A blogging slump and a yummy salad.

I've been missing all of you out in bloggy land.  But every time I sit down to blog, it seems I have nothing to say.  Ever hit a blogging slump?  I haven't even had my camera out in probably a couple of weeks, can you believe it?  I did pull it out on Friday night to record the yumminess that is couscous-turkey salad - a recipe I tried from my new Good Housekeeping Light & Healthy Cookbook.  I have to confess, as I was making the salad I was thinking it would be mediocre at best.  But y'all.  This was DELICIOUS.  To keep things in perspective, Kloe wants to have it every day, and Jacob wants to never have it again. So somewhere in the middle is probably the actuality of its yumminess.  :)

I wanted to share the recipe and a beautiful, magazine-worthy picture with you, but alas, due to a half-baked photography class I took that made me (mistakenly) think I know how to use the manual controls on my camera, these are the numerous, decidedly un-magazine-worthy pics I ended up with:

So, yeah, I obviously need another photography class.

The salad, however - although really more of a summer salad - was the bomb.  And for me that's saying a lot, because I don't do fruit with my meat.  Canadian bacon and pineapple?  No.  Mango salsa on fish?  Just not natural.  But hey, give me some dried cherries with some turkey and couscous and you've got a winner!

So, if you're tired of all your same-o recipes and looking for something new and fun, give this one a try.

Couscous and Smoked Turkey Salad
1 tsp ground cumin *
1 10oz package plain or original flavor couscous
1/3 cup dried tart cherries
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice *
2 tbsp olive oil *
1 tbsp dijon mustard *
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 ripe nectarines, finely chopped (may substitute plums, peaches, or apricots)
4 oz smoked turkey breast, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
Boston lettuce leaves

1. In a 3-quart saucepan, heat cumin over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 1-3 minutes.  In saucepan with cumin, prepare couscous as label directs, omitting salt and butter.

2. Meanwhile, prepare dressing.  In a large bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, mustard, salt and pepper until well blended.

3.  Add warm couscous, nectarines, and turkey to dressing in bowl.  Mix well.  Spoon salad onto large platter lined with Boston lettuce leaves.  Makes about 7 1/2 cups, or 6 main-dish servings.

Valerie's variations:
1. Increased all the ingredients marked with a * by 50%.
2. Didn't have enough lemon juice, so substituted a half-tablespoon of lime juice.
3. Used peaches instead of nectarines.
4. I have no idea what Boston lettuce is.  I used romaine, and instead of serving the salad on top of lettuce leaves, I tore the lettuce and mixed it with the couscous (not pictured).  Kloe says it yucky without the lettuce. :)

Hope you enjoy!  Let me know if you try it - or if you have any ideas to drag me out of this blogging slump!

Super.

.
Traitor.


The vest he's wearing belonged to The Mister when he was about Jacob's age. Earlier today he told Jacob, "I've been a Pittsburg Steelers fan since I was in elementary school." Jacob said, "Me too!" Too bad for him his team lost. He has been a fan since elementary school, you know. I told him he shoulda gone for Green Bay.

On a different note, ohhh, how we love Texas Caviar around our house. Have you tried it? A yummy, easy, and healthy snack for your Super Bowling pleasure:

Texas Caviar
2 medium tomatoes, diced
4 green onions, diced
1 can black-eyed peas (with juice)
1 cup frozen corn
1-4 oz can diced green chili
1/2 C. diced purple onion
1/4 - 1/3 C. diced cilantro
1-16 oz. jar Pace picante
2 cloves garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Allow to sit overnight in fridge. Drain liquid, serve with crispy crackers or tortilla chips (obviously, only the caviar is the healthy part - ha). So good!

And for your not-so-healthy-but-equally-delicious Super Bowling dessert:

Rolo Cookies
1 boxed devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
approx. 3 rolls Rolo candy

Mix first 3 ingredients until stiff dough forms. Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls. Press one Rolo into the middle of each ball and roll to close dough around the candy. Place 2" apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350* for 9-10 minutes. Eat 'em while they're warm! Mmmm. Yummy, gooey goodness.



What was your favorite treat of the day?

Of friends and cake.

Sunday afternoon we received a last-minute invitation to have dinner at a friend's house. I love that! Last minute invitations are the best - truly. Something about it just speaks of true friendship to me. Sort of like my friend who says she feels loved when people just drop by unannounced. Now....if you're my true friend, please don't do that, but do invite me to dinner at the last minute. :)

The only problem with inviting me at the last minute is...um...well...what will I bring? I tend to live life more like Old Mother Hubbard (whose cupboard was bare) than a Boy Scout (who's always prepared), mostly just because I try to avoid going to the grocery store as long as humanly possible, until we have nothing left in the house to eat other than saltines and ketchup. And we all know I'm not gonna breeze into the kitchen and whip up something wonderful from scratch. Oh, how I was hoping for the salad assignment!

Fortunately for me the invitation was to "bring whatever you want", and I just happened to have the ingredients for the cake I had meant to take to Friday's PTA party, but hadn't had time to make. Unfortunately for me, I was making the cake from memory (note to self: what were you thinking? you know better than to try try to cook without a recipe.) and didn't even think about the part of the instructions that say to "cool completely" before applying the whipped topping.

Unfortunately for me, when we removed the cover from the cake the cool whip and the heath bar bits had completely melted, and looked like a big nasty mess. Fortunately for me, melted, gooey, nasty-looking chocolate heath cake still tastes delicious!

And so, in the spirit of Christmas, I would love to share - from memory - my gooey, chocolate, heath bar, cooling-optional cake recipe with you.



1 boxed chocolate cake mix
1 regular size can sweetened condensed milk (Not evaporated milk. That distinction is probably easy for you, but I always have to stop and think twice about it.)
1 - 8 oz tub Cool Whip
1 bag Heath bar bits or almond toffee bits

Bake cake according to package directions. While it's still warm, poke it full of holes using the handle of a wooden spoon. Lots and lots and LOTS of holes. Fill the holes with sweetened condensed milk. You should have as much milk as possible in the holes, and little left to pour on top. Then let the cake COOL COMPLETELY (or not) before covering with Cool Whip. {There is a version of this recipe that adds a layer of chocolate syrup on top of the condensed milk. I've never tried that, and really can't imagine adding it. This cake is reeallly sweet as it is.} Sprinkle the top with heath bar or toffee bits. Yum.

mmmm.....delicious!

Do you guys know about e-mealz(dot)com? There's a link in my sidebar. They have wonderful recipes. Last week we tried this great chicken-corn chili, and it was delicious! Easy and yummy - the perfect combination for me! Plus, you cook it in the crockpot, which I love. It was perfect for a crisp fall evening.

If you try it, let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Chicken-Corn Chili

4 boneless chicken breasts (did you know you can put frozen chicken in the crockpot? I used frozed chicken breasts for this recipe...just put them in the crock frozen....and cooked it on LOW all day....about 9-ish hours)
one 16 oz jar salsa
1-2 tsp garlic powder (to your taste)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
two 11 oz cans Mexi-style corn (or I used southwest style corn, with black beans in it) - undrained
one 15 oz can pinto beans - undrained

Place all ingredients except corn and pinto beans in a crock pot and cook all day. About 20 minutes before ready to serve, shred chicken with a fork (right in the crock) and add the corn and pinto beans. (Mine came out a little bit thick, so you may need to add just a little chicken broth. I would wait until after you shred the chicken and add the canned ingredients, then see how thick it is.) Stir well and heat until corn and beans are heated through. Serve with cornbread.

YUMMY!