Dinner #29.2 & #29.3

I spent the day cleaning my kitchen.  Not very fun.  I guess that's a downside to cooking so much.  Tonight's dinner was on the grill so my stove/oven would stay clean.

29.2-Asian Barbeque Chicken

2 tablespoons soy sauce

 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

8 chicken drumsticks (I also did chicken thighs)

 Heat gas or charcoal grill. In small bowl, mix all ingredients except chicken; brush mixture over chicken.

Place chicken, bone sides down, on grill over medium heat. Cover grill; cook 15 to 20 minutes. Turn chicken. Cover grill; cook 20 to 40 minutes longer, turning 2 or 3 times, until juice of chicken is clear when thickest part is cut to bone (180°F).

The kids absolutely loved this.  It was hot and juicy.  Crispy on the outside and perfect on the inside.  I doubled the sauce recipe because I added a lot more chicken.  Serve with noodles, rice, or quinoa  and a steamed vegetable.

 29.3-Calzones


Ingredients:
1 loaf of frozen bread dough, thawed ( I make my own dough, but to each his/her own)
mozarella cheese, shredded
 spaghetti sauce- I made my own pizza sauce

 Pizza topping ideas
pepperoni
ham
mushrooms
olives
bell peppers
onion
pineapple
hamburger
italian sausage
fresh tomatoes

Make about 2 equally-sized dough balls (they should each be a little smaller than a softball). Spread each dough ball out on a lightly floured surface as if you were making a pizza (spread it out as much as you can without tearing it). Put as many toppings as you would like in the middle then mix it all together with cheese. Carefully fold the dough over the toppings and pinch the edges together. Make a couple little slits in the top of the dough, spray the top lightly with cooking spray, then bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes (or until golden brown). Heat the spaghetti sauce in a small pot and simmer until calzones are done. You can serve the calzones with the sauce on the side then dip the calzone into it OR you can pour the sauce over the calzones and top with cheese.

  Make sure to fill them really full.  The first two I made weren't as full and ended up being really more bread the anything else.  Depends on your oven, but I should have cooked them at a little bit higher temp like, 375*F and 20 minutes.  We also put a little sauce inside before we folded them.  We split the dough up into smaller balls so everyone could make their own calzone. Yummy and fun to create.

This whole cooking new things experiment has been stressful, fun, exhausting, challenging and quite the adventure.  My kids were excited today when I was preparing the menu for the week and I asked them what they wanted.  I got some new mixed with the old.  There were some winners and some losers. Let me know what was best for your family. 

I'm going to be cutting back on new meals.  I will do no more than 2 per week with one new dessert.  The kids have already picked out the desserts they want to create.  Cooking is creating.  It's art.  Good luck and remember to have fun.  I'm so glad to not be taking pictures of my food anymore.  On that note, we just got a new cake cook book and there are hardly any pictures of the cakes in the book.  I like to see what it should look like.  We've still found some yummy things to create.