Chicken Verde

Let me give you all a moment to recover from the shock that I am actaully posting a recipe for this months recipe war....better?....take some deep breaths! I may not be able to try all of your recipes as written, but I tried a new ingredient just today for lunch and the result was so good, I just had to share.  I don't know why it is called Chicken Verde though...there is green from the peppers, but really the dominant color is the red from the tomatoes.  The ingredient I had never used is poblano peppers.

I know they're a pretty normal and common ingredient, but frankly? I'm scared of peppers.  I love my bell peppers of all colors, and I like salsa that someone else makes (doing all the pepper dirty work), but hot and spicy just isn't my thing.  These peppers are not too spicy, though! They have a different, deeper and more earthy flavor from green bells, and don't get all mushy when cooked.  I'll be using them again for sure.  So, here's the recipe:

• 3 Chicken Breasts
• 6 Lg. Tomatoes, chopped
• 2 Lg. Onions, chopped
• 2 Poblano Peppers, chopped
• 2-3 Cloves Garlic, chopped
• Salt
• Pepper
• Lime Juice

Boil chicken breasts in just enough water to cover for 45-60 minutes. During last 10 minutes of boiling, heat together the tomato, onion, garlic,  and poblano peppers until tomatoes become saucy, adding a bit of the chicken broth as needed. Remove chicken from water and shred.  Add chicken, salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste (I used one small lime) to tomato mixture, plus enough of the chicken broth to come just to the top of the other ingredients.  Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Yum!

I have to admit that I was skeptical of boiling the chicken for almost 2 hours by the time this recipe was complete, but it was so tender and good! All the flavors blend together and create the most delicious meal! I think this recipe would be really forgiving, too.  You could increase/decrease any of the ingredients according to your individual tastes.  I personally left the black pepper completely out!

Fun With Dairy

Last week, the kids and I did some experiments with dairy and had a blast. If you've ever wanted to know about making butter or yogurt, check it out! I blogged about it here.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin

As soon as Joanna put up her post for Pumpkin Scones, and at the same time Pioneer Woman had up posts about making pumpkin puree and pumpkin butter, I knew I had to try some pumpkin things here! I have never made my own pumpkin puree - I always just buy a can at the store! But I was feeling adventurous and decided to go for it.

I started by cutting up the pumpkins (I got sugar pie pumpkins) and scraping the pulp and seeds out. I was so excited about this project! So imagine my dismay when I opened the second one and found this:

Rotten!! I was especially horrified because I bought these pumpkins at Whole Foods when I was in another part of town for a meeting. I wasn't about to drive 40 minutes back to Whole Foods for my refund, but man was it tempting. These pumpkins weren't cheap! So I only got to roast one pumpkin. After it roasted, I pureed it in my food processor.

I immediately made Pumpkin Butter. I love it - so yummy. But the recipe makes so much more than I thought it would. And it had too much sugar and not enough pumpkin or spice, for my liking anyway. Look how great this turned out:

Don't you just want to take a big bite of that toast right now? Actually, I wish you could. I'll never finish all this pumpkin butter before it goes bad. Do you think I can freeze it? I didn't know with the yogurt in it if it would freeze okay or not.

If you are wondering about the yield from one pie pumpkin, I used about 1 1/2 cups for the pumpkin butter, separated out the 1/2 c up I'll need for Joanna's scone recipe, 2 cups to make my favorite treat which is basically pumpkin pie filling cooked in an 8X8 glass dish without a crust. I serve it up in squares with fresh whipping cream on top! Mmmmm...and I don't feel so guilty about eating it, since without the crust it is fairly healthy. It's a vegetable, right? Anyway, after portioning out all of that, I still had 1 1/3 cups left.

So, in total, I got 5 1/3 cups of puree. The pumpkin butter is good, but the real test for me will come when I make the pie filling. I want to see if the flavor/texture/quality is really better. Enough that it could justify the extra cost and work from buying canned. If I do think it is enough better, I am going to try some larger, cheaper varieties of squash to see if I still like the results. I did some research, and it seems that most canned pumpkin is actually butternut squash! Who knew?

Of course, I saved the seeds and roasted those up, too. Wow, are they tasty. How long do you think this one, small bowl will last??? I really needed that second pumpkin!

Goodtime Beef Brisket

Derrek and I made this once and we really liked it, I hope that you all do to. Here is my submisson for Crock Pot recipes courtesy of the Fix it and Forget it Cookbook.

Goodtime Beef Brisket
31/2 to 4 LB beef brisket
1 can beer
2 cups tomato sauce
2 tsp. prepared mustard
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 small green or red bell pepper (chopped)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Place meat in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over meat. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Remove meat from sauce and it will fall apart (or you can cut it) and serve on rolls or with potatoes. P.S. We used this meat to make french dip sandwiches and it was delicious!! Ok everyone now go dig your slowcookers out and fire them up! I know I will!

Oh My Word!!!

Have you seen the contest going on over at Pioneer Woman Cooks. I'm desperately trying to find a recipe or three to submit.

My sad Kitchen

My stocked pantry is in such a sad state. You know how I know this??? We don't even own a drop of soy sauce. I know... cause I have looked since lately I have been craving fried rice.... and an essential ingredient in fried rice is well soy sauce.

So then I thought, well, how is it made??? The wikpedia says that it is fermented soy beans and other stuff, well sorry, if I am out of soy sauce I am surely out of soy beans especially the fermented kind.

Stuff I've Made

I actually have been cooking quite a bit lately. Here's the challah that I made using Joanna's recipe. Shane said it was the best bread he's ever eaten. He's really happy we're doing soup this month cause I'll be making this bread a lot.




Here's some Cream Cheese and Chive Biscuits that I got from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I couldn't find the recipe online and I've already returned the book to the library so I can't post the recipe. Sorry. It was interesting to make because I've never made biscuits before. It was a good excuse to buy a pastry blender. I think they came out pretty good, but they were so rich. I don't want my cooking to turn out to be detrimental to our health, so I'm not sure I'd make them again.



And here is a bowl of Beef-Chipotle Chili from Food Made Fast: Slow Cooker (Williams-Sonoma). This book is so awesome! I've only had it for three weeks and so far have made three things out of it. Shane has loved all of them. And I love making stuff in the slow cooker. I thought this chili was way too hot though. But I will make it again because Shane loved it so much even though it lasted about 4 nights. I'll just dig out some of the seeds from the chipotle peppers, that should make it more tolerable for me.



Beef Chipotle Chili

Flour, 1/4 cup
Salt and Pepper
Boneless beef chuck, 3 lb. trimmed of excess fat and cut into chunks
Olive oil, 4-6 Tbsp
Dried oregano, 1.5 tsp
Garlic, 4 cloves, minced
Red onions, 2, finely chopped
Beef broth, 2 cups
Chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, 1 7oz. can

1. In a resealable plastic bag, combine the flour, 1 tsp. sale, and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Add the beef chunks and shake to coat evenly with the flour mixture; reserve the excess flour mixture. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm 4 Tbsp. of the oil. Add half of the beef chunks and cook, turning as needed, until evenly browned on all sides, 10-12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels and drain briefly, and then transfer to the slow cooker. Repeat with the remaining beef chunks, adding the remaining 2 Tbsp. oil if needed. Sprinkle oregano over the meat.

2. Return the pan to the medium-high heat. Add the garlic and all but 1/2 cup of the onions and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Sprinkle with the reserved flour mixture and saute for about 1 minute longer. Pour in the broth and add the chipotle chilis with their sauce, breaking up the chilis coarsely with your fingers. Raise the heat to high, bring to a boil, and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Pour over the beef.

3. Cover and cook on the high-heat setting for 3-4 hours or the low-heat setting for 6-8 hours. The beef should be very tender. Spoon the chili into bowls, sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup choppied onion and serve.

That makes it sound time-consuming, but it really went fast. I put this all together in the morning before going to work. I wasn't even late. I just got up 30 minutes earlier.

mmmm...dinner

I just had to share this yummy recipe that we had for dinner tonight. My friend Patti always gives me these simple, delicious mexican recipes. This one is chimichangas.

Cook 1lb ground beef with finely chopped onions (and a bit of chopped bell pepper if you like). When no longer pink, add one can of refried beans and 1/2 taco seasoning packet and mix well. Fill flour tortillas, place in a 9x13 baker and brush with oil, bake at 400 for 20-30 mins, or until browned and crip on outside. Serve with sour cream and salsa. MMMMM. These were so easy, but a huge hit with my kids as well. I also have her SPECTACULAR recipe for spanish rice if anyone wants it. Best spanish rice EVER.

Uninspired

You know how when a woman says, "I have nothing to wear!", it actually means, "I have nothing new to wear!"? Well, I have nothing to cook. Meaning, I have a freezer full of meat, but can think of nothing new and exciting to cook with it. I need some inspiration. I need some new recipes! So here is where I depend on all of you - HELP!! Here are the meats I have in my freezer right now:

• Boneless chuck cross rib roast
• ground beef
• chicken leg quarters (thigh attached) - bone in
• bacon wrapped filet of beef
• chuck shoulder beef roast (Texas broil)
• boneless pork roast

I have such a variety - all I am missing is fish, which I fixed already this week. What would you be inspired to make if this was in your freezer?? Can somebody please send me a recipe?

I already have tonight covered with leftover soup and fresh baked bread (which is rising right now!), but after tonight, I need help...

Sunday Roast on Tuesday

I have been dying to make a traditional Sunday Roast with Yorkshire Pudding and Roasted Potatoes ever since our discussion here about British food almost 3 months ago. I finally made my fully British meal tonight for dinner and it was great! I tried a new method for roasting my meat in which the meat is cooked directly on the oven rack with a pan below to catch the drippings. This worked really well for me because a) I forgot to get the meat in the crockpot early enough to slow cook it and b) my oven is too small for any roasting pan I have ever found (fortuntely I have two small ovens so I can still prepare a big meal like this!) I felt a bit funny about putting meat directly on the rack, but it worked great! The only problem is that it cooked faster this way and I ended up overcooking the meat. I like mine medium, and this was well-done.

Please ignore major cooked on spills...I ran the auto clean cycle as soon as the roast came out of the oven!

I found the recipes for the roasted potatoes and Yorkshire puddings on a really cool blog written by an Englishman who had a hard time cooking British recipes with American ingredients and adapted the recipes for us. I was going to use his recipe for the tatties and the puddings but I found a different pudding recipe that I felt was more reliable and I was thrilled with the results of both!

But I have to tell you that what made this meal great instead of just good was the gravy! I didn't have any Bisto, but the pan drippings that I didn't use for the puddings went right into the richest beef gravy I have ever made and it made this food perfect!

Doesn't it just make your mouth water?

Has anyone explored....

The slow-cooker recipe section on the flylady website? I have and love what I have tried so far..... Today I am making a roast chicken in the slow cooker. Doesn't that sound odd? This might be old news to all of you, but I had never thought you could cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker! This is the second time I have tried it. Just put a whole chicken in the slow cooker with 1 cup of water and cook all day on low. This time I stuffed the cavity with onion, a few sliced garlic cloves and cut up carrot for some added flavor. It comes out falling off the bone and moist as can be! mmmm... I then pick all the extra chicken off the bone and use it the following night for Leanne's chicken and bean burritos (part of her rubber chicken recipe http://www.savingdinner.com/archives/recipes/rubber_chicken.html )
Put the chicken in a skillet with a can of drained black beans, on teaspoon each of garlic powder and cumin, heat and serve in tortillas with all the extras.... sour cream, rice, corn, salsa, cheese. MMMMMM.
Tonight I think I will make some flat bread with my dinner... maybe tomorrow I will make my own tortillas if Jo shares her recipe ;-)

Bangers and Mash

So I posted the bangers I got last month, and here they are finally cooked up and enjoyed!

I really liked these! They weren't bland at all. They were very herb-y. I would buy them again although I have no idea where I would ever find them here! I made a simple brown gravy from beef stock for them - it was lacking a bit - but everything else was really yummy! I highly recommend them.

I was thinking about my original post about these and Tina, you mentioned Sunday roast with the puddings and things the way they make them in England. Can you post recipes for those things so we can try them too?

Let's Talk About Food

Winter, Christmas specifically, does something to me. It makes me want to bake and make yummy things and have the house smell like cinnamon and vanilla. Here are just a couple of things I've made recently that give me warm fuzzies.

Crepes. Real crepes. They are easy to make but take a lot of time, but it's so worth it in the end. You can warm up your favorite jam or preserve in the microwave, spread a bit on, roll it up and enjoy. Make it look festive and sprinkle some powdered sugar over them and top with fresh strawberries. Yummy! The link is to Alton Brown's recipe; I used Mark Bittman's from his cookbook How To Cook Everything.

Almond Biscotti. Oh, most yummy of yummy coffee goodness. These are actually very easy to make and way more worth the dollar you'll spend on all the ingredients for them combined, than the dollar or more you'll spend on one at the store.

Now, go, make some biscotti and coffee and snuggle under a blanket with a good book because I know the rest of you all are freezing your toes off.

Christmas came early for me

So my mom sent me this Kitchen Aid mixer that was my Tutu's (Grandma in hawaiian) and she had it for a while but was not using it and I have been wanting it. She remodeled their kitchen and did not see the room for it so she decided that I would use it more and she sent it to me! I am SO happy! My Tutu bought this mixer in 1972 and I remember making homemade pasta and cokkies and bread with this exact mixer! It also came with a real copper bowl that inserts into the regular bowl that is great for whipping egg whites! I feel so happy now I will be able to make cookies and it will be so much easier to do this! I have been begging for one for years...ask Derrek, he is so glad to not have to hear me beg for one anymore! Plus it has a TON of sentimental value to me! maybe someday when we (finally) decide to have a child I can pass this down to them as my tutu and mom did for me!

Bad Ideas

When you are in the grocery store do you ever look around in the produce section and wonder how it the world people got the bright idea to eat that!? I mean, some of the foods I've seen there are so imposing it would never occur to me to actually put that thing in my mouth and see if it tastes good. Take for example the artichoke. How hungry must someone have been to have actually picked an artichoke and tried it and then figured out that you have to cut it down to the "heart" in order for it to be even remotely edible, never mind the needles on the end of the leaves. I don't get it. Why am I asking these question you ask? Because I had the bright idea to try to add variety to our vegetable repertoire and tonight on the menu we have artichoke pasta salad, a recipe by my favorite T.V. cook, Alton Brown. The recipe calls for marinated artichokes. Having never had an artichoke in my hands before I asked around and learned that there are actual jars of marinated artichoke hearts and this is what I should use in my pasta salad. Well, I got lazy and sent Del to the grocery store instead of going myself. My mistake. Poor Del. He came home with one artichoke. It seems that you really need more like 4 or 5 artichokes to get a meal-sized amount of artichoke hearts. So I found a really good tutorial on how to trim an artichoke. Excellent pictures and clear directions. I am telling you though DO NOT TRY IT. It's ridiculous. It's not worth it. Just go buy a jar of marinated artichoke hearts and you'll save yourself a major headache. Here's one for the trash. Once again, I ask you, who thought up this bright idea of eating artichokes??? It's silly, I tell you.

My next bad idea was this...thing. I had originally thought that I'd make a roll up case for some scissors, thread, buttons and other sewing notions. It didn't work out too hot though. This is just my practice...thing. I am pretty sure this idea is one for the trash, also.

Packs, Punkins and Pizza

Last year I purchased two charm packs from Fabric.com. They were both Moda fabrics, one was the Nell's Flower Shop collection and the other the Sonnet collection. I really liked the color combinations of both collections and thought the idea of having a 5" square from every fabric in the collection was really neat. Plus I really like working with such nice fabric. I think I've already mentioned on this blog how much I rue that I am relegated to Joann fabrics due to funding constraints. It's nice and everything but quilt shop fabrics like Moda and Robert Kauffman are simply luxurious! Anyway, I just knew I would one day find something fun to do with the charm packs. Well, that day has arrived. On Wednesday I was browsing through some of my favorite crafty blogs when somehow I happened upon this tutorial for a disappearing nine-patch quilt. It is so ridiculously easy I nearly finished it in one afternoon! I absolutely dig the quilt top. Of course I haven't quilted it or put the binding on it. I figure that that will get done next year or the year after considering my history with quilts getting finished. Hey, since the last quilt I started ended up getting finished for Lily a year and a half after I started it, maybe this quilt will be finished just in time for the next baby!

Speaking of Lily the other day Ella snapped this photo of little "L" smiling at us. She is the smiling-est baby I've had so far.

OK, the last exciting thing I have to tell you about is that I have found the "pizza light". Have you guys ever watched Good Eats on FoodNetwork? That is my absolute most favorite show on television. Sounds crazy, right? Well, I like Good Eats because Alton Brown explains the science behind cooking and I really like to know why you do certain things to certain ingredients so I can apply it next time I'm using that technique or ingredient or whatever. So, one day I was watching the episode on pizza and Mr. Brown said that the key to good pizza is good crust and I heartily agree. He advised that to make a good crust you must make the dough 18-24 hours in advance and let it rise that entire time in your refrigerator for optimum flavor and tenderness. So, trusting Alton Brown implicitly with all my food I made pizza dough and let it rise for 18 hours in my fridge. I kid you not I've never had pizza that good!!! It was better than Pizza Hut, better than any pizza joint I've ever been to! It was simply divine! You know when you get a pan pizza from Pizza Hut they put 4 gigantic squirts of OIL in the pan so the crust is FRIED (thank Mike for the info Meagan)??? YUCK! Since I found that out I haven't been able to down a single bite of pan pizza. And also, most pizzerias smother their pizza with sugary sauce and barely any cheese or toppings. I put just the right amount of my own sugarless pizza sauce on my pizza and all the toppings and cheese I wanted. My crust was not soaked in icky oil, it was light and fluffy and oh so flavorful! I highly recommend Alton Brown for a culinary education and making your own super duper yummy pizza dough. I did not use Alton's recipe for pizza dough because 1) the recipe I like uses honey and not refined sugar, 2) it uses more yeast (I actually use less than that but more than Alton) and 3) he says to use bread flour and I just don't have the time or space for more than one type of flour.

Cooking, Baking, Sewing

What else is there?

I was watching Everyday Italian the other day and the thing that Giada was making looked so totally yummy that I made her entire menu from that show. The lasagna rolls were delicious, the fried zucchini was even better. I made the donuts the next day but they didn't turn out so hot, but I did make my own pizza dough instead of using store-bought pizza dough. This is a picture of the lasagna rolls before I baked them.
Yesterday I made some more challah. Because it is Rosh Hashana, I did not braid the bread. It was delicious. I tried to take the other loaf to my neighbors but they were not home so I'll have to try again, maybe tomorrow.
These are "lab jackets" we made for the Ella and Sarah for science this year. They will be conducting some basic experiements about weather and stuff like that so mom bought the shirts at a Goodwill and I made the 'E' and 'S'; I used Heat 'n Bond Lite to iron them on and zig-zag stitched around the outside. I think they're pretty darn cute!

Prepare to Drool

I don't remember if I mentioned it here, or just told Joanna, but we are in the process of completely redecorating and somewhat remodeling our room and bathroom. The bathroom is done except for one set of cabinet doors that aren't stained yet because it got too hot here for the stain to dry properly. Now we are working on our bedroom. We got new bedding, new chairs and a table (going where the ugly exercise machine used to be), Jerry scraped the cottage cheese texture off of the ceiling and blew up knock-down texture...Anyway, we are now adding crown molding and paint and I got fabric to do pillows for the bed (chocolate brown suede) and for covering the table and accent pillows on the chairs. Feast your eyes on the fabric for the table and chairs-

I LOVE this fabric! It was 50% off and still more than I have paid for any other fabric ever, but I think well worth it. I'll post a photo of the table and chairs when I finish it.

I also finally uploaded the pictures of the security blankie I made after I got home from Florida using the new skills Joanna taught me. I cannot figure out how to photograph these for my web site. Obviously not either of the ways I photographed this one will work...how do you suggest. I want to be able to show both the front and back fabric and the design and have it look cute. I am at a loss here. But check out the awesome corners. I know you are all probably sick to death of hearing about my mitered corner issues, but I am so proud of myself for sticking with it until I got it right! In the one picture it looks like there is an issue with the left edge - it was just an ironing issue, not a sewing issue and I fixed it before mailing this off to the friend I made it for.

Thanks to Joanna mailing me some of her stash, I was able to produce this lovely blanket/burp cloth set for a friend of mine to give to someone.

I made the burp cloth before going to Florida, cutting a yard of fabric that I had into 5 pieces the size I need for burp cloth backing. When I was at Joanna's I saw that she had the same fabric in her stash and told her, "Hey! I just sold something with that fabric!" Then a couple days after I got home, my friend who ordered the burp cloth said that she wanted to give her friend more than that and asked if I could make a matching blanket, which takes a full yard of fabric. So I went to Jo Ann's to see if by chance they still had some - which of course they didn't. I called Joanna from the store, and she mailed hers to me!! Isn't she a really cool friend???

And this isn't really about crafting, but I wanted to post this picture taken at the end of our first official day of homeschool. Aaron is holding his copy work and standing next to his Ff poster with pictures of "f" words (that doesn't sound right...). He was so proud of himself.

I had quite the meltdown the very next day about my ability to homeschool without going into cardiac arrest. No joke, ask Joanna. It took her a while on the phone to calm me down! Thanks Joanna, I am feeling much better about it all now.

Okay, I really have to post more often because this is way too long of a post. Sorry...Oh, and I just now realized that I forgot to buy something I needed at Jo Ann, twice! I was there last night (with Jerry and the boys - not a recommended way to shop at Jo Ann) and forgot, then back today and forgot again! Don't you hate when that happens?? On the bright side, I have an excuse to go again!

Is Baking Crafting?

I'm frustrated with knitting. My hands are so clumsy. I keep dropping stitches and having to start over and making a purl instead of a knit. When I do either of those things I have a hard time figuring out how to fix my mistake. With crochet you just pull it out and start where ever you want to. It doesn't seem like you can do that with knitting. The stitch confuses me; I can't tell how it's made and where the yarn is going. That silly little scarf I was making for Ella's rabbit is taking forever. I'm about halfway through it or a little less. There is a mistake down toward the beginning but there is no way I'm going to frog all that and start over for some silly stuffed rabbit's clothing. My problem now is that I started to knit instead of purl and when I tried to go back I dropped the stitch and now I don't know how to put it back on the needle. If I can't figure out how to put it back on the needle then that means I'm going to have to frog the whole thing and start over AGAIN. I'm frustrated with knitting.

On a different note, I dig the kitchen again. Being pregnant is bad for my kitchen affection but now I'm there all the time. Tonight for dinner we were supposed to have leftovers but I gave them all to Del for his lunches so my menu was thrown off a bit. What did I do you ask? I made sausage and cheese frittatas. They were so yummy; just a bit crunchy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. I would like to have had better cheese but I guess white American will have to do. It was still quite delicious. Aren't they pretty? I also made another loaf of Challah. The neighbors kitty-corner to us are Jewish and eat kosher and they gave gifts to the girls so I need to give them a thank you note. I want to have a perfect loaf of challah to give them with the thank you note so I'm practicing. I like this loaf better than the first. It's a bit heavy but seems more like the challah we used to eat at Baruch ha Shem. I hope you're not annoyed by hearing about baking and cooking instead of crafting.

Sweets, Treats and Bad News

This post is way over due. My parents came over last Friday so we could have Rachel's birthday party on Saturday. I spent Thursday sewing Rachel's birthday presents and Friday preparing the bug cakes. Everything turned out really well and I've been wanting to post it for a while. Mom and dad stayed on until Monday when dad left to go back to work and me and mom spent nearly the whole day preparing an entire month's worth of meals and freezing it all. I think that method of making meals is going to work out well. I'm disappointed because Del was a little skeptical of our "crazy plan" and he's working swings this month so he won't even be here to see our plan succeed and I'll have to start all over again convincing him in October. Oh well.... Anyway, mom stayed on to help me with the first two days of homeschool. It went a lot smoother than we thought it would and a lot faster than we thought it would. But it was an interesting morning. First mom turned on the wrong burner (VERY easy to do on my stove) and a 11x7 glass baking dish was on that burner and it burst into a gazillion pieces. Major clean up ensued. I always wondered what would happen if you did put one of those dishes on the burner and now I know. Then I went to the dentist for my first cleaning in three years. This is why I hate going to the dentist: they give me HORRID news nearly every time I go. No I don't have any cavities BUT, due to the trauma from the nice DEAD horse Scirroco my top, left tooth is about to fall out due to internal resorbtion and must be pulled and I need an implant, my right front tooth needs to be crowned (that's the ugly yellow one, praise the Lord) AND the tooth next to the ugly yellow one (the short one) is experiencing the same sort of internal resorbtion and may need to be pulled and implanted if a root canal and crown don't work. I'm expensive. Hopefull the insurance is better than Tricare was. Pray Del gets promoted.

The real reason for the post is to show off these: Rachels little artist case and bag and the cakes mom and I made for her and a beautiful loaf of challah I made for Shabbat.