kind of behind on the posts. Waaayyy back at Thanksgiving we went to Denny’s – yeah, that’s right, Denny’s for the Hobbit menu. I mean who could pass that up?!! We did the whole nine. Build your own Hobbit Slam, The Hobbit Hole, Shire Sausages, Seed Cake French Toast, Radagast Red Velvet Hush Puppies. Ridiculous. It was greezy in that Denny’s way but a total laugh. We technically didn’t have second breakfast but rather breakfast for dinner. I love adventures and this was an easy one. Our waitress called us honey and everything.
idaho sunrise
ugh. I have a terrible cold. Some long days at work trying to wrap my biggest project of the year combined with lots of change and some personal griefs gave the opening for it to take up residence sometime overnight. I have a delightful glass of Airborne sitting next to my keyboard. We did however, make pin-dinner last night. Idaho Sunrises. Which is what you ask? Cups made of shredded hash-browns (Idaho) and filled with eggs and cheese (Sunrise.) The pin linked to a relatively nondescript recipe which said the potatoes should need 15-18 minutes. One thing I have found with pins and blog recipes is that ‘results may vary.’ My potatoes took no less than 35 minutes to brown – now, that said, I used a silicon pan instead of metal which may or may not have had something to do with it. We left out the bacon and had breakfast sausages on the side and added some sliced green onions. We also used scrambled eggs instead of medium eggs whole as I don’t think I’ve ever bought a medium size egg. Large are my go-to. 
We will definitely make this again!
bang bang-terest
alright. I know I’ve made bang-bang shrimp before based on stuff I’ve found on the internet but I recently ran across a pin for bang! bang! chicken. So, I figured it was somewhat different from what I have tried before and also involved frying so I would try it out. The recipe called for battered and then panko dipped chicken chunks. The batter was super thick and goopy and had a full tablespoon of hot sauce in it-but it wasn’t spicy. So, you’d fry them in canola, which I did pretty successfully. Actually Z said it was the best frying I ever did. Kudos to me for learning how my stove works and messing up the thermometer and two pairs of tongs. On top of the chunks you drizzle this mayo and chili based sauce-but it wasn’t spicy either. Super sad about that actually. Altogether a successful dish that we didn’t really like that much. The chicken part was pretty good but the sauce could have benefitted from maybe a drizzle of vinegar or lemon juice and a healthy giant squirt of Sriracha. Here’s the link to the recipe.
Pinterest night three. Check.
pin-ccata
second night of pinteresting dishes and we had tilapia piccata with parmesan cous-cous and garlicky buttered and oven toasted baguette. Slightly butter heavy supper made healthier with a generous scattering of parsley. I mean really. Anyhow, the whole thing took twenty minutes to assemble, preheat the oven and cook. And everything tastes so bright with lemon, white wine and capers. The recipe for this comes from Melissa D’Arabian and was pinned from foodnetwork.com. I love how piccata comes together with a gentle swirl to emulsify the sauce. If you like quick and easy fish dishes, this is for you.
Two for two.
pin-luck
a week or two ago we had a semi-spontaneous (I say spontaneous because who does this?) Pinterest Potluck in our department at work. Each of us bringing in items we had pinned for a potluck that turned out to be fairly well rounded and included but was not limited to, two kinds of black bean soup, miniature bread bowls filled with spinach dip, buffalo chicken dip, veggie pizza, cake batter brownies, cookie pretzel brownies and my contribution, pumpkin strudel. Two tables fully laden and a seriously wide variety led me to peruse my ‘that looks good’ board for items I can make this week for supper. I have chosen six would be entrees based on nothing more than I want to eat them. These items will stretch all the way to my vacation and with any luck should make the coming week a little more interesting and hopefully more fun. Tonight’s offering, straight from the Soup Nazi and the Pioneer Woman and brought to my attention via a co-worker on Facebook – so it is double-dipped out of social media. Mulligatawny – which I had never heard of a month ago, is definitely one of my new favorites. We made it tonight from PW’s recipe, found here. I’m not really sure what I thought it was before I saw the post by the Pioneer Woman, I think something made by Native Americans that had corn in it. Why? I actually have no idea. But honestly, it is amazing. We used a British Hot Curry Powder by Sharwoods and while I was dubious to include the granny smith apple, it give a perfect hit of tart sweetness against the heat of the curry powder. A little chicken adds protein and a touch of milk gives some body. We served with a bit of basmati rice for bulk and some oven toasted na’an. This is fairly easy and a great way to dip your toes in the pool of curry.
My Urban Pantry 