What's Cookin'?: A Ritzy Meal

It was a ritzy night here in the Raindance house.

You may be interpreting "ritzy" as fancy, and if that is so, you are mistaken. It definitely wasn't fancy. On the menu tonight was:

Ritz Chicken and Ranch&Ritz Asparagus

I got the recipe for the chicken here.

The asparagus, I've eaten it before some where so I try to mimic that. It's super easy and yummy.

-1 lb. of asparagus

-1/2 cup of Ranch dressing

-Ritz crackers, crushed (I think I used about 12-14 crackers)

-shredded parmesan cheese

WARNING: Asparagus has a tendency to make your pee smell quite strange. I have been curious about this of phenomenon, so I did some google research. According to wisegeek.com only 40-50% of people can smell the asparagus pee smell. It's because of a certain gene. Weird, huh?

Anyway, this pee talk isn't very appetizing so I guess I'll give you the recipe now.

Simmer the asparagus in water until they turn bright green, and are cooked but still crispy (about 3 minutes). Toss them in ranch dressing. Sprinkle the ritz and parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until heated through, nice and bubbly.

I messed up on a few things tonight. I said up there 1/2 cup of ranch...because I made it with 1/4 cup and it wasn't enough. Oh well, I learned. I also burnt the chicken. It was still edible, just not super wonderful. The basil made the chicken yummy though, I didn't ever know I liked basil until tonight.

So, overall, it was a good learning experience.

I took pictures but I can't find my camera now, and I'm not feeling up to looking that hard for it. You'll just have to imagine what chicken and asparagus look like covered in ritz. You can do it.

For dessert (yes, I went overboard tonight...don't expect this every week, I was just feeling ambitious): Cinnamon roll sugar cookies! Wee! Here's the recipe. Oh my goodness, seriously delicious. If you have a massive amount of free time, and preferably a KitchenAid stand up mixer, you should definitely make these. We just have a hand held mixer and I nearly killed it. This dough gets THICK...I ended up mixing the last cup or two of flour with my hands.

Anyway, this has been way too long.

Bon Appetite.

EDIT: I found my camera. Apparently last night when I was looking for it, Lindsey was sitting on it. Ha. So, here are the pictures. As you can tell, I'm mostly excited about those cookies, because they are AMAZING.

I made half of them with a yummy cream cheese icing, and half of them without. Mostly because I am planning on taking a bunch to my simulation test today to share with my nursing pals, and the icing could get messy during transport.