Food Friday!

Who doesn't love a good chicken wing?  Ah, but the sauce has to be right on.  There are restaurants devoted to them and they offer a plethora of  sauces.  See, the sauce is where it is for me.  The chicken wing is merely a vehicle for a good sauce!  So, I am happy to present my favorite buffalo wing sauce!  Yummy!  Whip up some of these for the next football game and watch them disappear!  They are FABULOUS! (and so easy!)

Buffalo Wing Sauce

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup hot pepper sauce (We use Frank's)

2 tbsp honey

1. Combine the butter, hot sauce, ketchup, and honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Apply to wings and devour!  (We like to fry our chicken wings...it's the only way I have found to keep them crispy.) 

What football favorites do you have?  I would love you to share!  I am always on the lookout for great recipes!

Not Alone Blog Tour

Depression:

1.  a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity
2. sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy
3. depressive disorder: a state of depression and anhedonia (an inability to experience pleasure) so severe as to require clinical intervention
4. pushing down; "depression of the space bar on the typewriter"

Okay, so #4 isn’t a “classic” definition of this kind of depression, but I think it works here.  There are times when I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders and that’s enough to depress anyone! Some days, everything feels like it weighs 20 pounds more.  My arms, my eyes, the milk, my feet, the air…it is much harder to push through with the extra weight.  It would be easier to just stay in bed.  Overwhelming exhaustion occurs, but sometimes with the inability to sleep.  Outrageous thoughts swirl in my head. Everything feels like it’s my fault.  We are out of toothpaste, my fault.  It rained, that’s my fault too.  My outlook is undeniably pessimistic.  Nothing will go right again.  Ever.  Typing this stuff out…I can see the absurdity of it, but it’s what is in my head.  How do I help someone who has never had thoughts like these to understand?  My name is Misty and I am clinically and chronically depressed. 

The above is an excerpt of my contribution to the Not Alone book.  It's available at Amazon right now. Grab it so you can read the rest of my story and 36 other ones.

A great friend, Alise Wright, started this project after posting on her blog about her own struggles with depression and getting some great support from her Virtual Village.  She found that most people feel isolated when dealing with depression and that finding support helps tremendously.  Civitas Press gave her the opportunity reach a wider audience with the message that they are not alone with this book.  

Most people are touched by depression in one way or another, be it struggling with it personally or seeing a friend or family member go through it.  This book can help with the understanding that there is no one cure for depression.  It's not a "one size fits all" kind of thing.  It looks different on everyone and acts differently to boot.  Pick up this book, read it for yourself and pass it on.  There is no telling how many people we can touch with this project.

(Alise currently has a blog festival going about the book and has a linky up on her blog with posts from others.  Hop on over there and take a look.  She is also looking for reviewers too!)

Food Friday

I am a sucker for a great pasta sauce...I am also a sucker for mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes.  Add these together and you have got a beautiful thing going! And I must say, it's pretty darn close to a new sauce that they have at Olive Garden right now too!  Yummy!   Sorry, I don't have a picture for this one...I was too one track minded to think to take a picture! (Yes, it's that good!)  Well, here it is.  

Sun dried Tomato and Mushroom Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup mushrooms

½ cup chopped onions

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

¼ cup chopped sun dried tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.         Sauté mushrooms and onions in 1 tablespoon butter until onions are translucent.  Set aside.

2.         Heat the cream and remaining butter in a saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling, but do not boil. Add mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, and stir until melted. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and mushroom mixture, season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and serve over pasta.

We remember.

Everyone can remember where they were and what they were doing on that infamous Tuesday morning in September 2001.

Some of us were on our way - or already at - work when we heard the news. Others were in school, tucked away in a classroom oblivious to what was happening in New York City.

Few events in history mark a day like that one... the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, the explosion of the Challenger Shuttle... it seems that every generation has a "I remember where I was when I heard..." moment.

As this one marks its 10th anniversary on Sunday, take the opportunity to share with us and your friends what you were doing that day and how that event has changed us and our nation.

I was already at work at a day care center in Asheville, NC where my 10 month old son was attending.  I was a floater that gave breaks or substituted if a teacher wasn't there.  My husband was at home waiting to hear about the condition of his employment when he called to tell me that there was a bomb at the pentagon.  Suddenly, all the radios were on in the rooms so we could hear what was going on.  The whole day was somber while we tried to cope with the idea that we were attacked on home turf. 

We will never forget.

Food Friday!

Rich is not a fan of pot roast, he grew up on his grandmother's very dry version of pot roast...but I love the vegetables that come from cooking a pot roast!  I didn't make it often because there are always leftovers that would just get tossed and I hated wasting all that food.  But once I started making my pot roast like this...or it can be done in a slow cooker as well...Rich would have seconds!  He actually told me last night that he looked forward to eating my pot roast now!  Gotta try it!  Yum!

Yummy Oven Pot Roast

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour ground black pepper to taste 3 1/2 pounds rump roast 1/4 cup butter 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix

1 (10.75 ounce) cream of mushroom soup 1/2 cup marsala wine 1 onion, sliced or quartered 4 potatoes, chopped large 1/2 bag of baby carrots

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.	In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and black pepper to taste. Dredge the rump roast in the flour and cover evenly. Shake off excess.
3.	In a large pot over medium/high heat, melt the butter and brown the roast on all sides. Place in a baking dish.
4.	In a small bowl, combine the soup mix, mushroom soup, and wine; pour over roast and cover with foil.
5.	Cover and bake in preheated oven for 3 hours or until desired doneness.  Add vegetables one hour before finished baking.

Food Friday

Stuffed Acorn Squash

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup cooked brown rice 1 pound sausage 1 medium acorn squash, halved and seeded

1/2 chopped onion 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella 1 Tbsp parmasan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Place squash halves cut side down onto a plate. Cook the squash in a microwave oven for 5 minutes on High, until tender but firm.
2.	In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook sausage and onion until evenly browned, season to taste; drain, and set aside.
3.	In a large bowl, mix together the rice, sausage, and mozzarella. Stuff each squash half with the mixture.
4.	Cover stuffed squash halves with plastic wrap, and heat in the microwave until squash is cooked through and soft, about 5 minutes. Remove plastic, and top stuffed squash with parmasan cheese (I added a little more mozzarella too.) Continue to cook about 1 minute. This makes a fabulous meal all in one neat little package!  There are things that could be done to make it a little better for you...like using turkey sausage, but I couldn't find any at the store, so I haven't tried that yet.  Anyway, I just wanted to share!  Hope you enjoy!

First days of school!

We have made it through the first days of school!  Today actually started the first full week for both children.  I think we are getting the hang of it.  Nicholas started 5th grade and Wesley started Kindergarten...I know, my baby is a kindergartner.

                                                      

                                                                  

Aren't they just the cutest things ever??