Beer Bratwursts

Tonight for supper we had brats - yummmy. I cooked them in beer and then threw them on my grill pan for a few minutes at the end so they'd get that dark brown charred yumminess. And with them I had some caramelized onions. Just thinly sliced yellow onions on a med-low heat with some oil and a good pinch of salt, I added some garlic about halfway through. And then when they were done - all soft and brown and delicious - I added some of the beer that the brats had cooked in. It was so good! This was a meal that I had been saving for harvest, I figured brats were easy and well liked by everyone, and wrap them up in some foil and they would stay warm and be easily transportable. But like I talked about before - with harvest never seeming to get off the ground I'm having to steal some of the meals I had planned for that time - because I don't have any other food in the house!!

Now we are off to the ball diamonds for the highlight of our summer - Sunday Night Slow Pitch Softball! This is serious business for the county, yes I said county. I will have to capture some of the highlights and share them tomorrow!

Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese

I may or may not have made a supper tonight that consisted of only carbs and gravy, but every so often I can actually make something good. A couple weeks back, I threw a bunch of stuff together and actually came out with something really yummy.

1. Throw a chicken breast in a skillet and let it cook. I cut it into smaller pieces so that it would cook evenly. Let cool, and then shred. I use two forks and just pull the meat apart.

2. Pour a buffalo chicken sauce over your chicken. I used the Budweiser Mild sauce.

3. Boil some water, and cook your pasta in it, I used macaroni noodles. Cook to al dente, drain, the usual.

4. Mix together the buffalo chicken and the noodles. Mix in a good ol dollop of cream cheese. I happened to have whipped cream cheese on hand.

5. Pour into an oven safe dish and then sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top. Put in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes. Maybe? I don't really know, but that seems about right.

6. Take out of the oven and enjoy the cheesy, tangy, deliciousness. And the leftovers are just as good!

That's it- simple, yummy mac and cheese with a twist. I loved it, Mark was even impressed. Definitely a make again.

And because it's been too long, I wanted to share some pictures of my baby!

This is his toy, he is almost obsessive with it.


Me thinks mommy needs to buy a bigger pool.


I think Cody is just slightly spoiled.

This is my life, this is what I get to look at (and laugh at) every night.

You should be here!

This morning my dad, three of my sisters, and I all traveled to the most Wonderful Place in the World - Manhattan, KS. We wanted to be there for College Game Day to support the Wildcats and Coach Martin, and to set a record for the most people ever to attend College Game Day and show the rest of the world where the best fans are at. Good times, lots of great purple, and a fun way to start out the day.

Now we're back at home, where my sisters have helped me cook and clean. We're having some friends over tonight to watch the game. And as of right now, the food we are serving is as follows:

• Meatballs
• Cheesy Olive Bread
• Sourdough bread bowl w/ Dill Dip
• Pico de Gallo
• Guacamole
• Inside Out Oreo Cookies (little mounds of deliciousness)
• Magic Bars (ya know-w/ the coconut and chocolate chips and butterscotch chips, etc.)
• Sausage Wonton cups

Basically a conglomeration of some of the best food ever.

Oh, and beer too.

Go State! EMAW!

TGIF

Today is a beautiful day because since it's today, that means that Tomorrow is only one day away, and there is nothing better than tomorrow!

Now that doesn't mean all Tomorrows, I mean, by Monday I'll be all pissed off at Tomorrow and I'll want to tell Tomorrow to shove it. But I can't, because Tomorrows are inevitable. But let me tell you about tomorrow, the Tomorrow that I am excited about.

Tomorrow is the first day of the new K-State Football Season. It's frickin' ridiculous! I can't even tell you. It's like I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew- I'm so excited. We get to tailgate, see old friends, welcome Bill Snyder back, and watch college football. I don't know if I've told you, oh friends of mine, that I love me some college football. Especially K-State. The atmosphere, the food!, the cheering, the crying, the hard hits and huge passes, the good guys in purple, the band, seeing old co-workers from my Athletic Dept. days (and knowing that I can wear comfortable jeans, and nothing will go wrong because of me), trying to still get some pull, some sweet swag from my days at the Athletic Dept., those heartstopping moments when I'm so nervous I just about can't watch, my husband and I kissing after each touchdown, the postgame discussions, everything. Oh I can't wait!

But to get things started, I wanted to post my tailgate dip. You see, a couple of the blogs that I read have each focused on dips and recipes and whatnot, and now is the perfect time to share my recipe for the tailgate dip. And yes-this is THE tailgate dip, don't confuse it with anything else.

THE Tailgate Dip
2 boxes cream cheese,
1 can rotel (drained)
1 can Mexicorn (drained)
1 package dry ranch dressing mix

Mix together-The End, Amen.


Now, you can switch it up a bit, add more or less of whatever ingredient you want, but this is the one that works for me and my friends. And I do have to admit, I actually did use the Southwestern Corn one time, instead of the Mexicorn. It has black beans and onions, and it was pretty good too-but I know better than to screw around with this one for tomorrow. The boys are expecting the good stuff, the regular stuff that they're used to.

And you don't mess around with tradition on Game Day.

That's Amore!

Supper last night was a definite yummy one. One of my most favorite meals to make is little homemade pizzas. Sometimes I will make a big batch of pizza dough, then I just throw it in the freezer and let it thaw when I need it-works pretty dang well actually. But on nights when I'm lazy (like last night) I just use the store bought kind. And it doesn't matter, cause it's pizza and it's yummy.

So my recipe for last night:
Preheat oven to 425.

Mix together about half a hunk of cream cheese with a couple dollops of 'out of the jar' alfredo sauce w/ red peppers (I will never go with the red pepper kind again, not worth it.) Spread that on two pizza crusts for my sauce.

Sprinkle ranch dressing powder mix and paprika on two chicken breasts, along w/ some salt and pepper and cook in skillet, about 3 min. each side. Set to the side.

Slice 1/4 onion and cook in some oil, letting the onion get all soft and yummy. Dump in half a bag of spinach and let wilt down-about 3 min.

Using two forks, shred cooked chicken and sprinkle on top of pizzas w/ sauce. Then sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese and finally top with onion and spinach mixture.

Put pizzas on a cookie sheet and place in oven for about 10-12 min. Take out and savor the yumminess that is this.

I'd love for someone to give me their opinion, or their version of their favorite homemade pizzas. Gotta love them pizza pies.

Just a Few Updates

1. My dog is still a brat-but he hasn't been coming inside lately. I feel like such a bad mommy. But I've got my reasons, you see, I've got lots of boxes and things sitting on the floor that he would like to play with too much. So no Cody inside.

2. Boxes? you ask. Why boxes? Well-we're officially under contract on a house. (Yes that sound is me screaming for joy, and jumping up and down, and crying, and exhaling huge sighs of relief.)
It was crazy, and exhausting, and just so mind numbing that I don't even feel like trying to put it all down in writing yet. I don't get stressed out much. School and work and group projects never really did it, but if i do get stressed and tired-it just completely drains me.

3. I made some yummy mashed potatoes last night! That were healthy! With no butter or sour cream or cheese! Sounds crazy doesn't it. I boiled potatoes and threw some cauliflower (oh yummy-I love me some cauliflower) into a strainer over the boiling potatoes and steamed/boiled them. Then I mixed it all up in my handy dandy KitchenAid mixer with lots of chives and parsley and some thyme and paprika (oh how I love me some paprika) and it was fluffy and tasty and healthy! Who'da thunk it?

So all in all, a pretty exciting week. I'd call it a success, or an S for Satisfactory, if pressed for a grade on it.

Weekend = Success

This is what I ate this weekend:

Wendy's Breakfast Sandwich
Chipotle Burrito
"Heavy" Hors d'voeuvres (and yes I used spellcheck on that)
....such as Ribs, Mini Corndogs, Mini Soft Pretzels, Yummy Cheese and Crackers, lots of cheese and crackers, Mini Tacos
just a few Bud Lights-both from the open bar and the way too expensive one
Snow Crab Legs
Shark
Sushi
Shrimp
Calamari
Crab Rangoons
Cookies
Fudge
Maraschino Cherries-and yes those count as an individual dish
Fluffy, huge Blueberry muffins
Fried Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
yummy 7 layer salad
Mint Chip Shake (from QuikTrip-yea for QT stops)
And I finally finished it all off with a Fountain Mountain and a bag of chips

This is all in a 48 hr timespan-I think I maybe overdid it.

Pasta alla Miranda

So one night this last week I wanted to make a recipe that I got from Pioneer Woman. As I started cooking though, I realized I was missing a few key ingredients, of which I do typically have somewhere in my pantry-but realized it just a little too late, and I didn't want to make a run to the store. So, instead I made some substitutions up....and, it was awesome. So, here's my recipe for Pasta alla Miranda.

First, I boiled some water and added in some macaroni. I'm cheap, so it was the only kind of pasta I had in the house!

In a big skillet I melted some butter and added half a chopped onion and one minced garlic clove and let that cook for a couple minutes. I then added about half a cup of vodka! and let that cook for 3 min. I then added in a can of cream of mushroom soup. Of course, I also added some yummy cheese-parmesan and a little bit of sharp cheddar.

I let that all simmer for a little bit, added some red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and added some milk. Mark and I only drink skim milk, so I also added some sour cream to help thicken it up a little bit and make it a little silkier and smoother.

I then drained the pasta that was cooked to al dente. Make sure to reserve a cup of the pasta water in case your sauce is a little too thick. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and maybe some of the water. Make sure to taste the sauce along the way, I added a little more salt and pepper as I went, because it did need some more. I then added some chopped parsley and a little more parmesan and oh my goodness! I just about died from all the yumminess. So much tastiness all wrapped up in an oops kind of recipe.

Try this recipe, and try it this week. And do not skip on the vodka ( I mean in the recipe, you at least have to save some to actually go in the recipe.) SO worth the taste. And the alcohol will cook out, you can feed this to your kids without any fear of being turned into social services. It's just deliciousness!

Pizza Burgers

So tonight for supper I got out my handy dandy little food processor (on a side note: I need to use that thing more often) and I chopped up some mushrooms, onions, pepperoni, tomato paste, some Italian spices, and a little oil. Then I mixed the puree in with ground beef and some bread crumbs and made hamburger patties. It smelled so great! Then I spread some pizza sauce on a bun, covered the patty with mozarella cheese and put it all together. It was definitely yummy. Kind of a different texture, but I liked it enough-and Mark did say he like it, so I guess that's a positive. Next time, I might just use the pepperoni and onions as toppings instead of changing the texture of the burger, but still getting the same taste. I'll let you know!

What's For Supper?

Tonight we had knip again. Knip is the old German recipe that my husband's family loves to make. The last time that I wrote about knip, I had three different people who googled knip come across my blog. I use a statcounter that shows not only how many people visit my blog a day, how many are first time or returning visitors, but also what the keywords are that people use to search and then come across my blog and click on it to read it. So, after the last blog I wrote about knip, someone in Hutchinson, KS, someone from Illinois and someone from Minnesota all took a look at my little blog. How cool is that? I love knowing that. Too bad they only looked at it the once, I must not be exciting enough.

What's for Supper Tonight?

Tonight at 5:30, I have a very important date, my hour long massage. So, after my important date, I'm looking to make something really easy. I have some leftover brisket from the freezer that I do believe I will toss in a skillet with a bit of stock and Worcestershire sauce. How do you say that word? I mean seriously, I either call it W sauce or worcheshtershireshchsh sauce. I'll toss some onions in with the brisket and let them get all warm, soft, and yummy. I might have to check out my fridge and look for some green peppers. Then the whole yummy mess will go on some sub sandwich rolls with some mayo and cheese. It'll be my own version of a Philly cheese steak. Sounds good right?

But probably not as good as my massage! Gotta go!

What's for supper?

I've decided to add another section to this wonderful little thing. What's for Supper? It's a great question, and something that is always discussed throughout the day at work, something always on my mind, and I know a concern of my husbands. It's not something I'll do everyday. For one, I don't cook every night. For two, you probably don't want to hear how I make hamburger helper (though as my husband puts it, I even have to 'Miranda up' the ol' Helper box.)

So, what's for supper?

Tonight it's knip. Knip is a German dish that my husband's family makes. This last year was the first time I got to help out with the whole process. We boiled pork and beef, used the broth to make oatmeal and mixed and ground it all together, added allspice, and we ended up with knip! Sounds weird, and it kind of is, but it's a great cold weather meal. We throw it in a skillet, let it get real crispy and serve it with cornbread and dark corn syrup.

In case you don't have a massive cast iron pot to boil 30 lbs of meat outside yourself, you can most likely travel to your nearest locker plant and find some there, especially if you live in a German-influenced area. Plus I have a few extra bags in my freezer if you want to come over and try it!