Annual Fish Soup!

The last few years one of my dearest friends has come to our home and prepared this soup. It is simple and wonderful!


Fish Soup

2 T minced garlic
2 pounds of Tilapia fillets cut in chunks
2 pounds medium raw shrimp
1 pound large raw shrimp
6 medium-sized Yukon Gold potaoes
1 medium head of cabbage cut in half and then cut in 6 large slices each
4 stalks of celery sliced
2 large yellow onions cut in half and each half cut in 3 sections
6 roma tomatoes cut in quarters
3 large dry chilies
10 small dry chilies
4 limes cut in wedges
cooking oil
3 quarts of water

Use two tamale pots

In one pot bring the water to a rolling boil and then turn down to a high simmer and place all the shrimp. While they are cooking start cutting up the vegetables.

In the other pot put enough oil to coat the bottom of the pot and turn on the heat. Add the potatoes to this pot first and stir so that they do not stick. Next add the onions. When the onions just start to glaze add the celery, then the cabbage.

Pull the shrimp out on to a large cookie sheet or serving tray so that they can begin to cool. In the shrimp pot add the tilapia chunks to cook.

Keep stirring the veggies so that they do not stick. Add the tomatoes, garlic and chilies.

Begin peeling the shrimp. Pull the tilapia out when it turns white. Pour the water/broth over the veggies and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Serve in a broad bowl and sqeeze a wedge of fresh lime over the soup just before you eat it.

This is so good with fresh cracked wheat rolls, french bread, or thick flour torillas.

2009 Christmas Baking!

I have begun baking for the season. This year I have made the persimmon bars that are posted here and a yearly fav is Pumpkin and White Chocolate Chip Cookies that I pass to the neighbors!

White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup solid pack pumpkin pie puree
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp All Spice
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions
1.In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda.
2.In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Beat in pumpkin pie puree. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the white chocolate, spices and pecans.
3.Drop dough by rounded tablespoon 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 20-22 minutes until just set.

. . . still working on that pantry!

For dinner last night we had breakfast for dinner!

Belgian Waffles
Fried Potatoes
Biscuits and Saugage Gravy
Breakfast Sausage
Fruit

I made waffles out of all the mix and froze two big bags for an easy toaster plunge for an easy breakfast.

You guessed It! Guess what's for dinner tonight?

Leftovers...whatever we want!

. . . . isn't it amazing how a smell can trigger memories

Tonight for dinner my husband and I cooked together. I was slicing red and Yukon Gold potatoes. First in half and then slices that only go about 1/2 through. I place them in real melted butter in the family-sized cast iron skillet that is my favorite.

Ummm! The smell of melted butter in the pan reminds me of Sandy. An amazing person who had a huge impact upon my childhood. There are many years that if I had not had her support I am not sure that I would have done so well. Melted butter with eggs frying in real butter (I came from a home of Oleo).....or....crispy golden cornmeal mush purchased from the local Safeway Food Store fried in butter and topped with Karo Syrup for breakfast!

First tastes that tasted so good. . . memorable.

Sandy was a surrogate mother of sorts to me. She was encouraging and creative. She was a divorced mother of three wonderful children that in my heart have always been closer than my own family to me. She lived only two or three houses from my own childhood home. I would be her babysitter and she would be a model to me.

She loved her children from the depths of her soul and I believe that they knew that. That she would make room in her heart... and later in her home for me...is bound in the fiber of who I have become.

Certainly none of us choose the families that we are born into but the families that we create in our lives can lift us up, nuture us, feed our souls, and heal our broken places.

She made room for me. I was not her child.

I grew up and I have aquired extra children who have taught me lessons and opened my heart in wonderful magical ways!

I lift my dinner glass to Sandy and I absolutely cherish everything that she gave with a loving heart to me!

clearing out the pantry. . .

We are having work done at the house and we really need to clear the pantry as close to "0" as possible

This is what I put together for dinner tonight and it was very good!

Hobo oven chili

1 small can kidney beans (drained)
1 medium can stewed tomatoes
1 small can black beans (drained)
1 medium onion (I used a red onion)
1/4 c chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 pounds ground meat (I used Morningstar Farms)
3 cups frozen hash browns
1 pound mozarella cheese, shredded
3 slices bacon

In a large skillet cut bacon into 1" pieces and begin to brown. As the skillet sizzles and the bacon begins to glisten drop in the onion and stir until the onion begins soften.

In a separate bowl toss together your cheese and hashbrowns and set aside.

To the mixture on the stove add the meat. When it is well browned add the beans and tomatoes. Stir. Add the chili and garlic powder--salt and pepper if you want it.

Cook until it is heated through and bubbly. Remove from heat and spoon this mixture into a backing dish. I used a cake pan. On top of your hobo chili top with the hashbrown and cheese mixture...for extra yum add some french fried onions on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes

I served this with cornbread and steamed green beans seasoned with peppered bacon.
I was asked to make it again....

Where did all the fiber go?

Highest Fiber Vegetables
Avocado
Beans
Broccoli*
Brussels sprouts*
Cabbage*
Carrot
Chick Peas/Garbanzo Beans
Eggplant
Greens -- collards, kale, turnip greens*
Lima beans
Mushrooms
Potato with skin
Pumpkin, canned
Peas -- black-eyed peas, green peas
Peppers
Rhubarb
Spinach*
Sweet Potatoes

Highest Fiber Fruits
Apples
Avocado
Bananas
Berries -- Blueberies, Blackberries, Raspberries, etc.
Dried Fruits -- Figs, Raisins, Apricots, Dates, etc.
Guava
Kiwi
Orange
Pears
Prunes

Twenty pages of wonderful nutritional instruction from the United States webpage: www.usa.gov

http://www.womenshealth.gov/pub/the-healthy-woman/nutrition.pdf

Fajita Burritos

Tonight it was a mix of veggies and sauce. Here is what I put together:

I placed a cake pan on a cookie sheet. In a cake pan I placed 4 chicken breasts (bone in)and 1/2 cup water and covered the pan tightly with foil. I placed it in the oven at 425 degrees for 45 minutes.

I took the pan out and placed it to the side.

I placed the following in a common bowl to be added later

cut 3 medium sized brown onion in sections

2 red sweet bell peppers in long strips
1 green bell pepper in long strips
1 carton sliced raw mushrooms


In a large cast iron skillet I turned the heat on high and allowed the skillet to get hot before putting anything in it.

I placed 1 can of RoTel tomatoes with cilantro and lime in the skillet

Next I added 1 small can of sweet diced green chilies

I let the liquid in these reduce.

To this I added 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon dry red pepper flakes
skant amount a seasoned black pepper
Stir thoroughly

Add to this 3/4 cup White Zinfindel wine

Stir thoroughly

As the wine bubbles and slightly reduces begin adding the vegetables from the common bowl

Take two of the chicken breasts and remove the meat from the bone and cut in cubes
Stir into the hot vegetable mixture on the stove. Stir until the onion begins to glisten

Turn into burrito sized flour tortillas
Add cheese and salsa if you like............I like 'em plain in the tortilla. My husband dresses 'em up with 1/4 cup jack cheese and green chile salsa........Either way these are really good.

Tortellini and Feta Salad

I hadn't made this salad for awhile so I whipped it up for dinner. It tastes light and good for those summer nights when you just don't want to heat up the house. Tonight I matched this salad with turkey italian sausage and a healthy serving of salad.

2 pkg dry Ronzini spinach tortellini
1 pkg of grape tomatoes (each tomato cut in half)
1 can of sliced black olives
1 pkg sliced fresh mushrooms, washed
1/2 cup fresh basil diced
1 pkg (6 oz) crumbled feta

Dressing:
Mix together

1/2 c olive oil
1 c rice vinegar
2 tsp garlic powder

Cook the tortellini until firm but still al dente. Rinse with cold water. Mix feta, basil, olives, mushrooms, & tomatoes. Add dressing and carefully stir pulling from the bottom to the top to thoroughly coat the salad. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or more to let the flavors marry.

Summer Salad and Chile

There we go again! Office talk...

Around a break table....have you noticed???? Some of the most mundane, weird, odd, everyday, embarrassing, incredible, kind, and mean conversations can be exchanged...

In mine we are all dieting ALL THE TIME...

So, I liked this little tidbit and wanted to share it here..

Take one cake mix, add one diet soda and mix on whip with your electric mixer at least 1-2 minutes (that can seem like a long time--sometimes)

Bake according to the box instructions.....easy, yummy

I made a white cake mix with diet cherry 7-up..very good
carrot cake with ginger ale...pretty yummy too...

Quicker ol meals

I had these saved in my hope chest.

Crockpot clean up

I have a small, medium, and large crockpot. They make some meals just--easy!

Cleanup is not always easy though. Just like what I did with the chile verde--this is what I do (maybe it will be helpful to you)

1. After I empty the crockpot of the food I have cooked while the crockpot is still "hot"
2. I then empty a boiling teapot of water up to the cooking line left by the food
3. I put the lid on

4. I go to work
5. 10+ hours later it nearly wipes clean with a cloth
a. this time while I was warming up dinner
b. I was washing up the crockpot

6. If there are spots that remain I use Bartenders Friend to remove those
7. Rinse
8. Dry
9. It is ready for the next time.

EASY

Chile Verde

Stater Bros. had Pork Butt on sale and my husband and I decided that Chile Verde belonged on the menu this week.

So this is how I make it

2 red onions coarsely chopped and placed in the bottom of my large Crockpot
2 cans of chile verde salsa (8oz each)
1 can Rotel tomatoes with lime and cilantro
1 4# pork butt
1/2 jar Old El Paso green chile salsa
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp seasoned black pepper
6 oz of canned whole sweet green chiles
1 T chopped fresh cilantro

Cook overnight on "low"
I always put the chile verde in glass bowls and place foil covered in the refrig. after it has cooked overnight.
After work: Steam some tortillas,cut up some cheese, sour cream, avacado, fresh tomatoes, onions...Put your glass bowl in the microwave for a couple of minutes..roll them up! Serve with refried beans and cactus!!Umm, Umm, good!
The sauce is great for wet burritos!
This is great for leftovers....it freezes well for a quick dinner for the future!

barracuda casserole

rockfish in foil

2009 wine cake

butter cookies for 2

Milk n Cheese

Mystery page of recipes..

banana bread

Honey BBQ Drumsticks

Potluck food

Sweet Potato and Ham Soup

I went to lunch today with a good friend of mine and we had incredible soup! It was a great day for it because the weather is cold. The fog is crawling down the mountains and the contrasting blue sky above is breath taking. We sat and talked like girls over our soup and salad. Anyhow the soup was so good I ran home and this is what I put together............Trust me it is good.

3 quarts of water
1 slice of thick-cut ham diced
Place in a dutch oven and turn on medium heat

Meanwhile, add these to your pot of water

3 Mexican green onions, sliced
3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks
1/2 cup uncooked yellow lentils
1 can sweet yellow corn with liquid

salt and pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt
2 T parsley flakes

Bring to a low boil for 45 minutes.

Add 1 cup of frozen spinach
1 cup spinach penne pasta
3 T wild rice
1 cup crushed taco chips

Cook for 1 hour...........ummm!