My name is! What? My name is! Who?

Now I have "the real slim shady" stuck in my head! I guess that's better than "Call me maybe"! Now both are taking turns. Great. "Moves like Jagger" anyone?

Remember him? Wolfie?

Getting the nut out of his ball. Yes. I went there.

He's been with us now for more than 8 months!!! My, how time fly's when you're having fun! He makes us laugh all the time and is a true member of the family. A member that Ginger the cat would like to "play" with a bit more, but that's not gonna happen!
As he has become more and more comfortable with us, he's taught us a few things.
One, is that he has a name already. It's Snickers! He's told us, "My name is Snickers." More than once. He also will say things like, "Snickers thinks..." and then it's bird mumbles stuff that you can't understand the words of, but you can understand the emotion. It's precious.
He does an incredible impression of someone leaving a message on a answering machine - down to the beep and the ending bye bye! And he laughs at the most inappropriate times during movies.

The other night while we were watching a movie, he said, "Snickers is a girl." There was no mistaking what we ALL heard. "Snickers is a girl". Well, we haven't had him sexed (it's a DNA test) and as the ratio of female to male was heavy on the girly side in the house, so we decided he would be a boy type. So, unless he lays an egg, Snickers will be called him. I hope he doesn't mind, and if he does, I'm positive he will tell us!

Here's a video of Snickers and Jenda, enjoying their time together! Lots of kisses and lalalala's!

Last week, I made a new batch of food for him. It's really, really tasty! Like, with REAL food and flavors! This batch is a combination of an all organic mix of sprouted adzuki, mung, lentils, amaranth, quinoa, spelt (wheatberries), two other grains I can't remember. Green/red/orange peppers, garnet sweet potato's, kale, dandelion greens, zucchini, pineapple, broccoli, jalapeno, Anaheim pepper and I know there's at least two other veggies I can't recall.

See? Doesn't that look good?

Last night we had corn on the cob.

He likes his corn cooked on the grill, and his beets (red and not golden, thank you very much) roasted, not boiled.

There's no nuts in those balls, so he's ignoring them.

And this is how you eat a grape. Turns out they DO taste better when you're upside down!

Upside Down German Chocolate Cake

MMMMMMMMMM. Cake. Or, as the Snickers Wolfie Simonsen would say, mmmMMMmmm!, with a cute tilt of the head. Don't believe me? Watch THIS.

My point is - who doesn't like cake? Especially THIS cake!

From scratch. No lie.

This kinda thing isn't a normal occurence in our house. I made this for Brad for Father's Day. It's his favorite, and you couldn't ask, hope or pray for a better Dad than him, so it was well worth the effort!

So one day I was looking at Pinterest, like I do, and saw a scrumptious picture of said cake. I clicked through only to find that whomever had originally pinned the image (not the one above, that's MY cake!) did it from a members only forum. I was devestated. OK, not really, but I commented on the pin and then some helpful soul replied that it was on Allrecipes.com. What's funny is that I was ON Allrecipes.com at that very moment (but wasn't looking for cake).

So here is the recipe! It isn't hard, but does dirty up a lot of dishes. Totally worth it.

German Chocolate Upside Down Cake - or -
Upside Down German Chocolate Cake. Whatever
1 1/4 cups water

1/4 cup butter 

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup flaked coconut

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 cup chopped walnuts

4 (1 ounce) squares German sweet chocolate

1/2 cup water

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. (Thanks Pinterest! I just learned how to do that little degree thingy!) 
2. In a sauce pan, combine 1 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup butter or margarine. Heat until butter melts, then stir in brown sugar and coconut. Pour into ungreased 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle marshmallows and nuts over top. set aside. 

The top. Or bottom. I guess it depends on your perspective and time of reference.

              

1. For the cake: in a saucepan over low heat, combine chocolate with 1/2 cup water. Heat, stirring, until chocolate is melted. Remove from heat.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, soda and salt. Add sour cream, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, vanilla and eggs. Add chocolate mixture and beat 3 minutes. Carefully spoon batter over coconut marshmallow mixture in pan. 

Yummy, delicious cake batter...

              

1. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Place pan on foil or cookie sheet to guard against spillage. 

I had no spillage to guard against.

I let it cool completely, and then we just cut and flipped it over when it was served. Why risk jacking up an entire cake and all of the effort you put into it, just to have a top that looked better than the picture above? The flavor? Dreamy. Pretty much the best cake I've ever made, or tasted.
              

Quick Chicken Enchiladas

mmmm, left overs!!!

You know you liked dinner when you want the leftovers for breakfast the next morning!

 Being the lazy cook that I am, I'm always looking for quicker ways to make good food. Here's my latest success.

Ingredients:
14 oz Can of Chicken Breast, drained, with the juice going to the begging pets

Can of beans (Black or Pinto Chili beans), drained

Can of Green Enchilada Sauce

Large Can of Red Enchilada Sauce

Packet of Enchilada Seasoning
Small Can of Diced Green Chilies

2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese (separated into two 1 Cup potions)

Tortilla's (the whole wheat flour ones are really good!)

Optional toppings:
Green Onions, Cilantro, Sour cream, salsa, hot sauce - you know, the normal toppings.

Preheat oven to 350, spray a 9x13 baking dish. In a large bowl, mix everything, except for the tortilla's,  one cup of cheddar and the red enchilada sauce.  Once mixed, spoon it into a tortilla, roll and place face down in your dish. Pour the Red Enchilada sauce over all of your rolled tortillas, trying not to leave any exposed areas of tortillas.

Bake for 45 minutes or so, until it's bubbling everywhere. Add the remaining cheddar, and heat again until the cheese is gooey like you like it. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before enjoying!

If you do try this, let me know what you think!

Fall Comfort

I absolutely LOVE fall.
It means the return of football, cool weather and comfort food. Not that I've ever needed an excuse to cook comfort food, but it helps!

I made a roast the other day that was so good I didn't want to forget the recipe, so I submitted it to Allrecipes.com so I wouldn't forget it. They have NEVER published any of the recipes I've submitted. Frankly, I've stopped caring if they do or not. (I'm lying)

It's a combination of several different ones I've tried at different times, but this is what I'll be sticking with in the future. Even Jenda ate it. That says a lot.
So here it is!

PERFECT POT ROAST

3 to 4 lb Pot Roast
1 Envelope Onion Soup Mix
2 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 Cup Red wine
1 can Golden Mushroom Soup
water
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon corn starch

Directions

1. Place the onion soup mix, Worcestershire sauce, wine and soup in a crock pot large enough for your roast. Using your soup can, fill with water and add that to the mixture.
2. Stir to mix.
3. Liberally salt & pepper both sides of the roast and place in crock pot.
4. Flip roast over so it is coated on both sides.
5. Cook until the meat shreds easily. 8 to 9 hours on low.
6. When meat is finished, slowly stir 1 tablespoon of corn starch into 1/2 cup of water in small container. Slowly add that to the liquid in the crock pot while stirring. Replace lid for 15 minutes and serve.               

I made this with my mashed potato's and a salad, and it was beautiful.