Friday's Cooking Experiment or What Is For Dinner

****Disclaimer: Okay, whatever you do, please do not tell my children any of this is healthy. Thing Two cannot even handle the term "organic". Also, this is not a cookbook meal. This isn't a great meal, but it was fun. Shouldn't cooking be fun?****

The kids and I needed dinner tonight, and Fridays are special. Usually, Friday is pizza night, and tonight was no different, but I wanted to eat in to budget and to be just a little bit healthier (ssshhhhh). So, in the process I came up with my own recipe for chicken pizza. This isn't a buffalo chicken pizza, even though those are the bomb. My son is too picky for that. Instead, I began with a store bought wheat pizza crust, and I brushed olive oil on it and used a little dab of fat free butter spray. I then cut one large chicken breast in cubes and browned it with olive oil, onion, garlic, fresh peppercorn, and a dash of kosher salt. Yummy, but I wanted more. I then grabbed my bottle of Worcester sauce and sprinkled away. The smell was heavenly. I think I am going to fix that again this week and eat over couscous or rice. After the chicken breakthrough, I sprinkled low milk fat pizza blend cheese over the crust, added chicken, and then another layer of cheese. Now, have you noticed anything missing? I didn't add sauce. I have no idea why; we all like the sauce, but I wanted something different. I baked it at 425 for 11 minutes.

Final verdict? Thing One and Thing Two ate two slices each and were very happy with the results. We ended the meal with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream. The best part was the involvement of the entire family in making the meal. Nothing better than a full kitchen, dancing kids, and loud music.

Check out this blog: The One Minute Writer

A friend (Hi, Brian) sent this to me last year, and I often use it with my students for pre-writing or beginning activities: http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com.

Today's prompt: Write a brief poem reviewing a book or movie you have read or seen.

I wanted to share mine with you today. This is a haiku dedicated to my all time favorite book, East of Eden.

East of Eden

Steinbeck Amazing
Cain, Abel, heartbreaking, yes
Father forgiveness


If you make this blog a part of your every day routine, I swear you will find out more about yourself. You never know what you will find when you only have a minute.

Just Another Manic Monday....

Today has been, well, a day. Thing One had her first day in soccer camp, and that meant Thing Two got to run errands with me, my grandmother, and my mother, and by 10:30 this morning, I had already been to two doctors' offices and Lowes. I managed to get to school and work this afternoon, only to come home and find my air conditioner was broken. Thank goodness my landlord came ASAP, and my house is once again a haven and not Hades.

The kids and I did have one cool indulgence that made everything easier to handle: cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes. We found the recipe on a wonderful blog called 52 Cupcakes. She is a cupcake queen who is trying to make all of Martha Stewart's 175 cupcakes, similar to the Julie/Julia project. I love her blog because it is giving me so many delicious ideas and confidence. Yes, I am becoming comfortable and confident in my own kitchen. For example, I have never made homemade cheesecake before, and I may never buy store bought again. I am far from a "foodie" just because I lack any natural talent, but I find the more I read and make, the more I like it. Not easy to come out of my comfort zone, but it is sweet.

New Recipe: Nacho Pie

****Disclaimer: I am not a professional cook, and I cannot even claim to be a good cook, but I do watch Food Network on TV. Once again, I just know what I like.****



I have to admit, I may think I came up with this last night, but I bet there are people all over this fine world who have already made nacho pie on their own, but when something is quick, easy, and good, it still must be celebrated. Better yet, when the kids clean their plates, the clean up is easy, and the meal was not complicated, that is when I celebrate.

Ingredients:
1 lb. of lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 cup of Bisquick
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 onion
taco seasoning packet
1 cup fiesta blend cheese
1/2 cup baked nacho chips
Salsa
Sour cream
black olives
fresh diced tomatoes

1. Grease a loaf pan and set aside. Preheat over to 400

2. Brown onions until soft and then brown meat

3. While the meat is browning, mix the Bisquick with the eggs and milk. pour in loaf pan and set

4. Drain the meat, and add taco season and fix according to directions on package

5. Add meat to Bisquick mixture by spooning down the center

6. Cover with cheese and crunched up nacho chips

7. Bake until brown, about 30 minutes

8. Garnish with extra cheese, tomatoes, salsa, and black olives or anything to your taste

Maybe not original but really good.

Six Word Saturday

Thankful for the life I have.

New Music for The Day: Ghost in My Head

****Disclaimer: Once again, I have no entertainment or music experience outside of a church choir. I just know what I like****

I have eclectic taste in music, and if you shuffle my Ipod, you will find every style represented from classical to electronic. However, as I grow(prefer that to age), I find myself listening more to what Itunes calls "singer/songwriter". I just call it crunchy rock. That is the noise you make when you eat granola, and I know this comes from listening to the Indigo Girls and The Grateful Dead in college. I tend to favor singers who are more comfortable in a coffee shop than a stadium. I like the intimate feel of crunchy, granola rock, and this describes Jill Hennessey's debut CD, Ghost in My Head perfectly.

Some people who are not familiar with country music may consider this as country, but there is a difference. This is more folk than anything with a guitar, a message, and a beautiful, soothing voice. Perfect listening for a cool summer night with the windows open. Hennessey's voice is not synthetically perfect like every pop princess on the radio. Instead, we find something more, deeper, multi layered, and richer. It is just genuinely real. You can see this directly in the songs "Slow Down" and "Save Me".

Here is Jill Hennessey singing "4 Small Hands":



OH, I am writing this as I watch The Today Show, and Katy Perry is butchering her own songs. Great personality and seems like a lot of fun, but it almost seems more like karaoke on the plaza.

Pine Sol, Baby

The truth will set you free, or in my case, cause me to scrub down my living room walls with Pine Sol at 2 AM. I rediscovered a not so well kept secret by somebody who I once loved, and I cleaned to avoid the fact it still can hurt sometimes, even after all these years. The past has a beautiful way of reminding you that you are human and flawed, but in a way, I am thankful now for the pain and muck. I didn't exactly make lemonade with what life gave me, but I sucked the lemon, dealt with it, and tossed it away. My life is my own, and I now have really nice shining walls and a clean, fresh scent.