Treasures on my shelf and I didn't even know.

This morning the dogs decided that mommy needed to get up at 6AM; sure, why not? Once I'm up, that's it, I'm up; so got busy getting laundry into the washer, feeding the indoor and outdoor pets (however one of the kittens is missing, and I'm a bit upset over that, and then tackled the cooking. By 8am I had my 2-6 qt crock pots going, one containing Beef Stroganoff, the other Chicken Cacciatore. Yes, yes, I'll post the recipes, just hold your horses cause I'm not done telling you about my morning.

Anyway, I decide to take a break, so turn on the boob tube (that means television)to see if anything interesting was on. The movie, "Julie and Julia" which had inspired me to start this blog was on; really like the movie, so figured I'd watch it again. By now Roy was up, and decided to watch it with me. I wanted him to understand the book references, so went to my cookbook collection and pulled out my copies of "Joy of Cooking", and Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", volumes 1 and 2.

How I purchased these books was by antiquing; every year, on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving), my mom and I would go to Hershey, Pennsylvania and browse the various antique shops. A 1943 "Joy of Cooking" - $1.50; both volumes of Julia's books - $8 each; and then I checked the print date on them. Stunned silence, and that doesn't happen often to me; volume 1 was the 2nd reprint from November 1961; volume 2 is a first edition (says it right inside the book) from 1970. Gold, I had golden books in my collection, and didn't know until now.

That's my thrill for today, and don't believe anything will top that; well, except if the missing kitten(named Peanut)returns. So, here are the two recipes I promised to post; revamped for the crock pot.

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients:

4 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
½ cup white wine
2 (28 oz) cans diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
1 (12 oz) can tomato paste
3 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. hot pepper flakes
1 and ½ cups each of red bell and Italian frying peppers, cut into 1 inch strips
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 large onion, diced
Cooked rice or pasta

Preparation:

Set a 6-qt slow cooker on low, place chicken breasts on bottom. In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, except for the cooked rice or pasta; mix thoroughly. Spoon mixture over chicken, replace lid and let cook for 6-8 hours; chicken will be fork tender. Mix occasionally; making sure the chicken gets incorporated into the sauce-vegetable mixture.

Serve over the cooked rice or pasta.

Makes 8-10 servings.

~~~~ and ~~~~

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:

3 ½ - 4 lbs. lean beef, cut into ½” cubes
½ cup flour
1-12 oz bag frozen, diced onions
1-8 oz can or jar of sliced mushrooms
2 Tbsp minced garlic
3 beef seasoning packets or bouillon cubes
2 cups water
1-10 ¾ oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
1 ½ lbs cooked, broad egg noodles

Preparation:

Set crock pot on low, and place in all ingredients except the soup, sour cream and egg noodles. Cover and cook for 3 hours; stirring occasionally. Add the soup and cook for 4-5 additional hours; until meat is very tender. Stir in sour cream; let cook for 10 minutes; serve over egg noodles.

Makes 8 servings.

Mary Cokenour

...and so the adventure into blogging begins.

Yesterday, I finally saw a movie, "Julie and Julia", that I've been wanting to see for a long while.  I was impressed by the story itself, the characters, and it moved me to start a blog of my own.  I've never kept a diary, didn't really see a point to it.  My life was not the happiest as I grew up, so why would I want to read about it, and relive those heartbreaking days.  Unfortunately, I have a minor type of autobiographical memory, and all the traumas from childhood into adulthood keep bursting in on my mind, whether I wanted them to or not.

So, with this blog, I'm hoping to recreate memories that mean more to me than those lousy ones.  Maybe I'll finally be able to suppress those bad memories to the point that they will stop inflicting themselves upon me.  Above all else, I believe that my life with my husband, Roy, will be the biggest inspiration overall.  He has been my rock, my soulmate, my everything, since we first met in December of 2003.  Before then, we had been conversing via email, IMs and on the phone since September 2003.  We met on a Dungeons and Dragons gaming site, found we had much in common, besides roleplaying, and just kept getting closer and closer till we finally had to meet. 

Roy arrived in Pennsylvania, where I was living then, at the bus station in Harrisburg.  At first sight, we hugged, and hugged, and hugged, and we didn't want to let go.  We had discovered that we had a deep empathy between us, and knew this was it...this first physical meeting was the beginning of forever for us.

Throughout the years, we have supported each other in all ways...spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, financially.  Together we made life one big adventure for us.  After we were both laid off in 2008, we made the decision to sell the house I owned, and move to Utah.  Originally we had hoped to buy a home in Moab, but the prices were ridiculous for the real estate market at the time.  We ended up with a fixer-upper in Monticello, and while it wasn't our dream home, we made it our own in so many ways. 

We'd been together since 2003, and finally decided to tie the knot in 2010, so on October 8th, we legally became husband and wife.  Surprisingly, we didn't feel different at all.  We'd always considered that we were married to each other, conducted ourselves as a married couple; friends even stated that we were more married to each other than any married couple they knew.  Guess you could say we did it just to make the lovers of legal documents and red tape happy.  We loved, and were in love with, each other, and didn't care what anyone else thought about our arrangement.  But being legally married sure did make getting insurance easier.

So, where will I be going with this blog, no idea, and I'm just looking at it as a new adventure.