Garlicy-er Limey-er Pasta

My wacky BeeGee helping me in the kitchen...

So I made Amber’s pasta a while back but knew I wanted some changes so I finally got to it and it was a hit!!! The BeeGee helped me in the kitchen and sang his own disturbing version of “It’s getting hot in here” to the broccoli as we prepped it… meanwhile, he somehow manages to stand on a chair shaking his shoulders and booty while rinsing and plucking leaves from the 4 broccoli stalks and passing them to me as he’s singing without missing a beat… “It’s getting hot in there *points into pot of not yet boiling water for the pasta and broc* so let’s take off your leaves… I am getting hungry (uh uh), so help me take your leaves off.” At which point he falls in to giggles and flashes an ornery grin and I groan to myself at the fact that hubby clearly exercises little caution with his selection of school driving tunes, but am at the same moment mildly amused at my silly boy… (Don’t get me wrong I like Nelly and all I just didn’t think it wore well on my 4 yo…)

while boiling the sauce, I was serenaded with Lets get it saucy, saucy

Garlicy-er Limey-er Pasta
8 oz box spelt rotini
1 head broccoli florets (about 4 c)
1 lb chicken breasts, cut in strips
1/2 head of garlic, minced
olive oil

quick taste for the cooks...

1.5 T ea: butter and flour
1.5 c chicken stock
1/4 c lime juice
(and zest of one lime, optional)
1 tsp ea: blk pep, garlic pwd, onion pwd
1/2 tsp ea: salt, smoked paprika, cayenne, thyme
parm to garnish

Boil the pasta in salt water for about 5 mins, stir in the broccoli cover and cut off the heat. After starting the pasta (but before adding the broccoli), soften the garlic and start browning the chicken in a little olive oil… push the chicken off to one side, make a quick roux melting the butter and flour together and whisk in the liquids and seasonings… mix the chicken back thru anad bring to a boil… drain pasta and broccoli and toss with the chicken sauce… top with the cheese and serve…

Sausage Jambalya

Ok so last night I really didn’t work hard at dinner, I just sliced and browned some andouille drained it off (and reserved that to brush on the tops of some of the biscuits instead of butter before popping them in the oven) and added a box of the chicken helper jambalaya hubby had buried in the pantry, a can of diced tomatoes and water—boiled, simmered, the end… But while chatting on the phone someone asked me about dinner last night… They did the “oh wow how do you make that?” inquiry and I explained that I didn’t I just cheated and they were unphased and said “But if you did make it, how would you do that? Because I’ve never made it, and I’m sure you have.” Well, yes of course I have… So if I’d made it from scratch last night it’d probably be about like this (oh yeah, and while I say diced, chop as you wish)…

Sausage Jambalaya
12-16 oz andouille, sliced (or a lb of whatever assorted cooked meats were in the fridge or freezer if you don’t want sausage)
2 onions, diced (or 1 lg yellow onion)
1/2 head of garlic, peeled and crushed or minced
1/2 head of celery, diced
2 bell peppers, diced (I have both red and green at the moment so I’d probably use one of each, but normally I just use green)
1-1.5 T cajun/creole seasoning of choice (or 1/2 tsp ea: garlic/onion pwd, thyme, cayenne pep, 1 tsp ea: s/p)
1.5 c rice
1 can tomatoes
3 c water, stock or white wine (if you use brown rice you can use 2 FULL tomato cans worth as it’ll fall right about 3.75 c)
maybe 1/4-1/2 tsp salt (depending on taste–the saltiness of your sausage and/or liquid–but best not to skip entirely or the rice will drain the flavor from the dish, so take it just a little past where you think it needs to be…)

Brown the sausage and remove to a plate… Use the drippings (or drain off and use some oil) to saute the veg… and the rice and seasonings and stir well to coat, bring to a boil cover and simmer… until rice is tender and liquid is mostly absorbed (if it gets completely absorbed add back a little boiling water while stirring to get it looser and a bit silken instead of dry) around 15 mins or so… {I’m guessing again but it simmers for just enough time to preheat your oven and bake some rolls… when you pull out your rolls/biscuits and flip them over on their heads it should be time to pull the rice…}

Daddy’s Cornbread (Muffins)

Daddy’s Cornbread (Muffins)
1 lb bulk pork sausage, browned and drained
2 c sharp cheddar
1 batch cornbread batter (or cheat like I did this time, 2 boxes jiffy mixed up)

Mix up your cornbread batter and fold in your meat and cheese… I used silcone muffin cups, but if you don’t have or want to use those, you’ll probably want to use paper liner to prevent the cheese sticking to your pan…

Tuna and White Bean Pasta Fagiole

we really liked the mini bowties... so cute... 🙂

Tuna and White Bean Pasta Fagiole
7 carrots, 7 stalks celery
1 lg onion
1/2 head garlic
13 oz can mushrooms, drained (drained weight)
2 cans tuna
3 c white beans
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1.5-2 c small pasta (we had no elbows)
1 qt water or broth
lemon juice, s/p, oregano, thyme, red pep flakes

Saute the diced/minced raw veg, add the remaining ingredients and simmer until pasta is cooked (under 10 mins).

NB: I’d like to add more lemon, some blk olives, and fresh parsley for starters… but this will be made again, and I will tinker…

Ravioli Soup

So Sunday after church, the Hubs hurt himself… he managed not to break his foot, but has a deep muscle sprain and is in a boot and a fair amt of pain… thereby making my restful weekend not so restful… so another slap-bash meal as I didn’t want to cook and the kids were upset about how daddy’s foot put a cramp in their plans and cried and carried on about every piddling thing imaginable… so I needed it to be simple but happily eaten, since at the time I had high hopes of getting them to bed early… HA!

a yummy soup when you are the only physically capable of fetching more for the entire family, not the best laid plan... plus your soup goes cold as you do so...

Ravioli Soup
1 lb ground meat (again, I used veal because it was on sale cheaper than beef)
seasonings (salt/pepper, dried herbs–rosemary and other italian type seasonings, garlic pwd)
1 lb frozen green beans
1 lb can campbell’s tomato soup (slightly bigger than usual size)
2 (15 oz) cans diced italian style tomatoes
2-2.5 c frozen cheese ravioli
grated parm (opt)

Brown the meat with the seasonings and stir in the frozen beans… Add the tomato soup and 2 canfuls of water, and the tomatoes… bring up to a boil and taste for seasoning, and adjust… reduce the heat to med-med low, add the ravioli and simmer until they float… top with parm to serve…

[Quick Reminder: Make sure to scoop low to get meat as well as it sinks while the pasta and veg float…]

brown the meat and add the frozen beans...

step two add everything and bring to a boil...

when the raviolis float to top it is done...

See making soup can be almost as easy as 1, 2, 3… and the slight guilt I felt making another slap dash so soon after the last, passed quickly as everyone started needing this and that and I realized I couldn’t sit down long enough to think let alone eat… and in the midst of all this flurry, I also forgot to start the washer so I had to stay up another hour after getting everyone to bed… : (

Cottage Cheese Pancakes w/pine-orange salad

So I could find my recipe last second and the one in my go to breakfast cookbook, SL Breakfast and Breads, was made from wheat germ (I had none), so I had to scramble and googling a bit and rejiggering slightly from what I can remember of the ones we used to make and this is what I made…

it makes a larger batch but I only remembered to snap the pic before giving the kids more... so this is the much picked over stack and several of them turned out better than these, but they'd been eaten by this point...

Cottage Cheese Pancakes
1 (24 oz) container lowfat cottage cheese (1%), about 3 c
6 lg eggs
2 c flour + 1 T bkg pwd (normally I make them with ww pastry flour but tonight I had none so it was the white lily instead)
2 T oil
1/3 c + pineapple juice (reserved from the canned fruit, could have used the orange juice or just milk or water with a bit of sugar)
pinch of salt
2 capfuls of vanilla
butter and oil as needed

Blitz together in the blender and add the pineapple juice as needed to reach pancake batter consistency… (this was just slightly over 1/3 c so I’m guessing 6 T would make a nice round estimate to start from if you want to tinker it up or down… but pour it in as needed as the wetness of the cottage cheese and the humidity affecting the flour, etc can change how much liquid you want to add…) then just fried them up in a bit of butter and oil as one does the pancake dance (watch for a bubbled surface to flip and let them get golden on the second side to finish cooking thru)…

They weren’t bad, but as usual I would have sweetened them a bit more to eat them plain but knew the fruit was coming. And this is what the lovely branny directed me to: a cottage cheese pancake that uses oatmeal(you have to scroll down)… no less than 5 min from my asking, and I wish I’d found it before cooking them but I was starving and impatient so I quickly moved on to google (and when hubs went to check if anyone gotten back to me, my Papa called so he had to get the phone) so I do plan to try these soon… and then there was this jillian michaels number which I may consider as the simplicity of it is very appealing…

as for the fruit salad, I had the 4 yo and 2 yo mix it up to distract them while I finished cooking…

what you need... pineapple, orange segments, dried unsweetened coconut... (plus two ornery children who are chasing each other around the house in need of something reasonable to do with themselves while you finish cooking...)

what you end up with/top the pancakes with...

Pineapple, Orange, Coconut Salad
1 (20 oz) can pineapples in juice, drain (reserve juice)
2 (11 oz) cans mandarin oranges in juice, drain
1/2 c dried unsweetened coconut

Thoroughly drain the canned fruit. Put in a bowl along with the coconut. Toss/mix all together.

[You really want the fruit drained as dry as you can, and you don’t want to make this up before you plan to use it as it will juice up and you lose coconut in the juice… you can of course do this with fresh fruit as well, but you still have to drain the excess juices…]

Pitty Pat’s B-day Polenta

The baby’s finger food b-day dinner (from last month’s catch up, obviously)…

Pitty Pat’s B-day Polenta
1 lb ground pork + lots of seasonings (if you aren’t concerned about the salt/sodium you can just use a ready made sausage–but I you know babies/salt)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 c finely snipped or diced dried tomatoes (dried but a bit moist, like raisins, and preferably not in oil)
1 roasted bell pepper, skinned, seeded, and diced (I did green but if you aren’t making your own, the red ones are fine)
2 c cornmeal
about 2 T sea salt (might be a little shy of this really, as I don’t officially measure, but the point is it’s kind of a lot… if you undersalt it before you cook it you won’t be able to redo it and hence will never have the chance to bring out the flavor of the cornmeal again… but if you’re a learn-the-hard-way type try boiling cornmeal in unsalted water just for kicks, and when you’re ready to eat you’ll know what you should do next time…)
2 qts – 9 c water (I reckon you could use some broth if you want, and if you use canned or salted broth you can obviously cut back on the salt a bit… but frankly salt water is cheaper, and you’ll have plenty of stuff in this so flavor won’t be a problem…)
1-2 jars of italian marinated mushrooms, drained (or undrained the liquid can replace some of the water if you’d like, but add the liquid at the same time as the water)

Mix up the pork and seasonings and test a pinch of your sausage (ie. cook it up a taste it)… if it’s ok, finish cooking the rest with onion (otherwise tinker and test another pinch, etc…) once all the sausage is well browned and the onions translucent… add your liquid and let it start to come to a boil… meanwhile, chopped and add the tomatoes and peppers… when the liquid is boiling, reduce to medium low and mix it the polenta S L O W L Y and let simmer stirring as often as you can until it thickens up and pulls from the sides, around 20-30 mins… Then add your drained mushrooms, butter and parm and turn out onto a pan or into a casserole dish and let cool a bit to set up and then slice and serve (or slice and fry/bake/grill and serve)…

Lentil Hodge Podge

yeah, it is really nothing special but it was eaten by even the lentil groaners, aka. the kids...

Just a slap bash dinner, as I was tired and didn’t want to cook that night…

Lentil Hodge Podge
5 carrots, peeled and diced
3/4 lb frozen chicken, cut in chunks
2 c water
salt and garlic pwd
3 c leftover cooked white rice
2 c leftover saucy taco lentils or lentil soup (or a can of lentil soup? is that 2 c?) **

Boil ingredients carrots thru seasonings about 7 min (or until chicken is cooked thru and carrots soft, may vary based on your chopping, but it really took me 7 min I used the timer for you)… add rice and soup and simmer until warmed thru…

** Please note that if you aren’t using the taco lentils and/or your soup is bland you may need to add more seasonings as this is where most of the flavor comes from… chicken, rice, and carrots are good but not bringing much oomph so something has to shine as the star… and I did this with lentils that were pretty much just lentils–I think there were some onions and such, but if this was not full of chunks of things like sausage and potatoes and such… if yours is you can still use it you just may need more like 3-4 c or it to coat everything, but I’m betting it’d be yummy and probably better than this was… but sometimes you just gotta eat what’s on hand in the house… LOL

Leftover Magic: Southwestern-ish Lasagna Roll-ups

[Disclaimer: still catching up on September’s meals… this one is from the middle of the month…]

This was just a rounding up of odd and ends that needed using… Tomatoes threatening to go soft, cabbage shamefully buried in the back of the produce drawer (discovered only when we couldn’t fit all the new produce in the bins), ground bison sadly still buried in the deep freeze from January and leftover bits from the weekend’s lasagna, plus a small amt of of corn that is too little for our big family and I had previously figured I’d throw in a soup or something (which I of course didn’t)… Oh and please forgive me on the name, I’m truly useless at these sorts of things… and I really was at a loss for a name, as I’m not used to naming my dishes (probably the second most cumbersome part of taking this blog on) and usually just take a name from whatever inspired it… Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option here… just slapped leftovers together and seasoned it to taste pleasant (though this got raves, even the girlie ate all of hers and bluejay asked for seconds–and my kids tend to give the evil eye to casseroles, so this is big deal–it really was tasty and very comfort food-ish)… I almost just called it Lasagna Roll-ups but figured it wasn’t just plain lasagna so that might be misleading…

Southwestern-ish Lasagna Roll-ups
1-1.25 lb ground bison
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded (leftover from the Mandarin Chicken)
3 romas, diced (I obsessively cut each one into 32 pieces, but do however you see fit)
1 c mexican stewed tomatoes (squeezed the tomatoes to break them up)
frozen corn (not sure how much as it was the end of the bag, at least a cup maybe 1.5)
1/2 c leftover salsa sauce (from the BB Lasagna)
8 2/3 softened lasagna noodles (soaked the BB Lasagna night)
1.5 tsp Southwestern Chipotle Mrs Dash
1/2 tsp ea: s/p, g/o pwd
1/4 tsp ea: celery seed, nutmeg

Brown the meat, stir in remaining and 1/4 c water and simmer 20 min or until most of the liquid is absorbed or mostly so… Use a slotted spoon to fill the noodles with drained filling…and roll them up lengthwise jellyroll-style and transfer to a baking dish (I placed them seam side down)…

cook it until it’s around this neighborhood of absorbsion or so…

then use a slotted spoon to add it to the softened noodles…

tuck the rolls in pan… (then top with sauce, forgot that pic)

Sauce
2 T ea: flour, oil
1.5 c milk
1/2 c ea: leftover filling from above and cottage cheese
1 c grated colby jack

Cook flour and oil together until well incorporated but still pale, whisk in milk slowly to avoid lumps. As it approaches a steady simmer add remaining and bring to a boil to thicken. Pour over the rolls (can line the base of the pan, under the rolls, with it too if you wish… and you don’t have to use all of it I suppose if you don’t want it so saucy, but creamy sauce equals comfort so I lay on…) and bake at 350 until warmed through or noodles are cooked if that is necessary…

[Note to self/spouse: Make this again! On purpose!]

Spicy Chicken Tortelini Soup

This is super easy, and we have a few versions... you can make it in the crock instead of roasting veggies and just add the tortellini last minute as you prep for serving or whatever...

always, with the how much seasonings... about this much...

Spicy Chicken Tortellini Soup
1 lb chicken tenders
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 c salsa (hot)
2-3 tsp ea: kosher salt and Mrs Dash Southwestern Chipotle
1-1.5 tsp dried cilantro
2 c water
3 diced red potatoes (1 c-ish)
oil
pinch of sea salt
1 c frozen corn
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 c water (milk or cream would turn this to a chowder which I was going to do but decided against last second)
2 c cheese tortellini (1/2 lb-ish)

Poach chicken in liquid drained from canned tomatoes, salsa, seasonings and water… Meanwhile, roast @ 500: the potatoes toss with oil and pinch of salt and on a separate tray, the tomatoes, corn, peppers tossed with a bit of oil…

Pull out chicken and let cool enough to handle… Meanwhile, add the roasted veg to the pot and simmer… while simmering, separate the chicken into chunks and add back to the pot with the additional liquid and tort… simmer until tort float, about 5 more min-ish…

Peach Bread (bonus recipe)

So someone posted this at the What’s Cooking Board awhile back (when I was still getting on the computer, LOL) and I’d kinda wanted to try it…

Georgia Peach Bread – From Dickey Farms
3 cups sliced fresh peaches
6 tablespoons sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place peaches and 6 tablespoons sugar in container of electric blender; process until pureed. (Mixture should yield about 2 1/4 cups.) Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside. Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar and shortening; cream well. Add eggs and mix well. Add peach puree and dry ingredients, mixing until ingredients are moistened. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Spoon batter into 2 well greased and floured 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Bake at 325° for 55-60 minutes or until done. Cool 10 minutes in pan; turn out on rack, and let cool completely.

Yield: 2 loaves

Well my problems with trying it were many, but most chiefly now that I’m getting around to it I don’t have shortening on hand… so since the oven is sorta kinda working, I though I’d give it a go… I decided to just use a banana/applesauce bread as a foundation odding out the fruits…

the peach puree...

Improvised Peach Bread
3 peaches, pitted and sliced
3 T sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 c sugar
2 oz ea: butter and cream cheese
2 eggs
2 c cake flour
2 tsp bkg pwd
1/2 tsp bkg soda
1/4 tsp salt

Cook peaches and sugar together until softened, mash with potato masher and continue to reduce slightly until 2 c and stir in vanilla… cream sugar, butter, and cream cheese until light and smooth… add the eggs and mix well… Stir in the peach puree and and add the dry stirring until well moistened. turn out into pan and bake for about 1 hr @ 325-350. Cool about 10 min in pan and turn out on a rack or towel…

This was snarfed down by all in the house and the baby really LOVED it… I never got around to getting a pic of the bread itself before it was gone I don’t think or else I’d show you one…

Papa-style Red Beans and Rice

the key players tonight: hydrated pintos and Casa Nueva

Ok, so Saturday I treated the fam to real deal red beans and rice which I haven’t made since before the 6 yo was eating table foods… And I am doing it the way my Pops would, aka soaking them in red wine… We had every intention of submitting this for Joelen’s Fall Foods/Red Wine Challenge as it is THE staple fall food we had growing up, nearly once a week. (And as a quirky side note: I almost my this an Eat to the Beat with Red, Red Wine just because I got the whiny UB40 song stuck in my head while open it and wanted to pass it on and get it stuck in someone else’s since I’m wicked like that… but alas, it’s not really got anything to do with the song beyond the obvious, so I won’t… but you can still have the song in your head free of charge… no need to thank me…) and Jo’s wrap up…

Now briefly, if you are wanting to salvage the most beans a gentle slower soak from cold or tepid water is ideal but I rarely plan in advance so well, so hot tap it is and it is gentler than a quick soak (boil). But as always there is a better method than I exemplify… So you can negotiate less if you want, now on to it…

Round two: Wine soak...

Papa-style Red Beans and Rice
1 lb red beans (I had only pinto and turtles in the pantry, so the pintos won for obvious reasons)
1 bottle red wine (I used a Cab Sav)
about half a dozen cloves garlic, peeled and split
half a yellow onion cut in wedges
1 T ea: salt and bacon grease
1/2 T ea (or more to taste): blk pep, oregano, and sage (and I do garlic and onion powder but that’s me, most people don’t do both dried and fresh together but I do)
some fresh parsley if you’ve got it, completely optional so no biggie if you don’t (please don’t use dried parsley and invite me to dinner though)
1/2 tsp cayenne (this will not make it spicy so if you seek that use more–I would but the kids would let me–for me this is just to round and balance the pepper flavor but normal people aren’t so anal so feel free to drop it too if you are hesitant)
bay leaves (1 do 4-6 but you don’t really have to use that many)

Rinse and sort the beans of stones and obvious bad beans. Cover the beans in 1.5-2 qts hot tap water and scoop off any floaters and set aside to soak. When doubled, I drain, rinse and resort the beans… Put the beans that pass muster back in the pot cover with the bottle of wine, throw in the veg and seasonings and soak until 3 times the starting volume (you can use the handle of a wooden spoon to gauge this)… Then bring to boil and reduce to simmer until tender, about an hr I guess… I’m a ’til it’s done kinda girl if you haven’t noticed by now… Serve this over rice which you of course will cook in some chicken or fish stock (and feel free to throw some fresh parsley or some dried cilantro into this for a big more color and flavor, I usually do but it is fine without it too of course)… And no this doesn’t contain the secret seasoning blend, not because I’m holding out on you but because both me and daddy just tinker and sprinkle until it smells right so you’ll have to adapt this to taste and I probably even added some other seasonings but all the ones in larger amts are accounted for and I have seasoned beans precisely like this when on vacation without my spice rack before so they’ll be fine this way, just not quite like at my table at home… I often need hubby to serve as notetaker to keep me on top of these kinds of things as I don’t pay attention too much…

and YES I said put in the salt before the beans are cooked, and yes every other recipe will tell you after, and yes they turn out fine and are better seasoned with less salt when you do it before… we honestly made beans every week, sometimes a few times a week, I swear you can cook them with the salt nothing bad will happen and you’ll probably like them better that way anyway… but you can of course salt them afterward if you wish, nothing bad will happen that way either really (outside of likely consuming more salt to get the same flavor)… so feel free to do with that what you will…

over rice

PS. and since I was gonna make Daddy’s Cornbread until we realized we had no cornmeal I also threw in the 1lb of browned pork sausage designated for that… but growing up this would usually either be meatless or have slices of kilbalsa in it… and while I’m sure if you asked my father would tell you he’d put a whole package in but I can vouch that it is not remotely close to true as I was a horrid, horrid food theif and occassionally would recruit my little brother in the snatching process as the Pops would grow too suspicious of me hanging around too much around sliced kilbalsa (or sliced cheese for the mac and cheese or cheese dip) and shoo me away… LOL So if you want meat I’d suggest using the kilbalsa insted of the ground sausage, it is better that way…

Grandma’s Rolls

told you, not cute... but they are not long for this world so no one shall care or remember this...

These are the rolls my grandma is always ask to make, and I am always asked for the recipe when I make them (which is much, much more rare I can assure you)… so when I posted them on the menu from the holiday/hurricane weekend, someone I have made them for before asked for the recipe… I thought I’d try to get a good picture of them (though it’s not that good) and I even made them in cloverleaf since that is how my grandmother does it… Her’s are infintely more cute than mine turned out, as yours probably will be if you make them, but I really am too impatient for yeast breads and it’s that impatience that you see… The title is not my claim, or hers, but rather the name they published them under in the 2 local cookbooks… While it has times, what we do rise them overnight, then shape them first thing before breakfast, let the rise again while we head off about the day (usually to church as this was often a Sunday staple at her house) and make them for lunchtime (bakes around 15-20 mins)…

Only make these for others if you think you can bear the clamour, otherwise you shall slave at this huge batch and be lucky to get 2 or 3 for yourself… They seem so humble and basic, they are the only non-store bought rolls I grew up on so I just assumed that was there charm…

But as a lady would bakes incessantly once enthusiastically asked me for the recipe I guess they could be different somehow, but they are and always have been the only homemade rolls I ever remember eating as everyone always used her recipe… and everyone always wants more of them so here, enjoy the much desired secret as I can assure you I won’t be easily cajoled into making them for anyone… I make them only once a year at either christmas or thanksgiving, the rest of the year I buy my bread… (And I usually eat them spread with jellied cranberry sauce instead of butter… and they are really good that way, one of my holiday favorites really…) I occassionally dip the balls in melted butter to shortcut having to grease the pans and the tops of the rolls (making the cloverleaf is painfully simple, put three balls of dough in the muffin cup) so it just gets recovered with a towel dampened with warm water and is ready for the oven… That is my only secret (and I didn’t do it this time, nor did I remember to butter the tops, but oh well), so go enjoy them if you’d like…

now this is not at all a necessary step, but I always flip them and let them cool upside down in the muffin pan... this lets the steam escape, no getting out the racks, and the tops rise out enough that you do not need to worry about them sinking back in the pan anyway... this is one of those helpful lazy times, you know the mother of invention type...

Best Rolls Ever – (my g-ma, Tylertown’s “Cooking With Friends” 1998, p 94)**
1/2 c sugar
1/2 oil
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1.25 c warm water
1 pkg dry yeast, dissolved in water
4 c all-purpose flour or 2 c white and 2 c whole-wheat flour

Mix sugar and oil. Add beaten eggs and salt. Dissolve yeast in water. Add to mixture. Then add flour until dough leaves the side of the pan. Let rise 4 hrs or overnight [with a wet towel over them–this is not a part of the printed version but a key part in how she taught me to do it so you don’t get a dried skin on top]. Roll out in desired shapes. Place on greased cookies sheet or muffin pans. Let rise 4 more hrs or until double in bulk. Bake at 350 until brown as desired. Makes 2.5-3 dozen rolls.

** This is of course in the Tylertown UMW’s “A Book of Favorite Recipes” as well—and probably any T-town cookbook since she started making them–but I don’t have the page number…

Sausage and Pasta

Hubster again. Making another quick dinner.

1 lb of favorite pasta
1 lb smoked sausage – sliced
1 med onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1 16 oz jar of favorite pasta sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook onion, pepper and garlic on medium heat until tender. Add sliced smoked sausage and saute until brown heated thru. In a seperate pot cook pasta until tender. Add jar of sauce to sausage mixture and simmer until hot. Add pasta to sauce mixture once cooked stir together and serve.

French Toast

Soooo, I made breakfast… the Hubster slept in until about 8 on Saturday while I was the one to get up with the boys and make breakfast. Now take a minute to pick your jaw up off the floor, I even fumbled my way thru french toast for them (this was actually a compromise since they had really asked for pancakes, HA!)… it’s been a long time since I made breakfast and I’m not a morning person so I was not interested in looking for or in a cookbook so I made it up and tried to make it look right… and for the bread, I did half whole wheat and half Sara Lee Blueberry crumble–the SL gets a bit too soft so you might want to dry it out some (quick way: pop in the oven at about 200 flipping once until both sides feel coarse and stale) before soaking to make it work nicer but hindsight and all…

French Toast
12 slices of bread
6 eggs
3/4 c milk
3 capfuls vanilla ext
1 T ea: sugar, maple syrup, and southern comfort (or frangelico, or just use another capful of vanilla and a couple more tsp of sugar if you want alcohol-free)
2 T ea: oil and butter (I used 1/2 T of ea to cook each batch of three, or could use a bigger pan I guess)

Mix eggs, milk, vanilla, sugar, syrup, and alcohol… pour over bread and let soak it all up… preheat you pan to MED, add your fat to the hot pan and fry them up in batches until they are good and golden on each side maybe a minute and a half a side (not sure I do this by smell… I can tell by the shift in the alcohol when to flip, but I reckon this is not a reliable technique for most… and I wasn’t wearing glasses so I can’t even backwards engineer how long from start and stop times, sorry… but then again everyone makes french toast if you need times someone is sure to have them somewhere… just google it…)

Grandma’s Chili – Comfort Food

apparently, this is chili mac (despite being chili free)...

according to the Hubs, it is important this be INSTANT potatoes not just regular old mashed potatoes...

This is the hubster posting some comfort food from my childhood. My mom called this grandma’s chili. Not really chile so to speak, more like chili-mac. I loved having this on cold winter’s nights, it always warmed me up and after everyone had their first bowl it was always a rush to get seconds. I would always put a pat of butter in the center of the mashed potatoes and I would eat around the mashed potatoes seeing how much I could eat, while still getting everything in a spoonful, without breaking into the center “filling” of melted butter. When I did, it was so much fun watching the butter ooze out of the mashed potatoes and adding more flavor to the dish. This dish just brings up warm memories for me and dinners with my family while growing up.

Grandma’s Chili – Comfort Food
8 oz elbow macaroni uncooked
1 lb ground beef (73/27)
2 cans of dark red kidney beans undrained
1 med onion chopped
2 tsp garlic powder.
8 oz kethchup
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
instant mashed potatoes (Make for six servings)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook ground beef and onions with salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil and oregano. In another pot cook macaroni until tender. Once beef mixture is cooked add kidney beans and kethcup with 1/2 to 1 cup of water mix together and simmer 5 minutes. Add macaroni to mixture and simmer 5 minutes more. While simmering make the mashed potatoes and spoon into a bowl, (add butter and salt to taste), then spoon chili over mashed potatoes. Leave as is or do as my sisters would do, (my 6 year old prefered it this way too), and mix it all together.

how it really looked when served (copius amts of pasta hide the mashed potatoes)...

while you can still see the potatoes underneath... (this mind you will not last)

Belatedly submitted to Joelen for the Family Favorites Read, Watch, and Eat (I was a bad wife and went to bed without doing it inspite of all the hubby’s efforts in making it and typing up the post, but that’s no shocker these days unfortunately) and don’t forget to check out the wrap up… And when I finish posting them, you can check out my dad’s red beans rice, or my g-ma’s rolls–hands down a most requested recipe ever, that I frankly tend to delegate because I’m so lazy–which we had with this chili dinner (major carb offense, I know) or Buttermilk Pie from my other grandmother for more of the weekend’s family classics…

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

cakes on the griddle

I was laying around on the couch sick dreading the return of the boys as it would signal the beginning of homework and making dinner… Girlie and I were channel surfing when she decided she wanted to see A Lyon in the Kitchen… and he made these blueberry pancakes and she kept marveling “oooooh, that’s for me mom… those are for me…” and “can we make those?” so when hubby called home at the end of the day to check on me I told him I really didn’t feel like cooking and pitched him the breakfast for dinner idea and asked if he’d make it… he agreed to both so this worked out very well…

N. Lyon’s Blueberry Pancakes

I’m presuming the Hubs essentially followed the recipe… but we did sub yogurt for the buttermilk… (and of course if I were to make them I’d add a couple tablespoons of the maple syrup to the batter so as not to have to use it later but I’m weird like that…)

Mini Pictorial of sorts:

initial batter…

egg whites

assembled batter

cakes on the griddle

Lazy Lady BBQ Succotash Rice

BBQ Succotash Rice
1 pkg smoked sausage (turkey kilbalsa), chopped
1 lb frozen lima beans
2 c rice
salt/pep/garlic
2 bay leaves
1 qt of water

Made this up on a Tues and forgot I didn’t need it that night as there was going to be dinner at PTA… so I fridged it. Just brown the meat, add everything else and bring to boil… Shut off the heat and leave on hot eye until liquid is absorbed…

Wed night, added:
3/4-1 c BBQ sauce
around 1.5 c water
1/2 lb frozen corn
1 c quartered grape tomatoes

and rewarmed it thru…

** To make this in one go cut the extra 1.5 c water to 1/2 c and then proceed same as before… “brown the meat, add everything else and bring to boil… Shut off the heat and leave on hot eye until liquid is absorbed…” that is all…

Lazy Lady Beef Stroganoff

Well, there’s been a ruckus about the Lazy Lady recipes (only one other is actually up here and it and the boxed mac get oodles of hits and searches) so I’m working on some more and we’ll see how that goes as the time passes but for know I decided to make a lazy lady version of stroganoff (there’s a skillet stroganoff that ATK made a little while back that got me to thinking about one, as I loved the one-pot-ness of it but wanted something even simpler but still tasty so tonight I tinkered… as it was nice not to be guesting in someone else’s kitchen…) Tonight’s version was made with ground meat as it was present and accounted for (but pre-cut tips could definitely be in a future revision…) so I guess this is sort of Hamburger Helper reminiscent… but another real meat version is coming at some point in the future…

mostly absorbed, aka. if you push it aside you can see the pan without liquid rushing to cover it...

Lazy Lady Beef Stroganoff (part 1-ground)
1 lb ground beef (I technically used the v word, since it was on sale cheaper than round)
s/p, garlic pwd, onion pwd
1.5 c sliced mushrooms
2 T powdered milk (could be skipped, could lose some broth in place of a bit of milk–whatever)
1/2 c hard cider (I guess sherry would have been better but again, I’m deeply motivated by the on hand)
1/4 yellow onion
3 c beef broth
3 c egg noodles
1/4 c snipped chives (again, what was here)
1/2-3/4 c sour cream

Season the ground meat and brown it. Using the rendered fat and more as and if needed (I needed and used olive oil) saute the mushrooms. Add the powdered milk and stir to coat the beef and mush, use the cider/sherry to deglaze the pan and reduce the heat. Put onion and broth in the blender and puree smooth, add to the pan along with noodles and herbs and cover with lid and let simmer until noodles are cooked (not sure how long but it was less than 10). Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.

 
The sauce not absorbed by the pasta is thickened by the pasta starches, thus no fussing with making roux or flouring the meat (which wouldn’t have worked out so hot with the ground meat, LOL) or anything either… Super easy, in hindsight I’d wished I’d popped a couple of cloves of garlic in the blender too… but all in all was mostly satisfied. Little Hawk: One could also use some of those dried miced onions and powdered beef boullion, and probably even some dried mushrooms if found on the cheap, to make your own HH-ish kit of the dried items and then just add the meat (which could be preseasoned and precooked, and popped in the freezer), some water (hot tap will thaw the precooked frozen crumbles), and the sour cream later when making… still just as easy but you’d have more control over the salt and other suchness…

Blueberry Muffins

You may ask yourself why someone about to flee from the hurricane’s mighty winds would slow down the getting on the roads process to make blueberry muffins when breakfast was already made… Well, it’s simple really if you know either me or my grandmother (not to mention the guilt I bore over my children’s behavior this extended visit)…

The story goes that for “quite some time now” my grandma was going to make blueberry muffins for her neighbors JB and Anne as the nurses and caretakers who stay with them never do and JB has a mean sweet tooth… Well, she’d as of yet not and the last of the blueberries from her yard (which by the way were less than adequate in her opinion as well) were squirreled away in her freezer but she was afraid if the power went out she could lose them and then oh my would it be hard to fulfill her promise… But opening the fridge too much to make them with this uncertainty looming could doom everything else as well, plus what if the power went out when she was baking them as her stove is not gas…

So, instead of sitting down to eat my breakfast I stay puttering in the kitchen to make them… with my g-ma’s favorite recipe no less (so of course have to keep stopping to check how to do things) but in the end it works out and she runs them next door and stays for a bit of a visit while we are packing up…

Blueberry Muffins (H. Lewis, Tylertown UMW’s “A Book of Favorite Recipes” 1986)
1.75 c flour
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp bkg soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 egg, beaten + milk to make 1 c
1/3 c oil or melted shortening
frozen blueberries (at least 1 c) **
grated lemon rind and juice (1-2 tsp at most) ***

Mix the dry, add the wet and blend… Fold in the berries and spoon into greased muffin tin (makes only 12, fill them well as they rise just enough)… Bake 20-25 min at 375

** I’d think one would probably want to use around 2 c, and I dusted them in a bit of powdered sugar… (meaning to dust the remaining powdered sugar I’d tossed them with over the tops after baking but g-ma was too eager in taking them over for me to have that chance…
*** I used 2 tsp of lemon juice, no zest