Happy Tuesday, everyone! Are y'all shivering in your boots? As I type this post, my office is a balmy 52 degrees. Our downstairs heater has been out since early Sunday morning. Right about the same time out latest Arctic blast rolled in. Lord willing, our repairman will be by later today. In the meantime, thank goodness for space heaters.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. We sure did, winding it down with a week at the ranch. I must have wound down just a little too much, though, since I came home with a cold. You know what that means... Time for some homemade chicken soup, heavy on the garlic and red pepper flakes. (You can find that recipe here.)
Guess what Santa, aka my husband, brought me for Christmas?
Don't you love the red?
My 20 year old classic white KitchenAid mixer has shown signs of wearing out these past few years. Her gears were grinding, she'd groan and I always feared she'd give out completely right in the middle of a recipe.
So this lively addition to my kitchen is very much appreciated. Makes me want to bake some bread (recipe here) or anything else that needs to be mixed. Not to mention uses the nice, hot oven.
By the way, my old mixer still has a little life in her, so she will be providing our oldest daughter and her family with some much-needed assistance in the kitchen.
The other gifts the cook in me appreciated were these babies.
A shiny new Cutco chef's knife. I LOVE Cutco knives. Excellent quality and they're guaranteed forever. Seriously, forever. You send 'em back and they sharpen them. If something is broken or the company doesn't like the way it looks, they send you new one. How cool is that?
And you've heard Julie and I touting Penzey's spices. So I was really excited when my SIL gave me a bag of their hot cocoa mix. Oh. My. Stars. You'll want to hide this from the kids. Best hot cocoa I've ever had. Rich cocoa flavor with just a hint of cinnamon. Makes drinking cocoa a real treat.
This week, I'm hoping to settle back into a somewhat normal routine. I still need to take down Christmas decorations. Of course, I have revisions due by the 20th, so Christmas stuff might have to wait. At least the kids will be heading back to school. With any luck, I'll even be able to hear myself think again.
What are you doing this first full week of 2014?
WOOT! Year of the mixers!
ReplyDeleteWhoo-hoo! :)
DeleteI want a mixer! esp when I finally got myself just about psyched up to try baking bread then read a recipe that said to knead for 15 minutes - yikes! that's longer than my workout (when I do one...)do all the kitchen aids mix bread ok?
ReplyDeleteI also want a cutco knife! a friend called once and I thought she was gonna host a party but never happened :-( I ended up at a Pampered Chef party and got some of theirs - nice but still wanted to try Cutco. ( I won't part with a couple of my Pampered Chef goodies though - the meat grinder thingy for ground beef and that thing that looks like a hair pick that you stab the meat with to hold while shredding...those 2 things rock! those scraper thingies aren't pretty cool too...
I love the red color! :-) and it's gotten cold here in Houston - n the 20s right now I think and it feels like it...I'm thankful my heater works but I sure hate the dry itchy skin I get when it runs a lot :-(
I tried 2 new recipes yesterday/tonight and both were good- the chicken was awesome and the other is one I'd make again when I'm in the mood for sloppy joes(ain't an often craving)..might be ready to try bread...
Susanna
Susanna, KitchenAid mixers are great for making/kneading bread. But you can certainly make bread without one, too.
DeleteAs for the Cutco, I have to confess, my son sells Cutco. And doing quite well, I might add. However, I had a few of their knives long before he started selling it. Don't tell him I told you this, but you might check EBay. My brother-in-law got a bunch of his there. And the guarantee is still good.
I love the mix and chop thing from Pampered Chef, too. It may not be specifically for ground meat, but that's my favorite use for it.
Yeah, y'all aren't used to dry skin down there in Houston. With the humidity typically so high, no one even considers lotions.
Susanna, you can't just tell us you had chicken. What kind of chicken was it? How did you cook it? Enquiring minds want to know. :)
I have lotion but it's all scented and no way I can sleep smelling christmas cookie lotion LOL! note to self - find regular lotion!!
DeleteI did the chicken kinda wrong in not having a rolling pin to smash the heck out of it so I used 4 lbs instead of 2 and had it thicker. but here's the recipe: (not low cal for sure...)
filling: 1 cup mayo(I used duke's light since I already had it), 1 onion chopped, 1 cup grated parmesan (I used diGiorno from the deli section instead of that stuff in the green can), 14 oz can artichoke hearts drained and chopped,1 T lemon juice, and 1/2 tsp pepper (I estimated and used the grinder thingy til I saw black specs enough to satisfy myself...) the recipe submitter said this filling was originally an appetizer so I'm guessing she baked it and ate with chips or something...anyways pound out the chicken cutlets(2 lbs but I used 4 since I didn't pound enough to get a big surface and ran out of chicken before filling) smear the filling on a salt and peppered flattend breast and roll up and secure with wooden toothpick(I skipped the toothpicka nd could barely wrap so I just stuck open side down in the pan(didn't grease ir either and didn't need it...) drizzle with olive oil (3 T but I guessed when I did it - my nerves were kinda shot at that point plus I was tired from all the pounding with a can of tomato sauce...) and coat with 3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs (I Used store brand italian seasoned) and bake uncovered 350 for 30 min (I read wrong and covered and still came out good).8 servings I got to figuring each serving was probably 8 oz of chicken the way I did it instead of 4 and about 2 T each parmesan and mayo and a good bit of bread crumbs ;-) this was some seriously good stuff though and hey has some veggies from the artichokes and onion..a nd parmesan is dariy right?! and olive oil that's healthy...
I did see some cutco knives on ebay but not sure what they cost new...kept thinking someone I know would sell 'em and have a party near me but nope..one did pampered chef briefly and the woman over her kept pushing me to sell and I Just don't wanna sell - I'm the one who couldn't seel anything to my own parents during band fund raisers except the fruit and that's only because they liked it...
Susanna
oops forget- the filling needs a decent sized bowl cause it makes quite a bit the extra I had I dabbed in betweent he chicken rollups befrore the olive oil and bread crumbs...I had a 1 1/2 qt pyrex bowl (my red one!) and wish I'd had the green one next size up....hard to mix esp with the parmesan on top--should have added that stuff with the mayo and mixed before adding the rest...
DeleteSusanna
does your son have a website for his cutco?
Deletesusanna
Susanna, your filling sounds like artichoke dip. Yum. I bet that was delicious.
DeleteNo, he does not have a website for the Cutco, but you could probably just go to the Cutco website. They don't do parties, jut have sales reps. The knives are expensive, but I consider them an investment.
probably was artichoke dip - the note said the filling was originally an appetizer and she decided to put it with the chicken - wasn't hard to do except for making do with a can of tomato sauce for a rolling pin.. :-( and dealing with the wrong size bowl for my clumsy stirring...
Deletehmm thought they had parties - a friend called me once asking me if had any interest and I said no way I was cleaning house for a party...got my priorities ya know?! have car will travel but not clean house...
Susanna
What am I doing the first week of 2014? Trying to survive the winter weather!!! Gah!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove the red mixer -- has she told you her name yet? And love how your stalwart old-timer is getting a new lease on life with a new family. Bet it makes her feel young and twirly. :-)
My mixer is a wooden spoon. Sigh. I have very little counter space...I mean seriously very little counter space so I can't have a big girl mixer taking up half of it. So it's just me and the wooden spoon. I look at it as aerobic exericise.
Hope you got a penny in the box with your knife!!!!
Definitely aerobic, Kav! :)
DeleteMindy, I love the new mixer!! I just saw a hot pink one at Walmart (or maybe Target) the other day. So pretty!!
A penny with my knife? I must be missing something here, Kav. What are you talking about?
DeleteI can only imagine what kind of weather you're dealing with in your neck of the woods. What's your high temp today?
Don't blame you on the mixer. Space is a previous commodity. And it keeps you in great shape. :)
As for my new mixer, she's hinted that her name might be Lucy. Which means we could be in for lots of fun and 'slpainin to do. :D
Missy, I love the hot pink ones. How fun would that be? Just don't think it would go in my kitchen.
DeleteHey, you're the one who turned me on to the Pampered Chef mix and hop thingie. I remember seeing it in one of you posts. Next party I went to, guess what I bought? :)
Oh dear...it's an Irish thing, I think. You aren't supposed to give a knife as a gift or it will sever your friendship. In order to protect that from happening you need to slide a penny (or any amount of money I supposed) into the box with the knife. That's supposed to ward off the severed friendship curse. Just so you know. :-)
DeleteVery interesting, Kav. Those crazy Irish. :)
DeleteHot pink.... lime green..... Such fun colors!!! I have a white and the dark gray because they were out of the red.... I love the red!!!! LOVE!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteTwo mixers, Ruthy?! You know, you're the only person I can actually picture having both of them running at the same time. :D
DeleteREVISIONS!!! Mine due Wed. Love your new mixer!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite knifes are Komanchi! Amazing. Pure Komanchi
I've never heard of those, Tina. Neither has knife boy. (Seriously, you wouldn't believe his collection. Hunting knives, pocket knives, Navy Seal knives... Trust me, this job was right up his alley.) There's nothing like a good sharp knife, though, regardless the brand.
DeleteGood luck on those revisions.