Anything But Normal, Nuestra Vida!: Beer Battered Fried Pickles, PW Chicken Spaghetti, & Creamy Garlic Mushrooms

Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a fan of cold weather, it's just too cold! I do love a good snow, but only one or two a year. I am a true Texan at heart, we don't do cold! We have had a surprisingly mild winter up until 2 1/2 weeks ago. All the sudden we have been punched in the face by winter, like really hard! First we had a week of ice, then it finally got up to 64 two days ago, it was heavenly. Then, this morning I woke up to 4 inches of snow. The ice had JUST melted off the front bushes yesterday. At least it is mostly snow and not ice, but STILL! Also, the boys aren't sick this time around, so we actually got to go play with friends, but STILL!

Desperate snow days call for desperate measures; in come the beer battered fried pickles. I have wanted to make these for a long time, but haven't ever gotten around to it. I found a super yummy recipe on Pinterest probably a year ago. When I went to look for the recipe, the website was gone, the downside to Pinterest. I still wanted to make the pickles, so I found another recipe that looked pretty good. Here is what I found.

I have to say, the whole process was a lot easier than I thought, which is normally the case. Sometimes I get it in my head that something is going to be really hard, so I don't even try it. When I finally get the guts to try said "hard" thing, most of the time I’m surprised by how easy it was.

I like a thicker batter on my pickles, so I only added 1 cup of beer.

This was interesting to me, flour first, then batter. In most situations you add

batter first, or egg, then flour. Totally makes sense though!

They fried much quicker than the recipe said. Maybe the oil was too hot?

Yummy! They were fantastic! I ate some with ranch, but the majority I ate all by themselves. Just an FYI, if you eat too many you may feel sick to your stomach for a good 20 minutes, not that I would know anything about that! I know how to control myself and only ate 3, I lie!

The fried pickles were fantastic, and I will make them again, but with Dill pickles. But after soooo many snow days, yes I get it, I’m a southerner, I needed more. I needed a fantastical dinner! And so I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti. I don't normally make so many PW recipes, but I have been on a kick lately!

Feeling much better after eating entirely too many pickles with lunch, this spaghetti was wonderful, and warm, and happy, unlike outside! I didn't have any pimentos and I used leftover chicken I had from the other day, but it was awesome! Plus it’s Pioneer Woman, so the recipe is huge. I cut it in half and put the other half in the freezer right next to my beautiful white chicken lasagna that is my all time fav!