HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Baked Chicken Reuben

I love sauerkraut! As a kid I remember my grandparents, Fern and Otto, actually making it in their basement (they were German)and the whole house reeked of cabbage. My grandmother would put it up in glass mason jars and store it downstairs in their cellar. Homemade kraut was delicious right out of the container! This recipe is really really old. I have had it forever and haven't made it in a long time. Even if you don't like sauerkraut, try it, it is really delicious. This is super simple to make although requires some ingredients you may not have on hand all the time such as the kraut.

Baked Chicken Reuben
4 chicken breasts (I use both boneless and bone in for this recipe)
salt and pepper to taste
1-16 oz can of sauerkraut, drained and squeezed out (I like Franks Bavarian Sweet kraut with caraway)
4 slices of swiss cheese (I used reduced fat slices)
1/4-1/2 c. of Thousand Island dressing (I use more than this)
Place chicken in greased baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with kraut and then a slice of cheese. Pour dressing over all. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until chicken is done. Boneless shouldn't take more than 30 minutes, bone in approximately 45 minutes. If I use the bone-in chicken I place the sauerkraut under the chicken then top with cheese and dressing, boneless I place the sauerkraut on top of the chicken,then cheese and dressing.

Book Club Night

Did I tell you I love my book club ladies? Well I do, and I hardly ever miss a monthly meeting with them. (We missed you Margaret!)These ladies have been a great support to me during my treatment and I love them dearly. We actually do talk about the books we read (I know you are wondering that)and usually very seriously. But the best part of the evening (well, at least I think it is the best part of the evening) is the "social hour" with good food, wine and fun conversation, catching up on each other's lives in the past month. Some of these ladies I only see on a monthly basis so the conversation usually never ends when we get together. I was feeling well enough to venture out and showed up at Linda's with a bottle of champagne to celebrate my chemo graduation. My friend Linda has her own little cooking business (she makes enchiladas) so tonight we feasted on her black bean and spinach enchiladas and for dessert we had a great fruit tart with champagne. I was out way too late last night and am feeling a little tired this morning. Linda and I HAD to see the next episode of The Housewives of Orange County, so I stayed after the group left and watched it with her. If you haven't seen this show you must tune in sometime. It is quite entertaining!

Another New Layout

I know, I know, you are probably saying "she changed her layout AGAIN!"
Maybe it is the weather or something (having a heatwave here in WI) or maybe a new chapter in my life now that toxic drugs are over with, but I felt the need to change the layout. The other one looked "dark" and my dark days are over.
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous out! Well, gorgeous for Wisconsin in February. We had a high of about 50 yesterday and today it should reach 40 degrees. Now when the weather turns that warm in February people come out hibernation here! Honestly, people we haven't seen all winter are out and about in the neighborhood. One of our neighbors had his motorcycle out! I have been feeling a little queasy but managed to get out for a walk again. The fresh air felt great and I didn't even have a winter coat on. Almost all of our snow has melted. Is spring here? Nahhh, just a little teasing to make us forget how we hate living in Wisconsin at this time of the year! Enjoy the weekend!!!!


I have to tell you this funny stuff that is going on in the house. John is getting pretty pumped for the arrival of his new hunting partner,Roxy. He bought a set of videos off the internet about dog handing,training, retrieval,etc. Along with the video came a huge binder of reading information also. He vows this dog will be trained "the right way" Don't get me wrong Sunny was a great hunter, she just didn't listen unless she wanted to. LOL She should have been a little more disciplined. Along with the videos he came home with a huge bottle of Nature's Miracle (the spray that is supposed to get rid of urine smell) and two little canvas dummies for training purposes. And so at night we are being subjected to these training videos which are so incredibly boring that both John and I fell asleep last night watching them. The woman who is the host of the video is about 80 years old and has the most boring voice. Little did he know the video was made in 1995. Oh well, I am sure that the information is still useful. Natalie just shakes her head and laughs!