Mexican Casserole & Key Lime Pie!

Good morning my 5 followers.

This past Saturday I went to Rich's, where we [Kathy, Kelly & Erin, too] had a little photo shoot, and later that night, had the most amazing Mexican Casserole and Key Lime Pie made by Kathy! So, thanks to Kathy for the recipes!!

Normally when I replicate something, it just doesn't come out well because I either don't read the directions all the way, wasn't paying attention or am too impatient. However, I think both these dishes came out really well! So, let's get started!

First, we start with a pre-cooking snack. [Friends reference, anyone?]


Mozzarella balls. This has nothing to do with either dishes, I was just hungry.

Things you'll need:

1lb chicken, chopped and cooked
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small container sour cream
2 small cans sliced olives
1 small onion
3 japalenos, without seeds
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 13oz. bag of tortilla chips [yes, chips. they taste like rice in this dish!]
1 cup grated cheddar

Directions:

Chop onions and japalenos, set aside into a bowl.


Cook your chicken.


And, it's always good to have a cooking buddy.


Or two goggies.


Then, add your cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, sour cream, garlic powder, olives, chips, and chicken [everything except the cheese] and mix them in a LARGE bowl. I picked a bowl I thought was large, but ended up needing an EXTRA large bowl. I also should say I did this recipe from memory, and thought it was supposed to be 17oz of chips, not 13oz, so that may have been part of the reason I thought I needed a bigger bowl.

It should look something like this!


Then, you spread it into a 13 x 9 pan, top it with your shredded cheddar cheese, put it in the oven for 30-35 minutes on 350 degrees and ENJOY!!



For the next recipe, Tia and Guito will be helping.


























Key Lime Pie

Things you'll need:

Lime Juice [I used Nellie and Joe's in the juice aisle in Stop & Shop]
3 egg yolks
sweetened condensed milk
graham cracker pie crust

THAT'S IT.

SERIOUSLY.

Directions:

Mix it all in a bowl with a whisk until it's smooth.


Pour into your pie crust


Put int the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Let stand for about 15 minutes on the counter, and then put it into the fridge for at LEAST 45 minutes [if you can wait that long].

I couldn't wait that long.


See? I tried to take a piece out too early and now it looks like crap! However, it tastes delicious.

Frankie agrees.

Thanks for reading!!

Note Cards to Benefit Women to Women International

Hi everyone,

My friend Monica, who has such a big heart, is going to be selling Note Cards, which can also be made into prints, posters, calendars and postcards, and 25% of the proceeds are being donated to Women to Women International.

The pictures on her website are all photos she's taken where she's traveled to Sweden, England, California, New York City and our very own New England. These photos are BEAUTIFUL, and if you're looking to send someone a postcard, or just a nice gift, please think of Monica's website [I'll post below] and buy her note cards on her website.

For those of you unfamiliar with Women to Women International, it's an organization that helps women all over the WORLD rebuild their lives after being victims of war in parts of Africa [Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria] and Iraq, Kosovo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Please go to http://www.monicajohansson.com and go to the Note Card tab on top.

You can also visit Monica's blog, devoted entirely to her experience being a sponsor for a woman in need of just $27/month in Congo at www.letterstocongo.com

Thanks for reading, and please visit those links!

MAKEUP!

Good Afternoon my 5 followers!

About 2 weeks ago, my friend Rich and I got together to do a little "photoshoot" with our WONDERFUL volunteer, Kaleigh, who let us do basically whatever we wanted with her. Thanks Kaleigh!

This first shot here is one of my favorites from the shoot. We thought it would be a cool shot to have Kaleigh lay down and pull and twist her hair everywhere so it looked like this:


I don't know why her arms are cut off. I'm not very good at html. Anyway, I did some bright pink and blue shadows underneath her eyes and I added some baby lashes by Ardell, which you can see better in this picture:

This was definitely a huge learning experience for me. It's a lot different doing makeup for an actual photographer with professional lighting than my usual theater makeup stuff. You can see that the lighting picks up everything, and it all shows. So, next time we do another shoot, which will be this Saturday, I'll be a little more prepared. Although Kaleigh was a great model, I'm not 100% happy with the makeup, but again, this was a GREAT learning experience that I'll take with me on future shoots.

And if there's anyone other than my 5 followers reading this, check out Rich Arsenault, the photographer for this shoot: www.RichArsenault.com

Black Raspberry Oatmeal Cookie Bars

Good afternoon, my 3 followers!

Over the weekend I helped out with makeup and wardrobe changes for the Beauty & the Beast show that the Colchester Community Theater put on. It was so much fun! Do I have any pictures of the makeup I did? Of course not. This is why I don't have a makeup portfolio. There are tons of pictures from the show. If anyone is interested... http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/11224462_R5peK#787134266_QDQKu

Here is a recipe for Black Raspberry Oatmeal Cookie Bars that I make REALLY often. The great thing about this recipe is that you can substitute the jam for your favorite flavor. I haven't experimented with other things like chocolate or peanut butter, but I assume you could probably use these things, too. Plus, this recipe is SO EASY!

Things you'll need:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup [1 stick] butter

3/4 cup seedless jam [pick your favorite!]

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 x 8 pan.

Combine all ingredients except seedless jam into a large bowl. The mixture will be crumbly!

Press half the mixture into the bottom of the 8 x 8 pan with the back of a spoon.

Spread your jam evenly on top of the crust, a 1/2 inch away from the side of the pan.

Crumble the other half of the mixture over the jam, and lightly press it into the jam with your fingers or a spoon. It doesn't have to cover all of the jam.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Let cool before you cut to ensure you get nice clean lines, which I like.

I've made this at least 10 times, and although I do the exact same thing EVERY TIME, twice I've messed it up. One time I came back into the kitchen when there was 4 minutes left on the oven timer, and it was already over cooked. This is best eaten warm, and according to my friend Rich, who I mention pretty often in my blogs I'm noticing now, you can eat this for breakfast with whipped cream on top. Perfectly acceptable, obviously.

Funny doggy face thanks you for your time.

This is what the end result should resemble.

Okay, thanks for reading! Tonight I'll be making chicken, soaked in buttermilk and paprika and then breaded with panko and regular bread crumbs with some side dishes that are unimportant and boring like mashed potatoes and zucchini.

Pasta with Smoked Salmon in a Creamy Dill Sauce, for real this time.

So, for real this time I'm going to post my recipe + pictures of the Smoked Salmon Creamy Dill Sauce in pasta I made the other night.

Although this recipe called for smoked salmon, I realized that it was not my cup of tea, and although much faster than cooking a non-smoked salmon, I would prefer regular salmon [maybe sockeye] in this dish the next time I make it, with a little extra sauce for reheating.



This is me, very excited to make this dish, obviously.



And this is my little helper, Luigi.

Onward!

Recipe:

1lb of your favorite pasta
8oz smoked salmon [next time I will use 8oz cooked regular salmon] I got the salmon that was already in the package in the back of the produce section, in front of the fish counter!
1 handful or so of chopped fresh dill
1/2 a medium sized onion, minced
2 tbsp olive oil for the pan
1 cup cream

So simple!

I started off by boiling some water and heating a skillet with tall sides. Once my water was boiling, I salted my water and put my pasta in. Then, I minced my half an onion and threw it in the pan with some olive oil and really only made the onions tender instead of browning them. I didn't mince my onions enough. I'm actually not that great of a cook because I overlook things like this.



Then, I put in the cream and some salt & pepper and let it cook for 8-10 minutes and stirred it often. When my pasta was done I strained it but left about a cup of cooking water in there so it didn't get all sticky sitting in the pot. After the 10 minutes was up for my cream/onion mixture in the pan, I let it sit for another 3 -5 minutes to let it thicken a little bit, and put in my little cubes of smoked salmon and dill. Then I just poured the cream mixture into my pasta pot and mixed everything around to coat the pasta.



Tada! I need to learn how to take amazing picture of my food like they do on tastespotting.com.

That's all for today - thanks for reading!!

Next: Blackberry Oatmeal Cookie Bars.

Cookies, Oatmeal Bars and Smoked Salmon Pasta with a Creamy Dill sauce.

Hello!

I was really hoping to post my recipes individually, but I've been putting it off because I couldn't figure out how to post a picture on here. And then Rich so politely pointed out to me this morning that the [insert picture] button was right in front of my face.

Before I post my 3 most recent delicious recipes, I want to tell you guys a little story about a woman I met last night at a paranormal lecture. They introduced her as a "sensitive" which to me sounds like she's somewhat of a medium for the spirit world, which I can totally get on board with. Then she starts talking about animals, and how they're more connected to the spirit world than we naturally are, and how she can... talk to animals. Okay, so at this point I'm thinking she's a little bit more weird than we all anticipated but I'm going with it.

And then she says that she sometimes gets words [english words?] from the animals, horses in particular because she's around them more. She says that this horse she recently visited played her a little "movie" of what happened in it's previous life... I pretty much mentally checked out at this point.

Anyway, onward with the food blogging!

My friend and birthday twin, Francis came over one night to play Super Mario Bros. and bake cookies. He made this dough by himself!

Recipe for the dough!

2 1/4 cups [why did my font change? I don't get this site fully yet.] flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract [love this! I put it in everything.]
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chips, or in this case, chocolate chunks

Roll into balls

And cook [my font is back] for 9-12 minutes or until just golden brown around the edge at 375 degrees. Francis and I both share an affinity for gooey cookies, so I set the timer for 9 minutes and we watched them closely until the edges were just getting golden brown, took them out and set them on a cookie cooler.



How delicious do these look? By the way, can anyone guess where this famous cookie dough recipe is from?


Let the jealousy set in.

Okay, I lied, there will be a separate post for the other dishes I made since this post took so long and I don't have time for more. I also did makeup for a show over the weekend, but I forgot to take pictures of her/him. Of course.

Thanks for reading and I hope to have posts more often now that I know how to put pictures in!!

First Post!

Hi Everyone!

I'm dedicating this first blog to my friend Rich because he came up with my blog name. THANKS RICH!

I'm excited to have a blog! I'm going to be posting mainly about two things; baking/cooking and make up, which will be complete with pictures. Well, there will probably be pictures of my kittens in there as well. As soon as I get the hang of this, I'll start posting fun things.

That's all for now - expect lots of fun blogs about cooking and my make up adventures!