I made this some time ago, and it was soooo good. The husband and I both loved it.  We both like things pretty spicy so this was just right for us. I served it with fried rice as a side. Definitely a dish I will be making again soon.

The Recipe:

• 1 lb chicken breast, cut into small strips
• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into thin long strips
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into thin long strips
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp hot sauce
• 2 tbsp white wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp chili powder

Season chicken with salt, pepper and chili powder.  In a skillet heat olive oil and add the seasoned chicken and cook until chicken is no longer pink.  Remove chicken from skillet.  Add garlic, ginger, onion, and bell pepper to skillet and saute for a couple minutes until onion is cooked. Add chicken back to skillet.  In a bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, white wine, and chicken broth.  Add the soy sauce mixture to the skillet and stir continuously. Continue cooking for 3 minutes. Add hot sauce if.  Garnish with chives.

I decided it was time for something new on the big wall in the living room. The wall is so big and was just so bare looking. So I found an old mirror on craigslist for $20 and refinished it. Kaden helped. I bought some cheap frames at the dollar store and had some black and white prints made of some of my favorite pictures. Threw them all on the wall, and voila!

Tried this new recipe out a while back, but never got around to posting it. It was simple to make and pretty yummy.

The Recipe:

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 2 (11 ounce) cans condensed cream of Cheddar cheese soup
• 1 16 oz bag frozen mixed veggies (I used peas, carrots and green beans)
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray. Place chicken breasts inside. In a bowl mix together soup,milk and veggies and pour mixture over chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste and garlic powder.Cook on high for about 6 hours.  Or less time and lower heat if your crock pot burns everything like mine does. Served over rice.

This is my favorite time of year because it’s getting cooler and there’s so many tasty things to make.  We carved(or “scarved” as Kaden says) our pumpkins the other night in front of the fireplace. Baked pumpkin seeds are of my of favorite snacks for this time of year. I found a really good recipe for sweet and spicy pumpkin seeds a few years ago and adapted it to make it mine and have been using that recipe ever since. They really aren’t spicy like the name says, but  they are sooo good. This year we had a lot of pumpkins so I ended up having to double the recipe, but that’s fine with me. More seeds! This is the best salty, crunchy snack ever!

The Recipe:

• 2 cups Pumpkin seeds, rinsed and dried
• 2 Tbsp. Butter, melted
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Tbsp. Brown sugar
• 1 Tsp. Hot sauce (more or less to taste. I like like a little more.)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil. Stir together butter and seeds in a bowl until evenly coated. Add salt, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and hot sauce and mix well. Spread in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, until slightly browned and crispy.

Well, the weather has been cold and just right for chili making. And it’s October, so I thought we would try out some Pumpkin Chili. I was a little worried if this would actually be good or not, but it turned out really well. I usually don’t like chili that has a lot of meat or beans in it, but this was yummy.

The recipe:

• 3 pounds ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cans (16 ounces each) hot chili beans, undrained
• 2 bottles (12 ounces each) chili sauce
• 2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) condensed tomato soup, undiluted
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice(I made my own using 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. ginger and 1/8 tsp. allspice. I also had to make my own allspice by using equal parts of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper.)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder

In a large pot or Dutch oven, cook beef and onion over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Add water or beef stock if  desired to reduce thickness. ( Mine was a little think for my liking, so I added about 1 1/2 cups beef broth) Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour.  I served mine with tortilla chips, shredded cheese and some hot sauce.

The weather was a lot cooler last week, so it seemed only fitting to make some chili. So I did just that, and it was sooo good.  Even the Hubs, who is usually partial to his own chili and no one else’s is ever as good as his, liked it.  This recipe is perfect for us and all you others that like beanless chili. 😛

Here’s the recipe I used:

(I added some chili powder and habanero because be like it hot)

• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 1-1/2 lbs pork shoulder, trimmed & cut into bite-sized pieces
• salt & pepper
• 1 onion, grated or chopped
• 1-3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano flakes
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
• 3 large tomatoes, peeled & chopped small
• 14.5oz can petite diced tomatoes
• 2, 4oz cans green chilies
• 2 jalapenos, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour

Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Add pork, season with salt and pepper, then cook for 10 minutes. Add onion and spices then cook until pork is no longer pink in the center, about 5 more minutes. Add fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, green chilies, and jalapenos, then bring chili to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken broth, increase heat to medium-high and bring chili to a rolling boil.

2. While chili is coming up to a rolling boil, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat then whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Very slowly drizzle mixture into the boiling chili, whisking the chili vigorously the entire time. Turn off heat, give chili one last big stir, then let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Top with cheese and chips. I also sprinkled on some hot sauce.

About a week ago we had Benjamin Franklin Plumbing come out to fix whatever was causing our basement plumbing to back up. We assumed it was clogged like it did shortly after we moved in 5 years ago. They told us that the reason was that they found with a camera, a “broken, caved in pipe under the floor that was filling with mud” so it was clogged with mud, hence the back ups. So they pin pointed the exact spot of the “broken” pipe,  had the new carpet pulled up, cement guys came in to cut out the  floor so they could replace the “broken” pipe. So after they cut out the floor, come to find out the pipe was never broken. Not cracked, nothing.  Just very clogged. Ant not with mud, but with a white putty-like stuff that they said they’d never seen before. But after talking with other plumbers, it’s common with basement pipe with laundry soap and whatnot. We went downstairs to have a look at the “progress” while the plumbers were outside and even saw the pipe for ourselves, unbroken. It had cuts in it from when the cement guys cut out the floor, but not breaks or cracks or nothing; a perfectly fine, clogged pipe. After they came back in the said they thought they clog may be clogged worse further down the line and suggested that they might need to tear up the entire hallway and replace the whole line. Of course we didn’t want to do this so we just had them try to pressure jet it out first.We also brought up the fact that we did not see anything wrong with the “broken pipe” They tried to turn it around and say that our definitions of “break” were different and that they just meant that the joints were just loose and stuff was seeping in.  But I was told it was broken and caved in and filled with mud, and not to used the sinks because everything that drained was making it muddy under the house and would cause the cement slab to sink. There was no mud, there isn’t even dirt under the house..it’s all sand.  So the pressure jetted out the pipes to clear all the stuff out. Success. That was all that ever needed to be done. We never needed to have our carpet pulled up, the floor removed and a perfectly fine pipe replaced.  Chad let them know we did not want to pay for having all that unnecessary work done. After hearing that they called their boss to see if they should even finish doing the work. (filling in the hole) Their boss said to go ahead and finish and that he would call and talk to Chad. Chad had to go back to work, but made it clear to them that I would not be signing anything or paying anything, at least not until he spoke with their boss to get things straightened out. After they finished filling in the hole and were ready to leave, came up and told me they were done and that “Your husband said you would pay with card.”  Knowing this was not true because I had talked to Chad about it before he left, called Chad at work. Chad had the card that we would have used if we were going to pay so I told them he had the credit card. One of the plumbers then rudely replied, “So, then we’re just not going to get paid?!” So I put Chad on the phone with him. Chad told them their boss still had not called to talk to him. They said that their boss said he called and left messages. But there were no missed calls or messages. So they left without us paying like we had planned on in the first place. Chad is supposed to talk to their boss again today to get this cleared up. They also have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on the back to every invoice that says if you’re not 100% satisfied with the work done they’ll refund all your money.  Well. We are not satisfied. So far they have not been compliant and we may end up going to small claims.  On top of all that, I went down to see the “finished” work. The cement job they did is horrible. It very rough and scratchy and without a down will tear up the carpet pad and whatever else. It’s not flat or even, it’s extremely lumpy and bumpy and parts don’t even come up all the way to fill up the space.There are still huge cuts in the floor that I thought would have gotten filled. It’s horrible cement, NOT what basement floors are made of. Sidewalks are nicer that this. I had expected to have the same kind of cement that is already down there. This was supposed to be a one day job as I was told it was, but they cut it out, cleared the clog and put in a new pipe on Monday, left and were supposed to come back Tuesday to fill it in.  They called Tuesday morning and said they couldn’t get a hold of the cement guys so they would come on Wednesday. We were like, okay, and left with the impression that the cement guys would be coming to refill the hole. Wednesday the plumbers got showed up and turns out THEY are the ones who refill the cement. Not the cement guys. So they lied about that, and there was no reason they couldn’t have done it on Tuesday.

This has been the worst experience ever. I had expected way more from one of Wichita’s biggest plumbing companies. They did nothing but lie to us and destroy our basement.

Today the plumbers came out and pulled back the carpet to mark the spots that need to be torn out. Lucky for us, one of the plumbers used to do carpet so he could pull is back for us instead of us having to hire someone. We still have to have someone else re-install it,  but that’s alright. That saved us a little bit of time and money. Now we just have to wait to find out when the concrete digger people can come out.  So hooray! Step one is complete!

Well, as some of you know, we’ve been having some plumbing issues. We called  the plumbers out yesterday thinking that we just needed to have the line cleaned out because it was clogged and every time we used the kitchen sink, dishwasher or washing machine it backed up and there was a mess. So they came out and the plan was that they would flush the line and use a camera to make sure they got it all out. But they couldn’t even get the thing through to clean out the pipes. The camera found out that there’s a broken pipe underneath the basement floor that is full of mud and everything else. So we get to hire someone to tear up the new carpet that we just had put in not that long ago, have the cement floor destroyed, replace the broken pipe(and whatever else they find) pour new cement, and hire someone to re-install the carpet. So after spending $500 for them to tell us that and replace a small pipe behind the washer, we get to spend at least $2,200 more to have it fixed. Joy. So until this can all be done, we can’t use the sink, dishwasher or washing machine or it will keep making more wet mud under the house(and a mess inside)and then the cement floor will start to sink. Ugh!  And of course there is a ton of dishes in the sink and loads of  laundry that need to be done.

So this afternoon Kaden and I did dishes in the backyard like savages. At least he thought it was fun. From now on it’s paper plates and plastic forks. Maybe next I’ll take the laundry down to the river.

Last night I made Baked Buffalo Chicken Pasta.  I was pretty yummy.  But once again, made waaay more than the two of us could eat so we’ll be having leftovers for some time. But that’s alright.

The recipe:

• 16 ounces pasta (I used Campanelle, but any kind will do)
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into chunks
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 ounces shredded monterey jack cheese + more for topping
• 1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese + more for topping
• 1/3 cup buffalo wing sauce + more for topping
• 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese ( made the husband put this on his own plate instead of the whole dish. I think it’s nasty cheese, but he likes it)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter, and once it’s melted and bubbly add the flour. Whisk together to create a roux and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add milk, stir and reduce heat to low. Stir until milk thickens. Add grated cheeses and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Stir in buffalo sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Add pasta and chicken, then pour cheese sauce over and mix throughly until everything is coated. Sprinkle with additional grated cheese and bread crumbs. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately top with Gorgonzola(or not) and green onions and drizzle with buffalo wing sauce.