Call me Betty Crocker

One of the good things that has happened while living in France is that I have been cooking up a storm.  Not just the same old recipes that have become my standard fare, but new recipes that require me to make many of the "add-ins" from scratch.  Yesterday, we hosted a young couple who will be relocating to Strasbourg in February.  They were coming over to watch the football game, so David told them that we would be serving "tailgate" food.

One of my new "make from scratch" dishes was buffalo chicken bites with bleu cheese dip.  I haven't seen any "chicken nuggets or chicken strips" while I've been here, so that is why it was necessary for me to make them myself.  If you are like me, and say "hey, Tyson is in business for a reason" and just buy them frozen, stick them in the oven and VOILA, I will tell you that you might be missing out. (taste wise, but certainly not MESSY kitchen wise)

The process required me to cut up boneless chicken breasts into bite sized pieces.  Then I had to coat the pieces in a beer batter and then deep fry the pieces for 3-4 minutes.  After I had the chicken "fried", I then mixed up a batch of buffalo sauce and coated the chicken.  Popped it into the oven for 10 minutes and BAM, chicken bites that rivaled my favorite wings place in the states.  David and I tried one (or maybe 2) of the "unsauced" bites.  They were delicious too, quasi  Chick-fil-A. Even the bleu cheese dip turned out yummy.  Now I can finally make a WEDGE salad!  (You can't find bleu cheese dressing here in France)

The other "main course" for our tailgate was a new favorite of ours.  A spicy whiskey BBQ slider.  Now, you can make them as a slider or we also make them into meatballs….either way, they're DELISH!!  Kudos go out the Ree Drummond and her new cookbook for this tasty treat.

After all of these spicy dishes, I thought I better cool everyone down with the dessert course.  Dessert was a "sundae" of sorts.  I had diced up a pineapple earlier in the afternoon and put it in the fridge.  When it was dessert time, I simply added a few tablespoons of pineapple to a glass (you can do it in a bowl, but it will look prettier in a glass), then I added a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream.  Add some whipped cream (I didn't make my own this time) and then top it with some passion fruit.  I would've included a photo of the finished product, but they were gobbled up too fast for me to grab my camera!

Now, if you are like me, as a Ky girl, I had no idea what to do with a passion fruit.  I didn't even know how to select one.  (The uglier the outside, the sweeter the inside) Does it get peeled? (No, you cut it in half.)  Once it's cut, it looks like it has spoiled. There isn't any "flesh" to it, it's all seeds.  (They are slimy and green with a yellowish pulp)  After it's cut, you take a teaspoon and scoop out the seeds.  I used a half of a passion fruit for each "sundae".  The result is delicious and I challenge you to try it!

Now that I have made you hungry, aren't you glad that you just READ about all of those calories??  It's raining today in Strasbourg, so I had to get my exercise in within the confines of my apartment.  I'm sure that my downstairs neighbors think that I weigh 400 pounds by the sounds coming through their ceiling.  I will probably blog about another post-it note on my front door later in the week!!

Take time to enjoy your day….it's already the middle of January and the time flies by whether we enjoy each day or not.  I try to see God's "blessings" in each day and try to focus on them.  I read a quote that has always stuck with me...“Live today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Don’t rent them out to tomorrow. Do you know what you’re doing when you spend a moment wondering how things are going to turn out ? You’re cheating yourself out of today." Jerry Spinelli

 I wish you a week of "todays" filled with God's many little blessings along the way.