Shamrock Shake Time.

Another sure sign of spring!  Patrick informed me about 10 times before breakfast the other day that he'd heard of their return.  Then everyone wanted to run down to the McDonalds and get a shake stat. Fortunately I was able to remind Bryce and Anna that they don't even like them before we got to the drive-thru.  But wait there is more, we actually got our order right, the Shamrock Shake was plain.

I don't know why McDonalds decided they need to add whipped cream and a cherry on top of their shakes.  Totally overkill.  I bet there is an easy way I could make Shamrock Shakes at home now that I think about it...

Thinking about frosty treats reminds me that in a week, Bryce's Diorama of a Tundra Habitat is due. Ugh I am not a fan of projects that need my assistance to get done.  And the tundra?  Ugh what should it even look like?  A mound of cottonballs is not likely to cut it.

Have kids? Need a smile?

If you have kids and you need a smile, go get the game Just Dance or Just Dance II for Wii.  It is so funny to watch them dance their little butts off.  You know, now that I think about it, it's funny to watch kids of all ages dance their butts off, so if you need a smile get Just Dance today!

Tonight was my Italian Feast & Wine Pairings Open House, thanks to those who came!  And for those who didn't make it...
1. What about hosting your own Tastefully Simple Party?  Fiesta time is coming March 1st!
2. Below is the menu w/recipes for what I made--and it's was all simple and very tasty!
3. Im having a a Fiesta Freebie Friday April 1st.  For this open house I'll have recipes from our Simple Starters recipe booklet, Slush Buckets and Coupon Swapping!



Amy's Amazing Artichoke Mushrooms Paired With Pinot Noir
Submitted by Amy Freund (PA)
Ingredients
1 packet Artichoke & Spinach Warm Dip Mix
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
8 oz. softened cream cheese
8 oz. jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
2 (8 oz.) packages fresh mushrooms, cleaned and stemmed

Directions
Combine first 4 ingredients and mix well. Arrange mushrooms, rounded side down, on greased baking pan. Mound filling in mushrooms, press to compact slightly. Bake mushrooms at 350° until tender and filling begins to brown, about 15-20 minutes. Serve hot. Makes 6-8 servings.

*NOTE: Jewel had a sale on wonton wrappers so since this recipe makes a ton of the filling I made about 2 dozen appetizers w/the filling in wonton wrappers. (baked at 425 for 10min)


Salad:

Panzanella Bread Salad Paired with Pinot Grigio
Submitted by Rosemary (MN) HQ Resident Chef
Ingredients
2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks
3/4 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 cup sliced red onion
6 cups (about 1/2 lb.) day-old crusty peasant-style bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup Balsamic & Basil Dipping Oil
Seasoned Salt
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large serving bowl; toss to blend. Season with Seasoned Salt  to taste; garnish with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately. Makes 6-8 servings.

*NOTE: I had a small head of butter lettuce from my Timber Creek Farms Organics delivery so I put lettuce in the salad.
Entrée:

Baked Pesto Rigatoni paired with Cabernet Sauvignon
Submitted by Rosemary (MN) HQ Resident Chef
Ingredients
1/2 lb. ground beef
3 Tbsp. Dried Tomato & Garlic Pesto Mix
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
8 oz. prepared rigatoni pasta
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning
Directions
Brown ground beef in large skillet until no longer pink; drain. Add next 2 ingredients; simmer 20 minutes. Stir prepared hot pasta into hot sauce; pour mixture into a greased casserole dish. Top pasta mixture with shredded cheese and Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning to taste. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until cheese melts and is lightly browned. Makes 2-3 servings.

*NOTE: I doubled this recipe and it makes a TON!

Entrée:

Tuscan Chicken & Artichokes Paired with Sauvignon Blanc
Submitted by Rosemary (MN) HQ Resident Chef
Ingredients:
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup Dried Tomato & Garlic Pesto Mix
28 oz. can crushed or diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
14.5 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained
Directions:
Combine ingredients in a greased slow cooker. Heat on low 6-8 hours. Serve over angel hair pasta or rice. Makes 4-6 servings

Dessert:

Absolutely Almond Biscotti Paired with Moscato
Submitted by RoxAnn Mannuzza (MN)
Ingredients
Absolutely Almond Pound Cake Mix™
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
2 - 3 Tbsp. flour

Directions
Combine AA Cake Mix and butter; blend until crumbly. Add eggs; blend dough with hands if necessary. Stir in white chocolate chips. Knead dough on a floured surface until no longer sticky. Form into two loaves on greased baking sheet; pat dough to 1-inch thickness. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes. Cut into 1/2-inch slices; bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool completely. Makes about 24 biscotti.

Victoria Hamel,

Yourtsconsultant@aol.com

708-598-9415

Looking for a good read?

This weekend I read a fantastic book.  Its one of those books where you find yourself a little sad at the end, not because the ending is sad, but because you are going to miss hanging out with the characters.  The book is set in Chicago and Las Vegas; which is fun for me since Chicago is my town and I've been to Vegas more than a couple times. 

What's the book like? It like a yummy blend of action, history, thriller, and sci fi with just a dash of romance.  To even call it romance is not quite fitting.  If you liked that book, The Davinci Code, you'll love The Thousand because it is like 1000 times better. :-)

Now my friend K and I read Kevin Gulfoile's first book, Cast of Shadows, and honestly we were worried--how would he be able to follow up on his first book.  But he rocked it with this sophmore effort.

I always have trouble thinking up titles for posts

Well, is it just me or has this week been a long week? It has certainly been very cold, does cold weather make the day seem longer?  I know it makes the Nicor Gas bill bigger. The weather experts are hinting at better weather ahead.  I heard the word fifties mentioned.  If it hits the 50s, I think we'll see people breaking out their shorts and sandals!  Not me though, I am in serious need of a pedicure before any sandals can be worn.  My toes are still not the same since the Chicago Marathon back in October.

If you hear the wailing of schoolage children, it's probably mine.  Our Cupboards are bare!  What can they possibly eat for a a snack after school today! Does this happen often at your house?  We *never* have anything to eat here at Casa Hamel.  I'm fairly hopeful they will survive this afternoon since my mom sent us Cheryl's Cookies  the best cookies every.  Ahhh except Girl Scout Cookies of course!  Feel free to contact Anna to find out where GS Cookies are available in your area.

Anna's Auntie K is coming over tomorrow night so I am going to pick up this month's wine from Coopershawk Winery in Orland and then I am going to test an entree for my Italian Feast with Tastefully Simple that is coming up a week from Sunday.

Here is what I will be trying out this Saturday:

Baked Pesto Rigatoni

Submitted by Rosemary (MN) HQ Resident Chef

Ingredients
1/2 lb. ground beef
3 Tbsp. Dried Tomato & Garlic Pesto Mix
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
8 oz. prepared rigatoni pasta
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning

Directions

Brown ground beef in large skillet until no longer pink; drain. Add next 2 ingredients; simmer 20 minutes. Stir prepared hot pasta into hot sauce; pour mixture into a greased casserole dish. Top pasta mixture with shredded cheese and Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning to taste. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until cheese melts and is lightly browned. Makes 2-3 servings.
 
****Ooooo I think I found my other entree...and it's a slow cooker recipe!...even better!
 
Tuscan Chicken & Artichokes

Submitted by Rosemary (MN) HQ Resident Chef

Ingredients
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup Dried Tomato & Garlic Pesto Mix
28 oz. can crushed or diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
14.5 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained

Directions
Combine ingredients in a greased slow cooker. Heat on low 6-8 hours. Serve over angel hair pasta or rice. Makes 4-6 servings

Superbowl Sunday

Snowing today.  So not cool!  Tom is one the phone worrying about his Mom and Dad.  His mom just returned from a 4 day stint at the hospital where she had her gallbladder removed and is now on the phone because she feels Tom dad doesn't feel well.  Yes things are back to usual.

Over here at our Casa I am looking forward to my Italian Feast & Wine Tasting Tastefully Simple Open House in a couple weeks.  This means I have to test recipes.  We don't have any wine for tasting, at present, but I did whip up a nice salad dressing with our Sensational Caesar Veggie Dip. So that will be on the menu.

As far as food here is what I made this afternoon:

I took some ground sirloin and cooked that & drained the oil & made:
1 cup prepared Trader Joe's Organic Quinoa, prepared w/chicken stock

Then in a pan I sauteed 1 thinly sliced shallot, 4 garlic cloves minced, & 1 red bell pepper sliced.  After a couple mintues of cooking I added  2 diced plum tomatoes, 10 leaves of fresh basil chopped--along with the quinoa and ground beef. It needed some flavor so I added 1 tbsp of the TS Garlic Pepper Seasoning and sprinkled some TS Seasoned Salt.

It's a grey dreary cold day outside.  Lucky for me Im not 100% filled with Seasonal Affect Disorder because I had a 2 days shot of dreams of spring and summer tastes at Tastefully Simple on Tour.  All the delicious new products are still underwraps.  I do think it's safe to say that Im looking forward to Fiestas!!!!!!

And  Im so glad that the BLANK and the fBLANK and the awesome BLANK is coming back. It's going to be great.  I can't wait!

How many days til spring?  42 more days ahhhhhhh 6 weeks?  Hmm where is that darn groundhog???

Take 2

Ah ha here it is!  My picture worked!

Blizzard 2011

I was all set to post some pics from the big blizzard yesterday and the day before, but for whatever reason Blogger isn't in the mood for pics.  I'd try and figure out why it's not working but it's 1045 and I'm thinking I'll skip it for now.

It's a funny picture of anna becoming one with snow.  I don't know exactly what she was trying to do.  I think she was diving into the drift like into a wave at the beach.

Right now it's ridiculously cold and we have a ridiculous amount of snow piled all around everywhere, including where the turn lanes are located for most of the roads around here.  All this snow snow snow has me looking very forward to going to the Tastefully Simple On Tour event tomorrow where they will be unveiling the Spring Summer line. You know what that means?  Hours of people talking about Sunshine, Vacation, Grilling and Warmth.

Ah I can't wait.  Now how long til Spring?  6 weeks and 4 days I believe.  Maybe 6 weeks 3 days?  In any case, I'll bask in the imagined glow of Sunshine 2morrow.

Third Monday in January.

Turns out the 3rd Monday in January is also know as the most depressing day of the year.  Shocked? 

Ya me neither.

I had the day off work, so I spent the day cooking and cleaning.  In retrospect, I should have skipped the cleaning and watched Love Actually.  Since watching the Golden Globes last night and seeing Colin Firth win for The King's Speech, Im in the mood for a Colin Firth movie marathon and why not kick it off with Love Actually.  Not only does it feature Colin Firth but also Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant AND Professor Snape. Yes I know, it's very strange that I harbor a crush on Professor Snape.  But there it is.

And then were do we go from Love Actually ?  Pride & Prejudice.  Of course. Probably best to watch that a couple times---and then watch the 2005 version with *sigh* Matthew MacFayden.  Now that would have been a proper way to spend my day off.

On the food side:
For dinner I had salad topped with shredded chicken cooked in the slow cooker yesterday.  I took the chicken breasts and poured Corn & Black Bean Salsa over it and cook it on low all day & then shred the chicken.  Then it is good in enchiladas, tacos or on salad.  So Chicken Slow Cooked with Corn & Black Bean Salsa (from Tastefully Simple, natch.) on top of salad and then I topped it with light ranch dressing mixed with our Pomegrante Chipotle Sauce. You can't beat the smokey chipotle mixed with cook ranch.

Now in the Slow Cooker is a Spicy Seafood Stew. It's my first try on seafood stew, so I'll have to try it and then let you know if it is worth giving it a go!

Know anyone who needs Girl Scout Cookies?  Yes Anna is on a  mission to sell 125. I think she is 1/2 way there....
I've got this Spicy Seafood Stew going in the crockpot, let's see how that turns out

My goal for my day off.

Today I am off work and as such I have one goal.  Not to leave the house.  Well except to walk to the busstop.  Other than that I'm not going anywhere.  Just call me Green, no driving anywhere, no buying anything. Earlier I decided it was a good day for making soup.  Chicken Soup.  I didn't want Chicken Noodle Soup,  just chicken soup with vegetables. So I went over to foodnetwork.com and I search for recipe.  After about 10 minutes, I decided that I was wasting time searching for 'the one.' LOL

Here is what I did:
1 tsp Garlic Infused Oil

2 turnips peeled & chopped
1 cup baby carrots chopped
2 red potatoes peeled & chopped
1 parship peeled & chopped.
1 shallot chopped
1 leek sliced
3 stalks of celery chopped.

8 cups chicken broth
1 boneless chicken breast


Heat the tsp of oil in the bottom of your pot, then add the leeks & shallot saute for 2 minutes then add all other veggies & saute stirring frequently for about 6 minutes.  Add broth & chicken breast and cook on med low for 1/2 hour.  Take out chicken breast & shred it.  Taste & add salt/pepper/paprika to taste. Serve hot in bowls. 

In a different pot I cooked some brown rice.  For dinner I'll put some brown rice in a bowl and pour the soup on top and have Chicken & Rice Soup.

The whole recipe is low fat, low cal, full of lots of veggies.  And you could put noodles in it if you want.  I didn't feel like it today!

Now it is 4:14pm and the kids are downstairs unwinding after a hard day at school by watching some TV.  This is the start of their 4 day weekend.  Did you realized it's just about 2 weeks into the new year already? 

Next thing you know, it will be Spring.  Yep that is what I keep telling myself!

Slow Cooker and What the kids are reading

Yes the boys and I are reading the Strange Case of Origami Yoda.  They love it.  And Patrick is trying unsucessfully to make his own Origami Yoda.

The end of the Jewel-Osco Cookware for a penny with  reward stickers was right around the bend, so Sunday night I went and spent my whole paycheck at Jewel. Well, not really the whole thing, it wasn't as if I was at Whole Foods, but I stocked up and earned enough stickers for my grill pan. 
Since it was a Sunday and I had time to plan my purchases, I got everything needed to make a slew of Slow Cooker Recipes.  Tonight on the menu is Chicken Cacciatore, which is a big fave of 4 of 5 members of our household and honestly, that's as good as it gets.  I should start putting a star on the calendar anytime everyone likes dinner simultaneously.  I splurged on Butoni whole wheat refrigerated linguini noodles for dinner.  I will report back and let you know how that part of the meal goes---since I am too cheap normally to pay for the refrig. pasta.

I have been thinking for a good 2 years about how I would like to put together a Wine Pairing list to go with Tastefully Simple recipes.  To that end, I really need to host a night at my house to practice and to get feedback on what I come up with for the pairings.  Why am I writing that here?  Now I feel more compelled to actually work on getting that together.

Now if you are looking for a good pairing.  Try a nice Charles Shaw Merlot or Coopershawk Shiraz with this recipe from http://www.tastefullysimple.com/web/vhamel

Merlot Beef Stew

Submitted by Dodi Kuehl (WI) Modified by me.

Ingredients

2 lbs. cubed boneless top round steak (or chuck roast,it's cheaper)

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter    Just use a tsp of olive oil to brown the meat.

4 medium peeled, sliced carrots

8 quartered small red potatoes

12 sliced mushrooms

1 chopped medium onion

I'd use a sliced parsnip as well --that's how I roll

1/2 cup Merlot Sauce

2 Tbsp. Bacon Bacon™ Shrug I's skip this and throw in a TBSP of Onion Onion (TM)

1 Tbsp. Garlic Garlic™

4 cups beefbroth

Directions

Coat beef with flour. Melt butter in pan; Put Oil in pan heat up the pan and oil just a little then sauté beef in batches (don’t crowd), add butter as needed. Layer carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, onions and beef in slow cooker. Sprinkle Garlic Garlic™ and Bacon Bacon™ over beef. Combine Merlot Sauce with beef broth, pour over slow cooker ingredients. Cover; cook on low for 8 hours. Makes 6-8 servings.