This face.
No, she’s not leaving us. At least I don’t think so. Not unless she wants to.
But the hair has to go. 
Not that we necessarily want it to.
But it’s almost one big mat. And it probably doesn’t feel good to her.
So tomorrow she’s gonna get a shave down. And she’ll look funny. And she’ll know it. And she’ll be embarassed. And she’ll overcome it.
I just hope she forgives us.
Sometimes I like Rachael Ray. Sometimes, well, not highest on my favorite list. One of my favorite recipes (to be posted later) comes from her 30 minute meal show. And my sister-in-law just got me the Big Orange Book, which I need to read! I looked through the first few pages and found some recipes I want to make!!! And then my mother-in-law told me about some recipes she saw on Rachael Ray’s talk show, so I looked them up, and they sounded yummy. When I make them, I’ll post about them. As I was looking at the recipes my MIL mentioned, I found a couple others I wanted to try.
SO…here’s one I tried. Whew. I ramble. I know that. And if you didn’t, now you do!
I liked this recipe. It’s not a very spicy chili and doesn’t have beans, so I wasn’t sure what Greg would think. I asked him what he thought – his suggestions, which I don’t disagree with, would be to add more tomatoes – I’ll probably add more paste next time, as well as some raw tomatoes. I might even add some black beans, to go with the jerk / Caribbean theme. When I make this again, I’ll let you know about any of the changes I did.
When I made this, I only had 1 lb of turkey, so I basically halved this. (Sorry no pretty pictures this time!)
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 pounds ground turkey breast
2 medium onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped or grated
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons (about 3 palmfuls) chili powder
1 tablespoon (1 palmful) cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup tomato paste
Salt and ground black pepper
1 bottle beer, preferably an India Pale Ale (if you don’t want to use beer, use more stock or water)
2 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons honey
Zest and juice of 2 limes
In a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, add 2 turns of the pan of the olive oil. Cook ground turkey until brown, about 5 minutes. Add in the onions, garlic and peppers, and cook until onions are translucent, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, tomato paste, salt and ground black pepper, and cook about 1 minute. Add in the beer, chicken stock and honey and bring up to a bubble. Simmer for about 15 minutes.
Just before serving, add the lime zest and juice to the chili. Spoon chili into bowls – we ate this with brown rice.
We got invited to a friend’s for Chinese on Christmas day. Greg suggested I make the Chinese chocolate cookies.
I haven’t made these in a LONG time.
There are a variety of ways to make these, once you start looking on the internet. I don’t remember how I made them the last time.
This time, I used semi-sweet chocolate and butterscotch chips.
Ingredients:
12 oz chocolate chips
12 oz butterscotch chips
10 oz (2 large cans) of chow mein noodles
Put the chips in a pan on the stove, set on LOW.
Chips in pan
Let the chips melt. Stir so the chips don’t burn.
Keep stirring until the chips start to melt – continued stirring and the heat will help them melt smoothly.
melting of chips
Once all has melted, turn the stove to the lowest setting.
Add chow mein noodles.
Keep stirring until noodles are coated.
coat chow mein noodles
Remove from the stove.
Place spoonfuls on either parchment or wax paper.
cooling of cookies
Let cool.
And ENJOY!!!
Stella likes to get into mischief.
For instance, she will be laying down, doing nothing. Then she will get up, dig for a bathmat, pick it up, shake it, then run off with it. As we were fortunate enough to witness this morning.
Also this morning, I heard a noise from the bathroom, but didn’t see her. So I went in – she wasn’t in the toilet area…the shower was closed, so she wasn’t in there.
Here is where we found her…
Do you think she was trying to tell us something?
Last night we had the family over for dinner. Despite getting a little overwhelmed & flustered at the end of cooking (dropping food on the floor – oops – thank goodness there were extras), we had a good time and good food.
When trying to figure out what to make, Greg suggested Grandma Daisy Chicken. This was chicken that his grandma used to make…story is originally she fried it, but then after years, realized that baking it was healthy.
This is the EASIEST dish – basically chicken Parmesan without the Parmesan! We haven’t had it in forever and I forgot how yummy it is!
Here’s the deal…
Take your boneless, skinless chicken pieces.
Coat in egg that has been beaten.
Cover in Italian flavored bread crumbs.
Put in a lightly oiled baking dish.
Bake in the oven (350-375 degrees) until done – 30-40 minutes.
You will want to flip the pieces over about half way through.
Eat & enjoy! 
Originally, this was going to be title “Treadmill – Friend or Foe?”, but that was if I had posted yesterday.
That’s because I took advantage of the warm weather (even though it was gray & humid outside, with a chance of rain) to do my run. And from the beginning, I could tell I have not been running outside in a while. I thought I’d try to make it through the winter & run outside – that attempt lasted longer than previous years’ attempts, but, well, still not that long. I’m a wimp in the cold. I know it. So I’ve been on the treadmill for 6-8 weeks.
So yesterday’s run was harder than if I had been inside on the treadmill. My body just felt it. That, and I think I dehydrated myself. And I was probably tired. And I’m sure the humidity did not help. But I did the run and my watch didn’t beep too much (at least on the first half of the run) that I was running too slow.
Today – spin class. I LOVE this spin class, even if it always kicks my tush. I’m constantly challenged and sweat a ton! However, today I felt like I was lagging behind. My legs felt yesterday’s run pretty early on – in fact, it was at the first sign of a climb – maybe 3 songs into class! I just could not push my legs! Ugh…
However, that is ok. I need to get used to the fact that I may not be pushing myself in spin class as hard as I am usually able to. Because spin will be my “cross-training” workouts. So they won’t be the focus of my weekly workouts. But I will still have dead legs for a while. I have something on the horizon – I haven’t signed up for anything yet. But I have a plan to follow (needs a little modification). And I’ve already followed it for a week. So my commitment is almost there. Let’s hope the body holds out, too! More on this later…
Guess where we’re going???
Yup…we’ll be there! Greg got some ridiculous offer, so we’re going to take them up on it.
That, and he wants me to check out the beds! 
I have a sweet tooth. Yes. I. Do.
Being in the midst of the holiday season, it’s hard to avoid sweets. Good thing I like to run. Or at least I like running enough to keep some of the pounds off.
This morning, in the breakroom was a tray of goodies. Including muddy buddies. Or monkey crunch. Or puppy food. Or whatever the heck you want to call it. For me, it’s crack.
I first heard of this on Jon & Kate Plus 8. Yes, I’ve Been known to watch all kinds of sappy shows on TLC. (wedding story and baby story marathons are not good to be on – I just meld into the couch!)
I digress…
Muddy buddies are what Chex calls these things. It’s basically melted chocolate and PB that coat chex cereal, which then get covered in powdered sugar.
I tried them for the first time today. YU-UM. I like these things. A lot.
Excuse me now while I empty my hands and pockets of these things.
This is a test post from my iPhone.
Ok including a picture of Stella from lunch today.
Let’s see where photo is posted in relation to the rest of the text.
Time for bed!
I bought some hoisin sauce the other day. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I had seen some recipes that used it.
We found this recipe, http://www.recipezaar.com/Mmmm-Fast-Hoisin-Pork-Stir-Fry-340286, and I used it as a base for dinner.
Basically what I did was saute the veggies, then the chicken, then threw them together. I used 2 parts hoisin sauce to 1 part soy sauce. Added some powdered ginger (since I didn’t have fresh), garlic, and viola – there’s dinner!