OXM

Just a quick post to say goodbye to my subscription to the Official Xbox Magazine. I was a subscriber from issue number 6, and my last issue is number 102. I really enjoyed it while during the original Xbox. When Xbox 360 came out in 2005 and I decided that I would instead get the PS3 when it would come out in 2006, I still kept the OXM subscription.

The look of it changed when the Xbox 360 came out which was quite alright with me. Then they stopped including the nicely designed cardboard disc holders and started using those cheap white disc envelopes. I thought of canceling when that happened specially when the store versions of the disc holder was updated to a nice plastic covering.  Now it's just become pointless so I chose to not continue with the subscription.

Scheduling Posts...

The last four and then now this post were pre-scheduled. It's been interesting pre-scheduling posts. I look back and forth at the calendar and then keep thinking what would be the best time to have it post. All the previous times when I posted was when I sat down wrote it and posted it. Don't think that I'll be consistent in pre-scheduling posts however definitely something that I'll hopefully use more often...

At the same time I signed up at twitterfeed.com so that my new posts will update to my twitter which then updates to my facebook and then to the various other sites where I have a twitter app or feed available. Makes it much easier than what I used to do which was copy and paste the post to each sites individual blog/notes sections.

Valley Fresh Lettuce Wraps

This is the third recipe that came with the Valley Fresh Canned Chicken. Also have not tried it, yet...


Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

1 (10-ounce) can Valley Fresh 100% Natural Chicken, drained
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup diced cucumber
2 Tablespoons sliced green onions
4 Tablespoons prepared teriyaki sauce
2 Tablespoons sliced almonds
1 head iceberg lettuce, washed, cored and leaves separated

Cooking Instructions

In a bowl, combine chicken, carrots, cucumbers, and onions. To serve, top lettuce leaves with chicken mixture. Drizzle with teriyaki sauce and top with almonds. Serves 4.

Valley Fresh Pasta Salad

This is another recipe that came with the Valley Fresh Canned Chicken. Haven't tried it but it looks simple enough, yeah..

Pasta Salad

8 ounces uncooked spiral-shaped whole wheat pasta
1 (10-ounce) can Valley Fresh 100% Natural Chicken, drained
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 cup fresh quartered strawberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh pineapple
1 cup creamy poppyseed salad dressing
Fresh spinach leaves
Toasted pecans, for garnish

Cooking Instructions

Prepare pasta as package directs; rinse under cold water and drain well. Toss pasta with next 6 ingredients. Serve salad over a bed of fresh spinach leaves and garnish with toasted pecans. Serves 6.

Ebay and Paypal not worth it...

A couple of weeks ago I decided to give selling a couple things via ebay using paypal for the payment. I have many things I no longer want and figured Ebay with paypal was the way to go. Turns out it is not worth it. I listed 3 cds of which 2 sold.

To list an item, Ebay charges an insertion fee which I was able to get to zero based on the options I chose. Once the items sold and payment was received there is a fee based on the final value of the item when sold plus a fee from paypal from processing the transaction. Then there's the shipping costs of packaging, ink and paper for the invoice, and the actual mail carrier shipping fees.

Not including the time and gas spent to purchase the packaging materials and to get to the post office,  I made 11% of  the amount I was paid. Literally I made cents for the items I sold a whopping $0.44. I don't see myself listing any more items to sell via ebay, at least not the same types of items. It's great for buyers, I have gotten some great deals. However was not a good deal for me as a seller. Maybe different items next time... We'll see.

I Like Pizza

All these posts about pizzas... :) You probably figured out I really like pizza :) This is just sort of a follow up to the Pesto Pizza post. So aside from the pesto pizzas I also made mini pepperoni pizzas with black olives, 'cause I love black olives :) I'm not really good at shaping the pizza dough into perfect rounds. So here are some before and after cooking photos:

Pesto Pizza

Although I prefer to buy fresh of flash frozen chicken to cook, when you are in a time pinch, having canned chicken in the pantry is a great time saver. My favorite brand is Valley Fresh. Use it on salads, pot pies, etc. My previous post about pizza dough made me give the below recipe that came with one of the cans a try. I did however make some slight substitutions to the one listed. Instead of whole wheat flatbreads I made my own pizza dough and made my own pesto from basil that I got from one of the vendors at the Phoenix Public Market.

Pesto Pizza

Ingredients

4 Whole Wheat Flatbreads
4 Tablespoons Prepared Pesto
1 (10-ounce) can Valley Fresh 100% Natural Chicken, drained
1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes, halved
4 Ounces Fresh Mozzarella, cut into pieces

Cooking Instructions

Heat oven to 400 F. Brush pesto onto each piece of flatbread. Top each with chicken, tomatoes, and cheese. Place bread on a baking sheets and bake for 12 minutes or until crisp and golden brown. Cut into pieces and serve. If desired, serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. serves 4.

It's in the dough

When I was in high school I took 1/2 semester of home ec class. The cooking portion of that class was making pizza. We learned how to make pizza dough one day and cooked it the next. We were in groups of two or three if I remember correctly. Now I couldn't keep it a regular pizza so I decided our team would stuff the edges with cheese ala stuffed crust from pizza hut :) After this followed several weeks of me making pizza at home.

Then comes graduation and me moving to Phoenix, Arizona, USA. I forgot how it was made and didn't really give it much thought.

Fast Forward to 2005, I am a much more homebody person, and Martha Stewart's new show MARTHA had recently started and I happened to be home to watch it. She is making chocolate chip cookies from scratch, they look yummy, and she suggests that everyone should have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. So I go out an get one.

The mixer comes with a booklet of instructions that includes some recipes. In it there is a recipe for pizza dough. So although I got the stand mixer because I wanted to learn to make my own cookies, I gave the pizza recipe a try. Hurrah! I like it.

After re-learning how to make pizza dough, I wanted to compare my fresh made dough with ready made doughs from the grocery store. So I tried the Pillsbury Pizza Crust and the store brand versions of it and to me there's something about them that seems off. I also tried the Boboli pizza crusts, those are the pre-made in the plastic bags, and to me they taste very cardboardy preservativish. I have also tried the Fresh & Easy pizza dough which is more fresh tasting than the Pillsbury ones but there's still that something that is missing, however if you are going to go with pre-made pizza dough then it's the one to go with.

Nowadays I may or may not use the stand mixer for the dough, as I found I could just mix the ingredients in a regular mixing bowl to great results. I also use garlic salt instead of just salt. Here's the recipe:

Crusty Pizza Dough

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water(105°F to 115°F)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/2-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer
bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Attach
bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 1 minute.

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup
at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until
dough starts to clean sides of bowl. Knead on
Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top.
Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about
1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough
down.

Brush 14-inch pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with
cornmeal. Press dough across bottom of pan,
forming a collar around edge to hold toppings.
Add toppings, as desired. Bake at 450°F for 15 to
20 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings (1/4 pizza per serving).

Per serving: About 373 cal, 11 g pro, 74 g carb, 3 g fat, 0 mg chol, 271 mg sod.

It's a hot one...

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

7:00 pm - So I get home from work on Tuesday and the AC is running but no cold air. It was about 3 years ago that it did that and it happened to be a motor and some other stuff.  I wonder what's wrong with it.

7: 05 pm - No time to think about it, I have to go turn in a couple movies(Pedro and Phoebe in Wonderland) and a game(Soul Calibur IV) I rented this past weekend.

7:08 pm - A guy walking on the street is scratching his nether regions and I think to myself, "Did I notice that 'cause I am gay or would a straight guy notice that too?"

7:20 pm - Back from the rental store and start fiddling with the thermostat and check the unit out and notice the fan isn't turning but air is coming out from the vents. Weird.

7:30 pm - I'll just wait to tomorrow, how hot can it get.

11:35 pm - It's really hot, thinking about checking into a hotel room., but didn't.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

6:30 am - After on again off again sleep 'cause it was quite hot, wake up and do another check of the thermostat and unit. Beats my I have no knowledge of AC.

6:35 am - Pull some weeds out, might as well since am already outside.

7:30 am - Call my landlady, she would call repair people and have them call to set up time for them to come by.

8:30 am - Call out from work, update my voice mail from home with an out of office message. I am starting to like the new voice mail system, Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging.

8:35 am - Oh man, I am going to miss Port of Subs Wednesdays. A tradition now with few of my co-workers.

8:45 am - Today will be a crock pot meal, do not want to turn the stove on. Simple recipe here. I added chopped onion on the bottom, then added a package of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, sprinkled with salt, I added some left over shredded carrots I had, a few cloves of garlic and the topped it all with a jar of chunky salsa. Super simple, tasty, and very modifiable for next time.

9:00 am - or so, A guy calls and says he could be here around 2pm.

9:03 am - Coffee, and the hot waiting game begins.

2:45 pm - The reapair man gets here, he goes outside to check the unit.

3:00 pm - It is fixed, he said something about wires and showed me the ones that he removed. Cool air once again flows through the vents. Hurrah!!

3:15pm - Late lunch/Early dinner, crock pot meal is done.

Now whatever happened between coffee and the repair person getting here will be forgotten 'cause it hotness with waiting and I didn't like it.. :) Here's to cooler days!! :)

One Skillet Meal

This past Sunday I was reading the latest Fall 2009 Food & Family Magazine from Kraft. There are many recipes in it that I want to try. I did try one of them and it was tasty although it did not look as pretty as the picture of it that they provide. The wording on the steps is slightly different on the magazine than on the online version but they are pretty much the same recipe. I used my Martha Stewart Everyday non-stick skillet that I got at Kmart. They don't have it online or I would link to it. Yeah there are still some Kmart stores around! There's also instructions on how to make it in the oven instead of a skillet. Oh! Martha also has some good recipes, I have tried a few to varied results. I'll post about those at a later time :) Here's the recipe from the magazine or click the link for the online one.

Stove Top one-dish chicken skillet

What you need:

1 1/2 cups hot water

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken

6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1-1/2 lb.)

1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/3 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

Make it:


Mix hot water, butter and stuffing mix.
Cook chicken in nonstick skillet on medium-high heat 5 min. on each side or until browned on both sides.
Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stuffing;cover. Cook on low heat 10 min. or until chicken is done (165°F)

Use your oven: Heat oven to 375°F. Prepare stuffing as directed. Place chicken in 13x9 inch baking dish. Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stuffing. Bake 35 min. or until chicken is done.