I may have underestimated Hub's seasoning skills.

I'm a huge plan of meal planning.  Every Sunday I sit down and page through tons of websites, looking through recipe after recipe, looking for the perfect week of meals. This week I chose a handful of new recipes and I'll throw in a couple of standbys for a little variety and, what turned out to be, a LOT of spice.

I'm going to be honest...I do most of the planning and shopping, but when it comes down to it, hubs does most of the ACTUAL cooking.  He loves coming up with a spice blend and then not telling anyone what was in it.  When I picked a recipe for pork chops, I knew he would jump at the chance to season them just right and cook them to perfection. This was no exception, especially since the recipe I found was for CAJUN pork chops, which was a win for both of us.

So, we had our protein-Cajun pork chops. Then, for starch, I found what I thought would be the perfect match-roasted Cajun potatoes!  Now, Cajun + Cajun in my book clearly = hush puppies! Oh, and green beans.  You know, for color.  So, hubs and I got to work, and sat down to our feast.

I started with a hush puppy, which we made pretty close to the recipe, but substituted beer for the milk and water it had called for.  The flavor on these little guys is AMAZING, but the texture leaves something to be desired.  I think I'll play around with ingredients next time I make them, since I will for sure be making them again.

Hush Puppies:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/hush-puppies-i/detail.aspx

Next, I tried a bite of my pork chop, which was crispy on the outside and juicy inside the way nature intended it.  I was about to go for a bite of potato when my eyes started watering.  As it turns out, a little bit of Cajun is good in moderation, but two dishes with such strong spices in one meal..may be a little too much spice for me.  Don't get me wrong, the chops and spuds had great flavor, the spice was just slightly overpowering.

Cajun Spiced Pork Chops:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cajun-Spiced-Pork-Chops/Detail.aspx

  We decided the potatoes would be better if the spices were mixed with mayonnaise before roasting, to kind of mellow out the flavor, but they were definitely worth a try.  For the leftovers, I think we'll be mixing them with some plain potatoes and into some "leftover eggs."

Roasted Cajun Potatoes:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-cajun-potatoes/detail.aspx

Ooey Gooey MMmm MMmm Good

The first thing I do every morning is check my email...on my phone...before I get out of bed. I usually don't sleep until after 2pm, but I was rather "sleepy." On this particular day I had received an email from ZipList, with a full selection of "Ooey Gooey Recipes," including one with a guarantee that everyone would love.

http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/07/cheddar-bacon-ranch-pulls.html

The recipe title is "Cheddar bacon ranch pulls," but I much prefer the author's nickname for the dish-Crack Bread. Hubs and I got all the ingredients during our grocery store trip, and put everything together while finishing the last couple of episodes of The IT Crowd on Netflix. Oh British comedy. :) The bread came out of the oven "ooey gooey" as promised, and we dove right in. Oh. My. Gatos. It really is crack bread. I'm glad I thought to make myself a spinach salad along with it, otherwise I'm sure I would have gorged myself on the melty cheesey bacon and ranchy goodness. We followed the recipe pretty closely, but used a slightly larger loaf of Italian bread, making for more servings. It was pretty much amazing, and I can't wait to make it again.

My "crack bread"

Starting Out

Please bear with me, I've not done this before.  But I do have some fun ideas :)

Yesterday I was wasting time on Pinterest, as has become my new Saturday hobby.  I was dreaming of an event I'm kind of planning, and stumbling over this, that, and everything.  Then, I found it.  A delicious, sinful-looking confection that looked too good to be true.  Turns out...it wasn't.  I saw the idea for it on Pinterest, then Googled until I found a version of the recipe I was looking for.

Tada!
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/appetizers-and-snacks/cake-batter-cracker-dip/

It's just as quick, easy, tasty, and sinful as advertised.