JustLisa

Made some awesome chili tonight. I didn't have the usual can of tomatoes with green chilies or any chili seasoning mix so I just made up a recipe as I went along with various spice replacements. Dash of that, pinch of this. Todd hates chili powder so used red pepper flakes, some "hot salt", onion flakes, cayenne pepper and some worchestire sauce. Turned out really good. We've had to adjust our eating once again since braces are in the house. Nothing sticky. Nothing crunchy.

Yummy Shrimp Recipes

S= Sauteed shrimp in butter and garlic is simply divine
H= Hot and juicy when cooked in some wine
R= Ready to eat, peeled and frozen is the best because
I = It's incredibly delicious dipped in cocktail sauce
M= Mmmmm this is good, make some more please
P= Pink goodness drenched in garlic and butter... YUM!

Nothing? There's no excuse for that! Even Emily knows how to cook and she's only 12! Seriously though, I love sites offering free recipes. I have a recipe box from when I first struck out on my own and I still prefer to grab a grimey, well used recipe from that box. When I find a new recipe online, I print it and stick it in the box so I especially love cooking sites that have links to print the recipe in various paper sizes.

If you prefer the virtual world, CookSpot has a virtual recipe box that allows you to save your favorite recipes for easy retrieval later. As a registered user you can also save a shopping list, rate and review recipes or submit your own to share.

Todd made chicken shishkabob things on the grill for lunch today. The chicken tasted really funky so I put mine in the trash after one or two bites. Turns out he has had these things in the fridge since July 4th. The fridge shelf life of raw chicken is 1-2 days. Not four. Pass the Immodium.

Funny comment from my post about Christopher learning to drive:

You sound like a very smart woman. I found out several years after I had been driving why my sisters were laughing when my dad taught me to parallel park. He put two bales of hay on the street to represent two cars. He had me park between them. Everytime I went around the block to come back and park again, he had had them move the two bales a little closer together. They laughed harder everytime I parked. I was getting frustrated because it was getting harder instead of easier to park. Finally, dad told me he thought I understood the concept. When I took my driving test, I misunderstood where the examiner wanted me to park and I parked in the tightest spot on the block. He got out, scratched his head and told me that was the best job of parallel parking he had ever seen, especially for a 16 year old. Now, I can parallel park an ambulance, but I try not to do that in very small spaces. (Diana)

In that same thread, Faith asks about tractors. I would wager that most Iowa kids do not ever learn how to drive a tractor. It's a farm kid thing and there isn't a permit to drive them. You just get shown and off you go.

Since I'm big on football, I'm also quite the fan of easy to make snacks that can go to where the TV action is on Sunday. Something Emily and I like to do is make a cheese ball to spread on crackers. This is easy unless you don't have a stand mixer like the Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer. The Eclectrics® Mixer is part of the Eclectrics® group of small appliances. Since I can't change my ugly blue countertop, I'd buy one in the Sea Breeze color to match my kitchen. If you have a Hamilton Beach® Mixer, and want to try making a cheese ball, the recipe is as follows:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons dry onion soup mix
1 cup finely chopped cooked ham
1 cup shredded swiss cheese or cheddar cheese

Use stand mixer to beat cream cheese, sour cream and soup mix until smooth. Stir in ham and cheese and then form into a ball. You can roll it in nuts if you'd like but we don't do that since Todd hates nuts. After you get a nicely shaped ball, stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours and serve with crackers.

Enjoy!