Ordinary Monday

In the garden...
...ice and snow. Right now we have just a few flurries coming down, but earlier it was ice coming down. The temperature was right at freezing this morning and it hasn't changed much, but it's supposed to go down to about 10 degrees tonight, so the slushy stuff will freeze. The question du jour...will there be school?

I'm thinking about...
...a new start -- Ordinary Time. I know the Liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent, Christmas and Easter are exciting, and times for growth, but right now, settling into Ordinary Time sounds just right.

Last Sunday, on the Epiphany, our parish offered blessed chalk and the house blessing printed for us -- what a great gift. So, our house is blessed for the year, always an awesome thing. I took a photo of our door frame, but somehow deleted it. I'm learning how to blog on my new Chromebook, and while it's great that I can upload photos, I haven't found the right photo app to help make it work.

I am wearing...
...a charcoal gray skirt, gray tights, a scarlet shirt and a gray sweater -- guess who we're rooting for in the game tonight? We are definitely a Buckeye family, with 3.75 grads (Josh has one more semester).

I am reading....
...The Storyteller on my Kindle. I'm getting close to the end. No opinions quite yet -- Jodi Picoult tends to make or break it at the end.

I am creating...
...a sweater for Faith is on the needles, and I'm knitting the last sleeve. Of course, it wouldn't be my knitting project if I didn't run out of yarn. I ordered one more skein but it's not the same dye lot. sad face

On the sewing front, drumroll....my husband found the receipt! He came home and looked in his stash of paperwork that he keeps in his cabinet in the storage room and, voila, it was there. He had no recollection of how it got there, but it was there. And I bought the warranty from Sears, so I just have to take it to a UPS store and they will send it off to someone who will probably decide it's not worth repairing. Either way, I'll be getting a machine sometime, but in the meantime my sweet friend Michele is loaning me hers, so I can get started! Thanks, Michele!

In the kitchen...

...tonight is dance night and the National Championship game (and yes we do have a horse in that race!), so the boys are doing their thing and the girls are doing ours.

We have had a few good meals lately, however, and my menu us below if you need some ideas. 

Yesterday for dinner I fixed spatchcocked chicken and vegetables. That might sound like something weird, but it couldn't be easier. I cleaned and halved a dozen new potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces about a dozen carrots, and sliced a half an onion like an apple. I tossed them in olive oil and sprinkled them with thyme, and placed them in my beautiful Le Creuset casserole. Then I rinsed and dried a chicken and then cut it up the back and flipped the legs up. I drizzled it with a couple of tablespooons of butter and salted and peppered it, roasted at 475 degrees for 30 minutes and then at 400 degrees until done according to your meat thermometer-- about another 45 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken.

We had a loaf of Soda bread (sans raisins) and Applesauce Cake to round it out -- really easy Sunday dinner. This cake is just as good with no icing, but there was some eggnog in the fridge ready to expire that was dying to become icing.

On Saturday night I prepared, or started to prepare, a new recipe for Baked Macaroni and Cheese when I realized (oops!) that it was supposed to be a crock pot recipe. Because it was only an hour and a half before dinner I dumped it all in a casserole and baked it at 375 degrees. It was awesome and I think next time I'll definitely try to get it in a crock pot for a less hectic dinner prep.

Tuesday: Lasagna, bread and roasted broccoli
Wednesday: California Breakfast Casserole, muffins or scones
Thursday: Chipotle Beef Stew and Acorn Squash, green beans
Friday: Mashed Potato Puffs, scrambled eggs and fruit
Saturday: Wild Game Chili, Cornbread

At the school table...
...back to the grindstone, not always a comfortable place to be.

Plans for the rest of the week...
...I'm feeding the dance gang on Thursday, just homemade soup and Panera bagels. And that's my only plan outside the house this week.


A few of my favorite things...
...clean surfaces after the Christmas decorations are put away (the cat was starting to mangle the Christmas ornaments, so I broke down and started putting everything away while Doug was gone).
...snow!!
...a roaring fire in the fireplace


Prayers sent heavenward...
...for my husband and children, to do God's will
...for all priests and religious, especially our priests Fr. Sill and Fr. Schmit, and for Fr. Howe
...all babies whose mothers are contemplating abortion, for a change of heart


Photo for the day...
...where Maggie sits for an hour before her dinner time. She's very patient. If only we could all be so patient.

{9/8}...streaming

There's a lot going on here, but I won't say much about it. Most of it's medical, as usual, but the worst today is too little sleep and a splitting headache. I won't go into the rest, just to say it's a repeat from a million and one times before, and my spinal injection scheduled last week had to be rescheduled again because I can't be on antibiotics when he gives it. ugh, ugh, ugh.

I'm sleepy because this dog chose 10 o'clock last night to stick her nose up the back side of a skunk. I knew one day it would happen, but lately I was more worried about a young raccoon she enjoyed treeing every night. I was afraid it would eventually turn on her. But, last night it was a distinctly more aromatic creature. Oh, I have never heard my kids complain so loudly about anything! We were almost ready to go to bed and it was the dog's last potty trip of the day. She came in the back door and the kids scattered like roaches at first light. The smell! Doug got her back out quickly and I googled a remedy (what did we do before google?). I mixed up and Doug bathed her in 1 qt. hydrogen peroxide (which I luckily had) mixed with 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 t. dish soap. I found the recipe at the Humane Society website. Since the mixture is not supposed to get in the dog's eyes (and you can imagine her head got sprayed before any other part) her face got washed in V-8 juice, the closest thing to tomato juice I had. Then Doug washed her in shampoo. Luckily it's summer and he could do  that all on the deck and not in the house. She slept in the garage and though she came in this morning and went down to her crate, I didn't get close enough to smell her. I suspect I'll have to go out and get something commercial by the end of the day and bathe her again. Oh. the joy of dogs! And wildlife.


As soon as that scene was put to bed, I made some chamomile tea and tried to relax. Doug came to get me (I was in the living room because he was watching football) at 11 pm for bed. I then realized I hadn't gotten money out for Noah's lunch, and when I retrieved my purse I couldn't find my little wallet with my cash, driver's license and debit card. I panicked and then remembered I had pulled it out after church when we stopped for a bite to eat. It must be in the car. I went to the car, but it wasn't there. I almost started crying -- just too much for one night. But then I slid my hand between the back seats where I had been sitting and it was there. Thank you, God.


I wished I could have just stayed in bed all day today, but there is school to be done, a haircut appointment, dance classes, and a rosary guild meeting tonight. If I make it that long. Today is a Red Beans and Rice dinner, with some semolina bread. I'll try to remember to take photos this time. Sadly, I don't think we'll be celebrating Our Blessed Mother's birthday all together.


I'll just share one recipe with you -- a dish I tried last week that the men-folk loved. It was fried, but just in a thin layer of olive oil, and they were chicken breasts, so it's all good. I highly recommend.

Mediterranean Chicken Breasts

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried garlic

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 large boneless skinless chicken breast halves 

oil for sautéing

Mix together the first seven ingredients (from the cheese through to the black pepper) on a piece of waxed paper, or shallow dish; put the oil in a shallow dish.

Dip the chicken breast halves in the oil (or brush on with a pastry brush), then coat them evenly with the cheese/breadcrumb mixture.

Place a large skillet over a medium to medium high heat; pour in a thin layer of olive oil. Add the chicken and cook, turning once, for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and the juices run clear. Do not crowd skillet. Cook in two batches if necessary to leave room between pieces.

Day 1...streaming

Not much is new here. Well, there's new and then there's new. First day of school is new, but not new. Noah started last Wednesday and Faith started yesterday. Joshua started his senior year of college yesterday, too. There were schultütes all around.

Faith and I had a typically rough first day. It ended with a charcoal sketching-induced temper tantrum. I decided to remove myself from the scene ( a smart move) and do something else, and she finished her own way on her own subject. Yeah, we're nearing the teen years.

Schultütes have become pretty obligatory.

Reading class, viewed through the glass door. It's a princess book --- a good way to start the year.



The weather has become hot again. And dry. I'm doing a rain dance, but really only in my head. Maybe it's better for the farmers and harvest, but mentally, I need rain.

Friday night and Saturday is the beginning of high school and college football around here, well, I am guessing everywhere. It still feels so much like summer I find that hard to believe, but I guess that's the way it always is. I long for cool days and chilly nights, gray clouds and rain, rain, rain.




Yesterday, I shipped off the eleven Seven Sorrows chaplets I was commissioned for and I was glad to box them up and off. You know I love Our Lady, but eleven of anything is too close to assembly line work to be enjoyable. I don't know if they were the cause of my back pain, but I have burning pain in my shoulder blades -- both of them. It's the oddest thing -- whenever I am sitting up straight or standing. Just what I need is another pain.

The school table, looking normal as ever.



I have a couple of these beautiful Our Lady of Sorrows medals for some new chaplets for my Etsy shop. This is one of them, almost finished.


Speaking of pain, I may have mentioned at some point a spinal injection that is supposed to help my leg pain. Because of the UTI that wouldn't go away it was rescheduled for September 4. I know people get these injections every day, but I've never had one and I admit the thought makes me pretty nervous. Ever had one? Anybody?

I guess I fibbed, this is new. My dear mother-in-law shopped for a basket for me at the farmer's market after I took a photo the last time I was there. Isn't it beautiful? It's not full of yarn yet, but it does have a knitting project in it. I can keep the balls of yarn in the basket wile I knit, and since this project uses three balls at one time, it's very handy.

I can't show the entire project because it is a Christmas gift, but here's a peek. The yarns are so richly-colored, and soft as a baby's bottom.




Lastly, I tried a few good recipes in the last week, since I last posted. A recipe for pretzel buns that was all thumbs up -- total yum. I had never made pretzel buns before, but they were only slightly more complicated than the easiest buns, and well worth the effort of boiling a pot of water. We ate them with the BBQ chicken I posted last -- my husband wanted it again. I don't know that I would use them for burgers because they were rather dense, and I like a soft fluffy burger bun. But they sure were good with dinner, and for snacking before dinner, apparently, as two of them disappeared before dinner was ready (and it wasn't me!).

I saw the recipe came in Tide and Thyme and it apparently came from King Arthur Four, so credit to KAF. I followed the recipe as it was written at Tide and Thyme, and didn't check to see if it was different from the KAF source. I would make these once a week if they weren't so dangerous to have around!


The second recipe is from the cookbook I mentioned last week, Not Your Mother's Make Ahead and Freeze Cookbook. I made the Southwestern Grilled Chicken and it was another all-thumbs-up. I'm sorry I don't have a photo, but you'll just have to try it yourself to see what it looks like. It was so easy to throw together, and the chicken just sat in the fridge all afternoon soaking up yummy flavors. I also stashed two large breast away in the freezer with the marinade on them -- that's the best way to marinade chicken. It soaks up the flavors while it thaws overnight in the fridge.

The recipe (and I used a half of a small can of diced jalapenos, drained, instead a fresh one) is:

Southwestern Grilled Chicken

one tomato, quartered
1/2 onion, cut into chunks
1/4 jalapeno pepper
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1/4 cup cilantro leaves

4-6 chicken breasts

Combine marinade ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. Pour over chicken pieces in a dish (or freezer bag if you are freezing before cooking) and marinade for several hours. Grill until chicken is done. Yum.

If you don't like spicy foods, you might use the amount of jalapeno in the recipe and not a half of a can of diced jalapenos -- ours was spicy, but my men like spicy.


Now, I'm off to buy new shoes. It seems, over the summer, Faith's feet grew several sizes. She is up to a women's size 7. Whatever food it is that causes feet to grow, I need to stop feeding it.

Recipes, by George!

Way, way back (I didn't look at the archives, but by now it's been many years) when I started blogging, I posted recipes in between posts about life and faith and anything else I was blogging about. It was a mishmash, and one day I thought, "I'll start a food blog" and the food blog was born.

By and by, however, food blogs became very popular and I eventually realized I was not a food blogger. I cook, and I often enjoy it, and my family often (but not always) enjoys my meals, but I don't get paid by anyone to cook (unless you consider just eating to be payment, in which case my husband pays me), and I don't get paid to write about my cooking. And so, I just eventually stopped posting, about seven months ago.

Recently I decided that my recipes belonged here on my life blog because cooking is part of my life, but not a big part, certainly not worth exclusively writing about. I'm just like you -- I make dinner, and sometimes it's worthy of comment, and sometimes it's just a meal to tide us over to the next meal. I like to bake and I often bake to celebrate the liturgical feast days. So, I hope to share with you some of the best I put on the table, and sometimes I will just share links because I might not have photographed a worthy dish before I served it.

This dish, this meal, was a refreshing summer supper, even if only the chicken was "summer food." My husband loved this chicken, and though I'm not generally an "eat it off the bone" chicken person, I ate two pieces. The boys loved it, too, and I made a boneless breast for one of the boys who also is not an "eat it off the bone" chicken person. The recipe came from Kraft, I think, but I switched a few ingredients as I was out of some of them. I wouldn't bother looking it up again as we loved it as it was. It looks burned in the photo, but it was just good and grilled. The sugar caramelized quickly on it.

Catalina BBQ Chicken

chicken pieces, mixed or all the same (I used six drumsticks, four thighs and one boneless breast - not in a pear tree); the marinade makes enough to coat quite a bit of chicken
1/3 c. Catalina dressing
BBQ 1/4 c. sauce
3 T. soy sauce
2 T. honey
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. powdered ginger
1 t. sesame oil

Mix marinade ingredients together (all but chicken pieces) and pour over chicken in a large casserole dish. Flip chicken pieces to coat thoroughly. Marinate for several hours in the refrigerator. At grilling time, preheat the grill to high. Turn down grill to medium low and place chicken pieces on the grill. Flip to prevent burning and cook about 25 minutes until juices are clear and chicken is done next to the bone.

The other dishes in the photo are bacon corn and bacon cabbage -- both simple dishes (I had some bacon I wanted to use up). Fry two strips of bacon (cut crosswise in 1/2-inch pieces). When almost crisp add desired vegetable -- in this case frozen corn and thinly sliced cabbage. Cook until vegetables are done. taste and season with salt and pepper.

The rolls are this recipe from my food blog without the poppy seeds. They are heavenly and my family loves them.

For dessert, I made some delicious brownies from one of my favorite cookbooks, Not Your Mother's Make Ahead and Freeze Cookbook (not the greatest title for a cookbook). I had the book out looking for recipes for later in the week and skipped to the dessert section when I wanted something quickly for dessert (and with fewer choices than the internet offers -- a problem I often deal with). They are so chocolately that the frosting isn't necessary, but my husband likes frosted brownies so I added a thin layer of ganache and some festive blue sprinkles (because brown and blue go well together, according to Faith).


Cocoa Brownies

1 c. sugar
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
2/3 c. cocoa
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract

Place all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (or quart-sized freezer bag if making ahead to freeze. If freezing, shake bag to mix ingredients and freeze or place in pantry.).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 8-inch square pan.

(If using stored ingredients, remove from storage.). In a large bowl place wet ingredients and whisk to blend. Add dry ingredients and stir to blend. Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tester comes out with just a few crumbs. Cool and cut into squares (even if you are going to frost). Here's a top by Jamie: cut with a plastic knife, or even the handle of a plastic spoon or fork and you won't make a mess of the brownies. Now, even if you frost them, they'll already be cut and easy to remove without cutting again.

For Ganache: place about 1/4 to 1/3 cup whipping cream or heavy cream in a bowl. Microwave until cream is hot -- about a minute. Immediately add about 1 cup chocolate chips or chopped bittersweet chocolate. Don't touch them them for about 3 minutes. Then stir to blend until all the chips are melted. If necessary, micro again in 15 second increments and stir again. Spread over brownies and sprinkle as desired with colored sprinkles. Sorry to be so vague on the ganache. I don't use a recipe usually. It's pretty forgiving as long as you don't add anything else to it.


And a few links:

Last night's dinner, which was almost completely gobbled up and received many compliments, was Yankee Pot Roast. I have another recipe for Yankee Pot Roast but this one used a Top Round Roast, which is what I had. I made mashed potatoes on the side.

Also on the side was these Yogurt Biscuits, which I will be making again very soon because they were so delicious. Definitely serve with butter and honey.



PS Today is the feast of the crown ship of Mary, so it would be a great day to make a cake like this or like this to celebrate!