March 2013 Books

I only read TWO BOOKS this month! Operation: read less books in 2013 is coming along. Unfortunately I seem to have replaced reading time with Candy Crush, so...that's something to work on. Baby steps.


Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected--A Memoir by Kelle Hampton
I am terrible at reading books I own. Awful. I usually have so many library books I struggle to keep up with them and don't read anything else. I pre-ordered this book and received it the day it came out. A year ago. (April 3, 2012) I read a few chapters, but was soon pulled back to my library list and...yeah. Finally finished it this month. The first half was AH-MAY-ZING and the second half dragged. Still a really good book, though. I started reading Kelle's blog around Nella's first birthday, so it was nice to get more of the backstory. (This comes out on paperback today, I think.)


The Last Policeman by Ben Winters
I didn't know enough about this one to be super-into reading it, so it languished at the bottom of the library pile for awhile. I finally picked it up when I couldn't renew anymore and was hooked immediately. I read it in a day and a half and wanted more.

What we ate: Korean Beef, Emeril's Turkey Club Casserole, Mexicali Skillet

Korean Beef

A++, five stars, straight to the top of the dinner rotation. This was SO good and SO easy. Plus, it took like 20 minutes to make, so. Wins all around. Make it tomorrow. Use fresh ginger. Try not to grate your finger.

Emeril Lagasse's Turkey Club Casserole

This did not take 20 minutes. More like way-too-many-minutes-for-a-sandwich. It also created a ridiculous amount of dirty dishes, creating extremely high expectations for the finished product. If I’m going to dirty a pot for béchamel, a frying pan for bacon, a cutting board for bread, a mixing bowl for the eggs/cream, a casserole dish to make it in and another to weight it down, then yeah. It better be good.

Also, the grocery bill is a bit of a deterrent, both price-wise and health-wise. A pound of bacon, a pound of turkey, half a pound of ham, half a pound of cheese, 8 eggs, and a cup of heavy cream. Recipe for casserole or a heart attack? (And yet I chose to make it, so.) (I made a half batch, though.)

I viewed it as sort of a special occasion (calorie wise) and a project (time wise). It turns out since I now have the time to cook, it’s become a hobby. So while I might whine about the dishes, I actually didn’t mind making this.

I thought it was fine. Thomas liked it a lot. I'd eat it again. I'd even make it again, if I wanted a project. I don't think I'd ever make it just because I wanted to eat it, though. The work to yumminess factor ratio wasn't high enough.

Quick, Easy Mexicali Skillet

It seems my meals fall into two categories: Takes all afternoon to make and Throw it together in 15 minutes. This was, as promised, quick and easy. I've always hated taco seasoning packets, though, so I made my own from Holly's recipe.

The finished meal tasted exactly like you'd think taco seasoned ground beef + pasta + diced tomatoes + black beans would taste. No surprises. A perfectly respectable 15-minute meal, but nothing anyone is going to rave about. (Unlike, say, the Korean beef which I almost made again instead.)

52 Date Nights, Week 21: Watch a Movie

Previous date night posts here. Free stay-at-home date night ideas PDF download here. (Not sponsored.)

For this week's super thrilling date night we...watched a movie. It didn't provide too much blogging material, but we were pretty excited about finally seeing Argo. Plus, Thomas, knowing I needed some sort of picture for my post, went through all of our movies and picked out the ones that won a Best Picture Oscar. (Aww.) He also cued up our not-yet-fully-watched Academy Awards recording to the point at which Argo won and we watched it before the movie.

We didn't have any movie candy, but Oreos worked juuuust fine.

What we ate: 2 Ingredient Pizza Dough, Coconut Bread, Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Coconut Bread

My mom used to make coconut bread occasionally and I'd completely forgotten about it. It is so, so good. This recipe popped up in my feed Monday morning and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, so this happened pretty much immediately:

Margaret could not understand what on earth I was trying to say about it being kind of bread, but not really and not like sandwich bread. Then she wanted to know what "sort of like cake" meant and after going around in circles about the whole thing for half an hour (what does 'the same shape as bread' mean?) I changed the name to Coconut Cake and seriously, someone else can explain quick breads to her.

2 Ingredient Pizza Dough

There was a war in the comments on this one debating whether you should use 1 cup self-rising flour and 1 cup greek yogurt or 1 cup flour to every 1/2 cup yogurt. Of course, I didn't read this until after I'd made the recipe as stated (1:1). The dough was SUPER sticky, but with my hands all  covered in the gunk I couldn't open the flour canister so just used the dough as-is. I spread it out on parchment paper and it baked up fine and didn't stick. I couldn't really get it to brown, but I don't know if that's because I needed more flour or if that's just what it's like.

The taste was much more flatbread-y than pizza dough-y, which happens to be what I like, so I was happy with it. This would make an excellent party snack/appetizer flatbread with some olive oil, tomatoes, and cheese. You're not going to get a thick takeout-pizza crust from it, though.

Chicken Gnocchi Soup

I looooove Olive Garden's chicken gnocchi soup. BEST SOUP EVER, seriously. A calorie bomb, for sure, but worth it. (Also, I only have it four or five times a year.)

I didn't think I would necessarily be able to make a soup just like it, but I hoped it would be close. It was not. It wasn't even very good. (Sigh. I was hoping it just wasn't Heather's kind of thing and not a bad recipe.) I mean, we ate it. It was a decent dinner. I'm not keeping the recipe for future reference, though. If something is going to call for four tablespoons of butter, four tablespoons of olive oil, and a quart of half and half it better be DAMN good.

It was better the next day as leftovers. Still not fabulous, but better. Maybe the flavors needed longer to come together? Regardless, a quart of half and half means this isn't an everyday meal.

Bible story time with teacher Margaret

This is Joseph. See his brothers? They is mad, because they want his pretty coat from his father.

His brothers were mad because they didn’t have a pretty coat, so they decided they would go buy a pretty coat. And then Moses was born.

See this Bible, Paul? This is a true story. Everything in it is true.

Do you ever get thrown in a lions den? Yeah, sometimes I do, too.

52 Date Nights, Week 20: Make Music

Previous date night posts here. Free stay-at-home date night ideas PDF download here. (Not sponsored.)

This was another one where we were at a loss. Neither of us really plays an instrument and the 'pots and pans' idea wasn't really floating our boat. Then I realized we do have some musical instruments in the house.

We didn't even have to disturb the kids because all of their musical instruments have migrated to the back of a closet in the basement. (I admit to nothing.)

I pulled out the instruments pictured above, then gave the closet one last glance. And that's when I saw it. My nemesis.

Please no.

CAT PIANO

Pretty soon we were torturing each other with "witty kitty songs." (witty kitty songs, people. This is what they're actually called.) If you're not careful, I'll come after you with "'Where's our gerbil,' sung to the tune of Skip to my Lou." A classic. Thomas might even come along to accompany it on the toy drum. We scared the daylights out of the real cat.

WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT??

I like to think that with enough practice we, too, could find "The Sound."

What we ate: Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Cheeseburger Casserole, Chicken Tortilla Crock Pot Soup

Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This was a Runner's World recipe Thomas requested, as he loves chicken wings and we never have them. I even resist all attempts to go to  Buffalo Wild Wings and the like. But crock pot + lettuce wraps won me over and I agreed to make them.

You may think crock pot means 'easy,' but I don't mind labor intensive recipes. For me, crock pot mainly means make ahead. This recipe took over an hour to prep, but I got to do it while the kids were eating lunch instead of during the witching hour. I try to always make as much of dinner as possible during lunch time, actually. The kids are out of my hair and their requests for 'more this!' or 'more that' or 'I need a DRINK' don't bother me as much if I'm already up and moving around the kitchen.

Of course, looking at this recipe it doesn't SEEM like it should take an hour, so maybe they had more requests than normal? Also, during that hour I portioned a huge pack of boneless skinless chicken thighs into freezer bags. (They were on a great sale, so I used some of them in this recipe instead of the chicken breasts and froze the rest in 1 lb bags.)

I also took the 'way more work than necessary' path with the carrots, buying them whole and lugging out my huge food processor instead of just buying shredded carrots. That thing takes FOREVER to wash and I include washing dishes in my prep time.

But! THIS WAS REALLY YUMMY. I halved the hot sauce, because the kids and I don't love things hot, and wow, was I glad I did. They were still really spicy. So spicy I quickly threw together the next day's dinner so I was sure the kids had something to eat. Of course, saying "this is spicy, you might not like it" was apparently code for "eat as much as you can to prove mom wrong." Much like saying "this is yummy, you should try it" means your kids won't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Cheeseburger Casserole

When I said "quickly threw together" I meant it. This was really fast and easy. I had it in the oven in 15 minutes. We all liked it, but I found it a little bland/boring. Maybe I'm just used to all the other recipes I've been gravitating toward that involve at least 8 spices each. I also didn't get a cheeseburger feel from it, but that could be because I don't like pickles so I left them off my portion.

I think we'll be making it again, though. It involves basically all the same ingredients as spaghetti and I'm really sick of spaghetti. A remix is nice. It's a good kid-friendly meal.

Chicken Tortilla Crock Pot Soup

I've been using dried black beans instead of canned lately and the first time I made this, I had a slight issue with them (didn't cook long enough) so I ended up having to put the soup on the stove and boil the heck out of it so as to not have raw beans.

This week my beans were fine, so we used the crock pot only and ended up really disappointed. The soup was WAY better when the sauce/broth reduced on the stove for awhile. I think I'll be making this on the stove in the future instead of the crock pot.

Also, I don't separately cook the chicken. I just put it in the crock pot with everything else at the beginning and shred it right before serving.