Mom What's for Dinner?!

 

 

Hi!  It's only Tuesday but I am thinking about the weekend, planning ahead in case the weather turns bad. I was surprised so many of you have snow and cold, it was warm here. Almost 60* yesterday.
As we all know, weekends can get busy, with differing schedules and always-changing plans, so I am always on the lookout for new easy serve recipes for the Crock Pot. Yes, easy serve...not easy cook. I don't mind cooking complicated meals, my problem is what to prepare and have on hand when One child eats at 5 PM, the other at 11 PM, and I like to eat at 9.

Obviously we only sit around the dinner table on major holidays, aka once a year on Christmas Day. Meals are eaten on the run or more likely on the edge of exhaustion, at the end of a crazy long day. No one wants to sit and wait while mom cooks.
Often I rely on salads and casseroles. The crock pot is a new experience.

And I have to admit crock pot cooking still has me somewhat stumped. I think I am supposed to start it early in the morning [lol], for a 6 PM meal? But, well, see above. My crock pots seem to always be done at, like, 3 AM...but then they're too hot to put in the fridge. So far I'm not thrilled with getting up at 5 AM and scooping the food into Glad boxes and scrubbing yucky crock pots.

5 AM is to me the middle of the night.

Anyway. Last weekend we made Beer Chicken. It is actually a Weight Watchers recipe...and the alcohol supposedly cooks off, and/ or is dispersed through a number or separate servings. [1 beer/ 8 servings]

Trader Joe's was having a sale on single bottles of fancy beers both locally brewed and imported. I don't drink beer so I just grabbed the two cutest kinds.

I admit I really just wanted this bottle though!

The recipe here   calls for 2 pounds of chicken breasts, seasonings of your own choice, and a bottle of beer. I used thyme, oregano, pepper, lemon pepper, garlic powder, a few dried onion flakes. (If you are counting calories, keep an eye on the portion sizes on this site/ link. The food is low cal because the portions are very very small, in this cse  1 chicken tender per serving. The writer says she used 8 breasts/ 2 pounds....my 2 pounds of chicken breasts was 4!, so I am thinking she used the small trimmed ''tenders"  [4 oz. each.] not whole boneless breasts.)

Cook on high for 8 hours. Shred when done and store in the juices. Reheat as desired.

Easy-peasy.

I served it with homemade broccoli slaw and a choice of multigrain breads.

Horseradish sauce/ or BBQ sauce. (Sweet Baby Ray's) My kids liked it quite a lot but they did feel it needed the bottled BBQ sauce...in which case it is very much NOT a Weight Watchers recipe, and it becomes pulled chicken. My verdict is: okay but not  a dish in itself, so not a true success. There is no need to buy beer for  pulled chicken, I just boil it in chicken broth then shred.

I guess it's more sensible if you have beer leftover,from say, a football Sunday?

We also made wonderful Key Lime cupcakes. (Yes, my other blog readers, cupcakes! It wasn't my fault, you'll see.)

My daughter received this cute baking kit as a party favor.

Normally she does not eat sweets so I was surprised she wanted to bake the cupcakes...but we did! It was so fun and they were, note "were" (--yes, all gone!) very yummy, so sweet and limey.

The frosting was to die for! A stick of butter, a box of cream cheese and their ''mix'' which I am pretty sure was just powdered sugar and some flavoring. Wow.

We used white chunky decorator sugar on top, my daughter had the idea to grate lime zest on top too. Mmmm....

So fun to bake with a friend, isn't it?


love

    lizzy

gone to the beach...............

 

 

 

 

PS I apologize for the small pix, Blogger's photo app is screwy all week and getting worse. I accidentally erased all my pansies for the previous post. Not sure what is wrong, so if anyone has any suggestions or is also having probs, please let me know. Thx!
PPS I found out tonight that I can upload and size pix in the html mode. Of course there's no control over where they go and only 5 at a time, but it's still a little better. Google calls the problem "ongoing"......

 

Winter Pansies

Hi! Aren't these so sweet! I adore pansies...real or on china or fabric, wherever.

I planted these pansies in October. The sign at the garden store said Winter Annuals, but I was dubious. Of course bought them anyway. I can never resist orange and purple-black Halloween pansies...

These little guys are still blooming on my deck! Mid-January. I was so surprised to see them.

They've been through a hurricane, a snowstorm/nor'easter, a couple cold snaps. Maybe even a hard frost though it's warm again here, today it was 52* when I was at the thrift shop, away from the beach winds.

It was warm enough for me to get my red parrot tulip bulbs into my planters. I never planted them because we were evacuated, then it was Christmas. I could throw them out, or what the heck: ...plant them and hope for the best?

 

 

And there were all the pretty pansies still smiling bravely at me in the winter sun. Imagine that.
I snipped off a teeny tiny bouquet of the pansies.

They do have white flecks from the salt spray...

But pretty cute for winter, I think.

I
've had this china shoe for years. Made in Japan, c. 1950? Unfortunately, this morning with my usual compulsion to clean, I washed the polka dots off! [I painted them back on though, no worries.]

 

See the little blue rosette on the toe? Just like Snow White [Cinderella?], in the old Disney animated film where the bluebirds make the girl's dress and shoes.

I keep thinking I'll make it into a pincushion.
But so far...it's been a fun tiny flower holder, I love the ruffled edge, and orange color...and returning polka dots and all.

 

My parents' Cape Cod yard always had blooming  flowers in the winter...pink fairy roses, blue heather, bright yellow witch hazel. And my mom would would marvel at the  very notion of flowers in January, coming as she had from the frigid northern  Illinois winters. She always put tiny bouquets in her favorite old aqua glass inkwells, set them on her kitchen window ledge.

 

 

                                    

And since this date was once my mother's birthday I am especially happy to have found my little pansies.

Like a remembrance.

Anything in your garden right now?

love

   lizzy

......gone to the beach

self portrait, January

Blowing in a New Year

Hello! How is everyone's apres-holidays clean-up going? I had good intentions to stay in and organize, but the winter-y beach was calling my name and off I went...

We had some very windy days here. Check this out:

See the blowing sand?

Brrr, makes you shiver, doesn't it? All the better to enjoy a mug of hot chocolate later.

My mother called it blowing off the cobwebs. She too enjoyed a crisp winter's walk.

cloud shadow on open beach
this is where the plovers nest in the spring

Even the choppy water looks steely and cold.

Some friends here have asked me if the beach has lots of storm-washed treasures, but no.

The wind and sand reclaim the beach's pristine appearance quite quickly here, as you can see.

Just wide open empty expanses and a full hardy [hearty?] gulls to keep me company these January days.

The sun still sets so early, though I do perceive a tiny lengthening of the days....

Wishful thinking?

I always look for the Green Flash!
but...no.

Warm spell due to arrive in the next few days....

So, back to work! My home is blue and white again...almost. Just have to store the red quilts and find the blue one.

Mmmm..green chili in the crock pot later in the week too...I'll let you know how it goes. What are you up to? Tree is down? Lights are carefully re-rolled? And what's in your Crockpot?  Please share?



love

       lizzy

...............gone to the beach