I'm not afraid to admit...

that I fail in the kitchen! I burned 2 full trays of frozen shoestring french fries tonight! Oh, plus I almost burned the tray of waffle fries I made to compensate for the burnt shoestring fries! My kids are totally ridiculing me. #mommyfail

Reynolds Pan Lining Paper

Yes, this stuff, right here!

I just gotta say that I LOVE this stuff!!! I've always been the kind of cook who wraps the baking dishes in foil before baking stuff that is super messy, so I was seriously curious when I saw a commercial for this stuff.

Having just finished my second roll of it, I have to say....it rocks!

Line a pan, bake enchiladas on it...no clean up! Rip it into squares and wrap warm sandwiches to-go in it--Awesome! You could even bake on it if you wanted to, although it's a little spendy to use for that, in my opinion. Regular parchment will remain my go-to for that one. But any time I need to line a pan w/ sides from here on out, it'll be with this stuff!

Just an all around awesome product that works exactly as advertised!!!! In fact, the *ONLY* bad thing I can say about it is that you can't broil on it because it *IS* parchment, but really? I can't fault it for that...and I broiled on it, quickly to melt cheese, tonight w/ no ill effects.

Try it if you get the chance!

(Note: Reynolds doesn't know me. I was not in any way compensated for this post. I even buy my OWN Pan Lining Paper....they didn't even send me a sample to review. I just really love this product that much!)

Grilled Fish Tacos

I don't know about your family, but it's a rare occasion when I can get mine to eat fish that doesn't come frozen out of a box, if ya know what I mean. And I don't know about YOU, but personally the words "taco" and "fried" do not go hand in hand in my head, so I just can't bring myself to use fried fish for fish tacos. Not saying it'll never ever happen, just that it hasn't sounded good enough to happen yet. So here is my grilled version. :)

What you'll need:

1 lb of whatever fish you like, really. I used catfish the night I made these, but anything from Tilapia to Red Snapper would be awesome. Just make sure it's as fresh as possible. If you live more than a couple hours from the ocean, buy your fish frozen. ;) Don't worry TOO much about it falling apart on the grill because, let's face it....fish does that, and you're going to shred it up at the end anyway.

red & green cabbage
tomatoes
onion
cucumber
cilantro
lots of limes
flour tortillas

Start by heavily seasoning the fish--I used Old Bay, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, salt and fresh black pepper. It was a little spicy this time around. You might lay off the extra cayenne if you don't like spicy. Rub the seasonings into both sides of the fish and set aside.

Chop up all of the veggies, cut the limes into wedges.

Now throw the fish on the amazingly hot grill. You could rub the grill down with some oil first, but I rarely do. Grill for a couple minutes on each side, depending on how thick your fillets are.

(Horrible cell phone pic, sorry!)

Take the fish back inside and shred it up with a fork.

Now just build your tacos...you could heat up or char your tortillas if you want, but I don't typically bother for fish tacos.

Now, if you want, you can go to the trouble of making cole slaw to put in your tacos, but quite frankly, I prefer the fresh veggies to cole slaw (but then, I don't eat much by way of condiments). If you want to do the cole slaw pictured (which, I admit that I just threw together because my husband asked me to), you'll also need:

1 whole carrot
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon white sugar
the juice of 2 limes
salt and pepper to taste

(Just shred the carrot with your box grater, add a handful of each of the other veggies, except for the tomato of course, and then mix the dressing on top of it. Adjust the amounts of everything for your needs and liking.)

(Don't be like my husband....put tomatoes on there, too! ;) )

That's all there is to it! NOM!!

Crock Pot Baked Beans

These beans are always a crowd pleaser. I forgot to take photos the last time I made them, but I did take a quick photo of a plate of leftovers before they were inhaled.... ;)

How yummy does that look?? Seriously? Thick, gooey, just yummmmm!

Anyway....it's simple, really. You'll need good bar-be-cue sauce (I really love Longhorn BBQ sauce for stuff like this, and you can get it at most local grocery stores if you happen to live in the WA-OR-ID area), 1 large red onion, 1/2 a pound of bacon, approximately 1 cup dark brown sugar, 1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, and 2-3 cans of plain old everyday baked beans. Not the "grilling" ones, just plain baked beans. Tip: The generic baked beans are better than the name brand for this, so don't waste your money. ;) You could really add whatever you like, but this is what I use.

Start by opening the beans and dumping them into the crock pot. Go ahead and turn the crock pot on to "High" now. 

Slice the onion super thin, and caramelize it in a heavy bottom pan over medium-low heat with about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. This will take a while, so be patient, and stir it now and then so it doesn't burn. Some onions have more natural sugars in them than others...if your onions don't start to brown after about 15 mins, turn the heat up slightly and add a spoon full of sugar. You could probably skip this step, but I like the extra flavor this provides. Add the caramelized onions to the beans.

Chop the bacon into small pieces and brown them until they are crispy in a skillet, and add it to the beans.

Finely chop the jalapenos, seeds and all. Add the jalapeno, sugar and BBQ sauce to the beans.

Cover the crock pot, and cook on high until everything is hot and bubbly. Adjust the lid so it is cocked a bit to let steam escape, and cook until the beans reach a thickness you like. All crock pots are different, but on high, it takes about 4 hours in mine to reach the consistency above. I like them to stay where I put them on the plate, not spread out all over the place.

Super simple & super yummy!! Great side dish for bar-be-ques and pot lucks! 

Homemade Egg Noodles

Is there anything on this planet better than homemade pasta?? I'm such a carb head.

This is totally not my recipe or method, either. It belongs to Ryan Detzel, and I first saw this posted on The Pioneer Woman's blog.

This a simple method to make homemade noodles. All it takes is two ingredients--flour and eggs. Done. And it's simple to remember, too, so there's nothing to write down--1 cup of flour + 2 eggs = dinner for 2.  If you cut them a little on the "chubby" side, like I did below, they are almost dumpling like. So yummy.

I'll spare you the directions since you can just click on over to the Pioneer Woman's site and see much prettier photos than mine, along with all the directions and commentary ya need to make them.

But I will say this...seriously awesome go-to dish to have in your repertoire. Two ingredients. No fancy gadgets needed to make it. Versatile. The kids LOVE to help. Everyone loves to eat them!

Chicken Taco Salad

In a word, NOM!

Everyone in my house loves green salad--even my super finicky 8 year old with severe feeding issues will eat salad, so we usually have some variation of a salad as a main course 3-4 nights a week. This is one of our favorites.

The chicken is very similar to my crock pot taco chicken. I basically do the same thing, but instead of salsa, I use a large can of diced tomatoes (you could totally use 2-3 cans of Rotel) and a bag of frozen Southwest mix veggies. I also use lime zest instead of a tangelo peel for this.

The salad is nothing special. Whatever greens that are on sale--romaine, cabbage, arugula, butter, green leaf, baby spinach, just whatever you like; tomato, onion, cucumber, etc. etc. etc. Just make a salad. ;) You could totally serve this on top of tortilla chips or even in a tortilla bowl if you're in the mood. I normally don't, though. Toss a handful of cheese on top and a spoonful of the chicken and you're good to go! My husband tops his with salsa and sour cream.

The Best Pico de Gallo EVER

At least in my opinion...but then, I'm biased, so you'll just have to decide for yourself. I'm not one for condiments and sauces, but I will put this on pretty much anything. :)


What you'll need:

Cilantro, onion (I prefer white....), ripe tomatoes (romas are best, but I had others that needed to be used up that day...use what you have), jalapenos.

Chop everything super fine and mix it together. Don't bother measuring, but you want to aim for equal parts cilantro, onion and tomato. Add enough finely chopped jalapeno to make it as spicy as you like. That's all there is to it. You *COULD* add a squeeze of lemon or lime, and a pinch of salt, but consider if you'll be eating this with chips or not, because tortilla chips have a lot of salt on them already.