Friday, November 18, 2011

Publix Deals This Week Are Amazing Once Again

This is another fantastic week at Publix! They have tons of buy one get one free sales. I guess it is because the Holidays are coming up and they are trying to attract as much business as possible. Anyways, here is what I did this week:



First off, check your stores for this booklet with coupons. You will need it for some of the deals this week. Get at least two of them.

Ok, the first thing I did was stock up like crazy on Bird's Eye frozen vegetables. They are 50% off this week. The cheapest ones I found were $1.99, so with the 50% off it came to $1 each. In the coupon book shown above there is a coupon for $0.55 off one Bird's Eye product which is pictured above. So you can score a bag of frozen veggies for $0.45 each. I bought 4 of them and plan to get more later.



Also in the "All the Trimmings" booklet you will see this on promotion on the first page. Sargento cheeses are also buy one get one free this week for $3.99 at my local Publix. Furthermore, I had $1 off any cheese brand printable coupon from www.coupons.com . As far as I heard, this coupon is only available to Florida residents for some reason. So I got 2 bags of cheese a dozen eggs for $1.99.

 This deal with the Ragu pasta sauce is probably one of the best deals I have ever seen in a long time. Ragu pasta sauce is buy one get one free for $2.65 at my Publix. Plus there was a coupon in the Redplum Nov 13th issue for any free pasta of your choice when you buy 2 Ragu pasta sauces. So when I went to select my pasta, I noticed some of the Mueller's pasta is buy one get one free this week. Since I am getting a box of pasta with the coupon, it is just like I was "buying" it. So this qualified for the buy one get one free deal on pasta. At the end, I got 2 boxes of pasta and 2 Ragu sauces for $2.65.


I Can't Beleive It's Not Butter is buy one get one free this week for $3.69. A week or 2 ago www.coupons.com had tons of coupons for $1 off 1 of this product. I printed them out immedietly because I know this product goes on sale all the time. Plus there was also a coupon for free bread of my choice if I bought 2 products from this brand. Therefore, this works just like the Ragu sauce & pasta deal above. I was able to get 2 tubes of butter and 2 loaves of bread for $1.69 after using two $1 off 1 I Can't Beleive It's Not Butter product coupons. These coupons are no longer available for print. This is why if you see a coupon for a product that you like but might not be one sale right now you should still print it for future use.

This morning www.coupons.com released a $1.50 off I Can't Believe It's Not Butter All Purpose Butter in the form of sticks. At least if you need butter you can get two boxes for $0.69 if you print out two of these coupons. I'm sure you could use the butter for Holiday baking.


Lysol Trigger Spray Cleaners are buy one get one free for $2.69. I had a $1 off Lysol Disinfectant spray coupon found in the Smart Source November 6th issue. Now look carefully- there is a product that is just a lysol disinfectant spray (the one shown on the photo on the coupon), but the product on the buy one get one free is the trigger spray. The coupon does not specifically specify anything so I decided to try it out. Last time this went on sale I had the same situation and I was still able to use them. The cashier told me its not the product on the picture, but we all know that the picture on the coupon does not always represent the product. For example, the coupons for cereal do not show every single variety you can buy with it. She scanned it and it worked for me. So I got 2 of them for $0.69.


Select Degree Men's Deodorant are buy one get one free for $2.89. The only coupon I had was a measly $0.25 off found in the Red Plum November 13th issue. Other regions of the country might have got a different value coupon than me. There is also a $0.55 off Degree deodorant coupon found in the Publix booklet "Celebre! Hispanic Heritage Month". I don't have this booklet and I don't find it anywhere. Anyways, I had two of the $0.25 off coupons so I paid $2.39 for two which is not a bad deal.


Lastly, Alexia frozen bread products were buy one get one free for $3.69. There is $1 off Alexia foods coupon printed from here. To print two of them just hit the back button after the first one prints until the "ok to print" box reappears again. Once applied you get two bags for $1.69. These will come in handy for Thanksgiving.


Friday, November 11, 2011

Best Publix Deals for This Weeks Ad

This week Publix has a tremendous amount of buy one get one free and sales prices. I think it is the biggest couponing trip I have ever done since I started this in March. Below I will list the things that I consider the best deals which you should stock up on. The sales end this Wednesday Nov 16 2011 or Thursday Nov 17 2011 depending where you live.

For a complete list of all the sales please visit www.southernsavers.com and click on the Publix tab.

Progresso 100% Natural Broth 32 oz buy one get one free for $2.59. 
- $0.50/2 store coupon found on www.target.com. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on coupons. The browse until you find it. You can print 2 of these from each computer.
-$0.75/2 manufacturers coupon found in the Smartsource Oct 9th or Oct 23rd
= $1.34 for two or $0.67 each.

Pompeian Olive Oil 16 oz buy one get one free for $5.99
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon printed from here. You need 2 of these!
=  $3.99 for 2 or $1.99 each.

General Mills select cereals buy one get one free for $4.09
-$1/2 printable coupon found on www.coupons.com. You can print up to 2 from each computer.
= $3.09 for 2 boxes or $1.55 each.

Betty Crocker Cake Mixes buy one get one free for $1.95.
If you plan to buy frosting with it then use the $0.75/1 coupon found in the Smartsource Oct 2nd or the $0.75/2 coupon found in the Smartsource Nov 13th. I'm not sure how much the frosting is so I cant calculate what the end price will be. However if your just buying cake mix (which I needed badly for my brother's birthday party this weekend), then $0.98 per box is a good deal.


Nestle Cookie Dough, select varieties buy one get one free for $3.59.
Find the $1/1 Nestle Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip cookie dough coupon in the Redplum from September 11th instead of the $1 off coupon you may have got $0.75/1 instead like me. Either way, if you have two of these coupons it will bring the price to $1.59 for 2 or $2.09 for 2 depending on which one you have.

Select Stayfree products on sale 2 for $3.41.
- $1/1 Stayfree products coupon from Smartsource Nov 6th 2011. If you have 2 of these coupons it will drop your price to $1.41 for 2 Stayfree products.

Ricola Throat Drops or Lozenges buy one get one free for $1.79.
- $1/1 Ricola manufacturer coupon found in the Smartsource Oct 30th. If you have 2 of these coupons then you get two bags for FREE with an overage of $0.21. Unfortunately my version of the Oct 30th Smartsource does not have this coupon :(

Kraft Philidelphia Cooking Cream on sale 2 for $4
- $1/1 Target store printable found at www.target.com. You must print 2 of these.
-$1/1 manufacturer coupon found on www.coupons.com. You must also print 2 of these.
= 2 for FREE

This works because for each item you can stack a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. Keep in mind that for this to work your Publix must accept Target as a competitor. Every Publix has a card that they can give you at Customer Service with lists who they consider is their competitor.

I see this cooking cream frequently in sales but never for free so I was very happy to try it out. I bought the Mexican flavored one because on the back it had a recipe for chicken enchiladas which I have never made before. I was very happy with the results as it tasted fantastic.


Kraft Cheese Slices, select varieties on sale at $2.50 each.
-$1 off any cheese brand printable from www.coupons.com. Please note: this coupon is only available for Florida residents only.
= $1.50 per bag of cheese.

Thesde were the items that I considered were the best deals according to what I like to cook and buy for my household. However there are still many other items not listed here that you might like to buy. Again, check out www.southernsavers.com for a complete list. If you live in the central Florida area then you might want to use www.couponersunited.com because their prices reflect this area better than Southern Savers which is based in Georgia.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

$1 for Toy Story Themed Operation Board Game

Today everyone is posting this deal like crazy. Toys R Us is selling the Toy Story 3 Operation board game for just $1. You can buy it in the store for $1 or buy it online. To avoid shipping costs I signed up for the trial membership at shoprunner.com . Once I checked out on the toysrus.com website, you will notice a small green shoprunner logo. Click on it and log in to get FREE 2 day shipping. Toys R Us is kind of a far drive for me so free shipping was awesome. This will make for some good Christmas presents for kids.


















Just make sure you sign up with shoprunner.com first if you want to get the free shipping.


















Look for the shoprunner logo in your shopping cart during checkout. Log in and then you will see shipping is free.


















The shoprunner.com membership is like $6 for the whole year which is awesome. Check out the stores that participate with them and see if its worth a membership. If you frequently buy stuff online from those stores the membership which gives you free shipping will pay for itself very quickly. Or just cancel your free trial within 30 days and you wont get charged anything.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Mia's 2nd Birthday or Quinceanera in Human Years

I've always said that for my dog's birthdays I would take cute photos of them but never get around to doing so. This time however, Mia turned 2 years old which is almost 15 in human years so I threw her a Quinceanera party.

I made her this cute dress by cutting down a child's dress.



She was so pretty. I'm surprised she let me put a bow in her hair. She usually goes wild and tears the bows out and rips up her dresses.

Family Group Photo 


 Mia 2 year, Eli 3 years, and I.


Then the guests started to arrive. Mia looked nervous.


At last we sang happy birthday and Mia got to eat her favorite beef and gravy flavored cake.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Gift Card Deal Pay $25 now, get $25 target and $50 restaurant.com gift cards

One more deal I forgot to mention. This is also on  www.eversave.com

You pay $25 and get 1 target gift card with a value of $25 plus you get a $50 restaurant.com gift card. The cards will be mailed to your house. Or if you cant wait for them to be mailed, the codes are posted on your eversave.com account immediately so you can print it out.

This deal ends in about 2 days.

If you buy stuff at Target anyways, why not pay $25 now and get the $50 restaurant.com card for free? This is how to stretch the value of each dollar. Your $25 investment now got you a free restaurant meal.

Great Deals for Christmas Presents

Now is the time of year to start looking for great deals on possible Christmas presents online. You must allow plenty of time for the item to ship to you, and extra time if something was wrong with it that you could return it and get it back in time.

So far I have found 2 awesome deals:

Deal #1 : One Kings Lane

www.onekingslane.com

Sign up as a first time user and they will give you a $15 credit towards your purchase. They have new sales every day so check them out as soon as they start so you can grab the cheaper items to make your total equal exactly $15. That means you get the items for free you just have to pay shipping. I got two 12 inch serving dishes and one divided glass appetizer platter for $0, I just had to pay $4.95 shipping. 




 Deal #2: Two AMC silver movie tickets for $13, plus get a $3 for being a new user on eversave.com. However, this $3 cant be used on this deal.

The ticket deal will only last for another 14 hours. So get yours asap. It will make for some great gifts especially if your doing secret Santa and have no idea what to get the person.


  If you know of any great deals going on please e-mail me at ladyme2blog@yahoo.com or post a comment.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Best Bread Recipe Ever

I have never been able to master making any type of bread from scratch. I've failed every time.  I found this recipe on www.allrecipes.com and it was amazing! If you check the reviews everyone raves about it and frequently mention that anyone can make this bread. The bread tastes kind of sweet and buttery.

Amish White Bread By Peg
Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tbs active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/amish-white-bread/detail.aspx

Directions:

Start by mixing the warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir thoroughly with a whisk. I let mine sit for 10 minutes until it got nice a foamy. If it does not get foamy then your yeast is not good and you need to start over again.


Then I added the salt and vegetable oil. Now start adding the flour one cup at a time. I used a whisk as long as I could, then I switched to a spatula, then finally I had to flip the dough out onto a floured counter top to add in the last few cups of flour by hand. 

Once all the flour has been added, knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Next, find a large bowl and coat the inside of it with some oil. Put the dough into the bowl, cover it with a kitchen towel, and let it rise for 2 hours. If it has risen properly, it should have doubled in size as shown in the photo below.


Once it has risen, dump the dough onto a counter top and knead it some more. You might have to add a little bit of flour because the dough collects moisture as it rises and becomes sticky. This recipe makes two loaves of bread so I divided my loaves into two. Then shape each piece of dough into logs.

I decided to decorate my loaf by cutting off about 1/4 of the dough and rolling it into 3 long pieces of rope. Then I braided the three pieces together. When I was done I attached the braid to the top of my loaf. This is just a decorative step and is not necessary.


Bake the loaf at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I decided to brush my loaf with some butter so it would look nice and shiny. It tasted so good and was definitely worth making.  Enjoy!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Who wants some FREE eyeshadow?

So I got 6 of them for free. I will keep one, and give away the other 5 to people who follow my blog.


So that I can verify that you are indeed the follower you claim to be, please comment anything to this posting.


Since I only have 5 items,  the first 2 people will get 2 colors of my choice sent to them, and the 3rd person will get 1.

Send your e-mail request to:   ladyme2blog@yahoo.com
With the following info:
1. Name of person to mail it to
2. Address you want me to mail it to. U.S.A. address only.
3. Your follower/blogger ID name



Make $5.16 couponing at Walmart, plus Best Deals This Week: Publix, CVS, & Walgreens

These are some of these best deals going around this week. I do not post about every single sale item in these stores but only the best ones that I believe are at rock bottom price. When an item is at its rock bottom price you should stock up on it like crazy. Unfortunately for me I only get 2 Sunday newspapers every week so I do not have a whole bunch of coupons to do these deals multiple times. But for my household of 2, its enough.

Publix: Deals end Tuesday October 11th or Wednesday October 12th depending on where you live

Dove Antiperspirant & Deodorant: Buy one get one free for $2.99. Find two $0.75 off one from the Redplum October 2nd edition, which drops the price to $1.49 for two deodorants. Make sure you pay attention to which Dove deodorants you pick up because the Ultimate ones are not buy one get one free. Why is this a good deal? As far as I have noticed since I began couponing in March 2011, deals on women's deodorants, shampoos, body wash, etc... are very rare. The men's version of these items are always on sale and always have tons of coupons. So stock up now.


CVS: Last day for this deal is Saturday October 15th 2011.

Sparkle 8 count paper towels: On sale for $4.99 this week, plus when you buy one you get back a $1 extra care buck. Find one coupon for $1 off 2 found in the October 9th Redplum insert. Grab two sets of Sparkle paper towels. The price is $9.98 - $1/2 = $8.98 for 16 paper towels. At the time you pay $8.98 out of pocket, but a $2 extra care buck will print out. So essentially the towels cost you $6.98 for 16 or $0.44 per roll. When I went in to buy mine, I had a $5 extra care buck from last week so I paid $3.98 for the two sets of paper towels.



Walgreens: Last day for this deal is October 31st 2011. This is an ongoing monthly special.

Cottonelle 12 pack of toilet paper: on sale for $5 each. The monthly ongoing deal is if you buy two of them, you will get a $3 register reward. Therefore you will need to but two of these. Plus find two $1 off 1 cottonelle coupon found in the Walgreens October coupon booklet (you can pick up near the flyers/newspaper racks), and use one on each pack. CAUTION make sure you grab the PURPLE ones, not the blue ones pictured below. It has been reported that the register reward will not print unless you buy the purple ones. It looks exactly like the one below but purple. Unfortunately when I went in the store I didn't know about this and I grabbed the blue ones. After I paid and no register reward printed I asked the manager and they had no clue what is going on. Since I could not remember where I heard about this deal, I just gave up and took the blue ones anyways because it was still a good deal. If you grab the right ones and use two $1 off 1, the price is $8 for both that you will pay out of pocket but a $3 register reward will print essentially making this $5 for both. That is $0.21 for each roll.


Walmart: Deal ends...I'm not sure.

This is a huge overage deal if done right. You will actually be making money for doing this which can be applied to other items you want to purchase at Walmart. In the proctor and gamble October 2nd 2011 insert, there were $8 off 2 Cover Girl Face Products coupons. I was lucky enough to have 3 of these inserts, so I had 3 of these coupons. That meant I would have to buy 6 Cover Girl items, which totaled no more than $24 and I could get it all for FREE. However, as I was looking at the Cover Girl products, I noticed the cheapest item available was some eyeshadow that was $3.14 each. So I bought 6 of them which amounted to $18.84. Once my coupons were applied, $18.84-$24 = -$5.16. Walmart actually owed my $5.16. They will give it to you as cash or they will apply it to another purchase. I decided to apply mine to some groceries. There might be a cheaper item at Publix. I think I saw some Cover Girl items for $2 and some cents. As far as I have researched, Publix will apply the overage to your cart of items but they will not give it back to you as cash.


By no means do I need anymore eyeshadow and I actually have no clue what to do with them. But it made me some money. That is why couponers should not throw away any coupon. You might find a money making deal on a product you thought to just throw the coupon away because its something you never buy or use. Many months ago I posted that I bought a pro biotic just because I made $2 off the transaction.


This is one of my Yorkshire Terrier pups. The puppies are 4 weeks old.    :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Homemade Wonton Soup

One of my favorite soups is wonton soup. Not only does it not require a lot of ingredients, but this recipe cooks up a huge batch that should last you a while. If you can, buy some sesame oil which adds a wonderful depth of flavor to this dish. Many times recipes call for fancy ingredients that honestly don't add much of anything in terms of flavor. But trust me, you will notice the sesame oil. Unfortunately I noticed I didn't have some, after I had started cooking. The cooking method below describes how to make the soup with the sesame oil.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
1 package of wonton wrappers
2 carrots roughly chopped
1 large onion roughly chopped
1.5 tsp of Italian dried herb seasoning blend
1 tsp of garlic powder
2 tsp of soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil

For the soup:
64 oz total of chicken broth 
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 carrot sliced into circles

8 oz of mushrooms
2 tsp of Italian dried herb seasoning
1.5 tsp of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Begin by adding the ground pork to a bowl. Mix in the garlic powder, soy sauce, sesame oil, and dried herbs. Set aside. Add the carrots and onion, (which you might want to roughly chop up depending on how good your food blender is) into your food processor or blender. For some odd reason I shredded my carrots before I put them in my food blender as seen in the photos. This was obviously a waste of time. Anyways, blend the ingredients until it creates a fine dip type of consistency. Add this to the ground pork and mix thoroughly.


Now we can begin making the wontons. I bought this type of wonton wrapper at my local Publix:


It doesn't say how many wontons there were, but my recipe used the whole packet. To stuff the wontons, I used a teaspoon to measure out 1 teaspoon worth of meat mix. Place this onto the center of the wrapper. I then dipped my finger tips in some water which I had in a small cup, and wet all the edges of the wrapper. This will help create a better seal. Then I folded the wrapper over to create a triangle shape. I pinched the middle corner of the triangle first, and then pinched my way around the whole wrapper. Once the triangle is completely sealed, I grabbed the outer two corners of the triangle and brought them together, pinching the two corners together to create the wonton shape.


Now I started working on the soup. First add all the chicken broth. Then add enough water to fill your pot about 1/3 from the rim. Next, add the sliced mushrooms, sliced carrot, soy sauce, garlic powder, and Italian dried herbs. Taste the liquid. If it does not have the flavor to your liking, add some salt and pepper. Once the liquid is boiling add the wontons into the soup one at a time. Cook for 30 minutes. By this time all the wontons should have floated to the surface meaning they are done.


You probably notice a Yorkshire Terrier face under the sliced carrots picture above. That was a wonderful Yorkshire Terrier printed glass cutting board John gave to my hubby Branden. Thanks so much John. I adore it.

Enjoy!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

AWESOME Dove Hair Products Deal and FREE Toothbrushes and Floss at CVS this Week

I know it has been a long time (I'm having lots of computer access and photo card reader problems), but I had to post about this deal. So CVS has several Dove hair care products on sale 2 for $6. When you buy $15 worth of Dove hair care products you get a $5 extra care buck reward. For this to work you need to get the following coupons:

3- buy one get one free Dove hair care products coupons found in the Red Plum insert for today October 2nd 2011

3- $0.75/1 Dove hair care product printable which can be found on  coupons.com when you search under the personal care section. It looks like this:

You can print two of these from each computer. I used my home and work computer so I got a total of 4 coupons. Just search for it again or hit the back button to print a second time.


Once you have the coupons, go to CVS as soon as possible because they will be out of stock very quickly, and grab 6 total Dove hair care items that are under the 2 for $6 deal. I grabbed 3 shampoos and 3 conditioners. Once everything is done the transaction works like this:

6 Dove hair care products, 2/$6 = $18 plus applicable taxes.
                                                       - (3) Buy one get on free coupons
                                                       - (3) $0.75 cents off
                You pay out of pocket    = $6.75, and get a $5 extra care buck to be used on a future purchase. With the extra care buck the total comes to $1.75 (plus whatever taxes you had to pay) for 6 Dove products! When ever I see deals like this on shampoo and conditioner for women I go all out because it is a very rare thing. The men's stuff is always on sale.

***Also at CVS there is a nice deal on floss and toothbrushes.*** I did the following transaction:

Get 2 Oral B Complete Floss 55 yards (can be the "satin" kind) which is on sale 2 for $6 plus get a $2 extra care buck when purchased
Get 1 Reach Toothbrush 2pk which is on sale for $3.99 plus get $2 extra care buck when purchased

Find these coupons and use when checking out:

2- $2 off Crest Complete toothpaste, Scope Dual Blast rinse, or Oral-B Complete floss or toothbrush coupons found in the Smart Source of September 11th 2011.

1- $2 off Reach toothbrush, excl Crystal Clean printable coupon found by clicking here. Scroll to the bottom and click on the "click to get $2 off " green button.




The final transaction turns out like this:


2 Oral B Floss 2 for $6 and 1 Reach toothbrush 2pk $3.99 = $9.99
                                                                                             - (2) $2 off the floss
                                                                                             - (1) $2 off the tooth brushes
                                                              You pay out of pocket = $3.99 plus taxes, but you get back two $2 extra care bucks which amounts to $4. So in the end its all FREE. 


I do not look at the extra care bucks as a "discount" but more as a way to stretch the buying power of my money. I get more stuff for the same amount of money.


These deals end October 8th 2011.

Monday, August 22, 2011

StarCraft II Protoss Cupcakes

For my husband's birthday back in July I made this cake:


I got the idea for the cake from 2 different sources, but I turned it into one big towering birthday cake. In this post I will describe how to make the Protoss symbols that I put on each cupcake. I made 50 cupcakes and one 8 inch cake for the top of the tiers.

For roughly 54 candy symbols, you will need:

1- 14oz bag of candy melts in the color of your choice. I bought mine at Michael's craft store.



1- 7oz bag of M&M candies. I also bought mine at Michael's because they have a section in their store which sells specific M&M candy colors.


 
1-Protoss symbol template: Right click and save the image below. It is sized to be printed on a regular 8.5 in x 11 in piece of paper.

Several sandwich sized ziploc bags.

Several pieces of wax paper cut to the size of the template.

Double boiler to melt candy melts. I made mine by adding water to a small pot and putting a metal bowl on top of it.

Plastic Spatula

Scissors

Directions:

Turn your stove onto high heat and assemble your double boiler. Pour the entire bag of candy melts into the metal bowl.


Stir constantly with the spatula until completely melted. Set it aside for about 5-10 minutes to let it cool down a bit.






In the meantime, print out your template and cut several sheets of wax paper to fit over the template. Clear some space on your counter and lay the template flat with a piece of wax paper on top. Next, cut out a tiny hole on one corner of the ziploc bag. Keep in mind, if you don't let the candy melts cool down a bit it will melt the ziploc bag. Pour some of the candy melt into the bag, squeeze excess air out of the bag, and zip it closed.



You need a tiny hole because each Protoss symbol is rather small. It is better to start with a hole that is too small, which can be fixed, than one that is too big and needs to be thrown out.


I start by outlining the symbol, then I go back and fill it in. You need to be kind of quick while doing this. You don't want the candy melts to turn hard before you finish. As soon as I finish filling in a symbol, I add the M&M in the correct spot.


After I am done filling in all the symbols, I move the waxed paper into the fridge so the candy melts can turn hard. Then I put a new piece of waxed paper over the template and continue. I was able to make 54 symbols out of one bag of candy melts. Make extras, because some will break. 



I ordered 50 black cupcake liners from the internet because I could not find any in stores. Then I frosted each cupcake with dark blue frosting. I was lucky to find frosting that was all ready dark blue since my local Aldi's had a whole bunch of 4th of July themed stuff on sale. If you cant find dark blue frosting, then dye some vanilla frosting with food coloring. Once your done frosting each cupcake, then add a symbol on top.


 I will explain in a later post how I built the top tier of cake and made the Protoss Nexus.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

My Favorite Rice. A Recipie Concocted with My Favorite Things

This is my absolute favorite rice ever. I can't believe that I never posted this before. It is full of flavor and is a meal on its own. It is inspired by the traditional Spanish rice cooked with cubed meat. Or try this with bacon, lots of it. Just make sure you drain all the grease out.

Ingredients:
1 can of whole kernel sweet corn
1 can of dark red kidney beans is preferred, or pinto beans work nice too.
1 chicken bouillon
1 small can of tomato paste
1 link, 14 oz of smoked sausage. For lack of a better term, I use the kind of link sausage that resembles the Hillshire Farm brand. My preference is the beef kind but use what ever flavor you desire.
1 TBS of olive oil
1 TSP of minced garlic
1 TSP of dried Italian herbs
1 TSP garlic powder
salt and black pepper to taste
Rice- I think I used 3 cups. Read directions to see how I figure out how much rice to add to my pot.


Directions:
Get a big pot and start heating the olive oil. Once it gets a little hot, turn down the heat to medium and add the garlic. My goal is to extract the flavor of the garlic and cook it until it turns translucent without burning it. If you burn it then start over. I will stir the garlic, remove the pot from heat, stir some more, and add it back onto the heat, several times to ensure that it will not burn.


Once it gets translucent, remove the pot from heat and set aside. Now start cutting up the sausage. I start by slicing it into circles and then cutting each circle into four pieces. Use the entire link of sausage.


Once it is all cut, add it to the pot and place the pot back onto the heat. Stir constantly until the sausage turns a little brown.



Next add the entire contents of the cans of tomato paste, corn, and beans.

 

Add the chicken bouillon and stir everything until it is well incorporated.


Now here is the part that is hard to explain. I never measure how much water to rice ratio I use when I cook. So I cant say how much water I added to my pot exactly. The only way I can describe it is to add enough water that it rises approximately 1 inch above all the corn, beans, and sausage mixture.


Now it is time to flavor the water. Add enough flavorings that the water has a slightly over flavored taste. You want this because the rice will absorb a lot of the flavor and it will taste like nothing if you don't add slightly too much. I used dried Italian herbs, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.


Before you add the rice double check the flavor of your water mixture. Now I add enough rice to the pot that it touches the surface of the water. I think I used about 3 cups but this could vary depending on the pot size you used and how much water you added.

 
JAdd enough rice that you can see it barely coming to the surface when it settles. This is so important. I do this to ensure that my rice never comes out mushy. The worst thing you can do is add too much water which results in mushy rice. Mushy rice can not be fixed. However, rice that is too hard due to lack of water to cook in, is easily fixable by adding more water. In this recipe, I do have to add water a few times but I do it in small increments like 1/3 cup at a time.

Turn the heat down to medium and put a cover on your pot so the rice can steam.







Cook it for 6 minutes at a time and then stir the contents.


Repeat this until the rice is cooked. If you notice while stirring that there is no liquid, add 1/3 cup of water. Rice cooks relatively quickly. When it is fluffy, and no longer hard to the bite it is done.


Traditionally, at least in my family, rice is cooked in what we call a "caldero". However, I find that when cooking with this type of pot, the rice burns and creates a crust on the bottom that is just gross to me. Some people love the crunchy burnt crust and eat it. We call this crust the "con con". My family is from the Dominican Republic :). When I cook with a nonstick pot I find that my rice doesn't burn (if you stir properly) and I actually have no waste.


Top it off with some finely chopped cilantro and enjoy!