Good Eats Wednesday: Mama Mia!

Usually I make stuffed peppers with a ricotta filling. I wanted something more filling this time and less.....dairy. 

Enter the Chicken Italian Sausage!

Ingredients: 

1/2 lb chicken (or pork) Italian sausage

2 cloves of garlic

5-6 cups fresh kale or spinach  

1 1/2 cups brown rice, cooked

4 bell peppers (color of your choice), tops cut off and seeds and membranes removed

1 cup mozzarella cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Brown up the sausage, drain any fat if you are using pork sausage. 

Then pop your crushed garlic in the middle. 

Then overload that pan with greens. Like a ton. 

Cook it down to this: 

After most of the water is cooked out, combine with the rice in a large bowl. Stir and taste and season. Repeat. 

Optional: Put a bit of char on your peppers by placing them in a hot hot skillet. Even better, if you have a grill fire that baby up and get some black spots going. 

Black=flavor

Stuff em. Really cram it in there. Yep. 

Then stick a slice of mozz on it. (Not a slice of my friend's dog named Mozzie, just some cheese. Just wanting to be clear.)

Encourage standing up with foil if needed. But I hope that when you bought your peppers you bought ones that could stand up alright. 

Bake at 350 for about a half hour. Eat them. 

DIY Tuesday: Photo-palooza!

My momma gave me a bunch of old pictures when I was in Missouri. I am so in love with them and I wanted to display them right away. 

I had a frame that I got from Goodwill, with pretty cool water skiing dude in it. I buy lots of frames from Goodwill because they are so cheap. I think frames are too expensive...but I'm also super cheap. 

I laid out all of the pictures onto the frame, and took a picture so you guys could see what I came up with. I just played around with it until I found something that I liked. 

Then, I pulled out water skiing dude and the glass. Then I painted the frame the same black that I had used on the other frames in the room I wanted to hang it in.

 This sh*t is bananas...b-a-n-a-n-a-s. 

Then I cut a piece of grey fabric for my backing. I ironed it and duct taped it onto the mat with the water skiing dude. Duct tape is my friend! This frame didn't have a cardboard back on it (not a big deal at all) so I got to face water skiing dude toward the wall so I can see him whenever I want to. Aw. 

Next, I stuck the photos onto the mat in the same arrangement with some acid free photo stickers. 

Then I stuck the whole thing in the frame and stuck it on the wall. 

TADA! 

I know that there's one crooked picture in the frame. One corner came unstuck when I popped it in the frame. I did fix that, promise. You just don't get a fixed picture, sucka!

Here's a couple of close ups of my momma and her cousin. 

How rad is that poncho? And you can see the VW bus in the garage. Groovy! 

Random Monday: And on the Monday, She said "Let there be light!"

FINALLY. FINALLY there is light in our living room. I was headed to Target to snag a lamp for fifty clams that we had agreed on, and I thought that I should stop by Goodwill. Juuust in case. 

Here was the lamp we were going to get. Not our favorite thing ever, but in our price range and slightly stylish. 

But what I had not so secretly wanted was a lamp that would give light over the couch. Like an arc lamp, but those were too expensive. I liked this look from Urban Outfitters: 

So imagine my shock when I walked into Goodwill and saw this dude. 

I know. You can't believe it. 

He's super heavy, high quality stuff. He was mine at 25 clams. The best part, he's super bright. (And apparently a boy...) Now..... He's 80's all the way. That needs to change. First, I took off the cage underneath the light. Safety be dammed. I think we might be spray painting him or painting the frosted part on the top of the lamp. Or leaving him alone, as is my husband's vote. It will be determined at a later date. Meanwhile we are just ecstatic to have some light in this place. I can stop calling it my dark room for photography. 

Have a great Monday! 

Adventure Time Friday: ABMD

WOAH!

My blog has over a thousand views. I am so excited! Half of them are probably my mom...KIDDING. Thank you guys so much for your support on my little blogging adventure. 

Without further ado, Apple Butter Makin' Days!

This here little festival is in the small Missouri town where my family is from. Way back to my Great Grandpa and Grandma. My grandparents met here. My mom and grandma went to school here. It's super small and cute. There's a hill in town named after my family because they all lived up there. I remember it as a place you go to visit family, mostly on the second week of October. Hmmmm....wonder why?  

They cook apple butter on the square (shown above) in big copper kettles and stick it in jars to sell. I bought four jars, and it is currently on its way here in a box. It was still warm when I bought it.  I can make apple butter at home, but it's just not the same at all. It bubbles and looks like lava. They have to stir it all the time or it will burn. No one wants that. 

They stir it with big wooden paddles. It's pretty neat. 

There was a parade that we didn't watch. We took the opportunity to check out the booths. They all have to be handmade goods. I am related to a judge that made sure of that, thankyouverymuch. 

Um. apparently the only thing that I thought worthy of a picture in the boots was this guy, named Hillbilly Willie. 

Here's a picture of me with the apple butter queen. I was so star struck I just didn't know how to handle myself. 

Above is a picture of my lovely grandma showing me her final resting place. 

No, this is not weird at all. Totally normal. Carry on. 

Y'all have a great weekend! 

Booze Thursday: Crispin...it's no Julian

Hard cider is the perfect drink for this time of year. Actually, it's the perfect drink for any time of year. When I was on the journey from hell adventure to get home, I stopped at a restaurant in DIA called Itza Wrap, Itza Bowl! (It was the name that drew me in.) I had a delish bowl of food subatance and a Crispin Cider. It feels so luxurious to have a drink in the airport...maybe that's just me. 

Now, many people know my extreme love for Julian Cider. 

If you see some, buy it, drink it. Repeat. 

Julian is very crisp, not overly sweet, and like angels cried straight into the bottle. 

Angel tears=Julian

To compare, Crispin is a bit more sweet. It's crisp, hence the name. It had a gentle apple taste that reminds me of the ideal fall day. It was perfect for what ailed me that day.

All in all, I would recommend Julian. But if you are looking for something less strong (Alcohol wise) and not in a bomber, Crispin is a solid choice. 

Have a great day! 

Good Eats Wednesday: Open Valley...that sounds wrong...

Don't get me wrong, I love a good ol' ranch dressing. But I worry about all of the unpronounceable ingredients, the fact that something with 'buttermilk' is magically shelf stable, and that it has a lot of calories. To be truthful, my husband also gives me a hard time about eating it. But darn it, this is America. I need ranch! I have been working on making an alternative that I like just as much as the bottled stuffz, and I think that I have done it! 

Ingredients: 

1/2 pint low fat buttermilk

1/2 cup non fat greek yogurt

1/4 cup italian flat leaf parsely

2 stalks of green onions, green part only

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed VERY small

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

juice of half a lemon 

salt and pepper to taste

Chop up the parsley, green onion, and garlic. Do it right, make it super fine. The dressing will be tons more flavorful. 

Then add the yogurt, stirring to combine. 

Add the lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce, stir. Then, thin the dressing to the thickness you prefer with the buttermilk. You might not use it all, but use at least half of the little container. 

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Then refrigerate. This dressing will improve over time. I would think that it will keep about a week. 

If you can't wait for the flavors to meld (I couldn't), put it on a salad with some hot wing sauce dressed chicken. Amazing. 

Random Monday/Tuesday: Traveling Blows

Edit: Just realized that it's TUESDAY. I lost a whole day of my life yesterday in the traveling vortex, so deal with it. :) I'll see you for Good Eats Wednesday tomorrow. 


I had a great time in Missouri, and I am super glad to be back home. 

I desperately need to rant about my travel experience! 

(It should be funny in parts, so hang in there.)

I went to the Kansas City airport Sunday night. Every time I checked my flight time, (which I did three times that day) it was on time. As soon as I walked to my gate, I knew crazy times were happening at the airport. Maybe the people yelling and shouting at the gate agent should have been a clue. Turns out that Chicago was having some major windy tornado weather, and as a domino effect, every flight out of Kansas City was delayed by an insane amount.  My flight ended up being delayed four hours, luckily I didn't wait for it! 

I called my mom and grandma and told them to pull over on the side of the road while I got rebooked. After waiting in line for a looooong time, I got a flight the next day. We drove two hours back to grandma's house (hotels were full), then got up early the next morning to go back to the airport. 

I ended up flying Kansas City to Denver, Denver to San Francisco, San Francisco to Portland. Three hour layovers in between each time. Ew. 

The first flight was great, the second flight not so much. Here's where the funny starts. My bag fit just fine in the overhead compartment on my first flight, but the second flight was a no go. I swore to the flight attendant that it fit just fine last time. He probably was thinking "yeah right lady." The flight attendant told me to pull out whatever was bulging on top in my bag. Well, that was my underwear. That's right, I held up the boarding of a plane to pull out my underwear and stuff it in my laptop bag. And I have no shame about it. Then I had the middle seat. In case you were wondering, my laptop/underwear bag was in the seat back pocket. Fun times. 

San Francisco to Portland was fine, but the turbulence made me feel fifty shades of nauseous. Yes, I did just say that. I was able to check my bag on the way to Portland for free, so I pulled out my underwear yet again and stuffed it back in my suitcase. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to wave my britches around one last time after that. 

So it was a very long day of travel (almost 20 hours, yuck), but it made it all the more exciting to be finally home. 

Have a great day, and don't fly anywhere!