annie blog

I know that it’s a bit early to be planning on how to use your leftovers, but, I figured if you could pick up a few cans of ingredients on a pre-Tday shopping trip and be ready to throw it together in the aftermath without having to get out or really put forth much effort, well, that’d be a good thing.

Also, you’d have more time for football if you don’t have to run to the store.

This is a good recipe for anytime, of course, and not just to use up your leftover turkey.  We have it with chicken, frequently.  I always add pickled jalapenos on top of the cheese for our family members who like zippy food.  As far as zippy food goes — I count myself a fan.  Also, if you are like me and enjoy zippy food, I suggest that you never, ever start eating Cholula Hot Sauce on your eggs.  That stuff is so addictive — it is nearly impossible to stop.  But I’m digressing from the recipe.

Here it is….great football fare and a way to mix things up for your palate after the usual Thanksgiving foods.

Turkey (or Chicken)  Taco Casserole

• 2 cups cooked rice — brown (I usually use more…and of course, white rice works fine, too.)
• 2 cups cooked turkey, shredded
• 1 (14 1/2 oz.) can tomato sauce
• 1 recipe homemade taco seasoning
• 2 15 oz. cans refried beans (I like the FullCircle organic vegetarian — but not fat free — brand.)
• 1 cup cheese, grated
• guacamole, sour cream, green onions, pico de gallo, chopped tomatoes, chopped avocado

Mix taco seasoning and tomato sauce in a bowl.
Add the shredded turkey and toss to coat it well with tomato mixture.
Place cooked rice in the bottom of a 13 X 9 X 2.
Top with turkey mixture.
Top with  refried beans so you have a nice even coating. (This step is easier if you warm the refried beans for a bit in the microwave.)
Top with cheese. (You can freeze the casserole at this point.)
Bake uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes at 350F or until hot all the way through and the cheese is nice and bubbly. You’ll have to bake it longer if you heat it from frozen.
Top with your favorite toppings and eat it rolled up in a tortilla or with tortilla chips.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground oregano
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
Mix in small bowl. (This is equal to 1 1/4 ounce package of commercial taco seasoning.)

Happy Tueday, y’all!!

Okay, y’all, I’m going to see if I can keep up with posting every day.  I figured that it’d help if I had a few dedicated days of the week.  So, since it is Monday and I’m scatterbrained and I need to go to the library and I need to find a turkey and I need to find a piece of chocolate and have  a cup of tea and about a million other things…..we shall deem Monday as the day for music on AnnieBlog.

I think this band is an awesome way to kick off my new blog category.

These folks are called the Alabama Shakes.  The just released their debut EP.  So far, I’m really impressed with this band that hails from Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  They know how to bring it, you know?  And, their lead singer, Brittany Howard, has a voice that somehow reminds me of Wilson Pickett and Aretha, too.

This is their song, “I Found You”.

I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album!

Okay, now I’m off to find a turkey!  Happy Monday!

Wow, y’all, this is a great illustrated list of patterns –mainly those found on textiles.

Who knew that the ornate pattern on Suzani designs was called a Mandala.  Neat!  I like how simple and yet informative this guide is.

Happy Sunday, y’all!

Well, earlier today, I was delighted to see that Deb, of Smitten Kitchen, is back.  She’s been rather absent on her blog recently as she was coming down to the wire for her cookbook deadline. I already want her cookbook and she hasn’t even published it yet.

I was double delighted to see that she posted about making baked pumpkin pudding with sour cream.  Yum!! I can’t wait to try it — and it’s gluten-free, even.  This is going on the Thanksgiving Day menu, for sure.

Love to Smitten Kitchen!  I’m so glad that she’s back.

Well, I apologize, y’all.  My trying to post more frequently on here just didn’t work this week.  Sometimes weeks are like that, I guess.

I hope that all of y’all are doing well.  We’ve had a glorious fall here in St. Louis.  It’s been unseasonably warm which, you know, is fine with me.  I’ve particularly loved all of the trees’ foliage this year.  Maybe it is because I’m driving (a lot) more, but I have been steadily monitoring all the trees along my routes, watching them all through their progressions of color.  This time of the year, it is hard to pick a favorite tree.  Though I would have to admit partiality to sycamores — love the bark — and to the gingkoes with their brilliant gold leaves and tendency to drop all of their leaves at once.  I have a favorite specific gingko tree, in fact.  It is in the yard of a beautiful house on the way to my 3rd son’s school.

It is easy to want things, driving around this town.  Lots of folks have possessions in abundance.  What I find myself wanting though, more than another bathroom, or a fireplace, or a screened-in porch, or a pool, or, of course, the income to afford it all, is a gingko tree in my yard. My favorite gingko tree is old.  I could not reach my arms around it if I tried.

So, you’ll imagine my displeasure (anger, yes) when road construction began and made a detour of my usual path beside my lovely tree.  I felt robbed.

I guess that as humans we’re just like that.  We have wells for beauty that never get filled up to the top.

I had a funny professor in college.  He was Southern and jolly and we sometimes conversed on things other than the subject at hand.  When he found out I was from north Alabama, he mentioned how much he liked the hills there and we found out that we both had a preference for “having hills to rest our eyes against”.  He added that he’d love to live in the mountains, that seeing those mountains would fill him emotionally and that he’d  feel like living a hundred years.

Maybe.  I don’t think a hundred would be enough, though.  Your well for beauty wouldn’t be full, still.

Alright, I’ve got to get on with things.  My youngest 2 boys had a free day today.  Why, oh why do they take the Friday before Thanksgiving off and then give the kids only Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday after Thanksgiving off?!  I think the schedule makers need help.  Anyway, I’m about to peel them off of the T.V. and bring them with me on errands.

Have a good weekend, y’all, and check back on Monday for a recipe that you can make to use leftover turkey.  It goes great with football, and get-togethers, and friends, and takes very little effort for tired cooks — so come on back for that.

Happy Friday!!

I don’t know what it is about A.A. Bondy — I just love his music.  He has recently come out with a new album, Believers, which is reviewed and streamed in its entirety here on NPR.

I haven’t listened to all of it yet.  So far, so good.

Lately, though, one of his other songs has been running through my head.  It’s off his 2009 album, When the Devil’s Loose.  The album is thoughtfully reviewed on BBC music, here.  The song that I’m remembering today is called “On the Moon”.  It’s a lovely little ballad.

Happy Thursday!

Well, he isn’t much of a baby anymore.  But he’ll always be my baby.

Here is the buster in question:

I want to make sure and remember what a funny combination of traits exist in this little person right now.

For instance, he is poetic, like when he dreamily observed to me the other day while watching the wind blow outside, “Mom, I think that we learned music from the trees.”

He is observant and funny, like the other day when we were listening to “Heros and Villians” by the Beach Boys on the way to school when he said, excitedly, “Whoa, Mom, I didn’t know that so many dees and das could make such a great song!”  (He routinely asks for rock music on the way to school. Preferences, preferences.)

He is imaginative and totally enamored with the thought of making a cool tv show about Kung Fu Dinos and he’s already come up with the theme song for the show.  That is, he is totally enamored with the idea today…..who knows what special idea will occupy his thoughts tomorrow…

He shucks his clothes the moment he walks in the door from school.  He’s the reason that we are instituting a no shirt, no dinner policy — in November, no less.

He loves Journey and has brought the house down on more than one occasion by launching into “Don’t Stop Believin'”, which he adapts lyrically to his use no matter what the situation.

My little buster with giant blue eyes — I love him a bushel and a peck and a hug around his neck.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

it totally rocks a bowl of oatmeal.

But, before I tell you the recipe, I have to back up a little.

I love LOVE pumpkin bread.  But, as I’ve mentioned on here before, I’m on a crummy diet.  On this diet, gluten is not allowed.  Milk is not allowed.  Sugar is not allowed.  See, totally crummy.  Except, a little bit of butter is allowed per day.  And so, one day as I was eating my oatmeal while missing (mourning the lack of ) pumpkin bread, I got the idea to make myself some pumpkin bread (minus the bread) oatmeal.  And I decided to put my little bit of butter that I can have each day on the top.

I use steel cut oats for this recipe.  Every Sunday night  I make myself a batch to carry me though the week.  Then I can enjoy hot breakfast for a week and have to only wash the pan once.  Win, win.  I use around 1/3 cup of these plain, cooked oats and mix in whatever I want for that particular day.  If it is a day that I want pumpkin, then the ingredients and proportions look sort of like this:

1/3 cup cooked steel cut oatmeal

2 T. or more toasted nuts (pecans and walnuts are great)

1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

dash cinnamon

drizzle of maple syrup (I usually don’t do this because I don’t like sugar in the morning…it tastes great with these flavors, though)

drizzle of browned butter

splash of almond milk, if needed

So, put the pumpkin, oatmeal, dried fruit, cinnamon and almond milk (if desired) in a bowl.  Warm  in the microwave for a few minutes.  Stir it a few times during heating.  Remove from the microwave and top with the nuts, brown butter and maple syrup.

Happy first of November, y’all!

are wonderful. I’m going to try these because they look delicious AND have brown butter icing.

Everything is better with browned butter.

Happy Halloween, y’all!!!

I’m linking this in case y’all haven’t seen it already……

This all might come in handy if the weather ever cools for good around here.  Though, the Autumn has been so beautiful that you’ll hear no complaints from me.  I’d take today’s weather forever and never get tired of it.

Happy Saturday, y’all!