back-up plans

I have had this dinner planned for weeks.

I found a new recipe in a magazine and had ripped it out. I do that often.

I have a problem.

There are pages (and pages) of ripped out magazine recipes in my kitchen.

Back to the recipe for tonight's dinner, it's Posole. I think this is some kind of mexican soup. At least if one judges the soup by its ingredients.

Bill and I had a busy day. We went to the eye doctor so Bill could get new glasses. We cleaned the house and the yard. I did a couple loads of laundry. It was just before five o'clock when I started the Posole.

I pulled everything out of the cupboard, started to heat up the oven for some homemade tortilla chips and read through the recipe.

That's when I saw the words "slow cooker" and "six hours".

Whoops!

If I read through it, it was so long ago that I forgot it went into the slow cooker. I may not have read through it though because it was in a category for weeknight meals and I quickly (unfortunately incorrectly) assumed that meant it would be a "quick" meal to prepare.

It is not. Even if I put it in the slow cooker on high, it was still going to take three hours. We do not eat that late.

Instead we had the back-up dinner; mac and cheese with smoked sausage. Thank goodness for the back-up stash of mac and cheese.

a list of one thousand

I'm currently reading a book, "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. It is deeply spiritual and intense. But it's also inspiring. So inspiring that I bought each of the ladies in the book club their own journal (me included) so we can make our own lists. A list of one thousand things that we're thankful for.

Remember when I blogged every day for two years? I think it's going to be like that.

Before I started reading the book, Bill and I had started making intentional date-nights. A little background, our friend has moved in with us. Bill and I have always continued dating, but with this change in our normal lives, we made it more intentional. And then the stars aligned and parties, weddings and movies all gave us more reason to have date-night.

That's one of the gifts. Awe, so sappy.

We could have had date-night last night, if Bill would have gone to Temple with me.

Yes, Temple. It's part of Confirmation, we'll take several field trips to other houses of worship (and a funeral home); we took the Jr. High youth to Temple last night. It was a wonderful service. The kids (from the synagogue) took part in the service. It was about an hour long. But for some reason, Bill didn't want to come along.

So date-night is tonight.

Unfortunately, I'm suffering from fall allergies and while I can still smell, I don't want to go sit in a restaurant and not fully enjoy it.

Instead, we're having date-night at home. The menu? Good ol' macaroni and cheese and a smoked sausage. Possibly a wedge salad for, you know, greens.

Here's to being thankful.

things I made as a workcamp widow

I made homemade ranch dressing, yum!

I made vanilla ice cream and then made milkshakes.

I made "Alice Spring Chicken" only I used ranch instead of honey mustard. It's better that way, trust me.

I made Madagascar-shaped (the movie, not the country) mac and cheese with whole milk.

I also made the Mini-Italian club sandwiches. These are delicious and they're even good the next day.

This was a lot of food for me. I still have leftovers in the fridge! Partly because I stick to my yogurt/granola for lunch every day and partly because I had a Quota gathering last night. I met Molly for ice cream first. By the time I got home it was too late to eat dinner. I made popcorn and did indeed watch "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". I'm hoping to watch the sixth movie tonight. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I'll watch the Deathly Hollows Parts 1 & 2 as the grand finale.

Tonight's dinner is a steak and corn on the cob (steaks are a second favorite with corn in the summer). I may make a small batch of fries just because that sounds really good with a milkshake. And I worked hard. I did scrape the windows this morning and I'm heading out now for my walk.

I deserve the milkshake!

my competition

I'm watching Ellen and there have been several commercials for ready-to-eat foods.

I'm sure they're good.

If you like eating food that comes out of a cardboard box.

I am not a fan of those kinds of foods. In fact Bill had a craving for a jambalaya box mix, a few months ago, and I had a busy week. So I obliged and bought it for him. I had a forkful. On the flip side, I have a recipe for Sausage, Shrimp and Red Rice which is essentially the same dish. The boxed kind made me crave the homemade one. The box kind was super salty and had a weird flavor. I don't know how to describe it; but if you've had homemade food and then have a similar dish from a box and you've tasted the difference you know what I'm talking about.

We love to entertain. I love to bake goodies to share. I have received my fair share of compliments (I've come a long way from mac and cheese and hot dogs!), but if what our guests are used to eating is this boxed food, then I will win hands down.

I'm okay with that.

Speaking of mac and cheese, I've been on the hunt for a really good baked mac and cheese dish. I've had many friends share their recipes with me, swearing that it's the best they've ever had.

I'm picky. I'm looking for a specific smoothness.

For our anniversary, we went to a very nice restaurant. It was not our first choice, that place was unexpectedly closed, but we had been wanting to try the Chop House which is where we ended up. With my steak I ordered the side of three cheese baked macaroni. It was delicious. I asked our waitress what three cheese were in it and explained my search for a dish this good. She told me the three cheeses were Parmesan, white Cheddar and Gruyere. Then she told me to google it and I could find the recipe.

I made it the other night and I found it! This is the dish I've been looking for. Smooth, creamy, light, not oily and just plain delicious. I'm so happy. I love macaroni and cheese.

Macaroni & Cheese Incident of '06

This is what happened after I shook, what I thought was a little, paprika onto my mac & cheese. I guess the lid wasn't on tight. oops. I managed to scrape off the top "layer" and salvage what was underneath the pile o' paprika. I haven't had mac & cheese since.