I'm here! Just busy;)

Picture courtesy of rhetoricalimpressions

Hi everyone!  Sorry I didn't post the French Canadian Braised Beef Stew I made last night (will try to later tonight if not tomorrow), but the husband and I got into watching the very important Haiti telethon and the Celtics game, so we just spent some nice quality time together, with no computers!  It's a rarity in this house, but it was very very nice:)

After a full day of errands, cleaning, and visiting a friend's new home, I'm catching up on figure skating from this afternoon in anticipation of tonight's ladies' long program!  Anyone else care about this?  Watching?  Favorites!  I say go Michelle Kwan!  Oh, wait she isn't there:(  I say go Mirai and either Ashley or Sasha:)  Too bad for Alissa Czisny:(  Maybe she can pull up! 

Back later tonight or tomorrow with r-e-c-i-p-e-s for sure!  Enjoy your Saturday!!!

Thursday night = time to try a new chili recipe!

Happy Thursday everyone!  I'm trying to keep myself up to watch figure skating online starting at 10:30pm...I don't know if I can make it!!  But I must see Sasha Cohen and if she can still skate!

Okay - back on topic - dinner tonight!  Dinner tonight was a recipe I adapted from this lovely website.  Overall, I'd give it an 8 - the husband ate it up and really enjoyed it - I think I just happened to get a piece that wasn't as spicy/Mexican tasting as his, and I wasn't thrilled with the cornbread on top - I think I prefer mine on the side, and a little sweeter.  Here is what I made, how I did it, and what I would do next time:)  Don't forget to check out my pork recipe from yesterday too!

Chili Cornbread Casserole:

What you'll need for the chili:

• 1 lb ground hamburg, cooked in a fry pan and drained of any oil
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium white onion, sliced or diced to your liking
• 1 tbsp, or more, again to your liking, chili powder
• 1 tbsp CRP
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chiles
• 8 oz of marinara sauce
• 2 15 oz cans of kidney beans, drained
• salt to taste

 This is quite the time-consuming/multi-tasker recipe!  I had the pan with the ground beef, the pot with the other chili stuff, and another pot with some stuff for the cornbread going simultaneously, plus some stuff going on the counter - phew! 

First of all, preheat oven to 400.  In a fry pan, cook your ground beef as you normally would, chopping it into smaller pieces. 

While the meat is cooking, in another medium to large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Once heated, add the onion.  Stir and cook for 2 minutes, or until onions start becoming translucent.  Add the chili powder, crushed red pepper, and a 1/2 tsp salt to this, and stir it up until the onions are coated.

Pour the canned diced tomatoes with chiles into the pot and stir well.  Add the marinara/tomato sauce, and stir again.  Don't forget about the hamburg cooking - make sure to stir that too!  Simmer the chili combo for about 10 minutes, and then add the kidney beans.  Continue to simmer over medium low heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  At this point, I added more chili powder just to give it an extra kick.   Turn the heat to low while you're waiting for the hamburg, if it's not done yet, and/or while you're making the cornbread, unless made the cornbread while the chili was simmering, like I did:)

For the cornbread, you will need:

• 6 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp flax seed meal
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup soy milk
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup mango peach juice - you read that right - or you can use agave nectar, or anything else sweet tasting, even sugar
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup flour

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan.  When the water is boiling, add the flax seed meal - stir continuously for 3-4 minutes, reducing the heat to medium low; stir until the mixture becomes gooey.   Remove from heat

While I was waiting for the water to boil, I combined the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  To this I added the mango peach juice, oil, milk, and flax mixture (once it got gooey) - stir all of this until just combined.

 

Now you're ready to combine everything and bake!  Pour your chili mixture into a 9x13 baking pan, covering the chili mixure with the cooked hamburg.  Spoon the cornbread mixture over the chili/hamburg mixture, spreading it as much as you can to cover the entire casserole **I did not cover the entire casserole, just in case I wanted a few bites with just the chili and no cornbread**

 

 

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick goes thru the cornbread and comes out clean.  This is the husband's plate:

First of all, I guess it's time to put away the Christmas tablecloth:(

But, overall, the recipe was quite good - like I said, I think the piece I had didn't have as much spice as I would've liked, but the husband said his 2 pieces did.  I would've like a little more sweetness to the cornbread, so I think I'd try a different cornbread recipe next time, or just add some sugar to this one possibly.  I would also add some cheese into the casserole (the husband added some to his plate) and definitely some avocado on top once it comes out of the oven.  I would definitely try it again, just with some changes:) 

Last night I had dreams over and over about making guacamole!  Any recommendations on recipes for this or meals to make it with?  My body is telling me I have to make it next week I think!

I'm off to start planning next week's meals...9:42pm...getting tired...don't know if I'm going to make it for skating...working all day is tiring!  ;)  See you tomorrow night:)

Wicked Cheap Wednesday Carmelized Pork!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  How is your week so far?  You making it?  We're almost to the weekend!  I can't wait - I get to see a good friend's new house, sleep, clean, cook, and watch figure skating!  Woohoo!  Or am I boring?;) 

Anyway, I'm still researching meals for our Celebrate the Olympics fun-ness that will be February 12-28 (and I hope you will still give me some suggestions!) but tonight was all about a fave of mine that I probably haven't made in about a year or so - carmelized pork!  Easy easy easy, and will keep your house smelling yummy all night long!  Adapted from my Betty Crocker cookbook:)

You will need:

• 1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1 inch pieces or slices
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped to a size you like
• Pam spray
• salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp orange juice
• 3 tbsp maple syrup or molasses
• 3 tbsp brown sugar

Heat a fry pan over medium high heat, spraying with Pam Spray just before you add the meat.  Add the pork and garlic to the fry pan and cook, turning occasionally, and cook for about 9 minutes, or until pork is just pink on the inside.  Salt and pepper the pork and garlic while turning, just one time.

Add the orange juice, maple syrup, and brown sugar to the pork and garlic.  Stirring frequently, continue to cook until pork is cooked thru and the liquids have merged together, forming a sauce that sticks to the meat.

 

Look, how yum-looking is this!?!

Tonight I paired this with some mixed veggies in a cheese sauce and ....ooops...fries - I felt like them!  Normally I'd pair this with onion-soup mix roasted potatoes, but not tonight:) 

I didn't realize how much I missed this meal!  It's so easy and non-time consuming, and so tasty!  I love making pork, because I love how tender it stays if cooked just right.  The best part - cheap!

• 1 lb pork tenderloin - $7
• garlic - $1

Umm...I had everything else!  So I spent $8 on this meal!!  $8!!  If you had to purchase the other items it would cost as follows:

• pork - $7
• garlic - $1
• small carton of OJ - with some leftover for you to drink! - $1.00
• small amount of brown sugar - .50
• small amount of maple syrup - $1.00
• veggies with cheese sauce, bagged - $1.75
• fries - $2

= $13.25!  And again that's if you didn't have a lot of these ingredients already!  What a steal!

I hope you will all try this out and let me know what you think, and comparing it to my other pork recipes, which do you prefer?  I'm off to post on the foodbuzz (I'm a new member - friend me!) and the other fb, facebook, and to catch up on Project Runway!  Have a great Wednesday night, and keep thinking of Olympic meals!  Talk to you tomorrow night:)

Help me plan our "Celebrate the Olympics" meal menu!! Go USA!

Photo courtesy of www.gamesbids.com

Happy Monday/Martin Luther King Day, everyone.  We had some yuck weather up here today for a bit, so I hope everyone in MA/NH was safe!

Tonight we just had homemade pizza, so nothing special to post about that that I haven't posted before.  What I'm hoping is that everyone can start giving me creative ideas for our Olympic menu - 25 more days until they start!  Here are the countries I'm hoping to make recipes from:

1.  Tribute to the U.S. team
2.  Russia
3.  Canada
4.  Sweden
5.  China
6.  Japan
7.  Korea
8.  Ukraine
9.  Norway
10.  Germany
11.  Austria
12.  Finland
13.  Italy
14.  France
15.  Switzerland
16.  Netherlands
17.  Czechoslovakia
18.  Great Britain
19.  Poland
20.  Jamaica - remember Cool Runnings??

The Olympics are only 17 days, but I can combine regions for one night, etc.  Please help/suggest some international recipes, or other countries I should consider:)  This will be fun!  I love the Olympics - figure skating is my #1 love, but I so look forward to the other sports that you only really see around Olympics time - bobsled, moguls, snowboarding, etc etc!  Does anyone else do anything special for the Olympics?  Is anyone attending??  Anyone watch the U.S. mens and pairs skating coverage this weekend?  We have a very strong men's team, and I'm really excited about Denney and Barrett in pairs, and a bit surprised that Inoue and Baldwin weren't picked as the 2nd pair over Evora and Ladwig.  But what do I know? ;)

Fajitas tomorrow night, which I've posted before, so tomorrow night may be more Olympic recipe talk, as hopefully I'll have some of my own research done about international meals:)  I also need to order an Olympic shirt online....note to self to do this!

Slow cooker Sunday! Crockpot chicken and dumplings!

Happy Sunday night, everyone!  Are you all enjoying the Golden Globes??  I love this stuff - I love seeing who's there, what they're wearing, what movies are nominated (and then get added to the list of movies I have to see in my lifetime)...and I always keep track of how many times I see Leo;)  Husband, I love you more than Leo, don't forget;)

Anyways, today I went to a wonderful baby shower for a dear friend, and while I was gone, I had the crockpot a-going with what I hoped would be a wonderful dinner of chicken and dumplings that we would enjoy when I got home.  Got home, smelled amazing, and all I had to do was add the Pillsbury uncooked biscuits in the crockpot and they were supposed to magically cook in there and make the dumplings.  That went horribly horribly....horribly wrong.  They didn't cook a bit.  The husband says they did and he liked it...I say the other parts of, around the gooey dough, were great, but the dough, uh no.  This is really the first debacle I've had in our kitchen, so I guess that's pretty good.  Of course, I'm disappointed in how it turned out and that I didn't think about the recipe I was following ahead of time and realize that the dough probably wasn't going to cook in the water, but, what can you do - you just try to make it better next time:)

I'm going to list what I did and what I used, and I'm hoping some of you will share your snaff-u's but also ways I can fix this recipe, as I don't want to throw it in the trash...but I'm thisssss close....

Crockpot Chicken Dumplings from cooks.com:

What you'll need:

• 1-2 lbs chicken breast - I bought it in thin strips
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2 cans chicken broth
  
• 1 cup water
• 1 can of potatoes
• 1 can carrots
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup frozen corn
• seasonings - I used salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, CRP, and garlic powder
• 1 canister Pillsbury grand biscuits, uncooked 

 So simple - place the chicken in the crockpot and add the soup, water, broth, veggies, and seasonings - cook on low for at least 5 hours, or until chicken is cooked thru - for me, it was 5.5 hours.  Easy enough right?

Looks great, right?  Well this part was, even to me.  It really was just glorified chicken pot pie filling, but it was great.  Then I did as the recipe stated and 15 minutes before I wanted to serve it I added the uncooked biscuits as told.  Bad bad bad - they never cooked, just got gooey as I said.  I should've anticipated this would happen, but I didn't, and it was A MESS - according to me.  Again, the husband said he liked it...I ate around the doughy parts and baked some crescent rolls on the side to have with mine, which was great - dipped in the gravy great, etc...overall, the taste of the chicken, veggies, and gravy, was so good, but the biscuit/dumpling part was quite the disaster I think.  Help me!  What should I do next time?  I'm telling you, this recipe is thisss close to going into the trash, or just being used as chicken pot pie filling!!

This is once I mixed the doughy goo-ness biscuity stuff in, thinking that may help...

Well, for now, I'm going to drown my sorrows in birthday cake and keep on the lookout for more Leo sightings ;)  Love you, babe!!

Oh, and here is a picture of me during the birthday weekend - I just wanted to remember what I looked like at 30 later in life:)