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Monday, December 9, 2013








THE BEST CHICKEN TACO I EVER ATE ?

And it was to benfit cancer.




      Back in September my buddy Todd Hooper (tattooist and deviant do-gooder) invited me and my wife Saundra, to a charity event at his local tattoo shop, Ink Divine (San Pedro). The benefit was in honor of breast cancer awareness and the shop made an impressive donation of almost $3,000 when all was said and done.
      In the last year or so I have found myself more prone to cancer awareness than ever before. Granted, I lost my aunt to cancer many years ago and my sister is a survivor of colon cancer, but it was a little girl named Sarah that has opened my eyes wider in recent times. She is the nine year old daughter of an old friend of mine, Sandee, that was diagnonsed with leukemia in February of this year.  My entire family has been effected and we have done what we can, when we can, to help promote awareness.

     One of the vendors at the Ink Divine event was a well known foodie truck company called Tits N Tacos (an all-women staff of rock n rollers that donate proceeds to breast cancer, thus the name). All of their menu items are named after women. One look at the menu and my belly began to speak to me....”Feed me!!”....And so, I ordered. I bought myself a “Chola” (their mexican street taco) and a “Mary-Ann” (their go to chicken taco). Other items on the menu include “Betty Page”, “Monroe”, “Audrey Hapburn” and much more.
     The Chola was good.....the Mary-Ann blew the doors off my mouth and my brain. I took a bite and let the ranch and bacon pop in my mouth and melt like butter and than immediately stood in line to order another. The best chicken taco I have ever had? Quite possibly.... I knew at some point I had to try and recreate it. So,...last night I did.
     On a side note - I used flour tortillas for my recipe, TNT used corn. I think corn was better. Also, TNT used pico in their taco, I did not. They also used cotija cheese, I used colby jack.







THE MARY-ANN (bacon ranch chicken taco).
(serves 4-6).


4 boneless chicken breasts, sliced in half.
BBQ rub of your choice (I used Penzeys Galena Street, it’s awesome).
12 slices bacon - fried.
12 tortillas.
Jalapeno ranch dressing.
Shredded cheese.
Shredded lettuce.


1. Cut chicken breasts in half and put your rub on, let sit for a bit.

2. Heat up your grill.

3. Cook bacon till its crispy, set aside. Once cool, cut each slice in half.

4. Shred your lettuce.

5. Place chicken on your grill - cook 20-25 minutes depening on your grill and heat.

6. Once chicken is done, let cool for a bit and than cut into small chunks.

7. Heat tortillas.

8. Place chicken in tortillas, top with a line of the jalapeno ranch.

9. Put a half strip of bacon on either side of the chicken.

10. Add your lettuce and cheese, and fold.


Serve and enjoy !!

































Help support my friends and visit these web-sites:

1. Todd Hooper and Ink Divine.
https://www.facebook.com/inkdivinetattoocompany

2. Tits N Tacos.
http://www.tits-n-tacos.com/

3. Sarah’s Fight.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/sarahsfight/

Friday, December 6, 2013


BACON RANCH CHEESE SPREAD.

Mouth watering treat for any occasion.




My wife posted one of those floating recipes on Facebook about a month ago - and simply commented “Please?”.....Well, I liked the way it looked and we had a family gathering coming up so I decided to give it a try. And, it rocked !!
With bacon being the uber-foodie craze at the moment, I’m sure plenty of people would like to give this a shot - once you do - it will be a keeper.



Ingredients:

1.  - 15 slices bacon - cooked to crispy. Crumble when done.
(I used a pre-cooked box to avoid time and mess, personally these are damn good and you pay equal or less cash for it, no muss, no fuss).

2.  - Two  8oz pk’s of cream cheese, softened.

3. - One package of Hidden Valley ranch dip.

4. - 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used colby jack).



Instructions:

1. - Heat your bacon - fry until crispy, cool - and than crumble into small bits. Set aside.

2. - Mix the two packages of cream cheese in a large bowl with a mixer, till smooth.

3. - Add ranch mix into cream cheese and mix well.

4. - Add your shredded cheese and mix well.

5. - Add HALF of your crumbled bacon into the cheese mix, mix well.

6.  - Put your other half of bacon on a small plate and set aside.

7. - With your hands mold the cream cheese mix into a large ball.

8 - Roll the ball onto the plate of bacon, evenly - and cover the entire ball with bacon bits.

9 - Store the ball on a small plate in the fridge. Cool for at least two hours.

10. Serve with crackers or similar snack.

11. Get out of the way !! Once this bad ass ball of munchy greatness hits the first mouth, all bets are off.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013



    GRILLED CHICKEN & PASTA ALFREDO

    Look like a master chef on a budget and a whim.


    My mother n’ law just recently had a birthday. The wife and I proposed dinner at our place for the gift of food and family. When asked what she wanted, she could not say, or, would not say. I jokingly told her “OK, Spaghettio’s it is.” After some thought I decided on some chicken alfredo. It was on a week night after work so I didn’t have a lot of money but still wanted to do something nice, elequent, filling and tasteful. And I didn’t want a traditional chicken alfredo, so I decided to grill the chicken. With lack of time, six mouths to feed and being on a slim budget (who isn’t during the holidays?), I decided to make the chicken the star of the meal and went with pre-made pasta and sauce. So we’re talking a pretty easy meal here - but with the looks and taste of a gourmet night out.
     My foodie brother, Lonny gave me a gift a couple months back of Billy Bones BB rub and I thought let’s try some of the bad boy on chicken (it has worked nicely on beef so far)....well, it was great. I also marinated the chicken in some Italian dressing - a little known secret my brother turned me onto many years ago. This method not only tastes really good but it makes your chicken extremely juicy and soft to the chew.
     The key here, and always, for a family meal is timing, getting everything done at the same time. It is another reason I chose this particular meal - you can do all these separate things at once and pretty much have them done in the same amount of time. The end result is an eye appealing dish that everyone will love for a family on a budget.
     My decision to cut the breasts before plating them, made the dish look even better.






Ingredients: 
(serves 6)

2 - packs fettucini pasta noodles
2 - 15oz bottles of alfredo sauce  (I used Rinaldi for this meal)
1 - medium bottle of Italian dressing (I used Wish Bone for this meal)
6 - boneless chicken breasts
Rub of your choice (I used Billy Bones for this meal)



Marinate breasts in a ziplock bag for at leats 2 hours, with full contents of a medium Italian dressing bottle.

After done with marinating coat your chicken with your rub and set aside. Don’t fret on the marinade - this combination actually goes extremely well with the alfredo once they mix together. The taste is wonderful !

Light your bbq and prepare coals, make sure to grease your grill as chicken likes to stick.
You want your coals grey - medium to high heat for the chicken.

Prepare your noodles according to package, I also like to add a spoon of salt and a spoon of oil to the pot.

Put your chicken on the grill - 15 minutes (give or take depending on your coals) should be about right, I like to turn over about every 3 minutes, to keep an even grill and prevent any charring or sticking.

When chicken is done let it cool for a couple minutes, than slice it from head to toe (see picture) - this is a nice touch for the beauty of the plate and makes cutting the chicken and noodles much easier and the tast will flow together.

While chicken is cooling go ahead and heat up your sauce (low heat and make sure to pay attention, as the sauce likes to boil up and out of the pan).

Drain your noodles and plate.
Top each plate with equal portion of sauce.
Top with your cliced chicken.
Serve.

I added some dinner rolls and a salad to this particualr meal.
The presentation was beautiful, the meal was extremely filling and my mother n’ law loved me more than she did before she walked through the door.

Enjoy.