In The Kitchen: Milanese AKA Crunchy Meat

One of my favorite items to make is Milanese, which I grew up calling Crunchy Meat. I learned this recipe from my Nana, who is the closest to a grandma that I got to see on a regularly basis.

My nana actually is my mom's Godmother...but due to the fact that my maternal grandmother past away before I was born. My nana has been a stand in for me, I did get to see her when I was down in the states this past May.

Anyways, whenever I make this dish I always think about her and all the memories that I had while over at her house. It also helps that Joe loves this dish, I have to make it at least once a pay check. And even though I normally make a ton of this, I dont end up with many leftovers...cause Joe attacks this dish like it is his JOB!!!

It is very similar to Country Fried Steak, though the actual batter is a bit different. Hence why in the video I call it Pan Fried Steak!!!

In the Kitchen: Baking Edition Coconut Macaroons

Another edition of baking within the In The Kitchen Series.

This time its one of Joe's personal favorites, Coconut Macaroons.

Yup, these bad yet ubber yummy cookies are one of few that we have saved in our household when I actually decide to bake. Apparently these cookies are a hit with several others as well (from his shop).

Not much more to say to that, these cookies go great for anytime of the year. If you wanted to make them a little more special you can warm up some dark chocolate and dip or drizzle chocolate over the cookies (so then they really taste like Almond Joy candy bar).

I'm thinking of adding a few more of my personal favorite items to bake to the In the Kitchen series...just been slacking hardcore! My apologizes ahead of time..I know alot of requests have been coming in for different items to be featured on there. I will get to adding new videos to that section on my YouTube soon!!

Check out the video:

In the Kitchen: Homemade 2 Bean Chili

As you guys know I do love cooking so of course when I find a recipe that gets a two eyebrows up from Joe...I know its In the Kitchen worthy.

Yup, TWO eyebrows up from Joe is the best rating you can have when it comes to the taste of food. As it means that he is extremely surprised and happy to have whatever item is in his mouth.

Something to keep in mind, when it comes to Southern cooking..whether its meat, beans, potato salads and gravy...my mister is pretty picky. As he is a born and raised Texan, so he is very set in his particular tastes!

The 2 Bean Chili (courtesy of the side of Campbell's Tomato Juice Can) is an additional great recipe that we have added into our monthly diets at our home. It's relatively quick, easy and can literally make about 8 meals for two people (pending on how much one serves at a time).

Of course, the fat kid in me has to add additional toppings to the chili to make it tastier, prettier looking and overall more yummy (even if it's an additional 100 calories). Being a fat kid at heart and trying to cook always tends to lead to trouble...at least for the waist line!! HA HA

Nonetheless, if you are interested in finding out my own spin on the recipe watch the video below

In the Kitchen: Baked Sour Cream Chicken

This is actually one of my favorite recipes I learned from one of my old bosses, back when I was single working in retail.

It worked out to where I had decided it was time to start bringing my lunch to work, as it would save me money and time on my break. Thus I was in the "learning" mode to find inexpensive and relatively easy dishes that I could make (and have a decent amount of left overs with).

Between choice of red meat or chicken, I more often pick chicken..honestly I really don't know why. Though it does seem to drive my mister a bit batty (as he is from Texas..and they love their red MEAT).

So when my boss shared with me this simple and easy Baked Sour Cream Chicken dish, it was quickly added to my list of dishes I could make. The longest part out of the whole dish is really the prepping and the rest is quite simple.

This recipe I would recommend to any beginner cook or (at times) lazy guy who wants homecooked food with little to no hassle. Joe is not a big fan of this dish, because he doesn't like celery seed...so I have had to tone down the amount I use in it to appease his taste. Nonetheless I still like it and I cook this dish at least once a month.

Check out the video of how to make it yourself:

Baking Now added to In the Kitchen

I didn't realize how long it had been since I did an In the Kitchen with Lo video til I uploaded earlier this weekend.

I got asked towards the tail end of last year (2010) right before my birthday. If I could introduce some baking dishes into my kitchen series, apparently people thought I might have some good baking recipes to share. Ironically enough, when I have been stressed I normally bake...it helps calm my nerves and makes the house smell good.

Thus I decided after sometime I would try out a baking video and judging on the views and commentary go from there (of whether or not I would continue to more additional baking videos). So far from putting up two different videos,

the first being how to make HomeMade Pumpkin Ring or Pumpkin Bread. And the second being Homemade Cream Cheese Frosting.

Between the two, the Cream Cheese Frosting has received more views, but overall I think people are enjoying them.

I am including the links for both videos, if you haven't checked them out.

But from some comments and requests, I'm going to also throw in a healthy recipe every now and again so that those who are on diets can find something useful from my In the Kitchens!!!

XOXO

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Baby Showers...Boy it's alot of work!

Now this blog post is kinda random, and very old considering the topic is about a baby shower I planned was almost a year ago. The shower itself was March 13, 2010!

My girl friend here (the actual first person who was willing to meet and sit and chat with me when we first arrived in Germany) found out she was pregnant (which she and her husband were trying to do so).

Justin and McKenzie at the baby shower

Is it crazy to think that she was going to plan on her own baby shower for her little one?

Anyways long story short myself and another one of her friends (which is now my mutual friend) worked together to plan the event. There was a lot of going back and forth about this party as originally it was suppose to be just for her...then she wanted to do a double baby shower with another girl...and then it went to being just her baby shower. So needless to say it was a bit of a pain to figure out exact numbers for the party...but we finally did get all the taken care of! WOOT!

The other gal and myself each supplied different food for the party, while I also worked on making (at least my first attempt of) a diaper cake, and planned all the shower games. The shower games overall were pretty easy...I was just being quite anal and wanted to make sure they kept within the theme of the party.

If you ever need a really good website to figure out what type of baby shower games there are...besides the obvious and normal choices. Check out Baby Shower 101

If you are interested in knowing what different types of finger foods I supplied, they were originally the first recipes I showed on In the Kitchen with Lo.

HomeMade Chips

Egg and Cheese Puffs

Not only did I supply these yummy treats, but I made a nacho and salsa dip, veggie tray with dip and of course the diaper cake!

I watched a few videos on YouTube in attempt to learn how to make an acceptable Diaper cake. Overall, I thought it was okay for being my first one...however I wouldn't go into a business doing it! ha ha

As you can tell there are different layers to the cake. I tried to make it look like it had whip cream frosting..hence the usage of toilet paper around the diapers. And of course the extra additions to make it more girly with the pink flowers, ribbon and stuffing.

Gift Table with Diaper Cake and regular Cake

I was satisfied with how things came out...however after doing all the work for it...I have decided that being a party planner is just not my thing! ha ha!

Some Pics from the Baby Shower

In The Kitchen: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Considering the fact that I tend to make this dish at least once every pay period for our house (every two weeks). I figured I would include the posting of this to my blog.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce is recipe followed to an extent but has room for creative additions. Every time I actually make this sauce, whether it is meaty or not, I always end up tweaking the ingredients just slightly.

The most recent time I added more onions and garlic than usual, so I had to counter the acidic flavoring by sprinkling more brown sugar.

Funny, I never thought to do that when I originally started making this recipe until Joe had mentioned it to me (gotta love a man who knows a little something something in the kitchen)! Joe said the garlic and onion was overwhelming at times, that he could hardly taste the tomato. Besides it causing him alot of unnecessary heart burn and indigestion.

TOO much acid will cause these unfortunate and yucky feelings...hence why the brown sugar became a staple in my recipe.

What is great about sauces, is they are easy to make, always end up with more than you need, and they are great to freeze and use at another date.

When we do this sauce, I end up with enough to feed 2 adults, fill 2 decent size containers that could be eaten as lunch or dinner left overs, and (if its the non meaty version) enough to freeze for another 2 person course.

Now, when it comes to sauces everyone will have their own extra additions and tricks, and it will take several makings of the sauce to get it to where you like it. So far, I have enjoyed the sauces I have come up with.

If you want to know how I do my personal homemade Spaghetti Sauce then check on the video !

In the Kitchen: Easy Creamy, Cheesey Chicken Enchiladas

As much as I enjoy blogging about my make up passion, I do like to state that I feel like I'm a unique and overall rounded individual.

When I started off my YouTube Channel, I wanted to touch basis on all my various interests and make videos on them. I only hoped that others would be interested in watch the videos.

One of the most watched section other than my living in Germany Series and my make up tutorials is my In the Kitchen Series.

Whenever I do these types of videos, I tend to relay heavily on my wonderful and amazing assistant (and husband) as he tends to me my camera man. As well as at times my extra pair of hands when I need something stirred so that it doesn't burn.

In the In the Kitchen Series, I share my favorite dishes that I have learned from family, friends and the back of some random soups or boxes! Never doubt there is always a way to make a dish your own...just by playing with a few ingredients!

One of these, make it my own dishes I recently posted on my channel was Old El Paso's Creamy, Cheesey Chicken Enchiladas.

I gave the original recipe a little spin, making it more of a lazy man recipe (or so easy that even a non cooker could manage it).

This dish took overall about 30 minutes from start to finish to cook, which is great especially when you have hungry mouths to feed. Plus if you follow the directions exactly as it is on the El Paso Enchilada sauce can you will have more than enough for two people (cause that is all that is in our household...and Joe doesn't mind left overs).

Located below is the video of how to make the dish!!!