Cook Club: Week 18

Sweet Chili Chicken Tacos!

Another pre-marinated product that the HEB carries is a "sweet chili chicken breast." Having never had it before, I assumed it would be spicy.  It is not. It is, however, sweet.  We had the same HEB Flour Tortillas (mentioned in the last post), sour cream, and cheese.  We also made some spanish rice to make ourselves essentially little sweet Freebirds tacos.  These weren't quite as good as the Yucatan Chicken Tacos, but they were pretty decent - especially when a few dabs of hot sauce are added.  While I didn't necessarily love the tacos, I'm not sure that I would have preferred to eat the chicken by itself either since I think I'd get tired of that sweet flavor pretty quick...Maybe a stirfry is a better option...

Cook Club: Week 17

Yucatan Tacos!

So HEB makes a prepackaged marinated chicken breast called "Yucatan chicken."  It is essentially chicken which has been marinated in El Pato tomato sauce.  We also purchased the HEB brand premade flour tortillas where all you have to do is cook them in a cast iron skillet.  We also had mashed avocado, sour cream, and cilantro.  Yum yum.  They were very good.  It is easier than doing the whole 'marinate in El Pato yourself' thing, but not so much easier that it's worth paying more to get the pre-marinated stuff.  So yes, we may have them again, or I may just marinate the meat myself.

Cook Club: Week 16

Not really a new recipe this week, just an old recipe with a twist.

I've been making a fettuccine with feta and chicken (modified) recipe for a while now.  It includes, as the name would imply, fettuccine, feta and chicken.  It also includes a can of diced tomatoes, white wine and a crapload of spinach.  Since we have a Swiss Chard plant, but with no idea of what to make with it, I opted to switch out the spinach (which I would have had to purchase) with the chard.  It worked well, but I think I like the spinach a little better - less of the "generic bitter green" flavor.  Of course, that being said, the left overs tasted exactly like those made with spinach; but this is likely because the spinach in the left overs takes on a very "generic bitter greens" flavor.

Cook Club: Week 15

No new recipes this week, but we did eat at a new restaurant. 

I've been wanting to go to Paisano's next to the Chipotle for a while, but any time we're over there, we're always on our way to Chipotle. 

I was extremely happy with my meal (spaghetti with Italian sausage) and I ate it all.  Shawn had the chicken parm and also ate it all.  The portions aren't huge (we did, after all eat all of our food in one sitting), but they're also not small portions (our excuse is that we went swimming for an hour that day as well as spent half the day doing yard work).  Would I go there again - hell yeah.  The prices are cheaper than Olive Garden, the food is good, and they have an AWESOME Chianti.  Or rather, I just really like it (your mileage may vary).

Cook Club: Week 14

This week we made two new recipes - "Katniss craved Cheesy Rolls" from the Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook and Balsamic Chicken from the How to Boil Water cookbook.

First the Chicken.  It's very similar to our normal Balsamic Chicken, but with more work (cooking the chicken in the oven).  But it also uses less sugar.  It was good, and both of us wouldn't mind having it again, but considering I know I'll be the one making it, it means that we'll probably revert back to our normal Balsamic Chicken with maybe more garlic and less sugar.

The Cheesy Rolls.  They use Bisquick as a base - which is always fun because it makes them easy.  It also has cheese.  And garlic.  And therefore are delicious.  We made 12 rolls, which are basically my cookie scoop size.  They were delicious warm, and almost as good the next day and the day after that.

Cook Club: Week 13

FAIL!  massive FAIL!  I should insert a picture of the Fail Whale here, but that may be trademarked by Twitter...

This weekend we did not make any new food, nor did we eat at any new restaurant.  But it was Easter Weekend, and we did go to my inlaws', but I just not feeling up to making a new dessert item, and so I didn't. 

Oh well, we can't ALL be perfect.

Cook Club: Week 12

With my parents being in town this weekend, we didn't have time to make a new recipe (full disclosure:  Last weekend we didn't actually make anything, so we made the pecan praline biscuits this last Friday, and attempting 2 new recipes in one weekend didn't seem practical).  Instead we opted to try a new eatery (two really...).

On Saturday, for lunch, we ate at The Noble Pig.  TNP is a sandwich shop that specializes in all things charcuterie.  It is also is about half a mile from our house.  I had the PBLT (Pork Belly instead of Bacon) and Shawn had The Noble Pig (ham, pulled pork, cheese and bacon).  Both sandwiches were really good and we'd gladly eat at the shop again.  Shawn even ate some of their pickles that they give with each meal (not that he liked them, but he tried them).  The place, however, is popular.  Line out the door popular...So on the same level as Hopdoddy, Amy's Ice Cream, and Homeslice pizza.

On Sunday morning, we took my parents out to Jack Allen's Kitchen for Brunch to celebrate their birthdays.  It doesn't hurt that the food is delicious and it's all you can eat for $15.99.  This is another insanely popular restaurant, and there was a LONG line when we arrived at 10:05 am.  We managed to make it into the first seating though, so it was all good. 

Not that it really counts, but we also ate at Cipollina earlier in the week with my parents as well.  Cipollina changes their menu frequently (it's dependent on what's in season), so if you don't see anything on the menu you like, just check back the following week.  Cipollina has some absolutely delicious food though - I had the pre fixe meal.  It included caprese salad (which I gave to my mom), fried chicken with brussel sprouts, and a mini creme brule.  And I cleaned my plate.