Pickled Ginger

I recently came across a Canning magazine, and since then, I have become slightly obsessed with all things canning! Okay, who am I kidding? I'm way more than slightly obsessed. This has become a full out love affair! I love the idea of being able to make jams and soups and pickled items with fruit and veggies that are in season, and being able to can and enjoy them when they are no longer in season. It's brilliant, if you ask me. Well my teacher, whom we shall call Mrs. C, was telling our class that she was craving some ginger. You know, the kind you get when you order sushi. I got all kinds of excited and my eyes got big and I thought, "Oh my goodness. This is the perfect excuse to can something!" Little did she know about my recent canning obsession.  I very casually told her I would make her some. Success! I wanted to jump up and down and do black-flips! But, I was in a classroom, and that would've been just weird. So anywho! Should we get started on the recipe? You will need:

• 2 large ginger roots (a little less than a lb.)
• 1.5 cups rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbs. fresh lemon juice
• pinch of kosher salt

The first thing you are going to want to do is pick up the ginger root and laugh at its appearance. Kidding. Don't really do that. You will hurt its feelings. You will want to peel the ginger with either a vegetable peeler or the back of a spoon. If you have a peeler, please use the peeler. 

Once you get all the ginger peeled, you are going to want to slice it real thin with a mandolin slicer. If you have a mandolin slicer, use the safety! If you don't have a mandolin slicer, you can keep slicing it real thin with your vegetable peeler. 

Safety is your friend!

Done! That seriously was the hardest part in this whole process! Phew! Okay, now in a small saucepan, add your rice vinegar, sugar, fresh lemon juice, and pinch of salt. In a medium saucepan, add it a little less than half way with water and let it come to a boil.

Over medium heat, stir the vinegar mixture until all the sugar and salt has dissolved. 

Ta-da! Please don't mind the bottom of my pan. It's my sauce pan and it has taken a beating with my whisk. You will want to bring the liquid to a medium-high heat until it starts to boil. Remove from heat and cover. Now take the sliced ginger and add it to your boiling water.

You will want to let the ginger soften in its nice little jacuzzi, stirring often. I let mine soak for about 2-3 minutes. Once it's softened, drain the ginger in a colander. 

Give it a few good shakes to make sure all the water is drained. "Shake-shake-shake! Shake ya....ginger?" Yes, I did sing that while I shook it. Transfer the drained ginger to the counter, and using tongs, place the ginger in your Mason jar. Once the jar is full, add your vinegar mixture to the jar, making sure all the ginger is covered and filling the jar. 

Cover the jar and allow it to cool down in the refrigerator. The ginger is all yours for eating and munching in about six hours! Enjoy! And, Mrs. C, this one is for you! :)

Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken

There's two things I love: sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese. Put those two together and it's heavenly! I had been thinking about the pair all day long, and decided to stuff it up in some chicken and then bread the chicken. It was delish!! You've got to try it! You will need:

• chicken breast
• 1/3 cup bread cups
• 1/2 cup (give or take, depending on your pan size) olive oil
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 egg + 1 tbs. water 
• a nice handful of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
• goat cheese

Let's get started, shall we? First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Rinse, dry, and trim your chicken. Cut a slit in your chicken from the fat side, not the skinny side. Don't cut too deep, and don't cut from one end to the other. You're going to want to make a small slit in the middle of the breast. As you can see in this picture, I cut too far down. Let this picture be an example of what not to do! Ha! It's okay though if you go too far like I did, it's still manageable!

After you've made your cut, cover it with wax paper and bring out the meat hammer! This is my favorite part! Take out all your stress on the chicken! Bang, bang, bang! Okay, calm down, Brittney! Give it a few pounds until it's thinned out a bit. 

Carefully open up the pounded chicken and prepare to stuff it. First you will want to cut a slice of the goat cheese. I like goat cheese so I gave myself a thick slice. Take the sun-dried tomatoes out of the oil and dice them. Go ahead and add the sliced goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes to the pocket you've created. By this time, you'll want to add your oil into your pan and turn it on a medium-high heat. Just be very careful! Hot oil is no joke. I learned the hard way.. But that's another story for a different time. 

See! Not so hard! The next step I like to call the "assembly line." It makes it quite easier, trust me. You're going to want to add your bread crumbs and flour on two separate plates. Then in a bowl, add your egg and tbs of water. Mix it up. This is what is called an "egg wash." The flour helps the egg wash stick to the chicken, and the egg wash helps the bread crumbs stick to the chicken. It's a team-thing! The perfect assembly line goes like so:

First you will lay the chicken in the flour, making sure to coat both sides. Then into the egg bath, once again, making sure to wet both sides. And finally, into the bread crumbs, and, did you guess it? Covering both sides. Personally, I like to give my chickens double-dips. But that's just me. You're more than fine to only do one dip. If you would like to double-dip, just go ahead and repeat the process again. Once you've got all your chickens breaded, make sure the oil is hot enough before adding them. To check, I like to wet the tips of my fingers and shake them off in the oil. If it sizzles, you're ready! 

Can you see the little sizzle bubbles? I tried to get the best picture. In goes the chicken! You may want to bend a bit away from the pan, because when you place them in, the oil tends to jump out at ya! Give it a few minutes in the pan to turn into a nice golden color. Using tongs, flip over your chicken.

See that nice golden color? That's what you want! Give the other side a few more minutes and remove the chicken from the pan. Place the chicken in an oven-safe pan and let it finish cooking in the oven, about 12-15 minutes. 

Voila! Doesn't it look delicious? Ohh, it is! Let me know how it goes for you! 

Note: No chickens were harmed in the pounding. They were already dead. 

Baby Ripple Blanket

Ahhh! This makes me jump up and down with excitement! I fell in love with these colors, and I couldn't wait to turn it into a glorious ripple blanket. This blanket is much smaller than my other ripple. This is for a baby! A beautiful baby. Who just happens to be my niece and goddaughter. My sister-in-law loves all things bright and colorful, so I just knew this would be the perfect blanket for her Baby B. There will be 11 colors total. I am still waiting on a light blue color that has been on backorder. All 11 colors have been chosen quite randomly and without thought. I'm just picking colors as I go. The more I go, the more I love! This pattern, again, is compliments of Lucy at Attic24 and you can find her finished Baby Ripple here and her tutorial pattern here. (Just go ahead and click on those links.) This pattern is fairly easy. Once you get the swing of things, it's a breeze! And you just enjoy yourself while rippling away! Ohhh, I can't wait to show you the final product!

Hexagon Blanket

I've been working on a few different crochet items right now. I have two ripple blankets in the making, and now my wonderful hexagon blanket! I had to put a temporary hold on my two ripple blankets due to a yarn shortage, and I'm patiently waiting for more yarn to arrive in the mail. It's become a nightly routine for me, this whole crochet thing. Normally the Honey and I get into bed, we put on a good movie or a TV show, and I crochet away until my eyes won't stay open any longer. So, I just had to crochet something when I couldn't work on my ripple blankets! I am so-so-so excited about this blanket! I've been eye balling it for sometime now, and I finally just sat down and carefully learned the pattern, hook and yarn in hand! This pattern is compliments of Lucy from Attic24. Please go check out her blog, it's fabulous! And her lovely Hexagon Tutorial is here. (Just click on that link.) I hope you enjoy this blanket as much as I do, and I will be posting pictures and writing about my progress throughout this Hexagon journey!

Homemade Pickled Jalapenos

Jalapenos!  I'm more of a don't-really-care-for-them/my-mouth-is-on-fire type of gal, but my honey likes loves them! Recently, he's been complaining about how "mushy" the store bought kinds are. I've experimented with a few different brands, but all have been "not right." So! *light bulb moment* I'll make my own! I searched a few different recipes on the web for pickled jalapenos, but none really stood out to me. I decided to create my own recipe and have my honey taste test. I used:

4 fresh jalapenos, sliced 

2 cups white vinegar

3 cloves of garlic, minced

pinch of pepper

bigger pinch of salt

I added the sliced jalapenos, core and seeds, into my jar, poured the vinegar over them, added the salt and pepper and minced garlic, covered it back up and gave it a nice little shake. Now, the wait was killing me, I just had to know how they tasted (as I do all my recipes)! But, I knew they needed to sit for some time. So we occupied ourselves for a few hours, and then I broke them out! Practically forced my honey to try one! And so he did. "crunch, crunch, crunch." Ohhh! I've succeeded! But, how's the taste? Well, my honey l-o-v-e-s all things spicy, and I never think there is anything to really make him break a sweat. But boy-oh-boy, he was red and sweating! These are the kind of "kick you right out of your boots" jalapenos... and my honey loved them! 

Brittney - 1 

Mushy Jalapenos - 0 

hello, world

I am oh-so-excited to have started this blog! I've been talking to my honey about it for some time now, and I finally just sat my tush down and got going! I wanted a place to share all the things I love and give me that feel-good feeling inside! I hope you enjoy a little peek into my domestic world!

xx