Mexican Dinner From Leftovers and Crazy Hair Day!

Tonight we had a wonderful Mexican inspired meal made from leftovers and freezer/pantry staples. On Sunday night, I made some chicken thighs in the oven and had 2 leftover. I picked all the meat from the bones and shredded it up for Chicken Quesadillas. I was going to grill some veggies to add to the quesadillas but Michael was working late and I didn't want to deal with complaints about veggies so, I steamed one of the zucchinis from my friend Tanya's garden pureed it. I mixed it into the shredded chicken and tasted it. It needed something else.

I had a little bit of homemade salsa left in the refrigerator so I add a couple of tablespoons to the chicken and stirred. That was just what it needed. The Salsa Recipe can be found here.

Next, I laid out 6 soft taco sized flour tortillas and topped each with a thick slice of Colby-Jack Cheese.

Then, I evenly divided the chicken mixture between the 6 tortillas.

We like things really cheesy and I noticed that my entire tortilla was not covered in cheese so I added an extra slice of cheese to each tortilla. I broke each one into 4 equal strips and framed the chicken to achieve full cheese coverage.

I then covered each one with another tortilla. It was then that I realized that there were only 4 tortillas left in the bag so I made 2 cheese only quesadillas. I set them all aside and preheat the oven to 350 degrees and started on my side dish.

I pulled a bag of red beans out of the freezer. I usually make 2 pounds of dried beans at a time and then measure them out into can sized portions for recipes. Black beans and red beans can always be found in my freezer. These beans were prepared in the crock pot with a ham bone and other seasonings.

I also prepared 1 cup of regular white rice and added it to the reheated beans. My boys love red beans and rice as a side but will also eat it topped with cheese for lunch or as a burrito filling.

While the rice was cooking, I heated the quesadillas until the cheese was melted and then let them sit for 5 minutes cool a little before I cut them into quarters. The cheese only ones are stacked at the top of the picture. The rest of the platter was chicken and veggie quesadillas.

Mmmm! A Mexican dinner that everyone ate without complaints! We had about half the rice and beans leftover and 7 wedges of quesadilla. I know what we are having for lunch tomorrow.

This baby ate without complaining or trying to walk around the table! YAY! Today was crazy hair day so he has red hair glue in his hair. He kept checking his hair all day giving me updates like, "Yup, Mom! My hair is still red!" Thanks, Judah! I was really worried about that!

Tomorrow night we have a cookout at church but, I will post more on Thursday night as our mealtime adventures continue.

The London Broil and Happy Birthday, Michael!

Yesterday, I showed you my Top Round Roast and how I prepped it to become a London Broil. Well, tonight we had this lovely steak with some basic buttery mashed potatoes. I preheated the oven to broil and set my roast on the counter to bring it up to room temperature. Then I broiled it for 4 minutes per side and let it rest on the cutting board for 10 minutes to redistribute the juices. I then sliced it at a 45 degree angle going against the grain of the meat. It came out perfect!

I boiled the remaining marinade and served it on the side but, I didn't think that it really needed anything extra. Since it was his birthday, we gave my husband the "You Are Special" plate tonight. Dinner is served on this plate to the birthday person, a special guest, someone who has done a good job or has been extra kind, someone who needs cheering up, or just because. I try to rotate it to keep it fair. You can buy a plate like this but, I made mine at the local Pottery Pad. I painted the words and the detail on it and Caleb painted the middle blue with white dots (about 8 or 9 years ago). The Pottery Pad glazed and fired it for me.

Here is the birthday boy taking his first bite of London Broil.



Here he is being all dorky and dramatic.

We pause here to insert my husband's theme song. I hope you enjoy! When he calls my cell phone, this is the song that plays.



This is what happens when you set a plate of tasty meat on a table of carnivores. Notice Michael's plate is also empty.

Here is the birthday boy after he has eaten too much. His words: "It was totally worth it!!!" Do you like the shirt that I got him for Father's Day? It says, "I may be left handed but, I am always right!" We'll let him think that for now.

I was planning on making a chocolate butter cake with a layer of sweetened peanut butter in between the cake layers and chocolate butter cream frosting. However, we are on our umpteenth consecutive day of temperature about 457,000 degrees so I was not baking and heating up the house. We went to Bruster's for ice cream. I love this picture of Caleb and Judah! They are so cute! I wish Jeremy was in it but, he was spending the night at his friend's house.

Pay no attention to the 13 year old wearing an old man hat. He thinks he is Indiana Jones. I wouldn't care except that he is wearing it with black basketball shorts (with paint on them) and a Super Mario Galaxy t-shirt. Oh Well!

This child is a mess with Cotton Candy Explosion ice cream running down his chin. Don't let that angelic face fool you. He makes me very tired.

Here is the birthday boy again. He was very excited because they had his favorite flavor today . . . Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye! YUM!!! I also had some Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye as well as a scoop of Banana Chocolate Chip. My day is complete.

SO . . . Happy 35th Birthday, Honey! I love you!!!

Tomorrow, I will be making quesadillas with the leftover chicken from yesterday and the fresh veggies from my friend, Tanya's garden. Stay tuned!!!

Chicken, Pickles, Frogs and GOOBERS!!!

Well, I am back! So many things have happened since my last post. I will be sure to post pictures later this week of vacations and graduations and other happenings around here. For now, I want to share about my awesome trip to Sam's Club. I hit the jackpot of "Reduced For Quick Sale" Meats yesterday! Today, I processed it all. I purchased 12 large chicken leg quarters for about 8 dollars. They were so large, I didn't realize they were leg quarters until I got home. I thought they were breasts. I guess I didn't read the package because I was blinded by the bright sticker that said "REDUCED"! Pardon my fuzzy picture, my camera is dying.

First, I separated the drumsticks from the thighs and packed all 12 drumsticks together for a dinner (with planned leftovers). I will probably either fry them or baste them in BBQ sauce and grill them. YUM! For now, they are in the freezer. I then peeled the skin off the thighs and removed some of the large fat pockets. I put 6 thighs each into 2 gallon sized freezer bags and one went right into the freezer. The other bag was bathed in a marinade using these ingredients below and THIS Robin Miller recipe as a starting point. Of course, I changed it. I don't think that I have ever followed a recipe to the letter.

The original recipe called for orange marmalade which makes me want to gag so, I substituted peach preserves. I doubled the amount of soy sauce and added a teaspoon of ground ginger. I mixed all 4 ingredients in a bowl until smooth and then poured it all over the chicken thighs in the bag. Don't they look happy in their sticky bath? I bet they will be delicious tomorrow after church when we eat them for lunch! Right now, they are marinating in the refrigerator overnight and tomorrow I will bake them for 35 minutes at 400 degrees just like the recipe says to.

On to the next cooking project of the day. These monstrous beauties are supposed to be pickling cucumbers. They are ginormous! They came from my mother's garden and she asked me to make pickles with them. They are far too fat to leave whole so I decided on sandwich slices. You may only need one slice to cover your whole burger with one of these pickles.

Here are the ingredients I use to make some awesome garlic dills very similar to Claussen Pickles. In case you can't read the labels in the picture (have I mentioned that my camera is dying?), there is minced garlic, salt, vinegar, dill seed (not weed), and Mixed peppercorns (pink, green, white and black).

The cucumbers were so big that each one filled its own quart sized Mason Jar. I even had to gently fold the larger rounds to get them in the mouth of the jars. So, I loaded each jar with cucumber slices, 1 Tbsp of dill seed, 1/2 Tbsp of Peppercorns and 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic. You could use 3 whole peeled cloves of garlic per jar but, I was out of fresh garlic so I used the jar stuff.

While I was filling the jars, the brine was coming to a boil on the stove top. The brine was 8 cups of water, 4 cups of vinegar and 1/2 cup of salt.

Once it was up to a rolling boil and all the salt had dissolved, I carefully topped each jar off with the brine. I then sealed the jars and let them sit on the counter until they reached room temperature. Then they went into the refrigerator to brine for at least a week but 2 weeks is better. If you can wait that long!!!

In unrelated news, these creatures decided to hang out on the glass sliding door last night. For at least 20 minutes, they didn't move. I thought for sure the frog was going to eat the moth but he never did. We all got bored and walked away.

In other unrelated news . . . this child is a GOOBER!!! He is wearing an undershirt (inside out I might add), goggles, a cowboy hat (backwards), dog tags and he is holding an Indiana Jones whip. He is just as adorable as can be but . . . I am not quite sure what this whole ensemble is all about. He went outside to dig in the red Carolina clay barefooted and dressed like this. Not the backyard . . . the front yard . . . so all the neighbors could see him and wonder what in the world goes on in our house. Strange but I love him!

Stay tuned for picture from our trips to the Creation Museum and the Smokey Mountains. I also have pictures from the above GOOBER'S graduation. I will do my best to get them all posted this coming week.

Strawberry Picking 2010 and a Delicious Meal

Yesterday, we went strawberry picking with a group of our homeschool friends. It was a gorgeous, breezy day and the berries were sweet and perfect.

I just love the little white blossoms on the strawberry plant.

This is a 1 gallon bucket full of lovely ripe strawberries. We took home 4 of these buckets filled to overflowing.

Judah stayed home from Pre-K so he could join us. He did pretty well. I didn't find any under ripened or rotten strawberries in his bucket.

Later that evening, we went out for BBQ for dinner. Judah wanted to ride this ride before dinner and was told that he could ride it after dinner if he behaved and ate all his dinner. He didn't like that answer . . . so he pouted. Isn't he cute? Don't you want to have 12 just like him someday?

The boy knows how to hold a grudge, ladies and gentleman. I apologize for my husband . . . I am still trying to figure out what happened to him.

Judah did get to ride the ride after dinner and then we went home. When we got home, I made Freezer Jam using about 2 gallons of strawberries. We have 8 large jars in the freezer, 1 in the refrigerator and I have given 2 away. I just used the recipe on the back of the packet of Ball Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin (found in the spice/baking isle). It is so delicious!

Tonight, for dinner, I made these yummy buttery dinner rolls and some homemade cinnamon honey butter. The rolls came out so good and were the perfect vehicle for the jam and/or honey butter.

Here is the recipe for the rolls. I made mine using the bread machine but you could certainly mix and knead by hand.

1 cup warm milk (no hotter than 110 degrees F.)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
4 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast

Place all the ingredients into the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. I listed the ingredients in the order that I loaded them into the machine. Most bread machines have a dough only cycle that does all the the mixing, kneading and rising for you. Set the machine on the dough cycle and walk away. Mine takes 1 hour and 30 minutes. When the cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into 24 equal portions. Shape the dough into balls and arrange in a greased 13 inch by 9 inch baking pan. I used two 8 inch cake pans. Cover the pans with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled. I set mine on top of the stove while the oven was on and they doubled in 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Mmmmm! So good with the honey butter. You can find the recipe in this post.

Although it was tempting to just have rolls, butter and jam for dinner, I did make this lovely roasted chicken and a baby spinach and carrot salad to round out the meal. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the salad.

It was all very delicious! The entire chicken breast as well as part of a thigh were leftover. I shredded them meat and out it in the fridge for use later in the week. The bones and some veggies and seasonings are simmering in the crockpot for some homemade chicken stock. We still have a gallon of strawberries to finish off so maybe, we'll have smoothies for breakfast.

Caleb Got Braces!!!

This morning we had an 8 AM appointment at the orthodontist's office. Caleb had braces put on his teeth this morning. This month is a constant reminder that I am no longer as young as I would like to believe that I am. My baby will turn 5 on the 10th and start Kindergarten in August. Caleb got braces today and will enter his teenage years on the 23rd. Where did the time go?

Here is our before picture.

And here is the finished product.



Before I know it, he will be driving and wanting a cell phone and going out with friends without a parent. OK . . . I need to go find a paper bag and some chocolate to console myself.

So . . . It Is 2010!

Welcome to a new decade! We rang in the new year with a quiet dinner and movie night at my Mom's house. We had to wake the kids at 11:50 so they wouldn't be mad that they missed the ball dropping. Really they just wanted to spray everything with Silly String. After going home and sleeping in, we cleaned the house so we could have some company over for dinner. My good friend, Susanne, came over with her family for dinner. We had Spaghetti and Meatballs and homemade Italian bread. YUM!!! We played a game called Apples to Apples and had a blast.

This morning, however, I was awake from 4 until 8 with a puking 4 year old. He's fine now. He has kept a bowl of soup down and is in the bath tub as I type but, those 4 hours killed me. I was tired all day. Oh Well!

I think I am ready to get back into the swing of things. We'll be taking down our Christmas decorations next Saturday as I like to keep everything up through Little Christmas (January 6th). This coming week promises to be busy as we get back to homeschooling, classes at the Y, and trying to organize all the new stuff the kids got for Christmas. We need to purge some things from every room in the house. There are some goals I am setting for the New Year. I would like to continue to make all of our our bread and soaps. I would like to try to cut some more of the processed foods from our diets. I would like to have more time to myself. Wouldn't we all!?!?!

I plan to keep the blog updated at least weekly but, I make no promises.

Eureka!!! No More Clumps In The Laundry Soap!!!

Back in April, my husband and I ventured to Lowe's probably 10 times in one week. Every time we were there, we asked a ton of questions and spent at least an hour with pad and pencil trying to figure out which washer and dryer were the best bang for our buck. Our washer and dryer was a stack mates set from Maytag that was 20-25 years old. It still worked but was starting to make this crazy noise when you started the dryer. It was also too small for all the laundry I was doing every week. It took forever. You can read more about the whole experience here.

So we opted for the Maytag Bravo set. It is gigantic and I was beside myself with glee when I did my first load of laundry. Now I only have to do 1-2 loads per week. When we bought it we were told that we had to use HE detergent so on our way out of the store, I grabbed a bottle of HE detergent. I have been making my own laundry detergent since 2006 after finding this recipe on the Internet. I haven't purchased laundry soap since I bought a laundry soap making kit for $17 from Soaps Gone By in 2006. It has lasted that long! Well that one bottle of HE detergent that I purchased in April is just about gone. I have been reading on other people's blogs that the homemade stuff is safe for an HE washing machine because it is low suds.

Last night, I got out all my supplies to make a batch of laundry soap and was wondering if there was something I could do about the gloppy consistency since my new machine has a dispenser. I was thinking that the clumps of gel might be an issue when it was put in the dispenser. Plus, I thought that a smoother consistency would make it easier to measure out and pour. So, I thought about the homemade hand soap that I made just recently. You can read about it here. And I thought, "What if I used the same amounts of water, soap, washing soda and borax but just changed the way that I put them together and make it more like the hand soap?"

So here is what I did:
* Pour 1 gallon cold water in a large bucket. Set aside.
* Pour 1 gallon of water into a large pot and bring to a steam (you should just see tiny bubbles on the bottom of the pot and steam coming up off the top of the water.
* Add 1 bar grated soap. I used Zote (Pink and smells nice).

* Stir until the soap shavings are dissolved but do not boil.
* Add 1 cup Super Washing Soda and 1/2 cup Borax. Give the pot a stir, turn off the heat and stir until the powders are dissolved. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes uncovered.
* Use your immersion blender and blend until smooth and creamy (no little bits of soap should be left).
* Pour your soap mixture into your bucket of cold water and use your immersion blender again until smooth.
* Leave the bucket to cool and gel overnight UNCOVERED.

* In the morning, you will have soap jello. It will be springy to the touch but not wet. Use your immersion blender again and blend well. Break up all the chunks of gel. It should turn the consistency of liquid laundry detergent. Even and smooth. At this point, you can add 10-15 drops of essential oil to scent your detergent, although this is not necessary. After the addition, blend well with the immersion blender.

* Use a funnel to pour your liquid into old detergent containers for easy pouring. Shake before using if you want to but you shouldn't have to. Those large clumps should be a thing of the past. Use 1/8 to 1/4 of a cup for HE and front load machines and 1/4 to 1/2 cup for top load and non-HE machines. I wrote directions on some masking tape and put it on the bottles.

As I was cleaning up the kitchen last night after making my laundry soap, Michael called me into the family room where I saw this little four-year-old boy "watching" TV.

This is what he was watching . . . the backs of his eyelids! He was completely asleep propped up on his elbows. So cute!

This is what we had for Sunday lunch . . . Chicken Parmigiana with Linguine. YUM!!!
I used the sauce that I made here. It was delicious!

Use What You Have . . . Homemade Hand Soap

You are probably all wondering whether I am ever going to stop talking about my produce co-op. Well, have no fear, I am not blogging about food today.

Regardless of what your finances are, there are always things that we can do to save money, reduce waste and reuse things. I know I am NOT the only person who upon checking out of a hotel, takes the little soaps, shampoos and lotions home with them. Now I am NOT one who takes the toilet paper off the wall, tissues and extra trash bags. I worked housekeeping for a summer at a resort and the other ladies and I used to talk about the guests who would do that. VERY TACKY! The worst guests were the ones who took towels and linens. We had to report those and those people got charged for those items. But, I digress . . .

Anyway, we have a box of extra toiletries under the sink in our bathroom. You know, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and the like. There is a Ziploc bag of hotel bar soaps from everywhere from Econo Lodge to the W Hotel. Some are nicer and more luxurious having designer scents and fancy wrappings while others were just plain old soap. If you are like me, then you understand the aversion I have to a bar of soap sitting on the side of the sink all slimy on the underside with dried dirt from someones hands all over it. YUCK!!! I also don't like using bar soap in the shower because it gets dropped and gets hair stuck to it. Just being real here, folks!

The other day, I noticed that we were running low on liquid hand soap . . . mostly because of a four-year-old who thinks he needs three pumps of soap to get clean. I hated to go out and buy one of those big refills of hand soap when I knew I had tons of bar soap that was just sitting in the cabinet. So I searched the Internet for recipes for homemade hand soap. I didn't want to buy any ingredients that I didn't already have on hand. Alot of them called for glycerin, which I did not have. I thought about how I make our laundry detergent and thought, "it should work the same way for hand soap, right?" So here is what I did:

I weighed various bars of soap with similar scents until I had 4 oz. I grated them on my cheese grater. This batch was lemon and sage/rosemary scented soaps.

I poured 1 gallon of water into a pot and heated it until it was steaming but not boiling.

I then poured the soap shavings into the pot and stirred it. I took the pot off the heat and set a timer for 15 minutes. See that there are still some shavings visible.



After the 15 minutes was up, this is what it looked like.

Then I blended the mixture using my immersion blender until there were no more soap shavings.

I then let the mixture sit overnight uncovered. It was hard on the surface the next morning. It almost looked like the hardened fat on top of homemade stock that has been refrigerated.

At this point I used the immersion blender again to get a creamy, liquid soap consistency. I didn't get a picture of this step . . . SORRY!

Then I used a funnel to ladle the soap into our soap pumps around the house and poured the rest into a gallon sized water bottle for use at a later time.



I filled the pump in the background and here is what I had left.

The cost of this project was $0.00. I also made a gallon of body wash and a gallon of tear-free soap for the kids using a Johnson's Baby Bar that I had from my last son's baby shower (5 years ago). It all smells good and washes well.

(NOTE: If you have chlorinated city water, you might want to use distilled water for this purpose. I used distilled water for the first batch and regular well water for the others but I think that the chlorine in municipal water supplies might change your results.)

This post is being linked to:
Frugal Friday at Life As Mom
Hooked On… at Hooked On Houses
Food On Fridays at Ann Kroeker’s
Family Recipe Fridays at Vanderbilt Wife
Recipe Swap at The Grocery Cart Challenge
Friday Feasts at Mom Trends
Foodie Friday at Designs By Gollum