From My Pinterest Recipe Board: Tried It & Liked It

The Physicist and I are on a "life transformation" plan. This means we're trying a lot of new recipes, eating less red meat, and exercising more. I wish I could say the pounds are sliding off, but they aren't. However, I feel so much better and part of the reason is the great new recipes I've found and tried on Pinterest.

Here's recipe I pinned on my recipe board that was wonderfully created by the Shugary Sweets blog.

Santa Fe Peppers

Ingredients

3/4 lb ground turkey breast (I used a pound and it came from the 4 pack at COSTCO--love it!)

1 1/2 Tbsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt (optional)

I can (28 oz) Crushed Peppers

1 can (15.25 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15.5 oz) sweet corn, rinsed and drained

3 cups Jasmine Rice cooked (I made 2 cups brown rice and only used 1 cup)

8 fresh Sweet Red Peppers (I had the 6 pepper multi-colored red/yellow/orange pack from COSTCO and they were awesome--had leftover stuffing)

1 cup reduced fat Colby Jack cheese (I used reduced fat Mexican blend cheese shredded)

2 green onions, sliced

Instructions/Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Wash peppers and slice the tops of each pepper, remove the seeds. Stand each pepper up next to each other in a large baking dish (13x9 if you have 8--slightly smaller if you have 6)

2. In a large skillet brown ground turkey until fully cooked, drain and return to skillet. Add cumin, salt, tomatoes, black beans and corn. Simmer about 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile cook rice (I cooked mine first--it would also be a great way to use leftover rice).

4. Add cooked rice to skillet (start with a half cup and go from there--this recipe makes loads of filling) and combine completely. Remove from heat and fill each pepper with the mixture. Cover dish with foil and bake for about 40-45 minutes. Remove foil and top with cheese. Bake an additional five minutes until melted. Remove from oven and sprinkle with green onion pieces. Serve and enjoy.

Man, y'all this stuffed pepper recipe was A HUGE HIT and I absolutely will make it again. I think it is good for when company's coming and it's easy on the wallet. Give it a try and let me know what you think about it. And check out the Shugary Sweets blog for more recipes. This gal can cook!!

Oh, and after you're finished eating this yummy meal, come see me on Pinterest and check out my favorite heroes and heroines over here.

Smile and the World Smiles with You

I've had an admittedly weird and tough week. I tend to go through these every 3-4 months. January is pretty much a guaranteed month of mehness. It's cold. It's dark. It's gloomy. All the hype of Christmas is put up and the expectations of the new year become insurmountable mountains to climb. How can I possibly get all these goals met? Why have I set the bar so high? Why do I continue to do this to myself?

It's like university all over again. I'd see the syllabus at the beginning of the semester and panic. How could I knock an A out of the park with this load of work? I'd procrastinate in fear of not being perfect. Then the fire would light in the form of a due date and I'd manage to squeak out the assignments.

I finished the degree with a 4.0 Summa Cum Laude and top of the Dean's List. Guess my technique worked for me.

So here I am in a mood, unable to concentrate on my writing goals other than judging and reading other people's writing or reading about writing knowing I have a lot of writing to do to keep the momentum going. And what am I doing? I'm redecorating my media room, shopping for pretty baubles, avoiding my writing. Pretty typical mid-January for me!

So today I'm shopping and having fun with a friend. I'm waiting for information that could help me with my queries, and I'm thinking about my writing. I've decided to surrender to this weird state of inertia and share what makes me smile during this lunar phase of my life.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE

1. Tonks. That kitten has woven her way into my heart and is a joy. She makes us laugh with her antics and her naughty kittenish manners. She's sweet and cuddly or she's wild and crazy. 

2. My writing friends. We laugh. We bring each other up and we manage to make light of this zany writing world. I could not survive being an unpubbed writer if it weren't for them. 

3. My non-writing friends. They show me there is more to the world than writing and help me find a happy heart by doing other non-writerly things like shopping and cooking and gossiping and just being.

4. Walt Disney. I love him. I love his story. I love his vision. I am putting Disney quotes in my media room. He's an amazing and inspirational man who understood that adults are just children all grown up. We still want to play and laugh and sing.

5. Bright colors. I don't have many in the house right now. Taking down Christmas evaporated the cheer. I have a really cool ottoman with fabulous bright stripes. I am shopping for stuff that will pull those colors out of the ottoman and pop them in the rest of the family room which is a tan shade and I thought I loved it when I bought the house, but I don't--too cheap to redo so shopping I go.

6. Reading. I love to read fiction and non-fiction. I go to books and magazines when I am blue. I'm reading a lot this week!!

7. Zumba and Pilates. I know exercise isn't always supposed to make one smile, but the ladies in my classes are fun and I always leave the class in a better frame of mind than when I entered it. I love my classes.

8. Long walks and talks with good friends. I miss my friend in VA. She and I would go for long "jabber walks" and solve all the world's problems in an hour and a half. We'd laugh, we'd vent, we'd laugh again. I need another friend who loves to take long walks and is able to take them with me!

9. Cooking. Cooking wonderful food and being in the kitchen is a creative and soulful outlet for me. 

10. Entertaining. I love sitting around the dining room table with fun people and interesting people. The food is less important than the conversation. 

So I'm doing the things that make me smile this week because I can't move past my inertia. It's okay. By Saturday/Sunday I'll be ready to hit the ground running again. But for this week and really during this gloomy month, I need to bring sunny events into my life or I won't be able to write well. 

What makes you smile? Are you having a blue month? Is January a tough month for you?

By the way, my birthday is in January. The 19th. I'll be celebrating my birthday all week (it's a family tradition). I can't wait to break out the champagne and the dark chocolate and have some fun. You're all invited to share my birthday week starting January 16th. I'll post an extra blog on the 19th to celebrate.

Happy writing and happy living. Smile!

Secret Recipe Revealed

Ah, Christmas time is the season of blustery cold winds and bustling elves in the kitchen at the Glover house. This weekend we made Oreo Truffles, Praline Pecans, Mini Eggnog Muffins and loaves, Spicy Pecans, and *drum roll* my favorite cookie recipe: Chocolate Sambuca Cookies.

Oh let the yumminess begin.

Early morning Christmas Baking Elf

Darling Teen had a function to attend on Saturday so we got up early to work on the truffles. We had many truffles to make because she gives them away to her friends. The list grows yearly. I may have to take orders next year. We made over 100 truffles. In addition to the truffles, I made Praline Pecans and Spicy Pecans as well as the batter for the Chocolate Sambuca Cookies. The batter is runny and has to set up overnight before you can make the cookies.

The cute mini loaf pan. It has Christmas Imprints in it.

On Sunday morning Darling Teen and I had to buy new pants for Church choir and so off to Kohls we went despite the biting cold winds and unusually freezing temperature. Frankly, if this is what global warming feels like, I'm not impressed. Brrr! We found the dreaded khakis (who looks good in these pants? No one but the dudes in the advertisements), a few more presents for her Dad, and then we hurried home. DT had more musical stuff to head to in the afternoon, Darling Husband had football to watch, and I had cookies and muffins to bake. As you can see there is quite a lot to do when one is making the mini eggnog loaves. I love my new mixing bowls from my DT and DH which are brightly colored and they don't slip on the counter when you mix the batter. And they seem to do well in the dishwasher, too. Whew. Cause I don't relish washing them by hand. 

 The imprints are super cute. There are candy canes, trees, a santa, and bells. I'll sprinkle these with powdered sugar then wrap them in cellophane before I give them away.

I had a lot of cute mini cupcake papers with Christmas themes on them so I thought I'd use them to make mini muffins.

The chocolate sambuca batter is ready to be rolled into balls.

After I made the Mini Eggnog Loaves, I used my Pampered Chef small scoop to fill the paper cups and bake the mini muffins. They are adorable! I will give them away and serve them at a gathering I'm hosting on Wednesday evening. Oh, the mini muffins do look great. And they taste even better. Yes, sampling does occur in the Glover house because we must do quality control checks. I'm considering trying out an experimental icing recipe which might incorporate the nutmeg as part of the recipe. I think topping a few with icing will be nice for the gathering. And for those of you who already have the recipe, I cooked these for 20-25 minutes which is less time than the loaves. After I cooked the mini loaves, I prepped my work station for the final recipe. 

Flour for the hands and the sugar mix ready to dip the balls into for the cookies.

The balls of cookie dough are ready to bake at 350 degrees.

Sheer Yumminess is all I can say.

After a wee break, and a bit of wine, I began making the Chocolate Sambuca Cookies. Now these aren't clean cookies. These cookies require getting your hands good and dirty in batter, flour and a concoction of icing sugar mixed with regular sugar. Not for the faint of heart. But there is something about me that enjoys the whole process--like making really yummy mud pies that we can eat afterward.

After a wee break, and a bit of wine, I began making the Chocolate Sambuca Cookies. Now these aren't clean cookies. These cookies require getting your hands good and dirty in batter, flour and a concoction of icing sugar mixed with regular sugar. Not for the faint of heart. But there is something about me that enjoys the whole process--like making really yummy mud pies that we can eat afterward. 

And now, without further ado, here is the recipe.

Just kidding. I can barely read the words myself. So here is the recipe, which I have hoarded for years, for all of my blog friends to try. 

Chocolate Sambuca Cookies 

(original recipe given to me by Lori)

12 oz. dark chocolate (I use Hersheys)

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup of Sambuca

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar, divided

1/3 cup icing sugar

1 cup finely ground blanched almonds

2/3 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

Melt chocolate and butter in a microwaveable bowl and set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, sambuca, 1/2 cup sugar. Add chocolate slowly and continue whisking till incorporated. Mix in almonds, flour and baking soda till well blended. The batter will be runny. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill overnight. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix icing sugar and regular sugar together. 

With floured hands, take one tablespoon batter and roll into a balls. Coat balls in sugar mixture and place 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Cook for 12 minutes. Cool for 1 minute, then remove from sheet with a metal spatula. Cool on rack.

I dare you to get your hands dirty and try this recipe. It's worth the work and the effort. Ask the elves. They know.

Dinner Simmering in the Crockpot While We Work

I love autumn. The colors, the cooler weather, the zing in the air, and the food. This time of year always brings me back to my cookbooks and recipes for the crockpot. First of all, I have a lot going on, the Darling Family is on the go all the time with school, work, and activities. I usually start some massive project in November and this year is no exception. However, as always, the Darling Family expects dinner. Quite frankly, so do I!

A lot of my friends are participating in the NaNoWriMo this year. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. Writers all over the world like the Romance Magicians, Gwen Hernandez, and Ellen Brickley will write 50,000 words in November. I'm not actively participating because I am taking a screenwriting class with Alexandra Sokoloff. However, I'm sure I'll reach and exceed the 50,000 mark as I'm writing my next book as part of the class.

While writers are hunkering down and plunking away at their computers and laptops, other hardworking people will be getting ready for the holidays and will need a break from figuring out what to cook when they get home. And that is why someone very wise invented the crockpot. The most wondrous creation of all time. I love my crockpot. I use it a lot. And during this next few months I'm sharing my recipes. I also hope to get more recipes from my blog friends.

Today's family favorite crockpot recipe is TACO SOUP.

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 onion chopped (I like to cook it a bit first in the frying pan)
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can hominy (if you can't find hominy then put in another can of corn or beans)
1 can rotel tomatoes with green chilies

Dump all ingredients into a large crockpot (I use a 5 quart). Cook all day on low. Serve with tortilla chips and top with grated cheese and sour cream.

I use low sodium canned products and light sour cream. You can serve over rice as well.

Yummy!

How do you plan your family meals when life gets hectic?