Pinkberry

I feel like I've been hearing about Pinkberry for a long time, but I finally had it yesterday, and I see what all the hype has been about. YUM.

I got the coconut yogurt with raspberries, strawberries and mango. The coconut yogurt is SO GOOD. Highly recommended - and all of their yogurt is gluten free.

There is a Pinkberry in Boston in the Prudential Mall.


(ps - the mochi topping is NOT gluten free, it has wheat in it! check out their site for all nutrition and allergen information)

New gluten free bread find

Genius by Glutino's Multigrain Sandwich bread mainly caught my eye due to its 'normal' size. I am a big Udis fan, but sometimes I just wish the slices were bigger!

This loaf has nice big thick slices and tastes really good - like, normal bread. It's also very light, no dense brick-like bread here.

I keep looking for bread that has a little more nutrition in it - I'm not sure this is it. But it's good!

This bread would probably make excellent French Toast.

Have you tried Genius? Did you like it? Better than Udis?

Beer Braised Beef in a Marsala Mushroom Cream Sauce

I've been really into Pinterest for a while now keeping track of design things I like, house decorating ideas, and just as a source for inspiration, but only recently did I start seeing a lot of food & great-looking recipes. I have since made a YUM folder on there, and my list of things to make someday gets longer.

So last week I saw this picture of Beer-braised beef with the marsala mushroom cream sauce and knew I had to make it right away!

The original recipe is here. It's a little involved, not exactly a week-night dinner, unless you have more time than me, but I made this last Sunday and it made the house smell delicious!!!

I followed this recipe pretty closely (for a change), and made the following:

Beer Braised Beef (recipe below)
Mashed Potatoes - original used buttermilk, I just made regular
Marsala Mushroom Cream Sauce (recipe below)

Beef Braised Beef

Ingredients:

1 (2-1/2 pound) boneless beef chuck roast

Kosher salt and ground pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I used Better Batter gluten free all purpose flour)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 medium yellow onions, halved and sliced thinly

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 (12-ounces) bottles lager beer, I used Redbridge

3 beef bouillon cubes

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 6-inch sprig rosemary ( I think this was supposed to go in the beef mix in the oven, but it didn't say to, so I forgot, I ended up just using it as a garnish on top)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Cut the beef in large 2 or 3-inch chunks. Season the beef generously with salt and pepper. Place the beef in a ziplock bag and add the flour. Seal the bag and shake the beef until each piece is dredged and coated in flour. Add three tablespoons vegetable oil to a large heavy duty pot and heat over medium-high heat. Brown the beef on all sides, and then transfer to a plate. Add the remaining tablespoon of vegetable oil to the pot and add the onions. Cook the onions for 20 minutes until they are soft and slightly caramelized. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, beer, and bouillon cubes. Bring the mixture to boil, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom. Add the beef and the juices from the plate back to the pot and give everything a good stir. Cover the pot with a lid and place it in the oven for 2-1/2 hours.

Marsala Mushroom Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

8 ounces sliced crimini mushrooms (actually I used more crimini than white)

8 ounces sliced white button mushroom

3/4 cup Marsala wine

1/2 cup Heavy Cream

3 sprigs fresh thyme

salt and pepper

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted, add the mushrooms. Sauté the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes until the mushrooms are barely cooked through. Add the Marsala wine and cook for 5 minutes allowing the wine to slightly reduce. Stir in the heavy cream and thyme. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the mushroom sauce for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Here's all of it coming together:

Finished, plated meal shown at very top. I was very fancy and added the rosemary as a garnish. Mainly because - the recipe called for rosemary and then it was never included in the recipe, weird right? So I figured I'd put it on top, and the aroma of the rosemary before eating this was a nice added bonus.

The beef was so tender and flavorful! It was a soupier mixture than I thought it would be -- but I used a slotted spoon to arrange the plate --- and when we saved leftovers we got rid of most of the liquid.

MAKE THIS MEAL.

Blue Moon Grill - Wakefield, MA

Saturday morning I felt like going out to breakfast, so I hopped on Google to look for a new spot, and found the Blue Moon Grill because apparently they had gluten free pancakes - umm, sweet.

The menu doesn't mention anything about gluten free - but we decided to head over and try it out, it's only about 10 minutes from my house.

It's a tiny little place and we liked it immediately. The menu is awesome - I should have taken a pic of it - I wanted EVERYTHING. I was going to just get straight pancakes, because, well, when else can you get pancakes outside of your home?

But, with the help of the waitress who told me their hollandaise sauce was GF, I went with the Eggs Benedict served on gluten free silver dollar pancakes. That's right. Diet be damned!

Here it is:

And here's what I did to it:

BVI Vacation

(This from the balcony of our house - no joke)

My husband had surprised me for our 2nd Anniversary with a trip that he had fully planned & booked to the British Virgin Islands - specifically Tortola - with our good friends for the Thanksgiving week.

I mean, clearly he's the best (and I really hate the planning & logistics/flights part of it). I was shocked and suuuuuuper excited.

Anyway - it was amazing, obviously... the weather was incredible, it was soooo relaxing, and it was a really beautiful island.... but I wanted to talk a little about eating gluten free in the Caribbean. Let me just say, it wasn't that easy.

We were staying in a house - which was great, so we did quite a few meals there. I went down there with a loaf of Udi's, a bag of Tinkyada pasta, a handful of Luna Protein bars and LaraBars, and I brought a bag of Better Batter flour just in case.

Good thing too! Tortola doesn't exactly have a huge selection of groceries. We were shopping first in Road Town, and the pickin's were slim. Although, when we were in Soper's Hole Marina, we found a grocery store there that actually had a few GF items - but if you're going, it's really best to just bring a few staples.

I tried to stick to simple easy items - grilled fish, salads with no dressing. But somehow - I got sick a few times. I ordered fish with rice one time, and I'm pretty sure most places use a packaged rice mix that contains gluten - so I stayed away from that. We were on a full-day sail, and we docked near this permanently anchored boat/restaurant called Willy T's for lunch - I had a great piece of tuna, and it came with rice, my husband figured he'd go ask the chef if he knew if it was GF or not, sure enough - he came back fuming, he got in a fight with the dude because the chef said "what's with this trendy shit"... nice. Whatever though - I was on vacation, on a boat eating lunch and wasn't really phased. I told my husband to calm down. it was fine, I didn't eat the rice.

We did one other 'fancy' night out at this really cool restaurant called The Sugar Mill, actually, we did Thanksgiving there. I didn't opt for the turkey - it came with stuffing & gravy - who wants turkey in 85 degree heat anyway -- but went for a grilled fish option and salad. For some reason, I was really sick after eating. ANNOYING. After that I vowed not to eat out anymore.

It was semi-pathetic, but I was fine, when we were out to lunch one day I ordered a plain salad, and had a pb & j udi's sandwich in my purse that I ate under the table! Ha! I really didn't care, I was so happy to be in the sun and not at work! Ahhh, gluten free travel.

I mean, look at our sunset:


And my husband in the water:


Yeah. Who cares about food really? And rum punch by the way - is gluten free ;)

We had to head back to St. Thomas for a night because of flights - and we stayed at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef - and I had an easier time eating here, although, it was only 2 meals, but the place we went for dinner - Havana Blue, knew what gluten free was and they were on top of it.

**UPDATE: Kate commented below and let me know there is a store in Road Town called Nature's Way that offers many gluten free products, open every day except Saturday.

Avocado Obsessed

I have been LOVING avocado lately. I have been putting it on everything - and a really great quick meal is just toasting some Udi's bread, a little shredded cheddar, a slice of tomato and sliced avocado on top.

I usually squeeze some fresh lemon all over the avocado once I cut it - and then I top with Janes Krazy Mixed Up Salt --- have you guys ever had that? I LOVE IT. I put on everything, absolutely everything. I have a little salt problem though, I admit.

The one thing I can't figure out with Avocado is how to add it to my sandwich or salad without it going brown. I have ended up bringing in the whole avocado and cutting it right before eating it, but I'd love to prepare it in the morning and bring. Any tips? I have tried dousing it in lemon juice and bagging it - but that doesn't work. let me know!

Also - here are a couple things I have learned about Avocados:
- When picking them at the store, get the ones that have the little "nubs" on them - know what I mean? If they are missing the nub, they will go bad. someone told me this once, I hadn't know, and ever since that little tidbit, I've never had a 'bad' avocado.
- I usually leave them out to ripen, but when they start to get ripe/soft - put them in the fridge, they'll last longer.

Here's some interesting health facts about Avocado....Are you avocado obsessed like me?

"Apple Pie" Oatmeal

................................
1 cup GF Oats (I use bob's red mill quick-cooking oats)
2 cups water
2 chopped Macintosh apples
1 tbsp ground flax
1 splash gf vanilla
dash of salt
about a tsp or so of appie pie spice
another dash of cinnamon
top with brown sugar
................................

freshii

I have been on the hunt for a new spot to pick up lunch in the area, and somehow I happened upon freshii. It's a chain, and I think it opened pretty recently here in Boston. They are gluten free-helpful which is huge! I read online about some others having the rice bowls and I really wanted to give one of those a try. They also have a list of all the ingredients they use out where you order so you can check, and everything is made fresh to order. Here's an info sheet about what contains gluten.

First visit, I went with the Bliss Rice Bowl:


YUM. And it's A LOT of food. If I were better at managing my portions, I would eat half one day, and half the next. I went a couple other times and made a custom rice bowl, all good - then I realized they had rice noodles, so I gave that a try, again, custom bowl:


Jam-packed! This one I got the rice noodles with avocado, chicken, carrots, broccoli, feta cheese, probably some other veggies I can't remember and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Love this place! It's a tad pricey - probably around $10 for these bowls... but this really could be two meals.

New (mostly) GF blog find: ROOST

Photo courtesy of Roost.... Also, click on image to see the whole thing.


My friend just sent me the link to this GORGEOUS blog, called ROOST.

Check it out -- most recipes are naturally GF, and her food photography, food styling, design skills are KILLER.

I mean -- just look at that photo above of Butternut Squash and Hazelnut Bouchons. GORG.

You can search her site by the tag gluten/grain free -- i just linked you there.

Woefully behind on posting

helloooo.... is that an echo? Probably.

I have had little to no time to post. I barely have time to do anything - work has just been all consuming the past 6 months, well, year probably... Maybe this winter I'll get back into it.

On a positive note, I was working last saturday at my husbands office (so sad that we work on saturdays - but we worked together! which made it semi-fun)... I googled "gluten free andover" (his office is in andover, ma) - and found gluten free pizza at Stachey's in North Andover! There is also one in Salem, NH - which is where my sister in law lives!


EXCELLENT pizza. Like - almost-not-sure-if-it's-really-gluten-free good.

Yeah - I polished that whole pie shown above.

Love the bountiful gluten free options these days!

Apple Butter

I just so happen to work with a very talented Jam-maker and I recently helped her out by making her logo & designing her packaging/labels, and for payment, I get jam!... Not too shabby! You can check out Jess' Jams here - she's started up a little blog, and she sells at local farmers markets, etc. She is also gluten free.

She just made a DELICIOUS batch of Apple Butter that has the perfect amount of spice - and is perfect for the fall weather that is suddenly upon us in New England.

This might be my new favorite of hers... although, I've been obsessed with the Raspberry Orange Prosecco jam. YUM. I would have shared a pic of that, but we burned through that jar quickly...

Smoothies

My husband and I are trying to get back into shape now that the fun of summer is coming to an end. It's fall-ish weather here already in the Northeast and I love it! I'll miss summer, but for some reason with the summer being SO busy and every weekend planned, it's nice to be home a little more and fall back into a routine (no pun intended)....

We haven't belonged to a gym since last April, so we joined a new one (woo hoo!) and are watching what we eat (ABS Diet style - we did this before, it worked, so we're back on it --- and it's really easy to adjust for gluten free with this).

My favorite part is bringing smoothies back into our lives!

While I generally am an egg person in the morning, I like mixing it up. Especially since we're trying to work out before work - so a smoothie is the perfect thing to mix up and have pre-workout.

This one pictured above (with my super fun straw) included:

Frozen strawberries
Frozen mango
1 banana
0% fat greek yogurt
GF whey protein powder, vanilla flavor
splash of low-sugar orange juice
splash of 0% fat milk
ice cubes


YUM

Mariposa Gluten Free Bakery

After my unfortunate pizza experience in San Francisco, the next day I was lucky enough to be down at the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building for work. I remember someone telling me about Mariposa a while back, and went inside to look for it. Didn't take long, it's a small-ish kiosk right in the middle (they mentioned they're moving soon to a new location in the Ferry Building).

I was like a kid in a candy store. EVERYTHING is gluten free - pastries, breads, bagels, SANDWICHES, cookies, brownies, etc etc!!!

It was really hard to decide. I should really have filled my purse with goods, but I only had room to get a few things, and found out they deliver, so we've all got that goin' for us.

I had a Blue Bottle Coffee in my hand, and thought that a Cinnamon Roll would go quite well with it...
Ummmm - yeah. IT WAS AMAZING. I should have bought every single they had and brought them home with me. Delicious, moist, great flavor. Perfect size.

Then I saw they had little bags of pre-made sandwiches, so I had to grab one of those. IT WAS ALSO AMAZING. The bread was fantastic - soft, perfect texture, not crumbly at all, not chewy - just good. I had one that (I think) had arugula, red-pepper spread, salami... Can't quite remember, meant to take a picture but was too excited about the sandwich & grabbed these two shots with my phone:
I also got a little bag of bagels - 2 per bag. I think they were multi-grain. Also very good... Not the best ever - but excellent flavor, not too crumbly.

All in all -- if you are in San Francisco and you are gluten free you MUST go to Mariposa! I linked to their website again, here it is again --- they also deliver. I'm sure it's expensive to do that. I may order for a special occasion -- otherwise, my friends who live in San Fran will be getting calls from me to bring me home goods when they're back east :)

Extreme Pizza Gluten Free in San Francisco

Got Extreme Pizza GF delivered last night.... While super delicious last night, seriously not feeling good today. Hmm.... not cool.

Essential for me on the road

Since I'm traveling for work for a few weeks - eating can be tricky. I'm on sets for photoshoots for my job and we have different call times in weird locations for long hours. Just keeping a loaf of Udi's and a jar of peanut butter is perfect if I'm not sure I'll be able to eat.

Most of the sets I'm on have a huge supply of bagels, pastries and sandwiches. Yeah, not so good for me - so it's been a lot of Udis & PB and lots of little baggies of chips.

Almost out of bread now though - time to re-stock.

Don't laugh at me for eating the full-sugar full-fat Jif - it's awesome and I don't like to travel with peanut butter that separates & gets oily.

:)

Pizza Port - Solana Beach - San Diego

I was SO excited while out here for work to be at Pizza Port in Solana Beach... They have Gluten Free Pizza and beer!! They also have a location in Ocean Beach, I would guess they have it there as well. Yum! It was delicious! Off to San Fran tomorrow...

Traveling...

Hey all! I'll be traveling for work - so next week I'll be in San Diego, then the week after I'll be in San Francisco! Let me know if you have any good gluten free recommendations. I got some last year for San Fran - so I have some options there - but I've never been to San Diego before!

hope you all are enjoying the summer :)

B.Good Gluten Free Hamburger Buns!

Feast your eyes readers.... It's just a burger I grabbed for lunch around the corner from my office. No big deal. Yeah right!?

Thanks to the lovelies at Udi's who are now making really good GF Hamburger Buns, B.Good has started carrying them!

I literally read Jen's post about it this morning, and called the one near me, discarded my boring 'healthy' salad for lunch, and headed over there as soon as it was acceptable for me to eat lunch, 11:59.... They noted I had an Allergy on my order... and you watch them make the food so I was keeping an eye on everything. I noticed mine was made away from all of the other gluten-filled buns - and I noticed gloves being changed for my food. PROPS TO B.GOOD.

Oh, and their fries are TO DIE FOR.

Check 'em out if you're near one, here's there site again.

Rainbow Cake

Guys. I made a rainbow cake. It was gluten free, and it was glorious.
It was also delicious.
And it was SO. MUCH. FUN.

I was going to make cake batter from scratch, but then realized just how long that would take, so I went with trusty old Betty Crocker Gluten Free yellow cake mix. Definitely glad I did since it took a while. It would take a lot less time if i had more 9-inch matching pans, but alas, I only had two.

So here's my set up. 3 boxes of mix, a lot of butter, vanilla, eggs, milk, my trusty kitchen-aid mixer, lots of bowls, and food coloring.

I went with doing 9 inch round cake - because I had two of those pans. I think a 7 inch size would be perfect... Next time! (oh and I read online about people doing mini cakes, and I'm definitely doing that for my anniversary this summer).

Anyway. It was easy. Make 1 box of mix. Then split into two bowls, and add the food coloring that you want to get the right colors you want. I mixed it up, then poured into my pans, then baked. When those were almost done, I washed everything, and got going with the next batch, mixed, food-colored, re-poured, then baked.

Do that 3 times (with only 2 pans) to get 6 layers like this:

Then stack! After the layers cool a bit....This was fun.... I was going to make buttercream frosting, cause I love it - but was worried it would be TOO sweet, so I just bought a whipped cream-style frosting instead. I also went a little light with frosting, just because thats what I like and stacked in the color order I wanted:


Cover the outside in white frosting, make look pretty, then, the best part is when you cut into the cake! Ooohs & Aaahs all around! It was a HUGE hit. It really didn't take too long (maybe 3.5 hours or so) and it was so yummy and so much fun to eat.

The texture was great, and we ate almost the entire thing.... Can't wait to make my next one!

Contest!

Do you guys read Jordan Ferney's blog "Oh Happy Day"?? You probably all do, but if you don't, check it OUT.

It's a fantastic little blog, so many gorgeous ideas, she has two adorable kids, and her husband is a really talented painter who I purchased a painting from last year.... and she is doing the MOST AMAZING GIVEAWAY OF ALL TIME.... A trip for 2 to Paris!!! Ohh la la!

I have entered as many ways as possible, and you guys should too! Here is the link.

Remember when I went to Paris for a long weekend with my then fiance?? Here's a link to that post -- it would be incredible to go back for our anniversary, and I'd love to spend a little more time there - OR hopefully one of you fab GF reader's will win it!

Food Truck Find: Bon Me

Hey all! It's been a really really long time, I know! Life is bananas. I have barely been cooking (or cleaning for that matter) -- work is stressful, and we were trying to finalize finishing our basement! Which we did! Woo Hoo! It only took us A YEAR. But we did it ourselves (well, with mucho mucho help from my very handy Dad) - and it's D-O-N-E.

I'll have to do a before/after pic later....

So, since very little cooking is happening, and I usually bring leftovers for lunch, I've been eating out a lot lately. My go-to is usually Boloco (bring on a tofu bowl with every veggie & guac - yum) - but some work friends just directed me to a little area in downtown Boston that has 3 food trucks lined up!

I know food trucks are all the rage in NYC, but these are the first ones I've seen here and let me tell you, good stuff.


Bon Me had gluten free options - and they made sure to change gloves, use a clean area to prepare. I got a rice noodle bowl (could have gotten brown or white rice) with their chicken, which is gluten free, veggies - and the Viet-vin sauce, also gluten free. And it was SO GOOD.

GlutenGate 2011

Have you guys been following this crazy (and so infuriating) news about "chef" Damian Cardone??

It's been all over twitter and Zagat's blog even dubbed this Gluten Gate 2011. If you just google this person you'll see a ton of links bashing this guy and the following comment he made on his facebook:

“Gluten free is B***S***!! Flour and bread have been a staple of life for thousands, THOUSANDS of years. People who claim to be gluten intolorent dont realize that its all in there disturbed liitle heads. People ask me for gluten free pasta in my restaurant all the time, I tell em sure, Then I serve serve em our pasta, Which I make from scratch with high gluten flour. And you know what? nothing, NOTHING! ever happens! People leave talking about how good they feel gluten free and guess what, They just had a full dose! Idiots!”

Can you BELIVE those comments? Ugh - disgusting. It's been interesting to observe this though. It blew up on twitter, and every gluten free blogger was tweeting about it - then it was on blogs, then there were news stories about it in Colorado & New Jersey (where he lived, and now lives).

He has since canceled his facebook page - and has made no comments about all of this. I would love to hear what he has to say for himself after all of this.

craving fresh cookies, fast.

Don't those look yummy? Well, they were. And they were ready in about 15 minutes.

This past weekend I had a hankering (pretty sure i've never spoken or typed that word before) for SOFT chocolate chip cookies, as in, freshly baked. But didn't want to do them from scratch, so I went over to the store and picked up these French Meadow Bakery GF Frozen Chocolate Chip cookie dough.

Open the box, place on baking sheet, bake, and DONE.

These are really really really good. Husband loved them too - I had to hide them.

Will definitely buy these again!

Cambridge, MA start-up focuses on Celiac disease

Hey all --- check out this quick little article that is in the Boston Globe today!

ImmusanT Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company, said it has established its operations in Cambridge as it looks to develop an immunotherapeutic vaccine and a companion diagnostic and monitoring tool for celiac disease.

The company, which said in a press release that it has secured seed financing from angel investors, is calling its drug candidate vaccine Nexvax2. Celiac disease is a lifelong autoimmune disorder that is triggered by foods containing gluten, the main protein in wheat, rye, and barley.

"With the formation of ImmusanT in Cambridge, we will have broad access to resources, capital and potential partners required to advance development of Nexvax2 and our companion diagnostics," Leslie J. Williams, founder, president, and chief executive, said in a statement.

Link to article.

oh. em. gee.

it's 11:45 and I'm still in the office - NOT COOL.... AND I worked sat/sun.

hence... the reason I am not posting on here. I am not cooking, I haven't even had time to clean my house!

yikes. thanks for allowing the complaining... I'll stop now. hopefully out of here soon --- have to wait on changes/edits.

that is all... definitely taking a few days off later this week! I want to bake something for Better Batter's Recipe contest, check it out! First prize is $400!


**UPDATE: I left the office just before 2am! longest day/night ever! glad it's in the past....

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

Not my photo - we ate ours too fast for me to grab the camera.

I've been seeing a lot of recipes for enchiladas recently and realized I've never made them! Yesterday I re-read a few of them and did my own version last night (although this very easy version was my inspiration - perfect for getting home late & wanting to make something quick)!

Ingredients:
Rotisserie Chicken (shredded with a fork)
Mexican Shredded Cheese (or go with monterey jack)
Corn Tortillas (GF of course)
Enchilada Sauce (canned to be fast, or make your own)
Sour Cream
Jalapeño's (husband ate these, not me)
Guacamole if you've got it or sliced avocado

Preheat oven to 425. Shred rotisserie chicken with a fork and place in a bowl. Mix in some cheese & a little pepper. Add some red pepper flakes if you want more heat. Put a little enchilada sauce on the bottom of an oven safe pan.

Wrap corn tortillas (I did 3 or 4 at a time) in a damp paper towl and microwave for about 20 seconds (not burning hot, just to warm) -- add chicken mixture and then a little more cheese (also feel free to add anything else here - spinach, beans, guacamole, etc etc).

Roll up tightly and place in pan. Fill pan, then pour enchilada sauce on top, then sprinkle with cheese (and jalapeño's if you want) and pop in the oven for about 10 minutes!

I added a dollop of sour cream to the top of each one on my plate.

That's it! SO easy and really really yummy. We literally ate all of them before I even thought to take a picture - they were so good and I was STARVING.

I'll definitely be making these more often in the future.

Exciting Gluten Free News!

I just was reading the Gluten Free Appetite blog and saw that Kellogg's will be debuting new gluten free cereals (and snacks) around 6 months from now and there will be gluten free Rice Krispies! Woo hoo! Hoping they make a few more cereals GF as well.

Big news! I need to tell my sister - she is a cerealholic. Not a word, but you know what I mean.

Anyway - check out the GFAppetite blog for more information!

View from my office the other night

How gorgeous? Love that the sun is going down later & later.... cooomme on spring! you can do it!

(have a STACK of recipes I need to start working on --- heading to VT for a long ski weekend, will blog when I'm back!)

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

How is it Friday already?! WOO HOO - long weekend.

So, the meal plan fell apart last night - but I think we'll nix the veggie cassoulet, and do shrimp & grits tonight for movie night with the hubs.

I did make the Buttermilk chicken recipe (that I found here) on Wednesday night though. I thought this was OK. I probably wouldn't make it again, although I would make breadcrumbs like this again and switch up the recipe a little bit. Here it is:

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

• Vegetable oil, for baking sheet -- I just sprayed EVOO spray on baking dish
  
• 8 slices bread --- I used UDI's of course, and only 4 slices
  
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon hot-pepper sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (2 1/2 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 4 pounds chicken parts (preferably legs, thighs, and wings), rinsed and patted dry --- I used chicken breast & legs, and only used about 2 lbs
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously rub a baking sheet with oil. In a food processor, pulse bread until it turns into coarse crumbs.
2. In a large bowl, stir together buttermilk, hot-pepper sauce, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. In a separate bowl, mix breadcrumbs, Parmesan, thyme, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.
3. Place the chicken in the buttermilk mixture, turning to coat evenly. Working with one piece at a time, remove chicken from liquid, letting excess drip back into bowl; dredge in the breadcrumb mixture, turning to coat evenly. Place coated chicken pieces on prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake until chicken is golden brown, about 35 minutes.

Here is the bread in the food processor, before:

And after: My little assembly line dunking the chicken in the buttermilk mixture, then crumbs, then baking sheet:
Finished product:
Not bad.... for some reason this tasted better as leftovers... I think the mix of hot sauce & thyme was a little weird... Maybe more seasoning, no hot sauce next time! I also sliced & roasted brussel sprouts in a little olive oil and season salt, and red potatoes on the side!

OK - now I have about half a carton of buttermilk left -- what should I make with it??? Have a FABULOUS weekend everyone!