Crispy Cucumber Salsa

David brought home a couple cucumbers from work that someone had brought from their garden and I was wanting to try something new and not just make vinigar cucumbers like I would normally do. I had come across a pinterst share but it had some ingrediants we do not like so I played around with the it and the end result is yummo!! We couldn't get enough. This is a nice change to the normal chips and salsa and perfect for those who have a ton of cucumbers from the  garden they are needing to use.

Hope you enjoy.

Crispy Cucumber Salsa
Makes 2-1/2 cups

2 cups peeled and seeded  cucumber
1/2 can rotel , noting to use small amount of juice or non at all
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/4 c reduced-fat sour cream
1-1/2 tsp lemon juice
1-1/2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
Tortilla chips

Chop cucumber into tiny peices and add to bowl. Add in rotel, sour scream and juice. Mix with spoon. Add in spices and mix with spoon. Salt to taste IF needed. Serve with chips.


You can substitute greek yogurt for sour cream. I used a single serve container. You can also use dry parsely and garlic but change amount to 1 Tbsp.

Holiday, Panda's and The Sick

Happy Labor Day weekend my freaky darlings!! I hope you have not labored too hard this weekend. I am still getting over the sick. I am calling it the sick because it started out as a scratchy throat and ... well it went like this....

 

Day One : hmmm I woke with a scratchy throat this morning better take an allergy pill

 

Day Two : OMG who the heck poured lava into my throat!! Great I bet I have caught strep or something from the grocery store and stinking school starting.

 

Day Three : What the heck my throat does not hurt as bad now but now my face is on FIRE. More sinus meds and hot tea for me.

 

Day Four : I feel like hammered death I shall hunt down the person responsible for passing this dang germ to me.... if I can ever move again that is.

 

Day Five : The sick is not producing a fever so it is a cold so not calling doctor. My face is on fire and I can not seem to get enough to eat or drink. I am sticking to my healthy snacks and trying to talk The Sick out of undoing my healthier me but alas I posted on facebook for someone to bring me a pretzel dog from Sonic. The Sick is so strong!!

 

Day six : I do not remember day six I slept A LOT.

 

Day Seven : I am starting to feel better but of course it takes me more days to get over the crud in my chest so walking feels like I am running a marthon. Pant Pant Pant

 

Day Eight : I grocery shopped and LIVED!!! I had to take it slow but I did not pass out from lack of oxygen. YAY!

 

Day Nine : I am over the can not get enough to eat or drink. The elephant sitting on my chest has been reduced to the weight of small baby. Just a little stuffy and still on sinus meds.

 

Final Note : It is a nasty cold and will knock you on your rump but do not fret you can defeat THE SICK!! and hopefully only put on a few extra pounds feeding it. :P

 

 

Even while sick I have had deadlines to meet. I have been working on my oldest daughters christmas gift ,  a crochet by number panda bear blanket that I not only crocheted but I wrote the pattern for it. I also had a birthday gift for the neighbor girl to get done and it is a DDC original , meaning I produced it out of what I saw in my head. I am now debating on how to finish the face for I want her to be able to lay on it so buttons are not an option. Ya well the creative process better kick in faster cause I need it done by Wednesday. ALSO Little does she know but her gift is made with the hottest yarn on the market right now.... Blacklight by red heart. A lot of the people in the crochet groups I am apart of are using this yarn for projects and I have to say it is as cool as everyone is saying. As soon as we get more in at our store I am going to pick up 4 of them to make this wicked lapghan that looks like stained glass. Yes I get all giddy over future projects. :D Very Giddy!!

Anywho I finished the panda last night around 2 am. HEY it is the only time I have peace and quiet AND it was 100 and something yesterday so it took till 10 to cool off enough for me to tollerate a twin sized aphgan covering my lap. I still had to take breaks to sip on my icey breverage too cool off. * here is a pic of 90 of 100 rows done* I am not posting a final pic cause i want it to be a surprise for her so you shall have to wait till christmas too* :D I are evil like that.  

 

 

 

 

So now we are all caught up and it is Sunday. Tomorrow is Labor Day oberserved and Dave has off. we are all being laid back. I started a c2c project due to peer preasure.. just kidding. I started the corner to corner because I still am not sure how to finish the bday gift so that is still staring at me with no answers and I can not not be doing something so I needed something easy and quick to do. Plus like everyone is making one and showing it and I wanna try one. So after searching through my stash I came  out with a black and a coral  (orangy color) ... TA DA halloween lapghan. Worked on it before I started this entry and got 16 rows done before I knew it. I think it is safe to say I found the project to let my brain relax before I start my youngest daughter's christmas gift. Another graph creation....yes I am crazy. LOL!

 

 

 

So my freaky darlings i am going to leave you with a little something I read while I was deep into The Sick that almost resulted in me laughing myself to death. It may have been that I was sick that made me find it so funny but none the less here you go. P.S Not safe for kids to read   AND  P.S.S You are welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 Later My Freaky Darlings!!!

 

 

You are not going to believe what we made

Oh how we have craved these!!! Oh how I  was scared outa my mind with the thought of these being home made. WHY? Cause this momma has never baked using active dry yeast. I make things semi home made..... not from scratch bread like stuffs. OH EM GEE my mind was seeing a huge ball of dough engulfing the kitchen devouring my kids and ohh look it just ate the Chihuahua. OR ...The thing I knew was more likely gonna happen ... I would just kill the yeast and we would be pretzel less.

 

BUT

 

IT DIDN'T HAPPEN LIKE THAT AT ALL!!! Happy dance time!!!! whoa whoa ... whoa whoa!! 

 

We , my girls and Dragon , had so much fun making these. It is work but VERY worth it.

 

So here is the receipt we used from taste of home. You need to make these too !!

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 bottle (12 ounces) amber beer or nonalcoholic beer
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 to 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• TOPPING:
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon water
• Coarse salt

Directions

• In a small saucepan, heat beer to 110°-115°; remove from heat. Stir in yeast until dissolved. In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, yeast mixture and 3 cups flour; beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).
• Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 425°. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide and shape into eight balls. Roll each into a 14-in. rope. Starting at one end of rope, loosely wrap dough around itself to form a coil. Tuck end under; pinch to seal.
• In a Dutch oven, bring water and baking soda to a boil. Drop pretzels, two at a time, into boiling water. Cook 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon; drain well on paper towels.
• Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolk and water; brush over pretzels. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to a wire rack to cool. Yield: 8 pretzels.

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Pillows

Hello my freaky darlings!! Do you stock up on meat items that you can place in the freezer for you to use when the summer heat has made your AC run and the sight of your electric bill turns you into a babbling mental mess?  I knew I was not the only one!!! Oh and keep repeating Autumn is almost here ... it does help with the panicing.

So I happened to be looking into my freezer taking stock of what I had to help cut back on the grocery list this week and saw the bag of leg quarters. Ooooo what can I make with this little bargain. I KNOW!!!

 

Chicken Pillows

 

Ingredients-

 

2 cans large flaky biscuits , IE grands type

4 cans cream of chicken soup ... 42 oz total

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

5 cups cooked shredded chicken

1 cup onion mix. Found in freezer section of store. Contains diced onions,celery, bell peppers and parsley.

2 13x9 baking dishes

 

Directions-

 

preheat oven to 350 degrees

 

warm onion mix in microwave and toss into shredded chicken

 

roll each biscuit into the size of a tea saucer , as close to 6 inches as you can

 

place a golf ball sized amount of chicken mixture into middle of biscuit. Close by pinching the ends together and making a dumpling looking pillow. Place into greased 13x9 baking dish.

place dish into oven for  8 min.

 

While the pillows are getting toasty in the oven ...Open cans of soup and mix together in a bowl.

Take the pillows out of the oven and evenly ladle the soup over top of them. Place back into oven and allow to cook for 25 min.

 

Top with shredded cheese and allow to cook for another 10 min.

 

Serve with mixed veggies on the side for a deconstructed pot pie vibe.

 

Serves 8 with left overs for work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Sweet and Sour Pork

Hello from my kitchen. *grin*

 

So our grocery store had an awesome sale on country style pork ribs and we took total advantage of it. Made a lot of new dinners and some old with a new twist. This is the first of them.

 

Sweet and Sour Pork over Rice

 

 

Ingrediants-

 

onion mixture, found in freezer section. contains diced onions, bell pepers, celery and parsely

1 small bag of sliced carrots

3 lbs pork , cubed

Sauce ingrediants

 8 to 16 servings of rice , I make enough for lunch leftovers but you do not have to

 

You can add pineaple, water cahsews and even baby corn to this if you like.

 

 

 

We cooked our ribs low and slow in the dutch oven for 4 hours in the sweet and sour sauce but I would suggest only adding half the vinager it calls for, if you use 1/2 c it will make the meat VERY tart. You WILL NOT reuse this sauce for the vegtable cooking stage.

 

Sweet and Sour Sauce -

3/4 cup sugar

4 Tbsp ketchup

1/2 c white vinegar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

 

Directions-

 

Once the meat is cooked. Dice it into small bite sized peices and set aside.

 

Add onion mix and a small amount of butter to dutch oven or stew pot and stir till it softens.

Add in sweet and sour sauce and carrots. Let this come to a bubbling boil.

Add in meat and turn heat down to simmer.

While this mixture is simmering cook your rice by following the directions on the package.

 

Serve by placing a bed of rice onto plate or in bowl and laddle the meat and suce mixture on top.

 

Feeds 8 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fajita Caserole

So how many of you have larger familes like we do? Well then you know that serving fajitas to each of them can get costly. You are in luck though. Dragon and I happened upon making this as an act of desperation.... We thought we had two packages of tortillas when we only had one. Opps!! What we ended up with was a meal that was VERY good. AND it cut the cost of traditional Fajitas by 1/2!!! Now do not get me wrong nothing will replace the original but this comes in a good 2nd and comes in 1st with the budget.   I hope you enjoy!


Ingrediants-

8 oz cream cheese
16 oz sour cream
2 14.5oz cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 29oz cans refried beans
2 packets taco seasoning
3 bell pepers any color
6 chicken breasts shredded or 1 rotis chicken
20 flour tortillas
4 cups shredded cheese

Directions-

Slice bell peppers to a finger width wide and sautee them in a small amount of butter. While those are cooking start with making the layer mixtures.

Cut 12 tortillas in half and leave 8 for the middle of your layers. Of course look at your pan and cut them to fit as you see fit as well.

Cream cheese mixture - warm cream cheese. Add sour cream and 1 package of taco seasoning. mix till smooth.

Warm beans with 1 can of the tomatoes stir till well mixed

Toss shredded chicken with 1 can of tomatoes and 1 package taco seasoning  



Depending on your dish ... if you can get two layers in great if not use the mixtures to make it single layered.

- spray two 13x9 casrerole dishes lightly with cooking spray
- spread a small amount of cream cheese mixture on bottom of pan
- place a layer of fl tortillas
- spread a layer of the beans
- spread a layer of chicken
- layer 1/4 of the bell peppers
- dollop the cream cheese
repeat layers if you can
- top with cheese
Bake for 30 min at 350 degrees   serves 8 with leftovers for work lunches

 

 

 

 
 
 

 
 

Moving to Alaska ... not really but I wish

I have come to the understanding that I really dislike summer ..... A LOT. Ok hmm that is still kinda harsh. Ok  how is this ....I dislike any outdoor temp higher then 85. There that kinda helps me sound less of a whiny baby.... a little *sticks tongue out*. I know what you are thinking.... but Christi you would hate the freezing cold too. Meh ... maybe but I can function in the cold. It is the heat that makes me , and others in this house, less fun to live with. LOL! Grouchy and lazy and just BLAH. So to end my little whine fest .... COME ON AUTUMN!!!

School has started and life is back to our routine. We are adding an extra class to our day, kinda, ... cooking. It is more a weekend thing and more of an extra credit really but I want the girls to take it seriously so I am conducting it like a class. Today we made pretzels. It is a learning class for me too. LOL! I have never used Yeast that I had to activate before. Needless to say that with our twisted sense of humors there was a lot of " It's ALIVE!!!" being said. Harli even made a video out of the picture she took of the dough when it doubled in size. Of course she posted it on my facebook page.I think we did good. We could have left them in to darken more but we were scared we were going to burn them. I am sure we will get it perfect with practice. We will be doing them again cause we want hamburger buns. Yes Yes Yes!!!

 

 

Something else I have been up to is crocheting by number or crochet by word... goes by both names. In short I took a graph , counted it out by line and am now working it up. Here is a pic below to help you understand. I have really been having a blast making it and I look forward to making more of them. May be one day I will get gutsy and make one out of a photo. As soon as I am finished with it i will be posting the pattern for sale online for whom ever would like to make one too.

 

 

For now I am going to get to work on typing out the three receipts I am behind on for you guys. Then it is grade papers time and back to work on the other project I am working on .... sock monkey pillow pet.... another DDC original. Excited!!!

 

TTFN my freaky darlings!!!