Next In Line Please.

Every once in awhile the universe honors the simple fact that it is your turn for some straight up Good News.  And today was our day.  No, I have yet to see the doc about my back, that's for tomorrow, but since I try not to borrow tomorrow's troubles today...I am focusing on what I know right now!

2 of my crew had doctor appointments today. 

First up was the baby girl and her follow-up cardiology visit.  (She was diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia back in November.  Feel free to toss that around in a crowd.  If you live in my neck of the woods, people think you are really s.m.a.r.t.)  Be ready to jump up and down, because her heart sounds great!  Her resting EKG was just as it should be!  Her blood pressure was fabulous!  All of which means Dr. Perry gave her her walking papers.  If she starts having events, as they are called in the medical world, again...we go back.  We now know one of her main triggers is a rush of adrenaline.  So she has to manage stress really well, for instance.  But isn't that something we, the general population of the U.S. of A., need to work on?  Maybe she'll be a step ahead of her peers by the time she reaches adulthood in being able to discern that which really matters and that which she should and will leave by the wayside.

The man who makes me swoon (the grown one) also had a doctor appointment this afternoon.  Something had started to ail him over the weekend, and to my dismay, he went ahead Monday and made himself an appointment.  This little act alone caused me to fret, because in the 23 years we have been a couple, I have only known him to go to the doctor voluntarily twice.  And one of those times was after we'd had our surprise third precious baby, and our accountant had pointed out to him that he himself had put off the Big V Operation and was the proud father of 6.  So if he was going to the doctor of his own volition, well, it gave me pause.  I'm not going to go into his ailments as he's a very private sort of dude, but a little medicine and he will be back in tip top shape!  Can I hear an Amen! on that?!

Did you feel it?  That was the tension leaving the building.  I don't know how I'd function if any my crew were to be among the fallen...  I know I would function, because there are more than one of them, but it is not something I would wish upon my worst enemy. (Like my dad's 5th wife for instance...not even on her.  I think.  Is this bad karma?)

Last night I knew my hero was sort of freaking himself out a tad worried.  And knowing he spells comfort C.A.S.S.E.R.O.L.E.  I made him on of his absolute favorites.  Don't run'd off (name that movie) screaming, this ain't your backwards cousin's evil stepmama's tuna casserole with cream of mushroom soup and a bag of chips on top.  This is something I adapted from Trisha Yearwood's cookbook.  I made it a little healthier, because I would like a two-piece bathing suit this summer...so a little less jiggle is going to be mandatory if that's going to happen.  Know what I'm sayin'?  I like to think it helped my big bad ironworker man calm down just a little, when he needed it most.

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

2 cups cooked brown rice
3 cups cooked chopped broccoli (fresh or frozen, use the stems too, they're Good For You!)
1 cup lowfat Greek yogurt (like Fage)
1/2 cup mayo (Unless you like light mayo, just don't go there.)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 10 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup (you can make your own but I don't have time so I buy Campbell's Healthy Request version)
2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided in half (pay attention here, don't put ALL of this IN the casserole, half of it goes on top)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped - be sure to skin those babies! (I roast bone in breasts drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper for approx. 35 - 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  But you can also use leftover chicken you have, grill the breasts, buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it up...) 

Preheat your oven to 350F and spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray.

Spread the rice in an even layer in the casserole dish.  Layer the broccoli on top of the rice.

In a large bowl, mix everything EXCEPT all of the cheese, use only half!!!, together and pour over the rice and broccoli.  Smooth it out.  Sprinkle on the other 1/2 of the cheese.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

When I serve this up as our entire dinner (which, uh, I usually do, because it has everything and I'm all about accomplishing a lot efficiently) we eat most of it.  Baby girl and I like to spice things up with some Tabasco, but the males seem to like the mellow creamy flavor just as it is made. 

Make this for dinner and calm everyone down!  Besides, you can make it in the morning, or probably the night before, so all you have to do is put it in the oven at the end of the day.  I'm not sure if it would freeze though...

Food isn't just physical nourishment...it's how you love people!

xoxoxox,
~S

1-2-3 KO sort of day

Sometimes life gets in the way of the best laid plans.  Which is why there was no post yesterday.  Sometimes I need to sip on my Tension Tamer tea and let the day evolve since it seems to have a life force of its own.  And yesterday, rolled just that way.  News comes in 3's right?  So we should be good now.  We're plenty good grappling with yesterdays news, so please, take it easy today.  Just a little, humble request on behalf of this redhead's sanity.  Enough sniveling.

The friend I have had second longest in my entire life (hi Tricia!) had a birthday Sunday.  As usual, I mailed her a little something.  On Monday.  That's right, the day after her birthday.  Every year I resolve that next year I will be early (like she is), and I think I managed once.  I'm a work in progress.  She and I are different, but complimentary.  Her personality is a lot like my husband's and I'm like hers.  We're both happily married people which I think bodes well for our friendship.  We grew up down the street from each other and walked to and from school together from 5th grade until we graduated.  If I had grown up with a sister, I would want her to be my sister!

My fabulous friend has a cold today and so I think her equally fab husband (who happens to cook!) should make her this chicken noodle soup.  I swear it has magical cold germ butt kicking properties.  (This recipe started out as one of Paula Deen's and I'm pretty sure I didn't stray too far from the original.)

3-4 lb. chicken
3 1/2 quarts water
1 onion, peeled
1 teaspoon each of basil, oregano and thyme 
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 bay leaves
3 chicken boullion cubes

Add all these ingredients to a big soup pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer about 40 minutes until the chicken is done.  Remove the chicken, onion and bay leaves.  Throw the onion and bay leaves away.  Leave the broth in your soup pot!  When the chicken is cool enough, take off all the nasty skin, and pull the meat off the bones and chop into bite size pieces.  For the next step you'll need -

2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups sliced celery with the leafy green tops
2 1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles (you can use whatever pasta you like, even whole wheat!)
3 Tablespoons fresh flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup cooking sherry (optional)
3/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
I don't always use the sherry and cream, but if I want to make a more substantial soup I always use them together.  I don't like to use one without the other flavor-wise, but you might.

Bring your stock back to a boil (there should be about 3 quarts), add the carrots, and cook for 3 minutes.  Add celery and cook for 5 to 10 more minutes.  Add the egg noodles and cook according to the package directions.  When the noodles are done add the chicken, parsley, sherry and cream.  Cook for another 2 minutes and give it a taste.  Add salt and pepper to please your tastebuds.

By the way, if you don't want to throw the bones in the trash because they get disgusting and stinky, do this - put them in an old plastic grocery bag, tie the top good and tight, and put them in your freezer.  Then on trash day, put them out for the trash man!  It's a little trick I learned from my grandma.

Still searching for an easy peaceful feeling,
~S

It's a Pajama Day...

...it's raining nice and steady.  Thick cloud cover.  Fire building weather.

My brain is in a list mode this morning...lots of little thoughts.  Not in its usual paragraph form.

1. I'd really like to stay in my jammies all day today.

2.  We really need groceries - like for dinner.

3.  And toilet paper and cat food.  That makes 2 to 3 stores.  In the rain.  Can I go in my black flannels with all the bright polka dots???  I think my daughter knows too many people in this town for that anymore.  She'd be mortified.  Maybe it's time to move?

4.  Does anyone know why the enter button on my keyboard doesn't doesn't just move the cursor down on Blogger?!

5.  At the beginning of this year I really hoped and wished, actually I demanded, an easygoing 12 months to make up for the insanity of 2009.

6.  The thing about demanding things from the universe is that it likes to chuckle back at you and say 'Oh yeah, good luck with that.  Try this on for size.'  All freaking year long.  It's okay.  We ain't dead yet as someone said to me once.

7.  But the universe made up for it in a BIG, gracious way.  For years...I'm talking a decade probably...my best friends, the ones who could tell me something was a bad idea and I would actually pause to consider what they were saying...have moved away.  Physically, busily, just life taking over our lives.  But in the last 6 months they are returning in droves.  Some have moved back within driving distance, some have simply gotten back in touch, and some I have good old facebook to thank for.  So despite the trials and tribulations of 2010 (and they have been numerous and intense), I am going to always think of it as a Really Good Year.  I need my friends man!

8.  It's only Thursday.  Up until 3 minutes ago, I really thought it was Friday.

9.  I found out Henry is a whisky.  Not a man.  Which is a good thing because my friend is married.

10.  I feel like Christmas is too easy this year.  What are we forgetting?

11.  I think I'll make this lasagna for dinner...which will totally require shopping...in clothes... but it will be worth it and the house will smell so very good when the man graces our doorstep after fighting the good fight all day.  I like that he likes my cooking.  It's a good thing about him.

This Lasagna started out as my friend Kelli's recipe.  Hi Kelli!  The one she put in the church's cookbook.  But since I didn't read the directions right the first time, or remember the exact ingredients as I shopped the first time, I made it this way instead.  If you're a purist and don't think that cottage cheese has any place in a real lasagna, then you should stop reading now.  Because there is cottage cheese and we like it that way. Ricotta just sort of grosses me out from the moment I open the package.  Sorry purists.

1 lb. Sweet Italian Sausage
1 clove garlic, chopped or use 2 cloves if you use a garlic press
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 Tablespoon basil - the dried stuff, but remember to crush it up in your hands to release all the flavor.  Emeril demands it.  Or you could use fresh, more of it, but I don't have any fresh basil right now.
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large can tomatoes or 2 cans diced Italian tomatoes) - I use whatever is in my pantry at the time.
2 - 6 oz. cans tomato paste
1-10 oz. box lasagna noodles
24 oz. carton large curd cottage cheese - get the low fat and save a few calories.
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese  (huh, did you know your spell checker will capitalize Parmesan?  Who knew.)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Assemble this in the morning and you will thank yourself later in the day.  I'll be making mine just before I bake it, which just doesn't feel like the same sort of time saver.  It's okay.

Preheat your oven to 350 F if you'll be baking it right after assembling it like I will be tonight.

Start the water to boil for your lasagna noodles.  I always forget to do this and then have to wait around watching the pot that never boils. Save yourself the heartache and start your water NOW.

Break the sausage out of its casing and brown it, draining off any fat.  Add all the ingredients from the garlic to the tomato paste and simmer for 20 minutes.  Boil your noodles according to the directions on the box they came in.

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients from the cottage cheese to the Parmesan cheese plus 1/2 (that's 2 cups for those of you who flunked fractions in 5th grade) the mozzarella.  Your noodles should be done and drained by now and all that wonderful sauce will make you wish you could eat right now because it smells so good!

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with oil.  Spoon a bit of sauce onto the bottom and begin layering noodles, cheese mixture, sauce.  I usually use 8 to 10 noodles and only make 2 layers.  You want to end with sauce.  Top with the remaining 2 cups of mozzarella.  Cover loosely with foil and bake about 45 minutes.  Disrobe the dish of its foil and bake 15 more minutes until the cheese is all melty

Kelli says this freezes really well (before baking) so go ahead and make a double batch.  I've never been that industrious.  But I think I'd use a disposable foil pan for the freezing.  Be your own Stouffer's frozen lasagna.

12.  I want one of those triangle cowboy bells to use to call my family for dinner.  They always so NO when I tell them that.  Pshhh.

Happy not actually Friday!
~S

If I'd have known...I'd have crock'd my roast

Today has been one of those days...when I leave my house in the morning, expecting to be home around noon.  Except I spent the afternoon taking my daughter for fun things like x-rays and lab tests.  It was an unexpected sort of day for me (and my needle phobic baby girl), so I didn't crockpot anything for dinner in the morning.  Which means we are stuck eating frozen burger patties, chips and apple slices.  Not exactly my favorite, but my burgerholic boys are, no doubt, giving thanks to the heavens above, so there's your silver lining!  Now I realize being gone all day is the norm for most of America, but since I'm a stay at home, (shockingly mainstream) homeschooling, homebody-type mom...I'm here pretty much all the time.

If I had known I would be removed from my household for the day, at the very least I would have thrown this into my crockpot.  I usually keep a chuck roast in the freezer, and, although manufacturers of 'slow cookers' recommend you don't throw frozen hunks of meat into your crockpot, I will let you in on a little secret.  I do it all the time, and we ain't died yet!  I think they are CYAing to their litigation department's tune.  But that's just me.  You have to decide for yourself.  (See, I can CMA too.)  This is perhaps the most basic a crockpot recipe can get, but it has saved dinner more than once!

Crock'd Roast Beast

1 - 4-5 lb. chuck roast (you can adjust the size accordingly, this feeds our hungry family of 5, with leftovers that make great burritos, tacos, nachos and hot sandwiches for lunch)
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1/2 cup leftover morning coffee

Season all sides of your roast and put it in your crockpot.  Add the coffee.  Cover and turn on low for all day cooking.  If you happen to have a frozen roast, you might want to turn it on high for an hour before you leave, and then down to low, but it will cook the other way too, just taking a bit longer.

Feel free to slice onions, potatoes, carrots, celery and throw them in there if you like (the roast goes in last).  While that does make a handy ENTIRE meal, my family doesn't like their potatoes and veggies this way.  When I'm really pressed to get dinner on the table a bag of frozen broccoli and loaf of french bread go a long way towards completing a meal.  This is also a great way to use up half empty bottles of sauces, marinades, salsa etc.  Just eliminate the coffee and seasoning salt.  If you have plenty of time, whip up some mashed potatoes, use the pan juices to make gravy and live large.

Well, the siren song of frozen sirloin patties from Sam's Club are calling...

xoxo
~S

comfort food & Emerson

Yesterday was really a mixed bag.
The miners were out!
But I didn't get to watch any of the coverage because I happen to be a mother with typical kids.
One nagging challenge solved in a most perfect way.
Followed by the phone call that precluded watching the miners.

So what to do with a day like that?  I'm too old and wise for things I may have once sought.  So first I re-read this little nugget of wisdom from Ralph Waldo Emerson (how can you not love that name?!)
I have this little poem of his on a magnet on my refrigerator.  It reminds me not to kill anyone when they are doing something really idiotic.  Including me.

finish each day and be done
with it.  you have done what you
could.  some blunders and
absurdities have crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
tomorrow is a new day.  you shall
begin it serenely and with too
high a spirit to be encumbered
with your old nonsense.
-emerson

Then, with my mom hat on, I spun two of my plates into one and fulfilled my dinner making obligations by feeding the familia my favorite comfort food!

This is a practically perfect Mac N Cheese recipe.  Perfection has alluded me, but I've got time.  Until then, after a gnarly day, I'll make this one out of one of Trisha Yearwood's cookbooks.

8 oz. elbow macaroni, cooked BTW I hardly ever us elbow, I usually pick some that looks more fun just to entertain myself.
1 12oz. can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 large eggs, beaten (particularly a good ingredient when your mad...)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted (please use regular old salted butter, nothing fancy, it's mac n cheese for Pete's sake)
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
2 10oz. bricks, sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (about 5 cups)  okay, it's a really good thing she included that little tip about it being 5 cups, because out here in Cali, they don't sell 10 oz bricks of cheese at the local grocery)
Dash of paprika I was in a hurry last night and didn't use any paprika.  I don't think anybody suffered expect maybe the paprika farmer.

Her directions call for making this in a crockpot, but so far all crock'd mac and cheeses have a weird texture and I didn't think I could handle any more disappointment last night, so I baked it! 

Here's how...Preheat your oven to 350F, mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the paprika and 1/2 cup of the cheese in a large bowl (I used the pot I boiled the macaroni in - less dishes).  Pour it all into a greased 9x13 pan, sprinkle the 1/2 cup cheese across the top, get in a rush, forget to sprinkle on the paprika and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.  Pull it out of the oven when the timer beeps and carb out.  Your troubles will melt away.

If you want to crock it, A-let me know if it has that weird lumpy cheese texture, and B-here's how to do that...do all the same things except pour it into your crockpot (I'd probably grease mine, because I'm lazy that way), sprinkle the 1/2 cup cheese across the top, cover and cook on low for 3 hours and 15 minutes.  Turn off the crockpot, stir and serve.


Doing my best to remain unencumbered with nonsense today...
xoxoxo
~S

I'm in trouble now!

Uh oh...I have figured out how to fiddle with the background controls...I feel a major time suck coming...it's going to be a good time waster though!

Now that it looks a little more like October 'round here, we need to celebrate my favorite month of the year.  So for those of us who were born in this lovely fall month, that's ROCKtober for you and me, and if you have a long lasting love with your crockpot (as I do) it's also CROCKtober.  Hmmm, tap, tap, tap, I got nuthin'.  If you have any, you better post them!!!

Well, since it's CROCKtober and all, here's a little CROCKpot recipe.  (By the way I think we are officially supposed to call them slow cookers to be PC and all, but whatever. Roll your eyes here.  We all know they were popular in the 70's and they are crockpots!  Don't even get me started about the Kleenex/tissues debacle.)

Crock'd Italian Chicken
Start this in the morning so it can cook all day on low.
Or start it at lunchtime, but cook it on high, all afternoon.

Buy a big package of chicken thighs at the grocery.  Take off the skin if you want.  I do.  If you don't happen to be feeding 2 teenagers and an 11 year old who makes them look bad at the dinner table, go ahead and buy yours already skinned.

Get out a couple cans of diced tomatoes (not the big doorstop size, the usual, slightly bigger than a soup can size - I am so not going out to my pantry to check the ounces - but this isn't rocket science so you can't really screw it up!)

Pour 1/2 of a can of your diced tomatoes into the bottom of your crockpot.

Add 1/2 the thighs and the other 1/2 can of tomatoes.

Break out your Italian spices: like oregano, basil, garlic salt (if you've got 2 extra minutes, press a clove of garlic and use a little kosher salt, but the garlic salt is fine, remember this baby is a 70's darling and NOTHING was fresh in the 70's, except maybe Burt Reynolds).

I usually mix and match whatever Italian spices I have on hand and fill up the little quarter size crook of my palm with the Italian spices.  Then, over the chicken and tomatoes already in the crock, rub your hands together crushing the spices.  Emeril swears this releases the flavor of dried spices and I believe him.  He's Emeril.

Add the rest of the thighs and the other can of diced tomatoes.  Throw in some more spices.

Put the lid on, make sure that crockpot is set on low, and go do something fun all day long. Or, if you must, go to work, but at least you'll come home to a house that smells really good.   (If you do this at lunchtime and go the matinee, put it on high, so you're not eating raw chicken, which is a Bad Idea.) 

You can serve this over pasta, next to bread, garlic bread, garlic cheese bread, whatever makes you happy.  Rip open a bag of salad or steam some green veggies and call it dinner.  This feeds my hungry family of 5 with a little leftovers.  More people?  Serve it with all of the above.

Just don't do this with chicken breasts.  Well, you can.  But they'll be dry.  Every time.  Or maybe that's just my experience.  Anyhow, I've served this even when my kids' friends have been over, and everyone always likes it.  Which is a good thing.

Oh, and I cook this in one of those big oval crockpots.

Happy CROCKtober!
~S