The Theresa/Paula Deen Project Is Off To A Rousing Start!

The Theresa/Paula Deen Project is off to a rousing start!

My unsuspecting first recipe was Mexican Chicken:

One 10 3/4 ounce can Cream of Chicken Soup
One 10 3/4 ounce can Cheddar Cheese soup
One 10 3/4 ounce can Cream of Mushroom soup
One 10 ounce can Ro-tel tomatoes
1 whole chicken, cooked, boned and chopped, or 4 cups leftover cooked chicken
One 11 1/2 ounce package flour tortillas
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

In a large bowl, stir together the three kinds of soup and the tomatoes. Stir in the chicken. In a greased 13x9 inch pan, layer the tortillas and the chicken mixture, beginning and ending with tortillas. Sprinkle the cheese over the casserole and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

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I put alot of footwork behind this recipe. I bought a package of chicken breasts, and I had a package of chicken legs, and boiled the both. Then I pulled the chicken - which admittedly took a long time, because the little buggers were HOT - mix up all the soups, throw them in the oven, good to go, right?

As we sat down to dinner, my fiancee confided that he didn't believe that this recipe was worth the amount of work that I'd put into it.

Can I tell you? The picky eater, who never gets adventerous, and hates to try new stuff? Had THREE plates. THREE! T-H-R-E-E. Can you tell that I feel like I've slayed giants here?! And not only did he personally have three plates, but my three year old, who eats like a bird, cleared his!

I'm on FIRE!

This recipe serves 8, so I divided the recipe into two different plates, and put one in a glass casserole dish that we cooked today, and put one in one of those disposable pan, that my non-chef picky eater fiancee has been given instructions for ow to reheat for another day this week. I take college classes on Tuesday and Wendesday, and that'll make a perfect dinner for another night. Even someone who doesn't cook can hang with "warm it up until the cheese melts"!.

I've also got a mess of chicken left to do something with. The Chicken Casserole recipe is probably my next suspect. I've got all the ingredients, save for pimentos. And you know, for having the reputation that all of Paulas recipes start with a pound of butter, an awful lot of them start out with a can of cream of mushroom soup.

Until tomorrow! :)

The Theresa/Paula Deen Project?

Last night, as a joke, I suggested The Theresa/Paula Deen project to my fiancee as a joke. He took me up on it!

If you don't know the spirit of which the joke was intended, here's a few facts:

The Julie/Julia Project is the blog that the movie Julie And Julia was based on. Julie Powell decided to cook her way through Julia Childs "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking", and keep a blog while she did it.

My fiancee is quite a picky eater. Like, the level of picky that it's easier to tell you what he will eat, then it is to tell you what he won't eat. And we got a new kitchen table this weekend, and for some reason, he got all sorts of inspired, and started talking about Paula Deen.

Which brings us back to my suggesting the Theresa/Paula Deen Project, and him taking me seriously. He was totally into it. Go figure!

So I selected "The Lady & Sons Too!" this afternoon at the bookstore, and I'm in the process of making the Mexican Chicken recipe as we speak.

The Theresa/Paula Deen Project might have gotten it's official start! Exciting!

TW Amigos! Bien!

There is a restaurant in Howell that I personally adore, called TW Friends. I've tried alot of food on their menu, and I love it all. I have fantasies about their Smoked Salmon appetizer. Kid you not.

At any rate, they have a sister restaurant called TW Amigos, and I finally convinced my fiance that we needed to go!

Nice restaurant. Sort of at an awkward place - the strip mall is a little weird to get into - but very nice. Open space, done in lots of rich wood tones. Nicely decorated.

I got the Ultimate Burrito. Refried beans, beef, chicken and chorizo. Smothered in lettuce, tomato, onion, sour cream, hot sauce and jalapenos. Kid you not, they actually request on the menu that you not alter it when you order it, because it's "already perfect".

I generally think that the word Ultimate is overused, and I won't lie, I think it was here too. It was large. Not really the best burrito I've eaten EVER. Pretty up there though. The flavors of the three meats meld much better then you'd think they would, well sauced, nice feel in your mouth, tasty and even.

And it was big enough that it lasted me through dinner on Sunday and lunch on Monday! Yeah, baby! :)