Game Day Buffalo Chicken Dip

    
     Since I started chatting from the cabin with you last December, I've shared some of many loves, hobbies, and interests from movies to fitness videos to football.
     Football has been a part of my life since I was born the middle of nine children to a high school football coach and his wife in a small Pennsylvania town.  For me, Fridays equal high school ball, Saturdays are the college games, and Sundays are the NFL contests.
     This fall, my blog will feature a different Game Day Dip recipe for the next sixteen weeks.  So let's get ready for some football with the easy crowd favorite, Buffalo Chicken Dip.
    
     Here you go:

Chicken ~ Two whole
Cream Cheese ~ 16 ounces
Hot Sauce ~ 12 ounce jar of Frank's Red Hot
Blue Cheese Dressing ~ 16 ounce jar
Cheese ~ 1 and 1/2 cups of shredded Colby Jack

     Before we begin, a few things on the ingredients:
     First, I actually cook up several chicken breasts on a Sunday to use in salads or on pitas for the rest of the week.  So from today's chicken cook-up, I will take two whole breasts, since breast are generally sold in a two-pack.
     Also, you can use the hot sauce you prefer.  I go with Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce, but there are other varieties that work just as well.
     I go with blue cheese dressing, but others go with ranch and others go half blue cheese, half ranch.
     And the final variation is the cheese.  There are many kinds of shredded cheese that can be used instead of what I use, which is Colby Jack.  Again, you can use what you prefer.
     Of course, you can always "lighten up" the ingredients by opting for lower fat versions of the dressing, cream cheese, and shredded cheese.  I do that often for other recipes, but not typically this one.
     Directions:
     Be by cooking the chicken breast at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until done.  Leave oven on at same temperature. When the chicken is cooked, cut or tear in to small pieces and spread on the bottom of a 9 by 13 -inch baking dish (or the equivalent of 3 quarts.)   Pour hot sauce evenly over chicken.
     In a saucepan over medium heat, combine and cook cream cheese and dressing until blended smoothly, then pour mixture over chicken and sauce.
    Top with shredded cheese evenly over entire baking dish, and bake in oven for thirty minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
    Now, set the dip out with your choice of dippers (see my post WTD?) and you are game-ready!

Are You Ready?
~ Have a Wonderful Game Day ~

Game Day Dips: WTD? (What To Dip?)

     As we head into the first week of football season and sixteen weeks of Game Day Dips, here are some ideas of WTD.  (Consider serving all season with this Touchdown Chip & Dip Set or one like it.)

Tortilla Chips

Pita Chips

Pretzel Crisps

Crackers (Triscuits, Saltines, Sociables, Wheat Thins, Matza, etc.)

Bread Sticks

Pillsbury Rounds (halved) or Crescents

Pita Wedges

Mini Pitas 

Round loaves of bread (torn into bite-size pieces)

Mini Bagels

Small loaves of sliced bread (rye, pumpernickel, etc.)

Bobili Pizza Crust (warmed and torn to pieces)

Pretzel Rods

Soft Pretzels Bites

Cubed Cheeses

Sliced Cucumbers

Celery Sticks

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Baby Carrots

Asparagus Spears

Green or Red  (sliced longways)

Mushrooms, cooked and scooped

Got ideas?  I will add them to the list....

 

Have a wonderful Sunday :)

 

 

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Game Day Dip Shopping List Week #1

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Game Day Dip Week #1 Video

 

     Get ready for week one of football action by picking up just a few simple ingredients for the September 1st weekend as high school and college teams kick-off the season!

 



ESPN NCAA Divison One Schedule Week One

 

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Crystal Clear Adversity

     I remain fast, furious, and in a-Few-Good-Men fashion, Tom Cruise-like "crystal clear" about many things in this life: I believe in faith, family, friends, freedom, fitness, films, food, fumbling around in the garden, and forgiveness...not to mention finding lessons along the way.

     I am not young, but not old either. But whatever I am, I do have to admit ~ as I step up the ladder of years of this aging life ~ my memory does get foggy about things I once recounted well.

     So today I recall with both clarity and murkiness this one evening a while back when I was a first grader who was coming to terms with the fact that segments of her weekend were forever going to be dominated by the reality that her father was a high school football coach.

     It was the early seventies when I was forced to accept that Saturday morning cartoons were going to be routinely interrupted so that I could be stuffed into a station wagon not exactly manufactured for what ultimately became an eleven-member clan traveling to high school football games in a region of Pennsylvania spanning about a sixty mile radius.

     I wasn't happy to get ripped away from The Jackson Five almost most every weekend. But, okay, okay, I  utlimately learned to deal with that.

     But this football thing soon started to take over other parts of my life.  One weekend, my high school football coach dad was trying to manage all of us children while my mom explored a part-time job at the local hospital. I was getting set to watch Little House on the Praire (or something like it that evening ~ here's where I get a little unsure...)     

     Though my memory may not recall every single detail, it is crystal clear on others: whatever program I waited all day to watch never found its way into our modest Philadelphia surburban living room. What occupied the only little black-and-white televison in the household for two hours that night was a movie you couldn't even get on VHS or DVD to this day even if you tried.

     The film, without a doubt, starred Ernest Borgnine.  Also unquestionable is that I saw this movie one time in my entire life. 

    I never forgot it.

    If you Google it, you will find a little-known TV film called Legends in Granite: The Vince Lombardi Story, released in 1973.  For a girl who was beginning to think that football was wrecking her entire young life...this was the movie that started to turn that thinking around.

      In the beginning, all I saw was this mean coach (kinda like my dad) who punished Paul Hornung for breaking curfew.

     In the end, I saw a man who raised the standards of expecation, and, therefore, excellence...and not just regarding how one approaches football, but how one approaches anything in this life.     

     Football just happened to be Lombardi's thing.

     And it was also my dad's thing, my brother's thing, my nephew's thing, and the "thing" that has become the way many a young man discovers responsibility, teamwork, dedication, commitment, and so many of the values we want our young people to embrace.

     It also happened to be my son's thing who, as a senior, went down just three days ago with a fractured arm and what some labeled a season-ending injury.

     Like I said, some things in life are clear and others are murky.

     What is sure for me are the words from the gap-toothed legend whose biography overtook my TV one evening when I had hoped to watch Laura Ingalls, or someone like her, grace the little family TV screen.

     Because we don't always get what we want in this life. In fact, we can not only be sure, but we can be crystal clear certain that we are going to be handed adversity.  It may show up as an injury, a cancer, a loss, a betrayal. What is certain is that it will show up.

     Funny how I was so upset as a six year-old that whatever I wanted to watch that night was overtaken by a show you can't even purchase on digital media today, but whose subject spoke timeless, truthful, and poignant words about inevitable adversity that ring true no matter what you love, who you are, what you do, or when in history you exist.

     And these are the words I wish my son to know ~ be it football or anything else:

     "The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's the real glory.  That's the essence of it."

 ~ Vince Lombardi, Jr.

Have a wonderful weekend.

     

     

    

     

.

Thank You!

   

    Sending a big Thank You to anyone who reads my posts, tries my recipes, watches my YouTube Channel, shares my love of movies, endures my fitness video addiction, or attempts to help me by sending gardening advice.
     I started this blog about 8 months ago on December 2, 2011 with my opening post, A Wonderful Life, and, today, the blog hit the 3,000 mark and the Cabin Chat YouTube Channel, which I began just over 2 months ago in May 2011, is on its way to the 1,000 milestone.
    Thank you for taking a moment to duck into the blog and check out some of the posts. Here are the top 5 posts from the past 8 months:
      #1   A Fitting Addiction
      #2   Sunday Game Day Platter
      #3  The Big Wheel Disaster of '78
      #4  The Cindy Crawford Workouts ( I just wrote this one!)
      #5  The Spirit of Christmas Past
      I may have had my share of personal trials this year ~ none of us are spared them ~ but blogging is always a joy for me, so I appreciate anyone who reads or watches anything I share :)
      And, no matter how tough life can get ~ and it can ~ it still is A Wonderful Life.

Have a wonderful day.

Fresh For Fall...

And Football Fans, don't forget to

check out the new Adventures in the Kitchen series

starting September 1st:Get Your Game Dips On!

Taco Pasta Bake

     
     Looking for an an easy little number that does not take too much time or too many ingredients to whip together?  Try this hearty fave.

     Here you go:

     Ground Beef ~ One pound
     Taco Seasoning ~ One packet, 1 and 1/4 ounces
     Tomato Sauce ~ One 15 ounce can
     Shell Macaroni ~ One 8 ounce box of medium
     Cheese ~ 1 and 1/2 cups, shredded
     Tortilla Chips ~ 1/4 bag, crushed

     While heating the water to cook the pasta in another pot, brown the ground beef in a skillet.  Once done, drain and add taco seasoning and tomato sauce to the beef. Get the pasta going and cook according to instructions.
     When pasta is finished cooking, drain and stir into beef mixture.  Add about 1 cup of the shredded cheese and pout into a 9 by 13 glass baking dish (or big square Corningware, like I did.)
     Top with remaining cheese, then crush about 1/4 bag of tortilla chips in a plastic ziplock and cover entire dish  Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.
     Of course, I know some of us like to go "lite", so, if you do, use the following alternative ingredients: ground turkey, whole wheat pasta, lowfat cheese, and whole wheat tortilla chips. Whichever you choose, enjoy!

Have a wonderful Sunday :)

Check out The Cabin Chat YouTube Channel

for more Adventures in the Kitchen,

plus Adventures in Fitness, in the Garden, & in Reading

     

 

In a skillet, brown ground beef over medium heat. Drain and add taco seasoning, tomato sauce, and green chilies. Stir in cooked macaroni. Place in a 9×13 pan. Top with cheese. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Adventures in Reading: Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

     Last month, I initiated the Adventures in Reading series on my blog. 
     As you may know, I love putzing around the cabin and blogging about doing things like trying to cook, working out, planning a garden, and watching movies.
     I actually haven't been to the movies in quite some time, as I am generally content to wait for the DVD version and curl up on the couch to watch almost any film.  (I do make a point to see the big epic-like pictures like Titanic or Jurassic Park at the theater, where size does matter.)
     One movie I am eagerly awaiting the release of is the upcoming Left To Tell.  It is the film version of the book that I made the first choice in my Adventures in Reading series and is written by one of my favorite people ever, Immaculee Ilibagiza.
     I have already confessed that I don't read too much, and, after reading a book like this, I feel pretty ashamed that I don't make a point to experience the joy of reading more often.
     This book is a first-hand account by Immaculee, who was a young college student who miraculously survived the Rwandan genocide of the early nineties by hiding with seven other women in a tiny bathroom for 91 days.
     I can't give too much away, but three things stood out in reading this incredible story:
     1)  The sheer terror and agony Immaculee experienced in the crowded bathroom as they hid from savage killers they could hear all around them.  Just imagining existing like that for 91 days without the threat of being mutilated upon discovery is amazing enough.
     2)  The power of prayer that Immaculee discovers in the bathroom and that she continues to speak about to audiences today.
     3)  For me, what is the most astonishing part of her ordeal is her ability to forgive the cruel and depraved murderers who wiped out men, women, children, and people she loved.  (I found this very good video segment where she discusses this in the Today Show.)
     This fascinating book has had an incredible impact on me personally, and I encourage especially anyone struggling with forgiveness of another to read it. Here are over 500 reviews from Amazon if you want to check this read out.
     I hope the movie can capture this incredible story the same poweful way that Immaculee's written account does.  For more from Immaculee Ilibagiza, here is a link to her website.
     Now off to choose my next book adventure...

Have a wondeful weekend.

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for Adventures in Reading, in the Kitchen,

in Fitness, & in the Garden!

    
    

Adventures in the Kitchen: Are You Ready For...Some Dips?

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Get Ready For Game Day Dips Video

    
     You may or may not know by now that my favorite movie of all time is The Lord of The Rings.
     Never mind that I didn't quite read every single solitary word of the great Tolkien trilogy (though I convinced my junior year English teacher I had.) I did, however, watch and re-watch every scene of the awesome cinematic accomplishment of Peter Jackson.
     One of the best scenes takes place in the second installment, The Two Towers, when King Theoden is debating whether or not he should enter his people into war.
     "I will not risk open war," he declares, as he considers the weight of his decision on the many lives entrusted to him.
     In swift reply, Aragorn, who ultimately returns as the King in Part Three, illuminates the man to reality with one simple phrase:
     "Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not."
     And, with the same bluntness of Aragorn, I declare the same:  
Like it or not, war is upon us. Just look around you. 
     Because ~ whether we would risk it or not ~ it can't be denied:
     Football season is upon us.
     Professionals have started exhibition games, college athletes are sweating through camp, and, across the nation and here in Pennsylvania, where high school football tradition runs long and deep, teenage boys will be marching onto their school grounds on Monday preparing for season-long battles that fire up marching bands, sell tickets, send cheerleaders in the air, crank out soft pretzels and hot dogs, and pack in fans like no other sport in the country.
      Make no mistake about it, Game Day is not just a game. It is an "event."
      And because no Game Day is complete without some chips and dip, so begins a sixteen-week Adventures in the Kitchen with dip recipes to use for every game, with which to enter every battle, and to use with each chip, cracker, bread, and anything in the dipping arsenal you can name.

       It all starts this September. Gear up!

     Have a wonderful Football Season.

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Adventures in the Garden