Technology

Isn't technology a great thing. Yeah right! I have a ton of pictures I'd like to post up here about all the changes and some new recipes tried, but the scanner and the computer it is connected to are not playing nice. I'm hoping to have it fixed within a week. Until then...well, no updates. For those that actually click here to read something worthwhile, I'm sorry. Please don't give up I promise to get back on track soon.

Cilantro and Lime Chicken

I got this great recipe from Cooking Light. I learned from the WC Nesties that Cooking Light has great recipes so I bought the most recent issue on the newsstand and found a few new recipes I'd like to try. This one is Cilantro and Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa. My guys aren't big fans of Avocado, so I left it out this time, but I did feel the salsa was lacking and I think I may sneak it in next time or maybe add some peppers. You can find the original recipe here: http://tinyurl.com/d4puwm

Cilantro and Lime Chicken with Tomato & Onion Salsa
Serves 4

For the chicken:
2 tbsp fresh cilantro minced
2 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tbsp EVOO
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Cooking spray
Old Bay Seasoning

Salsa (I made mine without the avocado)
2 Plum tomatoes diced
2 tbsp chopped onion (I kinda went overboard on this one. It worked for us though!)
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
Black pepper
Garlic powder* Oregano* *I added these two final ingredients because I felt that the salsa needed a little something*

Add the cilantro, oil and lime juice to a medium sized bowl. What it looks like before the chicken:
Next, add the chicken to the bowl and let sit for 3 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating you can start getting the salsa ingredients ready. Dice the tomatoes and onions. As you can see, I chopped a BIG onion and forgot that it was only supposed to be a few tablespoons of onion. However, since I cut the avocado out, my mistake worked out. Add the tomato and onion to a bowl. Add the black pepper, garlic powder and oregano and mix.


Next heat up your grill pan and spray with cooking spray. Add the chicken to the pan. Discard the marinade. I hit the chicken with a few dashed of Old Bay seasoning. I like to use something flavorful when I cook other than salt.

I love my grill pan. We received it as a Shower gift last year and it's come in handy for when we can't grill outside. Please ignore the "bald" spot on the one chicken breast. I accidentally brushed some of the seasoning off. Grill each side for about 5-7 minutes. Depending on how thick the chicken breast is.

Give the chicken a flip. Look at the pretty grill marks with the green cilantro. It smelled really good too. I didn't add any Old Bay to the other side. I just let them cook for another 5-7 minutes.


Toward the end of the second side cooking, I added some of the tomato and onion salsa to two of the breasts. I left two "plain" so Bear would eat them without complaint. Which he did.

The finished product. Two plain and one breast with the cooked tomato and onion on it.


I served this with Zataran's Spanish Rice mix. It complimented the chicken very well. I would've made my own Mexican rice, but I couldn't find a recipe that I could do. Maybe next time.

For Weight Watchers each serving of 1 breast with salsa and rice is 10 points. The chicken and salsa without the avocado is 3 points (4 points with the avocado) and the rice mix is 7 points for a 1/2 cup serving. I was shocked about that, but the rice is good so I followed the serving size. Here's a picture of what my dish looked like.

As I said, I was surprised by the serving size points for the rice, but I used my handy-dandy measuring cup and measured out the rice. Because of the chicken and tomatoes I did feel full after eating my dinner. I'm sure the water I drank with it helped too.

Enjoy!

Easy Green Bean side dish

I've recently joined Weight Watchers and I'm making a conscious effort to include veggies at every meal. I like veggies, in fact, I'm always trying to convince Bear and The Boy to try a meat-free dinner more than once in a while. Bear hates veggies though. He actually picks them out of dinners I make. It's frustrating sometimes. I've told them both that I will be making them almost every meal and they'll just have to deal. Luckily, I can tell The Boy he doesn't have an option and he's pretty willing to eat them. One of his favorites is Green beans with tomatoes and garlic. My Mom has made this in years past at Holidays. I associate it with growing up Italian, but I don't really know the origin of this dish. This is how I prepare it though and I got compliments from BIL & SIL at Easter, so I'll definitely be making it again! Also, it's something simple that your kids can help you with if you have them cooking with you.

Green Beans with Tomatoes and Garlic
Serves approximately 4 adults

1 lb. fresh green beans, with ends snapped off
3-4 cloves of garlic (depending on your personal preference)
3 medium sized tomatoes diced
1 tbsp. EVOO (for WW people you can also use cooking spray but I find that it works better with oil)
Basil
Black pepper

Rinse the dirt off the green beans and then snap the ends off them. Snapping the ends off green beans is a great activity for your kid helper to do while you're chopping the other ingredients. I spent many a Summer snapping beans at my Grandmother's growing up. Peel and mince the garlic up and also dice the tomatoes. I saw a great trick on the Food Network show "Barefoot Contessa" where Ina took a spoon and scraped the pulp out before dicing the tomato. Works like a charm! The veggies prepared should look like this:
This is just a portion of the green beans as I couldn't fit everything on the cutting board for a pretty picture. LOL I also foolishly didn't take any photos during cooking or once it was done because I was distracted by family. Silly TEE!

After the veggies are prepared, heat up a skillet with the EVOO. Add the green beans first and saute them for about 3 minutes. Till they start to firm up a bit. Next add in the tomatoes and saute for about another minute or two. Finally add in the garlic. I try to add garlic in last just because I don't want to burn it. Burned garlic taste BAD! Saute until you can smell the garlic. Add the black pepper, basil and oregano. Mix them together and let cook for about 30 seconds. Take off the heat and into a serving dish. VIOLA! Green beans that my son will eat and maybe your kids will too!

For Weight Watchers folks that are doing points a serving of this side dish is just ONE point! Plus, the beans and tomatoes are on the filling foods list. You can't beat it. It's quick and easy and a great way to incorporate more veggies into your diet.

Progress

Well, we have are almost repairing our deck and the steps are nearly completed as well. I'm very excited since the weather is starting to warm up and we're spending a little more time outside. We just bought a new patio table as well. It's still in the box because Bear did not want to put it together until the deck boards were repaired. We bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond. At first we wanted to buy a complete set, table, chairs, umbrella, etc. There were some sets that were okay at The Christmas Tree Shop. Normally, I like their furniture and other items, but I have a specific idea in my head about what I want the deck to be like and the CTS set was not doing it for me. The price was right though and Bear said that if I really hated the color of the CTS set he'd paint it. "Nothing a can of Krylon paint can't cure Honey!" But it was more than the color of that set. I just thought it was cheap looking (Sorry CTS!) and really wasn't feeling it. Well, someone was smiling down at us, because the CTS one was out of stock. Now we have the pretty table I liked and I'm very happy. Granted, I have to save up some money for the chairs and umbrella, but I don't mind. My b-day is coming up, when my Mom and Dad ask me what I want, I'll tell them chairs from BB&B!

Here's a picture of our stairs that are almost finished. We have a guy that works for our town and does carpentry work on the side building them for us. Bear knew the young guy when he was a little kid. Bear said "He was in the Church youth group I ran a long time ago." Bear says he feels "old" now. The steps look great and we've walked up and down them already. They're sturdy. I say that because Bear and I are both big people and they didn't bend with our weight on them. I'm very happy with them. I'll be even more happy when the deck boards get replaced on Saturday as well. Our guy can only do the work on weekends because of his "real" job. He's coming here very early in the morning. I think he's only showing up that early because it's going to be an almost summer like day Saturday and he wants to be done early enough to enjoy it. I don't blame him. His coming early will get me moving too and getting things done I want to get done before I head out to dinner with my girls from high school.
If I remember tomorrow, I'll take a picture of our flower bed in front of the house. It looks much different than the previous photo I've posted before. The spring bulbs are blooming and we have all the shrubs put in. It looks nice.
No blog post about the house is not complete without a picture of our Emma. Easter wasn't very "traditional" at our house this year. We opted to do a BBQ. The weather was great for it and no one really wanted to make a fuss. So we invited Bear's Brother and his wife and kid and of course, MIL was with us. I invited my family but my Mother was feeling cranky and my brother was tied up with other plans his wife made. Our 3 year old nephew JB was feeling very happy this past Sunday. He was so full of energy. He wore poor Emma out! But he was having fun and made us all smile. They both played on the deck while Uncle Bear was grilling. They're favorite spot was our chaise lounge. Emma liked it best because that's where the sun was for most of the afternoon.
My next project will be setting up the container garden on the deck. My plan is to have an herb garden and grow some vegetables. My lists so far are:

Herb garden: Basil, Oregano, Garlic, Parsley, Rosemary, Lavender, Cilantro and Thyme
Veggies: Tomatoes (Plum), carrots, cucumbers, spinach, arugula, lettuce, a few peppers.

It's the first time I'm going to really try and grow anything on my own without my Dad. I've only really planted veggies with my Dad and now that he lives in Virginia, I call him constantly asking his advice. I also ask him for a ride to the Home store every time he comes up for his monthly visit. He has a truck and I fill the back of it with everything I need/want.

I'll be posting a few recipes that I've remembered to take photos of and have had a positive reaction from The Boy and Bear.

Sausage and Peppers

This is my son's favorite meal. I make for him often and especially on his birthday. Its something I plan on teaching whoever he chooses to marry (many years from now) how to make, just so he always gets his favorite meal. Yeah, I'm that kind of Mom.

I first got this recipe from a Woman's Day article a few years ago. I've since lost the original card that came with it, but I've made it so often that it's one of the few things I cook I don't need to look up. I've made my own changes to the original, which I think most cooks do anyway. What I like about this recipe, besides that my son absolutely loves it, that it is very versatile. It's more of a sausage and pepper sauce for pasta than true sausage and peppers. My best friend Angel makes traditional sausage and peppers and it's to die for. Truly. I could eat the whole plan, but when she makes it, it's usually at a group gathering and I have to fight for my share with my son, her hubby and my brother. She likes my recipe just as much. It's nice when your friends like your cooking.

Versatility is what I think makes this dish great. I've adapted it to certain tastes and I even gave it to my son's boy scout troop to make one cookout. The boys found it easy to make on the trail and they all loved it. You can use the regular Italian sausage links found in most grocery stores or if you're lucky enough to have a meat grinder of your own, you can grind it, like if you were making stuffing. My local supermarket is known to have packages of ground sausage around holidays. Either way, crumbled or just cut up it works great. The same goes for the peppers and tomatoes. I personally, LOVE red peppers. I like the sweetness of them and of course the color. What peppers I use is usually dependent on what produce is in season and on sale. For example, this past week, my local grocery store has red peppers on sale for 99 cents a pound. They usually sell for 2.50 a pound so I grabbed a bunch of them and have made my meals for the week around peppers. To add variety and color, I also added a cubanelle pepper. They're easy to fry up and add a dash of green to the dish. Sometimes I use the pre-packaged "stop-light" peppers (red, yellow and orange). It's entirely up to you and what you like.

The same goes for tomatoes. I usually used Cento's Crushed tomatoes for the sauce. Sometimes I switch it up and used fresh diced tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes (depending on what I have on hand). Again, this is entirely a personal choice and you should use what you like best.

Mama's Sausage and Peppers with Penne Pasta (adapted from Woman's Day magazine)

6 Italian sausage links, sweet or hot - you can also use crumbled Italian sausage
1 box of whole wheat penne pasta
1 large can of crushed tomatoes - canned diced can be substituted if preferred.
3 peppers - use whatever peppers you like, for this serving I used 2 red peppers and 1 cubanelle pepper
1 medium onion diced
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
EVOO
Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
Red pepper flakes
Black pepper

*You will notice that I do not have salt listed on the ingredients. I try not to use salt in my cooking as previously stated in other posts. I don't salt my pasta water and if I can avoid it, I'll use other spices to add flavor to my dishes.*


Start the water for the pasta. Once boiling add the pasta and cook to al dente. If you're lucky enough like myself to be blessed with a pasta pot, this process takes a little bit so while waiting for the water to boil you can prep the rest of the meal.

While waiting for the water to boil, slice the casing of the sausage off. Once the casing is off, you can run your knife through breaking it up before putting into the pan. In a large skillet, heat up some EVOO for one turn of the pan on med-high heat. Add sausage and begin to brown. In the photo I have some hot sausage browning.
While the sausage is cooking, begin prepping the veggies. Dice the onion and slice the peppers into thin slices. Prep the garlic cloves last, because you'll be adding them last.
Once the sausage is browned, remove from the pan and set aside to keep warm. Drain off most of the fat and then add the onion and peppers to the pan. Cook the onion and peppers for about 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent and the peppers softened. Once they are cooked through, add the garlic. Cook the garlic for about a minute, until you can smell it cooking. Add the canned tomatoes and stir to mix together. Add basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Stir again to combine. Stir in the sausage and lower heat to low. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, to let the flavors combine.
Drain the pasta and then add the sausage and peppers to it. Mix together, serve and enjoy!

I hope your family loves it as much as my family does.

Fried Pork Chops

I got this recipe from Food Network. Sunny Anderson featured it on her show. I did some tweaks. Like switching out vegetable shortening with canola oil. I also use salt very sparingly. Both Bear and The Boy (shocking I know!) have high blood pressure. I use different herbs and seasonings to add flavor to my food instead.

Please forgive the bad photos. I realized in the middle of frying up the pork chops, that I had left the camera downstairs. I didn't want to leave the kitchen while the chops were on the stove, so I took the photos with my cell phone. This is my first attempt at photographing and posting to a blog, so I guess it's a learning experience.

I made 8 pork chops. I ate 2 and my son, who had been working in the yard all day, ate the rest. He really liked them. I was hoping he'd leave one for Bear, who was out eating his weird food with his friends, so he could try it, but it didn't happen. Feeding a hungry teenager is not always easy. I also made honey glazed carrots with this, another recipe I got off the Food Network site. The recipe orginator is sited as Ms. Cathy Lowe. I didn't take a picture of the carrots, because I couldn't get a good one. They are so good though. I first served them at Christmas dinner. My family loved them. Even fussy Bear who's not a big fan of veggies in general.

Now, when I cook, I am of the Rachel Ray school of "eyeballing". I take the list of ingredients estimate accordingly. I'm pretty good at eyeballing amounts, so I don't really follow them. Only when I bake, is when I follow measurements precisely.

Fried Pork Chops (adapted from Sunny Anderson - Food Network)

Canola oil for frying
6-8 bone in center cut pork chops
Salt & Pepper for seasoning - Instead of salt, I used Old Bay Seasoning and Emeril's Bayou Blast
2-3 eggs depending on the size of the pork chops
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper - I used a combo of Chili powder and Emeril's Bayou Blast, I was out of cayenne
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of cornstarch

Using a large skillet, heat up canola oil. Use enough to come up about an inch or two up the side of the pan. Heat the oil up to 360 degrees F. While the oil is heating, prep the pork chops. In a reseable bag mix flour and cornstarch together. In a medium sized bowl, mix water, eggs, and pepper together. Season the pork chops with salt & pepper, then dip in the egg mixture. Next put the chop into the reseable, close and shake. Do the same with all pork chops. Once oil is heated up, add chops. I cooked mine in batches of 2 at a time. Cook about 4-5 minutes each side, until done.

I transfered my chops to a plate and didn't use a paper towel to drain, but you may want to. This should serve 3-4 people, or One Mom and one hungry teenage boy.



Again, please forgive the poor quality photos. This is the first time I'm posting food and I know with time and practice I *should* get better at the picture taking.

Chuckles and a Bobcat.

Today I took advantage of the partly cloudy skies and the 60 degree temperature to plant the rest of the bulbs in our little flowerbed. Bear has a set idea on how he wanted the front to look and I'm just following the plan.

However, this plan of his, has had some obstacles. His part of the work in the flower bed has been easy. He digs a hole, plops in the boxwood bush and covers it and is done! Viola! I'm digging in the other part of the garden where there are HUGE ROCKS buried down below. Bear informs me that long ago when he was young, his Grandmother had a flowerbed in the front yard. I asked him about digging them out when they put in the grass and he just shrugged. They apparently just threw down the grass seed and forgot about them. Until now.

Now every spot I dig for the bulbs and plants, there are big rocks that I have to dig out, if I can. I swear I could hear his grandmother laughing at me. I was out there for 2 hours struggling with these rocks when I finally just gave up.

I was frustrated. Bear wasn't home. He left work early to go with his best friend to some weird dinner. All the dishes at this dinner are all wild game. Bear took a picture of the menu and sent them to me. I saw Bobcat on the menu and was a little put off. I have no problem eating venison. I've even tried rabbit. But I don't know if I could try anything else on the menu.

So there's no dinner here at home. Bear is out and The Boy is going out with his friend tonight. I should use this time constructively to finish my paper for class but I just don't feel like it. I'll probably bake brownies instead. And if I do, I'll try to remember to take pictures and post them.

Landscape Excitement

So Bear and I want to do a lot of work on the outside of the house. The house itself looks pretty nice, structure wise. We just need some landscaping done. Bear, as mentioned, is a Park Ranger, so that makes him pretty handy and knowledgeable about these things. My father is also an ex-landscaper (he worked in landscaping when I was small) and he's been great with the advice as well. My Dad visits often enough and is always willing to give advice or a ride to the local store for assorted shrubs, flowers and other needs. He has a pick up truck. We don't. It works.

This past weekend, Bear started to clear out the area where we want to build the dog pen out in the back yard.

He started this right when he came home from work, which is why he's in his uniform. He borrowed the chainsaw from his job and began to take the trees down. My son cleared the brush.
The evergreen tree in the foreground is staying. We have a backdoor to our apartment and we plan to fence in under the porch and out up to the hill and to the left of the yard, closer to our neighbor there. In the background you can see some green shrubs, that much to my sadness, we have to take out. Critters always live there and I am sad to see the shrubs go, but Emma needs room to hang out in when we're in the backyard.



That's our Emma on the side of the house. She was going crazy knowing Bear was home and The Boy was outside helping. I was inside cleaning. At that point I felt it was best for me to stay out of the way. Plus, as excited I am for the work, I don't like doing the heavy lifting and what not. Call me lazy. Cause I am. LOL I don't mind planting bulbs, seeds, and things like that. It's dragging trees and branches that bug me. Plus, why have a teenage son if you don't put him to work!

That was all last weekend. Just before the start of Spring. Today, March 20, Spring officially started according to the calendar. It snowed briefly in the Metro NYC area. I missed it, because I don't open the blinds/shades until well after 9 a.m. The folks on the news and some friends on Facebook were complaining about it. It didn't stick or cause any problems at all. By the afternoon it was gone.

Our project for this weekend, really just Saturday is to finish getting the shrubs for the front walk, put out two more window boxes, haul the heavier logs from the backyard and figure out what to do with a load of wood chips we're getting for free this weekend. Most of this has to be done on Saturday because The Boy and I are going to a big Parade on Sunday and we'll be gone all day. Bear will be gone Saturday afternoon, so we have just the morning to get most of this done.



Today, Bear took me the Lowes, because they had roses on sale. We want to plant them in the bed next to the garage. While we were there, I found spring bulbs that were already started and I was very excited about it. I know it sounds silly, but I really wanted to see tulips and other spring flowers in our yard. Now I'm excited to have the spring bulbs in the ground and the summer and fall bulbs beneath them. I'm worried about the roses though. I've never grown them on my own. My Dad is the rose grower in the family and from his past experience I know that they take a lot of work.

Bear also was looking at some trees. We have a sad red maple in the front of the house. It's half dead. We know we're going to have to replace it. That is going to be a big discussion because both Bear and I have our favorite trees. He was looking at a plum tree, even though he previously talked about replacing the red maple with another. I love weeping cherry trees as well as dogwood. I love dogwood trees. It stems from when I was a little girl. My maternal grandparents had a dogwood in their front yard and when I was small I would crawl underneath the branches and play. It was my own fairy ground. I also have a thing about weeping cherry and weeping willow trees. In fact, I picked our place to get married because the site had two willow trees on either side of the gazebo where the ceremony took place. That obsession came from the Disney version of Robin Hood. Weird I know, but it makes me the wonderful, quirky woman I am.

So these are the projects for the weekend. I don't know what, if anything, will get done. I hope at least something will. If I get anything funny from the Parade this weekend, maybe I'll even post those, just to embarrass some of my family members.

In the beginning...

There was me, Tee. I'm a middle-age Housewife who has gone back to college to earn my Bachelor's degree. Eventually, I would like to gain my Masters and become a teacher. In NYS the law states to be certified you need a Masters. With the Bachelor's I can be a sub and/or teacher's assistant. I have a teenage son. He plays football and baseball. He knows a lot about sports. If only he put as much effort into his grades as he does with his sports predictions he'd be a consistent A student!
My hubby and I have been together for nearly 10 years, however, we only got married in September '08. I will most likely refer to him as "Honey" or "Bear". Because, well, he's a big bear. He's a park ranger for our County and makes a good living. Which is why I've been able to stay home this past year and just focus on classes. We live in the home he grew up in. Hubby has a twin brother who lives nearby with his wife and son. I have a younger brother who is married with 2 kids and an older brother, who is sadly, MIA at the moment. Bear's Mom is alive and lives with us. My parents are divorced. My Dad lives in VA and my mother still lives in NY in the town I grew up in.
In addition to my teenager, I am the "Mom" to a few critters. We have a 4 year old basset hound named Emma. A 6 year old tabby cat named Toby. We also have 2 birds and several fish. We are looking to adopt another dog. Bear says that Emma is my girl and she is. He wants a dog he can rough house with, so we are looking to adopt a male if possible.
That's my little bio. The reason for this blog is because I have been inspired by the WC ladies over at The Nest.com who all have cooking blogs. Staying home gives me the chance to cook and bake a lot, but I didn't want this blog to be only about cooking and baking. I wanted to be about different projects I do. Currently, Bear and I are in the process of re-decorating 3 rooms of our house. The living room, master bedroom and my son's room. I've started with the living room, but it still needs lots of work. The bedrooms haven't even been touched yet. We are also in process of landscaping the front and backyard. We plan on building a dog pen in the backyard so that Emma and any other dog that comes into our lives has a safe area to run and play. Plus, on those mornings when no one wants to get out of bed to walk her, we can just open the back door and let her in her pen.
The front yard has one bed Bear created last fall and another that we still have to dig. We had the front stairs re-done last summer and this was the inspiration to landscape the front yard.
I try to take pictures, but I forget a lot of things sometimes. I'm new to this blogging thing, so it may take a while for this to become a "pretty" blog.
As for cooking, I haven't really "created" anything on my own. Usually what I cook, comes from an already existing recipe that I've tweaked to my family's likes and dislikes. Sadly, Bear is one of the pickiest eaters I know. He makes it difficult sometimes to try new ideas. Luckily, The Boy (aka my son) likes to try things at least once and is very honest when something truly doesn't taste well.
So I guess that is it for this post. I do have some dishes to post as well as the beggining of the outdoor projects. Thanks for stopping by. I hope as time goes on I'm able to share with friends and family.