Continuous Sniffles and the dull knife

It seems that every time I take a plane, my body reacts with sneezing, runny nose, and coughing. And it is the same with my recent trip/move to Germany. The hacking, the endless tissues are becoming burdensome. All I want to do is run and well, I feel like death walking the two blocks to the German market and home, so that's out of the question.

So the past two days have been filled with endless Big Bang Theory, internet surfing, playing "Yes, Chef" and iMessaging people in the states. I thought walking to the market would be good, but on my return home, I felt weak, so back on the couch I went.

However, this... allergies? cold? ... won't stop me from cooking Chicken Tortilla Soup. Or my mixed version of it. Then I grabbed my husband's kitchen knife and well that almost stopped me.

See the memo of a chef's knife doesn't go in the dishwasher didn't get to my new hubby. Rather his version is, I never said not to nor explained why not to, so he did. Basically, how all my kitchen memos go. I never said not to.

Then again it was the first slice of onion, that I realized that sucker was dull. And while my knife skills are anything but chef worthy my friend's dad would have taken that thing away from me immediately and handed me a new one. But I was left to make due with what I had on hand - a dull kitchen knife or my wusthoff paring knife.

The paring knife was obviously too small for the job, so I chose the hazard knife. With each stroke, I could just feel it slip closer to my fingers and I inwardly cringed. It was dull alright and one of my fingers were going to become it's target. Each cut was haphazard and un-chef worthy.

However, I made it through the onion and pepper with out spurting blood or rushing to get a band-aid. And I was able to prepare my soup without any other issues. It was a hit at dinner and it's gotten better in the fridge.

Now to find new knives.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 lb chicken breast
1 taco seasoning packet
1 rotel diced tomato
1 bell pepper
1 onion

Cook chicken in rotel, one can of water (about 2 cups), and taco seasoning in small pot. Dice pepper and onion. Once the chicken is cooked, shred it. Saute pepper and onion  with a tablespoon of olive oil in big pot, once cooked add chicken and left over sauce from small pot. Simmer until you are ready to eat it. We topped ours with cheese and scooped it Scoops.

Married Life

Oh, how four years have gone by and quickly I might add.

In the past four years, I've moved, worked, cooked, moved, worked, cooked, moved, cooked, got engaged, planned a wedding, moved overseas and well here I am on my couch in my pjs, blowing off the dust on my old rusty blog about cooking. Might I add with a pot of chili on the stove (I promise you the recipe is below).

Oh, yes I'm back. Ready to open my new cookbooks, switch up some recipes and well, dust off some old ones. Time to start cooking those recipes I pinned so many months ago and on the flight over. Time to learn some German and about my heritage that runs through my blood. Time to set off some fire alarms, to cook too many things at once, and probably burn somethings in the process.

And in the meantime, I'll revamp this baby, give her some flair probably, add some in about german life and married life.

But for now, I'm going to go eat a bowl of my chili and watch my husband blow-up some aliens on some video game.

Taco Chili

1 packet of taco seasoning
1 lb ground beef
2 cans of whatever beans you like
1 can of diced tomatoes (I used rotel)
1 small can of tomato sauce
1/4 cup of beer (whatever you have on hand)

Brown the meat in a pot, I used my pasta pot. Add seasoning, once browned, then add beer, let it burn off. Add the rest of the ingredients, then let it simmer to whatever consistency you like. Easy peasy.

Back for more

Dear heavens, how long has it been since I've written on this blog?
Months.... No wait.... Over a year.
Dad brought it up for awhile and then magically stopped. And now here I am 15 months later, trying to come back and blog.
Have I lost my food blogging mojo? Nope. I've just been blogging elsewhere for work and well have been to lazy, yes, lazy to blog personally.
But I'm back. And I hope to start blogging once a week, again.
I'm getting back in to the baking groove, sending cookies to Iraq (hoping they don't turn into cookie pucks, but it's possible) and making birthday cakes and brownies, which means kitchen accidents, cuts and bruises.
Nothing major has happened lately in that department. Just smoke coming out of the oven, which lets admit isn't that abnormal.
Now if I can only figure out what to make for Valentine's Day?