No more green water Asparagus

No more Green Water Asparagus: 

We all know when we boil Asparagus (Or anything else green like Broccoli), the water turns green and you are thinking "Well there goes the vitamins". Also, I'm not liking really wilted asparagus, either. 

Here's the way I've been cooking asparagus lately after I saw tips from Chef Alton Brown.   

First, grab some paper towels and wet them really well. I double mine over due to buying inexpensive paper towels.  If you buy Bounty, you may be able to do just one layer. I usually use 4 which is the length of two. This will hold about 1/2 a bundle of asparagus. 

Lay out your Asparagus as shown. Leave space on the side of the paper towel above the tips for folding over later and space at the end for finishing. Salt & Pepper generously. I say generously because most of the S/P remains on the wet paper towel. I also like garlic Powder on mine. 

Then fold over the side to cover the tips. This is because the tips tend to cook the fastest and you don't want dried out crunchy tips. 

Start rolling gently until it is all rolled up.  Place on a microwave safe plate and cook on high for 5 minutes. You may like yours softer. If so add minutes until it reaches your preference on how tender you want it. You will notice that the paper towels may be a bit brown from the microwave, but there is no green as you get with boiling the water. I sometimes add salt & pepper again since most is left on the towel. I eat these as a snack just as they are. Delicious! 

Frog Eye Salad / Frog Eye Fruit Salad

I got this recipe from a co-worker/friend. Delicious, however, it yields a very large bowl of salad, but it will be gone quickly, especially at a potluck. 

Before you start with making the salad, place a large metal bowl in the freezer. It's preferable to use a metal bowl when whipping cream. These chill and stay cold longer. If you don't have a metal bowl, it's ok; however, it will take longer for the whipping cream to get firm. 

INGREDIENTS: 
2 large cans of crushed or sliced Pineapple - Drain really well by pressing lid into the can to get most of the juice out of the pineapple. Should yield 2 cups of juice. Measure and pour 2 cups of juice into a large saucepan. 

1 Cup of sugar - Add to saucepan 

3 egg yolks - Add to saucepan 

2 Tablespoons flour - Add to saucepan

1 tablespoon Lemon Juice - Add to saucepan  

2 large cans of Mandarin Oranges - Drain - Add any of this juice to the pineapple juice if it does not make 2 cups. Otherwise, drain and set aside oranges with pineapple. 

1 quart / 2 Pint containers of Heavy Whipping Cream.

1/4 cup Stevia plus 1/8 cup Sugar. 

1 bag small marshmallows

1 small bag of sweetened coconut (Optional). You may also brown the coconut for a few minutes under the broiler. Be careful to watch and not let it burn. This adds a different texture and flavor to the salad. 

1 box of Acini De Pepe Pasta. Pronounced Ah-see-knee-de-peppy. Cook pasta until al-dente and drain well.  NOTE: you can not drain in a colander because the little pasta pieces will fall through. Best to use a metal sifter so you don't lose any.  When drained, set in fridge to cool. 

Bring Pineapple juice, egg yolks, flour, lemon juice, and sugar to a low simmer making sure not to boil or it will burn. When it starts to thicken, remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.  Add it to the pasta along with the well-drained oranges and pineapple and place in fridge to cool. 

While the pasta is cooling in the fridge and the sauce is cooling in the pan, it's time to make the Whipped Cream.  Get your well-chilled bowl from the freezer. 
Start with a pint of the whipping cream. Whip on high, adding a little sugar and stevia mix at a time until firm peaks form.  Then add a little more whipping cream until you have all the whipping cream in firm peak form. 

Remove the pasta mix from the fridge and fold into the whipped cream. Fold in marshmallows and coconut and place back into the fridge. Let it set for several hours to get firm. 

I've put up a picture of the size of bowl I needed for this dish. As you can see, the bowl is 1/2 my wide fridge width and it fills it up the large bowl. 

Enjoy! 

Homemade Laundry Soap

***REMEMBER: This laundry soap will not cause the water to suds up. This soap does not have additives in it, meaning you will need less than you think and it rinses clean.*****

We made this about a year ago and used roughly 80% of it so far.  It is amazing how little it costs to clean clothes with quality laundry soap. Total cost of ingredients is around $25-30 at Wal-Mart. The cost of the bucket was a one-time $8. We no longer spend $20 a month or two on laundry soap to clean our clothes. The cost of the following is a less than 10 cents a load and lasts approximately 300 loads. We do still buy dryer sheets to control the static, however, that is around $3 every few months.  
(I put current Wal-Mart Prices beside the ingredients)

First start with the following ingredients: 

• 1 Box of Borax ($3.38)
• 4 Bars of Fels-Naptha Bar Laundry Soap ($1 ea)
• 1 Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - ($3.25)
• 1 - 2 Containers of your preference of Laundry Chrystals - I prefer Purex Lavender. ($4.75 for a 28 oz. or $8.96 for 55 oz.) Here's a link to make your own.  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2013/01/make-your-own-fabric-softener-crystals.html
• 4 lb Boxes of Baking Soda. ($2.25)
• 1 Large container of Oxy Clean-89 loads.   Preferably the plastic bucket so you can store some near your washer. The large bucket will be too much/big to keep on your dryer. ($9.47)
• 1 Large container with a lid - A 15 gallon size will do and give you mixing room. 
• A laundry scoop. 

 

Start with shredding the Fels-Naptha in a food processor. Place the shredder plate on top along with the blade below. What you will do is feed the bars of soap through the top to shred like cheese then the blade with chop it into tiny balls/pieces. Don't worry about it being perfect, some shredded cheese pieces is OK. It will dissolve in the laundry water just fine. 

After you have the soap bars shredded, take your bucket and start layering everything. Put about 1/8-1/4  of each ingredient into the bucket and repeat until all ingredients are used.

 You may want to mix the ingredients with your hands half-way through and then start layering again. Mix the ingredients all together very well. You don't want to see the lines such as this still left.

After you are done layering and mixing really well, put some of the mix into the plastic Oxy Clean Container that you kept. Measure out 3 heaping Tablespoons into the scoop. Tap it to level it. Mark it off so you don't have to measure again. This is the correct portion of the laundry soap.  The mark is about 1/4 of a normal laundry soap scoop; however, I typically use a bit more when I have a heavy / really large load of laundry. 

This is the well-mixed end product: 

Enjoy and happy cleaning!

Easy Chicken and Rice Soup

Easy Chicken and Rice Soup

1 Rotisserie Chicken

1 cup chopped baby carrots

½ Cup Mexican Saffron Rice

1 Cup Minute Rice

Salt to taste

½ Tablespoon Onion Powder

½ Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning

Rotisserie chickens are still warm when I get home, so I pull off as much chicken as I can and put it in the crock pot with the chopped carrots. Add about ½ cup of water so as not to burn the bottom and turn on high.

Place the rest of the bones, skin and juices into a deep pan and add water about ¾ deep. Turn on medium heat to get a slow rolling boil, but not to boil over. Add Seasoning to the mixture and let simmer for about 30 - 45 minutes. Add water as it evaporates.  You’re essentially getting the flavor from the bones and skin into the broth.

Place a colander inside another bowl (preferable plastic because metal will be too hot to handle).  After the contents have simmered, pour contents of pan into colander. When you pull up on the colander the broth will be left in bowl.  Pour this broth into the crock pot. Put the drained contents in colander back into the pan with more water in the pan. No need to season second time unless you want to. Cook another 30 – 45 minutes and drain broth again. Throw away bones after second round.

Add rice to crock pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. I like the contents of my soup rather soft so I cook my soup longer.  If you want less soup and more of a chicken and rice, add enough rice to soak up fluid. Do not add too much rice at the beginning as water will evaporate. 

Add salt and pepper to taste if not seasoned enough.