Chili Casserole Recipe

It's been quite awhile since I posted a recipe for Tasty Tuesday, but then it's been awhile since I've tried any new recipes too. This Chili Casserole one is really good, so hopefully it makes up for the gap in my recipe posts--because I'm sure that each and every one of you are not always anxiously awaiting my  next culinary creation.

Ingredients

1 lb. Ground Turkey (I always use ground turkey, but you can use beef, of course)
1 medium Onion, diced
2 cans Diced Tomatoes
3 cans of your favorite Chili
3 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese
16 ounces Sour Cream
16 ounces small Pasta Shells (or your favorite pasta), cooked

Directions

In a large pot, brown your Onion and Ground Turkey until the turkey is fully cooked. Add the Diced Tomatoes and simmer until heated through.

Add in your Chili, Cheddar Cheese, and Sour Cream, and stir well. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then add the Pasta Shells and mix well. Pour into a large oblong casserole dish.

Bake uncovered at 350° for 25-30 minutes. You can add a little extra cheese on top after cooking for a bit of extra color.

The Hubs and I both liked this. I'm all about casseroles anyway, so it doesn't take much to make me happy in that regard. But if the Hubs likes it, then I know I've done something right. Hope you like it!

Hijacking Elmo DVD's is Just Wrong

I really need someone to explain this to me. I'm so confused and annoyed by it, I'm almost speechless. And that doesn't happen often, as you well know. So here's the scoop...

I have a granddaughter, Destiny, who is not quite 2. Destiny loves Elmo. And Destiny loves Elmo DVD's. So every time I'm babysitting, we watch Elmo. Over, and over, and over. But even though I personally wouldn't watch Elmo if I were by myself [no, seriously], the repeated watching of said Elmo DVD's is not what's annoying me.

What IS annoying me is the way my DVD controls get hijacked at the beginning of some Elmo videos, so that I can't fast forward through the stupid FBI piracy warnings and other pointless previews, in order to get to the main menu and push Start. WTH is up with that, man? Why must my not-quite-two-year-old granddaughter be forced to wait for Elmo to appear? Do these people not realize how impatient a not-quite-two-year-old can be?! And do they really think a not-quite-two-year-old is going to pirate their freaking Elmo video? More importantly, do they not realize that a not-quite-two-year-old CANNOT READ?!!!

I cannot be the only person in the world who fast forwards through the B.S. at the beginning of movies to get to the movie itself. Nobody wants to see that stuff. We know it's there. And we know that under penalty of law we can't legally pirate your precious video. And we also know that other movies are coming out that your previews will detail. But guess what? If I wanted to be force fed previews, I would be sitting in a movie theater where I could be posting rants via my iPhone on Facebook about all the stupid changes they're always making, while eating popcorn and Goobers, to pass the time until the previews are over. I do NOT want to see previews on a DVD. And neither does my not-quite-two-year-old granddaughter.

If this were an adult movie, I could deal with this madness. But it's an Elmo movie, people. And when Destiny is looking up at me with her sad little pouty face, saying, "Momo, Momo, Momo" (that's how she says "Elmo"), every precious second counts! I want to FF and then hit Start as quickly as possible. Like, RIGHT NOW.

Heartless bastards. They have no common sense at all.

Luckily, not all her Elmo DVD's are like this. And luckily I have enough patience to not rip the offending DVD's from the DVD player, take a hammer to them, shattering them into tiny pieces, which would result in my granddaughter's guaranteed need for years of costly therapy. Grandparents really shouldn't be the cause of their grandchildren's therapy, after all. That's their parents' job. *wink*

I think the only thing I can really do is send a message to the big meanies who manufacture these DVD's. So this is it, from Elmo, and me.

I Had Sex in High School

Disclaimer: I am in no way a proponent of having sex in high school. Nor is this post a direct or indirect admission of my own activities in high school (seriously,  Mom, just ignore this post). I am simply a die-hard FRIENDS fan, and always will be. And when I saw this meme on Tumblr recently, I just had to snag it and post it here in my Meme Mania collection.

See there, isn't that funny? And it has absolutely nothing to do with me. Or sex. In high school.

Not Quite Ghost

OK, so I still have a cold. And I'm surfing through Tumblr (yes, I have 2 more blogs on Tumblr!) in search of reasons to laugh. As they say, laughter is the best medicine, right? Didn't take long to find a reason to laugh either. And since it did kind of make me say WTF when I first saw it, I figured it would work perfectly for WTF Wednesday too.

I dare you not to laugh.

Not quite Ghost, now is it? But so funny.

I feel better already.

Pooch's Revenge

Just a cute little addition to my Meme Mania category, which is also appropriate for (Semi) Wordless Wednesday.

Some days really do go to the dogs, don't they?

Meh

First of all, I think I should get some sort of award for having my shortest blog post title ever! They give awards for stuff like that, don't they? OK, yeah, probably not. But they should. Anyhoots, it's not just coincidence that I should use that title. Heavens no. That, my dear blog readers, is exactly how I feel.

I have a cold, you see. Not a super bad one, mind you. It's the kind of cold that is just bad enough to make me cranky and sleep like crap...but not quite bad enough to give me free reign to be a bitch if I feel like it. Dammit. I don't get those free-reign-to-be-a-bitch cards too often. They're really one of the all too few perks of a truly bad cold, don'tcha know. And let's face it: if you have to be down and out with a really bad cold, you really should get free reign to be a bitch too. Just sayin.

But as I sit here blowing my  nose and trying to breathe out of a single nostril, I am typing and wondering one simple thing. [OK, I'm seldom wondering just one simple thing, but just work with me here, people.] Why is it that when I stand up I can breathe just fine? And yet when I sit down, one nostril is stage 3 plugged (on a scale of 1 to 5 in the nose-plugged category, with 5 meaning my nose might as well not exist for its lack of function), and if I lay down, my nose hits stage 5?

Seriously. I can totally understand why my nose gets fully plugged when I lay down. There's pressure and stuff, right? Makes perfect sense. But why does it start to get plugged when sitting down, but yet also fully upright? That makes no sense at all. And then standing completely up I can breathe just fine. Why? Why? And why? And how does my nose even know the difference between my sitting down or standing up? The only difference there is that my legs are not supporting my body? How the hell does my nose know that and why does it care?!

I know, I know. I'm losing it just a bit. My brain is foggy, truth be told. I tend to get that way when I have a cold. Hey, that rhymed! Do I sound like Dr. Seuss now? Is there an award for that? Well, there should be.

Where was I?

This is my reality, people. An infectious disease has taken over my body and at least part maybe all of my brain function. And I can't even blame it on the drugs, because I'm not taking any. Dammit again. No free-reign-to-be-a-bitch card. No drugs. Oh, the inhumanity of it all. It's just gotten me to the point where I can say only this:

Meh.

Goin to Wal Mart, Grab the Leash for Jr.

I know you're all excited for WTF Wednesday...or maybe even (Semi) Wordless Wednesday. In either case, I got you, bro. [Did I just say "bro?" I'm watching too much Jersey Shore.]

I never really grasped the concept of the put-your-kid-on-a-leash mentality, but even if I did, the crawling on all fours in Wal Mart is just a bit much. But his mom sure seems to be enjoying it. One has to wonder if she'll enjoy it as much when the kid cuts his hand on something on that germ-covered floor, and then mom has to kiss the boo-boo on his germ-covered hand, resulting in the whole family coming down with a stomach virus (or worse), all because that kid is wearing a leash. Smart thinking. ;)

Befuddled Blog Post

I thought I'd start September with a cleverly named blog post. I challenged myself to use a word in the title that I had not used before, and "befuddled" fit the bill, so there you go. It's a good word, no? And it aptly lends itself to my mood and should serve to set the tone for this entire post about the many Things I Don't Understand for today. So let's get right to it, shall we? Come on, don't try to mask your enthusiasm.

First, I don't understand Hoarders. Not just the show, which is a never-ending lesson in redundancy (let's face it, it's the same show every week, where only the faces and location have changed), but I mean, the hoarders themselves. I can't wrap my brain around how someone can literally amass mountains of clothes, household items, trash, animal feces, and/or other piles of poo in some form, and NOT understand that they have a slight problem. Or if they do understand, they get pissed when they have to start getting rid of their crap. Heaven forbid you throw away that empty toilet paper roll--Lord knows how much sentimental value you must have attached to that. Not trying to sound harsh, because I really do feel for those people. But I will never, ever, understand them.

Some other randomness of things I don't understand...

19 Kids and Counting. Seriously. Don't get me started.

Toddlers in movie theaters. I mean, really?

Cowlicks. OMG (and I don't wield those OMG's haphazardly!). I have one, my daughter has one, and my poor grandson has one. They both blame me, of course. But who am I supposed to blame?! They are stupid cranial annoyances with even stupider names. Cowlicks. As if it's not bad enough to deal with on my head, I have to feel like I've been licked by a cow too.

White clothing that cannot be bleached. WTH did they do to it to make it non-bleachable? And WHY?!

Why Heidi has to introduce the judges on every single episode of Project Runway. Come on, Heidi. Those of us who have watched the since the beginning know who the judges are, and the newbies really don't care.

Rubber testicles that guys hang off the back of their pickup truck. Dude, you're not fooling anyone. We know yours aren't that big, and the fact that you hang them there for all to see pretty much tells us all that you're probably coming up short in that area. Is that really the message you wanna send?

Why The Boob Lady (a.k.a. Giada, a Food Network chef), pronounces all of her food words with an Italian accent...but speaks normal English for everything else.

When Facebook friends post something that says you should post it as your status for an hour, to support some sort of "cause," and then basically infer that you're scum if you don't do it. Exactly how is my posting a paragraph of text doing anything for anyone on any day by any stretch of the imagination? And if you're my "friend," why are you trying to shame me into doing something in the first place?!

The God channel on TV. You don't get bonus points for watching it, you know.

And finally, neighbors who let their dog crap in my yard. My dog is dead, so I know he's not crapping there. So they shouldn't be surprised when I lose it at some point and start throwing all that crap back into their yard where it belongs.