whoa. LOL — you gotta watch the whole thing…the end…well, it is hilarious!

Oh nano, how I have missed you so…For two years, your tunes have been absent from my world…how could I have not known you have been hiding in my coat pocket all this time. I am sure you gave up hope long ago, but thanks to a cleaning streak which included cleaning out the coat closet and wondering what that hunk of something was in the pocket of my red jacket…we are together again. What joy…what bliss…and now that I have charged you, it is time for us to make music again.

Our Sunday began with some great fun as we headed out to the Dell Diamond to support our friends, the Zavalas, at the MS Walk…Our team was big with 27 people (including some kiddos) and we had a great time walking, talking, being serenaded by Elvis (you never know what you are going to experience these days), and some good food to celebrate finishing. Here’s a look at what happened…

(This first pic is courtesy of Just Me Right Now, the rest are up on Flickr here.)

I am what you call a non-mixer. I prefer food items on my plate to stay within their confined areas — fraternizing with other food items is not allowed. That is…except for one occasion. Pot Roast Night! On this  one occasion (I think it is mostly this one and no more), I just go crazy with the mixing and create my pot roast volcano. I must eat it the same way no matter what — which is easier if I am the one making it  and not eating out. The layers are mashed potatoes with a whole in the middle to fill up with the meat, then topped with peas, followed by graaaaaaavy! Sigh…it is a magnificent combo. I am sure I am not the only one who has weird food habits…so I accept this and enjoy the deliciousness.

Pot roast is super easy if you haven’t ever cooked one before. Here is my simple, no fail plan:

1. Get your crockpot out. (Umm…really this should already be out b/c come on people, it is Fall, and that means crockpot cooking!!)
2. Layer the bottom with one small bag of baby carrots, followed by one small onion that has been chopped up. (Don’t forget to put the onion in the freezer for about 5 minutes before you chop it  — the quick and easy “no tears” way of cutting up an onion.)
3. Plunk that big piece of pot roast (rump roast is the best cut for this in my opinion) down right there on the top. (I used a 3 pounder which cost about $11, but it will give you about 6-8 portions, which means a meal for 4 and lunches…or a meal for 2 and even more lunches…that is cheap cooking if you ask me!)
4. Pour in some water to cover just the carrots and onions. In my crockpot that was just to the bottom of the meat…I wouldn’t pour water in any higher than that as when the meat cooks, it causes more liquid to fill up in the pot — which you will use later for gravy.
5. Use one packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix and pour over the top of the meat and a little bit in the water - don’t worry about mixing or anything….just cover the meat and make sure you use the whole packet.
6. Finally, cook that bad boy up for about 10 hours… and it will be nice and tender. (Note: if you are using a smaller sized roast, it will take less time.)

You can do all this the night before and have the pot in the fridge and just set it on the machine in the morning so you don’t have to get up early to dink around with cutting onions, etc. When it is done, make up your veggies, mashed potatoes, and use the liquid in the pan to make gravy.

An easy gravy plan is to heat a skillet on high and get your juice in there and let it get really hot. Next whisk in some Wondra Flour (this is one of my favorite kitchen secrets…not that it is really a secret…but a lot of people don’t know about it)…You will do this for awhile, but watch it because the gravy thickens more as it cools so if you have to turn off the skillet a few times to check the consistency, then do it. I check probably about 2-3 times to make sure I am not over doing it. If you want to add a little milk that works too to make the gravy go a little bit farther.

Okay…this ends this segment of Cooking with Amanda…LOL — I didn’t mean for it to get so out of hand with such a long explanation, but there you have it. My point of the post was really about the mixing! hee hee.

Happy Friday!

As our most consumer driven holiday approaches…and its predecessor, Black Friday, where we spend, spend, spend on overabundance, consider this challenge.

Still not convinced?  Here are some more resources for you:

• Advent Conspiracy
• Rethinking Christmas for alternative gift ideas.
• Sew Mama Sew is going through a Handmade Holidays series in November.
• Last year’s Sew Mama Sew‘ s Handmade Holidays with even more ideas.
• Free Needle is a directory of sewing and needlecrafts tutorials and patterns.
• Take the Handmade Pledge and buy handmade presents.

There is so much more you can give people than just presents that you buy and let’s be honest, buying things for some people can just be soooo hard; sometimes it can feel like a waste of money. Think outside the box…be creative this year and challenge yourself to spend less and give more.

Consider it a chance to worship God with your giving whether it be money or time or something completely different!

So now that Fall has officially arrived (knock on wood), it is time for soup season to start.  This week, I made an oldy but a goody, Leeky, Creamy Chicken and Dumpling Stoup. I just can’t get enough of this soup…I think it had me at the leeks and gnocchi…

I make the recipe just slightly differently that the original. Here are my changes:
Chicken – You can get away with 2 good sized breasts if you cut it into small bite size pieces. If they are just medium sized, up the count to 3.
Chicken stock — I use two 32 oz. jugs instead of one.
Parsley — I don’t use it at all. I thought it changed the taste of the soup…I have made it both ways to see what the difference is and without is much better.
Dry Sherry — Don’t have this on hand so I never use it.
Smoked Paprika — Regular is fine…don’t worry about getting a special kind…not needed.

Enjoy!!

The latest Nooma Video, Tomato is premiering at Neue. It will be streaming in its entirety for the next 24 hours only. Head on over there, watch it!

Here is the description:

Do you ever find yourself telling a story in a certain way to make yourself look better?

We pick up at a very young age from the world around us that it’s about winning or impressing. We leark quite quickly that the way to get ahead is to take the path of ascent, to climb higher and higher.

We spend all this energy maintaining this false self, carefully protecting and preserving this image that we’ve created. Jesus invites that part of us to die. The part of us that always has to be right, always has to be better, always has to look good.

I thought it was really interesting how this video tied well into the Baggage stuff that we are going through here…Dropping the mask…being open and honest to admit fault and to let God change us and make us into something better. Another interesting read somewhat related is this post about “the value of relationships.”

Okay…watch, read, and then…discuss.

• At the grocery store yesterday, I realized I prefer my kiwis to be less hairy.
• After looking at myself in the mirror this weekend…well, at my earlobes to be exact, I have decided I need to begin sleeping on my right side more as my left lobe looks to be getting stretched from the constant pressure at night.
• Since returning from CO, I seem to be suffering from insomnia and sickness. Ugh. I will go to sleep just fine, but wake up at the ungodly hour of 4am and not be able to sleep after that. Then, on top of that, I have been feeling totally sick to my stomach…I just want to feel normal and rested. Know any good sleep cures?
• Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day! (At least on a day when I don’t want to slightly, sort of, kind of be productive…)
• Jeremy brought back an ‘urn’ from India and put it on my desk…I feel like I am sitting here with someone’s dead Aunt’s ashes or something…
• This weekend (even with both of us being sick and having to attend a friend’s wedding and other wedding related events over the entire weekend), we were able to clean out and organize 3 rooms in the house!! Yippee! I guess you could call it “Fall cleaning” instead of “Spring cleaning.”  Now for the next round this week and weekend…

  Two things one should never have to experience:

  1) Paying a $20 copay at the doctor’s office to find out the horrible pain you are having is because you are constipated.

  2) Seeing your mother naked as many times as I have over the past year. ha ha! Let’s just say cancer + surgery = a lot of naked time. (Although, she informed me that the number of times this year still does not equal the number of times when I was a kid…I guess you could call that parenting skills in “preparation”?!?!?)

What are two of your “should never have to experience” experiences?