God Won't Give You More Than You Can Handle

I haven’t written in my blog for quite some time. To put it bluntly the last five years of my life have sucked. 2013 was just the sour icing on some horrible cake. But there were some good moments too; unfortunately, they were overshadowed by some pretty terrible times.

Have you ever had someone ask you if you see the glass as half full or half empty? I always reply, “Half full—of crap.” That’s just me trying to be cheeky.

There are just so many pithy observations and clichés people spout that I find interesting. Another one is “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Oh, so what you’re really saying then is God punishes people for being strong, right? Actually, I know a lot of these common adages are ways people are trying to make sense of life and explain the world around them. They aren’t meant to be malevolent. But the truth is some of these underlying attitudes about our world can be harmful, I believe. They can make people feel inadequate and worse about their lives and more alone than they already do. Think some about the saying I just quoted, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” Really, if that is true, then why do nearly a million people worldwide kill themselves every year? Obviously this says that many individuals are indeed given much, much more than they can handle. Anyhow, if you’ll indulge me for a few (maybe few dozen) posts, I’d like to talk about what’s been going on. The baking and cooking will still be there...

Mom's Meatloaf

Wow! That’s all I can say about the last three months. I’m still not completely ready to share what has been going on yet, but I will at some point. I personally only like to tell a story when I know there is going to be a happy ending. Since what has been going on in my life lately is still a work in progress, I don’t quite know how it’s going to turn out yet. But when I do, I will let you know why I have been MIA on this blog. For now, let’s just say I’ve been trying to save money and one of the ways I have been trying to save money is by cutting down on my trips to the grocery store. This means I haven’t been cooking as much. However, I haven’t completely given up on working my way through my mom’s recipe file. I had a chance to make her meatloaf recently.

As you can see by the well-worn recipe card, this was a frequent go-to recipe for my mom. She made it often, and I recall her serving it with baked potatoes on the side. I served mine with whipped mashed potatoes, being a bigger fan of those then baked potatoes.

The leftover meatloaf would then be used for days after to make cold meatloaf sandwiches. I remember my dad really loving those—myself, not so much. I can’t say I’ll ever be a fan of cold meatloaf, but the hot variety is definitely a comfort food.

This is a pretty basic recipe. In cookbooks and online, I see all kinds of variations of the standard meatloaf. What do you add to your meatloaf to make it extra special?

Meat Loaf

1½ pounds hamburger/ground beef
¾ cup oatmeal
2 eggs
¼ cup onion
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper

1 cup tomato juice (I used V8 Spicy hot)

V8 Spicy Hot Tomato Juice

Take all the above ingredients and mix well. I use my hands to mix everything up—sure it’s gross to dig your hands through all that meat, but I find it the best way to really blend everything.

Once all your ingredients are thoroughly blended, spread them evenly in a 5” x 10” loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven and squeeze ketchup over the top and then dig in!

A Feast for the Senses, Eating My Way Through Mexico

I haven’t written in my blog for so long, but I had a good reason. I took an almost 2 ½ week vacation to Mexico. I haven’t taken a real vacation for something approaching seven years. Since I felt 2+ weeks was a long time to be gone from work, I worked extra hard up until the day I left, March 10, to wrap things up at work and make sure my co-workers wouldn’t have too much to handle while I was gone. Because of this, my blog fell by the wayside in the weeks prior to my departure. As for since my return, well, let’s just say things have been very chaotic since then. I might write more about that later, but for now, suffice it to say, my career and my future are a little bit up in the air. But for now, I’d like to think about happy memories, so I will tell you a little bit about my trip to Mexico.

I went to Mexico with a tour group. I learned about this tour through a blogger I had recently started to follow: Wandering Earl. I didn’t know a soul that was going on this tour, but, as it turned out, that was also true for all but one couple that went on the tour. There ended up being twelve of us, Derek Baron, aka Wandering Earl originally from Massachusetts; his sidekick, fellow travel blogger and tour group herder Anil Polat, aka Fox Nomad originally from Turkey; a lovely married couple from California, via Canada originally; and eight single women including me. I was the lone Minnesotan in the group. Two women were from Chicago, two were from Australia, one was from New Zealand, one was from California (originally from the Philippines), and one was from Colorado (originally from Russia). We had a fabulous time, a beyond-fabulous time, something I attribute in no small part to the excellent and diverse group of individuals on this trip.

We visited several locations and got a really good taste for the Yucatan Penisula, Central Highlands, and Southwestern parts of Mexico. I flew into Cancun and met up with my group in Playa del Carmen. It was a leisurely, beach-front start to our vacation and gave us all a great opportunity to get to know each other.

Italian gelato not far from the beaches of Playa del Carmen

Over the course of the next several days, we had the opportunity to visit several Mayan ruins in the area, including Tulum, Chichén Itzá, and Palenque as well as the Aztec ruins of Monte Albán. We visited charming cities with amazing architectural features including Valladolid and the splendor of Izamal, the city of all yellow buildings, where we climbed the ruins of Kinich Kak Moo. We floated past crocodiles through the Sumidero Canyon.

We visited San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan (the place of flowers). The sustainable farming practices of that area were so cool to see, including seeing some simple, terrace farming. Parts of the hillsides reminded me of Tuscany. Sheep, chickens, rabbits, and turkeys were the most commonly spotted farm animals.

Oh how I cracked up seeing the bunnies and chickens together in the same pen. They really appeared to enjoy hanging out.

We saw the most incredible church in San Juan Chamula (but weren't allowed to photograph the inside) where pine needles and thousands of candles covered the floor (see Wandering Earl’s article The Most Amazing Church I’ve Ever Seen & Can’t Show You). If you were hoping to rid yourself of a spiritual problem you would bring a chicken with you into the church and a medicine man or woman would periodically feel your pulse. According to the medicine man or woman when your pulse was calm your spiritual problem had entered into the chicken, which they would then kill and bury.

We visited a family home where they made us homemade tortillas with white beans and crushed pumpkin seeds and gave us a shot of "Posh" which is an alcohol which is about 80 proof on its own. For us, they mixed it with a little Hibiscus juice to make it more palatable. We saw some beautiful hand woven handicrafts at this home, as well.

We spent a few days each in the much bigger cities of San Cristóbal de las Casas and Oaxaca, the first reminding me more of what I had thought of when I pictured a traditional Mexican city, and the latter more sophisticated and European feeling—very much reminding me of a cosmopolitan city in Spain.

Various market candies of San Cristóbal de las Casas

Marzipan-like duck

Various Market Baked Goods of San Cristóbal de las Casas

I could go on and on into much more detail giving you a play by play of each day’s activities, but I will leave that up to our fearless leader, who has already written quite a lot about the trip. You can find his articles here:
Recap of Wander Across Mexico Tour
I Bought A Zoo While Traveling in Mexico
Is Mexico Safe To Visit?

Since my blog is, after all, supposed to be a cooking blog, not a travel blog, I am going to spend the rest of my space telling you a little bit about the food I tried. You can also read a more extensive blog about the food experience, on the Wandering Earl site, as well, Oh How I Love To Eat In Mexico!

Since I didn’t want to have a lot to carry with me (I prefer to travel light) I didn’t bring my nicer, that is, bigger camera. That means my photos were all taken on my iPhone 3, which iPhone aficionados will know is the version of the iPhone that did not come with a flash for the camera, so it goes without saying that these photos are low resolution. Hopefully they will be just enough to whet your appetite to take off to a new location to try some new and tasty tidbits of your own.

Eggs and Avocado over a green chili sauce

Alambres de Pollo: chicken, cheese, and veggies

Chicken on a grill in a village just outside Chichén Itzá

Having a bit of a Cheetos addiction, I made a point to try all the flavors Mexico offers, as well as some new non-Cheetos chip flavors. I wasn't too impressed, if I'm being honest with you.

Especially gross was the Horneados in the purple pack that came with a side packet of salsa that you were to pour over the top. Cheetos fingers are one thing, but Cheetos fingers also covered in sticky salsa--yuck!

Chicken in Valladolid

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Tequila tasting with the lovely single ladies of my tour group (from left to right): Queenie, Anastasia, Rashelle, me, Cindy, Alison, Michelle, and Laura

Azteca Soup (chicken soup with lime and tortillas)

Delicious fried plantains with rice and a lovely side cream that tasted like yoghurt and sour cream.

Terrible photo of best soup EVER--in a darkened restaurant, late at night, Carrot Soup in the city of Palenque--so delicious!

Chicken Caesar Salad with YUM more avocados. The avocados were SO FRESH in Mexico. I ate them every chance I got.

Mushrooms and cheese

Empanadas with fresh guacamole

Baked goods basket that came with breakfast in Oaxaca

Fresh fruit vendors were everywhere. Most commonly-sold fruit was papayas, watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple.

Mexicans love their meat.

Fried chapulines with chile, that's crickets to you and me!

Yes, I tried the crickets--actually, I even tried two.

Mexican salad

Tomato Soup

Misadventures with Yeast and Foolproof Monkey Bread

I mentioned in my February 6th post that I would share some photos of random recipes I’ve been making while taking a break from blogging about family recipes.

I attempted to make these Baker’s Dozen yeast rolls—TWICE, from a recipe I found in a Taste of Home magazine publication.

When my dough didn’t rise, I thought my yeast from the jar had gone bad, so I bought new yeast in packets and attempted the recipe again. The dough still didn’t rise—and this in spite of the fact that I used a candy thermometer to measure the water temperature before I added the yeast to it to make sure the water was neither too cold or too hot, something I’ve been told is a necessity when working with yeast. I am starting to wonder if I am capable of making anything requiring yeast, as I previously attempted a bread recipe and failed at that recipe more than once, as well (then, I thought it was the recipe that was bad, not the yeast).

I had someone mention to me that I should buy active dry yeast at a natural food store, like WholeFoods, instead of the instant yeast I’ve been buying at regular grocery stores.

Maybe I just don’t have the yeast gene, though? I’m not ready to completely throw in the towel yet, but I am ready to put aside my roll and bread-making attempts for the time being.

However, my craving for something starchy and doughy and loaded with carbs still hadn’t went away, so I decided to make what most people refer to as Monkey Bread using a foolproof ingredient—frozen dinner rolls. I knew I couldn’t mess those up!

Monkey Bread Recipe

from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quick-and-easy-monkey-bread/ (I actually cut this recipe in half.)

Ingredients:
12 frozen Rhodes rolls
½ cup brown sugar
½ package butterscotch cook and serve dry pudding mix (not instant)
1/8 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ stick butter
1 cup chopped (shelled) pistachios or walnuts or pecans

Instructions:
At least five hours before you want to start baking these (most people prepare these right before they go to bed for the following morning), grease the sides of a Bundt pan (I use an olive oil mister, but a product like Pam No-Stick Cooking Spray or smearing butter on the sides of the pan with a paper towel would work, as well).

You can either buy your nuts already chopped or if you have whole nuts a nut chopper is a great way to quickly chop them. Another great way to chop whole nuts is to put them in a heavy-duty plastic, freezer bag and take a few whacks at them with a hammer on a sturdy surface—this will probably get rid of any pent-up aggression you may have too!

Sprinkle your nuts evenly around the bottom of the pan, and then place your frozen rolls in a circle evenly around the pan, on top of the nuts.

Mix the brown sugar and butterscotch pudding mix together and sprinkle evenly over the frozen rolls. Then, mix the white sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle evenly on top of the brown sugar and pudding mix. Melt your butter (45-60 seconds in the microwave) and pour evenly over the top. Cover loosely with wax paper.

Overnight, the rolls will rise—in my case, they rose like crazy sticking to and pushing upwards the wax paper I used to loosely cover the pan, showing I’m not a complete jinx to yeast, I guess.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove and toss the wax paper. Place the Bundt pan on a cookie sheet (to catch any potential overflow and keep it from spilling into your oven) and bake for 30 minutes. Remove pan from over, flip Bundt pan over onto a large platter so nuts will be on top, serve warm, and watch these delicious rolls disappear before your eyes!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Chili

Chili is one of those items I can’t recall ever using a recipe for, because every time I make it, I use whatever ingredients I have on hand. Ground beef is usually a given, as are canned tomatoes, but everything else varies. Sometimes I add beans, sometimes I don’t. When I was little, I didn’t like beans at all and used to pick them out of my mom’s chili. I thought I was just different but have found out all these years later that actually chili WITHOUT beans may be more true to chili’s origin than chili WITH beans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne). Regardless, I do include beans about half the time now when I make chili, just because I know beans are so good for a person, but, if I’m being honest, I still prefer my chili without beans.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Chili

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef cooked, fat drained.
1 can Ro-Tel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies
1 small can Tomato Sauce
½ white or yellow onion chopped
1 cup celery chopped
1 cup mixed red, yellow, and red peppers, chopped
1 bag frozen corn and black bean vegetable blend
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon Sloppy Joe Seasoning blend (optional)

For the toppings:
Sour Cream
Chili Cheese Fritos
Sharp Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Whatever topping you like!

Instructions:
Add chopped onions to hamburger and cook over medium heat until hamburger is no longer pink. Drain off any excess fat.

Take cooked hamburger and all other ingredients listed above (except for toppings) and combine in crockpot. Stir well, then cover and cook until heated through 4-6 hours on low.

Scoop chili into bowls and decorate with toppings of your choice. I like sour cream in dollops or in the shape of a heart, lots of cheddar cheese, and Chili Cheese Fritos!

Chili Cheese Fritos as a chili topping