Checking in...

I'm going to try updating this here blog of mine. Obviously, I haven't thought about it in a while, seeing as I haven't had a post in a year and a half!

I've still been baking and cooking, I'll try to share recipes for the stuff that turned out good. And, whatever else I come across.

I tried a new place by me (as in walking distance, by me) and it was great! Their food was yummy and different...the margs were quite tasty! Their happy hour starts at 11 am on Saturdays, maybe I don't need to be there from opening til almost closing next time I go, though. It would probably make for a better Sunday! Anyway...check them out! They recently opened and are trying to get their name out there, if you've been to Fuzzy's or Yucatan Taco Stand, you'll be happy to hear their head chef is the same guy that created those two great restaurants.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Buffalo-Cantina/188482447849483?sk=wall

I promise, you'll hear from me again, soon.

I'm

still alive :)

No Pictures

I've been on a cooking kick lately, I didn't take any pictures, but I've made some really great food, well, it tasted great to me, anyway.


First up was modified pork tacos. I took JennAnn's recipe and modified it a little, really I need to work on the modification because it's more work than probably necessary. But, they tasted JUST like H3's pork tacos, which are oh so yummy!

Here's what I did:

2-4 thick boneless pork chops
finely chopped onion
green chilis (4 oz)
chicken broth (1 reg size can)
barbeque sauce
brown sugar

Pour finely cut onions on top of pork chops in your slow cooker, along with green chilis, then pour chicken broth. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Take chops out of crock pot and wipe away onions and green chilis and shred with two forks, it really comes apart very easily. Clean out the crock pot and put the shredded meat back in. Dissolve about 1/4 cup of brown sugar in about 1/2 cup hot water and pour in the crockpot. Pour about 1/2 cup of bbq sauce in crock pot and pour more water in so meat is sitting in water, just enough to keep it moist and let it cook for another hour on low. Drain the meat.

This is terrible, but I fried corn tortillas (just the store bought ones) in a little bit of grease and folded them once a little crisp.

Fill tortillas with meat, cheese, guacamole, and salsa. You can add sour cream if you want.

I need to tweak this a little before I really call it a "recipe" because I don't have exact measurements, but if you do as I did above, you will have some damn good tacos!


Next, was my interpretation of El Arroyo's Chicken Monterrey

4 chicken breasts

8 oz can chicken broth
1 small can rotel
taco seasoning
Monterey Jack cheese
4 slices cooked bacon, chopped up

Preheat oven at 350.

Cut chicken breast in half and sprinkle with taco seasoning, lay between two pieces of wax paper and flatten with the flat end of a meat tenderizer. You can make them very thin, but it's not necessary, just make sure all breasts are even in thickness so they cook even. The wax paper is so pieces of chicken don't go flying all over your kitchen and/or on you.

Pour chicken broth and rotel in 9x13 glass pan. Place chicken breasts in one layer in the pan. Sprinkle cheese on each chicken breast (don't be shy.) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until chicken is cooked. Don't overcook because chicken will be dry, this is great with juicy chicken.

Once you take the chicken out of the oven, put the bacon on top of the melted cheese.

Serve with guacamole, black beans, and rice.


And last, Fish tacos. This was to be my interpretation of Fuzzy's fish tacos, but I know they don't use catfish!

3 catfish filets (really any white fish, my meat market only had thawed catfish, everything else was frozen)
seasoned fish fry
ranch dressing
lemon juice
garlic salt
feta cheese
shredded cheese
cilantro (optional)
tortillas

Fry fish anyway you want. Make sure they filets are cut up into small sized cubes. In your tortilla, fill with fish, sauce, feta cheese, shredded cheese, and cilantro.

To make sauce, mix ranch dressing, lemon juice, and garlic salt to taste.

Old Friends

I have made a lot of new friends in the past couple of years and I see a lot of them, it seems that I'm seeing a lot less of my older friends, it makes me kind of sad. Monday night I caught up with an old friend, I've known her since my freshman year in high school from basketball and her mom was my freshman English teacher, and my favorite English teacher to date. (I won't be having any more English teachers, so she'll remain my fav.)


Anyway, I met Malissa at Yucatan Taco Stand on Magnolia in Fort Worth...no it's not a roll around cart, it's actually a nice place with a little patio that is just perfect when the temp is 80 degrees outside. It was started by the same guy that did Fuzzy's tacos, so they're tacos were great. Malissa got a grilled fish plate (no taco) and it was excellent, I will try that next time. I've only ever gotten fish tacos at Fuzzy's, but she swore the garlic beef taco was excellent...and she was right...mmmmm good! We met for dinner at 630 and I wasn't heading home until 1030, we had so much to catch up on. She has some big news coming soon, I'm excited for her! I hadn't seen her in a year or so, I'm not exactly sure how long (besides too long) but I still have her birthday gift from last year, her birthday is next month, if that gives you any idea of how long it's been.

We talked about work, friends, guys, friends, work, my industry, friends, her industry, friends, family, and generally just caught up. Even though we caught up for four hours, we still have so much more to say, I can't go that long without seeing a good friend, it's just not allowed. Since I live so much closer now, she lives downtown, I think we'll be having dinner more often. She's really busy with work (she's an attorney in the oil business) and I've been busy with work, she spends a lot of time with her family, her boyfriend, they go to see his family out of state, and she has lots and lots of friends, too. She told me about her 10 year reunion that's coming up, 10 YEARS?! She only graduated a year before me, oh gawd, that means my 10 year is coming up. It feels so wierd to be able to say something happened 10 years ago that didn't involve holding my dad's hand as we got in line for a roller coaster ride. Malissa had thought about helping plan her reunion, then she told me about the "issues" they're already having in the planning committee, such things as napkin colors and invites before the place to hold it is even decided. Seriously, it's a high school reunion, our school colors were black and red, how about black and red napkins. Oh, and if you want to keep the cost down and we are in the technology age (it's not still 1999 when you graduated) how about an evite?! I don't think I'll be helping plan my reunion, I think I'll just show up....and I need to somehow lose about 75 lbs by then, I should probably get started.


Anyway, it was great to catch up with an old friend, someone that's known me for a long time, I should probably go see less shows and see more old friends...and new ones, I still love chatting with my new friends, too. Obviously, there was no point to this post, sorry to have wasted your time.

Oh what a weekend

This past weekend was good times, indeed. Kaitlin came up Friday night to hang out for the weekend. We went over to Woody's for Micky and the Motorcars, it was WAY crowded. We stayed until about 1 am and decided to head home. Saw Nikki and Melanie there, had a few drinks and may or may not have had a jagerbomb...man I love those things. I so looked forward to Saturday morning when I could sleep and lay in bed as long as I wanted to...until I found out I would be getting served by a process server and didn't want them to know where I live so I had to get up and be in the Albertson's parking lot at 10 am, yay! I did find a donut shop very close to my house that is oh so good...and...cheap! So, we had donuts for breakfast after I got served. Which means, I'll be in a deposition Friday morning, yay! *eye roll*

Kaitlin and I are a little crafty and like to make cards and stamp stuff. My Stampin' Up demonstrator was holding a punch class, making cards with different shaped punches. She and I went up to The Colony for the class to make these cards:

(I'm not very good at taking pics of cards, I can't seem to get it to focus, oh well.)

It was fun seeing how one punch could make something so different. I think I'll be buying more punches.

We went to see Whitney after the class because she lives so close...the baby room is looking so cute and I can't wait to meet her little girl, I just hope she has a name by the time she's born!

It's 5 pm and we haven't eaten since 10 am, we're starving and head to Roadhouse, yummy! I love that place. Then we head back to my house to relax and craft, Kaitlin finishes a card and I don't finish much of anything, good job, Shelly. We're tired and hit the hay...then I get a text from Sarah *d* around 1 am...30 minutes later, she, Aaron, and Kevin are headed to my house, did I mention I was laying in bed? I rush around cleaning up and changing out of pjs, and wake up Kaitlin because I'm sure she'd prefer me to wake her up rather than Aaron or Kevin, because God only knows what would be in her face to wake her up with those two! We stay up drinking until around 530 and Sarah and I actually get to go to sleep around 630...from not good times, ugh!

Sarah met us at Joe T Garcias around 5pm to begin our day, we got an early start. ;) Kaitlin had never been and it was the perfect day for margaritas on the patio. They're food is okay, but the atmosphere combined with strong margaritas really make that place. Aaron drove us around downtown before that to show some sights, I was pointing out things that were hit by "The Tornado" and then I had to tell about the tornado, I forget it's only common knowledge to those of us that lived here 9 years ago, 9 YEARS AGO? That was my senior year in high school, wow, 9 years ago...I'm getting old. Anyway, enough of my self pity, next time I'm taking her to Dallas to see Victory Park, the grassy knoll, and maybe the book depository, which I've never even seen...oh and Adairs, how could I forget Adairs?! So, we saw Woody's, downtown, the Stockyards (Northside,) Joe T Garcias, and the White Elephant. It was a fun weekend but had to end...I left Aaron and Sarah at the White Elephant while I took Kaitlin back to my house so she could make it home before she fell asleep! I, too, was quite tired, but still went back to the WE and drank some more. Good times with those fools...good weekend, can't wait to do it all again!

I have a lot of great ideas

This particular blog post is not about any of them, it's about probably my worst idea, ever.

I went to meet Sarah last night for dinner at 8.0. I had the bright idea of sitting inside because it was windy, there was an AWFUL band playing inside that made us hurry up and eat to get out of there. Sarah brought a very drunk friend, Kim, with her and Kevin met up with us before we ordered. You would have thought the people I was with would question my next brilliant idea since my first one of the night didn't work out so well. They didn't. I wanted ice cream all day yesterday, so I said ,"let's get ice cream." There wasn't any on the menu there at 8.0 so Sarah piped up that she wanted birthday cake ice cream from Coldstone. I liked her idea because I'm a fan of the Coldstone ice cream. So, I consult the GPS on my cell phone and it says there's one 1.5 miles away. Sarah and I think we could use the walk so we could work off some of the ice cream. Downtown's not huge but we're not exactly sure how big it is, so we figure 1.5 miles is still within the downtown area so we set off, on foot, to Coldstone. We get to the part where 6th and 7th come together (the address on GPS says it's on 7th) and there is no Coldstone in sight. I consult GPS, again, and it's 1.3 miles away...we were several blocks from 8.0 so I figure it's just confused because we're on foot on a one way street, going the wrong way and we keep walking. Sarah jokes that it's probably by Target, Kevin says it's probably in the Montgomery Plaza, which is right next to Target. I think, there is no way Montgomery Plaza is only 1.5 miles from downtown, so we keep walking. Kim is griping about how tired she is and wants to take a break, she's the smallest one of the four of us, get over it and keep walking! Kevin is griping about his boots hurting his feet and he wished he had tennis shoes. Sarah and I are busy burning off more calories because we're laughing so hard from the fact that we're walking so far for ice cream and at Kim and Kevin's griping. At one point, we walk over the Trinity, we went over the river and through the woods (high rise buildings) to get this damn ice cream. I've never worked so hard for some ice cream. FINALLY, we see the Montgomery Plaza sign and it's the light at the end of the tunnel...or so we think. We walk across the front, look in the center, and go all the way to the other side of the huge complex, no Coldstone. We're walking to a strip center off to the side of the Plaza and we still don't see Coldstone, we're thinking it must be at the back of the building, but I asked a lady who was sitting down if she knew where Coldstone was...to which she replied, "Oh yeah, it was in the middle area, but it closed a while back." WHAT?! We walked 1.5 miles for ice cream and the place is closed?! I don't believe her so I look it up on my GPS, again, and find the phone number, I call, sure enough, it's disconnected...sonofa...the place is closed. We spent almost an hour (because we were walking rather slowly) trying to get some damn ice cream and the place is closed. There's an Irish Pub next to the Montgomery Plaza that Sarah and I like to go to, so we decide to head over there for their bathrooms and a beer while we wait for a cab because we're not going to walk another 1.5 miles back. This 1.5 miles seemed like 5...not just 1.5.

We take the cab back downtown and pay $14 to go 1.5 miles...yes, way overpriced. Fort Worth and Dallas cabs are ridiculous, gee I don't know why people don't take them more often :eyeroll:

And, once we're back downtown, Sarah still wants ice cream (I can't lie, I still do, too.) So, we go to Marble Slab, which was actually suggested by Kim earlier in the night, but Sarah and I ignored her because we wanted Coldstone. Sarah wanted birthday cake ice cream, which we were sure only Coldstone had...what do you know, Marble Slab has birthday cake ice cream. We went through ALL OF THAT for nothing. Marble Slab was a three minute walk from 8.0. We take our ice cream to Kevin's truck (amazingly, Kevin is still with us) to sit on the tailgate and eat it. Random, seeing people tailgating downtown, eating ice cream.

We left 8.0 at 8 pm for ice cream and at about 930-945, we finally have our ice cream. Oh, what a night.

My Jalapeno Experience

I typed this up yesterday, but our internet was down and I couldn't post it:

Since Sunday was Superbowl Sunday, a friend of mine was having a party and asked everyone to bring something to eat. I decided I would make those super yummy jalapeno things, they’re jalapenos cut in half, stuffed with cream cheese, and wrapped in bacon. I’ve had them several times and love them so I thought I would make them for the party. I have never made anything with jalapenos before and definitely nothing with whole jalapenos. Yesterday afternoon I embark on this cooking adventure, no worries in mind. I cut the stem of the peppers, cut them in half, and then take the middle, called the “membrane”, out of them. I do this with bare hands, and don’t think twice about it. After I’m done with all of the peppers the smell has given me a runny nose, so I go to blow it, but didn’t wash my hands first. A couple of minutes later, my nose starts to tingle a little and then starts to feel on fire. OMG OMG OMG there’s jalapeno juice in my nose! I run to wash my hands so I don’t get this juice anywhere else…I was smart here and decide to scrub under my finger nails so I’m not spreading it anywhere else I don’t want this jalapeno juice to be. Now that spreading it around anywhere else is taken care of, I have to figure out how I’m going to put a stop to this inferno that is burning in my nose. I try washing my nose out with Dawn soap, doesn’t do anything. I try my face soap, doesn’t do anything, my nose is still flaming. I go so far as to put lotion all over my fingers and stick them in my nose. Does not stop the fire. I was minutes away from putting milk in my nose because it hurt so bad. It seemed that everything I did only made the fire worse, so I decide to leave it alone for a bit…thank God, the flames finally cool down and I can breath through my nose without feeling as if I’m breathing fire through there. After the fire stops in my nose, I realize the jalapeno juice has burned all the fingers on my left hand, I even have the beginnings of a blister on my middle finger. Today, a whole day later, my hand still burns. Should I ever make the terribly stupid decision to do anything with jalapenos, again, I will wear gloves.

Now, this may sound like a funny forwarded story of someone doing something stupid, but no….it is not, it was me, yesterday, that was in hell….hope you get a little laugh out of it.