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.