More Experimenting in the Kitchen

So, a Southern lady should be able to cook- we have established that. And so I have decided to take it upon myself to cook more. Of course, having a willing participant/sous chef/test pilot makes a huge difference.

First on the menu is a beer chicken cooked in the crock pot. I got the recipe off of Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/MakeItWorkMolly/lil-foodie/ and http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340491864/).

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle or can of beer
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook in crock pot 6-7 hours.

I actually used two cans of beer, Bud Light in this case because someone ended up with a bunch of it and doesn't drink it, and David's crock pot tends to cook a whole lot faster than it should so... two cans. It was stupidly easy and turned out really, really well. With this we also roasted brussel sprouts. We've made them before with olive oil and salt, but this time I threw in some balsamic vinegar as well. I think it added just another touch to them.

We also made this lovely cocktail (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340122020/):

Ingredients:

2 parts ginger ale
2 parts cider
1 part bourbon

Well guess what- I misread and I am just now realizing it. I read "ginger BEER" not ginger ale. Oops. And I used sparkling cider. David actually mixed the cocktail up but as it was, my mistake turned out something really quite good. Yummy-yummyness.

I had planned to also make this cheesy, garlic bread for this meal but somehow it just didn't happen so that was last night instead. (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340303511/)

Ingredients:
pizza dough
garlic butter
cheese

Well, the damn pizza dough didn't want to roll out properly so I had to knead it up and spread it out by hand best I could. I mixed garlic powder and unsalted butter and heated in the microwave to let it spread better. Then put mozzarella cheese and pepperjack cheese along the dough- after having put the garlic butter on. Then drizzled the rest of the garlic butter on top. Rolled up and placed in the oven. The oven was already on 350 for the chicken cordon bleu we made (not from scratch- courtesy of The Fresh Market) so I sat it in there for the last ten minutes the chicken was cooking. As it was, I should have done it sooner. Because I did not cut up the roll of bread as the directions said, it took a lil longer. I'd say about 20 minutes, I also got impatient and turned the heat up to 375 about halfway through. They turned out pretty well but I think I used too much cheese and not enough garlic butter. Lesson learned- less cheese. So- what should I try next? Here are the choices:

Entrees:

Bruschetta chicken http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356339868691/

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446692/

Sides:

Potatoes baked in chicken broth http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340910902/

Oven roasted mushrooms http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340522660/

Desserts:

Peanut butter and yellow cake and chocolate http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968400/

Golden graham bars http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968458/

Cocktails:

"Shock Me" http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340971984/

Crimson Spice http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446683/

Til next time yall...