Philadelphia Cooking Creme

I saw this in the store and it caught my eye. It is Philadelphia Cooking Creme by Kraft Foods. All I had to do is add it to my cooked vegetables on the stove and let it melt, add some cooked pasta and there was a wonderful and fast delicious dinner. Just make some salad, cut up some fruit, small whole wheat bread roll and you have a complete dinner in a manner of minutes.

Look up http://www.cookphilly.com for more recipes.

Stacked Chicken Enchilada Casserole

When I cook a whole chicken, I always use the Crockpot. I love cooking my chicken in the Crockpot as it gets so tender and moist that it falls off the bones. And if there is leftover chicken, I enjoy making chicken noodle soup.

This last time I had leftover chicken I ended up making stacked chicken enchilada casserole. My family really seemed to enjoy it.

I didn’t use a recipe per say, I make it up as I go, especially with the ingredients. This time I used my imagination in putting this recipe together. All ingredients listed are approximate, as I didn’t write them down as I threw them in, so you might have to adjust to your liking.

Stacked Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:
2 ½ - 3 c. shredded or cut up cooked chicken
1 small can chopped olives
1 small can Ortega chilies, drained
1 small orange, red or yellow bell pepper
3-4 c. mild cheddar cheese
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bunch spinach, chopped (for sake of prep time, can use one box frozen chopped spinach)
1 jar Enchilada sauce
Corn Tortillas
Seasonings: ½ t. cumin, 1 tsp. salt, ¼ t. black pepper

Mix chicken, olives, chilies, bell pepper, onion and spinach together. Season with cumin, salt and pepper.

Steps: Add ½ c. enchilada sauce on bottom of 9x12 glass pan. Add corn tortillas on top. Add ½ chicken mixture, top with some cheese, add little enchilada sauce and cover with second row of corn tortillas. Layer rest of chicken mixture, cheese, enchilada sauce and last row of corn tortillas. Add all of enchilada sauce to top of casserole and rest of cheese. Bake in a 350º oven for 30-40 minutes until heated through.

For faster prep time, use store purchased cooked rotisserie chicken, enchilada sauce (I make mine from scratch), and frozen chopped spinach.

This is so much easier to make than enchiladas, but with all the flavor.

Another Use for Cooking Spray Oils

I have just found a great use for cooking spray oils and I would like to share it with everyone.

Have you ever shredded cheese with a manual shredder or in other words, by hand, and when it was time to wash the shredder you were not able to get all the cheese off? Well try this! Spray the shredder with cooking oil and shred your cheese as you normally would. When it is time to wash the shredder the cheese comes right off. I was amazed when I tried it last night.

I have also sprayed cooking oil on foil when I cover anything I am baking and nothing sticks to it.

February 11, 2011

This morning was supposed to start out like usual. I mean, the kids getting up on time and dressed, having ate breakfast and ready for school. Well, at least one child got up and was ready. The other one was sick, so of course he couldn’t get up. So I didn’t get upset. I did have an appointment at 9:30 a.m. so I had to have lunches ready and breakfast ready and I did! I had a talk with the children earlier in the week and stated that from now on, they will be responsible for themselves in getting up, getting ready for school, etc. I will no longer be yelling at them to get up or their father will not be going into their rooms to make them get up. They are now old enough, they both have alarm clocks and it is time. So that is what I did, and so far it is working! I feel so much better in the morning, I am more relaxed and that makes for a better day for everyone.


But this morning when I arose, I discovered that I had flatulence (gas or farts as everyone calls it) and they were not the usual silent type ones that don’t carry a smell, no, these were the kind that smelled. I had an interview at 9:30 a.m. and what if I still had gas, what was I supposed to do? I mean, normally in an interview it is just you and either one person or a group of people. I couldn’t look at the other person as if blaming them for the smell. So I hoped that it wouldn’t happen during the interview. Luckily I didn’t pass gas, at least not that I am aware of.

I really didn’t plan on applying for a job, but things are tough all over and our family is no exception. This job is only 1 hour a day, but I felt that it is enough for right now; at least I could get my foot in the door. It is for the food service department for the public school system and I felt since I have cooked most of my life for my family and for the church I know a little bit about cooking. The first thing that had to be done was a written test; they asked questions in regards to dividing and multiplication and of course money. Then they asked about the Danger Zone in food. As a cook that should be a no-brainer, but it honestly stumped me. So of course I put the wrong answer. I went home and looked it up on the internet (thank goodness for the internet!). Boy did I feel dumb. But somehow I passed that test (that was the only answer that was wrong) and now I had the interview. The interviewer was very nice (younger than me of course) and I enjoyed that interview. I didn’t try to hard to impress, I felt if it was meant to be it would happen. I did speak honestly and hopefully very knowledgeable, but who knows.

Dutch Apple Wedges

What was supposed to start out as a sunny Sunday ended up as a rainy “Where did it come from?” day. I was really hoping for a sunny day, this way I would be able to work outside. But alas (who uses that word anymore?) it wasn’t meant to be. I did end up making a dessert called Cutch Apple Wedges and it comes from Betty Crocker Recipe magazine, Simple Winter Meals (Jan. 2003 issue #192). I don’t purchase everyone of those magazines, but I always look through them at the check-out line in the grocery store and if the cover picture looks like something I would make or I find a recipe while I am looking through it and if I have enough money, then yes I will buy it.

But this past year I haven’t had money so I am going through all my old cookbook magazines looking at the recipes again to see which ones I want to try. If there is nothing in the magazine, then I will give the book away to someone else. It doesn’t make sense to keep magazines or cookbooks if I’m not going to use anything in them. But on the other hand, I am keeping all my cookbooks; it is the magazines that will have to go.

The Concert

Last night we went to a concert. I haven’t been to a concert in over 20 years, but I know that they haven’t changed that much. I knew that it would still be too loud for me, but I had to go as this was a Christmas present. So I brought my cotton balls for my ears, thinking that it would muffle the loud music. Well it did to a point, then the music got really loud and I could hear it, no, feel it inside my body beating away. You know that feeling when you are driving and pull up next to a teen-agers car with their boom box of a radio blasting through the air and you just hear the bass of the drums and you can feel it moving your vehicle. Well I felt like that, only I couldn’t drive away! I was stuck there!

I did enjoy parts of the concert, I did like who was performing and I liked her music. I think that I am too old; or rather to smart to want to go to concerts and ruin what hearing I have left. As it is, when my hubby or children talk to me, my pat answer is “Huh?” And I wonder where my kids get that from.

Now I am not advocating not going to concerts. There are some really good singers and groups I would love to see, but not at the expense of my hearing. I would love them to tone down the sound, or make it softer. Then you could really hear them sing and enjoy the music so much better. But on the other hand, I wonder if some of these groups and singers play their music too loud because they can’t sing and if we really heard them, we wouldn’t buy their CD’s.

The Big Experiment

Today we are embarking on a new experiment, at least for our family. I read in the paper that it is proven that children who do not play computer or video games get better grades in school. So for the next month my son will not have access to any computer or video games and I will see how he does in school. Because almost every day he comes home from school saying that he has no homework.

He states that he won’t last a week without computer or video games. I beg to differ; I think that after a week he will have found something else to do. Something like read or study, or he will talk non-stop to us. Oh, never mind that one, he already talks non-stop to us, doesn’t matter what the subject, he just keeps talking.

So, I will let you know how this turns out, it should be interesting.