Category Archives: cooking

Jan11

3 weeks already!

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Tomorrow Sean heads back to PSU-up the mountains, over the river, 166 miles from here. Time just flew by this vacation. He’s been helping me with the Christmas boxes which is a job for me. The tree is down and the last of the ornaments are being packed away. I keep up snowbabyland in the front window as it’s a ‘wintery’ display. It will come down in February, but it brightens up the gloomy days of this time of year. The sun did come out though! We had fog, then pouring rain and finally sun! It’s still mild for January-in the 50s. It should be nice for Sean’s journey tomorrow.

I’m about to pop a roast in the oven and toss together (ok, they are fast things to make!) the 7 layer bars-these for Sean. I’m trying to cut back on bread and sugar myself (I hope Brian follows suit). We are only buying ginger ale for tummy problems. Eating the oatmeal bars is filling and I’m not starving for lunch. I got a good deal on Lean Cuisine meals yesterday(6 for $10) and had one for dinner last night and one for lunch today. The butternut squash ravioli is yummy. Speaking of butternut squash, Martha made the soup on her show today and that looks good too. It’s a good veggie.

: )

Have a great, relaxing weekend.

BTW, Jen, left a comment on my blog and she lives close by! We’ve been talking about places to eat and offered each other good suggestions. We’ll have to get together sometime soon!

Nov22

And on this day…

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Happy Turkey day!

I’m taking a little break here. Everything is ready except for the potatoes. I was going to make biscuits, but I have a ton of stuffing! We’ll see if I can push myself just a little more. We got a free 16 pound turkey so that’s been cooking since noon. I also have corn, candied sweet potatoes (mainly for me), the stuffing and green bean casserole. I didn’t bake this year, but we tried the apple pie with our lunch since we have no company coming this year. Mom stayed home and the guys (and maybe me) are taking Bri’s dad his dinner. I like cooking to get things out of my head and then we got a few phone calls and I told the ladies who called about next week.
I actually got to see some of the Macy’s parade because I wasn’t cleaning like a mad woman! LOL. I did clean thinking I was having company, so it’s not that bad.
Have a scrumptious dinner and I hope you get the long piece of the wish bone.

Nov16

This thing about chicken and then hoarding

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Make note to self-do not buy the big package of thick chicken breasts anymore. Although you pounded the last two pieces, and must I say with great vigor, they were too thick and had that funny chicken taste-almost like an uncooked taste. Buy some regular olive oil as suggested by Giada DeL. and use the EVOO for salad dressing. Throw a hunk of butter in there too. OR buy the skinny cutlets, yeah that’s the ticket.

Here’s dinner last night with the hunky chicken. Martha’s Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine, Dec. ’07 issue Chicken with olives, rice, spinach and raisins. I didn’t have the golden raisins as suggested in the recipe. I think another kind of white wine would be tastier too:

Chicken with olives

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Let’s talk about the Oprah show that will air the second part later on today. It’s about Hoarders. I am one to a degree, but I keep most of my hoarded stuff in the basement and most of my boxes are see-through plastic ones-and there is a lot of those. It’s spilling over a little in the bedrooms and family room. Mostly books. But the lady on the show had 15 dumpsters full of stuff in her house! Every room and the basement was jam-packed with stuff from her daily shopping sprees. Now if you know me, I talk about my mom having a similar, but not as drastic problem with too much stuff in her house. Like the lady on the show, her younger grandkids haven’t been inside her house for months, maybe a year or more. I try to help her, but it just gets bad again. She is always sorting, but never tossing. Her favorite phrase now is ‘I need to buy more Rubbermaid containers’!! She buys the big monster ones in green or whatever and you can’t see what’s inside. She has them taking up room in two bedrooms that she can’t even get in. I said tonight, and this really applies to all of us who are holding on to stuff, that she is 77 and better get real. Everything will be tossed in the long run. And I know deep down she really wants to use watercolors or sketch or embroider and live a less stressful life. I see how she will sit here and do those things when she visits. I bet she has dozens of started embroidery kits. Stuff is a replacement for an empty nest. Shopping is definitely a problem too. She was so proud that she was staying out of the department stores, but now she goes to the Goodwill to shop! This is hard to deal with as Brian’s dad hasn’t really gotten rid of too many things of Bri’s mom’s and she’s been gone over 11 yrs now.

Nov11

Wuss Report-2

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Bri likes to flip the channels and PBS had a show on about Carol Burnett’s career. I think she’s wonderful! She had a rough beginning with parents who were alcoholics and she was mainly raised by her Nanny. I was raised by my mom and grandmom, so I understand what it is like to have a senior citizen around the house all the time. I believe Carol’s first play was ‘Once Upon A Mattress’ which really made her a star. Her tv show was on for 11 years after that and personally, I don’t think any of us missed an episode. If you remember the scene of Carol ‘dressed’ like Scarlett O’Hara in the curtain dress with the rod still through it, I’m sure you are laughing right now.

Here’s the skit from Youtube:

My brother Don was in our high school production of ‘Once Upon A Mattress’. My mom wrote to Carol and Don got back an autographed picture of her! That was pretty neat. In the show last night, they had a question and answer session and a girl said she had played Winifred in OUAM and if Carol could sign a few bars of ‘Shy’ with her. Carol asked the young lady to come on stage and they sang together.

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By the way, here’s my dinner from a few nights ago, my 3rd entree from the Everyday Foo, Nov. 07 issue-Penne in a pumpkin sauce. It was good, but I think it needed a pinch of nutmeg or even some roasted pine nuts.
Penne with pumpkin sauce

Think about me about 11:00 at my consultation tomorrow with Dr. R.

Nov7

A study in pale

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Ever make a dinner that eludes color? I made chicken from the Everyday Food book (which is a prize for fast and good recipes) in a wine and dijon sauce. Bri even cracked open a bottle of Chardonnay for me to use. When I dished out his dinner first (I wait on people this way as I like to arrange their food nicely), it was pale chicken, pale blanched asparagus (which we never had before and it was good), a baked potato and a biscuit with the only color, nicely browned on top. Hence the name of this post. My chicken wasn’t as brown as the photo and their sauce was browner too.

Earlier today, I was surveying the yard and a big hanging pot of pink begonias and raspberry colored nemesia is still blooming. I had planted it in July and it’s in the sun and likes it there. I haven’t watered anything outside for weeks and there was this gorgeous pot of summery flowers. Tonight it’s in the 30s, so I don’t know how this will fare. It was a pleasant surprise. (Below is the same pot in July and it’s prettier now).

Begonias in July

I spent the better part of the evening working on my Stitching lottery piece. This one is a bit of a pain on the medium blue linen-rip, rip, rip! It’s a design from the latest JCS ornament issue-Little House Needleworks-Snow Bunnies. I picked it out a few weeks ago with the help of my mom. I usually pick out three designs and let someone else help me decide what other people may like. I think I’m on track again. The main part of the tree is snowflakes. It should be pretty.

Sean will be home in 10 days!

I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep. Keep me in your thoughts at 1:30 tomorrow.

Oct30

Dinner tonight

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From the Everyday Food magazine, Nov. 2007 issue

Soy honey chicken drumsticks and warm potato salad

Dinner 10/30

I’m not a big drumstick fan. I think I would marinade them in the soy/honey mixture in a bag first so they would have more of that sweet taste. The oven was set to 475 and the recipe called for the chicken to be basted every 10 minutes-very hot to do! Peeling the potatoes was the hardest part of the entire dinner. We also had some bread purchased at the new grocery store-yummy!

Oct29

Hit the nail on the head

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Dinner-Chorizo and Shrimp pilaf-Everyday Food recipe in the November ’07 issue. The plum tomatoes are from my garden and I just picked more tonight plus bunches of Italian parsley and rosemary.Chorizo and shrimp pilaf

I do believe my commenters have diagnosed some of my current lack of domestic interest. I will say I use to go to the store thinking of what would be good for Sean to eat; him being the child and getting his taste buds to wake up. I will say as an adult, he’ll eat almost anything. This I miss. But as I said earlier, if I make too much, I can freeze it for my uncle.

The other thing is never getting help in the kitchen. I am seeing the holidays looming and some big dinners and lots of cleaning I have to do by myself. Bri’s dad hasn’t been here since Easter(!), mainly because Bri doesn’t want him driving over in his 17 yr old car. My holidays are usually spent in the kitchen while the men sit around watching football. If my mom is here, she’ll pitch in if she is able to. Doesn’t sound like fun for me does it? The one and only Thanksgiving we went out to dinner, Bri’s dad choked on lettuce because he was talking too much or nervous about being in a crowded restaurant.

So you see where I’m coming from? I am not a total slave to cooking everyday. I love to go out to eat, it’s a real treat. We went to Pizza Hut and then to AC Moore on Saturday, and that lifted my spirits tremendously.

It got pretty chilly last night and I brought in some of my plants. I need to find room for them somewhere. I hate to lose the pretty ‘freebies’ from the nursery as they are blooming like crazy right now.

So my 30th high school reunion was set for Nov 23rd-the day after Thanksgiving. I sent in the check before it was due on the 13th of this month. I check to see if the reunion guy has cashed it yet-he hasn’t. I’m wondering if people are showing enough interest in attending? There was a 25th. And there are over 100 people on the MIA list. We only had 480 in the class. I’ll keep you posted. I have new gray slacks, a garnet red sparkley top and pewter shoes (and jewelry) for it too. I was to attend the planning meeting and I would have suggested a picnic type reunion not another expensive sit down meal. The weather was so bad, I didn’t go. Not to say they would have picked the picnic.

Not bad for 99¢

99¢ roses

Oct5

Holiday Cooking Recipe exchange

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Holiday Cooking
I was invited to participant in this again, thanks Overwhelmed with Joy! Here’s my post from last year. I’m going to post a real winner first. Thanks Bisquick!

Melt-in-your-mouth pancakes (they really do!)

2 Original Bisquick® mix
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs

1. Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat or electric griddle to 375°F; grease with cooking spray, vegetable oil or shortening. (Surface is ready when a few drops of water sprinkled on it dance and disappear.)
2. Stir all ingredients until blended. Pour by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle.
3. Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook until golden. To keep warm, place in single layer on cookie sheet. Cover with aluminum foil, and place in 200°F oven up to 10 minutes.
(Total time will vary; cook or bake time is per batch.)
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Decrease baking powder to 1 teaspoon.Makes 14 pancakes
*breakfast* *dessert*

My father-in-law must have his coleslaw with his holiday meals

Tangy-Creamy Coleslaw
1/2 (16 ounce) jar coleslaw dressing
1/4 cup dill pickle juice
1/ teaspoon celery seeds
1 small cabbage, coarsely grated or finely chopped
1 large carrot, coarsely grated or finely chopped
Stir together first 3 ingredients. Add cabbage and carrot; toss to coat. Chill 1 hour. Serve with slotted spoon. 6-8 servings
*salad* *side*

Good for breakfast on Christmas morning:

Bacon and Cheese Strata

6 slices bacon
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard with seeds
12 slices firm white bread
1.5 cups shredded Gruyere cheese (or Swiss)
9 large eggs
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp.salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Cook bacon in the microwave on doubled paper towels and cover with single paper towel. Cook until brown and crisp-3 minutes and let stand 5 minutes. Crumble coarsely.
Grease 9″ x 13″ ceramic or glass baking dish.
Spread mustard on 1 side of each bread slice (to me this is a lot of mustard). Arrange 6 slices mustard side up, in the baking dish, cutting to fit. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Top with 2 Tbsp of bacon, then remaining bread slices mustard side up.
Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl with a wire whisk until blended. Slowly pour the egg mixture all over the bread slices; press bread down to help absorb eggs. You may have to spoon the eggs on the uncoated bread. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bacon. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat over to 350. Bake strata 40 minutes or until puffed and golden and knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving. Serves 8.
*breakfast* *side*

This is the most tried and true recipe this year, though I have made the others too.

Microwave Oven Peanut Brittle

1 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 pinch salt
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Directions:
Grease a baking sheet and set aside. In a glass bowl, combine peanuts, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook in microwave for 6-7 minutes on High (700w) Will be HOT; mixture should be bubbly and peanuts browned. Stir in butter and vanilla. cook 2-3 minutes longer.
Quickly stir in baking soda, just until mixture is foamy. Pour immediately onto greased baking sheet. Let cool for 15 minutes or until set. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Makes one pound. Great for a gift.
*candy*

Aug20

Tomato stuff

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I perused Lee Bailey’s little cookbook named ‘Tomatoes’ this afternoon. I made salsa for Brian (the only thing not from the garden was the onion). I tasted it and it was hot as I had added an entire jalepeno pepper. The next thing, and it’s still cooking down was a sweet and tart tomato butter. It’s still watery looking, so I’ll keep it on the stove as long as I have to. And finally, for dinner, some basic tomato sauce. It called for shredded carrots cooked with the onion at the beginning-I’ve never added carrots to tomato sauce. I think I used 2 dozen of the toms today. Yeah. Not to say I don’t need to pick more out of the garden tomorrow. I’m thinking about a tomato pie next (not today). Here’s some photos:

Salsa! Ole!!

tomato butter and sauce