Valentine’s dinner from a crock pot – balsamic glazed chicken

Hi friends!  I hope you all had wonderful weekends.

Our weekend was ruled by two of my favorite Valentines – Charlie, and the hubs.  Saturday morning Josh and I braved the cold and flurries to take Charlie to the dog park.  We’ve been feeling bad lately because now that I’m back at school he gets kind of lonely during the day.  We make sure to give him tons of extra loving and playing at night, but it doesn’t feel like quite enough.  Hence the dog park.

We stayed in the small dog area and played with his ChuckIt (after the incident he seems a little skittish around big dogs).  He just had the cutest little smile on the whole time.  Call me crazy, but I can totally tell when he is smiling.  After the park we made a Starbucks pit stop to warm up and got him a pupaccino (aka – a tiny cup of whipped cream).  It’s one of his favorite treats.  Then we stopped at Petco where he soaked up all of the attention.  He may be afraid of big dogs, but he LOVES people!

When we got home I got to work on our “Valentine’s” dinner.  Thursday was a little crazy so we didn’t celebrate too big.  We decided to have a bigger celebration this weekend when we had more time to really enjoy it.

I used the occasion to make my fourth meal in the Crock Pot Challenge series.  I made this Balsamic Chicken from Dishing with Leslie and it was incredible!  I saw the recipe earlier this week and decided that it looked too good not to try.  I didn’t have any basil on hand, so I just left it out.  I also only had fire-roasted tomatoes, so I used those.

I can’t even begin to explain how moist and flavorful the chicken gets.  I served it along side some garlic mashed potatoes and sautéed bell peppers.  I will be making this meal again, really soon!

I also discovered the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day book this weekend, promptly bought the Kindle edition and got to work on making the dough.  I just made the Master Boule recipe and Boule loaf.  I honestly could not believe how beautiful it turned out and how tasty the bread is.  It had a perfect golden brown crust, and chewy center.  We couldn’t wait to break into the loaf so I sliced it warm (which is a big no-no).  But it was so good!!!!  Screw dessert, let’s just eat fresh bread.

The methods in the book are so simple.  I mixed everything by hand and had a bowl of rising dough in 5 minutes.  The authors are not kidding when they say that!  The recipe makes a big batch of moist dough that you put in the fridge and can tear a chunk off and bake using one of their methods anytime you want.  It says the dough is okay for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.  I’m not sure it will last that long in ours.  Oh yeah, and there’s no kneading!  No joke!  Seems pretty much fool proof.  I’ll be sure to share what else I make from the book.

Oh yeah, and the best part of the weekend came in a tiny little box.  You know what they say about little boxes…  Josh got me this ring for Valentine’s Day.

He was sneaky and saw that I posted a similar one a few weeks ago in a Five For Friday post.  He done good.  I love how dainty it is!  I’m not such a big heart jewelry fan but this little gold one is lovely.  Just a sweet little reminder of love.

And for one more picture of pure love, I give you the biggest puppy dog eyes you’ve ever seen.

Charlie was so pooped from the busy Saturday that he was just laying like this watching me in the kitchen for at least a half hour.  Can’t get enough of this one!

Question of the day:

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Have you tried baking artisan bread before?

What’s your favorite thing to do with your pet?