The Recipe That Bonded Newlyweds

One of the things N and I loved doing in our newly-wedded bliss was to lounge on the couch with our reheated Ore-Ida fries and Dino nuggets and watch The Food Network. We’d look at all the great foods they made and think that someday we might do the same. You know, after we’d been married for several years and grilled cheese didn’t hold any appeal as our Tuesday night staple. We were ambitious people. Highly ambitious.


You know what happens when you see great food being made. You actually begin to think you are a chef. That you could also whip up a five course meal in 30 minutes, not have a ton of dishes and everyone, absolutely everyone would be standing in line to have some of your great cooking. We started small. We bought all the ingredients to make Emeril’s Essence. We began putting that on chicken and in breading for chicken strips. That Emeril knows how to season food!

Once we tasted great seasoning, the frozen food didn’t cut it anymore. We knew it was time we actually cooked something beyond grilled cheese and taco meat. Just to clarify, we didn’t eat those together. I went online and got some recipes. We both would work in the kitchen, making meals together, salivating over our newest creation. Then we’d sit down, look at each other in a stare down of “who is going to try it first.” Usually N went first and didn’t come back up until he had totally cleaned his plate.

I’m not going to lie. We’ve had some dishes that are less than stellar. We may have used our grilled cheese back-up when things didn’t turn out okay.

Since that first attempt with seasoning, we’ve got a fairly good repartee of dinners. Stir Fry Chicken and Bell Peppers was one of our first attempts at cooking in our very own kitchen. I remember coming home with the recipe and asking N if he thought it sounded okay. Then we went and bought a wok because we had to cook it exactly as they said! It has become a staple in our monthly meal planning. I believe I got this recipe from Rachael Ray, but I’m not entirely sure. The best part is that it can easily be expanded to feed more people or some for leftovers. We usually double this recipe so N and I have some leftovers for the week. Also, if you have little ones who aren’t too fond of all the spiciness, you can take some chicken out before you insert the spicy.

Stir Fry Chicken and Bell Peppers

2 Cups of rice, cooked
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces of even size
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2-3 Tbsp hot chili oil
Crushed red pepper flakes to taste
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Cook the rice per package instructions and set aside. Typically I start the rice the same time I start the chicken and peppers so they are done about the same time. I find this dish to be excellent with brown rice, but I have to pretend we don’t have any white rice if N is going to eat brown rice.

Heat the vegetable oil in the wok over medium to medium high heat and add the chicken to the heated oil. Cook until chicken is done and starting to turn slightly brown on the outside. There will be quite a bit of chicken liquid in the bottom of the wok, but don’t fear, it will evaporate.

To the cooked chicken add the garlic, hot chili oil (you can always add more or less of this) and crushed, red pepper flakes. You can omit the red pepper flakes if you wish. I’ve even used a dash or two of cayenne pepper and it tastes great, with less intense heat. Stir and let cook for about a minute until the chicken is coated and the garlic has a chance to cook a bit. To this add the bell peppers, turn the heat down to medium or medium-low and stir together. Cover the wok with the lid and let the peppers cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the soy sauce to the chicken and peppers to add a little liquid to the mixture. You can add more or less of the soy sauce to the wok, depending on how dry the chicken and peppers seem.

Serve over rice.

It’s a two pot cooking experience and a one bowl eating experience. That the kind of clean-up math I like.

The Extra Hour is the Gift That Keeps On Giving

I'm still trying to recover from Daylight Savings Time.  In my younger days, I loved the fall back part of DST.  You gained a whole hour.  You could stay up until midnight, but it was really only 11:00.  I could go to bed at normal time and gain that extra hour of sleep.  The options were endless and I can assure you I never took the "fall back" part of DST for granted. 

Now that Zoe is alive, DST doesn't hold any of the same meaning.  We tried keeping Zoe up until 10 o'clock because it was really 9 o'clock, which is her bedtime.  She was up at 6:45 the next morning as though she didn't miss an hour of sleep.  Ever since then it's been a downhill slide. 

Our girl normally slept until 8:30.  Now it's sometimes before 7:00.  This mamma likes her sleep.

Do you like how I'm making excuses for how sad the blog is lately?  I'm tellin' ya, it's a gift.

Because I'm still in a DST cloud, I thought I would continue to share some recipes that we've been making at home.  I've found The Pioneer Woman's site called Tasty Kitchen.  It is an online community of home chef's that share recipes.  It's like the best Baptist potluck in the world.  I highly recommend if you're looking for something specific, go to Tasty Kitchen.  It will totally be worth the 3 hours of sleep you miss because of all the goodness that comes pouring off the screen!

Lately I've been trying to replicate some of our favorite restaurant dishes at home.  We sometimes like to be both frugal and anti-social.  Plus the holidays are coming up, family is coming over and I have this OCD tendancy to really impress people.  Not to mention food is my husband's love language.

There is a deli here that makes the best Sesame Noodles.  They are equally spicy as they are delicious.  The best part is they're great cold.  It's the perfect side dish to a sandwich or a BBQ.  I couldn't figure out what they used.  I went to Tasty Kitchen to see if anyone had a recipe out there for them.  Don't you love how strongly I'm linking you to the site!  You can search by recipe or ingredient.  If you have extra cream of tartar that you're just not sure what to do with, this site can help you.  Seriously, it's genius.

I found this recipe for Funky Chicken and Sesame Noodles.  I haven't been able to make the funky chicken part of this recipe yet, but I have a feeling it's coming.  And fast! 

Having said that, I also tweaked the recipe just a touch because I like my sesame noodles to have a kick to them.  Surprisingly so does Zoe.  The girl eats these noodles up.

Here's my version of the sesame noodles, minus the funky chicken.

1 box of thin spaghetti noodles (I prefer the whole wheat ones in this recipe and the thin noodles)
1/3 Cup soy sauce
1/4 Cup toasted sesame oil
2 Tbsp hot chili oil
1/3 C Sugar
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated (I use my microplane for this)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
Crushed, red pepper flakes to taste
1/4 C sesame seeds, toasted (watch carefully because burning them doesn't smell good, not that I know of course)

Cook spagetti according to directions, drain and rinse.  In a bowl (or large mixing cup like I use), add the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, hot chili oil (a little goes a long way), sugar, ginger and garlic.  Whisk until well blended and the sugar is dissolved.  (If you have a toddler who wants to help, the whisking is a hit at our house.)  Once it's blended, then I had the crushed, red pepper flakes.  (It all depends on how much help I've had the prior ingredients and how hot the sauce already is.)  Pour this over the pasta and toss.

In a skillet, over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds.  Once toasted, pour over noodles and toss.

You can also add scallions to the top of the dish to make it look pretty, but I find they just get picked out at our house. 

The best part of this is that you can serve it right away or refrigerate it.  They last for quite awhile.  We also add some BBQ pork to it and eat it with that too.  All depends on how much time you have and if you're carbo loading!
Enjoy.

We Represented with Tortilla Soup

This past weekend was exactly what the doctor ordered.  Friday night we enjoyed some time with our small group at church, Saturday was a lazy day and Sunday was church and nothin' else.

It was just what the doctor ordered.  Rest, relaxation, quilting, good soups and a toddler who keeps both N and me in stitches.

Because I like to have some substance to ye olde blog, I'll share with you one of the soup recipes we had this weekend.  It's from Big Mama and that girl knows her stuff...or the right people!

In the spirit of Big Mama, we represented with some Tortilla Soup.  A reader of her blog gave her the recipe for Tortilla Soup from The Mansion in Dallas.  While I've seen the website of The Mansion and am totally impressed, I cannot confirm nor deny if this recipe is from there.  However, if it's not, they should totally take credit because it's one of the best soups in the whole category of soup.

Without further ado, Mansion Tortilla Soup (it's totally on the menu on the website)

Tortilla Soup from The Mansion


3 tablespoons olive oil
4-6 corn tortillas, diced
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
4-5 tablespoons of chopped cilantro (All the cilantro I could find was sketchy at best)
1 tablespoon of cumin
2 tablespoons of chili powder

Saute all of the above until tortillas begin to crisp.

Add the following to the above and simmer:

1 cup onion puree (I rough chopped an onion and then put it in the food processor until it was liquidish - that's totally a word.  This, in my opinion makes the soup).
1 large can (29 oz) of tomato puree (or tomato sauce as we call it in the north)
2 quarts of chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste

I also added diced chicken (got the rotisserie from Costco and diced that bad boy up), a can of corn drained and a can of black beans drained & rinsed. 

You can top it with avacado, cheese, sour cream and crispy strips of tortillas. 

Mine ends up being more chunky than I'm sure The Mansion does, but it's so good.  Plus it's healthy and flavorful and totally diet friendly.

Not to mention it also cleanses your sinuses.  It's win-win really.

Even without cilantro.

You Can Now Smell Like a Horse

On Tuesday of this week I went to the doctor for a cough and shortness of breath.  I realize I don't really like going to the doctor.  Normally they figure out what's wrong with me, give me some drugs and I'm on my way.  However, this visit they threw out words like "heart disease" or "pulmonary embolism" and I started to see spots, got a little light headed and started planning my funeral.

Fortunately they ruled all those things out and concluded that I have bronchitis.  Which seems like I'm a total sissy for thinking I was sick. 

I had to go to the pharmacy for some cough syrup and antibiotics.  The pharmacist told me it would be about 15 minutes and they would call my name when it was ready.

I went looking through the store and realized we needed shampoo.  As I was looking for something fruity-smelling that would provide me with that "just stepped out of the salon" look, this caught my attention. 

I wasn't sure if the horse and reference to a "mane" was because this was for your livestock or for you and they had a clever play-on-words-and-picture thing going on.

The have two directions on the back:  For Human Use and For Animal Use.

That's right you can use this product on you and your favorite steed.  Plus it not only acts as shampoo and conditioner, but body wash.

I'm not sure who takes showers with their horses, but apparently there is a large enough demographic that a company exists to make such a product.  What's even better is that two bottle of the shampoo/body wash are missing. 

If you're looking for a clever Christmas idea, might I suggest a bottle of the Mane and Tail shampoo with a copy of Horse and Hound.  It's sure to make someone's Christmas a little more special.

She Has Found Her Calling

On Tuesday Grandma Lily came over to play with Zoe for a bit in the morning.  Grandma Lily has hamsters at her house and Zoe isn't a fan of all things rodent.  I'm proud to say that's one of the traits she inherited from my DNA. 

Grandma Lily thought Zoe needed a new outfit.

She is officially a princess.  I was home sick from work with bronchitis on Tuesday, so Zoe and I held court all day.  She reluctantly took it off for nap time.

However, when she woke up, she insisted that she put her "princess dress" on before leaving her room.

I'm so glad she's finally found her calling.

Wordless Wednesday: Every Child's Dream

Because a New Puppy Doesn't Fit in Her Candy Bag

Halloween night was something I was anticipating, but also concerned about.  Zoe LOVED her costume and she loves candy, however, she's not so keen on strangers.  Trick-or-treating could've gone either direction. 

We all went to Grandma Kathy's (my mom's) house for some pre-trick-or-treating fellowship.  She also lives in a neighborhood with loads of grandparents, so they were bound to give out some good candy and not be too scary.

Zoe had her trusty horse Kisses and was dressed for action.

The she realized she had to have her coat on and carry her candy bag.  I got horse duty while grandma snapped pictures.  N stayed behind to pass out candy.  I really think he just wanted a few minutes to watch some history of The Real Wolfman. 

After her first house, Zoe was an old pro.  As we walked down the stairs, she would say, "next house.  More candy!" 

That was until she got tired of walking, we put her in a stoller and then she just wanted to send me or grandma to the door to get her candy.  We had to bribe her with candy to get her out of the stroller. 

Then it was off to Aunt Becca's and Uncle Josh's house.  She was totally excited because they have a black dog named Tucker.  After about 5 minutes of Uncle Josh holding poor Tucker in what I can assume is a hold off UFC, did Zoe feel like she would approach Tucker. 

It was an instant bond.  He would let her pet his tail, she would let him "kiss" her cheek with his nose.  He was the highlight of her Halloween.  She cried for exactly 1/2 mile (the distance to our house) and about 10 extra minutes just so I would know that she REALLY REALLY REALLY wants a Tucker of her own.  I had to bribe her with a play date at Aunt Becca's house. 

Then I got out the candy bag and the size of her loot made her temporarily forget her favorite puppy in the whole world.

She switched to nuzzling M&M's like her mom does when talk of puppies comes up.