Pineapple BBQ Chicken Quesadilla

Here's another easy lunch or light supper.
Serves 2

4 tortillas
2 cooked chicken thighs
2 tbsps BBQ sauce
1 onion, thinly sliced, caramelized
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp margarine
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 large mushroom, finely chopped
2 spears grilled fresh pineapple, sliced
1 cup shredded jalapeno havarti

Grill fresh pineapple spears on the BBQ until browned and set aside.

Slice your onion thinly and fry in oil or margarine for about 5 minutes.  Then add 1 tsp sugar and 
1 tsp balsamic vinegar and continue cooking another 5-10 minutes until soft and golden. Use a frying pan that is large enough to spread the onion out.  If the pan is too small the onion will tend to be more boiled than fried and caramelized.

If you plan ahead you can have the pineapple, onion and chicken previously cooked.  It makes throwing this recipe together super easy.

Lay 2 tortillas out and top with sliced or chopped cooked BBQ chicken.  This is the chicken and sauce recipe I used. But you could use store-bought BBQ chicken and bottled BBQ sauce.

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2014/07/slow-cooker-bbq-chicken-thighs.html

Over the chicken top with caramelized onion, chopped mushroom, sliced pineapple and BBQ sauce.

Pile on the shredded cheese and cover with tortilla.
Heat margarine in a frying pan and cook tortilla on both sides, heating until the cheese melts.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Thighs

Anytime you are having a BBQ and can prepare your meat ahead of time, do it!  Spend that extra time with the people you love.

Take:
6-8 chicken thighs (bone-in)
1 cup chicken broth
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery stalks, chopped
salt to taste

Add to slow cooker, from frozen  2  1/2 - 3 hours on high, 
or from fresh 1  1/2 - 2 hours .  If using frozen thighs, separate them as soon as possible and submerge in the liquid.

Sauce:
1/2 cup spicy ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsps soya sauce
2 tbsps red wine vinegar
2 tbsps hoisin sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger

Add to saucepan and cook about 10 minutes to thicken.  

Take the cooked chicken from the slow cooker and discard the liquid.  Remove the skin. It should slip right off. I know it looks gross, but don't worry, it gets better.

Top each thigh with a spoonful of sauce while warm. See....better already.

Now you can refrigerate these little guys until you are ready to BBQ.

Divide the remaining sauce in 2 bowls.  One to glaze the meat on the BBQ and one to serve at the table.  Just grill and glaze a few minutes on each side to warm through.

Skor Trifle

Ok, so my oldest daughter made this today.  And at the last minute I decided to record it for posterity.  Sorry no photos of the work in progress.  But you've gotta make this !!

1 large container of Cool Whip (not whipped cream)
prepared chocolate pudding (cooked, instant or even pudding cups)
chocolate cake, cubed
skor bits

Layer cake, pudding, Cool Whip, skor bits. Repeat. 

I have no first hand knowledge of this, but apparently it's great for breakfast  : )

Grad Cap Cookie

If you are hosting a grad party in the future you'll want to make these.
Get all your ingredients together.

A bag of two-bite brownies
Chocolate-covered graham cookies
Smarties or M & M's
Shoestring licorice
Chocolate icing (homemade or store bought)

Put a dab of icing on your brownie and place the cookie on top.  Have the licorice cut in pieces the length of a tassel and snip the end. Put another dab of icing on top of the cookie and place the licorice and M & M on that.

Once the icing is set they are ready to serve.

Potato Halves on the BBQ

These potatoes can be prepared ahead of time so when your meat is finished on the BBQ and resting, just toss these on to grill them up. 

Take 4 potatoes (russet are good) and microwave until almost done.

When cool enough to handle cut the potatoes in half.
Melt together 1 tbsp butter with 1 tbsp olive oil.

Brush both the cut side and the skin side of each potato half with the melted butter/oil mix then sprinkle with some flavours you like.  I used garlic powder, paprika and oregano. Chili or onion powder works too.  If you like your potatoes hot, try a few drops of hot sauce in the butter/oil mix.

Grill about 8 minutes per side and serve. (Thanks to my cousin Stephen for this recipe)

Creamy Coleslaw Dressing

Mix this dressing together and shred red and green cabbage and a carrot.  Wait a minute, who has time for that in the summer?  Pick up a bag of coleslaw mix and toss this dressing in.

1/2 cup mayo

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup evaporated milk

2 tbsps lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Chill and serve.

Caprese Appetizer

Here's another way to serve Caprese.  And again I'm using a watermelon.  Just take the butt end of the watermelon, cut out the fruit to use in this fruit kebab presentation,

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2014/07/fruit-kebab-watermelon.html








Turn the end over so the green side is up.  Skewer mozzarella or bocconcini balls with fresh cherry tomatoes and basil leaves.