Frog Tales

I love this slow cooker recipe, as it can be used as a foundation for so many different mexican meals. Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Ingredients: 4 chicken breasts 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice 2 tablespoons canola oil 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons ancho chili powder 2 tablespoons cumin 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 2 tablespoons chipotle in adobo sauce, pureed 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped Salt and freshly ground black pepper Directions: Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and simmer on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.  Once cooked, shred the chicken and mix back into the simmer sauce. Enchiladas - these are made "Mondo" by the inclusion of beans, rice and corn. 2 cups salsa 10 Tortillas shells 1 cup refried beans slow cooker mexican chicken 2 cups cooked spanish rice 1 cup cooked mexican corn (I use canned fiesta corn) 2 cups shredded tex-mex cheese 1/3 cup simmer sauce Prehea

FROG MEATLOAF In a truly inspired moment, an idea came to me ... take our Frog Burger recipe and converting it to a bacon wrapped meatloaf! Can you feel your arteries clogging yet? Ingredients 1 lb ground pork (or turkey or beef) 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs 1 red onion 2 cloves garlic Rosemary - leaves of 3 stems Thyme - leaves of 4 stems Sage - leaves of 2 stems Cider Vinegar - 1 tbsp Olive oil 1 tbsp BBQ Sauce 1 lb bacon Directions Preheat oven to 350 F.  In a food processor combine sage, thyme and remaining rosemary, garlic, 1/2 onion, 1 tbsp cider vinegar and 1 tbsp olive oil.  Puree and add to ground pork and panko.  Mix gently.  Form into a loaf in a baking pan and top with bbq sauce.  Lay the bacon strips over the meatloaf, slightly overlapping the strips until the meatloaf is covered.  Tuck the ends of the bacon under the meatloaf so that it doesn’t curl during cooking.  Bake for 1 hour, remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

Watching the food network and we just saw "Bacon wrapped meatloaf" served with mashed potatoes ... in other words, heart attack on a plate, especially with my cheese topped mashed potatoes!!!  Can't wait to try it.

While drinking our morning coffee in bed, we watched a fantastic episode entitled "Diet Buster" and there was a recipe for pasta carbonara.  I modified it slightly, one because I like rotini (and so does the Pod man) and two because I felt it needed some cream. We made this and served it with homemade focaccia bread, caesar salad and of course red wine. Pasta Carbonara Ingredients Salt 1/2 pound slab bacon, cut into 1/2-inch chunks 1 pound dried rotini  1 whole large egg, plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature 1 cup grated Parmigiano, plus more for garnish 2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper 1/2 cup cream or half & half Directions Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium heat and salt generously. Put the bacon in a large high-sided skillet and cook over medium-high heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and reserve bacon in the pan. When the bacon is about halfway cooked, drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook about

We had a wonderful Christmas Day at The Boiled Frog!  Santa left lots of presents under our funky tree and the stockings were full.  Podamus got into the concept of opening presents, we all got spoiled and had a great family morning. In the afternoon we took Pod for a walk on the beach and he played a rousing game of chase the water (the water won at one point and Pod was covered in sand). Then back home for a traditional Christmas supper with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, cream corn, carrots and lots of gravy.  It was my first time making the sweet potatoes and I am so glad I tried it, 'cause it was amazing!! After dinner, we launched paper lanterns to send off Christmas Wishes to our friends and family in other parts of the world. Mashed Sweet Potatoes Ingredients 4 sweet potatoes, even in size and scrubbed 4 tablespoons brown sugar 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon