Zombie Slime

For Halloween this year I wanted to make something fun and easy.

I went with Zombie Slime. Or you could call it Monster Juice, or Frankenstein Punch.

Whatever you decide to call it (I called it all three) here is what it looked like!

 

It was made by combining Lime Sherbert, 7-Up, and Jones Green Apple Soda. 

Simple and Spooky!

SuperCook

With my new job (as of July) I honestly have not been able to cook much. When you work until 7 or sometimes 7:30 Monday - Thursday,  its pretty tough making a good dinner before 8:00. 

Luckily, Superhero is also a SuperCook! 

And for this I am very thankful. He more than picks up the slack he almost steals the show! 

  

Ribs, beans, garlic toast, and peaches?!?

 See what I mean?!

I love my SuperCook.

Salafied

This salad is the best salad I've ever had.
(Anyone else just hear in their head... the best I eva had, the best I eva had?)

I must give credit to a girl named Natalie who brought this salad into my life.

You make it with green leafy spring lettuce mix, sliced avocados, sliced strawberries, crumbled cheese (goat, bleu, or feta works) and caramelized walnuts. If you want to get the full taste in every bite - use a balsamic vinaigrette. And if you want to sweeten this salad up even more - use a raspberry walnut vinaigrette.

Behold your new addiction:

 

WARNING: This salad is so delicious and addictive, its kind of more like dessert. 

And if you know me, that is saying A LOT. 

 

 This is no ordinary side salad people. In fact, it is more appropriate being served as the main course. 

I should also mention that this salad is not inexpensive either - avocados and strawberries can get pricey. 

Prepare to be more than merely satisfied with this salad... prepare to be salafied. 

Pork Chops wrapped in Bacon

Looong ago when I originally started this blog as a cook, I decided to go on a casserole cooking spree and this is what I have to say about them: Casseroles are nice because basically you are cooking your meal all at one time, in one pot. However... I re-realized I'm not crazy about my food being all together.

Now, BEFORE I go any farther, if you are reading this post and have ever cooked me a casserole, or in the future I will be eating casserole made by you you must BELIEVE me when I say: I like Casseroles.

The occasional casserole is great and even intriguing.

So People, you better promise to continue to cook me casserole dishes.

It is the repetitive casserole dish I realize I dislike because I prefer to eat one pile of food on my plate at a time. As a young girl, I hated when my food piles touched and I just like to focus on one food at a time.

Therefore, my casserole cooking spree is over especially since I am currently obsessed with a new love I want to share with you. Wait wait wait, ok technically it's not a new love - but instead a love that has reinvented itself. My new obsession is with BACON!

BACON wrapping ________ is my new obsession. Its delicious (I know, not too nutritious) but I love it.

My first homemade bacon wrapping experience was with pork. That's right - pork chops wrapped in bacon!! (thanks to my sister Stephanie who really is a great cook for the idea)

It was so delicious cooked to perfection on our charcoal grill served with cowboy beans, and alfredo.

Salmon Linguine

I cant believe it, but I made some salmon linguine. It was good. I personally am not a big salmon fan (eric is) but we had salmon in the freezer so I looked up what I could do with it.
It was good, except I cooked way too many noodles, so some of the flavor was lost in the excess noodles.
Also some texas toast(obviously i did not make it, and it was alright, but i think the garlic bread i make is better).
And salads. Eric's is the one with tomatoes.

"Beef Jerky" Steaks

I am a huge fan of red meat. Eric is a huge fan of white meat. Eric would eat Chicken everyday if he could. I like chicken but by no means do I want it more than Red Meat.

Eric has a steak broiler. I had never seen one before. It is actually very easy to use and I never knew you could cook steak in the oven!! I was really liking this broiler thing (however cleaning it after you use it is A BIG PAIN), so I went to the grocery store to buy some nice juicy steaks!

This is a story in itself. Honestly I should probably just blog about my grocery store adventures, but then you might think I really am a big ditz, when really I am not, I just have some pretty ditzy moments. So I for my rep I will keep some of those stories to myself. But I will share this small one...
I travel back to the meat section. My eye is drawn to the nice thick juicy cuts, but to my despair, I read they are $27 so I keep searching. I see a pink sticker: Buy one get one FREE!!, on some steaks. I think GREAT!! 2x the red meat for the price of one pack! I grab two packs that look good and proceed to the check out. AT the checkout, (which is my least favorite part of grocery shopping)the lady reads my total and it seems higher than I had anticipated. But what do you do argue with her? No I pay her. When I get home I look at the receipt and apparently I picked two different kinds of Buy one Get One FREE!! so i didn't even get ONE free when I actually paid to get TWO FREE!! ahh anyways that was annoying. But I moved on to see what I could do to make these expensive steaks tasty.

Well in my research i found there are marinades, steak rubs, and different cuts of steaks that will all taste different. Then, I remembered once at Steph's house she had the steaks in ziplock baggies in a juice to flavor her steaks and they were delicious. So I watched the food Channel all afternoon and researched with my computer how to make my steaks tasty.
I was very, very, disappointed to read that it is best to sit them in the rub or marinade for at least 24 hours because I had been thinking of my delicious steak all day long!!!
I ended up finding a rub that said you could do it for 20 mins before and it would taste good!
So I mixed the brown sugar (and ate some) and the salt, and the pinch of cayenne pepper and then the recipe said 1/4 cup of black pepper. This was a problem. We only have the pepper you grind, so I start grinding into the measuring cup until my forearm starts cramping and I am taking breaks and catching my breath and I cant grind anymore and I was no where close to 1/4 cup of black pepper, so I just gave up.
I rubbed it into my steaks and let them sit for 20 mins. Then cooked them.
It was really really good! The rub tasted like "beef Jerky" -Eric. It was good, and I was happy, and I will make it again!

Tired of Casseroles

Alright so like I mentioned in my previous blog I made my 3rd casserole... Macaroni Bake.
Honestly, it was not that impressive. Probably because I had more noodles than sauce, and I could not get my Parmesan cheese to look like the Parmesan cheese in the picture. That was frustrating. I think cooking it on the stove would have been easier and for sure faster too. I took a picture of it at the end of the meal when I remembered that I should have one for the blog... and after looking at the picture I said Wow that looks so gross now that I took a picture of it.
So I apologize and next time i'll take a picture at the beginning of the meal.

I think I will stop my casserole experiements. Casseroles are weird because they are a concauction that your mouth either says: Mmmmm more! or Interesting, or Not bad but I might not go for seconds.
So far I have personally had the later two responses and of my three casseroles never MMMM More! So I will move onto regular meals. Separate dishes and foods that (hopefully) don't surprise your mouth or make it guess what am I eating???.

Stephanie wishes I would blog about my cooking experiences. So I guess I will give it a shot. She is thinking she will be entertained, but I don't know how interesting this will actually be. I haven't made anything yet that got us sick, or made me chew like a turtle to choke down dinner.

Just to update, I have been experimenting in the realm of casseroles. They intrigue me, its like mix this, cook this put them together and bake it and WHaLa dinner is served. I think it interests me because I don't have to watch it cook or compete with the temperature of my skillet. Eric is always coming into the kitchen and turning my heat down below medium. I guess I think if its hotter it will cook faster. So, to avoid the burning of butter in my skillet or over boiling the milk and water for a pasta mix so it comes flowing out of the pot, I have been working with casseroles.

The casserole dishes I have made so far:

Sausage Broccoli Fettuccine Alfredo Casserole~ it was good but needed more sausage, Also i would buy a better tasting Alfredo Sauce (i didn't love the Regu). Eric was nice and said he liked it.

Ground Beef 'N' Biscuits ~ It looked interesting because the biscuits are cooked on top of the casserole, but it was weird because I was like what.. is this.... supposed... to taste like... Swallow. But as the meal progressed, I figured it out. It was a glorified sloppy Joe with the addition to peas in it and the biscuits on top. Eric said it was good... and we could freeze the rest and eat it "later"... so it sits in a baggie in our freezer.

Tonight I will make Macaroni Bake for my 3rd Casserole.