I like chips.
I like cheetos, salt & vinegar chips, the cheddar & sour cream ruffles, tortilla chips, nacho chips, doritos...
And before I fully digress into a Bubba Gump style list of ways I like to eat chips I will segue into the purpose of this post.
A good way to eat more chips and still not become a social outcast is to eat chips with varying dips and salsas.
For instance, if you are going to a party and you know you will probably eat more chips than anyone else bring a really great dip with you and then pretend it wasn't yours.
You can then say things like "I don't know who made this dip but it is out of this world. I just can't stop eating it!"
At this point you are complimenting a mystery chef and not just eating an extremely large quantity of chips. WIN! WIN!
I recently made pico de gallo twice in one weekend and although I did not deny making it or compliment any imaginary chefs I did eat a LOT of this pico and consequently a LOT of chips.

This recipe is quite similar to one I made a few months back but with some slight variations and I think it was pretty tasty.

 You need these vegetables, a lime for its juice, & salt.

Quarter the veggies and throw them in the chopper or actually dice them yourself. Batch one I left all jalapeno seeds in (hott schmott). Batch two I left 50% of the seeds in (perf!).

Add salt & lime to taste.

 Add cilantro.

 Game on. Where's the chips???

case of the Mondays

Monday night on Argyle Street consisted of a walk to the dog park with Thing 1 & Thing 2, Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, House season finale, and Strawberry Banana Smoothies. The windows are open and the breeze is warm. Ahhh.




Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas (around 500 calories per enchilada)

2 1/2 cups cooked chicken breasts, chopped

2 cups preshredded reduced-fat 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese

1 2/3 cups plain low-fat yogurt

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 (10 ounce) can condensed reduced-fat reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup

1 (4 1/2 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained

8 (8 inch) flour tortillas

1 tablespoon canola oil

cooking spray

1/2 cup finely shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup green onion, chopped

1. 1 Preheat oven to 350°.
2. 2 Combine the first 9 ingredients in a large bowl. Remove 1 cup of mixture and set aside.
3. 3 Spray 13 by 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
4. 4 Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Oil both side of one tortilla and heat in skillet for 5 seconds per side. 
5. Remove from pan and place 1/2 cup of chicken mixture in the middle of tortilla. Roll tortilla jelly roll style and and place seam side down into the baking dish. Repeat with remaining 7 tortillas.

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. 5 Spread the reserved 1 cup of chicken mixture over the tortillas.
4. 6 Cover and bake for 20 minutes.
5. 7 Uncover, spread with cheddar cheese and green onions, and bake for 5 additional minutes.

6. 

   Forgot the green onion- oopsies!

   
   

Strawberry Banana Smoothies (approx 200 calories per serving)

2 bananas

2-3 cups frozen strawberries

1/2 c. skim milk

1/4 c. plain fat free yogurt

3 packets splenda

Starting to use wedding gifts!

Okay, so we have used lots of wonderful gifts already, but tonight we debuted the "quick chef" courtesy of the Andaas family. It is quite the handy contraption. A quick stop at the closest grocery store for a few items put us on the path to try this little guy out. The closest grocery store has a very strong Mexican influence... and by influence I mean that no signs are written nor employees speaking the English.

Perfect, we'll grab our Manchego cheese and a few tomatoes and be on our way. Oh yeah, and we are out of salsa.

Por favor, senior, donde esta la salsa?

Salsa? No, no tenemos.

Argh. Oh hey, Elizabeth gave us that salsa maker thing. We can probably try that thing out.
And so we did. Started with an array of fresh ingredients: onion, lime, green pepper, roma tomatoes, garlic, cilantro.

Added a few pantry staples: balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, paprika.

Coursely chopped and added to the bowl.

Adam squeezed some limes for their juice.

Crank the little handle on this bad boy for a few minutes and you have yourself some mighty fine pico de gallo.

We put some in our quesadillas and still had WAY too much leftover. So, if you work with us, you will be eating this tomorrow.

A success, a failure, and a new invention.

Success: Enchilada Casserole

This recipe came from the cookbook compiled after my bridal shower. 
It reads "From the kitchen of Amy (Hambrick) Pierce. My mom used to make this and we have always loved it! :)"
I was really excited to try a Hambrick family tradition! I vote it a success for being easy, inexpensive, and flavorful.


1 lb ground beef or 2 1/2 c. cooked and cut up chicken 
(I chose chicken, sauteed it with butter, salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder)
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can corn, drained
1 small can chopped or sliced black olives, drained (I omitted this because neither of us really like olives)
Tortilla Chips
1 1/2- 2 c. grated cheddar cheese


Preheat oven to 350. Brown ground beef/cook chicken. Strain fat, add enchilada sauce and mushroom soup, corn and olives. Stir together and simmer. Crush tortilla chips in bottom of 9x13 pan. After mixture of beef has simmered for 15 min, pour over chips evenly. Sprinkle cheese and back for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with salsa and sour cream.


To make this more "after work friendly" I cooked the chicken, sauce, soup mixture in the morning and stored it in the fridge. 
After work, I layered chips, fridge mixture, corn, and cheese while Adam threw together a salad.  I think I could have used more chips than just to cover the bottom of the pan to make more of a "crust." Adam opted to stuff this casserole in a tortilla even though I explained the enchiladas-with-a-fork kind of concept. I chose a handful of tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream and "scooped" mine. 


Failure: Italian Paninis


Lucky for me and you blog readers that I tried this one out on Sunday night before I even decided to blog about this because tonight was a capital D disaster. We'll start with the recipe and then I'll explain in painful detail how I failed.

Courtesy of Mario Batali: Coppa, Hot Salami, Ham, Fontina and roasted garlic puree panini (serves 4)


8 slices of thick country bread (I used sourdough)
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
4 oz. coppa, sliced (I actually used capicola, because there wasn't any coppa at the deli)
4 oz. hot salami - such as pepperoni or picante, sliced (I used a hot peppered salami)
4 oz. Fontina cheese, sliced
4 oz. roasted garlic puree (I just used the jar-o-garlic with a little olive oil as a substitute)
My own special addition, Prosciutto, gotta love it & a handful of fresh basil leaves


Preheat grill pan  (the bottom right pan on the pic above) on medium. Brush both sides of the slices  of bread with EVOO.
Assemble the sandwiches as follows: bread, capicola, salami, fontina, basil, garlic mixture, prosciutto, bread.
Cook 2-3 min on each side between grill press.


Sunday night this worked like a dream and they were delicious.

Tonight was a different story. 
Sunday night I must have been energized by the freshly unpacked groceries or at least thinking clearly since I hadn't spent 10 hours at my desk immediately prior to this culinary adventure. Sunday night I prepped (layed out all my ingredients on a cutting board and gathered my tools). Then, I preheated with the timer on for 5 min while I assembled sammies. Then I put them on the press, was watchful and attentive, and voila! Italian delight. 


Thursday night I preheated, then prepped, then realized the pan was already too hot, tried to turn it down, assembled, threw them on the press, turned around to clean out the sink before my 3 minute flip only to smell burning and find the bread completely stuck to the top of the press. To make matters worse I tore the bread in my attempt to free it from the press. The middle of the panini fell out in my mad attempt to flip and during the time I'm doing battle with the top of the press the bottom has well surpassed seared, if ya know what I mean. My exasperated outbursts brought Adam to my aid. I was on my way to the garbage can with this dinner failure when he calmly suggested that all we had to do was abandon this bread, salvage the middles, and re-assemble. Ahhh.... a voice of reason. 


New Invention:


Two separate yet equal desires brought me to this "invention." 


First of all, let me tell you how much I LOVE to go to the grocery store. I blame Mema. She grocery shops more than any woman should, especially when you are the only one in your house and you pretty much eat oatmeal three times a day. But my Mema loves to go to the grocery store. She loves different stores, finding a deal, stocking up on essentials. Need a can of this? Short a frozen package of that? She's got 4 and she got a deal on them. I guarantee it. Well, the grocery store has become a favorite spot of mine too. When I've been too broke to buy clothes or shoes (many a month in my early twenties obviously) I can spend that grocery money with the same gusto. A little sale paper reading/couponing/mental calculating later and it's pretty darn fun for me. A few weeks back I scored a d-e-a-l on butter. Like, not just a buck off or something, it was $.50 a pound. That is nuts! And what? No limit? I started running back to Adam and the cart who were moving through the cheese aisle with armfuls sputtering "we can freeze this! this cartful of butter is the same amount it usually costs for on box! this is crazy! can you believe this?" Needless to say he did not share my enthusiasm for the butter or the deal. As soon as I got in the car I pulled out my phone and dialed that 727 number so close to my heart. You bet she did. She was as happy about my soon to be freezer full of  butter and my deal as I was. 


So I currently have a lot of butter.


It is equally fair to say that I have a Starbucks problem. I know this is not special or unique because they have done a good job of sucking in most of the country, but I do visit Starbucks once, twice or thrice on a given day. The perfect afternoon complement to my Doppio Espresso over ice is the shortbread cookies. Love those things.


So, I rifled through the recipe book and found a "Basic Shortbread Cookie" recipe I copied from my mom's archives. It was simple and I had all the ingredients in the pantry so I put a batch together in a jiffy.


Basic Shortbread


1 1/3 c. butter, room temp (YES! This used up almost three whole sticks!)
2/3 c. sugar
3/4 t salt
3/4 t vanilla 
3 1/3 c. flour


Heat oven to 275. Butter 9x13 pan, line bottom with parchment (I was out of parchment and it turned out fine). Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2 minutes), add flour one cup at a time beating on low until just combined. Press into pan. Cut into squares. Bake until evenly golden now brown 70-85 minutes. Let cool out of pan. Slice of break bars.


So, you made shortbread cookies? Get over yourself. I know.


I did not let them cool. I pulled two perfect ones out of the middle while they were still soft and warm. 
I sliced a few strawberries very thin and added a dollop of freshly whipped cream. 
Strawberry short-cookies. 


Maybe this has been done many times. Probably should have googled it before I posted it, but I was proud and they were scrumptious. AND I'll be eating shortbread cookies with my espresso for days. I win.