Dinner #6 - Wings!

A few years ago, my wife and I used to meet down to this little wings place once a week after work flappy goodness and fries. We've since found other wings places we enjoy more, but in an attempt to capture that same old excitement of "wings night" ...I made wings!

Kroger had a nice big pack of chicken wings on sale, so I washed them up, prepped the oil, and got to work.  I decided to do half of them "naked" and the other half with a light flour and black pepper batter. While the naked wings were frying, I tossed some sweet potato fries in the oven, and got started on the sauce. I found a recipe online for a "honey soy wings sauce" but didn't have all the ingredients and improvised a bit. The main part of the sauce was equal parts honey and soy sauce (we prefer the low sodium kind). To liven it up a bit, I added in just a little bit of the Sriracha chili paste.

The fries came out nicely and I seasoned them with a little sea salt, black pepper, and cinnamon. I decided to put the sauce in a little dipping bowl instead of coating the wings, that turned out to be a good move as it wasn't as messy to eat. Both types of wings, naked and bread, were fantastic!

Dinner #5 - Pho!

On Friday nights I try to make it down to the TX/RX Labs open house event, but I didn't want to leave my wife to fend for herself - I am supposed to be responsible for dinner for 31 days straight, after all.  We talked about it last night and there's a nice little Pho place near my office, that's not too far from her school as well, called Pho Saigon.  We've tried noodle soup and Vietnamese egg rolls at several different places around Houston, but I'd venture to say Pho Saigon is my favorite so far!

We both ordered noodle soup, mine was all white meat chicken and my wife's was beef and meatballs.  Still though, I think my wife said it best tonight: "The egg rolls are the best part of the meal!"

Dinner #4 - STEAK!

There used to be a place here in Houston off of West Gray called The Tavern.  Every Thursday night was "Steak Night" at The Tavern, and it was amazing.  Their steaks were aged for 30 days, seasoned, and cooked on an old charcoal pit.  Sadly, The Tavern moved in closer to down town to a smaller location with terrible parking, and closed a few months later.  In honor of "Steak Night" from The Tavern (and because Kroger had the Nolan Ryan steaks on sale), I decided to make...you guessed it: STEAKS!

I didn't want to just have the same old steaks we've had before, I wanted to try to recreate the tastes I've missed on those wonderful Thursday nights.  To do this right, I was going to have to age my steaks.  I had seen Alton Brown explain it once before, so a quick run to Google and I confirmed the steps.  I washed the meat, dried it, put a layer of salt on both sides, wrapped the steaks in a paper towel, and set them on a rack in the refrigerator.  The salt pulls the moisture out of the meat and the paper towels soak it up, so the meat becomes less hydrated and has a higher protein-to-water ratio.  The good meat flavor does not come from what the cow drank.

So, after work today, we came home and I got started.  I decided to give the steaks a nice thick rub of just black pepper and tossed them in a frying pan.  It didn't take long to get a good sear on both sides and get them to the requested temperatures (my wife likes a little pink left in the middle of her steak, I prefer no pink).

While searing and flipping the steaks, I brought a pot of water to boil and added in some nice baby carrots.  Once they were soft, I drained most of the water, added in some butter and honey, and stirred until it all melted together.  Sweet tasty goodness!  I used the leftover fat and grease from the steaks to cook up some mushrooms with a little Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, onion powder, and some flour to thicken it a little at the end.  If you're having steaks, then you've got to have rolls of some kind.  My personal favorite bread-like items are crescent rolls.  It turns out we had one last can in the refrigerator, so I rolled them up (1/2 plain and 1/2 with cheese in the middle), and started them baking.  I'm not sure if the oven wasn't quite hot enough or they weren't in quite long enough, but they didn't really puff up like normally.  They still tasted great though!

Dinner #3 - Shredded Chicken Tacos

Okay, I'm not sure why, but I seem to be on a Mexican food kick this week.

Anyway, I still had some of those delicious homemade tortillas left over from Monday night and decided to make tacos with them again.  I had picked up a rotisserie chicken from Sam's the night before, stripped the meat, and added a mix of various spices (garlic, cayenne pepper, black pepper, onion powder, mixed in 1/4 a cup of chicken stock and 3/4 a cup of water) to the zip-lock bag with the meat, and shoved it in the refrigerator.

So, for dinner tonight, I tossed the shredded chicken into a pan and shoved it in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.  While that was heating up, I sauteed some mushrooms and black pepper in butter, then added in some fresh baby spinach.  I also tossed half a brick of Velveeta into a pot, added in 1/2 a cup of milk, and kept a close eye (and stir-stick) on it.  Once the cheese was nice and melted, I added in 1/2 a small jar of picante sauce and stirred until it was an even pinkish color (worst color for cheese dip, but fantastic flavor!). Next I fired up the tortillas and put the tacos together.  I was surprised at how well the meat worked out, I have a tendency to over-spice when I go by the seat of my pants like that, but these turned out very tasty!

Dinner #2 - Turkey Chili Nachos!

Wow, that's probably three words you don't hear said together often: "Turkey Chili Nachos!"  But let me tell you, they were fantastic, and pretty easy to make too!

To start off, I browned the ground turkey with some black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce.  Once that's ready, I added in one can of black beans, one can of whole kernel corn, and one can of tomato paste - stirring vigorously!  Once the colors looked evenly spread throughout, I let it simmer for a bit while I microwaved a bunch of restaurant style Mexican chips (On The Border brand from Sam's is my favorite!).  I tossed the warm chips in a bowl, covered them with the turkey chili, added a layer of shredded cheese, and a dollop of sour cream.  Quick, easy, and delicious!

Dinner #1 - Breakfast Tacos!

Tonight's dinner was based on 4 major things:

1. We had breakfast sausage.
2. I love tacos.
3. Heather mentioned something about having eggs.
4. I love tacos.

So, I stopped off at a little hole-in-the-wall, authentic Mexican food place near the office and picked up some homemade tortillas.  I browned up the sausage, tossed in 4 eggs, 1/2 a can of original Rotel, some black pepper, and scrambled it all together.  This was my first time using the "orgreenic" pans (I ordered them online to try them out, then saw them at CVS for a few bucks cheaper) and they really worked well.  A quick wipe out with a paper towel and I was heating up tortillas in the same pan.  Once the tortillas were heated up, I tossed in the scramble mix and added some cheddar and monterey jack cheese to top it all off.

I tell you this: I will never eat another tortilla from a grocery store, if possible.  I'm pretty sure I heard angels singing while I was enjoying the homemade tortillas.