My Sister's Keeper

Jodi Picoult is pretty high up there on the list of my favorite authors.  Despite the popularity of this particular book and that there was a movie based on it, I just finished reading My Sister's Keeper for the first time. Picoult, yet again, does not disappoint.

The Jodi Picoult books I've read all deal with a court case, an ethical dilemma that stretches beyond the lawyers and jury and into the characters. In My Sister's Keeper, Kate has leukemia and her parents, like any parents in that situation, will do anything to keep their daughter alive. Including conceiving younger daughter, Anna, who at 13 is asked to donate a kidney, after already donating stem cells, blood, and bone marrow.  Anna makes a decision to petition for medical emancipation, to give herself the right to make her own decisions about her health when her parents are torn between their two daughters.  Throw in a delinquent older brother, a lawyer with a medical problem, and a guardian who used to date the lawyer for good measure and you've got quite the story.

There's a "WSP reader's club guide" at the back that I was planning on typing about.  After starting several times, I've decided against it.

The questions most ask about how I would act in the situations the family faces and if they made the right decisions.  I can't imagine how I would handle any of this if I was in this situation because it is one of those awful circumstances you just hope will never happen to those you care about.  You don't know how you're respond until you get there.

One of the common themes throughout the book is that there is no right answer.  Do you let the younger sister make a decision for herself and her body even if her answer costs her older sister her life? Do you force the younger sister to donate something for the greater good of her family even if it psychologically harms her? There's no right answer for this family, in this and numerous of the other problems they face.  They make the decisions they think is best and that's really all you can do.

The Hunger Games

I first read The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins just before the first movie came out in 2012.  I started reading The Hunger Games Saturday evening and in less than 24 hours finished the three books.  Afterwards I felt exhausted, hyper, shaky; I felt like a powerful drug was working it's way out of my system.

Last week, I reread the three before the Catching Fire movie came out, which started playing in United States theaters on Friday, November 22.

I could talk at length about these books and the movie adaptations but since it's been a few days since I read them, I don't have anything right in foreground to discuss.

But something about this reread has stuck with me.  Having gone directly from Fifty Shades of Grey to The Hunger Games, I was really struck by the differences between Ana Steele and Katniss Everdeen.  As I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before, one of the most annoying things about Ana is her complete dependence on Christian for well... everything.  Katniss though- Katniss is such a BAMF.  Yeah she's got the two guys who love her but she says *repeatedly* that she can't think about that now.  Katniss has got bigger fish to fry than daydreaming about who to marry and how to make him happy.   When Ana ends things with Christian, she gets severely depressed and stops eating.  Katniss endures through far more traumatic experiences and while she has moments of what I'd consider severe PTSD (and really, who could blame her?), she survives.

I loved Katniss as a character from my first read through but giving the timing of this, her strength was really that must clearer in comparison.

Chicken Tortilla Bake

When wondering around Pinterest and the like, I try really hard to only save things I can in some way replicate.  What good is the picture of someone's dinner if there's no instructions on how to make it myself?

This recipe came from one that fell through the cracks.  The description explains that it's a 5 item recipe using only chicken, tortilla, rotel, cream of chicken soup and cheese.  The link gives me a recipe that doesn't really match the description. Same concept of dinner but loads more ingredients and such.  So here's my attempt just using the 5 items listed and trying to make the best of it.

Chicken Tortilla Bake

Ingredients

4 Tortillas - I used Mission Carb Balance Soft Taco flour tortillas, 8 ct to a package so I used half.

1 Can Rotel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles

1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup

2 Cups "Fiesta Blend" cheese - This is a mix of Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla, and Asadero cheeses but I'm sure any cheese will work.

1 lb of Chicken

Bonus Ingredient: Few tablespoons of Sour Cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cut the Chicken and Tortillas into bite sized pieces. Layer in a 9 x 13 casserole dish.

Pour the Rotel Tomatoes and Chiles and the Soup into the dish.

Sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Serve with Sour Cream on top (if desired).

Pre-Oven, it didn't last long enough once cooked to have a photo shoot.

Notes

The amount of cheese is approximate.  I had about 1/2 of an open cheese blend in the refrigerator and used the rest of that.  It probably could've used just a bit more.

That's really my only comment, I'm really please with how it came out.

Boyfriend specifically requested this and was pleased with the results so hazzah!

Meatball Biscuit Sandwiches

It's essentially just grands, cheese, and meatballs.  What could possibly go wrong?

Meatball Biscuit Sandwiches

The original post that started this can be found here.  I didn't end up following most of it so not bothering to copy it here.

Ingredients

2 cans Pillsbury golden layers biscuits
10 frozen fully cooked Italian style meatballs - thawed
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese 
Italian Seasoning 
Garlic Powder
Marinara Sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.  Take 1 biscuit, add a meatball on top along with some mozzarella cheese.  Put another biscuit on top of the sandwich and seal the sides.  Repeat for remaining meatballs and biscuits.  Arrange in a round cake pan.  Sprinkle the biscuits with some Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve with marinara sauce for dipping.

Notes

So. Definitely misread the instructions and not sure how that happened so badly.  The original post talks about 1/2 a meatball to 1/2 of a biscuit (using only 1 can instead of by 2).  Whoops.

I used mozzarella cheese rather than the suggested string cheese because I just can't stand string cheese.  Well after trying to use shredded mozzarella, I can see the appeal in string cheese.  I had trouble keeping my shredded in the biscuit long enough to seal it.  Maybe I'll try getting a block of mozzarella next time so I can just cut off a bit to be more solid than the shredded.  Definitely need to try something because this time did not give as much cheese as I would like.

I don't think I enjoyed the garlic. I love garlic and garlic bread and all that but it wasn't working for me with everything else.  I liked the parm and seasoning though.

We just had the sandwiches, no pasta or such alongside.  I think I had 4 while Boyfriend had 6 and was real full.

Overall pretty good though and worth another try.

Fifty Shades of People who Murmur Too Much

I learned today that my nook can find certain words or phrases. Never had need to use that before so this was a recent discovery.  And with the recent Fifty Shades post, I just had to see:

In Fifty Shades of Grey, there are 199 times when someone murmurs.
Fifty Shades Darker has 278.
Fifty Shades Freed says it 293.

This gives us a three book total of 770 times where someone is murmuring.  Seven. hundred. and. seventy. times.

This is literally ridiculous.

E. L. James has a net worth of $60 million.  That's nearly $78,000 for every instance of murmuring.

I might be sick.

Italian Chicken Bake

The pin last nights dinner was inspired from is the reason why I copy and paste ingredients and directions to the blog whenever I make something. I don't rely on a link working.  The pin this came from was repinned over and over, enough that the link doesn't go anywhere.

Based on the description, I think I did a decent enough job of recreating it but either way... here we go.

Italian Chicken Bake

Ingredients

1.5 lbs of Chicken

1 Can of Green Beans (or other vegetable would likely be a fine substitute)

3 Eastern Potatoes (I used 3 Eastern Potatoes)

1 Stick of Butter

1 envelope of salad dressing mix (I used Kraft Thick and Creamy Italian Anything Mix)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.

I had 3 larger full sized chicken breasts that I slit in half (so 6 pieces of chicken) that I lined along the bottom of my pan.

Open the green beans and line along one side of the pan.

Cut the potatoes into smaller chunks and line along the other side. (I went with 3 potatoes, 1 for each full sized chicken breast)

Melt the butter and pour into the pan.

Sprinkle the Italian mix on top of everything.  I stirred a bit to try and coat everything but I don't know how necessary/helpful that was.

Bake for an hour.

Notes:

I may have gone overboard with the potatoes.  Seemed like a lot as we were eating.  And the larger pieces weren't quite cooked all the way through so either precook them a smidge or cut to smaller pieces next time.

The prep was quick so most of the wait is just baking so it's pretty easy.

Boyfriend really enjoyed it though - downing 2 larger plates worth faster even than usual.  He said it was definitely worth repeating.

Yum.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole

A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you this post about Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta.  While I thought it was a win, Boyfriend enjoyed it but was under the impression it was more of a casserole than just pasta and sauce.  As a result, I took to twitter and found this recipe to try.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole

The link Pinterest connected to can be found here.

Ingredients

1 lb. bacon, fried and crumbled (The blog I found it from used bacon bits)

2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken 

2 tablespoons of ranch seasoning

1 lb. bow tie pasta

2 jars of Alfredo sauce

1/3 cup of evaporated milk or regular milk

4 cups shredded Italian cheese blend

Directions

Cut chicken into cubes. Mix in ranch mix, evaporated milk and half a jar of alfredo sauce. 

Cook pasta al dente. Drain and return to pan. 

Pour half of a jar of Alfredo sauce into bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Spread evenly. 

Begin layering casserole starting with half of noodles, then half the chicken mix, half of the second jar of Alfredo sauce, half the bacon, and half the cheese. 

Repeat layers with remaining ingredients.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

Notes

This was a fairly last minute idea.  I had most of the ingredients on hand but not quite the same amounts as what was called for.  I used a bit less than 1.5 lbs of chicken, 6 slices of bacon, 1 jar of Alfredo (I actually had 2 I could've used but didn't, mainly because it looked like 1 jar was plenty and when it was all said and done - 1 jar tasted like plenty), and 2 cups of cheese (I had 1 cup of cheddar from my previous Chicken Bacon Ranch adventure and used 1 cup of mozzarella).

Even with the lesser amount of ingredients, 30 minutes wasn't a long enough bake time.  The chicken was not cooked all the way through when I took it out.

All things considered, it tasted pretty good.  Boyfriend liked this better than the first chicken bacon ranch pasta.  I think I disagree. I'm not sure if it was the Classico Alfredo I used or what but something in the creamy sauce wasn't working for me personally. It's not that I didn't like it, I just didn't like it as much.

It worked out to feeding both of us Sunday night - two larger portions for him, 2 smaller for me.  Also gave a lunch portion for me and a slightly larger lunch portion for him.

I think next time, I'm going to try to take the previous pasta recipe and add more cheese and bake it like a casserole to kinda give the best of both.  We'll see how that works out.

Here, have a picture:

I forgot to take a picture Sunday night but it was as tasty as leftovers Monday.

Fifty Shades of Grey and then Some

(I'm not sure if I have to post this warning - but the Fifty Shades of Grey book series is not too appropriate for the workplace or young eyes.  No guarantees I won't talk about some iffy stuff in relations to that)

Book Sale

Today there was a book sale at a library a few towns over.  The sale started Wednesday and since today's the last day, there's a special.  $5 for a full paper bag full of however many books you can fit.  I am so freakin ecstatic about this that I wanted to show off all I got for just $5!!!

1) The Original Illustrated Arthur Conan Doyle - picked up because I think my dad would really like that as part of his Christmas gift.

2) Patterns in Comparative Religion by Mircea Eliade - It's recently come to my attention that I know very very little about world religions and want to be a more informed person about what beliefs are in the world.

3) The Founders and the Classics by Carl J. Richard - tagline: "Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment".  My favorite college class was Western Political Thought which talked at length about Grecian and Roman political theories and since the class took place in America - obviously made the connections between those theories and the Americans founders. Figured a book on that subject couldn't hurt.

4) Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen - I really want to read the Grimm versions of fairy tales because I hear they're far darker than the Disney-fied versions.  I didn't see any Grimm books in the sale so might as well start with Andersen to see if his are similarly vastly different than the tales I recognize from my youth.

5) My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult - I LOVE Jodi Picoult's books.  I've got quite a few of them on my bookshelf/nook currently but I realized I haven't yet read this one when I saw the movie on sale at a Walmart or whatever.  Definitely been on my must read list.  It was just sitting on top of the pile too - such a win.

6) Portraits of Guilt: The Woman who Profiles the Faces of America's Deadliest Criminals by Jeanne Boylan - I really enjoy fictional mysteries and crime novels. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction and an autobiography from a forensic artist could remind me of that.

7) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and other Terrifying Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson - I've never read Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde but have wanted to. A collection with "nine of Stevenson's best known tales of horror and dark fantasy" seems like a win to me.

8) Women as Candidates in American Politics by Susan J. Carroll - I was a political science major in college who was the secretary of the feminist club, making this a must read.

9) Freakeconomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - I've heard good things about Freakenomics and for 42 cents - why not

10) Take 5: 150 five ingredient recipes by WeightWatchers - my favorite recipes on interest are the ones with limited ingredients because they're usually cheaper.  I'm a fan of cheaper.

11) Hollywood v America by Michael Medved - caught my eye. no real reason why.

12) Deadly Little Secrets by Kathryn Casey - A ministers wife commits suicide and reveal "shocking history of lies, infidelity, cruelty, and sexual obsession that may have led to a serial predator cloaked in God's word to commit a murder".  Totally necessary to read.

Gah I'm so happy about all this :) Can't wait to start reading ^-^

Chicken Cornbread Casserole

Back in 2010, I attempted a recipe for Chicken Cornbread Casserole.  Overall, I really enjoyed the concept and the flavors but that recipe was a bit too soupy for my tastes. When I attempted it again, I couldn't find the same recipe because the bookmarked link was broken.  I found a different recipe and again ended up with a casserole that wasn't quite right.

I've told this story before, it's the reason I decided to start keeping this blog - not that I've been very good at updating it until recently (much thanks to Rachael and her 52 weeks though, seeing her posts and excitement have encouraged me to keep with this at least for now).

Well now - several years and attempts later- I think I've figured out just how I want this dish to be.

Chicken Cornbread Casserole

Ingredients

1 Package Chicken - about a lb but usually more like 1.25-1.5 lbs

2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Can Corn

2 Boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix

2 Eggs

2/3 Cup of Milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and layer in the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish.

Pour the 2 cans of soup and 1 can of corn on top.

In a bowl, mix the Jiffy Cornbread mix as directed on the box - 1 egg and 1/3 cup of milk for every box used.  Pour this mixture on top of the chicken/soup/corn.

Bake together for about 25-30 minutes.  At the end the cornbread topping should look golden and solid.  I sacrificed prettiness in the cornbread to poke through and make sure the chicken was fully cooked - looked good after more like 30 minutes due to the nature of my oven.

Notes

Boyfriend loves cornbread more than he loves me.  I wish I was exaggerating.  "I want to make love to this corn muffin and have little mini corn muffin babies and then I would eat our children".  He's literally said that.

So when I found the original recipe, I knew we had to try it.

It's taken numerous attempts with different amounts of everything.  Boyfriend in particular had been disappointed with previous attempts because there wasn't enough of the cornbread so a majority of it sunk into the soup becoming too soupy and losing the crustier part on top.

This above though got his seal of approval so finally!! Hazzah.

Prep was only about 5/10 minutes, which with 25-30 minutes baking means it's pretty easy and not too long.

I'm a big fan and will definitely be doing again.

Calzone

Back in my High School Italian Class, Mr. C. told us that pizza in Italy isn't as big of a thing as it is in America. Where Americans will regularly eat pizza for dinner - the main meal of the day, Italians will eat it more like a snack. When hungry children would ask their mothers for a snack, she'd fix something quick based on whatever was lying around the kitchen. And if you've ever been to Italian restaurant, you know common items include bread, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese.  Toss on a bit of the meat from dinner leftovers and a pizza is born.

That's pretty much the way I treated last night's dinner.

Calzone

Ingredients:

I could write out some ingredients but I pretty much worked with what I got.  There is no set list of "to make this dish, you need x, y and z".  A calzone is pizza dough stuffed with meats, cheeses, or vegetables so pretty much anything can go with this.  The only ingredient that's really necessary is the dough.

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees.

Unroll 1 Pillsbury Pizza crust onto a greased cookie sheet.

1/4 cup of tomato sauce is added onto the center of the dough - prolly could have used a bit more but that's what leftovers I had from meals past in my fridge.

Add toppings.

I used about 3/4 of a 4 oz (so I guess 3 oz) of Bridgford Sausage and Turkey Pepperoni Slices - I'm making Bubble Up Pizza later in the week and Bridgford slices were 2 for whatever so I grabbed 2 of each.  I didn't use a whole package of each because I just wanted a single layer along the bottom of the area I'm using.

About 1/2 of a 15 oz Ricotta cheese container leftover from ziti previously was spooned on top of the meats.

A few handfuls - maybe 1 cup tops - of mozzarella cheese was added on top.

Fold over the dough to completely surround the toppings.  I saw a suggestion on Pinterest about how to cut it and make it look all pretty but seriously - ain't nobody got time for that.  

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Notes:

After 25 minutes, my crust was finished but Boyfriend found pockets inside that were still a bit cool.  Since there was nothing in my calzone that couldn't be eaten raw, we weren't too concerned. But if in future ventures we try other things that do need to be cooked, I'd pay more attention, probably lower the heat and cook for longer.

I thought the consistency came out real well on this.  I didn't feel like there was too much or not enough of an item.  I did end up opening another tomato sauce jar and using some more sauce to dip my calzone in but Boyfriend was fine without so it's just a matter of tastes.

Like always, I meant to include pictures but once it was done I felt hungry definitely didn't want to wait.

All said and done, this took less than 30 minutes to prep and bake.  Was great for a busy day like yesterday.

Kraft Fresh Take Chicken Parm and Pasta

A while ago when wondering through the supermarket, Boyfriend and I discovered Kraft Fresh Takes along the dairy aisle.  These cheese and breadcrumb mixes seemed simple enough for a low key dinner so we picked up a bunch to give them a try.

Fresh Take Varieties (picture from thehungrydudes.com)

We definitely were not disappointed.  For the simplest of meals, we just opened up the fresh take mixing bag, used a touch of water to moisten chicken (packaging says 2 lbs- I usually just buy those slight > 1 lb packages and used that), plopped chicken in the bag, rolled around to gather the cheesy breadcrumby goodness, and baked.  Usually I'd toss on some pasta or mashed potatoes for a side.  Pretty easy and we'd enjoyed the varieties we'd tried - so far I think we've had most of the ones pictured.

Well Friday, boyfriend's little sister was down for the day and we'd planned on the Fresh Take Italian Parmesan chicken for dinner and I decided to try and take it up a notch.  Here's what I managed:

Kraft Fresh Take Chicken Parm and Pasta

Ingredients

Kraft Fresh Take Italian Parmesan
1 lb or so of Chicken Breasts

Pasta - I made about 1/2 a box of rotini for 3 people

1 cup mozzarella

1 jar marinara sauce

Directions

Open up the Fresh Take Italian Parmesan mixing bag and mix the breadcrumbs and cheese together.  Briefly run the chicken breasts under water and then coat with the breadcrumbs and cheese in the mixing bag.  Place on a cookie sheet or casserole dish (I used a 9x13).  Add about a spoonful of marinara sauce to each breast and sprinkle some mozzarella on top of - I used about 1/2 a cup of mozzarella for this.  Bake as directed on the Fresh Take packaging - I don't have it in front of me but I believe says 25 minutes at 375 degrees.  Whatever the packaging says - I let it go for a bit longer since I tested one of the larger breasts and it was still pink inside.

Boil up your pasta and drain.  In a smaller casserole dish (I think mine's 8x8 or so), pour the cooked pasta in with whatever is left from the marinara sauce used for the chicken and mix together.  I had quite a bit of the Fresh Take left so I poured that on top of the pasta with the remainder of the mozzarella.  Then toss in the oven with the chicken.  I started boiling the water after the chicken was in the oven and both the chicken and pasta were pretty much ready at the same time - the pasta's already been cooked so it's pretty much only in the oven so the cheese will melt.

Notes

The above is why I usually find other peoples recipes to try rather than attempt to write my own.  I know I use a lot of approximate language when it comes to food but I'm really not sure the amounts of what I used.  I just kinda go with what seems right.

I also just went with what I had.  Most of this was a spur of the moment idea - particularly the baked pasta which I only decided to do after seeing I still had some of the Fresh Take and cheese left. I did get the complaint that it could use more cheese, I prolly would've used an entire 2 cup package of mozzarella between the chicken and the pasta if I had it but it wasn't an option at the time.  I also was contemplating adding in some ricotta cheese to the pasta as well but it'd unfortunately expired/gotten a tad moldy.  Whoops.

Both Boyfriend and his sister said dinner was really good - which since boyfriend is hardly the most vocal of people is a real win - additional cheese comment aside.