The War Rages On

Let me start this off with some highlights from the Battle of Alloway:

Team RoomDog:

• 1 point for smearing oatmeal all over the shower this morning
• 1 point for leaving a bowl of tuna fish/water in the sink this morning, and stinking up the kitchen

Team BearFace:

• 1 point to Michelle for using RD's blender and not washing it with soap!  (Just how RD would have wanted it!)   
• 1 point to BF for leaving the sink full of dishes this evening, which left RD no choice but to wash his.  (We, of course, washed our's later.)
• And finally, 1 point to Michelle for doing the dishes with hot water while RD was in the shower.

This sets the score at:

Team RD: 2 points

Team BF:  4 points

Tune in for more highlights later this week!

Although I was very busy today strategizing our next moves, I made sure to save some time for a relaxing trail ride with Chubbles and Murphy.  Lamont is out of commission for probably the next month, so I will be leasing Chubbles this month.  (A rather unfortunate name, if you ask me.)

Murphy was beyond excited to go on a trail ride, since the last one he went on was at least 3 months ago.  And trail riding is his favorite thing to do!

I literally could not be happier right now.

I could be.  I just wanted my breakfast...

I didn't realize poor Chubbles hadn't had breakfast yet, so I made sure to give him extra carrots with his grain before I left the barn! 

I had to make a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home so I could pick up the necessary ingredients for our Tuesday night feast.  Easier said than done.  If there was a Stop and Shop around, I could have been in and out in 15 minutes flat.  I pretty much know where every item is in Stop and Shop.  Not Acme.  Acme makes ZERO sense.  It took me 15 minutes and 2 Acme employees to find the pizza dough.  (Seriously??  Perhaps you should put it somewhere else, if even the employees can't find it!)  

Murphy spent the rest of the day doing this: 

2 hours at the barn is exhausting!

But some of us had things to do, so I spent the rest of the day cleaning and making dinner and dessert.

Tuesday night feast: my very own Guacamole Chicken Pizza creation!  This dish has several components, so I will break it down to make it simpler.

For the crust:

1 lb. refrigerated pizza dough

Flour

Pepperjack cheese, shredded

1. Place a nonstick pan in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F.  (Leave pan in oven while it is preheating)
2. Roll pizza dough into a 13 inch circle on a lightly floured surface (I suck at rolling out dough, so it was more of a rectangle!)
3. Liberally poke holes in dough with fork.
4. Transfer to pan and cover dough with shredded cheese.
5. Bake in oven for 12 minutes, or until crust is golden and cheese is melted.

For the chicken:

2 chicken breasts

Cajun seasoning

Garlic salt

Black pepper

1. Slice chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces.
2. Season with Cajun seasoning, garlic salt, and black pepper.
3. Saute in olive oil over medium heat, approximately 6 minutes.

For the guacamole:

4 ripe HAAS avocados

3 TBLS freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)

1/2 freshly squeezed lime (optional)

10-16 shakes of Tabasco sauce

1/2 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)

4-5 large garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 medium tomato, seeded and small-diced

Fresh cilantro, as much as you like!!

1. Cut avocados in half, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells into a large bowl.
2. Immediately add the lemon juice, (lime juice, if using), Tabasco, onion, garlic, salt and pepper and toss well.
3. Using a sharp knife, slice through the avocados in the bowl until they are finely diced.
4. Add the tomatoes and mix well.  Taste for salt and pepper.  Add more lemon juice, if needed.  

My suggestion: Preheat oven.  Cook seasoned chicken.  While chicken is cooking, roll out dough and put it in the oven.  Set cooked chicken aside.  While dough is in the oven, make guacamole.  (This is some serious multi-tasking, so for amateur kitchen multi-taskers, feel free to complete each step one at a time). 

Once all the components have been made, spread guacamole on top of melted cheese on pizza dough.  Top with chicken and chopped cilantro and DEVOUR!  

Tuesday night dessert:  Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt

Tastes just like fall!  And pumpkin pie.