Successes

I’ve had some great successes here lately in my kitchen. Not everything is top-shelf cuisine but I have managed to feed us rather well. So well, I’ve started noticing how chubby the hubby has gotten

I tried this recipe from Martha White for Sour Cream and Onion Cornbread. I used a package of Jiffy cornbread mix and cut the whole recipe down to 1/2, cooking it in a pie pan. The end result, though, was wonderful, fabulous, and going to be a keeper. I served with BBQ chicken drumsticks, baked potatoes, and hominy. Real Southern meal!

15 Minute Taco in a Pan is a recipe without any notation where it came from. It’s similar to a Kraft recipe whereas mine only calls for 1 1/2 cups of both water and rice. I thought it was a little dry after cooking and added maybe a 1/4 cup of water. I didn’t have any lettuce or tomatoes so I scooped this into tortilla shells, topped with cheese and salsa and heat till everything was warm. 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. My hubby inhaled this. Next time, I think I’ll add some corn

I’ve got to find the chocolate pound cake recipe I made as it was just wonderful. I think I’m going to make a coconut bread and perhaps some cookies in the next day or so. I’ve recently stubbed my pinkie toe so bad it’s black, purple, and blue. That poor digit just hurts. So we shall see.

Happy cooking!

Review of the week

The adobo chicken didn’t happen this because I’ve been under the weather. Sometime late Wednesday I came down with my first bad sinus attack this winter. So it’s been pretty lame dinners here lately.

The apricot chicken I did make and it was beyond wonderful. In fact, my husband requested it again this week! I think next time I will put green and/or red peppers in it but other than that it’s a keeper.

I made a spice cake earlier this week we are still eating on. It’s turned out to be just what my palate wants. That and cheese dip with tortillas. Oh, and the required tomato juice and/or soup that I always crave when I am coming down with something.

Other meals this week included a can chili combined with small shell pasta and cheese. The hubby loved it. Now I know an easy meal when I am not feeling well and yet need to feed him.

Tomorrow will be roasted chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, and carrots. I am so looking forward to this. The chicken is easy-season and place in the oven and the rest will be easy as I’m using instant potatoes.

Tonight’s meal with pasta and a can of Italian tomatoes that I had fixed last night and decided that I didn’t want. I cooked and diced some chicken, made a simple white sauce, and combined in a pie plate. I put some buttered Ritz on it and popped in the oven for 20 minutes. It was okay but the hubby loved it. Next time, I’ll try different tomatoes.

The menu for this week will be up in the air some. I have orientation downtown on Tuesday and I work on Wednesday and Thursday. Thanks to working third shift for six years I am ready to crash when I get home and settled in. But here’s the rough schedule:

Sunday: Roast chicken and fixings

Monday: Crockpot meal: Lemon Garlic Chicken from my Fix-It and Forget-It cookbook

Tuesday:Chicken soup if I can get it done in the afternoon

Wednesday: Leftovers/sandwiches/soup may get a wild hair and actually throw something together with the leftover chicken, but don’t count on it.

Thursday: my payday and I’ve got a coupon at IHOP for BOGO. The cook is off!

Friday: Hubby’s payday-quick bite out? Groceries? Bet on something out-Arby’s, Freddy’s, even maybe Sonic. Who knows what we will do!

So what’s on your menu?

Been a While

But I’ve been hard at work trying to get an exact plan for the meat in the freezer and what I’m doing the next couple of weeks. So here’s the menu plan for this week:

Monday: I’ve got country-style ribs and cabbage in crockpot.

Tuesday: Tacos with mock margaritas

Wednesday: Apricot Glazed Chicken

Thursday: Chicken Adobo

Friday: Chicken Pot Pie

Saturday:Chicken-maybe in crockpot maybe in the Foreman grill. Just don’t know yet.

Sunday: Roasted Chicken we had this at christmas and it was fab!

As always, Laura has great menus from other menu-planners!

This N That

I haven’t had the money to try new recipes and my desserts have disappeared. Just haven’t had the gumption to cook. The holiday blues were brutal this year. I haven’t even being keeping the kitchen as clean as I should and there’s a couple of kitchen related Christmas gifts that are still unpacked and put away.

We slept way too much yesterday so I am hoping to get a jump start on things today. I fixed a late supper at 4 am this morning and got one load of dishes done. Then I made coffee later and emptied that load and got the dishes filled with supper dishes. I didn’t wash as there is room for small plates and/or glasses as we go through the morning. I need to get my crock pot clean so I can put supper in it-chicken thighs-and I need to clean the Foreman grill and put that away. I need to put the Christmas dishes away.

So a couple of easy recipes that I have made recently. I fried hamburgers with some seasoned salt on them in the Foreman grill. I made instant potatoes and instant gravy (God help me) and warmed up some green beans (with a spoonful of bacon grease!) for a nice supper. A piece of bread, a hamburger patty, a couple of spoonfuls of potatoes, and some nice brown gravy over the top. Okay, it’s not haut cuisine but it was filling and old-fashion and I liked it.

Today I had some ham steaks that I needed to use. I use 1/4 cup each of brown sugar and honey. I mix in a small bowl then scrape into a skillet and let warm till it’s gooey. Add the ham, lower temp (5-6 is normal) and let the ham warm up. I flip several times allowing the ham to soak up the honey/brown sugar on both sides. Again, potatoes and corn to round out the meal. Good eating.

I am hoping to make a chocolate something and place in the cake stand my mom got me for Christmas and take a picture. But first, I need to really clean/pickup the house. Something else that looks almost like a war zone.

Tomorrow is payday which hopefully means we can hit my favorite Tulsa Mexican restaurant-Chimi’s-and then a movie. We shall see.

Happy cooking!

I’ve been a bad blogger…

And haven’t updated this site-or any of my blogs-through much of December. The Christmas blues hit early and hard this year and I went through 2 weeks of bawling every day. Sigh. I am so glad Christmas is over.

My mother decided on no family dinner (which just helped the depression) and they came over Christmas Eve to give us our gifts. I had made a bunch of baked goods and we had fondue and coffee. Very good-but we were left with so much leftovers. Took some to my sisters and some to the in-laws but it was just too much. I thought some of the siblings would be coming over and they decided not to-maybe I should have sent some home with my mom.

New Year’s isn’t going to be much. Chris has to work third shift tonight so we’ll toast with some soda pop and start the new year that way. I am looking forward to doing more baking in the next few weeks and as December wasn’t too baking-friendly. Also, I hope to be doing some photos of what’s on my stove. Because I’m not a big fan of how WordPress makes my pictures seem I’ve been putting some on my photoblog: 1001 Pics. Head on over and check it out. I plan to add some more photos in the next few days but right now there’s photos of tacos on it.

So-I’m going to go figure out what’s for dinner and find some Tylenol’s. Have a great day!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it

Lack of internet really got me behind on the blog. Let’s just pick up where we are now. I’ve got some recipes I’ve tried that I may get on here. This week, we’ve been blessed with some groceries from the in-laws so I’ve been able to get creative. We have roughly 17 days between paychecks so the extra food really helps the budget. God has been really good in providing, as always.

I hope to post my menu plan this afternoon or tomorrow. I have to work today and then deal with my check and get groceries. Tonight is left over night though so I won’t have to cook too much. I hope to get the onion and green peppers chopped up so it’s easier to use them. Oh, and I have a cake to make. I can’t get my sister anything for her birthday so I thought I would make a cake and take it up to her work.

Have a great day!

Thanksgiving Autoposy

Hope the title isn’t too ghoulish for y’all. T-giving went well. I made several desserts and most went over well. The brownie torte I had high hopes for didn’t go so well. The apple bread was a little blah. I had added spices to it and it still was just plain. The chai bread was wonderful. The snickerdoodle muffins was the bomb!

Of course the asparagus and carrots were good. Mom made most of the rest of the stuff. Although she did call me on thoughts about a dessert she was making. She didn’t take my advice although I may just play with what I told her. Seems I may just be the resident cook in the family. Mom doesn’t do much cooking anymore. Which is a shame.

Anyhoo-here’s hoping your Thanksgiving was good. Happy eating!

Thanksgiving

Is it just me or has Thanksgiving gotten fussy? Whipped sweet potatoes and bananas with honey. Bacon wrapped asparagus. Mushroom soup with something or other. Yeesh.

Looks like mom and I will be preparing the meal this year. Pretty well, the same meal we’ve been doing since I can remember. Mom’s going to do the turkey, mashed potatoes, and sweet yams (yes, with marshmallows on top).  Gravy and noodles to round things out. That’s frozen noodles but cooked in a little bit of the broth with water added.

For my side it’s carrots (baby ones cooked over a very low temp in chicken broth with honey and brown sugar), jello salad (orange jello, cream cheese, pineapple, coconut, marshmallows, and cool whip), asparagus casserole (asparagus creamed, layered in a pan with Velveeta and topped with buttered bread crumbs) and some desserts. Probably a bar (maybe brownies), something lemon (thinking lemon bars), and maybe deviled eggs.

The menu:

Turkey, gravy, noodles, mashed potatoes, carrots, corn,  asparagus casserole, jello salad, deviled eggs, and rolls. Dessert hasn’t fully been decided yet. Oh, and mom wants a nice green salad with radishes and tomatoes and cukes in it.

Fairly simple on our table this year. What are you having for Thanksgiving.

Catching Myself Up…

It’s been so long since I’ve updated the sight. My bad J I’ve had to cut back on the recipes I try and I’ve also been having to throw things together. Been trying to get more organized and get the right things I need to record what was a smashing success here. I’m thinking that I’ll uncover a notebook and keep in the kitchen as a food diary. We’ll see how that goes. I also want to get 3×5 cards and a box for them so things that went over really well and those short and/or really used recipes have a home.

I’ve been playing around with kettle corn made at home. The recipe turned out good the first time but I haven’t had luck replicating it. Trying different types of pans-Dutch oven, small saucepan-and came across a recipe for perfect popcorn. I think I’m getting close. I made a Lemon Chess Pie that was very good but lemon isn’t too big in our household. I would love to know what lemon-lovers think of it. In fact, I wish there was someone in Tulsa that would be a willing guinea pig. Someone I could call and have them try something. Chris mainly inhales and says it’s good. My sisters, when they get it, shake their heads as inhaling. Come on, y’all, give me feed back!

Also tried some really great cinnamon coffee bars-just don’t leave them on a gas stove to dry out! Chocolate mint squares was a very rich brownie with just the right hint of mint. Both of these will be made again.

I use a portable file box with hanging file folders to divide up my to-make recipes. I usually have laying on my counter my to-make folder. This is the recipes I’ve pulled to try. I use binder clips to hold repeat recipes on one side and to make on the other side. It works-and that’s most important. Right now my repeat recipes is my pizza dough and the kettle corn recipe I’ve been working on. My hubby loves chocolate chips and I pulled the Tollhouse recipe off of the internet and was using that. But I just wasn’t that pleased with it-just seemed very bland. Not a “wow that’s a good cookie” recipe. The last batch I made I used my Betty Crocker cookbook’s recipe and that’s the one I’ll use from now on. So, new recipes to follow. Enjoy!

Lemon Chess Pie

I like serving something with lemon in it at Thanksgiving-it’s a nice palate cleanser after the heavy food. This would be a great option for that-those that don’t like lemon will have their choice of other great desserts. All ingredients need to be at room temp for this to work well. Also, my pie crust was rather pale-brown in the preheat oven for 5-10 minutes, I think, before filling. May need to cool the crust before adding the ingredients. I would bake the crust first, pull out of the oven and cool on baking rack before starting on the pie ingredients.

 

 

 

 

Lemon Chess Pie

4 eggs, at room temp

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon white cornmeal

1 tablespoon flour

½ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

½ cup buttermilk

5 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust

Whipped cream, optional

 

1.      Preheat oven to 350°.

2.      Whisk eggs to blend.

3.      Add each of the ingredients through vanilla in order, completely incorporating one before adding the next.

4.      Pour the filling into the piecrust and bake in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the pie is golden brown on top and almost set. Center of the pie should remain slightly loose; it will set as it cools.

5.        Cool completely before cutting.