Latest Recipes

I've been cooking a lot! Here are some of my favorites lately.

Peanut Butter Pork Chops
(www.crockpot365.blogspot.com)
3 or 4 pork chops
1 onion, sliced in rings
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 T white wine vinegar
3 T water
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 T chopped peanuts (garnish; optional)
1 lime, cut in wedges (garnish; optional)
Directions:
-Use a 4-6 quart crockpot. Put onion slices into the bottom of your crockpot. Put the pork on top. -Add brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, garlic, and peanut butter. No need to stir--the peanut butter needs to melt before you can do so.
-Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-6. The pork will be more tender the longer you cook it.
-1 hour before serving, flip the meat over in the crockpot to allow the other side to soak up the peanut-buttery goodness. Garnish with chopped peanuts, and serve with lime wedges (opt). Serves 2-3 because you love it so much you eat big portions!

Paprika Chicken
(allrecipes.com I think)
4 boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 pounds small white potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch cubes
2 medium carrots, cut in chunks
1 medium onion, cut in thin wedges
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 T melted butter
2 T paprika
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 T honey
Dash cumin
Preparation:
-Wash chicken and pat dry. Combine potatoes, carrots, and onion wedges in a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker with parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 2 T of the melted butter; toss.
-Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter with the paprika, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, honey, and dash of salt and dash of cumin. Rub chicken breasts with the paprika mixture; arrange on vegetables. Add more broth if looks too dry.
-Cover and cook on HIGH for 4-6 hours, or on LOW for 7 to 9 hours, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Serves 4.

Funny Festival

I booked Blake his first (not counting his Canada trip) festival last week. Get ready for it...it's the "Crawdad Days Music Festival" in Harrison, AR. Blake was telling a friend about it and he said, "Oh, is that where they eat them or race them?" I was speechless. I didn't know there were options.

Anyway, in May we will be able to say that Blake headlined at a Crawdad festival. I'll be sure to get lots of pictures!!

No More Chicken Carcasses

I made Cornish Game Hens yesterday in the Crockpot. Well, I picked out the recipe and set the alarm clock for Blake to make it while he was at home. They turned out really good! But Blake was grossed out because he felt like he was picking at a dead bird carcass for dinner. Can't negate that.

Burrito Pie

I made this last night and it was SO good! It's not a crockpot recipe. I know, I'm shocked too. I had all sorts of leftovers from a lunch & learn at work (where sales reps bring a big office lunch and try to sell you their products) so I used them. If you do this recipe, make sure you do the meat in a huge skillet or wok, because it ends up being a big mixture.

Burrito Pie
(allrecipes.com)

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 (2 oz) can black olives, sliced
• 1 (4 oz) can diced green chili peppers (if you like it more spicy, do 2 cans of this)
• 1 (10 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
• 1 (16 oz) large jar taco sauce (I think medium heat would have been better than the mild sauce I used. That would add more overall flavor)
• 2 (16 oz) cans refried beans
• flour tortillas
• 9 oz shredded Colby cheese (or whatever you have. We like it really cheesy, so I used more cheese than this)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F .
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté the ground beef for 5 minutes. Add the onion and garlic, and sauté for 5 more minutes. Drain any excess fat, if desired. Mix in the olives, green chile peppers, tomatoes with green chile peppers, taco sauce and refried beans. Stir mixture thoroughly, let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. In a 13x9 casserole dish, line bottom with tortillas. Then spread a thin layer of the meat mixture on top of the tortillas (it looks like it will be too much, but it will fit if you do thin layers). Cover again with a layer of tortillas followed by more meat mixture, then a layer of cheese. Repeat tortilla, meat, cheese pattern until all the tortillas are used, topping off with a layer of meat mixture and cheese. (You can rip the tortillas into shapes to fit the pan, or overlap them if you want a thicker layer of tortillas.)
4. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheese is slightly brown and bubbly on top.

Holy cow, it was good. Blake couldn't wait for it to get in the oven so he was dipping chips in the meat mixture while I was spreading it in the pan. I made him leave the kitchen.

This made a ton of food. I froze half of the meal and packaged the rest of it in single meal size tupperware. Guess what I'm having for lunch today!

American Idol

Okay, Blake and I have a friend who made the top 36 of American Idol!! He sings tonight. So this will be the first time EVER that we will vote.

Everyone should vote for RICKY BRADDY!!! Blake acted with him out in North Carolina and they were big buds.

This is Ricky:

Weekend

Blake and I saw our niece on Friday, she's a cutie! She's 8 or 9 weeks now I guess. She's making more facial expressions and sometimes making cooing noises. I like it best when she sneezes. I totally laugh every time. She was really happy when we were there for a couple of hours while Brent and Lori went to a V-day party at church. We stayed for a bit and Blake's parents were there too, they'd come in for the weekend to babysit as much as possible.

Then we went to Neosho, MO for 2 concerts this past weekend (it was near Joplin). We did a short Valentine's concert for Saturday night and did another mini-concert that morning at the church. We pulled it off and people enjoyed the music. We were pretty worn out this weekend though. We didn't get to eat until around 5 on Sunday since we did the concert, and then there weren't any restaurants in Neosho and then we got a hankering for Buffalo Wild Wings and there aren't any of those in Tulsa on our drive back...so we held out until we made it back to OKC and pigged out on wings. Well, Blake did, he ate at least 14. No matter how hungry I am, I can only eat about 6 wings and I am stuffed. And we had fries and chips/salsa. And Dr. Pepper!!

Back to Normal

Blake got home early! He got in around 10pm last night. And my life is back to normal. No more break-ins today or murderous gerbils.

Crazy Day Just Kept Going Yesterday

So you saw the post about my car and the stolen wallet. Well, my crazy day yesterday just kept on going. I made it to 5:00 without incident (other than the massive tornado and golf ball sized hail up here near Edmond where I work) and I went home during a break in the rain. I make fiesta soup for dinner without incident. I popped in sweet bread in the oven without incident. Then I turn on American Idol and I look over toward my gerbil's cage and I noticed they're on opposite ends of the cage which is weird because they've been inseparable since Blake got them for my birthday in June 2006. So I go over and notice Lenny (the light red one) is on top of his house not moving and George (the light grey one) is in the far corner sitting quietly. I take off the top of the cage to peer in and see what's up and they both are covered in blood. Their muzzles and necks and paws are just deep red with blood. I reached in to pick up Lenny and he jumped off the house and George charged at him, so I quickly scooped Lenny up and checked him all over to see if the blood was still coming out. It looked like it had stopped so I put him in his ball to keep him somewhere safe for the moment and I checked out George. He was in shock and was confused so I just left George in the aquarium and went back to Lenny. Holy cow they were trying to kill each other! After almost 3 years of no fights at all! I called the animal hospital down the street and the lady was really nice (even though I felt silly calling about gerbils) and said that it was normal and rodents are prone to fight and especially litter mates (which Lenny and George are) and to just keep them separated.

I don't have another cage so I had to make one. I got a box that holds reams of paper and poked holes in the top and put the box in one of those big rubbermaid tubs. And I put Lenny in there since he's better with change and I kept George in the normal cage. I was pretty worried about George, he was lethargic and shaky and pretty traumatized. I think he got it the worst, but I noticed blood on Lenny's rump so George probably instigated it and chased Lenny around.

All that to say I ran in to check on them both this morning and they were fine! They washed themselves of the blood during the night so now they don't look like killer rodents anymore. George was running around his cage happily moving bedding and digging. Lenny however (I should have gotten a picture) was completely rumpled and bed-head and fur every which way from sleeping in his new place. But he perked up quickly and I'm hoping the temporary home will hold him because he's pretty crafty and acrobatic.

I'm ready for Blake to come home and things to go back to normal!!

Here's pics of my gerbils when we first got them and they didn't go crazy. And yes, they're named after the brothers Lenny and George from John Steinbeck's book "Of Mice and Men." I know, I'm clever.

This is George:

This is Lenny. He doesn't have red eyes,
he just had massive red-eye with the camera flash.

Another break in

So my car got broken into last night. Again. I guess Honda Civics are a crime magnet. They broke in the drivers side by popping the window out of the track. You know how I posted that I overnight Blake his wallet contents? Well. I just overnighted his DL and 2 credit cards. I put the rest of the wallet in my glove box. Guess what was stolen. So I've spent this morning calling card companies and I think I got them all. I'm most concerned about his Soc. Sec. card which was in the wallet. I'll have to check to see the protocol on that.

Blake's out of town until Thursday night. I hope he makes it back soon. I think the worst part was having to call him and tell him what happened. Not because I thought he'd be mad or anything, but that I had to worry him. But he was fine and that was the only time I cried.

What's frustrating is that it's just going to keep happening because my car is a civic. We don't have a garage and aren't going to get another car. So I'll just have to keep fixing this car when it's broken into!! Grr

FedEx

Blake's in Little Rock, AR this week. He forgot his wallet. Thank goodness for FedEx overnight...

Recipe - Beef & Broccoli

This was actually pretty good. I wasn't excited about it when it was cooking, but it turned out pretty good. Like Chinese takeout... but a lot more healthy.

Broccoli Beef
(Crockpot365.blogspot.com)

-1 lb thin beef (like stew meat or freezer-burned rib eye like I had...)
--1/4 cup soy sauce
--2 T apple cider vinegar
--2 T beef stock
--1 T brown sugar
--2 tsp. sesame oil (I used vegetable oil since I didn't have sesame oil. It was still good)
--2 cloves smashed and chopped garlic
--1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
--1 bag frozen (or raw) broccoli florets (to add later)

Directions:
--add the liquid to the crockpot
--chop up your garlic, add to mixture
--stir in spices
--slice meat into thin strips
--toss meat in the liquid and spice mixture to coat thoroughly
--cook on low for 6-8 hours, depending on the cut of meat. Thicker pieces will take longer to tenderize.
-- add cooked frozen bag of broccoli at last minute to pot and stir… or an hour before serving, add entire bag of raw broccoli, cover and cook on high for rest of time
--stir gingerly to coat broccoli
--serve over steamed rice

Anniversary Pics

For the full anniversary details see a previous post. :) Here are the pictures I'd meant to include with it:

Blake making me grilled cheese and tomato soup


We had a picnic in the living room!


Then we had to go out for dessert. I had coupons to On the Border for free desserts...but of course I forgot them. We stayed anyway! ;)



These are pictures from eating at Shogun restaurant a few days before our actual anniversary. My hair looks like part of the plant in this photo:


Our friends Lula and June went with us to celebrate!

Past Weekend in Grove, OK

This past weekend was our first concert outing for the year! It went really well. I made sure to get several pictures. We went to a church in Grove, OK (near the NE corner that borders Missouri). Blake agreed, in addition to the Sunday concert, to do a concert at the grand opening of a new community center called "Rivers of Life." This was so neat, a local business man saw the need for the youth and churches of the community to have a place to bring in music and events and even just a nice place to have meetings. So he spent his money and built this community center! It actually is quite an intimate space despite the pictures that make it look like a huge concert hall:

Two bands played after Blake, hence all the guitars and drums and keyboards...

After Blake sang at Rivers of Life, he ran over to do a radio interview. This station has coverage mainly in Grove and outlaying parts and into Missouri even. The station is run out of a man's home. Here's Blake being interviewed by the Pastor for the Sunday concert.


Blake sounded great and they played "When I Get Carried Away" for their listeners.

We had a good turnout for the concert on Sunday and a few people came again from hearing Blake the night before. Blake and I tried out a new song we are working on called "Compatible" and it was a hit. It's kind of a silly song so it was really fun.

Then, we drove home during the Superbowl but Blake caught the last 30 min of it or so. We were so tired driving home, it had been a long weekend. We were driving straight into the sun and it was hard to see, so Blake came up with a solution since he wears glasses and doesn't have prescription sunglasses:

Silly man. I had to get a pic of it. It was a good weekend!