Leftovers Soup

WHAT'S COOKING: Every year I make Turkey Soup from the turkey carcass. It's usually a simple vegetable based soup - celery, onion, garlic, carrots - cooked in turkey broth and with bits of turkey meat added. But this year simply by a chance leftover cup of sweet potatoes from making a sweet potato pie, I came up with what may well be the best soup I've ever made. Warm, hearty, rich but still light in calories. And, of course, with a twist!

HARDY WINTER SOUP WITH A TWIST(serves 4)

8 cups turkey broth
1/2 onion, diced
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (plain)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp Thyme (I used fresh)
1/2 tsp Poultry Seasoning
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Put olive oil in a large pot and add vegetables, cook until onion is translucent.

Add turkey broth, thyme, poultry seasoning. Bring to a simmer and simmer for a few hours until carrots are soft and tender.

Add mashed sweet potatoes (I think pumpkin puree would work here too). Using blender (hold cloth over top when blending hot ingredients!) or immersion blender, blend soup mixture until smooth. Add heavy cream, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper, and stir well.

Now here's the twist (optional, but we really enjoyed the addition). I added about 8 frozen ravioli (2 per serving). I cooked them in boiling water per bag instructions, drained, then added them directly to the soup. I happened to use beef, but either beef or cheese would be great. You could also use a cheese stuffed tortellini, or any other stuffed pasta you have.

I'm so sorry there's no picture but it wasn't until we sat down to eat that I realized how extraordinary this soup is! It was gone before I thought to take pictures. I'll be making it again soon and will add pics then!

If you make turkey broth from your turkey carcass, this soup is truly frugal. I estimate the cost to be about $1.75 for the entire pot of soup, including ravioli! That's about .44 cents per serving! Serve it with either a batch of cornbread or a pan of biscuits, and it's a wonderful, hardy cold weather meal.

WHAT'S THE PLAN: Well, whatever the plan was this week has gone down the tubes with the arrival of a serious winter cold. I'll be down and out for at least two days (that's probably wishful thinking but that's what I'm hoping for). Since it's Cyber Monday, I'll spend the day on the computer seeing what deals are out there. I only have a few things left to get, so it would be nice to find deals on those items. I also want to get to a few local stores this week to do some shopping.

WHAT I LOVE: I mentioned an Immersion Blender or Hand Blender in my soup recipe above. Do you have one of these? I absolutely love mine! I use it mostly for soups - to make them smooth and creamy just using vegetables. We eat a LOT of soup here in the winter so I use this hand blender frequently. I've also used it to make baby food, to smooth out applesauce, in ham and lentil soup, for a quick small amount of whipped cream, and more. It's really a handy gadget! Here's the one I have:

Catching up in the Kitchen - Friday

WHAT'S HAPPENING: Without going into a lot of details, the past few days have been really emotionally tough for me. Every election has to have a winner and a loser - that's how our system works. In my world, winners shouldn't gloat, and losers shouldn't be hateful and vindictive. If you're on FaceBook, you know both happened to the Nth degree. About the 10th time I had to read one of many "friends'" post how Republican voters are stupid, ignorant, un-educated, racist, woman-haters, and worse, I lost it. I actually cried. To think that any of my friends could think these things of ME (not a closet Republican by any means) - well, it just broke my heart and, for a bit, my spirit. They didn't seem to understand that while they were making these generic comments - aimed at Republicans in general - that many of their friends, family and neighbors are, indeed, Republicans!! And these mean-spirited posts really hurt.

It occurred to me that the Liberals are the folks who are the first to proclaim that all people should be treated equally, and with respect and dignity (which I agree with, by the way). Apparently, voicing it and practicing it are two different things.

A sewing day!

Enough politics. I put FaceBook down and walked away. I can't prevent people from thinking what they want to think, but I don't have to read it. There's enough Evil in the world without actually inviting it into your life, so FaceBook is gone for a few days until the hatred dies down. A few "friends" are gone permanently, but it is what it is.

Meanwhile.... there is much more to life than FaceBook!  Once I put it down, I found I had time on my hands! Imagine that.  I spent the afternoon yesterday (Thursday) working on a quilt. I put Project Runway DVD's on my player in the background, and sewed, sewed, sewed. It was great. For those who quilt, you know how you truly have to focus your mind on what you're doing. Great way to get the BAD stuff out, and the GOOD stuff in :)

WHAT'S COOKING: Today I had to spend some time catching up in the kitchen. We needed bread. I'd promised my husband cinnamon rolls. I had 5 lbs of organic lemons to process before they went bad. We needed some kind of healthy snack in the house.

I make a very basic white bread (which you can easily replace half the white flour with whole wheat flour). It consists simply of yeast, water, sugar or honey, a bit of salt, and flour.  I always make enough for two loaves, but usually make only one, and use the other half of the dough for something else -- pizza dough for dinner that night, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, sandwich rolls, hot dog or sub rolls, or, if I happen to have leftover roast and veggies of some kind, I'll make meat turnovers.

Today the extra dough became cinnamon rolls. All I do is roll the bread dough out into a rectangle, brush all but one long edge with butter, sprinkle on cinnamon sugar rather heavily, sometimes add nuts or raisins, roll it up, seal with water along the non-butter edge, cut into 9-12 pieces, let raise until doubled, bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, and cover with a white frosting glaze. I use Paula Deen's Cinnamon Roll recipe - not for the rolls, but for the glaze. I'm sure the rolls are good too, I just find it easy to use my white bread dough instead. Less mixing, less mess, less work.

Ready for Winter coughs!

I picked up 5 lbs of organic lemons for .99 the last time I went to the store, so needed to process those. I sliced them, put the ends aside, and filled a pint mason jar with the lemon slices, then added 1/4 tsp of cinnamon (for it's anti-inflammatory properties), then covered it all in honey. Once the honey settled, I put more slices of lemon in the jar, covered with honey again. I let that sit on the counter and added honey as needed until the lemons were completely submerged in honey. I keep this in the fridge to use for coughs and sore throats in the winter. Plop one or two of these honey-laden lemons in a cup of tea, and you have almost instant relief.

With the rest of the lemons, I sliced, saved the ends, and put the slices in my dehydrator for the day. I use dehydrated lemon slices in both hot and iced tea. Plus they look pretty in a jar on my kitchen counter.

All the lemon ends I saved? I slice them into thin strips, and put them in the dehydrator (with an added screen so they don't fall through). Once dried, I will use my spice mill to grind them up and add to my jar of Lemon Zest, which I use in cooking and baking. I have also run them through the mill with black peppercorns for really yummy Lemon Pepper, which I love on chicken and fish.

Lastly, I made our favorite "Granola Bar". It's a No-Cook Oatmeal bar that goes so well with an afternoon cup of coffee or an evening cup of tea.

The basic recipe is:
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
3 cups of oatmeal

To that, add what you like. Today I chopped up some dehydrated mango, craisins, and added coconut, cinnamon, and some chocolate chips. Add no more than 1/4 cup of whatever ingredients you want.

Mix well. And that's the hardest part! I take my rings off and mix by hand. If you mix by spoon, make sure it's a really sturdy spoon. Lay a sheet of aluminum foil down in a 9 x 11 baking pan, then spray lightly with Pam. Put your bar ingredients in and use a piece of plastic wrap to push it all down firmly and evenly. I mean - REALLY push. Push down along the edges, too. Put this in the fridge for about two hours, then cut into 1 x 3 inch bars. Wrap individually in plastic wrap, so your family can just grab a "granola bar" and go. Good stuff.

WHAT'S THE PLAN: My To Do List today was just basic daily cleaning tasks, and the baking I discussed above. I put dishes away, then fed the dishwasher all day as I baked. I swept the kitchen floor first thing this morning, but had to do it again after baking! I did a good all over general "pick up" first thing this morning -- just walking around my house putting things back where they belong. Jeff made the bed, and I did a quick clean of all bathrooms, put new towels in his bathroom and wiped down both sinks. Right after lunch I drove Jeff to our mechanic's to pick up my car, and took Sophie with us. Silly dog just loves riding in the car. That was pretty much it, besides the baking I discussed already.

WHAT I LOVE: My daughter-in-law is so wonderful about sending me photos of my sweet 5 year old granddaughter, Miss Aimee. It's hard when 3 grandchildren live nearby, and one lives so far away. I always appreciate her taking the time to send me a photo.

This morning's photo arrived just as I was getting up - and it started my day in such a wonderful, positive way! This child smiles from the inside out :) She is this happy because both her Mommy and her Daddy walked her to school today. Notice she is all dressed in red, white and blue for Veteran's Day!

Miss Aimee

That's it for today. Please - be kind to each other.

Reverse Menu Planning - (or: What We Ate Last Week)

A big trend amongst bloggers is to post their menus for the upcoming week. I've done it myself many times. That said, I've also strayed from the planned menu many times (!) and we end up eating something totally different than what I planned. So what good, really, did it do to post a planned menu if I'm not sticking to it?

So now, here's what we REALLY ate last week! On a side note, I am trying to eliminate as many processed foods from our daily menu as I can. Sometimes it's just not possible and sometimes (hot dog rolls) it's just not convenient. But in my book, "Some is better than none" so I just do the best I can.

If you try nothing else in this list, try the STRAWBERRY PINEAPPLE SALAD WITH PINEAPPLE RANCH DRESSING. Oh my. Quite possibly the best salad I've eaten in many, many years.

SUNDAY

Homemade sour dough bread French Toast

Bacon

Sunny-side up egg

Homemade apple syrup

 

Sunday - Breakfast for dinner!

MONDAY

Grilled Extra Lean Hamburger, topped with

Homemade Guacamole/Salsa (*recipe) and

Homemade Pickled Onions on

Homemade sandwich rolls

Roasted Red Pepper Hummas

Garden Fresh Gourmet Salt-free Tortilla Chips

Monday

TUESDAY

Oven-baked Buffalo Chicken Wings

Onion Rings (used this batter recipe)

Apple Coleslaw

Tuesday

WEDNESDAY

Grilled Chicken Thighs with BBQ sauce

Half a baked potato

Strawberry/Pineapple salad with Pineapple Ranch Dressing

THURSDAY

Grilled Extra Lean Hamburgers (again!)

Topped with pickled red onions

Leftover Apple Coleslaw

Fermented asparagus

(fermented with garlic and lemon grass)

Fermented ginger carrots 

(ended up mixing them in coleslaw - yum!) 

Thursday

FRIDAY

Hot dogs (Boar's Head - no nitrates, no fillers)

Tomato, lettuce salad topped with leftover guacamole/salsa

Potato Gnocchi with garlic and Parmesan cheese

 (

Friday

Saturday - no picture - take out Chinese Food!

*Recipe - Guacamole Salsa

I know there's a million guacamole recipes on the Internet, so you probably don't need one more. But mine is SO easy and tastes SO fresh and bright. It's kind of like guacamole, and kind of like Salsa. We use it on burgers, to dip tortilla chips, or as a salad dressing. Here's what I do:

2 Roma Tomatoes
1/2 large green pepper
1/2 medium yellow onion
2 jalapeno peppers (take out seeds if you don't like heat)
1 tbsp of cilantro paste (or use a 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
Salt to taste (I don't add any)

Chop and mix all these up real quick in a food processor.

Take the pits out of 2 avacados, scoop out the flesh, place in a bowl and mash well. Add the above ingredients from the food processor. Add 1 tbsp of lime (or lemon) juice. Stir well. That's it!

 

Make Your Own Hummingbird Food

Spring is my favorite time of year for SO many reasons, but one is that it's time for my hummingbirds to return!

Easy Hummingbird Food

In mid-March, I start checking out the Hummingbird migration map.  When I see they are just a day or two away according to the map, I know it's time to put my feeders out. I try and get the feeders out early so the hummingbirds don't fly right past and find somewhere else to hang out for the summer.

I make my own hummingbird food, rather than buy the packets which, by the way, contain red food dyes for no reason. My hummingbird food mixture is simple and quick. Boil 2 cups of water and add 1/2 cup sugar, stir until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved. Let the mix cool completely before putting it in your feeders.

I go through quite a lot of this food (I have three feeders ), so I mix it up in a
2 quart mason jar and store any leftover in the refrigerator. Whenever you make a larger batch, just make sure to keep the sugar/water ratio at 1:4 - one part sugar to four parts water.

Last year I had a very very friendly ruby-throated hummingbird in the yard all summer. When I sat out on the deck, he got comfortable enough to come within a foot or two of me. I'm hoping we'll become even better friends this year!

Life is good! Enjoy it more by bringing hummingbirds to your yard!

Making breads and more...

Whole Wheat Onion Rolls

I wish you could smell my house right now. The smell of baking bread is always a favorite of mine, but add to that the smell of toasted onions and mmmmm... it smells so good!

I have a large container of bread dough in my refrigerator that I can use for all kinds of wonderful "from scratch" goodies -- artisan bread, English muffins, pizza dough, sandwich bread and more. I make up a batch of the dough once a week - it literally takes no more than 10 minutes - and then use it all week long for whatever we need.

 The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is one book that is worth it's weight in gold. In very easy steps AND WITHOUT KNEADING, it teaches you to make a wonderful, almost fool-proof dough and the only ingredients you need are flour, yeast, salt and water. From those four simple ingredients, you can make SO many wonderful breads.

Where I live, a pack of 6 English Muffins costs $2.49 - $3.49. Read the ingredients. To keep those "fresh" on the store shelf, there have to be preservatives and chemical flavorings. No thank you. I buy my flour in 25 lb bags and my yeast in 2 lb packages, so the cost for me to make 8 English muffins (or a loaf of artisan bread, or dough for a large pizza) is about 39 cents. No preservatives, no chemicals and 1/10th of the cost? Yes please!

I also use eight English Muffin Rings to make both sandwich rolls and English muffins. I have since learned that you can simply take both top and bottom off tunafish cans and use those. Be sure and butter the ring well. The other item I use that for me is a "must have" is a Non-Stick Silicon Baking Mats. You'll thank yourself for picking up a set of these! NOTHING sticks to them. So useful for breads like these as well as cookies. They work like a dream and you don't have to use any spray or grease on your baking sheets anymore.

If you think you're not a homemade bread baker, think again.  You are one book and four ingredients away from making perfect breads and doughs for your family!!

Life is good - especially when your house is scented with fresh baked bread.

This week's menus - no processed foods!

I've been making a serious effort for the past few months to cook with and eat as few processed foods as possible. Much of the ingredients for the menus below comes from items I have already canned or "Make Your Own" mixes that I have made in large quantities and store in jars. Unless noted, everything is made from scratch.

Friday

Slow-cooker Beef Shanks

(found these on sale as a Manager's Special. Four beautiful beef shanks for $3.00!)

Braised Kale
Homemade macaroni and cheese

Saturday

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Made with Make Your Own Cream of XXX Soup

Green Salad

Sunday

Scrambled Eggs

Bacon

Toast from homemade sourdough bread

(Link for making your own sourdough bread starter)

Fruit salad

Monday

Meatloaf (pre-made in freezer)

Leftover mac & cheese

Mixed Greens salad

Tuesday

Soup from pantry (home canned)

Grilled cheese (homemade sourdough bread)

Wednesday

Ham Steaks

Scalloped potatoes

Steamed green beans

Thursday
Fish tacos

on Homemade tortillas

Assorted pickled/fermented vegetables

Desserts:
Apple Blueberry Crisp*
Homemade yogurt with homemade strawberry sauce

Homemade oatmeal cookies

Apple Blueberry Crisp: There is no exact recipe for this. I dump a pint jar of home canned apples into a 9 x 9 cake pan, and mix in some frozen blueberries, a tablespoon of flour and a tablespoon of brown sugar. In a bowl, I mix up about 1 1/2 cups oatmeal, a tablespoon of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, sprinkle of nutmeg, a bunch of walnuts chopped and sometimes some flaked coconut. To this mix I add 2 tbsp of butter and mush it all up real good with my fingers til the butter is evenly dispersed throughout. I spoon this oatmeal mixture over the apples and blueberries and bake in a 375 oven for about 30 minutes.

All measurements are approximate!

You can use 3 or 4 fresh apples, peeled and sliced, but you will want to cook for about 15 minutes longer.

Winner Winner - Chicken Alfredo Dinner

I have a lot of veggies in my refrigerator right now, so needed to use some up. In my last trip to the grocery store, I found Butelli's Alfredo Sauce on sale, and had a coupon, so it was a bargain I couldn't pass up. Here's what I made:

Ingredients:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
4 turkey sausage links, each cut into about 8 pieces*
1/2 cup broccoli florets
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup diced carrots
1 cayenne pepper, diced
1 leftover ear of corn, pre-cooked, cut kernels cut off cob
1 jar Butelli's Alfredo sauce
Black pepper
1/3 box spaghetti, cooked and drained according to package directions

Put olive oil in deep fry pan and heat on medium heat. Add garlic, onions, green pepper, and carrots. Stir and cook until onions are translucent.  Use spatula to move veggies over to one side, and add chicken (add a little more olive oil if needed). Cook until no longer pink. Add sausage, diced cayenne pepper, and corn. Cook for 2 minutes to heat through. Add Alfredo Sauce and black pepper. Cover and put on very low heat.

Meanwhile, heat water to cook spaghetti. Cook 3-4 servings according to package directions.

Serve Veggie Chicken Alfredo mixture over spaghetti. Grate fresh parmesiano-romano cheese over top.

My Notes:

You could probably use some diced jalepeno pepper in place of the cayenne.  But that kick of heat adds some real needed flavor to the dish.

The black pepper is because I love black pepper in Alfredo sauce. Use as you wish.

I cooked 4 servings of spaghetti because I knew my husband would eat 2 servings of this, and I wanted one serving left over for his lunch the next day. There was the perfect amount of sauce for a generous 4 servings.

*I think cooked Shrimp would also be good in this dish, but I had chicken so that's what I used. I added the sausage only because the chicken breast I took out of the freezer was very small. The sausage is definitely optional (but tasted great!).

If I'd had black olives, I would have added some chopped once the sauce was in the pan. Again, I just love the combination of Alfredo Sauce and black olives.

Another leftover idea for the sauce: Use it as a pizza topping. Mmmmm. Love Alfredo pizza.

My first "from scratch" Indian food cooking - success!

Roti - Unleavened bread

We lovvvve food from India! There's a hole-in-the-wall restaurant a few miles from us that serves their food buffet-style, and it's our "go to" place for a good Indian meal. Our local international grocery store, Jungle Jim's, also carries several lines of excellent frozen entrees and side dishes, which I've bought several times, and these are quite good too. However... nothing beats "from scratch" food normally, so I thought it was time to try my hand at cooking an India-themed meal.

The menu: No Butter, Butter Chicken; Cauliflower stuffed Roti, Panack Paneer (spinach with paneer cheese cubes - this was a frozen pre-bought item, so no recipe)

Motivating me was the TV show "Spice Goddess" on the Cooking Channel. The show host, Bal Arneson, brings a healthy approach to Indian cooking. If you're familiar with this style food, you've probably heard of "Butter Chicken" -- a fragrant, spicy chicken dish in a sauce made from butter and cream. Arneson, however, has a more healthy take on it, replacing the butter and cream with her homemade yogurt. I took that one step further and used a no-fat no-sugar plain Greek yogurt. Here's the recipe:

NO BUTTER BUTTER CHICKEN

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
   (I used olive oil)
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
• 1 small red onion, chopped (I used white)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds (I used ground)
• 1 tablespoon garam masala

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1 teaspoon salt (I did not add salt)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 large chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt (I used 1/2 cup no-fat Greek yogurt)

Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the grapeseed oil. When it starts to get hot, add the garlic, ginger and onions, and cook until the onions are golden, about 4 minutes. Add the tomato paste, cumin, garam masala, brown sugar, chili flakes, salt and turmeric, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken and stir well to coat. Stir in the yogurt and 1/2 cup water and simmer until the chicken is done, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool, and then shred the meat using a fork or your fingers.

My changes: Olive oil in the pan, add chopped onions, cook 2-3 minutes, then add ginger and garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add tomato paste, cumin, garam masala, chili flakes and tumeric; stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken and stir to coat with spices. Cook 4 minutes. Add brown sugar, yogurt and 1 cup water and simmer (low boil) until chicken is done, 10 minutes. I did not shred the chicken (nor did she on the TV show).  I served this over brown rice.

What I'd do different: Absolutely nothing. This was perfection on a plate. I might add some chic peas just to get the extra fiber in the meal. Other than that, not a thing.

CAULIFLOWER-STUFFED ROTI

"Roti" is an unleavened flat bread, reminiscent of a tortilla but without salt. It doesn't need flavor because you use it to dip up the other flavor-enthused foods on your plate.

Ingredients

1 cup grated cauliflower

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (I used fresh chives)

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1 small green chile, minced

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon salt (I did not add salt)

1 recipe Roti dough, recipe follows

• Roti Dough
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup to 1 cup water

 Add cauliflower, herb, ginger, chile, coriander and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

Mix your Roti dough. In a medium sized bowl, add the water to the whole wheat flour. Start with 3/4 cup and add more if necessary. Mix with your hands until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, then knead in the bowl until completely mixed.

Make a little pile of white flour on your rolling surface. Pull off a smaller-than-golf-ball sized piece of dough, roll in your hands to make a firm ball, then flatten and dip each side in the flour. Use a rolling pin to roll out VERY thin. Mine rolled out to about an 8 inch circle. You need TWO circles of dough for each stuffed Roti.

Once you have your dough rolled out, place one dough round on a flat surface, spoon 1/4 cup or less cauliflower mixture in center and smooth out to about 1/2 inch from the edges of the dough. Place second Roti on top and seal the edges by pressing together.

Heat a flat pan (she used a cast iron Roti pan that was what we'd call a round griddle pan, and I used a non-stick flat frying pan). Do NOT oil or butter. When good and hot, place stuffed Roti in pan and cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. When you see the edges of the Roti becoming dry, flip over and cook for another 30 seconds. The Roti will have small browned cooked spots on them.

That's it! For me, the part that took the longest was rolling the Roti's out and trying to get them close to the same size. Of course, the show host made that look easy! But then, she's made thousands of these and these were my first, so I'm sure I will get better/faster at it the more I make them.

What I did different: I don't care for cilantro. On the show, Bal said you could replace it with either fresh chives or parsley. I just happened to have garlic chives in my garden, so that's what I used. She also said you could use ANY flour you have on hand. I used 100% Whole Wheat flour, but I'd like to try Almond or Coconut flour just to make this dish that much more healthy.

Spicy Sweet Potato and Ham Soup

The best thing about cooler weather arriving is we can now have soup for dinner. I love to make soup, and I love to eat soup!

I found this recipe for Sweet Potato, Leek and Ham Soup online, and thought it sounded good (and I had all the ingredients!) so gave it a try. Right away, I knew it needed spices to bring the flavor from blah to WOW. Here's my version of Sweet Potato, Leek and Ham Soup - It has a deep, rich spice undertone in addition to the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and ham.

Spicy Sweet Potato and Ham Soup

• 1 cup diced cooked ham*
• 1 cup thinly sliced leek (about 1 large)
• 1 shallot, diced 
• 1+ tbsp olive oil
• 3 cups raw, cubed peeled sweet potato (2 large)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 (5-ounce) can evaporated fat-free milk (NOT a large can!)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp red cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp turmeric
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp butter

Preparation

1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and diced ham; cook 3 to 4 minutes or until browned, stirring frequently. Remove ham from pan; set aside.

Add sliced leek and diced shallot to pan. Add a small amount of olive oil if needed. Cook on low heat, covered, 5 minutes or until leeks are very tender, stirring occasionally.

Add sweet potatoes and next 10 ingredients (water, chicken broth, evaporated milk, spices), scraping pan to loosen browned bits; bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until sweet potato is very tender.

Use an immersion blender to puree the mixture in pan.
OR:  Place half of potato mixture in a blender or food processor. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Process until smooth. Pour puree into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining mixture. Return pureed mixture to pan.

Stir in maple syrup and mustard. Stir in reserved diced ham. Right before serving, add 1 tbsp butter and stir in until butter melts. Ladle soup into bowls while steaming hot.


*Note on Ham - To keep the cost of this soup down, I used "cooked ham" found in the deli department. I asked them to slice it 1/4 inch thick, then I bring it home and dice it. In New England, this is called "boiled ham". It's the least expensive "lunch meat" here in Ohio. This same diced ham can be used in omelettes, in macaroni and cheese, on salads, and in quiche. It freezes well, so it's easy to always have some on hand. Of course, if you have any other kind of ham it will work just as well.

I served this soup with hot from the oven Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Perfection!

Life is good -- even when the weather turns cold because now you can make soup!

Things that Keep on Giving

I admit to not paying a lot of attention to my vegetable garden lately -- a few weeks, in fact. My husband went out twice and picked green beans, but when I look out the kitchen window and see the garden getting dry and brown, I kind of assumed it was on it's last legs, and needed to be prepared for winter.

Not so.

Today I went out to start winterizing -- pull up all the plants, remove and clean up stakes, etc. - and to my delight, discovered that my garden is still going strong!

Here's today's harvest:

I found three red tomatoes (and at least six more on their way), a green pepper, four white eggplant, and lots and lots of green beans! Some of the green beans are too large to just steam and eat (shame on me for not picking them these past few weeks), but they will do fine in soups throughout the winter.

The dried beans in the front will be a project this week for Mr. B and I. We will open up the bean pods and pull out the dried seeds/beans inside, and put them away to plant for next year's garden. It's a huge cost savings if you don't have to buy seeds every Spring. You can't do this with all vegetables because many are crossbred and you won't know what will be produced, but beans are beans in my book, so I will plant these next year.

Bean, green pepper and eggplant plants are still flowering -- a huge surprise since we've had two heavy frosts already. I guess the fence and shed that back up to the garden are protecting the plants from the frost. Isn't it nice when you're the recipient of a happy accident?!

It started to rain as I was picking beans, but tomorrow is forecast to be a nice day, so I think I'm going to plant some spinach and lettuce seeds and see if I can extend our growing season a bit longer. Here in southwestern Ohio you just never know -- we could still get six to eight weeks of 50 to 70 degree weather, with just an occasional frost. That's perfect weather for lettuce and spinach.

Recipes also keep on giving, if you think about it. 

I did some baking yesterday, and need to share this recipe with the world - Donut Muffins! Oh my oh my. It's a muffin - and tastes just like a fresh donut rolled in cinnamon sugar. You can find the recipe here. I made a dozen in standard size muffin tins, but then made another dozen in the tiny muffin tins - donut holes!

I also made Cranberry Bread. When I was a little girl, my very favorite food was the Cranberry Nut Bread my grandmother baked. I visited her several times a year, and she'd almost always bake a loaf of Cranberry Nut Bread for me. (Braised short ribs was my favorite meal she cooked. I'd love to find her recipe for that. She made them in the pressure cooker, and before she'd open the pressure cooker, she'd clear the entire family out of the kitchen, "just in case".) Since we were having a family gathering for breakfast today (my son is visiting from Texas), I thought Gramma's Cranberry Bread would be appropriate. It went over very very well.

I also made Breakfast Burritos yesterday for breakfast today. I made a small batch of home fries (using this recipe from the Southern Plate web site, which has some of my all time favorite recipes, especially the Chicken and Dumplings!), then cooked up two big links of mild Italian Sausage (took off the casings and broken the sausage up into small pieces as it cooked), with diced onions and peppers. Made up a batch of scrambled eggs (6 eggs for 10 burritos), and mixed it all together, and put a big serving spoon full of the mixture on a burrito, sprinkled with grated Cheddar Cheese and a little Taco Sauce (I didn't have any Salsa on hand), rolled them up, put them in a 9 x 12 baking pan, covered it with aluminum foil, and stuck them in the freezer. Last night before I went to bed I moved them up into the refrigerator, and then popped them in a 350 degree oven this morning for 30 minutes. It might seem silly to freeze them for just a few hours (about 8 hours), but that prevented the scrambled eggs from getting watery, which they would have done if they'd just sat in the refrigerator. These burritos were a huge success!

Today is a lazy day. Windy, rainy, cool and just right for curling up and watching a movie. I've once again gotten my Cathedral quilt blocks out to work on while watching TV. Another winter preparation, I suppose.

Life is good - and even better with your family around you.
 

Behind in everything

I had "one of those" colds... it lasted almost three weeks and put me down enough so I didn't feel like doing much of anything. Just babysitting Mr. B. for 90 minutes after school took all the energy I could muster. In fact, I even "called in sick" for my full day of Friday babysitting one week, and I think that may have been the first time in several years.

It was just mid-week last week when I finally started feeling better... not 100%, but definitely better. Housecleaning essentials, grocery shopping, and some sewing were about all I could accomplish.

Then this week snuck up and took me by surprise -- Spring Break from school for Mr. B! And of course, his other babysitter doesn't babysit during school vacation. Sigh. So Mr. B. has been with me fulltime this week.

So now, I'm behind on everything. Housework, laundry, grocery shopping, baking, gardening, you name it. I'm feeling about 95% better - the cold/cough still tends to kick in in the middle of the night, which makes sleeping tough.

Today my husband took Mr. B. out for the day. Bless his heart. I needed a break, and I'm pretty sure Mr. B. did too. The first thing I did was make up a grocery list and get the grocery shopping done. This afternoon I'm emptying all the trash in the house, cleaning out the fridge, and trying to get caught up on laundry.

Since I'm just back from grocery shopping, I thought I'd sit down and make out my menus for the next 10 days, before I forget what I've bought and what I've put in the freezer. So here we go:

Thursday

Homemade Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Green salad

Friday

Cannelloni bean and sausage soup

Corn bread

Saturday

Baked fish

Creamed Spinach

Oven-fried potatoes

Sunday (Easter)

Baked bone-in Ham

Homemade mac and cheese

Steamed green beans

Homemade rolls

Apple pie

Monday

Leftovers from Sunday

Tuesday

Shepherd's Pie

Leftover Rolls

Wednesday

Hot dogs w/crescent roll buns

Lentil soup from freezer

Thursday

Ham and vegetable quiche

Green salad

Friday

Take-Out Chinese

Saturday

Hamburgers on English Muffins

w/sliced tomatoes and lettuce

Oven-fried Sweet Potato Fries

Sunday

Pork Chops w/applesauce

Potatoes au gratin

Peas/Carrots

Homemade rolls

There, I feel better already just getting those menus figured out and written down. Now, it's on to making To Do Lists for the week to get the housework caught up!

Life is Good!

Today's Chopped Challenge - Ground Pork!

I pulled a package of what I thought was ground turkey out of the freezer, only to discover later (after it had thawed) that it was ground pork. The only meal I ever use ground pork for is meatloaf, so I wasn't quite sure what to do with this ground pork. I've been down and out sick with a really nasty cold for almost a week, so my pantry ingredients aren't what they normally are -- no potatoes and the only pasta I have is spaghetti or alphabet noodles!

So here's what I came up with and oh my, it was good! This made at least 6 servings, and it was just as good the next night, re-heated. (We have no leftover phobia around here!)

PORK POLENTA PIE

Ingredients
1 lb ground pork
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped pepper (I only had red, but green would work)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup seedless raisins
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups cornmeal
Grated cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat oven at 350.

Heat large skillet over medium heat. Cook pork until it starts to brown, add onions, peppers and garlic and cook until onions are softened and pork is cooked through. Stir in tomatoes, raisins, chili powder, cumin, oregano and salt and pepper. Let simmer.

In second pan, heat chicken broth to a boil and add cornmeal slowly, stirring as you go. The result will be very thick and heavy, but that's what it's supposed to be, so don't worry!

Lightly spray a 13 x 9 x 2 baking pan with Pam Spray. Pour (or plop) the cornmeal mixture and spread it evenly on the bottom of the pan. Next pour the ground pork mixture and spread evenly. Top with a layer of grated cheddar cheese. Cover with foil.

Bake for 30 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for 10-15 more minutes.

I served this with chopped lettuce and a dollop of sour cream. If I'd had some fresh tomatoes, I think I'd have diced some of those up and served as a topping as well.

Fish Chowder - Perfect for a cold Sunday evening

I want to write this recipe down before I forget how I made this absolutely delicious fish chowder. This is not as thick as normal New England-style chowder, but every bit as good. Serves 4.

EASY FISH CHOWDER (or CHOWDAH if you're from New England)

Ingredients
2 thick pieces of cod fillet (haddock would also work) - about 1 pound
1/2 cup diced white onion
1/2 cup diced celery
2 slices bacon, diced
1 cup water
1 can cream of potato soup
1 can creamed corn
1 1/2 cups Half and Half
Salt, Black pepper
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp dried dill
1/4 tsp celery salt

Directions

In large saucepan (2.5 to 3 quart) on medium high heat, put in diced bacon and cook until brown and crunchy. Remove bacon from pan with slotted spoon, leaving bacon grease in pan, and saving bacon bits on paper towel for garnishing chowder later.

Add diced onion and celery to the bacon grease, and cook on medium heat until onion is translucent.

Add one cup of water to pan, then add cream of potato soup and 3/4 can of creamed corn. Lower heat to medium low and stir gently until soup is no longer lumpy and broth of chowder is smooth.

Add 1 1/2 cup of half and half, plus salt and pepper to taste (we like heavy on the black pepper), plus dill and celery salt. Let simmer very low for 10 to 15 minutes.

Cut fish into 1 inch pieces, add to soup. Turn heat up slightly -- make sure it doesn't boil! -- and let soup and fish simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. (Make your biscuits now.)

Add 2 tbsp butter and stir chowder gently until butter melts.

Serve in soup bowls, garnish with bacon bits. I served these with biscuits. Divine comfort food on a cold Sunday night!

This Week's Menu and To Do List

Lots of things spinning around in my head to get done this week, so it will help me to make a list here.

Our GreenBeanDelivery bin arrives on Tuesday and this week it seems to be mostly fruits and salad items. The bin comes every two weeks, and I try to use up the contents before the next bin arrives.

MENU

Monday

(Extra long day of babysitting)

Subway take out - $5 footlongs

Tuesday

Steak au Poivre

Green salad w/bacon and poached egg

(variation of this recipe)

Wednesday

Ham slices

Scrambled Eggs

Sliced Oranges

Toast (homemade peach oatmeal bread)

Thursday

Oven fried chicken

Sweet potato fries

Orange glazed carrots

Green salad

Friday

Homemade Fish Chowder (with haddock, potatoes and corn)

Biscuits

Saturday

Vegetable Crustless Quiche

Spam slices (on sale this week and Jeff loves it)

Mixed fruit salad

TO DO LIST FOR UPCOMING WEEKS

I need to take advantage of this no-snow winter we're having and get a few things done outside.

Build raised planter beds for vegetables (I'm shutting down my huge vegetable garden and going to three raised planters just off my back deck.)
-- Power wash old wooden decking to use for planter sides
-- Stain same decking
-- Put planter/beds together, line with landscape fabric
-- Start compost of leaves/grass in each

Start new Lego-themed quilt for Mr. B.  I've got it designed, I've purchased the fabric (there's no such thing as "registered" Lego fabric, by the way) and now it's just a matter of starting.

Finish dress/jacket for Miss Aimee. Almost done. It's adorable! Pictures soon.

Again, take advantage of this gorgeous (high 40's, low 50's) weather and do some weeding in the front gardens. I think this sounds like a job to share with Mr. B. when he's here on Monday for the day.

Purge closet and donate. For someone who never has anything to wear, I sure do have a lot of clothes!

Armoire in garage. Not sure what to do with this. It's a beautiful waterfall-style armoire that's been sitting in our garage for years, just taking up space. The more I see re-purposed old furniture, the more I'm thinking about painting it and/or turning it into a sewing storage cabinet (with fold-out table for a sewing machine?). Need to figure out where I'd put it before I decide to paint it.

It's NASCAR season once again. Jeff and I are big NASCAR fans, and rarely (OK, never!) miss a race on TV. But these races can be from 3 to 5 hours long, and that's a huge amount of time sitting and doing nothing except watching TV. So it's time to get out quilting that I can work on while watching the races. I need to revive the Cathedral Windows quilt I was working on last year, put it in a basket in the family room so it's easily accessible during races.

That's all that's on my mind for now. Life is good!

Playing CHOPPED in my kitchen tonight

I only use recipes for dinner now and then -- I am more of a "on the fly" kind of cook (think CHOPPED). Tonight I came up with two GREAT recipes that I want to write down (or we'll never have them again).

We had such a great dinner tonight! After 34 years of eating my cooking, my husband got up from the table and said "That was one of your Top 10 best meals". Gasp!

My produce basket from GreenBean Delivery  included collard greens (which I've never cooked before), and I still had some beautiful butternut squash left from a previous basket. I thought the collard greens would go well with pork chops, so my basic starter ingredients were:

3 boneless pork chops
1 bunch of collard greens
2 small butternut squash

So here is what I came up with.

I made maple flavored mashed squash - recipe here (except I omitted the rum).

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.  Make the squash recipe first and get it in the oven according to recipe.

For the PORK CHOPS (serves 2):

3 boneless pork chops
6 tsp horseradish sauce
6 tsp Gulden's Brown Mustard
Black pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chicken stock

Heat the olive oil in non-stick fry pan. Meanwhile, use a pastry brush and "paint" one side of each pork chop with a tsp of horseradish sauce, then 1 tsp of the brown mustard, then sprinkle with black pepper to taste. Place "painted" side down in hot pan. Then "paint" the top side of each pork chop with horseradish and mustard exactly the same way. Cook over med. high heat, turning after 4 to 5 minutes.

Once both sides are nicely browned, slide pan into oven (where you already have the maple butternut squash cooking). Cook in oven for about 10 -12 minutes.

Remove pan from oven and remove chops from pan. Place pan over medium low heat, slowly add chicken stock and "deglaze" the pan - stirring to get all the little bits of horseradish and meat up off the bottom and blended into the stock. It will turn dark brown. Keep adding chicken stock and stir as you go.

Serve the pork chops and pour a large spoonful of the sauce over each chop.

Don't omit the sauce! You'll notice the horseradish and mustard really didn't stick to the pork chops -- it's all on the bottom of the pan you cooked the chops in. When you "deglaze" the pan, all that flavor is incorporated into the chicken broth, and adds real depth of flavor to the pork chops via the sauce.



BLT COLLARD GREENS

1 large bunch of collard greens, washed
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
6 grape tomatoes, halved
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Salt to taste

Cut stems off of collard greens, then cut leaves into 1/2 to 1 inch slices. Set aside.

Pam spray deep-sided fry pan (that you have a cover for), heat over medium high heat, and add diced bacon. Cook until bacon is crumbly. Remove bacon from pan with slotted spoon.

Add onions to pan and cook until almost translucent. Add garlic, and chopped collard greens and stir so onions and garlic mix throughout. Return bacon to pan. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, stir, cover and cook over low heat until collard greens are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

When greens are tender (not soggy like spinach! You want them to still have a bit of "bite" to them), add tomatoes, return cover to pan and cook another 2 to 3 minutes. Remove cover and add vinegar and stir to distribute it throughout the greens. Serve.

Enjoy!

Perfection on a plate

It's been years since I found a new recipe I knew instantly would be a permanent addition to my long list of "tried and true" recipes, but this recipe is definitely it. Flavor - oh my! It brings a new taste to chicken -- an Asian slant to it, but not your typical "Chinese food". I served it on steamed white rice and served steamed broccoli on the side.

The recipe comes from Allrecipes.com. I found it by doing a Google search for the two main ingredients I had on hand - chicken and canned unsweetened pineapple.

TANGY PINEAPPPLE CHICKEN

Ingredients

• 4 (4 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 (20 ounce) can unsweetened sliced pineapple*
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tbsp lite soy sauce**
• 1 green pepper, chopped into 1 inch chunks**
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Hot cooked rice

Directions

1. Sprinkle chicken with thyme, salt and pepper. In a skillet, brown chicken in oil. Meanwhile, drain pineapple, reserving the juice. Cut pineapple rings in half and set aside. Combine cornstarch and 2 tablespoons juice until smooth; set aside. Combine mustard, honey, garlic, soy sauce, and remaining pineapple juice; mix well. Add to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. Remove chicken and keep warm. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to pan; bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Return chicken to pan and also add green pepper and pineapple. Simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. Serve over rice.

*I used canned unsweetened pineapple chunks.
**The addition of the green pepper and lite soy sauce are mine. Omit if you want, but I do think the dish benefited from that little bit of bite of the green pepper and the saltiness of the soy sauce.

If this is Wednesday it must be.... Thursday

Ah well, life happens. Schedules must always be flexible. Normally my schedule on Wednesday is fairly simple - clean out the refrigerator, empty all trash cans and put in new liners, clean three bathrooms, and declutter one closet or drawer. But today I need to swap Wednesday's scheduled household chores for Thursday, which is Errand Day.

I've been without a car for a few days because my daughter's car was in the shop. I honestly don't mind being without a car (and if we were making payments on it, I'd probably volunteer to go without), but I am behind on my grocery shopping, which my grandson is happy to point out to me when he arrives after school, looking for a snack! So today I need to go grocery shopping.

Yesterday I received my first basket of fruits and veggies from GreanB.E.A.N. Delivery service. These fruits and veggies are organically and locally grown, and I have signed up for a $35 basket every two weeks. That's a little less than I currently pay for fruits and veggies, so if these last me two weeks, I'll be happy. Remember, for the most part, I am cooking only for two.

My basket contained:
1.5 lbs of fingerling potatoes. I've never tried these and look forward to using them!
1 Cantelope
1 (very small) Delicata Squash (again, never tried it before)
1 lb of green beans
1 (quite large) bunch of carrots
1 Candy Onion
2 Eggplant - yum! my favorite vegetable!
2 Granny Smith apples
2 Black Plums (itty bitty)
1 lb fresh Roma Tomatoes
1 large bag of Spring Mix greens
1/2 pt Red Rasperberries

Now, I need to compose my menu for the week around these veggies. Carrots, onions, green beans - that says Beef Stew to me, so I'll pick up 1.5 lbs of stew meat, and make an extra large pot of stew with two or three extra for the freezer, and one small portion for a lunch for Jeff.

Eggplant - Love love love. I think we'll have a meatless meal of Eggplant Parmesan served with a side salad of the mixed greens and some homemade garlic bread. Again, this will be two meals for us.

With the apples and a few of the Raspberries, I'll make an Apple Tart. I already have pie crust in the fridge, so won't need to buy anything for this. That will make a good dessert for three nights. With the rest of the Raspberries I'll make a jar of Raspberry Jam.

That leads me to thinking that one night we can have breakfast for Dinner (Jeff's favorite). We'll have sausage or bacon, cheese omelets, toast with raspberry jam, and sliced cantalope. Yum! We'll use the rest of the cantalope for snacking, along with the plums.

I'd like to try a recipe I found called Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garlic. I have chicken in the freezer, so we'll have these with roast chicken and steamed green beans.

I picked up some fresh tomatoes at the Flea Market last weekend, so I'll combine those with these new Roma Tomatoes and the Onion, and make a pot of tomato sauce. I may have to add in canned tomatoes, but I have plenty of these in the pantry. I should be able to get at least three meals from this, one for this week, two for the freezer. This week we'll have Baked Ziti served with a side salad of mixed greens and homemade bread. I'll make a small batch with just enough leftover for one lunch for Jeff's packed lunch. I'll need to buy some mozarella cheese for this, but that's it. My pantry is well stocked with all kinds of pasta.

Lastly, I think I'll make an Eggplant Pizza - using the sauce already made, some sliced eggplant, and maybe some pepperoni or cooked sausage, on top of homemade pizza dough. I'll use mozzarella cheese used in the Baked Ziti.

At the end of the week I'll have carrots, the squash and half of the green beans left. The carrots and squash should keep just fine to use next week, and I will freeze the green beans. We will, however, come out short on fruit and salad greens.

So to my basket of goodies (which, by the way, cost just $17.50 this time because of an introductory offer they had last week), I will only need to buy 1.5 lbs. of stew meat and some mozarella cheese, combined with items I already have in my pantry and freezer - and I will get 12 meals (including those going in the freezer), plus three packed lunches of leftovers for Jeff.

And all those snacks Mr. B. needs for after school, of course!

ADDED AFTER GROCERY SHOPPING:  Just to add a "save money" helpful hint here. Stew meat at my local grocer's was $4.99 a pound (!), but chuck stead was on sale for $3.19. I bought the chuck steak (about 3/4 inch thick) and will cut it into chunks myself - a savings of $1.80 a pound for 5 minutes worth of work!

Also, we eat a lot of salads here and I was worried that the bag of mixed greens I got would not last us for the two weeks. When I saw Iceberg Lettuce on sale today for .99, I bought one. I will break it up and mix it in with the Spring Greens from the veggie box, just to extend them. And here's another frugal tip for you. Get a gallon sized Ziploc bag and put a double layer of paper towel in the bottom. Put your lettuce/greens in and seal as air tight as you can get. The paper towel absorbs the moisture, which is why your lettuce turns brown and mushy! I have found lettuce lasts four to five times as long when I store it this way.

Menus for the Week

Grocery shopping is done, and there were some good meat buys this week. I bought two boneless pork roasts ($1.99 lb.) and had one cut into 1/2 inch chops, and the other left whole for a roast. From the sliced roast, I packaged and froze 16 pork chops, which is 5 meals for us (Jeff eats two, I eat one). Also on sale were bone-in chicken breasts and chicken thighs at .99 a pound. My favorite hot dogs, Hebrew National, were on sale, as well as ham steaks. Because of the salt content, we don't eat much ham, but I thought a steak would be nice with macaroni and cheese, and we'd have a portion leftover to have diced up in omelettes or scrambled eggs for breakfast.

MONDAY

Hot dogs, rolls

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Corn on the Cob

TUESDAY

Ham Steak

Leftover mac and cheese

Steamed Green Beans

WEDNESDAY

Chef Salad with

L/O diced ham, hard boiled eggs, swiss cheese cubes

Ritz Crackers

THURSDAY

Pork Chops w/Peaches and Couscous

Sliced tomatoes/cucumbers

FRIDAY

Grilled Chicken Thighs

Grilled veggies

SATURDAY

Oven baked Haddock

Oven-fried potatoes/onions

Creamed Spinach

If you notice the link to the Pork Chops with Peaches and Couscous, you'll find a new blog of mine - TEACHING MY DAUGHTER TO COOK. The title is self-explanatory! Cooking 101 for my daughter - whom I forgot to teach to cook! It's a fairly new blog, but I'll be adding tried and true family recipes each week. This week I will probably add the Baked Haddock recipe, since she recently posted on FaceBook that she has no idea how to cook fish. Sigh sigh sigh. What was I thinking?!?

I'm participating in the following Weekly Menu Link-ups. Click on picture to go to the link and post your own menu or read lots of others!

 

Blogging? What's that?!

Easter Table Decorations: The vintage floral candles and pottery rabbit are yard sale finds - and the flowers from our yard.

Twenty days without blogging! That's a lot for me. But how do you blog when you 1) don't feel like it and 2) really don't have anything to write about!

Our normally tiny creek

Spring has sprung here in Ohio - or it will drown us trying. We've had a record (as in - history breaking record) amount of rainfall -- 11 inches this month so far, with another 6 inches anticipated. The tiny creek behind our house sounds like Niagara Falls at times, but a constant flowing water sound at all times. It's a beautiful sound. Our basement has seen some dribs and drabs of water, but we haven't yet had to bail it out, so that's a good thing.

Now that our den is finished, I'm ready to move on to our Family Room for a major overhaul. Jeff and I are still in the discussion stage on this one. I'd like to do old game boards on the long wall, add some crown molding and high baseboards, and cover at least some of the brick of the fireplace (it is just too large for the 14 x 18 room). I also want the recliner o.u.t. Gone. No more. Whoever invented big huge ugly recliners with rolled arms? Ugly ugly ugly and it needs to go. I'm scanning the local auctions for a coffee table that will double for storage, but no luck so far. We have good friends coming for a visit in November, so the family room WILL be done by then (and possibly the kitchen as well!).

We had a lovely Easter dinner yesterday, with my daughter and grandson present. I'd have loved to have my son and daughter-in-law (who, by the way, is pregnant with my second grandbaby - due in September), but that wasn't to be. I baked a ham which I just happened to find at Aldi's (where I actually never shop, but a $5 coupon lured me in, and I'm glad it did!). I made the macaroni and cheese I've mentioned in a previous post, and seriously, it is still the best macaroni I've ever eaten. This time I cut back on the Pepper Jack cheese and used some Fontina, along with the cheddar. Yum, yum and more yum. I wish every one of my blog readers would try this recipe. You will never use another mac & cheese recipe! Anyhoo - along with the ham and mac and cheese we had green beans, corn, rolls and butter, and sweet little pink cupcakes for dessert. For the ham I made a raisin sauce. It was just the right amount of sweet, and so easy to make! Here's the recipe:

RAISIN SAUCE (for ham / pork)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple with juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp corn starch
a pinch of cloves

Put pineapple with juice and brown sugar in saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Add a pinch of ground cloves. Add raisins and cook for a minute or two until raisins are "plump". Mix cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl, then add to hot raisin mixture. Stir constantly until thickened.

How easy is that?!

Right before dinner, Mr. B., the fussiest eater in the entire world, asked me if we were going to have "that red circle stuff"? Hmmm... turns out my daughter was able to translate that one -- cranberry sauce! I was lucky to have a can in the pantry, so cranberry sauce was added to the menu. He actually ate the mac & cheese, corn and cranberry sauce, and tried one bite of a roll. No yogurt or oatmeal in site (his food of preference).

The only other thing that's new for me is sewing... sewing.. and more sewing. I was approached by a local shop about making some crafty items to sell. I'm in! I'm making some wallets, cute pot holder/dish towel sets, and baby blankets so far. I have four or five baby quilts that are made but need bindings, so I may finish those up as well. I'm also thinking placemat sets and a few summer handbags. Not sure what else. I'd like to have 24 to 30 pieces done and ready to sell by the end of this week! So I doubt I'll be doing much blogging this week!

I feel badly that I haven't been out to read other people's blogs in awhile. Forgive me. Hopefully I'll get back to my reading very soon. I was reading blogs on my cell phone, but had to remove Google Reader because it was eating up the little memory my cell phone has. So it's reading on the computer or not at all these days.

The last big decision that's going on around here is about the vegetable garden. I go through this every year. Do I want a garden this year? If I spend all the money to put it in (Ohio has horrible clay soil - I always have to add in peat moss, top soil and compost or my plants will be sitting in soil as hard as cement once the heat of the summer rolls around), will I keep it up? Is my back going to let me keep up with it all? Decisions, decisions....