Liquid love

If I told you we drink about a gallon of milk a week that would be no suprise. If I told you at LEAST half was chocolate milk would you judge... I could blame Tony but truthfully I could match him glass for chocolaty glass. So today I made my own chocolate syrup. So easy and I already had everything I needed, it is simply sugar, water, chocolate syrup, vanilla, salt and corn syrup. Boil and cool. (Thanks Alton) No HFC,no gums, and no artificial flavor. In fact, I just sent Jon to the store for some ice cream cause I sort of felt guilty eating it straight from the pan, but only because it all would not fit into the bottle.

As far as dinner, I have relied on comfort food lately, tonight we had roasted chicken and potatoes with mustard greens. Yesterday I wanted barbacoa, but when I went to purchase the cheek meat it is so disgusting looking that I couldn't do it. I'll leave the traditonal barbacoa for eating out. So I made shredded beef tacos instead - white girl style. I took a chuck roast and basically made a pot roast with mexican seasoning -garlic, onion, comino, tomato. Then boiled down all the liquid, shredded the beef and combined it with the glaze. Served with fresh corn tortillas, onions and cilantro, and guac. They were great, and I think could easily be done in a crock pot for a week day meal. We like it so much that I'm thinking about doing it with the pork butt in the cooler for later this week.  

cheddar crusty bread

I rarely make bread from scratch but we were invited to dinner on Saturday and they asked if I would bring bread and thought I couldn't get away with walking in with a loaf of grocery store garlic bread. So I bought a bag of King Arthur bread flour and used the recipe off the back of the bag. It was a cheddar and garlic stuffed crusty french loaf. It began with a starter and was a pretty standard bread recipe but then you roll it out into a rectangle and put shredded sharp Cheddar and roasted garlic and then roll it up allow it to bench proof and I baked it on my pizza stone. I threw a couple of ice cubes in the bottom of the oven to help the outside get crusty and then basted it with a stick of garlic herb butter when it came out of the oven. It was DELISH!!! It had a pretty pinwhell of bright cheddar cheese when you cut it and Jon said it was the best part of the meal. I will have to send you the exact recipe. It took all day to proof  but it was so simple I will definitely make it again.

Swordfish

Last night I grilled swordfish. I was so excited and it was smelling delish but then one bite and something happened and I couldn't eat it. Jon and even Tony loved it. I just seasoned it with salt and pepper and olive oil put it on a hot cast iron seared it on all sides and served it with a garlic compund butter. I made rice pilaf and broccoli to go along side. So I ate my broccoli and rice and finished up with a bowl of pecan praline ice cream. And tonight on the complete opposite side Jon requested chicken fried steak and gravy which I am equally looking forward to.