Now is the time of the year for summer squash. Zucchini and yellow squash so abundant that some friends may even be giving it away. We are no exception to that. Receiving a few zucchini and squash every couple weeks from the in-laws, our curry has become more varied as a result. I really do love curry and how easy it is to make. Serving it with rice makes an easy meal and so filling. You can make curry as spicy as you like, and curry can easily be frozen to enjoy later. Like ratatouille, this curry cooked the squash and zucchini perfectly, and the flavors made them so enjoyable! The pork was added for a bit of extra flavor, but you can easily make this dish vegetarian by excluding the pork and substituting in vegetable broth in instead of beef.
Add diced pork to dicer. Pulse until pork is fully ground. Add to dutch oven with 1 Tbsp oil. Once fully browned, add diced onion and tomatoes. Cook until onion is translucent.
Add water, and bouillons, return to a boil before adding zucchini and squash. Add spices and stir. Cook for 10 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally. Ready to serve once thick and squash is fully cooked.
Fill bowl 1/2 way with rice before topping with curry and serving.
Time for another review you’ll see. This time I’m reviewing Aldi’s Chocolate chip cookie recipe. You can find this recipe up above at the link, down below, or on the side of Aldi’s baking soda or chocolate chips bags. As a plus, these did in fact turn out to be chocolate chip cookies. They tasted like chocolate chip cookies and were fully done, as per instruction. However, these cookies did spread a lot and the dough was very thin, and not a dough I would/could roll out by hand. There was a good proportion of chips to dough, and the cookies did have a lot of flavor. These cookies also didn’t have much, if any, structural integrity. You’d have to break the cookie before it would crumble apart, then you’d have to quickly eat it before it fell all over everything. This was the case even once the cookies cooled. It’s a good recipe, and it made delicious cookies, however, I think Betty Crocker’s cookie mixes may still be better. If you try this recipe, be sure to let me know what you think!
What You Will Need
1 cup Softened Butter
1/2 cups White Sugar
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
mixing bowl
electric mixer
spoon/cookie scoop
Baking sheets
Non-stick spray
Directions
Heat oven to 375 F
In a mixing bowl using an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and eggs. Add flour and chips, then mix until combined.
Spray baking sheets, then scoop out dough and place on sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden. Let cool 5 minutes before trying to remove from tray.
It all started with my Starting Point post. There I wrote my initial thoughts and ideas for this house as recorded last November. We bought this house and found many things wrong with it. We starting putting work into the house starting last October/November, and below is what we were able to accomplish so far.
Current Progress
As you can see just between the first set of photos and the second, we’ve made some big changes. We removes trees and bushes, put in raised beds, added an exterior door on the garage, and changed the accent color on the house from red to teal. Inside, we removed a lot of the latex paint off the utility room walls, we built and removed our builtin pantry, and installed a storage shelf instead. We removed the broken dishwasher and sealed the space to be used for my canning stuff. We also upgraded the light in the kitchen, painted cabinets, remove the old range microwave and added a new range-hood, as well as replaced the old leaking kitchen faucet. In the dining room, we refinished the wall after removing about 1/3 of the wallpaper in the house, and we also created a lampshade for our single handing bulb from a lantern we used at our wedding reception. We haven’t done too much to the living room yet; we added a projector screen and are mainly using it for storing some of our extra stuff until we finish the master bedroom. We replaced the light fixture in the hall, and upgraded all the light switches in the house to the rocker style. We repainted the bathroom, removed the medicine cabinet, changed the light fixture, and painted the vanity and changed the hardware. We also added a new shower curtain to match. In the original green room, due to it’s carpet color, we originally replaced the floor in the closet with vinyl planking. After seeing how easy it was, we took on the task of redoing the entire rooms floor, which was not an easy task. we remove the wood from the closet to be replaced with matching floor eventually, I also painted the bedroom the two shades of orange, we moved in, and that is the state of our orange room. Finally, our current project is the master bedroom, or our new green room. We just finished laying the flooring on Saturday. There is still a lot of work we want to do in that room before the new unveiling, but I hope this helps build some excitement for the next unveiling, which will be coming in the next two weeks or so.
A Year’s Worth of Projects
A year is so long, yet so short. We were able to accomplish so much because of the blessing we’ve received this year and from taking things in stride. We are happy for our new experiences and are content with this house even as we continue to find more problems. We aren’t sure if we’ll keep this house forever, but we are happy for all the good things this house is providing for us. This Lustron gives my husband and I something to do together, to bond over, and to dream for. We hope for nothing but the best for this house in the future, and we hope our fingerprint on this house improves the beauty of this old Lustron, rather than hinders it’s potential.
For more on our home improvement posts from this year, feel free to check out any of this posts below. If not, I’ll see you again soon!
I’m still drowning in cucumbers, and as a result, I figured some sandwiches with some cucumbers in Italian dressing would be a nice treat. The dressing for these sandwiches is rich and full of flavors. The thick cream cheese brings a smoothness to the dish. The dill is subtle, but so delicious with the cream cheese. The ranch dressing brings most of the flavors, with garlic and onion bringing a savory flavor to the dressing. All that complimented by the fresh and crisp cucumber. You can pick from a variety of breads, but we went with the standard white bread today. Try this at home sometime soon and you won’t regret it!
Chicken and broccoli is my favorite Chinese food. I’ve been eating it since I was a kid and I hear a lot of other people like it too. So, as a result, this dish was formed. When you choose to make this, you can substitute worcestershire sauce in place of soy sauce if you don’t have much ginger or garlic, since worcestershire has soy, ginger, and garlic in it. I used 2 small chicken tenders to make this, however, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use a pound of chicken breast instead if your love Chinese food, or if you have a larger family than two to feed. Though this tastes very similar to takeout, this dish tastes just as good if not better with the sesame oil, and garlic powder coming through even more than takeout!
In a medium saucepan, add 1 1/2 – 2 cups white rice. Rinse the rice under cool water 5 times. Add an equal amount of water to rice. Place over medium heat. Once boiling, cover and reduce your heat to the lowest setting.
Place your wok/dutch over over medium high heat, and add oil. Meanwhile, half your chicken and slice it, then add it to the oil. Prep your broccoli now if you are using fresh.
Stir your chicken and cook it until the chicken looks cooked externally. Add your broccoli (if using fresh add 1/4 cup water). Add to your mixture the rest of the ingredients. Continue to stir and cook until you broccoli is cooked to your desired texture.
Remove from heat, and serve chicken and broccoli over rice.
