Seasons Greetings Loyal Reader

If you've held on long enough to actually see this, congratulations and thank you. Everywhere I've gone over the past few months, people keep asking, "When are you going to blog again?" Well, in reality it's just been my Mom and Julia's uncle James that have asked.

During the downtime, I've kept the chicken and rice counter accurate so you don't have to worry about that. I just really haven't been cooking much and not a whole lot that is interesting or new. I guess I sort of ran out of things in my repertoire and once I started keeping track of my chicken and rice intake, I wanted to prove that I do occasionally eat other things.

Anyway, be on the lookout for some new things here in the coming weeks. I can't promise it will be great but at least Justin will no longer be immediately taunted with the vision of ham, egg, and cheese toast.

Ham, Egg, & Cheese Toast

Since I only had a small amount of Smithfield ham remaining, I decided to eat it all for breakfast. I first started with the ham and then added the cheese. This went into the oven while I fried the egg, which topped off the sandwich and made for a super delicious breakfast. Thank you.

Smithfield Ham and Chicken Bake

Sometime during my teenage years, the male members of The Newtster's family decided we didn't really enjoy turkey at holiday meals. It was always too dry and not particularly enjoyable. This should not be construed as a criticism of my mother's culinary abilities, rather an expression of preferences.

In the absence of turkey, ham became our holiday meat of choice. As I've mentioned before, Smithfield ham is the best of all the hams out there. Virginia law used to state that "Genuine Smithfield hams [are those] cut from the carcasses of peanut-fed hogs, raised in the peanut-belt of the Commonwealth of Virginia or the State of North Carolina, and which are cured, treated, smoked, and processed in the town of Smithfield, in the Commonwealth of Virginia." Therefore, anything deviating from these specifications could best be described as 'Country Ham'. Apparently the statute was repealed sometime in 2008. Regardless, Smithfield ham and Country ham are essentially interchangeable terms for the same great treat.

The Smithfield Ham and Chicken Bake quickly became a family favorite and a fixture at most holiday meals. It is rather rich so it probably wouldn't work in heavy rotation for meals. The recipe is very simple once you have located the proper ham.
- 4-6 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 8 oz. of light sour cream
- Thinly sliced Smithfield ham (approx. 1/3 lbs)

Preheat the oven to 275°. Line completely the bottom of a baking dish with the Smithfield ham. Place the chicken breasts on top of the ham. In a small bowl mix the soup and sour cream and spoon it generously on top of the chicken. Put this in the oven for two and a half to three hours.

When the chicken comes out, the ham has basically molded to the bottom of the chicken is super tasty. Mandy should like this one because of the super long baking time. Of course that says nothing of the other ingredients, which Mandy should not like.....

And since I am The Newtster, what better accompaniment could there be for this delicacy than rice? None is of course the correct answer. As you can see, The Newstress sauted some asparagus for herself, which she said was a nice addition.

With the chicken burrito from Qdoba I had for supper on Monday, that brings the Chicken and Rice counter to 22.

Cuban Sandwich

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I love pork. So it should surprise no one that I love Cuban sandwiches. It's hard for me to find foods that I like prepared exactly as they were intended, and the Cuban sandwich is no exception. However, the Cuban sandwich comes much closer than many in that the only change/omission I make is leaving off the pickles. In fact pickles make my top 5 most common ways to ruin a sandwich list. That list goes:
1. Mayonnaise
2. Pickles
3. Onion
4. Tomato
5. Any combination of 1-4 (Note: I completely avoided cole slaw and sauerkraut as those are too obvious)
Now, lettuce is also a good way to ruin a sandwich, but a sandwich with lettuce on it is usually not irreparable, though shredded lettuce does mean a bit more work in clearing the sandwich. When it is cleared though, there is usually not much hint that lettuce was ever on the sandwich, unlike onions. Everything else is on the list because it leaves behind some sort of liquid which ruins the sandwich. This list should not be construed as "complete". It only covers the most common mistakes I have encountered in sandwiches.

For a sandwich so nearly perfectly suited for The Newtster, it is sad that I can probably count the number of times I have had a Cuban sandwich on two hands. The Mid-Atlantic region, where I have spent nearly all of my life, just isn't the hotbed of Cuban sandwiches and I was too young to get into them when we lived in South Florida for a few years. The first time I can recall encountering this wonderful creation was at a Cuban restaurant in Virginia Beach. One of my good friends in high school was of Cuban descent, her parents having come to the United States like so many others to escape the Castro regime. I went to dinner with them one night to try a new place simply called 'Havana'. As luck would have it, before we even ordered, her parents discovered that they were from the same place in Cuba as the waiter and knew his parents back in Cuba. It made the evening much more special for them. What made the evening the most special for me though was the ridiculously delicious sandwich my friend suggested for me. That was probably 1997 or 1998.

Over the next decade, I haven't had much of a chance to have Cuban sandwiches. I have had a couple here and there, but those times are few and far between. Then, in the middle of 2008, my Mom told me about an article in Garden & Gun magazine called 'Death By Cuban Sandwich'. It's a great article from a great magazine and it created a strong desire for me to have a Cuban sandwich, a desire which has gone unfulfilled until now. After watching numerous CSI: Miami re-runs this past weekend and learning that the Wake Forest basketball team will be losing....errrr..... playing in Miami to start the NCAA tournament at the end of this week, I determined that the time was right to attempt to make this simple sandwich for myself.

The start to any good Cuban sandwich is Cuban bread. Perfect. I can't get any here in DC. Cuban bread is apparently similar in nature to French bread, except it is made with lard for added moisture. Knowing that I could not get any Cuban bread, I settled on two nice loaves of French bread from Harris Teeter.

The next ingredient is yellow mustard. That's easy. After the mustard comes ham. My choice of ham happened to be the variety of Virginia baked ham that was on sale in the grocery store. I probably should have gone with some sort of glazed ham for sweetness but the baked ham was just fine.
Next comes the roasted pork. Based upon some research, one way to prepare Cuban roasted pork is by marinating the meat in a mojo sauce. After seeking out some recipes, I discovered that Goya makes a Mojo Criollo sauce. I bought a small pork shoulder (just under 2.5 lbs), poked numerous holes in it with a fork, and marinated it for a few hours in the Goya mojo. Let me tell you, the sauce smells fantastic. If I had the foresight to marinate this thing overnight, it would have been better but it still gave the pork a nice flavor, at least on the outside. I roasted it in a 350° oven for 30 minutes per pound and it came out nice and tender. Unfortunately a lot of the meat was darker and fatty but it did yield a good amount of tender meat for the sandwiches.

After the roasted pork comes the Swiss cheese. Again, I went with what was on sale, which was Finlandia. Traditional Cuban sandwiches, as I mentioned earlier, are topped with pickles. I did actually buy some hamburger dill chips for Julia's sandwich since I knew she wouldn't mind them. After some more mustard on the top piece of bread, the sandwich was complete.

The last step in preparing a Cuban sandwich is toasting it in a sandwich press. While we don't own one of these, we do own a George Forman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine. Close enough. I brushed some butter on both the top and bottom pieces of bread and put it in the Forman, pressing down on the top to collapse the bread and toast it faster. After five minutes or so, the bread was toasted and the cheese was all melted.

The result came out pretty nicely. To accompany the sandwich, I finally bought a mandolin slicer and prepared some fresh baked potato chips in the oven. We were both pleased with the results.

I'm Still Eating

I have received some concerned messages from my loyal readers. Please rest assured that despite my lack of blogging thus far in 2009, I am in fact still eating. I will try to get some more stuff up here soon, but in the meantime I will try to bring you up to speed.

After spending the early part of January in Roanoke with my family, Julia and I went to Winston for the UNC game, which was a great time. While in Roanoke, I cooked a few times but nothing special, just spaghetti once or twice and some jambalaya. Since the jambalaya had both chicken and rice, that was another one for the counter. And since Mandy inquired, the counter has also gone up as the direct result of eating Mexican (chicken quesadillas with rice and chicken tacos with rice) and Chinese food once. I also cooked some jambalaya back here at home for yet another notch on the counter, bringing the total to 12.

We hunkered down at home during the inauguration so I did cook during that time, but again nothing special and nothing that you haven't seen on this blog before. We have also seen 4 movies at 4 different theaters over the last week or so. We saw Gran Torino, Doubt, The Wrestler, and Slumdog Millionaire. I thought they were all good and am disappointed that Gran Torino was shut out from the Oscars. Oh well. Julia and I also quietly celebrated our 10 year dating anniversary last week, which is pretty crazy to think about.

In just over a month from today, 4 blogs will collide in New York City. Stayed tuned as it should be fun.....

Gameday Chili

Wake Forest football wrapped up its largely disappointing 2008 campaign on a high note last Saturday with a convincing 29-19 win over Navy, avenging its earlier loss to the Midshipmen. The inaugural edition of the EagleBank Bowl started at 11 AM in the morning. Needless to say, we were glad when both the game and the season were over. It's too bad the most successful senior class in school history did not get a better sendoff game.

While the game was going on, I had a slow cooker full of chili cooking to greet us when we got home. I used a recipe called "Colleen's Favorite Chili" from the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook as the basis with a few minor variations. Here's what went in.
- 2 medium yellow onions, chopped
- 1.5 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 3/4 cup green pepper, chopped
- 29 oz. canned diced tomatoes
- 30 oz. canned light red kidney beans, drained
- 8 oz. canned tomato sauce
- 1 heaping tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1/4 tsp. Beau Monde Seasoning
- Ground pepper and sea salt to taste
- Pinch of allspice, cinnamon, garlic powder and cayenne pepper

I browned the meat with some of the diced onions the night before the game and chopped the rest of the onions and green pepper to save time in the morning. Make sure you remove the seeds and membrane from the pepper unless you want quite a bit more heat. Everything went into the slow cooker for 8 hours on low just before 8 AM. The picture above is what it looked like before cooking.

By the time we got back from the stadium, it was just about ready to eat. Everything breaks down quite nicely and leaves a good hearty chili with tons of flavor and not too much heat. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so I will definitely make it again. I forgot to take a picture of it before people started grabbing some so here is what it looked like minus 4 or so bowls of chili. Also pictured is Sally's prepared bowl.

Pasta and Meatballs - Part 2

Before heading out of town last week, I did prepare supper on Tuesday. I used the same meatball recipe as previously detailed in my Pasta and Meatballs post. However, this time, I went with a garlic and olive pasta with diced tomatoes. The recipe is super simple. It contains:
- 2 cups of uncooked elbow pasta
- 3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 6 or so cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 4 tbsp. dried parsley
- Pepper to taste
- 14.5 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes, drained

I usually chop the garlic and add it to a skillet with the olive oil and let it sit for as long as practical, usually as long as it takes to put the meatballs together. I then heat the oil and garlic over medium heat for a few minutes until the garlic starts to show color and then add the salt, parsley, and pepper and stir it all in the skillet before pouring it over the pasta. Don't let the garlic brown and get bitter, just make sure it has a bit of color to it. After adding the mixture from the skillet, I add the canned tomatoes and stir it all up. The result is unintentionally quite festive looking and super tasty. Since the olive oil will inevitably settle to the bottom of the pasta, make sure you stir it well just before plating it up.

Holiday Treats

I have been away for a few days so I have not been cooking much. Instead, I will share with you some holiday treats. Not to tread on anyone else's 25 part series, "Is the chocolate in my Advent calendar worth eating?", but above are two Advent calendars currently present in The Newtster's household. One came courtesy of my Mom, the other courtesy of the good folks at Harris Teeter before I knew we would be getting one courtesy of my Mom. We originally started with Julia eating the one of the left, which proclaimed it contained "high quality" chocolate. However, one day we both decided to try one from the other calendar. I thought the "high quality" one had a hint of nuts to it, which might not be a good thing for Julia. Therefore we switched calendars. The calendar on the right is the variety that I remember from my childhood. While neither of the two calendars offer anything approximating great chocolate, I am apparently not as snobby about my chocolate as Mandy as I found the cheaper calendar on the right had better tasting chocolate, whereas Mandy flatly rejected both. I have noted though that if I should ever need a gift for Mandy, it should not be chocolate as she will undoubtedly not like it. Chocolate covered buffalo chicken strips? Maybe. But that's probably the only way to deliver a successful gift of chocolate to her.

Also present in the picture is the first bag of Mint M&M's for this holiday season. This treat has been with me for a number of years. Much to my dismay though, the size of the Mint M&M's changed last year. They are now slightly larger than they used to be and are approximately the same size as Peanut Butter M&M's. They were previously the same size as Milk Chocolate M&M's and had just the right amount of mint flavor to enjoy a large amount of them in one sitting. The larger size now packs much more mint flavor and means less snacking on them at one time. As far as health and weight are concerned, that's probably a good thing, but in terms of mashing multiple bags of these during the Christmas season, it's going to be less fun. Maybe the folks at Mars, Inc. will read this post and make the switch back, especially since that would increase their sales for at least one dude in Virginia. On second thought, there's no way that happens. Thanks guys.

And saving the best for last, the final item pictured above are brownies prepared by Julia's co-worker Mary. I am currently involved in the great "Burn 8 Years Worth of Mary's Emailed Foreign Travel Photos To a CD" effort and these brownies constitute my compensation in the matter. Trust me, this is a completely fair trade, especially since the brownies were delivered even before I have delivered on my end of the bargain. The brownies contain fresh pecans, apparently from Stone Phillips' home garden, or something close to that. I have never had such fresh pecans. They were quite soft and made the brownies moist and delicious, even above and beyond what Duncan Hines, or should I say "Duncan Haines" could do. I think Mary also realized that had she chosen to compensate me with rum balls, I might not be able function well enough to undertake the project. Many thanks to Mary.

Not pictured but worth mentioning are Hickory Farms' Original Cheese Balls. These have been a staple of Christmas in our family as long as I can remember, except they are difficult to locate in our area. We don't really have any Hickory Farms locations in the mall near us so I am forced to go with whatever brand cheese ball is stocked in the grocery store when I am there. Let me assure you, none of them comes even close to being as good as those from Hickory Farms. I even once mistakenly went into a Pepperidge Farm outlet store in Maryland and asked if they had the cheese balls there or if I needed to go to the mall to get those. The woman looked me squarely in the face and said what is probably the only appropriate answer to that question: "I think you have the wrong farm." She knew exactly what I was talking about though.

The Newtster's Turkey Burgers

After the chicken and rice feast earlier in the week, we enjoyed a taco night courtesy of Sally from Cupcakes and Coriandoli. The tacos were great and were a welcome diversion from cooking on my own but still getting to enjoy something homemade. Thanks Sally.

Before Sally's dinner invitation came on Thursday, I had prepared some turkey burgers on Wednesday and stuck them in the fridge in anticipation of having them on Thursday. One more day in the fridge was not a detriment to the burgers and may have even given it some more flavor. Who knows...

I went for quite a few flavors on this one since ground turkey has virtually no flavor whatsoever. In addition to the 1.3 lb package of ground turkey, I added the following ingredients, roughly in descending order of amount:
- Milwaukee Avenue Spice
- Back of the Yards Garlic Pepper Butcher Rub
- Minced Onion Flakes
- Herbes de Provence
- Parsley
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Jack Daniel's Horseradish Mustard
- Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce, splash
- Red and Green Pepper Strips (one of each)

Since the turkey was 99% fat free, I also added a bit of extra virgin olive oil and margarine to the mixture to help it not dry out so much. I mixed everything together in a bowl and then divided it into four burgers. The Milwaukee Avenue Spice was the predominant dried spice and gives a nice "smokiness" which was balanced by the garlicy goodness of the Back of the Yards spice. The onion flakes were purchased at the Lancaster County Dutch Market and have much more flavor than any other brands I've purchased in the supermarket. As for the curious total of 2 pepper strips, I always keep a package of frozen pepper strips on hand for a quick short cut and thus was able to select only 2 for this concoction.

The burgers went into the grill pan for roughly 18 minutes total, 9 minutes of each side. I covered them with a top from one of our pots to keep the heat and moisture in. We added a piece of Safeway Lucerne 2% American Cheese Food, which is the best tasting "plastic cheese", as Julia calls it, on the market. For a side, I went with Alexia Sweet Potato Julienne Fries. For dipping the fries, I added a side of Montebello Kitchens Curry Ketchup, which I found at Whole Foods.

The meal was great. The burgers came out with great flavor and were not overseasoned, which I was a bit worried about when I wrote down the list of ingredients. I was particularly worried I had added too much margarine, but you couldn't taste it and the burgers were not too dry. Julia and I both agreed that we would eat them again with the same list of ingredients. The fries, which were recommended to me earlier in the year by my Mom, were good as always and were accompanied quite nicely by the curry ketchup. I was very pleased with the entire finished product.

I'm Back

I'm sure you have all been checking multiple times each day to see what I've been doing. Well, since my last post, we have been to Chicago for Thanksgiving and Julia's 10 year high school reunion. I took the picture above the morning of our return flight. It wasn't a lot of snow thankfully, but the first real accumulation of any sort we have been witness to this year. I was happy I got to see it for the day but then was able to return to my snow free home and not deal with it. As promised, I also snapped a picture of my great aunt's painting I mentioned in my Dark N' Stormy - Part 2 post.

Since I kept you all waiting for so long for new material, I decided to give you exactly what you want....more chicken and rice!!! During the trip I stopped by The Spice House in Evanston to replenish some of our spices. I also picked up some King Creole Seasoning, which is a new blend for us. I sprinkle it three chicken breasts and baked them in the oven for 35 minutes at 375°. They turned out great. The seasoning had good flavor and didn't seem to have as much heat as some of the other creole seasonings I have purchased in the grocery store. For the rice, it was ladies choice and Julia selected Zatarain's Cheddar Broccoli Rice. Please note that the decision to purchase this was made of my own volition. I figured the broccoli flavor wouldn't be too strong and I was correct. In fact, it didn't seem to have too much flavor at all despite being both cheesy and broccoliy. It also took significantly longer to cook than it said it would on the box. I had to add plenty of salt to it despite the already high sodium content and some of the King Creole Seasoning. It wasn't bad, I just expected more flavor.


The counter continues to rise. However, I think since I have an audience for my culinary endeavors now, I feel the need to prepare things other than chicken. I will work to see that we get to double digits pretty soon.

Turner Ham House

After the success of the country ham biscuits a few weeks ago, I decided to bring another batch for the last tailgate of the year for us. On my way back from Roanoke on Thursday, I took a detour to visit Turner Ham House, which I discovered on Roadfood.

The retail portion of Turner Ham House is really just a convenience store located in Fulks Run, VA, which is located about 15 miles west of I-81 near New Market, VA. The store is just about 10 miles from the West Virginia border and is nestled right in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.

I purchased 3 lbs. of country ham there for the same price as 2 lbs. of country ham at Balducci's. The Turner ham was sliced thin, but not shaved like what I bought at Balducci's. Nevertheless, the ham was excellent for biscuits and was just as big a hit. Joe assisted in the biscuit assembly process on Friday and we only wound up using half of what I bought. Looks like Julia and I get to power through another 1.5 lbs. of country ham in the near future, which I am quite happy about. I also purchased some Turner Ham House Vidalia Onion Peach Hot Sauce and Bill 'n Vern's Red Hot Rooster Sauce, but have not tried either of them yet.

As you might be able to see from the picture above, there is also a DVD of the 1985 flood available for purchase. I did not purchase one but I imagine it must be quite compelling if it's still on sale some 23 years later. I do remember the flood they are talking about though as Roanoke was flooded as well by the remnants of Hurricane Juan.

As for dining the rest of the weekend, there wasn't too much special. I had a great Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake (a seasonal item) at Chick-fil-A on Friday, the chopped barbecue plate at Little Richard's on Saturday, and some boneless wings from Macado's on Sunday.

Tales from the 'Noke

I got there on Monday and during the drive down, I took some videos to demonstrate a particular theory I have developed over the past couple of years visiting Roanoke. The theory is pretty simple. The classic rock station here, 96.3 WROV: The Rock Of Virginia, plays more George Thorogood than any other station in the country. As evidence, I present you with the following video, which was taken within the first 30 seconds of me tuning into WROV on Monday. It's hard to hear the song in the background but it is the slide guitar solo from 'Move It On Over', the title track from George Thorogood's second album, released in 1978. As you can clearly see in the video, I am 23 miles from Roanoke and it's already on.

Shortly after hearing this, I also heard the following two songs, here for your viewing pleasure as well.


As for my father's surgery, it went well. It took him a substantial amount of time to wake up after the anesthesia. I guess he had awaken actually, but he couldn't stay awake for more than a few minutes. During this three hours or so, my Mom and I sat in the room trying to entertain ourselves while watching him sleep. I came up with the great idea to make a series of YouTube videos called, "Weekend at Wally's". These videos would be taken at various places around Roanoke with him posed doing various things, such as eating a hot dog at The Roanoke Weiner Stand, enjoying a Cheesy Western at The Texas Tavern, or taking in the view from the Mill Mountain Star. Alas the staff refused to release him before he woke up so this plan did not come to fruition.

My father ate Julia's Chicken Noodle Soup for at least 4 consecutive meals before I left, which means it must have been good. I prepared dinner Tuesday night, but it was just Stroganoff again so no pictures. However, here is a video of Ernie, a.k.a. The Ernie-Man, playing with his favorite toy. He continues his single-handed destruction of anything in my parents' basement after managing to break his ceramic water bowl in half this morning. It was a large and substantial bowl that managed to last through most of the lifetime of my brother's dog, Champ, who was a black lab and a great deal larger than Ernie.

Before leaving yesterday I stopped by The Roanoke Weiner Stand with my Mom and had two "without". The quality of the picture is not great since it was taken on my cell phone, but it's good enough. I believe the hot dog pictured is actually "all the way", which is the one my Mom had. I also helped my grandmother do a few things and noticed the following note pad sitting by her computer, which clearly evidences that she is reading this blog. Keep the comments clean!


We're off to Wake for the last time this season along with Joe from Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff so see you next week.

Pizza and Chicken Noodle Soup

Julia finally got out of work today and we decided to make a pizza. We purchased pre-made whole wheat crust, canned pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, ground Italian Sausage, mushrooms, mozzarella, and some goat cheese. You can clearly see the his and hers sides of the pizza below.













After we had the pizza, Julia decided to make some Chicken Noodle Soup for me to take to my parents tomorrow. She followed Rachael Ray's recipe here. I haven't had any yet but Julia just said it tastes pretty good.
I am headed to my parents' house for a few days as my father is undergoing some minor surgery on Tuesday. I will likely be absent for a week or so as I come back on Thursday and then head down to Winston on Friday for the BC game. If we are lucky though, The Newtstress may enchant us with some of what she prepares up in my absence. Check back to see.

Fiesta Chicken w/Cilantro Lime Rice

As you can see, I purchased a new frame and managed to get it up on the wall without breaking it (yet). I'm not so certain it won't come crashing down upon the guitars in the middle of the night scaring the you know what out of us and leaving lots of damage in its wake. I'll keep you posted on that.

Since we saw Robert Earl Keen this week, I decided that I would prepare what I am hereby proclaiming to be 'Fiesta Chicken' for dinner on Thursday. This meal is a Tex-Mex meets Southwest meets my slow cooker sort of thing. Before I get into the actual recipe, let me first state my preference for the term "slow cooker" over "crock-pot". Crock-pot is actually a brand name, but it reminds me of the phrase "crock of s---". You can fill in the blanks. Have fun with it!! Feel free to comment on what four letter 's' word your crock would be full of, but keep it clean it as my grandmother may read this. Slow cooker sounds like you've got a plan and like you are just going to sit back and relax, possibly with a tasty beverage of some sort, while your food stews in its own goodness all day. While a slow cooker is usually "full of it", it being what I have chosen to throw in and some might say I too am "full of it", I would rather be a nice, laid-back slow cooker. So there you have it. I used my slow cooker last night.

In order to make cleaning up your slow cooker a little bit easier, I recommend using a slow cooker liner. It's essentially a big baggie that fits inside the pot and when you are done cooking and eating, you just throw it away. There is usually some liquid that has gotten out of it somehow, but nothing like what it would look like had the liner not been there.

The ingredients for Fiesta Chicken are:
- 6 chicken breasts (about 2.5 lbs)
- 2 cans of Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup
- 1 can of Ro*Tel Original
- 1 can (8.75 oz.) of Whole Kernel Corn, drained
- 1 jar (4.5 oz.) of Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade
- 1 can (4 oz.) of Diced Green Chiles (mild)
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
- Juice of 1 lime

The corn is not a necessity but it doesn't do any harm either. I also am aware that the tapenade defies the fiesta theme, but it is at least roasted red pepper. I would prefer to use Campbell's Southwest-Style Pepper Jack Soup, but I can never find it and the cheddar does just fine. There is apparently a Campbell's Fiesta Nacho Cheese Soup, but I cannot find that either nor have I tried it. I'm sure it would work as well.

I suppose there does not really need to be a method to putting everything in the slow cooker, but for me there is. I start with one of the cans of soup at the bottom of the slow cooker followed by three of the chicken breasts. I make sure to press the breasts into the soup so that some of it covers the top as well. Then I put in half of the canned/jarred ingredients and half of the onion, followed by the other three chicken breasts and the remainder of the canned/jarred ingredients. I have no idea whether this layering technique makes any difference, but I'd like to think that it does since the chicken on the bottom gets the same amount of stuff. When everything is in, then I add the lime juice and cover it. I cooked it on low for 8 hours yesterday, which makes for super tender chicken that shreds very nicely. I have also cooked it for 6 hours on high before and I recall that the breasts held together a little better with the shorter cooking time. So it's just a question of whether you want to shred the chicken or not. The shredded of course works better for tacos and burritos. The picture to the right is what it looks like when done cooking.

I came across the recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice after deciding to take a stab at making rice similar to Chipotle's. I know at least a couple of my readers are avowed Chipotle fans so this may be of particular interest to you. It's very simple and super tasty. The ingredients are:
- 1.5 cups of cooked rice
- 1 lime
- Zest of 1/2 a lime
- 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste

I prepare the rice as normal except I add the juice from one lime a little before the water comes to a boil so that it gets cooked into the rice. Once the rice is cooked, I mix in the lime zest, cilantro, salt and pepper. That all there is to it.

I decided to go for a burrito bowl and put the chicken and rice in a bowl along with some green tomatillo salsa and some shredded Mexican cheese blend. I highly recommend this meal.

Robert Earl Keen

So I mentioned that we were going to see Robert Earl Keen at the 9:30 Club last night. The show was great. This was the fourth time I have seen him this year and this was probably the second best show behind the one in Bryan, TX (College Station really) with Joe. Of course multiple $6 pitchers of Shiner Bock could have influenced my opinion of the Bryan show, but I remember it being fun and rowdy, especially since it was a few hours after the Texas A&M spring game.

Last night we got to hear some of the new stuff that he has been playing and I am looking forward to finding out when a new album is coming. He is playing at least 5 or 6 new songs pretty regularly so a new album must be taking shape. This knowledge though brings me to a realization that I know Joe can sympathize with, the realization that I have possibly entered into "fanboy" territory.

If you have been to visit us recently you know that our guest bedroom serves as the guitar room/Wake Forest room. I have a 5 guitar stand set up with a few more in cases in the room. Last Christmas my Mom gave me a framed poster from a music festival in Winston-Salem called "Music Downtown". The poster is very cool and is hanging above all of the guitar stuff, along with a small 4 x 6 picture of me playing with my band in high school. There is an empty space above the guitar rack between these two items and when I saw the poster for the Downtown Hoedown in Lufkin, TX, which Joe and I also attended in April, I knew it would fit in perfectly with the existing musical decor. However, I forgot about this plan and never got around to putting it in a frame.

While going through luggage recently, I discovered my ticket stub from the Lufkin show, which set my plan into motion. After every show, Robert Earl Keen signs autographs. I have never partaken in this ritual before....until last night that is. The guys in the band actually set up and break down their own gear so I talked with Rich Brotherton, who plays lead guitar, after the Bryan show. Joe tried to take a picture of this but the video card was full and we were too intoxicated to realize it.

Unbeknownst to Julia and Sally, I had two objectives heading into the show last night, which were 1) get Robert Earl Keen and Rich Brotherton to sign the Lufkin ticket stub and 2) find out how old Rich's Epiphone Riviera is.

After the last song, we lingered a bit so I could get the ticket signed. There was a line to meet Robert Earl Keen but Rich was breaking down his stuff on stage and signing stuff for people from there, so I decided to head his way first. When I walked up, there were two highly intoxicated girls talking to him, one of whom was telling him that she was about to divorce her husband and that this show was exactly what she needed. He took it all in stride and tried to carry on some semblance of a normal conversation with them, which was pretty amusing. Eventually I handed him the ticket stub and asked how old the Riviera is. He signed the ticket and said it is actually a 1996 reissue. Objective #2 had been fulfilled and half of #1 as well.

We then made our way through the now shorter line to have Robert Earl Keen sign stuff. Julia waited beside the line but Sally went through it with me. Sally tried to claim that my "man crush" is on Robert Earl Keen, but I corrected her as I think it's actually on Rich Brotherton, as he is the superior musician technically. He's no Josh Howard though Joe..... Anyway, Robert Earl Keen signed the ticket and we made our way out. The ticket stub has now been framed along with the poster. Please note that I managed to break the glass while putting it all together so I will have to get another super cheap frame for it tomorrow, at which point I will hopefully have a picture of it on the wall for my loyal readers.

Just to complete the fanboy extravaganza in one post, I went through recently to figure out how many times I have seen them, as Julia and I discussed it at some point but weren't able to nail down a number. To the best of my knowledge and research, the list is as follows:
10/10/00 - Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC (Alan went to this one with me)
06/03/01 - Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC
05/03/03 - House of Blues, Chicago, IL
09/02/04 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
08/13/05 - Recher Theater, Towson, MD
04/13/06 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
11/14/06 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
11/14/07 - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
04/18/08 - Pitser Garrison Civic Center, Lufkin, TX
04/19/08 - Texas Hall of Fame, Bryan, TX
04/20/08 - Toyota Texas Bass Classic, Quitman, TX
11/12/08 - 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

For dinner tonight, I've got something special cooking, which I will detail tomorrow. Thanks for reading this whole thing if you made it this far.

Stroganoff

My proclivity for authentic Russian delicacies has already been documented here, so I figured it was time to return to another family favorite, stroganoff.

When I was growing up we used to have it served over rice (of course), but once I started preparing it for myself I discovered that noodles are actually the more popular choice to accompany it. To that end I present you with turkey stroganoff over egg noodles.

This recipe is super simple and not exact at all. I usually use ground beef but have used ground turkey the last few times. Since I am using turkey, I throw in a few cloves of chopped garlic, half of a medium yellow onion (chopped), and usually some frozen peppers, which I did not have tonight. I throw these ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat along with some olive oil. After about 30 seconds, I add a package of ground turkey (1.3 lbs) and brown the meat, which should take somewhere between 5-10 minutes.

Once the meat has been browned and the fat has been drained, I add one can of Cream of Mushroom soup, one 8 oz. container of sour cream, a splash of Worcestershire Sauce, a couple pinches of mustard powder, and salt and pepper to taste. I also add a little bit of water to give it the consistency I am looking for. I don't have a measure for that so just eyeball it. This concoction is then heated thoroughly and served over egg noodles.

It may not be much to look at, but it is a solid little meal with very little preparation required.

Update from the weekend

Before heading out of town on Friday, I snapped the first picture on the left, which is the front of our building. The second picture is the same scene from back in the spring. I am showing these because the color in the tree in the back was done in the middle of last week and it's pretty much bare now.

We loaded up on Friday night and picked up our friends Jen and James and headed down to Winston for the game. We stopped for dinner at Sonic in Fredericksburg, where I ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster Sandwich and tots. The sandwich was just OK. I had higher hopes for it as I usually enjoy the Texas Toast there. Oh well. Somewhere between Petersburg and South Hill I also mashed a bag of M&M's.

On Saturday, we got out to the tailgate around 9AM and began to enjoy the ham biscuits I put together on Friday afternoon. I purchased 2 lbs of the thinly sliced Virginia country ham from Balducci's and put it on some Martin's Famous Party Potato Rolls. I didn't think to take a picture of all the biscuits as I was putting them together, but it was quite the undertaking. Julia did manage to snap the picture to the left of what they looked like before they disappeared at the tailgate....both trays of them. People really seemed to enjoy them so perhaps we have found our food niche for Almost Gold. I ate some pigs in a blanket and some homemade chicken nuggets at the tailgate, but basically just stuck to the ham biscuits I guess.

After the game, we went out to Ted's Kickin' Chicken and then stopped by Cook Out for a milkshake. I had the caramel cheesecake shake for the first time and was very pleased with it.

On Sunday, we headed down to Lexington and hit John Wayne's Barbecue, where Sally had taken us before. I had the chopped bbq plate with mac & cheese and deviled eggs (both of which were classified as "veggies") and some hush puppies. I drank sweet tea of course. It was all super delicious.

We made our way back to DC, but not before stopping at Jersey Mike's in Ashland to grab a dinner, and in my case, also lunch for today. I selected the giant Original Italian and happily enjoyed it.

That wraps up the weekend recap. I am not preparing anything for dinner tonight and we headed to the Robert Earl Keen show at the 9:30 Club (technically named Nightclub 9:30) on Wednesday night so it may be a light week here. Be sure to check back just the same.

Buffalo Chicken Strips

I heard whispers that Mandy did not like my steak from earlier this week. For this reason, coupled with the fact that I was not feeling very inspired again, I decided to go with Buffalo Chicken Strips last night.
It's pretty difficult so here it goes. I used two packages of pre-cut chicken tenderloins that totaled probably about 1.75 lbs. I put these in a Ziploc bag and dumped a bottle of Whole Ranch Hot Wing Sauce from Whole Foods on top. I actually let this sit for probably close to two days since we decided to go out to eat the night before. I then threw it all in a baking dish and baked them at 375° for 30 minutes. Done.

The sauce is actually really good and I'm sure Mandy would approve. That's all for now. See you next week.

Los Tios

Julia and I went to Los Tios Grill in Del Ray tonight for dinner. Joe and Mandy have been there with us and it is hands down our favorite "Mexican" place up here.

When we walked in, we were greeted by a gentleman playing Spanish guitar, which is a new thing for Los Tios. It was a little out of place since he was just standing somewhere near the bar talking to people, but it could be a nice addition.

For the meal, I sat facing a partition, but Julia got a great view of a highly intoxicated couple who were enjoying multiple margaritas. They were seated just below the painting of the flamenco dancer above. On a related note, I actually really like the painting to the left in the first picture as the colors are super vivid. Anyway, I guess the couple started out just looking at each of seductively, but then she stood over him and did some sort of dance thing while he had his hands on her hips. She then proceeded to sit in his lap for probably the last 20 minutes of the meal. This was a completely bizarre scene in a respectable restaurant setting and I think the wait staff was a bit baffled.

Julia had a frozen mango margarita, which she reported was good. I wasn't feeling up to drinking and stuck with water. One of us needed to drive home anyway. Julia got the shrimp quesadilla and I went with.....wait for it.....the chicken quesadilla with a side of white rice. The white rice at Los Tios is probably the best I have ever had and is always a must for me. It's seriously just rice but is completely tasty.

Given my qualifier of either preparing and/or eating chicken and rice, this counts towards the counter, which has now reached 3.