Why else, because i can.

Well it's about three in the morning and I'm sitting here with my intrepid Dr Pepper listening to Bette Midler. It's hard to believe she's my mother's age. If she were playing anywhere but Vegas, I'd find a way to make a show. However, i just don't trust myself in Vegas, so I'll settle for the CD. However, if anyone ever makes it to a show i want the biggest T-shirt they have!!!
Okay, so the Christmas cards are done. I say that, but Donna K still has to write her notes in them to those she'll write notes too and I'm currently printing out a couple recipes that will get stuffed in them too. Listen! When you get a card from us, you don't soon forget it.
One of the recipes this year i got passed on to me by one of my homegirls from El Paso that lives up here. It's for a cheese ball, a chocolate cheese ball. It's not bad, a bit sweet, but maybe it wouldn't be if Donna would put something with it other than vanilla wafers!!! You know, just sitting here thinking about it, i bet it would taste a bit like a canole (kuh-no-lee) if you served it on water crackers. It's just a thought. Anyway, here it is in case you want to try it.

Chocolate Cheese ball
1 8oz package of cream cheese
3/4C powdered sugar
2T Brown sugar
1/4t Vanilla extract
3/4C Miniature chocolate chips
3/4C Finely chopped Pecans (However, it is my personal opinion this is better with sliced almonds that you have lightly toasted. Again, just my opinion)
Put it together:
In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Mix in the powdered and brown sugar and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. When chilled, place cheese ball mixture on plastic wrap and form into a ball. Mine has been a little loose so after you form it into a ball with the plastic wrap, have a bowl that you can put the wrapped mixture in while chilling an additional hour. When it's re-chilled, remove from wrap and roll the ball in the finely chopped Pecans or Almonds, whatever you decided to do.

It's okay. I'm not real big on it. I've made it three times since i got the recipe and it seems to get eaten. I'm not sure who eats it, men or women, but it does get eaten and for me that's the important part. Nothing sucks worse than making something and then having to drag it back home with you because their dog didn't even want it. Anyway, so that's that.
It's like my stupid Tortilla Soup recipe. I HATE IT!!! The soup, the recipe, even the fact that i took on making it the first time. Deb will never hear the end of that one. Don't get me wrong it's probably my most requested recipe and that part is gratifying, but i certainly don't get the fascination with it.
There is another soup recipe i have i do like. Well several, but I'm talking about the one i made for today. I first made this soup, or something like it, about ten years ago. I was looking for a soup that was fairly hearty and had a real good Asian flavor to it. What i ended up with is something that has become Ginger Chicken Soup. Now i have to tell you with two teenage boys in the house i tend to make enough food for a medium sized enclosure at the zoo on any given day of the week. This seems only fair i guess when you consider the apes i cook for. Now i don't stand over the stove all day in my frilly apron and my pearls. Donna Reed I'm not, but i do spend my fair share of time in there. Since i do spend an amount of time in the kitchen and I'm extremely lazy, i have made an art out of delivering on one without compromising the other. My partners in crime for this are my crock pot ( roughly the size of a small bath tub) and my roaster. There is my showtime rotisserie too, but don't ask. I love that thing so much that i have replaced nearly every part that can be replaced and i have about three years left on the super extended warranty i got when i replaced the glass door. OOPS!!!
Well today, it was me, my crock pot and Ginger Chicken Soup.
Ginger Chicken Soup
( i have converted some of the items in this recipe to prepared items for the expedience of others, but feel free to adulterate it at will)
Take 4 Chicken breasts and marinate them overnight in a mixture of Teriyaki baste and glaze, a little soy sauce to thin that down some and a good table spoon or two of fresh grated ginger.
Take one of the three pound boxes of chicken stock and pour that into your crock pot on the day you want to make the soup. To that add a table spoon of Chili and Garlic sauce, usually it can be found on the Asian aisle in most grocery stores and add a quarter cup of lite soy sauce. Take a good sized finger of ginger and peel it. I slice it thinly in two directions so it makes little sticks and add all of that to the soup stock. Take your marinated chicken breasts and cook them up in a grill pan or cast iron skillet or whatever you like. Hell you could do them on the grill the night before and then pull them out of the refrigerator the next morning. Take the cooked chicken and cup it up into small bite sized pieces and add to the pot. Now for the hard part. I don't put much else in the soup, so if you want to add to it knock yourself out. The night before cut up a head of napa cabbage. I usually slice it like cutting up a water melon when you are giving kids quarter slices and put that in a bowl. Then either buy pre-cut mushrooms or cut those up and put them in a bowl. Get a bag of snow peas or those real thin green beans. If you get those you'll need to snap them to an inch long or so. Now with your soup stock and chicken and other stuff in the crock pot on low you can go to work or whatever. When you get back about an hour or less before you want to eat start adding the veggies to the pot. The peas or green beans take the longest to cook but that really isn't all that long. All you are really trying to do is to get a good wilt on your veggies before you eat. They'll be bright and have a little crisp still and the broth is just great. I know this sounds really confusing, but this is the first time i have ever written it down. ( Donna made me!!!) She doesn't like soup, but she had it for lunch today and will again tomorrow. She and my big boy had a rock, paper, scissors thing to see who got the last bowl and she won. You know, if they wanted more all they had to do was ask i think i have enough stuff in there to make another pot. Shhhhhh, I'm planning on using the rest of that chicken to make a version of sesame chicken on Thursday.
Okay, i got that down. Now i can go do something. Who knows, maybe i'll try to go to sleep. Hey, stranger things have happened.
Till the next outburst, y'all take care of each other, D