Pet of the Month contest

Hello, readers! I have a request to ask of you.

Last month, on my birthday, my pets were featured in our local newspaper as "Pets of the Week." I was super proud and very excited. Because they were pets of the week, they were eligible for the "Pet of the Month" contest. If they win pet of the month, I'll get a gift certificate to a restaurant, and they'll be eligible for the "Pet of the Year" contest. If they win pet of the year, then we receive gift certificates to pet shops and supply stores, which would be great to use for their food and other necessities.

Our local newspaper has 6 divisions for different Chicagoland suburbs, and they each let you vote on their individual sites - for a total of 6 votes per person.

Here is the link for the contest, they are entry #23 - Corky and Poe. You vote in the right hand column and the 5 other sites are right below.

Thank you so much - me, Corky and Poe appreciate it! :)

Thanksgiving Edition

Tomorrow we're going to Thanksgiving dinner at Johnny's sister, Di's house. Di is also my boss and co-worker. Other attendees will be Di's husband, Rob, as well as Johnny and Di's mom, dad and younger brother, Mikey. Other siblings are out of town, or going other places for dinner. And Di's two boys will be at their Dad's. So we're down to a lonely 7 from a usual holiday gathering of 15.

I decided to bring one dish for each course of the meal - an appetizer, a side dish and a dessert.

For the appetizer I chose deviled eggs. Unfortunately, I realized during the peeling process that Johnny's mom's eggs are NOT peel-friendly. I've boiled them before just to have boiled eggs and to make egg salad and they are a mess. Their yolks are a lot bigger, so you don't have as much whites to work with. The membrane that holds the shell to the egg is also a lot thicker and stubborn to let go. I even tried the trick from that video I posted - boiling the eggs with baking soda in the water. It was supposed to make them blow easily out, but it just left me standing there cursing 18 eggs for 30 minutes. There was only one casualty - by the time I finished peeling it, there was pretty much just a yolk left. So, I let the dog have a treat. And there he stayed, the rest of the entire egg-making process, hoping he'd score again. See him?

The yams were an experiment of mine, loosely following a tasty-looking recipe I found the other day, while browsing Thanksgiving dishes online. Called "Sweet Potato Casserole II" the recipe is as follows:

4 1/2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. In a large bowl, mix together mashed sweet potatoes, 1/2 cup butter, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs. Spread sweet potato mixture into the prepared baking dish. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and flour. Cut in 1/3 cup butter until mixture is crumbly, then stir in pecans. Sprinkle pecan mixture over the sweet potatoes. Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Basically, I cheated and started off with a big ole can of candied yams - eliminating the need for most of the sweetening. I did end up adding everything to the yams, just cut back on the sugar and went by consistency for the milk. The topping I pretty much followed verbatim - just eyeballed the measurements, instead of using measuring cups. Everything tasted delicious and smells good, so I have high hopes!


And, finally, the dessert! Which, I actually did not cook. Nooo, it's not store-bought -- Johnny made it!! Last year he saw a Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake on Yahoo's homepage and made it. This year, I just put him in charge of it again! Quite the contrary to my eyeballing, he diligently measured every ingredient, including making use of the "dash" spoon of his special measuring set.

2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (I threw the rest of the can in with my yams, I forgot to mention!)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash ground nutmeg
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup thawed cool whip

Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix until blended. Do not overbeat after adding eggs. Remove 1 cup batter; stir in pumpkin and spices. Spray 9 inch pie plate with cooking spray; sprinkle bottom with crumbs. Pour remaining plain batter into crust. Top with pumpkin batter. Bake at 325° for 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours, or overnight. Top each serving with 1 Tbsp. of the whipped topping.

We'll be adding more whipped topping than that, of course. He was kind of bummed about the cracks after it was done baking, but I assured him they'll be covered by gobs of whipped topping! In the background is my little "to bring" list I wrote myself so I don't forget something in the morning. Having dishes spread out in two fridges tends to make me do that.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Here's a little poem I received at the end of an email forward, that's appropriate for this situation:

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

Oh! And one last thing, (as if this post isn't long enough already). I left our uncarved pumpkins on the front porch for Fall decorations and I saw yesterday that somebody made a snack out of them!!


P.S. - I had wanted to share a tip about "serving platters." My mom, a piano teacher, has several functions and recitals a year. Sometimes she has this lady make these amazing cookie and chocolate platters for the events. Instead of using one of her dishes that needs to be picked up or returned later, she makes disposable platters. They're simply a heavy piece of cardboard wrapped with a pretty foil wrap. I stole her idea for my eggs, since we don't have a platter that large and just used normal foil, taping it to the underside of the cardboard. It serves it's purpose, can be thrown out afterwards and doesn't look as cheesy as a paper or plastic plate.

Creamed Cabbage

I was watching Take Home Chef the other day, with Curtis Stone (yum), and he made this dish. I thought it looked so simple and easy, yet new and innovative at the same time. Stupid me believed the little TLC side note "Find these recipes on our website!" instead of just writing it down myself, and ended up Googling for about half of an hour through message boards and random sites until I tracked this baby down.

Ingredients:
6 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I used low sodium bacon)
olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons white wine
1/2 green cabbage, thinly sliced (I just used a whole, small cabbage)
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper





Cook the pancetta/bacon over medium heat until brown, in a large saucepan. Once browned, spoon out of the pot and set aside.






Discard the drippings and add a splash of olive oil to the bottom of the pot. First, add the onions and sweat for about 5 minutes. Next, throw in the garlic and sweat for another 1-2 minutes. Finally, add the cabbage and white wine and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cream last and simmer for 15-20 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper. Stir in the pancetta/bacon before serving.



We had this with a quick, one-skillet throw-together of a huge chunked up chicken breast, two sliced carrots, and half of a sliced zucchini. They were lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder and oregano, and sauteed in about a teaspoon of olive oil.

This is going to become a staple side dish in our house. Oh. My. Gosh. It was so velvetly delicious and creamy, melt in your mouth. The flavors and textures work together beautifully!

Chicken Soup

About as often as I make the stuffed green peppers, I make a chicken soup. So, maybe three or four times a month. People have such a fear of chicken soup from scratch, but I find it easier than opening a can and picking out the gross hunks of meat.

Here's my super, simple, quick version. It makes a huge pot, is cheap, fills you up, you have tons of leftovers, and you can freeze for a meal down the road.

One large onion, two large potatoes (sometimes I omit potatoes), 4 or 5 carrots, 4 or 5 stalks of celery. Chop all of these up and throw them in the bottom of a very large pot. I then add vegetable stock (10-12 cups), a dash of pepper, and one or two bay leaves. I bring this up to temperature and let it hang out for a little while until the vegetables are tender.

This usually takes twenty minutes or so, which gives me time for the chicken. I cheat and buy one of those rotissioure ones from the deli. They're usually $6.99 for the whole chicken, but sometimes they're on sale for $4.99 or $5.99. I buy either the rosemary one or a low sodium one, whichever is available. I avoid the spicey one and there's also a barbeque one.

I basically just pick the entire chicken to the bone (on the right). It gives me 4 or 5 cups of cooked chicken (on the left), depending on the size of the chicken and if I snuck any when I got home from the store. Sometimes it just smells so yummy I need to grab off a drumstick or hunk of the breast!


Once the vegetables are almost tender, I throw in a couple of handfuls of orzo, or other small pasta and let that cook about halfway. I then throw in the chicken and let everything sit in the pot to finish or come up to temperature for another 10 to 15 minutes. Then -- it's done!

Super, spaced out me forgot to take any pictures further than that step. I have no idea why. I also wrote this all up last night and just hit save, instead of post. I blame it on this flu/cold I've had for a week and can't shake. I might have to suck it up and go to the doctor, but I'm avoiding that... long waiting lines with tremendous bills isn't my idea of fun.

Salad in a Pie Plate - again

We had big salads in the pie plates again. This time the ingredients were:

mixed greens
green peppers
cucumbers
carrots
celery
broccoli
crunchy sauteed shallots
candied peanuts
craisins
cheddar/muenster cheese
sunflower seeds
cubed chicken breast

I love cramming salads full of a bunch of different textures, flavors, and food groups. It's such an explosion in your mouth each bite, and it's not hard to find things that all go well in salads. I loved the sauteed shallots and candied nuts that 101 Cookbooks called for in their awesome vegan broccoli crunch, that I incorporated them into this salad, too!

AND to top it off, we tried the new Annie's Goddess dressing and it was delicious! I was expecting something a lot nuttier, thinking it would be more tahini based. But it's a nice mixture between a creamy warm flavor and a bright vinegar pop. Sooo great on top of all of those other flavors. Thanks again, Biz!!

We went to Value City tonight because the company is going bankrupt and all stores will be closing before the end of the year. This is very sad for me because growing up it was a tradition to drive from the coast of North Carolina up to Virginia and literally spend the entire day at Value City, Marshalls and TJ Maxx hitting all the sales and buying new school clothes, new lunch boxes, new backpacks and school supplies. You could leave with an entire cart packed with a new wardrobe and supplies for only a few hundred bucks. There's a lot of memories associated with Value City shopping trips.

I've never paid more than $9.99 for a pair of jeans there and once bought all new bras at .50¢ a piece! It's always great to peruse the housewares and kitchen sections for great, unique finds and gifts, too. Tonight it was pretty empty and sad, so there wasn't much variety. Entire aisles were empty and whole sections completely cleared of any racks or merchandise. I'd say about half of our store is already sold off. If you have a Value City by you, I'd recommend just popping in to see what they have. Nationwide the sales are ranging from 20-40% off all prices, even if they've already been marked down before. Potential for some great bargains!


I ended up with 1 sweater, 3 nice shirts, a bra, hoison sauce, kahlua mix, sprinkles, 2 rolls of wrapping paper, 3 scrapbooks, 2 pliers for Johnny, air purifier filters, and a new suitcase for $76 even. The most expensive item was $11.24 and that was the suitcase!

Slow Cooker Ginger-Soy Short Ribs

That title keeps going, believe it or not. Robin Miller is a fan of really, really long titles. This is the last of her recipes on my planned menu. Some we will be revisiting, others we will not.

This is highly altered, so I'll post the original recipe first, in case you're interested and then just describe how I threw it together below.

4 carrots, chopped
2 leeks, rinsed well and chopped
3 pounds bone-in beef short ribs, fat trimmed
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup sherry
1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups instant brown rice
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup chopped scallions
2 tablespoons minced pickled jalepenos
1 teaspoon lime zest

Heat a large Dutch oven and arrange carrots and leeks on the bottom. Season ribs all over with salt and pepper and place over vegetables. In a medium bowl, whisk together brother, sherry, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, ginger and garlic. Pour mixture over ribs. Cover and braise for 3 to 4 hours. This can also be done in a slow cooker - just cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
Cook rice according to package directions. While still hot, stir in cilantro, scallions, jalepenos and lime zest. Season to taste, with salt and pepper.

OK. That is way intense for me. So, here's what I did:

I cut up 6 carrots and 1 small onion and threw them in the bottom of the crock pot. I then cut, trimmed and rinsed normal beef ribs and placed them over the vegetables.

I minced 3 cloves of garlic and about 2 tablespoons of ginger and mixed that with about 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup white wine and dumped it over everything. I seasoned with black pepper because I figured there would be more than enough salt with the soy sauce. I also threw in a vegetable stock bouillion and about a cup or so of water.

This cooked on low for about 6 to 7 hours and smelled awesome when I walked in the door from work. On the stove I cooked up a box of Rice a Roni's whole grain blend of something or another. It took 24 minutes, so I turned the crock pot to just warm while this simmered away.

The end result were tender carrots infused with ginger, falling off the bone, tender, juicy ribs, and a nutty blend of grains cheated from a box start!


I also received my prizes in the mail from winning Biz's contest! I'm really looking forward to trying them, especially the Goddess one! Thanks!!

God's Pharmacy

My dad sent me this forward, and I think it's pretty interesting, so I'll pass it onto you!


God left us great clues as to what foods help what part of our body! God's Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles, or folds, on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, bok choy, rhubarb, and many more, look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes, eggplant and pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Oranges, grapefruits, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.