Raspberry-Balsamic Chicken with Goat Cheese Crumbles

I had something very similar to this the other night when we went to Longhorn Steakhouse and I wanted to try it!  I made it tonight for supper and it was delicious!  I'm always looking for new ways to fix chicken!

Raspberry-Balsamic Chicken with Goat Cheese Crumbles

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided 
• 4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken breasts
• 1/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper 
• Goat cheese crumbles

Preparation

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion; sauté 5 minutes. Combine thyme and 1/4 teaspoon salt; sprinkle over chicken. Add chicken to skillet; sauté 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, preserves, vinegar, and pepper, stirring constantly until the preserves melt. Spoon raspberry sauce over chicken and top with goat cheese crumbles.

Navy bean and ham soup

I got this idea from my cousin Rebecca's blog.  It looked so good and I couldn't wait to try it!  I did a few things differently, though; I left out the carrots and I threw in the bacon.  :)  It was absolutely delicious!  Larry and I ate the whole pot.

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried navy beans
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 celery rib, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup diced cooked ham
• 6-8 bacon strips, cooked crispy and crumbled
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place beans in large Dutch oven and cover with cold water, with water about 2 inches above beans. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for five minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid.

Soup

1. In large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat.
2. Add onions and celery and saute for five minutes.
3. Add garlic and saute for thirty seconds.
4. Add chicken broth, bacon, beans, parsley, rosemary, bay leaves and diced ham.
5. Add a little freshly ground black pepper.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 1-1½ hours. You may need to add additional stock.
8. If you want to thicken the soup, remove about 2 cups of beans and puree in a blender then add back to the soup.
9. Taste and season accordingly with salt and pepper.

Sunday Supper - Pork Chop Casserole

I don't know if it's because I'm southern or if it's because I'm lazy but I love a casserole.  Just having the whole meal in one dish makes me so happy.  One of my favorite things to make is poppy seed chicken casserole.  And I make baked chicken thighs with red potatoes, olive oil and rosemary a lot, too.  I call that Rosemary Chicken and it's not really a casserole but it still all goes into a 9x13 glass dish so it's close enough for me!  So when I hear of a casserole I've never had or made, I have to try it.  The other night, one of the guys I work with had pork chop casserole leftovers for supper and I tried it and it was sooooo good.  He gave me the recipe and I made it today.  It was delicious!!

• 4 pork chops (I used boneless pork sirloin cutlets)
• 4 cups sliced potatoes
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
• grated American cheese

Brown pork chops. Place potatoes in greased 2-quart baking dish. Saute onions in pork chop drippings. Mix together soup, milk, onions and drippings, salt and pepper.  Pour over potatoes.  Place pork chops over potatoes; sprinkle with cheese.  Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for about 60 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  Serves 4.

I can see clearly now...

I called in sick today.  My tooth was pitching a fit for me to so I did.  I fully expected to have that root canal today, although this doesn't feel root canal worthy.  And I've had four root canals so I know what's worthy.  That extremely painful constant throbbing that will only stop when you throw cold water on it.  Yeah, that's worthy.  This is nothing like that.  This is a dull ache with an occasional sharp pain thrown in there just for giggles.

So I stayed home and called my dentist when her office opened and she called me in some meds to Target.  Yay!!  Another reason to go to Target!!!  :)  I'm waiting this thing out.  I don't want to have a root canal if the nerve will just calm the hell down and chill.  You know??

It already feels much, much better.  The 800mg Motrin took care of any inflammation in there and it's just a tiny bit cold sensitive now.  We might just make it!!  I've sure been praying over it.

I had an eye appointment this afternoon so I kept that and got me some new contacts.  A little stronger.  I'd gotten to where I couldn't see anything, especially those itty bitty numbers on those wires at work.  So we upped the RX a little and now I can SEEEEEEE.

And then I came home and cooked that eggplant and those 'maters and okry that I got yesterday from my mama and daddy.

Fried eggplant on pasta with marinara and grated parmesan cheese

This is just about my favorite thing at Olive Garden and mine tonight tasted pretty dang close!  It was delicious!!  Got some for lunch tomorrow, too.

Yummy stewed tomatoes and okra

I even halved and tossed some of those cherry tomatoes in there, too.  It turned out great!!

For a Monday, it wasn't even that bad. 

The finished products nom nom nom

Four pounds of oven-roasted Brussels sprouts steamed in chicken broth and then roasted for 30 minutes at 400 with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh crushed garlic. 

Chase's Silver King corn from the summer, cooked in my cast iron skillet with butter, sugar, salt and pepper. It ain't long for this world. That's all I'm gonna say.

I'm really happy with how my sweet potatoes turned out! I roasted them last night in the oven then scooped the potato out of the skins today, mashed 'em with milk, eggs, butter and brown sugar. The topping is flour, brown sugar and more butter.

I can't wait for tomorrow!!

What I'm loving Wednesday!

I'm loving that today actually feels like fall!!  It's a brisk (and windy) 55 degrees!  The high was 62 and that was this morning.  It's 'sposed to be 37 tomorrow night!  Woo hoooo!!  I might get to wear my boots this week!  Fall is my favorite season. I wish we could stay like this until April. I hate winter.  Ugh.

I'm loving the chicken and dumplin's that I made today!  We were talking about them at work today and how gooooood they'd be in this cool weather so when I got home, I made some.  I'd never made them with store-bought dumplings before, I usually just make them the way Mama does, the dumplin's I was raised on that look kinda like this:

Mama's looks better but this was as close as I could find online.  I don't think I've ever paused long enough to get a picture of her dumplings!  Ha!

This is how mine turned out today!  Pretty dang tasty, too.

I boiled a couple of chicken breasts, shredded them and added a can of cream of chicken soup, cooked the strips in the broth with some salt and pepper and mixed it all together.  Easy squeezy!

And I'm loving Words With Friends on Facebook!  It's just a simple Scrabble game but you can play real time with your friends or just whenever you have a minute.  LOVE.  If we're friends on Facebook, let's play!

Weekend Wonders

We're only two days into October and 

I'm already ready to do this to my porch.  

Ain't they gorgeous??

I had a pretty awesome weekend.  I woke up both days to temps in the 40's, got to wear my new yoga pants and my favorite fluffy sweater and SOCKS.  Yay!!!

Larry and I had one and a half ('cause I went to church this morning) fabulous days together and got the shock of our entire DOC-controlled lives yesterday.  The vendor who provides the food for the visitation room has apparently decided that he's made enough money and he has abandoned us.  We've noticed during the past few weeks that the candy bars looked the same and I mentioned to Larry that I thought they were going to make us buy what was in there before they put anything different in there and I don't think I was too far from the truth.  We heard today that the company has filed bankruptcy, which completely blows my mind 'cause how can somebody file for bankruptcy when they're making a fortune off inmate families??!  $3.50 for six chicken wings.  That's 58 cents a piece.  I mean, come on now.  This ain't Hooter's.  It's ridiculous how these people take advantage of us because they CAN.  There is no competition.  You pay it or you do without.

Okay, to the shock.  I got a little sidetracked there.  Ha!  That's funny 'cause that's the name of the vendor.  Sidetrack Vending.  Anyway, so the two Coke machines stopped working and after about an hour of us sittin' there 'bout to DIE of thirst, the guards bring out cups and ice and two huge coolers of red Kool-Aid and water!!  

Those of you who know nothing of prison life probably are thinking, "So?  What's the big deal?"  Those of you who live the prison life probably feel heart palpitations bubbling up in your chest just reading about it because you know that this was HUGE.

In my 23 years of walking this walk with Larry, I can tell you that this nor anything remotely like this has ever happened.  The DOC plays this game about how important family time is and how that connection with loved ones is so vital to the rehabilitation of the guys unfortunate enough to live there but that's just it.  It's a game.  It's for the newspapers, for the TV interviews, for the show. They make it so difficult to even get in there to see your loved ones, the lonnnnng lines out in all kinds of weather, the scrutinizing of every stitch of clothing you have on, the nasty attitudes simply because you are there bothering them, forcing them to get up and work.  They'd rather you not be there and they let you know it.

Can you tell they're not really my favorite people?  Ha!  But I pray for them.  I pray for them to find other jobs.  :)

But what happened yesterday chipped away some of my discontent with them.  It was such a small gesture and to the outside world, it was something you'd expect in a situation like that.  A show of humanity, compassion, kindness.  I saw Jesus all over it.  Yep.  If you look hard enough, you can see Him in everything.  Even in cups of red Kool-Aid.

This weekend was pretty awesome. I got to love on and laugh with my baby, I got me some Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin stuff at Bath and Body Works (thanks, Mama!  I used my birthday gift card!), I opened my windows and let that cool air in while I got my house super duper clean, I went and got recharged for the week at church this morning and I made one of my favorite comfort suppers tonight.  Rosemary chicken and roasted potatoes.  Yum!!

Pretty awesome indeed.

First weekend of fall

Well, it certainly doesn't feel much like fall this weekend but the calendar says it's official so I'm going with that.  The high today is 91 degrees.  I'm going to enjoy the last warm days of summer/early fall in Georgia because I hate, hate, hate being cold.  

Larry and I celebrate a milestone this weekend and we didn't even get to be together!  Everybody say, "Awwwwww!"  He's working this weekend.  He's the agape leader for Kairos and they're doing a walk at Central this weekend.  I am so proud of him and his commitment to Kairos and his role in telling others about Jesus that I don't whine much when a weekend like this comes up.  I just worry that it's too much, that he's not appreciated like he should be.  Heck, if they paid him $100,000 to do it, it wouldn't be enough for me.

Our milestone is 23 years since we met!  September 25, 1988.  A Sunday.  This is what we looked like back then!  I just barely remember being that young.  I think I look better NOW at 44 than I did at 21.  He looks the same.  Fine as muscadine wine in the summertime.  ;)

So I've been hangin' at home this weekend, resting my foot.  It feels a lot better today!  Wanna see?  Okay, well, maybe it doesn't LOOK any better but it does feel better.  I think that stuff I got reduced the swelling some.  Plus, I've had it propped up most of the weekend, too, and I'm sure that has helped. 

I worked a little while yesterday morning and then I went and saw the movie, Straw Dogs.  I loved it.  An hour into the movie, I was cheering for the bad guys because the two "victims" were just stupid.  The girl was a brazen hussy, plain and simple, and the guy, smart and sweet and peace-loving as he was, just got involved too much.  Yeah, I'll say it.  They pretty much asked for it.  The main bad guy was my Eric.  He can do no wrong in my eyes anyway.  :)  It's a great movie.  Had me on the edge of my seat the entire two hours and left me with my mouth hangin' open at the end.

I slept late this morning and then I got up and cooked!

 

Beef tips, rice and gravy

 Homemade mac and cheese

 Peach cobbler

 Here's some cobbler next to the peach ice cream 

that Daddy made for me earlier in the summer.  

Yummmmmm.

I guess it's not really goodbye, summer.  More like so long.  Farewell.  It'll be warm here until November and be hot again in March! 

I love Georgia. The Lord knew exactly where to put me.

Today I...

...finally got something at Aldi that I don't like.

Two skint-up toes

I went this morning to get a few things and when I opened the door to the refrigerated case to get a carton of eggs, the door opened on top of my foot.  Owwww!!  And I absolutely had on flip flops.  Y'all remember that if you go to the store in Warner Robins.  The door opens low and it has a sharp edge!

...cooked a pot of cabbage and ham and tried cooking brown rice in the crock pot.  Both turned out great!

I love brown rice but I don't like for it to be crunchy.

Three hours on high in the crock pot gets it just right!

...'bout decided to call Channel 13 on MGT.

When I started the electronics program at Middle Georgia Tech in April of last year, I was told that if I came to class, studied and maintained a 4.0 average, I was in the co-op program.  The golden job at Robins Air Force Base, where you work six months and go to school six months until you graduate.  We all were told that.  Guess what?  It wasn't true.  It was a hoAX, as my old buddy, Lewis Grizzard, used to say.  As soon as we were all eligible for the co-op (six months in, 4.0 average, blahblahblah) in December, my friend, Caitlin, and I (the only girls left in our class by then!) were accidentally left off the interview list so we didn't get our first shot until March.  The base interviewed 80 students and hired 11.  All guys.  Okay, so then we get our second shot, right?  We wait until after we finished up the linear electronics class in May and were told our interview would be in June.  Then it was pushed back until after the semester starts in September and TODAY, I get an email (well, I got it last week, I just didn't check my school email until today) telling us it's going to be the end of November.  I will finish and graduate in December.  I am almost done!!  And this illusive base job, that I'm not even sure that I ever wanted to begin with, is STILL a carrot danglin' in front of my face.

Why am I letting them do this to me??  I'm 'bout ready to call Lorra and let her come do a story and expose them for the fake they are.  They are still lying to students, still promising base jobs when there ARE NONE and are still enjoying record enrollment because they lyin'.  Still getting that HOPE Grant and Pell Grant money.  Still selling textbooks for $100 a piece.  It's infuriating.

I do not believe that things happen accidentally.  I believe that every rejection is God's protection so I'm not too very upset about this.  I see His Hand all in it.  He knows me, He knows my heart.  There are lots of places I can use my electronics education and do good.  Or not.  Maybe I won't ever use it.  But I know that I'll never think of the past sixteen months as a waste of my time.  I have learned so much about a field that previously, I knew absolutely nothing about and I've learned so much about myself, that I CAN do something besides finance.  And I CAN do trig!

Elijah and His Hoecake

Have you ever had a hoecake? Mama used to make them for us all the time when I was growing up and I haven't had one in years. Larry went to a revival service this week and the message was from 1 Kings about Elijah and the widow. She had just enough flour and oil to prepare one last meal for her and her son and after it was eaten, they were going to starve to death because they had no more food. Elijah asked her to prepare a small amount for him first and if she did, the Lord would supply all the flour and oil she'd need until the next rain. Larry was telling me about this and I said, "She made him a hoecake!" and to my surprise, Larry said that was exactly what the preacher that night had said. He'd called it a hoecake, too! Now, my baby's a Yankee, bless his heart, and he ain't never had a hoecake before. I've spent the better part of this week with my mouth watering just thinking about them. We even had a discussion on Facebook about them!

So by golly, I made me some today! Just three 'cause I'm really not supposed to eat cornmeal but I didn't think this little bit would hurt.

I used Paula Deen's recipe and they turned out great!!

1 cup cornmeal mix
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 cup hot water
A tbsp bacon grease (but I used canola oil)
Oil for frying

Mix everything together and pour into a hot skillet (I used my cast iron!) with just enough oil on the bottom for frying. Fry until crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. Yum yum!!

One More Thing That Makes Me Happy...

...year-round is Poppyseed Chicken! I love it. Cooking it, eating it, sharing it. A girl I used to work with just begged me to make it every time we had some kind of meal or party at work. It's always a hit. I haven't been making it since I've been doing South Beach because it requires Ritz crackers and crackers are a no-no on SB. BUT I found some All-Bran multi-grain crackers at Kroger when I was there today and they have 5g of fiber per serving! Awesome!! So I got 'em and tried them with my usual Poppyseed Chicken recipe and they worked great!! See??

I stopped by the farmer's market on my way home and picked up some things, too. They were just overrun with yellow squash and sweet onions and this is what I did with some of those tonight. Yum yum!! I added some bacon and cooked 'em in olive oil. Slap yo' grandma.

I've got about two weeks left in this first quarter of college. I finished up my online algebra class yesterday, praisesweetbabyjesus, and I'm getting out of there with a B+, I think. I'm not sure how to figure averages. They take 40% of this and 20% of that so I'm just not sure. It's a good B, though.

In other South Beach news, I've lost 45 pounds now. These past two pounds have been SO HARD to lose. It's taken me about two weeks. Larry told me that I'm digging into pounds that have been with me since high school now and they're not too happy to be leaving me. That makes perfect sense.

Oh, but they sho'nuff are leaving me. It's been 25 years since high school. I am so over them.

I Swear I Am Not Going To Turn This Into A Cooking Blog!

I tried steaming salmon tonight for the first time and it turned out sooooo good!!  I just put a little water in my vegetable steamer pot, put the salmon steak down in the basket, sprinkled it with a little Old Bay, some salt and pepper and just let it do its thing.  It was so pink and juicy when it was done.  Yum!!  I cooked a little whole wheat pasta to go along with it.  

Wanna see a picture? Here ya go!   

 

This South Beach thing is really easier than I thought it would be.  The easiest "diet" I've ever tried and I have tried them all.  I've been following it, not very strictly at all, for a little over seven weeks and I've lost 22 pounds. I'm up to 45 minutes on the treadmill at a 2 or 3 degree incline (depending on how tired I am when I start!) and I usually stay around 2.5 mph.  What I'm doing seems to be working!

Fried Green Tomatoes In December!

One more reason to love living in the south!

I made these for supper tonight. Daddy got them for me for Thanksgiving but in the craziness that is Thanksgiving, they were forgotten. Now that all the leftovers are eaten or composted, I thought I'd cook my 'maters tonight.

The first time I ever had them was many years ago with Mama at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Juliette. We both LOVE the movie and just had to go to Juliette and be a part of where it was filmed. We had lunch, tomatoes and barbecue sandwiches ("Secret's in the sauce!"), and I was hooked for life!

Lazy Sunday

I'm chillin' (literally! It's cold!!) at home today. I needed the rest. I am not used to working this many months without a vacation! When I worked for Citi, I had been there so dang long that I had four weeks of vacation and five personal days every year. I haven't had a week off since February! I took three days off in May when me and Mama went to the beach but that's it. I'm tired!

Larry had a party planned for a buddy of his today so I stayed home and slept late. I slept 'til 11:00! I had to turn my heat on last night and add another quilt to the bed. This little cool snap has been sooooo nice!! I slept extremely late but I haven't been a total slug with the rest of the day. The leaves are really starting to fall in my backyard and I LOVE it!! When I first moved here almost seven years ago, I let them stress me out so much until I just couldn't stand to look at them. I would just keep my patio blind closed all the time. But now, now they are so beautiful to me. I just embraced them about four years ago and we're getting along SO much better now. I do rake 'em and use the leaf blower from time to time to keep them under control but I don't put near the effort into them that I did the first few falls I lived here. I like looking at them now. They're just doing what the Good Lord told them to do. Can't do anything but love that, right?

So I tidied up a little in the backyard, fed my birds and squirrels and cleaned the bird bath. It had gotten a little funky from all that rain we've had. I found a few walnuts that the squirrels hadn't and used them in some curry chicken salad for lunch. Yum!!

I watched a little of my girl, Paula Deen, and got so inspired that I spent two hours in the kitchen cooking! I made creamy chicken and rice, green beans and red potatoes, a big pot of gumbo and a pot of some of those fresh peas I got back in the summer. I steamed some brussels sprouts and fried some creamed corn. I am set for the week now!

This is what I did to my front porch. I love how the sun was shining so bright when I took the picture!