In my hiatus from blogging I also stopped looking at food blogs because a lot of foods did not appeal to me. Quite honestly I was too tired by the time I came home from work to do much more than eat and go straight to bed. It is so nice to be in my second trimester!
This week when I got up the effort to start looking at blogs again, Megan's Cooking caught my eye. She made the cutest little penguin appetizers. We are having a couple of friends over for dinner so I thought I would try this recipe out. I was worried it would be really time consuming so I didn't have high expectations. WRONG! These babies are EASY to make and so damn cute!!!!! When they are all bunched up they look like they are keeping their eggs warm.
Penguins:
18 jumbo ripe Black olives
18 small ripe Black olives1
(8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 carrot (about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide)
18 long fresh chives
18 toothpicks
Cut a slit lengthwise from top to bottom in each jumbo olive. Fill each cavity of the jumbo olives with about a teaspoon of cream cheese (I used a knife and pushed the cream cheese in a little at a time through the top hole). This makes the the white stripe in penguins chest.
Cut carrot into 1/4 inch slices, then out of each slice cut a small pie shaped piece. This makes the feet, save the piece you cut out, this will be the beak. In the x slit in the center of each small olive (where the pit was removed) press the small piece of carrot into the hole with the pointed end out. Using a toothpick, stack head ( small olive ), body (large olive) and feet (carrot slice), adjusting so that beak, cream cheese breast and notch in carrot line up. Tie chive around neck for the scarf.
Not only are these little guys cute, they are TASTY! The chive is a requirement. If you don't use it as a scarf, you should chop them up in the cream cheese. Thanks for the idea Megan!!!
Seriously! This is so easy. You have to make these for your next cocktail party.
Place coated potatoes on a cooking sheet in the center of the oven for 15 minutes.
Return to oven and continue to roast an 
In same skillet, in hot oil cook onion and garlic until tender; stir in chocolate. Heat until chocolate melts.
In covered blender container, blend 1 T toasted sesame seed, chocolate mixture and remaining ingredients until smooth. 
Return mixture to skillet and stir in chicken broth. Over medium heat, heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Spoon some sauce on chicken; sprinkle with remaining sesame seed.
Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and work into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs. 
Add the liquid, mixing until a bit loose and sticky. 
Pour dough out on a floured surface, and knead for a minute. Dough should be smooth and no longer wet. You can sprinkle more flour on the surface if you find it’s sticking. Take dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes.Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half.
Using a round cutter (can use a glass or a cup if don’t have a biscuit cutter) cut out your biscuits from folded dough.
Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
White Bean Chicken Chili:
If you are thinking when you start cooking, you could cook the chicken up in the heavy bottomed stock pot instead of dirtying another pan. I, however, was not thinking when I started cooking and used a separate pan. Let the chicken sit for a second or two and then chop up into bite sized pieces and set aside.
Add the chicken, tomatoes, chicken stock and seasonings, bring to a simmer. Strain and rinse both cans of white beans and add to stock pot. 
Stir carefully so as not to break up the white beans. They are much softer beans than red beans and break easily. Simmer for 15 minutes until the beans are warmed through.
I have been searching out alternatives to my Costco Calcium and got turned on to 
For the dressing:
Alex and I put the soy sauce and toasted sesame oil in a plastic bag with the chicken and let it marinade for about 10 minutes. Alex grilled it up...it was VERY proud of the grill marks he achieved.
While the chicken was cooking up I mixed up the dressing. Throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until the brown sugar is completely dissolved. The dressing is runny like a 
Mix up the amount of greens you want in a salad bowl and top with the cooked chopped up chicken, mandarin oranges, scallions and almonds. The last time Alex and I made this recipe we didn't have almonds and substituted cashews...anything you like. The sky is the limit!
I then seared the cubed pork until each side was nicely browned in the pressure cooker. I emptied the pork into a separate dish so I could put the metal part into the bottom of the pressure cooker. 
The metal piece has holes in it to keep the meat (or whatever you are cooking in it) from touching the bottom of the pan. I suspect because you keep the heat on close to high or medium high the whole time it is cooking. I put the pork back in with the orange juice and water...I also added two chicken 
I sealed the pressure cooker and cooked it for 35 minutes at the first line. My pressure cooker has two lines to indicate how much pressure there is in the pan. I had to release a little bit of pressure a couple of times while it was cooking so it maintained the pressure at the first line.
Homesick Texans Directions:
I and added 3/4 cup of cheddar cheese, half a jalapeno...which I later realized was a MONSTER sized 
Heat oven to 400 F. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 
Now, note that the recipe on the side of the Quaker Corn Meal box says '9 Servings'. Now look at what Alex did before I could stop him. When I asked him why he cut it into such small pieces he said he likes them small because they taste yummier that way. I beg to differ...I think they taste better when they are HUGE Texas sized pieces...but I guess I will have to continue to crave a big bite into a BIG piece of corn bread. 
