Barbecue is one of my spelling bee words.  You know, the words you missed in the spelling bee, and will never misspell again.  Or perhaps even, the word that LOST you the spelling bee.  Separate (sepErate—in fact my father thought I spelled it correctly) is my biggest one, followed by candidate (canidate—hard to spell properly when the word is pronounced with a thick southern drawl).  But barbecue (barbeque) is one of them also.  Do you have any spelling bee words? 

I made barbecue chicken in the crockpot this week by putting a bottle of barbecue sauce over some chicken breasts, cooking, shredding, cooking more, and putting on a sandwich.  So far I’ve had it for three meals and have one more to go.  It’s delicious.  I need to find a good recipe so that I don’t use the store bought sauce though—I imagine it is pretty high in sugar and other processed stuff, (though tasty).  Either way, I’m trying to utilize the crockpot more—it’s so easy to use—set it and forget it.  (I do tend to stir the pot, is that wrong?)

I’m making beef stew in my crockpot for tonight’s dinner.  I really love using the crockpot on days like today—you put the meal together in the morning when you have extra time, and then don’t worry about it until you get home, and then it’s ready to eat!  Ingredients include, but are not limited to:  stew meat, potatoes, carrots, and onions.  There is also a baguette on hand for dipping.  Can’t wait! (edited to add:  the stew ended up being really delicious!)

Today was a rough workout.  I ran 2 miles, worked out with Mike (heavy on the squats today) and then ran/walked 3 more.  I was working on speed so I walked at 3.8 for .2 miles then ran .3 miles for 6.5 to 7 mph.  Rough, rough, rough.  I imagine the people near me were super happy for my incredibly loud breathing (that’s VERY fast for me, just so you know).  But I feel like I got a great workout.  I will likely be unable to walk tomorrow.  Mike had me lifting heavier weights than usual—I said something whiny about that, and he said, “well you are getting married soon, it’s time to get serious!”  I cried.  But I’m sure it’s good for me and all that…

In case anybody was confused, I said in a previous post that we will set the date for our wedding in May.  What I meant was, in May we will be able to set the date—for a later time.  So if you started reserving your weekends in May for my wedding, go ahead and plan other things.  If you went ahead and bought a gift…well feel free to send that!  (Kidding…well, sort of…I have bought many wedding gifts over the years…it’s payback time, right?)

Last night’s dinner…it was delicious!  I should have taken a picture, but I was too eager to get started eating it.  And the recipe is from Cooking Light, so it’s not too bad for you.  I’m not sure about the sauce—it was tasty, but I don’t think I made it exactly right.  Oh well!  In any case, I highly recommend you try this recipe.

Blue Cheese-Stuffed Chicken from Cooking Light Magazine

Resist the urge to turn the chicken before it’s time; otherwise you risk having the breading stick to the pan (mistake #12).

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 breast half and about 4 teaspoons sauce)

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese
• 1  tablespoon  reduced-fat sour cream
• 1  teaspoon  fresh lemon juice
• 1/8  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 4  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/4  cup  all-purpose flour
• 2  tablespoons  2% reduced-fat milk
• 1  large egg, lightly beaten
• 1  cup  panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1 1/2  tablespoons  butter, divided
• 6  tablespoons  finely chopped drained bottled roasted red bell peppers
• 2  teaspoons  water
• 1  teaspoon  Worcestershire sauce
• 1  teaspoon  minced fresh garlic
• 1/2  teaspoon  hot sauce

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Cut a horizontal slit through thickest portion of each chicken breast half to form a pocket. Stuff cheese mixture evenly into pockets.

3. Place flour in a shallow dish. Combine milk and egg in a shallow dish, stirring well with a whisk. Place panko in a shallow dish. Working with 1 chicken breast half at a time, dredge chicken in flour, then dip in egg mixture; dredge in panko. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken, flour, egg mixture, and panko.

4. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter to pan; swirl until butter melts. Arrange chicken in pan; cook 4 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over; place skillet in oven. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until done.

5. While chicken bakes, combine remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, bell peppers, water, Worcestershire, and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer; cook until butter melts. Remove from heat, and stir in hot sauce. Serve sauce with chicken.

I woke up today to several inches of snow.  In fact, some might argue this was the snow we did NOT get during last week’s “blizzard”.

Case in point:

This is my car and front steps last week after the storm.

This is my car this morning after the overnight “snow flurries.”

It’s a subtle different but I believe you can tell that last night was a bit more snow.  Also the cars across the street are a little more snow-covered.  However, cleaning off my car from the first picture was much more challenging as it was primarily ice.  Today’s snow came off very easily.

I had to go out in the snow this morning to meet “Mike” at the gym.  I was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to get my car out of the space (they NEVER plow my street…never, never, NEVER) but managed.  I much prefer driving in the snow to driving on ice, so I didn’t mind driving.  Luckily they had plowed some of the bigger roads, and I didn’t have to go on the highway—I much prefer staying slow on surface streets when the roads are bed.  I suppose most people do?

In any case, I had a great Friday night.  I was feeling pretty grumpy yesterday afternoon, but after my grumpy pants blog entry, I remembered I had an emergency chocolate stash.  Two pieces later and I felt MUCH better.  I’m such a girl. 

I attended the Symphony concert (Mahler 6) which was great!  The review was good also.  Afterwards Chris and I went to Robust Wine Bar with a few good friends and had a great time drinking wine, eating cheese, and having fabulous conversations.  I feel MUCH better today, especially after a great workout with Mike.  (I did a bunch of planks and side planks, along with some other torturous exercises.) 

I guess the moral of the story is that a little chocolate and hanging out with a few friends makes me feel better?  I can’t believe it’s only Saturday—it feels like a Sunday!  I still have another day before I am back to work.  I am planning to cook a fancy dinner tonight.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  I even decided to purchase a cast iron skillet for it (it calls for a pan you can put in the oven after being on the stovetop and I wasn’t sure mine were okay for that—I likely could have transferred to a baking sheet, but thought I might as well get a cast iron skillet—there will be more uses for it).

I made this recipe last night for dinner.  I really enjoyed it as a simple meal, not heavy, and the polenta was a nice complement to the pork.  I did make a mistake and bought the wrong sort of pork chops, but it still worked out well.

I didn’t take any pictures, but you can see a picture on the recipe.  I will make it again.

Something I learned:  polenta is basically grits.  As a southern girl…well, you know I love grits!