Birthday Burrito / Sausage and Beans

Qdoba sent me an email certificate for a free burrito on my birthday. I had one full week to use it, so we went last night. I love their burritos!!! So, so good. If you have more than one burrito in your order, they adopt Subway's sharpie idea, and write on the wrapper to differentiate. Apparently Johnny and I have hit a new milestone in our relationship. I'm happy to announce we have hit the point where burritos become "His and Hers."


Moving along.... Happy Halloween!!! I hope everybody had a fun and safe day. I wasn't needed at work today, so I was free to pass out treats to all the kiddies. Our town has a curfew, which is usually from 2-6 p.m. This year it was extended until 8 p.m. I'm not sure if it's just because it's Friday and they wanted to get a little wild, but I'm hoping it's permanent because that's not really a lot of time to trick or treat. Most kids are not out of school and home at 2. It's way too early! And who is able to get off work and be home that early to either pass out candy or walk their kids around? The past two years I had gotten off at 5, came home and had just under an hour to pass out candy. That's just depressing and not in the spirit (no pun intended) of the holiday! I had kids in a pretty steady stream from shortly after 4, until a rather unexpected 8:50. I was so taken aback that I didn't even realize until after I'd closed the door that a) the child was alone and b) he was wearing no costume. He had to have been only 9 or 10, too!


This is a picture of our passing out set-up. I filled that bowl twice through the night. I am a huge handful giver, which seems to excite all the kids and surprise a lot of the moms into exclaiming audible gasps. I make no joke about Halloween. I usually open the windows, put Comcast on channel 701 (the seasonal music station) and turn up the spooky tunes and sounds. Our black cat, camps in one of the front windows voluntarily, adding a great effect, much to my delight. This year I also passed out brochures for my work (scandelous, I know) and mini 4 packs of crayons. I've been so enlightened with allergies that I wanted something I know would be safe. All the candy we bought is whey free, but I don't know about strict dairy free, nut free, or even wheat and gluten free. Much less sugar free for any diabetics out there! So crayons are safe, and they have the company's website on them. The escaped lollipop is from the decorative cat, Poe. I can leave the bowl there all day and the dog doesn't go by it, doesn't steal anything, doesn't sniff around it. But, the cat - he goes crazy playing "soccer" with the lollipops. I had to shoo him away numerous times.

What's that you said? You wanted me to shamelessly promote the business to you, too?! Sure! Attention all Chicagoland people: There is a new, family owned and operated business in Homer Glen. We're called Oodles of Doodles and we're an arts and crafts studio for kids. In a nutshell, you can come in and do a variety of unfinished crafts or purchase an "open play" session to utilize all the stations set up around the store and just get creative. We also have birthday parties, Parent's Night out, Dinner Club nights, camps and classes. Any schools or boy/girl scout troops are welcome to schedule an outing there, too! More information on each is at our website. Tell all your friends with kids!

Last year, I remember cooking something for dinner while kids were coming to trick or treat and it was a huge nuisance. I kept having to grab a dish towel and run to the door while wiping off my hands to pass out the candy. I did not want a repeat of that this year, so I knew I wanted to just throw something in the crockpot and forget about it.

Last week, while we were in Utica, we stopped in at this adorable little organic shop we learned about last year. We drove forever and a day down this black, dark, lonely, scary road to get to a mystery Marina because we were desperate for dinner. Utica is quaint and adorable, I love it dearly, but it is tiny, and offers very little. The nice lady that waited on us asked us where we were staying. When we told her the name of the B&B she was excited that it was just next door to her and her husband's new business! We were intrigued, so made it over there the next day. It's an adorable shop in an old house. There's handmade gift cards, artwork, pottery, knittings, etc. for sale in a few small rooms in the front. When you go to the left there is a small grocery of all organic and home-grown items and jarred goods sold on consignment. Last year I got some awesome lettuce from his garden and some other things. Just a terrific place and both the husband and wife couldn't be sweeter. If you're ever in the area, you should check them out - they're right next to Lander's House B&B.

We picked up a few things last week. My selections were a bean soup jar mix and sinfully delicious pumpkin donuts that mysteriously disappeared. Tonight I made the bean soup. The instructions on the little label card were to rinse the beans well and add 12 cups of water and the spice pack. Some optional items to add included onion, ham, sausage, or diced tomatoes. I took the advice and threw in half of an onion and 3 stalks of celery. When adding the adorably wrapped up spice pack (to only 8 cups of water) I discovered two beef bouillion cubes hidden in there. Not knowing their origin, but knowing Johnny's trouble with bouillion, I threw them out and added two of my own (safe) cubes. I then thawed a pack of Johnsonville Brats under water just enough to separate the sausages and threw those in, too. I put the crock pot on high and it cooked for about 3 hours.


The result was a wonderful smelling, and tasting, hearty soup of mixed beans, tender onions and celery and that ever-so-good Johnsonville sausage. Those guys know their stuff. Deeeelicious!

Salad - in a pie plate?

Growing up in my parents' house we always had Correlle dinnerware. There's this weird dish in the middle there. Not quite as big as the dinner plate, but bigger than the bread/dessert plate. Nowhere near as deep as the soup bowl, but still could be considered a bowl. My brother and I always called them "bowl-plates."

Occasionally a meal would call for us to set the table with "bowl-plates" and we'd always check first, asking "Bowl-plates, right?" Sometimes we'd contemplate. Would a dinner plate do, or a bowl? Nah - just use the "bowl-plates." You get the idea.

I find it weird now, eating certain things in a house that only has a selection of a flat plate, or a very, very deep bowl. I'm used to eating gooey foods like homemade macaroni and cheese, along with hearty stews and soups in these shallow "bowl-plates."

Tonight I decided on making a huge salad. We have a big bin of mixed greens I don't want to turn bad, along with tons of veggies in the fridge. There's always a fine line between fresh veggies and those stale been-in-the-fridge-too-long ones. I like using them before they hit that mark.

I cut up red onion, green peppers, celery, carrots, broccoli and red apple to put on top of the bed of lettuce. To this I added a sprinkling of walnuts, sunflower seeds and cheese. For myself I chunked up extra sharp cheddar and for Johnny, Meunster. His love of Meunster cheese borderlines on a psychiatric disorder.

I added a splash of this really mild garlic Italian dressing (more for the olive oil part of it than anything), to a pan. A sprinkling of salt and pepper and then small cubes of 1 large and 1 small chicken breast. I hate when packages have such drastically different sizes, don't you? Cutting it up eliminates dealing with different cooking times and unequal portions. The cooked chicken debuted on top of the salad. Everything was covered in Drew's Raspberry salad dressing. Good stuff, you should try it.

Now I was faced with a lot of food and nothing to put it in. The bowl is just so crammed in and deep. I didn't want that annoying spill-over each time you stab something with your fork. The plate is just so big and flat, I knew everything would move outwards over the edge. Why must I be cursed with this knowledge of "bowl-plates" and their perfection in situations like this?

Then, it hit me. Pie plates. We have two. Perfect!!! Albeit, one has ridges around the edge for the crust and handles for easy oven handling, they worked awesomely. I found my "bowl-plate" substitute, finally. And, dishwasher safe, I might add. I'm a happy camper tonight.

Broccoli Crunch

I cannot get enough of 101 Cookbook's recipes lately! Everything she's posting looks amazing.

The ingredient list and instructions are Heidi's:

4 -5 cups tiny broccoli florets (and chopped stalks if you like)

1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/4 cup almond butter
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons hot water

2 small crisp apples, cut into bit-sized pieces (if you aren't going to use the apples immediately, let them sit in a bowl of water with the juice of 1/2 a lemon)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup toasted or candied walnuts or almonds
1/3 cup pan-fried crunchy shallots*
chives (optional)

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and salt as you would pasta water. Boil the broccoli just long enough to take the raw edge of - 10 or 15 seconds. Drain and immerse it in cold water (or let cold water run over it). At this point, I like to spin the broccoli in a salad spinner to get the water off, but a few good knocks against the sink in a strainer can do the trick pretty well. Set aside.

Make the dressing by sprinkling the salt over the clove of garlic. Smash the clove and chop, smash and chop - turning it into a paste. In a small bowl whisk the salty garlic paste with the almond butter, lemon juice, honey and olive oil. Add the hot water and whisk until light and creamy. Taste, make any adjustments and set aside.

In a large bowl gently toss the broccoli, apples, red onion, most of the shallots and nuts with a generous drizzle of the almond dressing. Turn out onto a platter and finish with the rest of the shallots and chives if you like. Serve family style.

Serves 4.

*Stir together the shallots, a splash of clarified butter (or olive oil) and big pinch of salt In a large skillet over medium heat. Stir every few minutes, you want the shallots to slowly brown over about fifteen minutes. Let them get dark, dark brown (but not burn), and if needed turn down the heat. Remove from skillet and onto a paper towel to cool in a single layer where they will crisp up a bit.

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I made the salad smaller than this. Probably 3 cups of broccoli, 1/4 red onion and one apple. The rest of the things I made original size, but it all still worked out really delicious, just less volume. I also added one huge chicken breast that I chunked up because we had it for dinner.

A warning: This is not the recipe for a weary cook. There is a lot going on at once. You have to pan-fry the shallots, candy the nuts, cook the chicken if you decide to add it and cut up all of those veggies and blanch the broccoli. I was running wild all over the kitchen with my hands in three things at once, dirtying tons of pans, utensils and bowls.

The end result is AMAZING, though! I am now in love with these crunchy shallots. I want to put them on every dish I make in the future. There were SO many layers to this salad. Broccoli, tart apples, nutty sweetness, caramelized onion, raw onion bursts and tender chicken. All of these were married together by a hearty almond butter dressing that brought some warmth and smoothness to a lot of the crunchy items, but still had that pop of lemon juice to make it interesting.

I'd recommend it as a side dish (minus the chicken) for a dinner or even to bring to a potluck. Otherwise, add some meat (or tofu) and have it as the main course like we did last night!

Birthday and Caramel Apples

Thursday, October 23 was my 24th birthday.

I'm a huge fan of my own birthday. I get so excited when October rolls around and the 23rd nears. It's always right around the time of year when the last reminders of Summer are packing up and Fall is moving in, my favorite season. Stores are full of Halloween (my favorite holiday) items and candy. Starbucks starts selling yummy lattes like pumpkin spice and you are reminded of all the Fall and Winter recipes you love. The crock pot gets tons of use, pumkin and cinnamon are included in dessert variations. The front porch is decorated with Fall themed hay and pumpkins, and you snack on apples and pumpkin seeds instead of watermelon and chips.

In honor of my birthday, I always make the celebration into a multi-day event. This year was no different.

Johnny is a web developer and perpetual geek. This equals long hours on a computer, both at work and at home. I am also a computer addict, and we love watching an episode of a favorite show while eating dinner. One of my requests this past week was to ignore technology, except for necessary things. This allowed us to eat dinner up at the island and talk, as well as play Yahtzee or Rummy at night instead of zoning out.

Thursday, my actual birthday, I had to work. This always reminds me of Jim Gaffigan's stand-up routine where he says "I can't believe I'm going to work on my birthday," which is so true. After work Johnny took me out to dinner at 94 West. I enjoyed the lobster bisque, a house salad and grilled mahi mahi. My entree also came with grilled pineapple, a tropical fruit salsa and a side of grilled asparagus. Delicious and I was beyond stuffed, but still managed to sample some of Johnny's amazing NY strip and garlic mashed potatoes.

Friday we had Broadway in Chicago tickets to go see Dirty Dancing. My mom got them for me for my birthday present. I've always loved Dirty Dancing, probably watched it like 30 times. In middle school my Girl Scout troop even raised enough money to take our "camping" trip at Mountain Lake, the fictional "Kellerman's," where it was filmed. I just didn't realize there were people out there who loved it as much, even more, than me. It was CRAZY! Women were hooting and hollering like we were watching a Chippendale's show. We were all singing and clapping along. It was pretty much identical to the movie, word for word, except for some new scenes extending storylines from the movie.

Saturday was the day I planned for Johnny and me to spend together. Last year we stayed at a B&B in Utica, IL to explore Starved Rock State Park. It was so beautiful, just as the leaves were turning. We didn't get a chance to horseback ride, though, so we've always wanted to go back for that. This year we just went out for a day trip.

The first thing we did was ride on the LaSalle Canal Boat ride - where a mule pulls the Canal boat! It was something I wanted to try, because where else would a person get a chance to try this? Apparently Abe Lincoln rode the canal boat during his campaign, as part of the travel.

Next we were going to go to the Hegelar Carus Mansion. BUT they are forever tainted in my mind due to their idiocity. We called for reservations last week. They called us back. We get there and tours are cancelled for the day, due to some event. Um? So we went up to the door anyways and some guy let us in. We waited in a room while some buffet thing was going on. Eventually a woman came in and said she'd just called us -- you mean at our home an hour and half away literally minutes before our tour was meant to start? She let us know it was impossible to give a tour due to the annual event that always occurs on the same weekend. If it happens every year at the same time don't you think you'd be better at booking people's tours around it? Just maybe? Arrrgh.

So we went to the horse back riding place early and thankfully they let us on the 2 p.m. ride instead of the 4 p.m. ride we were booked on. My horse's name was Cheyenne and Johnny's was Sparky. :) It was an hour-long ride that was really enjoyable. Not as much actual trail riding as I'd like, but we still got to see 2 canyons and the beautiful Fall colors.

Saturday we also planned a cooking day together. I'd wanted to try and make 101 Cookbooks' caramel apples and treat myself to the secret family cheesecake. Both turned out delicious, but I can only share the caramel recipe with you! ;)

The ingredient list and instructions are Heidi's from 101 Cookbooks.

6 - 8 small apples, unwaxed, cold
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup honey

Special equipment: candy thermometer, and lollipop sticks

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Push a lollipop or popsicle stick deep into each apple - in through the stem.
Fill a large bowl 1/2 full with ice water and set aside.

In a medium, thick-bottomed saucepan heat the cream and salt until tiny bubbles start forming where the milk touches the pan - just before a simmer. Stir in the honey. Bring the mixture to a boil. Now reduce the heat to an active simmer and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for about 15-20 minutes minutes or until the mixture reaches about 255-260F degrees. To stop the caramel from cooking, very, very carefully set the bottom of the saucepan in the bowl of cold water you prepared earlier - taking special care not to get any of the water in the caramel mixture. Stir until caramel begins to thicken up - you want the caramel to be thin enough that it will easily coat your apples, but not so thin that it will run right off. If the caramel thickens too much simply put the pot back over the burner for 10 seconds or so to heat it up a bit.

I tilt my sauce pan so all the caramel forms a pool on one side, and use my other hand to dunk and twirl each apple until it is thoroughly coated with caramel. Place each apple on the parchment lined baking sheets and allow the caramel to cool and set.

Makes 6 - 8 caramel apples.

We rolled some of ours in crushed pecans. I also rolled together the extra caramel and pecans into little bite-sized treats. I had read in her comment section that if you use Sue-B or cheap honey it's too sweet and gross. So I shopped in the organic honey section and bought a milder jar.

In honor of turning 24, Johnny got me 24 roses. He accidentally broke the stem of one while putting them in the vase so I have the 23 in the bedroom and the 24th in the kitchen.

Less Expensive Cuts of Meat

I was browsing around financial woe tips to see if there was anything I haven't already been doing. I always get so excited when I see a list of "10 ways to save money in the store," but it always ends up being things that are common sense I've done my whole life. There's always the financial expert columnist who thinks they're saving your life because they point out that if you buy a $5 Starbucks drink everyday you're really spending almost $2,000 a year! (Really?! Thanks for enlightening us simpletons, Almighty Multiplier!)

Ok, enough busting of their chops. Today I really did find something useful.

I'm pretty scared of the meat section already. Especially the red meat. There's just hunks of beef everywhere, some bright red, some with the marbling. I never know what is going to turn out rubbery or chewy. What needs to be roasted or what needs to be stewed. It's all a mystery so I stick to dummy-proof things unless I google the hell out of a specific cut or recipe before going to the store. It's amazing the things you can google now-a-days, isn't it?

This list makes it a little less daunting, though. Now when I see an $8 slab of red meat next to a seemingly identical looking slab of $28 meat I won't assume the $8 one might as well be ground up and used for dog food.

Johnny looked it over and commented that it looks like most just need to be cooked really slowly. Bingo! Perfect crock-pot nights in our future!

Crock Pot Chicken

We seldomly buy meat during grocery trips. I buy meat once in awhile when it's on sale and keep it in the freezer to thaw when necessary. We haven't bought meat in awhile, and we're down to some slim-pickin's. Last night, while looking through I decided the only thing worth thawing were some chicken breasts.

With my work schedule, I either make dinner before I leave for work, or have something quicker that is convenient to cook once I get home. This morning, I leafed through my Crockpot cookbook to get an idea of something that could cook while I was at work and be done when we got home. It's another thrift store cookbook. This one was only $1.25 and is entitled "The Crockery Pot Cookbook" and put out by Nitty Gritty Productions. The inside is divided into meats in categories, and then other things you can cook in your crockpot like desserts, etc.

I flipped right to chicken, since that is what I had thawed. Of all the pages of chicken recipes only ONE called for the use of chicken breasts. The rest were all whole chickens. It was a Hawaiianish style chicken that called for pineapple and cooked on low.

I searched through the cabinets to see if I had anything on hand to make this, and sadly I did not. That's as far as the cookbook lead me, but I did remember eating a delicious tropical chicken and rice dish at last years "Taste of" our local town. Pairing the recipe's idea and the distant memory of that dish, I decided to come up with my own.

No pineapples on hand, but I did have a can of mandarin oranges. Close enough! I opened the can and dumped the contents, juice and all into the crock pot. Next, I chopped up a medium onion and a green pepper and threw both of those into the pot. I was paranoid that the minimal juice the oranges provided would steam out and my chicken would be dry. I knew the onions and peppers would cook down and give off juice of their own, but I was still paranoid.

I looked in the fridge and grabbed two individual serving, lunch-box style containers of plain apple sauce and dumped those in. Now I was afraid it'd be really sweet, so I threw in 2 or 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (the bottled kind) and a few teaspoons of pre-minced garlic. The result was a really, bright pot of ingredients I had faith in.

I trimmed the chicken breasts and laid them on top, making sure they were tucked down into the liquid, put it on low and left it until I came home.

Coming in the door I could smell it cooking and it wasn't bad, but not really tasty smelling, either. I lifted the lid to poke around and was kind of fearful at this point.

We cooked some rice on the stove and then dished it out onto plates and spooned the crockpot contents on top of the rice.


I quit after a few bites. I just couldn't eat anymore. It was really sweet and the oranges had broken up way too much, becoming mush. Johnny enjoyed it (?!) so kept eating and I ran to McDonald's to grab a quick burger for myself. I was bummed my creation turned out this way, so I just didn't have the desire to go cook something else. Plus- it's Monopoly game time! I might win the $1,000,000! One can always dream.

So why post a recipe I didn't like? Well- to be honest, the chicken itself was pretty awesome. The flavor of the sweetness gunk on it was not, but I was LOVING the juiciness. It was fork-cut tender. I'm not used to cooked poultry being like that and I've got to say I want to try it again.

Next time I will definitely not stray as far from any recipes in my substitutions. I have a feeling pineapple would hold up a lot better than mandarin oranges. Their flavor also is more citrusy and sour, not that syrup-cling flavor of mandarins. Plus, I think the restaurant's sample dish of chicken and rice had some form of coconut milk in the background. I would totally eliminate the apple sauce altogether. It did not need any extra moisture- the onions and peppers added more than enough. Everything was swimming by the time I got home. I'll know next time to not be so paranoid.

If you don't succeed the first time, try, try again! And I will!

Acorn Squash Soup

Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks has been making these amazing Fall-inspired squash recipes and it put me in the mood.

I buy a few acorn squash and have them in the pantry every now and then. They come in handy to cut in half and roast for each of us to have a half or sometimes I make them into a soup.

Last night I pulled one out and decided on squash soup for tonight's dinner. I wasn't going into work until later so I could make the soup in the morning and then just re-heat it at night.

I noticed the sticker only had microwave instructions. This seemed odd to me because usually foods list the microwave instructions second, or even third, on the list and this was solely microwave. I figured it had to be good if they didn't even attempt to get you to use your oven.


Boy, was I wrong. I know a lot of people microwave their squash, but it is not for me. I usually cut them in half and put them skin side down/flesh side up in a dish with some water. I plop some butter in the de-seeded hole and sprinkle some nutmeg or allspice and then cover the whole thing with foil. I let this bake for 40 minutes to an hour until it's tender. Then it's juicy, tender and falls off the skin easily.

Microwaving, I followed the little sticker's advice of 8-10 minutes about 3 times for each half and it was still really tough. The skin also turned really brittle and crisp, making it harder to separate the flesh from it. It wasn't even more convenient! I was constantly checking and having to pop it back in for more minutes. It took about 40 minutes between multiple, long microwave sessions and trying to free the flesh from the skin anyways. Ugh. I'll just stick to the oven-roasting from now on. It's more convenient, easier and I think makes for a better squash in the end.

After wrestling with that I threw the squash in a blender with 2 cups of water and one vegetable stock cube. Then into a pan and in the fridge with the cover on.

Sadly, I ended up not being able to go to work today after all. My eye swelled up last night and it was just sore and irritated on the lid, so I had serious reservations that it was any type of infection. Today I ran to the pharmacist to see if she could recommend anything but she just said the same things I'd been doing - an Ibuprofen now and then for pain/swelling and a cool compress. Maybe try benedryl to see if it was allergy related? So I complied. But, I'm working with the public now. Specifically parents and their children. I didn't think it would be a good idea at ALL for them to see me with a bright red, swollen eyelid. I know I'd be worried bringing children around that, so I can't blame others who would most likely feel the same way. In order to prevent that I let my boss know and she agreed so I stayed home. Blah.


When Johnny got home from work I re-heated the soup on the stove and, once it was up to temperature I decided it was a bit bland, so I added about a teaspoon of kosher salt and it did the trick. While this was coming up to temperature, I just made a quick batch of Bisquick's drop biscuits.


The soup turned out velvety smooth and delicious. A nice, warm Autumn feeling on this semi-drab, overcast October day. The biscuits, in all their simplicity, were the perfect compliment! Yum, yum.




I also baked the seeds in a 350° toaster oven with some salt sprinkled over them! Such a tasty little snack.