Chicken Chili?

I had this real hankering to make chili, but I wanted to use chicken instead of beef.  I've never made chili before, and really I haven't ever really loved it before but for some reason I wanted it.  I used a recipe by my favorite TV chef the contessa - when I read it it didn't really sound like chili to me by what was in it, but the reviews were really good so I went ahead.

Here is the recipe:
chicken chili

So, to me this really was not chili.  But it was good! I put it over rice and it was really tasty, but like eating this as a bowl of chili not so much, it didn't have the consistency of chili and it was really heavy on the bell pepper taste, which isn't chili to me?

High Calorie

I need some help! What is your favorite high calorie treat (besides ice cream)? High calorie means like something over 400 calories! Okay, ready, set, now go!

I love Sparkle

I got all of these nail polishes this week and cannot wait to try them all

This is what 3000 calories looks like

And it's not even that much, I slacked on my snacking usually I snack way MORE!

Is that like Facebook?

A friend of mine is on a diet and using this website SparkPeople to add up the calories she eats everyday.  Well we had this idea that it would be good for me to track what I eat to make sure I am eating enough.  I should aim for 3000 calories a day at least.  Well I did it today for the first time and moral of the story is: I am NOT eating enough! I thought I was consuming so many more calories than I am!  I need to kick this eating plan up a notch and get higher calorie foods and fattier foods.  Hopefully I stick with the tracking, it's a little tedious.  But when I saw my friend doing it I said "is that like facebook or something?" having no idea what the website was really for.

Do you guys track your calories (those I am sure trying to lose weight) it's kind of eye opening! I thought I was eating so much more!

Sometimes family is absurd

As my friends know my mom passed away three years ago, new followers I need to let you know that before I start to have my first real bitch ranting post.  So for my first transplant my mom was my everything.  Now that I don't have her I have a small circle of family friends and my best friends that are supporting me and helping me as I go through this process again.  Now my family on the other hand, I never knew how in denial most of them are.  I've seen it over the past few months that they don't really absorb the fact that I need new lungs and chronic rejection doesn't go away.  But I had someone say today that a key member of my immediate family "thinks I am just going to get better" I'm sorry. WHAT THE FUCK is what I have to say to that.  I am NOT getting better.  The only thing that will save my life is another set of lungs.  Chronic rejection does not stop, it does not heal itself, it does not reverse itself - once it starts it just keeps going.  I am looking at probably being put on the transplant list between the next 3-6 months at the rate things have been going.  Like I have people say things to me that insinuates I might be years away from needing a transplant or I am not really that sick and I just look at them like "you're a fucking moron" I'm sorry it's not only frustrating but it's insulting.  The people that care about me and love me should ask me, or go educate themselves, and my family has already been through this once, so they have no excuse.  I don't know how to deal with it, but it's getting to a point where it's beyond frustrating and it ends up upsetting me.   It's time to get on board and support me and realize I am NOT getting better! What would you guys do? How would you deal with it in a tactful way?

Progressive won't like this

I make breaded chicken a lot! You know why? Because it's EASY! I use Progressive Italian breadcrumbs, but when I am lucky enough to find breadcrumbs at a specialty store that are homemade I seriously giggle with excitement - almost.  Well two weeks ago I ran out of my specialty breadcrumbs and didn't want to go back to the store bought kind, so I had this crazy idea to make my own breadcrumbs to roll my chicken tenders into.  I took an entire loaf of white bread (it needs to be older bread) cut the crust off and put it in a food processor.  I put the breadcrumbs in a bowl and added: salt, pepper, (good) Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley and a tiny bit of oregano. 

My crush on Andy Cohen

This post is totally off topic from anything I usually post on here, but I need to profess my giant gay man crush I have on Andy Cohen from Bravo.  Anytime I see him on a reunion show, or Kathie Lee and Hoda, or Watch What Happens Live he makes me LOL - for real.  His tweets make me giggle too.  And he looks cute in a suit.  He is basically the gay man of my dreams.  Come on every girl has one.  He is also the only gay man that I'll stay up until ungodly hours of the night on a weekday to see.  And even when he is promoting something on that show in a sleazy kind of way (see: MGD64) I still love him and think no less of him for being lame like that.  I want to hang out on his deck of his weekend home and rub his Buddha belly while he has his makers mark and ginger ale and I have my vodka cranberry.  Andy is my mazel of the week....

 

Lung Update

I have a lung update for you all.  I had a check up yesterday and Lindsey came with me, which was really nice and fun.  We have a fun time gossiping in the car, we stopped for lunch and pedicures on the way because we made amazing time and actually had to kill some time - shocking.  I know a place that seriously does the most amazing pedicure of all time.  Lindsey agreed.  I did all my usual tests, blood work, x-ray, pfts.  The good new is my pfts are stable at 33% and my weight has been stable at 83-84 lbs for a few months now.  We had a really good visit with my doctor we had lots of laughter during our house long visit.  There was a down side of the visit but I knew it was coming because I've been through this already, but it's time for oxygen when I am exerting myself: doing my daily walk, walking up stairs, showering, things like that.  I mean really the only time I am really comfortable is when I am just sitting, obviously that is when my lungs bother me least because I'm not really doing anything to annoy them.  So this week oxygen will be delivered, but at least I think it will give me some relief.  We also agreed if I hit any weight under 80 lbs I have to agree to get a feeding tube, but I think I talked her into having my lung surgeon do the procedure if it needs to be done because that would make me fight it less.  But hopefully I can stay where I am, but unlikely the more lung function I lose so I just have to keep eating.  And I went up my anti anxiety meds because you know getting oxygen clearly gives me some anxiety knowing I am getting worse, so hopefully that helps.

And the journey continues....

Do you know your chakras?

Saturday one of my bffs took me to a class on chakras.  Everyone has heard the word before but I doubt really that many people know what it is.  The class was pretty packed which really shocked me! I thought it might possibly be just me and her, haha.  It was held in a yoga studio, and here is something I've never understood, why do some yoga studios have carpets? It's GROSS! We sat down in this carpeted yoga room for a few minutes and I had to fight dry heaving.  Seriously the carpet really grossed me out and made me want to vomit.  The saliva was building up like crazy in my mouth and I finally got up (I wasn't sure I was allowed) and went to the bathroom.  That carpet was filled with sweat and bacteria and grossness and my mind and stomach could not even handle it.  I stayed in the bathroom for a while and tried to relax.  I was able to keep my composure through the 2.5 hour class and did end up learning a lot.  We have 7 chakras, each one responsible for something different.  And some of my I think are blocked and need work, especially the one that controls energy level and digestion haha, but some of my chakras are really in tune and working well, like the intuition one and the one that makes you creative.  I want to go back and have this man tell me about my own chakras and what he feels from them.  I know a lot of people think this is crap but I believe in a lot of it, but I also believe in Western ideas too, especially when it comes to medicine.  But overall it was a really interesting class and I'm glad Lindsey made me go!

Soup in the City

My friend Laura and I are really big french onion soup connoisseurs.  We are serious about our french onion! We have been to almost every place in Boston that serves it.  And we have also called every place in Boston that doesn't serve it.  We had big plans to go to Bouchee on Newbury St last week.  We love their french onion! It's like a 8/10 french onion soup.  And guess what, to our horror it had become a Pappa Razzi! WTF! Our plan had totally been ruined and we didn't know where to go, because we had plans to go to MiniLuxe after so we had to stay close by.  We called every place on Newbury basically and no one served french onion, also people were still serving clam chowder this is not okay with me clams are for summer! So we reluctantly went to Abe and Louis, because their soup is like a 6/10 kind of french onion soup.  I'm not sure why, it has A LOT of cheese on it, and it's really big, but just something is lacking with it.  But I did enjoy my glass of wine and crab cocktail! After our soup let down we headed over to MiniLuxe and they were @@sholes to us.  I'm just going to be honest.  They let us stand there for a few minutes while four people working were huddled around doing nothing, when finally the receptionist asked us if she could help us and then at 7:15 told us they didn't have time to do two manicures.  Really? I then tweeted about it to I believe the MiniLuxe owner and got no response and this infuriates me.  My mother owned and ran three very successful restaurants so I grew up with business in my blood and let me tell you not acknowledging someone that had a bad experience is really bad business.  That is like business 101 MiniLuxe owner! We ventured down the street and got perfectly good manicures (also at a place that closed at 8 but oddly enough had time for us.) I'm pretty sure we won't be back to MiniLuxe anytime soon.   Or Bouchee :-(

What is your favorite place for french onion soup?

Here is my list:
The Harvest, Putnam CT
Balthazar, NYC
Chop House 111, Worcester MA
Bouchee, Boston MA
Gaslight, Boston MA
Abe and Louis, Boston MA

I can't think of any other places right now but I know there are some.....

Homemade Thin Crispy Potatos (aka Chips)

I'm really funny when it comes to potatoes, I only really like them at certain times.  For example I pretty much only eat mashed potatoes if I make a whole chicken, but even then I would rather have rice.  I eat rice almost everyday.  I'll only have a baked potato once in a blue moon.  And generally I never eat french fries unless they are really really good.  I'm just odd what can I say.  But the times I do eat potatoes I really do enjoy them, and I make homemade gnocchi several times a year.... So I saw this nice package of fingerling potatoes at Whole Foods and they say in my fridge for like a week before they almost got tossed.  I didn't really know what to do with them.  One night on a whim I was crunched for time and dinner had to be ready quickly, so I cut them up thin, tossed some salt, pepper, really good olive oil on them and baked them.  And I've made these about 10 times since! They are like homemade potato chips, but can be a little thicker depending on how you cut them, and I dip them in ketchup.  My eating partner is obsessed with them and asks me to make them all the time!

Ingredients
Fingerling potatoes (this variety works best!)
sea salt
pepper
great quality olive oil

First slice up the potatoes (don't peel them) really quite thin, unless you want them less crispy, then slice them thicker.  Spread them out in one layer on a baking sheet (they must be one layer) and drizzle all of them with olive oil, cover them all with salt and pepper (for a nice variation I use truffle sea salt sometimes) and really you could put whatever spices you want on them if you want to flavor them, but I keep them simple.  Cook them for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Keep an eye on them while they cook and you can sort of flip them and move them around if you want to, but I really don't.  I like them crispy though so I don't really need to watch them closely. 

Soup Season!

As soon as the temperature hits grey and gloomy it becomes soup season.  I love all kinds of soup and I love to make all kinds of soup.  I love fall for creamy soups! There are three I make a lot because they are so simple: cream of broccoli, cream of cauliflower, and butternut squash soup. 

Here is my recipe for cream of broccoli or cauliflower

Ingredients
one medium sized onion
2 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup of flour
4 cups of chicken broth (or veggie if you want to make this vegetarian)
a "head" of broccoli or cauliflower
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt
pepper

Chop up the onion and saute it in the butter until translucent and then add the flour to it to make a thickening agent, only let that cook for a few seconds before you add the chicken stock.  Chop of the broccoli or cauliflower and add to the chicken broth and bring it to a boil for a few minutes, then let is cook on low heat with a cover on top of it for about 20 minutes.  Then add the cream, stir together and put it in a blender and puree it.  But the puree back in the pot on low heat and add salt and pepper to taste.  And you are done! So easy!