Bourbon Chicken

Annnnnd we're back!  It has been a hectic couple of weeks with our trip to Winston-Salem for Andrea's (Chris' little sister) masters graduation from Wake Forest!  Then my little brother turned 21 this past weekend.  Mitch had a White Trash Backyard Bash themed 21st birthday, which was pretty hilarious!  We have been running around all over the place!  So now its time to play catch up!  First a few pictures from the recent celebrations.

The graduate and I!

All the kids!

Birthday boy and his beer cake!

White Trashin' it up!

Given that we were in the south two weekends ago and we had lots of alcohol consumption going on this weekend I thought maybe a bourbon recipe would be fitting to share!  When I first saw this recipe on Pinterest I thought "Oh I bet Chris would like this!  He likes bourbon so what a great way to incorporate it into cooking" so I planned to give it a try.  I looked at the ingredients and discovered there was no bourbon in it, only apple juice.  I felt a little betrayed (there's those foodie trust issues rearing their ugly heads, I blame oatmeal raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip for that).  I mean the reason I pinned this recipe was because it was monikered BOURBON chicken not apple juice chicken.  So I decided to set things straight in this culinary trial and share with you ACTUAL BOURBON chicken.

Bourbon Chicken
(This made enough for four servings but can be easily halved)

Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 c. bourbon
- 1/3 c. light brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp. ketchup
- 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
- 1/2 c. water
- 1/3 c. soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp. flour (optional)
- olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
- Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large pan.
- Add chicken and cook until no longer pink.

- Remove chicken and set aside.
- Add garlic, red pepper flakes, bourbon, sugar, ketchup, vinegar, water, and soy sauce (I mixed these in a bowl previously so I wouldn't have to fuss when it was time to add it to the pan), heat over medium heat, bring to a hard boil.

- Let sauce reduce then add chicken (this can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to reduce) if you'd like it to thicken faster use 1 Tbsp. flour mixed with warm water as a thickening agent.
- Stir until chicken is well coated.

- Serve over warm rice.
- Enjoy!

This was well received by all diners, Chris, my dad and my brother.  I got the sauce a little too thick but overall I thought it was good as well.  You can pick up slight hints of the bourbon with very light spice from the red pepper flakes.  If you want it more spicy you can add some Sriracha sauce or hot sauce.

Well its Memorial Tournament week in Columbus so I'll be there for work then its time to get ready for Miami friends' nuptials!  But I hope to share my most recent cocktail treat with you before.  Happy short work week!

Cheers!
Steph

Crockpot Bourbon Baked Beans

With BBQ season upon us I wanted to share a fun recipe I made recently.  Chris is a baked beans fan through and through, often times there's no option of grilling burgers without them.  Something about it being sacrilegious or something?  And people say I have the flare for the dramatics, just talk to Chris about burgers without baked beans and tell me who the Emmy goes to.  Anyways, we were invited to a cookout at our friends Rob and Emily's place and instead of the standard canned beans I decided lets do it up and try from scratch!  I found this recipe on Pinterest from one of my favorite blogs and with Bourbon in the title I pretty much knew Chris would like it. 

You'll have to forgive my little scatterbrain because I have no end result photos!  How I let that happen I have no idea but its too late now!

Crockpot Bourbon Baked Beans
(this makes almost 8 to 10 side servings)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. dry navy beans
- 10 slices thick cut bacon, chopped
- 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 c. water
- 3/4 c. preferred barbecue sauce
- 1 c. loosely packed brown sugar
- 1/4 c. ketchup
- 2 Tbsp. molasses
- 1 c. bourbon
- 1 1/2 mustard
- 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Instructions:
- The night before cover beans in a bowl with water.  Drain the following morning.

- In a large pot of water, bring beans to a boil.  Let simmer for 30-40 minutes then drain.
- While beans are cooking, heat a large pan over medium heat, add bacon and cook until crispy.
- Remove bacon from pan onto a paper toweled plate.  Leave rendered fat in pan and reduce heat to medium low.

You could actually chop this up a little more when it cools these were a little large.

- Add onion and cook until soft (8-10 min).  Add garlic, cook for 30 seconds and turn off heat.

- In the crockpot, add water, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, molasses, bourbon, mustard, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce then whisk to combine.

- Add beans, onions (plus bacon fat) and bacon to the crockpot.

- Cover, cook on low for 10-12 hours, stirring occasionally.
- After time is up, turn crockpot to warm setting or turn it off completely and let sit for 30 minutes to 2 hours.  This helps the sauce thicken up a bit.
-These are known to be thicker and more flavorful the next day.
- Serve warm and enjoy!

I didn't really love these, I'm not a huge bourbon fan so maybe that's why.  You can definitely taste the bourbon, that's for sure!  And I'm told the bourbon taste gets stronger over time in the fridge.  Chris, Rob and Emily all liked them though so maybe its a "me problem".  Anyways these take a little more thought beforehand since the beans need to soak and they cook in the crock for 10 plus hours.  I imagine you could maybe take a short cut and use canned beans just drain the liquid and rinse before adding.  This recipe could easily be halved for a smaller batch which I would highly recommend if only cooking for a small group as we had plenty of leftovers!

Well off to Wake Forest for Andrea's graduation!  Chris is already asking if we can go back to the place we had chicken and waffles.  In a recent conversation he listed discovering chicken and waffles and asking me to marry him as life changing events.  Again, I ask you who the Emmy goes to?  Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!
Steph

Bacon Onion Marmalade

How was everyone's Mother's Day weekend?!  Ours was busy busy, visiting moms, aunts and grandmas then threw in some graduation festivities as well!

So let's get to business, BACON Onion Marmalade.  Like I said in my last post it sounds weird but in reality its pretty delish!

I found this one day on Pinterest and was intrigued.  Cooking bacon and onions down to make a spread, who'd a thunk it?  Well whoever did is kind of a genius.  This stuff is not only yummy but is also very versatile!  It is a time consuming recipe but I'd say it's pretty worth it.

Bacon Onion Marmalade

 Ingredients:
- 4 slices thick cut bacon
- 4 lbs. yellow onions, halved and sliced to 1/4"
- 1 Tbsp. salt
- 2 c. apple cider
- 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- 10 sprigs of fresh Thyme leaves, stripped from stem (about 2 Tbsp.)
- 2 tsp. black pepper

Instructions:
- Heat large pot or saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Cook bacon until it's crisp, remove and set aside.  Leave all the rendered fat in the pan.
- Add onions and salt to pan, reduce heat to medium, cover pan and cook till onions soften (about 15 min.).

- Once cooled, chop the bacon into fine pieces then add back to the pan plus the remaining ingredients.

- Cook uncovered until the liquid is almost completely reduced (about 1 hour).  Stir occasionally.

- Reduce heat to low and continue to cook until onions are a medium brown color, stirring frequently (about 10 min.), if it looks lie its drying out add 1/4 c. water at a time.

This doesn't look entirely appetizing but it tastes wonderful!

- Remove from heat, set aside and let cool.
- Enjoy!

Chris and I mainly use this on crackers with cheese but its also good as a sandwich spread or an additive to chicken!  We recently made pizza with it which was so yummy!  It can be used warm or cold, whichever you prefer.

This week is beyond hectic with meetings, birthdays, appointments and then its back to Wake Forest we go to see Andrea (Chris' sister) graduate!  Hopefully I can get one more recipe up before we leave, crockpot bourbon baked beans!

Cheers!
Steph

LFM: Betty's Fine Food and Spirts

A Local Foodie Moment for your Friday friends!  Like I said in my last posts I've just been having so much fun being a local foodie that I've got a backlog of restaurants to share!  Chris and I had dinner with two of our Miami friends at Betty's Fine Food and Spirits.  We had been at a local Miami chapter event and decided to grab a bite after.

We landed on Betty's as it seemed like a decent price range and was close to where we were.  Let's just say all parties were very pleased with their selections and we'll be going back!

I took a little snapshot of their unique menu design

It was a Thursday so it was cocktails for all!  I decided to try the Solstice made with Watershed gin, blackberry syrup, lemon juice and champs.  YUMMM!  This was very delicious and incredibly refreshing!

The Solstice

Apparently Chris was still on his love for Fried Chicken kick after our Wake Forest trip (see life altering chicken and waffles experience here) so that's what he got.  I snagged a bite and it was very tastey, just the right breading and crispyness.

Fried Chicken

I tried to be a little more diet conservative and got the warm three mushroom salad, I know it doesn't sound like much but YUM!  It takes a lot to get me jazzed up about a salad but this was perfection.  The flavor from the mushroooms, goat cheese and tomatoes made it so I didn't even need to use the dressing.  And they didn't skimp on the goat cheese, as previously mentioned that is one of my BIG restaurant salad pet peeves!

Warm Mushroom Salad with Chicken

It's a smaller restaurant and doesn't have much signage out front so it's easy to miss when driving by.  But the atmosphere is great, lots of pin up pictures on the walls which the boys just loved!  The service was great, very friendly and very helpful with menu choices.  Like I said previously it was reasonably priced and worth it!  I referred my brother and dad when they were looking for a Short North place to grab a bite and they really liked it too!  What I liked most about Betty's was they have a great brand but they don't over do it with marketing (funny coming from a marketing girl, right?).  They put out good food with good service and leave it at that, kind of refreshing if you ask me!



Happy Friday!  I hope all the wonderful mothers out there have a great Mother's Day!  I can't wait to get home to celebrate some of the great ladies in my life!

Next, bacon recipes!  I know I promised these before but its been a hectic week.  On tap is bacon onion marmalade and crockpot bourbon baked beans, stay tuned!

Cheers!
Steph

Welcome friend! & Liebster Awards!

Last month we welcomed my lovely friend Danielle at The Bear Necessities to the blogging world!  Danielle is one of my dear college friends.  She lived in Chris' dorm freshman year and that's how we met.  I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in Danielle's wedding last July!

Miami girlfriends!

Danielle and her husband, aren't they the cutest?!

She's one of those friends that shares my mindset (we OBSESS over details) and likes to drink wine so we get along well (this shouldn't be surprising that my likeness of friends depends on their drinking preferences but I suppose such discernment started early in preschool when I picked friends based on their hairbow collection).

Enjoying the wineries in Geneva for her Bachelorette!

Anyways, Danielle being the savy new blogger and sweet friend she is nominated me for a Liebster Award (insert, "a WHAT award?" here).  Yes I didn't know what it was either until I read Danielle's blog.  This award is for bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  Here are the rules surrounding this blogging award:
1. Say "thanks!" to the nominator on your blog and give them a gracious link back.
2. Answer 11 questions from the nominator.
3. List 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 other bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, or who you think deserve to be noticed.  Don't forget to leave a comment on their blog so they know about it!
5. Copy and paste the blog award onto your blog, show it off!

So step 1.:
BIG thanks to Danielle at The Bear Necessities! Love you homegirl!

Questions for me:
1. What inspired you to start blogging? The support of my awesome friends and the example of my Great Aunt Chookie!  Aunt Chook has her own blog updating the family on what's happening with her clan.  My friends enjoy my cocktails now and again and kept telling me to find a way to share them, ta-da enter WWSV!
2. What is the worst thing you have attempted to make for a blog post (craft, recipe, etc.)? Hmm this is tricky, probably crockpot bourbon baked beans, I just didn't like them, hence why I have yet to post them.
3. If you could go anywhere in the world, money is not an object, where would you go? ITALY! And maybe some other places in Europe but definitely back to Italy.
4. What is the stupidest thing you have ever done/said? Hmmm this is also tricky, there's such a plethora of things to choose from.  Most recently, (Danielle was there for this one) I was meeting a party hostess at a bridal shower and I totally blanked on my OWN name.  I mean I've only had the moniker for 25 years, it's so easy to forget!
5. What is your dream job? Food writer/critic
6. How do you decide what you will blog about? It's really based on what I have going on at the time.  If I'm trying a lot of new restaurants I blog about that, if I'm trying new recipes or making new cocktails I share those.
7. What is your goal for your blog? Hopefully people try my recipes or restaurants that I post about.  I'd love to gain more visibility in the Columbus food scene as a blogger. 
8. What is your current profession? Marketing professional for an IT consulting firm.
9. What advice would you give to new/er bloggers? Commit to what you can.  If its one post a week or one a month do what you can, it should be a fun outlet not feel like an obligation!
10. What are your favorite blogs to follow? 
The Bear Necessities (like, DUH! Danielle is my homie!)
In the Pink - my Miami freshman year roommate's blog
Here's Another Sunday - My great aunt's blog
How Sweet It Is 
11. What is your favorite pair of shoes? This is another tricky question!  Given my blog's title its kind of obvious I love shoes so narrowing it down is tough.  I guess I'll share my "shoes I'm loving right now" and "shoes I'll always love" (hey, nothing like dodging the question!).  Shoes I'm loving right now: flip flops, specifically my Rainbows.  Shoes I'll always love: a great loafer or classic pump.

11 Random Facts:
1. I don't like odd numbers (with the exception of my birthday, the 9th).
2. Although I work in marketing, my degree is in Sociology (I paired it with a Marketing minor though).
3. I am a TV junkie, especially reality TV.  Latest guilty pleasure: What Would Ryan Lochte Do?
4. I was a gymnast and cheerleader in my high school days.
5. The thing that makes my skin crawl is when people breathe on me.  (This sounds really weird, but best explanation of it is when I'm at the computer and someone stands behind me breathing down my neck.)
6. I have to apply chapstick to my lips before bed or else I can't sleep.
7. My first car was a GMC Yukon, that I shared with my mom.
8. I get the Dictionary.com Word of the Day everyday and have been signed up for it since high school (it helped me study for the SAT vocab test).
9. I have had dinner with Tasha Schwikert, member of the 2000 Olympics USA Women's Gymnastics Team who later competed for UCLA (big thanks to my teammate's parents, the Turners, for setting that one up!).
10. I have been to both Alaska and Hawaii.
11. My big pet peeve is when people don't respond to text messages or emails.

Questions for my nominees:
1. What do you think is most unique about your blog?
2. What is your go to "interesting fact" about you that you use for icebreaker games?
3. Who is the most influential person in your life?
4. Why did you start blogging?
5. What is your favorite warm weather activity?
6. What is your guilty pleasure?
7. Name your favorite comfort food.
8. What is one of your life goals/bucket list items?
9. Who would you most like to meet someday?
10. What is one of your favorite holiday traditions?
11. What is your cocktail of choice?

Nominees (drumroll pleaseeee!):
Most of the blogs I follow have more than 200 followers so this award isn't totally applicable.  But I'll throw out a nomination to a fellow Miami girl: Katie at In the Pink!  Her latest "Uniforms" post spoke straight to my preppy heart!

Happy Thursday!  I've gotten so behind this week I promise to post those bacon recipes soon!

Cheers!
Steph

Party Time! : Champs Bar

Happy first day of May!  Last post I mentioned sharing a party idea for wedding season so here goes!

A couple weekends ago some girlfriends and I celebrated one of my college friends, Elena's, bridal shower and bachelorette party.  Elena is one of my sweetest, kindest friends and her soon to be husband is no exception!  We cannot wait to celebrate their love at their wedding this month!

For Elena's bachelorette her sister/MOH organized quite an evening of fun that was very fitting to Elena's personality.  We got a hotel suite where we had a little pizza party and got ready to go out to a line dancing bar.  I've never been to a bar known for line dancing and as you can imagine they are a little harder to come by in Northeast Ohio but it was SO FUN!  As a country music fan I loved the tunes and we found our share of characters throughout the night.

To start off the festivities in the hotel we decided to do a champagne bar.  Yes, another bar idea, I kinda love them!  (See previous Hot Drinks Bar idea here)  We wanted something to start the evening off but didn't want it to be too potent since bachelorette parties are a marathon!

We actually did this last summer for another friend's bachelorette and it was pretty well received so we thought lets do it again and kick it up a notch by adding liqueur options!  The first champs bar we did had juices and fruit to make your own concoction.

This is the champs bar we did last year with fruits and juices!

Since it was colder there wasn't a whole lot of fruit that was in season so we decided to forgo the fruit and bring in the liqueurs.  Over time I've bought scads of liqueurs for this martini or that cocktail so I had some already in my bar.  The others I bought the smaller sized bottles of them since they are really just for a splash of flavor and kick.

All you have to do is grab some champs (or prosecco), glassware (or plastic glasses) and set it up!

We set it up around the sink in the hotel suite in case of spills!

I like to have some instructions so people can feel like they can help themselves.  So I just printed off some steps and put it in a fun frame.  For Elena's I tried to stick with the line dancing theme so I said:

1. Pour yourself a glass of bubbly.
2. Put a little kick in your step with a liqueur or juice.
3. Raise your glass, toast to the bride to be! 
4. Get ready to boot, scoot and boogie on the dance floor!

The juices we had were:

• grapefruit juice
• orange juice
• and cranberry juice

The liqueurs were:

• Pama (pomegranate)
• Hypnotiq (tropical fruits)
• Peach schnapps 
• Chambord (raspberry)
• St. Germain (elderflower)

Use some carafes or pitchers for the juices, add some themed cocktail napkins and wah-la!  This was a fun way to start the night, creating fun girly concoctions, getting ready and telling stories of memories with the Bride to Be!  This would also work for a bridal shower or even a nice brunch party.

Next I've got a recipe for Bacon Onion Marmalade to share, sounds totally weird but is incredibly yummy!

Cheers!
Steph