Chipolte Chicken & Kale with Bacon

If you're not reading Chrissy Teigen's blog So Delushious! you should be.  Right. Meow.  See, I even linked it up for you in that sentence for those of you too lazy to look to the right, scroll down to my favorite blogs section and click on the link there.  Anyhow, for those of you wondering who this girl is, Chrissy is a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, engaged to John Legend, but most importantly she is a HUGE foodie with a hilarious attitude/sense of humor.  And she has some fantastic recipes.  One of them being this fabulous chipolte marinade that I have fallen in love it.  (See that, another link right in the paragraph - I'm just making this too easy for you guys).  It's spicy, it's hot and I usually have to bring a box of Kleenex along to blow my nose when I'm eating because all of your senses are engaged in this fiery dish.

The first time I made this I overdid it and made too much, or so I thought.  I froze a tupperware container full of it and have been spreading this chipolte love ever since.  Grilled shrimp, chicken, fish....it's deliciousness knows no bounds!  Tonight it was chicken - bone in.  I marinade some legs and thighs in the sauce and then put fresh thyme, parsley and ground pepper on top.

Bake it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Delicious, simple and flavorful.  Read Chrissy's blog and do yourself a favor and always keep some on hand and ready to cook!

About the kale.  Kale is a funny thing.  It's a lettuce; a leafy green.  You've probably passed it a million times at your local market or grocery store but have never bought it.  Well I highly recommend you go out RIGHT NOW and buy some!  Why you ask?  Because I'm going to give you the recipe for my best friends ah-mazing Kale with Bacon!  I will admit that I had never had kale before he made this for me and was amazed at the flavor - it quickly has become one of my favorite sides of make and do yourselves all a favor and try it (oh and you have to call it Craig's Kale so he gets the credit he deserves)!

Craig's Kale with Bacon

INGREDIENTS:
* 2 slices of raw bacon (or 4 if you're obsessed with bacon like I am)
* Chili flakes
* Kale - cut into 1/2" strips
* 2 tablespoons of minced garlic
* Sea salt
* Pepper
* 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
* 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

DIRECTIONS:
1) Cut up the bacon into larger chunks and cook them over medium-low heat with chili flakes for flavor until crispy.
2) Put bacon a paper towel and set off to the side
3) In the same pan combine kale, garlic, salt and pepper and saute for 2 minutes
4) Add in chicken/vegetable stock and white wine vinegar
5) Simmer kale until all the juice is evaporated
6) Add bacon back in shortly before serving

My First Birthday Cake

It's been FOREVER since I posted anything on here - shame on me! I will admit that the 12-16 hour days and full weekends I've been pulling at work for a project drove me to eat nothing but takeout, and, on the rare occasion I got off work early, there was a vodka and soda water calling my name (and trust me, it yells really loud).  But alas, the vodka and I had a talk and I explained that it just can't keep me from doing what I love, so - I'm back!

Okay about this picture above and this blog entry.  First - no, this is not the first birthday cake I've ever received.  Hell, my birthday's not even until January (January 9th to be exact and I do accept cash, drinks, shots and food, in no particular order).  This is, however, the first birthday cake I've ever made.  And naturally I couldn't do it same old boring way as everyone else (angel food! Whipped topping! Marble! SHUT UP YOU'RE BORING), so I had to find something complicated, difficult and fun to make.  See, a friend of mine at work that has been TORTURED with these same hours as me turned 30 today. 30! That's a big milestone! And he spent his 30th birthday working 7 hours with me.  SEVEN HOURS AT WORK ON A WEEKEND AND HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY. Don't you feel sorry for him already?  He probably deserves a cake every day for putting up with me an average of 60-70 hours a week, but fuck it - this girl only makes cakes on special occasions.  So I set out to make my very first birthday cake.  It didn't take me long to find the "the one."  I few searches here and there, and next thing I knew there she was staring at me...'Peanut Butter and Chocolate Explosion Pancakes.'  

Here's the thing about me and sweets.  I like them fine and will never complain if you'd like to buy your way into my heart with some delicious melt-in-your-mouth brownies or something like that, but I'm a salty foods girl.  Give me some chips and french onion dip over cookies or ice cream any day of the week!  But this wasn't about me (I already told you that's not till January 9th), so I set off to make this damn (pan)cake.  

The ingredients are pretty straight forward.  But what the recipe doesn't list is milk or water.  FOR THE LOVA GOD YOU'LL NEED SOMETHING TO WASH IT DOWN!  Honestly, anything with fudge, caramel, 2 bags of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, cocoa and chocolate frosting is going to be rich and require massive amounts of milk or water.

So you make a bunch of pancakes and layer them pancake-frosting-pancake-frosting...you get the idea.  Let me just say, as someone who had never actually made pancakes before, that shit is hard!  The perfectionist in me had some REALLY angry words with the batter that fell off as I tried to flip the damn things.  But alas, they weren't perfect but they got the job done.

You gotta let the pancake-frosting layers set in the fridge for at least an hour - in my case it was overnight.  All the toppings happen before you serve it.

Once your pan(cake) is set, put whatever the hell you love on it!  I followed the recipe pretty closely, chopping up a lot of Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cups.  I also drizzled and caramel, fudge and sprinkled those little red sugar crystal things on top to make it look pretty.  

30 candles later, and BAM - I'd made my first birthday cake!  

Here is the link to recipe on this FANTASTIC site called Tablespoon - 

http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/peanut-butter-chocolate-explosion-pancakes-recipe/1/

Happy eating and enjoy! Xoxo

Bacon Baking Frenzy!

I'm not much of a baker.  I've never had a sweet tooth and would prefer a bag of chips and french onion dip over ice cream, cookies and cake any day of the week.  So when I decided that I would make cookies my way, with bacon, I wasn't sure how it was going to go - seriously, I haven't made cookies since I was like 10 years old or something.  Also, I don't measure shit when I cook.  Ever.  And word on the street is that when it comes to baking, measurement is important.  So if I was going to do this, I figured I should probably do it right. 

So the decision was made - I was going to bake.  And not just anything.  I was going to bake something delicious and unconventional - Peanut Butter and Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies.  And while I'm at it I may as well make some god damn brownies, so fine, I would also make Peanut Butter and Bacon Brownies.  But booze makes everything better, so I should probably add some bourbon to the brownies.  So the list was set - PB and Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies, and Bourbon, Bacon and Peanut Butter Brownies.

Now I have to tell you that I was a horrible and blogger throughout this because I didn't take one fucking picture of the ingredients or the process.  And honestly, they're cookies and brownies.  You mix the shit up, eat some of the batter and dough, put it in a pan and cook them. 

Here is link to the cookies.  I took the recipe from Kris over at Young, Married, Chic.  Her food always looks way better and probably tastes better, but her recipes have never let me down!
http://youngmarriedchic.com/2012/03/peanut-butter-bacon-cookies-with-chocolate-drizzle/

The brownies weren't as simple.  I didn't follow a recipe.  I'm not too interested in making brownies from scratch and Betty Crocker does a damn good job of making brownie mix.  So I got a box of Betty Crocker dark chocolate brownie mix,  a bag of Hershey's milk chocolate chips, a bag of Reese's peanut butter chips, bacon and took a bottle of Jim Beam off the liquor shelf.

Long story short, cook the bacon and tear it up.  Mix up the brownie batter according to the directions on the box.  Add in chocolate chips and Reese's chips.  Don't ask me how much - 2 handfuls?  Add in bacon and your bourbon.  I think I put in about 2 shot glasses worth.  Then, because I love peanut butter, I mixed in about a cups worth of creamy peanut butter.  Cook the brownies for however long the box says.  Then I took them out and put holes in the brownies with a toothpick and poured another 1/4 cup of bourbon on them while they cooled.

The verdict?  The cookies were good stuff.  But the brownies?  Melt in your mouth, gooey, deliciousness.   So. Fucking. Good.  I don't have a picture of them.  They weren't particularly pretty.  They were that fall apart, so moist and delicious type brownies.  And since I don't have a sweet tooth I did my good deed and took most of the cookies to work for a potluck and shared with my co-workers.  The rest were given as a tip/bribe for a friend who did a favor for me.  Turns out I may have a new career of bribing people with baked goods.

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