Happy Saturday and ANOTHER Happy Birthday!

To my MIL!  Happy Birthday Bonnie!  We feel bad because we thought my father in law was in Italy for his birthday a couple days ago, but he doesn’t leave until tonight!  So we didn’t actually call him – sorry about that! 🙁

We talked to my MIL this morning and since their birthdays are two days apart – they celebrate both in the middle – they had a nice dinner out, so that’s nice.

I worked late again last night and didn’t feel like blogging believe it or not!  It was windy, rainy, cold.  Tony and I stayed snuggled under a blanket the whole night!  Hannah went to a haunted house last night with friends, but said it wasn’t too scary – she loves all things gory – ever since the last time I was able to dress her for Halloween (which I made her a Christmas tree, she had battery operated lights and small ornaments I sewed onto green felt, and found a head band that had a star that lit up! – um, can you tell that was my favorite costume?!). 

But here was her first costume – a pumpkin! :D  She was seven months old! 

I packed my lunch the night before yesterday so ensure I had something good to eat!  Breakfast was: english muffin, 2 pieces of bacon, sliced apple and 75% reduced fat Cabot Cheese 😀

I bought some coconut milk at the Japanese grocery store.  I looked up some recipes, and found something called Tom Kha Gai, which was a Thai coconut chicken soup.  I didn’t have any kaffir lime leaves or galangal (not even sure that that is!) so I made my version!

Biz’s Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

• 1 pouch Lipton Soup Secrets Extra Noodle
• 4 cups water
• 1 sliced jalapeno pepper with seeds
• 1 chopped stalk of lemongrass (love the smell of this when its cut!)
• 3 tablespoons clam sauce (It called for fish sauce, but I only had clam sauce)
• 1 chicken breast (mine was about 8 ounces)
• chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

Heat water so a low simmer over medium low heat. Add chicken breast, jalapenos, and lemongrass.  Cook just until chicken is poached, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove chicken and shred with fork.  Add Lipton soup mix and cook for about 8 minutes until noodles are done.  Remove from heat.  Remove jalapenos and lemongrass.  Serve with chopped cilantro.

If you want it extra spicy, you could leave the jalapenos in.  Since I knew I would be sharing this with my friend Renee at work, she doesn’t like stuff as spicy as me and I left the ginger out because she’s not a huge fan!  I had half a slice of toasted naan bread on the side – its my first time trying it, and to be honest, I think it tastes just like a whole wheat pita!

I knew that I had some pork tenderloin leftover from the other night that had to be used up.  A quick look at The Alcoholian’s site with his breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, Tony and I were in!   If you haven’t gone to The Alcoholian’s site yet, you have to check it out.  Not only does John have more kitchen gadgets than I could ever imagine to own, he also built a wine seller and an outdoor kitchen!  He’s also my brother’s friend and co-working in Austin.  Thanks for this idea John – it was delicious!

His idea was to not use flour, but corn starch – not much, only about a tablespoon before dipping into an egg/milk mixture, then panko bread crumbs.

Once you try panko bread crumbs, like John, you can’t go back!

I pan fried ours in less oil than John, probably about 2 tablespoons?

And while he chose mustard, I went with horseradish sauce!  I got this at Siegelman’s Deli the last time we were there.  They have it on all the tables and when I asked if they sold it, she said she would ask the cook.  She came back with a 12 ounce Styrofoam cup filled with this delicious sauce and said “how about $1.25 for this size?”  SOLD!  I used one of the squirt bottles I got from the restaurant supply store last week to put this delicious sauce in. 😀

Dill pickles from Milwaukee – Hi Mel!

And since the deep fryer was on the counter, somehow crinkle cut fries got on my plate!

And since my wallet still hasn’t shown up, Tony and I had to head to the DMV this morning – both of our licenses expire in 2010, so we were both able to renew our licenses – and it only took 15 minutes :D  But we drove to Woodstock, it would have been a different story had it been downtown – those people are mean at the Chicago DMV!

We went to a couple thrift stores to finish my Halloween costume.  It’s mandatory in my office to dress up, and not only dress up, but to DRIVE to work in your costume!  It’s always so much fun! 😀

I have to leave you with this video though.  Tony found it online and it kills!

Alright, off to make chicken wontons – see you tonight and thanks for waiting for my post 😀