Louisiana Cuisine and a Great Chicken Recipe

A few days ago I was looking for an easy chicken recipe that wouldn't require a lot of preparation or buying a lot of ingredients.  It turns out that many recipe's on the internet that are labeled "simple" are not the case.  I finally found a recipe that didn't require a ton of ingredients and turned out great.

Ranch Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1/2 inch thick, I bought chicken breast filets which worked great)
1/2 cup of flour
1 egg beaten
2 Tablespoons Powdered Ranch Dressing
1 cup dry bread crumbs
3 Tablespoons Butter
Parsley flakes

Mix 2 tablespoons of powdered ranch dressing with 1 cup bread crumbs
Put bread crumbs on a plate
Put flour on a small plate
Put beaten egg in small bowl
Melt butter or margarine in frying pan over medium heat
Make sure chicken is dry. If not then pat dry with paper towels.
Coat chicken in flour, then dip chicken in egg, then coat chicken in bread crumb mixture
Cook chicken on each side until golden brown and the temperature is at least 160 degrees F.
Add more butter as needed to prevent sticking
Sprinkle with some parsley flakes and serve.

Here is the finished product.  Note that the coating is a little bit burned on some pieces, the other half of the batch turned out fantastic.

On Friday night my boyfriend and I decided to try Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen, a restaurant that all of our friends recommended.  My boyfriend received a gift certificate for his birthday, so we had to check it out.

We started out with Hush Puppies because I never had them before.  They were great, especially with a little bit of honey butter.

For dinner, I had a Shrimp Po' Boy and my boyfriend had Buttermilk Fried Chicken.

Shrimp Po' Boy

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

We finished off with a Banana Foster Bread Pudding, but we ate it all before we thought about taking a picture.  We were completely stuffed from the meal, but it was delicious.  We would definitely go back.

Recommended Beauty Products for a Sunburn

It's been almost two weeks since I got sunburned in San Diego.  My skin is still a little bit red and peeling, but it no longer hurts and I no longer have to hide it with scarves and layers.  I'm sure it wouldn't have healed as quickly without some TLC and some wonderful beauty products.  Here are my recommendations for which products to use when you're dealing with any sort of sunburn.

Aloe Vera Gel
Any brand of this will work.  The one I purchased was from a souvenir shop in Sea World, and I'm sure it worked just as well as one I could have purchased at any other store.  This is a must for any sunburn.  I recommend putting it in the fridge so it is extra cooling on sore, burning skin.  I like the thicker gels because I find they go on easier and help prevent the skin from drying out and peeling.

Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion 
This is my favorite moisturizer at all times of the year.  It's great because it isn't sticky or greasy, it's all natural, and it works great on sensitive skin (I get allergic reactions really easily from scented beauty products).  I grew up in Northern Alberta in Canada, and in the winter when my skin was dry this worked like a charm.  Highly recommended.

St. Ives Collagen Elastin Facial Moisturizer
My boyfriend's mother gave me this moisturizer when the skin on my face was severely dry over the holidays.  This moisturizer worked great and my skin felt infinitely better after a few applications.  When this sunburn happened and I ran out of Aveeno lotion, I decided to try this out on the sunburn.  My logic was that if it worked on my face, it should work on my shoulders.  It worked wonderfully.  Highly recommended.

Pur Minerals 4-in-1 Pressed Mineral Foundation With SPF 15
I forgot my concealer in the USA when I went to visit family in Canada, and needed to borrow some.  My mother was a make-up artist for years and has a make-up collection that rivals Sephora.  She recommended this foundation, and now it's the only one I use.  I like it because it's a powder, so it's really easy to apply and it covers absolutely everything.  I tried it on my sunburn and it worked wonderfully, you couldn't even tell I was sunburned from a few feet away.  My only complaint is that it goes on a bit thick, so if you're not careful it can look like you're wearing heavy stage make-up.  With that said, for $25, you won't find a better powdered foundation anywhere.

As a bonus, here is a DO NOT BUY recommendation:

Clinique: Cool Lustre Body Moisture
I found this in my beauty product stash when I was looking for moisturizer after I got back from San Diego.  I really like Clinique products, and I use Clinique toner regularly, but this moisturizer is terrible.  I will agree that it did give a cooling sensation, but I do not feel it was an adequate moisturizer.  My skin felt moisturized for maybe 2 minutes (it didn't even last an entire commercial break).  Also, it turned my dry skin a greenish color, which made it look more diseased than anything else.  I see it is no longer available on Nordstrom's website, and this is for good reason.  If you ever see this, DO NOT BUY.

San Jose Playoff Game

Yesterday I went to my first NHL Playoff Game in San Jose.  My boyfriend and I went with another couple that we've been wanting to make plans with for ages, so we decided to make a day of it.

We started by going to their house where they served smoked salmon, cheese, crackers, and the best red wine I've ever had.  It was a bottle of Casa Nuestra Cabernet Franc from Napa Valley, and it was fabulous.  It's a bit pricey, but highly recommended. 

Afterward, we went to a Thai restaurant where I got to try coconut milk, coconut meat, and coconut milk mixed with iced tea, which was awesome.  Where has coconut been all my life? 

This drink was called the Young Coconut.

Then, we went to the hockey game.  I was really surprised to see that over 95% of people at the game were wearing San Jose jerseys (my boyfriend and the friends we went with also bought jerseys).  I ended up buying some black and teal beads from a girl who was raising money for a marathon for $5, which I was more than happy with.  What was also cool was that when you enter the stadium you get handed a towel to wave around at the game.

Here are some shots from the game.  We were a bit disappointed that San Jose lost 4-3 to Detroit, but it was a great game anyways.  I'm still hoping that San Jose wins the series, and that Vancouver wins against Nashville so that we can attend a Vancouver vs San Jose game.

House of Prime Rib

When my boyfriend and I were in San Diego, we had friends from Canada staying in our apartment.  When we got back, they wanted to thank us by taking us out to the House of Prime Rib.  I never had prime rib before, and we saw this restaurant featured on No Reservations, so we were pretty excited and made reservations for 5:45 PM on Friday night.  I include our reservation time because I went through quite the adventure in order to make it to the restaurant on time.

I had to go to work on Friday because of a meeting at 3:00 PM, and I had to bring my laptop because I had a lot of data entry to catch up on.  The meeting ran for an hour (it is normally shorter, but one girl monopolized the meeting), and I didn't want to bring my laptop to San Francisco (especially if we were walking around at night), so I raced and caught a bus at 4:05 PM, and walked home as fast as I could in ballet flats.  I was smart enough to be dressed for the reservations, so I dropped the laptop off and ran for another bus to take me to the transit station at 4:30 PM.  Unfortunately people took forever getting off of the bus, and once I got to the station I had to run as fast as I could in order to catch the train.  I found my boyfriend who was nice enough to buy me a train ticket, and we ran and caught a train just as the doors were closing.  We got to San Francisco just after 5:00 PM, met our friends, and it took 10 min for us to find a bus stop so we could catch a bus for our restaurant.  Of course when we got on the bus it was completely jam packed, and we stopped at every single stop on the way, so what should have taken 15 min took almost 20 min.  By some miracle, we arrived at the restaurant with a few minutes to spare.

I was so relieved to see this sign.

We started off by ordering a bottle of wine.  My boyfriend chose this Cabernet Sauvignon wine from the Andretti Winery.  If you like red wine that doesn't have a strong tannin taste then you should try this wine. 

I ordered the City Cut, which was a 6-8 oz cut of meat (the smallest size).  The meal came with bread, salad with sherry vinaigrette, the choice of mashed or a baked potato, yorkshire pudding, and either creamed corn or creamed spinach.  I chose the baked potato and the creamed corn, and I can honestly say the entire meal was excellent (especially the salad).  I was very happy with the prime rib.  I ordered mine well done, and it was great.  Everyone left full and was happy with their meal.

The chef cutting the prime rib.

The prime rib, in all its glory.

After the meal, we decided to get some ice cream sandwiches.  Mine was two chocolate chip cookies with strawberry ice cream in the middle, and it was really good.

Then we went to a corner store, where I bought some Leninade, mostly for the name.  It was a surprisingly good lemon-lime soda.  The best part of the soda was definitely the label.

I know this post had nothing to do with fashion, but if you are ever in San Francisco and want to have a nicer meal, then you should definitely check out the House of Prime Rib.

Tonight I am going to see the Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks play in San Jose for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  This is my first playoff game and my second hockey game ever (the first was the Edmonton Oilers against the Calgary Flames), so I am incredibly excited.  My sunburn is still peeling, so this is a good day to wear my Vinyasa Scarf. 

On another note, Happy Mother's Day!  I am going to call both my mom and my grandma before I head out to the game.   Unfortunately the card I sent my mom hasn't arrived yet, but I'm sure she'll be happy to receive a phone call this morning.

Conference Outfits

The one bonus of being a guest at a conference is being able to wear a lot of nice clothes, without the stress of presenting a poster or giving a talk.  My boyfriend was nice enough to get me in to the mixer at the Wave House, and for the speaker's dinner at Casa Guadalajara, and I have also been able to check out some talks of previous supervisors and big names in the capillary chromatography field.

Here is my outfit I wore for the Wave House. 

Dress: FCUK
Necklace: J.Crew
Watch: Gucci
Bracelets: Charlotte Russe
Shoes: Stuart Weitzman

Unknown to me before I got there, the floor is mostly sand, so I ended up walking around barefoot and carrying my heels instead. The sand felt great though (and I ignored the fact that there was probably tons of spilled alcohol and other germs in the sand).

For the speaker's dinner and for attending talks, I decided to go with an outfit a little more business style.

Blazer: JCPenny
Blouse: H&M
Tank Top: Abercrombie and Fitch
Skirt: Talula line at Aritzia
Sunglasses: Coach
Shoes: J.Crew black ballet flats (though you can't see them in this image).

The speaker's dinner was pretty great.  They even handed you a lime margarita on the rocks as soon as you walked in the door!  The mexican food was pretty good, which is what I expected considering how close San Diego is to the Mexico border.

I have decided to do the Anthroholic Shopping Ban Challenge, so I will not be adding any new clothes to my wardrobe for the remainder of May.  Hopefully I will have enough conference clothes for the CSC conference in Montreal (where I will actually be attending the conference as a scientist, not just a guest!).  If not, there's always the beginning of June!  My income is a bit lower this month due to this San Diego trip and Montreal coming up, so hopefully this will help my bank account out a bit.

My first Anthropologie purchase!

As I wrote in an earlier post, I saw the Apothecary Skirt on the Anthropologie website and wanted it.  Lucky for me, the hotel I'm staying at for my boyfriend's conference is a few minutes away from the Fashion Valley Mall by walking, which has an Anthropologie in it.  I decided to go over there on Monday morning and try this skirt on for myself.

I was sad at first when I finally found the skirt in the store and realized they only had size 6 and higher (the size 6 was uncomfortably large).  The sales associate dug in the back and could only find a size 0, which I decided to try on anyways (I'm normally a size 2 or 4 in everything).  Lucky for me, the size 0 fit like a charm!

Apologies for wearing my Lululemon Define Jacket over this.  The sunburn on my shoulders was and still is incredibly red and painful, and I refused to remove my jacket, especially for fitting room photos.  It hurts to even put on a jacket or bra in the first place, so let this be a reminder to wear lots of sunscreen or a cover up when you're going to be out in the sun all day.

Anyways, I was very happy that the skirt fit, and immediately purchased it.  I am now a proud owner of an Anthropologie clothing item, and hope to add more to my closet in the future.

San Diego!

I have finally found an internet connection I don't have to pay $10 a day for!  As you can tell from the title of this post, I am currently in San Diego.  My boyfriend is presenting at a chemistry conference here, and I decided to tag along because flights with Southwest are super cheap (~$150 round trip) and the hotel stay is covered by a travel grant.  $150 for a 5 day vacation is super awesome, especially because my boss is also at this conference and gave me the okay to be here.

We arrived on Saturday and spent the evening at the hotel pub watching the Vancouver vs Nashville playoff game.  It was a long game (2 overtimes!) and although Vancouver didn't win I'm sure they'll do great at game 3 tonight.  Luongo made a ridiculous amount of saves, so the loss can't be pinned on him.  Anyways, that's enough about hockey.

On Sunday we decided to check out Sea World since the conference didn't start until the late afternoon and I have wanted to go ever since I moved to California.  We arrived at 10am when the park opened, and it was so quiet!  We got to enjoy a lot of the aquariums before the crowds came, and even got to ride on the rapids ride by ourselves!  We also found a great place for lunch: Seaport Marketplace.  It offered some great reasonably priced sandwiches and salads and a large selection of beer.  If you're ever at Sea World in San Diego, I highly recommend it.  We checked out the Believe show (which I found a bit pretentious and didn't have nearly enough whale tricks) and the Sea Lions Live show, which was really cute.  We had a great time, but I ended up with a horrible sunburn on my shoulders (lesson learned: wear a cover up instead of a Lululemon Push UR Limits tank to Sea World).  

Update: I found a stable internet connection outside of the conference center.  Here are some photos from my Sea World adventures: 

Feeding the sea lions.  The birds around this area were very aggressive!

A random encounter with Bert and Ernie.

Photo from the Sea Lions Live show.  They were very talented.

Photo from the Believe show.  Never enough whale tricks.