My Favorite Things Recipes!!

I went to an activity for church on Tuesday night where the theme was "Our Favorite Things" so I chose the recipes that I usually make for my birthday or other very special occasions!

Chicken With Artichoke Hearts

3-4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1/4 c. Butter
1 4oz can of whole mushrooms (button mushrooms)
2 medium onions-thinly sliced
2 cans quartered artichoke hearts (NOT marinated, just in brine)
1/2 tsp. thyme (ground or leaves, it doesn't matter)
1/2 tsp. sweet basil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 bouillon cube

Cut chicken into bite size pieces brown slowly in butter. Drain mushrooms and reserve liquid. Add onions, artichokes (with liquid), mushrooms and seasonings. Dissolve bouillon cube in mushroom liquid and pour over chicken mixture. Cook for 5 minutes serve over rice with Sour Cream Sauce

Sour Cream Sauce

1 c. Sour Cream
2 Tbls. Chopped Parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 Tbls. Lemon Juice

Stir!

Some quick notes:

I don't reserve the mushroom liquid and dissolve the bouillon cube, I just put it all in the pot together and simmer it just a touch longer to dissolve the bouillon.

And I use Calrose rice, sticky rice, it's just a preference thing...and I have served it with a side Caesar salad.

Fettuccine with Chicken and Zucchini

Saute garlic with 2-3 chicken breasts (cut into bite-size pieces)and 2-3 small zucchini in real butter--about 4 Tbls. Saute until chicken is no longer pink and lightly browned. Set aside.

First you make a roux, which is equal parts flour and butter (I generally use 3 Tbls of each). Then add a pint (16oz) of sour cream and a pint of half and half (stir frequently to avoid curdling). Sprinkle with liberal amounts of Parmesan and Romano cheeses. Add chicken to sauce and pour over a 1 lb. package of cooked Fettuccine noodles. Toss together and ENJOY!

Korean Marinated Steak

1 Scored Flank Steak
3 T. Sesame seeds
2 T. Cooking oil
1/2 c. Soy Sauce
2 cloves of garlic, Crushed (I use minced)
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 bunch green onions, chopped

Place steak in a ziploc bag. Mix up remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour in bag with the steak and put in the refrigerator for 3 hours(minimum)-overnight. Broil about 5-7 minutes per side.

Apple Oatmeal Crisp
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 6 cups apples - peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, oats, flour and butter. Mix until crumbly. Place half of crumb mixture in pan. Spread the apples evenly over crumb mixture. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and top with remaining crumb mixture.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

My Notes: If you don’t want quite so much, cut the recipe in half and use an 8 inch square pan. Also, with the mixture that you place at the bottom of the pan, lightly press it into the pan. As for what kind of apples to use, I like Fuji, because they are sweet and tart and they stay a little crunchy after baking.

Soap Box

Hello from Reno!

First, some very exciting news! The Reno-Tahoe Odyssey is coming up in June, and I am running in it! I will be part of a 12 member team that will be running a relay that totals 178 miles! YAY!! Second, Jason and I are buying a house, we just opened escrow a couple of days ago and we are set to close on March 29th! It's a perfect house for our family at this point in our lives! A nice (fully fenced) yard that the kids can go and play in, and lots of USABLE space...our last house was full of completely useless space!

Okay, now up onto my soap box I climb! Some things you need to know about me: I am a REGISTERED Democrat. I tried to believe what the Republican Party believes but it just didn't mesh with my own personal convictions. I believe it is the responsibility of those with more to help those with less, and to work to lift them up so that they can improve their circumstances, not just for themselves but for their children. Next, I am pro-choice, I firmly believe in a woman's right to choose what is right for her body and her family. However, if I get pregnant, I believe that that child is being sent by God to our family for a reason, so to terminate a pregnancy is not the choice that I would make for my body and my family, but if that is the choice you are making, I certainly won't stop you, however, I will talk to you and make sure you have considered other options.

Now, the final thing. There has been a big dust up in the news about the Susan G. Komen Foundation cutting its funding to Planned Parenthood. I cannot reasonably support an organization that is willing to play politics with the lives of women they are supposed to be protecting! The money the Komen Foundation provides to Planned Parenthood is used for a variety of different things. This includes breast exams (to detect breast cancer, you know, the disease that the Komen Foundation is working to cure!), but also, tests like PAP smears to detect other cancers, and I'm sure the money is also used to provide low income women with contraception and help (like counseling) when they have nowhere else to go!

And now, after the hellfire of public opinion has opened their eyes, the Komen Foundation has changed its mind and has decided to once again help in funding Planned Parenthood. This is not, as I saw one person phrase it, "caving to the liberals", it is DOING WHAT IS RIGHT! So if doing what is right is "caving to the liberals" then I'm glad they "caved"!

Now, if you read this and get offended, that's your right! I don't care if you agree with me, I do care that you do what you need to in order to come to your own conclusions and decide what you personally believe, don't just follow what you think people want you to follow!

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now

--MS:)--

Happy New Year (and then some)!!

Happy New Year from Reno!

Sorry to say, our year hasn't been super eventful! No babies born this year! And before too many people get excited, there won't be any born this year either! Anyway, we're still in Reno, as you can tell from the opening of this post! We still love it! In fact, we came to realize over Christmas, while we were visiting family in Michigan that Reno really is a small town! To us, even Troy, Michigan, which is about 45 minutes north of Detroit, is a big city!

We had a great Christmas, we went to Michigan to see both families! That was a whole mess of food and a whole lot of running back and forth! I got to go running with my dad twice, he sure is fast for an old man! I kept up with him the best I could, but then he'd come up with some kind of second wind and just continued to become a smaller and smaller dot on the horizon!

Boo got to play with all of his cousins over Christmas! He had such a good time, and he is talking more now, and much better than before! That always happens when we come home from seeing family! There are just more people talking to him and more people for him to talk to!

Scarlett is a whole year old now, and she walks just about everywhere! She started walking shortly after she turned 11 months old! And she's just gotten better and better at it! She still just has two teeth, though. Some more are just under the gums about to pop through, but as far as clearly visible teeth, she still has just the two! She also started talking here and there! She started saying KiKi (kitty cat) since my parents have cats. She also started saying Dinosaur Train (Boo got a whole mess of Dinosaur train toys for Christmas, from both Santa and Mommy and Daddy!) and apple. But since she is only starting talking, all animals are KiKis (strangely, they all say "woof", since she also spent some time around her cousin's dog!), and all fruit is an apple!

Boo was entertaining people on the plane to Michigan! The very nice gentleman sitting next to us in particular. And when we landed in Dallas the man turned his phone on and the screen lit up with "Verizon 4G LTE" and Boo saw it and read it out loud. This man then looked at me with a look that said, "Did he just read that?!" and all I could do was look at him with a look that said, "Yes, he did, and yes, I am that screwed!" Long story short, Boo does read a handful of words, I am now counting down the days to when he's in elementary school and reading "Lord of the Rings" or "Dune"! I just can't believe how gosh darn smart he is! He understands so much and is so cute about it! I am amazed at how big he's gotten even though he'll always be my sweet little baby boy!



Christmas was good, LOTS of food, LOTS of family, LOTS of fun and LOTS of love! We're glad we got to see so much of our family!

We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season and a wonderful beginning to 2012!

May you have a healthy and prosperous year!

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

Scarlett had a Birthday!!

I have a few friends who aren't on Facebook...so here are the pictures of Scarlett's Very First Birthday! And a couple from Halloween!

Reflection Time!

Hello from Reno!

Well, like I said, it's "Reflection Time"! This time last year I was still pregnant with my second baby! Now that baby is nearly a year old! I can't believe how fast time has flown! Boo is getting older, bigger, and SMARTER! He knows the alphabet VERY well, and spells EVERYTHING! He also counts very well! He reads a small handful of words as well! I just can't get over how smart he is! He's also quite a challenge from time to time, mostly with listening, he pushes boundaries that have been in place since he was a tiny baby! I continue to hope that he gets easier! The big hope is that as his language skills continue to grow and evolve, so will his abilities to reason.

We have lived in Reno for a little more than a year and we love it more and more every day! We are in the midst of fall, in fact, thanks to some fairly strong wind a couple of days ago, the trees that are closest to us have lost most of their leaves! Soon we'll have snow! We have discovered that we are small town kind of people...at least now we are! We lived in Salem, OR for a year and at the time it was too small a town. Then we lived in Las Vegas for seven very. long. years. And that was too big, we're like the Goldie Locks of residence! Reno is just right!

Some things have changed in recent months, I am experiencing my teen years all over again! I got braces back in August to correct my mid-line so that I don't have a tooth in the middle of my mouth! With any luck, I will be out of the braces by next Christmas! So, because I'm in braces and can't eat some of my favorite foods (mostly candy, specifically, sticky, gooey candy) I took it upon myself to join a gym and start getting in shape for some road races that I want to run next year! So, now I'm training for the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Half-Marathon. Reno also has a Marathon and Half-Marathon, so I might run that one, and there is also another race in the Reno Tahoe area called "The Odyssey" that is 178 miles that is run as a team relay, hopefully, I can find a team that will have me, and I can run that one as well!

As far as training and running goes, it's going well, I am running at just over a 10 minute mile, in fact just yesterday (11/7/11) I ran three miles in 30:36! I have never run that fast in my life! Seattle ought to be awesome! I'm also looking forward to running with my dad at Christmas and actually keeping up with him!

I think that's all for now! I hope everything is going well for everyone! TTFN, Ta Ta For Now!

--MS:)--

Yummy yummy yummy I've got love in my tummy!

Here are the "recipes" that I have been posting about on Facebook! They were pretty much improvised, I'm more of an exact measurement kind of person...I don't much care for recipes that go by the "I don't know, until it looks right" type cooking.

Bean Dip

1- 8oz brick of cream cheese, softened
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole sweet kernel corn, drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 small can diced jalapeno peppers
1 1/2 tsp. dark chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. salt or to taste
cayenne pepper to taste- but I think I used about a teaspoon and a half...

Combine ingredients in a mixing bowl, stir them all together, serve with tortilla chips...I served the dip warm, it was a little strange cold...


Fajita Marinade

4 Anaheim peppers, seeded, and cut into smaller pieces
1/2 an onion
3 Tablespoons of Minced Garlic
1 3/4 tsp. salt
some lime juice

Use either chicken or beef cut up into strips...Place the ingredients for the marinade in a blender or food processor and blend well (I used a blender and set it to puree) Place the cut up meat in a gallon size resealable bag and pour the marinade over the meat. Refrigerate for 24 hours, I did it for two days...

Then cook the meat anyway you want...I put mine in the oven at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes. Top with any desired toppings (guacamole, sour cream, shredded lettuce, whatever you like.) And ENJOY!

Happy New Year!

Hello from Reno!

I hope everyone had a lovely Holiday season! Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or Festivus...And I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year! I can tell you that I had a pretty good Christmas and New Year's. Mostly because our beautiful baby girl made her debut! So far Boo is a wonderful big brother, he pretty much ignores her until she starts fussing and then he wonders what is making that noise and then once in a while he tries to comfort her...in his slightly overly aggressive two and a half year old way...it's cute but also a little frightening at the same time!

So as I mentioned before, our beautiful baby girl finally made her much anticipated debut! We ended up doing a repeat c-section, since I wasn't able to convince my body to go into labor on its own! This time the c-section and the recovery went much better than the first time around, I think it also has to do with the fact that I knew what to expect this time. The only thing was that I could still feel and move my arms once the spinal took effect, and that freaked me out since I couldn't feel or move them when I had Boo...My doctor did a very good job, it was quick and easy and he even held up our little girl so that (in theory) I could see her over the drape. However, all I ended up being able to see was her hand. One other difference that I seemed to notice was that Jason wasn't allowed to come in until they had made the initial incision, for some reason I remember him being there the entire time, like just after the drape was put up with Boo. After a little tugging and pulling and a minor freak out on my part, our beautiful Scarlett Yvaine Secrest was born into the world at 8:05am on Wednesday December 8th! We decided on the name Scarlett because I really liked Gone with the Wind, and that Scarlett was very dramatic and our Scarlett came into the world in a very dramatic fashion, screaming her head off! She was a very healthy 7 pounds and 4 ounces and 19 inches long. One other thing that was different about this delivery was that from the operating room I was taken to recovery and Scarlett was taken to the nursery not to our room, and it was a couple of hours before she was brought to me, but on the plus side, the nurses and doctors in the nursery did NOT give her formula, with Boo, the nursery staff gave him formula because "his blood sugar was low" and looking back on it, I think they were just trying to get him to calm down...

Also, this time instead of the postpartum nurse coming in and saying "it's time for your percoset", they came in and asked what my pain level was on a scale of one to ten, then asked if I wanted one or two percoset, so as a result, I was much more lucid and I remember much more of my daughter's first three days of life. Another thing was that I got scolded a little for letting her nurse for 40 minutes on one side, in my defense, I had just had some percoset, and I kept falling asleep!

My mom was able to come out the day that Scarlett was born, and help with taking care of Boo and she got to meet her very first granddaughter when she was just brand new! Then, just 8 days later, in an effort to have people around to help me, I flew back to Michigan with my mom to finish up my recovery and enjoy the holidays with my family and my husband's family!

We also had Miss Scarlett blessed/dedicated while we were in Michigan! I would post pictures of that day, but we weren't able to assemble everyone in one shot to do the pictures, so in a few weeks, Jason, Boo, Scarlett and I are going to have pictures done and I will post those.

So far, this being a mom of two thing is going well! Boo really does have ways of getting attention, he climbs up in my lap when he wants attention from his mommy! Miss Scarlett is much more vocal than Boo was at the same age, she definitely lets her mommy know when she's ticked off! Getting places does take a little longer, and a little more planning, but it can be done!!

Again I hope everyone had a wonderful end to 2010 and a terrific beginning to 2011! Enjoy every minute! I think that's all for now!

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

--MS:)--