Of Dumplings, Floods and The Importance of Being a ROCK STAR MOM!

A couple of weeks ago, life was pretty much... simple. With a husband, a dog, two boys and a job, and it's still basketball season, of course, simple might be stretching it a bit.

But I could handle it. So I made chicken sausage stew with dumplings. And it was good. Very very good.  The recipe is coming.

Then the washer threw up all over half of the house. My closet contents took up residence in the living room. And then everyone got THE BUG. Everyone but me, because God decided I just couldn't take it all and be sick, too. (I am grateful for that!)

So, I did what any normal mom faced with a house of sick kids and a non-functioning washer would do. I bought the part online and FIXED MY OWN WASHING MACHINE!!!

See the white circle on the left side? That is a bad water fill level pressure switch. Bad, bad switch.

Have done about 10 loads since last Wednesday night at 9pm, and I cannot tell you how happy I am to be doing laundry again in my own weird blue laundry room!!! No quarters required!

Now, on to food.

Chicken dumpling stew


1lb thin sliced chicken breast
1lb smoked turkey sausage - diced
Olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
2 15 oz cans cream of chicken soup
1 18 oz can chicken broth
1 can cannelini beans
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 bag mixed diced veggies - I used the steam in bag kind, and cooked them in the microwave before adding them to the stew.
Salt, pepper, chicken rub spices

Dumplings

1 cup Bisquick mix
1/4 cup milk

Brown garlic in olive oil in bottom of stew pot. Add chicken.
Once chicken is close to done, more white than tiny bit of pink, add sausage.
Brown sausage and chicken for a bit, deglaze with white cooking wine - maybe 1/4 cup.
Add chicken broth, cream of chicken soups, beans, tomatoes, and veggies.
Stir all together and bring to boil.
While boiling, stir Bisquick and milk together in bowl, and drop spoonfuls into boiling stew.
Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, then covered for 10 minutes. Soooo good!

Serves 6 - 8, unless there's a hungry teenager in your house. Then, all bets are off.

Happy Whatever!

A little silence, a little sunset

I have a sunset yard. It performs for me all year round, and I give it full props. I also have a camellia shrub who gives me pink flowers in the winter, and I love it, too.

So I give you both, for a happy little moment, and if it finds its way onto your desktop, happy spring!!

Feeding the Masses - or just my family ; )

My creative efforts have migrated away from the drawing table and paintbrush. Not through lack of inspiration and ideas, but having a full life of kids, job, house, sports, and a generally crazy schedule does not lend itself to peaceful projects.  However, it does push me into other directions - like the kitchen.

We like to save money, and with teenagers, the best way to do that is not eating at restaurants. The boys do like to be fed, and fed well, so I've become a magician with a few pound of ground turkey, cumin, diced tomatoes, and a dream. Everybody wins!

This morning is a Saturday, so it was pancakes and strawberries. We live in a farming(ish) community in Georgia, so I can get Florida strawberries for cheap in the winter, and pick our own in the spring. YUM!!!

Today's Recipe - Heart Smart Pancakes. Taken right from the box of Bisquick Heart Smart Mix

2 cups pancake mix

1.25 cups 1% milk

1 egg

2 Tbsp sugar*

1 tsp vanilla*

*mix in at the same time you mix in the egg

I add a little water to the batter, because I like it a bit thinner - so I can draw with it on the griddle.

Pour on griddle in quarter cup amounts - or make crazy wiggly things, these are pancakes.

It's never serious when making pancakes.

Cook til bubbles break on the surface, flip, cook til golden.

The boys like theirs with sugar free syrup, but I'm a butter and strawberries girl. Happy all day!

The recipe of the week is Coffee Spice Pork Loin!  No pictures, because it disappeared so quickly, but I'll make this one again, so there is hope for the future.

I will say this, I have never cooked a pork loin before. Always see them in the store, but since I didn't know exactly what to do with it, I didn't pick them up. This time, the sale was too good, so I got brave. Trekked around AllRecipes.com, my best go-to site for recipes, and chose the rubs with ingredients I thought would be good.

Coffee Spice Pork Loin

2.5 lb lean boneless pork loin

Rub:
1.5 cups brown sugar, broken up
2 Tbsp ground coffee (pick a medium simple roast, for heaven's sake, no vanilla!)
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground fennel
1.5 tsp smoked paprika
1.5 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp dry mustard flour (ground mustard)
1.5 tsp crushed red pepper
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp chili powder

Mix all ingredients together in a shallow dish that is large enough to hold the biggest portion of the loin. Make sure the brown sugar is broken up and distributed throughout the mixture.

Once mixed well, roll loin in rub until well covered, make sure to get it into the crevices. Place on large piece of plastic wrap and push on more of the mixture. Wrap loin up and put in the refrigerator for an hour or so.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put a bit of olive oil and any remaining rub on a shallow roasting pan, place loin on pan. Use a probe thermometer if you have one, since ovens vary so much, placing it into the thickest part of the meat without touching fat.  Cook for 15 - 20 minutes per pound, to an internal temperature of 160.

I cooked mine for an hour and ten, and probably should have turned it once to get a better crust, but it was nice and moist. I had also used white sugar, and that was not a wise choice. Too sweet.

Remove from oven and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

I have lots of recipes, and will be posting them every so often, so please let me know if you try any of them, and if you changed it. Always looking for new ways to do anything!

You Have the Right to be Nice

This about covers it. Think I'm going to make it into a tshirt and wear it around.

Too bad it's not exactly work-appropriate.

Happy 2013!!!

Rainy Days and Wednesdays Always Make Me Productive!

August is one long, hot month. Not gonna lie. Here in the South, sometimes it feels longer and hotter than a month. We've been luckier than most, I've seen rain before today.

But thanks to Isaac, it POURED on us, and that always makes me feisty and fidgety.  So I make things. Today I made a baby gift for one friend, using the Larkspur as a hint of little girl's birthday, since it's the flower for July birthdays (did you know that? Because I totally did not!!!)

The other initial canvas was for the third friend of our little gang here in the neighborhood, because little girls now can't have enough pink and princess-ness. (Very glad I have boys some days!)

It's almost fall, and the minute it's 55 degrees when I get up in the morning, my AC goes off til April!!

Happy Wednesday!

Artistic Growth or Attention Deficit?

I've given step stools as baby shower gifts for a number of years (and sold a few....) You're supposed to take pictures of all your work, so you can look back and see how far you've come, but this is a little surprising. Each one of these was fun and a lot of love, but none really look like any of the others.

So, I guess you could truly say that every piece I do is a one-of-a-kind, because I am apparently incapable of doing the same style twice!!!  Gurk!

It's fun to look back, so you can see where you've been.

Happy Doodling!
Molly

BookWoman Scores A Win!!!

I just got the news that a logo design I did for a group in Oklahoma was a rousing success! I had given them three options, but (as always) had a favorite in the mix. I didn't tell anyone, for fear of skewing their voting process.

Winner Winner Woo Hoo!!

(Looks a little like a beachball with those colors, maybe, but I love it)

Green for Green Country, Red for Oklahoma red dirt, #2 Pencil Yellow, and Pocket Folder Blue

Having a lifelong love affair with books, I will always have a soft spot for libraries and the people who run them, especially in schools, where they are in a position to change a child's life, or maybe just shift a point of view with one well-timed book suggestion.

Happy Holiday Weekend!