Pilgrimage to Potterland

I mentioned before that my cousin Shannon's trip to Orlando was a rite of passage in our family, as we needed to initiate her into adulthood by drinking with her at Epcot on her 21st birthday. I didn't mention that this vacation held yet another significant trip for us.

Well, significant is kind of an understatement.

We were kind of geeking out...

...a lot.

Yes, Shannon and Amanda and I went to Universal's Islands of Adventure to visit the new(ish?) Harry Potter attraction! I won't talk about the Hogwarts ride because I don't want to ruin the surprise if you're a fan who hasn't been yet...and if you're not a fan, well, you probably won't care anyway :)

I will talk about our experience at Three Broomsticks, the restaurant at "Potterland." First of all, the attention to detail was amazing. I'd heard that some of the designers for the Harry Potter attractions were former Disney imagineers who had been laid off, and I have to say the quality of work was up to par.

I got such a kick out of the fact that Hogshead beer (their own brew) was on tap...next to Miller Lite!

And yes, butterbeer is as good as they say it is.

The food was pretty good, too. It's a kind of tavern fare, with drumsticks and roasts and what not. I had the shepherd's pie, and it was full of potatoey cheesy goodness.

We also might have split some strawberry chocolate thing for dessert. The fact that we didn't order three of these took lots of self control.

Have any of you Harry Potter fans made the pilgrimage to Orlando yet? What'd you think?

Apple Pie Cupcakes

Holy blogging hiatus, Batman! What the heck happened in October?! I even missed out on that awesome photo challenge...improving my photography will have to take a raincheck, I suppose. If there's one thing that can bring me back to blogging, though, it's seasonal semi-homemade sweets.

We're having a Thanksgiving potluck at work this week, and my colleagues requested that I bring cupcakes. I knew I had to do pumpkin or apple, and I narrowed that down easily once my sister recommended this recipe. They're cheap and easy, though somewhat tedious unless you have an apple peeler/corer (hint, hint, Santa). But they're different, and they taste even better than they look. I promise you'll get nothing but compliments!

Apple Pie Cupcakes (adapted from Inspired Taste)

Ingredients

• 3/4 c unsalted butter
• 6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cubed
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 c lemon juice (or the juice of 1 1/2 lemons)
• 3/4 c all purpose flour
• 3/4 c + 6 Tbsp packed brown sugar, divided
• 3/4 c chopped walnuts
• 3 (12.4 oz) cans of refrigerated cinnamon rolls
• whipped cream
• caramel syrup

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400˚. Spray two muffin tins with cooking spray.
• Melt 1/4 c butter in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add apples and cook for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon, salt, and the 6 tablespoons of brown sugar over the apples, then cook for another 5 minutes. Pour lemon juice over apples.
• While apples are cooking, mix flour, walnuts, and the rest of the butter and brown sugar with your hands until they form little crumbles. Set aside.
• Separate dough into 24 rolls. Push into muffin tins and flatten evenly into cups.
• Spoon apple mixture into cinnamon cups, then sprinkle with crumb mixture.
• Bake at 400˚ for 10-12 minutes, or until the "streusel" gets a little toasty.
• Cool completely, then top with whipped cream and caramel syrup just before serving.

So, I guess they're not so much cupcakes as they are cinnamon rolls stuffed with apple streusel. Silly technicalities!

What's your favorite fall-themed dessert?

Warning: This Post Contains Bacon

I know I've been posting a lot of healthier recipes lately. It's important to eat healthy...most of the time. It's also important to remember your Southern roots and make some damn comfort food every once in a while! After all...

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I had recently made avocado BLTs for dinner one night (it's pretty healthy when you use that awesome nitrate-free reduced-fat bacon from TJ's...that stuff is only 1 WeightWatchers PointsPlus per serving!) and the two of us had enough will power to leave some leftover bacon. I wrapped up the remaining strips and kept them in the front of the fridge, knowing that I'd probably need to cook them in the next day or two. Fortunately, we had a neighborhood potluck cookout thing and I needed to bring a side dish. I contemplated what I could make with my remaining bacon (which was about six or seven strips) that would be somewhat healthy. When I decided on roasted brussel sprouts, my husband quickly turned me down. "No one is going to eat that!" he exclaimed. I sighed, because I knew he was right.

Once I had prioritized flavor over health-appeal, I decided to go all out. I turned to one of my absolute favorite side dishes:

Bacon Cheddar Biscuits (adapted from theKitchn)

Ingredients

• 6 strips of thick-cut pork bacon (none of this turkey nonsense)
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, frozen
• 1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1/4 cup chives, minced
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions

• Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Lay bacon on the foil, then place in oven. Close the door and turn the temperature to 400˚. Bake for 17-20 minutes (it'll probably finish preheating at some point during that time). Remove cookie sheet from oven. Using tongs, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Once cool, slide the bacon up into small pieces. By the way, this is my absolute favorite way to cook bacon!
• Carefully grab both sides of the aluminum foil and fold longways, slightly. Pour bacon grease (again, carefully!) into a small, heat-resistant cup or bowl. Set aside for later. Return aluminum foil to cookie sheet - some grease will remain on foil.
• Bring oven temperature up to 450˚.
• In a food processer, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Quickly cut frozen stick of butter into eight or so pieces. Add to food processer and pulse until meal is finely ground.
• Pour flour and butter mixture into a large bowl. Add bacon, cheese, chives, and buttermilk. Gently hand-stir until completely moistened.
• Sprinkle a little flour on your countertop and add some to your hands. Roll out the biscuit dough until it's about 1-inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter (or the rim of a jar or glass) on all the dough. Reform remaining dough, and repeat until you've used it all.
• Place biscuits on greasy cookie sheet. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the biscuits with reserved bacon fat. Mmmmm....
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack until completely cooled.

Easy, quick, and bacon-y...what's not to love?! What's your favorite bacon-y dish?

October Photo Challenge at Our Wired Lives

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I've seen these photography challenges on Pinterest and through blogs that I follow, but frankly, I've never had the guts to participate in one. My DSLR really intimidated me when I first got it, but after a few months of practice, I feel like I'm ready to start sharpening my skills. Just when I was hoping another challenge like this would come along, my friend Nellie at Our Wired Lives announced her second annual challenge! Read all about it here, and join me and my camera this October!

Spicy Chicken Stir Fry

As most of you know by now, one of my favorite things to do is throw a bunch of crap together and pretend it's gourmet use leftovers to create a new recipe. A takeout box of leftover brown rice inspired my latest endeavor. We always seem to run into this problem: we finish every last ounce of our delicious Thai leftovers, but we can never get through the rice! It's almost like they give you enough for another meal entirely. I mean, it's as though you could whip up a stir fry and...you see where I'm going with this.

Per usual, I had some chicken breasts lying around. I also had some frozen veggies. If this sounds familiar, that may be because you're a loyal reader (have I mentioned that I love you?) and you might be thinking of my similarly spontaneous Nutty Noodles. That dish was a little more sweet,than what I was craving at this particular moment. I wanted the same thing only different...perhaps with some heat!

Spicy Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp fat of choice (I used coconut oil because it's my fave...especially in Asian dishes!)
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4-5 medium green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups sugar snap peas
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
• Sriracha, to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp...Dave dumped some more on later)
• 1/2 c fresh basil, minced

Directions

• Sauté chicken in oil. Remove from pan.
• Cook onions and garlic until fragrant, using the same pan.
• Add peas and broccoli to pan, reduce heat and cover. You may need to add a few tablespoons of water so they steam properly. Cook just until crisp and bright green...you don't want to overdo it!
• Add sauces and return chicken to pan. Stir well to combine.
• Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes until flavors meld. Stir in basil.

Just so you know this recipe is only 4 WeightWatchers PointsPlus per serving, so go ahead and add that rice! Yay for veggies!

What do you like to include in your stir fry dishes?

What Does Mine Say?!

If you get the reference in this blog post's title, then you must enjoy quoting awesomely bad movies as much as I do.

Earlier this summer, I went down to Orlando to visit two of my cousins who live there. My cousins and I are very close, so I usually try to get down there a few times a year. This particular occasion was especially exciting because our other cousin, Shannon, was visiting from Seattle. Among us cousins, four of the six of us are on the east coast, but the other two live in Washington. Pretty much any time one of the west coasters comes to our time zone, the rest of us will come to them. Shannon came to Orlando, so my sister and I came to her. Five of the six of us had planned a week full of more antics than usual, as this was no ordinary trip. Shannon hadn't just come to Florida for the heck of it...she was making a pilgrimage to Epcot. You see, it was Shannon's 21st birthday.

At the Poly the night before...so Shannon could buy a glass (bottle?) of wine at midnight! Why are we all making the same face? Yep, just a normal family photo.

Along with our plans to drink celebrate, we also had something significant planned...something that was several years in the making. When our oldest cousin, Mark, passed away in 2005 after a battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma, the rest of us talked about getting tattoos together to honor him. Mark created Freekware, a clothing company with a message of unity through positivity and individuality (you may have heard me talk about it on here, I don't know, once or twice). The Freekware logo has come to symbolize so much to us cousins. When we decided to get together for Shannon's birthday, we decided to finally get our tattoos...and it was no question that all of us would somehow include the message of Freekware and/or the logo itself.

I wanted the Freekware symbol, but I wanted it to be incorporated into something else...and I wanted that something else to have some kind of movement to it. While perusing through Pinterest one day, I became enamored with dandelion tattoos. I know dandelions don't seem to symbolize much...I mean, they're weeds. But that means they're resilient and can take root anywhere. Plus, they always remind me of one of my favorite Disney scenes of all time.

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Once I had the idea of making the Freekware logo one of the dandelion seeds, it was only a matter of finding the right dandelion to show to the tattoo artist. My favorite ones had the stem in line with the shoulder blade with seeds floating towards the arm...

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...but then I found a few examples that had text along the stem.

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Since I had also played with the idea of including the Freekware symbol in a verse, I decided to have this verse trace along the stem:

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Once I had gathered all of my sources of inspiration, it was time for us to head out to get inked!

Shannon got a black Freekware symbol on her left shoulder blade.

Michelle got the words "Stay Positive" over a hibiscus flower. Her husband, an artist, created the design!

Jen got a blue Freekware logo on her left hip.

Amanda got a black Freekware logo on her right shoulder blade.

Here's how mine turned out!

Each of us had a different response to the inking process - some of us developed that "ink addiction" and are already talking about a next tattoo. I was not one of those people. It didn't hurt as badly as I thought it would, but it certainly wasn't comfortable. It was more like a nails-on-a-chalkboard sensation for me, and I definitely don't need to do that again! But we had a lot of fun together that day, and now we have a lasting reminder of it. I love how each of us got something slightly different, but they all have the same sentiment behind them.

Do you have a tattoo? What's the story behind it?

Grilled Chicken Quesadillas

As I've mentioned before, I got Dave a new grill for his birthday, so we've been enjoying a lot of outdoor cooking and entertaining this summer. This has challenged my creativity and forced me to come up with more and more ways to make leftover grilled chicken sound fancy. My latest favorite is the quesadilla.

This dish was extra exciting for us recently because I found some cumin-infused gouda at Alon's, my favorite local specialty grocer. (That place is amazing; they even have their own fromager!) I'll be lucky if I can ever find it there again, but I'm sure grated gouda with a dash of cumin would be almost as good.

Grilled Chicken Quesadillas

Ingredients

• leftover grilled chicken breasts (about 3 oz per quesadilla)
• tortillas of your choice
• grated cheese of your choice (we used gouda)
• cumin to taste
• additional seasoning of your choice - we used fresh cilantro and jalapeños from our garden!

Directions

1. Shred or chop up the chicken, and place in a large bowl. Toss with cheese and spices/herbs.
2. Tear a piece of aluminum foil about twice the size of your tortilla. Place the tortilla on top of the foil. Spoon desired amount of chicken mixture on top of tortilla.
3. Fold the foil like you're closing a book so that it folds the tortilla and envelops the chicken. Pinch the edges of the foil so that it "seals."
4. Place your foil pockets on the grill for 2-5 minutes or until chicken is reheated and cheese melts.
5. Unwrap your quesadillas and slice with a pizza cutter.
6. Serve with salsa and/or guacamole.

What's your favorite grilling recipe?