Cocktail Recipe: Citrus Martini

This is currently my favorite cocktail.  Chris and I discovered it on our cruise, part of a pick 4 mini martini tasting. 

2 ounces Grapefruit vodka (I use finlandia)
3/4 ounces Apple pucker
3/4 ounces lemonade mix
1/4 ounce simple syrup
2 ounces orange juice. 

Cocktail Recipe: Moscow Mule

2 measures vodka
juice of two limes
ginger beer (I used Bruce Cost Fresh Ginger Ale ....yummy)
4-5 cubes ice, crushed

Place ice, vodka and lime juice in shaker.  Shake until frost forms on outside of shaker.  Pour into highball glass with a few pieces of crushed ice.  Top off with ginger beer. 

The first couple of sips might seem a bit tart...but this one really grows on you...very refreshing.

Recipe: Unstuffed Peppers

This was great and so easy.  Both Mia and AJ kept saying, "Yum, yum.  This is yummy, mama." The recipe said it makes four servings, but I plated it with a large green salad, and is enough leftovers for another meal for our family. 

1 Cup long grain rice, cooked (I used white but next time I'll use brown)
1 pound mild italian sausage, casings removed (You could use turkey for a healthier dish)
2 green peppers, chopped
10 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
Olive Oil

Heat about 1 tablespoon olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add sausage, break apart, and cook until lightly browned.  Remove sausage from skillet and add to cooked rice.  If there are browned bits on the skillet, you can add a couple splashes of beer, wine, or water to deglaze the pan.  This does two things; makes it easier to clean your pan and, more importantly, it will add TONS of flavor to the dish.  Add two teaspoons more oil to pan.  Add peppers, mushrooms, and onion, and season with salt and pepper.  Cook about five minutes.  Add rice and sausage back to skillet and stir to mix.

Recipe: Turkey Pumpkin Chili

I love this recipe.  It's a nice change from your regular chili.  The pumpkin gives it a subtle sweetness and a nice, creamy texture.  The beans are optional.  I throw them in because they bulk up the recipe and make it last for two meals. 

1 cup chopped onion

1 Tablespoon Vegetable oil

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped yellow bell pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pound ground turkey

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 dash salt

14.5 oz. can beans (kidney, black, or your choice - optional)

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and saute the onion, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and garlic until tender. Stir in the turkey, and cook until evenly brown. Drain, and mix in tomatoes, pumpkin, and optional beans. Season with chili powder, pepper, and salt. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Serve topped with Cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Collecting Magazine Clippings

One thing I realized when I was doing the organizing project is that I have TONS of magazines.  Some of them, like the Martha Stewart Christmas and Thanksgiving editions, I'd like to keep.  However, I have tons of magazines that I keep around because there might be one or two recipes or projects I'd like to try.  But I never have time to search through the loads of magazines for the recipe or project I'm looking for.  So, for a long time I've been wanting to start a notebook of magazine clippings.  That way I can get rid of the piles of magazines and have all the ideas I want to try all in one place instead of spread out amongst loads of magazines.  So I was able to start that little project the other night.  I already have a good pile of stuff I want to try.  One of the recipes I made for dinner tonight and it came out really good.  I'll be posting that next. 

My huge organizing project

I think what suffered most during marathon training has been my house.  Although I've managed to keep it reasonably clean, it's become terribly unorganized.  All the closets in the house were a mess, and the spare bedroom had basically turned into a giant, very messy closet.  I could never find the things I wanted and felt like I spent half my time searching for things.  Two of the things I could never find were children's cough medicine, tape and scissors (I'll get back to this later on). 

So I started on a pretty major organizing project.  I started with the medicine cabinets and bathroom closets.  There I found FOUR nearly full bottles of cold medicine that were hidden and jammed in various places.  Then I moved on to the hallway closets, and then the bedroom closets. 

I packed up all the summer clothes and finally threw out anytyhing in my closet that hadn't been worn in at least two years.  My last project was the spare bedroom, which I was dreading most.  The closet was filled with stuff and plastic totes jammed with various items and junk, mostly crafting stuff that I never used because it was all so disorganized.  I set up a shelving unit in the basement and then went to work pulling everything out of the bins and out of the closet and attempting to get it into some semblance of order. 

I got everything packed in individual bins and put labels on the outside listing the contents.  Back to the Tape and scissors that I can never find....I foune NINE rolls of tape and FIVE pairs of scissors that were hiding in all that mess!  So now I have a little bin dedicated to tape and scissors...clearly indicated on the outside of the box.  So any time I need tape, I'll just run down to the shelving unit in the basement, find the box that says TAPE/SCISSORS, and there!  No more searching all over.  I know it seems kind of simple and silly, but I can't explain how great it feels to have all this stuff organized!  I still have a little bit more work to do on the spare bedroom, and my next project is a mass organizing of the girls toys.

Hello, Blog

Hello, Blog....I'm still here and I haven't forgotten about you.  Marathoning has been taking up a lot of my time.  One of the things I told myself when I decided to start training for marathon was that I didn't want it to affect the family and home life.  I knew it was a pretty big time commitment, but I wanted to make sure that the rest of the family didn't suffer.  I was pretty successful in that up until the last month or so of training.  The mileage per week was high, and the amount of hours I needed to devote to the runs was taking a lot (most) of my free time.  But now that the race is nearly here, I'm hoping to have much more time to devote to family activities and cooking (and so more things to add to the blog!)