Dirty Dozen

See, once you realize that with publishing 100 posts you are obligated to create a "100 things about me" to put on your sidebar, all regular posting comes to a screeching halt while your brain shuts down in an attempt to prolong the work required to come up with 100 things about yourself that anyone else would find remotely interesting.

In lieu of posting my 100 things in this, my 100th post, I have decided to post a list of the fruits and veggies you should absolutely buy organically whenever you buy said fruits and veggies, and which ones you can assuredly get away with buying the cheapies.

So, here they are, the dirty dozen: Fruits and Vegetables you absolutely must buy organically, or not at all.

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes

And here are the fruits and veggies which you can get away with buying non-organically:

1. Onions
2. Avocados
3. Sweet corn (frozen)
4. Pineapples
5. Mango
6. Sweet Peas (frozen)
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi
9. Bananas
10. Cabbage
11. Broccoli
12. Eggplant

My theory is that because so many of the foods on the non-organic list have some type of peel, they are safer than the other foods on the organic list, which you don't normally peel.

(data from www.foodnews.org)

So, it wasn't a list about my 100 things, but at least it was educational and delicious. I'll get the 100 things post going right now. Promise.

Happy Anniversary!

Handsome and I celebrated two years today. We booked a trip to nearby Indian Springs hot springs in Idaho Springs, CO. It was a wonderful anniversary.

We drove the scenic route to get to the hot springs which took us by way of Echo Lake and Mt. Evans. We picnicked at Echo lake and made friends with some birds and a duck who were very interested in our tortilla chips.

A short while later we pulled into Idaho Springs which is a lovely quaint town just a half hour outside of Denver. The Indian Springs resort is on the east end of town and it's quiet and peaceful there.

There is a covered giant pool fed by underground hot springs so the water was a wonderful 97 degrees. The area around the pool is surrounded by all sorts of tropical plants. It was truly like being in paradise for a couple days.

We participated in a mud bath, too. A 10 foot by 10 foot area was filled with two inches of cold clay mud, which we applied to all exposed skin. (Bathing suits required!) Then, we lay on the beach chairs to dry the mud and pull any toxins out of our bodies. Off to the shower afterward to get all the mud off. Man, does that mud like to hang around! Then, back in the pool. Ahhhh.

We dined at a great little Italian restaurant, Mangia, and sat outside on their back patio. We had excellent dinners (stuffed shells for me and tortelloni for Handsome) and then lounged by the fire pit with an italian soda and tiramisu. I'm glad the restaurant was in walking distance to the hotel so we could walk off some of the calories.

Handsome and I played Scrabble in the room while a light rain fell outside. I whooped him two games to none.

It was a great relaxing anniversary.

The healing power of food

My dad liked the cookie bouquet I sent.

Whew!

Cookin' crock pot style

This coming week is Vacation Bible School at church. They do VBS at night (which I think is an AWESOME idea) and thought that if they added a dinner element beforehand, it might make everything less stressful for all involved.

Cooking, I can do. Bible teaching, not so much. So, using the gifts that God has given me, I volunteered to organize and prepare the pre-VBS dinner, each night. It's looking like there may be around 40 kids, and some of them have parents who will come eat, too. So, I may be cooking for the masses.

The VBS theme is a carnival type atmosphere, and the suggestions I received were hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. Of course, I was thinking pizza, lasagna, anything that would be easy to prepare for a LOT of people.

Then I realized that Handsome and I already had plans, away from church, for the first two of the three nights of VBS. Which means, we couldn't actually be there to cook for anyone. Hmmm, this would be interesting.

Crock pots to the rescue! I am borrowing three crocks from three girlfriends to accomplish this much cooking for this many people.

The first night, we are making sloppy joes. Lots of sloppy joe mix (in two crock pots), buns, chips and fruit. Done.
The second night will be corn dogs (in the oven), mac n cheese (in one crock pot) and fruit. Done.
The third night we will make a taco bar with taco meat (in two crock pots), shells, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Done!

After reading Stephanie's blog, I realized that there should be no fear in relying on a crock pot for three dinners in a row. Stephanie has made a New Year's Resolution to use her crock pot every day in 2008. She has some delicious recipes, I literally drool over them!

So, with a lot of prayer and a little luck, I'll come out of VBS week unscathed and those kids (and parents) will hopefully not go hungry!

Bierocks

This weekend we had some ground beef hanging out in the fridge. Every time I'd open the fridge door, it would sit there, looking at me, wishing I'd hurry up and make it edible. I would sidle over to the pantry, and the onions would give me their puppy dog eyes. I couldn't stand it any more.

I browned the ground beef (2 pounds) with a chopped onion and drained any fat. Half of the mixture went into a crockpot mix for another post. The other half was made into Bierocks.

Some may spell them with two "r's", some may call them Runzas, some may even call them Samosas (I like mimosas with my samosas but I get giddy over alliteration). This is my recipe and if the name of the dish has no teaser as to what's in it, it may very well get eaten!

So, you take the browned hamburger/onion mixture and you add half a head of chopped cabbage. You can totally cheat on this and use bagged cole slaw if the mere thought of chopping cabbage exhausts you and you can't find your husband to bribe to do it for you.

Cook until cabbage is soft and then you let the whole mixture cool. This is important because you will be handling it and if it's too hot, it will just frustrate you and that's all too common so don't let your food be the frustrating force in your life.

Put the cooled mix in a bowl and add shredded cheese. Your choice of cheese, I put in cheddar because it's what we had. Salt and pepper it a little and mix it up.

Take a can of refrigerated crescent rolls, or a can of biscuits, or a can of pizza dough, and pop it open. You're going to put a few spoonfuls of the beefy cheesy mixture into the biscuit round or crescent roll triangle, or if you're using the pizza dough, you can cut the dough into rectangles. Then fold it over so it's a little hot pocket and put them on your cookie sheet. Bake per the instructions on the can so the meat heats up and the dough cooks golden brown.



Yummy, good stuff. You got your meat, veggie and cheese in a hand held little pastry. Enjoy this and lots of other good eats at Randi's Recipe Box Swap!

Super Easy Man-Pleaser

I have discovered that my husband is very easy to please.

Stop laughing!

Besides the obvious man-pleasers, I stumbled upon a very easy one. And I don't even have to be around!

That's right! He can enjoy this one all. by. himself!

OK, so on a Saturday morning, I will whip us up some pancakes. I like to make mine with the Jiffy mix (if you're a Bisquick user, don't judge, Jiffy is just MUCH less expensive. Like by half!) and milk. Then, I throw in a can of creamed corn.

Because what else are you going to do with creamed corn?

Since it is just Handsome and I, this makes a LOT of pancakes for the two of us. I flip the flapjacks until all the batter is gone and he can eat a pancake a day for the rest of the week at lunch.

Now, I'm not usually that forward thinking, nor am I that much of a Menu-Planner, but this definitely works for me!

When in doubt, post a recipe

I love how the easy foods are what my husband ooohs and ahhhs over.

We grilled chicken breasts this weekend (in the garage, because it was pouring outside. Why does it insist on pouring when we've got plans to bbq?) but I was relatively un-motivated to "do" anything with them.

I remembered we had about 500 7 bags of ramen noodles from the 10/$1 sale last week. I boiled some peas, threw in the ramen noodles and let it cook a minute. I drained most of the water and mixed in half the seasoning. Then, I took a few chunks (read 1/4 cup) of cream cheese and put that in the pot with the noodles and peas.

I diced up the chicken breast and dished it all up. It was pretty darn yummy!

Lava lamps

Here is a neat-o recipe that you can make anytime and combines some of the most fun drinky related ingredients.

Who doesn't like champagne? Who doesn't like jello shots?

Who ever thought of putting them together?

That's right! Here's the lowdown. First you make your jello shots. Combine one package of jello (I think cherry is my favorite but blue raspberry might be kind of fun for this project), one cup of boiling water and mix well. When the jello is dissolved, pour in a cup of vodka. (shhhhh)

Find your itty bitty Dixie cups and pour out itty bitty shots of jello into the cups and put them in the fridge to cool and gel-i-fy.

Once they are jiggly, get out your champagne flutes and make sure they aren't dusty like mine! You can use a plain ole' $3.00 a bottle Korbel (my kind of price) but they also have cool sparklies now like cranberry or peach. Pour the sparkly of choice into the glass, about 2/3 full. Then add your jello shot.

I like to mush it up a bit before I add the jello to the champagne, to make it more like a lava lamp and less like a bobbing blob but it's totally your choice.

Now, enjoy! Groovy man.

I love me some good food

I was looking forward to this since the moment I heard about it.

There is a restaurant we visited in Las Vegas called Capriottis. It is a sandwich shop where the small sandwich is 8 inches. Hoo whee!

They have a signature sandwich called the Bobbie. It starts with bread, add stuffing (or dressing, depending on where y'all live, right?), add turkey, top with cranberry sauce and a bit of mayo.

YUMMMMMY!

Now, remember this next time you find yourself with a bit of turkey and stuffing and such because you can totally make this at home and not pay $9.00 for one sandwich.

But it's totally worth it if you are vacationing in Vegas!