Gluten Free Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast

One of my many goals for 2013 is to introduce more variety into our dinnertime meals. Like most things in life, meal planning can easily fall into a rut. Toward the end of the year, The Youngest subtly hinted that he would like me to change things up a bit in the food prep department. So, in order to quell the rising familial unrest, I put together the following gluten free (and pork free) recipe.

Ingredients
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
12 slices turkey bacon
12 slices Swiss cheese
BBQ sauce

Coating
1/2 cup gluten free breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Prepare your cooking vessel (I use a shallow, rectangular casserole dish) by lining with tin foil and coating with non-stick cooking spray. Pam Olive Oil is a gluten free product that I use regularly.

Combine and thoroughly mix the coating ingredients. I like to do this by adding everything to a Ziplock bag then shaking it vigorously to mix. Dredge both sides of each chicken breast to achieve a thorough coating. Place one slice of Swiss cheese on the inner side of the breast, rolling moderately tightly and securing with toothpicks. Next, wrap two slices of turkey bacon (Jennie-O is gluten free) around each rolled breast. Use the toothpicks to secure the bacon to the chicken.

GF bacon-wrapped chicken breasts before baking

Place the rolled breasts into the casserole dish and bake at 400° for 25 minutes. Remove the breasts from the oven and top each one with a dollop of your favorite gluten free BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory & Brown Sugar). Place one more slice of Swiss cheese atop each breast and return to baking for another 15 minutes.

The cheesy, delicious finished product

This simple recipe was bursting with flavor, though the medley was perhaps a bit too much for The Youngest to fully appreciate. Wonderful Wife and I, as well as The Daughter, enjoyed it very much and so this dish will definitely make a repeat appearance.

Update: The next time we tried this dish, Wonderful Wife experimented with pineapple slices as filling for the rolled chicken and was very pleased with the results - The Youngest even gave a thumbs up!

A Tale of Two Tablecloths

Last weekend, Wonderful Wife and I spent a rainy day exploring a couple of antique spots in the Cincinnati area. One of the spots we stopped at was Venice Pavilion Antiques in the hamlet of Ross, which is just to the northwest of the Cincy metroplex. We'd not been here before, but since the day was such a washout I didn't bring along my camera. You can still get an idea of the look of the place by visiting their website. What their site doesn't tell you, though it should, is that the building was once an entertainment hall back in the early 20th century. Housing a bowling alley and dance hall, the three stories now hold the wares of a fair amount of antique dealers - which are priced a little on the high end.

Nevertheless, Wonderful Wife did uncover this pink tablecloth for our recently purchased (second-hand, of course) dining table. I am most definitely not a fan of pink decor, but she was really fond of it so... why not?

Earlier in the day we had stopped in at one of our favorite Cincinnati-area antiquing spots - Covered Bridge Antique Mall in Mt. Healthy. This little hole-in-the-wall store has a lot of nice inventory that's very reasonably priced (hence the reason it's one of our favorite haunts). We picked up several items on this particular excursion, which I'll blog about a bit later, but one of our purchase left an awfully sour taste.

Wonderful Wife's mission on this trip was to find a tablecloth or two for the dining table, which I mentioned earlier in this post. Here at Covered Bridge, she found a nice-looking one for the reasonable price of $9.00. After we got back home and she spread it out on the table, she discovered the very obvious repair pictured below.

Now, I'm down with the whole "as-is" and caveat emptor aspect of antique buying, but I'm also a firm believer in full disclosure. Here's how the tablecloth was tagged:

Notice that there isn't a single mention of any damage or repairs. So in the end, for $9.00 (more than we paid for the fully intact pink tablecloth at Venice Pavilion) we are the not-so-proud owners of several yards of scrap fabric. Lesson learned. Always fully inspect any item, no matter how large, and be sure to avoid Booth #4 at the Covered Bridge Antique Mall in Mt. Healthy, Ohio.

Antiquing - 21 July 2012

After attending the dedication of a memorial on the Richmond Battlefield commemorating the troops of the 1st Michigan Light Artillery that fought and died there during the 1862 battle (read more on my Kentucky War Memorials blog), Wonderful Wife and I set out to explore a few antiquing destinations in central Kentucky that were new to us.

First up was to be Collector's Paradise Antique Mall on US 27 between Lancaster and Stanford, but upon pulling into the tiny parking area we discovered that the business had apparently been shuttered. It was to be just the first of many disappointments (sorry for the spoilers). Just a bit further on down the road we stumbled upon a shop that hadn't shown up in my pre-excursion recon - County Line Flea Market and Antiques. Occupying a somewhat worse-for-wear structure that looks to have been a hardware or appliance store, County Line has a considerable number of booths brimming with what mostly amounts to yard sale bric-a-brac. There were a few moderately interesting items of an antique and vintage nature, but nothing compelling enough for us to buy - so we left empty-handed.

County Line Flea Market & Antiques

Next up was the historic downtown district of Stanford. I had three shops on my list so was pretty amped about what me might find - never expecting to discover that all of the shops were closed. We passed through town in the early afternoon on a Saturday, which you'd think would be prime time for these shops, but closed they were. Unfortunately, my list contained no further destinations since I expected browsing these three to take up most of our afternoon. We decided to make our way home via Danville, with the hopes of coming across an unexpected shop or two.

Upon entering Danville on US 127, we came across one of the Peddler's Mall flea market locations. As it turns out, we arrived on the very last day that the Danville location would be open - closing it's doors forever later that afternoon. Now, in our experience we've found the Peddler's Mall franchises to be largely hit-or-miss experiences, with most being of the miss variety. Excepting the Georgetown and Middletown (Lousiville) locations, these outlets are stuffed mostly with flea market and yard sale quality merchandise. The Danville store was no exception, though it contained much less due to most of the booth owners having already packed up their wares. I took this poorly framed picture of the store from the hilltop parking lot of McDonald's just across the US 150 Bypass.

Danville Peddler's Mall

On the way out of Danville, along Lexington Ave (KY 34), we ran across Not Just Antiques In Danville in an aging strip mall. This shop was very much what we expect to find when out hunting for antique stores - numerous booths with quality antiques and just a bit of primitive and country decor. We really didn't find much that caught our attention, though, which is all well and good since the prices here seemed a little on the high end.

Not Just Antiques In Danville

After a quick stop for refreshments, we made our way back to Lexington through Nicholasville on US 27. Just north of KY 1980, on the east side of US 27 (Nicholasville Rd), is an old brick church housing ClaireBourne Antiques. It's never been open when we've happened by in the past, but this time we were in luck so we swung in and had a look around. Bargain hunters beware - ClaireBourne is very much a fine antiques dealer specializing in upscale items such as furniture and artwork. Needless to say, our modest budget didn't stand a chance. Still, it was nice browsing the excellent pieces they had to offer. I'd hoped to at least snap a shot of the building, but the driveway and parking situation is rather tight so getting a good angle between the huge trees on the property proved impossible.

And so our antiquing trip ended with Wonderful Wife and I left empty-handed. We ended the day with a meal at BW3's and then picked up a few dorm items for The Daughter, who starts college life next month. Here's to better antiquing luck next time!

Hurst Falls, Cove Spring Park

This post is so after-the-fact that it's almost embarrassing to mention, but the location is quite a hidden gem that I just can't go without mentioning it. While out scouting locations for The Daughter's senior pictures last weekend, we came upon Cove Spring Park on the northern edge of Frankfort. The park encompasses an area that at one time was a reservoir for the city, remnants of which remain (I'll snap some shots at a later date). Besides a fair amount of hiking trails and the spring from which the park takes its name, one of the main attractions is Hurst Falls - the subject of our brief visit.

Hurst Falls, Cove Spring Park, Frankfort, KY

Named for Jerry and Tammy Hurst, whose preservation and conservation efforts were instrumental in retaining the park as a natural area, the falls plummet thirty feet down a limestone outcrop into the Penitentiary Branch stream, which then opens into the Kentucky River just a short distance away. Tammy is rather active in the Frankfort community, being a manager within the Facilities Section of the Commonwealth's Division of Environmental Program Support and a Lt. Col. in the Kentucky National Guard.

Penitentiary Branch, Cove Spring Park, Frankfort, KY

Anyway, Wonderful Wife and I spent a few moments taking shots of the falls from various angles, as well as a few of Penitentiary Branch. We were at the park in the late afternoon, so the light was just right for capturing the falls. Enjoy!

Top of Hurst Falls

Penitentiary Branch

Wednesday Wanderings - 24 August 2011

In the summer of 2001 we took our first vacation since leaving the military, driving from our home near Detroit to the tourist mecca of Niagara Falls. We stayed on the Canadian side of the border, something I doubt we'd do these days what with the hassle of crossing into Canada (and back), since the majority of the attractions were on that side. Below is a picture of American Falls taken, of course, from the Canadian side.

Wednesday Wanderings - 10 August 2011

Each Wednesday, more or less, I'll post a scene from our travels. Some will be recent, some will be from the distant past, but each holds an interesting memory for us. The first entry is a photo of an abandoned farmstead in Garrard County close to the Kentucky River. Wonderful Wife and I were out on a lazy afternoon drive a while back when we stumbled upon this scene.

The 127 Yard Sale

For 24 years now, a phenomenon known as the 127 Yard Sale has taken place the first weekend in August on a 675-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 127 - from Hudson, Michigan to Jamestown, Tennessee. Folks all along that venerable roadway set up their booths, tents, and folding tables to display wares of all kinds for what has become the world's longest yard sale. Although we've lived in Kentucky for more than a couple of years now, this weekend was the first time we'd explored what treasures the event had to offer. With stories of snarled traffic and crazed bargain hunters occupying our thoughts, Wonderful Wife and I set out (not too) early Saturday morning to dip our toes into a ten-mile sampling of the madness.

Our first discovery was that the stories we'd heard were just that - stories. Sure, there was an increase in traffic and practically every sale we visited was crawling with people, but there were no obvious instances of insanity (except for the prices on a few items). Packed into the ten miles we travelled were three large concentrations of vendors, one of which boasted 300 booths, and a labyrinthine subdivision with a dozen individual sales. With a temperature hovering around 90 and a humidity percentage equally high, the ten miles seemed considerably longer and we were both ready for a long air conditioned ride home by the time we'd finished browsing the last tent.

So what did we score? Not much, to tell the truth. There were a number of things that we could have bought, but very little that we absolutely needed to buy. I piked up John Wayne's Angel and the Badman on DVD for my newly-started collection of Western movies and Wonderful Wife snagged a lovely bowl to replace the apple bowl that The Daughter chose to throw away instead of wash. Teenagers.  Anyway, pictures of the bowl are below for your perusal. A bit of online research found another example being offered by an auction house for $15, so in light of that the $5 we spent was a bargain. The auction house labelled their piece as Depression Glass, but as to the manufacturer we haven't a clue. Although we didn't return home overburdened with loot, we had a great time together experiencing a true bit of Americana - and plan to expand our experience next year!