Category: MISC

BACKGAMMON SOUP

This soup got it’s name because I was off my feet for 2 days battling a knee issue during a cold rainy weekend and all we did was play backgammon.

BACKGAMMON SOUP
1 pound country sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup (3.5 oz pkg) sun dried tomatoes pieces
2 tablespoons Classico sundried tomato pesto
2 tablespoons quick cook tapioca
6 cups water
1 KNORR beef bouillon gel
1 1/2 cup white beans
1 cup baby carrots

  • Soak and cook white beans according to directions.
  • Whisk water with bouillon gel until well blended.
  • Whisk in tapioca, pesto, salt and pepper to taste.
  • Bring to a boil.  Lower heat to a simmer.
  • Add carrots, simmering for 30 minutes.
  • While carrots are simmering to tender, brown sausage and onion until a small crumble and drain off fat.
  • Add sausage and onion to pan along with beans.
  • Simmer another 30 minutes.

MEAT LOVER’S CASSEROLE aka SPANISH RICE & MEAT

This recipe started out as Baked Rice with Chicken and Lemony Meatballs from a Cook’s Illustrated Skillet Dinner Magazine, but became something entirely different before I was done. Hubby was still raving about this recipe this morning and even considered having leftovers for breakfast so I think it was a hit!

MEAT LOVER’S CASSEROLE
MEATBALLS
1 slice sourdough bread
1 tablespoon milk
1/4-1/3 cup Panko crumbs
1/2 pound fresh ground pork
1 large egg
2 tablespoons fresh chopped flat leaf parsley
zest from 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

  • Using your hands mix everything together until well blended.  Use only as much Panko crumbs as needed to keep mixture from being too “wet”.
  • Roll into 1 inch meatballs.
  • Cover and chill meatballs while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

CHICKEN & BACON
1 pound chicken breast tenders, salt and peppered to taste
4 slices bacon, browned crisp and crumbled*

*I prepare the bacon in the microwave on paper towels while browning the chicken pieces to save time and absorb the grease to make the bacon crispier.

SAUCE & RICE
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large hot house tomato, cut into pieces
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 KNORR chicken Gel bouillon
1/2 cup hot water
2 cups water
1 cup Jasmine Rice

PREPARATION
6 tablespoons avocado oil

  • Heat oil over medium high heat in large skillet.
  • Add garlic and saute until golden and fragrant.  Remove to small food processor with a slotted spoon.
  • Add chicken to pan and sear both sides. Remove to paper towels to absorb any excess grease.
  • Add meatballs, cooking, turning and rolling until browned on all sides.
  • Prepare bacon in microwave while the other meats are being prepared.
  • Add bouillon gels, tomato pieces, lemon juice, red pepper flakes and 1/2 cup hot water to the garlic in the food processor and process until smooth.
  • Add rice and broth mixture to pan stirring until rice is translucent.
  • Add 2 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens and rice is tender.

ASSEMBLY
Parmesan Cheese

  • Spray 2 quart casserole dish with non stick cooking spray.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
  • Layer a small amount of the rice mixture on the bottom of you baking dish.
  • Top with a small handful of Parmesan cheese.
  • Layer chicken pieces on top of rice.
  • Sprinkle crumbled bacon on top of chicken.
  • Put another layer of the rice mixture.
  • Top with meatballs.
  • Top with remaining rice.
  • Sprinkle another handful of Parmesan cheese over everything.
  • Bake 20-30 minutes to heat through.

HAPPY HOMEMAKER & MENU PLAN MONDAY

It’s another Monday… you know what that means. It’s time to link up with Sandra over at Diary of a Stay at home mom and Laurie at I’m an Organizing Junkie for Happy Homemaker and Menu Plan Monday.

First things first! I want to wish my wonderful husband a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!

BREAKFAST AS I WRITE:

We’re going out for breakfast today for hubby’s birthday.


THE WEATHER OUTSIDE
THIS MORNING:
Drizzly and cold!

FOR THE WEEK:
Pretty much the same all week.

TO DO LIST
TODAY:

  • Play for hubby’s birthday.  I’ll post about our adventures later this week.

DURING THE WEEK:

  • Laundry
  • Recipe File Updates
  • Baseboards

CURRENTLY READING

TELEVISION & DVR

A couple of new or returning shows start this week and I’m still working off the DVR from last week.

  • Castle
  • Scandal
  • State of Affairs
  • Justified
  • Sleepy Hollow
  • Perception
  • Rizzoli & Isles
  • Battle Creek
  • Good Witch

PLAY TIME (If I can find any)

Now I wouldn’t call it “play time”, but after my cortisone shot this past week I was told to stay off my feet for 48 hours.  So on the way home I stopped by Staples to buy some files and then I set up shop on the family room floor and set about cleaning up the HUGE pile of recipe scraps that hubby regularly reminds me we will NEVER be able to try them all and actually weeded out all the real scrap and organized the rest. I narrowed down 3 small totes to this file, but it is overstuffed LOL!

I also tweaked the new framework for my weekly menu and recipe links (AGAIN).  The filled squares are actual links to tried and true recipes.  It is still not exactly what I’m looking for, but I’ll keep working on it. I also designated Tuesday as “EXPERIMENT NIGHT”.

And for those that were wondering what those acronyms you often see on my menus are:
C.O.R.N. = CLEAN OUT REFRIGERATOR NIGHT
Y.O.Y.O = YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN

 Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie
MONDAY
Oatmeal with Fruit
TUESDAY
Bagel & cream cheese
EXPERIMENT NIGHT
WEDNESDAY
Yogurt with Blueberries & Granola
THURSDAY
Scrambled Eggs with cheese & Toast
FRIDAY
Yogurt with Blueberries & Granola
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Cadillacs & Salad

LAST WEEK’S RECIPES I TRIED and their RECIPE LINKS

NEW RECIPES I FOUND THIS WEEK OR CREATED AFTER BEING INSPIRED BY OTHER RECIPES TO TRY IN THE NEAR FUTURE

  • Lemon Curd Napoleon

  • Baked Hawaiian Chicken

  • Voodoo Smothered Chicken

  • Chicken Christopher

  • Green Chile Marmalade Wings

  • Velvet Cake

  • Balsamic Glazed Steak Rolls 

  • Macaroon Peanut Butter Chocolate Tartlets

  • Lemon Souffle Pancakes

  • Orange Crunch Parfaits

  • Smoked Paprika Chicken Thighs

  • Norwegian Meatballs

  • Sauerkraut & Pork Roast

  • Blackened Salmon

MY FAVORITE PHOTO FROM LAST WEEK

LOL, I honestly didn’t take anything but food pictures again this week and then the black brat (who has his choice of 3 beds in this house) tried to squeeze out sweet Whiskey from the bed she was sleeping in and I just had to grab a picture.

BLOGS TO CHECK OUT

I keep looking for new and inspiring blogs, but honestly so many have huge ad sections or pop ups nowadays that just annoy me!

HOMEMAKING TIP / PRODUCT REVIEWS

Does your wedding ring or diamond necklace need cleaning – just use a denture tablet.  My jeweler taught me this trick – it’s quick and efficient leaving you with sparkling jewelry.

ON MY MIND LATELY

Keeping with last week’s soap box rant I have a real problem with the new KFC HALO’s commercial (as well as soooooo many others that use this same negative tactic) where they use children disrespecting their father. Dad wakes up to a horse’s head (from the daughter’s stuffed toy) in his bed and the whole thing plays out like a bad godfather parody and ends with dad going out to buy what she wants.  At least this was followed by a sweet Extra Gum commercial where you can see awe and respect in the daughter’s eyes as dad makes her a cute origami swan out of her gum wrapper.

I don’t know about you, but with so many choices in this world I will go out of my way to buy a product that isn’t negative or insulting my intelligence with their ads.

Children are really SOOOO impressionable. We need to present them with positive, life affirming ideals and models to follow. I know it sounds silly, but SOOOOO many commercials today are using NEGATIVE advertisement and I just think it’s wrong.  Like so many other things, the longer it is allowed to continue the more things may change – an NOT for the better.  Children being allowed to be sarcastic, negative, disrespectful and catered to DOES NOT encourage or inspire them to be good positive adults in the future.

PRAYING FOR & INSPIRATION

BACON CHEDDAR PANCAKES

I found this recipe in a magazine and found it just intriguing enough to try. I made just a few very small changes:

  • It called for regular cheddar and I used white.  
  • It called for 3 slices of bacon and I used 4.
  • It had you serving with just butter which we tried and then we added maple syrup which was a serious plus in our book.
  • It also said it would make 8 pancakes and I got 11.

BACON CHEDDAR PANCAKES
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 LARGE egg
3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup grated white cheddar cheese
Maple Syrup

  • Preheat skillet and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
  • Mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well blended.
  • Whisk together the egg and buttermilk.
  • Add wet ingredients to dry, whisking only until incorporated well.
  • Fold in bacon and cheese.
  • Using 1/4 cup measure scoop batter onto prepared skillet.
  • Turn when you see bubbles on the entire pancake surface.  If you wait for the bubbles you will need to only flip once and pancakes should be golden.
  • Cook until golden.

CHOCOLATE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

I collect old recipe boxes. I am always on the look out when I browse antique stores. In one of those boxes I found this scrap of a recipe that was for Chocolate Upside down cake. If you turn it over it appears to be a flyer or insert from Pyrex.

This cake was amazing! It doesn’t rise a lot and is almost torte like, but the cake is light and fluffy. It is super rich and makes it’s own icing!  It is best served warm. I can also see a bunch of variations such as espresso powder, white chocolate…

CHOCOLATE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
1 1/4 cups cake flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ounce square bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup broken nut meats (I used HEATH English Toffee Bits)

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
  • Melt together the butter and chocolate together until smooth.
  • Fold together the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture with the nut meats.
  • Pour into a well greased deep 9 inch baking pan.

2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar

  • Mix together the cocoa, sugar and brown sugar until well blended.
  • Sprinkle over cake evenly.

1 cup boiling water

  • Pour boiling water slowly over the sugar layer.
  • Bake 1 hour.
  • Cool 5 minutes.
  • Invert carefully to serving platter.

CARAMELIZED LEMON & GREEN CHILE VERDE WHITEFISH

CARAMELIZED LEMON & GREEN CHILE VERDE WHITEFISH
4 white fish (cod, snapper etc…) 6 ounce fillets
1 large bunch green onions, sliced
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 lemon, sliced about 1/8-1/4 inch thick
2 teaspoons sugar divided
2 tablespoons green chile verde sauce
fresh ground salt and pepper to taste

  • Melt coconut oil and butter in skillet over medium high heat.
  • Saute onions a few minutes until tender.
  • Add lemons around the edge of the pan.
  • Sprinkle lemons with 1 teaspoon of the sugar.
  • Generously salt and pepper the fish fillets and place in the center of the pan.
  • Cook 3-4 minutes (depending on thickness) until opaque and then turn.
  • Turn the lemons and sprinkle with remaining sugar.
  • Add chile verde sauce over the lemons.
  • Add lid to the pan and cook another 3-4 minutes.

PORK CHOPS with PEANUT BUTTER GREEN CHILE CREAM GRAVY

I ran across a little blurb of a recipe in an old pamphlet and thought about trying it.  It was just weird enough that I figured it must really be good. I found it a bit plain when I first combined the ingredients and made some adjustments for us, but I’ll give you both versions (original in black with my changes in red) and let you decide.

PEANUT BUTTER PORK CHOPS
PORK CHOPS with PEANUT BUTTER GREEN CHILE CREAM GRAVY
6 large pork loin chops
1 stick butter
2 cups peanut butter 1/2 cups JIF peanut butter
seasonings to taste Hawaiian pink salt & fresh ground black pepper
2 cups milk 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup green chile verde sauce (Las Palmas or Old El Paso)

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  • In a large skillet melt butter over medium high heat.
  • Season pork chops with salt and pepper.
  • Add pork chops to butter and brown, searing both sides. Remove pork chops to a prepared baking dish and cover.
  • Bake 30 minutes.
  • Add peanut butter to butter drippings, stirring to blend well.
  • Add chile verde sauce, blending again.
  • Add milk blending together until you have a creamy gravy. Add whipping cream gradually blending until you have a creamy gravy.
  • Pour gravy over pork chops. DON’T DO THIS! Instead make this gravy while pork chops are baking.  Gravy will be creamier and tastier without going into the oven.
  • Bake 30 minutes.
  • Enjoy.

RACING DIP aka KRAB ENCHILADAS, YOU CHOOSE

This is a great dip for ANY tailgate party. Serve it fresh out of the oven… hot and bubbly and served with tortilla chips.

RACING DIP 

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 clove garlic, minced
4-5 LARGE  green onions, chopped
1 can Rotel original tomatoes, DRAINED VERY WELL
2 tablespoons sour cream
8 ounces Flaked Krab, chopped small
15-ounce can black beans, rinsed & DRAINED VERY WELL
Frank’s Original Hot Sauce to taste
Sea salt to taste
1 cup Colby-Jack mixed grated cheese
tortilla chips for dunking
  • In a large bowl, soften cream cheese by beating until smooth with an electric mixer. 
  • Add garlic, green onions, tomatoes, sour cream, chicken pieces and black beans stirring by hand until combined. 
  • Add hot sauce and sea salt until you reach desired taste. 
  • Arrange ingredients in an oven safe dish and top with grated cheese.
  • Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees until cheese is brown and bubbly.
  • Serve with chips.
NOTE: Dip can be served cold but we like it best warm.

The leftovers are then perfect for making seafood enchiladas.  

  • Roll into tortillas. 
  • Top with chile verde sauce and more grated cheese.  
  • Bake and enjoy.

HAPPY HOMEMAKER & MENU PLAN MONDAY

It’s another Monday… you know what that means. It’s time to link up with Sandra over at Diary of a Stay at home mom and Laurie at I’m an Organizing Junkie for Happy Homemaker and Menu Plan Monday.

I had a good and productive weekend thanks go to my wonderful physical therapist who is treating the “whole” person and not just my knee.  I’m getting more and more energy and exercise every day.

BREAKFAST AS I WRITE:

Oatmeal & Fruit – It’s cold this morning!


THE WEATHER OUTSIDE
THIS MORNING:
A tiny bit overcast, but with much promise of sunny skies mid morning, a rarity here at this time of year.  The nights have been clear and downright cold (24 degrees) though making it cold and flu season with a hint of ear infection!! Very misleading as it is only sunny and somewhat nice for 3-4 hours and then it’s bone chilling damp cold and miserable again. LOL the long term forecast has snow for next week and it has been a downright dry year with threat of wildfire in February all I can say is I’ll believe that when I see it.

  • … HARD FREEZE MONDAY AND TUESDAY MORNINGS…
  • DUE TO SEVERAL WEEKS OF UNUSUALLY WARM TEMPERATURES… MANY PLANTS IN SOUTHWEST OREGON VALLEYS ARE MUCH MORE DEVELOPED THAN NORMAL FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR. A COLD AIR MASS WILL SETTLE OVER THE AREA TONIGHT AND PERSIST INTO TUESDAY MORNING. THIS WILL COMBINE WITH CLEAR SKIES AND CALM VALLEY WINDS TO DROP OVERNIGHT LOWS WELL INTO THE 20S.

FOR THE WEEK:
Pretty much the same, but less and less promise of sun and more and more promise of dreary skies as the week progresses.

TO DO LIST
TODAY:

  • Physical therapy
  • prepare for the visit to VA advocate (AGAIN)
  • Errands

THIS WEEK:

  • Laundry
  • A Little Spring Cleaning on the remaining kitchen drawers
  • Clean Ceiling Fans
  • Some weeding

CURRENTLY READING

TELEVISION & DVR

A couple of new or returning shows start this week and I’m still working off the DVR from last week.

  • Castle
  • Scandal
  • State of Affairs
  • Justified
  • Sleepy Hollow
  • Perception
  • Rizzoli & Isles
  • The Odd Couple – I think they are trying too hard – I really wanted to like this, but I think it will fail unfortunately.

PLAY TIME (If I can find any)

I tweaked the new framework for my weekly menu and recipe links.  The filled squares are actual links to tried and true recipes.  It is still not exactly what I’m looking for, but I’ll keep working on it. I also designated Tuesday as “EXPERIMENT NIGHT”.

And for those that were wondering what those acronyms you often see on my menus are:
C.O.R.N. = CLEAN OUT REFRIGERATOR NIGHT
Y.O.Y.O = YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN

 Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie
BREAKFAST
DINNER
DESSERT
MONDAY
Oatmeal with Fruit
C.O.R.N. or Y.O.Y.O.
TUESDAY
Bagel & cream cheese
EXPERIMENT NIGHT
WEDNESDAY
Yogurt with Blueberries & Granola
THURSDAY
Scrambled Eggs with cheese & Toast
FRIDAY
Yogurt with Blueberries & Granola
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Buffalo Chicken Meatballs & Scrambled Eggs

LAST WEEK’S RECIPES I TRIED and their RECIPE LINKS

NEW RECIPES I FOUND THIS WEEK OR CREATED AFTER BEING INSPIRED BY OTHER RECIPES TO TRY IN THE NEAR FUTURE

  • Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup Bake
  • Navy Bean Dip
  • Chicken Durango
  • Peanut Butter Pork Chops
  • 14 Carat Cake
  • Lemon Strawberry Pie
  • Pineapple Raisin dessert tamales – there used to be this little mom & pop bistro near where I worked that had the greatest dessert tamales and I have been craving them so thought I would try to recreate them.

MY FAVORITE PHOTO FROM LAST WEEK

LOL I honestly didn’t take anything but food pictures this week until I was on facebook Friday night and Min said something about the moon.  I ran outside and this was fantastic. According to a friend of ours this is the moon waxing, the lower planet is Venus and the middle one is Mars.

BLOGS TO CHECK OUT

I keep looking for new and inspiring blogs, but honestly so many have huge ad sections or pop ups nowadays that just annoy me!

HOMEMAKING TIP / PRODUCT REVIEWS

I’d been debating about buying the ball herb keepers and then they went on sale so I thought I’d give them a try.  I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised how much I like them.  They will save me so much time when I’m in a hurry. All the prep and mess is done all at once, and I used the entire package of fresh herbs so there is nothing left to go bad waiting for a recipe to use them in.

You can also use an ice cube tray and then transfer the cubes to a ziploc bag after they are frozen, but I really love the lids and bright green that makes these easy to use and see readily.

ON MY MIND LATELY

When I was young we had a rule, well we had several, but we had a rule about food.  The main rule being that we had to AT LEAST TRY a food once before we were allowed to say we didn’t like it.  And even then, we were encouraged to try it several times.  The one way out was if mom wouldn’t eat it, we didn’t have to either after at least trying it once.

The other big rule was that you ate what was put in front of you.  NO ONE was your short order cook unless of course we were eating out which when I was young was reserved for special occasions only and you still ate what was in front of you. No playing with your food, whining or complaining.

So all this said, I have a real problem with the new KFC commercial (as well as soooooo many others that use this same negative tactic) where they use children disrespecting their mother’s cooking.  The one question, “What have you been feeding us?” is what I take the most exception with.

Kids are so impressionable. I know it sounds silly, but SOOOOO many commercials today are using NEGATIVE advertisement and I just think it’s wrong.  Like so many other things, the longer it is allowed to continue the more things may change – an NOT for the better.  Children being allowed to be sarcastic, negative, disrespectful and catered to DOES NOT encourage or inspire them to be good positive adults in the future.

PRAYING FOR & INSPIRATION

I’m praying for a world at peace.

My grand daughter Carlie loves the infinity sign.  So this made me think of her and hope she’s doing well at her dad’s house.

Homemade Triple Onion Dip

Homemade Triple Onion Dip

Yields 2 cups

Prep Time: 40 minutes; Total Time: 40 minutes
For a less sweet version of this dip, reduce the cooking time for the onions. I also suggest making a big batch of the caramelized onions ahead of time and freeze them. That way, you’ll be prepared to make dip immediately whenever the urge strikes! (Just thaw the onions and follow start at step 2.). For a vegetarian-friendly dip, look for Worcestershire that doesn’t contain anchovy. 

Ingredients

    • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
    • 1 Tablespoon Butter
    • 2 Yellow Onions, chopped
    • 1 Shallot, minced
    • 1/2 cup Vegetable Stock
    • 16 ounces Reduced Fat Sour Cream
    • 3-4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
    • 4 Green Onions, white and light green parts chopped
    • 1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder, or to taste
    • Salt and Pepper, to taste

Preparation

  1. Add the oil and butter to a small sauté pan set over medium heat. Once melted, add the onion, shallot, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown – about 15 minutes. Add the stock. Cook another 15 minutes, or until the onions are deeply browned and all of the liquid has cooked off. Remove from heat and let cool.
  2. Add the sour cream to a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the caramel used onions, Worcestershire sauce, and green onions. Season to taste with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Chill until ready to serve.