Thankful Thurs #41

1. The tree is down so it can't fall down.

2. My goofy crazy mom.

3. Blockette keeping up a good attitude when she had a day off of school.  (Only one "I'm bored!")

4. I'm getting a new toasty warm winter coat! (Thanks Mom!)

5. I saw my coupon for DSW wasn't valid for another 3 days BEFORE I left the house.  (Winter boots will have to wait until then!)

Watch out kitty!  That moose is gonna eat you!

6.Slowly making progress on Blockette's Halloween costume.

7. Not busting out in hysterical laughter when one of the little 4 year old girls in Sunday school said her missing cat was eaten by a moose.

8. I only almost got hit by a car today. 

9. I restrained myself from hitting above mentioned vehicle with my stop sign.

10. No one was injured when one bus hit another bus in the bus line up yesterday.

Artichoke Crusted Chicken

I made this Artichoke Crusted Chicken from Sugarlaws out of food boredom.  We'd been eating a lot of variations on burgers or pasta with red sauce lately.  I thought I should switch up the meal plan and throw some chicken in there. 

Of course, I saw this as an opportunity to test out a new chicken recipe.  Why not?

This was the first time Blockette had artichokes.  Although she discovered she did not like them, she was a very big girl about it and didn't whine or complain.  (Hooray!)  Because she was such a trooper, I told her that when we had the leftovers, I would let her scrape off the artichokes.

The thing was, I didn't particularly care for the artichokes either.  When it came down to eating the leftovers, I scraped off the cheesey artichoke topping, chopped up the chicken and tossed it into a jazzed up pot of ramen.  

Both Blockette and I had no complaints about eating the leftovers like this.  The one great thing about this recipe is how moist it made the chicken.  The chicken was not even a tiny bit dry from reheating it in the noodle-y soup broth. 

Mrblocko ate his artichoke chicken cold and said he liked it.  Maybe he is a bigger fan of artichokes than Blockette and I are.  Then again, maybe he was just really hungry.

If you'd like to test this recipe out yourself, here you go.  This recipe serves two.

Artichoke crusted chicken from Sugarlaws
2 six-ounce chicken breasts, pounded thin
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (I used canned artichoke hearts, but frozen ones that have been thawed would be fine)
1/3 cup grated white cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper

Salt and pepper the chicken and sauté the chicken in oil on medium-high heat, for 6 minutes on each side. Mix together the mayonnaise, artichoke hearts and cheddar cheese until evenly distributed.  Spread the mixture over the sauteed chicken breasts, and then broil on high until the cheese is melty and bubbling.  (Anywhere from 3-9 minutes) Do not take your eyes off them — broiling can lead to burning faster than you can imagine. 

Beefaroni from a can never tasted like THIS!!!!

When I was a little girl I loved the pastas in a can. Spaghetti O's - oh yes! Beef-a-roni- you betcha! Chef Boyardee was my bestest bud...until he wasn't. I swear one day I woke up and thought they were gross.

I tried twice to serve these instant meals to Blockette when she was a toddler. Each time she did not keep them down. Now, she was still having texture issues at the time, so that could have been the result of her gag reflex being triggered.  I wasn't about to test that theory out for a third time.

At least I wasn't tempted until I saw this recipe for a version of Homemade Beefaroni from Cooking During Stolen Moments.  It just sounded soooo good.

It had been years and years since Blockette had a major texture issue with food, and this recipe looked and sounded scrumptious. 

So I went ahead and made it.

The smell of the sauce cooking filled the house with the most mouth watering aroma.

  

Blockette took one bite and exclaimed, "Don't tell daddy you made this!  I don't want to share it with him!

I told her that Daddy would know right away we ate something good for dinner cause he'd get a whiff of the scrumptious smell as soon as he walked in the door.

Still, she did not want to share.

This picture was taken five minutes after I dished up her bowl.  I think she may have inhaled her dinner.

When she finished her meal, Blockette stated, "You know mom, I think I might like this beefaroni better that frozen pizza."

Whoa....

I asked her if she was sure, and her reply was, "Well...I think they are tied for first place."

There is one tiny bad thing about this dish.  It's not technically even a bad thing.  It's the leftovers. They don't taste nearly as awesome as the food right off the stove.  They are still really yummy, just not "better than pizza" good. 


Homemade Beefaroni from Cooking During Stolen Moments
1 lb. ground beef
2 14.5 oz cans tomato sauce (I used about 28 oz of pureed tomatoes from my garden)
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. water (I added a little bit more water than this as my tomato puree seemed a bit thick)
1 T. sugar
1 t. each garlic powder, salt and Italian seasoning
1/4 t. black pepper
1 lb. cooked pasta (I used ziti)

Brown ground beef in a sauce pan and drain. While the meat is browning, boil noodles. Once meat has browned, stir in remaining ingredients, except pasta. Simmer about 10 minutes, to let the flavors combine. Stir in the pasta until coated.

Timber!

Well, we finally did it.

This weekend we got the tree in our front yard removed.

I was very sad about it, and tried to use every argument in the book.  The tree was diseased and needed to come down, and me ignoring that wasn't going to change the fact that the tree could fall over and hurt someone or something.

Here's the before picture of our house:

I was standing across the street in our neighbor's yard, tilting the camera to try to get all the tree in.  I'm noticing now, that I missed a few feet at the top! 

The red arrow on this picture is to show this particular branch.  That particular branch, which was about the length of the arrow when it was cut, fell across the entire street and knocked leaves off the tree that was about 3 feet behind where I took this picture.  The tree is a lot bigger than it looks!

You can totally tell from this picture that there is something wrong with the tree.  It has no leaves and all it's neighbors are barely turning colors.

Here's the after picture:

Poor sad nekkid little house.

The pile of wood that is there was all that the tree removers didn't turn into wood chip.

Not a lot of wood. Basically the trunk and the lower big branches.

We took a few of the smaller pieces for our fire pit, and the tree removers took the rest.  At least that was the plan.  They went to cut down another diseased tree a few houses down, and they said they were going to pick up the wood when they were done.  We had 3 people, including the mailman, ask if they could have the wood not 15 minutes after the tree cutters drove down the street.  Two people just came and loaded up their car trunks without asking, and another person came to the door to see if we were selling the wood.  Who knew that wood turned people into vultures. 

Here's a good picture of what the Emerald Ash Borer does to your tree:

I didn't peel that bark away.  It fell off in the tree removal process.

That's what those pests do.  They lay their eggs in the tree and the larvae burrow their way around and eat their way out.  The bark gets detached from the interior wood and the tree dries out and rots and then falls over and goes smash. 

If you look carefully you can see little holes in the two logs next to the squiggly log.  Those are from our friendly neighborhood woodpecker.  He was none too happy that these men were cutting down HIS tree.  He was still trying to eat the bugs when they whipped out their chainsaws.  Poor little guy. 

Well, I guess he could just go in the back yard and snack on the bugs in the ash tree back there. 

Pinterest fact or fiction 6: Armpit stains

Normally, I'm not a sweater. My m.o. is to get hot, clammy and then pass out. You can imagine my surprise when I started my job as a crossing guard and I came home dripping with sweat. I was happy to be sweating because it meant that I wasn't passed out in the middle of the street from heat exhaustion.

What I wasn't too happy about was what the sweat did to my shirt.

Ew!  Nasty yellow armpit stains.

So unlady like!

A pin from One good thing by Jillee claims that if you take one part Dawn dish soap, and two parts hydrogen peroxide, with a sprinkle of baking soda, all your yellow armpit woes will be vanquished.

So I tried it.

The stain is lighter, but still there.  I'd say it's not exactly the miracle it claimed to be.

Thankful Thurs #40

1. Cheering on my niece at her last track meet of the season.

2. Not getting horrified when Blockette kicked her fit up to 11 at the above mentioned track meet.

3. Perfect weather for both Blockette's soccer practice AND her game.

4. Blockette seems to finally be getting the hang of this new big girl version of soccer.  While she hasn't scored any goals, she isn't chasing the ball around the field so much, and opening herself up to passes.

5. Finding time to read over the weekend.

6. Being able to go on CROP walk on Sun.

7. Naps.

8. The huge eagle that soared over the street at work this AM. 

9. The girl who very shyly gave me a fun size snickers bar as she crossed the street.  (She is a 5th grade Patrol who helps the younger kids get to class.  I come early specifically to get her safely across the street.)

The bananas are just for size reference.  They really didn't do any attacking.

 10. I got all the tomatoes picked before the hard frost hit. 

(See photo above of my bounty.  I had to toss 36 wonky, cracked, buggy, or rotting tomatoes.)

Stove Top Mac N Cheese - meh

Friday is soccer night for us.  Somehow, Blockette got put on a team that holds practice right when we would normally be eating dinner.  That leaves me with two choices: 1.) eat a snack before we leave, and then eat dinner when we get home.  2.) eat dinner before we leave and a snack when we get home.

Option one isn't very viable because I sit through the practice with a grumbly tummy, then I am too hungry and crabby to make or wait for dinner.  Or on occasion, Blockette is too tired to eat from her workout.

So that leaves option two, eating an early dinner.

I thought this Stovetop mac and cheese from Evil Shenanigans would be a good option for us.

It was quick, and full of carbs for energy!

When I went to make the recipe I discovered didn't have any dried mustard.  I did a search online and read that you could swap 1 t dried mustard for 1 T prepared mustard.  I found loads of sites that said this.

I don't know if it was my mustard substitution, but I thought the dish tasted very mustardy, and not much like anything else.  I also used sharp cheddar, which I thought would give off a strong flavor. The macaroni still tasted only like mustard.

When I finished preparing the mac, I didn't like the lack of sauce.  (I'm from the super creamy mac n cheese school of thought.)  I added 1/4 c sour cream in hopes of fixing this issue.  It did help some.

Blockette absolutely loved this dish.  I can't figure out why.  Maybe because it was bland?  Or because she was hungry?

There were lots of leftovers.  Instead of nuking them in the microwave to reheat, I put them in a saucepan on low heat.  The sauce got very grainy and ugly.  I kept adding milk to the pan in hopes of smoothing things over.  This helped, and also made the macaroni not taste like mustard anymore. Oh yes.  It definately did not taste like mustard.  It tasted like nothing at all.  Just the texture of cooked noodles.
UGH.

Luckily, the second time around we had the macaroni as a side dish with grilled pork chops.  The pork chops were so good that they overshadowed the blandness of the noodles.

At this time, there was one serving left.  I was not ready to give up on this dish yet.  I stuck the leftovers in a microwave safe dish with a tiny splash of water. Nuked it and then added a small handful of shredded Mexican blend cheese.  I nuked the dish again to melt the cheese.  Next, I added a dash of Bavarian seasoning, and shook on a layer of bread crumbs.

Success!

I wish I'd thought of those additions sooner!

Below is the original recipe for the Mac.  Feel free to add extra cheese, Bavarian Seasoning and bread crumbs to your liking!

Stove top Macraroni from Evil Shenanigins
8oz macaroni, or any smallish tube shaped pasta
1 tablespoon butter
6 oz evaporated milk
6 oz freshly grated cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
Hot sauce, to taste
Salt and pepper

Boil the pasta according to package directions, but reduce the cooking time by one minute. Drain and pour back into the cooking pot. Over medium-low heat, add the butter and stir until melted. Mix the egg, milk, and spices and pour over the pasta. Stir until it begins to thicken, about three to five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat then add the cheese in four installments, making sure the first is melted completely before adding the next.