Sloppy Joes

I made sloppy joes for dinner tonight, and thought you guys might like the recipe! I've always made mine from scratch, using this recipe from my grandma. They really are excellent. Enjoy! Sloppy Joes 2 lbs. ground beef 1 1/2 C. Ketchup 1/2 C. chopped onion 3 Tbsp. brown sugar 1 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder 2 Tbsp. mustard Brown beef and drain. Mix all ingredients together, add water if needed to thin the sauce. Simmer about half an hour on stovetop, or in a crockpot for 4-5 hours. This recipe can be halved pretty easily, too. Yum!

Curried Chicken Salad

This is one of my new favorite recipes, and is really nice and refreshing for the summer. It takes a little time to prepare, and be sure to leave time for it to chill, too. Enjoy! Curried Chicken Salad 1.5 lbs. chicken breast 4 C. water 2 tbsp. Kosher salt Add salt to water in a large saucepan and add chicken. Boil until chicken is no longer pink in the middle. When the chicken is done, cut or tear into bite-size pieces. While the chicken is boiling, prepare the dressing: 1 1/2 tsp. Madras Curry Powder 1/3 C. chopped flat-leaf parsley (Italian) 1/4 C. di9ced pineapple ( I but chunk canned, and cut each piece into quarters) 1/4 C. non-fat plain yogurt 1/4 C. low-fat mayo 1 tbsp. lime juice 1 tsp. grated ginger 3 tbsp. sliced almonds Whisk yogurt, mayo, lime juice, curry powder, ginger, and parsley. Add the chicken, pineapple, and almonds. toss gently to coat. Serve on bread, open-faced, with watercress or lettuce. You can also use tortillas and make a wrap, or stuff pita pockets. Yum! Recipe is from the Food Network website.

Pudell-O

Every big family dinner we ate over at Grandma's included this magical bowl of goodness. It was always served with dinner, as a side. It was a creamy, citrusy concoction that was almost reminiscent of a Dreamsicle. For years, I thought my grandma had just invented this delectable dessert, and that all kinds of love, magic, and special ingredients went into it. Little did I know it was just some Jell-O, pudding, and Cool Whip. I made some last night, and although different from Grandma's, it's still delicious. Here's her basic recipe: INGREDIENTS 1 Box of orange gelatin 1 Box of lemon pudding (cook & serve, NOT instant!) 1 Tub of Cool Whip DIRECTIONS In a large bowl (needs to hold at least 6 cups), prepare Jell-O according to package, but use 3/4 cup of water (both hot and cold) instead of 1 cup. Put aside. Prepare pudding as directed on package. Pour into the bowl with the Jell-O and stir until completely mixed. Put in fridge and let set for a few hours, until firm. When ready to serve, spoon into bowls, and top with a dollop of Cool Whip. Alternatively, you can spread the Cool Whip over the top, while it's in the bowl, and serve it with dinner. Last night, I strayed from the tried-and-true recipe of Grandma's, and decided to use cherry Jell-O and chocolate pudding. It's still delicious, and much more decadent. I also got some vanilla pudding and peach Jell-O. Hubbster also suggested banana cream pudding and strawberry Jell-O. The possibilities are practically endless! I'd love to know if you make this, and what flavors you use!

Cooking and Gaming

Tonight for our little gaming group, I made these wonderful Curried Chicken Salad Sandwiches. (We served ours on whole wheat flat bread.) It was super yummy! I also made this peach cobbler, which failed miserably. I'll try it again and see if I can get it to work. Another great, suspenseful, and slightly creepy gaming session. I don't know if I've told you guys, but we're playing a Serenity role playing game. The world is a blast, and Erin is a great GM! My intuition (I have a good gut for these things) tells me the next session will be a crazy one... Too tired to blog much else. See you tomorrow!

A Mild Shade of Green

After reading this post, I decided to make my own laundry detergent. Now, I am not really one of those people who is totally obsessed with renewable sources and protecting the environment. Mainly I don't buy organic produce or products that are better for the environment because they're too expensive. This laundry detergent, though? Cheap. Muy cheap. Cheap enough for me. it was actually very easy to make and smells great. Tomorrow, I'll give it a whirl and let you all know how well it cleans. And hey, I like the earth just as much as the next person! The recipe can be found here, but I'll put it right here for you guys, too. for reference, I found all this stuff in the laundry aisle at my local Smith's (Kroger) grocery store. 1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated on the small side of a grater 1 cup Borax 1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (This is NOT the same as baking soda. I promise.) Just mix it all together, store in an airtight container, and it's ready to go! I added about 10-15 drops of tangerine essential oil, to make it smell extra nice. When your ready to do some laundry, just scoop one tablespoon (two for big or extra dirty loads) into the washer, and run enough hot water to dissolve the soap. Switch it over to cold water (or whatever your preference is), throw in your clothes, and your done! (I'll let you know how this goes tomorrow.) Here is the "fabric softener", which is supposed to help get everything extra clean and nice. 2 cups white vinegar 10 drops essential oil Add 1/4 cup to each load of laundry, the same way you would fabric softener. If you have one of those fancy washing machines with the special cup for softener, your extra lucky! Just pour it in there. I also found a recipe for dish detergent, which uses a lot of the same stuff. Once I run out of my little tabs, I'll give that a try, too! It's kind of nice doing something "green", even if the Hubbster looks at me like I'm crazy.

WE WON THE SUPERBOWL BI*CHES! Cake Recipe

Yes, the Giants just beat the Patriots to win the Superbowl. I am BEYOND EXCITED! For non-football fans out there, the Patriots have won every single game this season. Every. Single. Game. EXCEPT THE SUPERBOWL, BECAUSE THE GIANTS KICKED YOUR ASS!!! Ohmigawd. I'm so proud of my boys. *sniff* Alright, before I keep on, I'm going to give you guys the most awesomest (and super easy!) chocolate cake recipe ever, perfect to celebrate with. (Or drown your sorrows. I was prepared, either way.) I actually got this recipe from Dave, so if you like it, go thank him! Super Easy Chocolate Cake Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and get out a 8x8 or 9x9 pan. Dry Ingredients 1 1/2 C. Flour 1 C. Sugar 1 tsp. Baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 3 Tbsp. cocoa ( I like to do about 4, for rich chocolate taste.) Wet Ingredients 1/3 C. Cooking oil (NOT olive oil, I use regular old vegetable oil.) 1 Tbsp. Vinegar (yep.) 1 tsp. Vanilla 1 C. Cold water Mix dry ingredients in the pan. Make three indents: pour the oil, vinegar, and vanilla into separate holes. Pour the water gently over all. Mix well with a fork; do not beat. I like to pour in a good half cup of chocolate chips at this point, but that's entirely up to you. It makes it nice and gooey, though! Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Take it out and let it cool until you can no longer stand not to eat it (about 20 minutes, here). you can frost it with icing, melt chocolate chips on top, serve it with some ice cream, or eat it plain. either way, it's delicious! ********* On a side note, this is also a vegan recipe, if you just make as-is (no chocolate chips or icing). See you tomorrow- I'm going to go jump around some more!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

First off, I want to apologize for minor blog wonkiness. I've finally fixed the permalink issue, but not sure if my feeds are working (they haven't been since I switched to beta) and I need to make a few adjustments, as you can probably tell. At least they are minor things like text size and that crap. With Thanksgiving being tomorrow and Christmas around the corner, I thought I would share my favorite holiday dessert recipe for pumpkin cheesecake. It is super yummy, and really easy to make. Pumkin Cheesecake Ingredients: 16 ounces of softened cream cheese 1/2 C. Sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 eggs 1/2 C. canned pumkin 1/2 tsp. each of cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg One 6 ounce pie crust First off, make sure the cream cheese is softened. Just let it sit on the counter for about an hour. If it isn't softened, then you'll get little cream cheese chunks in it and it won't look as nice. Next, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and blend well- it should be smooth and creamy with no creame cheese lumpies. Pour into pie crust (I like to use a big measuring scoop so as not to make such a huge mess). Make sure to save the plastic liner from the pie crust- when the pies are all finished, you can take off the label and sticky glue crap, and use it as a lid. Just flip it upside-down and pinch the pie tin edges over it- voila! Easy to transport!I find that it doesn't all fit into the pie crust- that's okay! You don't want it overflowing. Put it in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until the center is set. This means that when you pull it out with some hot pads and give it a little shake, the center doesn't wiggle like it is still wet. It'll jiggle a little- kind of like set jello. Cool and refridgerate until serving. This recipe is really easy to double, as well! If you're not afraid of eating raw eggs, you can lick the spoon and eat the leftover filling like decadent pudding. Enjoy!