Food challenge #2

September 28th, 2010

So here is food challenge #2!
Make Ahead Muffins!

Which I took for "Go ahead and make them!!"
But really it meant "Make the night before!!!"

But whatever.

So the recipe is like an egg salad,
Hard boiled eggs (cut up)
Mayo
Bacon, but I didn't have bacon so I fried up some ham
Garlic Powder
Mustard
and I added paprika because it sounds cool...
and tastes good.


Honestly, I'm always afraid to boil eggs.
The first time I boiled eggs on my own I put the pot on the stove, added the eggs, turned up the heat aaaaaand.....
Completely forgot about it for 30 min and came back to a pot completely devoid of water and eggs exploded all over the kitchen.
I had no idea eggs could explode like that!
But they can. And do.

But I digress...
My eggs did turn out perfect!

SO you mix all the ingredients, you are supposed to refridgerate overnight, the part I skipped, and pile a scoop on half and english muffin and broil till bubbly!


I cheated and used my toaster oven which has a broil setting!!


And here they are!! yum yum!!

Thank you Brandon and Amy West for being my patient taste testers!!

Here's the link:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/07/make-ahead-muffin-melts/

~Becky

STOP Child Trafficking!

September 23rd, 2010

Human Trafficking.
This breaks my heart.
Children are brought into the UNITED STATES to be USED!!

Used in exploitation, prostitution, pornography, migrant work, sweat shops, domestic servitude, forced labor, bondage, peonage or involuntary servitude.

Can you believe this!?


I dont understand how a person could be so unimaginably horrible!


If you have seen the movie Taken, think along those lines.

But not just teenage girls,

Children too.

And not just in some foreign land.

But right here in Portland.

This is one of the biggest places.

A group called Stop Child Trafficking Now is working to put an end to this.
There is a walk on October 2nd to raise funds and awareness.

It's only a 3 mile walk and it's free to register if you would like to join.
I will be there and so will Brandon and our friend Hannah.
You can join our group if you would like.
We are registered under Eastside Foursquare Church

Here is the link:http://www.sctnow.com/index.aspx

My goal is to raise $10. I think I can at least do that.

If you want to help us out here's where to donate: http://sctnow.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.donate

Think about it.
~Becky

Cooking Challenge #1

September 20th, 2010

So a group of us have decided to blog together and cook delicious foods as a loving community!

Alexis has graciously put us together to create amazing homemade masterpieces with the help of The Pioneer Woman http://thepioneerwoman.com

This week Melissa Silva (http://ms07123.blogspot.com/) chose the recipe.
The delicious Crispy Yogurt Chicken
Here's the link: for the Pioneer Woman's recipe and instructions. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/08/crispy-yogurt-chicken/

Here is my delicious concoction.

Ingredients:
Chicken Legs, Plain Yogurt, Bread Crumbs, Butter, Garlic Cloves, Lemon Juice, Salt.










I had to use what I had in my kitchen already. I've been grocery shopping already for this week and i really didn't want to have to buy more chicken since I already bought meat. So I had to use what I had...which was 3 chicken legs.

Also Ree suggested plain breadcrumbs, but I had pre-seasoned crumbs with garlic salt, and onion powder and parsley.



In a bowl, put 1 cup plain yogurt. Remember I halved my recipe, so double this for a regular batch.



Add in parsley. I also decided to throw in some rosemary. mmmmmmm.....
Ree used fresh parsley, but I don't have a huge garden in which to pick fresh parsley.



Mince one clove garlic. (I can't wait till I have a garlic press! Then I will have no more yucky garlicy fingers that chase away even the thoughts of vampires from other peoples heads for the next 2 days!)

Mix into yogurt and seasonings.



In a second bowl measure out breadcrumbs, about 1 cup is what I used. My breadcrumbs are pre-seasoned, so that's what you see there.



Butter a glass cooking dish. Cause NObody want's to scrub baked on ANYthing!



Wash and salt the chicken and slather on the yogurt mix.



Bread the yogurt drenched chicken and place in the pan. Put a slice of butter on the largest part of the chicken, cause breadcrumbs will dry it out.

Cover in foil and Bake at 350 for 45 min. The last 15 min I uncovered it till it was brown and sizzling. The regular recipe is bake for1 hour.



And here's our delicious dinner!

Brandon says it's blog worthy.

I quite enjoyed it!
Good pick Melissa!

~Becky

Crispy Yogurt Chicken
c/o The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
2 cups Plain, Unflavored Yogurt
2 cloves (to 3 Cloves) Garlic
Parsley, To Taste
1 whole (juice Of) Lemon
Chicken Legs (or Thighs, Etc.)
Salt To Taste
2 cups Panko Bread Crumbs
Butter (1 Pat For Each Piece Of Chicken)
Preparation Instructions
Pour yogurt into a mixing bowl. Peel and mince garlic; add garlic to the yogurt. Chop up a small amount of fresh parsley and add it to the yogurt. Add lemon juice. Mix together to combine.
Rinse chicken and pat it dry. Sprinkle with (kosher) salt.
In another bowl, place the bread crumbs. Sprinkle with salt and stir lightly.
Butter a baking dish. With a pair of tongs, place the chicken, one piece at a time into the yogurt mixture. Turn it over thoroughly to coat. Then roll the chicken in the Panko bread crumbs. Cover each piece thoroughly with bread crumbs and place in the baking dish.
Place a slice of butter over the large part of each chicken piece. Cover with foil and bake in a 350º oven for 1 to 1 ¼ hours, removing the foil for the last 15 minutes of cooking. When the chicken is nice and golden, remove from the oven and enjoy!

Deliciousness!!

September 20th, 2010

Hooray for Christina and David getting married!!
We had them over yesterday for dinner and dessert.

And I mean both.
Together.
Combined.
In one.

Dinner and dessert that is.

This is one of my childhood favorites made by our affectionately named Mam!

My dear friend Cassie's mother.

Warning: This is thick and rich and delicious.

This is on the no list of every diet EVER! And will probably cause you to gain 10 pounds by smelling it.

But it is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!!

Chocolate gravy and biscuits:

Key players here:

Cocoa powder and Evaporated milk!

Start by melting 1/2 cup butter in a pot

Add in 4 Tblsp Cocoa powder

and 1/4 cup flour

Stir continuously!

Stir in 3/4 cups sugar and 2 cups evaporated milk.

I just used one can.

It's really important to keep stirring, because now it gets thick and you dont want it to over cook!

Bake biscuits as directed on packaging.

Drizzle, or glop, chocolate gravy on top.

Enjoy with a LARGE glass of milk!

~Becky

I love Music!

September 14th, 2010

I love music.

I have a song for everything and every moment.

I hear music

and now I see music.



~Becky

Photobooth!

September 8th, 2010




One of the great things about having a webcam is taking pics on it.
They aren't always the best quality, but it's handy!

~Becky

P.s. I'm feeling better!

Green and Yellow

September 6th, 2010

So yesterday was probably the worst day of my life.
I was sicker than sick.
Thank goodness I had Brandon there to take care of me and my issues.
Seriously guys, you don't even want to know!

Thankfully I am feeling much better!
Thank you to everyone for the prayers and well wishes!

And now for something not sick...

CUPCAKES!!

Happy Birthday Brandon!!

September 4th, 2010

Today is Brandon's 25th Birthday!!

Happy Birthday!!

Thank you to everyone who came and to those who helped with food!!

And a big thanks to my Mom who made this AWESOME Pinata!!





Of course Ducks themed!!

Origianlly we were gonna have a Ducks viewing party but Brandon read the time wrong and it was on earlier than the party. So we watched a different game but we still had all yellow and green things.



Here's Brandon holding his pinata. I told him to look happy.

And doesn't he!?

~Becky

Sightings!

September 2nd, 2010

Happy 90210 day!

________________________________________________________________________________

You guys!
I have been having these strange feelings that we are not alone in the apartment.

Sometimes I will here these feet softly padding across the ground.

Other times I will be sitting on the couch and I will hear this scratching noise on the back deck.

A few nights ago I was laying in bed about to drift off to sleep when all of a sudden I was jolted awake by this "presence" at the end of the bed. Like a 10 pound weight was added.

There have been times when it is really quiet that I can swear I hear this almost purr like noise!

For the longest time I thought I was going crazy. But I have recently come to believe that we are in fact housing another "presence" in our apartment.

I had a few days off this week and I spent some of that time steaked out on the couch with my camera ready to see if I could discover if these strange occurances where coming from a solid creature.

Finally after hours of painstaikingly waiting in one position, I heard that soft padding noise and something that sounded very much like purring.

I carefully turned my camera on as quiet as I could, I raised it to eye level and then sneezed!!!

But I did manage to snap this photo before the creature ran off!



Hopefully I will be able to steak out the couch again in hopes of catching this creature again!

~Becky

Who doesn't like cake!?

September 1st, 2010

Come on Oregon! Just because it's September doesn't mean that summer has to leave!!!!
grrr....

Anyways...

Today at school I did a project which raised a few eyebrows on some adult faces, and a few kids too.

But HA!! We should them didn't we kids!?

Kids: ...* crickets chirping *....

Me: Aaaanyways, since it seems I'm on my own on this one.

I asked the kids at work, or really, their parents to bring in micorwavable coffee mug by September 1st. I gave them a week and a half.
Plenty of time.
So of course there were only 6 out of 16 kids that actually had them.


Parents: "Bye sweetie! Have a good day!"
Me: "Did you bring a mug for today?"
Kids: "No. (almost crying) Am I not gonna do our project!
Me: "No, you can still make it, I brought extra."
Kids: "yeay!"
Parents: "Oh, they are supposed to have a mug? I had no idea. Well bye!"
Me: ... unamused face ....

So here we are with most of my own cups and we are making cake in our coffee mugs!


Here's what you do.

1.Make cake mix. Follow the instructions. It can be any kind.

2.Mix in instant pudding. This can also be any flavor.

3.Grease your mug.

4.Pour in 1/2 cup of batter.

5.Microwave for 2 min.

CAREFUL!! It's Hot!!

6.And enjoy.!!

You can also add chocolate chips in the batter or marshmallows.


And there you have a delicious treat!!
Yum yum!



Oh and don't rely on the parents to remember anything!

~Becky