Can you find a Tomatillo in your grocery store?

I had a revelation yesterday at the grocery store.  Some of you more exotic cooks may already know this, but those of you that are just beginning some experimentation may not.  Do you know that we are not all shopping in the same grocery store.  Ok, I know that what I find in my grocery store vs. what is found in Spain or some other foreign country is totally different.  I know that if I am making some rare Martha Stewart 20 ingredient masterpiece, I'll have to go to a chef store.  I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about regular recipes out of Cooking Light or Taste of Home.

I had to find Flank Steak for one recipe.  Ironically another woman was looking for the same thing.  We scoured the steaks to no avail.  We finally asked the butcher.  He said, "We don't get too much of a call for flank steak at this store.  We don't always have it."  Ok, I can understand that. 

Next,  I was searching for tomatilloes.  It didn't help that I didn't even know what I was looking for.  I could find them neither fresh, nor canned, so I asked my helpful fresh produce stock boy who promptly pulled out his vegetable book to show me what one was.  Apparently, it is in nightshade family.  But alas, there was none in this store.  He advised me that if I went to the Chicopee store (about 20 minutes away), they carry them.  What?  A store 20 minutes away from the same grocery chain has different food on a regular basis.  What am I missing?  I think I becoming adventurous, but I've only scratched the surface.  Alas,  there is even more on this planet to see and do than I already know.

What interesting food have you found in a recipe that you have never used before?

Challenge:  Go to a grocery store that you don't normally frequent and search out the differences.  Try something new.

A Fresh Basil Plant in the Kitchen

I broke down this week and purchased a basil plant for the kitchen. This was actually a big step because I hesitate to bring any live plants in the house because inevitably the cat will try eating it, knocking it over, or causing some other mischief.  So far though, he hasn't bothered it.  In the meantime, we've had basil in a pasta dinner and basil on our pizza.  The Basil is MMMMMMMM good.

I am actually most looking forward to fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, fresh tomato with a sprinkling of Italian dressing. 

If this basil plant continues to thrive, maybe I'll try some of the other fresh spices.

How do you keep your cats from getting in your plants?

Home Cooked Comfort Food - Chicken A' La King

Sometimes you have to look to your past for inspiration.  Last night I made a yummy roast chicken, but then ended up running DD down to CT for a UofH game for her birthday.  We were originally supposed to go and then yesterday was yet another miserable weather day in the Northeast so we weren't going to go, thus I stuck in the chicken; then it looked like it was clearing, so I left DH and DS to eat it.  We were supposed to meet my father at the game, but the driving was so bad, I ended up calling him and telling him not to come up. Instead DD and I had dinner at Ruby Tuesday (BTW thank you Ruby Tuesday for a surprise dessert - how did you ever know that it was her birthday?  Could it have been the tiara she wore?), and then headed over to the game.  Anyway, that all meant that we had roasted chicken left over to use for tonight's dinner.  For whatever reason, both DH and I had the same thought - Chicken A' La King.  It was somewhat funny that DS thought that Chicken A' La King had to be some fancy food since it had such a fancy name.  I told him that no, Chicken A' La King was a housewife's friend because it is cost effective and a great way to use leftovers.  Here is the recipe that we used, but remember that it is a recipe that is supposed to help you clean the fridge out so don't be afraid to add all sorts of things.  I particularly remember the Lima Beans in this, but you will find them missing from my recipe, and I would have added peas but DH hates peas.

Chicken A' La King

9 T cornstarch

9 T butter

1 1/2 tsp pepper

2 chicken bouillon cubes

2 c water

1 can cream of chicken soup

4-5 c diced cooked chicken

1/2 - 1 c carrots diced and cooked

1/2 - 1 c corn (canned or cooked if they were frozen)

1 can green beans, drained

1 cup milk

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in cornstarch until mixed.  Add pepper. Mixture will thicken. Stir constantly. Dissolve chicken bouillon in 2 c water. Pour into butter mixture.  Continue to cook and stir until thickened again.  Add cream of chicken soup and milk (you can add more or less milk depending on the consistency that you would like).  Be sure to get out all of the lumps.  Add chicken and vegetables.  Stir to mix.  Heat until everything is warm.  Serve over toast.

I'm telling you that this recipe was sooooooo sinfully yummy.  DS loved it, and I can't seem to stop myself from sneaking little spoonfuls of my husband's since he's not back from his meeting yet.  Somethings from your childhood are meant to left there (yes, I'm speaking of those Lima Beans) and others are meant to be brought back and enjoyed.  I hope you take the time to enjoy this childhood favorite.

PS.  Here is the newly 16 year old celebrating at last nights UofH girls basketball game with the mascot, Howie.

A Vegetarian Recipe that Even Meat Eaters Will Like

DD has decided to become a vegetarian.  She has been fairly diligent about her decision and frankly, fairly inspirational. Monday night when my husband was out and I had to make dinner, it seemed foolish to make a meal that one out of the remaining three of us wouldn't eat, so I started scouring her Vegetarian Times for something to make.  I flipped across this recipe and decided that that was what I was going to make.

I used my Tightwad Gazette dough recipe as I didn't have any refrigerated pizza dough in the fridge, replaced garlic powder for minced garlic, and olive oil for the non-hydrogenated margarine, but all in all I followed the recipe.  It was delicious.  This is definitely a recipe that we can all agree on - carnivore and herbivore alike.

Recipe for Salisbury Steak

What do you do when you don't have the right ingredients for a recipe? You improvise.  Sometimes your efforts aren't so good, and sometimes you are pleasantly surprised.  Here is the surprise that I got the other day.  It was yummy.  It is great with mashed potatoes and some fresh green beans.

Salisbury Steak

1 onion diced
8 oz mushrooms sliced
1 can condensed mushroom soup
2 lbs ground beef
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 egg
1 T flour
1/4 cup ketchup
1 cup water
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 dash Gravy Master

Saute mushrooms and onions until softened.    While sauteing, combine 1/3 cup soup with beef, crumbs, eggs.  Shape into six to eight oval patties.  Remove mushrooms and onions when done and put aside.  In same pan, brown beef patties.  While browning, mix remaining ingredients.  Make sure gravy is smooth.  After patties are browned on both sides, add gravy mix to pan.  Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes or until cooked as desired.  Stir occasionally during cooking process.

Sometimes not having what you need causes you to be a little more ingenious.

Making Homemade Pizza

It is the day before grocery shopping and the cupboards are bare. Ok, not that bare, but some combinations would make interesting meals. So I have decided to make some homemade pizza. For years that meant that I would revert to Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette version, but DH has found that he prefers King Arthur Flour's version just a bit more. (Frankly, I still like Amy's more due to the time constraints, but today I had the extra time.) Hopefully, it will be even tastier when I add the tomato sauce that I made the other day.

Lately, it seems I am cooking something up in the kitchen everyday. We made Aunt Florence's Irish soda bread to bring to book club on Monday and Charlotte's molasses cookies for church on Sunday.  In fact, I was thinking that it is time to start making up recipe books for the kids.  DD will be 16 and DS will be 14.  Part of me would like to think that they won't move out for years, but the other part knows that it will be in the blink of an eye.  I think that one of the gifts that I would like to send them off with is a compilation of our favorite recipes.  Certainly, this will not be a one day project so perhaps I should start now.

Ironically, DD was touting her cooking skills just the other day to a friend who wasn't even sure how to boil water for pasta.  I thought "woo-hoo," as she was walking her friend through the steps of making dinner,"at least DD won't starve to death when she is on her own."  I thought of some of my first meals that even the dog wouldn't touch.

I know for sure that I will put the homemade pizza dough recipe in their cookbooks. What family recipes do you wan to pass down to your children?

Abundance of Apples

Ok, what do you do with a bushell and a half of apples when you bought them for Halloween and have most of them left over?

  An apple pie is obvious, and I did make one for the family.  However, that only accounted for 5 cups out of a lot, lot more.

So, I just kept going.  I didn't make whole pies, but just the insides.  I read up on freezing pies and people were very positive about multiple ways to do it.  I opted for space reasons to just  do the insides of the pies.  They are mixed according to the recipe and then frozen. 

When I am ready to make the pies, I will take them out, thaw them, put them in the pie shell, and cook normally.  Given all the extra apples we have, our family should be having pie about twice a month through spring.  Would you like to come for dessert?

Note:  If you are wondering why I bought so many, I must confess that I have a condition that requires me to over cook for company, over plan our trips, and over purchase for any activity that I am not 100% sure of the number of people attending.  And frankly I think this is a fairly common female affliction.

Homeschooling Home Economics

As the kids are getting older homeschooling is morphing. While we still have our core curriculum, their interests and desires mold our learning schedule to a much greater degree. This week we were very lucky that DD's desires including cooking. I almost think that I have taught her too well and so when she hears the wants and desires of someone, she tries to fulfill them. This week that meant cupcakes and a pumpkin pie and next month, Irish soda bread. One friend of hers from the library complained that her birthday had been kind of pushed aside and forgotten; thus, the cupcakes. Then at our libraries auction, the director lost the raffle for the pumpkin pie that was offered, so DD had to offer to make her one (homemade crust and everything). Of course if you make a pie for someone else, there is an unwritten rule that you must make one for the family. The kids instituted this rule when I made pies for the church dinners. This was the first time I got to be the recipient of the rule.

Watching her cook and successfully complete these yummy items really made me feel confident about her future. I know it sounds silly in this day and age, but being able to cook and have some wifely skills is a good thing (even if she chooses never to be a wife, she will appreciate these skills herself). There are a lot of useless things I learned in school: facts, figures, and formulas that I will never ever use again in my life, but homemaking skills I use everyday and am thankful to those that taught me. Sometimes we can get so politically correct in this country we loose some important information along the way.

I have heard from the director who says I should give her an "A" for the pie. And please don't tell DD about the facts and figures part. She tries to get out of math work as it is.

Something to Consider as You Buy Your Halloween Candy

Sometimes a little information can be dangerous.  Why? Because once you know about something, you can't forget it and you can't go on as if you didn't know it.  Thus, the saying "ignorance is bliss".  If you want to remain in bliss and buy inexpensive Halloween candy, don't watch this.  If you want to be educated and understand the true cost of your candy, click play.



What did you think? Did this surprise you? What are you going to do now?

Another great Christmas Tradition - Spritz cookies

Spritz cookies have been a part of my family traditions from my earliest memories. My mother was not a big baker, but these I remember firmly. They are actually fairly quick cookies to make and do not require refrigeration, but they do require a cookie press. I so miss my mother's. Hers finally broke after over 30 years of usage a couple years ago; since then, I have gone through about five, but have yet to find one as durable and trouble-free as hers.

This year I was actually making the cookies for Breakfast with Santa that the library was sponsoring, but like an elementary school child who doesn't do their homework banking on the upcoming snow storm, I put off my evening cookie making. When the snow did not come, I started making them at 7 am.

Of course, as I wrapped up the cookies to go. I could see it in my husband's eyes: "More cookies please". And when my daughter and I drove to our old hometown to see their Christmas pageant the men baked away and by the time we got home cookies were freshly baked. Oh, so yummy.

Simple Dutch Oven Cooking Recipe (oven friendly too)

My son is a master Dutch Oven cooker. In fact my entire family loves Dutch Oven and outdoor cooking in general. This week DD and I had a Girl Scout activity in which we went letterboxing and then returned to the house to cook on the fire. Because of time constraits, I had to find a quick Dutch Oven recipe (not as easy as it may seem - many take several hours not including fire starting). DH mentioned Chicken Parmesean. So we had for dinner: chicken parmesean, salad, and bread. For dessert, we had cherry cobbler and a pineapple upside-down cake.

If you are interested in the chicken parmesean, here is the reciped and the beauty of it. You start with pre-cooked and breaded chicken cutlets. You can buy them in the freezer section. I think we bought Tyson, but I'm sure there are other manufacturers. This alone saves a ton of prep time. Line the bottom of the Dutch Oven with tin foil (you will appreciate this during clean up). Add a layer of sauce, just to prevent sticking. Put in the cutlets. Put a little more sauce on each one. Sprinkle mozzerella on top. Cook with 10-12 charcoal briquetts on the bottom and 6 or so on the top for about 20 minutes. When chicken is warm and cheese is melted, dinner is ready enjoy.

Homeschoolers are weird

Please don't be offended. I am only saying that because we too are homeschoolers and sometimes we are just plain weird. DD has even finally admitted it (which is a pretty big step for a 14 year old girl). She and I were looking through books like some search for the Hope diamond. She looked at me and said, "We ARE nerds." I actually think she was a little proud.

The other day though, it was DS that lost his mind. We were making Honey Clove Turkey and combining all the ingredients. Just as I was getting ready to stir everything together, he stopped me and had to get the picture.

He thought it was very cool how all the ingredients remained separated. It reminded him of a project that we had done on density where we had purposely added liquids of different densities to see how they separate from each other and rise or fall depending on their density in comparison with the other liquids in the container.

NERDS - I know - - - -but at least we get a lot of extra laughs.

Recipe - Tartar Sauce

Sometimes the simplest things bring the most delight. For dinner last night I made Kielbasa and cabbage sandwiches, but DS hates Kielbasa so as usual he made something else. He made fish sticks. What good are fish sticks without tartar sauce? But who uses that much tartar sauce and what else do you really use it for? So here is an easy recipe to make your own (Note: some of you may be laughing and saying, "Of course, I know how to make that. Who doesn't?" Well, the answer was me before my husband told me, so I thought there might be some other me's out there who might want to know).

Making your own tartar sauce is as easy as mixing mayonnaise and relish. I prefer Miracle Whip & sweet relish, but you can try out whatever you have. It is about a 1:1 ratio, but you can alter accordingly. Extra can be stored in the refrigerator.

I always love simple ideas that save me from buying more and use things that I always have on hand. I hope that this helps you too.

Recipe - Lime Chicken

juice & zest of 3 limes
3 Tbsp vegtable oil
dash of pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts fillet in half
1 jar Crate & Barrel Frontera Cucumber Lime Salsa - chilled

Mix marianade (lime, oil, and pepper) and chill with chicken for several hours.
Grill chicken until done. Serve with chilled Cucumber Lime Salsa on top.

The Cucumber Lime Salsa had been a gift with a beautiful chip & dip bowl from my brother and his girlfriend. The evening I made this chicken, I had not made it to the market to pick up the fruits needed for the topping chutney so I scoured the pantry to decide what else to use. I thought the cucumber salsa might have just the right mix between cool and saucy and I was right. It was super yummy and a healthy option too.

Peanut Butter Cookies

As promised yesterday, today's post will explain this picture:

This may make the story clearer for you:

Did you guess correctly?

I have mentioned before that our neighbors have been none too friendly here, with the exception of our closest neighbors who were the first people to greet us when we arrived. They have been helpful by offering phone numbers, inviting us over for batmitton, and just generally being friendly. So I decided to say thank you. A few days ago, I made several homemade cards including a card for them and then I planned to make peanut butter cookies. DD actually took over the task. We used the recipe from the KitchenAid mixer booklet (page 42) which is easy and yummy. We picked the best and most perfect cookies to send over and then we packed them up. DD ran over to deliver our delicious thank you for all their kindness. Without them, our new home would be very lonely.

I think my next project is to cook something up for the unfriendly neighbors, but I need to cook for coffee hour and the homeless shelter first. What projects do you do to make people feel special?

Ice Cream Ball

Have you ever seen one of these?



If you don't already have one, you must put it immediately on your Christmas list. I bought ours a few years ago for DH (but actually the whole family too). This is certainly not the way you want to make ice cream everytime you have it, but it is enjoyable once in a while, and it really allows you to have fun and make some really unique flavors. You can find all sorts of recipes online for the ball:

http://icecreamrevolution.com/recipes.html
http://www.icecreamballmaker.com/information.php?osCsid=g0asa2jh1dgpgu0t58n680mn82&info_id=4

You only need rock salt, a bit of ice, and a whole lot of shaken to make the ingredients turn into yummy, yummy ice cream.



We made coffee ice cream this particular day - my favorite. Of course between the coffee ice cream and the large hazelnut coffee from Dunkin Donuts (both after 8pm), I did not fall asleep very well that night.

Wordless Wednesday - Hint, Hint

I hoping this post serves two purposes. One, your All can be inspired; Two, maybe DH will be inspired to make them again because he knows I appreciated them so much:

Rain Rain Go Away - Let me Grill Another Day

The showers left after a couple hours and I was ready for the grill. I don’t know about you but I love to grill. Tonight’s menu actually came from Real Simple magazine. I am not a subscriber but was drawn to it as we waited at my immunologist for his bee venom shots. The “20 Minute Meal” headline with a beautifully shot meal on the cover grabbed my attention. The recipe that sounded particularly appealing was the Grilled pork chops with maple syrup sweet potatoes. I thought of the sweet potatoes sitting in my pantry. This would be a perfect meal. Unlike the magazines that include recipes that would require me to go to ten different specialty shops before I had all the ingredients, The Real Simple recipe was just that real simple. I had everything I needed right in my cabinet.

I do admit that I jazzed up the pork chops with barbecue sauce DH made the other day and added a can of B&M Maple flavor baked beans. This part of the meal had mixed reviews. The good part was the barbecue sauce. One, in an effort to be more frugal I have really been trying to use food items up, to buy less / just what we need, and to cook less (no leftovers unless I have a plan for them). Two, I used my marinade holder for the first time. I received it several years ago but have never used it. I have been really missing out. The silicone bulb baster with measured container worked wonderfully.

It was a great place to store the extra barbecue sauce that DH had made and it bathed the pork chops just right with the sauce on the grill. The bad part was the beans which were a letdown. I had chosen them because they were relatively low in carbohydrates compared to the other beans on sale, but the maple flavor was overwhelming and fake. All and all though, another great meal from conception to ingestion.

Sabbath Supper - from recipe card to leftovers

In our new house, you really have to plan your time. DD had play rehearsal last night so I needed to make sure that I got gas in the morning – there are no gas stations on the way – a 45 minute ride away. So DH agreed to take my car to church so that we could fill up in the South (north desolate / south population). Since we were so close, I convinced him to also stop at the grocery store. Because of his back, he stayed in the car but the kids and I shopped. I did not have a large list, but somehow filled the basket before we left. In the first isle, the kids spied the recipe rack and were immediately enthralled. My kids are not little anymore, so they aren’t just grabbing to grab. They really expect you to make the recipes that they pull out. I agreed to one – Butterflied Roast Chicken. So a whole chicken, 1 lemon, 1 orange, and some shallots later we were on our way to Sunday dinner (yes, the recipe calls for honey too, but my short term memory forgot that and DH had to run to the corner later when I was cooking – ooops).

When we got home, I butterflied the Chicken and roasted away.



We had the chicken, noodles with parsley, and green beans. It was a wonder Sabbath meal – a respite and reunification for the family (I’m thinking we need to do this more often). As we were clearing the table, DS asked if he should throw out anything leftover. DH made a snide remark about chicken broth and thus my cooking was not done. In to the pot went the bones and excess meat. Four hours later, broth better than Swansons. Funny how when I woke up Sunday morning, none of this was in my plan. Next time maybe I should leave the kids at home???

Living off the Land - Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Be thankful for small blessings. As part of being owners of a new house, we are trying to identify all the plants in our yard. I don’t really want to make changes until I know what I have. As we were getting to know the yard, one of the kids came over to tell me that we had a rhubarb plant. Frankly, I thought they had mixed up there plant identification as they led me into the front yard. “Are you sure you mean rhubarb?” They were confident and began dreaming of the pies we would make. Sure enough, tucked in the front corner of our yard is a rhubarb plant.

So last night I made what they all have been dreaming of, a strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum!