The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 110
Hello again friends, and welcome back!! Hope you all had a Fantastic Friday!
It was relatively quiet around here for a Friday. William wanted to go shopping after school, you know, had to spend some of that birthday money he got. He bought a Lego toy and two Mega Blocks sets, Ninjago and Halo, and still has a little money left in his pocket. I’m kind of proud of him that he still has money left! Then he wanted to spend the night with a friend, but then they had a fight, so I was out at 10:30 at night picking him up. Guess I’m glad he didn’t try to stick it out, could have gotten nasty, but then again, I kind of wish he had worked harder at sorting it out. Oh well, no worries either way, not that big a deal. Have to keep reminding myself he’s still a kid!
James is spending the weekend with his girlfriend, since it’s so much closer to his job than here, and I don’t have to be out and about at 2:30 in the morning to pick him up. It will be very cool once he has enough money stashed away to get his car on the road and then we won’t have to worry about trading off times for the car, working around each other’s schedules, and he’ll feel like he has more freedom.
Anyway, Mike and I rented a movie on cable, since we thought we were “kidless”, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it was pretty good, but we had to keep stopping and starting around other things. NOT kid friendly, kind of graphic, but good story line, great cast.
Anyway, we also planned a grown up dinner, which was REALLY good! Mike grilled pork steaks for us, they were awesome, and I made baked potatoes, here’s how:
Quick Baked Potatoes
2 large (about 2 pounds each) russet potatoes
Kosher salt
Butter
Sour cream
Bacon bits
Salt and pepper to taste
Wash potatoes, remove any eyes and mushy spots if there are any. Do NOT dry! Place on microwave safe plate, sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt, rubbing into the skin a little, making sure to get all sides. Poke with a fork 4-5 times. Microwave on high, using baked potato setting if you have one, or 7 minutes at a time. I ended up cooking a total of 21 minutes, turning after each 7 minute setting so that the skin didn’t get overly hard on any one side. Remove from microwave. (and since the inside of your microwave will be soaking wet from the steam, this is a great time to wipe it down!)
Cut into bite sized pieces, top with butter, sour cream, bacon bits, salt and pepper. Serve!!
Alternate toppings can include things like broccoli and cheese, shredded cheese, cooked hamburger meat, chili, whatever you like! Baked potatoes are very versatile, and awesome topped with just about anything!!
Hope you enjoy this one, I know we did!
Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 109
Hello again friends, and welcome back! I can’t think of a good word to go with Thursday, so I’ll just say hope you are having a great day!
So, the thought of going back to work is sinking in, getting a little nervous, but a little excited, too. I start Monday, 8AM, and I still have to make concrete plans for William for before and after school. He’s 11 now, and I think he’s grown up enough to stay home by himself for a couple of hours, but there’s that little part of me that says NO WAY! James will most likely be home, so it may not be an issue, but there are just some things up in the air still.
I’ve got plenty of “work clothes”, and most of them still fit, so at least I don’t need to go shopping! Thank goodness since there is no money for that. Of course, my wonderful mother offered to get me clothes if I needed them, but I think I’m set for now. And since I make jewelry, I’ve got something to go with every outfit in my stash!!
Speaking of jewelry, I tried something new today, kind of enjoying it now that I’ve sort of figured it out. I started a bead embroidery piece today, here’s some photos:
This is the point where my shoulder started hurting from bending over the table so long, so I took a break! I’ll do some more tomorrow…
And I sort of cheated on dinner… I bought precooked chicken, potatoes, canned corn, canned gravy and here’s what we ended up with:
Chicken Bowls
1 cooked chicken strip, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup prepared mashed potatoes
1/4 cup prepared chicken gravy
1/2 cup cooked corn
1 slice cheddar cheese, or cheese of your choice, OR 1/4 cup shredded cheese of choice
Layer ingredients in bowl as follows:
Potatoes
Cheese
Chicken
Corn
Gravy
Even though everything is supposed to be warm when you start this, you need to microwave the bowl for about 45 seconds just to make sure the cheese melts well. Then it’s up to you whether or not you mix it all up! I do, but I know people who insist on leaving it layered when they eat it. This is our version of a KFC chicken bowl. Feel free to mix it up, different veggies, different gravy, different cheese, make it your own!
I also picked up some cookies from the Walmart bakery, so I’m off to nibble now.
Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 108
Hello again friends, and welcome back!! Hope you all are having a Wonderful Wednesday! I know I am. 🙂
Today started off relatively quiet…
Mike was out the door before I even got out of bed, as usual. I feel bad about that, but we get to spend the evenings together, and weekends, and his steady job is keeping up afloat!
Got William a good breakfast for yet another day of FCAT testing. He seems really comfortable with the tests this year, not nervous at all like last year, and his teachers have a really good approach, they provide snacks before the test starts each day so the kids get a little extra boost.
James got to sleep in since he didn’t need to be to work until 5PM. He really seems to be liking the new job, I’m glad, but I still wish he had just a little more ambition. Oh well, one of these days…
I had to get ready for my interview at 9AM, no problem. Got there almost 15 minutes early, just sitting around, staring at the lobby, watching the guy working on the ceiling lights, kind of dull. Finally get called in at exactly 9AM, met with two very nice ladies, did the question and answer stuff, talked a little about this blog which was kind of cool. Thought it went well, and they said they would let me know by the end of the day. Spent maybe 20 minutes in the interview, home before 10AM, figured it would be a while, so I decided to try to do some jewelry. Well, it wasn’t even 11:30 when I heard back, they want me! WOO HOO!! Had to go run around, pick up paperwork, get a drug test (passed of course), start on Monday morning! Gotta go back tomorrow, I think, and get a time card so I’m ready for next week!
So, in between running around today, I managed to take William back to Game Stop, since he picked out the wrong game yesterday, and he picked out two more today. Spent about half his birthday money now, can’t believe he still has any, he usually spends it as fast as he gets it! AND, I managed to put together a pretty good meal! Here’s what we had:
Tomato Ranch Chicken
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 large can petite diced tomatoes (plain, not seasoned)
3 Tbsp ranch dressing mix
2 cups water
1 Chicken Flavor Boost packet
Put everything in the crock pot (yes, I know, crock pot again?!), cook on LOW at least 6 hours, 8 is better. Serve each chicken breast individually, with or without tomatoes, depending on what your family likes. We end up with some of each around here.
Whole Wheat Flat Bread
3/4 cup lukewarm (80-90 degrees) water
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 Tsp salt
1 pkg (or 2 Tsp) active dry yeast
Put water, honey and oil in bread machine pan. Add in flour and salt. Tap pan to settle ingredients. Make a well in the center and add the yeast. Lock pan into bread machine. Set machine for DOUGH and press start. When done, turn dough out onto floured surface, dust lightly with additional flour, knead about 1 minute. Allow to rest for 15 minutes. Roll dough out onto pizza pan dusted with corn meal, about 12 inch circle, cover and allow to rise another 20-25 minutes. Bake at 425 degrees 20-25 minutes or until edges are crispy. Let rest 5-10 minutes, then cut into bread sticks or pizza wedges to serve. Serve warm or cold, with a dipping sauce or with a meal.
We also had some leftover veggies with this meal, and salad or fruit salad, depending on what everyone wanted. This was a really good dinner! Sorry I didn’t get any photos for you… tomorrow, promise!
So, until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 107
Hello again friends, and welcome back!! Hope you are having a terrific Tuesday! I know I am!!! 🙂
Started my day getting William a good breakfast so he would be ready for FCAT’s. Two whole weeks of testing, reading, science, math, I feel bad for the kids!!
Then, I went off to an interview with a temp agency, took a typing test (think I came in around 50 WPM, which is actually good for me, I’m NOT a typist!), data entry (no idea what I scored, but her words were “I can see you’ve done data entry before!”), and talked about a job with a company that manages foreclosed homes, doing things like arranging cleaning, arranging yard work, arranging maintenance, etc. Thought it went well, she said she was sending this company my test results and resume, she would let me know… well, about an hour later I get a call, can I come for an interview tomorrow morning! So I guess I look good on paper, now I just have to impress them in person! I just need someone to let me in the door, and let me show what I can do, and I know I can do any job I put my mind to! And this one actually sounds interesting to me! I am SOOO ready for something different.
So, since I spent about an hour yesterday chopping up fruits and veggies, I knew I had to make something good for dinner. BUT, since it’s officially William’s birthday today, and he got cash, he wanted to go shopping first. So off to Game Stop we went, after picking James up from work (so after 5), hit rush hour traffic, hit every light we possibly could, at least there wasn’t a line at the store! He picked a game, ended up being the wrong game, but we can take it back tomorrow, and this time he knows what he wants!
Anyway, got home after 6, no idea what I was making, but I knew I had partially thawed hamburger to work with, so:
Hot Brown and Lumpy (yeah, I’m looking for a better name!)
1 pound hamburger
1 pound noodles of choice, cooked to package directions (I had leftover egg noodles from a couple nights ago)
2 cups water
6 Tbsp brown gravy mix
Brown hamburger, crumbling very well while it’s cooking, drain any excess fat. Return to pan, add water and gravy mix, simmer about 10 minutes or until thickened. Add in cooked noodles, mixing well, simmer just until everything is heated through.
We had broccoli, cauliflower and carrots mixed together as one side dish, peas as a second, fresh salad (lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, green pepper, tomato) and fresh fruit salad (pineapple, papaya, grapes). Everything tasted awesome!!
Enjoy!! Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 106
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope your week is starting out well!!
Monday is supposed to be scout night, but William asked if we could take just this one week off, since his birthday is tomorrow, and I decided that he deserves it, he’s been an awesome kid recently. And to be completely honest, my shoulder/neck is killing me, and I was looking for an excuse!
But, I had a productive day despite my pain in the neck! LOL!! Four loads of laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, made some more new jewelry (maybe sitting hunched over the table working on jewelry is why my neck hurts?!),
and still managed to make a nice dinner. I’ll admit it’s kind of a repeat, but I’m perfecting the recipe, and it was SO much better this time around! And lots of photos, so you can follow along very easily:
Chicken Enchiladas
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 quarts water
1 packet chicken Flavor Boost by Swanson
1/2 cup Tone’s taco seasoning
1 1/2 cups salsa
2 cups salsa
1 x 4 cup package shredded cheese of choice (I used cheddar/monterey jack blend this time)
1 pkg soft flour tortillas, soft taco size (8 tortillas)
Place chicken, water, Flavor Boost and taco seasoning in crock pot, cook on LOW at least 8 hours.
Remove chicken from pot, shred and place in bowl.
Line baking pan with tin foil, spray foil with olive oil cooking spray. Set aside.
Place 1 1/2 cups salsa in blender and LIQUIFY, add to chicken, mix well.
Set out tortillas, place 1/8th of chicken mixture on each one, top with about 1/8 cup shredded cheese, roll and place in pan.
Place 2 cups salsa in blender and LIQUIFY, pour over rolled tortillas in pan, spread with spatula so that they are all covered. Top with all remaining cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is well melted. Serve! You can serve with sour cream if you have it, or drizzle over a little ranch dressing, that’s really yummy!
These go really well with a nice fresh salad, and you can follow with Tres Leche cake if you happen to have time to make one. We just happen to have leftovers, YUM!!!
Hope you enjoy this one, I know we did! Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 105
Hello again friends, and welcome back! I’m sorry to say, but I took another day off…
We spent the day with my folks, celebrating William’s birthday just a little early. He got a cool new Lego set, which he built in less than half an hour of course, but he really enjoyed it! And he still has a card to open on his actual birthday, with cash in it, and he’s saving to buy himself a TV, so I think he’ll be really happy with it! And he usually gets cards with money from two other relatives, so maybe he’ll have enough by the end of the week! I’m jealous!!!
Anyway, this is going to be a really short post, since I have nothing for you tonight… unless, I give you the recipe for William’s favorite birthday cake! I shared it with my mom, who actually made this for us all, and it was AWESOME! Yeah, I’ll give you that!!
Emeril’s Tres Leche Cake
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2002
Ingredients
Cake:
6 large eggs, separated
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream topping:
1 14-ounce can evaporated milk
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream
Icing:
3 tablespoons water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large egg whites
1 ripe mango, peeled, seed removed, and thinly sliced
1 ripe papaya, peeled, seeds removed, and thinly sliced
Directions
To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 by 13-inch baking dish and set aside.
In the bowl of a mixer, beat the egg whites on low speed until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually with the mixer running
and peak to stiff peaks. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after the addition of each.
Sift together the flour and baking powder and add to the egg mixture, alternating with the milk. (Do this quickly so the batter
does not lose volume.) Add the vanilla. Bake until golden, 25 minutes.
To make the cream topping: In a blender, combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream and blend on high
speed. Remove the cake from the oven and while still warm, pour the cream mixture over it. Let sit and cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight.
To make the icing: Once the cake is completely chilled, in a saucepan combine the water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce the
heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Cook until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage, 235 to 240 degrees F. Remove from the
heat. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. While beating, add the hot syrup in a stream. Beat until all the syrup
has been added, the mixture cools, and a glossy icing forms.
To assemble: Remove the cake from the refrigerator and spread the icing evenly across the top. Arrange the mango and
papaya slices over the top and serve.
I don’t have photos, sorry, but this cake is AMAZING!! You’ve got to try it!
And until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 104
Hello again friends, and welcome back!! Hope you all are having a stunning Saturday!!
It’s been a little weird around here today…
I slept in a little, since I didn’t HAVE to get up to take anyone anywhere, but Mike was heading out to the doctor this morning and shocked me awake with the news that our “new” TV died. It was free, from a friend, so I’m not complaining, but dang it was nice having a huge TV instead of what we can actually afford to buy! I’m going to miss it… I can’t read the cable program guide on the smaller TV, so I have to get someone else to read it to me, or get up off my big lazy butt and get close enough to read it!! LOL!
So I got up, played on my computer for a little bit, asked William if we could borrow his TV until we can figure out a way to get a new one, and he agreed without TOO much whining. He’s not happy about using the 15″ (I think!) TV again, but you know what, he’ll live! We got things all moved around, including bringing his XBox into the living room so he can still play games with Mike, which is actually kind of cool.
I got a whopper of a headache, sort of snuck up on me, but I still managed to fold the last load of laundry, made a few new sets of jewelry (sold one already, to my mother of course, my best customer!), I’ll share some pics here in just a bit, took a nap thinking that might help with the headache (not), cleaned up the kitchen, made a nice dinner.
Here’s the jewelry:
And here’s the recipe for dinner:
Sausage Pasta
1 pkg egg noodles, cooked to package directions
1 pkg mild Italian sausage
1 small jar pasta sauce of choice
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Great Value garlic bread, cooked to package directions
Boil sausages about 10 minutes, or until ALMOST done. Remove from water, and slice into rounds. Cook in a large skillet until done through, and well browned (I like mine more crispy, but that’s just my taste!). Reduce heat to low, add in pasta sauce and simmer while pasta is cooking. Drain pasta, serve in a bowl topped with sausage and sauce, plus a little shredded cheese on top. We also had garlic bread on the side!
Wishing for something ooey-gooey for dessert, but not up to making anything, so maybe I can talk Mike into making a run to the store… Hmmmm… I’ll let you know how that goes!
Anyway, hope you all have a great weekend, and until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 103
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you had a Fabulous Friday! I know we did…
Today was James’ last day at the sign spinning job, now he gets to work at Wendy’s full time. I know he’s happy about that, but I still wish he would pick a major and go back to school… I know I can’t talk, I never finished, but at least I tried!
Today we also celebrated William’s birthday “day off”. Normally, in our family, the kids get to take their birthday off from school, and we spend the day together doing whatever they want, within reason of course. Well, William’s birthday is technically next week, but they are having FCAT testing on his birthday, so we compromised by taking today instead. He picked a movie, “Wrath of the Titans”, which was REALLY good by the way. We went to a matinee, just to save a few bucks since money is REALLY tight. Then we went and picked James up from work, and made a stop at Game Stop. William picked out a game (used) that he’s been wanting, so I got it for him as his birthday present, since I hadn’t been able to get one earlier. Of course, there is another game he wants, but he’s going to have to save up his own money. He’ll probably get more from relatives for his birthday, and since it’s used it’s cheaper, he should be able to get it next week.
Anyway, since it’s also Friday, William got to pick dinner. Luckily, we talked about it ahead of time, so I had stuff thawed!! Here’s the recipe of the day:
Chicken Bacon Sandwich
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 pound bacon
1 pkg hamburger buns or sandwich rolls
2 cups flour, divided
1 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned)
1 cup buttermilk
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying
Trim chicken breasts of any leftover skin, and that annoying tendon thingy. Place each breast between two sheets of plastic wrap, and pound with meat mallet (or rolling pin) to about 1/4″ thick. Cut into 3 to 4 pieces, about the size of a frozen chicken patty, or roughly the size of the bun you’re going to use to serve these.
Put one cup flour in a wide shallow bowl.
Put the buttermilk in another wide shallow bowl.
Put the last cup of flour, bread crumbs and salt and pepper in another wide shallow bowl.
Dip each piece of chicken first in the flour, then in the buttermilk, then in the breadcrumb mixture. Place on platter until ready to fry.
Fry each piece of chicken in hot oil in a large skillet, cooking about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Remove to platter lined with paper towels.
Cook bacon until crisp, remove to plate lined with paper towels.
Toast bread lightly.
Serve with or without cheese, it’s up to you. Serve with condiments of choice, I used ranch dressing, William picked ketchup. We ended up both eating two sandwiches, and still had plenty of chicken left. This makes about a dozen chicken patties, so you’ll have leftovers you can make into chicken parm or more sandwiches, unless you have a small army to feed, then you’ll need more bacon and bread, but you’ll have plenty of chicken!
Hope you enjoy this one, it’s my take on something I saw on “The Chew” the other day.
Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 102
Hello again friends, and welcome back!! Hope you are all having a wonderful day!
It’s been interesting around here today…
Fires at the north end of the state, up near the Georgia border, plus another fire in the Gainesville area, sent smoke our way all morning. James couldn’t breath outside in all that smoke, so he got a day off, which he can’t really afford, but what can you do!
I spent the day with a friend, went driving around downtown Tampa (I can’t stand it, but she was driving, and she doesn’t mind, so it wasn’t as stressful as when I have to go down there by myself!), went to lunch at a really good Chinese restaurant (we are sorely lacking in GOOD Chinese restaurants around here), her treat, which was a nice surprise!
Had a parent teacher conference with William’s two teachers, who both said the same thing we’ve been telling him (and James) for years… he’s entirely too smart to be getting “C”‘s, and with just a LITTLE bit of effort, he could have straight “A”‘s.
To add to an already interesting day, I got a call back from a temp agency, going in for an interview next Tuesday morning. (finally!!) I already took their online testing, did OK, so hopefully they can put me to work soon!! I applied for a couple of jobs with them, so maybe I’ll be a good fit for at least one… keep your fingers crossed!
And of course, last but not least, got the news that my dad’s biopsies all came back clean, and the surgeon got clean margins on the lung they removed, so I think he’s good to go now! Recovering well, feeling better, healing well, we’ll see him on Sunday.
Oh, and I did a little laundry and cleaned up the kitchen in between everything else…
So, after all these adventures, I realized I forgot to take chicken out to thaw for dinner tonight, so we sort of cheated on our meal…
TA DA! Bacon sandwiches! Bacon, bread, toppings, just that easy!
Oh, and I had a visitor when I got home from lunch… This beautiful giant moth, literally the size of the palm of my hand, sitting on the wall outside our front door. Kind of startled me at first, but then I had to take a picture!
So that was our day around here. Hope you all had a good one!
Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 101
Hello again friends, and welcome back! So glad you could join me again, and hope you are all having a great day!
Kind of laid back around here today, not a whole lot out of the ordinary going on, the usual shuttling kids around, made some earrings (photos will follow), cleaned up the kitchen a little, helped William make a pie chart for math class. Would love to say I found a job today, but no such luck. Getting discouraged again, but I still keep trying.
Here are the earrings:
Anyway, we had a really nice dinner, I got a little creative, meaning I didn’t actually measure anything, but I’m going to try my best to put some measurements in here for you:
Pork Chops My Way
4 boneless pork chops, thick cut
1 apple, cored, chopped into small pieces (I cut mine into 8ths, then cut each 8th into small slices)
3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin rounds
4 celery stalks, chopped fine
About 1/2 Tsp ground allspice
About 1/2 Tsp ground nutmeg
About 1/2 Tsp ground ginger
About 1/8 Tsp ground cloves
About 1/4 cup brown sugar, not packed
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add apples, carrots, celery, brown sugar and spices. Saute until carrots are crisp tender. Move everything to one side, add in pork chops, salt and pepper well. Cook pork through until no longer pink, stirring with apples and veggies to flavor everything. Serve each chop topped with some of the apples and veggies.
We also had a quick and easy pasta salad, literally leftover spaghetti chopped up and covered in home made ranch dressing. You could add some fresh chopped veggies, would be really good, but I just ran out of steam, sorry!
So that was dinner, and it was YUMMY! You should definitely try this one…
Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
Ramblings and Recipes 