Pinterest Recipe Success!

please excuse my sad iPhone pictures. My lost the charger to my camera. 

I have to share this with you.
I made this recipe tonight.

Chicken and Sun Dried Tomato Sauce

And it was AMAZING. 

Even Eveyln liked it! Which is awesome because she's been very picky this week. 

The only thing I did different was I added about double the garlic, and I used home made turkey stock instead of chicken broth. And I may have used a little more butter than the recipe called for. 

Served with fresh crunchy bread and steamed veggies.
I will make this again for sure.
The sauce would also go good with pork chops, or Paul suggested on pasta. 

Again, Check her out:

Damn Delicious: Chicken with Sun Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

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Gin Mule (or Gin-Gin Mule) Recipe

In today's installation of Operation Empty the Pantry, I bring you the gin mule. 

There are lots of recipes for this drink when you google it. If you found me through google I hope you like what you see here. 

It's a pretty simple drink, and quite refreshing. I would call it a summer drink, although I discovered it's parent drink (the Moscow Mule) the winter. 

I got a little artsy with the photography

1 1/2 oz Gin

1/4 squeezed lime

6oz of Cock & Bull Ginger Beer 

ice

combine in a rocks/higball glass and enjoy

I have seen most recipes add muddled mint and simple syrup, but I think those make it too complex. This is simple, flavorful, and goes down easy. It's not too sweet, the gin is very subtle. 

Maybe without all that shit mine isn't a real Gin Mule, but it's delicious, and I suggest you at least try it before you add more sugar and the mint. 

Just as good (maybe better) thank the vodka drink it's modeled after.

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Baked Avocado egg

I have seen this all over pinterest and a couple facebook friends have made it, so I thought I would give it a try. Avocado and Eggs, two of my favorite foods, what could possibly go wrong? 

I read these two recipes for my inspiration: All Recipes Baked Avocado Egg and Fit Sugar Baked Egg Avocado. They were the first two hits on google, and really I was mostly looking for baking temp and time. 

So I prepped my avocado, put in my egg, and popped it in the oven. 425* for 15 min (my egg actually took about 18m to set) 

topped it with Mortons seasoning salt, pepper and sriracha

Meh. 

It wasn't good. I think my problem was the warm avocado. That was kind of gross actually. I tried all the hot sauce in the world and I still struggled to choke down the warm avocado. 

I think I'll stick to For The Love Of Cooking's tried and true Mini Frittatas when I want baked eggs.

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High Altitude Corned Beef & Cabbage

I loved Corned Beef and cabbage, no matter what the holiday. It's one of my favorite meals. I like to buy a couple right after St. Patricks day and freeze them for later in the year. I am a bit sad that this year I will not be able to stock up because we are getting ready to move. 

We were well above sea level when we moved to Montana, but only the last year that we have lived in Butte, have we been "High - Altitude". We about 6500 feet in the hills above the city. I have found cooking has become quite the pain in the ass. Everything takes longer, and most everything is dry. I don't think I have made a successful roast since we moved here. Even in the crock pot things dry out faster because the air is thinner up here. 

A couple corned beefs ago I did a brown sugar/mustard dry rub and it was amazing. I modified it a little this year because I don't have any mustard in my fridge, only dry mustard. 

(all ingredients are estimates, you can do more or less depending on the size of your corned beef)

3 1/2 pound pre-packaged corned beef

rub-

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 tbsp pepper

1/2 tbsp dry mustard powder

dash of celery salt

packet of stuff that came with your corned beef

mix all the above ingredients in a bowl.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees

Place corned beef in a baking dish fat side up

squeeze about 2-3 tbsp of honey on the fat side of your corned beef and then sprinkle your rub on top of this, and then pat it down. You want to cover almost all the fatty tissue with your rub, you can go over the edges if you want, I didn't. 

after 2 hours I reduced the temperature to 300

cover your dish with lid or foil and place in oven for 3 1/2- 4 hours.

at 3 hours I added some small potatoes and raised the heat back to 325.

at 4 hours I added come cabbage wedges and placed back in the oven until they were soft (about 15-20 minutes)

Moscow Mule Drink Recipe

Well Operation Empty The Pantry has commenced. And we are working our way through numerous bottles of obscure liquors on top of our staples so we don't have to move alcohol when we pack up for Cali. 

So that brings us to todays drink of the night: Moscow Mule.


I learned of this drink visiting family that lives in Moscow, Idaho. That's why the name sticks out for me, I seriously thought, every time I heard it, that the drink was named for this town. But it's not. It's named from Russia, where vodka originates from. Some bartender, trying to get vodka to be the new thing in the 40's named the drink. But it's a damn good drink, no matter what it's named after.

I learned to love the drink when I found it served at our local distillery tasting room here in Butte, Headframe Spirits. It's a yummy little tasting room in uptown Butte, Mt. They distill the alcohol in a room adjacent to the tasting room, some days you can even watch the bottling process. All of the alcohol they sell are named from headframes that were once active in Butte's rich mining history. In the tasting room they offer a small number of mixed drinks from each different alcohol. Limit is 2 drinks a day, which is a shame because I could easily spend all afternoon there if I were allowed.

The Moscow mule is traditionally served in a copper mug, at least here in Montana. "Some say it's because the ingredients react to the copper making it more tasty, some say the copper makes it colder" (-box my copper mug came in) The cup sure does make it colder, and super delicious. I strongly recommend you find one if you are going to be drinking these. 

Moscow Mule:
1 1/2 oz Vodka

juice from 1/2 a lime (about 1/2 oz)

6oz of Ginger Beer ( I like Cock 'n Bull)

add to Copper Mug filled with ice and enjoy!
You can get a copper mug here
(if you can't find a copper mug, this is also great in a rocks or highball glass)

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I love banana bread. I can easily eat the whole loaf in one day. Just banana bread, no butter, no anything else, just the bread. Yummm. 

Just a side note:

You know what's sad, those bananas, in the photo above, aren't the ones I used, they aren't over ripe. I collect mine in the freezer and I didn't have any "fresh-over-ripe" bananas when I made this, so my bananas are really ugly. Not photogenic at all. I used yellow ones in the picture because I was embarrassed at how ugly my bananas are.

seriously over ripe-previously frozen bananas

3-4 over ripe bananas

1 stick (1/2 cup) of room temp butter

2 room temp eggs

2 cups of flour

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla 

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

As many chocolate chips as you desire, I used about half a bag. 

(optional: a handful of white sugar for topping)

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix/mash your bananas and eggs together, add the butter and mix well. Next add brown sugar and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl combine  your dry ingredients, flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Slowly add your dry ingredients to your wet, like a 1/2 cup at a time. You can just add all the dry but you risk getting flour all over your kitchen. 

Finally add your chocolate chips and put in a greased loaf pan.

Optional: sprinkle the top with white sugar to get a nice sugary crispy top.

Bake for about an hour (I am at high elevation so my cooking time is more than an hour, close to an hour and a half)

It's done once a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

sprinkled with sugar,
see the bananas I didn't really use

delicious yummyness 

and done!
on my cute little Japanese animal plate.

Shrimpy Salad

(I could come up with a better name)

1lb of medium cooked, peeled, de-tailed shrimp
1-2 avocado cubed
2 tomato cubed
2 limes, juiced
1-2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 handful of cilantro coarsely chopped
1/4 red onion diced
2+ tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir, season to taste. eat with spoon straight from bowl you made it in because it's that good.
I also like to use an avacado that is really soft, because it seems to blend into the lime juice and make a sauce that is just wonderful. 

As with most of my recipes, if you don't like something, leave it out, if you want more (like I think I'll use more avocado next time) then put it in. 

You could also cut the shrimp into smaller pieces and eat this with chips.
Would be good on top of shrimp enchiladas, or inside tortillas as cold tacos.

The entire recipe is 22 weight watchers points! But that's a lot to eat in one sitting...

Adapted From -
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/05/zesty-lime-shrimp-and-avocado-salad.html

I would also like to mention I have been nominated for Voice Books Top Military Mom Blogs I would love to have your vote. The top 10 blogs will get a spot on the website http://voiceboks.com/top-50-military-mom-blogs-of-2013/ Thank You for your support! 

DIY Cloth Diaper Detergent (and why it works)

Edited November 2014- I am not using this recipe any longer. Not because it didn't work for me, but for two reasons: 1. We now live in a humid environment and it solidifies quickly, and that is a huge pain in the ass. 2. Gain works just fine, and is easier and I am lazy.
I don't plan on taking this recipe down because I never had any problems with it working. I am now very busy in my life and would rather buy detergent than make it.

ETA: Jan 2014 I just wanted to not that I have made some changes to this post over the last year, but they are all in my washing cycle and stripping method. I still use my detergent and I still love it. I have been using it as long as I have been cloth diapering, so over a year now, and I do not have any issues. My diapers are clean, I have no poo stains, My child is rash free. I have seen no decrease in the quality of my diapers, except the velcro ones don't velcro as well. But I think thats because I never close the velcro before I wash them. All of my prefolds, BumGenius and covers still work as good as the day I bought them. If you have questions please e-mail me because many of my comments I have been unable to reply to because they don't have email set up behind their blogger name. I would love to chat with you if you have any concerns.

There are dozens of recipes for Cloth Diaper Detergent out there. I have done tons of research over the last few weeks because I wanted to do it right. Also I wanted to know why you weren't supposed to use certain things (because I'm that annoying kid that always asks why.)

**I am not a scientist** 

Nor have I ever taken a chemistry class. My final product is a powder detergent from other recipes I have slightly modified due to internet research I have done. 

Bar Soap: Bar soaps are made with oil and lye, both can attach to your cloth diaper and over time cause buildup that reduces the absorbency of your diaper. Also buildup can cause skin irritation on your babies sensitive bottom.

Borax: Great cleaning strength, breaks down well, not a great water softener. Breaks down into Hydrogen Peroxide which is a great cleaner.

Washing Soda: Very caustic, you should totally use gloves. Needs to be rinsed well, failure to do so can cause skin irritation of baby. But it is a great degreaser and great at softening hard water.

Baking Soda: Not as alkaline as washing soda, so no gloves needed. Not as strong as washing soda, but easily dissolves in water and washes clean. From my understanding it's sort of like washing soda but half the strength.

Oxy: Breaks down into Sodium Carbonate + Hydrogen Peroxide. The breakdown in water brightens and removes stains. Similar to washing soda and borax.

However through my research I learned that Borax and Washing soda can both breakdown PUL and prematurely age elastic (both found in covers). Which would really make any home made detergent bad. But I found that store brand cloth diaper detergent like Rockin Green contains Sodium Carbonate (washing soda) so I don't think it can be that bad, Sodium Percarbonate which is like sodium carbonate (washing soda) and Hydrogen peroxide so Oxy, which is very similar to washing soda and borax.  I know the chemical composition of the ingredients is different between mine and store bought, but they do all act in similar ways. 


One thing to be aware of when using store bought detergents, they are not all equal, you should be careful when using the same detergent as you do on your clothing, on your diapers.
Things to avoid:
Optical Brighteners, Fragrances and Dyes, Fabric Softeners  These can also deposit residue on your diapers that can irritate skin and reduce absorbency.
If you are a military, a military wife or a hunter you likely already avoid Optical brighteners and fragrances for your, and/or your husbands camo.

1c Borax
1/2c Washing Soda
1/2c Baking soda
1/2c Oxy

Sift all ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
Sifting ingredients created a bunch of dust and required me to not only clean all my counters again, but wash myself because I was covered in dust, mostly I think from baking soda, because it was the finest of the powders. 
I then sifted again into another container.
Poured into sealable container.

**HE Front Loader (although I don't know a top loader would be much different)**
Use:
Run diapers & covers through a cold wash with no soap, or 1 tbsp detergent if they are super poopy
Run diapers & covers through a hot wash with extra rinse with 1 tbsp detergent
Remove covers and hang, tumble diapers low.
(Once it's summer I will hang dry my diapers and covers outside, right now that would result in frozen diapers)

Updated 6/11/2013
Updated 1/7/13 - same wash cycle as before but now washing strictly in cold water, seems to have improved my electric bill and noticed no change in my diapers, they still wash just a clean.

first I Quick wash cold
Next I set my washer up on a Heavy Duty wash (HOT)
Set it for pre-soak (which is cold)
Deep clean (hot)
with extra rinse

I use about 3/4 tablespoon of detergent depending on load size, normal load is 3 AIO diapers and 6-8 prefold with 3 covers.

I hang dry or tumble in the dryer if I need a diaper ASAP, my covers don't go in the dryer.

Got this nifty little rack at Costco

I have very hard water up here in Montana so I have to strip my diapers about once a month, I still have not found a perfect way to do this, Currently I wash my diapers as listed above, and when done set the washer for a normal wash with hot water and squirt a glob of Dawn dish detergent into the washer with an extra rinse. Then I smell test, if they smell fine they are good, if they smell fishy or like ammonia I do it again.

ETA 
I have been using the Mama Natural way to strip my diapers for a while. I really like it and I think I have only stripped them twice since. I am guilty of adding a little bleach in every now and then though if we have super pee stink from a heavy overnight peed-in diaper.

It should be mentioned that I use prefolds and a few bum genius AIO's and I have Bummies and Thirsties covers. 


My Recipe for Laundry Detergent: First Try and Redux
Both (cloth diaper and laundry) detergents are safe on your clothing, but the Laundry Detergent has bar soap (fels-naptha) in it, so it is not suggested for your diapers. The Fels-Naptha makes a great cleaning soap though, great on dirt and stains of all shapes and sizes.


I don't think my detergent is better than a store bought (well maybe a little). But it saves me money and it gets the diapers/clothes clean.

Sources:
http://community.babycenter.com/post/a27556305/de-myth_baking_soda_washing_soda_borax_detergent_nerd_alert

http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html

http://www.littlefornow.com/homemade-detergent-for-cloth-diapers.html

http://www.thirstiesbaby.com/blog/homemade-is-not-always-best/


- Alana

Potato Salad

Happy belated 4th of July!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and didn't blow your hand off, or burn down your neighbors tree. 

I had a quiet day mostly, Husbeast worked, so I cleaned the kitchen and made my families famous Potato Salad. I made a few modifications that my father would never approve of, but my pregnant belly wanted.

before instagram

Potato Salad


1. The first rule of Potato Salad is you use the same amount of all the big stuff (except onion) since I only needed a small batch I did 4s
4 potato
4 egg
4 dill pickles (should have been, I'll explain)
1/2 small vidalia (sweet) onion

2. My favorite rule about Potato Salad is you can have fun with it and add or subtract things that suit your taste. Although my dad would never agree to this rule.
1/2 a can of olives
2 stalks of celery

3. Mayo is a must, regular mayo, no miracle shit, Mayo! and a sprinkle of powdered mustard, about 1tsp or more if you'd like.

4. Never forget your salt and pepper.

So I cut up my potato into bite sized pieces and boiled it on a low boil about half an hour (or until soft)

I tried a new method for hard boiling eggs, I baked them, Yep you read that right, Baked.
The pin I found the idea from gave great directions, although it's pretty idiot proof. First I did a test egg and it was perfect, so 330 was my temp, 30 min was my time, and my eggs were perfect, and peeled super dooper easily. You can jump straight to the directions here: Hard Boiled Eggs In the Oven
Once my eggs were done and peeled I used my Vidalia  Chopper to chop the eggs smaller, and I'm too lazy to use a knife.

4 dill* pickles . I didn't have regular dill pickles. and the corner market didn't have whole dill, or even dill spears. So I bought hamburger dill chips. And they worked perfect.  I also put them in my Vidalia Chopper and chopped them into small pieces.  I used about 1 cup once it was all chopped up.
Onion was the same, cut in half then into the chopper.

I added these three things to a big bowl and poured pickle juice over them, about a 1/8 to 1/4 cup, it's gotta soak into the eggs and potatoes before you add the mayo.

Now the ingredients my dad would never allow in his potato salad:
 I opened a can of olives, and took about half of it and put it through the chopper and added it to the bowl of goodness. 
2 stalk of celery into the chopper, and into the bowl.

Here is where I should have thought things through, It may have been easier to mix the mayo and the dry mustard before I put it on the salad, it also may have been easier to mix the mayo, mustard, olives and celery first. But it's too late I already sprinkled the mustard in the bowl of goodness.

About 1 1/4 cups of mayo later sprinkled on 1 tsp kosher salt and copious amounts of fresh ground pepper and I had Potato Salad!

Remember, it's your salad, you want super mayo, add more mayo, don't like dill pickles, well tough shit, you can't change that, well you can but the Potato Salad Police may arrest you. Have fun with it, add green or red peppers, or maybe jalapeños.

after instagram

* A word about Pickles.
I have spent the better part of the last three years searching for the perfect pickle. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I have bought nearly every kind of pickle in the store and could never find the ones that I ate as a kid, the really yummy ones my mom bought. At any given time I have 2-3 open jars of pickles in my fridge, that were failures, I still eat them, but I don't enjoy them. Just assuming my parents bought magic pickles at their grocery I just kept trying and never asked.
Well yesterday I asked, for the sake of potato salad I had to know what I was doing wrong.
Kosher dill. Not the same as Dill.
Did you know Kosher Dill, not only is made to Kosher standards but also uses garlic?
I didn't.
Dill is the secret, no garlic, not as sharp a flavor. I will never again buy Kosher Dill.



Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Crock Pot Pork Roast

Below you will find my recipe for an almost all in one pot dinner. 

Pork roast & potatoes with onions and garlic, all in one pot, 

The only thing made separate was the gravy. 

you'll need:
a bone in piece of pork
a few red potatoes
an onion
some garlic
a few sprigs of rosemary
salt and pepper

for the gravy:
drippings from your pork roast
corn starch
milk
more salt and pepper


For the roast:
add all the ingredients into the crock, I put onions and garlic down first so they can cook fast and release their oniony goodness, with some rosemary for flavor.
Then add your meat and potatoes, more rosemary.
liberally add salt and pepper.
Put that crock on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
Pork is done when it's approx 160 degrees.

When all is done with your roast, take it all out and pour your drippings into a small pan, in a little cup mix cold water with about 1/2 tbsp of corn starch, once it's mixed add it to your drippings. Turn the heat up to about med high and stir. when it starts to thicken add about 1/4 cup of milk and continue to stir until desired consistency is reached. If your gravy doesn't thicken up add more cornstarch, mixing it with water first. But depending on how much drippings you have (I only had about 2 cups) you don't want to add too much cornstarch or your gravy will be weird and gel like.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

disclaimer: 
I am not a cook, I am a woman who likes to cook. Most of my measurements are approximations. I hope that you enjoy my recipes as much as I do. But for any kitchen failures, I am sorry. 

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Oven Roasted Potato Wedgies

Oven Roasted Potato Wedgies 

yes, I called them wedgies.

I think that sounds more fun.

preheat oven to 400
quarter a few red potatoes
drizzle with olive oil
sprinkle with desired toppings
-seasoning salt
-rosemary
-thyme
-garlic salt
stir
arrange on baking sheet
(it may not be necessary to place raised on a cooling sheet, but I feel it helps them cook evenly)
cook until desired tenderness is reached (mine are a tad overcooked)
(about 20-30 minutes)
enjoy with whatever dressing you like, I like plain yellow mustard.



Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana