Mashed Potatoes Any Time

We don't need a special occasion at my house to have mashed potatoes.  Any time there is an opportunity for gravy and/or someone feels like peeling potatoes we'll have mashed potatoes.  For years I made Swanson's Skinny Mashed Potatoes.  They are actually quite good and fit well with Weight Watchers.

Skinny Mashed Potatoes
Serves: 6
3 1/2 cups Swanson® Natural Goodness® Chicken Broth
5 large potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
Generous dash ground black pepper

Heat the broth and potatoes in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Drain the potatoes well in a colander, reserving the broth.

Mash the potatoes with 1 1/4 cups broth and black pepper. Add additional broth, if needed, until the potatoes are the desired consistency.
Weight Watchers Points®*: 3
Dietary Exchanges: 2 Starch, 1/2 Other Carbohydrate
USDA MyPyramid: 1 cup Vegetables

Now I'm on my "who are we kidding" chapter of my life and I went wild last Thanksgiving and made Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes.  I did them exactly how she said to do them and boy were they good.  Decadent even.  They were good without gravy.
 
Tonight I wanted to make mashed potatoes and thought I'm going to do them like Pioneer Woman's, but I have to admit I just couldn't go all the way with the butter and the half n half.  So, I went part of the way and they were still wonderful.

Lynne's Scaled Back Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes
2 to 3 pounds of peeled Idaho Potatoes, cut into pieces about the same size
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese straight from the fridge
2 T butter
1/4 - 1/2 tsp Lawry's Season Salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper

Place prepared potatoes in pan and just cover with water.  Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook until potato chunk when forked slides right through.  Remove from heat and drain.  Don't worry if a little water is left in pan.  I just tip it carefully over the sink enough so the potatoes don't fall out, but water drains.  Return to stove (hot burner but turned off) add cream cheese, butter, salt and pepper and begin mashing.  Once cream cheese and butter are warmed up I pull pan off hot burner and keep mashing until it's the consistency I like.  Serve.

Tonight we once again thought they were so good that gravy was just an added bonus.  I had a small serving and DH and DS ate all but 2 cups of the mashed potatoes.  I could see them circling and knew I might want more potatoes maybe tomorrow.

There's An Airplane In Front Of My House?!

First off... I can't believe I didn't take a picture.  Secondly, the airplane was on a trailer, but really even on a trailer how many times has someone looked out their front window and seen an airplane parked in front of their house?  I opened my blinds for the day and there it was.  I have a wide spot in front of my house for my convenience, but many people use it for their own.  As was it with the airplane people.  I wondered if the airplaned tried to take off, because 3 men were frantically running around the airplane checking it's tie downs and adding more.  Now that would have been a site and airplane crashed in front of my house.

Decorated Cake In A Hurry

Dear Hubby was bragging about my delicious cakes at work and his supervisor asked him if I would make a cake to celebrate PeriAnestheisa Nurse Week.  He comes home all excited and tells me the news.  I say, "Make a cake for peri whosit whatsit week?!"  He excitedly tells me that's what he and his fellow coworkers are called.  I know he works in Same Day Surgery and I know he's an RN, but I didn't know he was a PeriAnestheisa Nurse.  So, I quiz him on what kinds of things they do trying to get a feel for how I should decorate this cake.  I really needed to talk to a woman, because after talking to him I really had no creative ideas for this cake.

I was so uninspired by this cake that I completely forgot I was supposed to make until the day before.  I still had no ideas on how to decorate it.  I thought though that I better get it baked and frosted at the very least and worry about decorating it then.  I did my ususal half yellow and half chocolate.  It covers all bases and still to this day everyone is amazed there are 2 flavors.  It's really not amazing at all.  I take 2 cake mixes (I prefer Duncan Hines).  I mix them both up doing vanilla first, so I don't have to wash the bowl and beater between mixing.  I put the vanilla in a separate bowl.  Then mix the chocolate cake mix.  I then pour both cake mixes at the same time in my prepared cake pan.  I try to make sure they go to the half way line and empty as much as will pour out on it's own.  I then scrape each bowl to their respective sides and bake.

While cake cools I mix up the frosting.  I use the Wilton Buttercream recipe except I double the shortening and don't use butter.  I also in addition to the vanilla extract I also add one teaspoon of Wilton's Butter flavored extract.  This frosting smells so wonderful anyone in the house will start circling your kitchen again, because you've already shooed them out after the cake came out of the oven.

I took a Wilton's Cake Decorating class at my local craft store about 15 years ago and I think the one technique that I learned and still impresses me the most was this large decorating tube.  This one tube probably shaved 1 to 2 hours off my decorating time.  I know longer do a crumb coat.  That step always frustrated me.  Plus I'd have to frost the whole cake and then frost it again.  Now I do it once.

Wilton had use over lap the strips of frosting with the large tube, but personal preference for a tad less frosting makes me space them out a bit.  Above I've filled the cake.  I slice the big sheet cake in half length wise using another handy dandy Wilton tool called the cake levelor.  I used it to level the cake and slice it in half for the filling.  How do I get the top off to fill the cake without breaking it in half.  I use the pan I baked it in.  I slide it on to the bottom of the cake pan.  Then to put it back on I line edges up and slide the cake pan out from under the cake.  It's more or less a controlled fall.  One can still ease it into to place if it falls slightly off kilter.  One thing I must stress is if your cake cracks or breaks frosting is your friend.  Frost covers a multitude of sins.  I've never had anyone say with alarm, "I'm not eating this cake it has a crack in it!"

As you can see the tube frosts a whole side of the cake in a couple seconds.

Then I frost the whole cake.  One doesn't have to be perfect as you will be running a spatula or a plain ole butter knife over the top of the frosting to make sure it's adhered to the cake and smoothed out as best you can.

Again you don't have to smooth it out perfectly either.  After it's smoothed as best as I can get it with a spatula I let it sit and dry for a few minutes.  Then I take a clean paper towel to it.  I lay the paper towel on the cake.  I hold the towel by the edge with my left hand and gently rub the cake threw the paper towel.  Then I lift the towel up.  If it sticks to the cake let it dry a bit longer.  You will reach a stage where the paper towel will not stick.  I proceed to rub the whole cake with the paper towel.  It's amazing how you can smooth and even mold the frosting.  Making it smooth and even giving it the pattern of the paper towel. 

This is another thing people are amazed with... "How did you get the cake so smooth and with that interesting pattern."  My mom used a clean "for cake only" sponge.  That made a nice texture too.

Now the cake was frosted and I had to get creative.  This is usually my favorite part, but since I had no real idea how to decorate it for this occasion I just winged it.  I knew the cake would be extra tasty and they'd forgive my lack of creativity.  One thing my husband kept stressing was how much time the spent on the telephone talking to patient families, doctors and setting up appointments.  So, I knew I'd put a telephone on it.  While mixing the color for the phone I realized it started out a bandaide color.  So, I asked DH do you guys ever use bandaides.  Yes, was the answer.  So, I drew on a couple bandaides before I tweaked the frosting color to brown.  My daughter and I decided blue should be the color of the words.  I wanted to get them on next to make sure I had room for all that writing.  That's when I noticed the medicine syringe had blue writing on it that match my blue frosting perfectly. That is another thing my husband said they did a lot of. Administering medicine by mouth. So, I put a cute little syringe on it.  At this point I felt the decorating balanced out and I was done.  I didn't feel very creative, but I knew know one would throw it away.

DH told me he took the cake in and hid it.  BUT as I mentioned above even wrapped up my frosting smells incredibly good.  The hunt was on.  People were calling DH asking where the cake was, because they could smell it and wanted a piece.  DH was saving it for the boss thinking she should be the one to bring it out and slice it.  DH said had he not hid the cake by the time the boss got in it would have been sliced up.  His boss loved it.  Everyone who initially asked for a small piece came back for seconds.

And BTW this cake took me about 4 hours from baking to delivery.  I wasn't working every minute as things needed to cool and or dry.  Some might pop out to the store for a cake, but I like spending the time and having a delicious cake.

Groundhog Day

Who knew that we have our very own groundhog right here in Orangevale.

At first I think she saw her shadow, but scampered under a tree and decided she didn't see her shadow.  She's a true California girl and is ready for spring.  She does not want another 6 weeks of winter.

All kidding aside I had a lot of fun crocheting this little cutie.  Don't ask what came over me.  I just saw a photo of this pattern and wanted to have one of my very own. I bought the yarn at Fig Tree Alley Fiber Arts.  Yeah I could have used cheaper yarn, but this yarn had been calling to me ever since my friend opened her yarn shop. The varigated brown skein just screamed “GROUNDHOG.” It really wasn't expensive.  It just wasn't cheap Red Heart.  I really loved the feel and look of this yarn and will definitely be using it again in the future.  The yarn was Brown Sheep Lanaloft Worsted weight.  The color was maple praline.  Doesn't it sound yummy?!  It comes in many gorgeous colors.


I bought the pattern off of PlanetJune's blog.  She has a lot of other very cute patterns.  If you like to crochet check out her site.  She also has free lessons on how to make your crocheted items look their best.  I used the Magic Ring Technique.  I also used the Invisible Decrease Technique.  All the rest was single crochet.

Uncle Bradie's Sauce

OK I don't call him Uncle Bradie as I didn't really get acquainted with my Uncle until I was a young adult.  Being an Air Force Brat we just never lived close enough.  Also when I was a kid he was a teenager.  He's only 9 years older than me.  Not much interested in a pesky niece.  He was too busy trying to become a rock star.  The younger nieces and nephews called him Uncle Bradie and I just thought it was funny and cute.  So, when I became aware of his sauce I called it Uncle Bradie's Sauce.

I got acquainted with this sauce when I first met my husband.  He was stationed at a base not far from San Francisco.  On my 2nd date with DH we went to an Aerosmith concert at the Cow Palace.  I drove to San Francisco and stayed the night at my Aunt and Uncle's house.  It was my Aunt who suggested I defrost some of Brad's Spaghetti sauce and have DH over for dinner before the concert.  We both thought the sauce was very good.  Next time I came to San Francisco I asked Uncle Brad for the recipe and he said he didn't have one.  So, I watched him make it and wrote the recipe down myself.  We've been having this sauce ever since.  That's been 25 years.

Uncle Bradie's Spaghetti Sauce

1 pound hamburger
1 pound ground pork
1 pound Italian sausage (taken out of casings)
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1/2 head of garlic, chopped
1 onion med. to large, chopped
6 cans of tomato sauce (8 oz cans or 48 oz)
2 cans of tomato paste (6 oz cans or 12 oz)
1 tsp of white pepper
3 bay leaves (Turkish)
1/2 bottle of Italian seasoning
2 tsp oregano
4 cups of Burgundy wine
1 T sugar

Brown all meats separately and drain the fat off.  Put in large pot.  Add remaining ingredients.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours.

First thing I do before starting the sauce is make some Italian seasoning.  This recipe uses a lot.  I usually have all the herbs needed already.  I put 2 tablespoons of each Basil, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary and Thyme in a bowl and stir.  You can buy this premade if you don't have the ingredients already at home.

Then I begin browning the meats.  Here I'm browning the ground beef using my handy dandy mix n chop from Pampered Chef.  Makes short work of browning a lot of meat.

I'm browning the sausage IN the casing here for the first time in 20 years.  Uncle Brad had slices of sausage in his.  I thought I'd make it more like his.  I ended up not liking the large chunks of sausage in the sauce.  Reminded me why I do it differently.  So, let this be a lesson to you all take the Italian sausage from it's casing and brown it like you would the ground beef and pork.  The sausage mixes with the flavors of the sauce much better that way.

To save time while I brown all the meats I add the other ingredients to the big pot and start heating it up.  As the meats are browned I put them into the pot.

Here is the ground pork on it's way to being browned and ready for the pot.

Everything is together and simmering.  I usually make a double batch.  This sauce freezes beautifully.  This sauce also makes great lasagna.

A Snuggle With My Poodle

She doesn't get all the way on my lap.  I'm not sure if she feels she's too big or if it's some dominate dog thing or what.  My Miss Marie would sit on the top of my head if I let her.  Little Star likes to lay very close.  She especially likes to lean on me.  Or she'll lay next to my legs and throw her head over a leg.  Right now she's leaning and laying her head on my stomach.  She letting me look at her beautiful brown almond shaped eyes.  She wants to make sure I get a glimps of he adorable gum drop nose.  She knows I have a weakness for fuzzy poodle snout.  She's usually not this cuddly unless I have a plate she wants to lick.  She's and expert smoozer.

She can be so nonchalant too.  "Plate what plate?  I didn't see a plate I was just here to snuggle.  What? You want me to lick the plate?  OK if I have to."

It's very difficult to get a good photo of a black poodle.  Flash or no flash they are still very cute and snuggly.

Full on snuggle sneaky smoozin' mode.  I say, "Are you my baby?"  And she lays her head down and gives the eyes.  You know the eyes that say, "Yes I am."

I can never resist such fuzzy warm cuteness.  Charles Schultz said it best, "Happiness is a warm puppy."

Kool-Aid Dyeing

I got my special yarn in the mail yesterday for my Kool-Aid dyeing project.  Couldn't wait to try it out and bought Kool-Aid today.  Diana Sullivan has a video on her "Diana natters on..." blog describing the whole technique and I followed it to the letter.

OK maybe I did one or two tiny things different from the video.  In the below picture I wetted the yarn in the warm water I filled my spaghetti pot with.  I wanted to make sure I wetted it through.  Once soaked I put the yarn in my colander while I heated the water to nearly boiling.

Since Diana's pot wasn't at a rolling boil I turned the heat down to simmer once it was about to boil.  I added 4 packages of Berry Kool-Aid and stirred.  What a beautiful color.

I ran the wet yarn under warm water again to make sure it was warm as Diana warned that cool yarn might be shocked into felting.  I didn't want this to happened.  Hand squeezed out excess moisture and added it to the pot of unsweetened hot Kool-Aid.

As I stirred the yarn around I got worried it wasn't working.  I was talking out loud about it.  My son in the background working on homework says, "Mom it's only been one minute."  It did feel like 10 to me since I was trying a new craft.  He was right I kept stirring. 

Saying out loud, "I don't think it's going to soak up all the dye in my batch."  In the back ground I hear my son say, "Mom it's only been 2 minutes."  Felt like 20 to me.  He was right.  I kept stirring.

Wow it really did soak up all the dye, but my water never did turn white as in Diana's video.  I'm at the 3 minute mark now.  I was amazed at how quickly it all went despite my fears of messing it all up.

I just couldn't believe the water went from a royal blue to clear!

After letting the water and yarn cool until I could comfortably pick it up I drained the pot in my kitchen sink.  I thought for sure the water on my white sink would have a faint blue color.  Nope.  Completely clear.

I got a rag towel out and jelly rolled the yarn up in it squeezing out as much water as I could.

I undid the ties that Diana had us do to give the yarn a tye dye look.  Since I really like variegated yarn I wanted to tye dye it to see what would happen when all knitted up.

I really enjoyed seeing how the yarn resisted the dye under the ties.  Yarn is hanging to dry.  Will check on it in the morning.  I can't hardly wait to make something with my newly dyed yarn!

Diana said her kitchen smelled fruity after she was done.   Maybe my kitchen is too open to trap the scents.  So, I decided to smell my yarn for a beautiful fruity scent.  My yarn smelled like a fruity wet dog.

It's tomorrow and couldn't wait to see how my yarn dried.  I touched my dyed yarn and it felt like it was just as wet as it was last night.  Maybe it's the rainy weather we've had for 9 days.  I bet there is a lot of water in the air.  So, I stuck it in my dryer on the delicate drying bed.  Set dryer for air dry.