Get This Party Started

I was put in charge of snack food for our lake trip a few weekends ago. Snack foods and appetizers just happen to be my favorite food group so I was more than happy to search the great wide internet for a good recipe.

MS has been eyeing the party mix at Costco recently, so I had a feeling these party pretzels from Life in the Green House would be right up his alley.

I decided to add a few things to make it more party mix.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 lb pretzel twists
• 1  cup of oil
• 1 pack Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 box Cheez Its - I used the mixed box - I think it was regular and parmesan
• Salted peanuts - I used almost a jar - these are my favorite part of the mix.

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Mix the Ranch seasoning, oil, garlic salt and Cayenne pepper in a large bowl and then add the pretzels to the mixture.
3. Mix the seasoning mix and pretzels until all pretzels are coated. I mixed everything in a large bowl.
4. Pour the pretzels onto baking sheets, evenly. I had to use two sheets. It was quite the party....mix. Bake for 1.5 hours, stirring every 20 minutes.

Voila.

My friend Jennifer was kind enough to take a picture of her mix when I insisted she make it for her lake weekend. I'm demanding when it comes to good snack food. And was too busy taste tasting to take pictures when I made my own.

This stuff is so addictive - I think it's the cayenne pepper that keeps you coming back for more. Whatever it is, this is great by the pool, on the couch or in your lunch. It's a winner!

Recipe - Italian Potato Salad

I love  a new recipe - especially one that is this easy. I'm not a big mayonnaise fan, so a mayonnaise based potato salad will not be found in our fridge. I heard through the grapevine this Paula Deen recipe for "Italian Potatoes" tastes exactly like Zoe's potato salad, of which I'm a HUGE fan. Memorial Day was the perfect weekend to break it out.

Put 5 lbs of red potatoes in a large pot, just covering with water.

Bring to a boil. Let them boil for 30-40 minutes. I did mine for 30, and they were perfect.

Drain and let cool - cool enough to handle.

While you're waiting for them to cool, whisk together:

3 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 heaping teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1 scant tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup tarragon vinegar

Slightly peel the potatoes, leaving some skin on. Cut into bite size cubes.

Top with parsley and green onions. I left out the green onions, because someone in our house doesn't like them. Pour oil mixture over potatoes.

Isn't it pretty? In the way only carbs mixed with olive oil are.

This recipe is a little funny - you leave it out for 4 hours. I covered mine with a towel, for peace of mind. Stir it every hour. Your food safety red flags might go off - but I promise we had no issues.

We had enough to serve for company twice. The second day I chopped up some marinated feta to mix in - it was a great addition. This paired well with chicken both nights - fried and bbq.

Bring on the Bacon

It's been a tough week all around - I'm not sure anyone would disagree with that statement.

Sometimes a little comfort food is necessary - with loads of butter and cheese. Last weekend I decided to try a recipe we had at a birthday party the weekend before. I don't know that it gets much easier than this.

Even if your helpers sit on the porch with a cigar and a cold one, or staring off into nothing, you can totally do this solo.

Three ingredients. Not counting the Windex.

Club crackers, parmesan cheese (the gourmet in the can variety. The recipe calls for it, and I certainly am not one to argue with the experts.)

Pioneer Woman has a much more detailed version and less grainy pictures that don't include pictures of cleaning products, so I'll divert you there. But here is the finished product:

Bacon Heaven. Bring it on. It just about melts in your mouth.

Wishing you a weekend that recharges your soul. With some comfort food in the mix.

Spicy...

 It's cold and rainy here in Birmingham. Fortunately, I had the foresight to take pictures of a hot and spicy tailgate recipe to share.

This recipe is super easy, super fast and super good. It was gone by the time Alabama scored the 3rd or 4th touchdown.

Jalapeno Cheese Squares

1 lb. mild ground pork sausage

1 12 oz. jar jalapeno slices, drained and patted dry

8 oz. Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

6 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 c. milk

1 t. garlic powder

¼ t. pepper

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink.  Drain.

  Spread jalapeno slices in a lightly greased 13x 9-inch baking dish.  Top with sausage; sprinkle with cheese. 

  Whisk together eggs and next 3 ingredients.  Pour over cheese.

  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until set.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Cut into bite-size squares. Serve warm.

Note:  To make this recipe ahead, bake as directed; let cool, cover, and chill up to one day.  Reheat at 350 degrees for 15 minutes; let stand briefly and then cut into squares just before serving.

 

I was too hungry to remember to take a picture of the finished product, but trust me, it was good. You can rinse the jalapenos if you don't want them to be quite as hot, and use hot sausage instead. Express yourself.

Pitter Patter...

 Another weekend has come and gone. This year is racing forward at breakneck speed, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's a little bittersweet.

Speaking of bitter, it's always good to spend two straight days with this guy. Judging by his looks, he doesn't feel the same. When are ya'll going back to work again?

Try not to be jealous of all the clutter. It's the joys of 18 months in 850 square feet. I wouldn't open the coat closet.

 Speaking of racing, we got to watch a 5K/10K race  run by Friday night. Fun to be on the other side of a 10K. With a glass of wine.

There's normally grass where all that dirt is. They just dug it all up, and we aren't sure why. Grizz is sure he doesn't like it.

One of my favorite holidays is upon us - cinco de mayo. We kicked off the celebration a little early Saturday with MS' dad's beergarita recipe. I highly recommend it and its practically calorie free.

Sunday we went to check house progress. Hark! The pitter patter of footprints. Our frame review is next Friday. Either the next two weeks will be incredibly productive or we'll be rescheduling.And you know how much I love scratching dates off my calendar. Yes, I still use a paper calendar.

The bedroom.

Foyer, straight into main living area, straight into the infamous wall. Speaking of, does anyone have any opinions on brick with mortar wash? I thought decisions were over.

Chicken Dinner

 Since the new year, I've been trying to branch out in my cooking. Thank God for Pinterest. It's the lazy way of scouring the web for good recipes. We try to eat healthy the majority of the time, so I've tried to steer clear of the cream cheese lasagnas, although they are beckoning to me. But, I couldn't resist this recipe. We did asparagus on the side. EVEN STEVEN.

The full recipe is here.
 

Panko Crusted Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil:

• 1 cup of low fat ricotta cheese
• Small handful of baby spinach, chopped
• Small handful of grape tomatoes, diced (remove the seeds if possible)
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
• Dash of oregano
• 2 chicken breasts
• Italian seasoned panko crumbs
• 2 tsp olive oil (for the pan)

I tweaked it a little. We didn't use tomatoes, and used regular bread crumbs, because I was unknowingly out of Panko. The travesty.

 This was so easy. Mix all the ingredients, split the chicken breast, stuffed them, sealed with a toothpick, browned them in a hot cast iron, and put them straight in the oven to cook.

My mother in law knew what she was doing when she bought that cast iron skillet. This recipe was a winner.

 Nothing left to do but enjoy a shoe,

a glass of wine,

and a little Bea Arthur.

Valentines Take Away

 While Namath and I relaxed last night, MS made appetizers, dinner and dessert.

The dessert may have been the richest thing I've eaten since the days of eating frosting from a can. Which, let's be honest, wasn't too long ago. But, it was so good and worth sharing. I think I would half the recipe next time, or share a mug, but decide for yourself. I won't judge your sugar intake if you don't judge my pitiful food pictures.

4 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons white granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
3 tablespoons Nutella
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Whisk ingredients together in a mug. Microwave for 1.5 to 3 minutes. Kiss your skinny jeans goodbye.

Hope your Valentines was indulgent!

Friday Favorites - Going Green

 Hello friends, I'm your Vitameatavegamin girl.
Are you tired, run - down, listless?
Do you poop out at parties?
Are you unpopular?
The answer to all your problems is in this  little bottle.  VITAMEATAVEGAMIN.
Vitameatavegamin contains Vitamins, Meat, Vegetables, and Minerals.

If you don't recognize this little speech, I'm not sure we can be friends. It's what I thought of when I first heard of the Green Monster. Minus the meat. I had seen this smoothie on blogs and then it started showing up on Pinterest. I didn't try it until a friend at work made it and assured me it did not taste like baby vomit.

Here's the ingredients I use.

One cup vanilla almond milk.

 8-10 sliced baby carrots.

 A generous sprinkle of cinnamon and generous squirt of honey.

 Tablespoon of almond butter. Sometimes we use peanut butter. Sometimes both. WATCH OUT.

 A few tablespoons of greek yogurt, for extra protein.

 One sliced banana. I usually slice and freeze these in individual bags, just to speed things up.

 A few handfuls of baby spinach.

One cup of ice.

Blend.

It looks a little like a bad jar of baby food, but I promise, you don't taste the vegetables at all. It has a nice peanut butter and banana flavor, but you still get all those good nutrients in one drink. I've yet to have a bad one. We've added blueberries, raspberries and strawberries and it's hard to go wrong. Read more about it here.

Happy blending.

Recovery

There was little I wanted to do after our last long run than cook a big pot of soup and enjoy a cold beverage. One of the perks of adulthood is getting to eat whatever you want for dinner. Be it an entire pack of Little Debbies, or white chicken chilli. Fortunatley for my scale, it was the latter.
MS was kind enough to handle the chicken nastiness.

Not sure why this picture is so washed out, but if you look closely through the back door, you can see the kitchen of our neighbors across the pool. Rear Window anyone?

I intended to take pictures of all the steps.

Then I got distracted. MS makes a great apple cider rum drink. It quieted my screaming quads.

Then I spent the rest of my evening here, in what we've dubbed The Cloud.

Namath tries to steal it for himself, but lucky for him it's big enough to share. He loves to share.

The recipe, in case you opt for soup over Little Debbies any time soon. I only used 4 cans of beans. We live in a small apartment. I blended two of them in the food processor to make the soup creamier.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cooked, boneless chicken breast half, chopped
3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
2 (4 ounce) cans canned green chile peppers, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
5 (14.5 ounce) cans great Northern beans, undrained
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 10 minutes, or until onions are tender.

Add the chicken, chicken broth, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and add the beans. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until heated thoroughly. Pour into individual bowls and top with the cheese.

A Recipe...and Some Rambling

There are pros and cons to getting older. Pro - I no longer get paid in tips. (I was a waitress. Get your mind out of the gutter.) Con - suits, car maintenance, taxes....this list is getting depressing.

I have noticed as I've gotten older my taste in food has matured. Case in point - turnip greens. So when I received this recipe, I wanted to give it a try.

16 oz bag frozen turnips (or fresh)

2 cans Northern beans

1 lb pork sausage sliced to your liking ( you can also use turkey sausage)

1 box Knorr vegetable soup mix

1 can diced tomatoes

4 cups water

salt and pepper to your taste

I got really adventurous and decided to try out cornbread in the cast iron skillet. I picked a great night to make all this food, as MS was on his way to the northern edge of the continental US.

I did not google image this picture. This is straight from the doctors office he's working at. Let me know, I bet he could get you an appointment. Yes, the proximity of his rear end to the water pitchers IS vomit inducing. Glad you noticed too.

Back on the homefront, I mixed all ingredients in a pot and let simmer for two hours.

While simmering, I took in a classic Lifetime movie. Does anyone remember this? It's TV gold and starts with those magic words - based on a true story. Bonus that the dad from 7th Heaven is Betty's ill-fated husband. Double bonus the sequel is titled "Her Final Fury". I would love to meet the person who names these movies. Heck, I would love to be the person who names these movies.

A few bites in, I remembered to take a picture. This recipe was really good, healthy and easy.

My brain is rotted and I now have enough soup and cornbread for a week. If anyone wants to come over eat soup, do crossword puzzles and discuss politics, let me know.

Fall - The Good and the Ugly

I decided this fall/winter I'm going to make more soup. Shoot for the moon...you know the rest. This was one of the first recipes I ran across that I really wanted to try. If Starbucks can sell pumpkin spice, I can make soup while ignoring the high of 90 today.


Simple Slow Cooked Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
2-3 cups cooked chicken
1 can Ro-Tel
15 oz. chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken condensed soup
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic
1/4 cup onion, chopped



Directions
Combine first ten ingredients in slow cooker

Cook on low, 6-8 hours.
Place tortilla chips in bowls. Pour soup over tortilla chips, then add cheddar cheese & sour cream, if desired.

Yes, I desired.

We didn't have tortilla chips, but we did have some leftover tortillas that I toasted for about 10 minutes on 350. MS is thankful for my cooking skills each and every day.

I would definitely double this recipe next time. Its not efficient to do all the work of opening cans and pouring them in the crock pot and not have much for leftovers.

This rolled out at Target yesterday and crashed the Target web site.

Seriously? Thinking these people never read The Emperor's New Clothes.The real winners are the sellers hacking this stuff on eBay for ungodly amounts of money.

This $400 bike is now up to $1000.

I might be hitting up Target soon.