Oh, Mexico....Baby's Hungry and the Money's All Gone

We've been eating very healthily around here for the past week and Dad and I have been trying to get our 10,000 steps in a day (he's been doing better than I have, sometimes getting as much as 16,000 a day, but I am at least doing 30 minutes of working out each day) and since I do the cooking around here, I also do the menu planning. One night I made fish tacos, another night I made lettuce wraps, and one night I did Mexican chicken and rice, which I had never made before and that turned out amazingly! Since I thought it turned out so well I wanted to share what I threw in to the pot with you in case you want something delicious, healthy and super cheap some night. (Skip to the bottom of the post if you could care less about the recipe because there is more news from me down there.)

Mexican Chicken and Rice

You will need:

4 Chicken Breasts

White Rice, I used what we had which was basmati...probably about 2 cups (I just dumped part of the bag in to the pot)

1.5 tablespoons of minced garlic

2 Large Chicken Stock Cubes...I used the Knorr brand which are bigger than stock cubes I've seen in Aus, so might need 3 if you don't have access to Knorr

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil (this is approximate, I just dumped some in to the pan that I thought was right for the amount of garlic and onion I had)

3/4 of a brown or yellow onion

1/2 red bell pepper

A couple of shakes from No salt Mrs. Dash or whatever multipurpose seasoning you use for cooking

A couple of dashes of cracked black pepper

A 28 oz (794 g) can of tomatoes

Water, about half of the empty tomato can's worth

1/2 Can of Diced Green Chiles (I used Ortega Fire Roasted Chiles, these are mild), you could probably use fresh green chiles, just a lot less

Instructions:

1. Dice up your onion and red bell pepper fairly small.

2. Pour olive oil in to a large pot and start heating it up. Add garlic and onion and saute for about 2 minutes, you just want to sweat the onions, not get them brown.

3. Add the red bell pepper to the pot and saute them for a minute, before adding the green chiles and sauteing them for another minute.

4. Add the can of tomatoes, water, the stock cubes, and the spices and let cook to boiling for 5 minutes. Make sure you keep stirring the sauce so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

5. Add the chicken breasts whole to the sauce and turn down to simmer. Cook for approximately an hour and then try to shred the chicken breast with two forks in the pot. Let the sauce and chicken cook for another 30 minutes and then shred it further if you couldn't get the chicken to shred in to small pieces before.

6. At this point, you should have a lot of sauce in the pot still. Mine looked pretty watery. I was going to originally serve this as a stew over rice, but when I noticed how runny the sauce looked, I decided to pour the rice directly in to the pot and let it simmer for another 20 minutes.

7. After 20 minutes all the liquid should be absorbed and you should have a delicious pot of Mexican Chicken and Rice.

I was surprised how good this turned out. My Mom ate it for lunch and dinner the next day in San Francisco and called me raving about how good it was. I'm already craving it again so it's a good thing that I have all the ingredients in the cupboard still because we will be having this for dinner again this week at some point!

Still no ETA for when I'll be back in Australia, but Boyfriend and I have both been working on my visa stuff this week. Hopefully his stuff will arrive by Thursday next week and then I can send off all the paperwork to the Washington office on Friday and then fingers crossed that I have a quick turn around time for my visa being granted and can be back in Australia by April.

Tonight Boyfriend is headed down to Sydney with Bob Marley, the Miner, Croc, the Teacher, Tinkerbell, and the Farmer to see ACDC. I'm bummed that I am missing out because I think it would've been a really fun night with everyone, but I'm glad that my ticket could go to Bob Marley in my place.

Also, GREAT news: Boyfriend went in for an interview this week and he got the job!!! Woohoo! He is really excited about it and the company seems pretty cool: they are an engineering company who focus on building sustainably. I'm so happy for him and can't wait to hear all about his first days there.

There's a Baby, Yes, There's a Baby About to be Born

This picture really has nothing to do with this post (Boyfriend took it on our trip to Yosemite the first year he was here) but it's a great shot and looks wintery and it's Christmas, damnit, so it kind of works, right?

Unless we've missed the text with the birth announcement, Soccer Player and the Hairdresser are still awaiting the birth of their baby. I'm hoping now that the Hairdresser has gone over her due date, she won't have to go camping with the newborn on Boxing Day (or as soon as it's born if it's after that day), as was previously planned. All of our friends who have had babies so far have tried to tell her that camping with a brand new baby is not where you want to be when you've just gotten out of the hospital and are trying to figure out how to be a mom still, but the Hairdresser is a trooper and up til now has said she is going. I can't wait to hear what they've had and what they've named it and I can't wait to buy it a "Welcome to the World" outfit here to bring back with me. I wonder if she's in labor, as I write this, and is having a Christmas baby? That'd be pretty neat, but probably not the most fun Christmas the Hairdresser would ever have! Anyway, I'm sending my love and my prayers down to you guys. I hope that it is a quick and painless delivery and recovery and Boyfriend and I can't wait to meet the new little guy or girl when we are back.

In other news, Mom and Dad both got sick last week and are still getting knocked around by it. We're pretty sure that Mom has come down with the Swine, while Dad's cold or flu seems to be different. They had a not so successful, but very stressful, trip down to Orange County last weekend to see my grandparents. If you read the last post (Runaway Train) about the situation, the update is nothing has changed and it has actually gotten a lot worse. Not only is my Grandpa on a quick downhill slope, to the point where my Mom thinks we'll be having a funeral before I go back in February, but now my Grandma is falling apart, too. She's gotten in two accidents in two different cars, side swiping a total of 5 cars, in two consecutive Wednesday nights! My Mom is understandably upset by what is going on, but on both trips she's taken to see them my grandparents have ignored the help she's offered so there's not much for her to do. The light at the end of the tunnel is that my Mom has found an assisted living place in Stockton that has apartments on site that allow the tennants to keep a small animal. My Grandma's brothers all live in Stockton and we've been saying for a few years now that she and my Grandpa should move of up there so they have more people to hang out with so once he passes away we think Grandma should take her dog and move to this facility. It's a good option because she is still capable of living mostly on her own for now and she can still keep her dog, but if and when she declines, she can then move in to the main part of the facility that offers more round-the-clock care. I think she really misses her brothers and this way she can see them more often, too.

Happy Holidays, right?

Other than that, our little 5some of me, Boyfriend, Mom, Dad, and Nae are looking forward to spending Christmas together. I've had all my Christmas shopping done for a few days now and only have a few things left to wrap. Boyfriend is stressed because lots of his online ordered presents haven't arrived yet. Nae is at work now (Trader Joe's) and has a taco eating contest with her coworkers and then she's coming over to make Christmas cookies and spend the night. Boyfriend and I said way back in October that we'd like to try and make gnocchi for Christmas Eve dinner so we'll get that under way this afternoon and hopefully take some good pictures for you guys and I'll post up the recipes. Nae's in charge of the food tomorrow and she's making some kind of roast beast, yorkshire pudding, homemade ice cream, and other stuff so I probably won't fit in to any of my new Christmas clothes after the 24 hours of eating I'm about to undertake! The weather here is bright and sunny and the air is crisp so I think we'll probably get up and do presents tomorrow morning and then go for a family walk and then just hang out for the rest of the day. I like having a mellow Christmas like that.

What about you? Is all your shopping and wrapping done? Are you having a mellow or a stressful Christmas Eve/Day?

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Hope you get everything you've asked for and more!

Let Me Entertain You

The girls at work were laughing today about how I handle calling in to the FedEx call center. I started my day fairly jovial, but challenged the call center people when I needed to (i.e. "My sister works at Trader Joe's so I know they aren't closed at 4pm on a Wednesday night so why didn't my package get delivered?") and progressed to being a little less jovial through out the day (i.e. "That's Bash St. as in I'll bash your head in" which I swear I said in a laughing way and a "Why did you put me on hold to enter information about my file when you haven't even asked me what I'm calling about and therefore have nothing to enter?" which was said in a not so joking manner). Everyone was giving me the side eye like I was crazy or laughing as they listened in to my calls and were also impressed that I found out that I was talking to people in call centers in El Salvador, Chihuahua Mexico, and Chicago, as they said they had never talked to anyone from FedEx outside the States before. At least I'm making their day and mine more entertaining. If I have to sit for a few hours a day on the phone with FedEx I may as well amuse myself while I do it!

On an unrelated note: I really feel like I'm living in the country here. On my drive home tonight I heard this on the traffic report- "Watch for a deer darting in and out of traffic near the Porter Street exit"!!

On another unrelated note, but to catch you all up with what's been going on over the past few days- Boyfriend arrived safe and sound yesterday and is still pretty exhausted from his big journey. He and Dad "treasure hunted" today and came back with about 2 dollars worth of coins and they also went to Costco so he had a true typical day around here.

It was great to finally have him here and to just be hanging out again. Me, Mom, and Dad took him out to dinner at a Mexican food place around here and Boyfriend was already practicing his Spanish that was provided on a placemat. When we got home, Nae was waiting to welcome him back, too, so I think he had a really nice first night back with all of us.

This weekend we are going up the mountain to cut down our Christmas tree and go to the boat parade at Santa Cruz Harbor...it should all be really fun and festive!

The Way You Squeeze My Lemon...

Happy Black Friday to everyone! Hope you went out and bought lots of stuff you didn't really need/want, but got it anyway because the deal was too good to pass up :) Or maybe, instead, you stayed home/in bed all day still in a food coma? I had trouble sleeping last night, probably because I was too full and was really tired when it was time to get up for work this morning.Nae's food was amazing, as expected. The big highlight for me was this spinach salad with apples and candied pecans with a citrus vingarette that Nae whipped up both last night and tonight. I could eat that salad all day, everyday. I've got a dark picture of it, but it really doesn't do it justice.

I think she got her recipe inspiration from something she saw on the Food Network website and then tweaked it by adding some fresh squeezed orange juice in to the dressing, as well as some lemon zest and rather than doing the walnuts, she did the candied pecans instead.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 5 ounces baby spinach leaves (about 5 cups lightly packed)
• 1 Granny Smith apple
• 1 tablespoon of orange juice
• Pinch of orange zest
• Candied pecans

In a small bowl whisk together the oil, vinegar, mustard, orange juice and zest. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss the spinach with the dressing until evenly coated then divide the spinach among 4 serving plates. Core the apple and slice it into matchsticks. Sprinkle a quarter of the apple pieces on top of each salad. Follow with the pecan pieces. Serve immediately.

She also made up a double batch of lemon bars and I had a peak at the website she was consulting while making it and it was from another Food Network friend, Emeril! These are always a big hit, but seem pretty time consuming as you have to squeeze and zest lots of lemons (my job yesterday) and bake the bottom layer before you then rebake it with the lemon layer added. Here is the recipe and a picture from the site, as well as a picture of our slice (can you spot the difference in picture quality? haha)

I thought this lemon looked kindof neat after it had been zested.

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks), plus 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for garnish
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoon salt plus a pinch
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice, strained
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons limoncello, or other lemon-flavored liqueur, optional

Directions

Lightly butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with 2 teaspoons of the butter and line with 1 sheet of parchment or waxed paper. Butter the top of this sheet of paper with 1 teaspoon of the remaining butter and then lay a second sheet of parchment or waxed paper crosswise over the first sheet. The parchment should be cut large enough so that the sides are even with the top of the baking dish; this extra paper will function as handles to help you remove the lemon squares from the pan later. Set pan aside.

In a large bowl combine 1 3/4 cups of the flour, 2/3 cup of the confectioners' sugar, the cornstarch, and 3/4 teaspoon of the salt and mix thoroughly. Cut the remaining 12 tablespoons of butter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture. Using your hands, 2 forks, or a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer the butter-flour mixture to the prepared baking dish and press into an even 1/4-inch layer along the bottom and partly up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While the crust is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the crust until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

While the crust is baking, assemble the filling by combining the eggs, granulated sugar, flour, and lemon zest in a medium bowl and whisking until smooth. Stir in lemon juice, milk, limoncello, and remaining pinch of salt and mix well.

When the crust is golden brown, remove it from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Stir the lemon mixture again, then pour onto the warm crust. Bake until the filling is set, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Grasp the waxed paper that lines the 2 longest sides of the baking dish and remove thebars from the pan by pulling up gently. The entire dessert should easily dislodge and come away from the pan.

Transfer to a cutting board and, using a clean knife, cut into squares, wiping knife after each cut. Place a small amount of confectioners' sugar into a small sieve, and sprinkle the bars with the sugar. Serve immediately, or refrigerate, wrapped with plastic wrap, up to 2 days, until ready to serve.

And just in case you aren't sick to death of turkey and all Thanksgiving related goodness, here are pictures of our dinner last night:

Sorry about the glare, I didn't even notice it until uploading it earlier and it's the only picture of a full plate I got.

Yesterday Stretched on For so Long, Tomorrow Feels Like Forever

Busy times around here.

Friday afternoon I got a call from our property management company that basically let me know that our status for staying in our house was back up in the air, which is not what I wanted to hear less than a week before I was leaving, and after being told earlier in the week that it was pretty much a done deal that we'd get to stay so not to worry about packing or cleaning up! Friday night we went down to see Turk and Stylez. I made fish tacos for them at their place and some really good peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I hoped they thought the fish tacos were ok, they had never tried them before and they had never had the soft corn tortillas before either. All night long their house kept filling up with pot smoke because their neighbors were burning it off by the kilo it seemed like for some reason. They had a fire going on in the backyard and smoke was billowing high up in to the sky and it was definitely pot that they were burning but I have no idea why they would be throwing it on the fire like that. Anyway, it was a fun and mellow night and I always have a really great time with T&S because they are great people. They are funny, have similar tastes to us, and are really genuine, warm and caring people. Stylez gave me a mission to bring her back the most chocolatey+peanut buttery thing I can find from the U.S. I already have at least one thing in mind for her.

Saturday morning we went out to this cool cafe for breakfast and then headed back to the Coast. We quickly ran in to look at storage units in case we need one later in the week and then I went in to see the Hairdresser and she made me look beautiful. I said to Boyfriend, "I feel so much prettier when I come back from the Hairdresser's" and he said, "Yeah, you do look prettier!" Haha, he really put his foot in his mouth on that one, though, I know what he was trying to say and it was sweet. Tinkerbell came in to get her hair did (yes did and not done) while I was there and I was glad to see her one last time before I went home. We were all going out to dinner later that night, but Tinkerbell, the Farmer, and Junior were going to have a night at home as they had had a big night before and Junior didn't let them get much sleep when they did get in. At about 6, we all (LC, Bob Marley, baby Lo, the Runner, the Smooth Talker, Croc, the Teacher, the Soccer Player, the Hairdresser, me and Boyfriend) met up for dinner at a local Chinese food place. LC and I have been wanting to try it for ages and though, the food was good, the service was pretty dismal so I don't think we'll be going back there anytime soon. I got a hug from all our friends, except for Bob Marley who forgot I was leaving this week, as we were going home and it hit me that I wouldn't see them again for four months. I got a bit teary eyed in the car because I knew I'd miss hanging out with all of them while I was away, plus I was bummed that I wouldn't be there to see the Soccer Player and the Hairdresser's baby just after he/she was born and to obviously see them in their role as brand new parents.

Yesterday, I spent the day packing my bags and then we drove up to Newcastle to see the Redhead and his girlfriend. You may remember me mentioning the Redhead ages ago on here and asking for any interested ladies to contact me. No one ever did, but in about May I think, he met someone and they are going great. They are even taking a trip to Fiji in February together...I wonder if it's an engagement trip already??

Today was spent frantically trying to clean the house a bit and tick off things on the move out list that the property management company had sent over. I got the windows done, blinds dusted (which was a huge job as they were caked in red dirt from the dust storms), and oven and stove top cleaned up. I also baked a pasta dish, made chicken stir fry, and two batches of "Nicole Richie Chicken" to put in the freezer for Boyfriend while I am away (he's spoiled and not much of a cook). Then tonight we headed over to Boyfriend's Pa's house to have dinner with him, as well as Boyfriend's parents and brother, Bob the Builder.

The past four days have been crazy busy, but I'm glad that I've squeezed in seeing everyone. As I leave each group of friends or family, I reflect on how lucky I am to have each person in my life and about how I'm going to miss them like crazy for awhile. It is so great to have a mix of Boyfriend's family and our friends to make up a feeling of family for me while I'm here.

And while I will miss everyone a whole lot, I am also super stoked to see my Mom and Dad, Nae, and any and all the friends who have promised to pay me a visit!

I'll try and post again on Thursday morning (Wednesday afternoon U.S. time) before I head off for the airport. It will probably be a dramatic post, telling everyone I love them and dividing up all my worldly possessions between Boyfriend and my family. I hate flying! In the meantime, I'm going to keep cleaning the house and hope that the real estate person calls back with news tomorrow that we can stay in our place and I'm going to try and find some kind of herbal (no, not the kind of herbal I mentioned earlier) remedy to help calm my nerves about flying.

Ikea: Selling Furniture for College Kids and Divorced Men

Yesterday was a really fun day. I had the best gnocchi for lunch and the restaurant we ate at was nice because they had an outside patio area overlooking the Paramatta River. It was so gross there at times, though, because apparently you are still allowed to smoke in outside dining areas in Australia. So I enjoyed my gnocchi and some nasty second hand smoke for lunch. Yuck!

Boyfriend's Mom seemed to enjoy her surprise birthday trip down to Ikea and she, Boyfriend and Boyfriend's Dad walked through every display set up in the store playing with stuff. She ended up buying some baking dishes and Boyfriend and I came home with two new pillows for the couch ($10 for the pillow and case a piece), a teeny tiny vase for my bedside table that I can pick freesia to put in for $1.50, a pack of tea light candles Boyfriend liked that smelled like apples and cinnamon and some cute, plain tea light holders (4/$2.50). Man, I love a bargain! We also had to stop in the food shop on the way out and we bought these yummy oat chocolate cookies and split the box with Boyfriend's parents, two bottles of the blueberry syrup, lingonberry jam and white sauce to go with our meatballs we bought last time (Bun told me you have to do them this way as this is the traditional and best way to have them), and blueberry soup (which kind of looks like runny blueberry yogurt). Oh, and blueberry jam. If it had the word blueberry on it, Boyfriend bought it; he went kind of nuts in the food store area!

kea ended up taking all day and we didn't get home til about 6 and we wanted something to do for the night so I messaged LC and Croc to see if there were any plans on and LC called me back and we made plans for dinner. We went to the Soccer Club the next street over from our house and had Chinese for dinner. (Sidenote: I've never seen so many "clubs" before in my life since I've lived here and they are not clubs like "let's go out to the club and dance" type places but think like mini casinos in a sense and they have them for football teams, the local soccer team, there are workers clubs, bowling clubs, golf clubs, returned servicemen clubs, etc, etc...And each seems to be successful and bring in tons of money...I live in a fairly small area and within a 5 mile radius I probably have about 5 of these different types of clubs near me!) It was crowded and smokey at the Soccer Club and LC didn't want to keep baby Lo out in it for too long so we decided after Boyfriend and I stopped at home to pick him up some beer to head over to there house to hang out for awhile. We all just talked and watched tv and it was a fun and mellow night. Boyfriend and Bob Marley planned their debaucherous bachelor party weekend coming up in two weeks time and LC and I gave them dirty looks and told them "Fine, we'll get drunk and spend your money on dresses for the wedding that day then!" I got to drive us home and you'd think I was a kid with a learner's permit because driving doesn't feel like a chore when you don't do it all the time and I was excited to drive the 10 minutes home!

Today I'm home alone as Boyfriend is at church and then going to lunch at a church person's house. It's also Father's Day here (our Mother's Days are on the same days, but for some reason Father's Days are at different times) so we are having dinner at Nan and Pop's with everyone later tonight. We got Boyfriend's Dad tons of organic seeds for his garden because he planted a big, amazing veggie garden last year and we're hoping he'll do it again this year and we even got him some artichoke seeds in the hopes that he would grow us some because artichokes are fairly hard to come by and fairly small and really expensive to buy when they are available here! I'm off to bake a bunch of cupcakes for dinner tonight and do laundry that has been piling up for the last week and a half. Happy Aussie Father's Day to my Dad, I love you! (I'm not sure my Dad even knows I have a blog and if he does, he's probably never checked it out, but minor details, just in case someday he stops by, I'm thinking about you Big Guy!) Hope you guys are having a great weekend where ever you are and if you are in the States that you are enjoying your nice long weekend.

Waves roll in and the waves roll out. See the water squirting out of your spout.

Boyfriend and I are still on our get healthy kick (I mean, it's only been a week, we would be wusses if we had burnt out already) so Saturday afternoon we thought instead of lazing aroud and wasting a day we'd head down to the beach for a nice, long walk. We hadn't even gotten in to the parking lot on the hill that overlooks Soldiers Beach when I told Boyfriend to pull in to the first spot he could find. I thought I had seen a whale. I think we just missed it doing a full breach because there was no way that I could've just seen a little spout of water from where we were and I saw like a whole wall of water in the air. So we jumped out of the car and sure enough we soon spotted a couple of whales way far out. They didn't breach again in the 10 minutes we watched them, but it was still neat to see them surfacing and the shower of mist that they blew out of their blow holes.

We then walked the beach and

the tide was super, super low.There

was a bit of water cut off by a huge sa

ndbar and we walked through it to get on to the sandbar and out to nearly where the sur

fers were. The water was absolutely freezing and we couldn't believethere were a couple of kids out without wetsuits on, but then Boyfriend and I both agreed at that age we would've done the same thing.

As we walked along we saw a ton of tiny little jelly blobs on the beach. They looked like bubbles on the sand, but once you got up close to them you could see they were solid.

Further along the beach we came to this outcrop of rocks offshore by about two feet and we walked through calf

deep water out to the rocks to look in

their holes to see if we could find any fish or crabs. As we got up on the rocks we were blown away because there was a deep crevice between the two sets of rocks that looked to be about ten feet deep and filled with water! Like I said,

we were only about two feet fromdry sand and here was this deep pool of water. I had never seen anything like it. Boyfriend ran back to the car to get his phone so we could take pictures of it.

When he got back he said he really wanted to jump in and see how deep it was so I said go for it. He jumped in at the far end of the rocks where it was closer to thewaves, but actually a lot shallower.He walked further and further in to the crevice and was trying to dive down to figure out how deep it was, but the water was so cold that he couldn't get any air in to his lungs.

He finally put his hands over his head and

sunk down and we measured it to be about 6.5 feet deep at that point, probably 7 feet at the d

eepest and this was at low, low tide. When we walked back past it later the tide was up and it was at least 10 feet deep at it's deepest point then.

We walked on to the end of the bay and were

blown away to see just how low the tide was.

We were standing 15 feet out from the normal tide line and could see on the rocks behind us where we would normally be standing. We explored the tide pools and came across lots of cool shells. Boyfriend found a really big snail shell with a snail still in it. When we turned it over and it was unfurling itself, it looked a lot like a cow'stongue...gross!

We walked the length of the bay back and up to the car and headed home to get ready for the night. We had a proper date night and went to dinner and a movie.

For dinner we headed out to this town called Terrigal, which is about a 40 minute drive from us and on the beach, but I had never been there before. We went to a cute restaurant called the Cove right on the water and we were sat on a closed in balcony overlooking the water. We sat and ate and watched the boats just beyond the breaking waves bobbing up and down. The desserts looked amazing but we were worried that we would be late to the movie so we had to skip it this time, but I'd love to go back and try some, as well as drink more of this yummy, warm, spiced, red wine we had. It tasted like Christmas!

We headed over to Erina to see Inglourious Basterds. The theater there was so much bigger and nicer than the one we normally go to. It felt like an American movie theater. They even had nachos! And unlike how the Greater Union cinemas do it now, they didn't have assigned seating so you could go in and sit where you like (you don't know how much the assigned seating thing seems weird to me and bugs me).

We both thought the movie was really good. It was gory in a few parts, but you expect that from Quentin Tarantino, don't you? For it being a movie about Nazis, we sure laughed a lot! Boyfriend is still quoting lines to me today from it.

Today is just a lazy day. Boyfriend is sitting out in the sun right now reading and then he's got big plans to wash the car. I'm doing laundry and stoked that it'll dry on the line in one day because today is hot like summer and sunny here. I'm also going to make some jam thumb print cookies (the recipe is over at this blog http://www.survivingoz.com/) to take to a bbq at Nan and Pop's tonight. We are also bringing REAL american style hotdogs to their house tonight for our dinner! All in all, a real nice weekend!

Oh yeah, we saw The Hangover on Friday night, too, and I would recommend it for a good laugh, too, if you haven't seen it yet. I just love the little baby that they find (especially, and I don't know why this part killed me so much, when they just strap him in with a seat belt in the car like it was normal, and safe, to do with a baby)!

Hope you all had a nice weekend, too. Enjoy those last days of summer while you still can. I hear that it's supposed to be an El Nino year which means lots of rainy days for the upcoming winter.

Spice It Up

(I hope Stephanie over at http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ doesn't mind that I copied her ingredient picture idea!)

Another cold night here north of Sydney. Boyfriend had said last week that he would like soup again this week so I agreed to make some tonight. (Shoot, I should totally post my recipe for Homemade Tomato Basil Soup, too!) I had tried this soup one night back home with Mom and Dad. I found it on a blog about Trader Joe's recipes and it is super simple to make and tastes really good. I've already been having sips out of the pot waiting for Boyfriend to get home and this version, although different from the one I made for Mom and Dad, is really tastey, too. I hope he likes it!

Chicken Albondigas Soup...aka White Girl Mexican Chicken Meatball Soup

The Trader Joe's recipe is basically a box of their organic chicken broth, a jar of fresh salsa, and a pack of their precooked frozen chicken meatballs. All you do is throw everything in a pot together and let it simmer. It is that easy!

To bad we don't have Trader Joe's here but this recipe is pretty much just as easy:

-Premade meatballs

(or I made my own using 500g of chicken mince, some bread crumbs, onion powder, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and one egg and mixed together and formed in to balls).

-Cook the meatballs/chicken balls if they are not precooked.

-In a large pot, add one box (I think these are equivalent to 4 cups) of chicken stock.

-Add one jar of salsa (I used Aldi's organic Medium salsa, the fresh stuff is better, but I don't think I've ever seen fresh salsa here and I'm too lazy to make my own).

-Add your meatballs/chicken balls and let simmer.

-I added a little bit of celery salt, more pepper, some chili powder to give it more spice, and some water as I thought it was pretty salty. Keep adding water and spices until you get your desired taste.

-I didn't have any, but this would be even better with some cilantro (aka coriander for those in Aus) and you could probably also throw some rice or corn. I'm running low on tortillas from the great Sydney Mexican take away place and on those I brought from CA so we aren't having tortillas with this, but it would be really nice and make it feel even more like a full on Mexican dinner.

Hope you enjoy! I can't wait to have this in a few and then again for breakfast/lunch tomorrow!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Brrrrrr! It is now officially winter here and it has been cold, cold, cold the last few days. Junior's birthday was the last warm day I think we'll have for awhile. The high today was 13 degrees (55 F), but was really windy and meant to feel more like 9-10 degrees (48-50 F). That, coupled with my teeny tiny budget, means I've been searching for comfort food recipes that I can do cheaply.

I've been making peanut butter cookies recently for dessert because all you need is 1 egg, 1 cup of sugar (or I do half cup of white sugar and a half cup of brown sugar), and 1 cup of peanut butter. Mix together, throw on a cookie tray and bake for about 8 minutes, or until the edges start turning brown, at 350 F. A cheap and yummy dessert for sure.

I also found a recipe for "Cheesy Chicken Tomato Skillet" over at the blog "...And a Cookie for Dessert" (brooke-cookiejar.blogspot.com). It looked so yummy and like the perfect comfort food for a cold, wintery night. I'll give you her recipe straight from her site and put my changes in paranthesis as usual. I really liked how this turned out, it almost had a pizza-y taste to it and, in my book, you can't go wrong with something that tastes like pizza! I had a big serving for dinner and it looks like I have enough for another 3-4 big servings again so this would be perfect for a family or maybe frozen in individual containers for other singles like me. P.S. Isn't that like the hardest thing to do, cook for one? I hate it and always make too much. Anyway, the recipe...

Cheesy Tomato Chicken Skillet

2 cups of pasta ( I used half a pack of organic spaghetti)
3/4 lbs chicken, cut into pieces (I used a 7 pack of chicken drumsticks and then took the meat off the bones)
1 can Healthy Request cream of chicken soup (I thought I had grabbed cream of chicken off the shelf, instead I ended up with condensed chicken noodle and a can of cream of mushroom already in my cupboard)
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (I think I used about an 8-10 0z can, but more tomatoes would be good)
1 1/2 cup of milk (I eye balled about 1 cup of skim milk)
1 tbsp dried basil (I just used all the different Italian herbs I could find in my cupboard)
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella (I grabbed a couple of handfuls and sprinkled it on)
(couple of tablespoons of garlic because i like it)
Cook the pasta as directed (as always, add the salt to the water like the package says, I cannot emphasize what a difference to the pasta consistency this makes). Heat 10 inch skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken & cook thoroughly. (I browned the drumsticks earlier in the day in a pan with olive oil and garlic, then threw them in a croc pot on high for about 3 hours. Then took all the decent looking meat-I'm picky about it looking too dark or like it had blood on it- off the bones.) Reduce heat to medium; stir in soup, tomatoes, milk and seasonings (I used a really big skillet and sprinkled all the seasonings in the bottom of it, then poured in the can of tomatoes, the milk, the liquid from one condensed chicken noodle soup can plus the whole can of condensed mushroom soup, the garlic, and the chicken and mixed it all together and then let it simmer for a minute or two.) Stir in cooked pasta. Cook about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until bubbly & heated through. Sprinkle with cheese. Reduce heat, cover & let stand about 5 minutes. (They also served theres with home made breadsticks that looked delicious and would be nice to do if you have a bigger group eating this with you.)

Pretty easy really and it turns out pretty yummy for not a lot of work/money!

Song of the Shrimp

Sorry that the picture is a bit blurry...I've got crappy lighting in my kitchen and only have my crappy camera on my phone to take photos with, but I just wanted to show you guys what I made for dinner tonight. I love pasta and I love shrimp, so what better way to pair two of my favorites then by making some spicy shrimp pasta?

Here's what you need (I get about 3 big size portions out of this):

Half a pack of organic spaghetti (I go to my cheap grocery store and splurge on their organic line of pasta and canned tomatoes and salsa and I find that the organic stuff really does taste a bit better)

1 Can of organic diced tomatoes

3/4 of a cup of white wine, I used some random cheap Chardonnay from in my fridge and just eyeballed the amount and it turned out fine

1/2 cup of fresh basil (caterpillars have gotten in to my bush so there wasn't a lot to pick tonight and you could tell this would taste better with more fresh basil)

Shrimp (I like it a lot so I think I used about quarter pound for this and that would be a good amount once it cooks down for two people, just throw in as many as you want)

2 tablespoons of garlic

1-2 tablespoon of olive oil

Sprinkles of Oregano and and other Italian dry herbs you have in your cupboard

3 tablespoons of medium organic salsa

pinch of black pepper

About a tablespoon of sugar

pinch of hot chili flakes

Directions:

Add olive oil to pan and heat up. Add garlic and let garlic fry for about 8 minutes....it should get golden but not too brown.

Add water and a lot of salt to a pot of water and bring it to a boil. I like my pasta to be salty and I didn't add any salt to the sauce itself, the saltiness will come from the pasta and it is important to ALWAYS salt your pasta water because it causes the water to boil at a higher temperature and pasta needs to be boiled at that higher temperature. It's also important to not overcook your pasta. It shouldn't be too soft and like slimy and wanting to fall apart-it should have a slight amount of resistance when you bite through it. Once the water is boiling, add your spaghetti to it and stir it around. Check at about 8 minutes to see how done it is.

To your garlic and olive oil add the herbs, pepper, chili, tomatoes, wine, sugar, herbs, and salsa. Bring to boil and let simmer. Simmering times can vary...If you want a thicker sauce than you need to simmer the sauce for about 20-25 minutes or tonight I was lazy and hungry and only simmered the sauce for about 5 minutes before adding the shrimp to it and it turned out fine but it was a bit watery at the bottom of my bowl.

Throw your shrimp in to the sauce and bring up the heat slightly. The shrimp should start turning pink after only a few minutes and once they are not see through your sauce and the shrimp are done.

After draining the water from the pasta, pour it in to a big bowl and pour the sauce and shrimp over it and toss the sauce through the pasta. You can add more basil and some parmesan cheese on it now if you'd like, I didn't. BEWARE: This pasta is pretty spicy because of the salsa and chili flakes!! I like it and I hope if you try it, you will, too.