Pulled Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches

I found this recipe on Foodie Bride. I can't seem to get enough grilled pineapple these days so a dinner sandwich with grilled pineapple sounded great. And, as always, I like to try new ways to cook Ryan's least favorite meat... Chicken.

The flavors were awesome but something was funky about the chicken. It was all sort of mushy... probably didn't let it sit long enough before shredding. I dunno, I'll likely try this again soon to perfect it.

Pulled Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches
copied from: FoodieBride

1/2 cup Heinz 57 Sauce
Fresh pineapple, cored and sliced into 7 1/4″-1/2″ inch rings
2 Tbsp honey, plus more (if desired)
Tabasco sauce
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Olive oil
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
6 buns or sandwich rolls (I used sliced, toasted sourdough)

Heat grill to medium heat.

Place one 1/2″ ring of pineapple into a food processor or blender and process. Puree. Or obliterate. You’re looking for a sauce-like end-product.


Pour the processed pineapple into a medium bowl and stir in the steak sauce, agave nectar, and a couple of dashes of Tabasco. Taste and add agave if additional sweetness is desired.

Remove 1/4 cup of sauce to use for basting and reserve the rest for serving.

Brush pineapple rings with olive oil and place on the grill. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side, until the sugars start to caramelize and nice grill marks have developed.


Pound chicken breasts lightly, just to reach an even thickness. Brush the Hawaiian sauce on one side of the chicken breast and season liberally with salt and pepper. Place on the grill and cook until internal temps reach 170 (about 6-8 minutes), turning once halfway through. Before turning the chicken, baste with the remaining Hawaiian sauce.

Remove chicken and pineapple rings from the grill when done. Let chicken stand for 5-10 minutes before shredding with two forks. Add the chicken to a bowl and toss with the remaining Hawaiian sauce. Divide the pineapple rings and Hawaiian chicken between the 6 buns/sandwich rolls and serve warm.

Thanks, FoodieBride, for another great recipe!

Fried Pickles

One of my favorite places back home in Mississippi is Que Sera Sera. It's a local place near Millsaps Campus with good southern food. Of course, the main attraction is the fried pickles dipped in peppercorn ranch dressing.

We search for fried pickles wherever we go. If they are on the menu, we order. We like chips better than spears. I finally decided to try to make some a few months ago. Still haven't perfected but getting close.


Fried Pickles

Thick Sliced Hamburger Pickles (Vlassic Ovals and Mt Olive Hamburger Dills are the ones I have used)
1/2 c Bread Crumbs
1/4 c Corn Meal
1/4 c Flour
Vegetable Oil

Heat oil in large skillet, just enough so that pickles can still float.
Mix dry ingredients together.
Coat pickles in breading.
Drop in very hot oil. When they start to float, flip them over and let cook a little longer, until golden brown.

Remove from skillet onto paper towel to drain off grease.

Serve with ranch dressing.

Woodforest Discovery Day

If you are looking for something to do on Saturday, want to take a peak out our new house or the other houses being built in Woodforest... head out to Montgomery for Woodforest Discovery Day. There will be lots of kids activities including a Petting Zoo. There is a drawing for a $2500 Home Depot gift card as well.

Ryan and I will be there in the afternoon. Hope to see you there.

Crush: A Wine Lounge

I really like wine. I don't really know much about it, but I like it.

A couple of weekends ago, we tried the new wine bar in The Woodlands -- Crush. It's located in on the second floor and rooftop of a two story build right on The Woodlands Waterway at Waterway Square. We had a nice table on the second floor patio that had a good view of the park and waterway. A band was playing in the park and families were gathered on the lawn. We ordered a bottle of wine and stayed until the sun went down.

We ran into some friends and stayed a while longer. They ordered pizza and shared. The pepperoni was yummy.

Good Wine. Good Food. Good View. We'll definitely go back again.

Deer

Oh yeah... we saw a pretty deer on our street today. I wonder what Admiral is going to do when a deer comes up to our fence?

Starting to see the details

The trim work is really coming along and I am starting to see the details. Here are some pictures from my trip to the house today.

Kitchen: I am really excited to see the vent hood 100% complete. Right now, its a little "wide" looking as we are waiting on the vent motor to be installed and then they will finish out the front panel to the right size. One of Ryan's "for sale" houses has a similar (but larger) vent hood that is already stained and I fell in love today. Ours will be painted with the surrounding cabinets stained. I'm very excited to see it come together.
Bookshelves on both sides of the island for cookbooks. Cabinets under the bar overhang.
Pull out shelves in the cabinets surrounding the stove.
Family Room: Ceiling beams, entertainment center, mantle (will be surrounded by stone).
Home office off the study. This will likely be where I work on the days I am at home.
Butler's Pantry between the Kitchen (standing here while taking picture), Wine Room (opening to the left) and Dining room(opening to the right).
For some reason this big, wide drawer makes me happy!
My Closet: SHOE CUBBIES!!!!
Utility Room
Game Room Entertainment Center
Upstairs home office -- for the future kids.
Breakfast room built in hutch.

Don't call Animal Control...

Earlier this year, when we were cleaning up the flower bed, we decided to put Admiral in the trash can. Don't ask me why, but we thought it was pretty funny.



I don't think Admiral thought it was funny, but we did. And, he did help smoosh (is that a word) the twigs and leaves down so we could fit more in the trash can.