Happy St. Patty's Day!

I have nothing green to offer-sorry. I am closer to being the Queen of England than I am of being Irish. Although, with my love of spuds, I find it hard to believe there isn't a tiny bit of Irish, but both parents confirm-none. We are still having some mild temps here, and almost all of the snow has melted, leaving lakes and streams in my yard. Since it is March in Minnesota, you know we will be hit with at least one more snowstorm before the month is through-historically speaking, at least. With warm temps and most of the snow already gone, we know it won't last at least.

I was trying to create something again with no recipe. My soup turned out pretty good-the Dude said he enjoyed it. I had purchase a slew of chicken on sale last week and wanted to make something different with it. I love chicken, it is versatile, but sometimes boring. I remembered a post on Katherine's site for Buffalo Chicken. I picked up a jar of Buffalo sauce (mild-I'm a wimp and suffer from a lot of indigestion), and set out to create something good. It didn't turn out too bad. The hubs had a training class until 7 and was fed pizza, so said he would like to take some for leftovers the next day and would like noodles with Alfredo. I'm not a big Alfredo fan as it is too rich for me and I always feel sick, so to cheat (and because the kids like them and will make it for themselves) I usually have Knorr sides on hand and there was an Alfredo package in the pantry. He left and I sat there and stared into space, into cupboards, into the pantry.........waiting for inspiration. Nothing. Grunt. The voice in my head said "just take some stuff out and get going!". That damn voice is awful bossy. But I like it when it tells me to have one more glass of wine or to nibble the end off the hubby's cookie, so it can stay.

Here is my take on the Buffalo Chicken:

First, make yourself a cocktail

Next, I took a shallot and a clove of garlic, peeled and gently gave them a good crack and put them in a saute pan with a little oil to flavor it. After letting it simmer for about 15 minutes and getting fragrant, I removed the shallot and garlic.

While sauteing the shallot and garlic, I took three chicken breast, generously sprinkled both sides with a salt free spice blend from Penzey's. I cut each breast in half lengthwise, then each half into about 1 inch thick pieces. After removing the shallot and garlic, I put the medallions of chicken in, browning on both sides.

After the chicken was fully cooked, I added about 3 TBSP of the wing sauce and cooked for about 3 to 4 minutes so the flavor was incorporated.

Here is the daughter's plate. I was concerned she wouldn't like it as she is not a big fan of spicy, but she scarfed it right down and said she really liked it. I served mine with some baked beans and a salad, but I was so hungry, I just sat down and ate mine.

I will hopefully get to a place soon that I can go to the cupboard and just go "oh, the tomatoes with the onion and the garlic and these noodles will go great with the pepper on the counter and the beef in the fridge" without totally freaking out that there isn't a printed recipe in front of me.

Baby steps.