Salado Stroganoff

I was reading a blog post this morning from Tried and True Cooking With Heidi, and she was talking about how some recipes are yummy, but not particularly "photogenic".

This, my friends, is one of those recipes.

It's one of our FAVORITE things to eat around here, but isn't exactly what you would call "culinary eye candy".

But I promise you.............it's YUM.

I'm calling it "Salado Stroganoff" because it's what my mom used to make at least once a week and I never saw her use a recipe.

When my sister and I go home to Salado, this us usually what we request mom make for us:-)

Here are the ingredients:
****This is for a double amount, the original recipe is half of everything I've listed***

2 pounds hamburger
10 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 Large Family sized can Cream of Mushroom
1 small can Cream of Mushroom
3/4 cup milk (ish.....maybe more)
2 TABLESPOONS Paprika
1 package Egg Noodles
Salt and Peppah

First, take out your Pampered Chef 12" Family Skillet. If you do not own one of these, get on Ebay at this very moment and get one. It's my favorite piece of cookware in the whole world.
I use it every. single. day.

"Fry you up" about 10 pieces of bacon. I'm extremely picky about frying bacon. My secret is "cookin it low and flippin it often".

If you just said to yourself:

"Hey...I'll just use that pre-cooked bacon, or the microwaveable kind instead of messing up my whole kitchen with greasy gunk and smelling up the whole house"

Go immediately to the bathroom and wash your mouth out with soap. You need a spanking.

Be a real woman, get your skillet out, and stop talking nonsense.

Can you just SMELL this? Ahhhhhhh.....hello my friend.
As in all dealings with pigs..........you can't RUSH a pig.
Whether you are clipping one or frying one.......you must be patient.
Now here's the part where it gets kinda icky and you are probably going to say, "YUCK...I'm not making this".
You must SAVE about this much bacon grease and leave it in the pan.
I would say there is maybe a cup?

I didn't put "1 cup bacon grease" in the recipe above because I didn't want you to throw up or call the American Heart Association and report me.
Add your chopped onion to the grease and let them hang out and get to know each other.

Until they look brown and yummy like this.
Then add the hamburger meat to all that greasy oniony goodness and cook the bejezies out of it.
While you are cooking the Vat O' Heart-Attack hamburger mixture, crumble the bacon.
You can try to do it with a knife, but you will just frustrate yourself and end up with bacon all over the counter, so just use your fingers from the get-go.
And don't forget to "accidentally drop" some of that bacon on the floor.
It's the perfect way to maintain the status of "Most Favorite Awesome Human" with the pups.
After you have the artery clogging hamburger mixture cooked, drain all the grease off.
(At this point, I put it in a "pot" because it makes it easier to stir later)
Add the crumbled bacon.............
the Cream of Mushroom soup............
the milk............
a good "handful" of salt..........
a good "handful" of peppah..........
and the 2 TABLESPOONS of Paprika.
(or, if you prefer, "Pap-A-Ree-kah")
Basically all the "pap-a-ree-kah" is going to do is to change it from a dog-food-looking shade of gray to a beautiful, more edible looking shade of orangeish red.
Are you still trusting me?
I promise you, just stick with me.
Your tummy will thank me later.


Boil the Egg Noodles (or "new-nules" as my sistah used to say) according to package directions.

And then Plate It Up!!!!!
Now, in order to do this the way my mom used to do, you MUST serve this with:
Green Beans
and
Deviled Eggs*
*(Not pictured because I forgot to buy eggs and was too lazy to go back to the grocery store for the 50th time this week.)

DEEP THOUGHTS

WOW! WHAT A STORM!

It rained really hard all night, which means one thing around here:

Three little dogs shivering in bed with us all trying to get as caninely close to their favorite human as caninely possible. It makes for great sleep, let me tell you.

Luckily we didn't have any issues other than yucky yuck leaves and such blown all over everything and a little bit of rain blown under the front and back doors.

When I woke up this morning, this was the only picture I could take and it was still kinda dark, but you can get the picture.

This is a picture of the flooding from a couple weeks ago, and just to put things into perspective, the water came up well PAST the trees this time.

There are some pretty fascinating pics that people have sent in to the news here.

Sadly, there were many homes in our neighborhood that had water in their homes:-(

The kids are HAPPY HAPPY that there was no school today!

When it rains, it POURS...and doesn't drain.

Last weekend was the PERFECT weekend because of THIS:



I love it when it rains like this. EL-OH-VEE-EEE.
(This is the view looking out my front door)

Why do I love the rain?

I'm not a big "outside" person.

I've never enjoyed being outdoors unless it involved one of these two things:


1. Playing golf with my boys.

OR

2. Watching my Stevie perform.............


outside...............


.........at an amphitheater. Although, I wouldn't be caught DEAD stalking her watching her from THIS far back.....I would be down front with all the other stalkers real fans in the orchestra pit.

(And if both #1 and #2 were going on at the same time, don't even ASK me which I would choose. My answer would make me look like the worst mother on the planet and cause me guilt beyond measure............but I'm pretty sure the guilt would go away after a few verses of Gold Dust Woman and one twirl)


When it rains, it means that everyone has to live in MY world and hunker down inside.

I just LOVE it..........the stormier the better.


Looking to the right at the cul-de-sac is Lake Echo. Our sweet little street always gives us a scare during big rain storms. It floods quickly, but luckily, it drains pretty quickly once the rain stops.


Looking to the left toward Goldilock's house. (she's waaaaay down there on the left but you can't see that far, but trust me.....she's down there probably re-arranging something in her house, blogging, or reading one of her 5,367 magazines that she gets every month........it's an Addiction with a capital A.)


Here's a before:


Here's the after:


Do you like it when it rains?



P.S. There's only ONE drawback to a good rainstorm..........see the post below.

A Message For My Dogs

My dear precious canine darlings,

Yes, it is raining outside.

Yes, the ground is icky and squishy.

Yes, your feet might get a little wet on your 15 second 15 foot walk out to go potty.

Yes, you might have to leave the comfort of your warm couch, bed, or human lap for a brief moment to go take care of Mother Nature.

But momma PROMISES you this:

Your feet will NOT melt off your body if you step on wet grass.

Your wittle toesey-woeseys will DRY.














I know we have spoiled you a bit.


Well, maybe spoiled you a whole bunch.............


Okay.........maybe a LOT.

BUT.....let me ask you THIS:















Do you REALLY want me to have to resort to HUMILIATING you by making you wear THIS:


Or putting THESE silly things on your feet?




Because you three are about to push me to my limit.

Don't think I won't do it..................

I'm not kidding...................I'm serious


No, really, I'm not kidding............I'll do it...........

Quit looking at me with those doe eyes.....















Seriously, stop it please................
QUIT LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!

Okay...........I guess I'll go get the paper towels.

Liar Liar, Pants On Fire

Dear Mr. President,
I'm really TRYING to like you. I really am.

I didn't actually vote for you, but I know we are all in this together for the next four please dear Lord don't let it be eight years so I'm willing to give you a chance and not whine about it...............well, maybe whine just a little.

To be honest, I don't really understand all this economy stuff.

I don't "speak" economy.

I don't "speak" stimulus package, or bail-out, or Dow Jones.

Let me tell you what I do speak.

I speak DOG. Specifically, RESCUE DOGS........and, well, I also speak Stevie Nicks and Henry VIII trivia, but we won't get into that right now.

Last Fall, you posed on the cover of American Dog with a puppy mill rescue dog named Baby.

You said you would "like" to adopt a dog. (Clever Clinton move, Mr. Obama......using the word "like"..........just in CASE you needed to make it look like you weren't a liar liar pants on fire in the future...........)

In November, Michelle told Entertainment Tonight that the family would be adopting a rescue dog.

Shelter/Rescue/Breed-Rescue Dogs all over the country were suddenly on the cusp of getting a much needed "shout out!"............and to think it was going to be our President that would be leading the way!

Our First Family leading by example to show America to ACT RESPONSIBLY (didn't you say that in your Inaugural address?) and adopt one of the millions of dogs sitting in shelters.

Instead, you accept a purebred pedigreed gift from "American Royalty"........Ted Kennedy?????????????

WHAT THE WHHHHHHAT?

Let me say that again.......because when I say it out loud, the magnitude of your little "fib" hits me like a brick.


YOU ACCEPT A PUREBRED PEDIGREED GIFT FROM TED KENNEDY.

Yeah, sure, I get the whole "this is the dog's second home" story that was so cleverly crafted by the Washington spin machine. How coincidental that RIGHT about the time you were ready to adopt, there just HAPPENED to be this puppy that "didn't work out" at it's former home.

PAH-LEEEEEEEZE!

Did you SERIOUSLY think I would buy that story?

As far as the "allergy" thing goes.......there are plenty of Breed-Specific Rescue groups that you could have used to cover this problem so don't even GO there with me.

The point is, that dog would have found a home regardless. What you did by accepting this "gift" (wink wink) from Prince Kennedy was to put a sweet hardworking shelter/rescue dog out of work. You ripped the job right out from under him.


You SAID you would give him the job, but then you FIRED him before you even HIRED him.

The way I see it, America put their faith in someone who wasn't a "Pedigreed Politician". You didn't come from a long line of political royalty. Frankly, you didn't have a whole lot of experience!!!!! You were a grass roots kinda nominee.

America gave YOU a chance even though you didn't have the Washington equivalent of "AKC Registration Papers".


Shame on you, Mr. President. You should have led by example.

With one brilliantly crafted photo-op to a shelter, you could have single handedly made rescue dogs "the new black".

And while I am glad that your girls now have an animal to love,



I hope "Bo" is hard to potty train and I hope he pees on your rug.