Southwest Chicken Soup

I bought a can of Progresso Southwest Chicken soup a few weeks ago and really enjoyed the flavor, but as far as content goes, it was weak. There was much more broth than meat and vegetables, and what little meat there was, was tough and flavorless. I figured I'd give it a try myself and the results were phenomenal.
I started by cooking five skinless chicken thighs in a small amount of canola oil in my dutch oven. I used thighs because they have more flavor and the meat is more dense. I partially cooked them, just enough so they would hold up in the soup. The goal here was not to get moist chicken that falls apart, like you want in Chicken and Biscuits. Then I added enough water to cover the meat and some chicken boullion. After the meat was cooked through I removed the bone and cut up the meat. Then I added more water, some chili powder(~1Tsp), a generous amount of Cajun seasoning blend (~3Tsp), ground cumin(~1Tsp) and brown rice(~1/4 C). I let that boil for about 10 minutes, then I added a can of diced tomatoes and a dash of chipotle sauce. Once it started boiling again I added a can of drained and washed black beans, and some frozen corn. A little salt and pepper to taste and I let the whole concoction simmer for 20 minutes.
I was really pleased with the results. Normally when I make a big batch of soup I freeze some for later, but we fininshed the entire batch in 2 days. I wouldn't advice eating this soup with crackers. Tortilla chips are much more appropriate.

dairy queen dog treats

Whenever Hubby goes through the Dairy Queen drive thru to bring me home a Sundae, they give the dogs individual ice cream treats, These are no small dollop of ice cream, it's almost a medium sized serving. Patch has figured this out and now goes crazy when we drive into Dairy Queen. My BIL didn't know about this and was taken by surprise when he had Patch in his truck. He said Patch went nuts and probably dropped a pound of hair on his seats. Sorry!

Annual Pumpkin Picking

It was time for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch for pie pumpkins, porch decorations and rotten pumpkin tossing.

This is how I want to die:

Me and my little pumpkin:

They always have something growing vertically:

Puppy projects

This was my latest project. I took a .jpg from the web, modified it, sent it on to Roz for cleanup and some further manipulation (I don't have the software or talent) and then printed it on iron-on transfer paper and Viola! Instant cuteness. If you click on the image for full size you might be able to see that the collar says Patch, just like Patch's collar does. I've already envisioned the photo I'm going to take of her and Mike at the fire dept when she's wearing this.
I've been starting to cook in my "new" kitchen. It's a tiny little dump, but it has a gas range, which I think is a luxury. I made an excellent lasagna using zucchini and summer squash from our garden. Such a nice feeling to cook with your own vegetables.

New flowers

The new property came with some of my favorite flowers. They're a semi-wild daylily that grows in abundance back home along the roads and was one of my favorite tell-tale signs of summer. There's an embankment in front of our property which provides the perfect canvas for these heralds of perfect summer days. Too bad the city feels the need to mow down half of them along with all the ferns by the road...

Well cared for Dogs

Patch now has his own pillbox for his daily Bendryl tablets. He's on 50mg every 12 hours according to the vet. It's worked wonders so far. His eyes have cleared up and he's not licking his paws nearly as bad as he was before. His eyes were so bad due to his allergies we'd have to clean them up each morning and then he'd scratch his face for the rest of the day. He was starting to draw blood, and that was when we called the vet. Now he's on the road to recovery. Let's hope we can avoid the ear infections, e-collar and expensive medications we had to endure last year because of his allergies.

Jam and jelly season

Strawberries mark the official start to Jam and jelly season here. I've made violet jelly as a warm up this season, but now things are in full swing. I made 2 batches of strawberry jam, one batch of strawberry jelly and a batch of strawberry-rhubarb jam.
The flowers came from my flowerbeds around the house. I'm going to miss my flowers when we move...

Strawberry season

Strawberry season is going strong here in Minnesota. It was a late season, so there's plenty more strawberries to be had. Michael and I picked 16lbs yesterday.
I've already made a batch of Strawberry-Rhubarb jam and a batch of Strawberry jam. I'll upload photos as soon as I'm done making the next batch of jam and jelly.
Oh, and I'm 34 weeks pregnant!

Much has happened...

We sold our house. Now we can start building the new one. In the meantime we'll be renting at a little duplex not far from here. I'll be sad to say goodbye to my flowerbeds and big kitchen, but it's only for about a year. Then things will be new and better! I just have to keep reminding myself of that for the next year.

Dragonfly Activity and Dog Rescue

Aren't they beautiful? Like little jewels hovering in the air. I love the way this one's wings light up in the sunlight. I first noticed the activity today when i took the dogs out this morning. There was a swarm of dragonflies in the park. It was when I was checking on my roses that I saw another swarm in our backyard.
Most of the dragonflies are hovering around in the air (one even buzzed my ear) but these ones are taking a break and clinging to the chain link fence. I don't know if they are freshly hatched or if this is the behavior they exhibit for their mating season. In either case, it made for some nice photographs.

This afternoon at lunch, Michael and I were sitting at the table in the kitchen when I looked out across the road by the mailbox and yelled, "Blayze got outside again!" Michael said she must have snuck out when he came in the door. (She tends to do that sometimes)
I kept watching as he went down the stairs to go outside and I yelled to him, "Wait, that's not Blayze." He looked out the door and the border collie in question was walking toward our house then it turned and went back into the park. "Sure it's her" he said. I had the other three dogs around me and then Blayze must have heard her name and she walked out of the bedroom where she was taking a nap. "No honey, she's right here."
We decided we should get a hold of this loose dog and find it's owner. Mike went out into the park with a handful of treats and I went to find a leash to bring to him. He followed the dog along a neighbors fence line and finally got it's collar. It was a cute little border collie mix. I brought him the leash and he took the dog into the park to see if it belonged to anyone there. The people in the park said it wasn't theirs and it had been wandering around all morning. Luckily "Bandit" had ID tags. I got my cell phone and we called both numbers on the dog's tag. We got voicemail each time but left a message on the cell phone. Then we called the vet to see if they could track down the owner's address according to its rabies tag. As the vet had me on hold, the owner called and we arranged to put the dog back into their house while they were at work. They were only 3 blocks away. They gave us the access code to the laundry room. When we got there, we found that bandit lived in one of the nicest houses in the neighborhood. Now why on earth would that doggie want to run away from there?

Spring Lime Cheesecake Bites

This weekend was a bridal shower for our oldest niece who is getting married in June. I originally tried making this recipe, but it was too sour and not what I was looking for. So I changed the recipe and added twice as much marscapone and half as much lime and added a dash of vanilla to take the bite off. They turned out just like the light lunch dessert I wanted all along. I also made 2 of the blueberry lime pound-cakes that I made for Mother's Day. Her colors are wasabi green and pink, so I used limes and bleeding heart blossoms as my decoration.
My MIL made a strawberry rhubarb upside-down cake which was moist and delicious and a triple berry chocolate torte that looked too rich for me, but the adventuresome raved about it.

Lilac scented breezes

Today is one of those days when the air is heavy with the perfume of lilac and other spring blossoms.

Violet jelly

We have a large patch of violets in the woods on our new property. It took me about 30 minutes to pick all these. It didn't help that I am six months pregnant and my joints were killing me from bending over or squatting to pick flowers. I followed the recipe I had to a "T" but it neglected to mention that you often need to add a drop of blue food coloring because the flower infusion turns pink when it gets diluted with sugar. Arg!

Loving my new Camera

I love being able to take really good pictures of both flora and fauna. Our new camera lets us take some of the best pictures of both! We got a Nikon Rebel XTi. When we got it, we were able to get the 75-300 zoom lens as part of the package. That's how I got the photos of the birds.
I recognize the Baltimore Oriole in the above photo, but I have no clue who the little guy in the lower picture is.

The little dragonfly was captured using the standard lens on the macro setting. He was unharmed. After a moment to collect his thoughts, he flew away to resume his daily activities.

gosht aur palak (pork with spinach)

Pressure cookers: To own one is to love one.
I forget where I got this recipe, but it was easy to assemble and the pork turned out tender and delicate. It wasn't hot at all, so we were able to talk James into trying some. He normally hates Indian food, simply because he's had a few bad experiences with curry. This was a good introductory dish for him them, very mild and satisfying.

A little visitor to our house. This Robin was just making sure we knew it was Springtime!

Thai Rice Noodle and Shrimp salad

Shrimp was on sale at the grocery store so I splurged and got the big ones. I thought they would work great in this salad. The dressing was a blend of sweet (sugar), hot (red chiles), sour (fresh lime juice) and salty (fish sauce). It was a light flavor and instead of using diced plum tomatoes, I used blanched julienned carrots. Overall, it was okay, but not one of our favorites. The rice noodles were too tough, despite the fact that I followed the recipe instructions for cooking them. I think it made for a prettier picture than a tasty meal. It was a real shame because we love Thai food. I guess I need more practice!

Mother's Day Cake

The day I was trying to figure out what to make for our Mother's Day get-together at my SIL's, my latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine arrived in the mail. I'm so glad it did, because there was a beautiful recipe for blueberry lime pound cake. This was a dense yet delicate cake with a citrusy glaze. There were no leftovers. The pansies were purchased while the cake was cooling. I made a mad dash to Wal-Mart and got 4 six packs of purple pansies and cut off all the blossoms when I got home. Now I have 2 dozen pansies to plant in my front flower bed!

Today I volunteered to help at the Senior Safety seminar given by the local police and fire dept. I just tacked on an extra hour to my normal volunteer time at the police dept and served coffee and juice and cleaned up the tables while the lectures were being given. I felt bad because I had to leave just as they were serving lunch, but Michael and I had a date scheduled. Today is our 2 year anniversary. He has a dentist appt and a fire dept meeting right after work, so lunch was the only time we could spend together. We went out to one of my favorite local restaurants. He had the chipotle brisket sandwich and I had the coconut chicken salad. Bother were excellent and because this was a special occasion, we splurged and had dessert. We ordered a slice of carrot cake and what we got was a mountain of carrot cake. It was very good, but finishing the entire thing felt like work!
This afternoon I hope to settle in and relax with the dogs. I started a batch of my Mom's sour cream chocolate chip cookies. The batter is chilling right now, so it gives me a break before I start baking. Maybe I'll take a nap. I sure could use one after that big lunch!

Seeing double at the Dog Park

In case you were wondering, Spinner is on the left. There was another fluffy tuxedo Border collie at the dog park and Spinner and he took a genuine interest in each other. The new guy had ears that stood up more eagerly than Spinner's do, and he had a more dramatic white streak between his eyes, but otherwise, they were strikingly similar.
Today's trip to the dog park can be summed up in one word: mud. All the dogs found the mud puddles and Blayze thoroughly enjoyed lying down in them soaking her fur up to her shoulders.
We spent an hour at the fire department hosing down the dogs trying to get the smell of swampy mud water off of them. It made for an interesting day. The sun was shining and it was 70 degrees outside. It was a gorgeous day for a stroll through the dog park. Now we're going to pick up some burgers from the local bar (they have an awesome kitchen!) and kick back for a relaxed evening.

snow?!?!

I took this picture this morning at 8am. Michael took the dogs out while I started making rolls. The weather this year has been nuts. Wednesday it was 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) and now it's snowing! Arrgg!
The day started very early for us. Michael got a fire call at 6am (we usually sleep in on Saturdays) and then he came home at 7am and started working on a project in the garage. The dogs could hear him and they started barking and whining, which woke me up. So much for sleeping in.
I'm trying to make Buchty, or "Cheese filled sweet rolls" from the book Kaffeehaus. I had to make farmer's cheese for the filling from scratch. (It's not something we keep on hand). It was easy enough. I slowly boiled some milk (which smelled heavenly I might add) and then took it off the heat and added a little lemon juice. I'm winging this because I couldn't find a recipe with the exact proportions I was looking for. We'll see how everything turns out. If they're pretty, I'll post a photo.The photo doesn't do the taste justice. The rolls are like a buttery brioche. The interior is similar to a cheese danish but not as sweet. Overall, very tasty, but they took a really really long time to make.

Como Park in St Paul

Not much needs to be said about this gorgeous place. The pictures speak for themselves. I went here with my MIL and SIL today and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.





There aren't any leaves on the trees outside yet. Warm weather has only just arrived in Minnesota. But once summer takes hold here, it comes on strong.

Getting along better

The boys are getting along better than ever. Today Patch tried to play fight with Spinner. Spinner mostly ignored him, but it was a step in the right direction.

Happy Birthday to me and Cleaning Closets

The photo is a little fuzzy because the camera was on the wrong setting for the picture we were trying to take, but it still shows you how my wacky in-laws sing Happy Birthday. That's my brother in law on the guitar. He's the nice guy who bought me a fancy bottle of wine for my birthday while I am 5 months pregnant. My reaction was, "Thank you, ...jerk".

Today the weather was gorgeous and we've been doing a lot of Spring Cleaning. Michael is renting a carpet cleaner to shampoo the carpets in the bedrooms. As he was cleaning out the closet he found Miranda's Halloween costume and put it on Blayze. She makes anything look super cute.
I raked out the flowerbeds around the house and put down 6 bags of mulch. I need another 4 bags to finish. Maybe tomorrow.

Shepard's Pie

What to do with leftover pot roast and mashed potatoes? Whip up a batch of biscuits and throw the whole thing in the oven. Yum. What a hearty way to extend leftovers.

Home made Butter

I kind of cheated. I bought heavy cream and whipped it until it broke them whipped it some more. Very simple. I found the instructions here. Out of a pint of heavy cream I got a cup of buttermilk and roughly the same amount of butter. I put the buttermilk to immediate use in making buttermilk biscuits as I was making chicken and biscuits for dinner.
After using some of the fresh butter for dinner, I flavored the remaining butter as honey butter, cinnamon and sugar butter and cajun butter. Consequently, this inspired me to make bread today.
And of course, with making chicken and biscuits for dinner, there are a few beggars for the chicken skin.

Pan Roasted Halibut

Everyone was eating well tonight. We picked up some smoked knuckle bones from our local butcher on the way back from the grocery store. They were enthusiastically received.

Then for the humans, I made a very simple yet amply tasty Halibut dish. The Halibut was conveniently on sale (otherwise it would have been out of our budget) and the dish only required the purchase of a few cherry tomatoes and some pesto.

I started by making pesto butter. I simply mashed together a few tablespoons of pesto with about 6 tablespoons of butter. I shaped this into a roll using plastic wrap and placed it in the freezer until firm.
Next melt a few tablespoons of butter and spread this on both sides of the fish fillets. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, coat with plain breadcrumbs and then sear in a medium hot skillet with 2 Tbsp Olive oil and turn once. Add a cup of sliced tomatoes and then put the whole pan in the oven at 425F for ten minutes. When done, put a big pat of the pesto butter right on each fillet and you're done! The flavor is fabulous and we both loved this dish. I used to remaining pesto butter on the steamed broccoli and it was scrumptious. I highly recommend this simple and tasty dish. We'll try it again when my cherry tomatoes are in season from my garden. That's the only way I could imagine improving this meal.

Restaurant Review: Norman Quacks

Our new favorite restaurant. It's a bar/ restaurant in on Broadway Ave in Forest Lake MN. Reasons why we like it:
1. It's not a chain restaurant.
2. Everything on the menu is fresh made, not prepackaged or frozen. (The chicken tenders are to die for. They're each half a chicken breast dipped in homemade batter and fried.)
3. The butter is different every day and is often sooo yummy. They serve it with home made bread.
4. The quirky menu item names. I've had the Forest Lakeadelphia cheese steak sub. They throw puns or duck names in wherever they can.
5. The generous portions. I don't know how they stay in business. We've never gone there and not brought home a doggy bag.
6. The decor:
Those are waders suspended from the ceiling over the lights and buoy fixture. That's a moose skull on the wall. The partition between the rows of booths is stacked with books. (Not in view) I guess the reasoning there is, you get something to read as you wait for your homemade meal which takes longer to cook than prepackaged or frozen food.

Overall, our favorite place to eat out on those rare occasions when we eat out.