Faux'd ya

Well, it's Friday and I'm passed due to throw a post up on here. Not like I've been busy or anything with all this snow going on. If Mother Nature had a face, I'd slap it. Even if it threw off the cosmic balance of weather again, because what she's doing to us out there is RIDICULOUS!!!! It's not even December for crying out loud!rrrrooooooaAAAARRRRRR!*HULK MODE*..............................................

Okay. I've ditched the green and am back now.

Last Sunday, I went to go steal some powdered sugar from a friend(as in, i knocked on her door and asked, kind of stealing) and started salivating when the smells of her house assaulted my nose. No really, i had dribble. I'm sure church ending at 4, attributed greatly to that added moisture. You'd be starving too! I personally feel, that with church getting out that late, there should be a snack time for adults. Somewhere between 2nd and 3rd hour perhaps? So naturally, I made my way to the kitchen to see what was going down(hoping i could get a taste actually. *sigh* My poor family, starving out in the car, while i'm dreaming about eating somebody elses ,food) Lo and behold, it was beef stroganoff! I really wanted some then(we don't eat beef, because B's gut sucks)! Like a good friend, she listened to me lament about not making that because of B's lousiness , she offered suggestions that got me thinking.
So i ran to the car and exclaimed to the family "We're having stroganoff tonight folks!" I won't mention the looks i got, because they weren't favorable. All independently thinking, " you're really going to make us wait longer?!"

*later on in the kitchen*

Realization kicks in that i have absolutely NOTHING associated with strogonaff except for sour cream. Superb. But i was so hungry that instead of getting down about it, i got creative-very. All i wanted was that flavor so badly, that i actually kept track of what i did . Lucky you! The deities of kitchen prowess must have been with me : )

What you need:

meat

1Tb oil

salt/pepper

1Tb Italian seasoning

1/2Tb flour

2 C milk

1 pkt onion soup mix

1 C sour cream....and a whole lot-ta awesome

So choose your meat- I used pork loin chopped up

In a large skillet, with about a tablespoon of oil, give your meat a good browning, WITH seasonings

-season with salt and pepper to taste(i did about a tsp each)

-and, here's the kicker, about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning

Once your meat is cooked, toss it out, keeping you oil that is in the skillet

Make your rue, with a half tablespoon of flour.
Mix until smooth and a consistency you like.(Use your nose, if you like the fragrance of your rue, your seasonings are probably on point for you. if it smells like it could use a little more kick-go on with your bad self!)

Bring out 2cups of milk and mix into your rue slowly, while stirring. (remember:lumpy is yucky)

Now, the final ingredient , one packet of onion soup mix. Add that in, give it a mix. Toss your meat back in. Bring it to a good simmer for about 30 minutes. Once it's good and done to YOUR standards(I like my meat to be fork tender. As in, i think about a fork, and it falls apart), add 1 cup of sour cream. Cook up your favorite grain(we use coucous) and call it good!

As a family, we all agreed that this fake-out was well worth the wait. Both girls really enjoyed it; and there was nothing for #1 to attempt and pick out. Good luck!

Cheese, Trees, and Milk

Alrighty! Time to get started. For this month, i figured it'd be nice to focus on soups after all that heavy(albeit delicious) holiday eating.

So to start off, we're gonna take some cheese, trees, and milk. Put it all together and what have you got? Cream of Broccoli and Cheddar!!!!!Cheap, easy, and 'SOUPER' (ha ha-pun) kid friendly. It's basically goodness in a bowl. Now, to get to watcha need:

1lb broccoli florets(3 and a half to 4 cups/frozen or fresh)

14oz can of chicken broth(2cups of homemade broth)

-toss the two above ingredients in a pot and cook until the broccoli is fork tender. Let it cool for a few minutes(about 10)
-after the broccoli/broth combo is a little cooler, toss that(in thirds) into a blender/food processor and blend until smooth(we like ours to be a little chunky, so i do more of a pulse)
-set this mixture aside( Don't worry about this mixture coming cooling before you're done with the rue, it all comes together quickly  )

2Tbl butter/margarine

2Tbl flour

2cups milk

2cups cheddar cheese
-in a medium size pot, melt your butter
-once the butter is melted, add your flour. mix until smooth( DO THIS ON MEDIUM HEAT)
- now, slowly add your mi1lk to the flour mixture. Stir continuously for this part. no need to be vigorous, but a lumpy rue makes for a poor base


Now that your rue is complete go ahead and add the pureed broccoli mixture. Stir to incorporate. Go ahead and season to taste. Not much will be needed.
The time has now come to add the best part-CHEESE!!!!!! On a medium heat, add your shredded cheese slowly while stirring.

Feel free to experiment with the cheese. My family loves it even more with white cheddar, it adds a nice little zing! I get excited just thinking about it-lol!

Viola! There it it is, so dig in!
Sorry! No picture! i don't know how to get it off my phone that's smarter than me : ( So once the man gets home, i'll fix that little mishap : )

 

a note of APOLOGY

I've been a slacker : ( But starting in 2012, I'm gonna write the dickens out of this blog! If i drop the ball again...holler at me. I mean, really holler. I might even let you smack me around a bit....MIGHT, being the keyword. I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas and Awesome New Year! See you on the '1-2

Triple C with a brownie

The delinquent(my daughter) and I were having a disagreement on baked goodies for the day. She wanted cookies. I wanted brownies. so as a compromise, we went out and bought a cookie brownie....N.A.S.T.Y!) I get chills just thinking about it) Needless to say, we were an unhappy pair. So later that day, I did some thinkin' and some lookin', and found that I wasn't the only glutton wanting a brownie stuffed in a cookie! Easier than you think, and SO worth the effort! Attempt #1-The Hard Way : ( Ugly cookie. BIG taste. I did everything homemade. It took too long and my cookie went places, while my brownie did not. Attempt #2-Cheater cheater : ) Gorgeous cookie. AWESOME taste! I highly advise that you go with attempt number two. Mainly because the wait time is considerably less(who likes waiting for goodies anyway)! 

Alright, so what you wanna do(if you're cheating), is to go buy some cookie dough and ready made brownies. I purchased my goods from Safeway, and used the Nestle TollHouse break apart cookie dough(2 dozen pack). One of these packs, will give you six very large cookies. Which is a short way of saying that you'll be using four segments for one cookie) Also, preheat your oven according to the package directions!

Take two of the segments and roll into a ball-like so (repeat, so you'll have two balls of dough)




Go ahead and flatten it a little as well

mmmm chocolate

Now go ahead and cut each brownie into fourths. You'll use about a brownie and a half for your six cookies. Take a brownie fourth and flatten it a little as well

Now the fun part! Sandwich your brownie in between your flattened dough balls and pinch your dough together!

Almost THERE!

Go  through the whole process again, for however many cookies you plan to make. They should look like this when ready to go into the oven.








Pop those enticing little treats into a preheated oven for 20 minutes! You read right, 20 is the magic number. They should be a nice golden brown when done. Kind of like these : )

Nom nom nom

And there you have it! You can also pull off a stuffed cookie with various chocolate candies, but remember...it's OK to cheat with this! No one will care that it's semi home-made! They'll be to caught up in the heavenly combo. I could be nice and give you a glimpse of the inside the deliciousness....but I figure I'll leave that for you to discover! Happy eating : )

Taste of Home Cooking Show

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Taste of Home??? I love them THIS MUCH(arms spread wide)!!!!! For those of you who don't know, Taste of Home is a cooking magazine that has rockin' recipes! Great thing about this....company(?), is that all the recipes come from "real" women! Not from folks thrown into a kitchen(though all their recipes ARE kitchen tested). Also, most of the recipes are relatively inexpensive, look tough but are super easy to make! This is the second year I've gone to the cooking show, and I have to tell you, it'll forever be an annual girls night out MUST! No questions asked men! now, since this is a cooking show, it does mean that you sit there and spectate. Doesn't sound entertaining, but totally is! However, the benefit of watching the presentation, is that you get to see how truly easy these recipes are. And she always does the ones that look the toughest. There are three types of tickets: VIP-$55, Reserved-$20, and GA-$12. We got the general admission tickets, which you do get a goodie bag with. The bag will have the two Taste of Home magazines, with recipes from that evening and loads of coupons from various sponsors. Although, this years goodie bag was wimpy compared to last years. Also, during the presentation, there are loads of prizes given away! Who doesn't like winning?! I certainly do!!!! Especially since I won something this year-four mini cookbooks! YAY ME! I'm so proud of me and my luck! The grand prize is a brand new washer/dryer(even more incentive to go)! Which luck and I WILL be owning next year! A new washer and dryer would look so pretty in my basement : ) at any rate, I highly suggest that you go to a cooking show IF possible. Perfect excuse to go out with the lady(or fella) friends, lounge around, and chat it up about food!

late night dyslexia

After a long, incredibly long, day, I decided to bake a cake. A pound cake. Because I wanted strawberry shortcake and I wanted to feel the weight of it hit my belly darn it! Make me feel alive, kind of thing. I got down to business around 8 that night. Got out the recipe and the ingredients. First thing i noticed, was that it called for was" 6 egg whites at room temp." ....Odd. But i go on prepping anyway, and save the yolks for something else. I went off to wait for the egg whites to get to room temp and keep thinking how odd it is for just egg whites to go into a pound cake, "but that's what the recipe said so it must be right" 9 o'clock hits. Still waiting, thinking, and wondering how the hell that is supposed to work!!!! "Egg whites add air, I don't want air in my POUND cake!"
Oven is on and i proceed to mix the goods together. Double check the recipe and it still reads egg whites. So i decided to give my butter and sugar some extra mix time before adding my egg whites. 10 o'clock is fast approaching, the bowl of egg whites are in hand, I check the recipe again...." 6 eggs! 6 eggs at room temperature" Double, triple check....6 stinkin' eggs. So my pound cake was saved at the very last moment! And the trouble was so worth it once strawberries were on top!

I'm BACK.....

From maternity leave ; ) I managed to bust out a lot of stuff before the addition came, and i even took pictures! But I'm too lazy to retrieve my camera, so you get a picture less post. About hospital food. Yeah, random I know, but i was too pleased not to comment on it! Kadlec, has a rockin' menu. So rockin' in fact, that I am not against a random cheap lunch there. Now, I'm comparing Kadlec to KGH and Lourdes, both of which have lousy eats! WHY IS THAT!? It's like they're saying "hey, you're already depressed about being here; so this grime won't dampen your spirits anymore." I should write a letter, and be like "Yo. Actually, it does!" At any rate, back to Kadlec, and how they rock. In my stay I had a chicken quesadilla, chef salad, and lots of fruit. The fruit, even though out of season, was super yummy! Even the honeydew melon(which we all know is a hit or miss). My chef salad was big and had all the fixens! It's really tough for a salad to please me, not because it's green and leafy!, because all the best salads I've had...are in Connell-long story. Anyhoo, the quesadilla, was actually a lot to eat. The chicken used was tender and well seasoned and of course, there was lots of cheese! My other half only consumed the chicken fajitas. Which speaks for itself. he binged for three days...on fajitas. So to wrap things up, go to the Kadlec cafeteria for a quick bite for lunch. I'm sure my girls and I will be regulars there this summer