Rotel Scoops

I was inspired by this recipe but made it my own.

ingredients

• 1-10oz can Rotel tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1-3oz package real bacon bits
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (I use Italian blend)
• 3-19oz packages mini filo shells, thawed

directions - Combine first 4 ingredients. Fill shells and bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now, this is what I actually made:

• 1-10oz can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies, drained
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1-lb cooked sausage  
• 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese 
•  Tostito Scoops
  
  Mikey loves these. The Rotel Scoops would be perfect for a SuperBowl Party.

 

 

Stracciatella Soup

“Stracciatella” (strah-chi-ah-tay-lah)

Most people think of Chinese food when they hear “egg drop soup,” but this version comes from Italy. Stracciatella means “little shreds” and refers to the strands of cooked egg that form when the soup is swirled.

It is prepared by beating eggs and adding grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, then adding this mixture to the hot broth. The broth is set whirling first with a whisk, and the beaten egg mixture added in a slow stream to produce the stracciatelle ("little shreds") of cooked egg in the broth, which is clarified by the process.

Tonight, I made a Stracciatella that included sausage, potatoes, spinach, lots of garlic, and chicken broth.  Cut the heat off of the boiling broth and added the whisked eggs/shredded parmesean mixture.  Oh my, I'm still licking my chops. 
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I've received two used soup books that I bought from Amazon.

Lorraine Wallace writes so lovingly about preparing soups for her family.

This looks like a good one too but haven't studied it yet.

Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks

I made a Ree Drummonds recipe - Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks.
Was pretty good.

I added sauted mushrooms to mine.  Anytime a recipe calls for half and half, fresh mushrooms are going in the pool.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/pasta-with-pancetta-and-leeks-recipe/index.html

downed pine-tree limbs from Thursday's snow

I see on the photo, I misspelled Alpine.

Thursday's snow was a heavy, wet one. 

The goats love the pine needles.

The poor washing machine.

Things are still very tough at work, continues to get worse instead of better, but I just keep pushing on. 

Book of Soups, Wild-Rice Soup

Purchased from Amazon, I bought used Book of Soups. Can't wait to try many of 'em.

Tonight, I prepared Minnesota Wild Rice Soup. This is the photo from the book.

Here's my wild-rice soup, along with the biscuits, our meal was delicious.

Link for the garlic cheddar biscuits.
http://www.thelittlekitchen.net/2013/01/09/garlic-cheddar-biscuits-recipe/#more-8854  

Italian-Wedding Soup

Italian-Wedding Soup is a soup with a lot of fans. The spinach, garlic, mini meatballs and tiny pasta are the perfect marriage of flavors and texture in the mouth. Interestingly enough the term “wedding” was a mistake in translation of sorts. It was in reference to the flavors blending well, not that it was served at weddings. The history of this italian recipe originated in Spain where the heavier version contains more meats. It wasn’t until pasta became more affordable that it was added to this fantastic Italian-Wedding Soup.

I used this recipe
with a tiny bit of my tweeking.
Also, if I'd had some white wine on hand, I would have added some in. 
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mamas-italian-wedding-soup/ 
Mike especially loved the little meatballs. I sauteed 'em prior to putting them in the soup pot.

split-pea soup, immersion blender

Emeril Lagasse wants his chefs to make soup, which is something he always judges a restaurant by. He says it’s about depth, flavors, and passion.  

SOUP - Locally, Amalfi's Restaurant makes good soup. Last time we were there, I asked our regular server how many people order the soup. On their lunch specials, the entree comes with the soup-of-the-day or salad. She replied that she didn't think that 5% of the customers ordered the soup. 

Why? It's pure comfort food and it's so healthy. As you can tell from some of my previous posts, I don't understand most humans.

In fact, although it may not be popular with most humans, I really want to operate a soup truck. I've dreamed about having a food truck for many years. A few years back, I made a $5,000 deposit on a food truck but got scammed.  He scammed several people, it went to court, and we got some of our money back from him. I still receive small checks from the Ashe County district-attorney's office. In distance, I was the closest person who got scammed, some people were several states away and had made larger deposits.

Here's a link for Paula Deen's split-pea soup.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/shaggy-man-split-pea-soup-recipe/index.html 

Mine was different in that I cut up a ham steak, added two chopped potatoes, and of course, I used Simply Organic's Garlic and Herb's.

The soup turned out luscious, I added the bacon bits on top for the photo effect, but the soup  doesn't need 'em, the ham-steak flavor comes through.

If you like really silky soup, take the extra step of pureeing the peas once they have softened. I just bought this refurbished Immersion Blender and Chopper from Ebay. Oh, I love it! The 350-watts easily ground up the ham steak chunks too.

Bon Appétit 350-Watt Immersion Blender with Chopper BowlThis handheld blender works perfectly for mixing and pureeing hot and cold liquids, making it a great choice for soups, shakes, baby food, sauces and frosting. You can also whip cream, whisk eggs, blend pancake batter or prepare the perfect gravy. Use the chopper attachment to cut and chop vegetables — it even makes preparing salsa a cinch. This may just become your favorite kitchen gadget! 

Mike was my prepper, using the chopper for celery, onions, carrots, and potatoes. 

We've got some newly hatched babies. I love to watch the interaction of MamaHen and her chicks.

BlueBoy is looking good. blue-laced red wyandotte rooster.

The weather was awesome today, In JANUARY, I've got on short sleeves. We're watching the NFL Denver/Baltimore football game in Denver and the wind-chill factor is one degree.

The Alpine girls are still here.

Big buddies - Ancho and Tank.

Tank, Ancho, and Bordy.

BarbaraJean has been a bad dog. Every now and then she kills a bird, one of our poultry birds. I think that is a mutilated young guinea. She was down in a muddy embankment and I didn't want to break another ankle to see what it was for sure. She lays by her kill, and dares Jack or any other critter to get near her, if they come close, she acts aggressive. She only does this rarely. I have no idea what instinct drives her to do this and she may only do it every several months. I think her full sister, Bertha, at Buttermilk Acres behaves the same way.

Potato Soup

Mary Ann of  http://calamityacres.blogspot.com/  said, "it appears that you will need to download either Google Chrome or Firefox."  Thank you Mary Ann, now I can post photo's again! She said that the uploading would be faster to and whoa it is.

Saturday was a nice winter's day.  Here are the photo's. Our goat girls were out there somewhere but must be out of sight.

The Alpine girls are still here visiting/getting bred on the bucks side of the barn. They're real sweet girls, you can tell they gets lots of attention at home.

Do you remember Wally, the Blue-Laced-Red Wyandotte? That name didn't stick, we call him Blue Boy now.

Mike has completed some projects on his to-do list - fixing the gate, patching the barn roof - along with his usual barn chores.

No, BarbaraJean is not dead. That's her way of guarding the top of our road,

The terriers spent some time in the dog kennel on Saturday. 

Today, I made a good  potato soup, mostly following Ree Drummond's recipe.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/01/perfect-potato-soup/     
I say mostly, because I didn't have any celery or bacon but I topped the soup with Hormel's bacon bits and I added sweet pea's.  I add sweet pea's to almost everything.

We're watching the Redskins/Seahawks playoff game. I was raised on the Redskins, wish my parents were here (alive) and we could watch 'em together especially now that the Redskins have a good team. 

I really appreciate your support about yesterday's post, I really do, it helps to be around reasonable-thinking people. I can't talk to Mike much because if I let on that I'm upset and sad, then he gets upset and sad.  Tomorrow, I head back to dysfunction...

blog therapy

Well, I had some photo's to load but the button is not there for me to do it. The Alpine girls are still visiting.

Anyway, I always try to keep this blog upbeat but life just won't cooperate.  I have been employed by the same company since Sept 25, 1984, almost 30 years. I have excellent benefits while I am employed there but have none when I terminate or am terminated - no health insurance, no drug card. I would describe myself as an excellent employee as far as the quality of my work but I lack the social skills that would keep me from remaining on the "island." In other words, I'd be the first one voted off. Because I recognize who I am, I accept it as it is.

Now, after 30 years, they want to push me out. I really want to oblige the Director and Operations Manager, I have a little retirement money that I could cash in and hope for the best, but I'm on RX prescriptions and 56 years old. What am I going to do?

Unfortunately, Mike has never been the bread winner, I have. He's always worked but keeping the bills paid has always fallen on my shoulders. He inherited this beautiful land we live on and he's a wonderful caretaker to our animals, we're blessed and I'm not complaining.

On Thursday Jan 3, my boss/the Director was asking me about a one-day substance-abuse class that I arranged for and he signed off on but now because Operations Manager wanted to squash it, Director wanted to squash it, and I said, "I know the Operations Manager is gunning for me from a lot of different angles." And he said, "yeah, but besides that."  I told him I had to leave and I'd be back Monday, the stress is overwhelming. He mumbled something about how he hadn't intended to upset me.

I and the Operations Manager report to the Director but the Operations Manager has started acting as my supervisor, and the Director is riding this whole wave. A few weeks ago on a Friday, the Operations Manager called me into his office, he was real mad, kept saying he was mad, but would never give any details, said I had been going behind his back, but I have no idea what he was talking about. Towards the end, I motioned for the Director to come in, he came in, and I left shortly after that. Later, I kept waiting for the Director to speak to me about it and he never did.

At the office, when the Operations Manager has an audience, he is very ugly towards me.

Let me add, I work in a service industry paid for by taxpayer dollars, this is not private but we work for the taxpayers.

Anyway, this is where I'm at. They're being obvious about getting me out, I MUST have some decent health insurance and I can't afford it on my own with no job. I'm quite depressed and I'm void of any self esteem.  Where do I begin to get some help?  I need somebody on my side to help guide me in the right direction.

Demand Performance

Bordy is in demand again. This time, servicing two alpine does. Can you see the smile on Bordy's face? Alpines are the standard-size dairy goat and we raise the Nigerian Dwarf's.

Alpine goats are a popular species of dairy goat valued for the steady temperaments and high volume of milk production. Each Alpine goat typically produces three to five quarts of milk each day (4 quarts make a gallon).

Here's a good link about dairy goats -
http://www.motherearthnews.com/caprine-community/choosing-a-dairy-goat-breed.aspx

Although Nigerian's can't produce the serious amount of milk that Alpine's do, our herd comes from strong bloodlines bred for udders and conformation. So, Bordy should produce some very nice "mini-Alpine" babies.

Look at that stance, and body on Ancho, whew! He's gonna be something. Bordy and Ancho are 1/2 brothers.