Ranch Oysters

Ok...so they aren't really oysters. Oysters are gross. These are ranch flavored Oyster CRACKERS. (The only kind of oysters one should really eat...if you know what's good for you!)

I found this super simple recipe for ranch oyster snack crackers from examiner.com.    They take 20 minutes tops to make, and that's only if you're a slow poke like me.  I think they'd make a great last minute snack to take to a party!  You can even go crazy and use them on your soup, or in lieu of  croutons in your salad. 

Ranch Oyster Crackers from The Examiner
1 (1 oz) package ranch dressing mix
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 t dried dill weed (or to your taste)
1/2 t garlic powder (or to your taste)
1 box or bag oyster crackers

Preheat oven to 250°. In a large mixing bowl, combine first 5 ingredients and mix well. Stir in oyster crackers mix to coat. Pour crackers onto a large cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Cool and add to a covered container.

Fiesta Turkey Hotdish

I saw this recipe for Fiesta chicken casserole over at Plain Chicken.

 

I went all kinds of crazy and used leftover turkey from Thanksgiving instead of Chicken.  What a rebel I am. 

Turkey was the least of the things I did to alter this recipe.  First, I didn't realize that I needed INSTANT rice.  I never have instant rice in the house anymore.  Mainly because slow poke regular rice is cheaper, and I prefer medium grain rice.  I've never seen instant medium grain rice. 

Because I wasn't using instant rice, I upped the milk from 2 T to a whopping 3/4 cup.  I was right on the money with this.  The rice would not have had enough liquid to puff up and cook all the way through without it.  I bet you could even use up to a cup of milk and not have a soupy mess. 

The casserole needed to be cooked longer before the rice was done.  Instead of 30 min, I cooked the dish for 50 min and gave the mess a good stir before topping it with cheese and chips.  My guess was that it was going to take an hour to cook and I was right on the money with that estimate. 

I also switched things up by using cream of mushroom and garlic soup instead of the cream of chicken the recipe calls for.  I wasn't trying to be fancy or nuthin.  It was the only "cream  of" soup that was in the pantry.  Let me tell you, that garlic smell from the soup was amazing.  Filled the whole house with its goodness. 

There were a few other little things I did to make this dish a little different.  Instead of Taco seasoning I used Penzeys Spices' Arizona Dreaming. I was nearly out of Taco seasoning and guessed, correctly, that this would have similar tasting flavors as the taco seasoning.  For the cheese I used a combo of Colby Jack and Extra Sharp cheddar as it was what I had in the fridge.  I also probably used more than the 2 cups suggested.  I didn't measure it.  Finally, I added 1 c of black beans.  I had them leftover from another dish and thought it would be a good way to use them up.

Do you know what?  Blockette didn't even complain once that there were black beans in this dish.  (Insert fist pump here.)


Fiesta Turkey Hotdish adapted from Plain Chicken
3 cup cooked chopped turkey
1 cup medium grain rice (uncooked) (if you use instant rice, reduce first cook time to 30 minutes)
1 can cream of garlic and mushroom soup
1 can mild Rotel diced tomatoes and chiles, undrained
1 Tbsp Arizona Dreaming or Taco Spice
3/4-1 c milk
1 c black beans
2 cups shredded cheddar and colby jack cheese, divided
1/2 cup crushed Nacho flavored tortilla chips (I used generic Doritoes)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine chicken, rice, soup, Rotel, seasoning, milk, beans and 1 1/2 cups of cheese.  Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 pan.  Cover and bake for 50 minutes.  Gently stir to make sure all the liquid has absorbed. It will look a bit soupy before you stir it.Top casserole with crushed chips and remaining cheese, bake uncovered for 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Thankful Thurdsday 50 and 51.11

 So around Tuesday I realized that I forgot to publish last Thursday's list so I'm mashing the last two Thankful Thursdays in one big huge mega post!  Exciting!

1. A nice visit with the in-laws.

2. My father-in-law actually liked my lasagna even though it was loaded with veggies and garlic.  (I know it wasn't just lip service because he had seconds.)

3. Keeping my best friend's sewing machine over the weekend. (Blockette got another hole in the butt of her patchy pants on Saturday.)

4. Blockette getting excited for the dusting of snow over the weekend. (Even though it melted the next day.)

5. Blockette only threw up once on the trip up to my mom's.

6. She made it in the bucket this time.

7. There was no puking on the way home.

8. Seeing Blockette get so excited at Christmas

9. Driving Mrblocko's car wasn't as horrible as driving his last car.

10.  I only had to drive his car for a half hour.

11. A nice visit with my mom.

12. Blockette let us sleep in at my mom's.

13. The cats didn't leave us any surprises in the house.

14. I got the last 2 humidifier filters at Target.

15. Blockette likes coin collecting as much as I did as a kid. (She got a coin collecting book from me for Christmas and it was a surprisingly big hit.)

16. Someone, or rather more than one someone has pinned things to Pinterest from my blog.  (I feel like I'm famous!)

Cheeseburger Soup

I've had this Cheeseburger Soup from She Who Makes on my to do list since August. I'm not big on soup in August. No matter how tasty it is. I'd much rather have an actual cheeseburger. Now, December, that's a different story. I could eat soup every day. Every. Day.

This soup does taste quite a bit like a cheeseburger.  I bumped up the cheeseburgery flavors by swapping out the salt and pepper for the same grill seasoning we use on our burgers.  Yeah.  I think that sends this soup over the top on goodness.  Wait, adding bacon would send this soup over the top on goodness.  But then it wouldn't be cheeseburger soup, it'd be a bacon cheeseburger soup!

Cheeseburger Soup from She Who Makes
1 pound Ground Turkey or Beef
3/4 cup copped onion
3/4 cup shredded carrot
3/4 cup chopped celery
4 cups diced potatoes (peeled or unpeeled, I use 6 small potatoes, peeled)
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
3 cups chicken broth
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup flour
8 oz shredded cheese
1 1/2 cup milk
Salt and Pepper (I used McCormick's Grill Seasoning to taste instead)
1/4 cup sour cream, optional

Saute the meat and veggies until tender. Drain off fat. Stir in basil and parsley. Add potatoes and chicken broth, bringing to a boil and then simmering until potatoes are soft. Meanwhile combine melted butter and flour. Stir this into soup after potatoes are cooked. Once soup is thickened, stir in cheese, milk and seasonings until cheese is melted. Keep it on low heat so the milk doesn't curdle. Stir in sour cream, if desired right before serving.

'11 Happy Dance #39 and #40: Needle Cases

More Christmas presents!  These I made for my mom who was complaining that she didn't like the disorganization of having all her crochet hooks and knitting needles in a plastic bag.

Here is the case I made for her crochet hooks:

The pink in the photo is less mauve-y in real life.  I don't know why the colors turned out so wonky.  I tried taking the picture on different backgrounds and with different light sources with no success.

My best friend's mom made me a crochet hook case, so I used that as a pattern for this one.

I thought I had lined up the pattern with the fabric lines, but apparently not.  We'll just call it modern.  All the "Modern" quilts are askew and off center.  Yeah.  I meant to make it that way.  Cutting edge dontcha know!

Here is the knitting needle case:

It is the mother of all knitting needle cases.  This baby is huge.  As I had no idea of what sizes or quantities of knitting needles my mom had I wanted to make sure there was lots and lots of room.  I figured it was better to have too much storage rather than not enough.

I found the pattern for this case here at Alexandra's Knits.  I looked at lots and lots of tutorials online and this one was my favorite.  Besides the ones you can buy at the fabric store are really tiny and frankly, quite ugly.  (Although Blockette disagreed because they were sort of rainbowy colored, if you squinted, and "how could you call a rainbow ugly?  Huh?  Why do you think rainbows are ugly mom?"  Sigh.)

'11 Happy Dance #38 : Marbelized Ornaments

Blockette and I made these marbleized ornaments as presents for her Grandparents.  We had lots of fun watching them change as they dried.

For example, these two looked quite identical when we dripped the paint inside the ornament, but the end result was very different.  The one on the right was softly muted stripes, while the one left was mostly solid colored with one main swirled area.

The directions say to use clear glass ornaments, but I thought the plastic ones would be much safer.  I think they did take a bit longer to dry, and the paint didn't adhere as well as it would have on glass.  All and all I think they turned out pretty well.

If you'd like to make your own marbleized ornaments check out the tutorials on A Yellow Bicycle and Cut Out and Keep.

Merry Christmas!!!

Have a Very Merry Christmas Everyone!!!