Flops on Friday

Wow! I can't believe it's been a week since I last updated this thing. I'm sorry everyone. But I had some tests to study for and take. I kinda spaz out when it comes to taking tests. So that, with some extremely awesome weather, kinda caused me to neglect my blog world. There was just too much stuff happening under my slice of sky. Wow. I can not believe how cheezy I am. I seriously never used to be able to write stuff like that.

Our family had a bent and dent grocery store for several years. It's name was Bananas. Yeah. Try explaining that to the customers, especially when they couldn't find any bananas. :) But my Mom was always coming up with these awesome things to write on signs and stuff: "Go Bananas over our prices"...for Valentines day: "I'm bananas for you"....when we had an excessive amount of one item the sign would say: "Too Many Granola Bars. We're going Bananas"! Yeah. Just all sorts of little quips and stuff using the whole "bananas" thing. I really can't specifically remember any of them. I tried to block them from my mind. But Mom liked it if I'd help her out by being the one to write the signs. No way! It was too cheezy. I could.not.make.myself.write.it. End of story.

But now look at me: "There was too much happening under my slice of sky". Um, I'm frightened now. :)

Oh! And you want to know what else I did? I totally painted a mirror. Yeah. I found it cheap at Goodwill and it was this hideous golden color. I couldn't believe myself when I actually went and bought some spray paint and actually painted the mirror. It looks way cooler now. Except I can't figure out where to put it. I'm beginning to think that I bought the mirror simply so I could feel and frugal and renovate-y and stuff. Because duh, you can't put a white mirror on a white wall. Hello? Where was the planning ahead part of my brain? Oh well. I'll figure it out, and feel all accomplished in the meantime.

Back to the cheezy thing. I was trying to come up with a name for my post today, and all I could think of was: "Flops on Friday". You know how real blog have these cool things like "Thrifty Thursday" and "Wedding Wednesday" and...yeah. I've been feeling like it's time for my blog to step up to the plate and find it's identity. But blogs just need one of those cheezy things to help it in that process. I thought "Flops on Friday" was cool. Because seriously, how many times do you make something and it just "flops". Well, I don't know about you, but it happens to me frequently. It's pretty much impossible to alter a recipe to the extents that I do, and get it perfect the first try. So then you're stuck with the disaster. My first impulse is to just dump it. Or bury it. Or burn it...whatever destroys the evidence the most effectively. But how wasteful is that anyway? So you start thinking about your budget and all the ingredients in the flop, and how much they cost...and wow. That's a dangerous road. But, if you save it, what in the WORLD are you supposed to use it for?

That's what "Flops on Friday" is all about. Sharing different ideas on how to incorporate your flops into something else. It's so awesome when you can effectively disguise the flop and make the end result look like it was something you planned all along. So here is a step by step process on what to do.

First of all. Take a moment to mourn the loss of your potentially successful flop. You put a lot of time and energy into making it. So it's emotionally stressing to pull it out of the oven and find that it was a failure. So, take your flop, set it beside you, and then just feel free to bury your head in despair for 30-45 seconds. Don't take too long on this step. Because, likely as not, it's probably late in the afternoon and your husband, [or some other onlooker] is soon going to arrive on the scene. Your objective is to destroy the evidence by creating something new. :)
Okay, Your 45 seconds are up. This is where you raise your head, and summon the saddest face you can. End of step. Get over it. Start thinking. Start thinking of what time it is. What ingredients you have on hand...stop thinking about the disaster.

In this case my flop was a chocolate chip scone. I had made the recipe before using whole wheat flour and it was fantastic. I was trying to make it with Oat Bran. FAIL! It just crumbled and yeah. I don't want to talk about it. Cookies and the like, are one of these easiest things to disguise. Make a trifle! :) I don't know how many times growing up my Mom took one of us kids' flops and made it into a trifle. Most of us have pudding mixes on hand, or, if you don't, you probably have the ingredients to make pudding. So start making pudding. Then start thinking about what you're going to make to go with the Trifle.

But first there's something we have to address. When was the last time you made dessert for supper, in the middle of the week? Yeah. That's what I thought. You have to explain away the presence of the dessert. Perfect answer? Date night!!! :) [Sorry if you don't have a handsome someone to have a date night with.] Date night calls for a little more awesome of a meal. So I decided to make a Vegetable Stir Fry, and Orange Sesame Chicken.

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees F

Plan ahead, make some tea or something for a drink. :)

Thaw your chicken and marinate them for as long as possible. Here's where I start running into trouble. I don't follow recipes at. all. when I'm cooking. I just dump until it tastes how I want it to. But I'll try for y'all's sake. Mix: 1 cup of orange juice, 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 3 drops of sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I generally add some more seasonings just because I like seasonings. So add some Crushed Red Pepper, Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, and a little bit of Ginger. Or don't. I don't really care. I was just throwing it out there. Put chicken in a container and add the marinade. Let this marinade for as long as possible.

Put half a cup of sesame seeds in a pan on medium heat. Toast them until they are brown. Stir frequently. You want to keep your eye on these because they burn easily and quickly. Once browned remove from heat.

In a shallow dish, Mix a cup and a half of flour with about 2 Tablespoons of butter. Add seasonings.  Here again I generally just put in the red pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, and a little ginger. Add the sesame seeds. Mix. Take your marinated chicken breasts and place them one at a time into the dish coating them well with the flour mixture.. front and back.I apologize for not having a picture of this step. I kinda forgot to take one. :(

Put floured chicken breasts on a cookie sheet and top with a slice of orange.  Place them in preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes.

While the chicken is baking, cut up your vegetables and start on your stir fry. Put some olive oil into a frying pan on medium heat. Use vegetables of your choice. I used, Red, Orange, and Green Bell Peppers, Sweet Onion, Carrots, and Mushrooms. Put them in sauce pan. Add some Sesame seeds if you want. Also put in a little Soy Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce, to taste. Let it do it's thing.
You want to make a sauce to pour over the chicken and stir fry.
In a sauce pan combine: 1 cup of orange juice, 1/2 cup of chicken broth, 2 tablespoons of honey, 2 teaspoons of  soy sauce, 3 drops of sesame oil, 1 garlic clove minced, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to a little bit of cold water. Add to sauce and stir until it thickens. You might want to add more cornstarch depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. Salt to Taste.

While all of that is doing it's thing. Get the pudding out of  the refrigerator. Crumble the cookies. Get your cups ready. I have two different kinds of pudding so I'll want to get two ziploc bags. Stuff the ziploc bag into a cup, like the picture shows. It's a lot easier to fill a bag this way than to hold it in your hand and fill it. Spoon pudding into bag. Seal Bag. Cut a small piece off of one of the corners. I use a bag to pipe the pudding into the cup, because it's rather difficult to keep the pudding from slopping all over the cup if you're just spooning it in.

Pipe in your first layer of pudding and add cookie crumbs.

Repeat process until you've reached the top. :) Place in refrigerator. By this time everything should be done.

Remove Chicken and Stir Fry and put them on your plate. Drizzle with sauce.

Get your table set. Make it pretty. :) Take out your Trifle and add it to the scene.  Pour tea into glasses.

And Wa-LA! Your meal is ready.

After you finished your awesome meal. :) Go watch NCIS. How's that for an awesome night?

Recipe

Marinade

• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 3 drops sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
  Additional Seasonings

Sauce

• 1 cup orange juice
• ½ cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons Soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in cold water water
• Salt
  

  INGREDIENTS
  4 small boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 7 oz. each)
  1 1/2 cups flour
  2 Tbsp butter
  1/2 cup sesame seeds
  Additional Seasonings

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