FINALLY TWD...and you didn't think I'd make it

Tuesdays with Dorrie.... my 3rd week.
It is 10:00 p.m. PST. I just finished baking my batch of "Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters" chosen by Stefanie of Proceed with Caution.
Hooray! An easy week....especially since I was gone for a major part of last week.
Easy and tasty.
Ten at night is when we should NOT be eating cookies, but we had to test them. They got the highest praise from my husband Rich who said, "these are good cookies".
I said..."they are Dottie's" and we shared a laugh. Because we are tired and it is late and well, little things amuse us.
(I was going to say that we are old, but really we're not THAT old.)

As usual, I followed the recipe to the tea....WAIT, NO I didn't. I didn't have chunky peanut butter or bittersweet chocolate pieces. So used creamy peanut butter and chocolate chips.
And I didn't cook for 13-15 minutes, but only 10 minutes. They turned out crunchy on the outside, and chewy on the inside...just like I liked them. We live at 4000 ft, so I'm not sure if it's the altitude that makes them overdone if I follow cooking directions or not, but when I cook as directed my cookies are always way too done for me.
So, this is a short post, but I want to go to bed now. I've had my milk and cookies. ~grins~

The Trip

When we went up north last week, we had to eat. It was an 8-hour trip...thru the desert of Nevada and south eastern Oregon (you didn't know Oregon had a deserty part, did you? Most of it is green and lush, but there is the southeast corner, that segues from the Nevada desert to the green rolling hills of Oregon )
We stopped in this little tiny ranching community, Jordan Valley. They only have a gas station and 2 restaurants, and not much else. So...here is where we stopped. The JV Club. Seriously it was this or a hot dog at the gas station. But you know what they say...."diners, drive-ins and dives...."



It had 6 booths and 2 tables in the middle. And this waitress who whispered.
It was really strange....she would whisper ask if we knew what we wanted, and I said "WHA? HUH?" because I couldn't understand her, and then I felt bad because "what if" she had a speech impediment?

It was a very quiet little restaurant because when the waitress whispers, so does everyone else.

I had the halibut fish and chips
Rich had the malibu chicken.
The fish was good. The chicken was good. The chips were so-so.

TWD.....later on. Wiener Mobile now.

I will post my TWD tomorrow...LATE. Right now it is still Monday at my house and I just got back from a vacation weekend in Washington State (more on this later), and I have still to make my cookies. Tomorrow...

Something strange happened on our way back to Nevada.
Let me backtrack a bit...next weekend at our house is the 2nd Annual Stone's (our last name) Wiener-fest!!
A hot dog party to say good-bye to the summer. Hot dogs, Italians Sausages, chorizos, linguisa...anything round and hot-dogish looking. With all the sides! chili, sauerkraut, mustard, relish, onions, cheese, NO KETCHUP...it's not allowed on hot dogs at my house. (sigh....I'll have it hidden under the picnic table for those who can't live without it).
Next Sunday, I'll have a long post about the Weiner-fest.
But the weird thing was, today on our 8-hour drive back home, my husband and I were talking about the weinerfest, what we needed to do to get ready and all of the sudden there in front of us was....the Wiener Mobile!!

We are sure it's more than coincidence.
It's....it's....GOOD LUCK. And omen.
We are bound to have a great wiener-fest!!
yay!

LOL..... we had never seen the wiener mobile before, so were quite excited.

TWD post tomorrow late... PACIFIC TIME, and more Labor Day weekend news during the day tomorrow.

And now....driving down the freeway....

At last

FINALLY!!!!
The BBQ'd Chicken pizza recipe from Barbara Brown of Buckeye, Arizona!!! (yay!!!!)

Barb is my friend. She was my husband's friend first (they worked for the same company ) and sometimes I think he is jealous of our friendship.
He'll survive. :~)

Barb is one of the original Friday Friends, which was a "forum" (yes that's it!! I've been trying to think of the right word), a forum of my friends who live far and wide from CA to PA. This forum shares cooking, living, loving and laughing....across the miles.YES, I was a woman before my time...before blogging. LOL

Just get to it, you say, give us the recipe!! Okay, already.
Barb is a great cook, so I've got quite a few of her recipes. In fact, Barb was the editor of the Friday Friend cookbook-- Don't get your hopes up, there are only two copies in the whole world....in Barb's kitchen and mine. I asked for recipes from these Friday Friends far and wide, they sent, I forwarded, Barb copied and pasted and printed, a cook book.
This recipe is from that cookbook. In the Chicken chapter.
I made it for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and it was really a simple, pretty fast meal. (not to mention good)

Hint to my college kids in Connecticut: simple and fast and good. 3 things you look for.

Barbecued Chicken Pizza

1 lb. boned/skinned chicken breasts (you could actually even pick up a deli-roasted chicken and pull off what you need--slice the rest for sandwiches)
1/4 cup of your favorite bbq sauce
salt/pepper
8-10 slices of bacon, cut in to 1 inch pieces
2 ten inch baked pizza crusts (like Boboli) (I stacked everything on one pizza crust, BUT you can do as you want.
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup diced chilies
shredded jack cheese
1/ 2 tsp. hot chili flakes

Tear the cooked chicken into bite sized chunks. Mix with bbq sauce. Cook bacon. Spread each pizza crust with 4oz cream cheese. Spoon chicken in sauce evenly over crusts. Top with the rest of ingredients.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
Cut and serve.

Now for the pictures!

the stuff you need: everything good, bacon and chicken and cream cheese!!! and more cheese and bbq sauce and seasonings.

now this is funny....I've always said that most of you bloggers are much better photographers than I ( and I admit I am jealous--it eats at me), but this pic of the pizza before going in the oven is just odd. It looks like an english muffin pizza!!!

LOL And it was, truthfully a 10-inch pizza.. A Boboli pizza crust. Every picture I took of it with the toppings came out looking like a english muffin, 2-inch pizza!

Oh well....

and again...the finished product:

Thank you Barbara Brown! (pictured with some silly person who looks like me, giving bunny ears. WHY? we are old enough to act our age...which is way too old to give bunny ears. Or not. It's interesting--to me---that she gave me this recipe on the weekend this picture was taken, 3 years ago. They popped in and surprised us with a visit on their way up and down the Pacific Coast. This was during our county fair, where we had horse races and I was obligated to sell/ or take bets. Barb, ever one to help out, was in the paramutal booth with me. )

We did not have the BBQ Chicken pizza that night... In fact, the first time I made it....3 years later, SHAME ON ME, was just a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know what I was missing!!

Dorie again...(if I spelled that right )

This is a cooking blog, right? Not a spelling blog? Because if it's spelling....obviously I lose. It would be mortar, not "motar" that I'm off to buy.
I got excited just hearing Dorie's voice that led to me post a "quick" note and my spelling radar just wasnt' up.
Forgive me?

Dore Greenspan

Dorie Greenspan is on "The Splendid Kitchen"

okay....so I'm a little behind in listening to my podcasts.. but she was on there on August 16th.
You can listen to her here: http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/listings/
it was fun to hear her voice.
and now.... I must go buy a motar. :~0

TWD: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

Tuesdays With Dottie...I mean Dorie

(my husband is confused and it is catching!)

Well, here I am, well into week #2 of my TWD challenge. This week was "Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte" chosen by Amy of Food, Family and Fun

( http://foodfamilyandfun.blogspot.com/ )
Friday Friends....stop by and check out her blog. ("old" blogger alert! I don't know how to have a link without putting up the whole address --sigh-- I need my kids to come home from college.)

This recipe was not hard, it was just time consuming. Definitely something you needed all day to make. Which made for a nice Sunday. I fiddled around in the kitchen, cleaned up some e-mails, fiddled around in the kitchen, went to church, fiddled around in the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, fiddled around in the kitchen... you get the picture.
IT WAS TIME CONSUMING.
And the raw eggs kind of creeped me out. I have to be honest.

So much so, that I only ate part of one slice, while watching my husband and friends devour theirs and ask for more.
My husband ate another piece the very next night...I didn't.
On Saturday morning on the Food Network, the new show, "Ask Aida" was all about eggs, and she said that if they were fresh, a little bit was okay. But still....I just couldn't.

The ganache (was it ganache? the recipe never says ganache) was easier than I had thought, but I agree with some TWD bloggers, that 30 minutes was not enough time to freeze it good. My ganache layers were tacky to the touch, but I went ahead and put on my ice-cream layers, because it was so TIME CONSUMING.
and I had invited friends to dinner so it only got to freeze for 4 hours at the end. It really needed the 6, I believe.
And cutting it to take pictures? HA! The warm knife made my torte begin to soften and melt.
No good pictures here.

oh my gosh...that is a sorry piece of torte! Really....it needs the whole 6 hours or more of freeze time.

So....my synopsis? It was easy, but very time consuming and the egg issue bothered me. (there were 8 raw eggs, for crying out loud!)*
So much so, that I wouldn't have known how good it was unless I had watched friends and family enjoy it, complimenting me about how it was the best dessert they've ever had! And then they all said it was a good thing I had joined the "Tuesdays with Dottie" (my husband has everyone saying it) challenge.

*sorry. I don't have many food issues at all. None in fact...except expiration dates and well... I guess "raw eggs".

But it was FUN to do. I think I'd make it again, but find a different ganache recipe and maybe put some different ice cream like some of the other TWD bakers have done.