A Little Help From The Store…..

If y’all know anything about me, it’s that I love to cook and like to make it all myself as a general rule.  Well, you know what?  Life gets in the way sometimes!  And when it does, it’s awfully nice to have something in the freezer that will let you slap dinner on the table in a matter of minutes.

A month or so ago, I was traveling.  Imagine that!  When I travel for work and have any downtime, I explore grocery stores.  It’s a sickness really.  But I usually find some nifty treasure I’ve never found before in my local Podunk grocery stores.  So about a month ago, I wandered into a Publix and sauntered around for a bit.  I can’t even begin to tell you all the wonderful treasures I packed my cooler with!  I ALWAYS carry a cooler with me because you never know when you might find a tasty morsel that MUST go home with you.  It begs really! 

I found THIS in the freezer section:

And it begged to come home with me.  It knew it would have a much better life in MY freezer than that wicked cold, unloving home it had in the freezer section of Publix.  So brought it home, I did!  And it thanked me profusely!

I’ve spent the last couple of days driving back and forth to Paris, TN.  That’s no short haul, let me tell you.  I made it home Monday night about 7:45.  My sweet SIL had dinner ready when I rolled in.  But yesterday, I managed to make it to my house by “quitting time” around 4:30.  I had a Tequila Lime Turkey Tenderloin that I slapped on the grill.  I threw together some Cilantro Lime Rice, although last night, it was actually more like, um, Lime Rice because I had no fresh cilantro.  But I digress.

Then I remembered my haul from Publix in the freezer.  And I yanked it out and nuked it.  It smelled insanely delish!  Now, could I have MADE the Corn and Black Beans instead of opening a bag?  Sure I could’ve.  I had corn in the cabinet.  I had black beans in the cabinet.  I had onions and I had tomatoes.  I *could* have made it myself.  But I had one ankle-biter going to church for an event and one ankle-biter who had a ballgame to play in.  We were about to have to split in a zillion different directions to make the rest of the evening happen.  I didn’t have time to open cans, peel and chop onions, peel, seed and chop tomatoes, dig spices out of the cabinet, etc.  I needed quick and I needed easy!  So the Corn and Black Beans jumped straight out of the freezer and straight into a microwave dish. 

AB1 made it to church on time for his event.  AB2 made it to the ballfield for batting practice before the game.  And all was well with the world!  AB2 WON, by the way!  GO RONNIE SMITH CHEVROLET!!!!  Not that that has a THING to do with this post.

Here’s what this post is about…….sometimes help from the store is a good thing!  And that little bag of mixed corn and black beans was WONDERFUL!  I actually opened 2 bags.  There was probably only 2 little spoonfuls left in the dish.  That’s it!  And only 5 of us ate.  AB1 ate pizza at church.  So if he’d been here, we would’ve knocked out 2 whole bags of that stuff in one meal!  It was amazing!  Go buy some NOW!  :o)

Alright, that’s my tip for the day!  Sometimes we need a little help from the freezer section.  And this was great help to have!  Have a great day!

Pepper Steak and Rice

Merciful Lord, I love me some Pepper Steak!  I used to make it all the time, but just sorta quit I guess.  I hadn’t made it in what seemed like forever.  But I decided that was going to be our Sunday night dinner over the weekend.  OH MY, was it ever good!

I fully inteded to take pictures as I went along making it and then post the whole process here.  But I got started and forgot to do any picture-taking along the way.  WHOOPS!  So no photos this time. 

First, you have to understand that I absolutely adore peppers and onions!  I could eat them every meal and LOTS of them!  So to me, Pepper Steak is more about the peppers than the steak.  I love the flavor they impart to the whole dish.  It makes me downright giddy!

Want to make some Pepper Steak and Rice?  Let’s cook, shall we?

Pepper Steak & Rice

*  1-2 pounds sirloin tip steak, cut into thin strips

*  1 1/2 large sweet onions, cut into slivers

*  2 green bell peppers, cut into slivers

*  1 red bell pepper, cut into slivers

*  2″ fresh ginger, grated

*  4-6 cloves garlic, minced

*  1/2 cup soy sauce

*  1/4 cup olive oil

*  1/4-1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

*  1 Tbsp. cornstarch

Mix soy sauce, oil, fresh ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes in a mixing cup.  Pour over meat and marinate at least 30 minutes, but longer is better.  When ready to cook, heat a little more olive oil in a wok or non-stick skillet.  Add meat to VERY hot pan.  Stir-fry until meat is nearly done.  If any juice renders out, drain that off completely before adding peppers and onions to pan.  Reserve juice.  Cook until peppers and onions are crisp tender.  Mix cornstarch with a couple tablespoons COLD water then add to reserved juice.  Return all to the pan and allow to thicken.  If additional water is needed, add a few tablespoons at a time until sauce is desired thickness.

Rice

*  Brown Rice

*  1″ fresh grated ginger

*  2 cloves garlic, minced

*  3-4 green onions, sliced, including green tops

*  1/4 cup soy sauce

*  salt to taste

Cook brown rice according to package directions with ginger and garlic in the cooking liquid.  When rice is cooked, add soy sauce and green onion slices.  Taste before salting because the soy sauce is EXTREMELY salty! 

Serve the hot steak and peppers over rice.  ENJOY!

This is one of the meals I remember my Moma making and gorging myself on it!  Hers was SOOOOOOO good!  She didn’t know about fresh ginger back then.  Shoot, I didn’t know about it until the last few years.  I’d never seen it or bought it until probably 4 years ago.  But it’s essential in making the pepper steak taste just right!

I hope you and your family enjoy this dish.  It could easily be made into a Beef Stir-Fry by adding all your favorite stir-fry veggies into the pan.  I made stir-fried veggies to go alongside it this weekend.  But it would be just as good with broccoli, carrots, snow peas, mushrooms, water chestnuts, baby corn, etc. dumped right in!

Now go cook something fabu-licious for your family!  And report back to me what you made!  I may need to make it too!

MAJOR YUM!

Good morning friends and neighbors!  It’s been a while!  Life has been crazy around these parts!  I finally did a little cooking yesterday.  We’ve been so busy with ballgames, work, LIFE lately that I haven’t done a lot of cooking.

But yesterday, I did!  And I made something I haven’t made in a while and had forgotten just how much I love it and how tasty it is!

I LOVE hot Spinach Dip!  So a couple years ago, after watching Rachael Ray make this spinach/bacon/potato concoction, I decided to try putting some chunky potatoes into my hot Spinach Dip and serving it as a side dish.  Lo and behold, it was insanely delish!  So I made some last night for dinner as a side dish.  And I seriously could’ve eaten the WHOLE pan!  They’re THAT good!

So you wanna make ’em?  Let’s!

Florentine Bacon Smashed Potatoes

*  4 large potatoes

*  2-10 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well

*  4 cloves garlic, minced

*  2 cups shredded mixed cheeses (Parmesan, Romano and Asiago)

*  8 strips bacon, cooked and roughly chopped

*  10-12 oz. heavy cream

*  1 stick butter

*  1 medium onion, diced

*  salt to taste

*  freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook bacon to desired doneness.  Reserve bacon grease.  Peel and cut potatoes into chunks.  Boil.  In a medium-large non-stick skillet, add some reserved bacon grease and saute diced onions and minced garlic until onions are caramelized.  Add heavy cream and spinach to skillet.  Heat through.  Drain and roughly mash the potatoes.  Add butter to potatoes while mashing.  Add smashed potatoes to spinach mixture in skillet.  Stir until well-blended.  Add shredded cheeses.  Serve hot……if you make it out of the kitchen with the pan!  You may be standing at the stove with a shovel over this dish!

Now something to keep in mind is this is NOT rocket science!  You can add whatever YOU like to this!  I’ve added pimientos to it for color at Christmastime.  Sun-dried tomatoes would be rock-your-face-off good in it, especially if you added some mozzarella to the mix.  If you wanted to serve this alongside a steak, some bleu cheese would be fabulous as a substitute.  You can tailor it anyway you would like it.  I’ve used small red potatoes and left the peel on them.  If you have shallots, try those instead of a regular onion.  You just can’t go wrong! 

These potatoes/spinach will make you wish you’d never heard the word “Weight Watchers!”  LOL  They are certainly not diet-friendly.  But they are fabulously tasty!  They would make a terrific accompaniment to SO many dishes.  I already mentioned a big, juicy grilled steak.  They’d be wonderful beside a stuffed chicken breast or a thick-cut pork chop!  Shoot, I think they’re wonderful by themselves!  There’s bacon in there!  Make it a complete meal!  LOL

I must warn you……this is not the *prettiest* dish you’ll ever make.  In fact, my brother’s comment when I put them on the table last night…..”What happened here?”  ROFL  But once you taste, you’ll be hooked and won’t care how they look.  You can always add more cheese on top so folks don’t see how it looks until they’ve already dug in!  A little more cheese never hurt anything……well, except maybe clogging an extra artery or two. 

Anyhoo, enjoy!  These are SO flippin’ good!  I’d eat some for breakfast, but I vowed last night to eat my “last supper” and hit Weight Watchers with a vengeance this morning.  So I’ll pass………but you go make some, you skinny thang, you!  And eat the whole bucket by yourself! 

Hope to see y’all again soon!  I’ve missed you terribly!!!!! 

Anybody Still Here?

YOO HOO!  Anybody still around?  Sorry to leave y’all high and dry!  It’s been wild and crazy around my place the past week or so!  WOW!  We’ve had TCAP testing at school.  We’ve rocked off the start of the baseball season.  The Tall Skinny Man has worked umpteen thousand hours of overtime (or it seems like it!)  And I’ve been up to my armpits in work!  That has left little time for blogging and little time for any cooking either!

I’ve made nothing fabulous in the last couple weeks and have no plans to make anything fabulous either.  I do have to make some cake for a retirement party the end of the week.  But it’s same old-same old!  Nothing new and fun to share with y’all.  So that won’t even be going up here.

I just wanted to touch base with you this morning and tell you I’m still alive and hope you are too!  :o)  I’ll be back to cooking soon!  I miss it!  And I miss y’all!  I’ll see if I can’t come up with SOMETHING to share around here soon!

Much love! 

What’s That Saying?

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions…….yeah, well, I had good intentions for making real meals this week.  Sure did………

Turns out we had to go different directions yesterday evening.  The oldest ankle biter had to go to the orthodontist so I ran in, boiled the spaghetti and tossed it with the sauce I made on Sunday afternoon.  I left that on the stove and then headed out.  The youngest ankle biter had baseball practice.  So the minute we walked back in the door from the orthodontist, I reheated the spaghetti and we  scarfed it down so fast it would make your head spin.  Just spaghetti.  Only spaghetti……nothing else.  Not even a piece of bread.  ***sigh*** 

So I had intentions of making the pork chops today.  Well, 12 roadblocks laters, it’s looking like we’re going to be re-running spaghetti tonight for dinner.  Just spaghetti…….only spaghetti……nothing else because the local grocery store that had pork loins on sale couldn’t be bothered to order enough pork loins to accomodate customers hoping to avail themselves of the sale price.  Empty case, you see.  So first of all, I have no pork chops.  I’d have to make yet ANOTHER run to the grocery store to even get them.  Then there’s the thing with me having to work out of town again today.  So I won’t get home in time to go buy a loin, cut it into chops and finally get it panko’d in time to eat dinner at a reasonable hour.  Moving right aloing, we have the fact that the youngest ankle biter’s coach decided they were going scrimmage with another team this afternoon from 4-6.  And finally, that I have a class reunion meeting starting at 7.  So there you go.  No pork chops for us tonight.  We’ll be lucky if we have 2 seconds to choke down some more spaghetti!  ACK!

 Along with those good intentions to make pork chops, I was planning to make a knock-off (read:  healthier version) of my SIL’s fabulous Napa Cabbage Salad.  Here’s the thing about it……it’s one of my favorite things in the whole world.  But it has like 8,432 calories per bite or something close to that anyway.  So I attempted to make it a bit healthier……….and that’s what we were going to have with our pork chops tonight.  And what we WILL have with them if I ever get to make them.

So since I’M not going to get to have it, I thought y’all might.  So I’m going to share both versions with you today and you can choose whether you want the 8, 432 calorie-per-bite version (which really IS the best!!!!) or my healthier version, which is good, but it ain’t Aunt Dee’s! 

Aunt Dee’s Napa Cabbage Salad

*  1 head Napa cabbage, chopped into thick shreds

*  1 bunch green onions, sliced

*  2 pkg. Ramen noodles, crushed

*  2 1/4 oz. slivered almonds

*  2 Tbsp. sesame seeds

*  2/3 stick butter

*  1/2 cup white vinegar

*  3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

*  1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Mix cabbage and green onions together in a bowl.  Set aside.  Melt butter in a skillet.  Toast Ramen noodles, almonds and sesame seeds in the butter.  Set aside until cool.  Mix oil, vinegar and soy sauce in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Set aside until cool.  Combine all ingredients right before serving.  Eat the whole lot of it by yourself and stab anybody coming near your bowl with your fork!  Hard!  So they don’t try to come back!  Trust me!

Now, here’s the Amy-ized version:

*  1 head Napa cabbage, chopped into thick shreds

*  2 bunched green onions, sliced

*  1 English cucumber, sliced

*  2 Tbsp. sesame seeds

*  2 Tbsp. slivered almonds

*  Newman’s Own Light Asian Dressing

Toss all ingredients together except dressing.  Add as much or as little dressing as you like.  It’s a low-cal, low-fat dressing and it’s WONDERFUL!  This salad turns out great.  But it just doesn’t have all the crunch of Aunt Dee’s, which is what I really love about hers.  But hey, if you’re trying to behave and mind your Weight Watchers points, this one works out nicely because it has so few almonds that point-wise, they’re negligible.  So the only points you’d have to count is the dressing and again, depending on how much you use for the entire salad, that might even be negligible too.

Well, y’all go have some salad today and think about me!  Cuz I’ll be eating spaghetti, only spaghetti, just spaghetti and nothing else, so help me, God.  But that doesn’t mean you all can’t eat for me!  :o)  Enjoy something for me, would ya?  And I hope you enjoy these salads.  If you’re afraid of a few calories, by all means, please, please, PLEASE try Aunt Dee’s Napa Cabbage Salad.  But again, just a reminder, the rest of the world will want your bowl so go far, far away until you’re finished so you don’t have to share. 

See y’all tomorrow!

Monday Q & A: April 7, 2008

Well, it’s Monday again, so let’s dish the questions from this past week.

Marlene wanted to know if I have a favorite flour.  Marlene, you’re just not going to believe this, but the best dang flour I’ve found is from Save-A-Lot.  I’ve tried all kinds of flour, as you can well imagine.  But I bought a bag of their cheap-o, non-name brand flour around the holidays.  The muffins I made with that self-rising flour rose up higher than any muffins I’ve ever made before.  So I highly recommend it. 

Marlene also wanted to know if my cousins bake my Aunt Jane’s cakes.  You know, I have no idea if they do or not.  But whether they do or not, I sure do!  I guess my favorite cake Aunt Jane made was her carrot cake or maybe her pound cake.  But I never had one of her cakes that I didn’t love.  So it’s really hard to pick just one!  She was a phenomenal baker! 

And that’s pretty much all of last week’s Q’s!  So let’s move on, shall we?

I.NEED.HOME.COOKING!  Everytime I travel for work, I come home absolutely starving!  So one of my first orders of business once I got home was to start making a menu for the week.

Ankle Biter 1 requested pork chops.  He didn’t say how he wanted them.  So I decided to do panko-crusted ones.  Ankle Biter 2 asked for spaghetti…..AGAIN!  His Aunt Dee just made it for him Saturday evening for dinner because he whined so much wanting it.  And I bought a couple groovy tequila-lime marinated turkey breast tenderloins at Sam’s, so those are on the menu too.  Tall Skinny Man didn’t make any requests, so I guess he goes hungry this week!  LOL

So here’s what’s cookin’ at my house, good lookin’:

*  Panko-Crusted Pork Chops

*  Steamed Sugar Snap Peas with fresh ginger

*  Apple, Pear and Cranberry Compote

*  Stuffing

*  Napa Cabbage Salad

 

*  Grilled Tequila Lime Turkey Breast Tenderloin

*  RoTel Potatoes

*  Southwestern Layered Salad

 

*  Spaghetti

*  Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

*  Green Beans

*  Fried Okra

*  Cornbread Sticks

Yes, I know that’s only three meals, but the spaghetti will feed us two meals.  So no need to plan another night’s menu when we can do leftovers one night.  And with baseball practice in full-swing, we have to have a couple nights of quicky-quick dinners in order to be there by 5:45.  So spaghetti and leftover spaghetti will be just the ticket this week. 

So what’s on the menu at your houses this week? 

 

My Heart Hurts

No, I’m not having a heart attack.  It’s not a physical pain.  It’s a hurt that comes from knowing there are people out there who simply don’t know good food or don’t have it or can’t get it.  KWIM? 

Once in a while, I meet someone who doesn’t cook.  That is a completely foreign thought to me.  I honestly can NOT wrap my head around it.  How in the world do you NOT cook?  What do you eat?  I mean, I understand about hot dogs and canned soup and frozen dinners.  We’ve already established that I love my occasional can of soup!  And I’m not so persnickety that I won’t eat a hot dog.  I even enjoy eating out.  But I can’t eat canned soup or hot dogs or go out for every meal.  It’s just impossible.

I did it this past week while I was in Chattanooga.  I came home absolutely craving good, home-cooked food.  So that makes me wonder about all those folks out there that don’t cook for their families.  That is such a foreign concept to me.  I realize not everyone LOVES to cook like I do.  I get that.  But I don’t understand how anybody can NOT want home-cooking though.  How can life be lived with frozen dinners, Hamburger Helper, canned ravioli and cold-cut sandwiches?

Do these folks not ever just  crave REAL food?  Roast with carrots and potatoes?  Meatloaf and mashed potatoes?  Pork chops and cabbage?  Nothing? 

My heart truly aches for them because I can’t imagine life without “real” food.  I came home last night absolutely starving for real food!  My plan was to call the Tall Skinny Man and have him go get the stuff to make meatloaf when I got home.  Unfortunately, the drive home from Chattanooga turned into WAY too many hours due to the nasty, rainy weather.  By the time I made it to Florence, AL, Sam’s and their pizza sounded like supper to me instead of the planned meatloaf. 

But here I sit dreaming of that meatloaf because it’s homemade, not “brought on!”  I’ve done “brought on” all week long.  I had TGIF’s one night.  I had Chili’s another night.  I ate in the hotel another night because they had chili and grilled hot dogs and after the day I put over, I couldn’t stand the thought of getting back out and having to drive some more to find something to eat.  I ate BBQ in a little hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint in Cleveland, TN.  I even had THE most amazing Italian food one night.  But it wasn’t MY food.  It wasn’t home-cooked.  It wasn’t made with LOVE!

My food is.  And my heart just aches for people who don’t get that.  Food doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated in order to be good and filled with love.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with grilling a hamburger for your family.  And it beats the heck out of a Big Mac or a Whopper or a whoever. 

All that said……….go cook something for your family.  Show them how much you love them.  The oldest ankle biter has already been nipping at my ankles this morning begging for pork chops this week.  So pork chops he shall have!  If you know your family has a favorite dish, make it for them this week!  Rock their world!  And help me with making my heart stop hurting, would ya?  I need to know folks out there in cyberland are being fed with love!

See y’all tomorrow with some menus for the week! 

CHOO CHOO! I’m in Chattanooga!

So I’m in Chattanooga.  The job I do for the state entails me traveling fairly frequently.  The reason I have to travel is to review cases outside my own region in order be an unbiased judge of how well the department is serving children and families.  Anyhoo, this week, it just happens to be Chattanooga.  And I LOVE Chattanooga!  It’s one of my favorite places!  EVER!

Why is Chattanooga such a favorite place?  Well, my Aunt Jane lived here when I was growing up.  Moma had two younger sisters.  Aunt Jane was the oldest of those younger sisters.  She was no doubt, the funniest person I ever knew!  She cracked funnies 24/7!  Very irreverent and sometimes downright bawdy!  I loved her.  The evil thing we call cancer took her from us way too soon.  She’s been gone now nearly 17 years.  I still miss her so much.

So she gave me Chattanooga as a child.  When I was young, Chattanooga was HUGE!  It was such a massive place.  They had such cool things there!  Like MALLS!  This little gal from Podunk had no malls.  Heck, I didn’t even have one, much less PLURAL…..MALLS!  The nearest mall was, and still is, an hour away at best!  I thought Chattanooga was heaven on earth because there was so much to do there.  I spent many a week during summers with Aunt Jane.

Aunt Jane had two daughters, my cousins, Kimberly and Tonya.  They were just slightly older than me and OH MY GOSH!  I abso-freakin’-lutely worshipped them when I was a kid!  They were so cool!  They were from “the big city!”  And when I came to visit they treated me just like a little sister instead of making me feel like the poor, pitiful little “country cousin” I was.  They took me shopping.  They took me out to eat.  They took me to Lake Winnepausaka, which is a little amusement park and I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  Well, except the time we went and my brother ate 15 BBQ sandwiches in one sitting and then we all got on the Tilt-A-Whirl.  I don’t think I really have to tell you how THAT came out.  ***snort***  Came out……get it.  OK, moving on!  This is a family-friendly food blog here.  No need to get graphic.  Anyway, Kimberly and Tonya were like my favorite people on EARTH because they were so beautiful and smart and fun and cool and knew such amazing things and imparted all that to me!  LOL  Did I mention I worshipped them? 

Anyway, so back to my Aunt Jane.  She was just one of those many people who gave me my love for cooking.  She is the one who made amazing cake!  I can very much remember after she passed away, my Moma had a few pieces of one of Aunt Jane’s pound cakes in her freezer.  She ate those pieces of cake by tiny nibbles to make them last as long as possible.  POUND CAKE, people!  I’m not talking about fancy and fru-fru!  Pound Cake with no frosting, no icing, no glaze, no NOTHING!  That’s how good her cake was!  Plain cake!  And it was to die for!

She also made other amazing things.  I have never had a roast as good as hers since she passed away.  When I would go visit her, she would always make roast because she knew I loved it.  We always had the same thing on the table:  Roast with carrots, pinto beans, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese and pea salad.  She always set the bottle of worcestershire sauce out on the table to add a little to the roast on your plate.  Oh man, my mouth is watering just THINKING about it!!!!

If there was anything my Aunt Jane made that I loved even better than her roast, it was that Pea Salad.  Because I’m in Chattanooga this week and that makes me think of my Aunt Jane and thinking of my Aunt Jane makes me think of Pea Salad, I’m going to share the recipe in honor of her today. 

Aunt Jane’s Pea Salad

*  1 pkg. frozen English peas

*  1/2 head of lettuce, chopped small

*  1  8 oz. pkg. cheddar cheese

*  8 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled

*  2 Tbsp. sugar

*  1 small red onion, diced small

*  3 Tbsp. Miracle Whip

Mix all ingredients together and chill.  Serve cold.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had any in a long time.  I can no longer eat lettuce and without the lettuce, it’s just not the same.  But I have literally eaten gallons and gallons of this salad. 

I have a few tips about making this salad.  First of all, DO NOT use canned peas.  It’s worthless with canned peas.  The joy of this salad is all the crunch in it…..the frozen peas, the crispy bacon, the firm onions.  If you use canned peas, it will have a mushy consistency and that’s just gross!  Trust me on this!  Second, please please please, in the name of everything that is holy and good, DO NOT use foul, putrid MAYONNAISE in this dish!  PLEASE!  I implore you!  It MUST be made with Miracle Whip.  And not some knock-off salad dressing either!  Miracle Whip and Miracle Whip ONLY!  EVER!

And that’s my Aunt Jane’s fabulous Pea Salad!  Enjoy it while I trot around her old stomping grounds this week! 

Last night, I had the immense pleasure of having dinner with Kimberly and her husband, Melvin.  It’s so rare we get to see one another.  We talked and talked and talked.  Then we talked some more.  The only thing that could’ve made it any better is if Tonya and her family and my Uncle Bob could’ve joined us.  But we had an amazing time!

OK, off to work now!  Enjoy my Aunt Jane’s Pea Salad!  She was a phenomenal lady!  I loved her with everything in me!  I still miss her so much and SOOOOOOOOOOOO wish I could share MY cakes with her, the greatest cake-baker ever! 

See y’all soon!