Frosted Mini-Wheats...

Frosted Mini-Wheats "Touch of Fruit" is delicious.

Good times.

I could watch this everyday...

Food Network.

Sunday Dinner: Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce and Sugar Snap Peas

Lightly breaded chicken breast cutlet with a creamy mushroom sauce and sugar snap peas. It was easy and delicious. It made for a wonderful Sunday afternoon dinner.

Thank you, Food Network. Check out the receipt here:

Chicken Cutlet with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

30th Birthday Dinner: Tuscany

It's starting to become a tradition in the Yardley household to have my birthday dinner at Tuscany every year. You won't see me complaining! Har har har!

Well, I just turned the "dreaded 30" which typically is a pretty nightmarish year, but my 30th birthday was the best yet. From start to finish it was pretty spectacular, thanks to my sweet wife... 

A view of the kitchen from the lobby.

Anticipating a delicious meal ahead.

Starter: Chef's Bruschetta two ways- warm bruschetta with traditional red tomato and olive oil as well as squash with goat cheese. The best bruschetta on planet earth, as I like to call it. We also ordered salads, which were really great, but I didn't bother taking a picture of them. 

Mel's Main: Chef's Choice Risotto- really really incredible. This was the star of the night. I've had good risotto, but this was the best. 

Kasey's Main: Wood-Oven Roasted, Cured Double Center-Cut Pork Chop with Scallion Mashed Potatoes, Balsamic Roasted Red Onions, and Port Reduction Sauce- Long title. The chop is marinaded for hours, grilled to a pulp, finished in a wood-oven to roast, and perfectly tender and juicy in the middle. It's got a sweet crust that is so delicious. The best pork chop I've had. 

Seriously, go to Tuscany, order this pork chop, and thank me later. Or thank me now in the comments below.

Why is Tucanos so good?

Hanew (brother-in-law Andrew) and I went to Tucanos last night for dinner. It was great, as always.

I really appreciate the way that they cook meat. It's absolutely covered in salt (LOTS of salt) and then cooked over that hot open flame. That's how you get those amazing bites of tender sirloin with the thick, salty crust. 

Why is Tucanos so good? Lots of salt. Lots of heat. Really good meat.

Today's Craving...

I want Indian today. I wish they had drive-thru.

Grilling!

We busted out the grill on Sunday and made some delicious marinated chicken breast with grilled veggies. Both turned out pretty great. Although one of the tough things about a new grill is learning heat distribution and levels. We've also got to figure out cooking times on our new grill because no two grills are alike. So we'll learn with time how to perfect chicken, steak, pork, etc. but for our grill's inaugural run it wasn't too bad. Here's what we did:

Grilled Chicken Marinade:

2 Cups of Water

2 Cups of Brown Sugar

2 Cups of Soy Sauce

1 Clove of Garlic

1 Bunch of Scallions

1 Can of Coconut Milk

(I stole this marinade from pinterest, by the way)

Be sure to marinade the chicken breasts overnight. The brown sugar adds great caramelization to the meat and you can really taste the coconut milk and soy sauce. I grilled the chicken on low/med heat for about 7 min on each side. 

For the veggies, chop them up into larger chunks (smaller pieces will fall through the grill as you can see in the picture above with a lonely union trapped under the grill) and throw them in a bowl with some light olive oil (I like the mild flavor of light olive oil, rather than regular olive oil. I find regular olive oil to be too strong) and salt and pepper. Grill them for a couple of minutes on each side with high heat.

Place chicken and veggies over white sticky rice. And I like to dip the chicken in Sriratcha sauce (heaven's nector). Anyway, it's a very simple dish, but pretty delicious!

Try it out, son!