Dr Pepper BBQ Sauce

This recipe goes out to some special Minnesota friends. Not as good as Val's Dr Pepper marinade. Sometime we will post that.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Dr. Pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon onion flakes
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons steak sauce
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

To prepare sauce, combine ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Simmer for 6 minutes. Cool.

I used it on chicken. I spread olive oil and Emeril's on the chicken. Then that last couple of minutes of cooking I spread some of the BBQ sauce on to cook it in. Then serve extra on the side.

Tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun

Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family Action, James Dobson's political arm, asked people to pray for rain on Obama's speech in Denver.

It was a beautiful night.

Now it appears that Tropical Storm Gustav could delay the GOP convention in Minnesota The storm is not going to hit Minnesota, but something about having George Bush speaking while a hurricane hits New Orleans.

I will leave you to assign any meaning to it.



And just for the record, lest you think I hate GWB, I voted for Bush. This is not a GOP hate thing, I just don't care for religious leaders who try to turn God into some kind of parlor trick for their political agenda. Please pray for those that will potentially be effected by another possible hurricane in an already devastated region.

Anniversary of a dream

READ THE TRANSCRIPT

Just 'cause

See more Jon Lajoie videos at Funny or Die

Reader's Digest

It seems like life has been in full swing lately, so here is the Reader's Digest version of what has been happening.

Cooper
Cooper started school on Monday. So far he says it is "awesome."

It looks like Cooper will be training to be a Shark. We are very new to this and I called and they had try outs. Val actually took him, but from what I understand he did really well, listened to the coach and swam well, but needs to work on his stamina. So we will put him in swim lessons to work on that and hopefully next year he can be a Shark. They also have some different summer swim teams. I think this may be his thing. I don't want to push him into sports, but I want him to find some athletic activity that he enjoys and can encourage life long fitness. He has always enjoyed the water and swimming and if he gets into the habit it is an activity he can do for a long time. Even if he doesn't do it competitively.

Lincoln
Lincoln has moved out of his crib. Right now he is on an air mattress on the floor. We went shopping for beds, but may end up taking a trip to Chicago to get him a bed from IKEA. He has been going to bed really well, which is great considering he used to have to scream before going to sleep.

Lincoln has also started using the potty. So he is usually running around the house half dressed.

The House
Well, we still own a house in MN. We are down to the price we paid for it 4 years ago. I will be so thankful when this house is finally sold. Here are the stats.

# of times this property was included in search results 7719

# of requests for detail pages about this property 574

# of Virtual Tours run for this property 37

# of people who currently have this property saved 4

# of times shown to prospective buyers 31

Turtle Cake and old (new) friends

When we first found out we were going to move and I started blogging about it, I got contacted by an old friend that they lived in the area. We grew up right behind each other. She was a year behind me in high school.

So we met up with her and her family on one of our first visits. They were very nice and also helped set us up with the realtor we used. Now that we have moved it ends up we live less than 5 miles away.

So they invited us over for swimming and dinner last night. We had a great time and everything was delicious. I said we would bring dessert. We made Turtle cake.

Ingredients
1 (2 layer) package German chocolate cake mix
40 caramels
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup pecans
1 cup chocolate chips

Prepare cake mix according to directions. Spread half the batter in a greased 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Combine the caramels with the evaporated milk in a saucepan. Heat until melted, stirring to blend evenly. Pour the mixture over the cake and sprinkle with pecans and chocolate chips.

Spread the remaining cake batter evenly over the top. Bake for 15 to 25 minutes or until the top appears firm. Serve with ice cream.

I under baked it just a little and then we cooked it for 5-10 minutes at there house so it was warm.

Fresh Garden Salsa

Our neighbors have a good size garden and in bumper crops the neighbors benefit.

First it was squash, now it's tomatoes.

So one of the things I decided to try was to make salsa. Val makes a very good chunky pico like salsa, this one is more blended. These are things we happened to have around the house.

Ingredients
2 Medium tomatoes
1-3 Jalapeno peppers (cored and seeded)
1 Tablespoon garlic
1/2 Onion
1/2 cup (or so) cilantro
Juice from 1 lime
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix garlic, onion, peppers and cilantro in food processor.

Roast tomatoes (either on the grill or in the broiler) until peels blister.

Peel tomatoes, core and remove seeds using a spoon and add to the food processor along with lime juice and olive oil.

Salt and pepper to taste.

That's it. Something to do with extra tomatoes.

This makes a very mild salsa, to turn up the heat add some of the jalapeno seeds. It is what I will do next time

You can also make your own chips by quartering corn tortillas and frying them until golden. Salt to taste.

Carmel Corn

Ingredients
8 cups popper popcorn
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Put popcorn onto a baking pan.

Put brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt into a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir with wooden spoon until butter melts and everything is mixed. Continue cooking until mixture starts to boil. Cook for 5 more minutes without stirring.

Remove from burner and add baking soda and vanilla. Pour over the popcorn and gently mix covering the popcorn.

Put baking pan into 300 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove pan and stir the popcorn mixture and cook another 5 to 10 minutes.

Place in a large bowl and let cool.

Potato Pancakes with home made applesauce

I cannot remember how I first came across this recipe. You can see the original recipe at Bette's Diner
But this is a favorite around our house.

Ingredients
2 eggs, beaten
4 medium russet potatoes (about 8 ounces each), peeled and shredded using the largest holes of a hand grater
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup grated onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine the eggs, flour, onion, salt, and pepper, stirring to blend. Using your hands, squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the potatoes. Add the potatoes to the egg mixture, mixing well.

In a large, heavy skillet, heat some of the oil over medium-high heat. Spoon the batter by quarter-cupfuls onto the hot skillet, flattening them with the back of the spoon. Fry until the bottom of the pancakes are nicely browned - between 3 and 5 minutes; flip the pancakes and cook for about 3 minutes longer. Repeat for the remaining pancakes, adding oil to the skillet as needed.

Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Chad's Tips: When I shred the potatoes I like to immediately put them in some cold water with ice and let them soak. The take them out in bunches squeezing as much water as you can out of it.

Applesauce
In a large pot, melt three to four tablespoons of butter and a quarter cup of sugar (to taste). When the butter and sugar turn a light golden color, add eight to ten apples that have been peeled, cored, and cut into small cubes. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and cook the apples under medium heat until soft (20 to 30 minutes), and all of the liquid has reduced. This amount of apples will produce approximately 1.5 quarts of applesauce. The applesauce may be made in advance. Serve at room temperature.

Pepper crusted steak with horseradish sauce

For us the meat was the 4.99 filet from Manninos Market, but I think you could use your favorite cut.

I brushed the steaks with olive oil and then topped with the pepper gently pushing the pepper into the steak.

I used Durkee Six Pepper Blend, but I think any corse pepper would work.

Sauce

For the sauce beat 3/4 cup Heavy Cream until thick. Add 3 Tbs Dijon Mustard and 3 Tbs horseradish and mix well.

Spoon over steaks and add minced parsley for garnish.