Cheeseball broccoli buffalo mac and cheese

To celebrate the end of the school year (and use up some very stale utz cheeseballs), I wanted to make cheeseball/buffalo blue cheese dip broccoli. I thought I could mix it into a Mac and Cheese for a one dish meal, but I had some ingredient malfunctions.

My daughter helped me, and by the end I was sure we had invented something inedible.

It was surprisingly incredibly delicious.

Ingredients:
- 7 ounces whole wheat rotini
- 2 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine
- 5 fresh stalks of chives from the garden
- 1 1/4 cup unsweetened Silk soy milk
- 1/2 cup vanilla silk
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder
- 6 ounces extra sharp cheddar
- 2 ounces mozzarella
- 1/4 cup Archer Farms buffalo blue cheese dip
- 1 cup chopped spinach
- 6 broccoli spears
- 2 cups crushed Utz cheeseballs

Preheat oven to 375. grease skillet withthin layer of canola oil. Cook pasta. Drain. Set aside.

Melt margarine and cook chives in a 3 quart saucepan. Add salt and pepper. Reduce heat. Add milks, cheese, and dip. Stir constantly until well melted. Add spinach.

Pour 80% of the sauce over the pasta. Pour pasta into skillet. Sprinkle a light layer of garlic powder over the pasta.

Add broccoli artfully on top. Cover with remaining cheese sauce. Sprinkle cheese ball crumbs over everything. Cover skillet with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake 10 minutes more.

Pork with apples without apples and with peaches

I made an incredible lunch today from last night's leftovers and that made me realize that I didn't blog yesterday's meal. So, to try and remember...

- 5 thin boneless pork chops
- apple juice
- brown sugar
- canola oil
- country herb blend
- one can sliced peaches
- 1/4 cup Archer Farm lemon dill mustard

Cook the pork chops in one tablespoon canola oil, five minutes each side in the Le Creuset skillet.

Add about 1 teaspoon country herb blend, one cup apple juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, the peaches (drained) and the mustard. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and let simmer about 15 minutes. Add frozen greenbeans, serve when the greenbeans are cooked.

Now, with the leftovers, I chopped the pork and the peaches very small. I put them and the leftover juice in the skillet. Cook until. Add about 1-1 1/2 cups cooked spaghetti. Swirl with about 2 teaspoons sesame oil. Cook until noodles are hot, stirring constantly. Sprinkle liberally with sesame seeds.

Summer fruit and fresh herb chicken salad

This is to accompany that bread I have on the rise. A perfect cold meal for a hot day.

-12.5 ounces chicken
- one cup fruit (I used local strawberries, local raspberries, a handful of red grapes and a three by two inch chunk of watermelon)

Dressing:
- 1/8 cup vegan mayo
- 1/8 cup Chobani mango yogurt
- two teaspoons Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut Dressing
- one teaspoon country herb blend
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Stir then add from the garden:
- 3 large leaves French sorrel, chopped
- about four tablespoons parsley
- one tablespoon dill

Rosemary rye bread

Bread dough and tropical tortoises love heat and humidity. So, today, as temperatures soar toward 100 degrees farenheit, I will make rosemary rye bread.

Here is the link for the first time I tried to make French country bread:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/french-country-bread.html

Today, I did a typical me. Started the recipe without reading all the directions and double-checking my ingredients. I ran out of white flour.

My sponge:
- 2 cups warm water
- about 1 teaspoon local raw honey
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 2 cups unbleached white flour
- about 1.75 cups stoneground rye flour

Stir. Cover. Let rise at least two hours. Preferably six. Possibly overnight.

Now, I measured out my flour and had
- two cups unbleached white
To which I added
- four cups rye
- about three teaspoons chopped rosemary from my garden


From here I pretty much followed the original recipe although I added extra herbs leftover from my chicken salad. This recipe combines the sponge with a dough (more yeast, salt, sugar, etc) and then rises again. [See the link listed above.] Shape and let rise again.

Because I ran out of white flour, my final rise didn't have as much ooomph as I would have liked, despite leaving the dough on the steamy sunporch. It was dense but yummy.

Target shopping again

We spent about $575 on food in May. $344 on groceries and $229 on dining out. This sickens me. We're bleeding money in every area of our lives: my tuition, the car, my dental bills, a fuel oil drop, our quarterly bills. I wish I could eliminate that dining expenditure, but it's my stress relief. I expected our grocery bill to be higher than usual because we bought $30 worth of Carnation Instant Breakfast and probably $50 in yogurt and probably $25 on those Bolthouse Farms immunity boost smoothies in an attempt to feed me when I could not chew.

But now it's June. Clean slate. (We won't think about the $84 I've spent on dining already...)

I spent about $44 on groceries at Target yesterday. Was there to buy my daughter make-up for her dance recital. I'll recount my entire list:

From groceries:

• 100% apple juice, $1.84
• New England Blueberry Cobbler coffee, 2 packages, $11.98 (I must abandon this habit. I estimate we spend $200 a year on this coffee)
• Del Monte pear halves (poire tarte tartin anyone?), 2 big cans, $4.58
• Dole mandarin oranges in juice, two regular sized cans, $2.78
• two cans of Market Pantry peaches, $2.18
• Market Pantry tropical fruit salad, $1.09
• Valley Fresh chicken meat in a can (the big can), $2.29 
• Market Pantry tuna, two big cans, $4.18
• A big old seedless watermelon, $4.99 (my daughter asked very sweetly for this)
• boneless pork chops, two packages on sale for $3.49 each (regular price $4.99) minus $1 off coupon, $5.98
• Silk soy milk, unsweetened, $2.79
• Market Pantry half and half, two pints, $2.58
• greens: Fresh Express, one spring mix and one romaine, $2.99 each, buy one get one free

From cosmetics:

• foundation, $3.59
• lipstick, $1
• mascara, $3.99

From pets:

• 27 pounds of cat litter, $8.89

Other:

• kid flip flops, $1
• 32 count thin maxi pads, $3.79 minus 75 cent coupon
• alcohol (the first aid kind, I use a lot of the high percentage stuff for cleaning) $1.87 minus 50 cent coupon

TOTAL: $73.13
Team Member discount: $7.33
Red Card discount: $3.28
Reusable shopping bag discount: 20 cents
tax: +94 cents
NEW TOTAL: $63.26

Venison loin in the crock pot

My mother gave me some venison so I soaked some in brine this morning. I placed a loin in a solution of water, vinegar, pepper and salt. In a fit of indecision, I added apple cider and balsamic vinegar.

After a couple hours, I tossed it in my skillet with a couple tablespoons of canola oil and seared it on medium high for about three minutes on each of three sides.

I tossed it in the crock pot on low with water, a touch of garlic powder, a few shredded leaves of fresh sage and sorrel and a hearty squirt (about 3 ounces?) of Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut dressing.

Vegan Brownies

I used to make killer vegan brownies all the time, but I haven't made them in years. My daughter needs to contribute to her Daisy crossover today, so I volunteered to make brownies to protect her dairy-free status.

The original Betty Crocker recipe:
Melt
2/3 cup butter
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

Mix separately
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs

Add chocolate
One cup flour

Mix and bake in greased pan for 40-45 minutes at 350 until brownies pull from side of pan
My version

2/3 cup margarine
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 ounce dark chocolate (in candy bar form because I ran out of the other)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon canola oil

For pre-batter:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla

And the flour as directed