Dinner obsession

Meat + brown rice + black bean bowls

Enough said.

Lately I've been obsessed with these things. 

 

I may have eaten leftovers of such a dinner before a 9 am play date.

Don't judge me.

For the longest time I would always make these with chicken thighs.

1. Because chicken thighs are wayyyy better than breasts

2. It's what we always have in the freezer.

But tonight I was craving this dinner but we were out of chicken and I HATE going to our local grocer for meat, so I pulled out some elk.

We eat a lot of wild game.

No seriously, we eat elk or venison more than we eat another meat. 

And boy am I glad I tried the elk! 

It was to die for! 

Ok, so to the food/cooking part of this blog post.

I cut the meat up into little tidbits, so it would cook fast and it would be easy for our two year old to eat. I seasoned it up with some garlic, salt, carne asada seasoning, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Let it sit for a few hours.

Cook until all the liquid the meat released is gone, 10 min max.

I also warmed up a jar of black beans that had been canned with some garlic. I added some cumin, garlic and salt and let it simmer till I was ready.

We are big brown rice fans in this house, we rarely eat white rice. I think the only time we eat it is if we go to sushi or we go to Silver Dragon.

I like to cook it in the oven, 350 for 60 min, covered in foil, no it's perfect!

Combine in a bowl and top with some cheese, sour cream and a little cholula, and dinner is served.

This has become one of our daughters favorite meals, not her most favorite, which is probably salmon and rice. That girl can put back the salmon, more than I can some times. It's rather amazing actually. 

Anyways. 

Whew!

That's all I can say. 
I was ready for the work week, and Monday made it even better.  Jerrod stayed home, so we slept in till 9!!! The first time in months.  It was amazing, I felt great, and I love leisurely getting up instead of getting up at 5ish.  It was a nice start to the week.  So we relaxed, cleaned the kitchen, well I did.  Jerrod wasn't feeling too hot.  Not sure what he did, but his back is all kinds of messed up. 
Seems like his rhomboids and this erector spinae are out of whack.  I iced and worked it a little but it was still bound up, but luckily this morning it was relaxed and participating in everyday movements. 

I wish my camera wasn't dead right now, because I would love to show what my Christmas lights look like right now. They are fancy!  Jerrod got the kind that have the 16 different functions, so they change patterns, and flash and fade and what not.  Pretty exciting.  I've never had the fancy lights before, usually we just have the plain multi color ones.  I'm not going to lie, these lights are pretty nice, they are so flashy and bright.  We have it set where the red, blue and green all light up and fade at different times. So mesmerizing.


So yesterday we hung around the house, and watched the whole season of Axe Men on History Channel.  Not my most favorite show, but Jerrod sure does love it.  Part of me wonders if logging was a better business and more reliable, if he would rather do that.  He loves cutting trees and using his chainsaw.  Being in the woods is his most favorite place other then fishing in the water.  I think he was definitely born in the wrong time period.  He should have been born in the 40's where men were manly and took to the woods to make money for the family.  He would rather us grow our food and for us to hunt for our meat then go to the store and buy it any day.  We eat wild game more often then we eat store bought meat.  He wears suspenders and rigging pants on a daily basis.  It might be his rugged charm that I like the most. 

Anyways.  We were debating about dinner and what to have the rest of the week. Sometimes I feel that I am always the one deciding whats for dinner.  I have no problem making dinner most of the time, but I like some input.  So we decided on halibut burgers.  Its possibly the best way I've ever had halibut.  We took the halibut and put it in the food processor and added some seasonings, and then made them into patties and covered them in Italian bread crumbs.  we cooked them in a bit of oil just to make them crunchy but not totally fried.  Those served with some herb and butter rice, broccoli and homemade tarter sauce.  AMAZING.  They are sooo delicious, I would imagine people spending 20+ bucks for a dinner like that.    I vote everyone try this.  One of the greatest things about having fish for dinner is that Jerrod usually cooks it.  He is much better at cooking fish, mainly because I usually let him, and often over cook fish.  So when he cooks fish he usually does the whole meal. Which means I get to relax.  Except last night I made rice krispy treats for him.  Can you say messy?  I had to slather butter all over my hands just so I could press the treats down into the pan!  But smear a little peanut butter over them and it was a perfect end to a great day. 

It was soooo windy last night.  I woke up at about 230 because I could hear some kind of commotion going on outside, and i looked out the window and it was like the trees were made of taffy, just whipping around from side to side. 

Well today is uneventful.  I have to go pay rent in CJ, and finish up a packet out there, and sit at the shop for a few, then head home. 

Time to catch up on my reading.

xoxo f&a

Homemade Mac&Cheese for Grown-Ups and other things

Today is going to be a GREAT day! 


There are so many things going on today, such as:
-Getting our christmas tree!
-Giving Dillon a massage
-LOOKING AT THE HOUSE!!! I am sooo excited, I really hope that the well and septic checks out so that we can move forth and see about prices and if we can afford it. :) 
It is such a cute house, a two story, 3 bed 2 bath on 6.2 acres.  Please?  I love that its far from town, and out in the woods.  I like that we could go out on our porch and wouldnt hear our neighbors talking.  That is one thing that I dont like about living in town.  I can always hear both our neighbors talking, yelling, slamming doors. UGH.  And I hate listening to them start that annoying jeep every morning, its obnoxiously loud.  I just want to live in the woods away from everyone. Is that crazy? 

But yesterday was a nice peacful day as well, I started on my obnoxious laundry pile, most of the clothes are things that need to be handwashed, which I think is on my list of things this morning, since I need to clean the clothes that we are going to wear on Saturday when we take our engagement pictures in Jacksonville.  But I also made some delicious Oatmeal Raisin cookies. YUM.  It was delicious. :) 

Last night I was going to take pictures while I was making my version of Mac&Cheese , but my camera was dead and I didnt feel like trying to take pictures with my old fashioned and then have to develop them.  So it will just have to happen another time.

But this mac&cheese was phenomenal.  It was filled with Fontina, Guryere, Extra Sharp Chedder and Bacon.  All melted together with heavy cream and some milk. 

I guess I'll share the recipe :)

Homemade Mac&Cheese for Grown-Ups

Ingredients:
1 lb of Cellentani pasta.
3-5 oz of gruyere, fontina, and sharp white chedder, shredded.
1 lb of bacon, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic ( if you want )
1 tsp salt, depending on taste more or less.
bacon drippings
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
few handfuls of Italian Breadcrumbs




Preheat oven to 350

Start water for the noodles, add some salt and get those going.

In a separate frying pan, cook your bacon to a decent crisp, but not sooo crispy that they taste burnt.

While your waiting for the bacon and the noodles to finish, its time to shred that cheese, and it takes some time, this is when I call Jerrod back into the kitchen to help! Once shredded, set aside

Once the noodles are al dente, which means that they still have some firmness but not crunchy,  drain and let sit in strainer untill we're ready for them.

So your bacon should be about done, scoop the bacon out and let them drain on a paper towel, but dont get rid of the drippings, we'll be using them in a few min.

Take the pot that you cooked your noodles in, and place back on medium heat and put the butter and bacon drippings in and get it all melted.  Once its all melted, add the flour and whisk the 'roux' and let it cook for about 10 min.  we want it to go from a whitish color, to a nice tan.  While your wisking you can add some black pepper and some salt.  Once the roux has thickened and turned to a nice light brown, add the heavy cream.  Keep whisking! Its important! 

Now add the mustard, white pepper, and salt.  I added some garlic to it, but thats just me.  Taste and see how it is.  If decent add the cheese.  And once thats all mixed up, add the noodles and stir it up.  Taste. If it works for you, good. If not fix it. :) 

Once it tastes good, stir in 1/2 of the bacon.  Now pour this delicious cheesy mixture into a 9X13X2 glass pan.  Sprinkle the remaining bacon on top and the breadcrumbs on top. 

Throw it into the oven and cook for about 30 min. 

Dig in! We made this during the summer, and it was even better with fresh tomato, but since its winter now we didnt have any. Still great though!

Enjoy!
xoxo f&a

Dec. 8

So I have decided that I feel so much better when I let all this junk out when I write on here, and hopefully I will convince myself to do this more.

Today I have lots of house cleaning to do, along with laundry and the possibility of making some cookies with ash! =)  She wants to make some sugar cookies, and we'll use my mom's famous recipe, because she has it goin on when it comes to cookie making.  I think I'll also make some Oatmeal Raisin cookies that I found on this other blog, and they are amazing. I made them last week sometime, and they have now been chosen as the forever recipe for Oatmeal Raisin.   Thats something that we've been doing everytime I make a new kind of cookies or dessert of some sort.  We try new kinds untill we find one that we really like, and then we make that new recipe our 'family'  recipe. We were thinking that since we are a young family, we need to have some of the staples figured out by the time we have kids.  Which we dont deny might be in our near distant future.

But today when Jerrod gets home we are going to go to the store and buy some christmas lights and a tree stand, and all the other extras that we dont have so that we can set our christmas tree up tomorrow when we get back from Cave Junction. I am beyond excited.

I have been patiently waiting for the moment to put the tree in the stand, and to string the lights, and then hang the delicate little decorations.  So tomorrow is going to be great.  We are going to look at a possible house that we have been thinking about putting an offer in on.  Its perfect.  6.2 acres out in the woods, and its super cute and perfect for us. :)  So hopefully the appt goes well tomorrow so we can offer on it and maybe make it our forever home. :)

OH! and today I think we are going to have Homemade Mac&Cheese with bacon.  I love the taste of all the real melted cheeses and the smokey bacon bits.  Can you say YUM.  I think I might do something along the lines of what The Brown Eyed Baker did in their Grown Up Mac and Cheese. 


Well perhaps we'll remember to take some pictures of our creations today and i'll remember to post them.

Have a great day!

xoxo

Vegas

Whew. What a whirlwind of a weekend.
Left Oregon midafternoon on Wednesday and arrived in Sin City at about 10'o'clock that night.  We went to eat at Mesa, which is Bobby Flay's restaurant there at Ceasars.  We had THE best quesadilla.  It was crispy, and filled with chicken and all these chilies, and topped with guacamole and lettuce. So simple but so amazing.  Also had some amazing peach margaritas.
Lets just say it was a great way to start our Vegas trip.

Just to give you an idea of WHY we were in Vegas, let me explain.  Almost every year the women of my family get together and have gone to Vegas, to celebrate birthdays, achievements, anything important.  When I get to go it makes it so there are 4 generations of our family there.   Frances is my grandma's aunt, so it makes it pretty awesome.  I was too young for most of the trips, but now that I'm getting older, I get to go more now!
The first night we had gma all to ourselves, so we just relaxed and hungout, because that meant that the next morning, Joy and Frances got there. They changed the whole dynamic of the trip.  Granted that grandma is 70 somthing, Joy is 65 and Frances is 97!! and she's more mobile then people in their 70's!  So me and mom were the young ones of the group. 
We went out to Peynard's for breakfast on thursday, which is an amazing french bistro-style restaurant.  Had some of the best eggs benidict I've ever had in my life, the croissant was light and airy, while the hollendaise was rich and deep. Could of ate it all week!

Each day we were in Vegas, mom and me went to the Apollo pool at Ceasars and baked ourselves in the sun.  We only lasted about 2 hours each day, seemed like the sun was so much hotter here then at home.  But in just a few days, using this stuff called, Maui Babe Browning Lotion, I have to say that I am considerably tanner then when I arrived. And I'm a whitey! :)

Since Las Vegas doesnt have any of the no smoking bans like Oregon, everywhere we went was cloudy with cigarette smoke, and man did it give me a killer headache.  I had a migrain for the first two days, it was terrible.  I was pumped full of Tylenol and all sorts of pain meds, but nothing worked.  Not even Tylenol PM.  But when Friday evening rolled around, magically after dinner my headache went away! :) I blame it on the amazing italian food we ate at Rao's.

Rao's is this famous little restaurant that used to be in NY,  and was just a tiny mom and pop type place, but word started getting out about it, and then it got bigger and bigger, and now its in LV. :)  They have the best Penne ala Vodka ever.  We also got some Veal Parmiggiana. YUM.  It was pounded so flat, and it was so tender you could cut it with a spoon.  And to top the meal off, we got some Ricotta cheesecake, which is my new favorite thing.  It was so light and sweet with just a little bit of tart from the lime zest. Man o Man. Was I in heaven there!

After dinner we walked around Bellagio and went to watch the dancing fountains, which are always one of my favorite things to see. After that, everyone pretty much went to bed. Mom and me stuck a few bucks into some fish machine, and I won just enough to get my hair done. :) SWEET! poor baby needs some attention.

Oh Thursday night, after dinner mom and I went to go see this exhibit called, Bodies.  It was incredible.  This artist took human remains and soaked them in acetone, to remove all the water from our tissues and then replaced it with a polymer, so that when the procedure was finished, the bodies and muscles looked the exact same, but there wasnt any flesh anymore, it was just a waxy substance.  It was spectacular, he took the brain and pumped red polymer through the veins so that then all the flesh was discarded and all that was left was this matrix of red lines.  It was so amazing, I cant even explain.  They wouldnt let us take pictures in most of the places we went, so I dont have alot of documentation of Vegas.

Oh! On Sat, Mom, me and Joy, went to watch Cirque du Soilel: Zumanity.  That was a great show, it was 90 min of sex, and dancing, and laughter. I havent laughed that hard in a long time.  I strongly suggest it to anyone visiting LV. 

So yesterday was our last day in Vegas, so we went to our goodbye lunch at Todd English's Olives.  Which by the way had some amazing food.  I got a Bucatini with lamb and pork meatballs, which were so velvety it was hard to not stuff your face. :)  Mom got a lumb crab carbonara, and that was just as delicious! It was hard to not have good food there, everything is so perfect. Ugh. I stuffed my face for 4 days pretty much

Now its diet time. :)

I was so happy to get home last night, its always so nice to be back in your bed, sleeping next to the person your used to sleeping with. :) staying up every night we were there, and then getting home at 2 was killing my sleep.  So much so that I didnt even hear Jerrod get up this morning, lights on and everything. 

Now I'm dealing with all this crap about my car, its still not shifting right, toyota thinks its a recalled part, but my car might have too many miles for the recall to be free, which is bullshit. its a fucking recall, not my fault. But the part wont be in for a month,so I dont know what we're going to do.  I dont have time for this shit right now. Ugh.  What a way to wake up after vacation. 

Two weeks into fall and its 91 degrees.
What happened to the days when right after labor day, the crisp winds blew in, and the air gets cooler.
The sun warms the midday but when the sun starts to set the cool night air blows in, forcing us to wear sweatshirts and jeans. 
Those are my favorite times of the year.
I love wearing my peacoats and scarves with jeans and comfy grandma shoes. 
I am ready for those days. 
Can they just be here yet?


On another note:
I am the happiest I've been in a long time.
Lately all the stress of my state boards and wedding and weight have been wearing my down into this creature that wasnt me.

I was irritable and grouchy and short temperd.  Everything seemed to make me either get mad or cry.
I felt like I was on this teeter totter of emotions and it was weighing me down.
Jerrod was noticing it, and I kept saying it was stress, hoping that I was right.

I got to a point when I thought, Am I depressed? 
Do I have a problem? 

There were a few nights that after studying till my brain felt like it melted that I would go into our bedroom to watch some movie or some show, that I would find myself wimpering and crying to myself.
I was afraid to let Jerrod in.
I was afraid I was turning into someone that he would want.
Someone that he could'nt love.

It doesnt help that all the pressure of getting married is starting to sink in.
Its the one day that you are supposed to be beautiful.
But when I look in the mirror, I dont feel beautiful.
I dont know if I've ever felt that way when I look at my reflection.

I've never been skinny, never been a size two.
Sure he says he loves me the way that I am, but sometimes there's part of me that wonders, 'would he love me more if I was skinnier'
I know that these aren't healthy thoughts by any means.

What I never understood was, I eat healthy, I'm active. What happened.

Then there comes the wedding dress.
Brides are supposed to be in the best shape of their lives.
They are supposed to be breathtaking in their dresses. 
Will I feel that way when I find my dress?
Will I feel the way that you're supposed to?
I pray that I do.
Everyday I pray that I will look into the mirror and see a beautiful person staring back at me.



Trust me.
Ever since I took my test and that stress was dissolved, I feel so much better. 
I slept the best I have in weeks last night.  I fell asleep early and stayed asleep.
Up until the test date, I was having a hard time sleeping, tossing and turning for hours.
But I slept AMAZING. It was so wonderful waking up this morning.

Also I feel like the woman that I'm supposed to be.  I am going to be a succesful LMT. I am going to be a wonderful wife, and an amazing mother when that time comes.

Lately we've even been talking about kids. I give Jerrod about a year and a half until he's ready.
We were laying in bed last Sunday, discussing our future.  We realized that we're ready to have a family. And a dog alone doesnt count.
We are thinking about waiting to get a dog till after the wedding, just for the sake of the puppy.
We didnt want to have to ask someone to puppysit a 10 month old lab. who knows what kind of damage that would do to another persons house.
=)

Wow, this is getting alot longer then I expected. 
Its time for bed, I have a few more episodes of Bones to watch.

And to leave you with an adorable picture of a BloodHound puppy.  Who will be named Copper.

Imma hound dog. aru ru ru ru.

Today I made an appt for Davids Bridal. EEEEKKK!
I know that the moment that I try on those beautiful dresses that it will truely sink in that

I'm getting MARRIED!!!!!!!

Even though we're planning things and getting the day figured out, i think its still kind of surreal to me. I couldnt imagine it any other way.  Jerrod and me and grown up so much in the past two years, and grown together in a way that has entertwined our hearts. 

So far we have these things booked/planned:

-DJ

-Dancefloor

-Tables and Chairs

-Table decorations

-Food

-Save the Dates/Invitations

We know somewhat how we're going to have the bridal party dress, the boys in Tux's and the girls in some dress, one I havent quite decided on.

I have chosen a photographer but need to nail down the date. :)

And we still have to nail down the 'bar' portion of the wedding, we know we are going to rent one of those keg trailors that have a cooler on one side, so we can store wine and other things in there.

Hmmm.... What else am I missing...

So off to another topic:

Jerrod had to work late last night, so I thought that after Zumba I would be a good house wife and make him a sweet treat, so I wipped up some mini cherry cheesecakes as a suprise. Welp, he didnt work as long as he said, so he got home early, right in the middle. So it wasnt as much of a suprise as I had hoped but he was grateful for the gesture. :)



Here they are! :) Dont they look delicious?

If not you're crazy! They are amazing, and even though I forgot that they needed to cool down with the oven and I took them out so their tops fell a little, and sunk in. But they taste the same as they would if you would have let them cool slowly. :) O-Well!

After reading a dear friend of mines rant about maritial problems being blasted on facebook. AH. I feel the same. Since when is it the worlds problem that you are having a disagreement with your spouse.  There are so many people that are putting these complaints on facebook to such a degree that it feels like they are fishing for attention.

Then there are other people that rant on facebook that doesnt bother me, that I find amusing and I love reading it. Maybe its the content of their rants that decide the difference. If you are fighting with your significant other, why are you on facebook updating your status? How about going back to the moment and trying to work through it and get over it, instead of telling the world. UGH

Ok over it. :) Done.

Haha I'm watching WifeSwap right now and its always guarenteed to make me laugh.  They always chose people who are polar opposites of eachother, today its a woodsy/outdoor family and a manhattan/billionair family. Bwahaha. She wore heels to chop firewood. :)

Alright. Off to study some pathology :)

&hearts

Home Preserving

This is almost my favorite time of year, I love when the weather startss to turn cool, and you need to wear a sweater and your slippers just to get your coffee from the kitchen.  It was nice and cold this morning when i got up and even colder the night before.  I can't wait to dust off my peacoats that are patiently waiting in the back of my closet, and get our my scarves and handwarmers. :)  I love fall. 

With the end of summer also brings its time for canning and freezing of goods.  So far this summer we have put away tuna, and fresh corn and tomatos. This weekend I am canning come tomatos with basil, some EVOO sauce (which is tomatos, garlic, basil, and olive oil)  and tomorrow I am going to make some pickled jalapenos with Jacque Swift. :) Super excited. She is going to teach me how to make them her way. Jerrod loves her jalapenos so this will be a good one to add to my recipe book. Hopefully I can remember to write it all down. 

Presto Canner
(Like the one I got)

All-American Canner
(Like my mom's, the one I want)

So we bought a canner this spring with the hopes that I'd learn to use it and be able to can on my own by fall, well we tried out this so called canner, which is totally different then the one that I grew up using, it was a Presto instead of an All-American, and it had weights instead of a pressure gauge.  I grew up watching  my mom can everything, from Venison to chili, to spaghetti to salsa to garlicky beans.  Mom canned everything, and I didnt appreciate all the hard work she put into this untill I started getting old enough to actually help her. Around age 11 I started helping with the actual process of preserving the food, and started to realize how rewarding it is.  To be able to go into your pantry and look at all the glass jars of delicious healthy food that you saved for your family is amazing.  I am so thankful that my mom canned and that I was able to learn these skills from her. Its amazing how little families home preserve anymore. Sure lots of people make jam or jelly, but very few go beyond that. Alot of people dont can their own meat or even their own sauce.  I have been lucky enough to have been fed homegrown food for almost my entire life, sure there are certain things that we have to get from the store because we just dont/cant make them, but for a large majority we have it ourselves. Ask any of my friends that have been in the pantry and they will attest to the variety of food that is in there. 

Whats so nice about it is, say one weekend you make a HUGE pot of spaghetti and I mean a huge pot, you take some out for dinner for a few nights, and then the rest you put into jars and can, and then someday down the road, all you have to do it pour whats in that jar into a pot, and you know that its going to taste great, unlike some of those jars of spag sauce you get from the store.  Maybe its just me but Prego just doesnt to it for me.  Also I great thing to can is chicken noodle soup. My mom will make a big pot just for canning so when we're sick we can have some good soup instead of some condensed soup with imitation chicken pieces. 

If anyone has ever had REAL canned Albacore instead of the pink stuff the try to convince you is tuna in the tiny metal cans, you will have a really hard time going back to that pink meat.  I dont even know the last time that I had tuna from a can, its just not the same. I guess you can call me spoiled, but I would rather spend the extra money on the real thing and spend the time putting it away so that I can have something thats healthier and better tasting. :) But thats just me.

Also on my food preserving list of things yet to do this winter are:

Can tomatos with/out basil

Can tomato sauce

Freeze anahiems

Freeze blackberries

Make apple juice

Plant garlic for next year ( something I'm extremely excited about)

And anything else I can get my hands on

I think I am going to have to save up to buy myself a canner with a pressure gauge, I've been thinking about it lately with my mom, and since its what I've grown up using, I think its what I want, and I will try to get the stupid Presto one fixed.  When we tried to use it a few weeks ago, we were waiting for the pressure to build inside and we noticed that it was leaking steam from all sorts of places, so hopefully its just the seal and that can be replaced. So hopefully we'll get it fixed and it can be my backup/second canner.

I think thats enough for now.  Now for some pictures!

Goodnight! :) F&A

I just made the most delicious Monkey Bread I have ever eaten.

I got the recipe from Butter+Cream and its amazing. Go look at their site, they have some amazing foods on there and this is only the tip of the ice burg. YUM

Cooking Light ♥

I love that I get my own subscription.  I have always admired the collection of magazines that my mom had from over the years, and each one had at least 25 different recipes, and each one was better then the best.  This months just came in the mail, and its filled with delicious pizza recipes that make me want to build a brick oven and start baking ASAP!

Perhaps we shall have pizza for dinner tomorrow.... we'll see..