Work With What You Got

Besides being the title of one of the blogs  I enjoy, it was also the theme of the day last weekend.  I had an itch to cook and bake but I also didn’t want to go to the grocery store and buy anything.  My challenge was to work with the ingredients I had in the house.  It didn’t turn out too bad actually.

But before I get into that, let’s talk about what else has been going on.  First, let’s talk Goodwill; I’ve actually had a lot of luck lately and also learned an important lesson.  First, the luck I had; I happened upon some new with tags undergarments.  First, an Under Armor running bra for $3!  Do you know how much those things cost new?  About 10 times that much!  I also purchased a black tank with slimming properties…I’ll take all the help I can get!  But I have to question...how did I train for 4 months for a marathon, run 26.2 miles 3 weeks ago, and not lose a pound?  OK, now the lesson learned; when you see something at Goodwill and it catches your eye, buy it, even if it isn’t on special.  I found a Princess Peach metal lunch box that I didn’t buy.  I told Izzy about it and she couldn’t believe I didn’t get it.  I went back the next day and it was gone.  Lesson learned.

Speaking of metal lunch boxes, Izzy suddenly got a hankering for old metal lunch boxes so my mom dug up two of our old ones, Yogi Bear and Holly Hobby.  She chose Yogi but neither Izzy nor Gia wanted Holly.  The thermos’ were missing but I love the safety rules printed inside… 

Safety First!

Poor Holly, no one wanted her!  But the scenes on all sides of the Yogi
lunch box are pretty cool...there's even a chalk board on it!

Mother’s Day was nice even if it was a bit hectic!  First off, I never get to sleep in on Mother’s Day.  In fact, I have to be up and have 3 kids ready to be at church “across the river” at 9:00.  We celebrate with Joe’s mom in the morning with Mass and breakfast afterwards.  Guess who cooks the breakfast?  Yes, Joe!  And guess for how many people?  Oh, about 100.  Anyone who comes to church is welcome to breakfast after.  Hence, he is up and gone Mother’s Day morning.  They crown Mary at Mass on Mother’s Day and this year Gia got to crown.  Grandma wanted her to wear the dress she wore in Erica’s wedding…what Grandma wants, Grandma gets…it is Mothers Day after all and if that makes her happy, I’m willing to oblige!  For dinner we headed over to my brother’s house where he smoked 2 chickens…SO GOOD!   I was in charge of the side dish and dessert.  So I went to "The Stack" for recipes; Awesome Broccoli Casserole was NOT awesome and the Lemon Lush, recipe compliments of my mother-in-law, WAS awesome so we ended up with one recipe to toss and the other to keep.  What is your go-to broccoli casserole recipe?  So far, I think my sisters Corn State Broccoli Bake is my favorite.  Sorry, I forgot to take pictures!

I wish we could see her face, bad angle!

Two hot chicks

Kudos to Keith!

Joe has to get his hand on it!

 Lemon Lush:
1 stick butter or margarine, softened
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 8oz cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 small tub Cool Whit (recipe called for 9oz but I think they dont' make that size now)\
2 packs 3oz instant lemon pudding (you could really use any flavor)
3 cups milk
Mix together butter, flour and nuts.  Press into bottom of 9x13 and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Cool.  Combine powdered sugar and cream cheese with 1 cup of whipped topping.  Spread over baked crust.  Mix pudding with milk until thick, let set a few minute.  Spread on cake then top with remaining whipped topping and refrigerate overnight.

So, back to working with what you got; my sister Lisa was in town for a few days to be with my Dad, she lives in Washington state and came home to spend time with him given his “condition” (ugh!  I hate to use that word, maybe I’ll just stick with cancer).  So we had a family dinner Friday evening.  I was originally in charge of the vegetable; I went out and bought the Brussels Sprouts for a recipe I wanted to try only to have Keith tell me he told me wrong, I was in charge of the starch.  I let Joe make Mac & Cheese (we had all the ingredients) because his is awesome and I went ahead and made a recipe from "The Stack" with the Brussels Sprouts, since I had them anyway.  Martha had given me this recipe a while back even though I told her I wasn’t accepting new recipes at this time!  My Brussels Sprout salad was very similar to her broccoli salad.  I will keep the recipe because I love Brussels Sprouts and I thought it was good.  For dessert I made Whiskey Cake.  I had a cake mix in the house so I went out to trusty allrecipes.com and found what I was looking for; a recipe where I had all the ingredients.  Dad hasn’t been able to drink with the chemo and I’m sure he is missing his Woodford


Broccoli vs. Brussels

Brussels Sprout Salad:
5 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
2 tsp apple cider vinegar (I used red wine)
1.5 lbs Brussels sprouts, trimmed, cut in half
1/3 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup oil packed sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced

For the dressing, combine mayo, mustard and vinegar; season with salt and pepper to taste.  I added a little sugar too.  In medium sauce pan bring 6 cups of water to boiling over high heat.  Season with salt, add sprouts and cook until just tender (5-6 minutes start checking).  Drain and immediately place in a bowl of ice water, let stand 5 minutes.  Drain well and allow to "dry".  Transfer sprouts to large mixing bowl.  Add nuts and tomatoes; toss to combine.  Add dressing and toss to coat.  I added bacon to my salad only because when I saw the picture that is what I thought the tomatoes were.  Bacon makes everything taste better.

On Sunday we had some steaks and chicken to make for dinner so we decided to just cook them up on my little Weber…I love this grill SO much.  Joe found it on the sidewalk when we lived in Price Hill and snatched it up!  We had a box of pudding in the house so Isabelle made parfaits.  We didn’t have any whipped cream so in the spirit of work with what you got, we layered with marshmallow cream and butter finger pieces.  Lastly, I wanted to make a treat for my workmate’s 30^th birthday.  I had some banana’s in the freezer that needed to be used so I made Banana Cupcakes.  I didn’t have any nuts because I had used them all in my Brussels sprout salad and whiskey cake so I topped the cupcakes with Butterfinger pieces.  Yum!  Lastly, I make some bread sticks out of the Betty Crocker paperback cookbook Mom gave me when I got married.  She also gave me a Better Homes & Garden one too.  However, I need to find them both in hardback because they have literally fallen apart.  These are good books to have because they have ALL the basics in them that any beginning cook would need.

“Everybody likes a parfait!” according to Donkey from Shrek 

The best item picked from trash…EVER!

I’ve chatted on long enough…hoping for fun and happy happenings in the weeks to come!

It's been a long time...

There has been so much going on lately that I just haven't had time to keep up with my blog and I definitely haven't been doing much cooking lately, at least in terms of trying new recipes.    But the holidays did afford me the opportunity to do an old favorite and try a new recipe.  And I'm also having some GW withdrawals...must get back to that VERY soon.


The main reason I've been away has to do with the sad news I have to share.  I'm not cool on putting depressing stuff on here, that's not the purpose of blogging for me but it needs to be "put out there" as I've come to terms with it.  Unfortunately, my father has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and we've been dealing with that news.  He had been sick for a while but we couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, turns out all the symptoms he was experiencing are all related to his small cell lung caner; the lethargy from low sodium (the cancer is in his liver), the shortness of breath (it's also in his lungs) and he couldn't eat because of a tumour next to his esophagus that is causing it to be displaced, hence, the food can't go straight down.  We have started chemotherapy and are now dealing with everything that comes with that.  Unfortunately, the cancer is treatable but not curable.  Please keep my family in your prayers...we can use all we can get.  But kudos to Dad for being such a trooper...


Ugh!  This rain!  It all started with the "camping trip from hell"!  The company was awesome but the weather was terrible!  We went to Big South Fork and did some camp tenting.  It started raining on Friday afternoon and it didn't stop; at least we got a walk through the woods before the downpour!  It rained and rained and rained.  We cooked food in the rain, we played cards in the rain, it was still raining at 10:00 at night when we decided to hop in the car and go to McDonald's just to get out of the rain.  And it kept raining all night.  It stopped in the morning, our tents were drying out and we were enjoying breakfast when the next storm hit...tearing down a wet tent in the rain and shoving it all into the car to get the hell out of there...priceless!  And it hasn't stopped raining since!  Adding to the stress of the camping trip...bears!  I've never been camping where there are bear warnings everywhere!  On the picnic table, a plaque that tells you what to do if a bear comes to your campsite, bear proof garbage cans, bear proof lockers to put your food in!  You drop a bit of food and instant freak out - is a bear going to sniff it out and invade?  And then Isaac puked in the middle of the night in the rain...do bears eat puke?  Well, apparently not Isaac's...



The stream right before the waterfall





Just a flower!



Camping kids



This tree is right on the edge of a cliff by the waterfall, I didn't take it...
way to scared to get that close to the ledge!



The top of the fall



The waterfall

Easter was a bit different for us this year, Dad got released from the hospital that morning and he couldn't be around kids or large groups of people because of his weakened immune system from chemo so unfortunately, only my brother's family and Britni were able to join the celebration but we appreciated the chance to be together.  You tend to appreciate the little things a lot more when your dealt the cancer card.  We were able to celebrate with Joe's entire family at our house, like we do every year.  Ham and lamb are always on the menu along with Baked Pineapple Casserole, can't have ham without it.  Also an Easter tradition is my bunny cake.  Instead of using a boxed cake mix, I decided to try Ina Gartner's coconut cake recipe.  Not a keeper, too dry...

The traditional Bunny Cake

Every year Grandma Schultz hides eggs with money! 
Isabelle found her eggs.

Issac's done hunting eggs.

And so is Gia!

Lastly, I ran my 2nd marathon with less than stellar results.  It was a bad day all around.  I was ready to check out at mile 6!  I kept looking for inspiration and I'd find it, one time in front of St. Cecilia with a nun and priest cheering me on!  But it didn't last long.  I seriously thought about taking the half course at the split but I want that tattoo so bad I stuck with the marathon course.  No tattoos for half marathoners.  It was hot and I over hydrated.  Good news...they were giving out beer at mile 23 so I took it!  Gotta love a marathon where spectators hand out beer.  The sodium helps and the alcohol relaxes, so I'm told...I'm gullible when it comes to beer so I'll beleive anything.  Congrats to my sister Karen and friend Kevin for finishing their first.

So, things can only look up from here...here's hoping for some interesting happenings to blog about...I'm always open for adventure so you never know...