My sweet Handsome has coped with pain in his shoulder for several, several months now. He’s not the type who likes going to the doctor (really, are there any guys who do?) and he’s not the type to complain about aches or pains. But finally, he had to go see a doctor and after a couple of visits, with one to a specialist, sure enough, the tests and x-rays showed a torn rotator cuff.

With some Navy things on the schedule for next year, it’s really important he gets this fixed as soon as possible, and though the timing isn’t great with Christmas and the book I’m trying to finish (but really, is an operation that puts your arm in a sling for six weeks ever “convenient”?), he goes into surgery this next Tuesday.

Everything I’ve read said this is one doozy of a surgery to recover from. It’s painful, and the physical therapy helps but still HURTS. He’s going to need some TLC, as well as someone putting the toothpaste on his toothbrush among other things. My poor guy.

The last thing I want us (ahem, ok, let’s be honest, myself) to have to worry about is meals. So, thanks to some great suggestions from my FB followers (my main page and my book page) this week, I came up with a good list of go-to meals, headed to the store yesterday morning and started cooking yesterday afternoon.

I wasn’t interested in bulk/big batch cooking – I just wanted to get some recipes/meals completed that were simple, freeze well, AND they couldn’t involve serious knife work (so I guess steak is out). My husband will be the One-Armed Man for at least six weeks or so.

I think I’ve come up with a great list, thanks in part to my readers! (So THANK YOU!)

Here are the meals we’re doing for the next two weeks, which I’m glad to say I finished cooking this afternoon (I’ve included recipes to print out from the ones I use from cookbooks and links to those I use online): Read More→

Oh my goodness. This past summer I decided I wanted to buy more fresh fruit. I also decided, that since my family is small, and we’re not huge fruit eaters, that freezing said fruit would be a good idea.

So walking around the produce section at Walmart one Saturday, I saw cherries were on sale. I love cherries (ok, the cherries I speak of are usually the ones found in Sonic Cherry Limemades or on top of hot fudge sundaes) and I thought it might be “fun” to bring home a pound or two and use them. For what, I wasn’t sure, and how, I had no idea. But I bought the cherries.

I got home and googled how to pit them. Yeah. Why do I never like to do things the easy way? Like, I don’t know, buy already pitted cherries? From what I read, I knew it would take a while to do, so I waited until Caleb was in bed. Cliff was gone for his annual training with the Navy. Good thing. He probably would have laughed at me. Actually, knowing my sweet husband, he would have helped me figure out the best way to do it. And his way would have probably been so much better.

Anyway, I digress.

There were several theories out on the web on the best way to pit cherries. First of all, most folks agreed that cherry pitters are very handy. If you have one. Or if you can find one in the store. I was out of luck on both. So, then came the suggestions. Use a toothpick. I tried that, and immediately squirted bright red cherry juice all over myself. Whoah, this stuff was like hair dye.

Looked for some plastic gloves. After finding none, I went with the next best thing. Freezer bags for my hands. Remember how when you were kids, your mom threw the plastic ziplock bags over your shoes so they wouldn’t get wet in the snow? And you ended up slipping all around anyway, BECAUSE of the slick plastic ziplock bags on your shoes? Yeah, plastic bags on your hands have almost the same effect with cherries. Just in case you were wondering.

Once I finally figured out a way to use the bags without popping myself in the face with a cherry, it was time to figure out the best tool.

First one I read about, as I said, was the toothpick. It was tricky to find the seed and pop it out. I was hoping I could just stab it and push it through, but it didn’t work very well.

Next, I tried an opened safety pin. I thought I might be able to do it similar to the way we open and remove the pit from avocados. Except with those we take a knife and hit it into the pit which then sticks to the knife and we take it out that way. Really didn’t work. The only things I kept poking were my fingers.

Finally, I tried another suggestion I’d read about, I think from one of Martha Stewart’s sites. Take a cake decorating tip (metal) and use it to pop out the cherry pit. Of course, I had no metal decorating tips, but I did have a plastic Pampered Chef one… and that would have to do.

The tool did the job for the most part. And while the cherries weren’t the prettiest in the world, since I knew I was freezing most of them, I didn’t care that much. Be warned – if you have a lot of cherries, be prepared to get comfortable. It will take awhile. And this isn’t for the clean at heart. You’ve been told.

Then came time to freeze them. Take a baking tray and lay them out separately. Stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours or over night and voila, done! Take them off the tray and stick them in a small quart size bag (I did several of these) and then put all of those together in a large gallon size and label the gallon one along with the date. Oh, and if you’d like to make sure there’s as little air in the bag as possible, but you don’t have a vacuum sealer – take a straw and suck out the air that way. It really does work! We have enjoyed (OK, I have enjoyed – my husband’s not a big fan of them) adding these little wonders to our smoothies in the morning! You can also do any other berry the same way – blueberries, strawberries, and bananas too.

So I realized that the last three posts have all been about chicken. Time to turn to something else. Like BREAKFAST. I found a great homemade recipe for making your own Bisquick mix which I think is a little cheaper and also, I just like the fact I can make it myself (did I just say that?)!

We bought a belgian waffle maker over the summer and it has been a nice treat for my guys. This pic is from one Saturday in July where I topped them with whip cream and fresh strawberries. YUM! (And actually, if I remember right, these weren’t for breakfast – I ate these for dinner one night when both my guys were gone! They are one of those foods you can eat at any time! Though maybe not all the time, if you want to be nice to your waist line.)

Now, for the waffles… since we have a small family, I use just a cup of the “bisquick” mix, 2/3 milk (roughly speaking – you want it smooth enough that it’ll spread and not so thick that your square waffles look like warped waffles. Trust me, I speak what I know), a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and an egg. For us, this makes about six waffles. If you’d like the full recipe, check out what Betty Crocker has to say about it. 

If you’ve read the book, you know that for a long time, the kitchen has not been my friend.

But I’m happy to report that this past year, we have been getting cozier, she and I.

I actually like being in the kitchen now, hanging out, trying new things. (Now, having time to blog and post those yummy things I’m making is a completely different story. Sigh.)

So I decided to “whip up” a new dish in honor of my mom’s birthday in July (yes, I’m a little behind in the blog posting. As you may have noticed.).

She didn’t have a favorite dish or preference of what she wanted me to cook, so I decided I’d make this recipe I found for chicken cordon bleu. Sure. Why not?

Doesn’t it just sound fancy?

Mom also told me her favorite vegetable is broccoli so I thought maybe I could attempt a broccoli risotto recipe I found. (Though I met that with a little trembling and trepidation, even more so than the chicken cordon bleu since all of the chef shows I watch seem to freak out a little when the word risotto is mentioned.)

I had a couple of challenges for this meal. First, I had to clean the house from top to bottom Saturday morning because not only was my mother coming over, but so were my inlaws to help celebrate. And I was picking up my husband at the airport Saturday afternoon, after being gone for two weeks for a Navy training. I’d asked him if he was ok with us doing birthday dinner that night and he was, so that was the plan. But I still had to run to the grocery store for some key ingredients.

The house got clean with some help from my 11-year-old, we happily picked up Handsome, grabbed some quick lunch and once the guys were settled at the house pulling out week-old laundry for me to do later, I rushed off to the store and quickly found a problem. There was no short-grain rice to be found, at least not at the store I was at. And I had no time to rush to another one. Which meant no risotto. So I told myself I’d find another broccoli casserole recipe and just go with it. (And due to the lateness of this posting, I cannot for the life of me find that recipe I used. So, um, just know it was really really good.)

My mom got to the house on time. And I was still cooking. And then my inlaws got there. And I was still cooking. Timing is not my strong suit. Neither is my stress level when I get in the kitchen and things start going wrong. But thank goodness I had to beat the chicken breasts. Those things were FLAT when I finished with them!

I am happy to say the meal turned out really delicious and my mom appreciated my efforts (she knows just what an effort it can be lol).

If you’re feeling ambitious (and have a little extra time), give these a try. They were yummy! (Oh, but BEWARE of the TOOTHPICKS – missed the one my mother-in-law found in hers. Of course. I just told her it was like the baby we find in mardi gras cakes – it just meant she had to cook next time!)

My beautiful mom on her birthday! (Caleb made the cake, with my help. My mom has a thing for smiley faces. The numbers made it a little awkward, though. As you might can tell.)

Our (glass) blender had an unfortunate accident about a month ago. I was reaching for something behind it in the cabinet and accidentally knocked it forward and it hit just the right away and broke into several pieces.

When we went looking for a replacement, we came across the Ninja pulse system. I liked the horsepower listed (700) and it looked easy enough to clean up. Plus it didn’t hurt that I had a $30 Bed Bath and Beyond gift card, PLUS a 20% off coupon. (Disclaimer: I am not promoting this for any form of payment from the Ninja folks or from Bed Bath and Beyond. Just passing on what I find is working for me. And maybe it will help work for you too!)

We LOVE this thing. It is super easy to clean up, super easy to use, and we’ve had all kinds of fun coming up with smoothie concoctions to drink.

My big thing right now is adding spinach to my fruit smoothies. You can’t really taste it and it chocks that smoothie full of extra good-for-you nutrients! I’ve gotten into the habit of freezing fruit for smoothies (read more about that here), and throwing in a little green certainly doesn’t hurt. We’ve even made some of these for our super-picky-I-don’t-like-vegetables 11-year-old, and he likes it!

Here’s one of my favorite recipes at the moment. (I do cheat a little and add a couple of packets of Splenda.) What’s one of yours?