Sunday Comfort Food

So I am kinda feeling like dookie. I don't have a full-on flu or armageddon type cold but just enough to where my body is like, "Yeah, just a reminder about who's in charge and you don't get a chance to enjoy your weekend" kind of blah...

When I suffer from a case of the ickies, I want comfort food. Except, I feel like yuck and don't have the energy to spend hours cooking. I wanted some type of chicken noodle or rice/ soup/ casserole type thing because that is what sounded...well...comforting.

I went digging through the pantry to see what I had on hand, I had a choice between noodles or risotto, and I went with the risotto. I mean, risotto is so creamy it practically screams comfort.

Ingredients

Begin by pouring your broth into a 2 qt sauce pan on medium low heat. Add to this 2 small bay leaves. You should always have your broth warm when making risotto. Warm broth ensures the butter/ oil will evenly coat the grain to keep it from clumping, as well as, aids in absorption resulting in a creamier consistency.

In a heavy bottom 4 quart stock pot add the 3 tablespoons of butter on medium heat. When this is melted let this cook for about a minute with stirring to eliminate some of the liquid.  Add to this 1/4 c diced (frozen) onion. Stir continuously, as to not burn any of the butter solids or the onion, cooking for about 2 minutes. 

Add 1 cup of Arborio rice. Stir well to coat all of the rice. Cook, while stirring frequently until the butter and rice browns and the onion is caramelized (3-5 minutes)

Add the drained canned chicken to the pan, breaking up the chunks of chicken as you saute.

De-glaze the pan by adding the wine. This is optional but I prefer the subtle notes the wine adds to the risotto. Cook and stir for about a minute until the liquid has flashed off.

Add the heated broth a cupful at a time, while stirring. There are 2 schools of thought on how long it should take to add all of the broth. Some people take 30 minutes to incorporate all of the broth. I added mine over 10 minutes. It was still creamy at the end of the cooking time. 

Add spices (no specific measurements)

All of the broth

Cover and allow to cook 15 Minutes on Medium-Low, no stirring.

As you can see the bulk of the liquid is absorbed and is beginning to have a creamy texture . Remove the bay leaves at this point. 

Measure out and add the frozen vegetables (1&1/2 c). 

Give a quick stir. Cover and cook  10 minutes on low, no stirring.

Ta-da! Creamy, dreamy risotto. No added heavy cream. No cream of any kind of soup in a can. Just a beautiful blend of flavors and textures. It is earthy, nutty, and buttery. A light yet savory flavor. The vegetables are tender crisp and the shredded chicken melts in your mouth.

 I did add a quick dash of pepper and sprinkle of salt to finish. Serve with butter bread or biscuits and a tall glass of "moo juice". 

I'm baaaacckkk...

Phew ...not having use of the computer was tough. I still need to do a few tweaks on the computer but I am pretty sure everything is up and operational.  I will say I was shocked that I had to back up over 8000 pictures. Which I do frequently but I realized there are deficiencies with the frequency and quality of back up. I believe it is time to get a tiered hard drive system. Can you imagine if I lost ALL 8000 photos? Or all of my hundreds of documents? That is kinda scary...

Now to return to my house DIY dilemma. I have Twiggy sized dining room in a Mama Cass sized world..and if you don't don't know who Twiggy and Mamma Cass are I now hate you because on top of being fat, pleasantly plump, fluffy--yes fluffy-- I am now adding old to that list...

Speaking of old...Sunday was my birthday. The hubbs and I didn't do much of anything because of the icky weather. We stayed  home made a pot of chili (which became chili mac tonight), watched movies and dug out the old board games to while away some time. Yes, some of these games are really old! We actually had fun and plan to spend more time "unplugging" from our techie-gadget  habits then spend time on the more simple type entertainment--like board games and cards.

My dining room has gone through several incarnations in the last 15 years. Some good...um, some not so much. In 2012 my dining room look cute for about a minute 

Case in point, this is the current state of the dining room in all it's unfinished, looking a wee downtrodden un-glory.

It really took a beating over the past year and half acting as a temporary kitchen and storage during construction. We have been making a point to eat our dinner together several times week in the dining room. The more time we spend in there, the more depressing it becomes. We need to spruce this room up--stat!

I really need to think but the function of this room. It is--of course-- where we take our meals, houses a fair amount of storage --including the overflow kitchen/ canning supplies-- it is the main entry into the house (first impressions!), is a pass through to the living room, kitchen and access to the upstairs and also acts as a makeshift office. That is a lot to consider.

Hopefully this room won't take long, since we are NOT doing a gut job on the room.
1. Paint the walls, no cost since I am using the leftover paint from the kitchen remodel.
2. Paint the ceiling, I will need to buy paint.
3. Repair the sloping floor, install underlayment and install vinyl flooring. Cost to be determined
4. Install new baseboards. Cost to be determined
5. Install new light fixture (which was FREE!)
6. Closet doors-custom build. I don't even want to think about this cost.
7. Creative storage and organize the closet for more efficient storage
8. Repurposed furniture project.
9. Re-upholster the 2 arm chairs and make/ purchase slipcovers for the parson's chairs.
10. Paint the table base or as much as I love this table, I think I need to revert to a more narrow table that better fits the space.
11. Accessorize--no cost since I will shop what is already in the house

What quickie makeover projects are on your list to do?

Technical Difficulties

So I know enough about computers to be dangerous...to myself. In my efforts to "secure" my laptop, I accidently did some things to make it so secure I can't access my internet. Or connect my camera. Or download things. And apparently I am not the administrator to my laptop-which I bought and paid for several years ago- to UNDO all these things. Soooo, I am not sure when I will be back to blogging. 

I am going through all my files/ pictures and backing them up --thank goodness I can still burn CD's on my computer. Once this is complete I am going to take it to a computer guru in hopes we can undo what I did. If not, we will wipe out the hard drive and start over.

Yes--I did try a system restore point--No Go. I followed instructions for the program I installed (which is Spy Bot, btw) and the problem is the administrator thing. I truly have no clue as to why I am not my own administrator. Not sure if it was due to when it was repaired several years ago and the tech changed something but then didn't change it back. Siiiggghh.

In the interim, I will be lurking about reading everyone else's blogs on a tiny 3 x 5 inch tablet screen.  Maybe this will be a good thing. Maybe being "unplugged" will force me to work on more projects. Right?