Dinner tonight was pretty good. Here's the recipe.

So, I had leftover cubed chicken (well, it wasn't leftover, I purposely cooked way too much yesterday to have enough for 2 additional meals, but anyway), and I have a huge stock of pasta right now (Barilla Picolini for only .38/box!), and we're soooooo sick of spaghetti sauce, so I thought of trying a creamy, cold pasta salad. It worked out.

1 box pasta of your choice, cooked al dente
1 bag frozen peas
cubed chicken breast, cooked
italian salad dressing, about 1/2c I guess
sour cream, about a cup I think (you could use mayo too, but I hate that nasty shit, so ...)


Mix the sour cream and italian dressing, add in the peas and chicken and pasta, stir, serve. Well, let the peas thaw ... then serve. Easy! The kids all ate it without complaint too.

I suck at blogging ... here's what I've been up to.

Sooo ... why do I save all this stuff up and post a bunch and then disappear for weeks again, rinse repeat? I dunno. I'm so particular I guess that it takes me what I feel is TOO LONG to put a post together. I need to work on being short and sweet, LOL!


Let's see ... we had some vacation ... well, the kids did. I worked the whole time I was kid free while the kids were with their Nan and Titi at Yogi Bear Campground. Didn't do a DAMN thing. *pout* At least I was there for the watermelon eating contest!

Mr. Cool and Collected

Mr. I Wouldn't Smile Nice for a Pic for Mom to Save My Life ...
Seriously, this is the best I could do ... tried to catch him off guard, otherwise, got goofy faces, LOL!

The Divine Miss M and her summer hair troubles ... LOL!
Camping happens.

We had a plague of sorts ...

This is a cicada fresh out of its skin hanging RIGHT on the top of my front door. The wings were almost fluorescent (dude, I spelled that right on the first try! WIN!) green. That's Funky Colors in Bourbon St ...

A turtle was rescued:

Gives Box Turtle new meaning, eh?? Hahahaaaa!

He's CLEARLY pissed, but has no idea how lucky he is. If the neighbor girl, aka THE DEVIL, had found this critter first, she would have taken care of it to death. Instead, it just had to endure about 8 hours in my Amazon box and then I took it a mile down the road to the creek (where it prob came from, and shoulda freakin STAYED! Damn turtle and his damn wandering ...) when Mr. Raz got home with the car.



I've been on a crafting kick. I'm determined to finish Miss M's blanket. She's been salivating over the thought of a massive blankie for a full year ... yeah, I started it THAT long ago.

It's coming along. :)

My drive for sustainable living on the CHEAP has found me reclaiming fabrics around the house for use with later projects. I tore up my kids' baby bedding (kept the quilts intact, ripped up bumpers and sheets and crib skirts), then I went on a scavenger hunt to find the sewing machine I got for xmas 8 years ago. No really. It was a scavenger hunt. Someone switched it from it's original box on me. >:( NOT cool. Anyway, this is my first official thing I sewed ever:

It's a sandwich bag!

For ... silly bands??? (do YOU have sandwiches at the ready on your desk JIC there's a photo op? Thought not ... ;) )

Looks pretty good, right? Look closer ...

Whoopsie!

There's nothing in the rules that says velcro has to be affixed completely ... right??

Orrr that you have to stick to the edges ... (OPI Green-Wich Village btw)

You know, straight lines are ... soooo overrated.

Look, it looks GREAT in the first pic, k? Stop laughing at me!!

Some good cooking has been happening around here.

I made Lemon Curd A La Rachael Ray . Be sure to read my review on the recipe page! This shit is GOOOOOOOD, y'all. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. For real. My fav thing to eat it on so far has been ritz crackers. OMG, yum.

Last night I had a craving for something I never ever liked when I actually lived in the south ... Homemade biscuits with sausage gravy. I'm not a biscuit person for the most part, but these were a HUGE hit. Fluffy Biscuits on AllRecipes.com I did a modified drop biscuit at the advice of my mom. I HATE rolling out doughs. It ALWAYS ends in disaster for me, so I avoid it at all times. So, I WAS going to just drop dipper fulls onto the parchment and let the biscuits assume whatever shape they wanted to, but mom said to use less liquid than the recipe called for and liberally flour my hands and shape the biscuits the same way you shape a hamburger patty. It worked nicely (thanks mom!). I should have taken a pic, but I didn't. Anyway, if you like tender biscuits with a mild flavor, these are excellent. As for the sausage gravy, well, I don't need no stinkin' recipe for that! But you might, so here's what I did:

Sausage Gravy by raz

1lb roll sausage
3 or 4 tb all purpose flour
Milk, 2-3 c
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage in large skillet (I like to use my cast iron) until nice and browned. When it's nice and done, remove the sausage from the pan and get rid of all but 3 or 4 tb of the grease.

Lower heat to medium and dump 3 or 4 tb flour in. Wisk it like hell. You want a paste that isn't wet enough to slide around in the pan, but isn't so dry that it can't be worked with the wisk. Add more flour if necessary. You are making a roux ... the point of a white roux is to cook the flour as LONG as possible without it turning brown. If it's bubbling hard, cut the heat back further. Try to get at least 3 full minutes of cook time, but if it starts turning brown, pour the milk in QUICK!

Start by pouring 2c milk in. Wisk the hell out of it until it comes to a full boil (you may need to crank the heat a bit, but no higher than med-hi, K?), this is as thick as this mixture will ever get. It will probably be too thick for gravy, which is fine. Just add more milk until you get your desired thickness. If you put too much milk in, you're pretty much screwed to a life of runny gravy, so go slow ... 1/2 c at a time. :)

Add salt and pepper to taste then add sausage back in. Serve over split biscuits! Mmmm ... Looks like a pile of vomit, but tastes like 500 pounds. Hoooo-boy! That's how we do!


Nail polish: Of course I've been doing my nails, but not taking a whole lot of pics. I'm wearing OPI Green-wich Village right now, and I love it. I have a bit of an experiment going on ... I'll post about that soon. I've also worn BB Couture Sex on the Beach (a blog giveaway prize!!! SQUEE!), which was INCREDIBLE, but my pictures SUCKED, so I want to swatch it again ... what's that? You want to see it anyway? Ok ... just one. I want to do this right so Kim from Overall Beauty will like me, LOL! No one likes someone who takes shitty pics, right? ;)

See?? I told you, bad pics. BAAAAD pics. Does it help to know that this was after 7 days of wear though?

The end!

The killer soup I made last night ...

This soup was inspired by the dinner I didn't make and the meat choice of my other half. The dinner I *didn't* make was ham and bean soup. I bought a ham a couple weeks ago (before the holidays, duh, THAT was my mistake!), and never got around to boiling the bone and soaking the beans. So the night before last I said to Mr. Raz "What would you prefer for dinner tomorrow? Beef, pork, chicken or italian sausage?" He chose beef. It was due to be super cold, so I wanted to make a stew type of meal (and all I had in the freezer was 3 packs of stew meat and 1/2 of a london broil which isn't enough for all of us unless I slice it and mix in something else to stretch), but all I could think of is my old standby curry beef stew, which Mr. Raz really doesn't care for (but eats like a champ, love ya babe!). In order to not disappoint the chooser of the meat, I scoured the cabinets for ideas until I found the pack of dry beans I had bought with the intention of making ham and bean soup. I thought "What if I put bean soup and vegetable beef soup TOGETHER??" And that's where Beef and Bean Vegetable Soup was born.


I'm going to estimate for this because when I cook, I don't measure ... Feel free to adjust for your needs!

Ingredients:

1 bag 16 bean mix (dry beans, mine were Goya brand I believe)
6 cups water
1lb small cubes of beef (or big, if you like big. I'm a fan of stretching the meat ... having 10 small pieces feels like more than 2 big pieces)
3 tsp Better Than Bouillon beef stock paste
2 large ribs celery, chopped
several handfuls baby cut carrots, rough chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp herbs de provence
1-2 tsp salt (add a little at first then add to taste toward the end of cooking process)
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper (or, you know, until you get tired of twisting the grinder!)

Directions:

1) pick through beans to remove any uckies, then soak either over night in cold water OR cover with water, bring to a boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat and let soak for 1 hour. Drain and rinse.

2) While beans are soaking, chop veggies, sear meat, saute veggies until just softened.

3) To large pot, add beans, 6c water, ... oh hell, just add everything and stir. Simmer over med heat until it's done! Stir frequently and check bean tenderness often. Add more water if you need it (mine got a little thick), 1/2c at a time. Taste to see if the seasoning needs adjusting about an hour before serving.


This is a forgiving and flexible recipe. I was puttering around the house all day, so I cooked it on the stove. I started it around 2:30 probably and it was done by 5. An hour of the cooking process I had it on the lowest heat setting because I had to get the kids from school. If I wanted to make this on a day I was out of the house, I would soak the beans overnight and then toss everything in the crock pot on low all day. Serve with a nice crusty loaf.

The kids all had 2nds and so did we! There were no leftovers! That's crazy for something like beans.

I wish I had taken a picture too. It was so pretty with all the different colors. Next time I will. I'll make this time and time again during cold weather.

Let me know what you think if you make it!