Thankful Thursday 21

1. no major flooding after a huge rainstorm.
2. The possibility of doing something impossible.
3. Blockette's piano fun time
4. Blockette entertaining herself while I am shopping.
5. The summer is starting to feel like it isn't moving at a snails pace.
6. Birthday month is near.
7. Getting both old man cats to play like they were kittens again.
8. Finding 2 movies at the library that were girly movies
9. Finding time to watch said movies when no there is no one around to comment on the fact that I am crying over a movie.
10. realizing Blockette doesn't need as many new clothes as I thought.

Turtle Burgers Two Ways

When it comes down to the bricks and sticks, I can't decide which one would be more gross to actually consume,
Low Carb Turtle Burger 1:

OR...

Triple heart attack (One burger = pound of beef +1/2 a pound of bacon+ three hotdogs)Turtle Burger 2:

Pickle Chicken

Ever remember reading about something but you have no idea where you read it? Heh. That's pretty much the story of my life. So, somewhere, and I don't even know if it was on the Internet, I read about things to do with leftover pickle juice. Most of the suggestions seemed pretty weird. There was one that caught my eye, brining a chicken.

I didn't have a whole chicken, or enough pickle juice to brine a whole chicken. What I did have was 4 chicken breasts, and exactly enough pickle juice to brine aforementioned meat. So I dumped the meat and brine into a zip bag and let it marinate in the fridge for about 8 hrs.

Know what I forgot? A briny solution can cook meat. The edges of the meat had cooked!!! I was so afraid that they would be tough and rubbery after grilling. Luckily they were not. Brining a chicken does make the meat moist and tender. I will say that.

If you look at the picture below, you can see that the chicken has a slight yellowish green cast around the edges. Not very appetizing.

So what did the chicken taste like? Are you ready for this? It tasted just like a PICKLE! Very weird. We all like dill pickles so it wasn't horrible...just a bit unusual. We all dipped our chicken in Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce and the pickle-y taste was neutralized. Sweet Baby Ray's covers a lot of evils. Or was it...Sweet Baby Ray's is evil? One of the two.

The conclusion drawn from this experiment was that while the chicken was tender, it wasn't any more tender than any other marinaded chicken. If we are going to smother it in BBQ sauce why not just marinate it in BBQ sauce in the first place. If this chicken were to get a grade it would be a C. I won't be making it again

Grilled Citrus Tilapia

Here's another fish recipe courtesy of Fire and Flavor cedar grill planks. Num! Yeah I said "num" about fish. Mrblocko is making a convert out of me. So far, the fish we've made on the cedar planks does not taste fishy. It has a nice smokey earthy flavor that either eliminates or masks that fish flavor I dislike so much. I don't care either way. I'm eating more fish and that's all that matters in my book.

Aside from the smokey flavor from the planks, the fish has a fresh and citrus-y flavor from the lime and cilantro. Two more great flavors that helps hide the fish taste from your tongue.

This recipe is an all around winner. I served it with rice, black beans, grilled onions and salsa on the side. Blockette liked it so much she even ate her black beans. I think that's like getting 5 stars from Gordon Ramsey.

Grilled Citrus Fish from Fire and Flavor

3 T fresh Lime or Orange Juice (I used Lime)

1/4 c olive oil

3 T fresh cilantro, chopped

1/2 T ground cumin

up to 1 1/2 lbs of fish (I used 3 small fillets of Tilapia cause I still think leftover fish is icky poo poo)

1 cedar grilling plank, soaked for at least an hour.

Preheat grill to medium low heat, about 350 F. While the grill is preheating, mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl along with salt and pepper to taste. Add fish and marinade to a plastic zip bag to marinate at room temp for about 10 min. Remove fish from bag and discard marinade. Place soaked plank on the grill and heat for 3 min. Flip the plank and place the fish on the heated side of the plank. Grill with the lid closed for 12-15 min.

Thankful Thursday 20

1. Flashcards
2. Refunds
3. Finding the stingy bug hive while it was still smaller than a tennis ball.
4. Mrblocko is willing to remove bug houses.
5. Blockette was extremely good at a boring grown up meeting.
6. Blockette was extremely quiet when I had the beginnings of a migraine.
7. Getting my to do list done before it got insanely hot.
8. Blockette agreeing that it is too hot and humid to run around outside
9. Free ice cream.
10. Blockette didn't get a black eye/bloody nose when she walked into the divider/scanner thingie when we were leaving the library.
11. Mrblocko was able to remove the virus on my computer that was acting like an anti-virus program.
12. My aunt was not seriously injured in her car accident.

Degrassi = The Simpsons

Hi. My name is Mrsblocko, and I watch Degrassi. I started watching it back when I was in Jr High and it was called Degrassi Jr High and Degrassi High. Waaay back when the only place you could watch it in the U.S. was on PBS. Way before The N and Teen Nick. I'm not sure if rocks were invented yet.

Now I'm all grown up and, yes, I STILL watch Degrassi: The Next Generation. I could blame it all on my geekiness. They called the new Degrassi, "The Next Generation" after Star Trek: The Next Generation. How could I, Queen Geek that I am, not like something like that. Yes it is a teen soap opera. I'm coming clean and I don't care who knows that I watch a dumb show with a target audience for teens. Whew, that was liberating!

For those of you who are wondering, there is no need for you to feel sorry for Mrblocko. He just plugs in his lap top, slaps on his headphones and plays his computer game de jour. He gets to do something he likes, and so do I. It's a win win situation! yay!

Anywho... I'm bringing this up because season 10 started this week. This time around they are airing it like a telenovela...a new episode every night for 6 weeks. Score! Something to watch on the TV during the broadcast wasteland that is the end of the summer.

After I watched the season opener on Monday, I observed Degrassi and The Simpsons have some strange parallels. Here's what I mean:

The Simpsons:
Edna, A frustrated elementary school teacher falls in love with her boss, the principal, named Skinner. They have known each other for years. They have a whirlwind romance and it ends in disaster.

Degrassi: TNG:
Emma, a frustrated college student falls in love with her new boss, manager of the coffee shop, named Spinner. They have known each other for years. They get married while drunk and decide that they are in deed in love. (Talk about a whirlwind romance...will it end in disaster????)

Weirder still...Emma's step dad is now Degrassi High's new principal...his name??? Mr. Simpson.

Coincidence??? I think not.

Cookie Dough Brownies

My sister-in-law turned 15 a few weeks ago. Ugh, that makes me feel old considering she was a little older than Blockette is now when we got married.

Anyhow, I guess as she is getting older more of her extended family is forgetting her birthday. We went out to visit her and I thought I should bring some sort of Birthday goodie. But what to bring??? I went through my recipes and everything I wanted to make was just not conducive to traveling over an hour in the hot hotness of the car, no matter how high the AC was cranked.

My first choice was to make Peabody's chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake, but warm cheesecake is icky icky poo poo. So I thought, why not make the cookie dough balls from that recipe and stick it in brownies?

The cookie dough was a pain in the butt. It was so humid that the balls did not want to retain their shape. They kept spreading and oozing into one another in hopes of making one giant cookie dough amoeba. I got them in the freezer as quick as I could, and rolled them again once they had congealed.

Be forewarned...the cookie dough recipe makes a lot. The cookie dough is evil! Evil I tells ya. I guess it is OK sort of evil though. I mean there is no egg in the recipe, so you can't gack from ookie bacteria or nuthin. No, you'll just die from the bliss of a sugar coma because you try to eat the whole batch in one sitting. MMMM sweet sweet cookie dough bliss.

Anyhow, I used my small cookie dough scooper to portion out the balls, then I cut them in half and placed them a top the brownie batter. (And why yes, I used a box mix cause I happen to like box mixes, especially when they are on sale and I have a coupon so there food elitists!)The brownies really puffed up around the cookie dough. I was surprised how much they had risen. Ultimately, I found myself wishing that there was a higher cookie dough to brownie ratio. If I make these again, I will stir some cookie dough balls into the batter and then put more cookie dough on the top for decoration. I'll also use mini chips in the cookie dough. Then the chocolate chips will be more evenly distributed throughout the whole cookie dough balls.

Chocolate chip cookie dough balls from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
½ cup chocolate chips

Using a stand mixer (or a bowl and beaters), cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla. With speed on low, slowly add flour, alternating with condensed milk, beating g well after each addition. Fold in chocolate chips. Shape balls into 1-inch balls and place into an air tight container. Store in freezer for at least 3 hours.