Kitchen Successes

I was particularly successful in the kitchen this week so I thought I'd share. :) This first recipe, even if you don't like a loaded baked potato (which I don't), if you like potatoes, bacon and sour cream you will like this soup.

Baked Potato Soup
4 medium baked potatoes
2 slices bacon
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup green onion with tops, thinly sliced
1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk
1 garlic clove, pressed [I used garlic powder]
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup light sour cream
2 oz shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Remove skins from baked potatoes and coarsely mash them in a bowl. Set aside. In a dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon to paper towel to drain; crumble and set aside. Discard all but 1/2 tsp drippings in pan. Add chicken broth, milk, mashed potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, salt and pepper to drippings. Bring to a bowl. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream and reserved bacon. Ladle into bowls and top with cheese if desired.


Caribbean Pork Roast
1 can (8oz) sliced pineapple, undrained
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 boneless rolled pork loin roast (about 3 lbs)
1 1/2 lbs peeled sweet potatoes
2 medium red onions
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Drain pineapple, reserving 1/2 cup juice for marinade. Combine reserved juice, sugar, cumin, cinnamon, thyme and red pepper in a small bowl. Add garlic cloves. Place roast and marinade in a resealable plastic food storage bag. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350. Cut sweet potatoes into 2 inch slices; cut slices into quarters. Cut each onion into 8 wedges and pineapple rings into quarters. Remove roast from marinade and place in baking dish or roasting pan. Discard remaining marinade. Place vegetables and pineapple around roast and sprinkle everything with salt and black pepper. Cover and bake 1 hour.

Remove lid and continue baking another 15-30 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 155 for medium. Remove roast from pan and let stand for 10 minutes before carving. Serve immediately with vegetables and pineapple.


I hope you enjoy these! :) Let me know what you think of the dishes.

:)

Mr. S loves to tease me about a lot of things, one of them being my purse obsession. He just does not understand 1) why I need so many purses and 2) why they need to be of a certain size. My larger purses are one of his favorite teasing targets.

So imagine the stupid grin on my face at getting a new brown LEATHER (yes, real leather) purse for my b-day. :D

Validated Fears

You know, it kinda sucks to have your fears about something validated. This is precisely why I fear ice skating.

6 month appt

Gavin had his 6 month checkup yesterday. He's now 17 lbs, 13 oz and 26.5 inches long. I won't gross you with some of the details but let's suffice it to say everything is functioning normally. ;) The best part of his appointment though was the doctor checking his motor skills.

Our daycare person had been saying from the get-go that Gavin's very advanced but it's a whole other story to hear it from your son's doctor. Gavin can, with some assistance, pull himself into a sitting or standing position. Obviously he can't stay standing without help but he can sit for a few minutes on his own without help (then something distracts him and he flops over). He's completely mastered rolling over (special thanks to Grandma Zuzu and Grandpa for working with him on that!!). The look on the doctor's face though when he flipped over and did his little scooting thing though was priceless. :) A week or so ago it became really apparent that Gavin was getting closer to crawling. The problem was he couldn't push himself forward, only backward. In the last few days he's seemed to have gotten the forward motion point and is just mere moments away from figuring out how to use his legs and arms together to crawl. With all this, his doctor says he's at least a month ahead when it comes to his motor skills. :D If that doesn't make a new parent feel great I don't know what else would!

I'm looking forward to Gavin crawling but also realize that we'll be cheering for all of 30 seconds before having an "Oh, fudge" moment that with his increased independent movement comes BABY PROOFING. Monte is going to hate this next level of development because not only will Gavin be able to chase him down but the safety gates will be coming out (Monte fears, and therefore respects the baby gates). Should be interesting. Speaking of the dog, in case anyone is curious Gavin loves the pets. He's fascinated by the dog and lights up when he sees the cats (wants to pet them; we monitor this VERY closely as our cats are not declawed). I'm happy that he clearly love animals. Personally it makes me thrilled that he shouldn't grow up with a fear if dogs or cats because of our animals. :)

That's all I have for now. Before I forget I wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day!! :)

[Editor/Mommy's note: the following message comes to you courtesy of a technologically inquisitive little boy]

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n vb

This one's for you Dad

Hell Hath Frozen Over

The university I work at actually CLOSED today!!! God loves me today. :):):):)

Mr. S, Gavin and I are safely camped out at home for the day. In case you're curious, current predictions say that when all is said and done snow accumulations will range 14" - 20". Yeah, the double quote means inches. That's not a typo nor does it mean centimeters. Inches.

I stole these from the local paper's web site to give you (especially any warm weather readers I have out there; you know who you are SCOTT and SHELLEY) a taste of what winter is really like ;)