What should be in the Operah Cookbook

Lemon Pepper Chicken 

with a side of Seasoned Collard Greens

 aka. deliciousness.

So here's how you do it.

What you need:

• Thawed chicken
• rice
• Lemon Pepper Marinade
• Collard Greens
• Oil/bacon fat
• salt
• rolls (from our wedding)

Directions:

• Begin cooking one cup of rice
• Cut chicken into thin slices
• Let chicken marinate in Lemon Pepper marinade for 15 minutes
• After, oil a pan and set on medium heat
• Add chicken and cook until all pink is gone
• wash and chop collard green 
• after the bacon grease has heated up, add the collard green

TADA! that is it. so simple and SO delicious. Curt and I kept speculating how wonderful it is and how well the collard greens and lemon pepper go together. Seriously, it is the perfect mix.

Mystery Solved.

I work at the YMCA. It is definitely fun. Always something to laugh at. Anyways, getting off topic. I was leaving work one fine evening. It was dark and late, around ten o'clock. I am headin out for the night, and the lot is almost completely empty. I go to where I usually park my car. Except, my car wasn't there. I was super confused. I didn't park anywhere else did I? No. I look around and see my silver Honda Accord across the entire parking lot. I walk over to my car.

Did it roll across three rows?
No, couldn't be. My parking brake was pulled tight. Someone must have pushed my car. Some little punk kids. That was my obvious conclusion.

ONE WEEK LATER.

Mary Lou (one of my co-workers) thought she was funny. She told everyone someone hit her car. My Dad (also my boss), runs out to see what happens. A couple moments later...they asked me to come see what happened.

My stomach sank.

I come out to find my car inches away from Mary Lou's car. INCHES. And she was parked on the OTHER side of the lot. So maybe somebody didn't push my car across the lot this time. Maybe my car actually did roll down the entire parking lot with the brake on. Weird.


But nonetheless, the mystery is solved.

Words of Wisdom:
If you drive a stick, and are on a slight hill, perhaps maybe park at the bottom of the hill. Or, the big news to me, park in first gear.

Crunch.Crunch.

This morning Curt made me toast. It reminded us of this scene:

Now we can say Halloween is partially complete.

 I am not sure if you knew this, but there has been a FIRE BAN in IN. super lame. Because of this, we had to cancel our much anticipated camping trip. even more lame. But our fall break weekend still turned out well. Our plan B was to carve pumpkins! Yes, it's only the first week of October, but we thought it would be appropriate. The festivities included apples (yum), with caramel dip (yummm), more caramel candies, chocolate milk (apparently the official drink of Halloween-says the label), pumpkins, pumpkin seeds, Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack (wonderful), and good people (below).


Curt and I happened to browse the internet for ideas of what to carve exactly. Brooke and Phil had not. They definitely didn't know where to begin. This was their list of ideas:

• dead cat
• bat carrying a dead cat
• a catbat
• monster of some sort
• something terrifying

The list continued. for quite some time. But it was extremely humorous. Finally they decided upon something grand. 

 Curt, being the manly man he is, was in charge of the cutting and dissecting of our lovely pumpkin. He is very good, let me tell you. He cut with such precision and detail. Amazing.

 After the final product.


It was very abstract. And definitely took a minute to see, because of their amazing craftsmanship and talent of course.

CatBat

 Beware of the Bat carrying the DEAD CAT. It's mind bobbling! Terrifying.

Jack Skellington

And this, we reveal to you as our creation!




JACK SKELLINGTON.

Not so terrifying, but definitely cute and halloweeny.

 Now our home looks very festive.

hallway decor

 We have new friends.

playing with our pumpkin friends.

Jefferey.

AND my sister and I made Jefferey, our newest friend. We love him dearly. We thought long and hard about Jefferey. We knew he would be sweet and slightly nerdy. We also didn't have any white, so we used fabric for his teeth, and buttons for his braces! It was so fun.



Words of Wisdom:

With my experiences with Jack and Jefferey-I have come to the conclusion that painting pumpkins are so much easier than carving. No offense Jack.

I used to think I was an artist.

Until today.

I was shown this website, a little sketical at first. The title of the article being:

She’s just 8, yet she’s painted art worth $250,000 

 How on Earth could an 8 year old girl sell a painting--that she made--for that much money? I was intrigued. 

Then I was bewildered. Amazed. Bewildered again. 

This child is a prodigy. I envy her. I yearn for the abilities that she was given from birth! I'll tell you a little about her. And you too will be amazed. This little girl, Autumn de Forest,  first painted when she was in her fives. No-not her forties or fifties- in her FIVES. She asked to paint for fun. A normal kid thing to do. Her father gave her a paint brush, some wood stain, and a piece of wood. She turned it into this abstract masterpiece! Who knew? Her parents then started taking her seriously. They bought her professional paint and canvases. 

She now paints on canvas 4 ft by 6 ft. She is approximately 4'2" tall. She needs a later to paint the entire canvas. The crazy thing is, she has never taken lessons! Are you kidding me?? Am I in school for nothing?? I should stay home and paint like Autumn, maybe then would I become an artist. I like that idea. 

Here are a few of her paintings:

She is incredible. A god given talent to this little girl. She paints with emotions years beyond her age. She paints with skill many never achieve.

article on autumn

Oprah, I never knew you cooked.

 

This was probably one of the biggest impulse buys we have made. We were doing our usual grocery shopping: Chocolate milk, cereal, skim milk, and bananas. This trip to Payless was no ordinary trip. This time we fell upon the Reduced Price Book Section. The first book I saw was this intriguing cookbook. Oprah cook? BAH! The back cover is quite humorous. Well, we opened the book and to our surprise the recipes looked spectacular! Scrumptious! Yummilicious! And it wasn't just a few recipes that looked good, they all did. Let me find you some examples:

Not sure-looks amazing.

 

Chicken Scaloppini

We considered it for quite some time. Because in all reality, we rarely use cook books. We tend to throw random spices into a pot and hope for the best. But this is a new life for us, starting from the moment we purchased The Oprah Magazine Cookbook.I vow to follow these recipes as best I can. And I am documenting this so that all shall know our knew goal: We will cook AT LEAST one new recipes from this wonderful book a week. Shouldn't be too hard right?

Today are new recipe will be the Egg Salad with Tarragon Mustard. Starting simple. Namely because this is one of the few recipes that we have MOST of the ingredients. We will definitely have to alter our shopping list now. Wish us luck!

Egg Salad with Tarragon Mustard

Ingredients

6 large eggs
1/3 cup mayo
2 tsp. Tarragon or Dijon Mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 small shallot
1 cellery stalk, finely chopped
1 tbsp. capers
1 tbsp. chopped tresh tarragon
1 tbsp. chopped cilantro

1. Bring medium sauce pan filled with 3/4 water to boil. Add eggs and cook for 9 minutes. Carefully pour hot water and rinse eggs with cold running water. Peel eggs and roughly chop.

2. Meanwqhile, in a large bowl, combine mayo, mustard, salt, pepper. Add remaining ingedients. Fold eggs in.

The crazy things you can do with Pumpkin.

 

 

Pumpkin Pancakes

Serves 4
Prepare 1 cup dry pancake mix according to the package directions.
Whisk in 1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree.

 

Pumpkin Milk Shake

Makes 1 milk shake
Blend until smooth 1 cup vanilla ice cream, 1/4 cup milk, 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree, 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.

 

Pumpkin Whipped Cream

Makes 2 cups
Beat together 1 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, and 1 tablespoon canned pumpkin puree until soft peaks form.

 Pumpkin Chili

Ingredients:

4 cups water
1 (15-ounce) can canned crushed tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) kidney beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup uncooked bulgur
1 cup chopped Serrano chili pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, stir well to combine, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to medium-low and simmer, covered, 35 minutes. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Fudge

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
½ cup pureed cooked pumpkin
½ cup evaporated milk
¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ cup butter
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
¼ teaspoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, pumpkin, milk, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water, or until reaches 236°F. Remove from heat

2. Add the nuts, butter, and vanilla; beat until mixture is creamy.

3. Pour into a buttered plate and allow to cool. Cut into small chunks and serve.