Faith-filled Friday: Patience and grilling

Hello Crushers!

Yes, I'm still here. The baby has not decided to pick her birthday yet, so we have reached full term at 40 weeks!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

We are very fortunate that our baby has made it to full term and we "shouldn't expect" any major developmental problems that preemie babies would have. Other than the gestational diabetes, I have been very blessed to have a relatively uneventful pregnancy. We've been so, so blessed!

Last night, Steve caught me talking to her. I was doing nursery rhymes to see how many I remember. I started joking that I hope she gets Steve's memory for songs and his singing voice. But I hope she gets my skin, arms, hair and ability to remember names. And our love of food and cooking and nature. And Steve's ears. And my grandpa's memory for places. And Steve's grandma's craftiness. And our moms' patience. And so many qualities that I don't even know if you can pass on to another person! 

While we wait for her arrival, Steve is planning on grilling out tonight thanks to the beautiful weather we're having! It's in the 60's today! We can sit out on our back patio and grill up some pork chops, asparagus and maybe even try some hassleback potatoes on the grill. I'll let you know how they turn out!

If you don't hear from me for a little while, it'll be because Baby Girl has finally decided to show up. Otherwise, I'll work on that patience part and catch you on Monday for a Virtual Running Date! Have a great weekend everyone!

Roasty-toasty potatoes and pork chops (Wildtree stuff)

Good morning, Crushers!

Have you ever had one of those mornings where you know it's going to take a little more make up than usual to feel and look awake? Yeah, it's one of those mornings.

Source

I should be all rested and relaxed after last night's delicious dinner. Not going to lie, I kind of winged it, and it worked out. WIN!

Last week, Steve bought a big package of boneless pork chops. Before popping the whole package in the freezer, I divided them in two freezer bags and added some Wildtree goodies. One bag has four pork chops and a 1/4 cup of Wildtree Wicked Good Slow Cooker sauce in the freezer, and the other had four pork chops, 2 Tbsp Wildtree Natural Grapeseed Oil and about 1.5 Tbsp lemon and rosemary blend.

While I was waiting for Steve to get home from a meeting last night, I drizzled four small chopped potatoes in olive oil and some more of the Wildtree seasoning and then added beets because they sounded all good and fall-ish. Mix those veggies up and spread them out on a baking sheet. Then I popped them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees F, or until Steve got home. It was about 30 minutes...

Tip: When baking beets, I suggest lining your baking pan with some aluminum foil. Beet juice can really stain things (as I found on on a white towel recently and you can see on the potatoes below), so why make more of a mess than you have to? Clean up is easy too, since all you have to do is toss the aluminum foil!

Anyway, I put the pork chops in a frying pan with no extra oil or anything, and let them sizzle way for 4 minutes on each side. Then I turned it on low to keep it warm until Steve got home.

Here are the pork chops half way through.
The long sprigs of rosemary are from our garden. Time to flip!

We ate a late dinner of pork chops, roasted veggies and applesauce for our sweet. It was so good!

Had to eat all this good stuff before I could get the applesauce out. Yum!

Hope this meal brightens up your morning! It's really cloudy here in Milwaukee. Maybe I'll go put another swipe of mascara on!

Virtual Running Date No. 23: Steve cooks

Hello Crushers!

If we were on a virtual running date, I would tell you that I'm so full of potato pancakes that I couldn't possibly eat another. Remember that post where I tried to make them and failed miserably? No? Me either!

Anyway, if we were on a virtual running date, I would tell you that Steve is the potato pancake man of the house! He came up with the recipe himself and it was delicious! My parents invited everyone over for a fish fry to eat up all the fish we caught up north. We tried. Oh how we tried. My parents still have fish in their freezer!

I'm hoping this means there will be another fish fry soon...

Anyway, Steve used his Grandma's secret pancake recipe and added about 4 potatoes (grated), 1 tsp thyme, 1 medium onion (diced), salt and pepper to taste and that's it. Oh, he omitted the sugar from the pancakes. I can't tell you the whole recipe, but I bet if you made some Bisquick batter and added the ingredients I mentioned above, you would come up with something pretty close.

Here are the Steve Cooks photos:

On the griddle

The batter

The first couple of complete pancakes ready to go!

The happy chef!

 Isn't he cute?

Anyway, if we were on a virtual running date, I would tell you that we have a new niece! She is adorable. Our newest family member, Natalie, will get spoiled just like all the other little ones. I can't wait! We have one more little family member to welcome, and that's the nephew we have due in October. One from each side of the family! Does anyone know if Toys R' Us has a rewards program? Just kidding...

Faith-filled Friday: Spills

Good morning, Crushers,

This week has been full of spills. I'm not just talking about how I forgot to screw the top back on the juice bottle before Steve shook it up. Whoops. I actually injured myself by stepping off of a stair in a goofy way and rolled my ankle really bad. I thought I heard a snap, but that might have been the gravel I was walking on and not a bone. So, despite a lot of pain, there has been barely any swelling, no bruising and no trips to the ER. WHOO!

If you know me in person, you would say, "Jen, this is SO you." like my friend Courtney did after I posted this message on Facebook:

In the past year, I've seen bears in Yosemite and hiked up Half Dome, made it down my first black diamond hill skiing, got a new personal best running a half marathon, saw a shark and snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef and never got more than a bruise or scratch, but I trip and roll my ankle walking to my car after playing horseshoes. Go figure. At least I have a new high average!

Seriously?!

Anyway, this is one of the many reasons that I have the Bible passage Isaiah 40:31 inscribed on my Road ID.

"but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

I know that no matter what crazy stuff I do or what troubles I have or how many times I sprain something, I have God there by my side. It's a simple as that. Fortunately, I can share God, my constant, with others because he is there for everyone. For instance, remember Beth and Brandon that I wrote about in my last post? Beth is continually praising God for every positive step that Brandon is making and leaning on Him when Brandon's health has a setback. It's amazing. She knows that no matter what they're going through, God is there. He will always be there. I love that and I hope you do too.

I'm also loving the fact that despite being accident prone, I've learned to listen to my body and let it heal. I did not play softball on Wednesday night because I know that we have packed weekend. (Plus, I took a really awful spill while running to first base back in 2010 because of a broken shoe, which resulted in a sprained wrist, scarred knees/legs and a lot of bruises).

I'm going to make this salad for when we go on the boat tomorrow with Hannah and Lee.

Also, if you ever come to Milwaukee on the last full weekend of July, please go to Germanfest. Milwaukee is filled with rich German heritage (as well as Italian, Polish, Jewish, Irish, Greek, Norwegian, Native American, and more!), so of course, we all stand up and sing "Ein Prosit" together while drinking a beer. We also dance and listen to "ooh pa pa" bands. Got to love the music, the food (hello, potato pancakes!) and the camaraderie.

Please note that we did not spill our beer or potato pancakes while dancing and singing.
Also, I will admit that I saw the guy playing the matter horn and said, "Look, it's a German didgeridoo!" Fail.

Leftover Night: Baked Potato Edition

Good morning Crushers!

This blog entry is completely inspired my you, my readers! As I've mentioned in the past, I've been asked what to do with leftovers and then my sister asked me about a dinner that she was planning for her friends. The two ideas combined to Leftover Night: Baked Potato Edition!

Potato is ready!

On the Christmas after we got engaged, Steve's grandma, who can sew ANYTHING, gave me a baked potato mitt for making potatoes in the microwave. It's so handy if you just want one or two potatoes and you don't have the time to bake them in the oven. Just wash and dry the potato, wrap it in a paper towel and then pop it in the bag. You can microwave up to 3 potatoes at a time and it only takes about 7-9 minutes. It's magic.

Last night, Steve and I had designated as leftover night since I had choir practice and a shopping date with my cousin, and he had card night with the guys. We needed a quick, healthy dinner and we needed space in our fridge!

Toppings  anyone?

Here are the leftovers that we had: pork sausage crumbles, diced onions, and cheese leftover from Monday's homemade pizza; two chicken burger patties from Sunday's Greek Chicken Burgers with Feta, peas; asparagus and rice from Tuesday night. While rice doesn't make a great potato topping (starch on starch? no), it will make great fried rice at later date.

Steve went with a potato covered in cheese, onion and then kept most of the toppings on the side since they didn't want to sit on the potato! I topped mine with some of the sausage crumbles, onion, peas and little cheese. FYI - the peas did not want to stay on the potato with the rest of the toppings, so that photo was taken in haste before they all rolled away! We both ate the asparagus on the side. Hot, filling, and we have more space in our fridge again! Whoo hoo!

Smoke Alarm Chicken

I have never been able to live in a home where I didn't have to call 911 at least once, except my current home, but we haven't lived here for very long. Here are the calls:

1. At my parents' house, I called the emergency number because our minivan started on fire in our driveway so we had to call before it set our garage and the neighbor's house on fire. No one was harmed.
2. At my first apartment, I called 911 because there was a big fight that broke out in the parking lot next door and it sounded like someone was going to get their rear-end kicked or worse. I think one guy got punched in the face before the cops showed up.
3. At my second apartment, I didn't actually call the cops myself, but my neighbor did because another neighbor was super drunk and was making a ruckus. My cousin and I took turns watching the action through the front door peep hole and the balcony doors. I think the drunk neighbor kicked a cop, but otherwise everyone was fine.
4. At my third and final apartment before we got married, Smoke Alarm Chicken happened. No one was harmed.

Perfect temperature!

Last spring, my then-fiance and I decided to go for a short run while I had some chicken in the oven. I thought that I had the oven temperature low enough that nothing would happen while we were gone for about 30 minutes. Yes, I know that you're not supposed to leave the oven on and leave the house. Please don't scold me. I learned my lesson, which you will read about shortly.


Anyway, I had placed 3 chicken quarters in a lightly greased baking dish sprinkled with a seasoning of some sort (I'm pretty sure it was Penzeys Forward!). Then I placed it in the oven at 300 degrees. I figured I would need to crank it up to 400 degrees when we got back to my apartment because you need dark meat to reach an internal temperature of 170-180 degrees.

So we left to go running and on my way back, I couldn't help thinking what a dumb thing we just did. I was right. We were a half a block away when I could see all the lights on in the apartment, and I could hear sirens. Crap. Crappity Crap Crap...

My landlord met us at the door. He wasn't pleased with us, but he had also just taken nearly PERFECTLY cooked chicken out of the oven and told me to go talk to the firemen and he left. The firemen entered my apartment while my then-fiance-now-husband was in the living room fanning the smoke detector to get it to shut up.

"Ma'am, is everything OK?" Fireman #1 asked. He sniffs the air to check for smoke, I assumed, and looked around.

"Yes, we just have a really finicky smoke detector," I replied. "It sounds off if I'm boiling water." True story.

"Is that the item that was in the oven," Fireman #1 asked while pointing at the nearly PERFECTLY cooked chicken. Fireman #2 was standing behind him trying not to laugh.

"Yes, I had put the chicken in the oven while we went for a short run. I know I shouldn't have done that because of the fire danger. I'm very sorry," I tell him. Firemen #1 and #2 try to give me a stern look about leaving the oven while it was turned on, but the chuckles and remarks of "something smells good" from Fireman #3 didn't quite make them seem very angry.

After offering them a beverage or some chicken for their troubles (my then-fiance-now-husband was laughing in the other room), the firefighters politely declined saying that they had already eaten. Again, I was told to not leave the house with the oven on, and they left. I popped the chicken back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so to finish cooking. I went upstairs to apologize to my neighbors, who were very nice about the whole thing, and then we ate dinner, which was delicious.

Later that night, I called my dad with a, "You'll never guess what just happened to me!" story. After telling me that I shouldn't have left the apartment with the oven on and laughing at what happened, he said, "You should name this dish Smoke Alarm Chicken!" Thanks for the name Dad!

Last night, my husband and I decided on Smoke Alarm Chicken, broccoli and baked potato slices for dinner. This time we did not go out running or even leave the house to go to the mailbox. See? I learned my lesson.

This is what it will look like when done. New Year's resolution:
Learn better food photography.

Smoke Alarm Chicken and Baked Potato Slices:
Ingredients:
2-3 Chicken quarters, thawed and trimmed (use more chicken if you are serving more than 2-3 people)
2-3 Russet potatoes, sliced (tips on that to come)
2 tbsp olive oil or garlic grapeseed oil
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning, divided (I couldn't find the Penzeys stuff!)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish. Trim your chicken so that most of the fat is gone, but leave the skin on because it keeps it juicy. You can remove it later, which is way easier when cooked. Place the chicken in the dish, bone-side-down. You may need a buddy/sister/parent/brother/husband/boyfriend/wife/girlfriend/neighbor for this next step. From the thigh side, pull the skin up and hold it away from the meat to have your other person sprinkle the meat with some of the seasoning. Put the skin back down to cover the meat and sprinkle a bit more seasoning on it. Sorry, I don't have a picture of this procedure, but my hands were all chicken-slimy, which is why I didn't sprinkle it myself. I don't need salmonella on my spice jars.

Seasoned chicken ready to go in the oven.

Go wash your hands thoroughly and then scrub the potatoes so you get any extra dirt off of the potato skins. The skins are good for you, so leave those on unless you can't stand them. Slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch chips and place on a baking sheet.

Tip for slicing potatoes (no joke, I learned this from Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model): If you don't have a mandolin slicer or food processor that you feel like getting out (and dirty), take a sharp knife and start slicing the potato at one end. When you get to the other end and you are running out of room to safely hold the potato without slicing off the tip of your finger, turn the end around so the small end is toward the knife and the bigger end is in your hand. Hold it with your fingers curled like a cat claw. This also works for onions or other round veggies. Remember, we don't want to have to call 911 again.

Note how I switched the direction of the potato end.

Drizzle a bit of oil over the potatoes and toss. Sprinkle with seasoning. Place both the chicken and the potatoes in the oven (chicken on the middle/low rack and the potatoes above it with space between). Bake for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender (you should flip the potatoes on the baking sheet about half way through) and the chicken is done. That means NO pink insides, the juices run clear and the internal temperature reaches 170-180 degrees.

Finished potatoes.

Remove the skin (or not if you like it) and serve with some broccoli for bright green veggie goodness (or your veggie of choice). Enjoy the chicken in peace without a visit from the fire department.

Pommes de Terre with photos!

Hey Crushers!
So the pan of cheesy potatoes I made got inhaled in about 5 seconds or however long it took for everyone to make it through the buffet that my mother-in-law set up in her kitchen. Here are the photos that I took, but didn't post with the recipe for some reason. Sorry about that.

A few pounds of potatoes all sliced thanks to the food processor.
While I had it running, I sliced the onions in there as well.
The onion juice seemed to prevent the potatoes from turning brown.

Mixing all the ingredients together. You need a really big bowl.

Put all the ingredients in a greased 13 x 9 inch pan and bake.

With 10 minutes left, top with some cheese and corn flakes and bake uncovered.

Melty crispy magic! Done!

Thanksgiving prep - Pommes de terre

Paula Deen

Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman)

Gina Neely

I love all of these ladies dearly, but there is no question that the real Queen of Comfort Food is Julia Child. She was the original celebrity chef who encouraged everyone to use butter and plenty of it. Yes, some of her food is ridiculously hard to make, but most of the time it's just delicious food that seems difficult to cook because it has a fancy French name. For instance, my husband's favorite side dish is Puree De Pommes De Terre A L'Ail, also known as garlic mashed potatoes. See? Not so scary after all. (Really not scary if you watch the clip at the end of the link I posted where they set some Julia Child to Guns N' Roses - HA!)

Thanksgiving is the food Superbowl of comfort food. There is turkey, which has the sleep-inducing tryptophan (although the wine and overeating are also culprits). There is starch everywhere from stuffing (or dressing) to rolls to potatoes. The creamy goodness of green bean casserole and mashed yams just make you think of napping. Oh, and that dollop of whipped topping (mock me, I'm a Cool Whip fan) sitting on top of a slice of pie doesn't hurt either. Everything about this day suggests comfort.

I try really hard to eat healthy meals with a variety of color and texture. My kitchen crush mom always said that you need at least three colors on your plate. I was assigned to bring potatoes to dinner at my in-law's house. Now, they didn't specify what kind of potatoes to bring. I thought I could try out a new recipe or put a twist on the Ina Garten roasted potatoes from this blog post by adding other root veggies like parsnips and beets for vibrant colors. Wouldn't that be fabulous?

When I suggested this to my husband, he was horrified. HORRIFIED. He couldn't believe that I wouldn't make cheesy potatoes. It's a staple in his holiday diet. So, I made the roasted veggies for my office's Thanksgiving potluck lunch and bought all the ingredients for cheesy potatoes.

Here is the recipe I'll be using:
Cheesy Potatoes
Ingredients:

2 lbs shredded potatoes (you can cheat and buy the frozen hash browns and thaw them)
1/4 cup butter
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup (if you can, find the low-sodium kind)
1 cup sour cream
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (save some for topping)
1/2 cup onion, diced (more or less to taste)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup corn flakes
salt and pepper, to taste 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients together in a big bowl except the corn flakes and a handful of the cheese. Pour the mix in a greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish and cover with foil. Remember, if the veggie grows underground, cover it up! Bake for 50 minutes. When the timer goes off, take the dish out of the oven and remove the foil without burning yourself. Steam is hot, people. Sprinkle the top of the whole dish with corn flakes and the cheese you saved. Put it back in the oven without the foil for 10 more minutes so it gets nice and crispy and melty. I don't know how it gets both crispy and melty, but it does. I don't question miracles. 

"But Jen, how do you shred all those potatoes?" Well, crushers, I usually cheat and buy the bags of frozen potatoes. However, this year I own a food processor with one of those fancy, schmancy slicer attachments, so I'm going to try that. If that doesn't work, I'll end up slicing them and making potatoes au gratin. I'll post that recipe next week.

I know I haven't been around much and I'll be MIA for the next few days, but that's because my sister is getting married this weekend, so I don't have to do much cooking! I'll be eating Thanksgiving potluck dinner, then leftovers and rehearsal dinner and then wedding food and then more leftovers all weekend! WHOO HOO!

Thank you to all the crushers who read this blog, make comments, share what you've learned or made you laugh and special thanks to those who take it one step further and either donates to get food to those who need it or just shares meals with others.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dinner with Friends revisited

So I have been teasing you with this menu for when we had some friends over on Tuesday night, right? Well, it was delicious. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of our beautifully set table and the delicious food! Instead, I had my husband take a picture of the leftovers. They were still delicious...


Here is why there is no awesome photo:
1. I got out of work later than expected thanks to some cranky people on the phones.
2. My husband's truck died and that was the night we could pick it up. However, since he was still coaching and I somehow beat him home, I had to throw the ribs in the oven so they would cook long enough and then throw on running clothes so that I could run there (it's about a mile and a half away) and make it over to the mechanic shop before they closed and then they wanted to explain what happened. While I normally LOVE that mechanics take the time to explain things to me even if I'm a woman (thank you Mechanic Scott!), I really didn't need them to reenact ripping the dome light out of the car.
3. Our guests showed up early. However, they showed up with rocky road cheesecake, so who cares?!

Coach S and Mrs. Coach S are adorable! We had a lovely dinner, great conversation, and made plans for another get-together. Hopefully, it's to watch a Packer game or play with their new puppy! I could totally see why Coach S and my husband are friends. While they may talk slowly, you can tell that their minds are moving 100 times faster. Unlike me, a motor-mouth, my husband carefully considers the words that come out of his mouth 98% of the time. If only I would learn to not plow people over with words! I'm sure that's exhausting.

OK, back to the food. Ribs and potatoes are going to be the focus here because, that's all I have a picture of to share with you.

Ribs:
My husband does the grocery shopping for us based on a careful and detailed list. He does a great job! He found wonderful baby back ribs on sale!

Here is the recipe (I made this one up based on a lot of recipes and mostly what my mom told me to do):
Ingredients:
3 pounds of baby back ribs, thawed (approximate weight)
2-3 tablespoons of Galena Street rub from Penzey's Spices (alternatives are the Northwoods spice or Emeril's original)
Splash of vinegar
Optional:
1 18 oz bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ sauce - This is my husband's favorite. I also like the hickory or honey flavored variety. However, this went really well with the rub.

How to:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the ribs bone-side down in a baking dish. I used a 13 x 9 inch pan, but had to cut the ribs to fit. (I REALLY wish I had a picture of this for you). I drizzled a bit of vinegar over the tops of the ribs - just enough to get them wet. Sprinkle the rub spices over the ribs. You don't have to get carried away here, but make sure the spices are even. Then bake in the oven for 2 hours. With 30 minutes left to bake, you can either choose to baste them a bit with the pan juices or you can cover the ribs with sauce. I go for the sauce, but that's just me. If you don't want them so messy, you can leave the sauce off or just on the side. Bake for 30 more minutes.

The garlic oven roasted potatoes were modified from Kitchen Crush Ina Garten's recipe. This is a super easy recipe and it is always a hit! Here is the real recipe.

Here is what I did:
Ingredients:
3 lbs of red potatoes, washed and cut in inch-sized chunks
1/4 cup of regular grapeseed oil (I'm a fan of the Wildtree products)
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tablespoon Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle (Italian seasoning)

Since you've got the oven hot, you don't need to preheat the oven, but you'll just bake them longer. However, if you're just making these alone, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the potatoes and chop them into quarters or inch-sized chunks. In a large bowl, mix the potatoes with the oil and garlic. Warning, if you crush your own garlic like I did, your hands will smell like garlic for a while. Then spread the potatoes on a baking sheet (I cover mine with aluminum foil for easy cleaning) and then sprinkle them with the Italian seasoning. Bake for about 1.5 hours if they're at 350 with the ribs or for about 45 minutes to an hour at 400. Turn them once or twice during the baking time so they get browned evenly.

Here is what everything looks like when it's done:

OH MY GOSH! Ok, so I'll have to give you the photo later if I can figure out how to get it off of my phone since he texted it to me instead of e-mailing it to me. Hmm... We will get this fixed. I hope! In the meantime, use your imagination!

Coming up: Dinner with Friends

My husband coaches high school football, which makes him Coach and I am Mrs. Coach. Next week we are having although I went to nearly every game through the time we were dating and engaged, there are still some of the other coaches that haven't met me yet. We're having Coach S and Mrs. Coach S over for dinner next week to hang out.

Now, I thought I was pretty knowledgeable in football considering I come from a long line of dedicated Green Bay Packer fans and I was a cheerleader. Cheerleading is not just all rah-rah, shake your pom-pons and do a bunch of high kicks. Cheerleaders are athletes who had to train and know specific details of both cheer routines and what was happening on the field. You wouldn't want to be cheering your team on for a first down when they were on defense. Duh.

Steps off soap box...

Anyway, what cheerleaders didn't have to know were the many, many types of coaches that each team has. You've got your head coach, offensive coach, defensive coach, line coach, special teams coach, QB coach, etc. However, there is one thing that I do know about coaches: They all love BBQ. I have yet to meet one that doesn't enjoy a tangy red BBQ sauce or anything off of the grill.

Next week: BBQ Ribs, garlic oven-roasted potatoes and (veggie yet to be determined).

Please share your favorite BBQ recipes in the comments and help me pick out a veggie to serve with the meal! Zucchini? Corn?