It must be potato week!

Yes, I realized that the last 3 posts have pretty much been about potatoes. I must have been craving them more than I thought. Even more surprisingly, no one in my family complained lol. But either way I have been able to get through a 10 pound bag of potatoes this month lol!

This recipe is for bacon scalloped potatoes. They are great with ham slices, or ham in the them instead of bacon. I made this this week with ham slices, and applesauce. The whole meal wasn't more than $10, and there were leftovers. The scalloped potatoes even hit the spot in the morning...think about it..its cheese, potatoes, and bacon. Yum! :)

Bacon Scalloped Potatoes

2 T. butter

2 T. flour

1/4 t. salt

3/4 c. milk

3 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 small onion

3 bacon strips, or package of bacon pieces

1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

salt and pepper, to taste.

In a greased 8x8 pan, layer the potatoes, onions, cheese, salt and pepper. Usually makes 2-3 layers. End with cheese on top.

In a saucepan, melt butter.

Stir in flour and salt until smooth. 

Gradally add milk.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Pour white sauce over top of potatoes.

Cover and bake at 350* for 65-75 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Sprinkle with bacon.

Finding Balance

January was a month of chaos in this house.

I went to work for the first time in 8 years. Can you believe it? I got a job doing housekeeping at a local hotel.
The job did NOT turn out like I thought. I thought housekeeping would be perfect for me. Its what the past 8 years have been about...cleaning my house, keeping things orderly. HOWEVER...when its someone elses blood on the sheet, and someone else's poop that you are looking at, and knowing that you have to get all the hair out of the bathroom or fail your room inspection...things take on a new view. To do housekeeping you have to wear a sort of veil over your mind...you cannot think deeply about what you are doing or what you are touching. You don't want to know whether that hair is from a balding man, or his nether regions. In the span of a week I had to pull poopy toilet paper that had been put in a toilet and basically filled it so that it couldn't be plunged, out with my hand in a glove and garbage bag...risking my health and lunch for $8.50 an hour. I cleaned hundreds of hairs out of countless bathrooms, found blood on a comforter, had to do a maintenance report for a clogged sink in which some trucker clogged trying to dump out his cup of chew, got a 5 CENT...yes cent...tip, cleaned ash trays over flowing with cigarette butts, the list could go on and on. The job was not for me. I worked my ass off when I was there, and collapsed when I got home. Making 15-20 beds a day was like doing endless squats..a great workout, but painful once you sat for more than 5 minutes. In the end I quit, childcare was difficult to find on weekends, my daughter wasn't handling it well, and I felt like I was a whiny baby every time I talked to my husband.

However I did come away with a whole new respect for housekeepers and what they do. The ladies who I worked with did it quickly efficiently and were strong people. I give them a huge amount of respect. I also came away with a new outlook on my husband's life. He works in a job he doesn't enjoy (would you like to be surrounded by murders and gang members everyday yelling horrible things at you? and threatening your safety?) I give him alot more credit and respect, especially when he says he's tired. I get that now.
Third...I am grateful for my life. The life I craved and almost grieved over while I was working. All I wanted to do was clean my house and cook and be there to take care of my family, and spend time with my friends and do my PTO things.

Now I am back at work, luckily its a schedule that matches my daughters. I'm subbing for classified teachers in the school district where I live. I seem to be able to have enough work that I could almost do it everyday. I know that I need to step it up. There are days that I'd rather be chatting at the school with my friend and PTO President Jacque as we do posters for PTO events, or helping plan out the school carnival, more than work. I know I need to step it up and work more and rarely turn down jobs. This job has longer hours but is much more fulfilling. It will challenge me in ways that I need to be challenged. It will allow me to grow and learn. I can't live in a bubble in my house, cleaning and cooking, and doing the same things over and over. I have a wonderful friend, a PTO board position that gives me many things to do and help out my daughter's school, and a job that allows me to learn and grow, which I enjoy. Its time to enrich my life.

Now don't think I won't be cooking or cleaning! HA! I'm currently looking for yummy Valentine's Day treats, spent the rest of my scrapbooking gift certificate from Christmas, getting some wonderful supplies to do some of my Grandma GoGo's photos, and still fighting the endless fight against dirty laundry and dishes. But now I do it with a smile on my face...well most of the time.

Sandwich Night: MM Sandwiches

Part of doing a blog is constantly scouring other people's blogs, and recipes to conform to your own needs and like. I however, have fallen deeply in love with The Pioneer Woman...her blog is amazing and has so many delicious meals and treats I'm constantly stealing them. This sandwich was one of those. I copied it, and the next day my mom had sent me a copy of it telling me how amazing it was. I knew I had to try it.

First let me tell you that YES cube steak is the must have ingredient in this. It truly makes the difference. Do NOT skip it, exchange it, change it! Just buy it! This is basically a philly cheesesteak sandwich, and if you have a boyfriend or husband or father in your life that you need to smoosh up to a bit..make this. They will love it! Serve it with fries, salad, potato salad, macaroni salad...whatever you love..but the sandwich will the be star. Next you must put the sauce on the roll. I skimped on my sauce and soon discovered my error. The sauce is truly delicious.


Now I'm not going to post the recipe because of course the amazing pioneer woman has explained and shown it perfectly. I couldn't even try to compete. But this sandwich is so yummy I have to post it here, so here's my pathetic photo (I really couldn't take the time to take a great photo of it because I was trying to shove the sandwich in my mouth so fast LOL).  Enjoy!

Here is the address to get yourself the sandwich recipe...hurry go do it! Get it on your meal list for this week!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/the-mm-sandwich-pw-style/

Slow Cooker: Cheesy Potato Soup

Ignore the pathetic roll, its from a previous post.

I've posted on this blog about potato soup before. I made my aunts which was truly amazing...I shouldn't say was..I mean is! But since I couldn't post that recipe, I've been testing out other potato soup recipes and I think I found one that's a winner.  Normally I despise any slow cooker recipe that requires me to cook before I put it in there, but truly cooking the bacon and onion just took about 7 minutes total. Its easy to do. Plus this recipe allows you to chop your onion, celery the night before to cut down on prep work in the morning.

Cheesy Potato Soup

4 slices of bacon

1 1/2 cup of chopped onion

5 cups diced, peeled russet potatoes

1 medium chopped celery stalk (1/2 c.)

1 carton (32oz) chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cup half and half

1 c. or 8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese

Cook bacon over medium heat.

Remove from skillet, reserve fat in same skillet and cook chopped onion in the bacon fat over medium heat for 4-5 minutes till tender.

Spray the slow cooker with cooking spray. 

In the slow cooker, mix cooked onion, potatoes, celery, chicken broth, and salt and pepper.

Cover and cook for 6-7 hours on low.

In a small bowl, beat flour and half and half with a whisk, stir into soup.

Increase the heat to high.

Cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Stir in cheese, crumble bacon. Serve.

*Tips/ Adjustments: I always like to put a little sliced green onions on top. I also crumbled the bacon and put it in when I added the flour/half and half mixture. Also everything can be adjust to your personal tastes. I used about 1/2-1 cup of onion instead of the full cup and a half. Make the recipe your own.