Italian Sweet & Sour Chicken

When you move, you try to use up all of your ingredients.  It's no fun to try and move bottles and bottles of oils, vinegars and sauces.  In the last few weeks in your old house, your meals are planned around whatever you have sitting in the cupboard, and frozen in the freezer.  The bottles are emptied as you make salads with champagne vinaigrette, Chicken breast with balsamic glaze and soy sauced vegetables.

When you arrive in your new home, you have to start from scratch.  Collect your oils and vinegars all over again.  And sometimes you plan your meals around items that you think you own, but in fact, do not.  Like when I was trying to make this sweet and sour chicken.  I was in need of a simple red wine vinegar.  While making the grocery list I thought to myself "Of course I have red wine vinegar, I didn't use it all before I left New Haven."  Wouldn't you know, Tuesday night came around and I was without red wine vinegar. 

I did however have a bottle of balsamic vinegar!  So we went in a different direction with the flavors in this dish, more italian, less asian.  It worked out so well, because I recieved a box goodies from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program!  Inside the box were these delicious items...

Look, risotto!  That will work perfectly with my italian sweet and sour chicken!  And it was perfect.  While it's not going to equal spending a half hour at the stove, Bird's Eye did a pretty good job!  The mushroom risotto was what I decided to pair with our chicken dinner.  (Boyfriend ate the rest of the items while I was out of town this weekend!  He said they were good and that the risotto was his dinner one night!)  Apparently they are coming to stores in September, aka, tomorrow!

Pasta a la Boyfriend

I made it home from Buffalo very early yesterday morning.  My day went as follows...

3:00 am - Wake up and take a shower

3:30 am - Wake up parents and take puppies outside (romp romp romp, bite bite bite!)

3:45 am - Head to the airport (Ooo, it's dark out.  Hey, the bars aren't even closed yet.)

4:15 am - Welcome to the Buffalo Niagara Airport!  (It's pretty quiet here, oh, I'm on the first flight out of the airport)

5:23 am - Yes, that's what it said on my ticket, 5:23 am - Take-off in the Dash-8 (Ugh, hate the Dash-8)

6:55 am - Welcome home!  Kinda, welcome to LaGuardia airport!

7:10 am - Figure out how to get to Jamaica Station...  How about a bus?

7:35 am - Well that worked, now I'll hop this subway and get to Jamaica.

7:55 am - Phew, made it to Jamaica!  Ooo, I can catch my regular train to work!  Score!

8:45 am - 5:00 pm - Chemistry chemistry chemistry

5:00 pm - Heading home (So tired....  Fall asleep on the train...)

6:30 pm - Home!  Ooo, boyfriend is making dinner!  It looks delicious (It was).  He is even using all of my Foodbuzz Tastemaker goodies! 

So, not only did he manage to make a delicious meal, he completed some work that I needed to get done! 

As a member of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, I was lucky enough to receive samples of Crisco's new Olive oils!  I was super excited when I received not one, but three different bottles!  For dinner last night, boyfriend used the traditional olive oil, I have big plans for the Extra Virgin (can anyone say Salad dressings?!!?). 

For someone who doesn't really cook (other than mac'n'cheese and cheesey chicken nibblers), he liked the Crisco olive oil, especially the lid.  It has a different  pour spout than I've seen in any other olive oil.  It allowed it to slowly come out of the bottle, without having to wait forever.  The flavor was light and was great to cook up the mini meatballs!