Happy Halloween!!

Today is one of our favorite days here at the Muir house. Scott LOVES Halloween, more than Christmas, I can't go that far ;) However he goes all out on this night and people really look forward to it.

I think what makes our house so unique is that he sets up a movie screen in the front yard and plays Halloween movies all night long. We don't play anything super scary, but some good classics and stuff that the kiddies in the neighborhood like.

Each year our best friends come over too, and partake in our tradition. This year on our Halloween menu is a lot of good stuff I think. I made crock pot chili, taco dip, sweet corn cake, 2 loaves of pumpkin bread, and we have apple cider (spiked) mulling as well. YUMMY! I can't wait to dive into the feast.

The food is ready, the movies are playing, the fog machine is doing it's thing. Now time to sit back, relax and enjoy one of our favorite days of Fall. Happy Halloween everyone!!

Thursday's thoughts

Just one more shift at work then it's Bermuda time! Yay for a vacation :) Today was a really nice day at work and I had some great patients. One of my favorite patients was there today for her procedure and I just adore her. She's so sweet and positive and just lives her life to the fullest eventhough she is disabled from Polio as a child. She is mobile via her "scooter" and she doesn't miss a beat. When I saw her today she said to me "Do you ever get older, because you never look it!?" :) Of course I wanted to hug her, LOL! I'm the only nurse she'll let drive her lil' scooter for her too. May sound weird, but I think it's sweet. Why would I have to drive it one may ask? Well because since I'm the triage nurse, when she goes back for surgery, her stuff has to be moved to recovery. So every year I get to take a cruise in Ms. G's scooter. It's patients like her that make you realize how grateful we are or should be and why I became a nurse. I had another patient who stopped me on her way out to thank me for being so kind to her. As nice as I feel when people tell me I'm a good nurse, and am nice, It makes me sad that they are probably used to bad attitudes from other medical personnel.

I had a good workout today too which made me feel good. Nothing like getting those endorphins going :) I jogged for a mile, and boy was it humid out but I did it. I then biked about 3 miles, totaling a 40 minute workout. I did some weight lifting too afterwards as well. When I came home from working out I was one salty girl. The dogs sure thought it was cool, and they kept trying to lick the salt on my legs, yuck, LOL! :)

I'm not sure what the deal is, but I've been on a major salmon kick recently! I could just eat it every night!.....and I pretty much have. I just add Caribbean Jerk seasoning to it and a little butter. I've been grilling it and it is so delicious! I made 2 salmon filets for dinner thinking that I'd take 1 of them to work for lunch tomorrow. Hmm....yeah that didn't happen since I happily ate them both tonight. If I could make eating a career I would, and man would I be good at it! ;)

Fabulous Fajitas

One of my favorite things to do is cook. I absolutely love it. If I wasn't an RN I'd consider being a chef. Anyway I like to try a couple new recipes a week if possible. Although around here recently things have been so insane that I really haven't had much kitchen time. Tonight I was feeling rather blah from the obstruction since I'm still a little uncomfortable, so I thought that cooking would cheer me up and it did. Scott and I love fajitas so so much and usually he makes them. Tonight I decided to make them totally from scratch. Usually we cheat and use McCormick's awesome fajita marinade. Here's what I did:

2 lbs. steak sliced thin
1/2 cup of beef broth
1 green pepper
1 TB. butter
drizzle of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
1 Tsp. sea salt and pepper
1 TB cumin
1 Tsp Old Bay Seasoning
1 lime zested and juiced
2 cloves of fresh garlic minced
Flour tortillas
Toppings: Shredded cheese, sour cream, etc.

Combine steak, broth, salt, pepper, cumin, old bay, lime zest, lime juice, and garlic in bag. Shake around to make sure all ingredients are mixed well and meat is covered. Refrigerate at least two hours.

Cut up green pepper
Sautee in pan with the TB of butter and EVOO until tender.
Add meat and marinade mixture
Cook until meat is at your preference.

Serve meat mixture on a warmed tortilla and top with your favorite toppings.

Result: We LOVED them!!! Definitely will make again. I think Scott was secretly sad because I stole his thunder and made them from scratch and they may even be better then our packet mixture that we've used for years.

Great to serve with Spanish rice, or chips and salsa.

Note: Fajitas can give off a lot of juice and get kind of runny. I took a little of the fajita juice and some corn starch to thicken the marinade mixture in the pan. It was awesome! Enjoy :)

The Pizza Fiasco

So tonight I was going to make Chicken Carbonara from scratch. Then, Scott called me at work and asked If I really felt like cooking or just getting carry-out. Twist my arm since I'm so tired, carry-out it is! So after work I ran to the store to look for a new Raven's jersey since at work we wear our jersey's on Friday's. No luck, oh well. So I order a pizza and sub from Ledo's and pick it up on my way home. It was ready super quick and was super hot, awesome!..so i thought. I get home to sick Scott and he's happily awaiting the arrival of his pizza. We sit down to eat and he asks where the blue cheese dressing is. Crap! I knew I forgot to ask for something! I should know better, in all the years I've known Scott, the man lives for blue cheese dressing. Oh well I think to myself we'll have some in the fridge no big deal. WRONG! I don't think we've ever not had blue cheese in the fridge, but sure enough we didn't tonight. so he eats a piece of his pizza, and after the 2nd bite realizes they gave me the wrong pizza. Ahh! I orderded buffalo chicken pizza, and instead I got just a regular pizza with chicken on it. So he makes a call to Ledo's tries to explain the dilemma to the person on the phone, blah blah, they try to charge me for another pizza, they finally understand that they gave me the wrong pizza etc. What a night mare this has turned out to be. So much for quick no fuss carry out right? So Scott heads up to Ledo's finally gets his pizza-free, and for all of his trouble, gets a giant vat of blue cheese dressing. Yay. Did I mention my sub was perfeclty cheesy, greasy, and awesome ;)