Black bean, Sweet Potato and Kale Enchiladas ...sooo good!

Ahhh, another cookbook on the way from Amazon!! Again, the debate--another diet book OR another cookbook. The cookbook WON out- I can't wait for it to arrive on the homefront. Although I have realized that I rarely cook out of cookbooks. I almost always get recipes online, looking for specific items that I have on hand. I sit and LOOK at cookbooks for hours on end though so what the heck-cheap entertainment.



This recipe that I used tonight was from an online source but it is a Moosewood Recipe so.....maybe on some cosmic level this all makes sense....The only change I made to the original recipe was to add the Kale which added color and flavor. What really made this recipe rock was the homemade tortilla shells. I know I have talked about them before but you will NEVER eat another store bought shell again once you make your own. These are the easiest things in the world to make and they are amazing. I made a couple extra and then just fried them with some PAM and a little cheese in the middle. NUMMMO!




Sweet potatoes from Thursday's CSA box





I cubed the potatoes and boiled them until they got soft enough to mash up





Sauteed shallots, garlic with a bit of chicken broth,green chilies, wine and black beans. I threw the kale in a pot of boiling water for a minute or two just to soften it up a bit.



I rolled out the tortilla shells, cooked them, and then filled them. I did top the finished product with a bit of cheese and salsa.



The finished product!! EXCELLENT (even if I do say so myself)




An old guy and his food-not to mention his WINE!! He looks pretty happy-in a simple minded, sort of way!

And so my weekend is winding down. Aside from the HUGE pile of laundry I am supposed to be doing (yes, I am blogging instead of washing) I have a pretty open evening ahead of me. Sam and Charlie should be driving home from Anchorage about now. I BETTER have an ARBY's heading my way or heads are gonna roll!! Charlotte is very good about forgetting these small requests of mine (I think this is because she is not as motivated by food as I am) Steph on the other hand would NEVER forget the Arby's --she would know that my day has been filled with visions of roast beef, topped with horseradish sauce!

But, for now I will make chopped salad for dinner. I have never made it before but it sounds quite intriguing...
The directions are as follows:
All veggies must be the same size, use as many colored veggies as you can find, throw together. There should be plenty of fresh herbs and the dressing must be homemade and use Fancy vinegars such as champagne vinegar (YES--I did make this part up but I do have this vinegar on hand!)

Here is what I will be using:

avocado

bacon

purple cabbage

romaine lettuce

feta cheese

hard boiled eggs

red pepper

celery

peas

cucumber

green onion

and anything else I can find. I will post pictures but now I must go and make some chocolate chip cookies and turn my new Norah Jones CD back on play!! Puppies are snoozing, the fire is crackling and that laundry is just NOT washing itself!!

Beignets!

Ah, the children are in town!! Well, not really children as they are grown up and married BUT...to me they are the children!! Charlotte's husband Sam is playing with his brother's band this weekend opening for Mercy Me. They will play Thursday, Friday and then head to Anchorage and play there one night. Jeff and I thought we


would go down but being the semi lazy poops that we are we decided that there is in fact...no place like home. MAYBE I will start some seeds. We shall see as that would require I actually use the new soil block makers that I bought (no-I have done nothing with them).




BUT...tonight my night is going to be quite extraordinary! Charlotte is making beignets for us!! They are currently dough, rising to perfection in a pan on the back of the stove. At EXACTLY 9:00 she will start cutting them and then..yes, she will start to deep fry them!! Almost like being in New Orleans!!

My week has been spent pondering the reasoning behind living in this frozen, dark stretch of the planet. WHY live here when people all over are thinking about blooming trees, tulips breaking through the ground and grass starting to green up. WHY??
Well, I suppose the fact that we have jobs here, two of our three kids live here and we are in debt up to our eyeballs here. THAT may be the reason but, is it a good reason???? This I am not sure of but the one thing I do know is that we have wonderful friends here. That in itself may be the REAL reason that we stay and fight the cold, the dark and the knowledge that spring is NOT around the corner!

But tonight none of that matters! For tonight WE DINE on Beignets!!!!!!!!!

My lonely dinner watching a netflix movie--pretty good flick.


Fried purple potatoes with/greens (kale, mustard greens, and all other matter of greens) with a poached egg cracked on top. AWESOME!!



So-this is just a photo of what Jeff eats every day for breakfast. I eat oatmeal with pecans, vanilla milk and a banana EVERYDAY for breakfast. He eats this on a regular basis and he isn't fat....what the heck is up with that!! In my next life-Gonna be a 20 year old male--forever -gonna totally ROCK the sleeve tattoos (these I don't have BUT if I did come back as a male-oh...the tattoos I would sport!!) ANd I would just eat the french toast!!

Do I have a moral to this story??? No--I guess I would just say-if you are a 20 year old male-GET SOME TATS! If you are a 20 year old female (this if for my girls--thank GOD for your good genes--you won't be fat, cranky or mean BUT you may drink too much wine-I am monitoring this STEPH-fear not) AND let's see ...smile more, fear less and live like every minute matters!

What a bad blogger I am!!

I am not sure why I have not posted anything in awhile...hmm...nope, I got no excuse! I guess I just get sidetracked on a pretty regular basis and... Jeff and I have put our house up for sale! We have talked about it AND TALKED ABOUT IT but for the most part that has been about it. We live on the river and that makes the house in that "upper end" real estate that is currently not selling in Fairbanks. (according to the realtors that we have spoken to) Hence, the Craig's list and Alaska list adds!

Aside from the fact that we live on the river--We are NOT river people. Now, I do like a boat-on a lake-with a fishing pole and a sandwich but racing up and down the river...EEK-Not a fan!! This is our second house on the Chena. Both times the houses have kind of fallen into our laps and we have loved both houses but it is just time to move on. So-if you need a house on the Chena-call my people! (no, I don't really have people but if I did...you could call them. Otherwise, check out Alaska list)

UPDATE: the S diet.
What an easy thing for me to follow!! I am pretty much the queen of this diet. Remember the rules?
no snacks
no sweets
no seconds
EXCEPT for days that start with S (Saturday, Sunday and Special Days)

Oh, YA! This has been the easiest thing in the world for me to follow. Not sure why but....I like it. Have I lost ANY weight?? NO!! Not a pound. So, I have to ask myself ....why?

Maybe it is the EXTRA large breakfast, lunches and dinners I eat now. Yes....that could be it! I now eat two pieces of bread with dinner because the only rule is that it has to fit on a normal size plate (there has been no info on how high the plate can be stacked)

Previously, I never ate bread or BUTTER! God Forbid you eat the butter! But with the no S diet.......eat all the damn butter you want!! I can only say "Thank you JESUS"

Did I mention there is no limit to wine????! You know this is the diet for me!!

When I hit the mark on the scale at the gym that makes you "move the heavy thing" up a notch- I may go back to calorie counting (I call this death by number but that is only my take on it)

BUT-until then....the NO S diet is going quite well thank you.

I will leave you with a few parting pictures of Saturdays dinner. Sorry, tonight is left over minestrone-not exciting at all.



Broccoli Salad



Marinating Chicken Breast



Salsa made with the tomatoes and avocados that came in the CSA box NUMMY!!



Grilled chicken sandwiches w/swiss cheese/onion/sprouts and Grey Poupon!!

Pad Thai, Dumplings and boxed wine!!

Here is the ground up chicken for the dumplings--I ran chicken tenders through the food processor because I didn't have ground pork--it worked WELL!!



cooking dumplings!






Dinner!!

My day off nursing puppies has not turned out quite as I had hoped for. According to the Dr.s at the clinic--these two little turds cannot play together for 10 Days! Seriously!! This is going to be .....hard. I have been home with them now for about 8 hours and this is not working out so well. Of course, Bosely-had a little snip here, a little snip there--he is doing GREAT!! Abby--"must not play, must not be have contact with 'Bosley' (the evil male)".

So--I COOKED!! My answer to all stressful situations. I would have much rather made cookies but it was not to be. Jeffrey get your butt home and eat your dumplings, your Pad thai and for God's sake- grab yourself a glass of boxed wine!!

Valentines Day and Pizza

When I was a kid (growing up in Tok, AK) we did not have restaurants to eat at. Yes, there was lodges but not the kinds of places that you just went and grabbed something for a quick dinner. This is what made the trips to Fairbanks such cool events. It did take 4 hours to get there and 4 hours to get home BUT there was restaurants--and lots of them!!

The biggest problem was picking one that we all could agree on. Now, there was only four of us but it you knew us...this would not be a surprise. This was NOT an easy feat. The father ALWAYS wanted steak and martini's (usually we didn't spend the night so that wasn't an option). The mother just wanted to eat and get grocery shopping. The sister just wanted whatever NO ONE ELSE wanted-she would wait until a decision was somewhat reached and then say "no-I hate that" and I pretty much just wanted Pizza Hut. I thought it was about the coolest food EVER! Thin crust super supreme!!!!!!!! Fantastic!

When I moved to the big city (AKA=Fairbanks) I continued this tradition of my favorite dining out spot. My Kids thought that all eating out involved the Fred Meyer deli or Pizza Hut.
As they grew and we could afford better fare, we switched it up to Taco Bell. But, deep down I am still devoted to the thin crust super supreme.

Flash forward to 2010 and the Saturday before Valentines day! Jeff and I spent the day jumping on the bed-well, actually we were mattress shopping. We bounced from bed to bed and finally decided upon one at Sadlers. Being a pretty fancy place -the bed was in stock! Yippe! Another night would not be spent on our broken down slab of springs and wire.

Being in a celebratory mood we decided that eating out may be in order! But...eating out is really not all THAT exciting..we could order in and watch a movie....hmmmm, what should we order?? Chinese??? No...Fancy Pizza from College town???? N0.....I know, PIZZA HUT!!

It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soil Block Makers-Very Cool!

So, daughters--I know that this will not be cool to you but I am so EXCITED!! I just ordered two sizes of these soil block makers and now I cannot wait for them to come in! When I was out at Calypso Farms this summer I noticed that this is what they used for seed starting. I use flats for really small seeds but use peat pellets (the expandable kind) for seeds that I don't want to transplant or disturb the roots. If these work they would be soooo much cheaper and face it---just way cooler! You plant the seed-it never gets root bound (according to the sales pitch-which I have fallen for hook, line and sinker!) AND you can put the really small ones directly into the larger one for an instant transplant!!!! Just doesn't get easier than that.

The only problem MAY be getting the soil mixture right. There is much discussion and disagreement among the seed starting population online. Some say if it isn't perfect-flat out won't work. They crumble, become mud and you are just S.O.L. But, others rave about the savings, the health of the starts and the fact that it is just....alot of fricken fun to make these things.

I like dirt-although I have to make these in my kitchen which will make the husband/father quite unhappy. He doesn't really get the whole thing but he is a good sport. Which is why he is making me a seed starting shelf this weekend!!! Gone are the six foot tables with lights supported by stacks of cookbooks (adding or removing books as fast as the little green shoots can grow). Although....with as many seed packets as I have ordered, bought at Fred's, picked up at Holm Town, I think I may need the tables AND another shelf!!