Prudent and Practical

November 26, 2009

World’s Easiest Guacamole Recipe

Filed under: food — Tags: food, gardening — K @ 7:00 PM

A couple years ago I had a really bad experience making homemade salsa.  To make a long story short, it was late, I burned my eyes, burned my hands,  ruined 2 pairs of contacts, and had to wear glasses (which I don’t like) for a month..  I love homemade salsa, but since this incident, I’ve shied away from cutting hot or acidic foods.

Shortly after this incident, avocados and Ro-Tel were on sale.  I don’t know what prompted me to check out the can because I had never used it before.  A typical guacamole recipe contains tomatoes, chilies, cilantro, lime, onions, avocados, and maybe some spices like garlic, salt, and pepper.  Ro-Tel Mexican has all the fix-ins for guacamole except for the avocados… and thus began my recipe experiment!

World’s Easiest Guacamole Recipe

guacamole avocado rotel 300x225 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

2 avocados – peeled and mashed

smash avocado 300x225 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

1 can Ro-Tel Mexican – spoon into mashed avocados, until it tastes right to you.  You can drain the lime/spice juice or add in a little or lot, depending on what you like. Mix it up.

5 minute guacamole 300x225 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

Enjoy!

And now for the experiment part…

How to Grow an Avocado from Seed

Did you know you can take your avocado seed and grow it? Yep!  Mine is currently about one foot tall and starting to get woody at the bottom of the stem.  It’s taken about one year to reach this point, so it will definitely teach your kids about patience, as it did with me.  I truly am an impatient gardener!

Score the seed a couple times

avocado scored seed 300x225 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

Insert 3 toothpicks evenly spaced around the seed

toothpicks avocado seed 300x225 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

There’s a spot on the flatter side of the seed – this needs to face down

avocado this side down 300x225 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

Place the seed spot-side down at the top of a glass filled with water.

avocado seed in water 300x225 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

Let it set.  When the water gets murky, pitch it and get fresh water.  (Or you can use bits of charcoal).  In 2-6weeks, you’ll get a root!  (Mine took about 1 month.)

At this time you can plant it in a pot and let it take off!  When it reaches 1 foot, pinch it back to 6-8 inches.

avocado seedling 225x300 photo Worlds Easiest Guacamole Recipe

If you want more information, be sure to check out the Garden Helper, who is the one who gave me the idea to try this out.

Have you planted any unusual seeds (from food or otherwise)?  Did it grow?

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.  If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today!  You can find many more recipes here:

November 25, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Filed under: food — Tags: food, holidays, meal — K @ 5:25 PM

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Things I’m thankful for:

  • God – for all that He has given me.
  • My husband – who supports me and my adventures.
  • A roof over my head and a husband who has a stable job.
  • My family for being there for me.  My dad especially has spent so much time, energy, and money, helping us out.  He makes the two hour drive to help us haul things and take lawn “trash” to the local compost heap.
  • Creativity – from myself, D, and other bloggers.  How would we get our house redecorated without creativity?  There are so many inspirational people out there.
  • Music – it gets me through the day and makes for some fun moments with D.
  • Independent contracting – the mystery shopping, auditing, merchandising companies I do jobs for, writing this blog, and online auctions.
  • Our 2 dogs and 3 cats for providing countless hours of entertainment (good or bad) and teaching us valuable lessons.

If you’re on here taking a break from cooking the turkey, don’t throw the turkey juice out!  Use it to make delicious and easy homemade gravy.

1 part butter (melt in a pot)

melt butter 300x225 photo Happy Thanksgiving 2009

1 part flour (when butter’s melted, stir in)

flour 300x225 photo Happy Thanksgiving 2009

8 parts turkey broth (when butter/flour gets thick, stir in a small amount of broth until thickened, repeat until all broth is used)

butter flour roux 300x225 photo Happy Thanksgiving 2009

broth 14 pound turkey 300x225 photo Happy Thanksgiving 2009

whole wheat turkey gravy 300x225 photo Happy Thanksgiving 2009

If you need concrete numbers instead of a ratio:

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups broth (I got about 2.5 cups from a 14 pound turkey)

mashed potatoes gravy 300x225 photo Happy Thanksgiving 2009

November 19, 2009

Ms. Jill’s Olive Chip Dip

Filed under: food — Tags: food, holidays — K @ 11:58 PM

Jill moved in two houses away from my parents when I was in fifth grade.  She has a daughter who I used to babysit and tutor and our families spent a lot of time together doing fun things.  Jill is creative, a go-getter, and an awesome chef!  If I remember right, she used to have her own catering business.

I don’t have a super special story to go with this recipe.  I had finished babysitting for the day and my younger sister came over to play.  Jill pulled out a bowl of chip dip and said, “Try this.  Can you guess the flavor?” :-)   What was it?!  It was so familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it!  “It’s olives!” she said.  During this stage in my life, I was “baking” about every other day, so I ran home to make this recipe myself.  I can’t remember how it ended up on the holiday menu, but it did, and now it’s a Thanksgiving tradition.  My grandpa mistakes it for a salad every year and eats it as-is!

If you’re interested in printing this off, I’ve created a PDF version for you.

Olive chip dip - yum!

Olive chip dip - yum!

Ms. Jill’s Olive Chip Dip

Ingredients:
1 large tub of cream cheese at room temp
5.75 oz. jar green Spanish olives – chop or slice
½ C sour cream
½ C real mayonnaise – do not use Miracle Whip or similar!
½ C chopped pecans
2 tsp olive juice
Directions:
Put cream cheese into bowl and then mix in all other ingredients. It’s useful to use a blender. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow for the blending of flavors.

This recipe goes well with:

  • Crackers – Ritz and Triscuits especially!
  • A slice of bread

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.  If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today!  You can find many more recipes here:

November 12, 2009

Crockpot Spicy Peanut Chicken

Filed under: food — Tags: food, meal — K @ 11:17 PM

I know how to do three things with my slow cooker: roast beef (I know, who doesn’t do this?), whole chicken, and yogurt.  I’m interested in learning more recipes when I’m in need of one.  Although the recipe originally called 1.5 pounds of chicken breasts, I just used a whole chicken.  Chicken is my favorite meat, but it’s hard to carve.  Slow cooking it solves this problem!

If you’re not ready for the spicy peanut chicken yet, but want to try a whole chicken in the crock pot,  I suggest this:

Pour a cheap bottle of wine or 3 cups stock in the crock pot, add a whole chicken, and then slow cook.

Most of the time I don’t pay attention to how long I slow cook – I just crank up the timer – and I have yet to ruin a meal.  :-)   Yeah, someday that is going to come back and bite me… Anyway at the end of the day, you have delicious chicken that requires no carving!

The one thing I don’t like about slow cooking a whole chicken is the skin, as it starts to come off and gets mushy.  Next time I will try removing it beforehand to see if I like it better.  I hadn’t thought of that until now.  All of the spices make your home smell wonderful ~ I loved it!

I have modified the original version of this recipe from Recipezaar. The recipe suggests serving it with basmatti rice and bread.

Ingredients:

  • 4 pounds whole chicken
  • 28-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice (I used 4 mini cans V8 – don’t do this, it doesn’t thicken the sauce)
  • 2-3 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup peanut butter (I used chunky, it leaves chunks in the sauce and I didn’t like that)
  • 1 small diced onion
  • 3 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 1 tablespoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1+ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (as desired)
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar (optional, but recommended if using natural peanut butter)

peanut chicken spices 150x112 photo Crockpot Spicy Peanut ChickenInstructions:

  1. Put all ingredients except the chicken into a slow cooker. Stir to combine.
  2. spices broth onion 150x112 photo Crockpot Spicy Peanut Chicken
  3. Add the chicken. Cook on low until liquid has thickened and chicken is cooked.  I cooked it for 8 hours.

sauce with chicken 150x112 photo Crockpot Spicy Peanut Chicken

sauce over chicken 150x112 photo Crockpot Spicy Peanut Chicken
november 2009 028 150x112 photo Crockpot Spicy Peanut Chicken

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.  If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today!  You can find many more recipes here:

November 5, 2009

Grandma’s Pistachio Bread Recipe

Filed under: food — Tags: food, holidays — K @ 11:50 PM

Many many years ago my paternal grandma gave my mom a very special recipe.  There are quite a few similar recipes out there that call for added cinnamon, sugar, and food coloring, but I think this recipe is just perfect.  My mom began the tradition and has been making this recipe every Christmas for as long as I can remember.  The tradition has been passed down and now I make it every year.  Since there’s only D and me, I usually make smaller loaves and give them out to extended family who have come to love the recipe as well.

Although the recipe is called “bread” it is more like a cake in a loaf form.  Don’t let the pistachio scare you away, the dominant taste is the yellow cake mix and the cinnamon-sugar topping which becomes delightfully crispy while baking.  I’m not a cherry fan, but the maraschino’s are really good in this recipe.  This recipe freezes nicely for a long time, but you sacrifice the crispy crust.  I’ve personally frozen a recipe for 10 months and I know D’s mom has frozen it for a long time too.

Ingredients

  • 1 yellow cake mix
  • a 4 serving package pistachio pudding
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (Mom makes the recipe with them, I make it without them)
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 3/4 cup maraschino cherries – chopped
  • 1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar mix

pistachio bread ingredients 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

Instructions

1 – Heat oven to 350 degrees F

No, it's not lunch time, it's baking time.  (aka: Half past midnight) That's how much I love you guys!

No, it's not lunch time, it's baking time. (aka: Half past midnight) That's how much I love you guys (and baking)!

2 – Combine and mix all ingredients except for the cinnamon-sugar

pistachio bread mix 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

3 – Pour into two 8×4 loaf pans or one 8×4 and two or three mini loaf pans or all mini loaf pans to give as gifts

pistachio bread unbaked 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

4 – Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on top of loaves

pistachio bread unbaked sugar 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

5 – Bake for 45 minutes

pistachio bread baked 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

6 – After it has thoroughly cooled… enjoy!  I think this is one of those recipes that tastes much better the second day anyway.  (If it’s still to warm, it will also start to fall apart when you cut into it.)

pistachio bread slices 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.  If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today!  You can find many more recipes here:

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