Posts from — September 2016

This image is one of my favorites from the thousands of photos I took on our Swiss-German summer trip.

My original intention was to post photos along with commentary for weeks worth of Travel Tuesdays. This is my third entry and I’m over it.

I’ve just got too much other stuff going on to focus on the past.

It’s becoming harder to remember the details from the trip and write about them when my mind is filled with what I still need to accomplish in the now!

Not to say it wasn’t an amazing and gorgeous trip. It was. I just have to move forward.

Luckily, if you want to know more about our travels and exploits…

I have a really wonderful place for you to go and not only read about our journey …

… but also see photos much more gorgeous and wonderful than these.

My Australian friend, Nell, was using a real camera to capture it all, while I was snapping away with my iPhone.

Not only that, she created a special daily blog page on Facebook.

With Nell’s permission, I share it with you. Here is the link to check it out.

When you open the page, the top entry is the end of the trip, so scroll to the bottom of the page to begin at the beginning.

[Read more →]

Remember when I had my 7^th Blogiversary contest and Nancy was the Grand Prize Winner and we cooked together?

One of the other contestants who put forth a recipe for the contest sent me the sweetest email after I had delivered the stack of 7 cookbooks to her front door. Amy G. said that she still wanted to share her winning-worthy recipe. I made it, so I know it’s a winner! Amy said that the recipe could be frozen, so I made a double batch at the end of August and can’t wait to pull my frozen stuffed steaks out of the freezer for Sunday’s supper!

So yeah, not only did I get to cook with Nancy and make her great overnight Rellenos but I got Amy’s delicious stuffed flank steak recipe too! I’m the winner now! Thank you, Amy G.

Here is what Amy wrote:

“I know I wasn’t the lucky winner to prepare a recipe, but I still wanted to share my flank steak recipe with you.  And, it is not so much a recipe, as a method.

Do you recall the Phoenix Meat Market at 7^th Ave and Osborn?  I think it closed mid-1990s…boo hoo!  They sold a steak called “Mexi-Flank Steak”,

And I was lucky enough to watch them prepare a batch one day.   After the market closed, I’ve made my own.

I’ll warn you…this is NOT a pretty presentation…the cheese and chilies will squish all over the place when you carve the meat! But, it is oh so yummy, and piled on to a tortilla, it doesn’t matter what the heck it looks like! I serve the steak with hot tortillas and seasoned black beans, (or a bean/corn salad) and Spanish rice if you really want to blow the diet!  Can’t go wrong with guacamole, too!”

[Read more →]

So many people to thank, so little time.

First, I want to thank you all for the comments and encouragement on my new venture, Miscellany Shed. It took less than 24 hours for the Miscellany Shed Facebook page to get 100 likes and that is in big thanks to these lovelies for sharing, posting, tweeting, and inviting others to like the page: Marissa Sandell, Tram Mai, Beverly Bertrand, Sloane Hansen, Whitney Cody, Sydney Wigle, Amy Kilpatrick, Lisa James, and Cyndi Greening. You are all amazing and wonderful friends and I can’t really thank you enough.

Speaking of someone I can’t thank enough, at the very tippy-top of that long list is Cyndi Greening. Cyndi is the “Blogmaster” who set up this very site for me back in 2009. She has been my dear friend since we worked together on the Beach Balls for Phoenix Children’s Hospital in the mid ’90s. Cyndi taught me how to use my first desktop personal computer, the first computer we had in our home. I know, hard and strange to remember NOT having a computer. Flying Toasters, anyone?

[Read more →]

Do you remember, back at the beginning of the month, when I told you that I had big news to announce on October 1st?

October 1, 2016

Well, I’m announcing it to you, today, a couple of weeks earlier than expected!

I have a new business! It was built out of my love of entertaining, my love of stuff and my wish to share. You see, I am a collector, an “Organized Hoarder”, some in my family would say.

When I entertain, the first thing I do is come up with a theme. I build the entire dinner, event, party, or whatever around that theme. The theme is what sparks my imagination and helps me create. Once I have the theme, I’m off and running. The theme is where my inspiration comes from for the decor, the food, the cocktails, the music playlists, and sometimes even the guest list.

So what does all of this lead to? It takes me to the fact that I have A LOT of stuff. A bunch of great collections.

One evening last fall, while enjoying cocktails with my BFFs, Peggy and Anne, we discussed the obvious need for me to do more with all The Stuff!

[Read more →]

There is a kitchen tool that I have owned for over 20 years which I have used only once. I can’t for the life of me tell you when, why or how I acquired it, I just know that it’s been hanging around forever. I honestly don’t even know the proper name for it but I’m calling it a crinkle cucumber slicer. This past weekend, I used it for a second time.

Do you know how most homes have a junk drawer? Yeah, I have one of those too, but sadly, I have a second drawer that I call the kitchen tool junk drawer. It holds an odd variety of tools I seldom, if ever, use. I had to pull out the drawer to get to the bottom to find the slicer.

The reason the slicer was rescued from the pit of despair is that my dad brought over crates full of cucumbers, beans, peas, squash, and corn that he received from his friends in Colorado, who he calls his shirt-tail relatives.

My dad asked me to “put up” the cucumbers and some of the green beans for him. Although I have an obsession with Mason jars, I’m not really into canning. I told him I’d quick pickle them and he could give them to his friends at church. He reluctantly agreed to settle on that.

All three of these recipes can be processed for canning. If you’d like to do so, there are plenty of articles online about the canning process. HERE is one that I found for you.

The photos show more jars than the recipes make, that is due to the fact that I doubled and tripled the recipes. The first two are Tyler Florence recipes, the third is one I worked up.

Quick Sweet Pickles

6 pickling (Kirby) or 2 regular cucumbers
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 cup water
1 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon coriander seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon whole allspice berries
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1 bay leaf

Wash and dry the cucumbers. Using a sharp knife or a crinkle cucumber slicer cut the cucumbers into ½-inch slices and place them in a colander. Sprinkle with salt and toss to coat. Place the colander over a bowl and allow it to sit, covered, for about 1 hour.

Rinse off the salt and dry the cucumber slices well.

Place them into a sterilized quart jar.

In a small saucepan add the remaining ingredients. Stir to dissolve sugar and bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and allow it to cool. Pour the brine over the cucumbers in the jar. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Will keep, refrigerated, for about 2 weeks.

Recipe from Tyler Florence

[Read more →]

A week ago today, my 7th Blogiversary contest winner, Nancy Bull, came over and we cooked her favorite recipe together.

I asked Nancy to send me the recipe ahead of time so that I could purchase the ingredients and get set up for our time together. Since this is an overnight recipe, I made one the day before and popped it in the oven when Nancy arrived.  She brought a casserole dish with her, I pulled another one from my cupboard and we each made a pan of Nancy’s Chili Rellenos.

Since Nancy was my guest blogger, I asked her to write up a little something about the dish:

“We’ve been making this dish for probably 25 years or more.  My mom found the recipe in a church cookbook and thought it would be a great breakfast casserole for Christmas morning.  Every Christmas Eve, after cleaning up from dinner, all the Bull girls gather in the kitchen to make the casserole(s) for the next morning.  Thank goodness it’s so easy because by the time we get to this, there have been festive beverages consumed!  We pop it in the fridge for the night and bake it while we open presents on Christmas morning.  The family has grown over the years so now we make 2….leftovers are never a problem!

 

I hope you enjoy it as much as we have over the years!  Cheers!

Nancy”

This recipe could not be easier. In fact, Nancy was a little embarrassed about this at first, be I assured her that people, my followers included, LOVE easy-breezy recipes. And you can rest assured – this one is a winner! I know, because the two of us enjoyed it for dinner that night and I had some for breakfast the next morning. Just as good the next day!

A few notes: Nancy’s recipe called for a 4-ounce can of diced green chiles. I only had 7-ounce cans. Nancy said that we should use the 7-ounce cans – the more the better. Good idea! The recipe called for garlic powder, but I didn’t have any, so I used a mini-chop and ground-up dried minced garlic to make my own powder.

Since I actually made two pans, the one Nancy and I enjoyed and the one I made with her, I asked her if the cooked dish could be frozen. She said they never have had any leftovers, so she didn’t know. I was leaving town the next day, so I baked my second pan, let it cool, then refrigerated it. Next, I removed it from the pan, then I double wrapped it in plastic, then wrapped that in heavy foil, and froze it. I pulled it out six days later, transferred it back into the baking dish, let it defrost in the refrigerator, and then reheated it in the oven.

The verdict: It does not freeze well. It was soggy and not even close to as delicious as it was when it was freshly baked.

Lastly, when the casserole comes out of the oven, it is puffy as all get out.

In the five minutes that it rests before cutting, it deflates. That’s natural and what is supposed to happen, so don’t fret.

[Read more →]

This is the new logo for something nearly a year in the making.

Something I’ll be launching on the first day of my favorite month of the year.

[Read more →]

Who would think that a person could squeeze three blog posts out of one simple Chinese Take-Out Pot-Luck Dinner Party?

You must admit, I know how to stretch out a good thing! I’ve given you the recipes for the cocktail and the soup, now it’s time for dessert.

Tropical Fruit stuffed Pineapple with Coconut-Yogurt Sauce

• 1 pineapple, halved lengthwise
• 2 kiwis, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 large mango, peeled and cubed
• 1 large papaya, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 container of raspberries
• 1 container of blueberries
• Juice of 2 limes

Sauce

• 2 cups Greek yogurt (my preference is Greek Gods, honey flavor)
• 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 cup toasted coconut

• Mint sprigs and lime slices, for garnish

Cut out the center of each pineapple half, cube the pineapple you removed from the center, avoiding and discarding the center core, and set aside the pineapple cubes.

[Read more →]