Greenfields--The Brothers Four

For some reason this song reminds me of going to my cousin's house when I was very small.  She has been married 42 years. . .how exactly I remember her wedding is a mystery since I am not yet 44.  But I distinctly remember refusing to go to her husband at the reception.  I usually loved to be around him but something about that black tuxedo just made me uneasy.  I had no problem hanging out with her though in her frothy white dress.

When I was a little girl my parents would play cards with her and her husband.  I always loved when she got snacks out for us because she had these cool bowls labelled "Chips" and "Dip" and "Pretzels"

Funny what makes an impression when you are four.

Anyway, this is the song that reminds me of going over to her house--the Brothers Four singing Greenfields

Penny Serenade

Music transports us through time and space.  The right song at the right time can bring tears of joy or tears of sadness. 

"Funny how a melody, sounds like a memory. . . ."

That is the premise of Penny Serenade, our classic movie for today.

Once again, it's a Cary Grant movie.  This time he is paired up with Irene Dunne.

Good stuff

 

Good stuff indeed.

Polynesian Chicken

This is a recipe that my aunt created when she spent the day with me after baby #3 arrived. My aunt had six kids and whenever I had a baby, she was ready and willing to help me get through the first few weeks at home.  She knew rest was important and she knew the older kids needed entertainment.

One day I told her I had this idea of a meal for us but I didn't have a real recipe.  So she looked at a few I printed out and looked in the pantry then produced this:

Polynesian Chicken

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
½ cup flour
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ cup shortening
1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 can peaches

Combine salt, paprika and flour. Lightly coat chicken

Heat shortening in a large skillet. Saute chicken until golden brown on all sides.

Mix the orange juice, brown sugar, and vinegar in a bowl.

Add to chicken. Cover and simmer 35-40 minutes until chicken is tender.

Add peaches and simmer 5 more minutes. Serve with hot cooked rice.

Cook once, eat twice

Practically a rule around here.  Especially during a busy school year.

I love to plan my meals on Saturday when I go shopping then organize things on Sunday so the rest of the week is a breeze.

So whenever I can cook once and eat twice or even three times, it's a win.

A crock pot full of chicken fits the bill.  When I cook up 3-4 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts (purchased in crazy quantities whenever my favorite store puts them on sale) I can generally get 3-4 meals out of one afternoon of cooking.

And it's just that simple--put the chicken in the pot, pour in a can of chicken or vegetable broth or stock then set that baby on low for the day (anywhere from 6-10 hours, as the cooking times vary from one crock pot to another).

You will know it's done when you go to get it out of the pot and it falls apart.  And you will have then have the  ability to produce several meals with great ease..

Easy favorite--Shredded BBQ chicken.  Shred chicken, put in a pan, drizzle your favorite BBQ over it and call it a meal.

Second easy favorite--Chicken Salad.  Shred chicken in a bowl.  Salt and pepper lightly.  Add Miracle Whip and mix.  For 1 chicken breast I would guesstimate 1/3 cup of Miracle Whip to start.  You can always add more as needed but once you get too much, you are just stuck with it unless you have more chicken to add.

Slightly more work--Chicken n Cheese Casserole.  This one isn't a completely shredded chicken meal.  Put 2-3 chicken breasts that are in pieces (but not shredded) into a square glass baking dish.  Mix 1 can cream of potato soup and 1 can of milk together and pour it over the chicken.  Then slice Jarlsberg cheese to place over the top.  This can go in the oven for 30-45 minutes at 325 degrees.

We had that casserole last night.  We are going to take the leftovers from that casserole and turn them into hot hoagies tonight.  We just need to shred the meat a little more, add a little sour cream and a little mayo (probably not even a 1/2 cup of each), some garlic and onion then spread it onto French bread.  Once it's topped with just a bit of shredded cheese, it goes into the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Favorite sides for the meals?  Well, a simple Cucumber Salad would fit with any of the meals above.  Steamed carrots are another easy addition to the meal.  In our family, peas and or corn are the usual go-to vegetables when we are in a hurry.  It's not fancy eating but it fills the tummies of a hungry family.

Me Before You

I just love when someone at the library places a book right where I will find it and take it home to read and love.  Surely they have me in mind when they select books to highlight, right?

A year or so ago I read a book by Jojo Moyes and found it to be very good.  However I wasn't driven to find all of her books and read them one after another.

Hmmm, let's just say that was a mistake.  I should have looked for more of her books. 

But I didn't.  So this one found me.

Me Before You is the story of a young girl, Lou, who has just lost her job and finds herself utterly lost in the world.  The somewhat comfortable little life she had created for herself has folded in around her.  But was it comfortable?  Was she just settling because she felt she had to settle?  Her family needed her and it was her job to contribute to the household income.  It was her duty to take the smallest bedroom so that her unmarried and smarter sister (and baby nephew) could have the larger bedroom.

Lou soon discovers that her talents are limited and her picky nature about jobs that she could do really limit her.  She is given the chance to interview to be a nurse/caregiver to a quadriplegic and surprisingly, is deemed a perfect fit for the job.  Her patient is Will, once a high-powered businessman who was hit by a motorbike two years earlier.  He is not a likable young man anymore--something his mother hopes Lou can help change.  Lou agrees to work for the family for six months, providing companionship and care for Will.

What follows is an eye-opening experience for Lou--not just into the world that Will must live in but also her own world and what she really wants from her life.

I found a number of excellent quotes in this one. . .yes, I have turned into one of those people who has quotes scribbled away on random pieces of paper everywhere.  But when a story speaks to you, you have a duty to remember it and tell others, right?

See more about Jojo Moyes and her books here

And a few quotes that spoke to me:


“You can only actually help someone who wants to be helped.”

“I should have listened to my father. 'Want to know the true definition of the triumph of hope over experience?' he would say. 'Plan a fun family day out.'

“Some mistakes...just have greater consequences than others.”

“I will never, ever regret the things I've done. Because most days, all you have are places in your memory that you can go to.”

Cinnamon Chicken

This is another one that popped into the roundup of family meals.  We haven't had it in a while so I figured it was time to pull it out and slip it into the rotation.

Thusly, you get a new recipe too

Cinnamon Chicken

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons Italian-style seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Lightly spray a 9x13 cooking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Put chicken in the dish and sprinkle evenly with ground cinnamon, seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper. (Note: You can be liberal with the seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper; however, the cinnamon should only be a dusting and not clumped.)

3 Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

(If you are using frozen chicken it will take closer to 75 minutes)

Green Green! The New Christy Minstrels

It's green they say on the far side of the hill! Green green I'm going away to where the grass is greener still!

I soooo love this one.  It's happy.  It's gritty.  It's from the 1960s--what else can you expect?

The New Christy Minstrels

Summertime Summertime!

Well what could be a better choice for today?  Even though it's been "summer" here for almost a month, I know for some people it's just beginning. 

With that in mind, I share with you today the song you won't be able to stop singing.  You are welcome!

The Jamies singing Summertime, Summertime

Enjoy!

Cheeseburger Pie

I have no idea how I stumbled across this recipe.  It's one of those things that people look at you like you are crazy when you tell them it's what you are serving the family tonight.  But around my house, it was a sure-fire hit with the kids for a number of years.  Sooo, who argues with success?

BBQ Cheeseburger Pie
1 lb ground beef
some onion (a couple of slices chopped up)
1 cup minute rice
1 cup water
1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce (0r more--depends on how much you like)
shredded cheddar cheese
pickles, chopped

Brown the ground beef with onion in a large skillet; salt and pepper to taste. You can also get fancy and add garlic if you like. Add rice, water and BBQ sauce. Let simmer until rice is cooked stirring occasionally. Put cheese on top and let melt. Serve with chopped pickles.

Clothespins

I have a bag of clothespins tucked into the back corner of a cabinet in my laundry room.

I do not have a clothesline.

Yet I hang on to the bag of clothespins.

I think because they remind me childhood.

I grew up in a family of readers.  The best words ever were "This is going to be a reading meal."  We'd scatter to collect our books or the newspaper so we could read during lunch or supper.  We didn't do it all the time.  Obviously conversation was important too. 

My mother almost always used a clothespin to clamp down the pages of her book and it was also her bookmark when she had to put the book down.

As kids we did have a clothesline and while we didn't hang all of our laundry (sister had allergies), we did hang things from time to time.

But one of the best uses of clothespins was when my mom would make a tent for us in the backyard.  She'd throw a sheet over the clothesline then use some clothespins, broken) to stake the tent.  Then she'd throw a quilt on the floor of the tent for us and make us sandwiches for lunch so we could. . .yup, read in the tent and eat.

Definitely good times. 

Lemme share a little secret

You can make banana bread with just 4 ingredients.

I love banana bread.  But it always seems like it's "bad" for you and it makes such a mess for so little reward.

But I stumbled across this little book 4 Ingredients One Pot, One Bowl at the library and this little recipe was in it. . .and the author has this little recipe on her website as well.  So I simply must share. 

Because you cannot have a secret like this and keep it forever.

My middle gal mixed this up for us on Father's Day. . .because yes, it's that ridiculously simple. We started with this recipe. . . .

4 Ingredients Banana Bread

However, true to form, I didn't have the required ingredients.  So I had to make due with what I had. . .mostly waaaay too many overripe bananas that I couldn't bear to throw away.

So we followed the gist of this recipe and came up with this:

5 very ripe bananas
1 tightly packed cup of brown sugar (OK, so ours was really a blend of brown sugar, cinnamon and a touch of butter, it was leftover from a mass kuchen making session)
1 cup of mayonaisse
pinch of salt
4 cups of all purpose flour

Mash bananas then add brown sugar, mayo and salt.  Mix well.  Slowly add the flour to the mixture. 

Split batter evenly between 2 loaf pans (mine are non-stick pans so I didn't line with parchment or use a no-stick spray).

Bake at 350ºF for 45-50 minutes.  To see if they are done, stick a toothpick or cake tester into the middle of a loaf; if it comes out clean, it's done!   Let rest for 10 minutes then loosen the edges and remove from the pan.

Super Easy Manicotti!

My family loves manicotti.  You'd think we were Italian or something.

But no.  German heritage here.

And still huge pasta-cheese dish lovers all around.

Last fall I shared my favorite manicotti recipe.

This summer I figured out an easier way to make it.

I've used no-boil lasagna before to speed up my one pot lasagna dish.  I hadn't ever seen no-boil manicotti.  But still, I figured this must be possible.  It has to be.

My biggest challenge with manicotti is filling the boiled and drained shells.  They always split open and looked awful.  Plus they were just so hard to work with.

So I got smart.  I googled.  I found this:  No Boil Spinach and Cheese Manicotti and decided to try it with my own recipe.

The technique is beyond simple.  Don't bother to boil the manicotti.  Just put the tomato sauce in the dish and fill the raw manicotti with the cheese mixture.  I don't have a pastry bag so I used a ziploc bag with a small hole cut in the corner to pipe the mixture in.  When I was done filling them I made sure they were covered nicely with tomato sauce then covered it with aluminum foil and put it in the fridge.

Sooooo much better than dealing with hot slippery manicotti!

So my new and improved recipe is below:

2 boxes of manicotti
1 lb of ricotta
1 c grated parmesan cheese
a couple of handfuls of spinach, finely chopped (optional, but even my mom eats spinach mixed into her manicotti!)
1 egg
1/2 tsp basil
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed garlic (or onion powder)
1 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 large jars/cans of your favorite pasta sauce
up to 2 cups of shredded cheese--mozzarella or a mix like colby jack

Mix the ricotta, egg and spices together.  










Pour about 1/2 can of pasta sauce into a 9x13 baking dish.  (Actually I also used a small baking dish for the "overflow" manicotti--it's in the freezer for a quick lunch prep for another day)

Stuff the manicotti by piping the cheese mixture into the shells with a pastry bag or the very low tech ziploc bag with a hole cut in one corner..  
   
Place stuffed shells in the baking dish.  Cover with the rest of the pasta sauce.  You might choose to add a bit of water to help soften the pasta.

Cover the baking pan with aluminum foil and place in the fridge until you are ready to bake.  Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes.  Then remove the aluminum foil and add 1-2 cups of shredded cheese. (I prefer to stay closer to 1 cup because we just don't need all that cheese.)  Bake for another 10-15 minutes.  Let rest for another 10 minutes before serving.

Blame it on the Bossa Nova!

I don't know why but this song still gives me chills. . .good chills but still.  It's another of the songs I call a Saturday song from when I was a kid.  This was not so much a song for Saturday morning cleaning but more like one for Saturday night in my red corduroy robe (that my mom made me) and I'd sing into my flashlight microphone.

Good times.

(I've been told that my videos don't show for some of my mobile device readers. . .so here is the link to the video for you!  Blame It on the Bossa Nova)

PS--that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.  Seventeen years.  Wow.

Oh why not, how about a full episode today?

Yes, a full episode of The Carol Burnett Show! 

Pure love.

Follow the link to have a sampling of what good TV used to be like on Saturday night!

Carol Burnett Season 6, Episode 7 October 25, 1972

Speedy Mexican Meal

Once upon a time there was a girl with a family who needed fast food.  But not that kind of fast food. She really just wanted speedy food to feed a crowd. 

And thus was born this speedy little dinner.

Speedy Mexican

3/4-1 lb ground beef
1 jar Newman's Peach Salsa
1/2-1 c frozen corn (as your family likes it)
Shredded Cheese
Tortillas (any size will work)

Brown meat then add salsa and corn.

Put tortilla on a baking pan. Spread meat/salsa corn mixture on and top with cheese. Layer another tortilla on top with the same mixture; repeat layers.  Add another tortilla and top with cheese.. I make mine 3-4 tortillas deep with the last tortilla getting cheese only.

(Generally I use 3/4 lb ground beef and make 2 of this "tortilla pie/lasagna like" things which is enough for us.)

Bake at 425 until the cheese on top is melted or if you are really in a hurry throw in the broiler for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese

Cut like a pizza and serve with more salsa, lettuce and jalapenos.

Also, sometimes I fry onions in butter/sugar to top the tortilla stacks.  But not all family members love onions. 

 Enjoy!

TAH-kee-toes! Taquitos!!

Oh my goodness.  These were quite a find.

I am a fan of cooking up a bunch of chicken in the crock pot on Sunday so that we have fewer decisions to make during the week.  Plus, I am a fan of decreasing my family's dependence on convenience foods (because a little planning means you can be convenient and healthy on your own).  Plus I am a big fan of cutting my family's meat consumption, not because I am some crazy granola vegan (not that there is anything at all wrong with that--I'm talking stereotypes here people--remember I am not the sarcastic blogger) but because there are a wide variety of foods out there and we should expand our palates.  And on top of all that, meat can be expensive so I like to stretch meat as far as it will go.

Soooo, with that in mind, I went looking for some recipes to use shredded chicken.  I found several great looking recipes over at Mel's Kitchen Cafe which of course I highly recommend.  When she posts recipes, she gives a source for her recipe and then tells how she altered it.  I have great respect for someone who gives credit to a source.  Thumbs up Mel!

OK, so the great find. . .an older recipe on the site:  Baked Chicken Taquitos. 

I have to be honest.  I am terrible at following directions.  In the process of making this I discovered that no, I did not in fact have any garlic powder.  So I substituted a little minced garlic from the fridge.  And then I was concerned that I didn't have enough for my always starving hubby.  Thusly, I added more green salsa, cream cheese, chili powder and cumin so that the spices were the same.  And we aren't huge fans of corn tortillas so we used flour tortillas.

But other than that. . .LOL.

And they were fantastic.  I credit the original recipe as being absolutely idiot proof!  I placed a link to Mel's recipe at the bottom of this post.  What follows is how we did it:

Baked Chicken Taquitos

8 ounces cream cheese, softened (can do this in the microwave if needed)
1/2 cup green salsa
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3/4 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
flour tortillas (we used 12 large)

Cooking spray

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Combine cream cheese, green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic powder.  Add chicken and mix well.

Put a few tablespoons of the mixture on the lower third of a soft tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges. Roll the tortilla up tightly.

Put the wrapped taquito seam side down on the baking sheet.  Ideally, they won't touch each other (but mine did) When you have them all filled and rolled, spray the tops lightly with cooking spray.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown. Serve immediately.

We dipped ours in green salsa, regular salsa, ranch dressing, and even barbeque sauce.

Our family quickly decided that we are in fact making these part of the regular supper rotation!

 Baked Chicken Taquitos from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

What Alice Forgot

I was on a reading binge for a while at the start of summer.  Sometimes the best books are the unknown finds. . .books you hadn't intended to pick up but they present themselves to you and you just have to take them home for a read.

And that is exactly what I found with Liane Moriarty's book What Alice Forgot.  Alice takes a fall while at her spin class and hits her head.  She is dazed and confused.  She tells people she is pregnant (Who are all these people anyway?  They all act like they know her but she doesn't know them?) and insists that she is 29 years old.  But she isn't.  She's actually 39.  She has three children.  And that husband that she adores?  They are in the middle of an ugly divorce.

How on earth did her life get to this?  How can it be that she has three children and she doesn't know them at all?

This is a really interesting story.  As a reader, you can't help but think about what you might think if you suddenly had the same experience as Alice.  Are all your choices good ones?  Have you made choices that a younger version of you would approve of for your life?

This book is a few years old.  I found it because it was well placed at my local library (thank you Madam librarian!)  I intend to try a few more of Ms. Moriarty's books now.  I just love when I find an author who crafts a story I can really get lost in and at the same time, gives me something to think about.

I love Tim Conway and Harvey Korman

The Carol Burnett Show rocked.  It can't be purchased as a full season set.  Pout.  It was good clean entertainment for the family.

And the sketch actors were hilarious.  How they kept a straight face through their shows was always amazing to me.

Here is a sample of the greats at work:


The Carol Burnett Show--The Ad Men (including outtake)

See You Again. . .the current earworm

We've been hearing this song for weeks.  My youngest thought it was a great song for kids about to graduate and move on because Carrie Underwood keeps saying "I will see you again."

You might as well sing this one all day just like I will . . . .

Gardening. . .quite a bit of fun for kids

Last week we picked up some seeds and planted a container garden. 

We have plenty of land to do a proper garden but we wanted to have some herbs and "salad" stuff on the deck for easy access.

So we grabbed some leaf lettuce, green onions, hot peppers (red and round) along with oregano, cilantro and something else--thyme?  No, maybe parsley.

My littlest one was all over this adventure.  She couldn't wait to plant her garden.  And now she is thrilled beyond words that we have lettuce growing in two pots as well as the first pepper plant has popped up.

Daddy tilled the full garden area so tomorrow we can plant cucumbers, zucchini and her watermelon.

Yup, that's the good stuff.  

So it's definitely summertime. . .reading a lot here!

In the first week of summer vacation I polished off three books.  Yes.  Three.  One of them took just 26 hours. . .and I even managed to sleep for about 8 hours *and* address other family concerns during that time.  They were fed and everything!

The first was the final book in the Sookie Stackhouse series--Dead Ever After.

I suppose it was time for the series to end.  I caught up with it several years after it began so it doesn't seem like it's been around for ages. . .to me.

Throughout the ride there have been highs and lows.  I felt that the earlier books (before it became an HBO series) were the better books.  There were a couple of ridiculously outlandish ones later on in the series.

The final book does exactly what you would expect.  People, erm, perhaps I should say creatures, must die in order for Sookie to continue in her happy little home in Bon Temps.  I can't give away any particulars.  But the story wraps up nicely.  Some might say too neatly for a mind-reader who has taken up with vampires, the fae, werepanthers and shapeshifters.

I will miss the early Sookie--who just dropped into people's thoughts, even when she really didn't want to do so.  She was sweet and innocent.  She became to hardened as she learned more about the world around her.  Maybe that is inevitable.

Personally, I would love to see Charlaine Harris be able to write more stories for Harper Connelly.  There were some talks in the works to turn it into a tv series but they fell through.  I feel there are more stories that could be told with Harper. . .but then, I'm just a reader, not the writer.

Stay tuned for more short book reviews this week.  It was a rainy weekend!

The time of my life

Yup, that's what it is when you have a family.  Even when it's tough.  Even when they get on your nerves.  Even when they leave their stuff all over the floor.

But they make my days.  (Almost) always.

So today a song from a little movie from a while back.  I was in college I guess by the time this one came out.  The song is so upbeat and fun to listen to. . .plus Patrick Swayze was a fine dancer.

Go.  Have the time of your life . . .within reason of course!