January 2013 | Midwestern At Heart

Well Read Individual

I love to read. The imagination of it all is great. Sadly, sometimes I feel like I just don’t have enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want and still get sleep. So when I read about bloggers who go through 100 books a year, etc, plus they’re married, have a job, etc etc etc, I just am in shock and awe as to how they do it all! I struggled it felt like getting through 10 books for this challenge. Part of my problem is I have quite a few books I’ve started, just not finished. Apparently patience or ADD or something kicked in and no I don’t have ADD although I sometimes think that everyone has a very mild case because people are so easily distracted. I dunno…. I’m no expert by any means! Anyway, Here are the 10 books that I read cover to cover and considered for my 101 list. One more thing to check off. yehaw! They were all good reads and brought different things to the table, although there is a definite pattern between cooking and photography, don’t you think 🙂

Book’s read for the 101 List:

1. The Pioneer Woman Cooks Cookbook: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl
October 2010 (yes I read it cover to cover)

2. The Everygirl’s Guide to Life by Maria Menounos
April 2011

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I have a cold & Soup {recipe}

I have a cold. Bummer right? Monday night when it was still 70 degrees outside (before the cold front blew in) I had the start of the cold, therefore I was cold :). It wasn’t cold outside, just I was cold.

When I went digging through the fridge & cabinets looking for something for dinner, I decided I wanted soup. That’s the best thing for a cold, right? Yup, that’s what I thought!

I remembered I had this PW recipe sitting in my drafts for Corn & Cheese Chowder. I decided that’s soooo what I wanted, but I had to improvise a little, so here’s my version that is adapted from hers! (adapted via this PW recipe)

Ingredients

Extra virgin Olive Oil
1 whole onion, chopped
4 slices bacon, cut into pieces
3 whole bell peppers, finely diced (red, yellow, orange)
1 bag frozen corn
3 large tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups 2% milk
1 8oz bag of 4 Cheese Mexican Blend cheese (about 2 cups)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a large pot add a couple turns around the pan of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Add the onion and peppers and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the bacon and cook for a couple of minutes. Finally, add the corn and cook for a minute.

Sprinkle the flour evenly over the top and stir to combine. Pour in the chicken stock and stir well. Allow this to thicken for 3 or 4 minutes, and then reduce the heat to low. Stir in the milk, and then cover and allow to simmer and thicken for 15 minutes or so.

Stir in the cheese. When the cheese is melted and the soup is hot, check seasonings. Add salt and pepper as needed. Ladle into bowls and serve immediately.

I can sure tell you it hit the spot! It was mighty tasty too!

linking up with: Showcase your Talent Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friend‘s Friday,

Corn & Cheese Chowder with Bacon

by Nicole

Keywords: stove top entree cheese corn bacon American fall winter

https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.4/jquery.js http://www.recipage.com/new_scripts/get_html2.js

Ingredients

Extra virgin Olive Oil
1 whole onion, chopped
4 slices bacon, cut into pieces
3 whole bell peppers, finely diced (red, yellow, orange)
1 bag frozen corn
3 large tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups 2% milk
1 8oz bag of 4 Cheese Mexican Blend cheese (about 2 cups)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Stir in the cheese. When the cheese is melted and the soup is hot, check seasonings. Add salt and pepper as needed. Ladle into bowls and serve immediately.

The Shack: Bacon Night

Ah, well I just want to announce this weeks theme was “Bacon Week”. Holy cow! All the dishes were focused around BACON!

And truthfully all I see is the dog running around in that commercial yelling Bacon!! You know like bacon bites or bacon strips or whatever that bacon dog treat was…. anyway…

Supposedly Americans eat on average 18 lbs of bacon per year… now I’m not sure if this statistic is on a per person basis or more because Rachael Ray on Monday had a show all about bacon and said that number was up over 1Billion… so anyway take that for what it’s worth!

Now, on to the food that was served last night!!

Tasha brought these little gems. I have no idea what they’re called or even where she found the recipe. Help me out please!! But they were yummy! Inside the crescent was cream cheese, jalapeno, bacon, and I even heard cheddar but the one I got had cream cheese so I can’t validate the cheddar.

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Weekend – Better Late than Never!

Friday night started off with date night with hubby.

After that we headed over to A’s house for a Thirty One party. Yup, I drug hubby over with me :). He agreed. We I He bought me this bag in purple paisley to keep my sewing stuff together since right now it’s all in a Wal-Mart bag with a hole in it 🙂

Then we went home, took showers and went to bed. By the way, wondering how I take a shower without getting my hair wet? Photos:

Saturday morning hubby woke up and went to help my dad move hay while I went to my grandma’s to take some material and patterns I had bought for a skirt and a shirt.

Then we met up at my parents house along with hubby’s mom and all 5 of us headed to Tulsa to see Tbug’s Cheer competition, where we’re happy to announce, they received second place!

After she was finished performing but before the awards she went with us to eat lunch/dinner. When I jumped up into the back seat of my dad’s truck I was taking my camera off my neck and it cracked me in the head. Camera -1 Nicole-0

Instagram

We went to Longhorn Steakhouse

Then we took Tbug back to her mom and step-dad and we headed off into the wild blue yonder. Actually Pokey had called and asked hubby if we were near a Wal-mart if we could look for something that no one around home had. Sad to say 3 Wal-marts later no luck. But we did walk away with an extremely awesome 9×13 Paula Deen Stoneware pan that matches my pie plate I got for a wedding present.

We also had to go to a Reasors grocery store, btw, if you’re from Reasors and here on this blog, please open these up back home STAT! While at Reasors though, we found Tastykakes. Now if you are a Stephanie Plum fan, you know what these are!!!

Then we were home bound.

Sunday we woke up and while hubby did homework, Marlie and I hung out in the kitchen making Breakfast & Lowfat Banana bread & Ham wrapped Pickles (recipe to come)

I promise I’m not holding her down, I was rubbing her belly.

Then I took down our Christmas tree (don’t judge) and watch Julie & Julia while hubby went over to friend’s house. Then I got a phone call I needed to come over because there was a great blogging opportunity – Wings.

And then some fun target shooting practice

and now we’re at Wednesday and I have a cold. I think tooo much running this weekend… lol. Happy Wednesday!!

Catch that Kick Back

A topic that is pretty hot and heavy right now is Guns and or Gun control.

Growing up my dad had a bebe gun and a couple shot guns that I know of. I shot my first gun when I was 16 at FFA Camp shooting at clay pigeon’s. Let me tell you, I suck! Out of 100 rounds, I broke 2 clay pigeon’s but, that was also the first time I’d ever shot a gun so I definitely get an A for effort.

I respect guns. Point blank. I’m not going to lie, they even scare me a bit because I know what they are capable of.

I’m not planning on debating gun control issues with you, but I can tell you, just because it could potentially be a law to not own guns someday, doesn’t mean that people will follow it. There are many drugs out there to be had that are illegal. That doesn’t stop a person who is addicted to them and still wants them. So what would make someone think that if they took away guns, the bad people wouldn’t get them? I personally would at least like to know how to use a gun properly in case I ever had to, hoping I never do!

My husband, being a veteran from the United States Army knows the ins and outs of guns. Last weekend some friends of ours are working on their permit to carry concealed (they are search and rescue people) and they were shooting targets at another friend’s house and we were invited over.

This was the first time I’d ever shot a hand gun and it intimidated me just a bit. Remember, all I’ve ever shot is a shot gun… Luckily hubby was there to walk me through the process.

The first rule to gun safety – ALWAYS treat the gun as if it were loaded. NEVER point it at a person, rather point it at the ground or down range.

This was my friend A’s revolver. It’s pink, do you see that?

When I turned around from shooting, I noticed I had an audience.

So out of 20 rounds I got 18 on the actual target. My first 10 I got 9 out of 10 on the target. I was told that was an A…. whatever that means :).

You stand at 20 feet from the target. Earl is demonstrating here for all to see.

And then we were ready to battle it off, sister to sister, target to target. Who won?? Guess we’ll never know…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXASrShC_IU]

And just in case you’re wondering what he’s referring to when he says “Like the lady in Texas” click on the phrase for the link. Snopes proved it false, but it’s still a good story :).

Japanese Steak House

One day last week hubby told me he was feeling the Japanese Steakhouse and that we should go there again soon since we hadn’t been there in a while. I said, ok sounds good to me.

Friday one of my friends was having a Thirty One party and invited me, however when I got home from work I was ready to crash on the couch and not wake up until Saturday. Hubby walked in and asked me, first off if I was going to make it, and secondly if I was going to the party or not. I told him I was really undecided. Finally I thought, no, I don’t think I am.

So he told me to put on my coat and go get in the truck. I was like really? I want to sleep! But he told me there was time for that later so I grabbed my jacket and we piled into the truck.

We were driving down the road and I was telling him about different restaurants (no idea how that came up) and finally I was like, where are we going? He wouldn’t tell me but finally said if I thought hard I’d figure it out. Finally I realized where we were going – Tokyo Japanese Steak & Sushi.

When we got there, there was a 20 minute wait, although I’m fairly certain we didn’t wait that long.

Oddly enough hubby and I ordered the same thing, which doesn’t generally happen all that often 🙂

We started off with California Roll Sushi. I’m not always so sure about Sushi but the first time I had one of these, some guy was on a date with his girlfriend/fiance/wife/significant other and they conned me in to trying one. I didn’t even know these people, and before you judge too much, you sit at a table with multiple people unless you have a huge party and I watched the waitress bring them out. Plus I was with my parents and of course my parents thought I had flipped my lid trying sushi, but oddly enough those weren’t bad.

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Now Bake This: Low Fat Banana Bread

Recently hubby and I went to the store and bought some bananas, but for some reason we didn’t get them eaten in time. I hated to let them go to waste so I decided to make banana bread. I went searching the internet for a recipe, although one I made last fall that Lourie gave me was a big contender in this quest.

I was also on the quest to find another recipe, when I stumbled upon a Lowfat version of Banana bread on Skinny Taste blog. I decided I would attempt that recipe, low fat, gotta be good, right? Of course go me, I deviated off the recipe a bit and made it my own and Holy cow yum! Not trying to boast or anything, but it did kind of make my day :).

So without further ado, my adapted version of Low fat Banana Bread.

Ingredients:

6 ripe medium bananas, mashed
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 oz (3/4 cup) chopped walnuts (optional)
baking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease two 8×5 inch loaf pans with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs, bananas, apple sauce and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

Add flour mixture and walnuts (if desired), then blend at low speed until combined. Do not over mix.

Pour batter into loaf pans and bake on the center rack for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. What worked best for us is baking for 50 minutes, then turning off the oven and letting it sit in the heat for 10 more minutes (Thanks Lourie for that trick!)

Let the pan cool at least 20 minutes, bread should be room temperature before slicing.

And boy was it yummy!

Just look here!

linking up: Scrumptious Sundays,Tasty Creations, Mom’s Test Meal Mondays, Make the scene Monday, Show me your Plaid Mondays, Creative Mondays, Foodie Friend‘s Friday,

Low Fat Banana Bread

by Nicole

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Keywords: bake blender mixer bread breakfast dessert snack banana dessert bread American

https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.4/jquery.js http://www.recipage.com/new_scripts/get_html2.js

Ingredients (2 loaves)

6 ripe medium bananas, mashed
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 oz (3/4 cup) chopped walnuts (optional)
baking spray

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease two 8×5 inch loaf pans with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs, bananas, apple sauce and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

Add flour mixture and walnuts (if desired), then blend at low speed until combined. Do not over mix.

Let the pan cool at least 20 minutes, bread should be room temperature before slicing.

Maria’s Mexican Grill & Cantina – JoMo

Last weekend when Tbug was over, my mom called us up and asked if “the girls” wanted to go shopping with her. We thought sure, why not! Hubby was going to be running errands so we made plans to meet up for lunch. My mom’s on a bit of a particular diet right now so usually, we let her choose where she can eat and she chose Maria’s Mexican Grill & Cantina.

Hubby wound up beating us to our lunch destination so he ordered cheese dip. Now usually we eat breakfast, but this day we didn’t and so hubby, Tbug and I devoured this cheese dip. I really like the white cheese dips that have a hint of heat but aren’t tooo spicy. I’m not even sure I tried the salsa, but I’ve had it before and yum! (more…)

Beignets

Do you know what a Beignet is? First off, let’s work on pronunciation – Beignet is pronounced Ben-Yey. Second off, it’s a French donut. In New Orleans they are served at coffee shops with extremely strong coffee. Here in Missouri though, we eat them just plain ;).

Beignets via Justin Wilson Homegrown Louisiana Cookin’

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 medium-sized egg
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 quart oil for deep frying
Confectioners’ sugar

Half fill a large, deep saucepan with oil and preheat it to 375 degrees F. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg well, then beat in the sugar, milk, and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture into the flour and mix slightly until moistened.

Turn onto a floured surface and knead lightly. Roll the dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness. Slice into diamond shapes and about 3 inches long.

Fry in oil, turning once, until they are golden brown and puffed up.

Remove, drain on paper towels, and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Serve immediately with the cafe au lait.

Dirty Little Secret

I’m almost scared to have that as my blog title… afraid of what people might google to wind up here!

Ok so mine actually dealt with those nasty little boogers called Warts. Oh wow that could sound reallllly bad, we’re talking on my finger, just so we’re clear!!

I had a nasty one on my finger. So embarrassing!

Not only that but it hurt too sometimes. And please ignore the very dry index finger, that’s what we all call Winter weather!

Now I’ve had people tell me that eventually they will go away. I’m not sure what causes them to come or leave but I’ve had experience that they really do go away but this one has been around for as long as I can remember.

One day I was complaining about it and Earl heard me. She told me what she did to Moo’s (her daughter) hand to get rid of the ones she had, so I was willing to try it.

You’re going to think this sounds funny, I sure did! but enter in, the combat team!

Apple Cidar vinegar, vasoline & tape. The thing that is missing is the cotton ball.

Are you scratching your head yet?

Ok so you cover your finger (or affected area) around the wart with vasoline to help the skin soft and supple. Then you put some Apple Cidar Vinegar on a cotton ball and you take it against said wart.

Oddly enough, it winds up killing the wart.

The first day it looked majorly swollen.

A few days in sadly my finger started peeling… but I kept going.

Earl said to go about 10 days. Sadly when my finger started peeling, I didn’t make it the full 10 days. I made it about 4. By the way you only do this at night.. you don’t have to run around all day like this.

So you know that it’s working when it starts looking black.

Eventually my finger started hurting so bad I couldn’t progress any further. You can see on my finger it almost looks burnt… it hurt so I quit. But I think it was enough. It finally got to the point I had to actually cut the wart off because it was getting caught on things. I really thought that was a dumb move on my part, especially because it bled and they say you’re not supposed to cut them off because they will bleed. But it finally got under control pretty much over night, and now, look at my beautiful finger :).