I JUST ... cooked Chili Macaroni

Chili Macaroni is a lighter, non-cheese version of the regular chili macaroni.  I add a little hunk of cheese at the end when I eat it because I love cheese.  The ingredients - as usual are simple: ground turkey, chopped onions, green beans, diced tomatoes and chilies, tomato juice, chili powder, garlic salt and elbow macaroni.

The first step is to brown the turkey and onions.  Then you add the tomatoes and spices.  When that is bubbling, add the macaroni and beans and cook for 15 minutes.

Here is the finished product with a small hunk of cheese we got at the coast: Tillamook Smoked Cracked Black Pepper White Cheddar.  Uh, can you say yum?

The recipe can be found on the Recipe Tab above.

I JUST ... cooked Dirty Rice

This is a pretty basic Dirty Rice recipe - I like it because it has the basics of Cajun cooking, but I can mellow it out and customize it to my tastes.  The ingredients are pretty simple: chicken sausage (I used kielbasa because I go to the store and saw "sausage" on my list but forgot what I was cooking.  The kielbasa works in everything the first time!), chopped onions, bell peppers, celery, minced garlic, cayenne pepper, salt and brown rice.

After I browned up the sausage, I added the veggies - looking pretty already!

Added the spices and then the rice.  Covered the skillet and took it off the heat.  I came back and this is what I had - can't wait!

The recipe can be found on the Recipe Tab above.

I JUST ... made Spinach, Tomato & Orzo Soup

This is a great soup!  This is the first time I made it and now know that I will be adding all kinds of things - depending on the season.  One of those great "dump and go" soups.  The basic ingredients are:  diced tomatoes (I used the ones with roasted garlic and basil), chopped onion, minced garlic, baby spinach, chicken broth, water and orzo.

After you cook the onion and garlic until the onion is soft, you dump everything but the orzo in.  Get it boiling, then add the orzo and cook for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, I turned the heat off and covered the pot.  I went about my business while it cooled (NEVER EVER put food in the fridge warm/hot) and when I came back, the orzo had plumped up and thickened the soup.

The recipe can be found on the Recipe Tab above.

I JUST... Made Dal

Dal is an Indian dish made with lentils - simple and easy.  The original recipe doesn't call for the onions and peppers, but I wanted to add a bit more to mine since the first time I made it it was pretty boring.  The ingredients are prettyy simple: lentils, ginger, garlic, onions, bell peppers, mustard seeds, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and salt.

I cooked the veggies a little to soften them up, then added everything else. 

Covered them with about an inch of water, put the top on the pot and simmered them for about 30 minutes. 

I like to serve mine over brown rice to make it a rounded meal and it really fills you up.  I also add a small chunk of butter after I heat it up - it adds a creaminess to it that just makes it that much better. 

The recipe is on the Recipe Tab at the top.

I JUST…made Mediterranean Couscous Cabbage Rolls

Since I’ve been trying to eat better (read: more whole foods and less processed foods) I have come across a lot of recipes, some a I like some I don’t and some I have loved into heavy rotation. This is going to be one of the heavy rotation ones. It is light and easy to make – two things that go very well with a lunch or light dinner before a run. To start off with, make the couscous. Add the couscous to the boiling water, remove from the heat and let sit until you are ready to use it – at least 15 minutes. The most challenging part of the whole recipe is the cabbage leaves themselves. I didn’t have any Savoy cabbage so I got a head of regular green cabbage. Peeling the leaves apart is the biggest hurdle – the heads are tight and tricky to tease apart (think Aqua Net and the movie Grease).

After I had 8 leaves (as whole as possible), I started a pot of boiling water and boiled a couple at a time for about 8 minutes – until they were tender. Some people don’t trim the spines of the leaves, but I do because it makes rolling them easier. Just take a knife and slice the main rib flush with the whole leaf. After each batch was done, I placed them on a paper towel to drain and cool. While that was happening, I made the filling. I took the cooked couscous and dumped it into a bowl with the chopped mint and feta, using my hands to mix it since the couscous was clumped together and the feta needed to be broken up a bit more. Leave the cheese alone if you like the bigger chunks.

After the filling was done and while the cabbage leaves were still cooling, I made the sauce the rolls simmered in. Since it isn’t quite tomato season yet, I used a 29oz can of diced tomatoes and left out any salt in the recipe. In a large skillet, I sautéed the garlic for about 30 seconds, then added the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and cinnamon. I stirred it all together and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. While that was going, I made my cabbage rolls. Taking a cabbage leaf and laying it rib-side down, I put a spoonful of the filling in the center and rolled the leaf up like a burrito: roll up once, then fold in the sides and roll the rest up. Voila! Cabbage Roll. I rolled the rest of the leaves and filling, trying not to break any.

When they were all rolled the sauce had simmered a while, I nestled the rolls in the sauce, covered and simmered for another 30 minutes. Serving size is 2 rolls and some sauce. The longer you cook them in the boiling water or the sauce (or both), the more tender the leaves will be – I am going to boil them longer, it was a pain to eat them with a knife and fork in a small Tupperware at my desk. Enjoy!

Recipe is under the Recipe Tab above

Annie Surgery Update

Some of you know that our 4 year old lab, Annie, has had some joint problems in the past. Right before we went to California for Christmas we took her to our vet for x-rays and advice. She had to stay there all day and I wasn’t totally excited about that, but when Josh and I went to pick her up that night and look at the x-rays, I really wasn’t excited about what I saw or heard. According to the vet and the x-rays, she had osteophytes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteophyte) in both stifles, one torn CCL (doggy equivalent of human ACL) (http://www.ovra.com/home/ovr/page_179/cranial_cruciate_injury_in_the_dog.html), and possibly hip dysplasia in her left hip. FANtastic. At least we had an idea right? The vet referred us to OVRA (http://www.ovra.com/home/ovr/cpage_7/home.html), a veterinary surgery clinic in Springfield. We grabbed a copy of the x-rays and made an appointment in Springfield for the first week in January.

When we went to meet Dr. Olmstead we took both girls, to show them what we have to deal with and get advice as to what to do (if anything) with Oakleigh while Annie is recovering from her one surgery. OR so we thought – ONE surgery. Dr. Olmstead looked at the x-rays, got down on the ground with Annie and moved her through a range of motions to get a feel for what was happening and then dropped it on us – BOTH knees, but her hips were fine. Have you ever had to sigh in relief while your stomach is dropping out of you? That is what it felt like. Our four-year old lab didn’t have hip dysplasia! YEAH! But, she had to have both knees worked on. Ooof! That was the beginning of it. The surgeries and recovery period were 8 weeks apiece with a 4 week final recovery period at the end of the 16 weeks for a total of 20 weeks. 5 months! She was supposed to have her movement extremely restricted (read, shouldn’t even go outside to potty without being on a leash) and she was not allowed to go up/down the stairs more than once a day. Oakleigh had to go somewhere else – she was too active and got Annie too excited and riled up. And, they had a spot open the next day and they could do her left knee then, with us picking her up the day after. This was Tuesday, surgery was Wednesday, she came home Thursday.

So, we were hit with: surgery on two stifles (doggy equivalent of human knee), an active dog extremely restricted for 5 months, one dog having to leave for 5 months, and they offered to keep her overnight that night if we didn’t want to make the drive the next day. “Ok, your kid has to have major surgery tomorrow, you just found out and you can leave her here if you’re too cheap to take her home and bring her back the next day.” Yeah, I know they were just giving us all our options and people come from all over the state and US to this clinic, but there was NO WAY I was leaving her overnight just so I didn’t have to drive her down the next day. Oh yeah, we had to deposit half the amount of the surgery when we dropped her off and pay the rest of the bill when we picked her up. At least they gave us a quote that they wouldn’t go over ahead of time.

Off home we went, making calls all the way. The first was to Liz – we needed to ask her to take Oakleigh for longer than we originally thought (6-8 weeks) and take care of her for 20 weeks starting the next night. Surprise! I think she was more surprised when Josh mentioned the two surgeries rather than the one we thought. She was good enough to welcome Oak up and even volunteered Rick for Frisbee duty (I think Rick gets just as much out of it as Oak does). The next calls were to our bosses – we needed to come in late Wednesday too so we could take her down and drop her off. Everyone was sympathetic and it all worked out so that we got a last night (for a long time) with Oak and could snuggle Annie a little before we sent her off to the vet.

Challenge Quilt Part 3

Here is the finished quilt! It is hanging in the shop in Brownsville with about 14 other quilts.

And it took first place!