Christmas and Stuffed Steak Roll

Hi there everyone. How are your Christmas plans going?? Been a little slow getting my decorations up....still have 4 boxes of decorations yet to unload...my Christmas village, lights on the front porch. Christmas cards to finish and mail. Cookies made, have to send a batch to my step-father in LasVegas. Just doing a little bit each day, maybe eventually it will all get done.

Made these stuffed steak rolls tonight...oh yummy were they delicious!!!! Of course mine did not look like this. I think next time I shall get the steak butterflied and pound it a little bit more. The recipe called for flank steak. Which I had. Pounded it out, but it could have used more. 3 tablespoons of garlic, 1 onion and chopped up mushrooms. Cook in oil with salt and pepper. Cover the mixture over the steak. A layer of spinach and a layer provolone cheese. Roll up the steak and stick picks in each slice to keep them together. Fry in oil to brown, then place in a pan 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes. Oh yummy so good. I will probably do some roasted fries and Brussels sprouts yet tonight before JP gets home.

I think I might make this again using a thinner steak, will have to keep my eye open to the deals.

Well, time to close this one....I know it's is short....but really, not much going on for now.

Well, my Chicago Blackhawks won tonight 4-0 so that was a good game. You all have a great evening and keep looking up......better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Garlic ~ Garlic ~ Garlic

Hi there everyone.....guess I have been "missing in action" again. I have noticed that a lot of blog friends have also taken time off from their blogs....guess we are all busy with life.

I have been doing pretty much the same thing every day. Cooking, dishes, making cards, computer stuff, working on income tax, staying warm, walking Kylie, shopping, Doctor appointments, etc. Oh, then there is sleeping and day dreaming about spring....yeah, I will be glad when this snow is gone. I have been feeling much better compared to last year this time....not suffering from hernia problems, looking back, I can see that all my sickness was related to the hernia.

In the following pictures are some "cooking techniques" I learned. How I have always struggled with garlic....peeling, breaking a part and peeling again. Well, my world has changed. Take a whole garlic clove and place it in a container or jar and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE!!!!! I forget where I learned this, might have been on Facebook.

And wa-la......your cloves have broken up and broken apart from each other, so much so, that the paper thin skins actually come off. This a picture of the cloves at the bottom of the container.

In this picture below, you can see how the clove broke apart....so ingenious, don't know why I never thought of this. Blue Apron always sends a whole clove of garlic in their boxes, even if the recipe calls for 3-6 cloves, you get one whole clove. So needless to say, I have lots of garlic in the refrigerator. AND I use lots of garlic in my meals. Also, added to my cooking utensils, is a new garlic press that minces and slices....paid $20 for it, but it sure works beautifully and will probably last the rest of my life..

In this picture is one of my Blue Apron recipes this past week. This was so yummy. "White Pizza with Baked Eggs and Arugula-Brussels Sprout Salad." The white sauce is 1/2 cup ricotta cheese, lemon zest, and the juice of 2 lemon wedges, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper mixed together and spread on the pizza. The pizza was then topped with onions, sliced garlic and mozzarella. Bake the pizza for 10 minutes then add the eggs, bake till the eggs are done the pull out the pizza and add your salad and Brussel sprouts that were drizzled with lemon wedges, oil and salt and pepper. Yep, this was a 5 star pizza.

In this picture was our Sunday Dinner. "Roast Pork with Sauteed Spinach and Olive Smashed Potatoes." The pork was salt and peppered and browned on all sides then put in the oven for 20 minutes. The temp inside must be 145 degrees to be done. Potatoes were cooked then mashed, olives, sour cream and half the garlic chives and juice of 2 lemon wedges were added. The spinach was cooked in the pan that the pork was cooked in till wilted and the lemon zest added. Yep, another 5 star meal.

The third meal was "Chicken Meatballs and Creamy Polenta with Tomato Sugo & Lacinato Kale." Love the polenta which is just "corn meal" added to boiling water, add some butter, salt and pepper to taste. I have at times added minced garlic and Parmesan cheese for an extra touch. The meat balls were made with breadcrumbs, spice, half the Parmesan cheese and garlic. Mix together then fried till brown. The kale and rest of the garlic was added and cooked down. Tomatoes added and salt and pepper added. (I do watch the salt and pepper and do not add as much as the recipe calls for), So the meatballs, kale and tomatoes are added on top of the polenta and topped with Parmesan cheese. Yep, another 5 star recipe.

I have been busy making cards....in my next post, I will put some cards up that I have been working on. My Hospice meeting is this Friday, so I have been busy making Valentine and St. Patrick cards along with Birthday, Thank You and Thinking of you cards.

I found a few cute stamps at Michael's...a flamingo and a pineapple.....so yeah, I will take pictures of those cards for sure, they turned out really cute.

Well, I guess I will close here for now, I need to get downstairs and make a few more cards to finish up the Hospice cards for Friday's meeting.

Have a great day and keep looking up...Cheers ~ Louise

A Snowy Monday, Cards From Friends and Risotto

Hi there everyone....hope you are still enjoying this lovely season and last few days of 2015. Yesterday we had a foot of snow fall (12.2 inches). JP got stuck in the snow and the car doors froze up at work, so he did not make it home. I guess lots of people got stuck in snow around this area, at least he was stuck in the building and was warm.

Around the country people were experiencing lots of rain and hail, floods, tornados and earthquakes....My goodness what is going on??? If it is not the ISIS Muslims terrorizing us, the weather is also. I guess this is just a sign of the end times, just as the Bible has said. Better days are coming.

So for tonight's dinner I made a beef stew with green peppers and onions and stuck it in the slow cooker. Along with that was my Blue Apron (here's their site) meal "Spinach, Parmesan & Parsnip Risotto with Crispy Parsnip Chips and Sage" Oh my goodness....was this ever a good dish. Never cooked with a parsnip before and this was really good. Half the parsnip was grated and added to the Arboio Rice, onion, garlic and water. While the rice cooked, the other half of the parsnip was shaved and fried in the oil and browned. After the rice was cooked, spinach, sage and Parmesan cheese was added. I have to say that shaved and fried parsnip was a special touch to this dish. Will most definitely make this again.

Thought I would post the homemade cards that I received this Christmas. The top card is by Shirley. A very intricate card that probably took a long time to make...I always enjoy her cards. She is very artistic in her card making.

This ornament card is by Betty. She always has new ideas rolling around in her head. I enjoy going to her house to see here new creations.

This card was made by Sue. I really like this stamp, very simple yet elegant. Sue makes some nice cards too.

This card is by Tina. I go to her blog everyday to see what she is up to. I always know it is her card....her trademark is the stitching around the squirrel. She does a lot of origami cards, an art I have not yet accomplished.

This card is by Joan.....lot's of work went into this one too. I don't throw these cards out....but most likely these cards will end up in my Hospice card collection for next year. Always recycle.

I didn't take any pictures of all the snow we got yesterday, maybe the next snowfall. After awhile you can have just so many pictures of snow. I was out shoveling a little. The front porch and steps and part of the sidewalk....yep...that was enough for me.

Pretty soon I will be working on Valentine Cards.....can you believe that??? Right now I am reorganizing my stamping area....putting all the Christmas stuff away and cleaning and moving things. Guess that will be my Winter project, going through all the stuff and maybe unloading a few things at the thrift store or save for a garage sale in the summer. Yep....always something to keep me busy.

Well time to close this post for tonight. Keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

I Made SomeTortillas

Hi there everyone. Hope you enjoyed this Saturday...it was a little dreary, a little rainy and about 45 degrees. The sun popped out a couple of times, but not for long. It was one of those days that I felt like making something. Probably should have gone downstairs and made a few cards....but I decided to make some tortillas. This is a first in my books...never thought to do this, it was one of those fun things to do for a dreary day. Here is the link that I went to and followed the recipe (almost) to the tee. Recipe Well as you can see I took some pictures, sort of a short tutorial to mark my experience in tortilla making. 

Well, as usual I got my picture turned sideways, but you get the drift. After mixing all the ingredients together (flower, baking powder, salt, oil and warm water), knead the dough till it is smooth and elasticity, let it rest for 5 minutes giving the baking powder a chance to work. Then cut in half, then half it again. As you see in this next picture. I got 8 pieces, but you can even cut them in half again if you are just make regular sized tortillas. I am making "Pizza" tortillas. This is my favorite way to make a crisp cracker like crust. Mmmmm so good.

So I rolled out each piece of dough then placed the tortilla in a hot pan, browned on one side then flipped it over to brown some more. One by one I finished them, let them cool and started another tortilla.

Here, if you can see closely are all the tortillas, sitting on each other and cooling.

Here is one of the finished products. My "South of the Border" Pizza. It was so yummy. I spread the tortilla crust with some refried black beans, topped with pepperoni  and on pretty heirloom tomato and topped with kale or spinach and cheddar cheese. After baking at 425 degrees for about 5 minutes or until the crust is browned around the edges. Then I sprinkled some multi colored tortilla strips on top for that extra crunch.

I think these are pretty healthy pizzas, not sure what the calorie content is, well, I will see what the numbers are tomorrow morning when I weigh myself and check my blood sugars. (uge, one of my unfavorite things to do.)

Well, time to close this blog for today....you all take care and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

New Coffee Maker and a Cooking Show

Hello There Everyone. Hope you all are doing great.
Well, finally I found my Keurig Coffee Machine at Kohl's. I was intending on getting a red coffee maker (as it would match my Dutch Oven.) The Keurig came in 4 colors, white, black, silver and red.........well guess what???

I thought we would try Bed, Bath and Beyond, they only had black. The salesman sent me to Kohl's saying he hated to send me there, but because they only had the black mini-coffee makers, he knew Kohl's had many more colors.  Like yellow, purple, blue and turquoise. Now the dilemma was Kohl's had NO red coffee makers....so now what???? Well, my next favorite color was Purple, so I settled on this color, even though it matches NOTHING in my kitchen, I still like it and it makes a great cup of coffee.

Here's a front view.....the interesting thing about this color.....it changes colors!!!!

See? Now it is blue!! Two colors in one.....hahahahaha

JP and I went to a cooking show this past Saturday. The 12th Annual Cooking Extravaganza. Chef Jeff and Chef Mark made some tasty meals.....this is one of them. "Sausage and Lentils with Spinach" I will walk you through it.....it tasted oh, so delicious and is one of those soups that "sticks to your ribs."
We weren't going to go, but then Friday night I decided I wanted to go and I am glad we did, cause we came home with some good recipes to try. My next recipe will be Zucchini Cornbread........the zucchini is sitting in the fridge right now.
Following is the recipe for "Sausage and Lentils with Spinach"

1/4 cup oil, canola or other
1 cup onions, medium diced or omit if you don't like
1 cup celery, medium diced
1 cup carrots, medium diced
In a large kettle, saute' the onions, celery and carrots in the oil until translucent.

1 1/2  pounds kielbasa sausage (I used turkey sausage) sliced
Add the sausage and cook until it begins to render.
Add 2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Tablespoons soup base (I used chicken base)
1 pound lentils
1 teaspoon thyme leaves, dry
1 teaspoon pepper (I used 1/2 tsp.)

1 pound of Lentils
12 cups spinach, fresh and chopped

Here I am stirring everything together except the spinach,
letting it simmer uncovered for approximately 45 minutes.
Add the chopped spinach and wilt it for 5 minutes.
When finished, the dish should be well-bodied and the lentils tender.  Serve immediately with rustic bread for a healthy and satisfying meal. This is one of those meals that it would be wise to always have lentils on hand........I think I will.

So there you have it....my little tutorial on making this wonderful meal that JP will eat tonight along with bread and fruit.......hope it fills him up.
You all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise