R.I.P. Chuck

Today I write with a solumn heart and a grossed out stomach. Our beloved Chuck the fantail passed away today after a week long battle with dropsy. For those of you that don't know what that means dropsy is a symptom of an underlying condition. His tummy started to swell on one side and then his scales puffed off his body giving him a pine cone look. He wasn't eating much and wasn't moving much so we quarantined him and doctored him the best we knew how (all our knowledge coming from the internet). Alas, it wasn't enough. Chuck went the way of the buffalo. I have a very sensitive gag reflex when it comes to dead fish. I can hardly stand to look at them let alone flush them. Unfortunately for me Chuck croaked when I was home alone for lunch. I got home and the bathroom door was closed because Sam had put him in there in hopes to warm the water up. I didn't dare go in there so I just went about eating my lunch and watching the 12 o'clock news until I absolutely had to get ready for work. I opened the door and to my disgust and sadness he was floating pitifully on his side and I saw him take his dying breath. In a panic I texted Sam who was in class and asked if I should flush him or what but Sam didn't respond fast enough so I took the bucket and dumped all of its contents into the toilet and with a quick flush and a rush of heebie-jeebies deceased fish was gone forever. I have a love hate relationship with these animals. When I lived at home I had a few years where I couldn't even look at the fish bowl, especially when I was eating. *bleh* In a tank they are more asthetically pleasing but ask me to change the water or flush a fish and you run the risk of reviewing my most recent meal in reverse. So, rest in peace Chuck. You will be missed and soon replaced because Gordito looks so small and lonely without you there.

Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken

I found this recipe online (that's where I find all my new recipes) yesterday when I was bored out of my mind at work. Sam was skeptical at the combination of teriyaki sauce and Ranch dressing but it turned out really really good. Now, I won't go as far as to say it was amazing because it was fast Sunday today so my ravenous appetite probably exaggerated things a bit but we both really loved it. We ate it with rice. I forgot to take a picture thanks to the afore mentioned appetite of mine. We didn't have any Ranch dressing so I made homemade kind and it was great. We're not sure where the "cheeseburger" part of the name came from but it was good none the less. The blog I got it from mentioned how to make homemade bacon bits and then you brown the chicken in some of the bacon grease. We did that and since everything is better with bacon it kicked things up a notch. I'll include the bacon bit recipe even though I'm sure everyone knows how to cook bacon.

Homemade Bacon Bits

The first trick is to cut your bacon in half. She does it while it’s still unopened in the package, just cut it in half so the bacon strips aren’t so long.

Arrange the bacon in a single layer in a large skillet over LOW to medium-low heat. On my electric stove, which ranges from 1 - 9, I put the heat on 4. Leave the bacon on one side (without flipping) until the fat starts turning translucent and the red part starts getting browned on the bottom (use tongs to lift up the bacon and check). You really just have to watch it and keep checking, but it’ll probably take around 10 mins. But that’s not exact so just keep checking on it. ;) When that happens, flip all the bacon slices over to the other side. In another 5-10 mins, the other side will be nice and brown and done. If both sides are nice and browned, drain bacon slices on paper towels (make layers of bacon and paper towels). If you need to flip the bacon over again, that’s fine too. Crumble bacon into bits. Put extra in zip lock bag and freeze till needed again.

Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, split
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup Ranch dressing
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 lb bacon (or bacon bits)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large skillet, heat oil & butter (or leftover bacon grease) over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts, and saute 4 to 5 minutes each side, until lightly browned. Place browned chicken breasts in a 9×13 inch baking dish. Cover with teriyaki sauce and dressing. Sprinkle with cheese and top with bacon bits. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear

Gorilla Bread

I found this recipe online. I'd been craving monkey bread for months but not having a bundt pan or a recipe posed a problem. Luckily, by New Year's Eve I had both things and baked gorilla bread took it to the rocking party at the White's. I've recently begun to agree with someone online that Paula Deen is out to kill everyone. This recipe is one of hers but if eaten once a year I don't think your arteries will clog instantly. I can't remember the original name but the blog I found the recipe on said that her daughters call it gorilla bread because its one step up from monkey bread. SO FREAKING GOOD. That's all I have to say.

Gorilla Bread

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 (8 oz.) pkg cream cheese

2 (12 oz.) cans refrigerated biscuits (10 count)

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts or 3/4 cup walnuts and 3/4 cup pecans

Spray bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon. In a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar over low heat, stirring well; set aside. Cut the cream cheese into 20 cubes. Press the biscuits out with your fingers and sprinkle each with cinnamon sugar. Place a cube of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the cream cheese. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts. Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes. Place plate on top and invert.

Christmas/New Year's

I know, I know. I'm way behind. I've just not had the drive lately to blog. I think its because I'm on a break from school so I took a break from blogging too. I tend to like to use blogging to get out of things like work. Any ways, My report on Christmas and New Year is here. Sam and I went up to SLC the weekend of Dec. 20th and went out to dinner with all his siblings, their spouses and his parents. We went to Szechuan Garden and it was amazing! We were only home a few days before we left for St. George to stay at my parent's house. We were down there for almost a week. My uncle's family was there the whole time too. It started snowing on Christmas Eve and I was on egg shells waiting for Sam to get a call to go home and push snow but it never came and so it was nice to have him stay the whole time. One downer is that I had started getting a cold in SLC but by the time Christmas morning rolled around I was pretty darn sick. My head felt like I was going to explode and the kids squealing over their new toys didn't help but I bucked up and played along. We got spoiled this Christmas for sure. Sam's parent's got us a tv and gave me a orange pair of heels for my birthday and Sam a new tool set for his birthday. My family was generous as well. Our stocking was filled to the brim with candy and there was a leatherman in it for Sam and an iTunes card for each of us. My little sister drew out my name for Christmas and she gave me a cute pair of earrings and my other sister had Sam and gave him The Office Trivia Game which we love playing. I got Sam a brand new gun case for his deer hunting rifle because his old one is falling apart at the seams, literally. I got him a case of bullets too. He got my present months in advance and it was in a huge box. Everyone was dying to know what it was and when I opened it I found it was a brand new ergonomic office chair that i could take to work. My old chair gave me tension headaches and this chair is designed to give you better posture thus relieving my tension headaches (side note: my computer just crashed for some odd reason so I am sitting at my manager's desk using her computer and chair so odds are i'll be going home with a tension headache, woo!). My mom got me a new top and two skirts but the skirts "didn't portray youth" as my dad put it so we took them back and will be buying something else with the gift card we got back. My mom also got me four new undershirts which I was in dire need of. Sam also gave me two pairs of earrings and I gave him new black Dr. Martin's. My mom also got us two pretty black picture frames and enlarged some photos from our wedding so we could frame them and hang them on our bare walls (i'm horrible at decorating). After Christmas Sales are awesome as well. We got Sam a $70 pair of Sketchers for $25 because they were on sale and we had a gift card from our wedding. We got me two new shirts at Old Navy, paying only like $2 out of pocket with a gift card I'd had since high school. We also got new place mats and a bathroom mat at Pier 1 with a gift card from out wedding. Sam and taught me the art of cheap shopping. My parent's got one of my sisters a dog for Christmas and she's the sweetest thing ever! Her name is Snickers and she doesn't bark and just wants to be your snuggle buddy. We had a lot of fun with her. I think it was the day after Christmas when my dad and my uncle took us and all the kids to Laser Mania and we played one round of Laser Tag and one round of Glow-In-The-Dark Golf. It was way fun. My mom got Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii for Christmas. Its hard but we had fun playing it. We also watched a lot of "It's Me Or The Dog" on tv. Its my new favorite show. Too bad we don't have that channel at home. We also went to my cousin's wedding reception. It was beautiful and I ran into my friend that's engaged to a guy I grew up with. There have been SO many weddings this past year. People just had to copy Sam and I. Haha.

Ok, New Years was fun too. I didn't have to work New Year's Eve or New Year's Day so Sam and I spent some relaxing quality time with each other all day on New Year's Eve and then that night we went over to his sister's house to party the night away. Another one of his sisters that lives forever away in the frozen north end of Utah was visiting too on their way home from Vegas and it was really good to see her and her family. I tried a new recipe called Gorilla Bread and it was fantastic! I'll post the recipe later today with pictures. It was gone pretty quickly. We adults watched The House Bunny and it was pretty darn funny. I was expecting more nudity and such but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After that a group of us played Boxers or Briefs which is mine and Sam's favorite game. We paused momentarily for the count down. Of course I kissed someone at midnight and I bet you couldn't guess who. Haha. We went home a little after 1:00 to get some shut eye. On New Year's Day my whole family came up to have a snow day with us. They picked us up at our house and we headed up the mountain to Brian Head. Once we got there we found out that you need reservations so we weren't able to play there. We drove back down the mountain and hit up various stores in search of sleds/tubes. We finally found some at Ace Hardware and then went over the Canyon View and had a blast sledding. We ran into Sam's nieces there which was funny. No one got injuried in the fast and fun sled rides. Littlest brother got hit in the face with a snowball on accident and it was pretty fun. Call me mean but he's a drama queen and got over it 20 minutes later. After that we went back to our house and got changed then went out for dinner to Pioneer Pizza. Delish. We then went to The Tale of Despereaux which turned out to be a cute movie. It's really well done. It's based on a childrens book and the animation is amazing. They dropped us off at home and headed home themselves. All in all a great Holiday Season!

Also, I had a fun night in Cedar because Sara finally decided to grace this town with her presence. We got to party at a rich lawyer's house because her significant other was house sitting for a few days. Holy huge house! We watched Enchanted and then played a hilarious round of Boxers or Briefs. You get to know people pretty fast in that game. Sara lost and loves being reminded of it. :)