Keep Well Chicken Soup

Soup is THE BEST nourishment for illness and recovery, in my opinion. They say chicken soup may contain a number of substances with beneficial medicinal activity including an anti-inflammatory mechanism that could ease the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections. (Science Daily)

A few weeks before Thanksgiving, my daughter's best friends contracted the Covid virus. Both girls work in high-risk environments, so it was really just a matter of time before one of them got sick. They were quite ill, but both have recovered and are now back to their prospective jobs. Neither has family close enough to help them with errands and cooking while they were quarantined inside their home. My daughter picked up meds and dropped them on the porch. My mission in life is to feed people, so I made them homemade chicken soup - that was also delivered to their front porch.

The recipe I used is called "Keep Well Chicken Soup" from the Once A Month Meals website. (Please click on the link to go to the recipe.)

I cooked the chicken in the Instant Pot, then made the broth from that carcass and some veg scraps I keep in the freezer. The soup recipe I made on the stovetop so I could stir and taste and adjust seasonings. This recipe is quite possibly the best chicken soup I've ever tasted. In fact, I got a text from one of the girls that said, "That soup was amazing. Like omg good!". Lol. She had lost her sense of taste and smell, but it was slowly returning. I'm happy the soup was flavorful enough that she could enjoy it. The recipe calls for orzo pasta, but one of my girls must eat gluten-free, so instead I sent cooked and frozen brown rice for them to add to the soup when they reheated it. Both versions are good, or you can leave that out altogether. I doubled the recipe and put a couple of containers in the freezer. Remember if you're going to make this ahead, wait to add the pasta or rice until reheating.

The key to the flavor of this soup recipe is the herbs. For this batch I had to use dried, but I have used fresh, and both are excellent. Rosemary is a booster for the immune system, as is garlic. Don't skip the kale. It's one of the most nutrient-dense foods available. 

That's it for today - I got a little more outside decorating done. Hopefully that will be finished tomorrow. I really need to get it done while the weather holds. It's chilly, but mid-40s on the prairie in December is really pretty nice. 

Be back tomorrow!

So far, so much food...

Two weeks in and the pantry challenge is challenging me. While I have had to shop, and pretty much used up the month's budget I set for myself (and then some...), I've also pulled from the pantry/freezer as much as I could.

1. Last week I tested recipes for a freezer cooking website. That opportunity came up suddenly after starting the pantry challenge, and while I was able to pull about half of the needed groceries from the freezer/pantry, I did have to shop for several things. The plus side to that is there are freezer meals now. 
2. Yesterday was Layla's 4th birthday, and while there were cake mixes in the
   pantry (leftovers from wedding baking that Jess's best friend shared with us), and buttercream frosting in the freezer from November, I did have to purchase fondant and gel food coloring. We celebrated with a breakfast brunch, but I only needed to purchase eggs. For the eggs, I used up the rest
   
   of a container of cottage cheese (I add that instead of milk or cream). I had the bacon, and used a gallon of milk from the garage frig to make yogurt. We flavored the yogurt with blueberry jam from the frig and a tiny container of honey found when I cleaned out the cupboards. Bradley also asked for lemon in his, so between the two of us, we finished the last several drops of  a bottle of lemon vitality oil. I didn't include our essential oils in the pantry inventory, but there are several bottles of vitality oils that I use in cooking. If you want to know what a vitality oil is, let me know. That's a whole different post. 
3. Bountiful baskets. This is a produce co-op that offers baskets and add-ons in
   
   our area every two weeks. It's been a few months since we got a basket, and the fresh produce was getting pretty low, so I took advantage of this week's offerings to replenish our supply. Since we share what we get, I ordered two baskets along with an add-on of cauliflower, and an add-on of avocados. I'll be freezing much of those over this week. Buying them this way means the cauliflower was $1.83 each, which is a very good price for this area, and the avocados were 38¢ each, about half of the store price. Jess took home a big box of produce yesterday, and Greg took some over to his parent's as well. 

So those have been the budget-busters this month, though according to the guidelines I use for the pantry challenge, the produce and eggs are okay to purchase. We seriously won't need groceries for at least a couple of weeks, with the exception of skim milk and more eggs. 

I have to work today at the theater, but will have a little time to work on some of that gorgeous produce from yesterday. I'm going to chop some lettuce for salad, bag some of the leaves for wraps, and cook some sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot so they're ready to grab and heat. The bell peppers will be sliced and diced and popped in the freezer for use in fajitas and meatloaf. 

We have to thaw, warm, and eat some of those freezer meals so I can fill out the feedback form, so suppers for the next few days are ready. 

Tomorrow is kitchen day, so with the head start I hope to get today, it should be very productive. It'll probably be kitchen day every day this week as that produce ripens and needs to be taken care of. 

What are you doing in your kitchen this week? I know there are others who are doing their version of the pantry challenge. I'm heading over to Instagram to check out the #pantrychallenge hashtag and see what's happening over there. See you later this week!

Delicious Nutritious

It is one of my highest priorities to serve nutritious food to these grands of mine. They eat many of their meals here, so there are definitely tons of opportunities for me to amp up the nutrition in what is served to them. They are mostly good eaters, especially good vegetable and fruit eaters, so this is a fairly easy task for me. 

A few weeks ago I was watching a replay of a Periscope presentation about healthier meal planning strategies. One of the four or five points made was to offer a veggie tray every day. That one struck me as such a simple way to have snacks, an appetizer, or even a side to your meal. Usually we only make up veggie trays or cruditè for special occasions. Why not make every day a veggie tray day? So one morning last week, I dug out the sectioned server that has a lid, and spent a few minutes cleaning and cutting up several kinds of vegetables. I had to go to work that evening, but made sure Greg and Jess knew the veg tray was in the frig for them. 

It was decimated when I got home. 

They'd had a busy evening with a parent meeting at school and wrestling practice, both at supper time, so the kids snacked on it beforehand and the grown-ups after. 

On Sunday I was getting food from the frig, and Brad asked, "Are you getting out the veggie tray? I love the veggie tray!" I didn't have one prepared, but quickly pulled out a few containers and he made his own. 

This morning it took only five minutes to pull this one together. There is the requisite broccoli and carrots, cauliflower, green bell peppers, orange and red baby peppers, cucumber, and celery sticks. Black olives fill the center spot.

I'd prefer a bit more color, but we ate up all of the "flavor bomb" cherry tomatoes (those were SO GOOD - from Sam's Club - I hope they still have them next time I go). They will inhale those black olives and the broccoli. Last week we had pea pods from our Bountiful Basket, but they didn't care so much for them. These trays are good for at least a few days, maybe a week, though the cucumbers won't last that long.

If they want, they can have some homemade Ranch or bleu cheese dressing to dip the veggies in, but lately they've been eating them plain. I would prefer they eat the veg with the dip than not eat them at all. 

With Bountiful Baskets and garden season coming up, I look forward to putting together a veggie tray each week for snacks and to serve with meals for as long as they enjoy it. I'm thinking this will be a great way to introduce new or very seasonal vegetables to try. What are your favorite veggie tray components? I'd love to hear if you have a dip suggestion or what your family enjoys for crudite. 

Instant Pot, Semi-Instant Food

For the past few months I've seen many a blog post about this thing called "Instant Pot" and how it revolutionized food prep in many a kitchen. We have a small pressure canner, and Greg thinks I could cook in it, but I don't. I don't even use it for canning much of anything, but my mother instilled in me a deep and permanent fear of the pressure canner, even though I know in my head that what I have is many times safer than what she used. 

So, I have three crockpots, and Jess has hers here, too. That's a lot of real estate taken up by four different sizes of the same appliance. Yet, I use all four, sometimes two or three at the same time. I appreciate being able to cook a meal or make a big pot of sauce or beans to portion for the freezer, all while not having to tend to it much. But, it did take hours and hours, then there was a big, heavy, hot, dirty ceramic crock to deal with. 

No one had to twist my arm when I had a few Amazon gift cards and could pay for half the cost of this new one-pot-stop that not only pressure cooks beans in a tiny fraction of the time the crockpot can, but it also cooks pasta with sauce, makes hard-cooked eggs perfectly, and cooked potatoes for our Easter potato salad in, you guessed it, a fraction of the time it normally takes.
Steamed asparagus was the first food in the pot. It needed just a another half minute or so, but that was my error. I was more worried about over-cooking it. Next up was supper - pasta with meat sauce. The meat and some onion were sauteed in the pot, then I drained the meat before pouring in the full box of penne. I poured the sauce over the top and added a touch of water so the liquid covered the pasta. The timer gets set for half the number of minutes the box says to cook. It takes a few minutes for the pot to come to pressure, then six minutes later, Presto! A big pot of deliciousness.

Later, I cooked five pounds of potatoes for potato salad in 20 minutes. I made the mistake of using high pressure instead of steaming, so some of the potatoes "popped" out of their skins, but they still worked for the salad. I just cooled the potatoes on a rack, then refrigerated overnight.

On Sunday morning, we ran out of boiled eggs before finishing our Easter lunch salads, so I popped seven of them in the IP and 18 minutes later they were cooled and peeled. It was exciting to cut the first one open and see a beautiful yellow yolk with no gray ring. Then to have them peel perfectly even though I'd just purchased the eggs the day before, made me giggle a little.

On Monday I tried frozen chicken breasts and salsa. In about 40 minutes I had tender shreddable Mexican chicken for quesadillas. In the crockpot this would have taken a few hours and the texture would have been drier.  

On Tuesday, I had to try the beans. Dry beans, rinsed well, covered in water in the IP. In less than an hour they were cooked and mashed for refried beans. LESS THAN AN HOUR.

I didn't use it on Wednesday. Yesterday I had to work over the supper hour, Jess and Scott had a Kindergarten meeting for Silas, and Bradley had wrestling practice. I could foresee chaos reigning the evening. While cleaning out the refrigerator to get ready for the weekend, I popped some leftover roast beef and a package of pasta in the pot with some beef stock. In 10 minutes their supper was cooling on the counter. All they did was reheat and serve with the veggie tray I left for them. It worked out great. Greg could have made the meal himself, but he's not used the IP yet, and was reluctant to try it while he was watching the boys. After he plays with it awhile, he'll be happy to whip up quick meals when I'm at work.

Why did we invest in this new appliance? First, because of the time saved while cooking. Typically you cut cooking time in half, sometimes even more. Second, space. I can now put my four crock pots  and the steamer in storage and that will free up quite a lot of room on the shelf, allowing for better organization in that space. Cooking with pressure keeps more nutrients and color in the food, and I've found the meat to be moist and not mealy like it gets in the crock pot sometimes. It also saves on dirty dishes when you can toss everything into one easy to clean pot.

Why did we choose Instant Pot over the other electric pressure cookers? Greg did some research before we decided to buy, and the IP is the only one with a stainless steel pot. The others have a non-stick lining and we didn't want that. We purchased from Amazon.

There are many tips I'm picking up as I peruse online recipes for the Instant Pot. There are also many recipes we want to try. I'm putting together a list of blogs with good pressure cooker recipes and will post those in the near future. Right now I need to go read about how to make the chicken stock.

Pizza Rolls for Lunch

Since my eldest grandson started school last Fall, we've packed his lunch most days. He is very easy going about what we pack for him, but I feel bad when he gets peanut butter and jelly sandwiches several days in a row because we need to get groceries. 

This morning I made up some pizza crust dough and used the last of a jar of pizza sauce from the frig to make these homemade pizza rolls.

I didn't take step-by-step pics, but it's simple. I divided the dough in two and then rolled each half into a rectangle. Shredded cheese was sprinkled all over each piece of dough. I mixed the pizza sauce with a pound of browned ground beef and divided that between the two pieces of dough, spreading it out evenly and trying to get it clear to the ends of the rectangle. Then roll it up on the long side and slice into rounds about an inch or a little more than that wide. 

They were placed on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat, then I sprinkled a tiny bit of grated Parmesan cheese on top of each one and baked them at 400° for almost 25 minutes. 

It was my intention when I started these that I would use some turkey pepperoni left from the package they used to make pizzas for supper on Saturday, but there was no leftover pepperoni. Next time. The hamburger worked okay and didn't fall out of the rolls because I mixed it with the sauce before putting it on the dough. Obviously, any topping you like on a pizza could be used for these. We have some garlic cream sauce left from Saturday's pizza-thon, and I think I may make some more using that and some cooked mushrooms and onions. Yum!

These little things are pretty tasty on their own or dipped in some Ranch, which is how I ate two of them for my lunch. I put a couple in the cupboard for school lunch tomorrow, put a dozen in the freezer (in bags of two), and left several in a container on the counter for after-school snack today. 

You can just bake the roll without making slices, and the kids like that, too. I just don't think the center gets done enough without really drying out the outside. 

These aren't necessarily a quick think to make, if you factor in the one hour rise time for the dough, but they are easy. They'll be fine to eat at room temperature for school lunch, too. I'll thaw the frozen ones overnight in the frig, then by the time he's ready to eat them, they'll be perfect. 

 

Homemade Granola

After a few years of breakfast sandwiches and burritos from the local fine fast food eateries, Greg has started taking his morning meal with him from home. I flavor plain Greek yogurt with vanilla and honey, then pack a generous serving with a handful of fresh blueberries on top. As garnish, he sprinkles another generous helping of granola on top before enjoying his delicious nutritious breakfast. At first I purchased the granola -  Bear Naked brand because it’s pretty wholesome, and we like it. I bought two bags, thinking it would last through the month. No. Between Greg and Jess, it barely lasted a little over a week. Time to dig out the homemade granola recipe. The ingredients were in the cupboard already, and took less than 30 minutes to assemble, mix, and bake two quart jars full.

The recipe came from an online friend of mine. Melanie blogs at Comfy House and posts lovely healthy, delicious-sounding recipes. I couldn’t find this exact recipe so I could link to it, which makes me wonder if it wasn’t posted in an email instead of on her blog. No matter, she did post a new granola concoction this summer that also would be wonderful. I chose to try the original one printed out quite some time ago and tucked away in my recipe notebook:

Homemade Granola

3 Cups Old-Fashioned Oats

¼ C vegetable oil

¼ C honey

¼ C brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

¼ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325°. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Let cool completely before stirring in 1 cup nuts and 1 cup dried fruits. Store in an airtight container.

 

And the Pizza Just Keeps on Comin’…

(Recipes at the end of post)

Last night we were blessed to have most of my side of the family here for supper. My sister and one of my brothers were here with their families, so there were 14 hungry pizza-eaters around the table. In shifts, of course. I don’t have that big a table.

My husbands grilled pizza was requested, and since these family gatherings are few and far between, we accommodated that request. Greg and I discussed at length the logistics of feed 14 people homemade grilled pizzas since we have the one grill and the one 12” pizza stone. It meant he would be stuck outside in the hot heat (heat index was over 100°) grilling pizza after pizza while the rest of us were inside feasting. He was okay with that, I think so he could have some time to himself, and because he loves homemade grilled pizza and wanted to share that with my very appreciative family.

My sister came over for the afternoon and we devised our strategy for making the dough and prepping the toppings. For 14 of us, including two young adults and three pre-teens, three of those of the boy persuasion, we decided to make 8 pizzas. My dough recipe makes enough for two, so we threw together four batches of it and while it rose, we made our menu and prepped our toppings. (Menu written by my sister with a purple crayon. That’s just how we roll.)

 

Each of the eight pizzas was different, but the foundation was the same with rolling the dough, transfer to the pizza peel after dusting both crust and peel with corn meal, a light brush of olive oil, then a sprinkle of Parmesan. After that, toppings were added, then the cheese. A plain pepperoni, a couple that were just vegetables, the rest had meat and veggies in various combinations. We used homemade red sauce and homemade garlic cream sauce, except for the pulled pork barbecue. The ones marked “red” were straightforward, sauce, meat/veg, mozzarella cheese. The chicken and prime rib pizzas used garlic cream sauce. Oh, that is good! We also added torn fresh basil leaves to about half of the pies. Greg cooked each one on his egg-shaped grill, and they came off hot and crispy, melty and gooey. Each one took about 8-10 minutes. As he cooked one pizza, Tonita and I built the next.

I want to talk about the barbecue pizza. Greg made pulled pork for 4th of July, and we used some of the leftover meat for this pizza. He gave me very specific instructions for building this one. Same base of dough brushed with olive oil, sprinkle of Parm, then sprinkle of shredded cheddar. On top of that, the pork, then the barbecue sauce (we like JB’s Fatboy Haugwash). He likes a layer of dill pickle chips, I like some red onion, then more cheddar, and a little mozzarella. It’s hot and gooey and I like it better than pulled pork sandwiches.

There were several leftover pieces for them to take home to feed the masses lunch today. We also had green salad, potato salad, green beans fresh from the garden, fresh fruit, jalapeno popper dip, super-delicious cake that Grace made to practice her 4-H entry, and assorted beverages. It was a feast.

I’m including the recipes we use for the sauces and crust. Enjoy!

Super Easy Pizza Dough (makes 2-12” pizzas)

1 C lukewarm water (I use hot tap water)

¼ C olive oil

1 tsp. sugar

1 packet instant dry yeast (2¼ tsp.)

½ tsp. salt

3 C flour

In mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in the water with olive oil and sugar. Let sit 10 minutes. Add the flour and salt and knead in the mixer until a nice dough ball forms and there is nothing left sticking to the sides of the bowl.

Transfer to an oiled bowl, turning crust to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour or so, until at least doubled in size. After the dough is risen, divide in half. Roll out half on a floured surface and make your pizza.

This dough can be frozen after rising and dividing. Seal in airtight container or zipper bag and freeze. To use after freezing, thaw, then roll out, add toppings and bake.

The original recipe does not list baking temp or time. We usually grill our pizzas at 500+°F for 8 – 10 minutes. In the oven, I do 450° for 15 minutes.

 

Garlic Cream Sauce

1½ Tbsp. unsalted butter

½ Tbsp. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced or grated

½ C heavy cream

¼ C 2% milk

¼ C grated Parmesan cheese

Generous pinch of salt (check before you salt this – it might not need it)

Generous pinch black pepper

Small pinch red chili flakes

Melt the butter with the olive oil over low heat. Add minced/grated garlic (I use a microplane), and stir. Turn heat to med/med-high and add cream and milk. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Add cheese and seasonings and continue stirring. Once sauce is thickened, remove from heat.

(I usually have to add 1-2 tsps cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp cold water, stir, then simmer til thickened.)

 

Red Pizza Sauce

(based on recipe in Jessica Fisher’s “Not Your Mother’s Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook”)

¼ C olive oil

2 tsp minced garlic

One 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

3 Tbs chopped fresh basil (or 1 Tsp dried)

1 tsp salt

½ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

One 6 oz. can tomato paste

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook briefly. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, pepper flakes. Let simmer 10 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook 3 minutes. Let cool.

This sauce freezes nicely. I portion into tiny jars and chill in the frig overnight before freezing. Thaw in the frig. One batch makes enough sauce for several pizzas.

Baskets of Bounty

We’re so fortunate to be able to take advantage of Bountiful Baskets every couple of weeks. This is a photo of the haul we brought home last Saturday. It’s a combination of a conventional basket and an add-on basket called “Tour de France”. The conventional basket is always 50% fruit and 50% vegetables. The add-ons differ each time and they offer several things to choose from if you wish.

So far, since Saturday, we’ve eaten one of the cantaloupes (it was juicy and sweet and perfect), one of the oranges, all of the cucumbers, all of the mushrooms, some of the tomatoes, the onion, and a couple of the apples. I blanched the green beans to use in a salad later this week, and chopped and froze the green onions.

They were frozen in a flat layer on parchment paper, then packed into a quart jar and tucked back into the freezer. Now I can use them straight from the freezer for cooking.

Last night, a couple of the cucumbers were used in this recipe for Cilantro Lime Cucumber Salad. No photo because we chowed it down so fast. I foresee this one being a favorite summer dish.

Tonight we enjoyed the baby bok choy in a stir-fry. I’ve never purchased bok choy, and didn’t really know how to use it. One of the fun things about getting these baskets is that sometimes we’re able to try things we haven’t had before. On Sunday I cleaned the bok choy and tucked it into a plastic bag with some paper towels. It has stayed crispy and lovely all week so far. There were several loose stalks that I just chopped up (including the leaves) and tossed into our green lettuce salads.

We all enjoyed the dish, and I will make it again. The inspiration recipe is here, but I did change it up a little by adding onion and mushrooms, and skipping the wine. Then I added a bag of defrosted cooked rice and scrambled some eggs in it as well. I really liked how the chicken worked – slicing it while still partially frozen meant I could get nice thin slices.

There are still several things to enjoy from the baskets, and I have recipes pinned to help us do that. Most of the fruits just get eaten fresh with lunch, or for afternoon snacks. There is that bag of cherries, though, that I haven’t decided what to do with. Some rosemary and thyme were in the Tour de France pack, and I just pull it out of the frig and sniff it during the day. It smells like it needs to be herb bread, I think.

Even with gardening season upon us, I think we’ll still indulge in the baskets. They offer so much variety, as well as introducing new produce we wouldn’t necessarily purchase ourselves. Plus, the price is right, and as long as we use up what we get (as opposed to letting it spoil and tossing it), it’s much less expensive than the store.

Just Last Week…

Another week in review post. We’ve had so many rainy days, and in this part of the country, we never eschew the rain. By mid-summer, we’ll be wishing for it again. It does make gardening difficult, but Greg was able to get out with the boys last Sunday and do some planting. They put in carrot seeds, lettuces, and radishes. There is an onion growing that was leftover from last year. See the peonies in the background? They’re ready to burst open and I can’t wait.

It is a rarity to get a photo of all three grands at the same time, even moreso a pic with their mother. Since it was Mother’s Day, I snuck out the camera while they were all gathered round.

Layla turned 4 months old, so Jess started her on cereal. She was so THRILLED with it and scarfed it right down. In this past week she has slept through the night, and Jess is getting more sleep than she knows what to do with. Layla also rolled over from her back to her tummy, but Silas was the only one to see it happen. He was as excited as can be!

We’ve been using the veggies from our Bountiful Basket every day. One night we roasted the colorful carrots with some olive oil and a spice blend called “Sunny Paris” from Penzey’s. We’d not had the different colors of carrots before, but expected them to taste like the usual orange ones. The purple seemed sweeter, the pale orange like regular carrots, but the white ones were a little bitter.

We celebrated Greg’s birthday a couple of days early with the grandkids. Cheese enchiladas and German chocolate cake with homemade caramel pecan frosting, his favorite.

Over a couple of evenings, Greg and I managed to get peppers, tomatoes, basil, and a squash planted. They’re being watered in well, thanks to Mother Nature. We have a few more things to put out there, and I think this next week will be a good chance to get that done.

We’ve had all manner of illness in the house this past week, and while the kids are recovered, all of the grownups have lingering ailments that have slowed us down considerably. Fingers crossed we’ll all be back to normal this week.

Using the Bounty: Tomatoes

In my last post I mentioned the Bountiful Baskets we got on Saturday. When I ordered, I got a few add-ons to the conventional basket: the Mexican, the Agua Fresca, and the organic Beefsteak tomatoes. Fifteen pounds of what I was expecting to be large, red, fragrant tomatoes.  No such luck. They were small and pale-ish. I was disappointed.

Turns out, I needn’t have been. By Sunday morning, they were a bit redder, so I thought I’d take a chance and whip up a Caprese salad to take to Mother’s Day lunch with Greg’s family. I cut the first one, took a little taste, and was pleasantly surprised that they were, indeed, flavorful. The salad was well-received and only about a quarter of it came home with us. Greg made homemade pizzas for supper, so I used that leftover salad to make a margherita pizza.

A little garlic olive oil on the crust, instead of sauce, then fresh tomato slices, fresh mozzarella slices, and some fresh basil. Greg took it out to the grill for a few minutes, then I popped it under the broiler in the oven to brown up the cheese…

Oh my, it was delicious. The crisp was crusty on the bottom and edge, but the pizza was light and flavorful. And check out this cheese pull:

I love when the cheese is like that! I also love that we were able to use up the leftover Caprese salad right away in such a delicious manner. The heat brought out even more flavor in those tomatoes.

I see a blt with avocado in my future, and a tomato and avocado salad for supper one night. Perhaps a batch of sauce as well?

What would you do with them? I’m open to suggestions!

This Week in Photos (again)

I don’t feel like I accomplished much this past week beyond making the bed every day and keeping up with dishes. I did do a massive amount of laundry mid-week. The boys were out of underwear, so…

Last Sunday was a gorgeous day and I spent part of the afternoon working on the east side of the garage. Years ago I made a small flower bed there, but it’s been sadly neglected. The mulberry tree was cut down last fall, so now I can get in there and put in some new color with flowers. The bleeding heart at the far end is just lovely, and there is lily of the valley all over in there. Also, lots of little trees that are the bane of my existence.  Anyway, this bed is where I’ll be using empty wine bottles. You’ll just have to stay tuned for that!

The boys just cannot keep away from their baby sister, and she loves the attention. Well, most of the time. Silas asked me to snap a pic while he snuggled Layla.

On Monday evening I went outside to grab the stroller and bring it in, and this is what I found on the front porch. I think my heart is going to explode, these boys fill it up so full. Yes, they duct-taped dandelions to the house. They know Grammy likes flowers by the front door.

  

Bradley and Layla are checking out the baby TV channel together. Yes, for a few minutes each morning, she gets to watch TV. Grammy has things to do.

Whenever the boys are here for supper on Tuesdays, we have Mexican food and call it “Taco Tuesday” (thank you, Lego Movie). I asked Silas what we should have this week and he asked for “regleear” (regular) tacos, salad, worms, and butterflies. I did not bat an eye, and he got what he asked for. For the worms, we made “zoodles” using a zucchini and a little gadget I have that looks like a vegetable peeler, but makes long shreds instead. I did a quick sauté with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and we had our worms. (I made everyone take some. Grampy buried his one zoodle in the bottom of his taco.) For the butterflies, we took some sugar cookie dough from the freezer and Silas made butterfly-shaped cookies for dessert.

 

The weather was perfect all week long, and Jess took the kids to the park each afternoon when she got home from work. Miss Layla has graduated from being strapped in her car sea on the stroller, to sitting in the seat. She loves walking to the park now that she can see all the cool stuff around her!

When I could, I worked on this project. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon cutting out all the little pieces, and now have begun to sew. More on that project as it nears completion. That is my mom’s sewing machine, so I’ve had it 18 years. I have no idea how old it was when I got it, but suffice to say, it has lived a good long life and is about to be retired.

            

So there you go - a small slice of life here on the prairie. Complete with duct taped flowers and worms for supper.

 

Taco-ish Tuesday (Fajitas!)

The grandboys are here for supper at least a few times during the week, so if they’re here on Tuesday night, we have Taco Tuesday! Sometimes this really means tacos, but I try to switch it up and serve a variety of our favorite Mexican dishes. One of those favorite recipes is for fajitas. Most usually I use boneless skinless chicken breasts, and several years ago I found a fajita marinade recipe that works for any kind of meat on allrecipes.com. The link is to the same recipe, but a different person than the original post I printed out in 2001.

I make this marinade as written here. If you look at the recipe I linked to, there are comments with some changes some people made to make it work for them.

¼ C lime juice

1/3 C water

2 T olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp soy sauce

2 dashes liquid smoke

1 tsp salt

½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a one gallon zipper bag. Add meat to marinade and store in refrigerator overnight, or at least 2 hours.  This recipe makes 1½ cups of marinade, enough for 2 pounds of meat.

I usually put it all together in the morning and marinate the meat all day. Sometimes the chicken breasts are still frozen, so they thaw and marinate at the same time.

 a cast iron grill pan is the next best thing to cooking outside…

The peppers and onions don’t get a marinade soak, but do cook alongside that flavorful meat when I have to cook it inside. If the meat is grilled outside, the veggies are sautéed in the cast iron skillet on the grill. The meat is let to rest for a few minutes after cooking, then sliced for serving. The meat is juice and tender and so flavorful. Depending on how much cayenne pepper is used, it can also pack a bit of heat. It is so, so good! Besides the chicken breasts, I have used round steak, and one time I had some shrimp that was very tasty.

We always have multi-colored peppers and white onions, but you can use whatever color of pepper you prefer. You could add sautéed mushrooms as well.

These are served in warmed flour tortillas with a sprinkle of sharp cheddar cheese and sour cream. Side dishes always include refried beans, and sometimes homemade Spanish rice, and/or a tossed green salad. Greg likes to have picante sauce with his.

I’d love to hear if you have a favorite fajita recipe. We’re always open to trying a new twist on old favorites!

 

Having (and eating) Cake!

My two grandboys are 22 months apart in age, with one birthday at the end of July and one the end of September. The eldest one has a summer visitation schedule with his other family that means he will most usually always be gone for the younger one’s special day. Brad felt strongly that he didn’t want to miss Silas’s birthday, so we held off on a party until the boys could be together. Today was the day to celebrate with our families and we had a very fun time.

Jessica made her boys’ cakes and decorated them with some help from her Aunt Tonita. We were expecting around 25 guests, so she made fairly large cakes. Brad’s was a 12” double layer and Silas’s was one 12” and one 6” layer. She used one white and two chocolate cake mixes. Each chocolate mix made the 12” layer plus a 6” cake we used for “sampling”. Both cakes were delicious. Jess used a “doctored” cake mix recipe that results in cake with a lovely moist texture with a slight denseness so it holds up well to decorating. For the chocolate cake, she replaced 1/4 cup of the added flour with 1/4 cup cocoa powder. That adds a nice depth to the chocolate flavor of the cake mix.

The buttercream recipes were from Wilton’s web site. Homemade frosting is so easy to make and tastes infinitely better than any canned. I’m particularly fond of their chocolate buttercream recipe.

Since we had the party outside, we used cardboard cake boards that were stashed in a cupboard. After it sat all night, I was wishing we’d have covered the Hulk cake board with foil. It kind of absorbed some of the oil from the buttercream. If I hadn’t had those round boards, we’d have just cut some cardboard from a box stash I have, covered that with foil, and been happy.

Brad had asked for a Mario cake early in the summer, so when McDonalds had Mario toys in their Happy Meals, we just bought one of each toy and saved them to top Brad’s cake. He found a Mario candle at the store last week to add to it. Jess used alphabet cookie cutters pressed into the frosting, then traced them for Brad’s name, and put some colorful sprinkles on top. This cake was chocolate with chocolate frosting between layers and vanilla buttercream on top. Y.U.M.

Silas wanted a green Hulk cake, and he prefers vanilla, so his was white cake with vanilla buttercream. They left the top layer color white so the Hulk wouldn’t blend in too much to see him, but sprinkled some green sugar on it. The green frosting was colored with Americolor gel food coloring and was the perfect shade for Hulk. You can’t really see it in this photo, but Jess wrote his name and a big “3” on it with black tube frosting. I picked up a small Hulk figure from the store toy aisle to use as a topper.

These cakes were inexpensive, yet tasty, and took just a couple of hours of effort. I didn’t keep track of the cost of ingredients, but I’d ballpark each cake at less than $10. Not only did we save some money, but they were made with love and creativity not to be had from a store bakery. The fun she had making them and working with my sister to decorate doesn’t have a price tag. We know they look homemade, but for us that’s a huge part of the charm. There will never be any other cakes just like them.

 

 

 

Campfire Cookin’

We don’t camp, but do appreciate a nice campfire, so a few years ago we got a small fire pit for the yard. It only gets used a few times in the summer and fall, but it’s nice to have for s’mores when the craving hits.  A couple of weeks ago when my nieces were visiting, we let the kids make their own campfire meal packets for supper and Greg cooked them on the fire pit.

I sliced up some bell peppers, onion, carrot, baby gold potatoes, added some fresh broccoli and shredded cheese. The chicken breasts were just seasoned with some Misty’s all-purpose seasoning blend (which is DELICIOUS). Each person assembled their own packet, including whichever of the veggies they desired with some chicken, a little drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

The cheese was good, but really needed to be added after the packet cooked. Most of it cooked away and just stuck to the foil. We wrapped each of them and they wrote their name on the foil, then Greg tucked them into the fire. They took about 20-ish minutes to get the potatoes done. Everything else was very done by then, but it was moist and flavorful. Everyone enjoyed them and the kids ate all their veggies that night.

Greg enjoyed that meal so much that he requested we do veggie packets for our 4th of July supper. For that night, we had potatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, onions, and radishes. No meat in the foil since Greg grilled steaks. He cooked the packets on the grill as well. Those were good, but when the veggies cook with the meat they’re a bit more sumptuous.

Of course s’mores will always be the go-to campfire food for us – if there’s fire, there must be marshmallows…