Bloggers Unite: Go see 'Julie & Julia'

This movie was a great uplift to my day.

The story is Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams (the cutie from 'Enchanted') as a blogger blogging 365 days of Mrs. Child's cooking.

The movie is a delight, in my view, and I disagree with People magazine's review that Amy Adams/the blogger's side of the story was whiney or boring. It's a thrill as a blogger/writer on both ends of the story and it wouldn't have been right without the present day blogger's story, no matter what a stunner Meryl Streep, as usual, is at being a near perfection of a delightful Julia Childs.

As testament to what a good movie it is, I found out before the movie started (from some hens that were telling everyone and the manager at the movie theater) that there was something wrong with the last 20 minutes or so of the actual film in our theater. The theater was packed, and wouldn't you know it the picture started to go in and out of blurriness in the last twenty minutes. No one left the theater. We all wanted to know how it turned out. We got to see the end, with a little eyestrain, and every single person in the theater received two tickets to see a free movie. Now you can't beat that.:)

My easy crock-pot recipe for chicken.

It's not very fancy, but it feeds us. The one meat that I have a lot of is chicken breast because I get a big package of individually frozen ones at the warehouse store. So I am always wondering what can I make with this chicken that is different than a few days ago?

Well, I have been cooking at the cooking/baking class and we have made a few things, but I feel so bad for my husband who just comes home and makes a frozen pizza (we get the inexpensive generic kind from the store) and he is not fond of trying the many neat things that we make in class. So tomorrow I don't have cooking class and I think early in the morning I will:

Defrost 4 chicken breasts
Pour a can of either cream of chicken soup or (my favorite) cream of mushroom soup in the crock pot. I get the cheap soup (that is still low in fat) and it's condensed so I put the soup in first, so I can pour the can of water in, beat it with a whisk and it get smooth before putting the defrosted chicken in.
Arrange the chicken in the soup.
Season to taste.
Put the crock pot on for 8 to 10 hours.
It will be tender.
Drizzle the now cooked soup over the chicken for a nice gravy.
You can serve it with rice. I get Uncle Ben's wild rice medley - that's my favorite.
Makes four servings. If you're only feeding two, you can refrigerate the leftovers, and I believe even freeze them, for another nights feeding!:)

Fancy it's not, but it is easy, and it uses the crock-pot which is such a great time saver. Maybe others can share their recipes. Come to think of it, I don't know if I shared this before! Aw well CRS (Can't Remember Stuff!) kicking in.
Enjoy!

The Yum-O things we make in baking class.:)

Besides cheesecake from scratch, various brownies, cookies from a box, we are making real FOOD in the baking class. THIS I am excited about!

In the three classes I have been back to we have made a white chicken chili soup which was WONDERful, ham/spinach/mushroom quiche (which I could live off of - seriously, quiche covers all the food groups and just whets my appetite for proteins and makes me want to eat the whole pie - love it, Love It, LOVE IT!) and a marvelous rolled meatloaf, that had ham and spinach inside! We also learned to make fried rice! THAT my friends is a lifetime gift. I feel blessed.

'Ranch Crispy Chicken'

I got this 'bargain bin' cookbook called '100 Best Chicken Recipes' and it has this super easy recipe for Ranch Crispy Chicken that we tried at home and it was Dee-lic-ious!

1/4 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs or cornflake crumbs

1 packet (1 ounce) HIDDEN VALLEY Original Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix

6 bone-in chicken pieces

Combine bread crumbs and salad dressing & seasoning mix in a gallon-size plastic food storage bag. Add chicken pieces; seal bag. Shake to coat chicken. Bake chicken on ungreased baking pan at 375 degrees F. for 50 minutes or until no longer pink in center and juices run clear.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

I also made homemade mashed potatoes and chicken gravy to go with it, and a little salad for greens.:)

cut up, peeled potatoes ready for cooking to make mashed potatoes

Celebrating the new pup's arrival.

Tonight I used Velveeta in my macaronia and cheese for the first time. I cooked 2 cups of penne pasta, then melted in 1/3 pound of Velveeta and eyed about 1/3 cup milk (probably put too much in) and lots of pepper. This all off of the box itself.

Then in a separate pan, I cooked sliced chicken with Arroyo less sodium seasoning, Mrs. Dash, a little pepper, some Basil, onion powder, garlic powder, basically a little of everything that I had around (that goes good on chicken).

I had my 4 oz.'s of chicken on top of 1 cup of the macaroni and gave the rest to Husband (plenty of leftover mac & cheese after he had his).

Someone had given Husband champagne at work. He sometimes gets gifts like that, because people really appreciate the hard work that he does fixing their computers, etc., all day. We had been saving it for a special occasion.

Unfortunately, it was BITTER as All Get-Out!!!!!!!!!!!! I had three sips and could not stand it. No worries for it clashing with my medicine, because I barely had any. It was a nice thought but we did not drink anymore than the couple of sips. But we had foo-foo glasses at dinner and it did feel special. Oh silly us!!!

My sweet fawn female pug puppy comes home tomorrow!! Read my bipolar blog for more information.

Turns out, Husband likes beans!:)

my Navy beans with carrots

At least he liked the Navy beans I made. Then I made black-eyed peas with cut up ham (from a slice that I bought at the store - no picture). He ate that and thought I did a good job, however, he liked the Navy beans better. I'm making them soon again in the crockpot.:)

Simple Meat Loaf

My meat loaf before going into the oven

After an hour in the oven. Yum!

I made a meat loaf yesterday. It turned out pretty good. I followed the recipe off a box of Lipton Onion soup mix. I think what made it so good was less meat (I didn't have the full 2 pounds) and 1/4 cup extra ketchup. I also make a 'trough' on the top of the loaf before cooking it and fill it with ketchup, as you can see.

Off the back of Lipton soup box:

1 envelope Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix

2 lbs. ground beef

3/4 plain dry bread crumbs

2 eggs

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup ketchup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, combine all ingredients.

In 13x9-inch baking or roasting pan, shape into loaf.

Bake 1 hour or until done. Let stand 10 minutes.

8 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

How to make Tangerine Sherbet in the 'Tiny Kitchen'

See this video of the 'Tiny Kitchen' from the NYT online magazine.
'Tiny Kitchen: Tangerine Sherbet
Jill Santopietro, recipe tester for the New York Times, creates a tangerine sherbet recipe from this week's magazine in her tiny 11.5 square foot kitchen, and explains why it isn't "sorbet."'

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/01/02/magazine/1194836626134/tiny-kitchen-tangerine-sherbet.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Comfort foods & an apple a day...

When it gets cold outside, I like my comfort food which the number one has got to be real, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy. Peel those potatoes, cut them up in cubes, boil em, strain em, put the butter (I use a vegetable-good-for-you margarine) and (skim) milk in there, mash em up and voila - yuuuu-um!!!

I have been using a packet mixed with water to make my chicken gravy and that has been yummy on top. Mmmm-mmm!!!

Potatoe peeler and potatoes

Peeled and cubed potatoes Yum!

****

Along with those mashed potatoes, why not coat some chicken legs in an egg wash, load the bread crumbs on and throw them on the barbeque? We don't think it's too late to barbeque in the winter (propane tank) and by Gosh, it was yummy.

Egg wash or coating

Italian bread crumbs

Chicken drumsticks (inexpensive at the warehouse store)

*****
Apple and Laughing Cow Cheese (Tiny in Weight Watcher's points! Halleluah!!)

I discovered 'Laughing Cow' off television but my Mother told me where to find in our local grocery store. Imagine my delight to find that one little wedge (and they are pretty small) is only 1 point in Weight Watcher's land. Not to mention eating an apple is a goood thing, also quite loow in points, and in the middle you'll notice Carr's crackers (a foo foo cracker that I found out about while on ANOther diet:). I recently read that eating an apple a day really can be just the thing for most of us, it even has a special anti-oxidant called a riboflavinoid, which I may have spelled incorrectly, found in the skin of the apple that is Oh-So-Good for you!
Have a great evening!
:)Tart