I’m cooking

I assumed everyone probably already knew about Mexican Casserole because it was one of the first things I ever learned how to cook other than Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper.

I adore this recipe because it’s easy. Plus, I always have all these ingredients on hand so when I realize it’s 5:30 and I’ve spent all day doing other productive things, such as picking out the right shade of polish to paint my toes, it’s a great last minute solution.

Mexican Casserole

Brown beef and onions. Drain grease. Add beans, soup, Rotel, salt, chili powder and simmer for 10 minutes. Line greased casserole dish with chips and half of cheese. Spoon half of beef mixture on top of chips. Repeat layers. Sprinkle more cheese on top. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes.

I usually serve this with a side of guacamole and flour tortillas. Unless the avocadoes I bought on Monday aren’t ripe, in which case I just serve it with Zantac.

So I really meant to have this recipe up by around noon today, but Caroline woke up around 5 a.m. holding her right ear and telling me it hurt. Of course that led to a visit to the pediatrician to confirm the ear infection and get a prescription for antibiotics.

Then, we dropped off the prescription at HEB and ran to Hollywood Video to rent a few movies in a futile attempt to keep her fairly quiet and calm for the rest of the day. Of course as we were in Hollywood Video and she was jumping from side to side, I told her she needed to keep it low-key.

She said, “Low-key? I don’t know what that means.”

Don’t I know it, baby girl.

We picked out a few movies and headed back to HEB to pick up our prescriptions. By this time her ear was really bothering her again and she actually wanted me to carry her in the store and kept her head on my shoulder.

This has never happened in the history of the universe.

I carried her up to the pharmacy counter where they informed me that because their computers were down, they couldn’t give us our prescriptions even though I could see them sitting right there on the counter.

Frustration, thy name is modern technology.

There is nothing like holding your 37 pound, whimpering child while being told you can’t have the medicine that will make her feel better. I had to pull out my Shirley McClain impression and beg them to, at the very least, give me the ear-numbing drops.

Finally, they gave us all our medications. We came home, got medicated, and have spent much of the afternoon lying in my bed watching “Muppets Treasure Island”. A true cinematic classic.

All that to say, Hey! Here’s the recipe for Chocolate Chip Brownies, and all y’all had to do was read my tale of gloom and despair to get it.

Chocolate Chip Brownies/Cookies (it can be either, it has multiple personalities much like Shirley McClain has had multiple lives)

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, and dry ingredients. Do not blow in the flour unless you would like to spend the next hour cleaning up the powdery residue. Add oats and chocolate chips. Bake in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish at 350 for 25 minutes. Or for cookies, drop by tablespoonfuls on lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

And let me just say, if there has ever been a 24 hour period that I’ve been thankful to have these on hand, today is that day.

I realize it’s a little late to post the Eggnog Recipe. At this point, I’m sure most of us are nogged out.

Not to mention coming to the sober realization that the holidays are over and thus, time to pay the cream-cheese-and-four-sticks-of-butter-in-every-recipe piper.

However, several of y’all asked for it and I’m going to go ahead and post it because there may be some of y’all out there who will throw caution to the wind and have one last fat-filled fling before the New Year’s Resolutions kick in.

And, if after you make it, you can’t stop drinking it, then you can do what P usually does and dump the rest of it down the drain.

Eggnog is his kryptonite.

Anyway, it’s also good time to let you know that I’ve created a separate page entirely devoted to all the recipes I have ever posted. That way if you wake up in the night and can’t sleep for wondering how on earth I make my crawfish etouffee, then there’s a quick and easy way to get that information.

Just click on the link under the About Me section that says, appropriately enough, “Recipes”.

I am so clever.

Homemade Eggnog

I finally managed to make the chocolate ice box pudding. It really shouldn’t have taken me this long to get it all together, especially since it’s the only contribution I’ll be making to Thanksgiving dinner.

I went to the grocery store last Wednesday with my goal being that I wouldn’t have to return to the store until after Thanksgiving. Grocery shopping right before Thanksgiving is like going to a bar on New Year’s Eve. You have to deal with tons of amateurs who have no idea what they are doing.

However, while I was gone this weekend, P informed me that a six foot rat had gotten into my Ghiradelli chocolate bars and that they would need to be replaced. The rat was actually nice enough to go to the store and buy new chocolate, but we ended up running out of other essential items such as toilet paper and powdered sugar. And we have to have powdered sugar.

Anyway, after our trip to HEB this morning, Caroline and I were ready to make the chocolate ice box pudding.

And since I want y’all to have a lovely Thanksgiving, I will share the recipe. Use this information carefully. Once y’all try this you may never be the same.

Chocolate Ice Box Pudding

The Diet Coke with Lime is completely optional and probably not really recommended.

8 oz. of semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup water
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 packages of ladyfingers

Here’s Caroline with the chocolate. If she had been home on Saturday I have no doubt that she would have served as an accomplice to the six foot rat that ate the chocolate.

This is AJ showing Caroline how to eat the powdered sugar right out of the pan. It was really helpful.

This is the mess I made on the stove when I decided to sling hot butter and powdered sugar everywhere. Tomorrow I will give thanks that at the moment the hot butter hit my hand I managed to not yell any profanities.

Here’s the inside of the cabinet where I keep all my silver serving pieces. Please note that they are all neatly wrapped in silvercloth and stored in Ziploc bags. I am very proud of this because it is the only area of my life in which I am this organized.

However, it still took me 15 minutes to find my medium sized Revere bowl in spite of it being labeled “Medium Sized Revere Bowl”.

I don’t know why.

These are the ladyfingers. It’s a very complicated recipe.

Here they are lining the Revere bowl. This is a crucial step in the process. You must ensure that you have the proper pudding to ladyfinger ratio or Thanksgiving will be RUINED.

Here is the finished masterpiece. Don’t you think Jenni and DeAnna would have been completely okay with the whole Brad dumping them thing if they’d had a bowl of this to self-medicate?

Come to mama.

Caroline insisted that she lick the spatula. And the bowl. And the spoon.

The good news is I don’t plan on washing her face, so tomorrow she can just eat whatever is leftover.

She obviously has no self-control where chocolate is concerned. I don’t know where she gets it.

And I don’t know whose hand that is.