Chicken Salad, Sloppy Joes, and buns.

I made chicken salad last week and made a special trip to Shirley's to get the most outstanding sandwich buns ever.  As it turned out the chicken salad was to be served over a bed of lettuce and there was no need for the buns. This person cannot let a trip for fabulous buns be for naught so I thought I would make Sloppy Joes.

Sloppy Joes are usually too sweet for me and in the past I have used the seasoning packages but one look at the ingredients in those packages makes me want to try to get it right from scratch.

This is what I came up with, a recipe modified from several others.
Sloppy Joes

1 pound 80/20 ground beef

½ cup chopped onion

½ cup chopped green bell pepper

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard

½ cup ketchup*

¼ cup barbecue sauce*

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce*

Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown beef, onion, and green pepper.  Drain off liquids.  Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.  Mix thoroughly.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Taste for seasonings, serve on soft hamburger buns. 

6 servings

* These are the variables.  I used Muir Glenn Organic Ketchup and Bull’s-Eye Original B.B.Q. sauce and for me, this was the right amount of Worcestershire sauce so that the Joes were not too sweet.

I did have to replace the buns though.

Min!

I carefully scanned the kitchen counters before I left the house but I did not look behind me and the buns, 7 big ones, were easy pickin's on the island.  Sigh.

What I Learned on Tuesday

If you hear the words: "we have a containment anomaly"

 be very afraid.

Wear sensible shoes at all times.

Always have a flare handy.

Christmas in July

Pretty sure this is not what they mean.

A Must Read

There are shocking facts in this book.  You could let it be overwhelming and just toss your hands in the air and say I can't, I just can't worry about all this.  Probably not, but you can make some  difference.

Surprisingly there are not a lot of words in this book.  A few full pages here and there but it's the graphics that will stick in your head.

 If you look at this page you can see that the author takes a lot into consideration when calculating how much water is needed for producing different products.

I was encouraged to read that cloth napkins are a hands down winner over paper.  He does say that cloth napkins can be used and rewashed 50 times.  For those of us who use cloth napkins, that number might seem to be way too low.  I have a stack of new cloth napkins and as they are all different, it might be easy to pick one and keep track.  Certainly if I use the same one every day, it would need to be washed weekly!

 As I have collected a lot of fat quarters over the years, I started making cloth napkins as a way to use them up.  I thought perhaps to donate them to the Cat House for their fund raiser.  If there is not any interest to purchase them, although we are talking about Washington state, perhaps they could be a freebie bonus with another purchase. Whatever works, I am just trying to reduce the stash here.

July Goals

With all the holiday madness, I quite forgot about posting my sewing goals for this month.  Reality has set in and adjustments have been made for the goals this month.  Really, what was I thinking in June!?!

These were my June Goals:

One finished baby quilt (completed 6/14)

Quilt and bind the Riley Blake Christmas Quilt

Finish piecing the Lori Holt Baby Chicks top
Piece a 6 1/2 " Farm Girl Vintage block each week (3 out of four finished)

New kitchen curtains

Jump into the My Small World QAL

Maintain Negative stash (more fabric out than in) (completed June 30)
six drawstring gift bags (completed one drawstring gift bag)
a zip pouch

also completed one 54x74 quilt, the Coke Cola quilt that was not on the list.

July goals

One finished baby quilt

Quilt and bind the Riley Blake Christmas Quilt

Finish piecing the Lori Holt Baby Chicks top
Piece a 6 1/2 " Farm Girl Vintage block each week

New kitchen curtains

five drawstring gift bags (six completed 7/17)
a zip pouch

Maintain Negative stash (more fabric out than in)

Copy Cat

Rigby Sue, Min's cousin

This is really about copy cat recipes, not about cats but I needed a picture and this sweetie is one pretty little cat!

Thursday night for supper I made copy cat Cafe Rio recipes.  Fabulous.  Cafe Rio is a small chain here and they might also be in Colorado.  Great food and it's usually hard to find a table at lunchtime.

Our salads bowls were assembled like this:  broken tortilla chips,  shredded cheese, warm rice, warm beans, warm chicken, lettuce, dressing,  then topped with a few more broken tortilla chips.  Oh. My.

Cafe Rio Chicken  - from life in the lofthouse

2 pounds boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts

1/2 cup Zesty Italian Dressing

1/2 Tablespoon minced Garlic

1 ( 1 oz ) packet Ranch Dressing Mix (mixed with 1/2 cup of water)

1/2 Tablespoon Chili Powder

1/2 Tablespoon ground Cumin

Place all ingredients in a crock pot. Cover with lid. Cook on High 3 hours OR on Low for 5 hours.

Shred chicken with fork and serve in salads, burritos, tacos…     Yields: 6 servings

 Creamy Lime-Cilantro Ranch Dressing - from Our Best Bites

     1 pkg (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (ignore directions on the packet)
     1C mayo
     1/2 C buttermilk (or milk works, too)
     1 lime
     2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
     1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
     1/2 C green salsa (La Victoria Mild)
     hot sauce, if desired

Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend.  Add hot sauce to taste. Make several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

Cilantro Lime Rice – from One Good Thing by Jillee

1 cup uncooked rice

1 T oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp fresh squeezed lime juice

2 cups chicken broth

1 T fresh squeezed lime juice

2 tsp sugar

3 T fresh chopped cilantro

In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a bowl combine lime juice, sugar and chopped cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

Cafe Rio Style Black Beans - adapted from delish.com
2-15 oz cans black beans, (drain one can, don't drain the other)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin
3 tablespoons olive oil
1-11.5 oz can tomato juice
salt ( kosher or sea salt) and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

In a non stick pan, cook garlic, cumin and olive oil over medium heat until fragrance is released, about one minute. Be careful not to burn garlic.  Add beans, cook down for about 5 minutes until some of the liquid from the beans is absorbed and evaporated. Add can of tomato juice and seasoning to taste.  Stir in chopped cilantro when ready to serve.

Yield: 8 servings

I am not a cilantro fan but I followed the recipes and added what they asked for.  It was all good. Very good.

Post Holiday Post

July 5, our Sunday morning walk...

Over the last 25 years, the city has gotten quite good about a quick pick up after The Parade and some of the church wards volunteer to tidy up as well so that in the residential areas you would never know that a parade has passed by and that some visitors just leave their trash and walk away.

Downtown is a little different because of the craft fair and all the food.  Most of it was taken down by Sunday but there were some workers when we walked by I think removing all the temporary electric lines.  It was stinky though and the sidewalks were sticky because of sloshed beverages. Oddly, it smelled like beer.

This year was complicated because the 4th was a Saturday and generally when we walk on downtown on Sunday mornings, the trash containers that are in front of the restaurants with outside tables, are full from Saturday night.  They stay that way until after we have passed that way on Monday mornings.  Pretty ripe.  Surprisingly, this year the small trash containers were emptied on Sunday.  Not the ginormous dumpster in front of my mechanic's though.

Here's my favorite picture of the aftermath, the corner of Center Street and 5N.

What A Treat!

My neighbor and her daughter brought some fabulous grilled chicken to me today along with three Rice Krispie Treats.  A really nice way to celebrate!

I had these RKTs at a quilt class and gave Carol the recipe.  Yes, just as delicious this time around!  I think making them in a sheet pan is what makes me like them even more.  Most of you might know that RKTs are not my favorite, too sweet, too hard, and too thick.  Made in a sheet pan these are none of those things.  Yum. Yum.

Quilters’ Rice Krispie Treats – Cindy at Everyday Insanity

16 ounces marshmallows
8 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup white chocolate chips (or melting wafers)
9 cups Rice Krispies (almost all of a 12 ounce box)
1/2 cup milk, dark or white chocolate chips

Melt butter, add peanut butter and stir. Add marshmallows. Microwave stirring every 30 seconds until marshmallow are melted. Add Rice Krispies and  3/4 cup white chocolate chips, stir gently. Press into a buttered 9x13 inch pan. For a thin treat use a sheet pan. Melt chocolate chips--drizzle over top of treats. Refrigerate until chocolate is hardened. Cut into squares to serve.

The parade hoo-ha is over and now we are on hold for the firecrackers to start up around the neighborhood again.  Min gets another sedative in fifteen minutes.

(Terry said the H'mong folks in Fairfield call Rice Krispie Treats, American Rice and that they loved them.)

 

Fireworks = Hell

Here she is, the little chicken minder, on the 12 week mark from her surgery.  Looking good, walking well and ready for anything I will allow.  Some playtime at Dr. Park's is a yes, the dog park is a let's wait a bit longer.

Imagine my surprise when she started to panic at all the noises the Freedom Festival brings.  She glues herself to me and really wants my hand on her head.  Last night it cooled off some and I actually had windows open.  The house was more pleasant all day even after we had to button up   and turn on the window units.

I gave her a sedative last night and guessed it helped some but the neighborhood fireworks hadn't started up big time like they are already tonight and like they will be even more so tomorrow night.  So tonight I gave her the sedative at 7 thinking it might give her a little more time to relax.  She is more frantic tonight and won't be consoled unless I am holding her (not on my lap, of course.)  I can't give her another pill until 3am and I surely hope we are not awake then.  Starting at 6 tomorrow morning after our walk, she will get one pill every 8 hours.  That should keep her calm and sleepy.

I'll be rolling out a sleeping mat so we can sleep side by side tonight.

First July Finish...3D!

The Classmate, ready to fill and go!

Outside

Inside

Ha!  A bag!!  The spell has been broken and I feel fearless!  Maybe not fearless exactly, but certainly competent enough to try something else.

I took a class at The Cotton Shop yesterday with my neighbor Patty.  I didn't know we would both be there until she called me and so we went together.  Turns out it was just us, plus our teacher Gina and that was a wonderful way to take a class.  Gina was a great teacher!

This bag is designed to hold supplies you might use for taking a class, hence the name Classmate.  It has many pockets, including two that are zippered and one pleated.  We sewed with vinyl, fps, and also a product called Soft and Stable which is a thick interfacing used in purses.  I was scared of it but as everyone who has ever sewn with it will tell you... a piece of cake.

The fabric is from a line called A Stitch in Color by Malka Dubrawski.  She is a fabric printer and I love her work.  I think this is about 4 or 5 years old.  The pattern called for 1/2 a yard for the outside and then 1/2 a yard of another print for the inside.  When I was gathering the fabric I was surprised to discover I had over 6 yards of the outside print.  Really, I did not remember that.  Our teacher found that very funny and also amazing that someone would not know they had 6 yards of a fabric in their stash.  Of course she just doesn't know.

Ahhhh... a finished project on the first day of the month.  This is a very good beginning!

(The outside print just looks like pieced patchwork but is not. They call those cheater prints and have for a hundred years.  It's not a pejorative.)

And So It Begins

Actually, we heard the first fireworks last night but not many.  Too early for one thing, they are supposed to be only three days before and three days after the holiday and then there was some big thunder which seemed to announce big rain but that never happened.

I took this with my phone as we came down Center St. on our walk this morning.  The second block east of University is being set up as a carnival.  Kind of creepy in the early morning.  I don't remember them last year but we tend to change our route during the holiday. 

First balloon of the season.  Min barking as all the past dogs have done but she stopped when I put my hand on her head and told her it was okay.  Jack and Dylan had to be called inside, they would never stop otherwise.

Yikes!  I thought it was going to land at the intersection of 1N and 5E.  Now that would have been very, very exciting.