venison roll ups

I'm not going to be home tonight, so I'm making venison roll ups for the kids and Mike.  Let's see...I'm making it up as  I sit here and type.  I'm putting venison in the crockpot, number 1, with some worcestershire, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and red wine.  Maybe a touch of horsey sauce.  Thyme.  That sounds good.  And I'm going to let that cook all day so when hubby gets home he can shred it and put it in tortillas, melt cheese over the top of it, add lettuce and tomato.  There it is.  My feeble attempt at a meal while I'm in mourning all over again...  I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Steak Paninis

Who ever said that sandwiches weren't for supper?  Not me....
So I sliced up some sirloin tip steak really thin and cooked that in olive oil until medium.
Then mixed up sour cream, horseradish, applesauce, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.
In a seperate bowl, I put chopped parsley, minced onion, chili powder, garlic, and lemon pepper seasoning and mixed that up.
So for the sandwiches, I put olive oil on the english muffin bread and put that on the griddle.  I spread the sour cream sauce on the bread and added the meat, the parsley mixture, chopped romaine, sharp cheddar cheese, and then slathered on some more of that sauce on the opposite side of the sandwich and grilled the whole sandwich like a grilled cheese.

The flavors were SO good!  Mike didn't like the horseradish, but I thought it was delish!  Just the right amount, it wasn't too overpowering.  Very mild.  And the lemon pepper and parsley just brought out a bright flavor in the sandwich.
We had applesauce with supper.  Sandwiches and applesauce.  What can I say, I'm not too domestic today.  Off I go to brush the onions out of my mouth and clean my house up a bit.

Thank you everyone for reading, by the way.  It makes my meals so much more exciting to cook.

Chicken Paprikash

Here's a most fabulous recipe that Liz and I found in my new Food Network magazine.
Chicken Paprikash.  Saute onions and bacon in a pan.  Cut up chicken, put it in a mixture of flour, paprika, marjoram (but we used italian seasoning because I had no marjoram!  Aaack!  The odacity.)  and salt.  Then put it in the middle of the pan and let it brown for 6 minutes.  Then add chicken broth and let it simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is done.  Add sour cream and parsley.  MMMMMM!
We had it with a romaine salad with tomatoes, bacon, cheddar cheese, and smoked gouda cheese.
And fresh steamed broccoli.  Hardly anything is better than fresh steamed broccoli.  It's dream.

So YET another successful meal, and this time made entirely by LIZ and Sarah!
Bon Appetite!

Hot Pepper Jelly stir fry

I know, I make stir fry's all the time.  But this one was particularly good!  First, I sliced up pork in thin slices and threw it in the wok.  Then took it out when it was golden brown and added sliced up leeks, carrots, celery, red pepper, and minced pickled ginger and garlic.  Then the secret ingredient...well, it isn't secret aymore...hot pepper jelly!!!! Add the pork back in when the veggies are crisp tender and add some angel hair noodles.  Teriyaki sauce, and walaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mayonnaise Chicken

Sounds gross?  It makes the chicken SO moist!  Pound out the chicken, slather it in mayonnaise, and coat it with bread crumbs.  Then put it in a shallow oiled baking pan and throw it in the oven for about a half hour or so on 425.  So good!  My middle girl, (5 years old) ate a WHOLE chicken breast!
We also had roasted garlic pine nut couscous with tomatoes and parmesan, and I made my very first warm bacon spinach salad.  YUM!
I ate all of the salad.
The kids ate all of the chicken.
I didn't even have to put any leftovers in the fridge tonight!  But now I'm regretting it, it smells like old garlic in here.
I gotta clean...........

Parmesan Almond pork chops

SO good!  That's all I can say about it!

Pound out some boneless pork chops and salt and pepper them.  Then dip them in egg and then in a mixture of parmesan cheese and almonds all ground up together so it's a fine bread crumb texture.  Heat up some olive oil in a skillet.  When it's hot, turn it down to medium and put the pork chops in for 4 minutes.  Then flip and cook 4 minutes more.  They will be a golden brown.

We had it with fresh steamed broccoli and cheesy rice.

The pork chops were the star of dinner for sure!  And they were moist.  Something rather rare in a pork chop dinner.

Cheerio.

Noodles and Beef with sauce

Homecooked was the theme I went with tonight.  We had side pork, chopped up and fried till crispy with olive oil, garlic, and thyme.  Then I removed that from the pan and put in cubes of tip steak that had been tenderized.  I added chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Then took those out.  With the remaining juices, cooked some chopped baby carrots and then some mushrooms.  Added it all together with a jar of garlic spaghetti sauce and peas.  Serve the sauce over linguini noodles with some cilantro sprinkled ontop.  Thank you Rachael Ray!
I also whipped together some butter, garlic cream cheese cooking sauce, and cottege cheese and spooned that over pieces of cheese rolls.  Broiled it.  YUM!  Cottege cheese really works nicely in a garlic bread form.  You should try it.  It melts nicely!
All served with a side of what????  Salad, of course.  A spinach salad with tomatoes, bacon, and smoked gouda, and a dressing of Paula Dean's peach dressing.

Honestly, I hated the peas in it.  I think it de-elevated the dish.  Something warm in the stomach, though.  The cilantro made it extra good, but I don't think I would have liked it if there was not cilantro ontop.  Cilantro always makes things taste more fresh and delicious.

Cheesy scalloped potato and ham soup

Remember that smokey scalloped potato and ham with pecan bacon green beans we had?
We have TONS of leftovers.  Miraculously, the green beans got all eaten up that first night.  Otherwise, a plate full of potatoes and like half of the ham!  What can I say, when I get a ham, I get a big one.  Make it worth my while...
I found this quart size carton of Wisconsin cheese soup, which on its own is horrid.  I mean, so fake cheesy with no depth of flavor!  So I poured that into the saucepan, added scallions, salt, pepper, the smokey scalloped potatoes, a bunch of diced ham, garlic, and some more smoked paprika.  Then added some fresh grated parmesan in the end because it still lacked a richness I was trying to achieve.
Mmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!  The girls thought it was weird, but my honey was like, "is there a lot more of this left?"  I told him "enough a big lunch for you tomorrow."  He smiled, relieved.  I'm so happy he liked it!  And it took literally 15 minutes to dice and chop and fix up.  So kuddos to the gross Wisconsin cheese soup in a quart size carton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Anything with cheese can be great.

eggs n spinach

I got up this morning and cleaned the house, studied for meeting, did my talk...so I thought that while the baby is sleeping I deserved a nice breakfast for myself.
Wilted spinach with bacon and eggs and parmesan cheese ontop.
Mmmmmm.
There's nothing like the feeling of being a mommy and making a special breakfast just for yourself, eating it while drinking a fresh hot cup of Donut Shop coffee while watching a girly show.
I think I deserve it today.  I'm taking care of myself for the moment.
Until later when I have to clean.
But for now, the time is mine, and I'm gonna love it.

ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans

So this is no ordinary supper.  Sounds like it, right?
We bought a spiral cut ham because, well, people, let's face it.  They're deliciously thin and the edges are all carmelized and chewy.  Delicious.
Then I made homemade scalloped potatoes!  My sister used to always make them and I thought she was a kitchen whiz for it!  But I found this recipe with shallots, half and half, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, potatoes, parmesan cheese, and sharp cheddar cheese.  SO good and cheesy!  And the paprika added so much.  It wasn't that strong either, but the aftertaste was to die for!
Then for the green beans, the real star of the show.........
fresh green beans, crispy bacon, carmelized onions, crushed red pepper, and toasted pecans.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
I've never ever loved green beans so much!
So this is a newsflash for me-*try something new with veggies!*  Next on my list, cauliflower and artichoke sauteed.
I still get the Rachael Ray magazine.  RR and I are tight, like this-
But now I get the Food Network magazine.  It's quite a bit more expensive, but still SO worth it.  There are some to DIE for recipes in there!  I'm saving the copies.  If anyone wants to take them, let me know.  Seriously, either Rachael Ray or Food Network.  I got em here for you.  Oooh, and I want to try creamed corn ice cream.  With carmel corn ontop.  Yeah JIM....don't knock it till you try it.  And I'll let you know when I do.  It's going to be fireworks in my mouth.

More chicken tacos

I am realizing how much I make tacos, different kinds of tacos.  So I actually am a very boring cook.  I make:  burgers, tacos, pizza...pretty normal stuff.  Just things with a twist on them.  So tonight I made aioli sauce for the tacos.  Sour cream, milk, garlic, salt, pepper, avacado, cilantro, and green onions.  And the regular old corn and bean salad with tomatoes, black beans, corn, cilantro.  Of course....now that I've had grilled tortillas, I always grill the tortillas.  It's like a whole new flavor and chewiness!!!!  It's totally worth the few extra minutes and as long as the stovetop grill is hot anyway-why not?!?!  We also had some pomegranate cherry crystal light concoction, except worse because it's not even Crystal Light, it's another strange obscure brand.  The girls love the deep red color of it.
All I can think of is what would happen if they spilled it.
And now all I can see is big huge tall mustaches on their faces that won't come off.
Attractive.
The wierd thing is, I have cool ranch dorito breath.  Must be the garlic and onion.
Hmmm, I think I'm going to go and brush my teeth or I'm getting no kisses tonight!

Baked Dijon chicken

So I haven't been cooking much lately.
What can I say, I've been super sad.  I've been eating pizzas and going over to mom and dads instead of cooking, or cooking the same old boring things.
I watched Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals yesterday and got inspired again,
And I'm so glad I did!!!!!!!!!!  It's so worth it to cook.  Not only did my house get cleaned, laundry got done, (and put away, girls!) and supper was made.  It took until 8pm, but did I feel great!  And tired.
SO-I got this bone in chicken from the food shelf.  What do I do with it?  It's legs and thighs, and I'm not really a dark chicken fan because there are all those wierd things in them.  And it takes forever to cook.  When I watched the 30 minute meals I was ready to go!
Put the chicken pieces in a scorching hot pan of olive oil to brown it.  Then mix up dijon (I did hot n spicy mustard, it was also delicious!) rosemary, oregano, and I put some brown sugar.  Dollop that on top of the half cooked chicken, and then I added some more water and popped it in a 400 degree oven.  For about a half hour.  Then I took red wine vinegar, whole cloves, bay leaves, and sugar and reduced that mixture down about halfway.  Strained it out, and poured it over finely chopped cabbage.  Then poured a little bit of olive oil over it.  By the way, easy on the cabbage.  I have gas.  This is so good you'll want to eat the whole head, but beware!
Mix it up.
Then we also got tons of red potatoes from 2nd harvest, so I cut those up and put them in my fancy dancy Pampered Chef steamer pot with some water and popped that baby in the microwave for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, I mixed butter, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic, salt, and pepper.  When the potatoes were done, I doused them with the butter.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!  It was all SO good together!  The chicken was super juicy, the potatoes were great with the flavor of the chicken, and the cabbage was sweet with a little zing from the vinegar.  But not too much.  I'm not really a lover of vinegar.  Which is why all the sugar was added.
TRY IT!  It's under Deviled chicken if you look up Rachael Ray's website.
What to make tonight???.......  I'm going to study for meeting and make some fabric flowers so I can pin them onto my cream colored curtains now for my new blue and gray bedroom!  C YA!

Matzo Pizza Lasagna

Thank you Rachael Ray, once again!
Layer:  marinara, matzos, more marinara, mushrooms, onions, ricotta, sausage, and cheese.  Then top it off with pepperonni and oregano.
It's good!  Even crunchy on the top.  I think I would put pepperonnis on the inside as well if I did it again, it was a little bit bland.  But good!
GET THIS-the girls didn't like it.
Strange, who doesn't like pizza?  Pizza hotdish?  Pizza burgers?  Hmmmm...evidently matzo pizza is not in the cards.  Maybe I'll just top some matzo's with pizza toppings next time and broil it.
Could be good.

Hummus wraps

I'm trying to eat more healthy, as I've been writing about, so I made some hummus to go on a wrap or sandwiches or as a dip instead of mayo.
So today I put hummus on a pesto garlic tortilla with lettuce, cucumber, and feta cheese.
Yum!  It tasted like a salad in a wrap.  Try it!

French Onion burgers

Finally, I've made another burger!
Take a huge onion and slice it up.  Add it to a saute pan with a bay leaf and some thyme, salt and pepper.  Fry it in butter for about a half hour so it's a deep carmalized color. Then add a can of beef consumme.  Let it cook down.  Add a big blop of sour cream.  Make some burgers, adding salt and pepper, and worcestershire.  Serve the burgers with the french onion slop, sweet pickles and kettle chips ontop.

Oooh, it's so good!  So so good!  But messy, so beware.
It's really good with the corn on the cob that Duane gave us at meeting on Sunday.  And potato chips dipped in cottege cheese.
Delightful!
Thanks for the tip on cottege cheese, ACC.  It's divine!

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

I had a scentsy party last night, and the new scents are awesome!!!!  I didn't invited anyone who didn't have any warmers or were allergic to scents, only ones I knew were super into it.  Only because I don't want anyone to feel pressured to buy, and I certainly don't want anyone to get sick!!!
So anyway, I made some yummy appetizers, but the Highlight....or....LOW light of the evening was the pumpkin hot cocoa.
ICK!!!!!!  It's hot cocoa, milk, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice with whipped cream ontop.  Sounds divine.  The consistency, though, is that of SNOT.
Gross.  I can't believe I used the word snot in my cooking blog.  Nobody's ever gonna visit this blog again!
It could not even be helped by Bailey's Irish Cream.
You know it's bad then....
So I froze it, and at my friend's encouragement, I'm going to figure out how to bulk it up and freeze it and make delicious ice cream out of it.  Because the flavor was fantastic!  Gross consistency though.
On a high note, I got some UV Cake (it's flavored vodka, if you're wondering!) and we put that in Coke.  SO sweet!  So try Diet Coke.  It's a little less sweet.  But very very good.  I think that they should make a new Scentsy scent.  Cake vodka Coke.
I have lots leftover, I only had one cup, (we used cups too, nice bright cheery ones.  No glasses)
If you ever get an urge to make pumpkin cocoa, maybe you should stick to the cocoa, milk, and pumpkin pie spice.  I think that's enough.  Oh, and don't forget the Bailey's on a cold winter day!

Beer N Sauerkraut braised spare ribs

I've got all these strange ingredients in my house.  Cabbage, zucchini, sauerkraut, lots of cucumbers...so I decided last night to start using some of them up so they don't go to waste.  Therefore, the lima bean shepherds pie, which I liked at the time, but it could have been because I was starving and it was warm.  I didn't want anything to do with the leftovers today, so they must have not been that good.
Plus it gave me major tummy issues, if you know what I mean.

Today I put a mix of a half bag of sauerkraut, worcestershire, lots of brown sugar, salt, pepper, half a chopped onion, and a head of cut up cabbage into a baking dish Oh yeah, and a bottle of beer, a brand called Flat Tire, which I thought was very delicious beer!  I don't like the idea of putting good beer into a dish, because I think the cheap icky stuff works almost as good.  But it was all the beer we had.
Then I put it into a 400 degree oven for a long time.  During that time, I put foil in a baking sheet and laid the spare ribs on it with salt and pepper and baked that.  When they looked mostly done, I put the ribs in a roaster and covered it with the sauerkraut delishusness.  That's not a word.
Anyway, I put a drizzling of bbq sauce over the top and baked it for a couple more hours on 350.
BEWARE, while the kraut is baking it doesn't smell the best.
But the horridness goes away, and out came sweet carmelized ribs.  SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!  I wish my camera was working, but it's broken.  I would have taken a picture and posted it on the blog site.  That's how beautiful it all looked!
We ate it with fresh corn on the cob and yukon gold potatoes that were diced up and mixed with butter, salt, and sweet and smoky rub and baked in the oven till done.
This is the best meal of the month for me.  I think.
I'm very proud.
However, we ate the ribs, and what we found of meat was super good.  The rest was fat.
So it was beautiful, but fatty.  And I HATE fatty meat!  My sisters and I call it "wierds" in our food.
Gross.
You should not think you have a bite of meat and find out it's a "wierd."  So next time I will look for less fatty ribs.  Or I will get country style.  They're easier to eat.
Everyone gobbled it up and we only have a tiny little rib leftover out of 4 pounds of ribs.  Excuse me, a quarter pound of ribs, 3 and 3/4 pounds of fat.
Essentially, we all ate a yummy sweet beery sauerkraut, which wasn't sour at all.
And drank our Coke.
And dreamed of ice cream.

Lima bean shepherds pie

Alright, sounds gross, right?
Don't knock it till you try it!
Soooo....first fry up an onion in olive oil.  Add ground chicken until it's done.  Then add chopped up zucchini, tomato, and a nice big couple teaspoons of cumin with salt.  Let that cook about 5 minutes.  Then take 6 cups of lima beans to a seperate pot and add salt, milk, and garlic powder.  Mash it all up together.  Add some parmesan cheese to taste.

Grease a 9x13 pan, put the meat mix in the pan, pour the bean mix over the top, drizzle with a little butter because the beans are so thick.  Put french fried onions ontop and bake until it's done!

The reason I even came up with this and found a recipe is because we recently got 6-6 pound CANS of lima beans.  WHAT????
And last night all our friends came to meeting giving us veggies from their gardens.  So this was on the menu.  It's good, good for you, and certainly comfort food.
Try it.  Like I said, I hate lima beans...and it's good.

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Captain Morgan sauced smoked burger

Here's my honey's favorite burger so far...
a plain bowl of lean ground beef mixed with pepper, soy sauce, garlic, and onions.  Make patties and bake.  I always bake them because it's a lot less messy with the grease.
Then bake some peppered thick sliced bacon.
Then I made a sauce out of onions, garlic, Captain Morgan rum, brown sugar, applesauce, nutmeg, ketchup, salt, pepper, worcestershire, and soy sauce.  The soy sauce tied it all together.  I let that reduce for about 45 minutes.
Melted smoked mozarella, and BAM!  The captain burger.
Mmmmm, so good.  So so good.  It reminded me of the Jack Daniel's burger at TGIFridays.
Oh, but so good.  I can't stop thinking about it.  And Mike says it's definitely his favorite.  After one bite.  It was ooey gooey deliciousness ontop of an oven baked olive oiled bun.
I don't know if I can top this burger.  But I can try....

Thai stir fry

I've invented something delicious!  No recipe needed.  I'm crazy about stir fry, and since the girls gobble it all down, why not make it?  Plus it's super fast.
SO-I boiled Lo Mein noodles and set them aside.  Then I sliced pork sirloin into strips.  I threw those in the wok with olive oil, added salt, pepper, soy sauce, and 3 cloves of crushed garlic.
When that was cooked, I put the pork into a dish aside.  I cut up a block of firm tofu into thin strips and threw that into the wok with, what????  Olive oil, what else?!?!  I added tamari, brown sugar, 1 clove of crushed garlic, and some honey.
After that cooked awhile, I took it off and put that in a dish.  I wok-ed some onions, red pepper, and julianned zuchinni.
Then I put it all together, added more soy sauce, a touch more of honey, a half bag of cole slaw mix, and a half bag of broccoli slaw mix.

It was SO good!  I would totally order it at a restaurant.  TRY IT!!!!!!!!!!  It took only 20 minutes to make too.
Here's to a great supper again tonight.
Good thing, because there's naked kids running around who all just got out of the tub and they're loud and it's messy in here.  One thing has to go right for the evening.
How about this?  BED TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sweet dreams, my readers.  I'm going to put the kids in bed and put my feet up.  Went to a funeral today and I'm pooped!  Brings back all those feelings about Leah again and I'm finding myself shopping on the internet like crazy.  If only I had an extra $50, then I could get school clothes for the kids tonight.  There are TONS of good deals!  Oh well, they have enough.
So instead of shopping, I'm going to watch a show and put my messy head in bed soon thereafter.
TTYL.

turkey dinner

What???  Turkey dinner on a Tuesday night, am I crazy????
I got this big huge turkey for 10.00 at Super One and it wouldn't fit in my freezer, so I put it in the fridge.  At 11am on Tuesday, I popped it in a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Then covered it with some water on the bottom of the roaster and roasted it for the rest of the day at 350 degrees.
I thought I cooked the meat right out of it, but when I opened up the breast meat it was SO juicy!  I've never made a juicy turkey before.
I made mashed potatoes, but didn't take out the mixer, which was my first mistake.  The potatoes were lumpy.  And not enough salt, so they were bland.  Add salt and turkey gravy, you're good to go.
And nothing is better than good old generic Stove Top stuffing.  Mmmm mmmm.  I LOVE quick stuffing, it's to die for!  Who knows, maybe it's the half stick of butter per box?  Could have something to do with it...
For the gravy, I just poured the turkey drippings into a pan with some milk and when it was boiling, added a mixture of cold water and cornstarch.
So it was a pretty good home cooked meal.
Only reason we liked it on an August day was because of the central air in our house.  Oh to be spoiled.

Fish stick tacos

Hey everyone!  What do I make for a super fast supper?  I found a recipe for fish stick tacos and changed it a little to suit my taste.
Bake fish sticks.  You only need like 20 or 22 for a family of two big eaters and 3 little eaters.  While it's baking, core and cucumber and dice it up.  Dice up two tomatoes, chop up about a quarter cup of cilantro, and add salt and pepper to it.  Then in a seperate bowl, mix veggie cream cheese and sour cream, half of each.
To assemble, put into a soft tortilla with the cream cheese mix on the bottom, top with chopped up fish sticks, and the cucumber mixture.
It's so good!  Amazing!  I was interested in the recipe, yet a little scared.  But it's SO good!  My daughter even had 2 whole tacos.
Guys, seriously, this is worth making.  I would even make this for hospitality.  That's something amazing.  And only takes 20 minutes to make!  Wahoo!

marshmallow yumminess

We got all these bags of Lucky Charms...I feel bad eating them because we don't believe in luck.  Really, should I feel bad?  But not bad enough to not eat them.  Mike's been gone for the week, so I haven't been cooking a lot, and I've been catching up on a lot of my cooking shows.  When I want a treat, I eat dry cereal.  When I watch tv, I grab dry cereal.  When I read a book, I  grab dry cereal.  So I've been eating Lucky Charms...like crazy!
Leah used to sit and pick out all of the marshmallows in the morning, and then when Jason would wake up the next morning and pour himself a bowl, he was disheartened to see no marshmallows and only cereal!
Well, I was equally appalled at this.  You can't eat just the marshmallows out, just as much as you can't eat only the center out of a cookie or the middle out of a sandwich.  You have to eat it all to enjoy the best parts.

I guess I'm over that.  I'm obsessively only eating marshmallows out the cereal bags!  What is the world coming to????  So I guess I'm having marshmallows for all meals now.  Piles and piles of delicious bright colored shaped marshmallows.  At this very time there is nothing greater.  Now if only Leah was here to see me breaking my rules.......

Pulled Pork

We went to the beach for the evening and instead of grilling decided to bring pulled pork for sandwiches.  I brought it in a crockpot.  It worked really well!  So I couldn't figure out where my recipe was, so I looked one up on the food network.  Tyler Florence, or whatever his name is.  But I tasted it when it was done and it was icky.  Tasteless and fatty and gross!
So I drained out the fat and added worcestershire, garlic, hot and spicy mustard, peach salad dressing, brown sugar, ketchup, bbq sauce, salt, and pepper.
It was pretty good, although my sister in law has a blog and she has a root beer pulled pork recipe on her site.  I think that's the way to go, I've heard it's delicious!  So next time.
But it was a great night at the beach.  The girls swam for hours, we got to visit with my parents and Mike's parents and our brother and sister.  It was fun.  Relaxing.
Plus the beach is beautiful by us.  Especially on Sunday when we went.  The lake was perfect, the playground is right there, there are picnic tables, grills, trees, grass, sand, and lots of rocks for the baby to throw into the lake.  And no icky fishes and weeds!
So the end of the long weekend...but a good end.

Ribs

I decided to make ribs for supper.  Something ALL husbands are in agreement on-as the best supper in the whole wide world.  Well, I bought this bbq sauce to try, and it was horrible!  So I made my own.  Trouble is, I put way too much cumin in it and they tasted like chili ribs.
Umph.
Mike liked them anyhow, and we ate them with fried yukon gold potatoes and corn.  Who doesn't like corn?  FYI-yukon gold potatoes are delishus!

Pizza Burgers

We went to the beach today and grilled up some pizza burgers.  Dice up peperonni, half of an onion, parsley, and 2 pounds of ground beef.  Add salt and pepper, (most cookbooks say "to taste" but here's the thing...how do you taste ground hamburger that's raw?  Gross!  Ewww!  Can we say Ecoli?!?!)
Grill em up and put smoked provolone on the top to melt.  Then grab a chewy bun and spread a good amount of pizza sauce on it and put the burger on that.
Great burger!
I asked my husband which one was his favorite so far...he said the Pablano Pepper burger and the Quesadilla burger.  But my little Lucy gobbled hers right up.
Gotta go clean and pack us up, we're going out of town tomorrow!  Yikes!
The great thing about this burger is this though: you can put WHATEVER you like in your pizza into it, it would even be delish as a sausage burger with mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc.  Or you could do a thin ground beef burger with shaved ham and some grilled pineapple rings.  Put some bbq sauce on the bun.  I think I'll do that one soon.  Sounds divine!
Me and Miley Cyrus are going to clean to Party in the USA.

Boneless pork chops with plum sauce

We had pork chops, as the title of this blog shows...
Dredge the thawed pork chops in a mix of water, wine, ginger, and cornstarch.
Fry it in your fry pan
The plum sauce was a mix of red wine, rice wine vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and plums.
We ate homemade mac n cheese with it, but I used all wheat noodles, which was a little wierd.
Hey, the kids ate it and got more grains in them.  FIBER!
The sauce was completely delicious, but we needed more of it, and the pork chops were a little boring.  Maybe if they were fried and then baked with the sauce over them?  Next time.
My husband thought this one was a huge success...then again, he thinks anything pork chops is a huge success, even if they're so dry they taste like jerkey and just to get them down you have to douse them in bbq sauce.

Lasagna Burgers

Here's the latest and greatest of burgers:
Lasagna Burgers!
Take a mix of ground beef and pork and mix it up with salt and pepper, make patties, and pop in the oven at 350.  I would grill them, but our grill's burners are shot and we can't grill anymore this year.  :-(((((
Then saute a diced up onion in olive oil, add fresh crushed garlic, and cook until soft.  Add a can of italian stewed tomatoes and break those up with a spatula.  Then tear up a bunch of sweet basil and add that.  Don't forget salt and pepper.  In a seperate saucepan, put a blop of butter, when melted add flour.  Make a roux.  Is that how you spell it?
(Sounds like ROO).
Add half a container of ricotta cheese and a handful of fresh parmesan with a little salt and pepper.  And nutmeg if you like that flavor in there.
Cut a loaf of italian bread the long way, like you're butterflying it.  Pile the red sauce on the bottom side, the hamburger patties all over the loaf, and spoon the cheese mix over the burgers.  Add the top, and slice it all up for yummy delicious and messy burgers!
We had a salad and some watermelon and strawberries with it.  The burger is cheesy goodness, so it needs a light side.  But it was delicous and we'll certainly make it again!  Another successful burger at the Stute household.

Johnsonville turkey brats

I haven't been cooking much because we were away at convention.  But after we got back, we all went to the beach for grilling and swimming.  We picked up some marinated chicken breasts from Super One-butter garlic.  Threw those on, and also some cheddar turkey brats and pepperjack turkey brats.  They only have between 4.5-6 grams of fat...and people-they're good!  I dunked them in mustard and ate each bite with a pickle.  Strange.  But I bought Vlasic stackers oval pickles and they're good and crunchy.
I know what you're thinking...pickles.  Just because I ate pickles does NOT mean that I'm carrying a baby!!!  Stop thinking that!!!!!!!!!  It's not true!!!!!!
Anyhow, they're good.  And they don't hurt my tummy as bad as a regular old polish does. 
They're at Walmart.  For $2.50 per package right now... go get em!

Pepperjack cheese chicken and succotash

Something new!  Chicken stuffed with shredded pepperjack cheese and chopped up arugula.  Then sauteed lima beans and corn with chopped up black tomatoes (it's a cool new tomato our supermarket has been selling.  Delishus too!)  Then a splash of lime juice, salt, and pepper.  And don't forget to salt and pepper the chicken and add cajun seasoning before grilling.
So good, and so good for you!
Bring on the grillin' guys!

Burger number 5

So last night we had a pablano pepper burger.  I mixed the ground beef with "what's that there?" sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper (my old standby's for burger flavoring)  Then I put the oven on 450 and put garlic heads, quartered onions, and halved tomatoes on a foil lined baking sheet and charred them.  Then chopped it all up together in a bowl with salt and pepper.  When you make the burgers, push down the middle so there's an indent.  When they're almost finished, put the tomato stuff ontop with a slice of muenster cheese and some roasted pablano peppers.  YUM!

My favorite is still the quesadilla burger...however, this one was DIVINE!  And I made rice with tomatoes, roasted garlic, red onion, avacados, and black olives.  Throw in some lime juice too.
Delish!

Grilled chicken taco pizza

Has anyone ever had grilled pizza before?  It's to die for!!!!
Grilling +Pizza=Love at first sight

Anyway, I have the worst time with pizza dough.  It makes me want to say bad words.  So I find it better to bake it until it's almost done and then put it on the grill so you can have that yummy grill flavor.  Or, a fancier version...that grill "flavour"!
So I took chicken breasts and coated them in a homemade taco seasoning.  Then let it sit while you dice up avacados and red onion.  Then add lime juice (it helps the avacado not turn brown, and it tastes delish to boot!)
Then grill the chicken.  Oh yeah, I pounded out the chicken really thin so it would grill more quickly.  Then chop up the chicken.  Put cheese on the grilled dough, the chicken, the avacado mix, fresh salsa, and cilantro.  You can add sour cream if you LOVE sour cream and can't get enough of it, like my little sister does.  She can eat like 5 tubs of sour cream in one week!  It's crazy!  Almost like my little ones and ranch....
The pizzas were delightful and fresh.  A little dry though, so my husband and I decided maybe we'd add some taco sauce next time...or mix sour cream and salsa or taco sauce and spread it on like a pizza sauce.  Just so it's not so dry.  But very healthful.  And very good.

veggie supper

Tonight I had a lot of help from my girls with supper.  We had zucchinnis and yellow squash and used a potato peeler to peel them so they looked like wide noodles.  Then we put them in a strainer and rinsed with cold water.  Then added some salt and let it sit there for about 45 minutes, stirring it every once in awhile.  (that gets the water out of the vegetable)
I blanched 5 tomatoes, and while that was going, I cooked some ground chicken with olive oil, lots of garlic, oregano, parsley, and tons of basil.  Salt and pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. 
When the tomatoes were done, we added them to the chicken mix and chopped them up with a spatula.  After it was heated up, we put that ontop of the squash noodles.  I served it with a mixed baby green salad with bacon bits and cheddar cheese.
MMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I loved it!
Oh yeah, I made a side of noodles for the girls in case they didn't want the squash noodles.  And I gave Mike the squash mixed with noodles.
What a fantastic healthy and yummy supper!!!!

Regular old bacon cheeseburger

We had burgers last night.  I mixed up hamburger with this Famous Daves steak and burger seasoning, garlic, pepper, salt, onion powder, and soy sauce.  Soy sauce...wierd sounding, but so good!  I cooked them on a piping hot new grill, which immediately burnt the burgers...but they could be saved!  Then had colby-jack cheese melted ontop and thick cut bacon with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup.  And mustard.  Darn!  I forgot the fried onions!  That would have been divine.
My baby gobbled them up.  I also had one for lunch today without a bun, since I'm trying to cut down on the bread cuz I get so gassy.  Yes everyone, even I, Sarah, FART....let's get real.  You know they're good if you can eat them without a bun.
But I was missing my hunny.  He went home and I'm on vacation at my brother in laws house.  With his wifee-in-law.  I'm going to have to think up another fabulous burger next week!  Hmmm, what should it be?

Cobb Burger

So I started my "burger a week"...last night we had a Cobb burger.
First fried up onions and garlic and put that into hamburger.  Then added salt and pepper and thyme.  Made skinny patties, put blue cheese on half of them, and covered them with the leftover patties.  Then grilled them.
We had them with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and this green ranch sauce.
For the ranch sauce, you take an avacado, lemon juice, milk, sour cream, salt, pepper, and garlic and food process it.
Delishus!  Still, not my favorite burger.  I love the quesadilla burger.  And my sister made fabulous blue cheese burgers that were to die for!

breakfast for dinner

Mike and I have been trying to eat healthier, so I bought some turkey bacon.  The best?  No, but okay still, and it hits the spot.  We had french toast with bacon last night, and some mandarin oranges and fresh pineapples and cottege cheese.  I made our french toast out of the Ezekiel 4:9 bread.  My favorite is the sesame.  Mmmm!  Delicous!  And, I was full after only 2 pieces!  With the white bread, I can eat like 5 pieces!
For a snack before bed, he had some popcorn and I had some cheese and apples with peanut butter.  One healthy day down, the rest of my life to go...
Good thing I love healthy food.  It just costs a fortune.  $4.50 for a loaf of bread?!?!  Ridiculous!

Here's my proposal:
I'm going to make a different kind of burger every week of the summer and see what my favorite burger is. I love burgers, so I'm going to give it a try, and I've been SO excited about the results so far with my inventions of burgers.
So here it is, a burger this week.  It will be a pablano pepper burger with cheese on Kaiser rolls.
I'll let you know how it goes.

steaks

My sister took my grocery shopping and bought me these top sirloin steaks that were crusted with a smoky paprika garlic crust.  I needed another quick supper, so I whipped up a salad, steamed some asparagus, cut up a watermelon, and grilled the steak for way less time than I thought would be needed...on my stovetop grill pan.  I let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes before serving it, and what do you know:  No supper left on anyone's plates!
The asparagus was mushy though, I got a little overconfident since it's been a long time since I've messed that up, so I forgot about it, thinking it was no big deal.  What did we have?  Green asparagus mush that tasted like we were eating dirt pudding.
Oh well, it was healthy, and I guess I like the taste of dirt.
Divine!  And super fast!

Be open minded for this one!

There's this fabulous thing that my dad's cousin showed us how to make.  Then I went over to Jason and Patti's and when I was there, she made it for me.
Try this:  even if you don't like sauerkraut
Fry up 2 chopped up onions in butter.  Then add a can of drained sauerkraut.  Fry it for a long time, it sweetens up and the sauerkraut isn't so pungeant.
Then take the mixture out and set aside.  In the fry pan, put more butter and let it melt.  When the pan is good and hot, add a layer of cooked noodles.  Cook the crap out of them, so they get browned and chewy. When that's done, add the mixture back into the pan with the noodles and put in a pint of cottege cheese.  Let that warm up, add salt and pepper...
Seriously, you will never go back to hating sauerkraut.  The dimensions of the dish are amazing.
Try it!  Once you start eating, you won't be able to stop.  Trust me.  It's THAT good!

Spinach or Spinage?

We've been having this ongoing argument with some friends of ours.  Is it spinach or spinage?  I know it's spelled spinach, but they INSIST it's pronounced "spinage".  What do you think?
I made roasted garlic creamed spinach.  Mmmmmmm!  Divine!  I want it every day of my life.
I but the top off the garlic head and drizzled olive oil all over it and wrapped it in foil, and baked at 450 for about 45 minutes.  Then I took the garlic out and squished it out of every clove into a food processor.  Blended it with cream and milk, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.  Then put olive oil in a pan and heated it up, added some diced onions, added more garlic, and cooked it.  Then added the spinach, warmed that up, and added the cream sauce.
I am SO in love with spinach!  Or spin----age?  Which one is it?

Orangy pork-wiches

So I decided to do a spin on french dips tonight.  I have this huge pork loin I bought awhile ago and wanted to use that.  So I roasted half the loin after coating it with salt and pepper.  Meanwhile, I made an au jus with chicken broth, sliced oranges, thyme, rosemary, parsley, onions, and garlic.  Put the meat in a bun and top with a mixture of orange zest, rosemary, thyme, and parsley.  Delishus!  And by the way, I got the recipe from Rachael Ray again.  It was so good and so different than usual!  Mom made "party in your mouth" potatoes to go with the sandwiches.  Cubed potatoes, crm of chicken soup, sour cream, cheese, and butter.  Except she did something I never have done...she puts crushed Lays potato chips ontop and bakes it.  Original plain chips.  And drizzles butter over the top. 
Could it get any better???????? 
Such a fresh summery meal.

Mexi burgers

So....we had the most divine supper last night!  Corn on the cob and watermelon.  And burgers on the grill!  That's right people, on the grill.  Nothing beats the grill, and nothing says summer more than our supper!  So for the burgers, we mixed them with onions, green onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and cilantro. 
To assemble the burgers, you put it on a grilled tortilla with pico de gallo and guacamole.  And sour cream if that's what you like.  It's a little too mushy for me then.  Oh yeah, and we topped the burgers with cheddar cheese.
I ate 2 of them!  That's how good they were!
Horrible gas though.  Garlic and onions...
Horrible gas.

Granny burgers

I went "big" grocery shopping and had this package of hamburger that was ready to be used...or thrown in a couple of days.
SO, I went to my favorite website, Rachaelray.com

We had salisbury steak.  Really, WHO in their right mind cooks salisbury steaks besides old grandmas, and they always add canned peas into the rice for some reason.  I guess I do.  My mom loves salisbury steaks, and I think I follow that trait.  I even like the banquet tv dinner ones...that is, until I bit hard on something that resembled bone.
Back to business....so I took 2 lb of beef, put saltines, an egg, salt, pepper, 2T of grated onion and juices and worcestershire (commonly referred to as "What's That There?!?!" sauce)  I molded them into oval shaped patties.
Molded-see...molding something while cooking is never a good sounding word.  It's like those pressed ribs they serve at school.  Those are molded. 
I did mold the patties, put them on a cookie sheet, drizzled olive oil over them, and cooked them at 375 for 20 minutes.  I also threw some rice in the microwave...uncle ben's rice.  It's the best.  Expensive, but worth the money.
Then I chopped 2 whole onions up, put them in butter on the stovetop, in a pan of course.  Let that cook down with salt and pepper and a bay leaf.  Then added 3 cloves of garlic and italian seasoning.  Then added 1 and 1/2 c of  beef broth and 2 T of "What's that there??!" sauce.  More pepper, and some cornstarch and water to thicken it. 
The girls thought it was too spicey. 
Mike loved it but didn't really say much because he's got this horrid cold.  He doesn't talk when he has a cold.  I loved it though.  I'll make it for you someday.  Request it.  Moldable meat.
My oldest daughter is riding her bike as fast as she can down the driveway with our middle daughter pushing our baby in her stroller as fast as she can, chasing the oldest girl.  Oh yeah, and they're all in robes and slippers.  I better put a stop to that.  Someone's gonna lose an eye.

chicken burrrrrrrrritos!

I had to make supper quickly last night because Mike got home and I was still spiffying up the house and putting groceries away.  It was my big grocery shopping day for the month, and after almost $300, our fridge still doesn't look full!  What's up with the grocery prices?  However, by previewing the shopping ads and using coupons, I  saved almost $80.  Hooray!
So, I cut up some chicken, cooked it, and put salsa verde in the pan with it.  Stirred it.  Then I made a salad of corn, black beans, avacados, orange peppers, green onions, and cilantro with salt and pepper.  We ate the chicken and salad in tortillas.  Yum!  And healthy too.
I picked up some new Tostitos chips-Hint of Pepperjack.  They're pretty good.  Not overpowering.  Delicious with salsa.  You should try them!  By the way, Tostitos are on sale EVERYWHERE right now.  Go pick up a bag!
The kids ate cheese quesadillas.  What a suprise.

Nacho Nacho Man!

We needed a quick supper tonight because it's meeting night, so I made NACHOS!  Who doesn't LOVE nachos? 
A pound of ground beef cooked up with chili powder, salt, pepper, and taco sauce.  Chips on a pizza stone, put the meat ontop, cheese, olives, salsa, pop it in the oven, and put sour cream and shredded lettuce on the top. 
There it is, folks.
Oh, and I haven't cooked lately because we had the CO and circuit assembly...and Ivy had the stomach flu for a few days.  I don't really cook when someone is sick.  We eat light things like toast and cereal.  In case we get it.  But I think we're home free!

Powder Soup

I had to make supper quickly tonight because we were going in service after Mike got home from work.  So while browsing in our little supermarket called "Ole's", I ran across a bag of powdered soup-flavor?  Creamy Wild Rice.  The brand was Shore Lunch.  Mom said she tried it recently and liked it, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Guys, this soup only takes 20 minutes!  We ate it with flaky Grands biscuits and it was a nice little homey supper.  Mike has a cold, so he enjoyed the warmth, and it went down easy.  The kids loved it.  The baby loved it. 
We also did not end up going in service, by the way.  Some that were going out with us ended up with colds.  Mike too.  Gotta recover from assembly!

Don't knock the powdered soup.  It's totally worth it.

Peas N Pasta

I could not, for the life of me, remember why on Earth I bought so many fresh herbs at the grocery store last!  But I knew I had to find out because I didn't want them to go bad.  Then I found it...a pasta dish with parmesan cheese, fresh herb pesto, bacon, and sweet peas.
So, I put together the pesto, which consisted of olive oil, garlic, tarragon, parsley, and mint leaves.  It also needed pine nuts, but I ended up forgetting to get those, and all I had was walnuts, which I added.  Blend it up. 
Then I cooked the pasta.  While the pasta was cooking, I put butter into a pan with 2 big shallots.  That's right, shallots.  I love them too much.  They have such a great flavor!  I used to think that people used them to seem fancy, but that's actually not the case.  They DO have a purpose!  Then you add bacon, then peas.  Then white wine, salt, pepper, and cream.  When the pasta is done, put it in the sauce, mix it up, add the pesto, then some fresh grated parmesan cheese, and WALLA!
I don't know how to spell that.  You get the point.
Oh, and I thought my hubby would appreciate extra meat, so I sauteed him up a pan of morrocan flavored shrimp.  I got this morrocan rub from Pampered Chef.  I have no idea if it was good, I can't even smell shrimp.  I think it's gross.  But the honey liked it! 
I think almonds would have been much better than walnuts.  My husband loves walnuts, so he LOVED it!

Sandwich heaven...

Tonight we had pork sandwiches.  I started by cooking country style pork ribs on 350 for a few hours.  I pulled them out when they were falling apart.  Oh, and I put salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil all over them and put about a half cup of water in the pan so they didn't dry out.
Then I put water, olive oil, sugar, and a little bit of vinegar in a pan and put sauteed shallots in there.  I cut up some strawberries and added that to the pan and let it cook down.  We poured the strawberry concoction ontop of the ribs that I had shredded, along with toasted hoagie rolls, arugula, and swiss cheese.  So delicous!  I was swimming in the meat and strawberries.  It tasted great together!
I also made quinoa for a side dish, and I wanted to make rice and beans, but thought it might be more healthy to have quinoa insteaed, so I cooked the quinoa, rinsed it, cooked some garlic in olive oil, added cumin, thyme, oregano, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of rinsed black beans, and some onions in there and added the quinoa to that.  Right at the end, I doused it in cilantro.  Mmmm!!!  It was like a tasty taco!  There was so much flavor...I think I know what happened last time we had quinoa, I didn't rinse it before I cooked it, and we didn't rinse it after, so it was too thick, and it seemed like no matter what we did to make it not so sticky, it just got stickier and thicker.  Ewwww!
We also had canteloupe, and much to my happiness, we ran out of ranch dressing, so I didn't have to sit at the table and watch my pretty little girls dunk their fruit into ranch dressing.  They LOVE canteloupe with ranch.  How horrid!
And we drank cherry Kool-Aid.  Come on, who doesn't like cherry kool-aid?!?!  It was the best part of my meal.
If ever I am worried that someone won't like my meal, at least we have the option of cherry kool-aid to wash it down, so the last taste is delightful.

Salt, Salt, and more Salt

We had company yesterday, so Liz and I decided to make pounded out chicken rolled up with salt, pepper, nutmeg, ricotta, spinach, and proscuitto.  We WAY oversalted the little cute chicken bundles!  We made them with this mushroom marsala sauce, thanks to Rachael Ray.  And then we made some quinoa with garlic, fresh thyme, salt, pepper, zucchini, green onions, and shallots. 
For some reason, the quinoa came out quite tasteless even though I toasted it before cooking it.  And it was sticky.  Super sticky.  And thick.  I need to work on my quinoa making skills.  Still delicious though.
And the chicken was too salty.  With the mushroom marsala sauce, it was almost inedible.  The sauce was unbearably salty.  I cooked the mushrooms just perfect, because they weren't slimy and soft, they were still firm in the middle, which is a must when cooking mushrooms.  So that was on the plus side.  The chicken had good flavor, but I must be careful next time to not put in too much proscuitto.  It's so salty!
So...we had salt for supper.  What did you have?

Fried Failure

I didn't have much time to make supper last night because my sister came over and we painted the girl's bedroom...then I had to clean my super messy pig-sty of a house.  So I pulled out the pollock, thinking, "fish is fast."  But I decided to make a beer batter and fry it in my deep fryer.  Quick?  Wrong. 
The fish wouldn't separate.  It was stuck in this giant clump of ice.  After prying it apart so I head shreds of fish dried off enough, I battered them and put them in the fryer.  I didn't have paper towel to drain them, so I thought I was being a genius and put them on a paper bag. 
Friends, paper bags do not work as well as paper towels.  There is no contest.
Then I made green beans, but I wanted to make them yummy, so I put some sliced almonds in my wok...and burnt them.  So bad.  I redid it, but only had about a tablespoon of slivered almonds for a whole bag of beans.  I added a citrus basil herb I have from pampered chef, and they turned out pretty good.  Not enough almonds though.  We also had princess shaped mac n cheese.  Yes, princess shaped.  Shoes, crowns, pumpkins, and castles.  And shaped noodles are far to dense to make them into mac n cheese.  Maybe I'll use them for soup.  Princess soup.  What little girl wouldn't fall over and be in heaven?!?!
The fish was WAY too greasy and didn't have enough salt.  My husband had horrible heartburn all night. 
I think I'll retire with the fried fish.
I'll save that for camping. 

Green Goodness

I went in service all day yesterday, so I woke up with the intent of making myself a yummy salad to entice myself to hold off on the heavy junky food so I could feel the greatness of veggies.  I always feel great after a salad, therefore I eat at least two salads every single day.  I'm actually rather obsessed with salad.
I get the Rachael Ray Everyday magazine, and in this month's issue, there was a recipe for a strawberry spinach salad.  I thought I would be able to whip it up in no time, but I had to start by making the strawberry vinagrette from scratch.  It included:  strawberries, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, olive oil, and shallots.  After that, I sauteed a chicken breast after taking all the "wierds" off of it.  I took the chicken out of the pan when it was done and added cut up strawberries, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper to the pan, getting all the chicken drippings on the strawberries as well.  The greens I had were baby spinach leaves, which I LOVE!  I love all different greens, and have only recently discovered how lovely and delicate each variety tastes.  Arugula is fantastic, especially on sandwiches, and a butter blend salad is good with cucumbers and tomatoes.  I mix butter lettuce and iceberg because only butter lettuce makes for a very soft salad.  I need that crunchy aspect.
So...as for assembling the salad, First it's baby spinach.  Then crumbled chevre goat cheese, which is very creamy.  I thought it would be a hard crumble like feta, but when I ate it, it was very creamy in the salad, and cut some of the acidity of the strawberries.
Back to the salad...then chicken, strawberries, and vinagrette.
TRY IT!!!!!  It takes salads to a whole new world!!!
And a person can never have too many greens.  They're just so delightful.

Hola!

Hispanic food...We had chicken tacos tonight.  If I would have known it would be so smokey, I would definately have NOT made it on a meeting night.  I heated up my grill pan and while that was warming, I cut some cabbage and put lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper in it.  Then I put green onions on the grill with salt and pepper and oil.  After those were grilled, I put the chicken on.  I used chicken breasts that had garlic lemon seasoning...they were on sale.  So I grilled those up.  I cooked up some bacon during all of this chaos and crumbled it in with the sliced chicken.  Then I threw some granny smith apples that were cut up in matchstick pieces and added them to the cabbage and sliced green onions.  Added some more lemon juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  I bought some queso fresco and we had that crumbled over the tacos.  Oh, and I grilled the tortillas, which gave them this scrumptious smokey flavor.
The tacos were AWESOME and I will totally make them again.  Delicious...and healthy too!  We feasted until we could feast no more.  That's a lie.  I feasted until I had to run into the bedroom to change my clothes for meeting because supper took longer than expected, and we had only 15 minutes to get our butts out the door to meeting!  Complete chaos.  With happy tummies.

I need a drink!

We had company last night and I had NO food, but after searching in the depths of my chest freezer in the garage, I found 3 pounds of hamburger and 2 pounds of bacon!  Yipee!
So, I made burgers, but added thyme, salt, pepper, and bits of salami.  Then baked them and topped them with bacon.
I also made coleslaw but mixed in crushed pineapple.  It was wierd, it tasted like that fluffy stuff old ladies always make and bring to get togethers.
However, I baked the crap out of the burgers.  So they were HORRIBLY dry!  Let this be a lesson:
it IS possible to overcook hamburgers.
We ate our dry hamburgers with french fries and coleslaw.
And had lots of juice to wash it down.

A WOK

I got this new fabulous Wok from Ikea, so I decided to put it to use right away.  I tenderized some round steak with my new wonderfully fancy meat mallot from Pampered Chef.  I wok-d that until it was almost done, then put it in a bowl to the side.  Then I did some frozen stir fry veggies.  I put those in the bowl with the meat when they were done.  Then I had this bag of homemade fettucinne noodles that I cooked until almost done, and I used olive oil, sesame oil, fresh garlic, soy sauce, and sugar.  I wok-d the noodles and combined it all.  It took under 15 minutes for my entire meal to be finished, and when I served it to the family, my oldest girl Lucy said, "mommy!  I LOVE this supper!  It's my favorite!"
I guess they like the veggies...but I think it has a lot more to do with the noodles.

Fruit N Meat

We had pork chops last night.  I had a third of this huge pork loin that I had frozen, and I thawed it and cut it into 5 big thick pork chops.  I threw them in a frying pan with olive oil, after rubbing sea salt and pepper all over them and let them brown on both sides.  When they were cooked through, I put mustard and syrup together and poured it over them to coat them in this delicious sweet glaze.
For a sauce, I sauteed cut up granny smith apples and raisins with brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and cinnamon.  Everyone out there-Gross.  I think the apples were too tart!  And the vinegar was disgusting.  Even after I kept adding sugar, it continued to be full of vinegar flavor!
I also made some whole wheat mac n cheese, and I gotta say-the regular old not so good for you noodles are much better.  But I added crispy bacon ontop, which made it completely edible.  Bacon fixes all!
The pork chops had excellent flavor, but were dry because I cooked them way too long, and the apple sauce was disgusting.  The mac n cheese wasn't great, but the kids loved it...and I enjoyed picking out every last bit of bacon.
I'll do the chops again...just not the rest.  I think I may actually despise apple cider vinegar.  I've never made a recipe with it that I liked.  Could it be???

A little fried

Tonight we got home from a party right AT supper time, and we didn't really eat a lot at the party, just a ton of this delicious chocolate cake with raspberry cream filling that melted in your mouth.
So I cooked up some chicken patties.  That was number 1.
Second, I took cheese and chicken ravioli, thawed it, dredged it in milk and egg, and coated it with bread crumbs, salt, pepper, basil, and parsley.  Then I fried them in olive oil.
To serve them, I put them on a plate with cheese sprinkled over them and hot marinara sauce.
YUM!  The chicken patties....a sad excuse for a supper.
The fried ravioli...also a sad excuse for supper.
But divine for an appetizer.
So I propose this-----
next time I have people over for supper, I will first start with fried ravioli.  Then venture on to some other fantastic rich pasta, followed by some rum cake or another delightful treat, while indulging in a glass of white zinfandel.
Perfecto!

Strom-boli-boli-oh!

I made strombolis last night for supper.  The girls wanted a salami and cheese one, and I made Mike and I a salami, ham, yellow pepper, onion, cheese one.  I also made this homemade marinara, which I've never made before.  Here's how you make it:
Pour some olive oil in a hot skillet.  Put a bunch of fresh pressed garlic in there.  Saute it and add a little bit of anchovy paste.  That's right...anchovy paste.  Saute that.  Then add red pepper flakes, a can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, parsley, and basil.  Let it simmer down.  Squish the tomatoes with a potato masher.  Keep cooking it until it isn't so thin.
We ate it with fresh steamed broccoli, cantaloupe, and a salad with baby greens, yellow peppers, and avocados.
Delightful!  Lucy even brought a piece of the stromboli to school for lunch, she liked it so much.  She was eating 20 minutes after we were all done!  
And yet, to another success in the Stute household.
Now for a sip of wine after a long hard working day of cleaning and cooking...

Fajitas

So we're at Jason and Patti's again.  It was Henry's first talk.  Patti made these fabulous fajitas!  She marinated them in soy sauce and pineapple juice all day.  The meat was flank steak.  I have never had success with flank steak, but Mmmmm, this is my new use for it!  She also cooked the tortilla shells on an iron pan.  YUM, I'm going to do that from now on. 
Key ingredient: soy sauce, CHECK.  pineapple juice, CHECK.  spicy mustard, CHECK.  garlic, CHECK.  You also can never have too much garlic.
Bye for now!
Hamburgers tonight!

Chinese

I made chinese noodles tonight with cabbage, green onions, and regular onions and stir fry sauce.  I also bought two of those packets of honey sesame chicken where you add cornstarch, water, oil, and soy sauce. The chicken was SO good.  It was literally like having a dessert because it was so carmelized!  I highly recommend those little packets.  They're so worth it!
Plus I don't feel as thirsty and dry as I usually do after Chinese food.  Delightful, I think I'll make it more.  The bad news is...the chicken was too spicy for the little ones, so they feasted on Lunchables.  Hey, nobody said I'm perfect.  I'm just a REAL mom.  Lunchables rock!

Ahhh, simplicity

I went for an easy meal tonight because I haven't felt much like cooking.  I went in to see my doctor last week and it turns out I have influenza.  That equals-tired.
So I put a roast in the oven at 350 with a whole big onion roughly chopped up, 3 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, basil, and rosemary.  Oh yeah, some big splashes of worcestershire (known as "what's that there?" sauce).  I baked it for forever, then turned it down to 250.  We shredded it and had it on squishy chewy hoagie buns and moz. chz melted over the top.
It was good.  Not divine, but good.  Something hot in our stomachs.
I'm going to go lay down again.  I'm TIRED!!!

A rack of ribs

My mom and dad came over for supper a couple of nights ago and we wanted to have these baby back ribs with them...we wanted to bbq and grill them, but I wasn't sure how.  So I chanced it!  There were two full racks.  I boiled them for 15 minutes, drained most of the water out, covered them, and put them in a 250 oven for about a half hour.  Then I started the grill up.  It smelled so great...it's been such a long winter!  Grilling in the air makes everyone's hearts leap for joy!  I put the grill on the lowest setting and put the ribs on, checking them every 15-20 minutes.  After about an hour, I basted them with bbq sauce and kept doing that for about another hour or so, every 10-15 minutes, flipping them of course so they didn't burn.
OMG!
I can't believe that I just said that, but OMG!
There is no other way to describe it.  SO good!  The meat just came right off the bones, and we ate them with garlicky smashed red and yellow potatoes...and a salad so it didn't hit our tummies like a brick.
I can't wait for summer.  Grilling is coming, baby, and I'm going to conquer it with a vengeance!!!!!

Buttery Goodness

I went to my brother and sister in law's house for a couple of days and I made Spicy Chicken Alfredo.  SO good!  Except there wasn't as much cream as I needed, so I added milk, which made it less rich.  To make it better, I added a stick of butter...good thing I hardly ever eat it!
Usually I only use Parmesan Reggiano cheese, but I also added romano, which made it SO creamy!  And dreamy!  Patti served spinach with butter and salt, and in my bowl, I added it to the pasta, which was delightful.  Did I mention that she is italian?  She also bought homemade long egg noodles, which were superb!  I don't know if I can go back to the Creamette brand again!  I was going on and on about bruchetta and how I love it so, and she made some to go ontop of warm ciabatta bread.
A meal to die for, and a meal I can only eat twice a year because it hurts my lactose intolerant tummy.  But so worth it.  Every bite tasted like dream dancing in my mouth.
Here's to another success...
Chicken alfredo with spinach and bruchetta

Mc Yummy!

I realize this whole blog is about good...and bad...cooking.  But it's also for busy normal mamas.  I had one of my neices and 2 of my nephews and $6.  What do you do with $6?  Apparantly a lot at McDonalds!  I got each child an ice cream cone, which I specifically asked them to make it half the size they normally would.  Apparantly a normal size cone is pretty colossal!  Then I got 2 McDoubles and 2 apple pies.  Everyone was satisfied, and I left the restaurant with .25 cents in my pocket.  Score! 
Sometimes there's nothing better than a quick trip through the drive thru window.  Mommy's gotta love it.  "I'm lovin' it!"

Nothing better than bacon

We had this huge pork loin we bought from the grocery store in Minong, WI.  A huge ginormous thing...SO, what do we do with pork loin?  Fatten it up, for one thing.  It tends to be dry.  So I rubbed salt, pepper, and rosemary all over it and wrapped it in bacon.  Seriously, there's nothing better than the flavor of bacon.  And pizza.  I LOVE pizza.  Oh, and a good cheeseburger.
Back on subject, I also threw together a rice pilaf where I browned some angel hair that was all broken up in a pan of butter.
Butter-another necessity of cooking.
And then added a mix of jasmine rice and brown rice and a bunch of chicken stock.  Let it simmer for...forever. Just when it seems it will never be done, pull it off the stove after checking to make sure the brown rice isn't like little rocks, and serve it piping hot.  At the bottom of the pan there were these scrumptious little carmelized brown chunks of rice where the butter had browned it so beautifully.  That was where the taste was, and as I ate each bite of rice, I awaited the next piece of wonderful brown salty chewiness.
Mom threw in some buttery flaky Grands! biscuits...who doesn't love those?  And we corn.
And canned peas, my enemy.  For God sake, don't put canned peas on a plate of such exquisite wonderfullness! Oh yeah, I made a gravy of the drippings and added some thyme and milk.
And yet another hit at the dinner table...now it's time for a disaster.  I'm waiting for it.

A bowl of chili

I made my husband's favorite meal last night...chili.  Yes, girls.  Chili.  Last time I planned a romantic evening with him alone without the kids, I tried to get out of him...what would he want me to make out of anything in the whole world.  What would he be the happiest with?  Chili.  Needless to say, I did not make chili that night.  The reasons are clear.  Farts.
So I made chili last night.  He was ecstatic!  I started with a pound of ground beef and a chopped onion, which I cooked to smitherines because I was trying to put my makeup on and tame my mop top at the same time so I didn't look like I did nothing all day when Mike walked in the door.  Then I added a large can of diced tomatoes-petite diced because the texture is all too wonderous.  I also added a can of tomato paste and two cans of water.  Followed by black beans, pinto beans, and chick peas.  I cut up a bunch of celery and thick mushrooms (so Mike could pick them out.  He hates mushrooms.  I, on the other hand, adore mushrooms).  I let it cook a little and added lots of cumin and chili powder, 3 cloves of fresh garlic, a large handful of chocolate/white chocolate swirled chips, and bacon bits.  Not those hard icky bacon bits either, ladies.  The good, real bacon bits.  I dusted some smoked paprika ontop and let it cook down.
Delish!  It had this sort of depth and richness I have never yet experienced with chili.  So....to another successful supper.  And don't forget the cheese.

Soy beans, anybody?

I saw this recipe for "green alien ravioli".  Sounds weird, right?  But cute enough that my interest was peaked and I decided to make it for supper last night.  Here's what you do:  shell a one pound bag of Edamame, saute shallots and onions and throw the beans in the pan.  Put 3/4 of the mix into a food processor and add cream, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and a little bit of water.  Take won ton wrappers, and fill them with the edamame slush.  Pinch the wrappers together and drop into boiling water for 5 minutes.  Then scoop it out of the water.  When you are finished with the ravioli water, put some into the pan with the remaining beans, shallots, and onions.  Add a cup of heavy cream, some parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.  Let it simmer.  It will thicken from the ravioli water, (won ton wrappers have cornstarch in them!)  Add the ravioli and serve immediately.  I thought some ricotta cheese inside the ravioli would have made it a little better, but SCRUMPTIOUS!!!  I overcooked my baked chicken horribly as I was on the telephone with a good friend of mine, and the baby was totally in my way the whole time, so I was busy dealing with her all at the same time.  And my husband was sleeping because he's sick.  Once the sauce was on the chicken, yum.  Try it, you won't be disappointed.  My hubby hates edamame, and he liked it.  He took it to work for lunch.  MMmmmmmm.  MMmmmmmmm.