Plate Tectonic Parfait

My cousin had a science project due next week. It involves creating a model of plate tectonics where the plates all have to interact with each other (not just a model of each type of fault). Unfortunately, she also has the annoying habit of keeping all of her models for several years in the bottom of her closet. It's a bit of a mess to clean up. So I pointed her towards parfait.

That's right, that cookie and jello layered dessert that is better than cake (according to Donkey). It's also easy to clean up after it's been graded. (Just remember to take a picture! You may need a record if your teacher's gradebook splorts the week before end of term.)

How to make Plate Tectonic Parfait
*9x13 glass pan with lid (for safe transport to school)
*Red jello (we used 2 cups for a very thin magma layer. If you want more definition in your mantle, you can use more, or layer it with whipped topping or orange for a fiery look).
*Sugar cookies (we used snickerdoodles because I like the taste better).
*Cinnamon sugar (for the land)
*Blue colored sugar (for the oceans)
*Two colors of frosting (one for marking the edges of the plates, the other for marking the direction of travel)
*Toothpicks and labels
*5 red gummi candies - the smaller, the better.

1) Mix up the red jello for your mantle/magma layer. There is room for up to 6 cups of jello plus the cookies, but we used only 2 cups of strawberry jello for ours. This is a parfait!
2) Plan how you want your world to look. Plan subduction, divergent, and convergent boundaries and where you need your hotspots.
3) Make cookies. We just used a regular snickerdoodle recipe. Wait until the cookies are cool but not set hard and put them on top of the red jello. Cover the whole surface (you may have to break cookies in half to fill in the gaps.
4) To make the hot spots:
Volcanoes: Take a red gummi and wrap it in cookie dough. Then bake those cookies inside a small mold (to keep them from spreading). The gummi will melt and look like lava. While the cookie is still warm, mold it to the shape you desire.
Make an extra large cookie and bake it for the plate. Punch out holes for any hotspots and press the cookie down to squeeze jello to the surface. Put a volcano on the top.
5) Make the land cookies. Roll these in cinnamon sugar (you want it heavy on the cinnamon) or green colored sugar before you bake. Put the land cookies over the first layer of cookies. To make folded mountains, squish the cookie against the side of the pan while it is still hot and let it cool all squished up.
6) Decorate. We started with the frosting, but it's actually easier to start with the colored sugars. Fill in the ocean with blue colored sugar. Draw your plate boundaries with frosting. Then draw arrows to show the direction of movement.
7) Label. Use labels and toothpicks to create little flags.

We learned some things along the way.
* Let your jello set up most of the way before you put the cookies in the oven. We had to speed set our jello to the gooey stage by putting it in the freezer.
* Cookies do not behave the way you want them to. It never fails. So plan on making more cookies than you need and eating the rest.

You could try adding fruits, nuts, or whipped topping layers. All I know is that it's one sweet science model.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Soup

Recently, I bought myself a meat thermometer. I've never been very good at knowing when meat is done, and this little tool has helped me a lot.
Sweet and Sour Chicken Soup
1 large frying pan with a lid
stirring spatula
cutting board and serrated knife
can opener
***
2 chicken breasts (1 lb. of meat)
4 Tbsp. butter
thickener
1 pound frozen stir fry mix (or leftover noodles/rice and regular frozen veggies)
1 can pineapple chunks
1/4 cup lemon juice
2-4 Tbsp soy sauce
rosemary
pinch of garlic salt
***
1. Melt the butter in the frying pan on medium high heat. Add the chicken breasts and brown them on one side. Flip them over and add the pineapple juice from the can of pineapple and the rosemary and garlic salt. Turn down the heat to medium low and cook for 5-6 minutes. I used my new meat thermometer to see when they were done.
2. Remove the cooked chicken from the pan. Add 2 Tbsp. flour or a cornstarch slurry to thicken the pineapple juice to a sauce. Add the lemon juice and soy sauce. If you want a runny soup, add some water. If not, you'll have a very thick soup or a meal with a runny sauce.
3. When the sauce is made, add the frozen veggies and pineapple and mix to cover with the sauce. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the veggies are no longer covered in ice.
4. While the veggies cook, slice the chicken. Add it back into the pan with the noodles (if you used leftovers). Mix the sauce around all the chunks, and add water if it is too thick. Once the chicken is hot again, it's ready to serve.

It also tastes better the next day because the sweet and sour flavors have spread through the whole dish.

Recipe: Desserts

It has been a couple of crazy weeks- but the deadline has passed and life is calming down beautifully.

We had a family BBQ last weekend, and we were assigned to bring a dessert and help my dad bring all my siblings (my mom and sister were out of town). Since my youngest sister can't have wheat, I choose to do the family classic: Monster cookies!

The name comes from the original recipe, which made a huge amount of cookies. 12 cups of oatmeal makes a lot of cookies. I don't know how old the recipe is, but my mom's side of the family has had these at every family reunion I remember, including the ones with distant cousins. So I cut down the recipe and tweaked it to fit the random bits of sugar I had in the house.

Monster Kisses
1 mixing bowl
1 stirring spoon (you can use a mixer if you'd like)
measuring cups and spoons
cookie sheet (sprayed or very lightly greased)
cookie disher (those awesome spring loaded scoops!)
***

1/4 c. butter (that's half a stick), melted
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. peanut butter (don't skimp, it's better to have too much than not enough)
--
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 & 1/4 tsp. baking soda
--
3 to 3 & 1/2 cups oatmeal (quick cooking or rolled)
About 24 Hershey's kisses and/or a smaller bag of M&Ms

***
1. Mix the melted butter, and brown sugar together until it becomes crumbly. Then add the peanut butter and mix well.
2. Add the eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Beat the mixture until it becomes smooth and looks like just a lot of peanut butter. This is the glue of the cookie, and you don't want it to be grainy or not well mixed.
3. Add the oatmeal and mix it in until all of the little flakes of oatmeal are covered in the peanut buttery batter. If you put too much oatmeal in, you end up with peanut butter granola, not cookies.
4. Scoop the cookies onto the cookie sheet. Unwrap your Hershey's kisses and put one in the middle of each cookie. You'll probably need to help the dough form around the cookie, so make sure your hands are clean. If you don't have Kisses, shape each ball of cookie dough into a nest and put 3-6 M&Ms inside.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes and let them finish baking on the cookie sheet. They're supposed to look gooey and bubbly. Let them cool on the cookie sheet or they'll fall apart.
If the cookies are golden brown when you pull them out of the oven, they'll be burnt by the time you can get them off the cookie sheet without falling apart. When the cookie sheet is cooled completely, pull the cookies off and put in an airtight container.
They'll keep for up to a week. My family takes them backpacking and camping.

BONUS~
This weekend was my anniversary, so I made my husband some baby cobblers. Cobbler is my husband's favorite dessert.
Baby Strawberry Cobbler
1 cup chopped strawberries (we just used the fresh ones in the fridge)
1/4 cup or so of sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
---
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. oatmeal
1 tsp. spreadable butter

In one bowl mix the chopped strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice. Let it sit while you mix the graham cracker topping in a small ziploc bag.
Spray two little ramekins (the 7 oz. ones).
Sprinkle just enough graham cracker topping to cover the bottom of the ramekin. Add half of the strawberry mixture to each ramekin. Sprinkle the rest of the topping over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 3-5 minutes (just long enough to cook the oatmeal). Cool in the fridge.
Serve with whipped topping!

Confession time

I have a confession. I love to watch the growth of other people.
I realized it a little while ago when my husband asked me why I was so obsessed with analyzing 'The Next Food Network Star.' I loved 'Who Wants to Be A Superhero?' for the same reason.
In each of these shows, and in most of our lives; we have a goal or dream. Each of us has the potential to achieve that dream- otherwise we wouldn't have been chosen to be tested and tried. Trials come in three parts- and as I watch these shows, I see how the reactions of the participants to these three trial elements determines who goes home each week. Oddly enough, for those of a literary mindset, the trials match the types of conflicts in stories.
The first trial each person must overcome is Man versus Situation. At first, when there are lots of different people in the group, it is how each participant responds to the situation/challenge of the week that determines who stays and who goes. On the Food Network, those who cannot cook or cannot capture the camera quickly go home, leaving only those who have discovered how to overcome the situations they are placed in with patience and some degree of focus. The questions to be asked in this trial are "How do you respond under pressure? Do you bend, or do you break? Do you know when and how to ask for help?"
The second trial each person must overcome is Man versus Man. Studies are showing that the ability to get along with and work with other people is a key determining factor to success in life, outranking raw talent and skills. A look at the newer curriculums for schools and business models shows a growing trend towards emphasizing the ability to work with and get along with other people. The days of cubicles are fading fast, replaced by more productive and energetic collaborative models. Social skills, best learned when young and malleable, are finally getting the emphasis they deserve. On the Food Network, especially with this last season, we see that the humble yet confident ability to work with and around others of differing skills and skill levels can be the difference between staying for this week and going home.
The third trial each person must overcome, and in my personal opinion, the hardest, is Man versus Self. At multiple points in our lives, we need to really find out who we are, not just what we are capable of doing. Thankfully, others can help us in our quest to find ourselves. Many people, especially children, can tell when you are being genuine and true to yourself or whether you are playing a role. As this season of The Next Food Network Star draws to a conclusion, this is trial that will send you home.
If you don't know how to cook many things, they can teach you.
If you don't play nicely with others, especially those you don't like or who seem to be working at cross-purposes, this too can be taught (it should be taught as an essential part of school- especially if you are homeschooling).
If you don't know who you are in a specific role- there's not much that can be done. Mentors and others you interact with can tell you when you are close and when you missed, but it's like playing the warmer/colder game. It takes time, and often takes a different amount of time for each person. Find those people who can tell when you are being genuine and use their comments to guide you.

I graduated with my degree in Elementary Education. I had the knowledge base and the methods. I knew the theories of child development and the ability to plan, differentiate, and integrate curriculum to take advantage of the developmental levels of my students. My weakness, and one that my teachers could not help me with, was classroom management. I did not know what was truly important and what was just social niceties. Gimmicks didn't work for me. I could teach a short lesson and do just fine, but extended contact with a group of kids quickly showed that something was lacking in my abilities. I tried mimicking the style of my cooperating teachers, and sometimes I was successful, other times the kids looked at me as though I'd come from a different planet. It wasn't until I started listening to the kids that I realized what I was missing. I needed a vision of what was truly important, and a safe place to escape from the pressures of teaching to focus just on who I was as a teacher.
The kids knew when I got it right, and they let me know. They also knew when I missed, and while they couldn't always tell me how I'd missed, they did tell me quite plainly when it happened. And so I spent two wonderful, life-changing years as an Americorps Literacy Aide at an elementary school. The teachers were patient with me and gave me opportunities to learn from their examples. Having 30+ examples of different styles and an entire year to observe from the sidelines showed me what I connected to, and the small groups I was able to practice with taught me how I teach. My mentors trusted me with responsibilities and approved of my efforts, but never failed to call me in for some sharp correction when it was needed. They helped me to instill the important things in my soul, and taught me to ask for help (a skill which my elementary and high school teachers had failed to teach me). To them I will ever be grateful. They helped me to burn away the dross from my soul and inspired me to focus on what is really important.

Now for my little push: Take a child development class- You'll also be better able to understand other people, especially children when they do weird things. (If you just want to study a little bit, look up Erickson's 8 stages, Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, and Piaget's theories- they cover pretty much everything). This really helped me to understand what was really important, and to never expect something contrary to the child's needs.

Meatloaf

Sorry about being late- our basement apartment flooded last night. Thank goodness for good weatherstripping and a drain 3 feet inside the door. Nothing was harmed but my pant legs.

So for those nights when I really don't want to cook much of anything, or when I'm teaching kids to cook, one of my favorite meals to throw together is meatloaf. You really can't do much to ruin it. In fact, it's so easy, I never bother to measure.

Meatloaf
mixing bowl
spoon/really clean hands
casserole dish
***
roughly equal parts hamburger/ground meat and oatmeal
1 egg
4 tsp. Worchestershire sauce (I love this stuff, so I tend to add a lot).
ketchup
BBQ sauce
garlic salt
pepper
any other seasonings/sauces that smell good (I used oregano and sage last night, but I've even put jam in it. Grape or Apricot Jam work best. Dried mushrooms or onions also work well. Experiment! As long as it smells good, it will taste good. Besides, drenching the finished product in ketchup or BBQ sauce will cover any mistakes you made).
***
1. WASH YOUR HANDS! Especially if you're planning on mixing it with your fingers (fun, but I personally hate the feel of it on my bare hands). Then set the oven to 350 degrees to preheat.
2. Put the meat and the oatmeal in the bowl. Mix together until it forms one gloopy mess. (Eventually, you won't be able to tell the difference between the oatmeal and the meat).
3. Add the egg and sauces to the meat mixture and mix it in thoroughly. You don't want any spice hotspots.
4. WASH YOUR HANDS if you were mixing with your fingers. Then spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray and dump in the meatloaf. Spread it out evenly across the bottom of the dish. If you want, use the ketchup to write your initials on the meatloaf before you put it in the oven.
5. Put the meatloaf in the oven and bake for 25-45 minutes. Thicker meatloafs take more time than thin ones.

Make sure to cook up some vegetables and add some fruits to make it a complete meal. It tastes meaty, but fills you up like oatmeal. And it's made from things you normally have in your house, so it's an easy meal anytime. It's also really easy to swap out ingredients- no hamburger? Just use other ground meat. Turkey works well with rosemary, oregano, and thyme. No oatmeal, use breadcrumbs (although why you would have breadcrumbs but no oatmeal- let's just say it never happened at my house). Mix and match the spices to find the blends your family enjoys. Enjoy!

Vegetable Potato Chowder

My husband wanted something filling last night, but he didn't want any more protein. So I looked through the fridge, freezer, and cupboards and came up with this tasty dish.

Vegetable Potato Chowder
1 large soup pot
stirring spoon
knife and cutting board
***
1/2 onion, chopped up into little pieces
4 Tbsp. butter
1 cup chicken broth/stock
1-2 tsp. garlic salt
2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. thyme or poultry seasoning
1-2 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
water
4 large potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces (with peels or not, the peels are where most of the fiber is)
4 large carrots, in little round slices
1 can green beans
1 cup corn (creamed, canned, or frozen)
1/4 cup instant mashed potatoes.
1/2 cup frozen peas
***
1. Wash(rinse and scrub until all the dirt comes off) and chop up the potatoes, carrots, and half an onion.
2. In the soup pot, on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until the onion turns see-through. This is called 'sweating.'
3. Add the chicken stock and the spices. Smell it, does it smell good to you?
4. Add the chopped potatoes and carrots and add just enough water to cover them. Turn up the heat until the pot starts to boil. Then turn down the heat to low. The soup should stay just barely bubbling, or simmering. Simmer the soup for about an hour, or until the potatoes are falling apart. Stir every 15 minutes.
5. When the potatoes are soft, add the green beans and corn. Slowly stir in the instant mashed potatoes- the soup will start to stick to the bottom.
6. When the soup thickens up, add the peas and turn off the heat. Keep stirring until the peas thaw. The soup is ready to eat!

This soup makes enough for 4-6 people. If you want to, you could add some ham with the potatoes and carrots, or garnish the soup bowls with bacon bits. Enjoy!

PS> It tastes even better when it's reheated. Perfect leftover. Make it on Sunday, freeze some and eat the rest a couple of days during the week.

Chicken Stir-Fry

I think I'll try posting a recipe on Tuesdays and everything else whenever I feel like it. That should help me be more regular with this blog and also help those who read it to be able to follow along.

***Quick note: While I was studying spices, I learned that this dish also closely resembles a buryani (rice dish native to the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia). I'm going to have to experiment some more...***

I must have been only 13 or so when I learned how to make this dish. My youngest brothers had food allergies (corn, soy, wheat, and milk) and most days it was easier to cook one meal that everybody could eat than to try to get two toddlers to only eat what wouldn't make them sick. In order to help my mom, I started making dinner. There's only so many meals you can make that use either rice or potatoes - and this quickly became a favorite because it was fast, relatively cheap, and didn't make very many dishes.

Lemon Chicken Stir-Fry
frying pan
wooden spoon or heavy duty spatula
pot to cook rice or noodles in
***
2 cups chicken (2 breasts or 5-6 tenderloins)
1 bag frozen vegetables or fresh vegetables cut into bite-size pieces
butter or oil
***
2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2-3 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup chicken broth or water or orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp. vinegar or vinaigrette salad dressing
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
***
1. Choose either rice or noodles as your grain and start them cooking. If you're doing noodles, it will help to have someone else around to stir the stir-fry while you drain the noodles. Follow the package directions or
1. Pour 1 Tbsp of oil into the frying pan and tilt the pan around until it completely covers the bottom. Or, you could melt 2 Tbsp. butter in the pan (but it tends to burn, unlike the oil, so you have to watch the stir-fry more carefully if you use butter). 2. On medium heat, cook the chicken until it is white on the outside (you will have to flip it), but still pink in the middle. Move it to a cutting board and cut it into bite-size pieces and then wash your hands.
3. I like to mix my sauce while the chicken is cooking. In a small liquid measuring cup, mix the spices. It really doesn't matter what spices you use, this was my favorite dish for experimenting with different mixtures of spices. So long as you have something sweet (sugar or honey or juice), something acid (lemon juice, vinegar), and soy sauce- your meal will resemble a stir fry. Use your nose to tell you what goes together (although you might want to add the vinegar last as it tends to cover up all the other flavors until after the food is cooked). You could also just add the spices to the stir-fry, although then you usually end up with pockets of just one kind of spice. I like to mix all the dry spices together and then add the liquid spices.
4. Pour the sauce into the pan and stir it around with the oil already in the pan. Then add the chicken, stir it to coat and cook the chicken for 5 minutes, stirring every minute or so to make sure the sauce doesn't burn.
5. Turn the heat up to high and add the vegetables. Stir it around, there will be lots of steam as the ice melts. If you used fresh vegetables, add up to 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every 30-60 seconds.
6. Cover the stir fry and turn off the heat. Finish setting the table, invite everyone to dinner, and say prayer. After that, dish up a pile of noodles or rice and top it with the stir-fry.

So forget the mac and cheese or the ramen and make your family some tasty, vegetabley goodness. Their tastebuds and their waistlines will smile.

A Tale of Two Trees

I've been thinking quite a bit about growth and how our growth relates to the trials we go through. Let me illustrate using the Tale of Two Trees.

When I was in second grade, we moved. It was scary for me, with all those new people in their designer clothes and fancy hairstyles, but I learned to thrive where I was planted. The class was just finishing up a unit about plants and had planted honey locust tree seeds. I selected a seedling from the extras my teacher had started and took it home in a little plastic cup.

While we prepared a place for it in the lawn, it became subject to the influences of the household. The cup was knocked over several times, and probably wasn't watered as much as it would have liked. The suffering of the little plant was over fairly quickly as we planted it outside, just off the center of the lawn, where it would grow to shade the house from the harsh summer sun. We had dug a ring in the lawn, and embedded bricks and a little siding around it to help prevent the grass from overwhelming the tiny tree. We planted nasturtiums to shade and protect the little plant from insects and, hopefully, the lawn mower. The place prepared, we took the seedling from its cup and planted it in the soil, exposed to the elements and seasons, but protected from much that would harm it.
The seedling grew, happily sheltered in its little bed surrounded by the protective nasturtiums, and produced a nice crown of leaves. Then the dog ate the top of the tree. I remember being really mad at the dog for eating my tree, but the tree drew from the strength of its roots and the few remaining leaves and continued to thrive. The interesting thing is that after the dog ate the top, the stem grew back as three separate but equal trunks, splitting close to the ground at first, but rising higher as the tree grew. I think this gives the tree a grace that single-trunked trees do not have.
As the tree outgrew its bed of nasturtiums, a new enemy appeared: the cats. The cats loved to use the tree's soft bark to sharpen their claws, so we put up a chicken wire fence around the soft trunk. We also hung heavy weights from the branches to spread the three trunks so that they didn't grow into each other. The tree continued to grow.
This is a tale or two trees - and so I introduce the second tree. Shortly after planting our tree, our neighbors also planted a honey locust tree. They bought theirs from the nursery already half-grown, its roots wrapped in a little ball of sacking, the trunk tall and straight, and the crown a bushy mass of leaves about 4 feet up the stem. They planted it with care, creating a small flowerbed around the base and edging it with concrete blocks. The trunk was wrapped and taut lines were set around the tree to hold it straight until its roots grew strong enough to hold the tree upright. The tree grew.
Both trees grew tall enough to shade the houses and dropped their long thin seedpods. Both fulfilled their purpose in life.
It has now been almost 18 years since that first little tree was planted, but looking at the two trees, a person immediately notices a difference. While both trees are certainly healthy, the tree that was grown from a seedling is much, much taller - broader of limb and home to quite a few birds in the spring. It shades the house and the yard while still allowing that beautiful golden green sunshine through. It has a majesty and presence that the other tree lacks.

As we go through life, we often wonder if the Master Gardener is paying attention to us. When our little pots fall over, he rights us. He prepares a place for us to live where we will be protected from the worst of the storms - but He still puts us out in the weather. He will plant nasturtiums around us, to drive away the evil forces and shade us from the harsh sun. He will surround us with a protective barrier against the encroaching weeds. We may wonder if we can survive the prunings, and our tender bark is often marred and scratched. He puts up a barrier though, that will give us time to heal and develop a strong thick bark that need not flinch under the assaults. At times we may wish that we were a nursery tree- protected from everything for the first few years, encouraged to grow as tall as we can, but think too, that the Lord knows what we can become, and will provide all that is necessary for us to become the majestic beings he knows we can become. Our roots must dive deep. Are we content with being pampered, or do we really want to reach and grow to our full potential? In all growth, it is the trials that we overcome that become the essence of our strength, so when those sore trials come upon you- think of what the Gardener has done to protect you and let the trial bring you strength as you reach your roots down to find His living water.

Beans and Rice

My husband went on his mission to Sao Paulo, Brazil and learned Brasilian. My little brother is currently serving in Rio di Janeiro. Both tell stories of living off of "Beans and Rice" much like our college students live off of Ramen and Take-out Pizza. I'll have to ask for an actual story later.

And so, this dish is my tribute to missionaries everywhere, but especially those who are going to the countries of beans and rice. It's a simple dish that still tastes good the next day and doesn't cost a lot in ingredients.

Beans and Rice with Chicken
1 ziploc bag
Frying pan & Spatula
Casserole dish
Can opener
Stirring spoon
pot with a lid (to cook rice in)
***
1-2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 Tbsp. flour
2 tsp. seasoned salt
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
***
2 Tbsp. butter
***
1 1/2 cup rice
2 cups water
***
1 can diced green chiles
1 can drained and rinsed beans (black, kidney, etc)
salsa (optional)

1. In a small pot with a lid, cook the rice. Put the water and rice into the pot, cover it and turn on the burner to high. When it boils, turn down the heat to low, and set the timer for 20 minutes. DO NOT UNCOVER THE RICE UNTIL THE TIMER GOES OFF. After the timer goes off, turn off the burner and fluff (separate the grains by stirring) the rice. Scrape the rice off the bottom of the pot so it doesn't stick.
2. Open the can of beans and rinse the gooey sludge off the beans. I do it by opening the can most of the way and then pouring water into the can, pouring out the slime, pouring water into the can, pouring out the slime, etc. You don't have to get the beans completely clean, just get the goo off them. Open the can of green chiles too.
3. Lightly spray your casserole dish and dump in the beans, rice, and green chiles. Stir the beans and chiles into the rice and smooth it down into an even layer.
4. Turn on the oven to 350 degrees.
5. In a ziploc bag, mix 2 Tbsp. flour, 2 tsp. seasoned salt, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Add in the raw chicken chunks, zip the bag tightly closed, and shake the bag until the flour coats (covers) all the chicken. It's easier if there are only 2-4 pieces of chicken in the bag at a time. !WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER TOUCHING RAW CHICKEN to prevent icky diseases like salmonella!
5. In the frying pan, melt 2 Tbsp. of butter on high. When the chicken is coated, put it in the frying pan and give it a nice crust. Watch carefully! The chicken and flour burn easy! Don't worry about getting the chicken all done, it will finish in the oven. You're just giving it a nice layer of flavor on the outside. When the flour starts to turn all brown and crispy, turn off the burner.
6. Put the chicken on top of the rice and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes or the chicken is done. Chicken is done when there isn't any pink in the middle of a chunk.
7. Eat it with salsa or as it is. It's mildly spicy. It also tastes great as a leftover - just package up what's left into little containers while the food is still hot and put them in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave, or in the oven.

Chicken Pot Pie

My mother in law requested this recipe. Her husband loves to eat Chicken Pot Pie, but her recipe includes lots of milk and cream, which aren't helping his cholesterol levels. I adapted this recipe one day when I was playing around with different chicken casseroles and I had a turnip left over from a lesson at school.

Chicken Pot Pie
1 large soup pot
knife and cutting board
stirring spoon (long wooden handled ones work great)
2 cup liquid measuring cup
1 9x13 pan or equivalent volume in casserole dishes or pie tins
1 hour
***
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 - 1 onion, chopped or minced
1-3 chicken breasts, chopped into bite-size pieces.
3-4 carrots
5-6 cups chopped potatoes, turnips, or other similar root veggies
1 bag of frozen veggies (beans, corn, peas, broccoli, cauliflower - your choice)
1-2 cups of chicken broth or stock
**Soup thickener - chicken gravy, a roux of butter and flour, cornstarch, or instant mashed potatoes**
2 Bay leaves
1 tsp. hot sauce
2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. curry powder or turmeric (adds yellow color)
Biscuit Dough (to make the crust)

1. In a large soup pot on medium-high, melt 2 Tablespoons butter and saute the onion in it. When the butter has completely melted, add the chicken and cook it until it is about 3/4 done (just a little pink in the middle).
**If you are thickening with a roux (fancy French word for cooked flour and butter used to thicken a sauce or soup)- increase the butter to 4 Tablespoons and add 2 Tablespoons of flour to the pot with the chicken. Cook the flour (you will want to stir it around or turn down the heat) until it becomes golden brown. Then add a little of the chicken broth to keep the roux from burning.**
2. When the chicken is 3/4 done, add the broth and all the spices. Smell and taste it to see if it tastes good, adjust the spices if necessary.
Now add the potatoes and carrots and add water until they are just barely covered. Put the lid on the pot and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. While it is cooking is a good time to get your biscuit dough crust ready.

Biscuit Dough Crust
1 mixing bowl
Fork or Pastry cutter
Clean surface to roll it out on
20-30 minutes
***
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Sift (mix) these ingredients together.
4 Tbsp butter - Cut (squish) the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry cutter.
3/4 milk or orange juice - Add the liquid and stir well. Then on a well-floured board, knead and roll out the dough to a size that will fit your pans. (It will probably be sticky).

3. Grease your pans/pie tins. I like to do this in little casserole dishes because then I can microwave them later.
When the potatoes are soft, check the consistency of your soup/filling. This is the time to add the other thickeners.
**If you are using gravy mix, ladle out 1 cup of the hot liquid. Thoroughly mix the gravy into the hot liquid and then pour it back into the soup.**
**If you are using cornstarch, mix 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch into 1 Tablespoon of cold water, making a slurry. Then ladle out a cup or two of the hot liquid from the soup. Whisk the cornstarch slurry into the hot liquid and boil for 2 minutes before returning to the soup.**
**If you are thickening with instant mashed potatoes, add the flakes into the soup and stir well. Add the flakes only a little at a time until the filling is the right consistency.**
4. Now turn off the stove, and turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Pour your soupy innards into the pans until they are 3/4 full. Then sprinkle the frozen veggies (still frozen) on top. If you would like, mix the frozen veggies into the rest of the filling before adding the crust. Fill the dish almost to the top and lay the crust over the top, crimping (pinching) down the edges. Then with a sharp knife, cut some steam holes in the crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-16 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and delicious.

This recipe makes a full 9x13 pan of pie, adjust the amount of chicken, potatoes, and carrots to better suit your needs, the rest of the ingredients stay the same. Please comment and let me know the all the variations you try!

Mushroom Risotto with Fish

Earlier this week I was cooking dinner. I looked through the fridge (mostly empty), the freezer, and the cupboards. I then went through my stack of cookbooks looking for inspiration.

This is inspired by two recipes I found in my Ultimate Recipe Collection (Trident Press) cookbook. The first is called luncheon fish rolls, the second was creamy mushroom risotto.

MUSHROOM RISOTTO WITH FISH
2 saucepans
1 9x13 pan
small bowl
30-40 minutes
...
2 cups boiling water
1 packet mushroom gravy (designed to make 1 cup of gravy)
...
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 onion, chopped fine
3 gloves of garlic
1 cup rice
1 can (6.5oz of mushrooms)
...
4 Thawed Tilapia fish fillets
5 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp lemon juice

1. Read instructions on how to cook the fish (located on the package). Thaw 4 fillets.
2. Set oven to 375º (same temperature as on the fish package).
3. In one saucepan, Boil 2 cups of water and mix in the gravy mix. Turn the heat down to low.
4. Melt the butter in the other saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft. Add the rice and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add the mushrooms.
5. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Ladle in the gravy half a cup at a time, stirring it into the rice until the liquid is absorbed.
6. When all the gravy is in the rice, spray the 9x13 casserole dish and spread the rice into a thin layer on the bottom. Lay the fish fillets on top.
7. In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise and the lemon juice together and spread over just the fish fillets.
8. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 16 minutes, or until fish flakes easily. Let the fish set for 2 minutes before serving.

The light flavor of the tilapia set off the earthy flavor of the mushrooms perfectly. Very tasty meal.

At Home in the Kitchen

Most of my early memories take place in the kitchen. My mother loved to cook and taught me through example how to make delicious, beautiful meals for various sizes of groups- all on a budget, using what was already in the house.

I didn't realize what a wonderful, useful skill this is until after I was married. My friends and family knew that I liked being in the kitchen, and that was reflected in the choice of wedding presents.

I'll be posting a few of the things I've created out of what was on my shelves.

Autobiography

When I was little, I didn't really know my mother. We spent lots of time together, but it wasn't until she starting writing that I really learned who she is. Writing is also one way I found out about myself.

Our story begins in 8th grade English class. Our class has just finished the Diary of Anne Frank (both the play and the movie), and our teacher decides to have our huge assignment of the term be an autobiography- specializing in how we feel about life. The assignment description was lengthy and arduous- a specific assignment for each of the 16-20 pages we were required to do. At this time, my hormones had kicked in fully and the last thing I wanted to do was actually pay any attention to squirmy feelings. Additionally, there was quite a bit of uproar at home between my mother's health problem, my younger brothers' autism, and the rest of my younger siblings. I was feeling overwhelmed, and not much else. I sat at the computer and said to myself, "Okay, he wants to know how I feel about life." I began writing how I felt about my life. It quickly turned into a story that was a cross between Pippi Longstocking and Cinderella. There was a girl who lived in the kitchen working away for the stepsisters and family upstairs. Other than the neverending demands, they really weren't much of a problem. The girl lived with 2 horses, named Strawberry and Brownie, a couple of cats, and a molting, revolting shrieking parrot. Her problem: she was craving chocolate. Well, the king and queen were throwing a ball for the prince and everyone was invited. The girl wanted to go because the castle was offering a free chocolate bar and a cat had just eaten the last of her hidden stash. I turned in the story. My teacher took one look at the top page, without even reading it, and said "This isn't the assignment, and you're too late to do it again." I was very angry.
Fast forward to 11th grade English. Again, our teacher was having us write an autobiography; but this time, she provided a way for all of us to accomplish it. The assignment description was short and open-ended. "Write about an event in your personal life that changed the way you viewed the world. Keep it less than 3 pages. (The description then had the list of good writing traits that she was actually grading us on)." She also read a few examples from past years, helped us map out a series of events in our lives to get our minds thinking, and frequently checked in with us to see how we were progressing. I did the map and the rest of the prework, but I couldn't think of an event in my life that I wanted to write about until 2 days before the rough draft was due. It actually happened as an accident. A few days before our teacher had given us the assignment, I had had a very vivid dream- so vivid that when I got home from school that day I spent an hour and a half writing it up. Well, I was on the computer cleaning up my files when I spotted this dream. I read through it and realized that here was the event I had been looking for. I knew from past experience though, that I needed to prove how this story fit the assignment, so I wrote a introduction at the top explaining the fear I had always lived with and a paragraph at the end explaining how this dream helped me conquer my fears. We read in groups for rough draft day, and were supposed to pick the one story that stood out as a good example. The class came down to two stories- mine, and another girl's. She had done exactly what the teacher had envisioned, writing about how a hiking trip had changed the way she felt about her dad. However, everyone in the class agreed that my story was just as moving, only so out-of-the-box that it was unexpected. The teacher asked for a copy of my story after she graded it, explaining that she wanted it as an example to show how open-ended the assignment was. I gladly agreed.

Anyways, the moral of these stories is how I learned to know my mother. It wasn't the real life things she did; but the stories she told that taught me more about how my mother viewed life. Fiction is a gateway to the soul- bypassing all the baggage of reality. And that is why her life history is contained not in the pages of a journal, but in her actions and the stories that bring her to life.