Gray Hair and Barefoot Contessa's Chicken Mexican Soup

OK...Before I talk about my gray hair, I need to update you on my body's weird electrical field problem.  Since I diagnosed myself with the disease (I am a RN remember), I have had TWO more incidents since my last blog post.  The replacement computer at home has had two more BLUE screens that say something like dump program when it goes down.  Then at school on Wednesday, the power went out three times, and we had to go into a shelter in place which meant we had to hold the students in our classrooms so they would not be out in the hallways if the power went out again!!  Can you imagine that scenario?  I looked at my fellow teacher when the power went out and said "OK...I really think I caused this!  This is too weird.  There is not a cloud in the sky!"  She said "You DO NOT have anything wrong with you!"  Her tone of voice and weird suspicious look in her eye led me to believe that she really might think I do have something wrong with me.  I will keep you posted.

On to the gray hair.  I started graying in my 30's.  I will never forget when I first came face to face with this event in my life.  Little Food Police (she was about 10 or 11 at the time) was a member of a dance studio that loved to compete.  We were headed to Atlanta for one of the thousands of dance competitions she participated in.  I was exhausted from teaching school all week and proceeded to lay the front seat down to take a nap.  Little Food Police was in the back seat pretending to mind her own business.   I drift off to a beautiful wonderful sleep and begin dreaming.  In my dream, something is stinging my head like little bees or ants.  My RN side says "Uh oh something is wrong with your brain.  Maybe you are having a stroke!"  So I wake myself up to see if I can move all four of my extremities.  I can, but I am still feeling these little pricking sensations in my head.  I gather my wits and then realize that Little Food Police is pulling my hair out strand by strand.  I sat up and said "What do you think you are doing?"  She said "I am getting rid of all this gray hair for you Mom!"  Good grief!  I asked her how many she had pulled and she said "Twelve!"  Heaven help me, but I told her to keep going. 

I always said that I would never be one of "those" women who colors their hair.  Well, I lied like a dog.  The gray started growing in like a skunk's tail.  I had a stripe of gray down the middle of my head.  So, at first, my hairdresser parted my hair on another side so it would camoflauge the gray.  But it kept expanding its territory.  Then she uttered the words "I think you are going to have to color your hair!"  By then, I had changed my tune.  I said "Bring it on!"  I did not realize how expensive coloring your hair was though.  It was almost $100.00 each time I had to color and at the rate my gray was coming in, that was about every 6 weeks.  I started feeling guilty for spending the money. 

And then I remembered....Daddy had been coloring my mother's hair for years.  I had always thought how trusting she was to let Daddy, of all people, put chemicals on her head.  But her hair was always gorgeous except for the time her sister - my Aunt Susie - turned Mama's hair orange.  There was a big scene at the house that day.  Something happened with the peroxide I heard.  I started thinking if my Daddy can do this, my Husband Fred surely can.  I broached the subject with him stressing how much money he would save, and of course, he said he would try it.  Can I just say that he could have a second job as a cosmetologist.  He is good - so meticulous, so methodical.  The family now calls him "Chez Freeda".  We were at a friend's house one night and she said "I love your color!  Who does it?"  I responded "Oh Chez Freeda honey!"  She then asked "Would you mind telling me where she works?  I want to go to her!"  I couldn't stop laughing, and when I told her where Chez Freeda worked, I think she honestly was serious about him doing her hair.  I thought "Oh no Sister.  Get your own husband to do your hair!  This one is mine!"  HeeHee!

I now have to make an appointment with Chez Freeda to color my hair because he is so busy with the radio station, and I am not joking.  At the last appointment which is in the den on a stool with newspaper surrounding us, I asked him if the gray was still progressing throughout my hair.  And he responded "Yeah...It looks like it is really taking off!"  OK...I got steamed.  You refer to airplanes "taking off", "taking off" pounds, "taking off" on a vacation or even "taking off" from work but NEVER EVER use the phrase "taking off" in reference to your wife's gray hair.  He apologized, and I accepted it with the understanding that he will from now on lie like a dog when I ask that question.  I have an appointment tomorrow, by the way, with Chez Freeda.  I can't wait, and he better lie!

On to the recipe...It is the last recipe I am cooking out of Barefoot Contessa at Home.  It is her Mexican Chicken Soup, and it is good good Clark!  For those of you wondering who Clark is, it is Clark Griswold from the Christmas Vacation movie.  He has a dumb cousin Eddie who uses that phrase, and for some reason, I feel a need to always say that when something is good.  Oh, but I digress.  I will make this recipe again and again and again.  It has some of the best flavor in a soup that I have had in a long time besides Paula's Old Fashioned Vegetable Beef Soup.  It is a keeper.

You will need chicken breasts, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, chicken stock, whole tomatoes in puree, jalapeno pepper, cumin, coriander, cilantro and white corn tortillas.

Chop up 2 cups of onions and carrots and 1 cup of celery.  It seemed weird for carrots and celery to be in a Mexican soup but Barefoot knows what she is doing!  Saute the veggies in olive oil for 10 minutes.

Chop up 4 cloves of garlic and add to the vegetables after they have cooked for 10 minutes.  Cook the garlic for just 30 seconds.

Chop up a jalapeno pepper after removing the seeds and membrane.

You know how they always tell you to wash your hands after handling jalapenos.  Well, I guess I didn't, and I touched the inside of my conjunctiva (nurse term for lining of the eye).  I have never felt so much pain in my life.  I felt like I was going to throw up it hurt so bad.  I had to flush my eye out with water for 10 minutes.  It is still red!!  I have learned a valuable lesson today.

You also chop up some cilantro.  Publix did not have cilantro, but they did have this new product in a bag called Culantro.  It is a hybrid that supposedly lasts longer in the fridge and tolerates heat better.  It tastes just like Cilantro.  That is so weird to me.

This is what it looks like.  Strange.  What is also strange is that in order to taste cilantro properly, you have to have a specific gene.  If you don't have the gene, it tastes like soap.  How weird is that?!  Thanks Kristey Fry and Allie Shelton for enlightening me on that subject.  I don't know if you have to have a gene for Culantro though!!

You also cut up 6 corn tortillas into strips.  These smelled so good!

You add the tomatoes, chicken stock, jalapeno, cilantro/culantro, cumin, coriander and torillas to the veggies and simmer for 25 minutes.  When that has cooked, you add the chicken and salt and pepper for taste. 

When done, you ladle it into a bowl and top with broken tortilla chips, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and slices of avocado.  It is sooooooooooooooo good!  I want some more right now!

Here is the recipe....

Mexican Chicken Soup

Barefoot Contessa at Home

4 chicken breasts

2 c chopped onions

1 c chopped celery

2 c chopped carrots

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

2 1/2 quarts chicken stock

1 (28 oz) can whole tomatoes in puree, crushed

2 - 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced  (I used just one)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/4-1/2 c chopped fresh cilantro (Culantro)

6 (6-in) corn tortillas

Toppings:  Sliced avocado, sour cream, Cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips

Rub the chicken breasts with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast the chicken at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Cover and set aside.

Heat 3 tbs olive oil in a large pot.  Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, cilantro if using, and the tortilla strips.  Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.  Add the shredded chicken and season to taste.  Serve the soup toppeds with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, Cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla chips.

Now go have a great day!!

Back to School Dreams and Barefoot Contessa's Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Panini

Yes dear friends...  I have gone back to school.  Let me update you first though on my weird electrical field.  Since posting about that problem, I have had 3 more things happen to me demonstrating that something is wrong with me.  Driving home from school one day a couple of weeks ago, I ran into the worst thunderstorm ever.  Lightning was flashing and popping so close to the car that I was actually seeing purple afterimages.  Oh my!!  I just kept thinking it would strike me because of my weird electrical field.  It didn't though thank goodness.  That same week, another monitor at school went out PLUS the laptop that we replaced the old computer with at home has gone to blue screen twice this week.  I am scared!!  Now every time, something weird happens I think it has to be me.  I will keep you updated.  We need to start keeping score.

This will be my nineteenth year in the classroom.  The one common thread that has run through these nineteen years of teaching is that I always have what I call "My Back-to-School" dreams usually about a couple of weeks prior to school starting.  They come in one of three categories.  The first category is the natural disaster dream.  It usually comes in the form of a tornado that I am always running away from but thankfully, it never catches me.  One of my fellow teachers and I were talking about this dream phenomenon, and she said she just had one about a flash flood coming under her front door and coming into the house.  I am not a dream expert but I would say that this type of dream signifies impending doom.  Hmmm......

The second category is the one where you the teacher are never prepared for class.  I have had dreams where I forgot to run off tests, forgot to do my Powerpoint lecture, forgot to buy the equipment for my lab, and even forgot to go to class, didn't call in sick and the students went wild.  UGH!!!!

The third category is the one where the students are always horrible and heinous!!!  I have had dreams where the students were all throwing up on the floor, they refused to do their work and starting playing on YouTube and were pulling up nasty music videos to watch and dance provocatively to, and of course, the Principal always walks into the room at that exact moment.  This is the category of dream my brain and psyche have chosen for me to experience this year.  Here is the setup.  You know I teach a class for students who want to go into the medical field. One aspect of the class is to take them on field trips to tour various healthcare facilities.  Well......in this dream, we are touring a hospital.  We arrive at the hospital, and the hospital representative gets us in a group and tells us that we no longer have a tour guide.  Uh oh!!!  We have to give the tour ourselves.  I have never been here before but oh well I can manage!!  I get my group of students together, and I notice that they have all worn their bathing suits for the trip.  I proceed to ask them "What in the world were you thinking?  This is not professional!" and they reply "You told us to wear our bathing suits Mrs. Holland!"  Oh no I didn't.  I would not do that even in a stupid dream.  Now I have to find them clothes to cover up so we can go on our tour.  As we are looking for the cover-ups, one student falls and hits her head on the corner of a table.  She is bleeding profusely, and everyone is hovering around looking at her and not offering any assistance.  (This has actually happened three times on field trips - not the bleeding profusely part.  One student fell down a flight of stairs but was remarkably OK, and another student fell up a flight of stairs and hurt her knee.  I myself actually fell climbing into the bus for a field trip, and the students all laughed at me.  Grrr....).  Back to the dream or is it a dream???  I tell the students to leave and go outside and look around so I can tend to the hurt student.  I look outside to check on them, and they are all playing with POLAR BEARS!!!!  I proceed to drag the hurt student along the floor,  get into a car and go driving around the hospital looking for someone to help us.  Mercifully I woke up.  What would a dream expert say about that one?   I will let you know if I have anymore.  There is still time.  It is funny but once school starts, the dreams stop.  Interesting.......

Anyway, on to the recipe.  We are still cooking out of Barefoot Contessa at Home, and the game chose "Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Panini".  Yummmmm...

Here is what you will need...Good Bread which Barefoot always calls for (This turned out not to be good bread...will explain later), Mozzarella Cheese Slices, Tomatoes, and Prepared Pesto plus salt and pepper.

Core your tomato.

Slice your tomatoes pretty thick.  These are some tomatoes from our Community Supported Agriculture membership.  The produce has been wonderful this year.

Spread the pesto on the both slices of the bread.

Add the mozarella cheese slices.

Then add your tomatoes.  YUM!!

Barefoot tells you to slather the bread with butter but I obeyed the Food Police and use the I Cannot Believe it is Butter Spray.  You will never miss the butter, and I am not just trying to make Food Police happy by saying that.

Husband Fred gave me The Griddler for Christmas one year (Woohoo...Just kidding...I really was excited!).  You can change out the plates to either a grill or flat griddle.  But you can probably just do them in a skillet.

Here is the finished product.  The panini was a little mushy with the regular bread.  Next time I do these, I will get some thicker sliced bread from the Bakery!!  These were absolutely wonderful though as is!!  They would be great for a lunch but were also hearty enough for dinner.  Plus it allows you to use up your produce from your garden.

Here is your recipe...

Barefoot Contessa at Home

Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Panini

2 large ripe tomatoes
1 (16 ounce) ball of fresh mozzarella - I used slices.
12 slices bakery white bread, sliced thick
About 1 cup prepared peso - I did not use nearly this much.
Kosher salt
Unsalted butter, at room temperature - I used Butter Spray.

Preheat a panini grill machine.
Core the tomatoes and slice the tomatoes and mozzarella 1/4-in thick
Spread each slice of bread with pesto.  Place a layer of mozzarella on halfof the bread and cover with a layer of tomato.  Sprinkle the tomato with salt.  Place the remaining slices of bread, pesto side down, on top.  Spread the topa nd bottom of each sandwich with butter.  Grill the sandwiches in batches on the panini grill for 2-3 minutes, until the mozzarella starts to ooze.  Cut each sandwich in half and serve warm.

Now go have a great day!!

My Weird Electrical Field and Barefoot Contessa's Broccolini and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Oh goodness...Things have been happening in my little universe these last few weeks that have caused me to believe that I have an unusual weird electrical field that surrounds my body.  My electrons, neutrons, and protons must be in major disarray.  Maybe it is the menopause!! 

It all started when we went on vacation, and the two waterspouts formed because of my weird electrical field just to torment me and seek me out - "The Eeny Meeny Miny Mo Cook" -- not the other 5000 people on the island just me!!!  We were without electricity for 2 days.  AGH!!  We recover from that one and the first week we are home from vacation, I am relaxing at home and up blows one of those infamous Pop-up thunderstorms that we experience around here.  The next thing I know I see a bright flash of light and hear the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard in my whole life.  I jump out of my skin and get up to look to see if the house is on fire.  Thank goodness it was not, but because of my weird electrical field, Husband Fred says that the lightning travelled in the house through the cable cord seeking the weird electrical field and murdered our computer, printer, TV, and router.  Oh goodness it is my fault!!! 

Later that same week, he brought home a picture he had taken of where another lightning strike actually blew a hole in his antenna at his Decatur radio station.  He thrust the picture in my face and was looking at me in an accusing manner.  I thought "Wait a minute Buddy.  No way is this one the fault of my weird electrical field!"  Then and I am not kidding y'all (Cue The Twilight Zone music),  I remember that I had gone to Hartselle that very day to visit a friend, and I drove by Decatur on I-65.  It was storming at the time.  It was my fault.  The lightning was seeking my weird electrical field out but hit his radio station instead.  Can you believe it? 

THEN.......a couple of weeks later, I am getting ready to go to work, and I plug in my curling iron and guess what???  It does not heat up.  The outlet is dead.  Husband Fred checked the breaker and did some other tests, and stated that it has gone to Outlet Heaven.  He looks at me with a weird stare and then runs like the wind to get out of the house and away from me.  (He was late for work!)  I got chill bumps on my arms.  I am thinking now the weird electrical field is coming out of my body and wreaking havoc in my little universe. I get in the car, and it cranks thank goodness.  I get to work with flat nasty hair because of no curling iron, and I walk in my classroom, and (Cue The Twilight Zone Music Yet Again), there sits my computer on the desk staring at me.  It is showing the Blue Screen of Death.  It will not reboot or do anything.  I got scared.  I looked at my hands to see if I could see anything coming out of them.  In my haste, I failed to tell you that the week before, the monitor that was hooked to that very computer died.  GOOD GRIEF!!!!  What is it? I even did some Internet research on weird electrical fields coming out of a human's body, but I found nothing.  I am the only person in the world afflicted with this problem.

Life goes on, and nothing happens of late.  I go to get my hair cut, and I am telling my hairdresser this story, and when it is time to blow dry my hair, she looks scared and frightened.  It looks like her hands are shaking.  She said "I honestly hope this thing comes on!"  Are you kidding me?  I have become a weird electrical field leper.  I would love to tell you that the dryer did not come on for dramatic effect, but that would be a bald-faced lie!!  It came on, and we each muttered under our breath "Thank goodness!"  I will keep you updated on my condition.

Now on to the recipe.  I have chosen the next cookbook to be Barefoot Contessa at Home.  Barefoot Contessa is not actually the author's name.  Her name is Ina Garten, and Barefoot Contessa was the name of the specialty food store that she owned for several years in the Hamptons of New York.  She has a show on the Food Network, and believe me,  just about anything she cooks or bakes or prepares is 5 stars.  I love her food.  So.....the Game chose as the recipe "Broccolini and Balsamic Vinaigrette".  Again, I wanted to cheat but I did not.  I had never had Broccolini before.  So let's get started...

Here is the lovely picture of the cookbook.

You will need broccolini (she defines this as baby broccoli), olive oil (she calls for "Good" olive oil (????), balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, black pepper, and a lemon.

I forgot to take a picture of boiling the broccolini.  Boo!!  It must be the weird electrical field.  While it is boiling away though, you whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt and the pepper.  

You drain the broccolini, place it in a large bowl, add the vinaigrette, and finish with a spash of fresh lemon.  You can serve it warm or cold.

 I served it with a nice grilled ribeye steak (Yes Food Police...I ate a steak and then I took 2 of my Omega-3 Fish Oil Pills.  They went great with the meal!! HAHA!!) and a baked potato.  When Husband Fred and I sat down to eat dinner, the greatest compliment he could ever pay me was to start with the brocollini and not the steak.  He loved it.  It is delicious.  It does not have the "burpy" taste of broccoli.  It has a much lighter taste.  I will definitely prepare this one again.  Yea for the game.  I would have never tried this if not for it!

Here is your recipe---

Barefoot Contessa at Home

Broccolini and Balsamic Vinaigrette

4 bunches of broccolini (I used 2 bunches)

Kosher salt

1/4 c good olive oil

1 1/2 tbs balsamic vineagar

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon

In a large pot, bring 8 cups of water and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil.  Remove and discard the bottom third of the broccolini stems.  If some stems are very thick, cut them in half lengthwise.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper.  When the water comes to a full boil, add the broccolini, return to a boil, and cook over high heat for 2 minutes or until the stems are just tender.  Drain well and place in a large bowl.  Pour enough dressing over the broccolini to moisten and toss well.  Splash with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and serve warm or cold.

Now go have a great day!!!