Table Talk: Buffalo Chicken Salad

So I wasn't too excited about this pick.  I don't like Buffalo Wings or Blue Cheese.  But my husband loves Buffalo Wings so I thought I'd modify this a bit and see if I could make something he would like.  I didn't work and I ended up with something that wasn't anything like the recipe...Oh, well.

First step was to whisk together hot sauce, butter and molasses. 

I didn't want to use up all my tobasco sauce on something that I may or may not like so I decided to use Siracha sauce instead.  I don't like molasses and knew I wouldn't use it if I bought it (other than for this recipe) so I substituted honey.  The first batch I made with 1/4 cup siracha sauce, 1 tbls butter and 1 tbls honey.  It was so hot I couldn't taste anything other than heat and it burned!!!  Jonathan couldn't even eat it and he likes hot stuff.  So I dumped that out and made a second batch with one part siracha, one part honey and one part butter.  That was edible at least.  I could taste a flavor and I liked it but it was still too hot.  Jonathan tasted it and said it needed a teaspoon of strawberry jam.  :-)  So I mixed one in for him.  It didn't change the flavor to me at all.  The siracha sauce was still the dominant flavor. 

Next I moved on to the chicken.  I flattened it out a bit before drying it off.

Then I seasoned it and coated it in the corn meal/corn starch mixture.  After letting the oil heat for a bit I started cooking.

Six minutes later I flipped it over.

About 5 or 6 more minutes it was done.  At this point I was supposed to make a salad toss it in Blue Cheese dressing, toss the chicken in the hot sauce mixture and top the salad with the chicken.  Instead I drizzled the hot sauce over the chicken and served it with rice. 

Jonathan didn't like the sauce.  But I was smart and didn't drizzle any over his chicken so he was still happy with his meal of chicken and rice. 

If you want to see the whole recipe and how it's really supposed to be made check out Michelle's blog. 

Bake 52 Rewind - Tres Leches Cake

So I didn't take any pictures of making this... but it turned out really good. 

The cake part is pretty basic - lots of cinnamon flavor.  The hardest part was cooking the sweetened condensed milk in the microwave...

My first try resulted in a mess (above), so I had to start over and stir after every minute (or less) and watch it the whole time.  I don't know if it really got carmalized or thickened like it was supposed to but it almost boiled over again so I figured it was good enough.

After the cake is cooked you poke a bunch of holes in the top and pour the three milk (the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream with vanilla) over the top.  Then you let it sit in the frig for three hours to let the milk get fully absorbed by the cake. 

I let it sit over night so I could do that last step (the whip cream frosting) right before serving it. 

I had a piece for breakfast :-) and then sent the rest with Jonathan to Bishopric meeting, so they could have some.  Then his Sunday School class finished it off. 

This isn't the sort of thing I'd normally make - cake soaked in milk - doesn't sound that appetizing to me.  But I was glad I did make it.  The cake is incredibly moist (obviously) and sweet, but not sickly sweet.  The cinnamon and whip cream frosting really make the whole thing taste wonderful.  The whip cream frosting isn't sweet to me at all but it's the perfect flavor and texture compliment to the cake.  Overall I really liked it and I'd recommend it!

Check out Amanda's blog for the full recipe. 

Table Talk - Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week for Table Talk we baked.  My favorite!!  You can't beat chocolate chip cookies but this was an awfully involved recipe, especially for one that only produces 18 cookies.  If I made this again I would double it.  Why go to all this work for so few cookies.

 

It starts out like a typical cookie recipe, mix the dry ingredients and mix the wet.  But before you mix the wet ingredients you brown some of the butter.  That's supposed to enhance the flavor but I didn't really notice a difference. 

 

But the most annoying thing was I burned the butter the first time around.  I got the butter perfectly brown and nutty smelling.  I turned off the heat and snapped a picture. 

But in that time the heat of the pan was enough that it went completely black!  It literally happened right before my eyes. 

I dumped the whole thing out and started over.  This time I didn't take a picture until it was in the bowl.  :-)

Then next weird thing was the recipe had me cream the sugar into the melted butter.  Once it was fully incorporated I had to let it "rest" for 3 minutes.  Then I repeated that two more times.  It was supposed to make it thick... I didn't notice.

The rest of the recipe was pretty straight forward, mix in dry with the wet, mix in the chocolate chips, until the last step.  Once I formed the balls of dough for the cookie I took the last of the chocolate chips and pressed a few into each of the cookies, so you could see lots of chocolate chips in every cookie. 

I took a picture before I did that...

And one after...

You can see a difference but probably not something I would bother doing again. 

All these extra steps are because these are "healthy" chocolate chip cookies.  They were trying to maximize the flavor while minimizing the calories.  They didn't do too bad... each cookie is only 120 calories with 5 grams of fat.  But personally I'd rather just make Tollhouse next time.  :-)

For the full recipe check out Valerie's blog.