Great Burger

Every Thursday Daniel and I go out on a date. This Thursday we went to a burger joint called Kincaid's. It was the best burger I have had in Texas. If you come to Texas and visit Fort Worth or ME!! you have to hit up Kincaid's. They have burgers that taste homemade, 1/2 pound patties. The place felt like an old establishment with bright green walls and blow up items like Shrek, Dr. Pepper bottles, stuff like that.

If you do happen to go to Kincaid's DO NOT get the stuffed jalapenos. They are not good. Get the french fries or onion rings :)

Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan

Yesterday Carolyn requested we make Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan. So at work today I looked up some recipes. Here is what we did

1 eggplant
Kosher salt
5 chicken breasts(butterflied)
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Pasta
Flour
breadcrumbs
garlic
tomatoes
marinara sauce
First cut the eggplant in 1/2 in slices. Put into a colander and sprinkle the kosher salt on the slices to help the slices weep out the bitter juices.

Let them sit for about an hour(minimum of 30 min). After you let them rest, rinse in cold water.
Next dry them with a paper towel until all the moisture is gone. This will allow the breading to adhere to the slices.

Next you will trim and butterfly your chicken and then we bread both eggplant and chicken.

To bread the chicken you need some flour in a bowl, eggs and milk in a bowl and then the breadcrumbs. In our breadcrumb mixture we added some salt, pepper, garlic and herb, and parmesan cheese.

 So as you see he has it set up to first put the item in flour then in the egg mixture then in the breadcrumbs.

We decided to bake ours instead of fry and then finish it in the oven. We try and be a little healthy and not add too much extra fat.

As you can see we are putting them on a cookie sheet/jelly roll pan (depending who you ask) that has been foiled and pamed. 

Once you finish breading make sure you spray pam on the tops of the eggplant and chicken. In doing this you won't have to flip them and both the top and bottoms will crisp up.

We decided to make ours with a pasta base and the eggplant and chicken on top, you can also make it like a lasagna where you would layer everything starting with sauce then eggplant/chicken then cheese and more sauce continuing until all of your eggplant/chicken had been used. We put both of our pans into the oven for 20-25 minutes until the chicken was cooked through, at 350.

 So next we had to make our sauce. With this we did a semi-homemade sauce, we gave the sauce what it was  missing. We started with 4 TBS of butter and then added 2 cloves of minced garlic and two diced tomatoes and some honey to help with the bitterness of the canned sauce. (It's the same as adding sugar just a healthier substitute)

 Next we added some marinara sauce, we picked mushroom but any will do.

 Doesn't that look good with the big chunks of tomatoes in it? It tasted delicious.

After your chicken and eggplant has finished baking you then add a small amount of sauce and then mozzarella cheese on top. We added goat cheese and mozzarella to give it a creamy taste and break up the flavors. Goat cheese is similar to cream cheese it just tastes slightly more sharp. After you have done that pour remaining sauce into noodles or keep separate depending on how much sauce your family prefers on their own dish. Put the pans back in the oven until cheese is melted. 

It was perfect. The bottoms of the eggplant were crisp and you could actually taste the eggplant but it was not overpowered with bitterness. 

Mongolian Beef and peach tart

I made Mongolian Beef last night for dinner. It was amazing and tasted delicious. It was super simple too.
This recipe is a serving for 2
2/3 lbs of flank steak(I used a top sirloin because it was the cheapest)
3T cornstarch
3 tsp canola oil divided
1/2 tsp grated ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
1/3 C soy sauce
1/3 C water
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2-3 large scallions ( these are optional they are just a garnish on top)
I bag stir fry mix ( I added this to the recipe because I felt it needed some steamed veggies. I just got a frozen veggie bag that had brocolli, snap peas, green beans, red pepper, onion)
1 can bamboo shoots

Slice steak in thin slices- coat in cornstarch-before cooking shake off excess
I noticed that the meat soaked up the cornstarch and the excess cornstarch
didn't stick to the meat

Mix soy sauce, water, brown sugar, red pepper flakes

Prepare your garlic and ginger. Heat both of these in 2 tsp of the oil on med-high heat add ginger and garlic. Cook for 30 seconds-or until fragrant. Add soy sauce mixture. Cook for 2 minutes transfer back to bowl.

Turn up heat on wok, add remaining oil. Add beef stir until just browned. Once beef is cooked add soy sauce mixture and veggies and bamboo shoots. Simmer for 5 minutes until thick. Garnish with scallions

I also made a peach tart, but I don't have a picture. It was very very simple.
2-4 cups sliced peaches
3 T brown sugar
2 T butter melted
1 refrigerated pie crust
Cut up peaches and mix with 3 T brown sugar. Roll out pie crust to rectangle. Pour peaches inside pie crust, fold up the sides of the pie crust to form a barrier around the peaches. I pleated the sides of the pie crust to make sure the barrier was tight. Lightly brush butter on the outside of the crust and on the top of the peaches. Sprinkle brown sugar on the crust before baking. Cook for about 40 mintues at 375.
Then top with ice cream or whipping cream and enjoy!

I hope you all make these recipes and let me know what you think!

Trip to Clarksville

This weekend we went out to Texarkana to see Renea and then over to Clarksville to pick up Daniel's Grandma so she can fly out to California to see Sherri, Dennis and her sister Gloria. While we were in Clarksville we stopped by the family's old movie shop because it has recently been bought and in the process of being renovated. They are turning it into an antique shop, the square is a giant antique mall in hopes to draw travelers of those who specifically stop in small towns for antiques.

 This is Daniel in front of the very large, Confederate statue in the middle of the square. Below are the pictures of what it says on the statue and who it is for and such.

 Yeah, not the most flattering picture of me, but it is SOOOO hot and I wanted to get out of the sun as soon as possible. As you can see I have no tan and I am thinking it will stay that way as long as it stays over 100. We are on day 14 of consecutive days over 100 degrees. Supposedly in other years there are only 10 total days that are over 100 in the whole year, looks like we picked a great year to move to Texas.( Let me help you all out here and let you know that I am being 100% sacrcastic in this statement, Daniel is even saying it is a little warm for him here.)

This is the view from the street of the Movie Shoppe. The far right building is an antique store, the middle two are the old movie shop and future site of the new antique shop. In this square I counted 7 antique shops, so I guess it really is an antique mall. They believed the building was built in the 1880s.

 This is an elevator that was in the shop, as I said they believed the building was built in the 1880s but the elevator said 1870s so they now believe the building could be older.

 Before the renovations this arch way was completely squared off. I like that they are taking it back to its original structure and features.

 The far beam is a support beam the Daniel and is uncle Michael put in to prevent the roof from caving in. They had to put in two support beams and some braces in the rafters. This is the back of the second building.

This is the front of the second building and they will be making the ceilings as high as in the back of this building.

Also during this trip Daniel learned a sad news. The handicap ramp that he built for his Eagle Scout project was recently ripped down. Originally the building he built it for was a senior center, now it is a lodge. The building owner also never took care of the ramp and it was falling apart.

 Here he is so happy to have accomplished his project.

                                           Here he is today, sad to see it gone.

These are his initials in the cement on the porch they laid before the ramp was built. So even though his ramp is no longer there his porch and initials remain.

Drumroll please...

And the winner is..................................................

We LOVE our picture and we got it custom framed at Hobby Lobby.