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...

The Eggs-perimet

Joe had a party last week and he made quiche so he had A LOT of egg whites in the fridge.  So I decided to go on a meringue cookie experimentation.  A shout out to the Bucher’s for being our “test dummies” (Isaac’s term!); I guess there are worse things to have to test, huh?  What we and the Bucher’s don’t eat, the remainder will go up to church to offer as dessert at the fish fry tonight.

Our first batch was Chocolate Meringue Cookies; I doubled the cocoa and didn’t use cream of tartar.  Have you seen the price of that in the store?  Joe says it’s just to stabilize the whites and you could leave it out so I did in all the recipes.  I free formed these when I put them on the cookie sheet.  I read some suggestions to leave the cookies in the oven to cool so after the baking time, I turned off the oven and waited (hard for me...I like instant gratification!).  This resulted in a light and crunchy cookie all the way through.  My one suggestion would be to add more chips.  Unfortunately, these were all eaten up before I decided to conduct The Eggs-periment so no photo…

Our second batch were actually  Coconut Macaroons but it also came out more like a meringue.  I followed this recipe exactly except for the baking temp and time.  The 20-25 minutes at 300 degrees seemed to work for the Chocolate Chip Meringues so I decided to use that combo for all the meringues.  I used an ice cream scoop for these.  These meringues were crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside and looked awesome!

Third batch was Lemon Meringue cookies.  The texture turned out a little disappointing…too chewy.  I substituted 1/3 cup Countrytime Lemonade Drink Mix for some of the sugar called for in the recipe, I don’t know if that led to the disappointment.  I put the meringue in a Ziploc bag and cut out the end and piped them on the cookie sheet.  They came out too flat.  I guess that’s why I’m calling this an experiment…you win some you lose some.  But I did have high hopes for these since I love lemon.  Maybe next time I’ll follow the recipe exactly.

For the forth batch, Isaac wanted something with peanut butter.  I don’t have any peanut butter chips and I don’t think I can add peanut butter into the meringue, I would think that would weigh it down.  I had some Butterfinger pieces in the pantry so I decided to reuse the Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe except substitute the pieces for the chips.  I did not double the cocoa this time but doubled the pieces to 2/3 cup.  I scooped these as well since the Macaroon turned out so nice.  These turned out more chocolate than anything else; I really couldn’t taste the Butterfinger.

Isabelle wanted to go rogue for the fifth batch; Thin Mint Meringue.  Again, we took the basic Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe, omitted the chocolate and added 2/3 cups crushed Thin Mints.   Yummy!  

One more batch (the last!), and I went even more rogue this time; Wicked Meringue Cookies!  I followed the Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe and added a ½ teaspoon of cayenne and doubled the chips.  Just a nice little warmth after the second bite…I think going rouge paid off.

Coconut Macaroon, Lemon, Butterfinger, Thin Mint, Wicked



Goodwill adventures have not been successful of late.  So I have nothing exciting to report there.

I ran the Heart Mini Marathon with my friend Deb last Sunday.  Every year I say I’m not going to run that race and every year I’m at the starting line and it’s always rainy and cold.  Out and back Columbia Parkway sucks, the hills are plentiful.  So why do I run it every year?  My work sponsors it every year and they pay our entry fee so I’ve been running it for free so that’s incentive.  I changed brands at work so I no longer get the free registration so I thought I was done with it (and very happy about it!).  Then Deb calls me and tells me she’s doing her first half at the Heart…now I have to run for support!  Just like the marathon I’m running in April…I said I’d never run another one but here I am, training again to support my sister, who is running her first full.  The things we do for the ones we love!  All in all, the Heart was good and it was great that Michelle, Jan, Sara and Lauren came out to cheer us on!  And Anchor Grill afterwards…its tradition!

The night before the race we went out with friends in the Nipple Mobile.  I don’t know if that’s the official name for Kevin’s "new" car but look at the color…what does it remind you of?  We had a great time piling into that and heading to Knotty Pine for dinner.  I had to watch my beer and food consumption due to 13.1 miles the next day, but I made sure I stayed hydrated.  We had a great time and after, we went to Bobby Macke’s.  I’ve never been there before and I wasn’t extremely impressed.  The bull was $6 to ride and a ghost tour was $10…really?  I had to pay $5 to get in to listen to the band sing 1 song and be done, hear a DJ and then listen to karaoke.  No thanks, I’ll just hang out at Peecox for free.

Gia got a hold of my camera and took some lovely shots of her toys.  And she wanted me to photograph the outfit she picked out.  She's just like her mother...always ready to smile for the camera and be the center of attention!

That’s it for now folks…catch you later.

Lent means brown bread...

So, it's Lenten season and that only means one thing...brown bread.  Since I can remember, my mom would make brown bread during Lent and we'd eat it with cream cheese for lunch on Friday's since we couldn't eat meat.  I've carried on the tradition in my house but right now, Izzy is the only kid that will eat it.  The other two don't know what they're missing!

Brown Bread:
1 cup All Bran cereal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp dark Karo
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (instead of buying I take 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice and add enough milk to make a cup, let sit 10 minutes)

Mix all ingredients then add buttermilk.  Bake in loaf pan 325 degrees fro 50-60 minutes.  Let cool 30 minutes.  Mom always made hers in cans filled 2/3 full.

Isaac had a birthday last week, he turned 11. He was happy as can be when Izzy made him cupcakes and made the "11" out of bacon!

I've been doing a lot of running lately, we're really getting up in miles.  I did 14 today and I'm a little nervous because my knees are killing me!  I've never had a running injury before so I hope they aren't shot!

The weekends have been fun, two weeks ago I went to the Stagette at my kids school.  I bid on a silent auction item and got 16 free 1 hour personal training sessions for $60!  Can you believe that!  Joe did the food and it was delicious and he was down some workers so Isaac went to help him...he's a hard worker.

3 Hot Cougars!

My table with Mom, Martha and Karen's backs

Last weekend was Night at the Races at church.  I started out with $6 in betting money and came home with $12 so I won a couple races, but I would have loved to win split-the-pot! 

Well, I'm off to rest...as much as you can rest with ten 11 year old boys I have spending the night!



Amazing Race, what a day!

Well, I FINALLY got to audition for AR.  As many of you know, I've been wanting to do this forever but it seems the "window of opportunity" to put in an application is very small.  I'll check, check, check the website, the deadline will be for the last AR, I won't check for 2 weeks then BAM, I check and I've missed the deadline by like 1 day!

So off to Turfway today to wait in line.  The website says you can't line up before 11:00, they'll kick you off the premises if you try.  I thought I'd get there a little earlier, just to check it out.  I get there at 9:30...I'm like pretty far back in the line!  Well, so much for sticking to the rules!  I was not prepared because I didn't think I would be waiting outside for 1.5 hours, but I had a heavy coat and gloves so I managed.  I met the few people ahead and behind me in line and we collectively bitched about the situation.  When the guy came around to count teams, we were in the 150's so we're feeling secure.  I was not with my teammate, my sister Karen, because she was 3 hours away working the school cafeteria.  That's OK, they don't start taping until 4:00.

We finally make it inside around 11:15 and we have to sit around in our line until 4:00.  I brought stuff to do but it's still boring and exhausting. 

My line mates were nice enough to let me go in and out of line without a team mate to hold my place.  At 3:30, I still have no team mate and they start the registration.  I get up to the registration line, was going to get the number 158 I think, go up to the window...was told I couldn't check in without a team mate. 

Starting registration and Karen is missing

Oh! So close, I was at the window but denied!

Karen is in Dry Ridge and they are only guaranteeing 200 auditions.  Luckily, they let me stay at the front of the line until she got there.  Well, after a frantic phone call to tell her to get her ass in gear, I sit and wait as I watch the 200 number grow closer and closer.  All the sudden I get a call from Karen, she's rushing into Turfway on her phone, talking to me and we are frantically trying to find one another (I wasn't hard to find at the front of the line).  I swear it was like the Amazing Race right there.  She was running, I'm calling out, people in line are helping her get to the front of the line with me...we end up with number 208...we're out of the guarantee zone...

Getting pretty for the camera

 So, more waiting with my fellow line mates, some skit practicing with Karen and then my line mates leave to audition...it should be me...we better get to audition!  In come some new people wanting to sit at our table.  Great group of 20 somethings (and a real looker in the group too!) but their number was like 350 so I think they pretty much knew they weren't getting in

First line mates

Second line mates

They FINALLY call our number, we go up to the room, sign in giving our name and contact info, and before you know it, we're in front of the camera with 1 minute to shine!

WE NAILED IT!  Our shirts, our props and our kissing each other grabbed their attention I think!

I REALLY want to do this but if it isn't meant to be, at least I can say I tried!

Indian Summer

Well, Indian food and somewhat "summer" weather anyway!

I was at the library the other day and picked up one of the few books by the man I would marry if I wasn't married to Joe that I don't have, Jamie's Food Revolution.  I love his books not only for the recipes but for the pictures as well.  I love a cookbook with lots of pictures, if a cookbook doesn't have pictures, I don't want it.  I was inspired to do Indian and decided on Tikka Masala, bahjins and naan.

I started off by making the naan, I looked through all of my old Jamie books and couldn't find a naan recipe so I went to trusty allrecipes.com and found this recipe for naan.  For an appetizer with had vegetable bhajis and so I don't have to type the recipe out, here is the recipe already typed that I found on the internet.  Very good and all they really did need was a little squeeze of lime, no dipping sauce required.  Last came the Chicken Tikka Masala which was yummy.  The thing about Jamie's recipes is if you follow them, they will turn out great.  They always do.

Warning:  watch out for the chili you use.  I purchased a fresh red chili and thought "I better bite into this a see how hot it is".  I swear my mouth was on fire and I had a blister on my lip!  Needless to say I did not use the chili's and had to settle for red pepper flakes for heat.


The naan making process



Thank you Dan - you can be a hand model.




Tikka Masala with all the fixin's and naan












The Davis and Flanagan families joined us for dinner.  I saw Katy at church, told her I was doing Indian, she mentioned she loved it so we said come on over.  We put a call into the Flanagans and they joined us too.  However, Kevin is not an adventurous eater but he did try everything but I think I made a deal with the devil because I said I would eat possum if he ate Indian.  When Kim told her son they were having Indian food at the Schultz's he asked "You mean like corn and stuff?"...the other type of Indian!

Breaking bread with friends

The aftermath

I did make something from The Stack this week that was not a keeper; Tex-Mex Meat Loaves.  I'm finding that I may have cut these recipes out of magazines or the paper years ago but 9 times out of 10 I can find the recipes on the internet, which saves me a lot of typing.  Anyway, back to meatloaf,   I have a meatloaf recipe that is my go-to that the whole family loves but this was in The Stack and I said I would try everything!


A perfectly balanced meal with so-so meatloaf

GW produced another cute Hollister shirt for Isabelle.  I haven't had much luck lately so nothing to share.

Now I'm off to organize my picutes I have stored on the computer.  I'm not looking forward to it!

Roses are red, vodka bottle is blue…

After being married for almost 15 years, my husband knows the way to my heart!  This was my Valentine’s present…

He catered a party on Superbowl Sunday and they were serving a drink with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur and Wild Berry Schnapps with fresh blueberries.  Joe couldn’t find the Godiva in the small town of Independence so he went with Chocolate Whipped Cream vodka and Raspberry Schnapps and fresh raspberries…isn’t he the best?  Oh, and as you can see I got red roses too.  He loves me!  I’m a lucky woman, he cooks, he cleans, he does laundry, he doesn’t drink so I always have a DD and he buys me nice gifts!  Love you Joe!

The day before Valentine’s Day, I had my parents over for dinner.  They had just gotten back from a cruise and I knew they wouldn’t have anything to make for dinner so I reached into The Stack to make dinner.  I made a  chicken dish in the crock pot but I won't keep the recipe.  It wasn’t bad, it just isn’t our family’s style of cooking.  Let me remind you that I vowed at the announcement of The Stack project that cream of mushroom soup be damned, I was making it if it was in The Stack!  My kids liked it and as I said it wasn’t bad, just not our thing.  I did however make a yummy dessert from the man I would marry if I wasn't married to Joe.  Joe had a bunch of lemons and limes left over from a party so I decided to make a  Lemon Lime Cream Tart.  You can make the entire pastry recipe and freeze one.  I found the filling recipe could fill two tarts so I half the filling recipe.



The weather is warming up and I'm looking forward to more warm days.  I think like everyone else, I've just had ENOUGH of winter!