Chili!

My Awesome Chili

What you need:

• 1-2 lbs meat, browned (Ground turkey, beef, chicken, whatever)
• Small can of tomato paste
• Can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
• Small can of diced green chilies
• Can of kidney beans
• Can of black beans
• Can of pinto beans
• Can of pumpkin (you can leave his out, but if you don't you can't even taste it)
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 chopped green pepper
• 3-4 tbs chili powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• Red pepper flakes (if you like it really spicy)

What you need to do:

• Put everything in your slow cooker for 7-8 hrs on low.  

It's good to eat with corn bread, chips, diced green onions and other chili accessories.  

Roasty Chicken

 ROASTY CHICKEN 

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Open up your chicken and pull out the insides.  Most places are really nice and you just have to pull out a bag of chicken insides!
• Spray your pan with non-stick spray.  I like to use foil pans for easier clean up.
• Place your naked bird in the pan and spray all over with the non-stick spray.
• Cover your birdie with spices, my personal favorite is Season All.

This birdie is upside down :)

• Put the birdie in the oven for approximately 90 minutes.  I used my thermometer and cooked until the birdie was 165 degrees.
• Pull the birdie out and left it rest.
• Hack it up for food.

Easy Peasy :)

Food Hoarder!

I am guilty.  I go food shopping when I am hungry.  I don't use lists all the time.  I buy stuff because it looks pretty, interesting or it because it has polka dots.  I just like shopping.  To me it's easier to justify an overstock of food than say...shoes but I have been known to have an overstock of those as well.

Cabinets are much too full!

I am out of space in my cabinets, as you can see above.  I am out of space in my fridge.  My counter tops are cluttered. My pantry is full of all of my "I'll use these sometime" kitchen gadgets.  I need more space.  I need some organization.  I don't like being out of control.  It makes me anxious.

Here is my plan for my food collection.  I think I better call it a challenge.  I will use all of this stuff, someway, somehow, in our daily life until it is gone.  I will not buy any new meals or plan any new food projects until all of this stuff is used.  What I can buy is "accessories" to what I already have, proteins, produce, and of course my weekly CSA vegetables that have already been paid for.

Challenge:  Use up gigantic pile  of previously acquired food.

Gigantic pile of previously acquired food

Contestants:  Lauren, Matt & Avery

• Lauren.  A 31 year old food hoarder.  She'll talk you into her "ideas" and you'll be eating forever.
• Matt.  A 33 year old victim of a food hoarding wife.  Finds himself eating unfamiliar vegetables on a regular basis.  Refers to anything that he doesn't like as "bok choy."
• Avery.  A wordy 3.5 year old and Lauren's biggest critic.  Would rather eat mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, carrots, and "wet" broccoli than anything else everrrr.  Recently he has accepted turkey sandwiches into his repertoire along with yogurt covered raisins. Refuses to eat soup because "the vegetables are too soupy!" 

Timeline:  Umm, let's be realistic - I'll try to finish before Thanksgiving.

I have reassembled the cabinets in some sort of organizational fashion.  I imagine this project will be easy in the beginning as I use up all the good stuff that we have.  I really hope I do finish.

Let's do this - READY SET EAT!

Christmas Only Comes Three Months a Year!

Only 6 more Mondays until Christmas!

I took my birthday off of work.  October 29th.  I was wondering around doing some quiet shopping and there's Christmas stuff everywhere.  Happy Birthday Lauren, it's Christmas!  GOOD GRIEF!  I guess it's fine.  I can ignore it, right?  Not really.

On the most unmentionable day of this week (Monday) I left work to pick up my son from school and was trying to find a radio station without commercials.  I finally landed on one, it was playing "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time." Alright, the Universe knows I hate Monday AND that song.  Nice one.  I change the station because I would rather listen to a crummy commercial, but then I have to hear the awful Candy Kitchen commercial.  COME ON PEOPLE!!! Ocean City is closed, no one ever needs to go to Candy Kitchen anyway.  For the love of everything, please stop playing that commercial.  Touche Monday.

The holidays are just lovely, especially having a little one to share it with.  Maybe there is something to getting into the spirit a littler earlier than usual.  I did feel a little bit of excitement when the Grinch song came on the radio.

Should I forgo my annual list of most hated Christmas songs?  NO.

The following is what I will commit to - Ahem....

I will burn my cinnamon scented candle before Thanksgiving, but I will wait to light the cedar pine candle.  Electric candles in the windows will not be turned on until November 29th, which is good because that gives me 15 days to go buy replacement candles that either got destroyed by baby or cats.  While I may comment here and there about all of the Christmas songs I hate, I will wait to post the official list until the first week of December.  When I see those big blow up Christmas lawn things I will only think to myself that I want to pop them, instead of saying it out loud.  I will not send out Christmas cards with my cats wearing reindeer antlers or Santa hats, even better I just won't send out Christmas cards at all.

I am going to wrap a turkey in bacon for Thanksgiving.  I can't wait.   Merry Thanksgiving!

31 for 31

Change of pace...  I don't feel like talking about food.  I cook all the time, but the thought of writing about it makes me tired.  I decided to make a blog to help me feel creative and then BOOM writing about food became cumbersome to even think about.  I like food.  I like cooking, and eating and making people eat, but right now I just don't feel like talking about it.

My birthday was yesterday.  I'm a whole 31 years old. Whoopee!   I totally forgot.  I was just happy that I had the day to myself and it wasn't on a Monday.  My 30th birthday was a Monday and a flipping hurricane came up the coast.  We were barricaded in our house with a wet basement for four days. Yeah - 31 is better.  I can't knock 30, it was a good year. I hope I can continue our family's positive changes into the coming years.  Any improvement, small or big, is still a step is the right direction.

Let's move onto my 31 for 31.

1. My Mom and Dad.  I'm sure I was a good kid, but kids are exhausting.  Thank you for all you've done so that I turned out that way I am.

2.  My husband.  I'm sorry you married a crazy lady.  You should have done more research.

3. My son.  You are a 200% certified nut.  When you read this when you're older and social medial has taken on a presence greater than it is today, you'll probably Google "My Mom" and you'll see pictures of me from 2001.  Dear, I am so sorry.  Yesterday the Google home page said "Happy Birthday Lauren" and I called it a stalker.  We all have no idea.

4. My friends.  Thank you for all of your birthday wishes.

5. Beer.  You. Are Good.

6. Wine. You. Are. Good.

7. Liquor.  You and I have a relationship that I may never understand.  Please don't give up on me.

8. Food. I like to cook you!

9. Football.  You make me hate you.  Really.

10.  Do you remember sitting in the car as a kid on long drives thinking "WTF??"  I like those now.  Quiet times can be nice.

11.  Writing and listening to music.

12.  Looking at baby pictures of my son.  Thank goodness he's cute, because as I said, he's 200% certified nuts.

13.  The thought of having a food truck someday.

14.  Smelling candles in Walmart on my birthday and making faces at how bad most of them smell. haha.

15.  Buying the good smelling candles!

16.  Playing hide and seek before bedtime with my family.

17. My in-laws.  My husband has such a great family!

18.  Quilts and pillows.

19. Cake.

20. Chocolate.

21.  Roku.

22.  My kitchen.

23.  Netflix.

24.  AMAZON PRIME!

25.  Our de Mayo parties.

26.  Health.

27. Muffins.

28.  Friday nights.

29.  Shoes!

30.  Things that frustrate and stress me out, because when I can finally work thought it, I learn from it and come out better on the other side.

31.  The unknown.

I know my 31 for 31 may seem simple, but so what?  I'm only 31.  That's not even half of what I can expect!  If I can get through a day without my kid trying to chomp someone, or having some cough that sounded like its from the bottom part of his lung then that's a success.  Day by day.  If I don't just do day by day I will probably just run around yelling like an idiot.  Well I may do that anyway, but at least right now I can claim sanity.  Maybe.

Good Call Husband!

It is a rare, quiet Sunday at home.  Our family took a trip to Walmart this morning and we saw all of the typical NFL teams represented...Redskins, Ravens, Eagles.   We even saw a gentleman wearing a Farve Vikings jersey, which I may say is a rarity for the Eastern Shore of Maryland!  I guess you never know what you will see on any given day at Walmart.

Later in the day I took a trip to the local beer and wine store.  This time of year is awesome.  I can still buy the last of the summer brews while browsing the fall selection as well.  I'm not feeling too guilty about buying pumpkin beers, but only because it's been *just* a little bit cooler this weekend.  

It's been a trying afternoon of football...

In order to save my mood for the remainder of the day, I found myself looking up quick bread recipes. Banana, applesauce, oat....I pick applesauce.   I'm about to head on into the kitchen and my husband asks what I'm up to.

"I'm making bread" I say.

"Is it made with beer?" he asks.

Well I guess I need to revise what I am doing.  With a quick search, I found THIS.  Oh glorious easy loaf of bread recipe.  To my delight, I actually have self-rising flour!  This is recipe for real?  Flour, sugar, butter, and beer?  REALLY?  Well what the heck, if it gets messed up I'm only out three minutes of prep time according to this food dot com site.  

 

So what's with the harvest ale?  Well it fell out of the refrigerator earlier and got all shook up, so it was the only logical choice.  I laughed at the three minute prep time, but it was actually pretty accurate. The recipe suggests mixing in the melted butter for a softer bread.  I went with the mixed in method versus the dump on top.  After an hour of baking, and our house smelling great, I have a beautiful loaf of bread. 

That's a good looking loaf of beer bread!

All In A Day's Slice

I am thrilled it is August!  June and July were particularly trying, but that is all the the past now.  The heat wave is over, the travel season is winding down and there's not a full moon until the 21st.  People just seem to be completely nuts when it's a full moon, but we don't have to worry about that for another three weeks...GOOD!

I am just one work day a way from a much anticipated MOM-CATION!  I have a week to play stay at home mom, visit with my friends and family, and most importantly, I get to spend some quality time with my Mom.  I am very much looking forward to all of the projects that we'll get ourselves into.  Awesome.

For the past few weeks I feel like our family has been swimming in potatoes from the CSA.  I have so many of them that I have to share.  Take some to my husband's family, give some to my family, or just eat all of them.  I usually just cut the up and roast them, but I wanted to do something a little different this time.

I bought a mandolin slicer a few months ago, but I have to be honest, it's a scary piece of kitchen equipment. Also, I am undoubtedly very clumsy.  Sharp objects + me = OUCH!  Therefore, I have been very reluctant to even drag this thing out.  I got scared when I took it out of the box and had to wash it!  I love OXO kitchen stuff, it is all so cute and works well.  This is the mandolin slicer I picked out.  It looks innocent in the picture, but don't believe its lies!  I got over my fear and used the french fry slicer, without any bodily harm to myself, and successfully sliced up a bunch of potatoes.  It's not so scary now that I know how to use it.  I'm so resistant to change, just ask my husband.  Love you Dear.

The mandolin slicer does not look scary, but don't trust it!

OLD BAY FRIES!!!!

• Mandolin slicer scary potatoes
• Drizzle potatoes with olive oil
• Copious amounts of Old Bay 
• Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally 

Did I mention that I also have a ton of tomatoes?  Well I do - slicers and heirlooms to be more specific.  

My colorful assortment of onions and tomatoes.

What in the world am I going to do with all of these tomatoes?  I tried to bake them.  Seems easy enough and luckily it was.  I halved the tomatoes, and next time I will slice them, because while the finished product was pretty to look at, it was a little messy to actually have to eat.

Fries & Tomatoes

Roasted Parmesan Tomatoes

• 4 tomatoes, halved
• Parmesan, shredded on top
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano 
• Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes

I know that it is an interesting combination for a meal, but when I started cooking tonight I didn't have any plans so it's just what I came up with on my own.  Potatoes and tomatoes need love, too.  I certainly loved them tonight.  I don't know what I will do when it is winter and I don't have access to all these fresh vegetables.  I think there will be some canning and freezing in the near future.

Good tomato

EAT!