Here are two delicious and rewardingly tasty dishes for those that have little time from their busy daily lives to spend in the kitchen: simple ingredients, simple preparation, simple cooking, and speedy.

And you’ll love their taste.

Not only that, the Cheesy Baked Chicken freezes and reheats exceptionally well.

Originally I cooked both of these recipes individually at completely different times. Each one earned, according to my wife, favourite and second favourite dish ever. I even prepared the Cheesy Baked Chicken when spending an evening with my wife’s Grandmother, whom loved it and cleaned her plate. That’s a good recommendation in my book. I shared the recipe with Crickie, and she too loved it when she gave the recipe a whirl.

Since that evening with our Grandmother, my wife has been demanding that I not only make Cheesy Baked Chicken but also my Spicy Mushrooms, a recent recipe that I tried. And not only that, she wanted a whole buttload of chicken that we could freeze and reheat as our hearts desired. So I set to making both dishes and decided to share this recipe that has earned both the raves of my wife, my grandmother and my best friend.

Prepare the Cheesy Baked Chicken first, then the Spicy Mushrooms while the chicken is baking.

Cheesy Baked Chicken

Serves: 4

2 tablespoon milk
4 tablespoons of your favourite mustard
2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1. Pre-heat oven to 400^oF.
2. Mix milk and mustard in a large bowl. Mix cheese, flour and chives on a plate.
3. Dip each of the chicken breasts into the milk and mustard mix and then press into the cheese mix, coating them all over.
4. Place chicken breasts onto a cookie sheet and spoon any spare cheese over the top.
5. Bake for 35-40 min (or until golden brown).

While the chicken is in the oven backing you will want to begin working on your:

Spicy Mushrooms

Serves: 4

2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 scallions (green onions/spring onions), chopped
15 ounces of your favourite small mushrooms, sliced
2 large open-cap mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon chili sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
^1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil

1. Heat your wok or large skillet and add your oil, spread it around the wok and let it heat until just starts to smoke.
2. Reduce heat slightly, add garlic and scallions. Stir-fry for 30 seconds.
3. Add all mushrooms, chili sauce, soy sauce, wine vinegar, pepper, and brown sugar. Stir-fry for 4-5 minutes. Increase heat slightly and stir-fry until most of moisture from sauces and mushrooms has reduced.
4. Sprinkle sesame oil on top on mixture in wok, and then transfer to the serving dish.

Combine both the dishes onto a plate, serve with a garnish of your choice and enjoy:

My Black Friday intentions have gone up in flames.

Or more accurately, Zzzzzzzz’s.

Yes, Scott, you should have indeed woken up at least 6 hours earlier my friend.

At least I feel fairly rested, and I wasn’t really wowed by anything that I had seen that would be on sale this Friday. So if I had gone, I probably would have just purchased something because I was impressed by the savings, and not necessarily by the item itself.

Overall, probably a good call.

No matter what anyone says, no matter what sort of spin they put on it, never, ever, ever buy an oak tree or a house with an oak tree in its yard.

They are a horrific nightmare!

We have one in our front yard. It was there when we bought it. We didn’t really realise what we were getting ourselves into for every Autumn/Fall for the rest of our lives.

After spending quite a bit of time in back-stressing labor with a rake, I ended up with this:

That’s half a trash bag full of nothing but acorns.

After more and more raking, shoveling and foraging, I had increased my haul to an almost full bag full of acorns.

By itself, this is fairly impressive for one tree. However, my daughter extracted another couple of bags about the same size a few weeks ago from the yard, and after surveying the state of affairs to see the dent we made today, I figure that we’re only about half way done. If that.

Unfortunately, there isn’t really any sort of market for acorns. However, luckily, my wife has a friend whom can use them to feed deer where he hunts, so they don’t all go into the trash.

Meanwhile, I am wondering where the hell is the squirrel I have seen many times this summer, and why is he not stocking up for the winter!

It appears that I have won the 2nd Annual 2006 Pumpkin Carve Off that Crickie and I hold each year. Despite running late this year, we had a good many people place their votes. Thank you to all whom contributed. This means that I get to wear the title of The Great Pumpkinhead for another 12 months or so.

To be fair to Crickie though, her local Pumpkin’s Are Us (ie, supermarket), let her down terribly at the last moment by not having any genuine god’s honest garden variety traditional pumpkins left to sell her for the competition. As a result she had to go with a Cinderella Pumpkin, which limited her design choices. I find it hard to believe that Cinderella ever made it to the ball in one of those things quite frankly, so I must give Crickie sincere props for doing so well with bad resources.

My win this year brings the overall tally to a 1-1, even. Next year should be a very determined match.

I was very happy with my own creation, my Oriental Dragon Pumpkin, as seen below:

Again, thank you to everyone whom voted. See you again next year!

This morning I when I went to pick up my Gypsy Girl’s ashes from the Centerville Rd Animal Clinic in Garland, TX, I was told that they had experienced a burglary the evening before. Among what was stolen were the remains of my cremated cat. One of the loves of my wife and I’s lives. As if we were not traumatised enough by her passing, now we are faced with not being able to bring her back to rest where she finally needs to be. At home.

My wife and I are so distraught over this.

You probably wont believe how incredibly this hurts.

I know this is such a long shot, but I really have to try…

$500 reward for the return/information leading to the return of the cremated remains of our beloved Gypsy. No questions asked. My email is scott@thescottenglishshow.com.

I am so sorry that I did not come and get you yesterday, Gypsy.

The 2006 Annual Pumpkin Carve Off is now under way after a small postponement because I got a little busy around the time that we were intially going to hold it, but it is now up and running.

For those new to it, Crickie and I have a yearly pumpkin carving competition around Halloween each year. This is our second year running (last year, Crickie swept to a resounding win). We both carve a single pumpkin, and then she posts them on her LJ without identifying whom carved which. We open a vote and see which of our LJ friends think is the best.

So stop by the official 2006 Annual Pumpkin Carve Off post and have a look at the contestants, and if you have an LJ account, please feel welcome to cast your vote!

I noticed this ad on a well respected News website a couple of days ago:

Now, even if I do have homicidal pants, I’m so not going to be clicking some bald man’s crotch. And why on earth did the ad designer decide to photoshop him (and very poorly I might add), in front of a waterfall of all things?

Is it just me or does this desktop icon of Sauron’s All Seeing Eye for the game Battle for Middle-Earth look like a horribly inflamed (and painful) part of the female anatomy?

I had just finished filling up my car.

Well, filling it enough to the point where I was satisfied that for the amount I had just spent, it was full enough.

Out comes the nozzle. On goes the gas cap. Close goes the gas tank cover….

Oh, that’s not good.

I now have the gas tank cover in my hand. And it has detached from the body of the car. There I am standing with a piece of car in my hand.

Me: Nooooooo! (places cover back against gaping hole in side of car)
Car: Eh.
Me: Nooooooo! You need this!
Car: No I don’t, it’s like a skin tag.
Me: But seriously, take it back…
Car: No, I don’t think so.

So I tossed it in the back seat and went to work.

And this evening I went and had a talk with the car.

Me: I’m not kidding, you really should have this back.
Car: I never liked it in the first place.
Me: Fine, I’m going to attach it back to you.
Car: Good luck!

So I studied the situation, got some cotter pins and needle nosed pliers. I glared at the car as I fiddled around, pulling this way, pushing that. It giggled with me and I glared more. When I was ready I tried to fit the cover with cotterpins added back onto the car and wire it in.

Me: Oh go on, take it back.
Car: Bite me!

So I tossed the cover into the back seat.

And as a result, I am making a special offer to all my readers. For a limited time only, I am offering free gas to anyone that can find my car somewhere in the Dallas area. It’s a silver BMW 7 series. All you will need is a hose, a bucket and a good pair of lungs. Find my car and have at it. But if I discover you, I’ll beat you into a pulp until you promise that you’ll comment about it below. This is a limited time promotion. While supplies last.

UPDATE: I am now withdrawing the Free Gas offer as I have finally convinced my Beemer to accept the gas cap back because I told it that it looked extremely ugly without it. That, and well… the replacement part that had broken in the first place helped. The swivel mechanism on the door is plastic (!), and the BMW dealer that we got the replacement from said that it was a fairly common thing and new immediately what I needed. Can someone say “planned obsolescence”.

Anyways, as far as I am aware, none of you really took advantage of my free gas offer and I am thankful actually. I didn’t end up stranded anywhere.

Currently there are only two pairs of jeans that I own that I can fit into comfortably.

Both were sitting in the bottom of the washing machine this morning. And both were wet.

Not having the time to dry them before heading into work, and even with it being “Casual Dress” day today, I declined donning a pair of pajama bottoms and tried to make a good choice from a bad selection of my other jeans that were too small.

Now while I sit here at work I am overwhelmed by the sensation that my jeans are attempting to not only strangle me at the waist, but that they will at some stage in the near future succeed in splitting me in half.

Its a shame that (having closed my office door so that I could at least unbutton them for some modicum of comfort), its unlikely that anyone will be around to witness my upper torso finally popping off from my lower and careening around the room before coming to rest in a bloody mess.

I guess it serves me right for not staggering my jean wearing so that such a clothing debacle wouldn’t occur. Oh yeah, and for being fat.

I currently liken sitting down to Dante’s journey through hell, as it is quite an adventure. As is trying to access my wallet which is currently embedded in my rear right pocket and I am sure will become a part of the very fabric of the jeans in the next hour or so, having been assimilated by sheer pressure.

Walking is somewhat amusing as well. Well, I imagine it would be if you were to see me. Personally, it’s not that funny. I walk gingerly and kind of stiltedly, like a cowboy that has been in the saddle for a week too long.

Lets hope that not too much irreparable damage is done before I can get out of these things. Besides the popping in two, that is.

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