Shelly's Hot Mess Chicken and Famous Potatoes w/ Spinach Salad

I decided to put together this dinner together tonight because I have been so engrossed with my invitation business this past week that I have been sort of ignoring my poor husband. I felt so bad about so I put together a delicious dinner at the table complete with wine and water served in our pretty crystal we got for our wedding...I was also able to use our pretty silver serving platter and fancy serving utensils and placemats, napkins and napkin rings...ok, ok, so I wanted an excuse to actually use all this stuff...LOL.

I made Shelly's famous potatoes and her hot mess chicken (see nomnomnom in my favorites). Along with the hot mess and famous taters I made my famous spinach salad with homemade lemon olive oil dressing. I also made a loaf of homemade italian bread with italian spices in my bread maker (and I am happy to report actually doing a good job at it!). I have to say, I was very intimidated by the chicken recipe, but it was really super easy!

Excuse the jacked up walls in the background...we're in the middle of demoing our kitchen.

Hot Mess Chicken (recipe copy/pasted from Shelly's blog)

Hot Mess ChickenServes: However many you can fit on the pan
-Large skinless boneless chicken breast (I filleted it then pounded it)

-Thick sliced bacon (I used thick pepper crusted bacon..mmmm...)

-Red Onion

-Fresh Leaf Basil (we grow basil in our garden, so it was super fresh! fresher the better)

-Small can petite diced tomatoes

-Provolone Cheese

-Toothpicks

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Yup.

2. Get a baking sheet that has edges and line it with foil (easier clean up!). Then take a rack from your toaster oven and put that on top of the foil so there is a gap. Or if you wanna be all 'top chef'... just use a broiler pan =)

3. Take a chicken breast and put it between some plastic wrap and pound it with a meat mallet. Or a big can of beans will work! Not too thin... maybe like an even half inch. Or if you wanna get crazy and skip the next step... pound it out into a really big flat piece that is about a quarter inch thick.

4. If you stuck with the half inch option, take a knife and slit the chicken open (parallel with the countertop) and open it like a book. Don't cut it all the way open.

5. Lay in some provolone, a handful of diced red onion, a couple spoonfuls of tomato, and a few leaves of basil.

6. Fold up the chicken. Now lay out 3-4 slices of thick sliced bacon and put the chicken in the middle. Wrap the ends of bacon up over the chicken and overlap them. Secure with a toothpick. Try and cover most of the open seam to keep the goodies in.

7. Place on the rack or broiler pan. I like to pour some italian dressing all over it, but that's up to you. Put in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. The bacon should be pretty crisped and the chicken cooked thru. Yummm.

Shelly's Famous Potatoes

-5 cups chopped red potatoes (about 5 large) (I used idaho potatoes cuz I'm not a fan of reds)

-1/2 cup diced red bell pepper (I skipped the red cuz we don't really like it)

-1/3 cup diced green bell pepper

-1/2 cup diced sweet onion

-1 teaspoon garlic salt

-1/2 tablespoon montreal steak seasoning

-4+ tablespoons butter or margarine

-Foil

1. Lay out about 2 feet of non-stick foil or non-stick sprayed regular foil.

2. Wash & scrub red potatoes clean. Chop up potatoes into bite sized pieces and place in single layer onto center of foil.

3. Dice peppers and onion and sprinkle onto potatoes, toss with hands if necessary.

4. Place little chunks of butter or margarine over top, space out as necessary.

5. Sprinkle garlic salt and steak seasoning evenly over mixture (amount may be adjusted to taste). We are not shy with either of them in my house!!

6. Fold foil up over the mixture, covering everything. Take another piece of foil and wrap in opposite direction to make sure the packet is leak-proof.

7. Place on grill at medium heat (about 350-400 degrees) for 35-45 minutes (flip over packet halfway through cooking), depending on your grill and your potato firmness preference.

8. Cut open foil pouch and serve, careful of the steam!

Lemon/Olive Oil Dressing

- 1 large lemon

- 1 tbsp fresh garlic

- 1/2 c olive oil (the darker the better)

Zest part of the lemon, cut it in half and juice the heck out of it. Add the garlic and the olive oil and wisk together. Serve over a bed of baby spinach with bacon bits, tomatoes and shaved Parmesan cheese...delish!

Delicious Fruit Salad

I made this fantastic fruit "salad" and fruit dip for my best friend, Jennifer's, Mehendi party on July 2. I purchased the bowl that the salad and dip is in from Bed, Bath and Beyond and it was the best $29 I spent. The bowl I think really made the salad look so much nicer than if it were in just a regular glass, metal or Tupperware bowl.

Fruit Salad Ingredients
(any portion of)
Strawberries
Honeydew
Cantaloupe
Grapes (red and green)
Kiwi
Pineapple
Fresh Mango
Blueberries

Chop all the melons up, slice the kiwi and strawberries, mix it all together and PRESTO you have fruit salad!

Fruit Dip
8-16 oz Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 large container of Marshmallow Fluff

Using your stand mixer (or hand mixer if you don't have a KitchenAid), beat the cream cheese on medium until it is smooth (lumps = bad). With your mixer on low, start adding in the marshmallow fluff to the point where your mixture starts to form somewhat solid peaks. You can add food coloring (I used red in the picture) to make your desired color or just leave it white...it tastes fantastic no matter what!

The fruit dip also makes an excellent cake frosting (white cake with fruit dip frosting makes me drool thinking about it)

Enjoy!

My Yummy Taco Salad

I made my yummy taco salad for Memorial Day and it was, as always, a huge hit. Generally I add all the toppings to the salad and I get all artsy-fartsy with it, but with finicky ass eaters I put the toppings on the side...chopped onion, tomato and minced black olives (and I even stuffed one the the whole olives with tomato for presentation...LOL). I don't allow people to put Catalina dressing on my taco salad. Taco salad is to be served with sour cream and salsa or some sort of hot sauce.

The recipe will depend on your crowd size...this is the recipe I use for parties and such.

Ingredients

2 lbs ground round (you can use turkey or a higher end ground beef if you like)

2 packages Ortega taco seasoning (or seasoning of your choice)

1 head lettuce

1 head leaf lettuce

1 head romaine lettuce

1 (8)oz. bag of mild cheddar cheese (shredded)

4-5 roma tomatoes, chopped

1/2 large vidalia onion, chopped

Black olives (however many you like)

Sour cream

Salsa (jar of any type store bought salsa)

1 bag tortilla chips

Directions

Brown the ground beef on medium heat, drain grease (also use paper towel to soak up grease that didn't drain, making sure the beef is somewhat dry). Add taco seasoning following directions on the back of the package. Simmer for about 10 minutes and let stand to room temperature. Put into Tupperware, seal and put it into the refrigerator.

Chop up all the lettuce and put into bowl. When ground beef is cold, spread over the top of the lettuce, do the same with the cheese and chopped veggies. Serve with sour cream and salsa (a Tbsp. of each on top of each serving), and crushed tortilla chips on top (do not mix the chips into the salad...nothing worse than soggy tortilla chips).

Side note:

This is also really good to put inside of a taco salad bowl, which you can buy at the grocery store...its like the old taco salad "bowls" Taco Bell used...the flour tortillas shaped into a bowl and you put your salad in it.