Lest we Forget...

Happy Independence Day!  As the mother of 4 sons, none of which have served in the military, this is always some what of an emotional day for me.  I'm not a political person, not because I don't have personal views but just because I have learned it creates too much negative emotion in my gut, so I'll leave the politics for another.

On this day though, my heart hurts for the Mothers, Fathers, Wives, families and close friends of soldiers that are serving, have served and those that have lost their lives defending our freedoms in this country. And let us not forget what it's all about, what it's always been about because I think as we often live our busy lives we do tend to forget what this country was founded on. What the men that signed that notorious piece of paper some  234 years ago personally went through and the sacrifices they made and the dangers they faced...just by signing their names.

The Declaration of Independence, signed this day in 1776





Have you ever read this Declaration?  I will admit to the fact that I have not read it in it's entirety, at least not as an adult. I'm pretty certain that I did read it while in elementary school.

My guest won't be arriving until around 2:00 pm today, yet I am all prepared and have the time on my hands to do just that.   So this Independence Day, I'm going to refresh my mind of the history of this day, what it means to me now and what I think it should mean to me.   I'm thinking now that perhaps, instead of having decorative flags hanging out back, I should have framed a copy of the Declaration of Independence.  Actually....I think I'll print out a copy now to have around today.  Maybe someone else would like to read it as well....Here are two links for anyone else that wants a 4th of July reading assignment! *g*  (the links...same words just different formats)

The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence and I'll go ahead and throw in a link to the  U.S. Constitution , just because it's even more interesting!

Loaded Potato Salad

Are you having people over for the 4th of July or going to celebrate with friends and need to bring a dish?  Either way, this dish is a great addition to a bbq or picnic spread!

We are having friends and family over tomorrow. A LOT of friends and family!  We supply the meat and everyone brings their favorite dish.  Treeman tells me to lay off the cooking because of us supplying the main course, but you just know "that's" not happening!

So this potato salad is one of the dishes I'll be making.

You peel your potatoes...



then quarter them...



Place the potatoes in a large pan of salted water and boil over medium-low
heat until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain the potatoes, and place in the refrigerator to cool.

Be sure to check the potatoes for doneness as they are cooking.
I really don't like mine to be too done.



While the potatoes are cooling off gather your ingredient.
Pretty much, anything you would like to have on your baked potato,
you can throw into this salad so let your imagination run wild...:)

And if you haven't yet tried this Dukes Mayonnaise...OMG, you just have to!
I love this stuff and look for any excuse at all to use it in abundance! *g*

Though this recipe doesn't call for it, I like to add chives.
I seldom have any on hand fresh so I use the dehydrated ones from Sam's.

Mix the mayo and sour cream together



and then the remainder of the ingredients....



Then just fold it all into the potatoes and season to taste!
You can chill this and add it later to the potatoes, or add it now and chill the whole salad.

Garnish the top with additional bacon, onions and shredded cheddar cheese if desired.



And there you go!  Here's the recipe;

Recipe: Loaded Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 6 medium baking potatoes (about 2 pounds)


• 3/4 cup mayonnaise 3/4 cup sour cream


• 8 slices of crisply cooked and chopped bacon


• 1/2 cup chopped red onion


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper


• green onions with top, thinly sliced shredded cheddar cheese for garnish

Instructions

1. Peel, rinse and quarter the potatoes.


2. Place the potatoes in a large pan of water and boil over medium-low heat until tender, about 12 minutes.


3. Drain the potatoes, and place in the refrigerator to cool.


4. Combine sour cream and mayonnaise in small bowl.


5. Chop bacon and red onion and add to mayonnaise mixture. Stir in salt and pepper, cover and refrigerate.


6. When ready to assemble, place in large bowl and fold in mayonnaise/sour cream mixture.


7. You may garnish the top with bacon, green onions and shredded cheddar cheese.

Variations

Chives whether dehydrated or fresh are a good addtion.

Microformatting by hRecipe.

[donotprint]I'm heading off to the kitchen to make the rest of my dishes for tomorrow.  One of my sons just stopped by (the one that has the culinary degree =:-O) And requested my home made boursin cheese, so I'll add that to the list.  Here is what's on the board for today....

• Salsa


• S'more Brownies (yes I'm making them again and will dye 100 deaths of joy eating them)


• Braunschweiger spread


• french onion dip


• Boursin Cheese

I'll post these recipes to share with you over the coming week.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend and keeping in mind what we are celebrating!

[/donotprint]

It's Not a School Night Mom

Here is our most recent dilemma, if you can call it that….I’m calling it that!

If you read the post about it, you know that Jack has gone back to pre-school part time. He goes three days a week.  Our general bed time routine involves reading two books in bed before tuck in. Jack has a way of dragging this out.  I have no idea how he manages to follow along with all the questions he ask through a book reading. 

When he started back to school, I decided to make it one book on school nights.  This has caused utter confusion in the little guys mind. I thought nothing of calling the night before school a “school night”.  He on the other hand points out to me that he didn’t have school that day, so it is NOT a school night. He thinks I’m tricking him, he actually says that…”your tricking me mom”!

So every “school night” I explain it again…him sitting in his bed with his arms crossed over his chest in a huff.  I’m thinking of making up a new name so as to avoid this time sucking routine.  I think I spend as much time explaining and RE explaining this concept, that I could have just gone ahead and read three books!

So I’m trying to come up with a new name to signify the need to get to bed in a timely fashion because you can’t sleep until 10 in the morning!  I’m drawing a blank….even as I sit here really focusing on it, I’m drawing a blank. I’m taking him to school now and will discuss it with him on the way and report back.

Back from dropping Jack at school. We discussed, he said “you decide”…*sigh*, so I ran a few past him and it looks like we’re settling on “early night” which isn’t catchy and isn’t what I was looking for.

I would love some input on this if anyone has a fresh idea. I’m all out of fresh! If you would, leave me your suggestions? Or…should I just stick with “school night” and wait for him to get it? After all, I never made up fake names for stuff for the others when they were young.

Pesto Chicken

I was stumped as to what to have for dinner tonight.   Earlier in the day I had taken a pork tenderloin out of the freezer for tomorrows dinner, but knowing I had waited too late in the day to take anything out for tonight, that we would have to have the stand-by chicken something or other…:/

So I start my googling.  I have some store bought pesto in the frig so I search for “pesto chicken” and find this, posted by Tish over at Recipe Zaar.  This is my usual way of finding last minute recipes if I go off the beaten path of regular fair.  So I skim through the recipe to make sure I have everything and off I go!  I put my famous frozen chicken tenderloins into the microwave and auto defrost for 5 minutes. I so love auto defrost and the fact that I can wait until 4:00 pm before deciding on what to have for dinner! This is super simple and fast!   My kind of dinner![/donotprint]

First you toss the chicken in the pesto and then arrange it on a foil lined cookie sheet. This goes into a preheated oven. The recipe called for an oven temp of 400.   I don’t know about your oven, but that is way too hot for mine and these little chicken tenderloins, so I set it at 350 or 325 for convection. I set the timer for 25 mins.



While the chicken was baking, I opened a can of green beans, sliced up some red onions very thinly and tossed it all together with olive oil and red wine vinegar, minced garlic, salt and pepper and then put that in the frig to chill a bit.



Since this is a last minute, thrown together dinner, I reach to the pantry for store bought scalloped potatoes and make those according to the package directions. Once those are simmering the chicken is about done and ready for it’s next step. Take that out of the oven and put a slice of tomato on each piece of chicken.  I was actually lucky enough tonight to be able to go pick two small tomato’s from my shabby garden.  And no, shabby garden is nothing like “shabby chic”…but that’s a whole different post for a different time….

Anyway, next you put some shredded mozzarella on top of the tomato.   This is what these looked like when they came out of the oven. I’m very glad I thought to lower the temp.



You now put them back in the oven and I diverted from the recipe here and put them under the broiler for about 3 mins, until the cheese started to brown a tad.



To plate the dish, I spread a good spoonful of pesto on the plate and then laid the chicken on it.



Ok, so recipe….

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves


• 1/2 cup refrigerated basil pesto


• 2-3 plum tomatoes, sliced (optional)


• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.


2. Line baking sheet with heavy-duty foil.


3. Place chicken and pesto in medium bowl; toss to coat.


4. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet.


5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center.


6. Remove from oven; top with tomatoes and cheese.


7. Bake for an additional 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

My Notes: I used frozen boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins. I baked at 350 for 25 mins. and I sliced regular tomato’s to put on top.

Now, the reviews…;)

This recipe is missing a bit of something and it might be as simple as salting and peppering the chicken before tossing it with the pesto. I think home made pesto would be a zillion times better because it would be less oily. Mine was really oily and the dish was VERY rich for my taste. I also think it would be better with a more flavorful cheese. Maybe Fontina, which is what I think I will try it with next time.  It might also be really yummy to replace the tomato’s with roasted red peppers.

All in all it was an ok dinner. Jim ate two servings, Jack hardly ate dinner at all because he was eating on and off all day and I think he was just full, though he did eat all of his green beans. Sadly, my favorite tonight were the boxed scalloped potatoes! I’m so easy….:)

Btw....I never meant for this to become a cooking or recipe blog.  Lately it just seems that's about all I'm doing in my life.  I do love to cook, though I normally just create my own stuff without recipes much less measurements. (which isn't so easy to share)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and  that you're not involved in the stock market! And if you are my advice is to NOT look at your statements for a little while...;)[

Another Saturday Night....What's for Dinner?

Yep, it's another Saturday night and we are home (as usual)!  It's very VERY hot here again with heat indexes over 100.  I just looked at my weatherbug and it's showing most of the county covered in this heat, so I guess we are all going through it together!

Ok, so on to dinner....I grilled tonight so as not to heat up the house.  Jim is trimming shrubs yet again, so just me grilling (be afraid....very afraid, though come to think of it, you're not eating this, so no worries).

No recipes tonight because you don't need any.  I took a whole chicken, rubbed him with house seasoning which is just salt, pepper and garlic powder and then stuck him on this little grilling gadget with an open can of Coke inside of him. ( we picked these up at Bass Pro Shop) It's even better with a can of beer, but Treeman drinks long necks so I didn't have any.  Though I guess I could have poured the coke out and filled it with beer from a bottle eh?  I digress...so back to the chicken....





While the chicken was cooking,  I tossed some asparagus spears and sliced red peppers with salt, pepper, minced garlic and balsamic vinegar and olive oil.   I threw these on the grill when the chicken was pretty much done.



While the veggies were grilling  I made up a simple salad of red leaf lettuce, tomato's, green onions, apples, walnuts and feta cheese. I then dressed it with Balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.  This is equally as yummy with blue cheese but feta is what I had on hand.





A bit over cooked on the outside, as usual when I grill, but its delicious all the same I promise! :)





Nice and simple!

Are you grilling this weekend?  I have a bunch of favorite outdoor cooking ideas I look forward to sharing with you over the summer and would love to hear if you have favorites as well!

Hope you're all having a wonderful, relaxing weekend!