Chicken Two Ways, A Time Saving Recipe

Ingredients:
Panko
Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Thyme
Kosher Salt
Smoked Paprika
Pepper
Honey
Chicken breast and/or strips
Olive oil
Egg


The butcher has a wonderful sale on chicken breasts this week. They were big enough that we could butterfly them and make two meals from one breast, hence two equals four meals. A roulade is one of our favorite "fancy" ways to make chicken (fancy means not on the grill or in the smoker...) As usual when I have an idea for a recipe, I do a Google search to see if anything similar comes up for guidelines. I came across the blog of Knees & Bees and liked their spicing suggestions and so added a few ingredients to the original idea of a Honey-Panko Chicken Roulade and with the leftovers, Honey-Panko Chicken Tenders.

So take the Panko/Spice recipe and split it in half, use one portion for each meal, I guarantee you'll enjoy.

Panko Spicing Mix
2 cups Panko
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. sugar
Mix together and divide in half. Save one portion for another meal, or just make half...

Meal #1 - Panko-Honey Chicken Roulade
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a casserole pan with olive oil and set aside. While oven is heating, loosely wrap chicken in plastic wrap and either lightly pound to 1/4" thickness or use a rolling pin. (Consistency is the key, make sure your chicken is even in thickness.) In a separate dish, combine 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika, and a sprinkle of kosher salt. Brush honey onto one side of chicken and sprinkle/fill with Parmesan mixture. Roll and tie chicken or secure with toothpicks.
Prepare an egg wash and heat a small sautee pan to med-med/high with a small bit of oil. Dredge the chicken-roll in the egg, then in the Panko mixture. Sear chicken on all sides, turning with tongs until lightly browned. Move chicken to casserole pan, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 5-10 additional minutes, until panko is nicely browned.
Remove, slice into portions, and enjoy!

Meal #2 - Panko-Honey Chicken Tenders
Hopefully you have some of that wonderful panko spice mix still left, if not, make more. Cut chicken into strips and brush with honey, refrigerate for one hour. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare egg wash and dredge as before, place breaded tenders on a covered baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Both meals are surprisingly sweet and smoky and make for a nice treat.

June 22 Outing

We love outings. So, Sunday found us and a friend loading into the Escape Pod and heading West. About 20 minutes later, we made a turn north in Canon City (Canyon city is the way to pronounce it but I can't find the Mexican squiggly n...) about 10 minutes later, we turned off onto a steep incline of a BLM (Bureau of Land Management, read public lands) road.
For the next few hours we took the 4wd up and down, in and out, got out and hiked, drove further back into wilderness, got out and hiked some more... the entire day (once pulled off on BLM roads) we did not see another soul.
We saw the chimney rock (pictured above) off in the distance, unfortunately there was a rugged canyon between us and it, so this is about as close as we got. What a great day!
For unbroken wilderness like this to be less than half an hour away is wonderful. Colorado has 8.3 MILLION ACRES of public lands... free to hike, camp, fish, swim... they are there for us to enjoy...we do and will, for sure.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018999&id=1603875079&l=457a74e0a1 is a link to our photo album from the trip.

It was extraordinarily hot (near 100) but that really didn't phase us. The air conditioning in the Escape Pod (Ford Escape) kept us satisfied between stops. The rose quartz in this region is spectacular but nothing compared to the views that round every bend. The sounds coming from our vehicle must have been comparable to Fourth of July fireworks with all the sounds of "oooh" and "ahhhh" emanating quite frequently. We've learned to carry a cooler with water bottles and lots and lots of sunscreen. At 5,000 to 10,000+ ft of elevation it is easy to burn and especially the reflection from snow and water is deceptive.
We hiked, scrambled up and down rocks, and took tons of photos. Who could ask for a better day?

Ways to Save a Buck

Who doesn't like to get a good deal? Whom among us likes to pay too much for something (ok, put your hand down because you're nuts...) We like to save as much as we can here and there. The small things add up. If you don't believe it, do what we do, keep a logbook or a jar and everything you figure as savings during one month just religiously log or put in the bank. $1.50 done several times plus .75 saved here and there plus $5 tossed in makes a pretty little chunk of savings at the end of the month.
So, here is the first of many blogs to sporadically come on little ways to put back a little bit of change that accumulates into fluffy greenbacks...

1. Coupons
We love coupons. We subscribe to the Sunday paper because what we spend on the subscription we save very quickly in coupons but there are many other great ways to accumulate coupon savings. We also get to see the ads and deals to comparison shop.
List your favorite products, the things you buy most frequently. Now go Google "Pop Tart coupon" and you've got a good start...but who makes them? Kellogg's. Go to Kellogg's website and you'll find coupons for many products, more than likely the one you're looking for, too. Next, find their 1-800 number and give them a ring, ask for some coupons. Wishbone Dressing loves to send out FREE promotional coupons, Kraft, Kellogg's, Oil of Olay, you name it and we've had a 95% success rate when calling and asking for coupons and discounts.
There are tons of coupons online but NEVER pay for them. Our favorite website is www.couponmom.com and even though their registration is a pain, we've gotten no spam from them and lots of savings.

2. Ask
It never hurts to ask. Call up the 1-800 number for your grocery, for your home repair center and ask for 10% off coupons. When we know we will be making a purchase from Lowes or Home Depot we give them a jingle and ask. Within a few days we've got a coupon in the mailbox. Along the same lines, we've found a Manager in every store from the aforementioned home repair black-hole-for-my-money-mart's to Wal, K, and department stores and explained to them that we'd like to purchase this item, we usually price check around town, but are you willing to give us a discount for store loyalty? A majority of the time we win...and the 10-25% we've had them knock off has always been greater than any price match or better sale we could have found elsewhere. Now, as for that price match thing...

3. Price Match Whenever Possible
Always look at the sales and prices around town before you buy anything. A computer at Best Buy, Staples, and Office Max may be $50-100+ difference before a sale, depending on the location, store, etc. It always helps to know your prices and when a tremendous sale goes on then use that 10% off coupon you called for earlier, most stores will price match any advertised price and you've just saved the sale price + 10%. The computer I'm writing from was purchased by price matching an incredible sale from Staples at Best Buy, using accumulated Reward Points and a 12% coupon off any electronics purchase. The price, after match and coupons, ended up being almost $115 below the very low sale price offered at Staples. all because of price match, asking for coupons, watching sales, and...participating in those stupid Rewards things...

4. Rewards Crap
They are a pain, those key fobs, discount cards, barcoded things that more resemble a Mark of the Beast than something you want to like...but I have gone to the Darkside. We have a keychain devoted to these plastic nuisances but they save us money. Every grocery store, electronics, etc. that we can, we do. Why? Junk mail is much less than it used to be, for one...but mainly it is because they really do save you money and send you things. We don't rely on them and we certainly don't believe it when it says a "Card Price" is better than anything else, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. But, when we make a purchase our barcode is scanned and now and then, because of making purchases we would have anyway, we get discount coupons.

These are in no way fail-safe but they are a few little things we've tried successfully and liked. Now, take that money and save it for one month. What you do with it at the end is up to you...put it towards a debt to lower the burden next month, put it in the bank to draw interest, or go out for a nice dinner...

BOP and POP aka A (Mis)Adventure

I'm a little slow today so forgive me if I pause or seem a bit dazed. Concussions will do that to you. What a way to begin our second time together...here we are, meeting like this again and I look like hell.
It was innocent enough, I tell you. I just went upstairs to put on a different shirt. That's all. I wanted a long sleeve shirt. The wind was ripping 25-35 and we were both really enjoying the fresh, 63 degree air blowing through the house and didn't want to close things up. I just went up to get another shirt. When I walked in the door I vaguely remember kicking the doorstop but it did not really register as something important...I will not make that mistake again. I snagged the shirt, turned to leave the room just as a gust caught the bedroom door and closed it on my face.
Now, when I say closed I mean slammed with Force Almighty. The upper bridge of my nose is broken, black forehead, puffy eyes, can't breathe right. You know that feeling after a sunburn when your skin is red and stretched tight, that's the general sensation. I hit the floor, broke the register vent, passed out briefly, and awoke to Heather asking me "What the hell?" She hand-sews these wonderful rice packs that can be used for hot or cold and thankfully we keep two in the freezer.
For better or worse, my original face is intact, no real damage other than swelling and my brain hurts. Thinking is fairly slow and work is quite entertaining in a fisheye lens, disjointed Leaving Las Vegas sort of way.
I just thought I would share...I was going to edit another blog on Frugality and Saving Money while I ate lunch but you know it just didn't go as planned. I was going to give this a good proofing but I've decided not...I've only uploaded a picture of last night's Champion. grumble, grumble, dammit.

And so then, Our Hero, beaten, bruised, and bloodied by a Simple Peasant Door did slink back off to from whence he came.

Formalities

We've missed our blog...it is amazing how therapeutic this thing can be. Silly enough, but true. For about four years we maintained postings on Yotblog.com www.yotblog.com/holdingpattern but now that we're no longer living on a sailboat it's sort of a moot point. After a few false starts on other sites, we've settled on blogger.com. But, I suppose the question begs to be answered "Who is this 'we'?" I'll cover the who, what, where, when, & why of it all...just be patient.
The we is Brian & Heather. We're both about as mid-30's as possible and fairly average in many ways...but we enjoy looking at life from a different angle (not necessarily the same angle every day, but just different angles than most.) We try to be happy and jolly but life tends to have a say in that; we try to be positive but will say critical things...we're human. As far as telling who is who, Heather is the pretty one and I am the wordy one. From time to time she will blog and it will be so noted in the title. There are two other members of our collective, both are cats with identity issues. Vevela (Samoan for Sunshine) and Takara (Japanese for Treasure) round out our little clan. They don't blog much but get referenced often.
We absolutely love the outdoors. From hiking and camping to sailing, snowboarding, skiing, off-road & ATV, and rock climbing to gardening and photography, we seem to like it all. Heather has not been sky diving but it is on the list. Thus abruptly concludes the "who" section of our presentation.
I suppose that leads to where...well, we're in Colorado. We live along the Front Range where the high plains prairie meets the mountains. Out the front window we can see 70+ miles on a good day across the prairie all the way to the Spanish Peaks (TaTa's de la Mundo) and out the back door we can see Pike's Peak and the fabulous spring/summer storms that roll across. I'm not going to be more specific than that on location, we don't want visitors. I will tell you that our house is right around 2,000 sq ft, open floor plan, we painted the east-facing bathroom flame orange to reflect the morning colors, and it absolutely glows. We have a therapist-style chair on our upstairs landing...there is no better therapy after a long day than sitting there and staring out across space and time, often it is nap inducing, for better or worse. We started a straw-bale garden but had some extreme issues with pH being way off...the peppers, herbs, and tomatoes are basically swimming in acid and languishing but the beans, peas, and lettuce seem to be thrilled with it. It's our first and last year with straw bales. Our plan is to accumulate supplies slowly and throughout the winter, build raised beds to go where the bales now sit. In an arid environment such as ours, the straw bales just do not condition properly and it is a real challenge to keep proper hydration...and a soaker hose will be much more useful in a raised bed design. You'll hear more and see pictures as things progress.
Last but not least, we enjoy comments and feedback...however, please keep it civil and at least moderately literate. If you don't like something said, don't flame us...comment, sure but please keep it decent enough so as not to be deleted. Guest blogs are also welcome, I have done multiple ( most recently on an abstract painting blog, the link is escaping me not, may post if I find) and we welcome any guest submissions. Contact for more info.

I need to be getting on to work... many more blogs will follow, lots of pictures, plenty of laughs, and maybe some tears...that remains to be seen.