I know ... I know ....

Time flies and my bloggity-blog has been left behind in the dust. Oy. I really suck at this, don't I? Six plus weeks behind now in my weekly updates? Ouch. I have so many pictures, I promise. We've had all kinds of fun days ... and not so fun admittedly, but that's to be expected with 3 teenagers in the house, right? What else can I do?

I swear I'm editing photos this weekend so I can at least attempt to get caught up, but how about in the meantime I share a recipe today as a lame sort of apology? I found this while putting a lesson together for church. It was about cooking on a budget ... and I found a load of great tips and tricks at allrecipes.com. This recipe sounded too easy and too delish to pass up, and I was right. I got thumbs up from all 5 munsters and hubby too. You should definitely give it a try.Sesame Noodles

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package linguine pasta
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons safflower oil
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons chili sauce
6 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a serving bowl.

2. Meanwhile, place a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in garlic, sugar, oil, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili sauce. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Pour sauce over linguine, and toss to coat. Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.

You may want to read the reviews here to see how you'd like to adjust the recipe to your own tastes. I made it as is and threw in a couple handfuls of chopped fresh brocolli to cook with the pasta, but could've easily reduce the oil by half. Play around with it and see what works for you.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Another fabulously easy recipe given to me by a co-worker. These are so quick to make and a huge hit with the family.

Ingredients:
2 pouches Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix
2 Tbs water
6 Tbs vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Follow package directions to make cookie dough. Press dough into a 13"x18" cookie/jellyroll pan. Bake as directed or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside. Combine peanut butter and chocolate chips in small sauce pan and stir over medium heat until evenly combined and melted. Spread this over the baked cookie with a rubber spatula and put the whole pan in the fridge to set.

Ooh, yummies!

I'm Alive! I Promise!

It's been exactly a month since my last post. How pathetic of me. Sincere apologies to those of you who are sweet enough to keep coming back for more. I promise I am trying to get back on track here. A lot has happened, both good and bad, in the last little while all of which have kept me more than busy.

My JetBlue interview was a breeze and I've made the move from Reservations to Crew Support. This gives me lots of gray area to work with and I can actually make decisions to help our customers instead of just stating policy. It's nice feeling a little empowered on the job now ... "I am Crew Support. Hear me roar!" Haha! Of course, this also means we're the Supervisor Desk, so all those nasty people who call in yelling and screaming about how they were only 10 minutes late and the plane left without them ... how dare we leave on time, they're calling their lawyers and will make sure everyone they know NEVER flies with us again ... yeah, all those calls are transferred to us too. Ucky. For the most part, I've been able to handle them alright. It feels a lot like parenting sometimes.

So! The job shift brought with it 2 more weeks of training and now 90 days working from the center. :( It hasn't been too bad so far, but I sure miss the comforts of working from home and having my desk and computer set up just the way I like them. At least I've settled into my new schedule now which gives me a little more free time to 'restock' the bloggity blog. I have 5 weeks in review to post, but I'll start with a fab new recipe from one of the gals I work with. All our kids love these cookies, but I hate buying them at the store. This recipe is absolutely as easy as it gets!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix (I used Duncan Hines, on sale)
1 15 oz can packed pumpkin
1/2 package milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Lighly grease cookie sheet

Mix cake mix and pumpkin in a large bowl until moist and smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and drop in mounds onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until firm. These cookies won't spread at all, so they'll look just like they do when you drop them. They are super quick and yummilicious. We got 4 dozen, but that would vary based on how big you make yours.

Raspberry Chipotle Pork Medallions

This is way overdue, but here as promised. I hope you like them as much as I did.

Sauce:
1/2 C chicken broth
1/2 C low-sugar raspberry fruit spread
2 T white balsamic vinegar
3 tsp Dijon mustard
1 large chipotle pepper seeded and chopped

2 lbs lean cut pork chops
2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 T olive oil

1. Place all sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix well. Set aside.

2. Rinse pork chops with cool water, pat dry with paper towels. Use the palm of your hand or a meat mallet to flatten each piece to 1/2-inch thickness. Combine remaining ingredients and rub into both sides of each pork chop.

3. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into a large nonstick skillet and preheat over medium-high heat. Add the chops and cook a couple of minutes on each side or until nicely browned and no longer pink inside. Remove the meat from teh skillet and set aside to rest. Cover to keep warm.

4. Pour the sauce into the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, for a couple of minutes, or until sauce is reduced by almost half and is syrupy.

5. To serve, place your beautiful piece of pork-licious on a serving plate. Drizzle each serving with some of the sauce.This is adapted from a lovely recipe found in Secrets of Good-Carb/Low-Carb Living by Sandra L. Woodruff.

Harvest Cooking

We're so lucky to have wonderfully generous family members who live just blocks away from us. My brother and sister-in-law go out of their way to make sure we're alright and have everything we need. They even let us come to reap the spoils of their garden last week. We'd stopped by to check out their batch of pumpkins and came home instead with bags of carrots, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, pumpkins for everyone and even a few elk roasts. They are so good to us. But I have to admit, I had no idea what to do with butternut squash.I'd never eaten one before and wasn't sure what they even tasted like, so I spent an evening reading about squash at Allrecipes.com and found a recipe that sounded like it fit our family's taste.

Butternut Squash with Onion and Pecans
Submitted by Christine L.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 1/4 pounds butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS:
1 - Place pecans on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast at 350 degrees F for 5 to 8 minutes.

2 - Melt butter in a large, heavy skillet over low heat; add onion, and saute until very tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in squash, and cover. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender but still holds its shape, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3 - Stir in half the pecans and half the parsley. Transfer mixture to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with remaining pecans and parsley to serve.

Now, considering how much these little babies smell like pumpkin, I was really nervous when I was getting it ready. Though we've taught the kids to eat what their given, we still have a couple who aren't that adventurous. But I've got to tell you ... the smell and taste changed a lot once they were cooked through. They were slightly sweet, but the savory flavor was a nice touch. The family voted 5-to-2 in favor of the dish! Yay! One squash down, 5 to go. Time to look for more recipes.