Mexican themed Family Game Night needed a Mexican themed drink. A couple weeks ago, we were all shopping at BJ's and Catherine wanted to try mango. Well, you know shopping at BJ's... you don't leave with just one mango -- you come out with a package of 6 huge mangoes. Not surprising, I'm not sure how much Catherine really managed to eat, but I remember that I gave at least 2 or 3 to LaDawna, and I think we cut up at least 1. Looking in the fruit drawer, there were still 2 remaining. I had asked my friends "what to do with mango?", hoping to get ideas. My friend, Cindi, came up with the awesome idea of Mango Margaritas, and gave me her recipe. For our game night of 6 people, I quadrupled this recipe, and had a little leftover for me to enjoy tomorrow. Muy delicioso!
- 1¼ oz. silver tequila (Oops! I think I actually used white)
- 1 oz. triple sec
- 1½ oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 oz. simple syrup (See instructions below)
- ¾ cup partially frozen mango, unsweetened (Jim actually added a little of the tequila before he put in the freezer)
DIRECTIONS
- Make simple syrup -- In a small saucepan, boil 1 part water. Dissolve 2 parts sugar into the boiling water, stirring constantly. Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat. Allow to cool completely and thicken.
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into hurricane-style glasses.
It was time to make the meal plan for the next Family Game Night. Gabi came over last week to help me plan it, and somehow we got on the idea of making it a Mexican theme. We thoughts Fajitas would be fun, and also added all the fixings, plus Sangria, Margaritas, and Key Lime Pie. Never having made Fajitas before, I took to the internet and found a recipe on Food Network, by Giada De Laurentis, that used the same marinade recipe for both chicken and steak. I quadrupled the below recipe, to make enough marinade for the meat that I bought. I ended up getting one piece of steak and one piece of chicken for each person (we were a party of 6 tonight). I fresh squeezed all of the juices and Jimmy grilled it all outside. Sampling some of the steak as I was cutting it, it tasted delicious, but I was a little surprised how non-Mexican it tasted. Of course, I said to myself, I took the recipes from the Italian cooking show, so why am I so surprised? lol.... But once we put it together with the tortillas, the grilled onions and peppers, and the other fixin's (my homemade guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and salsa), these Fajitas were pretty amazing (if I do say so myself).
- ½ cup orange juice (I used fresh squeezed)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 large limes, zested and juiced
- ¼ cup agave nectar, or 3 Tbsp. brown sugar (I used the brown sugar)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp. dried oregano (I omitted this)
- 1 Tbsp. chili powder
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast (I used thin chicken cutlets, and cooked 1 per person)
- 1 (12-16 oz.) skirt or flank steak (I cooked 1 per person)
- Flour tortillas
DIRECTIONS
- In a bowl, combine the orange juice, olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, agave nectar (or brown sugar), garlic, oregano, chili powder, and salt.
- Pour the mixture into a marinating container or gallon-sized plastic bag.
- Add the chicken and steak and refrigerate for 4 hours, turning meat occasionally.
- Reserve the marinade (Oops! I forgot to do this part... this probably would have tasted good too!)
- Grill the chicken, about 5-8 minutes on each side. Grill the steak, about 5 minutes per side for medium. Allow the meat to rest before slicing.
- (This is what I forgot to do) Meanwhile, put the marinade in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat (in order to kill any bacteria). Boil for 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Pour the marinade over sliced meat and toss until coated.
- Serve meat in warm tortillas with fixings of your choice.
Tonight was Wicked Weather Wednesday -- we had a severe weather in the form of tornado warnings followed by a pretty amazing thunder and lightening storm. We, thankfully, were spared the most severe weather, between our trips to the basement and being glued to the tv at the tornado destruction in Springfield, dinner time had quickly slipped my mind. (Well, it slips my mind often. Tonight, I just had a legitimate excuse.) I found some chicken tenders in the freezer that I was able to quickly defrost, but I wasn't sure what to do with them, other than the usual of coating with bread crumbs, which sometimes tastes "eh". I quickly searched allrecipes.com and came up with the following. I added a little egg to help the stuffing adhere to the chicken tenders, and I have to say, I thought this was a pretty good experiment.
The below is the recipe from allrecipes.com (by Lynne B), but I used more chicken tenders, so I kept making more of the stuffing/butter mixture to ensure there was enough for all of the chicken tenders.
- (1) 9 oz. package of chicken tenderloins
- ½ cup finely crushed dry stuffing mix
- 2 Tbsp. melted butter
- 1 egg
- Dash of milk or light cream
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Line a 9x13" baking dish with foil. Rinse and pat dry chicken.
- Beat egg with milk in one bowl.
- In a second bowl, melt butter. Add dry stuffing mix and combine.
- Take each chicken tender and coat with egg mixture and then stuffing mixture and line in the baking dish.
- Sprinkle any remaining stuffing mixture over top of chicken tenders.
- Bake for 40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
