yarn tootin'

Batter Blaster

     I've been a bad blogger.  It's been over a month (gasp!) since my last post.  I've also been a slacker with the knitting as of late.  I've been so busy that I think I recently went the longest I've ever gone without knitting.  I knit a bit on Easter Sunday and then I didn't knit a single stitch until late last Sunday night.  That is a whole week with no knitting.   Even though I do have a couple of finished socks to show y'all, they are not what I want to talk about today.   Today, my favorite thing is the Batter Blaster.

    The Batter Blaster is a can much like a can of Ready Whip, only it contains organic pancake batter.  The Batter Blaster can be found at HEB stores near the cookie dough and the tubes of crescent rolls, though my sister-in-law tells me that in Minnesota and Florida, you find it by the Ready Whip.  In any case, I urge you to find the Batter Blaster.  I don't even like pancakes very much and I love the Batter Blaster.  I'm just sad that I didn't discover it in time for the last New Years Eve Posse celebration.  If I had, I bet I could have talked Bob out of Egg Nog French toast which was one of the more disgusting culinary experiments I've had the misfortune to witness.  Instead of mixing eggs and eggnog and then dipping the bread in it and cooking it, Bob and his two partners in crime mixed eggnog and some sort of alcohol (was it Rum?  I don't remember) and dipped the bread in that and then tried to cook it.  The bread was both soggy and scorched at the same time.  I didn't know that was possible.

    Anyhow, here are two pancakes fresh out of the can.  Here they are after the flip...

    They look pretty good, don't they?   They've been compared to McDonald's pancakes, but since I've never had a McDonald's pancake, I can neither confirm nor deny that.  I can tell you that the Batter Blaster pretty much rocks because there is no mess involved (though Bob did manage to get pancake batter between the stove and the counter).  When you're finished making pancakes, you just rinse the tip of the Batter Blaster under the faucet and put it back in the refridgerator.  How fancy is that?

Viola Chocolate

     A couple of months ago, a fellow violist brought the fanciest and most delicious M&Ms to a concert for viola chocolate.  In our viola section, there is almost always at least one person with a chocolate stash on hand for when things get a little rough or for when things sound great and we want to celebrate.  It's always a good time for chocolate on our side of the stage, and it's gotten to the point where several of us try very hard to bring in chocolate that is so new and different that no one else has ever seen or tasted it before.  On one occasion, I came to work with a bar of Bacon Chocolate (interesting, but not so delicious) that I found at Whole Foods.

     Our principal violist has a daughter-in-law who works for Mars, so she sometimes has access to things that the rest of us have never even dreamed of.  This was definitely the case with the three unmarked tester bags of very pretty M&Ms that she was kind enough to share with us during our run of Cinco de Mayo concerts.  The section immediately dubbed them "bath bead M&Ms" because they were larger than regular M&Ms and they had a bit of a pearlescent quality.  The bath bead M&Ms were unlike any M&Ms I'd ever had and I think they might be M&Ms answer to the fancy chocolate trend.  Today while perusing the higher end chocolate aisle at Target, I was pleased to discover that the bath bead M&Ms (they're actually called M&Ms Premiums) are now available to the masses and they're on sale! 

     I immediately put a box of each of the three flavors I'd already sampled (Mocha, Triple Chocolate, and Mint Chocolate) into my cart.  The other two flavors are Raspberry Almond and Almond Chocolate, but those didn't appeal to me as much as the ones I already knew to be delicious.  So far I've opened the Mint flavor and they're just like the testers.  The one thing they lack is the crunchy candy shell of traditional M&Ms, but I don't miss it.  These M&Ms are just plain delicious and I, for one, hope they're here to stay and not some kind of sick, twisted Limited Edition.  Have you ever noticed that many of the most delicious editions of popular candies are "Limited Editions"?  I still miss the KitKat Dark.

Holiday Breakfast

     My mom makes this recipe for Christmas morning every year.  Since Bob and I will be in California for Christmas this year, we decided to make it for breakfast this morning.  It might not sound all that appealing, but it is quite delicious.  The only thing is, I'm not sure what this recipe called.  We've always called the Christmas Egg Dish.

2 packages of  Hormel Little Sizzlers sausage links, cooked and cut up into little pieces
9 eggs
3 cups of milk
9 slices of bread cubed
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon of dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon of salt

Combine cut up sausage pieces, cheese and bread cubes in greased 9x13 baking dish.  Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and mustard powder.  Pour the egg mixture over the bread mixture, cover, and refridgerate overnight.  In the morning, bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until the center is cooked. Enjoy.

There's Nothing Wrong With That Piece of Chicken

Best of the Midwest Chicken

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
10 3/4 oz. can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
10 3/4 oz. can of Cream of Chicken Soup
8 slices of swiss cheese
4 oz. can of mushroom pieces or fresh mushroom pieces
1/4 cup of butter
2 cups Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing Mix

Place chicken breasts in a 9x13 greased pan.  Place a slice of swiss cheese over each chicken breast. Combine soups in a bowl and pour over chicken.  Sprinkle on mushroom pieces.  Melt butter and combine with stuffing mix.  Sprinkle stuffing mixture over chicken. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.  Enjoy.

     Bob always makes fun of this recipe because of the condensed soups.  For some reason he is a huge snob about the use of condensed soups in casserole or hot dish (pronounced haaht dish) type recipes.  Despite the fact that he makes a lot of fun of this recipe, he always eats it because it is truly delicious.  To make it a little bit healthier, I use the Healthy Request soups which are 97% fat free and as far as I can tell, the recipe doesn't suffer.  A couple of years ago, Bob and I were visiting his grandfather in Wyoming and despite the fact that Bob carried on as though I was planning on poisoning him,  I made this chicken for dinner one night.  Grandpa Howard took one bite and declared "There's nothing wrong with that piece of chicken!"  Amen.

Something Delicious

     Yesterday after our second rehearsal, Bob asked me what we were having for dinner.  I asked him what he wanted and he said "something delicious."  We both give this answer on a regular basis when we want the other person to decide what to make or where to go for dinner.  When I asked him to be more specific, Bob suggested that we make a pizza.  We used to make what we call "beer pizza" all the time, but lately I've been against it.  With beer pizza, you make the crust using beer as the rising agent.  Sometimes it turns out great, but about 50% of the time, it doesn't work and it's not delicious at all.  I told Bob that we'd make pizza, and that I'd figure out something new and different for the crust.

Turkey Pepperoni Pizza with Spicy Sauce*

     When I got to the HEB, I saw that Boboli now has a thin crust version of their premade pizza crusts.  I'd never tried Boboli before, but Rachael Ray is always making things with premade pizza crusts so I figured it couldn't be that bad.  You know what?  It was totally delicious!  We made two pizzas, one with Classico pesto (an excellent jarred pesto), chicken, and tomatoes, and one with Classico Spicy Tomato Basil sauce, green peppers, tomatoes, and turkey pepperoni.  They were both good, but I thought the pesto pizza was the better of the two.  If you make this type of pizza with veggies, be sure to thinly slice them.  Bob diced the green peppers, so they were a little too chunky and raw tasting for me, but I think thin slices would have been great.  These pizzas were probably a little bit more expensive to make than ordering Papa Johns, but I'm sure they were much healthier and a lot tastier.  If you're in the mood for pizza this weekend, I highly recommend Boboli's thin crust!

Pesto Chicken Pizza with 2 slices missing (it wasn't until after I tasted the pizza that I thought I better photograph them for November blog fodder) 

* Both pizzas were cooked directly on the oven rack.  The cookie sheet pictured is only being used because we only have one pizza plate.