InstaFriday

Well, I haven't done this in awhile.  It's time for InstaFriday... and this week, I have lots of FOOD for you.  Because that's essentially what I've been doing this past week.

Confession - this picture is actually from the week before last... but who can beat blueberry pancakes for dinner?  (As pictured: three helpings worth.)  This is what I make for myself when I'm cooking solo: Koby won't look at a plate of food unless there's a dead animal on it.

Normally I don't condone the consumption of sandwiches that are too large for the mouth, but this one was an exception.  About a year(?) ago I read this blog post written by my friend Joey, in which he sang the spicy, scrumptious praises of Sriracha sauce.  And of course, being the person about whom advertising moguls dream, I went out and bought some.  You should too.  This grilled chicken breast sandwich boasted Sriacha mayo, spinach, jalapenos, tomatoes, and gooey melted cheese.  Here's the recipe for creating your own Sriacha mayonnaise - mix the two together.  And then put it on e v e r y t h i n g.

Ok now, this is the real deal, my latest pride and joy - husband just gave it an easy 'A' after eating three chicken breasts.  And it's LEMON, which is a do-no-wrong ingredient in my opinion.  I got the recipe here from the Food Network website.  I had to sub in a few things - chicken stock for dry white wine, basil for oregano and ground thyme instead of fresh.  Oh, and I didn't have a lemon to zest so I added an extra tablespoon of lemon juice.  Did I mention I love lemon?  I am writing this recipe down for the Cocina de Andrews permanent files right now.  No, that's a lie.  The truth is I'm barely restraining myself from spooning up the rest of this lemon sauce and drinking it like sweet ambrosia.  Did I mention I love lemon?

In other news, Koby's seventh grade girls track team won first in district.  He's traveling with the Varsity girls next week to the Regional Qualifier meet.  We're counting down the days 'til summer vacation (23, did you know?) and at 9 months (to the day!) Knox weighs 21 lbs.

Follow me on Instagram: c_andrews

What'd you do this week?

If It Has Heavy Cream, It Must Be Good

The things I cook taste this good, but why don't they ever look this good?

Alright, I've been feeling like cooking lately.  It also helps that while I cleaned this weekend I found a bajillion recipe pages torn out from old Real Simple magazines.  And so, here we go again! (Round 3?)

COCINA DE ANDREWS!  Sans lung damage this time.

Creamy Chicken with Corn and Bacon
Grade: A

I swapped chicken for the shrimp it called for.  (Koby is allergic.)  This recipe is GREAT!  As I was making it, I realized it's a lot like my mom's Sauteed Chicken in Cream recipe that I grew up with, and now Koby has deemed an "A+". Which is rare people, rare.  Those plusses are hard to come by.  All I added was some Parmesan cheese (because I didn't think it had enough calories) and I don't think I'd change anything else!  

Mushroom Sauce
Grade: A-

Lately cooking has been extra fun because I had some fresh bell peppers from a friend's garden to cook with.  I used them in this recipe and also added garlic, 1/4 cup Marsala wine, Parmesan cheese, and switched cream of mushroom for the cream of chicken it called for.  To Koby's delight, I used radiatore pasta instead of penne.  These little swirls held the sauce really well and they're much more interesting shapes than the penne tubes, which is also fun for me.

I feel lame writing a post just about food, but I don't have any anecdotes about nearly burning down the house and it's almost my bed time.  Good night!

Revisiting the Cocina de Andrews

Well, I haven't been cooking much lately but I have tried these two recipes fairly recently.

The first we tried tonight, and Koby and I both agreed that it tastes remarkably like 'Country Club' food.  Just tasty enough that you'd finish the whole thing, just rich enough to hurt your stomach just a little bit, and just bland enough that you'd forget about the dish as soon as it came time to eat again.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken
Grade: C+

Here's what I'd change: I'd swap the cream cheese for something with a little more zest and perhaps add garlic.  I'd season the chicken breasts and I saw on one of the comments that someone had also wrapped the chicken in spinach, which I thought sounded good.  Some people also mentioned substituting sour cream for the mayo.  Also, I'd cook the bacon a bit before wrapping it around the chicken.  Or I'd totally revamp the recipe and try something with some pesto.  Definitely a rich dish, almost no matter how you spin it.  I chose it because it had the highest number of stars on my AllRecipes app, and it had lots of positive reviews, but I really can't figure out why...

The second I liked A LOT, but I also changed up quite a bit as I cooked.  Let's see if I can remember, it's been a few weeks.

Chicken Marsala
Grade:  solid "A"

So... I added onions, sundried tomatoes and 'Italian' seasoning and left out the mushrooms and sherry.  I want to say I did something else spur of the moment but I can't remember just what.  Hmmm it may have been that I added cherry tomatoes.  I think that's what it was and it was really good.  Koby says it would be an A+ if I would just stop cooking with penne pasta.  And there you have it.

This would probably be a whole lot more interesting with pictures, but I don't have any of the food (it's hard to take pictures before eating when there's a very tiny window of time in between 'cooking' and 'eating') so I'll leave you with this.

Oh!  I've just remembered.  On a related note, I did almost set fire to the cocina de Andrews over the weekend.  That may be a slight exagerration, but real talk y'all... there was a LOT of smoke.

You might notice how you can so precisely see the sunshine streaming in through the windows?  If you'd like to be able to see the light in this way, you could do so easily by building a small bonfire in your house.  Took about a year off my life.  Let me tell you what happened.  I started cooking some bacon and stepped just out of sight for thetiniestofseconds to try and win something on this blog ... seriously, it was just a millisecond of time, and next thing I know, smoke is billowing out of the kitchen and it smells like bacon-scented garbage.  Did you know that bacon will disentegrate in its own grease if cooked too long?  So I grabbed the skillet off the burner and stood in the kitchen, pan still smoking out of control, completely frozen.  Do I pour the grease out in the backyard?  I'm envisioning our poor dogs being terribly surprised and scalded after trying to eat the bacon-lava.  Do I run through the house and pour the grease out in the front yard?  I'm seeing now smoke throughout the ENTIRE house and somehow tripping and spilling fire-hot grease onto my baby, who is sleeping in the other room about fifteen feet from the doorway... Seriously, it took me way too long to make this decision. 

I finally opted to go out the back door and poured the grease near the fence, and managed to escape the entire experience with only one small burn on my hand.  And the dogs didn't eat the grease, either.
Luckily, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and I was able to keep the doors open for at least 3-4 hours to get some of the stank out.  To no avail, apparently.  When Koby got home from his football game around 1:30 that morning and woke me up, the only thing I remember him saying is "We won," and "The house smells really bad".

Food Lately... and Pinterest

If you're not on Pinterest, you don't know what you're missing.

I'm a firm believer that creativity breeds creativity... and this site totally does it for me.  It's inspired me in the kitchen, clued in me in to wayyyyyyy more things to accumulate and eventually upcycle (which I'm sure thrills my husband slightly less than it does me), and it's basically written the curriculum this year so far for my advanced Art IV student, who has already finished cut paper designs inspired by Nikki McClure and is currently working on an installation piece in the vein of these works - ALL of which I discovered via the incredible resource that is Pinterest.

In the past few weeks, the Cocina de Andrews tried out a few new recipes, courtesy of my obsessive pinning, and I'd like to share them now, complete with reviews from a reliable source.  (To see the recipes, click the titles.)

#1. Knock You Nekked Brownies

•  Rating: B+
• We've already talked about this one.  It's possible that I finished the pan by myself.  Not a big deal.

#2. Chicken Enchilada Pasta

• Rating: B
• Room for improvement - change the penne pasta to a shell pasta.  (My thoughts?  Pretty good, I'd make it again.  A solid "B" in my book.  Beware - the recipe doesn't say but this yields A TON of food.  We had enough leftovers for me to eat lunch, dinner and then for both of us to have dinner.)

#3. Cilantro Lime Chicken Soup 

• Rating: B+
• Room for improvement - the husband wants cheese.  (Personally, I gave this one an A because I love light, fresh soups whereas Koby prefers stews.  This one is outta control good, people.  Hands down beats soups at places like Abuelo's.)

So if you see me in a few months and I've packed on the pounds, I'm not pregnant again, just enjoying the fruits of my pinning behavior.  I love reading about how others have been inspired by Pinterest, like the beautiful wreath that Sarah made.  I'd love for you to share what you've created!  How has Pinterest changed your life?

Acrylic Paints and Pork Chops

I got a text from Koby today while he was completing his LAST DAY in the oil field, requesting that we have a 'real' dinner tonight. So I started thumbing through some Food Network magazines and found this recipe that seemed easy enough for me to throw together for my very excited husband tonight.

Reviews? It's good - we both decided it would be even better with bacon. And the smashed potatoes 'as-is' are a little bit bland compared to how we usually make them. Overall, it's a super easy meal to make that's relatively healthy and is a nice twist to your average pork chop.

Ingredients

* 1 pound small fingerling potatoes
* 2 cloves garlic
* Kosher salt
* 4 1/2-inch-thick boneless pork loin chops (5 ounces each)
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
* Freshly ground pepper
* 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 large red onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
* 2 Granny Smith apples, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* 3/4 cup apple cider
* 1/4 cup buttermilk

Directions

Put the potatoes and garlic in a saucepan, cover with cold water and season with salt. Cover and bring to a boil, then uncover and continue cooking until tender, about 15 minutes. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, rub both sides of the pork chops with the sage, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat, then add 1 teaspoon olive oil and sear the chops until golden on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Transfer to a plate. Wipe out the skillet and add the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil. Add the onion and apples and cook over medium-high heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the cider.

Return the chops to the skillet. Cover and cook, turning once, until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain the potatoes, reserving 1/4 cup liquid. Return the potatoes to the pan; add the buttermilk and mash, adding cooking liquid as needed. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with the pork chops, onion and apples. Drizzle with the pan juices.

Per serving: Calories 413; Fat 16 g (Saturated 5 g); Cholesterol 76 mg; Sodium 98 mg; Carbohydrate 40 g; Fiber 5 g; Protein 26 g

Photograph by Antonis Achilleos

In between runs to the grocery store and cooking, I became very bored and decided to paint. As with the other fox painting, I'm totally copying illustrations I'm finding on Etsy. I don't have any small canvases left and so I decided to paint these on the backs of grocery bags - I LOVE brown paper for some reason.





This post is sort of lame - you can imagine that the lack of sarcastic teenagers around me for 8 hours each day provides me with less entertainment than normal.

Hope the Blob likes Frosting

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN


THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON PREGNANCY



I feel that the above illustration and reference to early 90's television commercials should speak for itself, but in case you haven't gotten the hint, pregnancy is making me stupid.

On a daily basis I find myself forgetting things, losing things, jumbling words, confusing myself during conversations, and most likely confusing others who pity the poor crazy pregnant woman gibbering in circles and don't say so. Despite my deadened brain cells, frumpy appearance (maybe I'll do another blog about what pregnancy does to hair follicles) (and the fact that Koby accidentally threw away my last pair of contacts), and still the occasional upset stomach, I really do love being pregnant. I feel less wound-up about things, and even though I don't necessarily feel like 'myself', it's not in a negative way. (Remind me to read this entry next time I'm pregnant and still in my first trimester. Or maybe this pregnancy, in my third trimester.)

In other news, the above 'brain' became one part of a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. On Friday the 'home economics' teacher (for lack of a better description, and actually I don't really know the accurate description) asked me be one of the judges for the cake decorating contest her classes were participating in. An innocent request, but I for one will tell you that it is hard for a pregnant woman to judge a contest involving food when 'judging' does not entail 'consuming'. And thus I found myself buying the ingredients for this sub-par cake. For future reference, strawberry cake mix out of the box is not as delicious as it may sound. But cream cheese icing out of the can is. Especially when slightly heated in the microwave and eaten with your fingers.

Look, "C" for cooking. Or Christie. Or craving.



Now, before you judge my prowess in the kitchen, I want to tell you a few things.

Thing 1: Icing a bundt cake is a risky business. There must be a trick. **Now that I have googled 'icing a bundt cake' I see that this 'trick' is to lazily drizzle icing over the top, which I believe is an ineffective use of scrumptious frosting. (This coming from a girl who has always hated frosting. And yes, if you must know, I am getting sort of fat. I only just stopped myself from eating a piece for breakfast, but only just.)

Thing 2. It's a bundt cake because I was mistaken in believing that we had cupcake pans, which was in fact my true craving. (I have also never been especially fond of cupcakes.)

Next time I want to get a lemon flavor. After I use the Funfetti mix I already bought.



I am really getting excited about the next few months - I know my stomach will *really* start to show AND we'll find out the gender of our little baby! At the same time, I'm trying to soak up this time before Blob makes his/her appearance, when I can still think of Koby as just 'husband' and not 'husband and dad'... although we've had over three years to ourselves, it's flown by and will forever be changed before we know it. It's hard to believe that just a little bit over 7 months ago we weren't yet married, we had no idea where we would be living, I didn't have my job and I had never even heard of Colorado City. And now we are living in a beautiful house, I love my job, we love being married AND we're having a baby? I have to pinch myself when I stop and consider how much we've been blessed in such a short amount of time.

*** Ahem, an addendum. ***
Koby doesn't remember the "Your Brain on Drugs" commercials and scoffed when I said, "Maybe you're too young..." (I am two years older.) After consulting Wikipedia, I have decided that the commercials ran for a few years after their debut in 1987 (how much t.v. was I watching as a 2-3 year old? Apparently, a lot) and this is why Koby (b. 1988) does not remember them, but I (b. 1986) do. Here is a link to one of the commercials for those who need a reminder, who need to see it for the first time, and for those who would like to take a trip down memory lane.

Hey November

Koby cooks a Cornish game hen for the first time and I begin my novel. (See my writer's specs? Follow my writing progress here.)

Mediterranean Chicken Soup and Meli's Mutilated Whiskers

Mediterranean Chicken Soup - muy different, muy tasty

Stock:
1/2 cup cup orange juice (yeah!)
3 (10 1/2 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (8oz) can stewed tomatoes
4 medium (2 cups) carrots, sliced
2 medium (1 cup) onions, chopped
1 bulb (1 cup) fresh fennel, trimmed, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves (can sub dried in same amount)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (can sub dried in same amount)
1 teaspood finely chopped fresh garlic

Chicken:
2 cups cubed 1 inch cooked chicken
1 (2 1/4 oz) can sliced ripe black olives, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

In Dutch oven combine all stock ingredients. Cook over high heat until mixture comes to a full boil (8-10 min). Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Stir in chicken and olvies, continue cooking until heated through (2-3) minutes. Ladle into individual service bowls. Sprinkle each serving with parsley.

YIELD: 4 servings
NUTRITION INFO: (1 serving) 270 calories, 27g protein, 21g carbohydrates, 9g fat, 60 mg cholesterol, 1230 mg sodium

While I was boiling the chicken, I am suspicious that Meli succumbed to her newfound fascination, which is crawling all over the countertops. We know this because she singed the whiskers on the left side of her face. Koby and I Googled all about whiskers after that - was she hurt? Hopefully she won't crawl around the stove top and the knives anymore. Part of me laughs when I look at her mutilated, curly whiskers, and part of me feels bad for my little kitty. She's just too curious for her own good.

It's been a gem of the day in the world of Christie Andrews. I was happy to visit with my friend Caroline for awhile this afternoon; she is recently home in Abilene for a month, celebrating the end of a demanding and completed job in Washington D.C. I gorged excessively on cheesey and saucy chicken parmigiana, taking advantage of local Italian food lunch specials while in Abilene. Arriving home I found my husband already diligently prepping food for the fajitas he'd been craving for two days and I whipped up two fantastic dips - homemade guacamole and hummus, the latter of which I've never attempted before.




And then the most profoundly astonishing and appreciated thing happened.

Koby said to me, before dinner,

I sort of feel like watching Harry Potter tonight.

Marital bliss.

Wednesday means art camp at the Grace is half over. I'm working with the most focused and diligent group of middle schoolers I've ever known, perhaps the most focused and diligent group of middle schoolers existing in the world. I didn't get many pictures today because my camera died nearly as soon as we began working. Tomorrow I'm having to miss camp to attend the new teacher orientation at my new school, something I hate to do but must, though I feel comfortable leaving the kids in the capable hands of Brian and Nastasha.