Slow Cooker Pulled Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

I have another Gameday recipe for you, and you should make it immediately. My husband is a buffalo wing connoisseur and these recieved his stamp of approval. My initial plan was to make these into sliders, but after not being able to find slider buns at 2 different stores I gave up since this would easily work with sandwiches. Where do you buy slider buns anyway?

Since these are made in the slow cooker they are so easy to make,  just throw a few ingredients in the slow cooker and have a finished product 8 hours later. One word of advice I have is do not make these when you'll be home all day. I work from home on Friday's and it was torture smelling the buffalo chicken all day long and having to wait until dinner to gobble it up.

I tried not to make them too spicy since my husband can't handle the heat like I can, he's more of a mild wings type of guy. These still came out spicy, just not too spicy, but please adjust the sauce ingredients to fit your tastes. The blue cheese dip to spread on the sandwiches helped balance out the spice nicely. Since I wanted to mix both light and dark meat this recipe makes way too much chicken for just the two of us, but it would be good for a crowd and I'm excited to find uses for it in other dishes.

I'm Addicted to this Spicy Pasta Salad!

I was going to include this as part of my vacation wrap up post, but this is too darn good, it deserves it's own post. As soon as I saw this Spicy Pasta Salad with Smoked Gouda, Tomatoes, & Basil posted on The Pioneer Woman's website I knew I had to make it, and I finally found the time at the lake. It was so good I made it twice within a week. After we got home from the lake we went to Monmouth Park Race Track (horses for those of you who aren't from Jersey) with some friends so I made it again. I enjoyed sneaking in bites of gouda while I was making it, sneaking in bites of the finished product before serving it, and both groups really enjoyed the pasta salad. The only downside was I had to share it with other people.

The only changes I made were that the first time I used Spinach leaves because at the last minute I realized I didn't have basil leaves, it was a good substitute but the version with basil was definitely the perfect combination.  The second time I added extra chipotle, because I love chipotle and can't get enough of it in my life. I was happy I added the extra, but it's excellent both ways.

Please go to the store and get the ingredients you need and make this now. Words can't describe how much I enjoyed it, I'll be making it again soon, I'm addicted.

Prosciutto, Brie, & Fig Panini

I know I just posted a panini recipe, so please forgive me for the repetition. My excuse is I wanted to finish up sharing how I used the rest of the fig paste from my fig crumbles. It was another panini and another very satisfying lunch. This time I used prosciutto, brie cheese, and fig paste. There's no need for me to even write up a recipe. It's that simple and that good. Just throw the three ingredients onto some sliced french bread and put it in your panini grill. Once again if you don't have a panini press, you can put it on a grill pan or regular stove top pan and press down with a spatula or lid.

We went to the shore again this weekend, and enjoyed some gorgeous weather. We also made another stop at the fish market so expect some more seafood recipes this week.

Chicken, Fig & Blue Cheese Panini

I love my panini maker, I'd say it's one of the wedding gifts we have gotten the most use out of. It's great for making sandwiches a little more exciting, it makes them taste better, trust me.   In my quest to use up the fig paste I still had from these fig crumbles, I made a chicken, fig, and blue cheese panini, and it was a great combination.  The blue cheese really complements the sweet fig paste. Keep reading for the recipe.

Firecracker Shrimp Salad

I made this salad using The Pioneer Woman's Firecracker Shrimp, which is delicious on its own as well as in this salad, and is so so easy to make. I agree with her that Sriracha is the best hot sauce choice, so definitely use that when making this recipe.  I don't skewer the shrimp before putting them on my grill pan, call me lazy.

I love shrimp, of course fresh is the best, but I stock up on frozen uncooked shrimp as it thaws and cooks up quickly, which is perfect for weeknight dinners.

For this salad I used fresh shrimp that I picked up on sale at the store and tossed it with mixed greens,  avocado, corn, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, black beans, and onions.  I threw on a little ranch dressing as it helped balance the very spicy shrimp (because I always use extra Sriracha).  I'll be making this again, very soon.

Southwest Chicken Burgers

I have the grinding attachment for my mixer, and I love it when I find the time to actually use it to grind up some meat.  I enjoy playing with combinations of different cuts and combinations. I also like knowing that it gives me control of the quality and cut going into my meatball or burger, rather than just buying a package of ground meat.  This is probably more so for beef than chicken like I ground (I want to say grinded, but Google  tells me it's not actually a real word) up this past weekend, but I had fun with it and made a juicy and delicious chicken burger that was well worth the grinding.

I ground up some chicken thighs and breasts for my burgers, to have a combination of light and dark meat, and added in some chipotle peppers and other spices to come up with my Southwest Chicken Burgers.  I served them with Healthy Crunchy Onion Rings from How Sweet It Is.  Keep reading for the burger recipe, which makes about 6-8 burgers depending on what size patties you prefer.

Maine Lobster Rolls & Grilled Sweet Potatoes

Lobster tails were on sale at the grocery store so I decided to make some lobster rolls.  The recipe comes from this Dishing Up Maine cookbook that I bought when we visited Maine.  It had a little too much mayonnaise for my taste, but still tasted delicious.  My husband could eat mayonnaise out of a jar so he of course loved it.  The recipe is below.  On a side note, I ate a lot of lobster and lobster rolls in Maine, but my favorite is the lobster roll at Neptune Oyster Bar in Boston.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked lobster, cut into chunks
2 teaspoons of lemon juice (about 1/4-1/2 lemon)
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Top-split hot dog buns (regular works fine too)
Snipped chives

Directions
1. Toss the lobster with lemon juice and mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper to taste
2. Toast hot dog rolls
3. Spoon lobster onto rolls and enjoy!

I served grilled Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Scallions from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine on the side.  I live in an apartment so I don't have a grill, I use my double burner grill pan instead and it works perfectly.  This is one of my favorite side dishes to serve and eat.