Baby, it’s COLD outside

Okay, granted I am a Southern Girl born and bred. So rainy and in the 40’s? Yeh, I’m miserable. Add in a head cold? BLECH.

So for dinner I wanted warmth… so we had Crab Bisque. This was my modified version of the recipe my mom used to make.

Psssssst: I did mention I am hardcore SEMI-homemade cook, right?

Crab Bisque Recipe

• 1 small block Mexi-Velveeta cut into cubes
• 2 cans Cream of Potato condensed soup (Campbell’s really does seem to work best, just saying)
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 rib of celery chopped
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 cup of white wine (really, whatever kind you have on hand as long as it’s white)
• 1 pound of crab claw meat
• Old Bay Seasoning

Start my melting the cubed Velveeta in a medium saucepan on medium low heat. Remember to stir often. Once it’s melted down add in the two cans of soup. Mix together well.  Meanwhile saute the onion and celery together with a bit of butter in a small skillet until translucent. Then add to the soup mixture.  Continue to stir often. Add one cup of milk and drop heat, bring to a simmer. Add the wine and bay leaf. Add the crab meat and continue simmering for about 10 minutes. It’s very important to remember to stir this often, it scorches easily. Finally serve and season with Old Bay as needed.

We usually enjoy this with some garlic bread and a salad (if I remember to make the salad.)

This is a recipe that is easy to play with and make your own.

Apple Dumplings and yet another (another?!) flu test

First off… do you know about The Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummand)? If you don’t… well, click her link already. Duh.  She has fabulous recipes. Fab-u-lous.  And usually pretty easy.

Now that I got that intro over with…

Tori has been sick with a cold a few days. This morning she was simply too sick to go to school. So off to the pedi. The pedi who was thinking it might be the flu at first glance.

Insert me staring blankly at the pedi.

Luckily the test was negative and doc finally settled on yet another nasty sinus infection. Gave me a script for a stronger antibiotic than usual for 14 days and sent us on our way.  <— We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. Woo hoo!

Being a thrifty mom I decided we would pick up the boys from the green house and head to Publix. Publix, where they have free antibiotics. FREE!

Well, unless you are on a stronger antibiotic, like Tori.

Grrrrrrr.

So, as I was in Publix chatting with the pharmacist and finding out this script was NOT free, I found myself saying to two wild boys: “Won’t Pioneer Woman’s Apple Dumplings be great tonight? Behave and I’ll make some.” And then being the mean mom I am, I sent sick Tori off to find the ingredients we needed: 2 apples, 2 cans of crescent rolls and some butter. (*And then I had to explain who Pioneer Woman was to the tech and pharmacist.)

As I type this there is absolute silence from the kids… as they devour their apple dumplings.

Yum.

Give the recipe a try. Don’t let that secret ingredient scare you. Okay, you can let the butter scare you… and the sugar… but not the other ingredient.

PS I feel the need to say this… uh, iPhone pic. Not high quality foodie blog material. So there.

PPS Oh! Congrats to Tommy!! He made the 25 point Club today for reading. He actually has 40 points, so he was psyched to be in the 50 point club next go around.

PPPS It was a loooong day and evidently I am yearning for this week to be over. When Tim came home the trash was out by the curb. He had to wheel it back in… yeh, trash night is THURSDAY night. I was a wee bit ahead of myself.

And the comfort food continues

Is it just me or are you spotting a trend here? And we wonder how I got to be 70 pounds overweight? Hmmmmmmmm…

ANYWAY

Favorite super easy pudding recipe. Don’t buy that instant stuff. YUCK.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding

*from 365 Great 20 Minute Recipes

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/2 tbs cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

2 cups milk

1 tbs butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a heavy medium saucepan, whisk sugar with cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Gradually add 1 cup milk, whisking until mixture is smooth. Stir in remaining milk
2. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring until mixture is smooth and thick, another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter, stirring until melted, and stir in vanilla.
3. Pour pudding into 4 dessert dishes or baked pie crust. Refrigerate at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or chilled.

Comfort Food

Missing my kids… and my dog. But not the weight I lost.

Making a light version of my comfort food: Chicken Cacciatore (“Catch a Tori” in Tommy’s words) for dinner.

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Oh I am so making these bad boys later today.

YUM YUM YUM

___

Later on:

Yup, they were good.

Nearly $700 later…

And the dog is back home.

Yes, please feel free to choke, gasp and wheeze like I did.

And that’s all I have to say about the dog right now.

Dinner last night was chicken tacos.These are crazy super easy to make. Plop a few chicken breasts in the crock pot, add a package of taco seasoning, and a jar of salsa, let cook 4-6 hours on low. Shred with a fork, serve in warm tortillas with cheese, beans and sour cream. Yum.

Use leftovers the next night for Chicken Tortilla Soup.  Add the meat mixture to a pan with a sauteed onion, add some stock, squeeze in half a lime, dump in a can of corn and fresh cilantro as you like.

Again with the yum.

Right now I am working on some homemade bread. As a child (about eleven or so) I got into this whole bread making mode for the longest time. My friend Jenny M taught me. And no… we didn’t have a bread machine, thank you. I’d make cinnamon raisin bread, braided loaves… all of it.

And then… I quit. I can think of two things that caused that: puberty and the move to a more competition oriented piano teacher about this time.

And that’s all I have for you tonight.

I lied. Here’s a picture of the bread. Ugly, but good. House smelled SO good. But then Tim and Mark made popcorn. (Yuck.) Oh well.

New Recipe Wednesday…

With the fridge being broken since Thursday I’ve been doing daily shopping so nothing spoils. Tonight inspiration comes from Rachael Ray.

• edited to add: well, crud… power went out. I gave up and took the boys out for Chik-fil-a <– YES I know they use refined peanut oil the allergist feels it’s okay and Tommy has never had issues with it. Shhhhh. (Tori was at Wednesday Church with friends so please do not think I didn’t feed her either.) Of course by the time we got home… power was back on. I went ahead and made it (everything was prepped) and it’s ready for Thursday’s dinner. Yes, taste test was not bad. And truly, I opted for no pickles. In the words of Tommy: that is just GWOSS.

Beef Stroganoff

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

TIMING Tidbit: Slice and place meat in freezer 15 minutes. Sauce and meat are prepared 10 minutes before you are ready to serve.

Prep Time:

20 min

Inactive Prep Time:

hr min

Cook Time:

10 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds beef tenderloin fillet
• Salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups beef consomme, available on soup aisle
• 2 teaspoons prepared Dijon style mustard
• 1/4 cup sour cream, eyeball it
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil or vegetable oil, 1 turn of the pan in a slow stream
• 1/2 small onion, sliced
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped cornichons <— Eww… no pickles, thank you! Gack.
• 1 pound extra wide egg noodles, cooked to package directions
• Chopped parsley leaves, garnish
• Thickly sliced pumpernickel bread, optional

Directions

Slice meat into 1/2-thick by 2 -nch long very thin strips and season with salt and pepper. Set in freezer.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and cook with flour 1 minute. Whisk in consomme. Thicken 1 minute. Stir in mustard and sour cream, thicken 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and season sauce with salt and pepper.

Heat a second skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter, then add the meat and onion and cook over high heat until brown on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes total. Then add the chopped cornichons and stir to combine.

Arrange meat on a bed of egg noodles and top with Stroganoff sauce and parsley. Serve with thickly sliced pumpernickel bread.

What’s for dinner…

Elises’s Chicken and Rice Recipe from Simply Recipes.

I’m sure I’ll get some complaints. But I’m not feeling creative today.

There you go.

Wasn’t this a riveting blog post to read?

No, you can’t have the last 5 seconds of your life back, sorry.

*Edited to add: after dinner I decided this recipe moved to the comfort food category for SURE. It was super yummy. In fact as I type this I wish there were leftovers. Wah.

Yummy

One of my more favorite recipes: Mushroom Risotta. Not carb friendly by ANY means. But good comfort food for a stormy Summer night. I added in about 2 cups of fresh baby spinach (chopped) and 1.5 pounds of sweet Italian sausage. I substituted white wine for the cognac as well.

Enjoy.

Fourth of July Part 2

We met our group of friends back down at the FYC for food and fireworks later in the afternoon. Had a great time. And for once it didn’t rain AND was relatively cool for July in Alabama. Amazing.

A recipe that is a slight variation on my mom’s ‘Peach Stuff.’ (Hey, J… quit wincing at the thought). No-Bake Dessert. It was crazy popular, which amused me greatly for some reason. Yes, yes yes… I bailed on making a real flag. Shhhhhh.

The tie dye shirts Tori, Jenna and Molly made yesterday.

Can’t take credit for this pic: Dave took it. I stole it. Summons will be arriving for court soon, I bet.

Hope everyone had a safe Fourth.