Sunday's something I like (a review)

I have been using the Neutrogena UltraSheer Liquid Sunblock for a few days. I was surprised by how light it is! It feels like my regular facial lotion. And with only the initial application in the morning, my face didn't get burned with an afternoon in the sun. Sadly, I can't say the same thing for my arms and legs! I'm sold! If you want to try it, you can grab a $2 off coupon here: http://www.neutrogena.com/suncoupon

Would you like to review UltraSheer®, too? Then go to http://www.giantwavepool.com/ultrasheer!

Or get $2 off your UltraSheer® purchase at http://www.neutrogena.com/suncoupon.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the product mentioned above for free for review purposes from Tidal Labs. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Pace's Picante Chicken Enchiladas

I posted about this on Facebook in May but needed the recipe while grocery shopping today. I can access my blog on my phone much easier than wading through everything on FB, so I figured I would move this over here (with my comments) for myself! If it helps you, then BONUS! lol!!

This recipe is GREAT for any kind of leftover chicken! So if you find whole chickens on sale but don't like certain parts, save them for this recipe!

As in the past, my comments will be italics and following the recipe! And again, sorry about the funky font thing. It is probably because I did a bunch of cutting and pasting!

Picante Chicken Enchiladas

From: Campbell's Kitchen

Prep: 10 minutes
Bake: 40 minutes

Serves: 6

1 jar (16 ounces) Pace® Picante Sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 cups cubed cooked chicken (leftover chicken & I shredded it)
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used whatever shredded cheese I had on hand!)
6 flour tortillas (8-inch), warmed (why warm them? I didn't!)
1 green onion, thinly sliced (about 2 tablespoons) (I skipped)

Stir 3/4 cup picante sauce, sour cream and chili powder in a medium bowl.

Stir the picante sauce mixture, chicken and cheese in a large bowl.

Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up the tortillas and place seam-side up in a lightly greased 11 x 8-inch shallow baking dish. Pour the remaining picante sauce over the filled tortillas. Cover the baking dish.

Bake at 350°F. for 40 minutes or until the enchiladas are hot and bubbling. Top with the onion.

My comments:

• I made about 1.5 times the recipe so that there were 2 enchiladas per person.
  

• I didn't HAVE any Pace, so I used up leftovers of 3 different salsas we had. a couple of them were spicier so I skipped the chili powder.
  

• a couple of the salsas had corn in them and that was nice. SO, if you use the Pace, maybe add a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cooked corn?

• I also think adding sliced black olives would be tasty. but really, aren't olives always tasty?
  

• I don't like cleaning dishes so I mixed everything in the same bowl, just added the chicken and cheese after mixing the other stuff.
  

• I used toothpicks to hold the enchiladas together while they cooked.
  

• when the time was up, I took off the tin foil and sprinkled about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese on top and then placed it back in the oven while I made the salad. maybe if you want to make it fancier looking, add a sliced black olive to the top of each one?
  

Slow-Cook Sausage Corn Chowder for lazy people like me!

I do really enjoy cooking...when I have plenty of time and plenty of money and can have the windows open for those lovely Delta Breezes to keep me and the house cool! That is why I tend to do a lot of cooking in the late Fall. Soups and sauces to stock up the freezer with. I really love it!

But with it almost hitting 100F yesterday, why oh why I was craving a thick soup instead of a fruit salad is beyond me! But I was! And thankfully the recipe I really wanted to make cooks in a crockpot! Silly me, I decided if I was going to make this, I might as well make a double batch and have some to put in the freezer. I know it is a little early to get started on that Fall stockpile, but this was my mood and I went with it!

The recipe came from a murder mystery by Susan Wittig Albert titled Holly Blues. I love murder mysteries and all the books in the China Bayles series have herb influenced names and make me want to grow an herb garden. (I have tried several times and it never works...but doesn't mean I don't think about having all those lovely fresh herbs at the ready.) Like I said earlier, I doubled the recipe. Below is the recipe as it was originally written with my personalized comments in italics. Doubling it changed a few of the proportions and also meant that I ended up using BOTH my crockpots because I couldn't fit it all in my largest one! So here's a hint: don't make a double batch until you see how much it makes!

1 lb ready to eat smoked sausage, cut in half lengthwise and into 1/2 “ slices
3 cups cubed potatoes
½ medium onion
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
¼ cup red bell pepper
1 bay leaf(I used 3 for my double batch)
1 15-16 oz can cream-style corn(I could only find 14 oz cans so I used 3 for my double batch - like my math?)
1 can mushroom soup(cream of mushroom)
2 cups chicken broth(I always prefer the low salt broth if I don't have homemade.)
2 cups milk
1 tsp dried thyme(I used 3 tsp for my double batch)
1 tsp dried savory (I used 3 tsp for my double batch - J put this in and used the leaves instead of ground. they worked out fine!)
sour cream
snipped fresh chives or parsley

Place sausage, potatoes, onion, carrots, bell pepper, and bay leaf in slow cooker. Combine corn, soup, and broth, and add to the cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 to 7 hours. Fifteen minutes before serving, remove bay leaf, stir chowder, and add milk and herbs. Cover and cook on high for 15 minutes. Ladle into bowls and top with dollops of sour cream and sprinkles of snipped chives or parsley.

My additional comments:

• Because I was starting late in the day, I combined the canned items in the crockpot and got them started while I did all my chopping.
• I also chopped my veggies smaller than I would normally. I suggest 3/4" ish. 1" always seems too big!
• I added some ground pepper - 3 or 4 grinds for the entire double batch. I debated garlic. It is hard for me to cook without garlic, but it doesn't need it.
• Since I doubled the recipe, I used 2 different smoked sausages. One was a beef sausage and the other was polska kielbasa. While I normally prefer the kielbasa, I think the beef sausage is better in this dish.
• At the end, I felt the chowder was too soupy. I decided this was probably due to the extra can of creamed corn. Next time I will go with my first thought and just add more corn! Leftover (ha! we never have leftovers) grilled corn would be terrific in this!
• I didn't help matters by using fat free milk instead of whole milk. We use fat free and unless a recipe specifically calls for whole milk, I use what I have. In the future I will probably go for the whole milk.
• To try and combat the soupy-ness, I kept the lids off the crockpots for those last 15 minutes of cooking (which I stretched out to about 30 minutes) to try and cook some liquid off. It helped.
• What really helped was the sour cream. After bowling up the soup, I added a dollop of sour cream and some more black pepper. It was delicious!

Did I miss anything in my commentary?? Oh yes! The results of that double batch: about 3 meals for the family as long as you serve biscuits or something else with it. Maybe 2 with a lunch for someone depending on whether the boys are "growing" or not! lol!!

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you make the soup and what you think....or if you read a China Bayles book. I really enjoy them!

(and I am sorry....I can NOT figure out how or why the font size and type changes throughout this post. It has been awhile and my blogging skills are rusty!)

okay so it hasn't been FIVE months....

since I last blogged! still pretty pathetic! does it count that I have THOUGHT about blogging? I have even thought about specific things to blog ABOUT....but I just haven't quite made it far enough to post. I think I might be back a bit more because I miss the longer thinking process that I used to put into posts over at LifetimeMoments. afterall, there is only so much you can put into a Tweet or Facebook update!

so if anyone is actually still seeing if I am alive around here.....there might be something worth reading once in awhile!

of mice and men.....and boys and books.....

so as a "good mom" I try to keep up with what is happening in school so I can help the boys out with their homework. J is a great dad and very helpful, but R passed him in math skills in 5th grade or so. I will even admit to having R call Auntie Misty earlier this year. we can still handle D's math, thank goodness! science is completely beyond me. I won't tell you what I did to pass science in high school.

but when it comes to english and history, I am spot on! and as R has started reading what I would consider "classics" I have read along with, or ahead of, him so that we can discuss the points of the stories. I have read most, if not all, of them before, but it has been a couple of years (ha!) and some of the more minor details have escaped me. I am sure I will have to read them again in 2 years to go through the same thing with D. I like talking about books with the boys, especially books like "Of Mice and Men" and this year's earlier assignment "To Kill A Mockingbird."

so my purpose for blogging about this: I am glad that the schools haven't been so beaten by political correctness that they don't teach our kids the mistakes of the past so that they can grow up to not repeat them. I realize these books are fiction, but within them are the kernels of society. I want the boys to know that things weren't always fair and that people don't all live and feel like we do. I hope it will make them grow up to be open minded, thoughtful, and appreciative. all the things we want from an education!

I am a reader not a writer.........

Yeah, been awhile...

In fact, I think that is how I started the last post I made!

Anyway, I realized that I would much prefer to read what other people write than write myself. I like seeing people's updates on FB, receiving their Tweets, and checking their blogs instead of doing my own. I do a decent job of updating FB but that is quick and easy through Twitter and my phone. Heck, if I remember correctly, this will post to FB for me.

I guess I have always been like this. But, if only for myself, I think I might try to do a better job at those! Afterall, what a better resource for if/when I get back to scrapbooking?

here is a story....

Yeah, so it has been over 3 months since my last post. I try to think about posting. I have even taken my 12 of 12 pics (except for 1 month) with the thought of getting those posted. Oh well! In fact I probably wouldn't be posting now if my phone had Word on it so I could do some journaling . Instead I will do it here...

The year we moved down from Alaska we lived across the street from the Race family. The oldest son, Doug, had his birthday a few days before my mom. That year they played a trick on him and decorated a styrofoam cake and hid a present inside the hollowed out "cake." Well my mom's favorite dessert was peach pie. And since we were now in California and could get GOOD peach pie, dad decided to play a trick on mom. He borrowed the fake cake and put the pie under it. I am pretty sure that T and I didn't know what was going on. Anyway, mom cut into the cake......and kept cutting!! Instead of the cake just lifting off the pie like it had for Doug, the cake stuck and mom had almost cut out her entire piece before figuring out it wasn't real! Lol!!

Now don't you think it was worth the wait? I am hoping I can find a photo somewhere of that birthday. We were only in that house one year so hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to find.....I hope!