Happy Monday!  For those in Canada, today is a celebration of Victoria Day which is a recognized holiday across the country.  The long weekend gives us a little more time to pack and prepare for the big move.  In that regard we got started on cleaning up, throwing away junk and organizing. Things are coming along nicely.  In addition to the successful weekend, we got an invite from Mom and Dad to their house for Sunday dinner where lobster was the main attraction.  Enough said right?

I am a big lobster fan, especially with fresh baked bread and potato salad.  Sometimes even with a nice piece of steak or pork.  Well lets just say that Mom knows me pretty well and delivered on every part of the meal.  I was so excited waiting in anticipation for the “big” dinner that I found it hard to concentrate on packing. All I could think about was dipping plump juicy lobster claws into warm clarified butter .

Here is a recap of the dinner.

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Happy Tuesday!  I want to share with you my first A la carte experience at the Grand Palladium.  First off it is very hot in Jamaica as you can imagine and for some reason men are required to wear long pants and closed toed shoes at the restaurants.  Well let me tell you, wearing the extra clothing is uncomfortable in warm Jamaica.  Once I got over the initial shock I was good to go and excited to order.

Now let me apologize in advance for the pictures.  The atmosphere was very dark and difficult to get good pictures of all the food.

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Oh Yum!  I was walking around the grocery store picking up some much needed supplies last week and I noticed that asparagus was on sale.  I do enjoy asparagus but I do not buy it very often due to the high price.  However after buying this vegetable treat,  I had to come up with a fun recipe to use the asparagus plus I had made another batch of homemade basil pesto ( which I love ).  I took some chicken breasts out of the freezer and my mind was set - Chicken Asparagus Pesto Quesadilla!  It’s a mouthful in more ways than one.  The flavor combination with this dish was simply amazing.

Quesadillas are so quick and easy to make and offer a lot of options for picky eaters as well.  You can dress them up or down according to your taste.

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Well, I can barely believe that it is Friday already!!  I am leaving for jamaica tomorrow afternoon and well lets say it feels surreal.  I feel like I am not at all ready with packing and some finalization around the house but I am very excited to go.  Busy around the house yet still starving for some food.

I whipped up a great snack when you are craving some junk.  Barbecue Chicken Nachos - oh dear these babies are so good!

Very simple, very tasty and literally 5 minutes to make.  Now when talking nachos, there are serious nachos and then there are in a pinch nachos.  I consider these to be in a pinch nachos.

Ingredients

• Plate of Nacho Chips
• Barbecue Sauce
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Chicken
• Mozzarella and Monterey Jack Cheese

Method

1. Line Plate with Nachos
2. Add chicken and barbecue sauce
3. Top with cheese
4. Microwave until melted ( about 60 seconds - depending on microwave)
5. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: For the ultimate nacho, use a single layer of nachos on a baking stone preheated and go light on the toppings to avoid the chips from getting soggy.

Well I have 27 things left to do so I best keep moving on here.  Next week I have some scheduled posts lined up with some great guest bloggers as well as  a couple of my own.  The internet is quite costly in the hotel at $8/hr so what I was thinking I may do is have a summary post of Jamaica when I get back and share with you how the trip was all at once.  But you never know - I may sneak a few photo op posts in during the week.  Have a great day and a great week and I look forward to reading all the comments.

Take care

zesty

Getting back in the swing of things after Easter and feeling pretty good.  Every now and again when the weather is not the greatest I like to think of a nice warm place and then make food that would fit in within that climate.  How about some Texas style chicken?  Oh yes, I am a big fan of rubs on meat and poultry and this rub did not let me down.  I picked up a half of chicken cut up at the local grocery.  I am a huge chicken fan but I like to switch up the flavors to keep things interesting.

With this idea, I combined several spices together and gave the chicken a good rub in the morning before work. I then wrapped the chicken up and let it sit in the fridge to intensify with flavor.  You can even do this the night before if you have time.  When using rubs like this one below, I like to keep the skin on so the flavor will stick better.  Once cooked, you can remove the skin if you want before eating it.  That is if you are watching your caloric intake or just do not like crispy baked chicken skin.

Below is both the rub recipe as well as the instructions I went with for cooking the chicken.  I also made a nice batch of sweet potato fries (which I am literally addicted to)

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