International Cooking

It never fails when my husband and I go out to eat, my vote is always for some kind of food other than American. I love the different spices that are used.

This week I decided to try my hand at making some of these foods because the restaurants aren't very close by.

First up was hot and sour soup. When I have looked it up before there were a lot of complicated ingredients. This recipe from serious eats was a great start and made me realize that it could be easily done with ingredients I keep on hand. I did make a few changes for our family's taste. Hubs is not a big fan of mushrooms so I cut that amount down a good bit and didn't add any meat.

Second I tried chicken vindaloo with spiced basmati rice, naan, and tzatziki sauce. Turned out so much better than I hoped. Vindaloo is the hubs favorite when we go to am Indian restaurant, so now I can make it at home.

Coral and Teal

Coral and Teal by abdotson featuring high waisted pants

Diane von Furstenberg teal shirt
£242 - matchesfashion.com

Marc by Marc Jacobs high waisted pants
$360 - net-a-porter.com

Rupert Sanderson high heels
$995 - rupertsanderson.com

Burberry Prorsum leather handbag
£1,295 - matchesfashion.com

Yellow gold earrings
€1.626 - luisaviaroma.com

Ruby necklace
$925 - rubylane.com

Joomi Lim gold jewelry
£115 - matchesfashion.com

White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese Soup

I was so unsure of how this would turn out that I did not take pictures. But it turned out wonderfully and was so yummy. The next time I make this, and there will definitely be a next time I will take pictures.

Ingredients

• 2 ¹/2 cups water
• 1 (10-ounce) package broccoli & carrot mix, thawed
• 1 (7.25-ounce) package white cheddar macaroni & cheese mix
• 1 ¹/2 teaspoons salt
• ¹/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 cups (1 quart) milk
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded White Cheddar cheese or cheese mix
• 1/8 teaspoon paprika 
• (optional red pepper flakes for spice)

Instructions

1. In a soup pot, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Stir in the broccoli and carrots, the macaroni from the packaged mix (reserving the cheese packet), the salt and pepper. Return to a boil, cover loosely, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
    
2. Add the remaining ingredients, including the reserved cheese packet. Reduce the heat to medium, cover loosely, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until hot and creamy, stirring occasionally.

On the Road to Recovery

Physical therapy has started and now I'm supposed to be patient. I've always said that patience is a gift that I do not possess. I'm ready to be up and doing things such as finishing my "spring" cleaning in my house or enjoying my summer, or taking my puppy to the dog park. For now I'm still on crutches. The original pain is better, but because I'm not as active right now I've had some issues with my SI joint being in pain and my moments of insanity when I forget I can't put too much weight on my right hip.

God is good though and I have wonderful friends and family who have taken care of and entertained me through these weeks while I'm stuck at home. I am very looking forward to driving myself again. For now I'm glad that it all went well and with the possibilities to come.

Summer Harvest Soup

I made this soup last summer, but for some reason never got around to posting about it. From last year to this year I have slowly been getting into Freezer cooking or once a month cooking, using monthly menu plans, and couponing. I'm hoping this year I can combine all of these to help save time and money for our family. This soup is great because it doesn't involve the oven at all. I got the recipe from Once a Month Mom who provides monthly menus but she got this recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking which is a great site for crock pot meals.

Cook Time: 6-8 hours                                  Serves: 8

Ingredients: 

4 cups chicken broth (vegetable stock is fine!)
1 cup prepared pasta sauce
1 cup water
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 zucchini, washed well and sliced in 1/4-inch rounds
2 yellow summer squash, washed well and sliced in 1/4-inch rounds
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on size)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/3 cup dry white Cannellini beans (this doesn't sound like a lot, but they swell!)
1/2 cup pasta (to add 20 minutes before serving)
salt and pepper to taste
garnish with Parmesan and Romano cheeses

Directions: 

Wash squashes well, and slice in rounds. Place into slow cooker

Add diced onion and tomato wedges

 Rinse your beans in hot water, and add to cooker

 Add broth

Add pasta sauce

Add water

Stir in Italian seasoning.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until beans have reached desired tenderness. 

20 minutes before serving, stir in raw pasta. Serve with grated Parmesan and Romano cheese.

If you are doing Freezer cooking you will need 2, gallon freezer bags. Let the soup cool place in the bags and freeze flat(Make sure to label the bags before you put the soup in). To serve: reheat in slow cooker, microwave, or stove top until heated through. 

Expecting a Blessing

I was checking the Better After blog today and she was featuring one of the many charities that she hears from. This one is a family that has decided to adopt. I have often thought about adopting and we have talked about it some as a family. Future Mama and her story was very interesting and I found that I want to continue following her blog and her one less story.

Check out the feature here on Better After or follow Future Mama's Blog at Expecting a Blessing

Two Weeks Post Surgery

So it has been almost two weeks since I had surgery on my hip. They went in to repair what they thought was a possible tear in the labrum of my hip. What they found was that the labrum was detached so it was anchored to reattach it, they shaved down some extra bone on my pelvis that was causing problems with the labrum. They also did a release on the iliopsoas tendon because it was too tight. I will be on crutches for another 2-3 weeks and begin rehab this week. The relaxation part has been nice. I've been able to read many books for fun which I haven't had much time to do recently. The bad part is I'm pretty helpless to do much of anything on my own. Thankfully my husband has been wonderful with all this juggling class, car work, and both mine and his dad's surgeries.

Post Surgery

We were told to arrive at the hospital at 7am Monday, June 13. Of course since we were all nervous we ended up getting there at 6:30 am. About 7 I was taken to the prep area and waited and waited and waited and waited. Every so often someone would come in; a nurse to cleanse the are, put the stockings for circulation on, put in the IV, anesthesiologist came, and my orthopedic. Finally about 10:30-11 the nurse antithesis came in as well as second nurse to take me to surgery. They gave me a liquid in the IV that immediately knocked me out. That was a weird feeling. I don't remember anything else until I woke up fully in the recovery room.

Not knowing how I would do with anesthesia, they were prepared with anti nausea medicine. Turns out, I needed it.

Now I am at home resting, sleeping off and on.

Pepperoni Pizza Soup

I tried a new soup today: Pepperoni Pizza Soup in a bread bowl. The bread I had available was just a kaiser roll, so it was a little too absorbent. Overall though it turned out really well, especially since less than 5 minutes after I was done we lost power at the house. I didn't get to take any pictures, but I definitely will next time.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/george-duran/pepperoni-pizza-soup-recipe/index.html

Turning a Closet into Bookshelves

I have been planning this project for a while, but we just have not made the time to do it. We went to work yesterday on it and I was so excited. I measured the closet to get my shelves evenly spaced out. I wanted to have four shelves to fully use the height of the closet. We started with the top shelf putting in the brackets and making sure it was all level. Then we put the shelf on.

So now I need to decide to cut the shelf and make it more shallow. To cut the shelf in half from front to back and make a shelf on each side. Or to lower the shelf and just have three shelves. So we stopped for the night last night. Putting that shelf up took almost an hour. I don't know if you can see but there are already some holes in the wall. If we decide to lower the shelf I'm going to go back and fill in the holes and possibly give a coat of paint. 

On to Round two

Georgia Post Walk

Chicken, Spinach, and Black Bean Enchiladas

I found these from Good Life Eats . According to my husband this has been the best meal I've made yet and I've made some pretty good ones. Katie said she reached perfection with this recipe I think I have to agree. Mine did not turn out as pretty as hers so I'm linking her pictures. I had plenty for multiple meals so I'll try to make it look better next time and get pictures.

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
• 1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
• 5 ounces baby spinach, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup monterrey jack cheese, grated
• 12 corn tortillas
• Tomatillo Salsa, recipe follows
• Sour Cream Sauce, recipe follows

For the chicken, I like to cook it in the crock pot with salt, pepper, a chopped onion, garlic, cilantro, lime, chili powder, and cumin. The chicken becomes so tender and moist that it is incredibly easy to shred. Alternatively, you can bake the chicken or used leftover rotisserie chicken, but I recommend seasoning it with the above listed spices and flavors.

Spray a 9x13 inch pan with spray oil. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the chicken, spinach, salt, pepper in a medium to large bowl. Stir until ingredients are evenly distributed. Add the beans and carefully stir in so as not to mash up the beans.

Steam the tortillas using a tortilla warmer. If you don't have a tortilla warmer, see the bottom of this article at Food & Wine for alternative methods. Set tortillas aside and keep warm.

One by one, fill a tortilla with a small handful of filling, about 1/4 - 1/3 cup. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cheese on top of the filling and roll tortilla up, placing the seam side down in the previously prepared pan. Repeat until all tortillas have been filled. Drizzle sour cream sauce on top, followed by the tomatillo salsa. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes, or until tortillas are heated through. Makes 1 dozen enchiladas. Serve with a tomato and avocado salad.

Alternatively, the enchiladas can be assembled on individual oven proof plates for a prettier look (as pictured). Tent the plate with foil to cover the enchiladas; bake for 10-15 minutes and serve.

Tomatillo Salsa

This tomatillo salsa is simple to prepare and can be served alone with tortilla chips for dipping.

• 6 tomatillos, husks removed
• 1/2 - 1 jalapeno, remove seeds to adapt heat
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, packed
• 2 cloves garlic (I actually forgot the garlic and it still tasted good)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Place tomatillos in a medium sized sauce pan. Cover with hot water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove tomatillos from water and place in a food processor with remaining ingredients, starting with only half the jalapeno. Process until smooth. Test for heat and add the remaining half of the jalapeno if desired. Set aside.

Sour Cream Sauce

To save on fat and calories, feel free to substitute low-fat sour cream. However, I would not recommend fat-free sour cream.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the flour, whisking until golden and bubbly, about 2-3 minutes. Slowly whisk the broth into the flour mixture. Stir in the sour cream, whisking if necessary to remove any lumps. Simmer until sauce is thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Natalya

For those of you who don't know her. Natalya is one of my dearest friends. We met our first semester at Samford in Communication arts and it has been a pleasure getting to know her better since then, especially as a roommate. After leaving Birmingham and going to Miami to study and be closer to family I discovered Nat had a talent. She can sing. This came as a shock, not becuase I had never heard her sing before, but because I had never heard her sing for real before. What I mean is I heard her sing around the house and in the car, but not with her guitar and her own music. She is incredible. Check her out here . Recently she came to Birmingham to visit and opened for Erica and the Soulshine Band  at the Rare Martini. Most of you who know me know I am not a club or bar person, but I wanted to see Nat sing. She was wonderful and I was able to get some great shots of her.

Buffalo Chicken Wrap

I made these the other night and they turned out well. I think I will have to do some tweaking on them but overall it was a good new recipe to try. The recipe said it made 16. I guess I put more into each tortilla because I only made 8.
5 cups boneless chicken breast, cooked and diced (I boiled mine so it was  more shredded than diced)
2 cups celery diced (Josh was not sure he liked this in there so may try something different next time)
2 cups bleu cheese crumbles
1.5 cups ranch dressing (this seemed a little much for me so I may use less next time)
6 Tbsp buffalo wing sauce (I used more)
16 each flour tortillas, large

Directions:
In a small bowl mix together the ranch and buffalo wing sauce. In a large bowl combine chicken, bleu cheese crumbles, and celery. Add ranch mixture to chicken mixture and stir. Add 1/2 cup mixture to each tortilla and fold like a burrito. Wrap in plastic wrap. (If you are concerned about soggy tortillas later, just put the mixture into a sandwich bag and then into a gallon freezer bag to assemble when ready) Place tortillas in gallon freezer bags and freeze.

To serve : Thaw and cut in half (I also toasted them using a grill press)

From Onceamonthmom.com


This recipe did not take long at all and since it made for several meals that made me happy.

Only in the Movies

Today seemed surreal. It seemed as though it was something that only happens in the movies. I drink a lot of water at school and normally have a student get it for me with ice from the lunchroom. It went as normal and I drank most of it immediately. I went on with first period trying to cram in all my content before testing. At the end of class a quiet student politely came up and told me another student spit in my drink. Yes I said this person spit in my drink. I only thought that happened to teachers in movies. Apparently not. So now I will drink my water in a bottle that I drink and do not let go of.

Snow Day

I live in Alabama, snow days are not usually common, but this is our third one of the year. So far it is still accumulating. Georgia, still recovering from surgery has not had much interest in the snow this time. I am amazed though at how people panic when it snows, I feel sure that in the states further north, there would have been school today. So for that I am thankful I live in the south.

A year

Its been a year since Mima left. It doesn't seem that long most of the time but sometimes it does. When I think how many holidays have passed this year, it seems as though it has been forever. She would always send me a card for most every holiday. She lived such a long life, but it is hard to not have her there. Her humor and smile.

I miss her.

Georgia, Bedford, and jackson

Our friends have two labs, Bedford and Jackson. Georgia (now almost 9 mo old ) likes to play with them and they usually like to play with her. Bedford (7) enjoys playing and getting rid of some of his energy. Jackson (5) just does not like my puppy usually. He tends to bark at her and go in the opposite direction. Bedford eventually gets tired and puts his paw on her back to hold her down, like you would see a tall person hold back a short person by pushing on their forehead.

The Present

I should have expected it, she is a hound. When I came home from getting myself some food today (as my husband was still recovering and is on bland food) I found Georgia in our bedroom chewing on something. I assumed it was a stick-she loves sticks and brings them in all the time. I am constantly vacuuming up tiny bits of chewed up stick. This time however as I got closer, I realized it is not a stick but a bird. Georgia found a dead bird on the porch or in the yard and brought it into my bedroom. I was already planning to spend the day disinfecting to get rid of the sickness in my house, but now even more so that a bird has been in my room.

I did feel sorry for the bird and angry at the dog. They are supposed to bring animals in as a present to show they love you. They are NOT supposed to chew on them. Lets just say we will not be getting any kisses from Georgia any time soon. I even gave her one of the dental bones to help clean her teeth and breath.

Thanks for the present Georgia, next time just keep it to sticks

Sick time of year

Flu season and though we have thankfully not gotten the flu, we have managed to catch the 8 hour stomach bug. I had it last weekend and have finally been able to eat real food by this weekend. Fuzz did such a great job of caring for me but unfortunately he got it this weekend. This means that tomorrow will partially be spent in disinfecting everything in my house.

Oh the joy