Mmmmmmmmm!

This is something that should not be found on my desk right now - it was a piece of cake. Now it is a mess of icing smeared on the plate because this little piggy went to town! Oh was it good!

Puggle Love

Ranch Style Chicken Chili

A big thank you to all our great Presidents who gave me the day off yesterday! And because I got pretend that I don't have a job for a day, I was able to sit around and watch talk shows (OK, I only watched two Rachael Ray and Martha) I got a fabulous new recipe. Yesterday, Rach (yeah, we're tight) made Ranch Style Chicken Chile and it left my mouth watering. Well that's what we're having tonight for dinner and if Brett doesn't get home soon, there won't be any left!!! You need to go to the store and buy these ingredients NOW!

Ingredients
4 poblano peppers
2 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 pounds ground chicken (I used turkey because that's what I had and I didn't use quite 2 lbs.)
Salt and pepper
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon coriander (I did not put this in because the store only had seeds and I was confused by that so I just left it out)
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup dill, chopped (I used dried)
1/4 cup chives or scallions, finely chopped (I didn't put this in either because, well, I forgot)
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
Hot sauce, to taste
1 cup sour cream

Directions:
Char peppers under the broiler with oven door cracked for steam to escape. Place charred peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to steam (you can also just put them in a brown paper bag and roll the top down). Let cool then peel, seed and finely chop.
Heat 2 tablespoons EVOO in a medium size pot over medium-high heat. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper, and brown and crumble the meat. Add onions and garlic to the pot and cook 5 minutes to soften. Season with cumin and coriander, and stir in chopped peppers. Add stock and herbs, and simmer 5 minutes. Season with hot sauce to taste.
Turn off heat and stir in sour cream to combine. Serve with tortilla chips alongside for dipping.

*I found the process of charring the peppers kind of fun. Here is before...

and this was after...

I followed the directions almost to a tee expect the few ingredients changes I mentioned above. When it was done, I put it in the crock pot to keep hot 'til Brett got home. I wish I could put a smell on here because this soup seriously smells so delicious! Even Lucy kept standing at the counter trying to get a whiff!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Brett and I are celebrating in our usual way...Chipotle!!! We did changed it up a bit (we skipped ice cream at Oberweiss) and are currently hanging out at Borders. Brett has his calendar and some travel books and I have my laptop and my Valentine. Life is good.

In case you didn't know - yesterday was the Super Bowl. The Saints won. I called it.

Now that I have updated you all on the football news, here's the fun stuff - our DiGiorno sponsored pizza party!!!! I signed up several weeks ago to "host" a DiGiorno Game Day Believers Party (spokesman is none other than Pittsburgh's own Jerome "The Bus" Bettis) and was picked. I received this fabulous "party pack" complete with 6 coupons for free Digiorno pizzas, $4 off coupons for my guests, a DiGiorno hot pad, a DiGiorno pizza cutter, DiGiorno stickers, and DiGiorno party beads. The catch? Serve the pizza and upload photos. Basically - eat and blog - that I can do. By the way . . . the thin crispy flatbread Chicken Tuscano is OUT OF THIS WORLD and the garlic bread crust pizzas are way Delicious as well!!!

Brett and I and ALL our pizzas!

Lucy wearing her DiGiorno beads

"Tucker, what did you do for those beads?"

I made a Brownie Banana Split Pizza to keep up with the theme for dessert

The Billings Family LOVE DiGiorno pizza!

And last, the boys and their food...

Recipes from a Sick Blogger

Today I am blogging from . . . bed! I seem to have come down with a yucky cold that has left me with absolutely ZERO energy. My dear, dear husband has been a cleaning machine all day as we are having a Super Bowl party tomorrow. Because he has become Mr.Domestic, I have been able to lay in bed, sip some tea and watch one of my favorite movies, P.S. I Love You!


This week, I cooked up some rather yummy dishes that I hope you enjoy!

• Blueberry Breakfast Cake: It calls for fresh blueberries but I used frozen. I also used the buttermilk substitute (1/2 T. vinegar in a 1/2 cup measuring cup and then fill with milk) This cake was fabulous breakfast last Sunday that was perfect wit a cup of coffee and served warm out of the oven.


• Italian Spinach Pie: While this may not have been Brett's idea of a "man's meal" he enjoyed it and I thought it was out of this world. A few changes: add some garlic, a whole cup of chopped red peppers, and maybe some onions, basil instead of oregano and a sprinkle of garlic salt on top. IT does need to cook for a little longer than the recipe says.


• Grilled BBQ Sandwiches with Spicy Avocado Sauce: These were super yummy! Since it is FREEZING outside, I grilled them on my grill pan on the stove top.


• Since I had chicken, buns and red pepper left over, we had chicken sandwiches another night, but this time it was my own creation. Sara Lee Wheat Buns (80 calories), chicken (pounded into thin cutlets, sprinkle with a little dry ranch and grill), spinach leaves, sliced red pepper, a touch of Light Ranch Dressing, and a wedge of Laughing Cow Light Swiss ( I spread half of the wedge on each of our sandwiches). Put all this stuff together and you have a magnificent and healthy grilled chicken sandwich!


• Thursday night was an easy night: Pizza! We had the Organics spinach and cheese and a side of Del Monte Cinnamon Peaches. I would highly recommend that you hightail it to the grocery store and pick these two things up. SOOO tasty!!!!

I am looking forward to blogging about our Super Bowl party. I was lucky enough to win a DiGiorno party pack...should be a lot of fun (even if all the girls do have the same cold)!!!!!

Life in the City

This is where I spent the day on Wednesday. I had a brief training for work in the morning and got to spend the rest of the day feeling as if I didn't have a care in the world. A little shopping, some free WiFi at Borders, a Starbuck's coffee and the best part of the day - lunch with Brett! It's hard to believe some people get to do this everyday!!!

Souper Sunday Italian Style

The tradition of Souper Sunday just isn't the same when the day is not spent watching football. With only the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl left, we decided we needed to get in another yummy pot of soup! Brett decided yesterday that he wanted to make "the Olive Garden's soup". Coincidentally, my mom gave me a delicious recipe for Zuppa Tuscano not too long ago. This may be one of our best soups yet!!!!!

Zuppa Tuscano

6 large potatoes, sliced (not peeled) and quartered

2 lg. red onions, diced

2 T. olive oil

4 T. minced garlic

2 lbs. loose Italian sausage

Roux: 10 T. flour, 10 T. butter, 2 t. salt, 1 T. pepper

2 c. white cooking wine
6 c. chicken broth
2c. half and half
4 t. cumin
4 t. basil
6 oz. baby spinach, washed and torn (can use frozen)

• Boil potatoes until half way cooked. Drain and set aside.
• Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Set aside.
• Brown and drain sausage. Set aside
• Make roux by heating butter until melted. Slowly stir in flour, salt and pepper using whisk until smooth.
• Add wine, chicken broth, and half and half. Stir constantly with wire whisk until bubbly and thickened slightly (not lumpy).
• Add onion, garlic, cumin, basil, sausage, potatoes, and spinach to liquid. Stir well. Cover and simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours.

Enjoy!!!!

My Mid January Non New Years Resolutions

So while January 1 came and went, I am still mulling over some resolutions. I decided that I really don't want to have a lot of things that I want to do but will probably ultimately fail at. When I started thinking of things that would be my New Years Resolutions (if in fact I were making any) they all centered around one theme: being a better person - physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. So, I have decided that the following list is NOT, I repeat NOT, my list of things that I must do this year in order to feel complete, but rather a list of challenges. If I don't do them, no harm, no foul, I am just in the same place I am right now - sitting a my dining room table, drinking pumpkin spice coffee (I know it's January but I can drink whatever flavor coffee I want, whenever I want), and looking outside at the dirty snow and slush. Oh, how I love a string of 3o-something degree days after a huge snow fall.

1. Go to church more regularly. I have a love/ hate relationship with church. I know that sounds bad, but sometimes I'm into it and sometimes I'm not, and in my opinion (which I am allowed to have since this is my blog, thank you very much Miss I'm Going to Post a Nasty Comment Under Your Kate Gosselin Post...oh no your not, sweetheart because I deleted it the second I read it), I should only go to church if my heart is in it. I just don't think that just because you go that it "counts". I know lots of people that go every Sunday and pretty much enter a 1 hour long day dream the entire time they are there. So rather, I guess than say I will go more regularly, I want to be in the right frame of mind that I want to go and that I give of myself for that one hour.

2. You know the whole saying, "My body is a temple", well, you know what, it is. And if this 5 foot 7, 100 and a lot of change pound body is the only one I am getting, then I really should take care of it. I ran a half marathon in September and have only gone down hill from there. It's time I set some goals for myself and get off the couch. As for what's going into this temple, well that could use a little work too. I go in cycles of eating very healthy and then I go on a binge like a Biggest Loser contestant dumped into a vat of pudding. I know I am probably a little too hard on myself sometimes, but I really should take better care of myself.

3. Now here's the biggie...enjoy life! I have an "older" friend who made a resolution last year to have more fun. If someone asked her for a drink after work, she went. If her husband wanted to see a movie and she was tired, she went. At the end of the year she was very proud that she had accomplished her goal. Well, I need to enjoy life a little more. Again, I'm only getting one temple and I'm only getting one chance to enjoy my temple so let the fun begin. There are so many places that want to go and things that I want to do that it seems like a waste to ever sit around doing nothing, yet I feel like I am pretty lazy sometimes. I challenge myself, to go for a walk, to read a book, to call a friend, to write a letter, walk the dogs, to do something that enriches my life rather than wastes more precious minutes of it.

So there it is: my list of 3 Non Resolutions...

Where has Souper Sunday gone???

I don't know. It seems that these few months have been so packed full of long hours at work, social commitments, road trips, etc. that we have had little time to keep up with some of our favorite routines. Brett and i agreed shortly after we got married that Sundays were our favorite day together. It was usually the laziest of the week, neither of us ever felt like working on Sundays and we usually don't have anything that we have to do. Depending on the weather Sundays involve sleeping in or getting up early, church or no church, bike riding, grocery shopping, visits to the dog park, or just being so lazy that we never leave the house. My favorite part of the day is diving into the paper and cutting out the coupons from the inserts. We love Sundays so much that one of the songs on our wedding CD was Sunday Morning by Maroon Five. As I have blogged about before, a few years ago we started Souper Sunday. We both love to watch football and what better way to end the day is with a yummmy soup that simmered in the crock pot all day long.

A few days ago Brett had his wisdom teeth out and is on a soft diet for 5 days. We tried overcooked noodles and even that was a little tough, so basically he has had a lot of scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, soup, jello and pudding. I thought that a nice treat today would be our delicious crock pot potato soup. I made it like we always do except for the bacon - too chunky -and if the potatoes don't cook enough I can always stick it in the blender to make it into cream of potato soup. Well, the crock pot is full and Brett is still sleepy but already the house smells yummy.Here's our recipe, adapted from several in our Fix It And Forget It Cookbook.

The Clancy's Crock Pot Potato Soup

• 8 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 LARGE onion, sliced and diced
• 1 LARGE celery stalks, sliced and diced
• the inside of the celery, maybe called the hearts?, where all the leaves are; pull out the leaves and wash them, then chop as you would fresh parsley; sometimes i don't bother chopping and I throw the whole thing in - if you do this, pull it out when it's done cooking because it turns into this gross limp piece of celery
• 1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
• 1/2 c. milk
• 5 1/2 cups water
• 4 chicken bullion cubes
• 2-3 T. butter or margarine
• 1/2-1 pound bacon, cooked crisply and crumbled
• shredded cheddar cheese

1. Plug crock pot on and turn to high.

2. Add evaporated milk, milk, water, chicken bullion, butter, celery, bacon, and onion to crock pot and put on lid.
3. While your other ingredients are getting hot in the crock pot, microwave you potato cubes in about 4 batches. I put them on a deep plate with a bit of water and stick them in for about 4 minutes. This speeds up your crock pot time and in addition release some yummy starchy water to dump in. After each batch cooks in the microwave, add to crock pot and replace lid.

4. Cooking time? I don't know. Several recipes say to cook on high for 6 hours and then 3 on low. Some say just 6 on high. Basically I turn it on and let it cook. I always make it in the morning and we don't eat until evening so it cooks all day. If it bubbles too much and is making a mess on the counter i turn it down. The longer you cook it, the softer the potatoes get. If you don't care if it all turns to mush, then let it go. If you want chunks that are in tact, check it more often. That's just how we do it :-)

5. About an hour before you are ready to eat, ladle some broth into a bowl and mix with flour or corn starch. The whisk it into the soup to thicken. The thicker you like it, the more you should add. I use a lot!

6.When you are ready to eat, ladle it into your favorite large mug and top with cheese. Yummy!!!!!!