Cheddar Chicken Bacon Ranch

Pinterest is a wonderful thing. I get so many ideas for things on there. Whenever I tell Zach about some cool idea, he always says, "Did you get that from Pinterest?" and I nod. Mostly he does it to tease me a little. But there are a few times when he gives Pinterest the thumbs up - usually after I've found a cool new meal to try and last week I cooked up one of those great recipe finds!!!

Behold: Cheddar Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta!!!

All of Zach's favorite things in one dish.

It was SUPER easy and had GREAT flavor. The only thing I would do differently next time is to double the amount of sauce (liquids). There wasn't quite enough to make it creamy and cheesey. It was slightly dry and even drier when we reheated. I've adjusted the recipe to make sure there's enough sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb pasta, approx. half a box (I used cavatappi noodles just because they look cool)
• 4 slices bacon, (now you can make this with only 4 slices... but I used about 1/2lb of it)
• 1 TBSP butter
• 2 large chicken breasts, cut into pieces and cooked
• 2 TBSP all-purpose flour
• 1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (I used the "Fiesta Ranch" packet, so if you want to give this dish a Mexican flair, use that!)
• 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt & pepper, added to your taste

Here's what I did:

1. Cook bacon (Feel free to drain the grease; but save the pan and don't clean it out -you're going to need about 1 tsp. of it to cook the chicken). Let it cool. Chop it into pieces. Set aside.

2. Put a pot of water on to cook the noodles. Follow package directions.

3. Melt butter in large skillet with leftover bacon grease.

4. Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Put chicken into hot butter & grease. Cook until tender, no more pink in the center, and slightly browned.

5. Sprinkle the flour and Ranch Dressing mix over the chicken, stirring to coat evenly.

6. Stir in the milk. Cook and stir occasionally until thick and bubbly.

7. Stir in the cheddar cheese and most of the bacon. Stir around until cheese is melted.

8. Add hot, cooked noodles to the cheesy, chicken mixture.

9. Top with any additional bacon and serve hot :)

I served this with garlic bacon green beans and zucchini tots. There will be another post about each of these on another day.

Lots of Bacon-y Love,

Sarah

What's My Middle Name?

Toward the end of the school year, most of the kids in my class had figured out that they all have middle names. Some could tell me what it was, some could even write it down, and some could even spell it right. :) During the last week of school, I told the class that my middle name started with the letter "R."

(Now, my dad gave away my first name when he came into my classroom to visit for the first time. He walked in the door and said, "Hi, Sarah!"

And all the kids turned and stared at me and said, "Your name is SARAH?!" They seemed shocked to learn that I had a name other than "Mrs. Cook." )

After telling them the first letter, there came a barrage of names shouted at me. They kept guessing all day long and I started writing them down -mostly because a bunch of them kept asking the same name and mostly because I didn't want to forget some of their outrageous guesses!

Guess Mrs. Cook's Middle Name:

Renee
Riley
Rye
Rhonda
Rhondo
Ron
Rodney
Robin Hood -hmmmm
Romo
Read Meat - Really?!
Rock
Rose
Rosebush
Rocketship - somebody must have had outer space on the brain
Red Cardinal
Red
Rudolph - apparently my nose is a little red...
Rhona
Rommate
Reccos (because that's soccer spelled backwards)
Reese
Reginald - very handsome, don't you think?
Roger
Razor
Rex
Rosabelle
Robery
Robby
Rocko
Droid - yes, I know this one doesn't start with an R but if you knew the boy, you would understand :)


Any more guesses out there?


Love,

Sarah R.

June

Our puppy is looking more and more like a dog every day. She turned 4 months old on August 1st.

Junie, Juniper, Junebug

There's some things about her that crack me up: she chases butterflies, she eats plays with then eats bugs that she finds in the garage, she eats veggies from the garden (specifically beans and zucchini). She jumps in and out of the pool playing with anything that falls in there (sticks, bugs, toys) and every now and then she chases her tail.

When I go outside to play with her, she gets SO EXCITED that she jumps up and down at the end of her yard leash - except she can't go anywhere because she's tied down so she looks like a caught fish on the end of a fishing line!

She is also getting pretty good at playing fetch. I can throw her rope or toy and she actually brings it back! :) Woo! Progress! She has also dug two holes in the yard.... she got swatted on the behind for those so we're hoping she got the message as to what NO means!

I was gone for a long weekend to visit my best friend in Minneapolis and go to a childhood friend's wedding --- and I missed the pup! Plus, I think she grew about 2 inches in those 4 days! However, she got to spend lots of quality time with "Grandpa" Cook. Zach's dad LOVES to bring her down to the farm and play with her... and spoil her. :) Did you know there is such a thing as "Doggie Donuts"? I didn't either until Dad got her some. Ha ha! She's gonna be a good farm dog!

June is so goofy and too smart for her own good most of the time. I'm so glad we got her as a puppy, but I think Zach's more excited for the time when she will be a calm, adult dog.

Love,

Sarah

Secret Code Answers!

A few of you made some guesses as to what you thought my 1st graders were trying to write.

Here's the answers:

1. chramplen = trampoline

2. kinpeootr = computer

3. captin amarcu = Captain America

4. osum = awesome

5. gamekewb = game cube

6. deradid = decorated

7. crismis = Christmas

8. froo = threw

9. pedes = puppies    (this was a tough one!!!)

10. ceewt = cute

11. meezoom = museum

12. froup = threw up



As the school year is about to kick off, I'm sure I'll have many more of these to come!




Love,


Sarah

Secret Code

I came across a stack of papers at my house from this last school year... yeah, yeah the papers were still at my house. Oh well.

As I went through some of their writing, there were some words that jumped out at me and made me laugh. Then I laughed even harder when I asked my sister to try to read them.

Here they are. Leave a comment and see if you can crack the code!!!

1. chramplen

2. kinpeootr

3. captin amracu

4. osum

5. gamekewb

6. deradid

7. crismis

8. froo

9. pedes

10. ceewt

11. meezoom

12. froup


I'll post answers next time. :) Happy reading --- or should I say deciphering.


Love,
Sarah

Shopping Cart Drivers

This will be a short post.

Today at the grocery store, I almost got run over (TWICE!) by shopping carts! I was cruising down the main aisle and BAM! this old lady whips out of a side aisle in front of me -- without even pausing or a taking a sideways glance! The later, ZOOM! it happened again later on when a different person caused a near crash for the same reason.

Now, call me crazy, but it seems there's always been this sorta unspoken rule about grocery shopping to LOOK BOTH WAYS before you just merge into the main aisle. Main aisle people can't see you side aisle people coming due to HUGE SHELVES and lots of products on them. 

It's like driving --- when there's shrubs/trees/buildings blocking your view, you stop or at least slow down to check for oncoming traffic before you turn. You don't just go blazing through hoping that no other vehicle is careening towards you!!! Safety first, defensive driving, following traffic laws and all that jazz they taught us in drivers' education. Do these crazy people drive cars the way they push shopping carts?! Because if they do, I'm going to stay off the road... 

And hope they learn to have a little common courtesy to stop and look before pushing a giant shopping carts full of food out into a main aisle. :)

Love,

Sarah

New stuff!

Welp, if you haven't heard already, we've gotten a lot of new "stuff" since winter.

We know have 6 chickens clucking, pecking, and laying eggs! Yay for not ever having to write "eggs" on my shopping list ever again! The whole story is a bit long.

My family had chickens when I was growing up (25 of them) and ever since I've wanted them as an adult. Now that we're in a home where we won't be moving anytime soon, Zach built a coop, we picked out some adorable chicks at Tractor Supply, and brought them home and kept them under a heat lamp for several weeks.

My little peepers!

We finally moved them outside into the coop but didn't let them into the fenced in part for a few more weeks. They finally went outside but that was only to their demise because a few days later a raccoon dug under the fence and killed them...all of them... A few days later we pulled in the driveway and the stinkin' raccoon was running away from the coop! Zach went running inside for a huge flashlight and I drove the car around the side of the barn. It climbed up to the top of a ladder in the barn. Zach could see it through a crack outside the barn and I could see the whole body. So, I ran inside and got my .22 rifle. It wasn't loaded and I was in such a rush that I fumbled around with the shells for what seemed like forever until I got about 6 of them in and called it good. It's a semi-auto so it holds about 12 rounds. I told Zach I was taking the shot (he was on the outside of the barn) and kept trying to tell me to bring the gun to him because he could see it --- and I kept responding that I could see the whole body and that I was taking the shot. He came around the side as I yelled, "Fire in the hole!" Baha ha ha! This is hilarious to me as I write this because it sounds so redneck! It took a couple tries but I finally hit it and it fell down. Unfortunately I only wounded it and there was blood everywhere and Zach finished it off. It was HUGE and had sick nasty mangey fur and NO TAIL! But at least I avenged the death of my chickens. :)

Boom! Take that 'coon!

A few weeks later, we got some full grown chickens from a friend and they've been laying ever since. There's 3 white ones and 3 black ones. I'm open to name suggestions.

The other new thing we have is a DOG! And not just any dog - an adorable yellow lab puppy! It took awhile for Zach to warm up to the idea of getting a puppy but once he did he set right to researching what kind of puppy to get and where. He's a details kind of guy. :) He located a lab breeder close by and went to look at the pups then took me back to pick out the one for us! There were three female pups to choose from: two of them ran around causing trouble and chewing on everything in sight so we picked the more calm one.

Baby June!

We paid the breeder and put the adorable (but very stinky) pup in a kennel in the back of Zach's pickup. Well, she yipped, cried, and howled the whole way home... I felt terrible but with the way she smelled there was no way she was sitting on my lap for 45 minutes. The 45 minutes also gave us a chance to figure out what the heck to name her.... we had always thought we would get a boy dog and had all kinds of sweet names for boy dogs so a girl name was hard to think of. As soon as we got home and opened the kennel door - she puked. Ick. After cleaning that up we filled up a tub with warm water and gave her a bath. She was so tiny and fuzzy and cute! We played with her for a bit outside and finally decided on the name June. We wanted a short name that sounded mellow and June seemed to fit.

Zach and June

Finally got my puppy!

Her birthday is April 1 so she's already over three months old and growing SUPER fast. So far she has learned to SIT on command. We're working on STAY and COME. She likes to ignore the COME command, especially when she wanders through the hayfield looking for bugs and other disgusting stuff to eat. She likes to eat poop. And bugs. Gross. But she also likes to run through the garden and chase butterflies which is adorable. Nothing cuter than a puppy chasing a butterfly!

June also loves tennis balls.

Third new thing, paint! Our living room and one wall in the kitchen got a fresh coat of blue/gray paint. It's called "Van Courtland Blue" by Benjamin Moore. Thanks, Pottery Barn for the inspiration. I'm working on a photo gallery wall in the living room and a friend is doing a 4 canvas series of paintings for the wall in the kitchen. I'll post pictures soon.

Last new thing, Zach turned 25 and Mom Thorne turned 52 on July 16. I surprised Zach by inviting friends and family over for cake & ice cream in the afternoon. :) Zach was definitely surprised!

Pig cupcakes for the farmerboy

Happy 25 Years!

We also surprised my mom with tickets to a Tigers Game! My brothers got her a Tigers t-shirt and my sisters gave her spending money for at the ballpark and we went to the game on Thursday afternoon!

Can you believe she's 52!?

It poured rain -- the two days it's rained all summer and we had tickets to a ball game on one of those days --- but luckily our seats were just under the upper deck so we didn't get wet! And bonus - the Tigers won! After the game we stopped at Astoria Bakery in Greektown per the recommendation from friends and bought some delicious pastries for later. We also got to visit with our Thorne grandparents after the game which was so nice! I love hearing their stories.

That's all for now.

Love,

Sarah