Creamy Balsamic Dressing

This is still a bit of a recipe in progress. I haven't decided if I'm completely happy with this or not. I hate oily vignettes. I've tried other ways of lightening up dressings (chicken broth, etc.) and haven't been that happy with the outcome. I do like adding yogurt however. It just gives you a creamier vinaigrette. This recipe yields a very strong vinaigrette with an unappetizing color. I don't care that much about the color, but some people might. The fact that any of my food ends up looking good at all is amazing to me. I hate taking an extra effort to make things look good. I care mostly about taste. Since this is strong I just use a little less.

Creamy Balsamic Dressing

INGREDIENTS

2 T olive oil

2 T yogurt

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 to 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard (I can't remember how much I used)

1/2 small clove of garlic mashed to a paste with 1/8 tsp salt

pinch of ground pepper

Optional herbs chives, parsley, thyme, or basil (I used a little of each)

Blend all of the ingredients with an immersion blender (or a blender or a food processor, or whisk by hand)

Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Breasts with Raita

Tandoori chicken is usually cooked on a Tandoor oven. A tandoor oven is an Indian clay oven that gets very hot. But, a grill is an acceptable substitute at home. The chicken in the picture doesn't have the skin on, because that's what I had on hand. Grilling chicken with the skin makes for much moister chicken. Toss the skin before you eat the chicken, but still grill with the skin. Serve with sliced cucumber or a cucumber salad. Making extra raita to serve with the cucumbers would be good. This recipe is from the cookbook "The Quick Recipe" from Cooks Illustrated.

Grilled Tandoori-Style Chicken Breasts with Raita

INGREDIENTS

RAITA

1 c whole-milk yogurt (or 1% yogurt, but preferably not fat free)

2 T chopped cilantro leaves

1 medium clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tsp)

salt

cayenne pepper

TANDOORI CHICKEN

1 T grated fresh ginger

1 T ground coriander

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne

4 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on, 10 to 12 oz each

1. Heat the grill. Oil the grill grates.

2. Meanwhile mix the yogurt, cilantro, and garlic together in a medium bowl. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste and refrigerate until needed. Mix the ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, salt and cayenne together in a small bowl.

3. Coat both sides of the chicken breasts with the spice mixture. Season under the skin if you plan to toss the skin after you cook it. Cook the chicken, uncovered, over direct heat until well browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Move the chicken to indirect heat and continue to cook for 10 minutes, grill lid down. Turn and cook for 5 minutes, grill lid down. Chicken should register at least 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Serve with Raita (yogurt/cilantro mixture).

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin TX

You cannot underestimate my love of the Alamo DraftHouse Cinema in Austin. It's a movie theater where you can drink fancy beer and eat creme brulee. If that doesn't make you love the Alamo Drafthouse from sitting there in front of your computer, then I'm not speaking to you for the rest of the day. Here's how it works. It's a stadium seating with a wider platform for each row of seats to sit on. In front of you is a foot and a half wide counter to eat off of. Behind you is space for the waitress to walk. Under the counter in front of you are lights so you can read your menu when you place it directly under the counter. The lights aren't very bright so they don't disturb the movie watching at all. When you decide what you want you write it on a piece of paper and put it in a slot that they have for ordering. The waitress comes and takes the piece of paper and your food comes. You can keep ordering whenever you want until last call. That's right...last call at the movie theater. It's so awesome. You don't really notice the waiters and waitresses running around during the movie. Here is their menu. I had the draft house amber beer which I liked. They also have wine, mimosas, and espresso coffee drinks. We had chips and salsa. I've had better salsa in Austin (Texas has some good salsa), but Its much better then any salsa I've ever had in North Dakota. It was really good salsa as is all the food at the theater. We had the artichoke/goat cheese/sun-dried tomato pizza. It was excellent as was the salad I had last year with spinach, dried cherries and candied walnuts. Last year My sister and I split a creme brulee. (Hey, it's hailing. I'll have go close some windows.....O.K. I'm back.) This year each of us ordered ice cream. Big mistake. The ice cream was really good. It comes from a local power house chain Amy's Ice cream which is beloved in Austin. I had the cookies and cream and I highly recommend it. It has several kinds of cookies mixed in and swirls of chocolate sauce in a vanilla ice cream. What was the problem with the ice cream. There was just wayyyyy too much. There were four completely round scoops of very dense Ice cream. I'd guess it was just under a pint. We gave it a good college try, but we couldn't finish it. Not even Julie who seriously loves ice cream. It was great to go to a movie with my sisters. It probably won't happen again for a while. Why? Because, my sisters are both nursing mothers of small babies. But that's not a problem at the Alamo. We went on Baby Day. First movie for both of my newest nieces. We saw Get Smart with Steve Carell of The Office. It was really funny. The picture was taken during the previews for Stepbrothers. Oh man, they're having a Princess Bride Quote Along on July 24th. Wish I could go. This is me (Dread Pirate Roberts/Wesley/Man in Black) on Halloween last year. I only planned on dragging one pregnant sister out on Halloween, but surprise...I drug out two pregnant sisters. They were good sports though.

Globe Cake

I didn't make this cake. My sister Kristy made this cake for her daughter's 3rd birthday. My niece loves globes. This cake is totally amazing and awesome. The cake itself was quite tasty as well. It's a hummingbird cake which has bananas, pineapple, and pecans in the batter. For more about the cake, check out Kristy's post on her craft blog Craftastica. The cake was so awesome, it was picked up by craftzine. Here is that post.

Bacon fun, part five

My brother in law sent me the link to bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple cinnamon glaze on Ooh you tasty little things (a.k.a. Never bashful with butter). Muffin on Ooh you tasty little things also has links to Voodoo Doughnut in Portland Oregon which has a maple glazed bacon doughnut (scroll down for a picture). Voodoo Doughnut also has a Butterfingers doughnut, an Oreo cookie doughnut,and a coco puffs doughnut. She has a link to the Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar, a bacon chocolate bar. They also have a ginger/wasabi (Japanese horseradish served with sushi)/sesame seed dark chocolate bar, a sweet Indian curry/coconut milk chocolate bar and a fire candy bar that is a chipotle chillies/Ceylon cinnamon dark chocolate bar.

See also Bacon fun part one, part two, part three, and part four.

Photo Shoot

I'm back from visiting my family in Texas. When I was there my brother in law and my sister were taking family photos. They are both amateur photographers, but could both be professional if they wanted to be. The family photos turned out to be a bust. My three year old niece was not having it. But since since my brother in law had already set up the lighting, we took some other photos.

My sister agreed to take photos for me to put on my blog. I had this idea floating around in my head for a while now of a campy photo with a nod to the 1950's. Kristy gave me this cool apron for my birthday. I thought it fit my idea for the photo shoot to a tee (or is it to a T or maybe to a tea?). A few minutes of crazy faces and this is the result. Thanks Kristy!

Oh, by the way. I wrote a one paragraph profile if you click "view my profile" to the left by my apron picture.

Obesity in kids

There's an article in the New York Times on obesity in America. 13.9% of preschoolers are now obese. That's not overweight, that's obese. That's three out of 20 obese preschoolers. 18.8% of 6-11 year olds are obese. That means that there is not one fat kid in your class of 20 (like when we grew up), there are four fat kids. We need to do better.