Baked Chippy Chicken Fingers

Use Me by Bill Withers
Now, my bags of chips don't sing to me like that bag of limes from my last post, but they get the message of their need to be used across just fine.  If they DID sing, however, I imagine they'd be singing along with Mr. Withers - "Oh, you just keep on using me until you use me up."  It cracks me up just how well the lyrics of this song fit a bag of chips!  It never used to be a problem - using up those chips.  But, nowadays, it is.  Do I stop buying them?  Nooo!  Not only do I keep buying them - I buy more "gourmet" chips - chips that give the impression that a "sandwich and chips" dinner is fine fare!  Still - what to do with ALL those chips - especially those last broken up bits.  You toss them all together and make these chicken fingers.  To paraphrase the song, "If it tastes this good getting used, you just keep on using me until you use me up!"

Chips never used to last long enough in my house to get to that stage where you start wondering about their freshness.  But, now that we're empty nesters, this happens quite frequently.  I used to just toss them.  This past week, however, I stopped myself as the recollection of one of my kids' favorite meals popped into my head.  Several years ago I had read about an idea of using crushed up potato chips to coat chicken breast strips.  I had a hunch that this was something my little brood would enjoy.  They loved them!

Lime Sugar Cookies

What About Now by Lonestar
A song about taking advantage of a good deal and seizing the moment.  He was talking about a car for sale.  I'm talking about a bag of limes.  Yep.  A whooooooole bag.  Of limes.  It works.  Be patient and read on . . .

I made another Disneyland Costco run about a week and a half ago.  It had been almost two months since my last trip and I was in agony!  So, when my list of needed items finally got to the "gotta go" stage, I cheerfully informed my husband that it was time for a Costco outing!!!!  He knows how I feel.  How I don't like to be rushed.  How I loooove a slow perusal of every aisle (sans the automotive stuff.)  He's fine with it.  He gets lost, too.  We run into each other now and then - but I keep the cart.  It's understood that I'm more likely to find something we can't live without than he is - like the bag of limes.  A whole bag of limes.

Quick and Creamy Tomato Pasta - For Two

Howlin' For You by The Black Keys

I really want to thank my buddy, Ian C., for acting so incredulous last fall when he found out I didn't have any Black Keys in my music library.  I wasn't even sure if I had heard of them before.  GASP!!  He let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I should take care of that as soon as I got home (we were both vacationing on the Oregon coast at the time.)  Well, I did.  I came home and I sampled.  And then I bought.  And I saw that Ian was right.  Where had I been?  These guys are AMAZING!  I love their bluesy funk that they've got going!  Especially this Howlin' For You song.  The beat in this song absolutely speaks to my inner primal being - much like the drum solo in In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly.  And much like this very easy, very delicious, very quick, pasta with a creamy tomato sauce.  It has me howlin' every time I fix it.  And I fix it often - because anything that tastes this good in 20 minutes or less should be made often.  

It's Valentine's Day today and, if you haven't already found yourself a valentine, you better hop to it!  Like I said last week - I tagged mine early this year!

I think pasta makes a very romantic meal - as long as it doesn't get too involved.  Nobody wants to be weary by the time dinner rolls around.  This dish makes up so quickly.  You'll be amazed!  You can use any type of pasta - penne or rigatoni would be great - affording little tunnels where the tomatoes can sneak in and hide until you bite into them!  But I suggest taking a cue from the Lady and the Tramp and use a long noodle such as fettuccine.  That way you can share a bowl and dig in at the same time and eat until you end up nose to nose at the end of the same noodle!  

"Why, hello there, Sweetheart!"

Cherry Chocolate "Sushi"

Round and Round by Perry Como
The perfect "love" song for these cute little "sushi" wheels!  Perry Como got a whole new generation of admirers when they used this song in the fabulous movie, "Blast From the Past."  Watch this scene and just enjoy it! Seriously!  Click on that link!  Perry's voice has no tricks - no engineered nuance.  His is just a good old-fashioned clear singing voice that you could listen to for hours.  And this song captures that head-over-heels feeling of falling in love.  If you're not grinning ear to ear by the end of this song, you have no heart!  Round and round goes our life and our love.  And round and round goes these dessert sushi rolls - and they're likely to roll right into your heart and stay there!  

I've been thinking alot lately about me and my husband's friendship/courtship.  It was on the unique side.  We'd met in my hometown in Pennsylvania but he lived 2000 miles away in Utah.  So we got to know each other through letters.  

At first these letters were friend to friend.  But I knew something was changing when I realized that I was looking forward to his letters with increased excitement and anticipation.  No matter how rotten my day had been, when I got home and saw that I had a letter from him, my heart just exploded with joy and I raced up to my room to read what he had to say.  I fell in love with him through those letters.  We talked on the phone now and then.  That's back when long distance phone calls were for emergencies or special occasions.  Phone calls are nice - hearing each other's voice.  But letters - you can read them over and over and over again.  Sigh!!!

Sesame Garlic Green Beans

Maniac by Michael Sembello
It's the BIG game day this Sunday - the Super Bowl.  It's that day when many people get together to eat great "football" food, anticipate some unbelievably clever advertising campaigns, catch up on the latest, and watch some football in between all of that.  Well, that's been my experience anyway!  My team, sadly, isn't involved this year so my interest is going to be mostly fixed on the food and the commercials.  And the halftime show.  Which will be in my kitchen making these green beans!  And this should be your game plan as well!  Halftime shows are notoriously bad.  Not all of them, mind you.  But the sound is usually off, the choreography either ahead or behind the beat.  If it's an artist you really like, you're usually not happy with the smidgeon of time you get to see them as there are so many things going on on that field that the camera has to be too many "other" places than on them.  I find I get frustrated, wanting to grab the camera through the screen and do it myself.  Nope.  The halftime show should be wherever you're watching.  You turn on this song, grab your wok, and do your own kitchen dance.  It works.  I know because my daughter figured out the choreography for me last night.  She used the entire space, including the fridge and sink area.  It was intriguing.  Trust me.  These green beans are done in a flash!  And they're beautifully crisp tender and, at least for me, they're finger food!

I discovered the Mustard Seed Asian Cafe in Spokane, Washington on one of my first trips to visit the city.  It's located in the Northtown Mall on Division Street.  I'm always on Division Street when I go to Spokane.  It's miles and miles of great shopping.  And this particular time I ended up being exhausted and ready to eat at this point along the way.  A quick look at the menu and peek inside the door told  me that this place had possibilities.

Possibilities?!  Wow.  Have you ever cried because something you were eating was so good?  Outside of a Chocolate Chip Cookie, I mean.  The first time there I didn't order an appetizer.  I ordered the Shrimp Osaka and, seriously, wanted to cry.  I have yet to figure that sauce out but have no problem driving two hours to Spokane to "work on it."