When in doubt, smile.

I just added a bunch of recipes to the site .. and a new category ‘Recipes’ .. enjoy!

• 1 small sweet potato, cut into “French fry” sticks
• 1/2 teaspoon canola oil
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika, to taste
• Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In medium bowl, toss sweet potato sticks with oil and seasonings. Put sticks in baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.

Makes 1 serving

• 1 day old white rice (about a quart)
• 1 egg
• 3 Scallions chopped
• 1/4 lb of cooked pork, cut in small pieces

1. 2-3 Tbs peanut oil into hot wok
2. Add rice (about 1/2-3/4 of quart)
3. Coat and cook rice
4. Wisk egg and drizzle over rice
5. Mix well (should look like scrambled egg)
6. Add pork and mix
7. Sprinkle soy sauce to taste (judge by color) don’t overdue
8. Sprinkle green onion, mix and serve

• 2 1-lb can pinto beans
• 1-2 large onion chopped
• 1 green pepper chopped
• 1 lb ground beef (turkey)
• 2 lb can toms (chop your self and reserve liquid)
• 1 8 oz can tom sauce
• 1 1/2 Tbs chili powder (I use 3)
• 1 1/2 tps salt (I use less or none if toms & sauce have salt in them)
• 1 bay leaf
• A pinch of cumin seeds (optional, I like it)

Brown onion, pepper and beef add the rest (including reserved liquid) except for beans simmer 1 hour, add beans simmer 1/2 hour more.

• 6 Tbs shortening (I use 3 Tbs pnut oil)
• 3 lb beef chuck, round, or rump, cut in 1.5 inch cubes (I use 1.5 to 2 lbs)
• 2 med onions coarsely chopped
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 bouillon cubes (sometimes I use canned beef broth or even consommé)
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped (we put 2)
• 2 Tbs finely chopped parsley (1 tbs dried)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 tsp dried thyme
• 1 1/2 Tbs salt (I use less)
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 6 med potatoes (3)
• 6 med carrots (3)
• 10 small white onions (whatever we can find, usually yellow, 3)
• 3 stalks celery
• 2 med peppers (1 usually and sometimes a combo of red & yellow too)
• 2 med toms; or 1 can 8 oz. Toms undrained

1. Over medium heat, slowly heat shortening in Dutch oven. In it brown meat cubes well, turning on al sides. Remove, and set aside.
2. In Dutch oven sautée onions until tender.
3. Return meat to pan; add 4 cups water, the wine, bouillon cubes, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper, Cover; simmer 1.5 hours or until just tender.
4. Meanwhile, prepare veggies: Peel potatoes and carrots; halve. Peel onions. Cut celery in 3-inch sections. Remove seeds and ribs from peppers; cut in chunks. Quarter fresh toms.
5. When meat has cooked 1.5 hours, add potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery. Cook 1 hour. Or until meat and veggies are tender.
6. Twenty minutes before end of cooking time add peppers and tomatoes.
7. This is where I add the dumplings after the stew returns to a boil after adding peppers and toms. The recipe is on the Bisquick box.

Simple, get a pound+ of ground beef (I like more than a pound, about 1.25lb) Brown in frying pan, add burrito seasoning. We use El Rio, hard to find but good. If you can’t find, Taco seasoning works. Follow instructions on package. When it starts to boil add 1/2 a can of refried beans, stir in and make smooth. Cook for ten minutes (per instructions) this helps the filling get firm. Pre heat oven to 350

Get Burrito size flour tortilla, spoon about 3-4 tablespoons in the lower half and roll once, fold in the sides and finish rolling. Continue until finished with mixture. Put in pan, cover with salsa and put in oven for about 6 minutes, remove and cover with cheese (Mexican mix)

Set oven to broil. Meanwhile chop some lettuce, green onions, whatever other toppings you want. Place cheese covered burritos in oven and watch the cheese melt, remove when ever you feel the cheese is the way you like it. Me, I like to let it get brown edges.

Remove and serve with sour cream (Yum), guacamole is good also, lettuce and onions.

This is one of my favorite party snack foods to make. Its fantastic served in a bread bowl!

• 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained
• 1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. In a blender or food processor, place artichoke hearts, Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese and garlic . Pulse until chopped, but not ground. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together spinach, heavy cream, sour cream and mozzarella cheese. Stir in artichoke mixture. Spoon into prepared baking dish.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Sean and I are falling back into our pre-hurricane routines .. getting work done, just in a new location. Oakland Park is still under a boil water order and the power is most likely still out at the condo. I just visited FPL.com where their latest update has our power restored by November 22nd! We are soo lucky mom and dad are back up. When Sean and I went to grab a few things from the condo yesterday, the gas lines in Oakland Park were insane. Since most of the stations there dont have power .. people were just rolling their cars up and parking them in line on the street. Seems like people had nothing else to do but to wait in line.

Today in Pembroke Lakes, things aren’t nearly as bad as the rest of Broward. I went to the bank this morning, line was out the door but I was back home within a half hour. While I stood in line, Sean got bagels from Bagel Bar West and picked up some deli meat and cheese from Publix. He said that publix shelves were still pretty empty, but when they did have something, they had alot of it. Just not much variety. Oh, and no eggs. Apparently the route from Tampa or the chicken farm was badly damaged .. so it may be a while before we’ll have eggs again. I’m just glad we’re getting fresh meat down here

This week I edited my very first movie and made a DVD (yay for mac!) .. My Wilma footage is now on its way to Liz .. I’ll be tackling the road trip movie soon.

Doesn’t look like we’ll be carving pumpkins this year, though I know a pumpkin patch that’s still standing, I dont think we’ll have many trick or treaters.

Thank god for the wonderful weather .. perfect fall day today. Football on TV and a nice comfy couch .. sounds like its time for a nap

First off .. we’re alive, mom and dad’s house has power, clean water, cable, phone and dsl all restored by 7pm today (power was on midnight Tues/Weds) .. we feel SOOOO lucky!

Mom and dad lost their pool screen structure, a ton of huge tree branches, and their fence .. but the house and roof are fine, thank god. Overall they made out well (the insurance deductible aside).

The condo is perfect, patio screens fine, though all the trees are down or bare, some neighbors lost their screens, some lost windows, I feel very lucky there as well. No power, the water didn’t work Monday .. and Wednesday when we checked it out .. I was told not to use the water because the water in the lower units was backing up and some residents were being flooded .. sucks. Looks like I’ll be at mom and dads for a while.

Got tons of pics and videos .. I’m uploading about 170 pictures right now that I’ll put on the server and I’ll take the time to organize and rename them when I’m bored tomorrow (not much else to do) .. hope everybody else made it though alright, everybody who I’ve checked in on has been okay

Pictures Up!

• 2 16 oz cans of black beans (or black-eye peas)
• 4 scallions, green parts only
• 2-3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup corn oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• salt and ground pepper

1. Drain beans, rinse and drain again
2. Add scallions, jalapenos, cilantro and mix
3. Wisk together oil, lime juice and vinegar and pour over beans
4. Toss to coat
5. Transfer to large glass or air-tight plastic container
6. Marinate a few hours turning jar occasionally to mix ingredients (the longer the better, if using peas instead of beans, marinate 3-5 DAYS)
7. To serve in a shallow glass bowl with tortilla chips for scooping