Another New Year!

Like everyone else, I am spending my day sweetly remembering this past year, and hopefully anticipating what is to come!  We have had such an amazing year.  Nothing too monumental happened, but sometimes, that's a good thing :)  We celebrated three years of marriage, Calvin turned one, we camped for the first time as a family of three, we tagged along through many "firsts" for Calvin...walking, running, climbing, Mama, Dada, and figuring out how to get in to just about everything!  And we made and shared memories with many friends and family!

God continues to bless us with good health.  And we are so grateful Jake has steady work.  It isn't his dream job, but in today's economy, we are beyond grateful.  It's easy to hope and dream about what the next year may hold, but one of my "goals" is to leave more in the hands of the Lord and do less planning on my own.  Now, don't get me wrong, there will still be plenty of planning going on.  But there will hopefully be more leaning on the Lord's wisdom rather than my own and seeking His will above ours. 

Here are a few other "resolutions"...

• Always have a dining table ready to be eaten at.  That may sound silly, but I hate it when we can't sit down to eat because the table is covered with junk.  I guess I'm hoping to be more organized :) 
• Be more aware of what we are eating.  Specifically the ingredients in the food we are eating.  I really like to cook, and I do make a lot of things homemade (spagetti sauce, tortillas, refried beans, croutons, etc.) but I want to do more!  I want to start baking my own bread and rolls, and pizza dough.  Not only to be healthier, but to try and save money!
• Of course exercise more!  I have been somewhat of a lazy slug since Calvin was born.  Oh, I've gone through phases of being really motivated, but I need to get my rear in gear!

And of course there are the intangible resolutions...the ones you can't really measure, like being more patient with Calvin, and making my husband , family, and household more of a priority over my own desires.  But those will probably be on my "list" every year. 

Happy New Year from the Eschbachs!

A Favorite Recipe...

For our wedding, a family friend gave Jake and I a recipe book of their "family" recipes.  In it was this jewel!  So, so easy, and SOOOO delicious, and I usually have all the ingredients on hand.  In fact it's so good, I had three helpings of it last night...and Calvin had two helpings tonight for dinner! 

Paprika Chicken

2 T Butter
1 1/2 T Oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 T paprika
1/2 t salt
6 cups chicken stock
Frozen chicken (as many as you need for your family)
2 cups sour cream
1 T flour

Melt butter and oil in a heavy pot or dutch oven.  Add paprika and onion and simmer until glossy and red.  Add salt and chicken stock.  Once ingredients come to a boil, add frozen chicken (how awesome that you can put the chicken in frozen!  I love it!)
Simmer, covered, until chicken is tender and cooked through (about 45 minutes)
Stir flour and sour cream together in a small bowl.  Stir mixture slowly into the pot and simmer about 5 minutes until thickened and smooth.  Do not boil. 

Serve at once over rice or noodles. 

So good!!  Enjoy!!

"Just Wing It" Dinners

So, as I mentioned before, the end of the month seems be the time to scrounge in the freezer and cupboards and just hope there are enough decent ingredients to put together a few meals.  And I'm happy to say, we made it to the start of a new month rather successfully.  I hate reading recipe books and getting discouraged by not having the ingredients, but I'm not usually creative enough to adjust it for what I have.  And I really like to cook, but I often lack inspiration.  We have our favorite meals and I tend to make them, or a version of them, on a regular basis. 

Here are a couple of "just wing it" meals that I'm pretty proud of this month :) 


Dinner 1: Apple Cider Pork Roast
(I didn't take exact measurements of the ingredients...so hopefully this is close)

Pork Roast
2 cups of apple cider (ours was homemade and I'd already added some cinnamon and mulling spices)
Garlic (as much as you can handle...we like alot)
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped

Throw everything in the crockpot and cook on low about 6-7 hours.  I threw my roast in straight from the freezer, so if it's thawed (which in my house it rarely is), it would probably cook less. 

This came out AMAZING!!  The subtle sweetness from the apple cider was so good, but it still left enough pork flavor.  I did end up dipping mine in bbq sauce because I'm a total dipper and I'm falling madly in love with bbq lately :) 


Dinner 2: Taco Casserole. 
I've had a few different versions of this, but I'm pretty sure this was a unique creation :) 

Tortilla Chips
1 can chili beans (I randomly had this in the cupboard, next time I'll just use pinto beans)
1/2 pound of ground beef, cooked and seasoned with Taco seasoning
1/2 an onion, diced
1-12 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 t. cumin
Grated cheese

Crush tortilla chips to line the bottom of pan (I used something like a 10x8 casserole dish).  Mix remaining ingredients and spread 1/2 over the crushed chips.  Top with grated cheese, then repeat with another layer of chips, filling, and cheese.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. 

This turned out really yummy too!  I was afraid that the leftovers were going to be mushy and disgusting, but they were actually pretty good!  The chips just tasted like a corn tortilla.  I am blessed to have a husband who will eat just about anything, including leftovers, so I usually only have to eat it once or twice :)