Recipes from October and November

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

• I made these on Halloween, in between groups of trick or treaters. A few times, E had to answer the door by himself because my hands were full of cookie dough. I also brought a few of these cookies to my grandpa while he was in the hospital.
• I highly recommend this recipe. We baked 2 dozen cookies that night, and I froze about 4 dozen cookie dough balls for later. Yummy!

Corn and Black Bean Quesadillas with Pepper Jack Cheese

• A couple of weeks ago, I bought a block of pepper jack cheese when it was on sale for 99 cents. We also had a lot of frozen corn, and some frozen crockpot black beans. This seemed like a good recipe for using them up.
• We made a double batch of these, because this recipe only serves 2, and we like to make at least 4 servings of a recipe so we can have leftovers for lunch.
• We both really liked these, and they were pretty easy to make.

Bacon Chicken Alfredo Pizza

• We had frozen rotisserie chicken, and quite a bit of bacon, and we didn't know what we were going to do with it. This was an easy recipe (nothing is from scratch) to make on a Monday night when we both worked during the day, and didn't feel like cooking a complicated dinner. It was good, too :)

Yam Fries

• I had an extra yam leftover after making Trinidadian Yellow Split Pea Soup (I will post the recipe soon). I made a half recipe of baked yam fries as a snack on Halloween. I thought that the color of the yam was very festive. And the fries were delicious :)

Updates

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. Things have been really busy at our house. First, a few weeks ago, we returned our original set of pots and pans to BB&B. Because I am a receipt saver, I still had the original receipt - and it wasn't that hard to find. We bought them (using gift cards from our wedding) when we returned from our honeymoon in August of 2008. Unfortunately, the pots and pans did not hold up as well as we had hoped. BB&B and Calphalon have great return policies (Calphalon has a lifetime guarantee), so it worked out fine for us. We ended up getting a set of stainless steel pots and pans, since we didn't want a whole set of non-stick pans. We really like this set; hopefully this one will hold up and be our set for a long long time. Because of the way BB&B calculates store credit (even with our receipt), we still had a decent chunk of store credit that we needed to spend there. We ended up applying the credit towards a breadmaker. I have not quite mastered the art of breadmaking yet, but hopefully it will happen soon :)

I was also sworn into the state bar a couple of weeks ago. That was exciting :)

Finally, today E and I ran a little over 2 miles without stopping. It was pretty windy and cold, but I was really proud of us. I keep thinking that we are on our last run outside for the season, but then the weather keeps tempting me. Especially since I prefer running outside to running on a treadmill.

Slow Cooker Cookbook

Last week when I was planning out our meals, I saw this book sitting on our bookshelf. I don't remember buying it, and neither does E.

This week, we tried 3 recipes from it:

• Pork, Pea, and Spinach Curry Soup
• Chicken Peanut Stew (we really like a non-slow cooker version of this recipe from this cookbook)
• Cuban Black Bean Stew

None of the recipes were bad, but they were all pretty average and somewhat bland. When I saw that this cookbook had a 2.5 star review on Amazon.com, I wasn't surprised. Again, the recipes weren't terrible, but they just weren't amazing.

We do really like this cookbook, though. It was one of the first cookbooks that E and I ever used together. Chicken is E's favorite meat, and I think that he borrowed the cookbook from his sister (and forgot to return it). It looks like we can buy it for a penny on Amazon.com now - maybe we should, so we can return "our" copy to E's sister :) Anyway, we've gotten some good use out of that cookbook. These are the recipes in that book that we really like:

• Indonesian chicken satays
• Jamaican jerk chicken
• Nigerian peanut and chicken stew
• jollof rice
• stir-fried chicken with greens
• chicken kabobs
• chicken with udon noodles

I get most of our recipes online, but sometimes it's nice to use a cookbook. Sometimes I will find myself making a lot of Italian and Tex-Mex recipes, and I forget about all of the other options that are out there. A cookbook allows you to browse without having to type anything into a search engine, so you might find yourself inspired to make something that you weren't originally planning on making.

Slow Cooker Pepper Steak, Chicken and Corn Pie with Cornbread Topping

It's been a while since I've reviewed recipes. Both of these recipes were delicious.

Slow Cooker Pepper Steak

• I followed the recipe, and it was really good.
• It was a little salty, even though I used lite/low-sodium soy sauce.
• I served it with rice.

Chicken and Corn Pie with Cornbread Topping

• This was a delicious recipe.
• I made this enchilada sauce up the day before. I used a little over half of it in this dish.
• I used frozen rotisserie chicken that we shredded before freezing it. The recipe called for 3 cups of chicken, but we only had 2 cups. It didn't seem to make a difference.
• I couldn't find a 6 oz. package of Mexican cornbread mix. I found a 7.4 oz. package of sweet corn cake mix. I used the whole package, and I don't think that it mattered.
• I also used 1/2 cup of shredded monterrey jack cheese and 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese that I already had in my fridge instead of a Mexican cheese blend.
• Despite all of my substitutions/variations, this recipe was great. Very filling. We had it for dinner after we went for a run in some very windy and cold weather (the last time we went running outside, in fact). It was a great way to end our run.

I passed!

I passed the bar exam and will be sworn in at the end of the month. That is a huge relief.

I am thinking about starting my own law firm while continuing to work in my current part-time job. We will see what happens. I think that, as of right now, I would want it to be officially open for business in January 2010, but things could change. I'm nervous about the idea, but I also have a couple of good mentors, so I'm not as nervous about it as I once was.

I am still applying for jobs, and getting a lot of rejection letters and emails. The economy is (I'm going to state the obvious) unbelievably tough right now for job-seekers.

Rat Dog had surgery on Wednesday. He had a "mass" removed from his leg, and he had his teeth cleaned. He is not supposed to jump onto furniture or run up/down the stairs for ten days. This is supposed to prevent his stitches from ripping. He loves to run and jump, so it has been really difficult. He also has to wear a cone in order to prevent him from licking his stitches. It is really exhausting; I can't imagine how exhausting it must be to be a parent to a toddler. Dealing with post-surgery Rat Dog is enough for me right now.

We are still waiting to hear whether his mass was an infected bug bite or a bad (cancerous) tumor. I am really hoping that it was a bug bite.

Other than that, not much is new around here.

Baby Shower

On Sunday my mom and I co-hosted a baby shower for two of my cousins. It was nice to have the girls over, because some of my aunts and cousins hadn't been to our house before.

Here are some of the recipes that we used:

Rotisserie Chicken and Chicken Stock

• I bought a rotisserie chicken on Saturday. I took it home, and E and I removed the skin and shredded the rest of the chicken. I put half of it aside for the buffalo chicken dip. I used about 1/4 of it in the enchilada roll-ups, and I saved 1/4 of it to use later.
• When we shredded the chicken, we saved any pieces that were too fatty to use. We also saved the chicken carcass and the rest of the chicken bones. Then we put those pieces into the crockpot, filled it up with water, and added an onion (I just cut it into quarters) and some leftover carrot scraps. We cooked it on low for about 18 hours (most websites said to cook it for 12-18 hours), and then strained it and cooled it in a cold water bath in my sink. We ended up with about 12 cups of chicken stock. Yummy.

Buffalo Chicken Dip (based on this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of the meat from a rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 2 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup bleu cheese dressing
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
• 3/4 cup of hot sauce (I used about 1/2 cup of Frank's Wings Buffalo Sauce, and 1/4 cup of Frank's Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce)
• 1/2 - 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• French bread and tortilla chips - or whatever else you want to use.

Directions:

1) In a 1.5 quart (or larger) oven-safe dish, combine the chicken, cream cheese, dressing, and hot sauce.

2) Stir until well mixed. Then let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

3) Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. When 10 minutes remain, add the shredded cheddar cheese to the top of the dip.

*** Note: You may have to experiment a bit with the oven temperature and cooking time.

Chicken Enchilada Roll-Ups

• I used this recipe - I followed it pretty closely.
• Instead of using canned chicken, I used 1/4 of a rotisserie chicken.
• I also used a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper, because I didn't want the roll-ups to be too spicy.
• I used a 6-pack of jalapeno cheddar tortillas (they were actually called "wraps" at our grocery store, but they were located by the tortillas). It was almost enough. I had to use 1 regular white flour tortilla in order to use up the chicken enchilada filling.
• I mixed up the filling the day before the shower. I think it allowed the flavors to blend together nicely.
• It is easier to spread the filling onto the tortillas if you take the filling out of the fridge and let it sit for a while before you try to work with it.
• I also barely used any salt. Maybe between 1/8 and 1/4 tsp.

Baby Shower Menu

• Besides the buffalo chicken dip and the enchilada roll-ups, we also served: mini croissant sandwiches (different variations of ham, turkey, and cheese), a veggie tray with ranch and dill dip, a fruit bowl (grapes and strawberries), punch, pickles and olives, and water with lemon.
• We also bought two 7" cakes from Target's bakery - a red velvet cake and a chocolate indulgence cake. They were delicious.
• For the 12 guests, we had plenty of food. We have a lot of leftovers, so I will be eating leftover baby shower food for the rest of the week. I'm not complaining about that :)

Baby Shower Games and Other Details

• We bought a baby shower word search game at a local party store. It was trickier than we thought it was going to be.
• We also played this Baby Shower Bingo game. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. My grandma won the Bingo game, though, so that made the wait worth it.
• All in all, it was really fun to co-host a baby shower. I'm really glad that my mom was there to help me and co-host it with me; we wouldn't have been able to have the shower without her help. E was also a big help. Thank you Mom and E :)

66 and 55

I have applied for 66 jobs since the bar exam, and have now received 11 rejections. That means that I still have a chance at 55 jobs :) Luckily, I started a new part-time contract position in my field to help pay the bills until I find a full-time job. I am learning a lot there, so that's good. I am toying with the idea of opening up my own law practice, but I feel like I need a few more months (like until February or March) to make a well-informed decision. Of course, if I find a good, full-time job before then, that would be ideal.

It is a little frustrating for me because I tend to be "Type A". I am trying to keep a positive attitude. It's easier to keep a positive attitude on the days that I go into the office. It's a little more difficult when I am spending my days off at home. I know that once I find my real full-time job, I am going to miss the freedom that I currently have during the day, though.

This past spring, I attempted to run a 5K. I didn't train for it at all. I couldn't run most of it. On Sunday I decided to start the C25K program. Today was my second day of Week 1. There are a lot of C25K podcasts that you can download and listen to while you run, so you don't have to keep track of the time. I have really enjoyed it (all 2 days) so far.

Since my surgery, I have been worried about using headphones. Apparently headphones have magnets in them, and my neurosurgeon uses a giant magnet when he wants to adjust the setting on my shunt. Magnets in headphones can reset a person's shunt. If that happened to me, I would have to go into the doctor and have him set it back to the correct setting. Because our health insurance doesn't have the best coverage ever, it is really expensive for me to go to the neurosurgeon and have him readjust my shunt. I try to go in as little as possible (especially considering my current employment situation). My shunt is located really close to my left ear, so I have just been avoiding the use of headphones.

E came to my rescue so that I could listen to a podcast while running on the C25K program. He cut the left earbud off of a set of headphones for me. Now I can listen to my headphone in my right ear while I am running. This is a little thing, but it really made all the difference for me. It's so much easier to want to exercise when I can listen to music.