Is that a squash . . .

or is Todd happy to see me?

I think it's a bit of both.  :)  Apparently, my gardener husband did such a good job ignoring his garden that it produced from the 5-lb. squash plant!  This photo cracks me up just because it is Todd beeing goofy.

We have both been completely overwhelmed with work/school.  Maybe if things ever settle down (and something in our lives happens more than work-related stuff), I'll have more to say!  Until then, we are counting down the days until the Thanksgiving break and holiday.

100 North American Foods

Same setup from my food list as I did before. Bold if eaten, Strike out if you'll never eat it, and I added Italics if I didn't know WTH it is!

1. New York pizza (not in NY - does it still count?)
2. Hoppin' John
3. New Mexico green chile
4. Homemade buttermilk biscuits
5. Tasso
6. Whole Maine lobster
7. Calabash-style shrimp and hushpuppies
8. Kansas City barbecue ribs
9. Hot glazed Krispy Kreme
10. San Diego fish tacos
11. Cheese curds
12. Key lime pie
13. Philly cheese steak
14. Memphis pork barbecue sandwich (Texas BBQ is the best, though!)
15. Lowcountry boil
16. Huckleberry pie
17. New England clam chowder
18. Boiled peanuts
19. Buffalo (Bison) burger
20. Eggs Benedict
21. Pastrami on rye
22. Corned beef and cabbage
23. Pancakes with maple syrup
24. Everything bagel with cream cheese and tomato
25. Thin Mints
26. Frito pie
27. Potato knish with mustard
28. Silver Queen corn on the cob
29. Soft pretzel from a street cart
30. Fresh-picked blueberries
31. Sourwood honey
32. State fair funnel cake
33. Chesapeake crab cakes
34. Candied yams
35. Oyster dressing
36. Snow cone or snowball
37. Wild Alaskan salmon
38. Sautéed more
39. Persimmon pudding
40. General Tso's Chicken
41. Frozen custard
42. Italian sausage with peppers and onions on a hoagie bun
43. Chili dogs
44. Buffalo wings with blue cheese (I hate blue cheese - ick)
45. Spam musubi (This is like a sushi made with Spam)
46. Saltwater taffy
47. Fluffernutter sandwich on Wonder Bread
48. Black and white cookie (is it an Oreo?)
49. Frybread
50. BLT with thick-cut applewood bacon
51. Baked beans
52. Pumpkin pie
53. Collards with vinegar and Tabasco
54. Tex-Mex fajitas with skirt steak and sautéed peppers
55. Fried green tomatoes
56. Succotash
57. Shrimp and grits
58. Hot water cornbread
59. Barbecue chicken pizza with red onions
60. Chicken fried steak
61. Carnitas burrito
62. Apple butter
63. Geoduck (pronounced: Gooey-duck)
64. Soft-serve ice cream cone dipped in chocolate shell
65. Pecan pie
66. Catfish supper at a church or fire station
67. Oysters Rockefeller
68. Homemade cranberry sauce
69. Pimento cheese
70. MoonPie washed down with R.C. Cola
71. Pickled watermelon rind
72. Cracker Jacks at the ball game
73. Smithfield ham
74. Meatloaf and mashed potato blue plate special at diner
75. Chicken and waffles
76. Po'Boy with many napkins
77. Green bean casserole with French's fried onions
78. Stuffed sopapillas
79. Turducken
80. Shad roe on toast
81. Sweet potato casserole with or without marshmallows
82. Cioppino
83. New York cheesecake
84. Pan-fried river trout
85. Jambalaya
86. North Carolina pig pickin'
87. California rolls (assuming this is sushi)
88. Burgoo
89. Penuche fudge
90. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwich
91. Scrapple or livermush
92. Elk medallions in red wine reduction
93. Muscadine grapes
94. Cheeseburger at backyard barbecue
95. Open-face turkey sandwich
96. Chicago deep dish pizza
97. Cobb salad
98. Peach pie a la mode
99. Macaroni and cheese
100. Root beer float

What We Shouldn't Be Having for Dinner

But we are. Pot roast.

Easy enough, huh? Lightly brown it, drop it in a crock pot, add some broth or water, later add veggies, and voila dinner! It's simple, easy, delicious, hearty, and filling, right? Right. Unless . . .


. . . the dogs steal it off the counter. And eat it. Raw. Mostly thawed. All 3.5 pounds of it. Damn dogs.


You may wonder the reason we ARE having pot roast tonight. It's called the grocery store. Thank you, Sprouts. Dinner is almost ready, and it's pot roast. Surprisingly it's beef, not dog.

Damn Dogs.

Pupsicles!

When I told my mom that I was making "pupsicles" for the dogs she said, "Well that would spoil them." Uh, yeah . . . . I don't really think they can get any more rotten than they already are though!

To make the pupsicles (btw I think I need to give some as catsicles now), I used some plain fat-free yogurt, a VERY ripe banana, some peanut butter, and some milk. Put it all in the blender and blend thoroughly. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze. I used our cute (and only) ice cube trays from Ikea. Obviously the dogs LOVED them!



They don't look spoiled, do they? Never mind. Don't answer that!

Today was my devirginizing, first trip to SPROUTS! The grocery gods finally put in a Sprouts near my neighborhood and I loved it!

First, I started out at lunch w/ my friend Amy H. (I have lots of Amys) and her cutie pie Peter. Today was Peter's first time dipping chips into Ranch & he was an instant fan!

Then we ventured over to Sprouts. I was so excited! Amy has been shopping at Sprouts for a while now & was there to show me the ropes.

Amy & Peter (L) & Me w/ my cart (R). Excuse my skeeriness. The vet only gave me 20 minutes to get to their office w/ Steve this morning.

My cart only $86 later - lots of meat, fruit, veggies, and wine. Plus, I got a free bag!

Kristin Cooks

That subject line makes it sound like me cooking is a rare thing. I can honestly say that I cook plenty. Anyway . . .

One of Todd's favorite dishes is Pad Thai. I make it every now & then, and I know he wishes I made it more often. It's really tasty, fresh, good for you - plus it looks good. I've always been into presentation & color of dishes. Apparently when I was very young I made a dinner salad for my parents. It included red hot candies to give it some color.

Tonight's Pad Thai did not include red hots. :)

New Food Tryout

I'm tired of having to figure out what to cook for dinner each night. Todd is tired of figuring out what I should cook for dinner each night. We both come home from work so tired & I usually don't think anything in particular sounds good. I'm trying to hold off going to the store until this weekend, so I'm trying to be creative and use food we actually have on hand. This is a novel concept since our two refrigerators & pantry are usually stuffed full.

So, tonight's dinner was Sausage, Onion & Pepper Stuffed Crescent Rolls. It was random, but so easy and good! Todd took the first bite & said, "Mmm, that's pretty good!" which means "I'd eat this again." The food looked prettier when I first pulled them out of the oven, but this was all that was left since we ate most of them. :)

Sausage, Onion & Pepper Stuffed Crescent Rolls

1 package smoked sausage

1/2 onion, chopped & grilled or sauteed

1 green and/or red bell pepper, chopped & grilled or sauteeda

2 "tubes" of crescent rolls (I used 1 flaky butter style & 1 regular - regular worked better)

spray butter (optional)

parmesan cheese (optional)

Cut smoked sausage lengthwise & then cut into smaller pieces - about 4 per link. Lightly brown the sausage in a skillet. I guess you could add it to the onions & peppers (mine were leftover from last night's dinner). Lay out each individual crescent roll flat on a cookie sheet. Pour a 1/2 tsp or so of the pepper & onion mix, add sausage, fold dough around. Bake according to directions on roll package. Towards the end of them baking, I did a quick spray of butter & sprinkled some parmesan on top. Serve w/ spicy, yellow, or honey mustard - or all 3, whatever you like!

What's Cooking?

We both had a difficult week of work. It's a VERY stressful time at my school as well as Todd's. Today I thought I'd make us some comfort foods. Although it looks like I was in the kitchen for a while, I wasn't. That was my favorite part!

For breakfast - Sausage Balls
I made a variation of the recipe on the Bisquick website. The recipe called for 1" balls, but I'm obviously a bit measurement challenged. They were so good though! (ps - There were twice as many earlier today!)

For lunch tomorrow: Grandma's Chicken Salad

My Grandma Tolle hooked me with her chicken salad. Of course, she doesn't have a true recipe. "It's just chicken, onion, celery, mayonnaise, and salt & pepper" is what she always said every time I asked how she made it, so I quit asking. Thanks to much practice and my food processor, I have it down and Todd LOVES it. He adds curry to his while I eat mine as is. I've thought of adding nuts or apples or grapes to it, but why mess with perfection? Cindy - if you read this, you can come over and have some. Only one sandwich though!

For dinner - Chicken Pot Pie

This is a variation of a pie a friend made for me once. It's so easy and so good. It's just two pie crusts, boiled & diced chicken, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup & Veg-All. When I asked Todd if Chicken Pot Pie sounded good for dinner, he responded, "Yes. My throat hasn't been feeling good this week and I think chicken would help." :) He wasn't sure as to why I was laughing. My mom's husband, Rick, swears it's the best he's ever had.

Next: Work on my food presentation skillz. I'm obviously not a professional chef or food photographer, but we don't starve around here!