white chicken chili + cheesy biscuits

With the turning of the season, there are more and more soup days upon us. Yes, you know what I'm referencing. Those chilly, blustery, gray days that can only be conquered with a cup of piping hot soup, possibly coupled with the all-American grilled cheese sandwich. A couple of weeks ago I was inspired to try a white chicken chili recipe and it turned out pretty tasty, so thought I'd share! It's adapted from the Pioneer Woman and does not contain ANY butter, believe it or not. Also, this time around I opted to accompany the chili with a recipe I found on Pinterest for a relative of the grilled cheese: the cheesy biscuit. It was super easy and they are supposed to taste like the ones you get at Jim and Nick's BBQ (which are so delicious) so I couldn't resist. So much so that I invested in 2 mini-muffin pans to make them. Worth it.

White Chicken Chili

Ingredients
1 whole fryer chicken, cut up (or 3 c. cooked chicken) [I used a tray of frozen drumsticks we had hanging out in the freezer. According to PW, the dark meat is the good stuff.]
1 whole medium onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 whole cans of green chilies, chopped
1 pound dried great Northern beans, rinsed [If I did this again, I would soak them!]
8 c. chicken broth
1 whole Jalapeno, sliced [I used from the jar.]
Juice of 1/2 a lime [added this]
1 1/2 Tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt to taste
white pepper to taste [Mine was black.]
1 c. whole milk [Half and half..]
2 Tablespoons of corn flour or cornmeal
grated Monterey Jack cheese to taste
Sour cream for garnish
Cilantro for garnish

Directions
1. Cover chicken and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until done. Remove meat from bones. Set aside.
2. In a dutch oven over medium-high heat, saute onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add chopped green chilies, then rinsed beans. Pour chicken broth into the pan. Add sliced jalapenos and lime juice. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Place lid on pot and reduce heat to low.
3. Cook for 2 hours or until beans are done. Halfway through the cooking process, add 3 cups of cooked chicken.
4. When beans are tender, mix milk with masa (or cornmeal) and pour into the chili. Cook for an additional ten minutes to thicken. Check seasoning and adjust, adding cayenne pepper and paprika if desired.
5. Add some Monterey Jack cheese to the pot and stir to melt. Serve with garnish.

Source: The Pioneer Woman (with very pretty step-by-step photos)

Cheesy Biscuits

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. Bisquick
3/4 c. buttermilk
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 (originally said 425 but mine got a little toasty on the bottom real fast!) Stir together all ingredients until just combined. Scoop into a mini muffin pan coated with cooking spray. Bake 12-15 minutes, until golden.

Source: Plain Chicken via Pinterest

I'm alive

Hey friends. Sorry I dropped the ball on the blogging effort.. Shortly after starting my blog, I discovered the magic of Pinterest (more on that later) and am just now trying to settle on how to use both mediums to share fun things. Pinterest is very visual and is a great way to capture ideas in the form of photographs, but words are few and far between on there. That makes it more difficult to tell a story, even if it is a random conglomeration of chapters like my life seems to be! Anyway, I'm going to try and post a bunch of things that have been on my mind or occupying my time since July. In a nutshell, the big things that have happened are: moved to Atlanta (loving it), almost got one job (but didn't), got a cat (he's a mess), had a couple of in-between jobs (to pass the time), turned down another job (wasn't for me), still hunting for gainful employment (but satisfied with where I am and where I'm going.) Glad y'all are still reading!

90s Nickelodeon: Not Just Nostalgia Anymore!

Please enjoy:
THE BEST NEWS EVER

HOORAY! Yes, you read correctly. Old school Nickelodeon is back in action. Even though they are broadcasting these gems between the hours of 12 and 4 am on a cable channel I don't get, I am beyond excited to see All That, Keenan and Kel (my father's personal favorite - he dubbed them "the funny boys"), and DOUG on their way back to the primetime spots they deserve. I am confident they will get back there. One day.

My one complaint about this article is that it implies if you are between the ages of 18 and 34, you are too young to be nostalgic. Say what? Who put an age limit on reminiscing about the "good ole days?" I'm pretty sure I had occasional nostalgia even before I was 18.. I mean, who doesn't want to go back to the days of mandatory naps and recess?

Anyway, nice to see that getting older doesn't mean growing up. Thanks, Nickelodeon, for continuing to enhance my livelihood even more than you already have.

dog daze.

Meet Boudreaux and Roscoe, my two canine companions for the week. Even though it looks like they may be dead, they are not. In fact, I am quite jealous that they are privileged enough to bask in the sun all the day long. Ah, to be a dog.

fried green tomatoes.

Earlier this week, I had a crazy craving for some summery, southern goodness in the form of fried green tomatoes. I could have very easily picked some up at any number of restaurants in Nashville, but what's the fun in that? I was pleasantly surprised that you could actually purchase green tomatoes in the grocery store (reason #489576034 why I love publix) and set off to make them myself in the beautiful kitchen of the house I'm sitting this week. Here's my recipe for tomatoes and sauce if you feel like having your own FGT adventure.

Ingredients
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
Green tomatoes, sliced about 1/4" thick [I used 2]
1 cup cornflour (or 1/2 c. cornmeal and 1/2 c. flour)
2-3 tablespoons of Cajun or Creole seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil

Sauce
1/2 cup Creole mustard or other spicy mustard
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons horseradish [I didn't have any, so just left this out.. oops.]
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice [I used juice of 1/2 a lemon]
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
Salt, to taste

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped heart of celery [I just finely chopped normal celery]
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon grated white or yellow onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped green onion, white only
Hot sauce, optional

Directions
1. Make the sauce first. It needs to chill before serving. Mix together the first group of sauce ingredients (top of the list through salt), and then slowly add the olive oil while stirring. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Not only did I leave out the horseradish and cheat on celery hearts, I estimated measurements on just about everything and used only white onion. I thought it tasted great, so no worries about improvising if you don't have all the ingredients on hand.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk and egg. Mix together corn flour, Creole/Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper in shallow bowl or dish.

3. Pour enough vegetable oil in a large saute pan to shallowly cover the bottom of the pan. Heat over medium heat.

4. Meanwhile, dip tomato slices in egg mixture, then coat both sides with corn flour. Place tomato slices in pan in a single layer. Do not crowd. Cook over moderate heat until golden brown on bottom. Turn and brown on other side. (Total cooking time is 3 to 4 minutes.) Tomato should be cooked all the way through but not mushy. Exterior should be golden brown.

5. Place tomatoes on a baking sheet lined with paper towels to cool before serving.


Source (with some slight modifications): NPR - recipe was originally made with shrimp

Fun idea for you sandwich lovers: Make a BLFGT. Toast some sourdough bread and add some lettuce and bacon on top of your FGT, plus sauce. Om nom nom.

new tunes!

I love me some good music. The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons are two of my most favoritest bands, and today I discovered new material from BOTH of them. The Avett Brothers song came from a CMT Unplugged special they did earlier this week so there's a bunch of other videos to see too. enjoy!

Tags: The Once and Future Carpenter (CMT Unplugged), The Avett Brothers, The Avett Brothers Videos

this one's just a link so you'll have to go to the website and listen in:

Home - Mumford & Sons

what's in a name?

I take great interest in names. It may be weird, but sometimes I look up names I like to see what they mean or where they came from. Sometimes I think it would have been fun to study onomastics (which is the study of personal names, according to Wikipedia. I did just look that up. I'm not that much of a nerd.) However, I'm pretty sure that career choice would have required learning multiple languages which sounds rather daunting to me. Beyond the meaning, I also find it intriguing to hear how exactly people or things got their names. Maybe I'm so interested because my own name has a lot of personal meaning. In case anyone is wondering, here's how I got mine. Nina was my paternal grandmother's name and I greatly appreciate the fact that practically no one else has it. It comes from the same Hebrew root, meaning "grace," as my mother's name, Ann, so has connections to both sides of my family. My middle name, Corine, is from from my mother's side of the family and I'm the fifth generation to have that name. I guess that makes me almost as cool as someone with Roman numerals in his name ;) I find funny to think I was almost named Laura Elizabeth, two other family names that are just slightly more common.

Anyway, when it came time to name this blog, I felt quite the pressure to think of a good title. I wanted something with meaning that was clever but not cheesy. I went with "by the way" because it was a bit of a double entendre. There's the colloquial phrase "by the way" that I usually use to preface a conversational addendum, as a precursor to some other sporadic thought, or just to signal an abrupt subject change. This would be the saying that is often abbreviated BTW, or bee-tee-dubs if you prefer to defeat the purpose of an abbreviation entirely, which I may or may not be guilty of.. This expression was a good way to illustrate the variety of topics I may potentially blog about in the future.

In a more literal sense, I understand "by the way" as any number of people, places, ideas, or other things one may see, encounter, or otherwise experience on a journey. Like I said in my prior post, this blog is meant to capture bits of my life to share with others, focusing more on the journey than the destination. Not sure where the path leads, but hope you enjoy whatever I find by the way.

I'm on the Blogwagon

What do cool kids do on a Friday night? Create a blog, of course. First post had to wait until Saturday morning, but here it is! I am by no means the first or the last of my friends to enter the blogosphere, but feel as if I am giving in to yet another form of social media. (Also: I joined Google+ last night. I'm currently acclimating to that corner of cyberspace, so more musings on that at a later date.) All feelings of succumbing aside, I am excited to share with my friends. As I was taught to do in preschool. Mama and Papa Myers are proud, I'm sure.

Anyway, no idea where this little project is going. I definitely ascribe to the belief that it's more about the journey than the destination. I have no theme or particular topic in mind, so expect a smorgasbord of commentary on current events, food, celebrities, sports, random trivia, as well as some coverage of what I'm up to these days and the occasional meaningful reflection on life as I understand it. Please comment, it's more fun that way, and thanks for reading.