Easy Chicken Tacos: A Crock Pot Love Story

Want something easy to do besides salsa? Try making these easy chicken tacos:

3lbs chicken breasts (or whatever kind of chicken meat you prefer)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 large can whole or diced tomatoes (or tomato sauce in a pinch - or fresh tomatoes)
1 good sized onion

Mix the tomatoes, taco seasoning and onion in the food processor for a couple seconds.

Fill crock pot with chicken and pour the other stuff from the food processor on top.

Once the chicken is cooked, shred it and stir it back into the mixture.

I find this to be a bit salty. If you wish you can add a whole potato for 30-45 minutes to absorb a bit of the salt.

Get flour tortillas, cheese, sour cream, black olives, your homemade salsa, some onion and tomato, and whatever else you like on your chicken tacos. Enjoy!

*If you have any left over you've got a great start for tortilla soup or an easy snack. For the easy snack get the tostitos made for dip (they look like tiny taco salad shells, made for dip) fill with some chicken, top with some shredded cheese, and put in the oven a couple of minutes to melt the cheese.

Salsa Made Simple

For my first entry on this page, I'll start with something I do well. I make great salsa. It's so easy, you can do it, too! You were warned, it's addicting.

Take:

Two small or one large can of tomato sauce (or whole or diced tomatoes)
One half bunch of cilantro
One half jalapeno pepper (or more if you want it really hot!)
3-4 handfuls of onion, chopped
1 tsp - 1 TBS garlic, to your taste
A dash of salt - optional
1 TBS lemon juice -optional

Give it all a whirl in the food processor until the salsa is the consistency of your liking. Enjoy!

Aint That A Shame?

It is a shame. Today I'm looking at my daughter's Sony Vaio PCG-K13 notebook computer. It's stopped working. We have no recovery discs, restore disks, whatever you choose to call them. I've tried the place online that claims they have every disk you could ever need - or they'll get it for you. But they've failed me. http://restoredisks.com/

Now I'm turning to anyone, anyone at all on the internet who can help me find the required disks to get this thing going again. Sony gave me some song and dance about how Microsoft only allows them to manufacture so many discs. Apparently this number is less than one per system, because we got none with this machine. Yes, now I know we were supposed to make our own when the thing was new, but we didn't understand that at the time. Hewlett Packard, Compaq, Toshiba, Dell, and Apple have always had discs available for purchase if we lost the ones that came with our machines. Sony is 0 for 2, as far as I'm concerned. No disc with the machine, no disc available for purchase. Booo Hisss.

If you can help please click the comments link at the end of this post and leave a comment. I'd gladly pay for the discs.

The Camomile Lawn

Mary Wesley wrote the novel, which I have never read. Peter Hall directed the miniseries, which was a treat. I wasn't familiar with the actors, but I think they did a great job. The story is about a group of cousins who grew up in England during the war. Their lives are quite intermingled and separate at the same time. I especially loved Calypso, Polly, and Sophie. Maybe because they're girls? Their characters were the deepest, I thought. Relax some weekend and enjoy this group. It's a little dark in places, so I wouldn't sit down with children to watch it. It's not that kind of entertainment. It does draw you in, though. Have a day with the cousins.

Library Hotel, NYC

Do you want proof I'm a geek? Here it is! I haven't stayed at the Library Hotel
in NYC yet, but as soon as I get a chance, I will.

The rooms all have different categories of books. I'd like to stay in the Fairy Tale room and the Romance Room and the Classics Room and the Erotica Room and the Poetry Room. I want to stay in the Paintings Room and the Photography Room and the Music Room and the Fashion Design Room. I want to stay in the Ancient Room and the Romance Room. I want to stay in the Museums Room and the Logic Room and the Ethics Room. I want to stay in the Philosophy Room and the Paranormal Room and the Love Room and the Psychology Room.

Okay, I obviously need many nights at the Library Hotel.

Walden Country Inn and Stables, Aurora Ohio

The Walden Country Inn and Stables is a unique place. This must have been a labor of love for the architect. The design is so interesting, so unexpected. You feel cozy and taken care of and special just because of the way the building feels. The rooms are spacious and luxurious.

We stayed in A loft suite (about twelve hundred square feet!) and really enjoyed it. Even the private stairway had flair. You have a fireplace. The huge bath is across from the bed instead of in the bathroom, which also has a shower. If you want to spend a romantic getaway in a room that lends itself to blissful relaxation go stay at Walden.

Don't order room service from their on site restaurant, however. It takes forever to get your tepid food. As a bonus I got the nastiest case of food poisoning in my life. Waking up the morning of checkout with projectile vomiting is not in their brochure, but it was an unexpected part of our stay. They claim to have movies for rent, but when you pick up the list in the room and call down and ask for a title they are put out. They don't really have those movies for rent, they go and get them from a local rental place. I also don't recommend paying big bucks to ride their horses. One of our horses was entirely spooked by the mud in the trail and decided to run into trees and be otherwise impossible. We all had to return (the two of us and our "guide") after just a few terrible minutes (we didn't get through 5 minutes of our hour long ride) and they still charged us at full rate for the both of us.

Remember I told you the building is awesome, and worth the stay. The staff was mediocre - and I'm being generous. For the room alone, go. Eat and entertain yourself elsewhere.

see their brochure here:
http://www.waldenco.com/brochure/walden.swf

Going to Orlando? Stay at Sheraton's Vistana Resort

You can thank me later. Vistana is close to Disney, across the street from a real, albeit a little depressing, grocery store. It's chock full of nice amenities, including a store or two on property. The pictures online just don't do it justice. Nice apartments, with their screened patios, washer/dryer, full kitchen, grand master bathroom give you all the niceties of home.

The giant pool in the picture is a fun place with lots of people, but there are a bunch of pools and hot tubs all around the property that feel much more private, and are usually right outside your back door. You can sit on the patio while older children swim. You can see the nightly midnight fireworks show from Disney's Pleasure Island from the Vistana property.

They have their own on site Pizza Hut and 3 or 4 other eateries. You can play tennis, rent bicycles, watch the chameleons, use the fitness centers or the game room. Or you could just relax. There's a television in the living room and the bedroom. I can't remember if there was a television in the 2nd bedroom?

Daniel Deronda

There's something to be said for the BBC. When they take a novel and do an adaptation, they don't insist upon squeezing it into a 2 hour film. This 4 part adaptation of the George Eliot novel of the same name was so good that my dentist couldn't resist watching while he was supposed to be working on my teeth!

I wont give away the story - that would be rude. If you enjoy a good period piece add it to your Blockbuster or Netflix queue!

Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man

Tonight I had the pleasure of spending some time with Leonard Cohen. He's earned his title of "Man with the golden voice". He's quite a card, and yet not full of himself. I'd seen other films, documentaries on Leonard, and there were very few minutes of repeats in this film.
Part of what makes it so enjoyable is others singing his songs. Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Bono, Anthony, The Wainwrights, and Jarvis Cocker - to name a few. If you can watch/listen to this and not get chills at some point your soul has already died. It's funny, interesting, beautiful, odd.
No link this time. Add it to your Blockbuster or Netflix queue.

Biltmore Estate, Asheville North Carolina

Go here. Definitely. Take a day, or better, take two. The house and surrounding shops are worthy of a whole day. The gardens and surrounding areas area worthy of a day, too. They have an inn, a winery, and other odds and ends to keep you engaged for a couple of days, easy. Asheville is beautiful on it's own.

The drive itself is awe-inspiring, rather than tedious. Face it, nobody wants to drive around in some of the other vacation desitnations in our Country. Who wants to drive around the surrounding areas of DisneyLand or DisneyWorld? Not I. When it's the Biltmore Estate getting there is fun.The House is fabulous inside and out.

There is so much to see, you have to work hard to see it all in one day. It's just grand. What other way can you describe places like The Biltmore, Versailles, Stan Hywet, etc? It's awesome to stand in the big old library and see how many books they had. We would love to have a library like that at our house!

Go, explore, have fun, create memories. I wont bore you with all they have to offer.

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Akron Ohio

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens have been one of those awesome mysterious places to me since I was a little girl. We used to go there on school field trips. The girls especially loved going into the gift shop and determining how many trinkets we could get with our couple of dollars.

The Sieberlings built Stan Hywet (Old English for "Stone quarry) in the early 1900s.The Sieberlings founded the Goodyear Tire & Rubber company and built this lovely country estate with their rubber money. It's not as big as the Biltmore Estate, but its every bit as grand.

Last I knew there was still one lady, a descendant of the Seiberlings, living in the gate house. Want to know what's even more interesting about the gate house at Stan Hywet Hall? It was the place where Alcoholics Anonymous got it's start.

If you're ever in Northeast Ohio, check out the Hall and Gardens. Take your camera, it makes for a lovely backdrop.

Miss Molly's Tea Room in Medina, Ohio

Miss Molly's Tea Room and Gift Shop in Medina, Ohio is a quaint place for mothers and daughters and favorite dollies. It's for Red Hatters and a day out with the girls. It's for going alone and observing. If you have a truly romantic husband, it's for couples.

Sometimes you'll get a great waitress like Michelle, other times you're waitress will be more of a character than a waitress. They're always nice, and the food is always interesting and good, so you can't go wrong.

The lovely attached gift shop is worth the trip all by itself. As a matter of fact, I know many people who have shopped in the gift shop many times, but never had lunch at Miss Molly's. Lunch at Miss Molly's is a treat. I'm not sure how many varieties of loose tea they have, but the list is a full front and back of a menu long, so my guess is somewhere around 50 varieties of loose tea, along with a few varieties of tea bags, gourmet coffees and cocoas, iced tea, lemonade, and the typical soft drink fare.

Miss Molly's will even open up special just for your group of 25 or more. Children's parties are Saturday mornings or Friday evenings. Reservations are recommended, but not required.

The Buddha Bar, Paris

From the outside, the Buddha Bar doesn't look much different than anyplace else in the neighborhood. I sort of wondered why we were headed into the place at all, not being big bar hoppers. I was told it's a place to see and be seen in Paris. A late night hot spot where people like Madonna like to hang out. I like to explore new places, so I wasn't about to protest, but I didn't expect to be impressed.

I say expect to be impressed. Plan on going and having a lot of fun in an energetic crowd. They eat, they drink, they dance. Mostly, they socialize.

The Ritz, Paris France

The Ritz in Paris is a dining room heard of all over the world. Royals eat there, movie stars eat there, men doing business eat there.When I was there I saw couples and men in business suits. I dont think any of them were royalty or movie stars.

If you sit in one of the rounded red booths in the center of the restaurant, like we did, you feel like your'e in a fish bowl - and everyone's staring at you. They do stare. I tried to convince myself they were just trying to figure out what movies we'd starred in. It's a bit overwhelming for my standards to be stared at by strangers the whole time I have my meal. Especially when I managed to make a sugar cube do circus tricks, although I'm sure that wasn't the fault of the oglers.

Be sure to take a trip to the ladies/gents, as even the restrooms are worth a look. If you want to say you've been to the Ritz, go ahead and go. I'd never try to dissuade you. It's an experience worth having. But I'd vote for Le Train Bleu if I had a choice between the two.

The Restaurant at Hotel Italo, Maracay Venezuela

One of my two favorite spots to eat in Maracay is the restaurant at Hotel Italo. They have a great menu, wonderful waiters, and the place was always clean and neat. My husband didn't seem to mind their wine list, either. I used to choose their salmon a lot, with a side of fettucini Alfredo, and a lemonade frappe. Their calzones and pizzas are a treat, too. They have a nice kids menu, with a Mickey Mouse pizza generous enough to feed two children.

To see the Hotel Italo website click here: http://www.hotelitalo.com.ve/indexeng.htm

Chanterelle Restaurant, NYC

Dress for Dinner.

Yes, I know it's expensive, but I'd rather go to Chanterelle once a year than McDonalds 25 times a year. The cost of either alternative is the same. They treat you like you are special from the moment you walk in the door. The whole place feels like it's lit with special lights made exclusively for the Waltucks. It's magical.

The people at Chanterelle have a masters degree in presentation. On top of being delicious, everything is wonderfully arranged and adorned.

To buy me their dessert cookbook go here: http://www.chanterellenyc.com/store.htm

Turnberry Isle Resort & Club, Aventura Florida

Turnberry claims a spot in The Leading Hotels of The World. One visit will show you why. It's grand by most any standards. It's one of those places that could have been uncomfortably stuffy with the wrong management and staff. They did a good job hiring the right people, and have created a comfortable resort. The onsite dining is on par with the rest of the fine dining in the area. Even the food ordered through room service is outstanding. I'd suffered a pancake trauma (something to do with a helpful child exchanging salt for sugar in the recipe) and their banana pancakes helped me to recover.

From the time you drive up and leave your keys with the valet you'll notice the folks at Turnberry haven't missed a thing. They've been generous with the gorgeous marble from the check in areas to the perfeclty appointed, spacious guest bathrooms. This may be my all time favorite bathroom away from home.

Pink Elephants? No. Blue Elephants? Yes!

You go to a different country and you expect to eat different cuisine, right? How about going to London and getting awesome Thai Food?

That's The Blue Elephant. Leave it to graceful Aunt Margot to takes us to such an exquisite place. She's transplanted to London for some 30+ years now.

This was a fabulous restaurant. It's the kind of food that makes you lose your self control and eat way more than you normally would. It's so worth it.

Everything about this place is exquisite, right down to the ladies room. The hand towels are adorned with the elephant design above.

Hotel Residence Des Arts, Paris

Do you have a picture of the place you got engaged? This is mine. The only thing is, we were still on the other side of the curtain, in the living area. For the first couple of nights in Paris we stayed at The Hotel Residence Des Arts.

There was a restaurant downstairs, part of the hotel. This hotel on the left bank gave us a different part of Paris within walking distance than the little apartment in Sacre Couer.

La Taverne Suisse

For a real dining experience I recommend La Taverne Suisse. We had delicious melted cheese, nearly a fondue, with big chunks of boiled potatoes.

Our waiter was quite a... character. As he stood behind the counter across from our table he amused himself by making a rather large show of playing with (and I'm not sure you're ready for this) his boogers. A HUGE show. Luis had to harshly chastise him more than once before he finally, begrudgingly, agreed to quit.

Do boogers make melted cheese better? We may well never know.

Try it for yourself at48, rue de Ponthieu, in Paris.