Guest Recipes!

Chili-Lime Meatballs - Penny (prepared at a Pampered Chef Party)


Cinnamon Crisps - Penny (prepared for a Pampered Chef Party)


Hot Fudge - Jenny


Bannana Cake - Jenny


Lasagna - Jenny (I had two large helpings!)


Quinoa, Blackbean, Cilantro Mix - Jennifer Tree (talk about healthy)


Tandori Spiced Tofu Wrap with Cilantro Yogurt (SPICY!)


Red Velvet Cake - Made by Debbie and Bob (favorite birthday dessert of Jenny)


Sante Fe Chicken - Bob and Debbie


Baked Mac and Cheese with Truffle Oil and Nutmeg - My beautiful cheese creation!


Turkey Wrap - Penny (it was too easy of a recipe for me to screw up and write about)


Oyster Crackers - 'J' Family recipe, made this day by Josh


Tequila Sunrise

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and White Chocolate Fudge

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and White Chocolate Fudge

My great plans to make dinner have been in the works all week. Unfortunately, a trip to the Italian restaurant Pasta Jays seemed like a better idea. Here comes Wednesday and I have to do a recipe though! I will fall behind if I don’t. The cooking has just been overwhelming. Jeff mentioned that I was talking in my sleep the other night…’the recipes… the recipes’ I mumbled. Jeff asked, ‘what about the recipes?’ and I responded, “I just want to be free of them!’
So Jeff started to drive to the grocery store. We were on a side street where traffic was backed up really far. The left lane had the traffic and we were moving in the right lane with no traffic. One guy traveling the other direction decided to turn left very quickly and not bother to look to see if anyone was coming. We were going to hit him, dead on. Jeff braked, but realized soon that we were not going to stop in time. He bumped up over the curb, we were now headed straight for a light post, he veered right as we skidded and was headed for a fence now, then steered a little left. We ended up on the sidewalk, an inch from the fence and 1 foot from the light pole. The guy who caused this whole thing just gave us a thumbs up to ask if we were okay. Jeff gave him a half hearted thumbs up mumbling (what an idiot) and we drove to a parking lot to check the car. The tires were surprisingly fine after the curb and there was no damage. What a relief! What makes this whole thing worse is I was lazily sitting with my foot up on the dash. If Jeff hadn’t navigated expertly, then I would have had A. a knee to the skull B. a broken leg or C. injury to my hips or back from the awkward position. It is a good lesson learned though; keep your feet planted firmly on the car floor!
So after all that, there was still grocery shopping to be done. We took to King Soopers and indulged in cheese samples. An older gentlemen gave me a great strategy; take the toothpick and stab two cheese cubes at one time…genius! Also at the store I got a Bamboo plant for my sister Shannon’s birthday. I held the little plant like a peace offering to try and not spill the water and referred to the plant as a bamboozle for the entire car ride home until I was asked politely to please stop saying that!
Jeff cuts up the chicken for me and gives me a lecture about sharpening the knives (which I do, thank you very much!). I grab an onion in a bag from the veggie drawer to make the Creamy Chicken Enchiladas (Grandma). Once I set it down the bag I realize there was a brown liquid all over it which had transferred to my hands. I take a whiff to identify the substance…..sick!!!!! It is old meat juice that leaked out of a ground beef container. SICK SICK SICK. I immediately start gagging, move to the other side of the kitchen and gag and cough. Jeff starts screaming at me, “Go to the bathroom! DO NOT throw up in the kitchen”. I don’t move, if I move I will lose it. Max is staring at me in alarm. I cough and gag again….’Jenna go to the bathroom!’ Jeff grabs my wrist and pulls on me to leave the kitchen, but I stop gagging and regain my composure. Close call. I refuse to touch the meat bag that I had somehow thrown in the sink in my panic. Jeff takes care of the meat bag and I request that he please clean out that drawer, because obviously I can’t handle it. After the onion incident, the enchiladas went well. Although, the only tortillas I had left were low carb and whole wheat. So I took these healthy tortillas and stuffed them with a bunch of cheese. The enchiladas filled a whole casserole dish and I expected leftovers but when we were down to the last two Jeff asked if I wanted them. No I do not want them, we just ate a full meal! Then he proceeded to finish the enchiladas.
I was making the white chocolate fudge (from Jake) to have for dessert for my parents coming to dinner on Thursday. I inherited all the ingredients in a gift exchange my family does. Well actually my Dad received the recipe and ingredients but passed them down for me to make. The cooking got off to a rough start, the recipe said a bag of truffles was needed (8.1oz), but the bag I had was only 5oz. The recipe was saved though by some truffles I had received from my grandparents for Christmas. The pack was multi flavored, but Jeff and I were able to pick out 6 more white chocolate ones to complete the recipe. So I cooked and everything was going fine until I needed two cups of sugar. The recipe had come with a bag of sugar, but I didn’t know if it was measured or not. Alright measuring cup….in the washer, 4 cup bowl….dirty from dinner, 2 cup bowl….dirty from dinner. Crap! I need to measure this sugar, all the while, I have to stir my mixture constantly or it will burn. “I don’t have a measuring cup, I told you to help me with the dinner dishes, figure something out!” The stress turned me into a wicked witch and some fighting words were shared. We quickly rinsed a measuring cup and I was able to measuring the sugar bag…which was 2 cups all along. Boo for unnecessary panic!

Diet Soup and Mybest Hot Fudge

Diet Soup and Mybest (a brand of vanilla) Hot Fudge…..? I am sure there is a contradiction in there somewhere. Diet soup totally cancels out ice cream and hot fudge though… right? That’s what I am telling myself. The diet soup comes from Mom and Mybest Hot Fudge comes from my Aunt Gwen. I missed cooking last Sunday; I know you were all sitting at you computer in tears when you realized I wasn’t going to post. So I decided to make a Wednesday out of it. I stopped at home after work and picked up Jeff to go with me, we had to also get kitty litter and that container will rip my arm off it is so heavy. Our first stop, before we even got a cart, was the cheese sample area. I had four samples of the Gruyere or maybe it was Gouda…some ‘g’ cheese, and got some dirty looks from the staff and other patrons. Apparently there is an unstated one cheese per customer rule. Oh well! I start at the veggies and watch a poor man carefully pick out the best carrots and proceed to drop one on the floor….too bad, it really was the best carrot.
Jeff was following me with the cart as I dashed in and out of people. I picked out a container of beef bouillon and set it in the cart. Then an older gentleman says to me, ‘I think you put that in the wrong cart’. I snap out of my shopping fervor and look up to see I had just put the beef bouillon in the older gentlemen’s cart, thinking it was Jeff with our cart. Did I really just do that? Then I see Jeff trying to get through the aisle looking at me like, ‘I am not with that crazy woman.’ I apologize and take out my bouillon, laughing and turning bright red, muttering something about how they were both wearing gray. Jeff and I just stand there for a few minutes laughing and deciding if I had incurred some sort of brain damage today. We also grab some eggs; we are switching to Certified Humane instead of Cage-free. I read in an article that Certified Humane is the best that they have so far, which is still probably a far cry from how conditions should be. We finish our shopping and drive home. I am starving and cranky, so I wolf down an English muffin with butter on it…I had to!
I start cooking our dinner, which doesn’t involve the soup, but instead some chicken breast we needed to use up. Jeff usually cuts the chicken, because I have a horrible fear that if the chicken touches me I will die a horrible, painful death…but perhaps it would just be slimy. But Jeff is on a phone call and I am starving…so I start cutting. I use a fork to poke the chicken instead of having to touch it. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s only a chicken…oh sick, there is a vein. I take a few breaths, hold my lunch down and keep cutting. Jeff is off the phone just as I finish and he congratulates me on the chicken like I have just won the women’s downhill skiing in the Olympics. It’s pitiful I need that much praise for cutting a chicken…
So, for dinner I make rosemary chicken with whole wheat pasta and marinara. I ‘beef’ up the marinara with pieces of cucumber, orange pepper and onion. While I cook, Jeff helps me by chopping up the carrots for the soup. After dinner, I chop celery, onions and green beans; throw them in a pot with beef bouillon, water and tomato juice…and voilá, simmer for an hour. Yummy healthy soup.
While I wait for the soup to cook, I sit at the dining room table and do my hospice volunteer work. I am going to put together scrapbooks for the patients. I brought all the materials home in a big box that Max decided was the perfect place to sit and plot how to attack me. I finished my project for the night and once the soup was done I started the fudge. OH MY GOSH! This stuff is good! Poor Jeff was laying on the couch with a blanket over his head and a migraine. Fudge cures anything, so I thought it would help. This recipe is really easy! You just melt a stick of butter (yea butter!), add some sugar and cocoa powder, boil for a minute and then add vanilla. I did numerous ‘taste tests’ to ensure the best quality. I woke Jeff up with fudge on my finger and said ‘medicine!’ and put it in his mouth. He was so out of it, he mumbled yum and rolled back over. I poured the hot fudge over some ice cream (are you drooling yet?) and enjoyed my bowl while watching the Olympics. I have a bunch left over, so if you bring me wine I will share.