It's Still Monday!

And I have just enough time to post before it's Tuesday.

Well, it’s the day after now and I promised myself I’d be prompt on this. My Sunday’s are slowly getting kicked back into gear. I eased myself in with an intuitive side dish of pasta and sautéed eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash. The main course was a recipe from one of my roommate’s cookbooks: Chicken Dinners by Carrie Holcomb. I chose to do the a garlicky chicken dish that I think was better than anything I’ve made in weeks. Not to say it was great- it seems like my own cooking never is- but this is definitely a keeper. I already had a bottle of red wine open and didn’t want to pop a white just for a recipe, so I stuck with the chicken stock. Well, chicken bouillon really, but it worked out just fine. I would also cut down the quantity of the garlic tremendously next time. Each clove tasted fine, but it wasn’t thrilling and they were too mushy and too plentiful to ever get through. The recipe suggests slipping the garlic cloves out of their peel to eat or even peeling before cooking. I’ll shut up now.


French Farmhouse Garlic Chicken

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
40 small cloves unpeeled garlic
1 T cooking oil
½ cup dry white wine or chicken broth
½ cup chicken broth
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp dried basil, crushed
½ tsp dried oregano, crushed
2 T dry white wine or chicken broth
4 tsp all-purpose flour


1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Cook chicken and garlic in hot oil over med-high heat for 4 to 6 minutes or until just browned. Add ½ cup wine, ½ cup broth, lemon juice, and spices. Boil then reduce to simmer for 6 to 8 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

2. Set aside chicken and garlic; keep warm.

3. Stir together the 2 T wine or broth with flour (sift if you know what’s good for you- I didn’t). Stir into pan juices and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Spoon over chicken.

Look at my Hooters!

If you didn’t know the topic of this post based on the above graphic, you’ve already died and gone to Hell. Hooter’s has long been infamous with girlfriends and wives, worried about the fidelity and welfare of their men. Then it created an airline and worried the country about the safety of its passengers. Heedless of these things, the restaurant chain keeps pushing its boundaries, sometime irrationally, but usually successfully. I’m not sure what the critics might think, but I for one am excited about the new food product lines. Hooter’s has been pushing its wing sauce for quite some time, but now there is more to expect- namely frozen dinners, chips, energy drinks, and who knows what else.

I tried one of the frozen chicken strip meals a few months back and have since been hooked on the Hooter’s crack sauce. I’d completely forgotten about that and was shocked to see and energy drink, then a week later, potato chips. Of course, it’s me and I snatched them up. The energy drink is… an energy drink. Better than some. The only really surprising thing about it is that it’s the only Hooter’s brand food product that actually has a Hooter’s girl used for advertising. Perhaps because it advertises “Delightfully unrefined energy.”

The potato chips were the real goldmine. They were supposed to taste like hot wings with ranch. The amazing thing about that is they did. The chips tasted better than their damn wings. Hooter’s is famous for their wings, but I’ve found them to be dry with too little sauce. These crunchy little goldmines taste like the wing sauce with a hint of dressing- more than I can say for the real things.

Maybe I’m the only one excited about this. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks it’s amazing that the girls can make the most hideously unflattering and outdated uniforms attractive. But I doubt it. So if you’re not as cool as I am and taking your man out to Hooter’s for a treat, you can still try a little taste of the forbidden without the added fear of dangerously orange butts.

I got lost

Well, kids, it's been a while. Sorry for the extreme lack of updates. What with the end of school, being gone for graduations and weddings, and looking for a new job, I haven't cooked all that much. Luckily, I have cooked some, including this past Sunday. I'll be adding the backed up Sunday reviews soon as well as product reviews for products like the Blue Bunny Gelato and the food line for a certain almost-racy restaurant we all know and love. It will come. As of Friday, I have no job, so I'm running out of excuses not to post. Really!