Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin


I don't know what got that song into my head.

My, I have been a little Blogger-Slacker lately. I had every intention of posting last night with a dinner report. Then dinner happened, and it really was a bummer and not blog-worthy in my opinion. Ever have one of those? I planned to make baked chicken yesterday, but as dinner time creeped closer, I wanted to do something different, but not too different. So I spent some time surfing and found an interesting recipe on Recipezaar for a baked chicken that had great reviews. Basically it was an oven fried chicken, with the chicken being dredged in seasoned flour, and baked in a stick of butter. I know. I am hanging my head in shame because I should have known better. And I really did know better, but how could 16 other 5 star reviewers be wrong, and in addition, fried chicken sounded great, but since I don't fry chicken...

Well, it smelled fantastic in the oven. Really it did, and I tweaked the seasoned flour mixture to my taste, so that was not the problem. And actually, the kids kind of liked it, but man, it was such a disappointment. All the flavor you could smell must have gone somewhere, because the chicken was rather bland. Bland and, of course, greasy. And stupid me had two pieces of chicken to make sure I didn't like it. GAH! The only benefit was that the three breast pieces I cooked up were untouched and cooked perfectly, so now I have some shredded chicken in the fridge awaiting some tortillas and sauce for enchiladas. I won't share the recipe, because it wasn't great, and you cna always look around on Recipezaar and eventually find that recipe.

However, I do think that I have redeemed myself. Most people know by now that I love to bake bread. Love it. The only problem I have is that my favorite bread recipe that I have tweaked to be mine makes two loaves of bread. Homemade bread is best fresh and for a day or two, but after that...kinda not so good. So yesterday and today I experimented with turning my bread into rolls, and I must say, met with great success. One batch makes 16 rolls, which I can easily wrap up and tuck into the freezer to be pulled out just a few at a time. Plus, it's just fun to make the smaller rolls, and fun to eat them as well. I now have two dozen safely in the freezer, and I intend to try another batch tomorrow. Another baking quest of mine is to attempt a whole grain version of my bread, and I may have stumbled upon an unlikely product to assist with that. I promise to share those results tomorrow, along with the regularily scheduled Weigh-In Wednesday.

Not much else on tap for tonight. Andy's parents are coming for a visit this weekend from Buffalo, and we're very excited about the visit. We always have such a nice time with them. And the kids are beyond excited. They will get here on Friday, and Abigail mentioned that it wouold be more fun if they came on Wednesday. So cute. So since I am busy baking and exercising, and helping Zander ward off the beginning of a cold, tonight's dinner is going to be a couple of steaks seared on the grill and served with *gasp* boxed mashed potatoes. Tomorrow is going to be even easier as the sneaky mom takes over dinner tomorrow. So check back tomorrow for the results of my weekly weigh-in. I do like to be optimistic...

No comments: