Gourmandery

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

My new favorite humor blog.

Adult language alert, for the more sensitive. But it’s hilarious.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

1. I gained a half pound last week. I’m bummed, but it could have been worse considering the weekend of food that included my Dad’s birthday cake. Wonderful carnitas in the slow cooker on Sunday, too. And PMS. It’s water weight, right?

2. I sang during our three worship services this weekend. It is always fun, but the worship was awesome for me as well. Thanks, Lord, for giving us a great set of songs.

3. All during the Saturday PM service I looked for Beau from the stage. I found my father, he was manning the MediaShout station at the last minute. Mom was seated in our usual area. But Beau was not there. I was only a little worried because he had laughing said I might not see him there since he was having a challenging time with Jesse when I left for band practice that afternoon.

When I was done singing, I headed around to the foyer to go into the auditorium. On my way I peeked into Jesse’s classroom and he was there playing happily. I asked the friend who was ushering if Beau was in there and she confirmed that he was sitting with my mom. Wha?

And there he was, sitting there as if he’d been there the whole time. “When did you get here?” I whispered into his ear? “Just a minute ago - we’re all right, we were rear-ended on the way.”

Turns out an older couple was out walking their kitten. But the kitten was not on a leash and he decided that he wanted to play in the street. So the car in front of Beau slammed on the breaks to avoid killing the kitty, which meant that Beau slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the car, which meant the car behind Beau slammed on brakes to avoid hitting Beau, and the next car tried to slam on brakes to avoid the collision. But alas the 4th car didn’t stop in time and there ensued the rear-ending of the car behind Beau, which resulted in that car being plowed into the back of Beau’s car. It was dark, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t anything more than a bit of paint transfer.

Until one of the people’s insurance company called and insisted that he take the car to be looked at by an auto body shop. So he did that yesterday and they estimated about $500 in damage. I guess we’re waiting to hear back from the insurance company again before we get the repair done.

4. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. Thank you, veterans, for your service to our country. I come from a long line of veterans going back to the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, World War 1 and World War 2 and Vietnam. I’m so grateful for that legacy and I hope that will continue in our family.

We’re headed to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia for the afternoon. We may have a chance to inspect our beef steer. We’ve been told to expect the beef in early December. 300 pounds of beef. Yowsah.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I posted about this at my FB page, but I thought I’d post it here, too.

Starting today I’m counting calories. And I’m keeping a food journal - I’ve had this lovely little leather moleskin for years, but I’m a terrible journal keeper (I blog!) so I have never used it. I pulled it out of a drawer last night to be used as my food diary. Already I have marked down my current weight and goal weight. The number of calories allowed per day at this point (1716) and the foods I have consumed so far. I’ll add lunch in a little bit - Beau’s lovely daily salad with much less cheese, no hard-boiled egg, and with less croutons and dressing. Not no croutons/dressing - I’m not going to punish myself by eliminating all fun foods. That’s a diet killer for me. I’ll keep certain no-nos, but just cut way back on my intake of them.

For instance, I was told that 10 plain M&Ms are 1 WW point. I told Beau that if he bought a large bag of them (and hid them from me) and he portioned out 10-20 pieces per day with my lunch, then I’d be happy. And I’ll have to tell him to buy “light” dairy products from now on, too.

Oh, according to the WW points calculator, I’m allowed 26-28 points. I get 2 points for every nursing session - we’re down to only nursing once a day at this point so I get those extras, but I’ll try to keep it to 26 points when I know the WW values on my meals. I figure between the total calories and WW points I should start to get a handle on what I’m eating.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Now that I am no longer The Food Source™ for Molly Ann, it’s time to shed the extra 50-60 pounds I’m carrying around post-childbirth of two babies.

I’m motivated by the clothes that don’t fit.

I’m unmotivated by the food I like to eat.

There’s also our budget, which is tighter than tight. So while I’d love the accountability of paying for Weight Watchers meetings or their online stuff, we just cannot afford that. So I’m trying to figure out how to do WW without the meetings and without knowing how they value foods to their points system. I hate counting calories, frankly. I don’t want to think of every morsel that goes into my mouth as points. How tedious. I hated doing that when I had the gestational diabetes, too.

Add the complication that Beau is our primary cook, and it means I have to remind him how not to cook. So I’m on the hunt for low cal/low fat recipes that will still taste good and won’t break our bank. I’m hoping this blog will help - I already found a recipe that has potential for the pork chops we have thawing in the frig.

[LATER]: Yes, I know. Exercise. Not happening. No time. For real - there are no extra minutes in my days to work in exercise.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

I put together this casserole for my friend with the baby and kidney infection. It’s a great one, but I can’t make it for us until I figure out how to do it without milk products. But I am going to work on that, because it is delish.

Chicken Tortillas Casserole
Serves 6-8

4 cooked chicken breasts
1 onion, grated
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups any kind of salsa (I used roasted verde salsa this time)
1 cup milk
12-15 corn tortilla, cut into quarters
2-3 cups cheddar cheese, grated
2 cans green chilies, seeded/diced

1. Cut chicken into chunks. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine the onion, soups, salsa, and milk. Blend well.

3. In a large, lightly greased, casserole dish, layer half of the tortillas. Top with half of the chicken, half of the sauce, and half of the cheese. Sprinkle with 1 can of green chilies.

4. Repeat layers, ending with the cheese on top.

5. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. You can refrigerate for longer, if you like.

6. Remove cover. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 full hour.

Monday, August 10, 2009

I discovered this cool website this weekend - Make and Takes. I heart M&T. It’s an awesome resource for parents (I was going to say moms, but there are dads who get into this kind of stuff with their kids, too, so I didn’t want to discriminate) who love to do fun things with and for their kids.

For instance, the newest post is for Star Wars Felt Fingerpuppets. Click over to see the cute picture - I think Princess Leia is spot on.

I plan to make these today - we’re eating a ton of granola bars in our house recently (me for the galactogogueal properties of oats, Jesse because they taste good). Beau is buying the ingredients that we do not have while at Wegmans this morning.

And one day, I hope to make one of these for each of my kids - how cute!

[UPDATE]: Here are photos of the finished granola bars. I made note of the problems with the first attempt in the comments.

The first picture: the scored bars cooling in the pan.
Second picture: the crumbly bars on a platter.
Third picture: the aftermath - someone had to clean up the pan, so I did.

Monday, July 27, 2009

I’ve been trying to work on a modification of my mother’s 3-hour chicken recipe because hers calls for cream of mushroom soup. Beau can’t do cream of anything soup. Initially, I tried to make my own cream of mushroom soup that was milk free. It turned out well, but was a lot of work just to make the soup and then came the chicken part. I tried some other iteration, too, but it wasn’t the best either.

And then the most simple solution came to me while I was in the shower yesterday - all of my best ideas come to me in the shower, aka The Thought Locker. I realized that I didn’t need a cream of anything soup, but a simple blend of a béchamel/velouté sauce.

Anyway, here’s the recipe, which Beau and I agree is a repeater.

Jen’s Milk-Free Mushroom Chicken
For the slow cooker, Serves 4-6 people

2 lb frozen chicken thighs (about 8 thighs)
1 packet dry onion soup mix
2 small cans mushrooms (stems/caps in water)
2-3 Tbsp Smart Balance spread or olive oil
2-3 Tbsp flour
1/3 cup rice milk
salt and pepper, to taste

1. You can thaw your chicken, but there is no need ultimately - my thighs were in two large chunks of frozen meat. Place your frozen chicken thighs into your slow cooker.

2. Sprinkle the dry onion soup mix over the chicken pieces.

3. Open the cans of mushroom and drain (to reserve) the water.

4. Over medium heat, melt the Smart Balance and flour together, whisking well to prevent lumps. Cook until the paste is a golden color and smells slightly nutty. Add the reserved mushroom water and whisk well, until the resulting sauce is smooth. Then add the rice milk and whisk again until smooth. Reduce heat to low and add the mushroom pieces. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cook on low for another couple of minutes.

5. Pour the mushroom sauce over the chicken, making sure all pieces are covered well with sauce.

6. Set your slow cooker to HIGH for 2 hours. After 2 hours, separate the chicken pieces from each other and arrange evenly in the pot, using a spoon to cover each piece with mushrooms and sauce. Set cooker to LOW and finish cooking for another 4-5 hours.

I served it with rice pilaf and peas. The chicken was perfectly cooked and delicious.

Friday, July 10, 2009

I had this old recipe that I called Mexican Lasagna from way back in my single days. I never made it for Beau, but we had some ground beef thawing and a pack of corn tortillas (Beau thought he picked up flour fajita tortillas) so I decided to try making it with the corn tortillas. The original recipe called for flour tortillas. Then I discovered that we were out of BBQ sauce, which is a key ingredient. So with a little thought and some exploration in the pantry, I came up with the following modification to the original. I think it’s way better than the original and Beau said it’s definitely a repeater.

Jen’s Mexican Lasagna
serves 4-6, depending on your serving sizes

1 lb ground beef
1 can refried beans
1 can Ro-Tel
1 packet taco seasoning
2-4 cups shredded cheese (I use the Mexican blend)
As many corn tortillas as you desire to act as “noodles”, quartered

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom of a 9” by 13” casserole dish.

Brown the beef and drain the fat. Add the Ro-tel and taco seasoning, mix well. Then add the refried beans and blend the whole mixture well.

Quarter the corn tortillas. Place a layer of tortilla pieces in the bottom of your casserole dish so that none of the bottom is visible. Spread a mixture of the meat/beans over the tortillas. Add a layer of the shredded cheese. Repeat the layers, topping with a generous amount of cheese.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese top is nicely melted.

Serve with salsa and sour cream and maybe a nice green salad.

I left the cheese out of Beau’s half, of course.

It’s super easy, filling, and reheats well, too.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Billy Mays, too?

Movies: Blood Work was OK.

Books: Shadow of Power by Stever Martini was pretty good, although I figured out the major mystery about halfway through the first chapter.

Food: Judging from the Roasted Mango-Chipotle sauce we had on our chicken last night, Bronco Bob’s sauces are awesome. I have a sample jar of the Raspberry-Chipotle sauce as well that I’m saving for some salmon in our future.

I’m on worship team this weekend. Our church is only having services on Sunday morning since July 4th is on Saturday. That will make things easier for our family. I have mixed feelings about it since it will be my first time back since having Molly Ann and also since our worship leader left. That is a whole long story about which I still feel weird. His leaving was a surprise and under odd circumstances. I miss him a ton as a worshipper and I know that I’m going to miss him more as our team leader. I’m very curious about what kind of person will come in to replace him - it’s hard to imagine anyone else, really.

I’ve posted a bunch of new items at Ticklish Giggles recently and there’s a new theme as well.

Happy Monday.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Beau’s Mom is here from California for a week-long visit with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She’s spending the first leg of her east coast trip with the Speaks’ clan. She arrived on Saturday afternoon. Beau and Jesse met her at the airport and then took her on a quick foray to Wegmans to pick up the few ingredients we needed for our chicken fajitas dinner. After dinner she crashed and Jesse went to bed so Beau, Molly Ann, and I had a pretty normal Saturday evening hanging out in our bedroom watching TV.

Oh, and Saturday was my sister‘s 40th birthday - I never made it to the computer all day to post birthday wishes here on the blog, but I did call to sing the Birthday Song to her. Happy belated birthday, my sistah. And it was also Granny‘s birthday, so happy belated birthday to you, too, my friend!

Yesterday morning was family dedication day at church. We were dedicating Molly Ann to the Lord at the 9:30 service so we headed out early. Jesse, Beau, and Molly Ann all developed colds throughout the weekend, with MA being at her worst yesterday. So I kept MA out of the service all together since she needed to be fed anyway. Marmie hung out with Jesse in order to keep him out of the nursery and so that Beau could be in church with his mom. At the end of the service we stood at the front with my folks, Beau’s Mom, and several ladies from my small group who stood with us to dedicate our baby girl to God. We are grateful that the Lord entrusted our two children to us and we pray to be the Godly parents He wants for them and to grow them up as He desires. We pray that they each become fully devoted followers of Jesus with deep faiths in the One who created them, loves them, and died for them so that they may live.

After church we headed to Artie’s for our Father’s Day brunch, which was delicious. We love that local chain of restaurants. They are top notch.

From there we headed home and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and evening. Once Jesse was in bed, we adults played Flinch for a couple of hours. That’s a fun game - slower paced than Nerts/Pounce, but still fun in its own way. We plan to play again tonight unless we feel more like Scrabble.

Currently, Beau, Grandma C, Jesse, and Molly Ann are at Clemyjontri while I work here at home. Then later this afternoon, we gals (Grandma C, Molly Ann, and I) are going to have tea with Marmie.

Tomorrow we head north to meet up with Beau’s Sis and her daughter and boys for a picnic. I’m looking forward to meeting baby Caleb (our great-nephew), who was born just 3 weeks before Molly Ann. We will leave Grandma C with Beau’s Sis, where she’ll spend the next leg of her visit.

All in all it has been a fabulous time and I’m sad it is almost over already. Grandma C just got here!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Anyone else addicted to those Food Network Challenge shows? In particular, the cake decorating competitions are my weakness. The talent it takes to do those enormous cakes is amazing.

[ADDED LATER]: From Cake Wrecks ... it pretty much speaks for itself, although Jen’s commentary is great.

Speaking of cake decorating, did anyone see the episode of Cake Boss where that crazy bride screwed up her cake the day before her wedding? She is nutso. And incredibly selfish and rude. And her mother clearly never disciplined her daughter.

Back to the Food Network, I am watching this season of The Next Food Network Star. I see a couple of front runners early on - both have the cooking chops and have good TV potential. ***SPOILERS FOLLOW*** I was ticked that Brett was so willing to sell out the homemaker cook (I can’t remember her name) because she accepted his offer to help plate her food on a challenge. He offered the help, she accepted. There was no help in the actual cooking, just in the plating up of the dishes. If you ask me, she could have plated on her own in the time she had left - I think it took more time for her to show them how she wanted things than if she had just done it herself. But that Brett was such a jerk made me happy that he got the boot.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Let it be known that Wegmans Fajita Marinade is the best on the planet.

Actually, just about anything from Wegmans is top notch. Other items we recommend:

Lemon & Garlic Marinade - this is what we use for our cedar plank salmon, but it’s also good with chicken.

There’s a tarragon vinaigrette that we use for chicken, but I’m not seeing the bottle we use. This may be it, but I can’t guarantee it.

They have two BBQ sauces that we like when we don’t make our own. Memphis style and Kansas City style.

Finally, let me recommend the Caramelized Onion & Bacon Dressing. Beau bought this when they seemed to be out of ranch dressing. It’s delish.

If you don’t have a Wegmans, I’m so sorry. You’re missing out on the best grocery store EVER.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Is there a difference between the two? Not that I could tell. Seems to me that except for the manufacturer and packaging, Baked Lays and Pringles are the exact same product.

So then, Which is Better?

I vote Pringles because of the cool tube packaging alone.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I found this great, simple recipe for quick chicken and pasta. I tried it last night - it is quick, simple, and tasty. I’m trying to figure out how to convert it to a slow cooker recipe without overcooking the pasta.

Pesto Chicken and Pasta
Serves 4

3-4 lbs chicken thighs
1 jar pesto
1 lb pasta

Notes before you start cooking:

1. I had bone-in thighs with skin on. The skin created a lot of excess fat in the pan. If you prefer less fat, remove the skin. If you prefer no bones, buy boneless thighs or try using breasts, just know that breasts may dry out quickly.

2. The garlic and water content in the pesto will cause the oil in the pan to splatter. Have a cover or spatter guard handy.

3. I used elbow pasta because that’s what we had in the pantry. But any pasta will work, of course.

Instructions:

1. Heat a large skillet on a medium setting. Drizzle 1-2 Tbsp olive oil into the skillet to warm.

Start a pot of water to boiling for the pasta.

2. Spread pesto over the skin side of the thighs. Then place them pesto/skin side down into the hot skillet. Spread pesto over the top side of the thighs while they are cooking.

3. After about 5 minutes, turn the thighs over and continue cooking for at least 15-20 minutes more. Make sure your largest pieces get completely cooked through.

When you turn the chicken, the pot of water should be nearly ready for the pasta to be added.

4. When the pasta is cooked to al dente, drain the water and add any leftover pesto. Fold the pasta and pesto until all of it is well covered.

Serve with crusty rolls or garlic bread and a nice salad.

We found the chicken to have great flavor and paired well with the pasta although if pesto is not your favorite it may be too pesto-y as a meal.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Amen, brutha.

[via Thinkling Bill]

[ADDED LATER]: Bonus clip that made me tear up I was laughing so hard: