Tag Archives: enjoy

Sob Story

Did you see the latest Instagram Backpackbees photo? Yes… that’s a chair that sits in the lobby area of work that a parent let a little Picasso doodle all over with crayons. Yikes… That’s not even the sob story piece of this blog. It’s been a pretty rough week in general, but never in my twenty something years on this earth have I ever experienced tears while chopping my onions, that is until tonight. Can you believe a teeny tiny shallot was the one to do me in? The tears just streamed down my cheeks as I chopped as quickly as I could. Seriously it was as if I were sobbing. Of course I had to pause intermittently because my eyes were on fire and walk away from the cutting board, but I returned as quickly as I could to get the little guy prepped for our dinner.

What about you, are your eyes sensitive to onions? Intrigued, also waiting for Mr. B to finish up cooking the chicken, I looked it up on the internet and found that the syn-propanethial-soxide that the onion releases as a form of gas when cut into causes the eye irritation to some. It then went onto say that a good onion cry, though not hormonal or emotional, often makes people feel better afterwards. As silly as it sounds, it sort of did….

Wellll….. maybe it was just the excitement and anticipation to dig into this meal? Or, maybe it’s that we realized it’s Wednesday and that means we are closing in on another weekend!

The recipe was slightly altered from Iowa Girl Eats.

Ingredients:

5 Slices turkey bacon, chopped
4 Chicken breasts, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Shallot, chopped
3 Cups white button mushrooms, sliced
6 Cups fresh organic Korean spinach
1 1/2 Cup half & half
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

First cook bacon in a large skillet, cook until crispy. Not much grease, if any is left behind from the bacon, don’t bother wiping out, continue on with cooking chicken breast in same skillet to gather any remaining bacon flavors.

Season to taste chicken breasts with salt and pepper then add to skillet and sauté until no longer pink. Remove off to side and cover with foil to keep warm while you cook the rest of the meal.

Next, melt butter in skillet, add shallots and mushrooms, season to taste with salt and pepper, and then sauté until mushrooms are tender. Throw in spinach then cover and sauté randomly until just barely wilted. Add half & half  and cook until the sauce is thickened, after thickened, stir in grated parmesan cheese.

Last but certainly not least, arrange chicken on your plate,  pour sauce on top and sprinkle with cooked turkey bacon.

We enjoyed with twice baked potatoes and a nice glass of refreshing wine.

Next time we think we will add in some spice to spice it up! Until then, enjoy, check out Iowa Girl Eats, and stay tuned.

Backpackbees

Just One

Can you ever just have one cookie? Does one cookie ever suffice? Nope. Not in my book. You at least need two. It’s got to be a pair, equal, one for each hand. Right? Right!

It’s Tuesday night, I’ve had a lot on my mind these past few days. Korea has a major storm set to blow in over the next few days from China.

What to do?

What to do?

Bake cookies!

I needed something mindless, stress free, and relaxing. Peanut-butter oatmeal cookies were just what was in order. We’re a huge fan of oatmeal cookies and peanut-butter part was just a bonus.

I know when my grandfather reads this blog post he will crave oatmeal cookies and pester my grandmother to bake him some. Oatmeal cookies are his favorite cookies. I guess the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree. There is nothing quite like a fresh batch of baked cookies and a tall glass of milk to wash it all down.

I remember baking cookies various times throughout my life. The best memories of course were licking the cookie dough from the spoon afterwards. Hopefully there weren’t any raw eggs in those batches…uh oh spaghettio.

Honestly, I wish I would have paid more attention to baking and cooking from my grandparents when I was young. They are such awesome resources and have so much culinary experience. As I’ve grown up I’ve realized that I really enjoy learning to cook and bake new things. I always look forward to cooking and learning something new when im home visiting them. i always leave excited, eager to try what I learned at home with Mr. B. Sometimes I even ponder culinary school to learn real techniques and more kitchen confidence when venturing way outside of the normal weeknight spaghetti or chicken dish. What about you? Have you ever given culinary school a thought? Perhaps someday?

Back to cookie baking. I’ve included the recipe below adapted from various peanut-butter oatmeal recipes just for you.

Enjoy!

Peanut-butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1/3 cup natural, chunky, unsalted peanut-butter
1/3 cup almond milk, soy milk, or regular milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup oats
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees or 190 Celsius.

Mix in a mixing bowl the sugar, milk, peanut-butter, butter, and vanilla extract until everything smooth.

In separate bowl, mix both flours well, oatmeal, baking soda and salt.
Pour both separated mixes together. The wet and the dry, and mix until the ingredients are just mixed enough together.

Next drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet, gently flatten cookie tops with a fork to bake evenly.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until cookies are set.

Now…while the cookies bake, we tackle the dishes….

Backpackbees