Sick, Simple, Sinful and advise for the Season

I had to skip my Thursday GW trip last night...I've been sick and I felt like shit.  However, I did get there earlier in the week and picked up this Banana Republic sweater coat for...are you ready...$1.99.  Just so you know, I get the whole bed bug scare so nothing I purchase anymore, either from GW or a regular store, gets brought into the house until it has been washed and in the dryer at high heat.    Here's my cute sweater coat and my cute photographer!


I'm sick of being sick.  I went to the doctor on Monday but haven't picked up my prescription for the Z Pak.  I just don't think I'm THAT sick!  I don't mind taking medicine but I just don't think it helps, especially OTC meds...you just cover up the symptoms and not very well at that!  The symptoms change day to day anyway; Sunday and Monday, sore throat, Tuesday, uncontrollable coughing, Wednesday thru today, nose running like crazy...expect when I sleep, at which time I can't breath through my nose.  Plus, for some reason all I want to do is eat and I have no energy to run...it sucks.

But I had enough energy to host Thursday night dinner and test 2 recipes in "The Stack".  Both were easy and keepers.  For our main course, we had Tex-Mex Pork in the crock pot.  When I showed Martha the recipe, she noticed I originally  printed out the recipe on April 23, 2002.  That gives you an idea of how old the recipes in "The Stack" are...8 freakin' years ago I printed out the recipe and never made it! I served it as suggested except I forgot the lettuce and since people generally have a love/hate relationship with cilantro, I served it on the side (btw...I'm a lover in that relationship!)  It was good with tortilla chips too!  I revamped the leftover rice from Joe's chicken/rice dinner from the night before but gave it more of a Tex-Mex flair (added tomato sauce, cumin, garlic and chili powder).

The black plate at the bottom says "Chow" and was a 25 cent Target buyout from GW!

Because I wasn't feeling too hot, I forgot to take picture of dessert, but it was very visually pleasing.  It tasted good too.  I must have got this recipe from Pampered Chef because it calls for a "Bar Pan" which I took to be the stoneware bar pan they sell so that's what I made it in.  If you don't have that, just use a jelly roll pan. Oh, this recipe was printed out in 2001.   Here is the recipe:

Simply Sinful Brownies
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box instant chocolate pudding (4 serving size)
2 cups milk
12 oz package of mini chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients by hand, spread in greased pan, bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Simple is right.  Sinful?  Well, I don't know if I'd go that far but the brownies were good but if you dont' like cake-like brownies, this recipe is not for you.  I served mine with a scope of ice cream, a drizzle of chocolate syrup, whipped cream and some Butterfinger pieces sprinkled on top.  It was picture perfect but you won't get to see it!

Oh, and I got a lot of my Christmas shopping done for the kids yesterday too!  I took advantage of a lot of free shipping and some coupons too!  As many of you already know, I don't go overboard for Christmas.  I got this advise from a friend when my kids were young and it has served us VERY well.  Here it is:

Jesus only got 3 presents at Christmas...so do my kids.  It really does help put an emphasis on "the reason for the season" for them and they understand and don't expect anything more (they do get stocking stuffers too).  Problem is, as they get older, the presents get smaller and more expensive!  Also, Santa doesn't wrap gifts.  They are under the tree, piles separated by kid, batteries in, ready to be played with.  And Joe and I don't give gifts to our kids from their "parents".  Christmas in the house is for presents from Santa.  They get more than enough with gifts from aunts and uncles as well.  Harsh?  You may think so but it saves me from having to run around because I have 12 things for Izzy and only 8 things for Isaac so I better go out and get 4 more things for him because he may count and figure out he has less.  Not for me!  And I'll be honest, we are a 1 income family and make a lot of sacrifices for the things we give our kids, this helps keep finances in check during this season as well.

And I had to put this picture in here, Wilson is getting VERY bad, getting up on the table...but look why...

Swimmy the fish doesn't seem to mind !

That's it for now...looking forward to the weekend, as always...

Fizzle Chicken Salvaged - 3 Ways

OK, so as you know I had a major fizzle with a recipe last week which left me with a lot of leftover chicken and filling I didn't use.  I found a way to use up ALL the chicken and the leftover filling.  I was so proud of myself!  So what I did was "clean" the chicken, I scraped all the cheese filling off the breast so I was left with plain cooked chicken breast.  I chopped that up and made:

1.  Chicken salad (my favorite) - no recipe here, just basic chicken salad with pickles, onions, celery, mayo, salt and pepper.  I love this on saltines...but unfortunately I didn't have any.

2.  Chicken Jalapeno Dip - I found this recipe in a present I got from Isaac from school called "2nd Grade Family Recipes".  It was good and HOT but that's OK with me!

2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 eight oz blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 can of chicken (I used the leftover chicken, obviously)
1 jar of jalapenos, drained

Mix ingredients, bake at 350 until bubbly.  I warmed mine in the microwave and served in a mini crock pot.

3.  Chicken Ravioli - This was a family activity.  I made the pasta dough, following Jamie Oliver's recipe (I have a thing for him, I'd be married to him if I wasn't married to Joe!).  Just flour and eggs, it can't get any easier than that.  We didn't feel like getting out the pasta roller so we rolled it out by hand.  It was a little too thick but still good.  We filled the ravioli with the leftover filling from the fizzle chicken of Friday night that I added the remainder of the cubed chicken.

We have different ravioli making styles, I think mine turned out the best!  I didn't even take a picture of Joe's because it couldn't compare to mine!

I went with the fold-over method, Joe went with one sheet on top of the other.

Fun times rolling and filling ravioli!

They look pretty good, right?

**RAZZLE**DAZZLE**...fizzle...

This weekend was all about razzle and dazzle.  Let me explain...

I received this ultimate make-up collection for my birthday and I've been having a good time playing with all the colors.  Today I went with blue

eye shadow and pink lips.  I even decided to add a former project of mine

 into the mix.  I thought I may be a little old for it but someone at work told me I could probably get away with it for at least another 6 months! I'm looking a bit "razzle dazzle", don't you think?  Speaking of work, we had a potluck on Friday and I brought this old stand by of Karen's and it was a big hit.

Karen was in town this weekend so I had the family over for dinner Friday night.  We had a crowd with Karen, Mom, Keith, Martha, Emily, Ellen and Brandon...plus Joe and kids.  I made 2 recipes from "the stack" and Martha made 2 from "Delicious Possibilities".  Martha was in charge of appetizer and dessert and hers were both winners with "Razzle Dazzle Cheese Spread" (I think that was the name!) and Chocolate Caramel Bars.  The spread had a mixture of shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, green onions, mayo to bind and raspberry preserves on top.  I like the sweet/salty or sweet/savory combo so I thought it was delicious so it went from Delicious Possibilities to "Delicious Definites".  How does that sound in print Martha?  The Choc Caramel Bars were even better the next morning with a cup of coffee after a 4 mile run with Karen. 

Goes good with a cup of joe!



I forgot to take a pic
before digging in!

So where does the fizzle come in?  With both my recipes from the stack.  The main course just didn't cut it for me.  You can't find boneless chicken breast with the skin on so I had to buy them on the bone and Joe deboned them for me.  The breast were huge (that's what she said) and just too much.  The cheese mixture was yummy and I even had some left over so I need to figure out what to do with it.  The side dish looked like it was going to impressive, a layered dish with potatoes, egg noodles, spinach, mushrooms, cheese, green onions cooked in a spring form pan.  It looked impressive...it tasted very bland.  Will not make that again either and won't bother with giving you the recipe here.  Isaac really wanted a graham cracker pie for dessert, like we had on our camping trip to Mohican State Park.  The one we had there was Amish made, I am not Amish so my wasn't.  But he still loved it!

Look who's coming to dinner!

A boy and his pie

An intense game of Pictureka



Brandon's chugging that hot sauce like Hill's chug beer!

Karen got into Gia's hair piece...giraffe!

Saturday night Karen and I went to a "Mother of the Bride" party where you had to dress up in an old bridesmaid dress.  Mom still has all the dresses we wore in past weddings in her basement so finding something to wear wasn't hard.  I styled myself to go with the dress.  Karen and I won for the best dresses so it looks like we had a little razzling and dazzling going on Saturday as well.



Winners!


Karen and I each won a bottle of wine.  I don't know how it tastes yet but I LOVE the name and label

A busy and fun weekend...only now I'm sick and I hope it isn't strep throat because my throat is killing me!

Pizza, Wine and Urinals - all unrelated!

It's not Thursday but you're still going to get a recipe from me today.  My sister Karen always makes "Knife & Fork Pizza", I don't recall if I ever had it or even made it before, but tonight I did both and I won't forget because it's recorded in the blog!  It was in the recipe stack...This is a good "stand-by" recipe, it's easy to make, you probably have all the ingredients on hand and the kids liked it.

Knife & Fork Pizza:

Crust:
1 1/2 cup Bisquick
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch of cayenne pepper or hot sauce
1/4 cup hot water
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Topping:
1 pound ground turkey (I used beef)
1 small carrot, grated
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 cup thick and chunky salsa
1/3 cup bottled barbecue sauce
2 tbsp chopped olives, green or black, optional
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack or Colby Jack cheese

Stir together the baking mix, oil, hot sauce, hot water and Parmesan, using a fork, stir until dough comes together.  Let stand 6 minutes.  Heat oven to 450 degrees with rack set at lowest position. 

Meanwhile, cook turkey in skillet with carrot, pepper and onion until meat is cooked and crumbled.  Drain, stir in salsa and barbecue sauce.

Grease a baking sheet or 12 inch pizza pan.  Dust hands with cornmeal, four or baking mix and pat dough into a 12 inch circle.  Spread meat mixture, spring with olives, and cheese.

Bake 12-15 minutes until crust is golden brown.  Cut into wedges and eat with knife and fork.

I have discovered that my sister in law also has a stack of untried recipes...her stack even has a name...Delicious Possibilities.  I like to think I've inspired her to start going through her stack.  I'm having the family over for dinner Friday so I'll make one from my stack and she's going to make one from hers.  I'll tell you how it goes.  So, does anyone else have a recipe stack or is it just a Hill trait?

I had to have my photographer, Isabelle, take a picture of my GW outfit.  I got a lot of compliments on it starting with my husband in the morning right on through work and into the evening (here's your SHOUT OUT ELLEN!).  The shirt is Banana Republic and cost me 99 cents; the skirt is Isaac Mizrahi for Target and it also set me back 99 cents.  The jewelery is from Kohl's.  I'll let you in on my secret...they have the best clearance jewelery!  I get cool stuff at a great price. 

Saturday night we had a wine tasting fundraiser at school.  What a fun night.  I got to hang out with both new and old friends!

Me and my friend for over 25 years, Deb!

New Friends - why is Kevin hiding???



Aren't we a cute couple???



Old Friends.  Wish the pic wasn't so dark.

 And when I went to get my pics off my camera, look what I found!!

The culprit,  so innocent with her matching purple sweater and nails!

 That's it for now folks...catch you later!

Running Strong...so strong, I passed Jay!

So, as I've said, I've been running more lately and I've been working on my speed a little bit so that I can keep up with Karen on Thanksgiving.  I ran this morning with some of my running buddies; Earl, Beth, Phil and Jay.  And yeah...a girl passed you Jay!  Breakfast afterwards so overall a pretty good chilly Saturday morning.

My birthday was great!  I didn't have to cook so that's why I didn't post the Thursday night dinner recipes.  Mom cooked for me and I forgot my camera to take and post pictures.  Mom made what I always requested growing up; spaghetti and meatballs.  Hers is very different from my Italian mother-in-law but I love them both.

I took Gia and her friend Aubrey to library last night for the Stuffed Animal Sleepover.  Ava was there too and it was a cute little program.  We went back today to pick the animals up and they had pictures of the mischief the animals got into thru the night...Gia, Aubrey and Ava's animals took a train ride.

Oh, I sent an email to LA Ink casting to try and get on the show to get a tattoo...what do you think my chances are?

That's it, nothing exciting, hopefully I'll get into some trouble this weekend to write about here!

Running, Redoing, Recipes, Reading...

We got a lot here folks...



Karen and me before 2010 Flying Pig Half



I have started back running on a regular basis now that the weather has cooled off.  I have a hard time running in the summer, I just don’t like the humidity and I’m not an early enough riser to do it in the morning and by the time it cools down at night, I just don’t want to do it.  I love running…not so much the thought of having to do it but I love when I’m actually running, when I’m done and how strong it makes my body feel…it is amazing what the body is capable of.  I have to get up to 6 miles by Thanksgiving so that I can do my annual Turkey Day run with Karen.  Hopefully this year, we will not get in a fight and yell obscenities to each other while running in the middle of thousands of people!  Love you Karen!

 As I said on Facebook, apparently one cannot sew just because they watch Project Runway.  In an attempt to make saint costumes for my kids for school, I tried my hand at sewing with a machine.  It was the most aggravating experience trying to work a sewing machine.  So I gave that up, time to “redo” with a different plan so used Stitch Witchery.  Even that didn’t hold.  Redo again with the old needle and thread. By the time I got to Izzy and Gia’s they just get a hole cut out in the middle of a piece of fabric!  But I am going to contact the cooperative extension office and find out when they offer sewing lessons.  I’m going to learn!

I did 4 recipes for “Thursday night dinner with Mom and Dad” with Karen and Martha joining as well.  I got a surprise guest when my brother Keith walked in the door.  No refereeing soccer last light.  Soccer is to Keith what golf is to Dad…an obsession.  No one had to bring anything because I wanted to make 4 things in the stack.  I made Cabbage-Kielbasa Chowder, Vegetable Salad, Ciabatta bread and Cherry Cheesecake Pudding Pie and I’m happy to say ALL ARE KEEPERS.  It was a good meal. 

Chowder with Crouton, Veggie Salad

Beer seemed to creep in all our pictures this night.  Not sure why we put the sweet-tarts in the picture?????

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Here are the recipes:

Cabbage-Kielbasa Chowder (I cut this recipe out of the newspaper)

¾ lb kielbasa or any smoked sausage, cut into slices

2 medium potatoes, diced (2 cups)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 ½ tsp salt

Pepper to taste

2 cups water

1 small head cabbage, shredded (4 cups)

3 cups milk

3 tbsp flour

1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

In large Dutch oven, stir together sausage, potatoes, onion, pepper and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Stir in cabbage and cook another 10 minutes or until tender.  Stir in 2 ½ cups milk.  Blend together remaining ½ cup milk with flour and stir into soup.  Cook until thickened and bubbly.  Stir in cheese until melted.  6 servings.

Vegetable Salad – I have no idea who this recipe came from but it is a handwritten recipe in the stack.  I think it may be my mother-in-law; I’ll have to ask her:

½ cup carrots finely chopped

1 large can white shoepeg corn, drained (I found that shoepeg only comes in one size so I used 2 since I wouldn’t consider the can “large”)

1 large can French sliced green bean, drained (yea, I know, canned green beans, yuck, but it works)

1 large can tiny peas, drained (ok, I used frozen, I just don’t like the color of canned peas)

1 large green pepper, chopped fine (I used red pepper because I like it better)

1 bunch green onions, chopped fine

1 cup celery, chopped fine

Put all in a non-metal bowl.

Dressing:

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup vinegar

1 tbsp water

1 tsp each salt and pepper

½ cup oil

Put all ingredients except oil in pan.  Bring to boil.  Cool.  Slowly drizzle in oil while whisking.  Pour over veggies.  Cover and store in fridge.  Do ahead-improves with age.

I found that I had a lot of liquid so I drained off the liquid before serving.

Ciabatta – I LOVE baking and especially love making bread and pizza dough.  I really like the whole kneading process.  Ciabatta is a very wet dough so I did this in my Kitchenaid.  I have never used my Kitchenaid for bread, it was awesome.  But I still love kneading.  This bread did not rise as much as I thought it would but it may have been my fault.  After forming into loaves, I did not cover for the rise and it formed a bit of a “skin” on the outside which may have prevented it from rising fully.  It was good bread, the kids LOVED it.  After it was done, I sliced it and baked it at 450 until crispy and rubbed it with garlic when it came out, ending with big croutons for our soup.

Sponge:

1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup water

¼ teaspoon instant active yeast (not rapid rise)

Mix together the ingredients and let rest overnight in a covered bowl at room temp.

Dough:

Take sponge and add:

1 tsp yeast

1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

¼ cup water

1/8 cup olive oil

Dough should be between a batter and runny dough.  I mixed in my mixer with the dough hook for 5 minutes.  Shape into 2 loaves, long, rough ovals about 4x10 inches.  Form on oiled baking sheet.  Cover and let rise until light and bubbly, using your fingers poke indentations in dough all over about ½ way thru the rising period.  Bake in a preheated oven spraying with water once or twice during baking.  Bake 25 minutes then cool in turned off oven with door cracked open.  Dust with flour.

Cherry Cheesecake Pudding Pie

1 ½ cup cherry pie filling (can use strawberry or raspberry)

1 graham cracker pie crust (6 oz)

1 ½ cups cold milk

2 pkgs (4 serving size) cheesecake flavored instant pudding

1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip

Spoon ½ cup pie filling into crust.  Pour milk into large bowl.  Add pudding mix.  Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until smooth.  Mixture will be thick.  Immediately stir in whipped topping.  Spoon over pie filling in crust.  Refrigerate 3 hours or until set.  Top with remaining pie filling.

Enjoy!

The family enjoying dinner!

I'm reading a great book, check it out:  One Day. 

So, you think you can sew?

I think I've bit off more than I can chew.  The kids have to dress up as saints every year for school around Halloween.  I figured I could make generic cloaks for each of them and we can accessorize year after year with the various and assorted items that make up the saint they choose.  I watch Project Runway... so obviously I know how to sew!  (I'm rooting for Mondo!)  I will keep you posted on my progress, I cut out the pattern for one tonight and I'll begin to sew tomorrow.  And no, I don't even know how to thread the machine!

I stopped by Mom's to get the sewing machine and while I was there, I retrieved one of recipes Mom used to make and I love...Barbecued Butter Meatloaves.  I had that with grilled zucchini and pasta.  And my poor mini-Weber...look how I have to prop her up. 

Earl and Beth gave me their big Weber but I just don't have the heart to part with my baby.  We got it out of the trash when we lived in Price Hill and it has served me well!

Meatloaves:
2 pounds ground beef
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup chopped green pepper (I omitted)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix everything together.  Form into 8 loaves.  Place on foil.  Top each with onion slice.  Spoon sauce over loaves.  Reserve some sauce to service with meal.  Seal.  Cook over indirect coals for 25 minutes.

Butter Barbecue Sauce
1 stick butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Place butter in sauce pan over medium low heat and cook until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.

Gia and Joe had a pumpkin carving date at school Friday night.  Here's her pumpkin.

And here's my beautiful husband and kids.

Good night.