Sunday Sup: Lazy Man’s Potato Skins

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

It’s been hot, for like 4 whole days we saw 80 plus. Woohoo.

But that means I don’t really want to cook. So what to make for family movie night, that’s like going to the movies, without running the oven. Hrm…

Lazy Man’s Potato Skins were born.

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I shop a lot at Trader Joe’s, but if you don’t have one locally, I am sure you can find something like this in your own local store. If all else fails, use tater tots, but you have to actually cook those so it kind of defeats the purpose.

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Ok so pop a hash brown on the microwave safe plate, pop it in the micro for 45 seconds. Flip it over. Add cheese (Gruyeres on this one) and bacon. Micro 30-45 more, until the cheese is melted. Top with sour cream.

 

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 If you want to get fancy….try with pesto chicken, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, and parm.

 

Fiendish Friday: Mindset

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

This morning I reached that moment. I realized I don’t just live in the PacNW, I have actually converted to a PacNW mindset.

Let me set the scene: I am walking my dog. It’s quiet. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. I am thinking about the fact that it is the end of June, one week left, and where I am at on my goals for the month. Which projects will I get done and which will run over into July, displacing July goals. What can be done about it?

Then it hits me. The solstice was earlier this week. I realize we are losing an average of 6 minutes of sun very day now. I might just crawl back in bed and cry.

Book Review: 2nd Quarter One Pagers

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

The Expats by Chris Pavone

I really wanted to like this. It had the kind of idea that intrigues me a lot. The secret life come back to haunt you story. But Pavone jumps around so much that I lost all the joy of reading trying to figure out where in the time line I was. I have this rule of 20%. I read 20% of a book, no matter what, to give it time to find it’s footing. I made 19% on this one. And despite all that I walked away from it for 2 weeks without giving it a single thought. Didn’t care who the “scary suspicious” woman was who popped up in the protag’s life was. Vaguely hoped she’d kill her.

Sunday Sup: Tomato Soup

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I know it’s summer. Who eats soup in summer. My son, that’s who. He loves this soup and since I can squeeze veggies into his belly via this soup, I make it on demand.

The original recipe came from Emily over at Emily Bites. But I made a few adjustments.

Tomato Soup

Chop 2 small sweet onions or one large or one medium, the recipe isn’t picky. Add them to some olive oil in a large pot (make sure it has a lid), over medium heat. Stir frequently for 5-6 minutes.

Add 1 teaspoon minced garlic (or a couple of cloves if you are old fashioned.) Stir half dozen times so that the garlic is incorporated with the onions.

Add 1 pound Italian sweet sausage stripped from the casings. I like chicken best with this recipe but your call. Mash the sausage with your spoon so it’s in large crumbles.

When the sausage is brown, add 32 oz chicken broth (I like the one with some fat left), 28 oz can crushed tomatoes ( I am lazy so I buy the Italian style ones that are canned with basil already in there), and a few shakes of crushed red pepper (your call on the spice level).

Stir and then bring to a boil, turn the heat down to Low, and cover – simmering for 20 minutes. Stir once or twice, or not at all if you get busy with something else, like I said this recipe doesn’t mind.

After 20 minutes, cube some cream cheese and add to the soup, stirring until incorporated. How much cheese is really on you. I do about 6 ounces, that makes it quite rich. But I am trying to get my child to consume veggies so I let it slide.

Once the cheese is all mixed in, add 6 oz fresh spinach and 4 oz pasta. I use the quinoa and brown rice spiral pasta. I know 4 oz seems light but it’s enough to give the soup a hearty feel without blowing your carb allotment for the day.

Cover and cook 8-10 minutes until the pasta is good and the spinach wilted.

Serve with a grate of good parm on top.

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Fiendish Friday: For Your Dog?

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

I recently convinced the kiddo to go non dairy. He’s already gluten free so I can feel his displeasure. I understand. But it’s better for him health wise, the continuous nose snot just wasn’t going away. But those two issues combined with my son’s finickiness means it’s really hard to pack food to go.  He won’t always take a hard boiled egg or some nuts. Oh sure he’s happy to have crackers and fruit but man cannot live by carbs alone.

There’s one protein bar he will eat. Epic’s Maple Salmon Jerky. It is HARD to find. I mean, seriously hard. One Whole Foods in my area, by which I mean in a 30 mile drive, carries it – sporadically. I’ve tried to order it from Amazon and they don’t even carry it. Let that sink in. Amazon doesn’t even carry it.

So one day at TJs the kiddo grabs this “chomp bar”. Grass fed beef. I nod, sure you can try that. Please god let him like it, anything to get some portable protein. He finally gets around to trying it and LOVES it. Woot. I put it on the list for the next TJs trip.

Which incidentally occurs on a Saturday night. Hey, it was a busy week and we needed food. The hubs was putting the kiddo to bed so I ran out to get groceries. And given that it was Saturday at 715 PM, I went to the closest TJs (22 minutes drive each way), not the one I like the best and therefore shop at normally(30 minutes drive each way). I get everything but the darn chomps.

I am standing in the bar section, no chomps. I actually ask a clerk…excuse me, I am looking for chomps beef sticks, do you carry them?

“For your dog?”

oh fuck. Did I let my child eat dog food?

“Um, for humans?”

“Well did you try the snack area?”

I glance at the bars behind us.

“No, the snack area over by the soda.”

Oh, ok. Cause portable nutrition should always be kept next to portable sugar right?

Long story short-

too late.

They were there and for human  consumption. I bought every stick they had. LOL

 

Wednesday Words 6/29

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

This as been a seriously productive week despite a few set backs. The kiddo has a summer cold. Grrr. Really screws with my timing. Especially since he has camp this week. There went 12 hours of expected alone time down the drain. LOL

On the plus side, I did get ten chapters edited. Having a sitter just a few extra hours a week is making a huge difference for me. Of course I am finding little issues. Things I left hanging and I need to decide if it matters or if I should circle the wagon to clean it up. Some are a definite yes. And I need to figure out some solutions. Other are still up the air. And I think I rush Talon’s emotional growth, so I’ve been editing that back. I need to give him a new arc. Good thing I watch a lot of house rehab shows. I know all about building a new set of stairs with a better run/rise proportion. LOL

I also gave up on 5 AM. It’s just not happening for me and the effort to do so makes me sad and tired. I don’t even need an alarm to get up between 630 and 7. That’s just going to have to be good enough for now. I’d have to get way more analytical, but I think I’m actually more productive sleeping in an extra hour and a half. hrm…..

What makes you feel more productive? And do you care if you actually are more productive or is the feeling itself enough?

Book Review: Secrets of an Organized Mom

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I’ve gotten a little declutter happy lately. I’m trying to stream line. Make house upkeep take less time, so I have more time for the things that matter (yoga, my novel). Which brings me to another declutter/organizational book, Secrets of an Organized Mom by Barbara Reich.

She has four basic premises. Purge – get rid of what you don’t need. Design – buy more stuff to hold your stuff. Organize – put it away nicely. Maintain – keep it up. She says this over and over in the book, for every area. Having just finished a book that gets into the nitty gritty for each and every item, this was less informative. Purge is what a lot of people have issues with I think and just telling people to get rid of stuff isn’t going to help them do so.

My next nit pick is this. She says store things where you use them and then in every chapter makes suggestions about where to store things that aren’t where you use them. Examples: putting your standing mixer on a closet shelf or storing hair dye in the linen closet. Um, no.

And finally, the deal breaker for me, she is HEAVILY against stocking up in any form. No frozen meats. No TP from Costco. “Buy only what you will use in one week or before it goes bad. It’s not like you’re going to get snowed in and not be able to get out for things.” That’s so not happening. My vacuum packed frozen grass fed grass finished beef I buy once a year and then use from the freezer, still tastes better than any “fresh” meat I can buy locally. And I do live in a place where we get snowed in (every year) and can’t get out to the store. Plus, Costco is a FAT time saver for me. Because my closet store is 45 minute drive (without traffic), having all those cans in my garage saves dinner, frequently.

℘℘℘ – Three Pages. It was well written, the repetitive nature made it a fast read. But even on the premise of take what you like and leave the rest, I found very little to take away from this book.

Sunday Sup: Father’s Day Meatloaf

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I know what you’re thinking, I do, Meatloaf? But this is not your mother’s meatloaf. This is a bad ass souped up Meatloaf. And it’s what the hubs wanted for Father’s day last weekend. Meatloaf and a salad. LOL

As usual this is a bastardization of a Paleomg.com recipe.

Paleo Meatloaf (not whole 30)

Preheat your oven to 350.

Combine in a large bowl:

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1/2 pound bacon in small pieces. I use the pre cooked pre chopped bacon from Costco. (The least work, the better.)

1 cup almond flour

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 c crimini mushrooms, chopped (substitute if you don’t like)

1/2 c dill relish, something savory works best as opposed to sweet

1 teaspoon minced garlic (or a couple of cloves if you’re doing it the old fashioned way.)

4 tablespoons mustard. Your call. I like a brown spicy and a dijon in this.

1 egg

Line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper. Smoosh all that mix into the pan. It will come right up to the top. Seriously, you might want to put a baking sheet under it when you pop it in the oven.

While that’s cooking you want to low caramelize a couple of sliced onions in butter. I do mean low. Low is your only temp and this should take a minimum of 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

This meatloaf takes eons to cook, like 75-90 minutes. You want an internal temp of 165, pork after all. Let cool a few minutes before you try to remove it from the pan. There will be a ton of juice so drain it a bit. Then use that parchment paper to lift it out of the pan. Let cool a little more before you slice it.

While it’s cooling, heat up some pub cheese from Trader Joe’s.  Cheddar and Jalapeno variety. Nodding. Yup. Or grate some cheese of your favorite variety.

Take a slice of meatloaf, top with cheese, more bacon sprinkles, and those gorgeous caramelized onions.

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Fiendish Friday: Gobsmacked

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment
Before I start this rant/story I just have to ask: do pharmacists get any formal education anymore or do they just have to pass some sort of pill counting exam?
The kiddo got a bug bite at the cub scouts camp out this past weekend. Sunday it looked like a mosquito bite he had scratched a bit.
Monday morning at the ophthalmologist I notice a big red patch on his arm.
oh crud.
We’re at stop one of a multi stop errand run. I call my nurse on demand, ie, oldest friend in the world. She doesn’t answer.
Well double crud.
I grab a pen and draw a circle around the red area, noting the time. I pop into the drug store and buy the kiddo some benadryl.
We continue on. The kiddo is happy, his arm doesn’t itch anymore.
We get home 2 hours later and the red is bigger.
Triple cruddle.
I call the actual advice nurse who says he must be seen.
We go in, joy of joys, fast appt. He needs antibiotics.
We go to the pharmacy. It will be 20 minutes. We wander the store looking at the strange things in the “As Seen On TV” aisle.
The pharmacist calls my cell phone. Weird.
My prescription isn’t ready, they don’t actually have it in stock. “It will be in on Thursday, we can call you when it’s ready to be picked up.”
WTF? Did you actually just suggest I should let an infection run unchecked in my child’s body for four days?
“I’m afraid that won’t work for us as he has an infection now, not on Thursday. Can you see which pharmacy has it and transfer our prescription there?”
Slaps self in the forehead to keep from slapping the pharmacist.

Wednesday Words 6/21

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

Woot, Summer is here. At least according to the calendar. We actually breached the 70s once this past week. LOL

I managed to get 2 chapters edited but I seem to just be removing cruddy words. If my novel gets any shorter I’ll have to call it a novella. LOL

So question of protocol. I write under a pseudonym. When I sit down with agents and editors do I introduce myself as my pseudonym or my real name? Inquiring minds want to know….