Recession Toffee

My friend Alexandra is living in London right now while she's in school and I know that this blog post will be right up her alley. We're in a recession, right? So, what better way to celebrate than to make "candy" out of normal things like saltine crackers? Seriously, I saw this recipe online and thought I would barf in my mouth. Then I thought about it some more and realized it might not be so bad. The salty/sweet combination is great and these could not be easier. Please enjoy!

Recession (redneck) Toffee

Ingredients:
Saltine crackers -- you'll need enough to cover your cookie sheet, like 25-30
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray and line with crackers
3. In a saucepan, combine butter and brown sugar over low heat
4. Bring mixture to a boil for 3 minutes and immediately pour over crackers
5. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes
6. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spread chocolate chips so that they melt over the hot crackers. Then sprinkle with nuts
7. Cut and enjoy

My version of Insalata Florentine

A few weeks ago, Jason's step mom and her two crazy friends came to Nashville for a visit. Let me just say that these ladies meant business......drinking, shopping, drinking, eating, drinking, flirting with men half their age (not Jason's step mom of course, just her friends), oh and more drinking.

On their way up to Nashville, they needed to stop and get a drink....I mean some lunch. They stopped and Macaroni Grill, a place we haven't been in years. They brought back their leftovers for us and I sampled a wonderful chicken/pasta/salad dish. It was really an odd combination of flavors and textures. I easily found the recipe online. The tricky part was figuring out how to make this "Jason friendly."


I left out most of the good stuff like olives and capers and kept the dish pretty simple. It is really good though and pretty easy, so I think this one might be going in our summer rotation. See what you think and know that this is one of those dishes that you could add almost anything to and it would be delicious (i.e. roasted red peppers, olives, capers, nuts, shavings of Parmesan, etc).


Kyle's Insalata Florentine

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Orzo pasta, cooked according to package directions

1 roasted chicken from Krogers, cut up into chunks

1/2 bag of Italian Mix bag salad (this mix has mostly radicchio, romaine)

1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of vinaigrette dressing -- use whatever you have on hand. I used O'Charley's Balsamic Vinaigrette and it was awesome!!!

Salt & Pepper

Directions:

1. Cook Orzo pasta (8-10 minutes in boiling water, stirring occasionally)

2. Cut up chicken into bite size pieces

3. Layer chicken and greens in a large bowl

4. Drain pasta and pour hot pasta over chicken and greens

5. Pour dressing over everything and toss well

6. Let chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. This is the type of dish though that tastes better the next day.

Did You Miss Us?

Ok, I realize that it's been a while since I've had a post on here. Hear me out.....Jason had this awful new job where he worked the craziest hours every week. When he would get home at 11:30 p.m. each night, he wasn't very hungry. Let me rephrase that, he wasn't very hungry for anything other than sweets. So I had one of two choices: 1. Rename the blog "Eating with Kyle by himself on the sofa each night while watching Lifetime." (you get the idea). 2. Just hold off on the posts until Jason got a new job. Well, number 2 was the right answer and Jason begins his new job next week. So.....stay tuned for new updates from Feeding Jason. I can't promise that any of it will be any healthier, but that never stopped you before!!