Ok, Don't Drive

Well, as is typical with shows that I like, Drive has officially been canceled. I guess Denise was right to not get interested in the show. Oh well. I had enough TV shows as it was...

10,000 Chicken Recipes and Counting

Ok, so I've never counted how many chicken recipes I actually have but given my modest cookbook/magazine/card collection, I'm going to say that I'm the 1,000s for chicken recipes.

One of my more recent recipe acquisitions came from an unlikely (for me) source. I have always been mistrusting of food company's recipes (Kraft, Pillsbury, Campbells, etc). I don't know why. It makes sense that these people would have good recipes for their products but I just never try them. Somehow I ended up with a subscription to Kraft's magazine Food and Family (it's free and you can sign up for it and/or weekly emails on their website if you're interested: www.kraftfoods.com). This recipe appeared in two different issues, complete with comments from other consumers who all raved about it.

So, what the heck. I gave it a try. It is quite tasty and leftovers reheat pretty well. Since it's something I actually feel like eating now despite morning sickness, I figure that's a selling point for it too. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it. (D, this is already in your book.)

Buschetta Chicken Bake

1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained (I don't like big chunks of tomato so I use petite diced tomatoes)
1 pkg (6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced (or more, if you really love garlic like I do)
1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp dried basil (I don't ever measure - just sprinkle it on so the chicken is evenly sprinkled)1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (again, I don't measure this - just put on whatever looks good to you)
Preheat oven to 400. Place tomatoes in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix, water and garlic; stir just until stuffing mix is moistened. Set aside.

Place chicken in 13x9 baking dish; sprinkle with the basil and cheese. Top with stuffing mixture.

Bake 30 min or until chicken is cooked through.
This recipe can also be found on the back of the Stove Top Stuffing box.

Drive, Baby

Today I need to tell you about a new TV show called, Drive. It premiered on Sunday with 2 episodes and followed with a 3rd episode on Monday night. All I knew about this show was what my husband told me - it's Nathan Fillion driving. What more do you need than Nathan (from Firefly and Buffy)?

"But what's the show about?" I asked.
"It's an illegal, cross-country road race," my husband replied.
Sounds...um....thrilling. I'm not remotely interested, except that it's Nathan Fillion.

We recorded all the 3 hours and watched them last night. First off, I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the producers/writers is Tim Minear who was behind some of my old favorites - Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Wonderfalls. I have to say that the show immediately captured my interest. It is action-packed with a good bit of mystery. There are a lot of characters to follow - a la Lost. But I think they do a good job of introducing the characters and explaining why they are involved in this race. Also the dialogue is pretty good (which I can't say of too many shows - even the ones I watch regularly) - complete with the sort of quips we've come to expect from Buffy and Angel.

Granted, we're only 3 episodes in but if the shows continues to be this good....well, I'll probably get completely absorbed in it right before it gets canceled. So I'm asking you to watch at least 1 episode and see if you don't get hooked. Maybe it won't get canceled if enough people watch..... maybe. Monday nights at 8/7 PM on Fox. Let me know what you think!

Better than......

My mother-in-law had a birthday last week and I was asked to bring birthday cake. I know that she likes chocolate cake so I decided to make her a Better Than Sex cake. I know what you're thinking - it probably is completely inappropriate to make this for my mother-in-law. But it's SO good. I decided not to announce the name of the cake but I told her privately....fortunately she has a good sense of humor and wasn't mortified that I would make this cake.

I have tried a couple of variations and they are all good. So here's the recipe - from my memory! (Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures....so you'll just have to make it yourself to see what it looks like.)

Better-Than-Sex Cake (or Better-Than-? or Better-Than-Almost-Anything....some of the name variations I've run across)

1 German chocolate cake mix (Betty Crocker's is my favorite)
water, oil, eggs to make cake (according to package directions)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar (16-17 oz.) caramel, butterscotch or fudge ice cream topping
3 cups sweetened whipped cream - or 1 pkg. Cool Whip, thawed
1 pkg. toffee bits

Make cake according to package directions for a 9x13 pan. When the cake is finished baking, remove from oven and let it cool for about 15 minutes.

Poke holes in the top of the cake (not all the way through) about 1/2" with the handle of a wooden spoon (or with a long fork). Pour the sweetened condensed milk over all and let the milk soak into the cake. When the milk has been absorbed, pour the caramel topping evenly over the whole cake. Let the topping settle in as well. When completely cooled, cover the cake and refrigerate it at least 2 hours or overnight.

Frost cake with sweetened whipped cream and sprinkle toffee bits over all.

You'll have to decide for yourself if it really is better than sex....All I will say is that it IS pretty damn good.


Hilda (my husband's late grandmother)'s secret to making perfectly sweetened whipped cream: Chill a metal bowl and the beaters until they are nice and cold. Pour your cream into the bowl. Pour granulated sugar into the center of the bowl. When you can see a small peak of sugar poking through the cream in the center of the bowl, you have enough. Beat on medium - medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.

My Brush with Fame

My friend, Shawn, loves me now. I enabled him to meet his dreamgirl - Giada De Laurentiis. I happened to get an email about her book signing at our local Sur La Table store. There was no way Shawn was going to pass this up. We got to meet her and she signed her new book - Everyday Pasta. Yum yum!

Watch out!

I may be biased but I think my 18-month-old daughter is the sweetest little girl ever. She has her moments of insanity...but then who doesn't?

Recently she has been working on doors. Yesterday morning we were both in my bedroom - she was playing while I was getting dressed and ready for the day. She decided at one point to close the bedroom door but continued to hold onto the door and so smashed her finger in the process. She began to cry so naturally I ran to the door, opened it and then picked her up and hugged her. I wanted to look at her finger and see if it was really hurt. She must have been afraid that I was going to touch the hurt part because she suddenly started flailing her arms about. Unfortunately, I was holding her close to my face - in order to get a good look at the supposedly smashed finger. In the midst of the flailing, one of her fingernails caught me - right in the eye.

At this point, I am proud to say that I actually did remain fairly calm. I gently set her down and ran to the bathroom mirror to see if I was injured. I didn't see an injury (yes, I could still see). But I was crying now because I was in lots of pain. So I put in some "tears" that I keep on hand. That didn't really help....but it started feeling a little better after an hour.

In the afternoon though, when it was still hurting me, my sister and husband insisted that I go to the eye doctor. (Though she will deny it, my sister told me that if my cornea was scratched I might go blind.) So I went to the doctor and lo and behold...my cornea had a big scratch from the upper left corner of my eye down to almost the center. No wonder it hurt!

So, let this be a lesson to all mothers/aunts/visitors of one year olds. Do NOT let them near your face.

Ancient Chinese Secret

Now that Denise is back from her honeymoon and I have talked to her, the world can now know that I'm pg! As far as I know my due date is December 1. I don't go to the doctor for another 3 weeks so I suppose that date can change.

I have consulted the Chinese Gender Chart (big surprise for those who know me). This says that I'm having a boy. I really want a boy but I'm trying not to get too excited...it could be wrong. But I have to wait until July to find out the gender from an ultrasound. I hope I can wait that long....

In the meantime, we are beginning to clear out the office and get our bedroom ready to house our home office. Then we can start on the new baby's room. It's going to be a busy year!

As legend would have it, the Chinese Gender Chart was buried in a royal tomb over 700 years ago. Recently discovered, the chart has been used to predict the gender of an unborn child based on the mother's age and month of conception. Simply find the age of the mother at the time of conception on the chart and then follow across to the month the baby was conceived to find the predicted gender. - Copied from ivillage.com