3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

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Day 209/365: Grilled Yellow Zucchini

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Grilled Yellow Zucchini recips
Yellow Zucchini (My Olympus is back)

I’m the first one to admit that I don’t like yellow and green mushy vegetables. This includes squash, asparagus, and zucchini. But on the prompting of my good friend Beth, and my daughter who is a good sport about trying new foods, I have decided to expand my horizons. Nelson Farms is helping a great deal as they have a produce stand set up in the parking lot where I work all summer.

These were so pretty at the stand I just had to pick up a few and try grilling them. Because everything taste better grilled.

Grilling Yellow Zucchini
Grilling Yellow Zucchini

So, if I’m going to grill I’m going to use my new Pampered Chef grilling basket. Not knowing which way to slice these veggies, I tried the circles and lengthwise. After digging through my spice cabinet I picked two out, a vegetable supreme and a Mrs. Dash Tomato, Basil and Garlic mixture. Wasn’t sure what would be best so I just experimented by adding the herbs to some olive oil and coating both sides of the sliced zucchini.

Grilled Yellow Zucchini
Grilled Yellow Zucchini

Doesn’t it look delicious? I even impressed myself.  Still not too much of a fan of the mushy factor, but I did like the long skin side pieces. My son thought they tasted like weird tasting eggs, he wasn’t a fan. But I ate them all and would try them again with different seasonings.

Anyone have any ideas with what else to do with yellow zucchini?

Photography notes: I’ve brought out my Olympus E10 camera again. I have it handy at work (Hamilton Color Lab) so I can take photos of various projects for an upcoming new blog series. Yes I take photos of photos. Redundent isn’t it.

 

Pork and Beef Enchiladas

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It has been a while since I posted about food, although I have been preparing, consuming and photographing my food all year. The difficult part is remembering the recipe. But in cooking the recipe is only the starting point, I’m all about being creative and flexibility is a must in my kitchen.

I only use recipes as guidelines, and often I just “wing it”, this is one of those times.

Pork and Beef Enchiladas

  • Ingredients:
  • 1 package flour tortillas
  • 1 can Refried Beans
  • 1 Pckg shredded Mexican cheese
  • 1 can tomato sauce
  • 1 can Green Chile & Pork
  • Homemade salsa
  • 1 lb hamburger (pre-cooked, frozen and thawed)

Directions

  1. Pour Green Chile mixture into sauce pan, add thawed cooked hamburger, and 1/4 cup salsa,  heat and stir.
  2. Using a large pan or cookie sheet, pour salsa on the bottom and dip tortillas.
  3. Stack tortillas on plate and microwave on high for 20-30 seconds. (this makes them soft and flexible)
  4. Spoon meat/chili mixture across the tortilla, spread refried beans on tortilla, top with cheese.
  5. Roll tortilla and place on cookie sheet, flap side down,
  6. Repeat and nestle enchiladas next to each other.
  7. Mix tomato sauce with appox. 1 cup salsa and pour over enchiladas. (add any of the left over “bits” from the dipping the tortillas)
  8. Sprinkle liberally with cheese
  9. Bake at 350F until cheese is melted and enchiladas are heated through (approximately 20 min)

My intention is to freeze leftovers, but they don’t last long enough at my house. Excellent as leftovers the next day.

Enjoy!!

Finished & Ready to Eat!

Homemade Original Chex Mix Recipe, a Passion

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Chex MixHomemade Chex Mix Recipe

There is a reason why I only make the original Chex Mix a few times a year. It disappears in no time at all.  I would have to take out a loan just for the cereal. Seriously, I make a double batch and it’s gone in 3 days.

I’ve even been known to buy the pre-made bagged Chex Mix at the convenience store when I’m having a craving.

Yes, I know my kids could and would live on cereal alone if I let them. Chex Mix I guess gives them that excuse.

But, it’s more than that, maybe the tangy Worcestershire sauce? The Lawry’s Seasoning Salt? My daughter loves that stuff so much she puts it on everything, popcorn, corn on the cob, eggs you name it. She calls it “Special Salt”

What is better than eating original recipe Chex Mix? Eating it from a custom snack bowl. The best Christmas gifts for the family addicted to Chex Mix.

We eat bowls and bowls every year. That’s why I love this super cute snack bowl you can even buy homemade Chex Mix on Etsy.

Whatever the appeal we love homemade Chex Mix and I should know the recipe my heart. But I never want to get it wrong so I always go to my handy AllRecipes website and look it up. I don’t know why I even look at recipes anyways, I change them all the time.

The secret to the BEST Chex Mix Recipe? Use REAL Butter

Seriously, butter makes everything better – why use only 6 TBPS of butter when you can throw in the whole stick!

That means I have to add more Worcestershire sauce, and that means more cereal and pretzels. Before I know it, my VERY large Turkey roasting pan is overflowing with my own custom make, scrumptious Chex Mix.

To lower the cost of this addiction and save some money I use the generic varieties of cereal. This time I used the Walmart toasted cereal. It’s half the price of the Crispix cereal or Chex brand name. Can’t tell the difference it disappears just as fast.

Original Chex Mix Recipe Oven Method

The original Chex Mix recipe

There are a lot of original recipe Chex Mix sites out there, but I find mine published on the back of the box. This is truly the ORIGINAL Chex Mix Recipe. To make Chex Mix party mix you need cereal, nuts, pretzels and “goodies”. In my case that is the garlic bagel chips.

Chex Mix For Christmas

Give Chex Mix for Christmas. Make some Chex Mix party mix, package it in a mason jar and add a custom label found here.

Don’t forget to give Chex Mix for Christmas. Seriously the easiest gift ever. Package in a Mason jar and attach a cute label. You don’t even need to design it, just print it off here.

Make Chex Mix Seasoning Yourself

You can buy the pre-made Chex Mix seasoning packets but you can also you can make your own Chex Mix Seasoning yourself.

Honestly, I only did this myself because I ran out of the little freebie packets they give away near the cereal section during Christmas. But homemade Chex Mix seasoning is so much tastier and you can vary it any way you like. Me, I add more garlic powder.

Original Chex Mix Oven Recipe Directions

The original Chex mix recipe oven method is super easy. Pour in your cereal, add your goodies, and pour over your seasoning mix

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees
  2. In large roasting pan, (the one you fix the turkey in)
  3. Mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and Rye Chips (Rye Chips are important) – set aside.
  4. In a small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on high about 40 seconds or until melted.
  5. Stir in seasonings.
  6. Pour over cereal mixture, stir until evenly coated.
  7. Place in oven and “toast” for approximately 50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
  8. Cool on paper towels and store in airtight containers.
The original and popular Chex Mix recipe, made for a crowd
My VERY Popular Chex Mix

The stirring is important, and I set a timer so I won’t forget. Every 15 minutes I stir. Within 30 minutes the aroma and smell make the kids hover in the kitchen. They don’t even wait for it to come out of the pan. They eat warm Chex Mix by the handful.  During Christmas, I store Chex Mix in large Christmas tins and we spoil ourselves for two weeks. The rest of the year it goes in Ziploc bags.

If you don’t have time to make homemade Chex Mix you can have a whole case shipped to your kids as a college care package from Mom and Dad via Amazon.

There’s my foodie obsession of the day. Enjoy!

Party Snack Ideas

Bag up Chex Mix in sandwich bags and attach these labels to the top. Great for Sunday school gifts, teacher gifts, or give to neighbors and friends. I think I will even sell Chex Mix at the local Farmers Market and Holiday Extravaganza.