Kitty cats and Creme Brulee... Poppyseed Chicken and Polish Mistakes, too!

So I guess I've been waiting a bit to post about the loss of our sweet cat, Oliver.

It made January a really hard month! He was an older cat when we got him (we got him from the shelter after he'd been rescued from an abusive home), and it turns out that, according to the vet, he was probably even older than what we thought. He was acting like his wonderful, loving self one morning, and when we got home from school/work, he was super lethargic... it turns out his heart was failing. :( It was a sad sad night (week, month) for both of us, but we've been recovering and are so glad that we have a lot of great memories of our first pet, and that we were able to make the last year of his life so good.

Coming home to an empty house was pretty sad for both of us (Oliver used to wait by the door for us to come home), so after a week or two of the emptiness, we decided to go ahead and visit the shelter again, mainly to tell them about Oliver, but also to see if we were ready for our second pet. I honestly had my heart set on a dog. Cats can be so snobby. We got lucky with Oliver, but who knew if another cat would be so loving and cuddly and, well, dog-like?

Well, apparently there is another cat like that in the world, and now his name is Conner Yates.

He's 5 1/2 months old and about the cuddliest little thing we've ever met! If Oliver thought he was a dog, then Conner thinks he is a human. He was rescued after his mom died when he was just a few weeks old and was bottle-fed until he could be weaned. As a result, he LOVES people. He meows until I pick him up in the morning. He tries to sleep under the covers. He's super clumsy (whoever said cats always land on their feet needs to come visit our house!) And he has about 10x the energy Oliver did, so he is constantly keeping us on our toes! It's been a hard transition, but we are super-glad to have him around. :-)

Anyway, enough about our pets... I promise I won't be talking about them all the time!

I made a delicious creme brulee a few weeks ago. I absolutely love how easy and delicious creme brulee is. The French just know how to cook, don't they? Just five simple ingredients and voila! Perfection. I would highly recommend trying this out (I also make a chocolate version which is DElicious!)

Creme Brulee

Our Rating: 9.5/10

2 cups heavy or whipping cream

5 egg yolks

1/3 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3 T. brown sugar to carmelize on top

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Warm cream in a saucepan on stove until just boiling. While warming cream, beat egg yolks, sugar and vanilla together in a small bowl. Once cream is warm, stir into egg mixture.

2. Pour mix into 6 to 8 separate ramekins. Place in a baking pan, then fill the pan with hot water until it comes about halfway up the ramekins. Bake for 30 minutes.

3. Remove ramekins from water and allow to cool on cooling rack. Refrigerate overnight (or freeze for later).

4. When you are ready to eat the creme brulee, turn the broiler on and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle a thin layer of brown sugar on top of each ramekin and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until sugar melts. The sugar should be only slightly burnt.

Another recent yummy addition to my recipe book has been Poppyseed Chicken. My friend Traci brought this dish to our Sunday School Christmas party back in December and it was a total hit! It's super easy, and kind of a spin off of the "Easy Chicken Bake" you can find on the back of the Stouffer's Dressing box (must tastier though!)

Poppyseed Chicken

Our Rating: 8.5/10

4 or 5 boneless chicken breasts or 1 whole chicken
1 (8 0z.) sour cream (can use fat free)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 cups seasoned stuffing mix (8 oz. pkg)
1 stick melted butter or margarine

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Stew meat until cooked through. Tear into pieces and place in a 9x13 baking dish.

3. Mix sour cream and cream of chicken together and pour on top of chicken.

4. Mix stuffing mix and poppyseeds and pour on top of chicken mixture. Cover with melted butter.

5. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until brown and bubbling.

Last but not least, I have to share the recipe from my favorite every Christmas/Super Bowl Food... Polish Mistakes! We used to have these every year in college for our ABS Christmas party. They were seriously a highlight of the holiday season, right up there with Christmas tree cakes (why do the Christmas trees taste SO much better than all of the other Little Debbie cakes?). And while mine aren't quite as good as Momma Crank's, these are pretty top notch. The mini rye breads aren't available year round, so you may have to improvise there. No matter what, I guarantee they will be irresistible!

Polish Mistakes

Our Rating: 10/10

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 lb. breakfast sausage

1 lb. Velveeta cheese

1 tsp. minced onion

1 tsp. dried oregano

1-1/2 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 loaf cocktail rye bread

1. Preheat the boiler.

2. Cook the ground beef, breakfast sausage and onion until browned.

3. Mix Velveeta, oregano and Worcestershire sauce into the meat until Velveeta is melted.

4. Spoon 1 T. of mixture on each slice of bread. Place the slices in a single layer on two baking pans.

5. Broil for 5 to 10 minutes until slightly browned and the bread is toasted. Let cool and serve.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Have a great week, and Happy Cooking!