Cassie-b

Family Reunion Unusual Guest

We went to a family reunion of about 50+ people yesterday. It’s a lot of fun, and great to see how the children have grown each year. It allows the cousins to get to know each other, which probably wouldn’t happen because the family is scattered all over this country.

Everyone brings a dish or two to share, and one of the cousins brought a fruit salad in a very different container:

Cute, huh?

Blue Cassie-B

I was feeling a little down in the dumps yesterday, so on the way home from work, I bought myself a new cookbook. That usually makes me feel better.

Don must have known I was a little blue, so when I got home, there was the new scanner I wanted waiting for me.

His solution was much better. If I had those adorable little happy faces available to me, I’d put one in right here.

Step on a Crack

Do you remember this one?

Step on a crack, break your Mother’s back
Step on a line, break your Father’s spine.

Well, I’m not overly superstitious, but I gotta tell you
I spend my life not doing those two things.
And I must tell you, my parents never had broken backs or spines. Maybe there’s something to this.

Any comments?

Another Back Yard Story

We have a very old bird house made from a gourd hanging in a large maple tree by our deck. It's about 10 feet from where we sit.

We have been lucky enough to have two different families of sparrows in this nest each summer. What an education! We've been able to watch these birds from courting and nest building to babies leaving the nest.

We have actually seen 4 baby birds fly from the nest over the past few years. Some of them are quite talented and can fly right away, and some just flutter down to the ground.

Here's a picture of a mother bird feeding one of her babies.

Easy Weekend Food

Last Sunday, I really didn't want to spend too much time in the kitchen, although I usually like to cook. I went into my trusty E-cookbook and came up with this great, almost effortless, unbelievably good recipe:

Crockpot Beef All Day Delight

2-3 lbs. boneless chuck or whatever, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup flour divided
5 tablespoons butter
1 onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can of beer (does not leave a beery taste)
1/4 cup flour

Coat beef cubes with the 1/2 cup flour. Brown in melted butter. Drain off excess fat. In crock pot, combine browned meat with onion, salt, pepper, garlic and beer.

Cover and cook on low 5-7 hours (all day) until meat is tender. (I added mushrooms at this point, because I think mushrooms belong in lots of dishes)Turn control to high. Dissolve remaining 1/4 cup flour in small amount of water. Stir into meat mixture, cook on high 30-40 minutes.
Serve with rice and salad.

Don's been eating the leftovers for lunch.

Here's the Sunflower garden

Here's a picture of the sunflower garden planted by our back yard birds.
(see blog below)

The Sunflower Garden

Just a little note about our garden. We have 2 shepherds hooks in the middle of our back yard (easy to see from the deck) We have an assortment of bird feeders on those hooks.

Every year, my husband leaves a fairly large unmowed oval around the hooks, and we wait to see what will happen. We usually have the most beautiful sunflower garden planted for us by our feathered friends.

This year, there are lots of sunflowers and also some corn plants, and at last count, we have 4 ears of corn growing in this garden.

We always have many birds visiting our feeders and in the late summer, the sunflowers as well. Any seeds they miss, will be saved for them and they get to enjoy them later. I guess when the corn comes ripe (a first this year), I'll dry it and put it in the feeders later in the autumn.

Shopping Spree

What a great time of year to shop for new clothes. Seems like all the stores are having unbelievable sales.

We went shopping several times this week (not my favorite thing to do), and such bargains. You can come home with enough new clothes to make you feel better without depleting your pocketbook. Of course, they are summer clothes.

I don’t know where you are, but it’s 83 degrees here today, and that’s a break from last week's heat, the week before that and so on. I think there’s still plenty of time to get a wearing or two this season.

Just thinking -- Maybe I’ll go shopping again. And maybe dinner out - oops, there goes the savings.

Non-Blogging Spouses

I have a wonderful husband who doesn’t hate computers any more. But they are far from his favorite toy.

Blogging seems to be a serious time robber. You just take a look to see if you got any comments, and then, well – just check Empress and Buzz (or whomever) and then maybe just a couple more, and before you know it, you’ve used up a bunch of time.

I just wonder how many non-blogging spouses get (1)mildly annoyed, (2) seriously annoyed, or (3)just plain infuriated.

Luckily for me, if my spouse is in one of those 3 categories, he hasn’t told me. I honestly think he doesn’t mind. Maybe he's just used to seeing me in front of the computer. Lucky me.

Blogging sure can be a time robber!

Power Outage

Just immediately before we went on vacation about a week and a half ago, we had a "power outage". Don had to finish packing with a flashlight in one hand.

Doesn't seem too bad, but we lost some stuff. Fortunately, it was one of the times my computer was turned off, so it was OK (yea!), but we lost our extra refrigerator in the garage (and the food therein), the phone in our "office", and the clock function on the microwave.

Everything is in the process of being replaced, and we do miss the extra fridge in the garage, but what I miss most is the clock in the microwave. You just don't know how many times you look at something till it's not there any more.

And I don't know about you, but I seem to be very difficult to retrain. Hope we get a new one soon.

Oh, and tomorrow's Friday. Love it.

Sooo Busy

Yesterday, I spent a day at work doing very little. Virus, you know. Everything I do at my job is on the computer.

Today, the virus (and the new virus) seem to be contained, so I spent today doing 2 days' work.

I'm kind of tired. Sorry to complain, but I bet there's a few folks out there with a similar situation.

Tequila Sunrise

(Title Credit: Eagles / Desperado / 1973)

Oh, wait - that's my format! Oops!!

OK - Empress here again for my final recipe recommendation. Looking back on my entries, I guess I like chicken, huh? Once again, this is straight from Atkins and very, very yummy!

Tequila Chicken

¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1½ ounces tequila
1½ tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
½ stick butter

1. Heat oven to 400°F. In a large bowl, combine oil, cilantro, tequila, cumin, garlic, salt, pepper and cayenne. Add chicken and toss to coat.
2. Transfer chicken to a baking sheet. Bake 12 to 14 minutes, or until largest piece is cooked through.
3. Removed from oven and top each breast with a small pat of butter and let melt.

For extra flavor, top these breasts with shredded Colby Jack cheese, sour cream and salsa picante just before serving.

This is a really tasty recipe. I never thought I'd end up using tequila in a recipe! I thought that was what I used in a shot glass!! :)

Enjoy!

Oh, and welcome back, Cassie-b!!

Buzz Gratin Potatoes.

Hiya. Buzz here. Just so you know, this is probably the best Au Gratin Potato recipe in the entire world! Let me know what you think. It is wonderfully creamy and cheesy and, well, au gratin-y. Oh and it's easy, too!

5 Large baking potatoes - sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 large onion - sliced into rings
salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Cups milk
2 Cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 1 quart casserole dish.
2. Layer 1/2 the potatoes into the bottom of the buttered casserole dish. Top with onions (trust me - it's delicious) and then cover with remaining potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour and salt, and stir constantly for one minute. Stir in milk. Cook until mixture has thickened. Stir in cheese and continue stirring until all cheese is melted. Pour cheese sauce over potatoes and cover casserole with aluminum foil.
4. Bake 1 1/2 hours.

Mmmm. I'm remembering now how much I love this and I just may have to say 'Nuts to Atkins' today and make this! You should do the same.

Enjoy.

Burrito Beef

Empress here, again! In keeping with the recipe theme, and the Atkins theme (sorry, Cas!), here's a recipe that we just tried and it's quite good and REALLY easy!

Burrito Beef

2 pounds boneless beef chuck (we used London broil)
¼ cup green salsa (we used regular salsa 'cause we couldn't find any green salsa!)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 green onions, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt

1. Trim fat from beef. Place beef, salsa, garlic, green onions, jalapeño, chili powder, cumin and salt in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 8 hours until beef is very tender.
2. Remove beef and shred with two forks. Mix beef with ½ cup cooking juices before filling tortillas.

We didn't have the low-carb tortillas at the time so we ate this alone served with a cool cucumber salad. It was great!

Oh, and don't be afraid that there isn't much liquid in the slow cooker. I fretted all day thinking that the slow cooker would burn up, but by the time we got home, there was quite a bit of liquid! Amazing!

Enjoy!

And if you're looking for a place to get really good low-carb breads or tortillas, I can recommend Aspen Ice Cream. It's a place in Florida that is run by two wonderful and friendly women, but you can also order online and they are very good at getting your orders out to you quickly and accurately. Go give 'em a try!

Chicken Adobo

Another recipe to share from the Atkins vault. This one fits on every single diet unless you're a vegetarian. This is so yummy. We modified the vinegar content - the recipe calls for all white vinegar but we do half and half with white and red wine vinegar. It gives it more of a full flavor.

Chicken Adobo

½ cup white vinegar
½ cup red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bay leaf
1½ teaspoons whole peppercorns, lightly crushed
½ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
6 whole chicken legs, cut into drumstick and thigh pieces
1 cup water
3 tablespoons canola oil

1. In a large glass baking dish, mix vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, and soy sauce; add chicken and toss to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator 1 hour.
2. Transfer chicken and its marinade to a large saucepan. Add water and heat to boiling over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes. With tongs, transfer chicken to a plate to cool. Boil cooking liquid until it is reduced to 1 cup, about 10 minutes. Let sauce cool and strain into a small saucepan. Skim off fat and reheat.
3. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. In a large skillet, heat oil over high heat until very hot. Brown chicken in batches, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a deep platter and pour hot sauce over chicken.

Try this with some sautéed squash or a tossed salad and a nice glass of chilled chardonnay (I highly recommend William Hill Reserve - on sale at the PA liquor stores this month for $17.99). It's a great summer meal!

(See how nicely I'm behaving over here???)

Zucchini Rescue

Don went off to play tennis today, and came home with 2 fairly large zucchinis from one of the tennis player’s gardens. I happen to have an, “Oh My God this is delicious" soup recipe using zucchini of any size. The ingredients sounded kind of weird to me originally, but I’ve made it many times, and really enjoy it.

So, for all of you with “all that zucchini”, here’s a good recipe to try:

Cream of Zucchini Soup
4 cups chicken stock (2 cans and a little water will do)
4 medium zucchini sliced ( I used 2 fairly large, they looked like they could be divided into 4 mediums)
2 carrots, sliced
1 chopped onion (Vidalia if you have it)
1 package cream cheese (8 ounces)
salt & pepper

Cook zucchini, carrots and onion in broth. Puree in blender with cream cheese.
It thickens a little as it cools. Freezes well if you have too much.