KateOhKatie blogs

I call this recipe, Chicken Soup for the Sick, Bitchy Knitter’s “Soul” (if by ’soul’ you mean the unique configuration of schemas, memories of past events and inherent temperament that results in the more-or-less unique personality that each person expresses).

Please don’t pick on me for not buying a whole chicken, making a stock, and then using the chicken for a number of delicious ‘leftover chicken’-y recipes.  I just don’t have the energy right now.

1 small jar stewed tomatoes (canned by my grandmother, if possible.  Albeit highly unlikely)
1/2 large jar canned green beans (see above)
1 large can chicken (it’s next to the tuna, yo)
1 can chicken broth (you’re seeing double in the photo below)
1 bag mixed vegetables (I used peas, carrots, and more green beans for good measure)
2 jars mushrooms (unless your DH is a freak-o and doesn’t like them, like mine)
1/4 cup rice (not pictured)
salt and pepper to taste (or if, like me, you can’t currently taste anything, then wait and add it once Jeff comes home and can taste it for you.  What’s Jeff doing in your home, anyway?  Is he delivering you a pizza?  Then why the heck are you making soup?  Weirdo.)

Dump it all in your crock pot (EXCEPT THE RICE!  GOOD LORD DON’T PUT THE RICE IN YET!!!), turn the setting onto “low” and let it simmer while you do more productive things, like sleeping, knitting, or adoring the cats.

About 45 minutes before you’re ready to eat, dump in the rice (THE RICE!  GOOD LORD PUT THE RICE IN NOW!!!).

If I’m up to it, I might make some bread to go with this.  I want to be nice to Jeff.  He deserves it for nursing me these past 5 days.  Even if he wouldn’t wear the little white uniform

I really really wish someone would give me a sourdough starter   I’ve always thought that would just be the coolest thing to have…

I made these yesterday:

I’ll probably eat them all:

Even though I *should* be watching my weight.  I need to.

Except this ugly little feller (why does Kraft only include 5 popsicle sticks in their caramel packages?):

I think I’ll ask Jeff to put him out of his appley misery.  Jeff’s kindhearted that way.

(To make these I just followed the directions on the package, except I added a couple tablespoons of peanut butter.  It turns ‘oh these are tasty’ to ‘OMG must eat them ALLLL!!!!!!’)

(this is not the aforepromised recipe for today)

When I was little, my parents had a ‘one bite rule’ at the dinner table:  for everything that was served, you had to try at least one bite of each thing.  My brother and I each got to choose one exception, though.  His was mushrooms, mine was LIMA BEANS. I HATED LIMA BEANS.  More than anything else in my life at that point (I had not yet heard of ‘pro-life’ and No Child Left Behind was over a decade away, so yeah–lima beans it was).

Fast forward 15 years…last week I was babysitting two of my usual girls, and their mom had fixed them lima beans for dinner.  While convincing them to eat their beans, I took a small bowlfull for myself (see what I’ll do in the name of childcare?).  To my shock and amazement, though–I *liked* the lil’ fuckers!  (the beans, not the girls.  I already knew I liked the girls ).  It was as if an entire pillar of my personality had shattered in an instant.  The next day I went and bought a can of my own, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke:

Nope, it’s official.  I love lima beans.  So I went and bought four more cans, to make up for lost time…

NEXT!

We were in HyVee and I decided to be a smartass when Jeff asked for a ‘tie’ for the bag of peaches, so I did this:

a tie tie!  Oh, Carrot Top would be proud.  See why I’m insufferable to live with?

NEXT!

As if I needed another reason to love Jeff (and for you all to love him too!), I thought I’d share one of the ‘little things’ he does for me.  But first, we need to take another trip into my pensieve…

Last year, when we were living in our first apartment (a big ol’ apartment building, as opposed to our current house-carved-into-apartments), Jeff would go outside to smoke at night while I was sleeping (y’know we’ve always kept pretty different hours).  One night I woke up while he was outside, and in my sleepy delirium I couldn’t figure out where he was.  He came inside after his 3-minute smoke break to see me freaking out, calling his cell phone over and over.  A similar thig happened at our current place, when he went out to buy cigarettes after I’d gone to bed.

Not taking any chances anymore, this is what I found the other day:

Close-up:

“Getting cigarettes, be right back.  Love, Jeff.”

He now knows how to prevent a full-blown Katie paraoid freak-out!

NEXT!

Jess gave me an empty giant pickle jar.  So I decided to do my own ghetto fiberlicious:

Best. Fake. Pickles. Ever.

Yum!

NEXT!

Two of my loves:

NEXT!

Numnums!  Rice krispie treats, only with generic-brand Golden Grahams instead of rice krispies.  Que delicioso!

I highly recommend them