Thursday, January 6, 2011

Pulled Chicken Tacos

 In honor of San Antonio week I wanted to post a recipe for some great chicken for tacos. We loved how many Mexican restaurants they had in San Antonio. One of my favorites was the drive thru place La Cabana, it was fast and tasted pretty great. This recipe comes from Pioneer Woman's tasty kitchen.

Ingredients-
  • 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (to make extra just double recipe)
  • 1 whole Lime, Divided Use
  • 1 whole Onion, Quartered
  • 1 whole Bay Leaf
  • 1 cup Chicken Broth
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
  • 1 Tablespoon Chipotle Adobo Sauce
  • ½ teaspoons Cumin Powder
  • ½ teaspoons Chili Powder
  • ¼ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
  • Tortillas And Optional Taco Garnishes

-Salt & pepper the chicken breasts and soak with the juice of 1/2 of the lime to tenderize (30 minutes). Then, place chicken in a saucepan with the quartered onion, bay leaf, broth and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and poach for 15 minutes. That was an interesting process for me, but it worked great.

-Drain and transfer chicken to a bowl. Discard the bay leaf and onion. Shred the chicken with 2 forks.

-Add tomato paste and chipotle sauce, the juice from the other 1/2 of the lime, seasonings, and bit of salt. Work the mixture through the chicken evenly. 
They came out with just the right amount of spice to it. I loved them. Serve with tortillas and any or all of the following garnishments:
* 1 small red onion, diced
* Guacamole
* Shredded cheese
* Cilantro
* Sour Cream
* Salsa
Our last night in San Antonio we went to Los Barrios, a popular Mexican restaurant and it didn't disappoint. The salsa was perfect.
Our food was even better. It was soft chicken tacos with guacamole and the traditional beans and rice. They had this menu item called a puffy taco that I still am not sure what it is. I think its like a crispy taco, but maybe fried? We'll never know unless we go back! Pin It

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

House Tour and Shopping Trip in TX!

I love looking at houses and taking home tours. We always used to go to the tour of homes every chance we got, its fascinating to me. So I thought I'd take you on a tour of our cute San Antonio Cottage.
 Here are some of the room highlights:
 This is the very large and spacious kitchen. It had a 6 burner gas stove that you can see and upgraded counter tops and new appliances.
 There are 2 entrys into the house, one at the front (pictured above) and one at the back where the garage and backyard is that goes into the little laundry room and then kitchen. They have a great fireplace area with the built in shelves and some stain glass on the windows.
 Here is the back entrance and yard area.
 There is a sun room off of the living room where you can sit and enjoy morning coffee, this is where they had set up a Christmas tree in the window for us.
 The house had 3 fairly large bedrooms, 1 with a king, 1 with a queen, and 1 full bed. The house was like a big circle. There were 2 doors per bedroom that led to another room in the house. It was like a big maze.
This is where David and I stayed. I loved the windows and moldings that they had and the ceiling height was very tall.
There were two bathrooms, 1 with an old fashioned tub and this one with a walk in shower. I loved all the blue glass tiles.
 This was the view from the front door looking out. The houses around ours were huge 2-story mansion types. Some people didn't have driveways/garages, but this house did although it was a very tight squeeze.
We also did some shopping while we were there at The Shops at La Cantera. It is a cool area and their 6 flags is right next door. You can see roller coasters from the parking lot! Bella was investigating our bags saying "What did you guys buy!"
This was the coolest shopping area I have seen so far in my life. Everything is connected via a courtyard in the middle. All the stores have canopys, which came in handy because it was rainy the day we went. I love the charm and feeling of everything.
Look how big it is! I am happy to say we covered the whole entire area. It took us 4 hours, but we had fun.
Michelle is going to model a few outfits for us that she purchased. This was a dress she found on sale at Anthropology. I have never been to the store because it is usually out of my price range, but the sales were great and it is so interesting in there. I love the bedding they have. 
This is a cute sweater dress that she got from Express, I got one in purple. She is wearing this outfit today with black tights and boots (so trendy she is). Shes also showing it off with her black over coat that is so universal that I also bought one.
We also bought cute scarfs from Old Navy. Hers is pictured above and mine is black and white. We had a fun time shopping together with each other and Mom.
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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

San Antonio Christmas! Fried Turkey, Where Have You Been All My Life!!!

We had a fun Christmas day in San Antonio.
The theme for the gifts was homemade/re purpose gifts (Anything that doesn't cost a lot of money).  You can see what I made for my mom and sister here
Maddie was Santa's little helper, but she wasn't a fan of the shirt so she could only stand in place and not move until we took it off her. 
Some of the favorites was this Abilene High School T-shirt my sister caught at the football game. I'm not sure if any of you watch Life of Jenks on MTV, but he did a story on one of the players on the football team there and I couldn't stop watching it. I became a huge fan and was super excited!
 How cute is this apron my sister got. 
My sister also gifted me this great jacket (she hardly wore it and has too many jackets). I love it and wear it all the time now!
We also have a tradition every year where we make crafts (usually xmas eve). This one involved sewing so it was a lenghty craft.
This is my final product, with much help from my Mom. 
Let's move on to the main event! Michelle and James wanted to introduce us to fried turkey. They forgot their turkey injector so James improvised with a spice rub.
I was so excited about the whole process so I grabbed my blanket and headed outside to watch the turkey fry.
Here the peanut oil is heated up and the turkey has been lowered into the pot. 
Look at that nice color!
I really, really loved the turkey. It had so much flavor that I couldn't stop eating it. It seriously is the best thing I have ever had, you must try it.
Of course its not a regular treat, but 1-2 times per year is a must now!

We also had yummy ham that we used the rest of  the week for sandwiches.
Davids plate for our Christmas dinner. 
We ended our night playing Apples to Apples. The gals loved it, but the boys weren't as thrilled about it.  
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Monday, January 3, 2011

San Antonio Day 1

We started out the trip to San Antonio by going to a piano bar. We always like to go and sing along and find new piano bars when we go to different cities. The dueling pianos are the best. We decided to share this gigantic bucket of a drink (she wouldn't serve it to us unless we had 4 people).
 Sorry about the iphone pics, my flash doesn't work well.
I was tired from the flight, but we had a good time. After we left the boys lost the car. We walked around for a good half an hour trying to locate it. Things got scary (homeless people trying to be our friends etc.. ) so we waited at a hotel until they found it.
The next day we spotted a Pei Wei and had to eat there. They have great Chinese food (very similar to PF Changs) but better pricing.
Check out Michelle's spicy chicken!
James got teriaki beef and everything was soo good.
We stopped by the HEB (grocery store) to gather supplies for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day.  David spotted this mini keg and had to have it.
David testing it out (it was pouring out so thats why his jacket is all wet).
I think he likes it!
Yep, confirmed, he loved it. Him and James (mostly him) drank the whole thing in 1 night.
Mom also got herself a new phone since her old one was starting to break and not function.
So we relaxed on Christmas eve, had our beverages and cookies that mom brought.
This sums it up. It was nice hanging out and being together.
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