11/11/11 – time for a list of 11 things!!!

1. Today I am making a batch of raw, kale chips for the first time.

2. It’s chilly but not too chilly so tonight we are going to enjoy some grilled tri-tip around a cozy fire on the back patio.

3. Along with the tri-tip I’m serving my quick and easy salsa!

Amy’s Quick Salsa

1 can of Herdez Salsa Ranchera (it’s a small can)

1 Can fresh diced tomatoes (salsa style, large-ish can)

1 onion

2 jalapenos

1 yellow chile (optional)

3 cloves garlic peeled

1 tblspn of lemon juice

salt to taste

You can chop by hand, but I run the onion, peppers and garlic through the food processor so they are fairly even an finely chopped. Dump into a bowl with the tomatoes, salsa ranchera, lemon juice and salt. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Serve with chips, tacos, grilled meats, etc.

I also like to add about 3 heavy tablespoons to 4 avocados and the juice of 1/2 a lime for a fast guacamole.

4. I’ve been listening to Christmas music a lot. I’m really enjoying it.

5. One of my closest friends just gave birth to the most beautiful baby on the planet. Congrats, Chickie!!!!!

6. One of my current favorite blogs is “Better After” – I now have a project list days and days long. My husband sort of has a love/hate thing going with this concept. He loves that I want to acquire more tools for the garage but umm… isn’t too crazy about the long list of projects.

7. Really enjoyed this interview with Amy Grant and Vince Gill. I’m going to try out the cookie recipe soon.

8. I am ahead of the game for Thanksgiving. I’ve already bought everything that can sit in the pantry or freezer. All that’s left are the fresh veggies!!

9. People who are married and have the same facebook account BUG me. Just because you are married does not mean you can’t have your own identity. Good grief!

10. Ditto grown women who have to continually refer to their friend as “BF” every time they address them on Facebook. Dogs have more attractive way of marking their territory.

11. Veteran’s Day… to all the veterans out there, thank you for your sacrifice and service to our country. God bless!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It’s ridiculous how fast the holidays have come up on us, isn’t it?

Last year I opted for a new sweet potato recipe. I love Guy Fieri. Long before he was hosting game shows, I really loved the way he cooked and I adore “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” So when I came across his “Whiskey Glazed Sweet Potatoes” recipe I had to give it a try.

After all, I love sweet potatoes, love whiskey and I always dig cayenne pepper.

I followed the recipe exactly and sadly, it just wasn’t a good fit.

When FlyLady started announcing her Cruising Through the Holidays missions I flipped open my home control journal and found my mini-holiday journal for Thanksgiving! I had completely forgotten making it last year but there it was, menu and shopping list all ready to go!

The only thing I wanted to change was the sweet potato recipe. We discussed sweet potatoes and the “not much of a hit” recipe from last year around the breakfast table and I made a mental note to do a search for a new recipe. Then life happened and I promptly forgot all about searching for that recipe.

Over the past few years I’ve experienced moments that can easily fall under the category of “dark night of the soul” and through those there were moments that helped to restore my faith a little. I’ve had to work through a lot of heartache and I’ve had to rediscover my own sense of faith. What I’ve discovered, happily, is that whatever source you view out there as your own, whatever makes you feel more connected to something bigger than you and humanity – isn’t relegated to once a week or a few holidays a year. There is a magic to be found in everyday, little moments where you realize that you aren’t alone and you are always, perpetually connected to and working with something much larger than yourself. Even if it’s something as mundane as sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes momentarily forgotten I tripped over to the Avila Valley Barn website to see what sorts of things they had going on for October. They had section on recipes. I clicked and was happily surprised to find that they had only ONE recipe listed and guess what? It was Sweet Potato Casserole.

I got a little zing of gratitude and had another one just typing this out. I’m convinced, that sometimes God, the Universe, insert your own title here, gives you those tiny moments to support your faith and increase your trust for when the harder moments appear.

Loose end? Well, I’ve got my recipe for Thanksgiving and a delightful lesson in gratitude as well.

Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:
2 Cups cooked sweet potatoes, mashed
2 Cups cooked yams, mashed
2 Cup sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup milk
2-1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Topping:
1 Cup brown sugar
2-1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 Cup flour

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all main ingredients together and pour into a greased baking dish.
Blend all topping ingredients and sprinkle over sweet potatoes/yams in baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until brown sugar melts.
Recipe may be doubled or tripled.

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Check out all my posts in this “31 Days of Tying Up Loose Ends” series here.

And, you can check out all the other 31 Dayers here!

I used to stink at leftovers, things would just get thrown away rather than eaten. My husband is a human garbage disposal, he will make a bizarre salad out of just about anything and troop off to work with a plastic container and a big grin. Just today he left to work with a container layered with salad, pasta salad, beans and chicken. Happy as a clam.

Of course, the kids would pretty much starve before they mixed all those food together in one dish. Most of the time anyway.

I sort of changed my attitude a bit when I considered how much went to waste. A little change of heart and a little creativity and I started having a blast with my leftovers.

As I’m typing this I currently have a pot simmering on the stove with the bones of a few chicken breasts (I pulled the meat off and diced it up), several different kinds of veggies and herbs and I’m making my own chicken stock, essentially. Once it’s done I’m going to strain it, drop back in my chicken and more veggies and tonight we’ll have chicken vegetable soup for dinner.

My other favorite is Maggie’s Chicken Salad. We have it for lunch a few times a week because we grill a lot of chicken around here. I strip meat off of whatever cut of chicken we grilled and toss it into a bowl. After that, gloves are off and it’s whatever looks interesting in the fridge – we dump into our salad, although it’s usually fairly healthy. I vary the amount of the ingredients depending on how much chicken.

Maggie’s Chicken Salad:

leftover chicken, chopped
celery – diced
walnuts – chopped
dried cranberries
red onion – finely, FINELY, minced
mayo – just a dab, enough to make it slightly moist and a touch creamy
splash of red wine vinegar – combined with that mayo you get a creamy moist but without a lot of, well, mayo.
pepper
salt

After that we toss it on a bed of spinach greens and add some finishing touches. One day it was diced swiss cheese, another day it’s bleu cheese crumbles or feta crumbles. We also add in some finely grated carrot on the top for added color. I like to top mine with olives, she prefers to top hers with black olives that she then puts on the end of her fingers and talks to them until she eats them.

What is your favorite way to use up leftovers?

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Check out all my posts in this “31 Days of Tying Up Loose Ends” series here.

And, you can check out all the other 31 Dayers here!

In case you didn’t know, I boycott the StuporBowl. Seriously. I know that makes me all anti-American and what-not, I’m totally okay with it. I sort of have the same feeling about it that Zube Girl does, which actually makes me feel better about my whole boycotting thing.

I’m just going to go right along and assume this means you are totally curious as to what I might have been doing instead of eating nachos, chili, chips and dips or whatever else is popular at SuperBowl parties these days. No fears! I’m totally ready to tell you complete with pictures!

It just so happens that earlier this week I caught an episode of Paula Deen’s show, Paula’s Best Dishes, on FoodNetwork and decided I had to make Chewy Cake. I am a huge Paula Deen fan and I’ve honestly never made a recipe of hers that didn’t turn out phenomenally and become a requested item around the ol’ casa.

So, Sunday afternoon Katie and I headed into the kitchen to whip up a batch of Chewy Cake. Around here we usually stick to desserts and treats that are built around chocolate. This one had chocolate but that wasn’t the main theme of this dessert. The ingredients really all work together so that there isn’t one particular flavor or item that stands out more than others, which is good considering it has both coconut and pecans and I wouldn’t classify either of those as favorites of mine.

I’m so glad I decided to make this. It’s so decadent, chewy, delicious and best of all, easy to make! The batter is a little stiff and sticky but it’s not hard to work with. If you are wanting to pile them up on a plate all pretty, then definitely let them cool. Katie and I aren’t big on waiting and we like just about any dessert fresh out of the oven and as warm and gooey as possible.

This reminded me of Tollhouse Pie as soon as I tried it so I had to pull the ice cream out of the freezer and Katie grabbed the chocolate syrup and the end result was this:

Chewy Cake ala Mode

and one more pic because, trust me, this is so worth appreciating:

Chewy Cake ala Mode

And, here is the recipe if you are inclined to whip up a batch yourself. I highly recommend it, it got rave reviews from everyone in the house!

Paula Deen’s Chewy Cake

Ingredients

One 1-pound package or bag light brown sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350?F. Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour, butter, eggs, coconut, vanilla, pecans, and chocolate chips until well combined. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted through the middle comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pan before cutting it into squares.

We had such a nice weekend. My dad and stepmom came over for dinner on Saturday. They brought big, gorgeous shrimp that we cooked on cedar planks and Mike made some phenomenal grilled Mahi Mahi. It was a nice change to other weekends that seemed to stretch on forever in 105 degree heat. Mike started up the smoker for ribs a couple of weeks ago and used a magnet to keep his temperature gauge on the post of our patio so he could read it from inside the house – where the air conditioning lives.

This weekend was warm, but only in the mid-90′s which is what we call “nice” around here in July. I can’t remember another weekend this summer that has gone by so quickly. The house was relatively quiet (if you don’t count the constant hum and and drone of fans) we didn’t have loads of errands to run and we managed to get in a little fun as well.

Saturday we took Maggie out to Insect Lore in Shafter. It’s a really cute place with lots of great bug displays including lots of live insects. They also have a lot of great educational toys and gifts. Maggie went home with an ant farm and a “bug vacuum” for sucking up bugs so you can study them and hopefully release them before you fall asleep so your mother doesn’t have to. Ahem. ANYway…

I love summer and having the kids home but I am also eagerly awaiting the return of fall and winter. I prefer the cooler temps and the cozy holidays to the sweltering heat of summer, bugs, and the loud, noisy holidays. I prefer the cozy socializing in winter as opposed to the swatting of flies and talking over the fans socializing of summer.

Although, I have to admit I do like that summer is the best time to find all the great Christmas decorations (read: cheap) on Ebay. And, I think this Christmas I might actually try to make a Christmas Pudding so I’m on the lookout for an authentic Christmas Pudding tin and maybe a recipe for a chocolate version of Christmas Pudding. Last Christmas when I got the brilliant idea to try it out I found that the prices jumped up dramatically around November and December. I’m going to start snooping around far earlier than that this year!

Every once in a while we decide to change up our holiday menu. There are just some traditional recipes that we can’t do without, home made cranberry sauce, cornbread dressing, and my Christmas Ham. But, beyond that we like to vary things from time to time. One year it was a leg of lamb, another year it was a prime rib. This year Mike and I are considering duck or a goose for Christmas. So if you have any good goose (or duck) recipes, please pass them along!

30 minute meals (not to go all Rachel Ray on you – this has nothing to do with her!) are something we strive for around here, especially in the summer when it’s hot and you just don’t want to be standing over a stove or grill all that long. I’ve had several people email me and ask about our shrimp that we cook on cedar planks.

Actually, that picture shows a night where we cooked shrimp and scallops on cedar planks. So this is a pretty versatile recipe when it comes to shellfish.

Cooking shrimp this way is really easy. And, those planks aren’t all that hard to find at many different stores including World Market and Williams-Sonoma. Although they can be a little pricey there and you really can’t reuse them. We lucked out and found our planks (supposedly “less than perfect” but we can’t find a thing wrong with them) in bulk online so we stocked up. What you want is unfinished, untreated wood planks. I believe I’ve even seen oak planks for cooking steaks on, you can cook all sorts of things on the planks and it adds a really awesome smokey flavor.

The planks need to be soaked prior to use. We lay them out on a cookie sheet and then add enough beer (your choice of beer, we like a light beer) so that the planks are nearly floating. They need to soak at least an hour and you can flip them over every once in a while. If you aren’t a beer person you can use a white wine or just water – but I highly recommend beer or wine (we prefer beer) because it definitely adds to the flavor. Aside from soaking planks, this is a really fast meal. It works great with a salad or even just a veggie tray, crusty bread, and beer or wine. I have to say that I really love a pint of Pyramid Hefeweizen with a fat orange wedge with seafood. Soooo good!

I start with the shrimp, usually a good couple of pounds. Tail on or off is your preference I like the tail on but we don’t always have them that way. The tail makes a great “handle” to pick them up.

Put the shrimp in a ziploc bag and to this you’ll add the juice of a couple of medium lemons and two tablespoons of low salt Pappy’s. Zip up the top and give it a good toss so all the shrimp are coated well.

Let the shrimp marinate for 10-20 minutes. No more than 20 and we usually don’t go much longer than fifteen minutes, tops. The lemon juice will actually cook the shrimp if it sits too long making the shrimp tough. You definitely don’t want tough shrimp! When this is done right they actually come out tasting like lovely chunks of lobster.

Place the shrimp on your planks and it’s out to the grill we go. Mike is our GrillMaster around here (award winning brisket, thank you!) and so I’m going off his instructions for cooking the shrimp…

We have a small basting pan and silicone brush that is for sitting directly on the grill. In that Mike adds several cloves of garlic chopped roughly, a stick of butter, and a heavy drizzle of olive oil. Place it on a cooler end of your grill and just let the butter melt and get happy with the garlic.

You’ll want a spray bottle of water handy because the planks do flare up occasionally. This is a quick cook on high heat.

You cook the shrimp until it gets pretty pink and white (see pic above those are totally cooked and ready to go) about the time you think they are done you brush them with the butter and garlic mixture – have that spray bottle handy because this does cause some flare ups!

Pull them off the grill and give them a last squeeze of lemon. We actually serve them right off the planks because it does make for a very rustic but pretty presentation.

The picture below is not the prettiest presentation – but it does show how quickly those shrimp go… they are always a crowd pleaser!

It feels a little uncomfortable slipping back in here. It’s like coming back to school after a long illness and finding that your space was filled and you have to make a new place for yourself.

Life is constantly moving forward whether you like it or not. The kids have returned to school after winter break. Another round of CT scans and blood work for Ethan were completed and he remains clear and cancer free. Somehow it still seems very strange to mention my child and cancer in the same sentence.

The older kids have a late start this morning which means that school starts nearly two hours later. That means I get to enjoy listening to them watching the Today show and commenting on the different segments. In a vicodin induced fog at some post-surgery point Ethan listed Matt Lauer as one of his heroes on his MySpace page. He doesn’t remember doing and laughs at it, but I noticed the other day that he hadn’t changed it either. I like that about him, it’s one of the million things I like about him.

Kate is reading “The Lovely Bones” it wasn’t on her Christmas list but I bought it anyway because I thought she’d like it. I was right. I find that as a mom I’m right a lot more often than I realize and I kind of like it.

Like my new affinity for pureed soups. Who knew that my kids would stuff down bowl after bowl of split pea soup? Monday night I made a batch of carrot ginger soup with an orange chicken stir-fry. While not the huge hit that split-pea is, it still went over well and there wasn’t much leftover, that’s always a good sign!

Carrot Ginger Soup – Amy’s Version

2 tblspns butter
2 tblspns olive oil
1 jalapeno (anti-spice freaks, it’s okay, it won’t make it too spicy or all that spicy!)
1 lg. yellow onion, chopped
1/4 c. finely chopped ginger root
3 cloves garlic, minced
7 c. chicken stock
1 c. dry white wine
1 1/2 lb. carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Pinch curry powder
Salt & ground pepper
Chopped green onion to taste

1. Melt butter in large stock pot over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno, ginger and garlic; saute for 15-20 minutes.

2. Add the stock, wine and carrots. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered over medium heat until the carrots are very tender, about 45 minutes.

3. Puree the soup in a blender or processor (fitted with steel blade). Season with lemon juice, curry powder, salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with green onion. Serve hot or cold.

It went great with the chicken stir fry, this weekend we plan to make it with grilled teriyaki salmon.

Wow, this place looks almost psychotically autumn-ey, doesn’t it?

(that statement will make no sense when the autumn template goes away so I hope no one goes prowling through my archives come December)

What am I averaging now? Two posts a month? Maybe?

Who would have thunk it, hmm?

The sad thing is that every time I crack open to write a new post I end up with an overwhelming desire to give some sort of update. You know, the kids are fine, the hubs is fine, I’m no more crazy than usual, and yes, Maggie is still bouncing off the walls.

As I write this my Halloween decorations are still up… that’s because Halloween was on a Saturday and I needed Sunday to recover and then it was Monday and who UN-decorates on a Monday?

Of course, now it’s Thursday and I’m out of excuses. Luckily, most of my Halloween stuff transfers to Thanksgiving once I put the witches, skulls, tombstones, and zombies away. I’m actually looking forward to the transition because I’m so over October/Halloween.

Lately we’ve been entertaining a lot and I’m looking forward to more entertaining the further we get into the holiday season. I’ve decided that I need to start updating my cookware and am currently putting a list together of Enamel Cast Cookware, specifically Le Creuset, which I have been drooling over for a while now. The prices are nearly ridiculous but they are UH-MAZING pieces of kitchen equipment. Plus, the colors are so freaking cool and if you have seen any of my funky kitchen pieces then you know that I am all about color.

If you can get over my chocolate brown walls, which I totally love and seriously have not spent a moment regretting! Really!!!

I pretty much have Mike convinced I am in dire need of this cookware although, it took very little convincing since he’s a total kitchen geek too! But, I’ve been turning out some kickass food lately and that has pretty much convinced him to restock my cabinets. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get some Kitchen Scoops out of it too!

Last night I made a super rich split pea soup, which may sound yucky to the finicky folk, but I swear, it’s like green cream of potato without the carbs and with a ton of flavor and BACON BITS!!! Bacon bits make everything better!

So, here ya go, because I’m cool like that and I swear you have to try it because it’s so darn worth it!!!

1 lg onion
2-3 carrots
2-3 stalks of celery
1 jalepeno or two serrano peppers, your choice
Pkg bacon
2 big cans (the 6 cup cans) of chicken broth
3 cups split peas (dry, in package, like beans)
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tsp. granulated garlic or garlic powder
1 bay leaf
crushed red pepper
salt/pepper to taste

I chop the bacon up while it is raw and throw it in my soup pot. Cook it up to as crispy as you like it and put it on a paper towel or something. Retain maybe two tablespoons of the grease in your pot and add a quick little swish of olive oil. Dump in all the veggies (not the peas!), the seasonings and let them sweat a little. Until it smells your kitchen up. (I love that part!)

Dump in broth and peas and bring to a boil. Boil for 20 minutes. Then reduce to a simmer until the peas are tender. The shut it down and let it cool for a few minutes.

Whip out your blender or food processor. Fill it about 2/3 full with the mixture and puree the heck out of it. Continue until it is all pureed.

Put it back into your soup pot, bring it up to almost a boil.

Serve with bacon and sour cream for garnish.

Ooo, ooo, ooo!

Ok, Laura from Snerkology sent me a link which led me to another link and after the first two links I totally lost track! Hee hee.

Anyway, I have some nifty links to share with you…

1. ABC’s SO not what you think and I swear, I’m going to give this a try once the weather cools off and I am not afraid of developing heat stroke from using my oven!!! This is such a wickedly cool thing!!!

2. Roasted Ricotta Roma Tomatoes – OMG!!!! These look awesome!!! (Plus, am I the only one who loves her template? It’s so… I don’t know… but it’s something. I likey!!!)

Then, in a totally different vein, I was emailing back and forth with Becky (aka Hellohahanarf @ Midnight Cliff) and I hope she doesn’t mind my referencing her as Becky. Some bloggers can be strange about that, ya know. My apologies if that’s the case here! Anyway, we were chatting about beer and I feel so much better to find more beer lovers out there. Of course, when I say beer I don’t mean Coors, Budweiser, etc. Thank God!

The other day Mike actually suggested starting some sort of club where people could exchange beer so they can taste things they can’t necessarily get locally.

It seems that we all have our favorites and not all of us can get a hold of other recommended faves. On the surface a beer exchange sounds pretty cool… I don’t know how hard it would be to pull off and before I dug into that I’d like to get some feedback on it.

And, before we go that far, people have mentioned legalities etc. So I should probably explain that I was thinking something in the realm of very low-key, informal, like when you send someone a bottle of wine as a gift, kind of thing. Nothing serious or high-tech at all, we aren’t talking CASES or something outrageous. Just more like “hey, tried this – its’ awesome.”

In other words, like a sampler sort of idea because, let’s face it, we have the internet and if I REALLY want a 6-pack of Arrogant Bastard then I can track it down and order it myself. But, my thought would be… what if I spent $12 on a 6-pack of really crappy beer? It might be kind of cool to have someone send you a bottle or two so you could sample it and vice versa for them.

Sooooo, Geek? Kapgar? Laura? Any other beer lovers out there? Thoughts?

We were grilling and chilling again recently. Thought I’d share a few things with you…

This is a spinach leaf and melon salad. Basically, chunks of watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe with lots of fresh spinach. I tossed them up in a fresh lime juice, honey, and fresh ginger dressing. I’d offer up a recipe, but when it comes to making things like this I just sort of improvise as I go most of the time.

This is the infamous Orange, Cucumber, and Tomato salad that no one can make as good as Adrian can. I’d punch him if he weren’t a couple of states away back at school now. Bastard. It’s just all chopped up into bite size chunks and then you juice several (I mean SEVERAL, like 6-10) limes, use lots of good chili powder (LOTS) and then salt to taste. I never get enough salt and Adrian always has to add more. It’s awesome. Seriously awesome.

Mike also grilled up some awesome shrimp kebabs. This time we used green and red bell peppers, mushrooms, and red onion. He basically puts them on skewers gives them a light brushing of olive oil and grills them until the shrimp are pink and the veggies are just beginning to soften.