Key West Grilled Chicken(marinade)

I found this recipe on Pinterest. I've had some good luck with recipes I pinned and bad luck.. This my friends was definately AWESOME luck! My husband raved about this and said that we should use this marinade pretty much all the time. I made it on skewers with Green and Red peppers,onion and mushrooms. So without further ado, here it is!


3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tbs. honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Juice of 1 Lime
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Mix first 5 ingredients together in a bowl with a lid. Add chicken. Put lid on and shake shake shake! Let Marinade for 30 min.

If you prefer kebabs,cut the chicken into large chunks, skewer onto bamboo sticks that have been soaked in water for 5 minutes, and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
For a slightly zestier version, add a teaspoon of Freshly Chopped cilantro to the marinade.( I didn't add cilantro)

Grill on medium high heat for 6 to 8 minutes on each side, until juices run clear. Serve with fresh salad, steamed veggies, baked potato or any of your favorite sides. For variation, try marinating shrimp, (which will take 2-4 minutes to grill in all!)

Long story short, I was making this on a monday. Kyle reminded me that he was going to have a Pizza party at school. So this marinade, with the chicken or turkey already in it starting the 30 min marinade, was in the fridge. We ended up having it on Wed. So it was a 3 day marinade. Still delish! Hope you all are adventurous and try it!

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls (Pao de Queijo)

Quick background, my husband served an LDS Mission in the southern most part of Brazil.  While he was there he fell in love with the people and the regional cuisine.  Shortly after his return home a new restaurant opened in Salt Lake City called Rodizio Grill and it quickly became one of our most favorite places to eat on special occasions.  One of the things that they serve at the restaurant as part of the appetizer/bread portion is called cheese rolls.  It only took me 12 years to realize I could make those delicious suckers at home.

So of course where do I go when I want to find a recipe, google.com of course.  Now I've started searching and then looking at the image search and whatever picture looks the most appetizing I usually choose that recipe.  So I searched for brazilian cheese bread and was so elated to see that the recipe I chose was from a favorite blogging duo on Our Best Bites. If you've never had a chance to check this blog or cookbook I highly recommend it - easy recipes and great food.

Here is the easy version of the recipe

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls {Pao de Queijo} – Gluten Free!

1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup tapioca flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch) no substitutions
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 C grated cheddar cheese* (preferably medium or sharp)
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
*you can play around with the cheese.  I’ve used Monterey Jack, low-moisture mozarella, swiss, and even gruyere in place of the cheddar.  All great!

Optional:  extra cheese to sprinkle on top and any herbs/flavorings you’d like to add.  Try rosemary and or garlic powder, my favorites!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place egg, milk, oil, tapioca flour, and salt in blender and blend until smooth.  Add cheeses and pulse 2 times.  Immediately pour batter into a mini muffin tin (if your muffin tin isn’t non-stick, spray lightly with non-stick spray first), filling each well about 3/4 full, or just slightly less.  If desired (and I recommend), sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese on top and/or a tiny sprinkle of kosher salt.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden.  Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before removing rolls from pan.  Serve warm. {Que Gostoso!}  These actually don’t re-heat well so I recommend making and eating fresh.

Yield: anywhere from 16-24 rolls, depending on how full you fill your muffin pan. I fill  mine pretty full (a good 3/4 full) and I generally get about 16-18.

And of course if you'd like pretty pictures to follow along you can visit the site HERE for more details and pretty shots.  This is a delicious little roll, I make mine in a mini muffin pan.  The only trick is YOU HAVE to have tapioca flour.  I find mine in my local grocery store down the gluten free aisle or I have heard some of the big chains like Winco are selling it in bulk. It's what makes the rolls. And here are my beauties. And last but not least MY KIDS WILL EAT THESE...

Crusty Bread

I'm totally borrowing this from another website - Simply So Good - which is pretty much where any of my good/great ideas come from - but for my first post I wanted to make sure it was something SUPREME so here you go...

Here is the simplified version, including ingredients and directions.

Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.  

For those of you who enjoy photos with your directions HERE is the link on the blog which shows step by step instructions including how to ADD IN flavors and tastes.

This is one of the easiest things I have every made.  It takes a few minutes to mix dry ingredients, stir in wet ingredient and then you MUST let it rise for at least 12 hours.  I make my dough at night after I put kids to bed - around 9 pm - and I bake my bread in the morning.  You MUST have a cast iron pot! I bought a cheap lodge dutch oven at my local Walmart for $35.  Any kind of cast iron pot will do.  

Since I found this recipe via our favorite new site Pinterest I have probably made a dozen loafs of bread, not exaggerating one iota.  I made two this morning.  One I will freeze to go along with freezer crock pot meals I am preparing.  The other we will consume this week and when I say we I mean me and when I say this week I mean probably in two days.  This is to die for and it really is that easy.  Enjoy and don't blame me if your carb count quadruples in a week!!

Here are my two loaves from this morning, the one to the left has cheese in it that's why it looks a little different.  It's my first attempt at an add-in and I know it will be delicious.