Broccoli Stir Fry with Ginger and Sesame

I had a craving for broccoli. I guess in the same way some people crave ice cream or chips, I get these moments when I just have to have some fresh broccoli. So off to the World Wide Web I went in search of a recipe. I have a handful of sites that I always turn to first and simplyrecipes is always one of them. I started to laugh when I began to read the recipe cause Elise said:

"Some people get chocolate cravings. I get broccoli cravings. Sometimes I think it's my body's way of telling me I've been laying on the bacon a bit too thick (or maybe the chocolate!) But honestly I could eat broccoli every day of the year and not get tired of it".

Strange huh? I go looking for a recipe cause I'm having a broccoli craving and I find a recipe that starts out with someone having a broccoli craving. So I whipped up this recipe and I have to say it was very satisfying. If you love broccoli like I do, make this.

Broccoli Stir Fry with Ginger & Sesame
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 cup chicken stock (or vegetable stock for vegetarian option)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp dark sesame oil, peanut, canola, or some other high smoke-point cooking oil
1 pound broccoli florets, rinsed, patted dry, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cloves of garlic, minced (about 1 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 Toast the sesame seeds by first heating a small, stick-free sauté pan on medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and jiggle the pan so they spread out in a single layer. Let them cook until lightly browned, stirring occasionally, about 3-5 minutes. Do not walk away from them while cooking, as once they start to brown they can easily burn. Once lightly toasted remove from heat and put into a small bowl, set aside.

2 Mix the stock, soy sauce, and dark sesame oil together in a small bowl, set aside.

3 Heat 1 Tbsp of peanut (or canola or grapeseed) oil in a large, covered sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the broccoli florets, stir to coat the florets with the oil, Sauté for about a minute. Clear a space in the middle of the broccoli and add the ginger and garlic. Add a little more oil to the ginger and garlic (about a teaspoon) and sauté for half a minute, stirring just the garlic and ginger, until fragrant. Then stir the garlic and ginger in with the broccoli.

4 Add the chicken (or vegetable) stock mixture to the pan. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat and cover. Let cook for 2-3 minutes, until broccoli is still firm, but can be pierced with a fork. Remove from heat. Remove broccoli with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Return pan to heat, increase heat to high and boil down the liquid until just a couple tablespoons remain. Turn off heat, return broccoli to the pan, add the toasted sesame seeds, toss with the liquid. Put into a serving bowl.

Yee Haw!

My husband is a big country music fan. He grew up in New Mexico where they listen to lots of country music. Now I like some country music, in fact I love some of it. Johnny Cash, Tim McGraw, Hank Williams, the Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson…love them. Then there’s the music I call “Goat Roping”. It’s the Yee-haw, hoe down, hee haw, knee-slappin’, tobacco spittin’, woooo doggy music that I can’t stand. John loves and takes every opportunity to torture me with that music.

A few months ago I heard a song on the radio called “I Want to Check You for Ticks”. This was a hit song on a popular radio station??? I don’t get it. So it’s a “thing” in our house (come on all houses have their “things”). John takes great pleasure in finding the most twangy, dog gone awful (see it’s rubbing off on me) goat roping music that he can find and plays it very loudly to annoy the shit outta me. I retaliate with Abba, hee hee! Don’t even tell me your toes don’t start tapping when you hear Waterloo, if you say no you’re a liar!

Yesterday he found a list of titles of real country songs. I kid you not, these are real song titles. So sit back ya’ll, pull up yer overalls, put on yer favorite twangy banjo pickin’ CD and enjoy!

· Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth Cause I'm Kissing You Good-bye.
· I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself or Go Bowling.
· I Sold A Car To A Guy Who Stole My Girl, But It Don't Run So We're Even.
· Mama Get A Hammer (There's A Fly On Daddy's Head).
· I Still Miss You Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better.
· I Wouldn't Take Her to A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win.
· I'm So Miserable without you; It's Like Having You Here.
· If I Had Shot You When I Wanted To, I'd Be Out of Jail by Now.
· My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Don't Love You.
· You're the Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly.
· Her Teeth Were Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure.
· At the Gas Station of Love, I Got the Self Service Pump
· Billy Broke My Heart at Walgreen’s and I Cried All the Way to Sears
· Get Off the Stove, Grandma, You're Too Old To Ride The Range
· Get Your Biscuits in the Oven, and Your Buns In The Bed
· I Gave Her My Heart and a Diamond and She Clubbed Me With A Spade
· It's Hard To Kiss The Lips At Night That Chewed Your Ass Out All Day Long
· I Got the Hungries for Your Love and I'm Waitin in Your Welfare Line
· I Went Back to My Fourth Wife for the Third Time and Gave Her a Second Chance to make a First Class Fool Out of Me
· I'm Gonna Hire A Wino To Decorate Our Home
· There Ain't Enough Room in my Fruit of The Looms to Hold All My Lovin' For You
· Want a Beer as Cold as My Ex-Wife's Heart

My personal favorite:
· If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You.

Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

I knew the key to get Evan to eat was to make something sweet. He has a sweet tooth almost as bad as mine, plus he needed to make his tummy happy again, and what better way to do that than a luscious home made cupcake?

As I was searching for a vanilla cupcake recipe, I came across a video on MarthaStewart.com of baker Billy Reece of Billy's Bakery in New York City. I guess Martha sent her "people" out to find the best vanilla cupcake in NYC and Billy won, so I thought I'd give them a try. As far as cupcakes goes, this was a pretty simple recipe which yielded fantastic results. A moist and tender cupcake with a rich vanilla flavor. He does recommend using non self-rising cake flour, so check your package. They suggested Softasilk, which I just happened to have in my pantry.

The double Vanilla names comes from the vanilla he uses in the cupcake and also the frosting (which I did not use). I wanted a chocolate topped cupcake this time. The boys happily gulped down a cupcake as soon as I had them frosted.

Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes
1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

The Frosting:

I got this frosting recipe from Nosh with me, who got it from 52Cupcakes. I was looking for a recipe that had the ingredients that I had on hand, so this one was it.

Chocolate Frosting
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 to 5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place the butter and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture is soft and well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners’ sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute.

Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons more milk if the frosting is too stiff. Store these cupcakes, in a cake saver or under a glass dome, at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze them, wrapped in aluminum foil or in a cake saver, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cupcakes overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

It always cracks me up when they give instruction on how to freeze cupcakes. I have never frozen a cupcake in my life. My co-workers would kill me. They look forward to all my leftovers. Freeze a cupcake…that’s just crazy talk.

Beef Stew

It’s been was such a doomy and gloomy day today I decided a beef stew was in order. Something we could scoop into a bowl and take into the living room with us while we watched a movie. Both kids are still recovering from sickness. Evan is better, but still very weak and has had about 6 bites of food since Wednesday. He has been drinking tons of Gatorade so he’s not in danger of dehydrating. Jesse doesn’t seem to be as sick, but has a good case of the sniffles and both of them have a cough. Everyone (‘cept me) has been napping on and off all day. There were a few times during the day that the house was so silent the only sound was of me chopping vegetables for the stew. I’m not used to this quietness. I’ll be happy when everyone is well again and the sound of video games being played, or of the boys laughing, or arguing, or talking on the phone to their friends fills the house again. I never thought I’d be happy to hear them argue.

Notes on the stew: I realized half way through making this that I didn’t have any potatoes. Wait that’s not exactly true, I did have potatoes, but when I went to get them in the bin they all looked like green mutant octopi. Not good eats. I knew I had mushrooms. I always have mushroom, so I threw those in instead and added a little more carrots then I usually do. Sometimes I serve this over noodles, home made preferably. This time I served it over rice.

Hearty Beef Stew
Recipe from Cooks Illustrated

3 pounds chuck-eye roast or stew beef cut into 1 ½ inch cubes.
1 ½ teaspoons table salt
1-teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions chopped coarse (about 2 cups)
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup red wine (preferably full bodied)
2 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon, dried thyme
6 small potatoes, cut into small pieces
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced ¼ inch
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
¼ cup minced fresh parsley


1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place beef cubes in large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat in large nonreactive soup kettle; add beef to kettle in two separate batches. Brown meat on all sides, about 5 minutes per batch, adding remaining tablespoon of oil if needed. Remove meat and set aside. Add onions to now empty kettle; sauté until almost softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic; continue to sauté about 30 seconds longer. Stir in flour; cook until lightly colored, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine, scraping up any browned bits that may have stuck to kettle. Add stock, bay leaves, and thyme; bring to simmer. Add meat; return to simmer. Cover and place in oven; simmer about 30 minutes.

2. Remove kettle from oven, add potatoes and carrots, cover, and return to oven. Simmer until meat is just tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove stew from oven. Add peas and allow to stand 5 minutes. Stir in parsley, adjust seasonings, and serve.

(Can be cooled, covered, and refrigerated up to 3 days.)

Spring is in the air.....kind of.

See the little love nut in the nest up there? I incorporate it some where in all my seasonal decorations.

I awoke this morning to the sound of birds chirping. It's been so long since I've heard that sound. It made me smile before I even opened my eyes.

Spring is my second favorite season. Fall is the ultimate for me. I can barely wait for summer to end every year. Spring means it's time to look through all my gardening catalogs and pick out seeds and plants. It means the t-shirts that I pass by daily in the closet get worn and the shorts get moved from the back of the drawers to the front again. I get to visit my favorite nurseries and choose the flowers, herbs and vegetables that will feed us through the summer and hopefully into the Fall. I was also born on the 1st day of Spring although my birthday doesn't fall on the official 1st day of Spring every year, it's neat when it does.

It's a rainy day today. This afternoon we are supposed to get some really heavy rains, torrential downpours the weather man says. Yesterday was beautiful. Almost 50 and sunny. Everyone at work had a touch of Spring fever. When I heard those birds chirping I decided it was time to take down my Spring/Easter decorations. Gone is the winter greenery, out comes bunnies, and chicken and eggs. Oh yes. I spent a few hours arranging and re-arranging decorations this morning. I'm sure I will change them a few more times before the day is over.

My favorite Easter decoration is this little chick with the bunny ears. How freakin' cute is that? I just love it.

And this one pecking! Adorable! I got these two chicks last weekend when Eva, Tati and I went up to my favorite store, Things Made Wonderful. I got them home, unwrapped them from the bag and giddily set them on the window sill. I went into the living room, and returned to find them in some soft core chicken porn positions. John and Tati spent the next 15 minutes putting my adorable chicks into some very compromising positions. Perverts. It did make us all laugh like teenagers though.

Most of my stuff is very primitive/country. I made the primitive eggs a few years back cause all I could find in the store were shiny and bright ones which I really don't like. I like things grungy and grubby and rusty.

So every thing's not so primitive. I still like cute, and this is damn cute. There have been arguments as to whether it's a duck or a chick. I like to think of him (yes I choose the gender too) as a chick, so he is a chick filled with worms.....get it??? Chick - worms......oh never mind.

How funny is that duck? There was no argument about him, it's a duck in a bunny hat. He greets everyone in the breezeway and believe me people "ahhh" when they see him.....even the men......well maybe not the men but the women, they ahhh.

Things that make me happy #9

ANYTHING TO DO WITH CUPCAKES!

After the near meltdown I had yesterday, it was wonderful to come home to a little package waiting just for me from Jessie at Cakespy. Three adorable magnets that she made me along with an equally adorable card. As most of you know I have a thing for cupcakes. I just can't resist them. To me they are the perfect treat and they look cute too, what more could you ask for?

You can check Jessie's website out here http://www.cakespy.com/ and her Etsy shop out here http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382. She sells all kinds of cupcakey goodness. Starting in April of this year, Jessie will be a new illustrator for one of my favorite magazines, Taste of Home. Mucho congrats on landing that gig girl!

Ok so yesterday I was really feeling pretty down and worried about the kiddos. My stress level was the highest it's been in a very long time. Today I'm breathing a little easier. Evan seems to be on the mend...fever is finally going down. Jesse came home from school today with a slight fever and the sniffles. I'm hoping he doesn't come down with whatever Evan had.

What a difference a day makes! Thanks again Jessie for making me smile when I really needed it. Here's a pic of the card and mags hanging on the fridge. I think I need to make some cupcakes tomorrow!



Aren't they just the cutest things? My favorite is the bunny one.

I really hate it when my kids are sick.

I mean, I truly loathe and detest it. It makes me totally stressed, it upsets my stomach, keep me up at night and it fills my mind with endless worry until they are well again.

Evan sat near me on the couch Tuesday night, like he does most nights. He told me his head hurt. I asked him hurts how? His answer was something like “it feels like there is a banging in my head”. Now to my knowledge Evan has never had a headache, so I was guessing that he had a headache and this was the way he was relaying it to me. He then leaned against me and his body felt like it was on fire. Out came the thermometer…102. temp. Not good.

I have been lucky over these past 11 years with Evans health. He has been sick only once. He had pneumonia in kindergarten. He had just turned 5 years old; he was so very tiny and vulnerable. I remember him lying on the couch at my parents house, all of us trying to get him to drink something, every time we tried to get him to drink he shook his head no whatever it was. Finally he asked for “bunny milk”. My Dad was about near a breakdown at this point and was frantically asking what bunny milk was? “It’s Nesquick chocolate milk” I told him. “He calls it bunny milk cause, well there’s a bunny on the bottle and that’s what 5 year olds do”. My Dad raced out of the house to the nearest convenience store and came running back in with 2 containers of “bunny milk”. There we were, three grown adults hovering over a 5 year old, watching to see if milk was going to travel up the straw that was dangling between his little lips. This is what sickness does to us in my family. We are not proud of it. It is just the way we are.


Evan recovered from that illness obviously, but we found ourselves back at the doctors for our 2nd sick visit in 11 years yesterday. He still had a fever, no appetite and he was so lethargic that he almost fell asleep on the examining room table. The doc sent him over to the hospital to have a test done for the flu, which we found out this morning came back negative, but my poor baby is still running a high temp, is now coughing up a storm and just looks so pathetic that it’s breaking my heart to see him like this. What I wouldn’t do to take all that sickness upon myself.

I think a big part of all this is that illnesses messes up my routine, and those of you who know me know I like my routine and I very much dislike things that interfere with it. When my routine is broken I am mentally and physically a wreck. I am utterly and totally a creature of habit and a terrible worrier when it comes to my children’s health. Luckily I have my Mom with him during the day and she attends to his every whimper, but I hate that I can’t be at home with him, making sure his Gatorade is filled, and he’s got his favorite blanket, and his toast is buttered just how he likes it. Working for a living sucks.

Last night after I frantically threw together dinner, packed lunches, did laundry, cleaned up, checked Jesse’s homework, etc, etc (Moms you what I’m talking about), I just stood in the kitchen and cried. I was so stressed out and so filled with worry that I just lost it, right there in the middle of kitchen.

This morning I was at the doctors and was given 6 shots of steroids under my right arm. (I have a disease for those of you who don't know, long story, trust me you don’t want to hear it). As this new doctor sat and very nicely described the new treatment that she thought I should be on, I found myself sitting there thinking about how pitiful Evan looked when I left this morning, and how I hoped when I called home my Mom would say his fever was down. I was not paying attention to a word she was saying, so I kind of looked up at her with this blank stare on my face and apologized and blurted out that my son was sick, I that I was waiting for the pediatrician to call me back, and how I almost cancelled the appointment cause it was just one more thing on my to do list and I was about at my wits end. My doctor told me she understood and kindly repeated everything she had told me moments before and reminded me that stress worsens my condition. Wonderful.

Here’s hoping Evan is better soon, that Jesse doesn’t catch it and that I calm down.