The Plucky Housewives

Original Inspiration via RachelSchultz.com Skinny Thai Peanut Chicken I was puttering around the house one morning, fretting over what I could possibly make for dinner.   I was not smart and did not pull anything out of the freezer to thaw.  In addition, heading out to the store just was not on my list of to-dos for the dinner.   I vacillated over just having sandwiches or not even caring.  I feel guilty about those choices and thought what could I put in the crockpot that would thaw and not turn out weird.   I remembered a recipe I had come across that might work and pulled it out.  It was for a Skinny Thai Peanut Chicken in the crockpot.   I noticed while looking it over that there were a few things I did not have, but possible substitutes just might work, so I set about really creating my own, but using the recipe as a guide for amounts and combinations. Worried about whether this was going to work, about half-way through the process, I went upstairs to check on it, stir it u

I am a bread maker.   I gained this skill from my mother.  I will forever be grateful and so will my husband and children!   I have a recipe I regularly use for bread, that has been passed on from my grandmother, made by her mother, and her mother and so it goes.    Every now and then, however, I come across a recipe that is just a little different that I need to try!  And so it is with this one.   What captivated me by this recipe was the use of buttermilk.   Now, its not that I thought, wow, buttermilk in a yeast bread recipe, let's try that....honestly?  I had an entire 1/2 quart of buttermilk left over from holiday baking that if I didn't use up, it was going to turn quick and thought, what can I do with 4 cups of buttermilk?   I saw this recipe and thought, now that sounds good and voila.   It was shear necessity that perked my interest.   I made it, I/we (especially the husband) loved it and had bread for the entire week!   I will make this recipe purposefully n

I usually have a standard chili recipe that I use - have for over 20 years.  I rarely deter from it.   This last week, we were homebound, due to weather and with the bitter cold, going out and fetching for a few items just was not on the radar.   I was hungry for chili though and scoured the pantry.   I had made soup the day before and my favorite pot was in the outside fridge, so I had to find an alternative.   A friend had recently commented she had made her chili in her crockpot, so I thought, why not.  Now mind you, I am not a big crockpot person.  Its use, for me, has been confined to reheating and transporting, so this was another stretch from my comfort zone.   The recipe below is the result. Mind you, my husband loves it, but he loves spicy food.  I loved it, but next time, for me (and as I have noted in the recipe) the fewer chipotles, the less spicy. Spicy Chipotle Chili – Crockpot style 1.5 lbs ground beef (80/20) – I usually make this with 1.5 lbs of beef chunks, c

Its been cold.   Very cold.   One of the "pros" when deciding to move to Missouri 2 years ago, was that the Show Me state had a more moderate climate.   Tell that to old man winter this year.  Today, the high is -4 with a windchill between -25 and -30.  Hello?   When did that become moderate?   Thankfully, the native Wisconsin blood that pulses through this body knows how to feed a half frozen family - its called soups and stews! So when searching on pinterest for a new recipe (sorry kids, I wasn't in a corn chowder mood), I came across a picture for a Buffalo Chicken Soup.   I followed the links, but they were dead - to just pics and no recipe.  I turned to google ands struck gold.   Buffalo Bleu Chicken Soup This soup, adapted from several different recipes I found (isn't that how it always goes), reminded me of a dear friend back in Wisconsin.   We share a love of bleu cheese, gorgonzola, the really creamy, danish and very bleu of them all.   What makes thi