Christmas

Things have been fun lately :)  We went to that Ball Brothers concert last week and they did a great job.  It's always good to see good people doing well!  The concert was good and we got to stay and talk with them a while afterward.

The Ball Brothers .com

 Blake up there about to sing Blue Christmas with other audience members

 Explanations happening

I've also been planning my Christmas weekend menu.  It looks something like this at the moment.  Most things are to be made in the crockpot :)
FRIDAY DINNER:
-Beef Stew (Crockpot), cornbread
-Pecan Pie
SATURDAY -
Breakfast:
Bkfst casserole (make on Friday)
Christmas Dinner
- Asian Pork Tenderloin (turn crockpot on by 9am)
- Mashed Potatoes (30 min)
- Green Beans (4 min)
- Sauteed squash and zuchinni (10 min)
- Nana's Apple Salad (10 min)
- Rolls
Dessert:
-Poor Man's Dessert (crockpot)
-Ice Cream
SUNDAY -
       LUNCH:
-BBQ Chicken, chips (crockpot)
- spinach velveeta dip (Crockpot)
 DINNER:
- cheesy chicken (crockpot)
Monday LUNCH:
-Taco Cornbread Casserole
-Dip and Chips


My inlaws are over for a couple nights before they fly out of OKC to CA.  My mother in law is NOT a cat-person.  And Doogan knows it.  He kept wanting to sit in her lap.

I forgot to post about this a week ago, but I had a wild weekend with Doogan a week and a half ago.  I noticed in his litter box that he peed BRIGHT red blood and so I had to take him to the emergency vet clinic.  With cats, they can get "crystals" in their urinary tract that can plug their bladder and be fatal, so you have to take them in immediately if you see infection signs.  I spent 2 hours at the clinic and he had a regular UTI, so I was relieved but still rattled that he was so sick.  Because the urine was SO thick with blood that had to be so painful.  I'm impressed with the little booger for handling it like a champ.  We had his follow up visit to the vet yesterday and all looked well.  They told me to include some wet food for him for now so he can get enough fluids to completely flush himself out.  After the vet visit, I got a hankerin' for some Starbucks.  It's really close by.  So we drove over and also noticed a Chickfila, and it was breakfast time! So we drove through, with Doogan, and got chicken biscuits, then drove over through Starbucks for coffee.  All the while with Doogan happily out of his box.  The Starbucks people were delighted with Doogan and gave him a small cup of whipped cream.  Strangely, this cat who eats anything, turned his nose up at the whipped cream.  I was shocked.

We were parked, eating our food.  Doogan climbed all over every inch of the car.

He did really well for about 45 minutes, then started panting and getting anxious so we hurried home and he was fine.  It was funny to see drivers on the road discover we had a cat in our car.

Today is my Christmas party at work.  They're bringing in food for lunch and we'll have a dirty santa gift exchange.  I'm holding my breath this year since my boss always is the one who gives something extremely inappropriate and rags on the whole staff for not giving inappropriate gifts of their own.  It's uncomfortable.

And I can post about that because....dun dun dun...I am quitting my job!!  I have one more week left and then I embark on a home-office situation.  I will be working full-time from home now on Blake's concerts.  It's exciting but also scary.  Even though my paycheck was small, it was something "for sure" that we could count on.  But, I am confident that this will help our concert ministry expand even further, so I'm excited.  AND to top it off I won't have to go to an 8-5 job anymore!!  I'm ecstatic.

Blake sing impromptu at Ball Brothers Concert

This was funny.  This group is a friend of ours so it was a hoot.  They pulled random people onstage (including Blake) to sing Blue Christmas....

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

Wow! This recipe was really really good.  Blake actually made it :)

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin
5 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
2 (1 pound) pork tenderloins

We made it in the crockpot, set to high for 5 hours.  It still tastes wonderful, but that was too long.  I would say 4 hours on high plus 1 hour on low would work.  Or a total of 6 hours on low.

The original recipe tells you how to make it in the oven.  But we all know I don't use the oven. :)  This was really good, the flavor was strong and spicy and the flavors kept morphing as you tasted it.  This might go on my Christmas menu.

Spinach Velveeta Dip

 I took this over to my friend's house the other night and both our husbands went crazy over it :)

So, this amount made enough for 2 men and two ladies - you might want to double it if you expect more men around...


Spinach Velveeta Dip (serves 3-4)
-1/2 pkg. frozen spinach (thawed and drained)
-8 oz Velveeta Cheese, cut into cubes
-1/2 can  Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies, drained
-1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, i liked it)


-I used a 2qt crockpot, set to low - cook for 1-2 hours.
-Cut velveeta up into cubes
-thaw and drain spinach
-drain and stir in diced tomatoes, add pepper flakes if you like it spicy
-Toss into crockpot (or stovetop would be fine, on medium)

New Website Design

Blake's website got a facelift!!

www.blakebolerjack.com

Chicken Enchilada Chili

I made some awesome chili last night!  Hit the spot.  I was craving chili, but wanted to try something different.  I was gonna do this Bush Beans recipe, and then I saw this one and I could use the enchilada sauce that had been in my pantry for months.

I got it from my favorite crockpot cooking site:  A Year of Slow Cooking


Chicken Enchilada Chili

• 1 1/2 pounds chicken (or 3 frozen chicken breasts)
• 1 1/2 cups prepared enchilada sauce (all I had was a small 10oz can and it was fine)
• 2 chopped celery stalks (I didn't have any celery)
• 2 (14.5 oz) cans tomatoes with seasoning 
• 2 (15 oz) cans pinto or white northern beans, undrained
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
  1 tsp cumin

Dump everything in crockpot and stir.  Plop chicken on top. Cook on low 8 hours.  Shred chicken with a fork before serving, stir again.  Top with shredded cheese.

We ate a lot of it, then I froze some of it.  We'll see if it freezes well.  It should since it doesn't have rice or potatoes in it.

I do have Thanksgiving pictures to post, and some new decorating accomplishments to post, but the pics are on my iPhone.  And the computer room is under construction at the moment so I don't have a place to conveniently plug my iPhone in to retrieve the many pictures I have to post.  So hold your horses and I'll get to it!

Mark and Meagan Wedding

This past Saturday my little brother got married.  It was beautiful and he married a gorgeous and sweet girl, Meagan.  I even got to sing in the wedding, a solo!  I was freaked out, but really glad I got to participate that way.  People told me it was good, so I'll take it.  Hopefully, someone somewhere got photos of me singing, but I don't have any right now.  I got a lot of pictures with my iPhone, but some are grainy.  We had a great time.

If you can't see the slideshow, click here for the album:  ALBUM

Guest Room Progress

I was in Target the other day picking up some prescriptions and they told me to give them 15 minutes.  So I wandered around looking at things.  And added things to my cart.  They're smart, aren't they?  Well, I ended up in the clearance furniture/decor section.  A dangerous place to be.  Blake and I have been keeping our eye out for night stands for our Guest room.  It didn't have any, so we needed some.  We'd been looking at antique stores and on Craigslist and hadn't found anything I really liked.  But I found some in the clearance aisle in Target!!  One was 50% off, and the other one was damaged (but I could hide the damaged part) so I got it for 80% off.  Crazy, right?

Here's our new night stands.  Now I need to work on a piece of art for the headboard area.

Fitness Blog Site

2 of my most favorite people in the world, are married and are both personal trainers. They know SO much stuff!  They have a blog with their recommendations and fitness tips and meal suggestions.  It's pretty awesome. 

Check it out: http://www.bobayfitness.com/

Beef Stew and Press-On Nails

This beef stew was awesome. I tweaked the original recipe, of course, to accommodate for what I had onhand.

Crockpot Beef Stew

• 1-2lbs beef stew meat
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4-6 new potatoes, quartered (or can used canned potatoes)
• carrots, about a cup
• green beans (1 can)
• 2 cans beef broth (or 28 oz)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp black pepper (if you don't like spice, only use 1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp seasoning blend (whatever you have on hand for bbqing, stir-frying, etc. I used "Garlic and Herb" last night)
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup flour (to coat beef chunks in)

The Directions:
--wash and chop all of your vegetables.
--plop them into your biggest crockpot.
--put the flour in a bowl, and toss your meat in it to fully coat.
--put the meat into the crock (throw away the rest of the flour. don't add it in.)
--add dry seasoning and worcestershire sauce.
--pour in the beef broth.
--cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

What's even more exciting than fantastic beef stew?  My press-on nails I just bought.  Yep.  My brother's wedding is coming up and all my life I've bitten my nails.  They are awful.  So, I thought getting some fake nails might prevent me from biting them until the wedding so they can heal!  To my excitement, the nails actually look really good.  They stick on with super glue, so hopefully they last a few days.  The box said a maximum of 7 days, so we'll see.  I'm just really excited to have nails that aren't so ugly for a while. :) Who knows, this may be a new way of life for me!  Buying press-on nails each week.  Can't beat it for $6 and you get 2 sets!  But maybe I can just break my habit and have my real nails look good.

This first round was definitely practice.  I got the glue all over the nails because I used too much glue. And you can see the glue bubbles underneath if you look really closely.  But, I'll do better the next time!

BBQ Shredded Chicken

I had 2 lone chicken breasts in my fridge that I needed to use up.  I've been craving some BBQ Chicken sandwiches, so I thought it'd be easy to make in the crockpot.

Even better was that I could use my little 2 qt. size crockpot!  Yes...I have a 1.5 qt, a 2 qt, a 5 qt and a 7qt.  I did have an awesome red 4 qt one from Target that cracked and I miss terribly.  Hint hint for Christmas...

I tweaked the original recipe and came up with this:

Shredded BBQ Chicken
2 thawed chicken breasts
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup warm water
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp  Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (optional)

Toss all in a crockpot, cook on high 3 hours, or low 4-6 hours. Take chicken out, put in a Tupperware and shred it with 2 forks. Then top with remaining sauce, stir.

It was tangy and sweet! I am not usually a fan of vinegar based BBQ, but this was mild and tasty, and not your normal BBQ out of a can.  The vinegar made the chicken shred easily and make it really tender and moist.

I'm going to use it to put on hamburger buns tonight for dinner. It will probably make about 3 sandwiches worth, maybe 4.  So perfect for 2 people with a little leftovers.  You could also serve it over rice.

Beautiful Chairs! Craigslist Score!

I'm always so happy when my romance with Craigslist is renewed.  Craisglist just hasn't appealed to me lately because so many people are posting crap junky things at laughable prices. But, Blake and I had been desiring a chair for our Living Room lately because the big black contemporary chair just was an eyesore.  So, I casually pulled up Craigslist yesterday around 4:50pm as I was wrapping up work, and low and behold, 2 of the cutest chairs EVER were posted!  For $30 for both!  Immediately I started salivating.  I called Blake and asked if he liked the chairs and if we could go get them last night. He said sure, always sweetly indulging my craigslist escapades, even though they usually don't work out exactly how I planned. This trip, however, did.

We scored 2 matching chairs that go with every room in our house.  They're even clean, not a stain on them.  So, we're playing musical chairs with them to see what rooms they fit best in.  For sure, we are keeping one for our bedroom. It's just too perfect for a reading nook and comfortable.  I can do my "quiet times" in this chair now and read comfortably without having to lay in bed with the ceiling lights glaring in my face.  (see my other Craigslist purchase? The table/lamp thing?  I need to paint it and get a new shade.)

We have 2 other spots that the second chair would go in.  I think I like it best in our guest room, but since that room isn't used often, we have placed the second chair in our living room.  It goes pretty well, but isn't a completely perfect fit.  It's a small chair and at the moment looks a little odd scale-wise.  But, it's better than the black chair we had in there, which has since been moved into the guest room now.  This picture also shows off my little houses my mom gave me.  They had been a Christmas gift from my dad to her early in their marriage (I believe) but after 20+ years of prominent display in their house, they redecorated.  And I got the little houses :)

Here's the chair displayed in the guest room.  The chairs have this cute satin/cotton hatch design which matches the unpictured white comforter on the bed.  The yellow really adds a splash of color to the guest room, so when we finally get a real TV for the living room, and rearrange the furniture appropriately, I am pretty sure a yellow chair will end up in this room instead.

What little pillows or throws should I get for these 2 chairs!!??

Meal Plan Monday and "Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups"

Monday: French Onion Soup Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes and Canned green beans
(Awesome recipe - just brown some pork chops, throw in a crockpot, cover with French Onion Soup. Cook high 4-6 hours, or low 6-8 hours.)
Tuesday:  Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese
Wednesday: BBQ chicken
Thursday: Meatless Spaghetti
Friday: Lemonade Pie (for a work party, will post recipe then), Sandwiches at home and any work leftovers people will share
Saturday: Breakfast stuff* - eggs, toast, bacon, cereal

*Try these Breakfast cups, they're pretty terrific. I think I'll nickname them "Breakfast Duck Cups". :)  I forgot to oil my custard cups, so Blake and I ate these straight out of the dishes, using a hotpad to hold them. Blake noisily exclaimed his delight with this dish, after me reassuring him the egg was, indeed, cooked.

Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups:

Adapted by For the Love of Cooking.net

(Original recipe by Martha Stewart)

• Cooking spray
• 1 egg
• 1 piece of whole wheat bread
• 1 piece of bacon
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat the Pyrex custard cup with cooking spray.

2. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat for a minute on each side to get rid of some of the grease.

3. Take a rolling pin and roll out the piece of bread until thin. Turn the Pyrex custard cup over and use it to cut the crust away from the bread. Slice the bread round in half then press the halves into the cup overlapping the pieces. Use extra bread to patch any holes.

4. Place the bacon slice in the cup then crack an egg over the bacon. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste.

5. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the whites are cooked but the yolk is still soft. Remove from the oven, run a knife around the edges of the toast to remove from cup and serve immediately. Enjoy.

Crockpot Inside-Out Chicken Pot Pie

I cooked again! What has gotten into me?  Maybe it's because I'm tired of having no money because I spent it on eating out.  Maybe.  Maybe it's because the weather is changing and winter makes me want to cook.  Maybe it's because Blake has been hanging around the house and was available to start the Crockpot this morning.  I'll let you deduce my most inspiring reason.

Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie

• 2 large boneless chicken breasts frozen (no need to thaw)
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 can of water/Milk (fill soup can with half water, half milk)
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 3-4 small potatoes, quartered
• Frozen vegetables (1 mixed bag)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Garlic Salt
• 1 tsp Poultry (or Rotisserie) Seasoning
• 1 tube biscuits, to bake before serving

Literally toss everything in the crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Shred chicken with a fork right before serving and this will thicken up your soup. Bake your biscuits and serve!

This was really good.  Like an inside out Chicken Pot Pie.  Without the nasty crust part.  The broth thickened up nicely after we shredded the chicken and let it sit a few minutes with the lid off.  We cut a couple biscuits in half, put them in each bowl and poured the pot pie filling over them.  It was delicious.  Blake had seconds and devoured them faster than I could finish my first bowl.  He contemplated going for thirds, but must have deciphered my look of horror and decided to call it an evening.  This will definitely be a meal to enter our rotation for winter.  It was cheap and easy and healthy in my opinion.  Probably enough to serve 4-5 people if they don't have thirds.  I put some in the freezer and will see in a few days if it is good as leftovers.
**Update**: 10.25.10- Don't freeze the soup. It's great as normal leftovers, but don't freeze them because the potatoes will get weird on you and the broth evaporates.

Crispy Herb Chicken

Finally cooked something again last night that wasn't sandwiches, cereal, or spaghettios.  I pulled out my mom's stash of recipes she gave me when I got married and I remembered this one being good. And easy.

Crispy Herb Chicken

-Chicken Breasts, thawed (2-4 pieces)

-2/3 cup potato flakes
-1/3 cup parmesan cheese
-1 tsp garlic salt
-1/2 tsp basil
- dish of melted butter for coating (half a stick?)

1. Preheat oven to 375. In 13x9 pan, line with foil, set aside.
2. Melt about half a stick of butter in microwave in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, combine potato flakes, parmesan cheese, garlic salt, basil and mix together
4. Dredge chicken pieces in butter, then dry mixture. Make sure to get a thick coat of the dry mix.
5. Place pieces in pan and cook for apprx. 30 min


This was yummy!! I made it with mashed potatoes and green beans.  Best part is that leftovers are good too. Some meals don't taste good the next day.  This one still does :)

Still Here

I'm still here.  I know, it's been a month since I've written! Computer issues at work, paired with traveling, and increased "work" at work has kept me away.  All my efforts and free moments are spent thinking about booking, and promoting this upcoming concert:

It's so exciting, tickets went on sale yesterday and the church sold 60 already.  We were so pleased.  We still have a lot of time to sell a lot of tickets (all of the money goes to the little boy and his family), so I am pouring myself into that.  If you want a ticket, you can get them from me, or call Yukon Church at: 405-354-5809

More on that later.  My mind is full of pastor names and emails and dates.  Must go think about nothing for a while!

Labor Day

We had a really good holiday weekend.  First off, Blake visited OBU (our alma mater) last Friday to see a play written by one of his former classmates, Christy.  They all had a great time and Blake stayed out way too late :) I chose not to go since I'd seen the play before but Blake made the trip and they all had a good OBU Theatre reunion.

Then on Saturday Blake and I packed up for his singing at a festival. Lets just say... we're learning to be flexible.  I say we win the prize for flexibility this last Saturday :)  We had a good time, and it will make a good story.  Here is the sound system provided for all singers:

If you'll notice, the sound system is in that truck, with large megaphone speakers on top.  Yep.  We got a kick out of it.  I think I got more of a kick out of it than Blake, since he was the one having to sing on it.  But, now, 3 days later, he thinks it's funny too :)

Here are some more pictures from that cute festival.

Blake singing with no monitors.

Here is the cute little lady who sang along with every single song Blake did.  She was our first audience member, and only audience member for a few songs :)

 Here's Blake.  A trooper.

After a few songs, our audience grew. :) People walking by would just sit down and listen for a bit, then move on. It is an odd experience singing at fairs.

Afterward, Blake and I shopped around at the antique stores and I found 2 throw pillows for $4 each! They're white with lacing up the middle.  I'll probably change out the color of lace so it doesn't look as country.  I'll get pics of that later.  We also found a recliner we loved! But it was super ugly.  So we didn't get it.  Even though it was the most comfortable recliner ever.  If we change our minds, we know where to go back to get it. ;)

Then we went to eat at a little burger joint on Main street.  The tables and booths were completely full so we were about to leave, but then a couple invited us to sit with them so we could eat.  So we did! Cute little small town.  People were super friendly.

Then, later that Saturday we went to an engagement party for our OBU friends, Rex and Lee.  We got to see more of the Theatre folks who came into town for the play.  Here's us with Sonia.

Then, we went on home and I refueled after being around people so much that day by watching a movie.

Sunday after church we decided to make a date day.  We got a local hotel room and relaxed and got to watch Cable!  Woo hoo!  Hotels are always exciting for us since we don't buy cable TV.  We watched a lot of Food Network, and HGTV.  We went to TX Roadhouse for dinner and then to Jimmy's Egg in the morning!  Jimmy's Egg was incredible.  I have a new favorite restaurant.


Then we hung out at our church family group's house.  We swam and I supervised the kids in the pool.  Not officially, but everyone else kept milling around, so I planted myself poolside, tanned, and watched the kids play in the pool.  Blake got pretty sunburned playing Cornhole (beanbag toss game) and then threw his back out again after trying to throw me in the pool.  Yep.  We're praying his back just gets better.  He's pretty fragile still.  He was healing pretty good, then even before the pool incident he was feel creaky again.

Blake laid on the living room floor icing his back, and I thought it was funny because Doogan was also lying on his back. They looked like 2 peas in a pod.  I cropped the photo though because, ahem, you know men lying around the house...not always dressed completely :)

Now, I'm back at work.  And it's stormy outside.

El Reno Fair

Last night Blake was booked to sing at the Canadian County Free Fair in El Reno, OK. We haven't done many festivals or fairs so we're still learning "the ropes" and fair etiquette.  I have to drop my manager-control-freak-ishness and be totally go with the flow, less we be labeled "hard to work with".  Which is fine, as long as I remember that going into each event :)  Last night Blake's start time was unsure, with an estimate to start around 8:15 PM.  Blake got up to sing around 8:50pm, so that is an example of how we have to adapt to fairs' timetables.  They're liquid.  Also, typically, fairs/festivals get exasperated if you try to bring your own equipment.  This results in Blake having to be VERY flexible with not knowing what type of sound he's going to get, and if he'll even be able to hear the track to sing along, or hear himself to know if he's on pitch.  Most places, you never know.  You just do your set, hope they liked it and get off the stage!  Last night was enjoyable though, even though the crowd really thinned out by 9pm.  Blake sang after the talent show ended and the staff took their time getting Blake's track machine plugged in, so after the 5 min of silence while they hooked in cords, people started clearing out.  But!  That is how it goes.  Once Blake started singing, everyone stayed.  He's good :)

Here are some pictures I got.  I got to be onstage running his tracks while he sang.

New Niece

I have a new niece!!  Blake's brother Brent and his wife Lori had their second baby this past Saturday.  She was 11 days overdue, can you imagine?  But, Lori's labor was super easy and she has had such a good time with new baby Greta.  I've been excited because I had good practice with their first baby, Millie, so I felt so much more confident holding Greta.  Here are some pictures:

Greta Ann, born 8.21.10 at 5:20 pm...9 lbs 10 ozs 21 3/4 inches

First Bath

Aunt Jenna!

Lately

I haven't posted in a while.  Mostly because nothing really has been going on.  My sister in law is mucho pregnant.  She was due Aug 10, and the little girl is still not coming out!  The dr checkup yesterday said the baby should be born today.  So, we'll see.  We really hope the baby comes today, my sis in law is ready to not be pregnant anymore!!

I've discovered a song I just really like:  Here In This Moment by Beckah Shae - it's so creative! It sounds like 3 girls are singing, but it's just one :) Kinda techno and fun. I've been listening to it on repeat.

I haven't done anymore decorating.  We haven't decided what our next step is.  I still have some Home Depot giftcards left, so I think I'll get some driveway lanterns since it gets so dark out there.  But, we'll have to get an electrician to install them b/c I have no idea how to do that!!

Blake went golfing with my Dad and brother this week.  He's been golfing maybe once before in his life?  He had fun, but last night he was flat on his back, a disk out of place, so he's pretty out of commission right now.  The chiropractor couldn't even really adjust him because he was so bad, so they did some electrotherapy to loosen the muscles so Blake can come back on Monday for a real adjustment.

Anyway. I'm bored at work.

Breakfast Casserole

 New favorite casserole!!  I'm so glad I found this recipe.  I really liked it.  I got compliments on it from the girls, and Blake liked it, too.  I tweaked the original recipe a lot since the comments on the recipe all agreed on how to change it.  Here's what I did:

Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground turkey (sage-flavored*, see directions for seasonings)
• 1 bag (or 4 cups) frozen hash browns with onion and pepper in it (Ore-Ida brand)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted - (or use spray butter over the hash browns)
• 12 ounces mild Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 (16 ounce) container small curd cottage cheese, reduced fat
• 8 large eggs

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch square baking dish.
2.  Place ground turkey in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown.  To make the turkey *sage-flavored* add these spices, then drain, and set aside:

• 2 tsp. ground ginger, 
• 2tsp ground sage
• 3/4tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• Pinch of cayenne pepper, or Red Pepper flakes

3.  In the prepared baking dish, stir together the shredded potatoes and butter. Line the bottom and sides of the baking dish with the mixture. Bake for 30-40 min, or until potatoes are cooked.
4.   In a separate bowl, mix the turkey, Cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, and eggs.
5.  Pour over the potato mixture. Sprinkle some more cheese lightly on top.
6.  Bake another 30 minutes, or until firm
7.  Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Verdict: I give it 4 out of 5 stars!!  I'll say, the sage flavor really makes the turkey taste like sausage but it's a whole lot better for you.  I loved the potatoes and all the flavors.  I think if you salt and pepper the eggs that would also help add some more taste to the egg part.  I liked that this casserole was mild, but flavorful.  And it didn't have to have real sausage-Yuck.

Tea Party Recap

So my tea party was so fun!  I highly recommend having one if you have a couple of girlfriends you'd like to have over for some "girl time".  The girls were good sports and wore their sundresses and brought their teapots and tea cups.  I did a good job on the food - but I have to admit, I made too many different options to sanely pull off.  I had to call Blake in the kitchen to help a lot and he was not happy about that.  He normally helps really good, but this time he griped the whole time.  Oh well.  So, note for next time: only make a doable amount of choices!  It was specifically the 3 different tea sandwiches, they were more time consuming to make than I anticipated.  Here was what my menu ended up being:

-Muffins
-no bake cookies
-spinach pinwheels
-Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
-Almond Chicken Tea Sandwiches
-Pineapple Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches
-Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts appetizers
-Turkey Sausage Breakfast Casserole 
 -fruit plate of apples and bananas

I ended up not making the muffins because I forgot about the spinach pinwheels with the oven time - so I had to choose between them.   The no bake cookies, the spinach pinwheels, and the casserole were my favorite!  The casserole was a hit out of the park.  I'll post a second blog about it after this, all to itself.  The tea sandwiches were okay, the cucumber one was actually the best.  Blake said it was his favorite out of the 3.  I think the pineapple cream cheese one would have been better had I measured out the ingredients, same with the almond chicken ones.  I just eyeballed them because I was trying to get everything done, and so the flavors weren't balanced right.  But, they were good choices if you want to throw your own tea party.  The cucumber ones were pretty darn good, but they don't keep well.  I had a couple leftover and blech.  Soggy.

Here are some pictures!

My teaset from Craigslist :)  I had splenda, sugar, and milk available.

This is the blue teaset Blake got me for my birthday one year :) I begged for it.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of the layout without the stupid foil. Oh well!

The foil was covering the bacon waterchestnuts :)

The girls' teasets

Talking, waiting on my neighbor to come over :) You can see the layout better here.

Everyone is here!

My girls :)

Tea Party

I'm so excited!  I'm hosting a Tea Party tomorrow at my house :)  A while ago a friend and I had been talking about girlie things and I said I wanted to have a tea party.  She said she'd come if I did - so I planned one!!  I just invited a couple friends nearby and my neighbors - didn't want it to be too overwhelming for me for my first one :)

I am having each guest bring a cute teapot, a teacup, and at least one bag of flavored tea they want to try.  Oh, and to wear a sundress for the occasion.

This is my fare I'm preparing:

-Muffins
-no bake cookies
-spinach pinwheels
-Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
-Almond Chicken Tea Sandwiches
-Pineapple Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches
-Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts appetizers
-Turkey Sausage Breakfast Casserole

I'll be sure to blog about what was good - and hopefully nothing will not be good :)  I made sure to try to a sweet thing, tea-ish party things, a hearty thing, and a salty thing.  Not a lot of each, just a little.

One key tip I've discovered to having a successful food event that doesn't stress me out because I'm making so many different foods, is to write down a "timeline" of the foods I'm preparing so I can see exactly at what time I need to be preparing things, and at what time to stick foods in the oven.  This also helps you notice if you're planning dishes that will conflict in cooking times -especially at Thanksgiving! You can see what foods you need to pick something else to make sure your oven schedule all works out.

I'll blog about it next week how it went!

Cowboy Pie

I posted on Facebook yesterday that I had 1 pound of ground beef so what should I make?  I got several comments, like the yummy taco cornbread casserole (but I didn't have the right ingredients on hand), meatloaf, tacos, "a cow" (thanks to my little brother). But I had one post that seemed interesting to make a gr. beef/bean mix and then cook it in crescent rolls.  So I went home and decided to come up with something.

So this is what I made:

Cowboy Pie

-1 lb ground beef

-1-2 cans ranch style beans (lightly drained)
-1 can fire roasted tomatoes (lightly drained)
-1 can green chiles (lightly drained)
-1/2 cup ranch dressing (light)
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 tsp paprika
-1 Tbsp onion flakes
-dash red pepper flakes
-1 can biscuits (reduced fat)
-shredded cheese (optional)

1. Brown ground beef in skillet on medium high, adding onion flakes to meat.
2. Preheat oven to 400.  Add remaining ingredients to skillet (except for biscuits). Heat through.
3. Once oven is ready, place biscuits in 13x9 baking dish.  Cover biscuits with meat/bean mix. Sprinkle top with cheese.  (I didn't use cheese and it was still really good.)
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until biscuits are cooked through.

My observations:
-This dish was really good. Filling and hearty.  Blake had 3 helpings. I'm looking forward to leftovers for lunch today.
-I think in retrospect I will cook the biscuits by themselves first, then top with the heated meat/bean mix so the biscuits are more like biscuits and gravy texture.  But Blake liked that the biscuits were cooked with the bean mix because the biscuits absorbed the ranch flavor.  So it's up to you.
-I also next time might put black beans in the mix, they'd probably help add more nutrition and texture.  Maybe even a can of corn. You can also just use 1 can of diced tomatoes with chiles already in them. I just didn't have one of those cans on hand.