The Great Blizzard of Oz aka Snownomi

So the start of this week was great, it was President's day, a paid holiday at my place of work. Then Mike stuck around on Tuesday, we went and greeted my friends new little girl Katie (5 weeks old now) and then went out to dinner with my gal Michelle and her hubby Jake and had some laughs and a good time with friends. Of course right now it seems all my friends are either getting married, pregnant (Michelle), or having babies (Kristy). I love them all the same but being a girl sometimes it's a bit of what Mike calls "tick-tock." Yeah there is pressure but I'm sooo not ready and I'm happy with how things are chugging along. That comes when the time is right.

I digress. Then Thursday morning 6 am hits and BAM! The Great Blizzard of Oz hits the Kansas and, as Mike calls it, the snownomi hits Missouri.

Where I live received about 10-12 inches plus snow drift. Mike got about 12 where he lives. I must say my car, Audrey, was buried pretty well. I was able to work from home for 2 days and then found that the plows had come and pushed all the snow up behind my car.

So I bundled up when work was over, pulled on my waders, zipped up my coat and donned my snow hat and pulled out the gloves and headed out to tackle the now 2 foot mound of snow behind my car.

So all I had at the time was my snow scraper and a dust pan. The dust pan broke instantly after attempting to scoop the snow. So then I was left with my snow scraper which just took forever.

After about 45 minutes I was tired and my back hurt but I was still about 6 inches from pavement.

I finally got close to the ground but then then wasn't sure I was going to be able to back up over what was left. I was right, the next day I got myself stuck 6 feet from the curb of my parking spot and was stuck there all day until I could borrow a shovel from the office. At that point I was able to rock my car back into the parking spot.

My dear upstairs neighbor saw me out there and had been off on Thursday as well. She was cooking up a storm that day and brought me some homemade turkey taco soup and some crackers to warm up. It was delicious! Then we spent the evening playing Mario Cart and having a good time with girl talk. I don't get to do that a lot.

So then Friday night after I had gotten my car back in it's spot Mike called and asked if I was coming out or if he was. I said I would. He came out last weekend so it's a fair way of splitting the gas cost.

Of course at that point I had to figure out how to get the remaining bit of snow out from behind my car. So I called up a friend and asked if he had one, he didn't but he came and picked me up, since he had his car free, and took me to Home Depot where we bought garden spades and then shoveled the last 2-3 inches of snow from behind my car so I could back out and leave.

So I arrived Friday night, Mike had me come look at a totally awesome snow fort made by one of the student organizations. It was "Wicked" awesome  Was made with snow bricks and looked like castle turrets and even had flags on them. Then the next day when we drove by to get some good pictures it was ruined by some rude college kids. :( That was at least an all day event to make. It's so sad when mean people come and ruin something so amazing.

Mike and I then decided to go sledding, he has a "jet sled," which is a boat type sled that is used during hunting to haul decoys and gear without bogging yourself down like a pack mule. It makes the most amazing sled for sledding for sure. It hauls ass. We went over to a hill by the frat house and we started at the big hill which all the little kids were using. At that point we went down, one time each, of course because of the bottom of the hill not having any insurance on keeping you out of the road or out of the woods that were just beyond, that caused you to have to bail out of the sled before reaching the very bottom.

Of course to tip that sled over takes some effort. Mike did fine and ended up next to the sled. Me, I ended up bailing and then the sled landed on top of me upside down. So I was a camouflaged snow turtle.

After our adventurous day in the snow we decided to make something delicious after our nap.

Pork tenderloin, rubbed in sweet and smoky seasoning, then baked in the oven. Served with a side of broccoli sauteed with bacon and onion. Then served with portabella mushroom sauce over egg noodles.

The sweet and smokey seasoning we have is found at the Kansas City River Market downtown. It has a great spice station you can buy spices by the scoop. Found this sweet and smokey one day while down there and was told it was like BBQ potato chip seasoning. It is, and it totally rocks with pork. Pork chops, chicken, popcorn etc. It's amazing for sure. I need to get back to the market actually.

So our vegetable side was broccoli sauteed with a small amount of oil, onions and bacon. That glob in the middle is a concentrated pat of chicken stock. Which helped add seasoning and flavor. The bacon we used was hormels real bacon bits that you keep in your fridge. Less oil and less cooking time.

For a starch we decided on egg noodles. Then we were trying to think of a sauce. Then it hit us, Progresso makes those new recipe starters. We picked up one can of Creamy Portabella Mushroom cooking sauce. It's rather plain by itself and I reccomend adding salt, pepper, and some garlic powder. We also added some cooking Marsala wine. This made a very delicious and addicting noodle. This could definnitely be served with chicken or beef. The can even suggests making this sauce into a beef stroganoff. Of course Mike and I tend to stray from actual recipes when it comes to cooking. We find a base and then tweak if from there.

Final product was a tender, moist and totally delicious BBQ pork loin. YUM! Then served with the broccoli bacon sautee and noodles with creamy portabella mushroom sauce was just the perfect combination.

Now there are leftovers and unfortunately it will not last us through the Blizzard of Oz (Snownomi) part 2 that is coming Monday night/Tuesday morning. Another 10-20 inches depending on the area you are in. Mike is pegged to get up to 15 inches at his place, while I should get anywhere from 10-12 inches. Ugh, looks like Tuesday and Wednesday I will be working from home again. I start to get cabin fever after about a day fand with work, it's not like I can just clean the house completely from top to bottom all day like I would if my job didn't provide me a laptop. Ah well, I have a job, it's not so bad, they pay me decent and I really shouldn't complain too much.

So folks, if you're getting snowed in, make sure you have something to cook as well as something to do to entertain yourself, me, I have my neighbor to play Wii games with. If you're lucky enough not to have snow, then enjoy cooking with things you find interesting while leisurly walking down the grocery store aisles with shelves that aren't empty haha ;)

Now go out and cook!

Mike's Chicken Marsala Tomato pasta

Hello Mike here, yes it is Mike and not Sarah.  I usually allow her to write the blogs since she tends to have a great way of wording things.  I am more of a blunt and simple guy but I am going to try today with my Chicken Marsala Tomato pasta.

So I was hungry and wanting to cook something easier so I came up with this meal.  I wanted chicken in a tomato sauce over some pasta.  I started to think of what veggies to add in with the chicken.  I had some carrots that needed to be used, so they went in.  Next was mushrooms because they just absorb flavors so well.  Third veggie was sweet peas.  I went with canned sweet peas instead of frozen since my roomie has a bunch of junk in the freezer and no room for a bag of peas.  I was looking at pasta at Walmart and decided upon whole wheat penne pasta.

Now time to cook, I just enjoy cooking.  It is a way for me to relax and it usually tastes good.  I can not say it always tastes good though unfortunately.  So I started the water for the pasta.  I put some roasted garlic olive oil in a pot of water and some sea salt.  I thought the garlic olive oil would help but I think it was a waste of expensive oil, good thing it was free thanks Wendy.  I use the oil to flavor the pasta some and to keep the water from boiling over.  How does the oil keep it from boiling over you ask.  Well the oil breaks the surface tension of the water and prevents it from boiling over.  Sarah accomplishes the same thing by placing a wooden spoon across the top of the pot, so when the water boils up it breaks the surface tension when it touches the spoon.  So I turned on the burner under the water and started browning the chicken, I seasoned with S&P, in a different pan.

I was about done with the chicken browning and looked over at the water.  It was not boiling.  How is it not boiling yet, the electric rings are not even glowing yet.  Oh that is right I rent an apartment and the stove is not top quality or even mediocre quality.  I guessed the ring was not getting a solid connection in the stove top so I moved the pot to a different burner and started again.  Since I was waiting for water to boil I poured some Marsala wine into the pan to get a nice steamed wine facial and scrap the brown goodness off of the bottom of the pan. The smell of the Marsala wine started to fill my apartment up.  Finally the water is boiling so I put my pasta in its bath of oil and salt.

Now that the pasta is cooking I can start more on my sauce.  I had juilenned  two carrots into small pieces.  Knowing they will take a while to cook I put those in with the chicken.  I added a can of Rotel sauce into the pot with the chicken.  Not a can of Rotel tomatoes and peppers but just a can of sauce.  I added a little more Marsala into the pan.  I sliced up three baby button mushrooms and add them to the pan with a little more Marsala.  The mushrooms just absorb the flavor of the Marsala so well along with the tomato sauce flavor.  I added some Italian seasoning into the pot, I need to add some more for next time.  Finally I added a little over have a small can of Del Monte sweet peas to the pan

All the kids in the pool

My pasta took longer to cook than expected, even after the water was boiling.  So I had to add a little more Marsala to keep the sauce from thicken up to tight.  No, it was not a lot of Marsala.  It just seems like it.  In reality my pours of Marsala are very small, probably close to an ounce with each pour.  So the final product was ready to combine.  Next time I will add the pasta in the pan with the sauce and stir it around to help the pasta take on the sauce.  I added some Parmesan cheese because everything is better with cheese, don't let Sarah convince you otherwise.

Final product not super pretty but not bad.

Sarah has gotten my eating healthier and proper serving sizes.  To help with that she got me using myfitnesspal.com app for my phone.  I used the app to make my recipe.  I determined it was three servings of sauce and 242 calories per serving.  That is only a rough estimate from the app, just FYI.

Then later in the night I felt like an adult beverage.  Sarah and I have a recipe called a Yummy Gummy vodka drink.  The drink has 2 oz or Pinnacle Gummy vodka, 2 oz of Triple Sec and 4 oz of sweet and sour mix.  I have to stir it up since I do not have a shaker.  Yes the drink may seem girlie but if it tastes good and is half full of alcohol then it sounds like a good drink to me.  Who needs to drink something that is only somewhat tasty and weak on the alcohol, aka beer.  I am a more of hard alcohol drinker over beer.

Yummy Gummy vodka drink

So in closing "Get out and cook."  What better way to bond with the family or just relax by yourself than seeing your work turn out well and taste so good.