It Gets Pretty Dirty

What on earth do you do when you realize that you aren't living up to your husband's wildest dreams?

It gets pretty dirty in the winter. Well....the car does, but I guess that I don't. Kevin wrote this message to me and we decided it was funny enough to leave it on the window so that others could enjoy it.

When Amanda left Mom's house, her kids read the message on the window and asked her what THAT meant. She called to say that I was in trouble because she had to tell her kids that it meant "nothing."

Pomegranate, Grapefruit, and Avocado Salad

Mom makes a great fruit salad. She wouldn't let me take a picture of HER with her salad, but she did let me take a picture of the salad in her gorgeous bowl. It doesn't sound like it would taste very good, but the flavors play together and it is surprisingly yummy. It is a bit of work because getting the seeds out of pomegranates and cutting the grapefruit sections is a time consuming task. If everyone pitches in and helps it goes a lot quicker, but it isn't something I would personally conquer on my own.

Pomegranate, Grapefruit, and Avocado Salad
3 grapefruit
2 small avocados
1 pomegranate
Cut the skin off the grapefruit and then cut out the sections. All the tartness is in the skin, so be sure to get all the skin off. Cube up the avocado, trying not to mash it too much. Bribe someone else into peeling the pomegranate. It seems to take forever and Dad is way faster than I thought humanly possible at peeling pomegranates.

Enchilada Sauce with Aunt Linnie

Not only is Aunt Linnie beautiful, she also makes a mean enchilada sauce. Kristin had gotten her hands on a jar of it a couple of years ago and I got to try it, and ever since I have been craving another taste of her magic sauce.

Last week, Hali and I had to drop a few things off at her house, and while we were visiting, it suddenly dawned on me that if I asked her for the recipe she might give it to me. It was a startling revelation, and the question blurted out of my mouth before I could second guess the impropriety of asking about a secret family recipe.

Aunt Linnie offered to make it with us the first time. This was very generous of her because she is getting ready to leave for a trip to California. We were so excited by her offer that we jumped at the chance and she came over yesterday to make it.

It was a bit of unfortunate timing because about 1 1/2 hours before she arrived I got a migraine. Arrrgghh!! It has been a long, long time since I have had one, and I had been looking forward to this enchilada sauce. Instead of calling her and telling her not to come, like a normal person may have done, I decided to ignore it.

We had only made it through mixing up the ingredients when I was forced into hibernation, and I went to bed. When I woke up feeling better at 1:30 AM, I got up for a snack and the enchilada sauce was already in the jars. It was the easiest batch of enchilada sauce EVER!

Aunt Linnie says that El Pato tomato sauce is the only brand that works in this sauce. She knows pretty much everything, so I am going to take her at her word.

Enchilada Sauce

2 big spoonfuls of shortening

2 3/4 C flour

4 quarts tomato juice

4 quarts water

2 cans El Pato Tomato Sauce (7 3/4 ounce)

3 T salt

1 1/2 C + 1 t sugar

4 t cumin

3 t ground oregano

1 1/4 T vinegar

Melt shortening and add flour until it makes a smooth paste. Add the water and tomato juice. Add El Pato tomato sauce. Keep stirring to get out all lumps. Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add to sauce. Add vinegar. Bring to a boil and reduce slightly.

Add sauce to jars and let them steam in the pressure cooker for 45 minutes before putting on the lids.

Enchilada Soup

1 quart enchilada sauce

2 cans corn with liquid

2 cans kidney beans, rinsed

3 chicken breasts or 1 large can of Kirkland chicken from Costco

Poppyseed Cookies

These tiny sandwich cookies are my absolute favorite. They take forever but are so completely charming that one look (or bite) melts all the frustration you had while you were rolling out and cutting a billion little 1 1/2 in cookies.

I brought these to work on my birthday this year, and everyone still talks about them. They are sprinkled with sugar and salt. Nobody expected the salt, so they were thrown off and they didn't like the distinct taste. Of course, I reached out and tenderly told them that the cookies do require a sophisticated taste and some people just aren't refined enough to enjoy such an adult pleasure. Needless to say, "Megan's Cookies" carries mixed connotations.

If you are looking for flaky salt, Trader Joe's is a great source. Or, you can just use fine grained sea salt.


It is easier to sprinkle the sugar if you use a mini strainer.

When you are rolling them out, it is easiest to do it between two pieces of saran wrap. The dough stuck to the counter, and it also stuck to the silicone baking sheet. And I hollered in frustration. Keep it simple and just stick to the plastic wrap.


This time, I made half of the cookies with sugar and salt on top, and half with just sugar. The ones that have flaky salt on them are the ones I sandwiched with chocolate. Yum-O-Licious. Here the fabulous, golden brown cookies. Oh, dear. I think I may have died and gone to heaven. I really didn't expect to get here.....now I don't know what to do with myself.

The ones with just sugar are just going to stay as they are. Mostly because when I was rolling out the cookies I looked at the clock and cried to see it was taking so long for so few cookies. Then I cried again when I was finished sandwiching the salty ones because then there were only half as many cookies. It was too much to bear, and this way they look more plentiful

This is my favorite one. Where is my heart? Oh yeah - Kevin has it.

Grapefruit Extravaganza

Every year Grandma Neves has sent us a box of 9 grapefruit and 12 oranges. They are wonderful, but it is a lot of fruit for 2 people to enjoy. This year she pre-ordered the fruit so that all her kids and grand kids had them this one last Christmas. At her funeral, Aunt Louise mentioned that she had made sure that she got them ordered, so this year, more than any other, I want to be sure to savor every piece of fruit.

The oranges are easy to eat but it can be hard to enjoy a grapefruit every day for almost 2 weeks straight. There aren't a plethora of recipes for grapefruit, but I am doing my best to scrounge up at least a couple. If you have been lurking around this blog and have a recipe that you use, be sure to post it in a comment!

The one I tried today is served warm with honey and cinnamon. It is amazingly easy - hardly any extra work from just eating it with a spoon. The honey mellows out the tartness and broiling it makes it extra juicy.

Broiled Grapefruit
1 grapefruit
1 t honey (or more)
sprinkle cinnamon

Cut the grapefruit in half. If you are feeling especially energetic, cut the sections so it will be easier to eat later. Drizzle the honey onto each half, and sprinkle each half with cinnamon. Broil for 4-5 minutes until top is bubbly. Watch out for grapefruit juice shooting into your eye!

Pumpkin Dip

This pumpkin dip was the hit of the company holiday potluck. At least that's what I tell myself. Three women and two guys asked me about it. They talked about how much they like pumpkin (of course) and how wonderful this dip is. I smiled and reveled in my glory, sprinkling my tidbits of pumpkin lovin' comments through the conversation.

Thie dip bowl absolutely must be labeled during a potluck. Otherwise some people will think it is bean dip and that would be a disaster. Just imagine a salty chip dipped in sweet pumpkin.

You know that handy little trick where you dip apple slices in lemon water and they don't turn brown? Yuck-O-Rama. Don't bother doing that. If you wanted to eat something that tasted like a lemon, you'd just go get a lemon. Apples should never be defiled by the vile taste of lemon. Brown apple slices are far superior to white lemon-apples. And if you're really concerned about it, just serve it with ginger snaps instead of cut up apples.

Pumpkin Dip
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 can pumpkin
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t ginger
dash nutmeg
Blend everything with a hand blender until it is smooth and creamy. Refrain from eating the whole bowl immediately with a spoon. It will be hard to show that much restraint.

Enjoy with apple slices, ginger snaps, nilla wafers, or graham crackers.

Fast, Friendly Service. You'll Find None of that Here.

Last February my computer started making weird noises. The fan would put out a high pitched whine for a few hours and then shut off. I was told that it was out of warranty, so I would just get a new computer.

Today I got a new laptop at work. My admin is about to ring my neck because I have asked her when my new computer will be here every week for the past 9 months. It is outrageous that it took so long.

But now it is finally here so I can jump for joy. Now I can't send encrypted email because my certificates weren't imported to my new computer. I called the help desk to ask them how to install the certificates. The "help desk" is a phone number anyone at work can call and they will fix any computer related issue.


I originally had an email that explained the steps to install the certificates, but our email is automatically deleted after 1 1/2 months, so I no longer had the instructions. The guy at the help desk was willing to restore all my old emails. I told him that, no, I didn't want to hunt through all my old emails. I wanted instructions on how to install the certificates. He told me to call the company who sells certificates and have them guide me through how to install them.

Outraged, I told him that I knew there was a company contact who was in charge of certificates, and I would not call a third party for instructions that I should be able to get from him. Miraculously, he suddenly remembered how to install certificates and they were installed in 5 minutes.

Uggg....those help desk guys. No wonder they get a bad reputation.

Black Bean and Steak Chili

The snow calls for something warm and hearty. A big pot of chili and some mini cornbread muffins are just the ticket to satisfaction through the storm.

At our house we have a strange problem. Two years ago we started buying our beef from a rancher in Iowa, who will sell us 1/4 a beef at a time. He butchers and then splits all the cuts into 4 sections so everyone gets the same amount of each cut. It takes us a solid year to eat it. This year we got it in May and the hamburger is almost gone - but the freezer is overflowing with steak and roasts. What to do, what to do? We had better start eating more steak.

Clarinda, Kevin's friend who introduced him to the church, made steak chili for him once, and he decided to make it for us so. Just so you don't get the wrong idea, Clarinda is my friend, too. And why wouldn't she be? She is wonderful. And if she hadn't been Kevin's friend, Kevin and I may have never left. Yes, we owe a lot to the lovely Clarinda. But she was Kevin's friend before I even knew her, so she is listed as "Kevin's Friend."



Here is the whole pot before it simmers down. It thickens and darkens as it simmers.

Isn't this little cornbread muffin the cutest thing you've ever seen? I will refrain from giving you the recipe because, quite frankly, it was a new recipe and not a big hit. We wanted to try a recipe that had pieces of whole corn in it, and this one turned out to be mostly corn and only a little bit of cornbread. Bluuck.

Grill the steak and cut it into very, very small pieces. You don't want to get a bite of nothing but steak. Kevin calls it 'nibble size.'

Black Bean and Steak Chili
2 - 6 ounce steaks, grilled and diced

2 sandwich bags of frozen roasted tomato puree - or 2 cans of tomatoes, 1 chopped red or green pepper, and 1 chopped onion

2 cans black beans, or 3 cups cooked black beans

2 T chili powder

1 T paprika

1 t salt

dash cayenne

Add tomatoes, pepper and onions to large pot and simmer until tender. Then add everything except the beans. If you are using the roasted tomato puree, add everything except beans to the pot. Let it simmer for 30 minutes on medium heat. Add beans and continue to simmer long enough to heat them thoroughly. Add water to desired thickness.

Turkey Noodle Soup

What do you do with the leftover turkey? Make soup, of course!

Sometimes noodle recipes call for salt, but I don't like to knead noodle dough with salt because it cuts into my hands. Salt the water instead. Also, the standard is to use 1 egg for each person, but I think that is too much. 1/2 egg is more like it. It really isn't an exact science - you can have wildly different ratios of eggs to flour and they will still be perfect.

The noodle sheet should be smooth and elastic - but it doesn't have to be perfectly square.

When the noodles come out, just put them on a dowel and let 'em hang while you finish the rest of the noodles.

Here they are - hanging around and waiting for you to use them. The best thing about fresh noodles is how tender and fluffy they are.

Turkey Noodle Soup

2 carrots, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

3 T food storage onions

1-2 C turkey

2 T chicken broth

sea salt

noodles made from 2 eggs

Cover the turkey carcass in water and boil a couple of hours. Strain and put everything except the noodles into the turkey water and cook on low. Make the noodles while the veges cook. Turn up the heat and let it come to a boil right before you finish the noodles. Add the noodles and boil 3-5 minutes until they are tender.

Noodles

2 eggs

2 T water

2-3 C whole wheat pastry flour, whole wheat flour, or all purpose flour

Beat the eggs lightly with the water and mix with 1-2 cups of flour. Knead lightly, adding more flour until it creates a firm ball. Press it into a flat disk and run it through the noodle maker. Keep folding the noodle sheet and running it through, creating thinner sheets until it is smooth and elastic and fairly thin. I usually stop at setting #4. Then run it through the fat noodle cutter. If you don't have a noodle maker, come to my house and make them, or roll out the dough and cut it into 1/4 inch strips with a butter knife.