Not-So-Traditional Beignets

Yesterday for Fat Tuesday I decided that it would be fun to let the boys help me make Beignets. Of course I got this fab idea late in the afternoon and didn't have time or patience to work with actual yeast and rising so I saw on Sandra Lee's website something similar, using refrigerated biscuit dough (what, refrigerated biscuit dough?)...yes, that's what I said and I know that this isn't a traditional Beignet recipe, hence the title but hey, it was quite quick and I had the stuff on hand to make it and my kids loved them in the end so isn't that really all that matters?

The stuff you need:

2 cans refrigerated biscuit dough
some oil, fill a saucepan about half full
powdered sugar

What you do:

Heat oil in the pan at about medium heat
Have your helpers cut the biscuits into quarters
Place a few pieces of biscuit dough into the pan and fry till golden

Place on pan to kinda drain the grease and then have your helpers shake them in containers with powdered sugar or a brown paper bag would work excellent for this process but I didn't have one

Then place on a plate and eat!

(sorry about the horrible quality pics, not a clue what my camera was set on!)

Chicken Gyros

Of course I saw this on Pinterest and couldn't wait to try it. I love a good Gyros and I REALLY love a good Tzatziki sauce and both of these were superb if I do say so myself! Everyone here were big fans, including my super picky husband(it's not so much that he's picky, he just thinks he's the only one who can really cook in the house) but with this dinner he went on and on about how good this was!

So here ya go!

Tzatziki sauce:
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 regular cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil

For the chicken:
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Juice of 1 lemon (2-3 Tablespoons)
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper
1 1/4 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

To assemble: Pita bread
Fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced
Red onion, sliced thin

Directions:
Shred the cucumber or chop in food processor. Wrap in a towel a squeeze to remove as much water as possible. Mix together the yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon juice. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld.

To prepare the chicken, combine the garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, yogurt, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Whisk together until mixed well. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Cook the chicken as desired, either in the skillet or with the broiler. Once the chicken is completely cooked through, transfer to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut into strips. Heat pitas. Top with chicken, tzatziki sauce, diced tomatoes and sliced onions. Serve immediately.

You can find the recipe here at The Girl Who Ate Everything .

*******************************

On a side note...I'm not a fan of the pita pockets but that's all I can ever find around here until the last time I went shopping I noticed that they had a new pita in town, a whole wheat pita, without the pocket. I found them at my WalMart right next to the yucky pita pockets. These were super! I don't remember the brand name and unfortunately they are gone now, we ate them all, that's how good they were!

*******************************

On another side note....Have you seen those Milky Way cookies on Pinterest? Yeah, well I did and I pinned them to my "sweets" board and told my twin boys to pick out a couple of desserts the last time I went grocery shopping. One picked the Milky Way cookies and we tried them....I must say they were a big let down. Nobody in my house was crazy about them. The most I got, from the twins was a "yeah, their kinda good"...my older son picked out the Milky Way pieces and left the cookie portion....needless to say we won't try them again, unless I find a good cookie dough to try...the dough just wasn't all that...or maybe I just messed it up ha! Anyways, next on our list of sweets to try are the homemade Twix bars....I'll let you know!

********************************

And one more side note....do you know how I remember the difference in spelling desert and dessert? A teacher taught me this WAY back in elementary school....a desert only has sand so it gets 1 S and a dessert has sugar and spice so it gets 2 S's! I still use that brilliance to this day when I spell either!

The BEST Spanish Rice

I found this recipe a couple years back on a blog. I had looked for years and years for a great Spanish Rice recipe that was restaurant quality and was so excited when I found this, this is it! This is the ONLY Spanish Rice I make now and last night while making it I had to look up the blog for the recipe and my husband was surprised that I didn't have it written down somewhere (ha). I was a little worried though because this time it did take a couple of searches to find it and so I must put it here where it's easier for me to get to, and what if the author of the recipe deletes her blog the next time I want to make it? OH NO!

And here is the recipe for this yummo rice.....

Restaurant Spanish Rice
ingredients


3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth  (I use 2 chicken bouillon cubes with 2 cups of water) 


Directions:


Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until puffed and golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with salt and cumin.
Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.


and you can click the link below to go to the home of this great recipe!
Restaurant Style Spanish Rice  




And in other news....I just picked up my mother's old 1970's maple china hutch. I remember when we got  this as a kid and it  was in our house forever. My mom passed away earlier this month and my brother gave me her hutch. I want to re-do it, I've seen some great looking hutch makeovers. My husband doesn't think that is right, I guess he sees it as disrespectful. I don't. I just want to give it a little update.  I promised him I'd wait a couple of weeks before just diving into it.......but really my mind is made up and I can't wait to transform it into a piece I will just love....I mean it's still the same hutch on the inside right?

Apple Pie Crescents

This is the easiest little dessert and my kids love them, even my "non-liking pie" daughter!

 Pre-heat oven according to package
 2 packages of crescent rolls (I used 2 for my family of 6)
 1 large apple, sliced...you can peel it if you want, I just keep the peel on
 cinnamon/sugar
 melted butter

 roll out the crescent rolls onto a cookie sheet and spread with melted butter place a couple of apple slices along the wide end of the triangle. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and then roll it up. spread a little more melted butter over the top and sprinkle with a little more cinnamon and sugar and then bake for about 10 minutes!

Dry Erase Frame

I was downstairs cleaning up the basement when I came across some frames I hadn't used yet so I was able to quickly complete this idea I saw on Pinterest (of course!). I took the frame, tore out a piece of notebook paper and I antiqued my paper up by blotting with my used coffee filter and let it dry. After it was dry, I put it in the frame and there you go, a dry erase marker board! Now that the holidays are over I am looking forward to completing more projects :)

2 Easy Things

I saw both of these on Pinterest and I had supplies and they were both things we could finish in no time at all: Twig Star Yeah, this IS as easy as it looks. I have a yard full of sticks, just went out and filled a box full. Laid them out into a star and hot glued the tips together. My 9 year old twin boys even made a few of these. I need to pick up some twine to hang them around the house/tree. I might even make a big one to hang on the wall. I really like the way they look! Next was this. I had seen this really simple way to add a pop of color into your kitchen by spray painting the old boring butcher block. The one I saw on Pinterest was a bright looking lime green. I didn't have lime green spray paint but I did have red so I sprayed it then stenciled the fleur de lis. Took about 5 minutes total, not counting the dry time!

Christmas Decoration Tradition

I wish I had seen this a long time ago! This is a sweet little tradition you can do by cutting off about a half inch or so from the bottom of your Christmas tree. I asked the nice people at Lowes (where we purchased our tree) if they wouldn't mind doing it for me, which they did in a jiffy. Then you just have the kids decorate it along with the year! This is the first year we've done this. Braden and Dalton did finger paint snowmen (painted their index finger white and they did the rest with a sharpie). I still need Ashlyn and Christian to do their snowmen on the back.