Happy Birthday from us too!
...........Love ya,
.............M & L
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Italian Chicken Pasta Recipe
Michael's been busy cooking dinner the last few nights... ummm... I mean months... (i did help by grating the cheese and taking the pics for this dish; hey, that's somethin', right? Right?!? ahem... anyway... the pics aren't the best due to poor lighting, that's the excuse I'm going to use anyway) Moving on now... Michael put this chicken and pasta dish together a few weeks ago. It's easy and yummy. Here's what you need, and below that is what you do...
Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts - How many depends on how many people you are serving. For this recipe he used three chicken breasts.
Angel Hair Pasta - The whole package. Go by directions on box; we use the barilla brand.
Spaghettie Sauce - We use the Ragu Brand, whichever flavor you like, except the meat one, of course.
Cheddar Cheese - Preferrably freshly grated
Mozzarella Cheese - Preferrably freshly grated
Bread crumbs in a can or buttered bread torn into pieces - We used both; I like the torn bread pieces best, Michael likes the bread crumbs better, Caitie likes both.
Italian Seasoning
There's a can of Parmesan & Romano Cheese in the above pic, but this wasn't used every time, I think Michael put it on his a couple of times. He sprinkled it on top.
I forgot to show the chicken in the above pic, so here it is below, after being barbecued and cut into pieces; I didn't think to get a pic of it until it was prepared. Anyway, here's what you put on the chicken before barbecuing/cooking it...
Seasonings for Chicken (season to your liking):
Kosher Salt
Course Ground Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
...
Once they're done, and let sit a bit covered in foil, cut into pieces.
Cover a cookie sheet with foil, then coat all the foil with cooking spray.
Put however many portions of spaghetti you plan to have, and however many will fit, onto the foil.
Put spaghetti sauce over the pasta, then add chicken pieces, and then add more sauce. If you like, you can add some Italian seasoning on top of the sauce...
Then add the grated cheese; both kinds. Cover each portion liberally with the cheese.
Here is where you can either add the bread crumbs/pieces before adding the grated cheese; or you can add the bread crumbs/pieces at the end, after the cheese has melted on top, you would then put them back under the broiler for a short time to brown the bread crumbs/pieces. It's best to either add them under the cheese, or on the top at the very end so they don't burn. You can do both if you like... add bread crumbs/pieces before the cheese, put the cheese, put under the broiler, then add more bread crumbs/pieces at the end and put back under the broiler for a short amount of time, until they're brown. Did you get all that? If so, please let me know, because I haven't a clue of what I just wrote.
Put under the broiler until the cheese melts ** see above; you need to keep an eye on it, as you see Michael doing here.
Once you take it out of the oven... enjoy!
Yum! This was my plate... I like the torn bread pieces with butter put on top instead of the bread crumbs.
Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts - How many depends on how many people you are serving. For this recipe he used three chicken breasts.
Angel Hair Pasta - The whole package. Go by directions on box; we use the barilla brand.
Spaghettie Sauce - We use the Ragu Brand, whichever flavor you like, except the meat one, of course.
Cheddar Cheese - Preferrably freshly grated
Mozzarella Cheese - Preferrably freshly grated
Bread crumbs in a can or buttered bread torn into pieces - We used both; I like the torn bread pieces best, Michael likes the bread crumbs better, Caitie likes both.
Italian Seasoning
There's a can of Parmesan & Romano Cheese in the above pic, but this wasn't used every time, I think Michael put it on his a couple of times. He sprinkled it on top.
I forgot to show the chicken in the above pic, so here it is below, after being barbecued and cut into pieces; I didn't think to get a pic of it until it was prepared. Anyway, here's what you put on the chicken before barbecuing/cooking it...
Seasonings for Chicken (season to your liking):
Kosher Salt
Course Ground Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
...
Cook the chicken breasts. We like to barbecue them, but you can cook them any way you like.
...
...
Once they're done, and let sit a bit covered in foil, cut into pieces.
Cover a cookie sheet with foil, then coat all the foil with cooking spray.
Put however many portions of spaghetti you plan to have, and however many will fit, onto the foil.
Put spaghetti sauce over the pasta, then add chicken pieces, and then add more sauce. If you like, you can add some Italian seasoning on top of the sauce...
Then add the grated cheese; both kinds. Cover each portion liberally with the cheese.
Here is where you can either add the bread crumbs/pieces before adding the grated cheese; or you can add the bread crumbs/pieces at the end, after the cheese has melted on top, you would then put them back under the broiler for a short time to brown the bread crumbs/pieces. It's best to either add them under the cheese, or on the top at the very end so they don't burn. You can do both if you like... add bread crumbs/pieces before the cheese, put the cheese, put under the broiler, then add more bread crumbs/pieces at the end and put back under the broiler for a short amount of time, until they're brown. Did you get all that? If so, please let me know, because I haven't a clue of what I just wrote.
Put under the broiler until the cheese melts ** see above; you need to keep an eye on it, as you see Michael doing here.
Once you take it out of the oven... enjoy!
Yum! This was my plate... I like the torn bread pieces with butter put on top instead of the bread crumbs.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Hungry Man's Cheese Crisp
You might be wondering why someone would put a cheese crisp recipe on a blog since they're so easy to make, but we're not talkin' your ordinary cheese crisp here... you know the kind, with a little grated cheese put on a tortilla and thrown in the oven until the cheese is just melted, no, we're talkin' a manly style cheese crisp with lots of grated cheese put on the correct side (this is debatable, i'm sure) of a tortilla, and put to the edges, not just placed in the middle, then broiled to a slightly, or more, browned edge and the cheese is melted, but not overly done, you want it to pull apart nicely in every bite... and the main manly part is the HOT sauce; we're not talkin' just any hot sauce here, it has to be HOT, which is poured on the whole surface of melted cheese, then folded and ate at record speed. That's how a hungry man makes and eats his cheese crisp... at least, how mine does, anyway. Here is how Michael makes a mean cheese crisp...
As I just wrote, Michael is making the cheese crisps in these pics, so don't go thinkin' I have hairy, manly hands... Michael made the cheese crisps and I took the pics. Who do you think had more fun?
Here are the ingredients: (looks so simple, doesn't it? well, that's because it is. don't ask me why i just wrote that)
Tortilla (La Suprema 10" Gorditas)
Cheddar Cheese (Tillamook med or sharp cheddar cheese; we use med. not sure what's up with that, you would think sharp would be the manly way to go, but i ain't say nothin') (also, we grate our own cheese, i don't like all the 'extra stuff' in the pregrated cheese. we think there's a difference in taste as well, the block cheese tastes much better, in our opinion)
Hot Sauce and/or **Salsa (Nana's Hot Sauce) (the Ortega brand salsa is good, but you can use whatever kind of salsa you like)
** I included the salsa in the pic since that's what I used on my cheese crisp instead of the hot sauce. I put the salsa on the side instead of in the cheese crisp. You can also put Mozzarella Cheese or Colby Jack Cheese, which is a more mexican style cheese, in addition to the Cheddar Cheese on the tortilla if you so desire; I like the combination of the two (either the cheddar cheese and mozzarella, or cheddar cheese and colby jack), and I sometimes add bits of chicken meat as well. Of course, it is now becoming more like a quesadilla instead of just a cheese crisp.
If you use the brands and use the technique shown in this post, you should come out with a real tasty (and manly, of course) treat.
Here are two tortillas, one showing the bottom, the other showing the top, we use the one on the right, this is what we consider the top side to put the cheese on. Does it make a difference, I haven't a clue, but it sounds interesting, don't you think? ummm... anyway, moving on now...
Here is the side we use. I like to make sure and get the point across.
Turn the oven on to broil and keep the oven door closed right before you start grating the cheese. If you get pregrated cheese, well, find something to do for a couple of minutes while you wait for the oven to get hot.
Grate the cheese while the oven is heating (as stated above).
Now open the oven door, grab some oven mits to pull out the top shelf in the oven, which should be either the second or third shelf down, depending on how many shelves you have in your oven, we have four, so we chose the second one down since it's closer to the broiler. Don't use the top shelf, that would be too close to the broiler. Pull the oven rack out about halfway, place the tortillas top side up on the oven rack, then put the cheese on, covering as much of the tortillas as you can, to the outer edges, and be sure to put lots of cheese, the more, the better; this keeps the tortilla from drying out, which gives it a nice texture and it tastes better too.
Just trying to get my point across (i seem to do this a lot, don't i?)... the more cheese, the better.
Push the oven rack with the soon-to-be cheese crisps on it back inside the oven and close the oven door. You need to pay attention at this point, don't keep the oven door closed too long, I would say leave the door closed about a minute, as you keep checking on it. Here's how they look right before the broiler does its job and converts them into cheese crisps. Just as I mentioned above, you want to keep the cheese crisps from drying out while broiling, and closing the oven door for the first minute or so of broiling keeps that from happening.
You partially open the oven door and keep on broilin'... about two more minutes or so. Keep an eye on them.
After making sure they're done to your liking, slide them each onto a plate.
You then add the manly HOT sauce... you basically cover the entire surface of cheese.
Then fold it over.
See how gooey it looks?
Yes... nice and gooey... just trying to get my point across... yes, again.
Caitie's wondering what all the fuss is about, she sees melted cheese on a tortilla... ummm, yeah, so? But she does find it to be tasty.
mmm... Just like the original Garcia's used to make; the one off of 35th Ave & Thomas... not that I'm promoting their restaurant or anything, but if anyone that works there happens to be reading this, maybe you could give us a discount, or name a meal after us? Just sayin'... Anyway, Happy 'manly' Eating! :)
As I just wrote, Michael is making the cheese crisps in these pics, so don't go thinkin' I have hairy, manly hands... Michael made the cheese crisps and I took the pics. Who do you think had more fun?
Here are the ingredients: (looks so simple, doesn't it? well, that's because it is. don't ask me why i just wrote that)
Tortilla (La Suprema 10" Gorditas)
Cheddar Cheese (Tillamook med or sharp cheddar cheese; we use med. not sure what's up with that, you would think sharp would be the manly way to go, but i ain't say nothin') (also, we grate our own cheese, i don't like all the 'extra stuff' in the pregrated cheese. we think there's a difference in taste as well, the block cheese tastes much better, in our opinion)
Hot Sauce and/or **Salsa (Nana's Hot Sauce) (the Ortega brand salsa is good, but you can use whatever kind of salsa you like)
** I included the salsa in the pic since that's what I used on my cheese crisp instead of the hot sauce. I put the salsa on the side instead of in the cheese crisp. You can also put Mozzarella Cheese or Colby Jack Cheese, which is a more mexican style cheese, in addition to the Cheddar Cheese on the tortilla if you so desire; I like the combination of the two (either the cheddar cheese and mozzarella, or cheddar cheese and colby jack), and I sometimes add bits of chicken meat as well. Of course, it is now becoming more like a quesadilla instead of just a cheese crisp.
If you use the brands and use the technique shown in this post, you should come out with a real tasty (and manly, of course) treat.
Here are two tortillas, one showing the bottom, the other showing the top, we use the one on the right, this is what we consider the top side to put the cheese on. Does it make a difference, I haven't a clue, but it sounds interesting, don't you think? ummm... anyway, moving on now...
Here is the side we use. I like to make sure and get the point across.
Turn the oven on to broil and keep the oven door closed right before you start grating the cheese. If you get pregrated cheese, well, find something to do for a couple of minutes while you wait for the oven to get hot.
Grate the cheese while the oven is heating (as stated above).
Now open the oven door, grab some oven mits to pull out the top shelf in the oven, which should be either the second or third shelf down, depending on how many shelves you have in your oven, we have four, so we chose the second one down since it's closer to the broiler. Don't use the top shelf, that would be too close to the broiler. Pull the oven rack out about halfway, place the tortillas top side up on the oven rack, then put the cheese on, covering as much of the tortillas as you can, to the outer edges, and be sure to put lots of cheese, the more, the better; this keeps the tortilla from drying out, which gives it a nice texture and it tastes better too.
Just trying to get my point across (i seem to do this a lot, don't i?)... the more cheese, the better.
Push the oven rack with the soon-to-be cheese crisps on it back inside the oven and close the oven door. You need to pay attention at this point, don't keep the oven door closed too long, I would say leave the door closed about a minute, as you keep checking on it. Here's how they look right before the broiler does its job and converts them into cheese crisps. Just as I mentioned above, you want to keep the cheese crisps from drying out while broiling, and closing the oven door for the first minute or so of broiling keeps that from happening.
...
...
Here's Michael watching and waiting, and drooling a bit too, but don't tell him i told you that.
...
You partially open the oven door and keep on broilin'... about two more minutes or so. Keep an eye on them.
After making sure they're done to your liking, slide them each onto a plate.
You then add the manly HOT sauce... you basically cover the entire surface of cheese.
Then fold it over.
See how gooey it looks?
Yes... nice and gooey... just trying to get my point across... yes, again.
Caitie's wondering what all the fuss is about, she sees melted cheese on a tortilla... ummm, yeah, so? But she does find it to be tasty.
mmm... Just like the original Garcia's used to make; the one off of 35th Ave & Thomas... not that I'm promoting their restaurant or anything, but if anyone that works there happens to be reading this, maybe you could give us a discount, or name a meal after us? Just sayin'... Anyway, Happy 'manly' Eating! :)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Remembering
When I think of my dad, baseball is one of the things that comes to mind; he loved baseball, and was even asked to play in a minor league when he was young. When taking 4th of July pics of Caitie in a baseball outfit, which I did every year (including this year), I always knew I'd be giving at least one, maybe more, of those pics to my dad.We used the baseball theme last year for my dad's birthday, which is on July 11th. Here are some pics from last July 11th; that birthday stands out in my mind since it will be the last birthday ever spent with him... on this earth, anyway. Here are some pics from his last birthday (some of the pics shown here have been displayed already on the blog, but chose to put them in this post as well)...
Caitie and I made him baseball cupcakes. Here Caitie is putting the cupcake liners into the muffin tin before baking.
Here are a few of the finished baseball cupcakes.
Blowing out Gramps' birthday candles.
My dad was never one that wanted to pose for pics, I'm not saying he never did, he just wasn't all that into it, so I don't have many good pics of he and Caitie, unfortunately. But here is one from last year. We celebrated his birthday at his place.
Here's my dad as a young baseball player. Handsome, wasn't he. :)
Here's a baseball pic I took of Caitie on this 4th of July. I think she kind of resembles my dad in the above baseball pic. I probably would have given him this pic for that reason. I decided to add it here.
My dad would have been 67 years old today. Miss you, Dad.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Gotta Love Some Bunny
I think the post title is the title of a song, or in the lyrics of a song, but I don't recall which one... well, maybe not the 'Bunny' part, but that was a play on words... or somethin' like that. (it's late) Anyway... did you have a favorite stuffed animal as a child? Caitie loves this little pink bunny; she doesn't like to go anywhere without it. Michael got it for me on the Easter I was pregnant with Caitie, it then became hers.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Peek-A-Boo
Or, actually, 'Peek of You'... we went there again today. This is the 3D/4D, pics/videos ultrasound place we went to on Saturday, and since we didn't get pics of the front of Bailey's face on Saturday, the ultrasound tech said we could come back and try again, so we scheduled for today. The ultrasound tech was finally able to get a few full front-face pics. The details of her face may be hard to make out, but I thought they turned out cute, so decided to display them on here. I'm at 35 weeks in today's pics, I was at 34 weeks in Saturday's pics. You can go here to see the post displaying my favorite ultrasound pic of Bailey from Saturday.
This pic was taken on Saturday. Bailey's mouth is in the shape of an 'O', she's facing left and looking upward, her ear is towards the lower right of the pic, her left shoulder is below her chin.
This pic is from today. I edited this one from the DVD; this is the only one I had to do that with. I wanted this one because it shows her starting to smile. You can see the front of her face, you can also see the umbilical cord over her right eye, which is to your left when viewing the pic. The umbilical cord was in most, if not all, of the face pics today.
This pic is from today. This one may be hard to make out, but it shows the front of her face, with mostly the left side of her face showing, and with the umbilical cord making a slight appearance, you can't see it as clearly as in the last pic. It looks like she's either in a blanket or a bomber style jacket. (ha) If you look closely at the top and side of her head, you can see she has some hair.
This pic is from last Saturday. This shows her fingers, her hand is next to her ear; she kept putting her hands in front of her face on Saturday, and part of today, which made it difficult to get decent pics of her face.
This pic is from last Saturday. This one shows her left ear, you can also see some hair behind her ear.
This pic is from today. This one shows the heel of her foot, the bottom of her foot, and her big toe, it also shows part of her ankle; her foot is towards the left of the pic and facing upwards.
This pic is from today; it shows her face. You can see her toes below her mouth.
This pic is of Caitie; it's a comparison pic to the pic above of Bailey. They're facing different directions, but it shows you how similar they look, or maybe not so similar to you. I was at 35 weeks when this pic was taken, and at 35 weeks in the pic above. Just in case you're wondering... Caitie's foot is in front of her face in this pic.
This is from today's pics. Caitie's showing a print-out pic of her little sister.
A group shot from today. I need a haircut, makeup... well, ummm... yeah... anyway... just decided to include this pic since it's from today. It's a self-timer pic.
This pic was taken on Saturday. Bailey's mouth is in the shape of an 'O', she's facing left and looking upward, her ear is towards the lower right of the pic, her left shoulder is below her chin.
This pic is from today. I edited this one from the DVD; this is the only one I had to do that with. I wanted this one because it shows her starting to smile. You can see the front of her face, you can also see the umbilical cord over her right eye, which is to your left when viewing the pic. The umbilical cord was in most, if not all, of the face pics today.
This pic is from today. This one may be hard to make out, but it shows the front of her face, with mostly the left side of her face showing, and with the umbilical cord making a slight appearance, you can't see it as clearly as in the last pic. It looks like she's either in a blanket or a bomber style jacket. (ha) If you look closely at the top and side of her head, you can see she has some hair.
This pic is from last Saturday. This shows her fingers, her hand is next to her ear; she kept putting her hands in front of her face on Saturday, and part of today, which made it difficult to get decent pics of her face.
This pic is from last Saturday. This one shows her left ear, you can also see some hair behind her ear.
This pic is from today. This one shows the heel of her foot, the bottom of her foot, and her big toe, it also shows part of her ankle; her foot is towards the left of the pic and facing upwards.
This pic is from today; it shows her face. You can see her toes below her mouth.
This pic is of Caitie; it's a comparison pic to the pic above of Bailey. They're facing different directions, but it shows you how similar they look, or maybe not so similar to you. I was at 35 weeks when this pic was taken, and at 35 weeks in the pic above. Just in case you're wondering... Caitie's foot is in front of her face in this pic.
This is from today's pics. Caitie's showing a print-out pic of her little sister.
A group shot from today. I need a haircut, makeup... well, ummm... yeah... anyway... just decided to include this pic since it's from today. It's a self-timer pic.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy 4th!
Hope everyone had a great 4th.
I like this flapper style dress Caitie wore for some 4th of July pics. She enjoyed twirling in it. The skirt is below the waist, which is why I call it a flapper style dress. I took more pics of her in it but she wasn't thrilled about having to pose so much so I don't have anymore pics to share of the dress... except the top part in the following pic...
"Why so many pics, mama?"
Couldn't go without getting the traditional All-American Pastime pics. The following baseball pics weren't taken in the best lighting, but chose to display them here anyway.
Cute pitcher.
The ol' bunt position.
Running with the ball...
Cute little ball player.
We went to see fireworks...
Once they were over, we were in a hurry to beat the many other cars/people in the area out of there...
"Get the heck in the car, mama... hurry, take my hand... we're speedin' outta here!"
.......
We headed to Dairy Queen for some ice cream after the fireworks... Caitie got an oreo blizzard, her favorite...
Don't get in the way of a girl and her blizzard! Look at her go at that thing... it's dripping as she keeps diggin' at it...
I like this flapper style dress Caitie wore for some 4th of July pics. She enjoyed twirling in it. The skirt is below the waist, which is why I call it a flapper style dress. I took more pics of her in it but she wasn't thrilled about having to pose so much so I don't have anymore pics to share of the dress... except the top part in the following pic...
"Why so many pics, mama?"
Couldn't go without getting the traditional All-American Pastime pics. The following baseball pics weren't taken in the best lighting, but chose to display them here anyway.
Cute pitcher.
The ol' bunt position.
Running with the ball...
Cute little ball player.
We went to see fireworks...
Once they were over, we were in a hurry to beat the many other cars/people in the area out of there...
"Get the heck in the car, mama... hurry, take my hand... we're speedin' outta here!"
.......
We headed to Dairy Queen for some ice cream after the fireworks... Caitie got an oreo blizzard, her favorite...
Don't get in the way of a girl and her blizzard! Look at her go at that thing... it's dripping as she keeps diggin' at it...
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