Daily Chatter: 10/23/12

Earlier today I asked on Facebook if you like seeing chatty-type posts where I talk about what I’m cooking, show you peeks at my home, or share about a crazy shopping trip are interesting to you, and since there weren’t too many naysayers, I’m going to try to start a “Daily Chatter” post in the late afternoon or evenings. I’d love to have you join in the comments and chat about your day, too!

Over the weekend, Jeremy and I had a spur-of-the-moment chance to go out without the kids so we drove around and looked at houses for awhile (yes, even though my husband is a realtor and does that all day long, he’s willing to take me to do it!) and then went to Pei Wei to use our buy one, get one free coupon. I have to confess that I love Pei Wei, and I really love the way their meat is a little bit crispy on the outside. I’ve wanted to replicate that forever!

Well, I looked around for a recipe for Kung Pao Chicken and found this one. I thought the meat looked a lot like Pei Wei’s meat so I tried it last night.

If you look at the picture closely, you can probably tell that I didn’t follow it exactly since the recipe doesn’t call for carrots or broccoli. However, I did try to follow the actual meat part of the recipe, and while it was fine, it didn’t have that crispy coating that I’d hoped for. :( Back to the drawing board…

Oh, and in case you are wondering, my kids hated it. They are super finicky about Asian food, but I’ve learned that usually if I feed them something enough times, they learn to love it. (Case in point: they used to despise Sichuan Green Beans but I kept making them because Jeremy and I love it, and now it’s one of my kids’ favorite meals. Same with gumbo.)

I also made up a big batch of the make-ahead twice-baked potatoes with caramelized onions that I mentioned yesterday in my freezer cooking post. Of course, I didn’t really follow that recipe exactly either (*blush*) but I think they are going to be fantastic anyway.

We ate supper just before 6 PM and I had the potatoes finished and the kitchen cleaned up just after 7 PM! There should be presidential debates every night to motivate me to get stuff done so early. ;) (Wait – that’s not normal to plan your day around watching a political debate, is it?)

Jeremy and I had ice cream for dessert – actually, I had sherbet and he had “frozen dairy dessert”. I bought some of Breyer’s Black Raspberry Chocolate recently, knowing it was no longer ice cream but thinking we’d had it before and it was at least better than Dreyer’s “frozen dairy dessert”. Well, even long-suffering ice cream lover Jeremy noticed the difference in texture so I won’t be buying it again. I think Breyer’s Triple Chocolate is one of the few varieties they have left that’s still “ice cream”. :(

What’s happening at your house today? Or maybe I should just ask what you’ve been eating since that’s all this post has talked about!