Picadillo, Rice and Beans, and other new things.

Today was a day for trying something(s) new.

The day started with Peter ripping apart our pink bucket chair.  Let me talk about the chair for a second... my college roommate Ashley and I picked up the two ugly pink bucket chairs at a yard sale for either $10 or $20 a piece.  They survived 4 years of college, some time at my mom's house, and then became Peter's dad Leo's favorite chair whenever he came over.  We decided some time ago that one of them would be in Kayla's room.  I found the plaid fabric on a major sale over at Joann's ($4.99 a yard!), and anxiously waited for Peter to help.  He did some research (thanks YouTube!) and started the project today.  Here are a few pictures...

As far as the other chair, it's going with Leo down to Florida.  He's moving down there on Saturday!  This way, he'll have something comfortable to sit on, and Liz can cover it however she wants :) 

Since he's moving Saturday, he came up and spent the afternoon with Kayla and Jason.  Leo is such a good sport, and doesn't care what we make for dinner. 

I think I might have given Peter a complex about not choosing recipes the past two weeks, so he was all over it today.  His choices aren't what I would have chosen, but he'll be doing the cooking.  Tonight, he decided to try his hand at picadillo and Cuban style rice and beans. 

The picadillo was different than your average meat mixture to put in a tortilla... the chicken, chipolte and tomatoes made it savory, but the apples, raisins and cinnamon definitely added a sweetness.  I didn't like the first tortilla I made.  I know I don't like cinnamon in savory dishes.   However, the taste grew on me and I did make a second.  I could easily see stuffing this in peppers or zuchini to add zero points instead of the tortilla.  For a point value of 5, and the easiness of the recipe, I'd try it again.

The rice and beans were ok.  We only had 1 can of black beans in the house, so Peter had to soak some dried black beans.  Maybe that's why the final mixture was dry?  It was only okay, not very flavorful, and worth 5 points because of the rice.  If he were to make it again, I'd rather have another tortilla with the picadillo and skip the rice.

I was the one who did the shopping this week, and I think everyone and their mother was at the grocery store getting ready for the blizzard that supposedly will hit us this week.  I was frustrated, in the baking asile, and got hit with the inspiration for this cake... it's one of my favorite chocolate cakes.  The key to the cake is letting your cream cheese really soften before you make the frosting... otherwise you'll have little specks of cream cheese instead of smooth creaminess.