Recipe Review: Crock Pot Spicy Chicken Soup

I REALLY love Chicken Tortilla soup. Like, REALLY LOVE it. There is just one problem: Every recipe I have found has green chilies in it. Now, for ME that is not a problem, but for my boyfriend it is a HUGE problem. To put it delicately, he says Chicken Tortilla soup (or anything with green chilies) is a really good "cleansing" meal for him.

So, with all of that in mind, I decided to make up my own recipe that just might, if I am lucky, be close to my favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe. And luckily, it was delicious!! It was also very spicy, as in my nose was a bit runny, so adjust your spices accordingly. I already adjusted it to half the Cheyenne pepper that I originally used.

Please note that I do not eat beans. I have a strange aversion to EVERY type of bean so any recipe that would normally have beans is cooked without for me. That mean I do not use them in Chicken Tortilla soup and did not use them in my substitute recipe. If you like beans feel free to experiment with that and leave comments in this post!

When I experiment with recipes I rarely measure so most of my measurements are approximations and can be adjusted to suit your taste.

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (I prefer thin cut because it cooks quicker and is easier to shred)
3 carrots or 8 baby carrots, sliced thin
4 large celery stalks, sliced thin
½ large yellow onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
2 C (approx.) chicken stock
1 C (approx..) water (milk can be substituted if you prefer a creamier soup)
2 T (approx..) chopped garlic
¼  t.* (approx.) Cheyenne pepper (this is enough to give it spice but not heat, add more if you like heat)

Black pepper to taste

• In a 2 Qt. crock pot add chicken (it can be thawed or frozen) and fill with stock until chicken is covered.
• Add tomatoes, vegetables and spices, fill with water until covered.
• If chicken is frozen set on high for 6-8 hours. (It will be cooked in 6 but more tender in 8).
• If thawed set on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4. For best results cook on low heat. If you do not have 6-8 hours you can cook on low for 3 hours then set on high for 1-2 hours.
• When food is finished, use 2 forks to shred the chicken. It should come apart easily.

*I tried ½ t of Cheyenne pepper when I made this and it was pretty spicy, not HOT, but had a kick. 

Recipe Review: Yummy Beef Tips

I hit the jackpot on this one! I have to say that this is THE best recipe I have found online and I will be making this over and over and OVER!!!

My Pinterest "Noms" board is full of recipes I would like to try, but most are a bit more complicated and I have been putting them off. And if you have been reading this blog you know that they don't always turn out so great. (See Crock Pot Lasagna)

This recipe comes from Mommy's Kitchen and she has a lot of what appear to be great recipes. This one seems to be her most popular so I am not overly surprised that it is so delicious. I am a bit surprised that I managed to pull it off so well, however.

First of all, as I have mentioned,  I don't always do things by the book. This was no exception. In fact, I messed up a few things and now I have basically invented an entirely different recipe. I still want to promote the Mommy's Kitchen recipe, because it looks amazing, but I can't personally attest to it since I am so inept that I couldn't even follow the recipe.

• Stew meat (1 lb, but can double that with same ingredients)
• 1 pkg brown gravy mix
• 1 pkg ranch dressing mix
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (I used an organic soup with low sodium)
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
• Broccoli
• Garlic powder and black pepper to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp each)

• Preheat over to 300 degrees
• Place the meat, broccoli and onion evenly in casserole dish 
• Sprinkle with garlic powder and pepper
• Mix all other ingredients together in a bowl then pour on to meat and veggies

Make sure the dish is well sealed. I have a covered casserole dish, but tightly covered with foil is all you need. 

This dish will cook for 3 hours. DO NOT CHECK IT. Just leave it and in 3 hours it is tender and amazingly delicious!!

I had this over white rice, but over egg noodles or mashed potatoes would probably be just as delicious. 

Pretty much the BEST meal ever!

I plan to try this in a crock pot as well. I think on low while I am at work will do fine. And add a few paper towels under the lid to capture the extra moisture. I will let you know in comments when I give this a try. It will be cooked again soon!

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

Contrary to the title this is not a political post. I do not plan to use this blog as a political forum. That said, the 2013 Inauguration was yesterday and it is kind of in the news so let's talk about it.

(Plus, I am sick right now and have no energy for a real post today.)

I did not see the Inauguration because I was at work yesterday, so I have been online today, as I sit home sick, looking at all of the news about the big event. I have learned that Michelle's bangs are kind of a big deal. Psshhh... I went with bangs a year ago. I also noticed that the Obama girls went purple at the ceremony. I love that they went with a common color (even Mom had plum leather gloves) but didn't do the exact same shade. And purple, well it just rocks.

So Lovely!!!

And even more adorable....

Sasha captures a pic of Mom and Dad smooching!

The ball was full of stars, but what I found the most fabulous was that Jennifer Hudson sang Obama and Michelle's song, "Let's stay together" for the First couple to dance to. And just in case you never saw this clip, here is something that makes my day every time I hear it:

Skip to 0:17 seconds

Our president has some pretty good pipes!

MOMMY WINS

Sometimes being a parent feels like a losing battle. This is especially true when you have to share custody of your children with someone you do not get along with at all. I know I shouldn't let myself get caught up in the feeling that it is a competition, but at times it really can feel that way.

Today I was cleaning up our dining room table. This is a very difficult job in my home since that is usually the catch all for things we don't have a home for. As I cleaned up I found some old homework from my 5th grader. As I was about to just toss it all in the recycle bin I spotted something that looked interesting. As I unfolded it I found this:

To see this from a child who has always been Daddy's girl and who also has suffered from severe anxiety all of her life is truly like winning some award. 

Mommy wins. That is all. I just win. 

Book Review: A Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was very skeptical about this book. In my house we are HUGE HP fans and I just couldn't wrap my mind around her writing a contemporary adult novel. Still, curiosity got the better of me so when I saw it available at my local library I decided to give it a shot.

First of all, it is NOT a book for kids. In fact, having worked at a YA librarian, tend to think that even older teens and possibly 20-somethings, might not get the full effect of this novel. And anyone under 16, even a mature child, probably shouldn't read this. (I only write this disclaimer because I have heard some parents have let their kids read this one.)

That said, i can tell you that this is a very well written, deep thinking, entertaining, and dare I say profound? book. If you do not already know this Rowling spent many years on the brink of poverty and receiving government help. As a single mother who has also been in this situation I found her observations of life on state assistance and the support or judgments of others. And that is the crux of this book.

It takes place in small town England where a sudden death opens a spot on the local counsel. This normally ho-hum village is suddenly in a bit of a political battle now, with the main issue being whether or not to continue funding some government funded housing that sits on the border of their village and a larger town and also whether they should end a lease on a building that houses a drug rehab facility. These issues end up exposing more than just political views as scandals are unearthed and emotions hit boiling points. Everyone in town, from teenager to retiree, is caught up in the turmoil and discover that their lives are not so simple even in this small village.

Rowling's characters are amazingly fleshed out and she expresses the opinions and views of every person, no matter what their motivation, so authentically. The settling is so well defined that, even as an American, I felt like I was part of the village myself.

It is a long read, so make sure you have the time to devote to it, but this book is worth the time.

View all my reviews

GRAY HAIR AND PIMPLES

I am cursed with the genetic predisposition of going gray early. Now, in only my mid-30s, I am half gray. That's not really all that bad. There IS hair color, of which I use plenty. The gray hair is not my complaint. My complaint is that I have this much gray hair, yet my skin is still oily and very prone to breakouts. Add to that my tendency to scar very easily and that equals terrible skin!

The last time my skin was this bad I was 18 and it was solved with birth control. The scars took longer to solve, but eventually faded. Then I had babies. My skin broke out with both pregnancies, but after the second child I saw a dermatologist who gave me Differin and a prescription zit cream. It worked wonders. I glowed. A few years later the scarring had built up again. My breakouts were not frequent, but hormones did produce one or two each month. This time, however, insurance was an issue so I just took a few Differin samples. They didn't work. I have been devastated. In the year or so that has passed my skin has gotten increasingly worse (likely due to symptoms of early menopause which I inherited from the same ancestor that gave me early gray hair). Right now seeing a dermatologist is a bit frivolous given the type of insurance coverage I have so I have been going it alone.

First off I use Cetaphil cleanser as recommended now by two different dermatologists for ANY skin types. I have changed to mineral makeup. I have given up on over exfoliation, which I was addicted to for many years. When none of this helped I turned to the only place I knew to turn. Pinterest.

A few months ago I came across a pin for this Crunchy Betty blog post. I was intrigued and set about getting on the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) band wagon. I have been trying to stay away from chemicals and get more natural so this seemed like a great option.

When you read this post you will see that you can formulate the oils many ways. I chose to use 2 ounces castor oil (the most cleansing), 1 ounce jojoba oil (for acne), 1 ounce olive oil (for moisture), 1 ounce sweet almond oil (for my oily skin), and 5 drops of tea tree oil.

At the same time I started using this I also started a dairy-free, sugar-free, grain- free diet for some dietary issues I was having. This was supposed to help my face as well (and even help reduce facial hair!!!).  Within a week I saw a difference. I was sold on OCM. The diet, not so much. I mean, that is HARD. I did actually see a difference in how fast my facial hair was coming back in, though!

In the meantime my diet has turned to crap. The holidays ARE just over. And I have not tried to reformulate my oil. I also have a real problem with following directions, remember? When I get lazy I may realize too late that I didn't get all the oil off. Or maybe I will just resort to my Cetaphil again because it doesn't take as long.

Right now my skin is embarrassing. And that is why I am resolving to start again. I plan to reformulate a little and stay religious to the OCM. Over the next few weeks I will keep to a good routine and will let you know the results.

Wish me luck!!

PINTEREST RECIPE FAIL: CROCK POT LASAGNA

In the last 6 months I have been trying to cook more and more rather than eating out or microwaving my meals. Pinterest has been a very useful tool to this end. I have a few recipes of my own that really enjoy making, but I want to give my family more variety.

Since I work full time and have to drive an extra half hour half of my week to get the kids from daycare, I have found that crock pot meals are my best friend. So when I see a really simple recipe for the crock pot I jump at it.

I really love lasagna and the idea of making it effortlessly in a crock pot seemed too good to be true, and I was right.

Let me qualify this, however, I truly think this fail is my fault and I do not in anyway mean to disparage the original poster of this recipe. I will explain as we go.

The original recipe was pinned from a blog titled Creating through Life and can be found HERE.
It seemed so easy and looked very good.

I wish I had a photo of my finished product, but had not yet realized I would be blogging about it. 

I won't list the directions here since I have the link. What I will tell you are where I made my own adjustments. Remember how I said I rarely follow instructions?

The instructions call for putting your crock pot on low for 4 hours or suggest that if you put it on high while you get ready for your you can then put it on keep warm you can leave it for a full work day. I don't take long to get ready for work and forgot to do this "on high" part. So as I left I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to put it on low and when my boyfriend got home, 7 hours later, I had him put it on warm. I them got home 2 hours later. 

We were having his best friend over for dinner and they were already home when I arrived. We had our lasagna with Caesar salad and some bread. They were very gracious about it, but honestly, it was horrible!!!

The edges were nearly burnt, very crusty. The sauce was completely dried out. And the noodles, this part was the worst, were mushy. I had to throw half of it away. Thank goodness we had a lot of Italian bread. 

So, I ask you to PLEASE, go to the link about and try this recipe. Try is EXACTLY as directed. Then please let me know in comments how it was. I am sure this is a lovely recipe and, as usual, it was my own domestic failings that ruined this one. 

SO WHAT?

By now you may all be wondering...So What??? And I don't blame you. Sometimes I have trouble getting to the point. But here it is in a nutshell: I am horrible at the domestic arts.

And that is where this blog come into play. See, I love to write. I always have. In the past I have have attempted other blogs, but they had no purpose to them and they fizzled. You know what else always fizzles? Any project I ever start. EVER.

And now there is Pinterest. So many good projects, great recipes, organization tips! I am totally addicted. To the pinning part, not the doing part.

Can you see that I have a serious problem here?

That is why I have decided to start this blog. I want to chronicle my current failings and my growth, if any, as I attempt to tackle all of these ideas one pin at a time.

And all of that has me wondering both why I am so bad at these things and also why I so desperately want to be better at them. Thus, I shared with you the talents of the 2 women who shaped me in these areas.

I should point out that I am adopted so everything I do like them is a learned behavior.

My mother has told me pretty much all my life that I am JUST like her mother. I have always loved that and I know in many ways she is right. I am a bit spoiled and was never really forced to cook or clean as a child. There were no chores to do. To this day any cleaning I do is purely out of necessity, not because of some OCD type of drive, or even out of a desire to make a comfortable, presentable home. Most of the cooking I do I also out of pure necessity. However, I do enjoy baking very much. When given the time and space to prepare interesting or fun meals or desserts I truly enjoy it. The prep is a drag and I avoid the clean up at all cost however. I feel like if my Mema was born in my generation she might have been more like me and relied on a lot of prepared meals for her family.

But then there is crafting. I am not really like her in this area. She would always follow all the rules and finish every project. That is not me at all. In this way, I am much more like my mom. She usually finishes projects, but she never follows any rules. She does it as she goes. She may use a pattern for sewing, but usually finds a way to change it up to make it better. I usually start out with instructions but them start improvising as I go. Sometimes I even tackle something without any directions at all. Those times never end up as well as they do when Mom does it, though.

As I mentioned, my Mema was pretty organized. It was mostly due to being brought up in the Depression so she hated to keep old things. It should all be new. My mother, like me, is a collector. We worry that if we get rid of something we may need it. And even worse, we get attached to things. So my piles all over the house, pile of bills, pile of children's school work, pile of folded clean laundry, pile of craft/food/other ideas, those I learned from Mom. I guess in a way it is our own brand of organization. I wish everything had a place, but it just doesn't and no matter what I try I just can't get better at it.

You know what else I get from Mom? The intense love for animals. (See the About Me Section.) At one time we had 8 animals in our house. She is currently a dog groomer with her own business. Mema? She liked animals from a far.

Aside from all this domestic talk I also love, with a passion, reading. I always have. I owe this a little to nature, but also to both of these amazing women. Mom taught me to read by the age of 3. She was not a big reader herself, though she did pick up a book from time to time. She did, however, highly value reading and we spent a lot of time reading together before I was big enough to do it on my own. Mema was a non-stop reader, as was my Grandad. They had their own paperback library in their home and by 8th grade I was borrowing Mema's Danielle Steele books. When I learned to drive I would often stop by the library for her to pick up the latest Steel release. Grandad was more about True Crime and other non-fiction. Today I read nearly anything I can get my hands on. This might be part of why I have never been so good at the housekeeping thing, although audio books have greatly enhanced my laundry folding time. (You can find me on Goodreads.)

So at this point I am even boring myself so I will leave this self realization and study for now. And soon the fun will begin. I hope to entertain you with crafts, tantalize you with cooking, thrill you with book and movie reviews, amuse you with tales of my kids, and even educate you with parenting tips (or fails). So please, stay tuned.

AND THEN THERE'S JUDY

My mom, Judy, is a different story all together. She has artistic talents that blow my mind at times. And a drive to do things on her own that I can't really comprehend.

Trying to organize her talents into a chronological telling, such as I did for Mema, was so daunting that I have decided it is best to just share a list:

• My elementary school would make a huge sheet cake for the last day of the month and cut it up for each child who had a birthday that month. When my brother went there she was recruited to decorate these cakes because she had some experience in a bakery. I distinctly remember being so proud that my mom was picked to do this. Her cakes were so pretty that the kids would stop by the cafeteria before school to see them. One year her October cake looked like a painting of a haunted house scene. That image is burned into my memory forever.
• She was very good with a needle and thread. Although we didn't have a lot of money for fancy clothes she made me some of the most beautiful dresses by hand. 
• When I was 5 I desperately wanted a Strawberry Shortcake bedroom. Since the budget was tight she had to get creative. She bought a SS coloring book and painted in each character. She then cute each one out and pasted them around the top of my walls then used two kinds of ribbon to define this "wallpaper" boarder. She also sewed a patchwork quilt complete with a large center square featuring a hand painted SS scene. 
• Anytime, to this day, we are at a craft fair or hobby shop and she see something cute, but too pricey she is determined to go home and make it herself. She never tries to find directions on how to do it. She just figures it out on her own. 
• She has sewn multiple American Girl doll outfits for my girls, including "fur" coats.
• She hand painted a "wall paper" boarder on my first child's nursery walls. 
• Everyone in my family recruited her to make their wedding cake. When my brother was married she did the wedding cake, groom's cake, the silk flower arrangements, and make the wedding dress (which was incredibly gorgeous and completely custom).

Yeah, I kind of liked pink!

 Then there was her cooking. Growing up we always had home cooked meals and hers were very good. I can't say that they would be contest winning, but even people outside of our family loved meals she made. Lasagna is a favorite even though it is not made in the traditional Italian way (cottage cheese instead of ricotta) and my dad would drool over her chicken and dumplings. Everything was probably loaded in fat, this was Southern cooking, after all, but that just makes it better! And her baking was as amazing as her cake decorating. I have never tasted frosting as good as the kind she made.

As for cleaning, she was adequate. Our home was never as spotless as Mema's but the kitchen and bathrooms were clean and things were always vacuumed.  She was never a fan of dusting, but with that many knicknacks around the house who can blame her.

Organization was not her forte, though. When young kids are at home it's hard to be organized, but to this day I can rarely find things around her house. She knows where they are, of course, and if she has used it in the last week it's likely on the kitchen counter or living room end table.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to insult my mother, not at all. I just want it to be clear that she is no Martha Stewart. She cuts corners, uses the most cost effective ways to do things, and usually makes quite a mess while she is creating. The point is, usually the most creative people are the messiest.

LET'S GET STARTED...

As I start this blog I am tempted to start listing all of my domestic talents, of which there are very little. However, it has occurred to me, as I prepare this entry that I can’t begin to explain the purpose of this blog without first describing to you the women who shaped me into the champion of domestic mediocrity that I am today.

My grandmother, Laura, for whom I am named, was a reluctant domestic goddess. I never once saw her home in even the slightest disarray, but you just knew that she was not naturally inclined to cook and clean.

She was taken in by her grandparents as a baby when her mother died four days after her birth. There she had 3 aunts who still lived at home and was coddled and spoiled. When she was married I imagine that it was quite a shock to have to start cooking and cleaning every day.

Luckily, she was reprieved for a short time. My grandfather was in the Navy and stationed out in San Diego. It was 1944 and he lived on ship most of the time since it was the height of war. Mema, the name my older brother gave to her and by which I will now refer to her, was a riveter. That’s right, like Rosie.

Over the next few years their life was not one typical to their generation. It took 10 years of marriage before they settled down and really made a home together. My uncle was born in 1945 and followed by my mother in 1947. After a little time in California they moved to Wichita, where they set up home in a 20 foot Airstream trailer, until 1954 when they moved back home to Oklahoma.

My grandfather found work as a welder at American Airlines in Tulsa, not far from Bartlesville where they grew up, and they settled in Broken Arrow, a small town just outside of the city. There they built a home and settled in for the next 23 years.

Rather than letting herself get sucked into the 1950s black hole of domestic paradise, Mema went to work full time as a telephone operator for General Telephone and Electric. This is when my mother starting learning how to cook and clean to help out after school.

As I said, Mema never shirked her duties. Her home was clean and meals were cooked, and cooked well. She did the housework; Grandad did the yard work. It was all as it should have been for that era. Now that I am grown, though, I can see that it was just that: duty. She took no pleasure in the cooking and cleaning. I understand that completely, as I am sure many of you do. However, I also know many women who really love one or both of those tasks. These women are mean to be homemakers. Mema was not.

When I was a baby they moved to a new home and a few years later they both retired. Once free from the daily grind Mema took up a couple hobbies: word find puzzles, crochet, and watching soap operas (to her this definitely qualifies as a hobby and was the only one she indulged in until the day she died at the age of 83). These things she enjoyed, but she did them in the same way she cooked and cleaned. She followed a pattern, a recipe, or a set of rules to the very letter with no modifications. She never saw a crochet pattern and decided to add a different trim or a bit of ribbon. She never saw an item in a store and decided she could do that herself. Store bought was always better, without exception.

She was a good, if predictable cook. I remember once, just once, eating a tv dinner at her house, but I think that was at my own begging. She and Grandad never went out to eat except for Sunday dinner after church. Her mashed potatoes had no match and her cakes were mouthwatering. Her real talent, however, was candy making. I won’t get into that here because I plan a whole post on that one day. They were a real treat.

Crochet was a wonderful thing for her as she began to feel her fingers stiffen with arthritis and she kept it up until the day the pain was too much for her. Mema made two patterns. That was all. She would crochet afghans in either a wave pattern or rose squares. The rose squares could also be used as potholders or sewn together for Christmas tree skirts. She used Red Heart yarn. When she learned something she stuck to it and there was no change. I have one of those wave afghans. It appears as though she used up all her left over skeins on this one. It also is full of holes today. My mother has all of the best ones. I also am the very proud owner of a tree skirt which is one of my most prized possessions.

I am told I am more like her than just my name and I know it’s true. I was also spoiled and coddled. I also am not inclined to the domestic arts. But perhaps, in some ways I am more like my mother, Judy.