Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Awarded

Pam was kind enough to award me with a couple of awards. Thanks Pam! Wow someone thinks I have a cool blog and loves it! (I think she's been drinking too much in her coffee - hee hee hee.)

With awards come responsibility here are mine:

1. Slap this baby up on your blog. Don’t be shy.
2. Link to the giver.
3. Nominate up to seven other fab blogs.
4. Post links to those super fly blogs your nominating.
5. Leave messages for your recipients on their blogs…so they can feel as special as you.

Well, for the sake of passing on a good thing, here, I award the following blogs with the same awards:
I love all the blogs I read (listed on the sidebar) but when you have to choose, you have to choose. Since it is Wednesday, my mom's birthday and the day of Hannah's baptism birthday I picked these because well, because.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Recipes

Mexican Cheese Chicken

4 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved
4 large canned green chilies
1/4 lb Swiss or Gouda cheese
1/2 cup fine, dry, unsalted bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Swiss cheese
1 tsp unsalted chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
6 Tbsp melted unsalted butter

Lightly pound chicken to thickness of 1/4 inch. Slice chilies in half lengthwise. Cut 1/3 pound cheese into 8 slices 1/2 inch thick and 1.5 inches long. Place 1 chili and 1 cheese slice on each chicken piece. Roll up, enclosing filing. Combine bread crumbs, 1/4 cup grated cheese, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and pepper in shallow dish. Dip chicken rolls in melted butter. Roll in crumb mixture, coating evenly. Place seam side down in 9x12 baking dish. Drizzle with remaining butter. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 400; Bake chicken until tender and golden brown 20-25 minutes.

Notes:
*I can jalapeno peppers and use those instead of chilies - really kicks it up a notch.
*I've used Gouda cheese or Havarti or Pepper Jack or Velveeta for the slices
*I often use shredded cheese blends I have on hand, like "Fiesta Blend" or "Taco Cheese" or "Colby/Monterrey Jack"
* I find I usually have to double the dry ingredients in order to make it cover the chicken
* And since it seems like chicken breasts are so big, I find I need to bake it longer - 30-35 minutes.
*IF you want to freeze them like I mentioned before, place them on a cookie sheet, freeze till solid, then place in plastic bags; it makes it easier to take out just what you need in the future.

Beer Cheese Soup from Lissa

Boil 3 cups water and 1 can beer (only bottles in this house) and 4 chicken bouillon cubes.

While coming to a boil chop the vegetables and add them:
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots, diced or sliced
3 1/2 cups potatoes, diced (red for firm and white for a thicker soup and little chunks)

Add more vegetables if you want a chunkier soup. Simmer until vegetables are tender, 20-30 minutes. Add two cans of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and 1 pound of Velveeta cheese. Stir until cheese melts.

Favorite Fall Foods

Every now and then I have a stretch where menu planning goes great and the meals flow from the pen to the table with ease. It helps when the grocery has different meats on sale, allowing for variety, and this last week we had a good one.

One night we had our favorite Mexican Cheese Chicken. Since chicken breasts were on sale I bought several and made many into this dish, which I first made in 8th Grade Spanish class for a cooking contest (I won third). The basic idea is to flatten a breast enclose a portion of a jalapeno and a slice of cheese by rolling it up; then rolling the breast in butter and a mixture of seasoned bread crumbs. At this point you are to let it sit overnight before baking, but I often freeze them at this stage and then pull them out to bake whenever needed. Add either a yummy salad, or other favorite veggies and bread, and it is one tasty meal.

One night I fixed our same meal from France Day. Oh those Pork Chops Normandy Style are so yummy. Cooked with apple cider and slices of apples, the chops are moist and tasty. The French Peas are Hannah's favorite way of eating that vegetable and quite easy to make, and the potato cake is mmm...mmmm...good.

Another night was a sirloin tip roast, grilled to perfection. David first found this recipe in his Weber Grill Cookbook last fall. First a rub, then a barbecue sauce is basted several times during the grilling. Add baked potatoes, cheesy cauliflower, and a bottle of my favorite red wine:

and I give the meal two thumbs way up.

As a member of Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators (MACHE), I receive a quarterly newsletter. One came last week and inside was a recipe for a chicken and rice bake. Yummy! It will go in the file for future use.

Last night I made Beer Cheese Soup, first tried last February when fellow Looper moms descended on my home for a Mommapalooza. Lissa brought it and shared the recipe with me. Add fresh buns and my house smelled fantastic, which put a big smile on David's face when he walked in the door after being at a meeting all day, even though the meeting was one he thoroughly enjoyed.

This weeks meals might not be as impressive, but they will be just as tasty as we look forward to meatloaf, ham-n-potatoes in the crock pot, California Tacos and Homemade Pizza.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Lets hear it for my Mom

I love having my Mom come visit. She isn't a shopper, unless it is Good-Will or a garage sale. She isn't much of a reader, unless it is Portals of Prayer, Reader's Digest, or The Limbaugh Letter. What she is though, is a doer, a woman of action, a woman who wants to work, who likes to work, and who is happy to be busy. I'm happy to honor this.

For the next two weeks, she'll make sure every dish is washed shortly after each meal; she'll cook any meal I want her too as long as I tell her what and when; if she sees something out of place and knows what to do with it, it gets put where it goes. She will also can my applesauce for me, freeze apples for pie, fix the zucchini into breads for freezing, freeze the squash, while I continue to educate her 5 grandchildren.

Oh stop thinking I'm torturing her. She likes it this way - really! Plus I do help too, because it is so fun to get work done with someone else. You know how in the back of your mind, you always want a maid who will do the behind the scenes work, and the extra work while you're busy nursing a baby or teaching a child or anything else; and how that dream always includes being able to get many things done? Well, I'm living that dream right now and am glad I have two weeks.

Monday, October 13, 2008

It makes me happy

Ridiculously happy.

I love to have a clean home. To walk into a room and everything is in its place. To be able to see the floor without books and dust and dirt and cobwebs.

But I live in a home with five children who are here every day all day long. Those rooms don't stay that way for long. They will one day, and then I'll write about how I miss the mess (probably not - I love a clean home).

But now I simply have glimpses. A few moments, maybe a day or so. But oh what joy! It really does make me ridiculously happy.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Bond Falls

While on vacation a couple of weeks ago, we drove to the UP to visit some waterfalls. We visited two, but by far we enjoyed Bond Falls the most.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Click on the picture and it will take you to Picasa where you can then click on "slideshow" and see all of the pictures. Then I want your opinion, do you like that where you can see all the pictures or do you rather me upload certain ones into the body of the post?

Bond Waterfalls