Disneyland's Blue Bayou Monte Cristo Sandwich

This sandwich is about wonderful memories my son and I share.  I took him here on our first visit to Disneyland when he was six.  We went to the Blue Bayou restaurant and enjoyed this luxurious treat.  We repeated this every year after, on every visit.  This is the definition of decadent and if you ever visit Disneyland, I highly recommend the experience by savoring it over the bayou of the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Truly a magical experience... He was so excited when I told him I was going to make this for him tonight.

Crock-Pot: Brown Sugar & Roasted Garlic Pulled Pot Roast

I'm not a big fan of the crockpot.  I think it makes food taste funny and mutes spices and flavor.  However, sometimes you just don't want to cook and that's me on Friday nights.  I saw this and thought I'd give it a try. If it turned out, I could make my son beef dips with it, which he loves.

Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

We went to the movies after work today, so when we got home, I was looking for something easy to make.  The night before I looked around at the ingredients I had in the fridge/cupboard and decided I could do enchiladas.  I made the filling and I used:

Chicken, Chorizo, Corn, Chard & Gnocchi Soup

I saw a copycat recipe for "chicken gnocchi soup" which apparently is at "Olive Garden".  I have never eaten there (probably a good thing for my figure), so have never had the soup.  Anyway, it inspired me to make my own version of it as it looked comforting and tasty.  I had made another pot of homemade chicken stock, so was ready to go.  I kept extra stock as I was sure those gnocchi were going to steal the broth when left sitting and having leftovers the next day.

Grilled Peach, Onion and Bacon Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I wanted to make it.  Local peaches are everywhere now and are my favorite seasonal fruit.  I hadn't seen any really great peaches so far though, but I finally found some that would work and they tasted amazing.

Blushing New England Fish Chowder

It's been a tough week.  I wanted something comforting but healthy.  I saw this soup and wanted to make it.  The "heat wave" was looking to end or at least cool down a little and soup to me is always comfort food.  I did a couple of changes/edits which are detailed below in my choice of ingredients.  It looks like a lot of stuff but I thought this recipe was not taxing on my time at all.

Mini Seedless Cucumber Salad

The "heat wave" continues.  My grocery store by work has a lot of farm fresh produce items at this time, so I chose some mini cukes and they looked really good.  They were from Chilliwack.

Hong Kong Style Baked Tomato Pork Chop Rice

This is probably what I order every time I go to a "Hong Kong Cafe" in town here.  I've pretty much stopped eating pork, but was really craving it, so decided to make it worthy and this recipe looked damn fine!  I bought some plain white rice from an express Asian takeout place and it cost me $5 but I guess it was worth it, since it wan't gummy.  (I don't have good luck with long grain white rice - I make it mushy more times than not).  I also bought pork sirloin chops, they looked relatively lean compared to the center cut chops I looked at.

Kale Caesar Salad

I had a meeting up where I used to work today and had a few minutes to spare prior.  It gave me a chance to go to a really good veggie store.  I was able to pick up a bunch of local kale for 79 cents and thought a crisp salad was in store for dinner.  I have my go-to Caesar dressing that I've been making for over 20 years now, but I was looking at recipes and decided to give this one a try for a change of pace.  I really liked that it was made with Greek yogurt!!  I always do mine with oil and raw egg, like a mayo.  I bought a nice Artisan baguette, but changed my mind and decided not to make the croutons so used these:

Instant Pot: Stewed Chicken with Corn (Pollo Guisado con Maiz)

I saw this and thought I'd make it with the local corn that is on sale now.  I used bone-in, skinless chicken thighs instead of legs.  It's been a long while since I used my Instant Pot and I've only used it once, so it was time to try again.