I haven’t contributed to Mouthwatering Mondays in awhile…and I’m not sure that this dish would qualify as mouthwatering.  It certainly isn’t pretty.  But it was good and had some good for you things in there so I thought I would share.   And it is less of a recipe and more of an idea.

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded

1/2 cup white, 1/2 cup red quinoa (measurement prior to cooking…cook according to package directions)

1 box frozen, chopped spinach defrosted and excess water squeezed out

1 small bag frozen corn, cooked

Sliced carrots, lightly steamed (not pictured because I forgot them)

Terryaki-ish sauce (I used light soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, chicken broth, black pepper, and corn corn starch - cook until thickened)

Throw it all together and you have a pretty nutritious dinner that your children will turn their noses up at if they are anything like mine.  If you aren’t familiar with quinoa, click here or here for more information.

Last week, before I got sick AGAIN, I was doing a fair amount of cooking and baking - largely due to my new kitchenaid mixer.  So instead of whining about my illness (fever that lasted all weekend but finally broke this morning, incredibly sore throat, headache, swollen glands - hush, it is my blog and I’ll whine if I want to…my husband quit listening around 4pm yesterday), I thought I would share a couple of the Other People’s Recipes that I tried out.

I linked up to the recipe for the pretzels in the comments of that post.

I’ve been trying to find the perfect Black Bean Soup recipe - one that starts with dried beans because I really like the finished product…all silky smooth in the back ground yet some texture from the beans still.  My most recent attempt was with this one from all recipes.  But of course I didn’t follow it precisely - who has 2/3 cup of dry sherry in the house?  So here is the recipe as I did it:

Black Bean Soup

• 2 cups dry black beans
• 8 cups water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 stalks celery, halved
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 packet Goya ham flavoring (it is with the mexican foods usually…like chicken bullion but ham flavored)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 T lemon juice
• 2 or 3 dashes cayenne pepper or ground chipolte pepper
• 1 ham hock (it is cheap…you find it with the parts no one really eats - I have no idea what part of the animal this is but it grossed me out while providing  a nice smoky flavor to the soup)
• 1 or 2 T cream sherry

I soaked the beans overnight then drained them.  I chopped the onions fine.  I threw all of the ingredients in the pot except the cream sherry.  (I didn’t chop the celery to be part of the soup because I don’t like chunks of celery in this kind of soup. So I halved them and removed them with the bay leaves before pureeing.)  I cooked it for 6 1/2 hours on low on my stove - I’m sure the crock pot would serve the same purpose.  Add more water if it gets low during the cooking.  I fished out the bay leaves and celery and ham hock and then pureed it with my stick blender.  If it seems a bit thick, add some chicken broth while pureeing.  I threw in the sherry and let it cook for another 15 minutes and served with sour cream and shredded cheese.  It is missing something and the cream sherry is not the right flavor…I’m thinking about buying some dry sherry and seeing how it tastes or perhaps continuing to look around at other recipes because this soup just misses being spot on.  Worth trying though - low effort for a nice big pot of warm, filling soup.

The other recipe I tried last week was one someone linked to on Facebook during the holidays.  It was for the Best EVER Chocolate Chip Cookies.  That got my attention.  I’m not a baker but I’ve been known to make pretty darn good cookies with the help of Toll House.  With all of the butter and brown sugar, I figured these had to taste good.  And they did. I don’t know if they are the best I’ve ever eaten but they are the best I’ve ever baked.  (And I haven’t been able to eat any for 3 days because my throat hurts so bad - WAH!)  I made absolutely no changes so I won’t spell out the recipe - just click on the link.  I will say I got confused with the amount of chips because 2 cups = 12 ounce bag and the recipe called for 2 cups or 16oz (but 2 cups is 16 oz) so just use a bag and don’t hurt yourself pondering how a 12 oz bag is 2 cups but 2 cups = 16 oz.  The amount of brain power diverted to that conundrum might possibly have lowered my immune system thereby allowing this illness to overtake me.  So there you have it - the chocolate chip cookies are yummy but have been known to cause either strep throat or the swine flu depending on whether who you describe my symptoms to.  (And I still hear my 8th grade English teach telling me I should structure that sentence “to whom you describe my symptoms.” because of the whole not ending a sentence with a preposition but I hate sounding snooty just to be grammatically correct so I will continue to argue with Mr. Klink that informal situations allow ending a sentence with a preposition in this day and age.)

My lovely mother in law gave me a very generous gift card in my stocking this year.  Know what I did with it? I bought myself an appliance.  Isn’t it pretty?  (My Target only carries white so I didn’t have to struggle with deciding between the aqua, apple green, orange, yellow or cherry red because I’ve never been able to decide which I love more.)

Yes, I am officially a dork.  I tried out the dough hook yesterday.  Wanna see what I made?

They were supposed to taste like Aunt Annie’s.  They were good but they weren’t Aunt Annie’s.  With a little more salt and a lot more butter they probably would have been pretty close.

For almost a week, they’ve been talking about us getting snow today.  Tuesday they treated the roads in anticipation.  (Yeah, I have no idea why they did it 48 hours ahead of time.)  Yesterday, before flake had fallen, they closed almost every school in the area for today.  This morning, nothing.  It started snowing around 8:30 - now almost 2.5 hours later, this is what got the kids a snow day:

That screaming you hear? That is my 10 year old self who had to put on my snow boots, gloves, scarf, and big old parka and trudge down the snow covered drive way to the bus stop walked to school up hill both ways in hip deep snow because we never got a snow day.

I haven’t done a Mouthwatering Monday recipe in awhile.

I’ve mentioned hamloaf a couple of times around here and I always get responses like along the lines of “WTF? Gross!”  I love hamloaf.  It must be somewhat regional because few people seem to know what it is.  In Ohio, you can buy it ready to put in the oven but the butcher looked at me like I was crazy when I asked in Pittsburgh.  I haven’t even tried to find it in TN.  My momma didn’t cook a lot of meat when I was a kid but hamloaf was a treat.  In case anyone wants to try it, I thought I would share the recipe here.  And for the record, Steve thought it sounded foul but became a convert in 1 bite.

While I was home, I bought some hamloaf mix and brought it back to TN in a cooler.  My photos aren’t very pretty - they were an afterthought.  And before you get all “EWWWW” on me, think of it as meatloaf without the beef or ketchup.

Hamloaf

1.5 lbs of hamloaf mix (70% ground ham, 30% ground pork - you can ask your butcher to do this for you if you live in an area without hamloaf)

1 sleeve saltines, finely crushed (some folks prefer 1cup bread crumbs or ritz crackers or even oatmeal…like ordinary meatloaf it is open to interpretation)

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

2 eggs, beaten

Glaze:

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons water

1 Tablespoon yellow mustard (can use dijion or other type on hand)

Mix the first 4 ingredients together by hand and form into a loaf in an 8×8 baking pan.

Mix glaze items together and pour over loaf.  Bake at 350 for approx 70  minutes (until internal temp is 165-170).

Tastes great with a green veggie and scalloped potatoes.  And the leftovers are YUM!

I haven’t had a single Christmas cookie this year.  Not one.  This isn’t bragging about my self control - this is bemoaning my serious lack of sugar cookies!

I was sick for the cookie swap with my Mom’s Club - I figured no one wanted my plague ridden cookies so I stayed home.  I’ve been sick so I haven’t baked…I’ve been painting ornaments when I have a few minutes instead.  I seriously hope someone up north will hook me up with some cut outs or I’m going to have to make New Years cookies when we get home.

And speaking of needless sugar, does anyone still make that hard candy people used to make at the holidays?  It was different colors and flavors and dusted with something (powdered sugar I guess).  I always liked that stuff.  I loved the black licorice and cinnamon the best but you never see it in anyone’s candy dish anymore.  No idea why but I was thinking about it today.

You may now return to your day.  Thank you for listening.

We went to Chuy’s one day last week to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  It just opened here…apparently the first outside of Texas.  It was quite busy but the service and the food were both above average.  The margaritas got our stamp of approval too.  (But 2 people in our party got mojitos and said they were pretty awful.)  I got baja tacos - they had shrimp, shredded purple cabbage. and this amazing sauce they call creamy jalapeno.  The tacos were so good I couldn’t stop thinking about them (I’m not saying the margaritas didn’t have something to do with my happiness).  I decided I had to recreate them at home.

The taco part was easy(ish). Corn tortillas heated in a pan with some non-stick spray.  I used broccoli slaw because I couldn’t find purple cabbage that day.  I bought some shrimp and cooked them.  But the magical creamy jalapeno sauce was really the key. I googled copy cat recipes and found several.  I  took my ideas from them and gave it a try.  My tacos weren’t any where near as good but they were pretty darn yummy.  And the dip/sauce?  It wasn’t an exact replica but is really good.  I’ve been eating it on everything for the past week.  First the tacos, then on a chicken club, on some chicken nuggets, and tonight on a baked potato.  It is cool and fresh with a slight heat at the end.  Yum!

I will probably halve this next time…it made a lot.

1/2 cup light mayonaise

1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup salsa verde

1 packet dry ranch dressing mix (e.g. hidden valley)

handful fresh cilantro leaves

2 jalapenos, seeded

juice of 1/2 of a lime

Put mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, and ranch packet into a bowl.

I threw the jalapenos, cilantro, salsa verde, and lime juice in the food processor and pulsed until it was finely chopped.  You don’t want any jalapeno pieces large enough to crunch into.  Put this into the bowl with the other ingredients and whisk until combined.

Why can’t I buy buttermilk in a quantity smaller than a quart? I don’t know what to do with the rest.

Someone asked if everything I make turns out amazing.  No.  Admittedly, I have enough skills to make most things decent.  There haven’t been many times we’ve had to throw an experiment in the trash and head to McD’s.  (There was an awful, terrible, horrible lentil soup once that tasted like dirt.)  But not everything turns out pretty and yummy.  An example…I tried to make biscuits with the Jiffy mix from my pantry to go under some hamburger gravy concoction.  These were the result.  We ate them but they were kind of like flat, tasteless, hockey pucks.

I posted this a couple of years ago but I love it so much that I want to share it again.  It is a recipe a co-worker gave me years ago.  I lost it and managed to recreate it pretty close to the original.  It is super easy, yummy, and seasonal.

Pumpkin Bread

1 16oz box pound cake mix

1/2 C water

3 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 C solid packed pumpkin

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

Dump it all in a bowl.  Beat for 1 min on low.  Grease and flour a loaf pan.  Pour batter into it.  Put into a 350 degree preheated oven for 55 min.

You can slice and serve as it or dust with powdered sugar.  I made this last week but forgot to take a picture of the finished product so here are the old photos.

And apropos of nothing, while searching for these photos I found this old Halloween photo of Sabrina in 2007.  Look how tiny she was!

Anyone who has been reading here for awhile might not be surprised to hear about my mini obsession to find coffee that at least comes close to what I drank in Guatemala.  I have tried many, many, many Guatemalan coffees - I buy it any time I see it.  Nothing has come close to being the same as what I drank while in Guatemala but a couple of recent finds have come sort of close to what I bought and brought home from there.   I wanted to share in case anyone else shares my mini obsession.

I am currently enjoying the pictured cup of coffee.  (Don’t hate me for my beautiful froth…I’ve told you how you could have froth at home too.)  My first pretty darn good Guatemalan find was at World Market.  If you don’t have World Markets near you, I am sorry.  Think Pier 1 with food - all sorts of funky, ethnic items and a variety of cool ethnic food finds too.  Their organic Guatemalan coffee is pretty darn good - it was my favorite until today.

Last weekend, I saw a coupon on the Nashville Groupon site (search for your city…it is kind of cool) for $35 worth of coffee from a local online coffee shop for $15.  I checked the site - they had Guatemalan.  Score!  I ordered some coffee, they roasted it and ground it and sent it to me.  I’m quite happy.  It is the closest I’ve come to what I purchased in Antigua.  I have a new favorite coffee...which guarantees they will stop carrying it by the time I want to re-order so get some fast.

This is not a compensated post…just sharing a good find.

I took a coupon class (shut up) last month and one of the things we talked about was economical meals.  These potatoes were one of the ideas offered.  I never dreamed that they would taste so yummy - Steve has requested that they be put in the regular dinner rotation.  As is often the case around here, it is less of a recipe and more of an idea.

BBQ Stuffed Potatoes

2 small chicken breasts

1 cup (more or less as you like it) favorite BBQ sauce

2 - 3 baked potatoes

shredded cheese and other garnishes desired

Bake your potatoes.  Boil chicken breasts until done.  Allow to cool then shred.  Mix shredded chicken with favorite BBQ sauce (we like Sweet Baby Ray’s).  Cut open baked potato, put anything you like on it (we used a little shredded cheese and a dollop of low fat sour cream), top with shredded BBQ chicken.  Serve with green veggie or salad.  Can also do this with left over pot roast or pulled pork.

This is another borrowed idea.  My Wooden Spoon showed this recipe last week and I thought it would be perfect for our Mom’s Club Halloween party today.  It was easy and turned out really cute - I think the kids will like these Nutty Ghosts/Boo Babies.

I used 1 1/2 packages of Nutter Butter cookies, 1 box Baker’s white chocolate, and mini chocolate chips for the eyes.  The original recipe coated the entire cookie but I was trying to make enough for a big group of kids so I only did one side (minimized the mess for me as well as making the white chocolate go further).  I melted it in the microwave, dipped one side of the cookie, put it on foil to dry and put on the mini chips for eyes while the white chocolate was still wet.  Aren’t they cute little ghosts?

I love making warm, hearty soups in the fall and winter.  It feels cozy and happy on a cold day.  I saw this soup on Our Best Bites and thought it sounded yummy.  I made some very minor changes based on what I had on hand and my preferences.   For the original recipe, click here.  (It uses apple cider which sounds yummy…but I didn’t have any.)

Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup

3 links Italian sausage or about 2/3 lb bulk

4 cloves garlic

1 sweet yellow onion, medium

1 medium apple (I used Gala)

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

32 oz box/large can chicken broth

15 oz can tomato sauce

1 cup sliced carrots

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

2 small zucchini, grated (yes, grated - it ends up being like noodles in the soup - I used the grater attachment on my food processor but you could use a box grater)

8-10 oz. package cheese tortellini (I used fresh from the refrig section but any would work)

1 Tbsp. dried parsley

Grated Parmesan for topping

Remove sausage from casing if you are using links.  Brown it in the bottom of your soup pan.  While it is browning, throw your garlic, onion, and apple into the food processor and pulse.  (Or dice it all by hand if you are going old school.)  When sausage is nearing done, remove any fat then throw in the onion, garlic and apple.  Cook until onion is soft and translucent.

Add vinegar, chicken broth, tomato sauce, carrots, basil, and oregano.  Allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Throw in the zucchini and parsley.  Simmer another 10 - 15 minutes.

Add tortellini.  Allow to simmer until it is done (for the fresh, I only let it cook another 8-10 minutes).  Top with parmesan and enjoy!

PS I don’t like zucchini but I never would have known that was what I was eating in this soup so it is a great way to sneak in some veggies.

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