Stupid Easy

It's been a while since I've blogged about a meal.  And it's not that I haven't been cooking.  Lord knows I've cooked more in the last 9 months than I have in my entire life!  I just forget to blog about it!!  But I had to make sure to blog about the meal I made tonight.  

It was STUPID EASY!  It's called Crockpot Cheesy Chicken and Rice.  Now, for you health nuts...this probably isn't the dish for you.  Most of the time I really do try to keep things relatively healthy in my kitchen, but this wasn't one of those times.

I found this recipe on Pinterest (oh, how I love thee!).  It's from the blog Southern Plate.  

And now you'll see what I mean when I said it was easy.  Literally the hardest part was cutting up an onion.

1. Put 3-4 chicken breasts in a crockpot.
2. Put your diced onion on top (I only used half an onion).
3. Dump a can of cream of chicken soup on top.
4. Cook for 3-4 hours on low or 7-8 hours on high (I did 7-8 hours).
5. When you have 30-40 minutes left on the chicken (or you can even do it the night before and throw it in the fridge), cook the Zataran's Yellow Rice Mix according to the directions.
6. Once the rice is ready and the chicken is finished, dump the rice, cheese and a drained can of corn in the crock pot and mix it all up.  (I cut/smooshed the chicken up with a wooden spoon as I mixed).

You're finished!!  And it's delish!!

The finished product

Michael likes it!!  I was lazy and just fixed green beans to accompany our meal.

The proof is in the empty plate!

Here's the recipe directly from Southern Plate!

Ricotta Cheese

I love Pinterest.  It inspires me to do things I would never even think to do on my own!!  

Like making ricotta cheese!

Now....had the blog I pinned this from hadn't insisted how easy and delicious homemade ricotta cheese was, I probably would have been too scared/skeptical/unmotivated to even attempt.

BUT...I did attempt and it was delicious and easy!

Here's the blog this came from and she promises this about the recipe:

1. If you can boil water, you can make your own ricotta cheese.
2.  It will take you less than 15 minutes from start to finish.
3.  It will taste so good, you will wonder why on earth it took you so long to figure out that you should have been making your own ricotta cheese for the past hundred years.
4.  It will take all your willpower not to stand there next to your bowl of delicious fresh ricotta and not eat it all in one fell swoop.

And I agree!!  YUMMY-NESS!  So, here's how it goes:

Put a mesh strainer in the sink.  I don't have a mesh strainer that stands on it's own, so this is what my set-up looked like.

Layer some cheese cloth (3-4 layers) over the strainer.

Gather your ingredients.  And dump them into a saucepan.

Turn the heat to medium high and watch the magic happen!  The first time I did this I stirred a lot during the boiling, and it didn't turn out as well as when I stirred it once and then let it do it's thing.  After it starts boiling, it separates into curds and whey!  (Like Little Miss Muffet!)

Now all you have to do is use a slotted spoon and spoon out the curds into your cheese cloth and let it drain until it's as dry (or wet) as you like!  NOTE: After every spoonful or two, be sure to add some salt!  There's not a lot of yummy-ness happening without salt.  I used Kosher salt for mine.

That night I used my homemade ricotta for lasagna rollups.  DELICIOUS!!

This is the recipe directly from the blog Framed Cooks.

Girls Night Out and Basketball

My family loves college basketball.  And we're a house divided.  My dad and my hubby are KU fans, and the rest of us (me, my mom and my sis) are MU fans.  My sister and I both graduated from Mizzou.  But, honestly, I root for Kansas, too.  Don't tell anyone!  That's a total Mizzou taboo!!  (I think I've been to more Kansas games (2) than I have Mizzou games.)

We're so excited in Kansas City to have all three of our local teams - Kansas, Mizzou and K-State - in the NCAA tournament.  We're especially exited to have the Sprint Center in downtown KC host a lot of the second and third round games!!

Source: http://populous.com/project/sprint-center/

(PS....It was frigid and snowy today, so this picture is slightly misleading as to our experience today!)

AND Kansas and K-State get the benefit of pretty much home-court advantage to play in Kansas City!  YAY!  And super YAY for our community and the revenue we're going to be getting from all of this basketball fun!!

Today the teams had an open practice at the Sprint Center.  My mom and I decided to have a Girls Night Out and check out the Kansas practice.  Before Kansas practiced, though, we got to watch the University of North Carolina.  Now...if you're not from Kansas City or a KU fan, you might not know that the UNC coach (Roy Williams) used to be the Kansas coach.  And he didn't exactly leave on good terms.  Some of us are still a little bitter (i.e. ME!).  But when he entered with his team today, he got a standing ovation.  I guess we still kinda like him.  And we have a good team, too.  So that helps us/me get over him deserting us.  :-)

He really is a good guy.

We're having lots of fun!  (Despite the creeper sitting next to me.  STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!)

The UNC players put on quite a show at the end of their 35 minutes of practice time.  Watch Roy Williams.  His reactions are funny, too!

Kansas came on to practice after UNC, but they were boring in comparison!  Then my mamma and I headed to Gordon Birsch for dinner.  We had such a fun night!!  I love that lady!

Speaking of basketball and NCAA brackets....here are mine!  So far, I'm doing pretty good.  But I'd better get this published before the UNLC/Cal game and the Belmont/Arizona game finish up so that I can say I'm 100% on my brackets for now!

Snowmageddon 2013

After a fairly mild winter, Kansas City got blasted yesterday.  The local weather guy said there were times when we had 4 inches of snow falling per hour!!  Needless to say, Michael and I have both been home from work the last two days.  We are completely blocked in our driveway thanks to the foot of snow that's surrounding our car/garage.  The snow has stopped for now (another storm is apparently on it's way for Monday!), so it's probably time to do a little digging out.  By the way, I couldn't help but share this.

I don't even care that we have to make these days up in the spring.  

I LOVE me a good snow day (or two!).  

So, here's a time lapse-ish picture of yesterday.  It starts at about 8am and ends a little after noon.  Keep an eye on the level of snow on the table compared to the top of the chair.

This is what happens after two days worth of being locked inside, no makeup, no flat iron....time to go shovel the driveway.

Darn snow blower won't start!  We had to dig Michael's car out of the driveway just to go get some gas for the snowblower.

Got some gas for the snowblower and started working on snow drifts to my knees...and decided I was a little underdressed...

Maybe the cute knit stocking cap makes this outfit look a little less ridiculous.  

Maybe not.

My hubby workin' that snow blower!

Thankful to have a driveway we can get out of.  And hoping reports of another foot of snow on Monday aren't accurate!!!

Show Us Your Life - Favorite Picture Ideas

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner this morning for Show Us Your Life - Favorite Picture Ideas.  My favorite pictures right now are from our wedding.  We had an amazing photographer!!  Here are some of my favs!

The bridesmaids had different shades of blue dresses.

When The Right One Comes Along

Laundry Soap CleanOff

***This post is from several years ago and mysteriously ended up back as a draft.  So, here it is again!***

I had no idea so many people made their own laundry detergent until I started posting about it on Facebook!  Holy moly, there are a lot of recipes out there!!

A few weeks ago I made a recipe I found on Pinterest for something called Laundry Sauce.  I like it because it seemed different from other recipes I'd seen.  It looked more professional....or something like that.  So, I made my first attempt, and it was just okay.  I blogged about it here.  The Laundry Sauce was kind of gritty, and after reading a lot of the comments, I learned that I hadn't let all of the soap dissolve in the cooking process.

First attempt at Laundry Sauce

Throughout this process, I also learned that my oh-so-handsome hubby used to make homemade laundry detergent.  (I know.....I was surprised at this information, too.)

Isn't he HANDSOME?!

Michael's laundry detergent was liquid, and was much less labor intensive than mine.  Which left me wondering.......Which detergent is better?  Which should I be using?  Maybe I should just stick with good 'ole Tide.

So I decided to take this laundry soap thing up a notch and have a (drumroll please!)......

Laundry Soap CleanOff!!  

(Yup, I really am that big of a dork.)

Liquid Laundry Detergent in the bucket and setting for 24 hours.

Liquid detergent finished!  It's only kind of liquid....it's more like a gelatin.  The big whole in the middle is from me using it for the CleanOff.

Laundry Sauce being made.....It turned out GREAT this time!!!

The bad batch is on the left...the good batch is on the right.

So, here's what happened last weekend.  I took three socks that had lost their partners and labeled them.  

L = liquid soap

S = laundry sauce

T = Tide

Then I buried them in the dirt and poured some water on them.

I washed them all with their assigned soap, and here are the results.

They all did pretty good, but in person, it's clear that the Laundry Sauce did the best!!  Here's my disclaimer on that, though.  The socks with the liquid detergent and the Tide sat longer than the one with the Laundry Sauce.  

So, I've decided I'm just going to use all of the detergent I have (liquid and sauce) before I worry about making more.  But when it's time to make more, I think Laundry Sauce is my winner!!!

Here are the recipes for both:

Liquid Soap

After reading this recipe again, I think maybe I should have stirred up my gelatin/liquid detergent. Oh, well! Live and learn!

Ingredients:
Borax
Super Washing Soda (not Baking Soda)
a Bar of Fels Naptha
Cheese Grater
5 Gallon bucket
Measuring cups
A Pot
Spoon with Holes (optional)
Funnel (optional)
Beverage Dispenser, Old Laundry Container, etc.

Directions:
1. Grate bar of Fels Naptha and add it to the pot.2. Add 1 quart (4 cups) of water to the pot, and melt the soap on low/medium heat.
3. Add melted soap mixture to the 5 gallon bucket.
4. Fill 5 gallon bucket with water halfway.
5. Add 2 cups of Borax to the 5 gallon bucket.6. Add 2 cups of Super Washing Soda to the 5 gallon bucket and stir the mixture thoroughly.7. Fill the 5 gallon bucket all the way with water leaving enough room for the lid so it doesn't spill over, and stir again.
8. Cover the bucket with the lid or with cling wrap and let it sit overnight (24 hours).
9. In the morning, stir the detergent some more, breaking up the gelatin clumps at the top (the fenestrated spoon helps with that).
10. Put in desired container.


Mom's Super Laundry Sauce
(You really need to check out this website and read all of the comments before making. Plus, the website has lots of GREAT step-by-step pictures. The whole process is definitely an ordeal.)
~ This makes 1/2 Gallon of concentrate ~
~ Btw, that's a full 128 loads of laundry!! ~


1 bar Fels Naptha
1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT BAKING SODA!!)
4 cups of hot water


Quick Note: Follow the directions Carefully, adding the ingredients at the wrong time will result in a grainy textured detergent that will not dissolve well in the washer.


Step 1: Put 4 cups of water in a large heavy saucepan over high heat. While that is heating, mix the borax and washing soda together in a bowl, mixing well, set aside.

Step 2: Grate the Fels Naptha- the easiest way to do this is to cut it into several smaller chunks and then run it through a food processor- otherwise, you can just grate it with a hand grater or shave it with a knife.

Step 3: Add the freshly grated soap to the water in the saucepan, stirring almost constantly. Reduce the heat to medium, It will take approximately 10 – 15 minutes for the Fels Naptha to complete dissolve. If it takes longer, your heat wasn't up high enough. Alternatively, you can melt the fels on the stove over low heat without water then add the water afterwards, stirring it in, as the original recipe called for. I find that it's much easier to melt IN the water. Absolutely do NOT let this Boil over, or you'll have a sudsy mess that you do NOT want to contend with!!  It should be a rolling, simmering boil where you must stir Constantly but it does not foam heavily or seem to "creep up" the saucepan. See the photo below- note the amount of "foam" - that's all you should see.

Step 4: Once the fels naptha has completely melted, remove the pan from the heat and add in the Borax and the Washing Soda, stirring constantly until the powders are completely dissolved, this will take about 3-5 minutes. Do not under-stir or your soap texture will be very grainy rather than smooth. (You can fee the "graininess" on the bottom of the pan, once you can't feel it, it's incorporated fully!)

Step 5: Pour the liquid equally into (2) 1 quart Mason jars.

Step 6: Add just enough water to bring the contents up to the “shoulders” or Rounded part of the jar, leaving approximately 1 ½ inches of headspace.

Step 7: Put the lid on the jars and turn them UPSIDE DOWN and let them sit a few hours (about 4 - 5 hours). The reason for this is that the soap is going to Separate into layers while it's resting and occasionally will form crystals on the bottom. Rather than waste these trying to scrape them off, in the next step we're going to incorporate them easily! Btw, if you leave it overnight it will have a slightly grainier texture than if you whip it immediately after 4 hours.  The Layers will separate after a few hours.  Then the bottom layer will become very, very thick.

Step 8: There are two ways to do this next step, depending on what you have for equipment. Here's how I like to do it- unscrew the blade and bottom from your blender and screw them onto your regular mouthed mason jar containing all of your ingredients.   Place the entire mason jar on the blender and whip until smooth and creamy throughout, about a minute. Flip back over, unscrew the blender blade, attach a cover and seal.