I love the smell of mirepoix in the evening!

What is mirepoix you ask? I didn't know the official name until a few years ago when I got my first Emeril cookbook. Mirepoix is the French term for sauteed celery,onion and carrots. There is also the Holy Trinity which is celery, onion and green peppers,but that is more of the Creole persuasion.

Tonight I'm making Ro-tel King Ranch Chicken for dinner. It's been a while since I made it, but tonight I was just in the mood. I have taken a page from my friend Jackie Marks (http://heartsonmyfoot.blogspot.com/) ,and I'm blogging about dinners and adding pictures. (No pictures in this blog though as I'm not on the ball. I might add later)



I got this idea from a friend while we were stationed in Ankara,Turkey. It's so easy, it'snot even funny.



You will need:

2 C cubed or shredded chicken (I've used both canned and freshly boiled/shredded chicken)

2 Cans Cream Of........(your favorite condensed )Soup ( I use whatever I have on hand or what I'm in the mood for)

1 Can Ro-Tel Tomatoes ( I like Cilantro and Lime)

12 Corn Tortillas( not the hard kind),torn into bit sized pieces.

1/2 Med Onion ( chopped)

2 Carrots( peeled and chopped)

3 Stalks Celery ( halved,chopped)

2 C Shredded Cheese



Pre-heat oven to 350



Sautee mirepoix in butter ( or EVOO if you prefer) for 5 or so minutes. Add tomatoes,both soups and chicken. Cook until simmering. Lay corn tortillas on bottom of 9x13 dish. Cover cover with 1/3rd of chicken mix. Top with 1/3 cheese. Repeat, repeat. Top with final tortillas and cheese. Bake for 40 minutes. Serve with sour cream and cilantro.

Oh that dreaded house cleaning!

I've never found anyone that really enjoys the act of house cleaning itsself, but everyone likes a clean home,right? There are some chores I prefer over others. Running the vacuum doesn't bother me, neither does dusting,making the beds or loading the dishwasher. Most days I don't mind the laundry either. It helps the my laundry room is on the main living level of my house. It's when I get behind in the laundry that I detest it. And don't get me started on unloading the dishwasher.



Sadly, house cleaning isn't a "once and done" job, especially if you have kids.

I'll be the first one to say that I'll never be accused of having the perfect home. I have three kids, a husband and a dog. Ripley leaves fur everywhere, the boys leave school items, shoes and sports equipment all over, and the youngest, well, she's three and has the attention span of a wet noodle. I don't live in one of those horrible places you'd see on Hoarders or Clean House, but it's not a museum either. It's a home though, and it's comfortable.

There are few things I'm uber anal about,and cleaning products are one of those things. I HATE wipes! IMO, cleaning wipes don't work for beans. I have red hair,and it falls out on a regular basis. In that respect,I'm like the dog. Ha, ha! Have you ever tried to clean toothpaste, soap and hair from a sink with a wipe? Yeah, they're not made for families. My commercial cleaning product of choice is Greased Lightning. For places where vinegar and water won't cut it, this is the stuff!! I use pledge on my wood, and Febreeze on my fabrics.

I have two books that I refer to regularly. One is Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson. It's not my favorite as she comes across a someone that doesn't like pets or children,but the tips and ideas for cleaning are good. It's also helped me be more organized in my housekeeping. She suggests that you pick certain days for certain things ( IE: Sheets on Monday, carpets on Tuesday,and so on), and that has made me feel like I'm making the most of my days.

Book two is The Cleaning Bible: Kim and Aggie's' Guide to Modern Household Management by Kim Woodburn and Aggie Mackenzie. You might remember Kim and Aggie as the two flamboyant ladies from the UK in the show How Clean Is Your House? This book is the same idea as Home Comforts, but it has two points of view and is much less formal. If I had to choose, this is my favorite.

Let me leave you with a couple of quick tips:

1) Got an ink stain on your carpet? Soak a paper towel with rubbing alcohol ( the higher the percent, the better. And no, that bottle of Chardonnay is not going to work),and dab on the stain. Once the ink stop transferring to the paper towel, get a new one, again wet with rubbing alcohol, and leave on the stain until the ink comes up.

2) Garbage disposal smelling funny? Pour baking soda down the drain,then add in white vinegar. Not only will it get rid of smells and disinfect, but it's great fun to watch! After that, if you want something fresh smelling, grind a lemon, lime or orange rind in there.

So, that's it for now. Enjoy your day,and happy house keeping.:)

~A

Monday Dinner

Prime example of me not feeling the need to follow my own menu. Tonight we were supposed to have jambalaya, but I don't have any sausage in yet, so we're having Mexi Mac and Cheese. I love this because not only do we get dinner, but I get a couple of lunches during the week. Unlike the rest of my family, I have no issues with eating leftovers.

Here's how I make use of my menu and the specials at Publix. With it being SuperBowl weekend, the store had Ro-Tel tomatoes and Velveeta cheese as a BOGO (Buy One, Get One free). Anyone who has made Velveeta cheese dip will realize that these two go great together. Add some cooked bulk sausage, and you've got yum in a bowl!! But I digress, anyway, I have some elbow noodles in from a couple of weeks ago when Ronzoni Pasta was a bogo. Since the Velveeta was a good deal, I decided to use one package for dinner and one for cheese dip. I had to get chips for the dip, right? I'm not a brand snob for most things, so I got a couple of bags of Santitas Chips for $2 each. I still have a bag left over, so I've openend myself up to more options for dinner. I can make mac and cheese, or I can make beef nachos. There are certain times of the month when a woman needs something like nachos. LOL

For my friends that enjoy cooking, may I suggest Jamie Olivers' "Jamies Food Revoloution"? It's a fantastic book chock full of simple, easy recipes.

Monday, Monday!

Yesterday was SuperBowl Sunday. Good job to the Green Bay Packers for exceeding my expectations and beating the Steelers. I'm not a fan of the Pack,but if I had to choose, I'll take the NFC over the AFC any day.

So, what is the purpose of my blog you ask? I suppose it's like most other personal blogs: A combination of my personal thoughts on things, recipes, everyday happenings and maybe the odd tip about saving money. But really, this is me we're talking about, so who knows. ;) I guess we'll start with a smattering of everything and weed out what's not interesteng.

I have two tips for you today.

1) If you have a dog with a lot of fur, invest in a grooming tool that you can attach to your vacuum!! Really, I did this this weekend, and it is the best thing I've ever done. For those of you that don't know Ripley, she's a 6 1/2yo Lab that is in remission from Lymphosarcoma. She's still taking Prednisone everyother day, so she eats like food is going out of style. She also sheds. Now labs will do that, but I think Ripley is taking this to a whole new level! She's afraid of the vacuum, so I enlisted Nick's help in holding her while I did the dirty work. It went much better than I would have thought,and I think Ripley actually liked it. She got a brushing and a little bit of a massage to boot. I on the other hand removed what I think was a small poodle from her. And there's still much more hair left to go, but at least it'll help a bit with keeping the fur level down.

2) Not much of a tip, but a word of advice. I have a family of 5,plus a dog. Two of the five are teenage boys. Anyone out there who has a teenager will understand my problem when I say I can't keep food in the house for more than five minutes. These boys are like a swarm of locusts. I have set a food budget for myself, and it's difficult to keep within these limitations. I'm not much of a coupon clipper,but what I do do is go through the localgrocery store flyers every week for the best deals. This week at my local Publix I spent $164 for two weeks ( that doesn't include meat which I buy in bulk at Sam's Club and freeze), and saved $90.90. I also got a $10gift card because I had a coupon for it if I spent over $50. My shopping tactic is a combination of menu planning, and working with the specials and BOGO's. Now, just because I have spaghetti on Monday and chicken on Tuesday, it doesn't mean I stick with that. I write everything out soI have all the ingredients in, and then if I want to change things around and do pork on Monday and spaghetti on Tuesday, I can. I also shop for two weeks at a time and I have no problem going to different stores. I also ask hubby to pick things up for me while he's on base if I can get a better price there. He's in the area, so I might as well make use of it.

Well, that's it for the moment. I read something a while ago that siad a blog post should be short as to keep the readers interest. It didn't say anything about not making multiple posts a day,soI might do that later.

Please leave me a message to let me know what you think or if there's something you'd like to see.:)

Later!!!