Soup to Dutts

The other day, Tom asked me what Christmas goodie I'm making this week. I thought it was kind of a weird question at first, but then it occurred to me that I've made at least one seasonal-flavored treat every week since the start of the Christmas season. So, in the spirit of the season, I've decided to list them and tell the story behind each one. The week after Thanksgiving, neither Tom nor I had very much going on in the way of work. Tom had finals to work on, but I was bored out of my mind. So about halfway through the week, I pulled up Allrecipes.com and tried to find something to bake with ingredients we already had at home, and I came across a recipe for cinnamon cupcakes. These were awesome, and so simple. Actually, I did end up sending Tom out for one ingredient: frosting. :) The recipe made a huge batch, so we froze them and thawed them out a few days later to take to small group. Every year, the ladies in our church do a gift exchange. Each person brings eight i

I have a complicated relationship with bell peppers. When I was a kid, they were pretty much the one thing I refused to eat. Actually, I wasn't crazy about vegetables in general, but bell peppers were the worst. They were bitter and always seemed to set my mouth on fire. What's to like about that? So I had to laugh when I realized that I'd made three different things with bell peppers just in one week. Here's the first one. Tom had been craving cornbread and chili, so I decided to make that. Usually my chili is pretty simple: ground turkey or beef, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, maybe a little onion, and some seasonings. I figured some bell peppers could only improve it. This was by far the best chili I've ever made, and the best part was that it was also the most convenient. In the past, I had always stressed over the seasonings. That was before I discovered chili beans and chili-ready tomatoes. What amazing inventions! These were already packed with chili powd

Notice that I used a plural? That's because we have not one, but two Crock-Pots. When Tom and I got married, we got one from each of our mothers, and that is just fine with me. What's not to love about a slow cooker? You throw a bunch of food in and turn a dial, and a few hours later you have a delicious meal. It's a magical thing. And tonight, I broke out both of them. For this week's dinners, we're trying to use up things we already had at home instead of buying a ton of groceries. One of these things was a package of country-style ribs that had been sitting in the freezer for at least a couple of weeks. Now, I've never worked with country-style ribs. Before I got them, I didn't know such a thing existed. But what I do know is that just about any meat comes out perfectly when it's cooked in a slow cooker. So I put them in with some chicken broth and some salt and pepper, and I turned it on High (because the ribs were still pretty frozen) for about four

I attempted a roast chicken for dinner tonight, maybe the fanciest-sounding thing I've ever cooked completely by myself. I had been thinking all week about how to prepare this little beauty, but I figured that, for my first time, the safest route would be to follow the instructions on the wrapper. First step: remove the neck and giblets. OK, easy enough. I had watched my mom prepare enough Thanksgiving turkeys to know that was no big deal. (You know, I always wondered about that, though. They cut the bird's neck off, put it inside the bird, and then tell you to take it out ? Weird.) So I cut the package open from the bottom, and... What...? They're loose?!?!!? The giblets were just sitting there, hanging out of the...well, bottom. So I picked up the whole thing, turned it upside down, and let them all fall out in big, squishy chunks. Gross! But wait a minute...where was the neck? It didn't fall out with the giblets, so I took a peek inside (wow, this poor chicken was v

Made my first attempt at hummus this evening. My husband and I had some extra pita bread (from some awesome chicken gyros he made the other night), so I figured this was a good opportunity. We don't make a habit of shopping at high-end grocery stores, so my first concern was not being able to find tahini at good ol' Wal-Mart. Naturally, it was nowhere to be found. No big deal; I had seen it made without tahini before...in fact, to be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure what tahini's role is when it comes to hummus. While at the store, we did pick up chickpeas, olive oil, and a jar of roasted red pepper (no marinade, just straight-up salt water). Concern #2 was the fact that we are without a food processor. Again, no biggie; the only reason I could foresee a food processor coming in handy for this was to drizzle olive oil through that little spout at the top, and a blender could be used the same way just as easily. The only problem was that our blender was in the di