Stuffed

I am not the only thing stuffed after a week of Southern cooking. For besides being blessed with a nice trip south I came home to more poblano peppers ready to be picked in the garden. Since I had leftover Spanish rice and some goat cheese needing to be used, why not try another stuffed pepper recipe? 

This one's called Stuffed Poblano Casserole. Freezer space here in the End of the Rainbow Valley is getting scarce so I halved what the recipe called for below just to cook for 2 of us with no leftovers using just 3 chiles, etc...

PrepTime:  25 Minutes
Total Time:  1 Hour
6 servings

Similar to the authentic Chile Relleno I made last week before going out of town which I might add was de-lish, the following is an easy casserole which doesn't require frying a batter covered poblano pepper. Not quite as pretty but still tasty. I'd give it 4 stars.

If you are having company, no worries, just assemble this dish the night before/ put it together in the morning before you head out to work.

Then, you can cook it when you get home. 

 INGREDIENTS include:

6 fresh poblano chiles
 ( I cut a slit, deseeded & deveined before cooking)
1/4 c (1/2 stick) butter  - (I used *olive oil)
1 med yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 c fresh corn kernels/frozen thawed (about 6 ears/ 2 10-oz pkgs)
1 c grated manchego/monterey jack cheese
   ( I used our soft goat cheese)
4 c cooked white rice ( I had leftover Spanish rice)
1 c crema or sour cream
1 1/3 c Red Salsa
1/2 c grated queso anejo/parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:  

 -Char chiles under broiler/over gas flame blacken all over. 

- Place in plastic bag, let them stand 10 min.

- Peel chiles.
**Start at stem end, carefully cut one slit down length of each   chile, leaving stems and tops intact if possible. Carefully remove seeds and veins from chiles.

Preheat oven: 350 degrees  

-Melt butter in heavy lg saute pan over medium heat. 
-Add onion and saute about 5 minutes. 
-Add garlic for 1 min. 
-Add corn and saute 2 minutes. 
-Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

-Cool completely. 
-Stir in manchego/ Monterey Jack/soft goat cheese. 


-Stuff chiles with corn mixture.

-Butter/ Spray 15x10-inch baking dish.



-Place rice in prepared dish.  
-Nestle stuffed chiles in single layer into rice. 





-Mix Red Salsa and crema in medium bowl.  

- Pour over chiles and rice. 

-Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake until chiles are heated through and sauce bubbles, about 25 minutes (about 40 minutes for refrigerated casserole).




¡Delicioso!

.


Get Cooking: http://www.cooking.com/recipes-and-more/recipes

In Shock

Something happened this week that has not happened in about 12 years.  ALL, and I mean ALL of my flights both going and returning from Little Rock were… 
Are you ready?  On time. 

And get this, I flew through O’Hare.  In fact, the flight even arrived 15 minutes early to Little Rock and there wasn’t anybody available to operate the jet bridge. My return to La Crosse was also 10 minutes early. Holy moly.

I bet you too remember a time when airlines prided themselves on punctuality in addition to having your bag awaiting you.  And you weren’t charged for your baggage. There were airlines we would definitely avoid since their reputation lacked dependability. Nowadays that definitely is a thing of the past.  Sure they have punctuality standings but they are padded and many times  excessive taxiing alters actually gate arrival time.

Alas, I will always appreciate and remember this trip for its ease in delivering me to my destinations without stress. No running to make a connecting flight nor worry of having to wait for a delayed flight. I was even allowed to take an earlier flight without the usual fee charge.  Even if originally I was told that a change would incur a $75 charge, it turned out the fees had been waived for the day. 

The flight gods must have been with me. So I thank my lucky stars and will enjoy being home almost 3 hours early.  It sure is great to be back in the End of the Rainbow Valley…

Home Sweet Home

Take OUT without Hassle...

You know there are those days when you don't feel like running out to go get a bite but would love someone else to cook. Wouldn't it be great to have someone deliver lunch or dinner to your office, hotel/ home?

It turns out in Little Rock, Arkansas now there's a restaurant delivery service which not only is alive but doing well and growing. 

 Sometimes it's nice to eat your favorite restaurant's food without the hassle of dressing up, right Becky?.

As we sat enjoying our Italian dinner Saturday evening in downtown Little Rock's Bruno's, I saw more than a couple people throughout our dining time waiting in line at the cash register donning these t-shirts.

This restaurant delivery service called Chef Shuttle has grown to serve some 50 restaurants in the area.  All you need is a couple minutes on-line perusing Chef Shuttle's area restaurant menus, place an order with Chef Shuttle who then calls it in to the restaurant, sends one of its drivers to pick it up and delivers it within an hour to your designated address all for the low fee of $4.95 as long as you place a minimum $15 order. Pretty terrific, huh?

The company has future plans to expand to outlying towns and maybe throughout the state.  Who knows one day maybe it could even service End of the Rainbow Valley. Well, okay that's a little  far fetched but a girl can dream, can't she?

FOTO FRIDAY: BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

FOTO FRIDAY this week challenges you to submit a special birthday memory. This can't be too difficult as we all have them. 

Have fun finding a birthday to share!


Here's a recent one from a combined bday weekend celebration in Chicago courtesy of Lori, Steven and their significant others.

Celebrating at the Bean, daughter Lori's 32nd and yours truly's BIG 60

Since my trip this week was to my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas to help my Dad celebrate his 89th, what's better than seeing my folks enjoy blowing out the candles? Moment captured by niece Becky.

Natureman celebrated his birthday of being closer to 70 than 60. He also got a Ricotta pound cake with peaches. 

Last week's FOTO FRIDAY didn't have any takers. It's never too late to submit one. 
Click here to see the challenge: FOTO FRIDAY:REPURPOSED

Can You Keep a Secret?

Don't get me wrong I don't think the idea of secrets are really a good thing. People should be honest with each other and keeping secrets really affects intimacy... Perhaps I feel this way now because I was raised in a family with secrets, so many secrets that I will probably never even know half of them. My Dad even had a secret about his age when he enlisted in the Navy. You guessed it, he really wasn't old enough...

Some people will argue there are the good kind of secrets, the white lie kind which enable 'surprises.' Yet, what is left unsaid leading up to that surprise may cause some mal feelings. You know like lack of communication for fear of letting the cat out of the bag.  From as far back as my memory allows there have always been secrets about birthdays. So much so one almost expects a surprise and may even be disappointed if one doesn't happen. 

Mother's Day 2014 visit was a surprise even tho' I told them.

Any how with my folks's age I decided to let them know about my impending visits by mentioning during a visit when I will see them again. For example, this past December I told them I would be out Mother's Day weekend but my Dad insisted it should be a surprise during one conversation. Then Mother's Day weekend I said, " I'll be back for Dad's birthday in August." But by the time July rolled around my Mom said, "Don't tell your Dad you're coming." "Oh OK," I said bewildered as if he didn't remember my intentions. But then again, maybe that's the beauty of age... ?
So why am I mentioning this? 

Well, today's my Dad's birthday and I spent last night at my brother Marc's about 10 minutes from my folks's house without  my Dad supposedly knowing I am in town. 

Here's the plan. Brother Marc will take my Dad fishing early ( Of course that's when the fish bite) and when they return, dah dah, I'll be at the house awaiting his return.  SURPRISE.

Happy 89th Birthday Dad and many more! 

May 2014, Mother's Day weekend

Citizen Kane and Citizen Koch...

We just recently viewed a sold out screening of Citizen Koch in a La Crosse theater since its PBS funding was denied and private funding had to be obtained. Why, you ask? The Kochs just happen to have a vested interest in PBS. Once you read the trailer description, you can decide why the Kochs might not have wanted to fund this documentary.


"Set against the rise of the Tea Party in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, a citizen uprising to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker collides with the Tea Party-aligned “Americans for Prosperity,” a group founded and lavishly financed by two of the world’s richest men —David and Charles Koch. As Republican working class voters find themselves in the crosshairs of their own party and its billionaire backers, they are forced to choose sides." Directed by Academy Award®-nominated directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water; co-producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 & Capitalism: A Love Story)."


It's been eons since I watched 'Citizen Kane' and perhaps I should rewatch it but heck once you see the documentary 'Citizen Koch' you'll catch more of the commonlaties of these two ruthless persona in their pursuit of power. 

Citizen Kane (Randolph Hearst) rose from poverty as his parents ran a boarding house when his Mother inherited some land that just happened to have oil, BINGO.  Kane was sent to be educated out East.  At first Kane was known for his 'idealistic social service' but with his ownership of a newspaper his self importance grew as he manipulated even the outcome of the Spanish American War through his publication. He married up (his wife was the President's niece) but an affair ended both his marriage and political ambitions to be NY's Governor. 

Fred Koch, patriarch of the industrialist Koch family watched his penniless Dutch father gain wealth by owning a newspaper. Fred's sons would grow up with a silver spoon in their mouths starting life with prestige and oil. It was Frederick Koch, the eldest son, to be sent out East for boarding school and education. The other children went to public schools. (Son Bill, more like his mother, interested in the arts, was ostracized for not having the competitiveness his father wanted so much to cultivate in his boys.) Number 2 Son Charles was the one groomed (MIT) to take over his father's business.  His twin brother, David, would then help Charles run the 'family' business.

So what's Koch's big hatred with socialism and fear of communism. Well let's see if your Father invested a lot of money in Russian oil refineries and then they kicked him out without not only earning money on the investment but losing the investment, I guess you wouldn't be very happy. In fact, I bet you just might have a hatred for a society that did that to you. Fred was a founder of the John Birch Society in Kansas. The Koch mulitbillionaire brothers, Charles and David, would spend years pushing their libertarian agenda. 

'Citizen Koch' demonstrates how this family and the brothers in particular have planned  a good 10 years how they would take over the American political scene. They have bankrolled a political tsunami with billions of dollars to dominate who is making the rules to serve corporate America with a ruthless agenda to strip away years of progress, dismantling social safety nets from those who need it the most..  Nothing is sacred whether it's one's workplace and unions, health care, voter regulations, gun control, immigration, women's rights, just to name a few... 

The powerful documentary states one case after another with Americans voting against their personal self interests. How could this be happening? 

Most Americans are politically homeless and they are the ones who are going to have to demand change. Do you think we need more than a 2 party system since the existing 2 parties aren't working in our favor? Is the Tea Party the only 
way?

'Citizen Koch' gives the viewer a lot to digest. Digest we must and we must elect people who will represent their constituents and respond to their needs. It is time for a change and it is 
not backwards in time... 

The documentary's trailer provides insight of what is happening when people can buy government. 


I should mention that any time Governor Walker came on the screen, people booed. 


I bet other states can understand the unhappiness when the agenda isn't the people's. 

We just don't want to live in WisKochsin...

Here's the link:Citizen Koch 

Uninvited Guest(s)?

It's that time of the year. You know summertime brings guests. 


Some invited,

    some uninvited. 





I am open to most visitors except for those that destroy things.  

Well,  late Saturday evening upon returning home and flipping on some lights, I thought I heard something in the great room.  I must have imagined it. Before my neurons could react, a shadow grew as it moved from the chair area  towards the kitchen. I yelled for Natureman.

"Best to put out some food for the visitor," suggested Natureman. Should I really encourage this uninvited guest?  First thing the next morning I checked, no food was missing. Well, not until the wee hours of the next morning did I discover our guest.  I heard very unusual sounds coming from the kitchen.  I turned on the lights and there was our guest.

Gotcha. 

I don't think we the only ones that have been eating well.                                   What do you think?

We just never know who's going to visit us next here in the 

End of the Rainbow Valley... Some as I said are more welcomed than others. I sure hope he didn't bring any friends...