Quick Goodwill Before and After

About a month ago, someone donated their owl tchotchke collection to Goodwill. I've had a little infatuation with owls even since seeing so many cute baby nurseries with owl themes. So I immediatly gravitated to the shelf with the owls on it. There were some ugly owls. Most of them were, actually. There was one that I considered buying, but it was a little one standing only about 4 inches tall. It was priced at $3. That was way too much for Goodwill and for something I was on the fence about. So I passed on it.

Then last week, Goodwill had a clearance table near the register. I had just walked in with a return and was standing in line eyeballing the table. I saw several of the same owls on it, all with mark-downs. I saw the owl I had wanted to buy as well. As soon as I made my return, I was going to grab it.

Then another shopper stopped to look at them and picked up MY owl!! I tried to communicate with her telepathically to put the owl down, but into her cart it went! No!!

When I got to the table, I saw that many had prices like 40 cents on them. Bummer. I missed a good deal.

Then I spotted this guy.

























It's an 8 or 9 inch tall door stop, and ugly as h-e-double hockey sticks.

But as I've seen on numerous other blogs, a coat of white spray paint can do wonders. And I already have paint at home. With the price of $1.99, and in the words of Brandy and Monica, "the boy is mine".

I took him home and wiped him down(he had some dirty cobweb junk around the feet). Then about five minutes later(plus drying time) he looked like this:

























His temporary home will be holding our hallway door open(even though the colors look TERRIBLE!)

He'll look much better on dark hardwood floors, or up on a shelf in our new house. I might even repaint him a bold color, but I just wanted to get it painted in the meantime.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole(or Mexican Lasagna as I am calling it)

Tonight was yet another new recipe. Found, once again, in the Cooking Light archives. Chicken Enchilada Casserole was so yummy. It really has nothing to do with enchilada, has no enchilada sauce and no rolled up tortillas. So that's why I'm calling it Mexican Lasagna. But be forewarned, it takes some time and there are lots of steps.


















I didn't realize how many steps were involved until I had already started making it and saw in Step 4 the word "blender" and my heart sank a little. Crap. We hand wash all our dishes, so I never get out anything other than a knife, cutting board, and mixing spoon. I don't like fancy contraptions with all those pieces parts.

My changes:
I used boiled chicken breasts instead of thighs because I had some in the freezer, and it's lower fat. So just cook some chicken any method you choose. Also, in using 3 breasts, I ended up with more meat than the recipes calls for and used a 9x13 dish. We like leftovers. I think it also made it a little drier.

I used a can of corn, which was probably more than a cup. Also, I added a can of black beans(Yes, it finally happened!! I like beans!!! And so does Matt!)

I didn't have(nor wanted to buy) salsa verde, so I just used salsa from the pantry.

I used flour tortillas because, again, that's what I had and I don't like the corn ones.

I used way more than 1/4 cup of cheese on top. Seriously?? Is that a misprint? 1/4 cup?? That's only one serving!!

...I think that's it.

We really enjoyed. Matt thought it was amazing. He loves Mexican. I love Italian. I knew he would like it.

I topped it with a dab of sour cream and a little more cilantro.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 4 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1/3 cup (3 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups chopped onion, divided
• 6 garlic cloves, minced and divided
• 1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 2/3 cup salsa verde
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeño pepper
• 9 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; sauté 4 minutes on each side. Place skillet in oven; bake at 425° for 10 minutes or until done. Remove chicken from pan; let stand 15 minutes. Remove meat from bones; shred. Discard bones. Place chicken in a medium bowl. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons cilantro, corn, and next 5 ingredients (through black pepper) to chicken; toss to combine.

3. Return pan to medium-high heat. Add 1/2 cup onion; sauté 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 3 garlic cloves; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add onion mixture to chicken mixture; stir to combine.

4. Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups onion, remaining 3 garlic cloves, broth, salsa, 1/4 cup water, and jalapeño in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Carefully pour mixture into a blender/food processor; add 2 tablespoons cilantro. Process until smooth.

5. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tortillas; cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Remove tortillas from pan; repeat procedure with remaining tortillas. Cut tortillas into quarters.

6. Spread 1/2 cup salsa mixture in the bottom of an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 12 tortilla quarters over salsa mixture. Spoon half of chicken mixture over tortillas. Repeat layers, ending with tortillas. Pour remaining salsa mixture over tortillas; sprinkle evenly with cheddar cheese. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. Top with remaining cilantro.

Christmas Came Early for Matt

One day while we were on our way to our land, we drove by a house and saw a tractor and a gathering of other vehicles and people. Since Matt was driving, I got the better look and saw that they had a rope tied half way up this really huge tree and had already cut a wedge in the back side.

















I told Matt they were cutting it down. And based on their equipment, the position of the rope, and the depth(lack of depth) of the wedge, Matt dropped me off at the land and headed back over to the tree people to watch them push a tree down on top of their cars, or house, or a person, because they clearly had no idea what they were doing.

By the time he got back, there was an arborist that had pulled over to watch too. The arborist helped them move the rope higher up the tree. The rope is to help control the tree as it starts to fall. The higher it is, the more leverage/control you have. Oh and by the way, we found out they were cutting it down because it had been struck by lightning and was dying.


















Also this "wedge" they cut was only about 6 or 8 inches deep into a 4ft diameter tree- REALLY not going to do anything! Come on, even I know that and I've never cut a tree down.


















The tree fell without any events and Matt called me to ask if he could have some of the wood. I said "For what?" And he said "For whatever. To split, for firewood, to have sawed into boards."


















(ok we won't have a fireplace after we move, so who is all this wood for?)


















Matt said he wanted it to split and he could give it away.

(He loves splitting wood. I think it makes him feel "old school" like the pioneers who built this country with no power tools.)

"Ok, fine."

The guy needed to get rid of it and we were right down the road. And BONUS! Matt got to use his skid steer to unload them!!(catch the sarcasm?)


















So, the guy brought his trailer over and drove around the back of our house to unload them.

First the limbs:


















Then the trunks:


















































































Here, you can see how much the trailer flexed with weight of the stumps on them. In the previous photos, I watched in a sideshow and you could see the trailer flex, then flex back the other way as the stump fell off.
























































































Matt tried to roll it.


















It didn't move.