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.

Cooking and Recipes

I find that I really enjoy recipes and cooking. I like trying new recipes even if they don't always come out like they look in the books and magazines. Sometimes I really mess up the recipes. I get frustrated when that happens but eventually I'll laugh it off. When I get lazy and don't want to go to the grocery store, I'll open the pantry and the fridge and put something together. So anyways, I think I may start posting more recipes as I try them... :)

Need to simplify...

Feeling the need to simplify. To do this I am taking inventory of the things that need to go out and keeping only those that are necessary.

Chicken with Spinach

Haven't really been feeling the whole cooking thing, however last Sunday I put this together and it was yummy.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 package ground chicken breast (I think it was a 1lb package)
1 Tablespoon garlic (I used the kind that comes in those little jars)
1 Tablespoon simple pesto (my simple pesto was made from just the leaves of my indoor basil plants, olive oil, and about 1 Tablespoon of garlic, yup no nuts)
1 bunch fresh spinach, washed (I think it was a 1lb bunch)
2 Roma tomatoes, diced (3-4 if they are small, the ones I had were huge for a Roma)
salt, pepper, spices
tostada chips

Directions:

Heat pan or skillet. I used a medium sized saucepan. Add the extra virgin olive oil and then ground chicken. Add salt, pepper, and spices to your taste. I just eyeballed it. Once the chicken has been browned, mix in the 1 Tablespoon garlic add 1 Tablespoon simple pesto. Now, add the spinach. Depending on the size of the skillet/pan you are using, you may need to add the spinach in batches. Add the diced tomatoes just as the spinach starts wilting. Simmer until most the liquid is gone. Plate. Enjoy with tostada chips. Serves 2-4.

I used tostada chips since that's what I had on hand, however it seems to me that it lends itself to be in taco shells topped with cheese, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, fresh tomato, avocado, or whatever else it is you may like.

Morning Person no more!?

There was a time not too long ago(really just over a year ago) that I was a morning person. Really an Early Morning Person. I would wake up at 5 am or 6 am to get to work by either 6am or 7am, depending on Daylight Savings Time.

The day after Memorial Day 2008 is when I started in my new job position with the company I have worked at for 9 years come this November. This new position had a schedule with start time 10am, which I have really come to enjoy.

I can stay up to around midnight and get my full 8 hours of sleep. Early mornings in my opinion are the ones I enjoy most. I feel well rested getting up at around 8am, make coffee, and prepare lunch. The morning rush hours has or is dying by the time I head to work. Sure I get off later in the day causing me to miss Rachael Ray and Oprah, but I have found that I don't really miss watching those shows.

So this week, I'm training for some new "skills", which has meant getting to work at 7am. I don't like it one bit. I'm moody in the early mornings and tired the rest of the day. I don't know how I did it before. I guess one gets used to a particular schedule when one has too. One more day of these early days and then it's back to normalcy.

Movies, Car, and Garden Mostly...

It's been a little over 3 weeks since my last post on May 3rd. Nothing exciting really going on, I have mostly been spending time on my container gardening.

May 8th - My plants keep growing.


May 9th - My plants keep growing but there's something eating the eggplant leaves. Took a picture of this insect. Do you know what it is?


May 10th - My plants keep growing and took a photo of some worms or larvae that are/were on one of the containers. Do you know what it is?


May 16th - Made pizza, used my first ounce or so of Sweet Basil that I have growing indoors by the kitchen windowsill.


May 17th - Discovered a brown colored bird dug around my containers in search of seeds/worms and although my main plants(tomato, zucchini, eggplant) were not damaged, it did destroy my just sprouted Sweet Basil, Cornflower from Buzzy Seeds, and my tree seedling. So I wrapped chicken wire around the containers, but not on the top so the bird still was able to fly in through the top.

May 18th - I got off work early, drove to Lowe's to purchase bird netting. After shopping my car did not start. Called a tow truck, who towed me from the store to my house for just under US $100. Cut a piece of bird netting and threw it over my plants.

May 19th - Called out from work, jump started my car, and drove it to get fixed. It would need to stay overnight and be fixed the next mid-morning. Secured and properly arranged the bird netting around my plants with twist ties.

May 20th - Picked up my now fixed car mid-morning, just under $900 for repairs. Arrived 10 minutes late to work. Verified that the bird netting worked in keeping away the bird or birds. Watched the American Idol finale and afterwards Glee, one of my new must watch shows.



May 23rd - Movie day. Watched a documentary called Abel Raises Cain, then X-Men Origins: Wolverine, later Ready? Ok!

May 24th - Movie Day plus gardening. Watched Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, then The War, Later Superhero Movie. I also planted some new Buzzy Seeds. Basil seeds around my tomatoe plants and Wildflower Seeds for Butterfly Garden.

Basil, Tomatoes, and Eggplants oh my!

Basil... It's the one herb that I have grown successfully on the windowsill of the window by the kitchen every spring/summer. On one of the years I also tried cilantro, thyme, chives, parsley, dill, and marjoram to not so great success. One time I tried growing sunflowers. The seeds sprouted, but then I didn't know how to grow them in pots so they all died.

This year, end of March 2009 or so, I planted the basil seeds, Sweet Basil. On one pot I put 5 seeds and 4 sprouted and are growing. On a second pot I put 3 seeds and 2 sprouted and are growing.



Eggplant... Now sometime in 2008 I decided I would try to grow my first vegetable. I think it was June or July but I forget, it could have been the end of the 2008 year too or the beginning of 2009. Since I rent a house I decided it I would need to grow in a pot, in the event I needed to move I could take my plant with me.

So I purchased a big pot and potting soil and planted one seed in the middle of the pot. The vegetable I chose was Eggplant. The seed packet itself says Eggplant, Black Beauty. I figured if from one seed a plant sprouted then great, and if it did not then no big deal since I really would not know how to care for the plant and I may end up killing it. If my plants are outside I forget about them and then they die from not watering them. This happened to me with a flower plant I won at work in October 2008. Hmmm... I think I may have planted the Eggplant seed sometime after October 2008, since I realized that flower plant was dead when I went outside to plant the eggplant seed, oh well.

Anyways, the eggplant seed sprouted and started growing. It had tons of flowers. I read somewhere online to not over water the eggplant, so I made it a point to not water it. I would water it just at the end of each week or less. Then almost all of the flowers were gone and no eggplants were growing.

So maybe I should have watered it more often just without over watering it. The plant itself was still growing, so I started watering it more often just not drenching it. Sort of just enough so that it would have water to drink but not so much that it wouldn't be thirsty the next time I added water. Don't know if that makes sense, but whatever. About one to two weeks later it had new flowers, not as many as before, however this time one of the flowers turned into a tiiny little eggplant. Oh how exciting. Then about a week later 2 more eggplants started growing. So I have 3 tiny eggplants growing as of a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm just trying to not over or under water it. I also think there may be some kind of bug that is eating some of the leaves. I'll need to address that. On a website somewhere I read of a natural pest deterrent that calls to mix 1 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid and 1 cup vegetable oil, then combine 2 teaspoons of that mixture and 1 cup of water. I also later learned that I could use a cage to encourage the plant to grow since I have it on a pot. So I did that last weekend, watered it, hopefully not too much. I checked and watered it yesterday and it looks like is adapting quickly to the cage and there are new flowers. So maybe that means more eggplants. That would just be awesome!!!



Tomatoes... A friend from work who says she has never had a green thumb decided to give growing her vegetable garden in her backyard. She planted all sorts of vegetables including zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, snap peas, and others that I can't remember right now. She chose to grow her vegetable garden from seeds. When she purchased the seeds she was told that 1 out of every 5 tomatoe seeds grow. So she put multiple seeds in each container she had. My multiple I mean tons. A couple weeks later she said that it looked like all of the seeds were growing and now had too many plants, so she asked me if I wanted a tomatoe plant. I said sure. So she gave me on of her containers that had a cluster of tomatoe plants growing. I separated them last weekend. So 33 was the total of tomatoe plants that were in the cluster. I read somewhere online after transaplanting them that tomatoe plants should be tranplanted when they are a certain size. Makes sense since the ones that were super tinny are dead now. I still have though about 18 plants. They are all separated. Now, I had gotten just 2 large pots in which I put 2 plants each. I also put a tomatoe cage in each. The other plants are in small pots. Now that I know that they need to be bigger before transplanting them.I'm goign to hold off transplanting the remaining ones until then. The tomatoes are the beefsteak kind.



Zucchini... I have 2 zucchini plants too from my work friend who also planted too many zucchini plants. These are individually separated. They are already a good size to transplant, so all I need now is to go get 2 big pots and some trellis like cages for these. I hope they grow good.


House plant... So aside from the houseplant that I have always had(that viney like one that just about everyone has), I got so excited having vegetables growing that I also got an indoor plant. It is a palm like looking plant. Don't know what kind since it had no name at the store(Lowe's) that I bought it from.


I am so excited. If all goes good I should be harvesting my own eggplants, tomatoes, and zucchini aside from my usual basil. I van't wait.