Paying it Forward

All I can say is.  Wow.  Thank you so much for the amazing response to my post yesterday.  I just feel like a weight is lifted off of me, it’s really hard to describe, but it feels good!  It will probably take me a couple days to respond to all the comments but I just wanted to say THANKS!

With the Cabot Cheese and King Arthur flour I received last week, I decided to make a quiche.  #quichefeast was the theme for my box of goodies this time.  I remembered during lent that Tony loved a pepper and egg sandwich from Portillo’s.  Although he would ask for it dipped, which meant it was dunked in the beef au jus, and I would always argue that meant that he did have some type of meat, which wasn’t allowed on Friday’s, but I never won that argument.

So I decided to make a pepper and egg quiche.  I used red and yellow peppers and jalapenos for a bit of a spicy kick.

It was actually close to 70 degrees by the time I left for my walk yesterday.  Um, it was a bit breezy too!  I know my Mom is going to comment about my bangs being too long.

My friend Nicole from Prevention RD does a chili contest every fall, and this marks her sixth year doing it!  I love all the different takes on chili, from vegetarian, white chicken chili – the possibilities are endless.  Last week she posted Entry #3 from this years competition, and as soon as I read the ingredients, I knew I was going to make it.   I did make a couple adjustments.  You all know I love beef, but I reduced the beef to two pounds of ground sirloin.  And when I make any chili other than my buffalo chicken chili, I use this chili blend from Penzey’s.   Lynne, this was one of the seasonings I picked up when we were in Madison.  It has basically all the ingredients you need for chili – and you use 1 tablespoon per quart of chili.  This chili is delicious – very tomatoey because it calls for tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and petite diced tomatoes.  And of course, I had to shred a bit of Cabot cheese over the top for good measure.  Yum.

I was on pins and needles all day because I knew my flooring was going to be installed.  I also had a plumber AND an electrician over yesterday.  My kitchen sink faucet has been driving me crazy because it won’t stay put – the particle board that the faucet was secured to was rotting and needed to be replaced.  I bought a new faucet about a month ago thinking I could do it myself.  Um, I am not Lori, so no, I needed a professional to do that.  The electrician installed new ceiling fixtures – I no longer have that hideous dining room light!    And when I got home, I saw the progress:

I love, love, love, the floor.  It’s going to look so fleek when it’s all done.  The only furniture I am keeping is the dining room set Tony and I bought because really all the rest of my living room furniture were garage sale finds.  I put the microfiber couch on craigslist for free, thinking I would get a ton of calls, but it was several hours before I got a text asking if they were still available – yes!  She told me that her couch now is so worn that when she sits down on it, her butt goes all the way to the ground.  She wanted to stop by last night to pick it up – I told her to bring some muscle because one part of the couch pulls out into a queen size bed.

When she got to my house, she explained that her husband had a heart attack several years ago and has been on disability.  She can only work part time because she has a really bad hernia.  She just said there is no extra money in the budget to buy new furniture.  So then I told her she could have the lay-z-boy, she could have the entertainment center, the coffee tables, my dressers from my bedroom – I literally started going through the house thinking of stuff to give this woman that would otherwise just sit in my basement.  She looked at me, just gave me a great big hug and said “bless you.”  It made me feel so good! 

By the time she came, picked up the furniture, we talked on the deck while her helpers moved everything, it was nearly 9 p.m. before I ate.  But this dinner is so quick.  I call this cheaters Steak Diane.  I seasoned the steak with salt and pepper and it sat on my counter probably a couple hours before I cooked it.  In a skillet I sauteed some zucchini.  I got my cast iron pan really got and pan seared the steak for 3 minutes a side and let it rest.  I added mushrooms to the pan and cooked for about 5 minutes, until they started to get golden brown.  My steak diane sauce?  1/3 cup beef broth, 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon A-1 steak sauce.  Once the mushrooms were done, I lowered the heat and added the steak diane sauce and scraped all the delicious bits off the bottom of the pan.  Then poured that over my steak.  Bam.  So good and delicious!

And I did good getting my steps in yesterday!

I have to give a shout out to one of my blog readers Jaclyn.  She’s sent me so many wonderful things – last November she even included a pair of sox for Tony to wear in the hospital because she said her Uncle used to complain that his feet were always cold in the hospital.  Over the summer she sent me a message on Facebook asking me if I wanted these two pairs of shoes she never wore, but were size 8.  I quickly said yes, and then completely forgot about it.

She sent such a cute note, the shoes, some treats.  She said “better late than never!”  Um, turns out not only did she have to move quickly over the summer, her Mom’s health is declining, she was actually hospitalized a couple times, her dog is sick, her cousin suddenly passed away.  It blew my mind away that she would have taken the time to send me this stuff with so much going on in her life, but no matter what is going on in your life, I think you can find ways to Pay it Forward.  Even if it’s buying the Starbuck’s coffee for the person behind you – you never know how that one small gesture can change a persons day.

Alright, I am running super late, and still have to take a shower and put my food together and leave the house in 20 minutes – totally doable! 

Again, THANK YOU for being there for me on my post yesterday – it means more to me than you’ll ever know.  Hugs!