, and the chicken was FANTASTIC!! The sauce that accompanied it, not so much. It calls for toasted sesame seeds, and I had some in the cupboard from when I made the hamburger cupcakes. I put the seeds in a small pan and toasted them up prior to using them in the recipe. It worked great, and I think the seeds were a nice addition to the breading. Also the egg wash called for some fresh lemon juice, and I think that really brightened the flavor as well. All in all, the chicken was great, but you'll have to look in your fridge for something to dip it in. I know I'll be making this in near future, so if I come up with a better sauce, I'll add it to the blog.

Happy Thanksgiving! The next time I "see" you it will have already come and gone. I'll have to see what recipes I can come up with to use up any extra turkey! Enjoy your friends and family, and give thanks for all that you have.



New Recipes
Lemon Sesame Crusted Chicken
Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheesecake Squares
Baked Mac & Cheese