Fun with sweet potatoes & tequila lime chicken

Here are two of my FAVORITE home-made dinners in the last two weeks. We also sort of made these from whatever we had in the fridge and in our thoughts.... no recipe following in the creation of these dishes!

Basic Tequila Lime Chicken
-Season chicken breast with chili lime seasoning (pre-made from grocery store)
-But you could make it out of chili powder, cumin, lime zest and onion/garlic powder
-Salt both sides
-Lightly oil pan and turn up heat to high
-Sear both sides in hot pan for brown crust, then turn down the heat to medium
-Deglaze pan with the juice of two limes and 4 oz. (about 4 shots) of tequila
-Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked and tender

Sage Butter
-Rip off a handful of sage leaves (2 T)
-Melt stick of butter in sauce pan over low heat
-Toss in leaves and cook on medium heat until butter starts to brown
-Remove from heat and take out leaves

Baked Sweet Potato/Yam
-Poke several fork holes in whole potato
-Cook in microwave for 2-3 minutes depending on power
-Poke more holes and cook for another 30 seconds
-Remove potato from microwave and wrap in foil to cook from within

Those combined for a plate of chicken with sides of baked sweet potatoes in sage butter and an heirloom tomato-mozzarella salad.

And for tonight's plate, inspired by double-decker tacos at Taco Bell when I was younger:

Double-Decker Santa Fe Chicken And Sweet Potato Quesadilla
-Prepare the basic tequila lime chicken
-Once chicken is cooked, remove from pan
-In the leftover juice, cook frozen white corn and bell peppers until blackened and flavored in juice

-Bake sweet potatoes in the oven until they're dry:
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees
-Lightly grease bottom of a casserole dish (don't cover potatoes in oil at all)
-Cover bottom of pan with potatoes and bake for 10-15 minutes (until dry outside and soft inside)

-Grease another, larger casserole dish
-Layer one whole wheat tortilla on the bottom
-Then place a layer of cooked chicken on top of the tortilla
-Cover chicken in two small handfuls of shredded Mexican cheese
-Top with blackened vegetables and roasted sweet potatoes
-Add another handful of shredded cheese
-Slice olives and celery and place on top
-Cover with another whole wheat tortilla
-Slather fat-free refried beans on top of second tortilla
-Completely cover beans with tortilla chips
-Top with more cheese!

-Bake at 425 degrees for 5-7 minutes
-Top with diced tomatoes, lettuce, guac and/or fresh salsa!

....Enjoy!! (We sure did)

Weekend wish list

So this weekend J.D. and I were in Lodi and had brunch with his parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. We ended up going out there because he had to take his Mustang into the Ford dealership for its annual servicing.

Well, I've been liking the 2010 Ford Fusion for a while now, ever since we saw one at the San Joaquin County Fair earlier this summer. Originally, we had planned on test driving one, but I'm in nooooo rush to buy a car just yet. I'm merely weighing my options for the next two years.

But I still really like the Fusion. And I also like the Edge, which I had never really seen before. Lots to look forward to in my future car purchasing life.... (Within the next two years I hope!)

The Edge:

The Fusion:

We also drove by the Lodi animal shelter on the way home and I talked him into letting me stop and look at puppies. I fell in love with one, but again... no luck coming home with anything. It's getting pretty hard to NOT pick out a puppy. I want one so so so badly.

So I guess it's just going to stay as a wish.

A girl can hope for a puppy and a new car in the next year, right? That's not too much??

Monique finally figured out how to use PhotoShop!

And this is the result of me aimlessly playing around (who knows if it'll ever end up getting published!)...

What I've been working on this summer....

First soccer game of the year took place last Friday. And it only gets busier!

With the year here and in season, take a look at the media guide I made (designed/wrote/edited) this summer for the 2009 women's soccer season:

(Click on the guide for the full-screen view)

Open publication - Free publishing - More womens soccer

Hope you now forgive my lack of posts :)

Hum.

The posts have become rather infrequent lately. I'm super bogged down with five-day-a-week class that requires homework semi-reminiscent of high school. I don't really have the energy for that a second time around. But only two weeks left and then I have a year off.

I'm also getting really busy at work, trying to finish my media guide before our first soccer game at home, which happens to be in two weeks! So quick! Then I'm trying to balance cooking at home with exercising while desperately needing evening naps to keep me going.

It's been a busy two weeks!

Which brings me to the topic of today's post. Has anyone been watching the Next Food Network Star this season? I watched religiously! Well this season's winner, Melissa d'Arabian just aired her first show today. The more I kept watching, I grew to love that she was ALL about French food. The Food Network didn't have too many French cooks on the air.

But the more I learn about her, the more I get a little skeptical. She goes on and on about living in France and her French husband and his French family. Usually that kind of stuff is so exciting for me to hear and read about, but she's almost snooty in how she carries her French-ness.

Anyways, I was still really really really excited to see she made a Tartiflette! It took me back to my days living in France, especially my frequent visits to my dad who was living in Annecy! During my first trip up there, he informed me that the Tartiflette was the official food of the Savoie region (along with fondue, of course). I continually tasted different variants on this yummy potato torte (as Melissa calls it) wherever our French travels would take us (restaurants in Annecy, ski resorts in La Clusaz, even in the South of France near my region of Nice).

So here's the recipe for Melissa d'Arabian's Potato-Bacon Torte (aka Tartiflette):

Ingredients

* 4 strips bacon
* 3 sprigs fresh thyme
* 2/3 cup heavy cream
* 2 Pie Crusts, recipe follows
* 3 medium baking potatoes, peeled
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
* 1 egg yolk, whisked with a splash of water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until just crispy. Drain on paper towel lined plate and set aside. Crumble the bacon when cool to the touch.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat the thyme and cream over low heat to a bare simmer. Turn off the heat and let steep for about 5 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs.

Remove the pie pan from the refrigerator. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and then finely slice the potatoes. Working in circles, arrange the potato slices in the pie crust, stopping to season each layer with salt, pepper, and about 1/4 of the crumbled bacon. Continue layering until the pie pan is nearly full. Top with an even layer of the cheese and gently pour cream around and over the entire pie, allowing it to seep down between the potato slices. (You may not use all the cream.)

Roll out the remaining disk of refrigerated dough. Cover the pie with the dough and crimp the edges closed. Brush the top and edges of the crust with egg wash. Make a few slits in the center of the top crust, for the steam to escape, and put the pie pan on a baking sheet. Bake the torte until the crust is browned and crispy and the potatoes are cooked through, about 50 to 60 minutes. If the crust edges get too brown, cover them with some strips of aluminum foil. Remove the pie from the oven and let rest at least 15 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Pie Crust:

* 1 cup butter (2 sticks), cubed and chilled
* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 8 to 10 tablespoons ice water

Put the butter, flour, and salt in the food processor, and pulse lightly just until the mixture resembles wet sand. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing briefly after each spoonful of water. Keep adding water until the dough just begins to gather into larger clumps. Transfer equal amounts of the dough into 2 resealable plastic bags and pat each into a disk. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Remove 1 of the disks from the bag to a flour coated surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 10-inch round. Gently fit the rolled dough into a 9-inch pie pan, and refrigerate while you prepare the torte ingredients.

Yield: 2 (9-inch) pie crusts